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

Abandoned

Ven returned later that afternoon. He slipped by unnoticed, so that Terra only realized his training was done when he glimpsed inside the younger boy's room. Ven was sitting up on his bed, eyes trained on his left arm, his right hand hovering above it. The sight was strange to Terra's eyes so, naturally, he had to check it out.

Ven jumped and hid his left arm behind his body, but not quick enough to hide the reason from Terra.

"Whoa!" Terra said, rushing over to Ven. He yanked the arm back out into the open, revealing the open wound upon it for all to see. "How did this happen?"

"Training," Ven said dully.

Terra raised an eyebrow. "Really? I don't think Aqua would abandon you while you were still bleeding."

"I asked her not to heal it," Ven said. "I wanted to do it myself."

The next logical response was that there was no way Aqua wouldn't be hovering over his shoulder to make sure he did it right, but Terra decided to play along. "Okay. Why?"

Ven's eyes grew watery. "I wanted to stop being so weak."

No. No. Seriously, why did everything need to start happening now? "Ven, you are not weak," Terra said.

"Yes, I am!" Ven shouted. "I can't fight, or spar with you guys unless you hold back; Master won't let me go to different worlds; and I can't even heal myself."

Ven shook his incriminating arm in front of Terra's face. Terra merely grabbed it, gently, and forced it down until it was at Ven's chest level.

"Okay," Terra said, "put your hand over the wound."

Ven did so warily, as if it was going to electrocute him.

"Now, say Cure."

"Cure," Ven mumbled.

Nothing happened, and the younger boy started to work himself into a frenzy again. "See, Terra? I can't do it; I'm too-"

Terra put his hand over Ven's mouth. He stared deep into the other's blue eyes, and softly said, "Try it again. Concentrate."

Ven sullenly did as he was told. Again, nothing happened.

"You have to mean it, Ven," Terra said. "You got to say it with confidence."

Ven sighed. "Cure," he said firmly.

The edge of the wound began to close, halving the size of the wound before the magic ceased.

"See?" Terra rubbed Ven's back, almost able to feel the boy quivering with excitement. Within a couple more tries, the wound had closed completely.

Ven laid back, a great whoosh of breath escaping him. "Thanks, Terra. That really helped."

"No problem. Ven, just remember this: just because you aren't as strong as us doesn't make you weak."

The light in his eyes dimmed. "Yeah . . ."

Terra frowned. Maybe it was best to change the topic. "There's something I need to talk to you about."

"Yeah?" Ven's shoulders lifted off the ground.

Terra closed his eyes. "It's about Aqua."

Ven swiftly adopted a poker face. "Do you know what's wrong with her?"

"I think so."

Gees, I wonder how Ven got it into his head that he was weak!