Author's Note: I'm changing the rating from K+ to T, just in case. Other than that, please enjoy the next chapter!
Chapter Ten: Tanjoubi Omedetou
Something was off. Something was definitely off. Sora was tailing the usual gang, Kairi, Roxas and Naminé, with his hands in his pockets of his jeans, his eyebrows pointing slightly upwards. The trio before him was too busy trying to open a canned coke without breaking anything, since the essential part of opening a canned soda was missing – the opener. And thus, no one noticed the Sora in distress. He was thinking about his friends' relationships quite intensely. The friends he was thinking about were somehow Riku and Kairi. Somehow.
In fact, the trio plus Sora were at Kairi's house, celebrating Kairi's birthday – and yes, Kairi had decided to invite Naminé as well. Sora had been there since the morning, helping Kairi and his father decorate and clean the house. Naminé and Roxas had come by the time that was announced in the digital invitation. What was out of ordinary in this special occasion was Riku not being present. As long as Sora could remember, Riku would've got to Kairi's house before him, making this the first time Sora got there first. Sora was starting to get worried. What if Riku had forgotten that today was Kairi's party? What if he had gotten into an accident? Knowing Riku, the first two options sounded quite impossible. Even though Riku couldn't memorize all other special occasions, such as Mothers' Day, Easter, or even New Year's Eve – which was later on reminded to him via fireworks – he would never forget Sora's or Kairi's birthdays, be it official or the party.
Suddenly, Sora's mind had come into a conclusion. 'Could it be... Could it possibly be... that Riku is avoiding... me?!' For a few minutes, this line was the only thing going through Sora's head, along with calculations and analyzes of the past days. He thought about it. Riku hadn't replied to any texts or calls he had sent to him ever since Friday. 'Is it because I kept Kairi's secret a secret from him?'
The trio had successfully opened the coke and they were celebrating the success by pouring the coke equally in four glasses. With satisfied expressions on their faces, they drank the small amount of liquid, but were quick to notice that one wasn't participating.
"Earth to Sora~", Kairi yelled and glomped Sora behind him. Sora still had a serious expression, but it was soon wiped away as he was caught off guard, and had to regain his balance in order to not fall along with the somewhat hyper Kairi. "I'm here, I'm here", he reassured with a hint of irritation in his voice. Roxas and Naminé were looking at the sweet moment and the lovely positions their OTP had. Kairi was now poking Sora's cheek, and Sora was puffing them. They both looked amused by this little fun, even though Sora's cheeks had a pink tint on them.
"Don't go spacing out, especially since today I'm the princess!" Kairi announced cheerfully, and had a victorious smile on her face. Sora grinned at her silly statements. Yes, today, he wouldn't have time to worry about Riku. If he wouldn't come today, he was sure to give him a punishment the next day after school. Today, he would celebrate Kairi's birthday.
"Weren't you going to be my personal maid?" Sora asked following with a few chuckles. Naminé turned to Roxas with a puzzled look, but was only returned with a "I'll tell you later" -look. Kairi answered with something along the lines "Today is an exception." Despite it all, Sora was happy. The two of them were now the same age.
And before anyone realized it, Sora lifted Kairi up, and was carrying her princess-style. Kairi's attempts to talk him to put her down weren't heard by the said boy, and when she finally gave up and their eyes met, Sora winked and said:"You're the princess today, right?" For a reason unknown to Kairi, she blushed at this, and turned her head at his chest in order to hide the blush from Roxas, Naminé and Sora himself.
"Do what you want", she mumbled against Sora's shirt, making the words difficult to hear, while taking in Sora's scent. Sora's heart skipped a beat every time he could feel Kairi's breath against him. 'Does this mean it's not over?' he thought, while the confused feelings were mixing inside of him. But instead of raging just because he was a little confused, he tried his best not to cause any unneeded scenes on his best friend's birthday.
The four of them kept partying. They ate lots of pizza, that Kairi's dad had ordered for them, and lots of cake Sora and Kairi had baked earlier. Sure, it had got burnt for some parts, the whipped cream and paopu-flavored jam was flooding all over the place, and the toppings weren't honestly arranged that beautifully, but it was the most delicious cake the four of them had ever had. It was probably because – as cliché as it sounds – it was made out of love. Roxas, Namine, Sora and Kairi played lots of games, everything from classic boardgames through video games to those childlike hide-and-seeks and tags. It was the time to open the presents, but Riku still hadn't come.
