Ven had been living with Terra, Aqua and Master Eraqus for a few weeks now. And each night, the same series of events occurred.
First.
Aqua would tuck Ven into bed. "Alright, are you comfortable?" she would ask.
"Yeah, sure," Ven would reply.
"And you're going to stay here in your room and sleep, right?"
He would refuse to answer that question.
"Ven. You're a big boy. You need to stay in your room, okay?"
The kid would shrug. Aqua would prop his window open slightly, to allow for the breeze to drift in. She would then turn on the nightlight, turn off the overhead lights, and sit on the edge of his bed.
"Go away," Ven would demand.
"Promise me that you're not going to run to Terra's room as soon as I leave?"
Ven would refuse to reply.
Second.
Eventually, Ven would fall asleep. Aqua would very, very carefully tiptoe away from the room, taking absolute care to not awaken the boy.
Third.
Sometime late at night, Ven would awake. Either he had a bad dream, or he needed to pee, or maybe a noise roused him. Regardless, once he woke up, (and peed if he needed to), he couldn't get back to sleep. He would lay helplessly in bed for about ten to fifteen minutes, breathing rapidly. Sometimes he would stare out of the window and look at the stars.
Fourth.
Ven would get up and go to Terra's room. If the door was open, he'd walk right in and jump into Terra's bed. If the door was locked, he'd bang on it and shout, "TERRA! TERRA!" until Terra lost his cool and opened the door. "WHAT?!" Terra would yell.
"I can't get to sleep," Ven would whine.
And Terra would be super pissed.
Fifth, Version A.
Yet, sometimes Terra would feel sympathy for Ven and allow Ven to sleep with him. And that would be the end of it.
Fifth, Version B.
Sometimes Terra would take Ven back to Ven's room, and stay with him until Ven fell asleep again. Unfortunately, Ven always woke later in the night. So the cycle would repeat at step three, until Terra finally let Ven sleep with him or Terra got so tired that he fell asleep in Ven's room.
Fifth, Version C.
Sometimes when the cycle started to loop, meaning that Ven continuously kept coming back to Terra that night, Terra would become incredibly frustrated. Instead of taking Ven back to Ven's room or allowing Ven to sleep with him, he'd take Ven to Aqua's room. If Ven ended up in Aqua's room, she would allow him to sleep in her bed with her. Either way, Ven would spend the night with Aqua or Terra.
And that had occurred EVERY NIGHT since he had first awoken from his coma-like state. Ven seemed no worse for the wear, because every morning he would wake up, well rested, at sunrise.
But Terra was losing sleep, and getting really annoyed, especially since Master Eraqus decided to start being more serious about their training. Therefore, the young man took action one Saturday morning.
That morning, after Aqua had given Ven a bowl of cereal and sat him down in front of the television so that he could watch cartoons, Terra pulled her aside and said, "We really need to do something about Ven's sleeping habits."
Aqua defended Ven. "Give him a break. Heaven knows what he's been through in his short life."
Rolling his eyes, Terra replied, "I don't care what he's been through. I haven't gotten a good night's sleep in weeks."
"That's a shitty thing to say, Terra! Don't you listen to what he says in his sleep in the middle of the night?"
"No…" He cringed. "Do you?"
"Yeah, he talks in his sleep a lot."
"That's kind of creepy Aqua."
Blushing, Aqua crossed her arms in front of her chest. "I noticed because he always tosses and turns like he's having a nightmare. And he keeps saying things like, 'Don't hurt me,' or 'I'm scared,' or 'No one loves me.' So I think that he needs someone to comfort him, or else he can't get to sleep."
"Well if you are willing to do it, you should make him stop bothering me," Terra begged.
"Why does it bother you so much?"
"He kicks in his sleep! And he rolls over and steals the blankets. Yet somehow, the next morning, he's always sprawled out on top of me, and he's heavier than he looks. And once he was sleeping upside down, so I woke up with his butt in my face. And he farted!"
A grin spread across Aqua's face. Terra groaned. "It's not funny Aqua. His farts stink."
