Take My Breath Away

Naminé wiped the tears from her eyes, preventing them from dripping onto the creamy white sketchpad in her lap. She could not keep ruining her drawings like this; the buyers were starting to notice. Over summer she did art commissions to make extra money outside her part-time job that did not pay her enough for what she did.

As she wiped the salty water drip from her sea blue eyes she placed the graphite pencil's tip back down on the page and began to draw. She drew the girl—her short black hair and mischievous blue eyes, her arm wrapped around the figure yet to be drawn. The girl looked beautiful, as Naminé had been kind enough to put her in a small, burgundy dress and black stilettos with a point that could shoot an eye out like a Red Rider BB Gun. The petite raven stood on a cobblestone path and was mid-step in the drawing. In the background was the moon high in the sky, her luminescence reflecting off a fountain. Then the boy came into the picture.

His dirty blonde hair was messy, his eyes averted from the girl beside him uncomfortably. His cheeks were being shaded with a lighter pencil to enhance the effect of the blush. He wore a pair of straight-leg black dress pants, black dress shoes, and a somewhat-wrinkled white button down shirt that was not tucked in. There was an undone tie hanging around his neck as if it had just been undone. The slight glint—which Naminé took special care to capture—in his irises begged for freedom from his raven companion. He looked… sad. And the girl looked more than happy to be with him. But he… he was still sad. And that hurt Naminé.

"Don't be sad," she whispered, tracing her finger over the curve of his flawless cheek, willing him to smile. She raised her eraser, ready to make him happy. But right as it touched the paper she stopped. She frowned. "I don't want you to be happy with her…" she admitted quietly. "I wish I could make you happy."

It hurts—to go somewhere and see them together, knowing that she has liked him for so long and he only has eyes for that girl. But does he notice what he does when he sees her? Does he notice how his eyes light up whenever Naminé is around? They have been friends for quite a while now, but even that is not enough to stop him from being with that… that girl. Xion.

The name is disgusting, even in thought.

"Roxas…" Naminé whispered. The words tickled her lips and sound awkward from her mouth. It sounded so wrong, like she was not supposed to be saying it.

"Yes?" his raspy voice answered out of nowhere.

She squeaked and jumped off the park bench. Her sketchbook fell to the ground. Her pencils rolled off her lap in different directions. She dropped to the ground immediately and started picking up her art supplies. "Um… H-hi… I didn't s-s-see you there…" she uttered, trying not to sound completely inept.

Roxas kneeled down beside her and begins gathering up the rest of her pencils and even her eraser, which had buried itself beneath a leaf. "Yeah, I noticed. Sorry for startling you."

Naminé shook her head. "Oh, no, it's nothing. I was just… uh… focused."

"On what?" Roxas asked, eyes glimmering with interest. He handed her the remainder of her art tools. She gathered them all atop her sketchpad and returned to her seat on the bench. Roxas sat down beside her and smiled. "Come on, you can tell me."

Oh gosh don't look at me like that, Naminé inwardly pleaded. She bit her lower lip. "I was drawing."

Roxas rolled his eyes. "Aren't you always," he said more than asked. "What were you drawing?"

"A… commission," Naminé said, flipping open the sketchpad and returning to her work. She leaned in close to focus on the paper. The sun was near setting and the sky was beginning to darken. She would soon have to go home to work.

Going home… The thought did not appeal to her. She liked the way being around Roxas made her feel. She was riveted by how easily he turned a quiet, intellectual girl into a bumbling blonde. It amazed her how much a boy could do to her. Sure, with her friends she would talk like all guys were idiots and did not deserve her time or any time. But the moment she was around Roxas, all of that changed.

"Who's it for?" Roxas pried. He was sitting on his knees in front of her at her crotch-level which gave Naminé some very perverted, enjoyable thoughts. He didn't seem to mind.

Naminé tucked her knees up to her chest so she could hardly see the tip of Roxas's messy hair and could only keep working on her drawing. How was she supposed to say it was for his girlfriend? How embarrassing would that be?

"Naminé~" he whined, bouncing a little. "Who is it for? I want to know!"

"…It's not your business," she whispered, even though he was going to be receiving the picture from his girlfriend within the next twenty-four hours. Why did this have to be so difficult? Why couldn't Roxas just leave her alone and stop making her act like a googly idiot?

"…Please?"

