"It will be fun, trust me."

What a lie.

Naminé should have declined when he said, "Trust me." No one said trust me unless they knew they wouldn't get that trust any other way.

(Two hours earlier)

She stepped down the Gummiship gangplank to a group of smiling faces, and she couldn't help but smile herself. Every week, a different member of the Twilight Town gang claimed her time, and she cherished it dearly. Pence taught her photography. Olette took her all around town and introduced her to the townspeople. Sometimes they even did charity work. Xion spent their weekends together just catching up. Former Nobody to Nobody.

And speaking of former Nobodies…It seemed like it had been a long time since she spent any time with Roxas. After everything that happened, they never got a chance to clear the air. Maybe she was paranoid, but it seemed like he did not want to talk to her. If that was the case, then she would not force him to do anything.

It just, well, it hurt. Naminé cherished Roxas as a friend, but in recent months, it felt like something changed. There was some tension. She let out a long sigh. Maybe she was simply overreacting.

—

Meanwhile, Roxas was having a crisis of his own. She looks ethereal, he thought as she exited the Gummiship, her blond hair waving in the wind. As usual when Naminé visited, the entire gang showed up to welcome her. Even if everyone else didn't come, he would be here to welcome her. Lea had teased him about it. Naminé once went head to head with Ansem the Wise; she didn't need a welcoming party from Roxas. He didn't have the guts to tell anyone that he just wanted to be near her, to spend time with her.

Sigh. It was his main problem. Everyone wanted to spend time with Naminé. She was magnetic. Who was he to demand more of her time. The others had more to share with her. Hayner, Pence, and Olette taught her what normal kids did for fun. Xion was practically Namine's best friend. Heck, even Lea and Isa showed Naminé different cooking techniques. All Roxas knew was how to wave a Keyblade around.

"Hey," Xion said, nudging him. "What's wrong?"

He shook his head. "Nothing, don't worry," he tried to reassure her. "Try" was the operative word because Naminé sent him a stray smile, and he could feel the blood rush straight to his cheeks. He thought he turned away quickly enough, but it was too late.

"Lea says that blushing means you're embarrassed or you're smitten." She pointed out.

Roxas covered his burning face and hissed, "I am not smitten!"

Xion giggled. "It's okay to have a crush, Roxas."

"It's not a crush… It's more than that." He glanced at Naminé once again. "What use do I have in her life? I can't offer anything to her."

"You don't need to have a use in someone's life to be in it," she said softly. "Your friendship is a good start."

He groaned and looked at Xion. She had a mischievous twinkle in her eye. "Xion, no," he warned.

"Xion, yes. Hey Naminé!" She yelled out to their friends. "Roxas says that it's his turn to spend time with you!"

Every single person turned to stare at him. Everyone but Naminé wore a similar grin.

Lea spoke first. "We take up enough of her time. Let Roxas have some one on one time." He elbowed Isa, who wore a slight smirk as well.

Roxas swore he would get his revenge on the two of them, but all his ill will went out the window in the next minute. Naminé stood in front of him, palms together in anticipation. She looked the same as that first day they truly met. She smiled like they were sharing a secret. He wished he knew what that secret was. All Roxas knew right now was that his new heart was thumping loudly inside his chest.

His heart might have worked overtime, and it was probably due to his brain malfunctioning. There was no other reason he would have said what he then blurted out.

"I'm going to teach you how to skateboard."

Roxas heard the collective groan behind Naminé, but he ignored it in favor of her widening smile and her soft but firm, "Yes."

—

Naminé started to regret her snap enthusiasm earlier when she agreed to this venture. Roxas did not look like he was feeling well. She thought she even heard him stammer a bit. She wasn't sure what she should do. They currently stood at the top of Station Hill near the garage. Roxas outfitted her in plenty of safety precautions, but he still looked nervous. He kept pacing back and forth.

"Roxas, we don't have to do this if you're not comfortable," Naminé spoke up.

He stopped pacing and furrowed his brow. "What? No, I'm fine. I just want to make- I don't want anything to wrong." She assumed he meant to reassure her, but it had the opposite effect.

