follow me down ・ ten

[Naminé]

I sat there, sitting in the sand for over half an hour. I decided that I might need the picture of the Fauxame tag later, so I shakily took a picture of it. It was twilight by the time I recovered enough sanity to stand up and start stumbling back to my apartment. I sniffed and moaned pathetically and sighed melodramatically as I climbed the stairs. Heaving in huge breaths, I steeled myself to face Kairi as I opened the door. Seeing Olette in my room felt like being suckerpunched. I slammed a hand against the door and snarled, "Great! Just fucking great."

"Naminé…" Olette said, trying to advance towards me.

"I really hope you're happy, Olette, because Roxas really hates me right now."

"Wait a second," Kairi said, jumping off her bed. "Did you-"

"That's right," I said, sounding more than sarcastic, "I told him I was Witch." I turned to spit back at Olette. "You can go after him now, I'm sure he'd love the company of a self-depreciating bitch."

Before I even knew what was happening, Kairi slammed into me and wrapped me in a fierce hug. The force sent me to my knees, and her along with me, as I gripped her tighter and burrowed my face into her shoulder. She rocked me gently as I cried hysterically.

I'd once been told that I don't cry like other girls. I knew I totally lost it when I was yelling and sobbing in front of Roxas, but when I had nothing to say I was very quiet. I always considered this to be a personal preference, but now I realised the way that I cried scared people even more than someone who sounded like a butchered cow.

I held Kairi so tight I'm sure I was hurting her, but she didn't complain at all.

After I separated from her, Olette knelt down and asked, "Do you want me to get you something? Water?"

"Olette," I said tiredly, "What do you want?"

"Olette needed to tell you something," said Kairi.

"It can wait though," she replied, nervously.

"No," Kairi interjected. "If you tell her now, you can get all the swearing and contempt out straight away."

I raised an eyebrow and wiped away more tears with the back of my hand, "What do you need to tell me?"

I got up and walked up to Olette, placing my hands in my coat pockets to look like I still had some semblance of sanity.

"Immediately after I discovered that you were Witch I-" she bit her lip and clenched her other wrist, "I… I-"

"Go on, Olette," Kairi encouraged.

"I told Principle Carter that I might know who Witch is."

I stared at her for the longest time before taking out one of my hands and slapping her across the face. She was so shocked by the blow that she fell down.

"Okay," she said, getting to her feet, "I deserved that."

"Damn right, you did," I growled, before quickly recovering my composure. "But thanks for telling me. So, why did you fess up?"

"I'm not sure you're going to believe me if I tell the truth."

I sighed, "I promise I'm not going to slap you again."

"Well, that's a relief," she said, gently placing her hand against the slight mark I'd made. "The truth is, after I found out you were Witch I had a few epiphanies. And the reason I started to hate you when we were little, was because I was so jealous of you."

"You're right, that is hard to believe."

"You're talented, and beautiful, and to be fully honest, when I was thirteen, I was glad you receded into your quiet, and shy persona. I wanted to get back at you, when I found out that you were Witch, because you were revealing yourself to be this amazing persona that everyone wanted to be, that everyone wanted to be with.

"It also infuriated me because… because I didn't want to find out like that. I miss you, Naminé," she admitted, revealing facets of herself that I couldn't believe still existed. This was the old Olette, the honest, slightly self-conscious, kind person I thought had died during the birth of teen angst. "I miss being your friend, but because of the way I'd treated you in the past few years, I knew you wouldn't be willing to give me a chance. I was mad at you. I was hurt by you. And I did something that I regret, so much."

Her eyes actually started tearing as her voice broke, "But… I want to make it right by you. I know you might not be willing to forgive me, but I'm so sorry."

"Olette, it's alright, you can stop now."

She let out a breath, and waited to be assessed. It made me uncomfortable, so I just decided to accept it and move on.

"You said that Carter might know? Why did you have to tell me this?"

"Naminé," Kairi said, stepping in, "She said that if Olette doesn't find out who Witch is before third term's up, she's going to expel her."

"Oh, that's really bad."

"So, I came to Kairi for help. I don't know if any of you can help me, but I just knew you guys had to know."

I sat on Kairi's bed, crossing my legs despite how much I knew Kairi hated it when I put dirty shoes on the bed, "To be honest, I'm not sure if we can help you either." A thought popped into my head. "You're not… going to tell Principle Carter who I am. Are you?"

"No, of course not."

"Well, I'll thank you if I find out you're not going to stab me in the back."

I released a sigh, and I guess my expression gave away how tired I was because Olette made a noise of discomfort, "Listen… You don't have to worry about it for now. I have an idea of how you can get back together with Roxas."

"And what do you suppose?"

"Well, the best thing I can think of is to remove Witch from the equation entirely," she shrugged. "On Monday, you should come as you are."

