Oh Lord. Why did I think this was a good idea?

I've shipped Rokunami 5ever, but haven't attempted to write them since 2010. Kingdom Hearts was always just such an ambitious fandom to take on, even though I grew up with the series and was a fan ever since the first game was released, and I'm proud to note that...it's still an ambitious fandom LOL that has NOT changed. I also have no idea why I thought this was a good idea since I have fics in my backlog to finish and write, but I thought Rokunami just needed some love this year, so here's my first contribution to Rokunami Week. Ever.

Hope everyone enjoys :)

Disclaimer: I don't own the Kingdom Hearts series

The way and the rate at which the dust settled after the life-changing events they couldn't even begin to describe seemed almost comical.

Five minutes post-battle with Xehanort's Seekers of Darkness saw them standing side-by-side in the Keyblade Graveyard, all of them exhausted and uncertain and less one Princess of Heart.

Thirty minutes post-battle saw them on their way in a ship that Roxas had never seen before outside of the strange flashbacks he had when he held Sora's memories as a Nobody.

Two hours post-battle saw them in what looked like a hangar of sorts inside a white castle with blue turrets before they were led down labyrinths of halls to grand, spacious rooms, and Roxas all but passed out on the enormous bed in the center of the room he had been ushered into, softer and fluffier than anything he had ever felt before.

Three days post-battle saw them in a familiar world looking upon a familiar sight as three figures ran up to greet them, and it took all of Roxas' self-control to not cry and launch himself at them the moment Hayner stuck his hand out to say, "Welcome home! Nice to finally meet you."

There was a calming level of senseless noise and chatter amidst the crowds in the twilight glow as Roxas made his way back to the townhome he shared with Xion, Axel, and Saïx. It was almost as if the people around him hadn't known the universe as they knew it was about to end, that it had basically ended until the last minute with the Guardians of Light's untimely victories and Mickey and Sora's persistence and perseverance, and it made him want to simultaneously laugh and cry at the same time at the monotony, the peace, and the unassuming nature of it all.

They had just saved the universe, and yet, to the people around them, it was just another day.

A shoulder bumped into his arm as Olette skipped up next to him, keeping in step with his slightly longer strides while he shrunk them just a tiny bit to make their pace easier on her. Her warm smile fit the soothing, constant atmosphere of Twilight Town; just being around her made Roxas feel a little lighter. Hayner seriously needed to get his act together before some other kid swooped in between them, though they all knew Olette could handle herself.

"Rough day?" she asked, peering at him beneath her lashes. He shrugged, and she gave a non-committal hum.

He didn't even make it five seconds before he sighed. "I didn't realize how much time school and work took up together," Roxas complained with a slight whine. "I mean, Saïx was the responsible one, right, and who was even surprised that he was the first one to start working? And Xion, who doesn't love Xion? She's packing on extra hours during her shifts too."

"Axel's still bartending, isn't he?" Olette asked, watching his face carefully for a reaction. He couldn't help but scrunch his nose up, causing her to giggle. "Are you feeling a little lonely?"

Right on the munny. People really didn't give Olette as much credit as she deserved, if only because she hung out with Pence and Hayner, the latter of whom was really trying to get his act together. Still, the words stung a little when they were spoken out loud. Saïx was gone during the day for work, though he tried to be home enough to take care of them like the mother hen he turned out to be, but Axel was gone several nights out of the week working at his bartending job in another district in Town. Roxas and Xion both had school and spent enough time together between their morning routines and actually getting to school, but it wasn't like they had the opportunity to hang out in class. Xion picked up shifts at Le Grand Bistro after school, and Roxas helped the Town's post office with delivery on his trusty skateboard to help bring in munny. Hayner, Pence, and Olette also spent their afternoons running around town, trying to earn enough money for all of them to go to the beach this year (though Riku had promised them all a trip to Destiny Islands instead, free of charge).

Ansem would have been more than happy to have continued paying for essentially everything they needed for the rest of their lives, they all knew, but decided it was rude to take advantage of the poor man who had already been through so much because of them and Xehanort's insidious plans. They had all been through so much, but it seemed the man felt guilty for the way things had played out eventually, from the two young boys from Radiant Garden who were dragged into this mess to his treatment of Roxas and his biased, prejudiced view toward Xion in the beginning before getting to know her. His obvious solution to absolve his guilt was throw munny at the thing and hope it's a good enough apology, Riku told them when he delivered the munny in the first place.

