A Wishful Thought (A Note From The Author): Ahhhhh, I'm a lazyass who just started writing this now when I could've started it about a week agooooo. I'm bad. XP Here is my attempt at making a more entertaining chapter. Of course, I'm never entirely sure if I'm coming off as random or just plain stupid (to me, it's a very thin line in between the two ;) so please just bare with me. ^^;;

Thank you to:

Akemithebazookagirl, CupcakeLerman, KeybladeMaster97, makiru, FutureX13, Sato Tadashi, , Ashcroitt, and Dreamer-Tsuki for reviewing! :'D

Disclaimer: As you all probably guessed, I still don't own Kingdom Hearts. Any of it. . . If I did, I would've gladly given the Nobodies their hearts back. ;D I also don't own Pokémon, or any of the stores that pop up in this chapter.

*crosses fingers* Okay, let's hope this chapter is good! XD

Note: You might want to remember from the last chapter that Tidus, Riku, Hayner, and Sora were doing their project together. It's not mentioned directly. XP

Warning: I'm not sure how I did it, but this chapter ended up freakishly huge. O_O Beware random moments that probably aren't too important to the story, and several run-on sentences. I'm sure they're in their somewhere. . . O_O;;

N 0 N 3 X 1 $ + E N +: Her Best Day (Part Two)

"Scissors?" Naminé (who was working on my living room floor) stuck out her right hand upwards in a somewhat impatient manner, not bothering to stop whatever she was working on to get it herself.

Hope (who was kneeling at the coffee table centered in the middle of the room), quickly grabbed the pair of scissors and placed it into Naminé's awaiting hand. "Here you go." Somehow, he managed to continue working on whatever he was working on while obtaining the object.

"Pencil?"

"Here it is."

"Sharpie?"

"Right here."

"Eraser?"

For a second, their perfect synchronization was broken, and Hope actually took his eyes off his work to scan the table for the wanted item. He looked kind of confused for a few seconds, but the confusion was quickly gone. "It's right next to you, Nam."

She blinked, turning her attention away from her current task. Once she spotted the eraser that really was next to her, her face flushed lightly. "Oh. Sorry, Hope, I didn't see it there."

He simply smiled at her. "It's no problem."

And just like that, they continued working.

How could they work like that for a whole hour and a half? It was creepy that they could be so in sync with each other!

You see, once Olette and Hope arrived, it was suddenly all business. You can thank Olette for that, since she insisted that we weren't allowed to do anything that didn't pertain to our crazyass project and breathing. Immediately, Hope and Naminé were forced to begin working on the poster, Olette resumed revising and rewriting the essay, and I was left to finish up our PowerPoint.

Lucky for me, Naminé and I somehow managed to get a good amount of it done while Olette and Hope were out, so it only took me around an hour to finish up. I offered to help the rest of them, but Olette claimed that she didn't need my help, and she stated that two people were enough to work on the poster, and if I tried to help them out, I'd probably only get in the way.

And Hayner insists that she's the kindest person he knows. The kid is blind.

"Roxas?"

I was snapped out of my reverie as Olette called me from the leather recliner a few feet away. "Yeah, Olette?"

She fidgeted uncomfortably on the chair, before setting her laptop down on the floor beside her. "I actually don't think I can do this anymore."

I blinked, confused at what she meant. "Huh?"

She sighed dramatically, before stumbling towards me, and collapsing next to me on the sofa, her head resting in my lap. "This. . . This stupid project!" She threw her hands up in the air in an exasperated motion, and I had to quickly shift my weight to avoid being hit by her hands. "This is ridiculous! I can't write a report about something like this!"

I rolled my eyes before flicking her on the forehead. "Well, Ollie, that's your fault. You're the one who wanted to do our project on something stupid like this."

She groaned, "Well, it did require the least amount of research! So it was technically easier!"

"Ooookay, so what's the problem?"

"I can't make this report sound interesting! It sounds like I'm just sputtering out random facts! It doesn't have any. . ." She trailed off as she scrambled to think of the proper word. "Heart! It doesn't have any heart! It doesn't have any emotions at all!"

I couldn't help but smirk as a pun came to mind, "Well, I'm sure that as long as you write your name in huge letters it'll have plenty of heart. Wouldn't you agree, Miss Olette Hart?"

She stared at me for what felt like forever, her eyebrows drawn together in a way that made her look worried. "Oh. . . My. . . God. . ."

I frowned and stared at her curiously. First she doesn't laugh at my pun (it couldn't have been that lame, right?), and now she's looking at me like I'm some kind of monster? "Wha—?"

Olette immediately jumped off of the couch and pointed an accusing finger at me, her face filled with absolute dread. "YOU HAVEN'T EVEN BEEN DOING ANYTHING FOR THE PAST THIRTY MINUTES, AND YOU'VE GONE ABSOLUTELY CRAZY! YOU'VE LOST ALL SENSE OF SANENESS! THE REAL ROXAS WOULDN'T HAVE SAID SOMETHING SO AWFULLY CHEESY!"

I stared at her incredulously before forcing myself to move towards her to assure her that yes, I was perfectly sane. Unfortunately, she didn't seem to believe me. "No, no, no! That's where I put my foot down! Roxas, your health is much more important than some stupid old project!"

And this was coming from the same girl that refused to let me use the bathroom an hour ago since I hadn't finished my part of the project yet?

I took a step closer towards her, reaching out my hand to pat her shoulder or something to assure that I was currently in tip-top shape. "Olette, seriously. I'm absolutely fi—"

She yelped before swatting my hand away. "Oh goodness, this is worse than I thought!" My frown deepened. What was she going on about now? "That's it! I'm calling Axel! We're going to take a break and go to the mall!"

My eyes immediately widened in fear. I didn't mind taking a break to go to the mall (in fact, I think that it would be the best thing to do as of now), but whenever Axel got involved into things. . .

I couldn't stop myself from shuddering.

Unfortunately for me, Olette had already whipped out her cell phone and had commenced dialing Axel's number.

I ran towards her, my arm stretching out as far as possible in an attempt to grab the cell phone from her hand. Before I could reach her though, she shrieked and sprinted away. "OLETTE!"

The green-eyed scholar pivoted quickly on her foot, and darted down the hallway towards the bedrooms. "OLETTE!"

Before I knew it, she had already dashed into my room, slammed the door shut, and then locked it closed. I couldn't help but whine childishly as I banged on the closed door, "OLEEEETTTTTEEEEEE!"

I could practically feel her smirk from the other side of the door as she talked to the red-headed pyromaniac on the other line. "Axel? Yeah, what do you say we all hit the Moogle Mall today? . . . I dunno, how about. . . twenty minutes?" There was a long pause, and I desperately kept my ear onto the door in strange anticipation. "Definitely. Call up the others; I need to get a delusional Roxas out of the house ASAP. . . . . Yes, that's right. I'm at Roxas's place. . . Wh—"

Before she could finish whatever it was she was saying, the front door of the house opened up, and a familiar voice shouted, "ROXIEEEE, I'M HOMEEEE!"

My eyes widened, and I ran towards the front of my house. I would like to say that I was surprised to see the red-headed college kid in front of me, but honestly? It's Axel. You learn to expect these kinds of things from him.

He was wearing a simple, black v-neck, and ripped up skinny jeans. His hair seemed like it was defying gravity more than usual today, and his cell phone was still positioned at his ear. I opened my mouth to ask how he had managed to get inside my house without anyone even opening the door for him, but I managed to answer my own question almost instantaneously.

Axel was twirling a full set of keys around his finger.

"Axel, how the hell did you g—"

"How did I get your house keys?" The playful smirk on his face only widened as he stuffed the keys into his pocket along with his phone. "Roxas, do you really want to know that?"

Did I? Did I really want to know how he managed to snag a copy of the key to my house? I mean, it was Axel. "On second thought. . ."

Unfortunately for me, Axel had already begun waving away my words. "Remember that one day a couple years back when you were freaking out because it was three in the morning and your mom still wasn't home?" There was a horrible glint in his eye, and a stupid smirk on his face.

I could already feel my eye twitching.

This was not going to turn out into a good story.

