Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/
works/6090778.
  Rating:
      Explicit
  Archive Warning:
      Underage
  Category:
      Multi
  Fandom:
      Kingdom_Hearts
  Relationship:
      Aqua/Terra/Ventus
  Character:
      Aqua_(Kingdom_Hearts), Terra_(Kingdom_Hearts), Ventus_(Kingdom_Hearts)
  Additional Tags:
      keyblades_are_part_of_your_soul, keyblades_are_tied_to_your_body_and
      touching_them_has_a_matching_effect, I_have_no_fucking_idea_what_to_tag
      this_I'm_sorry, lookit_this_buncha_virgins, teenagers_trying_to_be_good
      at_sex, is_probably_not_a_tag_I'll_only_use_this_once_let's_be_real,
      wayfinders_find_out_that_keyblades_are_giant_extra_erogenous_zones, and
      exploit_this_fact_disastrously, but_like, y'know, in_a_loving_way
  Stats:
      Published: 2016-02-23 Words: 6046
****** Look, But Don't Touch ******
by deathrae
Summary
     The Keyblade is an extension of your soul, they were taught. It's a
     part of you. A deep, intrinsic fragment of your self made manifest.
     Do not touch another warrior's keyblade, they were taught.
     But Eraqus never told them why.
Notes
See the end of the work for notes
Do not touch another warrior's keyblade save with armored glove.
It was one of the first lessons they had ever been taught, after Guard yourself
against the darkness and Give the darkness no quarter in your heart or on the
battlefield.
Terra remembered the lesson with a certain, not insignificant amount of shame;
Aqua, with solemn reverence. He remembered that day well, so long ago and when
he was so very small... He remembered holding out his hand expectantly with his
eyes squeezed tight to focus, starting to feel just a little silly, when
suddenly there was weight in his hand of metal and leather and his fingers
curled instinctively around the grip. The sudden weight felt so right in his
hand, and there was a hum of power in his hand and a song in his mind that the
keyblade—no, his keyblade—sang triumphantly in his mind. It was the first time
he'd ever reached for that rumble in his heart and felt it answer, felt it
surge toward his outstretched hand and materialize as a real, heavy object.
Aqua's face when she summoned her own was burned into his memory, the light in
her eyes of surprise, then joy, then excitement as she realized what had
happened. He could only assume his face had looked the same.
His delight at their mutual success filled him up, made his heart jump like it
would burst, and he reached out to touch hers, wondering if it would feel the
same, if the delicate central bar like wrought iron would be different from the
heavy coppery beam in the center of his own.
But Master Eraqus' voice snapped out like a whip just before his fingers
touched her blade.
“No!” he had snapped, and Terra had jerked his hand back instinctively, as if
the word had burned him, and he looked up at the Master with a gasp falling
from his mouth.
Master Eraqus' hand had followed, taking Terra's wrist and pulling him back an
extra pace, as if Terra might have been tempted to try again.
“Terra,” he said, his voice gentling slightly, though his grip was like steel.
It hurt. “Aqua,” he added, glancing to the girl, who was looking up at him in
utter confusion, almost afraid, but listening raptly to him. “You must never
touch another keyblade than your own.”
“I-I'm sorry,” Terra babbled, the words choking in his throat. Why is the
Master still holding my arm? This isn't fair! “I didn't know—”
“Ah—” Master Eraqus suddenly released him, as if he had only just realized he
had gripped so tight as to leave a slight red mark on Terra's skin. "Yes. I
apologize. I should have told you before.” He stiffened, standing a little
straighter. “Now. Dismissing your blade.”
The lesson continued without further discussion of what had happened, but Terra
could feel Aqua's gaze on him now and then, and he knew, just knew, that she
had seen the burn of shame on his face from the sudden scolding.
