#i went with the pre-established friendship angle obvs

[ice-cream-beat]

Roxas and Ven with 12? :)

I HAVE DONE THE THING and I’m sorry this is so stupidly late! this was a super cute prompt tho ahhhh ty for suggesting it!

#12: Enjoying the first snow together

Summary: Ven was definitely the outgoing type, but Roxas couldn’t really compare him to anybody else, not directly. Ven was straightforward, but lacked Hayner’s brashness; he was considerate, but bolder than Xion; he was similar to Sora in a lot of ways, but there was something… calmer about Ven, or maybe gentler. [Ventus + Roxas, post-KH3.]

Ao3 version here

/ / / / /

“You really haven’t seen it before?” Ventus’ eyes were wide and bright and curious, a cheerful smile belying his tone of surprise. Then again, Roxas was quickly discovering that it was rare for Ven not to smile.

“No,” he confirmed with a shake of his head. “I’ve never even felt it get this cold.”

“Huh.” It was a neutral sound as Ven shuffled the toe of his shoe against the cement, shifting the undisturbed layer of perfect white. Like Roxas, he was dressed for the cold with only his face showing any skin. “We get a ton of it every year where I’m from. We usually make bets on how long it takes the first snowfall of winter to arrive.”

“How much is a ton?” Roxas wondered. The snow that already coated the sidewalk, roads, and rooftops of Twilight Town was impressive, especially considering it had only started falling a couple hours before, but he figured an inch of the stuff could hardly be considered much.

“Mm… about knee-high, I guess? Well, for me, anyway. One time we got a lot more, though.” Suddenly Ven turned to him, looking excited. “Hey! So that means you’ve never had a snowball fight or any of that!”

“Well, no. I never–hey!”

“Come on!” Ven had a hold on the crook of Roxas’ arm and was already trying to break into a run. “We gotta hurry!”

Roxas humored him and matched his pace, but shot him a puzzled look. “To where?”

“I’ll explain when we get there!”

Ven half-led, half-dragged Roxas through the snow that continued to swirl in the chilly breeze. They earned a few glances as they went, a few of them knowing Roxas well enough to do a double-take when they noticed Ven, but nobody tried to dissuade them from their trek. “There” turned out to be the park: Ven abruptly stopped at the edge of it, finally releasing Roxas and scanning the area thoughtfully. When his eyes found the playground at the far end of the small field, he grinned and gave an indicative nod. “Down there! Let’s go!”

Now curious, Roxas didn’t need to be pulled along this time. The two of them crunched over the frozen grass and made for the collection of equipment – swingsets, a merry-go-round, climbing nets – all of which was now colored white. After another moment of looking around, Ven quickly led them over to the tube slide, a tall, winding tunnel of orange. “This should be good,” he decided. His cheeks were pink and his visible clouds of breath were coming quicker than before.

“For what?”

With another grin Ven crouched down and began gathering snow between his hands. The top layer was still dusty and slipped between his gloved fingers, but the rest stuck together as he rolled it into a tight ball. “Preparing,” he replied. He let that unhelpful answer hang in the cold air for a few seconds before raising his head. “By the time everybody else gets here, we’ll have a head start.”

“Everybody else?”

“Uh-huh. Is this is the only park?”

“The only one around here, yeah. The other one’s a train ride away.”

“Good! Then we’ll get a lot of people.” Noting Roxas’ perplexed expression, Ven added, “C’mon, help me make some more.” Once Roxas had also squatted down to start crafting snowballs, Ven nodded back towards the open field. “There’re lots of kids here, right? I bet this is where the snowball fight happens.”

Oh. Well, that explained a couple things, but– “How can you tell?”

Ven’s smile was the widest yet. “Because you always have a snowball fight after the first snow. And since this is your first snow ever, I’ll make sure you’re prepared.”

That caught Roxas by surprise – but the smile was contagious and he couldn’t resist a quiet laugh, even if it was a little self-conscious. Ven was definitely the outgoing type, but Roxas couldn’t really compare him to anybody else, not directly. Ven was straightforward, but lacked Hayner’s brashness; he was considerate, but bolder than Xion; he was similar to Sora in a lot of ways, but there was something… calmer about Ven, or maybe gentler. Roxas wasn’t sure what to call it or why exactly he thought that, but that was the impression that had stuck with him ever since (properly) meeting him several months ago.

Roxas glanced up at the slide. “So what’s this for, then?”

“You need somethin’ to hide behind. While everybody else is buildin’ theirs, we’ll already have one.” Ven had definitely thought this through.

With nothing else to do but accept the offer, Roxas set to work on mimicking Ven’s motions and adding to their snowball repertoire. It was pretty easy, similar to handling wet sand but more malleable, although he was feeling the bite of cold through his gloves within half a minute. Ven was much faster at it.

A few minutes after that, Ven’s guess proved right: others began trickling in, ranging from small children who had already begun to hurl snow at one another to teenagers who quickly took to constructing short walls out of the stuff. The two Keyblade wielders were already way ahead of the rest.

When a sudden thump sounded right beside Roxas’ left ear, they both whipped their heads up to see snowy remains crumbling off the slide. Together they turned to search the field for the source, a tricky endeavor given the size of the crowd at this point–

“Watch it!” Roxas jerked aside as another snowball flew in their direction, narrowly missing his face. He felt Ven catch hold of his sleeve.

“Come on!” he laughed. “Behind cover!”

