like we promised.

A promise is a promise and Naminé would stay true to any that she’d make.

It seemed like months passed since Xion perished, but it was only two weeks, and Naminé only managed to keep an eye on Roxas from afar. She could tell from his new and happier lifestyle that the memories of being a Nobody and a member of Organization XIII didn’t seem to exist to him at all. She became a bit envious since she wished she could live that carelessly as if there wasn’t a worry in the world, but she couldn’t because she had so much at stake. Naminé didn’t want to risk interrupting Roxas’ new life, so she kept a distance between them as each day went passed, and tried to blend in with the rest of the civilians in Twilight Town, acting as if she just so happened to be strolling through or shopping around the district.

Naminé didn’t want to seem like what others would refer to as a ‘stalker’, but she had no other way of watching over him; she had no other way of fulfilling Xion’s dying wish. Each day just got more difficult for her to keep an eye on him, especially at one point when the leader of the group – a male with dirty blonde, wavy hair that wore green camouflage pants – seemed to have pointed out to Roxas that Naminé has been staring at him frequently.

Embarrassed, Naminé decided to change her pattern and only visit Twilight Town every few days. She dedicated her free time to drawing or restoring Sora’s memories. That was her main purpose, but before she knew it, she started to find herself being more interested and committed to watching out for Roxas. She wasn’t just doing it for Xion any longer, but for Roxas’ sake, too.

Naminé has only been able to watch him from afar, but she already cared for him; she valued him; she wanted to protect him.

One afternoon, Naminé had decided to take a small walk throughout Twilight Town since it had been days since she last saw Roxas and grew curious on what he was up to with his friends. They, along with many others, were located in the Sandlot practicing for an event called a ‘Struggle’ Tournament. She watched on the sidelines until Roxas and his friends seemed like they were ready to leave. Right before she was about to walk off, she looked over at Roxas once more and, to her surprise, found him looking right back at her, too. Their eyes met for what seemed like an eternity until Naminé forced her eyes to look away as she walked off in a hurry motion. However, she didn’t get too far before a voice called out to her.

“Hey, wait up!” He called out, running up to her from behind. Naminé hesitated before turning around, frighteningly expecting Roxas and his friends to stand there with arms crossed and looks of suspicion and anger, but when she did so, slowly, there was no one else besides Roxas – smiling. He took a few more steps towards her, scratching the back of his head, eyes looking away from her for a moment. She could tell he was trying to find words to say without sounding weird. “Um, hi.”

The blonde Nobody felt herself grow confused. Why was he suddenly talking to her? Surely he would have recognized her by now if he managed to notice how often she was looking at him. Was he trying to avoid the topic of that? Or did he simply just have a bad memory?

Roxas quickly seemed to have noticed the stunned look on her face and decided to keep speaking, hoping to make more sense. “Look,” He sighed. “I’ve seen you around, and even Hayner – Uh, my friend – pointed you out before, staring at us. He said I should try talking to you, and right when I was planning to you suddenly disappeared for days.” His facial expression changed into a worried look. “Did something happen?”

Naminé’s cheeks started to burn a light shade of red from his sudden concern. This wasn’t what she expected. Where was the angry yelling; the crossed arms; the looks of disapproval? None of it was happening and his suddenly worry towards Naminé trying to avoid being creepy threw her off guard. Was this why Xion wanted Naminé to watch over him? Was this what Naminé wanted to protect? Naminé found herself staring too long until she broke out into a fit of giggles, covering her mouth to muffle the sound. The look of concern that Roxas had changed into a smile of relief; he knew there wasn’t anything to worry about.

Instead of interrogating her with questions on her past actions, he skipped to the introductions, although she had known all along whom he was. “I’m Roxas. And you are…?”

“My name is Naminé.” She replied with the most polite tone she could think of and a friendly smile to suit it.

“Naminé, huh?” He repeated, crossing his arms and closing his eyes for a second. The look on his face made Naminé think if he had heard of her name elsewhere, but there wasn’t any possible way he could have. Unless he suddenly remembered something of the Organization, which she doubted, there was no way he could have recognized her as anyone other than the ‘girl that kept looking at him’. He relaxed his posture and stared back at her. “It’s nice to meet you, Naminé.”

The blonde female gave him a small nod. “It’s nice to meet you, too, Roxas.”

Unable to think of anything else to say, there was a moment of silence as the both of them just stared at each other.

“So, Naminé–” Roxas started again, attempting to break the silence. His body suddenly stiffened before asking her the question. “Do you want to go grab a sea-salt ice cream, or something?” An unnoticeable shade of pink took over his cheek and he even looked away, shy to look direction at the blonde girl before him. He gave off an awkward laugh before Naminé could reply to him. However, Naminé’s expression showed that she didn’t understand that he was technically asking her out on a small date. Either that or she just didn’t know what a sea-salt ice cream was. Actually, she didn’t really know what it even was. It didn’t take a minute for Roxas to understand that and he immediately ran off.

“Wait right there!” He shouted as he turned a corner, leaving Naminé dumb-founded.

Within a matter of minutes, Roxas has turned with a small treat in his hand that Naminé assumed to be one of the famous sea-salt ice creams. What bothered her, though, was that he had only bought one.

“I only had enough munny to buy one, so here.” He explained, trying to hand it to her, but she lifted her hands in front of her, shaking her head ‘no’.

“I can’t, Roxas. You have it.” Naminé declined. She slowly folded her hands over her chest, tilting her head and giving him a small smile of gratefulness. “Thank you, though.”

“No way, I bought this for you.” He shouted, eyes and mouth widening from the shock. She wasn’t surprised by his reaction. Sea-Salt Ice Cream was a well-known treat throughout Twilight Town that even visitors would grab one or two before leaving. If you didn’t have at least one while being here, then there had to be something wrong with you because it was too good not to try. To Naminé, however, it just wasn’t something that came to her mind while staying here.

Again, she declined his offer.

“Come on, Naminé.” Roxas said in a sweet tone as he slipped off the wrapper. His eyes shifted from the ice cream and looked into Naminé’s blue orbs. She felt like she was under some frozen spell, unable to look away from him. He reached the Popsicle out to her to take a bite, smiling. “Try it.”

With those words, Naminé could finally understand what he had meant to Xion – and now to her.

She knew for a fact now that she wanted to protect him –