The (Other) End of the Road

Chapter Ten

After I finished tending the fields I decided to start cleaning out the barn, getting it ready for when I did eventually obtain some animals. The barn had gotten pretty dirty and run down from sitting empty for so long, and it smelled something fierce.

"Hey… Roxas?"

I jumped out of my skin, whacking my head on the top gate of a horse stall as I hopped to my feet in surprise. "Namine. You scared me!" I laughed, wiping my hands off on my shorts.

She was standing in the doorway of the barn holding a plate of cookies. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to scare you! I just… wanted to bring these over for you."

"They smell delicious," I grinned, grabbing one off the plate and taking a big bite out of one. "Oh my God, they're amazing…"

"Thanks! It's Grandma's recipe," she beamed happily, looking proud of herself. "It took me forever to perfect them."

I inhaled the rest of the cookie and laughed, "Well, they're definitely perfect. Thank you so much for bringing them over."

"Well… I kind of came over to invite you to dinner with my family as well. Mom's cooking up something delicious!"

I thought about it for a minute, a little hesistant to agree. Namine was a really nice girl, and I could see her as a good friend, but this whole setup was making things incredibly awkward.

"Uhm… that sounds nice, I guess. I just need to clean up a little," I eventually nodded, not wanting her to feel bad if I said no.

"Okay! I can wait out here if you wanted to walk together," she smiled warmly, handing me the plate.

I chuckled and waved for her to follow me. "C'mon. You can wait inside. I'm not going to make you stand out here in the hot sun."

"It is a little bit hot out," she blushed, following me inside and sitting down on the couch. "Take your time!"

"I won't be long," I told her, heading upstairs to change my shirt and clean my face a bit with some cool water. In a few minutes I came back down and we headed out.

But just as I walked out the front door with her, I made eye contact with Axel, who was standing on his front porch with Charlie sitting next to him. He looked …confused, like he didn't know why I'd be with her alone in my house.

Charlie perked up when he saw me and came bounding down the path like a nut, plowing into me and slurping my entire hand up into his mouth.

Namine squealed and bent down to pet him, rambling on about how cute he was. "Ooh, what a sweet doggie! He's so big and fluffy!"

Axel chuckled and walked across the path, shrugging his shoulders. "He really seems to like Roxas. I can't keep him away from here."

She giggled and hugged Charlie while I looked up at Axel. "It's okay. He's fun to have around."

"What're you guys up to?" he asked casually, shoving his hands in his pockets while he waited for an answer.

"Oh! We were just headed to dinner," Namine answered before I could even open my mouth, rolling around in the grass with Charlie while he licked her face.

Axel's face fell and he nodded, "I see. Well have fun, guys. I'll try to keep Charlie from trailing you."

"Ooh, I'd happily steal him from you," she joked, trying to pull herself back to her feet. I reached down and gave her a hand, lifting her up and out of Charlie's reach. "He is just too cute!"

"Yeah, he's pretty awesome," Axel smiled, summoning Charlie to his side with a snap of his fingers. "Enjoy dinner, you two."

Before I managed to think of something to say back, he was already walking into his house with Charlie on his heels.

"Aww," Namine cooed, straightening herself back out. "I never knew Axel had a doggie!"

"You must not come out this way too often, huh?" I chuckled, starting to head down the path into town.

She shook her head, blushing a little. "No, not really… I've never had a reason to before, besides Hayner and Olette's wedding."

"So I take it you guys aren't fans of the Flynn family either?"

"Well, we were too little to really know what happened… I've never had anything against Axel, but Reno can really be a jerk to everyone. He's got a very short fuse."

I nodded, "That's the general consensus I've been getting from people. I'm just curious about it, I guess."

"I've always stayed out of it, but there seems to be a pretty big rivalry between the farms. I think that Reno is just afraid that he won't be able to take care of his brother. He cares about him so much."

It was kind of cute that even though Axel was a 32 year old man, his brother still felt the need to worry about him. "So… why does their farm struggle? Do you know?"

