This is my early birthday gift from me to you guys! Yes, I'm going to get even older XD and I wanna get this over with!
I'm sure I rushed this chapter but all is fine, I plan to rewrite a few things soon. I'm giving Naros some time with Ven (I'm not good with romance so it'll be a crappy scene anyway...) Also I have an important announcement to make. This may tick people off considering they followed so faithfully and waited for my lazy behind to update so I'm ready for whatever happens. I made a new account and will be transferring my stories (that I wish to keep) over to this new account. I plan on doing this during the weekend. Apologies if this is a big slap in the face.
I hope you enjoy this new chapter anyway!
Toodles!

XXII
Starting Over

All the air in my body escaped me as I began to shiver in my shoes.
The color drained from my face and I felt the heat go up in the entire room. "Ven?" Aqua said. "Are you alright?" I only gave a thumbs up because I couldn't speak up. I then began to breathe quickly with no signs of stopping and felt very light-headed. Xehanort didn't even reach up before my legs gave way and I fell into Al. "Whoa buddy!" he said. "Uh, Er-Master Eraqus can I get him some air? Water?...or something...?"
"Of course," Eraqus said.
Al helped me to the sidelines and I regained my strength. "Ven, what's up?" Al asked. "You looked as though you've seen a ghost!"
"Worse!" I cried. "It's much worse! Super duper worse! Unbelievably worse!"
"Whaddya mean?"
"Xehanort's the old man I told you about! The one from my dream!"
"Him?" Al pointed across the room. I saw Isa and Demy introduce themselves to Xehanort. Demy seemed very enthusiastic and looked as though he could've shook the man's arm off. "He looks like a harmless old man to me," Al remarked.
"That's right! He looks like a harmless old man! But he's a Keyblade Master! That look could be a complete facade!"

Al looked at me then at Xehanort and back at me again. "Yeah, that's true," he finally spoke. "He is a Keyblade Master so he could be faking his geezer appearance...maybe. He could totally be that oh-so-powerful dude who can lift the ground up and make cyclones and do all that crazy stuff you told us." I frowned. "You're totally making fun of me, right now." I said. Al laughed. "Maybe," he sang. When he saw the look on my face, his demeanor changed. "You really don't trust him, do you?"
"I don't," I said. "Something's telling me I shouldn't. It's not only because of the dream. I don't know..." Al patted me on the shoulder and assured me that everything would be fine. I fixed myself back up, walked into the line and formerly introduced myself to Xehanort after Al. "My name is Ventus," I said. "But everyone calls me Ven. It's nice to meet you."
"You look just like your father, young man." he said. "I wonder if you will have as much potential as he did." I nodded my head but said nothing. What could I say? We were dismissed sometime later, while everyone casually walked out of the area, I jetted up the stairs into the room I shared with my friends and gave out the biggest sigh of relief. "That was the most uncomfortable meeting I've ever had!" I said aloud. I sat on the bed and mentally watched my dream repeatedly while tapping my foot nonstop. There was no mistaking it, Xehanort was the man that I saw in my dream. My eyes didn't lie and they have a habit of doing that to me.

Now there was a new question that was bothering me and I really wanted to know.
I've already met three people in this dream but there was one more person who in it whom I've yet to meet; the guy with the mask. I mean, he could be anybody and when I say anybody, I mean anybody. Even if I were to line people up that were close or exactly my height, I wouldn't be able to say that they were him because he looked that mysterious. My thoughts were immediately scrambled when Dearly burst into the room and pounced on me. I thought Al, Demy, and Isa would walk in but Naros actually did. "Are you OK?" she asked. "I saw all the colors go out your face when Uncle Xehanort walked in."
"Uncle Xehanort?!" I repeated. "Please tell me you're not related to him!"
"I'm not," she smiled. "I call him that because calling him 'Granpa' makes him feel old." She said this with a whisper. I laughed. "Naros," I began. "Can I tell you something?"
"Anything," she sat down beside me. "What's the matter?"
"I'm not sure if it'll make me sound less sane than before but I'll give it a go." I breathed in and out very slowly then proceeded with; "I've seen Xehanort before."
"You have? Where?"
"In a dream." Naros blinked a few times and she tilted her head to the side. "As much as I wanna say 'His face was a blur', 'It could be a case of mistaken identity', or 'Maybe my eyes were playing tricks on me', I can't." I explained my dream to her in detail like I did with my friends and when I finished I waited for her response. "Terra and Aqua were in your dream too?" she said then crossed her legs and arms and thought. "When did you start having this dream of yours?"
"Before we met..." I mumbled.
"Wow..." she said uncrossing herself. "Uncle Xehanort doesn't sound like the person you described, well physically he does, but...he looks harmless." I opened my mouth to repeat what I said to Al earlier but then she said; "Of course, knowing that he is a Keyblade Master, his feeble appearance is a complete facade. Eraqus said that he was very skilled. Yet, I've never seen Uncle Xehanort hurt a fly let alone a human being. Are you sure that was him?"
"I'm more positive than I have ever been!"
"Hmm...maybe it was a vision." she suggested. "If what you say is true, then what else could it be but a vision? After hearing you mention Kingdom Hearts, that's the only assumption I can give."
"What's that?"
"Oh you know, when you can see something before it happens. In your case, it sounds like a premonition and those are not-"
"No, not that. I meant Kingdom Hearts. What is that?"

