what i thought

A Zack/Aqua Oneshot (:

Written by: heartbeats-tell-lies

Dedicated to 25Raven25 from Youtube. (I was her Secret Santa, and she asked for this)

I do not own Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy.

The tap of her finger against the table synced to the beat of the music. The café she spent her time staring into space was one on the outskirts of downtown. It was shifty. The streets outside crowded with the homeless, drugged and diseased. But Aqua was not one to judge, and thought of them as equal to herself. Though quite ironically, she attended a highly respected private school that situated itself among the old money mansions on the west side. She was one of the few who thought of her fortune as nothing worth mentioning.

She looked up at the clock above her, reading "1:30AM." Cursing under her breath, she stood up from her seat and headed for the door. As the chime went off, announcing her depart, she heard more noise coming from the alleyway nearby. Aqua began to walk the other direction, leaving the voices of authority and fists meeting faces behind her. She left them, but they followed her. A boy in a navy blue jacket fell on the pavement outside of the alley, his face stained with blood. He began to limp back to his feet as the taunting from the alley came nearer.

Aqua began to walk faster. Curiosity bubbled up inside of her, wondering who it was and what was happening behind her back. She made the mistake of turning around, only to meet eyes with the blue jacket boy. Without another thought, she started to run. The boy ran after her, as the other men in the alley began to chase after them. Aqua could not compete with the boy, though injured, he ran faster than her. He grabbed onto her arm and dashed up ahead. Aqua, surprised by his actions, stumbled behind him.

After passing street sign after street sign, the two slowed to a stop. "Sorry..but," through pants he begged, "please..help..me."

She said confused, "What?" Before a reply left his lips, he collapsed. Aqua knew she would have burdened guilt if she were to have left him there, and reluctantly carried him all the way to her apartment.

The next morning, Zack woke up on a cream coloured leather sofa, his feet propped up on the arm. He smelt eggs and toast and heard the clings of a spoon against a pot. He slowly sat up, wincing at the pain in his gut. He let out a grunt and Aqua turned her head from where she was, placing bread in the toaster. She made her way to the couch next to him and sat down in awkward silence.

She started with, "Hi."

"Uh..hello."

"I'm Aqua."

"That's a beautiful name," he grinned as Aqua uncontrollably blushed, "I'm Zack."

From the daylight shining in through the wall length windows, she could clearly see his features. Rubbing away the blood from his face the night before did not help her recognize his face. He had short spiky black hair and sky-blue eyes. He was muscular, but not excessively and had a scar on his left cheek. But the only trait Aqua saw first was that he was extremelyattractive.

After a summary of the night before, Aqua stood up, grabbing her shoulder bag.

"Whu..where are you going?" Zack spoke in a more anxious voice than he had wanted.

"To school. And if you wouldn't mind, I would like you to be ready to leave too."

"I think I'll pass on school for today, still need to recover."

"Well, you can't recover here, I'm sorry. We've just met and I don't think I can trust you with my house." Aqua was not rude, nor was she a push-over. She was honest and brief, but kind with her words.

"This is your house? Wow. You must be rich."

"No, I mean-ugh!" Aqua said in frustration, "This is a summer apartment my parents own, but I'm using it for while I attend school here. They would not want to hear a stranger staying in here unattended, moreover a boy!"

After a brief silence between them, Zack agreed ", Okay, fine! I'll go."

She locked the door and pulled up her knee high socks of her uniform before starting down the road to her school. He followed behind her. She thought it was odd for him to heading the same way, and as his hand crept onto her shoulders, she felt herself shudder. Before she could say "What are you doing," he sped off with her backpack. Fuming with anger, she chased after Zack.

They had reached a busy intersection, Zack on one side with her bag and Aqua on the other. She glared at him from afar and Zack laughed and taunted her. Once the pedestrian sign turned white, she started again to follow him, this time, to a park. He turned around and stopped with her backpack in one grip. She crashed into him, unaware of his halt. They were sprawled on the crash, his jeans stained with blood, now with grass. She landed onto his chest which was warm and thumping rapidly from the run. His hand was around her shoulder, supporting it from the wet grass. Aqua, still irritated, grabbed her bag from his hand and started trudging away.

"Where are you going, now?" Zack called after her.

"School!" She shouted back, not turning around to face him.

"But you're already too late, it's probably 9." His voice startled her, as it was right next to her in a second. "Let's go on a date!" She kept quiet, but she felt her heart skip a beat at the word.

They found their way to got a table by a window and started talking about family. "My parents and I don't talk too much." Aqua stated, "They're always on business trips, or on the phone, or in a meeting. The only sort of communication we get is the cheque they send every month."

"That's alright! That's what friends are for!" Zack said cheerfully. He grinned at her enough that his eyes turned into quarter moons. She started to giggle but it stopped after Zack said, "Both my parents are gone."

Aqua looked up at him, holding a melancholic smile. She reached out to pat his back. Her hand inches away from his shoulder fell back to her lap.

"C'mon, let's go! I'm not hungry anyways." Zack's positive voice came back again. Before Aqua could protest, he caught her hand and off they went down the street again.

Throughout the day, Aqua felt as though she was in a different world. She heard the echoing and familiar cheerful Zack and the sound of the street beside them. But the thumping of her heart deafened the world. And the realization of their hands slowly enlacing into each other kept her distracted. Moreover, Zack was not as a bad guy as she thought he was. At first she thought, this boy is another druggie off the streets that only wants a place to stay, money and easy women. That was the opposite.

"Aqua?" Zack's voice resonated. She liked that way he said her name. Then she came to her senses and snapped back into the real world.

She stuttered, "Yea?"

She had hoped he didn't realize this, but he did. "What's wrong?"

"Uh.. nothing!" she stuttered once more. Trying to switched the subject she said, "Anyways, you never told me why you were in that fight last night."

"Well to be honest, they were guys that were looking for my dad that owed them money. I didn't have it, and they thought I was lying." He looked down again. Aqua felt bad bringing up something heavy on his heart again. "I don't need someone to protect me. I just wished there was someone that would listen to me."

"Aren't I listening to you?" Aqua spoke up to him, looking into his striking light blue eyes.

"And I thank you for that," he said. And he leaned down and, to both of their surprise, kissed her on the cheek, making her blush. She pushed him away as they both started laughing.

I think this is the first ever story I've done so far! I'm not much of a writer and this is still new to me, but I hope you liked it!

-heartbeats-tell-lies