I knew it wasn't a good idea from the beginning, but I did it anyway...

I grabbed the worn, golden knob within my bedroom door as if I were attempting to choke it and jerked my wrist to the left in a hasty manner before I exposed my room to the rest of the house. Walking in the small bit of light that reached across to the opposite wall, I slammed the wooden fixture hard enough for it to make a few small items audibly vibrate. The rest of my family no doubt heard the sound, but I didn't care. All I wanted to do was be caged up in my bedroom alone.

Darkness surrounded and caressed me within its hold, like a parent to a baby. I made no move to rid it since it comforted me like nothing else. Instead I silently trudged over to my unmade bed with backpack in hand and sat down hard, making the headboard hit the wall hard enough to create a loud smack, before I fell back on my bed.

Allowing myself to watch apathetically as my black and white checkered backpack fell backwards, some of its contents spilling out, I let out a deep sigh. My possessions and I stayed in dead silence for what seemed like hours before I decided I couldn't stand it anymore. I couldn't be alone in my room with my darkness like I wanted to be, and it pissed me off.

Teeth clenched as I set my jaw. Telling myself to stay at least moderately calm, I attempted to keep my breathing in control. Despite my rage, the reason I couldn't get comfortable became clear.

I wasn't alone in my bedroom… I could sense it… He was there and I didn't appreciate it.

With malice dripping from my words, I called out to him. "I know you're there, and I don't like it…" I failed at holding back a growl after those words fell from my lips. "What the fuck, idiot…? I wanna be alone."

He was messing with a clump of blonde hair, pushing it back behind his ear, when he stepped forward from the opposite corner of my room. Dark bags became blatantly present under his dark blue ocean colored eyes once he was standing in front of me and his expression seemed to beg for sleep. The way he held himself was pathetic, to say the least, and his bones seemed more visible than ever before as if he had lost a lot of weight.

"Why're you here?" he asked. Sleepiness and gloom laced his voice heavily. Again, it was pitiful and someone could tell that he was completely drained.

The way he asked me his question, though, it angered me right away. I wasn't sure why, but it did. "Whaddya mean, 'Why're you here?'" I retorted spitefully after I scoffed and closed my eyes, resting my hands beneath my head. "I should be asking you that, ya dipshit!"

He shifted around a little bit and sat down on the office chair he had pulled out away from the computer desk in the room. At least, that's what it sounded like to me. "I live here too," he told me in a voice that was almost a whisper before a thick layer of silence fell between the both of us. I could hear him move some more while he was sitting in the chair, which was protesting by squeaking with each action, and it was slowly yet quickly getting on my nerves. "…Wanna talk about it?" he suddenly asked out of nowhere, just as I was about to lose my cool with him.

I frowned before saying, "Talk about what, pest?"

"About what happened today…?"

Scoffing and opening my eyes as I turned my head toward the blonde to see him, retorting with, "As if…! There's a reason I'm in here, so fuck you, dumbass."

Hurt suddenly gave hints in a few places of his facial features. He was such a sensitive one, that guy.

"I live here too," he countered. I could hear a very subtle anger in his tone, but it was short lived. "C'mon," he pushed with a soft voice. "There was nothing meant behind it… You're thinking too much and making yourself crazy."

Rage was snaking its way through my system and it felt like lava, and I—a volcano—was about to erupt. Why didn't this little prick understand anything? It was like talking to a know-it-all who wouldn't break his paradigm…

A snort was the only thing I allowed to escape from within me. "Seems like the same shit happens every day," I declared, trying to hold back the desperation in my voice that had made an attempt to free itself. "How do you know that I'm just overreacting, dickwad?"

There was a thick layer of silence that fell over us soon after. It was like that for some time until he uttered the words, "I don't…"

"Then shut the fuck up!" I screamed and shot up into a sitting position with my hands buried deep within my locks as if my head were about to burst. The built up rage within me had exploded like an over inflated balloon and its air was leaving me through my mouth. "You don't know anything, so why talk and make excuses?! You're... You're just a weak little bitch who's so passive that he's stuck in one place!"

