C12

LOCATION: Meeting room of Organization XIII, The World That Never Was
DATE: Monday, December 3rd 2X60
TIME: 0950 hours

Three minutes.

She can do this. It's only three minutes.

"Just sit back and relax. Now take a deep breath. Breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth…"

Naminé's brows furrow deeper, though there's nothing for her to fixate on. Listening to this soothing voice is supposed to help her calm down, but the fact is, she's still pretty tense. Who knew relaxing was so hard?

Maybe that's why Hiro had suggested meditation to sharpen her focus.

Initially, the thought of sitting still for a period of time had sounded incredibly simple. But once Naminé actually tried to calm down and clear her mind, she realized just how many thoughts constantly flew in and out of her head. Not thinking about something is apparently just as hard as thinking about how to supervise a field team through a mission.

So Hiro had recommended guided meditation, which is why she's now in the usual room they meet in to discuss Synergy, earbuds in listening to a random person tell her to feel her lungs expand and then deflate. Just like a balloon. When's the last time she actually saw a balloon? Just the thought of a balloon sends a chill up her spine. She really needs to get over this irrational fear sometime…

Shit! Tuning back into the narrator, she realizes she's missed a sentence or two. It's so easy to get distracted by her own thoughts when she's supposed to—

Focus! And listen to what the narrator is saying!

"Now, take another deep breath, in and out. Let your shoulders slouch, your jaw unclench, your brows relax. We hold a lot of tension in our body throughout the day, but give yourself the space to let it all go."

Muscle relaxation, okay. Let's slowly relax…

Following the rest of the guided meditation, Naminé experiences what feels like the longest three minutes of her life. Three minutes! She's not entirely sure how doing this directly translates to better Keyblade skills, but it's nice that she now has a concrete goal of meditating for longer periods of time.

She glances towards her side, where Sora's seated on the ground with his eyes closed, back ramrod straight.

"You guys should meditate together! Part of getting to know each other is spending time together," Hiro had explained, "so this'll be two birds with one stone!"

Hiro then cackled and started rambling about an idea for an actual contraption to take down two birds with one stone. Naminé and Sora had assumed that was their cue to leave . Hiro really is a genius, down to the idiosyncrasies and tendency to ramble.

Naminé looks at Sora again. He'd boasted about being a pro at meditation—he does look very comfortable seated on the ground with his legs criss-crossed under him. A moment later, his eyelids flutter open and he meets Naminé's gaze with a sheepish smile.

"What happened to your 'god-level focus'?" Naminé smirks. She's actually kinda impressed if he maintained his focus for five minutes all by himself.

"Don't get me wrong, that was back in the day! Actually, I didn't think I'd get this bad at it. I used to meditate all the time."

"Do HBRC agents all practice focusing like this?"

"Well, we're advised to have some sort of routine before missions to help us get into the zone," Sora explains. "I used to do some meditation cause it was helpful in therapy."

Therapy? Questions pop up in Naminé's mind but the moment for her to ask anything quickly passes.

Sora leaps to his feet and gestures at the door. "Well, ready to hit the gym?"

Naminé groans at the thought. In line with Hiro's suggestion to stick together, she now has to accompany Sora to his workouts. She's the least athletic person she knows, and exercise has never been high on her list of priorities. Suffice to say, she always dreads this part of the day.

"C'mon, you're always so grumpy about working out!" Sora exclaims. "You know you can really benefit from exercise."

...what's he trying to say? Naminé's eyes narrow into thin slits.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, otherwise we're just sitting around all the time! You know you're supposed to get 30 minutes of exercise everyday, right?"

Well, when he puts it like that...she'd thought he was going somewhere else with his lead-in, but whatever. Though he should put some thought into phrasing for future reference...

One thing's for sure, Sora doesn't really think before he speaks.

They head towards the gym, located on the other side of the building. Once there, Sora heads towards the weights while Naminé dithers by the treadmills near the entrance. Yes, walking counts as exercise. And she's really out of shape—in fact, she's been getting tired a lot more quickly than she'd expected. She doesn't remember the last time she's exercised regularly. Though they have P.E. class in school, OATS operators generally get away with the bare minimum. Sora's right that she can benefit from some exercise.

Not that she has to voice her agreement.

Time drags by and at the 30-minute mark she promptly hops off the machine. Taking a moment to catch her breath and grab some water, she then heads out to a nearby patio.

This nice outdoor area has been her choice location to practice summoning her Keyblade. And Naminé can proudly say that she's getting better at it. At first, it'd taken up to five minutes just for her to calm down and focus. Now, it's easier to block out noise and her thoughts. Maybe the meditation is helping. She still has to close her eyes and focus on visualizing her Keyblade, but maybe she can eventually summon it on command like Sora.

