Hello! So, this is my first story here on , and I hope you enjoy it as much as I have writing it! The story will come in three parts, and will be updated over the next few weeks. Please review and let me know what you think! I really hope you all like it.


Chapter 1: The Girl

"So," Roxas says, and he runs a hand across the desk in front of him, digs his fingernails in, bruising the wood, scarring it, leaving it looking battered. "So, hi."

Kairi though, that girl behind the counter, the one with the stunning, lively face, doesn't even look up. The girl just sighs, stares at the countertop with large, blue eyes. Too deep, too quiet. She just taps at the sign behind her.

How may I serve you?

Roxas only sighs, runs his fingers through his hair, and shoots Kairi one last, fleeting glance. "Carnations," he says, puffs out his cheeks and pulls out his wallet.

The red headed girl nods, fumbles with the paper pad in her hand and for a few seconds, that's the only sound, the pen that runs races across the paper. But then she sighs again, and her purple sneakers squeak across the floor as she goes to get the flowers.


It doesn't really start anywhere, but if Roxas had to choose a beginning, he'd tell people it was on his brother's second wedding anniversary.

On the day it rained cats and dogs, flooding the streets of Twilight Town.

Pitter-patter, and Roxas, his clothes are soaked through, drowning in the street, but Sora, Sora will be pissed if he misses it, if he doesn't go.

The florist on Destiny Avenue is his first stop, and he falls inside the door, collapses onto the cold tiles that pattern the floor. They don't match, and it's all he can see.

Roxas groans, rubs his head with bruising hands. "Crap," he says. "Crap."

There's a giggle somewhere in the space above him, and he looks up in time to see a pretty girl with too much dirt on her clothes, under her nails. The girl is coming closer, and with every movement, Roxas gets a sniff full of marigold and tiger lily flowers.

"A hand would be good right about now," Roxas says though, and he sits up, rubs some of the water off his knees and clothes.

The girl though, only laughs again, and stretched a wide, quite pretty smile. She pushes a hand off her hip, hovers it just above Roxas's eye-level, and Roxas takes it and pulls himself up.

"Thanks," he says, and the girl, she's still smiling, her eyes are still sparkling, and Roxas can't say he understands why his heart flutters in his throat, hums, whistles like a bird.

"Thanks," he says again, and the red head squints a little, looks straight into Roxas's eyes, and Roxas's breath gets caught around his heart. "Thanks."

"Kairi," a voice calls from somewhere behind them. "Kairi." It's another girl, another young girl, and she takes the first girl, Kairi, by the shoulder. "Kairi, go help Aqua out back."

Kairi nods, but she's all smiles still, her fingers loosen on Roxas's hand, and she waves a little.

Bye.

Only Roxas, he chooses to interpret it as see you later.

"Hey, are you okay?"

It's the other girl, the blonde one with her hand on her hip, and her apron covered in grass stains.

"Fine, actually, great," he says, and he runs a hand through his hair, it catches on the blonde spikes, and Roxas grimaces. "I've been better."

"I could guess that," the blonde girl says, and casts him a wry smile, "I'm Namine, how can I help you?"

"Oh, uh, I need a bouquet."

"I figured," Namine states dryly. "What kind?"

"Surprise me."


"Ugh, I hate my job," Roxas mumbles, and tries not to scratch at where the rim of the rubber glove grazes the skin on his wrist. "Crap."

Roxas works in a tropical smoothie hut, and even the back room, the one with no customers, it's littered with fake palm trees and bright yellow wallpaper. He figures he should start wearing sunglasses to work with the way the fluorescent light bulb reflects off the sinks and drawers and sterilized countertops.

"Shut up, Roxas," Axel says, but he lets loose a wayward grin from where he hides behind the trays of fruit. "Everyone knows you love us really."

"I'm not denying that, Axel, what I'm saying is that I hate this job. This stupid, crappy job of tending to people with fruit fetishes."

Axel, the spiky red head laughs aloud at that and wanders over to him, poking him in the head. "You are such a loser."

Roxas grumbles out an inaudible reply and leans his head over hers. "My life sucks so bad."

