I had much fun writing this chapter, I must say. Renge certainly does cause a mess in Ouran, doesn't she? lol Enjoy more of Namine's madness!

Chapter 6 -- Chaos of the Manager

Roxas soon found himself under a towel with a mirror in front of him. Namine had donned a pair of scissors and set up a miniature salon in the break room. The others, especially Axel, were watching her with fear and suspicion.

"This hair is an awful mess," Namine noted as she looked through his blonde locks. She lifted her scissors and said, "It's time to cut!"

Axel fainted as Namine began cutting through Roxas' hair. Xaldin was fingering through his dreadlocks, hoping that they would be saved from Namine's fury. Roxas watched in horror as his spiky blonde hair changed into a more smooth, even style. The giant mass of spikes that had once stood up on his head disappeared, and his hair was no longer messy. Instead, it was shorter and flatter, with bits of hair still sticking out at the sides. It looked quite horrible, to be honest.

"Doesn't this look so much better?" Namine asked sweetly as Roxas stared at his ugly reflection. He was completely speechless. "Okay, next! I want Mullet-head!"

Demyx hid behind Xaldin. "NOOO! Take him first! Not me!!" However, Namine dragged him away from his protective Nobody shield and sat him down in the barber's chair.

"Mullets went out of style so long ago!" exclaimed Namine. "This has to go!"

Soft sobbing sounds could be heard from the Melodious Nocturne as his dirty blonde mullet gradually became shorter. By the end of the day, all of the club members had recieved the wrath of Namine's scissors. Demyx's hair had become short all the way around, with spikes still sticking up in the front. Xaldin's dreadlocks had been spared, but his large sideburns were gone, and his ponytail had disappeared to make his hair look more like Bob Marley's. Axel's hair had been smoothed down and tied back into a long ponytail, while the front still hung out a little over his face. In short...

"I LOOK LIKE FREAKING RENO!!!" he shouted in despair after Namine had finished with his hair.

Probably the most dramatic haircut had been Zexion's. As usual, he did not fuss, for he felt that it was pointless to try arguing with the determined fangirl. Nothing much had been done to it, except that the bit of hair that once hung over his face had been cut off. The other Nobodies looked in amazement at Zexion's face.

"So you do have two eyes!" Axel shouted in wonder.

"This is probably the first time we've ever seen your whole face, Zexy-kun!" Demyx noted.

Namine looked at her victims and was pleased. "This is so much better!" she observed. "You all look much nicer with these new haircuts. Now it's time for your portraits."

"Portraits?!"

Namine glanced over at Roxas. "But of course! You all look so dashing! You would make perfect subjects for my artwork!"

In just a short hour, Namine had brought in expert lighting, backdrops, and her best crayons to draw individual portraits of the club members. Xaldin went first, since he was the only one besides Zexion who was not complaining. While Namine was in the middle of drawing Xaldin, Zexion approached Axel.

"I believe we have a bit of a problem on our hands," Zexion whispered.

"No, really? I didn't know!" Axel was still pouting about his hair. It was bad enough being compared to Reno all the time, but now he definitely looked like the popular Turk member.

"I'm not talking about the dramatic changes in our appearances," mumbled Zexion. "That girl there is someone's Nobody."

"She's a Nobody?" Axel began paying attention to the Cloaked Schemer. "Then why is she so obsessed with Marluxia?"

"I don't know," Zexion replied, "but she was previously working with my former teacher."

"DiZ? He's still around?"

"Apparently. I tracked her path from Twilight Town. The old man has some sort of plan up his sleeve." Zexion sighed. "Letting Namine stay here will only lead that fool here to attack us without warning."

"Then we have a good excuse to get rid of her!" Axel was greatly excited at the thought of getting his old hairstyle back. Then his face became serious. "Whose Nobody is she?" he asked softly.

"An old friend of Number XIII's, from his previous life," Zexion replied. "As long as she doesn't know Number XIII's true identity, we should be okay."

Namine was in the middle of drawing Roxas, who kept fidgeting restlessly. When will this stupid fangirl leave? he thought angrily.

"Sit still! It's harder to draw you when you keep moving around!" she barked.

"You know, this whole portrait thing is a total waste of time," Roxas groaned. "The girls liked us before you gave us your little makeover."

"Now they'll like you more!" Namine reassured him. "Now shut up and sit still. I'm almost done." Then she stopped and looked at him closely. "Your name didn't happen to be Sora at one point, did it?" she asked suddenly.

"Sora? What?"

Everyone stopped and listened in closely. They knew that if Roxas found out about Sora, they would all get in big trouble from the Superior.

"Yeah, Sora. The Keyblader. You know, your old se..."

"That's enough, Namine."

Namine turned to see Marluxia standing behind her. "What's wrong, Marly-kun?"

"If you won't listen to anyone else, then I'll just have to tell you." Marluxia's face was unusually serious. "You're really inconveniencing everyone here."

"It'll all pay off in the end!" Namine protested.

"No it won't! Everyone here looks so stupid! You'll only lose us customers!"

Namine pouted. "But, Marly-kun! You're supposed to be sweet and encouraging! Don't you think I'm doing a good job?"

"No! You're getting on my nerves!"

Namine began crying and ran out of the room. Marluxia sighed.

"SHE'S GONE! YOU DID IT, MARLY!"

Everyone ran over to Number XI to give him a congratulatory hug.

"She really was getting on my nerves," Marluxia complained. "If she kept hanging around then I'd never have a chance with Larx--"

"Good job, anyway!" Axel interrupted. "Now I can get my hair out of this ridiculous ponytail and go back to being Axel!"

The next day, the club members gathered to head out to Twilight Town. Their various hair-dos were slowly growing back to normal. Roxas walked in the room and suddenly remembered something.

"Hey, where did that Namine girl end up, anyway?"

Zexion glanced up from his clipboard. He had somehow managed to get his hair back over his right eye. "She is under the care of the Superior. Apparently, she has some great use that will come in handy in one of our newest missions."

"You mean she's staying here?!" Demyx quickly ran and hid behind Xaldin. "Don't let her touch my hair!"

"She will be assisting the Castle Oblivion crew, when they depart next month to set up." Demyx sighed in relief. He was not part of that crew. Axel and Marluxia, on the other hand...

"NO!!!"