Hey everyone! Thanks for checking out my first vanven story ^^ It's been a while since I wrote anything and it's my first time writing a Kingdom Hearts fic, but I do hope you enjoy the story. I'll be keeping a schedule to update this fic every Friday or so, if not the weekend. Please see the end chapter for a little more info. Hope you guys enjoy the fic!

"Ven! You make sure you and Xion drop off the girls before you two go to school, alright? Your dad and I have to go to work-"

"As soon as yesterday."

"Right. That soon. You got it?!"

"Loud and clear!" Zipping up his backpack, Ventus threw his bag over shoulder and hurried his way down the creaky steps, smiling as the three little girls waiting there for him were already slipping their shoes on and making a grab for their coats hanging on the coat rack. The littlest grunted as she stood up on her tip-toes, barely reaching it. "Hold on. Up we go." Placing his backpack on the ground, Ventus grabbed her by the waist and gave her a boost, allowing her to swipe the coat.

"Ven! Pick me up, too! I wanna fly, too!"

"OK, Yuna, OK," Chuckling, he placed Rikku on the ground before lifting Yuna into the air, spinning around in a circle and causing her to giggle and wave her arms about. He looked over to the last of the sisters. "Paine-"

"I'm good," She held up her hand, stopping him. "I don't want to get sick."

"Got it." Trading Yuna for his backpack, Ventus looked up just in time as his sister hurried down the stairs, fumbling with some of her books. "Need help carrying those, Xion?"

"Oh no, I got it!" It didn't look that way as her biology book toppled to the floor. A sigh escaped from the castle comprised entirely out of books. "Help, Ven?" It asked.

He grabbed her book and scooped several others from her arms, shaking his head when she tried to protest. "You asked for my help, you're getting all of it." Another sigh. "Hey, do you know why Seifer isn't taking the girls to school today?"

"He said something about going to early football practice-"

"And by that, you mean he's looking for Hayner to mess with before basketball practice."

"Please don't say I told you," His sister threw a small, sheepish smile, her voice low so that the men in the kitchen couldn't hear her. "He said he was really going to try and be honest with him this time. He even bought him some flowers-"

"I'm not going to say anything but he better keep that promise. Cloud's gonna be mad if he finds out why he couldn't take the girls." Flowers, huh. He didn't peg his older brother for the romantic type. But he did thought it was sweet of him to go through with buying them to give them to his crush. He only hoped that this idea of his would work, since it left Ven and Xion with the most difficult job of the house; watching the younger kids while walking to school.

Seifer had bought a car (with their parents help). A used Toyota with chipped paint but a car Cloud had trusted Seifer with so long as he made sure to drive the younger kids to school. It wasn't like they lived in a bad neighborhood, though. In fact, Twilight Town was probably the most safest and friendliest places to live.

No it was the fact that no matter what time of the day, from the crack of dawn to the rise of the moon, his sisters would run off together and cause mischief the moment they had the chance. It was enough to gain the attention of their neighbors so the children of the Valentine household had to take shifts and watch over the girls whenever they went outside, their parents and Seifer the most since they were the three the girls listened to the most.

Ventus loved these girls with all his heart but he would be lying if he said watching them didn't tire him out. Now they were kids so anything they did pull was harmless but because they were in a group, were small, and ran fast, there was no telling what they could do. And at least in a car, they could be buckled up. "Anyway, lets go. Or we're gonna be late. We're leaving!" He called as he opened the front door.

Cloud poked his head out of the kitchen. "OK, you kids be safe! And Ven, Xion! Make sure you tell Sora and Roxas they need to come home early. Same goes for you two!"

"Have any idea what that means?" Asked Ven over the sisters excitedly shouting goodbye to their dad.

"No clue." Xion shook her head. Every kid in the house came home at different times, even she, the twins, and Ven since they all attended clubs or had friends. Why Cloud wanted all four of them to come back home at the same time was strange. "You don't think something bad happened do you?"

Ven bit his lip for a moment before he shook his head. Cloud would have been upfront with them if something bad had happened. "No way," He said, double checking Rikku's bag before she scurried off with her sisters -she almost always forgot her lunch. She didn't this time. "Maybe it's just a surprise visit from Aeleus." He said as he swung the metal gate surrounding the house behind them.

"That doesn't sound any less bad."

"Why? Aeleus is nice!"

