Aqua sighed peacefully, her gaze watching over the vast fields that surrounded her home castle – despite the golden palace being not too far away from her, she decided to keep her vision to the beautiful scenery around it.

Aqua loved sitting in peace at the summit – whether it be with her friends, or by herself. She loved the way her sky blue hair – despite it being so short – danced with the wind, and her matching blue eyes seemed to shine with such light whenever she was there, whether it be night or day.

Aqua felt so at piece with herself, sometimes to the point where she would lose all of her worries in the wind – but she knew that, without a doubt, everything would come rushing back to her when she left her special spot…

With that thought, the silence around her became painful. Her calm expression twisted into that of worry and fear – Aqua pulled her knees up and tucked them into her chest, wrapping her arms around them and hugging them tightly, refusing to let go for anything.

The soft breeze grew harder, taking her long bangs and using them as a weapon on her own face and caused the young woman to squint her eyes to avoid them from getting hurt. The wind only got worse, and soon enough Aqua could hear a loud boom coming from behind her, but she didn't need to turn around to know that was thunder coming her way.

As the weather turned, Aqua still refused to move – even with a dark cloud descended over her and shadowed her glow in her angelic eyes. Aqua's mind was racing, all of her worries and insecurities flooding her mind to the point her she had a dull ache somewhere in the back of her skull.

Despite the mild pain, Aqua still allowed her memories to cascade over her.

The pain. That was all that registered in her mind, as her bright –yet pained – eyes would stare up at her white ceiling longingly at night.

Aqua felt a small flicker of something land on her arm. Something cold and wet, causing the woman to bow her head to block her face from to rain that began to fall.

Seconds felt like minutes. Minutes felt like hours. But still, Aqua did not move – instead sat there to bask in her loneliness, despite the light being nothing but a faint glitter inside her heart.

Aqua didn't enjoy fooling them; misleading them into thinking that she was happy – but she didn't want anybody to worry about her well being. And so, Aqua wore a fake smile – one that they all believed – and acted as though nothing was wrong.

Aqua hated nothing more than for people to worry about her – their eyes constantly staring, and their words constantly harassing her.

The cold rain dripped down Aqua's back, causing her to shudder slightly – and her hair stuck down to fit the shape of her head. Thunder could be heard in the distance, but Aqua paid no attention to it as she glanced up; her pain filled eyes fixating on a certain window on the castle in front of her.

For minutes, Aqua saw nothing but an empty room through the window, before some movement could be seen inside. Aqua felt her heart skip a beat as her eyes fixated on the person inside – they might not of known that Aqua was looking at them, and she didn't care; just to look at him was enough to make her blush.

Terra was aimlessly walking around inside his room, going about his business just as anybody else would – but soon the door to his room burst open, and Aqua could vaguely see a smaller shadow in the doorway before they ran into the light of his the room.

Aqua sighed, recognising Mai almost instantly as she leaped at the older male. She could see that Terra wasn't expecting Mai so suddenly, but he didn't seem to care as he picked the girl up and flung her over his shoulder before he starting spinning on the spot in the centre of his room.

Aqua couldn't help but feel envious. She remembered, clear as crystal, how she and Terra would be the exact same way – always playing and messing around…but then they grew up.

Back then, Aqua would only see Terra's playful manner and games as bullying, but as she grew older, Terra stopped with his childish actions, and as much as Aqua hated to admit it; she missed it so much – the way he used to hold her was special, and despite how much Aqua despised him back then, she loved it when they would talk for hours through the thin wall between their bedrooms at ridiculous hours in the morning.

Aqua couldn't help but smile, remembering the countless times that Master Eraqus had yelled at them for their late night talks, but they continued to do it anyway.

A bright lightning, shortly followed by thunder, caused the young woman to flinch - but still she refused to move from the summit.

Aqua felt her chest tighten, causing her to glance down at her hand – she had something held tightly in her gasp, and Aqua refused to let it go. Between her fingers, Aqua could see the star shaped charm in her hand – it's orange glow seemed to bring a genuinely warm smile to her face, one that melted her frozen heart and caused her eyes to glaze over with something other than rain.

Aqua had worked so hard on it; all of her blood, sweat, and tears had gone into making the charm for him. Aqua had made the charms for everybody – a blue one for her, a green one for Ventus, a purple one for Mai, and an orange one for Terra. But for the latter Aqua had tried so much harder, making sure not to scratch the glass of the star, and if she did then she would throw it away and get a new piece and start all over again.

Everything had to be perfect for Terra's charm, it just had to. The feelings that she felt towards him were those that could not be expressed with words, but merely actions, and Aqua couldn't think of a better way to express her feeling for him than to make a special charm.

Aqua had read about the charms in a book from the library in the castle – somewhere, in another world, there's a tree with star shaped fruit, and the fruit represents an unbreakable connection. So, as long as you and your friends carry good luck charms shaped like it, then nothing can ever drive you apart. You'll always find your way back to each other.

Aqua knew that with only a charm – one that she would share with all of her friends – Terra wouldn't understand her feelings, but she didn't care; just as long as he had something that held all of her emotions close to him, that was all she needed.

Aqua sighed deeply, feeling the storm only grow worse – if possible – and caused her to glance back up at her home, but something particular caught her eyes; Terra's window was wide open and he appeared to be looking at her. His hands were covering his mouth, so Aqua simply assumed that he was calling her name, and when she looked up at him he began gesturing widely to get inside the castle.

The young woman couldn't help but smile, but as she did a tear fell from her eye – but it didn't get far down her cheek before it blended in with the rain droplets on her face. Aqua continued to smile over at him for a while before she finally found the strength to push herself to her feet, but as she did, she didn't dare break her distant gaze with the brunette.

Aqua's fingers tightened around the star shaped charm in her hand. "Only seven days until our Mark of Mastery exam…" Her broken voice trailed off.

Aqua didn't mind if Terra didn't know about her feelings toward him – just to be in his presence was enough for her…

…Even if it broke her heart to know that she would never share her feelings with him.


Hey guys! Just a little something for you all – just in case you thought I had disappeared for some reason O.o I hope you enjoyed this little Aqua one shot, and just if anybody asks; yes, this is related to my story Birth By Sleep – Aqua even says that there's only a week left before their exam.

I'm sorry that I haven't updated Birth By Sleep in a while – I know I said that updates would be faster now that I'm out of school for the summer, but I've just been lacking motivation lately, and I've also been too tired to think of how to write out the chapter. I know that sounds really weird, considering I've got about three weeks left of my summer holiday, but I'm still trying to balance out my writing and my social life…still haven't got the balance right :/

Also, I'm starting to find that I don't enjoy writing as much, and I think that's because I now feel that I have some kind of responsibility to update my stories, and because of that I kinda wanna procrastinate from doing my stories…and that's what I tend to do :/

I'm really sorry, but just know that Birth By Sleep will continue – I haven't given up on it, I'm just looking for the motivation to write ^-^ I guess I'm just lacking in imagination, or creativity or something. But if it makes anything better than just know that I am still writing, but it's just chapters that can't be updated yet ^-^

Okay, that's enough of me rambling – I'll see you guys soon :)