DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN KINGDOM HEARTS OR ANY OF IT'S CHARACTERS, JUST THIS PLOT.

So apparently KH3 in the final stages of development and that new trailer was adorable. Are y'all as excited as I am?!

VI

Aqua glanced around in search of Ventus as she lightly bounced Annabeth to keep her content. The last she'd seen him was just after Mickey and Minnie arrived and she wasn't entirely convinced he hadn't wandered off and fallen asleep somewhere. He really was a hopeless sleepyhead sometimes. She waved Terra over, trying her best to be discrete.

"Hold her for a few minutes. Ven's gone missing. I need to make sure he's not passed out under a table or something," Aqua informed him as she handed Annabeth over. She was relatively cheery today, so she wasn't worried about her bursting into tears the moment she walked off.

Terra grinned at the infant as he held her out in front of him. "Hey-yoh, Muffin. Wanna dance with me?"

"At least she's too young to be embarrassed by that horrible mumbo jumbo you call dancing," Aqua teased as she pranced off, her heels clicking against the marble floor. She heard Terra make a cheeky comeback, but was too far off to hear what it was. She paused when she reached the den. It was closed off to party guests, but it was the closest room with plush furniture, so she figured it was a good place to start. She blinked slowly at the confused woman in the middle of the room.

"Can I help you?"

The woman turned towards her, chuckling nervously as she scratched her cheek. "I'm so sorry. I was looking for my son and got lost. I've never been in a house this big before."

"It's fine. Who's your son, by the way? I might know where he is," Aqua suggested, smiling politely. Ventus was going to have to wait. She couldn't have party guests wondering about and getting lost.

"Sora."

"Sora?" Aqua repeated, blinking rapidly. A small laugh escaped her. Leave it to him to bring his mom to another world and lose her.

"I can see from your expression that you know him," Sora's mother smiled, looking far less embarrassed than she had when Aqua walked in on her.

"Sure do. I'm Aqua. It's nice to finally meet you, Mrs…"

"You can call me Ame," She corrected with a smile.

"So you lost Sora?" Aqua asked as and idea hit her. "I wonder if he's with Ven. I haven't seen him in a while either. Come with me. We can look for them together."

Aqua and Ame cut through the main hall, the younger pausing just long enough to notice and laugh at Terra performing a one sided dance with Annabeth. The guy seriously had too left feet.

"Let's see… Ven likes to hang out in the library, but if he's with Sora then they're probably in the courtyard," she muttered. And beating the hell out of each other with blunt objects, no doubt.

Ten minutes of searching later, half of which consisted of the two women fleeing from a very pissed off squirrel, she finally spotted Sora's spiky hair sticking up from behind a bush and quickly rounded it to face the young wielder. "It's not nice to bring someone to a party and ditch them."

Sora made a face. "Oh, crap. My mom's probably pis…" He trailed off, as he noticed Ame staring at him from behind Aqua, her hands on her hips. "Uh, hey, mom! I didn't mean to ditch you. I saw Ven and we started talking and we kinda got distracted."

"I can see that."

Aqua nudged said blond with her foot and he glanced up at her groggily. "Not gonna lie, I half expected to find you sleeping under a table or something."

"Where's Annabeth?"

"Dancing with Terra."

"He's gonna scar her for life," Ventus joked. Somewhere between point A and point B he'd unbuttoned his vest and the first two buttons of his shirt and rolled his sleeves up. The tie Aqua had forced him to wear was nowhere to be seen. Sora''s clothes were in a similar state, except his tie was simply loosened opposed to being discarded completely.

"So you're the friend Sora's told me so much about?" Ame asked Ventus as she sat on the grass next to Sora. "You're younger than I thought. He had me under the impression you were far older."

"I'm older than I look. I'm actually thirty," Ventus replied, tapping the toes of his shoes against Aqua's as she sat across from him, smoothing out her dress as she adjusted herself. Ame looked startled and made to apologise, but he stopped her. "It's okay. Most people make that mistake."

"So you're the one with the baby? I heard Sora and Kairi talking about it the other day," Ame hesitantly asked.

"Uh, y-yeah. Her name's Annabeth," Ventus told her, caught a little off guard.

"You mentioned her a moment ago, didn't you? You said she was with someone?" Ame asked, the name of said person slipping her mind.

"She's with Terra. He's our brother,' Aqua informed her with a smile. "He's not really good with babies, but I figured he'd be fine with her for a few minutes."

"It's strange, Sora having so many older friends," Ame started thoughtfully, tapping her chin with her index finger. "He's barely nineteen and it seems like all of his friends are getting married or having babies."

"Mom," Sora started, only to be cut off by her laughing.

"I don't mean anything bad by it, Sweetie," Ame chuckled. "Just that it feels weird to me. Come on. Let go get some snacks."

Sora promptly stood up. "I'll show you the way. Can't have you getting lost again."

"It was your fault. Who abandons their mother at a party, especially one on a world she's never been to before?"

"I said I was sorry."

"Come on, Ven," Aqua said as she stood up as well, tugging the white mage up with her. "I'm sure everyone's noticed we've vanished by now."

