Sora and Ventus walk through the door to Ventus's house. Ventus kicked off his shoes and walked through the door, Sora quickly following suit.
"Hey mom! I brought a friend over! You don't mind if he spends the night right?" A voice came from the kitchen in front of them.
"Hey Ventus," A teen who looked like a twin of Ventus walked out into the living room. "Did you bring Terra over this time? 'cause I-" He stopped what he was saying and stared at Sora."...Ventus...why did you invite Vanitas to stay over? And what the hell did he do to his hair?" Roxas said staring incredulously at his brother, known hated enemy of Vanitas, before turning to stare warily at Sora and his very brunette hair. Sora laughed confusedly.
"Do I really look that much like him?" Ventus turned and laughed once.
"You really do. When I was walking past you guys I thought I was seeing double! It was kind of funny to see Vanitas about to beat the crap out of himself." Sora just smiled.
"That would be kind of funny!" Ventus looked over to Roxas and the confused look on his face.
"Roxas, this is my buddy Sora! Sora, this is my brother Roxas!" Sora walked up to Roxas and held out his hand.
"Nice to meet you!" he said while smiling. Roxas shook his hand and nodded.
"Same." A long, black haired woman came out from the kitchen.
"Welcome home Ventus, you're just in time for lunch and what's this about a friend staying over?" She looked up to see Sora, but before she could have the same reaction as Roxas, Ventus piped up.
"He's not Vanitas, mom. This is my new friend, Sora. He sure does look like him though eh?" She studied Sora for a second before saying,
"Woah, They could almost be twins! Hey, maybe they are! How old are you Sora?"
"I'm 16." She shook her head.
"Nope. Vanitas is almost 18, you're a couple years too late to be twins, but that resemblance is really something eh?" She grinned at him and Sora laughed and ran his hands through his spiky hair again.
"Yeah, I guess so." Ventus laughed.
"You should have seen them together! Vanitas thought Sora was playing a joke on him and nearly beat the crap out of him!" Sora turned towards Ventus.
"Yeah, I'm lucky you were there. I didn't expect him to get all mad just because I asked him a question." His mom look at him questioningly, then Roxas piped up.
"He's not exactly user-friendly. It's probably best if you try to stay away from him." Ventus's mom shook her head then looked back up at Sora.
"So, Sora, did you just move into this neighbourhood? Where do you live?" Sora shifted nervously.
"Uh, well, I live, near, here, I guess. Not too far away." Just then another voice popped in from the kitchen.
"Mom, I'm finished my lunch! Can I go play video games now?" Roxas raised an eyebrow at Sora who still looked kind of nervous. Their mom turned to yell back.
"Yes! But first put all your dishes in the sink! Got it?"
"Okay." Their mom turned towards them again.
"Well, come on everybody, I just made some lunch now. Oh! I'll make a plate for you too, Sora." Sora perked up at the thought of food.
'Oh, that's right. I haven't eaten in a while.' Sora suddenly thinks of his grandma and the food she used to cook for him, when her memory was still good. A small knot begins to form in his stomach as he starts feeling homesick. He tries to suppress the feeling as they all sit down to lunch.
"Hope you like French toast Sora! I made a huge pile of it, so dig in!" Roxas's Mom put a big plate of French toast on the table, and then went to get maple syrup and icing sugar. Roxas sat down at the plate he grabbed before and Ventus grabbed some of his own and they both starting chowing down. Sora took a few pieces and then drizzled some of the maple syrup over it and a little dab of icing sugar. Their mom took just one slice and just put a sprinkle of the sugar on it. The all stuffed their faces for a bit before she spoke up.
"So, Sora, You live, "near here, I guess?" What do you mean guess? I think you should know where you live!" She said light heartedly. Sora nearly choked on his French toast out of nervousness. He nervously swallowed, fidgeted a little under her curious gaze before averting his eyes away from hers and ate another mouthful of the French toast. She prodded him again. "C'mon don't be shy about it. You live in the next neighbourhood over don't you? I know! I saw a moving van over there about a couple weeks ago! Was that your family's?" The knot in Sora's stomach got worse at the word "family".
"Uhh, no I don't think so.." Sora looked down at his half-eaten French toast, suddenly not feeling so hungry. She closed her eyes and hmmed. She was having fun at playing this guessing game.
"I was sure that was it...Oh! I know, Sora what's your last name? I bet I can figure out where you live if I have that as a clue!" She grinned playfully. Sora spoke without looking up.
"Gainsborough. I'm Sora Gainsborough." Her grin instantly dropped off her face to be replaced by one of confused shock, but only for a quick second, being replaced again by a kind smile.
"So tell me Sora, why were you at Vanitas's house anyway? What was the question you asked him?" Sora looked up and then just quietly sighed.
'No point in avoiding her questions anymore I guess..' He looked up at her and ran his hands through his spiky hair sheepishly. "It's kind of a long story actually. Well to begin with, I live with my grandparents on Destiny Island; well I used to live with them." Roxas, Ventus and their mom all looked up at him at that.
"You live on Destiny Island?" Roxas said incredulously. Ventus looked surprised. His mom looked concerned.