The man ended up paying for their townhome, their clothes, necessities, and would have paid for everything else if Mickey hadn't stepped in and offered munny for food and furniture and other luxuries. The four of them had been floored by the generosity, but Minnie's reassurances that they weren't even close to making a dent in the royal treasury sealed the deal for them.

"It's the least we can do to thank you," she said in her pitched voice, patting their hands consolingly before sending them on their way.

Roxas sighed again.

"Is there something else on your mind?" the brunette next to him asked, catching his arm to stop their walk and looking him in the eye.

He nearly opened his mouth to tell her about the empty room in their townhouse that had cost Ansem quite a fair bit of extra munny to pay for since it was a bigger house, but Roxas was adamant about it even though he didn't like asking favors from people. He wanted to tell her about how Axel and Saïx and Xion were confused about the room at first, but quickly figured out what his deal was when he spent that entire first weekend at the house painting the walls a beautiful white color. He wanted to confide in her the fear of approaching the Old Mansion again for the first time, the heart-stopping, gut-wrenching moment he had pushing open the door to the White Room, somehow still pristine and without a speck of dust despite the condition of the rest of the house. He wanted to say out loud for the first time how he spent a chunk of his first paycheck buying a new sketchbook and box of color pencils from the store down Market Street and placed them in the middle of the desk in the empty room. He wanted to explain the drawings he stuck on the walls, the ones he recovered from the Old Mansion and why he chose those particular pieces.

He wanted to share his elation when he saw Riku in town last weekend, walking Xion from her last shift at the Bistro to Sunset Hill, or the look of anticipation he and Pence would share whenever Olette herself got into an argument with Hayner that was suspiciously close to flirting.

Most of all, he wanted to tell her about the pair of ocean blue eyes he missed so much that promised him they would meet again a lifetime ago.

Roxas said none of this out loud, but Olette and all his other friends already knew, have known since that very first weekend back in Twilight Town. Instead, she just pulled him into a hug, and that was that.

Though he knew logically that he had never really been on a real skateboard before—only in the digital Twilight Town, but damn if he wasn't good at it—Roxas took to it like a fish in water. Some things, he supposed, were just pure muscle memory. Wielding Oathkeeper and Oblivion were second nature to him, but his trusty skateboard (another one of Mickey's gifts) came in as a close second, and those days he spent in the sandlot training with Xion, flying around on his skateboard while sparring with her built up all the reflexes, muscles, and instincts he needed to hone his skills even more.

In comparison, using his gummiphone while doing his delivery runs was so easy it was a joke. Although, he mused as he pulled the ringing device out of his pocket while sailing down Station Heights, he'd have to see if Chip and Dale could come up with better ringtones.

"Xion," he greeted cheerfully after seeing her name on the screen. "What's up?"

"Roxas!" The boy winced and distanced the phone from his ear a little, putting it back only after her outburst was over. "Roxas, you need to come home, right now!"

Frowning, he leaned his weight to one side, making a wide arc as he reached the bottom of the hill and onto Market Street proper. "I can't, I'm in the middle of a shift right now."

Xion sounded exasperated. "Trust me, it can wait!"

It was then he finally picked up something in her tone underneath the slight annoyance directed toward him that told him there was something incredibly off about the whole situation. He delivered his last piece of mail, sent a quick text off to his boss, and immediately made his way home.

Roxas kicked up his skateboard and burst through the door. "Xion?!"

"In here!" she called from the living room, and he broke into a dead run only to immediately drop his board, his eyes widening and mouth going dry when his eyes found Riku's, who was standing next to Xion as she held the hands of a blonde-haired girl in a simple white sundress.

Naminé smiled that beautiful smile of hers, taking her hands from Xion's and shyly brushed her bangs back from her face. "Hello, Roxas."

.

.

It had been Riku's idea to not immediately let them know as soon as Ienzo and Ansem the Wise called him to Radiant Garden. Naminé had finally been given her own body, made whole just like the rest of them—she got to decide where to go from there, but when he gently pulled her on board the gummi ship, after a brief catch-up and a round of apologies and hugs, there really was only one place she had wanted to go.

