Author's Comments: Hello! How's your summer going? Hope you're enjoying yourself and that you enjoy reading this next installment.
Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or the lyrics to "Nothing on You" by B.o.B. (feat. Bruno Mars). I own Imani.
After parting ways with Roxas (I just knew my heart would never learn to fight off that dull ache I get every time he kissed me), I spent at least three minutes staring at the rusted back wall of my locker, my fingers curled around my pencil case. When I finally realized I was zoning out, I shut my locker and turned around to lean against it with a sigh.
I really wanted to find out what Imani looked for in guys, but she and I never talked about it. I didn't want to make her uncomfortable or to give the impression of being nosy. She didn't discuss anything related to the opposite sex with anyone…
"Beautiful girls all over the world…dun da duh da-ah but my time would be wasted…"
My jaw dropped as I watched the singing junior bob his Mohawk-mulleted head to his mp3 as he strolled past.
"They got nothing on yooooooou, bay-ee-bay-ay. Nothing on yoooooou, bay-ee-bay—"
Quickly I pushed myself off my locker and hurried to his side. "Demyx!" I half-shouted, placing a hand on his arm to get his attention.
His hair fluttered as he whirled his head to look at me. "Hey, Nam!" he cried, breaking into an even bigger grin and yanking out an earbud. "I feel like I haven't seen you in forever!"
"It's been a while," I agreed with my own smile. "I actually wanted to talk to you about something."
Demyx's pale blue eyes widened and his grin drooped. "Uh…r-really? Like what?"
His strange reaction made me hesitate for a second, but soon I waved him to bend down so I could whisper in his ear, "It's about Imani."
"Imani?" he exclaimed, jerking back like I told him I was being threatened by the city's most notorious gang. A glimmer of relief lit up his eyes, though.
I shrank back from his loud response. "It's just…you two are close…You've known her since you two were kids and I wanted—"
"Wait." He held the hand that wasn't cradling his mp3, his eyebrow quirking slowly. "Is this about Axel?"
I blinked. "Y-Yeah."
"Is this about how blind Imani is and how Axel can't seem to get a break?"
"Y-Yeah—"
"Oh thank God!" He placed his hand on his chest and exhaled loudly, his eyes rolling to the ceiling. "I've been wanting to do something about it for ages. Something has to be done! She seriously doesn't see what's right in front of her."
"Y…Yeah!" I nodded enthusiastically. "I was going to ask you if you knew anything that Axel could do to make her think twice about him."
Demyx waved a hand confidently. "I'm sure I can think of something and we can brainstorm and stuff! Oh, this is gonna be so cool! The three of us are like teaming up on a secret mission to nudge Ax in the right direction and make Imani realize how lucky she is!"
I blinked. "The three of us?"
"Yeah—you, me, and Zex!" He smiled so widely that I half-expected his cheeks to tear.
"The librarian Zexion?" I tilted my head.
"He's the only Zexion I know of!" he nodded. "Imani thinks I don't know that she's confiding in him. Psh." He waved a hand again. "Who does she think I am?"
I couldn't help laughing. Demyx was known for his connections. "Alright, then. When should we meet—"
The bell cut me off.
"Ack! Gotta run!" Demyx nearly tripped as he dashed past me down the hall, shouting over his shoulder, "Library after school!"
I waved to him and began walking to class. When I stepped through the door, I saw that Axel and Riku were already in their seats, leaning towards each other and whispering conspiratorially…at least, that was what they looked like they were doing.
"Hey guys," I cut in, squeezing past Riku's desk and sliding into my chair. "What're you guys talking about?"
"Nothing special," Axel shrugged after a strange beat of silence. "I was telling Riku about getting the tats yesterday."
"I bet you were bawling like a baby," Riku smirked.
"Was not," he growled, narrowing his eyes. Only then did I notice the carefully concealed circular bandages under each eye. From the makeup smudging in the edges, I assumed Kairi helped him out a little this morning.
All the same, my heart dropped to my stomach. "You got the ones on your face?" I moaned.
"I told you guys I was gonna do it," he shrugged, a hand reaching up to gingerly pat down the skin-colored bandage. "The badass factor is ten times greater when everyone can see."