". . . And that's how I met the President of Mexico, fought off a deranged, rabid monkey, rescued Las Vegas from sure bankruptcy, and managed to save the world from Twilight-crazed fans. Oh. And got your house key."

I wasn't exactly sure how to respond to that. Or to the entire story in general. ". . . I bet you're lying."

We were walking towards the Moogle Mall where we were planning to meet up with everyone else. Everyone seemed to want to take a break from whatever it was they were doing, since everyone said that they would meet us there. We were supposed to meet them at the Moogle Mall entrance, and then we'd probably head off to the food court. I mean, it was almost one o'clock, and none of us (Naminé, Hope, Olette, Axel and I) had eaten yet. And even if the others ate, knowing that they're my friends, they'd be glad to eat some more as long as someone else was paying.

And that someone usually ends up being me.

Axel turned to look at me, an expression of shock plastered on his face making Olette and Naminé giggle. "A liar! ? You're calling me a liar! ?"

I shot him a smug grin. "Yeah, got it memorized?"

The college student beside me actually growled at the usage of his catchphrase. "You can't use that! That's my line!"

I playfully rolled my eyes at his childish whine. "They're words. And no matter how high and mighty you think you are, no one can own words. . . Got it memorized?"

Axel let out an angry sort of shout, throwing his arms up in the air in a frustrated manner.

Olette raised a finger to point out a suggestion, "Actually, Roxas, don't you remember the time when none of us could say the word 'photograph' for an entire day?"

I frowned. I had completely forgotten about that day. It was weird.

Axel smirked, quickly recovering from his outburst, "Well, I remember it, Roxie. And I guess that means people can control words. So I hereby decree that I am the only one who can use the catchphrase, 'Got it memorized?'!"

Olette giggled, "Axel, I'm pretty sure it was just because of that scary movie we saw. You know, the one where if you said a certain word, then the monster thing would kill you?" She paused to frown. "I actually don't remember the movie that much, but that's the explanation my brain is giving me. . . And if that is true, why in the world did we think that the word 'photograph' would kill us?"

I shrugged. "Who knows? We were young back then. And when you're young, you tend to be foolish. And foolish people tend to believe and do just about anything."

Olette rolled her eyes, "Roxas, this happened last year. We were sixteen."

"Oh."

There was an awkward silence, but since we were all walking with Axel, it ended up being very short lived. "That's it. Roxas, you're fired."

I turned to look at Axel in shock, but the pyromaniac seemed to be extremely serious about whatever it is he was talking about. "What are you talking about! ? You can't fire me! I don't even work for you!"

Axel shook his head sadly, almost as if he was ashamed to be seen next to me. And honestly? It should've been the other way around. "Now, now, Roxie. No need to get so testy."

I furrowed my brows at him. No one was really making any sense today. First Olette, now Axel. "I'm not getting testy. You're just not making any sense."

Axel sighed heavily, "Roxie, Roxie, Roxie. I don't want my protégé to be someone so forgetful and simple minded. If you're going to be the next Axel, then you need to step up your game."

My mouth was agape as I stared at him. "Axel, I don't even want to be your protégé! When was that even decided! ?"

He shook his head once more, "See? You are that forgetful. Don't you remember Selphie's party?"

I frowned, "Axel, no one really remembers Selphie's party. We were pretty much all drunk."

Axel grinned and stepped in front of me, halting my advance. He towered over me, the menacing look still etched on his face. "Au contraire, mon ami. Axel remembers everything."

No. Axel doesn't remember everything. In fact, I think he's one of the most forgetful people I know. And actually, I think he's making this whole thing up just so he can have something to say. I mean, we all know Axel. He hates silence.

"So," Axel finally stepped away from me so he could address the whole group, his eyes sparkling with excitement. "That means I need a new apprentice! Hope! I choose youuuu!"

Hope stared at him in shock, obviously not sure what to say. "Oh! Um, actually, Axel, I—"

Axel grinned before running towards Hope and flinging his arm around him. "There's no need to state your unending gratitude, dear Hopie!" I couldn't stop myself from rolling my eyes. What's up with people and nicknames that end in 'ie'? "Come now, we have to start your training!"

Hope's eyes widened as Axel dragged him ahead of us, yelling something about how to drink underage without letting your parents know.

Naminé frowned, as she watched Hope look at us desperately, frantically trying to free himself from Axel's grasp. Of course, Axel didn't seem to notice this at all, and casually continued shouting about things that Hope probably should've been taking notes on. Knowing Axel, he'd probably give Hope a Pop Quiz just to keep things interesting. "Roxas, shouldn't we help him?"

I turned to look at the blonde beside me, actual worry on her features.

"Naw, Hope will be okay. He's Axel's apprentice now. And knowing Axel. . ." I trailed off as I realized that Hope probably was in some sort of danger. Because after all, it is Axel. Her worry seemed to increase as she realized the same thing. Of course, her worry couldn't possibly be as extreme as mine since she just hasn't known Axel for as long as I have. "Okay, so maybe. . ."

"Don't worry too much," Olette insisted. "If Axel tries to pull off anything illegal, they're right in front of us, so I'm sure it'll be easy to stop—"

Olette's reassurance seemed to automatically disappear as we all looked up to find that Hope and Axel were gone.

The green-eyed girl blinked, obviously not noticing their disappearance either.

"So would you say that it's best to chase after them now?"

"Yeah, probably."

Before we knew it, we had arrived at the mall. And thank goodness too, because I was starting to get sweaty. And we all know how gross that is.

Axel was off to the side making a phone call, and Hope had this sort of traumatized expression on his features. Tidus seemed to be trying to snap the poor guy out of it, or at least trying to get Hope to tell him what was wrong, but it seemed like it just wasn't working out. Hayner (who looked as though he was trying to convince Sora of something) and Sora (who just seemed downright upset) seemed to be discussing something very intently, and Riku was nowhere to be found. Eventually, Sora spotted us, and the previously serious expression on his face was immediately wiped off, replaced by a look of pure joy.

"Roxas! Naminé! Olette!" The brunet boy ran towards us, before enveloping us in a huge hug. "Oh, Roxas! It feels like I haven't seen you in forever! I missed you!"

I rolled my eyes at his overdramatic behavior. "Sora, we live together. And besides, you saw me like. . . four hours ago or something."

Sora rolled his eyes playfully at me, letting go of the three of us. "Whatever. Is it so wrong for me to miss my dear brother? Besides, it took you guys forever to get here. Seriously, what was the big holdup?"

Hayner, who had taken his time to approach us, was immediately greeted by Olette with a hug. This of course, made my fellow blonde blush, not that Olette noticed. As soon as she pulled away from him, a huge beam on her face, she turned towards Sora, "Sora. You, Hayner, Tidus, and Riku are the only ones here. And out of our entire friend group, Riku's the only one with a car."

Sora's mouth shaped into a round "o". "Haha, that makes sense now!"

I mentally facepalmed myself. No shit, Sherlock.

"Speaking of Riku, where is he?"

Sora waved away Naminé's concern. "Don't worry about him. He just left to find parking is all."

Naminé nodded, and immediately her attention was on Tidus who was dragging (literally, dragging) Hope along behind him.

"Uh, you guys? Is Hope okay? Ever since he got here with Axel, he's had this weird look on him. . ." As Tidus had said, Hope was still looking spaced out and deep in thought.

"Holy crap. . . What did Axel do to him?" Olette asked, curiosity etched on her features. "Honestly. . . Hope looks so. . . troubled. . ."

Hayner frowned, "Axel's involved with Hope's trauma? Oh God, this can't be good. . ."

Naminé seemed deeply worried about her childhood friend. Hesitantly, she walked over to Hope and squatted down so she was at eye-level with him. She tapped his shoulder lightly, only making Hope cringe at the touch. "Um. . . Hope? Are you alrigh—"

"I DIDN'T START THE FIRE," Hope screamed before jumping up from his sitting position on the ground, and looking around cautiously.

Tidus sighed, "Don't tell me that Axel's done something illegal again."

Axel (who probably has supersonic hearing) came up from behind Tidus, placing his hands on his shoulders, and talking right into his ear. "I did."

