Little Wind
A Kingdom Hearts fanfic by Raberba girl
Summary: Aqua & Terra, working as partners on a school project, find a strange child who may or may not be an alien. In any case, little Ventus grows REALLY fast, and now it seems like he's become the target of otherworldly attackers...
A/N: This fic has some serious flaws, but I'm not going to point them out in hopes that no one else will notice and/or care about them. Though, if you do notice them, please do point them out, since it's always possible that something escaped my notice.
This may start out as a cutefic, but will take a dark turn later on.
Chapter 1 - It Hatches
"No matter what the time, I'm just alone, destiny forgotten, even though I kept going. Inside of the sudden light, I awaken in the middle of the night."
o.o.o
The drawback to scoring the hottest girl in school as a partner for the folklore project was that she also happened to be a brainiac. Which meant that not only were the two of them spending Friday afternoon at the public library instead of, say, on a date, they stayed so late that they actually got kicked out at closing time.
"I am dead serious, Aqua! You owe me!"
"I owe you ice cream for trying to make sure that we get our project done on time? That's ridiculous, Terra."
"No, it isn't, since if we'd stuck to my plan, I'd be the one treating you right now." He waggled his eyebrows suggestively.
Aqua blushed a little and looked away. "I - I told you before, I'm not interested in dating right now."
"Aw, come on, let's grab some fast food for dinner, at least. Sure is late enough...no thanks to you, hot stuff."
"Please watch your language around me," she said coldly. Terra laughed and raised his hands in a conciliatory way.
Street lights began to flicker on as they walked down the road. Aqua lived in a classier part of town than Terra was used to, and there was not a lot of traffic.
"All right, tell you what. I'll buy dinner and the ice cream this time, and tomorrow we can just stay one hour at the library instead of, like, five."
"I have to get home. I can take it from here, thanks."
"It's no problem. We've already come this far, I might as well walk you the rest of the way home."
"Thank you, but I can manage."
It occurred to Terra that she might not want him to know where she lived. "Man...all right, well...I'll see you around, I guess." He saw her expression change just before he turned away: her eyes widened, and her mouth came open a little in surprise. "What is it?" He looked around, but could see nothing out of the ordinary.
"That shooting star! It-"
Terra grinned. "Did you make a wish?"
Aqua did not respond. She pushed past him and started to run back the way they had come, but suddenly swerved and began climbing over someone's backyard fence.
"Whoa! Whatever this is, don't leave me out of it!" He hurried after her.
They found it fairly quickly. The thing was egg-shaped, roughly a meter long. It had fallen into someone's flower bed, where it lay giving off a sparkling light.
"What is that?" Terra exclaimed. "A UFO?"
"It fell from the sky," Aqua murmured. "I saw it - at least, I think I did. It almost looked like a person before..." She shook her head. "Maybe this is something else."
"Whatever it is, it's cool. Hey, let's use it for our project!"
"Eh? Wait, what if it's dangerous, or belongs to someone else?"
"What, you're just gonna leave it here?"
"Well, no, but..."
The shining egg was heavier than it looked - Terra was sweating by the time they reached Aqua's house. He dumped it on her front porch with a sigh of relief, rolling his eyes when she admonished him to be careful. "It's fine, Aqua."
He wasn't, though, when he looked down and found his clothes, arms, and hands covered with glittery powder. Biting back a curse, he heartily began dusting himself off as Aqua went to fetch a wagon to make carrying the egg thing easier. "Wonderful! Now I look like Cinderella." He gave the egg an exasperated look. "You are cramping my style, you know."
"Leave the poor thing alone, it's had a hard day." Aqua came back around the side of the house, tugging the wagon behind her.
Terra grinned. "Getting attached to the UFO already, are we? For all you know, it could be some alien machine, and not an egg at all."
"Can't you hear it crying?" Aqua said quietly. Leaving him to ponder that, she crouched down to try to heave the egg into the wagon.
Terra was quick to help her. Now that he was concentrating on the egg itself rather than on trying to impress Aqua, he could almost tell what she meant now. The egg's warmth had a sort of agitated feel to it, and the shell seemed to pulse a little under his fingers, like a heart beating too quickly. "Easy, little guy," he murmured. "We're gonna get you somewhere nice and safe."
Aqua shot him an amused look as she rolled the wagon through her living room and over into her bedroom.
Terra looked around with interest (she had cheerful blue wallpaper, a frilly blue bed, and lots of books), but at a snapped command from Aqua, he remained obediently in the hallway. "All right, I won't come in. It's not a crime to look, though, is it?"
"I suppose not," she said haughtily, though her cheeks were flushed. Terra could not see why, since (slightly to his disappointment) there weren't any undergarments lying around or anything.
He watched as Aqua made a sort of nest for the egg out of blankets. Its light, which had been shining brightly and swirling through subtly different shades of color, began to dim until it reached a steady, contented glow. Terra swore he could practically hear it purr. "Hey, Aqua...you sure about this? I can...I can take it with me if you-"
"No thanks, I'll be fine," she assured him. "Go on home, Terra. I'll meet you at the library tomorrow."
Terra sighed. "Yeah. Great."
o.o.o.o.o
A chipper sound broke through the morning stillness. The only reason Terra even considered responding was because the number was Aqua's. As it was, he groaned and made a feeble move to press the answer button on his phone, but his hand felt rock-heavy, and he fell asleep before he had quite made it there.