"But…" I considered her idea for a second. It was something I'd always wanted to do. "But what if someone tells Principle Carter I'm Witch?"

"How are they meant to prove it?" she asked, gesturing by shrugging. "Witch has a total of ten, maybe fifteen pictures on the internet, all taken from one night at Vanitas' party. The last one would be the one Garnet took at the park. It's not like Roxas is going to give you up. He's more in love with you than he was when he was obsessed with Fauxame."

"You know about Fauxame?" I said, snapping my neck up to look at her.

"Of course, Roxas used to speak about her all the time. Haven't you noticed that the first Dusk song he ever released was named Fauxame?"

"Olette, Fauxame is who Witch used to be, before she changed her name."

Olette stared at me in shock, nodding her head slowly. It must have come off as a shock to her, undoubtedly. But not so much that she needed to make a show of it. "I should have known," she smiled.
"Naminé, you and Roxas belong together, that much is clear."

I turned to the side and sighed sadly, "But he'll never forgive me for lying to him for this long."

"It might take some time, but I'm sure he'll come around. We have the rest of the year to make him fall in love with you."

"Okay," I shrugged, looking back at her, "But I don't want Witch to just die, okay? I like tagging, and I'm not going to stop."

"Don't worry about that facet of yourself. I'm going to leave it alone. What we should work on, is 'Naminé'. I'm sure what you usually wear can't be who 'you' are, if you're okay with wearing gorgeous outfits, while you're Witch. Let's start with a makeover."

[Naminé]

We started 'Operation: Witch-be-gone' by cleaning out my disgusting closet. Kairi was a neat freak and was constantly telling me to clean it, which I had never had any desire to do before now. It was amusing to see the items of clothing I'd once thought to be fashionable. I'd lived in this apartment almost all my life, so I still had clothing from back in elementary school, one of the reasons my section of the closet took as much room as it did.

I'd always found some joy when Kairi went through her closet and she asked me whether she still wanted an item or not. Sometimes I said I wanted it, and she would give me something to add to my never ending pile.

We worked on one side of the closet to the other. Since I had a perpetually tiny body, some of the late elementary things I possessed still fit, and I had some trouble deciding whether I wanted to keep it or not, since the style was decades away from what I wore now. But I had a lot of fun getting rid of the things I didn't want anymore. I guess it was therapeutic in a way. Kairi gathered a few garbage bags and we proceeded to throw all the old stuff away.

We laughed over a pair of super white skinny jeans that Sora had spilt black glitter paint on, and I proceeded to paint more intricate designs on it so it looked like the spill was intentional. During the process of getting rid of these old things, Olette and I got to bond like we hadn't in forever. When she wasn't being a narcissistic bitch she was incredibly smart, and I came to realise that her own personal style (when she was commenting on my own things) was not actually how she appears to the rest of the world.

Maybe I wasn't the only one hiding behind a veil after all.

After we'd successfully shrunk my wardrobe to a third of its original size Olette proposed shopping to gather some 'purely Naminé' things, and she said I might need to touch my hair up at the salon too. She was right, years of hiding it under a wig had done it a lot of damage.

"We should just go for the whole ensemble, waxing, dye treatment, hair cut. It'll be fun," she insisted.

I shrugged. Why not?

It was Friday, meaning the shops didn't close. I went out with what I was wearing, simply dusting off the sand while Kairi changed her outfit. I felt a little more comfortable being around her now. She smiled at me while booking an appointment at Kairi's favourite hairdresser.

We went in Kairi's car to the hairdresser, and here's the thing about it, it's normally so expensive that there aren't actually a lot of people there. There were a total of five other customers. Kairi and Olette sat either side of me as I flicked through a hairstyle magazine.

"So, what do you want?"

"…Extensions."

"Really?" Kairi said sceptically.

"Mhmm."

"Nam, your hair's already at your shoulder blades, you won't need them for that long."

"I want them though," I replied. "Do they come in my hair colour?"

"Yes! Everything to suit your needs." The hairstylist was a short brunet with beautiful green eyes and a spiky pixie cut.

"I'd like a trim please," I said, "just to get rid of the split-ends, and I want extensions. Possibly thirty inches."

"Absolutely," she replied, "It's wonderful to work with platinum blonde hair. It's such a rare natural hair colour."

After the hair cut was complete, she started the process of bonding the platinum hair extensions to the head. When I realised how long it took, I wished we started the process earlier. I would be here well over midnight. Olette and Kairi went to go see a movie (or two!) while I read stories on my tablet.

"Almost done, honey," she said, after what felt like an age had passed. I told her I wanted to be surprised when I saw what she'd done, so she'd completed the process on a chair without a mirror. I sighed when she finished the bonding process. She finished by curling my hair into beachy waves. I got up and walked to a close mirror, gasping when I saw what she'd done. My hair looked elegant and beautiful in a way it hadn't since I was a child. It cascaded down my shoulders like silk, and brushed the base of my hips in gorgeous curls.