He turned away, not wanting to look me dead in the eye, his blonde hair swaying slightly with the movement. Even from the side I could tell his eyes were swimming with hurt and pain, but I didn't care. We both knew just as well as we knew one another did that it was true, and he needed to accept it.

"Why're you so stupid?" I asked with a growl after I had turned my head to look at his pitiful existence. "Can't you see it too, or do you just refuse? …Y'know what, it doesn't matter." My body moved to where I was sitting on the edge of my bed then I rested my forearms on my thighs and let my head hang before I looked up at him through my bangs. I could feel my annoyance and anger bubble up again quickly from just seeing his profile. "You're nothing, anyways… Everyone only just puts up with you…"

"Enough…!" he cried as he slammed tight fists on the computer desk in front of him. Then he suddenly shoved the items off the desk as he stood up from the office chair. "They do not just put up with me!" He was breathing heavily through his nose as if he had ran for some time and was now taking a rest. I had never seen this side of him before, and, honestly, I liked it. "They... They love and care for me..."

I couldn't help but smile at him, the pathetic little bug. "No, they don't," I told him as I stood up from the bed. "You and I both know that, so quit lying to yourself." One of my skinny arms went around his shoulders after my gentle footsteps ceased with the little sound they made when I approached him. "Why else would every single one of them constantly tease you day in and day out?"

He started to shake beneath my arm like he was holding back tears. "It's… It's just them joking around…" Trailing off, he looked up at me and locked his now dull blue eyes, which were rimmed with salty tears that wanted to spill, with my bright gold ones like he was expecting me to comfort him.

"Are they really joking around?" I asked him curiously. "I mean, they even blow you off."

Silence was the only thing that filled the spaces of the room once again as we gazed at one another. The only thing that could be heard was his breathing that had significantly quieted. It was like neither one of us wanted to break the eye contact, but it had to happen sooner or later.

Blonde hair swayed as the man in front of me turned his head away to stare at the wall to his right instead. "I suppose you're right," he muttered. Now he was seeing the picture that was painted brightly in front him. "They just need someone to pick on that won't respond to it."

I heard a scoff escape his throat while he turned away from me before he continued with, "Well, not anymore…"

Some of my midnight black hair fell in my face as a Chesire-like grin form slowly upon my lips to reveal my pearly white teeth. "Now do you see?" I asked him. "You're on your own and will never be loved."

"Yeah," he whispered. I watched how his hands slowly balled up into fists. "I can see it…"

Purring, I replied, "Good…"

Cackling within my head at my younger brother's face when he opened the door to my room, I watched him take in the sight of the bedroom and me with my hand within the wall. "Dude," he said with a tone as if he was in disbelief and lost. "You alright, man?"

"Like you care," I stated bluntly and removed my hand from the wall. I flexed my hand a few times. "Move, Sora…" Pushing past him as I went through the doorway, I ran a hand through my hair and rested it against the back of my head. "Bathroom..."

Sora wore an expression that screamed he didn't like what just happened. It also had confusion weaved within it too. "Fine, but you don't have to be a dick about it," he countered. "The hell's wrong with you anyways?"

I moved my hand to my forehead and rubbed there a little bit. "N-Nothing," I stuttered as I walked away, my hand now fondling my face.

Why had I done that? It wasn't like me. Nothing that I was doing or thinking was…

The bathroom door opened with a soft creak before a gentle thud escaped from it when it closed. A click echoed to serve as my notice that the door was now locked, but I checked to make sure by jiggling the handle. Being walked in on just annoyed me to no end, and that door had a reputation of not always truly locking.

As I walked by, out of the corner of my eye I saw my reflection. I turned to look at myself, and the mirror was not being kind and gentle to me. I was skinnier than usual and appeared wan as if I had come down with something. How could I seem so odd? Then again, when was the last time I actually took the time to even glance at myself?