The Keyblade Master had bit back a knowing grin and that was that.

.

.

Saïx outdid himself that night with the feast of a dinner he had thrown together with Riku and Xion's help while Axel made a vague excuse about helping out in the kitchen (he did not help out in the kitchen, he sat on one of their stools while watching the others work because he couldn't cook to save his life), leaving Roxas to give Naminé the tour of the house and giving them time to talk.

That was what their relationship was built on after all, right? She had been there to tell him the things he desperately needed to know when no one would give him answers, and now that she was thrust into a new universe, a new world saved by their sacrifices, he was there to help her through it.

When everyone had left the room and they were alone, he took in the slight hunch of her shoulders, the thinly-veiled bravado that no one called her out on, the pure joy of finally being somebody whole on her own that he had experienced himself not too long ago. "Are you okay?"

Naminé was quiet for a moment before she finally spoke again. "On our way here…everything just seemed so normal," she finally said, almost twisting her fingers in front of her. "As if people just…"

"Had no idea what we've been through?" Roxas finished her thought for her, blue eyes soft as he looked at her. "Yeah…it's strange to think that they've had no idea about all of this happening around them, to them. But you know, now that I remember what it was like to be part of Organization XIII, it was the same back then too."

She gave him a questioning look, beckoning him to continue.

He shook his head in apology, breaking out of the memories. "I mean, whenever we went on a mission for Xemnas, we'd meet all these people in all of these different worlds, you know? And everyone just lived their lives from day to day, and there we were, doing things they couldn't even imagine. I felt the same way when we first came back here," Roxas admitted. "When we first moved back here permanently and saw how life just went on for these people. It's kind of comforting, in a way."

"Oh?" Naminé was genuinely intrigued. Roxas flashed her one of those boyish grins that she had never gotten to see directed at her when he was in the virtual Twilight Town. The sight of it made her heart jump a little, made her want to smile back at him too.

"It's just that despite everything, there's a chance to just live life and be normal for a while."

She nodded understandingly then, knowing what he was trying to say while trying to reconcile her own experiences in her mind. Naminé herself had never even been part of normality; from her very birth she was unusual, and everything she had been through even more so. Still, she had been given this chance, this freedom, and she would embrace it with both arms outstretched.

Finally, truly smiling, she turned to him. "How's that normal going for you?" she asked, part curious, part teasing.

He shrugged, the grin still on his face. "Saïx and Axel work nowadays, and Xion and I have school, but we both have jobs too. Come home after a long day." He guided her out of the hallway and into the next room. "You've seen the living room and the kitchen; the pantry is inside with all the food. Bathroom is down this hall here, and we've got a home office space, but it's more like a small library," Roxas explained, pushing open the door to a room with an empty desk and office chair, along with a nook in the window for reading. Shelves of books lined the walls, the twilight glow streaming in through the windows at the sides of the room.

"Wow…" Naminé breathed, taking it all in. "How did you all manage to get all of this in such a short time? Your house is beautiful."

Not that her previous homes…if they could be called homes…were anything even close to what a home should have been like. She didn't have much to go off of, but she figured that a home should have been more than just four walls keeping her inside.

Roxas looked a little embarrassed, but he answered her question nonetheless. "Ansem the Wise—Diz—he helped us buy out this place, actually," he said, rubbing the back of his head with his hand. "I think he felt bad about everything that's happened, so he paid for everything. Mickey chipped in too, until we really got set up."

He cleared his throat. "Ready to go upstairs?"

Turning away from the shelves and the cozy window nook, Naminé followed him out of the room and down the hall to the stairs that led to the loft. "We sometimes hang out here too," he explained when they reached the open room at the top strewn with throws and pillows and books and other junk. Two small hallways branched out from the loft. "My room, Axel's room, and the bathroom are down this side." Roxas gestured to the left as he spoke. "And Xion and Saïx's are on the other."

"What's that other room?" Naminé asked, pointing to the third door in that hallway. There were three doors on each side of the hall, and Roxas had yet to introduce that last one. To her surprise, he stilled next to her, and the two of them stayed together in the silence for a moment.

"I'll show you," he finally said. She followed him, noting his sudden change in behavior…and then gasped and stopped short as soon as he opened the door.

