I have just become a Roxas X Namine fan. I don't know what happened, but suddenly i love them, so then the idea for this fic started nagging at me, so i wrote it! There's plenty of drama to come and i've really enjoyed writing this, so i hope it doesn't, like, suck =] and i'm going england on the school thing because i am, in fact, english

And this is more of a prologue than a full chapter, so the other chapters will be longer...i hope

She loved to hear him sing.

It was something she never dared tell him; but ever since they were little, she would sneak out onto the small veranda of her bedroom, blanketed by the chill of the evening air, and listen to him. He was in the same place most nights; sat atop the slanting roof of his perfectly suburban home, knees hugged to his chest as he watched the stars for inspiration. And she was in the same place most nights, too; hidden beneath the slanted branches of the large oak tree, between their two homes, with her legs folded beneath her as she watched his intensely focused expression. She used to wonder if he knew she was there, hidden from view - if not badly. She thought that maybe he sang for her, to soothe the nightmares that never left her tortured mind. But her imagination wasn't so vivid that she deluded herself with that thought for long. She knew, without a doubt, that she would never hear him sing again if he found out she listened.

Naminé was sitting on the veranda again tonight, waiting. She held a small leaf in her hand, plucked from the oak and almost completely denuded by her tiny fingers. She was wrapped in the familiar warmth and comfort of her blue, knee-length coat, although she wasn't cold. Spring had come and gone, leaving behind no trace of its biting wind as the season melted into the intense heat of Summer. The night air was warm as it wrapped her in its embrace; although, thankfully, it was without the usual suffocating humidity of the day. She was glad for that. But that small shred of gladness was overshadowed by her disappointment, because Roxas wasn't there.

Naminé stole a glance at her watch; delicate and silver - a present from her last birthday - and she sighed sadly. It was almost midnight and she still hadn't heard his voice; and she still had school in the morning. She would see Roxas tomorrow - and most likely every day after that - but, in a way, she cherished the times when she heard him sing. It was Roxas without his guard; without the impenetrable wall which stopped him from ever getting too close to anyone. She liked to see him vulnerable, just to see that he was in fact human. But she couldn't wait any longer, and he was probably asleep already. She was waiting for nothing this time.

Unbuttoning the large black buttons of her coat, Naminé reluctantly retreated back into the cold atmosphere of her bedroom. The room was a typical reflection of her interests: The walls were adorned with painted canvases; some pop art, some real life, some cartoon; mostly of things from school, like teachers screaming or her friends laughing. A blank canvas sat on an easel by the window, waiting for the moment when inspiration would strike and compel her to paint. The rest of the room was fairly empty, though: White walls, pale blue bed sheets, and a cream carpet stained with paint. Most things in her room were stained with paint, though. It drove her parents mad.

Naminé pulled a pair of shorts and a t-shirt from her dresser and quickly changed out of her Destiny High uniform. The waistband of the pleated skirt was itchy against her skin, so she usually changed the moment she arrived home. Although somehow, today, she hadn't found the time.

Dressed for bed, Naminé flicked the light off and carefully crept under her sheets, so as not to wake the rest of the household. She had left the curtains open, like always, so the moonlight could spill in through the window. The silvery rays of light gave her a sense of security. Ever since the nightmares started, she found that they weren't so bad if she fell asleep in a place that she considered safe.

And, for one night, that was enough to help her fall asleep.

There were no dreams.

Naminé was sitting on the porch the next morning; ready for another day when the last one had barely ended. Her striped tie was pulled tightly around her neck, her shirt was tucked neatly into her skirt, and her knee length socks were completely creaseless. Everything about her was neat, including the 'Head Girl' badge that she kept pinned to her dark blue jumper. The small badge was never given the chance to be crooked, though. A nervous habit always found her straightening it.

Naminé pulled her school bag into her lap and tucked her sketchpad into the sleeve at the back. She had found the time to pluck a few, non-technical images from her mind and roughly sketch them; a coffee mug, a wind chime, a pair of muddy shoes. She made the time to draw before school, just to help her mind concentrate.

A moment later, Naminé heard the sound of crunching gravel and looked up. She readjusted the hem of her skirt for the umpteenth time as she stared out over the garden, her lips forming a weak smile as her best friend headed along the stone path towards her. He looked about as uncomfortable as her, in his own Destiny High uniform of black trousers, a white shirt, blue jumper and tie. He was good at making himself as comfortable as possible, though. The tie hung loosely around his neck, below several open buttons on his shirt, and he held the jumper at his side. It showed the contrast between them, Naminé felt. Roxas; easy and confident. Naminé; awkward and obedient.

