A/N: LOL, surprise! I swear, this story has its own will; pairing after pairing is introduced and the end of this story changes constantly. I'm still not sure what the end is going to be like and I'm the writer (not to mention that I already have an outline for the next 90 chapters...)! If it wasn't for that one character suddenly wriggling into this story... I can't even control my own fanfics anymore. -_-' I think I'll even manage to leave you guys shocked... Anyway, enough of my ramblings. Terra's still seventeen years old here, Aqua's sixteen and Ven's thirteen. Enjoy! :)

Thanks: TopazDragon98, MaroonAngel of Darkness, xsunny15x, MonMonCandie, HawkRider, and RoseOfADifferentColor, my beta.

~ Terra shook his head. "Why am I even friends with you?" ~

7) And

"Well?" the bluenette said, rather indifferently this time.

Aqua tapped her feet and looked at her friend coolly, waiting for some form of explanation. Given they had just engaged in a rather nasty fight, it was a wonder she had wanted to see him at all. Not only had he treated Aqua harshly, he had taken out whatever issues he had on the poor old woman, who was only attempting to tell their fortunes.

As soon as they had stood outside of the tent, Aqua had scolded him for his behavior. Said brunet had countered with a few angry statements of his own and before long, a full fight had erupted between the two of them.

Hurtful words had been sniped from both sides, but Aqua still felt the painful sting of Terra's worst insult, calling her an "Over-obsessive control freak that always has to get what she wants."

Needless to say, that had been a little too much for the blue-haired teen to bear, so she'd left him behind, heading home instead. She hadn't mentioned this to Ven, simply because she didn't want to ruin his undoubtedly wonderful day with Naminé. Besides, something told Aqua that the blonde would find out soon enough, so why bother telling him now?

The tension charged silence hung between them like a thick curtain of smoke, as neither of them moved, the wall clock's ticking being the only noise in the silent kitchen.

Terra had to gulp, before gathering all his courage, breaking the awkwardness. It was one thing to look into Aqua's piercing blue eyes, but paired with her emotionless tone of voice he didn't exactly know how to proceed.

"Aqua, you know how hard this is for me…" The young man hung his head in shame, letting his chocolate bangs fall freely in front of his handsome face in order to prevent Aqua seeing his hangdog expression. He took a deep breath and restarted, "Look, I'm sorry for yelling at you and that old lady, too. I know it was wrong."

Now, too bad that he had realized all of this a little too late, she thought, without vocalizing said thoughts.

It was silent for a moment, but then Aqua said, almost daringly, "And…?"

Her cerulean eyes seemed to glow faintly, as her gaze intensified. Terra risked a quick glance, and to his great fear, her lips were pressed into a thin line and she had that look on her face, caught between sadness and disappointment. And the latter was what stung the most. It seemed that this was going to be harder than he had thought at first. Much harder. God help him.

Terra's jaw flexed, and you could practically hear him grind his molars and roll his hands into fists. He didn't want to lose his best friend over such a silly argument. No matter their differences of opinion, it wasn't worth losing a best friend over.

So with that thought in mind, he went on, "It wasn't fair of me to blame you for ruining my day, because it wasn't true."

"And?" the pretty bluenette repeated, the tone in her voice eerily neutral this time.

"…And it was my own fault. Nobody else's," he admitted, feeling more and more embarrassed as time passed.

He was sure that his face closely resembled a cherry at this point. Then again, it was the least he deserved.

"Go on…"

"And I shouldn't have taken my anger out on you, or call you a… uhm, you know. That was just uncalled for."

Well, she was glad that at least, he had realized that. This, however, didn't automatically smooth over everything between them. She still had every given right to be livid with him. Although holding on to said anger was becoming more and more difficult, given the expression on his face. Terra was utterly adorable when he wasn't even trying. He looked like a lost puppy. If only he knew what kind of impression he had on others, or, to be more specific, her.

"And…?"

