Sora, Kairi, Riku, Naminé and Roxas all sat together in the large glass study room in the science library at Radiant Garden University. With the first round of exams coming up, they all thought it best to get in a study session beforehand, especially with it being Sora and Kairi's first year at university.
"Selphie and the others are in class now, right?" Sora asked Kairi.
The redhead nodded as she leafed through the pages of her biology textbook. "Yeah. She said that maybe, if we're not busy, that we can have another session on Sunday."
Sora yawned and stared blankly at his blank notebook page, wishing he were anywhere other than the library on an otherwise beautiful day. "I guess," Sora grumbled, not wanting to spend one of his only off days studying.
Roxas looked up from his textbook and chuckled. "Come on," he urged. "It's not so bad. The sooner you get done studying, the sooner you can go back to bed," Roxas teased the younger teen.
"Easy for you to say," Sora said bitterly. "I can barely focus in class. What makes you think I can focus in the dorm study hall?"
Naminé laughed softly to herself. "Sora, the fact that you still manage to get great grades despite the fact that you never study is beyond me."
"No," Riku interrupted, leaning over in his chair and digging through the backpack near his seat. "It's just a lot of dumb luck. But I still don't get how it is that you do well in hard classes and suck at the easy ones."
Sora rolled his eyes and ran a hand through his spiky, light brown hair. "You call it luck, I call it skill."
Just before Riku could say anything, he heard his phone vibrate from far away. He stared at the whiteboard behind Sora where his cellphone lay plugged up into a charger in the wall. He watched it blink a few times and he sighed. "Sora, can you hand me my phone?"
Sora looked lazily over his shoulder and leaned back in his chair, grabbing Riku's phone with ease. He flinched when it continued to vibrate in his hand. Without even trying, Sora glanced at the screen, noting a stream of angry face emojis from the text previews.
Riku caught on and motioned for Sora to hand over his phone, with his friend looking apologetic.
"My bad, I wasn't trying to look," Sora said with a rueful smile.
"Nah, it's my fault I have the previews on," Riku replied as he scrolled through his text messages.
"Wait, what happened?" Naminé asked curiously.
"It's probably a girl," Roxas said jokingly.
Riku rolled his eyes. "Well you're not wrong," he answered.
The group looked up from their studying and turned to the silver-haired sophomore.
"So…" Kairi drew out. "What happened?"
Riku sent off one final text before setting his phone face down on the table. "I kinda…hooked up with a girl the other night."
Kairi and Naminé gasped while Roxas and Sora simply stared at Riku dumbfounded.
"W-Wait," Sora stammered, unable to comprehend what he'd just heard. "Is that why you didn't answer my call the other night?"
"Yeah!" Kairi chimed in. "We were all supposed to hang out."
Riku chuckled and apologized again. "I got wrapped up in something. My bad guys."
"Wrapped up in some random chick's bed," Roxas teased, his eyes returning to his laptop screen.
"She's not random…" Riku argued. "I met her once at the bookstore and again at a party at the off-campus apartments."
Naminé was still stunned, for more reasons than she wanted to share in that moment. After everything that happened, she was sure that Riku was still holding out for Jasmine. Especially since the two of them talked about it not that long ago.
"So, what's the deal?" Roxas asked, earning a glare from Riku for keeping the conversation going. "What? You started it. Now you gotta finish it. Are you dating her?"
"I'd say no from all the angry faces she sent him," Sora told the group.
Riku cleared his throat, not a shred of remorse showing on his handsome face. "We hooked up. That's it. I told her it was nothing serious."
Roxas scoffed. "From the sound of it, she didn't believe you."
"Apparently not," Riku agreed whilst rolling his eyes.
Sora and Naminé exchanged worried glances, both of them seeming to be on the same page.
Sora pulled out his cell phone and quickly sent a text to Naminé while the group continued to grill Riku.
'I'll get to the bottom of this.'
Naminé leaned forward and stared at her computer screen (as her text messages were synched up with her computer) and replied.
'You don't think he's actually over Jasmine, do you?'
