#I love Roxas and his vans so much

[luridaemos]

i have a theory that maybe vanitas is actually sora's darkness now that was know he's not ven's..?

it's been in my mind for so long for so so so long but when you realize that kingdom hearts 1 when sora turns into a shadow all kairi does is return his form back to normal, right? right.

returns him to normal BUT he's still just a heartless. he's just a heart like ansem. end of kh1 is just humanoid heartless vs humanoid heartless right? right.

so it's not until kh2 when he meets up with roxas and he returns that sora is completed right? bc that was the whole point, sora wasn't complete so that's why xion and roxas had to go back it wasn't just his memories but sora himself. right.

so that whole time during 2 sora has anti form up until the end, which essentially is him using too much power and essentially fluctuating between his heartless form and himself. nomura himself confirmed it's due to becoming a heartless in 1 and that story-wise it's due to using too much power... it represents his darkness. right.

he also said that rage form is something different to anti-form. that it's representative of his anger. emotions.

and yknow who shows up in 3 when that debuted? the man of emotions himself:

so all this just to say i've been thinking about how both ven and van are from years into the past, and that vanitas ultimately wasn't ventus' to begin with. (ventus was a being of pure light if I'm understanding correctly.)

vanitas' form was created before either of them met sora too. it's stated that vanitas was removed from ventus and then ventus then went to meet sora. so where did vanitas' form actually come from?

it's possible that:

ventus was able to transform him into a sora clone simply because fate said so, it was always meant to happen like the closed loop for heart ansem sending young xehanort to scala.

ventus somehow was able to alter vanitas' form after the removal while inside of sora's heart

vanitas' form looked like this before the Darkness hivemind was separated/fragmented

so i'm thinking if Sora continues to have the rage form ability or some kind of upgraded emotion-based darkness form... maybe it's related to vanitas somehow? either something removed from sora and sent into the past or something that grows from sora and into something like vanitas? it very well could just be that vanitas' return, sora's rage form, their confrontation being in monsters inc which has swapped to "this ships runs on happy faces" + yeeting vanitas, sora seeing vanitas' face, sora refusing to accept that vanitas chose to be darkness is all just to show the player sora's emotional state.

that sora himself refuses to acknowledge the darkness' that he harbors could be bad in any way, avoids confronting his negative emotions properly, and feeding into the toxic positivity that he's carried since the first game...

but idk i think it'd be really interesting if that's a deeper reason for why vanitas looks the way he does. that he could potentially be darkness that sora had cast aside and stuck with ventus long enough to essentially become intertwined with him. idk i also kind of think this could go along with MoM's whole thing of wanting to get as far away from Darkness as possible. sora's on a path to rejecting darkness in his heart, but with guidance from riku who went through accepting his own it's possible that maybe sora's meant to be the one to accept vanitas as he is instead of ventus.

if anyone has thoughts about this lemme know, i'd love to see others thoughts

[brave-symphonia]

Top 5 Video Games (no idea if that's been asked/answered before ^_^')!

Okay, first of all, thanks for the ask! And it hasn't been asked before, I think I've barely gotten any asks from ask games. Not exactly sure if I’m supposed to explain my choices, but I did, so this is a bit long.

I should start by saying that I don't have a list of my favorite videogames ready, so it is possible I may just be blanking on a few games that I love, and my favorites change from time to time, so next time I’m asked this it may be different. Anyway, after thinking for a while, this is what I came up with:

If FGO counts, then that’s probably #3 here, but I’m hyperfixating on that and it’s mobile, so I’ll just say it doesn’t.

1.Kingdom Hearts 2

What can I say? The combat is so good, the story too, I love all the characters and how they're all integrated and the disney worlds and the fights with organization xiii.

It took Kingdom Hearts 1, which is already great and expanded on it so much, introducing nobodies and Roxas and the Organization. Did I already mention the combat? Well it's good.

And if you need a challenge, it can still be challenging! Like, I consider myself pretty skilled since I've beaten a Dark Souls game or two, and I struggled for a while trying to get to the end of a level 1 playthrough.

I just love KH so much, and I feel like gameplay-wise KH2 is the pinnacle of the series. I can say more, but I won't. One last thing, actually being able to fight against roxas in Final Mix? So good!

2.Tales of Vesperia

My first Tales game, and if you've looked at my url, you may be able to see it's really close to me. There's so much I love about this game. The combat is amazing, while I'm fine that the series went away from this combat, I've always really missed it.

And the story, god the story. I know there may be some complaints about it falling short in the end, but I'd argue it's still fantastic.

Yuri's continued journey of choosing his own justice and what he believes for the good of the world, when compared to Duke choosing what he believes is Justice, killing all humans, for the good of the world? Just great.

And his journey and conflict with Flynn over the course of the game? Walking different paths but towards the same goal? Flynn trying to fix the knights from within and Yuri doing his part from the shadows? So good!

It has Rita, my second favorite Tales character, who I am pretty sure is Neurodivergent. And just a strong cast all around.

A bit of this could be nostalgia due to it being the first Tales game I fully completed, but I still love it.

3.Tales of the Abyss

I think this was the second Tales game I played, but I dropped it and didn’t properly get into a Tales game until my next one, Vesperia. Anyways, I appreciate this for its story over anything else.

Like, it tells a really good story, with how Luke is manipulated by Van and responsible for such devastation and how that jumpstarts his much-needed chatacter development, and how he doesn’t instantly get better. You can see him really trying, but it takes him a while to really get things.

Also, Jade is great. And the story it told, where Van finds out the score will lead humanity to its end and that it must be destroyed, or else they will hang onto the score until their last moments, like as a villain, he’s not exactly wrong, even if his methods definitely are.

And that final fight between Luke and Asch, with “Meaning of Birth” playing in the background, it really gets to me. And thinking about the ending, where either Asch or Luke are gone forever, is really bittersweet.

That said, wasn’t the biggest fan of its gameplay, never could figure out how to properly use the FoF.

Man, I need to replay Abyss. It’d be nice if they did a remake.

4.Super Paper Mario

(Thought about putting other Tales games up here, but two is probably enough)

The story is fantastic, like for a Mario game, which usually don't have story at all, to tell a story about someone trying to destroy the world because he's lost the one thing he's cared about in the world, only to find out after it's too late that she is still alive and well?

Like, it's so much more than I would expect from a Mario game. And while I prefer the combat of PM:ttyd and PM64, it's actually not that bad. Also, Dimentio is a fantastic twist villain to come in at the end and doom everything.

5.Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky

I've always loved the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games. I think the gameplay is neat and the story isn't that bad either. I will always remember Grovyle for his sacrifice. Really though, the story is good.

[embraceyourdestiny]

So throwing my hat into The Vanitas is a Darkness theory

I think it's true but not in the way you think

See, if Vanitas was pulled from all of the darkness in Ven then the one sealed inside him would be pulled out

Now what makes him different from the other Darkness we see

Ventus

Ventus has a lot of light so who's to say that his light didn't “infect” and “warp” the Darkness within him, furthermore if we roll in the Two Vanitas Theory where present Vanitas was at Monsteroplis rather than past Vanitas then the foreign Negative Energy while empowering him warped him more

And I'm not going to get into how the (first) X-Blade forging and (forcibly) D-Linking with Ventus (a mechanic that lets you connect your heart with another to use their strength) probably screwed him up Six Ways to Sunday

My point here is this, Vanitas is pure Darkness anymore

The above events (hell he pretty much had an incomplete heart at the end) warped him into something other than just Darkness

If the Darkness is Dark Chocolate and other beings of light are White Chocolate (except for Sora, Riku, and Terra they are Cookies and Creme) then Vanitas is Milk Chocolate, a derivative of Darkness but a different thing from it

This explanation would retroactively justify the Unversed as Vani isn't just some kids darkness but the primordial form of it all

Like how the 13th Darkness degraded and became what we know as Pureblood Heartless

Van is doing that at a much safer and intelligent scale

Or maybe I'm just a sucker for the grew beyond what they were programmed to be or once were trope

This could lead to a scene where The Foretellers try to persuade Vani to join them and he says “fuck that I'm not you” (with a nice parallel to Roxas’ “I’m me, nobody else)

I’ll be honest I don’t like the theory that Vanitas is one of the darknesses but you do your thing friend I love when people find evidence for theories and connect dots so I commend the effort even though I don’t vibe with it myself

I will say tho the reason I don’t like the theory is bc Vanitas is a whole ass person. No one is truly pure darkness except for the darknesses. To take from once upon a time there’s a part where they show the Biggest Villain’s (at the time) heart and she still has the smallest smidge of light within her because she still had love for her son. Whether Vanitas has light from ven or from sora or from himself it is likely still there all the same so I like the “milk chocolate” example lol

[fisherrprince]

Could you share more information on Vanitas specifically regarding the werewolf au???

allow me to give you this picture ! this vanitas diagram!

your vanitas will be much happier and healthier when he is loved and cared for and able to snuggle into a big hoodie like a blanket it’s nice for him to have soft things and eat good food and have friends that probably won’t try to kill him and vice versa it’s nice look he’s happier when he can run in the woods too 

hmmm... usually when I get an open-ended question I infodump... but what to talk about wrt Vanitas...

so the labs were not nice, obviously. early on, because they were kids, van and ven decided that no matter what, they’d be pack brothers and help each other, and that... it... it works better in theory than in practice. it’s not a friendship-encouraging environment. screwing up the experiment just by being stronger than he is (not giving up, they said), watching them take him away like he’s dead (he’s not he’s not he’s not), and then staying for another three years past that only to get out and find that he’s okay and you are not and he wants you to come home with him and two other rando people is a lot of complicated emotions all at once?? look give him a bit to get used to apartments and people, it’ll be a lot of tail wagging while trying to bite each other’s ears off at the same time. 

he’s a lot less scared of talking about it than Ven is, on account of being more factual and determined to get people to know he’s scary and not a good person (takes a while to get that out of him -  that he’s convinced he’s not good, not the describing your trauma specifically to make people uncomfortable, even tho it backfires on him a couple times anyways and he just gets cared at). once he’s allowed to try ice cream (healthy enough for it) he decides Roxas and Xion are out of their minds and fudgesicles is the best one. Vanitas thinks Xigbar is really cool and will not ever make this known to anyone ever in his life. He won’t give Terra’s hoodie back and Terra won’t ask for it - it’s soft and big and smells like the apartment and he forgot how good soft was. werewolf trauma might have given him chronic pain - it at least gave him severe nerve damage he has to deal with (do university health centers help fix that?? Aqua says probably a little). He’s a very big wolf, but he’s also a little short in human form. He’s very competitive at hamburger ball, he and Riku are unofficial rivals.

[fuzz-onyx]

I have recently completed all 3 routes for KH: Birth by Sleep and I wanna talk about it:

This one made me feel more things than the accumulation of the past couple of games. I love it. (SPOILER WARNING for GAME)

But I'm also sad now, and kinda dislike Terra a bit. Speaking of Terra:

The Terra route:

- Him having darkness in his heart makes no sense! It made more sense for Riku to have darkness since it was obvious that he wanted power, as well as exploring more shit than an island. There is motivation, and there's conflict with Riku and his old life.

But with Terra, there is a one sided conflict, he's learning all the good things about light and dreams and beliving and stuff, but he got no desire for power as the people around him claim to be. He isn't drawn to darkness AT ALL. Yes, there is hades trying to get Terra to conquer/master the darkness in him, but it was all deciet anyway.

Yes, he did some bad shit, most of it was unintentional or being controlled. Not the greatest keyblade warrior ever.

- Xehanort is a conniving bitch who is obviously evil. That is all.

- I do find it interesting that instead of using the power of friendship when saving Ventus, he drew on darkness. Very neat.

- At the end of his route I was pressing f to pay respect to the dearly departed. Especially after Aqua's route, but I'll get to that later.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

but first ✨

The Ventus route:

- baby, baby boy, child who protec and attacc. Little harbringer of death that one.

- The X-blade is pretty interesting. It kinda made me wonder why an X-blade wasn't formed near the ending of the first KH game since Riku at the time was a consumed by darnkess and Sora is good-boy-friendship-light-kachow. Like the clash of the two. I dunno.

Also finally getting some sort of idea as to why Xehanort wants kingdom hearts, so sorta a villain origin story but not really?

- Ven and mickey together... that is all.

- Also because of Ven's route I think I finally understand the whole Roxas debacle. Its gonna take a bit to explain my theory, but here we go:

In beginning of whole game, Xehanort thought Ven was gonna die and took him to Destiny islands where our first protags were. My theory is that Sora gave Ven a piece of his heart in so he could live. Its also this connection which is why Vanitas looks like Sora, since Van and Ven have a bit of a connection, and Sora's heart piece was in the place of Van's heart-piece.

Also Ventus route ending is the reason why Roxas looks like Sora. So yeah. Not going to indepth but the summary is that they got a connection. It explains alot.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Now for the final character and best girl✨

The Aqua route:

- I didn't really notice it with the others Until I was playing with Aqua, but I found the association with side characters very interesting. Like: Terra was with the Villains for most of his playthrough, Ven was with the princesses and their friends, and Aqua was with the people helping said princessess and getting their happy endings. Neat little character parallels, very nice 👍

- Aqua is the only Keyblade master out of the three, and that really isn't saying much. She's super weak in the beginning, and that's saying something - since i was playing proud mode for all their routes. It was hard, but I eventually figured it out. Also I died alot in Aqua's route the most. so that's a thing.

- Something that I'm pretty happy about while playing the three routes, is that while each character moves in the same areas and overlaps at times, each have their own section of the world to explore. Very nice 👍

- Now for the ending... Oh boy:

So we got terra fighting Xehanort - he lost and got possessed :(

Ven fighting Vanitas - externally and internally - forging the X-blade ... sorta - he won, but broke his heart in the process, not great :(

As for Aqua.... we get some context to everything. After fighting Braig (Xigbar but in the past) we fight a possessed Ven weilding a completed X-blade. I thought that this would be the hardest fight out of the entire main story... So after using the power of friendship we help Ven break the X-blade and free him.

So, at the end of Aqua's route, we got a sleeping Ven, a possessed Terra, and a sad Aqua. AT LEAST WE GOT A FINAL EPISODE AYY?

Now for the final episode of the entire game:

- All the levels are higher and easier to level up in..... wanna know why? haha-hahaha-HAHAHAHA--

- Possessed Terra is the hardest fight in the entire main game and he was scary. So I died SEVERAL times. So I leveled up a bunch and changed spells and attack stuff, and I eventually defeated Xehanort... but I didn't get terra back D':

So now I'm stuck in the realm of darkness and feeling hopeful but SAD WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Now for some final notes:

- Its cool seeing all the characters from the past games, including the organisation 13 characters before they became nobodies.

- This game had some slightly different mechanics, but after I got used to them, it was so much better than the previous ones.

- Leveling up in this game is actually FUN. Merging spells together, also cool.

- Seeing new disney worlds was great, love it, 10/10.

- Seeing the development of not only the characters, but the development of how the story is told and the quality of it all... its great, I can see why people like it apart from the gameplay.

so that's my thoughts on the game, can't wait to play more :D

[snowflake-of-destruction]

“My husband is gonna be home any minute” Kairi talking to Sora(or Xion) about Vanitas  

Read more just for length this time

Send me a couple and a line

“I’m a firm believer in ethical non-monogamy,” Sora supplied the answer to a question that had not been asked from his place on Kairi’s living room floor doing glute bridges, which Xion seemed to be finding a little too interesting for Kairi’s taste. She shoved a surge of possessiveness deep down. 

Possessiveness was one of the chief roadblocks on the road towards inner peace in Sora’s teachings. To believe in ownership was to fear loss and theft, whereas welcoming the idea that the stardust in the world traveled to where it was needed most and did the most good at any given time was to open yourself to all the good that could flow to you and fill the voids in your life better than your so called possessions. Kairi couldn’t deny that embracing what Sora had to offer was working so far. She had been much happier since Sora had become her guru.

“Ethical non-monogamy?” Xion’s pursed lips either spoke to the wine Kairi had poured for her having turned or to her repressing laughter. 

“Open honesty in all relationships about your needs and how you are going about meeting them to start with,” Sora explained cheerfully. The bright orange crop top he was wearing didn’t have much room to travel but managed to ride up anyway as he continued his thrusts while speaking. “Kairi can probably explain it. I have been enlightening her about my and Riku’s way of life.”

“I bet,” Xion hummed, trying to catch Kairi’s eye. “Kai, babe, I can’t believe you’ve been hiding Sora away this whole time. He’s delightful.”

