Chapter 5: Rekindling

Chemistry, the bane of my existence as I glared at the assignment given to us at the first day of school. The teachers always say it's simple but when it comes bam! You look dumbfounded and lost as the many equations swell your head to the point of insanity.

While this may have been the case with the test about to be given, many in my class managed to convince the professor to allow for a project that is due at the end of the month. This soon evolved into a group project that is worth a quarter of ones grade by the end of the year leaving many to start brainstorming.

There was only one problem in my case, and that is the lack of people who want to partner up with me. Looking around, there was only one person who seemed to have no partners for this class. It was Roxas, who looked a little bit lost as to what to do.

Taking a deep breath, I walked up to him and tap his shoulder breaking him out of his stare. Bewildered, he looked up to me in surprise before looking at me with a raised eyebrow.

"Hey Roxas, I was wondering if you wanted to be my partner for this project," I questioned while trying not to sound too hopeful.

"Hmm, I mean sure." He said making me smile a little. "By any chance do you have any specific project in mind?

I thought about it for a moment, before something in the back of my mind told me the answer.

"How about if we try to cook something?" I suggested as he gave me a funny look.

"What? Cooking has loads of stuff that involves chemistry." I said only to be surprised when Roxas started to chuckle

"I'm sorry, it's just that you reminded me of my friend. She loves to do stuff that involves cooking or artistry in general." He said, putting his hands up in the universal sign of surrender.

Being confused as I was, I asked who he was talking about. I wasn't prepared to see his mood changing in a blink of an eye. His shoulders slumped immediately and his blue eyes turned stormy. He seemed to gain this far off look and his face started to lose the glow that he emitted from when he was chuckling. From where I stand, it looked as if he received a phone call regarding about a close relative of his dying.

"I don't think I'm comfortable to talk about it," said Roxas as I decided to hold off on the questions storming in my mind.

Switching topics, I asked if he wanted to do anything that would count towards the chemistry project. He smiled for a moment making my trick work.

"Well I do have this one idea," Roxas said before thinking about it some more. "We can do something that involves the beach."

"The beach?" I questioned looking a bit skeptical as he smiled at me.

"Yeah, you see we can talk about how some of the forces affect each other. Heck, if you wanted to, you can make a project of how the weather is attributed to forces in chemistry," informed Roxas as I decided to humor him for a bit.

"Oh and this isn't some ploy for me to do all the work while you and my friends go hang out?" I questioned with a glint coming from my eye.

"Yes, it's a ploy for all of us to have fun while you do all the work on the project." He said with a straight face. I almost believed it too, until I saw the small little twitching on the sides of his mouth.

"Mr. Skyfall, if I didn't know better, I would say that you were trying to skip out on work," I said, wagging my finger much like an owner of a dog does.

"It's not skipping if I'm at the same place as you. Also, I am doing work, you see our bodies need to burn up lots of compounds and as a result, we eat food to replenish those used compounds." He said with a smile.

After that, we stared at each other for a few moments before we both started to chuckle. It soon started to turn in laughter as we both couldn't handle it anymore.

However, on the other side of the room, I failed to see bright hazel eyes glaring at me from across the room. In those yes, it promised a lot of pain for whomever it sets its eyes upon.

After Xion and I managed to hash out the plans for heading towards the beach, I realized that I didn't ask for the specifics as to what she wanted to do. Feeling bad about this I rubbed the back of my head before I asked her the burning question.

"Hey Xion, while it's fun and all hearing about my plans, I didn't ask for your specifics as what you wanted to do."

She looked surprised, her bright blue eyes widening as I asked her for the project she wants to do. "Err, nevermind it's a bit dumb now that I think about it," she said trying to play off my question.

I look at her concerned for a bit. She flushes red in embarrassment and looks down on her feet before mumbling something.

"What was that?" I questioned as I stood up and moved closer to her.

She mumbled again resulting in me standing in front of her as I attempted to hear what she is saying.

"What are you trying to say?" I said when she suddenly looked up and gave out a squeak before blushing red. We stared at each other, blue meeting blue and I found myself looking at those blue eyes. A familiar pain washed over me as I realized that the blue was the exact shade as my friends. It was then that I looked down and I saw her lips moving, forcing my brain to catch up to her words.

"I...I was trying to say that I...I wanted to make ice cream with you." she said stuttering every so often.

"You wanted to make ice cream?" I asked as she nodded. Her mouth, failing to let out the words she wanted to say.

'Yeah, my grandma used to make this unique ice cream that was both salty and sweet. She said that if it doesn't need that much to make and can be used with various colors." she informed me as I nodded. I couldn't say that I wasn't interested, however, it really did feel like if I was already familiar with the ice cream she described.

Looking at her, it finally occurred to me that we were really close. Looking in her set of blue eyes, I started feeling the familiar pang of sadness, that I only associate with my past back at Twilight Academy. Attempting to move back a few steps, I gained some headway into distancing until something happened. Another student, accidentally shoved me as they proceeded to head towards their partner's desk. Whatever room that I gained from moving back was soon gone as I stumbled forward to Xion, both our eyes widening as I got really close. Really, really close.