Ok readers the chapter may be a bit confusing as it will be from view different point of views. I would've done the entire beginning in third person but it didn't seem as effective.

I don't own anything of Square Enix no matter how many coins I threw in the wishing well.

Chapter X: Christmas Dance and a Lost Chance

Roxas' Point of View

The guys and I were talking in front of the toilets. It was a casual conversation at first but quickly it became an interrogation of who I was going to take to the dance more like who I was hoping will ask me out instead, not that many people followed the girl's choice thing anyway.

"The girl I wanna ask seems preoccupied, I think she has someone else in mind," I replied sadly.

"Well ask her before some other guy asks her out then," suggested Sora

"Nah I can't, I feel like a bad guy then."

"Stop being a noble loser and ask her out to the dance," responded Axel.

I was about to answer them until I saw Namine walking this way. This could've been my big chance to ask her but I have become unbelievably shy around her after Soundwave and decided to hide in the bathroom.

"Hey guys I need to go to the toilets be back real quick."

I splashed some water onto my face to cool myself. What was I thinking? This is Namine! Ok at first I kind of found her annoying, ok maybe my friends annoying, trying to push her and me together, and then we became best friends. We do pretty much everything together. We go to music stores, art museums (she even tries to teach me to draw) and skate parks.. I guess my feelings started to change when I started to hang around her more even though her dad is pretty intimidating, trimming the hedge with First Tsurugi.

So why don't I ask her out?

Oh yeah that's right, we're friends and that's just weird to ask friends out. But Hayner and Olette did it, didn't they? Yet it was gonna happen eventually, they were way too obvious. I bet she only sees me as a friend only though.

But still why don't I ask her out?

Oh yeah again, she seemed preoccupied and by the looks of it she's trying to corner Axel. That's it, Riku said she wanted to ask Axel out. That's probably why she came to meet up with us. I should probably go out and see how they're going. So it's only going to be Tidus and me, the lone men in arms. Wait, Tidus asked that senior our Yuna, that guy has guts. Ok stop procrastinating Roxas and get out.

I walked out, only to greet Riku and Sora.

"Sorry guys for the wait, where's Axel?"

"Namine dragged Axel away," replied Riku pointing at the corner.

"Yeah I guess she was going to ask him out but didn't Larxene ask him out this morning and he agreed?" Sora obliviously asked.

Shit! That's it Larxene asked him to the dance, she must be pretty desperate. But wait a minute didn't Saix and Luxord do some bet that another chick was going to ask Axel out, Axel's pretty popular with the ladies and were going to stalk him all day and Larxene decided to tag along. Larxene being a bitch she is, plans to humiliate the next girl. But if Axel spills it he's gonna to have to skate board in Marluxia's pink tutu (can't believe flower boy has one).

I then darted off.

"Oi! Roxas!" I heard Sora call out but I payed no attention.

I skidded around the corner to see Larxene laughing her head off. Axel standing in the middle of the hallway with his head in his hands and a blonde girl running away.

I walked up straight to Axel and grabbed him by the collar despite our height differences he seemed intimidated. "I thought you were a gentleman Axel." I punched him in the face and ran after Namine.

Third Person View

Sora and Riku skidded around the corner only to see Roxas punching his best friend Axel in the face and bolt off after what appeared to be Namine in the distance.

Larxene bent over Axel to see if he was alright.

"Are you ok Axel?" she asked.

"I'll be fine, my jaw's just in pain. Man I didn't think the guy could be so scary."

"Hey Axel, what the hell was that all about?" asked Sora.

"Isn't it obvious Sora? He rejected her," answered Riku.

"But why would she run?"

"I guess she was humiliated," stated Riku, giving Axel and Larxene the evil eye.

"But at least he ran after her." Axel nodded towards the running figure of Roxas with his jaw still throbbing.

Roxas' Point of View

She doesn't run very fast and by the time I caught up to her I was able to grab her hand.

She stopped running and I turned her around for a hug. I could feel tears seeping through my shirt.

I didn't know who grabbed my hand and turn me around for a hug but I just cried into their chest. I didn't know how long we stood there but they just comforted me.

