Vanitas grinned as he raced up the spiral stairs, leaving Drizzle behind and passing Naminé and Riku.
Aqua never let him into her study. He was still half-expecting this to be a prank, but if she had her booby trap set in place, at least he'd get to hear her unbridled laugh when he was spun off his feet again.
"Van! Not so fast!" Aqua called behind him.
His stomach turned, as if Aqua's admonition had reminded it that it was supposed to be sick. The dizziness hit a second later. His lungs and heart worked overtime to catch up.
He clutched the handrail in a death grip. Ugh, he hated looking stupid like this. He had all his Unversed back; why did his body still act like it was made of glass?
"Vanitas!" Naminé had been in front of Aqua and reached him first. Drizzle scampered up the steps next to her. "Are you okay?"
"Nothing to worry about, squirt," he grunted out, then took a few deep breaths. "Just got a little too excited, that's all."
"Squirt?" Riku raised an eyebrow.
"Well, 'Princess' was already taken," Vanitas told him, straightening up.
"I don't mind," Naminé said.
Vanitas had been calling her 'squirt' for weeks now, since she'd accidentally squirted lemon juice at him while helping him cook sweetbread poêle. The fact that she was small was just a coincidental bonus.
Drizzle took her customary place under Vanitas's free hand. He didn't really need the Inversed there when he already had a handrail, but he couldn't deny that scratching her head was comforting.
Aqua still let him into the study, thankfully. He'd been afraid she'd send him back downstairs so he didn't hurt himself. Her desire to keep him close—to keep an eye on him—must have won out.
"Alright!" Aqua spun on her heel and clapped her hands. "Arts and crafts time!"
That was the official line she was going with, to keep Riku from flipping out that people were trying to help him, or something. Vanitas didn't really get it. Shouldn't Riku be happy that someone wanted to help fix his keyblade?
But Riku was a lot like Aqua. Stubborn. Too proud to accept help, sometimes. Aqua had probably picked a strategy that would've worked on herself.
Whatever the exact logic behind it, Aqua had thought her story would be more convincing if her boyfriend tagged along too. So Vanitas considered it a great plan.
"What are we making?" he asked eagerly.
There were so many weird parts and gizmos arranged throughout the room. Open cabinets full of glowing crystals, chests overflowing with metallic ores, small stacks of square-shaped gears that resembled jagged Scrabble tiles. He had no idea what anyone would do with any of them.
"I'd say you can make whatever you want, but I don't want you blowing anything up," Aqua said lightly. "So how about we start with something small?"
Beside Aqua's desk were some clear plastic drawers. She opened one and took out four small metal chains.
"Keychains?" Naminé asked.
Oh, right. Duh. Even if they were having fun, they still had to help Riku.
"That's right!" Aqua beamed.
Riku's brow furrowed. Vanitas couldn't tell if he was suspicious, or just angsting. Either way, Riku joined Vanitas, Naminé, and Drizzle in a circle on the floor while Aqua picked them out the necessary supplies.
"I just started drawing yesterday. Are you sure I'm ready for this?" Riku asked, eyeing Naminé.
"It's just for fun, Riku." Naminé giggled.
Vanitas was pretty sure she was in on the scheme, too, but she was a scary good actor.
"Says you. I'm gonna make the coolest keychain ever," Vanitas boasted, taking the longest of the four chains.
He wasn't exactly sure how he was going to do that, with Aqua planning to spend most of her time instructing Riku, but he'd figure it out.
She explained the basics to the whole group first. How to break down and meld bits of materials into the keychain, which links in the chain corresponded to which parts of the resulting keyblade—assuming they wanted to attach it to a keyblade, which she insisted they didn't have to.
"It can just be a decoration. Like a charm, or a friendship bracelet." Aqua smiled brightly.
Then she sat down next to the subdued Riku, and left Vanitas and Naminé to their own devices.
"You got any idea what this stuff is?" he asked Naminé, picking out a rainbow-colored crystal shaped like a shield with two crescent moons stuck to it.
"That's a Serenity Stone. Or a Hungry Stone?" Naminé pursed her lips. "The books Zexion let me read were kind of confusing."
"Pass. I'm already hungry enough." Vanitas tossed the weird rock back, and Naminé laughed a little.
He dug through the pile, only to flinch when he brushed a Wellspring Crystal. His Scrappers used to drop those, but that didn't make the lightning-imbued gem any more comforting.
"I thought you would like that one," Naminé's head tilted. "From what I read, it makes weapons stronger and more efficient."
"You can use it then, if you want." He took a ceramic pestle from its mortar to nudge the crystal away.
"N-no, thank you." She shook her head quickly. "I know it's not actually related to the Thunder element, but… um, I'd rather not."
Vanitas looked up, brow furrowing.
"You don't do Thunder, either?"
"You don't 'do Thunder'?" she echoed.
Well, at least he knew for sure that she hadn't poked around his memories, despite supposedly having that power.
"One of the Norts messed me up pretty bad with it," he admitted grimly. "I used to be able to run up stairs no problem, y'know."
"Was it Larxene?"
Vanitas felt like he'd been jolted again just hearing her name. His fists clenched.
"Yeah. Aqua got her back, though. Chopped her arm clean off." He swallowed. "Uh, hope she wasn't a friend of yours, or anything. I keep forgetting you were a Nort, too."
"Friends?" Naminé's laugh was sharp, bitter. She twisted her chain through her fingers as she spoke. It glowed black with the Pulsing Shards she'd woven into it. "I hate her. More than anyone."