Roxas paused at the bottom of the porch stairs, leaving Naminé in his shadow. "Morning," he said simply, offering her a crooked smile.

Naminé squinted up at him, against the harsh glare of the sun. His face was obscured by the bright glow of early morning sunlight, blurring all his features but the bright blue of his eyes.

"Good morning, Roxas," Naminé said, her voice it's usual soft, content tone. She reached out and took his offered hand, and with a light tug he helped her to her feet.

"No Xion today?" Roxas enquired, shooting a quick glance at one of the upstairs windows.

Naminé shook her head and brushed a strand of blonde hair from her eyes. Xion was her sister; her twin. They were identical in all but hair colour, although Xion went through a short period of dying her jet black hair red when they were fourteen. She soon grew out of it, though. Although her hair was still very short, from cutting out the red.

"It's nothing serious," Namine assured him, using a slim hand to shield her eyes from the sun. "She's just got a bad cold."

Roxas pushed out his lower lip and shrugged lazily. "Just you and me, then," he said with a smile. He then hopped to her side and held out his arm, so she could link hers through it. "Shall we go, then?" he asked.

Naminé laughed softly and curled her arm through his. "You seem awfully upbeat for a school day," she noted.

Roxas pulled a face. He kept step with her as they walked back up the path and through the gate at the end of the garden. He made sure to walk slower than usual, so she wouldn't be dragged along behind him. "Don't worry," he murmured. "I'm not upbeat about school."

Naminé smiled. "So I'm not imagining it?"

"Imagining what?"

"That you're more cheerful than usual."

Roxas sniffed. "That was a not-so-subtle hint that I'm boring."

"No," Namine laughed. "I meant…"

Roxas raised an eyebrow. "You meant, what?"

Naminé bit down on her bottom lip, awkwardly. The dirt path through the middle of the main island was, if not for them, empty and soundless; but it was rare for more than a few people to be in the same place at once on the islands. The population was so dense that Destiny High had never seen more than a hundred pupils at one time. That small fact, to Naminé, had made the honour of being named Head Girl seem a little less important.

"I meant," Naminé said pointedly, with a shy smile, "that I haven't seen you hop in years."

"Is that so?" Roxas said, after a brief pause.

The pause, and the change in his tone didn't go unnoticed by Naminé, who quickly glanced up, searching for his eyes. Roxas, however, didn't move his gaze away from the twisting path at their feet.

"Why are you-?"

"Shit, I forgot my keys," Roxas cut in, before Naminé could finish. He pulled his arm away from her, sharply, and stared back along the path, his eyes narrowed. "I should hurry back before Sora leaves," he said, furrowing his eyebrows as though he were deep in thought. He met Naminé's eyes, very briefly, then he was turning away again. "Will you be OK walking alone?"

Naminé blinked. "U-um…yeah. Sure, I'll be…" But the muttered words trailed off into a deep sigh. Roxas was already gone.

"Do I look like a child to you?"

Naminé's head shot up at the sound of her friend's irritated voice, her heart suddenly thundering from shock. She had been silently sketching for the better part of her lunch break, sketchpad resting on her bent knees as she leant into a comfortable curve of a tree trunk; near the back in the school grounds. There was always something new to inspire her artistic mind in that spot, hidden beneath thick layers of dark green leaves, with shafts of green light filtering through the gaps in the branches. She was in a world far away from the school, though; and the sudden loud voice in her ear pulled her back to reality a little too harshly.

"What?" Naminé gasped, breathless.

Rikku let out an irritated sigh as she dropped to the ground opposite Naminé, legs and arms crossed stiffly. A short puff of air from her lips moved a stray piece of blonde hair from her eyes. "Donovan called me little girl," Rikku said in disgust.

Naminé smiled weakly and leant back against the tree, on impulse folding her sketchpad closed. "That's what he calls everyone," she said with a weak laugh. It was true. The geography teacher called every girl in the school, no matter what age they were, 'Little girl'.

Rikku pursed her lips. "He doesn't call Sora little girl," she argued. "Or Roxas, or Riku, or Ven, or-"

"OK," Naminé interrupted her. "You've made you're point."

"No, I don't think I have," Rikku insisted, but suddenly she frowned. "Hey, have you seen Sora or the others today?" she asked.

Naminé slightly tilted her to one side. "I saw Roxas before school," she recalled. "But he ran back to his house to pick up his keys. I haven't seen him since."

Rikku pouted. "I hardly see them anymore," she grumbled. "It's like they've all gone antisocial, or something."

