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The question came on an ordinary day.
Xion was spending her afternoon at the Usual Spot, as she had spent most afternoons since coming to live in Twilight Town. Roxas and Olette sat cross-legged on the ground with a number of just-finished school assignments between them, munching on celebratory ice cream, while Hayner and Pence sprawled on the couch, pretending to work while talking about the latest game they had downloaded on their gummiphones. Namine sat against a wall, sketching away as usual.
Xion, having already finished her homework, was by the entrance, practicing magic. In the months since the big battle, she had managed to recover nearly all of her old abilities, but wind magic was still giving her some trouble.
“Wind,” she murmured, pointing her keyblade at the curtain over the entrance. It didn’t move. “C’mon, wind.”
A sudden squeal from Olette made her jump, and a sharp gust of wind blasted from her keyblade, blowing the curtain nearly off of it’s rod. The rest of the Usual Spot was unscathed, save for Namine in her corner; the blast of air violently ruffled the pages of her sketchbook, and a few loose sheets went spiraling away.
“Penelo has a date!” Olette clutched her phone, typing a message; she hadn’t even noticed Xion’s magic in her excitement. Roxas leaned over to look at the phone curiously as she hit send.
Xion hurriedly dismissed her keyblade and ran to gather up the fluttering sketchbook pages. Namine took them from her quickly, her face slightly flushed from surprise. Xion knelt down next to her, apologetic.
“Sorry!” she said. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine!” Namine slapped her sketchbook shut. “Just fine. Are you okay?”
“Yeah…?” Xion tilted her head, but Namine only nodded, her face still pink, and quickly turned to look at Olette, who was showing her phone to a bored-looking Hayner and a mildly interested Pence.
“They’re going stargazing,” Olette said. “So romantic!”
“Romantic?” Roxas asked.
“Yeah! A date under the stars, just you and the person you like…”
She sighed dreamily, clasping her hands near her heart. Behind her, Hayner pulled a face, and Pence laughed. Olette picked up her ice cream wrapper and threw it over her shoulder; it hit Hayner directly in the forehead, eliciting an indignant, “Hey!”
“It’s the perfect place to fall in love,” Olette said firmly. “Somewhere beautiful and quiet, where you can really talk to each other.”
Xion exchanged a glance with Roxas, who looked slightly puzzled. “What does that mean?” she asked. “‘Falling’ in love?”
“Oh, you know! Having a crush, going on dates, getting butterflies whenever you talk to them.” Olette looked around at them like they knew exactly what she meant, but started to frown as they stayed silent. “I guess...maybe you don’t know? Have none of you ever been in love?”
She sounded so concerned that Xion felt a pang of insecurity. “Well, do you mean like how you love your best friends?”
“You can fall for your best friend! Usually they’re someone you’re friends with first. But it’s not exactly the same thing as having a friend, even a best friend.”
“How do you know the difference?” Namine asked, frowning a little.
“You just feel it!” Olette said. “You want to hang out with them all the time, go out on dates, maybe kiss them--”
“Gross,” Hayner muttered.
“Grow up, Hayner!” Olette said, tossing Roxas’s wrapper over her shoulder. (Hayner saw this one coming, and dodged just in time.) “Anyway, you don’t always have to kiss them. Some people don’t like kissing.”
“They’re just someone you like more than anyone else, even your other friends,” Pence supplied. “Someone you’d do anything for.”
Xion considered that for a moment. “I’d do anything for my friends, though.”
“Most people would,” Pence agreed, “but it’s still a little different. I guess it’s hard to put into words…”
“Once you find that person, you’ll know,” Olette assured her. She sounded very confident, so Xion just nodded. The topic moved on, but Namine was still frowning, and the slight shrug Roxas gave her when they glanced at one another told Xion he didn’t understand any more than she did.
For the next few days Xion kept coming back to the conversation. It wasn’t that she didn’t understand Olette’s words, but more that she couldn’t figure out exactly what would make someone so important. Love itself wasn’t unfamiliar to her--she knew she loved Roxas and Lea, of course, because who didn’t love their best friends?--but romance was so far removed from the experiences she’d had in her short life that it felt almost foreign. She thought about how she loved to hang out with Roxas, liked to make him laugh, and they had done enough for each other that it was obvious they loved each other deeply, but even though she couldn’t quite wrap her mind around it, she just knew, somewhere in her heart, that it wasn’t the kind of love Olette was talking about.
