-.Sketchbook.-

"Orange"

x. Curses o Shrill o Acid o Aches o Dying Down o Setting Sun .x

-x-x-x-

The boy and girl were still arguing animatedly, unaware of the 'strange' things Naminé had said, not seeming to notice that Wakka and Tidus and a gathering of some of the other locals had come to watch them. Nosy dog-walkers, little children come to play accompanied by adults; nobody could mind their own business anymore. They all watched with rapt attention like it was a movie or one of those corny soap operas, the two freaks. New people arriving to the island was a very talked-about event as it happened so rarely, and sometimes the new-comers were shunned aside and whispered about, names dragged through the mud. Now there were many, many new faces that were going to be appearing over the island and Roxas idly wondered how people would react. Some maybe with rage, a few with acceptance, others with turning backs. The people on the island were nice and friendly – but only to each other. They worked as a community but only welcomed those they wanted to welcome, where generations of them had lived before. It was so petty. He was sure Rikku had mentioned that maybe as many as three-hundred people had moved in, all of them getting shoved in roughly wherever there was room. Next they'd end up camping in the sea-side shack or post-boxes, thought Roxas with mild amusement.

"Axe-ellllll, quit being such a jackass! For FIVE seconds!" pleaded the girl, turning her head. She probably knew how her friend would react, as he sat there, counting off the seconds on his fingers before he could be annoying again. He grinned, and then proceeded to tackle Kairi from behind, knocking her to the ground. "AXEL YOU JERK! YOU'VE RUINED MY HAIR!" she cried, getting up and choking out half the beach from her mouth, gagging on the grains of sand, staining her lips with tan. Self-consciously she raked her hands through her hair, making it look even worse, not that Axel would tell her that. She seemed to be satisfied it looked fine again, even if it didn't. He was kind and compassionate and didn't want to burst her happy bubble. "Why'd you do that!"

"Felt like it?" shrugged the red-head, scrambling back as Kairi attempted to hit him, not doubting her strength. She was tough for a girl and wouldn't stand for his antics – she even managed to scare Riku occasionally.

"Oh yeah? Well then maybe I'll 'feel' like doing THIS!" cried the angry girl, distressed. Her mood was not made any better when she could feel the stares of everybody burning into them like acid. Great – because she hung out with Axel, her popularity here in this new place was falling rapidly and she hadn't even introduced herself to anyone. And she probably looked like a gutter-girl, spitting out the sand, rubbing it from her blue eyes and tying to attack Axel. But she was mad – damnit, she was mad.

"I'm going to talk to them," said Naminé quietly, feeling a sudden burst of confidence flower up inside her. Or maybe it had been there all along, waiting for the possibility of true friends to water it into full bloom. That sounded very poetic, she thought with a small smile. She rolled the papou-fruit shaped charm around, squeezing it between the pads of her fingers like some sort of jagged-edged worry bead. One that made you worry even more about life when it pierced through your skin and let you bleed to death. Naminé's head, however, was hazy and spinning from her revelation that her drawings were alive.

Roxas stared at her, wondering where the hell all that confidence had come from. For one thing, 'Axel' and 'Kairi' looked insane and were probably going to start frothing from the mouth at any moment due to rabies. And there was the small factor sprinkled into the pot to make it more humiliating – everybody was watching. Some snickered, like it was the best form of entertainment since … the last greatest form of entertainment. Maybe it was like horse-racing, and the snide residents of the island would start placing bets on who would win the fight between them.

Well, Roxas would have bet on Kairi – Axel was fast and wiry, but Kairi was obviously very, very mad, as she dove forwards and tackled her 'friend' to the ground. She looked ready to punch him in the mouth, eyes blazing with fury. Cha-ching, the blonde haired boy thought mentally, cashing in all his imaginary munny in his head. He'd been right. He had an uncanny knack of managing to tell the future, or who would win the Blitzball matches or brawls.

"Are you on crack?" hissed Roxas, secretly admiring Naminé. She was brave, very brave. Whatever happened to shy Naminé? When she used to be a little girl with cute bunches who hid behind Roxas like he was a shield from the big bad world outside. She always stayed like a version of a little sister in his mind and he wanted to protect her from the evils of the world and the strange, drug-induced people that lived there. Why else would their eyes be so blood-shot, clothes so rumpled? Or had the closed minds of the other islanders affected him, made him think the same? Boy, he was being cold.