I couldn't stop myself from collectively sighing with the rest of the group. "Axel, if you end up in jail again, I am not going to contribute to your bail fund."

It took a while (and I mean a long while) until everyone showed up at the designated meeting place. It wasn't until everyone showed up that I realized just how many people Olette and Axel managed to invite.

Axel's girlfriend, Larxene, and his best friend, Demyx had shown up for one.

Don't tell her I actually said this, but Larxene scares the shit out of me. I'm not sure what it is. The bitter harshness of her voice, the evil glint in her eye, or maybe even the weird antennas she has on her head. I mean, they seriously look like alien antennas, but they're made out of her hair. Okay, you have to admit that that's at least somewhat creepy, right? But I mean, her and Axel are pretty much perfect for each other. They're both diabolical college students that I'm pretty sure have evil schemes to take over the world.

Demyx on the other hand. . . Where do I start with him? He's a little slow. Both physically and mentally. In fact, I think that Axel just enjoys hanging out with him because poor Demyx is so easy to boss around. I actually feel pity for the guy, but I actually think that Axel has genuinely started to enjoy the company of the confused blonde. Axel always tells me about how Demyx is an amazing musician that can play just about everything. Oh, and they're roommates in their college dorm, so it's pretty normal for Axel to know that. I guess.

After they arrived, Kairi, Selphie, Xion, and Pence did.

Kairi really does look unhealthy, and I couldn't help but be surprised that she had actually decided to come to this gathering. As I mentioned before, there were large, dark bags under her eyes that were made more evident by the pale pallor of her skin. Her violet eyes that were usually sparkling with excitement seemed cold and lifeless. Though she usually took care into what she decided to wear in public, it didn't seem that way now. She was wearing light gray sweatpants that rolled up to the middle of her shin, and a plain pink t-shirt. Wait a second, I change my mind! Okay sure, she seemed to be wearing a simple (almost lazy-day) kind of outfit, true. BUT, apparently they were like. . . designer sweatpants and a designer plain pink t-shirt since her pants said, "A&F NY 1892" on the side and since there was a small moose at the bottom of her t-shirt. I guess that even when she's depressed she dresses like a prep.

Unlike Kairi, Selphie was brimming with absolute happiness. Well, maybe not absolute happiness, since her best friend seemed so upset, but a good amount of happiness. There we go. She wore one of her custom-made designer outfits (I did mention that her mom was stinking rich, right?) and was sporting a large tote bag on her right shoulder.

Xion was never really the type of girl to be into designer outfits, or anything of that matter, which was pretty refreshing. She didn't really bring much with her, just her oversized headphones that were currently wrapped around her neck rather than her head. She seemed to be in a good mood today, and I could tell that she was enjoying the break from her ridiculous History project.

Unfortunately, I can't say the same thing about Pence. Pence seemed downright worried and jittery. But I guess it can't be helped. If Olette is always worried about her studies, then multiply that worry times one-hundred-fifty, and you get Pence. Then again, Pence's worry comes from the fact that his parents are extremely strict about his grades. Last year, he got a B on his Report Card, and he was forced into isolation for an entire month. So personally, I think his parents are crazy. He got a B in a freaking AP class! So that's still really good. The poor guy.

And of course, Sora, Riku, Hayner, Tidus, Axel, Hope, Naminé, Olette, and I were already here.

So how many of us are here? Fifteen. And that's a pretty large group of delinquents mind you.

Oh, did I say delinquents? Sorry, I didn't mean to say that. The only delinquent out of all of us is Axel.

"So. . . Where to?"

"I'm kind of hungry," Tidus noted aloud, searching the crowd until his eager eyes met mine.

I sighed dramatically, realizing that a majority of my friends were staring at me with the same, hungry, and eager eyes. "Nope. I'm not paying this time."

"What! ? But Roxas! You pay every time!" Sora whined with that childish whine of his.

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, but not this time. Come on, I'm sure that you all brought money!"

An awkward silence ensued, and then I remembered something: No one except me ever brings money because they're all irresponsible idiots that simply assume that I'll pay for everything that they ever need in life.

"I-I'll pay! I think I have some munny with me," Naminé said, breaking the silence. She searched in her small purse that I hadn't even realized that she was holding, looking for a wallet.

My eyes widened, and my body surged with guilt. I didn't want Naminé to have to pay! I mean, she barely eats anything (I mean, at Panera Bread she barely ordered anything!) and she probably didn't realize that our entire friend group had huge stomachs, not just Kairi, Sora, and I. So even though her order would probably only be thirty munny, everyone else's orders would at least be one-hundred-eighty munny each. That's like. . . twenty-thousand-five-hundred-twenty munny total! Not even counting her order!

It seemed like the rest of the gang realized the same thing that I did.

"Oh, c'mon, Rox. Don't make Naminé pay!"

"Roxie! You can't make Nami pay!"

"I think she only offered because she doesn't understand our eating habits!"

"Are you seriously that stingy about your money! ?"

"Roxas is a meanie. M-E-A-N-I-E, got it memorized?"

"WAIT, can you spell that out again? I didn't catch it."

My life sucks.

I reached over to grab Naminé's arm, forcing her to stop searching her bag for her wallet, and to look up at me instead. "Uh, don't worry about it. I'm paying."

A majority of the group broke out into cheers over the fact that they had ended up getting their way after all, but Naminé refused to accept that. "No, that's not fair. If you say that you pay every time, then it's only fair that somebody else pays for a change."

She seemed to strongly believe this fact, showing that she wouldn't abandon it easily. Most of the others had already begun discussing where and what they wanted to eat, and had already managed to migrate a little to the left, away from Naminé and I. If they weren't too open to discussion, then they were still quiet enough to give Naminé and I space to talk. I half expected Hope to come into the conversation, but it seemed that Axel was now introducing his new apprentice to the group, even though we all already knew who Hope was since we had meant him first. But Axel didn't seem to care too much about that.

"N-No! I was just a little annoyed! I don't mind paying at all, so don't worry about it."

She gave me a skeptic look, and it was obvious that she still wanted to pay for at least part of it. She remained quiet however, as though deep in thought. Eventually, her eyes wandered to her arm that I didn't even realize I was still clutching. My eyes widened, and I quickly released her arm, mumbling an apology. My face had flared up in embarrassment from the contact, though I'm not entirely sure why.

"Okay, fine! We'll both pay for it. We'll split the check in half," she stated with a wide smile.

I attempted to shake the redness from my face away by pretending to flip my hair. I already knew that my hair didn't really flip or anything unless it was wet. It just naturally refused the pull of gravity. "Uh. . . I. . . Wait, no!"

But it was too late since Naminé had already walked over to the group to ask what they wanted to eat, explaining that the two of us would be splitting the check. From what I could see, it seemed that no one in particular refused the idea of splitting the check at all, and I could already hear the loud suggestions of restaurant names. I reminded myself that I was standing alone like a loser, so I slowly wandered back into the discussion.

"How about Olive Garden! I'm totally in the mood for Italian!" Sora exclaimed happily.

But Axel shook his head, "Nope, I'm more in the mood for pizza."

Olette gave Axel a curious look, "Axel. . . Pizza is technically Italian food. You can get some at Olive Garden."

"So? I think that Axel meant that he was in the mood for the unhealthy American kind of pizza, because I am too," Larxene stated dryly, smirking in Axel's direction. Axel smirked right back, and from the way they were looking at each other, it seemed like they were undressing each other with their eyeballs. Did they seriously have to do that in public?

"Okay, so what about a burger joint?"

"Tidus, don't be an idiot. They said that they want pizza, not burgers," Selphie pointed out with slight annoyance.

Tidus huffed and crossed his arms immaturely. "Well, I think that they should just deal with burgers. They're unhealthy and American, too."

And so, the argument about where we should eat began.

I don't even know why I'm friends with these people. I mean, honestly! They fought about where we should eat for over an hour. It was already almost three o'clock!

"Okay, so we've decided for sure? We're definitely going to the Deep Jungle?" I couldn't help but make my voice sound skeptical. I mean, after all, they had been arguing for so long.

It remained silent for a few seconds until everyone started talking at once.