That was a bold claim, considering how much Vanitas and Aqua hated the Nort.
"She slice you up, too?" he asked.
"Something… like that," she mumbled. Her knuckles went white as the chain tightened.
There was so much he still didn't know about Naminé. He kept forgetting that she hadn't just come into existence when she'd stumbled out of that pod.
"Then I wish you could've been there to see the look on her face when Aqua kicked her butt." He grabbed a random rock—a fiery red one—and started grinding it up in the mortar.
Huh. Maybe Aqua was onto something with this whole arts-and-crafts thing. Smashing stuff up was already making him feel a little better.
"Could I?" Naminé asked. "I mean. If you were there—could I look at your memory of it?"
Vanitas paused, idly tapping the pestle against the side of the mortar.
"How's that work? I don't want anyone messing up my memories, even the ones that suck."
Though it was tempting. If Naminé could rearrange memories, could she snip out what Larxene had done to him? Maybe then he'd be able to hold a paring knife without shaking.
"I wouldn't touch them. Promise. And I believe you that she's been taken care of… but it would still be comforting. To know for sure." Naminé's face turned a little pink.
Vanitas shrugged.
"Then I guess it's fine. It looked pretty gruesome, though."
Larxene hadn't bled—none of the Norts did; their insides were replaced with darkness or something—but hearing and seeing that arm get severed… Well, it probably would've made him vomit if it'd happened to anyone else. And if he hadn't already been vomiting up Unversed.
Naminé set her keychain aside—she'd worked on it a bit while talking, and it was starting to look a little like Aqua's—and lifted her sketchbook and pencil.
"It'll just take a second…"
She closed her eyes, and her pencil flew across the page. It was mesmerizing to watch. Larxene's horrified expression slowly appeared, etched in graphite, pulled directly from Vanitas's memory. Ephemeral smoke wisped up from Larxene's gaping shoulder, and he almost swore it was moving.
He could smell it. He could taste it. The acrid smoke, the copper and bile in his throat.
"Void," he said softly, trying to shut the memories back out without releasing an Unversed.
Yeah, he was glad Larxene was out of the picture—but she was in Naminé's picture, and it was hard not to feel like she was right there in the room.
Drizzle climbed into his lap, and he scratched between her antennae while scooting closer to Aqua. She made concerned eye contact with him, but he shook his head.
She was here. He was fine. He was safe.
"Sorry, sorry, sorry," Naminé said quickly. "I didn't realize—people are usually asleep when I do that—"
"Could've warned me first," he muttered, heart still beating a quick, unsteady rhythm.
Drizzle let out a squeak of protest as his fingernails dug too sharply into her scalp. He murmured soft apologies to her.
"I didn't know it would hurt. I'm sorry. I won't do it again," she swore, shutting her sketchbook.
Her eyes were wide. That cornered animal look.
The face of someone a push away from biting, he remembered his own words to Aqua.
It was his own fault for letting a volatile teenager poke around his head. He'd been too morbidly curious about her powers, or he probably would've shut her down in the first place.
"Good enough." He nodded, stirring a finger through his powdered rock. "You want any of this red glitter? Think I got carried away."
There was way more powder than he needed. He liked red, but he didn't want to coat his entire keychain in it. Especially when he hadn't asked Naminé what that synthesis material actually did.
"You—you're not mad?" Somehow, she looked even more terrified than if he'd shouted at her. Her grip tightened on her sharpened pencil as if it were a knife.
It wasn't a knife, though. Vanitas wasn't afraid of getting stabbed with a piece of graphite and wood.
"I mean, a little," he said honestly. "But it was an accident, and I told you you could do it. I'd look pretty stupid if I blamed you for that."
He tossed her a triangular green gem he recognized as a Soothing Crystal. She dropped her pencil and fumbled to catch it, clutching it in both hands.
"You look like you could use one of those." He nodded towards it.
He could too, honestly. He searched for another one and started smashing it up in the same mortar. When it mixed with the red powder, though, it turned a dull brown.
"Dang it," he grumbled.
"I—I don't understand…"
"Me either. Why's it look so ugly?" He scowled down at the powder. He'd just wanted to mix his two favorite colors together.
"Because red and green make brown—? Um, but that's not what I meant—"
"That's stupid."
"I—I'm sorry…?"
"Not you. Colors." He jabbed the pestle against the powder again, as if it could un-mix it. "Were you asking something?"
"Why are you being so nice to me?" she blurted.
"Huh?" He looked up.
Nice? What had he done that was nice? He hadn't even given her the red glitter before ruining it.
"I… I hurt you…" Naminé's fists clenched. "Don't—don't you want to hurt me back?"
"No?" His eyebrows scrunched. "You said sorry. I forgive you. I'm pretty sure that's how it works."
Void, he'd never thought he'd be trying to explain forgiveness. All things considered, it wasn't that long ago that he'd told Aqua he was sorry for the first time. He remembered half-expecting her to toss aside his apology, too—but he'd done a lot worse to her than just bring up a bad memory.
"Is it…?" Naminé frowned. The Soothing Crystal's green glow reflected off her pale face, making her look sick.
"Yeah," he said more confidently. "Trust me. I'm basically an expert on saying sorry."
"Are you, now?" Aqua asked, eyes sparkling.
Vanitas tried not to jump.
"How long were you listening?" he demanded.
"Van, you scooted right next to me. Did you not want me to hear you?"
Riku was watching too, and for once, there was a bit of a smile on his face. Ugh. Aqua would be happy Riku was feeling better, but Vanitas didn't need the guy laughing at him too.
