Kairi parted Naminé's flaxen hair with her fingers and looked at her fallen face. "You miss him, don't you?" she sympathized.
Naminé looked up and twirled her hair subconsciously. "No."
"Yes." Kairi insisted and looked towards the road, twisting her keys in the ignition.
"No. I miss-"
"Him."
"I miss talking to him. And walking with him…to places." she clarified.
"So, by your own definition... you miss him." Kairi said.
"Nevermind, Kairi." Naminé sighed. She put her head back on the seat of the car and closed her eyes. "Nevermind."
"You might want to start thinking about what he told you." Kairi stated.
Naminé put her hand on the roof of the car. "I know, Kairi. I have been thinking."
"Yeah, hey, chill. I'm just saying." she defended.
"Where are we going?" Naminé sat up in the passenger seat.
"Riku's." she said nonchalantly.
Nope. "Let me out." Naminé unbuckled her belt.
"What? Why?" Kairi skidded to a stop in the middle of the road, jerking the both of them forward. Naminé looked around the street. There was nobody in front of them, or behind them. In fact, if you lived in Twilight Town, you pretty much walked everywhere. Unless of course you were Kairi.
"Why are we driving?" Naminé had asked as Kairi had grabbed her keys earlier.
"Please." Kairi had scoffed. "I'm not Roxas."
Naminé hadn't even bothered to explain to Kairi what she had really meant. The reference to Roxas had, to the outside eye, been about the fact that Roxas walked everywhere. However, Naminé knew Kairi was just mentioning him to be mean about the fact he was gone. A Kairi scheme.
"I do not want to see him." Naminé recollected her prior encounter with Riku, where he had become privy to information regarding he and Kairi's breakup, which had never actually occurred.
"Why?" Kairi slapped her hand on the steering wheel.
Naminé almost told her by accident. By a miracle she managed to close her mouth after the first syllable. "I…" she started.
"You…?" Kairi tapped impatiently on the dash, not moving the car unless she absolutely had to.
"Kairi..." Naminé sat up and looked at her cousin. "There is something you need to know. I've been trying to tell you for awhile."
Kairi raised her eyebrows.
"Riku-" Naminé began.
There was a honk. A loud, long bleep. Both of the girls jumped up and Kairi let out a little squeak. Naminé turned around. "Someone's behind you." she said over her shoulder.
Kairi started the car and kept driving, keeping her eyes trained on the narrow road.
They drove the rest of the way in silence, talking only the five or six times Kairi asked how she looked. When they got to Riku's house, Kairi rushed in and gave him a huge hug, as Riku glared at Naminé over Kairi's back.
She stuck her tongue at him.
Riku had two of his friends over. They were introduced as Tidus and Wakka, two blonde boys. The one called Tidus was handsome. Kairi kept trying to get Naminé to talk to him. But she didn't feel like talking too much. She only came to stay with Kairi, anyway.
The whole time they just played games and watched movies. She wasn't sure if it could have been classified as a party, but she didn't have any fun either way. Naminé didn't feel like hanging out with them, so she just drew in the corner. As she was looking up to stretch her neck she saw Kairi sitting on the couch by herself. She had been acting weird for hours; she was half-heartedly laughing at jokes and pulling away when Riku tried to kiss her. Tidus and Wakka were throwing some sort of ball around the room and Riku was getting drinks in the kitchen. Naminé looked around then switched couches to talk to Kairi.
"Hey." she closed her sketchbook. "What's up?"
Kairi aknowledged ber presence a little too late. "Hm?" she looked up. Her expression was confused and left out. She looked like Naminé felt: like she didn't belong.
"Why are you sitting here by yourself?" Naminé asked her.
Kairi looked at the boys. "Just a little tired." she sighed.
Naminé knew very well Kairi was not tired. She could tell when Kairi was tired. It was the one of the rare times she would get very cheery, in a delirious way, and do scary human-like things like hum and rest her head on Naminé's shoulder.
"Kairi..." Naminé sat closer.
"Yeah." Kairi ran her hand across her cheek, smearing some of her makeup. "Tired."
"I don't think you're tired."
Kairi looked at her, glossy hair falling in her face. "I know." she said.
Naminé sat back in the couch. "Wanna go home?" she whispered. "Watch a movie or something?"
Kairi's face lit up and she smiled brightly. "Yeah." she said.
Naminé jumped up. Wakka's blitzball hit her in the back of the head. "Mmm." she rubbed the back of her neck and Kairi laughed.
"See? You're laughing at my pain." Naminé clapped. "You're feeling better." she extended her hand to Kairi.
Kairi took it and got up. They gathered their things and walked to the door.
"Where are you guys going?" Tidus took one in the arm from Riku.
"To have fun." Kairi shouted.
Tidus just shrugged. Riku didn't ask why they were leaving.
As they were one their way home Kairi started giggling and said, "Sorry I couldn't hook you and Tidus up."
