The cycles of battle in the world of Dissidia have finally come to a grinding halt, but that doesn't mean the warriors don't still have work to do. With their swords now laid to rest, the new goal is to transform Dissidia into a livable home. Under the roof and instruction of the goddess Materia, the warriors trudge onward in this new quest, all while building friendships and romances that are sure to keep things interesting.

Materia instructs the Dissidia warriors to—in order to earn a certain badge for their team bonding—pick one person out of the group to kiss. On the mouth. She says it's important for strengthening the intimacy between them, but not necessarily "romantic" intimacy. Apparently, romance heats up anyway, and it does quite the emotional number on the warriors as they reluctantly take on the challenge.

The rules for earning the team-bonding badge are fairly simple:

One, you must only kiss someone you are not quite as aquatinted with yet. The whole point is to connect with someone you're not entirely close with yet, so you're only allowed to pick someone who isn't already a best friend, and isn't someone you already have romantic feelings for before the challenge started.

Two, you are not allowed to kiss someone who has already been kissed for the challenge. Once you've completed the kiss, both participants automatically earn the badge. There is no need to have someone who has already completed the challenge to help someone who hasn't yet. The whole point is to help each other earn the badge, and to ensure that everyone gets a chance to earn it together with someone.

Three, you only have the entire month to complete your kiss and earn the badge. If you fail the challenge, you will be sent home until you are called to rejoin Dissidia. Maybe this doesn't sound like a loss at all, but it is indeed. Even when a warrior gets sent home, the quest on Dissidia and the challenges along with it continues on without them. By the time you are called to rejoin, you'll have a lot of catching up to do, and you'll spend more time doing that than on the actual quest to rebuild the land. So take care and do the challenge, so you're not left behind in becoming the best champion you can be!

Some of the warriors are at the dining room table, and not all of them are happy about this badge challenge whatsoever. In the midst of everyone's murmurs of complaints, Bartz seems to be the only one at the table who sees a silver lining.

~

As Bartz entered the blue-walled dining room, he felt sludge in the air as he neared the twenty-foot long table. His gaze zipped a straight line across the faces seated there, from one end of the table to about halfway. Every single person here looked as though they'd dropped their ice cream cone, then watched it get run over by a sixteen wheeler. Okay, maybe that was exaggerating things a bit much. But it was as clear as the sun was bright, nobody at this table was happy about this team bonding challenge. And the words Bartz heard amongst the tension proved it to a tee.

"There's gotta be a better way to work on our team bonding," said Tidus. The slit in his tone seemed to make the ends of his blonde locks sharper than usual. He flung out a hand, gestured quickly to the lower part of his face. "I've already got a girl. These lips are pretty much taken."

A couple chairs down, a paper thin scoff bounced around the walls. "Apparently, that's not gonna change a damn thing." It was Lightning, blowing a pink strand from her eye with her legs in a bow-tight cross. She seemed monotone and prickly and pretty much everything she always was, but there was something in the way she shifted in her seat that gave off an uneasy wave. "Just leave it to that goddess to do whatever the hell she wants with us. Long as we're under her roof, we play by her rules." Bartz cringed; every word she said was a poisonous bite.

"Which is why I don't care about getting sent home," droned Squall. He leaned back in his chair, pressed his arms together in a hard lock. The scar across his face made a few weird bunches as he contorted his features into a lion-sized scowl. "I'm just gonna throw it. This is stupid. I'm not wasting my time trying to hunt someone down for a damn kiss. Aren't we bonded enough already?"

Seated just beside Squall, there came a breath and the soft shaking of pointy blonde spikes. "According to Materia, clearly not," said Cloud.

In the midst of Cloud's mumble, however, Bartz was already blazing a trail to the table and slamming his hands on the edge. "Hey, wait a second here! Did Squall just say he's not even gonna try?"

"And that's your problem how?" Squall peered at Bartz from behind a chocolate bang.

"For once in my life, I can't say I really blame Squall," commented Tidus. "Usually, he's a stick in the mud. I mean, he's being one right now, obviously."

