Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. It belongs to Square Enix and Disney.


Angel in Disguise

7. Roxas: Melancholy

I called Axel the next day, but he wasn't there. Demyx sounded really upset when he answered the phone, but while I wondered why he was upset, I didn't ask him. I didn't think he'd want to talk to me about it. After all, he didn't know me all that well.

I asked Demyx to tell Axel that I called and for him to call me back once he gets home. Demyx promised to pass along the message and then he hung up the phone.

I spend the rest of the day cleaning my room and working on my spring break project while waiting for Axel to call me back. He didn't.

The next three days I spent mostly pacing restlessly around the house wondering why Axel hadn't called me back. Sora somehow managed to convince me to play video games with him for a few hours each day, but once Riku came over I would leave and go to my room.

And then Naminé came over and thing started to get a little better.

We were laying on my bed looking over old photo albums. We did that at least once every year and then we'd add new pictures to it. So we had new pictures spread out all over the bed and we were reorganizing them so we could put them in the photo album in order.

"So Roxas, how have you been?" Naminé asked me. "I haven't seen you for a few days."

I shrugged and tossed one of Sora's pictures to the side. It had a print of Sora's thumb right in the middle of it, which made it useless. "I'm fine. I've just been busy with some things."

Naminé made a humming noise and then held up a picture of us at the zoo. "Remember this?" She asked.

I grinned and took the photo from her so I could get a better look. "Yeah, that was just a few months ago. Right after Kairi took that picture Sora decided he just had to go feed the camels."

Naminé giggled. "And then Riku had to go rescue him when the camel decided that Sora's hair was food. I think we have a picture of that somewhere in here…" She flipped through the pile of photos and triumphantly pulled out a picture. "Here it is!" She gleefully handed it to me and I laughed before I slid it under the photo of all of us.

"One of these days we need to make up a 'most embarrassing photo's' album." I remarked.

"Most of the pictures would be of Sora and Tidus." Naminé pointed out. "They're usually the ones who we catch on camera doing something silly." She flipped through the rest of the pictures from our trip to the zoo, setting some aside to put in the photo album. "You know, one of these days we need to get a video camera. Then we won't miss as much. We should still use the regular camera though." She waved a photo of Riku getting chased by goats and I snorted and told her to put it in the pile.

"That would be a good idea." I said. "It'd have to be a small one and we'd have to make sure that everyone knows how to use it. That way there won't always be one person filming and being left out."

Naminé nodded. "Yeah. Although maybe it would be best to not let Sora or Tidus use the camera. Who knows what they might do to it. It would be an accident, of course, but somehow they always manage to break the expensive things that we let them handle."

That was too true. I remember the time Riku got an expensive new radio and speakers for his Loremo LS and he asked Sora to hold the box he was keeping them in. Sora somehow managed to drop the box and break the radio and one of the speakers. Riku didn't speak to him for weeks afterwards. It took Sora apologizing what seemed like fifty times and paying for a new radio and speaker before Riku would talk to him again.

I miss that blissful month without Riku coming over. Although, Sora didn't shut up about how sorry he was and how much he missed Riku, so maybe it's better that Riku did forgive him and started talking to him again.

Inexplicably, my mind drifted over to Axel and I glanced over at my phone, hoping that he would call me.

"Roxas, are you okay?" Naminé asked me. "You got quiet all of a sudden."

I looked over at her and smiled. "I'm okay, Naminé." I told her. "I was just thinking about something."

Naminé sighed and set down the photo's she was holding. "Roxas, I know you've been hanging out with Axel lately."

I looked at her in surprise. How did she know that? She couldn't have just guessed that. "How do you know that?" I asked her.

Naminé looked away from me with a guilty look on her face. "I… I followed you." She admitted. "Sora wanted to know where you were going and he asked Kairi and me to find out." She looked back over at me. "I'm sorry, Roxas. I should have just asked you."

I relaxed. That wasn't too bad. It wasn't that surprising that Sora asked them to find out where I had been going. He had been getting really bored lately . I made a mental note to set aside a whole day to hang out with Sora.

"It's okay, Naminé." I said.

She relaxed. "Really?" She asked. "You're not mad?"

I shook my head. "Not at all. I'm glad that you guys worried about me. That just shows that you care. But next time, just ask me instead of following me around town. It'll save you some trouble."

Naminé laughed, obviously relieved. "Okay. I will." She leaned forward and took my hand. "Lets go hang out today. Just me and you. We haven't done that for a long time."

I blushed. Just the two of us? Me and Naminé? She was right though, we hadn't hung out together, just the two of us, for nearly a year. We had always had a lot of fun together and got into trouble a few times, so I didn't see the harm in hanging out like we used to.

"Okay. What do you have in mind?" I asked.

"Well, I was thinking we could go into town and maybe… stir up a little trouble." She said, half teasingly. "And I also need to get a birthday present for my friend Marluxia. His birthday is coming up soon."

"Marluxia?" I asked, surprised. I didn't know that she knew him. "The same Marluxia that lives with Axel and hangs out with Larxene all the time?"

Naminé nodded. "The one and only. How many guys do you know that are named 'Marluxia'. It's not exactly a common name."

