Murphy’s Law
Everything that can go wrong, will.

Chapter Five:
Trickster

Namine had gone topside, as she did once every month. That time was spent talking to her friend Olette, whom she didn’t get to see unless she went up and talked to. Olette wasn’t even aware that Namine was on the C-Team; Olette didn’t know any of the C-Team members. A few days previous, she wasn’t even aware that a C-Team existed. Olette had been informed that there was a C-Team when she met Hayner, right before Xion had left the school. Of course, Namine was not about to tell her friend the real reason they never saw each other in the hallway; the blonde had played it off like Namine had her own private classes because her parents were rich.
           Which wasn’t a total lie; the basement was pretty private and her parents were rich. It wasn’t exactly a lie, and it wasn’t hurting anyone even if it was.
           The blonde was just making her way through the cream and blue hallway when she heard a voice interrupt her thoughts. “Heya... Namine.”
           It was one of those times that the female blonde was away from her boyfriend. Such times were few and far between, but over the last few months, Axel had gotten Zexion to spy on Namine and learn her schedule. Axel had made sure Namine would be alone when he confronted her—it was the only way his plan would work.
           Of course, Axel knew that Namine only snuck topside to visit Olette. Because of that, he couldn’t keep Namine very long or the brunette would be left waiting and suspicious. Axel had to keep his visit short and to the point, yet still make sure the girl wanted to go along with his scheme. It would be a hard balance, but he was good at those kinds of things. He liked manipulating people.
           “Axel. To what do I owe this honour?” Namine asked as she turned toward the male and stopped. There was no one else in the hallway but the two of them; no witnesses. In her reply, Namine had tried to sound sarcastic, careless, and cynical, but she had failed miserably. It just wasn’t in her DNA to be mean.
           “I came to offer you a position... on my team.” Axel’s voice was alluring on purpose, and Namine knew that. Still, she couldn’t help but be allured by it anyhow. He was good. Namine shifted from one foot to the other.
           “What for? I’m no good at Archery.” Her answer was guarded; cautious.
           Axel tsked, slipping an arm around her shoulders, “Namine, Namine, Namine,” he started, “You would be if you tried. Trust me; I know a good archer when I see one.”
           Being that close, Namine noted that Axel smelled faintly of Axe body spray—his favourite cologne. She remembered when she first met Roxas that the blonde could rant on about Axel’s scent for hours and how bad it was—yet Namine didn’t mind Axel’s smell at all. It was a typical guy smell, of course with some sort of extra flare that could only be classified as Axel’s own scent beneath the body spray. It was completely pleasant—what was Roxas’ problem with it?
           Despite how much she liked his scent, Namine moved away from Axel on instinct and he let her out of his arm’s grip as she spoke. “I don’t know...”
           He grinned. “Then let me prove it to you.” He held out a piece of paper, “Drop by the range tomorrow and we’ll see just how much potential you have.” He winked.
           Namine frowned but reached out and took the slip of paper to be polite. She also kind of wanted it, but her excuse for taking it was to be polite. “I don’t think I’ll be any good, but it doesn’t hurt to try I guess.”
           Axel smirked, patting her on the head once. “Good girl. See you then.” He turned and strutted away. The blonde female was left staring after him until the redhead slipped around the corner and out of sight. He’d been nothing but nice—Namine didn’t understand why Roxas hated him. She knew that the two didn’t particularly get along, but Axel seemed like a fine person. What could be their reason for not being friends, at the very least?
           Namine was finding herself more and more curious as to what had gone on between her boyfriend and Axel. She knew she probably shouldn’t ask, but she also knew that she was going to. It wasn’t in her nature to want to know things and not find them out. She had a certain strength of will that would no doubt carry her to the answer she wanted. If nothing else, she guessed that Axel would tell her what happened. Or Demyx; he seemed like one who would tell people anything they asked, whether he was supposed to or not.
           “There you are!” Olette’s voice echoed in the clashing hall. Namine turned to her friend in slight surprise, jumping a bit and shoving the page Axel had given her into her pocket. Olette noticed and gave Namine a questioning look, only to have Namine smile back and shrug.