The cell phone rang again exactly ten minutes later. Terra yelled into his pillow and slammed his hand on the button, just barely managing to lighten the tone of his voice in time. "Man, the school genius is slipping if she thinks it's smart to call a guy at eight o'clock in the morning on a weekend."
"I waited until a decent hour," Aqua's voice protested, "and then I waited another hour. Are you really still in bed?"
"Of course I am!"
"...Oh." She sounded distressed.
Terra was suddenly worried. "Hey, the egg didn't blow up or anything, did it?"
"Um..."
He was instantly alert. "I'll be right over."
"Thank you, Terra," she said. There was genuine gratitude in her voice.
o.o.o.o.o
None of Terra's wild imaginings prepared him for the sight of Aqua opening the door with a small child in her arms.
"Whoa!"
The tiny boy, in response to Terra's surprised expression, hid his face against Aqua's shoulder and burst into tears.
"Hey, hey, little guy! Terra ain't gonna hurt ya, see?" Terra rested his hands on his knees to make himself shorter and put on his most charming, reassuring smile. The child peeked at him uncertainly through a fringe of honey-brown hair. The boy's fists tightened their grip on Aqua's shirt, but at least he stopped crying.
"Will you please come in?" Aqua said in a strained voice. "Don't worry, my parents will not get back from their trip until Wednesday."
"Cool." Terra stepped over the threshold, still riveted by the sight of Aqua and the child. "So...you baby-sitting or something?"
Aqua looked uncomfortable. "He...hatched."
"He-? Wait a minute, you mean that egg-thing hatched into this kid?"
"It's been a long night," Aqua admitted, sinking down into a chair with the boy still in her arms. Terra finally noticed the dark circles under her eyes. "He grows fast, and I don't know if he sleeps. I need to, though. Terra...could you maybe, please...?"
"Huh? Oh! Sure, I'll keep an eye on him for a while."
"Thank you - thank you so much," Aqua burst out, with such desperate gratitude that Terra's eyes widened.
"You could have called me earlier, you know!"
"I didn't want to bother you..."
"Forget it! This is important."
Terra turned his attention to the child, holding out his arms invitingly. "C'mere, little guy."
The boy let out a gasping squeal and latched back onto Aqua.
"Aw, come on, I'm not that scary!"
It took several minutes to pry the child off of Aqua, and then he screamed and cried so loudly that she looked torn, her arms poised uncertainly as if to take him back.
"Go on to bed, Aqua," Terra said above the noise. "He'll be fine." Terra actually wasn't so sure, though - especially since ten minutes later, the boy was still crying, wedged into his hiding place behind the sofa.
Terra was currently trying the tempting sweets tactic. "They look sooooo yummy, don't they?" he crooned, on his knees on the floor with a few small chocolates resting on his palm. "You can't resist, little buddy!"
Actually, the boy seemed to be quite skilled at resisting temptation. He simply huddled there with his huge solemn wet eyes fixed on Terra.
"I'm not gonna hurt you!" the young man exclaimed in exasperation. "You know what, here. I give up." He rolled the chocolates to the boy's feet and then sat back on his heels with a sigh. "Didn't realize I was such a monster."
He went to flop down on the sofa and turn on the TV. He stared at the images on the screen without seeing them, his mind instead on the strange little boy, and on Aqua. The beautiful, serious young woman had taken compassion on the egg at first sight, nurtured it, and dealt with things alone when the tiny, needy creature had entered her life. She had not called for help, even when she had obviously needed it, even though he had been with her when they found the egg, all because she did not want to cause him trouble. "She's really something, isn't she," Terra remarked.
Then he must have fallen asleep, because the next thing he knew, he was groggily cracking open his eyes and there was the boy, clutching empty chocolate wrappers in his fist and staring straight at Terra with ridiculous solemnity.
"Whoa!"
At Terra's start of surprise, the boy dashed around to hide behind the sofa again - except that he could not now, for one of the very reasons that had startled Terra so much. The child was now noticeably bigger, with slightly more defined features and a less wobbly gait. He did not fit behind the sofa anymore. So that's what Aqua had meant by growing fast.
"Hey, not-as-little-guy. You want a cooler hiding spot than that?" The coaxing started again, and this time the child responded cautiously, shying away from Terra's actual touch but otherwise riveted.
Terra walked backwards toward the sliding door that led to the back yard, making encouraging noises as if to a nervous puppy. "That's it, this way, come on, now..." For the first time, he thought he saw a hint of loneliness in the boy's expression, a longing for fellowship. "I'm not so bad, right? I'm actually a nice guy, you know."
Outside, the boy seemed to change a little. His shoulders straightened, and his eyes drifted past Terra. For a long moment, he stood gazing at the sky. Then he looked back and actually smiled.
"Good morning, kiddo," Terra said happily.
They resumed walking, the child now more willing to follow Terra's lead. He allowed himself to be boosted up, and made some deft scrambling motions of his own as they made their way onward. A few minutes later, Terra sat on the roof with a pleased smile, watching as the little boy tottered back and forth across the shingles and made happy cooing noises. "Told ya you'd like it up here."
The boy raised his hands into the air, his honey-hued spikes ruffling as he swept his arms in a waving motion and made whooshing sounds.
"Wind, yeah. It's a little stronger up here."