"Oh my god, I love it. Thank you."

After I paid I walked out the store, and widened my eyes in surprise when I caught the attention of a boy. His gaze was glued to mine, until his girlfriend snapped his attention away. I looked at the front of the store. 'Tangled' Hair Cosmetics.

Olette and Kairi were tired after their super long movie, but not enough so that they weren't ready for some serious shopping.

"Naminé, your hair looks gorgeous!" Olette gushed.

"Thank you," I turned to Kairi, who was smiling too, but it didn't quite reach her eyes. "Kai, you've got something on your mouth," I said, reaching up to brush away some pink lip gloss, which was weird, because Kairi's lipstick was flesh nude. I looked between the both of them curiously, eyes widening when they both looked away and flushed.

Okay. I got it.

"So, did you eat while I was out?"

After grabbing dinner, the three of us started the journey for my new wardrobe. They'd only left my essentials and a few old staple pieces, so there was a lot of shopping to do. In one boutique alone, I had several outfits to try on, and I would have to walk out after every one. And the feeling I got after buying these, knowing these were mine to keep was electric. After an excessive amount of hours, I had everything I needed to start a whole new wardrobe as ME.

I hadn't had this much fun since my first date with Roxas.

[Kairi]

"So, the treatment is going to take at least a few hours," I said, trying not to give into the urge to wring my hands, "What do you want to do?"

"If you want to kill time… we can shop, or watch a movie?"

"A movie sounds good."

The both of us went back to the old default talk of schools and our opinion on different shows and music. I didn't know how to talk to her about anything else, how was I supposed to? Our friendship was still fresh, I didn't want to ruin it so early on.

"Okay, what do you want to watch?" Olette asked me, standing in the kiosk of the cinema.

"I don't know. Do you have anything in mind?"

"… Have you watched The Wolf of Wall Street?"

"I don't know about you, but it's hard for me to see Leo as anyone but Jack."

Olette turned wide eyes to me and nodded enthusiastically, "I know, right?! And Titanic was such a beautiful…" she coughed, catching herself on her words. "I mean… it's alright, I guess."

"Oh wow," I laughed, "Olette, I never considered you to be romantic." I couldn't stop laughing. Up until the point where Olette had drifted away from me, she was afraid of boy cooties.

"Shut up."

I adopted my sultry-vixen tone and started strutting around Olette, flirting as I swung around my garland of pink pearls, "Olette, draw me like one of your French girls."

"Urgh!" she groaned, dragging her hands down her face, and looking around self-consciously.

"Chill, Ollie, there's no one else here." I wasn't right of course, there were the cashiers, but the two behind the counter didn't seem interested in us in the slightest. I quickly adopted the tone again, "Now draw me in this necklace. And only this necklace."

Olette started giggling uncontrollably, her face getting redder and redder.

"C'mon, my joke wasn't that funny."

"I like it when you call me that," she said, looking around, embarrassed, but she was smiling.

"What?"

"Ollie."

The flush came over my face without permission, as it usually did. I was better at suppressing it than most people, namely my sister, but it didn't help in this circumstances. Ollie was a special nickname because I'd given it to her. Sure, Roxas, Pence, and Hayner had adopted it later on, but it was mine originally.

"Sure."

In the end we settled on the new Paranormal Activity, because Olette refused to watch the new Nicole Kidman movie, and I didn't want to watch Ender's Game again (Naminé might not have been the most conventional nerd, but she was still a nerd).

"Where's everyone else?" Olette asked no one in particular when we walked into the screening.

"You're the only ones here," said the staff handling the mobile snack cart.

I watched Olette eye the chocolate bars hungrily, and asked, "Do you want some?"

Olette looked back at me guiltily, "I- it's just… I'm really hungry, and…"

"Do you want me to pay for you?"

"No!" Olette insisted. The server looked between the both of us, raising an eyebrow. Olette placed her hand on her stomach, and it clicked.

Olette didn't want to eat in front of me because she didn't want to come off as a gross pig. She had been suckered into the idea that girls eating was some kind of unholy sin. I didn't want to bring it up, so instead I turned to the cashier and said, "Hi, can I have two of every chocolate bar, a jumbo bucket of popcorn, and three orange choc tops?"

I didn't normally binge like this, but admittedly, I was hungry too.

I asked Olette to hold half of the purchases, and she blushed into the popcorn as the server rolled the snack cart away.

"Thank you, Kairi."

I smiled nervously, "Sure."