"No, I'm going to stand on my own two feet," declared the girl, doing just what she said she'd do. She was very graceful, like a swan, raising her head towards the general area where Axel was grappling with Kairi. "I don't you to constantly introduce me to everybody like I'm a shadow," she said softly. "I want to be a somebody, too." Nobody bullied her, she was far too sweet to bully, but nobody paid much attention to her either, apart from Roxas. Maybe she wanted people to pay attention to her just once, to step outside the drawings – she'd wished for them to come alive for so long. Why was it so hard to move one foot in front of the other towards her destination?

Now the accusing eyes swooped in arcs to gaze at her, as she felt them prickle uncomfortably into her skin even though she tried to look away. She averted her eyes from the small gathering of people participating in the unofficial bet of who of the two 'gutter-children' were going to win the fight. They were horrible to exclude people like that, and she felt a wave of pity flutter in her heart. Even if they seemed perfectly able to take care of themselves, maybe they needed a friend too, just like she did? Kairi and Axel seemed to have a strange relationship going on with each other; both would loudly insult the other, being however crude they liked. Then they'd ignore the option of walking away and attempt to kill each other instead – maybe because through it all they were still friends and couldn't abandon them.

"Um… Hello?" asked the girl softly, a tsunami of thoughts and feelings and insecurities smashing into her skull. This wasn't a familiar situation – she tried to avoid people and didn't like introducing herself. She was new to the more social art of 'friendship' because Roxas was all she really had.

Distracted from her age-old routine of trying to beat Axel to a bloody pulp she realised somebody was talking to her. Halleluiah, an excuse to end the fight – just because she hit Axel a lot, she didn't exactly enjoy it, he just needed some of that arrogance knocked out of him. They were friends, and she was sure they didn't do that to each other, no matter how uneasy their relationship was, but her mother was lax on parenting so she never really learnt the common grounds for social rules. None of them really knew anything about communicating properly with others, all one big dysfunctional family.

"Do you need a hand?" asked Naminé shyly, extending a hand for the red-headed boy to take. Kairi seemed perfectly A-OK apart from her evil hairstyle of doom that was messed up making her head appear to be on fire. Well, so did the boy's, but that was his style, and it wasn't one suited for Kairi. She should have known – she'd drawn all possible variations of her hair-style in her sketchbook when she'd got bored. She'd traced out that outfit, too, and her eyes and nose and mouth, deciding how tall she was, everything.

"Thanks," smiled the red-headed boy, flipping a cocky grin at Kairi, who scowled and dug the tip of her trainer into the sand. He knew she probably felt jealous because it appeared that the girl seemed to favour him over her, but then everybody found him irresistible. Apart from Kairi, but he'd deduced long ago she had the mental capacity of an ant… Hmn, and she was too into physical violence. He took his hand into the blonde haired girl's, noting the sweet little smile playing about her face, like she'd finally … finally come home?

She helped pull him up, and noticed that he really did tower over her. For when he'd been sat on the floor, he hadn't looked that tall and imposing, clothes in varying shades of black, obsidian, jet and charcoal. She'd never got around to comparing his height to hers in her sketchbook.

"I'm Naminé," said the girl in her soft voice that had that sort of dream-like quality, trying to ignore the mutterings of annoyance from the islanders. They, even though naturally peaceful, wanted somebody to win the brawl, as they all disbanded deciding that their own activities were more fun than this.

'Naminé' was different from the other islanders, she was one of those people you could picture curled up in a corner reading a book, oblivious to life and technology blaring around her. She painted a picture of peace, and looked like a little girl caught up in a time-warp, always young.

"Kairi, Axel," said Kairi in a rather harsh voice, stabbing at herself with a finger, then motioning towards Axel. Naminé nodded like she processing all-new information – but she knew already. "Have we met before? 'Cause you look familiar…" proceeded Kairi in a sceptical voice, studying the girl in her itty-bitty sundress, trying to dredge up some old memories, but it was hard. She could see a blaring darkness oppressing her from all sides in the back of her mind, censoring out any images. It hurt her head, trying hard to recall something about this girl.