Sora shook his head slightly, making sure to look over at Roxas, Kairi and Riku as they asked for all the details from Riku's wild night out.
'Of course not. But you know how he is – he likes the attention.'
Naminé brushed her too-long blonde bangs out of her eyes.
'Yeah. And it's not like she comes around that often.' She responded before looking up at Sora.
'I'll figure it out.' He replied before pocketing his phone.
Naminé waved to Sora, Riku and Kairi who went off in the direction of their dorms.
"See you guys later!" She called out.
The trio said their goodbyes before heading towards the student dormitories while her and Roxas made their way in the direction of the dining hall.
"Is Olette meeting us there?" Naminé asked curiously.
"Not tonight," Roxas replied. "She's in a lecture right now. She won't be back until later on."
"Aww! Look at how cute you are knowing her schedule to a tee," Naminé teased as she jabbed her brother in his side with her elbow.
Roxas blushed slightly and wrapped an arm around Naminé's shoulders, holding his twin close as they walked across the lawn in front of the dining hall. "I guess. I like her if that's what you're getting at."
"I'm glad."
Naminé paused, letting her mind drift down memory lane.
She remembered that period of time after Jasmine and Roxas parted ways (romantically) for the final time. Right after Roxas said goodbye to Jasmine, Naminé found Roxas waiting for Naminé outside of her dorm in shambles after the event. That night was the first time in years that Naminé had seen her brother cry. And while she still loved Jasmine dearly, she couldn't help but feel a little resentful in that moment of the way everything had played out between her best friend and her brother.
But with time, Roxas began to heal. And eventually, he found Olette and she had never seen him happier.
Even though Naminé knew that there was still a tiny, tiny bit of Roxas that still loved Jasmine, she was glad that he'd moved on to someone who made more sense with where he was in life.
"You know they'll probably end up together in the long run, right?" Roxas asked Naminé out of the blue.
"Huh? Who are you talking about?"
Roxas removed his arm and grinned. "Riku and Jasmine."
Naminé froze on the spot, stunned by Roxas' statement.
"How do you figure that?"
Roxas smirked. "Just give it time. But let's face it, they're made for each other."
Naminé jogged to catch up to Roxas, curious as to how he came to this conclusion.
"I'm surprised that Riku hooked up with that girl," Naminé said.
"Really? I'm not. It's kind of like the thing with Aria. Except it isn't a full-blown relationship," Roxas reasoned. "I saw Aria on campus recently. She totally ducked when she saw me and Riku coming."
"Well of course she did. Her and Riku didn't have the cleanest of endings," Naminé reminded him.
"But we all know that he was just trying to get over Jasmine," Roxas began. "I don't think he's trying to get over her this time. He's just having fun."
"Biding his time," Naminé added.
"They'll get back together but it won't be for a while. Even though it bothered me back then finding out they were together, it still made sense. They're kind of like Sora and Kairi: they were made for each other. Dysfunctional as they are, it works. Trust me, we'll be at their wedding one day thinking back on all this nonsense," Roxas said confidently.
Naminé smiled at the thought, proud of her brother's maturity. He definitely had grown since their high school years and had become more observant, reflective, and even forgiving. Though Naminé had rooted for Roxas and Jasmine to work out, she knew now that the breakup had to happen for them to grow. Perhaps Jasmine and Riku could grow up on their own and eventually make their way back to each other one day.
"Although," Roxas drew out.
"Although what?"
"One thing did cross my mind."
Naminé stared at her brother, batting her eyes as if to say, "spit it out".
"If I could see Jasmine together with anyone else, it would be Ven."
Naminé stopped dead in her tracks, her stomach dropping to her knees.
She still hadn't told her brother about Jasmine's fling with Ventus. And the mention of his name just seemed too coincidental. She wondered if Axel spilled the beans (which would make sense considering the randomness of this conversation).
"Why do you say that?" She asked cautiously.
Roxas chuckled, digging his hands into the pockets of his jeans. "You're so observant. I don't know why you don't see it."
