Two Across Chapter 5: Clark Gable pt. 1

A light breeze came in off the sea as Roxas walked towards Sheridan. There was the ever pleasant noise of morning chatter surrounding him as resident students walked the same path as him. Roxas looked up the sky which was a clear blue tinged with orange, sunrise. The blonde pushed his fingers through his noticeably shorter spikes as he walked. His school uniform, which consisted of dark pants, a white shirt, black tie with Sheridan's emblem on it, and black dress jacket made him feel slightly uncomfortable. Roxas himself had never been to school, even if his other half had. For the fifth time that morning, Roxas absent mindedly pulled his new cell phone out of his pocket, enjoying the feel of the cool metal backing against his slightly sweaty hands. Roxas had a confused look on his face as a startling question came to mind. 'Am I nervous?! Even if it's my first day, it's still just school…' The thunderous bell that stood atop the castle-like school Sheridan sounded, interrupting Roxas' thoughts. Roxas knew that classes would begin in 45 minutes, more than enough time to stop by his dorm and catch up with his friends. Roxas again cursed his fate at not knowing Namine's number, as he couldn't call her and let her know that he was on his way. 'Oh well, I guess it will serve as a pleasant surprise.'

As Roxas walked through the gates carefully by instinct, he noticed that a couple men were working on them, and installing a sensor; maybe the story of his crushed hand had got around. He flexed his previously injured left hand, and made sure it was ok. From the large doors that marked the school's entrance, our hero took a left turn and started jogging to the dorms, the thought of Namine amusing and exciting him. He wondered if she'd be pissed or worried, or even worse: both. An angry black-haired nobody greeted him at the door to his dorm. Xiruk, who stood a good head and half above Roxas, had a stern expression on his face as Roxas stood at the door.

"How are you man? Hand feeling better?" Xiruk asked, still blocking the door.

"Uh yea, I am actually. Hair's a bit shorter, and I'm nervous, but besides that I'm…"

"Yea that's swell. Look Roxas, Namine is fuming mad right now, I wouldn't come in if I were you." Xiruk whispered, interrupting Roxas. Roxas, however, looked like he could care less.

"Then let me in to cheer her up. We gotta get to class soon," Roxas said, teeth clenched.

"XIRUK! If that's Roxas bring him in! I need his help! NOOOW!" Namine screamed from her room, startling both boys. They ran inside and shoved her bedroom door open. They were surprised to see Namine lying there on the floor, as black ooze emitting from her Chain Lion covered part of her body, and was currently trying to choke her. In an instant, Roxas had summoned Neverwas and slashed at the ooze injuring it. Xiruk had his hand around the flute in a flash and flung it out the room, as Roxas quickly turned and used Thundaga on the invading weapon. The shards of the flute now laid on the floor, a wailing erupted from it as Namine covered herself and Roxas kneeled down beside her, hugging her. He had however noticed that the ooze ate through parts of her uniform, but he didn't care; Namine's tears demanded his attention. Namine seemed erratic, scared of the ooze that came from the weapon someone had given her, and relieved that Roxas had returned and was now holding her. She was trembling and silently crying as she latched on to Roxas' shirt.

"Namine…Maybe you should change" Roxas whispered after a while. He was acutely aware that they had about 5 minutes till classes start, and he knew Namine would regret missing classes, so he slowly got up as she nodded and ushered Xiruk away. Roxas and Xiruk sat on the couch that he and Namine had laid on just two days before. He thought about what had happened after he sung her that song…

After snickering and calming down, he put his hand over hers and asked, slightly hurt "Won't you be there for me, at least for this night?"

Namine looked at Roxas with a sorrowful expression on her face. The light mood had been dampened by Roxas's request. A rare moment of weakness was shown by the tired blonde.

"Roxas…why don't you rest some? You still look tired." Namine responded and walked off quickly, leaving a surprised Roxas by himself. With a grimace on his face, Roxas watched Namine walk away quickly and into her room. As he lay back down, he mentally cursed himself for being so forward. She cared for him, he could tell, just…not in that way. Remembering that he still had his uniform on, Roxas sat up and undid his tie and shirt, then threw them on the next chair. After taking another long gulp of the iced tea on the table, Roxas lay back down and covered his face with his left hand. Soon, he fell asleep, exhausted by the day's events.