"And…" Terra let out a deep sigh, his broad shoulders slumping as if he had lost a difficult battle. Slowly, he ran a hand through his chocolate-colored hair, before finding another response. "And it'll never happen again. Promise."

That last word made her feel as though something inside her broke; she blinked rapidly, as if to get the haze of tears currently filling her eyes to clear. Darn her and her hormonally influenced emotions. Still, she asked with a slight tremor in her voice, "And?"

It went back and forth like this for a little while, until eventually, the brunet decided to end it there. "What do you mean 'and?' I said everything I wanted to say and more!" Terra crossed his arms over his chest, tilting his chin at her defiantly.

To his great surprise, his outburst provoked not an angry reaction, but a small smile, brightening Aqua's face. "Oh, I just wanted to see how far you would take this."

At first, Terra blinked, utterly dumbfounded, before deflating slightly, shaking his head at her. "Why am I even friends with you?"

"Because you would be so lost without me."

"True… And nobody can bake cookies like you," he added quickly, as to cover what he'd previously said.

However, the opposite was true, since the blue-haired beauty let out a laugh. "I knew it, you glutton. There had to be a reason why you keep coming back to me."

In his defense, the brunet teen lifted his hands, "Hey, I'm not the only one who thinks that! Ven's even more of a glutton than I am. He just stays quiet about it. Especially when he's around you. That sneaky little-"

"I don't believe a word of what you said, but you're lucky that I like baking and, in this case, don't mind that you're only using me to satisfy your own needs." A quiet beat passed between them and the two stared at each other, before Aqua admitted, "Okay, that sounded so wrong!"

He smirked at her, surprised that she actually realized that that could be taken two different ways, since normally, the bluenette would say the most remarkable things without her even notice it. Needless to say, Terra and Ven would be laughing their butts off at such moments.

"Well, you should like baking when you're blessed with such a wonderful gift. You're even better than my mom sometimes and she owns a restaurant! I bet it runs in your family."

The pretty bluenette lifted a thin brow at that. "Then you must have gotten your Dad's cooking skills, because I've never, in my whole life, seen such a horrible cook."

That wasn't even a false assumption. It was a well-known fact that Terra's father couldn't even make tea without leaving a trail of burnt utensils behind him, and blowing up half of the kitchen in the process.

"Hey!" Terra protested loudly, before acquiescing. "That was mean, Aqua… and that's why you should bake more cookies now."

"…Nice try," she said with a smile, before sobering up again.

Aqua bit her lower lip in thought, her brows furrowed. Her friend seemed to notice this sudden, inexplicable (although not quite, because girls were weird like that. Aqua was no exception) mood swing, frowning in concern. "Hey, are you alright?"

She seemed to hesitate slightly, before treading carefully, "Terra, do you really see me as an over-obsessive control freak that always has to get what she wants? Be honest with me."

The brunet's eyes widened at the underlying reason Aqua was so upset. That was it? It seemed that his comment had left more damage than he had thought. Then, he decided, it was time to set things right.

"No, of course not! I only said that because… Because I was angry. Believe me, I didn't mean it. I was just looking for something to hurt you, and for that, I'm sorry."

At this point, Aqua was blinking furiously, her eyes downcast, so he took her smooth hand in his and squeezed it softly, making her look up. "You're sweet and caring, and I like you just the way you are. Don't let anyone tell you anything different and please, don't ever change, no matter what. Okay?"

To say that he was relieved when she smiled was the mother of all understatements. The eldest teen let out a relieved sigh and decided that now was the best time to change the subject, for both their sakes.

"So, about those chocolate chip cookies…"

"Terra…"

"What? I really like them..."

A/N: I would really appreciate it if you could take a look at my new poll and vote, especially because your vote can probably influence a big part of the story (and the end that keeps changing every five minutes). And with a 'big part' I actually mean a BIG part. XD That's all I'm going to say... ;)

Next chapter (which will be up in two weeks, max): "Good thing you're not a judge, otherwise everyone could bribe you with chocolate… and you would get fat."