Kairi refused to be caught, keeping her focus on her phone as she typed out a reply to Roxas on the group chat, lovingly referred to as Trophy Spouse Hangout on a Dusty Shelf by its participants, telling him that she was down for drinks at Terra’s, the bar or his and Aqua’s house, but she was going to be late. She had already accidentally double-booked herself today and it was causing all sorts of problems.

Sora flipped to his feet and then immediately pulled up one leg behind his head in a position reminiscent of a position Kairi remembered being called scorpion hold in her cheerleading days. “I think you’re pretty great too, Xion.” He positively beamed at her, the same smile full of light and sincerity that had first made Kairi go weak at the knees before he’d even revealed himself as double jointed. “You should come to one of my classes. I teach beginner’s and intermediate yoga too. Where did you say you knew Kairi from again?”

Xion hesitated just long enough for Kairi to jump in. “My husband’s going to be home any minute.” She waved her phone like it was related. If they thought Vanitas had just texted her he was a few blocks away, then that was on them.

Xion’s intake of breath was audible and she murmured something about needing to meet Demyx about the portable standing hair dryers that he said he could get for the salon she was refinishing her garage into as she darted around looking for her purse and her shoes. Apparently Demyx knew a guy. Kairi knew from Terra (Saint Terra, world’s best sympathetic bartender, witness to much and participant of nothing, collecting stories and keeping a feeling of independence from Aqua and her family money) that Demyx knew quite a lot of guys, but she kept her mouth shut--it wasn’t her business to air out Demyx’s, and it could sound like a warning, which would, again, sound jealous. She had no doubt that Demyx had shady business contacts too.

Sora, as Kairi should have expected, smiled even more widely--something she didn’t know was possible. “Since Vanitas is going to be home early, let me call Riku and the four of us can go out to dinner together. You’ve been dodging it for weeks! You should come too, Xion.”

Kairi really hoped she didn’t wince visibly. “Great idea!” Her voice was higher than normal. “He might be too tired to go out though. Why don’t you go home and change, I’ll ask Vanitas, and I’ll text you if we can meet you and Riku.”

“That’s what you said last time,” Sora pointed out, but allowed Kairi to push him toward the door. “I really want you to meet Riku. I think the two of you would really get along--even better than you and I do probably.”

Kairi didn’t want to meet Riku, no matter how many times Sora assured her that his aura was a complimentary color to hers and the three of them could make a rainbow that heralded in great rain for plains where there had once been a drought. Sora’s strong suit wasn’t science or metaphor, and Kairi didn’t want to burst his bubble by pointing out that rainbows came after the rain--and she definitely wasn’t in a drought and she was fairly certain Sora and Riku were both living in flood land. It would be weird. Just like Sora meeting Xion had been weird. 

Involving Vanitas wouldn’t be weird though. It would be a bloodbath. Sora, special butterfly that he was, hadn’t listened when Kairi had tried to tell him. ("The truth will set you free. Kairi. I really believe it will unburden your chi if you and Vanitas have a long talk. I'm sure he will find your relationship with me beautiful because it brings you joy. Who doesn’t want their beloved to radiate joy?") Vanitas’s mind was not likely to be expanded enough to receive the idea that some people can only be their truest selves when exploring the idea that, just like with other kinds of loves, the heart and body  isn’t meant to be confined to only one romantic love. She tried not to think of the other component to Sora’s urging (“If you want to continue being anything but my student, I’m going to need to know Vanitas blesses our relationship. Consent from all parties  is important to me.”) Urging Vanitas to take Sora’s yoga classes back when she’d only been a yoga student herself before accepting Sora as her life coach and then more was very quickly becoming a huge regret in her life, and she could only hope Van continued to blow off the idea.

“I’m so glad you arranged for me to meet Xion today, It means a lot. You two make a truly breathtaking couple,” Sora unintentionally twisted another knife of guilt as he left.

“She’s just…” Kairi stopped short of calling Xion a pal and changed gears to just say. “I’ll see you on Friday, Sora.”

She closed the door behind him, only to find Xion watching her.

“Don’t say it.”

“Don’t say what? He’s nice. Having Mr. Hot Yoga knock on the door claiming to be the pizza delivery boy while we’re unwinding with a glass of wine and then watching him nervously work out while making small talk when he saw you had company? That’s exactly what I expected when you asked me to come over.”

“I’m sorry.”

“He didn’t even really have a sausage pizza with him,” Xion sighed in mock dismay.

“Vanitas isn’t really on his way home.”

Xion dropped her purse on the floor and wrapped her arms around Kairi’s neck. “Say no more.”

[blackhakumen]

Mini Fanfic #632: A Present For a Friend (Kingdom Hearts)

11:34 a.m. Outside of Twilight Town........

Namine: (Gasps at Something Intriguing in Front of Her) Vantias!....What is this?

Vantias: A necklace. (Rubbing the Back of his Head Back and Forth) I... didn't know what you really wanted for Christmas this year, so I figured I get you one of these instead. Regardless, I still wanted to give you this, not only to pay you back for giving me a present last year, but also as a token of my thanks for....(Takes a Deep Breath) being a really good friend to me and stuff. I mean granted, I'm somewhat thankful for having Ven, Sora, and all of our other idiot friends in my life and all, but personally, you're the one who was able to impact my life the most. You helped me realize that there's more to this world than being moody and getting angry at everything. With your kindness, your compassion for everything, that....cute smile of yours....(Sighs While Blushing a Little) Look, I'm trying to say here is that you mean a lot to me, more than I honestly thought you would be, and.....(Smiles a Little) I'm.... really glad I've met someone like you, you know?

Namine: (Completely Speechless)

Vantias: A-And also, I....hope you enjoy you enjoy the gift. I know it isn't really special or anything, but-

('Sniff')

Vantias: (Stops Talking and Turn His Attention to Namine) Uh.. Namine?

Namine: (Already Has Tears in her Eyes) ('Sniff') V-V-Vantias.....('Sniff')

Vantias: (Starts Feeling a bit bad) Oh god..... Is the gift really that bad or-

Namine: VAN-VAN NOOOOO!!!! (Immediately Hugs Vantias Lovingly While Crying) ('Sniff') Your present is beautiful and lovely, just like yourself!!

Vantias: (Taken a bit Back by Namine's Sudden Hug) Oh! Uh really? So you like it after all?

Namine: Vantias, I love it. ('Sniff') I love it so so so very much! ('Sniff') And you wanna know what else I love more?

Vantias: Uhhh...I dunno. The...(Shrugged) Beach?

Namine: (Giggles While Crying and Shaking her Head) It's you, silly. I love you so much and more! ('Sniff') I'm so happy you considered me as your friend. THANK YOUUUU! (Continues Crying into Vantias' Chest)

Vantias: (Sighs While Smiling a Little and Hugging Namine Back) You crybaby. You don't need to thank for that. I'm the one who suppose to thank you, remember?

Namine: I knowww...('Sniff') I-I'm so sorry if I'm making a scene....('Sniff')

Vantias: No worries. The people can watch us all they want to. Just keep letting it all out. I ain't going anywhere.

And with that, Namine continues to cry softly into Vantias' embrace.

Few Minutes Later.......

Vantias: So..... You're feeling better now?

Namine: Yeah. ('Sniff') i think I'll be okay.

Vantias: You sure? Cause it kinda looks like your eyes are getting puffy-

Namine: (Giggles Softly) I'll be fine, Van-Van! Really. You don't need to worry about me. I promise.

Vantias: (Sighs While Shrugging) If you so...... I'm....(Starts Blushing a Little) glad you like the gift.

Namine: (Smiles Softly) Vantias, I love it so much. I'll cherish this necklace for the rest of life.

Vantias: I know you would. Still, I really wasn't expecting you to bring out that much water works.

Namine: (Giggles Softly Once More) Well, it wasn't just the gift the moved me with tears, you know? It was your words following that. It really made me happy that you think so much me and our bond together.

Vantias: Yeah, well, I meant every word of it. I am thankful for everything you done for you after all.

Namine: (Hugs Vantias Again) You're always welcome, Vantias. If anything, I should be thanking you for giving our friendship a honest chance in the first place.

Vantias: (Shrugged Once More) Eh. It's not a problem. You and.....I guess Sora and the others are all good people.

Namine: (Smiles Sincerely Before Sighing and Getting Up from a Bench her and Vantias has Been Sitting) I think it's time for us get going to Roxas and Xion's place. Can't keep everyone there waiting for too long, right?

Vantias: (Gets Up from the Bench as Well) Yeah. And don't worry about the necklace. I'll try and help put it on you once we get inside.

Namine: (Happily Nodded) Okay. Thank you.

Vantias: No problem. Oh and.... Namine?

Namine: Yes, Vantias?

Vantias: (Takes a Deep Breath Before Giving Namine a Very Quick Peck on the Forehead) Love you, sis.

Namine: (Heart Begins to Melt in Pure Happiness Before Giving Vantias a Big Loving Kiss on the Cheek) I love you too, Van-Van. Merry Christmas.

Vantias: (Starts Blushing Yet Again While Looking Away) W-W-Whatever.

@khtext

@26shann

@keyenuta

@italian-love-cake

@cyber-wildcat

@albion-93

@anxiousmuffinstuff

@ma-lemons

[loxare]

A crap guide to KH characters

that I made instead of studying psychology, enjoy!

Sora – precious bab. Will fuk you up if you mess with his friends. Has been suppressing his emotions since 2002 and honestly really needs a hug and probably a good cry. Sunshine boi. People really need to stop being mean to him, or trying to unravel who he is as a person i s2g i will cut a bitch. Has sacrificed himself to save his friends way too many times. Honestly, he's just a good boy who went on an adventure to save his friends and went through a lot of crap, but still manages to keep an upbeat outlook.

Riku – 2edgy4u. Will also fuk you up if you mess with his friends. Went through probably the best redemption arc since Zuko. Also needs a hug. Has tried to sacrifice himself to save his friends several times but his friends say he's not allowed. A good boy who's been trying to make up for his mistakes since 2002 and honestly he's doing a great job.

Kairi – Sunshine girl. Hasn't fucked anyone up for messing with her friends yet but damn if she isn't trying. Tired of playing damsel in distress, more tired of waiting for her boys to come home. Probably would sacrifice herself for her friends but hasn't had the opportunity. Ready to fist fight a damn werewolf to avoid being sidelined again. I need a game dedicated to her stat.

Roxas – 3edgy5u. Started out a happy kiddo, then some bad shit happened and now he's just mad at everyone. Identity crises every second Wednesday. All he wants is to eat ice cream with his friends, roll around town on his skateboard and disassemble the government, is that too much to ask?

Axel/Lea – The absolute worst person ever turned lovable asshole once he discovered parenting. Seriously, he was terrible in CoM. But honestly, understandable considering he was forced to join a cult that spent a solid decade telling him he had no emotions and hey, please be an assassin for us. Needs to pick a name. Currently fighting Aqua for the Best Team Parent Award (and losing, sorry Lea, Aqua is just that good).

Xion – precious daughter. Seriously needs a hug. Identity crises all day all night all the time. Most Forgettable Character Award (I'm so sorry). All she wants is to eat ice cream with her friends, go to the beach and scream trans rights at the worlds, is that too much to ask? Had so much bad shit happen to her. Inherited her self-sacrificial streak from Sora. Someone get this girl a better role model. No, not Lea, he did some self-sacrifice bs too, someone else. No, not Aqua either.

Terra – himbo xtreme. So good and trusting he trusted the wrongest person. Sorry, two wrongest persons. Terra no. He's just a terrafic dude (I'm not sorry). Stronk. Dumb. Kind. Would possess his own empty armor to protect his friends and sit in a wasteland for over a decade. What strength. What willpower. Someone get this man into the Green Lantern Corps, stat. I need him and Kronk to meet because they're both so dumb I love them. Terra's great.

Aqua – Light of my life. Willingly jumped into hell to save her friend. Jewelry maker. Will fuk you up if you mess with her friends. Did I mention that she jumped into hell to save her friend? Who was actually her friend being possessed by the bad guy? And that she stayed there for over a decade? Such strength. Someone get this woman a hug. And therapy. Current holder of the Best Team Parent Award. Her friend group has five brain cells and she holds four of them.

Ven – Literal sunshine boy. Don't look too long, you'll go blind. Will fuk you up if you even look at his friends. Shady past that he absolutely does not remember. Winner of the Rip Van Winkle Award for longest nap. Kind of a brat at first but damn does he grow up fast. Has the worst evil twin ever. Holds the last brain cell.

Vanitas – The evil twin. The worst, I love him. Seriously needs to get some therapy. And a redemption arc, I need one so bad. Makes his own pets out of sadness. SHady past he might remember. Sees himself as the monster when the real monster was Doctor Franken- I mean. Xehanort. Really needs a hug, but maybe be prepared to run if you're giving it.

Namine – Perennial damsel in distress. Literal self insert character. Ends up going from one bad situation to another. When she finally gets her freedom, she vanishes. No one understands her powers and honestly that's fine. All she wants is to help. Someone tell her it's ok to want things for herself too.

Repliku – this guy is just an identity crisis put into a person. Doesn't even have his own name yet. So incredibly angry at everything he's gone through but has ended up in a sort of acceptance. The only person who didn't get a happy ending and I can and will revolt. Spent most of his life confused and angry and honestly relatable.

[paybackraid]

What You Need To Hear

Summary: Namine cannot, and will not, let her best friends go without knowing they are loved.

Words: 9569

Characters: Namine, Vanitas, Riku Replica

Just a cute not-little Lost Trio fluff fic I wrote because I imagined Namine telling the boys that she loves them! :’) and then it went to town. Complete, possibly part of a series!

Also available under my FFN or AO3 profiles, under YAJJ.

------

“Thanks for doing this for me, Sora,” Naminé said, leaning forward to show her friend her brightest smile. Sora was piloting her around the worlds, had kindly offered to do so when she said that she had some otherworldly errands she wanted to run. They weren’t really important, but she missed her new best friends so much. They didn’t live on the same world, like the rest of their friends seemed to gather. One was off “finding himself”, and the other was making a home for himself and the creatures who followed him. Neither of them were exactly people-people, so their seclusion did make sense. As long as they were happy, Naminé was happy. “You’re the best. I love you.”

Sora laughed his wonderful Sora laugh, all big and warm. He swerved out of the way of an asteroid, and flashed her his huge Sora smile. “Don’t even mention it! I’m happy to spend time with you. I don’t see you nearly enough.”

“I’ve been meaning to make it out to Destiny Islands, but between school, and the restoration, there hasn’t been time.”

She felt a little guilty, but only a little, that she was making time for the two strange boys attached to her heart and not the one that saved her. Sora always understood. And she would make it out to Destiny Islands! Just, not yet. 

Sora gave her another grin, glancing over his shoulder. “I know! My mom’s making me do tutoring to catch back up which, ugh. And now that Riku and I are both Masters, we have to stay in tip-top shape. I’ve hardly had the time to call Ven, Roxas, or Xion, nevermind everyone else.”

“Well, let me know when tutoring is done, and I promise I’ll find the time to come out, okay?” And Naminé always kept her promises. 

“We’ll make a day out of it!” Sora agreed happily. “Maybe even a whole weekend!”

“Sounds great!”

Naminé loved Sora so much, she really did. She made attempts at calling her best friends everyday, but they weren’t always available, and they didn’t always have the right social energy to talk, and she understood that. Even when they did, the two of them were sourpusses at heart. So sometimes, talking to Sora and his cheerfulness and readiness was a nice change of pace. 

“So, where to? I know you said you were looking for Vanitas and Riku’s… uh, his replica, but you didn’t say where.”

“It’s Van and Ri,” Naminé corrected softly, smile never leaving her face. Van and Ri—two of the only people she knew of who were as lost as she. And in that loss, they’d found one another.

“Er, right. Van and Ri.” Sora was still a little weird around her two boys. One had tried to kill him and certainly had made attempts at the one locked away in his heart for so long, another looked exactly like his best friend when he was young, and shared memories with Sora of a thing that he couldn’t for the life of him remember. He was trying, but they were all still weird with each other. 

“Van lives in Halloweentown, now, remember? So he can let his Unversed run free without being called freaks. He works at maintaining the graveyard there, I guess. Last I heard, Jack Skellington was very impressed.”

“That’s cool, I guess.”

“It’s honest work,” Naminé chirped. “And he’s actually really enjoying it there. He walks me through the Hinterlands when I call him. They’re spooky.”

