~*Diamond Dust*~

And the world was made anew.

Snow, glittering like gems in the distant light, flowed down from the sky. It had to be one of the most enchanting things Aqua had ever seen, and she spread her fingers out and watched as every individual puff sprinkled her hands. She supposed she should have been cold, but all she could think of was the fine powder currently coating her skin, her hair, and her clothes.

It was the first time since leaving home that she had seen snow, at least in her memory.

She smiled and lifted her head, shaking to dislodge some of the more clingy mounds of soft ice. She took in a deep breath, letting the frosty air fill her lungs with a refreshing coolness, as if she had just swallowed a peppermint. Everywhere she looked, the silent shower continued, white spreading across the landscape and peppering the surrounding forest with fine particles. The courtyard itself had been transformed into nothing but a field of pure ivory, and she found the sight positively marvelous.

This is amazing, she mused. I haven't seen snow since I left home…how many years ago, now? Five? Six? Seven?

Aqua closed her hands, crunching the ice and dropping it unceremoniously at her armored feet. I can't even remember when the last time I had stood back on my home world was. That's pretty sad. Her eyes traced the steady, pale descent that wreathed around her like a blanket, silencing the world and leaving her all alone. Her friends and mentor seemed so much farther away than just within the Castle…

How are you doing, I wonder? Mother…are you proud that I'm training to be a Keybearer? Is Father still angry at me for leaving? What about our town?

An unexpected emotion—homesickness—hit her hard. She lowered her head and stood there in the gentle, chilly snowfall without moving for some time.

"It's snowing!" Ventus exclaimed in surprise, staring out the window. It was something he had only read about, after all. He shoved Terra out of the way and raced down the spiraling staircase without delay. He then pushed the door open and stepped outside, eyes wide with childlike wonder as he leaped down the short stone steps and landed in a cloudy burst of soft white ice.

"Whoa!" He fell onto his back heavily, and all the air in his lungs deserted him in a blast of steam as he slipped. Wow, I'm like a dragon or something! He exhaled repeatedly, getting to his feet, amused by the "smoke" curling from his nose and mouth.

It was the first time he had seen snow, at least in his memory.

He knelt down curiously, rolling the substance between his fingers and shivering as his skin became numb. He bounced the powdery debris in his palm, watching the grains shift about and fall back onto the covered ground. Ruffling his blonde hair, he laughed in wonder, eyes rising to the sky as more of the delicate flakes settled on his eyelashes and plastered themselves to his bronze shoulder-guard.

It's never snowed before…He extended a hand and caught several of the flecks as they fell, entranced by their intricate patterns. Not for the first (or last) time, he suddenly found himself wondering about his dark and forgotten past. Whenever he reached for the memories skulking in the back of his mind, he found naught. He might as well have stepped off a cliff into an endless void—there was nothing to see there. More images built themselves high in an effort to fill up the gap, but as much as he cherished his time with his new family, there were times when he thought about events that had come and gone. How much of a past did he have?

Was I a different person, before I lost my memories? What did I see? Ven frowned and clapped, destroying the frost he had captured. Did…I have a mom and dad, like Terra and Aqua? A family? Are they waiting somewhere, for me to come back? Or was I sent away? What if I was a bad guy?

The puzzles were unanswerable. He sighed and, abruptly, an unusual sensation swept across his entire body and he let his face become as emotionless as it had once been, upon first arriving in the Land of Departure.

It hurt less that way.

Terra watched Ven bolt from the room, shrugging and straightening the chair that the boy had toppled in his haste to see the freezing precipitation that was slowly claiming the world, like a virus. He didn't go outside; instead, he walked closer to the window and pressed one calloused hand against the glass. He spotted Aqua, but not Ventus, from his current position. She was smiling warmly and clearly enjoying the snow, which wasn't surprising. She'd probably be an idiot and insist that they all go out to their stargazing spot in the cold later that night.

Well, this is odd. He crossed his arms and rested his forehead against the cool glass. He watched his own reflection, blinking occasionally, speculating about this and that as his heart instinctively avoided the topic that snow always reminded him of. The Land of Departure has never snowed before. What makes today so special? Usually it's hot enough to hold a luau, thanks to the constant summer temperatures.

