A/N: Hey guys! Sakura088 here. I am so, so sorry for the huge delay between updates! College has started for me, and that means that I have two essays due a week for my Expos class. Which means very limited time for me to write and such. MeNerf is busy with high school, so she has no time either. But now I have a new netbook, which means that I can write and update between classes. Which is awesome! Thank you all so much for being so patient with us, and for sticking with us. Thanks so much to GingerSnapsBack, TalkativeWriter4, TerraForceXIII, and MonMonCandie for reviewing. You guys keep us going! So, on to the next chapter!
100 TVAV Moments Gone Wrong- Theme 4- Shop
"Did we really have to get up this early?" A black haired boy asked his two companions, a scowl on his face. Usually, on training days, he had to be up by seven o'clock. But a week ago, a certain brunette had informed him that he would have to give up his sleep for one day. And, to make it even better, he couldn't even sneak away to get some sleep, because they were currently off world. Why was all of this happening? Two words. Aqua's birthday.
Terra had spent the month planning this day, making sure that they would be able to leave without the lilac haired girl's knowledge. He had even gained permission from Master Eraqus to avoid training for a day. And why? One word. Shopping.
That one word was the bane of Vanitas's existence. And now, here he was, walking along a dirt path through a market, God knows where, with a very eager Ventus next to him. Not to mention the fact that Aqua was going to kill them when they got home because they had left her alone to be the victim of Master Eraqus during training. Because she wouldn't get the day off. All in all, he was not a very happy camper.
"Yes. We did have to get up this early, Vanitas." Terra answered him quietly, smiling to himself. "You know how early Aqua wakes up on training days." Vanitas scowled. Stupid Aqua and her morning runs.
'Just because she likes walking up at the crack of dawn…' he thought quietly to himself, rubbing his face tiredly.
"Ah, c'mon, Vanitas!" Ven yelled loudly in his ear. "When do we ever get to go off world without a mission? And on a day that we're supposed to be training." Said black haired boy reached out and pushed Ven away, causing the blonde to stumble and nearly fall. Terra simply laughed, and this caused the other two boys to stare, watching as he slowly walked away from them. The two shared a glance. Terra was not a morning person. What was going on here?
In all reality, it was Terra's favorite part of the year. It was early spring, and the days were absolutely gorgeous. There was a gentle, warm breeze, the sun was shining brightly, and flowers had popped up out of nowhere. But the main reason he loved this season was because this was when he had met Aqua.
It had been a few days after her birthday, actually, and he and Master Eraqus had been searching for a new apprentice. So today, he had two missions. One, to find her a gift for her birthday. Two, to find her a gift for their twelve year friendship anniversary. So, even though he was shopping, it was a very good day.
Ven walked wearily after Terra. They had spent the past few hours looking for a present for Aqua. But no matter where they went, nothing had seemed good enough for their lilac haired friend. Vanitas was walking next to Ven, looking quite irritated, while Terra was walking ahead of them, somehow still in a great mood. It was then that Ven thought he had found the Holy Grail.
"Terra!" he called after the brunette. "Book store!" Terra quickly turned around and walked back to where the two had stopped.
"Great catch, Ven." He praised the young blonde. "Let's go in." It took a bit of shoving to get Vanitas, who was just about done with everything, to go in. The three boys walked between the shelves, looking for a book that they knew that Aqua would read. They had just reached the middle of the store when they heard a voice shout something out. Ven made it clear quite quickly what it was.
"Story time!" he yelled before he grabbed Vanitas's hand and ran off with him. Terra followed them with a small sigh, and before too long, found himself in the children's section. There was a woman in the middle, and she smiled at Ven as he came running up. Terra was assuming she was the story teller.
Ven quickly plopped down in front of her on the carpet, pulling Vanitas down with him. No sooner had they sat down when a mob of children came running up and tackled Vanitas, all of them yelling about something.
"Ooooh, you have such pretty eyes!" one of the small children commented about Vanitas as she sat down on his lap.
"And your hair is so cool!" another stated before grabbing onto his arm. Vanitas narrowed his eyes, and looked over to see Terra leaning against a book case, laughing.
"Terra, what the he-"he was quickly stopped from finishing his sentence by Terra's hand.
"Watch your language." The older teen told him, a serious look now crossing his face. "You're around children. At home is one thing. Not here." He began to stand up, but was quickly pulled back down by the younger teen.
"You are not leaving. If I'm stuck here, so are you."
"Not a chance." Terra replied, easily escaping thanks to the children clinging to Vanitas. "Besides, I have something that I have to get. Let me know how story time goes, though." And with that said, he was gone.
"Alright, children, let's begin. Once upon a time, in a faraway land…" the story teller began. The children, including Ven, cheered. Vanitas just groaned.
It was around four o'clock when the three boys arrived home to the Land of Departure. They had successfully completed their mission of finding Aqua a birthday present, which they each hid in their rooms. But there was one thing that had been off. They couldn't find Aqua anywhere.
