AN: Sorry I took another week off! I had life stuff going on again. :( Made it real hard to even think about sitting down to write! But I got a few chapters ready to go here! And some of them long awaited. xD The Namine/Roxas/Luxu stuff. :D

Luxu stopped just inside the doorway as he came back to the house, up on the high hill outside Twilight Town.

He made his way through the house, then went up the stairs. He crossed the second floor hall, stopping outside the door to Namine's room. Closed again - with all sorts of noises coming out through it from the TV. Again.

Meanwhile, there was zero signs of Roxas in the house - again.

He frowned to himself and gave a knock at the door. "Hey-"

"You can come in - I have a dress."

"You have a dress - hey, that's great! But do you have a dress currently on?" Luxu replied, rolling his eye.

"Both."

"Good."

Luxu opened the door, stepping through.

There the kid was, laid out on her stomach on her bed, facing the TV. Her sketchbook out in front of her, a pencil on the page. Her hair spilling down around her.

It was a nice sight - a peaceful, happy one. But...

"Hey, Namine..." he began.

"What?"

"You know, we've been here a month now and I can't help but notice you don't have any friends," Luxu spoke casually.

Namine shook her head, making a few sharp lines on her paper and glancing up at the TV again. She kicked her feet behind her. "I have friends - I see Lauriam and Elrena all the time. And Ven and the others, too."

Luxu sighed, scratching his head as he gazed at her. "True, but they're not exactly..."

"Not exactly what? You're being weird."

"This is a weird situation," Luxu replied carefully - slowly. "I've never been in the role of teacher, instructor, mentor - whatever you want to call it - let alone somebody's...eh, outright parent or guardian. But I'm the sole guy responsible for you now - in all things. Health, happiness...getting you all prepared to one day go out there and handle the world on your own, as an independent young person. So that means I have to try and-"

"I told you, remember?" Namine interjected. He wouldn't have let it pass, but the way she looked up at him from beneath those blonde bangs of hers at last, with that smile on her face... "I told that you'd make a good dad - if you ever had a daughter; I was right."

"Hah, funny - because you just called me weird," Luxu joked.

"Weird doesn't mean bad. Just weird."

"Alright...fair enough? So...?"

"So, what?"

"You need friends, princess. Friends your own age. Kids your own age. Next time you go into town, or on your next day of school, you need to find people to bond with - have fun with. People you can come to trust and rely on, and share great experiences with. Don't just keep on keeping to yourself like this."

"I'm three months old," Namine said, with a sly grin. "From Kairi's memories, that means I should be just laying around and making weird noises - and letting you carry me everywhere."

"Hey, don't get smart with me," he retorted, though with a laugh. "You might be three months old, and you might be younger mentally compared to an actual girl your age, yeah, but you're still leagues above babyhood. Which means you need to be out there doing what all kids do, no matter what age they really are. Socializing is a pretty important part of the human experience."

"Are you talking from experience?"

Luxu frowned, faltering. He shrugged, giving a grin. "We're not talking about me here, kiddo. Stay on topic."

Namine frowned back at him, but bit her lip and bowed her head, making some furious scribbles on the page now.

Luxu had no clue why, but he felt like he'd just made a misstep with her.

He had to consider missteps or not at all, now! It was his job to check in with her, keep her on track to becoming a woman and all that - a productive member of society, and a well-developed person in her own right. But how the hell was he honestly meant to be the guy to do that for her when he had no idea what that looked like? Sure, he'd watched the people all around him in life, apart and from afar - but he'd never been inside their homes and lives like that. He didn't know the inner works of normality, not truly. Not like any...normal, average joe did. He wasn't an average joe...even if he was trying way too damn hard to be one now. For her sake - for both of them: her and Roxas, too.

Taking on that kid...he wondered if that was a mistake, too. It wasn't as if he'd spent all that much time with Roxas before. Wasn't like he knew... And Roxas was a whole different beast from Namine, in his own right. But Roxas and Namine had been something of a packaged deal; Namine had insisted on Roxas living with her, and Roxas had voiced his own strong desire to not live apart from his twin as well (to everyone's surprise at the time). And now...

Luxu had no real idea what the hell he was doing. He felt like the bumbling fool he'd pretended to be for the last decade now. He was fumbling his way forward, in this new area of life - an area he'd never explored before. Never gotten any experience with. It was surprisingly nerve-wracking - and surprisingly embarrassing, how badly he felt like he was screwing things up here. Maybe it was time for a different tact, then...

"You know, for a girl who wanted so badly to get out there and do so much - you've been a real shut-in these past few weeks," Luxu started. "You hardly leave your room. And in all honesty, that's a little worrying. You spend too much time staring at that TV and you'll burn your eyes out."

Namine looked up at him again, wide eyed, for a moment. Then, her face scrunched up as she judged him. "You use way too many figures of speech."

