The Number Thirteen

- Roxas, we have Lift Off-

He placed his bright blue eyes on his shoes, which were the only ones that were making noise throughout the corridor. Having left Axel and Larxene on the floor a few moments ago, his shoes were the only source of noise right now.

There was a gush of wind, and a hand slapping itself onto his back – Roxas staggered forward at the strength of the impact.

"What the –

"Where are you off to?"

Roxas regained his footing and looked at his side to see Axel grinning at him. He raised his eyebrows.

"What are you doing here?"

"What are you doing here?"

The boy blinked. "…"

"If you were wondering, I teleported right under Larxene and made her crash onto the floor." Axel said, quite in a proud tone. He held his chin up as Roxas resumed his walking, striding alongside the blonde boy. "So, where are you off to, Roxas?"

"You're uncharacteristically happy today," Roxas commented. "And to where I'm going, nowhere, actually."

"Idiot," The older member said, again making his apparently favorite derisive sound. "You shouldn't wander aimlessly around this castle. Might discover things you would never want to see in your life."

"And what's that?"

"Luxord dancing in his underwear."

Roxas almost blew his brain out of his nose. "What!"

"Trust me, it was horrible," Axel said, throwing his hands in the air and placing them behind his head, flattening a few spikes of hair. "I was going to borrow a deck of cards since I wanted to pin Demyx on a spinning wheel and throw some cards at him, but when I entered his room he was there, dancing in his heart-specked underwear."

"You have got to be kidding me," Roxas replied after a fit of laughter, "There is no way I'd believe you, Luxord dancing in his underwear…"

"And yet we have Marluxia who has pink hair and controls flowers," The redheaded man smirked. "…insisting he's not gay."

The boy grinned. "Well, you do have a point."

Silence ensued between the two as they continued on walking further. Roxas kept his eyes on the path while Axel looked around, occasionally stopping.

"Oh right, Roxas, you never answered me."

"Huh?"

"On where you're going." Axel stated. "But from the looks of it, you're going to the Tower, aren't you?"

Roxas stared at him, looking flustered. He sort of forgot that Axel had tagged along, and now that the man knew where he was going, he felt embarrassed. It was just like Axel to laugh at him because he wanted to see a girl; maybe it was the reason why he didn't want Axel to know where he had been the day before.

"Er…" he started, not knowing what words to use, "…yeah."

"Finally saw her, huh?" the man asked, quite a matter-of-factly. "I told you, you can't hide anything in this castle."

"I wasn't hiding it," Roxas tried to defend himself, looking up at Axel with indignant eyes. "I was just –

"But you told me you were off nowhere, Roxas." Axel answered him. Roxas frowned – why did Axel have to have such sharp memory? "Don't worry, I won't take her away from you."

The boy became more flustered at that, but decided to answer in a cooler sort of way. "Of course you won't, you already have Larxene."

"Hey!" The redhead cried, "That's not funny and you know it!"

Roxas stuck out his tongue for an answer. Axel again made a derisive noise and ignored this, but still continued to walk beside him as they headed towards the tower.

Curiosity (again) took hold of the youngest member and he decided to break the silence that started to fall upon him and his friend (if you could call him a friend). He had it on his mind for quite a while now – well, not really, more like ever since he had known it – on what the girl had meant by her words. 'I'm a witch', she had said in her small, soft voice; it was a phrase that really didn't match her.

Originally, he was supposed to ask her what she had meant by that, but she had quickly dismissed him and gently pushed him out of the room, saying that if someone saw him there, he'd be dead meat.

Maybe that was why Axel had told him to stop being curious…maybe going to the tower would get him killed…

"Hey Axel," Roxas started, gaining the man's attention. "Do you know the girl up in that tower?"

"Oh, Naminé?"

"Naminé?" The boy repeated. "Is that her name?"

"You dolt, you don't even know her name?"

"I was going to ask," Roxas pointed out, "But the conversation went to something like she was a witch and she then told me that if someone found out I was there I'd get in trouble –

He wasn't able to continue his sentence; Axel suddenly had this far-off look on his face, as if something hard had struck him. It looked like as if he was processing quite a long string of thoughts in his head, and being the curious boy he was, Roxas broke his train of thought.

"Axel?"

"Oh yeah, right," the redhead said, a bit absentminded. "Sorry 'bout that. She's a nice girl, Naminé."

"I can tell," Roxas said. "But I sort of feel bad for her – it's like she's never let out of that place." He paused for a moment, furrowing his eyebrows together as they continued to walk along the corridor. The white pair of doors that ended the hall was not that far away from where they were now, and was getting closer with each step.

"…is it true, though, Axel? That she's a witch?" he suddenly said, his voice taking on a low tone. The fire-user peered closer at the blonde and put a slight smile on his face.

"Hmm, how can I say this…she's not the despicable kind, Roxas," Axel explained. "But she does have a set of extraordinary powers. I guess that's why we ended up calling her a witch."

A simple 'oh' came out of the boy's lips. They stopped right before the double doors, silence again enveloping the two of them. Axel scratched the back of his head and grinned, noticing the troubled look that was etched on Roxas's face.

"Don't worry about it," Axel said. "She was just looking out for you. I'm sure the Superior wouldn't kill you." He finished with a laugh.

"Thanks." Roxas replied, letting a small smile crack his lips. He was about to open the door when all of a sudden, something whizzed past his ear. He looked towards Axel to see him half-bended over, backwards, apparently successful in dodging the kunai lodged on one of the doors.