The conversation stuck with her so much that she couldn’t help but bring it up to Roxas and Namine again one night after dinner.
“Don’t you guys think it’s weird?” she pressed, looking back and forth between them from her bed. “That there’s love and in love? Shouldn’t it be the same thing?
Roxas looked up from his phone. “You’re still thinking about that?”
“Aren’t you?”
He shrugged. “I asked Lea about it once. He said it was something that happens when there’s something special between two people—not best friends, but something else. That’s all he would really tell me, though.”
Xion’s frown deepened. Wasn’t friendship special? It was definitely important to her...she looked over to Namine, who was sitting in the corner drawing in her sketchbook and being very quiet.
“Namine, what do you think?” she asked.
Namine looked up with a jerk; even now, she sometimes looked surprised to be included. “Um...I’m not sure. It sounds like it’s something you only understand if you feel it yourself. But most emotions are like that...you wouldn’t really know what it’s like to be scared or angry if you’ve never felt it before. Maybe you just have to wait?”
Xion sighed and flopped back on her pillow. “I guess so…”
“Why are you so worried, Xion?” Roxas asked.
Xion shrugged. “I’m not sure. I just am.”
He frowned, but nodded anyway. “Well, is there anyone else we could ask?”
They all thought for a moment, but it was Namine who answered. “What about Even?”
Xion sat up suddenly. “That’s a great idea!” She snatched up her phone from beside her on the bed. “He knows everything about hearts. You’re a genius, Namine.”
Namine looked back down at her sketchbook with a smile as Xion flipped through her contacts for the right number. It didn’t take long; the three of them spoke to Even often, asking questions about their vessels and giving him updates on their condition. He was surprisingly helpful, and usually answered their calls immediately.
This time was no different; he answered on the second ring, his face suddenly frowning at them from the screen. “Hello? Xion?”
“Hi, Even,” Xion said, holding her phone so the other two could see. “Are you working?”
“Ah. Hello Roxas, Namine. And I’m always working.” He adjusted the phone slightly, and Xion could see the big computer screen in the lab just to the side, data and code scrolling past. “But I can take a moment’s break if you require something of me.”
“We just have a quick question,” Roxas said.
“Then ask it.”
Xion smiled; Even never had much time for small talk. “Okay,” she said. “Can you tell us what the difference is between love and being in love?”
Even fell uncharacteristically silent. The look on his face said that it was not the kind of question he had been anticipating.
“I am possibly the worst person to ask such a question,” Even said, arching a brow. “Where on earth did this come from?”
Xion quickly explained about the conversation with Olette and their shared confusion. Even listened until she reached the end of her explanation, then shook his head.
“I see. And you thought to ask me why?”
“You’re the smartest person we know,” Xion answered. Namine and Roxas promptly nodded at that; it was true, but it was also an attempt at flattery. They’d learned that Even was more likely to tolerate unusual questions if they complimented his intelligence.
“Oh?” He gave her a searching look, but it did not stop the pleased smile spreading over his face. “I see. Well, I suppose I could give you a more scientific explanation. Let’s see…”
His tone and demeanor shifted slightly, as if he was giving a lecture rather than just answering a question. “Humans typically feel a variety of sensations when experiencing romantic love. Chemicals released in the brain affect the body in a number of ways. The skin flushes, the heart rate increases--one feels excited or even nervous. Some might mistake it for illness if they were unaware of the cause.”
“An illness?” Namine asked.
“Certainly. Some refer to it colloquially as ‘lovesickness’,” he said, though his expression suggested that he thought it an incredibly silly concept. “Friendship often inspires feelings of warmth and contentment, but romantic love can be far more intense, particularly at the onset.”
“Okay…that kind of matches what Olette was saying,” Xion said. “But what would make someone fall in love, instead of just loving them like a friend? And how would you know which one you’re feeling if you’ve been friends with them already?”
“That’s up to the individual. Different people value different things. And one’s feelings about others shift constantly. You can’t feel exactly the same about someone forever.”
Xion supposed that was true--her feelings for Roxas and Lea were not the same now as they had been when she met them--but it still didn’t answer her question entirely. Even must have noticed the frown spreading over her face, because he sighed and spoke again.
“If answering this question is truly so important, then my suggestion would be to gather more data on the matter. My explanation alone was inadequate, but combined with that of others, you may find a more complete picture of the concept. Consider it a kind of qualitative study.”
