I'm having a really hard time at home right now, so please understand if I don't update for some time. Also, you don't have to sympathize. My problems are my fault.

But the fact that I now have ELEVEN reviews is really helping me. The two fellows who made it thus are credited in the author's note.

I swear I will have VanitasXNamine disposed of by at latest Chapter 13, or even Chapter 12.

By the way, should I finish up Masks before starting with The Wanderer, or write both at the same time?

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING MENTIONED IN THIS STORY. I ONLY OWN THIS STORY.

Enjoy!

The next Monday Roxas was unusually depressed around me. As you may have seen on the night after my date, he was almost always trying to get my attention. Not today.

At break…

"Roxas, you wanna go skateboarding after school?" Sora called, while assisting me in carrying a pair of desks into a classroom.

"No thanks," Roxas mumbled. "I'm good."

At lunch…

"Hey Roxas," Kairi hollered, me right beside her. "What's up?"

"Nothing much," he said sadly, walking away.

At Art class…

"Roxas, I need some help with this turret," Riku complained. "I can't get the perspective right for some reason."

"Ask Nam—" he abruptly shut up before saying my name. "Ask somebody else."

Well, you get my point. The thing is, I'd never, in my five years of being a friend/nemesis of Roxas, seen him like this. He gets into a fight with his mom? He cusses her out at school while talking to us. Somebody put him down? We all gang up on that foolish bastard for our spiky-blond friend.

I had to talk to him and find out what was wrong. In the worst case I'd just get him to clam up further, but I really hoped that wouldn't happen.

"Roxas!" I shouted, hurrying to catch up to the spiky-haired blond.

He picked up his pace, heading for his bike.

"Roxas, wait up!" I yelled. "Wait!"

This only made him break into a full run. I cursed loudly and sprinted after him, catching up just as he was about to reach the bike lot. I slammed into him, knocking him over.

"Namine, what the hell!" he demanded.

"That's the first REAL emotion you've shown me all fucking day!" I angrily replied. "Now tell me, what's wrong?!!"

"Nothing," he muttered, looking away.

"Liar!" I cried.

He glared at me, before rising up and shoving me off of him. "I won't talk about it!" he declared.

"Tell me! Or I'll hate you!" I bawled. For some reason tears rose in my eyes, but I savagely wiped them away.

He stiffened when he heard that, but he did not stop preparing his bike. "You probably already do," he commented quietly.

"Fine then. Go!" I screamed. "GO AWAY!"

"Fine," he said. And he pedaled away without a backward glance.

I stood there, mouth agape, realizing it was too late to take back what I'd said. "No, Roxas, wait! I didn't mean it! I'm sorry! COME BACK!"

But no matter how I yelled or what I said, he didn't come back.

I sat down on the asphalt and buried my head in my arms, crying. "Come back," I sobbed.

Someone hugged me from behind. I turned my head to find Vanitas's golden eyes, full of sympathy, staring into mine.

"What's wrong, girl?" he asked softly, gently holding me.

"I j-just w-wanted to t-talk to R-Roxas," I stammered. I drew in a deep, rattling breath. "But he left."

Vanitas looked very pissed off. "How dare that bastard hurt you," he snarled, tensing. I gasped in pain as his hold crushed my waist.

He instantly released me. "I'm sorry, Namine," he apologized, wincing.

"No—it's—okay," I choked, clutching my constricted stomach.

"We have to bring you to the nurse," he said, in a panicked voice. "If I broke anything…"

"You didn't," I assured him. "Really, I'm fine."

He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "If you say so. Can I drive you home today?"

"Sure," I replied. I pulled out my phone. "Just lemme tell Aqua first. She was going to drive me today."

"No, really, that's not necessary," Vanitas said.

I looked at him, confused. "Why?"

He laughed. "Because she already asked me to drive you home."

"So, Roxas was acting like a dope around you?" Vanitas said, braking as we neared a red light.

"He wasn't acting like a dope!" I replied angrily.

"Namine, I've known people at this school who were drug addicts," he stated. "They acted just like him—depressed, distant, whatever."

"He is not using drugs!" I defended.

"Then what is he?"

I thought about it for a moment. Roxas had absolutely refused to look at me all day, except when I'd caught up to him after class.

"Well," I began slowly. "He looked like he was in pain. Emotional pain, like lovesickness, not drug withdrawal."

"Okay," Vanitas replied, obviously not believing me. "So who do you think he's lovesick for?"

"This isn't funny!" I snapped. "Roxas might be suffering from real depression, the disease!"

"Why do you care about him so much?" he inquired. "I'm curious to know."

"Well—" I hesitated. "I-I guess I don't really know why…"

"So just ignore him!" Vanitas exclaimed. "He'll get over you eventually."

"What do you mean, "he'll get over" me?" I asked.

"You seriously don't know?"

"Yeah!"

Vanitas sighed. "It might be better if you didn't."

Before I could ask him why, we arrived. I said thanks and goodbye to Vanitas, before walking up to my house's door and fishing the keys out of my pocket. The door opened before I could insert the key.

Aqua stood in the doorframe, leaning against the door. "Well?" she said, arching an eyebrow.

"What?" I asked, confused.

"Aren't you going to invite him in?" my sister said.

