Ventus is not a naturally quiet person. Even when he's trying to keep himself quiet for the sake of his sleeping brother, he still manages to close the dresser drawer too loudly, step on a pencil hidden beneath a pile of clothes and have it crack, and attempt to open the closet door only to succeed in making sure he prolonged every creek of the old hinges.

Roxas groans and rolls over, shoving his pillow over his head to drown out the noise and hoping that sleep wins again.

"Heh, sorry," Ventus says when he realizes what he's done. He brightens. "Hey! Since you're up—"

"I'm not up," Roxas muffled voice says through the pillow.

"—do you want to play blitzball in the park today?"

"Do I have to?"

"No, just thought it would be fun."

Roxas grunts.

"Everyone will be there," Ventus says as he nears the door, "and we might go out for lunch afterwards. I think some of the girls are going to meet up and make it a big group thing."

Roxas's head pops up. "Everybody there?"

"Yeah." Ventus pauses with his hand on the doorknob. "Any interest?"

Two heartbeats pass before Roxas springs out of bed and begins changing. "Be down in ten."

Ventus smiles at his brother's enthusiasm. Getting up early on a Saturday was never Roxas's favorite thing. Sure, he plays blitzball often enough, but he never got up with such gusto before. Maybe he's got a hankering for some exercise? Ventus shrugs off the surprise and heads downstairs.

"We have arrived!" Ventus calls from halfway across the field. The others who manage to hear him raise their hands and wave. Ventus takes off running, leaving his brother to catch up. When he makes it there, Ven looks back to see Roxas taking his sweet time to come over…and looking around as if looking for someone. Ventus glances at the group. Axel, Tidus, Wakka, Sora, Terra…

"Who are we missing?" he asks.

"Riku's coming yet," Sora informs him. "He's walking with Namine."

By now, Roxas has joined the group. "Hey."

Axel elbows him. "Decided to join the land of the living?"

Roxas raises an eyebrow at him. "Sora's here too. He's worse than me about mornings."

"Hey!"

Axel ignores him. "How much talking did Ven have to do to get you up?"

"Hardly any," Ven says. "He got motivated all by himself."

"Shut up," Roxas mutters and lightly shoves his brother.

"Riku!" Wakka waves down their last player.

The others turn to see Riku walking alongside Namine. It's funny sometimes, Roxas thinks, how obvious Riku's attentions are toward Namine. Painfully so, almost. It kind of reminds him of Sora and—

Roxas cuts off his thinking right there. He glances at Sora who has taken to tossing the ball in the air and catching it.

Riku joins them, and everyone gets in their places. They discuss how to divide teams, take their places, then start the game.

A few other citizens are milling about the park, taking in the beautiful morning. It's even a slightly cooler morning than usual, a great bonus for those working up a sweat on the field. An hour easily passes as the game goes on.

Roxas raises his arms then puts them on his head, breathing heavily. Blitzball, at least the way Tidus and Wakka like to play it, is a real workout. He can feel the sweat on his brow. He glances towards the tree line where Namine sits with her sketchbook, back against a tree, and sees she's got company. The girls have arrived. Xion and Selfie sit on either side of Namine.

Then around the tree comes Kairi, carrying a cooler. She sets it down then stretches and says something to the others. They laugh. Kairi looks around, and Roxas feels his heart start to speed up for a reason other than exercise when he catches her eye. She smiles and waves. Roxas waves back.

"Kairi!" Sora's yell is a cold shock to the system.

"What?!" Kairi yells back at him.

"Did you bring the drinks?"

Rather than shouting, Kairi gestures to the cooler at her feet. Sora gives a single whoop in response. "Drink break, fellas!"

Ventus and Sora break into a sprint (and Roxas will never understand their level of energy) while the others walk their way over.

Roxas can't help but continue watching Kairi—as she opens the cooler, grabs a couple drinks, then whirls away as the two eager boys dig in. Kairi shakes her head, but with a smile on her face, and walks over to the others. To…to him. She greets Riku and the rest of the group, but she stops in front of Roxas who feels just as tongue-tied as she appears to be because she looks at her shoes first before finally looking up at him again.

She holds up on of the drinks. "Orange, right?"

"Huh?"

"I think you usually have the orange ones, or did I get that wrong?"

"Yellow, but close enough." Roxas takes the drink then laughs at Kairi's expression.

"Shoot, I thought I had it."

It's just the two of them. Kairi met him a quarter of the way while the rest of their friends went ahead. Roxas is painfully aware of this fact.

"How's the game going?" Kairi asks.

Roxas takes a sip before he says, "Painful. Tidus is in one of his 'We have to be the best!' phases, and I'm on his team. Slacking off will not be tolerated."

Kairi laughs, and Roxas feels a bit of pride at being the one to make her laugh. "Not surprised. Hopefully, next time you'll be on the other team."

"You kidding? That would be worse! If he's tough on his own team, he shows no mercy to his opponents."

Kairi laughs again. "You can't win!"

"I can't. Glad you understand." Roxas takes another drink. "I could have slept in instead if Ventus hadn't woken me up with his usual racket."

"Well, I'm glad you made it."

Roxas is glad he's already red from exercise because Kairi's comment makes his cheeks flush. "Same. How are you doing then?"

"Oh fine. Ignoring my history project by being here instead. I'm willing to be distracted for as long as possible."

It's Roxas who laughs this time. "Sorry, I can't play blitzball all day, but maybe everybody's got a hangout plan today. I wouldn't mind ignoring my homework too."

"Oh good. A kindred spirit."

The two share a smile, then there's a moment of silence between them. Kairi crosses her arms and rocks back and forth on her feet. Roxas takes another drink.

"So, um, I was thinking…" Kairi starts. She takes a deep breath that sounds more like a huff of frustration and tries again. "It's no big deal, but I was wondering if you had rented your tie and vest yet. If you have, that's fine. I was just wondering if for prom you wanted to coordinate colors."

"Coordinate colors?"

"Have your tie match my dress colors. It's totally no big deal. Namine and I were talking the other day, and she mentioned how she and Riku are going to match and, I don't know, I thought, hey! If we're doing this experiment, might as well go all out, right?"

Roxas wants to laugh again but doesn't dare for fear of embarrassing her. She's right. That's something couples going to prom together do. "Sure. Do you already have a dress?"

Kairi blinks. The surprise on her face is unexpected to Roxas. Did she think he'd say no? "I do have a dress, yeah." She flinches when she says, "It's pink."

"Ok, cool. Do you need to come with me to make sure I get the right shade or whatever?"

Kairi still seems surprised by his answer, but the surprise is accompanied by a large smile now. "Yeah, sure. We could go sometime after school next week."

"Sounds good to me."

"Great. That's…That's really nice of you, Roxas. Thank you."

"Sure, of course. Thanks for agreeing to go with me."

"I'm looking forward to it."

"Me too."

It's then that Ventus notices his brother hasn't joined the group. He looks around then spies him chatting with Kairi. He's caught off-guard with the smile on Roxas's face and the matching one Kairi is sporting. It's a moment in time before he sees them begin talking again and start making their way to the rest of their friends.

Taking all this in, Ventus wonders...