Thank you all again for the lovely reviews! Here's a (kind of) faster update for you all! We're over halfway through the story now - getting exciting! Enjoy!

x-x-x

Namine stepped into her evening ballet class with renewed vigour. Her talk with Sora had shifted something within her, and she could see her situation more clearly now, as if an onlooker watching the situation. She felt her priorities shifting back to what she loved most - her dancing, and her wonderful friends.

Selphie waved to the blonde as she entered the large dance hall. She seemed over-excited as usual. "Nam, Nam! Apparently Miss Stella has some big news!"

"Really?" Namine perked up as she put her ballet shoes on, already feeling her good fortune turning around. "I wonder what it is. Oh, I hope she's not pregnant! She's the best teacher we've ever had, she can't leave!"

Selphie shook her head with a giggle. "Miss Stella doesn't even have a boyfriend!"

Before they could debate any longer, the blonde teacher came out of the office with a big smile on her face. The girls quickly stood in a straight line. Selphie was bouncing on her heels in excitement, looking over at Namine and smiling widely. Namine swore she'd had an extra pound of sugar today.

"Okay girls, I have some great news today!" She wore a knowing grin and watched the girls gasp with excitement. "I've been watching you all very closely and I've been very impressed with your progress this year. I've decided that your class is ready..." She paused for theatrics, and Selphie let out a shriek. "... to move onto pointe shoes!"

The girls erupted in squeals of delight, jumping up and down and falling into big bear hugs. Namine and Selphie couldn't contain their excitement, jumping around as they hugged one another. Pointe shoes! Namine had been dreaming of this moment ever since she saw the beautiful ballerinas in the city when she was a little girl. To dance on their tip toes would be a whole new challenge, but it would be so exciting, and more importantly, a vital step in her dance career.

Stella giggled as she watched the girls scream with delight. "Come on ladies, we've got a lot to go through! We're gonna do lots of exercises to get you ready for your new pointe shoes." She probably expected the class to quieten down, but they only shrieked louder at the thought of new shoes.

Namine felt her heart racing throughout the rest of the class. She couldn't wait to drag her mum to the dance shop and buy her new shoes... The next step in her dance journey was about to begin. She could see herself on the Twilight City ballet stage, doing perfect turns in her pointe shoes. One day her dream would come true... For now, she had to give this, and her school dance classes, her all.

x-x-x

When Namine walked into school the next morning, she was hardly surprised to see Selphie excitedly handing out photos to all their friends. She had spent the night before posting every photo she took during city centre on every social media site imaginable. She had even tried to edit some of them in fancy ways, mostly likely practising for her photography class, but every time she did Tidus would make a comment about how ugly the filter was. As this thought crossed her mind, Namine saw Selphie whacking the blond boy over the back of his head before handing him an unfiltered photo. She couldn't help but laugh.

"Namine! Check out this cute photo!" Kairi ushered her over, handing her a photo of her and Namine hugging in the park. "New profile picture, or what?"

"No, this one's better!" Selphie pushed another photo in Namine's hand. It was one of the funnier photos of Kairi and Olette trying to get Hayner to smile.

"You gotta take that photo down!" Hayner piped up, his cheeks turning red. "It's embarrassing!"

"It wouldn't have been if you had just smiled!" Olette lectured the boy, to which he huffed and sat in his seat. It was a rare sight indeed to see Hayner sitting and waiting for class before anyone else.

"You're quite the photographer, Selph," Namine giggled, taking her share of photos from the girl. She flipped through them, smiling at the memories. She got to the group one and paused. Just like the swimming sports one, she was all over Sora. She felt so silly now, but she knew she was moving on, and that's all that mattered.

Miss Gainsborough and Mr. Caelum entered the room, and everyone found their seats. While the class was prepared, Namine noticed Selphie sticking a bunch of photos onto her school diary. She looked over and saw Sora teasing Hayner, and smiled to herself. Things were finally starting to feel like normal again. Although... She still couldn't help but wonder one thing. She watched Sora carefully for any clues as to who he might like. Was she in their class?

"Alright guys," Mr. Caelum boomed across the noisy room, "this is the last week to work on your city centre presentations. We're presenting your findings to your parents on Friday night, so I want to see you all practicing your speeches!"

Hayner eyed his group warily. "Guess we better start writing it, huh guys?"

"We're gonna wing our speech!" Tidus said casually, throwing his hands behind his head. This earned him another smack from Selphie. "Wah! What!?"

"We're gonna have a written speech, you doofus!" Selphie yelled, dragging Olette to the computers to finish their presentation. Tidus pouted sadly and Wakka just laughed.