“But who should we ask?”
“You all regularly visit multiple worlds to eliminate Heartless, yes? I believe you’ll be headed here in a few days. There are a number of people you could speak to in each world—a broad range of subjects will provide a more effective spread of data.”
“Oh,” Xion said, thinking fast, “you know, that’s a really good idea!”
“I do have them on occasion,” Even said, but he was smiling again. “Now, is that all? I should get back to work, unless you have more to discuss.”
“No, we can handle it. Thank you!”
He bid them all goodbye and the screen went dark, but Xion had tossed the phone on the bed already, turning to her friends. “We were gonna go out soon anyway! This is perfect.”
“We could hit more worlds if we split up the work,” Roxas suggested. “I could take care of the Heartless, and you two can go ask around—maybe you could write everything down in your sketchbook, Namine?”
“Oh—is it okay if I come along?” Namine asked. “I’m still not as good as you two at combat magic yet…”
“Roxas can handle all the Heartless,” Xion assured her, “and if anything happens, I’m sure we’ll be fine if we stick together.”
Namine hesitated for a moment, looking down at her lap, but then nodded. “Okay,” she said, smiling. “I want to help.”
They began their project in Radiant Garden, splitting up to cover as much ground as possible. The apprentices were the first people on their list, since they had spent so much time studying hearts in the past.
“Dilan said Even told him we might come around asking,” Namine told the other two once they had met up again, “but he didn’t seem very happy about it.” She turned her sketchbook around so they could see; it was a drawing of Dilan, looking away with an extremely grumpy expression. “He just said it was something foolish, and we were wasting our time.”
“He used to be like that on missions, too,” Roxas said. “Maybe he had a bad experience once.”
“Maybe. He told me we should go ask ‘that Prince’ if we were so curious. I think he meant the Beast…?”
“Oh, that’s a good idea.” Roxas added ‘Beast’s Castle’ on their list of worlds. “Ienzo said pretty much the same thing as Even, so nothing new there. He helped me make a chart for our data, though. What about Aeleus?”
“Really quiet as usual,” Xion said. “He did say that you’ll know because you spend all of your time thinking about the person—if they’re safe, if they’re happy, things like that.”
Their chart filled up quickly, and they had to make more copies as answers from friends they hadn’t managed to talk to in person arrived via phone. Terra and Aqua were both surprisingly reticent, almost embarrassed, in their answers, and Ven had only expressed interest in hearing about what they found when they were done. Riku’s answer was similar to King Mickey’s—when someone is important enough to you, all other feelings disappear. Lea and Isa, also heading out to clear a few worlds, would answer later; they left two empty spaces for them, and without needing to discuss it, left another two for Kairi and Sora to fill in whenever they were able.
From Radiant Garden, they went to Halloween Town. Ever since they’d started going from world to world, Jack had been very enthusiastic about helping them out—he’d mentioned something about Roxas being a ‘real inspiration,’ to which Roxas always responded by quickly changing the subject—and he was no less helpful with their project than he was against Heartless. He happily spent over an hour regaling them with the story of how he and Sally had gotten together, with occasional interjections from Sally. Xion listened, asking questions and trying to keep Zero from chasing the feathers of her mockingbird costume, and Namine dutifully wrote everything down in her sketchbook, the brim of her dusty blue witch’s hat flopping down over her eyes.
“...And that’s how we knew we were simply meant to be!” Jack finally finished, with a wide grin at Sally.
Xion glanced at Namine to make sure she’d gotten everything, and got a quick thumbs-up. “That was a great story, but could you be a little more specific?” she asked. “What was the difference between being friends and being in love?”
“Well...I realized I was always thinking of what would make Jack happy,” Sally said. “I liked helping him out, making sure things went smoothly for all the Halloween celebrations. And now, with Christmas, I like to think about what I should give him each year. Giving a gift is the best way to show someone what you feel in your heart.”
“That’s right!” Jack said brightly. “That’s exactly why giving gifts is just as fun as receiving them.”
Namine looked up from her sketchbook. “How do you know what to give someone, though?”
“You have to think about what would make that person happy,” Sally said. “Something you know they would love, or something they might find useful—something that says you’re paying attention to them, and care for them deeply.”