It was probably nine o'clock when the movie started, and nine-oh-nine when I decided that I was probably going to bore myself to death. I loved a good horror, but my taste had been refined by how often I watched them when Naminé was around. After about twenty minutes, I was pulling my phone out and checking for text messages.

"I don't understand," Olette whispered, "how does this connect to the families of the first movie?"

I replied in a faux whisper and asked, "Why are you whispering?"

Even in the dim light I saw that Olette was embarrassed, "I-I don't know."

You're cute.

"Have you watched the other ones?" I said, speaking in normal tones.

"No," she admitted, shrugging, "Xion is a fan, and she spoke about them when they came out."

"Ugh, the plot's a bit complicated I guess, but I can't see the connection to the previous families yet."

Throughout the movie, she asked me questions about the logic of horror movies, and the motives behind characters.

"You speak a lot, for someone meant to be in a cinema," I commented off-handedly.

"I'm sorry, is it bothering you?" the brunet replied, self-consciously.

"No," I looked at her with amusement. "It's actually really refreshing. I don't know whether it's a guy thing, or not, but all of my male friends tell me to shut up while something is playing, and Naminé isn't fond of me speaking during movies either."

I turned back to the screen, however I could feel Olette staring back at me, her head leant against the rest. "I don't normally speak during movies either…" She paused a second before saying, "I don't talk about a lot if things Kairi, because at school I'm a bitch who doesn't know anything. I hate that I've fallen into a stereotype I despise."

"Hey," I replied, turning my head to look at her. I leant on the headrest, "Don't be like that. Things are different now. You don't have to be that person anymore."

I saw Olette look down, and the screen cast pretty curled shadows underneath her eyes where the smouldering green looked down at my hand. She righted herself and opened another chocolate bar.

I think we were reaching the apex of the movie when Olette said, "This is rubbish. I'd rather watch Twilight."

"You don't really mean that," I replied, laughing a little loudly than I considered comfortable in a movie theatre.

"Yeah, I don't, but you get my point, right?"

"I do."

I collected the remaining chocolate bars and we walked out of that cinema. It was barely two hours yet, and Naminé was still very bored with her extension treatment. She was the one that wanted them.

"Do you want some coffee?"

I took Olette up to one of my favourite cafes at the beautiful top of Destiny City Mall, five storeys high and sporting an amazing view of the night time.

We talked a lot, and I mean, a lot. We switched topics easily and fluently, about everything from her desire to buy a moto jacket, to how she thought things were holding up in Midgar.

"I miss Aerith, but… to be honest, if she found out about my reputation, I'd be incredibly ashamed of myself."

"Ollie, stop saying that. If you don't let it go, you're not going to change. I'm afraid of what Aqua would think of me too."

"Why?"

I widened my eyes and sipped my iced coffee, blushing stupidly.

After we'd sufficiently loitered the hell out of the cafe, we stopped by a few non-clothing stores before returning to the cinema and deciding on another movie. Endless Love was playing, and knowing what a sap Olette was for romance, we went to that. Since we still had candy bars, we just opted for ice cream this time around. I decided on sea salt ice cream and Olette went with her orange flavour again.

We enjoyed this one a little more this time around, laughing and speaking, because once again, we were one of the only ones there during the midnight shift.

"I should have gone with sea salt," she said.

"Here, have some of mine," I replied, holding it out.

"My god, the cheerleader side of me is so angry at me," she said.

"Don't worry. One binge isn't going to do you that much harm."

"That is so good," she said, turning back to her own ice cream. "Oh my god, it taste weird with the orange ice cream."

"Really?" I asked, losing interest in the movie.

"Here," she said, and I should have recognised the glint in her eyes, but I didn't. And she shoved the ice cream in my face so fast it made a mess all over my nose and mouth. Olette laughed hysterically, and so loudly, and so fully that she bent over like she was having trouble breathing.

I couldn't help myself.

"I can't believe you fell for-"

She was cut off. By lips. On hers. Belonging… to me.

It was a rush of pleasurable hot-cold heat. She was stock-still against me, until she pulled away. I thought that she was going to get up and leave, and that would seem like the proper reaction. I looked down at the ice cream wrappers between us, scratching the back of my head nervously. Olette grabbed her wrapper and wiped the ice cream off her mouth. After a second of hesitation, I did the same.

I watched her as she stared at the space between us, and I looked down once again. I saw her fingers clench, and the sound of stupid romantic mumblings of the on-screen couple died into static.

She leant forward, hesitantly and gently, to press her lips to mine once again.

"This is Principle Carter, speaking. I realise that lately a lot of you have been disregarding the uniform policies. From here on in, we will be reinstating detentions for those that are out of dress codes. Remember that Destiny Isle Academy has rules; girls with long hair need to have their hair tied up, boys cannot have hair longer than their chin, use the required DIA backpack, and if you do not have one, they can be purchased at the uniform shop for fifty-nine dollars. Witch is already bad for our publicity, do not make it any worse. That is all."