Sora was starting to get irritated at this. He took out his phone while everyone else were occupied by something else, and tried to contact the silver-haired boy who hadn't shown up. Sora let the phone try to contact him for fair twenty seconds, but as he came up to the conclusion Riku wouldn't answer, he hung up.
"Kai, Riku won't answer his phone", he said once he returned to the triangle, breaking it into a square. For a minute, Kairi looked serious and her expression was spacing out, as if she were thinking about something intensely.
"I see..." were the words she finally let out of her mouth. "I guess I'll try to call him", she continued, while taking out her own white touch-screen, that had been decorated by various pearls, stickers, what ever you could use for decoration, really.
"Oh and Roxas, Naminé, stop shaking those packages!"
"Yeah, that's what you say, but how can you possibly get this many gifts?" the blondes protested, gesturing towards the huge mountain of boxes. Sora let out a chuckle before answering to the puzzled duo.
"Her relatives send her tons. But despite that, his dad probably gave her seventy-five percent of these."
Roxas, who was holding a package that was the same size as he himself, almost dropped it, if it weren't for Naminé, who happened to be next to him, catching it for him. He muttered a quick thanks before turning at Sora and while turning imaginary tables all around.
After a while, everyone were staring at Kairi, who had closed her phone after the call. "Negative." Or the attempted call. "He won't answer", she told the rest of them, while dropping her shoulders in disappointment. "Now that I think about it, I did text him last night. And I don't recall him texting me back." Sora nodded as an agreement, while the blondies just looked at her with understanding expressions. Whether they really understood or not wasn't shown in their eyes.
The somewhat sad expression was wiped away in a second, and soon Kairi was smiling her usual smile again. "Oh well, whatever! He probably forgot or something, got caught in a Friends-marathon and ignored his cell phone's battery", she threw. Sora was about to mention that none of those were possible, considering the guy in question, but kept it to himself. He really didn't want to ruin the day. So, with a casual atmosphere, they proceeded to opening the gifts.
First was Roxas. He walked to Kairi, and handed her a slim piece of paper. A letter, to be exact. He faced her eyes while rubbing the back of his head and apologizing. "I didn't know what to get for you, so I just got you a card and put some money inside it. Buy whatever you want with it", he said, and sat down where he had been sitting. Kairi, however, looked somehow over-joyed and it was obvious how much she wanted to just jump and sing.
After Roxas was Naminé, who also walked to Kairi, but only slightly slower and shyer. She was flinching a little, biting her bottom lip and kept glancing somewhere else than at Kairi. Kairi noticed her uneasiness and told her that it's okay,and that she didn't have to be so nervous. Of course, Naminé heard the words, but wasn't able to relax at all. Every time she happened to look at the huge mountain, she felt like her own gift had no chance of being as good.
Other than Kairi, also Roxas noticed Naminé's nervousness. He grinned when a plan suddenly popped into his head. The blond stood up and walked behind Naminé. Naminé, who was too stiff to notice her surroundings, kept looking at Kairi, then back to the mountain of gifts, and then back to Kairi. She was quite close to not give her her present, but before she could back away, Roxas, who was right behind her, hugged, or rather glomped her playfully. "Wha-!" The blonde was quickly caught off guard and was fighting hard against the Physic's laws and maintaining her balance.
"W-w-what are you doing, Roxas?" she asked in a bit higher pitch than usual, caused probably by the shock she got.
"Nnn, Naminé, you look just like a cloud, with your fluffy hair and white clothes, I couldn't resist!" he explained, even though right after this, he whispered some silent words into Naminé's ear. "Don't think about the gifts others gave, your gift is just as good as the others."
And again, while rubbing the back of his head, Roxas apologized to Naminé, as if he never whispered anything to her. But thanks to his marvelous plan, Naminé relaxed quite a bit. In fact, she wasn't even nervous anymore, and handed her own package with confidence.
Once Kairi accepted the gift with a polite thank you, she was very curious to see to the inside. She picked up a pair of small scissors and cut the tape. She proceeded to carefully getting the item, that was inside, out, without necessarily destroying the pretty wrapping paper any more. While trying to get the item out, she had hundreds of thoughts wandering inside her head. Why had she not felt so jealous when she saw that "moment" Roxas and Naminé had. Why hadn't she felt any kind of depression, irritation or sadness at that moment. Could it be, that she was over it? But if that were the case, why did she feel so happy when she received the minimalistic letter from Roxas? The moment she got hold of the item, her head emptied of all the thoughts she had, and gently pulled it out. And the second she saw what it was, she gasped in excitement.