"Possibly - but I'm serious about the 'you-spend-too-much-time-in-your-room' part," Luxu responded. "You'd think a girl like you would want to get out there and do things. Meet people. Do some exploring. Hell, I'd even accept you getting into some sort of trouble or mischief if it meant I knew you weren't just holing yourself up in this room, doing nothing but drawing. Roxas spends far more time running around out there than you do...he's got the right idea about it."

"I like drawing. It's my thing!"

"True. But you can't let a hobby become an obsession," said Luxu. "You need to have a healthy balance in your life...and you don't have that, kiddo. Not at the moment. What happened to all those plans of yours?" he concluded, with a grand gesture.

"It's easier to draw things from the TV," Namine said, biting her lip. "I can see so many different places and things, and I can just freeze it and take all the time in the world to draw it."

Was that the issue here, then? If that was her problem, or at least a part of it...Easy fix!

"Alright, come with me, princess. I'm taking you into town. We're going to go on a little shopping trip."

The girl perked up at the mention of shopping, at least. Then, she just looked at him suspiciously. "You haven't ever wanted to go shopping anymore unless it's something you think I 'need.'"

"Come on, you know that's not true," Luxu retorted. "How many times in the past month have I taken both you and Roxas out for ice cream, or lunch, or-"

"Okay, fine, but I'm still not sure I like whatever your motivation is..." Namine murmured.

"My motivation is to get you motivated - and to give you a way to freeze things in the world around you, so you can draw them to your Heart's content. Hell, you'll even be able to come back here and draw them at leisure - with perfect clarity."

"What are you talking about? What could possibly let me do that?!"

Luxu grinned. He had her, hook, line and sinker. "It's a magical little invention called a 'camera.' And this world's version of the thing isn't too shabby. If you come to town with me right now, I'll buy you one - brand new, and all for you. You can go out there, snap photos as much as you want, of whatever or whoever you want...and you can use them for artistic recreations."

Namine leapt to her feet, scrambling off the bed. "Okay! Let's go!"

"Heh. Lead the way."

"Alright, you get twelve ready to go in that thing - twelve pictures. I've bought you an additional hundred-sixty here, too. You'd better make 'em last longer than a week, because I'm not buying you more for a long while. Got it?" Luxu explained, watching the girl as they left the electronics shop in the mall.

Namine nodded, shifting the bag in her hands. "Thanks L-" she started, throwing herself at him and wrapping her arms around him.

"Hey - thanks for the hug - but you can't call me that in public yet, remember...?" Luxu muttered in her ear, bending down low as he returned the gesture for her.

"Oh, right - sorry...!"

"It's fine. Long as you don't do it too often, we can play it off..."

"I still don't get why you have to do all this."

"Hey, adult life is a thousand times more complicated than kid life - just trust me when I say it's how we have to do things...until it's the right time when we won't have to worry about it."

"Okay. I trust you."

Heh...Luxu remembered a time when he'd called the kid a fool for trusting him - for trusting anyone. Maybe she still was...but it'd paid off, hadn't it? That, and her damn stubborn nature. She'd won out - she'd won.

"Thanks...now let go."

"Carry me."

Luxu straightened up, pushing her away gently. "Haha...No."

"I'm like three months old; carry me!" she insisted, glaring up at him now.

"No."

"Please!"

"No."

"Please please please-"

"You're not a week old anymore - that's not going to work on me again," Luxu huffed, crossing his arms.

"Pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease-!"

"...Grrr - fine! But just until we get outside, then you walk on your own power! Deal?"

"YES - THANK YOU! I love you!" Namine exclaimed.

Luxu sighed as he picked the kid up in his arms and started off for the exit, not wasting time about it. "You still don't know what that word really means," he murmured to her.

"Well I don't think you do, either!"

Luxu clenched his jaw, gazing ahead. Then he relaxed again.

"Fair enough...I suppose I don't."

He might have, once upon a time - far, far too long ago now. A time where memories were so hazy he wasn't even sure he could believe they were real anymore; they might have just been figments of imagination, illusions he conjured for himself from time to time. He had two names to his Heart, and two faces that may or may not have been the truth of things...but beyond that...did he really have anything? Were the feelings associated with the names and images true, or were they foolish hopes of how he wished things might have been?

Luxu really just didn't even know anymore.

Not about way back then, at any rate.

He knew what he was feeling in the here and now - this very moment.

"About my plans..." came Namine's soft voice in his ear, suddenly. Soft, and hesitant.

"Yeah? What about 'em?" Luxu said back.

"I still want to do all of that - I do - it's just...I don't know how..." the girl admitted. "I don't know where to start - how to start, I guess?"

Of course...still a kid. Luxu didn't know why it kept eluding him, that little fact - why it would sometimes hit him so damn hard. But it had, again, now.

And he felt like the biggest jackass in all the World for it.

"Right..." he replied. "We'll - work on that together. I'll...get on that for you. Real soon. Okay?"

"Okay. Thank you." There was such a palpable relief in the kid's voice it made Luxu feel even worse about the whole thing.

"Yeah...you're welcome..." Luxu mumbled out.

He was grateful when they stepped out into the cool evening air again.