How Terra Met Aqua

Terra glared at the sparkling, innocent water that calmly lay in the pool awaiting to take him to his doom. His eyes flicked to the lane next to his as he head a splash and glared at his idiotic younger brother. Demyx was happily swimming quick laps, and looking like he hardly had a car in the world. Terra debated hitting the idiot when he next approached for, as Terra deemed it, mocking him.

Terra shook his head, knowing if he hurt his brother that Marluxia would be on his case once he got home. Still he didn't want to be at the gym pool, but when Marluxia found out that he'd be swimming in middle school he had forced him to the pool. Some stupid excuse that he didn't want to have to write Terra a slip to excuse him from swimming just because of his fear of water, so Terra needed to learn.

Now the brunette was stuck with Demyx at his swim practice to learn some from the instructor as well. Terra glared back at the water as it rippled due to the commotion in Demyx's lane. The water was dangerous, vicious, and it had mercy for no one, especially not for a small child, it had shown him as much when he was young.

When he had nearly drowned at the beach the only comfort he had was his mother's arms around him as she pulled him from the water. He could scarcely remember her comforting words as she comforted him, assuring him that the water would never hurt him. She had promised that she would teach him how to swim herself. It never happened because they never got the chance to return to the beach after that because it turned from summer to fall and then to winter.

His baby brothers had been born that winter, New Years eve to be exact, and after that his family didn't spend much time together. His mother wasn't able to go to the beach due to raising the youngest set of twins. Summer came and went, with Terra not learning how to swim as promised, and soon he lost the chance for good.

Terra shook himself free from those thoughts as he watched the pool. He barely heard the soft patter of someone walking towards him. He jolted slightly as he felt a small, soft hand touch his shoulder. He spun around, nearly losing his balance and falling into the pool, and stopped as he met eyes with who had touched him.

He was surprised to see it was a girl with long blue hair, similar to the very water he had been glaring at. Her swimsuit was dark blue at the top around her shoulders and neck, the rest was black. Her eyes were the prettiest blue he had ever seen, and that was saying something given his family, they looked like they were the very heart of the ocean to him. The girl smiled at him and he felt his knees go weak from that one look.

"Are you alright?" The girl asked.

Terra nodded though he knew he gave her a confused look, "I am..."

"You've just been standing here for a while, I figured I would check on you," The girl explained as she sat at the edge of the pool.

"Oh..." Terra paused, embarrassed now.

"Can you not swim?" The girl asked.

Terra shook his head before he snapped at her intrusive question, "Why do you care?"

The girl looked offended for a moment, "I was worried because you seemed freaked out during our last gym class."

Terra paused as the girl said this and looked her over. He was lucky enough to share a class with this beauty in front of him? He thought it absurd but as he stared at her he began to recognize her, she was indeed in his class. She just never mingled with a lot of people in the class, and he was always goofing off so they never interacted. He remembered her name was Aqua, it fit her really well.

"Sorry..." He mumbled.

She smiled, "It's alright, so why can't you swim?"

"When I was about four years old I nearly drowned at the beach...my mother saved me and promised to teach me how to swim. It was too late in the season to learn so we agreed on the first lesson to be the time we first went to the beach again..." Terra explained.

"And?" Aqua asked, watching him closely.

Terra sighed, "Summer came and went and so did my mother...I never had the courage to ask anyone else to teach me...she had been the only one to get me over my fear..."

"I'm so sorry..." Aqua apologized.

Terra just smiled, "It's alright..."

Aqua stood after a moment and held a hand out to Terra with a bright smile. Terra looked up at her confused and unsure of what to do. Aqua just laughed as she took his hand and forced him up.

"I'll teach you!" She stated as she pulled him towards the shallow end.

Terra looked at the back of her head in shock, "What?"

"I'll teach you, that should work right? You can trust me," She assured as they stopped at the other end.

Terra looked at the water again before sighing, "I guess..."

Aqua jumped into the water and motioned for Terra to do the same, he got into the water and jolted at the cold, but didn't make a fuss. He didn't want to embarrass himself even more in front of the girl. She laughed slightly at his reaction, and he noticed that she was shivering a bit due to the cold as well.

"Just copy me," She told him.

She dunked her entire body under the water and stayed under, her blue eyes looking up at him. Terra took a deep breath before sinking underneath himself. He felt very panicked as the water went over his head and let out a large gasp as he slipped slightly on the floor. He quickly rose back out, embarrassed, but as he hacked up water he felt a comforting hand on his back, and it seemed to calm him down.

Terra looked into Aqua's eyes and was mesmerized by their depths that he hadn't noticed her guiding him fully back under the water. By the time he realized he needed air he had already been under for a good while, he hadn't even noticed.

"It looks like you calmed down," Aqua told him.

Terra could only nod before continuing to follow the girls instructions. By the end of the next hour he at least had the basics down. He wasn't as graceful or perfect as she was in the water but he was at least okay. He heard Marluxia call to him and saw his older brother standing at the exit with a tired Demyx.

Terra went to bid the girl farewell but saw he nowhere around him. As he climbed out of the pool to join his brother he saw her swimming under the water. He waved as she came up for air and she waved back before diving down again. Terra hurriedly made his way to Marluxia, answering the old boy's questions on his swimming lesson.

Terra honestly couldn't wait to see Aqua in his class the next day, he hoped that this wasn't just a onetime meeting. He hoped they became friends, and maybe even something more.

~End~

First of all the ages of everyone in this: Terra is in his first year of middle school, so Demyx, Ventus, Roxas, Vanitas and Sora would be in elementary school still. Cloud is in his last year of middle school, Zack is a freshman, Marluxia is a sophomore, and Saix is a junior.

Also someone asked about follow up chapters of any of the one-shots already written, there will be some. For now I am working on getting the brother's basic relationships up, I do have one-shots detailing how each pair began dating, and also for the yaoi pairs their first times.

For the first meeting of the pairings we have only Roxas and Demyx left to introduce, then it's time to spice things up!

Next One-shots:

How Demyx Met Zexion

How Roxas Met Axel

After that I'll get into some other fun little one-shots, ranging from first times, to get together, also to Xion and Riku's POVs, as well as other little facts everywhere.

I will also be doing one-shots for the prequels and the future sequel to the series. The one-shots for We'll be Together will probably be from Cissnei's POV or their friends' POVS. Also some one-shots in this story will actually hint at things from We'll Be Together, characters will be popping up all over the place in both.

Reviewer's Corner:

Mizu Hoseki: I know what you mean, it was sad when you realize in BBS that Zack was probably already dead, since he appeared in Olympus and at the end he disappeared leaving only a feather behind, similar to Auron in KHII. Glad you are liking them so far!

Animesaki: I just remember the car scene from an AMV so I was like hey let's do something with vehicles, and we all know Cloud's love for bikes. Actually I haven't seen Agent Cody Banks in forever but as I was writing the chapter I did remember that there was a scene in the movie similar, I guess it helped a bit, but I can't remember details of the movie. Yes to the follow-up chapters.

Well till next time dearies!