It looked somewhere between a fawn and a cat, white again, its legs a nice gradient of lilac. It purred, grazing towards her. She needed to be wary of it, but it was hard when the creature looked so graceful and beautiful. It rubbed its head against her legs, and she realised it wanted to be pet. She sighed. “Fine, fine. You’re not a dangerous one, now, are you?” She scratched it between the pointy ears, and the creature closed its pastel eyes, happy. “Aren’t you a pretty one, though?” she laughed, as the creature licked her face. “Okay, enough now, enough. I need to go home.”

But instead of letting her go, the fawn (cat?) gently bit her skirt, as if trying to drag her somewhere. The birds left the tree, flying a few feet away - the direction the other ‘animal’ was pulling her to.

“I need to go over there?” Of course, there was no answer, but they looked pretty insistent. “Fine, I’m going. Show me.”

They went further and further away into the woods. What if this was a trap? They looked pretty, that didn’t mean they weren’t deadly. And the woods clearly weren’t safe.

A branch snapped behind her, and she turned around to see a gigantic Heartless - now that looked like trouble. But before she could even summon her weapon, the birds started pecking at it, the fawn charged with its tiny antlers. They took down the Heartless faster than Aqua could ever do. Did they protect her? What were they? Where were they taking her? This time, she was really curious about them.

They walked for twenty minutes, and they destroyed all the Heartless (mostly Shadows) on their path. Aqua wondered for the hundredth time what was going on. Until they stopped.

So it was a trap. There was no other explanation. She had been tricked, trusted creatures solely based on how they looked, and now they delivered her to their boss who would use that trust to destroy her.

… Or would he?

If they indeed landed to the very place where Vanitas was, he wasn’t facing them and didn’t even look like he noticed them. He was sitting in a flower field, which was unusual, and he was surrounded by loads of freshly picked flowers, which was unexpected. He was swearing a lot, which at least was something natural. The fawn gently pushed her towards him, and one of the birds perched on her head in silence. She carefully took a step, then another, until she was right behind his back. He was full of openings, so focused on what he was doing that he had not noticed her yet, even though she could almost touch him.

“What are you doing?”

Startled by her, finally noticing her presence, he jumped with a gasp, trying to go back to his feet but falling in a cloud of flying flowers.

“What are you doing? Here I mean?” he snapped, trying to look angry, which wasn’t easy when your face was covered with colourful petals.

“These little ones brought me here.” So he really wasn’t aware they did. This wasn’t a trick. Instead, he just looked at the creatures and frowned.

“Them. I knew I couldn’t trust them. They are abominations.”

“They are pretty cute, I’d say,” Aqua chuckled while petting the fawn. The bird on her head chirped, while the two others landed gently on Vanitas’s shoulders.

With all these flowers and animals, he could join the Princesses of Heart group, Aqua mused, although she didn’t say it out loud.

She looked at the flowers that were on his laps. Delicate blue ones, vibrant pink ones, and subtle white ones. Their stems had been butchered, cut, torn, twisted, but the petals had been carefully preserved.

“What is it you were trying to do?” she asked, crouching next to him. He sat up, his face a bit red.

“Nothing of your concern.”

“Are these yours?” she looked at the creatures next to them. He groaned.

“Yeah. They showed up earlier, when I saw… Never mind. They’re not like my regular Unversed, I don’t know what they are. I call them Inversed. And if they’re not attacking you, then they’re useless pieces of trash.”

“Now, now, no need to be rude to them. They brought me here, protected me, in fact.”

“Like I said, useless pieces of trash.”

She picked the flowers from his lap. Somehow, some or the stems had been knotted together. She gasped. “Could it be… Were you trying to make a flower crown?”

She tried to imagine Master Xehanort with delicate flowers crowning his bald head and had to cough to hide her laughter. Vanitas flushed.

“Laugh all you want. I was actually making a funeral wreath.”

“A wreath? Whose?”

He clicked his tongue. “Saw you sleeping earlier. You looked dead. I thought it would be fun to make a wreath and put it on you. So that you’d look even deader.”

Aqua looked at the flowers again. Blue, pink, white. And from the looks of it, it was way too small for a wreath. But the perfect size for a crown.

“You mean this was… For me?”

“But as soon as I thought about making you one, these idiots showed up.” He glared at his Inversed. “I hate them.”

Aqua chuckled, ruffling his hair before realising he was supposed to be his nemesis. But instead of pushing her away, his face turned a new shade of red, and a dozen of white butterflies started flying over them, their eyes a soft pink.

“Do you want me to teach you how to make them?” What was she thinking? He was her enemy. But right now, he just looked like a human.

“Make what?”

“Crowns. Wreaths. Whatever you want, really. I can teach you how to braid flowers together. I’d hate to see these beautiful flowers be wasted.”

He turned his head away from her, pouting. She waited with a smile. Let him decide if his pride could take it.

Then, after a while, he finally sighed, his shoulders collapsing.

“Fine. Teach me how to make these stupid flower crowns. But once we’re done, promise me one thing.”

“What is that?”

“Fight me.”

She smiled, and he smiled back, and they spent the whole afternoon making flower crowns under the gentle protection of more and more Inversed. When night came, they fought, and when they both were too tired to keep going, they went each their home.