"Strelitzia, are you alright?"
Lauriam frowned as he stood at the door, peering inside the cramped upstairs bedroom of his little home in the backstreets of Twilight Town.
His sister turned her head to look at him through the crack, from upon her bed. Then she rolled onto her stomach, pulled her pillow down over her head, and started kicking her feet wildly in the air while letting out incoherent noises.
Lauriam blinked at the sight. He hesitated before pushing open the door and stepping inside. He strode over to the bed and sat down upon it, beside her. He reached out, touching her shoulder.
She fell silent instantly - her legs froze, mid-kick, sticking up in the air. Then, they fell rather unceremoniously onto the mattress. Her arms slid from the pillow, limply laid out on either side of her.
"Can you tell me what's wrong?" Lauriam said softly. "You've been cooped up here like this since...well, for the past two days and counting. And to be honest, it's gotten worrying at this point."
Strelitzia slowly pulled her head out from under her pillow, turning to stare at him with orange strands in her face and over her bright green eyes. "Amaya's back..."
"Yes, I'd heard - though I haven't had a chance to see her again yet..."
"I saw her two days ago..."
"Yes...you did. And?"
Strelitzia growled, slamming her face down into her pillow, putting her arms over her head.
Lauriam couldn't help the small smile of amusement, despite the situation. "Oh...This wouldn't happen to have anything to do with your-"
Strelitzia's growling intensified, as she ground her face into the pillow vigorously.
"I'll take that as a yes, then, dear sister."
Strelitzia went still, her muffled growls fading. She lifted her head again, looking at him with a now pink-tinged, pale face. "It's the same as it always was, back then..." she mumbled out. "She didn't even see me - she didn't look at me...and I couldn't get up the courage to say anything to her..."
"We could always change that," Lauriam consoled. "I could open a portal for you to Land of Departure, and you might be able to catch her there, and-"
"And w-what?!" Strelitzia exclaimed, letting her head drop with a thump. She shut her eyes, screwing up her face. "It was j-just some silly c-crush, and it's all weird now because she's way older - like you! She's pretty much your age now! I'm nobody to her, and it wouldn't c-change anything if I told her now...it would just make things too weird!"
"Why would you think that?" came the voice of Elrena, from the doorway, suddenly. She leaned against the frame, a hand raised. A little smirk on her lips. "If anything, it should be the opposite. She's all mature and curvalicious now, isn't she? That should make it even better for you to get all-"
"Thank you, Elrena, your input is appreciated," Lauriam said firmly, staring daggers at her. "But it's unneeded."
Elrena met his gaze, raising her eyebrows at him. Then she gave a small laugh, stuck out her tongue, and spun away, disappearing from the doorway.
"Anyway..." Lauriam spoke, shaking his head. "If you feel the need to get this off your chest after so long, you can go and tell her how you used to feel about her - I'm sure she'd take it well enough. It wouldn't be 'weird' at all. And maybe that closure, a confession, will make it easier for you to move on from it."
"W-what do you mean?!" Strelitzia squeaked out, her head shooting up. "Move on? To- to w-what?"
Lauriam tilted his head. He chuckled lowly. "I haven't the faintest idea - do you? Is there already someone you have your eyes on-"
"N-no! No ideas at all, thank you! I don't have m-my eyes on- on anyone!"
"If you say so," Lauriam said simply.
"You're the worst big brother ever!"
"I apologize."
"The worst..." Strelitzia reiterated, pouting now. She snatched up her pillow and sat up. She looked at him - then she hurled it at him, hitting him in the face. "You're always so mean to me!"
"Who just hit who in the face?" Lauriam said, laughing and brushing at his long pink hair.
"You d-deserved it!"
"Did I?"
"Yes!"
"Alright. I'll take your word for it."
Strelitzia hugged herself, turning away. She glanced back at him, hesitating. Frowning. "I still don't think I have the courage to tell her..."
"Of course you do. You've always had more courage than you ever realized," Lauriam refuted.
"Not enough to walk up to her and say hi when we were...the same age and stuff..." Strelitzia murmured. "I s-saw her everywhere, again and again, for weeks...months...and I never got up the guts to do a thing..."
"Do you need help, then? I could-"
"Ew, n-no!"
"Elrena, then, if you'd be more comfortable-"
"She'd just make it weird! For fun!"
"Elrena knows when to be serious. She wouldn't ruin this for you. She also knows what it's like to conceal her deepest feelings from others, too, you know. But she found the courage recently to open up her Heart, and express them to the world...and to herself." Lauriam paused. "What about Namine-"
"NO!" Strelitzia shrieked, her hands flying up to her face. She froze. "N-no...she's my- best f-friend, and- she probably wouldn't get it - she's not exactly a normal girl, right?"
"Perhaps not," Lauriam agreed, quiet. "But I know her well enough to know she'd still put her Heart into supporting you, even if she didn't understand it, exactly. That girl never does anything by half-measures."
For some reason, Strelitizia looked torn between horror at the information and...well, some form of relief and happiness. Even excitement. Then she threw herself down on her bed again, seized the edge of her blankets, and pulled them up over her, rolling over to wrap herself up in them.
Lauriam gazed down on her blanket-sheltered form, smiling. He reached out again and patted at her form.
Strelitzia squeaked, startling and squirming. She popped back up and threw off the blankets, her wild and messy hair around her face, as she stared at him. "I'll t-think about it..." she stammered out.
"Good." Lauriam smiled at her. "I hate seeing you like this, little sister."
"I hate being like this!" Strelitzia exclaimed in agreement.
