Sorry for the delay again on this story, ended up being a bit busy yesterday. But hey, here it is! So let's get right to it!


Ch.9

The hours had passed and Riku eventually calmed himself down enough to go inside the one lone house in the tank to explore around. Though he saw Vanitas lounging around in the front of the house, he tried to pay no attention to him. It still gave him a double take when he glanced at him each time. He kept fearing that one of times he would look… it really would be Sora there.

He had no idea what the real time was. There was the artificial lights above the tank, and they had gone out some time ago. So by that he figured it had to be later at night. But he still was not adjusting to being in such a place. He wasn't sure he would ever adjust to being trapped there.

He made his way to the empty bedroom and peered inside. It was just a regular empty bedroom, aside from a simple bed. It was rather amazing though that apparently Even had recreated all of this from just what Vanitas had told him. Despite being trapped there, he had to admit it was impressive to a degree. But that still did not excuse Even for capturing him at all.

Riku sighed as he entered the room and sat down on the bed. Just as he was beginning to space out he heard a noise coming from somewhere.

Tap, tap tap…. tap tap… tap tap tap

It sounded like someone was hitting something close by and it was echoing all around the tank. Not only that but it was done in a rythomg of three than two then three again. Riku swam out of the bedroom and saw Vanitas by the door. He turned around to look at Riku, giving a small smile.

"Time to see what I meant earlier."

"What do you mean?"

"When I said I had 'two things' that kept me going. Come on now," Vanitas said as he swam out of the house.

Riku stared for a moment but saw that he had no other choice but to follow. Once he had swam out of the house he saw that Vanitas was swimming to the lowest area of the tank, right up to the glass. Riku quietly followed behind him and started to wonder exactly Vanitas had meant. As he got closer to the glass though he started to understand a bit more.

When he was first thrown into the tank he had not looked carefully at the glass and what laid beyond it. But in the area he was swimming too he could see that behind the glass was a room. Slightly similar to the room he had first been in, but this one was much larger. And standing right up in front of the glass… were the two young adults from earlier; Xion and Ienzo.

"What? Why are they here?" Riku asked as Vanitas now was mer inches from the glass.

There was a small circular metal device embedded into the glass and yet no water seemed to be seeping out from it. Vanitas chuckled as he cast one last glance at Riku before looking back at Ienzo and Xion. He smiled as he placed his hands on the glass, and to Riku's surprise, Ienzo and Xion both placed one hand on the glass as well. They placed their hands on their side of the glass where Vanitas's hands where to look as if their hands were really touching.

"The two things that have kept me going all this time… are these two," Vanitas said as he kept looking forward, right at them.

Xion smiled. "Aw thanks Vani. But come on, you don't have to refer to us as 'two things' you know," Her voice seemed to be coming through the small metal circle that was in the glass.

"Rather be called legged weirdos again?" Vanitas replied back with a laugh.

"If you do that then we get to use old insults as well," Ienzo said as he smirked. "Sea urchin head."

Vanitas scowled, but it looked like he was trying to contain his laughter. Only a moment passed before all three of them started to laugh aloud. All of this was still leaving Riku with more questions than he had before.

"Wait wait," Riku said as he swam a little closer. "I'm still confused. How can you guys be friends? I mean like… how did that happen?"

All three of them looked at one another before Ienzo nodded first. He then turned his attention over to where Riku was. "When Even adopted me and Xion, he would always bring us here to the lab. Ever since we were young we were always apart of helping him with his experiments and research."

"Then came the day that Even told us that he had a major surprise to show us," Xion added in. "He brought us to the lab like normal, but then we saw Vani. Both of us were so surprised and amazed to see a merfolk in person. And we wanted to know more, but Vani was rather stubborn at first."

"I was just upset being taken from my home," Vanitas said with a sigh. "But few months after I was first placed in this tank they started to secretly visit me at night to try and talk to me. I was resistant at first…"

"Very resistant," Ienzo added with a chuckle. "I think I lost track of how many times you tried to make 'angry scary faces' to scare us away."

"Hey to a five-year-old me, I thought I was making a good angry face. At least I've perfected it over the years," Vanitas said back as he smirked.

"So you all have known each other for eighteen years then… I guess that does make sense. But you said secretly… does that mean Even doesn't know about this?" Riku asked as he got a bit closer to the glass.

Xion shook her head. "No our father doesn't know. Ienzo has to bypass the security cameras just so we can sneak in here. Surprisingly father has never once suspected us."

"Why are you guys doing this in secret though?" Riku then asked, now curious to find out as much as he could.

"Because. Father wants us to help with his research on merfolk… not to become friends with one. I doubt he would really be upset if he found out about our meetings though…" Xion said as she trailed off.