The rote process of summoning her Keyblade, willing it away, and then summoning it again gets boring after awhile, but Naminé's always been good with routines. Time blurs like it does when she's in the zone working on homework. She only snaps out of her trance-like state when someone taps her shoulder.

Turning, she realizes it's Sora. He offers her a clean towel, gesturing at her head.

"You gonna take a break anytime soon? I've been watching you, and I can't tell if you're getting any better."

Naminé scoffs at the implications of his words. She grabs the towel and dabs at the unexpected sweat on her temple and neck. "I'm getting better, I can tell."

Sora shrugs. "Well, as long as you know."

It occurs to Naminé that Sora's mocking her Keyblade skills and instead of getting butthurt, she really can't care less. Usually, she's hypersensitive to other people's opinions of her, especially of her ability to do things. She likes being good at what she does and works hard to prove that to others. But now that she's a fish out of water trying to hone this mysterious Synergy skill, the need to impress has mostly gone away.

It's just Sora, after all. Who needs to impress him?

"It's like you were hypnotized or something," Sora continues. "I didn't know if you'd respond to my poke."

"Guess I was in the zone."

"Like a robot!"

Naminé rolls her eyes, about to volley another insult when Sora continues.

"Seriously, that was some next-level focus. It looked like you could do that forever and never get tired. And I know constantly summoning your Keyblade takes a lot out of you."

...oh. It's another one of those indirect compliment things that Sora's been doing more often. Naminé's starting to wonder if he's doing it unintentionally, because he's still pretty crude most of the time. Nonetheless, she's not one to ignore a compliment for what it's worth.

"I'm just working hard," she murmurs as the fatigue begins to settle in. It's like coming out of a swimming pool and realizing that out of the water, your muscles are quite sore and your body's gasping for oxygen.

"Lunchtime? I'm gonna shower real quick," Sora says, thumb directed at the boy's locker room.

"You have 10 minutes," Naminé declares as she heads towards the gym entrance. Sora protests, hoping for "15 minutes, c'mon!" but she readily ignores him, looking through her phone as she waits.

At some point, eating lunch with Sora also became a regular thing. It follows Hiro's 'spend time together' directive. Also, they usually finish their individual workouts and head out around the same time. It'd be weirder if they purposefully sat apart once they got to the dining area.

The first time they had lunch together, Sora had made it seem so natural, like they've been lunch buddies since forever. Naminé had wanted to ask about them eating together but thinking about it, she actually wasn't sure what she wanted to ask. Since then, she's been going along with the assumption that after their morning schedule, they'll have lunch together as well.

It's probably not even a big deal. Spending all this time together is all in the name of mastering Synergy anyways. For humanity! What a noble cause.

She sits on these thoughts for a bit until Sora pops into her field of vision. Naminé winces as he shakes his head and some water from his damp hair splatters onto her face. And he kinda...smells good? Not to be creepy or anything. Is he using a new shampoo?

"What?" Sora asks, tilting his head towards the side.

Realizing she's staring, Naminé quickly mumbles a nonresponse and walks towards the dining room. Sora starts complaining about their lack of communication and "Hiro said we have to keep getting to know each other better, so you gotta tell me what you're thinking!"

Hmm. He's got a point.

"What shampoo do you use?" she asks.

"H—huh?" Sora stammers, obviously taken aback by her sudden question. She realizes she should probably explain herself.

"You finally smell like something besides a sweaty teenager," Naminé points out. "Is it a new shampoo?"

"I don't—it's not—whaddaya mean, sweaty teenager?

Of course he'd focus on the wrong part of what she said.

"Never mind, forget I asked…"

"No, don't forget! I wanna know, do I actually smell like sweat all the time? I'm not some high schooler going through puberty! Do I need stronger deodorant? Naminé, you gotta tell me these things!"

She rolls her eyes at how dramatic he is.

They soon reach the dining room, and predictably, Sora's attention quickly shifts to their meal options for the day. His eyes brighten at the sight of hot food, while Naminé stares at the entrées laid out. Usually she has a pretty small appetite, but maybe because of the exercise, she finds herself grabbing an extra Hawaiian bun.

"That's all you're gonna get?" Sora raises a brow at her plate.

"This is more than I usually get."

"Really? I'm always super hungry after exercise. If you pushed yourself harder, you'd probably be hungrier."

"I push myself hard enough," Naminé says defensively. "Usually I barely exercise. I'm an OATS operator, not a field agent."

"Yeah, sure, but exercising is for your health! Don't you wanna be healthy?"

"I was healthy before exercising."

"Don't you wanna be healthier?"

She can't argue with that logic. "Well, Hiro said I have to be in the gym with you. I could just sit around but I'm at least being productive and exercising."

Sora playfully clicks the serving tongs in his hand. "Everyone, a classic LOD overachiever!"

