Chapter 3

Airplanes

"Can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky are shooting stars? I could really use a wish right now."

She's drawing again.

Roxas has been watching Naminè draw since kindergarten when Kairi forced their friendship on each other, and never quite figured out what or why she's drawing non-stop. I mean, Roxas doodles on his binders all the time and sometimes even on flat out paper but how can anyone stand to do nothing but draw? Doesn't she get bored? What the hell is she even drawing, anyways? Taking this much time to draw... must be pretty damn spectacular. he chuckles to himself, sneaking a quick look at her.

She was staring at him too, and then looks back at her paper. Then back up at Roxas. Back to the paper. It goes on like that for the duration of class.

What the hell...?

The second the bell rang and every student in the room fled, Roxas calmly strode over to the blonde girl by the window. She was still struggling to gather her books, and when she dropped one Roxas decided to be a gentleman and pick it back up. It was a little orange sketchbook, loose pieces of paper chipped and ripped as they stuck out from between used pages. He gives her a light tap on the shoulder, holds out the book. She turns around.

Whoa.

Roxas never really took the time to notice, but Naminè's... kind of gorgeous. She has this blonde hair that falls perfectly down her mid-back and blue eyes like distant oceans. Why hadn't he noticed that before; she's absolutely stunning? "Hey I think y-you dropped this."

Man up, Roxas! Cool guys don't stutter!

"O-Oh..."

"Sorry, just wanted to make sure you didn't leave without it. It always sucks to forget things." he says calmly, forcing a nervous chuckle out of his throat. His eyes dart from her to the sketchbook again. "S-So you like to draw?"

She doesn't say anything else, just blushes the reddest Roxas has ever seen and rushes out of the room, snatching her book and dashing straight out into the halls. Papers fluttered out of her unzipped bag as she went but in seconds, Roxas was the only person in the room. What, did he offend her or something? Ugh. "...okay..."

With a sigh, he slings his messenger bag over his shoulder and picks up one of the few loose papers that had scattered along the floor, flips it over and his head became littered with questions when he saw the doodle on the back. It was him. Smiling and laughing. Hell, she'd shaded it perfectly with plain, simple grey lead. His first thought was Wow. The girl has talent. but in a moment's thought became a questioned;

...what was that about?

~ "Stupid loner!" they kicked and picked teased and laughed at the poor lonely blonde girl sitting under the tree. What did she do to deserve getting picked on? Naminè was never mean to anyone... she hardly spoke to anyone and when she did it was never more than three or four words...

She just sat there, wide eyed, hugging her sketchbook close to her chest as tears pooled in her eyes.

"You're so weird!"

"Little lonely moron, you can't even speak can you?"

"Ha ha! So she's stupid too!"

She whimpers, looks down at the ants crawling around her feet in the dirt and holds back the tears that stung her eyelids. They always verbally abused her like this. She hated being picked on, but she had no friends to stand by, no one to talk to. She was trapped. Those little ants... they walked in straight lines, groups of little black dots working together to make their lives better. If she cried the ants would drown. She can't trouble them with her sorrow... Not after Mommy and Daddy.

"Shut up! I'm not weird! The stupid one is you, moron!" Naminè snaps, turning sorrow into faux-rage. The oldest boy walks over, pushes her onto her back and laughs, walking away with his little 3-man army. It was there she cried, watching the ants struggle to get past the fallen tears on the ground. Some drowned in those tears, but others quickly passed by it and scurried off with the food supply it had dropped. They just forgot about that little ant. Ditched her when they figured she was useless. The poor, lonely girl can relate to that ant... just a little too well... Naminè sniffles and wipes her tears as quickly as possible. Innocently, the little girl looks down towards the deceased insect.

"Gomenesai..." she whispers over and over to the little ant. "You're lonely just like me now." ~

"Get over it, Nami." She whips out a pencil and goes straight for her sketchbook. "Just stop thinking about it. You've been alone from the start and that won't change because of your wishful thinking. Just stop."

With a stroke of her pencil, she drew away her problems, weaving line after line of art, composing an unknown picture that sat in the back of her mind. She never knew what she was drawing at first, just kind of did it by instinct and let it go from there. She spawned images of unknown places and faces, sometimes recreated memories of people she's met, places she's gone. And within a matter of moments a drawing was born.