The child spread his arms out, closed his eyes, and twirled around in a circle. Alarmed, Terra shot out a protective hand, but the boy's footing was perfectly steady. "Just like a little wind sprite yourself. Say, you got a name, kid? Because if you don't, I got an idea for one."
o.o.o.o.o
Aqua lay with her eyes closed for a minute, trying to figure out what urgent matter was nagging so hard at her sleepy brain. There was something she needed to remember, some matter to take care of...
"Oh!" She sat up with a gasp. "The child- Terra-" She looked wildly at the clock and realized that Terra had been stuck baby-sitting for quite a while, rather than the single hour she had intended. "Terra!" she yelled as she stumbled out of bed, untangling the sheets from her legs and hurriedly combing her fingers through her hair. "Terra?"
They were not anywhere in the house. Aqua started to panic in earnest, then heard a thump from above. Dashing outside, she soon spotted both boys crouched on the roof. "Terra!" she shrieked in outrage. "You took a toddler up there?" She managed not to add aloud, 'How irresponsible ARE you?'
The young man looked over at her. "He's fine," Terra said defensively. "He likes it up here a lot better than in the house."
There was no time to say anything else. Upon seeing Aqua, the little boy babbled with delight and - jumped off the roof.
Aqua screamed. Terra threw himself forward on his stomach, but his grasping hands missed by a hair's breadth. Aqua instinctively raised her arms to catch the boy, bracing herself for him to thud heavily into her.
Instead, amid the strong wind that suddenly whipped up, the child's fall slowed and he almost drifted into Aqua's arms, light as a feather. The wind immediately died down, and the boy smiled up at Aqua as he patted her face.
There was a long pause. Finally, Terra said, "Weird kid we've got here, right?"
"How did...?" Aqua murmured weakly.
Terra awkwardly jumped off the roof, stumbled, straightened, then came over and ruffled the little boy's hair. "Oi, Ven, give us some warning next time you're about to do something crazy, okay?"
Aqua glanced at him in confusion. "Ven?"
Terra shrugged, coloring. "Uh...well, you know, it's like what I found in that book yesterday, about our names meaning stuff in Latin...earth and water. Ventus means wind. The kid seemed to...like the wind, you know." He added hurriedly, "This was before he decided to jump off the roof."
Aqua looked back at the child, whose big blue eyes met hers with trusting solemnity. "Ventus," she murmured. Then she smiled. "It's perfect."
Terra beamed.
"But you are still not allowed to ever be alone with him again!"
"Hey, he's fine, isn't he?"
Little Ven was still growing fast. By lunchtime, he was speaking in rudimentary sentences, asking "Akaw" for more milk and demanding that "Tewa" do the sticking-the-spoon-on-his-nose trick again.
"Aqua," Terra asked at one point, "what are we gonna do with the kiddo when we go to the library? Take him with us?"
Aqua looked surprised. "We're still going to the library?"
He gaped at her. "Wh...Why did you say that? You just made me look studious!"
She frowned. "I mean, of course schoolwork is important, but now that we have to take care of Ventus..."
"He'll love the library. Won't you, Ven?" Terra grinned at the little boy, who smiled back brilliantly.
"Tewa!"
"Ven!"
"I wuv Tewa!"
"And I wuv Ven! Ven go wiff us to wibwawy, okay?"
"Okay!"
"Ven want to go to wibwawy?"
"Wibwawy!"
"Don't baby-talk at him," Aqua snapped. "It's not good for his development." As Terra laughed, she leaned forward earnestly. "Library, Ventus. It's library."
"Wibwawy?"
"Not 'wibwawy,' library."
The child's face was now scrunched in intense concentration. "Raiberry."
"Li-brar-y," she enunciated carefully.
"Rai...bwa...ry."
"That's much better! Listen carefully, Ven." Aqua gave him some chocolate when he successfully pronounced the word, which he ate happily as the older two cleaned up. Then Terra left the house to retrieve his notes as Aqua searched for something better to dress the child in than the thing he had arrived in. It was already far too small. She had had to cut off the parts that were supposed to enclose his feet, and she could see creases on his skin where the edges were pressing into him too tightly.
"You know, Ven, I think we're going to have to go clothes shopping before we head for the library."
She called Terra to let him know the change of plans, then set off for the closest thrift store with the little boy in tow. He clung willingly to her hand, though he tended to get distracted often by birds, passersby, potted plants, and anything else that caught his fancy. Cars seemed to frighten him. Every time one passed by too close, he gripped Aqua tightly and hid behind her.
"It's all right, Ventus, don't be scared. Almost there, see?"
Once they had arrived, she was tempted to stay for hours, since it was so darn fun dressing him up in outfit after outfit as if he was a life-sized doll. The child, however, was restless, and soon grew tired of the constant costume changes.
"All right, all right. Hold still, Ven, just let me fasten this, it will be the last one." She ended up buying the adorable corduroy overalls he had on, as well as lots of other pieces in increasingly larger sizes. It cost pretty much all the munny she had in her wallet, but she wanted to be prepared.
"What do you think, Ven?" Aqua directed the boy's attention to a mirror, kneeling down to put her hands on his shoulders. "You're such a handsome young man," she said fondly. Ven studied their reflections seriously. Then, for no discernible reason that she could see, he suddenly gasped and backed into her.
He vanished.
Aqua barely managed to suppress a shriek. She stared at the mirror, shaking, where only her own image was now reflected. Yet Ven was still there, right in her arms, clutching her hard as he stared over her shoulder at something.