            “Homework,” Namine excused, “It sucks, but I’ve gotta do it. I was just talking to Mr...” the blonde didn’t know any of the teachers at the school—why would she if she never went to class?
            Luckily she didn’t have to finish her sentence, for Olette interrupted her, “Yeah, homework sucks... so, what’s new?” the brunette smiled and the two started walking down the hallway in the opposite direction that Axel had gone. Namine slipped her fingers into her pocket, feeling the piece of paper within as she chatted amiably with her friend. Should she tell Roxas about the meeting Axel wanted her to attend? Would Roxas get upset? He would be if he found out, Namine assumed. Roxas couldn’t stand the thought of Axel and got mad whenever the redhead was mentioned even in passing. Roxas’ hate of Axel ran deep, and Namine knew that. If she told Roxas about Axel talking to her, the blonde would make her promise not to talk to him again. Namine couldn’t risk that.  
           And that was when she decided to tell Roxas a lie for the first time. She couldn’t help but want to explore her other options... Who wouldn’t? Maybe she could get onto the B-Team—there was an open spot, after all. If she was good enough and Axel was willing to accept her (and he obviously was, as he had offered), then why not give it a shot? It was human nature to want to find one’s talents. Perhaps archery was one of Namine’s talents; or perhaps not.
          Still, there was only one way to find out, and she’d been offered the opportunity. She’d be a fool to pass it up. Of course she was going, and that meant she had to lie to Roxas for a little while.
          Maybe her plan would fall through—maybe she was no good at archery. Still, she’d wanted her life to get more exciting; that was what she’d wished for while in the basement all those hours. Finally she had her shot, and she wasn’t about to give that up just for Roxas.


Seifer had gone into the bathroom, leaving Hayner alone. The bully had assumed that Hayner would wait for him—after all, Hayner had waited throughout lunch, a bathroom beak was nothing compared to that. Still, the younger blonde didn’t have much interest in waiting only to go out into the yard and make a bigger fool of himself, so instead of waiting the boy made a break for it down the hallway, running his absolute fastest until he got to the stairs and escaped deep into the basement. He’d had enough of the stupid skirt—he couldn’t take it anymore. Seifer had left him alone; did the bully honestly think that he’d stick around and wait so that he could be embarrassed some more? Seifer must have been stupider than Hayner thought if the blonde actually assumed that.
           Getting into his room downstairs, Hayner yanked off the scratchy shirt and tugged on a black T-shirt instead. The skirt was the next to go, which was replaced with tan shorts. Hayner briefly considered washing the makeup off too, but decided against it. Did he really want to look like a raccoon? No, that wasn’t in his list of things to do. He’d do that some other time if he really felt the need.
           Not that it would ever happen again—barely anyone actually landed hits on him; never mind on his face! Those black eyes of his were simply flukes, there was nothing to them rather than that. Obviously he didn’t lose that often.
           Okay fine; so what if Hayner never won against Seifer? At least he could beat like... Roxas... and... Moving on.
           Once in his regular clothes, Hayner snatched his skateboard up and headed toward the empty poolroom. The dull blue tiles on the walls gave him a sense of calmness; it was a place Seifer would never look for him. In fact, he’d be completely alone in there until he chose to go-
           “Oh, hey Hayner,” Roxas’ voice echoed off of the walls. Hayner looked over to his best friend, seeing the other sitting on the ledge of the empty pool, much like Hayner did every once in a while. Roxas smiled back at the other blonde, motioning with a hand for Hayner to join him on the ledge.
           Hayner set his board down and walked over to his friend, planting himself on the ledge and giving Roxas a look, “You here cuz Namine told you to come?” he asked. That was what had happened last time.
         “Nah,” Roxas replied, “She went to hang with Olette again.”
         “And poor you were left alone, hey?” Hayner asked, “Having fun in the pool room by yourself?”
         Roxas rolled his eyes, “Tons,” he replied sarcastically before sighing and getting serious, “Seriously though Hayner, Namine’s acting really weird...”
         “How so?”
         “Well... I dunno, she’s just acting... different?” Roxas ran a hand through his hair, which was still damp.
