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We've narrowed it down to two wonderful candidates for our Valentine's Day theme! Originally this was supposed to go up Monday, but some last minute judging was required to come to this decision. Thanks so much for all the entries and please feel free to vote on these lovely pieces!
The next theme will be announced on Monday, March 4th, 2013!
Alright onto the next entry!
Thanks again and happy voting ♥
The next theme will be announced on Monday, March 4th, 2013!
Spoiler ShowYoung Love
On the shores of Destiny Island, Roxas was walking through the water with his hands in his pockets, deep in thought. 'What is Valentine's Day? I wish Axel was here to explain it to me.'
"Roxas!"
Upon hearing his name called, the boy jerked his head up to see Namine standing before him, waving her hand in front of his eyes to get his attention.
"Hey Namine. Did you need something?" he asked, a smile forming on his face.
"No. I was just seeing what you were doing." she replied with a shake of her head.
Roxas felt his heart pounding hard against his chest, finding the small shake of Namine's head rather cute. 'Why is my heart beating so fast?' he thought, feeling his face warm up and tried to cover it up by bringing a hand over his mouth.
"You feeling okay over there, Roxas?" called out Sora, grinning ear to ear.
Roxas eyes flickered over to Sora in annoyance, who was standing across from Riku in the sand with his wooden sword hanging by his side. The both of them sharing an amused look on their faces. As if they were let in on some secret Roxas didn't know.
About to retort, a cool hand touched his forehead; silencing the young teen and bringing his attention back to the girl standing in front of him.
"Are you feeling okay, Roxas? Your face is all red." Namine asked softly, with a concerned look on her face.
'She's so cute when she's worried.' thought Roxas, seeing those soft lips frowning in worry, it took all of his will power to look away from them and into her eyes, that were waiting for an answer.
"Roxas?" she said, looking confused as she pulled her hand away.
Realizing he had been staring an awfully long time, made his face grow beat red; causing him to take a step back, tripping over a slippery rock and plunging into the depths of the water beneath their feet.
Resurfacing a moment later, Roxas could hear their friends laughter as he got back up, his clothes completely drenched. "I-I'm fine." he choked out, feeling a hand grasp the back of his shoulder, making him look up.
There stood Axel with a grin on his face, taking in the scene he arrived on. "Mind if I borrow Roxas for a bit, Namine?" he asked, looping an arm around the young teen's arm and pulling him back.
Namine merely stood there in surprise, whatever she was about to say went unheard of as Roxas was pulled away and hauled off into the shed.
"What's the deal, Axel!? I can walk!" Roxas shouted, struggling in his arms and hearing the shed door slam shut.
"Easy there, Roxas. I'm just here to help you, after getting an interesting phone call from Sora." Axel laughed, ruffling the young teen's hair fondly.
"Start talking, Axel." Roxas growled, feeling the pyro let him go, noticing Riku was blocking the shed door with Sora by his side.
"You know what day it is, don't you Roxas?" the pyro asked, waving a gloved finger in the air and spelling out Valentine's Day.
"Of course but, was it necessary to block the door's?" he asked, frowning and folding his arms across his chest.
"Yes." Riku spoke up, brushing off the glare sent his way.
"Do you know what happens on Valentine's day?" Axel asked, watching the teens face concentrate before shaking his head.
"That's what I thought. Now listen here, Roxas. On Valentine's day, you give the girl you secretly like or admire a present."
Roxas not understanding where this was going, heard his other half laugh, turning his undivided attention to him. "What were getting at Roxas, is that you like Namine, don't you?" Sora said with a smile.
"Of course." Roxas said, rolling his eyes at the ridiculous question.
"If that's all, then I'm going home now." he said, making his way for the door only to see Riku and Sora stand in his way.
"Apparently you don't understand what we mean by 'like'." Axel said, his emerald eyes flashing in amusement at the tension setting in Roxas's shoulders.
"What we mean by 'like' is something more than friends, Roxas," Riku said, his aquamarine eyes appraising him, "When it comes to Namine."
"Things that you like about her and want to touch." Sora said bluntly, laughing at the shocked look on his other half's face.