[Roxas]

It wasn't fair.

I missed her so much it ached.

I pressed my forehead to the cool exterior of my locker, feeling like a storm was tearing apart my insides.

Yesterday, I'd tried to forget about my encounter with her by playing guitar for five hours straight. But every single time I set out to play a specific song, octaves changed, and keys altered so it would fit the pace and tone of 'Fauxame' (the song). When I'd given up, I had a long talk with Mom about what she thought I should do in this circumstance.

She said that if a girl was willing to make up a persona to get me to love her, she definitely wasn't someone to simply throw away.

But… it hurt.

She'd lead me on as Witch, and she absolutely destroyed me as Fauxame.

I couldn't be with a girl that would end me if she loved me and left me.

It's why I knew some unforgiving god had it out for me the morning we returned back to school.

"Roxas, are you alright?"

I turned to my side to see Xion regarding me with a look of concern.

"Xion, what do you do if you find yourself infatuated with someone you can't be with?"

She thought about the question for a second before she asked, "Well, why can't I be with them?"

"Because they betrayed you."

"Did they cheat on me?"

"No."

"Did they use me in some way?"

"…No."

"Did they lie to me about something important?"

"Yes."

"Why'd they lie to me?"

"Because…"

"Did they lie to me because they were ashamed of me?"

"…No."

"Did they lie to me because they were ashamed of themselves?"

"Yes…"

"Roxas," she said gently, "did you find out the truth from someone else, or the person themselves?"

"She told me."

"If she was willing to reveal something about herself that she was ashamed of, in order to clear something up for you, and you rejected her, then who is really holding themselves back?"

Xion reached up to pat my cheek, winking lazily as she turned around to walk away. I slowly gathered my books for first period and proceeded to the quadrangle where I normally met up with Sora in the mornings. I'd just closed the locker door to reveal Hayner's smiling face.

"Hey guy," he greeted cheerily.

"G'morning, Hayner."

"Hey, why so down? I'm here to report an incredible Hottie Spotting."

"Hayner, I don't know what you've heard, but I recently broke up with my girlfriend, and-"

"You and Witch broke up?"

It took me a second to realise I had said 'my girlfriend' and not 'Witch', because Witch was Naminé, and Naminé was… I don't know where I was going with that. Was she still my friend? Or was that relationship screwed over as well?

"Did you ever find out who she really was?"

"I… No, I didn't," I lied.

"Hey, that's a total bummer man. I'm sorry."

I shrugged, but I did feel that ache in my chest constrict painfully. "Well, not that I'm interested, but who is the 'hottie' you were talking about?"

"No one knows yet," Hayner replied. "I just saw her leave the parking lot. She is b-e-a-u-tiful. You know what the weird thing is? She kind of reminds me of Witch, just… a totally different feel about her."

Creep. I wanted to make a joke of it, but I couldn't muster the energy.

There was a huge commotion at the other end of the hallway, and I felt a weird sense of deja vu as I saw a head of platinum blonde hair split the students like The Red Sea.

When I saw her, I felt my heart stop.

Naminé strode towards me, free of her wig, her glasses, or her contacts. She was also free from her messy 'Witch' hair, as well as the bold make up that defined her character. Naminé had her hair lengthened, and it twisted and curled into messy waves all the way down to the small of her back. Her eyes were lined thinly, and surrounded by large black lashes, eyes glowing beautiful iridescent blue. Her lips painted a soft baby pink close to her original colour. Her skin looked flawless and impossibly soft. I'd… I'd never seen this side of her before, and she had a lot of sides.

Kairi had probably altered her outfit because instead of the drab, shapeless stuff she was wearing before, her uniform had been cut to fit her amazing curves, and the skirt shortened to just below her fingertips, revealing incredibly flawless, shapely legs, made more sensual with a pair of fishnet tights, just low enough to reveal a pair of seductive stocking suspenders. Her blazer was tightly fitted and rolled up to her elbows. Her shirt was slightly open, accentuating a voluptuous chest and the large black cross hanging from her neck.

It was like a mix of everyone I saw her to be; Fauxame, Witch, and Naminé herself.

I felt incredibly nervous as she walked up to me, her eyes filled with a sorrow and depth I wish I could say I hadn't caused.

"So," I said coldly, all too aware of our audience, "Who are you today?"

She looked down, wringing her hands. I tried to ignore the whispering of the crowd and focused on her.

"I can make them both disappear, if you want, Roxas," she replied, speaking clearly this time, instead of Naminé's usual quiet drawl. Gathering up some courage, she smiled weakly and thrust forward her hand. I eyed it curiously. "Hi, I'm Naminé."