As if by some silent command, the park erupted. The air filled with snowballs lobbed in every direction, accentuated by laughter and the occasional cry of surprise. The slide proved to be good defense, after all, tall enough that they could stand when they needed to and wide enough to let them each take one side. While other kids scrabbled to make more ammunition between throws, Roxas and Ven were well-stocked and kept pushing the offensive.

Roxas certainly didn’t have bad aim, but he noticed that Ven’s shots were on-target the majority of the time. Whenever somebody risked dashing out through the open field, becoming an immediate target for the rest of the crowd, the snowball pitched beside him always found its mark.

After several minutes of receiving only glancing blows and slim misses, Roxas was startled by the very wet, very cold slap of snow against his face, seemingly out of nowhere. He quickly scrabbled to dig it out of his collar, but a few icy chunks were already tumbling down his neck and the back of his shirt in sheer torment. Laughter drew both their attentions, and they looked left to see three more warmly bundled teenagers huddled behind the monkey bars. Specifically, they saw Olette trade high-fives with Hayner and Pence as all three of them flashed amused grins.

“Aren’t those your friends?” Ven panted. He was leaning over with his hands on his knees.

“Uh-huh. This just got a lot harder.” Despite the new challenge – because of it, rather – Roxas was smiling.

/ / /

Ven hadn’t spent enough time in Twilight Town to get used to the perpetual sunset, so it was a bit odd when he and Roxas finally withdrew from their fortified space an hour later and the sky gave no sign of the time passed. He could appreciate the sight, though, because the snowfall had eased up to a gentle flurry that allowed him to look skyward without constantly getting condensation in his eyes.

Both boys were flushed and panting from the exercise. With the ground covered in snow and their bodies already a few degrees too cold to be comfortable, they claimed the nearby swingset for seats. Some of the other kids remained in the park, building snowmen or pulling one another on sleds, but the battleground had died down for the most part. It ended up pretty quiet where they were, but Ven didn’t try to fill it with talk just yet. Like Roxas, he just watched the activity with mild interest while he caught his breath, hands cupped around his mouth to try and warm up the air going into his stinging lungs.

“It’s nice.”

Ven looked over. “Hm?”

“I don’t remember the last time I went all-out like this. Doing something that wasn’t a fight, anyway,” Roxas mused. “Or training. Maybe I never did.” That last remark sounded uncertain, but not sad. Like the light smile he wore, it just seemed distracted.

“Oh.”

“But it was nice,” he repeated. “Just… moving without thinking, you know?”

Ven nodded. “Yeah. Sometimes you need to stop thinkin’ and start doin’. That’s why you like sports, huh?”

Roxas tilted his head as though debating his answer. “I guess. I mostly do those ‘cause my friends like them. Well, I like them, too, but I probably wouldn’t bother if I didn’t have anybody to do it with.”

“I gotcha. I’ve got my friends to thank for some of my hobbies, too.” Taking hold of the chains on either side of his shoulders, Ven kicked lightly against the ground to get his swing moving. “If you liked this, you should come to our world sometime. You haven’t had real competition until you go up against Aqua.” Terra could throw a lot harder, but Aqua’s aim was legendary as far as Ven was concerned. She’d taught him a lot, although he was still lacking compared to her. He suspected she worked some magic into it somehow.

“I can go there?” Roxas asked, sounding slightly bewildered.

“Sure. Why couldn’t you?”

“…Oh. It’s just… It’s a really important place, right? So I thought only the really important wielders could go there.”

Ven laughed, cocking an amused eyebrow. “No. I mean, you have to have permission, but all you gotta do is ask. Who counts as a ‘really important’ wielder, anyway?”

“I dunno. Real ones, I guess.”

Ven dug his heels into the mulch to cut his momentum. Now he just looked puzzled, no longer smiling. “Real ones?” he echoed.

“You know. Wielders like you and your friends. The ones who got their Keyblades from their Masters. Not by chance.”

Frowning, Ven stared, but Roxas still didn’t turn to him, still didn’t sound anything other than thoughtfully neutral. After a moment Ven dropped his gaze, thinking over his response as he toed the tracks he’d left in the snow.

“Y’know, Roxas… I don’t believe in chance,” he said resolutely. This time Roxas did glance over, and Ven met the look with an easy smile. “And I don’t think there’s any difference between wielders when you get down to it. ‘The Keyblade chooses whom it will,’ ” he recited. “Even if we don’t understand why, that’s all right. We don’t have to know everything. Our role as wielders is to walk the path we’re given no matter what.”

Roxas appeared to take that to heart. At least, he thought on it for the next few silent moments. “Did your Master teach you that?”

“Yep.” Both of them did. “But after everything that’s happened… I don’t think you need a Master to tell you that. We’ve seen destiny in action. Up-close and personal and everything.” Ven grinned. Roxas didn’t return it, but there was something decidedly less serious in his expression as he looked out over the park again. After a few heartbeats, he gave a small but knowing smile.

“You’re saying… I’m no accident, huh.”

“Nobody is,” Ven countered without hesitation. “That Keyblade’s yours, Roxas. You’re as real a wielder as I am.” Standing up, he shoved his cold hands in his pockets and turned on his heel. “But your pitchin’ arm could use some work.” He grinned again. “How about some practice?”

Roxas blinked at him, but then after a beat laughed quietly. “You two really are alike.”

“Huh?”

“Never mind.” Pushing off his swing, Roxas caught up to him and gave his shoulder a friendly shove. “All right! Show me what you know.”