"How can you tell? I can never tell what he's thinking because he's always so quiet."

"Xion, don't you think that's a little hypocritical?"

Third sigh. Xion was on a roll today. "You know what I mean."

"I do, but even a visit from Aeleus isn't bad." After all, the man had been his, his brothers, and sisters social worker ever since they were put in the system. And though not a man of many words, he was definitely the nicest social worker he ever came across. And the visits he had made to the Valentine's had been efficient, if not pleasant. He even cracked a smile the last time he came. Or a grimace. Ven couldn't tell since he wasn't making direct eye-contact. "And they're always short anyway. Look, Cloud's probably going to ask us to clean the house a little before Seifer comes back. Then they're gonna show up and then we'll all sit down with Aeleus, answer some questions, tell him we're doing fine, and the visit will be over before we know it." He offered her a reassuring smile. "Let's not worry about it for now." Xion went bug-eyed. "Xi, I said let's not worry about it-"

"Not that, the girls!"

Ven spun around at that, and groaned as he saw the little terror of a tornado that was his sisters. They were at it again.

"Seifer, you owe us! Rikku, Yuna, Paine, where do you think you're going with those lawn gnomes- Those aren't yours! Girls! Girls!"

"-And then he shows up with flowers out of nowhere-"

"Hayner thought they were part of a prank and got into an argument with him. We know, Roxas we were there."

Ven winced as he heard this. He had been there to see it and he was sure Seifer wasn't going to come home until he got patched up at Fuu's. Not until he could fix up whatever pride he had left, at least.

Roxas sported a grin. "It was still pretty amazing. I'm gonna bug the shit out of him when we get home."

"Rox, come on," The brown-haired boy who wore the latter's face gave him a look. "Seifer was trying today. Cut him some slack." He said. "He already got his butt kicked, you don't need to kick him down more."

Roxas back-pedaled for a moment. When Sora disagreed with him, he knew he needed to stop where he was or ease up. He chose the latter. "Fine… I give him a week. After that, I will be merciless."

"I thought it was sweet," Chirped in Xion. Roxas made a vomit motion and his sister pouted while Sora his a laugh. "I'm serious. Seifer's never acted this way around anyone. I think he really does like Hayner."

"Xi, the two of them have been fighting since middle school." Said Roxas as he bucked a stone on the sidewalk. "I don't think someone who goes out of his way to pick a fight with a junior during their free period likes the guy he's trying to fight. Besides," Roxas gave another grin. "Hayner's too awesome for him."

Ventus knew that this was Roxas' way of coping with today. He would probably act the same if he found out his foster brother was trying to ask his best friend out. Well, maybe with less… passion than Roxas had. He could tell that seeing the whole thing go down was probably one of the weirdest moments in Roxas' life, if not invading since Hayner was the first friend he made when he and Sora were brought into the home. He promised himself he'd hear his brother out after dinner. And maybe lend a shoulder to Seifer after that. The argument had gone bad really fast.

By now, Twilight town was obtaining its namesake as orange and pink colors washed over its brick buildings and cobble-stoned streets. Since winter was trailing behind slowly, it was already starting to get dark, with the street lights beginning to flicker to life and fallen leaves crunching underneath their shoes. A cold wind blew and Ven shivered, wrapping his muffler a little more tight around his neck.

"By the way, do you guys know why Cloud wants us to come home so soon?" Asked Sora with Yuna sitting on his shoulders, her head and arms tucked on top of his head. She was already tired out, thankfully so since Rikku and Paine were now walking close with the rest of the group. "You don't think something bad happened, right?"

"You guys can't just assume that it's something bad." Roxas pointed out.

"But what if it is?" Interjected Xion nervously.

"Xion-"

"Sephiroth's home early, too?" All of their heads whipped over to the black car parked in the driveway. OK, now as the time to start assuming that something was going on. "He always working until ten on Thursdays though." Sora shifted his gaze from the car to his siblings. "Is it… Is it too late to duck over to Riku's place for a sleepover?"

"Sora, you had a sleepover two days ago."

"I'm overdue for another one."

"C'mon." Ven took ahold of Paine and Rikku's hands, the two girls going quiet for the first time today. That didn't comfort Ven but he knew he had to take charge. He was the oldest (A year older than the twins and Xion but still the oldest) of the group and as the oldest, he had to make an example, and prove to them that everything was OK. He took a breath and headed for the house, the others trailing behind him.