"Wrong?" She echoed.

Roxas groaned and dropped his head in his hands. After a few seconds, he lifted it up again and smiled. "I haven't taught anyone to skateboard yet. But don't worry! I'm an expert. It will be fun. Trust me." He pulled the skateboard toward them with his foot.

She put her foot on it just as she had seen him do countless times before; that's when everything went downhill. Literally. She stepped on it with a little too much force and went forward a little too quickly. Neither of them realized it, but Naminé began to roll down Station Hill, and she had no control. (This was the exact moment she rued listening to "Trust me" from a cute boy) Luckily before she could careen off the flimsy board, Roxas grabbed her around the waist and pulled her tightly against him. His skateboard continued forward with momentum without a care to the disaster that almost happened.

"This is not a great start to the lesson," she said into his shirt. Her voice was muffled by the fabric due to how tightly he grasped her to him. She felt his heartbeat against her cheek, in sync with her own.

He let out a deep breath and loosened his grip. His blue eyes met her own. "No it isn't. Are you okay?" Roxas asked quietly. If not for the unusual emptiness of the hill, she doubt she would have heard him.

"I'm fine, but maybe teaching isn't your strong suit." She smiled at him, but he did not answer. "Hey, it's okay. I am fine."

Roxas stood silently and averted his eyes. "Then what good am I?"

His words shocked her. "Excuse me? I must not have heard you correctly."

"You get so much out of spending time with the others. They have experiences and skills that they share with you. The only thing I can share with you is hurt, it seems." Roxas clenched his fists to his side and bowed his head.

Naminé stepped back and crossed her arms. "Take that back. Right now." Anger coursed through her words.

He shook his head. "It's true. I am-" He stopped when she punched him in the arm. "Ow!"

"Well you said that you only share hurt. I returned the favor."

"That's not what I meant!" He said exasperated.

Naminé chose her next words carefully. She needed to; obviously he got his obliviousness from his Other. "Did you know that this is where we first met? In the virtual Twilight Town, that is."

"Of course I do," he mumbled.

"I tricked Ansem that morning. We were so close to finishing Sora, and all I wanted to do was meet you."

"Why?"

"You fought so hard for your existence. You fought against everyone who told us that we shouldn't exist." Now Naminé looked at her shoes. "I believed that I would be better with Kairi. But you, you were so stubborn. You let me think that maybe…maybe I could be myself one day." She took his hand.

"Then we returned to Sora and Kairi," He continued. "I thought you were happy with that."

She shook her head. "I accepted it. Unfortunately, there was a wayward Nobody that taught me that maybe we didn't have to stay that way. Because of him, Sora, Kairi, and Riku worked so hard to bring me back. I thought everyone only wanted Roxas."

He gasped. "That's not true!"

Naminé softly smiled. "I know now. But I need you to know that while the others can teach me things I don't know as my own person, you were the reason I survived as a Nobody." She dropped his hand and wrapped her arms around his torso. "Thank you, Roxas." She laid her head on his shoulder.

He held her against him once more and rested his chin on her blond hair. "Thank you too. I'm sorry that I almost broke your neck on Station Hill."

She pulled away to make a quip when she saw the redness on his cheeks. "Oh Roxas, you're blushing again. You know Lea says that a blush indicates-"

He cut her off and said, "Yes we all know what Lea said about blushing. Don't look at me."

Naminé laughed heartily and blushed a pretty pink herself. "Oh no, I'm blushing as well! Whatever does that mean?" She said dramatically with her hands on her cheeks and a sly grin.

Roxas glanced at her and started to laugh as well. "I guess we'll just have to blush together." He pulled her against his side and began to walk down the hill to retrieve the skateboard.

She moved closer into the embrace and asked, "Since education isn't part of today or your future, can we get some sea salt ice cream?"

To his credit, he didn't respond to the jibe about his teaching skills. "No problem. I know the best place in town to eat it as well." Roxas smiled down at her, and Namine couldn't help but grin in return.

"It's a date." She admitted to herself that she really liked seeing the way his blush even reached his ears.