"Stop saying that!" Naminé exclaims. "And quit holding up the line."

"Okay, okay, s'not like anyone's in line now anyways…"

"Excuse me, am I nobody to you?"

"I mean, you don't count—we're in line together."

Wordlessly, they grab utensils and head towards an empty table. As Sora goes to get a drink, Naminé sits and realizes for the past few days, she's basically been spending the whole morning with him. That's a lot of time spent with an arch-nemesis.

Okay, obviously that label's not applicable anymore. Anyways, that was more a reflection of the fact that their worlds have some bad blood. Now, the two of them are...hmm, she's not sure how to describe their relationship. Friends sounds like a leap, considering they were definitely on somewhat hostile terms just last week. But do you usually spend hours a day with a mere acquaintance? And having to spend time together isn't actually as bad as she thought it'd be. For the most part they're just doing their own thing, but it's nice knowing someone's there with her.

In the present, Sora makes his presence known by returning and slamming down a glass of OJ filled to the brim. Some juice overflows, spilling on the table and Naminé's hand.

"Hey!"

"My bad...you're fine," he shrugs, getting comfortable in his seat.

Naminé shoots him a stern glare, but he remains oblivious as he digs into his meal. Watching him eat, she starts thinking again about how she'd describe him to someone. Hi, this is Sora, my...not-quite-a-friend? A close acquaintance? Partner-in-crime as we test out new ways to fight Heartless as beacons of hope for humanity? The latter's a bit of a mouthful. Maybe she can workshop it a little...

"What's up?"

"Huh?" She blinks, looking at Sora and realizing he's looking back with furrowed brows.

"You keep zoning out—either that, or you're staring at me, which is weirder. Are you okay?"

Naminé shakes her head, determined to keep it together. Because if Sora, king of obliviousness, has noticed, it must be pretty bad. Or maybe it's just cause they're spending more time together, so it's more likely he'll notice something's a little off.

"What? I'm fine, don't worry," she reassures, looking down to nibble at her food.

"You sure? You know, if you're feeling sick or tired you should let someone know. Taking care of yourself is just as important as working hard. If you're sick, you can't do anything."

Naminé blinks at how wise he sounds for a moment. "Are you okay? Those were some big thoughts you said out of nowhere."

"Ooh, was that a compliment?" he says with a wide grin.

It was really more of a backhanded compliment, but good for him if he focuses on the positive. Maybe this indirect compliment thing is a two-way street. "Only if you're desperate," she says.

"I'll take it," he declares, taking a long, satisfying sip of his drink. "I mean, Hiro's not sparing any nice words."

"What do you mean? He's usually encouraging."

"Yeah, but he kinda has to be. You know, like how a parent's cheering for their kid no matter what."

"You're calling Hiro our dad?"

"Okay, scratch that analogy." Sora makes a face. "It's hard to tell if we're actually getting anywhere with this, I guess."

Naminé shrugs. "You're right. Everything still feels like a huge maybe. Maybe this'll be a huge waste of time."

"Way to be negative, Naminé. Oh wait—Negative Naminé!"

"Don't call me that," Naminé frowns. "But I'm not gonna lie and pretend things are okay just to feel better. Who knows how things will actually turn out?"

They settle into a silence, only disrupted occasionally by shifting their cutlery or quietly chewing on their food. Naminé tries to think about her tangible accomplishments in the past week. She can summon her Keyblade more quickly and she's getting better at meditation. However, when they practice Synergy in the mornings, it still takes a long time to activate it, and it usually disappears pretty quickly. Hiro's insistence on seemingly meaningless activities is also getting annoying, especially when they're not seeing much progress with Synergy.

After finishing lunch, she and Sora part ways to run their own errands. Naminé heads back to her room for a well-deserved shower. Usually they're done with Synergy stuff by noontime, but Hiro has an afternoon activity planned for today. Throwing on a breezy dress, she looks through some homework for DiZA until their scheduled meeting time.

Upon arriving at their usual meeting room, she's not surprised that once again she's the first there. At this point, she knows she doesn't have to consistently arrive five minutes early when the other two participants are consistently more than five minutes late. Well, being late to things probably isn't a good habit to develop.

This time Hiro beats Sora, clocking in at 10 minutes after the hour. "What's up, Naminé?"

"Not much." They've definitely all gotten a lot more informal with each other, which is probably for the better. "How're you?"

"I had a lunch meeting with the lab that ran overtime, so I'm a little on edge," Hiro admits while sipping his drink. "I mean, if everyone just presents their findings and doesn't waste time making excuses for why they didn't get to certain parts of their experiments, maybe we could finish on time for once."

Inevitably, Naminé is intermittently reminded that unlike herself, Hiro has an actual adult job. Hell, Sora's also an active-duty agent.

Meanwhile, she's just a high schooler.