I didn't answer that. I had no idea that he had a birthday coming up. I decided I had to get him a present too. A wooden pool ball painted green with pink roses came to mind. It would have the number eleven on it too.

Before I knew it, Naminé and I were running down the streets of downtown Destiny Island and were being chased by some little old lady's tiny, yapping dog. And idea popped into my head and I grabbed Naminé's hand and veered off into a small alleyway and kept running until I went around a corner. I pulled Naminé against me and we watched as the dog continued running down the alleyway. A few minutes later the pissed off little old lady went running after the little dog, waving her cane and shouting obstinacies.

Naminé and I waited before she was gone before we collapsed against the wall in laughter. It took us a while to calm down because every time we'd look at each other we'd just start laughing again.

When we had calmed down and stopped laughing, Naminé laid her head on my shoulder and breathlessly asked, "How do we get in these situations whenever we go out?"

I shrugged and pulled away from her, feeling somewhat uncomfortable with how close she was. "No idea. My good looks and charm?"

Naminé gave an unladylike snort and brushed her bangs from her face. "Yeah, Rox. That's exactly why the dog got pissed off enough to chase us." She said sarcastically.

"Yup. Exactly." I agreed, pushing away from the wall. "Lets go get the present I had made for Marluxia and then go back to my place and check on Sora. Who knows what trouble he's gotten into in his boredom."

Naminé laughed and agreed and then we set off to retrieve the wooden pool ball and then go back to my house and check on Sora. We got back just in time to see Sora and Riku hop out of my dad's car. I can't remember seeing Sora happier than when he proudly showed off his much lighter cast that he could walk around much easier with.

Ignoring the fact that it was all Riku's idea to celebrate, we celebrated Sora getting the lighter cast with ice cream and music. We called up the rest of the group and invited them over. Wakka ended up bringing his girlfriend, Lulu, and she brought her own friends along with her, which proved to make the night very interesting as Tidus first hovered in the background and stared at Yuna, who he has had a crush on for ages. When he finally got the nerve to go over to her, he spilled his drink all down his shirt and she laughed at him.

I think the funniest part of the night was when Paine, who really, really scares me, got pissed off at Baralai, who has to be the calmest person in either circle of friends, and dumped her soda on his head. Rikku, who was Yuna's cousin and Paine's best friend, and Gippal, Baralai's best friend, just stood back and laughed with everyone else.

I kind of felt bad for Baralai, although I'm not sure what he did to make Paine do that. He might have deserved it, but somehow I doubt it.

The blending of our two groups had happened before then, but it didn't work out quite as well as it did this time. Maybe it was the combination of ice cream and soda or the root beer floats that my dad made for all of us, but we ended up all having a great time without fighting badly. I mean, other than Rikku slapping Gippal a lot and Paine dumping her soda on Baralai's head, and Tidus getting elbowed in the nose, and Kairi getting pissed and beating Riku in the head because he nailed her in the back with a Blitzball, it was pretty peaceful.

Well, that was pretty damn peaceful for us, although for "normal" people it could have been considered kind of violent.

We did have fun that night and I completely forgot all about the fact that Axel still hadn't called me. I forgot all about finishing up my spring break project for school. I forgot that Kairi had been acting strangely around Riku and Sora. I even forgot that Sora's leg was still broken, although you wouldn't be able to tell with the way he was hobbling around the room that night.

It was nice to just sit back and relax and laugh with my friends. I didn't have to worry about anything at all and got to eat all of the ice cream I wanted. (Although I regretted that the next morning when I woke up with a stomachache.)

That night I collapsed onto my bed with a big smile on my face and I fell into what I had hoped would be a nice peaceful sleep, although I wouldn't have been too surprised if I had dreamed about being chased around by food.

My dreams did start off something like that. I think Tidus got eaten by a giant soda or a pizza or something. But then they changed into something that felt much more real. They weren't even dreams anymore. They weren't nightmares either.

It was more like… memories. Memories from a time long ago. Parts of them were fuzzy, but I remember seeing myself and Axel sitting atop a clock on the mainland eating sea-salt ice cream. We were dressed in black cloaks. Axel seemed sad about something and I was resigned about something. I couldn't tell what we were talking about.

The imaged changed to me fighting with someone who could have only been Riku. Strangely, he was wearing a black cloak like I was but he also had on a blind fold. From there the image changed to Naminé and I sitting in a white room with childish drawings plastered all over the walls. Then it went to me running through the streets of a dark city fighting off black ant-like creatures with curly antennas. Above the city a heart-shaped moon glowed. Then I was sitting in different white room that had thirteen chairs suspended above the ground in order of rank. Mine was at the bottom. In all of the other chairs was everyone who Axel lived with at the old, two-story house. They too were wearing the black cloaks.

From there, my dream grew too hazy for even me to remember.


End Chapter
Oddly, this chapter started out as a difficult one to write, but then I got to the part where Namine dragged Roxas to go shopping and things started flowing much more easily. I think my favorite sentence of all time for this entire fanfic is the line "I mean, other than Rikku slapping Gippal... it was pretty peaceful." That whole line, I love it. That one will keep me laughing for the rest of the night.