Disclaimer- I do not own kingdom hearts

Summary- After ending a long term relationship, Aerith Gainsborough takes a much needed vacation to get away from it all. She decides to revisit a beach where she and her family visited when she was a child. She just wanted a fresh start and she never expected to meet someone who could send her heart soaring. Enter Demyx, a boy who she met years ago but had forgotten. Demyx is different from all the other men Aerith had met. He is quirky, spontaneous, and fun. As the two reunite, sparks begin to fly but Demyx is hiding something that may tear the two apart. What starts off as a summer fling could end up killing both of them.

Ocean of Fire

Chapter 1

"Aerith?"

A little brunette girl looked up at a man and a woman. Her emerald green eyes looked wet as she wiped them with the back of her hands.

"Where have you been?" the woman gasped, the sound of relief in her voice. "We have been looking everywhere for you!"

"You know better than to leave without telling us!"

The little girl nodded and stood up.

"I'm sorry, mommy... daddy."

Her mother knelt down and wrapped her arms around her daughter tightly. The hug she the little girl returned was weak. The mom pulled away slightly but kept her arms around her.

"Why are you out here..." she noticed tears in her eyes. "What's wrong?"

"I want to go home."

It had been years since Aerith Gainsborough step foot on the Twilight Town Beach Resort. Her cabin sat overlooking the beach, making it one of the best views. Many of the other cabins sat on the hill on the other side of the winding path to the beach. Most of those from what she could gather were still vacant but she was sure in a few more weeks they would be full. She wanted to make the best of the silence for as long as possibly. She sighed sadly before taking in a long breath.

The smell of the salty sea air and the warm breeze against her skin brought back the memories of when she first came here as a child. She remembered standing out on her cabin deck and looking down at the ocean before her. Her parents never did take her back here after that long summer. She never questioned it but it probably because it became too expensive. Even now Aerith knew she was paying a lot of money to spend the next three months here but it would be worth it. She needed to get away.

The last few weeks had taken a toll on Aerith. She had just ended a long term relationship and the break up was not something she expected. It was abrupt and shocking to her. Heated words, fueled by betrayal made her unstable. She wanted to scream out the hurt inside but instead bottled it up. Her friends tried to coax her to talk about it but Aerith wanted to simply forget about it. What was there to talk about? What happened would not change nor would it make her feel better. Yet, the hurt and constant reminder put unnecessary stress on her. So much so she needed to get away.

She took a leave of absence from work and hunted for a place to go. Initially Twilight Town was not her first place to go. In fact, she would not have chosen it at all had she not seen a flier for it. She at first thought about taking a cruise or perhaps find a weekend spa but then she realized how she wanted to be alone. She wanted little interaction with people so she could sort out her feelings and come to terms with her heartbreaking break up.

That or forget about it completely. Either way Aerith wanted to make the best out of this bad situation. She entered her cabin and quickly came up with a list of things she would need to buy at the local grocery store. Lucky for her the grocery stores, restaurants, and attractions were all in walking distance from her cabin. There were brochures conveniently placed in her cabin when she came in. It was obviously the resorts way to get people to go to local areas to give them business. A few of the places and attractions interested her, including a boat tour and the botanical gardens. She was definitely going to have to go to those.

However, she needed to get to that grocery store before doing anything else. After finishing her list, Aerith left her cabin and headed down the road to the plaza where the local grocery store was. There were many stalls outside in the plaza. Many selling fresh foods and others selling souvenirs in hopes to cash in on the tourists visiting. Aerith spent a good chunk of money getting some of the necessities to cook with, most of it included spices.

After buying a several grocery bags full of produce and spices, one of meat and fish, and the last dairy products Aerith headed back to her cabin. Several of the vendors were trying to gain her attention, hoping she would spend money on their products. Aerith kindly declined and hurried away.

I hope it's not always like this, She thought.

She did not want people bothering her like this every time she came to the plaza. She hoped that further into the summer there would be more people around and the shop keepers would be too busy with them than to bother with her.

As she walked back to her cabin, Aerith wondered if this was how it was back when she was kid. Were the vendors at the plaza always so chatty? She could not remember. She probably would not remember anyway due to the fact she spent most of her time on the beach, that she was sure of. She was also sure her mother or father went to the plaza to shop and brought her rarely.

Aerith vaguely remembered her first trip to the beach. She was seven years old back then and the memories were fuzzy but she did remember she had fun. She also remembered a firm scolding she received because she left the house without her parents knowledge. Yet, she could not remember why she left in the first place. Well who could expect her to remember now anyway? She was in her twenties. Regardless, she wanted to feel the warm sun against her, lay on the sand, swim in the ocean again.

The idea sounded like a good idea. How could she resist? It had been ages since she had been to any kind of beach. This resort was miles away from her hometown. Her hometown had no large bodies of water other than the local public swimming pools. Aerith was not much for going to the pools. Mostly because they were so crowded that she would constantly be bumping into someone. Instead she spent her times enjoying coffee and the cafe near her apartment and listening to local musicians play covers of old songs. She wondered if there was a cafe like that here.

Approaching her cabin, Aerith had to fish out her key to the cabin, which she had tucked into her pocket. She tried to juggle the bags in her hands so she would not have to put them down. She struggled trying to hold all the groceries in one hand instead of making it easier and putting the bags down. When she finally fished it out she felt one of her bags of produce slip from her fingers. Next thing she knew she saw her oranges, lemons, and kiwis rolling away.

