A/N: Right then, I felt like I just had to update. I'm actually starting to think you guys are so lucky with me updating whenever I feel off or when I have nothing to do, hehe. Anyway, enough of that, read on ahead!

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Recruiting an Ally

Roxas didn't want to get up the next morning. He was too relaxed to do so. It had been a long time since he had a peaceful sleep. He pulled the Tigger plushie even closer to his body, trying to get more comfortable, but when he heard a small click and a giggle, he opened one of his eyes.

He saw Aerith hovering over him, a wide smile spread across her face, almost like she had won the lottery, and in her hands was a camera...

Roxas immediately shot out of bed. Despite his sudden movement, he kept his firm grip on the plushie which was pulled close to him. "Mom! What are you doing?!"

"Roxas, you wouldn't believe how cute you looked in your sleep. Here, take a look." She pulled out a photograph of him hugging the plushie in his sleep, a content smile spread across his face. Roxas immediately flushed a deep red.

"Mom, please give me the photo," he pleaded.

"Okay." She immediately handed over the photograph, which made Roxas raise an eyebrow at her. "It's okay, I just know that from now on, you'll be hugging that plushie in your sleep, so I have plenty of opportunities to take more pictures."

"Mom!" She wasn't serious, was she?

"I'm kidding," she smiled. "Well, about the taking more pictures part. But I'll admit to have one photo hidden away. After all, it's not everyday I get to catch my little Roxie so happy on camera."

She smiled and walked off, leaving Roxas a glowing red. He sighed. He supposed he could let that one photo go. He knew his mother was just being sentimental. He took another look at the photo in his hand and smiled. He really did look happy. He tucked the picture away somewhere safe and neatly placed the Tigger plushie at the corner of his bed.

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It had already been a few days since Naminé left town, which resulted in Roxas being bored to death. It had only been a few days but he missed her terribly.

Right now, he was sitting at the dining table, his forehead on the counter. He was just so bored out of his mind that the counter could catch fire and he wouldn't notice. In the distance, he could hear the telephone ringing.

Aerith had answered the phone. "Hello? Yes, he's here. Well, generally. Please wait a moment. Roxas! Phone!"

His head shot up from the counter upon hearing his name said along with the word 'phone'. Nobody ever called him. He also rarely got text messages. He suddenly remembered what Naminé had said: "I'll call you, okay?"

Upon remembering this, he scrambled from the chair he was sitting on toward the phone. Aerith simply laughed at his actions. He pulled the phone to him and spoke. "Hello?"

"Hi Roxas." There was no mistaking that sweet voice. It was Naminé.

"Hi Naminé." A smile was already spreading across his face. "How are you doing?"

"Pretty good. Guess who's with me right now. I'll give you a hint: he's cute."

He? Cute? Roxas could feel his jaw tighten. She was with a guy she described as cute. He was already trying to think of ways to threaten the guy, maybe a punch or two but decided not to leave Naminé waiting. "Erm, your dad?" he guessed.

"No!" He could hear her laugh from the end of the phone line. "It's Eeyore of course."

"Oh." He sighed in relief. "Hehe, so you like your present?"

"Of course I do. You're the one who gave him to me after all." Roxas couldn't help but smile. "So what's been going on?" she asked.

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Days passed and Christmas break was almost over. It was a pretty boring one, probably because Naminé was out of town. He supposed the highlight of his vacation was that time he begged Aerith to give him the picture of him hugging the Tigger plushie in his sleep, and the time he wrestled Sora for the phone, but other than that, it was pretty boring.

Naminé had kept in touch with Roxas constantly. She called at least every three days and texted everyday. Roxas could have never believed that he could actually spend more than an hour on the phone, but he did, talking to Naminé about a variety of topics. Whenever Aerith saw him on the phone, she would simply smile knowingly at Roxas and walk away. He was glad that Kairi came back early from her trip, so Sora had stopped fighting him for the phone and went out to meet her in person.

But school was finally about to begin in a few days and Roxas would finally get to see Naminé again at last. Even though he loved hearing her voice over the phone, he preferred to be with her in person a lot more.

Meanwhile, Roxas was passing time on a site that he never thought he would go to, a site he kept on mocking and laughing at because he couldn't imagine himself actually going to it. A fanfiction site. If that wasn't enough to blow you out of your chair, there was more. He was looking at fics under romance.

The fact that that he was actually reading that kind of stuff made him feel wierd. He kept on looking over his shoulder making sure that no one would sneak up on him, his finger hovering over the reset button of the computer if anyone should get close.

He didn't understand why he suddenly felt like checking out those fics. He had never before in his life watched a drama on television or read a romance novel, but here he was, absorbed in romance fics.

He could at least honestly say that he found them 'interesting'. Some of them were cliché, others corny, but still, they were interesting to Roxas. Maybe because he could somehow relate now to those stories...

"Roxas."

Roxas jumped in surprise and immediately punched the reset button. He turned around and sighed in relief. It was only Cloud. If it had been Aerith or Sora, then things would get ugly.

"Was that a fanfiction site?" Cloud asked.

Roxas paled. It looked like despite his efforts, his father had managed to catch the site he was on.

"Right, never mind. I won't tell your mother or brother you were on a fanfiction site." Roxas smiled in gratitude but it was soon wiped off his face.

"Who was on a fanfiction site?" Aerith's head popped around the door. She looked at who was seated at the computer. "Roxas was on a fanfiction site?" Roxas groaned. His luck couldn't be this bad. Sure his favorite number was thirteen but still. Why did he have to suffer so?

"So why did you go to that site Roxas?" Aerith asked, a smirk now very familiar to Roxas appearing on her face. "I seem to recall you saying you would never be caught dead viewing those kind of things. Were you looking for ideas?"