“That, they definitely are. Okay, we’ll go to Halloweentown, then. Maybe I’ll go visit Jack and Sally, too! What about Ri? Is he still… exploring?”

“Yeah. He was in San Fransokyo yesterday, but he sounded like he was on the move, soon. All this is doing him good, too. He’s finding ways to be a separate person from Riku, even as simple as going to worlds Riku’s never been.”

“Aw, Riku’s a cool person to be,” Sora said with a fake pout. He knew of Ri’s circumstances, but would also say many things to come to the defense of his best friend. 

“He is! I always liked Riku, he was so nice. But, Ri just… wants to be different. He’s trying to find a different name that he likes, too, but he hasn’t settled on one.”

“Maybe he should just stick an ‘x’ in Riku’s name and jumble up the letters.”

Naminé snickered, noting the mirth in his eye. “He’s not a Nobody.”

Sora laughed as he steered them toward Halloweentown, the dark and gloomy world already putting a light in her heart. Van may have been the dark half of Ven, once upon a time, but now there was no denying how happy he made her. He was going to be so surprised. 

They landed just outside of the square, and Sora quickly cloaked the ship. Before they could step out, he cast the same cloaking magic that Donald used to cast to protect the world order. Out of the ship stepped a vampire, and a girl with webbed hands and feet, gills on her neck and frills around her head, the hem of her white dress dripping around her like water. 

“Wow, Nam,” Sora said, looking her up and down while Naminé got as good of an eyeful as she could. This was her first time in Halloweentown, after all. “You make drowning look good.”

Naminé giggled and rolled her eyes. “Whatever, Sora. Come on! I don’t know where the graveyard is so you hafta show me, I bet that’s where Van is.”

“O-okay,” Sora said when Naminé squeezed his hand. “How are you even wet?”

“Let’s go!”

Sora led her around, tossing greetings at the townsfolk. All of them were surprisingly friendly, all waving to Sora and Naminé as if they’d known them their whole lives. That, Van had told her once, was the one thing he didn’t like about living here. For such a spooky town, these townsfolk were far too friendly.

Behind one of the decorative guillotines, Naminé got her first clue without even having to acknowledge Sora. Sitting atop a wall, there was a Flood, watching the sky. They, of course, had no order to protect, and Van didn’t often care one way or the other. 

“Flood, Flood!” Naminé cheered. She didn’t bother looking around for its master yet; since coming to live here, the Unversed had become staples of the community, and so were allowed to roam wherever they wanted. 

The Flood looked down to her and stared for a second, working out if it knew her or not. It slowly crept down the wall, clinging to the shadows, sticking its little nose out to get a good sniff.

“Aww, don’t be afraid, little Flood,” Naminé cooed, putting out her hand. Normally, she got along splendidly with the Unversed, but she looked so different, and it probably didn’t help that the water on her washed away easy traces of her scent. “You know me, I promise.”

The Flood crooned noiselessly; even now, Van was the only one who could hear them. It touched its snoot to her fingertips and took a deep sniff. 

And quickly leapt from the wall to her shoulders, knowing her now. It pressed its head to her wet chin and happily rubbed its head all over, just like a cat. Naminé pretended she could hear the crooning, and happily pulled it forward into her arms, to hug it and kiss its head. These were both Van’s pets, and extensions of Van himself. Showing them as much affection as possible was the easiest way to make sure Van felt loved. 

“...Nam? You good?” Sora asked after a moment of fierce affection. He struggled with the Unversed, too. Didn’t get the affection. But he definitely saw Naminé loving on the Unversed, and the Unversed loving on her right back. 

“Yeah!” Naminé pulled her face from the Unversed’s skin, smiling so wide it showed off her fangs. “I’m good. Sora, if you want to go see Jack and Sally, I bet this little guy can take me to Van. Isn’t that right?!?”

The Flood happily crooned at her and turned over in her arms to show her its belly and claws. Naminé took that as agreement. 

Sora didn’t bother to hide the relief on his face when she said as much. He turned away for a second, then glanced back to ask, “you sure you’ll be okay?”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine! I’d trust him with my life. I’ll just text you if there’s any problems, okay?”

Sora sighed, shaking his head affectionately. “Okay, yeah let me know. Say hi to Van for me, okay?”

“Okay! Thanks Sora!!” Naminé chirped. When Sora turned away, Naminé was quick to say “good bye! Have fun!! I love you!!!”

Sora chuckled to himself and waved goodbye. “Okay, bye Naminé. Love you too!”

Naminé waved until Sora was out of sight, and then turned down to her little companion. “Okay, Flood, show me where Van is.”

Somehow, the little emotion understood her perfectly. It righted itself in her arms and took off out of the square, looking over its shoulder occasionally to make sure she followed. It darted up unnecessarily huge steps that she had to jump up, and then through the gates. Even just through the bars of the gate, she could see her target hard at work tending to some of the Jack o’ lanterns that just grew that way. 

The Flood scootched over to its master, but didn’t disturb him, instead watching Naminé as if to see if she saw. Naminé followed it silently. Van didn’t scare easy, but she almost hoped she could startle him. 

“Vani!!”

Van yelped when Naminé threw her arms around his neck and dragged him down. She had no balance to begin with and so fell to the side, and whatever balance Van had in his shaky crouch was lost with her weight. He fell on top of her, narrowly avoiding ramming his shoulder into her clavicle. 

“What the hell?!?” Van snapped, getting an arm beneath him to get a good look at his attacker. His eyes darted all around her, and he seemed to know her, but wasn’t certain enough.

The Flood who had narrowly avoided death crooned up at him happily and hopped up onto his shoulder, nuzzling its face against Van’s. It must have explained what it knew, because he turned down to look at her, a tiny smile on his face.

“Nam?”

“Hi, Vani. Can I hug you?”

“If I say no, will you let me go?”

Naminé pouted but retracted her arms. He was in one of those moods, huh? “Of course I will.”

“Hnnnn,” Van said, baring sharp incisors. “...Yeah, you can.”

Naminé quickly replaced her arms around his neck and squeezed him tighter, so tight he was probably struggling to breathe. She buried her face into the hair on the back of his neck and laughed to herself. Van wasn’t always a great hugger, but he sure was great at receiving them. Or, sitting there and doing nothing while he got them. 

At least sometimes he reacted to them very positively, hugging back when he was in a very good mood or at least pressing in close. At least when he did that, Naminé knew he didn’t entirely hate them. 

“What are you doing here?” Van asked when Naminé climbed off of him, sticking one leg between his so he had no choice but to stay seated with her. 

“I missed you,” Naminé said very simply, shrugging her shoulders. 

“...We are several worlds apart,” Van said very quietly. “That’s insane.”

“I know! But I missed you a lot and I just… wanted to be with you for a bit. Not just talking to you. Touching you.” She grabbed his arm and pushed her claws gently into his skin. She was one of four people he let touch him—the others being Ri, Aqua, and Ventus. She used it to her advantage, but made sure not to overwhelm him too much that he stopped letting her get close. “You’re my favorite.”

Van’s cheeks went a shade of gray, barely detectable in the moonlight, and he looked away from her. She didn’t miss the tiny smile pushing at his mouth. Van had spent far too long not being cared for by anyone, so he was always embarrassed when Naminé, and occasionally Ri, casually said something along those lines. He didn’t respond, but Naminé didn’t expect him to. It was enough when he squeezed his legs together around hers. 

“How long will you be here?” Van asked, leaning back and looking up at the moon. “I could show you the Hinterlands, if you wanted. We could go down to the lake.” He poked at her arm and smeared the water on her a little. “Bet this form would like that.”

“That’d be cool!! Sora never mentioned a lake. But I don’t know how long we’ll be here. I want to catch up with Ri, but he mentioned heading out in a few days so I want to get some time.”

“You’re gonna see Ri, too?” Van said. He turned suddenly excited red eyes on her, perking up like a dog. As much as he wouldn’t say so, he did miss Ri terribly. 

“Yeah!! It’s quiet in Radiant Garden and I missed you both, and Sora I guess had some time and wanted to roam.”

“...He’s here?” Van peered back towards the gates, scowling. He didn’t exactly dislike Sora, but he didn’t really like him, either. After being sealed in Sora’s heart longer than anyone else, Naminé understood his hesitation. They’d gotten along for as long as it took to drop Van off and make sure he could get himself settled nicely, but after that the two lookalikes had to back off.

“Yeah, he wanted me to tell you ‘hi’ for him. He's visiting with Jack and Sally now, though. You're in the clear.”

Van didn’t bother to hide silent relief. He lifted a hand to scratch at the Flood on his shoulder, who crooned again and affectionately nuzzled his cheek. He leaned back and laid in the dirt crossing his arms beneath his head. Apparently, he was done talking. 

Naminé smiled at him anyway. Neither of them were conversationalists, and she didn’t mind at all. 

So she scooted in close, pulled her leg back, and laid down right in his personal space, watching him the whole time to make sure that she wasn’t invading too much. He was a little twitchy, but then he often was.

“Hey Van?”

“Hmm?” Van hummed softly, moving his arm a little. When Naminé snuggled in a fraction closer, he adjusted enough to allow it. 

Naminé lifted her chin to watch his face, then lifted her head to press her lips against his jaw, kissing the place that used to be permanently covered. “I love you. You know that, right? I love you?”

For just the briefest of moments, Van looked startled. He definitely wasn’t expecting the question. Then he smiled, eyes beyond soft. “Well, you tell me every time we talk, so yeah I figured it out.”

The kiss was new, but Naminé didn’t regret it. He deserved to know and he deserved to feel it. “Good. I love you.”

He laughed a little, just a tiny bit, and squeezed her tight. He didn’t say it back; he never had, but Naminé wasn’t discouraged. She felt it, too, in how differently he treated her and Ri from everyone else, even the ones he got along with. He cared for her in ways he did no one else. 

After another moment of peace, Naminé wiggled around and sat back up. Her frills were pressed wonkily around her head, but she didn’t have nerve endings in them so she couldn’t feel it. “C’mon! We might not have the time to explore the Hinterlands, but you can show me around town and we’ll pretend we’re looking for Sora. And your home!! I want to see it!!!”

“Okay, okay. Let me finish what I was working on,” Van requested. He sat up beside her and ran a hand through his hair. Beside him, most of the leaves on the Jack o’ lantern stems had been trimmed away and neatened up, except a small section where Naminé had interrupted him. He took the shears he had and went back to work, working efficiently and diligently. He threw his scraps in a metal bin Naminé hadn’t seen before, then closed the lid and set the shears on top. 

Naminé took his hand but let him lead the way. The lone Flood hopped up onto her shoulder and happily nuzzled her wet cheek. 

They artfully dodged Sora, who was being shown things around town by Jack. The first time had been entirely Van’s doing, but Naminé decided to make a game out of it, if only so she could spend just a little more time here. The closer to Sora they got before they had to dodge out of his presence or line of vision, the harder Naminé giggled.

She was also fairly certain that Sora actually knew they were there, or had an idea, but was letting her spend more time with Van rather than rushing her along. 

Van showed her all sorts of things. Jack’s house was huge, to account for both his height, and his status as the Pumpkin King. Dr Finkelstein’s lab gave her the creeps, and Van very pointedly instructed his Unversed to stay far away. The fountain was beautiful, even though the water in it was green and goopy. Naminé was pretty sure there was someone in there; she wondered if it was part of her species. 

Lastly, he dragged her to the end of the town, bordering the Hinterlands, just to look at it. Apparently, deep in these woods, there were doors to a different holiday world. Easter, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Independence Day. Van claimed he’d been in a few, but he wouldn’t say which. 

They sat amongst huge gravestones, just looking out into the woods. The Flood played in pools of water Naminé left behind, very deliberately getting itself dripping only to climb into Van’s hair and shake off right there. 

Van only laughed and shoved the little creature away. Naminé was glad he’d found himself a home and a place he was comfortable; it was clearly doing wonders for his annoyance and anger. It made her glad she had yet to ask him to move to Radiant Garden, with her. He was happier here. 

“When we leave, you should come,” Naminé said softly, covering one of his calloused hands with one of her own.

“...Leave where?”

“To see Ri!” Naminé reached a hand up to her shoulder, where the Flood was perched again. “He’s in San Fransokyo, now. He misses you, you know. You don’t call him, do you?”

Van’s cheeks went a shade of gray, and he sharply looked away. “...he doesn’t call me, either. I work a lot.”

“I know,” Naminé sighed. “I know you do, you keep yourself busy and it’s real, honest work and I’m really proud of you for it. But even if he doesn’t pick up, you should still call him. It reminds him that he’s loved. He needs to hear it, too.”

“Yeah, well… whatever,” Van said, cheeks grayer. Though Van didn’t deny that he loved Ri, too, he was embarrassed that it was spoken aloud. 

Naminé smiled but rolled her eyes, curling her fingertips around his. “It’s okay, you can tell him yourself when you come with us to see him.”

“Nam…”

“What?” Naminé asked, leaning back a little. The Unversed wrapped around her neck to stare at its master. “You miss him, you love him. You don’t talk enough. It’s an easy fix! And Sora won’t be too jumpy, I promise.”

Van frowned hard, taking his hand back and crossing his legs to lean forward a little, more than a little nervous. Since coming to live here, he had gotten accustomed to letting his Unversed run rampant. Going to other worlds meant he couldn’t do that. Which meant bottling. Ever since he no longer had to, since Master Xehanort’s passing, he hated bottling.

The Flood quickly crossed over from Naminé’s shoulder onto his, as if offering him comfort. It nosed his cheek, speaking to him, pressing closer and closer. Scrapper Unversed started materializing—he was getting very nervous. 

If she pushed him too hard, he’d flat out tell her ‘no’. He was nervous, and it was time to back off. 

“...But I won't think any differently of you if you decide not to come,” she said instead. He didn’t like having choices stolen from him; at least this way, whether he agreed to come or not, it was his choice, not hers. 

“...I won’t make any promises about Mr Sunshine,” Van finally said after a long minute, shoving the Flood off of his shoulder and vanishing the hovering Scrappers. His shoulders were a little stiff, but he seemed a little more at ease. 

A huge grin grew over Naminé’s face. She leaned her head down onto his shoulder and squeezed his hand. “Yay! I’m really happy you’re gonna come, Vani! Then I get to spend more time with you. And don’t worry about Sora, not much gets him down so if you don’t talk to him, he’ll get it. I’ll talk to him. I love you.”

Van’s cheeks once again went shades grayer. He mumbled something unintelligible under his breath, but he flashed her a surprisingly shy smile, lips sealed. As much as he could be a cocky asshole most of the time, something about having real friends now always made him clam up and get nervous. “Do what you want.”

“What are we doing?” Sora suddenly asked behind them, nearing from the town square. His sudden appearance made Van stiffen again, and slowly work Naminé off of him. Something about showing affection in front of people. 

“Sora!” Naminé didn’t mind that she had been forcefully detached, at least. She squeezed Van’s hand once, then let go and hopped to her feet, leaving Van looking very deliberately away from Sora. “Sora.”

“Hi, Nam. Having fun?”

“Loads! Van and me have just been poking around. Listen, I know I asked him before asking you, but I hoped it was okay to bring Van with us to see Ri. They don’t talk as much as they should even though they’re like best friends.”

“I, uh… I mean, sure, if he wants to! I don’t mind. Wanna come with, um, Van?”

Van was still looking away from him, and did not respond. He still seemed embarrassed about being clung to and found out.

“He’s not feeling very social right now,” Naminé said very quietly, reaching out and touching Sora’s arm. “Nervous.”

“Ahh. Well, that’s okay! You’re definitely invited, Van!”

The Flood crooned up at her silently, touching her webbed feet as if asking a question of its own. She leaned down to scoop it up. “This little guy is probably gonna stay out, because it helps him, is that okay?” She grabbed one of its little claws in her fingers and waved it at him. The Unversed had no care whatsoever. 

“Um, I guess, but make sure it doesn’t run around too much.”

“Will do! It’ll probably just stay in Van’s lap anyway; it helps.”

“Nam…” Van said warningly, shooting her a look. 

Naminé winced, hugging it tighter in apology and hoping he felt it. “Er, or mine.”

“Okay. Well, if we want to get over to San Fransokyo before it gets too late, we should go! Timing’s a little different there, and you don’t want to miss their sunsets. C’mon!”

Van took a second to catch up, but Naminé waited for him anyway. She looped her arm around his loosely, and flashed apologetic eyes his way. He shrugged, but said nothing more on the subject. 