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry," she replied, fighting back her laughter. She couldn't help it though, and broke down into a fit of giggles. Terra slumped forward. "Aqua," he whined, "he's seriously driving me insane. I feel like I'm going to kick him in the face the next time he tries this shit. Doesn't it bother you?"
"Not at all. I sleep in weird positions too. And when I was younger, I used to sleep in my older brother's room all the time. I was terrified of the dark, so he would hug me and tell me that everything would be okay. I feel like I'm doing the same thing for Ven."
"That's sweet. But at a point you grew out of that, right?"
"Well," Aqua said as she looked upwards, trying to recall the situation, "the only reason I started sleeping in my own room is because my brother went to boarding school, when he was fifteen and I was ten."
"That gives me an idea," Terra said as he concocted a plan.
So that night, it was business as usual. Aqua pampered Ven and coaxed him to sleep. About an hour after she left, Ven awoke, and made his way to Terra's room. The door was wide open today, so Ven walked inside and jumped onto the bed…
…only to realize that Terra wasn't in the room. Sitting up, Ven looked to his left and right. "Terra?" Ven spoke up. No answer. Frowning, Ven laid down for about twenty minutes, waiting for Terra to appear. "Terra?" the boy called out once again. "Terrrrraaaa!"
Ven jumped out of bed. Dragging his blankets along with him, Ven roamed the hallways, shouting, "TERRA! TERRA!" No response. So Ven checked each bedroom in the palace. Then he wandered around, down the stairs, into the throne room, outside, into the courtyard and finally made his way up to the summit of the mountain.
No Terra.
Distraught, Ven made his way back to Terra's room. Nope. Still no Terra.
So Ven hurried to Aqua's room. Banging on the door, he shouted, "AQUA! AQUA!" Half-awake, dressed in an oversized shirt, and her hair wrapped up in a bonnet, Aqua opened the door. "Hm? What?" She wiped the sleep from her eyes and yawned.
"Terra is missing!" declared Ven.
"He's probably pooping or something. You can stay here if you want."
"No! I want Terra! I looked everywhere and I can't find him."
"Are you sure? Maybe you just missed him. If you go back to the room and wait for him, he might show up." Ven gave her the evil eye, as if she had just suggested the dumbest solution ever. She concluded, "I don't know what you want me to do about it Ven. Do you want me to go to his room and wait with you?"
Ven shrugged. The two awkwardly stood at Aqua's door for a minute. "Fine," he agreed.
So Aqua tucked Ven into Terra's bed, and stayed with him until he fell asleep. Aqua ended up falling asleep too.
The next morning, Terra entered into his room to see Ven sleeping, spread out like a starfish, and Aqua sleeping, wrapped around Ven like a cooked shrimp.
Terra, quite amused, said to himself, "They do sleep weird." Aloud, he shouted, "WAKE UP," as he shook them. Ven awoke first, shouting, "Master! Don't leave me!" He looked around rapidly, as if to regain his bearings. "Terra!" Ven shouted as he crawled out from under Aqua. She fell off of the bed, and that woke her up with a start. She shouted, "Rio, don't leave me!" For a moment, she too, needed to regain her bearings. "Where am I?"
Ven, meanwhile, clung to Terra. "Where did you go last night?"
Terra sternly told him, "I'm not telling you. It's about time that you learned to sleep in your own room, by yourself. So I'm going to force you to do that."
"But Terra!" whimpered Ven.
"I'm serious Ven."
Aqua, still groggy, stood up and mumbled, "This isn't my room." And she staggered away.
The following evening, Ven stalked Terra. The latter was sitting on a couch in the living room, playing with his phone, while the former hid behind the doorway and watched. Ven was so focused on Terra, that he didn't notice when Aqua snuck up behind him and said, "Time for bed, Ven."
Briefly, Ven turned his head to say, "Go away." Upon returning his attention to the living room, Terra had disappeared. Ven dropped to his knees. "What?! Where'd he go?" Turning to Aqua, he shouted, "He escaped because of you!"
"Escaped? Were you two playing hide-and-seek or something?"
"No!" With a groan, Ven complained, "Ugh, you are so stupid."
"Get up and get ready for bed," she told him as she dragged him away.