"It could be worse,"

"Name one way it could be worse." And he knows it's stupid and there are probably a million people in the world who would very happily trade places, but, well, Roxas reallyhates his job.

Axel rolls his eyes though, chuckles and runs a hand over the watermelon in front of him. "You could have no job at all ."

Roxas didn't care, he still hated his job. One of the reasons why was incoming.

"Roxas," Larxene calls from the doorway. Larxene is the big shift manager, she knows everyone, and maybe, maybe she's nice, but she's not nice to them. "Roxas, I need you to take over out front!"

Roxas lifts his head just enough to glare at the back of Axel's red-headed skull. "You jinxed me, jerk."

"Have fun," he says, grabs the knife from the strainer to slaughter the watermelon. "And when you get back I shall be ready with a list of all the ways in which your life could be worse."

"I hate you," he says, but he rips off his gloves and storms out of what the employees affectionately call the 'doors of hell'.

Behind him, Axel calls out in a cheery tone, "You love me!"

The front of the store is surprisingly empty for a Saturday morning. The fan rickets overhead, a couple in the back corner share a straw, a group of girls in the middle gossip about all of their high school drama.

Only, the glass sides of the counter - the ones that display fruit and cakes and drinks - well, there's a girl pressed up against it.

Not a whole girl, just hands and arms and a face.

Roxas raises an eyebrow and props himself over the counter. "Excuse me?"

The girl looks up too quickly, smiles too wide and she waves.

It's the girl, the Kairi, from the florist two days ago. "Hi," Roxas says, and maybe he smiles back a bit, maybe he waves too.

Kairi stands up suddenly, and Roxas falls back on his heels. "Hey, what would you like?"

The blue-eyed girl, though, she doesn't say anything, just pulls a menu from the countertop, reads, points at a paopu flavored fruit and apple smoothie.

"That one?"

Kairi doesn't say anything, doesn't acknowledge Roxas's there at all really, and just pulls out the amount of munny from her sparkly, pink wallet.


Roxas really hates it when shops have bells above their doors, so he tries not to make a face when he slides into the florist the next day, resists the urge to tell someone to take it down.

Kairi's there in the corner of the tiny store, and she's picked up one of the vases, one of the one's filled with standard red roses.

"Hi," Roxas says, and Kairi, the look she gives him back is almost questioning, confused.

"Uh, how are you?" Roxas asks, and rolls back on his heels, hands in his pockets.

Kairi sighs, runs fingers through her shoulder length hair, and maybe she shrugs, but with the way she moves, it's kinda hard to tell. She picks herself up and walks back behind the counter, reaches over and taps at the sign.

How may I serve you?

"Oh, daisies…or something, to be honest I don't know. Can you like, recommend any?"

Another girl sneaks out from behind the counter, out of nowhere. "Can I help you, sir?"

"Oh, yeah, I guess."

"Kairi, go help Aqua out back."

Somewhere in the distance, Namine rolls her eyes.


"So, there's this girl," Roxas starts, and Axel opposite him, he laughs aloud.

"Wow, Roxas," he says, and piles ice-cream into his mouth.

"It's not a big deal or anything, it's just she seems, I dunno, nice."

"Is she hot?" he asks, and Axel's grin is milky white to match the ice-cream.

Roxas rolls his eyes, grins back at his best friend.

"Define hot."

"So, not?" Axel mumbles, chokes out. It's kinda hard to tell, when he has a mouthful of food.

"No, she is. I mean, she's cute and stuff, pretty."

Axel raises an eyebrow, rubs his mouth off on her sleeve. "Pretty?"

"Yeah."

"Okay," he says, but he's still grinning like a lunatic. "Okay."

"But she like, she just doesn't talk, ever. I mean, I'm sure she can, she just…chooses not to? I dunno."

"Maybe she thinks you're an idiot," Axel states, and he's smiling still, as he leans backward onto the floor.

Roxas though, he just stares at her blatantly, his forehead creases and his lips droop into a small frown. "Axel."

He glances over, before chuckling at his best friend's face. The spiky red head reaches over to punch his arm lightly. "Gosh, Roxas. I'm kidding."