"You know what? I'm not that hungry anymore."

"Me either!"

"Yeah, I think I kind of want to go shopping now."

"Shopping? Oooh! That sounds like fun!"

"I actually don't want a full-blown meal, but I'm still kind of hungry. Can't we all just get some Sea Salt Ice Cream or something at Uncle Scrooge's?"

"Oh, that's a good idea, Hayner!"

"So, I'm not the only one who doesn't want to go anymore?"

"You've got that right!"

"Really? Haha, I thought that if I actually admitted out loud, you'd all kill me!"

I could already feel myself twitching. "Well, Sora. They might not kill you, but I might!"

The eyes of my twin widened considerably, "W-W-Wait, what! ?"

I turned my attention away from Sora so that I could stare at the entire group. "Are you guys seriously not hungry anymore?"

It was silent once more, but everyone in the friend group eventually nodded except Naminé and I. At that moment, I seriously wanted to castrate them all. Well, all of the guys at least. I mean, you can't remove a girl's testicles since they don't. . .

Yeah. You know what I mean.

"Okay, fine. So what do you guys want to do now?" I couldn't stop myself from using such a bitter tone.

"How about we just get some Ice Cream at Uncle Scrooge's? I mean, it seems like Roxas really wants us to eat. . ."

No, Olette. I don't really care whether you guys eat or not, but I'm starving, and we just wasted over an hour of our day fighting over where we were going to eat. "Yeah. I like Olette's idea."

Sora opened his mouth to object, but I immediately shot him a hateful glare. "Yeah! Me too!" He quickly shouted.

That's right, brother dearest. Feel the hatred.

No one really minded walking the extremely long distance to the other side of the Moogle Mall to get to Uncle Scrooge's Ice Cream Parlor. Not even me. I mean, when it comes to ice cream, I'm like a little kid. I swear, ice cream is like my kryptonite. No, actually, it's like everyone's kryptonite. You can't resist ice cream. You just can't.

Well, unless you're lactose intolerant. And if you are, then I am extremely sorry for you.

But alas, my friends have the attention span of a dog. So of course, no one but me was in a rush to get to the Ice Cream Parlor. Everyone else kept insisting on stopping by every single store that had even the slightest interesting display. And surprisingly, I didn't exactly mind this. In fact, I enjoyed stopping by some of the stores. Some of them had some really cool stuff.

Unfortunately, since there was so much cool stuff, everyone wanted to buy something. But remember? No one other than me brought munny. Well, except Naminé. But still. I guess I got all caught up in it since I ended up buying something for everybody. I mean, everyone insisted that they would pay me back, but knowing them?

I'd never be getting my munny back. Ever.

Axel and Larxene insisted on stopping by Spencer's. It's sort of this store that's basically full of humor stuff. They have all kinds of gag gifts and stuff. But it's also an adult store. You know, meaning that they sell adult kind of stuff in there. I was scared that they'd make me buy something perverted and gross, but surprisingly, they refrained from that.

Out of all the disgusting things in the store (they sold pole dancing kits), I ended up just buying them matching bracelets of marijuana that said "LEGALIZE IT" across. They were only sixty munny each, so like I said, not bad.

But of course, Axel insisted that we get Hope something from the store too since Hope was his new apprentice. So for a second there, I actually thought that Axel was being kind and thoughtful, so I gave him the one hundred munny to buy something for Hope too.

But I of course, was wrong. Oh, so very wrong.

The pyromaniac bought Hope a pink wristband that said, "BITCH" on it, and borrowed a Sharpie from the worker to change it up so that it would say, "AXEL'S BITCH" on it.

I felt absolutely terrible.

Of course, pretty much everyone else found it hilarious. Hope, being the kind, gentlemanly person that he is, forced a smile and accepted the gift. And when Axel told him to put it on, the younger boy didn't complain. He simply forced another smile, stated a simple, "Axel. I hate you. I hope that you cut off your dick in your sleep," and slipped the thing on.

Axel, of course, took this as a compliment, and simply hugged the boy and said, "YES! YOU'RE LEARNING!"

Selphie of course dragged Kairi into the nearest designer store they could find, which ended up being an Abercrombie and Fitch.

Okay, I have nothing against Abercrombie and Fitch, other than the fact that that place is freaking expensive. And that's what I had told Selphie. Unfortunately for me, she started yelling about how I was being so mean to Kairi because she was depressed and I wasn't offering to buy her anything like a gentleman would.

Kairi of course, was too busy being depressed to argue with her.

Needless to say, I ended up buying Kairi a white "Kylie" jacket that cost me three-hundred-sixty munny. We were about to leave the store, but then Selphie found this perfume that she absolutely adored called Perfume 41. Honestly, you'd think that since Abercrombie and Fitch was such an elite, expensive store, they'd be more creative with names, but I guess not.

I wasn't going to buy it for her. Hell no. It was four-hundred munny for one ounce. That's just outrageous!

But then she started making me feel bad for her, and she kept reading the description of the perfume over and over again. All the way to the point that I ended up memorizing the stupid description:

"His number is better on you! Full of intricate complexity, 41 is fresh and floral with a soft and feminine sensuality. An addictive scent that entices the spirit, making you feel confident and beautiful! Warm and seductive—like a long kiss on a cool night. No one can deny that 41 was made for the woman who's not afraid to be sexy."

And then Selphie started going on about how the perfume was a perfect description of her, and that it was practically made for her. Then she pointed out that there was only one bottle left, so she wouldn't be able to come back and get it later. . .

So yeah. I ended up buying it for her.

Hayner, Olette, Demyx, Riku, and Xion wanted to stop by Hot Topic. The store specializes in its namesake. The current hot topics. It has all this stuff from music, and bands, and pop culture, and all that good stuff.

Xion wanted these plush headphones that had panda ears attached. So when you put them on, they make you have panda ears. Honestly, I thought it was kind of stupid. But then Selphie and Naminé started gushing about how cute it was, and Xion gave me these puppy dog eyes, and I figured that if I spent four-hundred munny on an ounce of Selphie's perfume, then I could definitely spare two-hundred-seventy munny to buy Xion her panda headphones.

Hayner and Riku found this life-sized cardboard cutout of Justin Bieber. Did they want it? Yes. Do they like Justin Bieber? Hell no. What were they going to do with it? I was too scared to ask. Did I end up buying it for them? Yes. I mean, it was only three-hundred-fifty munny, and if it satisfied the two of them, then it was a pretty good deal.

Out of all the cool things in the store, all Olette wanted was a notebook. Then again, it was a pretty cool notebook. It was one of those Harry Potter notebooks that had the insignia of the "Deathly Hallows" on it, whatever that was supposed to be. I wasn't going to buy it for her as revenge for calling me delusional this morning, but then she guilt-tripped me. Shocker, right? She was all, "But Roxas! You know that my dream is to become a famous author one day! You're crushing my dreams by not getting this for me! I thought you were my friend!" and all that mumbo jumbo.

So, I spent one-hundred-seventy munny on that.

Demyx really wanted this CD called "Blood on The Dance Floor- All the Rage," and I guess he felt rude asking me for munny (Axel had probably told him not to bring any munny since I usually end up paying for everything) since he probably doesn't consider us very close, but I felt bad for him. He kept staring at it the entire time we were at the store. And since it was only ninety munny, I got it for him.

Pence and Tidus said that they didn't want anything, but when they said that, I automatically figured that it meant that they were going to want extra ice cream at Uncle Scrooge's.

It was Sora that was a little eager to buy something, too. Unlike the others who shopped at more "mature" places, Sora wanted to shop at a pretty. . . "immature" place.

"I want to go to Wonderland!"

The fourteen of us looked at Sora in confusion. Wonderland was a toy store. He was seventeen. What did he want to buy there?

It was Riku who spoke. "Come on, Sora. A toy store? What are you going to buy there?"

Sora frowned and shrugged, "I'm not sure, I haven't looked yet."

Tidus rolled his eyes, "C'mon Sora. You can just get extra ice cream at Uncle Scrooge's. That's what I'm doing!"

I knew it.

