Well okay, here it is! My first school fanfic. Done many times before, I'm sure.
This story is dedicated to Handwritten, the complete master of all things NaminexRoxas.
Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, or the series my "cameo character" is from. You'll see who that is at the end of this chapter.
Grace
Chapter One: Falling in Love
Roxas never knew why, but his favorite thing to do after school was hang out with his friends, or alone sometimes, at the local coffee shop, Sunrise. It had a nice, friendly feel, served ice cream and soda along with the obvious, and the general atmosphere seemed to scream "teenage hang out", but was also professional enough for some adults.
He would sit in his usual spot, in the usual booth with his friends. Xion was across from him, sipping her fruit drink, and Axel sat beside her, usually eating something sweet. They were talking about something or other that Roxas had missed.
"Like I said, Xion." Axel said with a widening smirk. "I think you need to get a boyfriend. At your age, and never had a date?"
Xion twirled her finger on her short black hair, something she did when she was nervous. "I don't need one, Axel." She made a face, then grinned. "I'm a strong independent woman."
Axel broke into laughter and Xion rolled her eyes.
"Tell him to lay off of me, Roxas."
"Roxas?"
"Hellooo?"
But Roxas wasn't listening. He was staring at the new set of people that had just entered the coffee shop.
One was a brown haired kid, his hair was really spiky and out of control. He had bright blue eyes and an expression of silliness that seemed to permanently exist on his face. Beside him was a red haired girl with a friendly look about her, and behind her...
Behind her was a blonde haired girl, with a simple white dress, and blue eyes with a deep intelligent look about them. She looked nervous, laughing quietly at something the boy said, moving to a table with her friend while the boy went to order drinks.
"He's gone brain dead on us."
"Is he going to be okay?"
Snapping back to his friends' conversation, Roxas smiled sheepishly.
"Hey, sorry about that..."
Axel waved it away. "You like her?" He teased.
Xion glanced nervously at him. "Who?"
"The blonde. His eyes just went..." Axel widened his own eyes to ridiculous proportions, then broke into a snicker.
Roxas blushed. "No, of course not..."
Xion stared at him, her eyes flicking across his features. Then she shrugged.
"Let's go."
Roxas noticed when they left that the blonde turned to look at him. Was it a casual glance to see who was leaving the shop or...?
***
Roxas came back the next day, alone this time. Xion was off at some kind of family thing with her father, and Axel was at what passed for a "date" with Larxene.
Which probably meant he was doing something against the law. Danger was fun to Larxene.
Roxas sat in his usual spot, staring around the shop. And just like clockwork the girl came with her friends, at the same time as yesterday. He wondered why he hadn't seen her in school.
She was drinking some sort of smoothie, but her eyes weren't focusing on her friends. She was staring to the side slightly, her eyes seemed to be looking at something.
Roxas wondered what she was thinking. He wanted to ask. Her brow was furrowed faintly, it looked like she was thinking hard.
He really wanted to ask her.
Suddenly, the boy said something to her. She turned her head and shook it. The boy grinned, playfully shoving her.
Was that her boyfriend or something?
Why should you care? He asked himself.
He didn't.
He couldn't.
Could he?
His suspicions were laid to rest when the boy lightly kissed the redhead on the cheek, and she smiled before laughing. The blonde took out a sketchpad and started drawing.
What are you drawing?
As usual, his mind replayed the questions he so wanted to ask the girl.
Suddenly, the door to the shop opened and in came a girl in an orange dress, and two boys. One had sandy brown hair, the other dark silver hair. The silver haired boy rolled his eyes and sat next to the redhead. However, the orange dress girl walked over to the redhead and started speaking in a loud voice. Obviously "inside voices" was something she wasn't used to. He thought she was in his Language Arts class.
"Kairi! So nice to see you!"
So that was the redhead's name. She wasn't in any of his classes.
Kairi smiled, it looked like a grimace. "Hey, Selphie."
The sandy haired boy waved cheerily. "Hey Sora."
Sora waved back. "Hey Tidus."
While the boys had a simple hello, Selphie continued to talk.
"So, who's this?"
"That's Namine. She's going to be starting school tomorrow, her parents were just moving in and hadn't had time to set things up with the school yet." Kairi answered.
Namine...that was a beautiful name, he thought.
"Hey, Namine! I'm Selphie!"
Namine waved quickly. She said something in a quiet voice.
"Well, we'll be leaving now. Just dropping Riku off."
That must be the silver haired guy. Tidus frowned slightly, scratching his neck.
"Aw, I kinda wanted to get a-"
Selphie grabbed him bodily and hauled him from the room. "C'mon!"
Not long after, Namine and her friends left the Sunrise.
***
Roxas never wanted the school day to start more in his life.
He waited in the football fields behind the school, with the other kids, waiting for the Twilight High doors to open. Kids were chatting in groups, and Roxas listened with half a ear to whatever Xion and Axel were saying.
Axel had a bad tendency to ditch school, not to mention he was one grade higher than Roxas and Xion. But he was here today, even though Larxene wasn't. Roxas had actually only met her once, and he had immediately not liked her.
