Hello, everyone. I must make an attempt to express my guilt at the lateness of this chapter, but such a thing is impossible given the limitations of emotional expression over the internet, so I'll just say I'm sorry. It's been like, half a year. No, really, it's the last day of the first half of the year right now, and my last update was, like, New Year's day. I didn't try to make that happen. I was trying to finish this chapter earlier, but I couldn't.

But enough of regrets and stuff. This seems more like a thing people would read in their spare time than anticipate. And such sad things wouldn't fit for a story like this. Now that KH3 has been announced, though, I really have to get it in gear. XD

See, I'm not dead. :3 (But this chapter is pretty short compared to some others. ._.)

Ventus and Ciel Attempt the Impossible

Ventus looked at his nonexistent ceiling with a wide grin of appreciation. The removal of that particular part of his room originally served to allow him to view the night sky before sleeping, but during the day, it also allowed sunlight to pass into his room and illuminate it in the place of lamps and light bulbs. Of course, this meant that he would wake up to blinding sunlight every day.

But that did not decrease how happy cheerful little Ventus was with his missing ceiling. Why, after so long, he finally had the sky to look at, with all its wonders.

And only hours after he was grinning, he stood in his room, ankle-deep in rainwater.

The lack of a ceiling meant that he had a skylight and a stargazing spot, at the cost of a cover for rain.

It took only seconds for Ventus to look around his room to see if there were any of his water-sensitive belongings had been exposed to the heavy rainfall, and when he found none, he went out the door and made a beeline for Xion's room.

"Xion!" he said as he skidded down the hallway in squeaky, soggy slippers. "Help!" It took him a mere half-dozen seconds to slide to Xion's room, and a fraction of that time to grab onto the steel doorknob and slip onto the floor. Above his face, the door opened. He was thankful that Xion had to pull it open, as if it were pushed open, then his poor head would be knocked upon by an unforgiving 1 ½ inch-thick plank of wood. Even higher above his face, Xion looked side-to-side he who called her name, until she noticed Ventus on the hallway floor.

"Yes?" said the slightly amused, equally bemused replica.

"It's raining!" Ventus exclaimed.

Xion didn't quite grasp his predicament, and pulled him up the floor as she further inquired him. "What about it?"

"My room doesn't have a ceiling," Ventus said.

The cogs in Xion's head stopped turning, as they were now unnecessary for her to put two and two together and understand Ventus' problem. "Oh," she said. "Haven't we dealt with this before? Right after we got rid of your ceiling, there was a rainstorm."

"Yeah, but this one dropped by before I even knew anything about it!" Ventus reasoned. "I was unprepared!"

"So your room is soaked now?" Xion said. Ventus nodded rapidly, and Xion continued. "I guess it would be pointless to put up a cover, since it's already wet."

"What do I do, then?"

Xion shrugged. "Just stick around in the living room, I guess."

Ventus' expression brightened exponentially. "Thanks!" He hurried off toward the elevator, only to stop and call back to Xion.

The replica's eyebrow rose. "What is it?"

"Can you keep me company?" He made his best attempt at a pleading face.

Xion was unfazed by Ventus' expression, but agreed. "Sure." She shut the door behind her. "I don't have any plans, anyway."

Ventus very nearly jumped for joy. "Thanks!" He was on his way to the elevator once again, only to stop when he didn't detect Xion following him. When he looked back, she still stood at the door, watching him. "C'mon!" he called.

"I'll meet you there," Xion said. "I need to get something done on this floor."

"Alright." Without another word, Ventus hopped in the elevator the instant the doors made enough space for him to fit, and elevated to the living room above. Once there, he threw himself on the couch and blankly stared at the ceiling that still existed. It wasn't long before he heard the elevator doors whir open, and he turned over to see who it was. Surpassing his expectations was Ciel, scampering across the floor to meet him at the edge of the couch. His antenna twitched.

"Hey, Ven," the Shadow said. "I heard your room was flooded and you came to stay here until the rain stopped."

"That's right," Ven said. "Are you joining us, Ciel?"

The Shadow nodded. "Xion invited me, and I didn't have any reason not to, so of course!" He crawled up to a nearby armchair and took his more humanoid form.

