Author's Note: Okay! Now things start being so lame and get more involved with other characters and their lives. In other words, I guess you could call the other chapters prologues - stuff that's universally true in all these chapters.

... But now stuff'll be weird. Chapters'll character-jump, time jump, and change relationships and events. Enjoy. :3 Also, I'll be keeping some notes from now on - just so you can skip over anything you don't like or to remind you where we're at.

characters; Namine, Roxas
pairings; None
related chapters; All

Sora had made friends at school very quickly. That was fair enough, Roxas thought. Sora actually reached out to people and didn't wait for them to approach him. Kairi, the red-head, was in Roxas' English class, and one of Sora's classes - he couldn't recall which. She seemed nice enough. He was yet to meet this 'Riku' boy, but trusted Sora's judgement.

... Maybe.

Well, he had little say in it anyway. Sora had quickly taken to eating lunch with them at the fast food places across the street. Roxas had been invited repeatedly, but had decided it was high time he stopped leaching off of Sora's friendships.

So he ate lunch alone, sitting in front of the school and observing small groups of friends, laughing and chatting and hardly getting around to their food.

"Are you lonely?" She asked. Roxas had only heard the voice once before - briefly - but recognized it immediately. He looked up to see the blonde girl from the music store, sitting prettily on top of the sign, ankles crossed and hands in her lap.

"Not really," He replied, not looking away from her. He was rather curious, really, as to how she had gotten there so silently.

"Would you like company anyway?" She tried again, and Roxas shrugged.

The sun was bright, as it had continually been throughout the days. Shining directly on her white clothes, they seemed to glow. She seemed somehow ethereal, once again. It wasn't strange, Roxas thought, though it should have been.

The two sat in silence, until the sound of rustling made Roxas look up. The girl was pulling a sketchbook out of her bag. She opened it on her lap, and began sketching, though he couldn't see what.

"So you're Roxas." She said. Roxas blinked, and opened his mouth to ask how she knew his name. She continued talking; "My name is Namine."

That explained a lot, part of him seemed to think.

He didn't understand, but somehow couldn't bring himself to ask. So as things were, Roxas spent his lunch break watching Namine draw. They sat in silence, save for the sounds of her drawing. Gingerly, Namine set down her pencil and turned her sketchbook to show him the picture.

He eyed the drawing for a long moment. It was himself, running through a dark city with lights and signs everywhere. He looked at Namine curiously, and wondered what exactly she was trying to tell him.

Pastel Ink