She looked so sad, and I almost gave in, but it had only been two days, and I thought I had a right to feel angry at her for all the pain she had put me through in the last five years- at least for a little bit longer.

I narrowed my eyes at her, and she seemed to shrink. I placed my hands in my blazer pocket and made a small noise of indignation as I turned around and walked away.

I could drown out the sounds of the shocked audience, and the ever-irritating sound of other boys trying to comfort Naminé as I walked away. My heart was tearing asunder, but I wanted her to understand the hurt she had caused me, was causing me, by being left behind and forgotten.

[Ventus]

The table was incredibly weird at lunch time. Sora and Kairi were looking at Roxas like they wanted to slit his throat. Vanitas and I were poring over a catalogue for Toys 'R' Us, and the recent addition of Olette and her groupies, Selphie and Xion, had made the entire situation twice as awkward as before.

I wonder where Naminé is.

"Please, stop it," Xion said.

I looked up from the catalogue to understand what was happening. I really didn't want to though, there was static in the air.

"Stop what?" I asked.

"Stop looking at Roxas like he's on trial," she said, obviously directed at Sora and Kairi.

"There is no trial. You're guilty," Sora said, glaring at Roxas.

"Of what?" he snapped.

"You didn't have to shun Naminé in front of the entire school."

When did this happen? Man, I was really behind with the gossip. Vanitas and I had been too worried about what we were going to do for Marlene's birthday.

"You don't know half the story, Sora. Stop making assumptions," Roxas replied cooly.

"Naminé loves you," he growled in response, "why are you giving her a hard time about it? Because she wouldn't tell you she was W-" he stopped himself before he said it, "Who-she-was right away? She didn't tell me until right before Vanitas' party at the beginning of the year."

Lucky. I didn't know Naminé was Witch until Roxas told me the other day, but Vanitas had admitted to knowing it all along. He had always been more perceptive that way. Sometimes it was a nuisance.

"But she didn't string you along like a puppet," Roxas replied angrily. "She watched me suffer as Naminé, and 'the-other-person', as I agonised about one or the other. And don't even get me started on Fauxame."

"What does Fauxame have to do with this?" Riku inquired, coming up to the table and sitting down with his tray of food. "I found Naminé. She's spending lunch in one of the art rooms," I didn't know whether he was intentionally trying to guilt-trip Roxas, but his eyes slid over to him as he said, "She looked really depressed."

Kairi stared daggers at Roxas, but Sora's expression softened. Roxas, completely fed up with the way he was being treated, pushed his chair out of the table so violently the sound caught the attention of several other tables, and stormed away. I hadn't seem him that angry since Prince kicked me out of the house. There were a lot of complicated things happening with Roxas and Naminé, it made me glad my own love life wasn't that rocky.

Speaking of love lives, Vanitas slept with his chin resting on the heel of his palm, fingers curled into a fist at his cheek. I reached forward to gently tug on his hair and his golden eyes cracked open.

"What?" he moaned.

"See what happens when you don't get to bed on time?"

"Shut up, Mom."

Vanitas had snagged the last of the soup for his lunch, and I watched miserably as it turned cold before him.

"Eat or else you're not going to survive the rest of the school day."

His only response was his eyes slowly drooping down until they were closed. I rolled my eyes and grabbed his container, picking up the spoon and clicking in front of his face with the other hand. When his eyes shot open I shoved the spoon in his mouth.

He swallowed it, borderline choking, and kicked my leg violently under the table.

"It doesn't feel good, does it?" I chastised.

He merely growled, pouting in his weird Vanitas way.

I filled the spoon again and said, "Am I gonna have to do the airplane thing?"

Vanitas looked up, and I followed his gaze to see everyone was quietly fawning over the scene we were making. Vanitas turned red and snatched the food from me, unwilling to draw any more attention to himself. To be honest, I was a little disappointed, but I hadn't expected him to react any different.

[Naminé]

Our art teacher ushered us in quite quickly today, and urged us to work on our major projects. What she didn't inform us of was the tall, feminine-looking man strutting about silently as we moved to unpack our gear. Even though normally the sight of a stranger would unnerve me, I didn't care for this. Even though I was utterly humiliated this morning by Roxas, I still felt that was less of a punishment than I deserved.

I felt so tired.

For my major art project, I'd been thinking of creating a scene from each of my imaginary worlds, and bringing them together in one massive collage- a compilation of the imaginary world that Witch had been working on for so long. But the thing is, if I submitted this, someone was bound to figure out that I was Witch, so for now I was working on a special brand of monster I'd dubbed 'Nobodies'.

The reason I knew Xion wasn't a bitch, back when I thought Olette was the devil incarnate, was because she was my art partner. Ms Benson had assigned the seats at the beginning of the year, she was all about trying to forge new friendships. If I had a choice, I would have chosen Pence, but Xion proved to be a very nice person. It didn't strike me until today what a wonderful person she was though.