He knew she must've been bursting with opinions, or theories, or questions
perhaps, but she didn’t bring it up that night, and for a long time he let the
issue slide out of his mind. But every now and then, throughout the years that
followed, he would lie in bed after lights-out and call his blade to hand. He'd
run his fingers along the metal, wondering why, why had the Master acted so
strangely, wondering what it would feel like to have someone else touch the
smooth lines and jagged edges. Nothing strange happened when he touched it,
other than the low hum of energy and excitement he could feel from the blade, a
crackle of shared emotion that connected it to him, that kept it rooted in his
hand, a thrum of power that echoed from the blade to a place deep in his chest.
Still, the years passed, and eventually two became three...and little by little
Aqua and Terra coaxed the light of life and happiness back to Ventus' eyes. And
one day, on a lazy afternoon in the library while they were studying magic,
Aqua finally mentioned the incident with the Master.
Ven, Ven with his head of fluffy blonde hair and his sad, vacant eyes, was
sitting in a window seat, one foot resting against a pillow while the other
dangled off to the side.
Terra, bored to tears of reading about the various nuances of a properly
applied esuna spell, was chewing on the inside of his cheek and carefully
poking Ven’s toes with a pen, seeing if he could make the boy respond in any
way. Now and then a carefully aimed poke earned a little kick and twitch, and
it took all he had not to laugh.
Aqua’s voice broke the silence, though—to his great surprise—not to tell him to
stop.
“Terra,” she started, and he snapped his head up, about to apologize. “I just
read something interesting.”
“Huh?” he asked, looking over at her. She was nose-deep in a book, her hair
forming a pale blue curtain around her face.
“This says that letting someone handle your keyblade is a gesture of trust and
deep, unassailable friendship.” She tilted her head up to look at him, so that
her mouth was barely an inch from the pages.
He didn’t want to admit he had no idea what “unassailable” meant, and instead
just chuckled uncomfortably. “What are you even reading? I mean, don’t you
remember? The Master said you’re never supposed to touch someone else’s.”
She nodded, thoughtful, then looked down at the page again. “Yeah...I guess
so.”
She dropped it, and for a long time, so did he.
 
“Hey, Ven,” Terra asked once, lying on a bench and fighting to catch his
breath, his knuckles brushing the dirt. Aqua sat nearby with her knees
together, looking rather less winded than the boys.
Ven was lying on the ground, his feet propped up on top of Terra’s legs on the
bench. “Yeah?” he said, tilting his head over to see Terra. He let his arms
flop out on the ground, his wooden blade leaving a little divot in the earth by
his hip.
“How come you hold it backhand like that?”
Ven looked over at his sword, as if he were only just now noticing it, then
shrugged, stirring up dirt around his shoulders.
“I dunno,” he said, looking over at Terra with a grin. “It just...feels right,
you know?”
“Huh,” Terra said, glancing over to him. “You go by feel?”
Aqua chuckled. “Oh don’t sound so surprised,” she said. “So do you! You just
don’t notice you’re doing it.”
He wrinkled his nose. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means,” she said, reaching up to poke the tip of his nose, “You mostly go
off the forms the Master teaches us, but you change them now and then when you
feel like it should be different. And you always say the same thing—”
“I don’t see—”
“You ‘just know’ it should be this other way.”
“That’s different, Aqua!” he protested, and Ven, lively, bright-eyed Ven who
was so very unlike the empty husk he had once been, laughed and laughed, light
and airy and sweet.
 
For a time the Master taught the group of them together, but as they got a
little older, it became more and more common for the Master to leave them to
their own devices, allowing Aqua and Terra to oversee the training and the
sparring. He trusted them to keep injuries to a minimum—and to mend the few
that slipped through—and to keep the group as a whole focused on their work.
Aqua was a diligent but compassionate taskmaster, and Terra found that he liked
teaching an awful lot, especially once Ven had come so much more to himself,
and even started asking questions, forcing them to stay on their toes and
actually think about what they said and did.
It was on one such day, however, when the Master was elsewhere to resolve some
decisively ordinary errand, that Terra learned the answer to his longtime,
near-forgotten why.
Because Ventus had come to them as an apprentice in his own right, with—they
assumed, as he'd never yet called it where they could see—a keyblade of his
own, it had never occurred to Terra to question if Ven had been taught the
basic precepts like they had.
Guard your heart against the darkness.
