I feel like writing longer chapters. I feel so inadequate when I see other authors giving you guys 6,000 word chapters when that's already close to a fifth of my total word count for this story.

*sigh* I've a ways to go…

Naminé: Don't worry, SB, you'll get there…

Roxas: This is so random.

Naminé: Dude, this is the guy responsible for our existence in this AU! Show him some respect!

DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ANYTHING MENTIONED IN THIS STORY.

Just this story. Enjoy! (wow, what a long-running disclaimer)

Xxx XXX xxX

"Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god!" Jennifer shrieked. "Oh my god!"

Naminé winced at her mother's fangirl simulation. She was quite sure her father must be contemplating seppuku, that's how bad the squealing was.

"Our daughter has a boyfriend!" the mother yelped.

"I'm aware of that, Jenny," Ryo sighed.

"Mom, please…?" Naminé begged. "Could you, I don't know, let me and Dad talk in peace?"

"I second that notion," Ryo deadpanned.

"Fine…" Jennifer sighed. "But before I shut up, tell me—what's his name?"

"Roxas," the girl answered.

"What an odd name," Ryo said. "Sounds a lot like Roxy."

"Dad!"

"Naminé, it's okay if you're not interested in guys."

"DAD! I'm STRAIGHT!"

"Okay, okay, okay—now where were we? Oh yes, the Fall Formal." His tone made it clear just what he thought of formal balls.

"All parents are invited," Naminé said, remembering what Xion had told her. "Do you want to come?"

"Sure. Do you have a date?"

"Yes…"

"Is it a girl…?"

"We've been over this." She was getting peeved by her father's teasing tone.

There was a knock at the door.

"Hold on, Dad," Naminé said quickly. She walked to the door and checked the peephole.

It was Roxas, with Sora in tow. "Can we come in?" the traceur called.

She unlatched and pulled open the door. "Roxas and my date are here."

"WHAT?" Ryo exploded. "I thought Roxas was your date!"

Roxas sighed. "Mr. Miyamoto, it's a long story."

"Who was that?"

"Roxas."

"Oh…"

"Listen, um, Dad I need—"

"Come on, Naminé…" Roxas said, tugging at her sleeve.

"Sorry Dad, gotta go!" Naminé said hurriedly. She stretched her hand out to replace the phone…

"Come ON!"

"GAAAHHH!" Naminé was jerked out the door as her phone fell onto the carpet. "Do you know how much that thing cost? And why did you drag me out here anyways?"

"We need to teach you two how to dance," Sora stated.

"Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of…" Roxas grabbed Naminé's hand. "We need to get outta here!"

"Hey, get back here!" Sora shouted, but the brunette was no match for the traceur's agility.

Naminé was at first dragged along the floor, but she eventually got her feet under her and started running with her boyfriend.

Boyfriend. Such a simple word, and yet it could make her think of just the most obscene things…

She blushed and refocused on keeping pace with Roxas. "Where are we headed?" she asked.

"You'll see!" he replied cryptically.

"Dammit, just give me a straight answer!"

Xxx XXX xxX

"So, after a few miles of running, you brought me…here?" Naminé wasn't sure where 'here' might be. After all, there wasn't a term for an abandoned factory slash parkour playground.

"Yep," Roxas said cheerfully. "We need to work on your technique, and there's plenty of environment around here to work with!"

As they passed a rusty steel wall, she noticed red and black marks scribbled on the corrugated metal. Another look revealed the markings to be some sort of complex drawing or design. Interesting…

"Come on!" Roxas urged again, before taking three steps back. Then he blurred forward, slamming a foot against the wall, then the other, and then his hands clamped over the top edge and he flipped himself over.

Naminé gulped—she hadn't yet practiced the pull-up part. "Well, here goes nothing," she muttered.

A one and a two and a one two three—

She charged for the wall, dug her toes into the metal, rammed her other foot into the wall a good meter above the first one, and gained just enough altitude and momentum to fling her hands above the wall—

She bit back the yelp of pain. Impact felt like her arms were being torn out of their sockets; she had a ways to go before her wall-passes would be as smooth as Roxas's. With a gasp she pulled herself up and fell over the wall, barely landing on her feet.

"Okay, so the first thing we do is—hey are you okay?" he said hurriedly, rushing over to her. He gently took a hold of her shoulder, eliciting a gasp of pain. "Oh, s-sorry!"

For some reason the pain melted away like winter frost under a ray of sunshine as he looked at her. "Well, it doesn't hurt anymore," she mumbled, blushing again and looking down. Because of you, she added silently.

He grinned weakly. "Well, that's good to hear."

They stood there in silence for a few awkward moments before he strode away to a ladder. "Come on!" he called over his shoulder.

"Can't you think of something more creative than 'Come on'?" she asked.

"Can you?"

"Ummmm…"

"Exactly. Now, copy what I do."

Then he jumped onto an unstable-looking beam and crawled across it on all fours. And it didn't even look like crawling—it was more like a spider-walk.

"That's called cat-balance," he explained from the far side. "Balance is doing the same thing on two limbs."

"I'm not doing that!" Naminé shrieked, shuddering. "What if I fall?"

Roxas sighed in frustration, palming his forehead. "Do you want to learn this or not?"

"Fine!" she huffed, stalking over to the beam and hunching over.

Okay, Naminé, be cool. It should be simple—hands and feet on the beam, pull, slide, pull slide…

And it did turn out to be that easy, if a lot slower than Roxas's daredevil variant.

"Very good," he grinned. "You're a natural at this."

"Really?"

"Mostly because it doesn't require any intellectual capacity at all."

