The first night out of the Realm of Darkness, Aqua doesn't sleep. She hears the others snoring, slipped away into a land of dreams, but rather than soothing her into a place where she can join them, it keeps her wide awake. She spends that night roaming Radiant Garden, on the hunt for Heartless. Even with the stars and the moon and the lights from the houses illuminating her path, she can't seem to break the ten-year habit.
She sleeps only when she has to, when it becomes a matter of staying on her feet or crashing down on the floor from sheer exhaustion. And if she can help it, it is never at night. She can still remember waking up to Heartless clawing at her, and eventually staying awake through sheer force of will alone.
There is only black and gray and blue in her memories, with glimpses of yellow and red.
It's Ven who catches on first, eventually making excuses for her so she can stay busy during the dark hours and sleep during the day. She smiles at him gratefully when she realizes just what he's doing. And until the battle is over, when all of the lost people are given their happy endings and Xehanort is finally vanquished, that is the structure she mostly sticks to: keep awake all throughout the night, sleep as little as she can during the day to make it through.
When she, Ventus, and Terra finally return to the Land of Departure, they restore as much as they can before settling in for the night. For all of Ven's joking that "he's slept ten years, he doesn't need anymore," he puts out far too much energy to not be sleepy after a hard day's work, and every time he jumps into his bed she and Terra are afraid that he'll break it.
It was amusing the first time she saw it, and it is amusing this time, watching Terra watch this with a secret smile and an exasperated "Ventus."
There is only a hint of awkwardness between the two Keyblade wielders when they say "goodnight." Terra's bedroom had been in one of the wings destroyed by… well, by Xehanort, when you got down to the bottom of it. So he stays in one of the other rooms that had been cleared away, dragging a spare mattress and a few sheets and settling in for the night. Aqua quietly made her way to her own room, which had somehow been left relatively untouched in the maelstrom, before deciding at the last second to clear away.
She goes instead to the outlook they had spent their last night at. The stars are all there, shining above with varying brilliance, and she stares up for what seems like hours until her eyes grow heavy. But even with the lamps glowing she will not fall asleep. Even though she knows there will be no Heartless, not for now, she will not sleep.
"Hey," she hears behind her, and Aqua starts, turning her head so quickly she almost gives herself whiplash. She sees Terra, who is holding his hands up defensively, and grimaces. "Didn't mean to startle you."
"What are you doing here?" she asks, wiping sleep from her eyes.
"I think the better question is, what are you doing here," he retorts, coming to sit beside her.
"Couldn't sleep," she says, wrapping her arms around her legs.
"Me neither," Terra replies. "I kept seeing… well," he trails off.
She's looking at him, sleepy-eyed, and hesitantly puts a hand on his shoulder. "It's all over, Terra. He's gone."
"Yeah, I know," he says slowly. "It's just going to take getting used to, you know?"
It takes a little while for her to respond, but she nods. By then he's noticed the lapse, and he turns to her with a critical look on his face. "When was the last time you slept?"
Two days ago, and both of them know it. As Master and Successor it had been her duty to make sure every last trace of Xehanort had disappeared—it was a duty she had taken onto herself, knowing she would not rest easy unless she knew for sure that he was gone. And he was; there had been no trace of the fallen Master throughout the Worlds, or any of his followers. It helped to soothe her troubled heart, and she had come back to Terra and Ventus with the news, nearly crying as she told them it was over.
"I'm not tired," she tries to say, but the yawn that stretches her mouth wide makes a fool out of her.
He smirks, knowing he has her caught. "It's all over, Aqua. He's gone," he repeats, and stands up. "That means you're allowed to sleep."
"I don't h-have to sleep if," she starts saying, but she yawns again, and this time her eyes close for a few moments before she's able to open them again.
"I know, you're a big girl. But you need your strength."
"Terra, I can't," she says, turning away.
There's a tense silence between the two of them. Terra sighs and walks around her, crouching down so that his eyes meet hers. "You can't, or you won't?"
