An Unbreakable Connection

This is your home, she said.

And Terra’s vision blurred for a beautiful, bittersweet moment because that was true.

He blinked a few times, clearing his throat and making an acknowledging noise as he responded to her tugging.  The bench they sat on was familiar; kind of like everything in Castle Oblivion, it was all the same features but in a slightly (or sometimes significantly) different place, or with a new look.  Terra had adjusted to it all before he left, and he still missed the old castle, but he’d become surprisingly nostalgic for the new one.

“Well, you probably already heard from Cinderella,” he hedged first.  “She’s doing…fine.  And I got to meet Princess Aurora.”  Easily one of the most nerve-wracking encounters in Terra’s life.  But she’d been sweet about it, and very firm that Maleficent was to blame “all three times.”  Between her and her godmothers, Terra left with the relieved impression that the situation had been a lot more complicated than his own involvement.  “I couldn’t seem to find Zack anywhere, but I ran into 626 for a little while.  Apparently Sora’s met him, too.”

Terra added that one with a wry shrug, well aware that mentioning that was about as remarkable as commenting on the weather.

She had indeed heard from Cinderella, probably before Terra even had. In fact she’d met all the Princesses during the aftermath of the fight with Xehanort. The three she’d met back before the worlds fell hadn’t aged any more than she had, and Aqua made a sympathetic noise at Terra’s mention of those two. And then smiled wryly herself.

“That’s Sora for you.” Aqua would be shocked if there was anyone he didn’t already know, somehow. Except Zack, and Aqua tried not to think too hard too often about why that might be. She set that feeling aside for another time, her smile softening.

That made Terra smile.  It had felt like an irresponsible choice, and definitely one he wanted to make up for, but it eased his conscience that Aqua hadn’t suffered too much in his absence.  No doubt he had Ven to thank for that, and also to reassure when he could.  He knew how it had looked, but getting Ven to understand that he needed space because he didn’t want them assuming the worst had been difficult to do as long as Ven was still assuming the worst.

So Aqua’s question caught him a little off guard.  “Well, if you’ll have me,” he said, and then heard how awkward that sounded.  Neither Aqua nor Ven had ever given him the impression they wanted him gone, and he wasn’t trying to come off like they had.  But balancing that against his reluctance to impose was hard.  “I mean.  Um.  I’d like to, at least for a while, but if I get in your way, don’t, uh…”

That really wasn’t any better, but it was the best Terra could do.  He shot her a sheepish look.

Aqua let out a surprised, awkward laugh. 

“Terra. This is your home. You belong here.” Aqua had never doubted that for a minute. He’d been through the wringer, like they all had, but that only made it more important for him to have a home to return to. She squeezed his hand again and started to move over towards a bench near the wall of the front hall, tugging to get him to follow.

Her voice made him startle like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar, but her enthusiasm was clear before she reached him and he relaxed.  His eyes followed her movements closely when she nearly touched him, but he knew why.  So he followed up by reaching out to squeeze one of her hands reassuringly, if also very gently.  Terra hadn’t always known his own strength even before it was used against him and everyone he loved.

“Here and there, yes.  It sounds like he’s making friends,” he said first, knowing Ven probably didn’t check back with Aqua as often as he should.  (Terra hadn’t set the greatest example himself.)  “I was just…well, I visited some old acquaintances.  Got around a bit.”

He paused, knowing he was sort of avoiding the behemoth in the room.  “I’m sorry I left so suddenly.  Have you been…okay?”  He kind of regretted the question as soon as it was out of his mouth.  Aqua didn’t need to be treated with cushions and kid gloves, but each of them still woke screaming to a cold sweat at one time or another.

Terra understood. Aqua squeezed his hand back, firmer than he’d done. Really real. She still wished none of it had happened, but since it had, at least they could all deal with it together, the three of them. Their broken pieces fit together, for the most part. Aqua gave him a bittersweet smile.

“I’ve been fine. Better, now that you’re home in one piece.” She’d been worried. Terra blamed himself too much, and she hadn’t been certain what his intention had been in taking off like that. Aqua’d had many a sleepless night being anxious about increasingly irrational possibilities for Terra to come to grief. But he was an adult; ten years older than her, now, which was another difference that was hard to get used to. Aqua’d had to content herself with Ven’s updates (occasionally passed along through one of the other young Keybearers.

Terra came to realize he was ready to go home around the same time he stopped struggling to refuel.

