All characters © their respective owners
-ONONTHEYSEND
Akumu: Zzz…Zzz-AH! I mean, on the eve of New Year my true love wrote for me!
Warnings: TerraXAqua. Pre-game. After they first meet Ventus. While playing the game, I don't think they're a couple. They act more like friends, and I think they will probably grow to act more like brother and sister, but I can't help but like this pairing. I don't know why, but I do.
-ONWITHOUTEND
"So this is Christmas…" Ventus thought out loud absentmindedly. Lights were strung up around the building - though he wasn't sure why, the tall stained glass windows provided some very pretty shades of light when the sun was out - shiny prickly strings hung on the walls with circles of leaves that had red bows on them, and there was a big decorated fir tree in the room with a star on top and boxes wrapped with colorful paper and ribbons at the base of it.
"Ven, help me out over here!" Aqua's voice called to him from another area in the building. He walked in the direction of her voice to see her hanging more of those shiny prickly strings on the wall. "Can you get the holly from the box?" She asked as she held the shiny prickly string to the wall.
"Okay." He agreed as he walked towards the box. It was then that he realized he had no idea what holly looked like. Well, he could guess that the shiny prickly string wasn't it since Aqua was putting it on the wall, so the only other thing in the box must have been it. "Here." He handed her the tiny white flower he found. All of a sudden, Aqua's face turned bright red.
"Er…no, Ven, that's not holly!" She said as she took the flower away and pocketed it, muttering something under her breath. "Holly looks like that." She pointed to a circle of leaves on the wall with the red bow on it.
"Oh." He wondered what it was that he did pick up out of the box. "But there's no holly in the box."
"There isn't?" She tilted her head. "I thought for sure we…well, then maybe you could ask Terra if he has any. He should be in the kitchen."
"All right." Ventus walked there, but he did wonder what Terra was doing in the kitchen.
"Don't take too long, okay?" Aqua called back. "I don't want to stay stuck to this wall forever!"
.x-Xx:X:xX-x.
The kitchen smelled overwhelming of chocolate and strawberry, a little bit of vanilla, and some cinnamon. He wondered who would be baking here and didn't really want to think about seeing master Eraqus in an apron and oven mitts. Nor did he want to see master Xehanort in one…well, he could do without seeing master Xehanort at all if he could help it. The man creeped him out.
"Ven?" Terra's voice asked. The blond turned around to see his other friend holding a tray of brownies, wearing brown oven mitts with a chocolate chip cookie design on them, a white apron with a keyblade design on the bottom right hand corner, and a cream colored chef's hat.
"You bake?" Ventus asked somewhat in disbelief.
"Someone has to, right?" Terra answered as he set the tray down. "You didn't think Aqua did the cooking, did you?"
"…yes?" the younger of the two replied.
"If she did, we wouldn't be alive right now." The brunet scoffed. "She's an ace at magic of all kinds, but cooking just isn't her thing. Take it from me, Ven, firaga is not how you heat water." He shook his head.
"Okay…well, Aqua needs holly to decorate the wall, so I came here to ask you if you had any." He said. Terra opened up one of the drawers under the kitchen table and handed Ventus the holly he found. "Well, that was convenient." The shorter of the two observed. "Hey, there's a flower thing on this one."
"That's nothing." The taller of the two said as he quickly snatched the tiny flower away from Ventus, dropped it in the drawer, and shut it. "You should probably get going; I don't think Aqua appreciates staying stuck to a wall forever waiting for you."
"All right…" Ventus said as he walked away from the kitchen. He could've sworn he heard Terra muttering something under his breath about mist or something, but he didn't stick around. Aqua was waiting for him, and those sweet scents in the kitchen were making him hungry.
.x-Xx:X:xX-x.
After helping Aqua decorate the wall, Ventus found himself outside in the snow. His friends were acting really weirdly about that small white flower… It looked harmless, though. He didn't understand why Aqua's face got all red or why Terra got all quiet. Maybe he should ask them later tonight when they were done Christmas-ing.
