Chapter 7 Dreams
Terra and Aqua leave the back alley and emerge in the square of the 2nd district once more but this time it is not empty. Aerith is sitting on the edge of the fountain trailing her fingers through the water. She looks up as they walk through the door. "Hello again," she says to them with a small smile. "Have you been exploring Traverse Town?"
"Yes we have," Aqua replies. "Your town is beautiful, especially this fountain."
"Mmm yes," Aerith says turning away from them to look at the mosaic at the back of the small pool of water. "There is just something about this fountain that mesmerizes people. All people come to this town in search for something. Many toss coins in this fountain believing the light it gives their hearts will guide them." She gestures to the scattered coins shimmering at the bottom of the pool. "So many dreamers hoping a little good luck will make their wishes come true. Do you two have a dream?"
Aqua looks over at Terra caught a little off guard by the question. He just smiles a replies, "Of course. Aqua and I have the same dream." Aqua blushes her mind going back to the back alley and the moments of confession between the two of them. Terra however is not thinking along the same lines and continues saying, "Ever since we were kids, our dream has been to one day become keyblade masters."
"If you believe, the fountain may bring you luck in finding your way to reaching your dream," Aerith says.
Terra and Aqua exchange a look both feeling a little skeptical about the supposed wish granting fountain. "It can't hurt right?" Terra says with a shrug.
"I guess we could give it a try," Aqua replies and digs in her pocket for a moment to find to coins one of which she hands to Terra. Their hands touch briefly and Aqua can't help but blush again. Terra doesn't seem to notice as he takes his coin and closes his eyes. He stands beside the fountain with his brow furrowed in concentration for a moment before flipping his coin into the water with a flick of his fingers.
He opens his eyes and stares expectantly at Aqua who imitates him by closing her eyes. In the solitude of her mind she thinks to herself. "I believe dreams come true. And my dream is..." Becoming a keyblade master may be a dream of hers, but she doesn't need a magic fountain to make that dream a reality. Her own hard work is going to bring that to her. No, she needs help with a different dream. "My dream is to one day be with Terra, someday, somehow." She smiles and flips her coin, opening her eyes at the sound of the small splash. She watches as her coin sinks to the bottom of the pool. Resting with all the other dreams that had been cast into the fountain.
"Wonderful!" Aerith says clapping her hands together.
Shaken out of her thoughts and a little embarrassed, Aqua takes a step back and changes the topic by asking Aerith, "Have you seen Merlin arrive yet?" Aerith shakes her head no and Aqua sighs, looking up to the sky. The sun nearly straight over them. "Noon already and he's not here yet," she says unhappily to Terra who stretches his arms over his head.
"He'll show eventually," he tells her confidently. "In the meantime, I'm starved. Let's head back to Tifa's bar and get something to eat."
Aqua rolls her eyes at him. "You're always thinking about food."
"Hey! It's not like we're doing anything else."
Aqua makes a whatever gesture and he grins. Turning to Aerith he asks, "Would you like to join us?"
"I'm afraid I can't," Aerith replies. "I've been out all day and I must check in on the hotel. Goodbye for now."
"Goodbye," Aqua and Terra say as she hurries away to the building marked Hotel.
Aqua looks expectantly at Terra who leads the way back out of the 2nd District and down the steps in the 1st District to the 7th Heaven. Terra stops by the door and gestures for Aqua to go first. "Ladies first."
Giving him a scowl, Aqua walks in first and stops short seeing Tifa leaning over the bar her lips locked with a blond man standing on the other side who has his hands on Tifa's cheeks.
"Oh!" Aqua says and the two at the bar break apart, looking at her in surprise. "Oh I'm sorry. We didn't realize..." She trails off and Terra walks in giving the couple a curious look.
"Don't be sorry," Tifa says with a small laugh. "Come on in. Aqua, Terra, this is my fiancee Cloud. Cloud these are the two who Leon and Yuffie were telling you about."
As Aqua and Terra walk over, Cloud comes forward to meet them giving them both a handshake. His blue eyes are very serious as he looks them over for a moment. "Thank you for assisting Yuffie with the heartless situation," he says to them. "You're help is greatly appreciated."
"Thank you sir," Aqua says. "We do our best to help out those in tough situations."
The corner of Cloud's mouth turns up in a half smile. "I'm sure as keyblade wielders you get a lot of practice with that."
"Did you guys want some lunch?" Tifa asks from behind the bar.
"Yes please," Terra says quickly and Aqua covers her mouth to hide her smile at his eagerness.
"Alright," Tifa says. "I'll be right back. Just make yourselves comfortable."
Terra, Aqua, and Cloud all sit around one of the tables. "So are the heartless always so bad around here?" Terra asks Cloud.
"Today was the largest sighting in weeks. Usually, we get a couple to deal with a day. They are usually small and more of nuisance than anything, but they have been known to attack people. That's why Leon set up the Defense Militia. Right now it's just Leon, Yuffie, and myself. Tifa's cousin had been training with us before he went off on some childish adventure. Ran off like he didn't have any responsibilities, like no one would worry about where he disappeared to," Cloud's expression had darkened and they look at him concerned. See their faces he tries to relax. "Sorry, didn't mean to bring that up. Don't mention it to Tifa. She gets upset."
