Work Text:
The three keyblade wielders had handily dispersed the unversed threat. Aqua's breaths were deep and heavy, steadying herself after her jumping slice against the metallic beast. Her friends boasted of their achievements with resolve and vigor.
"We... make a good team." She affirmed in a struggle to reassure herself. Her bond with her friends had grown distant since the mark of mastery, and the responsibilities of being a keyblade master weighed heavily on her. As much as she tried to maintain her cheerful demeanor in the face of the monsters that roamed the land, it was shattering to pieces. Her recollection of her once fearless resolve wavered as the reality of unrelenting Unversed ravaging the lands took priority. It struck a chord in Aqua; dread for herself and her friends festered as the fate of the worlds hung on a thread. She shook her head, trying to push away those thoughts as she approached the shimmering light that beckoned her, her two closest friends.
Ven affirmed her sentiment with a quick remark and a nod, "Sure do." before swiftly shifting the subject, "Oh yeah! I got you these tickets." Reaching into his pocket, he brought forth two tickets for Disney Town.
"For what?" Terra asked with a curious gaze.
"Lifetime passes to Disney Town!" Ventus affirmed, handing out a ticket to each of them. Terra eagerly grasped his, while Aqua's hand was tardy, worn out from the fighting.
He glanced down, his smile turning to a frown, as he added, "He said to--" His voice trembling, lost in his throat as he digested the meaning, "He said to take two grown-ups..."
Aqua teased, forcing a smile to elevate the mood, "Ya mean us?" Terra couldn't help but laugh at the teasing implication, with Aqua joining in.
Yet, Aqua couldn't let her duties go as she postured to play her part, "Listen to me, Ven..." She paused as she admired him, only imagining the horrors he'd seen on his journey to get here, as far as her and Terra. Her urge to see him safe and sound outweighed her pride in him for making it this far, "We need to get you home."
Ven tried brushing off Aqua's concerns, "It's okay, Aqua!" before turning to face Terra, "Trust me, that guy in the mask is history! He'll never bad mouth Terra again!" The boy cockily proclaimed, raising his fist into the air to clench it down victoriously.
"You saw the boy in the mask?" Terra inquired, lunging his arm to grasp Ven's shoulder in shock.
"Y-Yes?" Ven affirmed, unused to his friend behaving so roughly.
"Vanitas..." Terra muttered as he gazed into the distance, concerns for Ven rushing through his darkened heart.
"Ven. You let Aqua take you home." He spoke with a resolve and finality to his tone.
"No way, I want to go with you guys." Ven affirmed, his desires worn on his heart.
"You can't..." Terra said, glancing at Ven, "We have a dangerous task ahead of us. I don't want you to get hurt."
Terra's words alarmed Aqua. A dangerous task isn't what Eraqus had called for, and with the rumors she had heard. Her heart couldn't stomach the thought. Was Terra falling into the darkness as her fears foresaw? She had to know more. Passing him an inquisitive glare, she pressed, "And what is this dangerous task, Terra? It doesn't like what the Master told you to do."
Trying to set aside his friend's judgment, Terra affirmed, "It might be a different route, but I'm fighting the darkness."
Aqua thought back to the allegations, the rumors she had heard about Terra on his travels, not to mention the strange happenings at work, and sighed before reluctantly admitting, "I'm not so sure. I've been to the same worlds as you, and I've seen what you've done. You shouldn't put yourself so close to the darkness." Trying to dissuade him from walking down that dark road, wandering into a spiraling abyss he couldn't retreat from, the path Master Eraqus had made sure to instill fear from at such a young age under his tutelage. Where her wisdom failed her, doctrine sufficed.
Ven's displeasure soared, "Listen to yourself, Aqua. Terra would never--" Trying to keep his friends from fighting amongst themselves.
Terra's emotional guard raised as he spouted a defensive demeanor, "You mean you've been spying on me?" He mocked her, "Is that what he said to do? The Master's orders?"