"Don't worry about it." Naminé chuckled. "He's not for me."
Kairi stepped on the gas around a corner. Out of fear for her life Naminé grabbed the side handle.
Kairi pulled a piece of hair out of her lip gloss. "No, I mean I really couldn't. He has a girlfriend. Her name is Yuna or something." she shrugged.
"Yuuuuuuuuuna." Naminé emphasized each syllable in the girl's name. No wonder Roxas did it. It was fun. She giggled.
The whole way home Naminé and Kairi took turns making fun of this innocent girl's name. They said it in so many tones and voices and were laughing so hard Kairi almost crashed twice.
"No wait, I've got one." Kairi snicker-shouted. "Yuuuna!" she adopted an annoying British accent. "Timmme for teea, Yuuuna!"
Naminé laughed. "Oh wait what about- Kairi, look out!" she pointed straight ahead to the road.
Kairi slammed on the brake and screamed. The car skidded to a slow stop, right before it almost crashed into someone.
Once they had stopped moving Naminé uncovered her eyes and looked up. In front of the car, looking absoulutely unfazed by near death, was Sora. He was looking at Kairi with a half- smile, half- terrified expression.
Sora walked over to Kairi's side of the window and leaned in. "You two shouldn't be able to drive." he sighed with a smile.
Kairi was still breathing so hard she couldn't speak. Not that she would have said anything anyway.
"Hey, Sora. Sorry." Naminé said with wide eyes.
"It's cool." he drummed with his fingers on the car door. "So you missing Roxas?" he smirked at Naminé.
She wasn't until he said that. "No..." she said timidly.
"Right." he smirked again. "Anyway, I'm on my way back to his place." he stood up. "Don't kill anyone." he waved to both of them while looking at Kairi.
Neither of them said anything. All Naminé could hear was her heart, which was still racing.
Kairi turned to her. "He smells really nice." she whispered.
Naminé took a moment to process what Kairi said. Kairi, compliment, Sora. None of those words together made much sense to her.
"Let's go home." Naminé sat back and closed her eyes. She was thinking about Roxas again, which she hated. Kairi started driving, and neither of them talked the whole ride home.
"This one?" Kairi held up the movie.
Naminé glanced at the cover. "Too dramatic."
"Yeah." she dug around in the cabinet. "Uhh... what about this one?"
Naminé shook her head. "Too funny."
Kairi put it back. "Okay..." she sifted through them again. "Oh, oh, this one!" she jumped up and one of her slippers fell off. She pushed the movie in Naminé's face.
Naminé squinted to read the title. "Too happy." she crinkled her nose.
"Okay, seriously?" Kairi laughed and smacked the video on the coffee table.
"I'm sorry." Naminé sighed. "Put on what you'd like." she twirled Kairi's heart necklace around her finger.
"Okay, I'll-" Kairi stopped and looked at Naminé's hands. "What's that?" she asked.
Naminé pulled it off of her finger. "Just... just a necklace." she smiled convincingly. She hadn't given it to Kairi yet, she was waiting for something that seemingly wouldn't come.
"It's beautiful!" Kairi fingered the bright pink shellacked silver. "Wow." her eyes sparkled.
"It's... It's yours." Naminé handed it to her, smiling herself at the grin on Kairi's illuminated face.
"Seriously? Who's it from?" she put it on and admired the way it
looked from the mantle mirror.
Naminé thought about telling her the truth. After all, she wasn't going to lie. But she saw how happy Kairi was right now, so again she said nothing, but tried to change the subject.
"What are we watching?" she held her breath, hoping Kairi would forget her question.
Kairi didn't answer for several seconds. She was still looking in the mirror when she pointed to a video on the floor. "That one."
Naminé jumped up and put in the movie. "C'mon, Kairi." Naminé urged. Naminé didn't like movies. She would normally just draw whatever came to mind and that could keep ber entertained. However, since Kairi couldn't draw to save her life, Naminé had to reach out to her through Kairi's way. And that meant watching movies. Sad ones.
From what Naminé could tell, the film centered around a girl, struggling with her decisions in life. When her love moves away and her father dies, she's left by herself. There was some sort of morale to the story, but Naminé didn't catch it. Partly because she wasn't paying attention but mostly because right after the girl's love left her, she started crying. And crying. And... crying.
"Naminé, seriously." Kairi patted Naminé's head consolitorialy. "Please stop."
"I-I can't." Naminé sobbed. "I'm sorry."
"Don't aplogize for crying." Kairi exclaimed. "Just stop!"
That made her even more upset. She didn't even understand what brought this sudden onset of tears. She couldn't place it. When she had finally calmed down, she just laid her head on Kairi's shoulder.
"Kairi, I'm a mess." she sniffled.
Kairi closed her eyes. "So am I." she sighed.
Naminé looked at the screen; hopeful the storyline would come through for her. But just like Kairi's periodic attempts at drawing... it didn't end happily.