Terra had peeked into Aqua's room, which he should have known not to enter by now, only to find it empty. Ven had checked the kitchen to find that dinner had not even been started yet. Vanitas checked the library, but not a book was out of place. Terra was the one to eventually find her.
"Aqua?" he asked hesitantly. The lilac haired girl was curled up in one of the arm chairs in the living room, and appeared to be fast asleep.
"Go away." She replied, her voice soft and exhausted. Her eyes never opened. Terra immediately walked over to the chair and kneeled down next to it.
"Aqua, are you okay?" he asked, concern lacing his voice. He received only a soft moan in response, so he reached out and gently shook her arm. Aqua slowly opened her eyes, and blearily looked at him.
"Master Eraqus decided that we should work on strength training today. And I was the only one here, so…" her voice trailed off as her eyes fell closed once again. Terra immediately felt guilty. The Master had not told him what he was planning on working on. If he had, he would have stayed home.
"I'm sorry, Aqua." He told her sincerely. "If I had known…"
"No, no, it's okay." She responded, her voice slurring from exhaustion. "It was a good learning experience…"
"…You're a horrible liar, Aqua."
"I know." It was at that moment that Ven decided to make his appearance.
"Hey Aqua! Terra found you! Hey Vanitas, she's in the living room!" Ven yelled loudly down the hall, and it was only a matter of seconds before the black haired boy came through the doorway. Terra saw Aqua flinch from the sudden loud noises.
"Ven, inside voice please." He asked the blonde, turning to look at him.
"You could have said to just be quite. I'm not a kid anymore." Ven answered back, rubbing the back of his head.
"Says the child who ran to hear story time." Vanitas shot back before he flopped down onto the couch.
"Hey, that was a very good story!"
"Easy for you to say, you didn't have small children crawling all over you the whole entire time!"
"Oh, don't lie, you know that you loved it. You just-"Both boys stopped their rant when they heard a quite groan coming from the direction of the chair. Terra immediately turned back to Aqua, who was, for some reason, trying to get up.
"Hey! I don't think so, Aqua. Sit back down." He told her sternly, gently pushing her to do just that.
"But dinner-"she started weakly, not fighting him in the least.
"I'll cook dinner tonight. You can take a nap or something. As long as it involves you staying in this seat." He replied. Aqua nodded her head slowly, a small, hesitant smile making its way onto her lips. A few minutes later, her eyes were closed, and her breathing had evened out. She was asleep. Terra turned to look at the other two boys in the room.
"If you two are going to fight, take it somewhere else." He whispered to the two. "You can put the T.V. on if you're going to be civil, but make sure that it stays low." Both nodded their heads before Ven sat down next to Vanitas. The black haired boy turned the television on, and for the first time, there was no arguing about what they were going to watch.
Terra turned to look back at Aqua, and looked around the room for her blanket. It was beginning to get chilly, and she already looked so frail. It wasn't long before he realized that it wasn't in the room, so he quickly grabbed his own. He gently draped it over her small body, and watched as she snuggled down deeper into the cushion. A small smile broke across his face, and his eyes softened.
"Alright." He spoke again to the two other teens in the room as he turned around. "Stay quite or I'll make you." The two nodded and watched as the brunette walked towards the kitchen.
"So. Time to make another plan?" Ven whispered to Vanitas. The black haired boy stared at their lilac haired friend as she slept under Terra's brown blanket.
"Oh yeah. Definitely time for another plan."
A/N: So, there it is! Another chapter finally complete! I really hope that you guys enjoyed it, it was really fun to write. I'll try to make sure that there's at least one update per week, or maybe more. It depends on free time and homework. But I have three hour gaps between classes, so I'll hesitantly say more than once a week. And i definitely went over my self set word limit. Oh well, it's okay. This challenge doesn't have a word limit. And for those of you still waiting for the challenge to be posted up, I'm working really hard on it. I have to get MeNerf to sit her butt down so we can talk about it...
*Oh! Something to ask you guys. During Algebra the other day, I was multi-tasking and writing a future chapter for this fic, playing around with some ideas. In later chapters, you're going to get to read excerpts from Terra and Aqua's diary/journal. So I had the idea of writing those excerpts out in a separate fic, because for some reason, the idea of writing a fic with little Aqua and Terra sounds like a really fun one. And of course Ven would be in there later. It would also explain a whole lot why Terra treats Aqua the way he does in future chapters, and vice versa. So…. Would you want to read it? It wouldn't be collaboration, I'd be the only one working on it. So let me know what you think of the idea in a review or a PM. I would love to hear your opinion. If you guys like the idea, I could have it posted by the end of the week. *
So, thanks once again for reading, and I really hoped that you enjoyed it. I know that I had fun writing it. So, please leave a review, it keeps me going, and it really makes my day! =D I can't promise an update during the week, but I can shoot for one on the weekend. And hopefully MeNerf won't be busy so she can type something up too. Thanks for being patient! You guys are awesome!