Hope you all had a nice week! If you are celebrating Thanksgiving, then happy thanksgiving to you :D

It was a day off for Aqua. She had no training with Master Eraqus (although now she was a Master, her training was a little bit less about how to fight and more about the duties of a Master), no training with Terra and Ven (Terra called her lessons Advanced Magic 101), and no training with Vanitas (they were supposed to meet in two days for their third lesson, though).

She was simply in her clearing, sitting in the lotus position, peacefully meditating. It felt good not to think about anything, and such times usually were short, so she made the most out of it.

A bit later, she heard footsteps behind her and smiled. Peace never lasted.

"Hey. Mind if I join you?"

She opened an eye to see Terra, still panting from his training. She slightly nodded and he came forward, before abruptly stopping.

"Oh, sorry about that... There." He stepped back and left Earthshaker a bit further, away from her clearing. He could just have made the blade disappear, but by that he showed that he would not bring a weapon to this place. His consideration moved her.

He sat next to her, mimicking her pose, and for a long time, an hour perhaps, none of them talked, their eyes closed, their breathing synched. Aqua was even sure their hearts were following the same rhythm.

"Say, Aqua..." His voice broke the silence, incredibly soft, as if he was sorry to disrupt the peace. "Would you mind... There are things I'd like to know. To hear them from you. Is it okay?"

She smiled, almost surprised that day had not come earlier. She had expected his questions for more than a week, but they never managed to find some time alone. Even with her eyes closed, she could feel him twitching, probably incredibly uneasy.

"A while ago, Vanitas and I fought. I suppose you know that already." It wasn't an accusation. She did not feel the need to answer, and he went on. "He always does his best to taunt me, to provoke me. And I am afraid to say it works every single time. But that day... Tell me, is it true that he... stole your first kiss?"

Aqua nodded. Upon his lack of answer, she opened her eyes to see he was clearly getting angry.

"I knew something had happened. You did not say anything, but something had changed. To think that he would..."

"Terra," interrupted Aqua, "can I ask you something? Why would a first kiss be more important than a second, or a third? My lips are not a prize in a competition, you know. I'm not to be won. There is no first and second place."

He kept silent for a while. Then, "That kiss. Did you agree to that?"

"He did not really ask me for my permission. But I am not angry at him for that. I don't really regret that he did either."

She could see the anger was gone from his eyes, but only to be replaced with sadness.

"I did not give him a positive answer, though."

"You did not?" She could hear the hope in his voice.

"I did not. I really care about him. I don't expect you to understand, but he has become dear to me. However, he's not the only one I care so much about. I hate that both of you have to fight, and I fear I would have to chose a side because I truly cannot."

Terra opened his mouth to answer, but when she grabbed his hands and trapped his gaze with her own, he closed it right away.

"Terra, I don't want to lose you. I can't lose you. We've known each other for ever, and I want to stay by your side for even longer. You are one of the most important people of my life. I just don't want you to ever doubt that."

He smiled at her and cupped her face in his hands, bringing her closer to him. She had expected the kiss, but when his lips softly landed on her forehead, she felt her heart jump. He knew that kissing her on the lips would probably have felt insulting. So instead, he proved her how much he loved and cared for her, taking her messed up feelings into consideration.

"Dying would mean losing you, Aqua. That's not something I'd ever want to happen."

Aqua laid her head on his chest, listening to his heart as he closed his arms around her. She felt it would be fair to tell Terra that soon, he would lose his advantage over Vanitas, since the boy would be able to heal himself. But she couldn't bring the topic to him. So instead, she just listened to his heart, missing the days she wouldn't fear for his life.

There's one thing Aqua says here, about how stupid it is to focus more on the "first kiss" rather than on the ones to come, that is kind of how I feel. Whenever I watch anime (because they always freak out about this) and the girl goes "oh no he stole my first kiss", I always feel a bit... uneasy? A kiss is a kiss. It doesn't matter whether that's the first time you've kissed someone or the hundredth, as long as you agreed to that kiss, it will be as special as all the others~ (well, that's my opinion at least xD I mean I suppose the first time I kissed someone on the mouth was when I was something like 3 and I was still eating flowers and weird stuff so it didn't really mean much to me back then XD)

Have a lovely weekend! (I'm going to start crafting my keyblades, yaaay!)