"I'm so out of it," I whispered to my image. "I need to do something…and forget about what I was thinking about in my room…"

My eyes moved from the mirror down to the sink below it before they closed shut. There was nothing but silence around me again and it was amazing, but it wasn't long before pair of hands was on my hips, their own hips pressed against my ass, and a hot mouth next to my ear. I knew who it all belonged to…

"He didn't mean it, you know," he purred in my ear.

Stubborn motherfucker…

Growling, I ordered shortly, "Lemme go." My breathing became erratic and I clenched onto the counter in front of me when he made no move to do anything. "I said to fucking lemme go, asshole!"

"No," was his only response.

My head finally went backwards, making a loud smack when it came into contact with his face as blonde and black tresses mingled with one another for a split moment. I was done with his bullshit and he was going to get what I thought he deserved. He wasn't going to ever want to be around again.

"Weak little bitch!" I screamed at him as I spun around toward him.

Swinging a fist, I punched him straight in the jaw then the stomach. The second was hard enough to make him stumble another time, the first from when I head-butted him, and hit the wall. He made no effort to defend himself and allowed me to do what I pleased as I beat him. Blow after blow he sank farther down until it got to the point where he was lying on the floor in the fetal position.

I started to kick him. At first it was in the stomach and his ribs, but it seemed like it still wasn't enough, so I aimed for his face. Of course, after a few hard kicks, I felt like I needed to do more. He rolled with ease and coughed hard as he got pushed over by my foot.

By the time I was straddling his waist, his nose was sideways with blood dripping from there and his mouth and his was jaw broke, or at least dislocated.

Hesitation hit me slightly, but when we locked eyes, almost lifeless blue with pulsing gold, it went away just as fast as it had arrived and my hands went straight to his throat. My grip was like a snake with its prey. It gave no mercy and kept its tight hold like it was a stress ball.

"Sto… Sto…"

A smirk formed at how he sounded as he choked. "Y'know," I began and squeezed tighter, "you sound so much better when you can't breathe…"

He gasped loudly and hoarsely when I suddenly let him go to dig in my pants pocket. "Ple… Please," he begged. "Stop…"

"Never," I said, pulling out a pocket hunting knife I normally used for skinning and/or gutting wild chocobos or moogles. "I'll never back down to anyone again!"

There was a choked gasp. It was the last thing from him to fill the bathroom as I continued. He wasn't going to be missed whatsoever, so I just kept stabbing him in the chest…

…and stabbing…and stabbing…and stabbing…and stabbing…and stabbing…

Knock, knock, knock…!

I looked up back into the mirror and saw my irises fluctuate from a dark ocean blue to a bright gold a couple times before they stayed the latter color. My eyes immediately went to the bathroom door as it creaked open before the light was flicked on. "H-Hey…!" I shouted when he walked into the small room. "I'm in here, thank you very much! Fuck, so much consideration…"

"Oops, sorry…!" Sora exclaimed. "You didn't say anything, so I didn't think you were in here, Ventus."

A growl escaped me. "I wanna be called Vanitas," I told my brother sternly.

He laughed. "Finally decided what to be called?" he asked. "You're how old?"

"Shut up," I snapped, my attention going back to the mirror to examine my reflection. Blonde with these gold eyes…didn't seem right. "I'll do what I damn well please." Feeling Sora's eyes on me as I was kneeled down in front of the sink digging through the cabinet, I sighed in an annoyed manner. "What is it now?" I questioned.

"What're you doing…?"

"Looking for Tifa's hair dye…"

There was a pause. "…She's gonna kill ya when she sees you with black hair, y'know," he told me.

"Fuck her," I retorted and came out of the cabinet holding a box of jet black hair dye. "I do what I damn well please and don't givva shit about what anyone thinks anymore."

He rolled his dark blue eyes and crossed his arms in front of himself. "Whatever, dude," he stated. Sora then cocked an eyebrow at me. "Hey, when did you get gold eyes?"

"…My eyes change color sometimes."

"Really…? They do…?"

I nodded. How else was I supposed to explain my eye color? The answer to that question even eluded me. "You just never noticed."

"Oh…okay… Hey, can I take a piss now?"

I couldn't find comfort anywhere else but the darkness, and now it had me forever…