Hi! It's been a while since I've written anything, and my first time on this fandom. Pleased to meet you, I'm Tory!
I'll keep the talking for the end, so for now, enjoy!

Disclaimer : I do not own KH or its characters
Side Note : I never played 0.2, so this plot is not taking the game into consideration (just details from the trailer). Also I'm not a native English speaker and I found my English to be a bit weird sometimes in this fic. Sorry 'bout that.

Aqua was tired. Tired of walking again and again, of fighting this neverending flow of shadows and heartless, tired of following this light of hope that wasn't leading anywhere.

Sometimes, she just wished some monster defeated her, ending her torment.

How long had she been stuck in this Darkness? Could as well be a week, a month, a year. She had no way of knowing how time went by. Sometimes, when she couldn't mentally keep on walking, she'd find someplace to sleep – nowhere safe, there wasn't such a thing around – and when she was unlucky enough to dream, she'd dream she would find a way out of this place, only to find out a century had went by, and Terra and Ventus had died so long ago, forgotten by all.

That was why she slept as little as possible. When she was walking, she managed to suppress most of her depressing thought, clinging to every happy memory she had ; but when sleep came, there was no controlling of her thoughts.

Darkness wasn't helping either. She had had so many hallucinations until then (sleep deprivation not helping), seeing familiar faces, and yet having to fight them. She couldn't tell what was real and what was not anymore.

So when that Darkside managed to push through her defense, violently pinning her to the ground, and about to give the final blow, she somehow feel relieved. She let go of her Keyblade, closed her eyes and waited for the peace of mind that would come with her disappearance.

But the blow never came.

Instead, she heard some familiar sounds, a blade crushing against the heartless, and with her eyes still closed, she imagined Terra's silhouette, somehow having found a way to get to her, to save her.

That was supposed to be the other way around, though, she thought, amused. She knew it was probably mere hallucinations – perhaps the heartless had seen something more appealing to fight and left – but as long as her eyes were closed, she could remain in her dream of that best friend of hers – No. He's so much more than that. - saving her.

However, she did not understand why she felt some hands touching her. Her hallucinations had never affected her that hard before. Those warm hands checked for her breath, her pulse, then strongly picked her off the ground. That person, whoever it was, threw her across their back, giving her a piggyback. That back was too small to be Terra's. But still, she somehow felt safe, for perhaps the first time in forever, and lost conciousness without even getting to open her eyes.

She was a bit groggy when she woke up. She probably had not slept that much for a really long time. She remembered that absurd dream – her being saved from the Darkside, and chuckled. At least it wasn't such a bad dream, although now she remembered she was all alone.

"Oh, so the Princess finally wakes up? So nice to join me."

This time, she opened her eyes right away. That voice.. She sat up, feeling dizzy of doing so too fast, and stared at the boy sitting next to her.

He could almost hide in the Darkness, with his dark hair and outfit. But those vivid eyes, a piercing shade of gold, would stand out in the darkest place ever.

"Vanitas...?" She was confused. It felt real – but why would he be here? The pieces would not fit together.

"I see you're still as smart as you used to be. What's next, Captain Obvious?" He smirked, and there was nothing kind in his eyes.

"You saved me, didn't you?"

"Well, I did slay that monster that incidentally happened to be the one crushing you. If that's what you're talking about." And yet, he looked away for a short time, and Aqua felt there might have been more than just that. But she knew better than to push her luck. So instead she just cracked a tiny smile– oh, it's been so long since she last smiled !

"Well, thanks anyway."

They both stayed silent for a while. She clearly remembered he had checked for her pulse. And well, he had stayed with her all the time she was asleep.

"I'm actually surprised you'd thank me", he finally answered. "You clearly had given up back then. So what? You want to die? I can fix that for you."

She did not answer at first. Hearing these words out loud made her realize how selfish she had been. She could not give up. She had a role to play.

"Vanitas?"

He said nothing, but she knew he was listening. "Why are you here? I mean... In the Darkness?"

