Disclaimer: I'm getting really tired of writing these things, so I'm just going to say it once: I do not own Kingdom Hearts.

Here we go again!

To be completely honest, I was planning on getting back to The Stuff of Heroes and Escapade, and then, while I was reading some of Arcawolf's brilliant work, this story just demanded to be written. It has nothing to do with any of those stories, I was just really intrigued by how well (The author's bio doesn't mention whether they are male or female, so I'm just going to use "they" or "their" to avoid stepping on any toes.) they portrayed Vanitas as a tragic villain. I mean, yeah, he's definitely psycho, but he also didn't have the nicest of upbringings either. Thus, this fic was born. For anyone who happens to be interested in my other works, previously mentioned, regular updates will resume after the conclusion of Dead Men Stalking.

It's mainly about the relationship Ventus has with Terra and Aqua—the family ties he has with them were touched on in BBS, but I wanted to dig a little deeper into his character; he was with Xehanort at first, so I would imagine that he must've had to work through some pretty serious issues to become the happy, lighthearted person he was for most of BBS…

***Warnings*** This story contains some dark themes, mentions/descriptions of past abuse, self-harm, and some non-sexual ageplay. Please read with caution, or feel free to skip this one if this isn't your cup of tea.

Without further adieu, I present:

Little and Broken, But Still Good

Chapter I: The Long Road Ahead

As far as Aqua knows, the Master isn't expecting any visitors.

The Land of Departure is a relatively small, out of the way world, insignificant when compared to the rest of the vast cosmos in which she and her fellow Keyblade Apprentice, Terra, reside. It is here that she and her friend study under the watchful eye of Master Eraqus, hoping to one day attain the title of Keyblade Master, and be able to explore the worlds for themselves.

They don't often get visitors; Eraqus works very hard to minimize distractions to they can focus—and when they do, it's often the same man.

Xehanort.

Aqua doesn't know very much about him, honestly, only that he and Master Eraqus were close, once, but they had a falling-out and don't speak much anymore.

So, when the aging bald man with the creepy yellow eyes and neatly-trimmed facial hair arrives late in the evening with a little boy in tow, it's more than a little surprising.

Upon further scrutiny, she realizes that something's…off about the boy. His posture is weak, shoulders slumped forward as if he's carrying a heavy burden; his eyes are dull and lifeless, they hold none of the youthful exuberance and wonder she's expecting to see.

"That boy…Is he okay?" she asks, thinking out loud.

"I'll go see." Terra offers and disappears down the stairs.

The balcony where she and Terra are practicing is too high up for her to hear what Xehanort and Eraqus are talking about, but they quickly disappear from view, leaving the little boy alone in the large, empty reception hall.

Terra enters the room a moment after they've disappeared, greeting the boy before she's even moved away from the railing. She can't hear him either, but his body language suggests relief as he pantomimes wiping sweat from his brow. He turns and waves at her.

"Aqua, c'mere!"

Aqua takes a deep breath and heads down to the lobby at her friend's request, leaning down to look the boy in the eyes. His eyes are blank, glassy, all color and no pupil. It's…extremely unsettling, but she keeps her discomfort from showing.

"Hi," she says, slowly, and the boy cocks his head at her. "I'm Aqua."

"Terra…Aqua…" the boy says, looking at each of them in turn.

"So," Terra begins, his voice soft and friendly; no doubt he's trying to make the boy feel comfortable. "Are you here to train with us?"

The boy's eyes cloud over, as though he's thinking very hard about what he wants to say, and there's a flash of primal fear in his eyes.

"Who was that man with you? You good with a Keyblade?" Terra continues without waiting for a response.

The boy groans, his distress growing with each question, until finally, he cries out and collapses to his knees, head clutched in his hands.

"Whoa! What's'matter?" Terra lunges forward, hand out to steady the boy, in the same instant that Aqua blurts:

"Are you okay?"

"What did you do?" Master Eraqus' voice is sharp and commanding from behind them; the tone of his voice makes it clear that he's not going to wait very long for an answer.

"Nothing!" Terra fumbles. "I just asked him some stuff."

Aqua almost reaches out to squeeze his hand, she knows he was only trying to make their guest feel welcome, and honestly, there was no reason to expect…well…that.

"Ventus cannot tell you anything; because he cannot remember anything." He says.

Aqua turns to look at the boy—Ventus—and is surprised to see Xehanort cradling him. The older man never struck her as a touchy-feely kind of person…

There is a long, terribly uncomfortable silence as the four people wait to see if the Ventus will regain consciousness. After several minutes pass with no change, they decide to move him to one of the castle's spare rooms; Xehanort seems relieved when Eraqus says that he will handle the situation from this point on, and he takes his leave.

The boy looks even smaller now, nestled in the covers of a large bed, one even Terra, with his height, would be comfortable in.

"I have a few things to take care of," Eraqus says once they've gotten Ventus settled. "I'll be in my office if you need me." With that, he exits the room in a flutter of white robes.

"I'm gonna go back to training for a while." Terra says. "You coming?"

Aqua shakes her head. "I'm going to stay with Ven for a little bit in case he wakes up—he's been through a lot, I think…I don't want him to wake up by himself."

Terra nods. "Makes sense. That's…that's really nice of you to do that."