Feeling his face grow hot, Roxas summoned his kingdom key and pointed it at Riku. "Get out of my way. I'm done listening to this."
"Not until you tell us you like her." Sora teased, knowing he did like her but, wanted to hear him admit it.
"Sora." Roxas warned, ignoring the playfully look on his face and was about to cast Gravity when a gloved hand clamped his shoulder, steering him the other way.
"Now, now, don't be like that, Roxas." Axel said, opening up a dark corridor for him and shoving a paopu into his chest. "We're here to help you after all, now go get her."
Unsteady on his feet, Roxas found his butt hitting the ground with a thud and letting out a groan. "Why couldn't they just leave me be?" Glancing at the fallen paopu resting by his knee, he picked it up and stared at it.
"It's not very original but, I don't got much to lose." Roxas said to himself, dusting his person off and hurrying off to find her.
---
In the distance, Sora, Riku and Axel watched the young teen make his way towards Namine; who was sitting on the deck with her feet hanging off of it, a note pad resting by her side and the sun setting in the background.
"C'mon Roxas, you can do it!" cheered out Sora, until a hand slapped over his mouth, silencing him.
"Shh! You don't want him to hear you." Riku hissed into his ear, pushing him down onto the ground and peering through the bushes to watch.
"Just enjoy the show, boys." Axel said, leaning back contently against the paopu tree, with a smile on his face.
---
Roxas felt his mouth go dry as he approached Namine, watching her turn to look at him with a thoughtful smile on her face. "Hey Roxas."
"Hey Namine, sorry about earlier." he said, holding the paopu fruit behind his back as he sat down next to her.
"It's okay," she said, ripping out a piece of paper and handing it to him, "I heard today was Valentine's day and wanted to give this to you."
Taking the piece of paper into his hands; Roxas could see it was a drawing of the both of them together on the beach, having a good time, with a bucket of sea shells and water splashing onto them.
"Namine thank-" Roxas said, turning to face her when he was cut off abruptly by a pair of soft lips pressed against his and closed his eyes.
"Happy Valentine's Day Roxas." Namine said, a light blush gracing her cheeks as she looked at him.
"Happy Valentine's Day Namine." he replied, taking her hand in his, placing the paopu fruit in it and covering his hand on top of hers.
The end.
Alright onto the next entry!
Spoiler ShowIt's pre-KH and sort of AU:
When Hearts Collide
Sora had to be the only kid in his first-grade class who didn’t mind the rule about giving Valentines to everyone in the classroom. He liked everybody and everybody liked him, so it wasn’t hard for him to write a few nice things about the other children on the little store-bought cards his mother had given him. For his best friends, he had taken colored construction paper and set to work on extra-special cards. And there was one in particular that he labored on for almost an hour, one special Valentine for a very special girl.
Coincidentally, across town, Kairi had also begun work on a very special Valentine. She had already finished filling out her own store-bought cards and the homemade ones for her best friends, and now she had pulled out the big guns: red paper, her favorite markers, a packet of stickers, and lots of glitter. It had to be perfect because, while Kairi might have been too young to understand the romantic implications of Valentine’s Day, she strongly felt that Sora deserved a perfect Valentine, more than anyone else.
Slowly, carefully, she spelled out “Happy Valentine’s Day, Sora!” and drew stick-figure versions of the two of them holding hands and smiling. She also made sure to add his toy sword in his left hand, held up high over his head, the way he always waved it around when he beat one of their friends in a mock duel. Then Kairi began to squeeze out glue in various swirling patterns and added the glitter. When it had dried, she added tiny stickers of stars in bright, shiny colors and gave it to her mother to cut into the shape of a large heart. “Is it good, Mommy? Is it good? Do you think he’ll really, really, really like it?” she asked, while bouncing happily around the kitchen table.
Kairi’s mother smiled to herself. She knew a puppy crush when she saw one. “I’m sure he’ll love this Valentine. You worked very hard on it.”
“Yes, I did!” exclaimed Kairi proudly, “It’s the most perfect Valentine I’ve ever made and that’s why I’m giving it to Sora!”