Namine nodded and wrote a few more notes down while Xion thought about the last gift she could remember giving: the seashells she had left at Roxas’s bedside while he slept, over a year ago. They had been pretty, and she thought Roxas might like them, but that had been because they had both, in their own ways, come from Destiny Islands—she hadn’t thought about them any more deeply than that.
After making sure Halloween Town was cleared of all Heartless, their next stop was Olympus, where they split up again. Xion and Namine found Meg at a table near the marketplace, and she seemed to find their project very amusing.
“Aren’t you kids a little young to be asking this question?” she said, propping her head up on her hand, though it did not hide the smile on her face.
“We’re just trying to get an answer,” Xion replied. “We’ve been asking a lot of people.”
“Little researchers, huh? Hmm…” Meg thought for a moment, winding a strand of her hair through her fingers. “Wonder Boy always looks out for me. Of course, a girl has to know how to take care of herself, but it’s nice to have someone to lean on.”
“So…” Xion thought about this for a moment. “Being in love is letting someone protect you?”
Meg laughed. “Kinda. It’s more like feeling safe enough to admit you can’t do it all on your own. Especially if you’ve been burned before. Letting yourself be vulnerable is hard--trusting someone with your deepest, darkest secrets, your fears...sometimes it feels easier to keep it all locked up. But knowing he’ll still be there even when I’m at my weakest….to me, that’s love.”
After a while more of talking (and sketching, though Xion couldn’t quite catch a glimpse of what Namine was drawing), the two thanked Meg and went off to find Roxas. As they walked, Namine looked down at her notes, frowning a little.
“Xion?” she said. “Can I ask you something?”
“What’s up?”
“All this work you’re doing...why is this question so important to you?”
Xion slowed until she came to a stop. “What do you mean?”
“Well, it’s just…” Namine stopped beside her. “You might not get any closer to understanding what they’re all talking about. I really think this might be something you have to just wait for.” She fiddled with the outermost ring of her sketchbook. “Is there someone you already like…? Is that why you’re trying to figure it out?”
“No, it’s the exact opposite,” Xion said. “I really don’t get it--I love Roxas, and Lea, and the others too, but what everyone keeps describing sounds like it’s supposed to be something else. And it’s--”
Worrying me, she almost said, but she caught herself and went silent. Namine frowned, waiting for her to continue, but Xion shook her head.
“It’s just confusing,” she said, “but it’s not a big deal. I just want to hear what everyone has to say.”
Namine looked at her for a long moment, and her eyes were almost sad, but then she smiled a little and nodded.
“Okay,” she said. “I was just wondering. Let’s go see if Roxas is done talking to Hercules.” She took off walking again, so fast that Xion had to hurry to catch up.
After recording Hercules’s answer—“When you’re willing to do crazy things like risk your own life for theirs, that’s when you know!”—they took off for the last world they would have time for that weekend: Beast’s Castle. While Roxas cleared the castle, Xion and Namine went searching for Belle. They found her in the library, as they usually did, and the Beast was with her, though he seemed a little grumpy.
“Whatever your question is, you won’t find a good answer in any of these books,” he growled, glaring at the stack of books on the table in front of him.
“Don’t mind him,” Belle whispered as she led them away into the stacks. “I’ve been giving him reading lessons, and he’s still having trouble. But he’s trying.” She looked over her shoulder for a moment, smiling fondly, and turned back to them. “So what was your question?”
Xion quickly explained while Namine flipped to a new page. Belle smiled again, though her cheeks looked a little pink as she considered their question.
“Sometimes,” she said, “it just sneaks up on you. When you first meet someone, you might think you know everything about them, but as you get to know them—really know them, not just what you think you know—you start to realize that you’re noticing things you hadn’t before. Very dear things…”
Belle trailed off for a moment, and then caught herself. “I’m sorry,” she said, tucking her hair behind her ear, “I think I might be better at reading about this sort of thing than talking about it. Maybe you could look through a few of the books here? I know the Beast said you wouldn’t find an answer, but a lot of stories are all about romance.”
She told them where to find a few books on the subject, and they spent an hour sitting in the stacks, flipping through the pages of fairy tales and fables. They were interesting, though a lot of them seemed to skip over why exactly the characters were in love, and just took it for granted that they were.
“A lot of these are all about princes protecting princesses,” Xion said, skimming down a page. “It kind of reminds me of what Meg was saying, about...what was it? Being vulnerable?”