"Hey!" she shouted, and smacked his arm. "Enough with the dumb blonde jokes already!"

He chuckled before dashing off and once again Naminé found herself chasing after him, giggling like an elementary schoolgirl the whole way.

She caught up to him at a railing. A look over the edge showed that the ground was a little over ten feet down.

"This would be a vault," Roxas declared, backing up. He darted towards the railing, put his left hand on it, and swung his legs over the side. A loud thud signaled his landing.

"Roxas!" Naminé shouted in horror, rushing to the railing. "Oh my god, are you—"

"Now you try!" he hollered from below. "Don't worry, I'll catch you!"

She mumbled something incoherent to herself before taking three steps back. She always needed a considerable amount of distance before she could build up to her considerable top speed.

"Well, here goes nothing—again," she murmured, tensing her muscles.

Two lunging steps brought her within range of the metal bar and she shoved down at it, rotating her body like Roxas had so that her legs swept over the railing instead of into it.

But she hadn't been expecting the power of the technique. Note to self: lay off the push next time, she thought, annoyed.

A pair of strong arms caught her, as promised. Naminé instinctively curled up, drawing her knees and hands to her chest.

"I've held you before this," Roxas smiled. "And yet you're still blushing like the first time around? How cute…"

"Shut up and let me down," she growled playfully.

He grinned again, this time in a mischievous fashion, and brought his lips down to hers. And then jerked them away as a stinging slap connected with his cheek.

"OW!"

Naminé somehow managed to land on her feet. "Ha-ha," she smirked.

"What was that for?" he whined, although both knew full well that the slap hadn't hurt him in the least.

"Shut up," she said again, and hugged his neck, pulling him in for a kiss.

When they disengaged he was slightly blue in the face. "I never knew you had a side like this," Roxas teased. "Naughty Naminé—I like that."

"Only because you have a perverted mind," she shot back in an equally mocking tone.

"Oh, what this woman thinks of mercy," he groaned, placing a hand over his heart.

She rolled her eyes at his cheesy theatrics before strolling to another wall. "What's next?" she inquired.

"Aw, come on," he protested. "My acting can't be that bad, can't it?"

"If I told you the truth, would your feelings be hurt?"

His lip wobbled and his eyes grew big and watery. "Why?" he choked. He fell to his knees. "Why, GOD? WHY?"

She just yawned. "Wow, it was horrible enough already, but you actually made it worse."

He looked at her. And looked. And looked. With wide, wide…

"Oh, no, not that again…" Naminé moaned, grimacing. "Puppy eyes?"

There were more faux waterworks, but the firepower of the puppy eyes completely scoured her of her defenses.

"No—must—not—lose—to—"

To her credit, Naminé lasted another five seconds before caving in. "Okay, okay!" she yelled, throwing her hands up in irritation. "Just—just stop the eyes!"

He didn't.

"Okay, okay, I give up," she grumbled. She stepped up to him and wrapped him in a hug.

A single heartbeat later she was on the concrete with Roxas on top of her.

"Would you mind?" she complained, struggling to sidle out from under him. A well-placed arm of his prevented that, though. "Letting me go, that is?"

"Well, what's in it for me?" he responded with a slight smile.

She had to smile herself. "Hmm, I don't know," she pondered. If her arm wasn't pinned beneath his waist her finger would be resting on her chin in a mockery of The Thinker. "I don't slap you silly?"

"I was thinking more along the lines of another kiss," he smirked.

"Addiction isn't healthy, Roxas," she replied.

He pouted. "Getting addicted to you is just too easy," he scowled. "Being apart from you for more than a few hours is like crashing after a few Red Bulls."

"You wimp," she chuckled, but she craned her neck to give him a quick peck on the lips. "There, happy?"

"More?" he begged.

She rolled her eyes again. "Fine," she sighed, but another smile tugged at her lips and she leaned up for the second time. This time he moved himself off of her.

"Well, what else are we practicing?" Naminé asked, brushing off the back of her jeans.

"Here, let me get that for you," Roxas grinned, caressing her behind.

"EW!" she yelped, jumping away from him. "EW, EW, EW, EW, NO! NO! BAD BOY! BAD BOY!"

"What, can't take me touching your butt?" he chortled.

She glared daggers at him. "My back, I can take with a grin. My butt," she shouted, pointing at the area. "Is off limits, you hear me?"

He just laughed harder. "You sure about that? I mean, for a second there you looked like you enjoyed it…"

"Absolutely!" she declared.

He began chortling.

"I mean, I mean, I mean—" she stuttered. "Absolutely for not wanting you to grope me!"

"Sure…?" Roxas dragged out the single word.

"YES!"

"You suuuurrrrreeee…?"

"ARGH!"

"Come on, you know you liked it…"

"Oh, I dare you to say that again." Naminé's tone was deadly quiet.

Beat.

"So, um, let's—let's continue…"

"Good."

Xxx XXX xxX

Jump will be broken down into four arcs. Arc finales will be around double the normal length, like in Chapter 9.

Arc 1: Meeting Him

Arc 2: Fall Formal

Arc 3: Freedom

Arc 4: All-Out War

Naminé's reaction to getting groped by Roxas might've been a bit over-the-top, but I saw it happen to a girl once (swear to God it wasn't me who did it) and the poor guy had a red palm mark on his cheek for the rest of the day. So yeah…

Review? *puppy eyes*

Naminé: It won't work, SB. You're not as cute as Roxas.

Roxas: It only works on you because you think I'm cute?

Naminé: No duh, numbskull. Are you hard of hearing or just plain stupid?

Roxas: *puppy eyes*

Naminé and SB: *slap hand over eyes* Goddammit, Roxas!