Namine wasn't so lucky. Even though she tried to rest, she just kept thinking about what Roxas asked. 'Won't you be there for me, at least for this night?' No, she wouldn't. Namine decided that she wouldn't fall for Roxas. They were friends, more like brother and sister, right? She couldn't let that change, she couldn't destroy what they had for something new, and that might not work. That is what she tried to convince herself of as she sat on her bed, her now bare feet sliding back and forth against the smooth wood of the floor. As she sat there, she became angry with herself, confused about the situation. Why? Why did Roxas have to ask that of her? She bit her lip in frustration as tears came down her cheek. Why was she getting so worked up?

Xiruk was laid back in his chair, think about a couple of things. He loosened his tie a bit, trying to relieve the pressure on his neck. He took a deep breath, looked over at Roxas from under his long black bangs, and thought about his new friends…

"Yo Namine, you in there?" a bored sounding Xiruk asked, shocking her. She wiped her tears before answering. "Yea, Xiruk, I'm here. Is something wrong?"

"Ah, not really, just surprised to see you and Roxas apart." He answered. She tensed up at his words. "What's wrong with me and Roxas being apart? It's not like we're dating or anything. We're just… brother and sister if you think about it; nothing serious."

Roxas chose that time to get up and apologize to Namine. He sat up and turned off his IPod then lazily walked towards her room, where he saw Xiruk standing, asking if she was there. He stopped in his tracks as the two went back and forth, and then tensed when he heard Namine's last answer.

"So that's what we are, huh? Just two brother and sister nobodies created from the bond of two fools?"

Namine jumped at the sudden statement. It was laced in pain, regret, and a tinge of anger. She had to give him an honest answer.

"Yes Roxas that is exactly what we are. Now get some rest, we'll be leaving to find classes soon." Namine responded, a little heartlessly. "I support you, I do, but…not like that. This is all new Roxas; can't we just leave it like that?"

"Yea, sure. Let's leave it how it is. I'm gonna find Ven; maybe he can help me find my classes." Roxas said nonchalantly. With that, the blonde keybearer threw back on his shirt and left, slamming the door behind him.

"Joy…" he muttered, and went to find his older look alike.

Back in the dorm, Xiruk looked in on Namine with a stern look on his face.

"Gonna just let him go?"

"I have my reasons Xiruk. Now, mind closing my door? I'm tired."

"Sure Namine, rest well."

At this time, the halls were full of people. The weather was nice, and the long speech was over, giving the students free time for a while. Almost everyone was happy, so it was easy for a certain brunette to find our sour blonde.

And that blonde again had a sour look on his face, as he peered over at Namine's door. He could hear shuffling behind it at Namine found and put on another uniform. She again had to tie the difficult piece of fabric they dared call a tie and straighten out her skirt. She was still shaken up about the fact that her own weapon had tried to kill her. It must have been the remnants of Maleficent that had gone for the kill. It just confused her, why hadn't it succeeded? Was her salvation based on the fact that she had no heart? It would be quite ironic if that was the reason, Namine mused.

Meanwhile Roxas , still in the other room, was fumbling with his new mp3 player. He stood up and smirked, walking to his room as he remember why he got the damn thing in the first place…

"Roxas! Roxas wait up!" yelled Sora, seeing his counterpart looking gloomy in the crowd. Sora and his gravity defying brown spikes ran towards Roxas, who had decided to stop for the brunette. "Hey man, you ok? You looked kinda wiped at the ceremony?"

"Yea just tired. Where were you?"

"Me? I was two rows ahead, but you and Nami-"

"Stop" Roxas cut in. Sora was shocked, but could immediately tell something had happened between the two blondes.

"Wanna talk about it Roxas? Over some Sea Salt Ice cream?" Sora tempted. He knew Roxas couldn't resist the ice cream.

"Fine fine, but where?"

"There IS a café in Crown that serves it. We are allowed to leave the grounds, so c'mon!" Sora responded with a cheesy smile on his face.

"Alright, let me go tell the others, and grab my wallet." Roxas said, and jogged back to the dorm. Roxas made his stop quick; he ran in, yelled 'I'm gonna go hang out with Sora!' grabbed his wallet, and was out again before the other two noticed. He then opened the door and yelled "Cover for me!"