"He would most likely pry us to give him as much information we know about Vanitas and the merfolk though," Ienzo added. "Which is why we can't let him know. We want to keep Vanitas as safe as possible as well as the rest of your kind."

"Does… your father have any reason to harm us? Or hunt us down?" Riku asked.

"Only reason he'll harm you is if you cause too much trouble. So you know… don't do that," Vanitas said as he briefly pointed to his faint scars.

"He truly only wants to learn more. As I stated before he has no ill-intentions. Just is very ambitious with his work,' Ienzo said.

"But I can't…" Riku sighed as he ran a hand through his now shorten hair. "I can't just stay here forever to be his test subject or whatever. If you guys are such good friends with Vanitas, why haven't you broken him out of here?"

Ienzo and Xion glanced at each other, both of them frowning with heavy faces. They then looked back to Riku. They seemed to wait for a moment, only looking at him, before Ienzo decided to answer. "Because… we cannot disobey our father. This is one of his most special projects and if we were to destroy it… it would hurt him."

Xion nodded as she listened to her brother give their explanation. Then when he finished she spoke up to add more. "Besides, how would we managed to get a adult merman out of here without anyone noticing? We did think about it as children, but there was no way we could ever pull it off."

"So…" Vanitas said as he swam over to Riku. He chuckled slightly as he placed a hand on his shoulder. "You're stuck here like me. But it isn't all that bad at least, cause you get to tell me all about my little brother now."

"Little brother?" Xion asked.

"Oh yeah!" Vanitas exclaimed as he turned towards the glass again to look at the two humans. "Turns out Riku here is from the same village as me. Small world you know and all that. Not only that, but I found out that I have a little brother named Sora, only born like a year after I was brought here. And! The best part is that he and Riku are dating."

Riku felt his cheeks flush. He scowled at Vanitas, narrowing his eyes. "I never said that!"

"Yeah, but you are his boyfriend, are you not?" Vanitas said as he tilted his head back to look at Riku.

"I never agreed to that either," Riku muttered as he turned again from the group. He was trying to not pay attention, but he swore he could hear small laughs from Ienzo or Xion.

"Aw isn't it cute how shy he is?" Vanitas taunted. "He cares so much, but doesn't want to admit it."

"It is pretty cute," Xion giggled.

Riku sighed as he started to swim a away from the group, trying to relax enough to slow his heart rate. Though he could tell that his cheeks were still burning red. He couldn't help it though. Thinking of Sora, as they were now seperated, made his feelings all the stronger. He wished dearly that he could see Sora again, to hold him in his arms. But with them being so far, it was a struggle to keep calm about it.

"Come on Riku, you don't gotta swim away like that. I'm only teasing a little," Vanitas called out to Riku, hoping he would come back.

Riku stopped half way before quickly turning around and swam back up to the glass. "Well I've never been called out or taunted on the subject before! So sorry if I am a bit flustered by it. It's just… I really miss him. I'm glad he is safe… but I still miss him." Riku sighed heavily as he lowered his head, slowly letting himself float back to the bottom of the tank.

The other three watched with sorrow in their eyes. None of them knew exactly what to say as they looked at the state Riku was in. They did feel bad for him, but what else could they do? Saying 'sorry' wouldn't get them very far on anything and they figured Riku didn't want the sympathy.

Xion hummed thoughtfully though as she looked at Riku. Finally a smile crept across her face. "Hey Riku? If you want to, how about you tell us some stories. Fun time or something you had with Sora when you were younger. I've had some friends who moved away and I was sad by that, but talking about the fun times we had together brightens me up more."

Riku swam back up to be on level with the three and looked at Xion. "I guess so. If you guys really want to hear stories."

"Of course!" Xion said as she clasped her hands. "We love to hear stories about your world. We've heard some from Vani, but since he was only five when he left, he doesn't remember a whole lot."

"Ah, well okay then. Let's see…" Riku trailed off as he started to think. Soon he chuckled as good, fun memories came to his mind. "Well there was this one time Sora took a nap on the seafloor and woke back up to find several sea stars had stuck on to him."

"Wait seriously? How did he not notice something like that happening?" Vanitas asked as he raised an eyebrow.

"Sora's… a rather heavy sleeper. He could sleep through a pod of whales coming through the area. But, anyways when he came back, that was the true funny part…" Riku said as he began his story. Much to his surprise he was already feeling better as he talked about the story. He knew his time here wasn't going to be fun for him, but it did seem now he had some friends to pass the time with.


Ending on a happy note with more character building. Somehow i turned Riku into the kindhearted boy who is secretly shy? Hahaha.

Thank you for reading!