Fast Food Madness: The Epic Return

Namine shut her eyes, hearing the rain still coming down outside. A soft rumble of thunder entered her ears, but she didn't budge, not like she would have a few months ago. Storms, though not pleasant, didn't frighten her. A lot of things didn't frighten her anymore; she had grown up and put most of her fears behind her. That was a big difference between who she was now and who she had been earlier that year.

 

The thunder caused a brief idea to pop into Roxas's head, one that would hide his negative attitude pretty well. After the rumble sounded, he turned his head to Namine, remembering that before he left she had hated thunderstorms. He saw that she hadn't budged and arched an eyebrow. What exactly had changed while he was gone? That was one question he was hoping he could actually get an answer to, unlike his other problems.

 

Namine kept her eyes shut as she exhaled a breath, unaware that Roxas was gazing at her with curiosity. She wondered in the back of her mind what the time was; she had been with Roxas since she had gotten home last evening, and she hadn't looked at a clock since then. And with the stormy weather outside, it was impossible to guess what time of day it was at that current moment. Of course, none of this mattered; she was just wondering.

 

"Namine, aren't you scared?" Roxas asked suddenly, the words leaving him without much thought. He was surprised that she was so calm. He remembered how tense she was during thunderstorms in the past, but now she seemed as calm as could be.

 

Namine opened her eyes at the question, somehow not surprised at Roxas' curiosity. Since the storm had been raging for a while, she had kind of been wondering when he would see how calm she was. "No," she answered calmly, still gazing up at the ceiling.

 

Roxas turned more toward her, eyes widened ever-so-slightly in surprise. "Since when?" he asked then. Things had changed while he was gone. It kind of saddened him, but things changed with him too. That would only be hypocritical.

 

Namine glanced over at Roxas before she looked back up at the ceiling, trying to remember when she had conquered her fear of storms. "About a month ago, I think," she said, shutting her eyes at a memory. "My family and I went camping in the mountains and we got trapped in a huge thunderstorm. We all hurried packing up our stuff and ran to the car, but I got lost in the woods," she said with a laugh, finding the situation humerus now that it was over. "And...well, I haven't been afraid of storms since."

 

Roxas's eyebrows furrowed at the story and he frowned slightly. "Oh," he said, turning to face forward again. Yeah, things were definitely different. If things had changed with Namine, he was waiting to see what had changed with his other friend, Kairi. This whole thing had to have been affecting her too...especially since Sora wasn't with Roxas.

 

Namine opened her eyes and looked over at Roxas, hearing the tone of voice he used. Apparently he didn't find the story very amusing. "It wasn't that bad," she said softly, trying to remedy the situation. "I found them again a minute or two later. Nothing bad happened." Except for the lightning scaring me half to death, she thought, staring back at the ceiling. "Well, if I survived a storm in these conditions, I can survive any storm without being afraid." Those were her thoughts at the time, and they hadn't left her since that day.

 

"That's good," Roxas acknowledged, glancing at Namine over his shoulder with a weak smile before looking back down at his lap, his smile fading. It seemed that Namine moved on without him, but he should be happy about that, right? She was strong enough to take care of herself. But still, the thought saddened him, along with other things. Nothing was the same anymore, not to him.

 

Namine lifted her head and moved her arms out from behind her head, sitting herself up slowly so that her head didn't spin. "What's wrong?" she asked softly, noticing that Roxas still didn't appear very happy. She turned her body so that she faced his back, though she was prepared to move if he still didn't look her in the eye.

 

Roxas naturally brought his hand up to fumble with his hair at the question. There were so many things wrong, but he couldn't tell Namine. Things would change even more between them, more than they had already. "Uh, nothing," he said, not looking at her. "I'm just gonna, um, go get you some more water." Yeah, go with that. He pushed himself up and, without looking at her, grabbed Namine's glass off her bedside table and started out of the room.

 

Namine frowned, tilting her head to the side at Roxas' hasty exit. Yeah, something's definitely not right, she realized sadly, gazing at the door. But...it wasn't her place to pry. If Roxas wanted to tell her, he would. Until then, she would just have to be patient. She sighed and looked over at the side of the bed, seeing the guitar sitting there. She reached down and grabbed it by its neck, sitting it in her lap as she naturally strummed a few strings.

 

Roxas traveled down the hallway, and once he got a good distance away from Namine's room, he sighed and closed his eyes briefly. What was he doing? If he was trying to hide things from Namine, he wasn't doing a very good job. He needed to think this idea through, and actually stick to it.

 

Namine aimlessly strummed a few strings, but then became restless. She didn't feel right, just sitting there. She pushed her legs off the side of the bed and walked over towards the corner of the room, setting the guitar gently in its stand. Then she took a few steps over and entered the bathroom that connected her room and went into the medicine cabinet, looking for a thermometer. She was beginning to sweat now despite the fact that she was freezing cold, so she guessed her fever was getting pretty bad again. The question was, how bad?

 

Roxas shook his head and ruffled his hair as he entered the kitchen, approaching the sink. He filled it with water and then stopped, not immediately going back to Namine's room. He set the glass down on and leaned against the counter, running his hands over his face.

 

Namine found the thermometer and stuck it underneath her tongue, waiting about twenty seconds before the device beeped. She took it out of her mouth and frowned, seeing that she had a pretty high fever. A sigh left her lips as she shook her head, setting the thermometer down by the sink before she left the room and returned to her bed. She sat herself down and pulled up her legs, wrapping her arms around them as she briefly shivered. I feel almost as badly as I did earlier, she thought sadly, shutting her eyes.

 

Okay, first thing's first. I can't tell Namine anything, at least not right now, Roxas told himself. Two, I need to act like nothing's wrong. However, he knew it wasn't going to be that easy, not unless he was playing his guitar. And three, take care of her first and worry about your other problems later. Roxas needed to focus on what was most important right now, and that was Namine's health.

 

Namine buried her head in her knees, feeling cold but not feeling like grabbing the sheets to warm herself. What she really wanted was for all of this to be over. Her cold, this time of hardship she was going through...the secrets she was keeping from Roxas...More had happened while he was gone than he knew about, and she was afraid to tell him about some things. Eventually the truth would come out, but for now, she would keep it to herself.

 

Roxas ran a hand through his hair and grabbed Namine's glass before heading out of the kitchen and back toward her room. Whatever. He'd figure everything out later, when things weren't so crazy. After all, he just got back, so things were likely to be a little disorderly. Wait until things really start rising to the surface, he thought, his attitude negative. He sighed and shook his head, turning into Namine's room from the hallway.