The streets of Crown were crowded with people. Shop owners stood outside their shops, trying to convince the masses. Most of their wares were just cheap trinkets anyways. Even with the summer heat and slightly uncomfortable sun, the boys ran to the quieter, less populated part of town, where all the real restaurants were. Even as they turned onto the street that the café was located, they could hear soft jazz music coming from the open doors. It was an instrumental, and even though neither of the boys knew the song, they couldn't stop from bobbing their heads. Sora's head looked like a dancing porcupine, a small smile on his face. As they entered and sat down, a woman with short black hair, and a large bang covering one eye walked out. She was wearing a deep green apron with the words "café 4 a.m." printed on the front. Roxas recognized her as the owner.

"Welcome boys, to the renamed Café 4 a.m., how may I help you?"

"Café what now??" Sora asked. "Wasn't this place called Café Jazze just yesterday?"

"Don't you listen? It's been renamed to my liking. The former owner Pete finally gave up the rights. Went back to steamboats apparently." The owner explained. Sora went quiet.

"May we please have 2 orders of sea salt ice cream?"

"Sure, is there anything else?" the owner asked.

"No thanks." They both said.

"So Roxas, what's with the glum face?"

"Ah, I was hoping you'd forget. It's nothing…"

"Dude, I may be someone you don't like so much, but I can tell when you're lying."

"About that, sorry for before. I overreacted a bit."

"No problem, Kai lectured me about being too whiny." Sora admitted.

As the boys waited for their ice cream to arrive, Roxas recounted the story. By the end Sora was sadly shaking his head.

"Ok, so tell me what I did wrong" Roxas asked.

"Two things bro, two things. First of all, 'This Night' is a break up song," Sora explained. Roxas laid his head on the table and an audible groan was heard from the bed of blonde spikes. "Second of all, Namine is probably confused about her feelings for you. That's what Kairi told me. Even if you couldn't see the signs, you should've played it cool."

"So not only did I go too fast, I sung her a BREAK UP SONG?!" Roxas yelled.

"Yea, pretty much."

"Oh fu-" Roxas said, his words covered by the sound of the bell at the door sounding. The woman who took their order came back with two servings of ice cream. Roxas gave up and started to eat his ice cream. "You're paying by the way, Sora."

"I know, I know. So how are you gonna make it up to her? This won't just go away."

"That's just the thing; I don't know what to do. Do you think you could get Kairi to talk it out with her?"

"Yea, sure. I got it! We'll all hang out tonight, that'll give Kai the time she needs."

Roxas' eyes lit up for a second. He had confidence in Sora's plans.

"Alright, let's go for it." Roxas replied. The two boys finished their ice cream and decided to head back. With the sun going down and class starting tomorrow, they knew that they'd be back out soon.

As they walked back, Roxas stopped at the window of a flashy tech store. In the window, there was a display for a touch screen mp3 player by Samsung. The display had a few cool designs and the words "Samsung P2" at the bottom.

"Hey, it's the P2. Namine's been looking for one of these."

"Really? So has Kairi, in that dark red." Sora said, pointing at the device at the bottom."

"Well, why don't we pick some up? I gotta gift wrap mine. Tomorrow is…"

"Huh?"

"C'mon!" Roxas said, pulling along Sora into the store. They had picked up four in total, 2 black ones, the wine red, and the white one. The boys got the black ones of course, but had a special engraving in the back. Sora's was a silver key and Roxas was the roman numerals XIII, also in silver. After the quick engraving, they put theirs away. No reason they could use theirs before the girls. A short while later, Roxas noticed that Sora was thinking deeply. Sora in deep thought could cause a car accident if not controlled.

"Thinking about something Sora?"

"Hm? Yea, I feel like I'm forgetting something…"

And indeed, Roxas smirked, he had forgotten something. Today, their first day of school, was also the day of Namine's and Roxas' "birth". Funny how the boys had gotten presents for the girls, yet had forgotten to get Roxas a cell phone. The blonde then grabbed his present for Namine and a set of Skull Candy buds for both of them, then went back in the living room to ask for Xiruk's number, so his cell phone wasn't completely useless. Xiruk however, was still in his own world. Whatever had him distracted must be important…

"Xiruk and Riku!!"

"And their stupid iProds…" Roxas continued, using his name for the iPod touch. The two had forgotten about their Apple loyal friends, but didn't care. Sora followed Roxas to his dorm, knowing he would find everyone there.

Meanwhile…

"What are we gonna do? Those two are probably at each other's throats" Kairi sighed. She was sitting next to Namine on the couch that Roxas had previously occupied. Everyone liked that couch for some reason… Xiruk and Riku sat on either side, iPod Touches in hand.

