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Aqua scraped the flat of her knife along the top of the measuring cup, creating a perfectly straight line of flour. When she turned it into the bowl it held its shape like a sand castle atop the sea of batter. Aqua gently folded in the flour, and then reached for a measuring cup of melted butter to fold that in as well. The key to the perfect cake was folding in the ingredients to keep the batter fluffy, a fact Aqua knew well. She had been baking for almost as long as she’d been Master Eraqus’s apprentice, practicing recipes almost as often as magic.
At fourteen years old she could make roses out of icing, coat cakes in fondant and shape fruit from marzipan. From soufflés that never fell, to ice creams that always came out perfectly creamy, there wasn’t a dessert she couldn’t turn into a work of art. Baking had become second nature, and as she took up spatula to fold in the butter she was barely aware of her motions. What she liked about baking was the peace of mind it brought her. All she had to do was go through the motions, transforming raw ingredients into batter.
“Another cake?” came Terra’s voice. He plodded into the kitchen and pulled up a chair from the table, straddling it as he sat backwards to watch her.
“For Ventus,” she said. “So far his favorite thing is strawberries and we know he likes cake so I thought a short cake to celebrate him being up and around.”
Another nod., Terra was never much for conversation, not when something was bothering him anyway.
Aqua turned her attention back to her baking, pouring batter into the first cake tin, watching it to make sure she divided it evenly between the two pans. Once that was done, she turned back to him.
“I’m doing whipped cream for the icing instead of sugar,” she said. “It shouldn’t be too sweet.”
“I think I’ll pass,” he said. “Besides, it’s for Ven and he seems to have the same sweet tooth as you and the master. Feel free to make it as sugary as you want.”
“Ven?” she asked. “Still can’t say his full name?” She didn’t mean to tease him for it, not really.
“Not without lisping,” Terra admitted. A faint blush swelled in his cheeks. “But I think he likes the nickname, anyway.”
“It’s nice,” she agreed. “I’ll give him cake and you give him nicknames. Maybe together we can make him feel at home.”
“Do you think he feels home sick? Do you think you can feel homesick if you don’t remember where home is....” mused Terra.
Aqua smiled to herself as she slipped the cakes into the oven. Terra was opening up to her and maybe that meant he’d admit what had been bothering him.
“I think…” she took a deep breath, letting it out slowly as she closed the oven door. “It might be harder. Without memories nothing can remind you of home. Everything must be so unfamiliar to him.” She set a timer for twenty-five minutes then headed towards her friend.
“The Master says sometimes our Hearts make us forget to protect us,” said Terra, “if the memories are too much for the Heart to bear.” He closed his eyes, as if shutting them would block out how awful it was to think something that bad had ever happened to Ventus.
She joined him at the table. “You know it wasn’t your fault,” she said, “when he fell asleep. We both crowded him.”
“You weren’t the one the Master yelled at,” he snapped, and then paused, looking guilty for losing control of his emotions. He sighed, and said slowly, “I was stupid. I should have given him space.”
“You didn’t know what would happen. None of us did. I still can’t imagine what that boy must have been through to be brought to us in this state. Do you think Master Xehanort told Master Eraqus what happened?”
“Probably,” he said, “if he even knows. Maybe Master Xehanort just found him like that or else he would have protected him from…what happened.”
Aqua nodded, that made sense. Master Xehanort had probably saved him from something awful but come too late to keep any damage from being done. “Then when he saw how hurt Ventus was he brought him here to Master Eraqus.”
“And us,” said Terra. “Things will sure be different having a younger student around.”
“It will be awhile before he’s ready to train again,” Aqua mused. “If he-“”
“He’ll be fine,” Terra cut in.
His voice so firm it startled Aqua. She hoped he wasn’t mad at her for being pessimistic or maybe he was just worried for Ventus and that made him get a bit short.
“And we’ll be there to help him catch up,” Terra added, voice lighter now. It had that happy, hopeful ring like when he spoke about being a Keyblade Master someday. Aqua loved the way he sounded when he was confident, and was touched by his conviction to help their new guest.
“Yeah,” she agreed, “we will. It’s really sweet that you’re so eager to volunteer to help Ventus on top of your own studies.”
“Well I know I’d want someone to do that for me if I needed it.”
Aqua couldn’t help but laugh. “You hardly let me help you at all,” she pointed out. “You never listen!”
Terra crossed his arms. “Well maybe if you didn’t sound so condescending. We’re not all know-it-alls. Besides, there’s more to being a keyblade master than what you read about in books.”