We have, in a way…

"I don't think so," said Naminé, still feeling slightly uneasy. She'd only ever drawn them and it was almost terrifying to see them standing there, flesh and blood, the shock becoming moulded into fear. She was afraid of them – she was afraid of a lot of things. She linked her arms behind her back in a classic pose, swinging her small body slightly, allowing the breeze to wash over her.

She suddenly wanted to call to Roxas, because she knew him and she could cling to him in a storm. Roxas was real, and if she was correct, these people weren't meant to be. Instantly she scolded herself, changing her position slightly so she could spy the blonde boy.

Ah. He was with Selphie now, the hyper-happy brunette girl. She wouldn't interrupt then; she'd valiantly plough on with the mission she'd given herself: stand on your own two feet.

"If I'd met you before, I think I'd remember. You have a memorable face, it sticks in the mind…" stated Axel, leaning back against one of the numerous palm trees scattered across the island. This statement made Kairi's pretty features wrinkle up slightly – what the hell was Axel doing, flirting with her? It was obvious they were not suited for each other, nonononono. NO. She couldn't be falling for all that crappy mush…

Dear God, she was, a faint tinge glowing on her pale, almost vampiric complexion. Jesus, maybe people didn't compliment her enough. Maybe she didn't stand out much, but God, with that weird perverted kid on the island, wearing that way-too-short sundress was shrieking 'look-at-me!'

"Thank you…" she said softly, squeezing the papou-fruit shaped charm, concealing it from view. It was private to her. Her drawings had been private to her, but now everybody could see them… Nobody could keep anything a secret anymore. Would it be her old 'fairy' duvet that became granted the gift of life next and slithered out of the door? That would be humiliating…

"I'm leaving, I don't want to be a third wheel," stated Kairi suddenly, really not wanting to tag along and play gooseberry. Axel probably didn't even like 'Naminé' at all. He was just 'all-eyes' at her because of the ridiculously high-up hemline of that dress. Oh yeah, not that she'd let him try anything on with her, because she looked far too sweet and innocent, like the old Alice in Wonderland illustrations. She had liked those books, not that she told anybody that, it would give Axel ammunition for years.

"C'mon, princess!" said Axel with a smirk on his face, making his green eyes narrow. "Don't throw a strop…"

"I THOUGHT I SAID SHUT UP!" screamed Kairi at him in a tone that could make glass break, looking near ready to tear out her messed-up cinnamon hair, stalking off. "Anyway, we better be going be going back anyway, the others'll be waking up soon… And we were told not to leave, got it memorised?"

"My line, you thief," commented Axel dryly, looking up and down the bedraggled form of his 'friend' who was very pissed off indeed.

"I hate you so much…" spat Kairi, eyes narrowed into slits as she slunk away, looking like a coiled viper ready to shoot poisonous venom at somebody. Deciding to vent her anger out on that stupid cheap Blitzball that pervert and 'carrot-head' were throwing to each other, she caught it again and punctured the plastic surface with her nails. She snorted in disgust when it didn't make a loud enough popping noise and tossed the pathetic excuse for a Blitzball at the two kids. All the while muttering a steady string of words under her breath in a repetitive loop. It sounded suspiciously like 'fuck, shit, bastard," with a lot of unintelligible curses thrown in for good measure.

Naminé's blue eyes shone slightly with concern – somehow she'd managed to offend Kairi, and she wasn't sure how. Slowly, she turned to look up at Axel, sighing softly as she clung tighter to her lucky charm. It hurt, but she managed to banish the pain of pointy edges digging into her skin to some far-flung corner of her mind. "Did I do something wrong?"

She looked sweet when she was worried, Axel idly mused. Kairi was never worried, she was always head-strong, confident and wanting to reap the souls of innocent people. He never provoked her, of course, because he was nice. She was just a bitch – yeah, that was right. "Nah. I just came up with the conclusion that's she's constantly caught in a permanent state of PMS induced bitching. Ignore her like everybody else does," he shrugged, smiling a little as Naminé giggled softly. "Hey, since I'm new here, are you going to give me a grand tour?" He knew he had to be following Kairi lickety-split if he didn't want his mother to find out he'd slunk off, because she'd only get angrier at him. And she was still mad because of that unfortunate habit of picking at the thread of his jeans – bitch. So he wasn't ecstatic to follow a girl who hated him (at the moment, she always got over it until he managed to piss her off again) to a room where he was condemned to be with his least favourite people. Sora, Riku, assorted people of the parental type…

"I, er…" Naminé turned to shoot a fleeting glance at Roxas, who was still engaged in conversation with Selphie, the girl bending down over him as he sat in the sand. They were laughing at something, and Roxas had probably forgotten about Naminé and would walk home with Selphie as an escort. "Okay," she said brightly, feeling amazingly out of herself.

