"I never knew how romantic Christmas Town could be," Kairi said, resting against the snow bank they were sitting on, smiling at Roxas. Then she looked past him at the pile of snow on the ground. "Maybe you should pull your keyblade outta there before it gets frozen in the snow." Roxas reached down and sighed. He tugged the Key out, grunting, then sent it away, sitting back down next to Kairi. "Ow!" The smell of crushed flowers filled the air. Kairi laughed out loud. "What's so funny?" Roxas asked, pulling the smashed poinsettas from behind him, but he was laughing too. "What if someone had come along and seen you in your Organization cloak? Wouldn't Xemnas murder you for exposing the Organization?" Roxas tossed the flowers into the woods, and pulled her towards him again.

He traced the silver zipper on the front of her dress, then kissed her cheek. "I would've told them I was with an angel." "Oh, what a line!" "Kairi, I love you." Roxas said, his face suddenly serious and determined to make her believe him. She stared back at him, and bit her lip. She knew nobodies didn't have any emotions. Sora had told her that. "This isn't some kind of game for me. I love you, Kairi, and one day you're going to believe me." She put her arms around his neck, raising an eyebrow. "Love, Roxas? Nobodies cannot feel anything." She partly believed him, because, oddly enough, she was falling for the blonde spikey-haired nobody. But part of her knew that nobodies cannot feel any emotion. She sighed, because she trusted him, like she trusted no one else.

One day, she'd have the nerve to tell him how she felt. She'd say those three words. I love you, Roxas. She'd shout it from the top of Castle Oblivion. It took a few minutes to straighten themselves up. Kairi started laughing again. Roxas smiled and watched her try to tame that rose colored mess she called a head of hair-a useless effort. Then he got up, peering into the woods, watching a few heartless form. They're numbers were growing bigger by the minute. He jumped over rocks, and logs, summoning Oblivion. "Kairi stay here!" He shouted back at her, worried for her safety. The moon glinted off of his Keyblade as he jumped into the mass of heartless. Kairi got worried, getting up and running after him. "Roxas wait!" She shouted as she panted, trying to catch up with him. Roxas was steadily slashing at the heartless, sweat dripping down his forehead. "Kairi get back!"

She shook her head. "No!" Being the stubborn Princess of Heart she was, she was /not/ going to let Roxas fight alone. She summoned Destiny's Embrace, diving into the swarm of heartless. Roxas blinked twice, astonished. "K-Kairi what are you...?" She grinned. "This time, I'll save you."He shook his head frantically, fear in his eyes as more heartless manifested. "NO! End of fucking story!" His eyes went wide in fear, as Sora's Darkside manifested behind Kairi. He knew there was only one option: use his entire being in an attempt to wipe them all out and save his Princess. He picked Kairi up and tossed her into a snow bank. Rude, and rough, but effective. Kairi shouted at him, snow in her hair. "What the hell are you doing?"

He rolled his eyes, building up his energy. "Saving your life, Princess." As the heartless surrounded Roxas, tears filled the red-head's eyes. "W..why?" He chuckled sadly as he finally let the massive attack out, eradicating all the heartless in the area, dropping to his knees. "B..Because I love you." Kairi ran over just as he fell, and caught him. "Ro..Roxas.." He groaned in pain, slowly starting to fade away. "S..sorry. Looks like.. I won't.. be around for our next.. date.." He closed his eyes as Kairi shook him. "N-No! d..don't leave! Don't fade on me.. please.." She pleaded, silent tears falling. "R-Roxas!" He completely faded, his voice echoing in the air around her. "I love you... Princess." For days after, all Kairi could remember was Roxas fading in her arms.

At the sound of Coach Xigbar's arrowgun, Kairi jumped. She hated gym, especially when Xigbar was subbing. Even though she and her friends were ten feet from the edge of the school pool, she felt as if she were swimming. The air itself seemed dark, and dank mist, bluish green, heavy with the smell of chlorine. As if one of Demyx's attacks had gone horribly wrong. Everything echoed-the arrowgun, which felt like it was piercing her fragile little heart, the same feeling she got when Roxas had faded from her life. The shouts of the crowd, the explosion of swim Coach Demyx's swimmers into the water. When Kairi first entered the domed pool area, she'd gulped for breath. She wished she were outside in the bright and windy March day. Though, she knew her father, Principal Xemnas, or Mansex, as the kids who hated her called him, wouldn't allow it.

