Author's Comments: Thanks to those who left reviews and pointed out my irking habit! Thanks also for the suggestions! I'm so sorry to say that the chapter starts out with heavy Axel/Imani, but I promise there's Roxas/Namine in here. Hope you still enjoy reading the chapter, though!

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts. I own Imani.

Demyx rapped his knuckles on the tabletop three times as if he were knocking on a door. "I officially call this meeting to order!"

"Keep in mind that this is a library," Zexion sighed, massaging one of his temples. "Just because Mr. Sid isn't here and the library is otherwise empty doesn't mean you can be as loud as you wish."

"I know that." The junior pouted momentarily at the intern librarian before turning to me with a grin. "Ready, Miss Secretary?"

"Ready," I piped, poising my pen over my blank sheet of paper.

"So, fellow members of the Axel Battle Tactic Committee—" Roxas rolled his eyes at the tacky name, "—to start things off, I suppose we'll go around in a circle and name off possible hints that lead to ideas for Axel to try," Demyx suggested. "Who wants to go first?"

When the room fell silent for almost ten seconds, Roxas finally raised his hand. "I'll start."

"Atta boy, Rox!" Demyx clapped him on the shoulder. "Go for it!"

"Library, Mr. O'Donohue."

"Erk. Sorry."

His blue eyes glanced at me for a moment, a small smile on his face. "I mentioned to Nam the other day that Imani really likes waffles," Roxas started as I jotted down the suggestion and tried not to melt at his smile. "This morning she was pretty happy because she said she had waffles for breakfast. Me and Imani and Sora were talking about our favorite foods and she mentioned strawberries and sea-salt ice cream."

"Waffles, strawberries, sea-salt ice cream," I muttered as I wrote.

"Uh…" he trailed off. "That's all I got right now."

"That's plenty!" Demyx declared. Zexion winced at his volume, curling his hand into a slightly shaking fist. "You next, Namine. Whatever you can think of!"

My hand ceased writing and I tapped the pen to my chin, my eyes lingering on the part of the tabletop near Roxas' fingertips. "Can I say things I know she doesn't like?"

"Why not?" I heard Demyx shrug. "Axel doesn't seem to pick up her hints well. We might have to spell stuff out like that for him."

All of us except Zexion smiled at the truth in his words. "Okay," I nodded, beginning to write again as I talk. "She doesn't like being distracted in class—"

"I beg to differ."

I halted, looking up to blink owlishly at the library intern. "Excuse me?"

"She told me she focuses effortlessly regardless of whether another classmate is being disruptive or not." He crossed his arms and sat back in his chair smugly.

"But she complains about Axel bugging her during Algebra all the time," I protested, shooting a look at Roxas who nodded in agreement. "He's done all sorts of things to distract her."

"I'm quite certain she welcomes the distractions," he said with a smirk. "Algebra is her most hated subject. She constantly grumbled about the class last semester, and she rarely mentions being frustrated while doing her homework, as Mr. O'Donohue has informed me."

"And last semester Axel wasn't in her Algebra class," Roxas finished, a smirk growing on his face. "Ha-ha. I bet she doesn't even notice the change."

"Wow, I didn't know that." I smiled at the thought of Imani emerging from class in a much better mood than when she entered. "You've learned quite a bit about her, haven't you?"

"She occasionally pauses in her studies to hold a brief conversation with me," he nodded with a flip of his bangs. "I just construe based on what she shares with me."

"That's what being a psychology major does for you," Demyx laughed.

"You're a psych major?" I gaped. "I didn't know that, either! That makes sense, though. I can picture you sitting in a large leather chair with a notepad in your lap asking the patient lying down on the couch," I cleared my throat and straightened up in my chair, wiping my smile off my face and peering at the intern, "'And how do you feel about that?'"

On my other side, Roxas burst in laughter. I instantly thought of bells and sunshine (as mushy as that sounds). "You crack me up sometimes, Nam," he told me happily.

I felt like I would swell until I burst. I loved making him laugh. "What else have you come up with?" I asked Zexion so I wouldn't appear too immersed in his infectious happiness.