"It's alright Namine, Axel was just being a jerk and you know Larxene. She's just a total bitch."

I know that voice. It was Roxas'.

"Don't let them get to you. You're stronger than that."

"But I," sobbing in between my words, "I feel totally humiliated!" I cried deeper into his chest. "He was the first guy I ever I asked to dance and I was totally humiliated."

"Shhh shhh don't worry, I punched Axel in the face if that makes you happy," he answered.

I giggled at that. I would have never thought that Roxas would punch his best friend in the face.

"Are you ok now Namine?" I grabbed me by the shoulders and looked at me with those piercing, deep, azure eyes.

I nodded silently.

"Well," he scratched the back of his head like Axel, "I was wondering," he started to go lightly pink, "If you would come to the Christmas dance with me Namine."

My mouth just fell open like a fish. I quickly closed it. "Isn't it supposed to be a girl's choice?"

He's hair immediately drooped.

"Sure I'll come with you to the dance Roxas."

He's face instantly lit up and a huge grin appeared on his face (A.N insert smile at the end of KH 2).

He then gave me another hug. I think I'm getting used to his hugs.

"C'mon let's meet up with Kairi and Selphie," he said grabbing my hand leading me away.

"Sure."

"Though I guess I wouldn't have mind seeing Axel skateboard in Marluxia's pink tutu and laugh me head off."

"What?" I was surprised by this new revelation.

"Well I'll assume you heard the bet from the pile of shit back there." I whacked him in the head for swearing.

"Ouch! That hurt you know. Well the bet in simple from Axel's perspective is that if he spilled the beans he would have to skateboard in Marluxia's pink tutu."

I threw my head back in laughter. I must have surprised Roxas because his eyes suddenly widened.

"I guess I shouldn't hold a grudge on him since I guess I would've have done that too if I lost."

"Probably."

We walked into the yard where the rest of the gang was hanging out.

I was sitting in the lounge room fidgeting with the bracelet on my arm. I looked at the clock and it was 6.25, ok Namine Roxas is meant to arrive a 6.30.

"So Namine, sweetie, who are you going with to the Christmas Dance?" dad asked again.

"Dad I've told you a million times already and I don't think it is going to change unless he decided to stand me up. It's just Roxas."

"Roxas may be on you mother's good side but he still in the quarantine list," he replied gruffly.

"You look wonderful sweetie. Now do a little twirl for me again," asked mum who walked in with a camera in her hand.

I rolled my eyes. This was probably the hundredth time she made me do this too. I twirled in the living room feeling like an idiot but then I looked at the hallway mirror and I suppose I do look quite pretty. The reflection didn't show me but a snow white girl with golden locks framing her face and a cream halter neck dress draping her petite body. The only thing that represented a Christmas dance were the earrings shaped like presents hanging off the side of her head. Maybe this isn't exactly the festive outfit one would wear at a Christmas dance but this is Destiny Islands where it is never less than 25 degrees Celsius and the sun was stays in the sky for ages.

My train of thought was broken when the doorbell rang. I went to open the door. And obviously it was Roxas at the doorstep.

And my I was surprised. Honestly I thought Roxas would brush this off as another party and come out casual so I decided overdress (in my opinion of course) to make up for his lack of formality. But here he is with his normal spiky, blond hair which looked like it was attempted to style (flicks of gel were still visible with the mass). But if this wasn't astonishing it was the fact that he was wearing a tux. The guy I thought that probably had only two sets of clothes was wearing a tux. It was an ivory swallow-tailed tuxedo with a gold waistcoat underneath. He didn't bother with a tie apparently but again this is Roxas. He apparently didn't bother with an accessory either to put in the breast pocket. But all in all I have to admit he looked pretty hot if not dashing, I can't believe I just described Roxas as that.

"He he hi Namine," he stuttered, "You look wonderful."

I blushed lightly at that, never actually being complimented like that so seriously.

"You look great too," I complimented.

"Thanks, but honestly i found this deep in my jungle like wardrobe. Soooo are we ready to go?" he smiled

Before I could reply I heard mum call out, "Not so fast you two!"