“And how would you know if you never bother to read about any of the Old Masters?”
“Maybe I would if they weren’t so boring. You’d think it would be more exciting, but I guess only the really dry Masters bothered writing anything down. I’d rather practice training. Get my strength up. And I’ll help Ven do the same. You can help him study.”
“So we’ll all take care of him together,” said Aqua, grinning at him. It felt better to think on the future with hope than dwell on harder possibilities.
“He’s not a puppy,” Terra pointed out.
“I know,” she said, “but he needs us. We’ll be his friends and his senior apprentices so it will be our job – no our responsibility to help him follow in our footsteps. Then when he turns sixteen we can teach him to fly!”
“We don’t even know how to fly yet, Aqua,” said Terra. “Keyblade transformation is pretty advanced.”
“Well we’ll be Masters by then,” she said. “I’m sure of it!”
“You’re sure of a lot of things,” said Terra.
“It’s like with magic,” she said, “believing it will work is the first step. You said he'll be fine and you were right to say that. He needs us to have faith. I believe in Ven and us.”
It was Terra’s turn to laugh. “You’re calling him Ven now too,” he teased.
“It fits,” she stated, and then she fixed her gaze on Terra. “Let’s make a promise, you and me.”
“A promise?” he asked.
Aqua understood his surprise. A promise was a serious thing among keyblade apprentices. Some words held magic, combined with innate power and intention they could bring forthce unimaginable power. A promise was sort of like that. Not as flashy as commanding the elements or bending the laws of physics to your will, perhaps, but powerful none-the-less. A promise bound people’s very Hearts.
“To look after Ven,” she said. “I promise I’ll look after him, and be there whenever he needs.”
Terra nodded, a single serious nod in agreement. “I promise to help him,” he said. “To make him feel at home. No matter what happened in the past, he’s one of us now.”
Aqua smiled at him, then got to her feet. She had to whip up cream for the frosting and set it to chill. The cakes would be out of the oven soon enough and wouldn’t take too long to cool. “Do you want to help me decorate Ven’s cake?” she asked Terra.
“Not if you want it to look nice,” he said, “baking is more your thing. I’d just mess it up.”
“No you won’t,” she said, “come on, you cut the strawberries while I whip the cream. It’s easy, you just cut off the green tops and then slice them in half. I’ll need about seven cut in half for the top then the rest just sliced thin.”
“You don’t need my help,” he observed, getting to his feet all the same. “You have magic.”
“I’m not going to magic a knife to move on it’s own,” she said, “enchanting any inanimate thing to move on its own can be dangerous if you’re not careful. A broom can wreak havoc can you imagine a knife?”
“A broom? Really?” asked Terra.
“Master Eraqus once got a letter from Yen Sid about his apprentice, apparently he flooded the house.”
“With a broom?” asked Terra. “How does that even work? You know what, never mind. I don’t even want to know.” He raised his hands, palms flat in a ‘stop’ motion. After a moment he crossed his arms and glanced to the side as he continued to speak. “And I wasn’t saying you should enchant the knife. You could make those beaters spin on their own while you chop.”
“I could,” she conceded. “But it’s more fun if we do it together.” She took his hand, pulling him along, which she knew only worked because he allowed it. His hands were so much bigger than hers, covering them completely. She couldn’t help but notice how rough they were, callused no doubt from endless training. So much strength and yet, as she led him to the kitchen, he seemed as hesitant as a child. “I do like spending time with you, you know.”
He smiled at her and followed her back to towards the fridge, taking the bowl of strawberries when he handed them and headed towards the counter. Terra hadn’t helped Aqua in the kitchen very often. Aqua’s cooking was much too sweet for his tastes, so he didn’t exactly have an incentive to help, since neither icing coated beaters of the finished products held much temptation for him, but this was different. They were doing something for Ven. They were doing something together, because Aqua wanted him there.
Aqua felt the warmth from the oven behind her, but standing so close to her friend made her feel even warmer.
“See,” said Aqua, when he’d finished. “We make a good team!” She picked up one of his strawberry halves, dipped it in the whipped cream and brought it to her lips.
“Hey – now I have an uneven number,” he complained as she ate.
“No, it’s perfect,” she said, “eight berries halves for eight slices and then five left over to decorate the center. I can make a star out of fruit!” She moved to a supply drawer to get a icing bag and set it aside.
“If you say so,” said Terra. “Need anything else?”