Spooked, Aqua looked back, but could see nothing out of the ordinary. Ven buried his face in her shoulder and began to sniffle fearfully. Aqua looked back at the mirror, still flabbergasted: there she was, staring white-faced at herself, and there Ven was not.
Her arms closed around him protectively. "Oh, Ventus..." She picked him up and rushed out of the store, her thoughts in an amazed whirl.
She was still shaken by the time she got to the library, though the sight of Terra waving cheerfully at her from the front steps had a calming effect. Ven, though no longer looking terrified, had nevertheless gone subdued and clingy, greeting Terra with nothing more than a small, shy smile.
"What's up with you guys?"
"Um...slight mishap at the clothing store," Aqua mumbled.
Terra peered more closely at the boy. "Huh! Looks like you got some new duds, eh, buddy?"
"Tewa good," Ven said solemnly.
"Haha! Well, you're lookin' sharp now, kiddo." Terra ruffled the boy's hair and then turned back to Aqua. "So, what's the plan? You think Ven'll be okay inside, or should we check out a pile of stuff and study out here?"
"We can see how he does inside for now," Aqua said, a little nervously. "He might like the picture books."
Terra shrugged. "Okay, cool."
Fortunately, Ven seemed to do very well in the library. They had tried settling him down with some picture books in the children's area, but as soon as he realized that Aqua was walking off toward the nonfiction shelves with a paper in her hand, he immediately ran after her, clinging to her skirt until she took his hand and brought him along. He gently ran his palm across the spines of the books on the shelves, watching as Aqua pulled out volume after volume and stacked them in Terra's arms.
"All right, I think that will do to start with."
"To start with?" Terra gasped in disbelief, struggling to maintain his grip. "I wasn't planning on spending all day here, you know!"
"Terra, we've got other responsibilities now," Aqua snapped, glancing briefly at Ven. "There is no telling when we'll get a chance to finish this project, so we need to get as much done as we can as soon as possible."
He sighed. "Fine, fine..."
They spread the books over an entire table. Aqua began sifting through volumes, calling out information and page numbers for Terra to write down, or pointing out passages that she wanted him to copy. He followed her lead good-naturedly, since he was, after all, getting away with what was essentially gruntwork. Ven sat at the same table, paging through books just like Aqua and making random scribbles on paper like he thought Terra was doing.
Or, perhaps, not so random. "Whoa...Aqua, take a look at this."
She glanced up. Terra was holding out a piece of paper with a strange look on his face.
"Ven drew this."
"Hm?" Aqua studied the picture, frowning. "That...almost looks like our school crest, doesn't it?"
"Yeah. And this thing here...I don't recognize it, but doesn't it seem like it could be a symbol, too?"
"...Maybe."
They both looked at Ven, who was now studiously drawing flowers.
"Hey, not bad, buddy," Terra praised. "So a tough guy like you can make really pretty flowers, eh?"
"Fowa," Ven mumbled absently. He finished the last scribble and then showed the picture to Terra, smiling. "Faiwie."
"Faiwie?" Terra repeated, smiling in bemusement.
Aqua was frowning at the picture. "Ven...are these fairies?"
"Faiwie," Ven confirmed. He added another mark to one of the winged scribble-balls he had depicted floating among the flowers.
"Fairies. And flowers." Terra shook his head. "That's cool, but come on, man, how about some dinosaurs or ninja or something?"
Ven cocked his head in puzzlement. "Nija?"
"I'll show you!" Terra scratched out a black shape on a fresh sheet of paper.
"Is that a horse?" Aqua asked dryly.
"It's a ninja!"
"Nija!" Ven repeated happily. Slamming his pencil down on Terra's picture, he added a long pole-like object sticking up from the ninja's head, and some dark scribbles where the two met. "Nija. Nija dead."
Aqua and Terra gazed at the picture in growing, disbelieving horror.
"Did...did he just...kill my ninja?" Terra said faintly.
Ven's pencil was still moving. He made a circle for a head with two mismatched eyes, and dark lines for a body. Then huge wing-like shapes emerging from the figure's back. An arm, stretching out grotesquely to grasp the pole (sword?) that had slain Terra's ninja.
Ven looked up at them solemnly. "King."
Terra swallowed. "So the king killed my ninja, eh?"
Ven reached for another piece of paper and began drawing again.
Terra and Aqua scooted down to the far end of the table and leaned close to whisper to each other.
"Aqua, you think we maybe bit off more than we can chew, here?"
"It's possible that he is not really a child," she whispered back. "Or that he's been...reborn. That he had some other life, before he came to us. We know nothing about him, after all."
"You can say that again."
Ven looked up, came over, and tugged urgently at Terra's shirt. "Nija faiwie."
Both Terra and Aqua looked apprehensively at the picture. A passable imitation of Terra's ninja, this time with wings, was clasping hands with the king. Both were smiling.
"So I gotta be a fairy if I wanna stay alive, eh?" Terra said wryly.
"Ven," Aqua asked, pointing to what looked like a box with a scribble in it near the king's feet, "what's this?"
The boy looked where she was pointing. "Ven."
"Yes, what is it, Ven?"
He cocked his head. "Ven." He pointed at the scribble-box. "Ven."
Terra made a choked noise.
Aqua's mouth felt dry. "You mean...that's you? In the box?"