"Oh god." He heard Axel mutter. He turned around to see Larxene panting heavily, darkness slowly dissipating at her feet, fingers clutching a set of yellow-tinged kunai.

Roxas groaned. This was just not going to end.

"I'm not done with you!" Larxene cried, once Axel got to his feet and started to summon his corridor of darkness. "Don't you dare run away, you bastard!"

Axel stepped into his corridor and smirked. "Unfortunately for you, I do dare. See ya, Roxas!"

The woman ignored the boy and immediately leapt over to where Axel stepped into. "You are not going to get away this time!"

"Hello, Naminé."

She flicked her head upwards, trying to find the source of the voice. It was boyish and a bit rough, but it was boyish, nonetheless – it sounded very much like the boy's voice from yesterday.

Her blue eyes met his, and her lips slightly parted – she didn't expect him to come here again, after what she had said the day before. Surely, if the Superior found out that the boy had been coming here, she'd be in trouble. She had been given instructions to not talk to the boy, due to a high chance that he'd be lured to find out about what he really was. She herself had tried to find out who she really was, and what she had found out wasn't exactly something she wanted to know – the Superior was keen on not letting the boy experience the same tragedy.

The boy now walked over to her, standing by the same edge of the table, a small smile etched on his lips.

"What are you doing today?" he asked. "Drawing again?"

Naminé nodded. She swung her feet alternately and put the yellow crayon she was using down. "How did you know my name?"

"Axel told me," he replied simply. He again stood on his tiptoes to get a better look – apparently there was no other chair except for the one Naminé was sitting on.

"Oh," she replied. She watched him look at her drawings with interest, hoping she'd get a good reaction from him. "Axel's a nice person – he sometimes visits."

"I almost forgot," the boy said, looking up at her; Naminé moved back a bit, quite startled. "I'm Roxas, by the way. I haven't introduced myself yesterday."

He extended a gloved hand and smiled at her, using a grin. She hesitated for a moment, but eventually accepted it, shaking hands with him for a short while.

"I'm Naminé," she replied, also with a smile. "It's nice to meet you, Roxas."

"Same here. Actually, I thought you'd be angry at me for coming back here – you know, since you told me I'd get in trouble if I do. But…" Roxas stopped himself and looked back down at the drawing, trying to hid a pink streak that started to race across his cheeks. "…I had nothing to do, so…I thought it would be nice to –

"Oh no, it's okay," Naminé said, waving her hands in guise of hiding her embarrassment. Why she felt flustered, she really didn't know, but she had to hide it. "It's…it's nice that someone wants to see me."

Roxas inwardly smiled.

"So…what's this about?" he asked, referring to the picture. Naminé quickly regained from her stupor and looked at her drawing too. "Was this the beach you've been drawing yesterday?"

Roxas looked at it carefully as he took the sketchpad and studied the drawing, at the same time relaxing his toes and standing back on his heels. It indeed was a drawing of a beach; the sand was exemplified by brown and tan-colored dots and a few yellow scribbles. The sea and the waves were defined by aquamarine and royal blue dashes, with a few white dots and curves. Also, there was a crooked tree, looking very much like a palm, which stood at the center, surrounded by tropical foliage.

Naminé nodded. She really didn't know why she wanted to draw a beach yesterday, the idea just floated into her mind. But her train of thoughts was disrupted when she realized that Roxas had been standing beside the table for all the while he was there.

"Wait a minute." Naminé said, concentrating on Roxas's black boots. The boy seared his eyes from the paper and looked at where she was staring at, and then looked back at Naminé.

"Is there something wrong?" he asked; he then noticed the white sandals that were seemingly forgotten on the floor. "Was I supposed to take of my shoes? I'm sorry, I didn't notice – there was no – whoa!"

All of a sudden, he was lifted off the ground – it was like a giant, invisible hand picked him up by the hood of his cloak. He swung his feet a few times, the drawing still in his hand as he swung those too; Naminé giggled for a bit as she watched Roxas struggled with the force that was holding him on air.

"Wha – what's happening, Naminé?" he asked, voice a bit panicky. Naminé simply waved a hand as threads of light blue materialized below him and formed a chair.

"I'm just giving you a seat," she replied, watching him as the invisible hand lowered him into the chair. "You've been standing there for too long."

Roxas, as soon as he was let down from the air and settled into the high chair, smiled sheepishly and scratched the back of his head, looking flustered.

"…oh."

Author's notes: 2k+ words.

Sorry if the image of Luxord dancing in his underwear scarred you. I was actually thinking of Xigbar or Xaldin or even Xemnas doing the dance, but the other three seem to have more self-respect and more likely to lock their doors if ever they do dance in their underwear.

I'm sort of worried that they're not in character – if they aren't, it would be nice to comment on it. :D It's like everybody came off nice in this chapter (except for Larxene, of course).

Plenty of thanks to my reviewers, people who put this in the C2s and their fave lists!

Reviews are greatly, greatly appreciated :D

P.S: Ack?'s and !'s are not allowed to be together anymore! o.o i'm fond of using that tandem, but due to some twisted programming whenever i use ? and ! it only displays ! . So, if you have encountered weird sentences that should've been questions but read as exclamations, then you know why. :D i've been away for too long.

Again, reviews greatly appreciated!