Let's jump in time for a very final act. Notes at the end~

"It's gone! I can't find it anywhere!"

Aqua was rummaging her whole room, frantic. Terra noticed and stopped in front of her door, concerned.

"Aqua? What's going on? What is gone?"

"My necklace! I can't find my necklace, I was sure it was on that drawer, but it's not! Have you seen it?"

He realised her hands were shaking really hard, and he came in, taking them in his.

"How about I look for it, and you sit and calm down for a moment? I'm sure you just left it somewhere else. I'll find it."

She nodded and sat on her bed, still shaking. He remembered what necklace she was referring to, for he had seen it a few times around her neck - she often used it as a lucky charm.

He felt a bit uneasy going through her things. They weren't kids anymore, and they had learnt about giving each other some privacy. So instead of opening her drawers (where she probably had looked a thousand times anyway) he moved to the bathroom.

"Ha-ha!" He exclaimed after less than five minutes. They had a tiny basket, next to the sink, where they would put all the accessories that were laying around, such as hairpins, hair ties, and so on. The necklace was on the bottom of the box. He took it and took a minute to look at it. It was a simple blue stone, but it was pretty. He always loved when Aqua wore it, it somehow made her shine even more.

"Aqua, guess what I found?" He grinned at her, showing her the necklace. Her face lit up. "Here, catch!"

He threw the jewelry at her. But she wasn't expecting this, and she didn't catch it. Time slowed down as they both watched the stone land on the floor - crash on the floor - explode on the floor.

And time completely stopped for Terra, frozen, his eyes going from Aqua to the stone to Aqua to the stone.

"I thought you would… Aqua, I'm…"

"It was my mother's." She very calmly said. "The last thing I had of her."

He had no idea what to do. Apologizing would seem stupid - there was no way a sorry would patch things up. He couldn't simply tell her he'd get her a new one, either - this wasn't any necklace.

"She made a promise, the day she gave it to me. It's a promise that I will come back. I guess I stupidly thought that as long as I had it, she could come back."

Terra's head was spinning. His heartbeat was ridiculously slow. What to do? His heart told him to hold Aqua in his arms, because she was sad. His brain told him that he was responsible for this and should stay away from her. And his body just wouldn't move at all.

"Terra, do you think you could give me some time alone, please? I… I think I need some me-time."

"Aqua, really, I'm… If you need anything, I'm next door."

She didn't answer, staring at the shards of blue cristal scattered on the floor.

"Could you close the door behind you? I will need to focus. No worries, it's daytime, I will be fine with the door closed."

He slowly left the room. She had not spared him a single glance.

Back in his room, he summoned his keyblade. After staring at it for a minute, he opened the window and threw it away. How could he ever be a Master when he was still so stupid? So immature? It was her most precious possession, and he threw it. Had he not matured a bit after all these years? Thinking everything was a game?

Of course, Earthshaker came back. It always did. And although he usually enjoyed this security, today it was just more frustrating than ever.

After an hour of dwelling on what happened, it was pretty clear she wouldn't call him. There was no sound on her room. All he could hope was that she wasn't curled in her bed, crying.

He softly knocked on the door.

"Hey, Aqua? I'm going downstairs for a while. Just… Come down if you feel like it, okay?"

There was no answer. He hesitated to open the door, to check on her, but he decided not to. She probably needed some room. She probably hated him right now.

He opened the door of the training room. Earthshaker in hand, he expressed his self-anger using violence. Hitting, slashing, cutting all the targets that would magically appear. Let the anger out, until he was worn out.

"Did something happen?" Asked Master Eraqus, appearing by the door.

"Master! Nothing, it's just…" He bit his tongue, angry his first instinct had been to lie. "I messed up, and now Aqua is angry at me."

"Oh?" The Master almost looked amused. "It's been a while. Have you apologized to her?"

"Not yet. I can't." Terra stared at his feet.

"Can't? Why is that?"

"I've done something… That won't be fixed with a simple apology. She has every right in the worlds to hate me."

"What could you possibly have done to deserve so much anger, then? I don't think Aqua is capable of hating anyone. Especially you."

With a sigh, Terra explained the story to his Master. Right now, he felt a child once again, telling what naughty things he had done to his friend and asking what he could do to atone for his sin.

"Do you want me to talk to her this evening?" Eraqus's offer somehow relieved Terra.

"If you don't mind, that would be very kind of you. Thank you, Master."

Eraqus laughed, leaving the room. "No matter how much they grow up, children will alway be children."

Eraqus went to talk to Aqua before dinner. But when he came back, she wasn't with him.

"I think she needs some time, Terra. Let's give her about as much time as she needs. She will go out once she's ready."