"See what?"
"The way he looks at her," Roxas replied. "He looks at her like she's the only thing in the world that matters. It reminds me of when I used to have a crush on her."
Naminé kept her head down, hoping that her expression wouldn't give her away. "They're just really good friends," she argued. "She told me so herself."
"That's probably true. But it's deeper than that."
"Go on…"
"They're always glued at the hip when they're together," Roxas explained. "He's always looking for reasons to touch her."
"Ven has ALWAYS been a touchy kind of person…not in a creepy way. But you know he's super affectionate."
Roxas rolled his eyes. "Uh-huh. Sure. But this is different."
"How? They have a brother/sister relationship."
Roxas stopped right at the foot of the stairs leading upwards and into the dining hall. Naminé followed suit and listened in anticipation for what her brother had to say, hoping that her face wouldn't give anything away.
"Sora and Jasmine have a brother and sister relationship. You and Riku have a brother/sister relationship. That's not them."
Naminé realized that if she kept fighting too hard, she might draw suspicion to herself. Roxas always knew when something was off with her (be it their strong connection) and if she continued on like this, she would surely give herself away. So, she entertained his idea (which was much closer to the truth than she would like to admit).
"You might be right," she said distantly. "I might have to ask her about it once she gets back into town."
"Just watch them. You'll see," he instructed. Before Roxas turned and headed up the stairs, he started to snicker. "I wonder if they've ever thought about hooking up. That would be interesting, to say the least."
Naminé was glad that Roxas was already ahead of her, as her bright blue eyes were nearly double their normal size and the look of sheer panic was clear as day on her face.
"Oh yeah," she mumbled, trailing behind her brother. "That would be interesting…"
Author's Note: So…I planned on doing something different with this chapter…but I had a change of heart. One thing that I've been really…not good at, is utilizing the actual KH members as I did in "Heartbreakers" which I have to do because of where this story is headed. Plus, I wanted to shed light on the original Destiny Islands group and how they're dealing with normal college life and not all the psychotic madness that is Jasmine and the FF boys' lives.
Full disclosure, I reread the original Heartbreakers and boy do I miss the simpler times. Also, I do realize that times sure were different back then in how I wrote and the commentary. In any case, TLDR, there were some cringe-worthy parts and ideas (that I'm happy I've grown out of) but I do miss some of the old, normal, controlled chaos lol
That was my rant. I just REALLY needed to get that out because re-reading "Heartbreakers" was a ride lmao
In any case, I want to thank all of you who read, reviewed and even favorited the story and the chapter!
hopefuldreamer1991: Oh yeah. Ignis was/is difficult. And even though (wow I'm really acting like I didn't write this lol) he's really aggressive and just generally doing the most, I do think that he's one of the ONLY people who are trying to see things in a realistic way – though Noctis seeing Jasmine as a potential candidate out of convenience and comfort (we'll get to that conversation later) also does kind of make sense because they're in a tough situation. Trust me, this is going to come up again later on. That wild thing is that this really is a 10-year story so I am completely with you on waiting for a Riku/Jasmine situation. As always, thank you for the review!
Rawrrbreee: Of course! I'm trying to get better at this. Honestly, I'm so annoyed by the fact that this story has taken so long. I really did try and wait for KH3 and FF Versus 13 (and yes I'm still salty about that) but at this point I just gotta get it done lol. The FF boys are in for a wild ride. I'm really excited to utilize them in situations that DOESN'T involve Jasmine. You'll be seeing more of them and the original Destiny Islands people soon. Thank you for the review. It is super appreciated!
As usual, let me know what you guys think of this chapter. I know I promised to make this chapter longer but I did have to pave the way for other conversations in the future. Plus, I really had to show Roxas. Going back and thinking about his story up to this point, he really did go through some real heartbreak and I genuinely want him to get his happy ending and grow because…honestly, he's one of my favorite characters all the way back to his 'BHK' days. Those of you who know that reference are true OGs lol
In any case, I hope you all are well and staying safe and hopefully I'll see you guys soon. Take care!