Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts.
A note for ccsakura21: What I meant by Light becoming Darkness in the last chapter was that the person's intents with their Light and then if their good heart turned bad, then it would turn into Darkness, even if they still used the power of Light. Sorry if I wasn't too clear on that.
Chapter 3 – A Date
Over the next few days, Terra spent a majority of his time wondering what Aqua possibly meant about figuring out Master Eraqus's words about the heart on his own. The girl sometimes seemed wiser than her male companion, but this was possibly because she was a more intent listener.
Aqua was not giving up the secrets of what she understood though. Terra tried to get it out of her a couple more times, but Aqua's lips were sealed.
During training over the next few days, Terra and Aqua sparred one-on-one. Eraqus oversaw their battles to make sure neither of his apprentices did serious harm to each other.
Terra often bested Aqua in their mock battles. He'd been an apprentice longer, but Aqua's magic skills outdid her friend in their magic battles. Terra was a great soldier-in-the-makings, as many of the king's guards and soldiers said. Many magicians envied Aqua's prodigious magical skills.
The prince occasionally came to watch the Keyblade Masters-in-training practice. Every time he did, he never took his eyes off Aqua, something that Terra noted. It was something that also greatly annoyed him. Mere sight of Caelum tended to annoy him.
Aqua turned a blind eye to Terra's annoyed opinion of Caelum. Truth be told, she was uncomfortable around the prince, but at least she was polite. Terra was openly hostile.
But hostility aside, Terra made sure that he kept himself distracted from thoughts of the prince by spending time with Aqua.
On Saturday, Terra woke up midmorning to look for his friend. He found her playing in the fountain in the central courtyard. She was using magic to levitate an orb of water with a pair of small fish floating inside. They swam around inspecting their floating bubble. Aqua was having too much fun to notice Terra's approach.
"What's up?" he asked. Aqua yelped and her water bubble dropped back into the pool. She sighed before standing up and punching Terra's arm.
"What was that for?" she demanded.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you!" Terra threw his arms up in defense as Aqua hailed him with punches. "Aqua! Aqua! STOP!" he begged. "I just wanted to ask if you wanted to do anything today! ACK! STOP!"
Aqua wasn't as strong as Terra, something he needed to be in order to lift that giant Keyblade of his, but she was driving him crazy with her barrage of punches. He just prayed she wouldn't kick his sensitive spot.
"Magic word!" she exclaimed.
"Say what?"
"Say it!"
"Magic word?"
"NO! Say the magic word!"
"Fine! Please!"
"Okay." She instantly stopped. "Now, why did you do that?"
"I just wanted your attention," Terra explained. He dusted himself off and looked at Aqua's half impatient-half amused expression.
"Well, you have it," she said. "What did you need?"
"I already told you while you tried to pummel me into submission," Terra huffed. "I wanted to know if you wanted to do something today."
"Oh yeah, you asked me that a few days ago," Aqua remembered. "Did you have anything in mind?" She crossed her arms behind her back.
"Maybe we could go to the beach? I mean, it's a nice day out."
"It is," Aqua mused. "But we go to the beach a lot."
"Then, how about we just go into town? We could get ice cream or something?"
Aqua brightened up at that idea. She loved Sea-Salt Ice Cream very much and never liked passing up an opportunity to have some.
"Sure!" she exclaimed. "But can we avoid taking bodyguards this time?"
"No problem," Terra agreed. "Get your munny and we'll take the secret passage. But first…"
"What?" Aqua was eying the mischievous glint in Terra's eyes.
"Race ya through the throne room!"
"You're on!" Aqua's eyes caught the same wild glint as Terra took off. "No fair! No head starts!"
"You snooze, you lose!" Terra bellowed back.
The duo ran through the throne room like cheetahs and split at Aqua's room, which was on the way to Terra's. Both dug under their beds for their munny stashes. Terra had often said, "Far back under the bed is the best place to stash your munny. I learned that from my dad."
Snatching her munny sack, Aqua grabbed a small pouch to wear around her waist and strapped it on. Terra stuffed his deep into his pocket and met up with Aqua outside her room.
"Ready?" she asked.
"Yup," Terra said. "Now, for the secret passage."
The two of them knew about a secret passage behind a tapestry near the most unfortunate of places. Prince Caelum's room. And the prince himself had just woken up and walked outside. His still had bed head hair and was dressed in white pajamas. His eyes lit up when they settled on Aqua.
"Good morning, Aqua!" the prince exclaimed. "Terra…" he added with a sneer.
"Caelum," Terra grunted. Secretly, he was pleased that the prince hadn't been decent enough to get dressed before walking out of his room,
"Good morning, Your Highness," Aqua said. Her eyes darted to her feet.
"What brings you up here?" Caelum asked.
"Just walking through," Aqua said. "Looking for Master Eraqus."
"But isn't today your day off?" Caelum asked.
"No," Terra lied. "That's tomorrow."
"Really?" the prince said. "I thought I heard that you had today off."
"You heard wrong," Terra said coolly. His hard gaze bored into Caelum, who returned the look.
