Gummiphone - Terraqua Week 2019
Challenge : #TerraquaWeek Day 1 Word count : 1200 Read on FFNet - AO3
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Aqua’s messages were the surest way to brighten Terra’s day. Like a child with a brand new toy, he’d check out his phone every minute to see if she had written to him. So, obviously, as soon as he heard the device buzz, he rapidly unlocked it.
“DO.YOU.THINK.WE.SHOULD.REDECORATE.THE.CASKET”
He smiled. The phone buzzed.
“???”
He gave her another couple of minutes.
“CASKET.”
“CASKET.”
“CASTLE”
“I.MEANT.CASTLE.I.SWEAT.”
“SWEAR”
He bit his lip to not laugh. Since Riku gave them these phones, explaining how convenient it would be for them to communicate with everyone, even if they were worlds apart, Aqua had been trying her hardest to understand the device. Terra was sometimes a bit slow at writing messages (why wasn’t the keyboard in alphabetical order? That made no sense), Ven was a natural who could switch between posting pictures, playing games and texting everyone, but Aqua was… struggling would be an understatement. Ven had put shortcuts for her to call Riku, Terra and himself, and had taught her how to send messages ; but not only she always wrote in capitals with dots rather than spaces, her worst enemy was now autocorrection. Which meant it was Terra and Ven’s greatest joy. The would never confess to her how much fun they had at her messages, as they didn’t want to embarrass her, and Terra suspected Ven knew exactly how to turn autocorrect off and simply never offered to. But Aqua would send them messages even if they were in the same world, and every single one of her text was really dear to Terra - or DEAD, as she once wrote. “YOU.ARE.MY.DEADEST.FRIENDS.” . Terra had laughed for a whole week. Suspecting she might be in the hall, he put the phone back in his pocket and slowly started to go there.
He had missed this casket-castle- a lot, but the whole place would have been meaningless without his friends by his side. Ven could lighten up any situation, any moment of tension, with a joke, a story, or a smile. And Aqua… Terra had never met someone so strong. She had spent years, over a decade, all by herself, with no certainty she would ever come back. Ven had been sleeping, and Terra’s experience had felt somehow like a dream as well, but she had memories of every single day, and yet she still would get up in the morning, she would keep on living as she always did, she would smile and laugh and smile some more, as if being back with them fixed all the bad things that had happened. He admired her so much.
And currently, he was admiring her staring at the empty wall of the empty hall, noticing the crease between her brows as she was frowning.
“So, whose casket are we talking about? Not mine I hope? I wish to apologize for anything I did wrong, please don’t bury me yet.”
Starting, she looked at him. “I meant castle. I don’t understand this darn thing. How can Ven say it’s faster?”
“Wow, Aqua swearing? I must be dreaming.”
“Oh, be quiet, you. I need practise, that’s all. I’ll get the hang of it somehow.”
Terra smiled, walking to her. “Of course you will. Redecorating, you said?”
“Yes. I was thinking about putting Master’s Eraqus’ portrait here. That way, he’ll be able to overview our training. To be here when you become a Master.”
“No pressure at all,” Terra grumbled. “But of course. Anything you wish.”
“And I was thinking about removing these paintings in his study. I know he loved them a lot, but…”
“Thank goodness, I’m not the only one to think they were terrifying.”
Aqua laughed. “I used to have nightmares as a kid because of them.”
“Let’s burn them. I’m sure he won’t be mad. Any other arrangement, Madame?”
“I was thinking of more flowers. This place could use more life. And perhaps…” She nibbled her lower lip. “What about pictures?”
“Pictures? You mean like the Master’s portrait?”
Terra was surprised, but Aqua shook her head. “I meant something more… Actual, I guess? Pictures of us. Of our friends, too! Souvenirs from places we’ve been to. Memories of happy times.” She smiled sadly. “There are days when I could use that.”
Terra nodded vigorously. “I definitely agree. I need a wall full of pictures of Ven doing silly faces for every day I’m feeling down. And of course of pictures of you. This Casket’s only Master.”
“Stop it!” She laughed, gently punching his shoulder. “If you don’t I’m going to draw on every picture of you and the world will be convinced you actually are missing a tooth and have eyebrows the size of your forehead!”
They both laughed for a minute, until Aqua clapped her hands. “Now that I think of it! Ven showed me how to use the camera for… what did he called it? shellfish? selfish? selfies! Let’s take one, this will be our first picture!” She started tapping on her phone. “Now, where was it… He said to click on the camera picture… Then to click on the arrow… Ah, there it is! Goodness, how many chins do I have?” She took the camera higher, sighing. “There, better. All we have to do is… What was it again? Oh, right, touch the circle here!” Terra watched her tenderly as she was trying to remember it all. “Come on, Terra, stand next to me! This is our first picture, it has to be good!” And so the young man came right by her side, positioning himself to be in the frame.
“Ready? On three. One, Two…”
But when three came, Terra swiftly leaned towards her, putting his lips on her cheek and his hand at her waist. The click from the phone told him his timing had been perfect. Aqua’s cheeks were now a lovely shade of pink, and she was staring at Terra in great shock - but from what he could tell by her eyes, she wasn’t displeased. Of course she wasn’t. They both were well aware of these feelings they never spoke of.
“Te-Terra! What did you… What if the picture is blurry? I don’t know how many pictures I can do with this, we can’t risk having them to be bad! I didn’t even ask Ven how we develop them!”
Terra burst out laughing, giving her another kiss while taking her phone from her hand.
“See that little picture here? If you click on it, you will see your pictures. Here, look, it’s not that bad, is it?”
And it really wasn’t bad at all. On the picture, Aqua was still smiling, her eyes opened why from the surprise, her cheeks barely pink at all yet ; and Terra’s eyes did nothing to hide his love and joy to be by her side.
Aqua smiled, leaning on him with a sigh. “Let’s ask Ven how we develop this one. This is going to be my most cherished treasure.”