Hello, and welcome to a brand new challenge! This is the Vanqua Week, you can find all prompts on voidgear-and-stormfall 's blog on tumblr! Mine will mostly be platonic (Imma be honest, I haven't written them all yet, which means the final ones might not be posted this week...), but if you're into the ship, make sure to look up #vanquaweek2019 :D

I hope you will enjoy my participation!

Day 1 : First Meeting

"Haah… Haah… Okay.. Fine… You win this time… Master."

"You sure improved… A lot… Since our first meeting…"

They were both panting, their keyblades laying in the dusty ground of the Keyblade graveyard. Today wasn't the day one more would be added to the sinister collection of weapons of this world.

Vanitas scoffed, still out of breath. "Yeah. You taught me a lot, by losing so much."

Aqua crashed on the ground, staring at the sky. "I don't remember losing that often. Now that I think of it, you're almost always the one giving up."

"Because it's obvious how much stronger I am, duh," he replied, sitting a few feet away from her.

"Look at me, training the enemy," she said, chuckling, wiping sweat from her forehead. "The Master would be so angry at me."

"Good thing he doesn't know, then. My Master would murder me if he even knew I fought you and let you out of there alive."

"Good thing he doesn't know, then," she said with a smile, and heard him chuckle in response.

This was so illegal. This would cause them so much trouble. This could completely overthrow the balance if anyone found out. A fighter of Light, training with a being of pure Darkness, every now and then, when the worlds' safety was at stake exactly because of Darkness.

"Remember when we first met?" Aqua asked, sitting up, looking at him - which resulted in looking at her own reflection in his helmet.

"Of course. You were so full of yourself, Oh, look at me, I'm a Keyblade Master and I will kick your butt," he said with a high pitched voice. "Pitiful. And in the end, the only one you ever fought in your life was Terra and you had no idea people could fight dirtily. A wonder I didn't kill you back then."

"Oh? Did I hit your head that hard when I defeated you back then? I don't remember any of this happening, surely my victory damaged your memory somehow," she said playfully. "I do remember winning back then. And the fight after that. And even the one after-"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it. All hail the powerful Master who defeated over and over a poor innocent child."

"I don't think I ever thought of you as poor, innocent, or child," she teased.

"Oh? Then what did you ever think of me?" He tilted his head, the way he always did when he was genuinely curious. He tried to act all high and disdainful all the time, but she had learnt how to read through him most of the time.

"Let's see," she started thinking, crossing her legs for a steadier posture while sitting. "I first thought of you as an enemy. I didn't even give much thought about you. You were an obstacle I needed to take down to protect my friends."

"An obstacle? Nice way to objectify people, Master. Is that what they teach kids to do where you came from?"

"Then I really understood you were someone," she continued, ignoring him. "That maybe you were just lost. Missguided. Manipulated by Xehanort. That maybe all you needed was to be saved, just another soul to help."

He clicked his tongue in annoyance, and she laughed.

"What about now, then? What am I to you?"

She bit her lip, trying to find the best way to express what she thought of him. It wasn't that hard of a question, but she wanted to find the words that would really convey her feelings.

"You are… A worthy opponent. You don't need to be saved, because you don't want to be saved. You aren't manipulated by Darkness. You chose Darkness. And now, I realise that Light or Darkness are just words. You aren't that much of a bad person. You have wishes and dreams, just like anyone else. You have goals to reach. You are able to laugh, to have fun. And I'm sure you're enjoying these sessions just as much as I do. I don't know if I'd call you a friend, and once on the real battlefield we will fight on opposite sides, but you taught me a lot, and I am able to have fun and to relax when you're around. I don't hate you."

He remained silent for a few seconds, before bursting into laughters.

"I don't hate you. That's actually the nicest thing I've ever been told. I guess that was pretty spot on, to be honest. Can't wait to practise these special moves you taught me to defeat your friends before your eyes once the day of the final showdown comes."

She sighed, stretching. "I know you will try. But they are stronger than you think. And while I'll be sad to see you lose, I won't stop them, because our victory matters more than anything. But what about you, then? What could a being of pure Negativity could possibly think of me?"

She was getting back on her feet, dusting her clothes. She wasn't really expecting him to answer. He never really entrusted his feelings to anyone.

"Well, of course I hated you at first." She was surprised he even bothered stating the obvious. But the surprise just kept growing as he kept on talking. "You were nothing but a pebble on my way. Not really interesting, plain, boring, but I still had to get rid of you. You turned out to be one heck of a strong pebble, though. I only trained against my own Unversed, and often had to hold back because they... Because I had to. So I realised I could use you to learn. Fight you, over and over, learn every single one of your techniques, learn to counter every single one of them, in order to destroy you when I'll have to. There was something in your eyes that I miss, I'll give you that. Anger. Hatred. You wanted me to die, and you fought with all you had, you were ready to die if you could bring me down with you. I guess I respected that. That rage is gone, now, but I'm learning a lot with you. And, somehow, you made learning fun. Sweet, sweet irony, I'm learning from the Master I seek to destroy. But I learn more with you than with my real Master. And you don't punish me when I fail, which is good. To quote someone I used to despise, 'I don't hate you'. I'll still completely destroy you and all that you love, though."

She smiled, offering her hand to help him back to his feet. He took it, and even though they now both were standing, none of them really let go.

It had begun as something really selfish on both sides. They fought again and again to learn each other's weaknesses. To learn more about the other side. And in the end, they just started to learn more about themselves indeed. Aqua learnt that there was more to Light and Darkness than pure good and pure evil. Vanitas learnt that even a corrupted, broken, rotten heart could sometimes feel light enough to laugh and just enjoy things.

"Same time next week?" Aqua asked, a smile on her face.

"Be ready to get bodied next week," he replied, a smile in his voice.

They finally let go of each other's hand, turning back to collect their weapons.

One day, they would meet here for a fight only one of them would walk out of alive. But until then, they could forget about Light and Darkness, and just be two keyblade wielders training under the same sky.

And sometimes, it was all their hearts sought.