"Whoaa!" was the first thing that came out of her mouth. Not the smartest thing to say, but she couldn't get herself to mutter any other words at that moment.
"This... this is amazing!" she said, after finally being able to talk. "I've always wanted something like this!"
'This' was a box of colored pencils. Quality stuff, by the way. Naminé was obviously a professional – even though she would never admit it herself – and knew all the good brands.
Kairi was genuinely amazed, as she kept pouring compliments at Naminé. But compliments weren't enough, and soon Kairi was hanging on Naminé's neck like she'd never let go. "Thanks soo much!" she yelled, now sobbing happy tears. After hesitating for a second, Naminé hugged back, and smiled secretly.
The situation took several minutes to calm down. But once it had, it meant that Sora would be up next. With calm and determined eyes, he approached Kairi, and took out his package. It was rather small, possibly being a medium-sized box of chocolate, or a below average-sized book. He handed it over to Kairi, who was once again curious to see what was inside.
Again, carefully opening the gift, Kairi found out that what was inside was a small purse. It had an adorable design, despite being cute simple. The base color was a dark shade of gray, which could have been considered black. But in the center of all darkness, there was a long, pink ribbon that gave some nice contrast.
Truthfully, these kinds of things weren't new to Kairi. She knew what kind of presents Sora gave out. She knew he'd know what kind of a taste Kairi had, and that's why she wasn't really surprised. But none-the-less, she was very happy. "Thanks, Sora, it's adorable", she thanked, while smiling a sweet, innocent smile. Sora was the same as Kairi, and he was used to this reaction she gave. However, even though it was predictable, it couldn't stop Sora from blushing, as he ran a hand through his hair in embarrassment.
Out of a habit, Kairi opened the purse, without expecting anything. But she sure was surprised to see what was on the inside. She reached to it and pulled it out. It was a shiny, golden pendant. "Wow..." her eyes were shining as she stared at the necklace, and the jewel that was bound in it. "Oh Paopu, this is gorgeous", she said, completely enchanted by the jewel. It looked like an opal, having a sunny effect in it. "If I were to describe Destiny Island, it would definitely be this."
Sora was now happier than ever. But even though this was a fact, he just kept smiling a warm smile, while sitting next to the girl he could never let go, no matter how hard he tried. He glanced at her. Her eyes were still sparkling, and her mouth forged a small 'o' from adoration. Before realizing it, he had already wrapped her around his arms. "Happy birthday, Kairi", he whispered, and Kairi was barely able to hear. She didn't seem to mind being in Sora's arms, and she put the pendant down, even though she was still holding it.
Roxas and Naminé were squealing on the inside like silly fangirls. Talking to each other silently with their eyes, they were as excited as ever. "Let's leave", Roxas suggested by tilting his head a couple of times towards the kitchen. Naminé merely smiled as an agreement, and they left from the room as silently as possible.
"Oh, right, let me put that on for you", Sora suggested, pointing at the necklace. Kairi nodded and turned around so that her back was towards Sora, and she lifted up her hair.
Blush.
"Uh, yeah, look out for your hair, then, okay?"
"Yeah."
Kairi gathered her hair once again, this time a bit more properly, and held it up. She flinched slightly when she felt the cold material of the necklace against her skin. But the coldness didn't last for long, since the next thing she could feel was Sora's touch. Kairi closed her eyes. 'He sure has that calming effect', she thought, while she let Sora complete fidgeting with the lock. Soon the brunet was done, and the red-head could let go of her hair.
"Wait, where did those two go?" Sora asked in confusion, but only getting a shoulders' raise -gesture and a confused expression as a reply.
After spying and staring at the cute pairing, Roxas and Naminé were helping themselves to another serving of cake with satisfied smiles on their faces. Naminé took a huge piece, and Roxas couldn't help but to hold his laughter in, when he compared his own, rather small piece, and Naminé's big one.
"You like these kinds of cakes?" Roxas asked, still trying to resist the urge to chuckle. Naminé looked as if she were sent to heaven each time she took a bite. Her spoonfuls were surprisingly very small compared to the amount she was about to finish.