"He was only--." Aqua tried to defend his orders and herself, but couldn't find the words as Ven injected, "Aqua--" trying to reason with her before being cut off by Terra, "I get it." before beginning to walk astray from the two.
"Terra!" Ven cried as he took a step to follow, only to be interrupted once more, "Just stay put!" Turning his head back with an angry scowl that sent shivers down Aqua's spine, "I'm on my own now, alright?"
"Terra, please..." She pleaded, "Listen. The master has no reason to distrust you, really." She tried to explain. Terra was like a son to him, he wouldn't think the worst of him. "He was just worried." And he had every right to be, the darkness had taken its hold on Terra since the mark of mastery exam, or perhaps even before that, and such a power was as dangerous as it was grand.
Terra walked away, not paying mind to Aqua's words, and she felt her heart tremble as the dread of a friend's departure weighed heavily on her.
But Ven's words would be the thing to pierce her like a knife, the sudden kick while she was down that made her feel utterly worthless, and no amount of duty or feigned strength could rival their sheer weight.
"You're awful, Aqua." nonchalantly Ven proclaimed he gave her a cold gaze, anger taking hold of his heart as he hated how she pushed Terra away.
She didn't want this, she wanted to be a warrior who worked to protect the worlds, she wanted to have the wisdom, strength, and resolve of Master Eraqus, she wanted to graduate alongside Terra as his equal and help Ventus prepare to take the exam himself one day, she didn't want to push her friends away with her carelessness and fruitless attempts at following orders. The stress of the situation, Terra abandoning her, and Ven's cruel words broke something inside the girl.
Tears flooded down her cheeks as she erupted into cries of anguish and agony, Terra couldn't hear her, he was too far away and lost in his mist to answer her call, but Ven hadn't moved an inch.
"Aqua?", concern taking hold. As mad as he was, he still treasured his friend.
"I-I'm sorry." She meekly yielded, tears flooding down her cheeks, repeating herself, "I'm sorry." She had already lost one of her friends to her hubris, she couldn't bear to lose another, not right now and certainly not with everything that's happened.
"Aqua, I didn't mean that..." He tried to reassure her and cast away his prior condemnation, it was the heat of the moment, not a true denunciation.
Yet his words didn't reach her, she was lost in a festering abyss of darkness. Adrift and uncertain. Nothing she had been doing was working. Perhaps she had banished the unversed, but that couldn't make up for her withering connections or the things that threatened her loved ones which she was powerless to stop, hopeless as doubt and fear beset her frail heart.
Ventus felt torn, torn between preventing Terra's forewarned fall to darkness and comforting his friend, taking a step forward as he weighed his options and the danger Terra was in.
Aqua, noting Ven's sudden sprint, grappled him by the arm, and pleaded, "Please, don't go." She needed him, and the thought of being alone again struck her core like a spike to the heart. The isolation was killing her, the self-conceptual distance that came from being the sole master in the group, the emotional rift that had torn their friendship to tatters, and the physical distance they had experienced in stark contrast to her friends being a room or two away at most, suffocated her.
And yet, despite her clear-hearted gesture, Ventus took it in all the wrong ways, "I'm not a kid anymore! You can't make me stay!" He lashed out, trying to squirm free of Aqua's grasp, taking her need for closeness as a desire to chain him down as they had tried to for so long.
Though the rejection and anxiety were crippling for her, she found the urge to speak through her body's adrenaline rush and shouted, "I know! I'm not trying to take you back home, Ven." She was sick of that, sick of going through with Eraqus's plans if all it got was her being abandoned and branded awful by her friends. As much as she valued the master, as she looked at Ven, clearly harboring his demons as he struggled to ensure Terra's safety in the same vein as her, she knew she valued him and Terra far more. She pleaded, begging as tears escaped her eyes, "Please, listen to me!"
Ven halted, it was certainly a development, and asked, "You... you aren't?" Tilting his head in surprise, he hadn't expected her to give up on that ambition, not after Terra emboldened the notion no less.