"Did I say too much?" she quickly replied. "Maybe I said too much. I think I said too much, I'm gonna go."
"Hold it," I grabbed her wrist and sat her on my lap. "What're you not telling me?"
"Well, it's just a story my granpa told me. But it couldn't be true sooooooo..."
"Naros."
"I mean it's just a myth, there's no way it could be true-"
"Naros."
"I should probably go get the rest of the laundry and-"
"Naros!"
"Yes, Ven?"
"Why are you acting like this? It's not that big of a deal if it's just a story, right?" Naros' face turned red when I said that. "Well, Eraqus was supposed to tell you about it." she began. "So why not wait until they tell you about it?"
"Because you mentioned it and now I want to know. What's this story about Kingdom Hearts? What is it?"
"Do I have to?" I tickled her arm and she laughed. Then I tickled her leg and her major reaction occurred when I tickled her stomach. "Hey! Stop!" she laughed.
"Spill it!"

I continued to tickle her until she gave in five minutes later.
"Okay! Okay! Let me catch my breath." Naros collected herself then patted me on shoulder. "The story my granpa told me was that Kingdom Hearts was the heart of all worlds and that it is the source of great power and wisdom. Keyblade wielders from all over wanted to claim Kingdom Hearts for themselves and this giant war began in which everything including Kingdom Hearts itself was engulfed in Darkness. The World was revived by the light within children's hearts and now Keybladers like you are around fight to protect the light." She smiled and asked if I was satisfied with her answer. I gave a slight shrug. "Anything else about it, that I need to know?" I asked.
"Only that Traverse told me that Kingdom Hearts is incomplete."
"Incomplete?" I repeated. "Why? How?"
"He told me that it was because during the war, somehow Kingdom Hearts was struck and a tiny fragment was broken off. That's the closest thing to occur in which someone actually managed to touch Kingdom Hearts. Granpa said otherwise, he said that there is a possibility that Kingdom Hearts sent down a watcher."
"A watcher?" I repeated, the doubt of this story increasing within me. "What is that?"
"Ahn, Granpa's a silly person," Naros flagged when I tickled her again she jumped. "If what nonsense he says is true, the watcher is the tiny fragment of Kingdom Hearts that is missing. He said it's a way of Kingdom Hearts informing everyone that it has a say."
"So what does the watcher do?"
"What its namesake is; it watches. It doesn't do anything, more like a get-in-a-wayer. If it does do anything I've no clue." She looked serious when she spoke of this but then a few seconds later she giggled. "Just kidding," she replied. "That part of the story isn't true."

"Seriously?" I asked.
"Yeah, it's completely made up. I wanted to see how attentive you were."
"Not funny, you created a what if in my mind now." I frowned. "What if this 'watcher' does exist? What happens if somebody finds it?"
"Ven, it's not true," Naros said. "I made that up. Why would that ever happen?"
"If it did, what would happen?"
"Who knows, I don't."
"Just for that, I'm not letting you off easy!" I proceeded to tickle her without mercy. She couldn't control her laughter. "Quit it, Ven!" she laughed.
"Not a chance!" I told her.
"I'm serious! Stop! It's not funny anymore! I said stop!" She grabbed my hands and pinned me on the bed. We stared at one another for what seemed to be years. I smiled at her and her face turned red. "Why're you staring at me like that?" she blushed.
"Because you're beautiful."
"...thank...you..." her face got even redder than she shook her head. "I'm not allowing you to get by on tickling me! That was unfair. Also, I've been meaning to say this for a few days; we haven't been acting like we're 'official' lately."
"I have reasons for that." I said. "It's all due to training and I know that Terra wouldn't approve. He'll wring me to death." Upon hearing Terra's name, Naros rested her head on my chest and let my hands go. "Is what Terra thinks more important than me?" she asked. Oh boy, Al warned me about this. The correct answer is obviously no but after meeting Terra and playing various scenarios in my head of what could happen, I wanted to say something else. But after a long pause, I stuck with; "Not at all."