"Whatever." He crossed his arms around Drizzle, who had started purring.
Aqua laughed and kissed his cheek.
Naminé still looked kind of lost. Displays of affection like that couldn't have been common when she was with the Norts. But that just meant that Vanitas and Aqua got to show her what life should look like—a life full of friendship, and trust, and even apologies.
Just under six months and twelve Realm-of-Darkness-years ago, the thought would've made him gag. If he could find the life he wanted, after thinking he was nothing but darkness, then Naminé could, too.
Drizzle squirmed out of Vanitas's lap, tackling a startled Naminé in a hug. Aqua gave him a funny look.
"You're not the only one who wants to see her figure things out," he told her with an almost-shy smile.
Naminé was cool. She was funny, the way she'd react to normal stuff with such complete surprise and wonder. He remembered being like that when he'd first gotten back to the Realm of Light—he still was, sometimes. It would've been hard for him not to root for her.
"I know, but… you still manage to surprise me, Van." She leaned over, nuzzling against his chin, and Riku busied himself with looking anywhere but at them.
"How's this for a surprise?"
He twisted, bumping his nose against hers as he caught her lips in a kiss.
It was hard not to go all in when Aqua was like this—bubbling with excitement and love and desire. But he didn't want to accidentally flood the room with Inversed. Even if they were mostly harmless, they could get a little rowdy when Vanitas and Aqua got really into making out, and Aqua might get mad if any of her craft supplies became collateral damage.
Or if Naminé and Riku did. He'd sort of forgotten about them, and he felt kind of bad. Mostly because he'd told Aqua that he cared about Naminé, and his actions weren't exactly backing that up right now.
In his defense, it was pretty hard to think about anything else when he was kissing Aqua.
"Master Aqua?" Riku cleared his throat. His face looked slightly green. "I, uh, think my keychain's done."
"Oh!" Aqua pulled back from Vanitas, though her hand was still tangled in his hair. "Let's see it, then!"
Vanitas watched on as Riku explained the different materials he'd fused into his keychain. Besides the tiny glass bottle charm dangling from it, the chain still looked like basic, boring silver. It was hard to believe he'd actually added the Lucid Shards, Pulsing Gems, and Soothing Crystals he said he had. Unless the materials' colors mixed together to make silver, like how red and green made brown?
"I was thinking I'd give it to Kairi, if it looks alright. My first try, uh… didn't." Riku finished quietly. His first try was probably the ugly magenta almost-Wayfinder-ish charm next to his crossed legs. "She told me she wanted some more keychains."
Aqua blinked.
"You don't want to use it yourself?"
Vanitas bit the inside of his cheek. So much for being subtle about their intentions.
"I knew it," Riku snapped, slamming his charm against the ground. The tiny bottle cracked on impact, but he didn't seem to notice. "You don't believe me, either."
"Riku—"
"It's broken, okay! Why can't anyone see that?" He clutched the chain tightly. "I don't deserve to be a Master. I don't deserve to have Way to the Dawn back. I don't deserve—"
"Riku, it's not Master Aqua's fault! It's mine!" Naminé burst, hand pressed to her heart, Drizzle hovering protectively behind her. "I asked her to help you. So if you're upset, blame me. Not her."
Riku's jaw snapped shut.
"Speaking from experience, it's pretty stupid to get mad at people who are just trying to help," Vanitas leaned back on his palms. "Aqua's been a keyblade wielder longer than you've been alive. Maybe hear her out before deciding she doesn't know what she's doing."
Riku looked away, face red.
"You're right, I… sorry," he said quietly. "If you know how to attach a keychain to a keyblade that doesn't exist, I'd love to hear it."
Vanitas could tell Aqua didn't like his tone, but she inhaled deeply and remained calm.
"You won't be attaching it at all," she explained. "You'll be using the chain as a seed to reforge the keyblade you've lost."
"You can do that?" Riku squinted. "Why didn't we do that when we were searching for your keyblade, then?"
"It wasn't just Stormfall we needed. I needed my glider and armor back. There's no guarantee your new keyblade will be able to form a glider right away. Every keyblade reacts somewhat differently. It can take months to years to remaster that skill."
"Oh." He slumped a little. The chain went limp between his hands. "That's better than nothing, I guess."
Of course it was. Vanitas wanted to keep telling him how stupid he was being, but Aqua had more instructions to give.
"So far, the crafting process has been primarily physical," she explained, slipping back into her Master tone. "But for this forging, you'll have to pull magic from deep within your heart. You have visited your Station of Awakening, correct?"
"Not in a while…"
"But you have." Aqua nodded. "That is where keyblades are born. That is where you will find the shards you've lost, and bring them together into a new whole. The keychain you've created today will be your medium."
Vanitas thought it looked kind of short to be a medium. Riku had picked a chain with only five links. Not to mention the fact that he'd already managed to break it.
"How do I get back there?"
"Meditation," Aqua answered. "And perhaps the Power of Waking. You've used it before to enter my heart. I wouldn't be surprised if you could dive to your own."
Riku didn't look convinced, but he seemed the type to need to see something before he'd believe it.
Aqua stood, placing a hand on his shoulder.
"I believe in you, Riku. We all do. This next step is one you have to take on your own, but we'll be here to guide you along the path. So don't give up, okay?"
"...Okay."
He nodded, fist tightening around his keychain. He frowned at the cracked bottle, and ended up taking the misshapen purple star-charm with him, too.
