AN: Holiday re-post from AO3 (neptunedemon)
Aqua rolled the cleaning cart down the move theater hallway, humming lightly as she went.
It was Tuesday night, the absolute least-popular time for movie theaters. The long, dark hall of the theater would have felt ominous if it were Aqua's first day of work. Or year of work, even. But she'd been working here since her freshman year of college, racking up that minimum wage to carry herself through school. The end was now in sight, though, and Aqua found it helped her pull through shifts that stretched on into late, lonely hours. Like this one.
She pulled open the door to theater 9 where Moana had just finished premiering. Loud, soulful credit music poured through the entryway. Aqua recognized the credits from earlier showings of the movie. As there was no after-credits special rumored, the place should be empty. Aqua maneuvered her cleaning cart through the door and dragged it the rest of the way into the theater, mindlessly beginning to hum to the credits music. She didn't bother looking around and went straight to sweeping up popcorn bits and tossing soda cups and popcorn bags into the trash.
Another thirty seconds went by, and the last of the music faded.
Aqua's head snapped up from staring at the floor as a sound akin to a quiet sob reached her from somewhere in the theater; it was followed by a hushed whisper.
She sighed, relieved to see only a few stragglers sitting near the top row and nothing more. Thankfully, they did not appear to be partaking in any sort of daring exhibitions. It was just two boys about her age.
Technically, she was supposed to tell movie-goers to leave the theater once the credits had ceased rolling. But as it was a slow night, she decided she would ignore them for a few more minutes.
A lamely-suppressed sniffle reminded her of the earlier crying.
Trying to be subtle, she stole another glance as she tossed a crumpled napkin that had been shoved inside a cup holder into her garbage bin.
A smaller boy was holding his head in his hands, while the boy next to him was leaning over to comfort him.
She pulled down a seat armrest that had been left propped up. Actually, the boy who was being the comforter almost seemed to be grinning, as if amused.
She adjusted some cleaning supplies on the cart. He was definitely smiling, almost laughing.
Mind made up in an instant, Aqua began climbing the theater stairs. "Hello!" she called politely, maintaining professionalism. For now. "Is everything okay?"
The crying boy nearly yelped, and he buried his face in the chest of the other guy, who laughed and shook his head, muttering something to his friend that Aqua couldn't hear.
"Hello, ma'am," he finally addressed her. "Sorry, we can leave. My boyfriend here just can't handle beautiful endings well." The boy buried himself deeper, evidently embarrassed at the attention.
Aqua sighed, relieved that no one was in trouble. And then, professionalism aside, she began to laugh. "That's fine, that's fine," she said, realizing maybe she'd overreacted a bit. "I just heard crying and thought something might be wrong."
The guy who had spoken pushed his boyfriend playfully away from him. "Told you you're loud, Ven," he teased.
"It was a REALLY good movie!" Ven defended, wiping his cheeks on his sleeves. "Like, really." He glanced down the stairs at Aqua. "Sorry, miss."
Aqua shook her head, taking her broom in hand again to begin the noble duty of popcorn sweeping. "Please, you're fine," she insisted. She flashed Ven the friendliest smile she could muster. "If you need a bit more time to grieve, you both can stay until I'm done cleaning."
Ven looked terribly embarrassed, and his state wasn't helped by his boyfriend, who loudly responded so that Aqua could hear, "Hear that, Ven? We bought you some more time."
"Okay, we are leaving," Ven announced, stubbornly standing up and dramatically stalking off.
"Wait, Ven, are you not going to get your trash? That's awful mean to our friend here."
Aqua smiled to the floor as she swept, not really wanting to be a part of the jokes at the expense of the poor Ven kid, but appreciating the friendly inclusion at the same time.
With false dignity, Ven marched back and grabbed his trash, then headed out of their seating aisle again. The other boy laughed and followed him out, collecting his own trash. Aqua noticed that, as they made their way through the rest of the aisle and down the stairs, the still-unnamed boy was idly grabbing other garbage from seats as he snickered quietly at his pouting boyfriend.
"Oh," Aqua said, gripping the broom to herself. "You don't have to do that."
"Hm? Oh, no, why would I just walk by all this while you're standing there in front of me cleaning?"
Aqua watched helplessly as he tossed his collection into her garbage bin. "Well, I do get paid," she attempted to argue.
He raised an eyebrow at her. "Paid enough?"