Once they reached the Gummiship, Sora vanished the cloaking spell and let them in. Sure enough, when Van took a seat and was buckled in, the Flood leapt from Naminé’s arms into his lap, curling up like a pet. Naminé halfway expected it to start purring.  She took the seat next to Sora again so he didn’t feel forced to be social, and once they were buckled in (Sora happily chirping “safety first!!”), they took off. 

Naminé called Ri halfway to San Fransokyo, but hid who she was with and what she was doing to keep it a surprise. She screenshot her call so Sora had an idea of where they were going, then asked what he was up to. She happily shared conversation with Ri for a few minutes, until San Fransokyo showed up on Sora’s Navi-Screen, and she knew they were getting close. She happily turned her head back to look at Van, but he just watched the stars and asteroids fly by, and didn’t seem to notice. The Flood had yet to move. 

“Okay, okay, I gotta go Ri! I love you!! See you soon!”

“...What?” 

“Uh—nothing! Bye!”

“Smooth,” Van finally spoke up when Naminé hung up, which made Sora start to laugh, trying to at least cover it up with a wrist to his mouth for her sake. He reached over to take her phone when she offered it, saying “that’s where he was last.”

“Well,” Sora said cheerfully. “It’ll either be a huge surprise, or it’ll be small enough that he won’t get too surprised! If he’s anything like Riku, he won’t take surprises all that well.”

“He’s nothing like Riku,” Van snapped from the back, a hand resting on the Flood’s back and digging into its skin. “...But he doesn’t like surprises much.”

“He can be like Riku sometimes,” Naminé said. “He likes Riku. You’re the one who doesn’t.”

“He likes Riku because he thinks he has to,” Van corrected bluntly. “He’s still somewhere between ‘I Am Riku’, and ‘I Am Definitely Not Riku’, and all that self love crap is confusing him.”

“...Well, I hope it’s not crap,” Naminé said under her breath, frowning. Self love was not crap, and it wasn’t conceited either. It was a hard lesson that every person she knew of seemed to need working on, not just her boys. 

“...I’m just saying,” Van said, conceding just a fraction. 

Sora laughed goodnaturedly then coughed into his elbow when he felt Vanitas’ glare on him, silencing quickly. San Fransokyo was nearly just beneath the ship, so Sora turned the nose down sharply to descend into orbit. Naminé, and Vanitas behind them, both gripped their seats as the landing got shaky—no more than usual, but getting through the atmosphere was always a little disruptive. The Flood even darted into Vanitas’ jacket and poked its little head out to watch. 

The massive blue and green expanse they flew above soon gave way to a huge red bridge. Sora excitedly started talking about the first time he got here, flying toward the forest on the other side of the bridge, away from the city. Sora happily chattered about how apparently this bridge, the Torii Gate Bridge, was one of the largest in this world. Naminé supposed that was cool—probably would be cooler, if she lived on this world or visited it regularly. 

Still, the bridge was massive. That was cool. There was a semi-secluded clearing not far from the bridge that Sora dropped the ship into. Cloaking themselves apparently wasn’t necessary, so they exited the ship, and Sora cloaked it from view. Van took the Flood from his shoulder and stared at it, nervous. At least with one Unversed out, he could feel through it without being totally trapped. The Flood nosed his face and clawed at his hands happily.

“I bet,” Naminé said, feeling his nerves deep in her soul, “that if you put it in your jacket and don't make a big deal out of it, it’s fine to stay with you.” She couldn’t even imagine what it must be like, to not be able to feel emotions at all, without giving birth to a creature of darkness. That was one particular power of his that he’d never been able to put to words for them. The Unversed at least seemed to take on his emotions, varieties of them, once they were free, so he could feel in small spurts.

“...Yeah.”

“There’s lots of huge buildings too, with like 500 foot roofs at least, that are away from people and easy to get to, so they can, like, go free there,” Sora chirped. “C’mon! The sunset is to die for.”

Naminé gave him affectionate eyes, which she then tossed back to Van to see him lift his jacket and tuck the little critter inside. The Unversed seemed perfectly content to bury its face into its master’s side. 

The walk felt long to start, but then Sora flashed a wink at them and took Naminé’s hand, reminding her to have “light feet”, whatever that was supposed to mean. He crouched his knees just a little and waited for a decent sized passing car, and he and she jumped, much to Van’s surprise and hidden delight, on top of it. He followed suit quickly after, and the trip into the big city took much less time. 

Naminé was giggling like mad when they finally dismounted from behind, likely startling the driver. Sora waved them off with a sheepish grin, while Van actively fought back the appearance of another Unversed of some kind, hand protectively over his mouth. 

“Why didn’t you just glide?” Naminé asked once Van successively fought back the rush of emotion, eyeing Sora. “It’d be easier. Scare less people.”

“Where’s the fun in that?”

“Did you really just ask,” Van asked, voice strained like he was still fighting back tarry vomit, like it was still balled in his throat, “where the fun is in flying?”

“Besides,” Sora said, ignoring him. “I didn’t think either of you could glide.”

Van frowned and looked away. Naminé mumbled sheepishly about not being that far in her magic. That was all the answer he needed. 

“Come on! Can I see your phone again? I’ll take you right to where he was, then I wanna see if I can track down Hiro and the others!”

Naminé passed off her phone. Sora got a good idea of the area, where Ri had been surrounded by round pink bushes, and then took off, Naminé followed closely with Van trailing a little behind. 

It was outside of a huge building, but Naminé decided that wasn’t saying much since all the buildings here were huge. The bushes were pretty much perfectly round and absolutely, in Naminé’s opinion, delightful. 

Ri, though, was not lost amongst them. This city was much bigger than Halloweentown was and, unlike with Van, there would be no delightful little darkness critters to lead her right to her best friend. They’d either have to hunt him down, or…

“Would the Flood know his scent?” Naminé asked Van, looking at the little blue critter tucked into his coat. “If he was just here?” 

“You would be amazed,” Van started, but he obediently removed the little creature, “just how stupid these things are. I doubt it’ll know Ri.”

“Aren’t they extensions of you?” Sora asked, half-innocent. Van shot a positively evil glare on him, and Sora paled and took two steps back. “Um, I’m gonna dash, track down Hiro and them, okay? Just, um, remember the World Order, and call me if you get lost, this world is easy to get lost in. And!! Call me just before sunset, I wanna watch with you guys and catch up with, um, with Ri for a bit. We’ll get ice cream!! Okay?! Have fun!!” Like that, Sora was off. He freeran up the damn building and leapt onto the railing of the highway above them, grinding off quickly.

Naminé waved him off, bouncing on her toes. “Bye Sora!! I love you!!!” 

Van shook his head, but now that they were alone again, the affection on his face was much freer to show when he looked at her. “You say that a lot.”

Naminè looked back at him, flashing her best grin. “Yeah, well, it’s true, and everyone should know. Don’t worry, you and Ri are still my favorite.” She surged forward and took his hand, and when he didn’t stiffen which normally meant he was okay with contact, she moved the rest of the way in and wrapped her arms around him, burying her cheek against his shoulder. “I love you.”

“Yeah, well, whatever. C’mon, before we miss him.” Excitement shown on his face, and in the suddenly jittery Unversed. It had been a long time since he had last seen Ri. “Find Ri.”

The Unversed, apparently stupid as Van claimed, just stared at him, shaking a little as Van’s excitement leaked off of it. 

“Go.”

If the Flood had been human, its eyes would have been dead.

But Naminé knew what to do. These things were extensions of Van himself, after all. She crouched in front of it and scratched its head, noting the way Van turned his head just slightly as if he could sort of feel it. “Go, find your best friend.”

The Flood stared at her, but this time with less stupidity and more confusion, like it was asking “why are you asking me to find you?” Then its nose twitched, and it whirled around and hopped over one of the bushes, now knowing what it was looking for. 

Naminé glanced back to see Van completely gray in the face, blackened blood making his skin turn ashen. If she didn’t know any better, she’d have thought him ill, but she did know, and so knew he was needlessly embarrassed. 

“Shut up,” he said, then took off after his Flood. Naminé laughed and followed. 

The Flood was sniffing at a spot by one of the bushes that looked recently matted down, as if Ri had been laying there before vacating. Once it got a decent enough scent, it looked back at them as if to make sure that they were catching up. Then, it took off toward the side of the building, melted into the surface, and ascended like it was no problem. 

Naminé stared up at the little critter, seeing its shadow in the building but only slightly. She looked to her companion. “You know how to freerun?”

“I think so. You?”

“I hope so.” Naminé gulped, then took Van’s hand and laced their fingers together. “Come on!” 

She jumped and he jumped with her, activated their high jump, and angled themselves so their feet touched the building, and she prayed to something. Sure enough, their feet clung to the side of the building, as if gravity was merely a suggestion. After a second, she lost her footing, but as soon as they started moving, gravity forgot to care about them, and they followed the Flood up to the roof. It was a testament to how much time Sora spent here climbing walls, when so few people even noticed. 

They soon had to jump to another building, following the Flood’s suggestion, and headed towards the center of town. It lead them up another tall building, where it rocketed right to the top of the building and stopped. 

Once Naminé and Van were safely obeying gravity once again, the Flood took off to its final destination, the shoulder of the person standing there and staring at the flying fish things. 

Ri started hard, not knowing they were there at all, when the Flood happily launched onto his shoulder and forcefully nuzzled his face. He grabbed it and lifted it away, then realized exactly what it was. “Flood…?” It would make no sense for an Unversed to be here, unless…

He turned in the direction it had come from, eyes absolutely lighting up when he saw its master, his best friends. “Naminé? Van?”

“Ri!” Naminé gasped. She luckily avoided tripping over her feet in her rush to grab him. She launched forward and hugged him so viciously that he lost his footing and hit the roof on his rear. She understood why Van didn’t like being touched, what most of his life had been like before turning to the Light, but she was still really really happy that Ri didn’t have the same qualms. She loved hugging him. He had been, out of everyone she knew and loved, of Sora and Roxas and Xion and Axel and Kairi and now Van, he had been her first friend. She huddled into his suddenly exposed lap and pressed in all the closer, possibly squashing the Flood. “I missed you. I love you.”

Ri was still somewhere between amazed and startled, staring up at Van and eyes darting toward the blond hair not for from his face. After a moment though, he wiggled the Unversed somewhere safe, and hugged Naminé back just as tightly, kissing her cheek for good measure. “What are you guys doing here?”

9

“Aw, didn’t you miss us?” Van asked, half mocking. There was black tar dripping out the corner of his mouth, which meant Van was attempting to squash emotions and, ultimately, was failing. 

“I kidnapped Van.”

“Of course you did,” Ri said with an affectionate sigh. The affection flashed between both his friends, and Naminé knew there was no judgment toward Van for not being the one to decide on his own to visit. Where Ri wanted freedom to be who and where he wanted to be, rather than trapped in a castle or Riku’s heart, Van wanted control over his life and choices, and a place to call home. 

Ri shoved Naminé off of him playfully, then got back to his feet, offering the Flood to its master, although the extra outlet for emotion didn't seem like it would do him any good. An Unversed was well on its way. 

Regardless, Van stepped forward and opened up his arms, a gesture he had never given to anyone but them. “I’m hugging you,” he said, a semblance of the question they always posed for him. Naminé wasn’t sure if he was telling them that yeah, it was okay and he wasn’t forcing it, or maybe it was him warning himself, but he had always done it and they didn’t question it.

“I won’t stop you,” Ri assured with a laugh. Like Naminé had, he invaded Van’s personal space and buried his face in Van’s shoulder. Despite not being terribly tall, Van was still the tallest of them, and Ri and Naminé always took full advantage of it when he let them. 

The hug lasted for five seconds tops, before Van suddenly lurched in Ri’s arms and shoved him to the side, not violently but enough to get him out of the way. A hand flew to his mouth, and he quickly doubled over, gagging. Naminé and Ri’s hands quickly went to his back.

He lurched again, a terrible, bubbled noise coming out of his throat. Thick, black tar flew out and splattered on the metal, more dripping from his mouth to fill out the pool. He coughed and more came up, bubbling out of his mouth. He spat the acrid taste out and shuddered there, hands on his knees, Naminé and Ri rubbing his back helpfully. After a minute, the tar bubbled up again and took life, forming into a Hareraiser who stared up at its master and stepped forward as if to help soothe. 

“...Did you have to do that now?” Ri asked, shit-eating grin spreading across his face. 

Van shot him a heated glare and pulled a kerchief out of his pocket, a gift from Jack Skellington apparently, judging by the skeleton face in the corner. “You know damn well I don’t have a choice. I should kick you off this building.”

“No!!”

After a moment, the three sat at the edge of the building, staring at the mechanical flying fish. Naminé linked her fingertips with Ri’s and leaned on his shoulder, giving Van the space he needed after so violently birthing another Unversed. The Hareraiser perched on Ri’s shoulders and occasionally nuzzled him happily, very much embarrassing Van again without meaning to. 

“Why did you guys come here?” Ri asked after a short amount of time, silver hair swaying in the breeze. He kept his hair back in a low pony now, because he didn’t like his hair getting in his eyes but wasn’t prepared to cut it yet. Kairi had once braided it not long after he was reborn, lamenting how much she missed Riku’s long hair. “I mean, why here. Why now?”

“We missed you, dumbass,” Van snapped. 

“We love you,” Naminé said very simply, making Van sigh while Ri tossed her the fondest expression known to man. He squeezed her tight, and stuck his tongue out at Van, who snottily stuck his out back at him. 

“She’s become fond of the phrase,” Van explained, although it was hardly necessary. 

“Well, I do. And we did miss you, and I had time, and I had Sora. We do miss you. Plus Van doesn’t call you because he’s mean.”

“Oh yeah, he’s the worst.”

“Hey,” Van snapped. “I just spit up some awful bunny for you.”

The Hareraiser raised its ears as if aware it was being spoken of. Van winced when supposedly its voice shrieked in his head.

“Happy birthday to me.”

“Screw this, I’m going home,” Van snapped, although the tone in his voice suggested less. He shoved himself up off the side of the building, turning around to walk away. Ri laughed and released Naminé to lean back and grab at Van’s ankle. The Hareraiser lifted its ears to wrap around his knee, too, forcing Van to a stop. Well, more or less; he was certainly powerful enough to kick them both off without struggle, if he really wanted to. 

“Get back here, asshole, we’re only messing with you. Of course I like your awful bunny. It’s wonderful.”

The aforementioned Unversed cheered to itself, waving its ears in delight. Van kicked its ear, and Ri’s hand, out of his way, then obediently melted into the rooftop, crossing his arms over his crossed legs. Naminé leaned her head back and flashed him her best smile. 

The trio fell back into silence. Ri was stretched back, one hand knotted in Naminé’s shirt, the other just barely grazing Van’s knee. The wind was cool and gentle, the sun bright but they were protected by the shade of the building. They were so high up that the chatter from down below was pretty much non existent. It was like the three of them were the only people in the whole world. 

“...You know,” Ri suddenly said, stretching his hand up to reach for nothing but air. “I think this is the best random hangout session we’ve ever had.”

“I don’t think we’ve had one before,” Naminé said. Since the three of them regularly lived on different worlds, nothing they did could be random. Everything was planned. It was nice, and it worked for them. She’d take what she could get. 

“You have sad hangout sessions,” Van commented, flicking his head. “All we’ve done today is find you, hug, I threw up an Unversed, you made me hate you, and this.”

“Thrilling,” Naminé agreed, in such a sardonic Roxas voice that it made her start giggling to herself. 

“Shut up Van. Naminé has a point. We haven’t had one before, and that means that legally I’m allowed to call this one our best yet.”

“Legally?” Van asked with a laugh. His laugh had mellowed out since his release from the dark, and Naminé and Ri both found it quite pleasing. “You must not have gotten the memo. You aren’t allowed to do that anymore. CDA’s gonna come and break down your door.”

“CDA? What the fuck is CDA?”

“Oh—wrong world?” Van pulled a face, and Naminé and Ri started laughing with him. Naminé pushed herself back a little and laid back to use one of his knees as a pillow. It was bony, and he was still skinny, but she liked the warmth.  

“I agree with Ri,” Naminé said softly. The Flood was in her arms, arguably sleeping if Unversed ever slept. “This is the best, even if all we’ve done is find Ri and watch you throw up. I really needed this.”

“Needed?” Ri asked, turning his head to look at her. And there it was, that protective thing he was always so good at. 