She looked at me and gave a pout. "Hmm...I don't believe you."
"What? Why not?"
"Oh just because you seem to have been in thought when you said it."
"I have to be quick in my responses?"
"Yes."
"That's not cool."
"It sounds fair to me."
"A-duh. So...you wanna start over?"
"Hm?"
"If you aren't happy, we should start over."
"I didn't say I wasn't happy."
"Saying we haven't been acting like we're official sounds like you're unhappy. We'll start over." Naros sat up and appeared to have been thinking. "I guess we can..." she replied. "But that means we'll have to wait until another meteor shower...that's when we became official." As soon as she said that, Dearly barked. I turned over to see her at the window, wagging her tail. "Well, well," I pointed sitting up. "Would you look at that; a meteor shower." Naros stared at awe. "Wow," she said softly. "It looks so beautiful here...I wonder if we could-" I kissed her. No cheek kisses this time. It was the first time our lips have actually touched. I thought she was going to push away considering this was sudden and her face showed that she was caught off guard. She didn't. Instead she slowly wrapped her arms around me and held me closer to her as I held her by her waist. At that moment, it was just the two of us. I had no care of the world right now. I didn't care about training, I didn't care about the Keyblade and I didn't care about Kingdom Hearts (which I just learned about five minutes ago). I didn't even care that Dearly's tail swatted my ankle as she walked by. All I cared about was being with Naros. Nothing could interrupt this moment between us, not a thi-

"Whoa-ho-ho! What've we got here?!" Al's voice rang through my ears. Without thinking, I shoved Naros off my lap with extreme force and she fell onto the floor. "Whoa! Naros!" I shot up from my seat and reached down to help her up. "I'm so sorry!"
"That was amazing..." her response was to no one in particular and a mixture of a romantic sigh and laugh.
"You couldn't knock?!" I growled at Al, lifting Naros up from the floor.
"Why should I knock? It's my room too. And Isa's and Demy's and Dearly's."
"I know you peeked through the keyhole, you jerk!"
"So what if I did?" Al crossed his arms and huffed. "Better than Terra walking in to come and get you, right? Boy, would he have raged if he'd seen you two."
"Get me for what?"
"Your apprenticeship of course." I gave a sigh, more like a groan, and walked out of the room down to the arena where Eraqus waited. "You wanted to see me, Master Eraqus?" I asked. I was a bit nervous and stumbled over my own two feet while walking into the room. "Yes, I did." he said. "I wanted to explain your apprenticeship. After a long discussion with my dear friend, Master Xehanort, we've come to an agreement that you should train under him."

"'scuse me, what?" I said in a quick nonchalant manner.
"I know this is very sudden," Eraqus continued. "But the sooner we get you to master the Keyblade, the better. You will be able to partake in the Mark of Mastery Exam with Terra and Aqua." My heart began to beat abnormally and I felt that I was close to hyperventilating. I began to sweat heavily and Eraqus' words were blocked off by this one question that ran through my head; Why?
I snapped back into reality. "Master Eraqus..." I finally spoke. "...I-uh..."
"You're uncomfortable with this idea of being Master Xehanort's first and only apprentice, correct?" I nodded my head. Eraqus assured me that Xehanort would take care of me and to give him a chance. "If you still feel the same way, we can make other arrangements but one way or another, you will participate in the Exam."

I was dismissed a few minutes later and all I did was stroll the hall in a depressed way.
I was now Xehanort's apprentice. His first and only apprentice. I should be honored to train under someone like him due to his status as a Keyblade Master but I wasn't. All I thought as I sat on the stairs outside watching the meteor shower, all I could think was how could this situation I'm in get worse.