Another glare from Squall masterfully slashed from Bartz to Tidus. "Watch it, tie-dye."

Ignoring the threat, Tidus chirped on. "But, Mr. Stick In the Mud has got a point. He's got a girlfriend already, I've got one already . . . I'm thinking Materia didn't stop to think how awkward this was gonna be. It's more awkward than forgetting to bring your Blitz ball to a Blitz ball game." Tidus paused, glanced around in a big circle. "Wait, no, maybe not that bad. I mean, that's just a nightmare . . ."

Bartz had to bite down a smile at the way Lightning's head collapsed into her palm.

"Come on, guys, let's take a breather," Bartz said, scratching his brown roots and slinging himself into a chair. He sat crisscross and pressed his elbows into the cold sting of the table's marble. "I actually don't think this challenge is that bad. I mean, I think it could be pretty interesting."

Lightning scoffed again. "Define interesting."

"You actually like these dumbass rules?" Squall interjected.

Bartz shifted, a little sheepishly, to instead fling his arms behind his head. "Well, I never said I liked them. I just don't think it's as big of deal as you guys are making it. Could be a lot worse."

"Oh yeah?" Squall was unusually chatty about the subject, raising a brow as well as his volume. "Well, if you think this is so interesting, how would you go about making people do this, smartass?"

"Me?" Bartz laughed. The sound was left sparkling in the air long enough to reduce the tension an inch or two lower than it was before. He could tell already that there was more room to breathe, more room to joke around and let the wind take their hair. He shrugged, continued to smile. "Hmm, well, I guess I'd just make everybody kiss everybody. That way, it'd be nice and simple; no one would have to pick anyone."

Letting loose laugh-sprinkled groans, everyone liked that idea even less.

The early morning hours surround Materia's tower, and there's one warrior who wakes up from slumber to an unexpected event.

~

Vaan didn't really know why his body decided wake him up at four in the fricking morning, or why he even had the energy to lift himself up and sit cross-legged on the bed. Moreover, he didn't want to go back to sleep.

And he always went back to sleep. Especially at 4AM.

Oh well. Guess I'll just be up. The thought came limp and slow, and it rolled around in his head a few times until his crusty eyes met the blue streaks of early morning from the window. It was pretty, Vaan thought, how the light came through the blinds like carefully placed spotlights. It looked like underwater—some embodiment of peace that only the early sky could master. He was tired and yet he wasn't, and he was confused yet nonchalant. Nothing about this moment made sense, but the natural gleams of light from this otherwise barren world made it pretty okay—worth it, even.

Vaan scratched his nose, made a quick jerk with his neck to fling a bang back into place. There was nothing wrong with a barren world, though. It just meant endless possibilities—a place where rules couldn't tell you where to go. But in Vaan's mind, something was always better than nothing. In fact, the idea of nothing was only exciting because that meant there could be something. It could be whatever anyone wanted.

Okay, now Vaan's mind was just spinning endlessly. All this thinking about something and nothing . . . It somehow threw his mind toward the team bonding challenge. He needed something, which was a kiss, and as of now, he had nothing. And though the thought of nothing to something was supposed to mean excitement, this actually kind of terrified him. Did he really wanna leave the comfort of having close to nothing with someone, for all the complex crap a kiss could bring?

Maybe nothing was sometimes better than something. But if Vaan wanted to prove himself a worthy warrior of Materia, he had nowhere to run.

Vaan didn't blink for probably a solid five minutes, so he wiped a calloused palm over his lids. Then his gaze made a dart to the door he forgot to close before he passed out for the night.

Well, there's no better way to stop a rabbit hole than to get the hell out of it.

.

.

.

"Vaan."

Vaan wasn't even halfway down the hall, groggily dragging his bare heels and trying not to slip on the slick floor, before he heard a whisper between soft and stern. His head snapped to the side, and there were brown braids tinted blue from the early morning glaze.

