Author's Note: Alright so I picked the darker of the two chapters, but this lighter one gave me some ideas so look for scenes inspired by this chapter in the future. Also my friend pointed out that I like picking on Roxas, and yes, I really do, Sora just isn't nearly as fun to tease.

Sora slapped Roxas on the back. "Come on cheer up, this is fun!"

Roxas smiled at him weakly, this wasn't exactly his idea of fun. Laguna had chased them out of the house, claiming that he wouldn't have dinner ready soon enough and Julia had then suggested a dance hall that she frequented with Laguna where they could spend the evening and even get a bite to eat. So now here they were and Roxas was feeling miserably embarrassed, he didn't know how to dance though that hadn't stopped Sora from making a complete idiot of himself with Kairi and later Yuna. It didn't help that Leon and Cloud seemed to have been given lessons somewhere along the line during their military career and were taking turns dancing with everyone.

"Roxas come on, go ask Rikku for a dance." Sora teased.

"No." Roxas said, glaring at him.

"Well what about Namine?"

Roxas face turned red. "No thanks."

"I think I can help."

Both of them looked up, Rinoa was standing over them, smiling warmly, both boys blushed and looked around for Leon, they found him dancing with Yuna out on the floor.

Rinoa reached down and took Roxas' hand. "Come on, just one dance."

"But I ca—"

She held up a finger, forestalling his protests and smiling fondly. "Neither could Leon, he tripped all over me the first time we went dancing together, but you'll never learn if you don't try."

She reached out with her hands; reluctantly Roxas took them and let himself be guided out onto the floor. Rinoa took a moment to put his hands where they should be, a task made a little awkward by their height difference. Roxas took a deep breath as she took the first step.

"Now follow where I lead okay? It isn't that hard once you get the steps."

He nodded dumbly, trying to keep up with her as she began to sway and step with the music. Roxas trembled as he followed, then stumbled over her feet, he turned bright red.

"Sorry," he muttered.

Rinoa smiled, "its okay, Leon has bigger feet."

They started again and this time it took him several steps before fumbling, Rinoa continued smiling all the while, it was then Roxas realized that they'd become the center of attention for everyone else in their group.

He let go of Rinoa. "I don't think I can do this."

She grabbed him and laughed. "Oh no you don't, you're not running away now."

This time they started slowly, and Roxas found it easier to follow her as they began stepping across the floor, Leon danced by them with Yuna and shot him a teasing glare.

"Stop stealing my girlfriend."

Roxas flushed, but Rinoa stuck her tongue out at Leon. "You ran off with someone you dirty old man; I'm not going to wait around for you."

Leon laughed joined by Yuna who giggled, also blushing. Roxas couldn't believe they were joking about this but he supposed that it made sense to them. Everyone was always talking about how Leon and Rinoa were practically married, and they certainly teased one another like it. An image of Laguna and Julia came to mind and he tried imagining Leon and Rinoa in the same situation, disturbingly it was fairly easy to do.

Rinoa led them away from Leon and Yuna, still going slowly but Roxas was beginning to find his feet finally and that at least meant he wasn't stepping on her anymore.

"You see?" Rinoa said gently, "you're getting into it now. You know what comes next?"

Roxas shook his head, wondering what could come after this. He was dancing wasn't he? Rinoa looked over his head for a moment and smiled coyly.

"This," she spun him around and pushed him, he ended up in Rikku's arms.

"Uh…." He said stupidly, his face scarlet.

Rikku simply smiled and put her arms around him. "Come on, you've been practicing right?"

He nodded, taking a deep breath, wondering what he'd done to deserve any of this. Though really there were worse things he could imagine being done to him that were considerably less pleasant than having to dance with Rikku, several of those things perpetrated by Rikku no less.

She smiled at him. "You've been avoiding me."

"No I haven't."

Giggling she began to sway against him. "Then why haven't you asked me to dance?"

"I don't know how to dance." Roxas protested.

"You danced with Rinoa."

"She danced with me!"

Rikku stuck her tongue out, putting her arms around his neck and leaning against his chest. "Sure Roxas, you're cute."

He flushed and looked away nervously as they shuffled back and forth to the music, Rikku breathed deeply as she leaned against him, a secret smile on her face. Roxas heart was beating a mile a minute, and he felt that at any moment he'd flee the floor without a single look back. Of course he wasn't going to do that, nearby he saw Sora dancing with Yuffie, or at least trying to dance, Sora was laughing and enjoying the fact that he looked idiotic. How did he do this so easily when Roxas was so flustered?

"Hey, you're looking at the wrong person." Rikku said, turning his head to look at her as she smiled at him.

"Sorry," he murmured.

Rikku licked her lips and considered him a moment before leaning forwards and kissing him on the cheek, giggling as Roxas' blush spread over his face.

He stumbled and stepped on her foot, she squeaked and jumped back. "Sorry!"

She put her hands on her hips and laughed cheerily. "For what, I didn't think you could learn after one lesson." Rikku came back up to him and reattached herself to his waist. "Besides you're doing fine."

Roxas swallowed as she whispered this last bit and reached up into his hair, running her hands through it. His heart beat like a drum in his chest, though it sounded more like it had moved into his skull. Rikku watched his eyes, her own glowing green as she studied his face for a moment. Then she closed her eyes and leaned forwards, Roxas balked, feeling now more than ever the urge to run as her lips pursed.

"Hey hold on."

