Blood Types

All individuals have one of four blood types: A, B, AB and O. To determine your blood type, obtain a drop of your blood from your thumb using a sterilised lancet... Heh, it turned out that the girls weren't the only ones who were afraid of needles.

--

The clean biology lab was noisy that morning. The students there were excited, indeed – last week, their teacher said that they would be dissecting rats. Roxas had absolutely no problem with the idea of cutting open a rat's stomach and taking out its organs – in fact, all the boys were excited about it, but the girls were a little bit concerned. Selphie admitted that she actually had no appetite last night when she thought about the experiment, but Kairi had a totally different problem: she was an animal lover.

"It's for the sake of science, Kairi," said Sora, "so it's totally fine! I'm sure the rat will understand."

"Yeah, Kairi," said Roxas, "my friend already did this experiment last week – she said she asked the rat whether it's okay for her to cut open its stomach, and the rat said it understood that its death is for the greater good. No problems there!"

"Ha-ha, very funny," said Kairi. "I still don't think I can do it..."

Sora suddenly grinned. "Are you sure you're feeling sorry for the rat? Or are you just scared of all the blood?"

Several guys snickered at this and exchanged high-fives with Sora.

"She's not afraid of blood, Sora," said Naminé calmly as she scribbled something in her notebook. Everyone turned to look at her and she shut her notebook. Raising her eyebrows, she asked, "Have you forgotten who cleaned your bloody cut when you fell off your skateboard last Tuesday in front of our house?"

Roxas laughed at this. "Oh, man! I totally forgot about that – I actually have a picture of you falling, Sora!"

"You cleaned his wounds?" said Selphie. "That's so romantic!"

"Well, if you must know, Sora was whimpering all the time when I cleaned his wound."

"No, I was not!"

"Yes, you were."

The two of them argued for a while. Roxas turned to Naminé and murmured, "Was he really whimpering?"

The quiet Naminé merely gave him a small, "Mm-hm." Roxas grinned while she returned to her notebook. Roxas watched as she slowly began to sketch a rat.

"So, are you nervous about this experiment?" he asked her after a while.

"To tell you the truth, I did lose my appetite a bit at first," she admitted, "but after a while I got used to the idea."

Roxas said nothing. Naminé was indeed very different from her cousin, Kairi: the latter was friendly and talkative – the former was friendly, too, but she was quieter. Roxas, being Sora's twin, was used to talking to Kairi, but not to Naminé. Sometimes he really wanted to have a conversation with her, but he just didn't know how to start one. He had discovered a year ago that he had problems approaching Naminé. Not because she wouldn't open up to him, but because of his nerves. His stomach would do this weird back-flip whenever he tried to approach her.

"What about you?" Naminé suddenly asked.

"Eh?"

"Are you nervous about dissecting a rat?"

Roxas didn't have the chance to reply, because right after that, their biology teacher entered the lab. Everyone scrambled back to their seats.

"Good morning, class."

"Good – morning – Mr. – Ansem!" the class replied enthusiastically.

"Well, settle down everyone," said Mr. Ansem, "for I have something to inform you: we will not be dissecting any rats today—"

The class began to moan and groan at this.

"But we've already read the lab manual on that experiment!"

"I didn't eat my dinner last night because of this! You can't cancel it now!"

"Calm down, everyone!" said Mr. Ansem. "I'm very sorry, but there's nothing we can do about it. It turns out that another class had booked the rats first—"

"Don't we have enough rats?"

"What? I didn't know we need to make an appointment with the rats just so we could dissect it!"

"Can we dissect kittens instead? My cat's given birth to six kittens yesterday – I can run home and grab them."

"Ew! That's cruel!"

"Can't the other class give us half of the rats? We could share!"

"Yeah, sharing is caring!"

Then everyone started to talk at the same time: the boys were very disappointed, but the girls were very relieved. Mr. Ansem shook his head before addressing his class, "People! I am very sorry about this, but I promise you we'll do this experiment next week. Now I have a question for you: how many of you know for sure what your blood type is?"