Give the darkness no quarter in your heart or on the battlefield.
Do not touch another warrior's keyblade.
Later he would wonder how it had never come up before.
He was sparring with Ven while Aqua watched studiously from the sidelines,
observing stance and form and weakness. She was standing nearby, a hand cupping
her chin as she watched them move. Terra swung over and over, his blade always
skimming just shy of Ventus' shoulders or head or chest as the boy dodged and
rolled and swept around him in circles, using little bursts of air not to
attack, but to push himself just out of reach. In turn, each of Ven's returns
met Terra's heavy parry, the sturdy wood of Ven's practice sword pulling solid
thwacks from Terra's keyblade as it struck over and over, never quite making it
all the way through to hit Terra himself.
Terra pushed Ven back, making the younger boy skid on the dirt and laugh,
spinning his blade in his hand.
“Aw come on, Terra, you've gotta get tired some time, right?” he called out.
Terra laughed in response, backing up a step as he watched Ven, his chest
heaving for air. He dragged his hand across his forehead before sweat could
drip in his eyes, and briefly noted Ven mirroring the gesture. He could smell
the raw earth and a touch of saltwater on the breeze, could hear Aqua's soft
laugh and Ven's heavy breaths. Just for a moment, he let himself feel, and a
familiar sensation of joy curled in his heart, so pleased to be sharing the
warm afternoon with his two friends.
“I could say the same to you!” Terra called back, settling back into a guard
position as Ven ran forward, spinning his blade again.
He knew this move. It was one of Ven's favorite feints, to keep his blade
spinning and moving so you were never quite sure where it was going to be. He
watched Ven's hands, instead, looking for the telltale flick...
Light reflected off something off to the side. Aqua's boots? A bit of marble?
Ven's necklace? He wasn't sure. But for just a second, he blinked, and Ven's
blade caught on his own, twisting to finish a spin, and Terra's blade ripped
free from his hand and bounced across the earth.
“Ha!” Ven crowed, leaping into the air in triumph. “Yes! You blinked!”
Terra laughed and stepped back, wiping his face with one hand. “You watched me
blink?”
“That was really impressive, Ven!” Aqua said from the sidelines, grinning.
“Thanks!” he said, jogging over to where Terra's keyblade was lying on the
ground, to retrieve it. “You were blocking it all day, but I was pretty
sure...”
For a moment, time seemed to slow. Ven reached down, fingers stretching to
scoop up Terra's keyblade, and in the space of half a breath, he realized what
was about to happen. Terra stepped forward, raising a hand to stop him, and
Aqua matched him, the words “Wait, Ven—!” falling from her lips just as Ven's
fingers closed around the metal.
Ven turned and stood, confused, Earthshaker snugly in his hand. “What? Why?”
An impossible sensation flooded through Terra's body, starting deep in his
chest where the keyblade's power lived, and radiating outward like fire. He was
dimly aware that he had collapsed to his knees, that Aqua was holding his
shoulders to keep him upright. There was noise. Maybe she was asking him
questions? He could barely hear her over a ragged, repetitive sound that he
belatedly realized was his own breath echoing in his ears, hoarse and
deafening.
Ven ran forward, gripping Earthshaker even tighter—probably to keep from
dropping it—and Terra could feel it as a pulse through his whole body.
With a horrible flush all the way up to his face, and with choking shame in his
throat, Terra realized he knew exactly what this sensation was, recognized it
from the times when his body was full of warmth and energy, when everyone else
was asleep and he let his hands wander under his blankets. He knew all too well
this raging heat running through his whole body, setting his skin to an
electric crackle and pooling low in his hips.
A low whimpering sort of noise escaped his lips before he clapped a hand over
his mouth in horror.
“Terra?” Aqua said again, leaning over to look him in the eye, the back of her
hand pressed to his cheek. “He's really warm,” she said, half to Ven and half
to herself. “Terra?”
“Y-yeah,” he managed, forcing himself to make eye contact. “Sorry...”
“Terra, are you okay?” Ven asked, crouching slightly to be on the same eyeline.