She had managed to shake of that feeling of shyness, and wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing yet. It seemed to be lurking in the darkness, ready to come back up and bite her like a rabid dog.

o.x.o

"It's pretty … small …" commented Axel, leaning back lazily in his chair, scraping the legs against the floor, making a shrill noise. Naminé winced slightly as the metallic sound ground in her ears, as she averted her eyes from Axel's eyes, into the briny deep of her glass of coke. Almost like she could tell the future in it, or something, blonde hair falling around her shoulders – but oh no, it appeared she could do that already in her drawings.

She nodded in a rather non-committal way, shyness creeping back upon her and pulling at her skin, dragging her under. It was hard to dredge up anything intelligible to say, trying to form proper words from her tangled-up vocal cords too much of a challenge. She wasn't why her stupid brain had frozen up now when she'd been perfectly fine conversing with Axel as she led him through the island. Maybe she could blame her glass of coke on the brain freeze, and all the ice-cubes merrily bobbing around, declaring: "I R EVIL" to her. They were taunting her, because she couldn't think of anything to say and now she was going insane because she thought they could speak to her when obviously they couldn't and that was a long strand of thought that really should be broken now before she got a headache. The music playing through the speakers in the café weren't helping that much, either, although it was all gentle and pitter-pattery like falling rain. Something light and airy, with a Japanese up-beat, maybe Utada Hikaru if she tried hard enough to decipher the words through her haze of brain-meltdown.

It wasn't a date, she kept telling herself, repeating like a mantra in her head. I'm just showing him around, just showing him around, not a date; nothing's going to happen…

Her stomach jerked and wrenched when Axel looked at her with a smirk, and she bent down, pretending to be staring intently at those self-proclaimed 'EVIL' ice-cubes. Axel grinned at her, watching as she kept looking up from her drink every few seconds to check if he was still staring at her. When she realised he was, she flicked her gaze back down again, making small 'meep'-like noises.

"Your, island… It's small, but it's kinda pretty…" He was still looking at Naminé, and she wanted to yell at him to keep his eyes to himself. Mainly because the intensity of his gaze was sort of disconcerting – nobody paid much attention to her. Why should they? She wasn't beautiful or catchy; she dressed in plain white with a plain hair-style.

"Nmg… I … er… where do you… come from?" she asked, amazed at having been able to form a coherent sentence. Now she would have to give herself a pat on the back. That was why she preferred her drawings to communicating with real people, because of that matter. She felt like a bunny-in-the-headlights under Axel's gaze.

"It doesn't matter …" said Axel with a small frown. He didn't really like thinking about home. There was no real reason, but… "Hmn? Naminé? N… Dear God!" he cried, noticing she'd taken a large gulp of her drink and choked. The details were hazy to him, but Naminé knew she could blame the 'EVIL' ice-cubes. She'd accidentally swallowed one down with her drink in surprise, and gotten it lodged in the throat. Because of her mother, stood in the doorway.

Of course, Axel snapped into 'superhero' mode and decided he better save the girl, because her dying would not have been cool. Really would not have been cool at all. So he did the obvious thing, and moved around to thump her on her back. He was acutely aware that everybody was staring at them, as the girl gagged and spluttered, dislodging the 'EVIL' ice-cube from her throat, falling back into his awaiting arms, making it look like he was attempting to hug her. Well, maybe he was a little, as his arms drew around her to support her.

The ice-cube, partly melted in a puddle of the blonde-haired girl's drool grinned evilly at them, as Naminé's mother narrowed her mis-matched eyes at the two of them, shaking her head.