This managed to take his students' minds off of the rat topic: some of his pupils raised their hands confidently, while others did so hesitantly. Most of them merely looked at each other before shaking their heads, Roxas among them.

"Well now – I see most of you don't really know yourselves!" said Mr. Ansem. "Then I have good news for you: today, we'll do a simple experiment about the human blood group. Turn to page twenty-two of your lab manuals, please."

The lab was filled with the sound of pages being turned. The students soon agreed that this experiment was indeed simple, and reading the instructions merely took about five minutes. Soon, the lab was once more filled with excited voices. However, if anyone ever bothered to observe Roxas' face, they'd notice that his face had turned white.

"If everyone's finished reading the instructions, please gather around my table so I could demonstrate the proper ways of doing this experiment – I don't want any accidents happening during the experiment, are we clear?"

The class ignored his warning as they approached the teacher's table, chatting excitedly.

"Now – in the old days, you'd have to jab your finger with this," said Mr. Ansem, showing the class a small needle-like thing with a blue plastic holder at one end. "But nowadays, we have this device here—"

Roxas, who stood at the back, had to crane his neck to look. Mr. Ansem was holding something that looked like a pen.

"This device works very much like a pen where you have to click before writing. If you click a pen, the ballpoint tip would come out of the plastic casing. The same thing applies here – if you click this button here while pressing the device against your thumb, the lancet would come forth and jab your thumb."

"Sir, would it hurt, sir?" Tidus asked.

"Yes, it would. Many had died from this experiment," said their teacher seriously. Everyone exploded with laughter.

"...Ha-ha," said Roxas nervously, eyeing his classmates to see if anyone was as nervous as he was. Unfortunately, everyone seemed excited about it, even the girls.

"Now – everyone clear on this? Yes? Very well, you may start now. Lancets are over there, people."

Everyone began to take take one lancet each before returning to their desks. Roxas took one, too, and slowly walked back to his seat.

"If any of you ladies are too scared to do this experiment alone," Mr. Ansem suddenly announced, "you may pair up with someone."

More laughter filled the lab, but to Roxas' relief, people actually started to pair up with their friends. He was glad to see that Sora had already paired up with Tidus. He couldn't accept the idea of being teased by Sora...

He then deliberately walked to the back of the lab and sat there for a while, observing anyone who hadn't had any partners.

Kairi was with Selphie... Xion with Pence... Hayner with Olette... Hmm...

"Hello, Roxas."

"Eep!"

Naminé giggled at his reaction. She was holding the pen-like device in one hand, and a white tile and three small bottles of something in another. "Have you gotten your lancet?"

"Err – yeah, yeah I have," he said, showing the pen-like device.

"Oh, good," she said, "Tidus and Sora are goofing around, as usual. They've taken five lancets each."

Roxas looked at Sora and Tidus: all five of Tidus' fingers were bleeding at the tip, and he was saying, "Oh, Edward, turn me into a vampire! Then we can live happily foreva! Doesn't my blood smell good to you?"

"I can't Bella," Roxas heard Sora said, "I'm too dangerous – stay away from me! By the way, wanna go out shopping with me today? We can buy some sparkly clothes."

Both Sora and Tidus began to cackle, but Mr. Ansem saw what they did and they hastily cleaned up as Mr. Ansem began to approach their table.

"Err – can I pair up with you?" Roxas blurted out. Naminé seemed surprised at this.

"Me?"

"Yeah, you."

"Sure, okay," she said, smiling brightly. She placed everything on the table and began to read the instructions aloud:

"'Sterilise your thumb with ethanol. Obtain a drop of blood from your thumb with sterilise lancet.' Okay..." She wiped her thumb with a piece of cotton soaked with ethanol. Then, set the device against her thumb. Before she could press the button to set the lancet forth to poke her thumb, she turned to Roxas. "Or d'you want to go first?"

"Err – nah, you go on."

"Okay."

Calmly, she pressed the button.

"Argh!" she half-shouted.