“Um.” He slid back to sit on the ground, tangling his hands together in his lap
to try to hide his...problem. She moved to follow him, her fingers combing
through his hair, pushing it back to better see his face. “Y-yeah, I'm fine,”
he mumbled.
“Are you sure?” Ven asked, leaning even closer to peer at him. “You don't
really...I mean you don't look like it...” Ven hugged Earthshaker to his chest,
worry all over his face. Terra badly wanted to reassure him, tell him it was
fine, but at Ven's embrace that strange, alien heat turned into a warm pressure
all over, and he bit down on his lip to stifle a raw whine.
Aqua glanced at Ven, then at Terra, then the keyblade clutched to Ven's chest.
“Uh, Ven, maybe I should...take that, for now.”
“What? Oh, um, sure.” Terra opened his mouth to try to tell her not to, but Ven
carefully passed the blade to her while he was trying to form a full thought.
Aqua's fingers were gentler, her hold on the weapon less like Ven's sturdy grip
and more...soft, as she cradled the metal delicately across her hands. But in
its own way, that was worse. He could feel her thin fingers running all over
him, touching his body but at the same time not, instead touching something so
much deeper than just his skin...
“Aqua...”
It wasn't supposed to be weird. He only meant to say it to stop her, to warn
her, the start of a much longer thought, but her fingers touching his keyblade
turned her name into a long, hollow moan from deep in his chest. She froze, and
even Ven suddenly went very, very still.
Terra felt his face turn red, heat radiating from his skin, and he forced
himself to look away from them, ashamed. How could he even begin to explain?
How could he hope to convey to them how it felt to have their hands on
something so personal to him, so much a part of him that it was really just as
if they were touching him directly?
But then...it wasn't that he didn't want them to.
In fact, there was something so very right about their hands on him—no, his
keyblade—that was difficult to put into words.
If he were very honest with himself...he didn’t actually want her to stop.
“Terra, I'm...going to put it down, okay?” Aqua said, her voice much smaller
than usual.
“W-well,” he mumbled. “Y-you don’t…I mean…” He trailed off stupidly, and Ven
touched his shoulder. His face went, if possible, a little darker, and he
looked toward the ground, so he could only really see their shoes. “You
don’t...haveto...”
It was a miracle he could hear anything over the pounding of his own heart, but
he thought she gasped, thought maybe Ven inhaled nervously.
“It doesn’t hurt?” Ven asked, and Terra jerked his head up to look at him.
“Wh–? No,” he said, too quickly maybe. “It doesn’t...hurt, no,” he added,
offering it as clarification even as he looked down again.
Aqua looked at his face, then the blade in her hands. “I’m not sure we
should...”
Ever the voice of reason.
He flinched at Aqua’s words. She was right, of course. He wasn’t thinking
clearly, and they were out in the training yard, and he was sitting in the dirt
like a fool…not to mention a thousand other reasons.
“Right,” he said suddenly, scrambling to his feet and dusting himself off with
his back to them. “No, you’re right, I– I’m sorry, I should…” He chewed on his
lip, trying to put thoughts together. “I’ll go wash up, I’ll be down later,” he
said, walking away from them, and without looking behind him he knew they were
exchanging a look, worried about him, maybe noticing the weird stiffness to his
voice or the set of his shoulders.
It wasn’t until he was back inside the castle that he realized he’d left
Earthshaker resting in Aqua’s hands.
...dammit.
 
“Um…” Ven looked up at Aqua, rubbing the back of his head with one hand.
“Should we take it back to him?”
Aqua frowned at the blade in her hand, hesitant to even twitch, in case it
affected Terra. “I’m...not sure,” she said, looking up at the castle where
Terra had disappeared. “Maybe he’ll recall it on his own...”
They stood there for several minutes, but the keyblade didn’t budge, didn’t
even so much as spark. Though once, she thought maybe she saw a sheen trail
down the edge.
Ven stood beside her in studious silence, oddly quiet.
“I think he liked it,” he said finally, his voice very soft and small.
She looked away, feeling her cheeks go warm. “I think that’s true,” she
allowed, cautious.