“You didn’t say anything was wrong earlier,” Van said, voice suddenly tight. Naminé worried she was forcing on him some sort of emotion that was going to come bursting out in the form of black tar. 

“No no it’s… I mean, everything’s fine. Nothing’s wrong, don’t either of you go worrying about me.”

“Legally we have to,” Van protested. 

“Shut up.”

“Everything’s fine! I just, I’ve been missing my favorite people a lot, and we don’t always talk as much as I like, and obviously we can’t spend a lot of time together and, I don’t know, I guess I’ve been lonely.”

“Lonely?” Ri sat all the way up, removing himself from Van’s personal space, to look down at her. He shared a suddenly nervous look with Van, who shifted a little to allow the adjustment. “You can’t be lonely. You said you’ve been doing better.”

“I was. And I am! Leon and his team, they’re all awesome. Sora’s awesome. Xion’s awesome. Terra’s—awesome. But they’re not… they’re not… I don’t know. I know I shouldn’t be lonely because I have friends now, loads of them, and it’s great! Kairi calls me every day, all the time, and she keeps saying ‘oh, you should have seen what Sora did this morning!’ or ‘Riku spent the night last night and we were up for hours’. Stuff like that. I just. I don’t know.” Naminé looked away from Ri and Van, going red in the face. She hugged the Unversed closer. She didn’t want to look at either of them, because she knew why they did what they did, and she knew why she did what she did. She didn’t even always feel like this, in fact most often she didn’t, but some days the miss happened, and she called up Sora to drag her all across galaxies. “I don’t know.”

“Nam—Nam, do you… are you jealous?” Ri asked, poking her bare arm. “Of Kairi? ‘Cause I mean that’s cool, Kairi’s cool, but if you ask me she’s got nothing on you.”

“Are you, like…” Van leaned over her a little, struggling with his words because emotions were hard to feel, let alone talk about. “...sad? That we don’t live on the same world as you?”

“It’s dumb! I know it’s dumb! Because you guys are awesome. You really really are! You’re out there living your best life, Van you have a steady job that keeps you busy and distracts your anxiety that you’re really good at, and you have a home where your emotions can do whatever they need or want to the way that they should, and that’s awesome!! Ri, you’re out here exploring worlds upon worlds upon worlds, you’re finding yourself in this spectacular way and you’re finding out every way that you are and aren’t Riku and that’s awesome. I hate feeling like this. Because it isn’t fair of me to want to uproot you from where you guys are finally happy.” Naminé squeezed the Unversed even tighter, so tight the squeak was nearly audible, but the wince from Van was definitely visible. 

Van and Ri shared another look before looking down on her. Van lifted her head and scootched out his knee from beneath. He moved a little and slid down alongside her, laying back so they were side by side. Ri scooted down and laid on her opposite side. The three huddled together like sardines, and for once none of them minded the touch in the slightest. 

“It’s okay, Nam. If you miss us. Or if you want to call us up in the middle of the night because world times are fucked up and you want to tell us all about your latest art project. We might not talk but we’ll listen. Well— I’ll listen, Van’ll fall asleep.”

“You—knew damn well how much work I did the day before, you called me then on purpose!” 

“Shut up Van this isn’t about you.”

“Pot shot,” Naminé said quietly, reaching over to pinch Ri like Van asked her to every time he made a low blow. 

“The point is, we’re still your friends, no matter what. You were my first friend.”

“You were my first friend,” Van agreed softly. 

“So we’ll be here, even when you’re lonely and you don’t think you should be.”

Naminé sighed, wiggling her shoulders a little so she came out on top. “I know. In my head, I know. I just… it’s not the same as being with you. Touching you.” She released the shaky Unversed, reaching out both her hands to track down Van and Ri’s hands. “Even when you don’t always like it.”

“...Sorry we can’t be there, then,” Van mumbled. Their pinky and ring fingers locked. 

The trio lapsed once again into silence. The Hareraiser once again found Ri’s free hand and was demanding head skritches, so Van occasionally turned his head in a fruitless attempt to get away from the bizarre muted feeling. 

“You know what I think?” Van suddenly asked, which was odd considering he didn’t often voice his opinions unless he was being snide. 

“What do you think,” Ri asked. 

“I think somewhere out there, there’s a world for us. Like how stupid Ventus and his friends have a world practically made for them, and OG Riku and his friends have a world made for them, and even the two carbon copies and their friends have worlds made for them. I think somewhere there’s a world like that for us. Some kind of weird mix of light and dark.”

“Mostly dark,” Ri interjected halfway playfully, watching him. Van was suddenly talking with his free hand, fingers up towards the clouds. 

“Oh obviously, light is gross.”

“Obviously,” Naminé giggled. 

“What do you think of this world made for us?” Ri asked. “What will we do with it?”

“I dunno. I’m not saying we, like, we move there but. Who knows. Maybe one day, you’ll go there Ri, and you’ll find out its like hella artsy and shit. So you call up Naminé, and because it’s hella dark and there are weird monsters everywhere you call me, and now we have to go check it out, and maybe we just don’t leave.” 

“Hmmm…” Naminé said seriously, setting her chin. “We’ll be on the same world.”

“Pretty much all the time.” 

Naminé’s smile grew back over her face, in a soft and gentle way that really, Van and Ri both loved. “I think that sounds amazing, Van.”

“Yeah, it sounds pretty cool. I’ll keep my eye out for really super fucking dark but also really super fucking artsy worlds, and I’ll let you know the next one I see.”

“Cool.”

“Until then,” Ri said, squeezing Naminé’s hand, “maybe Van and me can get out to Radiant Garden more. So you’re not so lonely. Would that be okay? Van?”

“...Yeah. I can make it work. But Naminé, you have to show us something cool every time.”

“Legally, or CDA will kill you.”

Naminé looked between her two half-bickering boys, her best friends in the whole multiverse, attempting to make plans that she wasn’t even sure they’d be able to keep, just because she sometimes got lonely. The Flood was nuzzling her chin as its own affection as well as Van’s took over. 

“...Okay, I think I can do that. I really love you guys.”

Ri pressed closer to her and leaned his head against hers. Van squeezed her hand tight, and she knew they felt the same.

Sora was right. The sunset was fucking spectacular, especially from the vantage point atop the Torii Gate Bridge. As promised, Naminé called up Sora and they met him on the bridge. Van glared at him, but then he presented bars of chocolate ice cream, and he mellowed out. Sora took a slightly higher vantage point than them, leaving the three to their companionship while still able to interject himself. 

Ri had spent the rest of the day showing them cool things around the city and talking about his time there. He only dropped Naminé’s hand when he had to. 

He also carried the Hareraiser around all day, and it curled in his lap now, not prepared to leave, apparently. Van mumbled under his breath when he noticed, but didn’t seem all in all too upset that it stayed where it was. 

“I feel like we should come back here more,” Naminé said softly. “Just for this part. Or for all of it. Today was great.”

“I’m leaving here the day after tomorrow,” Ri reminded her, poking her head. 

“...Elsewhere then. Somewhere else pretty. Oh!! The Caribbean would be cool.”

“We should live there,” Van agreed. “They have ships and you don’t have to talk to people because you can be on the ocean one hundred percent of the time.”

Ri rolled his eyes and smacked a fist on Van’s thigh, making him laugh. 

“That won’t work because I need electricity to do digital art and also phones won’t charge.”

“Yeah, Van, you’d die without your phone.”

Van willed an Archraven into existence, then pulled out his phone to consider it. He shrugged, said “eh”, and tossed it over the edge. 

“Van!”

The Archraven instantly trailed after the little device, depositing it back in his lap and perching on his shoulder. 

“That’s the only way we can contact you when you’re on a different world, asshole!”

Naminé, giggling, dropped her head toward her lap and the Flood, who lifted its snoot to her, ready to be kissed. “Why are you the way that you are,” she said, as Van had asked them a number of times when he was simply too tired to put up with their shenanigans. She took the Flood’s head in her hands and angled it back a little bit so she could easier kiss it. 

“Hey, you guys like me this way, that’s not my fault.”

Ri let out a startled laugh and shoved Naminé into him, making them both start laughing as well. The Archraven waved its wings in protest of the movement and clicked its beak at Ri. They settled and left the poor Unversed be.

“...I don’t think I want to go home,” Naminé said. “I love Radiant Garden, but I don’t wanna say goodbye yet. I love you guys so much.”

“We love you too,” Ri said softly, flashing her a warm smile. 

“Love you too,” Van agreed, halfway startling Ri and Naminé. They looked at him with huge eyes; he’d never said so before. He showed it, but he’d never said the words. 

“...You do?”

“Yes? God, fuck off. Nevermind then.”

“Nono!!” Naminé gasped, flinging her arms around him and squeezing him tight. “I love you too, Vani. I’m just surprised you didn’t throw up an Unversed again.”

“...That really only happens when it’s sudden.”

Naminé squeezed him tighter, enjoying that implication. “I hope it’s okay that I’m hugging you. I forgot to ask.”

“Yeah yeah…” Van said, putting his arm around her. “Just don’t make a habit of it.”

Ri stood from where he was now left alone and slunk over to Van’s other side, putting his arms around him and squeezing him tight too. “I’m hugging you now, since they’re free.” 

“Whatever. Last one.”

Naminé leaned her head on Van’s shoulder, looking up to Sora who was smiling very warmly at them. He leaned back and watched the sky, as if they had all the time in the world. Maybe they did. She didn’t know how times worked on different worlds. “Do you love him too, Van? Or just me.”

“Definitely just you.”

“Ouch,” Ri said with a laugh.

“Van!”

“You asked!”

“It’s okay Nam,” Ri said, patting her head. He released Van and let him take some space back. “I know he loves me because a few weeks ago I called him three times on the same day and he only yelled at me for like ten minutes the last time.”

“Three times in one day is unnecessary.”

“It must be love,” Naminé agreed. 

“It is,” Van snapped, then he realized he’s spoken alone and his skin went several shades ashier. “Anyone else but you two and I wouldn’t even have answered once.”

That was true.

“Yeah, well, anyone else but you two and I wouldn’t even have called, so it must be love or something.” Ri gently kicked Van’s boot so he knew, and Van kicked back.

Naminé smiled at her friends and leaned back, the sunset now almost totally blocked out by the Flood. “You know, I think today might be the best day ever.”

Ri leaned back. Van sat up between them, but put his hand on her belly to pat. 

“I think you’re probably right.”

[kayura-sanada]

Sora and Riku!!!

Sora likes to dance. He loves to dance. He’s just atrocious at it.

Riku loves the moon. He doesn’t really have a good reason until he thinks about Sora one day while looking at it. That’s when he realizes that Sora lights up the darkness around him, just like the moon.

Riku mostly trains as a hobby. It’s only when Namine and Xion ask him to pose for Namine’s drawing that he thinks he might actually like painting.

He hates painting. He loves sculpting.

Sora is actually the sports buff. He plays tag football, soccer, tennis, kickball, and volleyball with the others, mostly by begging everyone until they agree to a game. Riku will play, sure, but he is never the one to instigate a match.

Sora likes to hang out on trees, whether it’s sitting on one or swinging upside down from his knees. Riku calls him a monkey.

Sora falls for all of Roxas’ and Vanitas’ and Axel’s lies. Literally all of them. For instance, he one day goes up to Riku on his perch on the tiny butte and very proudly tells him, “it’s not size that matters! Mine’s better!” Riku chokes on literally nothing. Roxas and Axel burst out laughing below them.

They told him the phrase was about keyblades.

Sora is still terrified of ghosts. When Vanitas told him he could see ghosts and pretended one was haunting Sora, Sora ran to Riku with tears in his eyes, begging Riku to make the ghost go away. Riku's glare, when he directed it at Van, portended such calamity that Vanitas agreed that the ghost had decided to leave Sora alone.

Neither really leads in the bedroom so much as they battle it out. Sometimes Sora wins. Most of the time Riku lets him win.

They switch. Riku’s often the one topping, but Sora loves both positions and Riku finds it fun to be with Sora in any capacity.

Sora takes to sex the way he takes to anything - with an eye to fun. He cracks stupid jokes and takes weird positions and always ends up making Riku full-belly laugh while packing a huge hard-on for the spiky-haired dweeb.

Sora has clumsy fingers. He’s the type to accidentally hit the wrong button on the controller because his fingers just won’t go where he wants them to. That always makes for an interesting moment when they’re making out.

Riku hates PDAs. Holding Sora’s hand, however, always makes him smile, and he’ll actively seek out the contact even in giant crowds.

Riku loves the feel of the wind. He tilts his head up to it sometimes, lets it play through his hair and along his skin. It feels like rejuvenation. Like freedom and healing, all at once.

If you told me Sora had ADHD, I would agree.

Sora sometimes leaves to go visit his friends. When Riku finally folds under the loneliness of not seeing him, he meets Leon. Leon promptly refers to Riku as Sora’s ‘fiance.’ That is how Leon addresses Riku from that moment forward.

Sora launches himself at Riku all the time. All the time. Sometimes Riku wonders if he’s going to develop back problems later in life because of it.

One time Sora does so onto the bed. While Riku is naked and aroused. Riku barely manages to protect himself. Sora de facto loses that night, and also does not get sexy times. Sora kept Riku awake apologizing, so Riku stuffed a pillow into Sora’s face and shoved him away. They don’t bring that night up in polite (or even impolite) company.

Sora falls asleep in the sunlight often. Sometimes Riku forcibly turns Sora over so he doesn’t get sunburned.

Riku is secretly a giant nerd and likes to read.

[triforceangel13]

Blood and Tears Ch. 10 (An AkuRoku Vampire Au)

Chapter 10: Choose Your Side

“I still would have felt better if Axel was here with us,” Roxas said as he crossed his arms, following Riku down a long hallway.

Riku let out a sigh in front of him. “You know why he couldn't be here. Trust me, I won't let anything happen to you. I promise.”

Roxas still frowned despite the words were meant to make him feel better. He never thought it was a good idea for him to go meet the leader of the group Riku worked for. They were the ones that had tried to kill him in the first place and were trying to kill Axel as well.

Riku had assured him that wasn't the case any longer and had wanted to join forces with Axel to get him away from the organization but also to join their cause. Axel still had yet to give them an answer but the blonde was pretty sure that he was going to say no.

Roxas just wished that they weren't part of anything but with what he was and with what was going on around them they really didn't have much of a choice. At least Axel would not be required to be an arsonist any longer.

“Hope you're right about this Riku,” Roxas said with a sigh, looking up at the large double doors that Riku stopped at.

“Alright, here we are,” he said, pulling open the door and stepping inside. Roxas had honestly expected something different. He expected darkness, cold, an unpleasant place. Inside however he found a living room with a warm fire roasting.

An older looking man sat in one of the chairs by the fire, a tea cup in his hands.

“Ah Riku, thank you for coming,” the man said, rising to his feet as the two of them stepped inside. He looked at the blonde and a smile crossed his face. “And this must be Roxas I presume?”

“Yes sir,” Riku answered, taking a seat leaving Roxas standing as the man closed in on him, offering his hand.

Roxas hesitated at first but he slowly took his hand, shaking it. The man may have seemed warm and welcoming but he had to keep reminding himself that he really had been the one to order those men to kill Axel and had killed him so to speak.

“Welcome Roxas. Why don't you come sit down. I'm sure you're hungry,” the man said, gesturing to the pot that sat on the table, Riku having already gone into it.

Roxas slowly sank down on the couch opposite them, taking up a cup and pouring himself a glass. He slowly took a sip and his eyes widened, taking a gulp this time.

Blood. This was blood. Which meant that this man had to be a vampire as well. Riku was right, they were all vampires there.

No wonder the leader of Axel's group went after them so often. They wanted the power of immortality to themselves.

“My name is Ansem, though most know me as Ansem the Wise,” the man introduced himself as he settled down in his seat and took another cup for himself.

Definitely a vampire.

“I would like to say it's a pleasure to meet you but due to what happened to me I don't think I'll be able to say it,” Roxas said, taking another cup of the blood.

Riku let out a sigh. “Roxas, I've explained it to you.”

“That doesn't change the fact that Axel was wanted dead and I took the fall for it instead. What kind of organization are you running here?”

“Roxas-”

“Riku, I can speak for myself here,” Ansem said, Riku letting out a heavy sigh as he sat back in his seat with a look of defeat on his face.

“I know it's not the proper thing to do here to verbally berate you in your own home, but you have to admit I should have a bit to say after what happened to me,” Roxas protested.