As she prepared for bed that night, a very exciting thought entered her head- would Sora be making an extra-special Valentine for her? They were best friends after all, so he would surely put a little more effort into his Valentine to her than he would for anyone else in their class- aside from the special cards he would make for their other friends, of course. Of course, she knew that the most important part of exchanging Valentines was to show Sora how happy he made her feel and how glad she was to be his friend. She could hardly wait to see the look on his face when she gave him the card, because she wanted to make him just as happy.
Nonetheless, after her parents tucked her into bed, Kairi had trouble falling asleep. She tossed and turned and giggled to herself as she wondered…but what if Sora had made her a very special Valentine too?
When the next morning finally arrived, Kairi made sure that her Valentines had been placed carefully in her backpack in such a way that they would not get crushed by her other school supplies. She skipped and danced all the way to school, practically gliding into her first-grade classroom that had been decorated with red hearts and streamers. Her stomach did little flip-flops as each of her friends entered the room. For some reason, on this particular day, she had trouble greeting and talking to them as she usually did. She could only think about Sora’s Valentine and how he might react to it. If she had been paying better attention, she might have noticed that Sora also seemed more anxious and distracted than usual.
But when their teacher finally announced that it was time for everyone to distribute their Valentines, Kairi’s legs began to shake so badly that she didn’t think she could leave her desk without falling over. It had just occurred to her that her other classmates might tease her if they saw Sora’s Valentine. They might think- heaven forbid- that she liked him more than she was supposed to like a boy. And what if Sora thought so too, and he hated the Valentine because of that? What if he laughed at her too?
I know, she thought, I’ll wait ‘til everyone’s busy giving out their Valentines and then I’ll give it to him real quick, right after I give away some of my other Valentines, and then maybe nobody’ll notice but him! Yes, that would work.
She pulled out her stack of Valentines, looked up, and saw a wonderful sight. Sora was holding his stack of Valentines and fidgeting very close to her desk! And right at the top of his cards was a big, beautiful Valentine! Unlike the others, it was made out of yellow paper and shaped like a paopu fruit, and like Kairi’s special Valentine, it was decorated with stickers and a dash of glitter. Her eyes widened and her legs shook even more than before. He had made a very special Valentine, just for her! She beamed and pulled out the card that she had spent so much time making, and went to give it to him.
And then Sora walked right past her.
“Um, Naminé?” he said to the little girl sitting at a desk in the row next to Kairi’s, “I made this for you. Happy Valentine’s Day!”
Kairi practically fell out of her seat. Naminé?!
Her other best friend jumped out of her seat with an excited squeal. “Oooo, thank you, Sora!” Naminé cried, “It looks just like my good-luck charm!”
“Yeah, that’s why I made it for you!” said Sora, looking very pleased with himself since he had clearly succeeded in making her happy.
“And look! I made one for you too and it’s shaped like the good-luck charm too!” Naminé held out her own yellow paper star, with dashes of glitter that looked like little shooting stars and her own drawing of the two of them holding hands. It looked much better than the one Kairi had drawn.
“Cool!” shouted Sora, “I really, really like it!”
Kairi couldn’t watch them anymore; she turned away and stared down at her desk full of Valentines. Her face felt hot and her eyes began to fill up with tears. Perhaps if Sora had simply given Kairi an ordinary Valentine that looked like everybody else’s, no better and no worse, she would not have minded so much. But the very idea that he had spent so much time making a special Valentine for Naminé and not her was hard to take. It made sense from an objective point of view, because Sora had been friends with Naminé for several years before Kairi arrived on the Islands, but the heartbroken six-year-old girl did not care one bit. She had spent hours making a Valentine for Sora. Hours. Had Naminé spent hours making her Valentine for Sora? Probably not, but it didn’t matter anyway. Now that Sora had seen what Naminé made for him, Kairi just knew that her own Valentine would not look very special at all.
So Kairi did what any six-year-old would do under the circumstances. She buried her head under her arms and began to cry.