“And he said it didn’t hurt.”
“He did…”
He lifted a hand, careful and slow. She watched his fingers, opening her mouth
to protest, to stop him, to do something.
“I wonder,” he murmured, his fingers shying away just before they could touch
the metal, before stretching out again, more sure. “What it feels like,” he
explained, very gently running a finger down the flat side of Earthshaker.
“Don’t you?”
Desperately, she thought, her mouth shutting with a quiet click of her teeth,
but she didn’t dare admit it aloud.
Despite her efforts, he took her silence to be full of the meaning she didn’t
dare say, and he looked up at her, eyes bright with an equal mix of mischief
and adoration.
“We...should return it to him,” he said, and she would swear he sounded
downright impish.
She looked down at the blade, then at him, and she couldn’t muster a good
argument as to why they shouldn’t. The Master wouldn’t approve, he said we
weren’t supposed to, Terra looked like he wanted to be alone-alone...all of
them felt hollow and forced, somehow.
“All right,” she said, and if her voice sounded a little strange when it stuck
in her throat, Ven had the good grace not to say so.
 
It would be safe to say that the last thing Terra expected, as he sat on the
end of his bed with his belt open and his pants low off his hips, was a knock
on the door. He flinched, breath choking off in his throat, and stared at the
door in horror.
“U-uh– just a second!” he called out.
“Terra?” Aqua said, her voice low but pitched through the door, as if she were
leaning against the wood. His heartbeat ratcheted up even higher. Almost
without thinking he yanked his hand free and stood up, fumbling at the ties of
his belt.
Something, he couldn’t guess what, ran down the edge of his keyblade, a spark
of heat running down his spine and making his knees go to jelly. He hit the
floor before he could so much as form a response. Something rubbed over the
ridges and notches and he fought down a shudder, curling over until his
forehead touched the floor, the wood cool on his heated skin. His body felt
like it was on fire, but in the best possible way.
“Terra?”
The door creaked open and he groaned, pressing his face to the floor, his
vision entirely dark. He heard Aqua’s footsteps, but every time he tried to
feel ashamed, the fingers shifted on his keyblade and heat chased away
embarrassment.
Ven followed her and carefully slid the door shut with his foot, holding
Earthshaker by the grip, his other hand lightly running over the flat side of
the blade.
Aqua crouched down beside him, and he turned his head slightly to look up at
her, chancing a small smile. She smiled back and hugged her knees to her chest.
“Hey,” she murmured, reaching forward to run her fingers through his hair, but
this time he would've sworn it was less maternal, more…intimate. “We wanted to
make sure you were okay.”
“And…see if you wanted help,” Ven offered brightly, making Aqua’s face turn
pink.
“A-and maybe that, too,” she added.
Terra looked up at her more directly, turning his head to look up at her, then
Ven.
“Help?” he echoed, rewarded with his answer when they both flushed slightly and
found other things in the room to look at. “...oh.”
He thought about that for a moment. Aqua’s fingers were still in his hair, her
thumb resting against his temple. Ven very, very gently set Earthshaker on
Terra’s bed.
“Oh.”
That strange sensation of rightness filled his chest again, and he grinned,
sitting up slowly to rest on his heels, looking at each of them in turn. Aqua
finally pulled her hand back, looking as though she wasn’t sure where to put it
next.
Terra cleared his throat. “Can I, um…”
Aqua’s face flushed even darker, but she raised her hand, inhaling as she
called Rainfell to hand. He let his eyes roam the delicate iron bars, his
curiosity from years prior surging to the forefront of his mind again. It
looked so fragile. She looked so fragile. Breath short, her teeth digging into
her lip, she held it out to Terra.
He raised his hand, reaching out to curl his fingers around the grip over hers,
but he watched her face. Her eyes darted aside once, then twice, but always
came back to his, and he felt himself smile without meaning to, an idea hitting
him like a splash of water.
It was just like she’d said, back then. Shetrustsme.
Ven sat down on the floor just a little ways away, watching raptly as Terra
reminded himself to breathe and very carefully closed his hand around hers, his
fingers tangling around the leather binding on Rainfell’s grip.