Terra nodded, the feeling of shame stronger than ever. When he left his Master to go to sleep, it was pretty late. There was still some light in Aqua's room. He gently opened the door, just half-opening it. There was no sound in the room.

"Aqua?"

He quickly glanced inside. She was sitting at her desk, her back facing him. She didn't react to his presence.

"Hey, I'm leaving the door open for the night. Goodnight."

He made sure to leave the light on the corridor on, and went to his bedroom, wondering if her silence was a sign of how angry she was.

She didn't leave the room the next day. Or the day that followed. Master Eraqus brought her some food, and insisted that she needed time. Terra was devastated.

As he was sitting at his desk, trying to focus on a history book, his eyes caught something on a shelf. A red book. His Apology Book. He had not used it since the beginning of their training. But perhaps all he needed right now was a bit of magic? He couldn't face her, he couldn't apologize because he wouldn't expect her to forgive him. But the book wouldn't be as judgemental. Taking a pen, he opened the book at an empty page.

I'm the worst. I broke Aqua's necklace by accident. It was her mother's. She spent three days locked in her room and she won't talk to me. I want to hold her in my arms and apologize for everything, because she's the one I love.

He scoffed. How easy it was to be so honest through a book. How easy it was to confess feelings that had started growing for more than a year.

They grew up together, and for a long time, she was a sister to him. But as they turned fifteen, he had come to realise that he didn't want to treat her as a sister anymore. That she was more than simply a friend. He had started to notice how pretty she actually was. How he loved when she smiled, when she laughed. How he always cared about what she would think of him, scared she would judge him. How it suddenly scared him to think that one day, once they were Masters, they would live in different worlds.

But of course, there was no way she would think of him that way, so he kept it all for himself.

And now…

Now there was no way she would even regard him as a friend.

"Terra? Am I… bothering you?"

He almost jumped out of his chair at her soft voice. He turned around, and there she was, standing at the door, dark circles under her eyes.

"Bothering? Aqua, you are never bothering me! How are you feeling?" He regretted the last question. Wasn't it obvious how she was feeling? Down, sad, angry?

"A bit tired, I must say. Could you help me with this?"

She showed something in her hand, and Terra gasped. It was the blue stone. Almost as good as new.

"Is that… but I…"

She chuckled. "It took me a while to repair it. Sorry I wasn't really communicative."

"I thought you hated me."

"Hate you?" She looked genuinely surprised. "Why would I hate you?"

"I'm the one who broke it… There's no word to express how terrible I feel, and I…"

"Oh no, Terra, I'm sorry!" She covered her mouth with her hand, and then he was the surprised one. What could she be apologizing for? "For these three days, you thought that I was… No! I was just really focused on repairing it, but… Why would I hate you for that?"

"Well, it's your mother's necklace, and you said…"

"I'm the one who didn't catch it! You haven't done anything wrong! When it broke, I'll admit I was sad. But it also made me realise that it was time to let go of that promise. To turn a page that should have been turned long ago. I'm so terribly sorry you thought I was angry. I could never get angry at you. And look, it's fixed now."

She showed the necklace once again, and he carefully helped her putting it on.

"And are we? Are we fixed?"

She laughed. "I don't think such a weak event could break our connection, Terra. Terra?"

He had thrown his arms around her, hugging her from behind.

"Don't ever scare me like this again, Aqua. My heart won't survive it."

She smiled, leaning against him. "I'm sorry. Thank you for opening my door when night came. I didn't react, but it meant a lot to me."

They both fell silent, letting this embrace last probably longer than what it should have, their hearts racing in their chest, unaware that the feeling was mutual.

Terra quickly glanced at the open notebook on his desk.

My magic always works, had once said Eraqus, on the first time they used this notebook.

Terra had to admit that in ten years, never once had it failed him.

Fin

It's done. It's over. Whenever I start posting a long fic (as I often know how long they will last), I'm thinking "this is going to end in forever". When I wrote my posting schedule, thinking that I had a fic that would take until May, MAY, sounded so far away. And now, here we are. We reached forever, I guess? Since I started this fic, we've been granted an extra trailer. Some lucky people had the opportunity of playing a demo of KHIII. E3 is less than a month away. So many things happened, it's quite crazy. I have not been waiting for KHIII for as long as many of you, I suppose, but I'm really excited about the upcoming game, and really happy to be part of this community. I've heard that it can be toxic, but I've never stumbled across toxic people around here, so I guess I'm pretty lucky :D

Thank you so much for your kind words, thank you so much for reading this fic, whether you left reviews or not. I remember that time when I was watching a stream and someone told me they were reading this fic, that made me so happy, so hi to you :D There are more multi chaps fics to come, more one shots, more everything, so stay tuned, and once again thank you for your love and support throughout these 15 (FIFTEEN) weeks!