A/N: a oneshot for writing practice before i brainstorm a new rokunami fic; some details of that can be found on my newly-updated profile. also, happy slightly belated holidays and happy early new years!
disclaimer: i don't own kingdom hearts.
• roxas/naminé •
allergies
Roxas thinks Naminé hates him.
The seven year old boy sits at his desk, chin atop the arms he folded over the surface of the table. His eyes are locked onto the smiling face of Naminé as she contentedly draws a bunch of scribbles with Kairi on the other end of the room. Back slouching against the chair, Roxas begins to exhale deeply into his arms, eyes never straying—though, his brow does furrow in contemplation—as he tries to figure out an enigma from the species of women known as Naminé. The shrieks and shrill squeals of the other children cannot break through his focus; in fact, his eyes flash in heavy thought.
Sora calls it 'sulking,' Hayner calls it 'being emo,' Pence calls it 'bad romancing,' Riku calls it 'being stupidly dumb,' but Roxas calls it 'figuring out how the female species function and how the absolute heck could they be understood.'
Sora, Riku, Hayner, and Pence called him a lunatic ever since—Riku might've said more colorful choices given their distasteful relationship.
That's why Roxas has been trying to come up with a conclusion.
They were being brainwashed.
That has to be it.
How else could they casually be around Naminé while she sneezes her nose off every time he's around? She must have brainwashed the only gullible friends Roxas has for some strange ploy; he cannot seem to pass these multiple occurrences off as a mere coincidence. It's like she's a witch with the ability to manipulate things to her liking—it'd be simple for her, for she's said to have an enchanting smile, one that even the most beautiful of people would envy for. Then again, she's the angel of the class.
But maybe being an angel is just a disguise for her true witch-y brainwashing powers.
Yes, that must be it.
Brainwash.
This is why Roxas has been sitting at his desk all day, voluntarily skipping his free time to observe her from a safe distance, ignoring how all his friends seem to think he's becoming quite alarmingly picky and sensitive.
Well, he'd tried to argue back, her brainwashing powers could spread at an alarming rate for all he knows. And, for all he knows again, she could be drawing an evil scheme in that sketchbook of hers.
He watches as Naminé happily shows her doodles to Kairi—Roxas daresay her face is luminous in a gleeful manner after Kairi compliments her in an honest, sugary voice. He watches as she waves to Olette, who stood rather far away and playing with an abundance of decorative beads and cloth. He watches as she tosses a stray bouncy ball back to a grinning Sora and Ventus. He watches as she also shows Riku her drawings and Riku pats her head.
She's been wearing a smile the whole time.
Roxas subconsciously feels his lips sagging, brows furrowed—he feels the utter opposite of what she's feeling and he's pretty sure whatever she's feeling is a positive feeling.
He abruptly stands when he sees her on her tiptoes, her arms extending towards a box of crayons on the upper shelves that's just shy away from her fingertips. A breath sucked in and hope inflating in his chest, Roxas cautiously approaches her with good intentions to help, a thing to indicate his valiant effort to be chivalrous. This is also a chance to see her powers up close; this is a good opportunity blessed on him.
The crayons are grabbed with ease and he offers it to her, hoping he comes off as friendly and not as an arrogant boy trying to showcase his height despite Riku being the tallest in the class, period.
"Here you go."
Naminé is silent for a bit, eyes staring before fully registering everything in her head and she finally takes it with a grateful smile. "Thank you, Roxas!" Her eyes are telling him 'I'll see you later!' before her head is turned to the side, her legs on the move.
She runs off back to her friends.
He's thoroughly dumbfounded as ever; his eyes graze her back.
Weird.
Roxas cants his head to the side, a blank thoughtful hum vibrating in his throat. Maybe her brainwashing powers wore off.
