May Your Heart Be Your Guiding Key Until We Meet Again - OTA

[aquawayfinder]

Open/locked?: Open
Who: Aqua and whomsoever finds her
What: Noticing her friends are missing
Warnings: Angst, sadness, possible war mentions. Kingdom Hearts nonsense.


Aqua was concerned when Æn'kae did not show up for morning lessons. She ran her class of course, planning to look for him after. Sadly, she couldn't find him. She waited until later in the day to check with Rren, and found them gone as well.

She'd seen this before, friends vanishing from a hub world, with no warning. So this was not a first. But still, it was a sad thing, and she would miss them.

Aqua was the Master of her emotions, not the other way around, but she was Master by way of actually feeling her feelings. So she could be found in the afternoon, once again up on the roof of the school, legs crossed, eyes closed as she meditated through her feelings. But she was willing to speak to anyone even while meditating, or while searching. And of course she always had time for her students in morning class.

Comments

[hotheadwarmheart]

"Sure," Lea said, getting back to his feet. "Any particular spell you wanted to start with? Aside from fire magic, I already know the basic Aero, Blizzard, and Cure spells."

[aquawayfinder]

"Cure spells are always useful to have on hand, so we can work with those to start. I also like spells like Aero. Other than the Cure tree, were you looking to learn new spells specifically or to strengthen those you know?"

And given how he reacted to Roxas' little stunt, she suspected he'd enjoy this next bit. She summoned her Keyblade and tossed it onto the air, turning it into the glider. "Want to take a short cut down?" Of course as she did learn from Roxas... and from Link... if he said yes, she was encasing them both in her armor. She doubted he'd jump off for the fun if that meant dragging her down with him.

[hotheadwarmheart]

Well how was Lea supposed to pass up an invitation like that? He walked over next to the glider, looking at it then down at the frosty ground, making a show of considering. As a matter of fact though, he was indeed doing a bit of mental figuring. Just... not about the glider.

"Sounds like a great idea," Lea said, grinning. But instead of hopping onto the glider, he hopped up on the parapet, crouching there long enough to snap off a jaunty two-fingered salute to her. "See ya down there!" And then he jumped, using his long legs to kick off from the wall and arc out into open air. Just as his leap was about to turn into a plummet, he pointed his palm straight downward and shouted, "Aero!" The gust of wind the spell produced bounced him slightly upward allowing him to slow his descent and continue his more gentle arc to the ground. Twice more he did this, creating a path of air cushion 'stepping stones' form himself, until he finally landed safely in a superhero-landing pose, grin still firmly in place.

[aquawayfinder]

"LEA!" she cried out, speeding her glider after him. She was terrified, but being a Master meant doing what she had to despite that fear. She timed her leap, planning to catch him in midair and wrap them both in her armor. But just as she leapt off the Glider, he cast Aero.

Which meant she overshot. Her Glider just missed his head and she... was free falling to the ground.

she managed to get har armor around herself seconds before impact, landing hard on her side. Her glider tumbled down after her, turning back into her Keyblade to slam into the ground, inches from her head, before vanishing.

[hotheadwarmheart]

The grin didn't last long as he heard the crash not far away. He got to his feet and raced over to Aqua's side, moment of triumph forgotten. "Aqua?! Aqua, can you hear me?" No response.

No, no, no! This was bad! With that armor on he couldn't see how hurt she might be, and didn't dare try to remove it to check in case than answer was 'badly'. Only one thing to do then. He held out his palm to her and cast a hasty spell. "Cure!" Aqua's form was briefly wrapped in a soft green light as the healing magic did its work, but there was no other obvious change.

Lea grimaced, tried to focus, remembering what Vexen had taught him when learning the spell. Healing magic worked best when the caster was calm. Good luck with that right now, he thought, but took a deep breath, trying his best to steady himself and draw extra power into the spell for his second application. "Cure!" Again Aqua was briefly surrounded in soft green light, a little brighter this time.

At first it seemed to have no effect, but as he readied himself for a third cast, Aqua finally stirred. "Aqua?", he said, concerned and hopeful. "You back with me?"

[aquawayfinder]

She gave a small groan, then a shudder so bad it could be seen even with the armor. There were small sounds coming from inside the armor, but too muffled to be made out.

[hotheadwarmheart]

Well a groan was a sign of life at least. "Hang on, don't try to move just yet," he said. Then once more he held out his palm toward her. "Cure!" Once more Aqua was enveloped in soft green light, and this time might actually be somewhat conscious to feel the healing magic doing its work.