Roxas glowed a bright red, but fortunately, Cloud took pity on him. "C'mon, Aerith. I think you've emabarrassed your son enough for today. I thought you said you wanted to go to that sale in the mall?"

"Alright. Enjoy your reading Roxas!" she smiled as she and Cloud left the room.

Roxas sighed in relief, fianally getting a bit of peace. Well, he supposed he should lay off the computer for a while. He was lucky that Cloud was there to break him out of that situation. But now what was he supposed to do?

He laid back on his bed and let his mind wander. He remembered what Aerith had said. Was he really looking for ideas? He really wanted to tell Naminé how he felt about her. Maybe he was unconsciously looking for ways to tell her through what he was reading.

He ruffled his hair in frustration. He didn't know how to handle himself in these kinds of situations. He definitely had no experience, and no one ever came to him telling about his/her love life. Well, maybe Sora, but he didn't exactly learn much from Sora.

Roxas sighed as he came to a realization. He needed help. There was no way he would be able to handle this on his own, let alone pulling off telling Naminé that he liked her. But to get help, he would have to tell whoever he was asking for help that he liked Naminé, an idea which wasn't very appealing to Roxas. Who could he ask for help? Definitely not Sora or Aerith. They'd tell everyone in town about it before they started to help him. Kairi? Maybe...

His thoughts were interrupted when he heard the doorbell ring, and knowing that no one else was home, he got up off his bed and headed for the front door. He pulled the door open and was surprised to see Kairi.

"Kairi? What are you doing here?" he asked, inviting her in.

"I wanted to surprise Sora," she smiled. "So where is he?"

"Well, the thing about surprises is the person you're going to surprise doesn't know that they're going to be surprised, therefore, making them unable to put or keep themselves in a position to be surprised."

"Huh?"

"Sora's not here. He's running an errand for mom," Roxas rephrased.

"Just great. Will he be back soon?" she asked.

"Yeah, don't worry. Have a seat," he said, pointing to the couch.

They sat in silence, Roxas on a stool opposite the couch Kairi was sitting on.

"So, how are you and Sora doing?" he asked, trying to bring some noise into the room.

"Okay," she answered. A smirk formed on her face. "How are you and Naminé doing?"

"Okay," he answered absentmindedly. When he finally caught on, he yelled, "Wait, what's that supposed to mean?!"

"Nothing," she answered calmly, raising her hands. "But from the way you reacted I'm thinking there's something going on."

He looked away, his face glowing a bright red. But then he turned back to look at Kairi, like it was the first time he's seen her in his life.

"What?" she asked, uncomfortable.

"I guess she really is my best choice..."

"Erm, Kairi? I kinda need some help..."

"Oh really?" A smirk was already forming on her face.

"Yeah," he nodded. "But before I tell you what it's about, I need you to swear not to tell anyone, or use any other form of communication about what I'm going to tell you."

"Okay, okay," she said, raising her right hand. "I know the drill. So out with it already."

Roxas took in a deep breath. "You remember what you asked me before? About what I thought about Naminé?"

"Yeah, I remember."

"Well, it changed." For some reason, it was getting harder for Roxas to talk.

"Really?" she asked, faking surprise. "Well then, let me ask you again. What do you think of Naminé?"

He couldn't believe he was doing this. It was a while before he could actually say it. His body was naturally fighting the idea of uttering those words. "I like her."

He knew Kairi knew what he was going to say, but the auburn haired girl seemed to go in a state of shock. She remained silent, her eyes wide with the information she had just received.

She finally regained her senses and let out an ear-shattering fangirl squeal. Roxas, anticipating this, immediately buried his head in his hands, protecting his sense of hearing. It took awhile before she was done. He didn't realize that Kairi could hold so much breath in her.

"Are you done?" Roxas asked.

"Pretty much," she said. "Well it sure took you awhile."

"What do you mean?"

"I kinda thought that you would realize that you liked her around the time you asked her to the prom," she explained.

"So you knew I liked her when I didn't know?" he asked skeptically.

"Yep. So what do you need help with?"

"Well, I don't know how to tell her."

Kairi's eyes widened in surprise. "Wait, you're planning to tell her?"

"Well, yeah. Unless you think I shouldn't. That makes things a lot easier."

"No, I mean - Are really Roxas?" she asked.

"What kind of question is that?"

"It's just that I never thought that you would actually think of telling her," she laughed.

"Whatever. So? I have no clue of what to do here."

She thought for a moment. She was about to answer when, due to Roxas' incredibly bad luck and Sora's uncanny capability to barge in at the worst possible times, Sora had to get back from his errand at that exact moment.

"Oh, hi Kairi!" he beamed.

It looked like she lost track of whatever she was about to say and got up to greet Sora. "Hi Sora! I wanted to surprise you but you were out."

"Sorry about that. You wanna go for a walk?" Sora asked. Kairi nodded in response.

They were about to step out when Roxas suddenly spoke up, unable to stop himself. "Sure, just leave me hanging. After all, it's just the most important thing that has ever happened to me that I could really mess up," he said, sarcasm laced heavily in his words.

"Oh sorry, Roxas," Kairi apologized, finally realizing that she had forgotten her conversation with Roxas. "I've got an idea but I still need to work it out. We'll talk some other time, okay?"

Roxas nodded in response. He could live with that. At least she said she was going to help. He watched her and Sora walk out the door, closing it behind them.

He went back upstairs to his room, and checked his surroundings, ensuring that he was completely alone in the house. Shrugging to himself, he figured that it would be awhile until anyone got home. So he swiched on the computer and went back to reading romance fics.

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A/N: The first part was pretty irrelevant but I just had to put it in. I love putting Roxas in those situations (kinda ironic for some reason). Plz review!