The Gummi ships were the sort of technology that Master Eraqus would probably frown on, being made up of broken worlds, but Terra hadn’t felt safe putting himself so close to the darkness in the Lanes Between.  Besides…even now, using the Keyblade at all felt so much like tempting himself to tap into its power.  Maybe someday he’d be comfortable wielding it as thoughtlessly as he once had, but that day wouldn’t be for a long time.

So when he returned to the Land of Departure (or Castle Oblivion as he also, tragically, knew it), it was without fanfare.  He wasn’t surprised not to see Ven as he stepped up towards the castle doors; they’d probably missed one another in transit, but Ven had now and then caught up to him without convincing him to come home.  (That was an odd reversal that Terra still wasn’t sure how he felt about.)

Nonetheless, he hesitated at the door.  Xemnas’s intense fight to get past Aqua’s defenses and into this castle came to mind, and Terra was gripped by a brief and terrifying certainty that it would come off the wrong way if he just let himself in.  The whole reason he’d left was to get away from thoughts like those–but it’d been kind of spur of the moment, so maybe she was still upset about how quickly he left.

So he compromised.  “Aqua?” he called out a bit timidly as he pushed open the door, lingering in the front hall for the moment.  “Are you home?”

It seemed like she knew as soon as Terra set foot back on home soil. After so long in the Dark with only the sense of Ven and Terra in the distance to sustain her, Aqua had become hyperaware of their presence. Terra and Ven were always there in the back of her awareness now, even when they were on other worlds, but Terra’s was suddenly so much closer. For the first time in months, and Aqua was halfway to the entrance before he even reached the door. That was his voice, but Aqua didn’t call back until she came out of the hall and saw him with her own eyes.

“Terra!” Aqua hurried down the stairs, not quite running but certainly in a rush. She never trusted him or Ven to be fully real until she was within arm’s reach of them. Aqua would never get used to that silver hair, but she could at least confirm to herself that he was good and solid. She stopped just shy of touching him.

Aqua was certainly grateful to Axel for getting her out of the Dark Realm, but that didn’t mean that she wanted to spend any more time with him than strictly necessary. Though she’d initially considered asking for help reaching Radiant Garden, Aqua had ultimately decided that she didn’t quite trust him enough. The strange Darkness they’d used to escape to this place to begin with had been worrisome enough before Aqua knew what...he was. It would be better to find her own way. Maybe in the process, she could find a way to reverse what Xehanort had done to him and the others he mentioned, but in the meanwhile, it was best to not get too close to so dark an existence.

But that left Aqua with a problem. How to get around? She needed her armor in order to travel the Lanes Between, but her best guess was that it was probably still in Radiant Garden- or Hollow Bastion, as Axel had called it. If it wasn’t there, Aqua really didn’t know what she would do- but that was a non-issue if she couldn’t even get there in the first place.

Aqua made a frustrated noise. She would have to risk the Lanes Between even without armor, and just hope there was a world close enough. If she felt wrong, she could just land again, couldn’t she? Aqua really had no choice but to try. With a flip of her Keyblade, Stormfell transformed, and Aqua was off.

Terra sat back, crossing his arms and looking faintly amused.  “For some random prince?” he supplied.  Terra probably could have added scrawny, and little, and weaselly if he were really moved, but he’d been drilled on politeness too.  And it was a crown prince.

Terra was just also a crown prince, it so happened.  And one who wouldn’t suffer Aqua to change a thing about her loyalties.  But that wasn’t really the point (and that argument hadn’t worked).

He sighed.  “We’ll figure something out.  It shouldn’t have to be you,” he added.  Terra wasn’t much interested in marrying a scrawny little weasel prince either but he would’ve floated the idea to take the pressure off Aqua, if it wouldn’t be political mayhem to marry a crown prince to a crown prince.  “El Nido just wants an alliance against Porre.  That’s obvious.  There should be some other way,” he insisted.

Aqua made a face, a grimace trying to be a smirk.

“Maybe we could marry him off to Isa and kill two birds with one stone.” Aqua wasn’t serious; that seemed as likely as Porre spontaneously falling into the sea and making the problem moot. Aqua sighed and dropped her head back against the armrest.

Terra looked up curiously when Aqua entered, but then self-consciously back at his studies (without seeing them).  She’d actually caught him at a bad time, just as Terra was starting to engage his mind with the intricacies of trade economics, but under the circumstances he couldn’t even be mad.  He and Ven both had spent most of the morning sulking and discussing (only half-seriously) ways to embarrass Aqua’s would-be husband out of Liber.

