VANITAS'S POV
I'm the bastard in my family.
There. I fucking said it.
I won't deny that I have been called a "good-for-nothing" or a "scoundrel" or a "villainous snake" many times throughout my life since I know I'm all of those things, but I actually meant something else.
My parents, Zack and Aerith—and yes, I don't call them Dad or Mom, respectively—had me before they married. It was the slip of the tongue that enabled me to learn about all of this. Curious, I asked Zack to further explain. From what I recall, he said that that they weren't expecting to have me while they were dating but were happy nonetheless. The conversation went something like this:
"Uh, so I'm not a mistake?" I asked bluntly.
"What? No! Aerith and I were just surprised and all. We always wanted to have kids, but we didn't expect to have one so soon at the time. We were planning to get married the same year, but with the pregnancy and everything, Aerith wanted to wait until after she gave birth. Let me tell you, she was so happy once she was able to carry you in her arms. You weren't a mistake at all. We are glad to have you here, Van!" Zack exclaimed, hugging me tightly.
"Whatever." I brushed him off, a ghost of a smile on my face.
I know that such a term is considered derogatory, but since I'm already a bastard in one sense of the word, I might as well admit to the other…What? I honestly don't care if someone calls me a bastard. I don't care what others think of me. They can tattoo it on my forehead for the entire world to see for all I care. I call myself that all the time, but I try to control my usage of the word since Aerith doesn't like hearing it coming from my mouth despite knowing it's true. I don't want to see her upset.
You thought I was heartless? I can see how people would think that, considering my reputation, but I'm not as heartless as people seem to believe. As much as I hate to admit it, I seriously have a soft spot towards my family although I don't always show it. My younger brother Sora and my parents often get hurt from what I say and do, but I always regret my actions afterwards. Knowing this, they immediately forgive me despite my lack of apologies.
I don't understand why, but it's just really hard for me to admit my wrongs aloud. Maybe it's simply human nature—everyone wants to be right—but my reluctance is especially strong. In spite of all my flaws, I know that deep down they still love me and accept me for who I am. I don't know what I would do or where I would be if I were alone…
And that's why I will beat the shit out of anyone who tries to harm my parents or Sora in any way. My brother, especially, used to be a subject of bullying a couple years back because of his charm. He dazzled many people and wormed his way into many hearts with his good nature and loving attitude. Jealous bitches got so irked that they decided to do everything that they can to lower his self-esteem and decrease his popularity, such as spreading lies and sending threatening letters. I found the people responsible fairly easily since they did a poor job of covering their tracks. All I did was spy on the locals' conversations, listening to talks about the rumors. Many apparently did not believe them since they have known Sora for a long time. I mean, he lived here his whole life and was always interacting with everyone.
In the process, I learned what those fuck-ups looked like since the disbelievers warned each other to avoid "the girl with the braided blond hair wearing the colorful, skimpy outfit" or "the guy with the outlandish, long pink hair who smelled of roses." Some of the other bitches decided to confront Sora instead and ganged up on him. Brave as he was, he stood his ground but didn't want to do anything. He didn't like hurting people. Sora is such a goody two-shoes.
As they readied their fists to land a punch on Sora's sweet, little face, I sprang right in between them and Sora before they could and did several roundhouse kicks to the offenders' stomachs, watching them tumbling down onto the dirt floor. I kicked them many times, over and over, smiling as I did so. Eventually, I started laughing manically, creeping the shit out of the quickly-escaping bystanders, who were all too used to such a scene coming from me, and of the curled-up bastards, who were weeping unashamedly on the ground.
I didn't stop my assault until my brother wrapped his arms around my waist, crying and yelling at me to let them go. He forcibly made me walk away as he came up to them and used his Cure magic to lessen the pain.
The thing with healing magic is that it cannot heal all wounds—only small cuts and bruises. It mainly energizes the recipient to the point that the pain can't be felt for a limited amount of time. That's why it's so often used in battle. Who could fight well if the pain from their injuries got in the way? But I still didn't understand why Sora even bothered helping the enemies. I was sure I broke some ribs, so those idiots will eventually have the feel the brunt of it. And didn't they cause him pain? I just can't understand him.
Little to Sora's knowledge, I gave the rest of the perpetrators a similar treatment. All of the victims of my rage just learned to stay away, and everything went back to "normal."
As you can see, I don't go easy on anyone. Even a little bit of name-calling will set me off on an I-will-beat-you-to-a-bloody-fucking-pulp kind of frenzy. Such occasions landed me in jail every single time, and that's why I lost count of the number of visits. With my record, nobody would want to get near me or even think about me. People are afraid that I will somehow get access to their minds and come to hunt them down like the monster I am.
It's plain simple. The lesson is this: If you hurt my family, then you will earn a lifetime pass to the hospital. If you're on my good side, then you won't need to feel alarmed. I'm a pretty chill guy who just likes to break shit.
My parents don't understand why I have such violent tendencies, and neither do I. Both Sora and I are raised in the same environment, and Zack and Aerith treat us equally. So why do our personalities exist on the opposite ends of the spectrum? And we even look the same! We look so similar that we get mistaken as twins despite the two-year gap in age. Oh, but then again, appearances doesn't always reveal one's true nature.
Sora is such bright and happy-go-lucky kid, whereas I'm dark as hell, in more ways than one. I have black hair, which I got from Zack, and wear almost-colorless attire (I like dark colors, okay?). Plus, I got the mean look and personality down. Well, more than just mean.