“My orders for my men were to simply scare him,” Ansem had explained. “He had set a fire that had nearly killed someone I loved. I'm sure the leader of his organization thought they had died. He keeps believing that he can just kill anyone here and get what he wants. I will not have that. I will not have him taking something he wants.”

“So how did it end up happening that they shot me?” Roxas asked with a scowl. Riku sat further up in his seat, his eyes swimming with curiosity. If Ansem had only merely wanted to scare him was sending Roxas to him his full intention?

“We do not mean to extend our kind unless it is absolutely necessary. We try to keep our numbers low that way our secret remains safe. First, it was never my intention to kill you nor turn you into a vampire. Those men that I had sent to scare Axel had taken my words in the wrong way, which wouldn't have been the first time...,” Ansem explained.

Roxas let out a sigh. So Ansem hadn't meant to kill him. It still didn't change the fact that something like this happened however.

“Now let's put that behind us,” he said to him “And I would like to extend the offer to you to joining our group.”

Roxas frowned ad set his cup down. “Thank you for the offer but I'm going to have to decline,” he said to him. “I don't think it's a good idea.”

“Well I don't see why,” Ansem said with a raised brow.

Roxas stood up from his seat. “I'm tired of all these groups killing one another for something. I know you're trying to protect the secret of what we are but you're doing it the wrong way. I just want a normal life with Axel. The only way I'd ever join is if you were able to get him out from under the thumb of that other organization.”

Ansem pressed a hand to his mouth, watching Roxas storm from the room in anger, slamming the door behind him.

He knew this would happen. Roxas knew that if he came face to face with the man who had done that to him he wouldn't feel right.

He was telling the truth when he said he wanted a normal life with Axel like he used to have before all of this happened. Before he had been shot, before he had found out about Axel's past. He wanted things to be back to the way they used to be.

But they never would be. He was a vampire now and things would always be different. If it wasn't for Axel still in his life he wasn't sure how he would function. That time with Sora and Rku felt like a dream now.

Was it safe to be around Axel? Not really considering what he was but he hoped that he would over come that fear in time.

“Roxas,” came a voice. Roxas paused with a sigh, turning towards whomever was following him down the hallway.

“Riku, I don't want to talk to him-Demyx?”

The sandy blonde stood there in a long black cloak, a frown on his face as he looked at him. Two other men stood beside him, their faces covered by their hoods.

“I'm so sorry Roxas....” Demyx sighed.

“Demyx, what are you-” But no other words left his mouth as a sharp pain radiated from his shoulder. Roxas' eyes widened as he felt something like fire spread from where he had been shot pulse through him.

The two hooded me were next to him quickly, clamping a hand over his mouth as he screamed in pain. Why was Demyx doing this?!

“Take him to the van. The Superior wants him,” Demyx said.

*

The warm bubbly feeling spread through Axel as he came to the mansion. He had grabbed a couple of burgers for him and Roxas and had even gotten the rest of their belongings from their old apartment. Things were falling into place. But what he didn't expect was to be asked to come to the mansion by Riku's request.

He had left everything in his car, stepping into what used to be enemy territory. He still was nervous about walking in there but from knowing what he knew now of the group he felt a little more at ease compared to how he felt with the Superior.

“Hello?” Axel called out into the large building. Riku came running out, his eyes wide with fear as he breathed heavily.

“Come with me. Quickly,” Riku said, grabbing hold of his wrist and ran as fast as he could with a human on his arm.

Axel stumbled quickly at him, confused. “What's going on Riku? Where's Roxas?”

The panic on his face, the rushing into the next room, the lack of his blonde lover being in the room. He had thought it weird Roxas hadn't messaged him in a while...

Something had happened to Roxas.

Riku brought him into a room with several screens, each one showing a different part of the mansion. An older man sat at the the chair in front of them a frown on his face as he looked to the other man in the room.

“How did they get in here,” he snapped at him, his finger jabbing at one of the screens in anger. “I thought I had better security than this.”

“We don't know sir-”

“Silence! Get a screen shot of their faces. Do anything you can. We have to find him now!” the man yelled.

Axel winced at that and looked up at the screen that was gestured to as the other man tried to scramble to get it done.

“Riku,what's going on,” Axel asked again slowly, but his words were answered as he watched the video rewind.

“Roxas...was taken by a group of men. They attacked him with garlic infused bullets shot with a silencer,” Riku explained, showing the end of the bullet that sat at the table.

Axel swallowed hard as Ansem raised his hand for the video to play. To his horror he watched as Roxas turned around to the group only to crumple to the ground.

Flashes of the night he had nearly lost Roxas flashed before his eyes. He felt dizzy and much like he was going to be sick.

He gripped the chair in front of him, panting softly as he looked up at the video that paused a moment later.

“Who are these men. Wait. Isn't that-”

“Demyx,” Axel finished, his brow furrowing as he stepped closer to the screen on shaking legs. Ansem looked up at him with a frown.

“You know him?”

“Yeah...he...is a part of the organization I used to worked for,” Axel said, looking down at the man. He knew this was the man who had wanted him dead but right now he felt this was his only chance to get Roxas back.

“That two timing...” Ansem said with a heavy sigh, running a hand down his face. “I thought there was something suspicious about him.”

“Axel, you knew he was working for both of us?” Riku asked.

“I did but I had thought you both knew that he was poking his nose in between both,” Axel said with a heavy sigh. “And not too long ago he caught Roxas in my room. He had been one of the ones that thought he was dead.”

Ansem rose to his feet with a grim look on his face. “That boss of yours knows what he is. Using garlic infused bullets...We should have been more careful...”

“What do we do now sir?” Riku asked. “A rescue mission of course but we don't know the first thing about where they are.”

“I do,” Axel said. “And I will help you get in there and I will get Roxas out of there.”

Anse looked at him with a hard look on his face, then raised his hand for a handshake. “Then it seems like we will be working together.”

Axel looked to his hand and then sighed, taking his hand and shaking it hard. “Seems so.”

I’m open for written commissions

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[mythgirltaryn]

Headcannons I like to share about a Post KH3 where the Sora squad become siblings

The story they go with is that Ventus and Vanitas are the older twins and  Sora, Roxas, and Xion are the younger triplets.

Sora’s mom was surprisingly fine with gaining four more mouths to feed. People guess that she was just so happy that Sora came home so just agreed with anything he said in the hope it will make him stay. Lucky, everything turned out fine in the end, she loves all five of her kids.

Vanitas becomes a bit of a momma’s boy, since out the five of them he the only one without friends he just stays in the house with Sora’s mom. They bond over doing chores and handiwork

Eventually, Vanitas became the handyman of the house.

Vanitas and Ventus age 12 years overnight one night, so now they are 28.

They have jobs now, Vanitas work in junkyard and Ven at a Daycare and they also going to night school.

Sora, Roxas, and Xion are all homeschooled because they all too behind to go to regular school. They also study in the library and not at home.

They work great together. Sora help Roxas and Xion with the little things that don’t know like “What’s a wagon?”, Xion is the one who remembers things better, and Roxas keeps everyone focus

They take a siblings inter-world space trip during the summer

Mom is very concerned and protective, she calls frequently.

When she does, she always wants to talk to Vanitas because he’s the only one she trusts in being blatantly honest.

Roxas and Xion love the gummi ship, Van and Ven not so much

Vanitas is a grumpy old man when it comes to the gummi ship. “Kids these days with their gummi ships, when I was your age I flew through space like a man!”

Ven just doesn’t like all the tricks Sora like to do while driving the gummi ship

Roxas does encourage him to do more extreme tricks.

Xion likes the technology. She had been learning from Chip and Dale about how it works and is now kinda the emergency mechanic for whenever they crash.

Which happens a few times on the trip

On one of their downtime, Van decided to start teaching the kids how to summon gliders

 Sora is going around introducing them as his siblings to all his Disney friends and those who have met the others before, get the biggest epiphany.

Vanitas flinches when they see Mike and Sully again.

Uniquely siblings things

Whenever Roxas’ and Sora’s eyes meet they start dancing slowly and badly in place, emotionless, not breaking eye contact until one of them laugh. Or until someone yell at them to get a move on.

Vanitas and Ven bond over picking up the younger three in embarrassing ways. Usually in ridiculous cars, while blasting embarrassing music. Van finds the cars, Ven finds the music. They somehow manage to always keep it a secret between themselves so every time they do it is always a surprise.

Examples of this are

Picking them up from the library in a tacky party bus and with “Boom Boom Boom Boom” by the Vengaboys blasting through the open windows

Picking up Xion in a pink convertible, dress like high school mean girls, and playing “A Thousand Miles.” Top off with Vanitas yelling “Get in loser we going shopping” when they pull up.

Picking Roxas in Cinderella’s carriage, calling him “Princess” the whole time.

And the Best/worst one yet, picking up Sora in a Jeep, in full fursuits, blasting “All the Single Furries.” All because Sora challenged them to try harder.

[hanayuki23]

Of Monsters and Flowers

Part 2

Who would have thought?

Talking with Vanitas had never been easier, being with him had never been more liberating.

Roxas was able to convince the other, not without effort, that he wasn’t there to pity him, to look down on him or to make fun of him. When Vanitas saw Roxas coughing marigolds, his eyes revealed the same thought that went through Roxas’ mind when he saw him in that alley.

Finally.

The two of them got very comfortable around each other. Roxas hadn’t felt better since that day with Sora at the flower shop, he smiled and joked again, and Vanitas looked better as well.

“Doesn’t it bother you that I look like Ven? If this is hurting you, we could always…”

“You and Ven couldn’t be any different. He’s basically an idiot that can’t make two steps without tripping into nothing, while you think you’re cool, but you’re just edgy as fuck. But trust me, being always angry doesn’t make you look stronger. And if you think I have the same face of that stupid Sora, then just know that I’m going to beat you up before those flowers could kill you.”

If it was coming from Vanitas, then Roxas could even start believing it. About being edgy, too.

The illness kept on degenerating, relentless, and in Vanitas’ case it was even in an advanced stage, but now they weren’t alone anymore, they had now found someone who could understand them, that could share with them all of that pain.

Xion had Naminé, Lea had Isa, and if he couldn’t have Sora, at least Roxas had Vanitas. And no, he didn’t think of his new friend as a replacement of the person he was in love with. His somebody was the impossible love he would never have had, and Vanitas was…Vanitas. He was the one that was the closest to him in his last moments of life.

“I’ve been in love with Ven for more than fifteen years now. The obsession I always had for him and the desire of rejoining him and coming back to be a one single person wasn’t just to forge that damn χ-blade. I was ripped out from his heart all of a sudden, it’s perfectly logical that I want to get back together with him, don’t you think so? Since that moment I’ve been feeling so lost, I haven’t ever stopped looking for him. After all that’s happened with Xehanort, I tried to make it up to him, I tried to be accepted in other ways. But, guess what? When I finally found him, the idiot was sleeping. And then I waited. I’ve been waiting for years for him to wake up, and in the meantime, I ended up in this pathetic state. One day I was there, looking at him sleeping as usual, and I thought that he was beautiful as a flower, a flower that does never wither. Not only I’d never felt more embarrassed as I’ve never been before, but then poof!, another stupid flower magically comes out of my mouth.”

Roxas and Vanitas met up during the night, and now they were lying down on the grass, stargazing. If the morning was for Sora, and the sunset for his friends, the night was for Vanitas.

It was the first time that Roxas heard him talking so much. The boy could feel all the frustration that his new friend felt and was still feeling, a frustration that he knew all too well.

The way their stories matched in some passages was crazy.

“The other day Ven asked me about you, he looked worried, but he didn’t want to tell me why.”

“Yeah, he probably feels guilty” Vanitas sighed, and remained silent, unsure about opening up or not. Roxas waited, and the confession came out quickly.

“Sometime ago I confessed to Ven.”

Roxas suddenly sat up and stared at him, shocked.

“You what?!”

“Roxas, I’m about to die, what else I have left to lose?” Vanitas observed, as a matter of fact.

The boy felt a sharp pain in his chest but decided to keep quiet to let him go on.

“I went to see Ven to tease him. You know, the same story: ‘Hey, Sleeping Beauty, what’s up?’, ‘You are pathetic’, ‘You can’t do anything without your friends, can you?’”

His friend held back a laugh. Maybe Vanitas didn’t realize it, but his attitude was the same as a child that enjoys teasing the person he likes. Roxas would have never told him, not now that they found each other, and passing away suffocated by marigolds seemed more than a decent way of dying.

“Ven got angry more than usual and then I let slip out a ‘Why are you getting so upset? You know I love you!’, and Ven went mute. He suddenly got so serious and I saw the last thing I wanted to see, his pity.”

Vanitas spat that word as if it was poison.

“He felt sorry for me, can you believe it? ‘Vanitas, I can’t return your feelings, not after everything that’s happened’ Ven said. I didn’t realize I had a heart until I felt it breaking. It would have been better if I didn’t have one, what a drag.”

Roxas didn’t know what to say. He couldn’t blame Ven if he didn’t love Vanitas back, of course, but knowing the way his friend was rejected got on his nerves. What did he know about Vanitas? If only he had given him a chance, if only Ventus had given him a way to know him better like Roxas himself did.

If only…

“Not after everything that’s happened. Well, you know what? Guess who’s dying because of him? No…no that’s not his fault, how could Ventus even know what he’s doing to me? Roxas, we’re going to die, I’m going to die” Vanitas’ voice cracked as black tears run down his face.

“How can I even think he could love me? I’m not human, I don’t have blood flowing in the veins, I can’t even cry normal tears, fuck!”

Roxas lied down once again and hugged tightly that body shaken by sobbings. Vanitas didn’t need soothing words, he just needed someone that would have stood by him, and Roxas would have never left him. His friend had been alone far too long.

“I wish there would be a way to heal from this stupid illness, I wish we could stop loving who is doing this to us.”

“No, I won’t ever stop loving Ven. It’s all I’ve left, stop loving him would be like denying my own existence.”

And thought exactly like him. As much as the idea of dying was terrifying him, he couldn’t not love Sora. The love he felt for his somebody was what made him happy, it was what had made him going until that moment. The pain was just a natural result of that feeling, it was the only thing that connected them and to which they could hold on. The pain that was making them feel alive.

-

To that night followed many others. Lea and Xion always asked him where he sneaked out every time, but at Roxas’ latest excuse the two of them gave up and stopped questioning him. Although they insistently begged him to see a doctor, Roxas was always able to persuade them that he actually felt better, and that he would be okay very soon. His best friends didn’t see improvements, but at least Roxas looked happier now, and they were fine with that. At least, for now.

Sora, on the other hand, kept on pestering Roxas with texts and calls. He prayed him to reply, to call him back because he was seriously starting to worry. Lea and Xion mentioned something to him, and the boy wanted to be sure about his conditions. But Roxas rarely replied him, and as much as it was hurting him, he thought that maybe it was better that way. The boy would be dead soon, and there was no need to be seen in such a bad condition.

“You should reply to him.”

“And you should mind your own business.”

“I’m sorry if I can’t ignore that thing vibrating. Could you at least turn it off?”

“No.”

Vanitas sighed, pissed off.

“You know far too well what Sora is like. Don’t you think you own him an explanation at least? Don’t you think that you’re just making things worse by doing that?”

“Tell him what? That I love him? So I can be rejected and put my heart at peace?”

“What if he loves you back? You must mean something to him if he still hasn’t given up on you, that’s for sure.”

No, I’m not worthy. I can’t live up to him.

“Why should Sora love me back? Why should he even care about me?”

“I don’t know what’s on that mind of yours, but I’m telling you, you’re not the monster you think you are. I can actually say that I almost like you. But hey, it’s not my business, is it?”

Roxas nodded and Vanitas coughed once again. The carnations that came out of his mouth were usually of a bright pink, but for the first time since they met, the flower was now black.

“What now? Do they change color too?” Vanitas asked, now annoyed.

He held the carnation in his hand, and the color stained his fingers. It was blood, Vanitas’ dark blood.

Before Roxas could even allow a single tear to fall out, Vanitas stopped him.

“No, don’t. Once I’m gone you can cry to your heart’s content, but not now.”

Roxas tried to stay strong, but now all he was feeling found a way to get out, so he bent forward and coughed new marigolds. Vanitas came closer, his mouth still bloodstained, and brought a hand to the other’s back in order to soothe him. But that kind gesture awfully reminded Roxas of Sora, and more and more flowers found their way up from the chest to come out of his mouth.