"Aerith?" he whispered back, but it almost wasn't a whisper. He didn't realize he was walking past her room, and he definitely didn't expect for her to look more awake than he was. She sat with a wide, intensely green stare, and her legs folded under a tiny, white gown that he probably shouldn't be seeing her in.

Aerith didn't say anything more, instead beckoning Vaan inside with a pleading slit in her eyes and a small chin-jerk. Vaan wasn't sure, but Aerith's whole face looked like a cascade of wild emotions. He didn't know if she was on the verge of crying or wanted to smack some sense into him for something he forgot he did.

Vaan tried to look unaffected by her intensity as he slacked his arms behind his head and slugged over. "Hey, you okay?" He felt a bang fall and he blew it skyward.

There was nothing less intense about Aerith's gaze now that he was closer—obviously, it was worse now. Her eyes were oil-slicked gems, her mouth looked like it was biting down on steel. Crap, was she sad or angry out of her mind? Did Vaan forget to flush or something? Aerith's freakishly thick silence act didn't let up even as she moved to stand, so he was a hair-length away from asking again.

Until her hand butterflied over his collarbone.

Vaan flinched backwards a little, but he didn't really move. He couldn't really move, because her hand wasn't the only thing in motion. Her stare ripped itself away from Vaan's eyes, instead polka-dotting him from his naked chest to his sweatpants-clad waist. Suddenly, Aerith didn't look mad at all. Far, far from it.

And the sudden realization sent a feverishly sweet throb through Vaan's groin.

Uh . . .

Whatever he was thinking couldn't make it to his throat, because then there was warmth and moisture and softness between Vaan's lips. Vaan's mouth automatically parted, letting Aerith's mouth explore his, letting her tongue roam and swallow his sanity. Vaan could've yelped—he should've yelped—but Aerith's hands were working magic between the creases of his pecs, and her mouth was hot like a sauna that melted his bones to mush. So Vaan's crazy, disoriented fingers found a way to grip Aerith's waist, and his mind flew away. He returned the kiss in full measure, and they fell into a rhythm of locking and unlocking their lips, catching a breath here and there, letting a moan or two escape. It was hot as hell. Crazy sexy. Vaan thought he was going to explode below the belt and he couldn't stop himself from loving it.

Wait. The badge . . .

Oh, right. Obviously, this was about the challenge. Aerith must've just picked the first guy she saw slugging down the hall so she could get this stupid challenge over with. He couldn't really blame her. This should've been enough to earn the badge though—it was more than enough. Aerith had to know that, too.

Vaan pulled away once the thought slapped him, painful as the action was. Nothing escaped his mouth except for ragged, lust-drugged breaths. Before he could wrap around any kind of clear word, Aerith pressed her forehead to Vaan's. Her fingers curved around the back of his neck, and a trail of shivers went straight through Vaan's body like canon-fired glitter.

She stared at him, he stared at her. Aerith's eyes were green fire burning holes in the dark—burning holes through Vaan and whatever bits of control he had left. And to top it off, her tongue made this hot little jump to wet her top lip. Her lips were parted, glistening, a sex-hungry wolf.

There was no way in hell they were done yet.

Mouths sucking, fingers scratching skin, Aerith stumbled them both over to her bed where they crashed into waves of ecstasy. Everything was a big blur of Vaan's tongue tasting Aerith's, fingernails tangling Vaan's hair, heartbeats everywhere and anywhere they shouldn't be. Vaan's mind was an airship stripping through clouds at full speed. All he felt and wanted was sweat and spit and the beautifully painful squeeze between his legs. So when Aerith flicked her head up for air, let her braids tickle Vaan's shoulders and leave wicked, open-mouthed kisses along his neck, he saw fireworks. Nothing but big, curvy, screaming fireworks. Vaan's body acted all on its own, sending his spine arching and hips forward, grazing against Aerith in quick, desperate motions. At this, Aerith gasped and—oh, shit—it was music. But then she matched his thrusting's rhythm. But then her hot, moaning mouth encased his ear. But then suddenly all the pink clouds in his head were gone and left him with a thought drawn in thick, black marker.