"Okay, I think we should start writing ours, too," Kairi took the lead, "Namine, you're better with arty stuff, so you should work on finishing the presentation and making it look pretty."

"Okay!" Namine nodded. "And you guys can start working on the speech. Oh, is it okay if I go first? I'm a bit of a nervous speaker."

Hayner scoffed. "You want to be a professional dancer!"

"That doesn't require talking!" Namine poked her tongue out at the boy. "Alright, I'll head to the computers."

"I'll come with you," Roxas spoke up, and the two blondes made their way to the far side of the classroom. Olette, Selphie and Pence were working hard beside them, with Pence taking the reigns on the fancy animation effects.

After a while of working on the presentation, Namine started to glance back at the others. Okay, she was actually glancing at Sora. She was just so curious! Who did Sora like?

"Namine." She took a moment to register her name and flicked her head back to Roxas, who was staring at her. "Did you hear what I said?"

"Oh, um, yeah! Great idea, Roxas!" She looked at the screen and noticed nothing had been changed. "Er... I mean..."

Roxas chuckled. "It's okay. You've had a lot on your mind lately."

She nodded, biting her bottom lip. She hadn't told Roxas - or anyone - about her chat with Sora yet. It had been such a private thing and she wanted to keep the special moment all to herself forever. But Roxas had been such a wonderful support throughout this whole thing, so she felt she owed him an explanation.

She shuffled closer to him so Selphie, Olette and Pence wouldn't hear, though it was probably unnecessary because Selphie was being so loud. "Sora and I... We had a talk. He wanted to make sure things wouldn't be awkward between us. I knew it was my fault, but he really helped clear the air." She looked over at the brunette boy, working hard on his speech with Hayner and Kairi, and her heart didn't give its usual jolt. "I think... I think everything will be okay now."

Roxas couldn't help but smile over at Sora too. Even though he was upset about not being able to ask Kairi out, his friendship with Namine came first. And why shouldn't it? They had all been friends for so long, and though Namine was shy, she was often the glue that held the group together. Whenever Kairi and Selphie had a big fight, Namine would help to patch things up. She would always remember to organise surprises for all their birthdays, and she always had a smile on her face. She brought so much joy to the group.

That's why Roxas kept trying to convince himself that he should just concentrate on being her friend. He was so lucky to just have her in his life... Why wasn't that enough?

He realised he hadn't said anything and quickly smiled at her. "That's great, Nam. I can already sense that you two are friends again, you know."

"You can!?" Namine perked up.

"Of course!" Roxas smiled, and she swelled with joy, and even let out a small giggle.

"I'm glad. I just want to forget it ever happened." She sat in content for a moment, but then her eyes lit up and she turned back to him in excitement. "Oh! Guess what, Roxas!? Selphie and I are going on pointe shoes now! I'm so excited!"

Roxas had no idea what 'pointe shoes' even were, but it must've been a big deal because she was absolutely tickled pink. He loved the way she got so excited about her passions and talked openly about them. She didn't like showing others her artwork, and she didn't like public speaking, but strike up a conversation about dance and she suddenly became impassioned and confident. She looked adorable when she got worked up like this.

"You deserve it, Nam. You work so hard every day." He watched as his words made her smile even wider, and his heart sped up. "So, er, not to sound like a total idiot, but... What are pointe shoes?"

Namine shook her head with a confused smile. "You're so cute, Roxas." He could've died just then at those words. "It's when dancers go on their tippy toes. Not everyone has the strength to do it, but Miss Stella has trained us and thinks we're ready!"

Roxas was still flushing red at her words and could barely concentrate on the conversation. "That's amazing. Won't that hurt, though?"

"Not if you have the right shoes!" She nodded knowingly. "Selphie and I are going together to buy them."

"I can't wait!" Selphie suddenly squealed, having heard her name. She was so loud the whole class turned to her, and she sat down with blushing cheeks. "Whoops!"

The two blondes laughed and turned back to one another. Namine scrolled through the PowerPoint presentation and nodded. "Anyway, I think this is almost finished."

Roxas nodded too. "Cool, I'll add all our names on the last slide."

As Roxas started to type up their names, Namine heard laughing and turned back to where the rest of their group were. She couldn't see Hayner at first, then noticed that he'd ventured over to Pence, Olette and Selphie to spy on their presentation. The laughter had come from Sora and Kairi. They were laughing so hard Namine wondered what was so funny and wished she'd seen what happened. But then she noticed something else...

While Sora was laughing so hard he could hardly keep his eyes open, Kairi was looking up at him with admiration in her eyes. Pure happiness. Almost like the way Namine used to look at him. She was gently touching his arm as they laughed, wiping tears from her eyes, but never taking her eyes off him. Sora in turn leaned in close to her, and as the laughter died down they locked eyes with one another.