Zexion's smirk evolved into a full-on evil grin, his visible indigo eye narrowing like the proverbial cat that had just eaten the canary. I hoped my reaction to Roxas wasn't the cause of his mirth. "She thinks about Mr. Flynn a great deal more than she suspects. We once talked about a love letter she received from a sophomore."

"WHAT?" we all shouted, causing him to wince and growl "library" again. "She didn't ever mention that!" I hissed, glancing at Roxas for confirmation (which he gave with a shrug).

"She told you about that?" Demyx slammed a palm on the table, excitement practically radiating off of him. "I thought I was the only one who knew!"

"She didn't tell me, per say," Zexion corrected. "She began mumbling to herself about a male named Peter Pan one afternoon. I overheard her unconsciously making comparisons between Mr. Pan and Mr. Flynn."

"Peter Pan?" I repeated, my eyebrows shooting up for the third time. "Isn't he involved with Wendy Darling now?"

"Yes, yes," he waved a hand dismissively, "but that is beside the point."

The three of us leaned in closer to him. "Then what is the point?"

He in turn inched back a bit to keep his personal space. "She noticed miniscule details like Mr. Pan's handwriting and form of speech and commented how messy and childish both appeared to her compared to Mr. Flynn's."

"Interesting." We glanced at each other and smirked.

A devilish gleam brightened Zexion's visible eye. "What's more, she was concerned about how vain he appeared to her and how childish his letter sounded. I heard her declare that should a male ever wish to enter courtship with her, he must be honestly concerned about her and approach her physically to discuss such wishes."

"Ha!" Demyx punched a fist in the air. "That's Axel, all right!"

"But she's not aware that he's expressing his feelings to her," I cut in. "It sounds like he needs to be more direct with her."

"How could he possibly be more direct than he is now?" A hand reached behind his head as Roxas scratched in mild frustration. "He's practically spelling it out for her!"

I began to tap my finger on the table as I thought. Would Axel need to spell out his feelings for her literally? Could the situation really reach such a level where he'd need a desperate strategy like that? Maybe there would be a more subtle, less excruciatingly obvious way…

"OOH! I just thought of a BRILLIANT idea!"

We turned to Demyx, the air thickening with apprehension. "Brilliant?" Roxas repeated nervously.

"Yeah! It's genius!" Demyx cried, jumping from his seat and leaning in. He eagerly waved the three of us to lean in closer before whispering secretively, "We should stage—" he paused for dramatic effect until Zexion glared at him, "—a mugging!"

The three of us froze.

"I'll get some of my jazz band buds to ambush her," he went on excitedly. "She'll scream, 'Help! Oh help!' and then in storms—dun duh dah!—Axel," he jumped up to stand on his chair, one foot on the table and an arm extended before him as if pointing to the distant setting sun, "the hero who rescues her from the clutches of completely randomly-appearing evil, displaying his protective slash possessive streak and indirectly declaring his undying devotion to Imani! Everyone will sigh and swoon and admire how cool he is and then Imani will gaze up at him with wide eyes—" he proceeded to widen his own eyes as an example, clasping his hands together, "—the gravity of his words sinking in and stirring her heart until she finally realizes the real meaning behind his constant attention-seeking ploys! She'll see him in a different light from that moment on and fall madly in love with him! It's brilliant, I tell you! Brilliant!"

Several things happened after his words echoed in the empty library. First, we gaped at him for at least a minute. Second, Roxas stood up, pulled the boy down, and slammed a fist squarely on Demyx's head, smashing down a portion of his Mohawk. Third, Zexion sighed in an understandably long-suffering manner. I myself didn't know whether to laugh or not.

"Hell no!" Roxas shouted as Demyx cowered in his seat and massaged his aching head. "Imani's too smart for that. She'll see right through it in no time."

"That's dangerous!" I cried. "And someone could get arrested or suspended or expelled!"

"What kind of a best friend to Imani are you?"

"She doesn't like feeling vulnerable, either, you know!"

"Axel would probably screw everything up anyway!"

"Right now, Axel is the last person she'd want to be vulnerable in front of—she has her pride and she harbors hidden, unconscious feelings for him, after all!"

"She's probably memorized a few Struggle techniques to use on fake muggers."

"I know you mean well, Demyx, but—"

"Stop."