"Well, I don't know where Eraqus is, I just woke up," Caelum said.
"I can see that," Terra responded. "You have the bed head to prove it."
The prince finally noticed that he was bedraggled. His cheeks flushed dark red and he retreated into his room.
"You okay?" Terra turned to Aqua, who finally looked up as Caelum's door snapped shut.
"I'm fine," she said. "Let's just go before he comes back out!"
With a nod, Terra strode down to the end of the hall and pressed a stone in the wall. It opened up a doorway in the stone and he and Aqua slipped inside, sealing the passage just as Caelum walked back out of his room.
The passage stretched through the low regions of Nox's castle. It was dark, twisting, and turning, but Terra and Aqua knew their way through it perfectly. They'd explored this passage many times and could explore it perfectly in the dark.
At the end, they finally reached the manhole that led up into the city. Terra cupped his hands and boosted Aqua up. Feeling the manhole cover, she pushed, sunlight momentarily blinding them. Squinting, she forced the cover off and grasped the edges of the hole, lifting herself out.
Still blinded by the bright sun, Aqua ducked back down to pull Terra out of the dark hole. He grabbed her hand and jumped a little to give Aqua a hand. He grasped the edge and hoisted himself out with Aqua's help.
"You okay?" she panted. Terra was quite an effort to lift, him being the older and bigger of the two.
"Fine," he said. "You?"
"I'm good. I just hate crawling out of there."
"Me too."
They replaced the manhole cover and walked into the street. Men and women hustled around as children ran after each other playing their games. The city of Seaside Haven was quite a wonderful place, filled with wonderful smells of food; street performers dancing, singing, or playing music; the amazing view of the ocean; and all the nice people.
"Ice cream first?" Aqua offered. Terra knew full well about her love of Sea-Salt Ice Cream.
"Have you even had breakfast yet?" he inquired.
"I got up over an hour before you did and ate then," she retorted.
"Then, ice cream, it is!" he proclaimed. Two girls walking past them giggled. Terra blushed as Aqua giggled too.
In the ice cream shop, Terra paid for his and Aqua's ice cream, offering to treat her. Aqua smiled and took hers as she said, "You're such a gentleman." Terra blushed at the sight of her kind smile.
They walked through the city, munching their ice cream and watching people pass by. Neither Terra nor Aqua went to see their parents on their sneak-out expeditions. They did that whenever they brought guards. Neither of their parents would approve of the duo sneaking out of the castle. But Aqua cast a mournful look as they strode past her parents' house.
No one bothered the friends on their walk. People had seen the two surrounded by their guards on the piers, other days the two were just alone in the city. Citizens wondered why that was. None of Seaside Haven's residents really knew who Terra and Aqua were, let alone how important they were to King Nox. But the two avoided other people, refusing to answer their questions as they came close.
They got lunch from a small bakery, both purchasing rolls that smelled warm, buttery, and delicious. Aqua thought the first bite was amazing and wolfed it down. Terra was surprised as he'd never seen Aqua eat like that. And she was always the one reprimanding him for eating like that.
In the town square, there were street performers dancing and playing music. Magicians performed incredible tricks, none in comparison to Aqua though. As some dancers performed, one dragged Aqua into the center, her face glowing red, and insisted she dance with him.
With a look of encouragement from Terra, Aqua started dancing. Twirling beautifully, cartwheeling masterfully, and swaying gently, her grace and elegance were amazing to behold. She captivated the attention of all who watched, even the dancers. The musicians needed to turn away and focus on playing the music, settling it into an easy tempo for Aqua's pace.
Terra was more mystified than anyone else present. Watching Aqua dance was the most wonderful thing he'd ever seen in his life. When she flashed a smile at him, Terra's brain turned to mush, lost in captivation of Aqua's dancing.
The music ceased and the crowd gave Aqua a standing ovation as she bowed. Her cheeks were rosy from the tiresome dancing, and Terra was even more captivated by her.
With a final bow, Aqua thanked the dancers for letting her join them and rejoined Terra, taking his hand and the crowd parted to let them pass.
"Where did you learn to dance like that?" Terra asked.
"I kind of just incorporated some battle moves into my dancing," Aqua said. "But I was winging it too. I wasn't actually sure I could dance until you encouraged me. Thank you, Terra."
"You—you're welcome," he stammered. "You were great, by the way, Aqua." She grinned and he flushed red again.
They left the music and magic with no particular destination in mind. Terra just lost himself in his thoughts, a very special, secret one that he never planned to share with the blue-haired girl beside him. And it wasn't about her beautiful dancing.
Terra wouldn't say it, but he felt like he'd just taken Aqua on a date. And a rather successful one if he said so himself. Aqua didn't need to know that he thought of it that way, it would only embarrass him if the girl knew how he felt. But he'd had fun and he was glad that Aqua had fun as well. That made it all worth sneaking out.
"Terra, look," Aqua said, startling the boy out of his thoughts. He looked up to see that he and Aqua had ended up at the beach.
There's chapter three. Chapter four will be up soon… I hope…