Silence. He laid on his back, thinking. She thought he would not answer – but he did.

"I've been kicked out, really. Ven's heart found its way to a gullible boy's who warmly welcomed him. But good ol' Vanitas? You'd think that being one person, we would have been welcomed both, but I guess there was an admission sign, 'No darkness allowed' or some shit like that and I was shooed away. And that's how I ended up here, a dark heart in a dark place, fitting, right?"

Behind his sarcastic tone, she could feel how bitter he was, how angry, and she barely managed to stop herself to ruffle his hair like she would do to Ven when he was feeling down.

"I'm glad you're here. I know we weren't the best friends or anything – quite the opposite, actually, but I'm glad I get someone to talk to. Someone real."

He scoffed. "Don't think I'm going to babysit you. You're awake now, and you can walk. Keep following your path like you always did. I'm not planning to come with you. Actually," he jumped back on his feet, "my work here is done. I've got plenty of stuff to do, so I'm off."

"Stuff? Like what? I haven't seen much distractions around, lately."

"Oh, but there are. Look, my agenda's full." He pretented to read a book very attentively. "4:00, wallow in self pity; 4:30, stare into the abyss; 5:00, solve world hunger, tell no one. 5:30..."

Aqua couldn't stop a giggle from escaping her lips.

"Come on. Just come with me. If we both fight the Heartless, we might get out sooner!"

He looked really surprised for a short period, before regaining his sarcastic face.

"Meh. That sounds like a worse schedule than mine. Although, we might meet again one day, if you're still stuck around. See ya!"

And without further ado, he disappeared into the shadows, his golden eyes the last thing to vanish.

It had now been really a long time since she had seen him (weeks? Months? Years again?), but she somehow added that memory to her "happy times" memories and thought about it quite often. Who knows, perhaps had he been just part of her imagination? It did not matter. It gave her the courage she had once lost.

She had fought so many monsters she had lost count. Some were weak, some not so much. The one attacking her at the moment was a tough one, and she was out of breath. She started to doubt she'd win against it, but she wouldn't let go again. So when her keyblade slipped of her hand, away from her reach, and with no time to summon it back, it wasn't relief she felt ; instead, a surge of frustration invaded her mind.

"Duck!"

She instinctively jumped to the side, closer to her weapon, without even thinking about who-what-where was that voice coming from.

A blade pierced through the shadows to slash the heartless. Had she not moved, she would have been impaled on the sword. Not a fancy concept to her.

"You gonna stare or you gonna help?"

Snapping out of her thoughts, she materialised her beloved blade back into her hand and started attacking back again.

After a long, exhausting fight, the monster was defeated, and smaller shadows understood the warning, giving them some room.

"So you always need to be saved, don't you? Aren't you tired of always being the damsel in distress?"

He probably would have sounded meaner if he wasn't out of breath. Aqua let a thoughtful 'Hmm' out of her lips, tapping dust out of her clothes.

"Well, given how long I spent fighting my own fights without your help, I'd say I'm still not so bad, Vanitas. It's been a while, hasn't it?"

She noticed he was staring at some point just above her head in awe. Afraid the heartless had come back, she turned to look behind her, but there wasn't a thing. He was still not moving his eyes from that mysterious point, and his eyes started filling with tears. Concerned about it, she was about to ask him what was wrong, but then he burst into laughter, letting the tears freely run down his cheeks, holding his stomach. He tried to speak, but couldn't breathe enough for that, so Aqua let him calm down, now really worried about what would make someone as crual as Vanitas laugh.

"Nice... Oh gosh... Are those..." he tried to speak, still suffocating from the laughters. "Nice ears! What the hell are those?"

Oh. Aqua knew exactly what he was referring to. She had learnt a couple of tricks, in her solitary path. Darkness used her memories to create some terrible doppelganger of people she had loved – she had learnt how to use darkness to create stuff too. Never anything too big, never anything alive. But that really cute set of cat ears had taken her a lot of trials, and she was so proud of it (it wasn't like heartless would judge her anyway) that she had kept them on her head.

