Roxas' POV

"WAKE UP!!" Sora bashed my head with a pillow.

"Go awaaay," I moaned, swiping at his face. He kept on smacking me until I sat up.

"Jeez, Sora," I moaned sleepily. "Couldn't you have waited till at least noon?"

"Today's the day, bro!" Sora laughed. "You're turning sixteen!"

"Don't people normally sleep in on their birthdays? I never do this to you."

"You're sleeping your day away!" Sora smiled. "C'mon, you're going to need to wake up before your party starts!"

"Not till eight," I mumbled. I wished he would leave me alone, but I was already awake at this point. "Whatever. I'm up, I'm up."

When I dressed and went downstairs, I smelled my mom cooking. She came over to kiss my forehead.

"Morning, sleepyhead! Happy Birthday! I made your favorite grand-slam breakfast!"

"Mornin'," I said, smiling a little. An array of food was laid out in front of me.

"We have chocolate chunk pancakes, homefries, sausage. All your favorites."

My stomach growled. "Thanks," I said. "I'm starving."

After wolfing down immeasurable amounts of the best breakfast I'd tasted in a very long time, I told my mom I needed to get some air.

"Birthday boy's going down to the beach," I called to the house. I walked along the stream we had followed several months ago. It seemed like forever since I'd seen her, but it was really less than a week. Sucks we couldn't even see each other on our own birthdays.

I fingered the necklace she had given me. I wore it every day. I smiled, thinking I was going to say something, but the words didn't come to my mouth.

I arrived at the beach. The water was a crystal-clear blue, as always. I mindlessly stroked the shell as I looked out at the sea, wondering where she was right now.

"Roxas?"

Great, now I'm even hearing her voice? It sounded like she was actually here, though. That perfect, sing-song….

"Roxas? Is that you?"

I looked to where the voice was coming from. I definitely hadn't imagined it. I scoured the water, thinking she must have been watching me or something.

"Namine?"

"Over here." I turned my head towards the trees where her voice was coming from.

"Yes, it's me." She called. "I'm this way, in the forest."

"But you…"

A foot appeared from behind some tallgrass. "I have these."

"Wh-whaaaat?? You're human?"

"I don't know how! I was just sitting on the sand… I wanted to wish you a happy birthday. You know, in person."

"Why are you hiding from me…?"

There was a short pause.

"When I became human, I…uh…." I could practically hear her blushing. "Clothes weren't included in the package. If you know what I mean."

It took me a second to figure it out.

"Oh. Oh." I quickly pulled my shirt over my head and threw it into the foliage. A graceful hand caught it in mid-flight.

"Thanks," She mumbled gratefully. I turned away awkwardly.

"Um, hey," She said minutes later, her hand on my shoulder. She was wearing my tee shirt. I turned around and hugged her.

"What the hell were you thinking? You could have gotten yourself killed!"

"I…. I just wanted to say happy birthday to you." Her tone fell a little. "I'm…sorry. If you didn't want to see me." She tried to pull away.

"It's not like that," I said. "Of course I wanted to see you! It's just, you could have gotten into a bad situation…. I don't want to see you hurt."

"Oh. Okay," She said, her voice picking up a bit. "If you really feel like that."

I let her go. "I want you to stay here," I explained. "Don't go anywhere. I'm going to go get you some clothes. I'll only be a few minutes."

"Okay. I won't go anywhere."

"See you in five." I jogged away, looking over my shoulder once to see if she was fine.

What a weird situation to be in. Whatever is going on, it confuses me, I thought to myself.

When I made it to the house, I grabbed some spare clothes from our guest bedroom. I hoped they would fit her.

When I returned, I was so relieved to see her in one piece. I handed her the bundle of clothing and she got changed. We started walking along the beach.

"So, uhm… happy birthday."

"Yeah. You too."

We walked in silence for a bit.

"BRO!" I heard a familiar voice call me from the general direction of my house. Sora came running onto the shoreline, waving.

"Hey," He said when he got to us, grinning and out of breath. "You need to come back. For the party. It's in six hours, you know. We've barely started getting the decorations up. Oh, and by the way, Mom picked up your tux from the cleaners. She wants you to try it on." Only then did he notice Namine. "Oh, hello there," He said, eyeing her up and down. I elbowed him in the stomach.

"Hello," She said politely, smiling.

"So, who's this?" Sora asked me, winking. I resisted the urge to punch him.

"This is my penpal, Namine," I said, scrambling for a story in my head. "She lives far away, and she wanted to surprise me by coming to Destiny Islands for my birthday."

"Oh," He said, completely believing it. She just nodded and played along. "Well, dude, we have to go."

"Sora," I explained to him. "She didn't know I had a party tonight, so she didn't pack a dress… Do you think--?"

"Kairi could dress her? Yeah, I'm sure she'd love to have a Barbie doll for the day. Believe me, she has too many prom dresses in that closet for her own good."

"Great, thanks. I'll just take her to Kairi's and then I'll be back home."

"Okay, I'll tell Mom."

"See ya."

I held Namine's hand. She was a little unsteady walking.

No. Seriously, she was.

Okay. Maybe it's like that a little….

I took her hand and started walking her to Kairi's house. When we reached the door, I explained to her what was going on.

"I have a party tonight," I said. "It's my Sweet Sixteen—humans have a big party when they turn sixteen. So I'm handing you over to Kairi—she's Sora's girlfriend. She'll get you dressed, get your makeup done, everything. She's really cool. You guys will be like sisters in no time. Okay?"

She nodded. Probably feeling a little bit overwhelmed.

I hugged her. "See you tonight," I smiled, running off to my house to get ready.