Aqua opened her mouth with the initial intent to argue, but she really couldn't say anything against that. "Thank you," she said, defeated but grateful, and continued sweeping.
"That's what I thought," he said. He glanced at her nametag. "Aqua is a pretty name."
Aqua felt her face warm slightly. "Oh, thank you," she responded, her voice a tad quieter, still sweeping the same spot.
"I'm Terra, and this is my boyfriend, Ventus, though I guess you knew the last part already."
She looked up again, not really knowing what she was supposed to do when customers actually introduced themselves.
"It's lovely to meet you both," she said. "You both are really sweet."
Terra grinned. "Well, that's mostly Ven." Ven had been teetering back and forth nervously on his feet, but Terra wrapped an arm around his shoulder and pulled him against him with a slight oof from Ven. "But thanks."
"Stay warm tonight, you two," Aqua responded, adding a slight hint of finality to her tone in an attempt to round the atmosphere back to customer-and-employee. Not because of any reason other than she didn't know what else to do as they stood there watching her. "Glad you apparently enjoyed the movie," she tried, hoping to not sound too much like she was forcing them out.
She resumed actually sweeping. Her shift was going to end before she even finished this last job.
"Does your shift end soon?" Terra asked as if he'd read her mind.
"Yeah, this is my last theater to take care of tonight." So, there hadn't been too many people in here tonight, there wasn't that much to sweep...
"Well," continued Terra, drawing out the word as he exchanged a long glance with Ven, who nodded enthusiastically. "Ven and I were going to grab hot chocolate at the end of the strip district. Would you care to join us?"
... And between herself and Terra, at least most of the trash had been collected.
Aqua felt she shouldn't; she could list a million reasons why, between staying late to help close the theater, getting ahead on studying, or hell, sleeping. She let impulse take over.
"All right." She secured the broom back on the cleaning cart. "That sounds wonderful."
Despite the hope that she would agree, Terra and Ven were both surprised for a moment, but they didn't stall long.
"Perfect!" cheered Ven.
And, feeling a little lighter on her feet than when she'd come into the theater that night, Aqua pushed her cleaning cart from theater 9, this time with a small acquaintance chortling behind her, and another one graciously holding the door open.
The café was a short walk, but it was still a walk in the cold. By the time they reached the door, Aqua had her arms wrapped tightly around herself, and Ven was bouncing on his toes while Terra attempted to keep an arm over him.
The place was dimly lit to show off its Christmas lights strung across the walls.
"How lovely," Aqua remarked.
They went to a counter to order their drinks, and after receiving them, proceeded to find a booth in the corner of the café. It was next to a large window.
Terra and Ven sat together on the opposite side of the booth from Aqua, sipping their respective variations of hot cocoa. Aqua drank from her own cup, and the hot beverage pulled heat to the furthermost regions of her body.
"So, do you guys live around here?" she asked.
"I go to university here," answered Terra.
"Really? I haven't seen you around, though."
Terra nodded. "Yeah, I'm actually a grad student. I spend most of my time in the lab doing physical therapy research."
"That's... awesome, actually. You'll have to tell me more about that sometime. What about you, Ven?"
"Oh!" he piped up, previously distracted by fiddling with his mug. "I actually go to a university a couple hours away. But Terra and I take turns visiting each other. That's why I'm here."
"That's sweet but... on a Wednesday night?"
"My finals are over, so I'm done with the semester," he clarified. After another second, he added, "And we miss each other. A lot."
Aqua couldn't help but giggle. "That's so cute."
"Yeah," Terra agreed, and Aqua could have sworn she saw him blush.
Aqua smiled through another sip of hot cocoa. "I haven't had something sweet like this in a long time," she reminisced through a sigh.
"Really?" Ven gaped at her. "That can't be true!"
"Especially around the holidays," Terra added.
Aqua hummed a little, smiling down at her coffee. "Well, it's been mostly studying and working lately."
"Well that's... not a lot of fun," Ven tried, but his voice trailed off.
Aqua immediately felt guilty for putting herself out in the open and making an awkward situation among people who didn't even know her. "Did you eat the marshmallows out of your hot chocolate before drinking it, Ven?" she asked to change the subject, but also simply noticing the fullness of his cup but the lack of marshmallows.
"Um, nooo," he lied unconvincingly, burying his face in the layers of scarves wrapped around his neck.
"Ven, we are in public!" Terra playfully shoved his boyfriend. "Drink like a normal person."