Aqua would swear there's a touch more color in Terra's cheeks when he says this, but it's gone before she can be sure it was even there in the first place.

"Thanks," Aqua replies, grateful that he noticed, and glad that he's being supportive.

"I'll be inside on the balcony, if you need anything." He says

"Alright,"

Terra waves and is gone.

Aqua pulls up a chair next to Ventus' bed, and settles in to wait.

***L&B***

Aqua's intuition serves her well; she's only been in the room for an hour at most, when Ventus begins tossing and turning restlessly on the bed.

His brow furrows and he begins to sweat, mumbling to himself.

Aqua reaches over to gently shake him by the shoulder. "Ventus? Ventus, wake up."

Ventus doesn't respond, but his thrashing gets worse. Tears leak out of the corner of his eyes. "Please master! I'm not strong enough, don't do this to me!" he mutters, trembling.

"Ventus, wake up, it's just a dream." Aqua's considerably more alarmed now—her earlier hunch that Ventus has been through something seriously traumatic seems to be correct...

Shaking him hasn't worked, and with the way he's tossing around, he probably can't feel it anyway, she realizes. She reaches over and smooths the sweat-damp hair out of his face.

"Ven, it's okay. You're safe. It's just a dream"

That does it.

Ventus' eyes snap open, and he gasps.

"Ven, relax, you're safe." Aqua says gently, rubbing his arm. "It's alright. It was only a dream." She lets out a breath she didn't realize she was holding.

Ventus sits up, his small frame trembling as he clenches his fists, breathing heavily.

"You okay?" Aqua questions, reaching over to rub his back comfortingly—her jerks away from her touch as though she's burned him

He makes a choked noise in the back of his throat, shoulders shaking. His breath comes in ragged heaves, and his fists clench tighter until crimson rivulets slip between his fingers to drip onto the sheets.

"Ven, stop! You're hurting yourself!" Aqua's commanding tone doesn't quite mask the horror she feels at seeing him do this to himself.

Ventus freezes, staring at Aqua with big, innocent, tortured eyes, pleading with her. Don't hurt me….please. I'll be good, I promise. Just…don't hurt me. He turns away from her, curling up into the smallest ball he possibly can.

Aqua's heart gives a painful twinge and she opens her arms to him. "C'mere Ven. I won't hurt you; your're safe here, I promise. I just want to make sure you're okay."

"I'm sorry!" Ventus lunges across the bed into her open arms as the dam bursts, tears streaming down his face. "I'll do better! Just give me another chance! Please, don't hurt me!" He curls up in Aqua's lap—he doesn't weigh much either, which is almost as unsettling as his current state of distress.

Aqua hugs him, rubbing his back, stroking his hair, trying anything and everything she can think of to calm him down. "It's okay, Ven, I won't hurt you, I promise. You're safe here. No one's going to hurt you." She reassures him, rocking him ever so gently as he continues to sob into her chest, soaking her shirt.

Ventus clings to her as though his life depends on it, fisting her shirt as his body trembles.

After a long time, he pulls back from her, sniffling. "S-sorry. I couldn't help it. I didn't mean to be weak."

Aqua shushes him, wiping his tears away with her thumbs; he tenses at the contact. She reaches for a tissue on the nightstand and holds it up to his face.

"Blow," she instructs, tossing the used tissue into the wastebasket after he follows her instructions.

"Are you mad?" Ventus wonders.

Aqua just blinks, struggling to wrap her mind around Ventus' question. "No, of course I'm not mad. Why in Light would you think that?"

"Emotion is a weakness," Ventus says, and his voice is dull, lifeless, robotic.

"You're not weak, Ventus." Aqua says.

"But…I was crying and—"

"That's perfectly normal. It's healthy. That's how we deal with our emotions sometimes. There's nothing wrong with having a good cry when you need it." Aqua rubs his back, hoping to soothe him. Her heart breaks for him—these kinds of ideas aren't something he'd have come up with on his own.

"Really?" Ventus looks skeptical, but he doesn't outright argue with her—she takes that as progress.

"Really." Aqua leans forward and presses a kiss to the little boy's forehead, because it feels right, and for a moment, she's terrified that she's overstepped, that she's violated his clearly fragile trust in some irreparable way but he just leans into her and rests his head on her shoulder; and she knows she's made the right decision.

"Know what makes me feel better when I'm sad?" she poses after a moment. "Hot chocolate. And Terra makes the best hot chocolate in the worlds. Want to go see if he'll make us some?"

"Okay," Ventus says quietly. He clambers down off her lap and wanders toward the door. "Uh…Which way is the kitchen?" He wonders.

Aqua smiles down at him, hoping to give him some kind of reassurance that she's not holding his perfectly-understandable meltdown against him. "This way." She says. "Don't worry, it took me a while to find my way around at first too. You'll get used to it in no time."

Ventus smiles then and trails after her.

That's a wrap for the first chapter! Let me know what you think, I need to make sure I'm doing this right. I have a lot planned for this fic, but I want to make sure people like it before I continue with it.

If you think it sucks, let me know what to fix and I'll do my best.

Also, if you get a minute, please check out the poll on my profile regarding this story, I'd really appreciate some feedback if you have time...

See you next chapter! (Hopefully)

~Script