Just then, something fell from the sky and plopped down into the snow. Ventus saw it out of the corner of his eye, and walked towards it to see what fell.
"What's this?" He knelt down and found one of those tiny white flowers again. He wondered how he kept running into them. He picked it up and pocketed it. He turned around and looked up to see an open window. Someone could have thrown it from there, he wondered who, though. "I hope the flower's not a weapon or something." He thought out loud.
.x-Xx:X:xX-x.
"All right, to end the holidays, we give gifts to each other." Aqua explained to him as she held one of the wrapped boxes with ribbons on them.
"But I don't have anything for you guys…" he said.
"It's all right, Ven." Terra said as he too held one of the wrapped boxes with ribbons on them. "It's not so much about the presents but the 'act of giving' itself or something like that."
"Oh, okay." The youngest of the three replied. "Er…wait, though!"
"Hm?" Aqua tilted her head.
"What is it?" Terra asked.
"Why do you guys act so weird around this flower?" he asked as he pulled the flower out and held it up between the two. Aqua's face turned bright red again, and Terra got all quiet.
"Er…V-ven!" the bluenette stuttered.
"It's nothing." Terra then snatched the flower away, but it was still held between him and Aqua.
"Well, if it's nothing, then why does Aqua's face get really red, and why do you keep taking it away from me?" the blond asked with a pout.
"That's…because…" Now Terra's face was getting all red.
"It's mistletoe, Ven." Aqua said as if that explained everything.
"Is that some kind of weapon or something?" Ventus tilted his head. The two stared at him for a moment before they ended up laughing. "What? What did I say?" he didn't really like being laughed at by his only two friends.
"Hahaha…no, Ven." Terra was the first to recover. "Mistletoe is one of those Christmas traditions. When two people are underneath it, they have to kiss."
"Oh…" the youngest of the three nodded even though he wasn't really sure what that meant. "You mean like how you two are underneath it right now?" he pointed to how Terra was still holding the flower in between himself and Aqua. The brunet looked in the direction Ventus was pointing and his face turned as red as Aqua's.
"Erm…no!" his hand and the flower quickly returned to his side. "I wasn't…! Uh…."
"Y-yeah…" Aqua agreed as she turned away.
"Well, Terra said it was nothing, so what does it matter if you two kiss or not?" Ventus tilted his head.
"That's because…friends don't really…." Terra attempted to say before Aqua leaned over, placed a hand under his chin, and turned his face to meet hers before she pressed her lips against his forehead. "Uh…." was all he could say as both of their faces remained a shade of red.
"It didn't take that long either. What were you guys so embarrassed about?" the blond asked. Even someone who didn't know what love was could see how deep a bond was. What would something as trivial as that do to something so strong?
"Yeah, it's really nothing…" Aqua agreed somewhat reluctantly as she rubbed the back of her neck.
"Yeah…nothing…." Terra coughed into his fist. Ventus took the flower away from Terra and held it between himself and Aqua.
"Can I get one of those 'kiss' things too?" he asked innocently.
-THEIRAWKWARDTONETOEVERYHOME
Akumu: Zzz…Zzzmrgh…! I like Birth by Sleep the most out of the Kingdom Hearts franchise. Mostly because sleeping is my favorite hobby and that's in the title! But in all seriousness, it's because we have more options in the game, and I like command melding a lot. This fic didn't really feel like an TerraXAqua… I might write a better one some day, then.
Holiday Moral: You can't always deny something everyone can see as clear as day.
Akumu: Well, this project was fun. Interrupted sleep a lot, but it was fun. Thanks to everyone who gave our fics a chance. Lots of thanks to everyone who liked the oneshots enough to favorite them. And I can't thank everyone who reviewed our fics enough for taking the time to tell us their thoughts. Here's to the New Year, everyone! I hope for the beszzz…Zzz…Zzz….