The next day, Roxas feels himself being a little bit more courageous. His group of friends, supportive as ever, all sent him sneers, conceivably a bit amused before he ultimately ventures to her from their circle. They all refused to go with him, oddly. "Hi, Naminé!" His hair is slightly disheveled from the tussle he had with Hayner near the fields surrounding the playground. Bits of grass and the scent of flowers are still stuck on him, but it doesn't deter his good mood today.
Naminé turns away from her batch of mindless sketches to greet him, pleasant as ever. So far, so good. "Hi, Ro—" A sneeze interrupts her. And then another. Followed by another, and another.
He feels dread churn in his tummy when she keeps sneezing, up to the point where little tears brim in her eyes—it fuels the childish fear in his heart.
But didn't her brainwashing power wear off yesterday?
There has to be an explanation.
She attempts to flee, shying her face away from him by tucking it into the creeks of her elbows; however, Kairi immediately rushed over to pat the girl's back soothingly in midst of Roxas' brainstorming. As the protective friend she is, the redhead gives him a look.
"No offense, but I think you should stay away from her today, Roxy." She turns back to her sneezing best friend once more. Her voice is sympathetic, easing to hear. "At least, just for tod—"
But when Kairi looks up, Roxas is already gone. He seems busy as he goes play kickball with Ventus, Sora, and Vanitas. Hayner scoffs at him and rolls up his sleeves before joining in. Apparently, his kicks were harsher today, judging from how Sora complains about running off to chase the ball along with a, "Gee Roxas, keep on frowning like that and people'll think you're my grandpa than my brother!"
Roxas is such a moody boy. The redhead rolls her eyes, finding his behavior to be melodramatic at best. "Look at what you reduced him to, Nami."
All Kairi got was a sneeze in response and a confused squeak.
For the next three days, Roxas tried his utmost best to avoid crossing paths with Naminé. He hid behind large plants, cabinets, desks, doors, in the restroom, around the playground, buried under the sand in the sandpit, behind Sora, behind Riku of all people, and basically anywhere he could think of. Naminé didn't take notice at first since they do not really chat on a daily basis, but he feels as though she understands that he radiates a vibe of 'Please stay away from me, I just want to live and eat ice cream until my last dying breath.' He sounds dumb at this point; maybe it's due to exhaustion from trying to avoid her.
Ugh.
He slumps tiredly at the table during lunch break.
Riku flicks a stray grape at him as he sips his juice.
Double ugh.
On the fourth day, the teacher announced that she's going to group up everyone into pairs because they're going to take a field trip to Radiant Garden. There were protests echoing the room, some indignant while others were just angry.
"But why Radiant Garden, Miss Aqua?" a girl from the back asks, her soft tone dull, yet wondrous. Roxas vaguely remembers her to be Xion.
Aqua smiles motherly, her countenance adorning patience. "Because the mayor of Radiant Garden, Ansem, offered us a trip there to see how wonderful the place looks after they've done some renovating. He also mentioned that everyone here will get some free ice cream from Mr. Scrooge's ice cream store, courtesy of him!" When the eyes of the children begin to brim with giddiness, she further continues like she's trying to tempt their young minds even more. "So I thought this could be a great way for us to enjoy ourselves while also learning what Radiant Garden has to offer for us! It would've been rude to refuse such a great offer. We're leaving tomorrow, so be sure to pack up today! Here are your permission slips."
With newfound vigor, the class uproar begins to diminish into eager chatter amongst themselves as Aqua passes out forms with a smile. Roxas merely grunts in dismay from his spot on the floor, arms crossed over his chest as he sits there, cross-legged.
That ice cream store better have some sea-salt ice cream.
And hopefully, he can keep up with avoiding Naminé.
Thank goodness that his partner is Pence.
Someone up there must love him. Pence all but rolled his eyes at him when they find their seats on the bus.
Naminé is seated near the front with her own partner, Olette, and Roxas can see from his seat in the back that the two girls are too preoccupied with sharing snacks to notice his eyes observing them. He gives a sigh in relief; so far, so good. She doesn't suspect a thing.