He had lived here for the past decade. This house was the first home he had ever known and he loved everything about it. From the wooden beams scratched up with height charts and from foul balls to the old tire swing hanging from the tree in front of it. It creaked as the wind blew against it and was in need for a new paint job soon. But this was home. It was a comfort and safe haven. And Ven kept telling himself this even as his mind raced with the reasons to why they needed to come home so soon.

"We're home-!" Crash! That didn't sound good. And didn't look good, judging by how small the crack through the door was. "Uh-" Before he could step back and call for Cloud, the door swung open and a man with long hair and deep brooding eyes welcomed him at the door.

"Sephy!" Yuna, awake and scrambling off Sora, leaped at Sephiroth's legs, along with her sisters. They hugged his legs as if they hadn't seen him yesterday and the tall man patted their heads in return. Ven hid a smile.

"Hey."

"You almost broke whatever was in the box, Ventus." And there was the foster father he knew and loved. Never one to drop his distant persona. Scooping Yuna in his arms (did he know how tired she was just by looking at her?) Sephiroth shoved away the box that was up against the door and everyone shuffled in, a few more boxes decorating the floors and stairs, some sealed with tape, others new and packed with some things.

"Um," Xion was the first to speak, her foster brothers holding their breath. "We aren't… We aren't moving, are we?"

"Wouldn't we have told you we were moving?" Asked Sephiroth, stoic even as he picked up Rikku ("I'm good. The height will make me sick." Said Paine). Xion nodded slowly. "Then we aren't moving." He raised an eyebrow at their collective sigh of relief. "We do need help moving these boxes though. There are so many, Cloud and I cannot move them to the shed on our own."

"Wait," Roxas went over to one of the boxes and pulled out an old puzzle book, it's pages yellowing and fading. "This is stuff from the attic."

"And now it's going to be stuff from the shed." Sephiroth placed Yuna on the couch, the little brunette already tuckered out and curling up on the couch. "Two of you go help Cloud in the attic while the rest of you stay here and help me. Come on, we need to get this done before dinner."

Ven and Roxas hurried upstairs while Sora and Xion made a grab for the boxes, an unspoken agreement shared between them all. The blondes heaved themselves into the attic, the air stale from being sealed for so long, and soon found Cloud sealing a box of old knick knacks nearby. "Need some help?" Quirked in Roxas.

"Please?" Cloud looked at the pair and smiled, happy to see them already jump into work by grabbing themselves some work gloves lying nearby."Just help me carry the last of these boxes downstairs and help me grab the bags I left in the kitchen. Oh! And the broom and duster from the hallway closet. I already sprayed and aired the place out for bugs, we just need to clean up the dust and dirt."

Roxas and Ventus shared a look but they didn't start asking questions until they were sweeping and dusting out the attic. "So," Roxas began, gathering some dirt in a dustpan. "Why are we cleaning out the attic?"

"Sephiroth didn't tell you yet?" Asked Cloud. At their silence, Cloud gave a small chuckle. Of course he didn't. Leave it to his husband to make him do anything that involved speaking. "I'm sorry. We both had to take off for work and I had to head down to the office so there wasn't much time to say." Uh-oh, more silence. He looked up and met their pale faces. It was because he said office, wasn't it? "Nothing bad, guys, nothing bad. Aeleus had nothing but good things to say about all of you during his last visit."

"Oh… Then why…." Ventus waved his hand in the air, hoping to find the answer to the questions.

"Cloud!" A box had climbed its way up the ladder and slid over to the blonde's feet, the boys recognizing the same logo on it from the student store at school. "Seph said you wanted to have this on the bed. Whose it for?"

"Thanks, kiddo." Cloud picked up the box and placed it on the bed. "It's for the new boy coming to live with us."

"New what?!" Chorused the children of the house, the sound of Sora yelping and falling off the ladder came tumbling after.

Bright purple looked surprisingly pretty on Sora.

"Tight enough?" Asked Cloud.

Sora nodded. "Can't feel a thing!"

If only the reason they found that out wasn't because of the gauze the brunette now wore around his ankle.

Cloud chuckled. "That might not be what you'll want to go for but let me know if you want to loosen it." He said, accepting the ice pack Sephiroth had fetched from the kitchen before placing it on Sora's ankle. "This should keep the swelling down. Are you sure you aren't hurt anywhere else?"