Naminé peered over her sketchpad and instantly regretted it. Roxas's eyes were large and puppy-like. He was pouting and sitting like an innocent animal waiting to be petted. His head was tilted to the side and his hair was floppy.

Must… resist… urge… to pet… fluffy!

"No!" she barked at him, returning pointedly to her drawing.

Roxas sighed, deflated, and began to grumble. "Xion told me you were doing a drawing for us but I guess she was just lying to me again."

Naminé glanced up from her art. "…Again?" she wondered mildly aloud.

Roxas nodded sadly. "She's been so weird lately. She's never returning my texts or calls, only talks to me in school and even then she avoids me, and hanging out with Riku. You know him, right?"

Naminé nodded. Even she knew the name of the basketball team's captain and the notorious best friend of their classmate Sora. She also knew he had been seen around Xion lately. So what could that possibly mean for their relationship?

Naminé blinked and pursed her lips in thought. "Is she cheating on you..?" Naminé asked, very afraid of the reaction it might draw out of Roxas. She even pressed her forehead to the pages of her notebook, avoiding his face at all costs. She nervously added (after an awkward silence), "I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean that…"

She peeked over the top of the notebook like a scared koala.

Roxas shook his head and smiled sadly. "No, it's okay. Axel and Demyx both said something similar. I'm wondering if you guys are right."

The way he looked, how innocent and tortured his face appeared, gave Naminé more than enough inspiration to keep drawing. But she didn't want to draw him with her. No. She had a better idea. She flipped to a new page in the sketchpad and started over. Graphite gracefully whipped across the page, scratching out lines and tracing out curves.

Roxas watched her furrowed brow and her twitching lips, which were on the verge of a grin. Something inside him pinged at this. He suddenly wanted to know what she was drawing for real this time. And not just that, but he wanted her. He wanted her to know that he wanted her. For how long? Repressed feelings for Naminé go way back in his heart. A year, at bare minimum least. So watching her draw so… passionately was a little like soft-core porn. He pictured those nimble fingers running over his body like they rand over the page. He pictured her drawing all over his body and that was the most pleasant thought he had had in a long time.

"Perhaps," he thought to himself, "I shouldn't be with Xion…"

Newsflash: Member of the Male Persuasion HAS A BRAIN!

He wondered, "Why am I with her in the first place if we have nothing in common anyway? She's hot, but that's about it…"

Newsflash: Not Really! He was, "Thinking with his second head."

He grimaced. Yeah, he did have a tendency to think with his dick. But don't most guys? It's only natural that the first things you notice are the two B's: boobs and butt. After that though, there is other B's that one should take into consideration. With Naminé, Roxas saw only the complimentary 'B' words.

Brains… Beauty… Breathtaking…

With Xion, now that Roxas thought about it she had the rack and the rear, but she didn't have brains. She wasn't truly beautiful because of another B word—she was a brat. And the only thing breathtaking about her was just how bratty she was.

Again, why was he with Xion?

His lips curved into a regretful smile. He should have seen it sooner. He had been friends with Naminé for ages and never even gave her a second look. What he wanted was her and not Xion. What he wanted was a blonde artist, not an ebony egotist.

"Naminé…" Roxas moved so his back was leaning against the bench. It was like they were sitting next to each other at different levels. He twisted his neck so he could stare up at her. He barely saw one of her sky blue eyes past her paper. What he could see was beautiful. The way the moon caught her made her eyes glow. The ardency with which she drew was breathtaking, just like her. Everything about her made his chest swell with air in breaths he could not seem to let out for anything. They were all trapped.

Naminé's hand stopped and she looked down at him. "Yes, Roxas?"

His heart caught in his throat. He opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. Why was he so nervous all of a sudden? He thought he was going to be sick from anxiousness. What was this? Xion never made him feel this way. Xion never knocked the wind right out of him.

He decided he would just come out and say it. Naminé, you're the most beautiful, sweet, artistic girl I've ever met and I want you more than you could ever know.

"Naminé, I—"

An obnoxious beep cracked the evening quiet. It went off multiple times before giving up. Over the duration, Naminé shoved her art supplies in a—could someone explain to Roxas where it came from?—canvas bag whose sides looked like kaleidoscopes.