"Tell me again," She said. "Which one is he?" Olette looked at Selphie. Selphie looked back at Olette. They both shook their heads, sighing. "Well how am I supposed to be able to tell?" Kairi asked. "They're hairless, everyone of them, with shaved arms, shaved legs, and shaved chests-a team of bald guys in rubber caps and goggles. They're wearing our school colors, but for all I know, they could be a shipload of aliens." "If those are aliens," Olette said, rapidly clicking her ballpoint pen, "I'm moving to /that/ planet." Selphie took the pen away from Olette and said in a husky voice, "God, I love swim meets!" "But you don't even watch the swimmers once they're in the water," Kairi observed. "Because she's checking out the group coming up to the blocks," Olette explained. "Roxas is the one in the center lane," said Selphie."The best swimmers always race in the center lanes." "He's our flyer," Olette added. "The best at the butterfly stroke. Best in the state, in fact."

Kairi already knew that. The swim team poster was all over the school: Roxas surging up out of the water, his shoulders rushing forward at you, his powerful arms pulled back like wings. The person in charge of publicity knew what he was doing he selected that photo. He produced numerous copies, which was a good thing, for the taped-up posters of Roxas were continually disappearing-into girls' lockers. Sometime during this "poster craze" Olette and Selphie had begun to think that Roxas was interested in Kairi. Two collisions in the hall in one week was all that it took to Olette, an imaginative writer, who had read a library of romance novels. And her father watching her in his office from all the security cameras, didn't help either. "But, Olette, I've walked with you plenty of times," Kairi argued with her. "You know how I am." "We do," Selphie said. "Head in the clouds. Three miles above this world we live in. Angel zone. But still, I think Olette is onto something. Remember, he walked into you."

"Maybe he's clumsy when he's outside the water. Like Coach Demyx," Kairi added, knowing all the while there was nothing clumsy about Roxas. He had been pointed out to her in January, that first, snowy day when he had arrived at Oblivion High School. A cheerleader had been assigned to guide Kairi and was leading her through a crowded cafeteria. "You're probably checking out the jocks. Ya know. the Keyheads, as we call'em.," the cheerleader said. Actually, Kairi was busy trying to figure out what the stringy green stuff was that a man named "Xaldin" was serving to the students. "At your school in Destiny Islands, the girls probably dream about Keyblade warriors. But a lot of the girls at Oblivion-" Dream about him, Kairi thought as she followed the cheerleader's glance towards Roxas. "Actually, I prefer a guy with a brain," Kairi told the short-haired snobby blonde. "But he's got a brain!" Selphie had insisted when Kairi repeated this conversation to her a few minutes later. Selphie was the only girl Kairi already knew at Oblivion, and she had somehow found Kairi in the mob that day. "I mean a brain that isn't waterlogged," Kairi added. "You know I've never been interested in jocks. I want someone I can talk to."

Selphie blew through her lips. "You're already communicating with angels-" "/Don't/ start on that," Kairi warned her. "Angels?" Olette asked. She had been eavesdropping from the next table. "You can talk to angels?" Selphie rolled her eyes, annoyed by this interruption, then turned back to Kairi. "You'd think that somewhere in that wingy collection of yours, you'd have at least one angel of love." "I do." "What kind of things do you say to them?" Olette interjected again. She opened a notepad. Her pencil poised as if she were going to copy what Kairi said, word for word. Selphie pretended Olette wasn't there. "Well, if you do have an angel of love, Kairi, she's screwing up worse than Demyx did when Xemnas sent him on that mission to the Underworld. Somebody ought to remind her of her mission."Kairi shrugged. Not that she wasn't interested in guys, but her days were full enough-her music, her job at the Moogle Shop, keeping up her grades, and helping take care of her eight-year-old brother, Sora.

It had been a bumpy couple of months for Sora, their father, and her. She would not have made it through without the angels. After that day in January, Olette had sought out Kairi to question her about her belief in angels, and show her some of her romantic short stories. Kairi enjoyed talking to her. Olette, who was round-faced with shoulder-length chocolate-brown hair and clothes that ranged from flaky to dowdy, lived many incredibly romantic and passionate lives-in her mind. Selphie, with her magnificent emerald-green eyes, and perfectly tan skin, also pursued and lived out many passions-in the classrooms and hallways, leaving the guys of Oblivion High emotionally exhausted. Olette and Selphie had never really been friends, but late in Febuary they became allies in the cause of getting Kairi together with Roxas, which her father was none too fond of. "I heard that he is pretty smart," Olette had said at another lunch in the cafeteria. "A total brain," Selphie agreed. "Top of the class." Kairi raised an eyebrow. "Or close enough." "Swimming is a subtle sport," Olette continued. "It looks as if all they're doing is going back and forth, but a guy like Roxas has a plan, a complex winning strategy for winning each race." "Uh-huh," Kairi said.

"All we're saying is that you should come to the swim meet," Selphie told her. "And sit up front," Olette suggested. "And let me dress you for that day," Selphie added. "You know I can pick out your clothes better than you." Kairi had shaken her head, wondering then and for days how her friends could think a guy like Roxas was interested in her. But when Roxas had stood up at the junior class assembly and told everyone how much the team needed them to come to the last big school meet, all the time staring /right/ at her, it seemed like she had little choice. "If we lose this meet," Selphie said, "it's on your head, girl." Now, late in March, Kairi had watched Roxas shake out his arms and legs. He had a perfect build for a swimmer/Keyblader, broad and powerful shoulders, narrow hips. The cap hid his spikey blonde hair, which she remembered to be shortish and thickish. "Every inch of him hard with muscle," breathed Olette. After several clicks of her pen, which she had taken back from Selphie, she was writing away in her notebook. "Like glistening rock. Sinuous in the hands of the sculptor, molten in the fingers of the lover. . ." Kairi peered down at Olette's pad. "What is it this time," she asked, "poetry or romance?" "Does it make a difference?" her friend replied. "Swimmers up!" shouted the starting official, Coach Demyx watching his swimmers with pride, and the competitors climbed onto their blocks.

"My, my," Selphie murmured, "those little suits don't leave much to the imagination, do they? I wonder what Riku would look like in one." Kairi nudged her. "Keep your voice down. He's right over there." "I know," Selphie said, running her fingers through her caramel colored hair. "On your marks. . ." Olette leaned forward for a look at Riku. "His long, lean body, hungry and hot. . ." Bang! "You always use words that begin with h," Selphie said. Olette nodded. "When you alliterate h, it sounds like heavy breathing. Hungry, heated, heady-" "Are either of you bothering to /watch/ the race?" Kairi interrupted. "It's four hundred meters, Kairi. All Roxas does is go back and forth." "I see. Whatever happened to the total brain with his complex winning strategy in the subtle sport of swimming?" Kairi asked. Olette was writing again. "Flying like an angel, wishing his watery wings were warm arms for Kairi.' I'm really inspired today!" "Me too," Selphie said, her glance traveling down the line of bodies in the ready area, then skipping over the spectators to Riku. Kairi followed her glance, then quickly turned her attention to back to the swimmers. For the last three months Selphie had been in hot-heated, hungry-pursuit of Riku. Kairi wished that Selphie would get herself stuck on somebody else, and do it soon, before the first Saturday in April. "Who's that blonde?" Selphie asked. "I hate little petite types. Riku doesn't look right with someone petite. Little face, little hands, little dainty feet."

"Gorgeous sky blue eyes," Olette said, glancing up. "Who is she? Ever seen her before, Kairi?" "Selphie, you've been in this school a lot longer than-" "You're /not/ even looking," Selphie interrupted. "Because I'm watching our hero, just like I'm /supposed/ to be doing. What does Key of Destiny mean? Everyone shouts 'Key of Destiny!' when Roxas does a turn." "That's his nickname," Olette replied, because of the way he helps the team win every swim meet. Coach Demyx seems to think he's the key to the victory filled destiny of the team." "I see," Kairi said. "Sounds like a total brain to me, being the Coach's "destiny" puppet for victory. How long do these meets usually last?" "Kairi come on," Selphie whined, and pulled on her arm. "Look and see if you know who the blonde is." "Larxene." "You're making that up!" Selphie said. "It's Larxene," Kairi insisted. "She's the cheerleader who showed me around on my first day. And quite frankly, she's a stuck up snobby little bitch." Aware of Selphie's continuous staring, Larxene turned around and gave her a nasty look. Riku noticed the expression and glanced over his shoulder at them. Kairi saw the amusement spreading over his face.