"I'm fine, Cloud. Really." Sora almost proved his point by trying to stand but Roxas and Ventus made sure he stayed put in the recliner he was placed in, despite the latter pouting. "It's only a sprain anyway. It just sucks I can't play baseball for a while."

"You'll be playing again before you know it. You must be patient," Said Sephiroth as he took a seat on the couch, Rikku scrambling up to sit next to him and play with his hair. "May I ask what caused all of you to freak out so much that Sora slipped off the ladder?" He asked, still managing to look stern as his hair was being braided.

"I guess we did get carried away," Admitted Roxas as he scratched the back of his head. "Sorry." Ventus nodded in agreement, feeling like he played a part in Sora's fall.

"As long as you boys know that you are. I should say sorry too, though." Cloud stood, closing the first aid kit. "I should have told you that a new kid was going to be staying with us."

"'Staying'? You mean he's not going to live here until he's adopted?" Asked Xion.

Their foster parents shared a look. That wasn't a good sign. "Well, he's different. He's been moved around to a lot of other homes-"

"So," Roxas treaded through this as carefully as he could. "What's wrong with him?" Well, he tried at least.

"Rox," Cloud looked down at the teen. "Nothing is wrong with him. He's just had troubled adjusting to different families and homes and some of them thought it would be better if he tried living in a new environment instead of theirs."

"So he's trouble." Sora added, his brother nodding in agreement.

"No," Cloud became firm. "You guys, you all know what it was like to be moved around at least once, and to come to a new house. It's not easy and I'm sure it hasn't been easy for him to live with a new family constantly. We're going to make him as comfortable as he can be and you guys are going to make sure he can adjust to going to a new school. Right?"

The foster dads were given more or less nods and voices of agreement. "Good." Cloud's smile returned. "Since we got most of the stuff upstairs and all that's left is to add bed sheets and covers to his bed, I can handle that tomorrow. Everyone get washed up and start on your chores for dinner. Ven, it's your turn to help me cook tonight. Sora, stay on the couch and keep your foot up."

Sora groaned, and that was everyone's signal to get started on their chores. Ventus followed Cloud into the kitchen and started helping him prepare a casserole for dinner, cleaning up the table before Xion could start setting it up for dinner. There was a ton of papers and plastic plates filled with finger paint that needed to be started or thrown away. Letters from the bank, cards advertising vacations, a clipboard with papers from the office- hold on a second. Curious, Ven picked up the clipboard and leafed through it. "Hey Cloud, is this the guy-" The clipboard suddenly felt like dead weight, and Ventus dropped it as he lost his breath.

"Ventus!" Before the clipboard met the ground, Cloud swiftly caught it. "You need to be careful. I still need to finish signing these papers and I can't get them dirty… Ven? Hey," Cloud stood in front of the young man as he wore a blank expression. "Ventus?" He asked cautiously, placing his hands on his shoulders. He hadn't seen him wore a face like this since he was first bought into the home. "Hey, what's wrong…?"

And just like that, the boy returned. As if he hadn't turn into a zombie a few seconds ago. He blinked and matched Cloud's confused face. "Nothing…? Sorry, I spaced out. You want me to wash the carrots right." It was all said in a rush, like Ven was trying too hard to act normal, but Cloud wasn't going to prod. Ventus would tell him if something was wrong if he wanted to. Even as his foster son stepped around and huddled by the refrigerator, Cloud still couldn't help but worry.

He could warm this up without waking anyone. He was sure of it. He just had to hit cancel at the very last second-

"So now you feel like eating."

Ventus jumped, and he would have probably been wearing a purple leg snuggly like Sora had he not caught himself, the Tupperware filled with casserole held tight to his chest. His eyes had adjusted to the dark by now but he had just missed Sephiroth sitting on the two-seater couch with the tv volume on low, the milky and dim light glowing softly around the room and providing a small light source for the man's book. Had he been watching him since his descent down the stairs?

Ven smiled guiltily. "I thought no one was up."

"And I thought up you said you weren't hungry at dinner. Seifer I can understand since of that split lip he has. You never miss a meal though, Ventus." Green eyes glanced at the Tupperware. "It's unhealthy to eat something so heavy this late," A growling stomach sassed at him. Sephiroth did not like to be sassed. "… So make sure you eat a small portion with water. No juice. Have an apple if you still feel hungry."