"Marluxia," Xion waved the mysterious pink-haired man this way.

"Xion, darling, how are you?" he smiled, striding over confidently. He didn't gush flamboyantly, like I thought he would. I felt a bit guilty thinking it, to be completely honest. He seemed fierce, but at the same time a smouldering sensuality I thought it was great for someone in the art business to have, a sensitive connectedness to all things at once.

"Naminé, this is my friend Marluxia. We used to go to the same school back when I lived in Radiant Garden."

"Xion, stop calling me that. I'm here on official business, so it's Liam Raux from here on out."

"Nice to meet you," I said, even though I didn't feel like communicating with anyone.

Marluxia/Liam raised an eyebrow at me, then turned back to Xion.

"I'm here as a talent scout for Hollow Bastion Art Institute."

"Really? Why would you go here though?"

"I'll admit, Destiny Isle is a little out of the way, but I've heard that a renowned artist called 'Witch' attends this school."

My back stiffened, and I flushed red as I looked down. Someone from HBAI had heard about my work. That was… extraordinary.

"Well, unfortunately, if Witch revealed herself right now, I'm pretty sure Principle Carter would expel her."

"Why?"

"Because she says having Witch here is bad publicity."

"What a load of bullshit," Marluxia (and I'm sticking with that, because it's way cooler, but just pretend every time I say Marluxia, I politely mean 'Liam') laughed. "Spotting Witch, and finding Witch murals has become a tourist attraction."

Wow. I couldn't believe my work was reaching people beyond Destiny Isle!

"Well, are any of your classmates of interest here? Do you think Witch attends this class?"

"Pence over there is an amazing photographer," Xion said, "and of course, here's Naminé, possibly one of the most talented artist in the grade."

I chuckled lightly, "Please stop." But it came off a lot more miserable-sounding than I intended.

Marluxia didn't look as impressed with my work anyway. Yeah. I didn't believe I had the stuff to get into somewhere like HBAI anyway.

"This isn't her best work!" Xion said, grabbing my regular art workbook from the top of my pile, and thrusting it into the talent scout's hand. "She's just been dealing with boy troubles lately."

I stopped painting to watch as he looked through my sketchbook. I hated the feeling of being evaluated.

"Well, admittedly, this is better than what you seem to be producing right now, but there is a certain limitation to what you seem to be painting."

I felt insulted, even though I knew I shouldn't be. I knew there was a style change between myself, and Witch's. So instead of getting mad, I told him to wait, and pulled something out of my bag.

"I think you might benefit from seeing what I can do in my personal sketchbook."

Marluxia looked less impressed skipping through my work- Witch's art- as he had skimming through in-class work. He flipped through three or four pages before giving the sketchbook back.

"Well, thank you for your time, Naminé-?"

"D'Blanc," I answered.

He stood up, and I thought he was going to just stride away. There was a horrified part of me that thought he might give my secret away to Principle Carter, but he merely looked back at me and winked.

[Vanitas]

This time, somewhere between waking up, and falling asleep again, I felt the gentle pressure against my lips with more urgency, and a little desperation.

I woke up, and Ven jumped back, surprised.

"What are you doing?" I gasped, lips tingly and heart beating a hundred miles a minute.

Vent had been kissing me, like that weird things that couples do, or something you did to trick other people into bed, that was a clearer understanding off affection for me. Ven scratched the back of his head, but he seemed genuinely happy about what he'd done.

"I'm just waking you up… like a wife would."

I angled my head and noticed Marlene was watching from door.

Awkward.

I lay down on the kitchen table, tired with my head leaning on my crossed arms. In the darkness of my arm-shelter, I thought quietly about how I was supposed to respond to Vent kissing me awake. No. It didn't matter that at the time, I had enjoyed it, what was fucked was how something so insignificant could ruin what I had with him. Vent was my best friend, and I didn't care that he was smoking hot, that he was adorable, or the fact I was turned on by how good with kids he was. I didn't want to sacrifice a happy middle for a disastrous ending. But… Ven had removed my choice now. I needed to pick a strategy, and stick with it.

I looked up, noticing that Marlene seemed to be eating her cereal rather angrily, puffed out red cheeks and narrowed brown eyes. It was kind of cute. I wondered what she was angry about.

Ven set a steaming cup of coffee in front of me, black and three sugars, just the way I liked it. I didn't feel like drinking it though. To be completely honest, I just wanted to go back to bed. In order to please Ven, and leave more time to play on the weekends, I had been studying and completing some homework in advance. It was a real toll on the mind, but at least I didn't feel like a total idiot in my math class anymore.

