I'm wondering if I've lost any readers. If so, then I'm sad. Not angry or anything; just sad. Where did I go wrong that someone would stop reading?
DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ANYTHING MENTIONED IN THIS STORY.
Just this story. Enjoy!
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As the orange foliage fell from the grounds trees with the passage of autumn, and the weeks of September soared past, Naminé continued her training with Roxas.
She grew stronger, faster, and enduring. Her once smooth and flat skin was now sinuous with well-grown and well-toned muscle all over her body.
By the end of September she could run five miles, going to the limits of her endurance—she would never be as much of a long-distance person as Xion or Roxas, but considering that she'd let her muscles essentially atrophy before coming to ADBS, five miles was still darn good.
Roxas began to bring her to the weights room in Building C for some upper-body training during their nightly training sessions, where her limit went from five to ten to fifteen to twenty to thirty to forty pounds per hand. She would never be quite as strong as Roxas, but he had assured her that her body wasn't designed for brute strength and also that she didn't need to be that strong anyways.
Occasionally, she would piece together methods of performing parkour techniques from observing others' practicing. For example, she learned to always land on the balls or heels of her feet when jumping while watching Xion every morning, and she figured out how to wall-pass from the countless times she saw Zexion and Axel compete.
Naminé also learned a few new things about her newfound friends.
Axel was a senior at seventeen years of age, six feet four, and he was still growing. Roxas had joked that he might someday be too tall to balance correctly, and had received a smack in the head for it. The redhead also loved fireworks and explosions (Naminé had been a bit disturbed to learn that, for some reason), and hoped to become a special-effects technician for his career.
Zexion was a junior, but was also seventeen. He was about two or three inches below Roxas's six feet and was built like a weasel—svelte and long-bodied. He had a genius-level IQ of 199, and wished to become a physicist.
Larxene was a senior like Axel and was six feet tall, just like Roxas (funny how he came up in all the comparisons). She had an hourglass figure that frequently made passing men walk into signs or trip over curbs, and wasn't afraid to use that effect to her advantage. Her love was networking—she wanted a career as an infrastructure engineer (Roxas had once mocked her for such a 'mundane' dream and had been scarred for life by the punishment). The blonde traceuse had confided in Naminé about how she suspected that both Axel and Zexion had feelings for her, but that she only saw Zexion as a younger brother. Naminé had kept her theories on the the boys secret, of course.
Anybody could see Naminé had had a metamorphosis from the petite, out-of-shape, skinny girl she had been at the start of school to a lithe, agile, and tough (but still rather short, much to her chagrin) specimen of the female gender. She was still rather willowy, but that apparently was also how her body was built. Even then, boys who hadn't given her a second look at the start of the school year, despite her supposed beauty, now started walking backwards to keep sight of her whenever they passed her. The constant stream of threats from the more possessive girlfriends of said boys didn't hurt her slowly increasing self-esteem either.
She was ready by the second week of October.
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"Naminé?" Roxas asked. He was leaning against a wall, watching his girlfriend practice the wall-pass method.
The blonde concentrated on landing before responding, crouching into a catlike pose before impact. "Yeah?" she replied, brushing dust off her cargo pants. She had bought parkour-appropriate clothes of her own at Xion's insistence.
"How much about the actual art of parkour do you know?"
"As in the techniques?"
"As in the history. The techniques you can easily figure out—we all know you're a very sharp girl." He grinned approvingly.
"Well, thank you," Naminé smiled. "But let's get to the point—what's the history?"
"Warning, warning," Axel said sarcastically. "Learning alert! Learning alert!"
Roxas glared at the redhead. "Shut it, jackass," he ordered. "Zexion?"
The brunette traceur waited for Axel to stop. He didn't.
"Never mind," Zexion said dryly, over the noise of the redhead's antics. He turned to Naminé. "Parkour was invented by blah-blah-blah, and I agree with Axel that this stuff is boring as hell. I don't even know why I learned it."
"Because you have OCD?" Larxene inquired.
"Says the one who always has to have two perfectly working six-inch switchblades with her at all times," Zexion shot back.
"What's wrong with being prepared?" Larxene sniffed, folding her arms and looking away.
"Shut up!" Roxas barked, cutting off Zexion's rejoinder. The blond traceur sighed in frustration. "Jeez, you're all older than I am but I still feel like your guys' mom…"
"You don't have the hips for it," Naminé teased.
"Not you, too…"
A humorless, mocking laugh silenced them all. Naminé, Roxas, Zexion, Larxene, and Axel all turned around one by one to see who was there.
"Why am I not surprised, bitch?" Roxas snarled.
"You," Naminé hissed. Her fists clenched.
Kairi smirked. "Yes, me," she sang, skipping forward. "Me, me, me…"
"What are you doing here?" Axel demanded. His fists clenched, too. "Isn't it enough that you've spread all those rumors about us?"
"What, I can't hang out with my older brother?" the redhead girl sneered.
"Don't pretend that you're my sister," Axel retorted. "My real sister died a long time ago."
"And she was resurrected a whole lot less naïve," Kairi declared. "Care to know why I'm here?"
"Do tell," Zexion muttered sarcastically.
"Her!" Kairi said, pointing at Naminé.
"And…?" the artist inquired, folding her arms.
The redhead bounced forward and flipped the blonde off.
"Bitch—!" Roxas was barely restrained by Axel and Zexion.
"Is that all you've got?" Naminé yawned, drumming her fingers on her forearm.
"Look who's talking, dumb blonde," Kairi replied.
"Dumb blonde?" Naminé smirked. "Cheating redhead, more like."
"You little—! How DARE you—"
Roxas broke loose, his hands stretching for Kairi's throat, but Larxene slammed into him, tackling him to the ground and pinning him there.