"These are like Lucky Charms marshmallows, though! How can you NOT just eat them immediately?"
Aqua gasped. "Wait, these marshmallows are?" She shamelessly picked one from her cup and plopped it in her mouth, biting down with a crunch.
She looked at Terra with wide eyes. "I never bothered to eat these, but Ven's right!"
Ven turned his head to give his boyfriend a smug look, and Terra sighed with mocked exasperation. "You're an awful influence, Ven."
They laughed, and Aqua felt a warmth in her that stretched beyond the reaches of hot cocoa.
"Oh, look!" Ven gasped, and Aqua followed his gaze to the window next to the booth. The lights were dim enough in the café to allow them to see outside.
It had begun to snow. It was coming down in large, heavy puffs. It was like shredded cotton balls were falling from the sky. From within the cozy confines of the building, it was rather beautiful.
No one said anything for a while. In fact, the entire café appeared to get a little quieter as customers basked in the glow of colorful lights and watched the snow fall.
Finally, Aqua stared back at her mug. She took another sip; it was nearly empty. She couldn't bring herself to meet the eyes of the kind people across from her as she spoke. "Thank you both for... for bringing me here with you tonight."
For a moment, no one said anything, and Aqua feared she'd made everything awkward yet again. But Terra spoke, and his words were better than she could have imagined. "We… totally need to exchange numbers."
Aqua raised her eyes to look at him. "Really?"
He shrugged. "Well, with all the gas we pay to see each other, we can't afford to see movies every time we wanna see you."
Aqua happily exchanged numbers with both of them, and they spent the next thirty minutes discussing things from the weather to their respective studies in school, with some intermittent teasing toward Ven thrown in, of course.
All other customers had cleared out, and the only remaining employee was left with the task of informing the trio that the café was closing up.
The snow still fell heavily outside, but the cold didn't hinder its beauty. Terra and Ven finished wrapping their coats and scarves tighter around them, and Aqua stared up at the night sky to watch the snow fall straight toward her. It was disorienting, but it felt nice.
They walked together to Terra's car before bidding each other farewell, Aqua wishing them a safe drive, and Terra and Ven wishing her one as well.
Her car was parked somewhat distantly and out of the way of customers. The walk was short, but it was cold and lonely, a juxtaposition to her pleasant evening.
Aqua wasn't a stranger to sadness. But this was a sadness she seemed to... resent somehow.
But she didn't question the notion more, didn't ponder it, but swept it away somewhere far. She inhaled deeply, the cold and dry air stinging her nose and throat.
She reached her car, and the promise of pending warmth granted her the patience to steal one last look at the falling snow against the dark sky.
Her apartment complex was only a few minutes' drive away; she was thankful of that, for the snow was beginning to rush down now. The roads were empty and cold enough that it was beginning to stick.
As Aqua pulled into her resident parking space, she wondered slightly of her new friends and how they were faring on their journey home. They hadn't shared with Aqua the location of Terra's place, but it probably wasn't that far if he was a student.
Aqua opened the door to her apartment and flipped on the light before shutting and locking it. She made her way through her living room, shedding her winter coat and tossing it onto the couch. She'd almost completely pulled off her grimy work clothes by the time she reached her bedroom. They were tossed over the back of a chair with the idle promise to herself that they'd get hung up by the end of the night. Her first intention was to shower. She let the tub faucet run in her bathroom as she dug for a night shirt to wear in her wardrobe, and hardly a minute passed when she thought she heard her cellphone ringing from the living room. She'd left it inside her jacket's pocket.
She glanced at a clock in her room: it was half past midnight. Her initial reaction was annoyance; then slight fear that the theater was calling her back in because someone bailed on the final hour.
She rushed out to catch it before it went to voicemail, and she shivered as the chill of her apartment grazed her bare skin. She shuffled her jacket around until she found the correct pocket and pulled her phone from it. She only glanced at the name of the caller before answering, and her heart dropped as the name belatedly registered with her in the same moment she greeted, "Hello?"
It took a second for the voice at the other end to answer, and it was distant and shaky.
"A-Aqua? Is this Aqua?"
"Yeah, it's me. Who - this is Ventus, right?"
Another second went by. It sounded like wind was whipping against the phone. Aqua could hear a muffling of voice as if Ven was speaking with someone else, but he sounded panicked.
Snapping into precautionary action, Aqua carried the phone to her room and into her bathroom. "Ven, are you there?" she asked as she shut off her faucet.