"Mhyhm, ve bilmn esh delishm!" she replied, and Roxas finally burst out laughing. Wiping a tear from the corner of his eye, he said:"Gee, eat or talk, just not both at the same time."
Naminé blushed at this, and emptied her mouth before she opened it again. "I said that the filling is delicious."
"Yeah, I understood as much. The filling is Kairi's favorite, by the way, it's paopu", the blond boy replied, while still laughing a little silently. He decided to start eating his own piece, and took a spoonful. He didn't specifically like or dislike the cake, but he had to admit that it wasn't his favorite and he would have rather had something more salty.
"Paopu, huh... Isn't that what Destiny Island is known for?" Naminé asked, with her cheeks full of the cake, which made her look like a hamster. And again, Roxas had to fight against an urge. This time, he really wanted to poke Naminé's cheeks, but was afraid that they would explode one way or another.
"More or less."
The blondes continued eating in silence, giving Sora and Kairi some privacy, and they were really eager to see some progress.
"Oh, yeah, by the way, it won't take so long until you-know-who-two will move on to the next stage. Probably", Naminé started, breaking the slience that had been lingering around.
"Err, I don't know... I haven't known the two of them that well since grade seven... I just got to know Kairi last year and Sora this year, but they seem like the type to be really, really, really slow about things like these", Roxas countered, and his point made the both of them laugh at the pairing they were talking about.
"I can completely see them taking their time, now that I think about it!"
"Right, right? If they were ever to get married, I doubt they would until they were both twenty-five or something!"
"Yep! That would seem completely natural."
With a few more points made, the two of them fell silently again. It seemed like they weren't able to keep up a conversation for so long, but the silences between them weren't so awkward. Rather, they were quite comfortable, more like some time and space to pick up their thoughts and try to put every piece in the puzzle to their place. They both were quite the thinkers, after all.
When Naminé was running through her thoughts, she was reminded of one she was thinking of back when they were giving out their presents to Kairi. She bit her bottom lip while trying to come to a conclusion, but she was uncertain. But unlike Naminé, Roxas wasn't thinking about anything at all, despite the fact that he used to think a lot whenever silence was cast upon the crowd. He was leaning on his right hand, and his other hand was resting on the table. Both of their plates were empty. Roxas' plate was quite tidy, since he'd eat as much as he could, literally, while Naminé's plate was not as clean, since she had left all the crumbs and the last bits of whipped cream on the plate. They had both finished their pieces are the same time, even though, as already told, Naminé's was far bigger.
Naminé was having a hard time thinking about all the possibilities that were available to her so-called problem. Or rather than being a problem, more like being a thought. But our other lovely blond was smirking playfully while staring at Naminé. He absolutely adored her features. Her hair was quite a few degrees lighter than his own, and seemed really fluffy, despite being straight, unlike Roxas' own hair, which curled into spikes everywhere. But not only her hair was lighter than his. Her eyes were the same, too. Those light blue orbs looked really nice next to Roxas' blue ones. If Roxas would ever have to describe his type, it would've been pretty much like Naminé. The said boy smiled at the girl before him, who was unintentionally massaging her temples gently.
"Hey..."
One single word, and Roxas was flustered. He wasn't expecting Naminé to come back from space anytime soon, so he got quite startled, and was blushing a little because of it. "W-what is it?" he asked, trying to be as calm as possible.
"Knowing you, you should have come up with something better than just a present and twenty bucks", she finally said, after considering the many ways to say the same thing. "Did you do it on purpose?"
Roxas tilted his head.
"Purpose? What are you talking about~. What if it's just that I honestly didn't know what to give her? Don't judge a book by it's cover, honey", Roxas protested with a deep exhale, which seemed more like a sigh, and raised his hand a bit to support his sentences.
"No, uhm, you just kind of seem like that sort of a person..." Naminé seemed like she would have gone back to the space to think about Roxas' words, but didn't get that far, before Roxas interrupted her thoughts.
"A ha", he chuckled. "Didn't think there'd be someone to actually figure it out!" he said in amusement, while smirking at Naminé. The whole time the two of them had been sitting around that table, Roxas hadn't let his smile fade away, not once. This girl, who he had known for only a few days seemed to catch up to him rather quickly. 'Could there be a reason to that?'
Naminé was slightly honored by these words, and blushed, although it wasn't visible on her cheeks.