“Kairi!” a happy voice called behind her- the voice of the last person Kairi wanted to speak to at the moment, “Look, I made this for you! Happy Valentine’s Day!”
Kairi did not look up. “Go away, Naminé!” she sobbed.
“Kairi? Are you crying?” Naminé tried to peek under Kairi’s arms and got pushed away. “What’s the matter? Don’t you want to see your Valentine?”
“No!” bawled Kairi, “I don’t want your stupid Valentine! I hate it and I hate you!”
“…h-huh?” Naminé took a step back from Kairi’s desk, feeling like she was about to cry too. “But why? You’re my best friend and I made it just for you!”
“No, you’re not!” cried Kairi, “And I don’t want it! And I’m not giving you a Valentine either!” Kairi thought this was perfectly fair- Naminé had just ruined her Valentine’s Day after all, even if she didn’t know why.
But Naminé did not think it was fair at all. And even though she was usually a quiet, soft-spoken little girl, she could still put her lungs to good use when motivated. “MRS. SHUYA! MRS. SHUYA! YOU SAID WE HAD TO MAKE VALENTINES FOR EVERYBODY AND KAIRI DIDN’T MAKE ME A VALENTINE ‘CAUSE SHE SAYS SHE HATES ME!” she shrieked, pointing an accusing finger at Kairi.
“Here ya go, Riku, Happy…Valentine’s…Day…?” Sora dropped the card that he was giving to their other best friend just as the whole class fell silent. Everyone stared at the girls and whispered, “Oooooo!” as their teacher walked towards them.
“Kairi?” asked Mrs. Shuya calmly, “What’s the matter? Did you forget to make a Valentine for Naminé?” It was the only explanation she could think of; she had seen plenty of drama and fights between friends in her ten years of teaching, but had never seen two best friends turn on each other so quickly.
“No!” Kairi huffed, “I didn’t wanna make her a Valentine! I don’t like her anymore!” Naminé started crying.
“Did you do something to upset Kairi?” Mrs. Shuya asked Naminé as patiently as she could.
YES! thought Kairi.
“N-n-no!” stammered Naminé, “I didn’t do anything! I was just tryin’ to give h-h-her my Valentine and she j-j-just started being mean to me!”
“Well, Kairi, you do know the rules. I said that everyone had to make a Valentine for everyone in the class, even if you don’t like…”
“No!” yelled Kairi, slamming her little fists on her desk, “I’m not giving her a Valentine and I’m not giving Sora a Valentine! I’m not I’m not I’m NOT!”
“Huh?! What did I do wrong?” exclaimed Sora. Kairi glared at him and put her head under her arms again. “What about Riku?” he asked, “Did you make one for him?”
“No!” Kairi hadn’t really meant to say that; she didn’t want to hurt Riku’s feelings, but she was on a roll now, and if she took back what she said, everyone might think that she liked Riku!
“Well I don’t wanna give you a Valentine either!” shouted Naminé, and she ripped Kairi’s card into little pieces. “Here!” she yelled, throwing it at Kairi’s face, “Here’s your stupid Valentine!”
“Girls, that’s enough!” shouted Mrs. Shuya, “If you both want to ruin each other’s Valentine’s Day, then that is exactly what will happen. Kairi, I want you to sit in the corner by the flag. Naminé, I want you to sit in that corner by the windows. You will sit there until the end of the party and you will not get to eat any of the treats I bought for the class. Is that clear?”
“But I didn’t do anything!” wailed Naminé.
“I don’t want to hear any more about who started it. Go to your corners right now.” The teacher sounded like she meant business, so the girls quickly did as they were told, sniffling the whole time. Sora tried to run over to Naminé’s corner to comfort her, but Mrs. Shuya ordered him back to his desk. Most of the class was staring at Kairi, so she turned her seat away from them and continued to cry.
Gradually, the kids returned to exchanging Valentines. Because Kairi’s cards were still on her desk, the teacher took it upon herself to hand them out to the other children. As she did so, she found a card for Naminé, one for Riku…and a big one for Sora. Once she saw the Valentines that Sora and Naminé had given to each other, it took her a split second to realize what had really happened. But she decided not to confront the kids about it until later; embarrassing them in front of their classmates would not fix the situation at all.