"Hi Mrs Stri- I mean Tifa. How are you?"

"Fantabulous. And don't you look dashing Roxas come in come in. I wanna take photos of you two! What a lovely couple you two make."

Did my hearing deceive me or am I just sick again. I looked at Roxas who seemed to go all rigid and then at dad who just made a funny coughing sound and glared at Roxas.

"Just take the photos Teef and let them go to Christmas Dance," dad grunted.

"Ok ok you two stand by the flowers. Not like that, a bit more to the left, yep perfect."

Mum took the photo and then said, "Hmm Roxas you're missing something. Wait here."

She then took off up stairs. What is she thinking, maybe doing this makes her feel young again. After a few minutes in the awkward silence between Roxas and dad mum returned with my gold silk handkerchief. She then placed it in Roxas' breast pocket.

"There perfect," she said quite proudly.

Roxas and I looked at each other with dumbfounded expressions.

"Thanks Tifa, umm I guess we shall be leaving now or we'll be late. I'll bring her back between twelve and one."

"Look after my girl Roxas or I would be shaving your head with my sword," dad threatened.

"Daad!"

"Most definitely sir," he replied.

Sir? What's with Roxas tonight.

"Ok let's go Roxas enough dwaddling." I grabbed his arm and lead him to the door. "Bye mum. Bye dad."

"Bye Sweetie!"

"Bye Cloud. Tifa."

At the door step I turned around to face him. "Oh my holy sketch book that was weird!"

"What's so weird about that?"

"I donno it felt so weird. So exactly how are we getting to the hotel?"

He nodded at the street. I followed he line of sight and saw a sleek, shiny, silver convertible.

"Wow! You drive?"

He opened tot the door for me to hop in and he entered and started the engine and headed for the hotel.

"Of course I drive. Pretty much every guy living on the Destiny Islands drives."

"Well sooory. I mean if you have such a shiny car, which I honestly don't think it's yours, why do you skate board to school then?"

"Skate boarding is more fun, and no this car is my parents who at the moment have been at the Land of Dragons for the past five months. Plus I only drive when it rains."

"Which is practically never," I curtly stated.

"Pretty much."

"So why are your parents gone for so long?" honestly I never heard much of Roxas' family besides the fact that he's at Sora' s a lot and that they're cousins.

"They're scientists of sorts; they're currently studying the properties of fireworks and some archaeology."

I just ohhhhed at that.

"Anyway here we are."

I looked outside the window and it was exactly how Selphie had planned it. Full of lights and sparkles. He drove to the entrance and let the chauffeur do the rest. I never thought Destiny Islands to be posh but when the wanted to do something they go all the way.

Inside the roonm was a glittering gem. Roxas' trigonometry was right; Selphie's imagination vivid and the people were having a great time. We had to take another photo at the lobby before we actually entered. When we finally entered a lot of people were giving us stares. Roxas and I then made our way towards where the rest of the gang was sitting.

"Hi Namine, Hi Roxas," called out Kari in fuchsia pink dress which nobody could pull off but her.

"Yo Roxas!" There was Sora next to Kairi like Roxas wearing a tuxedo and a royal blue vest. I really like the little pin things on his cuffs as they were shaped as crowns.

"Hi guys!" I replied.

"Yo- ahhhhhh!!" called out Roxas before was tackled by Axel in a deep red shirt closely followed by Larxene in a bright sunshine yellow dress.

"Looking pretty hot there hnn Namine?" complimented Kairi.

"Trying to hook up with anybody in particular?"

I just ignored them." Thanks...i guess, so where are the others?"

"Well Riku and Xion are on stage playing with Selphie nearby probably wondering why she went out with Demyx," answered Axel who was currently caught in Roxas' headlock.

What a change of circumstances. I giggled totally forgiving him and looked at the stage where the band was playing. There was Riku in a casual suit; no tie, no jacket and a few buttons undone playing the bass and Xion just looked gorgeous in the vintage little black dress with sequins sewn on. She was singing and she had a wonderful voice. Hey wait a minute isn't Larxene meant to be singing?