"You better be," the blonde says, and he lies down next to him, stretches out an arm to thump Axel in the head.

"If the girl can't see how awesome you are, man, then forget her." Axel states seriously, and he rolls over, looking at Roxas.

"This seems familiar," Roxas says, and he casts her a wry smile. "You repeating advice I gave you?"

"Yeah," Axel says, smirking, remembering when he had been told the same thing about his last girlfriend. It didn't work out all that great.

"Xion's an idiot," Roxas says, "She'll come around. If not, you're better off without her."

"Yeah," Axel says, but the red head doesn't quite believe it.


So maybe the florist is a really tiny store. Maybe it's this tiny building that becomes smaller with every bundle of flowers that grow around the walls look like jungle vines.

Maybe now that Roxas's here with just the one intention, it seems even smaller.

"So," Roxas says, and Kairi's in the front, watering the pansies and wow, the irony in that scenario. "So," Roxas tries again, adamantly attempting to ignore his exploding heart. "So…"

Kairi's staring at him now, like she just noticed he came in. Kairi waves.

"So, hi," Roxas says, and how sad is it that it took him that long to say that?

The red headed girl squints, smiles, wrings the handle of the can around in her small, smooth hands.

"So, I'm Roxas, and I don't think I ever introduced myself." He sticks out a hand, and crap, he feels like an idiot. Feels ridiculous here, with this girl he hardly knows. "I've been coming in here for the last three weeks, you might have noticed me, or maybe you haven't…"

Kairi's all timid as she eyes off the hand, but she reaches a palm out to meet it after much weariness, and wow, awkward.

"So, okay, so the point is, for lack of a better phrase," Roxas says, and he's starting to feel like a twelve-year-old with a crush. "I likeyou, and well, maybe we could go out sometime."

The girl, she's still not saying anything, and Roxas isn't that surprised, but maybe he's disappointed, maybe he wants some sort of reaction, because this is starting to feel too much like rejection.

"Just, maybe, I mean, it's not like I'm gonna force you or anything." And he lets loose a nervous laugh, one that vibrates around the pits of his stomach. "It could be fun…"

Kairi's forehead is creasing, and her lips droop into a frown, she starts to walk off before Roxas can say anything else. Kairi is walking behind the desk, and when Roxas looks over he blushes, the tips of his ears and the base of his neck a color of dark red.

The girl only looks over, and her eyes might be watering a bit, but instead, she just turns around and taps that sign of hers.

How may I serve you?

"Crap," The spiky blonde says, and something has crept its way up his body, and is currently exploding in his stomach. The smoke billows through his throat, out his ears. "Forget it then," he says. "I ask you one thing, you could at least reply-"

Kairi's eyes are suddenly shining, they reflect the light, waver, and Roxas is about ready to explode, but…but he's grabbed from behind, thrust out the closed door, and that bell, it rings in his ears.

Suddenly, he's out the front of the florist, and Namine's in front of him, murder in her bright blue eyes.

"What are you doing?" she asks, and her voice, it's too calm, but not calm enough to make Roxas shut up.

"I practically throw myself at her, and she just, she doesn't answer, she says nothing. I mean, I just asked her outand-"

"Roxas," the blonde girl interrupts, sighing, her eyes looking around the street, and maybe she shouldn't be saying this. "Roxas, Kairi was in an accident when she was a baby."

"And then she - What?"

"Roxas," Namine says, and she runs a small hand through her hair, "Roxas, Kairi's deaf."

"You mean she hasn't actually…"

"Heard anyof what you've said? No."

"But she knew the flowers-" Roxas says, and she's grasping at straws, pulling at the threads of the broken argument.

"She's worked here for the last four years," Namine states, rubs at the fabric of her ugly apron. "She's getting all right at lip-reading the names of common household plants."

"Oh," Roxas says. "Oh."

"Yeah, 'oh'." And Namine, she sighs again, stares at the pavement. "Just, leave her alone, stop, stop pursuing her, she can't…you can't, Roxas. She needs someone who will get it, you…too much of you is what you say."