"Sounds rough," she offers, not entirely able to relate to Hiro's situation.

"Anyways. Meditation going well?"

"Yeah, I guess. The guided meditation is a lot easier than doing it by myself."

"Good, good. You guys still doing meditation together and then going to the gym?"

"Yeah, though we're just doing our own thing most of the time."

"That's fine. Just spend as much time together as you guys can. That's gotta be how you get closer to someone."

Is it just her or does Hiro sound a little...unsure of himself?

Before she can ask, Sora makes his appearance. Casually strolling in, he nods at Naminé and Hiro before sliding into the nearest seat without an excuse for his tardiness. Not that she expects one at this point.

"Okay. Well, I'm sure you guys can't wait to find out what I've got planned for today," Hiro says in a deadpanned tone. "Actually, I've never done these before so I'm kinda curious how they work. Today's topic, in line with our ongoing theme of having you guys get to know each other better, is a classic in the world of corporate work culture."

"What?" Both Sora and Naminé voice their confusion.

"It's time for team-building activities!"

"...what?"

They are actually doing a bunch of games for, yes, team-building. In other words, Hiro has printed another list of activities for them to do. He really needs to get a little more creative, cause it's starting to feel like he actually doesn't know what he's doing…

Filing away that thought for later, Naminé focuses on this activity of, uh, building a spaghetti tower? They're supposed to use raw spaghetti and marshmallows to somehow build the tallest tower they can?

Okay…

At one point, she and Sora actually reach a pretty impressive height. But the tower comes crashing down before Hiro can measure it. Which is unfortunate, because he then demands they do it again until they get at least 50 inches.

By their third attempt, Sora and Naminé are ready to throw in the towel.

"C'mon, guys, that's the best you've got? You're giving up when things get rough? You're not gonna defeat any Heartless like that!" Hiro exclaims.

"If I can't defeat any Heartless, at least I can defeat him," Sora grumbles.

"He's acting more and more like our boss," Naminé mumbles back.

Hiro steps out to use the bathroom, though not before declaring, "I hope to see some progress by the time I'm back!" Naminé is brainstorming ways to reach the ridiculous goal with their paltry supplies when she realizes Sora's off on the side being unhelpful.

"Hey," she snaps, "at least come up with some ideas."

"Yeah, yeah," he mumbles, fiddling with something under the desk. "Here's an idea: I'm gonna get back at Hiro for making us do this pointless arts and craft activity."

Naminé pauses to look at him. "What're you doing?"

"Just cover me."

After glancing at the door, Naminé watches as he dashes to the front of the room and digs out a handful of sugar packets from his pocket. Tearing them all open and dumping them into Hiro's styrofoam cup, Sora cackles while looking up to meet Naminé's gaze. Naminé stares, dumbfounded, until a sly grin stretches across her face.

Peeking out of the door, she spies Hiro coming down the hall and quickly gestures at Sora. He hastily gives the cup a whirl and then slips back into his seat, pretending to struggle with the spaghetti tower.

"How's it going?" Hiro asks, peering at their handicraft. "Hmm, it doesn't look much better than before."

"We're trying," Naminé declares, to which Hiro shrugs and gestures for them to continue.

She watches Hiro through the corner of her eye with bated breath. He slowly makes his way to the front of the room, fiddles with the cup sleeve, and finally raises the drink to his lips—

"PFFFT! BLEARGH, WHAT THE HECK?"

Sora bursts out laughing, and Naminé can't help following suit. Hiro's look of absolute disgust is priceless. Her gaze drifts from Hiro to Sora, cracking up with a hand clutching his stomach. He looks like he's on the verge of tears.

By chance his gaze meets hers. Naminé looks into his bright eyes, and she's almost able to feel his joy vicariously. It reminds her of their prank war, except now they're on the same team. And this almost feels better than getting revenge on him with her very first prank.

Teammates. Maybe that's the word she was looking for earlier.


A/N: The shenanigans continue! Does Hiro actually know what he's doing? Are Sora and Naminé ever gonna be able to utilize Synergy? So many questions to answer...

As an aside, I've been watching One Piece lately so everything is about NAKAMA! Teammates roughly translates? Not really? I just love the simplicity of their message behind the otherwise goofy, wild show. Friends make everything better. :) Stay tuned for more thoughts on the power of friendship, aka one of my favorite tropes to write about!

In terms of logistics, like I mentioned before, I might have to slow down on weekly updates because I'm actually out of prewritten chapters. UH-OH. I have half of C13 written so I think we're good for next week, but school's picking up so I'll probably slow down after that. I've built up a lot of momentum writing for this fic, plus I roughly have an idea of how I want things to go and end, so I'm optimistic about finishing this fic. Hope you stick around for the rest of the ride! And as always, I would love to hear anything thoughts you have as we continue chugging along!