But this one was the same as the other.
She drew Roxas. A smiling, perfect Roxas.

Naminè drops her pencil, falls back onto her bed and stares up at the little white swirls of the ceiling. You gotta get him out of your head, Nami. He's cool, you're a nobody. There is no chance. Get over this, will you? Besides, how long have you liked boys anyways?She doesn't. At all. She can't trust them, not since the incident with Mom and Dad. They all cheat and lie. They're all the same; they don't care about girls. Roxas was probably the same way deep inside.

Men repulse her.
But... Naminè still wanted to know what it was like to have a friend...

"...did you draw that?"

The blonde boy turns to face his ignorant brunette roommate, whose eyes were locked on the doodle Roxas had stuck on the wall. He hadn't heard him come in. "No, I didn't. Someone else did."

Sora smirks, sits down on Roxas's bed next to him and mock wolf whistles. "Ahh I get it now. From someone special, right?"

"Not even close." the blonde rolls his eyes, looks back at the flawless drawing and sighs. "Naminè drew it. Dropped it back in the Chem lab."

"...which one is Naminè again?"

"The blonde, Sora. The blonde."

"Ah, right." he looks away from the doodle and to his conflicted blonde roommate. "Well, why don't you go talk to her about it?"

Roxas huffs, throws him a dagger-glare. "And tell her what? 'Hey I'm Roxas. Hope you don't mind but I found your doodle and decided to track you down to give it back, and by the way I think it's really good'? That doesn't sound creepy at all."

"...it actually doesn't, Roxas. Not at all."

"Not the point." he falls back into his bed, lays back and stares at the ceiling swirls of white. "I dunno, I just guess I'm not that good at talking to girls... Not my forte." It was true. Roxas was always a ladies' man without even trying but... when did have to try... what was he supposed to say? He's been trying for years to get close to Naminè, tried his hardest but she always ran. What the hell do you do in that kind of situation?

Sora falls back too, looks at him from the side and smiles.

"So don't talk. Just listen to her."

"Gomenesai..." she whispers, muffling the sound of her hiccups and whimpers. Naminè has been crying like this for hours, folding old doodles into paper airplanes and shooting them out the window. The maintenance guy probably hates her for it, but it has never ceased in helping her feel better. Why? She doesn't really know; throwing pieces of her past into the air just... eases the pain sometimes.

Out the window stretched a stunning night sky, grey clouds cascaded in the deep, dark blues of the atmosphere. Combustions of light gently spotted the stunning picture, along with a lunar eclipse Naminè was glad she stayed up to see. Had she the motivation, Naminè would have gladly drew the scene itself again. She tosses the last paper airplane on the window, takes a deep breath and turns to walk back to her bed. But something bumps her head from behind.

A paper airplane. And when she unfolded it, it was a doodle of Roxas.

What the hell...?

Naminè immediately rushes back to the window, looks down towards the ground to find the blonde boy himself, standing there, hands in his pockets, a smile on his face. With a free hand he waves up towards her, chuckles and smiles up at her.

She finds her lips curving into what felt like a smile for the first time in years.

"Nami," Roxas yells up to her, cupping his hands to amplify his sound. "You've got a really cute smile. You should use it more!" and with that note, he turns and heads back towards the boys' dorms. Naminè watched him go the entire trip, cheeks redder than her roommate's hair.

He's been there since the beginning... hasn't he?

"Hey... are you okay?"

When she looked up, she saw a boy. Blonde, kind of short, around her age, smiling down at her with questioning eyes that were a comforting shade of blue. He stared down at her with a gentle expression on his face; she could sense he was friendly. Shyly, he extended a hand to help her up. She stared at it in question.

"You're crying. Are you hurt? Do you want me to bring you to the nurse's office?"

Naminè sniffles and takes his hand then brings herself up to stand. This boy was being so nice but... should she accept his offer? After those boys before, how did she know he wasn't the same?

"No. I'm fine." she snaps, hugging her book to her chest and running off towards the school. "I'm always fine..."

All this time of running... all this time of avoiding boys... hiding from Roxas...

What was it that Naminè was running from all this time?