"Stupid," Aerith called herself under her breath. "You couldn't just put the bags down."

Aerith continued to scold herself as she knelt down to pick up her spilled produce. As she gathered them, tossing them in the bag, she heard the sound of scraping against the concrete. She looked up to see someone in the distance walking down the path from the cabins on the other side of the path that sat higher on the hill. It was a man with wild blonde hair but other than that Aerith could not make out his other features.

The man looked at her and turned away. He then stopped for a brief seconds or two and looked back at her. Ignoring him, Aerith went on gathering her fruit. She let out a small sigh of annoyance when she noticed some of her fruit were bruised now.

"Great," she muttered.

When she finished, she gathered the package in her arms and stood up. Yet, before she entered her cabin she felt as if someone was watching her. She looked up to see the man glancing over his shoulder at her. Aerith wondered if he was trying not to laugh at her for being so clumsy. Maybe he had debated on walking over to help her or maybe he was just a weirdo. Hurrying up, Aerith got inside her cabin and began unpacking forgetting about the man.

If she hurried she could go down to the beach. She only hoped it would be as vacant as it was when she first took in the gorgeous view. With all that said and done, Aerith felt the anticipation rising. The soothing sound of the ocean waves were beckoning her to come. She could not wait to step into the water once again. The swimming pools in her hometown were not the same as the ocean. The chlorine was bad enough and it damaged her hair and it was crawling with children. Not that she disliked children by any means but she wanted the peace and quiet this resort location offered.

Finishing her unpacking Aerith just needed to change, slather some sunscreen on, and she was a short walk to the beach. The brunette found her swim suit laying on her bed. She had left it out because she had been anxious to jump into the water the moment she arrived. All her other things were already stored away in the drawers and closet. Aerith stripped out of her clothing and changed into her swim suit. She grabbed a turquoise towel that she purchased just for this trip (ripping the tag that was still on it off). After, she adorned a pair of plain white flip-flop sandals and walked down to the beach. Then feeling foolish, she turned back around and returned to her cabin to get her sunscreen before finally, for real this time, leaving.

It was still early summer and most of the cabins were empty. She was sure later on there would be more families who would spend their entire vacation on this beach but until then she would enjoy the peace. For now it would be like her own private beach, just for her.

Once near the edge where the shore met the water, Aerith laid out her towel and kicked off her sandals. She slathered on a generous amount of waterproof sun tan lotion because of her milky white skin she burned easy. When that was finally done she ran to the water. The moment her feet hit the water she felt an instant soothing feeling. The warm water crashed against her bare legs as she waded in. The smell of the salty sea air was fresh and vast contrast to her hometown, which was much more industrial. Staring out at nothing but sea and sky that were so rich in their color, Aerith had to awe.

When she was at about waist level deep, Aerith dove under the water. She was only down for a few seconds before coming back up. Her head crashed through the water and she took a breath of air. It felt so good. She pushed her bangs back out of her eyes. She looked around, taking in her surroundings again before she lay back allowing the shifting water to carry her as she swam absentmindedly.

The water splashed against her and it felt as if it was washing away all her pain. Weeks of stress melted away and all she could think about was how peaceful it seemed. The only sounds came from the crashing waves, the occasional seagull, and warm summer breeze. Yet, all of them made her feel calm, relieved, and peaceful. This is everything she wanted.

I can forget about it, about everything here. She thought.

Perhaps it was not the best thing to do. Maybe she should have confronted her feelings and talked to someone but she did not want to talk about it. She had been crying for too long, being alone in her apartment, being miserable, feeling sorry for herself. No, she would not sit and mope and talk about her feelings to people who pretended to know what she was going through. No, she was going get over this in her own way. Then after her she were to return home, she would be in better spirits and be completely over it. At least she hoped.

Aerith opened her eyes to look at the blue sky. Not a single cloud could be seen. She hoped it would stay like this for a while. Quiet, peaceful, perfect.

Aerith stood up and noticed she had drifted farther from shore than she had anticipated. The water now was coming almost to her shoulders. She did not want to get out too far. The last thing she wanted was to get pulled out especially without a lifeguard around. It was dangerous to be swimming alone in general. She would need to be more careful in the future.

She began to swim toward shore. She decided to tan a bit, relax and maybe nap under the warm sun. That would be nice and the idea was inviting. As she swam back she noticed small seashells littered the beach shore. Another memory popped into her head. She had given her friends seashells she had collected on her visit here with her parents. It was a vague memory but she remembered because she still had a large collection of shells left over. Whatever happened to all those shells was beyond her. Her mother probably threw them away or packed them up somewhere.

Lost in her own thoughts, Aerith did not notice she was approach a patch of bubbles coming from under the water. Just as she was about to swim over them a head shot out of the water. Aerith was so startled that she screamed and fell back into the water. She took a big gulp of salty water on accident. She stood up and began coughing out the water when a hand patted her back.

Aerith coughed several more times and looked over her shoulder as the person patting her back. The angle was odd for her so she could only see his forearm.

"I'm sorry," came a male voice. "I didn't mean to scare you."

Aerith turned around to face him. It was a man, around her age she guessed, with blonde hair and eyes a mixture of green and blue. When he saw her his face lit up like a kid on Christmas.

"I can't believe it!" he exclaimed. "I thought it was you but then I thought 'no way it can't be her there are tons of brunettes in braids' but it is you!"

Aerith stared at him wide-eyed. This energetic man looked as if he knew her. He talked is if her knew her. All Aerith could wonder was who the heck was this guy?