Fast Food Madness: The Epic Return

Namine turned her head at Roxas' chuckling, the boy successfully regaining her attention. "What is it?" she asked curiously, soft blue eyes gazing up at the bright blue she had grown to love so dearly.

 

Roxas let a chuckle go again as he turned to Namine. "I was just thinking about the piggy-back ride race we had in the park," he told her, as well as his other two friends, softly. His eyes darted to Kairi and Sora in time to see Kairi smile a little more.

Kairi felt her smile widen at the memory, the girl nodding. Yes, she remembered that. How could she forget? Sora had gone so fast, even with her added weight. That was also the time they all watched that beautiful sunset together.

 

Namine smiled up at Roxas, recalling that day. Yes, that had been a ton of fun. She always did love whenever she and her friends went to the park together.

Sora chuckled softly, eyes wandering up to the ceiling before he looked at his friends across the table. "That was fun," he said with a smile. He met Roxas' gaze and grinned. "You gonna ever challenge me to a rematch?" he inquired, recalling that he had won the race.

 

Roxas arched an eyebrow, looking up at the ceiling in thought. "Hmm... An average teenager against a speed demon..." He lowered his gaze to Sora. "Yeah, that's fair." His tone held sarcasm near the end, the boy giving Sora a look like, are you kidding me? He remembered how out of breath he had been after that race, but it had been close.

Kairi found herself chuckling at Roxas's expression and words. Sora was really fast, she had to admit to that. It didn't matter really, because Roxas had been right on Sora's tail with Namine.

 

Sora laughed softly at Roxas' comment. "Aw, come on," he said playfully. "It's not like you weren't right behind me," he said seriously. It had been a close race, and even when he had achieved sweet victory, he had realized that Roxas was close on his tail the whole time. He'd like to have a rematch to see if either of them had improved since then.

 

Kairi nodded in agreement. "He's right, Roxas," she said. "You were right behind us." Roxas was actually faster than she expected, but then again, so was Sora. The boys had stamina, that was for sure.

Roxas glanced from Sora to Kairi and then back again. He thought for a moment, his eyes locating the tablecloth. After a brief period of silence, a smile found his face and his eyes located Sora. "Alright, you're on," Roxas said finally, up for the challenge.

 

Namine smiled, a soft laugh leaving her lips. Boys will be boys, she mused, enjoying watching her friends having so much fun together. She was very fortunate that Roxas and Sora had each other; they both deserved good best friends, and that's what they were to each other.

Sora grinned, excited about Roxas accepting the challenge. "We'll have it someday soon," he promised. "Maybe we should wait for when it's not scorching hot out anymore," he said, recalling the weather forecast saying that the weather would be very hot this coming week.

 

Roxas nodded. "Right." He then tapped his chin, looking up at the ceiling. "I wonder what we're going to do since it's so hot out..." During the spring the weather had been perfect, but Sora was right--it had been hot lately. He was curious as to what they could do for the next few days if the temperature was going to be pretty high.

 

Sora looked down at the table, thinking. He subconsciously ran his thumb over Kairi's shoulder, not even realizing it at first. And then he suddenly got an idea. "The pool's open," he said, looking up at his friend across the table. "That would be a good way to escape the heat."

Namine smiled softly. The pool? That sounded like a great idea. She hadn't gone to the pool in a really long time, and it would be really refreshing if the temperatures were as high as what the weatherman was predicting.

 

Kairi turned to Sora. "Ooh, that sounds like fun," she said, expressing her thoughts. She couldn't remember the last time she had been at the pool, but it had been a while ago.

"Cool," Roxas said, smiling. "When would you guys want to go?" His eyes darted from the couple across the table to Namine, his hand still resting on her knee. After a second he looked back to the redhead and brunet in front of him. "Anytime is good for me."

 

"Me too," Namine said, relating to Roxas' statement. She didn't have any plans for this week--during the summer she tried to keep herself as free as possible so that she'd be available if something spontaneous came up.

Sora shrugged slightly. "I'm free whenever...we could just wait and call each other when we wanna go?" His suggestion was spoken like a question, but he was already pretty sure that his friends would agree with what he said.

 

Roxas smiled softly. "Sounds like a plan to me," he chimed enthusiastically. Man, he hadn't been to the pool since last summer. It'd been that long. He was already looking forward to it, because he knew there would be some excitement of some kind. There always was, whether it was a game they all played or a competition between Roxas and Sora. Something entertaining always came out of it.

 

Sora smiled. "Alright," he said. "Sounds like a plan." He was sure that whenever he got together with his friends again that it would be a great time. And even though he didn't know when they would go to the pool, he was already looking forward to it.

Later that night...

"Roxas, come on!" Namine whined playfully, standing by the back door of her house. She had just brought Roxas to her house after leaving the restaurant (Sora and Kairi had left to go to their own homes) and she had come up with the idea to show him something spectacular. But now he was taking his time petty Ty just to tease her. If she wasn't so excited over what she had to show him, maybe she would have been annoyed. But then she realized it wasn't possible to be annoyed with Roxas, who was so incredibly good to her.

 

Roxas remained on one knee, his elbow propped up on his knee while his other hand scratched Ty behind one ear. He fought the urge to chuckle at Namine, a smirk forming on his lips as he glanced up. She was just a little ways away, her voice reaching him as she stood by the back door. He wasn't sure what it was she wanted to show him, but she was obviously very excited about it. Roxas looked at Ty and shook his head. "Girls," he muttered to the dog, who simply wagged his tail as Roxas gave him one last scratch on the head before standing up.

 

Namine huffed, folding her arms across her front. She had already turned on some of the lights that went around the garden she wanted to show Roxas, so there was nothing left for her to do now but wait. Gosh, Roxas really had a way of testing her patience! But it was all in good nature, of course. If he was really worried about offending her, he would have come right over. No, their relationship was much more relaxed than that.

 

Roxas straightened and met Namine's gaze. He started toward her, an innocent grin spreading across his face. He was just kidding, and he knew that she understood that. They had a fun night with Sora and Kairi, and all of that playfulness was still somewhere within him. It was just coming out now as well.

 

When Roxas came near enough to her, Namine scowled playfully and lightly hit his shoulder. "You get all that playfulness out of your system now?" she asked teasingly, her scowl turning into a smile. She just couldn't stop smiling with her excitement; she had a feeling Roxas would really enjoy this. He always did take surprises much better than she did.

 

Roxas chuckled. "Yes, ma'am. The teasing and taunting has left my being," he replied with a grin. He looked into Namine's eyes, locating some excitement within them. "Now, what is it that you are so eager to show me?" Roxas was very curious, actually. Whatever was outside was obviously supposed to appeal to him. He just couldn't think of what it could be...

 

Namine laughed softly, thinking that now she could keep Roxas waiting just like he had kept her waiting. But she didn't want to do that; she wanted to show him how beautiful the garden was her father had recently had installed. "Well," she started, getting back to the topic at hand. "I'd tell you to close your eyes, but you'd probably trip going down the steps," she said with a smile. "So I'll just open the door and keep it simple."

 

Roxas crossed his arms, giving Namine a look accompanied by an arched eyebrow. "So you think I'm that much of a klutz, huh?" he checked, teasing her a little more. The smirk he held showed his playfulness, surely something appropriate for now. But whatever Namine wanted to show him, well, he didn't know if that really required his ability to be silly. Regardless, he was going to go along with what she insisted upon and see what was really behind the door.