Rikku's eyes widened as she was pulled away from Roxas.

"You haven't danced with me yet Rikku." Leon chided.

Roxas breathed a sigh of relief; Rikku looked over her shoulder at him as Leon led her away. "I'll get you next time."

He shot Leon an expression he hoped conveyed thanks, and felt his heart sink as Leon grinned at him in a very mischievous fashion. Now what?

There was a tap on his shoulder, Yuna stood there smiling at him, holding Namine by the shoulders. Namine looked just as nervous as Roxas felt.

"Someone's been watching you." Yuna said gently, as she propelled Namine into Roxas' arms, the pair blushed as Roxas looked to Yuna questioningly.

"You don't need to worry about Rikku, the rest of us will keep her busy."

That hadn't been what he'd been wondering about at all, it was more why Yuna was pushing Namine into his arms instead of Rikku. The pair looked at one another for a moment before Namine managed a smile. Roxas thought it was beautiful and his heart sounded like a symphony in that moment.

"Would you like to dance?"

He nodded; they both tried to take the first step and ended up fumbling into one another. They looked at one another nervously before both starting to laugh.

"Okay, you lead." Namine said.

Roxas nodded, being careful this time not to step on anyone's toes. They started off slowly but easily moved into a more fluid and graceful step. Of course neither knew really how to dance, and to Roxas' surprise Namine was worse than him, so their grace was to the extent of not bumping into one another or stepping on each other's toes. Namine took a deep breath and leaned against Roxas, looping her arms around his waist.

"I'm glad we came here."

Roxas blushed as he looked down at her. "Why?"

She looked up at him, her eyes beautifully blue. "Because you're safe and no one will get hurt."

He blinked, frowning. "What?"

She smiled and leaned her head against him again. "Nothing, I just want to dance."

He nodded, still not entirely sure what she had been talking about but not particularly caring. He simply enjoyed the feeling of Namine leaning against him as they continued to dance, this song in particular was gentle and slow, it gave them time together and to Roxas it seemed to never end and when it finally did end and Namine released him he felt sad. Since Rikku did not return to harass him he made his way to Sora, who was sitting with Yuna, Kairi was asleep on his lap.

"What happened?" Sora asked.

"The dance ended."

"That's not what I meant." Sora said smiling.

Roxas scowled at him. "So what did you do to Kairi?"

Sora flushed and shifted uneasily, Kairi murmured something and her hand closed around his. Sora looked away from everyone, his face reddening further. Yuna giggled, and the fact that she thought this was all funny made Roxas feel a little self-conscious when she looked up at him with a warm smile.

"You shouldn't have left her alone you know. She's going to feel bad."

Roxas looked away, well what was he supposed to do? Kiss her? Thinking of kissing Namine made him blush again and he tried to hide this by covering his face with his hands.

Yuna was still smiling. "It's okay, she's a good person, she'll give you other chances."

"Stop now please." Roxas said hurriedly.

"Alright, in that case come on." She said, standing up.

"You're not going to just sit here. I want to dance too."

Roxas looked desperately over at Sora. "What about him?"

Yuna shrugged, her smile looking frighteningly like Rikku's for just a moment. "He's busy."

Without giving him a chance to further protest Yuna guided him out on the floor and began dancing with him, Roxas enjoyed himself despite being embarrassed, he had to admit, not as much as he had with Namine but at least with Yuna he knew she just wanted to have fun and not him.

They stopped dancing when the club closed sometime in the morning, everyone was exhausted and as half of their party was asleep it fell to the older members to carry them home. Tifa and Rinoa made sure that Yuffie was home and asleep before taking Rikku and Yuna home, when they parted Rinoa leaned close to Leon and kissed him, they stood like that for several minutes until Cloud, who had Tifa smiling at him accusatorily cleared his throat. Both Rinoa and Leon looked like they'd never see each other again when they let each other go, which further served to embarrass Cloud with Tifa. She forgave him though and merely kissed him on the cheek as she hugged him.

"Coward," she whispered fondly before turning to leave.

Rikku leaned over and kissed Roxas on the cheek, smiling at him sleepily. "You know you could always stay at our house, it's closer than Merlin's."

"Uh…I'm—I mean we're…"

Yuna led Rikku by the shoulders gently away towards the two older women. "Come on Rikku, I think you broke him again."

She giggled and blew him a kiss, "night!"

The walk to Namine's and Kairi's was quiet, Kairi was half asleep and Sora was partially carrying her as they walked together. Namine was silent, staring up at what stars were visible beyond the city lights as they walked. Roxas wondered how she managed not to walk into anything the entire way, he tried to get close to her at one point, but she didn't respond at all, even when he brushed against her intentionally. Too nervous to try talking to her when she was so engrossed he kept quiet, walking besides her until they reached the girl's house finally.

"Goodnight." Kairi said, waving as she went up the stairs.

"Night," Sora called after her. "We'll come see you soon, that's a promise."

She nodded, opening the door quietly and slipping inside, Namine hesitated and turned back to Roxas walking up to him and hugging him. Roxas' heart leapt as he returned the hug automatically.

She looked up at him, smiling nervously. "I had fun, let's do it again, okay? I want to dance with you again."

Roxas nodded dumbly and she smiled, giggling nervously before turning to follow Kairi, he watched her until she was inside and then watched the door without realizing he was doing it.

Cloud rapped on his head with his knuckles. "Come on, your jaw is going to trip us."