There were just a few times in her life that Naminé had made rash descisions. There was the time where she wanted a yellow hat she found that would be perfect for a beach day, only for it to never be used as she never really found the time to go to the beach. The colour markers she had found at a shop that was her favorite brand at a very cheap price, only to find out that it was just another cheap knock off of the original. And more. But not a lot.

But now that she found herself sitting on the bench in the park she had visited days earlier, bathing herself in the sweet aroma that the bloomed flowers gave off, a scent that could relax anyone, she was slowly having second chances.

I mean, was this really worth trying to improve her social interaction skill? She could always just try and muster up the courage, throw all thoughts and fears away for that one moment, and talk to a random person.

…..that seemed like too much effort to do.

She sighed as she held onto her loose jeans tightly. Was this really a good idea? She asked herself. As much as she really wanted to try and put effort to change herself, meeting and trying to teach someone art was something completely new to her, not to mention that someone was Roxas, a person who could be considered the complete opposite of her.

She looked to her side and scanned the items she brought along. She didn't even bring much, just her usual sketchbook, extra color markers for both of them, and some blank papers that might be used for sketching. Now all she had to do was sit there and wait for his arrival.

She checked the watch on her wrist and saw that she was 10 minutes early. Why was she 10 minutes early?

This whole ordeal was really messing with her. She woke up and the meeting with Roxas was the first thing that literally came into her mind. As she ate her usually soggy cereal, her mind was racking up ways on how she could probably teach him. That was when another problem hit.

How good was he?

How could she start if she didn't even know his skill level? Who knows maybe he could actually be amazing at art, probably even better than her! And he could even post his art online and get a lot of attention, which then would cause him to be famous, and then he would suddenly forget all about Naminé and go on, relishing himself in his luxurious art career.

Or maybe Naminé could somehow help him start from scratch, only then would he improve so much that he would start posting his art online, then would go and be famous and then instead of forgetting Naminé, he would remember her so much for being the sole reason of his life and would even propose to her!

Her face turned red, now realizing the extent of her imagination of him. She sighed and she leaned back on the wooden bench she was sitting on. After this, she would start receiving help from Roxas to improve her social skillks. The question was whether or not if she could.

It had been a good 12 years since the last time she spoke normally, and it had been that amount of time where her social confidence had slowly plummeted into the ground. She looked up to the sky and saw a view of the sky, partially blocked by the leaves of the tall branches of the trees, the sun's light shining through the gaps.

What if it doesn't work out? Could Roxas actually help her overcome her problem? She recalled when her parents tried to do so much to help her come out of her shell ever since the accident. She even attended several therapy session but none of them worked.

She still couldn't bring herself to be normal for other students. She just put on a smile as a way to reassure her parents that everything would be alright. She hated seeing the worried look on her parents' face when she came home from school. It was then she decided she wouldn't make them suffer anymore, if she had to stay alone and sad forever, then she would gladly do it.

But bottling everything up in her would also have their own limits. But maybe she might be able to break those limits.

"Naminé!" a familiar voice spoke out. She turned her head to see Roxas walking towards her, waving one hand while the other hand was holding onto the strap of the backpack he was wearing. The sight of him seemed to slowly ease her anxiety, knowing there was probably no turning back. Although there was one question that seemed to linger at the back of her mind; why did he want lessons in the first place?

"Sorry, did you wait long?" he asled concerningly as he set his backpack down, sitting down next to her. The blonde took note of how close he was to her, her face turning red for a second. Naminé shook her head while holding her hands up, signalling to him that she didn't wait long. Luckily, he seemed to be getting used to her signals and nodded.

"Alrighty then," he said as he opened the zipper of his back. "You're probably wondering why I even asked for lessons right?"

And he asked the question that she wanted ask. Nice.

The girl nodded and watched as Roxas reached into his bag and took out a black sketchbook, a size that was almost similar to her's.

"I don't think I mentioned it before but I actually draw from time to time myself," he proudly boasted, puffing out his chest while rubbing the under of his nose with his index finger. "Check it out," he handed Naminé his sketchbook.

'Well they can't be that bad'. She reluctantly took the black sketchbook, opened the cover, and her face was immedietly replaced by a look of what seems to be a mixture of fear and shock.

In front of her was a very poorly drawn figure of what looked like a cat. At least, she thought it was a cat. She tried looking at it at a different view might change her opinion but it was still a horrible looking drawing no matter how she viewed it. It was so bad that she forgot that Roxas could still see her.

"I'm sure it's not that bad," he defended himself as Naminé flipped the page and cringed so hard at the horrible drawn attempt of a monkey.

"It's supposed to be a drawing of a man," Roxas explained.

Since when did a man have that much hair?