"I'm, oh my god, I am, Aqua, I'm so sorry to call. I just..."
Aqua pulled sweatpants out of her drawers and began pulling them on, phone against her shoulder. She was pretty sure she heard Ven sob. Her heart was thudding as worst case scenarios flashed in the depths of her mind, but her voice remained composed, Ven's panic somehow helping her focus.
"Are you okay?" she demanded, decidedly putting Ven on speaker and setting her phone on her dresser to pull a sweater over her head.
"I am, I-" Ven spluttered, coughed, and then his voice suddenly sounded closer to his phone, and he rushed his next words as if he were hardly able to calmly speak. "We wrecked, we were almost there and he - we slid off the road -"
Aqua felt sickened by the squeezing of her own heart and the heaviness of her stomach. "Did you call 911?"
"Yes!" he gasped into the phone. "But T-Terra, I can't wake him up..." Ven choked into the phone again, and Aqua pulled on her boots. She snatched her phone and took off into her living room. "Are YOU okay, Ven?" She took it off speaker and shrugged her coat back on.
"Terra! Can you hear me?" Ven cried into the phone.
"I'm coming," Aqua interrupted him. "Where are you?" Aqua hoped an ambulance would reach them first, of course... but she wasn't taking any chances. She had an emergency and first aid kit in her car.
Another few seconds of silence. Aqua could almost hear him shivering. "We only drove fifteen minutes... we passed that gas station with the, um..."
"I know where you are," she said. Keys in hand and wallet stuffed in her jacket pocket, she shut off the light to her apartment and left, nearly forgetting to lock the door behind her.
"Do you want me to stay on the phone with you?" she asked him. Ven was mostly speaking to Terra between his own gasping cries, and it was adrenaline that kept Aqua from losing her cool and crying with him.
"I think I hear sirens!" he exclaimed, and he immediately began consoling Terra and yelling.
Aqua breathed a sigh of relief and unlocked her car. She hopped inside and started it immediately, putting her phone on speaker yet again and tossing it on the dashboard. "I'm coming to the hospital, okay?"
Fortunately, only several minutes of fluffy snow had accumulated on the windshield, and her wiper blades brushed it off in one fell swoop.
"O-okay," Ven answered. "I- yes! We are over here!" Aqua heard another few moments of Ven yelling for the EMT team as she pulled her car out onto the street, and then Ven's phone hung up.
Aqua didn't allow her mind to stray as she drove for the hospital, although she had to continually remind herself to be mindful of the snowy roads lest she become familiar with Terra's situation and be... well, she didn't know what, and her worry for Terra and Ven mounted. She spent each minute of driving imagining the process the boys would be taking to get to the hospital.
"They're probably on the road now," she whispered after two minutes of driving.
She passed the theater where she worked, and from where they would have left for home.
After ten minutes, she figured they had reached the hospital, assuming the ambulance was able to drive fast despite the road conditions.
When she came upon the gas station that Ven had mentioned passing, Aqua immediately began gazing upon both sides of the roads in search of any obvious wreckage.
Road conditions began worsening immediately as the road stretched passed the gas station and around a sharp turn. Aqua nearly came to a complete stop as she drove through it to avoid sliding, and then she saw it. Her heart fell, adrenaline melting into despair, as if seeing the wreckage placed the events into a reality that Aqua hadn't quite believed to be true yet. Terra's car lay on its side, where it'd apparently swerved off the road and rolled down a slight grade. Snow had already collected on top of it. It was all Aqua could do to not let paranoia take over and pull over to make sure Ven and Terra still weren't inside. She kept glancing back at it through her rear-view mirror until she couldn't see it anymore. Idly, she wondered if no one was going to clean up the wreckage until the weather was better.
The rest of the drive only got slower and slower, and Aqua itched with the desire to do something more than drive. She wished Ven would call her back, though she didn't dare call him. Although he had been able to speak with her, he had been too occupied by Terra's state to give Aqua any details on himself. At least he had been able to reach a phone...
She shuddered at the idea of otherwise.
Aqua parked in the guest parking area of the hospital. It was still snowing, and Aqua had to keep her head down as she walked to avoid having snow painfully lash against her cheeks.
Aqua wasn't quite sure of the workings of a hospital, as she hadn't been in one for a long time, but she strolled up to the receptionist like she knew what she was doing. There was a young man sitting at the desk.