"Don't wanna miss the queen opening up her presents either. I heard Mickey got her something good," Ventus commented as he dusted his butt off.

"Where'd your tie go, anyways?" Aqua asked him as they made their way up the stairs.

A blank look flashed across Ventus's face as he checked his pockets. "I have no idea."

"Good job."

"Oh, hush! I didn't wanna wear it anyways," He mumbled as he buttoned his vest back up.

"I know, which is exactly why I'm considering charging you with sabotage," Aqua drawled jokingly. She burst into laughter upon seeing the blond's reaction.

"H-Hey! It's not like I lost it on purpose," He argued, a knot forming on his brow.

"All criminals say that."

"So I'm a criminal now?!"

More laughter erupted from the nimble mage. "Where'd sleepy Ven go? You seem so awake now."

"He's hiding under the bed because apparently losing uncomfortable formal accessories counts as a felony now," he shot back, a smirk gracing his face.

"Only when they're lost the day after they were bought. I mean seriously, Ven. How did you manage to lose something tied around your neck?" She questioned as she nodded politely at a guest in passing.

"It wasn't tied around my neck when I lost it," Ventus defended. He changed direction suddenly, making a beeline towards a table presenting a multitude of finger foods.

Aqua spun on heel to follow after him, her dress skirts spinning and floating as if in a dance of their own. "That much is obvious."

The argument over the tie was temporarily dismissed as they both started popping various this and that in their mouths as they wandered around for a bit, making occasional small talk with guests as they searched for Terra. They found him squatting in front of the guest of honor herself as she talked to Annabeth in a light voice that seemed to please her. They cooed at each other for a good minute before the due decied to interupt.

"Are you enjoying the party?" Aqua asked as Ventus simultaneously told her happy birthday.

"Very much so. I just hope it wasn't too much of an inconvenience for you all," she replied as she ticked Annabeth's cheek with a gloved finger.

"Not at all," Terra told her without a second's hesitation

"It was our pleasure," Aqua added happily. It really was. She'd gone out of her way on countless occasions to help them over the years. A party was the least they could do in return.

It was in that moment that Annabeth noticed Ventus, whom she'd been missing since he'd left her in her aunt and uncle's care almost an hour prior. She started to cry for him, only settling down once she was securely in his arms.

A chuckled escaped the tiny queen. "Awe. How cute. Ven's her favorite, I take it?"

"Mhmm," Ventus hummed as he bounced the delighted infant.

"She looks at me like I'm chopped liver," Terra joked before wandering off to find food, something low carb, no doubt.

"I'm shocked she didn't cry," Ventus commented off handedly.

"He's getting better at it," Aqua responded before they told Minnie they'd swing back around in a bit, after they hit up some more of the food tables, none of which were experiencing any shortage or lack variety in condiments thanks to Sora. "I want something sweet this time. How about you, Ven?"

He shifted Annabeth as he hummed in thought. "Is there any ice cream?"

"Uh, no. I couldn't remember that spell, you know, the one that keeps things cold, so I decided against it. Nothing says fun like a bunch of melted ice cream dripping everywhere," she told him as she tugged him over to the dessert table by a belt loop. "I put a bit too much dye in the cupcakes with the pink frosting, so I'd avoid those I were you. They're a bit too bitter for my liking."

"Noted." Ventus scanned the table before settling on a green frosted cupcake. He swiped a dab of frosting with his fingered and offered it to Annabeth, who really seemed to enjoy it. She smacked her lips for more and he chuckled. "Just a bit more. We don't want your stomach to hurt," he told her as he gave her another swipe of frosting before taking a bite himself. "These are really good, Aqua."

"Glad you think so," she replied around a cupcake of her own. She couldn't help but think that there was room for improvement, though. She was a bit of a perfectionist when it came to these kinds of things.

The party continued on for another five hours before things started to die down and guests started heading home. Minnie, Mickey and a few others stuck around after the castle had cleared out to help tidy up despite Terra, Aqua and Ventus objections.

Ventus yawned, pausing his sweeping to watch the weird trash can game Sora and Riku had made up in the midst of them cleaning the main hall. It was very similar to basketball in that you got points on throwing trash successfully in the cans, but the amount seemed to be based on how complicated the shot was. Riku was winning because Sora kept going for trick shots he was nowhere near capable of pulling off.

Aqua, Kairi and Sora's mom where cleaning the kitchen and putting away all the leftover food, packing some away in bag at Aqua's suggestion that they take some home for themselves. Ame maad a joking comment that her husband was going to look at like she was mad woman for bringing home that much cake.

"Just be sure to keep it away from Sora. He's hyper enough as it is," Kairi laughed, the other women quick to join in.

It had been far too long since they had a day focused primarily on fun. Aqua made a note to herself to throw a get together every now and then for the sheer heck of it. They spent so much time saving the universe that they deserved to wind down and relax now that things had calmed down. There was no telling when the next time hell would break loose, so they really did need to enjoy the peace while they had it, regardless of whether it was for the next twenty years or the next five minutes.

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Until next time, loves~