"Didn't want to sing and the girl volunteered," she must have the power to ready minds i thought.

On the stage was also Demyx on his sitar and Selphie like what Axel said, was right next to him in a very short green dress with Christmas hat on.

"So where are Hayner and Olette?" asked Roxas after letting go of Axel.

"Isn't it obvious?" Kairi pointed at the dance.

And there they were. Arm in arm dancing to the music. Hayner in the standard tuxedo and Olette in chiffon (by the looks of it) dress the looked like the sunset as the colors melded into each other from orange to the top the a dark blue at the hem.

"Well talk about dancing , Princess Utari would you like dance with me?" Sora bowed gracefully at Kairi acting as gentlemanly as he could.

"Well of course Sir Hikari." They went off to the dance floor. Soon after Larxene dragged Axel there too, leaving Roxas and I at the table on our own.

We looked at each and looked away suddenly.

"Sooo umm Namine do you want to dance?"

"Umm sort of but I can tell you I can't dance."

"Neither can I."

"So what should we do? We can't just sit here doing nothing can we?"

"Ummm I didn't bring cards to beat you again at poker."

We just sat there for a few awkward minutes. Until he stood up and took my hand and lead me to the dance floor nearly bumping into Tidus and the senior Yuna in which only one word could describe her and that was hot. He then put his arms around waist and instinctively (funny how I knew what do, must be all those chick flicks) put my arms around his neck.

"Roxas I can't dance," I hissed into his ears.

"I told you neither can I. It's either sit there and feel idiotic or pretend you know what your doing," he whispered in my ear.

Once again I giggled at him. I feel hyped this evening for some odd reason. So for sometime we 'danced'. We also spotted a few teachers. Mr Leon in a casual suit like Riku, Miss Kisaragi in a dress shorter than most students and funnily enough Mr Sephiroth in the clothes I saw in the photo just missing the sword. He was probably playing bouncer or something.

Soon the music tracks which Selphie, Kairi and Riku chose started playing and that the band members got to have some fun too. In others words the innocent Christmas dance became something more suited to the club scene. Just bodies swaying to the music and grinding I think the word is. Roxas and I joined in for a while until it just felt stuffy and it was weird in the clothes we were wearing.

We sat at the table with the whole gang for a while. Roxas finally took off the jacket and undid the buttons of his cuffs and the top of his shirt leaving the waistcoat. Amusingly Axel bought a few decks of cards and the whole and gang and the Organization XIII (who soon joined in) started playing poker. Selphie suggested that we should start playing strip poker but naturally all of us vehemently disagreed and we all joined the dance floor again.

"Alllrighty ladies and gentlemen, especially for those couples out there; this song is dedicated to you guys."

Oh my holy sketch book it's the dreaded slow dance. But what happened next just came so naturally and smoothly that I was just dancing with Roxas like he was the only one here.

"Umm Namine I liked to tell you something," he said with eyes brightly glowing and shimmering off the baubles reflcting above us.

"Mmhm yeah you can tell me."

"Well I'd like to say that I really l-"

"PING!"

We both looked up to only see a big, pink, glass bauble that Sora tied up falling fast towards us. Roxas then just pushed me towards but being me I tripped and he's legs got tangled with mine and he fell on top of me.

"CRASH!" a thousand glass slivers scattered everywhere on and around us showing a beautiful light show. But then tiny droplets of red fell on my face.

"Are you alright Namine? Hurt?" he asked in a pained voice.

"Yeah I'm fine but are you ok?" I slid out and stood up. I was mainly ok except for the few bruises I felt developing. I then looked at Roxas who was still on the floor. There was glass everywhere; around the floor, but what I mainly took in was the glass on Roxas' back. Most of the shards slid off his gold waistcoat but some of it penetrated his shirt, several grazed his neck and hands causing him to bleed.

"Roxas can you stand, I'll help you up. Sora go get Mr Sephiroth." I commanded all the while kneeling next to Roxas.

"I'm fine Namine. A few cuts won't kill me," he groaned when he tried to get up. I didn't think the glass cuts were paining him but more of the impact of the actual bauble.

