No.

No, no, no, he couldn't mean it. This was a joke. He couldn't really…just…

Shocked and confused and hurt, Kairi sat in silence, her computer screen's glow illuminating her face. This wasn't at all what she'd been expecting. Having a new email, from Luxord, was supposed to be exciting. Their date had gone so well. She'd been happy. He'd kissed her—they'd exchanged simple, pleasant Christmas emails since they hadn't actually seen each other. And now this.

I can't see you again.

The words practically leapt off the screen, forcing her to accept that she wasn't imagining them.

We have to stay student and teacher, nothing more.

She could feel her lip starting to tremble and didn't even try to stop it.

It would never work out.

Why was he saying this? What happened to change his mind so suddenly? She'd been happy and confident, and thinking about how their date had gone made her giddy. And now he wanted to act like it had never even happened?

"I know it's a little inappropriate, but I don't care." It was a good thing Namine wasn't in the room to hear her talking to herself. "You can't do this to me. You can't. Not after that. We were…I was happy and you can't just…"

She didn't know what she meant to say, she just knew that she wasn't okay with this email. Nothing about this was okay. Could he really just decide that he was done with no warning, no reason?

Slowly, Kairi clicked on the Reply option above the message box then brought her hands to the keyboard, lightly letting her fingertips rest on the keys. What should she say? Denial of what he'd said jumped to the forefront of her mind. How could he do this to her? It wasn't fair! She'd done everything right and now he was just abandoning her! Worse, he hadn't even had the decency to tell her why.

I hope you understand.

This is a very complicated situation.

How? How was it complicated? She liked him, he at least acted like he liked her. What was the problem? So she was underage, big deal. People waited to have sex all the time, for years. She was sixteen. Less than a year and she'd be legal. He knew that. And even if they had to keep it casual and simple until she graduated, she could handle that. It might be frustrating, but she could handle it.

If he'd plainly said it was because he didn't return her feelings, she could have let it go. Sure, she'd have been disappointed, but she'd have understood. There was no reason to hold onto it if he genuinely wasn't interested. This wasn't that. He didn't give any specific reason. Every sentence was like he was avoiding telling her something. Vague and noncommittal phrases laced the email, which wasn't very long to begin with.

Kairi didn't react when the door opened then closed and the lights were flicked on. It was just Namine coming back from the showers, and she was still too busy trying to decide how exactly to reply to this email to look at her blonde cousin. For several moments, she sat staring at her laptop as Namine moved around to dress and comb out her hair. When the blonde was finished, though, and noticed that her roommate hadn't moved, her curiosity got the best of her.

"What's that?" she asked, standing by Kairi's bed and leaning to peer over the redhead's shoulder.

"It's an email from Luxord."

"Oh." That was enough to make Namine significantly less curious, since she'd never been sure how she felt about Kairi wanting to date one of their teachers, but she didn't want to be rude, so she sat on the bed and settled next to her cousin. "Is he going to take you on another date?"

"No. He…says we can't see each other outside school."

"Why not?"

Kairi shrugged, still not looking away from her laptop. It shouldn't be this hard to reply to such a short email, but everything she came up with was wrong. The more rational side of her wanted to ask him for clearer reasoning, but if he'd been this vague already, she doubted he'd give her a better explanation. Another part wanted to be angry and hurt and spiteful, but she resisted that. Letting her emotions get out of hand wouldn't help anything. But then, if she was too calm and logical, he might think she didn't care as much as she did. That would probably prove to him that this had all been some meaningless game for her, and that wasn't true at all.

Why is this so hard?

Flirting with him was easy. It had been nerve racking at first, of course, and it had taken her ages to build up her courage enough to actually do it. She'd done it, though, and it worked. Luxord had gone on a date with her. And now it was like that didn't even matter.

"Kairi? Are you okay?"

"What? Yeah. I'm fine."

Without having typed a word, the redhead closed out of the window and shut her laptop, leaving it to hibernate on her bed.

