Namine shoved her text books into her narrow locker, staring into the dark oblivion before grabbing her sketchbook and pencil case, slamming it shut out of anxiety. It felt like little termites were crawling over her spine and in her brain, she shook her head, her straight blond hair raising a little.

"Gotta finish that drawing. Today." She clenched her fists and forced her jelly legs to the art room. Roxas had suggested they finish the session in the school's art classroom earlier in the day during the only class they share together: Health. Out of all the classes in her schedule, it had to be the one where the main subjects were reproductive organs and periods. Mr. Vexen was such a creeper.

Anyhow, she skulked unwillingly to the room and set up their placements. The hallways were pretty much deserted, other than the few teachers chatting as they went to the teachers' lounge or their classrooms. The hall seemed like it was getting narrower and narrower as she walked through it. Why was she getting so worked up over something stupid? She entered the empty room, Mr. Luxord was in the corner of the room, finishing cleaning up from today's project. He looked up at her.

"Hello, Namine. Here to finish that portrait?" He looked over his reading glasses knowingly, giving a smirk.

Namine sat on her stool and opened the sketchpad to the page she was drawing on, slowly nodding. "Yes, I am." Mr. Luxord just chuckled and left to his office, shutting the door. He always stayed in his office late, working on whatever secret art project he had. She even caught him drawing tarot cards.

She looked down, smiling at the roughly drawn picture. "I gotta get this done." She repeated like a mantra. The outline of his head and hair was perfect, she had only started on his facial features when she stopped just to stare. She closed her eyes in happy bliss, revisiting the image. A sudden wisp of air made her hair flutter.

"Huh. I thought you were almost done." She heard over her shoulder. Her eyes shot open and she turned around to see the guy of her clichéd dreams. There was an inquisitive look on his face that looked more amused than annoyed.

"O-oh… I- um, said that 'cause you were getting impatient about it… I didn't wanna keep you from your friends." She bullshitted hastily. Oh, god, she thought. He's gonna be pissed about this. She braced herself for the worst. "It, uh, takes a while to draw."

Axel couldn't wait to tell Xigbar of this new development. Of course he did feel bad for Demyx, but he knew that Xiggy and him would hit it off well.

The redhead took his seat in the Chemistry room after school - Mr. Xaldin usually left the room unlocked - waiting for his blackheaded friend to appear through the door as they planned. He ran an anxious hand through his red spikes, looking around the room boredly. He tapped his fingers on the desk. Whistled a tune. He grabbed a tissue from a nearby Kleenex box and folded it into an origami bird, then unfolded it and made a shitty snowflake. He gathered the pieces and threw them in the wastebasket by the door. Axel looked around the room, looking for more things to keep his borderline ADD self entertained.

...

After resisting the urge to play with the chemicals, he realized that a half an hour went by, and Xigbar was nowhere in sight. Axel frowned in confusion and stood up, looking around to see if he happened to have sat down in another seat or something. Still out of sight. "Huh."

The redhead slowly replaced himself in the chair and pulled out his trusty Motorola. 'Dude, where r u' he texted, and waited for a reply.

Roxas blinked and smirked in a knowing-yet-still-clueless-to-why way. "But I've seen you drawing before. You can draw a picture of the Academy in an hour, all details and shades." Ocean blue sparkled, pleased that he got her.

But Namine kept lying. "True, but getting a human structure to be so... precise takes hours."

Roxas looked a bit frustrated. "But we were sitting there for an hour and a half, and you only have my head done?"

The lighter blond swallowed slowly, taking a few moments to respond to that. "I... I just..." She heaved a sigh, closing her eyes tightly. "Fuck. I like you, okay?" She started to get her stuff, a bit embarrassed for the melodrama.

Roxas didn't even bat an eye. "Yeah, I know. But still, why was it taking you so long?" He made a face, like he was still confused.

Namine stared at him for a long minute, then sat her sketchbook and pencil case back down carefully, looking to her hands for a new focus point. "I liked... looking at you." She blushed a little, the pink in her cheeks accenting the blue of her eyes. She didn't notice it, but Roxas' eyes softened at it. "Sorry if that's creepy..." she continued, "We don't have to finish."

"No, no." Roxas held his hands up to stop her. "It's not creepy... I mean, if more pretty girls looked at me like that, my ego would be the size of a hot air balloon." He chuckled, looking a little flustered. Namine looked puzzled. All the girls in the school thought he was the hottest thing in existence. Not to mention her brother...and all the other gay dudes in the school.

No response came, and Axel's boredom and impatience got the better of him. He got up and left the room, walking down the long stairway and down the hall. He stopped when he heard a soft humming sound, people talking, coming from – he looked to see the room number – the art room. A red eyebrow rose and he peeked into the room curiously, seeing none other than his baby sister and his crush, talking. He noticed the faint crimson on their cheeks. Had Namine confessed? Did he like her back?

Axel scowled and sat down on the floor next to the door to hide, pressing his ear against the door to listen in on the conversation.

After not even two minutes of eavesdropping, Axel was interrupted by... the cute little brunette fag, Sora, with his silver headed boyfriend. The two were walking down the hall, sweaty from track practice... he thought.

"Heya, Axel!" The kid said with an adorable grin. His blue eyes, identical to Roxas', sparkled with so much happiness that had the qualities of a chibi. Riku, beside him, gave a manly nod instead of a greeting, since he was so hardcore and all that.

"Hi... uh, need somethin'?" Axel drawled, acting like he was just sitting leaned up against the wall.

"Nope! Just wondering why you're just sitting there... You hurt or something?" The kid walked up to him and studied him, the concern in his eyes was genuine.

"Nah, just uh, waiting for Xigbar to show up. Yeah. That." He smiled on the inside, liking that he still had a liable alibi.

"Ohh, I see..." Sora nodded then looked through the glass of the door over Axel, not realizing that his crotch was a good few inches away from Axel's face in the action. Riku's eyes went all protective and he gently pulled on Sora's arm to pull him back. "Hey! Roxas is in the art room, with Namine." Sora asked Axel to move from the door - he obliged – and opened it. "Roxas! We're gonna be leaving soon. So finish up!" And with that, Sora and Riku left to the locker rooms.

Axel made himself scarce before the two blonds saw him outside the door.