But Sora merely shook his head. "I want to go to the toy store! C'mon Kai—"

Kairi, who had been admiring her shoes, immediately looked up as the first syllable of her name left Sora's mouth. There was a kind of hopeful look on her features, and I felt really bad when Sora's eyes widened and he cut himself off, automatically turning away from her. It wasn't long until the hopeful expression on her face was gone.

"I-I change my mind. Let's just go to Uncle Scrooge's. . ."

Sora looked utterly defeated, and it wasn't long until Naminé's eyebrows knit together in mild worry. "W-Wait! No, I want to go to the toy store."

We all looked at her in mild confusion, but she suddenly looked extremely serious.

"Um. . . Okay, Naminé," I said, somewhat skeptically. I would have thought that she would've wanted art supplies or something, but apparently not. I walked towards her slowly, but before I got to her, she immediately turned to Sora.

"Sora, do you want to come in, too? Please?"

Sora looked at her curiously, before a smile ended up on his face. "Sure, Nams. Whatever you want!"

I couldn't stop myself from smiling as I trailed after them into the toy store.

Inside, it was like a little kid's wonderland, which is probably where it got its name. The shelves were packed with toys of all kinds. Stuffed animals, action figures, dolls, pretty much everything.

As soon as Sora entered the store, he dashed towards one of the aisles further to the back, exiting my view, and probably Naminé's too. I turned to look at the shorter girl beside me, who had made no move to look at anything in the store at all. "Nami, aren't you going to look around? You said you wanted to stop by the toy store. . ."

She looked up at me and smiled timidly. "I actually didn't really want to buy anything here. . . It seemed like Sora just didn't want to be the only one to go alone. I figured that Kairi would want to go in with him, but since he isn't talking to her, I thought that if I. . ."

I felt my mouth shape into a small "o". So she pretty much just did this for Sora's sake. "So you mean, you don't want me to buy you anything?"

She frowned slightly, "No, that's a little rude, don't you think?"

I simply shrugged. "Not really. I wouldn't mind buying you something."

A surprised smile replaced the frown on her lips, "Really? For me?"

I smiled back, "Yeah, why not? Come on, maybe there's something we can find for you." I didn't wait for her to respond as I grabbed her hand, and rushed into the toy store.

And then it dawned on me that I had grabbed her hand, and so I felt my face turn bright red as I let her go. I turned around to apologize for being so abrupt, but found her face was as bright as mine. "I. . . Um. . ."

"Uh. . .How about the stuffed animals then?"

I nodded quickly, "Yeah. . ."

I followed her off to the stuffed animals section, and it seemed like they had every cute animal known to man on those shelves. And that's a lot of stuffed animals. She immediately picked up a light pink bunny, similar to the one that she was holding in my room. She smiled widely at it, before hugging it close to her chest.

"I see you like rabbits?"

Naminé stopped nuzzling the toy rabbit to look up at me with a light giggle, "Yeah, they're my favorite animal."

I smiled, before pulling out my wallet and gesturing for her to hand it over. She shot me a curious look, but she was still giggling. "Here, I'll buy it for you." As I waited for her to give me the object, I began to mentally count how much munny I had left. One munny, two munny. . .

Her eyes widened, and she quickly shook her head and set it back down on the shelf. "No, no. I'm okay," she insisted, "It only reminded me of something, so I—"

"OHMYGAWD, ROXAS, THEY SELL POKÉBALLS!"

"Sir, you can't climb the shelves like that! We have ladd—"

BOOM!

I smiled apologetically at Naminé. "Uh, I think I have to go help my brother."

Even though I wanted to buy her the rabbit, I couldn't help but be thankful that my brother had caused a distraction.

I had come to the mall today with two-thousand munny.

I was only faintly surprised to see that I only had ten left.

"Sora, how do you manage to topple over an entire row of shelves in a toy store?"

My brother frowned, holding the icepack closer to his head, "I was trying to get the pokéballs. . . "

Riku facepalmed himself. "Only you, Sora."

Naminé couldn't stop herself from giggling at my brother. "Pokéballs, Sora? That's why you wanted to go to the toy store?"

My brother continued his childish pout. "Don't be a hater, Nam. We all know that Pokémon are freaking awesome."

The rest of us couldn't help but laugh at his statement.

"LOOK! IT'S UNCLE SCROOGE'S!"

Indeed, Tidus. Indeed it is.

I tried to act as mature as possible about my excitement for the ice cream store, but I found that I just couldn't stop myself. With a single childish squeal of excitement, I bounded for the Ice Cream Parlor. I heard the ringing laughter behind me, before I heard the pounding that meant that my friends were chasing after me too. Or at least, a good amount of them. Selphie and Kairi probably weren't running, and I couldn't see Naminé running eith—

I stand corrected.

In the glass of one of the shops I passed, I saw the petite blonde running after me, followed by a discombobulated mess of Tidus, Pence, Hayner (it seems he had forced Riku to carry their giant Justin Bieber), Olette, Xion, Axel (who was still dragging poor Hope along behind him), Larxene, Demyx, and Sora (who was desperately trying to sprint while clutching the icepack to his head). I couldn't stop myself from closing my eyes and enjoying the moment, letting out a loud, carefree laugh while I was at it.

But closing my eyes seemed to be my downfall.

I felt myself collide into someone, and I heard a loud rustling of papers.

My eyes immediately opened just in time to watch me and the older female that I had bumped into fall to the ground, both of us on our butts. It seems that she was passing out neon orange fliers, but the impact of me running into her caused her to send all of the fliers high up into the air. I felt the shock set in. Holy crap, if I was going to be a proper gentleman, I'd have to pick up all these fliers, and there's like a million of them. I forced the thought away from my mind, and stood up. I walked over to the woman I knocked over, and reached out my hand to help her up, while smiling apologetically, "I-I'm sorry. . ."

She looked up at me with kind, blue eyes that matched the color of her hair, but the kindness in them was immediately replaced by shock as she stared at me. "VEN! ?"

I frowned. Ven? What's a 'Ven'?

Before I could ask her though, she continued scolding me, which only led me to believe that this 'Ven' was actually another person. "What are you doing here! ? You're supposed to still be at the Land of Departure! Ventus, you better have a good explanation."

Ven. . .tus? The name rings a bell. . .

Hope simply shrugged again, "These two college kids. I think their names were Ventus and Vanitas. . ."

Vanitas turned to look at me too, his glare intensifying. And that was when I realized it. This was the first time that he even glanced at me, ever since I entered the Gym. "AND YOU! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU TOLD THE MANAGER THAT VENTUS AND I ROBBED THAT FREAKING PANERA BREAD!"

My eyes widened in sudden realization, and I desperately shook her head in a lame attempt to get her to understand me, "N-No! You don't understand! I'm not Ventus, I'm—"

"Roxas! Are you alright! ?"

"Aqua, what happened! ?"

I turned around from the chorus of voices behind me to see that my friends had finally caught up to me, and that a woman who seemed to be around the same age as the blue-haired lady I had knocked down (whose name I could only assume was Aqua) but with a shock of pink hair was running towards me, a tall, young man with spiky brown hair close behind her.

Hope had turned around too apparently, because he spotted the newcomers just as quickly as I did. "Lightning?"

The woman with the pink hair (whom I assumed was Lightning) skidded to a stop beside him and blinked in mild confusion, before turning her eyes to Hope. "Hope? What are you doing here?"

Axel immediately let go of Hope's wrist, a somewhat worried expression on his face. I found this incredibly shocking, since seeing Axel actually look genuinely worried was a rare occurrence. He looked between Hope and Lightning quickly, before finally letting out a concerned, "You two know each other?"

There was a slight smile on Lightning's face, but as soon as she heard Axel's voice, it was immediately dropped and quickly whipped her head towards him. "Axel! ?"

Axel's eyes widened and he gave Hope a desperate look. Hope on the other hand merely furrowed his eyebrows in mild confusion, but said nothing, much to Axel's disappointment. Unlike the usual bright blue eyes I was used to seeing, Lightning's eyes were an extremely pale shade, and if I hadn't looked at them closer, I would've assumed that they were gray. She looked at Axel suspiciously, before stepping in front of Hope protectively, "I swear, Axel, if you do anything to corrupt my brother, I will kill you."