Is something wrong with me? Is my heart trying to tell me something? I feel like I'm stuck in between the light and darkness. I have some good qualities, I guess, such as my desire to protect my family, but my bad ones outweigh them. But it's not like I want to be this way…
Wait, why am I thinking about all of this for? I need to fucking find Sora. It's already night time, and he's nowhere to be found. Damn him for running off somewhere. He's always with that Riku kid from next door. I swear they are humping each other this very moment. They still think they can hide their relationship, but they are sticking out like a sore thumb with all the ogling they do towards each other. To me it's obvious, but to the parents, their interactions just appear to be of the overly-friendly kind.
Wandering around the available areas of Radiant Garden, I realized that he might not be in his usual hiding spots. I guess getting caught multiple times in the past few years taught him a lesson. Sora can be innocent on the outside, but he must have been an incubus in the past life or something. Every time I came across the couple fucking each other senseless in the oddest of places, Sora is always the one leading and crying out for more. Okay…My thoughts are seriously going haywire tonight. I shook my head to clear my mind.
Rather than continuing my hopeless search in the same areas, I decided to just opt for the forbidden castle's outer gardens. I have never actually been inside of it before since I haven't bothered to explore it, but I'm guessing that's where Sora and his boy toy are having their escapade.
I went up to the notable, white pristine gates and took a look around for any guards through the gaps in the bars and was ecstatic to see none around the premises. Normally, the guards would be walking around holding lamps, none of which were present at the moment. That's very weird though. They might be taking a break or changing shifts or something, I thought. I climbed over the gates since it was locked, and softly landed on the ground. I would have very much preferred to have busted the door open with my Keyblade, but I didn't want to draw attention. Seriously, I just love wrecking property.
I took several steps forward, feeling around my surroundings to aid my search along the darkened path. From what I could see through my golden eyes, the garden was large and littered with trees and bushes in a haphazard manner. It makes searching a bit harder than I wanted it to be.
I took another moment to further study the environment and saw a flight of stairs. I headed in its direction, but because my eyes hadn't adjusted to the darkness yet, I was not surprised when I bumped into something…or someone, who was kneeling down. A high-pitched sound entered my ears.
"Who are you, and why are you here? This place is off-limits!" voiced a very angry and short figure. I could barely make the face of the guy who was currently speaking to me so I mockingly felt my way around. That's some very smooth and silky skin, I mused. I kept up with the inspection, admiring the way the skin felt against mine. Apparently, that was not the best way to respond as I could feel the muscles beneath my hands tense. My offending limbs were slapped away, and the same question arose from the increasingly irritated shortie. "What the hell? Get your hands away from me and answer my question!"
By the look of things, or rather, by the sound of things, this person was easily provoked. I just have to press the right buttons, or perhaps, any kind of button for that matter, and this guy will snap.
"Eh, I don't know. I was just wandering around. I didn't know this place was forbidden," I said, lying through my teeth and in an apathetic tone. I didn't bother to give him my name, and it appears he honestly didn't care either since he failed to bring it up.
"Well, now you know. So scram! This place is haunted so you wouldn't want to stay any longer."
"Haunted?" Now that has piqued my interest. "May I ask what makes this place so hauntingly frightening?" I asked, a smirk forming at the corners of my mouth. This totally beats trying to find Sora.
"Uh, well…It seems as though the common guards heard some ghostly sounds coming from the garden and were too afraid to investigate. I just came out here to ease their worries and find out the source," he mumbled. As if on cue, moans sounded at a distance, slowly becoming louder. "I think that's it!" the boy gleefully said. However, his face soon scrunched up upon hearing the sounds getting clearer and clearer.
"Aaaahh! R-Riku! Aaah! R-Right there…Uh!"
"S-Sora…! W-Wait. Slow down a bit!"
Recognizing the names and voices, I couldn't help the laughter that burst out of me. I just somehow knew they would be hiding here!
My eyes were able to adjust enough to the darkness that I could see the nervous look of the boy in front of me. His eyes were adverted to the grassy floor, and it seems he was biting his lip. Despite the lack of color, I could tell that his cheeks were quickly becoming a rosy pink. I smirked at that.
"Sora! I know you're here! Aerith wants you home!" I yelled in a sing-song tone. I heard some very loud rustling, which indicates how close they are. The two lovers must have been way too occupied to even notice a conversation was going on around them. A messy-looking and out-of-breath Sora appeared before me in a matter of seconds with Riku closely behind.
"V-Vani! N-Nice to see you here!" Sora's eyes quickly drifted towards the other person beside me. "A-And…nice to meet you too?"
The boy sputtered some incoherent words and sped the hell out of there, his back disappearing towards the castle with the accompanying darkness.
A/N: Hey! Thanks for reading the first chapter of my first fanfic! I always wanted to write one to make my fantasies come to life. Now that sounded so perverted. Ha ha. But anyway, I wanted to write one with Vanitas and Ventus as a pair. I recently finished playing Ven's side of the story in BBS and seeing their interactions spurred my desire to write about them. Yeah, I'm late in the game, but I didn't have the console at the time to play.
I know this chapter was pretty short, but I would really appreciate it if you guys were to review. Do you guys like it so far? How is my grammar and spelling? etc. I honestly don't know where this story is heading, but I do have a vague idea of what I want. I'm also unsure of how often I will be updating this story. If I keep the chapters short, I might update more often. It really depends on how busy I am with college. I might also go back to edit the story so keep your eyes out for that.
***For old readers, I recently edited this chapter to put in some additional details and to move paragraphs around to make the flow smoother. It would be best to reread it since these details will serve a greater purpose later on.