"Dark." Ven picked up another piece of paper and pushed both it and the pencil at Terra's chest. "Tewa, take Ven home."
"Uh...what?"
"Nija take Ven," the boy insisted, starting to look upset.
"You want to...go home?"
"Terra," Aqua said, "draw a picture of the ninja saving Ven, letting him out of the box. Keeping him safe from the king," she found herself adding.
"Um..." Self-consciously, his fingers not quite steady, Terra drew his ninja again (this time with wings), opening the box. He did his best to draw Ven as a little fairy, arms spread wide in happiness. He firmly drew a big fat smile on the face of the king, and then added lots of big hearts for good measure. "There. Everyone's free and happy and we all love each other, right?"
Ven was staring at the picture in fascination. He pointed. "Red."
"They're hearts, Ven. It means that everyone's happy, and they get along."
Ven stared at them. Then he suddenly climbed into Aqua's lap, pressing his head against her chest.
"Ven?" she said in surprise.
The boy smiled. "Not boken." He clambered over into the other lap, putting one hand on Terra's shoulder to steady himself as he listened to his heartbeat as well. "Not boken!" Ven stared at them in excitement, pressing his hands over his own chest. "Akaw an' Tewa not boken!"
"Bokken?" Terra wondered.
"Broken," Aqua translated shakily. She drew Ven back into her arms, hugging him. "Everyone has a heart, Ven. Everyone's heart beats to keep them alive. We use our hearts to love each other, and care for each other."
Ven closed his eyes. "Ven not dead," he sighed contentedly.
Aqua and Terra stared at each other for a long time. Then she leaned forward and said to him in a low murmur, "I need to show you something." Hesitantly, she raised the back of Ven's shirt until his shoulder blades were exposed. The boy stirred uneasily. "These were there when he hatched. I think I know what they are, now."
Terra stared at the two lumpy scars on the boy's back. "He was born like that?"
Ven squirmed uncomfortably and clawed at his shirt. Aqua pulled it back down and patted him soothingly. "What do you think they are?"
"Aqua, don't tell me the kid's an actual fairy."
"I don't know, but he is something. He could very well have been something with wings."
By the time they left the library, Ven was noticeably bigger and had dropped the baby-slur in his speech. "We goin' home, Aqua?" he asked, holding both their hands as they walked out into the afternoon sunshine.
"If you want, Ven," she said, "but I was thinking that we could stop somewhere for a snack, first." She looked significantly at Terra. "At least, if someone treats us." She did not have much munny left after the shopping trip earlier.
Terra raised his free hand. "All right, it's on me. Where do you wanna go?"
Aqua smiled down at the little boy between them. "Somewhere with a playplace, maybe. Ven will like that."
Ven cocked his head at her warily. "I will?"
He was so adorable that Aqua bent down to kiss him. "Of course you will, all children like to play."
"...I wanna play with you and Terra."
Terra laughed. "I think we're too big for a kids' playplace, buddy. Aqua, what do you say we grab some ice cream or something and eat in the park?"
"Sounds good to me," she agreed.
"What's a park?"
He was so darn cute! "A place with lots of grass and trees, and maybe a fountain," Aqua explained. "You really will like it, Ven."
"It's got a playground, too," Terra added. "One we're not too big for." He laughed again. "Mostly."
Ven's hands gripped theirs convulsively.
"What is it, Ven?" Aqua asked. She looked up.
A car was heading straight for them, veering to the side of its lane and then, to Aqua's horrified shock, actually jumping the curb when it got close. Her eyes met the driver's. The man had bright golden eyes and a large scar on his face, and was grinning wildly. Aqua felt paralyzed.
"Look out!" Terra shouted.
"NO!" Ven raised his hands. The car suddenly crashed to a halt right in front of them, its bumper crumpling as if it had hit an invisible wall. Steam drifted out from under the hood as the driver opened the door.
"What do you think you're doing?" Terra raged, instinctively picking up Ven and pushing him into Aqua's arms before marching over to the guy. "You could have killed us!"
"That was kinda the idea, bro," the man said easily.
Terra gaped at him. "Who are you?"
"As if. I don't hand out my name to mortals." The man turned away dismissively, his creepy golden eyes falling hungrily on the child. "Hey there, tiger. Though I guess they call you Ventus here, eh?"
Ven broke into tears. "Go away."
Aqua's arms tightened around him protectively. "We ought to call the police," she growled.
"Try it," the man scoffed. He held out a hand. "Come on, Ventus. Your daddy's been looking all over for you."
"GO AWAY!" Ven shrieked. He raised his hand. A fierce wind suddenly whipped up, blowing their hair into their eyes and causing the man to rock back a step.
He looked up again, still with that creepy smile. "So you wanna play, tiger?" He held out his own hand.
Instinctively, Terra dashed forward, putting himself in front of Aqua and Ven. Then he yelled as he suddenly found himself dangling upside-down in midair. Aqua cried out, looking terrified, as Ven clung to her tighter than ever. "P-Put him down!" she gasped.
"Hmph." The man swept his arm through the air, and Terra went flying, landing on the pavement a short distance away. There was an audience by now - people were staring, some of them taking pictures, others speaking quickly into their cell phones.
The golden-eyed man looked around at all of them, for once seeming uneasy. Then he shrugged. "Stay out of dark alleyways, Ventus. Otherwise, the bogeys might get you." He held out his hand again, to the side this time, and a vaporous black mass appeared right there on the sidewalk. He stepped into it and vanished, along with the dark portal.
