A/N: This chapter takes place a few months after the previous one, so Aqua is 23 years old, Leon's 26, Terra's 24 and Kairi's 21.

Thanks: TopazDragon98, MaroonAngel of Darkness, HeartofFyrwinde, Amulet Misty, HawkRider, DreamerGirl111, rushninja, and my lovely beta reader M. L. Ayala. :)

~ In that instant, Terra realized that he just couldn't look away from the beautiful young woman. ~

18) Traffic

"Oh, come on!" he growled irritably.

Well this was just friggin' great. Just his luck to be stuck here. Terra didn't know how he managed to pull it off, but for some reason, he always ended up getting stuck in a traffic jam. He let out a long-suffering sigh, suppressing the urge to bang his head against the steering wheel. Normally, he wouldn't mind that much, because with his motorcycle, he could easily zigzag between the traffic. However, there was barely enough room for such a small vehicle, let alone for his old car.

"This is the last time I'm going somewhere by car," he muttered grumpily under his breath.

He ran a hand through his chocolate-colored locks and glanced to his right. His breath caught in his throat when he saw the beautiful red-haired woman sitting in the backseat of a dirty taxi. She seemed to be deep in thought, so she hadn't noticed him looking at her yet. Her young face had a troubled expression on it that according to him didn't quite fit her.

She was very pretty. It was a different kind of beauty when he compared her with Aqua; this woman had a sort of…cute innocence about her, what with her dark red hair and big, glistening violet eyes. Then again, he couldn't blame Aqua for not looking that innocent; she'd been more or less forced to grow up at a very early age and she'd seen so much of the world already. She'd always been more mature for her age and that most likely had something to do with her past. That didn't make her any less beautiful, though. Aqua was just beautiful in a different way. And in another time and circumstance, he might have started having feelings for her...maybe.

In that instant, Terra realized that he just couldn't look away from the beautiful young woman. She had something so captivating and pure and…well, there was something else about her, too, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

At that moment, traffic started moving again and her car drove away slowly. The brunet man wanted to follow her on a whim, but he had to step on the brake abruptly when a rather asocial motorcyclist raced past him at top speed, not giving any care in the world as to what damage he might have caused. If Terra had looked at the woman at that moment, he'd have caught her wincing and turning away from the window abruptly.

But the brunet man didn't see it. "Hey, watch it!" he cried instead, even though he knew the man couldn't hear him.

Too bad that he wore a dark helmet that obscured his face, otherwise Terra would have had no problem finding him. And if it hadn't been illegal, he really would have considered bumping the front of the car against his backside…

Days later, he still couldn't get the mysterious beauty out of his head. She just randomly popped up in his mind, no matter what he was doing. Even Aqua had started noticing how absent-minded he was. Something about him had changed. He stared more often into the distance now, seemingly deep in thought. She wished she knew what was on his mind and if something was wrong with him.

Aqua put her white violin in its case, preparing to go to her meeting with Leon now. He was still her instructor…kinda, but she also enjoyed just playing music with him. So she could safely say that he was a good friend of hers, too.

Ven used to joke around that he seemed to be a little too interested in her to call it friendship. However, Aqua couldn't help but notice that he never made a first move, so that couldn't be true. Still, Ven kept insisting after hearing her stories about the silent musician that it sounded as though every time he wanted to make a move, something reminded him that he wasn't allowed to act that way and he would retreat. Obviously, Aqua thought he was just seeing things. He was probably just wishing it was true, so that Aqua could have a boyfriend. Apparently, the blonde thought that that was when her life would be complete. As sweet as it was, it also annoyed Aqua slightly. What was wrong with being single, after all? It wasn't like she was crying her eyes out every night, wishing to have a boyfriend.

The pretty bluenette sighed, shaking her head before tapping the far too silent Terra on the shoulder to get his attention.

This made her best friend return to reality and he reverted his gaze to her. "Huh?"

"I have to go now, okay? Take care of yourself and don't forget to have dinner."

"…Yeah."

Aqua rolled her eyes and let herself out, knowing that Terra wouldn't have dinner, anyway. So that meant that she still had to get him something on her way back home. Sometimes she felt more like his mother than his friend.

A/N: Since I only have two betas now, I'm currently looking for another beta reader, because I'm planning to update a lot during summer. So if you don't mind beta reading for Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy VII or Final Fantasy VIII, and your strengths are grammar, word choice and sentence structure, you could be my savior. It's so hard finding good ones that have time, so I'm doing it this way. :P Also, the motorcyclist will turn out to be a very important character in the future. This was his first appearance.

Next chapter: And suddenly, going to the chiropractor didn't seem like such a waste of time anymore.