Her look back at him was all he needed. "Alright fine it's horrible I know," he chuckled as she handed the sketchbook back to him. "And that's why you're here!" he exclaimed, grinning wide, showing off his perfectly white teeth.

Naminé's face turned red for a split second before she quickly turned her head around. She reached into her pocket and took out her phone, opening the notepad application.

"So you ready to start?" she typed.

"Yeah," he replied cheerfully, "What do you have in mind teach?" he brought his legs onto the bench and crossed, resting his hands on his knees.

Well now that hit a wall. She knew she was supposed to teach him on how to do better in art but she never really put so much thought into how. She silently cursed the bird that happened to land outside her window which led to her being distracted by it's colorful feathers.

Her eyes wandered around the park, trying to find something when the bright, green leaves of a large caught her eyes. She quickly scanned the entire thing from top to bottom. There weren't that many branches but one would still be able to draw it quite easily. The shades of brown on the trunk of the tree didn't differ too much so there might be some trouble but it wasn't impossible. Naminé pointed towards the tree, getting Roxas' attention.

"Huh?" he asked, still confused.

"We're gonna try and draw that" she typed out.

"Ahh alright," he said with a neutral look, in which a dumbfounded look appeared. His eye twitched.

"What!" he gasped "You want me to draw that!"

Being taken aback by his reaction, she just nodded.

"But its so…. so…. so realistic!" he argued. And she fell over.

"Well what did you expect! You said you wanted to learn how to draw better and the best way for you to do that is to practice and you can start easy by drawing something you can look at!" she typed fast, pointing at the screen, frustration growing inside.

"But you saw my drawings, I can't even draw that good!"

"That's why I'm here! Isn't that the whole point of the meeting today?" she argued back.

It was only then it hit Roxas. " Oh," he put his legs down and sat properly, grabbing his sketchbook and flipped to an empty page.

In conclusion, watching Roxas trying to draw a tree was like watching a child trying to fit a wooden star into a square shaped box. The struggle was everywhere as she watched him trying to draw a single branch.

"No that's too long"

"Add more curves to the branch, they're not that straight"

"Don't press the pencil so hard when you're drawing the trunk"

"What's that brown thing supposed to be?"

"It's a squirrel! Look at it!" Roxas exclaimed as he pointed towards the tree. Looking up from her sketchbook, Naminé saw where Roxas was pointing and there it was, sitting at the bottom of the tree was a said brown furry creature, happily munching away on a nut.

Huh. She had been so focused on her's and Roxas' drawing of the tree she didn't even noticed the small mammal miniding it's own business. But she couldn't help but get drawn in by it's cuteness. Roxas set his sketchbook next to him, knelt down on the ground and start making clicking noises at the squirrel.

What. Naminé stared at the teen as he kept making noises, trying to attract the squirrel.

"C'mon buddy, come here," he said, sticking his hand out, rubbing his fingers. Naminé wanted to remind him the whole point of today's meeting, but he was too busy trying to get the squirrel to go to him.

It's not going to work. She thought to herself as she watched the blonde taking slow steps towards the squirrel. Just as she was about to get up to tell him to sit back down, the brown mammal actually dropped the nut and started to run towards him.

What.

"There we go!" he cheered to himself as the squirrel stopped right in front of him. Roxas stuck out his index finger slowly to avoid scaring the little critter away.

"Who's a cute little fella," he cooed. Naminé's mouth dropped as she watched him stroke the squirrel's chin slowly. The squirrel seemed to not mind him, merely just accepting the stroke. Her cheeks flushed as how cute the mammal looked. Roxas turned back to her.

"Hey why don't you give it a try,"

And at that second her knees twitched. She couldn't deny it, a chance to pet a small, cute animal like a squirrel. She raised her hands up but hesitated when the squirrel turned to look at her.

Fear started to bubble up.

What if this squirrel was no different than anyone else she met? What if the squirrel ran away the moment she stood up? Like how everyone turned to push her away because they didn't know how to talk to her?

Her fingers twitched as her face fell. Roxas noticing this. He simply put his hand out and opened his palm.

"I saw the look on your face, C'mon, I'll help you," he said gently. Naminé stared at the palm of his hand.

Should she take it?

What if he pulled back?

But they already had an agreement to help each other.

She slowly brought her hand back up, her fingers shaking with nervousness as she slowly touched his hand. He gently curled his fingers around her hand, her face becoming even redder.

"Come down slowly," he said as Naminé did as what she was told. "Don't make any sudden movements, the little fella over here can be easily frightened," he advised. Naminé nodded and stretched out her arm as slow as she could with Roxas' guidance until her fingers were near the little creatures.

As she got nearer, the squirrel moved it's head back, it's snout twitching, taking in the scent of her fingers. The squirrel moved closer, surpising Naminé, causing her body to twitch for a moment but she didn't move much, thanks to Roxas.

