I don't own anything associated with Kingdom Hearts. It belongs to Square Enix/Disney.

Under the Stars

Aqua and Terra stood outside, staring at the massive tree before them. It rose high above them, the tip disappearing into the blinding light of the sun. The smooth bark was dark and glistened slightly, as if it had just endured a rainstorm.

"Terra," Aqua said, "are you sure about this?"

Terra nodded absently. "It's going to be great!" he crowed. "This is so much better than that other tree."

"Where does it end?" she asked.

"I don't know." He glanced sideways at her and gave her a reassuring smile. "Guess we'll find out."

With that last declaration, Terra leapt at the tree. He easily clambered onto the first branch, but Aqua required a little more work to get up there. Eventually, he ended up hauling her up, and then they began to climb in earnest.

Aqua's fear died the higher they got, until she was consumed by the same excitement that spurred Terra on. Soon, branches were being swapped so quickly it was a blur, and with each minute that passed, they lingered a little farther from the tree's sturdy trunk. Terra, higher up than her, came across a cluster of pinecones and with a mischievous grin, he plucked one from the rest.

Aqua yelped as the first pinecone collided with her head. "Terra!"

"Aw, come on," he jeered, bouncing a cone on the flat of his palm. "It doesn't hurt that much. See?"

Just to prove his point, he threw a pinecone in the air and let it drop on his head. The next one he tossed at Aqua.

"Stop it!"

Terra rolled his eyes. "You're such a baby," he said, but he did stop.

Sulking, Aqua turned her eyes to the horizon, immediately brightening up when she saw what was there. "Terra look, a rainbow!"

"Hmm?" Terra twisted around, mouthing forming an 'o' as he saw she was right. "Awesome!"

"There's treasure at the end of a rainbow," Aqua said.

"Yeah, I heard that, too."

Terra and Aqua looked at each other, and then started to climb down the tree again.

After all, the only thing better than climbing stuff were shiny things.

"It was this way!" Terra said, pushing through branches and foliage as he hunted down the elusive end of the rainbow. Aqua was close behind, nibbling on her thumb. They pushed through one last sheet of greenery and then tumbled out into a glade. It wasn't terribly big, smaller than the training fields in fact, but unlike them, it was filled with white and pink flowers.

"They're so pretty!" Aqua said, falling to her knees so that she could grab some. The petals left pink and white smears on her hands and giggling, she tried to put some in Terra's hair.

"Hey, quit it!" He swatted her hand away. "That's a girl colour."

Aqua scowled. "I bet Ven won't care," she sniffed. "I'm going to give them to him."

With a bunch of flowers in her hand, she turned towards the woods as if she was going to run back to Ven right then and there. But Terra's hand clamped down on her wrist so quickly that he didn't even realize he had moved.

"Terra?" She looked at him uncertainly, sensing the tension in the air.

Terra blinked. He wasn't sure why he had done that. There was nothing wrong with her giving flowers to Ven . . . only he just really, really didn't like that idea. Somewhere in the back of his mind, there was a spark, briefly reviving a life he had since discarded. But then that was swept away and with a confused shake of his head, he let her go.

"I don't want you to give them to him," he muttered.

"Why not?"

"Because!" He stomped his foot. "You don't have to give them to him. You can give them to me."

"But you don't want them," Aqua said.

Terra replied, "I just don't want them in my hair."

Aqua still didn't seem to understand what was going on but with a shrug, she held the flowers out to him. Terra took them carefully, staring at them afterwards in bafflement. Why had he wanted these again?

"Do you think Vanitas would like some?" she suddenly asked.

Terra held back a growl. He didn't want her giving them to him either. But on the other hand, he knew Vanitas definitely didn't want any . . .

Which is why he said, "You should leave them in his room as a surprise. But you'll need a lot more than that."

Without a second thought, he began plucking more flowers to place in Vanitas' room. When he ran out of hands, he started stuffing them down his shirt, oblivious to how they were making his chest a patchwork of white and pink.

"And we need some for the Master!" Aqua announced.

"Okay." Surprisingly, the aggressive reaction he had towards Aqua giving them to Ven or Vanitas didn't apply to the Master. Instead, he readily put more in his shirt.

Sometime later, he was interrupted in his gathering by Aqua again. She was pointing up at the sky, standing on her tiptoes. The sun hadn't quite set yet, but it was in the process of, and there were already a few stars in the sky. Unconsciously, Terra stepped forwards so that he was right under them.

"Whoa . . ."

"They're even prettier than the rainbow!" Aqua said.

Oh yeah, the rainbow. They'd forgotten about that. But it didn't matter much, as he agreed with her. There was something special, something brilliant about the stars that the rainbow lacked. He fell back onto his back, joining Aqua who was already on the ground. Side by side, they watched the stars together.

"Master says stars are really the hearts of other worlds," Terra said.

"But there's so many of them," Aqua said.

"Yeah, there's lots of worlds out there." He turned his head, grinning at her. "And I'm going to explore them all."

She looked back at him, a crestfallen expression on her face. "By yourself?"

Immediately, he said, "You're coming, too."

Aqua's face didn't change. "But you're older than me. You'll be a Master before I will."

"Then I'll wait for you," Terra said, taking her hand within his own. "We'll explore the worlds together, I promise."

Aqua smiled at him. "Promise?"

He smiled back. "Promise."

Guess which shipping I support.

Next Chapter: It's nighttime, and Terra and Aqua have yet to return home...