A/N: Yay to the 300th review for this story (by the lovely StrawberryDemon)! I can't stress it enough; thank you so much for all your support, whether it's obvious or in lurkmode. You guys keep me going. :D I have to admit that this was one of my favorite chapters to write in quite a while. It's probably because I finally had something decent to work with. XD

Thanks: StrawberryDemon, Amulet Misty, and Guest. :)

~ "You're...staring at me." ~

50) Mine

Aqua liked photography…apparently. He might have known that before the accident, but somehow it struck him as odd now. When he asked her why, she replied that she loved photography because it had taught her how to see the beauty in everything.

"Do I have beauty in me too?" Terra suddenly said.

She thought about it for a moment, her frown deepening slightly, before slowly replying with, "...More than you know."

They were currently standing in her darkroom, where Aqua was trying to develop the pictures she had taken this week. Terra had the privilege to watch over her shoulder. She handled the pictures very delicately, as if they were alive and could break if she pressed on them too hard. Perhaps spending time with her white violin had taught her how to act fast but careful at the same time.

By the looks of it, most of the pictures were of her walk in the woods earlier this morning. On some of them, Terra spotted a dark-haired man he had never seen before. His hair was slightly longer than his, but without the spikes. There was something quite unnerving about this guy; his eyes seemed to be piercing right through his soul. Terra could only imagine how uncomfortable he would feel if he ever stood eye to eye with him.

Where did Aqua even find all those intimidating guys anyway? First Vanitas and now him...

"Who's that?" he asked, trying not to sound too curious.

"That's Leon, a good friend of mine. I met him when I was a student."

"Oh…"

It became silent between them again, but the silence was never awkward, unlike the ones he shared with Kairi. To be honest, Terra didn't really know why he was here to begin with, but when he was with Kairi, he felt as though he was standing on a minefield. He really had to be careful with what he said, because a step in the wrong direction could result into him stepping onto a mine. With Aqua, it was far from that. She was different. With Aqua, he could be himself. Heck, she didn't even ask him what he was doing here, keeping her from her work. For that, he was more than grateful. Then again, what did he expect when she was his oldest friend? She probably knew him even better than his own mother.

"So... You sure I'm not interrupting or anything?"

"Yes Terra, I'm sure," she replied, and he could hear her smiling. "I happen to like your company, you know."

"Okay."

Suddenly Aqua said, "Stay here, I'll be right back."

She left the room, closing the door behind her so as not to ruin the photos. Terra didn't mind that he was left alone; it meant that she trusted him. Besides, now he could peek into her life. She noticed that there weren't that many pictures of him on here, which bothered him slightly. There were only two, and she had taken them when he wasn't watching. What annoyed him more, however, was the fact that Vanitas' head seemed to pop up everywhere, even more than Stitch's. Terra had to admit that at first, he had not believed that Aqua was dating a major jerk like Vanitas. How could she like someone who was so different in a bad way? If Aqua was the epitome of light, then Vanitas was made out of pure darkness.

Good thing that such relationships never lasted long...if he had to believe online surveys, that is.

At that moment, the door to the darkroom opened again. Terra turned to see Aqua coming back in, but not empty handed.

The bluenette pressed a cup of coffee in his hands. "You looked like you could use some coffee."

He looked at the content of the blue cup. "With cream?" he asked, his voice laced with sheer surprise.

"Yeah… You've always liked cream in your coffee, so I guess my muscle memory kicked in when making this for you… Do you want a new cup of coffee, without the cream this time?" she then asked, thinking that she'd done something wrong.

"No, no! I love cream in my coffee… I just didn't expect you to know it."

And as soon as he admitted that, he realized how stupid that had to sound. Of course she knew. She'd been her friend for almost twenty years now. Just because he didn't remember, didn't automatically mean that she didn't, either.

"Right now I'm probably having amnesia and déjà vu at the same time. I think I've forgotten this before."

Aqua started to laugh. "Silly."

Almost as if that had been the magic word, Terra spilled about how he had relived his own accident, but now from someone else's point of view.

"Hmm… I know this might sound weird, but why don't you start writing a diary or a journal? It will help you sort through things. You might start looking at things differently and you can keep track of your progress this way."

If it had been anyone else telling him this, he would have laughed it off, because honestly, starting a diary didn't sound that masculine. But this wasn't just somebody, this was Aqua, the woman who always had a point.

He nodded, thoughtfully. "I suppose I could give it a try. Don't have much to lose at this point."

Aqua smiled. "That's the spirit."

As her attention was drawn back to her work again, Terra watched her quietly. Another thing that was different about Aqua was the fact that she didn't mind when he watched her, wheras Kairi would always practically shoo him away when she was working on something. The redhead never liked a lingering Terra. She said it was distracting her, or something.

"What is it?" Aqua said out of the blue.

"Huh?" Terra blinked, realizing that he'd zoned out once again. "What?"

"You're… staring at me."

Terra cursed inwardly.

"Oh nothing, I just like to watch you do stuff," he blurted out, before he could stop himself.

He mentally facepalmed at that. That's really smooth, Terra. Not like she thinks you're a total creep now…

She nodded, but didn't press the matter any further, returning to her work instead. Little did he know that Aqua's heart was racing after that confession…

A/N: I can barely believe it myself, but we're finally past the first half of this challenge! :D But of course this story has a sequel, so technically it's only 25% of the story. XD I also noticed that I have written more than 800,000 words since joining this site. I miss the time that I had no life. XD

Next chapter: She felt a little hurt, but she also respected his privacy enough not to ask what she was doing.