"Well, but anyway, there's no way I'd give something gorgeous to Kairi as long as I want Sora and her to be together! If I gave something I'd be sure she would like, wouldn't Sora's gift lose it's effect? It's way more fun this way, right?" he said, and for a moment, he seemed really cool to Naminé. "I guess you could put it that way", Naminé replied with somewhat defeated tone.
Roxas started playing with his hands, and his expression turned serious.
"Hey, Naminé, have we met somewhere?" He faced straight towards Naminé, and they were looking into each others' eyes, until Naminé replied.
"I know... about your blog."
Five words.
Five words were enough to kick Roxas into a bucket of confusion and shock.
"W-w-w-w-whaa~t?!" he asked, grabbing his own face, as if preventing it from dropping. As soon as he had heard Naminé's serious words, his head was filled with the embarrassing, immature posts he had posted ages ago, which made him look immature. Some of the posts may have been rants and vents, some may have been pictures of some crappy meals he had prepared and taken a poor picture of with his phone's camera.
"Erm, uh... which one was it again?" Roxas asked, when he remembered that he had various of blogs, that he usually left when he got bored of the URL, or the design. He was the type to get excited over new things, but got bored of them quickly. But despite leaving the blogs, they were all linked to each other, they were a chain. His very first blog would still exist, and when you would enter it, it would say that the blog was inactive, and there would be a link to the "new" blog, that would be inactive too. Of course, this inactive blog would have a link to the next "new" blog, and so, the chain would continue.
Regardless of the chain, Roxas had been doing a pretty good job staying on only one, so far. His newest blog had been running for a good six months. He had already befriended some people who used to be anonymous, and he was wondering if Naminé could possibly have been one of them. So, as he waited for the answer, he was sweating awfully.
"How should I put this..." Naminé started, looking suddenly shy and not very confident. "I started looking up your..." She took out her left hand and used her fingers to count. She stopped to think when she came to her fourth finger, and was hesitating whether to raise her last one or not. Finally, she came up with an answer. "... fourth blog", she replied. "Oh, but I've looked up your older ones as well", she told him, with a tint of pinkness raising on her cheeks. "You sure have grown, you Organization's thirteenth member", she continued and smiled, making Roxas blush for some reason.
Organization – or to be precise, Organization XIII – was a group in the Internet, and was quite famous. Regardless of the name, there were actually fourteen members, two of them being female, the rest of them being male. Everyone assumed them to be good-looking, but not everyone had shown a picture of themselves. Roxas was one of those who had, but even though he was a member himself, he hadn't seen all of the other members' faces. The Organization had a public live chat room along with a private one. Usually they were just chatting about their daily lives in the public one. The public chat could be followed by anyone, but it wasn't accessible by just anyone. Those non-members who wanted to join the conversation had to be acknowledged by the leader. Of course, it helped if they knew one of the Organization's members, which was the reason why many people wanted to befriend them without actually wanting to know them.
"How did you know about me being in the Organization thingy?" Roxas asked, now in confusion. "My blogs don't mention a thing about that group. It's almost full of goorgeous people anyway", his last sentence reeked of sarcasm, but Naminé ignored it and answered his question instead.
"I once happened to google your nickname. Aisenmay. And that is not a common one, so it found your name in one of the saved chat conversations more than quickly", she explained, occasionally tilting her head to her side.
"Ugh, now I'll have to switch my blog again. I don't want people to find out", he said, but wanted to take it back the second his thought had made it's way out of his mouth, since he noticed Naminé's flinching and her shocked expression she was desperate to hide. "I... er, mean... It'd be troublesome if some annoying non-member would get in by applying information about me he got from my blog... or something..." he mumbled, although he was basically saying anything that sounded good in his head for the situation.
As much as she tried, Naminé couldn't ignore his words anymore. She was slightly hurt, and it pained her. Why? It was probably because she...
"... like you", she muttered, more like whispered, while facing the floor. When she realized what she had said, she felt blood raising into her head and she felt like her head was burning. She raised her head as quick as she could, to see Roxas' reaction.
But there was no reaction. Roxas tilted his head and an imaginary speech bubble with a '?' appeared above his head. When the boy in question noticed that Naminé wasn't going to say anything, she only wore her slightly shocked expression, he stood up and announced that he'd borrow the restroom. When he left, he could hear Naminé's relieved sigh. What the girl didn't know that his face was red. Really red. But whether Naminé could even find out was still unknown.