"C'mon, Vani," Ven said, gently shaking my shoulder, "Drink your coffee. You'll feel better afterwards, I promise." When I didn't respond, he resorted to tugging my hair, like he usually did.

Marlene threw her spoon down and screeched, "Stop flirting with Vani!"

My head snapped up and Ven put his hands on the table.

"What did you just say?"

After we dropped Marlene off at pre-school, Ven took the wheel while I called Tifa in the car.

"Does she even know what flirting is?"

I heard Tifa rollocking around in the background, "Oh my god, she has a crush on you! This is iconic. Aerith is going to love this."

"This is not funny, Tifa. How am I meant to deal with this?"

"Calm down, Vanitas. Stop acting like a girl liking you is the end of the world."

It was silent after I hung up. Ven wasn't bringing it up, so maybe the best course of action was to keep keep my mouth shut and pretend it never happened.

[Naminé]

The banner I started working on yesterday was complete, but I was still having second thoughts about this stunt. It was almost like vandalising, but it wasn't technically, not if it was simply hanging a banner at the front of the school.

The mural this time around was two profile pictures of two faceless students, both wearing the Destiny Isle Academy uniform, but I'd gone simple and O.D.'d on the symbolism. The girl's waist-length hair was wrapped with chains, and the uniform had been decorated with white and black stripes to symbolise prison-wear. The girl was wearing a regular school uniform, in the same fashion that the old Naminé used to sport. Both of them were standing on opposite sides of the wall, and both had wings which were tied down with more chains, because you could never have too much symbolism right?

I hoped I got the message across.

If Principle Carter was going to harass Witch, then she was going to harass her back. Just because Witch pissed Roxas off, didn't mean she was going to die entirely. I loved painting, and the only way I could really express what I wanted to was apparently to do something illegal.

But not in this case! I knew as soon as Principle Carter saw the banner hanging in front of the school that she was going to try and have it taken down. As I knew it always would, the parkour came in handy.

I sat on one of the tables located just beyond the school gates, eating a breakfast of waffle fries from Hungry Jacks while I watched the protestors outside of school demanding their rights to a loose uniform policy. I really couldn't believe one banner had sparked this much support on the loose-uniform rights.

The teachers were trying to calm the students down, but some of them had joined the students, but only the ones that weren't afraid of getting fired.

Although this wasn't what I intended when I created the banner, I thought it was pretty awesome. I hoped no one got expelled though. A lot of the seniors were avoiding the riot, because they didn't want to get expelled, but there were a few leading them, which was good and bad news, I guessed.

"Did you expect this to happen?"

I turned around, hoping against hope that Roxas was talking to me again. I must have visibly slumped when I realised it was Ventus, and not Roxas addressing me. Ventus and Vanitas sat next to me on the table. It was weird to think that at the beginning of the year, I would have felt intimidated and self-conscious sitting next to these guys, despite how friendly Ventus was, but now I felt at ease to call both of them friends.

"I didn't," I replied.

"How are things going with Roxas?" Vanitas asked.

"Vani," Ventus exclaimed, slapping the other boy's shoulder. "Our dear Nami is in pain, we do not bring up said person's assbutt reason for pain into the conversation this early into the grieving period."

"It's okay, Ventus," I replied, and even though I was hurting inside over Roxas, I knew it was an ache that would eventually subside somehow.

"It's not like You-Know-Who is dead," Vanitas said.

"Or Voldemort. You can address him by his name."

"But I never address Rox by his name, he's in a perpetual state of reoccurring insults. He reacts better to 'dickhead' than he does his actual birth-certificate-certifying name, I promise you."

I laughed, heartily, probably the first real laugh and true laugh since my Witch reveal. I looked between Ventus and Vanitas, who were now speaking about the protestors.

"I don't think that's the most efficient form of change."

"It gets the job done, Vanitas."

"I'm pretty sure bribing Carter would bring about faster results."

"Not everyone is filthy rich, like you."

"You've got the filthy part right."

I didn't understand how these two were not together already.

Immediately after getting into a good mood, I was suddenly dragged out of it by the appearance of Roxas. He was just skating around the gate when he caught sight of the huge banner and stopped. He glanced around and saw the three of us sitting underneath the tree, and for a few horrifying moments he locked eyes with me, at least until I looked down self-consciously, joy stripped from me.

I looked up and Roxas was walking around the protestors to get into school.

Was it ever going to stop hurting?

tbc.

a/n: [fauxli dot tumblr dot com slash story-related]

Anime Recommendation of the Month: Noragami (;action, adventure, shounen, supernatural, psychological. BONUS: Voice Actor; Yuki Kaji, Voice Actor; Hiroshi Kamiya, non-annoying female lead, awesome fight scenes, humour, old gods, boys wearing boots and parkas, underestimated main male lead, modern setting- 10/10 would recommend!)

stay excellent.