She reached out for Namine’s sketchbook, which was sitting closed between them, to check the notes, but it was quickly moved out of reach as Namine snatched it up. Xion pulled her hand back, surprised, and Namine gasped softly, as if she had just realized what she had done.
“I—I’m sorry,” she said.
“It’s okay,” Xion said automatically, though she was quite confused. “I wasn’t trying to take it or anything.”
“No, I know,” Namine said, “I just, um…”
She fell silent, and Xion waited, but Namine just clutched the sketchbook to her chest and said nothing. Xion started to ask if she was okay, but was interrupted by another voice.
“Excuse me.” The Beast hovered sheepishly at the other end of the stack. “Um...Belle told me I was rude earlier. I wanted to apologize—and try to help you, if I can.”
“Help?” Xion asked. “With our question?”
He nodded. “I know I have a short temper. I spent a long time letting it rule me, but then I met Belle, and she was so kind...she made me want to change. To be better than I was. And I have, a little. I’m trying. And I’m going to keep trying, for her.”
Xion heard the quiet sounds of Namine’s pencil on paper behind her. “Thank you,” she said to the Beast. “That’s really helpful.”
He smiled slightly, his intense features softening, and nodded again before leaving them alone in the aisle. The awkward silence returned.
“Xion? I really am sorry,” Namine said after a moment. “I’ll make you and Roxas copies of all my notes—it’s just that they’re really messy until I move them to the chart, so..”
“Don’t worry about it, it’s okay,” Xion said, getting to her feet. “Let’s clean up and go find Roxas, okay? It’s almost time to go anyway.”
Namine stayed quiet for the rest of their trip back to Radiant Garden, and Xion wondered if it was her fault somehow, but quickly put it to the back of her mind when they finally met up with Lea and Isa for dinner, fresh from their own trip to another set of worlds.
“So how’d the project go?” Lea asked, looking at their charts. “You guys crack the love code?”
Xion shrugged. “Not really. We got a lot of information, but I still don’t think I get it.”
“Don’t worry about it too much. I think it’s something you’re just gonna have to figure out on your own, you know? Probably when you’re older.” He laughed at the frown that spread across her face. “What? It’s true!
“Telling someone they’ll figure it out when they’re older isn’t very helpful, Lea.” Isa leaned over to read a few excerpts. “Though it does look like you received quite a few detailed answers.”
“They’re detailed, but a lot of it still sounds like friendship to me…”
“The two feelings aren’t unrelated. There’s quite a bit of overlap—which is why we use the same word for both, I suppose.”
“Does it have to be...big?” They all looked over as Namine, who had been silently copying notes into another chart, finally spoke up. She shrank a little in her seat at the sudden attention, but continued, “All of these answers make it seem like it has to be a huge realization…”
“...No,” Isa said, after some consideration. “No, I think it can be quiet. So long as the feeling is there, that’s what matters.”
“It can be loud, though,” Lea added.
“No, that’s just you.”
Roxas leaned over to Xion as Lea pulled a face. “You could show Even all of the notes? He might be able to explain a little more.”
“That’s a good idea,” she said. “Namine, are you done?”
“Oh—yes, here.” Namine held out the last chart, quickly shutting her sketchbook. “I could come with you, if you want?”
“It’s okay, I’ll be right back!” Xion took it, gathered up the rest of the charts, and left the table, dinner forgotten.
Even wasn’t hard to find—like Belle, he spent a lot of time in the library when he wasn’t in the lab—and he agreed to look over their data, though he gave her a probing look as he took the stack of charts. She sat down across from him at a table, and waited as he read through all of the notes they’d gathered.
When he was finished, he laid the papers down on the table, and looked at her for a moment with narrowed eyes before speaking.
“Why are you so focused on this question, Xion?” he asked.
Xion didn’t answer immediately. It was something she had been trying to figure out herself, ever since Namine had asked her the same thing, but the conclusion she had come to was an uncomfortable one.
Even, however, was not one to let a question go unanswered. “Well?”
“It’s just….I’m supposed to be human now, aren’t I? Or at least, I definitely have a heart.”
“Yes, of course.”
“Then I should be able to feel all the emotions that other people do, right? But I’ve never felt like that about someone. So maybe there’s something wrong--maybe my heart didn’t grow properly, or there’s something that needs to be fixed with my vessel…”
Even chuckled quietly at this, and Xion’s frown deepened.