"Easy," he said as Naminé stuck out her finger and she stopped moving as it was inches away from the squirrel. The mammal sniffed it for a few seconds before staying still. Roxas moved her hand closer until she could touch the soft fur.

"There we go," he cheered. He slowly moved his hand away from her's, deciding she was already capable of doing it without his help. Naminé gently stroke the chin of the squirrel. The little fellow made small noises which she assumed was out of satisfaction. She couldn't help but smile at the sensation of the squirrel's fur.

"It's soft isn't it," Roxas voiced, bringing his head closer. As he did, Naminé moved her head to the side and his head was directly in front of her, allowing her to closely examine his features, his slightly tanned skin, the sparkle of his blue eyes, and the strands of his golden blonde hair that was visually fitting with the sun's rays.

She swore at that moment, she could hear her heart beating. All she could do was stare into his eyes, thankful that he didn't notice, being too distracted by the squirrel. Her eyes darted down to his lips.

*BA – DUM*

Her heart beat faster. Her chest got tighter and something warm started to grow inside. A feeling that, for some reason, felt nice to her. Seeing him so close, it was like a reminder of the day at the park where she first met him. Unconciously, she found herself moving her face closer and closer to him.

"My what a cute couple," the voice of an elderly woman spoke as she walked pass by behind them. The statement made itself clear in Naminé's ears and caused her to jerk as far as she could away from Roxas. The sudden movement of her body caused the little fellow to be frightened and run away back to the tree.

Naminé sat on the ground, burying her face into her hands, her thoughts spinning around.

W-What did she say? A couple? Me and Roxas?

Once again, Naminé proved herself that it was possible for someone to blush so much until they got this red. She couldn't even bring herself to think straight as the senior citizen's words rang through her head.

Why was she even freaking out over that one comment? It was just a comment. That's it. Nothing more. Nothing less. But knowing that someone else assumed that they both were a couple, as in a two people that are in a romantic relationship together, her and Roxas, it felt unreal.

Speaking of Roxas, Naminé separated her fingers at her face and darted her eyes towards said boy, who was still kneeling down with his head facing the other way. He stood up straight and coughed.

"Well, should we go back to drawing?" he asked. Naminé noticed that there was a slight red at his cheeks. Naminé nodded as she got up, brushing any dirt that stuck to her pants down before walking over to the bench and sat down, this time, with a not too far distance from where Roxas sat.

"So where did we stop off?" he asked.

Time passed by and the sun's rays turned from a bright yellow to a cooling shade of orange. Naminé had just finished her piece of the tree, managing to draw it almost perfectly and even used the right colors and shades of green and brown to colour it. She even managed to add in a few grass and bird flying on top of the tree to make it look more picture – esk.

"Hmmm… how's this?" Roxas presented his drawing to Naminé. She scanned the drawing from top to bottom. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't the best as well, but it was definitely better than his own sketches. She could help but feel a sense of accomplishment. A smile crept itself onto her face, something which did not go unnoticed by Roxas.

"That good huh?" he snickered as he looked back at his work. "But seriously though, drawing under your help turned out to be so much more better than just drawing myself without any improvements," he looked back at her. "Thanks, really appreciate it," he gave a big grin.

Instead of freezing up or being lost, Naminé found herself smiling back at him with nothing else in mind.

"Hey I was right, you should smile more!" he exclaimed. Roxas' words about her smile during their first meeting rang through her head, causing her to blush a bit. But her thoughts went interrupted as she felt a vibration coming from her phone.

MOM : Are you on your way home?

I'm just about to leave

Naminé got from the bench and turned towards Roxas. Lucikly, he seemed to get what she was about to say as he stared at the sky.

"Yeah it is getting late, let's get going," he said as he put his book back into his bag and stood up from the bench. "I'll walk you home," he offered.

Naminé responded by shaking her head and waving her heads, trying to convey the message of telling Roxas that it was fine and that he didn't have to follow her.

" It's fine," he assured, "I'm not in a hurry to get home anyway, besides," he puffed out his chest "how can I call myself a man if I don't walk a damnsel in distress," he put a fist on his chest. Naminé couldn't help but cringe at the moment as Roxas laughed at his joke. She quickly pulled out her phone.

"No really you don't have to, plus, you live further away from me anyway"

"That's good then! I could use the workout anyway," he joked.

She kept shaking her head as Roxas sighed, catching her off guard.

"So we gonna are argue here all day or are you going to walk home?" he snickered as he raised an eyebrow. Naminé merely rolled her eyes as she walked past Roxas towards the exit. Roxas placed his hands behind his head and whistled following her pace.