What the hell . . . are we doing?

"Whoa whoa," Vaan gasped, breathless. Finally, he could grip Aerith's shoulders, push her back and see her wide, embarrassed look of unquenched thirst. Dammit. He was nothing but a hot, blushing mess right now, and the whole world just needed to stop. "Th-this is going way farther than need-be. We gotta . . . we gotta slow down. We gotta stop."

Just as winded and flushed, Aerith pulled up on her fallen dress straps. She silently agreed.

With the sun higher now, Vaan is sitting by his lonesome in a maze of thoughts. Bartz drops by to shoot the breeze.

~

With a slide, a skid, and a slap on the back of Vaan's chair, Bartz joined Vaan on the dulled silver balcony.

"Hey!" he said, slipping into the seat across and beaming a smile. "Morning."

"Morning," Vaan replied, a little forced, a little sluggish. His finger was paused on the bridge of his nose and his eyes didn't leave that potted plant in the corner. Just how long had he been sitting here? It didn't even seem like he ate breakfast.

"So . . ." Bartz ignored it for now—Vaan didn't like people smothering him. "How's your kiss hunt going? No dice here yet. I have no clue who I'm gonna pick."

The second the words flipped out Bartz's mouth, Vaan's face made a weird, red-dusted wrinkle. His silver-blue stare made a break for the nearest tuff of lint on the floor, and suddenly Bartz's vision got a whole new crystal clearer.

"Oh my god," Bartz gushed. He couldn't stop a smile from spreading to his ear nor his stomach from stirring up frantic giggles. "For real, Vaan? Wow, that was fast! The month literally just started!"

Finally, Vaan's finger had some moving bones. It made a weak, embarrassed curl to scratch his nose. Then Vaan laughed a quiet, shaky sound that got lost in a breeze. "Yeah . . ."

"Dude. Way to go, you got the badge." Bartz hovered out his chair only to land a quick blow to Vaan's shoulder. "So? Who was it? I mean, best that I know now so I don't ask the same person. You can spare me that awkward conversation."

Vaan's face wasn't getting any less colorful. He rubbed at it hard until his cheeks flashed white and back red again. "Ugh, fine," he groaned. "It was Aerith."

Bartz was frozen in a jaw-dropped grin. "No way. Aerith? The new girl?"

"Shh!" Vaan waved a fast, disheveled hand and mercilessly shushed him, even though Bartz was pretty sure no one else was up here. "Sheesh, can you keep it down, Bartz? Don't need the whole tower knowing."

"Sorry, sorry, just . . . Wow. You scored big, y'know that?" Bartz lowered his voice to a caterpillar crawl, smoothed back his static brown locks, and watched Vaan continue to melt into a puddle. Was Vaan really just that embarrassed? He hadn't cracked a real smile even once—there wasn't a single celebratory twitch in his body.

Just what's going on here?

"I mean, how did it go?" Bartz prodded.

Vaan's hands retreated back to his face, still burning so much Bartz was sure he could've seen the steam from ten miles out. "It was . . . a lot," Vaan croaked.

"A lot?"

"Yeah, like, it was way more than . . . just one kiss."

Now Vaan wasn't the only one getting overheated. Fire spread from Bartz's nose to his ears, and he leaned back in his chair with an air-cutting gasp. "Dude. Wait. Just what happened? Holy crap!"

Vaan cringed, snapped his head around wildly. "Calm down, would ya? Just let me explain, okay? Try to, at least . . ."

"Okay, then explain!" Bartz spoke through a breathless, giddy laugh. "Did you two go the whole nine yards?"

Vaan quirked up a sandy brow, but then he choked on air. "N-no. We didn't go the whole nine yards. But we . . . came close."

Bartz let his back collapse onto his chair again. He exhaled a slow, ant-sized whistle before casting his gaze above and around himself. His stomach was a butterfly flurry at the thought of Aerith and Vaan being anything closer than side by side at the dinner table, let alone sharing each other's lips and nearly melting to the point of no return. It was a sea he never thought they would cross—one he didn't have the guts to cross himself—and the breeze up here shifted about twenty notches warmer every time Vaan opened his mouth about it. The subject was constricting and strange and turned the whole balcony colors Bartz had never seen.

