To Kit-Kat-Wafer: Yay! Thanks for the nice reviews! Haha, yeah. I like to set up a little intersting setback or two before something happy happens. Roxas and Naminé are my favorite characters and couple. Riku is high on my list as well. I'm not sure where the Naminé/Riku pairing came from. I just randomly thought of it and it...interested me? LOL. Hm. I don't mind his voice. I think overall the casting was pretty good, considering how American/English versions of Japanese entertainment become effed up in the dub versions. A-list stars = way to go in that case. ;]

What the Thing Is

Chapter Three

**IMPORTANT NOTE: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any of its characters. I am only borrowing them for the sake of this story. I do not intend to profit off of this piece or promote for any chance of publication. It is only intented for the private entertainment of the persons reading this online, presumably through the FanFiction website. All credit goes to Square Enix and Disney for their original conception of these characters. On that note, please enjoy.**

"Okay class, today is the day I give you your first term project!" The history teacher was surprisingly bright and cheery for someone who had taught five other classes full of obnoxious, inconsiderate teenagers on this lovely cold Monday afternoon. The class, however, was not so cheery, expressing so in their groans and teeth-sucking.

"Ugh…" Naminé joined in the murmuring as well. A project itself was bad enough, but now it also meant it was just going to distract her further from her artwork.

"Now, now!" the teacher cooed. It's as if his students were kindergarteners. "Don't whine at me. This will be a project worked on in pairs. And you will be able to choose among yourselves."

The groans were suddenly shut silent. Students began to turn heads around and flickers eyes and nod heads, sending secret signals and messages, diving up the classroom into couples already. A squeak of a chair was heard as some students needed to wildly search around for a partner, hopefully glancing into a classmate's eyes before the latter shrugged apologetically. Naminé did not even bother. She knew no one was looking to be her partner. She had already established herself as a loner, an anti-social outcast. It wasn't so bad. She could focus more on what was important to her, but these 'building team skills and cooperation activities' that the school system had implemented to encourage 'cooperative behavior and trust among the student body' were honestly and excruciatingly annoying.

The teacher finally cleared his throat to catch the attention. "We'll discuss this later at the end of class. I will fully explain the project then. For now, I would appreciate if you would so kindly direct your attention to the front of the room so we may resume our lesson."

Naminé sighed and leaned her head down on her desk, letting the bangs fall in front of her eyes. She was definitely not in the mood for a history lecture, especially after a blow to her day like that. It was actually going relatively fine before this period anyway. Why did something like this have to happen last period? Who was she going to work with? Naminé tried to quickly scan all the classmates who were visible, hoping one of them would be nice enough to let Naminé join their group as a third wheel if no other choices were available.

Simultaneously, in the back of the room, Roxas was not in too good of a mood himself. Normally on projects, he would work with Hayner, whom he considered his best friend at this school. However Hayner had to switch out of Roxas' class due to class scheduling conflicts only a week ago. Roxas knew a good number of kids in this class, but none he would bring himself to work with.

Well, except Naminé that is. But he was too shy to ask her. Although if she didn't already have a partner, she would have no choice but to accept his offer. On that hand, she could in fact have a partner that she was planning to work with; even though he never saw her head make the slightest motion during that whole exchange – glance commitment agreement ordeal. He closed his eyes and rubbed his temples in frustration. He was at a loss for ideas. Maybe he should just go ahead and ask her.

--

"Now about that project…" The bell was soon to ring in a few minutes and most of the kids were beginning to pack up their belongings. They turned their attention to him however when he mentioned the 'project'.

"You and your partner will choose any event in world history from any time period, legend or fact, and research it. Your research will result in the two of you writing up a five to seven page paper on what it was and how it affected history. In addition to the paper, you will create a poster or visual image of your choice. Heck, you can even make a movie if you want." The teacher chuckled. His creative side was coming out. "I will make a packet containing more details and a timeline of the due dates for each stage of the assignment. In the end, you and your partner will present your event to the class. I advise you to become very knowledgeable about this topic, as I and your fellow classmates will be asking you questions during your presentation. Choose your partners wisely. Work with someone you will get along with and actually do work with." He glared at a few troublemakers and chatterboxes in the class. "This is a major grade. It will count for a good percentage, so don't slack off. And furthermo—"

He was finally cut off by the bell, causing the class to burst into full volume noisy discussion and antics, yelling, cursing, and running out the door, verbally confirming their partner choices. Naminé lazily pushed herself up from her desk and slowly packed each book into her bag. She sighed again. She still had no partner.