The first thing she noticed were the drawings—her drawings. Her old art pieces were scattered on the walls without cluttering the space, another stack of them sitting next to what looked like a brand new sketchbook and box of color pencils on the single desk in front of the large window in the room. A comfortable chair sat behind the desk, with a matching bed and bedside set in another corner of the room. The comforter on top looked like the fluffiest clouds and made her want to just jump on top and sink into it. Most striking, however, were the walls themselves, even aside from her art.

Calming twilight cast a beautiful orange shade onto them, washing the room all shades of warmth instead of just the white walls surrounding her. It was everything she had loved in her very short time in existence—her art, her colors. The White Room back in the Mansion had remained an unnatural white despite the vanilla twilight outside her windows, but this room, this room was filled with it. This room took the white walls and created a new sort of art, pulling her past and her future together in a single space.

"Is this…for me?" Naminé managed to choke out, wandering into the room and turning around in awe to take it all in.

"I…" Roxas hesitated. "Sora told me what you said in the Final World. About no one missing you. He was right when he said everyone missed you. I missed you. You…when I left Organization XIII, you were the only one who gave me the answers I needed, even if they weren't the ones I was looking for. You helped me find my way back to Sora, over and over again even though Diz kept you a prisoner. Even after everything the Organization made you do, you were still so kind. And, well, I guess I just hoped that one day when you could come back as yourself and not as Kairi…"

He flushed, swallowing hard and suddenly nervous. "That maybe you'd like a place to stay here with us."

The two stood in front of each other in the warm light, at a crossroads. Roxas and Naminé were no longer just part of Sora and Kairi, but with their own hearts now, they could both choose something else, something more. They could choose.

That moment, Naminé chose to reach out to take Roxas' hand, his fingers immediately curling around hers. He had callouses from fighting with his keyblades, but hers weren't perfect either; they bruised in different places from holding her beloved colored pencils, both of them scarred by different things, coming together at last.

"You said we'd see each other again," he murmured, feeling as though he was drowning in her ocean blue eyes.

She let out a small giggle. "I did, didn't I?"

Roxas gripped her hand tighter, a smile blooming on his face. "We can be together again."

Without warning, Naminé surged forward, throwing her arms around his neck as he caught her, wrapping his arms around her waist. Her thank you, Roxas was so soft and muffled by his jacket that he almost didn't catch it, but he did, and it just made him holder her closer.

"Welcome home, Naminé."

She crept silently down the hall, her skills owed to the time she spent honing them at Castle Oblivion and the World that Never Was. A house full of fighters remained asleep as she slowly counted the doors and opened the door to the left on the other side of the landing, slipping inside and easing the door closed behind her. The figure on the bed stirred awake, then registering someone else in the room, immediately summoned both keyblades in hand.

"Wait!" Naminé whisper-shrieked, Oathkeeper and Oblivion nearly at her throat before Roxas jerked to a stop, dismissing them in twin flashes of light.

"Naminé?!" he hissed, quickly rubbing the sleep from his bleary eyes. "What are you doing here? Are you okay?"

Biting her lip, the girl hugged her new sketchbook and box of colored pencils tighter.

I'm sorry, she didn't say.

Thank you for thinking of me, she didn't say.

Thank you for giving me my own room, she also didn't say.

"Can I…stay with you?" Naminé asked instead, a little timidly.

There was a moment of shocked silence, Roxas slowly looking her over before responding. "Are you okay?"

When she nodded, he searched her eyes for another second, then pulled the covers back to let her slide in next to him after she placed her art supplies on the bedstand. She scooted in closer to him, and he carefully tucked the comforter around her, but Naminé latched onto his arm before he could pull away. Roxas chuckled, gently removing his arm from her grasp and placing it under her neck to support her.

"Better?" he murmured. He felt something resembling a nod from his shoulder, and his last memory was her arm warm around his waist before he fell asleep.

Naminé stayed awake a little while longer after that, letting Roxas' familiar presence calm her. She could never be more grateful that he had missed her, remembered her, and went so far as to prepare her own room, her own space on the off chance that she even returned to them. She could never thank him and Axel and Xion and Saïx enough for giving her a place to call home after everything they had all been through, but it wasn't until she was here with him that she truly felt she was home.