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DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ANYTHING MENTIONED IN THIS STORY.
Just this story. Enjoy!
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Xion's eyes bugged out to the limits of human eyelid muscles.
"He said WHAT?" she demanded incredulously. "And you did WHAT?"
Namine began banging her forehead against the support strut of the bunk bed.
"I know, I know, I know…" she moaned. "Stupid, stupid, stupid…I never should've agreed to that bet!"
Her friend's already wide cobalt eyes got even wider. "No, no, no, no, no—Namine, haven't you realized yet?"
The blonde was getting a bit annoyed that she couldn't get any straight answers.
"Realize what?" she growled.
"That he likes you!" Xion yelled.
Namine frowned. "How am I supposed to believe that?"
"Hello! Axel said it in the elevator!"
"But was he being truthful?"
The brunette rolled her eyes. "He'd never pass up a chance to embarrass Roxas!" she protested. "And Roxas punching him to shut him up is just more proof!"
"I recall that Axel was elbowed, not punched."
"Semantics; whatever. But back to the main point…"
It was Namine's turn to roll her eyes as the brunette sitting in front of her avidly advocated giving Roxas a chance.
"I've never once seen him do anything that shows he likes me more than just as a friend," Namine said, brushing a flaxen strand of hair behind her ear.
Xion sighed, frustrated by her blonde friend's thick skull when it came to boys. "Do I have to list the ways?" she grumbled.
The artist nodded.
"Okay. One, he blushes around you. FREAKING BADASS ROXAS BLUSHES. Two, he acts all immature and cute around you. He's usually cool, and aloof, and…and…" Xion struggled to come up with a suitable third adjective.
"A jerk?" Namine offered with a slight smile.
"Occasionally," Xion snorted. "But anyways, third, he actively tries to get your attention."
"How? By poking me?"
"Yes! That's somewhat normal for insecure guys like him."
"He's insecure?" Namine had a hard time believing that, but then she remembered.
A sad smile curved his handsome face…
"Of course he is!" the brunette stated. She sighed again, this time in pity. "He tries so hard to hide it, and he mostly succeeds, but me and Axel are his closest friends. We can see right through him."
Xion poked the air as if it was cloth and her hand was a sewing needle.
Namine had never been good at concealing her emotions. Her face was a patchwork quilt of surprise and pity, along with, strangely, understanding.
"So you see now?" Xion murmured. She leaned into the backboard. "You're pretty much the only person he's ever opened up to besides us."
"But why would he do that for me?" Namine wondered, cupping her cheek with a hand.
Xion shrugged. "I don't know. You're just special, I guess."
"That doesn't really answer my question."
The brunette laughed. "Obviously," she smiled. She patted Namine's shoulder. "But this isn't bad at all—you may just have won the heart of a very cute boy." She winked suggestively. "Maybe something more, too, if you catch my drift…"
"XION!" Namine wailed in embarrassment.
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The next day, Namine decided to eat a lunch. She normally wasn't hungry at this hour, but today she felt unusually peckish.
Her mouth watered as she stared at the images on the menus taped to the walls. What she had been missing yesterday…
The line was startlingly fast and efficient, and in less than five minutes Namine found herself in front of the lunch lady.
"Ummm, a cheese pizza, please," she decided.
The lady nodded, disappeared, and came back with a paper plate practically dripping with melted, gooey cheese. The bread and tomato sauce were barely visible beneath the yellow stuff.
The thing smelled amazing, and Namine could barely restrain herself from devouring the slice and the chunk of paper it was resting on.
"Namine!" a familiar girl's voice called.
The blonde turned around to see Xion waving at her from a table.
Along with Larxene, Axel, and Zexion, a man with a black ponytail and an eyepatch was sitting with Xion.
"Hello," the man grinned. "The name's Xigbar. So you're Namine—it's nice to meet you."
She nodded shyly. "It's nice to meet you too, Xigbar."
Axel patted the empty space next to him. "Sit down," the redhead invited.
Namine set her plate down (uneasily noting the hungry stares everybody was giving it), smoothed out her uniform's skirt, and sat in the proffered seat.
"You know, Roxas was blathering about you during last night's run," Xigbar noted.
She very nearly choked on her pizza, before the dreaded burning sensation returned to her face and neck.
Xigbar chuckled at Namine's mortification. "So he was saying, "Namine's so beautiful, she's so nice, I wanna bang her so bad—" The delivery was in a ridiculously high-pitched voice.
The one-eyed man had to wait a moment for Xion, Axel, and Larxene to stop cackling before continuing.
"And then he makes this weird—"
"I hate to interrupt your lovely rendition of Roxas's voice," Zexion said dryly, without even looking up from his book. "But he's right behind you."
Xigbar gulped. "H-Hey, man," he said nervously. "Don't kill me, okay?"
The blond parkourist loomed over Xigbar with one of the scariest death glares in history. If looks could kill, the poor guy and his genetic ancestors wouldn't have existed anymore.
Roxas continued to glower at Xigbar as he circled over to where Namine was sitting. Then his face fell.
"That's my seat," he complained.
"Oh, I'm really sorry, I'll go sit at—" Namine stopped babbling as his hands grabbed her waist and lifted her up.
The spiky-haired blond slid into his seat underneath the diminutive artist before dropping her down onto his lap.
"Better," Roxas grinned.
Namine would have been attempting to break out if she wasn't too busy miserably failing at trying to halt the steady reddening of her cheeks.