"What? What? Naminé? A-are you okay? Does it hurt?" Roxas asked in a panicked voice, grabbing her hand to observe it. "Oh, jeez you're bleeding – hang on—"

He let the tap water run and placed Naminé's hand under the running water. He then turned to see if she was okay – to his surprise, Naminé was actually giggling.

"Wha...?"

"I – I'm sorry!" she said in between giggles. "I...was...only joking!"

Roxas groaned. He couldn't believe he actually fell for that! "Naminé, you scared me!" he said, smiling weakly. "Don't do that again!"

"I won't, I won't," she promised, returning to her usual quiet self. "Why did you wash away the blood? Now I have to do it all over again..."

"Well, that's your fault."

She grinned as she reset the device. This time, she didn't shout.

"'Squeeze three separate drops of blood onto a clean white tile'," she read on before proceeding with the experiment. "'Using different droppers, put a drop of anti-A serum, anti-B serum and anti-RH serum on each drops of blood.' Pass me the droppers, please, Roxas."

He passed her the droppers and observed as she carried out the experiment.

"'Using a clean toothpick, mix the blood with the serum. Observe any agglutination of blood cells.'"

She mixed the serum with the blood.

"Says here if agglutination occurs with anti-A serum, your blood type is A. If it occurs with anti-B serum, it's blood type B. If it occurs in both, it's AB. If nothing happens, it's O," said Roxas. "If agglutination occurs with anti-RH, it's positive. If nothing happens, it's negative."

They waited a bit, and nothing happened. No agglutinations were observed.

"Then, my blood type is O-," said Naminé happily before scribbling something in her notebook. "Okay, your turn, Roxas."

Almost at once, Roxas felt nervous again. "Uh, yeah. About that..."

"What's wrong?" she asked, cocking her head to one side. Roxas swallowed, and looked around to make sure no one was eavesdropping. Sora and Tidus were being lectured by Mr. Ansem, so he decided that the situation was safe.

"Umm – Naminé, can you keep a secret?" he began.

"Yeah, I can, if I have any available space in by brain," she replied. Roxas frowned. "It's filled with Kairi's secrets," she explained, pointing at her head. "Anyway, yes, you can trust me."

"Alright...well..." He took a deep breath, and leaned towards Naminé a little. "I have problems with...you know – needles."

"Ah," said Naminé, nodding.

"You're not gonna laugh?"

"No."

An awkward silence took over between them, and Roxas felt himself going red in the face. Here he was, admitting to someone that he had been fancying for a year that he was afraid of needles! Was he out of his mind or something?

"Well...thanks for listening... So...yeah... I don't think I can—"

"I'm sorry if I scared you earlier with my little joke," Naminé said, "but really, it doesn't hurt at all. Here—"

Calmly, she took his hand and wiped some ethanol on his thumb before pressing the pen-like device against his thumb. Almost immediately, Roxas jumped off his stool and tried to yank his hand away from Naminé.

"I really don't think it's a good idea—"

"Honestly, it's like being bitten by an ant," she assured him as her grasp became firmer.

"A-are you sure? Wait – wait, wait, how does it feel like to be bitten by an ant?"

"It doesn't hurt that much," she replied. "If you keep squirming like this, Sora and Tidus will notice. Look, they're staring at you now."

"What?" Roxas turned to look at Sora and Tidus' table. The two of them were being watched by Mr. Ansem, and they weren't staring at him at all. "No, they're not staring at m—"

Suddenly, he felt a small sharp pain on his thumb. He gave a small yelp and quickly pulled his hand away from Naminé's. He observed his thumb. It was bleeding.

"Quick, three drops on the tile," Naminé said calmly, setting down the pen-like device before handing his the white tile. He did as she instructed. "See? It wasn't that hard, was it?"

"Huh...I guess not," he said, observing his thumb before turning his attention to Naminé. "You really are full of surprises, you know."

"Thank you. You're not the first to think that," she said. She was already mixing the serum with his blood. "Your blood type is A+."

"Okay, class!" Mr. Ansem said suddenly. "We're going to calculate the percentage of students belonging to each blood group now. Please settle down and raise your hands when I announce the blood group. Very well... A+? ...Five people... A-?"