Once again, Aqua stayed in Ven's room while waiting for him to fall asleep. She was reading a book. He laid in bed, watching her. He asked, "Why do you always do this?"
Aqua shrugged. "I don't have anything better to do." She turned a page in her book.
"Stupid Aqua," he grumbled. But, before he knew it, Ven fell asleep. And before he knew it, he woke up again with a start. The room was dimly lit by his nightlight and the glittering moon outside. He was alone. Rolling over, Ven sat there in silence, saying to himself, "Just go back to sleep, Ventus." But he couldn't. His eyes wouldn't stay closed. His mind raced about nothing in particular, and his heart rate jumped up. He felt a dreadful sort of suspense, as if something bad, like, really, really bad, were about to happen. Any moment now.
His whole body tensed, and he started to breathe rapidly. His chest ached. Had his heartbeat always been this loud? He felt like his heart would explode from his chest any moment now. He felt like he was seriously going to die.
Liquid misery started to stream down his cheeks. "Just go to sleep Ventus," he begged himself in between shallow gasps of air. He grasped at his chest. "Why can't I go to sleep? Why does this keep happening? Every night, it happens. Every night, I can't go to sleep." And he cried silently.
But crying didn't help.
Once he couldn't stand that feeling anymore, Ven got up, and hiked over to Terra's room. Again, it was empty. And again, he futilely waited for Terra to return. And again, when he realized that Terra wasn't coming back, Ven went to Aqua's room.
"AQUA! AQUA! AQUA!" Ven shouted.
She answered her door. "Huh?"
Ven said nothing, yet he was visibly trembling, and hyperventilating. She beckoned him inside. "Come on."
So he joined her in her bed. Reaching out to stroke his hair, she said, "It's okay. I'm here. You're safe."
He nodded.
Aqua laid awake, watching him. Slowly, his breathing calmed down. His heart quieted. His cheeks reddened. "Stop staring," Ven told her, pouting.
"When I was your age," she began, "I hated sleeping by myself too. But my big brother left, so I had no choice. One thing that helped me, though, is that I had a stuffed elephant doll named Zoe. She was as big as I was and I hugged her all night long."
"That sounds dumb," said Ven.
"Yeah, it was." She laughed quietly. "She was just a doll, but she was always smiling at me. I would tell her my problems, and I would pretend that she could listen. That way, I didn't feel so alone… Now that I think about it, when I was a little girl, I wasn't afraid of the dark. I was afraid of being alone."
They were quiet for a moment. Aqua began to close her eyes and drift off to sleep. But Ven mumbled, "Aqua?"
"Hmm?"
"Can I have it?"
"Have what?"
"Zoe."
Aqua stood up. "I don't have Zoe with me anymore, because my mom set all my things on fire one day when she was mad at me. But, I have a Mizz Piggy doll that I stole from Master Eraqus." She rummaged through a treasure chest that was tucked in a corner of her room. "Don't worry I washed it really well." And she handed it to Ven.
"Mizz Piggy?" repeated the boy as he embraced the doll. It was about the size of a pillow, and fluffy. Like, really, really fluffy. Ven felt like he was holding a cloud.
"Yeah. She's a pig with a wig. She has a lot of class and sass."
Ven cuddled with the doll. "That's stupid."
And he fell asleep.
The following night, after Aqua tucked Ven and Mizz Piggy into bed, he fell asleep much quicker. She then walked down the hall, up a few flights of stairs, and all the way to the attic, where Terra was camping out in a makeshift bed. She sat down beside him and said, "I think he'll sleep through the night this time."
Terra yawned. "I hope so. Staying here is worse than sleeping with Ven." Sitting up, he said, "We're really good at this bad-cop/good-cop thing. We'd probably be super awesome parents in the future."
Aqua laughed. "I think we're pretty good parents right now, even though we didn't sign up to raise a kid. Master Eraqus did."
Terra groaned and laid back. "That lazy old man dumps all his chores on us."
"Yeah. Well I'm gonna go back to my room in case he comes knocking."
"Alright. See you tomorrow."
But Ven stayed in his room the whole night. And the rest of the nights after that.