          Hayner tried not to grin—he wasn’t supposed to be happy that Namine and Roxas were having problems. And although Hayner was okay with being secretly happy even if it made him a bad person, he didn’t want to smile and admit it to the world. He had to keep his composure; his best friend needed him.
          “Well that sucks... did she say anything about what might be wrong?” Hayner asked. He was biting the insides of his cheeks while not talking, making sure he didn’t smile. He tasted blood, but still the urge to smile was there. Was he going to get his best friend back from the evil clutches of Namine?
          “I dunno, but today she was telling me about the topside a bit before she went up to see Olette. She wanted me and her to go up there for lunch one day or something.” Roxas looked confused as he sighed, frowning at the empty pool beneath them.
          “And what did you say?”
          “No of course... why would I want to go up there? Axel is up there!” Roxas was getting frustrated. It was obvious that he didn’t understand Namine’s sudden interest in the world above. He couldn’t understand why she wanted to be up there; he didn’t see a problem with being in the basement.
          “You sure you’re not just staying in the basement to hide from him?” Hayner asked, “Is it that you really hate it up there, or is it just that you don’t want to see him?” He didn’t understand his sudden insightful question, but he let it be spoken anyhow. It was an interesting topic, after all, and Roxas had been the one to bring it up for once.
          “Well....I dunno, both? Neither? I just like it down here because it’s... mine, you know? It’s my territory, I know it, I own it, and I’m comfortable here. It’s like a sanctuary that no one tries to invade.”
          “With the exception of when the assholes descend to speak to us.”
          “Well we scare them off quick enough; it’s not that big of a deal. And besides, if they stopped coming down, the school might actually completely forget about us.”
          “Is that a bad thing?” Hayner asked.
          “Huh?”
          “Why do you want them to remember we’re here? Why not completely forget us?”
          “Well for one, they’d stop sending food down, and two... Eh, that’s kinda the only reason.”
          But Hayner had a feeling that Roxas had one more reason he wasn’t sharing—Roxas didn’t want to be completely forgotten because he didn’t want Axel to forget about him.
          Still, Hayner was going to let Roxas get away with that secret. “So, are you and Namine breaking up then?”
          Roxas frowned, “Of course not! Even if she moves topside—which it seems like she will—it’s not like she’ll dump me. It doesn’t matter where she is, I’ll still love her just as much if she lives topside. She’ll love me just as much if I stay down here, too. She won’t mind too much; we can make it work.”
          Hayner wasn’t so sure, but he nodded. “Okay, makes sense.”


Sora was leaning against the wall near the stairs to the basement, waiting for Namine. He’d seen her talking to Axel and wanted to know what was up—people from the C-Team just didn’t walk around talking to Axel of all people; Axel was the only person in the entire school that Roxas completely disapproved of. Roxas’ team was not supposed to associate with Axel at all. They weren’t supposed to do as much as look at the redhead.
          After a substantial wait, Sora saw Namine approaching. She smiled when she saw him. “Hey Sora! What are you doing topside?”
          Sora frowned. “What did Axel talk to you about?” His tone was unusually level, an indication for Namine to take him seriously. She mirrored his frown before answering.
          “You saw that? What were you doing topside?” She had to stall while making her excuse.
          “I had business... so what did he want?” Sora narrowed his eyes. He could see through her stalling efforts, his mind already running over a list of possible excuses she might use.
          “He was just on about Roxas like usual. Being his overprotective self.” Namine told her first lie to Sora, and she wasn’t proud of it. She hadn’t realized that she would have to lie to not only Roxas, but the rest of her friends too if she wanted her plan to work. It was immoral, it went against what she believed in, and yet she was doing it. Why? Because she wanted out, and sometimes people had to do things they didn’t want to do in order to achieve their goals. Sacrifices had to be made.
          Sora didn’t believe her, but he had no proof that could make her statement false. He decided to keep an eye on her for a while and wait to see if anything else happened. If there was another incident, Sora decided that he would have to take action.
          The two didn’t speak as they descended the stairs together, going different ways when they arrived at the bottom.