"Is that the—quote—'cute'—unquote—blushing you were referring to last night?" Zexion said mildly.
"Yep. And she's nice enough to show it off every five seconds," Roxas smirked.
The blonde glared at her captor. "I do not blush every five seconds!" she protested.
"Oh, really?" he said softly, leaning in.
It was a losing proposition to NOT blush and it was useless to try and get some distance.
So Namine did the unexpected—she leaned in as well.
She was, however, expecting Roxas to lean back.
He was too shocked to.
"Took you long enough," Axel commented. "And here I was starting to think I might be wrong."
"You usually are, Axel," Xion remarked without taking her eyes off of the two blondes.
Why in all the seven hells and six heavens Namine hadn't yet jerked her head back and slapped Roxas silly was something she'd never know, but it was still supremely satisfying for either side to see that the other was wide-eyed and blushing.
"Eww," she choked, futilely attempting to wipe off her mouth. "Just…yuck. I can't believe you didn't back off."
He snorted in derision. "Neither did—"
"HEY, YOU!"
Everybody at the table whirled around at the shout.
Seifer stormed towards them with a tall, tan-skinned boy and a pretty, auburn-haired girl wearing a pink jacket.
The beanie-wearing man looked extremely angry. "What're you doing here, hoods?" he yelled.
Axel got out of his seat. "Fuck off, Seifer! We have every right to be here!" he retorted.
Seifer sneered. "Oh really?" he growled. "Rebels like you? You're just lucky I haven't had your asses kicked yet!"
" 'Had'?" the redhead cackled. "You really are a wimp, beanie! Why don't you try it yourself, coward?"
Seifer laughed back. "Because I don't have to," he said.
Right on cue eight muscular students stepped out of the growing audience surrounding the parkourists' table. Larxene, Axel, Xion, Zexion, and Xigbar got up, fists clenched, to face the challenge.
Roxas shifted Namine off of him and stood. "Go, run," he whispered.
She furiously shook her head. "No! I can't just leave you!" she hissed back.
In response Roxas picked her up, set her on her feet, and shoved her towards the crowd. It automatically opened to admit her.
Someone set a restraining hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry," a voice whispered. "They'll be fine."
Namine turned to see an expressionless brunette boy looking down at her. He looked familiar somehow, but she couldn't place her finger on how...
"How do you know?" she whispered.
"This was written. Now be silent."
The artist obeyed and watched with wide eyes as her outnumbered friends engaged Seifer's minions. Her heart raced and skipped as blows were narrowly dodged and others connected.
Axel staggered as a fist smashed into his jaw, but he backhanded his opponent hard, sending the other flying.
Zexion was grabbed in a headlock but flipped his captor over his head in reprisal.
Larxene tackled her adversary, knocking him over, before straddling and raining fists down upon him.
Xigbar used clipped but powerful punches to batter down his opponent's guard, before the one-eyed man slammed both fists into the poor guy's face.
Xion crouched to avoid a hook, before sweeping her leg out and knocking her enemy off of his feet; a rabbit punch to the forehead served to knock him out.
But Roxas was by far the most amazing out of all his colleagues. He was fighting three at once, attacking and evading at the same time.
The blond blocked a blow on his forearm and grabbed that enemy's wrist before twisting around behind him. The caught arm instantly snapped, eliciting a scream of agony from its owner.
Another foe waded in, fists swinging, but Roxas stepped back to avoid the assault and retaliated with a pair of hits to the boy's sternum.
As his second opponent fell, wheezing, the blond easily sidestepped a roundhouse kick from the third. As the other boy struggled to recover from the heavy attack's recoil, Roxas used a roundhouse kick of his own to disable the last fighter.
The parkourists stood victorious. One by one they turned towards Seifer and his companions.
"I believe you said something about having all our asses kicked?" Roxas sneered.
Seifer defiantly glared at the blond. "This isn't over," he hissed dangerously.
"It is now," Larxene growled, crossing her arms. "And if you don't run right now, so will be your life."
He hesitated for a moment, his survival instincts warring with his pride. The former won out.
"C'mon, Rai, Kairi!" he ordered. "Let's go!"
The boy, presumably Rai, and the girl, Kairi, turned to follow Seifer's fleeing form, but a figure burst out from the crowd.
"Kairi!" Sora shouted in clear surprise. "What're you doing with them?"
The redheaded girl stared back at Xion's brother with an expression of contempt, but Namine thought she could also see a shadow of pain in Kairi's eyes.
"Screw you, Sora," she snarled. With that she ran after her two companions.
The brown-haired boy's jaw dropped. "What...?"
"That arrogant BITCH—"
"Cool it," Zexion warned. He and Axel moved to restrain Xion.
"Lemme at her!" the infuriated girl yelled, struggling to break away. "I'm gonna fucking KILL HER ASS!"
"You can't do that," Axel said. "Now CALM DOWN."
As Namine observed the mindless raging of her best friend, she realized the hand on her shoulder was gone.
The blonde whirled around to find that the mysterious boy had disappeared. She immediately took the opportunity to run over and assist Axel and Zexion in holding Xion down.
The words echoed in her mind as she struggled to pin down Xion's flailing arms.
This was written.
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A male parkourist is a 'traceur', a female parkourist is a 'traceuse'. I refuse to use those fancy-ass French words-'parkourist' sounds good enough.
As for Roxas being insecure, the reason for that will be revealed in due time.
Review, my lovelies! Speak your mind on TIOS's latest chapter!