Maybe.
Somehow, he has a feeling this will backfire on him.
Nah. He gives a shake of his head as he accepts a piece of potato chip Pence offered him to pass the time.
As long as he avoid Naminé's strange brainwashing thing, he should be fine.
Just fine.
"Roxy!" There's only one girl who calls him that.
Roxas turns away from the plethora of little souvenirs hung up at a nearby stand to give Kairi a skeptical look. "What is it, Kairi?"
Kairi's hands curl into fists and she places them on her hips while her own field trip partner, Ventus, stands in the background idly observing the surroundings. "I'm not going to bite you, y'know."
"No, but your dog certainly did," he remarks dryly, hand instinctively rubbing his forearm upon recalling such a traumatizing memory when he'd visited her home during the summer. Who would've thought Pluto was naïve enough to think his goddamn arm was a chew toy bone and actually bit him when he was taking a nap?
A snicker. "I told you I was sorry! I honestly didn't know Sora somehow lost his leash."
Lies! Roxas knows a certain tall boy with silver hair was the cause of it. Riku must have stole it, pretended to lose it, and sic the dog on him for some sick revenge. Why would he ever want revenge after Roxas tossed a stick right at him and damn straight apologized for it was forever beyond him.
Riku's as bad as Naminé when it comes to affecting him.
Except that Riku is a guy that makes him very angry while Naminé is a sweet girl who did nothing to him, except toy with his mind and logic by innocently sneezing her nose off whenever she's in a five feet radius around him.
A girl that he was supposed to be ignoring.
Come to think of it… Why is Naminé hiding behind Ventus?
When Kairi notices his befuddled gaze cast onto her best friend, she gives a shake of her head, remembering what her original intention here was. "Oh, that's right!" She approaches Naminé, gently trying to coax her to come out from behind Ven. "Roxas, I need you to watch her for a bit."
He's confused. "What about her partner…?"
"Olette somehow got tangled up in a fight between Hayner and Seifer, and she was trying to stop them. Miss Aqua stopped it, but she insisted that everyone involved needed to go back to the bus for a time out." She shakes her head and looks to Naminé. "I was going to go with Ven to visit my grandma since she lives here and I haven't seen for a long time, but when I found Nami by herself, I didn't want her to go anywhere alone either." Kairi gives Naminé a delicate push forward while Roxas takes a step backward. "Which is why I needed someone to watch over her—I volunteered you since you're also partnerless. Ven's only with me because Miss Aqua said to stick with your assigned partner at all times." Ven scoffs lightly in the back with a sardonic roll of his eyes, not insulted at all.
Roxas inwardly decided to cuss every single bad word he knows at Hayner for bringing him into this mess.
But it didn't seem like Naminé was sneezing today, so he accepts it warily.
Kairi waves at Naminé when she and Ven were at a good distance away. "I'll see you when we meet up at the bus, okay, Nami? I promise!" And with that, she runs off, delighted to meet her grandma. Ven can be heard whining about how fast she is, missing the way how Naminé's hand outstretched feebly to reach him in a manner that makes it look like Roxas has some terminal disease and she wants to bail out.
But now, it's just silence.
Naminé toys with the hem of her dress awkwardly after she lowers the offending hand bothering Roxas.
Roxas decides to awkwardly walk into the direction of the garden that is the pride of Radiant Garden, assuming she'd like to see colorful flowers or whatever it was that girls like. Hasty footsteps and the noise of sandals clacking on the ground tells him that she got the hint and is following him.
Eyes to the sky, Roxas breathes through his nose inaudibly.
This was going to be a long day.
Roxas stares at the clock conveniently placed next to a bench he's sitting at in the gardens.
An hour, 40 minutes, and 3 seconds.
God, he's so bored that he's been reduced to keeping track of the time so closely. Why couldn't Kairi and Ven stay a little longer? Or, at the very least, Ven just so he has someone to talk cartoons with in such a colorful, completely non-boyish place? It's not like Miss Aqua could teleport or has some kind of sensory sixth sense that tells her who's missing a partner.
