Good morning/evening/night/whatever ! Hope you are having a wonderful day!
This is a new fic, that was meant to be a succession of drabbles, but I'm terrible at drabbles so it actually will pretty soon turn out in an actual story with short chapters. Meh! Whatever! If you dislike it you can leave, I don't mind, although I hope you will actually enjoy it.

A bit of context : This is an AU, in which Master Xehanort did not corrupt Terra after the Test of Mastery. Terra was probably a bit angry at failing but hey, he's living with it now (which is a good reaction. Don't let failing something lead you to trust creepy old man and fall into darkness). Therefore, Master Xehanort is still the bad guy with Vanitas 'working' for him and Eraqus is still the g... sorry no I can't say that I don't even believe in it, so Eraqus is still Eraqus and everything. They just are not in an open war or something, Xehanort made clear his plan was to forge the X-Blade... Eventually... Someday. And Vanitas really enjoys trying to hurt/kill/piss off our lovely trio of main characters. So both camp would fight upon bumping into each other but they wouldn't come to the Land of Departure/Keyblade Graveyard to kill everyone.

Perhaps that's confusing, but I'm sure that by reading the fic you'll get the universe pretty well.

TL;DR : Xehanort doesn't wish for Terra's body anymore, Eraqus's students and Vanitas still fight, but that's probably just to keep their days busy and interesting.

Without further ado, and after kindly reminding you that I do not own KH, please enjoy your reading!

In the Land of Departure, there was a special spot Aqua really enjoyed. It was close enough from the castle to retreat in case of rain, and yet far enough not to be bothered by the screams of the boys training. It was her secret place, a quiet clearing where she could lie down and read a book, meditate, or even just look at the sky.

However, she had the surprise that day to discover that someone was already there. Lying on the grass, curled into a ball, Vanitas had not noticed her yet. She called his name with a soft voice, startling him.

"What are you doing here? I don't remember seeing Master Xehanort around."

He clicked his tongue in annoyment. "I'm not his puppy. I can go wherever I want without him. Actually, I just wanted some peace, away from him. Did not expect anyone to come here in midday."

Aqua then noticed he was clutching his side. She was not fond of the boy, who would always try to pick fights with just anyone (and she was the only one clever enough to never answer to his provocations), but she did not hate him either.

"Are you hurt? Did... Did Master Xehanort do that to you?"

"Why would you care? I fought, I lost, the old man is angry and I left to stop hearing his annoying voice. End of the story."

"But why didn't you cure yourself?" When he remained silent, she sighed. "You never learnt how to use Cure, did you?" Another silence. She started wondering if he actually had fallen asleep – hard to tell with that helmet. "Not even a Potion? … Fine. Let me cure you, at least."

He did not answer, but he removed his hand from his side. She winced. The gash wasn't deep enough to endanger his life, but it must be incredibly painful. She placed her hands above the wound and let her magic work. The cut slowly closed, and she could see from how he tensed it must be an incredibly unpleasant feeling.

"Now that I'm all fixed up, I guess I should go back to him..." He sounded really reluctant, so when he tried to get up, she put a hand on his shoulder.

"I think you need some rest. It's a beautiful day, so how about you take a nap here? You can go after you've rested. Perhaps his anger will be gone with time?"

He chuckled. "If you think that, you don't know a damn thing about that geezer. But yeah, I could use some sleep, actually. However, wouldn't your master be angry at you if he found out you helped me? We both know he hates me."

"He doesn't hate you, Vanitas" she said, even though they both knew that was a lie. "He just... disagrees on how Master Xehanort is raising you. But anyway, what he doesn't know cannot hurt him, right?"

"Be careful, Aqua, thinking that way might lead you straight to the Darkness."

She smiled as she lied down next to him, crossing her arms under her head. "You might be right. I'll make sure to do even more kind things to compensate, then, and I will be safe."

She heard a soft chuckle, muffled by his helmet.

After a moment of silence, his breath became louder, more regular. She stared at the clouds for a while, thinking of how everything would have been different if Master Eraqus had taken care of Vanitas as well as Ventus, then slowly fell asleep as well.

When she woke up, the sun was setting, and she was alone. However, when she looked next to her, where the boy had been sleeping, she noticed an Ether bottle that clearly did not belong to her. She smiled as she took the bottle and got up. Amused, she whispered to herself as she walked home. "Be careful, Vanitas, acting that way might lead you straight to the Light."

TL;DR : No. This time go read the damn chapter.
Anyway that's it for the first one, that was meant to be a drabble! Next chapter will follow up soon, in a few days. Feel free to leave a review!