Sora, Sora, So-

“Roxas, breathe. Come on, after me. Breath in,”

And Vanitas took a deep breath, inviting Roxas to do the same.

“Breath out.”

Both of them breathed together, and it didn’t take to long for Roxas to breathe normally again.

“Do you feel better?”

“Yes, thank you.”

When they sat down, Vanitas looked at all those flowers that surrounded them.

“Why don’t we open a shop? We could get something out of this damn situation.”

Roxas smiled. He loved the way Vanitas was able to joke and make him at ease even when they were having a hard time. How much time they spent ignoring each other. But things happened for a reason, and maybe it wasn’t clearly the time for them to become friends yet, Roxas thought.

“Van, I don’t think that people would want flowers came out from someone else’s body” the boy noted.

“Well, no one needs to know.”

“Could you imagine if they had been roses? With all of those thorns it would have been far more painful, the lungs would have torn and who knows what else. We’ve been very lucky with our flowers.”

They laughed, and when laughs faded, both of them could read on the other’s face the same thought.

At least we’d have died sooner.

-

Days passed and Roxas hadn’t seen Vanitas. He had been waiting for him for two or three nights, but his friend never did show up.

Due to the boy’s conditions during the last few days, Roxas seriously started worrying about him. He looked everywhere for Vanitas, Roxas even asked Ventus if he actually saw him again. But Ventus didn’t know anything, no one did. Roxas was the only one Vanitas had left.

He probably got tired of me. Maybe I said something that offended him. He definitely got tired of me. I’m so stupid.

During one of his researches, Roxas found himself in front of the alley where he found Vanitas that day, and found once again the same trail of carnations that lead him to the other the first time. But this time they were black. Roxas started trembling and fearing for the worst, and let the flowers guide him once again.

As if they were left there on purpose.

If Roxas was in a tale, that would probably have been the moment in which he would have realized too late that he had been lured in a trap and that he was going to end with being killed or eaten but the bad guy, but when Roxas turned the corner, all he saw was Vanitas.

Vanitas laying on the ground, near that dirty wall, perfectly still. Countless carnations were popping out his mouth, and they were of a bright pink and red, the most beautiful flowers that ever came out from his body, forcing the jaw to stay more open than usual, and Roxas thought with horror that the carnations must have broken it.

The flowers that weren’t able to stay in his mouth and they were scattered everywhere, all around Vanitas and all over his corpse. He was terribly beautiful. The only sour note were maybe his golden eyes, wide open and lifeless, that reflected the pain and the realization of what happened to him.

And loneliness.

Roxas would never forgive himself.

He let him die alone.

Roxas knelt down and closed his eyes. He stayed there, contemplating his friend’s face for who knows how long, and he finally placed a light kiss on the other’s forehead.

“Forgive me.”

Vanitas’ body disappeared in a black smoke, as if he was going back to the darkness he came from. All that was left of him was a pink carnation mottled with red and the intoxicating smell of the ones who killed him.

He went back to Ventus.

Roxas burst into tears, feeling more alone that he never did in his short life, and between the sobbing and the merciless marigolds that escaped from his lips, the boy wondered when it would happen to him.

In some cultures, marigolds are used in wedding celebrations, while in other ones they’re connected to the dead.

A really appropriate flower.

-

If Vanitas’ friendship was able to divert Roxas from his desire for Sora, now that the only obstacle disappeared, his feelings got back to overwhelm him.

There wasn’t a single moment he didn’t think about his somebody, and the more he thought about him, the more he felt the marigolds growing inside of him, feeling up his organs as his emotions did.

When he closed his eyes, Roxas saw Vanitas, the image of his face contorted from pain and fear adorned with beautiful carnations that no one would ever see. No one heard about him, and Roxas didn’t talk about it with his friends either. He wasn’t ready. The boy didn’t even have the words to describe what was happening to him, how could he have told about such a tragedy?

It was like his little world burst without everyone knowing. His friends would have gone on with their lives as if nothing happened, as if Vanitas never existed. But the boy became his satellite (since Sora was already his sun), and now Roxas had to face its disappearance alone, he had to pick up the pieces of a dead moon.

Only Ventus asked about him, and the more time passed, the more his worry grew.

Tell him. Tell him what happened to Vanitas. Tell him he killed your friend.

It would have been too cruel, and Vanitas would have never forgiven him for that. If he couldn’t hate Ventus despite everything, then Roxas wouldn’t either.

He promised to himself that he would tell him the truth before passing away.

Without Vanitas, the monster was back again. Lea and Isa were happier and happier every day, and Xion was living the joy of her first love. And Roxas wanted to be genuinely happy for them, he really did, but he couldn’t help but mask his own envy behind fake smiles.

I’m an idiot. I’m the worst. My friends don’t deserve this.

Roxas started to gradually push them away. He spent most of the time out, in the places he visited with Vanitas, and when he was at home, since he lived with Lea, Xion and Isa, he stayed locked up in his room, and if one of them asked him to let them in, the boy simply pretended to sleep.

This way they won’t suffer too much.

The calls and the texts from Sora, instead, kept on undaunted. Lea often told him to call the other back, to let him know he was still alive at least so he wouldn’t have to worry. They even fought about it once. Sora was so kind, he didn’t deserve that. That person wasn’t the Roxas they knew anymore.

If Vanitas was here, he would know what to tell me.

And he remembered that Vanitas, before dying, suggested him to get in touch with Sora.

And so he did.

When Sora answered, Roxas could clearly hear him crying on the other side of the phone. And he felt like dying.

-

Sora arranged a peaceful evening, just the two of them. They would have eaten an ice cream, walked around the city, maybe go shopping and then parted. Roxas already knew what the true intentions of his somebody’s were, and he wasn’t surprised of the questions the other asked.

Sora wanted to know how he was feeling, what happened to him, why he didn’t look so good. The boy told him he was worried sick, that he showed up almost everyday to his place but that Roxas was never at home, and that he constantly kept in touch with Xion and Lea to hear about him.

“They told me you were going out every night. Where did you go? Can you tell me?”

But Roxas didn’t reply, and sadly for him Sora didn’t consider giving up an option.

“Roxas, is there someone you like?”

Roxas sighed quietly, almost feeling offended and made fun of. The very same Sora was asking him such a thing?

Is there someone you like?

His thought instinctively went to Vanitas. The boy really liked him, both as person and friend. And he smiled with sadness, while marigolds were tightening around his heart.

“Maybe.”

Sora suddenly turned pale and quickly lowered his gaze, blinking a few times to send away the tears that threatened to come out. But Roxas was too lost in the maze that was his mind to notice that.

If only he could see.

“And you? Is there someone you like?” he asked, without thinking about it.

“Maybe. But I don’t think that this person feels the same way.”

It must be Kairi. Or Riku.

“And what’s their name?”

“What’s the name of the person you like?”

“Sora! Are you still here? We were looking for you.”

Riku and Kairi were getting close, and the chance for Roxas to put an end to his suffering was getting far away.

“Why are you already here? You’re early.”

Sora forced himself to smile and joke as usual. But Roxas couldn’t see it. He could only see how Sora was having a good time with his best friends, and how much he cared and loved them.

Why them? Why not me? What do they have that I don’t?

Roxas coughed, and a single marigold fell in his hand. It wasn’t a daisy, but it would have done the trick anyway.

As he watched the person he loved talking to his friends, Roxas started to tear the petals of the flower one by one, slowly, letting them fall down along with his hopes.

He loves me, he loves me not, he loves me, he loves me not…

-

“Roxas, we need to talk.”

It was finally time for the final showdown.

He tried to get out, but a flaming chakram was faster than him, got stuck in one of the door casings, nearly missing him, and vanished before the house could burn down.

“Sit down, or I swear the next one won’t miss.”

Roxas knew that Lea would have never hurt him, but if he was going so far maybe he’d better find out what they wanted to say.

He turned back and noticed Isa with a harsh look on his face, and Xion that was begging him with a look to do as they told him.

Roxas sighed and sat down.

“What.”

“You won’t get out until you tell us what the hell is happening to you. We’re sick of never seeing you at home or locked up in your room. We’re a family, we want you to talk to us.”

“There’s nothing to tell you.”

“Roxas, would you happen to have the flower disease?”

Roxas stared at Isa, and that was enough for him.

“I guess so.”

“Flowers? I don’t understand” Xion asked timidly, afraid of not understanding.

“Sora?”

It wasn’t Isa that asked. Roxas looked at Lea, astonished. Was it possible that he knew? But how…

“Can you see them?”

Isa shook his head. “Roxas. You’ve been sick for months, it’s obvious that it’s not a cold anymore. Why didn’t you tell us sooner?”

“What should I have told you? That I’m coughing up flowers because I’m in love? It’s already lame enough like this, I don’t need your pity, thanks.”

“Can you tell me what’s happening?” Xion asked, getting worked up. She hated being left out.

“Roxas is suffering from the flower disease. It means that his unrequited love for Sora is manifesting through flowers that are growing inside his body, and only who is affected by it can see them.” Lea explained shortly.

As he thought.

“Is there anything we can do? Is there a cure?” Xion already had tears in her eyes, and Roxas didn’t have the courage to face her.

“You can recover only if the feeling is mutual. In the worst case scenario…” Lea hesitated, and Isa worked up the courage to finish his sentence.

“Who is affected by the flower disease dies.”

Xion started sobbing out of sheer despair and Lea looked at him, fuming.

“We’re a family!” he cried out, making everyone jump. They had never heard him shouting like that, they had never seen him so angry. His green eyes burned from rage, and his red hair looked like it was made of pure fire. His voice let out anger and disappointment, and Roxas was no less, feeling his own emotions get stronger.

“We’re here to help and support each other. We promised we would have faced everything together, am I wrong?”

And Roxas exploded, feeling his own repressed rage corroding his veins like acid.

“Such a great family we are! You are always busy being lovey-dovey with Isa, and Xion doesn’t think about anything else that it isn’t Naminé! You don’t care about me anymore!”

No, that’s not true. I hate myself. I’m the worst.

He hated feeling like that, he hated not being able to be happy for them. Roxas wanted that happiness for himself, he wanted to be the one who was loved for once.

Xion begged him, with hands joined in prayer. “Please, Roxas, we must do something! You have to talk to Sora!”

“About what? I don’t have anything to say to him!”

He could have sworn he had a similar talk, once.

“You’re just a coward! You’re afraid of being rejected, I can see that, but…!”

“Just because the two of you have found the love of your life it doesn’t mean I should too!” Roxas shouted, and his best friends lowered their gaze, feeling guilty.

The time had come for him to spill his guts. If he had to come out of the closet, he might as well get rid of that weight once for all.

“Why should he love me? He should be crazy to fall in love with such a person. No one should get involved with me, I wouldn’t do it either.”

Roxas stopped, no longer able to find the words to bring out what he felt, what destroyed him and made him feel like that. He remained silent, his mind blank as a white page.

“We must be stupid to love someone like you then. If you are a monster as you say, so we are. It’s our fault if you’re hurt, it’s our fault if we didn’t realize sooner how much you were suffering. Can you ever forgive us?”

Lea was burnt out. His rage vanished, and now sadness, accentuated by watery eyes, took over his emotions.

No. You are the ones who have to forgive me. I don’t deserve you at all.

But…

“Why do you think I ended up like this? And Vanitas…!”

Roxas hesitated at that name, and Vanitas’ cold face covered with carnations emerged in his thoughts.

“There must be a way, we can’t give up. If you don’t want to confess, you should just forget him then” Xion suggested, crying her eyes out.

Vanitas would have never done that, Vanitas would have never wanted to forget.

“If I forget him, I’ll lose my reason to live. I can’t.”

“Roxas, what happened to Vanitas?”

Isa’s question took his breath away, and this time it wasn’t because of marigolds.

Breath in,

Breath out.

Roxas started crying and when the three of them embraced him in a group hug, the boy finally indulged himself in a cleansing cry.

“We won’t let you die, we’ll find a way.”

Lea’s promise should have heartened him, made him feel safe now that his best friends were aware of everything – but Roxas was going to die, and all of his family knew that they’d never find any other way.

-

Now that the disease reached the final stage. Roxas coughed marigolds covered in blood, and he knew he didn’t have long to live now. Judging by what happened to Van, maybe he had three days left at most.

The boy didn’t say anything to his friends. He wanted to spent his last moments with them peacefully, without the awareness and the constant idea of what laid ahead of him. The thought of passing away terrified him, and he started to think it was unfair that such a thing was happening to him, he that lived for such a short time, and yet had to face so many tragedies.

He kept on wondering about what would have happened after his death, how people who loved him would react, and how long it would take for them to forget him.

How long would it take for Sora to forget him?

Sora, Sora, Sora…

Roxas didn’t hear from him since that day. Sora stopped looking for him, and Roxas was too much of a coward to do otherwise. He’d rather stay closed in on himself and think that surely his somebody hated him and got tired of the other.

Roxas didn’t blame him.

But he didn’t want to die like that. He wanted to see Sora one last time.

They met the next day. Roxas hardly made even the slightest movements, because marigolds were almost completely blocking the air passage. Lea and Xion offered to go with him, but the boy refused their help.

He would have done it alone. He would have done it for Sora.

When they saw each other, Sora looked confused and bewildered, and as he talked, Roxas noticed that the other continued to clear his throat.

“Sorry, I think I have a sore throat, it has been bugging me for days. What were you saying?”

Roxas shook his head, sending away any delusion, and mustered up the courage. He had nothing else to lose now.

“I wanted to apologize for what happened the other day. You see, the truth is…”

But Sora was looking at him with those two gorgeous gentians he had for eyes, and words failed Roxas.

How much he loved him, how much he would have missed Sora.

I don’t want to die.

“Roxas!”

Roxas coughed compulsively and went down, followed by a multitude of red marigolds. He couldn’t breathe any longer, and he started feeling the flowers trying to come out violently from his own body. Sora was by his side, made him rest the head on his lap to keep it raised and panicked.

“What’s happening to you? What’s wrong? Roxas, you’re full of red and yellow spots, what the hell is happening to you?!”

Sora brought a hand to his own mouth and coughed twice. White rose petals slipped on his trembling palm and gently fell on Roxas’ face, almost caressing it.

Could you imagine if they had been roses? With all of those thorns it would have been far more painful, the lungs would have torn and who knows what else.

Roxas could bearly see a thing, and gathered the last of his strength in a final, desperate gesture.

He brought a hand behind Sora’s nape and pulled him down, ending it all with a kiss.

(This is the second and last part of the story, I hope you liked it! I’m leaving here the link to ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19180159/chapters/45591697#workskin)

[aealzx]

Hi! I really like your heart transplant au but I'm a little confused with the story? What happened to the quads parents since they need to be adopted? Were Ven and Van kidnapped by Xehanort? What happened to Xion? Sorry, I may have lost some post along the way so that's why I'm a bit confused! I really love the htau, especially seeing nice moments between the brothers, that's for sure my favorite part! Thank you for writing it and sharing it with us!!

Hahahah no, you’re fine, everything I have up is kind of a jumbled mess depending on where my brain is at the moment, so it’s understandable that you’re confused. X’DD This is a lazy project that has a bunch of holes in it ‘cause I’m not focusing toooo much on it being super tight coherent. |D

Buuuut, I’ll give you a basic synopsis XDD

First all the quad’s parents are both dead, and are just nameless faceless NPCs because I couldn’t think of anyone that I wanted to torture with having quads XDDD The dad died of cancer when the quads were 5, and then their mom got killed via snapped neck from whiplash in a car accident when Roxas was in the hospital. |D Because I didn’t want to deal with putting the parents in there and needed Ven to be adopted by Eraqus.

For Ven and Van, yeah, they were kidnapped as newborns by Xehanort. There’s this made up heart condition that I’m deliberately being super vague about because I’m not a medical expert and don’t wanna be called out XDDD But Xehanort is obsessed with figuring out a way to prevent it. It’s genetic though, and he found out that the quad’s parents had markers for it, so he nabbed the two to watch grow and do experiments on to try and figure out what exactly causes the disease and how to fix it. Good intentions, bad actions. |D

They were eventually rescued when they were 11 yo though. Roxas and Ven both ended up with that heart problem, and when Roxas’ issue started manifesting in crappy symptoms that left his really sick his mom took him to the hospital that Eraqus works at because Eraqus is famous for working with heart troubles. At the same time Terra is in the police work, and found the missing child reports a few years ago for Ven and Van, and is kinda obsessed with them. Eraqus stays out of the police work because he doesn’t really like it, but after working with Roxas, and talking with his mom and finding out Roxas and Sora have twin brothers that were kidnapped from the hospital when they were born, and some passing conversations he had with his buddy Xehanort, Erqaus figured out Xehanort had the boys. So Eraqus agreed to set up Xehanort to arrest him and figure out where he was hiding the boys. He feels somewhat responsible for the boys’ fate because of being friends with Xehanort and not seeing his actions sooner.