"I'm sorry, Roxas. I really must be going," she hurriedly and apologetically packed everything away, including her drawing—the drawing that Roxas desperately wanted to see. "I'll see you tomorrow," she called after herself as she dashed off into the streetlights.

"Yeah…" he muttered, "Tomorrow…"

He was defeated. His heart sank. He exhaled at last. He stared up at the sky, tears welling in his eyes. Why couldn't he have had four more seconds? Leave it to a screw-up like him to figure things out about his self too late to do anything about it. Everyone already liked his brother Sora better; he got the prettiest girls, he had more friends, and everyone loved him. Xion made Roxas feel worse about himself with all the time she spent hanging around Riku. It truly did tear him apart inside that he wasn't good enough for her.

Heh. If he told Axel about this revelation he'd go nuts and hurt Xion the same way she hurt Axel's best friend. It might be interesting to see, but the last thing Axel needed was to get suspended for hitting another girl. The school didn't realize that Larxene doesn't even count as a girl. Axel might as well be a homosexual for wanting her. She's the most masculine girl around.

The opposite of Naminé…

Roxas wanted a girl he could feel strong around. He wanted to be able to protect her with his all and feel as though it was good enough for her. Xion didn't make him feel like that at all. In all his years of being friends with Naminé, he always felt comfortable knowing she trusted him to protect her if it was necessary. She had the personality of a sheep—always following, never leading; always staying in the background and keeping to herself. Roxas was the other way. He was a wolf. He was a wolf that had a thing for sheep, apparently, because other wolves were wrong for him and didn't make him as happy as sheep did.

I'll see you tomorrow.

Her words echo through his head.

He repeats his earlier words as she ran off and begins to plot. "Yeah…" he muttered. "Tomorrow…"

(RN)

"Roxy!" Axel squealed, running up to greet his sluggish friend. Roxas's head was hung. He had bags and dark rings under his eyes. His clothes were disheveled and he smelled a little like too much Axe. Axel whiffed the air around his best friend and sneered. "Dude is that you? Way too much of that stuff."

Roxas shrugged. "I know…"

"You don't even wear Axe!"

"I know…" He kept his hands in his pocket and his eyes averted.

Axel raised a brow. "What's wrong, Roxas? You look like hell."

"I…uh…" Roxas scratched the back of his head. He yawned. "I'm breaking up with Xion today."

Axel's jaw dropped. "What, no way! Where did that even come from?" he shouted, genuinely startled. He planted his hands on Roxas's shoulders, proceeded to shake the blonde about. "You should've told me! I would've bought booze and called all the guys and we could've gone out! I would've called off work!"

Roxas, again, shrugged listlessly. "Could've. Should've. Would've, knowing you."

"You know it!"

He shook his head. "No, that's not how this is going to happen."

Axel studied his friend's face curiously. He had to bend down to see the cloudy eyes better and took careful note of the forlorn look. He looked… lost. Axel sighed, knowing exactly what this meant. "There's another girl involved, isn't there?"

Roxas nodded.

"You weren't cheating when you were with Xion, right? Because I can't back you up if you did anything stu—"

"No. I wasn't," Roxas said, interrupting him pointedly. He glared at the floor as if it just walked all over him.

Axel grimaced. "Okay. What are the circumstances?"

Roxas shook his head, shrugging once more lazily. "I've liked the other girl for a while, she's not a bad person, and I'd rather be with her."

Axel released his grip on Roxas's upper body. He rubbed his friend's back comfortingly, helping soothe whatever butterflies might be fluttering in his stomach or whatever models may be batting their mascaraed lashes. "Are you sure about this? Because breaking up with Xion means losing a part of your rep, y'know. Actions have consequences."

"Thanks for reminding me, mom," Roxas sneered. He shoved Axel forcefully. The redhead couldn't be sure if it was a joke or not. "It'll happen soon. It has to."

I can't make Naminé wait any longer.

Meanwhile, said Naminé was upstairs on the second floor of the palatial private school. There was an isolated, dark ledge near a wall of large windows through which one could view the outside world. Naminé liked to hide up here and skip class to draw. The school day had yet to begin though so she didn't look like much of a rebel at the moment.

"Naminé," a girl's voice interrupted the quiet. Naminé's eyes darted up and met Xion's unwillingly. "Have you finished that drawing I asked for yet?" she asked rather rudely.