"Did Eraqus really teach you all that?" Vanitas asked Aqua after Riku went back to his room to meditate.
Naminé had offered to stay behind and help clean up, but Aqua had told her to go have fun. Even though Naminé, like Vanitas in the past, didn't seem to know what fun was.
"You said it yourself. I've been a keyblade wielder longer than most of our friends have been alive." She smiled wryly. "What did you think I was doing all that time if not learning the secrets of the keyblade?"
"I dunno. Memorizing proverbs about how darkness is evil?"
"Well, I did that too." She blushed.
She busied herself with sorting synthesis materials back into different cabinets and drawers, by color and by shape. Vanitas didn't know where anything went, so he just separated them into piles for her to put where she wanted.
(Except the Lightning and Wellspring-elementals. He wasn't touching those.)
"Any other cool secrets you've been keeping from me?" he asked with a teasing grin.
Her hands hesitated over a pair of crescent obsidian-like shards.
"I didn't think you would think anti-darkness proverbs were 'cool,'" she said. He couldn't read her tone.
"Well, they might be funny to laugh at." He shrugged. "I meant more like the keychain-making stuff, though."
"I'm not sure," she replied guardedly. "Do you have any specific questions?"
That was kind of weird. It wasn't like Aqua to not want to teach people stuff. He guessed it was like her to dodge questions about her time before the Realm of Darkness, though.
"Like, uh… do you know how to give a keyblade to someone else?"
He thought she'd mentioned giving the keyblade to Kairi, but that didn't really make sense. Because if she could do that, why hadn't she offered one to Naminé? Or given one back to Riku, without making him go through all the arts and crafts and meditation and whatever?
Aqua looked up, dropping the frosty gem she'd been holding. It left a sprinkle of snowflakes on the floor.
"You—you don't know how to do that?"
"Of course not. You really think Xehanort wanted me to go around making new keyblade wielders left and right?"
Aqua's brows scrunched.
"But… you and Ven weren't natural-born, you said Lauriam gave you the ability… do you not remember what he did?"
"He just kinda, uh, handed that flowery-looking keyblade of his to me and ran away." He shrugged. "It disappeared after I whacked some trees with it for a little bit. Then a different one showed up later, when Xehanort found me and… yeah."
He shuddered. He couldn't really blame Aqua for not wanting to talk about life before the Realm of Darkness. He'd much rather shut those memories away, too, even if it was for completely different reasons.
"So, he must've done something, but I don't know what," he said. "I mean, unless you normally hand kids a sword right off the bat and hope for the best…"
"That's actually more or less it," Aqua admitted.
"Wait, really?"
"Yeah. There's a special ritual a Master would typically perform, but technically, physical contact with a keyblade is all the transfer takes." She bit her lip, rolling a Pulsing Gem between her fingers. "But you couldn't do it 'left-and-right.' A wielder can only pass on the power once."
"Oh." He drummed his fingernails against the floor. "And you gave yours to Kairi."
"It was an accident," she said quickly, as if she needed to justify choosing a Princess of Heart as her sole successor. "I met her in Radiant Garden, way back when. I wanted to protect her light. I thought I…"
"You thought you had time," he mumbled.
It wasn't often that the consequences of his actions came back to bite him. But he'd never considered—if not for what he and Xehanort did to her and her friends, she could've gone back for Kairi twelve years ago. She could've trained Kairi up in the ways of light, the way Aqua had been trained before…
They probably would've memorized anti-darkness proverbs together. It was enough to make him feel sick.
"I… thought a lot of things." She swallowed. "It doesn't matter. It was… a good choice, in the end. If it was even a choice, and not destiny…"
He wasn't sure she meant to murmur that last bit.
He didn't ask why Aqua wasn't training Kairi now, if she'd chosen her. There was probably some conflict of interest in training your brother's girlfriend who still kind of thought you were too strict and overbearing. Not to mention the fact that Riku had already claimed Kairi, too.
"Kinda rude that Riku took your apprentice, then," he said anyway, because it was. "Yknow, if he doesn't get his keyblade back—"
Aqua shook her head.
"Believe me, I thought about it," she admitted. "But that would be wrong. Kairi can choose who she wants to study under. Maybe if I hadn't been so single-minded on working things out with Ven, I could have—" She cut herself off.
That was right. Kairi had come back to stay with them around the same time Aqua tried (and failed) to beat up Lea for fun and friendship.
"We're just great at first impressions, huh?" Vanitas chuckled.
"I never had this many to make, before," she mumbled, tossing the gem into its drawer.
He raised an eyebrow.
"Not even when you were chasing Terra and Ven around the worlds?"
"That was different. I didn't stay anywhere long enough for it to matter." She went back to organizing her rocks.
He still thought people usually liked Aqua. Their friends all liked her now, at least—but for Aqua, that wasn't enough. She wanted to be loved.
He loved her. But he was only one Vanitas. He knew he could never completely replace the family bonds she'd lost.
But maybe he could help her forge new ones.
"You want Naminé as your apprentice, right?"
"Excuse me?" She blinked at his sudden change of subject—or sudden return to their earlier subject.
"You want an apprentice. You like Naminé. Naminé thinks you're cool."
"Y-yes, but—"
"I haven't given anyone a keyblade."
She gaped at him, her eyes as wide as if she were seeing him for the first time. He winked at her, just for fun.
"You—you can't just—" she stammered.
"What, is it 'cause I'm not a Master? Is me picking someone super taboo or something?" He'd heard Terra had passed the keyblade on to Riku, but maybe that had been an accident, too.
