A/N: Let's just say I wasn't liking how there wasn't very many fanfics for my favorite couple. I really don't know where this idea came from or why it ended the way it did. But, eh. Here you go. Enjoy!

Dull

"To me the world is a dull place,

And yet you came into my life,

The paint that came with you...

Was splattered on the grey canvas."

Everything was always so plain and boring in the eyes of the raven haired teen. Even on the days one would find beautiful, all he saw were the dull colors, not the vibrant ones everyone always spoke of. He was always told about how the grass was a beautiful, nature kissed green. He only saw the grass as muddy, dark, and boring. Something not even worth mentioning.

He went through the motions of his life, not really caring that many didn't want to interact with him for the sole reason that he was pessimistic. But that didn't stop her, the blue eyed beauty who had the laugh filled with joy.

It was odd, frightening even, how he could describe her with such colorful words but not the color filled scenery around him. It was almost poetic, the way he'd say her laugh was like wind chimes, or how her eyes gleamed like gems blessed by the sky. He was getting too attached, too much so for his liking.

And yet, he never dared pushed her away. He didn't try when she first approached him, believing she'd run away like those before her who tried to befriend him. He didn't even attempt when she kept coming back to talk to him, day after day, even if their conversations were mostly one-sided.

"Why do you care so much? You'd be more popular if you'd stop trying to be so nice to someone like me," he said to her one day, his eyes looking anywhere but her face.

"I really don't like attention. Besides, you're different than everyone else, Vanitas. You see the world differently than they do." There was a pause in her answer, and he didn't even have to look up at her to know she was smiling her sunny smile at him. He felt it on him, and it gave him warmth. "And the fact that you see things differently... It makes you special and unique. And... I want to get to know the side of you that can describe things in your own, Vanitas way."

He remembered giving her a surprised look. A look that was filled with the confusion of her compliments, the irritation that she was going to dig deeper into him, and the fear that she actually wanted to know what was in his mind. He was scared he'd lose her, he realized much later, if she got into his head. But she drowned that insecurity away with a gentle brush to his hand and her comforting smile.

She stayed with him through a lot of difficult times in his life. And when he wasn't dealing with family issues, she was making him grin with her odd little comments on the world. Things like "The sky looks like a blanket" or "The flower looks yellow, but it also looks golden, but it's most definitely yellow with hints of orange" made a small smile appear on his lips, but he didn't mind one bit.

He remembered her asking, "So, how would you describe the sunset, Vanitas?"

"... It just looks like a plain old sunset," he had answered bluntly, usual bored expression on his features.

And she had just laughed, her wide smile on her lips as she murmured, "Ah, there's that Vanitas way."

As their high school years passed by, he slowly realized that he saw things in the way she did. Though, it wasn't the exact same way since he still saw things in their dull way, but he began seeing the sunset as "a fire seeing the end of its life, only to be reborn once more like a phoenix would" or the grey filled sky as "a face of someone who's missing something."

When he told her this on a spring day during their senior year, she gave him a warm smile, took his hand, and whispered, "The world is such a vibrant, and beautiful place, Vanitas. You'll see it one day, but you may not see it the next. It's okay, though. To see it in your own way. The world can seem dull at times, even to me."

And then he laughed. He gave a warm laugh like he knew she would, a sunny smile on his lips as he leaned forward to rest his forehead against hers. He didn't know why he was laughing, and neither did she.

But he was happy. The boy who saw things as dull and plain saw things in a colorful way. The boy who was constantly told to change who he was, causing problems with his family was told by a girl a few months younger than him that it was alright to see things the way he wanted to. And he was genuinely happy that it was her who showed him these things, because she didn't stop trying like everyone else did.

And looking back, he was glad he saw things the way he did way back when. If he didn't, maybe she wouldn't have approached him. Maybe he wouldn't have gotten to meet someone so wonderfully herself. It was a blessing, he realized, that she came up to him of all people and tried to wedge herself into his heart.

"You were such a persistent girl. Look what you've done. I see things your way now, with hints of myself," he chuckled, smiling gently at her.

Her wide sky kissed blue eyes looked up at his gold piercing ones, a small smile on her lips. "It's not like I was trying to back then," she replied, shrugging. "You looked lonely, and I figured, since I was kind of lonely as well, why not take two lonely people, put them together, and create some not-so-lonely people?"

"Silly woman," he murmured, kissing her forehead, eyes closing in content. He heard her familiar giggling, the feeling of her intertwining their fingers together, and the squeezing of their connected hands to get her feelings across.

"... I wanted... I wanted to say something I really should have said a long time ago," he began, fumbling with his words.

She noticed how hard he was trying and instead of making a comment on it, she gave one of her encouraging smiles accompanied with a squeeze of her hand. He cleared his throat, opening his eyes once more to look down at her, gazes locking.

"Thank you so much for... For painting my world the way you did," he mumbled shyly, bringing their laced fingers to his lips, kissing each of her knuckles, kissing the golden band on her ring finger last. "If you hadn't... My world would still be a dull rainbow. Thank you, really... I love you so much, and I'm really grateful you let me love you and stay by your side..."

Her smile grew into one that had love and adoration etched into it. To him, she looked as though she an angel, sent down to save a cursed and forgotten child of the divine being. To him, she was beautiful. To Vanitas, she was the source of the color in his dull world.

He leaned down to kiss her lips sweetly, and she knew what he was trying to say. 'Thank you, Xion', his kiss had whispered to her. 'You're welcome, Vanitas,' she replied with her adoring kiss. The unspoken gratitude and welcome was passed between them as they stood there, only viewed by the phoenix-like sunset.