"Thanks," Ventus said. "Even with Xion around, I thought it would be a little lonely. Speaking of which, where is she?"

Ciel put a finger to his face, recalling what she had said before sending him down. "I think she was going to look for a deck of cards."

Ventus was curious. "We're gonna play cards?"

"Not anymore." Xion walked out of the elevator and took a seat on a different armchair. "My cards are missing."

"It was probably Vanitas," Ciel said.

"Why would he steal cards?" Ventus asked. He hadn't known the black-haired, more malicious version of him as well as he should've, but he couldn't think of a reason someone like Vanitas would need a deck of playing cards.

"Probably just to bug me," Xion guessed. Ventus thought that her guess was acceptably logical. He knew it helped Vanitas sleep at night to know that he had bothered someone, somehow, that day. "At any rate, we have nothing to do but talk until I can think of a foolproof plan to take my cards back from him."

"What do you think we should talk about?" Ciel asked.

"Oh!" Ventus' hand shot up in the air so fast he nearly fell off the couch. "I had an idea some time ago!"

Xion grinned at his display of eagerness. "Let's hear it, then."

"Alright, now this might sound weird," Ventus started, "but we're all related to Sora, right?" Xion and Ciel nodded slowly. "Would that make us family in some freaky heart-related way?"

Xion and Ciel exchanged thoughtful glances. "Hunh," Xion muttered. "I didn't really think of that. I mean, I thought I could consider Repliku my little brother thank to his origin, but –"

"Did somebody say my name?"

In a manner that was almost suspiciously well-timed, Repliku emerged from the kitchen in stepped into the living room with, holding a puzzle book in one hand and a pen in the other. "You guys aren't saying stuff about me, are you?"

Ventus shook his head. "Xion was just saying how she thought she could consider you some sort of little brother."

Repliku shot Xion a look of bewilderment and surprise. "Why would I be the little brother?"

"Because you were created after I was, of course," Xion said, "by the same person and in almost the same way. The only significant difference is that you were made from Riku-based stuff while I was made from Sora-based stuff."

"Why are you in Sora's heart anyway?" Ciel asked. "I mean, you're a Riku."

"I know I'm a Riku," Repliku said. "But I don't know why I'm here either. I just kinda died one day and woke up here the next." He switched the subject of his attention back to Xion. "And I'm still not entirely okay with being the little brother."

"Hey, I'll agree that it's strange," Xion said. "But you were created after I was. You're still my 'little brother'," she quoted it in the air, "at least that way. You act like an older brother enough."

"Thank you," Repliku said, though not with complete sincerity. The issue seemed to have been resolved on his side, so he spun on his heel to return to the kitchen and resume his puzzle solving, but he paused mid-stride, staring at a page in his puzzle book with a blank expression. He clicked his pen shut in one hand, and put it between the pages. "I got lost," Repliku said.

"The kitchen's just ahead," Ciel said. "Just open the door to your – "

"I got lost in my puzzle, I mean," Repliku clarified. "And I don't feel like trying it again, after coming this close to solving it in three days." He approached the couch that Ventus was lying on, intending to have a seat on it, and Ventus repositioned himself just in time to avoid Repliku's grumpy fall onto it.

"Are you joining us?" Ventus asked him.

"Yeah, I guess," Repliku said.

"You mean you're actually willing to put up with what we're doing this time?" Xion asked.

Repliku detected the underling surprise in Xion's tone and thought it odd. "When have I ever not? I always wind up involved in whatever it is you guys do."

"Not always," Ventus said, pulling up some example instances of Repliku avoiding his and Xion's shenanigans. "When Xion, Roxas and I were testing out an antigravity room, you ignored our invitation."

"I was busy," Repliku said. "And pretty much every other time, I was there."

"Do you remember when Vanitas tried to create his own Keyblade Glider?" Ciel asked.

"No," Repliku said.

Ciel nodded slowly. "That's because you weren't there."

"And we always make sure to invite everybody," Xion added. "Guess what you did."

"Can we drop it?" Repliku said. "You guys were talking about what, exactly?"