Naminé frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I don't believe you haven't noticed anything weird about those guys," Rikku exclaimed incredulously, gesticulating wildly as she made her point. "Last time I saw Ven was before class last week, and he was acting all weird like he didn't even want to talk to me. And Sora was acting all mushy, like he's about to die, or something. And Roxas…well you spend every waking moment with him, haven't you noticed anything?"

Naminé lowered her head, letting her gaze fall to the blank cover of her sketchpad. "I don't think so…" she muttered, but she knew straight away that it was a lie. However hard it was to see the real Roxas, she still knew him better than anyone else. He was still her best friend and had been since they were six, and it was clear something was wrong. She still remembered the day at playschool, when he came up to her with a huge grin plastered on his round, boyish face. They had never spoken at that point, but that day he had flat out dared her to pour glue over his brother, Sora's, head. And, for reasons she wasn't quite sure of, Naminé accepted the dare, and Sora ended up having all his hair shaved off. Roxas still proclaimed that he didn't stop laughing for a whole year, and that Naminé was his hero for life. But that boy from playschool barely existed anymore. Roxas was more reserved than ever, and more inclined to snap at any direct questions about how he was or how his family were. Sora and Ven were the same, although both of them were far too caring to really snap at anyone. And now that she had been inclined to think of it, Naminé realised that she hadn't seen much of the three brothers - Roxas, Sora and Ven - in weeks.

"I don't know, dude," Rikku sighed, slumping onto her back in the grass. "Maybe Tidus was right, and I'm just paranoid and everything's fine."

Naminé, pushing the thought out of her mind, forced a thin smile. "Yeah," she whispered, tightly gripping the edges of her sketchpad. Roxas's face from that morning flashed through her mind, and the way he had looked at her before he ran back to his house; like he was ashamed.

"Everything's fine…" Naminé breathed.

After that, Naminé found that her day only got worse.

Her thoughts were too far away for her to focus on school work. She lost all concentration in the middle of rehearsals for the school's end of year play. She had a main part, and a lot to remember, and she had managed to forget all of her previously learnt lines. In art, her elbow knocked over a pot of bright purple paint, spilling its contents over her almost perfected canvas. To make matters worse, her teachers only saw it as some personal vendetta against them.

"If I knew you weren't even going to bother learning your lines, I would have cast Xion as Alice!"

"That's a whole pot you've wasted that I'll have to pay to replace!"

"I don't care if it was an accident, Naminé; if you had kept your bag under your desk, then it wouldn't be there for anyone to trip over!"

It was too much for Naminé, and by the time the school bell rang, signalling the end of another lesson, she'd had enough.

The walk home, although she was glad for the silence, still felt incredibly lonely without Roxas. They walked the same path to and from school every day; sometimes with Ven or Xion, but it was their routine. And since talking to Rikku, there had been an alarm bell screaming in her head. She didn't like to think that Roxas kept secrets from her; but suddenly that seemed very likely. And she still couldn't get his face out of her mind. The image was taunting her, forcing her to see that something was wrong and she had been too stupid to see it.

The gate screeched in protest as Naminé stepped into her front garden. Her house, beside Roxas's, sat right on the edge of the main island, and she could often hear the gentle lapping of waves when it was night and the house was asleep. She could see the beach from the back of the house. It was just a shame that her room was at the front.

Naminé closed the gate and started along the path, kicking a loose stone as she went. Her throat was dry and itchy, and she started to think that she might go to the beach shack and buy a cold drink, but she never finished the thought. She came to an abrupt stop half way along the path, when she saw Roxas sitting on the porch stairs.

He was still in his uniform, she noted, but she knew he hadn't gone to school. They had most classes together, and he hadn't been in one of them today.

Roxas glanced up when he heard her approaching, making no attempt to hide that he was uncomfortable. His usual half-smile was replaced by an awkward frown, and he still refused to meet her eyes for longer than a second. He shuffled to one side as Naminé approached him, leaving the small space required for her to sit beside him.

"You didn't come to school," Naminé pointed out. It was all she could think to say.

Roxas shuffled uncomfortably. "I wasn't meant to go anyway…" he muttered, although he chose to leave the sentence unfinished. But Naminé found that she didn't care.

"Didn't you find your keys?" Naminé said, her voice a harsh whisper as she glared into her lap. She wasn't used to any kind of confrontation, but she wasn't used to being mad at her best friend, either.

Roxas sighed. "Naminé…I'm not going to drag this out, you know I'm not good at this stuff…"

What stuff? Naminé wanted to ask, but suddenly she was too scared to interrupt him in case she never found out what he was going to say.