Naminé's eyes went wide. She flipped through her pages in search of the commission. As she hunted, Xion impatiently tapped her foot while texting on her expensive, yet-to-be-released 8G phone. Finally Naminé found the drawing and inwardly grumbled. It was supposed to be done today. She supposed to the untrained eye it would look completed.

She tagged the bottom of the rough paper with her artists' tag. She won't know the difference. "Here," Naminé muttered, carefully tearing the page from her book. The paper was snatched away greedily. Naminé couldn't honestly say she wanted to part with Roxas's distraught face. She could look at him forever. The very thought of that caused a light blush to tint her cheeks.

A sincere smile touched Xion's lips. She slipped into a daze as if she was remembering something. The twinkle in her eye was remorseful. She also appeared… guilty. And… sad… jealous too, perhaps? Of what was there to be jealous? Xion had everything. Yet the smile on her lips was forced. "It's… a wonderful piece, Naminé," Xion whispered.

Naminé tried her best not to grin. She loved when people complimented her work. "Thank you." Her giddiness was soon dispatched when tears began to drip from Xion's misty eyes. They were silent. They were salty. And most importantly, they slid down rigid, pattern-less paths down her cheeks, proving they were just as lost as she was. "Xion…" Naminé blinked, set her sketchbook down carefully. She patted its surface. "What's the matter?"

"Y…You're right," she admitted, turning on her heel and walking away timidly, paper clutched between her fingers protectively.

As she stared down at the drawing, it was hard not to see how accurate the portrayal of Roxas's recent behavior was. It was hard not to see the true platonic nature of the drawing. No… it was too real to be a drawing. It was most definitely a photograph taken at a moment that occurred through many moments collectively. It all came to this one drawing. The hesitant, distraught look on Roxas's face could worry any mother. The façade of cheer charcoaled on Xion's face was obvious. At least to her it was. She could see it. She could see just how misplaced they were together.

Their days together were to be counted in hours. Xion knew the second that drawing was passed to her that it was all over. It was the conformation she needed from a third party to tell her that she and Roxas were inevitably doomed and there was nothing they could do to fight fate. It wasn't worth it anyway; Xion was liked someone else now and Roxas? Well she didn't know about Roxas but he was going to have another girl on his arm as soon as she and he broke up.

Maybe… she pondered the possibility, we took things too fast.

Or maybe putting oil and oil together creates more oil. Then when someone lights a match… The flames burn hotter, brighter, larger, and becomes dangerous.

Xion shook her head. Where did I go wrong?

Someone tapped her on the shoulder reluctantly. She forced a snarl onto her face, tearing herself out of sadness to keep up this image she had to maintain. "What do you—Roxas…?" She was shocked to see Roxas standing there, bashfully looking away. He avoided her gaze. He kept his hands in his pockets.

She could tell he was upset. As was she. Their feelings were mutual. They stood together, alone, with no witnesses other than rows of lockers. And who would lockers tell if anything happened?

This wasn't the time for façades anymore. This was the time to be honest for the first real time.

Xion smiled hopelessly. Her eyes were still teeming with tears and refused to stop spilling over. "You don't have to tell me, Rox."

His eyes shot up to meet hers, startled. This is when he realized she was crying. He sighed and hesitantly pulled her into a hug. She progressed to sob on his shoulder. "Ssh… Come on, Xion. Don't get like this."

"It's not that…" she mumbled almost incoherently, shaking her head in denial. "We knew this would happen from the moment we started heating things up. Oil and oil…"

"Means more oil," Roxas finished for her.

"How'd you know?"

He shrugged. (He seemed to be doing that a lot today.) "Lucky guess."

They spent a minute in silence just standing there. Within that minute the bell rang. They parted from each other just in case people came by, attempting to cool off into presentable states. Neither of them was in the condition to go to class.

Xion weakly asked, "Are we going to class?"

This is the end. Good bye, Roxas.

Roxas took a couple casual steps back, itching to go find Naminé. He shook his head and offered up a fond smile. "Not today, Xion."

She added for him, "Not ever again either, right?" It sounded like a poor attempt to make him feel guilty, but the opportunities for that were way out the window.

Roxas nodded. "Right," he agreed. His heart sank a little. Had his breakup really been that easy? Usually a girl would put up a fit or a fight and come after you if you tried to break up with her like that. But Xion took it in stride.