Naminé sits on the ground a few feet away, contently drawing the flowers in front of her on her beloved sketchbook. He didn't want to disturb her, so he'd taken the liberty of sitting on the bench, just waiting for her. He softly kicks the ground with his heel.
Waiting and waiting and waiting…
He didn't know she was so passionate about drawing despite seeing her draw practically every day of school. He never really paid attention before. Now that there's nothing for him to do, he just observes. He notices little things about her.
He notices how her brows furrow when she makes a mistake.
He notices how her wrist moves with grace when sketching.
He notices how her eyes light up when she looks at her final product and smiles.
Strange, how he never noticed all of this until now.
He checks the clock again and deems it time to head back to meet up at the bus. Sure the trip back would only be a couple short minutes at best, but he cannot take this silence anymore.
For the first time after an hour, 40 minutes, and 3 seconds with an addition of the other 72 hours he avoided her for, he talks. "Naminé, it's time to head back!"
He watches how she snaps out of her daydreaming and he feels a little guilty for ruining her concentration, but her weak smile diminishes it. "Alright!"
Satisfied, he turns to walk with intentions to wait for her near the entrance of the gates, but then his foot snags onto a loose stone on the ground. He can hear Naminé gasp as he soars into a bush of roses.
He didn't think flowers were so brutal.
He sits up, thanking every single deity out there that these were roses without thorns. Unfortunately, a few petals were mixed into his hair during his brilliant collision—he also coughs from the overwhelming aromas pooling together at his nostrils.
Luckily, Naminé is a very kind girl who likes to help people; she manages to clumsily drag him out from the bush. She flickers a genuinely concerned gaze at him. "A-Are you oka—"
She sneezes.
He freezes.
Roxas helplessly watches as she sneezes her daylights out, her eyes brimming with tears again. She takes out her handkerchief and tries to barricade her nose, but the sneezes and tears are rather relentless this time. Did he make her cry?
"N-Naminé…? Are you… okay…?" he inquires in caution and worry. Anxiety begins to swell in his chest uneasily. The feeling worsens when she jostles backward from him—she's almost resembling a moth fluttering away because someone took away her luminescent light. "N-Naminé?!"
"I'm…" Her voice sounds hoarse. She sneezes again. "I'm allergic to roses." She resumes sneezing, wiping her eyes with her handkerchief. "I-I'm sorry…"
Roxas stiffens up.
So that's why she strangely avoided walking near the rose batches when they entered the garden earlier.
And the fields where he and Hayner have their brawls at are practically full of luscious thornless roses. The school's gardener, Marluxia, insists that instead of having to deal with noisy children six hours every five days a week, it's better to turn the place into some sort of flower haven with nothing but roses. Maybe that's also why Naminé never likes stepping beyond the dusty cement floor at the playground and squirms uncomfortably when she looks at the bushes, or even at Marluxia in general.
Roxas always thought she was just too polite to voice out her discomfort for violence regardless of how silly the 'fight' was in actuality.
"N-No..." He lifts up a hand, very weakly, towards her as if to placate her quaking shoulders. "It's my fault, Naminé. Please don't cry." When he receives no response, just sneezes and sniffles, he's not even sure if she's actually crying or not as he quickly tries to remove the accursed petals in his hair.
Roxas tosses the petals to the ground vigorously and as soon as he stands up, his palms settle on her shoulders, sympathetically pulling her up and pushing her from behind until their feet led them far beyond the garden entrance. He proceeds to sigh in relief because the incessant sneezes stopped as if someone cast a spell to freeze time on her. "There we go. Allergies don't suit you," he comments, scrutinizing her pink eyes.
She doesn't say anything, probably due to her hoarse throat. He doesn't mind, because an idea soon originate into his mind.