Aqua and Terra both nod that they wouldn't say anything to Tifa and silence descends on the table as no one knows what to say next. To gather more information, Aqua asks Cloud, "Everyone here seems to know the worlds' secret. Why is that?"
"Well most of us have come here from other worlds ourselves," Cloud replies.
"Really? How did you get here?" Aqua asks intrigued. As far as she knew, traveling between worlds is impossible for those who didn't posses great magical power.
"Aerith opened a pathway for us when our homeworld was destroyed," Cloud tells her frowning slightly at the memory.
"What happen-?" Terra tries to ask but is interrupted by a gruff voice from the doorway.
"But my ship will be a much faster way to travel," Cid says smugly walking over next to Terra. He grabs the back of a chair and swings it under him. "Don't think we were ever formally introduced. I'm Cid Highwind. CEO of Highwind enterprises and brilliant inventor."
"Uh its nice to meet you," Terra says surprised. "I'm Terra and this is Aqua."
"Hey you own that shop out there don't you," Aqua says remembering the shop called The Highwind Market in the center of the 1st District.
"Sure bet I do girly," Cid replies. "I own half the shops in this crazy town. But that's not what I'm tryin' to tell ya about."
"Cid-" Cloud says quietly but the older man ignores him.
"Couldn't help but overhear your discussion of traveling between worlds," Cid continues. "I'm currently on a breakthrough with a new kind of technology that will blow your minds. I call it Gummi technology. It's incredible stuff. It's gonna be the future of interworld travel. One day we will all be travelin' in style in our own personal Gummi ships with warpspeed, and cloaking devices, and cupholders, and-"
"Cid!" Cloud succeeds in getting Cid to pause. "Last time you experimented with a so called breakthrough the town lost power for four days."
"So the electric mosquito nets had a few short circuits. I still haven't forgiven Leon for destroying them all. They could have saved our necks from those damn bloodsuckers if he had let me try again. But that doesn't matter. Gummi technology is different. It's gonna be the next big thing."
"Not another of your infamous inventions Cid," Tifa groans coming back out of the kitchen with a tray of six plates. Cloud immediately jumps to his feet and takes the tray from her hands.
"This one is sure to-"
"Yeah whatever," Tifa says. "But if you knock out the power again you'll have me to answer too. Last time it took me days to reopen the bar." She takes the plates from the tray Cloud had set on the table next to them and hands them around. "Here we go," she says handing Terra his plate. "Gourmet grilled cheese."
"Awesome," Terra says with a grin diving right in. Everyone takes their plate and begin to eat as well. "This is really good Tifa," Terra says with difficulty. Swallowing he continues, "Aqua doesn't make grilled cheese nearly as good as this."
"Hey!" Aqua says slapping his arm. "Next time you can make dinner if I don't meet your standards."
"Woah Aqua," Terra says backtracking fast. "I didn't mean...I...uh...I was just kidding. Your grilled cheese is the best ever." Looking over at Tifa he shakes his head and points at the sandwich in his hand.
Aqua pretends not to notice and asks Cloud and Tifa, "So you guys are engaged, are Leon and Yuffie..." She leaves the question hanging expecting Tifa or Cloud to finish it for her, but before they can Cid jumps in.
"Oh those two! They're like rabbits in spring. Can't keep it in their pants. If you ask me-"
"Cid!" Tifa cuts him off. "That is not what she was asking." Giving him a hard frown she turns to Aqua whose cheeks are tinged pink and says, "Don't listen to him. He thinks he knows everything about everyone in town. Leon and Yuffie are going out, but as far as we know it isn't anything serious yet."
Aqua nods and focuses on eating her grilled cheese not wanting to pose anymore questions. An awkward silence falls on the table. This time it is Tifa who breaks it asking Terra and Aqua, "So you two are keyblade wielders. What's that like?"
"Oh," Aqua says looking at Terra for an answer but he just continues to devour his sandwich. "Um it's a lot of work," she says lamely. "We train everyday with our master, Master Eraqus. We live at his school, MEKA, and well..." Aqua really doesn't know what else to say.
Luckily Terra jumps in. "Yeah it's a pretty nice place, but it gets a little lonely. Last week we got a new student though. His name is Ventus. He was really upset that Master Eraqus wouldn't let him come with us today, but I'm sure he will be tagging along someday when we come back here."
"Do you travel between worlds often?" Cloud asks.
"Yeah. We do all sorts of missions that-" Terra gets interrupted as Cid bursts out,
"How do you get around? Do you use Gummi technology 'cause I already put a patent on it."
"N-no" Terra replies shocked by the older man's forcefulness. "Our keyblades, they can take us to the different worlds."
"Just sit down and listen Cid," Tifa says annoyed. "Please continue with what you were saying."
"I was saying that we do all sorts of missions in a bunch of different worlds," Terra says. "We used to go with Master Eraqus on all of them, but since we are preparing to take our Mark of Mastery exams he has been sending us out just the two of us. Returning Merlin's book is actually only our second mission without him. The first was finding Ven."