She shook her head. “No,” she said, “but you can stay if you want.”
“Glad I have your permission,” he teased. All the same he stayed, right there in the kitchen leaning against the wall as she continued to whisk the whipped cream by hand. Occasionally he’d look up at her, meeting her gaze, his lips parting as if there was more he wanted to say only to look away.
Eventually he went to the cupboard and took out a couple of bowls to sort the strawberries into. One bowl for the thin sliced berries that would go in between the layers of sponge cake and one for the halved ones that would go on top. Meanwhile Aqua paused in her task of whipping the cream to fill a small saucepan with cold water from the sink. She sprinkled gelatin over the surface of the water and set it aside to dissolve for five minutes. When she reached over to pick up her bowl of cream again to continue whisking it Terra glanced at her again. As before he only held her a gave for a moment before looking away but this time actually spoke.
“Aqua,” he began, without looking up at her. Instead he stared intently at the ripe red fruit. “...I – before – I liked the way you described us as us.”
“Huh?” she asked, cocking her head to the side.
Terra turned to look at her again. “You called us an us,” he clarified, “like a team. Partners.”
“Well, aren’t we?” she asked, her gripped tightened on the bowl and she stopped stirring for a moment. Had she said the wrong thing? Had he taken it the wrong way? How had she meant for him to take it? They were friends. Classmates. Two lone students at the most incredible school in the world.
“We’re so different,” he said, “I know we both study under Master Eraqus but…I don’t know…I never really thought about it like that before, we’re Terra and Aqua, me and you, but now with Ven here we’re us. The two older apprentices here to make sure he’s ok. It just feels nice, being together on something. Or I guess…what I mean…having someone else with me on this. I think I’m actually starting to believe things will work out.”
“Did you really ever doubt it?” she asked. She set the bowl down and cupped her chin in thought. Terra was the one who’d cut her off when she’d doubted Ven’s potential recovery or had he snapped because he couldn’t bare to consider how bad things might be because it scared him. “Are you afraid?”
“When he fell asleep like that,” said Terra, “I don’t even think the Master was sure he’d wake up. I try to trust, and have faith but…it was hard not to be afraid. Afraid he’d never wake up. Afraid I’d done something to cause it. I have a talent for breaking things.”
In training Terra hadn’t always known his own strength. There’d been accidents. At one point he’d broken a wooden practice sword clean in half when he’d over extended a swing and hit the ground.
“Well he did wake up, and…” She fell silent for a long moment, trying to find the right words. “You... have bad luck... sometimes,” she admitted, “but you’re so good at trying! You try hard and always try for the right things. You want to practice hard. You wanted to make Ven feel welcome. But no matter how many times things don’t go quite as planned, you always keep trying. You always get better. When you broke your practice sword you made your own practice keyblade to replace it. I couldn’t do that, Terra.”
“Well maybe if it was made out of cake,” he joked.
“A keyblade made out of cake?” she asked, laughing despite herself.
“Or ice cream,” he said. “You could probably do it. Combine your talents: magic and sugar!”
“Imagine the look on Master Eraqus’s face if I showed him something like that.” Together the two of them laughed so hard they could barely breathe. Only the beeping of the over brought them out of their revelry. Aqua took a breath and reached for her oven mitts. She pulled out the golden sponge cakes, inhaling the aroma.
She set her cakes on the wrack to cool, then looked back at her friend. “I think I like it too,” she said.
It was Terra’s turn to give Aqua a questioning look.
“I like being an us.” She placed her sauce pan on the stove, turned the heat to low and plucked a wooden spoon from a nearby drawer to stir the mixture. She needed to stir it continuously, she needed the gelatin to just dissolve; as soon as it had she removed it from the heat. It would need to cool a bit before she could add it to her cream.
“What’s that powder for?” asked Terra.
“It’s gelatin,” she said, “like what we make jello out of but unflavored. A small amount mixed into the whip cream will make it stable enough to use as frosting.”
“Huh,” said Terra, “and all this time I just though whipped cream worked on it’s own.”
“Nothing works on it’s own. Everything is made up of lots of ingredients working together to form the perfect whole. Just like you and me, we hold each other up.”
“Leave it to a sugar addict like you to make everything about cake frosting,” he said, shaking his head for a moment before stopping to meet her gaze and smile at her. Aqua knew he didn’t much care for cakes, but she knew he cared for her and even if how she’d phrased it was silly what she said was true. All of them together were part of a larger whole, they supported each other - needed each other - and she wouldn’t have it any other way.