A/N: This drabble takes place in Traverse Town, before KH1. Enjoy! :)

Little Yuffie's gaze travelled across the small room they were currently in. Aerith had taken it upon herself to buy a few vanilla-scented candles and lit them up after the electricity had gone out for some unknown reason. Squall, or Leon as he prefered nowadays, had gone downstairs to try and get the power back. No such luck so far.

Everything was so different here compared to the once beautiful Radiant Garden, Yuffie mused. The biggest difference had to be the fact that it was always nighttime over here. That was why the first few weeks had been the hardest for them, but now she was getting used to it. Still, this did pique her curiosity.

"Aerith?"

At once, the brown-haired teen looked up from the book she was currently reading. "Yes, Yuffie?"

Another thing Yuffie really liked about Aerith was that she was always so patient with her, unlike Cid or Leon. She was like the older sister she'd never had. Except that Aerith at least liked all the questions that she asked (Leon would usually ignore her, unless she called him Squall, and Cid would tell her to leave him the hell alone after the third question). Aerith's patience with her was charming. And she told great bedtime stories too.

"How come it's always night here? Doesn't Traverse Town have a sun, like our homeworld?" the raven-haired girl asked curiously.

Aerith thought about that for a moment, her brows furrowing. "I believe it did at some point. But the sun went out a few decades ago."

"How can a huge star like that go out just like that? Lemme guess, it's the ice age?"

Aerith let out a laugh at that. "No, but I can see why you think that. I actually read about this world's myth of the sun the other day. A long time ago, this place had a beautiful sun too and the world was a pretty warm place. The people were happy about this, but soon enough, they started fighting for pieces of the light. They tried to claim ownership on the sunlight and the energy it provided. What they didn't know was that every negative deed, every negative emotion, extinguished the sun's light bit by bit. They realized their error far too late."

Yuffie's eyes were as big as saucers when she asked, "What happened next?"

"Well, eventually, all that was left was a cold piece of stone. The warmth and light that it once provided was gone and there was no way that they could get it back," Aerith explained. "It was irreversible. The former inhabitants of Traverse Town decided that it was better to live their lives in peace and harmony again, just in case they lost more. They started sharing their belongings again, and made sure to tell this story to their children, so that they would never make the same mistake. But thanks to those people, we have to cope with that loss now."

"Oh," Yuffie said, as a thoughtful expression appeared on her young face. "Kinda like how Heartless are formed, right?"

Aerith nodded. "Yes, I guess you could see it that way."

How did Aerith even know all these things? Or did she all make it up, like Yuffie's parents did sometimes when they didn't think she was ready for the real answers?

Well, whatever it was, it sounded believable enough...