She sucked in a breath and wiped her eyes. "Bye, Roxas," she mouthed as he disappeared into crowds of students hoarding to class. She slipped into the background, leaving Roxas standing there determined.

Now to find Naminé, Roxas told himself. He slammed one foot on the tiles in front of the other, skidding through the wet, freshly mopped hallways. He slid around corners, not caring how ridiculous he looked running to get to 'class' when he still had multiple minutes. Knowing Nam she's probably not in class. She never shows up to first block on time.

Surely enough as he slowed down to the segregated dark corner pocket similar to a closet without doors and with a ledge for sitting on, he found Naminé leaning against the wall tiredly. One of her slender arms covered her sketchpad while the other dangled limply at her side. Her neck was twisted, head tilted downward in the same direction. Her smooth, milky legs were stretched out in front of her. Her canvas bag- that doubles as a backpack –lied groggily on the ground. Roxas side in contentment. He observed the elegant air Naminé had about her. He longed to reach out and run his fingers through her pale hair.

The class bell rang. Everyone should have been in their homerooms by now. Roxas bit his lip in frustration. No one would notice if I…

He weaved his fingers through her hair, enjoying the way the silky locks slid between his fingers effortlessly, softly caressing his skin. He leaned down and buried his face in the crook of her neck, inhaling her vanilla aroma. He nearly drowned in it.

Naminé stirred, muttering something about morning. Roxas leaped away from her and waited for her to calm before watching over her again. He glanced down at her sketchbook. Her arm was covering more than half the picture. From what he could see though, it was of her.

She wouldn't mind if I stole a look, right..?

He gently displaced her arm so he could see the entire drawing and what he saw caused his jaw to drop. It wasn't just the outstanding quality of the sketch, but that was a huge factor. The real deal breaker that caused him to go weak in the knees was who she had drawn herself with.

The picture had Roxas in it.

There was nothing too special about the clothing; Naminé was in a simple white dress and Roxas was in a nice white button-down shirt and a pair of black jeans. She was sitting on his lap, his arms around her waist tightly. Their faces were touching and it looked as though they were laughing. Naminé's legs were thrown open carelessly but her feet were hooked around the backs of his legs, holding him in place. There was no need to because Roxas looked like he didn't want to go anywhere even if the world was ending. The smile on his face was more than priceless. It was real and open and you could see in the details of the eyes Naminé had drawn just how much the Roxas in the black and white drawing loved his girl.

Satisfied and then some with what he had seen, Roxas lifted the sleeping girl's arm and placed it back over the paper. Before he did though, he reached into his pocket and grabbed a pen. In his extremely recognizable handwriting he wrote a message on the page and even signed with a scratchy heart. He smiled, unable to contain the pure bliss running threw him, and hiked his backpack up. He turned and walked off to class.

Even though he hadn't written much, he thought he had said it all. And when she woke up she would know exactly how he felt about her. The thought was too exciting to bear. Even when he had to take his seat in first block only a couple desks away from Xion, that still didn't bring him down because he knew that after today, he would have not only what he wanted but what he needed: a very special girl that already held a very special place in his heart. Now the space was only going to grow.

A couple of his buddies shot him weird looks, but he just shrugged them off. None of what they thought mattered right now and maybe it wouldn't ever again.

(RN)

Naminé's eyes fluttered open. She yawned, cracked out her back, and tried to figure out which class she was supposed to go to. She didn't think she missed first block; the bell normally woke her up. Keeping that in mind she began to pack things into her canvas bag, starting with her pencils. She placed them all back in the case. She was about to settle the sketchpad in as well, but she took one last gander at her drawing before deciding to set it in.

Then she stopped.

Her heart melted.

She exploded with glee.

Happily, she folded the pad shut and put it away. Leave it to Roxas.

Sure, she should've been a little more confused, but what more could you bother with when someone states something so simple?

You take my breath away.
-heart-

A/N: Somewhat fluffy? I don't know what to call this. I struggled with it a bit. I liked writing it a lot though! It took me... three days? About an hour a day because I kept losing focus on it. But here it is! I thought it was cute. I don't do a lot of oneshots, so please review and tell me what you think? This was a decent length, too. Almost 5000 words. Size 10 font in MSWord, single-spaced, 10 pages. Score for me.

The title still bugs me. I might rename it. What do you think? Keep or no?

Thanks for reading!