Hey guys!
This is a new fic that came up in my head. A plot bunny, if you will.
I've never written a KH fic before, though I have been on fanfiction for many years.
Well yeah. I hope you enjoy!

I hope you excuse any major OOC. I'm trying to get adjusted to writing a whole new cast of characters.

Everything should have been different. There were a lot of if's now. If she didn't get sick the day before causing her to stay late after school ,if she hadn't needed to stay late after school that day, if he had still insisted on walking her home like they did every day, if she didn't refuse his offer, then Roxas would not currently be kneeling at Naminé's grave, wondering exactly what happened. At this point, however, every "if" was meaningless, a pointless conditional that would not change the present anymore. Even so, every "if" was packed with deep thought, thoughts that would haunt Roxas for the rest of his life.

Roxas sighed and pushed himself off the dirt, brushing his jeans clean. Letting his fingers gently sweep over the headstone, he silently bid her goodbye, even though he knew he would be back tomorrow. His sapphire eyes swept over the words that marked Naminé's death at the young age of 16.

The young teen pulled his jacket tighter around him, feeling the chilly fall evening seep into his bones. Leaves swirled around him in brilliant reds, golds, and yellows. The pretty leaves only represented how little time had passed since her death; they looked exactly the same the day Naminé went missing.

She had only died a week ago, according to the autopsy results anyway. Just two days before her death, Naminé had contracted some sort of flu, causing her to miss school for a day. Even though Roxas had gone over to her house to bring her all the books she would possibly need, the following day, she still insisted on staying behind at school to make sure she was perfectly caught up with everything.

That was the first mistake.

"Naminé, do you want me to wait for you? I can still take you home, just like always," Roxas suggested, as Naminé was making her way to the school library after class.

"No thanks, I think I'll be fine. I'll just see you tomorrow, ok?" Naminé replied, wanting to save Roxas the trouble.

"Are you sure? If you'll be fine, then I'll just go ahead."

"I'm fine! I know how to walk myself home. Bye, Roxas!"

That was mistake number two.

That day, Naminé didn't leave until the sun was already beginning to set.

Three strikes you're out.

The flaxen haired girl never returned home. She didn't pick up her phone when Roxas called her, like he always did. It was then when people began to worry. The police did end up finding her body. The tiny, petite frame was discovered buried haphazardly in an empty lot, not far from their high school. It was clear that the place she was buried was not where the crime occurred.

That's right. Naminé was murdered. The cause of death was pronounced as strangulation, easily made evident; there was absolutely no question about it. The question hovering over everyone's head was simply, "Who did it? Why?"

Roxas bit his lip and continued down his path home, the bitter wind biting his cheeks and ruffling his hair. Taking a deep breath, he yanked open his front door and stepped in, breathing in the familiar, homey smells of his house. His stomach growled, cluing Roxas in on exactly how much time he had spent by Naminé's grave.

"I'm home," Roxas announced unceremoniously, peeling his jacket off and slinging it over the back of the couch.

"Hey, sweetie," his mother strolled in, smiling at him warmly. "You were out for a while today. You weren't too cold were you?"

"No."

"Well, I made dinner." She told him. "Sora's already in the kitchen."

"Hey bro," Sora called out when he caught sight of his twin stepping into the kitchen. "Were you at…you know?"

"Yeah…I was." Roxas mumbled reaching for his bowl of food, only to look at it and realize he had no appetite. "Mom, I – "

"Roxas, please eat. You haven't eaten much lately." Roxas's mom urged.

"But I'm not hungry," he replied.

"Roxas, Naminé would want you to eat and be healthy, not moping over her death." Sora jumped in.

Roxas shot a glare at his twin and quickly shoveled a few bites down his throat. "Look, happy now? I'm not hungry." He pushed his chair back with a noisy squeak and headed straight for his room.

His digital clock read past eight already. Roxas realized it was probably not the smartest idea to head to his room. Now he was forced to deal with homework, which he barely touched nowadays. This past week, his grades tanked, along with his weight. He frowned and twirled his pencil between his fingers, not quite registering his homework in his mind.

Naminé had been his best friend. They always used to joke about how they couldn't live without each other, joking about committing suicide if one of them died, so that way they would never have to be apart. He never thought that as a teenager, he would lose his best friend.

Life without Naminé, even just the mere week he had been through, was like trying to survive with only one lung, one eye, one ear, one arm. Roxas would never again be able to poke her in the cheek, the way he loved to. Roxas would never be able to play with her hair. He would never be able to tease her again, to hear her laughter ring throughout the area. Lastly, Roxas would never be able to tell her he loved her.

His long fingers grasped a framed photo on his desk. It was one taken of when the two were just kids, making bunny ears. Another picture that stood right next to that one was much more recent, depicting Roxas giving Naminé a piggyback ride.

