A/N: Ugh, I'm in the middle of my exams and I haven't been this stressed for quite some time. Wish me luck, 'cause I know I need it. -_-' Anyways, this takes place a few months after the previous chapter, so Terra's 23 years old and Aqua's 22. No Ven this time. :(

Thanks: TopazDragon98, MaroonAngel of Darkness, Amulet Misty, HawkRider, and M. L. Ayala, my lovely beta reader. :)

~ "I swear, a dictator has more understanding than that ice queen Larxene. Her bitchiness reached a whole new level today." ~

16) Fun

Aqua looked up from her study books. She sighed wearily, running her slender fingers through her glossy, silky smooth sky blue hair.

She'd been reading for quite a while, her cerulean eyes running over the letters, but she had no idea what this new chapter was about…even after reading the same lines for the third time. This was hopeless.

Well, what did she expect? Studying wasn't always that much fun, no matter how much she loved the subject. Especially when you hadn't slept that well the previous night. The reason wasn't because she was suffering from insomnia. No, it was those creepy spiders that had absolutely no respect for her privacy. Honestly, they just popped up everywhere with their annoying webs; in the kitchen, the bathroom, bedroom, even in the freezer. Good thing the last one was dead, though, because he'd been huge.

Last night, the blue-haired young woman had woken up in the middle of the night to get a glass of water. It was then that she saw a spider on the floor, making his way towards God knew where.

At that moment, she couldn't help but think what Terra, her best friend, had once told her about those scary, hairy creatures: "Never forget that there are always two of them out there. Spiders like to act like a couple…"

That could only mean one thing; she'd eaten the other one…right? Ew, just thinking of it made the little hairs on the back of her neck stand upright. A shiver ran down her spine. Sometimes it was better not to know everything.

Aqua got up, figuring that maybe it was better to play a little on her violin for a while, before returning to memorize those composers and what they did and why. And if she still had no idea, she could always call Leon. He'd said she could call him when she needed help and he'd given her his number, just like that. Sometimes she wondered what that gesture meant…

At that moment, though, her thoughts were interrupted (thank heavens), when the doorbell of her rented apartment rang three times. Whoever it was, that person was getting quite impatient. Aqua got up, hurried towards the front door and opened it. Next thing she knew, the person brushed right past her, almost knocking her over in the process.

With much trouble, she managed to stand upright by using the wall. "Whoa!"

"Honestly, Aqua, what took you so long?" he grumbled irritably, after letting himself in.

"And hello to you, too," she said, watching the brunet male's back with a quizzical look and wondering what got into him.

Terra walked towards the small, but cozy living room without saying as much as a word. Aqua shook her head. The only times Terra would act like he knew no manners at all was when he was fed up with something. She closed the door behind him and followed her childhood friend to the biggest room of her rented apartment.

She was just in time to see how he let himself fall dramatically on the comfortable loveseat and lie down with one arm covering his closed eyes, putting his head on one of the armrests. This simple movement almost made him look ten years older. As if on cue, Stitch ran into the room and made a dash to the loveseat. He managed to climb all the way to Terra's chest and stayed there, giving the man a questioning gaze.

Terra sighed, but he still ruffled his ears. "Hey, little fella. Happy to see me?" Stitch purred in response, to which he continued, "Then you must be the only one in this world."

Aqua brought her desk chair closer to the loveseat and sat down, facing her utterly desperate-looking friend. "You don't exactly look like you had fun today," she noted, carefully.

The brunet looked up at her. "Ugh, that's pretty much the understatement of the century!"

Aqua smiled at his overdone drama. Terra would always vent and pour his heart out to her when he was down. Aqua was known for her qualities as a good listener and she would never interrupt him as he told her his story. That was probably why he always trusted her with the tiniest things. And when he was done with his ranting, it was Aqua's job to come up with something fun to do together, so he would forget about his rather crappy day. With that in mind, she ignored her books for the moment and turned her attention back to her best friend. It was a welcome change from all that boring theory she had to know about.

"What happened, Terra?"

Automatically, her hand went to Terra's spikes, just like it did every time and she ran her long, slender fingers through his soft locks. If anything, it seemed to calm him down enough so he could tell her what was bothering him.

The brunet man closed his eyes and let out a deep breath. "Well, there's this…really annoying woman at work. She's the co-manager, or something. Heck, I don't even know what the hell she's doing and quite frankly, I don't care, either. But she obviously thinks she can just boss me around, because she has more experience. In what, I wonder. It doesn't really show. I swear, a dictator has more understanding than that ice queen Larxene. Her bitchiness reached a whole new level today."

"Terra," she said, disapprovingly, pursing her lips.