Vanitas is kinda crazy because Xehanort tended to talk to him like he only existed to be there to fix Ven, and then also tried some DNA splicing on Vanitas to see if he could erase the heart issue genetics that way, and that’s why Vanitas has black hair and yellow eyes. He also has an unhealthy obsession with Ven becaaaause that’s how he is in the game |D A lot of this stuff is just me giving my brain an exercise of taking what happened in the games and porting it over to a modern setting |D

Okay, and then for Xion 8′D In order to have her adopted by Axel, and keep her backstory of being a science experiment I had to give her crappy parents. |D So I just kinda grabbed Braig since he’s pretty much Xehanort’s right hand man in a way. But pretty much Braig has that heart disease marker, and Xehanort was like “hey, go make a kid with this lady that also has the marker so I can study them”, and Braig was like alright fine whatever =A= and tadaaa, Xion was born. Because she couldn’t come from a replica |D But Braig is a dick, and super neglectful of her because what does he care, she’s just there for Xehanort to study. But Axel finds out about it and took Braig to court to try and get custody of Xion away from him to get her away from that life. Axel and Xion had no idea about Braig’s involvement with Xehanort until Aqua presented Xehanort’s notes on it to the judge.

Whew, that was long 8′DD feel free to ask anything else. XDD I’m just doing this ‘cause I wanted more KH content after finishing KH3 X’D

[snowflake-of-destruction]

vanikai!!

1. How do much do I ship it?: Never heard of it/ Notp / Dislike / used to ship / maybe / ship it / aww / otp / IS IT CANON YET

Fun fact: I started out as maybe and moved to the ship category while writing 

2. What non sexual activities do they like to do together?

Grass is Greener Verse: 

Theater, as shocking as it is that they can fixate on something where the eyes aren't on either of them. Well, there is the pre-show ritual of Kairi talking about how well she would have done as a stage actress. Vanitas more often takes a supportive rather than sarcastic response to this, and tells her she should go to some open auditions. It's far from too late. She's young, hot, and talented (He presumes the last one, but he'd never bet the opposite...and after he sees the one movie she did and some of the commercials...he'll just keep his mouth shut on talented). Sometimes, she'll beam, call him right, and make plans she doesn't follow through on. Sometimes she's noncommittal. Sometimes she'll glare at him, deciding he's just trying to end conversation or mock that she is all talk. Post-show there's also talk--this time from both of them--about how they could have done better in certain roles, which is a couples bonding activity all on its own. HOWEVER, these types of fantasies are not why they love plays. They think is an engrossing form of storytelling, that make worlds come to life and put you in them more than movies or tv. Also, they are simply dramatic nerds at heart.

They also play tennis. Primarily doubles, though you would be foolish to play against them, but they enjoy competing with each other too.

Rock climbing, but at an indoor rock gym. Anyone who asks them if they are training for something/ever planning a trip receives incredibly incredulous looks and scoffing. Not because of the potential danger, because of the very idea of them out in the wilderness...though sometimes Kairi will counter this by mentioning that one summer she worked for her father's, now Axel's, landscaping business. That was getting dirty in nature. Vanitas's response to this is not for this headcanon space

A more canon-verse approach (what do you mean Vanitas not joining the guardians of light post-kh3 is not canon?): There is a lot of sparring. Vanitas helps Kairi advance her keyblade training and just plain get out some of the anger in the grief of losing Sora. Van doesn't go easy and Kairi likes that. Kairi helps Vanitas with any gaps in education without talking down, pitying or even mentioning his strange upbringing, or, the worst, comparing him to Roxas or Xion (because he has identity issues too). I'm not even talking traditional education, though that too if he wants, but education on social situations...which he's not a complete idiot about. He's actually really good at reading people. He just needs a little guidance on what way to use the info, because he only has like five moves and not every situation calls for "taunt" or "threaten loved one". Kairi makes him a much better manipulator. Thanks Kairi. There's also a lot of snuggling, because I say so, that's why. I just see them both as a bit yearning for physical reassurance in their lonely spells, and also the least likely to say it for their own different reasons, so they read it in each other and  just give each other what they need but won't ask for.

Read More before this gets too long

3. Who does chores around the house?

Grass is Greener: Neither, as much as it can be helped. It's a stand off about most of the regular chores, and periodically they have a cleaning service come through that is more thorough than either of them are. More often than not, Kairi is the one that "breaks" over keeping the kitchen clean, and Vanitas about cleaning bathrooms and straightening living areas. Vanitas is very neat as a habit, and Kairi likes her surroundings to show a little bit of how she likes chaos--she just is grossed out by dirty dishes, grease stains, and food crumbs. Cooking is a bit of a fifty-fifty with both preferring quickly assembled meals. Laundry is taken down to nothing-to-wear levels, and then it's whoever needs something first. Though sometimes this all goes out the windows, and Kairi goes through "Look, I'm a fifties housewife" sprints where suddenly everything's spotless and she's cooked a three course dinner and did it all in a cocktail dress because she didn't realize you're supposed to change into the dress after. 

Kinda-canon: Vanitas. He has a lot of pent up emotions and sometimes you have got to stress clean or cook. Kairi would help, but the arrangement of Vanitas doing the lion's share and it seeming to help him definitely works for the self-described lazy bum.

4. Who’s the better cook?

Grass is Greener: Vanitas. Kairi is a bit careless following recipes and doesn't have the innate "cooking sense" in regard to estimating amounts, flavors, heat, or time to freestyle. Vanitas, when he does cook, tends to get really serious about it even though he prefers the simple to assemble, like I said in the last answer.

Kinda Canon: Kairi. Vanitas is slow to adjust from the “food is only fuel not pleasure” mindset and Kairi starts out with a base of her adoptive parents having taught her some things. Vanitas has a sharp learning curve though, bullying Little Chef into helping him (because he's not going to lose) and not realizing that the bullying is what makes Little Chef more reluctant and ensures Remy doesn't teach him all the secrets he does to others.  Anyone can cook, but if you're mean you are taught to cook less well. Once Kairi gets Little Chef tutelage, it's all over.

5. Who’s the funniest drunk?

Grass is Greener: Both and neither in a way. They both have a very high tolerance. They tend to act out more on purpose out of the excuse than act out because of a truly altered state. Alcohol isn't magic. It just lowers inhibitions and neither has those to begin with. If I had to choose though, Kairi is a funnier drunk, because Vanitas's mean streak becomes more developed the drunker he is, whereas Kairi's mean streak, when she chooses to have one, is more practiced and purposeful cultivation instead of a natural harshness.

Kinda Canon: Vanitas. He is not prepared, and once he loses his filter everything spills out, and it's a lot less ugly than some people expected. Kairi just gets giggly and slightly louder, but otherwise doesn't change.

6. Do they have kids?

Grass is Greener: :) :D  Listen. Listen. If Shaky was the one who carelessly put "I don't think it fits me the way it used to" on the Vanikai picture she drew. SUPPOSEDLY this was done for cleavage and for the "help you take it off" joke but I know a dangled plotline when I see it. 

Kinda Canon: That partially depends on the state of the worlds and how many other keybearers there are when they are older. Even in a stable universe, I don't see them having kids young and it being a long discussion of whether they want kids at all, not the least because of the implications of Vanitas's powers and whether they are only his or would be passed down--what could happen to an infant that could summon Unversed and not know how to retract them even if they were loyal especially if it would be hurt by them being vanquished. I see them adopting orphans from other worlds and saying fuck world order more than having kids naturally. 

7. Do they have any traditions?

Grass is Greener: Annual trip to Vegas to recreate the way they met under new created identities.

Kinda Canon:  Vanitas calls every tradition he's introduced to stupid without fail. Vanitas also gets VERY into every holiday, and Kairi is all too happy to indulge. Then, he starts nudging her about teaching him more dumb holidays. Their tradition becomes ALL THE TRADITIONS. They celebrate holidays from every world and from every religion if there's a way to do it respectfully--and if it's not appropriate to participate, then they just learn about it as much as they are permitted--and then they look up and celebrate obscure or "made up" things like Leave a Zucchini on a Neighbor's Porch Day.

8. What do they fight about?

Grass is Greener:  What you would expect. 

Housework. 

Why do you take criticism like a personal attack?

What do you do all day? versus Why are you never home? 

Were you flirting with the waiter? 

Did you even want the baby? Was it a relief when I lost it?

Kind of Canon: Imagine Kairi saying in the same tone as Belle in Disney's Beauty and the Beast "Well you should learn to control your temper!"

No, really, it's mainly about Vanitas being "mean" to people...and then sometimes it's about Kairi doing the same and then blaming him as a bad influence.

9. What would they do if they found their paring tag on tumblr? (If they have one)

Grass is Greener: The flippant answer is that they are really confused about this whole Disney crossover with weird swords thing, and why they are teenagers in so many of these pictures. Don't even get them started on the skirt over the muscle suit paired with the motorcycle helmet Vanitas sees himself put in. When he wears a skirt he has a lot better style, especially if Kairi helps put together the outfit.

But let's take this in a different way. That one bad movie Kairi did is actually gaining a small cult following now years after its release. Someone does a "What Happened to Kairi Emberson? The Answer Will Shock You!" clickbait. The answer...is not shocking but enough people see a photo of Kairi, fine as ever, now Kairi White and looking so happy with Vanitas, and the pair get an objectively creepy because the next few pictures are pulled from social media they don't lock, but well intentioned few people finding and posting more cute pictures of the,  and they become a sparse tag and one that is half joking, but a RPS all the same. Kairi pretends to hate this, but is not so secretly really flattered. Vanitas genuinely hates it.

Kinda-canon:  Kairi loves it. Vanitas is fascinated despite himself. Everyone else is disappointed because they expected flustered denials or anger at those that portray them wrong, but Van and Kairi both just think it's cool.

10. Who cried at the end of Marley and me?

Grass is Greener: Neither. They roasted it for filth. They cried about it much later. Vanitas in the shower, and Kairi the next day when she was over at Xion's, saw her dog Elmo, and it all busted loose.

Kinda Canon: Vanitas. Cue a discussion about how movies work, how they are not real, and Vanitas snapping that he knows that until there are now multiple types of Unversed to take care of. Kairi gently cuddles both her man and the Unversed until equilibrium returns.

11. Who always wins at Mario kart?

Kairi in all universes. Vanitas doesn't care in GiG, but in canon there is a shout of "Rematch and this time it counts!" despite it being the 100th rematch

12. One thing I like about this ship?

That they have potential to understand each other more than people who technically know them better, or at least the concept of being seen a certain way and having a different "certain way" that everyone thinks it would be better if they grew toward instead of just being allowed to be. Princess of Heart and Agent of Darkness aren't really so different after all.

13. One thing I don’t like about the ship?

When it's clear that it's a fill in for people who want Soriku but can't think of anyone but Sora for Kairi, and so pick "other Sora." There's not anything wrong with that outright, and this isn't me annoyed with pair the spares (though that can rub wrong if it is handled wrong or I'm in a mood to make a point about how not everyone needs a romantic relationship), but annoyed with the reduction of Vanitas to "edgy Sora"

14. The song I would say fits them?

Grass is Greener:

Sibella, and I'll quote a verse and a half because clearly this isn't already long enough.

"You are vain and you are heartless and yet

I can feel in you a shade of sadness

That's barely detectable

That I still want you at all

I may live to regret

You're deceitful

You're delectable

You see the fate of a man

Who has had the misfortune

To spend his life caught in your sway

I see Sibella

My Sibella

And I like her that way"

It works both ways. Change whatever pronouns you want.

Kind of Canon: I...don't know. I can't think off the top of my head. 

15. Another headcanon about the paring? (Free space)

Grass is Greener: Even though they think they met in Vegas, they had crossed paths before and probably more than once. I don't have specific headcanons (yet), but this may be something if I ever write the other 20 bazillion Grass is Greener scenes for various characters and relationships that I want to do first.

Kind of Canon:  Kairi makes her own version of the suit and borrows Vanitas's helmet sometimes to do things she would never "get away with" as herself. Vanitas blesses this, helps her with the suit, and hands over the helmet after kissing the visor for luck. He also exposes her as a fake Vanitas by showing up at the worst time on purpose.

[blackhakumen]

Mini Fanfic #521: The End of Summer (Kingdom Hearts)

7:25 p.m. at The Beach......

Vantias: (Looks at the Sunset While Sitting Next to Ventus and Namine) So......This is it, huh?

Namine: Yeah....I can't believe summer is already close to ending.

Ventus: I know..... But Isa was not kidding when he said "Time fly Fast".

Namine: True. (Smiles Softly) But I still had a great time with the season this year.

Vantias: I agree. My first of year summer was pretty decent for the most part.

Ventus: (Turns to Vantias With a Confused Look on his Face) Uhh... Vantias, have you ever had any summer related memories before this one?

Vantias: Nope. Never had any. I didn't even know what summer was let alone the other seasons.

Namine: (Eyes Widened in Shock) Wait. What?

Ventus: (Eyes Widened as Well) Seriously? Xehanort never told you anything about them?

Vantias: (Shrugged) Not even once. All he ever taught me was to destroy everything that moves and talk about anything remotely related to Darkness and his empire. Pretty crappy teacher if I'm being honest about the guy.

Namine: (Hugs Vantias Lovingly) Oh you poor thing.

Vantias: Eh. It's fine. At the very least, I get to learn more about the seasons now than any later. Plus.....(Blush a Little) spending time with you dorks made my first summer experience....worth while.

Namine: ('Gasps') You really mean that?!

Vantias: Yep. (Smirk a Little) You all are good people.

Ventus: (Smiles Softly) Wow, Van. You really do care that much about us, huh?

Vantias: (Shrugged) Yeah, well....(Rubbing the Back of his Head While Looking the Other Way) I'm kinda....sort of staring to like you dorks now....

Namine: (Heart Begins to Melt in Happiness as She Hugs Vantias Once More) Van-Van, we love you too!~

'Silence'

Ventus: (Immediately Starts Snickering)

Vantias: (Facepalms while Sighing) I'm really starting to regret letting you people call me that.......

Ventus: (Smirks Playfully at Vantias) C'mon, Van-Van. It's not too bad.

Namine: (Smiles Brightly) Ven-Ven is right, Van-Van. It's a wonderful nickname for you.

Ventus: (Slowly Turns to Namine and Gave her a Confused Look) Uh.... Namine, you do know those nicknames sound too similar to one another, right?

Namine: (Gasps a Little Once She Starts to Understand what Ventus is Telling Her) Goodness. You're right. They do sound more similar than I thought. Hmmmm.....(Clap her Hands Together with an Idea) Okay! For now on.... I'll keep calling Vantias "Van-Van" and you........"Venny"!

Ventus: (Raised an Eyebrow) Venny?

Namine: (Happily Nodded)

Vantias: (Starts Smirking at Ventus) What's wrong, Venny? The name too much for you to handle?

Ventus: ('Scoffs') Please. I ain't bothered with it at all. Not as much you are with your nickname, Van-Van.

Vantias: (Glares at Ventus) What was that?

Namine: (Crosses her Arms and Gives Ventus and Vantias a Light, Sisterly Glare) Now, boys, I want you two to calm yourselves down right this instant. This is a time for us to relax and spend time with one another, not to fight. Do you understand?

Ventus/Vantias: ('Sighs in Defeat') Yes, ma'am....

Namine: (Smiles Softly) Good. Now with that out of the way....(Pulls Ventus and Vantias into a Loving Group Hug) I love you two so very much.....

Ventus: (Chuckles Lightly) Wow, Namine. You seem like you're in a hugging mood today.

Namine: (Giggles Softly) You can say that. I hope you don't mind.

Ventus: (Smiles Brightly) Not at all. You and Aqua always give out the best hugs.

Vantias: Yeah..... (Smiles a Little) I like your hugs.......

Namine: Awwww, Van-Van!~

Ventus: (Smirks at Vantias Once More) Roxas' right. You really a softie.

Vantias: Shut up......

@26shann

@khtext

@keyenuta

@cyber-wildcat

@ma-lemons

@albion-93