Flakes gathered on the windowsill with startling speed, shimmering with a rainbow of colors as the far away sun struck it. Terra closed his eyes and decided he could avoid it no longer.

It was snowing when Master Eraqus took me here. Took me to my new home, when I had nowhere else to go, with those Heartless after me. Those Neoshadows. The Keyblade came to me then, and…

He would never admit it to anyone but himself, but he was a little frightened of them—the Neoshadows had come for him when he had been only six, lost in the snow. They had chased him with their burning lantern-like orbs focused on him, creeping along the floor and flattening themselves to the earth, silent as assassins and twice as deadly. Their long fingers closing around his throat, one hand reaching into his chest with a terrifying cold that surpassed the frost that had been outside…

No, he didn't like cold. Cold like shadow. Cold like Darkness, the same force that had apparently drawn the nightmare creatures to him, the orphaned boy. If the Keyblade hadn't arrived in a flash of Light to knock them away, and if Eraqus hadn't found him, Terra knew he would have lost his heart to the monsters.

No. He didn't like the snow; he preferred it to be as hot as possible. But ever since then, ever since that Neoshadow had almost reaped his heart, sometimes his mind would see things that his eyes had never rested on before.

He looked at Aqua now, standing there with an unexpectedly defeated posture, and he couldn't help but wonder what was wrong. He blinked, planning to turn away, but then the scenery changed around his friend and she was standing in that same position—but near a dark ocean.

Another second later, it was gone.

Terra scowled, trying to convince himself that it was his mind playing tricks and nothing more. He slowly walked down the steps, hoping that Master Eraqus wouldn't be cross with his disciples for dropping all of their books and running out to enjoy the snow. Upon exiting the Castle and its library, he sought to ignore the freezing fingers of wind that gripped every bare inch of his skin and simply stomped down the steps.

Pausing on the last one, he observed the pattern of footprints stamped across the snow, seeing Ven's smaller markings and Aqua's (only slightly) larger ones. Each went off into a different direction, and it seemed the younger apprentice had wandered off into the gardens.

For some reason, he didn't like seeing the paths of his friends being separate, even for little things like winter weather in a world of sun.

Regardless, he remembered why he had gone outside to begin with. He followed the trail to Aqua, and she was still exactly where she had been when he had seen her from the tower. She didn't even turn, or glance up, or otherwise shift as he neared.

"You said you were going to be right back," he remarked casually once he was within easy earshot. "Guess you saw the snow before anyone else."

She gasped, her shoulders stiffening, but relaxed upon recognizing his voice. She met his gaze with her own, and he felt his heart twist in sympathy as she hurriedly wiped away a tear that had been forming beneath her left eye.

"It's not so beautiful that you should cry over it." Terra smiled and she gave a watery one back.

"No, I guess not."

Silence, and he wasn't sure what to tell her, what to say. He wanted to comfort her, to promise that whatever was bothering her, he would help. But the words wouldn't form, and his voice wouldn't work, so he settled with, "What's on your mind?"

Aqua averted her sights, facing to the side and staring off into the partly cloudy sky, seeing figments from her past that Terra could only guess at. "Do you think…my parents miss me?"

She knew that he had no living relatives that he knew of, and therefore she didn't change the my to an our and the me to an us.

"Of course they do." Terra took a step forward. "I'm sure they miss you a lot."

"I wish I could visit them. I miss them a lot. I bet Mother would love you and Ven."

"I'd like to meet your family. So, I've got an idea." Terra clenched his fist. "After we take our Master Qualification Exam, we'll go see your parents. It's only in a few months."

She turned to him hopefully. "Would you really, Terra?"

"Yeah." He returned her grin briefly before gesturing for her to follow, heading off towards the other set of footprints. "Let's go get Ven."

Aqua didn't speak; just fell into step beside him, her eyes giving him a silent thank you.

They navigated the gardens pretty quickly, merely by following Ven's clear trail. It came to a halt in an obscure corner of the courtyard, and the silhouette of the young boy was plainly outlined against the stark, steel-gray sky. He had his head lowered, staring at his hands as if they were covered in blood, expression slack and melancholy.