"Well, they're cat ears! I'm doing my best to find distractions in this neverending darkness, to keep busy so that I don't go crazy!"

"Not going crazy, she says as she is wearing fluffy ears... The irony is strong in this – Ugh"

"Vanitas!" She rushed to him, her body moving on her own, as he collapsed, his hand clutching his side. "You've been wounded, haven't you?"

"Yeah. Your stupid face made me laugh so hard I broke a rib or two. No big deal."

It was clear he was actually in real pain, breathing heavily, his eyelids fluttering and sweat starting to wet his forehead.

"Let me help you, Vanitas."

"Over my dead body." He whispered as he finally gave in, his eyes closing and his head lolling towards Aqua. She softly smiled, laying him on the ground.

"Let's not go that far, okay?"

She cast a Curaga spell on him, and then, seeing his breathing started to calm down, she began to hum a song she often sang at Ven when he had troubles sleeping. Sinking deep in her memories of those days, she absent-mindedly played with Vanitas's hair, acting as if he was Ven, that little brother she was fighting for.

He had slept for a while, and she had dozed off a couple of times as well. Luckily, apart from a few Shadows she kept away with some Thundaga, they were not bothered by any creature. When he opened his eyes, Aqua was stretching, an habit she did her best to keep in order to keep in shape.

"Has my Prince, Lord and Savior recovered?" She teased, mocking the way he called her the first time they met in the Darkness.

"Shut up. Shouldn't you be slaying your way to the Light? Why are we still here?"

"Well, you couldn't move, and I would have been unable to fight while carrying you, so..."

"Why didn't you leave me there then?"

She was really surprised. He really sounded as if he did not understand. "You didn't. Back then, when I collapsed. Why would I?"

He clicked his tongue and looked away, obviously annoyed.

"Vanitas, this time I would like to hear the truth. Why do you help me? Don't pretend you don't. Since you first helped me when I was about to give up on everything, I noticed there are far less heartless on my way. I know you have something to do with that. So once again : why ?"

He opened his mouth, then closed it, opened again and closed it again. She was glad. Ven did that sometimes too, it was usually when he was about to lie, but then decided that truth would be a better choice.

"I can't let you die."

It was Aqua's turn to open her mouth, gawking at she wasn't prepared to hear, ever, from him.

"Don't get the wrong idea, ok? It actually doesn't have anything to do with you. If you had died all this time ago, in Neverland, in the Keyblade Graveyard or wherever, I would have been the first to rejoice. Your role was to die in order to let Terra fall into the Darkness. Honestly, your life means nothing to me."

Aqua knew she should have felt perhaps a bit hurt by those words, but she knew there was more to it. And she couldn't help but notice how alike Ventus and Vanitas actually were – Ventus was kinder, of course, but there was the same pattern in how they spoke and acted. He was even fidgeting his fingers just like Ven did when he was embarrassed.

"However, I can't just let you die, because I need you out of here. I know that if you ever get out of this place, you will do whatever it takes to wake Ventus up. I need him to be awake. I'm a part of him, so as long as he is that empty shell, I'm just stuck there. If he wakes up, then at least there's a hope for me to get back into his heart."

Aqua tilted her head.

"Even if you go back to him..."

"Yeah. I know I probably won't have any control whatsoever. But between a life stuck in his heart, seeing things with his eyes and not be able to move, and a life here, free to move and to talk, but only to heartless because that's all there is... Even if it's through him, at least I will live in his heart. Here, all I do is survive. But perhaps that's what being a creature of darkness means."

His words somehow saddened Aqua. No matter the choice he made, it would still be a lonely life he would get.

"You know, Vanitas... I don't think you are made only of darkness."

He gave her an outraged look, as if she had insulted every ounce of him. She gave him a bright smile.