"No, Ven..." She lightened the grip on his arm and quietly spoke, "I trust you. You're... strong." She admitted. He had held faith in Terra and shown a resolve to secure his safety that although unorthodox, proved to be superior to her approach of judgment and following Eraqus's letter. At least he hadn't driven Terra away like she had.
"Really?" Ven's eyes lit up in delight, being acknowledged by one of his friends, especially Aqua, was a total treat for him. He was sick of them denying him agency and treating him like an irresponsible kid when he was every bit a keyblade wielder as they were.
"Yes, Ven." Her eyes fluttered as they watered, fixed on his beautiful golden radiance, the water swelling up in her eyes distorting her view of the beautiful boy before her yet keeping his radiant light as visible as ever, she affirmed, "Yes." Her grip on him had completely fallen, and she glanced away from him, feeling utterly undeserving of his time and radiance, and took her eyes down to the ground. Her fears told her that she belonged in it, buried and forgotten, an utter failure of a keyblade master from beginning to end who failed to protect her friends.
Ven watched as she sobbed, her hold over him waning as her vulnerability poured in praise for him. He couldn't leave her to chase after Terra, not right now. He felt sick. What kind of a friend was he if he'd call the one who acknowledged him horrible over a single argument? All while they praised him to the heavens? It wasn't fair, and Aqua deserved better, he decided. And so she would get it.
He pulled Aqua into a tight hug, wrapping his arms snuggly around her torso, an embrace embalming across her body, and buried his head into her shoulder, her sight of the cold uncaring ground blocked by the majesty of his golden hair, and he affirmed with a soft tone, "It's okay, Aqua. Everyone makes mistakes," He thought back to how he made her smile, how she'd always check in on him to make sure he was okay, and how attentive she was to him during his first year with Eraqus and his friends. She was an amazing woman and one he was glad to have as part of his life, not some scum to be discarded, and he was blind to ever think that. "I've made a bunch, you remember the last time I tried making pancakes, right?" He jested, trying to lighten the mood at his own expense and break through to her.
Aqua couldn't help but laugh, a short genuine giggle escaped as her crying died down, "Oh Ven..." He knew how to bring her back and calm her worry-wart tendencies, he always had, be it stressing way too much over mastering a spell or fear of failure, Ven had more often than not been the one to help her through it. And now he stood, comforting her as he always had. It relieved Aqua to think that maybe her being a master didn't have to change as much as she had thought it had.
"I was stupid to think I was better than you." She said, a smile sprouting across her wet face, glancing down at Ven with glee.
"Oh, c'mon, Aqua, you are in so many ways!" He protested. Though he wasn't a fan of her previous front of superiority, he knew she was special and deserved to feel it, "You're the youngest keyblade master I've ever heard of, you're a master at magic, and your mind's as sound as a whistle."
A crimson surprise caught her cheeks, "Ven..." He was so kind and caring. Even when he upset her, he always made sure to make it up to her. She loved that about him, and as her heart knew it to be true, she loved him.
Ven had learned a lot traveling the worlds, from fighting to even replicating some of Aqua's magic moves, but most importantly of all, he had heard whispers of love through the air, and as he held the girl he knew so well, he effortlessly affirmed, "I love you, Aqua."
Although taken by surprise, desperate for affection, and needing a connection to keep her adrift heart at bay, she admitted, "I love you too, Ven."
Departing from the embrace, he turned around and said, "Now that that's settled, let's get searching for Terra!"
Aqua added, dazzled and curious, "Together?" before Ven affirmed with a smile meant for Aqua as he held out a hand for her, "Together."
She gladly took it, content to follow Ven in his frenzied chase to find their friend, she was a keyblade master in her own right now, and that meant she needed to make her own choices, not just follow in Eraqus's footsteps.
In her stormfallen heart, she knew she'd follow that wayward wind to the ends of the earth.