Terra only realized he had an advantage—heknew what to expect—when she inhaled
sharply, breath stuttering, and a shiver went up her arm that he felt through
his grip on the blade. For a long moment she sat there, deathly still, with her
hand enveloped in his.
“Breathe,” he murmured, and she released the breath she’d been holding as if
she had actually forgotten how.
“O-oh,” she whispered, and he couldn’t help a sneaky little grin.
“Yeah,” he agreed, glancing to Ven with a sly sort of wink, before looking her
way again. “May I...?” he breathed, carefully prying Rainfell up out of her
hand. She released it to him, unconsciously tilting her head back with a shaky
sigh.
He gestured briefly to Ven, pleased when the boy listened and crawled over to
sit behind her, giving her something to lean back against. Which she did, to
Terra’s delight, when he ran his fingers along the full length of the central
bar.
Her keyblade felt so different from his. It was everything it looked like:
delicate, fragile, a heavy outer coating around a core of beautiful light and
vulnerability. But, he realized as he held it, it had a healthy heft to it, and
it was so much stronger than it looked.
It mirrored her perfectly.
He gently brushed his fingers over the engravings in the guard, then ran his
thumb all the way to the head of the key, watching her shudder and squirm
against Ven. When he let just the very tips of his fingers trail along the
interlocking spikes, her breathless whimpers turned into audible, faltering
moans.
A small smile curled across his mouth as he looked at her. With her head tilted
back, her eyes slipping shut, and her hair fanning out over Ven’s
shoulder...she looked more beautiful than ever before.
Ven held her gently against his chest, then bit his lip, looking up at her face
where she was leaning on him. His voice cracked, painfully soft. "Aqua...”
Terra let up for a moment, allowing her to take a deep breath and giving Ven
room to act. He smiled when Ven reached up with one hand, carefully pushing her
hair away from her face, his thumb brushing her cheek. “Aqua?” he tried again.
She inhaled again, sharper, distractedly opening her eyes to look at him. “W-
what is it, Ven?” she asked, her voice softer now, thicker with an emotion
Terra didn’t want to try to guess the name of.
“Can I...” Ven trailed off uncertainly, and when she only smiled in response,
lifting a hand to touch his face, he leaned in a little closer, shyly kissing
her cheek.
She smiled, her face turning pink, and turned toward him, cupping the back of
his head with her hand and drawing him a little closer, tilting her head up to
kiss him in return.
And a wicked, wicked thought crossed Terra’s mind.
Just before her lips touched Ven’s, he trailed a fingernail hardover the
interlocking bars of the head of her keyblade. She gasped and stiffened, her
back arching, and instead of gently meeting in the middle as they’d intended,
Ven’s mouth collided with hers, clumsily pressing to her open lips.
She yelled something indistinct, muffled by Ven, and waved a hand in Terra’s
direction as if she were trying very hard to hit him. He laughed, leaning just
out of range, and ran his fingers down Rainfell’s central bar. She shuddered,
moaning softly against Ven’s mouth...only encouraging the younger boy all the
more.
Ven cupped her face with both of his hands, tilting his head to kiss her
better, and all the fight and ire left her in a rush. She reached up,
hesitantly laying her hands over Ven’s, as if she expected him to turn to smoke
under her touch. And just as quickly as it had started, she settled, her
fingers curling around his to keep his hands on her face.
Terra watched, deliberately keeping his hands still, thinking. Where he would
have expected to find jealousy, he instead found warmth. He enjoyed the sight
of them together, just an arm's length away, doing all this with him.
Ven kissed haphazardly, brow furrowed with concentration, like he was afraid
someone would chastise him for doing it wrong. Then again, Aqua—though she was
rather more relaxed because of Terra's...help—wasn't much better off. As with
so many of her undertakings, though she’d never willingly admit it, this first
attempt was a bit...uncoordinated.
It just made him love her all the more, he realized suddenly, smiling to
himself. Both of them, really.