It seemed like there were a lot of accidents for something that was supposed to be so special. Whoever had invented keyblades could've done a better job keeping any random kid from getting one.
"Not… exactly…" she grimaced. "Typically, one would need to be a Master in order to choose an apprentice, but when there is only one remaining member of a lin—lineage, in order to keep it from dying out… oh, but technically Lauriam's still alive, so I'm not sure that emergency protocol would apply here—"
"Lineage? Lauriam's not my dad."
The look she gave him was aghast. It reminded him a little of when he'd asked her about sex, but less mortified and more offended.
"You don't even… of course you don't know; why would you know, your Master was Xehanort but still I thought even he—" Aqua dropped her head into her hands. "I'm really the only one. That's fine. I knew that. But—ugh."
"Sorry?"
She shook her head.
"Not your fault your Master was a bastard."
"Language?" he wheezed, a little shocked but mostly stoked to hear Aqua cut loose a little.
"Shut up." She stuck her tongue out at him.
He wanted to bite it, just to mess with her, but figured that would dissolve into making out too quickly for him to get actual answers out of her.
"So what exactly did the bastard not tell me?" he asked instead.
She tried and failed to suppress a snort; it sounded like it got caught in the back of her throat.
"A lineage, in keyblade wielder terms, has nothing to do with who your blood family is," she explained. "Unless your parents passed down the keyblade to you, which I heard used to be a common practice. But that doesn't matter right now. What matters is—there are rules to passing on the keyblade. Even if no one has followed them for the past twelve years, that's no excuse for me to disregard tradition."
Vanitas nodded. Not because he agreed, necessarily, but because he knew when Aqua was too set on something to change her mind.
"Okay. What are the rules?"
Aqua looked around for a minute, as if she had a Keyblade Master Handbook lying around somewhere.
Who knew. Maybe she did.
"You're… you're serious about this?" she asked, hope leaking into her voice.
"About giving Naminé a keyblade? If you want her as an apprentice, then yeah. Completely." He nodded again.
"You know that would mean you couldn't… you only have one chance to choose an heir." She stared into his eyes, as if she could impress the weight of his decision into him with her gaze. "Unless you stumble upon a natural-born wielder, which is never a guarantee."
"You were natural-born, right?"
She'd told him about discovering color magic on her own, which had led Eraqus to take her on as an apprentice. He'd never thought about how rare that might be.
"Yes." Her jaw tightened. "And even if you do find a born wielder, they may not choose you, and you have no idea that your training style would mesh with them, or if they'll want to be a part of your traditions—"
"Aqua." He squeezed her knee before she could keep going. "I think we'll be fine. I don't need an apprentice. I don't really care if I end up being a Master or not, anyway."
Maybe he should've broken that news a little more carefully.
"You—what?" She gaped. "How can you say that?"
He shrugged. Too late to go back now.
"It was never really something I thought about. I wanted to forge the X-Blade with Ven, yeah, but being a Master never came into the picture. Xehanort never trained me for that. Not that I can't be a Keyblade Master because of him, just… it doesn't mean to me what it means to you." He flopped back beside her with a sigh. "Besides. I don't know if I'll ever get back to full strength, anyway."
"Being a Keyblade Master isn't just about physical strength—"
"It's about strength of heart, or whatever, I know." He nudged a chunk of iron ore with his bare foot. It was cold to the touch, just like the stone floor was. Aqua should really invest in a rug. "I just don't care. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'll support you in being a Master, and it's not like I'll stop training or anything. I just… I like cooking. That's something I could be a master at one day, maybe. I just—I don't think I'll ever be as committed to just being a Keyblade Master as you are."
Being a Master was such a core part of who Aqua was. She'd barely considered getting a day job like he and Lea had—it was already her job, and her title, and her way of life.
She didn't respond immediately. He didn't look up at her, though he was as tempted to as he was afraid of what he'd see there.
They'd never discussed this outright before. Why would they? Why would anyone expect that he wouldn't care about being a Master? It was all everyone else worried about. Except maybe Lea, but Aqua didn't exactly hold his opinions on the matter in high regard.
"Van…" Aqua scooted closer, taking his hand. "I won't force you to be a Master, if that's what you're worried about. There are plenty of wielders who never reach that rank."
"Really?" He blinked.
"Yes, really." She nodded. "Of course, it's not necessarily the case anymore, but back when there were hundreds of keyblade wielders—of course there were going to be some that chose a different path."
Hundreds. It was hard to imagine that many wielders at one time, even though he'd spent a good chunk of his life in the Keyblade Graveyard, wandering through their remains.
Did Aqua know what had happened to all of those ancient wielders? That was a story Xehanort had told him countless times, but he didn't know how much of it was accurate.
"Okay. Cool." He sat back up, nodding. "So I'll just stay plain old Vanitas, and you can be Naminé's Master—"
"If she wants me." Aqua bit her lip. "And if—you still have to be there, Van. I can't—I don't think I can do that on my own, without the rest of my li—um, without—"
"C'mon, Aqua. Of course I'll be here." He flicked her forehead. "I told you I care about Naminé too, right? I just, y'know, don't know all the rules and stuff you do. So I don't know how much help I'll be with all that."
"I can—I can teach you. Someone besides me needs to know, and since Terra isn't here, and Ven doesn't—well, maybe he does care, I need to check—"
She jumped to her feet. He thought she was going to run out and ask Ven right then, but instead she started pacing frantically.
