` SPELLWORK & LIES.

✧ 𝐏𝐎𝐄𝐓𝐑𝐘 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐒 // @moondrifting

❛ 𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐧𝐨𝐭. ❜

she watches isa warily from across the breakfast table. the space between them stretches untouched, a minefield spanning over a decade and then some. aqua hesitates before she crosses it. she doesn’t know where to step, where to skip over, or where to avoid altogether. she thinks back to their prior conversations, tries to fit them over the subject like a guideline, but it’s all fluff, innocuous pleasantries. 

truthfully, she’d hoped to keep it that way. but mornings like this, when she can tell by looking at him that he didn’t sleep and she’s nursing a cup of the strongest caffeine blend munny can buy, have a way of breaking taboos.

it feels terribly invasive, approaching someone else’s trauma when all she’s learned of it is through other people. she knows what happened to him, but she doesn’t know how he feels about it, and that’s what poses the real risk. does he talk about it freely, like riku? does he smile through it, like ven and sora? does he brush it off, like lea?

does he trap it under the surface, like her?

❛ i thought, ❜  she starts slowly,  ❛ once i left the realm of darkness, the realm of darkness would leave me. ❜  aqua glances up, tentatively meeting isa’s gaze. he didn’t know her before, and she is not his master. he will understand. the iceberg tips, and the pain washes over her face like the responding wave.  ❛ but it hasn’t. i’m afraid i’ve changed more than i ever thought possible. ❜

𝐒𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐎𝐖.     innocence, big dreamer, waking up too early, walking home, being afraid of meeting new people, slim hands, always cold, reading a book under a tree, the smell of the forest, missing your home.

𝐄𝐀𝐆𝐋𝐄.     independent, caring too much for others, sharp looks, walking down the city late at night, the tallest and more spectacular building, iron, being single and okay in a world that tells you that being single is bad.

𝐒𝐖𝐈𝐅𝐓.     falling in love easily and heavily, traveler, the infinity of the bluest sky, storms, broken smiles, forgetting people who used to be your beloved ones, feeling out of place, mistrusting people, a fleeting romance.

𝐂𝐑𝐎𝐖.     feeling as if you have seen so much and as if you know a lot, prejudge, tight hugs that leave you breathless, a grey sky, serenity, intelligence, being left behind, chains, smoke, the pride of someone wise.

𝐃𝐎𝐕𝐄.     petals, jealousy, being tired of living with the same old faces, whispered secrets, marble, sundresses, white clothes, the first sunset of winter, pride in who you are, learning to get over someone.

𝐒𝐄𝐀𝐆𝐔𝐋𝐋.     family, golden light, the sea murmuring in your ear, summer afternoons, caramel ice cream, collecting seashells and other things and calling them treasures, living breezy and carefree, swimming in sunlight.

𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐀𝐑𝐘.   artistic, getting excited easily, dancing and singing while you are alone, looking at your friends having fun, no phone, being afraid of judgement, spring, a meaningful gift, the first ray of sunlight.

✧ 𝐏𝐎𝐄𝐓𝐑𝐘 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐒 // @livory

❛ 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭’𝐬 𝐚 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫, ❜  aqua replies, cheekily tapping the blunt side of her keyblade against terra’s neck,  ❛ ‘i yield, mighty keyblade master’ would be more effective, i think. ❜

admittedly, it wasn’t her cleanest victory. she had been able to sweep him off his feet, and he’d responded in kind by kicking her leg out from under her on his way down. with a little maneuvering, aqua had still managed to come out on top — literally. her knees are digging into the soil on either side of her best friend’s waist, and the evening sun at her back stretches her shadow long enough to eclipse him in it.

spent but still smug, aqua pitches sideways off terra and flops down on the grass next to him. the master would be expecting them at home soon — cricket-song suffuses the air around them like a gentler precursor to the evening bells. they’d been at it for hours now. still, she hates to leave the score uneven.

beat u to it b*nch | @wovelight

✧ LOVE STARTERS | @islelight​

     ❛ oh, you don’t have to … ❜  but kairi has already torn the sandwich in two and held one part out to her, wearing a smile that would make turning her down a grievous offense. aqua has no choice but to accept the offered half, but while her friend imbibes, she quietly contemplates.

       it’s just a sandwich. two slices of bread with a gooey filling. there’s a bit too much jelly, actually — enough to ooze between the slices when she takes a bite. aqua catches the excess on her thumb and licks it off without thinking, strawberry preserves coating her tongue with sticky sweetness. 

      ‘ my dad goes a little overboard on the jelly sometimes, ’ kairi clarifies around a morsel, and although aqua doesn’t mind the surplus, her successor’s words themselves give her pause.

      although eraqus was certainly a father figure to her, he was never so plainly defined as her father. there was always a degree of formality between them, a fine line between master and parent that they never dared to breach. her childhood was defined by a weapon, a destiny —a duty sitting on her head like a leaded crown. not by a parent’s pure love. certainly not by overly jammy peanut butter sandwiches.

       aqua looks over at kairi, idly swinging her legs as she gazes out over the sea, and can’t bring herself to regret the person this little island raised. she should have been there to train her protégé from the beginning, but if her absence was what it took to give kairi a family that loved her unconditionally, then ... perhaps it can be forgiven.