She didn't look happy, for some reason. In fact, for some reason she looked worried.

x.o.x

"Argh! Burgal-nummm!" muttered the brunette boy, as a flash of red shot in front of his eyes, a hand being pressed to his mouth to stop him from screaming and waking up everybody within a fifty kilometre radius. And Riku and Yuffie, who could get pretty cranky when woken up at what they deemed to be 'too early'. Actually, Riku always seemed pretty cranky and was so damned competitive at everything – Sora figured he and Yuffie had 'who-could-sleep-in-the-longest' contests. And the assorted parents didn't find everything too much fun, either, and Sora screaming his head off wouldn't have been the lovely early-morning wake up call they were hoping for.

"Shuddup Sora, it's me, Kairi," sighed the girl, looking down at him on the bed, the covers curled up around him in some sort of chrysalis from his attempts to escape from the 'Kairi-burglar'. Although what sort of washed-up guy would try to steal from them when they didn't have anything but several spoiled mattresses and pieces of furniture that they wouldn't have been able to drag down the stairs? And the lifts were broken and smelt a bit odd, like a cat had crawled in for sanctuary and died. No, wait, the whole place smelt of that corpse-stench. He really could be a complete bubble-head sometimes, she thought with a mental sigh.

She removed her hand, and looked down at the stupid little boy. He was pretty sweet, though, blue eyes wide, still from his fear that she was a knife-wielding maniac attempting to pull down the door and sell it in the black-market. "W-Why are you awake? I thought you were going to kill us," he muttered, huddling into his blankets like he was five, not fifteen. He did look adorable, in a helpless, falling-apart way. It made Kairi roll her eyes, because she didn't like Sora. Nu-uh, no way, he was far too immature for her and he fine, refined tastes and … feh, he was making her giggle like a stupid schoolgirl. Kairi never giggled.

"Sora, you moron. You're just a lazy bum! Me'n Axel have been up for about two hours. Had to pick our way out with a hairpin," she said lazily, that stupid grin still on her face. No, she was tough, she was Kairi. SMILE, BEGONE! Oh shit, that didn't work, as now her face looked scarily contorted like a Halloween mask.

"Oh… So why isn't Axel with you?" asked Sora, blinking his large blue eyes innocently, as he stared off into a space just past Kairi's head with a fixed smile on his face. She wondered if somebody dropped a very big, heavy brick on his head when he was a baby in his cradle. It would be a good explanation as to why he was so constantly 'out-of-it'.

"He's wooing his new girlfriend, y'know, after destroying my life and embarrassing me and being a jackass," she growled, sitting on the edge of the bed next to Sora. She wondered why she and Axel were friends, anyway…

"Sounds like Axel... 'Nite, Kairi," said Sora lazily, his fright over the burglars that were never there long-since banished, as he rolled over and closed his eyes. He was snoring instantly, in about five seconds.

"Lazy bum… It's eleven in the morning…" said Kairi with an affectionate smile that wasn't really meant to be there. Somehow it wormed its way onto her face. This didn't really look very good, no it did not…

o.x.o

Her mother had been pretty insistent that the girl followed her out of the café shortly after Axel's heroic attempts at saving the fair damsel's life from the ice-cube. After hurried introductions she didn't seem to want to make with the boy, she told him Naminé had better be going. She felt humiliated as she was marched out of the shop like she'd been caught dealing drugs with 'shady' characters, a tomato-blush spreading across her face. She must have looked so stupid, as she turned to try to catch Axel's eye, trying to subtly mouth an 'I'm sorry'. He noticed, but he didn't make any attempt to return it, to say he understood, as he was too busy glaring at the woman.

She didn't look anything like Naminé, with stylised brown hair, one eye blue and one green with delicate swirls suggested, several scars and cuts up and down her arms. He didn't like her – she reminded him a little bit of his mother, but he figured all of them were the same. They just annoyed you and nagged you and dragged away all the pretty girls … He had liked Kairi's mother, though, because Kairi wasn't a stereotypical 'pretty' girl with the blonde hair blue eyes combination, and he couldn't care less when Kairi got sent home. All they did together was go out and point at the fat kids and laugh at them, and it was damn hard to be romantic around a Kairi. She was probably more of a boy that Sora, only Sora wouldn't have suited a mini-skirt half as good as she did…

"So… That was 'Axel'," said Yuna with pursed lips, finally letting go of Naminé's arm. She sighed, fiddling around with those large earrings that dangled from her lobes, presents from … her husband. She shouldn't be won over by materialistic objects, she should have been smart enough to realise more and more scars would join those on her arms. More and more… Red, shouting and screams welling up in Naminé's mind, red like Axel's hair. She never liked thinking or talking about Yuna because it was a depressing subject, so she was going to think about her drawings … And Axel … Yeah, that sounded nice.