"Well you can tell your master that we say you guys are doing great on your own," Tifa says with a smile.
"Thanks Tifa," Terra says. "I just hope Merlin shows up soon so we can get back early. Ven is doing more one on one training with Master Eraqus today and, after yesterday, I wonder what state the two of them will be in when we get back."
"What happened yesterday?" Aqua asks surprised.
"Oh yeah I forgot to tell you," Terra says. "Do you remember that day when we were kids that I told you I had found a tree that was tall enough to reach the stars from?"
Aqua laughs, "Yeah you convinced me to follow you and ended up getting us hopelessly lost. It took us hours to find our way back, and when we got there Master Eraqus was-" She stops smiling and looks at him in worry. "That was the only time Master Eraqus ever lost his cool and yelled at us. Is that what happened yesterday?"
"Almost," Terra replies, "When I went to watch Ven train Master Eraqus was this close to snapping." He holds his index and thumb out nearly touching. "You were right that they would butt heads."
"Ven was swearing?" Aqua asks.
"Yep," Terra says to her and then turns to the others. "Our master has a hatred of swearing and Ven, well he's Ven, he swears when he's angry."
"That sounds like someone we know," Tifa says staring not so subtly at Cid who has lost interest in the conversation and is instead muttering to himself,
"Highwind...yeah that will be the first one...seat warmers...joystick controls...definitely should be red..."
Everyone glances at him, but decides for the time being it is best to ignore him.
"I'm going to have to talk to Ven about this when we get back," Aqua says.
"Don't bug him Aqua. You know there is something else on his mind that's making him so angry. Just give him a little space," Terra says knowing she already has her mind set.
"Since when have I been known to give people space when they are upset?" Aqua asks him.
Terra has to admit that it isn't her style to let Ven keep his anger bottled up. It is more her style to jump him and pin him down demanding to have a heart to heart conversation. Terra rubs his shoulder wondering if the bruise had faded yet from Aqua 'convincing' him to talk the last time he had gotten upset. "Just don't hurt him permanently ok?"
"I'll try not to," she says sticking her tongue out at him. "I just want to know if he's ok."
Silence descends once more on the table until Tifa asks, "So what about the two of you?"
"What do you mean?" Aqua asks confused.
"Well you asked what was going on between Yuffie and Leon, I'm just curious about the two of you. You seem really close."
Aqua can feel the heat coming off her face and looks over to see Terra's face bright red and his eyes are unable to hold her glance. Neither respond and Tifa feels bad for asking. "I'm sorry I didn't realize-"
"Don't let 'em off the hook!" Cid exclaims suddenly listening once more. "C'mon you two, spit it out. Don't spare us the details."
"We...I...uh...it's...well..." Aqua can only stammer her brain unable to form a cohesive sentence.
Suddenly a huge explosion shakes the ground and they all grab the table in surprise. "This can't be good," Cloud says quietly standing quickly and hurrying for the door. Aqua, Terra, and Tifa rush after him with Cid trailing behind.
"Saved by the explosion," Cid grumbles. As they run out of the bar he calls after them, "When you two get back here I expect answers!"
Okaaaay so again this world is so much longer than I thought it was going to be. I'm pretty sure now that it is only going to take one more chapter to wrap it all up.
This chapter was a little on the slow side in my opinion but I wanted to get a little more background on the Traverse Town gang so what better way to do that then a little story swapping and a little gossiping over lunch. I hope you all liked this chapter since I seriously came up with the entire thing on the spot today. I'm seriously loving writing dialogue for Cid! I'm also loving torturing Terra and Aqua :)
*sigh* I'm not going to let myself write tomorrow because I still haven't done any hw. I have to read a ton of shit for english, take notes for history, and learn an entire fucking chapter for AP Chem because my teacher doesn't have enough time to teach us it in class before the exam. Any other AP students feeling my pain out there?
Ugh! Why isn't vacation really vacation anymore? I've been getting up at like 7 every morning this week for softball. I love softball but really? 7? Not cool coach. But hey, I'm the starting pitcher at our game tomorrow so wish me luck :)
So yeah loving this story and loving the reviews I'm getting! I've written so much this week cause I seriously have no life. I have lots of chapters half done for later in this story and I can't wait to get to them!
Oh and remember what I was saying about not following the FF storylines when it comes to the characters in KH yeah I warned you so don't get all pissy when Tifa's cousin comes into play. I know he's not supposed to be related to her but it makes it easier to write the story trust me. And yeah I'm being vague on purpose I would hate to ruin the surprises I have set up in this story.
Also got a new laptop and its sweet! So much better writing on this than on my phone. My mom came into my room today and asked what I was working on cause I was hogging the new laptop. When I told her it was my fanfiction for KH she just rolled her eyes and left. She thinks I'm weird but whatever. I spent last night trying to teach her the storyline of BBS. Don't think she had as much fun as I did... Oh well! She has to put up with me for two more years.
Don't ask me why I decided to tell you all about my life in this AN cause I don't really know. I guess I'm just bored or tired or something.
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Anyone know the song Walk Over Me by The All-American Rejects? I'm jammin out to it right now!
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REVIEW!