Even just that thought made him feel warm inside, his chest aching with it. He
got up on his knees, shuffling over and gently setting Rainfell on his bed
beside Earthshaker, then sat down behind Aqua. He moved carefully, trying not
to distract them until he leaned in, lightly kissing Aqua’s shoulder. She
jolted and broke away from Ven, blearily turning her head to see him where he
was just behind her, his lips still hovering over her skin, but curling into a
smile.
“Just me,” he murmured, cautiously setting one hand on her waist as his other
slid over to rest on Ven’s knee, squeezing lightly and earning a pleased little
sound from the other boy.
“Mm,” she agreed, just as cautious as she reached back to tangle her fingers
into Terra’s hair, her other hand still holding Ven’s.
“You distracted her,” Ven added, not angry enough to truly be chastising, and
when Terra looked at him, Ven’s overdramatic pout turned into a big grin.
“Well,” Terra said with a soft laugh, resting his chin on Aqua’s shoulder as
she scritched her fingers through his hair and listened to them argue. “How
could I ever ask for your forgiveness after that.”
“I could think of a couple ways,” Ven said, a suggestive lilt to his voice that
made Terra laugh all the more, if only to cover his surprise.
“Do tell.”
Ven apparently still had the sense of self to blush, but he raised a hand out
to his side, away from the little knot of their bodies they’d formed on the
bedroom floor. Aqua’s eyebrows jumped up just as Terra’s drew down into an
almost devious little smile.
“Oho,” he purred, and Ven’s face went flame red.
Aqua chuckled softly and leaned toward him, whispering something in Ven’s ear
that Terra couldn’t quite hear. Whatever it was, it made Ven inhale shakily and
close his eyes to focus, whimpering faintly when Aqua’s lips brushed under his
ear.
“Go ahead,” Terra said on a sharp breath out, pitching his voice lower than
usual, on purpose, to give it a dark, almost hungry edge. “Summon it.” His
efforts were rewarded when Ven actually shuddered, any hesitation vanishing as
Wayward Wind jumped to his hand so fast his arm jerked.
It was a beautiful, sturdy little thing, Ven's keyblade, exactly what Terra
expected and yet nothing like what he'd imagined, all at once. It was compact,
but thick and solid, and looked more than capable of good, heavy hits despite
its size.
Just like Ven.
“H-here,” Ven mumbled, biting his lip when Aqua kissed his cheek, and Terra
just grinned, moving to the side and reaching out to let Ven lay it across his
hands.
“Ready?” he asked, and laughed softly when Ven whimpered and shook his head.
“No?” Terra asked, grinning as he sat back away from them again, just within
arm’s reach.
“You're right, you aren’t,” Aqua agreed, and when Ven shivered and pouted at
her, actually looking nervous, she just smiled and rested her head on Ven’s
shoulder, looking up at his face with an expression that was sweet. Almost
wistful.
Terra’s chest ached again. “Aqua...Ven,” he said, and his voice sounded hoarse
and strained even to his own ears.
They looked up at him, Aqua’s forehead against the side of Ven’s neck, Ven’s
arm curled loosely around Aqua’s shoulders.
Bah, he thought, smiling clumsily at them and shaking his head. They know.
“Nothing,” he said instead, lightly running his fingers over the inner curves
of Wayward Wind’s spines, the warmth in his chest doubling on itself when Ven
whined, his whole body going tense and his back arching up against Aqua’s chest
like a strung bow at the sensation.
Aqua hummed in agreement, then looked at Terra. “Hold on a second,” she said,
and without really thinking about it, he paused, obeying, watching her
curiously. She moved a little, moving her hands from Ven’s to his waist,
settling with her back against Terra’s bed. Terra smiled as she pulled
Ven—still shaking like a leaf in the wind—into her arms, cradling him against
her front like he were merely a child, settling him against her body with one
leg bent under him to keep him close.
“There we are,” she murmured, stroking her fingers through Ven’s hair, kissing
his cheek and nodding at Terra with a little smile to give him permission to
continue.
When he did, his fingers trailing along grooves and edges, Ven whispered
something that came out choked and soft and made Terra hesitate.