"Can I help you?" he asked.
Aqua glanced at her phone to check the time. It had been almost 45 minutes since Ven had called. Her chest panged at the time between then and now, and she wished she could have been faster.
"Hi," she finally answered. "I'm here to see friends that were recently brought in. By ambulance."
The receptionist's eyes flickered involuntarily between a sign on the counter facing Aqua and herself. Aqua read it, and the fake smile she was attempting fell.
Visiting hours: 7am to 11pm
"Ma'am, visiting hours for non-family members usually end at 11," the receptionist echoed the sign.
Aqua sighed. She should have said she was here to see a brother or cousin. "Sir, I drove an hour in the snow to get here, my friends were in a car accident and I don't know if one of them is -" she nearly choked on the word, but she needed to persuade this man, "-alive. Please," she continued to plead. "I am willing to be escorted or anything. I just need to know they're okay."
The receptionist continued to eye her. Then he sighed. Without speaking, he began typing into his computer. Aqua held her breath.
"What are their names?"
She exhaled. "Terra," she started, but anxiety clawed its way back up her chest as she realized she didn't know either of their last names. How would she convince this guy she was worth breaking rules for when she didn't know their last names?
But she got lucky.
"Oh, he's the only one admitted tonight through the ER. He's in room ...205. Here." The man held out a blue sticker that read "Visitor" to Aqua.
She peeled the sticker off and placed in on her jacket. "Thank you so much."
He nodded with a pursed smile. "Good luck. Elevators are over there." He pointed.
After thanking him again, she walked to the elevators, and her legs felt like dead weights. Now that she was actually inside the hospital, she was terrified to see the condition Terra and Ven were in. She pressed the up button, and the doors slid open immediately.
The ride up was spent pacing her breaths, preparing for the worst while also trying to not consider what the worst would be.
The fact that Terra was in a room she was even allowed to visit was good, right?
She just wanted her new friends to be all right.
Will reinvigorated, she squeezed between the elevator doors as soon as they were open enough.
Room 205 wasn't far. She took a deep breath and opened the door.
"Aqua!" shouted a voice.
Ven sat in a chair next to a hospital bed. His eyes were puffy, and his clothes were disheveled. A few fresh scratches were noticeable across him, but he otherwise seemed okay. On the bed he sat next to was Terra... and he was awake.
Relief flooded Aqua so fast that her eyes watered. "You guys are okay," she stated.
"Aqua?" asked Terra, surprised. His voice was dry and cracked, but strong and alive.
"I-I sort of forgot to mention you were coming," Ven said, standing up. She crossed the room and wrapped Ven in a hug. He froze in surprise, but quickly relaxed and hugged her back. "I can't believe you actually came."
"I was SO scared," Aqua said, and despite herself, a tear rolled down her cheek. She quickly wiped it away.
"Ven, you called Aqua?" Terra asked.
"Yeah, I was... freaking out. I'm so sorry, Aqua."
"No, no," she shook her head. "I'm so glad you called me. Are you both okay then?"
Ven grinned, which was a good sign. He took one of Terra's hands. "Yeah, Terra came around in the ambulance. They don't think he has a concussion, but they're keeping him over night. A sprained wrist, and lots of cuts and bruises but... okay. He's okay." His voice broke as he finished speaking.
Terra squeezed his hand. "I'm here, Ven."
Aqua only then noticed the brace on Terra's left wrist. And he indeed had yellowing splotches blooming across his skin and an array of cuts splayed across his arms, as well as a few on his face.
Terra smiled at Aqua. "It means a lot to us that you came, especially because, well... you hardly know us."
She had already pondered this herself, and Aqua didn't skip a beat. "You're good people, though. And that was enough."
She would have offered to take Ven back to her place, but didn't bother, for she knew he wouldn't leave his boyfriend's side. Instead, she spent the night in the hospital room with them. They talked a long time, purposefully avoiding the topic of driving and the wreck. At one point, Aqua accompanied Ven to find the vending machines, and they brought back a large assortment of drinks and snacks to last them the night.
Eventually, Terra drifted off. Ven sat in the chair pulled next to the bed, but he slept with his head on the patient bed next to Terra's legs. Aqua curled up in the remaining chair in the room. A few times throughout the night, they were awakened by nurses checking Terra hadn't entered a coma in his sleep.