"The moment you pulled that thing out, I know you were my Nobody," Riku smirked.

"Are you shocked?" Xiruk asked, focused on the page he was reading on the net.

"No, not really. I was in the darkness for so long…It's really no wonder." Xiruk looked up at Riku. They were sitting on the arms of the couch. Riku looked back at him and held his fist out over the talking girls. Xiruk glanced at the out held fist, then back at Riku, who had a small smile on his face. He then pounded the fist, which caught the girls attention. At least he wasn't running away from Riku. That is when Roxas, walked in, Sora behind him.

"Hey guys." Sora stated with a wave. Everyone just stared as Roxas walked past, a bag held to his chest, to his room. After dropping the bag inside, he closed and locked his door.

"Hey Sora, want something to drink?" Roxas asked as he rejoined the group.

"Nah, no thanks." He responded. "Hey guys, why don't we all go out tonight? You know, celebrate our first semester here?"

"Roxas?" Namine asked, fearing a conflict between the boys.

"Sounds cool to me. What about you Namine?"

"Sounds great. And you Kai?"

"I can't wait! Nami, me and you are gonna dance!" Kairi answered, obviously excited.

"And we'll be the ones to keep you two off each other's throats." Xiruk and Riku chimed in.

"Not needed" Roxas and Sora answered in a pissed tone.

They all headed out after Roxas and Sora changed clothes. Roxas wore a pair of black jeans and a white button up with XIII on the back, and Sora wore a pair of blue jeans, a red button up, and black hoodie. Namine and Kairi wore their normal clothes, but Kairi traded in the short skirt for a pair of hip hugging jeans, along with Namine. Xiruk had on blue jeans and a black button up while Riku also had blue jeans with a black muscle shirt.

"Oh look, there's no zipper fetish this time" Roxas joked at Sora.

"Hey, gotta have places to keep all the things I win." Sora countered.

They hit the Neon District, where all the nightlife was. Clubs ruled the area, and some all night eateries were spread out among them. Also, it looked like there was a huge party in the streets. Crowds of dancing people lined the place, and Roxas had a bad feeling. This many people was bound to lead to problems, and maybe some competition.

"Hey bag-o-laughs, why so quiet?" Roxas asked as he sat down the items he brought with him now on the coffee table.

"First of all, we shouldn't run into that problem anymore. Second of all, I was just thinking about yesterday, before we hit the streets.

"Ah, you mean before everything went wrong. I was doing the same actually," Roxas said, again looking towards Namine's door as it opened. Roxas immediately walked towards Namine to hold her. She looked so nervous, still shaking a bit, her hair a slight mess. The expression on her face made Roxas want to cry. He immediately wrapped his arms around her and she buried her head in his shoulder. Her small hands moved down from his shoulders to the front of his shirt, clutching at it again. Roxas whispered sweet nothings in her ear as her sky blue colored eyes started to water. Xiruk stood up and readjusted his shirt and tie then cleared his throat.

"Come on guys, we really do have to go, classes started 10 minutes ago. As the boys pulled on their suit jackets, Roxas picked up his present and walked closer to Namine.

"Hey Nami, do you remember what today is?"

"How could I forget…it's been exactly 2 years since we were born…"

"Exactly, so I thought I'd get you this." Roxas whispered. He gave her the mp3 player and watched as her slight frown turned into an appreciative smile. Namine moved her hair behind her ear and turned on the mp3 player, to find that it already had her music on it. Roxas had thought ahead.

"Oh but Roxas, I didn't get you anything. It would be un-polite for me to take this,"

"Namine all you have to give me is a chance, and your love. Forget this Heartless bull, I know you have a heart." Roxas said, determined. All Namine could do was smile and hug him. They didn't need words. Looking over Namine's shoulder, Roxas noticed Xiruk. He just nodded and smiled. Once they got on their way, they saw that they weren't the only ones lost and late.

"By the way Xiruk, earlier you mentioned you wouldn't spaz out and laugh again. How do you know?"

"Because, Riku is finally happy again, openly. And I know why" Xiruk said, smirking. The two blondes knew Xiruk was keeping something from them. "His precious Selphie is now attending Sheridan Academy."

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A/N: Hey everyone, its Artist. Sorry this has taken so long. I sent this to my beta, and since she hasn't gotten back to me, I just decided to post it. Enjoy, and expect the next chapter soon. Thanksgiving break will give me the time needed to write.