[aquawayfinder]

"Ju... Just... give me... a moment...." she said, voice barely able to be understood through the metal. But even with that, he'd be able to hear the tremble in her voice; even if he couldn't hear the gasping shuddery breaths that were the cause of the gaps in her speech.

[hotheadwarmheart]

Speech! So she was mostly conscious at least. But still sounding pretty rough. "One more, I think," Lea said. "Cure!" For hopefully the final time he extended his palm toward her and saw her enveloped by soft green light.

[aquawayfinder]

"A...a mome...ent.." she managed to get out. She didn't need him wasting all his energy on spot heals. She needed to get herself together.

[hotheadwarmheart]

Lea was about to protest, but after a moment nodded and sat back back on his heels, watching her worriedly. Though it had probably been very lucky she'd managed to summon the armor, he wished it wasn't in the way currently so he could better gauge what was going on with her.

[aquawayfinder]

It took her several minutes before she managed to roll over to lay more comfortably on her back. "S... sorry..."

[hotheadwarmheart]

"You gonna be OK now?", Lea said. "Physically, I mean. All I've got is the basic Cure spell, but enough of them will still get the job done. Eventually."

[aquawayfinder]

"Yeah... why... don't you get something... from Mallia... to replenish... all that magic... I'll join you...soon..."

[hotheadwarmheart]

Lea shook his head. "I'm alright," he said. "But you don't seem like you should be left alone right now."

[aquawayfinder]

"I'll... be okay...." she said, trying to force that into being true.

[hotheadwarmheart]

"No offense, Aqua, that that's probably the least convincing lie I've ever heard," he said. "It's OK to not be OK, ya know? To not be the big, strong, in control Master. I'll wait here with you as long as it takes." He had some thing he needed to say to her, but... not til she was OK.

[aquawayfinder]

"Not.. a lie... Didn't say when..."

But if he wasn't going to leave then she had to pull herself together. For him if not for herself. She had to. She just... needed a moment to find her center again.

[hotheadwarmheart]

"Well now I know you're doing a little better," he said giving a bit of a wry smile. "You're trying to argue technicalities with me."

"Seriously though, take as long as you need. No need to try and rush yourself. I've played 20 Thousand Questions and dealt with what seems like just as many panic attacks with Xion; I can be patient."

[aquawayfinder]

"I am a Master..." she said slowly. Taking deep breaths. "That means that if I really had to... I could push through this. But since I don't... I know... giving myself the time... is better than to force it..."

Feel free to skip to her feeling better.

[hotheadwarmheart]

"Exactly," Lea said. He then sat back on the ground and waited.

Okay

[aquawayfinder]

It took her several minutes of quiet and focus to pull herself together enough that she could, laying on her back, cast a Cureaga that finished the healing. She took a deep breath then vanished both her Keyblade and her armor. The later had the unsettling motion of all but crawling into he arm band in a way that wasn't quite usual Keyblader magic.

She pushed herself up to sit crosslegged. "I appologize for my weakness," she said, formally.

[hotheadwarmheart]

"Eh, don't worry about that," Lea said waving off her apology. "Happens to everybody sometimes."

"I'm more wondering about what caused it in the first place. What even was that move you pulled? I mean I thought I was supposed to be the reckless one out of the two of us."

[aquawayfinder]

"I..."

If she was going to teach him, he deserved to know.

"I wasn't certain I would be made Master when I was. I thought that I had an exploitable weakness that would prevent it. I have a fear of heights. Of falling. My Master told me that it wasn't having a fear or not having fears that made a Master, it was if the fear would Master me, or if I could, when I need to, master the fear. To save someone I can do what I need to, despite being afraid. Once the danger is over, however, it... sometimes takes me a bit to find my center again. I can push it aside for a time, if I need to, but resolving it sooner rather than later is better for everyone when I can do it without harming others. When I saw what looked like you falling... My fear of you getting hurt was worse than my fear of heights. But once you were okay and I had fallen..."

A deep breath.

"Mastery takes constant work, even after passing the exam. Clearly I still have more work to do."

[hotheadwarmheart]

Lea quirked an eyebrow. "Well I was originally just gonna take the stairs," he said, "but then you suggested finding a faster way down. And since the glider is your thing, I thought you meant for me to find my own way. Besides, you don't really think I'm dumb enough to just jump off a roof like that without a plan, do you?"