"I'll need to get his permission to apprentice Naminé since technically he's still in my lin even if he doesn't want to be, and I need to rewrite the oaths and rules from memory since they didn't survive Castle Oblivion, and I need to save Terra he would kill me if he knew I was taking on an apprentice without him—"
"Aqua—"
"What if I'm not ready what if I make her worse—"
"I really don't think that's possible."
"What if I don't remember the words for the ceremony I haven't practiced reciting them in so long—"
"I don't think you've forgotten anything ever."
Aqua stopped and spun, which made her hair flare out around her face wildly.
"What if she doesn't want me?"
"Uh… then you don't make her your apprentice?" He stood up and hugged her, rocking her side to side in his arms. "That's kinda the whole point, right? You want an apprentice who wants you. Which is why you're not officially training Kairi."
He felt her flinch.
"You don't have to rub it in…" she mumbled.
"Sorry." He patted her back. "If Naminé doesn't want to be your apprentice, you'll eventually find someone who does. My keyblade-giving power isn't going anywhere until then."
"Unless you give it away by accident—"
"I won't let anyone else touch my keyblade unless I'm stabbing them with it," he promised.
"What if that still counts—"
"Aqua." He squeezed her tightly. "You're the one who knows all the history. Have you ever heard of someone getting a keyblade because they got stabbed?"
"...No," she admitted.
"Okay. Then that's not gonna happen."
"But—"
"If it does, I'll just make the guy I stabbed give their keyblade to someone else."
That was apparently a foolproof enough plan, because Aqua didn't object.
She rested her chin on his shoulder. Her sigh tickled his ear.
"Thank you, Van. I know I worry too much… but this really helps. And just knowing that you care—even if you don't care about Master things… this is still the most I've been able to tell anyone in a long, long time."
"You're welcome." He kissed her cheek. "Should we go tell Naminé the good news?"
Aqua pulled back faster than if she'd touched a hot stove.
"Are you insane? We can't just tell her!"
Vanitas's head tilted. Of course it couldn't be that simple.
"Uh… ask her, then?"
"We can unofficially ask her," Aqua clarified.
"What's the difference?"
"This is just us asking if she wants us to offer her a formal apprenticeship. She'll need time to even consider it and read over the oaths she would take up if she accepts. Which I still need to write down—"
Vanitas grabbed her hand before she could spring for her desk.
"One step at a time," he told her. "First, we'll just ask."
"...Maybe you should just ask," she mumbled.
"Huh?"
"I don't want her to feel like I'm pressuring her." Aqua looked away, her hair falling into her eyes. "That's an important part of the Oath and Covenant of the Keyblade Wielder. It must be entered into of one's own free will and choice."
That must be nice, Vanitas thought, trying not to snort.
It wasn't Aqua's fault, though. She hadn't exactly had a choice in becoming a keyblade wielder, either.
"I can ask her by myself if you really want me to," Vanitas sighed, "but I think if Naminé means that much to you, she'd like to hear it from your own mouth."
Aqua paused, her face contorting through a series of expressions before settling on resignation.
"You're probably right. There will still be the customary seven-week Purification and Contemplation period before the Apprenticeship Ceremony, during which I won't be present to influence her decision, and she can decline the gift at any point during—"
"Wait, huh? Where are you going to be?"
Aqua grimaced.
"I… can't be here. Around Naminé. Technically you shouldn't either, since you're her Surrogate—"
"We're supposed to leave her alone for seven weeks? Who's gonna make sure she gets fed?"
"...Isa?" she offered hopefully.
Vanitas rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, because Isa doesn't have enough kids of his own to look after. Besides, Naminé doesn't trust him."
"...Riku?"
"Riku is barely feeding himself."
Maybe he'd be better once he got his keyblade back and stopped moping around. But Vanitas had no idea how long that would take.
"They'll figure it out. It's tradition," Aqua said. "She needs that time to contemplate what it truly means to be a keyblade wielder, and to rid her heart of dark—of selfish motives."
He tried not to scoff at her traditions. He knew they were important to her.
They also sounded like they sucked.
"Don't you think it might be a little easier if someone was around to actually tell her how to do that?"
"She will have someone," Aqua countered. "It would be grossly irresponsible to leave a neophyte without an experienced wielder to turn to for guidance."
"Okay," he played along, crossing his arms. "Who has enough experience to count? I hope you're not gonna say Riku again."
"I wasn't. He may be a Master, but he isn't—he wouldn't know the answers that Naminé might need." Aqua took a deep breath. "That's why I'm going to ask Ven."
If Vanitas had been drinking anything, he would've spat it out.
"Ven? Seriously?"
"What's wrong with Ven?" Aqua challenged.
"What's wrong—? You're the one who said you don't think he cares about any of this stuff!"
"That's exactly why I think he'll agree." She crossed her arms in a mirror of his earlier posture. "He will be Naminé's Guardian of the In-Between. A Guardian should know the proper rules and procedures in order to answer questions, but they can't have an official affiliation with the Master's lineage."
Vanitas's brow furrowed.
"So this is… your way of giving him an out, isn't it," he realized.
Aqua's lips pressed to a thin line. She didn't quite nod, but her head dipped slightly.
"If he still wants to be in my lineage, I will find someone else and teach them what they need to know to answer any questions. Perhaps… Kairi would be willing…"
Vanitas snorted. Naminé was still dodging Kairi like Scrooge dodged taxes.
"Let's just go see if Naminé even wants to be a part of our mess first."
(Literally. They still hadn't finished sorting all the synthesis materials back into their places.)