The sentence sitting on the tip of my tongue faded with Zexion's command. The intern looked at us sternly, but his mouth twitched as if he was trying to suppress a smirk. "We all agree against Mr. O'Donohue's plan. There's no need to further tag-team your rejection."

"Kinda scary how you two are on the same wavelength," Demyx noted with an easy grin, seemingly unfazed at the strong opposition to his brilliant plan. "Guess that just shows how compatible for each other you two are."

My jaw dropped and I thought my face would melt from the sudden heat. "W-What's that supposed to mean?"

"Yeah, what is that supposed to mean?" Roxas asked. I couldn't find the courage to glance at his face to see how he'd reacted.

"Now, Mr. O'Donohue," Zexion sighed bemusedly, "we're here to discuss Miss Brisce and Mr. Flynn, not Miss Snow and Mr. McCartney. Let's keep to the topic, shall we?"

"We shall!" the junior chirruped, dropping the subject altogether. "Okay, so is it my turn to contribute my extensive knowledge of Imani?"

The chair next to me scraped the floor a little as Roxas scooted forward in his seat and insisted, "Wait, don't change the subj—"

"Okay, so from what I know," Demyx tapped his chin with one finger, his sky blue eyes squinting at the ceiling, "I can definitely say she's into guys who give off an air of mystery."

Clearing my throat, I asked in what I hoped sounded like a neutral, not-embarrassed-about-the-earlier-insinuation tone, "What makes you think that?"

"She used to like Riku," he answered with a shrug. "The guy breathes unknown. He's like one of those Prince-Charming-type guys in the shoujo manga who're gentlemanly and don't let just anyone get close to them so all their fangirls swoon at their grace and worship the ground they walk on because they think they're in love with them."

I breathed a mental sigh of relief when I heard Roxas ask, "You read shoujo manga?"

Demyx's cheeks colored as he sputtered helplessly. Under Roxas' inquisitive (and slightly disgusted) gaze, he huffed and crossed his arms defensively. "S-Songwriting research."

Roxas arched an eyebrow. "Right."

As I wrote the word mystery on my paper, I voiced my thoughts, "I'm not sure she thinks Axel is mysterious, though. He's just…unpredictable."

"Which is a form of being mysterious," Demyx reasoned, his pointer finger upright to accent his position. "Imani's so used to knowing everything about everyone that she gets intrigued—"

And frustrated, Roxas' shared uncertain glance with me screamed.

"—when she comes across something unexpected. You should've heard what she said—"

Another glance. What she ranted—

"—to me after her first day of middle school. She wouldn't stop talking about some redheaded kid who pissed her off like crazy with his big devilish grin and the way he always spelled words out and his constant, pointless reminders to memorize stuff."

"So what are you suggesting, then?" Zexion finally interrupted. "Since Miss Brisce seems to be blinded by her displeasure with Mr. Flynn's actions towards her, should Mr. Flynn take a more 'Prince-Charming-type' approach?"

Demyx's eyebrows shot up. "It's an idea, isn't it? It fits with the mugging idea, anyway."

"We're not doing a mugging," Roxas sternly said.

"Would Axel go along with playing Prince Charming?" I wondered, the end of my pen tapping my chin again. "Could he go along with that? Acting like a gentleman is so unlike him."

Roxas leaned back in his chair, his arms folding behind his head as he stretched. His words nearly passed through me as I focused on not looking at the sliver of stomach his shirt revealed. "He's liked Imani for the past two years. He'd be even more stupid than he already is to not consider an idea that could improve his chances with her."

Zexion blinked. "And he's already stupid because…?"

"Because he's spending several thousand munny getting needles dragged across his face—and wherever he decides to put the other one he's going to get—just to win a bet over Seifer," my best friend sighed as he propped up his head on his elbow. "The idiot."

Demyx began nodding, but soon he went rigid when he looked at his cell phone. "I heard about th…Oh SHOOT! Is that the time? I'm late for rehearsal!"

"How could you lose track of something like that? The competition's this weekend!" Roxas said exasperatedly as Demyx swung his messenger bag over one shoulder and bolted for the door.

"Just for that comment, you're in charge of passing on the suggestions to Axel!" he called just before bursting out of the building.

Roxas scoffed, leaning back in his chair as we watched Demyx scurry away. "Well who else was going to do it? Zexion?"