"You're going to get expelled," Riku hissed, his eyes glittering dangerously. "Xemnas has zero tolerance for stuff like this."
"I'll deal with whatever he throws at me." Axel smirked and mussed up Riku's hair. "It's very sweet of you to worry about me, Ree-koo."
"Cut it out, Ax," Riku snapped, batting his hand away. "I'm being serious—"
"I understand that school ends next week, but please take heed to finish strong! Finals come before summer fantasies!" Mr. Cogsworth shouted over the din as he entered. He set his thick tomes down on his desk and waddled to the blackboard. "I've also an announcement to make: Because the school year is nearly finished, I've decided to keep Alice as our class representative, despite her constant tardiness."
A few students groaned, a few sighed in relief, and a few (like Riku and I) laughed and patted Axel on the back. "Maybe next year," I consoled him.
"Whatever." He rolled his eyes.
"Oh don't be like that!" I giggled. "You know you want to spend all the time you can get with her."
"But who's to say Imani will run for class rep next year?" Riku pondered quietly as Mr. Cogsworth rambled on. "She hated it this year."
"Only because Mr. Cogsworth is head teacher for student politics," I said. "Aside from him, I think she kind of enjoys it. She knows the involvement will look good on her transcripts, too."
"Along with co-managing the junior varsity blitzball team with Kairi and earning those A's and B's," Riku added. "Plus her jo—I mean…"
I winced inwardly while he clenched his jaw. He was going to mention her job.
Axel's back straightened considerably. "Her what?"
"Nothing," Riku quickly answered.
Before Axel could push the subject anymore, I interrupted, "I don't know how she manages to keep up with everything. I mean, she has amazing memory and blitzball season just finished, but…"
"She's a beast," Riku agreed.
"Her what?" Axel demanded a little louder, slamming his palm onto his desktop.
"Pay attention," Mr. Cogsworth commanded, "lest the three of you would care to stay behind today for detention."
"You'd better tell me later," Axel hissed to us before turning to the front, "or else. Got it memorized?"
Riku and I exchanged a glance. He rolled his eyes in an ooh-I'm-SO-scared-of-his-badass-ness way and I nearly laughed out loud. We both knew how to lie, and even if Axel saw through whatever we told him, we knew how to keep out mouths shut.
"So it's just you and me today, huh?" Kairi chirped as we grabbed an empty table and set our bags and plates of food down. "Everyone else's got lunch meetings and stuff."
I counted off with my fingers while sitting down, "Roxas is at a meeting for next fall's struggle season, Imani's at student government, Riku's tutoring, Sora's going over the band lineup for this Saturday with Demyx, Axel has detention with Mr. Lexaeus…"
"I heard he was playing with Imani's hair this time," my cousin laughed. "You know what he told me once? He said he felt the need to do something new to her every Algebra class because variety—"
"Is the spice of life!" I burst in giggles. "He told me that too!"
"Did he say it with the accent?"
"And the salsa steps!"
"He nearly tripped—"
"And knocked over Mr. Xemnas as he was walking past!"
Laughter racked our stomachs so badly we could hardly get a bite or two past our lips before clapping our hands over our mouths and shaking in mirth together. "Hoo…Okay, we need to change the subject," Kairi declared breathlessly.
"O-Okay…Well, I should tell you," I started as the giggles slowly died down, "I'm meeting with Demyx and Zexion after school to conspire about Axel and Imani."
"Really?" her eyes lit up and she leaned forward. "Do tell."
"We were going to discuss what Imani's unspoken sought-out qualities in a guy are," I went on between bites of my turkey sandwich. "You know, to give Axel some hints."
"That's brilliant," she cheered as she slurped her ice tea. "I wish I could come and help you guys, but I've got a last-minute Mock UW meeting to go to."
I nodded. "That's fine. Gosh, everyone's so involved," I sighed. "Other than my advanced art class, I don't really do any extracurricular activities."
She stabbed a few bits of salad and popped them in her painted mouth. "There's nothing wrong with that," she shrugged. "We just finished our first year. You can get more involved next year if you want. You should join Mock UW with me. You'd be really good at that."
