Orange Grove
By: Leelee488512
Disclaimer: Many of the events present in this novel were fabricated and not at all true. The main characters belong to Square Enix and Disney.
Chapter Three
While all of this was happening, Axel and Naminé were together talking.
"How have you been, cousin?" Axel asked flickering his dark green eyes to Naminé as they went down the long staircase of the palace. His feet hit each stair softly, like a mouse with every step he took.
Naminé laughed. Her head slightly cocked back, and her bun loosened a bit. Axel could make her laugh at the smallest thing.
"You see me almost every day!" The girl giggled. She sighed, and said more quietly. "You know how I have been . . ."
Her voice trailed on as he looked her in the eye. An ambrosial smile painted itself on his face and her pale blue eyes landed on the marble floors in record speed. God, please don't let me make a fool of myself, Naminé thought massaging the pale, yellow silk skirt of her gown.
"But, really," Axel said as they got to the end of the steps. He looked her strait in the eyes in the most serious way.
"Are you well, cousin?"
"Axel, you're frightening me." Naminé slightly scrunched her eyebrows in worry.
Axel took his younger cousin's hands and tried to reassure her that nothing was wrong. She wasn't convinced at all. Another thing about Naminé was that she never got easily convinced.
"Just answer my question, Naminé, please."
Naminé shook her head suddenly angered. How was she supposed to answer that complicated question? She was happy when she woke up, when she went to see Kairi, but depressed when she saw some European princess throwing herself on him as she walked into the palace.
"I was content until now. . ."
"I apologize for pestering you." The nineteen -year old looked down, feeling foolish not to see that his cousin was feeling uncomfortable.
Awkwardness filled the area that they stood in. The air was suddenly thick, and Naminé and Axel both felt like crawling into the floorboards and hiding from each other.
Naminé's eyes wandered around until they landed on her hands. Her hands were still held by her cousin's. A hot feeling came to her face, and she felt herself starting to get red. Axel seemed to have noticed as well, for he softly let go of her hands and started to redden himself.
They stood next to each other for a couple of minutes in silence, looking at the ground until Axel heard the faint sound of hooves in the distance. Who would be riding a horse when there was eighteen inches of snow on the ground? He had to look.
The teenager ran out of the palace to the gate and watched in awe as a heavily decorated horse drawn carriage came to the palace. The carriage was too decorated to be Russian, but too big to be English. The mechanism was most definitely French.
Gatekeepers walked calmly to the carriage and opened the door. For a while they talked to the man inside, and then let him out with a bow.
Out came Prince Roxas of France, twin brother of the man that Kairi was betrothed to. The two men had the same face, but other than that they were opposites. Roxas had dark blonde hair and blue eyes that seemed to change shade whenever he was in a different light. Roxas also had a stronger build than his brother and had a very strong allergy to roses.
The young prince had a small box firmly lodged between his arm and his side, and had no intention of letting anyone else have it. The box was a deep, blood red and had a green ribbon keeping it closed. There was such mystery in the box, but one detail was very certain-the box was definitely for Princess Kairi from the curious Prince Sora.