"They just don't have enough land. If you combine Hayner's farm with yours, you guys have acres to work with. Hayner's got three big barns and two chicken coops on his property alone, plus a ton of fields to plant in. They only have a couple of fields in the back and one small barn and a coop. There isn't enough space for them to up the amount of products they can sell. And your grandfather's farm has more room than you'll ever know what to do with. That plot of land has been in your family for generations. Mom says that before Mr. Flynn passed away, he'd been trying to buy some of the excess land from your grandfather and he wouldn't sell."

So far, Namine had been the most forthcoming with information on the whole ordeal and I was very grateful for it. I already had a plan mulling through my mind. "I can see why Reno would be salty about it, then. Not that it gives him an excuse to be such a dick, but…"

"Wait, where is everyone?" Namine looked confused as we walked into the hotel and upstairs to their living space. "Mom? Kairi? Xion?"

I could smell dinner, but the kitchen and dining room were empty. "Where would they have gone?"

She pulled a note off the refridgerator and sighed, thrusting it at me after reading it. "They all conveniently ended up having plans. Of course."

"What?" I read the note, confused.

"I knew they were going to do this… ugh!" she sat down at the dinner table. "They tricked us into having dinner alone together."

I sat down across from her and sighed. "Look, Namine… I'm just really not looking to date anybody right now. I mean, I just got here. It's not that you're-"

"Roxas," she cut me off, "I'm not interested either. Not in dating you, at least. You don't have to worry about it. I don't know what possessed our families to try and push us together like that, but I've only ever wanted to be your friend."

"Oh," I sat back in shock, incredibly glad to hear that. "Well… that makes things a lot easier."

She giggled softly, "And it has nothing to do with you either. I just happen to have feelings for someone else."

"Oooh," I sang, teasing her a little, "And who does Namine have a crush on?"

"Your cousin, Van," she mumbled, blushing deeply. "But don't tell anybody!"

"Vanitas?" I howled in laughter, almost falling out of my chair. "Ohh, that's… that's amazing… You two could not be any more polar opposite!"

She leaned over and whacked me on the arm, huffing. "Shut up! That's why I like him! He's different…"

"Yes, he does have that serial killer-esque charm about him," I snorted, laughing so hard my eyes were watering.

"He's a very sweet guy deep down! I've seen it before!" she defended him, crossing her arms over her chest. "When we were kids, he rescued a hurt bunny from the woods and took care of it until it was better."

I eyeballed her curiously, "And you've been in love with him since?"

"No!" she squawked a little too loudly. "I mean… maybe…"

"Sooo why haven't you told him, silly?"

Her eyes went wide and she shook her head quickly. "I can't! I know for a fact that my sisters would never approve. And besides, he'd never go for me anyways…"

"One, who gives a shit what your sisters think? Two, you're never going to know unless you tell him. So… do that."

"But-"

"Do it," I stressed, standing up and moving over to the oven. "In the meantime, this food smells amazing. We might as well eat it since they left it for us."

She smiled and perked up a little, getting up to help me. "It's nice to see you acting like yourself. I'm sorry that we sprung that party on you."

"Don't worry about it," I shrugged, pulling some plates out of the cupboard. "I'm just bad at socializing."

"It'll get easier once you know everybody a little better. We're all pretty much strangers to you right now; even your family."

"Well… I know that I'll at least have one friend no matter what," I smiled, poking her in the side. "And I'm not going to rest until you've confessed your love to Vanitas."

She snarled and poked me back. "You can't tell anybody! Not until I've talked to him."

"I would never! It'll be our little secret," I promised, putting my hand over my heart. "And just so that you have a secret to hoard over me as blackmail… I'll tell you what I've been hiding from everyone."

"Oh? I'm listening," she raised an eyebrow.

"Well… the real reason that I would never date you is actually pretty simple. I'm gay."

…..

A/N: Oh noooo! I didn't update last night! …But hopefully this chapter made up for it. I was just so tired after work, and then we saw Suicide Squad and I was too excited to write! Anyways, sorry! I'll try my extra super hardest to get a chapter out tomorrow too, but I have a lot planned. But hey, every other day is pretty good too, right? Right?

Thank you so much to everyone that's been reviewing! I love it!

Buh bye! Love ya!

Simply Rexene