When the discomfort of the chair was mixed with morning light filtering into the room, Aqua found she could no longer sleep. Hearing no other sound, she quietly stood to stretch, and her muscles ached with fatigue as a reminder of the previous night's excitement.
She looked to where Terra slept on the hospital bed, and smiled when she saw that Ven had given up on his seating arrangement during the night and crawled into the small sliver of space next to Terra. He lay nearly on top of him, breathing slowly.
Aqua checked the time on her near-dead phone. It was barely six in the morning. It was hard to believe she had arrived to the hospital not long ago.
She glanced back at Terra and Ven, wondering how best to make an exit. She would love to say good-bye, but didn't fancy waking them after what they'd gone through. Unfortunately for her, she had an afternoon final she needed to attempt to prepare for.
Very quietly, she began to pull on her jacket. She winced as her keys rattled in its pocket as she zipped the coat, and she heard someone stir.
"Aqua?" It was Ven, voice thick and confused.
"Sorry," she whispered. "Go back to sleep. I'll message you later. I gotta go though."
Hastily, she began to make toward the door before Ven could protest, but it opened for her.
A nurse was coming in, and she halted when she almost ran into Aqua, surprised to be met with someone so early.
"Oh, hello," the nurse spoke, nodding when she took in Aqua, and she continued to come into the room.
"Oh, uh, they're sleeping," Aqua tried, but the nurse was already noisily fiddling with the vitals machine next to Terra.
"This is my last check on Terra," she responded. "If he wakes up now, he is good to go whenever he's feeling a bit more rested."
Groggily, Ven slid from Terra's side and landed his feet on the floor, his posture slumped and hardly awake. "Hey Terra," he prodded at Terra's side, yawning through his name. "Can you wake up?"
Terra stirred, scowling in his sleep before shuddering and snapping his eyes open. "What?" he rasped. He sat up slightly and glanced nervously at the nurse standing over him. "Is something wrong?"
The nurse smiled pleasantly. "How do you feel?"
"Tired," Terra answered. "And sore."
She nodded. "Do you know where you are?"
"The hospital."
"What are the names of your friends here?"
"Ven and Aqua."
The nurse nodded. "I'll have the doctor come in to do a final check, but I think you're good to go, Terra. Feel free to sleep a bit longer if need be. We don't need the room until noon."
She left to inform the doctor of Terra's condition, and a thought that Aqua was horrified hadn't occurred to her already dawned on her.
"You two need a ride home," she stated.
Terra frowned and let his body slump back into the bed. Ven grimaced, taking one of Terra's hands in his own. "Guess so," he said with defeat.
"I don't know how I'm going to... pay," Terra choked out the last word, and Aqua understood with grave familiarity the dreads of financial pains.
"Don't worry about that now," Ven coaxed. "I'll help you, and there's insurance."
"If there's anything I can help with, I will," Aqua broke in. "But for now, I can give you both a ride home."
The two glanced between themselves, surely communicating something, and then they turned back to her. "We can get a taxi," Terra suggested. "You've done too much already."
Aqua laughed. "You think so? Because I really haven't."
Terra huffed lowly and shook his head as if Aqua just didn't understand something, but he accepted her request, with the catch that they left immediately after the doctor's visit rather than after Terra got more sleep. Considering she had an exam that day, Aqua didn't argue.
As she pulled into the lot of the apartment complex Terra lived in, Terra asked her about where she planned to be during Christmas.
"Oh," she sighed. She didn't like being asked about holiday plans, because people often pitied her for not doing much. "Nothing, really. I took a shift Christmas Day. Time-and-a-half pay."
Terra nodded, not surprised. "Christmas Eve?"
"Oh, well, nothing, actually."
Ven piped up from the backseat. "Do you wanna come over? We will be here, just hanging. But you'll get to see how awesome our Christmas tree is!"
Aqua blushed, overcome yet again with their willingness to accept her like an old friend.
"You both surely had plans to be alone, though," Aqua argued feebly.
Terra continued as if she hadn't tried. "We will probably watch some Christmas classics, have the student equivalent of Christmas dinner... so, pizza."
She laughed, and their implications that she wouldn't be intruding on an extravagant event were accepted.
"Tell me what time," she said, and hid her smile when Ven cheered.
As evening fell on Christmas Eve, Aqua had left her apartment for Terra's. No new snow had fallen for a few days, but it was still below freezing out, and Aqua tread carefully over the sidewalk of the apartment complex she had dropped Terra and Ven off at days earlier. She hugged a tin of homemade cookies to herself. Terra and Ven had promised she didn't need to bring anything, so she had decided on stubbornly making gingerbread cookies.