"C'mon, let's go!" He listens as Naminé gives a small baffled squeak when he offers his hand. "I'm taking you to get some ice cream! Ice cream always cheers me up after I feel crummy—it's like magic!" He looks to her with earnest eyes. "Consider it an apology for... er, triggering your allergies." And for thinking you're a witch with some weird brainwashing powers instead of thinking about allergies...
His palm feels warm, feeling dainty fingers settle on it with gentleness—he grips on them the same way. She's looking at him, perhaps in a way that can be seen as admiration, throughout most of the time he tugs her along his trail.
"Just wait until you try sea-salt flavor! Prepare to be amazed!"
Though his eyes never meet with hers, he enjoys it when his ears catch a small breath and then, an airy giggle. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad having Naminé as a temporary field trip buddy for today; Pence was probably too busy being a hitting dummy for Hayner by now.
Roxas resists an urge to go 'I told you so' just as she exhibits a look of mild astonishment. "I knew you'd like it. Sea-salt is too impossible to pass up!" He appears smug. If she noticed that, then she's doing a really good job at masking it.
When she looks at him this time, she's more or so composed and blithe. "How come it goes from salty to sweet so fast?" she inquires in her sweet voice, holding her ice cream as if it's too holy to be eaten. "All I've ever had were the usual ones—vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry…"
"I don't really know how they make it work, but I've been eating this flavor for years, so I guess I never thought about it much." Roxas laughs lightheartedly, softly. "But what matters is that it tastes good, right? So eat up before it melts!"
The afternoon sun rays languidly cloak them under its warmth. Roxas tilts his head back, stretching his neck and listening to the crunch noises he caused. His arms stretch back and forth before he takes a stance, Naminé eyeing him with innocent anticipation. No comments could be passed because he abruptly launches the empty ice cream stick into a trash bin a few feet away. He can hear her suck in a breath and she also makes the tiniest of gasps from her awe.
"Score!" he cheers at his own precision, a grin practically illuminating his whole face when he turns to her with his wide, clear eyes to showcase his enthusiasm. "Now's your turn!"
Naminé's cheeks are a delicate rosy pink—probably from the heat, Roxas assumes—and she tries to advert her gaze, her discomfort emphasized by her squirming feet and hunching shoulders that he was sure would envelop her whole face is she were to shy away into them any further.
"Sorry; did I offend you…?" He begins to grimace at himself for behaving so rambunctiously. "Sora and I would always compete to see who could toss the stick into the trash bin most accurately after we finish our ice creams after school on the way home. It's kinda like our own little tradition—I thought it'd be nice if you could join in."
Guess that wasn't the right way to help her open up. She's looks like a strawberry.
She suddenly looks upward, a tad bit alarmed like she sending mixed messages. "A-Ah, you did nothing wrong!" She is quick to placate his worries, but he doesn't look away. "...I'm not really good at things like this. Throwing things, moving around…"
She does look rather frail for a girl.
Roxas almost slaps his forehead, appalled at himself that he almost forced a sweet, fragile girl into tossing sticks like they were on a basketball field and the stick was a bouncy ball.
"Say no more; I understand. Here, let me throw that away then." After the stick's demise, he sinks his shoulders momentarily. To change the subject into something that would, preferably, suit her, he somewhat desperately gestures to her sketchbook.
"Did you get to finish your pictures from earlier, by the way? You seemed really busy and focused, I doubt you would've noticed anything if someone screamed into your ear."
She bashfully fingers at her closed sketchbook. "I really wanted to draw the flowers as perfectly as I could—it's like practice for me. Ven called me a 'perfectionist,' but I… just really like to draw."
He seems impressed that she would go sit through so many quiet hours just drawing away. Her determination is admirable.
"Not to mention, I was halfway into the picture until I remembered that Kairi loves flowers. So, I decided to try extra hard on this one to give it to her as a present."
She's so selfless.