Axel looked stunned for a second before a playful smirk came onto his features, "You wouldn't literally kill me, right?"

The intense glare on her features was the only response she gave him, and the seriousness in it was enough to get Axel to shrink behind Larxene, making his blonde girlfriend roll her eyes.

I frowned, "Wait, you and Hope are brother and sister?"

Lightning looked at me for a second, before seemingly spotting someone else in the crowd that she recognized (and ignoring my question), "Naminé? Naminé Soto?"

Naminé smiled timidly before making a slight step forward. "Hey, Light. . . Long time no see, huh?"

The smile returned to Lightning's face as she hugged the younger girl. "I know Hope said that you had come to Twilight Town, too, but I hadn't actually believed it. . ."

Hope furrowed his brows and huffed, "Thanks for having so much faith in me, Light."

The man that had come behind Lightning seemed to have already helped Aqua up, and interrupted the reunion just before it got to its climax. "Aqua, are you alright?"

Aqua had already begun dusting herself off, but looked up at the man to smile. "Oh, nothing really. I just sort of tripped. . ."

I couldn't help but smile at the fact that she was obviously covering me, and shot her a grin as my thanks. She smiled back and nodded, which I could only assume meant that she had accepted my gratitude. "Uh, can you help me clean this up, Terra?"

I felt a twinge of guilt hit me instantly. I mean, it was technically my fault for not looking where I was going in the first place. . . The least I could do was help. "Oh, uh. . . I can help, too!"

It seemed like suddenly, it was "Let's help these random strangers clean up all these obnoxiously colored fliers!" time, and a majority of my friends volunteered themselves to help too.

"Hey, I don't mind helping either!"

"Yeah, same!"

"Me, too!"

"Count me in!"

"Don't forget me!"

Lightning turned to look at Axel, somehow managing to catch his gaze while he was cowering behind his girlfriend. There was still a minute glare on her face, but it wasn't as intense as before. "Aren't you going to volunteer to help, too?"

Axel smiled apologetically, before half-heartedly pumping his fist and shouting in a strained voice, "You got it, Light!"

Lightning glared at him more. "Don't call me that."

Axel squeaked before stepping out from behind Larxene and sloppily saluting her, "Yes ma'am!"

Lightning did nothing but roll her eyes in annoyance.

While we were cleaning, I discovered a lot about what was really going on here. Basically, I found out a lot more about these newcomers that I had just met. Courtesy of Naminé, of course. I ended up spending a majority of my time picking up fliers with her today. She really is an interesting girl. Before she started telling me what she knew about the newbies, we teased Sora about the ever-growing knot that seemed to be forming atop his head, convinced Riku to not destroy his gigantic Justin Bieber cutout by smashing it through Hayner's head, annoyed Axel to the point that he started screaming like a banshee which only made Lightning glare at him some more, which resulted in Axel freaking out and scrambling to apologize, and laughed our heads off for a majority of the forty-five minutes that it took to clean up the fliers.

I never thought I could laugh so hard in one day.

Though she was first a creepily quiet girl that seemed to be scared to say anything more than two words to me, it turns out that she's a huge loudmouth. Well, maybe not as much as Sora, or quite frankly, anyone else in the friend group, but. . .

Okay, she's not a loudmouth. But she's cool, and I like her. A lot.

Oh! But I mean, not in that kind of way! I mean in the way that I want to get to know her better!

. . . Haha, duh.

Anyway, it turns out that the "Land of Departure" is the name of an Orphanage. It's a weird name for one though, isn't it? Anyway, it's where Terra, Ventus, Aqua, and Vanitas spend a majority of their spare time. I found this as a huge shock since I couldn't see Vanitas as anything but a crazy Mafia Bass, but apparently, the four of them were orphans there and had never gotten adopted. So when they became eighteen, the four of them rented out an apartment together. But they still visit the Orphanage as much as they can, because they've apparently bonded with a bunch of the younger kids there. Touching story, is it not?

At first, I was somewhat surprised as to how Naminé knew so much about them, but she told me that Olette told her. And that I could understand. Olette volunteers at the Orphanage a lot, so it's not really a surprise that she would know a good amount about her fellow volunteers. What was surprising was the fact that Aqua lives in an apartment with three boys. Dude. She has my utter respect.

And it t turns out that Hope and Lightning aren't actually related. Well, by blood anyway. It turns out that Lightning's family had adopted Hope when he was only four. Naminé didn't get into too much detail, but she did say that Lightning was very protective of Hope, and had been campaigning against her parents for Hope to live with her and study in Twilight Town. Apparently, Hope had left without saying goodbye to Naminé, which is why she was so surprised that he had come to Twilight Town, too.

There were so many questions that I wanted to ask her: Was there a reason he left without saying goodbye to you? You seem kind of bitter about it. Were you two fighting? About what? Where did you guys come from that was so bad that Lightning actually wanted to campaign for Hope to come here?

Unfortunately, my gut feeling told me that if I asked anything like that, the conversation would just go downhill from there, and Naminé would get all awkward around me. I definitely didn't want that, not when I was just starting to realize how awesome she actually she was.

And so, I forced myself to avoid it.

I did find out that the reason Axel and Lightning and Aqua and Terra and Ventus and Vanitas all knew each other. It was because they all attended the same college, Twilight Town University. Axel and Larxene went to the same one, too, but for some reason, they didn't know the others as well as Axel did. But like me, Naminé had no idea why Axel and Lightning's relationship was so awkward.

Still, if Lightning scares Axel as much as she does, I have a feeling that I don't want to get too close to her. Either that, or Axel's just a complete screw-up that did something absolutely stupid to get someone to hate him.

And knowing Axel, it could go either ways.

"All done!" Xion chirruped merrily, turning my attention upwards towards her.

The others had probably already begun migrating back towards where I had first bumped into Aqua. We had all ended up scattering ourselves throughout the mall, promising Aqua, Lightning, and Terra that we would help them retrieve all the fallen papers. Since the Moogle Mall is two stories, and I had just happened to bump into Aqua on the second story, some of the fliers had been scattered onto the bottom level too. I didn't think it was that big of a deal to pick them all up, but Terra had explained that the one condition to allowing them to pass out fliers at the mall was that they weren't allowed to litter. So apparently, even when they had finished up for the day, they'd have to wander around the mall and pick up all the fliers that people had ungraciously discarded.

They were all obviously dedicated to whatever cause they were supporting by passing out the bright orange papers.

I was shaken out of my reverie when Naminé gently tugged my shirtsleeve, lightly gesturing for me to walk with her as we traveled back to our rendezvous point. I guess we had been goofing off more than I had thought since we each were only holding about half an inch worth of fliers. "That felt like forever, didn't it? To be honest, I'm kind of sad that it's over, even though I'm really happy at the same time too. . ."

Part of me wanted to smile at her innocent honesty, while the other part wanted to be worried that she was sad. Since I was unhappy with either of the two choices, I decided to just give her a curious look instead. "Why sad? Even though it's taken us over four hours to get to a freaking Ice Cream Parlor, Uncle Scrooge's ice cream is definitely worth it. You should try his Sea Salt Ice Cream, it's absolutely heavenly! And I mean, we're still going, so you don't have to worry about that either."

Naminé giggled, her blue eyes twinkling. "No, silly. I wasn't upset because I thought that we wouldn't be getting ice cream anymore!"

I felt a small frown tug at the edges of my lips, "Oh. Then why did you say you were kind of sad?"

Her face immediately flushed a bright red, much to my surprise. "I-It's nothing. . ."

My frown deepened, and I stepped in front of her, making sure that she couldn't escape the question. "Aw, c'mon, Nams. You can't bring something up like that, and then refuse to tell me about it! That's like cheating!"

Looking back, I'm astounded at myself. I sounded so whiny. Almost as bad as Sora! Almost. Gee, I guess it really was an out of character moment for me, huh?

"Who said we were playing a game?" Though her face was still light pink in color, she managed to cross her arms playfully.