She refuses to say anything, instead bending her head down to look at the grass.
"You see the Darkness when you sleep, don't you?" he asks, and she whips her head up so quickly that it does give her whiplash. It's more of an answer than he needs; he nods and then stands up again, but this time he extends his hand. "C'mon. I think I have something that might help with that."
Still processing his words, Aqua takes his hand and pulls herself up, somewhat unsteady on her feet. He wraps his arm around her shoulders, and she uses him to help her balance. They walk like this back to the main castle, up the flight of stairs and into Terra's makeshift room.
It's illuminated, but not from the one lamp that probably hasn't worked in the last twenty years, let alone night. There's a spinning nightlight plugged into the socket throwing celestial shapes onto the walls. It's a movement just gentle enough to not cause her motion sickness, but enough to draw the eye around the room.
Terra bends down to plug it out of the wall, and suddenly the room is dark again. He guides her to her own room, closing the door behind them. In one smooth motion he plugs the nightlight in, and suddenly it's her room that's illuminated.
"Keeps the darkness at bay," he says. "I think this came from Ven's room, when he was still afraid of the dark. He's been a heavy sleeper lately, though, so I don't think he'll notice if this is missing."
She doesn't know what to say at all, only looks between the cheery yellow nightlight and the muscular brown-haired man in front of her. When she's finally able to remember herself, she says, "Thank you," but even those two words, while sincere, don't seem like enough.
He doesn't say anything, instead goes to her bed and pulls back the covers. "If you want, I can stay here. I uh, don't think I'll be able to sleep tonight either."
"Then why…?"
"Not because of the darkness," he says almost hastily, and if she was more awake she would have asked him about it; but she lets it be, just this once. "There're just some things on my mind I need to sort out. I might as well do them in here."
It is her body that takes her to her bed, pushing off her shoes with clumsy movements, and climbs under the covers; Terra pulls them up to her chin, a gesture that makes her pause and look up at him with sleepy, confused eyes. "I'll be right here when you wake up," he says with that soft smile of his, and she's glad she's under the covers for the way her toes curl at the sight of it.
"Thank you," she says, and this time it sounds properly thankful.
"Goodnight," he says for the second time that night, and pulls the chair away from her desk to sit on it.
She doesn't remember closing her eyes, only waking up. She jolts out of bed in surprise to see sunlight streaming through the windows, and turns to the mirror on her door. The dark circles are still there, but they are far less pronounced than they had been for what seemed to have been a month; her cheeks look pinker, and her eyes look brighter.
And just like he said he would be, Terra was there in the chair. His head was bent down, his hair obscuring his face, and his shoulders rose and fell with each breath. It almost made her want to cry; she did smile, and slipped as quietly as she could from her bed.
One gentle hand brushed away the bangs, and he stirred under the touch, not quite waking. "Good morning," she murmured, cupping his cheek with her hand.
"Sleep well?" he slurred, blinking awake with sleepy bedroom eyes.
"Better than I have in a very long time," she says, smiling. "Did you?"
He yawns in reply, stretching and rolling his neck. She can hear it pop, and it makes her shudder at the sound. "Not the most comfortable sleep I've had in a while, but it was okay."
They both chuckle, unknowingly coming closer to each other—but at the sound of a cheery woop and an excited "GOOOOOD MORNING WORLD," they come apart, genuinely laughing.
"Guess we should go get that kid breakfast," Terra said, standing up from the chair.
He makes it to the door before remembering to turn the nightlight off, and starts to open it when Aqua asks, "Do you want to stay here tonight?"
He pauses, turning toward her with a curious expression on his face. Aqua smiles at him, folding her arms loosely across her chest, and stares. Terra laughs, turning to face the hallway, and nods. "See you tonight then, I guess."
"See you at breakfast," she amends.
Terra closes the door to give her some privacy, and Aqua sighs happily to herself, a restful sound that is the product of the first good night in ten years.