"You sure? You're being really quiet." Tone laced with concern, Namine watched her cousin get up and go across the room to her little counter space and brush out her hair.

"Yep. I'm good. What time is it?"

"Um," the blonde checked her phone, "almost two. Why?"

"Because the boys want to have a snowball fight before dinner and I think now is the perfect time." She had to get out of that room, had to think about something other than that email. A snowball fight would be a good distraction, and Sora would undoubtedly cheer her up. "Let's get dressed then go find them."

"Okay." Rather than question the other girl further when Kairi clearly didn't want to talk about whatever had been in that email, Namine merely went along and changed into her thicker clothes in preparation for going outside.

Properly bundled against the cold but carrying their hats and gloves so they wouldn't get too hot while still inside, the two girls left their dorm and made the short journey to the twins' room.

"Sora?" Kairi knocked twice before pushing the door open, and stuck her head inside. The brunet was seated on the floor in front of his and Roxas' TV, a controller in his hand. He was maneuvering a character through what looked like old ruins, making him jump up platforms and shooting weird creatures that left behind shiny yellow orbs that Sora appeared to be collecting. "Hey, what're you playing?" she asked, opening the door fully and walking into the dorm as Namine followed her.

"Jak II. He's about to find out he's in the future."

The title sounded familiar, but Kairi had never been much into videogames so she didn't know anything about it, definitely not enough to hold a conversation, at least. "Cool. So did you still want to have a snowball fight before dinner?"

Her question spurred Sora to actually turn and look, and he grinned when he noticed her winter attire. "Yeah!" The game was paused, saved, and quit within a matter of moments, and then Sora was hurrying around the room to get changed. "Did you get Riku yet? Roxas is at Axel's so we should invite him, too, and Demyx! It'll be the biggest snowball fight ever!"

"Hayner and Zexion and Ariel should be back by now," Namine added, making Sora's grin spread even wider.

"Great! Let's get them, too!"

"Okay," Kairi stepped back towards the door, "I'll go get Riku. Sora, you text Roxas and Hayner. Namine, you text Ariel and Demyx. Tell Roxas to bring Axel and Zexion, since those two are roommates." She waited until Sora nodded and took out his phone before she left and headed for the elevator. This was perfect, just the distraction she needed. It would be the biggest hangout since before finals, and she needed to be surrounded by friends and stupid bickering for a little while. Watching Roxas' uncertain feelings for Axel grow and get the blond all flustered always helped her relax—the quieter twin really was cute when he was shy, and nothing made him shy like the redheaded senior did. Kairi was almost as eager for their relationship as she was for Sora and Riku's. Those two had to be getting close to confessing. After the biting incident and how they'd somewhat made up during Christmas, it really couldn't be long now.

They'd better get a move on.

Without bothering to knock this time, Kairi opened the door to Riku's room and was unsurprised to find the silver-haired teen stretched out on his futon, mouth hanging open as he slept. Really, he was such an active person usually, but when the weather kept him inside, the guy was asleep fifty percent of the time.

"Hey, Riku." She shook his knee until blue-green eyes opened and peered at her tiredly. "Get dressed. We're having a snowball fight."

For a moment he merely regarded her, then he turned onto his side and shoved his face into the futon cushion, arms tucked to his chest and legs curled. "No thanks."

Kairi rolled her eyes and shook him again, rougher this time. "Get up!"

"Nooooo."

"Do you want to get with Sora or not?" the redhead demanded, hands now on her hips as she semi-glared at her friend. Maybe it was a low blow to drag Riku's attraction to the younger student into this, but it wasn't exaggeration to think this mattered. If Riku didn't come, Sora would be upset and that wouldn't help anything. "You have to show up and be friendly and screw around with him, idiot. Or do you want him to think things are still super awkward between the two of you even though Christmas was so great?"

Riku peeked at her with one eye to let her know that he was listening, though he didn't unglue himself from the futon just yet.

"Come on, tough guy. You know how much he loves snowball fights, and we're his first real friends. This'll be a great opportunity to flirt with him and be charming and sweet. I know it's hard for you to not be a jerk, but you at least have to try."