Xion looked at him from between her bangs. "What are you looking for?"
Roxas started guiltily. "No one."
She made a face. "We've been friends since childhood. I know when you're bothered with something."
Roxas sighed. "I'm looking for the new girl. I wanted to say hi to her." He flushed red when Axel broke into laughter. How did he always seem to know?
"You have a crush! Hah!"
Xion narrowed her eyes slightly, then she said, "What's she look like?"
"Blonde hair, usually a white dress..."
Xion smiled thinly. "I don't see her."
***
Two classes went by without Roxas seeing sight of Namine. He trudged to his next class with Xion in tow, who was grumbling about how much she hated Science.
Mr. Johnson, the Science teacher, was at the front of the class. On the board were the words "Animals".
Xion brightened considerably. "Animals are much better than genes." She said as she sat next to him.
Mr. Johnson turned toward the class. "Now, class, we have two new students today! Coming to us from a different country is the student part of our exchange program."
A boy walked into class, head down. He had spiky red hair and dark clothes on, his facial expression was hid by his fallen hair, but his green eyes were visible. He may had shared the same eye color and hair color as Axel, but he was easily different.
"Class, this is Ari Virtus."
The kid was weird. Your eyes just seemed to slide over him, you had to really force yourself to look at him.
Several kids chorused "Hi!", and Ari waved slightly before taking a seat at a table near Roxas.
"And this," Said the teacher as Namine entered the class with a shy smile. "Is Ms. Namine. She's from Destiny Islands."
Several kids gave an "Oh" noise, then welcomed Namine also. Namine sat next to Ari, who had been at the only empty table.
Roxas grinned to himself, unable to stop the giddy feeling. She was here. He was going to stop being such a wimp and talk to her at lunch. Just a hello.
Every moment in class Roxas couldn't help but hope he could catch Namine's eye, but she was concentrating on her textbook.
***
During lunch, Roxas grabbed his tray and said to Xion, "Let's go talk to the new kids."
She raised her eyebrows. "If you want."
The new kids were sitting at a table with Selphie, Sora, Kairi, Tidus, and several kids in his class that Roxas was on good terms with, Olette, Hayner, and Pence. They were all chatting excitedly at one end of the table, while Namine sat next to Kairi, and Ari sat a little away from all of them, actually reading a book and eating at the same time.
Roxas waved as Olette lifted her green eyes and smiled. "Hey, Roxas."
Roxas sat down next to Namine, Xion across from him. "Hi." He said to her, trying his best to be charming.
Hayner broke into laughter, then started choking and needed Pence to start slapping him on the back. Ari raised an eyebrow but said nothing besides going back to his book.
Namine looked nervous, and she was blushing slightly. "Hi." She said in a quiet tone.
"Now that you're done interrupting me..." Selphie grumbled, launching back into her story.
"I'm Roxas. I'm in your Science class?"
"Oh. Yeah. I know." She said nervously, avoiding eye contact.
"What other classes do you have?"
She passed him her schedule, and he stared at it. He had all the same classes as her!
This must be some divine intervention.
Praying his thanks, Roxas grinned. "We have all the same classes! I'll show you around?"
"I'd like that. Thanks."
Kairi laughed as Sora gave a whoop.
"I don't have to be late for class anymore!"
Kairi smiled apologetically. "Sora offered to escort Namine, but his classes aren't with hers. Selphie has some of her classes, and so do Hayner and Olette, and Pence too. I don't." She looked unhappy at this, but then brightened. "But we're gonna take the after school classes."
"Which ones?" Roxas asked.
Xion snorted slightly, staring at her food. Pence gave her a look.
"We're doing drama. It'll be so fun!" She reached over and hugged Namine. "We're cousins!"
"You're embarrassing me..." Namine said with a small giggle that sounded like bells.
"Embarrassment is good for the soul." Hayner teased.
"Hello? Story here?" Selphie interjected.
"Oh, sorry Selph. Continue?" Kairi apologized.
Tidus mimed dying while Sora and the rest snickered uncontrollably.
Feeling guilty again for using the excuse of meeting the new kids without talking to one, he tapped Ari on the shoulder.
"You're Ari, right?"
He nodded, lifting his eyes.
"How do you like Twilight Town so far?"
"It's okay. Different than what I'm used to." His voice was strangely quiet, but noticeable.
"Where're you from?" Xion said, clearly eager to stop him from talking to Namine.
He smiled slightly. "Not from here. Not a lot of technology from where I'm from."
They chatted with everyone back and forth before the bell rang for class.
***
Well, how was it? Slow right now, but I promise it'll pick up. Good? Bad? Review!
In case you're wondering, the coffee scene was inspired by the song "Falling in Love in a Coffee Shop", by Landon Pigg, I think.
Ari is from the game "Okage: Shadow King", in order to write this I had to satisfy both my Kingdom Hearts urge and my Okage urge at the same time. He'll pop up from time to time as a secondary character, but not enough for this to be considered a Cross Over. He's one of the OCs.