After training this week, Aqua hadn't had much time to herself. Every day was long and tiring and ended with her and Terra mumbling their goodnights to the Master and each other and staggering up the stairs to collapse into their respective beds.
Tonight was different. Tonight, training had ended early, and she'd headed up the stairs alone, still very much awake and excited to have an evening to herself.
There was very little Terra and the Master didn't know about her; she kept one such secret from them in an otherwise unused drawer in the corner of her closet. Door shut but unlocked, because locked doors were suspicious even in a castle of Keybearers, she slid the secret drawer open, removing its contents and laying them on her bed. She'd purchased it a few years ago at the local market, when a merchant from offworld decided for the first and last time that a small town was a good place to sell formal wear. She stripped off her training clothes and stepped delicately into her purchase. The fit around the bodice was a bit tighter than she remembered, but the full skirts of the sky blue ball gown still fell perfectly, silky beneath her fingertips.
It was an impractical thing to own, she knew. A Keybearer, especially a Master in training, had to be ready for combat at any moment, and she couldn't well fight in long skirts. That didn't stop her from enjoying them every once in a while; she treasured the moments when she could put down being an apprentice and simply be a young woman delighting in the effect a bit of finery had on her appearance.
She curtsied and offered her hand to her tall, strong, handsome, and completely imaginary dance partner. He took it and they twirled about the room to the cadence of the music that swelled in her imagination, until her mind's eye could see the elegantly decorated ballroom, the string quartet, and the other guests at the ball dressed in their finest.
That image disappeared in a puff of smoke when her real eyes saw her door open and a very wide-eyed Terra looking in.
Ten years of growing up together and he still hadn't learned how to knock?
"Terra!" She came to an abrupt stop, too flustered to manage anything but his name. He, on the other hand, looked as embarrassed as if he'd caught her completely undressed instead of simply in a dress.
"I wanted to know if you wanted to go stargazing tonight," he stammered, well aware that he'd caught her in the middle of something very private.
There was a long pause in which Aqua tried to round up her thoughts, currently bouncing around her mind like frightened jackrabbits. "Sure," she finally replied, eyes downcast. Her secret was out; nothing she could do about that now. "I'll meet you up there." She didn't have the heart to state the obvious – that she'd have to change clothes first.
"Okay," he replied, hesitating by the door for a long moment. Finally, he spoke up again - "You look...really nice." - before closing the door behind him.
For a few seconds, Aqua gaped. Suddenly her imaginary dance partner, such as he'd been, simply didn't measure up anymore. As she stepped out of the dress, folding it neatly and placing it back in its drawer, she couldn't help but smile. Maybe a little bit of impracticality wasn't such a bad thing after all.