"Maybe we should finish cleaning up first…" Aqua said, but Vanitas shook his head and took her hand.
"Drizzle will take care of it."
Drizzle saluted obediently.
"But she doesn't know—"
"Stop making excuses. We're going, and we're going to use our words like you taught me, and it's going to be fine."
He dragged her to the stairs, and he didn't even trip down them this time.
XXX
Naminé's back rested against her bed's headboard, her knees scrunched up to her chest and acting as a table for the gummiphone Riku had given her. She frowned down at the screen.
She was terrible at this rhythm game Xion and Kairi had wanted her to play. A whole week of practicing, and she still couldn't even complete Phony with a perfect score on the Hard difficulty. The one "good" tap among hundreds of "perfects" and "greats" taunted her.
Kairi would have been able to tap out the beat perfectly. Probably even with her eyes closed. But as Kairi had frustratingly pointed out, Naminé hadn't gotten her muscle memory.
She would catch up, though. She had to. There was no telling when one of their lives might depend on being flawless at video games again.
She tapped through the screens, starting up the song for the sixteenth time. Her fingers twitched with anticipation.
She could do this. She could prove she was as good as Kairi—
A loud knock at the door startled her into dropping the phone. Notes scrolled by untapped as the upbeat music sang out, and she tried not to scream.
"What?" she snapped before she could restrain herself.
"Hey, squirt. It's Vanitas and Aqua," Vanitas said through the door, and she calmed down a little. Her snarl turned into more of a pout.
"Is it time for dinner already?" she asked.
"Nope. Just wanted to chat." Vanitas's voice was forcibly casual.
Naminé stiffened, every nerve on alert. She took note of the window, cracked just a little to let in the breeze. How quickly could she force it open and leap out? Could she survive a jump from the second story of the mansion? Why hadn't she already prepared a rope tied out of her new clothes; she was already getting complacent, careless, and now she was going to pay the price—
"Can we come in?" Aqua asked, sounding nervous.
That was weird. People didn't usually take Naminé seriously enough to be nervous about eliminating her.
Maybe… maybe they weren't here to break the news that she'd failed their test. Maybe they still thought she could be useful, even if her keychain was even more lifeless and useless than Riku's.
She picked up her phone and turned off its screen.
"Of course," she finally said.
The door swung open. Naminé forced herself to sit still, her bare feet dangling from the bed a few centimeters from the floor.
"Hey." Vanitas grinned. Aqua seemed to be trying to hide behind him.
"...Hi?" Naminé clenched her fists in her lap.
She kept her gaze on the two of them, and not on the unfinished keychain hanging from the corner of her headboard. If she didn't draw attention to it, maybe they could forget the uneven replica of Aqua's teardrop-like charm she'd crafted from silver ore and a Pulsing Gem.
"Alright, Aqua. Your turn." Vanitas nudged her with his elbow.
Naminé couldn't keep her eyes from darting to the window again.
"Um. Right." Aqua cleared her throat. "Hello, Naminé."
They were going to kill her. They were definitely going to kill her. Maybe she'd get lucky and give herself a heart attack from panicking before they got the chance.
(Heart attack. Because she had one of those, apparently, but that didn't mean she wasn't—that she still—it didn't give her a right to exist, the way they did—)
"I told you this was a bad idea," Aqua whispered to Vanitas.
"Maybe if you stopped staring and told her why we're here she'd stop looking like she wants to throw up," he whispered back.
"I'm not staring I'm just—gathering my thoughts." Aqua took a deep breath.
"You already gathered your thoughts while staring at the door for ten minutes. Don't tell me you dropped them again already."
Maybe Naminé could still sneak out while they were arguing with each other. Would that be more or less dangerous than waiting to hear what horrible fate they had in store for her?
"I think I'm going to throw up Van," Aqua said quietly.
So she felt guilty about potentially killing Naminé. That was… an improvement, probably? Naminé must have managed to endear herself to her at least a little bit.
Vanitas sighed, patting Aqua on the shoulder.
"Do you want me to do it?" he asked.
Good. Even better. Naminé knew Vanitas's weaknesses. She'd felt his memories, knew exactly which chains to tug if she had to incapacitate him—
She shouldn't do that. She knew she shouldn't, that she'd made a promise. Promises were all she had.
(And he said he'd forgiven her. He'd said, but—did he mean it and if he did why was he here now and being so weird—)
He plopped down on the bed beside her. The creaking of its springs hid her squeak.
"Hey. Sorry Aqua's freaking out." He picked at his teeth with a fingernail. "You like violence, right?"
"I—um?" She swallowed.
Was this a trick question? It had to be, didn't it? She didn't like violence done against her, and he already knew the answer to how she felt about Aqua maiming Larxene, so he shouldn't have to ask.
"Like, beating people up. And biting. Do you actually like doing that stuff, or do you just think you have to?"
She looked out the window again. She couldn't see it from this angle, but she was pretty sure there was a bush directly below. That could break her fall, couldn't it?
"I… am not supposed to bite people," she answered evenly.
Vanitas laughed. Aqua still looked vaguely ill, though, so Naminé couldn't tell if she'd given the right answer or not.
"Being a keyblade wielder isn't just about 'beating people up,'" Aqua said, her voice clipped.
Being a…
Oh no. Did they still think Naminé could wield a keyblade? She'd done her best to hide her lack of ability, but there were only so many training sessions she could make excuses to miss without arousing suspicion. And they wouldn't be here trying to break the horrible news to her if they didn't know, so—they must have realized, and now they knew she was useless, and there was no point in keeping her around—
"Maybe she'd know what being a keyblade wielder is about if you actually told her." Vanitas smiled smugly.