Roxas angrily ran his hand through his hair, letting out a breath of frustration. He was mad. He wanted the police to be able to find the guilty party. He wanted the murderer found so he could let Naminé's memory rest in peace. Until then, he wouldn't be able to sleep easily.

Slamming his pencil down, Roxas decided to just give up and head to bed. Roxas recently began to love sleeping. The idea of escaping somewhere for a few blissful hours was heavenly to him. Yawning, the teen began to settle uneasily into a deep sleep.

OoOoOoOoO

The next morning, Roxas's alarm clock went off, blaring into his ears. As expected, his arm shot out and slammed the snooze button before he settled back into his covers. Normally, Naminé would be the one to run to his house in the morning and make sure he was awake. Now without that, it was Sora's job to make sure Roxas was ready for school, something Roxas did not respond well to.

"Morning, Bro," Sora greeted tiredly.

"Get the hell out of my room," was the reply, muffled by the comforters

"Look…I'm sorry…but you really have to go to school today," Sora apologized, the way he had been every morning. For Roxas's sake, his family and friends have been putting up with his bitter attitude. Although everyone was affected by Naminé's disappearance, no one seemed quite as traumatized as Roxas did.

At Roxas's mere grunt, Sora took that as his cue to exit and did so.

After Sora had left, Roxas slid out of bed, moving on autopilot, throwing on random bits of clothes, brushing his teeth, and jamming all his papers into his backpack. He silently made his way downstairs and grabbed a banana off the table before leaving the house.

Today, the trees outside had all their leaves shed, leaving the last few to float to the ground. To Roxas, this seemed to symbolize the end of the journey. This was it. For some reason, just watching the leaves sink to the ground gave him a sense of hopelessness.

Rubbing his eyes, Roxas unwillingly dragged his feet toward the entrance of the building. When he heard the late bell ring, he dashed quickly to his first class, flopping into his seat with a guilty look on his face. He actually liked his first period teacher, even if he hated math.

"Late again, Roxas," Axel, his teacher, commented. "Do you think you might be able to make it to my class on time at least once?"

Roxas, wanting to retaliate, opened his mouth to argue, but quickly shut it, not feeling like angering Axel. "Sorry…" Roxas mumbled. "I can't guarantee it won't happen again though."

"Fair enough," Axel agreed amiably, before instructing the snickering class to take out their homework. Roxas yanked out his homework, ready to scribble down random answers before he glanced down at his paper and realized that every single answer had been completed. He distinctly remembered not doing his homework last night, but here it was in front of him, finished.

"What the hell?" Roxas muttered to himself. Glancing at the name scrawled across the top of the paper, he was sure that he didn't accidentally take Sora's impeccably done homework, nor did he accidentally take someone else's homework home with him. "Huh." So for once his homework was done. Nothing to complain about, he supposed.

"Well, well, nicely done," Axel raised an eyebrow at the completed sheet. "This must be the first time you've ever done your homework."

"Yeah, well, I try." Roxas quipped, feeling the corner of his mouth twitch up. Even if he was extremely bummed out about Naminé, slipping in his usual student/teacher give and take dynamic made him feel more relaxed, even with the strange appearance of his homework being done.

The rest of his classes sucked, as usual. The blond had never been one for school; he just simply never found it enjoyable. Aside from his quite normal dislike of his classes, Roxas's mood had greatly improved by the end of the day. Though he would never admit it, this past week, school had been helping him get through the day. It wasn't until Roxas made his usual trip back to Naminé's grave that he would begin to feel the heavy weight of life on his shoulders.

"You know, Nam, the leaves on the trees are all gone now. It's kind of depressing. It's almost like it's time for a new beginning, when the trees start over again, you know? Well, I'll be back tomorrow. I better get home early." Roxas awkwardly waved at the tombstone. This was his first time attempting to strike up a conversation with Naminé. Surprisingly, he felt a lot better.

Now back at home, Roxas had walked up the stairs after dinner, preparing to look at his homework for a while, though he had no intentions of actually doing it.

Sitting on top of his desk was his paper, as expected. What he didn't expect was what was written on the paper.

Hi Roxas
-Namine

Roxas stared at the paper as if it had grown three heads. Before he was about to yell at Sora for playing a cruel joke, a small motion caught his eye. His pencil was moving, all on its own. It shakily hovered over his paper before scrawling another sentence.

I miss you. It's good seeing you again.

Good? Bad? Absolutely terrible? Excuse the angstyness. I don't plan on the entire story being set in a mood like this one.
-sighs- Story openers are so hard.

This was rough draft of sorts, to see you people's reactions.
I'm not sure if I'm leaving this copy up. I feel like this work isn't the greatest, but whatever. Up to you to decide.

Make me happy and review? I need opinions, especially as this is a brand new project!

Thanks! :D