Minutes went by as Naminé could still hear Roxas' footsteps against the concrete behind her as they both walked in silence. Well, not complete silence as the air between them was filled with his whistling, although she really shouldn't be so surprised at his almost happy go lucky attitude.

"So you've been doing art ever since you were a kid?" he broke the almost complete silence. Naminé's body tensed up at the sudden question out of nowhere, but she just nodded.

"Woah, it's no surpise then you're so good at it. Meanwhile all I ever did binging Kingdom Hearts shows and games," he said. Naminé turned back and gave him a confused look. "Wait.. " his voice suddenly getting a serious tone, "Don't tell me you never watched Kingdom Hearts!" he cried.

The artistic girl just shook her head as Roxas eyes widened.

"Man, you're missing out, Kingdom Hearts is the greatest show ever made in the history of shows made by mankind!" he praised as he raised his hands up, eyes practically turning into stars. Naminé sweatdropped at his kid persona.

"You should really give it a try! Everything about it is amazing! The music, the characters design, the story, the visuals, it's all amazing!" he exclaimed as he walked up until he was next to Naminé. They were already walking her on he street.

"By the way" she typed "Don't forget about your end of the deal" She showed the phone towards him. Roxas smiled.

"Don't worry, besides, you can count today as your first lesson," he smiled.

Naminé tilted her head in confusion as Roxas lowered his face a bit.

"The first step, is to show the real you," he explained. "I really don't want to sound like a stalker but in school, everytime I look at you, it's hard to say but it's like seeing a different person compared to when I see you when you're doing art," he explained.

Who knew someone who acted like a kid for awhile could be this wise?

Naminé typed on her phone.

"What do you mean different? How am I any different?"

Roxas scratched the back of head.

"Well the way I see it, whenever you're in school, you always keep to yourself, and do everything alone. Whenever I walk around and you're there, I always here people talking about you," his face got serious, "and not in a good way,"

Naminé was about to respond by typing out her message but her arm was stopped by Roxas' hand.

"Let me finish," he continued, "But when you're here, outside of school. I've seen the way you react when you see my art," he snickered "when you're teaching me, when you're doing art, it's like I have a feeling like I'm seeing the real you," he smiled. "And you should do that more often, don't hide yourself behind a mask, you wanna make friends, show them the real you,"

No words formed in her head. Particularly because she had no idea how to respond or what to say. Hearing his words, it made her reflect on herself, and she couldn't help but to think that he had a point. In school, she was just someone who hated everything, but outside, she was someone who couldn't wait to do art. Art was her escape from this harsh reality.

"Oh yeah I forgot!" he suddenly exclaimed as he reached into his pocket. "Let's exchange our IDs, it'll make things much more easier," he grinned as he opened his Chats application.

He did have a point. They only met at this time because they arranged a date and time during their previous meeting. Even she couldn't believe that it didn't hit her to at least use their phones as an easier means of communication. She merely nodded and they both exchanged their info.

"Done!" Roxas said. "So when do you want to-"

"NAMINÉ!" said girl's name was suddenly called out. Both teens turned towards a house that was a little but further away from them, but their attention was directed at a woman who just standing outside their door. Naminé's face was drained of color when she saw her mother waving her hand at her.

"Well, I guess that's my cue to leave," he remarked.

Naminé nodded quickly, her face turning red form embarrassment. Roxas turned around and was about to walk the other way but stopped.

"Don't forget what I said alright? I'm sure you can break out of your shell, I believe in you," he smiled as he waved at her, "See ya," and with that he left and turned the corner.

I believe in you.

His words floated along her as she felt her heart beat faster again. She wouldn't have known how long she would've stood there like an idiot if it wasn;t for her mother's shouting that she quickly turned around and headed back to her house.

A shower after a family dinner was much needed to relax herself.

Dinner was eventful tonight as the topic of the conversation was mostly because why did her mother walk out of the house to see her talking with another boy. Both parents gave mixed reactions. Her mother kept bothering her with questions about the boy while her father sounded like he wanted to interrogated the heck out of him. Oh well, what else would a police detective do?

In the end, it was the most tiring family dinner she ever felt. She opened the door to her bedroom and threw her towel to the laundry basket at the corner, immedietly lying flat on the bed. The bed was always her favourite place after something tiring. Especially after what happened before dinner.

Don't hide yourself behind a mask

Show them the real you

I believe in you

Why is it that his words seem to always leave their mark on her. Especially that last one, she couldn't believe it, someone actually believed in her. Someone who she doesn't even know so well has that much faith in her.

A vibration notification came from her phone. She raised her face up from the bed and grabbed her phone.

ROXAS : I have no idea how to start this conversation so have this sticker

The message was followed by an image of a cat holding up a peace sign with the caption "SUP".

Naminé stared at the message for awhile, before giving a smile.