"I don't want you to talk to him," Yuna said in a decisive voice, crossing her arms across her chest.

Hmn, Axel, yeah, Yuna was talking about him too, and … Shit, what did she say? Rewind the tape back through the funny high-pitched sped up voices and movements, and she said… 'I don't want you to talk to him'. Okay, that was mean, that wasn't on… Some part of her belated teenage rebellion kicked in, as she crossed her arms, mirroring her mother.

"I want to see him again," she said adamantly.

Yuna looked a little gob-smacked, eyes wide. Naminé hardly ever said no, so shy and down-trodden. Like Yuna really, when it came with dealing with 'him', a dark opposing figure. Red, red, red, it hurt her eyes and arms and those scars that would never heal in her heart. She didn't want Naminé hurt because of this boy, who looked a little dodgy. And she didn't want herself hurt because of him…

"Naminé… I… I can't let you see him. He's a … bade influence, in all those black clothes and the way he was trying to molest you in the café…" Her voice faltered, as Naminé's kicked in.

"He wasn't trying to molest me, an ice-cube got lodged in my throat and he got it out! Please? I just want to talk to him, nothing bad's going to happen…" Her voice took on the tone of a child much younger than herself, the blue eyes becoming larger slightly. She could 'cute' her way for anything, she'd never argued with her mother or anybody really, but thought it would work. Sometimes Roxas would buy her an ice-cream when she was busy drawing when she did that.

"Well… I… I… I'm not sure." It all starts with them saying nothing will happen, but something always does no matter how hard you try. "Well, I know… Well, I've seen those pictures and drawings, and they're bad enough, but now this… This, Naminé…"

So she knew. She'd somehow deduced Axel was …. Just a drawing. That must have been why she was so adamant against her seeing him, because she was freaked out about the whole thing and confused.

"I know… It's odd… And everything… But I need some more friends other than Roxas. I think he's getting … b-bored of me anyway, and he'll run off and I'll have nobody!" she sniffed, almost feeling like hanging her head on her mother's shoulder and crying like she did when she was little and had nightmares.

"You do know this can't last forever…" Yuna sighed; looking sky-ward, as if hoping it would shower advice down on her. "It's temporary, wasn't meant to happen… And if … Well, if it's found out by certain people, it'll…" Completely crap up my life.

"Oh, I know."

"Then…. Then I guess..." Yuna sighed, no good at arguing, not even to her daughter. And she seemed so attached to him already. She sighed, walking on. She'd been worried by the drawings, but this just took the cake, the biscuit, whatever pudding in existence. This would complicate all their lives, and no matter how hard Naminé could try to hide it, it wasn't like a drawing. She couldn't it under her bed and make it go away for a few seconds, they'd all see. But… Naminé had been so unhappy for so long… Why deny her this piece of happiness that she may never get again? Life was too cruel…

She looked out from the quaintly-cobbled road they were traipsing down, both of them, mother and daughter, buried deep within the confines of their thoughts and mind. Both picking over the thing that they were drawings, this was reality. And reality was darker and scarier than doodles.

She'd regret it later, but Naminé's angelic little face…

"Okay. Just be careful."

She was the worst mother ever, attempting to the best one by making even worse decisions. She wasn't very good at this. But the look on Naminé's face made it all almost worth the pain that would follow. But only almost.

-x-x-x-

A/N: Yay! New chapter, took a while to type because of SCHOOL shakes fist But this is a fun story to write. Hmn, so, yeah, Yuna knows! Yuna's Naminé's mother, slightly OOC but yeah. Think FFX Yuna, not FFX-2. FFX gentle shy Yuna. So… Sorry to have caused confusion for some of you, but Axel's mother isn't Aeirs, she was just showing them around being part of the 'welcome committee' and I forgot that replying to review. Yeah, I forgot – shows you I have no idea what I'm talking/typing about. But yeah, I LOVE coming up with these colour meanings – took a few from a book called 'Knife's Edge' where each chapter was a colour. But this has nothing to do with that book, cause that book's about racism and … crap… Three reviews for an update, pretty please? I'm getting somewhere with this!