When Stars Collide
Jaw-achingly gorgeous, Namine is the figure skater and pride of Twilight Academy. Chiseled-face, toned and chased by the entire female population, Roxas is the star player of Twilight's Blitzball team. A chance encounter one night pushes the fate of these two beautiful people together, causing their lives to collide forever. [ NAMIXAS AU ]
A/N:
Disclaimer: I do not own KH or any related materials. They all belong to Square Enix. Any other elements are purely fictional, original or borrowed from other FF series from Squaresoft/Square Enix and misc. external sources.
Possibly multi-chaptered in the future. We'll see. Enjoy (:
One.
Somewhere far away on the bell tower of Twilight Academy, the clock struck midnight, and the vibrant orange hues of the sky gave way to darker shades of blue. The Academy was nearly empty now; almost vacant at this unearthly hour. The last of the students were trickling out of campus, chatting softly as their silhouettes disappeared into their dormitories.
A solitary figure set cast against the geometrical patterns of the night sky, sitting upon the bleachers facing the huge Sphere where several male Blitzball players were packing their duffel bags, readying for home. She leant forward, untying her figure skating shoes from her feet, brushing small beads of sweat from her rose-tinted cheeks, and heaved a sigh. Pouring medical oil onto her palm, she soothed the liquid on the new red bruises she suspected would ache for the next couple of days.
Namine stared up at the sky for a moment, admiring the blanket above. She was out later tonight than usual. Her competition was nearing in less than a month, and she had barely gotten her footwork and moves right. It was only right Ms. Granger was yelling so much at her just now for tripping over her feet one too many time. She brought her index finger and thumb together, and traced what constellation she could see ahead.
Her eyes could barely open now.
Three more weeks to her competition. Namine doubted if she could make it.
And her arms – she looked down at her arms. Too bony. Ms. Granger had already warned her far too many times to eat her meals right. If she got too thin before the competition, her lack of weight would cause her to be overly light to nail some of those moves – and she had practiced forever. She didn't want that.
Namine dutifully opened her lunchbox, though she mused how at this hour, she was eating out more from a supperbox then anything. Her dormitory partner and the friend she hung out with regularly in class and after school, Kairi, had prepared her favorite food. Namine shook her head and managed a smile that the moonlight never failed to catch with its rays. Rolls and rolls of tuna sushi stared back at her, chopped delightfully to appeal to her appetite.
That Kairi. Namine cheered at the thought of her friend's caring nature.
Her fingers picked one sushi up, and she quietly dug into it.
Far into the distance, the clock struck a quarter past midnight.
The thought of having to stir from her cosy bed in less than six hours for school was painful.
Namine's eyes roamed around the Blitzball sphere stadium. The place seemed almost ghostly at this hour. So different from the crazy, rabid fans that pack this place during Blitzball season and those bi-annual tournaments the Academy would hold. Namine couldn't remember the last time she attended a tournament, or was part of this huge crowd cheering on their favorite team or player. If she wasn't so busy all the time sweating literal tears, blood and perspiration out on the rink. . .
"Roxas, catch!"
Her gaze snatched up. She caught sight of the school's number one heartthrob, Zexion, in the Blitzball sphere, flinging a ball into the random distance. She recognized that gray hair any instance, and had to stifle a small laugh when she remembered how much of a crush Kairi had on him.
Somewhere, she heard a grumble, and then she could almost hear that scowl without even seeing it.
"Shut up, Zexion. Haul your ass back into your dorm before Axel locks you out again."
"I know, eh? Goddamn, I swear. Rooming with that red-haired wuss has got to be my worse luck ever." Zexion joked.
Namine squinted her eyes. That voice. No, not that she recognized it, but it was so darn attractive. And deep.
She couldn't see anyone else in the sphere other than Zexion, slowly walking away into the distance. It was way too foggy tonight. She blamed it on the recent haze falling in the Academy lately. Or maybe she was getting too tired.
"You're not leaving?" Zexion questioned, before that gray-haired boy of every Twilight girl's dream began to disappear into the darkness. Namine did not need to know Twilight Blitzball news enough to understand that dashing man was definitely Captain of the Twilight Blitzball team.