The class went on in this boring manner, so Roxas had ample time to steal glances at Naminé from his seat. She was talking and giggling with Kairi at the moment, and the sight of her laughing automatically made him smile.

"Hello? Roxas! Anyone home? Why are you grinning like an idiot?"

He watched as Naminé collected her stuff and stood up with the rest of the class.

"Yo! Mr. Ansem said class is dismissed!"

"Huh? What – what?"

Sora frowned at him before following his gaze. His frown immediately disappeared as he grinned. "Ah...stalking someone are we now?"

Roxas rolled her eyes and collected his things. Sora, being his twin brother, knew that he actually fancied the quiet Naminé, and had been persuading him to 'go for it' for a year now. "We paired up for the experiment just now."

"Oh, no way!" Sora gasped. "Dude, this is, like, a great progression! How come I didn't realise you guys paired up?"

"You were too busy being Edward Cullen, remember?"

"Oh yeah. Heh, you saw us, eh? Eh? How was my acting? Good, right? I can totally replace Robert Pattison, right?"

"Psh, as if."

Sora opened his mouth to argue, but at the moment the girls walked past them. Naminé was one of those girls. Upon seeing Roxas, she smiled and said, "It was nice doing the experiment with you today, Roxas."

Roxas merely smiled back like an idiot and watched as she walked away.

"That's it?"

"What?"

"You didn't even come up with a reply!" Sora hissed.

"Well, what am I supposed to say?" Roxas snapped back, feeling himself going red again.

"I dunno, tell her she's lovely or something!"

"I can't tell her th—"

Here, Sora gave him a hard push and he stumbled forward, towards Naminé.

"—That...!" Roxas finished. Naminé stared at him.

"Hello again, Roxas. That what?" she asked.

"H-huh?"

"You said 'that' just now."

"Err – nothing, forget it," he said quickly, grinning. Naminé chuckled, shaking her head. "Well...actually, I wanted to say thanks."

"You're welcome," she said, smiling.

"I was being such a baby back there..."

"Nah, you weren't. I mean, it's normal to be afraid of something. And you've been very kind to me today. Thank you for pairing up with me – people hardly ever do that. I guess they never notice me."

"I've always noticed you!" Roxas immediately said. He didn't want her to think that he hadn't noticed her all this while. Naminé turned pink at his words. "Well, it's true. I've always noticed you but I just...didn't know how to approach you, that's all."

She shrunk away from him, hugging her books tightly and looking away. Her face was slowly turning from pink to red.

"Like I said earlier, you're actually full of surprises," Roxas went on. He didn't want Naminé to shut herself down. "You should show that side of Naminé more, you know," he said casually. She smiled a small smile.

"You think?" she asked, looking at him.

"Yeah," he said, and without warning, he leaned in and kissed her on the cheek. "Because I kinda sorta like people who are full of surprises."

Naminé stopped walking, her face as red as the reddest tomato Roxas had ever seen. All around them, classmates who saw what Roxas just did started to whistle and cheer.

"Y...you know something?" Naminé began in a small voice.

"What's that?"

"I'm glad you told me about your fear of needles," she said, "because I kinda sorta like honest people." With that, she stood on tiptoes and kissed him back on the cheek. More people cheered.

"Way to go, Roxas and Naminé! Woo-hoo!" Sora shouted.

"This is a thousand times better than Edward and Bella!" Tidus piped in.

"Shut up, Tidus!" said Selphie. "How could you compare this to something like that?"

"Oh, be quiet, you!"

Mr. Ansem suddenly poked his head out of the biology lab. "People! What's all the noise about?"

"Roxas and Naminé just kissed each other, sir!" Tidus said, grinning. Mr. Ansem rolled his eyes.

"Okay, I do not want to know," he said before disappearing into the biology lab once more, and Naminé and Roxas walked together all the way out of school, holding each other's hands as they did so.

A/N:

Hello, everyone. :) How are you? Thank you for reading this fanfic! Did you enjoy it? Please tell me what you think of it.

I did this experiment a while ago. It actually hurt when the lancet jabs your thumb... D: