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grasp
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They're just friends, and he likes to leave it at that. After all, it's rather rare for a senior to be dating a sophomore, and a female senior at that.
But he can't help but think of them as a couple anyway.
He doesn't know why, because the two of them are radically different. Besides the two-year age difference, there's a personality one too. He likes to go with the flow and take whatever is coming to him, while she wants everything structured and will almost never take no for an answer. He's lazy and bordering on indifferent, and her every move has to have purpose, has to have something gained from it. He's not even sure how they're friends, but he knows it's related to sea-salt ice cream, and the things they say to each other. While they may work differently, they both respond to each in biting and scathing responses, with an undercurrent of affection.
Roxas thinks he loves her, sometimes.
It's not often he thinks of her romantically. They only see each other for a couple hours after school or through fleeting glances in the hallways, and there are many other girls like Naminé, who will willingly go along with his antics. But Roxas likes the stupid structure that she provides, and the sarcastic, yet sometimes sweet answers she provides to his questions.
He likes to think of her obsidian, shiny hair, slipping through his fingers, and her pink, full lips and how he'll lean in to-
And then, he'll sigh, shake his head, and wonder why he's torturing himself again.
.
It's the last week of school, and he's now officially a junior.
She's officially gone. Or going to be gone.
"Are you sad?" he says, in his trademark almost-sarcastic voice, walking up to her locker.
"Are you?" she responds, her voice a biting sharp tone, but her eyes give away her fondness for the blond.
She walks through the hall, and he follows. "About what?" he asks dumbly. "Me leaving, you dimwit." says Xion, rolling her eyes. Roxas catches up to her and scoffs, "What? No. Never."
Xion pretends to look hurt and then punches him on the arm. Hard. Roxas acts like it's a mortal wound, and Xion smacks him on the head. Lightly. "I can see that you're struggling to reach me, Xion." he chuckles, after she tries to smack him again. "Not everyone is as genetically gifted as you are, you giant!" she retorts, frustration clear in her voice.
He bends down an inch, and she smacks him again.
.
"So where you gonna go?" he asks her, as they walk to the Clock Tower together. "University of Traverse Town." she responds, shoving her hands into her pocket. "The big city?" says Roxas, raising an eyebrow.
"You know it." she responds, a glint in her cerulean eyes. "I didn't think you were a city girl." says Roxas, searching for his wallet as they approach the ice-cream vendor. He says this borderline sarcastically again, but he knows that she will fit right in with the rest of them, with her spunk and her charm.
But Xion doesn't notice, and she continues on with the conversation. "I didn't think you cared." teases Xion. "We only see each other like once a week after all." she reasons, while Roxas fumbles for a five dollar bill. The vendor looks at them suggestively for the upteenth time. Roxas shakes his head, trying not to turn red, and the faintest hint of a smile appears on the vendor's face as he hands him two sticks of ice cream.
"I care more than you know." he responds, handing her an ice-cream stick.
"Isn't that sweet?" says Xion sarcastically, unwrapping her treat.
.
They walk up to the Clock Tower together, poking fun at each other, just taking in the feeling of being around each other, and Roxas has this weird pang in his chest as they sit down at the very edge of the tower. They finish their ice cream together, watching the sunset silently.
"The sky hasn't been this clear in ages." he remarks, leaning back a little. She nods, and flicks her ice cream stick into the plaza, where it hits an unknowing stranger on the head. Roxas laughs loudly as Xion clamors back onto the floor of the Clock Tower, laughing along with him. They lay down on the floor together, their laughter fading to chuckles, and then just a silent stare. She looks at him, her cerulean eyes scanning him. He slowly moves his hand towards her face, where he brushes a stray hair out of her face, and cups her cheek gently.
He can hear her breathing now, and Xion moves closer to him, to put her head on his chest. He's not sure what's going on, or what's going to happen, because they have never been this intimate, never been this close, and he's not quite sure whether he likes it or not.
The sun finally sets, and he doesn't want to get up. But she does, and pulls him up with him. They walk back downstairs, hands almost brushing together, furtive glances stolen from one another. Finally, Roxas takes her hand in his. She looks at him almost surprised, and then it fades into an expression of fondness and almost something else.
At the entrance to each other's apartments, they stop. There's a glow from the streetlamps of Twilight Town, the sky's stars are being revealed, and they look at each other again. "I had a good time today." she says softly, looking away. "Yeah." he croaks. "Me too." She looks at him again, and takes a couple steps forward slowly. Xion gets up on her toes, to lightly brush him on the lips with her own.
He stands there, almost in shock, and lightly blushing, Xion heads upstairs.
.
She leaves for college nearly two weeks later. Roxas watches through his apartment window as he watches the obsidian hair girl check her bags and suitcases again meticulously. He knows she'll be fine, he knows she'll be at the top of her class, that she'll be happy, but there's this nagging, melancholic feeling that's lingering, and he knows what it is.
Xion appears to be looking around for something, someone, and Roxas feels that nagging feeling burn a little more.
He almost gives himself an ultimatum, that either he says goodbye now, or he'll never see her again, but he doesn't care to rise to the challenge, because he's a little bit too tired of thinking of them as a couple, too tired of her in general, so now he's going to sit back down on his bed, and keep the memory of them as friends, never lovers, forever ingrained in his head.
Outside his apartment, Xion looks wistfully at his window.
She walks to the train station, alone.
.
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note: updated to smooth out some old kinks. leave a review? :)