Soon Mr Sephiroth arrived with Miss Kisaragi. And helped Roxas up.

"Do you want me to come as too?" I asked.

"Don't worry, just boss Sora into cleaning the mess."

"No I think you have to come to Miss Strife, you may have some glass splinters on you as well," said Sephiroth.

"Oh ok sir."

They lead us away to the hotel infirmary. I could hear Kairi and Selphie already beginning to command to Sora around. I think he must've felt pretty guilty.

In the infirmary they made me us sit down.

"Piss why did you ask for Seph anyway?"

"He's a general and all he should know some basic first aid," I replied.

"Ok then Roxas, strip," ordered Sephiroth while Yuffie was sifting through the cabinets.

Roxas' jaw i swire just dropped onto the floor and I think the room all of the became very stuffy.

"No you idiot, take off your shirt, there might be some shards left, here I'll help you."

Phew that was pretty awkward.

Roxas was pretty lucky that there weren't many cuts on his back, his very toned and muscled back. I've seen Roxas shirtless once (Selphie's pool party) but this time it just felt kind of embarrassing. I tried not to stare and looked at Miss Kisaragi who was waggling her brows. Damn her for being such a young teacher.

Yuffie just checked me and I turned out fine except for those developing bruises in which she put some ointment on to stop them turning into a 'painting' so she said.

After a while we were let out of the infirmary with Roxas smelling like ointment and a few band-aids on his neck, hands and the odd one across his cheek.

The dancefloor was already packed again so I assume that Sora cleaned up already mostly likely with the help of Riku and Axel.

"Yo Roxas, sorry man, I guess I should've done a better job" Sora apologized when we reached the table.

"You should be, what a way to ruin a party,"

"Sheesh ok, but everyone is dancing again."

"Well I think bauble that fell was the last one Sora did before he left to see his mum," stated Olette who adoringly enough was sitting on Hayner's lap.

"Probably was, I donno. Who wants to play Black Jack now instead of dancing on that lethal floor?" suggested Sora.

For the rest of the night we just played card games.

Afterwards Roxas drove me home.

At the doorstep I told him, "Thanks, Roxas." With a wide smile that felt naturally plastered onto my face if that makes any sense.

He scratched the back of his head and in the dim light he seemed to go slightly pink.

"No problems, always awesome to be a knight in shining armour," he joked. "Well ummm bye Namine."

"Yeah bye Roxas."

He walked back to his car.

"Hey wait!" I ran up to him and he turned around with wide shimmering eyes. "What were you going to tell me before the bauble fell on us?"

He hesitated before he answered or so it looked. "I honestly can't remember. Hey are you busy tomorrow?"

"Yeah sorry I got a landscape painting to do for Mr Ansem. Need to think of ideas."

"Oh ok, I was wondering if you would like to go to an awesome beach I found, that nobody goes to," he added in quickly, "You can do a landscape of the beach I guess."

I thought about it for a moment. "Yeah sure."

"Great, I'll pick you up at three. I would've come earlier but I Aunty Hikari, I mean Sora's mum wants me over tomorrow."

"Sure no problem well bye." I started opening the door.

"Yeah bye Namine."

Hey aren't I meant to do something now. Oh yeah I could have I forgotten. I ran up to Roxas and gave him a quick hug and a peck on the cheek.

"Thanks for being my knight in shining armour." I then quickly entered the house only to see his car leave the drive way. Though i swear to my holy sketch book that there was a small smile on his face.

A.N (here's a long one) OMG this chapter was so corny, I had no clue how to get Roxas to meet up with Namine, I thought of everything but that. So I mashed up some half baked idea and jammed it in. Any ideas to fix it up will be greatly appreciatesd. And for those who don't like what they (Namine and Roxas) are wearing sorry guys I always thought of them to be wearing white and gold. I don't know why though. And I'm also really sorry about how they dance honestly I can't dance so research is all I had to back it up with. Ok I'm done with my ranting.

Please review, I love to hear you're thoughts and constructive criticism is always welcomed.