And just like that, Namine realised how stupid she'd been all along.

"Oh my gosh."

"What?" Roxas turned to her, and she realised she had whispered out loud. She quickly turned back to Roxas with confusion.

Her eyes darted back and forth, wondering what she should do. "I can't believe this... But since when...?"

Roxas lifted one eyebrow in confusion. "You okay...?"

Namine locked eyes with Roxas, wide and bulging. "I..."

But she couldn't talk about it here, with everyone around her. What if Selphie heard? Once she knew anything, it spread around the school like wildfire, and Namine was not ready for what she suspected to come true. She could hardly comprehend it.

She grabbed Roxas' arm. "Come with me." She called out to the others that they'd be right back, then got permission from Miss Gainsborough to go to the bathrooms. She dragged Roxas into the outdoor locker bays, out of sight from the glass door entrance of the classroom.

"What's wrong?" Roxas asked, suddenly worried.

Namine wrung her hands together nervously. "I think I know who Sora likes."

"You do?" Roxas said, a little surprised.

She nodded slowly. "It's Kairi."

Roxas tried to feign surprise, but at the same time, he was so relieved she'd figured it out.

"All this time," she said, talking more to herself than to Roxas, "all this time and I never realised! Sora likes Kairi... And Kairi likes Sora back! Why didn't I see it!? Kairi is always with Sora. She always talks about him. And last summer... Last summer! They were always together!" Namine slumped in on herself then, disappointment washing over her. "I'm the worst friend in the world. I never even realised how my best friends felt. And Kairi..." She looked up then, another realisation dawning on her. "She must've kept it a secret! When I told her I liked Sora, she was so supportive and yet SHE liked him!" She looked like she about to cry then, slapping her hands to her cheeks in shock. "I can't believe this! I can't believe this..."

She slumped against the lockers, as if exhausted by the new information. Emotionally exhausted, Roxas wanted to say.

"I've been so stupid," Namine said simply. "I was so hung up on Sora I didn't see the signs. They clearly like each other. Looking back... It all makes sense." She looked up at Roxas then, her gaze serious. "Roxas, did you know? Did you know Sora liked Kairi?"

Roxas swallowed loudly. All this time, he thought he was lying to protect her, to protect his other friends too... But would these lies end up hurting Namine? Should he tell her the truth? But if he lied with good intentions, was it really a bad thing?

He didn't want to find out.

"He never told me," Roxas shook his head.

Namine looked away. "I guess he wanted to wait until he told her. But then I came along and ruined everything." For a moment she sat in thought, and Roxas waited patiently, though it was more that he didn't really know what to say. Or perhaps, he was too afraid to say anything lest he spill the beans.

"I don't know if I'm ready yet. To see them together..." She said slowly, almost inaudibly, as if she was ashamed to say it. "Does that make me the most selfish person alive?" She slid down until she was sitting against a locker on the concrete floor, defeated.

Roxas sighed, and went down to sit next to her. "It's not selfish... What's important is that you said 'yet'. Which means you know one day you'll be ready. You can't always focus on others, Nam. Sometimes, you have to focus on yourself."

Namine shook her head. "But it feels like that's all I've been doing lately. Thinking of myself and how to make Sora like me. I never even stopped to consider his feelings or anyone else's."

"It's easy to do that when you like someone. You're so focused on them, everything else gets all fuzzy. But you've still be loyal to your friends, Nam. Did you forget? You helped me to get good at dancing. That's definitely not selfish." He turned to smile at her. "Especially me, the worst dancer in the world."

Namine smiled. At times she almost lost hope on him, but she never gave up, because she wanted him to succeed. She'd get mad at him for missing lessons because of drums, but she knew they meant the world to him. She even offered him private lessons, and they still got together once a week to practice, even on school holidays.

"I guess..." She sighed, almost admonishing all the praise. "You're definitely not the worst dancer in the world, though."

"Anymore," Roxas chuckled, and Namine finally cracked a smile.

"Alright, it's time to stop being selfish. When I'm ready... I'll tell Sora it's okay." Her smile widened then, thinking of how happy Kairi would be if it all worked out. "Thinking about it, they do seem perfect for each other. I think... I'll be happy to see them together."

Roxas couldn't help but feel so proud of Namine. "You're a great friend." He graced her with a warm smile, then stood and held out his hand. "Come on, before Mr. Caelum sends out a search party for us."