"Nah, I'm staying behind to train for a bit."
She couldn't get over how engrossed she grew over listening to that voice, which went on to tease his Blitzball captain, "It's not like Sora imposes a 1 am curfew on our dormitory like Axel."
"Fuck off, Roxas."
That deep voice broke into a soft laugh.
In spite of herself, and for the fact that she was way too far away to even see Zexion haul his middle finger into his teammate's face, Namine bowed her head and laughed. She covered her mouth, muffling her giggles.
Roxas. So that's his name.
It was stupid to say the last. She hadn't even seen his face. And she had never been a believer of this so-called love at first sight theory. Kairi was a self-professed sucker for that. But Namine was the practical, logical one, and the platinum-blonde haired girl knew reality had no room for fairytales and sugar castles like that.
Yet, she couldn't forget the way he spoke, and then laugh.
In that voice, she sensed a boy who was too aloof and sure of himself for anything. Quietly confident, introverted…and despite of the way he had teased his Captain, she could pick up that tone of admiration and awe he held in place for Zexion.
She kept her eyes glued to the sphere, and then the silhouette began to appear, and take form.
Blonde-hair, a darker tone than hers. But blonde all the same. Blue eyes.
My god, those eyes.
And toned muscles. That frame.
She forgot the chopsticks in her fingers. The sushi she was chewing in her mouth ceased to be finished. Her appetite diminished. Her pains on her legs and feet, and the bruises on her arms, her skating shoes on her side – all meant nothing, like zero gravity, when she set eyes on that silhouette now slowly materializing in front of her, in that empty Blitzball sphere.
Roxas.
He was breathing heavily, perspiring. Religiously tossing the Blitzball into the net again and again. Repeating his moves. Coming out of the water and sitting on the sideplanks to rest for a couple of minutes when he grew tired.
In those little intervals, Namine's eyes never left that silhouette. Sushi forgotten, she caught sight of those aqua beads tracing down that frame. He had begun to strip down to just his bermudas, the water trickling down his side, further emphasizing his toned abdominal muscles. He wasn't too bronzed or tanned – probably spending most of his practice time under the moon than in the sun, his skin just a perfect, almost unreal ivory shade that couldn't mask his masculinity.
But the way he moved in and out of the water, the way he navigated the Sphere like he knew every curves of the place, like the way he was able to master every ripple of the water, the strength he was capable of tossing the ball into the net, and how each time he managed to dunk it right in was at that perfect angle that could take even the most gifted of Blitzball players hours to hone that athletic skill –
He was amazing to watch. Grossly fascinating.
If it wasn't for the Academy clock tower in the distance that reminded her it was already half past midnight, she wouldn't have been able to snap out of her reverie.
Half-dazed, she finally snatched her eyes away from the Sphere, where he continued to glide like he had been bred in that aquatic place for years. She glanced at the clock tower. My god, she had been unabashedly staring at him for a full fifteen minutes. In her years in the Academy, no other male students had managed to hold her attention for more than even a minute, much less fifteen.
Who was this guy, and what had he done to her?
And it wasn't as if she understood a thing about Blitzball.
Then again, this boy, whoever he was, could have been just sitting cross-legged in the Sphere, and she would still have ended up gazing like an engrossed fangirl at him. Feeling sheepish, Namine dusted the dirt off her skirt, chiding herself for acting way too uncharacteristic tonight. She blamed her tiredness – it wasn't like her at all to let her guard down especially when it came to guys. She was still way too young for her to lose her focus from figure-skating on trivial things like that. She hadn't had the time for distractions.
Boys could wait. Especially boys like. . . this one.
She cast a longing glance back at the Sphere.
He was unceasingly, unfaltering dunking more shots into the Blitzball net.
She had no idea how long he could keep going for.
And he looked so good, shirtless.
Oh my god, Namine. Horrified at her thoughts, she literally brushed the blush off her cheeks, and quickly slung her gym bag behind her shoulders, quickly finishing up the last of Kairi's sushi, and packed in the chopsticks. She couldn't believe herself.
I'm too tired, I'm too tired. She could really use some sleep. That would explain her uncharacteristic behavior of boy-oogling from a distance tonight.