Aqua stared, frozen, at the place where he had been. The crushed car was the only remaining evidence of his presence. She only snapped out of it when Ven began to struggle. As soon as she put him down, he ran to Terra, who was cradling his arm.
"Terra!" Aqua cried, flinging herself down beside him. "Oh, no, this is terrible!"
"I'm okay," Terra mumbled, both at her and the passersby who were inquiring after him in concern.
"Your whole arm is bleeding!"
"Just scraped it across the pavement, I'm fine." Terra looked down at Ven, who was clinging to him and sobbing into his shirt. "Hey, little buddy, I'm okay! Come on, now, you don't have to cry."
"Terra, I'm sorry," the boy wailed. "Terra, I'm sorry..."
"Dude, you're not the one who made me eat concrete." Terra pushed Ven upright and smiled encouragingly as he wiped the tears away with one hand. "What do you say, Ven? Give me a smile, and I'll buy you some ice cream, okay?"
Huge wet eyes stared up at him.
"Not a big enough bribe, huh. Well, then smile for me and I won't tickle you."
Ven was soon rolling on the ground in hysterical laughter. He managed to get clear and then ran to hide behind Aqua, staring at Terra from over her shoulder with an uncertain smile.
Terra grinned back. "Better."
"Enough of this," Aqua said impatiently, getting to her feet and reaching to pull Terra to his. "We need to take care of your arm before it gets infected."
"Ah, you're making too big a deal out of it, I'll be fine." He did, however, follow her willingly to the nearest pharmacy, where he tried to keep up Ven's spirits by telling lame jokes as Aqua washed the blood and grit off his arm. She slathered medicine over the injury and even untied one of her sashes to use as a bandage, which made him blush.
"Can't afford Band-Aids, huh?"
"I can't, actually," she muttered. "I've been buying a lot of clothes recently."
Terra stared at her, then at Ven. More precisely, at the boy's new outfit, which was already way too short. "Oh."
Despite Terra's best efforts, Ven was still too dispirited and nervous to enjoy the park very much, and they ended up going home (Aqua's) after only a short time. Aqua set up a Disney movie for Ventus, then made herself comfortable at the coffee table with Terra and piles of papers and books, since Ven would not stay put if they tried working on their school project in a different room.
The child would not settle down at first, getting freaked out in turn by Snow White's wicked stepmother, Maleficent's spooky debut, and the horrified realization that Cinderella's father was dead. Finally, Terra dug through Aqua's DVDs and decided on Robin Hood as the most harmless. "Because no way I'm gonna afflict you with this Tinker Bell spin-off atrocity, little buddy."
"The third movie's not bad," Aqua muttered, fussily sliding the Tinker Bell DVDs back onto the shelf with the others. "Now, can we please get back to work? At this rate, I'm not even sure we'll finish in time."
"Ah, you worry too much, Aqua."
They were finally able to make some progress for a while, as Ven lay watching the movie with his head in Aqua's lap, and Terra dutifully copied down everything he was told to. By about six-thirty in the evening, however, Ven was getting cranky (as well as bigger), and Terra was evidently at his limit.
"We've been working all day, Aqua! Let's wrap it up and do something fun."
"Like what?" she huffed, trying to re-do the buttons that Ven had defiantly unfastened on his shirt.
"I don't know...go clubbing or something."
Aqua shot him a Look.
Terra rolled his eyes. "Whatever; go out for coffee, take Ven to McDonald's, see a movie- play a board game, for crying out loud! Anything!"
Aqua sighed. "I need to grab some bigger clothes for Ven. Then we can have, I don't know, a game night or something."
"Yes!" Terra crowed. "I'll take what I can get!"
Once Ven was dressed in the biggest outfit Aqua had procured for him earlier, Terra offered to take him out to pick up some pizza and snacks so that Aqua could have a break. She very reluctantly agreed ("Just...what if that man with the scarred face shows up again? And don't think I've forgotten about you taking Ven up to the roof!").
Soon, the boys were walking hand-in-hand to the nearest pizza place. The hand-in-hand thing was not Terra's idea, but Ven had latched onto him as soon as they had left the house and refused to be dislodged. It was a little difficult to keep an even pace, since Ven insisted on walking too close together, but the boy was not entirely timid. He looked out at their surroundings with inquisitive eyes, occasionally asking Terra things like why the cars were different colors and why it was not okay to sniff the doggie's butt if it was sniffing his.
"Well, because...there's...nothing interesting. There. You know."
They eventually made it to the pizza place, specified their order to be delivered directly to Aqua's house, then moved on to a convenience store. Terra handed a shopping basket to Ventus and told him to pick out what he wanted. Ven stared uncertainly at the rows and rows and rows of colorful packages, then handed the basket back. "I want whatever you want."
"Trust me, little dude, you don't want what I want. Unless you like Red-Hot Chili Zingers."
"Do they taste good?"
"Oh yeah."
"Are they sweet?"
Terra laughed.
Just then, something bumped into him. Terra turned around to find a young boy regaining his footing, rubbing his head sheepishly. "Gee, sorry, mister."
"That's okay," Terra said with a grin. "Just keep an eye on where you're going, all right?"
"Okay!"