Roxas' respect for her has skyrocketed. He hums in thought, confidence in his voice to reassure her. "Well, with that kind of mindset, it'll be hard for her to not like what you drew. I'm definitely positive that she'll love whatever you draw for her—you'll see!"
Naminé's lips has a smile fluttering on it, her cheeks a modest pink again. "Thank you, Roxas."
Later that evening after school, Roxas ditched Sora ("You big meanie! I'll just walk home with Riku and Kairi then!") to have a chat with Hayner.
"Why didn't you tell me earlier?" He talks as if someone stabbed him in the back and left him for his corpse to rot—like that one play about Julius Caesar or whatever his name was. "I looked like an idiot, man."
Hayner, thoroughly amused beyond belief, fold his arms behind his head after shoving some sea-salt ice cream into his mouth; his eyes scream with amusement like Roxas is merely a thing of entertainment for him. "Because," he starts, pressing his back onto the ice cream store's wall leisurely, "it was funny. Heck, you should've seen yourself, Rox. Everyone thought so."
He probably doomed himself into eons worth of embarrassment, but he sighs a painstaking breath. "Seen myself what?" Why was everyone in on it except him?
He eyes the way Hayner wears a face of nonchalance, lifting up his hand to list everything, much to the dismay of Roxas. "Well, there's that one time where you dodge-rolled right under Sora's desk and he was this close—" His forefinger and thumb close in on each other, illustrating a very tiny gap. "—to squishing you with his clown shoes." He snickers. "But it's even funnier because he accidentally kicked you in the stomach instead. Oh, and there's also the other incident where you and Ven switched desks for a day just so she wouldn't notice you, but she kept talking to you because she thought you were Ven."
"How was I supposed to know that Ven practically grew up with her? He could've told me..." mumbles Roxas, a disgruntled hand at the back of his neck out of habit. While many have proclaimed the, unfortunately, continuous fact that they look almost like twins, they've both denied a childhood together, also shooting down many theories about how they were separated at birth. Still, Roxas loathes the fact that rumors are quick to float by rather than sink.
"Because you were too busy forcing him to switch with you. No wait—it was more like 'begging,' actually."
"Hayner."
"Roxas," he snidely imitates, a gleam of joy in his eyes. Prick.
"Okay, but what about the field near the playground? We've been there plenty of times and she's seen me plenty of times. Why didn't any of you guys say anything about that?" Roxas can feel his eyebrows arch, inquisitive questions pouring out by the second—he's adamant on this interrogation. Why he bothers so much, Hayner doesn't really know.
Hayner hums, appearing more thoughtful than mercilessly jeering like before. "I dunno, actually. I was going to tell you when it first happened, but Kairi told me not to since Naminé is self-conscious about her allergy thing. Said something about not wanting people to think of her differently if more people knew about it." His eyes of chestnut brown lazily glance to the setting sun, fingers twirling his frosted treat. "I guess Naminé didn't want to tell you herself for the same reason. Olette's told me a lot about how quiet she is—"
A huge lump proceeds to drop into his chest, aligned in guilt, cutting off his attention to whatever else is friend proceeds to ramble on about. Well… he did assumed she was a witch with some funky powers. Guess Kairi's plan backfired. Roxas decides to offer a formal apology to both Kairi and Naminé now that the pieces all seem to line up nicely from there. Kairi was only looking out for her, while he had the gall to assume her best friend was a wicked witch in disguise.
"—but now, I don't regret keepin' it from you anymore because I got to see you thinking that she's a goddamn brainwashing witch for a couple of weeks now! How did you not get the hint that it was allergies?! You need to stop watching those alien cartoons on TV during the weekends; they're rotting your brain."
Roxas flicks his empty ice cream stick and it smacks Hayner's cheek.
Those loud yelps are like music notes to him, but not as melodic as the hums Naminé sings when she is enthralled with her drawing time.
Maybe he'd like to hang out with her again tomorrow, no crazy witch theories in store either.