But that didn't stop him from leaning forward again, lacing his fingers together in inappropriate interest. "How close was it?"

"Like, this close." Vaan pinched his fingers together air-tight. Suddenly his aura eclipsed a shade darker, his rose glow shifting to a palette more frustrated, more straight-up done with the world. Vaan groaned out a sound like crunching stones. "Dude, I'm surprised I was even able to stop it. That was going way too far."

"You broke it up?"

Vaan just nodded, followed by a tiny "yeah" that didn't really have a voice. Again, he went to torture his face with more scrubs. Bartz was sure he'd rub himself down to bare bone if he let him.

A screech on the floor later, Bartz's chair was closer to Vaan's. Bartz's hand wasn't as warm as it was when he first got here, but he hoped it still radiated some kind of power—some kind of magic to comfort, to heal, to figure out the hell is going on here.

"You, uh, seem pretty down about this, though." Bartz claimed Vaan's arm, pulled it down so he could squeeze and massage his wrist. "I mean, shouldn't you be kinda beaming that a girl as cute as Aerith wanted to make out with you like that?"

"Yeah, well, that's the thing. I don't . . . I don't think she was doing it because she likes me." Vaan's voice lowered to the level of goosebump-worthy, so Bartz's hand froze, lost its purpose amidst this new dark haze.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Bartz's chest tensed, his chills tingled louder. "You think she just did it for her own pleasure or something?"

Vaan bristled. "Maybe. It just seemed really off." His head turned away, eyes locked on nothing and everything again, and Bartz could see for the first time just how exhausted Vaan was. His posture was a dead, crunchy leaf barely dangling on life, and his face was puffy and dark-rimmed from confused, restless thought-mazes. "I mean, yeah, we've talked other times before and they went just fine. But nothing ever happened between us that would ever lead up to . . . that. The more I thought about it, the more it didn't make sense." Vaan's gaze went upward and sideways, carefully picking his words out of a jumbled, thorny pile. "It kinda seemed like . . . even though she was kissing me, she was thinking about somebody else. Or something like that. That's just the vibe she gave off."

For a single, airless moment, Bartz watched Vaan cringe at his own words. And as far as words went, Bartz couldn't think of anything at least half-ass helpful to say. Nothing seemed right. Nothing seemed good or meaningful. One thing was for sure—this was not the time to spring out one of his old chocobo jokes. It's tempting . . . But no. Bartz didn't know Aerith that well, but he did know that if Vaan was right about what she did, that was pretty messed up.

"Ohhh. I see. Damn, I'm sorry, Vaan." Just those words alone seemed irritatingly useless, but Bartz spit them out anyway. "Even though it's just a challenge in the end, that kinda bites when something like that happens. Kinda takes away the whole better connection part."

For a second, Vaan seemed like he reeled to outer space and back—like memories slashed him from toe to head in a sickening frenzy. Then he blushed all over again, unleashed a growl that sent some rare Dissidia birds to places unknown. "Dammit! I hate this stupid badge challenge!"

"Well . . . at least you won't have to do it anymore?" The sentence rolled sheepishly off Bartz's tongue, with a lopsided grin to match.

"Yeah, but now that this happened, things are gonna be crazy awkward between me and Aerith." Vaan's sandy hair got manhandled by his crooked, strained hand. "Dammit. If I just hadn't given in like that . . . ugh. Yeah. I'm pretty much screwed."

Bartz never saw Vaan hang his head much, but today marked the calendar. His head looked way too heavy for his blood-drained hands, and all Bartz could do was rub Vaan's shoulder in hopeless little circles. Some clearing opened up in the layers of Bartz's mind. He all of a sudden didn't think this whole team bonding challenge was such a good idea anymore. If it could make someone as warm and sunny as Vaan turn as limp as a windless sky, what would it do to everybody else?