Now Riku was frowning. "I'm not a jerk."

"Uh, yeah, you kinda are. Can be." Kairi shook her head and looked towards the ceiling for a moment. "You have been. So don't be one now. Get up, get dressed, and come play outside for a couple hours. Flirt with Sora until you can sweep him off his feet, Romeo."

Even though he looked like he really rather wouldn't, Riku nodded after a moment and pushed himself to his feet. He swayed, stretching and yawning as his back popped, then shuffled across the room to find his more winter appropriate clothes. Kairi took his place on the futon, folding her legs under herself and idly examining her nails rather than watch the athlete change.

"You really think I can sweep him off his feet?" Riku asked after a moment, the words muffled because he was pulling a thick turtleneck on.

"I think he'd really like for you to sweep him off his feet. Face it, there's been tension between you guys from day one. I still remember how angry you made him his and Roxas' first day here."

Frowning slightly as he tried to remember just what had happened the first time he met the brunet, Riku turned and fixed his hoody. "I did what?"

With her hands in her lap, Kairi shrugged and tilted her head to the side. "He didn't go into detail, but he called you a jerk a couple of times. Roxas said he slipped and you caught him, but when they thanked you, you snapped at them and walked off. Which is partially how I figured out they were talking about you, Grumpy. But Sora was pretty miffed about it."

"Oh, yeah, I remember. Trust the Brat to be oversensitive about something like that. I already saved him from hurting himself, why would I be nice on top of it?"

"Because most people have feelings and manners," Kairi pointed out, earning rolled eyes from the older student. "Anyway, he obviously doesn't think you're a jerk anymore."

"Yeah, he does. I call him Brat and he calls me Jerk."

"That's not the same thing. What I'm saying is that he went from thinking you were a terrible human being to wanting to kiss you and I'd say that's a lot of progress. It took you longer than it should have, but with your lack of social skills, I'm not surprised that there were a few speed bumps." Ignoring the rather offended look on Riku's face, Kairi stood and headed for the door. "Ready?"

Riku put away his indignation for later and picked up his coat and boots to carry with him to the younger boys' room. "Yep." Neither student said anything else as they left one dorm in favor of another, though they walked in just in time to catch the end of Sora's call to his twin.

"Just bring him along."

"I don't care if he doesn't like the cold."

"Make puppy eyes at him."

"You're not trying hard enough. Just get him to come with you. Flirt if you have to."

"What?"

"Why not? I know you want to, you know you want to, he knows you want to, everyone knows. Don't act so dignified when really you just wanna—"

"Okay, okay, fine. Geez. See you in a few." The brunet hit a button on his phone to end the call then turned and rolled his eyes dramatically. "How did I get stuck with a twin who can't admit the obvious?"

"I have no idea," Kairi humored him, though she cast a knowing look at Riku that made the older athlete smirk.

Sora sighed again and slumped onto his bed. "He's coming. Axel might not, but either way Roxas'll meet us outside. Riku!" As if he'd just now noticed the silver-haired athlete, Sora threw himself off the bed he'd barely settled onto and bounded up to his best friend. "Did you watch any of your new movies yet?"

The older boy quirked his nose. "Uh, no."

"Why not?" Sora made a sad face, as if Riku should have spent the last three days doing nothing but watching the movies the brunet had given him.

"I'm pretty sure you're supposed to watch them with me," Riku pointed out, "and you haven't come over, so I haven't watched them."

"Oh, yeah! Well I'll come over tonight after dinner and we'll watch one!"

It was clear in his expression that Riku could think of plenty of things he'd rather do than watch dancing movies with Sora, but he kept his mouth shut and nodded to avoid ruining the enthusiasm in his friend's tone.

"Cool! I'll bring the leftover popcorn!" Spinning, Sora picked up his scarf and hat and gloves. "Let's go! Roxas' probably waiting!" With a spring in his step and his arms swinging at his sides, the brunet led his three friends from his dorm, hitting the light switch on his way out, and down to the lobby.