I couldn't stop myself from rolling my eyes, a slow smirk threatening to appear on my face as another (probably horrible) pun came to mind. "Of course we're playing a game. The game of life." She giggled once more, managing to step around me while I soaked in the fact that someone had actually laughed at one of my horrible puns. It didn't take long until I caught up to her once more, continuing to pester her to get the answer to my question. "Seriously, Nami. Why can't you tell me?"

If you thought I was being childish and Sora-like before, I have to warn you that it got worse. But just a little bit. I mean, I am Roxas after all. I have no intention of sinking down to Sora's level. (Sora, I really hope that you're seriously not telepathic and secretly hearing these thoughts right now)

I allowed a childish pout to appear on my features, which only made Naminé giggle even harder.

"Tell me!"

She quickly shook her head, and I was only slightly surprised to find that her cheeks were still a rosy pink color.

"Nammykins!"

She stifled a giggle, but still shook her head before turning her head away from my direction to avoid looking at me.

I quickly walked to her other side, "Come on, Naminé!"

She shook her head again and turned away, but I saw the playful smile that was still dancing on her lips. I stepped in front of her once more, dropped my stack of papers, and grabbed her shoulders. Her eyes widened at the sudden contact, and probably at the fact that we would have to pick up all those papers again. I'm not entirely sure what it was, but something in me was so desperately eager to hear what was making her upset. "Please, Naminé?"

Her cheeks flushed even more, and her bright blue eyes tried to look anywhere but at me. It seemed that she realized that I really was the only thing there was to look at since I was blocking everything else, and she clutched her stack of papers closer to her chest before quickly looking downward, the only place where she wouldn't have to look at me.

I'm not entirely sure what possessed me to do this next. Seriously. Maybe it was the fact that I hadn't eaten for about seven or eight hours and I was going slightly crazy. Maybe it was because just that curious to find out what was bothering her. Maybe it was because Sora's random and usually bold actions were beginning to rub off on me. Or maybe Olette was right, and I am going slightly delusional. I seriously have no idea.

But I let go of her right shoulder, and used my hand to tilt her head up, forcing her to look at me. "Naminé. . . Please?"

If it was possible, her face became even redder, and her eyes seemed to search my face for something. It was only a matter of seconds before she finally cracked, "Okay, fine. . . I just. . . Even though we spent a majority of these past few hours doing the weirdest, randomest things. . . I. . . Feel like. . . It made me happy, getting to spend all this time with you, and we're probably going to end up going home soon, and I just. . . I didn't want it to end. . . I. . . Had a lot of fun with you, Roxas."

I felt my eyes widen in surprise. I hadn't expected her to say that. Immediately, I felt the heat rush up to my face, and I felt my left arm fall from her shoulder. Her face as red as ever, Naminé turned her head away from me again, her hair obscuring a majority of her face from my view.

We stood awkwardly like that for what felt like ages. Honestly, I was at a loss of words as to what I should say to that. I wanted to say something like, "Don't worry, it's not like we can't hang out again another time!" or, "Don't be sad about that, I promise that there will always be time to hang out again like this." I'd even be happy if I managed just to say a simple, "Me too." But being the idiot I am when I get into situations like this, I found that I could only stumble around my words. "I. . . Uhh. . . I mean. . ."

It seemed that Naminé had already turned back to look at me though, a wide smile on her face and her previous blush gone. "Thanks, Roxas."

I managed to smile back at her, and before I knew it, she was giving me a huge hug. Since I wasn't expecting it, I felt my face redden some more before I awkwardly hugged her back. "N-No. . . I. . . Uh. . . It's not a big deal. . ."

She pulled away from me, a faint blush on her cheeks and the smile still gracing her features, before stepping around me, and continuing to walk towards our rendezvous point.

I blinked in slight confusion, before shaking myself out of my daze. "Hey, Naminé! Where are you going! ?"

She turned her whole body around to face me, and began walking backwards. "I'm going back to meet up with the rest of the gang. You seem to have dropped some fliers." She giggled, before turning back around, and dashing off to the rendezvous point.

I forced myself to look downwards at the mess I had made. Lucky for me, the air conditioning didn't seem to make most of the fliers fly away, and in fact, most of them ended up strewn around the same area.

Still. . . it was work.

I let out a sigh, letting myself glance once more in the direction that Naminé had run off in, before picking up the papers that I had let fall.

Come on, Roxas. . . Remember the ice cream! I kept reminding myself the same thing over in over in attempt to get myself to move faster, but I couldn't help like there was a slightly bigger reason as to why I wanted to get back to my friends.

Of course, I had no idea what it was.

Eventually I had made my way back near the front of the Ice Cream Parlor. I had expected all of my friends to have immediately dashed into the store to stuff as much ice cream as was humanly possible into their mouths, but I guess I was wrong. In fact, a majority of my friends seemed to actually be waiting for me.

And that right there immediately made me curious.

Larxene, Axel, Hope, Demyx, Sora, Hayner, Tidus, Olette, Kairi, Selphie, and Xion were all discussing something outside the shop, but Naminé, Pence, and Riku were nowhere to be found, so I could only assume that they had gone inside the store. Aqua, Lightning, and Terra weren't around either, but it seemed like everyone was rid of their fliers already except me (and the single one that Axel was holding), so the trio had probably migrated into the ice cream shop, too.

"Uh. . . You guys? Aren't we going to get the ice cream now?"

The group immediately looked up at me, and for once, all of their faces showed that they were having a pretty intense conversation.

"Roxas! Roxas would totally want to do it!"

I frowned at my twin's voice, "Um. . . Do what?"

Hayner rolled his eyes. "Come on, Roxas. Don't tell me that you spent all that time collecting fliers that you didn't even take the time to at least read one."

I blinked, realizing that in fact, I hadn't taken the time to actually read one. Hayner sighed, realizing what I had. "Okay, well read one. It'll get you caught up."

I nodded slowly, curiosity beginning to take over me. I looked downward at the fliers that I was carrying, and commenced reading.

100,000 MUNNY OPPORTUNITY!
YOU, DON'T WANT TO MISS THIS!

Are you musically inclined?
Do you feel like you could make it in the big leagues?

Well, HERE'S YOUR CHANCE!

The Land of Departure Orphanage will be hosting their first ever BATTLE OF THE BANDS! Sponsored by THE ORGANIZATION!

First Place Winners: 100,000 Munny! AND a RECORD DEAL! AND a World-To-World Cruise!
Second Place Winners: 10,000 Munny! AND a World-To-World Cruise!
Third Place winners: 5,000 Munny!

HURRY AND SIGN UP NOW! SPOTS ARE LIMITED!

CONTACT MISTER ERAQUS AT 456-7890!

OR

CONTACT MISTER XEMNAS AT 000-0001!

I couldn't help but blink in surprise. One-hundred-thousand munny! ?

"I had heard a rumor about this at the orphanage, but I haven't visited in a while, so I didn't realize that they were actually going through with it!"Olette said, obvious surprise in her voice.

Axel merely shrugged, "Technically, I'm part of the organization. So I already knew about it."

Demyx nodded in agreement while Larxene only rolled her eyes, "Riiight. I forgot that you were 'Number Eight.' And what about you Demyx? 'Number Nine,' aren't you?" She simply scoffed, "I think that the whole thing is kind of stupid."

Axel rolled his eyes, "You can't really talk, Larx. You've just started your initiation, haven't you? 'Number Twelve.'"

She didn't respond, and I took it as my opportunity to ask a question, "What is The Organization anyway?"

Demyx simply sighed, "It's this college group at Twilight Town University for the 'elite.' It's headed by these rich guys, Xemnas, Xigbar, and Xaldin. A lot of people are against the group, and I honestly have no idea how I even got in."

I nodded slowly, "Okay, so what's the big deal about this flier? I still don't get it." Okay, actually I did get it. I had a huge feeling that I knew where this was getting to, but I didn't want to point it out.

Sora simply guffawed at me, "Come on, Roxas! Don't you get it! ? We at least have some musical talent. We should totally enter!"

I knew it.

I let out a sigh, "Sora, we don't have enough members for a band."