"How you were my little brother," Xion said. "I guess I better start taking an older sister role sometime…"

On the wall closest to Xion, a dark corridor appeared, and from it, Vanitas leaped out, holding an umbrella in one hand and a rectangular, white box in the other. Roxas quickly hopped out of the same corridor, gripping a similar umbrella, and he began to run after Vanitas immediately after he landed on the ground.

"Vanitas!" Repliku yelled as the two ran circles around the living room. "Roxas! What are you two doing?"

"Vanitas took my DS!" Roxas said.

"Give it back, Vanitas," Repliku said. Vanitas's reply was a short pause to throw an odd face in Repliku's direction.

Roxas swung his umbrella at Vanitas, but Vanitas hald out Roxas' DS to block the swing. It was quickly interrupted, and Roxas' face took on an expression of terror and disgust. "You wouldn't dare," Roxas said.

"Didn't I just?" Vanitas said. He swung at Roxas' head, but Roxas dodged it with ease, and pointed his umbrella at Vanitas for precaution. Vanitas smirked. "Go ahead and try to use some magic. See how your precious little DS system gets fried."

"Vanitas," Repliku said with an exasperated tone, "just give it back. Roxas never did anything to you."

Vanitas let out a condescending laugh. "Since when did that stop me?" While Vanitas wasn't looking, Roxas tried to snatch the electronic device out of his hands, but Vanitas anticipated it, and knocked Roxas on the head with his umbrella. "Nice try, kiddo."

Roxas growled at him. "Stop talking to me like I'm a kid. You're no older than I am."

"Where'd you come up with that idea?" Vanitas said. "I was around over a decade before you were. And you're technically a year old."

While Vanitas and Roxas bickered and Repliku tried to mediate them, Ventus, Xion and Ciel continued discussing.

"I guess this would portray Vanitas as a sort of older brother, then," Ciel said. "The kind that likes to play tricks on his younger siblings."

"You took the words right out of my mouth," Ventus agreed. "But this means I'm the oldest, right?"

Xion chuckled. "Yeah, and by a pretty wide margin. You're old, Ven."

"It's nice that he doesn't act like it, though," Ciel said. "Everyone else is either serious, stoic, or Vanitas."

"Hehe, yeah," Xion said. "Now that I think about it, the only thing you and Vanitas really have in common is a love for fun. And your definitions of fun are polar opposites, at that."

To decide on whether he agreed or not, Ventus glanced at Vanitas, who was balancing Roxas' DS on his head, assisted by the arrangement of blackish spikes that he called his hair jutting from it. He was laughing at Roxas at the same time. "…Yeah, you're right… but which one of us seems more mature?"

Xion paused for a moment to contemplate Ventus' question. Ventus certainly acted much younger than his age, especially when put in front of something that excited him, such as ice cream, but Vanitas couldn't truly be called mature despite being Ventus' opposite, since he derived so much joy from childish actions such as stealing Roxas' DS.

"Probably you," Xion answered. "But why?"

"Well, I am technically odler than he is," Ventus said. "I wanna make sure it shows."

Ciel scratched his head. "Well, to be honest, Ven, it kinda doesn't."

Ventus sighed. "I figured as much. Vanitas looks older than I do. And he sounds like it, too."

Xion chuckled. "It does hide the fact that, compared to us, you're a geezer."

"How old am I, anyway?"

"I dunno," Xion said. "I think… twenty-something. I'm barely over a year old, meanwhile."

Ventus was about to voice his sadness when an umbrella came dangerously close to hitting his head. He dodged it by ducking, and then looked up to recognize the assailant. Vanitas was grinning widely, trying to attack Roxas. Repliku was trying to break the fight up, with little fruit for his efforts.

"Vanitas!" Repliku yelled. "Give it back to Roxas!"

With all the tact of a thrown dictionary, Vanitas replied by swiftly swinging the umbrella towards Repliku. Repliku, expecting such an action, caught it mid-swing with both hand and pulled it out of Vanitas's hands. Xion applauded him a short distance away.

"I'll say it one last time – give it back, Vanitas," Repliku said, pointing with the umbrella he had taken.

Vanitas shook his head in shame and held his hands up. "Alright, alright, you got me," he said, holding out the DS system. "Take it." With understandable suspicion, Repliku hesitated in taking the device from Vanitas, but eventually reached out to accept it.