Roxas was just about as slow as her. He always was, just to look at her. He stood there thoughtfully, contemplating whether or not he should ask her. It was just a project, after all, not a date. They both probably needed partners anyway. It was simple, really. All he would have to do was go up to her and ask her.

Approaching Naminé, Roxas cleared his throat. "Hey Naminé. Are you working with someone on the project?"

She shook her head, with a slight smile. "No, I don't have a partner yet. Do you?"

"No," he swung his head from side to side as well. "I was actually going to ask you…if you wanted to be my partner."

There. He said it.

She looked at him for a moment, and nodded her head grinning. "Sure."

Out of dreamworld, Roxas immediately searched to see if Naminé was still there. He caught her foot in the air, as she was leaving out the door. Frantically stuffing his books into his backpack, Roxas rushed out to catch up with her.

"N-Naminé!" he choked out as he ran up to her.

She turned around. He froze. It was the first time he had actually approached her like this. Sure, they knew about each other's existence, but no one had actually ever acknowledged the other. Nervous thoughts were racing through his mind. What if she didn't want to talk to him? What if she was annoyed? What if she said no to whatever he asked? He gulped, waiting to see if she would reply.

"Rox…as?" She said his name slowly, in a questioning matter. She was shocked that he had come up to her. What did he want? There was nothing about her that he could care about, so she thought.

It took him a minute to register that she had actually spoken back and that he was looking like a complete idiot standing there, looking at her with a bewildered expression on his face.

"U-Uh…" He stammered out. "I-I was just going to ask you…if you…uh…wanted…or no…if you…had a partner…you know….for the history thing?"

She blinked a few times, in disbelief. Was he going to ask her to be his partner? No, that would be weird. But why else would he ask something like that? And why was she so nervous? It wasn't like he was asking her out on a date. He wouldn't do that. Not to her, at least.

"N-no…I don't," she said, somewhat softly. She looked down, to shy to look up at his face.

He seemed embarrassed. "Well…I don't either." He rubbed the back of his neck, nervously.

That caused her to glance up at him, for a second. "Oh, you don't?" Why doesn't she just do it? She has nothing to lose.

"Yeah…" he muttered looking down. He was half-expecting her to ask him, hoping that maybe she was interested a tiny bit in him. It was a long shot, but it would have been nice. He was seriously starting to doubt himself now. Maybe she was just waiting for him to go away.

"Oh…" Her answer was so calm and nonchalant, but internally, her mind was waging a battle against her heat. Logic versus desire. She wanted to be his partner, but did not feel right asking him. He, of course, approached her, but she was just to shy to ask him. This was going nowhere, but if he had wanted it to go somewhere, he would have asked her already right.

Finally, he took a deep breath and spewed it out. "Do you want to be my partner?"

They both looked up at each other, both surprised he had said that.

He said it.

He finally did it.

Inside, his mind was having a fiesta, singing and dancing, and doing the tango with his heart.

It wasn't anything special, like asking her to be his girlfriend, but he had at least spoken to the girl. He stared into her eyes, anxiously, waiting for her answer. Even though he had built up his courage, it was the moment of truth that would either send it skyrocketing or instantly crashing.

"I…" she began, not knowing what to say. He had asked her, but she didn't know how to reply without sounding stupid.

She shook her head,

Then stopped, realizing that was the wrong reaction. She nodded and stuttered, "S-sure."

Roxas had first cringed when he saw her seemingly refusing him so bluntly. He could have collapsed. Now he could be just as easily knocked over with a gentle breeze. The party in his mind grew larger and larger, before he had to fight the strong urges to jump and scream and pump his fist into the air.

He simply chuckled and nodded. "Cool."

"Yeah," she smiled in return.

"Should I call you later or something? So we can discuss what we want to do?" He felt like the biggest guy in the world, in a figurative sense. He felt formidable…even invincible. Nothing could ruin him now.

"That sounds good." Naminé continued to beam at him, thankful that something good had come out of that horrible class.

"Cool…" Roxas repeated. "Then it's decided….see you tomorrow I guess."

"Mhm," she nodded her head. "See you."

They both turned around walking in opposite directions, grinning like complete love-struck idiots. And idiots they both were, realizing after they were no longer in sight of each other that neither had the other's phone number.

"Oh—"

R-r-r-r-review Time~! ;D