Outside, the sun was reflecting on the snow that had been on the ground since the day after Christmas. There was no fresh powder, so the sidewalks were still cleared to make things easier for those students who would be returning today and tomorrow. Everyone had to be back by New Year's Eve, when the school hosted a party, because classes started again on the third and the school didn't want to risk anyone having to miss a day because of airport traffic.

"There's Roxas!" Sora pointed across the courtyard to a blond figure coming towards them. The four were unsurprised to see a much taller, redheaded figure following along behind the blond, though Axel's shoulders looked hunched and they could tell he wasn't exactly happy once he and Roxas were closer. "I knew he'd come with. He'd do anything to spend time with Roxas," the brunet whispered, leaning closer to Kairi and Riku but keeping his eyes on his twin.

"Yeah." Riku resisted the urge to say, "I know the feeling." Still, he let his gaze slip to Sora every few moments as the four students stood waiting for their friends to reach them. There was that familiar excitement in his eyes, the eager way he leaned forward a little as if that would make Roxas and Axel walk faster, or speed up time or something like that. He was grinning, straight white teeth on full display, and Riku was pretty sure the brunet was fidgeting around in his pockets. Sora had a hard time keeping still when he was excited or impatient, and he was definitely both of those things at the moment.

"Just wait until Roxas finally admits he likes him back," Kairi replied just as quietly, keeping her lips mostly still so that Roxas and Axel wouldn't realize what she was saying. "That will be fun to watch."

Sora nodded. "Especially after all the crap that happened last semester."

"What happened?" He'd only caught part of what his twin was saying, but Roxas had the uncomfortable feeling that he'd been the topic of a conversation. The way Kairi and Sora had been staring at him as he walked had been a little strange. Even for them.

"Sora and Riku are having a friend-date tonight," Kairi replied before Sora could say anything, and the brunet started slightly.

"What!" he exclaimed, eyes darting to Riku then back to her. "It's not a date!"

"I said a friend-date, genius."

"Well why not just say we're hanging out?!"

"Because you're going to watch dance movies and eat popcorn and probably share a blanket. If that's not a friend-date then I don't know what is." Her description of what she imagined the two boys were going to do made Sora's face turn pink and Riku looked at his boots in a self-conscious way.

In all honesty, that was exactly what they'd both figured would happen. Though Riku knew he was going to want to cuddle the brunet, and Sora knew there was probably going to be some flirting and a fight over the blanket before they agreed to share. Still, having Kairi say it like that was a little embarrassing, especially since Roxas and Axel were standing there and they both looked way too amused by the whole thing.

Finally, Sora let out a frustrated huff and turned away from his redheaded friend, striding towards the courtyard. "Fine. It's a friend-date. And it's going to be way cooler than whatever you losers are going to do. Now let's have this snowball fight already!"

The five other students watched him for a moment before following, all with various expressions of amusement or exasperation or embarrassment, though the last was just Riku.

"Hey, Roxas," Namine spoke up quietly but loudly enough that the other blond heard her and paused so she could catch up, "did Zexion not want to come? Demyx didn't answer my text."

"He's in Demyx's room," Roxas answered, and Axel grinned lazily.

"Dem came over to help him unpack, then they both went over to the junior hall." There was something in his tone that caught Roxas' interest.

"Why do you sound so pleased about that?" he asked suspiciously, not entirely sure he wanted to know the answer. It was Axel, so there was a chance it would be a reason he didn't want to hear.

"I'm just glad the lovebirds are together again, that's all."

Okay, that was too innocent of a reason to be the truth, but Roxas didn't push it. He was still just glad he'd gotten the senior out of his dorm, though he would never admit to Sora that his idea of using puppy eyes had worked. And flirting. Yeah. He'd flirted with Axel. Just a little, because he hadn't been brave enough to do it for more than a couple minutes, but it had happened. And he wasn't entirely sure how to feel about the nervous flutters that still occupied his stomach.