At the last second, Vanitas pulled his hand back and held out a fist. "Beat me in rock-paper-scissors first."

Repliku stared at Vanitas' fist. "Seriously?"

"Yes. Best out of twenty."

Determined, Repliku held his fist out as well. "You're on."

While the two were partaking in the duel of the century, Xion, Ventus and Ciel continued their conversation.

"So," Xion said, "I'm Repliku's older sister as well as Roxas' younger sister, Ventus is an old guy and has Vanitas as a brother, and Ciel is Sora's brother?"

"We're one big, happy, dysfunctional family, in a way," Ventus said. "But if we're gonna think of it that way, I kinda think Sora is a brother to all of us."

Ciel began laughing to himself. "Don't you mean – hehe – most of us are like Sora's br-others?" When he was met with a lack of reaction, his laughter died down. "Sorry. I'm not as funny as he is."

"Aw, don't worry about it," Xion said. "The only one of us who can match Sora's cheerfulness is probably Ventus. In fact, Sora probably got it from him. Or was it the other way around?" She looked at the heartless for clues, but Ciel shrugged.

"Ven had something of a personality rewrite after his amnesia," Ciel explained. "It could've been either, since Sora's influence began there."

"Yeah," Xion said. "We need some sort of chart to keep track of everything that happens around Sora…" She looked to the side. "I wonder if there's anyone else one the World who has heart-based connections as complicated as Sora."

Elsewhere in the universe, Terra and Xehanort stood across each other on an air-hockey table, staring each other down and positioning their mallets over the table surface. Terra placed a red circular puck on the table, and struck it diagonally, hoping it would bounce off the wall and into Xehanort's goal.

He heard the pleasant sound of the puck entering the slot, and grinned at a gained point. "Air hockey isn't a game for people with creaky joints, Xehanort," he said, confident that his physical youth gave him an advantage.

Xehanort smirked as he picked the puck up. "You mustn't let your pride get the best of you, young one. There are things that you can only learn with age." He hurriedly placed the puck on the table and made a straight shot with it before it was flat. As a result, it flew and the air and struck Terra's forehead. Terra glared at Xehanort as he put a hand on the injury.

"You don't learn something like that with age!" Terra said. "And that's against the rules!"

"I'm afraid you're mistaken, my boy," Xehanort said. "Hitting the puck once it's flat on the table is more of a safety precaution. Look." He pointed at the puck that was now sitting on Terra's side of the table. "It didn't exit the table, either. It takes skill to perform such a maneuver without letting the puck leave the table."

Terra clenched his fists in anger.

"Xehanort!"

Ciel erased one of the blue lines on the diagram he drew and made a dotted one connecting Sora and Vanitas. "Does this make sense?"

"I think so," Roxas said. "But it kinda looks like it merges with this one, so I think we have to redraw it with a different angle this time."

"Or why don't we just move the picture of Vanitas?" Ventus suggested.

"Then we'd have to redraw all the lines Vanitas has," Roxas said.

"There are only two," Ventus said.

"Yeah, two that overlap with a couple dozen other lines."

From the corner of the room, Repliku yelled in frustration, tossing papers filled with tic-tac-toe boxes everywhere. He then assaulted Vanitas with a stream of words twisted into incomprehensible gibberish by unrestrained rage. Vanitas stared at him until he cooled down.

"Are you done?" Vanitas asked.

Repliku was still breathing heavily. "I give up. We've tied in rock-paper-scissors, chess, Ping-Pong, Battleship, and tic-tac-toe. I've had enough. You can go ahead and keep Roxas' DS."

At that, Vanitas began to laugh. "No, no, here, you can take it now." He pulled Roxas' DS out of his pocket and put it on the table. "I think I've messed with you enough. I'll give it back so I can steal it another day." He then stood from his seat, stretched, and walked to Roxas, Ciel and Ventus. Crossing his arms, he examined the diagram they had. It appeared to be a heart connection map involving everyone Sora's ever met, as well as those he hasn't met but were still connected to, such as the inhabitants of his heart. As Vanitas expected, it was extremely convoluted and difficult to decipher, and if he hadn't knows better, it would've just been a mess of lines and colors on paper.

"Hey Van," Ciel greeted. "What do you think?"