She threw on her favorite gray oversized sweater. She looked up at the sky. It looked like it was going to rain. It was getting chilly.
But if it started to rain…
As she made her way down the bleachers towards the center of the stadium, towards the Sphere, she wondered subconsciously if Roxas was going to stay drenched in the rain and continued training. She felt the first fat drop of rain fall on her shoulder, and she heaved a sigh. She was lucky Kairi returned her her umbrella in class today. It looked like it was going to pour.
Hair disheveled, trickling all over her heart-shaped face, breathing heavily, Namine hastened her pace, sidelining the Sphere. It took all of her will not to stare back into the Sphere, into those blue, unrelenting eyes, into those toned shirtless muscles, at Roxas.
Do not stare, do not stare. Keep going, Namine.
The exit to the Stadium was closed. She turned the door knob. No such luck. The janitor probably wasn't used to having such late spectators at night. There usually was another entrance and exit that stayed open overnight somewhere around the corner, but that required a detour through to the other end, going through the Players' locker rooms and then out.
Namine cringed at the sound of her flats squelching against the puddle of rain as she made her way indoors into the Stadium's locker rooms, where during season, male Players would flock the entire place. In her lifespan as a student in Twilight Academy, she had only allowed Kairi and her friends to drag her to a Blitzball tournament once, when she was thirteen. It was crazy, and she had unwillingly followed her friends indoors here, at this exact place, to get the autograph of the Captain who came before Zexion…what was his name? Tidus, maybe.
Namine had to smile a little at those childhood memories. Those adolescent years when she wasn't so involved in perfecting her figure-skating routines were wonderful. Sometimes she yearned for those innocent, childish days again.
She turned on a corner, still disliking how noisy her flats were squishing against the floor tiles.
And then stopped.
Oh my god, please don't let him see my jaw drop.
She prayed to the sky that the darkness hid her blush well.
Roxas stood a yard from her, at the other end of the long, narrow hallway. The only source of light from the locker room shone on him, glorifying his defined abdomen for her to stare abashedly, and then look into those blue eyes of his.
She was lost, lost.
Goddamn, he could have put on a shirt.
He squinted at her.
They didn't speak a word.
"The…exit outside is closed." She explained in a hurry, her voice sounding a pale version of her usual confident tone.
He looked at her for a bit, then nodded. He still didn't speak. He turned her back on her, and slung his duffel bag over his shoulders and tucked his Blitzball underneath his arm.
She figured he was going to use the indoor exit as well.
She followed after him, quietly. She cursed at the noisy sound of her flats still squelching from the rain.
"I guess we got to use the other exit." She attempted to converse, then shut her eyes. Oh my god, nobody told her interacting with the male species was this hard. Presenting a project to a thousand-strong crowd in the auditorium was definitely much easier than this one-on-one conversation with a shirtless guy named Roxas.
"No shit." Was the only sentence he strung from his lips before he swung open the indoor exit and allowed them out.
He barely gave her a second glance, about to part ways from her when they were at the exit door, when he caught sight of her skating shoes slung over her shoulders.
He arched an eyebrow. "You skate?"
She shrugged uneasily. "A bit."
He didn't need to know she represented their Academy, and was competiting in the Regionals soon.
"You…Blitz?" She tried again, then realized she was failing at this awkward male and female conversation. If there was a hole somewhere, it needed to swallow her whole now, and fast.
"…A bit." He shrugged. His turn.
She couldn't help it. She came to life the moment he denied it. He was too modest for his own good.
"I saw you out there. You're too good to be playing just 'a bit' for Blitzball." She added. She couldn't help that smile on her face either.
He looked taken aback, caught off-guard.
"You…were watching?"
Oh my god. Namine. Out. Now. Get out. You and your stupid mouth.
Namine hastily opened her umbrella.
"I've got to go."
The bell tower in the distance struck a quarter to one in the morning – saving her and her awkwardness.
God, social conversations with a boy like that was harder than nailing a difficult figure-skating routine.
She was lying. If she was really ready to go, she wouldn't have stood there three feet apart from him, still staring lost into his eyes.