Terra frowned. He looked around to find Ven clutching him with a death grip, staring at the other boy with huge eyes. Alarmed, Terra looked back at the child who had bumped into him, but there did not seem to be anything suspicious about the kid. He was a good-looking boy, with spiky brown hair and brilliant blue eyes, and such a sweet smile that Terra wondered what in the world Ven saw in this creature to be afraid of.
The boy noticed Ven. "Hi! I'm Sora. What's your name?"
"Go away," Ven whispered.
Terra frowned. "Ven? What's up with you?"
"Aw, don't be silly," Sora said cheerfully. "Let's be friends!" He set his hands on Ven's shoulders and leaned in close as if to kiss him. Ven hurriedly turned his face away so that the other boy's lips landed on his cheek.
"What the-?" Terra exclaimed. This Sora kid was kind of weird. "Hey, I think you better-" He broke off in shock. The boy's lips had left an imprint on Ven's skin, like a burn mark. "Oi!"
He reached to pull the kid away from Ven, but was not expecting Sora to catch his wrist in a grip that seemed incongruously strong. Their eyes met. "Stay out of this," Sora said coldly.
"Leave Terra alone!" Ven shouted, shoving Sora away.
Sora shoved back. "If you don't want me to break your human pet here, you'd better do what I say, Ventus."
"Oi," Terra said again, very firmly. "This has gone far enough. You need to-" He was reaching to remove the boy's hand, but then suddenly gasped. Sora had seized both his wrists and twisted them in a vicious grip so that Terra suddenly fell to his knees, pain shooting up his arms.
"Someone's going to die right now, Ventus," Sora said, his voice now complete ice. "Either you or your pet human, take your pick." Then he grinned in a way that made Terra's flesh creep. "Actually, you're going to die anyway, whether your human does or not. I refuse to live without you any longer, you've run from me long enough. It's time you met oblivion like you were supposed to."
"Let go," Terra gasped. He tried to pull away, but the pain made him double over. 'This kid can't be more than five or six years old!' he thought frantically. 'How is he doing this?'
As if that wasn't enough, innocent little Ven now grabbed a long wooden cooking spoon off a nearby rack and stabbed it hard at Sora's face.
"Ven!" Terra cried out, utterly shocked.
Sora barely even reacted. He kept standing there with that creepy ice smile. Something was happening to him, though - the color of his hair seemed to be flaking off where Ven had struck him, bits of brown crumbling to black. Even the tan on his face had peeled off a little in the blow's wake, revealing a small strip of much paler skin. One eye was still the exact same shade of blue as Ven's, but the other eye, miraculously uninjured, was now a chilling gold.
"You're one of Them," Terra breathed.
Ven went for Sora with the rod again, but the creature knocked it out of his hand and shoved him to the floor, pinning his arms.
"No! No! Please!"
Terra could not stand the sound of Ven's screams. Barely registering the lingering soreness in his wrists or the savage stinging in the injury he had sustained earlier, he brought his fist down hard on Sora's back.
Sora did nothing but glare over his shoulder with that freaky gold eye of his, but nearby customers were putting up a fuss, shouting for management and calling the police. Terra realized that he needed to end this encounter fast and get Ven out of here. Ripping Aqua's sash from his arm, he wrapped it around Sora's neck and pulled hard; thankfully, the creature raised its hands to grip the sash, allowing Ven to wriggle free. Wasting no time, Ven ripped open a bag of salty chips and shoved it into Sora's face.
To Terra's great surprise, the monster-kid, who had not batted an eyelid when being attacked in the face with a wooden spike, screamed bloody murder as the snacks scraped over his flesh. Ven lunged at Terra, shoving him with all the panic-driven strength of his little arms. "Run away, Terra! Run away, Terra!"
Dropping the sash, and noticing distractedly that his arm was bleeding again, Terra snatched up Ven and scrambled to his feet in one movement, pelting for the exit. He knocked aside everyone who tried to stop him, and did not stop running until they had reached Aqua's front porch.
She had not even locked the door. "Aqua!" Terra bellowed as he stormed inside. "Keep this door locked, do you hear me?"
She came out of the kitchen, looking surprised and indignant. "Don't speak to me that way." Her eyes widened when she saw Ven crying. "What happened?" She rushed over, taking Ven into her arms and making soothing noises.
"Some little freak attacked us at the convenience store," Terra growled. "Aqua, you ever see a cute kid named Sora, kill him."
"What?"
"That wasn't Sora," Ven sobbed, his arms tight around Aqua's neck. "Don't hurt him, Terra! That wasn't Sora...that wasn't...Sora..."
He wailed, and Aqua patted him, making shushing sounds. "Calm down, baby, it's okay. Terra, please explain."
She listened closely as she soothed Ven and re-bandaged Terra's arm. All three of them jumped when the doorbell rang. Ven ran around behind Aqua and clung to her, terrified. As Terra went to go answer the door, he picked up a poker that had been propped by the fireplace and gripped it like a weapon, but he was extremely relieved to find that their visitor was only the pizza deliveryman.
"Hey, didja hear about that ruckus over at the QwickStop a little while ago?" the chatty young man asked as Terra dug around for his wallet.
"Nope, not a thing," Terra mumbled.
"My girlfriend works there, said some lunatic came in and attacked a couple of kids, like, twenty minutes ago - just down the street, see it there? You can see it if ya come out here and stand on the edge of the porch, hard ta miss with all them police lights flashin'-"
"I owe you ten munny, right?" Terra said loudly, waving the orbs.