"But there are a few things I need to tell you first," he went on, awkwardly twirling and steepling his fingers as he spoke. "First of all, I guess you deserve an apology. I…know I haven't been the best…best friend for a long time. You've never kept secrets from me and you deserve the same back, and I haven't told you anything." He sighed. "You should know everything, and I'm sorry. That's probably why Ven and Sora always said I shouldn't be best friends with you." He chuckled humourlessly. "I like my secrets to stay secrets, and you trust me with everything. But I just thought you should know that…I do trust you."

Naminé was silent, waiting for Roxas to say something else. When he didn't, she took a deep, trembling breath. When did she start shaking? "Why…?" she started, but suddenly she stuttered on a sentence that wouldn't form. "Is something wrong?" she asked feebly.

Roxas breathed a laugh, but he didn't sound amused. He glanced down at his hands, like he might find the answer written across his palms. "Do you remember my dad?" he asked.

That wasn't the answer Naminé had expected, but she went along with him and nodded.

"That cooperation he works for, Shinra, they've transferred him to a place called Twilight Town. It's…er…" Roxas breathed another sombre chuckle. "It's pretty far from here, and…we're all going there to live with him."

"No."

Roxas's head snapped round the instant she spoke and, with a shocked expression, he looked at Naminé for the first time. Her features were contorted with pain and sadness, rather than the soft smile he was used to. Her small hands were bunched into tight fists in her lap, and visibly shaking.

"Nam…" Roxas said softly, feeling impossibly more uncomfortable. He turned towards her and rested his hands over hers, gently prying her fingers open. Naminé snatched her hands away from him, as though his touch burnt her, instead resting them over her stomach. She already felt her chest tightening and the tears stinging her eyes, but she held them back.

Roxas groaned irritably and raked a hand through his hair. "It's not your choice, Nam," he sighed. "I have to be with my family right now, and I can't stay here alone anyway."

"Don't do that," Naminé hissed.

Roxas frowned, confused. "What?"

"You're talking to me like I'm a child," she choked out, although the anger barely registered over her pain. "You're my best friend, and I'm allowed to want you to stay."

Roxas took a deep breath. "I know," he murmured. "I'm just trying to make a screwed up situation seem a little better."

Naminé tried to laugh. What came out was a sob. "You're doing a bad job," she told him, but her voice was breaking with the onset of tears.

Instinctively, Roxas reached out and pulled her trembling form into his arms, holding her more tightly than he had planned. "You'll be fine without me," Roxas assured her, but he soon felt Naminé's head shaking.

"I hope you don't believe that," she muttered.

Roxas didn't answer. He tucked her head under his chin as she curled against his chest, her tears already beginning to stain his shirt. He would have held her for longer, but he just barely had time to tell her he was leaving. Reluctantly, he pulled away from Naminé, but not before placing a soft kiss on her temple.

"Keep that chin up, Nam," he said with a light smile. He brushed a thumb over the damp skin of her cheek, wiping away the tears. "You're sucking the fun out of everything."

Despite herself, Naminé laughed. Her eyes were bright with tears as she looked up at her best friend. She didn't allow the thought to enter her mind, that she might not see him again. "Don't disappear," she said.

Roxas smiled. "I don't have that power," he whispered, his hand slipping back to his side. "I'll come back. I promise."

Naminé swallowed, afraid to even breathe in case the tears came back in a flood. Roxas moved away from her and stood up, and Naminé was shocked by how much she felt his absence. It was as though he was already gone.

Roxas smiled down at her. "I'll be seeing you…" he said.

Naminé nodded. "Will I see you before you leave?" she asked, and she couldn't bring herself to care about the desperation in her voice.

Roxas shook his head, sadly. "We're leaving tonight," he told her. "Except for Sora. He can drive up later, so he's hanging back for a few days, just to say goodbye to his girlfriend. Dad has a fully furnished place in Twilight Town, so most of our stuff is staying behind - for the use of whoever rents the place." He forced a smile. "And for us, when we come back."

Sounds like a dream, Naminé thought. "I hope so," was all she said.

Slowly, Roxas took a few backward steps along the path. He knew that the picture in front of him would never leave his memory; but he didn't want it to. Roxas found that his lips had spread into a wide grin while he was walking, and it was sparked by a particular thought. "You know I can't leave for long," he said, teasingly. Naminé glanced up, eyebrows raised questioningly, and Roxas chuckled. "I can't imagine Sora serenading you from a rooftop."

Naminé gasped at that, but Roxas had already turned away before she could speak.

"Actually," he muttered to himself as he walked back up the path, although Naminé could still hear - just. "I could imagine that…"

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