He appeared uninterested again, his gaze falling back to his Blitzball. "I don't usually train out here this late." He started bouncing the ball from one hand to another. "But we've got a tournament in four days and I don't want to fail the team again."
Again.
He said, again.
So…he was the star player of the Academy's Blitzball team everybody was talking about a month ago when he made the school newsletter headline for missing an important shot and caused them the victory to Galbadia Academy. Even Namine had heard of it.
He was that star player.
She didn't know what to say, except the truth. "You'll do fine." She said, her eyes earnest, meeting his in the dark.
She shook his head, her hair falling like waterfall around her pastel cheeks. "More than that. I think you'll shine."
His eyes flickered. Like he wasn't expecting that, again.
It sounded so cheesy, but coming from her…her eyes. He knew she wasn't lying. She was so genuine, it was unbelievable.
He didn't know what to say, except shrugging uncomfortably. Roxas wasn't used to strangers, or girls, standing less than his comfortable metre radius from him. He liked his personal space too much.
"I've got to go." He gestured towards some random distance.
She cocked her head. "The north dormitory?"
"Yeah, I stay there." He brushed a hand behind his unkempt hair.
They were still indoors, but just a distance away from going out into the rain from the indoor exit soon.
"Here, take this," she shoved the umbrella into his hand, "the north dormitory is way too far for you to make a run for it in this weather."
He was a gentleman, she was sure, because he was shaking his head vigorously and pushing it back to her, "No, you—"
She threw the hood of her sweater up, covering her head, "I'll be fine," she pointed to the opposite end, "I stay in the south dormitory. It's closer than you think—"
"But—no, don't-" He pushed back the umbrella in her direction, but she wasn't taking it, and she was turning her back already on him.
"I'll be fine, I won't be drenched at all, don't worry." She started making a dash into the distance, into the rain, with her skating shoes flying behind her back, her oversized sweater blown up by the wind behind her like a cape.
"Wait—No, don't, dammit—" He was about to run after her.
She threw a look behind her shoulders.
He stopped in his feet, staring openly at the smile that came along her look. That earnest, achingly beautiful smile that accompanied the glisten of the dropping rain lights and the glow of the moon above. The exact same one that made him stop in his feet. It wasn't just for the fact that he knew she was stubborn, was too caring for her own good to know for the fact she would abandon her life in front of a little girl or boy on the road if a car ever dashed before that kid. It wasn't just for the fact he knew whatever he said wasn't going to make her change her mind of wanting to affect his night like this.
It was also how the way she threw that smile, through the rain, that reached him, and rooted him to the spot. Something hit him in the chest like a sledgehammer, and stun him.
"Stay dry, Roxas!"
And she was gone.
Just like that.
Roxas stared down into the umbrella in his hand.
She knows my name.
He began to turn on his feet, and opened up the umbrella to shelter himself and his precious Blitzball from the horrid weather.
He spotted the north dormitory in a distance. It would take a couple of minutes to get there. Sora was going to kill him for coming in later than usual, because he probably would be asleep, and Roxas as usual had forgotten to bring the dorm keys, and had to awaken Sora to get the door.
He would worry about that later.
As Roxas began to pick up his pace, the only image he couldn't get out of his head was that face of that strange, random girl who had watched him train past midnight.
And god. . .that smile of hers.
He barely knew her, and already had her umbrella with him.
…And he hadn't even gotten her name.
OWARI/TSUZUKU
A/N:
Whether I am going to continue this and make it multi-chaptered is really up to you guys, hence the indecisive, undetermined Owari/Tsuzuku. If the reviews are optimistic enough and pushes for more chapters, I'll be probably be inspired enough to keep this going on as a multi-chaptered fic if I think this story is worth it. I've been away from writing fanfiction so long, I'm a bit rusty. Good times, good times, though, growing up here in this place.
Again, this piece is solely AU. It means although there are elements and characters borrowed from Kingdom Hearts, other elements are borrowed from some other FF series, etc. or can be fictional. Hence, disclaimer applies. Blitzball is the sport borrowed from the ever beautiful game FFX and FFX-2. Any errors or fault, I claim as mine.
As always,
Myst-san.