The intern librarian snorted at the rhetorical question, looking to Roxas in approval. "You're surprisingly mature for a freshman."

He shrugged. "It's 'cuz I got Nam to keep me grounded." He clapped a warm hand on my shoulder and my stomach turned to fluttery mush.

He studied the two of us for a few moments before smirking. "Love-ly."

Oh goodness. Just let me melt into a puddle of flustered goo.

"I suppose our meeting is adjourned," Zexion noted, the smirk soon gone as he stood up and pushed both his and Demyx's chairs in. "A word with you, please, Miss Snow?"

I blinked out of my state of embarrassment to point at myself. "Me?"

He nodded, striding to the reception desk without another glance my way. "Mr. McCartney, you may wait for Miss Snow outside the library."

"Wha? Why can't I wait in here?" Roxas demanded.

"Would you rather eavesdrop on our discussion regarding the anatomy of an obese octopus woman?" the librarian asked. I could hear his eyebrow perk up.

He processed the question in his head. "The…eww. Gross." Roxas stuck out his tickle-me-pink tongue and shuddered visibly, snatching his backpack and kicking his chair in before dashing to the door. "Make it quick, Nam."

"Okay." I waited until after he disappeared through the doors (not bothering to push down on the handlebar to silence the squeak, just like Demyx) before standing up and heading to the desk where Zexion sat. "Nice one," I laughed.

"The credit goes to you for indulging that secret dislike of Mr. McCartney's," he answered nonchalantly, typing something into his computer. "Remind me again why he harbors a strong dislike of octopi."

"He got inked in the face during a trip to the beach when we were nine," I said.

"Ah." His lips quirked upward. "A plausible explanation."

With a nod, I lean against the desk slightly and ask, "What did you want to talk about?"

"Your progress with Mr. McCartney."

My jaw dropped and my face began to burn. "Wha—You're—"

"I've been kept in the loop through sources I will not name," he said without batting an eyelash. "A friendship such as the one you and Mr. McCartney share is of the most absurd and interesting type I've heard."

"I-I—Well—"

"From what I've observed in the past hour, you indeed hold hidden feelings running deeper than friendship. These feelings are so deep, in fact, that they paralyze your lips and prevent you from speaking out about the abnormal exchange of friendship through seemingly mutual oral contact."

"That's becau—"

"Thus, I find your predicament requires a few carefully selected possible solutions compiled by the unnamed sources and myself." The printer under his desk whined and Zexion reached below for a moment, his pale hand reappearing with a sheet of paper. "While we understood the depth of your knowledge of Mr. McCartney is unarguably unmatched, we believed a few fresh ideas for expressing your thoughts and, eventually, your feelings could never be unwelcome."

Dumbly, I pinched the paper between a few fingers and looked over the contents. The blush on my face deepened and I nearly let the paper slip out of my grasp. "N…'Namine's Infallible List of Battle Tactics'?" I read aloud in horror.

The library door opened with a loud screech, making me jump and instinctively stuff the paper into my bag. Roxas' spiky head popped in through the crack. "Are you guys almost done?" he complained. "We've still got homework to do."

"Y-Yeah, we're finished!" I nodded fervently, willing my blush to die down. I glanced over my shoulder at the silent librarian, bidding him a good night.

Zexion nodded as I scampered off, his eyes aglow with a devilish gleam. "Don't forget to pay special attention to the tentacle suckers," he said. "If push comes to shove, use ink clouds to cover up the legs."

Roxas held the door open for me as I ducked through, his skin taking on a greenish tinge. "I did not need to hear that…"

Author's Afterthoughts: I love writing Demyx and Zexion as much as I do writing Axel. Those three are my absolute favorite characters to write. :)

And, yes, I did it. His name is Roxas McCartney. I never thought I'd do it, but I did. Pfft.

As I was reading this through, I thought of Axel saying, "I L-O-V-E Y-O-U. Got it memorized?" and proceeded to cackle at the idea of Axel actually spelling his feelings out literally. Would you like to something like that later?

Also, what do you think? Am I doing better with including more Roxas/Namine? THE NEXT CHAPTER IS STUFFED TO OVERFLOWING WITH THE PAIRING!

Please leave a review and thanks for reading!