“Hm?” Aqua asked, kissing his temple.
“I-it’s good,” he mumbled, a little louder. “No wonder you guys made those
goofy faces…”
Aqua laughed softly and Terra huffed, feigning offense. “Goofy?” he echoed,
rubbing his fingers harder against the gold engravings in payback, grinning
when Ven twisted and gasped, writhing as Terra kept rubbing. He didn't let up,
not until Ven arched his hips up needily, bucking up into the air, his face
furiously red.
“Still think it was goofy?” Terra murmured, and Ven wasted no time in shaking
his head, incapable of anything more articulate.
"Don't be mean, Terra," Aqua murmured, her lips against Ven's hair, and Ven
nodded, echoing her remark with a soft whimper.
"Aw I don't think I'm being that mean, am I?" Terra asked, chuckling and
rubbing his thumb over the ridged texture of the grip. Ven's fingers found
Aqua's sleeves and tangled in the fabric. "See? Looks like he's enjoying
himself."
"You're such a jerk," Ven whined, rolling his hips up. Aqua's hand traveled
lower, down to the waistband of his pants and then lower still, and Ven made a
strangled, indecipherable sound.
Terra grinned at the noise, leaning closer to set a finger under Ven’s chin. He
got a bleary, blue-eyed glance in return, and Ven made a soft little noise that
wasn’t quite a question, but not for lack of trying.
“Hey,” Terra murmured, and leaned in just a little more to brush his mouth
against Ven’s. The boy’s fingers tangled into his hair, pulling him closer on
instinct, and Terra tried not to laugh against his lips, letting Ven pepper his
own with little kisses and tiny, cautious little nips of his teeth that made
Terra hum and groan without quite meaning to.
"As I recall," Aqua teased, her fingers rubbing little circles over the zipper
of his pants, pressing down on him through the fabric. Ven jerked away from
Terra, the back of his head colliding with Aqua’s shoulder. "This was your
idea."
"Was it now," Terra said, biting down a laugh, still wandering his hand along
the head of Wayward Wind. "Figures, Aqua never would've done this on her own."
She gasped, offended. "You don't know that! I– I might've!"
He laughed, waiting until Ven distracted her by pressing his head against her
chest. Terra leaned in, lightly pressing his mouth to hers, putting a rather
sudden stop in her protests when she gave up talking for blinking at him, her
eyes wide and her face getting warm.
"I'm glad he convinced you," he murmured in the ensuing pause, and she ducked
her head, looking away. Sometimes it was easy to forget Aqua was a girl, at
least until she got like this.
"Me too," she admitted, her voice barely above a whisper.
"Can...I do that again?" he asked, his breath catching on the words. She looked
up at him, nodding just a little, and he leaned back in, one hand holding Ven’s
keyblade safely in his lap as the other moved to cup her jaw, keeping her
steady and close (since Ven’s squirming and tiny, frustrated noises were a
bit...distracting).
Ven leaned up and kissed the side of Terra’s neck while he was focused
elsewhere, earning a shiver and a low, pleased hum that was partially muffled
by Aqua’s mouth. Terra let Ven take his keyblade and put it on the bed with the
others, then shifted just a little closer. He rather liked the idea of leaving
the keyblades behind and focusing instead on how they felt together, sharing
space and breathing each other in.
It was an odd thought, and he wasn’t strictly sure where it had come from, but
there it was regardless.
And it was only a moment later, as he let his fingers tangle into Ven’s and let
his mouth press a little more against Aqua’s, that the bell began to chime.
He genuinely wasn’t sure who spoke first.
“Oh...shit.”
End Notes
     Years and years and years ago I read a Bleach fic that involved the
     idea that touching another warrior's zanpakuto was taboo because it
     was equivalent to touching the person intimately, making it a gesture
     of trust and something you didn't just do to whoever you pleased.
     And...then I wanted to play with the idea with keyblades. OOPS?
     In THEORY there could be more to this but I suspect I'll never get
     back to it, so I'm marking it done. Sorry about the ending, I think
     8D;;;;
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