"What? Who?" I questioned. Now I was really baffled.

"Him," my sister stated, pointing at Vanitas's Aston Martin. He hadn't left, for some reason.

"Why?"

"Why? Because you have to thank him for driving you home!"

"I did!"

"Well, then he's your boyfriend, right? Shouldn't that be reason enough?"

I growled in exasperation and went back to Vanitas. "Do you want to come inside?" I asked.

"I'd love to," he responded with an ear-to-ear grin.

Vanitas followed me and Aqua into the house. My sister chatted with him about school, his friends, all that idle stuff.

I continued to brood about Roxas. Why had he said that I probably hated him? I did, for some aspects of him, but from what I'd seen of him over the last few days, overall he was a pretty nice person.

Vanitas's statement that Roxas would eventually get over me also troubled me. What had my boyfriend meant by that? Was Roxas in love with me or something? After all the abuse I had piled on him? And why did I not want Roxas to get over me?

"Namine," Aqua said. She looked at me worriedly. "Are you okay, sis? You zoned out a bit there."

"Really, I'm fine," I hastily answered, mirroring what I'd said to Aqua when I had the faces nightmare.

She, too, gave me that doubtful look. "Okay," she murmured. "If you say so. By the way, I'm gonna go get some groceries, so if you want anything, just call me, alright?"

I nodded.

After she had left, Vanitas sidled up and wrapped an arm around my shoulder. "Care to show me your room?" he inquired with a sly smile.

I blushed furiously when I heard that. "W-W-What?" I stammered.

He chuckled. "I didn't mean that, silly," he smiled. "I just want a tour."

"Okay," I said nervously. "Come on, then."

Dajh's chocobo chick greeted me with an excited cheep when we walked in. I laughed and lovingly petted its soft plumage.

"Who gave you that?" Vanitas asked, joining me.

"My mom's friend's son," I responded. "To be honest, I think the little guy's got a crush on me."

He glared at me in mock jealousy. "Are you cheating on me?" he pouted.

I giggled and playfully slapped his shoulder. "You're so posse—Vanitas?"

He had caught my hand in midair as it was being withdrawn. Now he drew me towards him, planting kisses along my arm as I got closer.

"Vanitas," I said. "I'm not sure we should be—whoa!"

He swept me off my feet and carried me to my bed, bridal style. I was too shocked to resist.

Vanitas set me down on the bed before bending down and claiming my lips. I closed my eyes and moaned a little as his tongue slipped into my mouth, battling with mine for dominance.

I leaned my head back, freeing my tingling mouth. Vanitas continued kissing me, trailing his lips up and down my neck. Electricity flashed through my body every time his lips connected with my skin.

I gasped as he gently bit at a particularly sensitive spot on my jaw line, near the muscle. Vanitas's kisses leisurely migrated downwards. He pulled one of my shirt sleeves down, stretching the collar, and nuzzled the warm flesh with his nose. I moaned again as he tenderly kissed the skin of my shoulder.

That was when those accursed memories surfaced. Again I had a vision of an unwelcome visitor forcing himself on top of me, grinding his hips against mine. His spiky blond hair was once again brushing against my cheek in a sickeningly ticklish motion. I began to cry, stammering, "No, stop. Please…"

I gagged and choked, finding myself suddenly unable to breathe.

Vanitas sat up in alarm, grabbing my shoulders and shaking me. "Namine, what's wrong?" he cried. "Talk to me!"

I ignored him, just concentrating on forcing my lungs and trachea to work again.

He was rushing towards the phone when I groaned weakly, currently the only sound I could make. Vanitas turned around, surprised, and immediately smothered me in a bear hug.

I could feel another panic attack vectoring in and shoved him away. He gave me a hurt look.

"I'm sorry, Vanitas," I said, wincing in remorse. "B-But I think we shouldn't get that close again…"

"Why?" he asked in a pained voice. He reached out and gently caressed the shoulder he had kissed.

I shuddered and stuffed the reemerging memories back into my subconscious. "It's just that…" I stopped.

"You can tell me what's on your mind, Namine," he said gently. "I'm your boyfriend, remember? I want to support you."

"No, I can't," I muttered. "I won't. I'm sorry, but I—I'll have to deal with this on my own."

With that I walked out, leaving Vanitas staring after me with an unreadable expression.

Very good Namine, you've deduced that Roxas does, in fact, love you. Good luck with your guilt later on. And now we at least have a general idea of what makes Namine so stubborn about Roxas, and maybe why she is so reluctant for any potentially romantic contact with a guy.

I've been noticing how my writing changes tones pretty quickly—heart-wrenching to humor to reflecting to erotic and back to heart-wrenching.

How was the make-out scene? It's my first one, so I hope it wasn't TOO graphic; otherwise I'll have to change the rating. Overall, though, I liked how this chapter came out.

So how'd you like it? Love it? Hate it? On the fence?

Please let me know using that gorgeous little tool called "REVIEW"!

By the way, I've gotten eleven reviews, surpassing my goal of ten.

My two colleagues who pushed my story up to that point are:

Shadowofthenightxx

Ken08002

*fights back tears* Thank you guys so much. You have NO IDEA how much you've made me just want to dance around in glee like an idiot. Or cry with joy. Which I'm trying not to do right now.