“What?”
“Forgive me, I wasn’t trying to be dismissive. It’s a valid concern for you, I think.” He leaned back in his chair, tapping his chin with his forefinger. “You have been alive for, hmm, about a year and a half all together? That is, in terms of a human lifespan, not very long at all. Of course, your life has thus far been more eventful than most people’s, but it would be astonishing to assume that you had experienced the full spectrum of human emotion in such a short time. Some people live for decades before they fall in love with someone. Some people never fall in love at all.”
“At all? Ever?”
“Ever. That doesn’t make them any less human.” He slid the stack of papers back to her. “Eventually you might find someone you’ll fall in love with. But there’s nothing wrong with not having felt that emotion yet. It may be hard for you to conceive, but you are very young, Xion. You have plenty of time.”
It wasn’t the concrete answer she wanted, but Xion left the conversation feeling a little better. As she exited the library, intending to find Roxas and Namine to tell them what Even had said, her phone beeped. She had a message from Namine.
Could you meet me in the west tower?
Xion thought this was a little strange, but Namine had been acting strange the last couple of days anyway. Still, she had wanted to talk to her, so she quickly sent back a yes, and made her way up to the west tower of the castle.
It took her a moment to spot Namine, who was outside on the tower’s balcony. The moment Xion stepped outside, Namine shot to her feet, sketchbook in hand.
“Hi,” she said. “Um, thank you for coming up here. How was your talk with Even?”
“Good,” Xion answered. “I didn’t really get a better answer, but I think...I think that’s okay. I don’t feel so concerned about it now.”
“That’s good. I’ve been worried…”
“I know,” Xion said. “I’m sorry for worrying you.” She glanced at Namine’s sketchbook. “I’ve been a little worried about you too.”
Namine nodded. “Yeah, I know I’ve been acting, um, a little strange...and I think I hurt your feelings earlier, in Belle’s library.”
“It’s really okay—“
“It’s not. Actually, that’s why I asked you up here.” Her hands tightened on her sketchbook. “I-I wanted to tell you something. A secret.”
“A secret?”
“Yes,” she said, almost breathless. “You see, the truth is—the truth is that all I’ve been drawing is...you.”
“Me?”
Namine nodded. Her cheeks were starting to flush pink. “Um….yeah.” She held out her sketchbook.
Xion hesitated, but took it and began to flip through the pages. It was true—every page had at least one drawing of her, practicing magic or laughing or looking at their charts.
“When you disappeared, Xion, everyone forgot about you—um, obviously, and I know maybe talking about that makes you sad, but when I remembered you, I felt terrible! I know there was nothing I could do—I tried to figure out a way to keep some memory of you alive, I even drew a few pictures of you back then, but they all faded away…”
She went quiet, looking down at her feet. Xion didn’t know what to say—they’d never really talked about everything that had happened. Eventually Namine spoke again.
“I just felt awful. So, I’ve been trying to draw as many pictures of you as I can, because I...really don’t want to lose you again. I mean—my memories of you! Because you’re really important to me.” She tugged at the hem of her dress nervously. “So, I just wanted to...tell you, because I’m trying to change. I want to be braver, like you. And I wanted to give you this.”
She reached for something behind her, and held it up for Xion to see: a small piece of jewelry decorated with a turquoise swirl. “It’s an Aero cufflink—since you were having trouble with wind magic earlier…”
Xion took the cufflink, watching how the starlight reflected off the metal, and then looked back to Namine. Even in the twilight, Xion could see how red her face had turned, and how her heart was thudding beneath the fabric of her dress.
“Namine,” she said suddenly, “you know, don’t you?”
“Know…?”
“You’re trying to change, and you trusted me with a secret, and you made sure to get me a present that I would like—all of the things everyone said—“ Xion was starting to feel a little breathless herself. “The answer to my question! You know the difference, don’t you?”
The blush on Namine’s face spread all the way down her neck and across her shoulders. She opened her mouth, but it took her a moment to find her voice. “I...think so. Yeah. Yes.”
Xion grabbed her hand excitedly, intending to ask a dozen questions, but as she stepped closer to Namine, their eyes locked. Starlight shined in Namine’s eyes, and something like hope shined there too. Xion leaned closer instinctively, and thought, as she did so, that maybe she didn’t need to hear Namine’s explanation after all. Maybe she had found the answer herself.