"Master Eraqus told us once that in order to never stray from the Light, one should never let sadness, anger, jealousy take over. Every time we felt something negative, we had strayed from the righteous path." She took a quick break. She could still hear her Master's voice as he had lectured them once. "To be honest, I always did my best to stay on this path. Sadness is the only negative feeling I allowed myself to feel, and only to a certain extent. When it came to Terra... He was... He is impulsive and hot-blooded. So he sometimes got really angry, or a bit jealous, over some topics. But he always did his best for redemption afterwards. He was terrified that he would be rejected by Master Eraqus if he ever found out he had 'sinned'.

"However, Ventus... Ventus is younger. He follows Terra everywhere, and he would imitate him a lot. He is still immature on some topics, which is no surprise, since he isn't old enough to grasp all we did. He hated when we treated like a kid. He hated when we were allowed to do stuff he couldn't. He hated that gap we sometimes had. So he was quick to get angry, and to stay mad at us for hours. He would lock himself in his room, refusing to open the door. He envied us on so many topics I couldn't list them all. He was sad and terrified because he knew that one day, once Terra and I would become Masters, we would have to leave and he'd stay behind, alone.

"What I mean is, Ventus had actually strayed a lot from the path of Light Master Eraqus told us about. And I do believe there was some darkness inside of Ven's heart, as there are inside all of us. But that also means that if Ven could have some darkness within him, even without you, then surely your heart also bears some light. You saved me, you helped me. You stayed with me because you know how lonely it is around. There is some good in you. That is why I want to help you. And if possible, I want you to have your own body, your own heart, as you had after being separated from Ven. I want you to have your own life, Vanitas, because you deserve it."

He kept silent for a moment, and she respected that. No matter what he thought of what she said – she had been honest and had wanted him to know what she thought of him.

He finally let a soft chuckle out.

"My, my. Your words are actually so sweet they make me feel nauseous. But as long as we agree on the fact that you need to wake Ven up, that's fine with me."

"Our motives do not matter, as long as our goal is the same, right? Come on, let's get moving."

He took the hand she was offering and got up, half a smile on his face. He was walking a bit behind her, and she could hear him mutter.

"A life of my own, uh? Doesn't sound that bad."

She started humming, feeling really happy for the first time in a while.

"Oh, but hey, Aqua?" Hearing him use her name gave her a start. She stopped in her tracks and looked at him.

"Don't think that because of your 'you have light in you' speech I'm just going to stay by your side. Your dumb kindness still makes me want to strangle you and that humming of yours? Makes me wanna die. So let's go back to me being on my side, opening the way for you and eventually showing up if you're in a bad posture, okay? I don't mind chatting a bit from times to times but don't expect I'll be there all the time."

Aqua allowed herself to laugh a bit. "I was surprised you wouldn't say that earlier. Obviously, feel free to go your way. Let's just meet up from times to times!"

"Let's do that" he said as he materialized his blade in his hand and starting straying away. Before completely disappearing, he turned back to her.

"Don't die while I'm not looking. And about that offer to let me have my own life... I won't say it twice, but thanks."

He paused for a couple of seconds. "And hey, quit those cat ears, you really look stupid with these."

He disappeared once again in the darkness, but Aqua did not feel lonely anymore. She knew she had a friend, somewhat darker than her little-brother-figure, keeping an eye on her.

And whenever she'd feel sad, she just would have to remember she managed to put some Minnie's ears-and-bow on Vanitas's head while he was sleeping, and that it might take him a while to actually notice.

FIN

Here comes the useless chatter! I fell in the KH fandom this summer and now I'm a trash with no regret. I would love to see Vanitas more in the coming games but I doubt he will come back, so all I can do is play BBS again and again. I wrote something like 3 fics in the last week so I will post the remaining ones later!

If you are looking for a really good fic with Aqua and Vani, please please please go read "Cast a Shadow" by Taliax. I haven't had the occasion to read any other fic about them yet, but this one IS GOOD. SO GO READ IT.

Anyway, thanks a lot for reading this fic, hopefully you liked it and my English wasn't too bad! See you soon for 2 more fics, actually centered on Lea and then on Axel~*