Namine smiled and took his hand.

x-x-x

Namine barely spoke for the rest of the day, her thoughts preoccupied with Sora and Kairi. The more she thought about it, the more she realised how many moments she'd misinterpreted. She'd waved off so many smiles, hugs and meaningful talks between the two as purely platonic, but now she could see them for what they truly were. And the more she thought about it, the more she smiled at how happy Sora could make Kairi.

As she entered the dance classroom with Selphie and Roxas, her thoughts focused onto dance once again. She and Selphie excitedly told Miss Lockhart about their pointe shoes, and she was beyond ecstatic for them. They did a run-through of So Stupid, of which about a minute of the song had been choreographed. So far most of the group were dancing in sync, but it was time to start bringing herself and Roxas into the limelight.

Roxas was turning a bright shade of red, which Namine guessed was from the rigorous dancing, but it definitely was not. Miss Lockhart had them dancing so close together, with the intention to make them look like lovers about to break up, that Roxas was cracking under the pressure.

"Now look into each other's eyes with burning passion! You're about to break up! You gotta really hold onto each other tight! That's it!"

Roxas thought he might pop from the embarrassment of it all.

Finally, they got to sit aside while Selphie worked on her solo part with Ventus, and he avoided all eye contact with Namine. His heart was beating so fast he felt like he was going to faint.

"You did great, Roxas!" She whispered beside him, and he jumped in surprise.

"O-Oh, yeah?"

"Mhm. Emotion is hard to capture in dance when you focus on the moves, but you're really getting the hang of it. You looked really sad at the break-up part!"

"Um, I'm glad..." Roxas wanted the floor to open up and suck him in. Being so close to Namine and having to role play romance was getting a bit too much for him.

"Excellent! One more run-through, everyone!"

Roxas groaned. If he had to gaze lovingly into Namine's eyes one more time he might have to run for the hills.

If going through the dance again wasn't enough, Roxas was about to get one more surprise. Everyone was collapsing to the floor, exhausted from the dance, and Miss Lockhart clapped.

"Excellent! It's looking fabulous! I know it's high-energy, but you're all nailing it. For the next part I have an ambitious idea..." She walked up to Namine and Roxas, with her hand tapping her chin thoughtfully. Roxas turned white.

"Do you two think you'll be able to do a lift?"

Roxas barely registered what she meant before Namine was dragging him off the floor, ready and raring to try it. "Wait, what!?"

"So after your last move, you're going to turn to Namine and she's going to run at you. You'll grab her by the waist and under her leg and lift her up." She ushered Namine close and began placing Roxas' hands in the correct position. "Just like this. Think you'll have the strength to lift her?"

"U-Um..." Words were failing Roxas, but everyone in the room was staring at them, so he decided to just give it a go. He swore his whole being shook as her tried to gently lift Namine up, but found she was quite easy to hold.

"Good! And Namine, you'll put your hand behind his neck and lift the other one up like this, then lift your head up dramatically."

Namine did just that, and Roxas looked up at her, trying his best to hold her steady. He tried not to think about how close they were right now.

"Ah, excellent! You both look the part! This is where they try to get back together and he feels betrayed. So let's try it with a run-up now."

Roxas let her down and she ran to the other side of the room, excited to try it. How exactly was he supposed to catch her!?

"Roxas, as she comes up, bend your knees to balance yourself and hold your arms out like this," She rearranged his arms again, "She'll get into position and then you'll just have to lift her up. Let's try it! Five! Six! Seven! Eight!"

Namine started to run towards him and he felt like time was coming to a standstill. How exactly had he gotten himself into this? Suddenly she was leaping towards him, but he found he didn't really need to do anything because Namine positioned herself perfectly in his arms, so he grasped her and lifted her up. The move did look spectacular, so much so the whole class clapped.

Miss Lockhart looked very pleased. "Fantastic, you two! The whole school is going to be talking about this dance for weeks! Alright, get a drink, everybody, and we'll go through it again."

Roxas collapsed to the floor to catch his breath. Before he could, though, Selphie jumped on him from behind with a giggle.

"You were so awesome, Roxas! Namine and I trained you a little too well."

Namine was gushing beside them. "I've always wanted to do a lift! But there were never any guys in our class at dance. This is going to be amazing!"

Roxas ruffled his hair sheepishly. Even though he was embarrassed beyond belief, he was happy he could make this dream a reality for Namine. "I'm just glad I caught you."

"If you ever drop her, you're dead meat," Selphie warned, mussing up his hair.

Namine shook her head. "I trust Roxas. I know he wouldn't do that."

"Geez, add to the pressure, much?" Roxas laughed, and the girls giggled along with him.

"Okay, let's go again!" Miss Lockhart called out.

Roxas sighed. He was going to be severely dehydrated by the end of this class if he kept sweating from the nerves. How was he going to survive this dance?