"About you're drawing?" Vanitas answered. "It's such a mess that I can't think at all while I'm looking at it."

"Then it's decided," Roxas said. "We have to redo it."

Ventus and Ciel released a simultaneous, "Aw, man." Meanwhile, Xion entered with a pair of umbrellas.

"Roxas," she said. "Do you have your DS back?"

"Vanitas," Roxas said. "Do I have my DS back?"

"Yeah," Vanitas said. "Xion, what are those umbrellas for?"

Xion held the umbrellas up, and grinned. "I have an idea, but I need Roxas' help. And his DS."

"Oh no." Roxas stood up and took one of the umbrellas from Xion. "Xion, we're friends and everything, so I hope you don't take it badly when I say that I'm not letting you near my DS with umbrellas."

"I could ask Ventus instead," Xion said. "Or Vanitas. Anyone here, really. Except Repliku."

"No," Roxas insisted.

"I'm only gonna mess with the system. I'll take the game card out, too, if you want."

"Then go ahead."

"Yes!" Triumphantly, Xion raised the umbrella she was holding and rushed to the table that Roxas' DS sat atop. She put it in the center of the room, took the game card and placed it in safe place, and looked at Roxas. "We're going to fire lasers at it, Roxas. Lasers made of darkness and light."

"What's that supposed to accomplish?" Roxas asked.

"I don't know," Xion said. "But I think recent changes in the World outside Sora's heart might trigger something. Just trust me on this." She stood across from Roxas, and pointed at the DS with her umbrella. "On the count of three, okay?"

Roxas shrugged and mimicked Xion, pointing at the DS with the umbrella he took from her. "Okay."

"Wait a minute, guys," Ciel said. "Just let me and Ventus move away from any danger, okay?" Ciel pushed Ventus behind a couch and hid behind it, peeking from over the backrests. He gave them a thumbs-up to signal that it was okay for them to start.

Xion nodded. "One, two, three!"

She and Roxas simultaneously fired beams of white and purple at the DS, and the device began to glow in a pinkish light, with sparks of the same color beginning to fly around. The glow intensified for a few seconds before Roxas and Xion ceased fire, and on its own, the energy around the DS burst. One the light had faded, the device had changed shape, slightly, and two small black lenses appeared on the upper half. When Roxas picked it up, he noted that it was heavier.

"What's up with this?" Roxas asked. He opened it and saw that the top screen was wider, while for the bottom half, a circular, pad-like object rested above the D-pad. "Was it upgraded or something?"

"I think it was!" Xion said. "Go use it or something."

"Give me back my game card, first," Roxas said. Xion hurriedly grabbed the game card from atop the table and handed it to Roxas. "Thanks."

"Let's go," Xion said, enthusiastically pushing Roxas to the elevator. "I wanna see exactly how it was upgraded." The two of them disappeared behind the elevator doors.

Ciel and Ventus rose from behind the couch, and looked at their diagram. They had neglected to bring it with them for protection, so it became a scorched rectangle on the ground.

Ventus sighed. "There goes an hour of work."

"Re-doing it is still an option," Ciel said, though his disheartening was still clear in his speech.

The two stared at the paper for a few seconds.

Ventus ran to the elevator. "I'm gonna go see what Xion and Roxas are doing."

"Right behind you!" Ciel followed him.

Meanwhile, behind them, Repliku picked up a broom and a dustpan, beginning to sweep the charred remains of their heart map clean.

Why are my updates so slow? I'm working on another story right now, and the premise is probably one that you guys have heard before: The Keyblade War. Between the last chapter and this one, I've gotten four chapters of it out, and it's about 35,000 words long right now. Like with most of the things I do (even if it's not evident) I put a lot of research and thought into what I make. That scene earlier with the air hockey? I studied some air hockey for that. But that's a minor example. For that particular story, I'm rewatching Disney movies and studying them, from the concepts to the characters to the development processes to the setting, etc. For a nerd like me, that's quite a ride. XD

So if you're bored with this or waiting for the next chapter, you could check that out. :3

Anyway, reviews for this would be most welcome. Complaints for the lateness of the chapter are also welcome, because I might work faster if I knew people were bugged enough to tell me about it. :3