Nodding, Ventus placed his share in the microwave and set the timer, fetching the plate and the glass of water once his food was ready. His mouth watered as he sat down at the table and dug into the food, the hunger he lost before returning.

"Maybe two apples?" Sephiroth observed the blonde from his spot, pushing his reading glasses up the bridge of his nose. "And perhaps an explanation to why you didn't eat at dinner?"

Once the food was gone, Ven quickly went to the sink and ran warm water over the already crusty plate. "I," There was a pause. A pause that was too long and awkward for Ven to pull off. "I had a lot of stuff on my mind."

"That stuff being Vanitas?" Ventus almost dropped the plate. He fumbled with it and it clicked against the sink, but no above them woke up as the blonde turned off the water. All was silent, save for the slight heavy breathing that came from Ventus. "Ventus," No bullshit. No worry. Ventus appreciated his foster father for keeping a level head. At least one of them was. "He's been going to therapy. He's been in very loving homes before, he just never adjusted with them. He no longer lives with grandfather anymore. Neither of you live with him any more." Ventus was shaking. "Remember, you're far away from him and he can't hurt you. And neither will Vanitas. Cloud and I will be sure of it."

"W-Why…" Ventus swallowed. "Why here? Why are they sending him here?"

"You know Cloud. Services came to us when they had no one else to go to. Vanitas is too old to be taken into the other families with smaller children. Our home is the nearest one that still takes in and can afford to raise older children. He accepted before we looked further into it." Silence. Sephiroth wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing. "And Cloud and I talked about it. Whatever happened in the past, Vanitas must not have any memory of it."

Ventus did. He still had the nightmares. He still couldn't get on elevators or buses without feeling as if the walls were closing in on him. What made Sephiroth so sure that Vanitas would have forgotten. "Ven, you were able to overcome it. You took the medicine and you still visit the therapist. You were able to accept what happened and move on with your life. Vanitas probably needs help with that. Maybe you can help him."

Vanitas. Sephiroth speaking more than two sentences. The casserole having way too many carrots. Why was this going on all in one day?

"I…" He swallowed and looked down at his half-full cup. He felt so thirsty but at the same time, he didn't. "Can I… Sleep on this?"

His caretaker nodded.

"Um…" Ventus felt his face go red. "Can I sleep in the couch?" Another nod. "Andcanyouwatchmefallasleep?" He added in a quiet rush, staring holes into the kitchen floor.

"I'm reading so I can't keep an eye on you," Sephiroth opened his book again. "But I will make sure you aren't going to sneak off to the kitchen to grab some of the powdered donuts for dessert. Grab the blanket on the loveseat -don't know why Seifer insists on having the air conditioner on during fall of all seasons I'll never understand that boy…" Sephiroth's ramblings quieted down as he went back to his book.

Ventus felt a lot better. He wasn't fine, but at least he felt better as he walked in and grabbed the throw off the love seat. Now that he was in the living room, he could see Sora lying back in the recliner, Yuna's Disney princess-themed blanket covering him as he slept on his back. He stifled a laugh. His eyes traveled over to Sephiroth and he could now see Paine and Rikku curled up against his chest and Yuna sleeping at his side, all three little girls far off into dream land. Ven's hand went to his pocket.

"One picture and I promise you'll be searching for that phone at the community pool." Rats. Just when he was about to pull it out.

"Night, Sephiroth." He mumbled, lying down on the family sofa and getting comfortable. That prickly feeling at the pit of his stomach was still there and he was sure it wasn't going away even after he fell asleep. No the nightmares would be sure that it would feel a hundred times worse in his dreams and give him ghost pain in the morning. But when someone ruffled his hair gently shortly after he closed his eyes, the feeling began to shrink a little. How Sephiroth was able to get up and reassure him like he had with girls and without waking said munchkins, Ven wasn't sure. But hey, so many other impossible things were starting to happen that night. Why not add one more to the list?

Thanks again for reading the fic! While working on this fic, I promise to do my best to look into how foster care is done in order to get a more accurate environment for the fic but please bare with me if some themes or moments don't seem right. I still need to do more research and some things that happen are just needed for the fic. I'm still sorry if some of my information on the topic is inaccurate.

Anyway, thank you once again for checking out the fic ^^ I will keep to my planned schedule as much as I can and I do hope you'll enjoy with what I come up with for it. Thanks again!