Riku had a charming smile, shoulder-length silver hair, and gorgeous turquoise eyes, Kairi thought. He was tall, but it wasn't his height that made him stand out in the crowd. It was his self confidence. He was like an actor, like the star of a movie, who was part of it all, yet when the show was over, held himself apart from the others, believing he was better than the rest. Riku's family were the richest people in Dark City, but Kairi knew that it wasn't Riku's money but his /coolness/, this aloofness, that drove Selphie wild. Selphie always wanted what she couldn't have. Kairi put her arm lightly around her friend. She pointed to the hunk of a swimmer stretching out in the ready area, hoping to distract her. Then she yelled "Key of Destiny!" as Roxas went into his last turn. "I think I'm getting into this," she said, but it appeared Selphie's thoughts were on Riku now. This time, Kairi feared, Selphie was in deep. "He's looking at us," Selphie said excitedly. "He's coming this way." Kairi felt herself tensing up. "And the Bitch is following him." Why? Kairi wondered. What could Riku have to say to her now after almost three months of ignoring her? In January she had learned quickly that Riku would not acknowledge her presence. And as if bound by some silent agreement, niether he nor Kairi had advertised that his mother was going to marry her father. Few people knew that he and Kairi would be living in the same house come April.

"Hi, Kairi!" Larxene was the first to speak, being oh so fake and sweet. It made Kairi sick. She squeezed herself in next to Kairi, ignoring Selphie and barely glancing at Olette. She gave a fake, sickeningly sweet giggle. "I was just telling Riku how we always sit near each other in music class, buddy." Kairi opened her mouth to tell her off, how they had /never/ been friends, and never would be. "He hasn't heard you play the piano. I was telling him how terrific you are." Kairi shrugged. The last time she had played an original composition for the class, Larxene had shown her appriciation by rolling her eyes, scoffing, and filing her nails. Then Kairi felt Riku's eyes on her. When she met his look, he winked. Kairi gestured toward her friends and said, "You know Selphie and Olette?" "Not real well," he said, smiling at each in turn. Selphie glowed. Olette focused on him with the intrest of a researcher, her hand clicking away on the ballpoint. "Guess what, Kairi? In April you won't be living far from my house. Not far at all," Larxene said with that same sickening giggle. "It will be a lot easier to study together now."

Easier? Kairi thought, utter dread in her eyes. "I can give you a ride to school. It will be a quicker drive to your house." Quicker? "Maybe we can get together more." More? Kairi let out a quiet groan. "Well, Kairi," Selphie exclaimed, batting her long, dark lashes, "you never told me that you and Larxene were such good friends! Maybe we can all get together more. You'd like to go to Larxene's house too, wouldn't you, Olette?" Riku barely supressed his smile. "We could have a sleepover, Larxene." Larxene didn't look too enthused. "We could talk about guys and vote on who's the hottest date around." Selphie turned her gaze upon Riku, sliding her eyes down and up him, taking in everything. He continued to look amused. "We know some other girls, from Kairi's old school in Destiny Islands," Selphie went on cheerily. She knew that Oblivion's high-class commuters to The World That Never Was, would have nothing to do with the dull, boring Destiny Islands. "They'd love to come. Then we can all be friends. Don't you think that would be fun?" "Not really," Larxene said, and turned her back on Selphie.

"Nice talking to you, Kairi. See you soon, I hope. Come on, Riku, it's crowded over here." She tugged on his arm. As Kairi turned back to the action of the pool, Riku caught her chin. With the tips of his fingers he tilted her face up toward him. He was smiling. "Innocent Kairi," he said. "You look embarressed. Why? It works both ways, you know. There are plenty of guys, guys I hardly know, who are suddenly talking like they're my best friends, who are counting on dropping by my house the first week of April. Why do you suppose that is?" Kairi shrugged. "You're part of the in crowd, I guess." "You really are innocent!" he exclaimed. She wished that he would let go of her. She glanced past him to the next set of bleachers, where his friends sat. Axel and another guy were talking to Larxene now and laughing. The ultra-cool Zexion looked back at her. Riku withdrew his hand. He left with just a nod at her friends, his eyes still bright with laughter. When Kairi turned back to the pool again, she saw that three rubber-capped guys in identical swimsuits had been watching her. She had no idea, which, if any of them was Roxas.