"You used to? What happened?"
"My grandpa died like 4 years ago and my grandma started having problems with her memory ever since then. It got to the point where for a week she completely forgot who I was. She was recently deemed unfit to be my guardian anymore and I was gonna be put into foster care, but because I'm 16, I won't be put into a foster home or anything like that, I'm too old apparently." She pitied Sora then, only imagining how it must feel to have loved ones forget you exist.
"What about your parents? Do you, not have any?" She looked nervous asking, as if she was expecting something.
"Well, that's why I came here. See, during the week my grandma 'forgot' me, she actually started to answer my questions about my real parents. She didn't really give any coherent answers I guess, more like she just rambled on about my mom and what kind of person she was, and what she was like when she was little, which was kinda nice. Then she remembered the last time she visited my mom and remembered the address and everything. 365 Days Road, Twilight Town. I never knew who my dad was, and I don't think even my grandma know anything either, or if she did she's never said anything. I figured my best chance was to come here and ask questions, see if i could find him ya know? Or at least someone who might have known who they were." The dark-haired woman sat silently, absorbing this information.
"Hey, wait, Isn't that Vanitas's house?" said Roxas. "That's kind of strange; he and his dad have lived there for like, ever."
"Especially how he reacted to it. I mean, all you did was ask a question and he completely freaked out. That's over reacting even for Vanitas." Ventus noted. She spoke up quietly then.
"Your mother's name... what was her name again?" Sora spoke so simply, unaware of the powerful effects his words would soon have on the people around him.
"Her name was Aerith." Her eyes widened at that, this small action went unnoticed by Sora and Roxas, But Ventus caught it. He noticed she'd been acting a little strange since she started asking questions. She raised her hand up to her mouth and her eyes looked like she was thinking deeply about something. Ventus looked back at Sora when Roxas noticed something kind of important.
"Okay wait, wait. If you have no parents or grandparents or a car or anything like that, how the hell did you get here from Destiny Island all the way to Twilight Town? That's like a 3 hour long boat trip across the water and then a 6 hour drive!" Sora looked up and said
"Oh, well I had enough money for a one way ferry ticket..." Their mom looked up at this and questioned him again.
"...and the 6 hour drive?" Sora squirmed uncomfortably in his seat before admitting,
"...I hitchhiked half of it and had bus fare for the rest of the way." Roxas and Ventus stopped and gaped opened mouthed at him. Sora flinched when their mom suddenly stood up pushing the chair back a bit, putting her hands down on the table and nearly shouting in disbelief,
"You did WHAT?" Sora stared at her and then smiled and laughed nervously. Mothering instincts going crazy inside her head, she sits down and puts her hands over her face before looking back up suddenly in realization.
"And you planned on staying where exactly while you figuring all this out?"
"I thought there would maybe a hotel or something near here, I have a little bit of money on me, I figured I'd ask someone for directions or something." She stared blankly at him, running scenarios through her head of a naive 16 year old boy walking around the bad part of downtown telling people he had money and asking for directions to a hotel. Ventus face-palmed and they we're all pretty much thinking the same thing,
'This kid's gonna get abducted if we let him go anywhere alone.' Roxas was the first one to speak.
"...Have you ever even left Destiny Islands before?" Sora shook his head.
"No." Ventus and his mother just look at each other and nod. Since they were finished lunch they all started putting their dishes away.
"Well, that settles it I guess." Sora looked at Their mom who had spoken.
"Settles what?"
"You're gonna stay with us while you're here in Twilight Town Sora. You can probably stay in Ventus's room because he has the extra bed." Sora perked up at this.
"You..you'd really let me stay here?" She turned and smiled at him.
"Of course! Just promise me one thing Sora, if you wanna go into town or anything like that, take either Ventus or Roxas with you please. I wouldn't feel comfortable letting you walk around alone somewhere you've never been before. I don't want you to get...lost or anything like that. Okay?" Sora smiled and nodded.
"Sure, thank you so much!" She just grinned.
"Why doesn't Roxas show you the den? You guys can go play some video games with Luneth for a while." Roxas jumped up at that.
"Oh yeah! Come on we got some awesome video games!" Sora follows Roxas downstairs into the basement. They get down there to see Luneth has already abandoned the game system.
"Sweet, My little bro isn't hogging the system anymore. Wanna play Halo?" Sora nodded and was about to grab the second controller when Luneth came out of nowehere and tackled Roxas.
"Hey no fair! Mom said I could play video games!" Roxas shrugged him off while focusing on the screen and saying,
"Well, you snooze, you lose Onion-head" Luneth kicked Roxas and yelled back.
"I'm not an onion! Moooom! Roxas is calling me an onion again! And he won't let me play video games!" and ran off to find their mom. Sora stood there awkwardly until Roxas handed him the second controller, Sora took it and sat down next to him as Roxas said,
"Ever played Halo before?"
"Nope." replied Sora.
"Well then watch and learn from the master young grasshopper, because I'm totally gonna kick your ass in ten seconds flat." Sora laughed and Roxas smirked as he then proceeded to completely destroy Sora's guy. Sora stared at the TV.
"Wow, you weren't kidding."
"Nope."