Aqua blinked, then shot him a glare.
"Stop trying to trap me with your mind games. It's rude."
"What's rude is letting your poor Apprentice-to-be-maybe sit here and think we're gonna kill her, or something."
Naminé jolted. How did he know what she was thinking? Did he have mind-related powers, too? Or maybe emotion-related—since his Inversed and Unversed were created from them…
Despite everything, she wished he'd brought Drizzle with him. The Inversed was a monster like her.
"She doesn't—why would she think that?" Aqua frowned. "Am I already that terrifying—?"
Vanitas sighed.
"Sorry about her," he told Naminé, confusing her more than ever. "She's, uh, kind of stuck in her own head. It happens. Don't take it personally."
"...Okay?"
"She wants to ask you to be her apprentice—sorry, if you want her to offer you a chance to be her apprentice. Apparently the wording there is important. But she's like, got trauma that everyone she loves is gonna leave her, so—"
"Van!" Aqua hissed. "Don't tell her that!"
"I'm telling her that, because you said she has the right to know what she's getting into and make informed decisions."
Naminé looked between the two of them, wondering if she was hearing them right. Aqua was… just afraid? But she was so strong and pretty and good at everything. Why would anyone leave her?
"I… what do you want me to decide…?" Naminé asked weakly. She wasn't sure she'd ever made an 'informed decision' in her life.
"If you want Aqua to offer to teach you how to use a keyblade," Vanitas said.
"It's more serious than that. Don't say it so casually," Aqua told him sharply, but her voice softened as she turned to Naminé. "If I make the offer, and you accept, you would be… my legacy, essentially. As the last traditionally-trained Keyblade Master, I want… I need our oaths and traditions to live on. But I know that's a lot to ask. You can say no. I won't hold anything against you if you don't want to deal with all… that."
Her shoulders slumped, as if she'd already anticipated Naminé's refusal. It was a pretty quick assumption, considering Naminé still had basically zero idea what she was asking. Or more importantly, why she was asking.
Why she was asking her.
"I… don't understand…" She balled the ends of her sweatshirt in her fists.
"You don't have to answer right away," Aqua said quickly. "You don't have to answer at all. I can go—"
"Get over here." Vanitas tugged her arm and pulled her onto the bed too. The mattress bounced with a loud squeak. "You can use your words better than that. Tell Naminé what you told me."
Naminé peered around Vanitas curiously. Despite being a little taller, Aqua was still managing to hide on his other side.
"I'm already ruining everything by looking desperate and pathetic," Aqua mumbled. "I don't want her to feel guilted into saying yes just to make me feel better."
Naminé did want Aqua to feel better. A little out of guilt, and a little out of self-preservation. Upsetting people tended to end badly for Naminé.
But those weren't the only reasons. Aqua was just… nice. And while it still felt too good to be true, Naminé owed her for even treating her like a person.
"But… ultimately this is a selfish request, and I should be transparent as such," Aqua admitted with a sigh. Then she finally composed herself, looking into Naminé's eyes with a steadfast expression. "I would like to present an offer for adoption into my lineage, Naminé. It is more than just offering you a weapon. It is a bond of fellowship thicker than blood."
Lineage? Adopt?
"You—want me as family?" Naminé gaped.
That wasn't—Naminé didn't even have a concept of what family was, beyond what she'd stolen from Kairi's memories. There was no possible way she could live up to Aqua's expectations of what a family member—a daughter?—should be like.
"I knew it was too soon to ask, I'm sorry—" Aqua practically leapt up from the bed.
"No, Master Aqua—!" She jumped and latched onto Aqua's arm.
It was like her body was being moved by someone else. Someone who could actually be loved.
Aqua froze, as if the action had shocked her as much as it had Naminé.
"Don't go. Please don't go." Naminé's voice cracked. "Don't give up on me yet."
"Of course I'm not giving up on you," Aqua's breath came out in a rush.
Naminé wanted to believe her. She wanted to believe that, for once, she wasn't one wrong step away from being disposed of.
But she couldn't believe it unless she put it to the test.
"I don't have a keyblade," she blurted, before she could stop herself.
(She was clinging to Aqua's weapon arm. If the Master decided being keybladeless was a capital offense, Naminé still had her teeth.)
"Yeah, that's kind of the point?" Vanitas piped up from behind her. "I'm offering to give you one. Aqua would do it herself, but she kind of already gave hers to Kairi by accident. Apparently it's a once-in-a-lifetime type deal."
Naminé froze. Her grip tightened on Aqua's arm, scrunching the wide sleeves of her cropped jacket.
Kairi.
Had been chosen.
By—accident?
A giddy laugh bubbled up from Naminé's chest. She couldn't believe it. Precious, perfect Kairi—was a mistake, and Naminé—they actually wanted to choose her on purpose?
They were insane.
Naminé loved them.
"Yes," she said quickly, her head still spinning. "Please. Please let me be a part of your—of this. I won't let you down. Promise."
She shouldn't promise that. She couldn't promise that.
But she meant it, anyway.
"Naminé… you don't have anything to let down. I'm just so glad you're here," Aqua said, hugging her tight.
It was her first hug since the one Riku had given her in the Tapper's closet.
It was warm. And… almost suffocating. Aqua smelled like knife oil and sweat. But it was good?
Good.
She didn't feel like she was going to die.
Her eyes watered, and she smiled.