Meanwhile, Kairi kept sobbing, partly because of how angry and jealous she felt over Sora’s Valentine, and partly because of the shame she was beginning to feel. Maybe it wasn’t really Naminé’s fault that they had both had the same idea for Sora. She hadn’t really meant to make Naminé cry like that; but she hadn’t known how else to soothe her own hurt feelings. She wasn’t even really sure why she felt so angry in the first place or why she had wanted Sora to like her Valentine so badly. Now he would never like anything about her again!
“Hey.”
Kairi recognized the voice behind her as Riku’s, so she turned around slowly. “H-hi,” she mumbled, “What do you want?”
“Um…” Riku scratched his long silver hair and stared at his feet. “I just…I dunno…I guess I just wanted to give you your Valentine even though you didn’t make one for me…”
“I’m sorry, Riku!” wailed Kairi, “I did make you a Valentine! I did! I just got mad at Naminé and Sora and I dunno why I said that, but I’m really sorry!”
“How come you’re mad at them? What did they do?” he asked.
“I dunno…they just made me so mad…” She hadn’t planned to tell anybody how she was feeling, but suddenly, the whole tale spilled out of her mouth. It might’ve been embarrassing to tell anyone else, but she knew Riku wouldn’t laugh, and just telling someone about the confusing, angry, sad feelings in her heart made her feel a little better. Riku leaned against the chalkboard and listened patiently. Kairi hoped he would be able to understand why she felt so unhappy and explain it to her.
“Oh,” he said, once she had finished, “But didn’t you see the Valentines they made for you?”
“No,” she admitted, while wiping tears out of her eyes, “Naminé ripped mine up.”
“Well, they made you some really nice ones. They made really nice ones for me too. I don’t think they like each other better than they like you or me. Or maybe they do, but that doesn’t mean they don’t like us a lot. And just ‘cause the Valentine doesn’t look as special doesn’t mean someone doesn’t like you. I made you one, but it’s not that good. Do you still want it?” Riku hesitated and stuffed his hands down his pockets, where the Valentine must have been hiding.
Kairi nodded. “Yes! I do! I really do! Can I see it?” Riku shrugged and handed her a crumpled piece of white paper. It wasn’t fancy; Riku’s creativity came from how many ways he could beat the other kids at sword-fighting, not at Arts & Crafts. His handwriting wasn’t very good either, but Kairi could just make out what he had written: “Kiari, Happy Valentines Day. Im reaaal glad that your my freind and you came to the Ilands. Your a lot of fun. From, Riku.” Underneath the note was a drawing of a smiley face with red sticks coming out of its head that must’ve been his attempt to draw her face. She giggled. “I love it! It’s really great! Thanks, Riku!”
Riku smiled at her, and as he did so, Kairi looked back at the Valentine and felt ashamed all over again. She realized that he was right; just because Sora had given Naminé a special Valentine didn’t mean that he didn’t want to be friends with her. Even if he did like Naminé better than her, that wasn’t why Kairi had made him a special Valentine. She had really made him a Valentine for the same reason that she had made Valentines for her other friends, because she had wanted to make him happy. Instead she had only made everyone upset.
Unbeknownst to Kairi, her teacher had been watching the whole exchange take place and came over to sit beside them. “Are you feeling better now?” she asked Kairi gently.
“Yeah,” Kairi sniffled, “I’m really sorry, ma’am. I’ll go give Naminé her Valentine.”
“That’s a good idea. Be sure to apologize to her too.”
Kairi bolted out her seat and ran all the way across the room to Naminé, accidentally knocking over any poor child who happened to be in her path. A very baffled Sora watched her give Naminé a hug and apologize over and over again. He couldn’t quite hear her explanation, but it was enough to make Naminé smile again and hug her back. Sora shook his head, went back to eating his Valentine cookies, and wondered if he would ever understand how girls functioned. At least everyone seemed to be friends again, so his Valentine’s Day wasn’t turning out so bad after all.
The End
Thanks again and happy voting ♥