Though Kairi's been telling me how interesting and fun Mock United Worlds has been and despite how many times I've dwelled on the idea of joining next year, I only offered a noncommittal "maybe" before saying, "We were talking about Imani's student politics involvement in homeroom today and Riku almost blabbed about her job in front of Axel."
"He what?" she exclaimed. "Jeez. He's like the smartest guy in our grade."
"He has his moments."
"Yeah. So how'd Axel react?"
"If he asks anything, lie or keep mum."
"Of course. Now that that's out of the way," my heart sank for the second time today when I heard the older-sister tone in her voice, "what's going on between you and Roxas?"
On days when Kairi and I spend lunch alone together, the subject is always brought up: What am I going to do about Roxas? Am I going to tell him? "Eventually" isn't a good enough answer. When? I'm honestly going to wait another year? Really?
"Look, Nam," Kairi said, leaning forward across the table earnestly, "I understand that it's really scary to admit something so personal to someone else, even if he's your best friend…especially since he's your best friend. A lot can change depending on what you say." A sheepish grin tugged her cheeks. "I should know, right?"
"You were freaking out last year about telling Sora," I nodded. "Imani and I spent hours on the phone with you every weekend to talk you through your fears."
"And you guys are my heroes for that." She squeezed my hand. "I know you and Roxas are a billion times closer than I was with Sora at the time, but I think what you told me last year still rings true today. Remember what you said?"
I had to think for a moment, but soon the constantly-repeated sentence I'd said to Kairi came to mind clearer than a bell. "Sora will respect you for garnering the courage to openly admit your feelings," I murmured. "Even if he only loves you as a friend, he'll admire you for your strength and your trust in him and your friendship will transform for the better."
"Exactly," she said. "You and Roxas are no different. I know he loves you, and even if he loves you only as a friend, I think he'll love you even more for trusting him and the friendship you have with him enough to confess this secret you're keeping."
I averted my eyes from my half-eaten plate of food to her encouraging eyes, drowning in shades of aqua and teal and baby blue.
"I don't mean to rush you," she went on, "but I really, really think you should tell him soon. He deserves that from you, don't you think?"
A defeated sigh slipped from me and I smiled weakly. "Yeah."
"Who deserves what?"
I looked over my shoulder and smiled. "Hey, you."
Roxas swung a leg over the seat and plopped down, planting a kiss on my mouth with a smile. "Hey. Hey, Kairi."
Her cheeky grin made my blush flare and my stomach flutter even more. "You two are so adorable I could throw up."
Roxas rolled his eyes. "Whatever."
"How was your meeting?" I asked, sliding my plate his way for him to take a bite of my sandwich.
He shrugged. "Summer training starts in three weeks. Me and Hayner were the only freshmen there and everyone was glad Seifer's gang wouldn't be returning next year."
Kairi whispered harshly, "Did you see Axel's face?"
"Yup." He groaned. "He's so going to get expelled."
"You did a good job covering the bandages," I told my cousin. "I had to really look for them."
"The wonders of makeup," she declared proudly, puffing her chest and nodding sagely.
"Did Imani say she noticed anything?" I asked Roxas.
"She's got the eyes of a hawk," he exhaled loudly, propping his head up on his elbow. "Axel kept changing the subject by asking her what extracurricular activity she was involved in besides student government and blitzball management and then Imani would dodge that subject by bringing up the bandages. They'd go back and forth, back and forth…"
"Verbal hot potato," Kairi laughed. "Figures."
I nodded. "Too bad those really good observation skills skip over his obvious signs of affection."
"But that's where you, Dem, and Zexion come in!" Kairi happily replied.
"Huh?" Roxas tilted his head and quirked and eyebrow in a way that made my heart melt. "I'm lost."
"The three of us are going to brainstorm battle tactics for Axel after school today," I told him.
His face split into a wide grin. "Sweet. Mind if I tag along?"
"Do you even have to ask?" I smiled back. "Of course you can come."
Author's Afterthought: Be honest-am I not putting enough Namine and Roxas action? I feel like that's the case. I'm really trying my best to put more in, but keep me in check, please? Leave a review and let me know what you think! Thank you for reading!