"Keep frosty," the traceuse hissed. "Your girl's got it handled—let her deal with this!"
At which point Kairi's hand snapped into Naminé's cheek. Roxas bucked in an attempt to free himself, but then Axel piled on top of him too.
"Wanna call me that again?" the traitorous redhead said.
"I was wrong," Naminé sighed. She shook her head in pity. "That is all you have, isn't it?"
"Ugh!"
Larxene and Axel got up off of Roxas when Kairi had stormed away.
"I swear, man," Axel said. "My sister was never reborn at all. The real Kairi's in heaven right now and she's never coming back."
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"Why is my roommate spazzing out?"
"Why are you asking me?"
"Because I'd thought you know!"
"Well…I don't!"
"What a lame comeback."
"Whatever," Roxas muttered, rolling his eyes.
Naminé pushed the door open to see Xion pacing and Sora clutching at his hair.
"What are you guys—" she began, and then Xion looked up.
"Guys!" she yelped. "Fall Formal is coming up!"
Fall Formal? What that was specifically could be extrapolated from the name, but not much else...
"So…?" Roxas inquired, folding his arms.
"We need dates!"
"Wouldn't that be your concern?"
"Our parents are inspecting us!"
"WHAT?"
The artist whipped around to see that her normally cool and collected boyfriend was slack-jawed. "THEM?"
"Our parents want us to find a suitable boy or girl to take to Fall Formal," Sora explained. "And only juniors and seniors are allowed."
"We'll need to teach you two how to dance," Xion added.
"Then we need to go into town to buy outfits."
"Gowns and tuxedos, remember!"
"Xion will take you, Naminé, and I'll take Roxas with me to the tuxedo fitters."
"Fall Formal's on the thirty-first and this year's theme is masquerade."
"So be sure to also buy good masks."
"Scary is out of the question—Father and Mother would prefer class and subtlety over horror."
"By subtlety, we mean simple but eloquent masks."
"All our preparation is gonna take away our time, so—"
"No parkour the week before. Sorry."
"We'll also have to clean up beforehand."
"Not just a soap and water shower either—"
"We'll need makeup and perfume for the girls and cologne for the boys."
"Again, we have to impress our parents or they'll just send us to a new school."
"NOOOOOO! I don't want to leave my friends, not again…"
"You see? Do it for Xion, then."
The two blondes' heads flicked back and forth as the siblings rapidly gave instructions, warnings, and reassurance.
"Let me get this straight," Naminé said in disbelief. "You want to take us two as dates?"
"YES!" Xion and Sora chorused.
Roxas raised an eyebrow. "I dunno," he murmured, scratching his head. "I was intending on asking Naminé out…"
"We'll be borrowing you two!" Xion said quickly. "Sora with Naminé and you with me!"
"Are you sure?" Naminé asked.
Xion scowled. "I'm not interested in Roxas, Naminé," she huffed. "Not since that time the pervert snuck into my bathroom!"
The blond turned crimson. "I didn't realize you were there!" he shouted, waving his hands.
"So you didn't hear the shower?"
"No, I thought it was something else!"
"Like what?"
"Hey, guys, hey, break it up," Sora said firmly, interposing himself between the bickering parkourists.
"Yeah, keep it PG-13 or below," Naminé added. "TMI, you guys."
The brunette traceuse glared at her friend and brother but quieted anyways. "Also, Roxas, are you okay with Naminé going with Sora?"
He shrugged. "I'm good as long as she's okay with it," he answered.
"You might not want to tease Roxas about that," Naminé advised. "We—we met Kairi today…"
She noticed how Sora's eyes became more alert upon his hearing the name of the redhead.
"Kairi?" Xion snarled, her fists clenching. "Where is she? I'm going to—"
Sora placed a restraining hand on his sister's shoulder. "What did she say?" he asked tensely. "What did she do?"
"She came up to us, told us she wanted to talk to me, and flipped me off," Naminé recounted. "Oh yeah, and it turns out she's Axel's estranged sister."
"And what did you do?" Xion inquired, shaking with obvious anger.
"I told her off," Naminé grinned. "Called her a 'cheating redhead'."
"WHAT?"
The two parkourists and one artist flinched at Sora's shocked outburst.
"How could you, Naminé?" he cried. Then he began screaming in a high, shrill voice. "SHE IS NOT A CHEATING BITCH! SHE WOULD NEVER CHEAT, NEVER! NOT WITH SEIFER AND MOST FUCKING CERTAINLY NOT WITH ME!"
Roxas whistled. "Wow, Naminé…" he murmured, shaking his head.
"'More than you know'," Sora whispered, hanging his head.
Naminé winced at her massive error. "I'm guessing you were referring to Kairi?" she asked. When he nodded glumly, she winced again. "Even when you were mad at me and Xion, your memories of Kairi calmed you down, didn't they?"
The brunette nodded again, but this time tears filled his normally bright blue eyes. Sobs racked his body and he collapsed onto Naminé's bunk, burying his face into his hands.
"Sora, it'll be okay," Xion said softly, hugging her distraught brother.
"Don't worry," Roxas added with a comforting smile. "Maybe someday she'll see what a bitch she's been to you and beg for your forgiveness."
"And then we beat up Seifer for doing whatever to her," Naminé chimed in.
Sora grinned weakly. "Thanks, guys," he sniffled.
Xxx XXX xxX
My stories change moods too quickly, in my opinion, but that's my own problem and I'm not a good self-proofreader. And I wonder why I've lost reviewers.
And I hated this chapter because of A) the wall of text and B) it's filler. Again. Also, is there such a thing as Fall Formal? 'Cause I just made that up for the story.
Review! *does cartwheel but collapses halfway*