Former Keyblade Master - and wielder - Aqua leapt down from the giant kitsune's back, landing on dust and dirt.
She strode away, examining her newest surroundings.
Over the past few days, it had started to change.
No more mountains, or forests, rivers and lakes.
Sparse trees, dry, hot air. Dusty boulders. Cliffs and canyons ahead...
A stretch of nothing - a wasteland.
She barely reacted, on hearing the sound of flames behind her now.
Natsumi strode up beside her, standing with a hand on a hip. Her bare feet didn't seem bothered by the new terrain in the least. "This is where the journey gets more challenging," she said, with a note of excitement to her voice. "But I'm sure you've had challenging journeys before, haven't you, Miss Aqua?"
Aqua glanced at her. "Yes..."
Natsumi tossed her head, brushing at her long, black hair. "That's all I get from you?" The woman tsk'd at Aqua. "We've been traveling for over seven days at this point, and you've hardly said more than a few words to me in general. Do you see me as a nuisance - or just a mount, perhaps? Or is it just that you still don't trust me?"
"No - it's nothing like that - it's just...I thought you already knew everything about me?" Aqua replied, glancing away.
"I learned a lot about you when I first scanned your mind, yes - but not nearly as much as you seem to think I did, apparently," Natsumi said, exasperated. "You could call it a...cliff-notes version of your life. An overview without much details. Some specific memories, important people, and moments you experienced - but it was only enough to get a sense of you as a person. It didn't tell me what your deepest desires are, or whether you snore at night, or who your last ten girlfriends were."
"I've never had any girlfriends!" Aqua said, flushed.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I misread you - boyfriends, then?"
"No - no, I- that would be correct, it's just-" Aqua stopped, looking at her feet. She grabbed her cloak, hugging it to her form. "I haven't exactly had the time for- that sort of thing. It's always been training, or world-ending disasters... That- doesn't really leave any time for- dating..." She spoke the last word in a hush, unfamiliar and almost taboo on her own tongue. It was a vague concept she knew about, but nothing she'd ever...of course not!
"Well, it seems to me like you have a lot of spare time on your hands now, don't you?" Natsumi's voice came again, languid and slightly...amused.
Aqua's head shot up. She turned to stare at the woman. "Are you- suggesting something?"
Natsumi raised her eyebrows at Aqua, a smile curving at her bright red lips. "Oh, Miss Aqua, I wasn't suggesting anything - I was just making an observation. Someone with so much time on their hands...it would be a shame to see it all go to waste. Instead of all of this walking and not-talking...you could really make this whole adventure more enriching for yourself."
Aqua stared, flustered. She turned on her heel and stalked away, holding her hands over her chest.
She wanted to find some protest, some excuse - but Natsumi was right, wasn't she?
Aqua had no excuse anymore. No training, no responsibilities, no apprentices, no worlds to protect and no evil monsters or people to defend them from. That wasn't her life anymore. That wasn't her. It had never been...her. She was free. She could go where she wanted, do whatever she wanted, and no one could judge her for it. Certainly no one she knew...
Aqua looked back at the woman over a shoulder, from out of the corner of her eye.
She had already spent ten years in the darkest, loneliest of places, yearning for friendship...for family...
But she hadn't even realized there were other things to yearn for, too.
Because she'd never had the chance to.
To try and fail, to have and miss...
Elrena's cutting, passionate, accurate words came to the front of her mind again.
Aqua was poise. Aqua was strong. Cool-headed, proper. The exemplary Master she'd tried so hard to be. To fool herself into thinking she could be...
But Aqua was also the woman who had let Elrena talk her into something very stupid, but somehow so fulfilling, in the stupidest of ways. She still didn't even fully remember that little evening out. But...she knew how she'd felt afterward, waking up again in her room at Land of Departure. Not the head-pulsing headache, or the stomach pain, or the dizziness - but the feeling in her Heart. It had been a kind of...triumph. A vicious sense of victory. An I did that - and I can't believe I did it, sort of feeling.
Aqua was the woman who had known the worst isolation and loneliness anyone on any world had ever possibly known.
Aqua was the woman who had lost ten years of her life - and had made this insane, monumental decision in the first place because she didn't want to miss any more.
So why was she still holding herself back so much? Why was she still locking herself away? Why...was she still so afraid?
Why was she willing to let herself just keep missing more?
She was out here, adrift in the unknown. Just another woman. Well, not quite just another woman (if anyone ever recognized her here-)...
Aqua blinked, pulling herself out of her own mind and Heart. She turned toward Natsumi more fully, her Heart pounding in her chest.
It was- insane. It was impulsive, emotional, reckless and irresponsible - the sort of thing she would have scolded and frowned upon Terra or Ven for. It was them, not her...to just go running away, leaping into the unknown, doing the first stupid little thing that came into their heads! It wasn't...Aqua...
Maybe that was why she really wanted to do it.
"I- think you're...probably right..." Aqua murmured out, her lips stumbling over the words. "Only I...I wouldn't know where to start."
Natsumi's red eyes glinted at her. She raised such a pale, perfect hand to her mouth, laughing into it. "Well, we could start with talking. That would make for a wonderful change of pace. Unless you're more a woman who likes to jump straight into the action? I don't really mind, either way, you know..."
"I- well-" Aqua looked away again. "Talking sounds...okay? I can start telling you a little bit about my- life so far, I guess."
"Talking it is, Miss Aqua. I'll be happy to listen to whatever you're willing to tell me," Natsumi said, gazing at her with full sincerity.
Aqua breathed relief. But there was still a problem.
What was she willing to tell this woman?