She started up the stairs outside the apartment to the second balcony. It was distinctly quiet out; hardly anyone was on the street or roads, and not many cars were parked in front of the apartment. Most people were home for the holidays.
A rush of affection for the two boys washed over Aqua as she realized her gratitude for being given a place to go, too.
The door swung open nearly immediately after knocking. Ven stood in the doorway, grinning madly and wearing what was obviously pajamas topped with a Santa hat. Aqua felt overdressed, but was comforted when Terra showed up behind him wearing very normal clothes.
"Hey!" Ven said. "Come in!"
"Thanks," said Aqua, and she welcomed the warmth of the apartment.
Terra greeted her and took her coat from her. Aqua tossed a casual glance around the place as she handed it off. The entrance entered immediately into small living space that was connected to a small kitchen. The living area was surprisingly spacious, with a long couch, comfy chair, and entertainment unit with a television, but Aqua was taken aback but how severely decorated it was. Colorful lights were strung across cabinet ledges and walls and window sills, and in the corner of the room was a medium-sized Christmas tree. It was dressed with figurine ornaments and bulbs that shimmered in the strands of lights wrapped around the tree. Light, classical holiday music played from somewhere in the room.
All the main lighting units were off, so the apartment practically glowed before Aqua's eyes.
"Wow," she breathed, stepping further in. "This is so pretty."
"Thanks," Terra said, opening a closet and hanging her coat. "Ven and I like to decorate for the sake of decorating."
"I'd say," she agreed, and then remembered the tin of cookies in her arms. "Oh! These cookies are for you guys."
"Oh man! Did you make them?" Ven asked excitedly as he took them from her. He pried open the lid to look inside. "They smell delicious!"
"Oh, uh, thanks," she stammered. "And yeah, I made them."
"That's awesome," Terra commented. He was grabbing a couple pizza boxes and bottled beverages from the kitchen. "Do you bake a lot?" He carried everything to the living area, where Ven had already plopped onto the larger couch. Aqua followed them.
"I don't, actually. It's hard to bake when it's just mostly me." She tentatively sat on the smaller sofa. Terra sat next to Ven.
"Well now you'll have us around, and neither of us bake."
She smiled gently, and her gratitude from earlier swelled inside her. "I'm in luck."
Ven took a bite of one of the cookies, and his eyes widened in exaggerated delight. "No, we are!" he exclaimed through a mouthful of cookie.
They laughed at him, and he shook his head in protest of their teasing. "I'm serious!"
"Anyway," Terra said. "Feel free to have whatever pizza or drink you want." He gestured to the food and drinks splayed across the coffee table in front of them.
Aqua took her share of pizza, and although there had been a promise of movies, the trio started talking. At first it was of simpler things, like Terra's recovery and the situation with his car. But as minutes passed into an hour and then hours, they talked of deeper things, like how Terra and Ven met and the darker perspective on how draining university really is. All three discovered varying levels of estrangement from families over respective situations in life. Aqua felt comforted to be able to relate to two people so much. As sleepiness began to set in with the pressing hours, Ven finally suggested a movie to put on. They chose The Nightmare Before Christmas, and they spoke through the beginning, but eventually tired out.
Toward the middle of the movie, while Sally was singing her song, Aqua caught herself beginning to drift. It was her own fault, really, as she was curled into the chair. Terra had found her a blanket, and she found herself quite snug under it. She glanced toward Terra and Ven, and smiled tiredly at them. Terra leaned against the arm of the couch. He held himself up by an arm and was nodding off.
Ven was out like a light against his side.
Aqua's eyes lazily drug to the window across the room. Against the light of their distant town, she could see that snow was falling again. It was like the snowfall of their time spent in the café the night they met. Full, graceful flakes drifted slowly down. She turned her head back toward the TV, but her eyes drifted close almost immediately. The weight of life's stresses were present still, but they momentarily felt lighter. Her mind drifted further into haziness, and the image of the snow and her thoughts blended together until she felt like clouds of stress and worry were being slowly emptied as flakes fell away. She was getting lighter and lighter.
And the clouds would accumulate again, she knew. Some days nothing would fall. But it felt a little easier to accept the wear of life when you weren't alone.
However had she forgotten, she didn't know.