He shook his head, obviously very excited about this idea, "No way! Hope is really good on the piano, so he can be our keyboard player, and Hayner plays the bass in our school's Jazz Band! And Jazz Band is audition-only, so he must be amazing! And Tidus, too! He plays drums! Plus, me and you? We're pretty good at guitar. And we can sing! We can switch between lead vocals and lead guitar!"

I stared at him thoughtfully, before glancing at Kairi. She was still here, maybe she'd want to do vocals. . . She is an amazing singer after all. . . "How about we get Kairi on lead vocals?"

Sora looked at me with a mixture of shock and horror, while Kairi looked at me with a mixture of hope and surprise. "M-Me?"

I smiled back at her, "Yeah, you. You'd be great! We'd totally win if we had your voice!"

A small smile graced Kairi's features, and she slowly nodded. "I-I'd love to do it!"

But Sora shook his head desperately, "No!"

The smile had disappeared from Kairi's features, and I shot an exasperated look at my brother, "Well, why the hell not? Give me one reason why we shouldn't have Kairi in our band."

Sora seemed to struggle to think of one, "W-We can't all be guys, and then randomly have a female lead singer! It's weird!"

I easily shook my head and rebutted him, "Paramore. All guys, female lead singer. One of the most successful bands ever."

He frowned, and struggled to think of another one, "Uh. . . It would make practicing harder if we had a girl on our team!"

I looked at him curiously. I mean, that was one of the lamest excuses ever, "Sora, don't be stupid. It wouldn't make a difference. We all hang out together anyway without a hitch."

His frown deepened, "I. . . I. . ."

Hayner looked at him with confusion, and so did Tidus and Hope. "I think that having Kairi is a great idea. What's the big problem?"

"Yeah! Kairi's going to be famous, and we can help her out!"

"I think that it would be cool to have Kairi in the band."

I couldn't help but smirk at my fellow "band-mates" for agreeing with me. "So, Sora? What's the big deal?"

There was a mixture of desperate anger on his face, as he blurt out, "I just don't want Kairi in our band! I don't want to have to see her every time we practice! I don't want to have to spend more time than I have to, hanging out with her!"

An awkward silence settled throughout the group. We all knew that Sora was having some sort of issue with Kairi, even though he insisted that everything between them was just fine. But still. . . no one had expected him to say something so. . . mean. Slowly, we all turned our gazes to Kairi to see how she would react. The auburn-haired girl's lip was quivering madly, and it was obvious that she was desperately trying to hold back her tears. It didn't take long for her to crack though, and she burst into tears as she ran off.

"Kairi, wait!" Selphie screeched, darting off after her best friend.

Xion and Olette looked at each other, expressions of worry on each of their faces. They simply nodded at each other, before running after Kairi, too.

I turned towards my brother, anger evident on my face, "What the hell, dude! ? What's your big problem! ?"

To my surprise, Sora looked absolutely broken. He had collapsed onto the floor, and was currently just sitting there. He himself looked shocked at the words that he just said. "I. . .I just. . ."

Larxene growled at my older twin, "You idiot. I understand if you're having a fight, but it's obvious that you being angry with her is just a huge façade. Grow some balls, and apologize, you stupid lowlife."

Sora seemed to break even more at her words, and he hung his head down in shame. Larxene simply scoffed at his movement, before stomping off in the general direction that Kairi had run off.

"Larxene, wait! Where are you going?"

The blonde-haired college student spun around to face her boyfriend. "Well. If that idiot refuses to let her join his stupid band, then I'm going to get her, and we'll make our own band."

Axel's jaw dropped. "But, Larxene! Members of The Organization aren't allowed to enter the contest!"

Larxene simply narrowed her eyes at him. "I'm not officially part of The Organization, now am I?" When Axel said nothing, she simply shook her head. "Don't think too much into it. I'm going to fix this."

And with that, she dashed off after the rest of the girls.

The rest of us were at a loss for words. But still, one question lingered on all of our tongues: Just what was Larxene planning to fix? And how did she intend to do it?

Not so far away from all this commotion, a blonde haired girl in a white dress laughed along with her newfound friends. She was absolutely oblivious to all the drama that was beginning to unfold not even a mile away. In fact, she felt worriless. Absolutely free. She felt like she could just jump up and fly. She hadn't felt this happy in a long time.

She was only mildly concerned when the rest of her friends never showed up to eat ice cream. In fact, she sensed that there was a sort of tension between all of them. And the thought pained her. Still, she paid the bill for the rest of her friends, choosing to believe another blonde's words. Albeit, this blonde was a boy with gravity-defying spikes and a smile that charmed the girl. But the girl knew his secret. The smile that he continued to smile wasn't a real one. In fact, it was absolutely fake. She longed to see his true smile, picturing it to be something of pure happiness, but she knew that it would be a long time before she, let alone the rest of his friends, would be allowed to see it.

"Don't worry, everything's going to be alright. It's not a big deal."

Still, it was hard to believe him when the falseness of his smile was so obvious to her. It was clear that there was something that he was hiding. But she didn't intend to pry, and so she decided not to bring it up.

The girl was surprised when she saw her dear cousin once more. Instead of looking absolutely depressed as she usually did, she seemed to have gained some sort of newfound strength. A little bit of her former confidence was back, and there was a tint of the old sparkle back in her eyes. She was indeed extremely curious as to what she had missed, and as to what had made her cousin's formal resolve come back, even though it was just by a little bit.

"I'm in a band now, Nami. I think I'm actually kind of excited. . ."

The girl had smiled widely at her cousin before pulling into a long hug.

It was quite late when the girl arrived back home. She was extremely tired, but she still felt a small form of guilt for not completing her project today at the blonde boy's house. She would stop by and finish it tomorrow. She promised herself that she would.

She changed into her pajamas, and crawled into her borrowed bed. The dim light in the room seemed to be somewhat melancholy, and the girl allowed a sad smile to appear on her face as she remained sitting up. She reached around her neck to unclasp the familiar locket that she had worn since her departure of that place. When the job was done, she rubbed the engraved words and design on it affectionately, the smile disappearing, and a look of pure sadness taking place on her features.

The girl carefully opened the locket, not wanting to break the precious object accidentally.

The right side of the locket was still blank, but on the left side was a picture of a beautiful woman with long, golden hair. She was kissing the cheek of a young child with the same golden hair, a smile dancing on her lips. It was obvious in the picture that the young girl was laughing.

Naminé clutched the locket tighter in her hand, closing her eyes as the tears began to stream down her face.

Mother? I don't know if you can hear me, but today I had fun. I haven't for a long time now, but. . . Still.

Mother? I was actually happy today. And this time, I wasn't pretending. I think it was the best day that I've had for a while. . .

Yet, Kairi's so sad, mother. I'm not sure what I can do to help her. I feel wrong feeling so happy when it's obvious that she's hurting so much inside. . . But I think it's getting better. She seemed a little happier at the end of the day. . .

And mother? There's this boy. . . I'm sure you'd like him a lot. He's so sweet, and kind, and he's a good friend. But I think that he's hurting inside, too. I want to help, but I'm not sure how. . .

Mother? I miss you, and I love you.

Please. . . Please be alright.

A Wishful Thought: Dang. I'm not sure how to feel about this chapter. The length made it seem dragging didn't it? Still, I'm proud I was able to write this much. XD

Though it's a little lame, I feel like I finally got the whole stage set for what's going to happen. I think. XD

I just want everyone to know now, Battle of the Bands is not that important to the story. Lol, it'll tie in later. (:

I was planning to throw in more Namixas, but I'm starting to find that I suck when it comes to writing about growing romantic relationships. Ah well, I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually. XP

I don't intend to ramble too much here, so if you'd like to hear (or rather, read) my full thoughts on the chapter, just go to:

Wishfulhopes(dot)wordpress(dot)com [remove the (dot)s and replace them with actual periods. XP]

There are probably a good amount of typos in this chapter, so please feel free to point them out to me so that I can correct myself. :)

Next Time: The Battle of the Bands has begun, and band names shall be revealed! :D Haha, I think that some people might be able to figure out the name of Sora and Roxas' band. I sort of gave it away. ;D Not sure if anyone caught it though. And maybe some other things may pop up. We'll see how it goes. ;D

Please review! I'd love to hear your opinions! :D