Title: The Connection
Warnings: Teen getting hit in the head. Poor teen.
Special Notes: I must give credit where credit is due. A huge thank you to my good friend The Most Powerful of Keyblades. I couldn't have finished this chapter without you!
Hana stood with her back to the door and waited for the gentle click that meant Ventus had gone into his room. She slid down until she was clutching her knees, and banged her head against the door softly. Twice. "Stupid, stupid, stupid!"
"V-Ven...tus," she thought back to earlier. "Ventus. That's...your name, right?"
Gyaah! She shrieked inside her head. Of course that's his name! You've only been paired up with him for training twice already!
A single drop of moisture fell into her hands. She wasn't normally this quiet. She should've at least had a semi-decent conversation with her three new training partners by now. But when she was face-to-face with Ven, she just got so...tongue-tied. She lowered her head into her hands. God, why does he have to be so cute?
Hana stood and collapsed on her bed. She slid the white blankets up to her nose and stared at her room. It was plain, undecorated, since she had only been here a short time. Everything she had owned previously had been lost in an accident, so she didn't even have any pajamas. I'll have to ask Aqua if I can borrow a pair.
Sighing, Hana closed her eyes and let herself drift off to sleep.
Hana stared at the ripples she was making in her hot chocolate with her spoon, spinning it around and around. Her scrambled eggs had gone cold on her untouched plate. Aqua smiled at her kindly, and reached across the table to pat her reassuringly on the hand. "Anything wrong?" the blue haired protégé asked.
Hana scraped her fork along her plate forlornly, making swirls in her maple syrup, and shook her head no.
Terra took a big bite of his waffles. "Let's hurry up. We don't have all day just to eat."
Ven locked his hands together behind his head. "I'm finished."
Aqua looked at his plate disapprovingly. "You didn't touch your orange."
"I don't like oranges!" he complained.
Hana downed her hot chocolate- or rather, cold chocolate- and stood. Without a word, she turned and walked out of the castle towards the training grounds.
Noticing they should get a move on, Terra followed suit. "Sheesh, what's with them today?" Ven asked.
Aqua shook her head. "I have no idea. Come on, the Master's probably waiting."
Hana clutched her forehead. "Ouch," she murmured.
"Sorry!" Ven called from across the field, where he was still trying to get an Aero through an ice ring suspended in midair. It had bounced off the solid hoop, gone astray, and smacked into Hana, knocking her a few feet away.
They were practicing magic control, trying to get different spells to go to and hit in precise locations. Ven had been struggling with the ring challenge all morning. Aqua was four levels ahead, learning combat magic alongside Terra from their teacher. Hana tapped her foot impatiently, waiting for Ven to get his spell through the hoop so she could have her turn.
"Okay, Aero isn't working well, let's try-" Ven held his Keyblade up in the air. "Blizzard!" A small icy sphere burst from the tip of the blade before clanging into the ring and tipping through it. "Yeah!" He jogged over to the next challenge, infusing different spells with Aero to make elemental tornadoes.
Hana pointed Flame Dancer at the hoop and muttered "Fire." A small circle of flame shot directly through without so much as touching the ring and she walked casually over to Ven.
He was doing fine with the tornadoes themselves, his chosen element being wind, but couldn't seem to get other spells to fuse with them. Hana tugged on his sleeve. He turned to her curiously, his twister disappearing with a burst of air. "Huh?"
She pointed to their two weapons. "Together," she whispered.
Ven looked down at Wayward Wind, then at Hana's blade. He nodded once. "Okay."
The duo raised their Keyblades together, letting the tips touch.
"Aero!"
"Fire."
A red flaming whirlwind sputtered into existence, twirling across the ground without burning the grass. Ven grabbed Hana's hand in excitement and squeezed. Then, looking down at their intertwined fingers, he dropped her hand, face turning slightly pink.
"We-" he cleared his throat awkwardly. "We did it."
She nodded, looking away quickly to watch Terra and Aqua. The two older apprentices stood a few feet away from each other, mumbling incantations. A Thunder spell rained down over Aqua's head, but she brought up her Reflect barrier to block it. She held out her Rainfell and an orb of blue light gathered at the tip. Hana realized it was a giant bubble and dozens of smaller bubbles broke off to chase Terra around. He blocked and dodged her Bubble Blaster attack until her large bubble dispersed.
Hana clutched at Ven's jacket, tugging him away from the fight to do their next training exercise. He turned to look at the moving targets in the trees. It was a simple enough task: hit all the 'evil' targets without burning the forest to the ground or 'hurting the innocents'.