What would it do to Bartz?

The next day, Bartz and Vaan are on lunch-making duty. Little do they know, it's about to get awkward.

~

Among the usual afternoon bustle--distant chatter and sliding chairs--Bartz's shoes made crisp clicks against the floor. He flung the fridge open with a flourish that was probably too chirpy for something as tedious as lunch-making, but today, he wanted to be on-purposely happy if he could help it. With the stress of the team bonding challenge floating around, doing so seemed more important than ever.

"Alllright." Bartz started slinging various bottles and containers onto the counter. "We got mustard, we got mayonnaise . . . Oh, so who wanted bologna and who wanted cotto salami again?"

He arched a brow in the direction of a--oh boy--not-quite-feeling-lunch-duty Vaan. Vaan was leaned up against the counter so much, he might as well had been sleeping on it. Bartz blew some air, made himself cough.

Absently fiddling with a paper plate's sharp edge, Vaan finally jolted into gear. "Hm? Oh." He snatched a crunched up list from the side of his trousers. Lazy eyes darted sideways, up, and around on the list. "Umm . . . Well, we got way more bologna orders than salami."

"Oh. Well, that's helpful." With his teeth, Bartz tossed another package of bologna into his already overstuffed grip. He had cheese packs poking his forearms and several meat packs slipping by his waist.

"That's including you, Bartz," Vaan sneered with a lopsided grin. "If we run outta bologna, I'm blaming you."

Bartz smiled back with the same devilish shine. He shuffled awkwardly to some wider counter space, feeling his tights make bunches he'd never imagined. "And I'm gonna blame you if you don't move your ass and pick up that bologna I just dropped. Time's a-wastin'."

Vaan flashed his tongue for a quick, teasing second before stooping down to do as commanded. But the very second he rose up again, there was a new voice shading the kitchen.

"Hey Vaan."

It was the most calm, strawberry-frosted greeting in the world. So, the way that Vaan reacted with a wall-cracking shriek . . .

"Ah!!"

. . . was just about the craziest thing Bartz ever heard.

But it all made sense when he noticed the voice came from none other than Aerith Gainsborough. The kitchen lights turned her braids to caramel diamonds, and her emerald eyes lit up the space about a thousand notches more than what was probably legal.

She laughed a sound that was like flowers twirling in the wind. "Oh, sorry!" she said to Vaan. "I didn't mean to scare you."

"Aerith . . . Uh . . ." Vaan looked anything but cool and collected over there. He turned three shades paler in record time, then knocked a plate off the counter in an attempt to put more distance between them. A wild gaze made several zig-zags around him, searching for help and failing to find any. "Sorry, just remembered I gotta get ready for the next scout!" With a big, arm-crushing push off the counter, Vaan was going full-speed outta there. A few more plates found the floor, and soon Vaan's shout was a distant, heart-sinking breeze. "See ya, Bartz!"

It wouldn't do anything but rub salt in the wound, but Bartz found himself helplessly reaching out as Vaan zoomed away. It didn't take long at all for Vaan to be long gone, so now Bartz was left in the constricting rubble--with a rock-still Aerith staring blankly the way Vaan ran.

Bartz's entire body itched. Not knowing whether to cringe or laugh it off, he turned to Aerith's deflated form. "Uh . . . Sorry about . . ." He didn't even know what to call it, so he pointed a slumped finger. ". . . well, that."

"No, no, I'm . . . I'm sorry." Brows crinkled and head slouched, Aerith burned steady holes in the floor. The seconds that she spent pinching her dress fabric felt way longer than they should've. "Sorry, s'cuse me."

"Yeah, sure."

And there Bartz was. Alone. Left in the dust of both Vaan's and Aerith's departure.

Well. This was great. Not only were things crappier between Vaan and Aerith than Bartz anticipated, but now he was making sandwiches on his own.

Yep. He glazed over the busy counter, rubbed hard at his scalp. All several fricking bunches of 'em.

~ * Thank you for reading. * ~

Originally written: 2022-2023

Originally published on Wattpad