So Terra had a hard time focusing on much else, but Aqua’s arrival dispelled several irrational fears he knew better than to actually bring up to her.  Instead, he just smirked indulgently to himself.

“That bad, huh?” he asked, shooting her a sympathetic look.

Aqua made another answering groan into the pillow, and then a muffled,

“I caaaaaaan’t do thissssssssss.” Aqua let her hand fall away from her face, pillow still clutched in it to land on the floor. She kicked irritatedly at the inside hem of her skirt. Aqua never wore skirts except for formal appearances. She couldn’t wait to be back in breeches and on the practice grounds. Aqua pushed herself up on her elbows so she could look in Terra’s direction.

Aqua was polite, but no more than polite for the entire rest of the awkwardness that was that meeting. She even allowed Prince Lea to escort her back towards the Royal wing, and maintained her polite smile while she bid him an entirely correct goodbye. She kept that on her face while she opened the door to Terra’s apartments and slipped inside, right up until the heavy door closed behind her.

Oh no, he’d said something wrong–that or looked wrong or breathed on her wrong.  They weren’t inappropriately close but Lea shifted away vigilantly anyway, pretending it was part of settling into his seat more comfortably.

And his eyebrows went up, but Lea knew better than to say one solitary word about being a “handful.”

“Yeah, a little,” he agreed.  “Mine’re pretty young, so they’re still making the same mistakes I made.”  As well as the ones Lea was still making, but that went without saying.  “That Keybearing thing sounds intense, though.  I guess it’s not a surprise it’s all your friends,” he added.  El Nido didn’t really have traditions about it, but Keybearers cropped up from time to time–usually only when they went abroad, though.  Otherwise, much more subtle forms of magic were fairly common, like Lea’s imperviousness to fire.

“Who’s the best at it?” he asked teasingly, figuring that wasn’t really the point but hoping it would prod her to elaborate on…something, already.  Seriously, this conversation was like pulling teeth from both ends and Lea could feel it but not say it.

This really was like pulling teeth. There was no way this was going to work. Prince Lea clearly didn’t want to be here any more than Aqua did. At least they had that in common, she thought wryly.

“Oh, well...I don’t know that I could say who’s ‘best.’” Because Aqua was, out of their friend group, but there was already enough tension over her gaining her Keyblade and her Mastery before Terra did, even though he was older than her. She’d never say out loud what they all knew. Aqua changed the subject again.

‘This and that’ sounded suspiciously like ‘none of the above.’  And Lea groaned inwardly at the thought of duties.  At least maybe things would line up for them if she considered this, too, some kind of duty, but Lea reeled back from the thought of actually raising heirs or any of that business.

“I get kinda swamped with that too,” he said, figuring it made more sense to be honest with his disinclination than not.  “My cousins all get off easy on that stuff, but it’s different for me.  Still, we spend a lot of time together when we can, sparring, sailing, swimming…”  Messing with the more pompous nobility and sneaking out of the castle in the dead of night, but that probably wasn’t good to mention with an audience.  And it wasn’t, either, that Lea had ever been much of a fan of the ocean, but certain things became unavoidable on an island nation.  “Same with my brothers–uh.  My brother and sister, I mean,” he corrected.  “You’ve got a kid brother, too, right?” he asked, leaning his chin in his hand.  “What’s he like?”

Aqua’s polite smile grew a little tight. Obviously he hadn’t picked up that Aqua preferred her duties. Sparring was fun, of course, but it was also fun that accomplished something. Aqua couldn’t imagine resenting her Keyblade duties like Lea seemed to.

Well. She could sort of understand resenting this duty.

“My friends are also Keybearers, like me, so most of the time what we do together has to do with our training,” she clarified. On her own time, Aqua also enjoyed stained glass work, but that probably wasn’t something Prince Lea would be interested in. Then he asked about her brother, and Aqua finally cracked an actual amused smile. Which brother did he mean? Of course, she knew he meant her actual brother, but Ven was so much more what she’d call a ‘kid’ brother.

[meme]

♦ Is it better to get other’s approval or to be proud of ones own merits?

To be proud of yourself. No one can please everyone. If you’re only swayed by what other people think, there’s no way to stick to the right path. You should always strive to believe in yourself first and foremost.

✿ Is it better to be oblivious or is it better to know the truth?

[meme]

✔ Is it better to be in the right or do the right thing?

Well, you’d hope those two things would be the same! But of course it’s always best to do the right thing. If you made a mistake, the best thing is to own up to it and do whatever you can to make it better.

✄ Is it better to work in a team or to work solo?