Ven bit his lip and gripped his blade hilt with both hands for maximum control. Using Blizzard spells, he knocked over three monsters, but also accidentally hit an old woman. Hana stifled a laugh. "Poor grandmother," she murmured.
He looked at the hole his ice block had made in the old lady's chest and frowned. But a moment later, he was cracking up alongside Hana. "Oops," he said, wiping a laughter tear from his eye.
'Whump.'
Ven turned and saw Hana sprawled on the ground, unmoving. "You don't have to pretend to be the dead lady!" he joked.
Her shoulders heaved, and a small cry escaped her lips. "Hana?" Ven crouched down and placed a hand on her arm. "Are you okay?" Hana moaned. Ven struggled to get the girl to at least a sitting position.
She clutched at her head, curling into a ball. "I-I can't- there are too many-"
Ven put his hands on her shoulders and held her upright. "Hana, what's wrong? You can't what? There's too many what?" Concern clouded his eyes as pain twisted across her face.
Her eyes closed and she wound her fingers tighter into her hair. "Aaaggghhhh!"
"Hana!"
Hana stood clutching her Keyblade as an adult woman watched from a distance. She spun, lunged, and twirled her blade in time to the music in her head, decapitating five straw dummies in a matter of seconds.
"Firaga."
A small projectile shot towards her and she quickly spun on her heel. "Reflect!" A pink spherical barrier blocked the fireball from reaching her and she panted with exhaustion and relief.
"I did it!" she crowed in happiness. "Did you see? I finally learned how to use my barrier!"
The woman came over and patted her on the head. "Very good Hana. Your training is coming along wonderfully."
"Hehe," Hana smiled up at her mentor with twinkling eyes. "Thank you so much for teaching me!"
The woman nodded. "Next we're going to learn-" her teacher's mouth continued to move, but Hana could hear no sound.
"What?"
The older female opened her mouth to say something else, but the voice that came out was not her own. "Awake child, and face your destiny."
"...Master...Yuna..." Hana mumbled in her sleep. She rubbed her eyes, only to spot Ven nodding off in her desk chair, which had been pulled over to her bed. "Ven?"
He shot up in surprise. "Never fight Terra unless you want bruises!" he shouted, startled. Hana put her hand over her mouth to keep from laughing. "Huh? Oh! You're awake!"
She sat up, surprised that she was in her room. "How long?"
Ventus scratched his head. "How long...were you asleep?" Hana nodded. "Two days. Terra and Aqua are out on a training mission, but I finished early, so I came to check on you."
Hana stood slowly, her joints stiff from disuse. "That was kind. Thanks."
He scratched the back of his head. "No problem. Anyway, the two of them won't be back until almost midnight, so we're having dinner alone tonight."
"Okay," she nodded, walking out into the hall and stumbling a bit before Ven caught her.
"Whoa, you okay?"
"I'm fine."
Ven pushed the floral centerpiece off to one side of the long wooden table so he and Hana, who was sitting on the opposite side, could see each other. "So, do you like it here so far?"
"Yes. It's very peaceful in this world," she replied, spinning her fork to get some spaghetti onto it. "I'll never know how you don't manage to get lost in this enormous castle though."
He laughed. "Lots of practice. Don't worry, I can show you anywhere you need to get to."
"Thank you," she nodded, taking a sip of her water. "That's very sweet to offer."
"I couldn't help but notice..." Ven began somewhat awkwardly, "but you don't talk very much."
Hana's cheeks flushed pink. "I'm...a naturally quiet person. Until I really get to know someone, that is," she whispered.
"Get to know me!" he said cheerfully. "I'm loads of fun!"
She giggled. "So I've noticed."
The two of them ate their meal together, talking and laughing the whole night long.
Later, back in bed, Hana thought about her strange vision. 'That woman...was my previous Master. I had forgotten everything when I came here. But...why did that specific memory come back? Why now? Is it because I'm training again?' Or was it the more impossible... 'Is it because of Ventus?' Could this other young boy possibly be the connection to her lost memories? She shook her head. "No. That's just silly.'
Yay! I finally got this chapter done! You would not believe how many times I edited and changed this. Hope you enjoyed!
Congratulations to Howlingwolf26 for spotting my little game last chapter! Yes, I did somewhat base that part off of Xion in 358/2. But it was mostly because Hana is a shy person, and being around a cutie like Ven makes her even more tongue-tied. Cookie for you Howlingwolf!
Please review! It makes me ever so happy! And if you have chapter ideas/suggestions, I would love to hear them. I would be honored to use some of you guys' ideas. (mostly because I have a huge block right now. Not a single idea for chapter four. None, nada, zip, zilch, zero.)