Terra made to address the apprentice, but Aqua shook her head at him and instead bent down. She scooped up some snow, swiftly but quietly packing it into a ball, and drew her arm back. Despite how much he hated the cold, he couldn't help but smile a little as she tossed the sphere and it made contact with the back of her target's head.

Ven yelped in panic, whipping around and preparing to summon his Keyblade. After seeing them, he groaned and slapped at his hair in an effort to shake loose the gritty powder that was surely seeping down his shirt at the moment.

"What was that for?" He complained loudly, his voice strangely piercing in the muffled world of impromptu winter brought without warning to the Land of Departure.

"It's called a snowball," Aqua laughed, shielding her lips with one hand in a vain attempt to hide her grin. "I bet you've never had a snowball fight before!"

Good, she could tell that Ven was unhappy too. Terra smirked and gathered a large collection of the accursed substance, patting together a rather sizable projectile. He'd fix that frown. "Welcome to your first one. Think fast!" He lobbed the frosty orb at his friend, who just barely succeeded in dodging.

"Whoa! Hey!" Ven assumed an indignant stance, taking a threatening step forward. "I don't know how to even do this!"

"Grab some snow, make it into a ball, and throw!" Aqua caught the youngest of their trio in the face with a direct hit. "Easy as that!"

"Alright, you asked for it!" Recovering quickly, he started making some ammunition of his own.

Chuckling, Terra began doing the same, pushing all memories of shadow monsters away, concentrating on the situation at hand. It wasn't long before an all out war broke out in the courtyard, to the point that some of the grass underneath even became visible again, and Aqua started casting Blizzard snowballs much to the dismay of the boys.

Terra threw one with enough force to rattle an innocent tree in the corner, and a miniature avalanche cascaded down on Aqua's head, prompting the other two to try and dig her out. All three were red in the face and shivering by the time they were done, their current outfits unfit for the weather at hand.

"We should go inside before we catch a cold and die or something," suggested Terra dryly. He helped Aqua to her feet, and Ven's grin was restored as he hopped alongside them, talking a mile a minute about how much he loved snow.

Upon reentering the warmth of the Castle, the friends proceeded to try and knock the frost off of one another in the most extravagant ways possible, and Ven ended up almost on his stomach as Terra struck his back, endeavoring to dust the boy down.

All of them were still fairly cold and wet when Master Eraqus came into view, and everyone straightened, arms at their sides, scarlet with embarrassment.

Their teacher said nothing at first, just moved his eyes from one to another. "Be sure not to leave all of that excess snow there to melt." He pointed at a miniature compilation of slush at their collective feet. With that, he smiled and climbed the stairs, disappearing from view.

"That was a close one, I thought he'd be angry with us for leaving our studies," Ven commented, shaking his shirt loose as yet more snow fell onto the polished tiles.

"Master doesn't mind it if we act like children every once in a while." Aqua waved her hands and generated a small fireball to burn at her side as she tried to dry off, moving away from the puddle of ice water for now.

"He's not all work and no play, and that's a good thing, at least." Terra harbored an immense degree of affection for the man that was like his father, and he looked up towards where his mentor had gone.

Aqua and Ven turned towards the window instead, still watching the snow as the sun set.

"It'll be gone by morning," the female apprentice declared, though for an instant she was lost in a memory again of faded days.

"Oh well." Terra crossed his arms and leaned against the wall, letting Aqua's Fire spell evaporate the slush. She seemed unaware that the fiery orb was doing their work for them.

"I want to go to a world where it snows all the time," Ven murmured.

"When we're all Masters, we'll do just that," Aqua promised. "Right, Terra?"

He nodded. "Right." Maybe…the thing that had been bothering Aqua, had been bothering Ventus too? "And Ven?"

The blonde turned to him. "Yeah?"

"We'll find your family," he said solemnly. Surprise flashed like lightning, intensely but only for a moment, in Ven's gaze before he just smiled gratefully.

Outside, the Land of Departure was silent as the grave as it continued to snow.

Author's Note: Pointless friendship drabble I wrote for fun, want to drop a review? They're love and all of that nonsense. I have to say, Terra, Aqua, and Ven's trio is my favorite to write. What's yours?