Aqua didn't like it when he used such language, but Terra ignored her this time, feeling that he had the right to talk like that about the woman that made his job a living hell.

"It couldn't have been that bad," she tried again, this time in a gentler tone.

"You have no idea..." The male sighed, continuing where he'd left off. However, there was one sentence that made Aqua really feel bad for him: "Nobody loves me… The whole world hates me."

"That's not true, Terra... Some people don't even know you."

For a moment, only silence surrounded them. Both people stared at each other, blinking with their eyes. Then, Terra grabbed the nearest pillow and threw it towards her, aiming for her head. She ducked away quickly, dodging the soft object. Stitch, however, wasn't that lucky and he ended up falling off him. By the looks of it, he was about to throw a tantrum, had it not been for Terra realizing his mistake and apologizing quickly.

"Oops, sorry little one. That was not my intention." Terra scooped him up and took him in his arms again. To Aqua, he growled, "Stop making fun of me!"

"Sorry, I couldn't resist. It's too much fun."

"You call that fun? …I hate you."

"Aww, I love you too, you Terra-ble dork."

Aqua got up from her seat and ruffled his hair with a laugh. After that, she straightened again and walked away from the couch.

Surprised, Terra sat up, leaning on his elbows (making sure Stitch didn't fall off this time). "Where are you going?"

Aqua stopped, turning back again. "To the kitchen, to make some hot chocolate. Why do you ask?"

"Make me some, too. I had a rough day." When Stitch let out another indignant noise, he hastened to add, "And don't forget about Stitch! He's your pet after all. He deserves the love that you don't give other people..."

"No."

Terra quirked a thin brow. "No, as in, 'He's not my pet' or 'I won't give him anything'?"

"'No' as in, 'Both of you can forget about the hot chocolate'," was the short, but simple reply.

Terra frowned, at the very same time that Stitch let out a low whine. "Shh, it's alright. I got this," he said lowly, before raising his voice slightly, so Aqua could hear it. "What? Why not?"

"Because you hated me, remember? By saying that, you actually hurt my feelings. So go make your own hot chocolate…in your own kitchen, 'cause I'm not going to share my food with someone that hates my guts. And Stitch is not allowed to have chocolate, because that's dangerous...and he broke my vase."

"…Now I really hate you," he muttered.

Also, who the heck cared about a stupid vase? That thing was beyond ugly, anyway. She should be glad that Stitch got rid of it.

"What was that?" came her dangerous voice.

"Uh…nothing! You go make your hot chocolate." To distract her, he started to sing, "You just take, take, take it all, but you never give."

His singing seemed to have the desired effect, for almost immediately, Aqua's response was, "Stop that whining. You know I hate that song."

"Let me. I feel horrible. Bruno Mars can actually make me feel better about my condition. After all, it could always be worse, right?" As an afterthought he added, "Wow, I think you're the first girl who doesn't find it cute that he'd catch a grenade for her."

Aqua rolled her eyes. "Well, that's his own fault. What annoys me the most about the song, is that part where he complains that from the first moment they kissed, the girl had her eyes wide open. 'Why were they open,' he wonders. Obviously, the only way he could know that is when his own eyes were open, too. So I'd really like to know why his eyes were open at that moment."

Terra rolled his eyes. It was so typical of her to analyze that song up to the point where she ruined the actual meaning of it.

As she continued her way to the small kitchen, Terra continued singing the song, just to get a rise out of her. But Aqua didn't just let him have that satisfaction. She grabbed a cookie on her way out (Terra's favorite) and stuffed it in Terra's mouth to make him shut up. The brunet male shot up and started coughing violently, because of the crumbs that shot in his trachea. This time when the blue pet fell off, he shook his fist at Terra and decided to stay far away from the two of them. But they all knew that the next time, he'd climb on Terra's stomach again. Those two were inseparable after all.

Aqua couldn't help but giggle. "What is it? I thought these were your favorite cookies?"

Terra ignored her question, but when he regained his breathing, he asked indignantly, "What was that for?"

"For the neighbors' sakes. Your singing sounds like someone's being tortured. I don't want to answer awkward questions from them, like that time when you were completely drunk and started flirting with the old lady from next door."

It was a lie, though, because Terra actually had a nice voice. Not that he had to know that.

His ears had turned considerably red when he exclaimed, "Aqua, that was only once! I can't help it that someone had spiked my drink."

"Uh-huh…"

A/N: Next chapter: Strangely enough, the slightly familiar words "I would watch out for redheads if I were you" came to her mind, but she didn't remember where she'd heard that.

Three guesses which redhead I'm talking about. :P