"What? Oh, yeah. ThankyouforchoosingPipin'Hot,weappreciateyourbusiness. Anyway, the guy ran off with one of them kids, and the other kid disappeared without a trace - DISAPPEARED, they were sayin'! Can't find hide or hair of 'im anywhere-"
"Can I have my pizza now?" Terra asked pointedly.
"And you wanna know what the weirdest thing is? The weirdest thing is they don't even have a recording of it! The security cameras just went white - not staticky or black, mind you, there was this big white flash so that you can't see a thing, who the guy was or anything-"
"Thanks so much. Good night." Terra shut the door firmly and brought the pizza back to the coffee table, dumping it down with a disgusted look. "I can't believe that guy..."
"He was extremely unprofessional, but we did get some good information from him. Do you think anyone at the store might have recognized you?" Aqua asked.
"Nah. I'm from...a different part of town, you know." Terra shook his head. "Anyway, I'll eat the first piece. Wait a little bit and see if I keel over dead or something."
"You think it's been poisoned?" Aqua exclaimed.
"I dunno, after that Sora thing-" Terra glanced at the sniffling Ven. "I mean, that not-Sora thing, I'm getting paranoid."
The pizza appeared to be perfectly fine. Terra and Aqua munched on it halfheartedly as they began playing Command Board, their appetites low even after they had started getting into the game. Ven only managed to get down a few bites, spending the rest of the game huddled in Terra's lap and dolefully nudging his game piece along whenever it was his turn.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Aqua suggested, as Terra's hand hovered over an intersection.
He glanced at her. "You don't even know what I'm planning to do."
"Since it's a choice between landing on a Special panel or a Damage panel, I have a pretty good guess."
Terra moved his game piece to hover over the Special panel, raising an eyebrow.
"Don't say I didn't warn you," Aqua sing-songed.
"Hmph. You're just trying to psyche me out." Terra placed the piece down and drew a Special card. "Gah!" He slammed the card back down, this time facing up. It had a picture of Captain Dark on it.
Aqua giggled. "I told you so."
"How did you know? You must have peeked! Or memorized the card order!"
"Of course I didn't. It was woman's intuition."
"Yeah, well, 'woman's intuit' what I'm gonna do next." Terra spent the next few turns chasing Aqua around the board, trying to surpass her far enough to leave her stuck with Captain Dark. Ven did not even crack a smile.
Aqua finally sighed, reaching over to cup his face in her hand. "Cheer up, sweetie. Terra and I will keep you safe, we won't let anyone hurt you."
"But I don't want them to hurt you, either," the boy said in a low voice. "Vani said he'd kill Terra. I don't want that to happen."
"Hey, I'm tough," Terra insisted, even though he was also uneasily remembering the way that fake kid had so effortlessly overpowered him. "We can take care of ourselves...and you, too."
Aqua eyed him, remembering how helpless Terra had been against that golden-eyed man, but she did not want to say anything discouraging in front of Ven.
"Don't die," Ven mumbled, his face half-hidden. "I love you."
"We love you, too, sweetheart," Aqua whispered. Such a strange situation this had turned out to be, but even so, she meant those words with all her heart.
Ven seemed all right until late that evening, when Terra started getting ready to leave. Then the boy nearly had a meltdown until Terra finally agreed to stay the night. As Ven watched anxiously, Aqua set up the sofa-bed in the living room, pushing the coffee table to one side and bringing out some clean sheets.
"Are we all going to fit?" Ven asked doubtfully, surveying the size of the bed as he clutched Terra's hand.
Aqua blushed, and Terra burst into laughter.
"Honey, I'll be in my own room," Aqua mumbled. "Boys and girls our age don't sleep together."
"Oh, don't they?" Terra said mischievously. Aqua smacked him.
Ven was looking panicked again. "No. No, Aqua, you have to stay. Don't go away!"
"I'll just be down the hall," she said soothingly. "You can come with me, if you want."
"Terra, too?"
"N-No, Ven. Terra's staying here in the living room, and I'll be in my bedroom."
"No! We have to be together!"
"Eh, looks like Tantrum Time," Terra remarked.
In the end, the boys got the sofa-bed and Aqua set up a cot for herself close enough for Ven to reach over and grasp her arm when she lay down.
"Don't go away when I fall asleep," he told her.
"I won't," she said in exasperation. "Good night, Ven."
She and Terra had both meant to get up again after putting their young charge to bed, but the boy was so restless that it finally became more trouble than it was worth to fight his anxiety. In desperation, Aqua finally began to sing softly to him, the same song she had used to put him to sleep when he had been a baby. "Quietly, stand in the exit way, and, in the pitch-black, take the light..."
"You have a nice voice," Terra whispered.
Aqua blushed, unable to answer without breaking the song. "The light known as 'you' finds me, in the middle of the night..." She fell asleep sooner than she expected, with Ven's fingers still around her arm and his breath ruffling her hair.
To be continued...
Author's Notes: *deletes paragraph about me not getting Terra and Aqua 100% in-character, oh noes the world is ending oh-em-gee*
Aqua's lullaby is the theme song of Kingdom Hearts (and Birth by Sleep), Hikaru Utada's "Hikari," in case you didn't know. (Same for the chapter quotes.) It's the Japanese version of "Simple And Clean."