Just got this chapter finished up just in time to post for the weekend. It was close but we managed to do it. We are winding things down now but we hope that you all are still enjoying the story so far. Let's just jump right into it!

Ch.20

Isa lead Vanitas across the arcade area, making sure to show him each thing that there was around the place. Vanitas looked on in awe at each machine, not being able to decide which one to try first.

"Take your time if you need to. There's a lot here," Isa spoke, trying to make things easier for Vanitas. "When you are ready, we can go and find Lea and others."

Vanitas nodded slowly as he looked around at the different games. There were so many different games flashing with bright and colorful lights. So many of them looked interesting and inviting, Vanitas started to feel excitement fill him.

"I'm ready," Vanitas replied as he continued to hold onto Isa's hand.

Isa nodded and the two of them started to walk again until they reached the other side of the arcade. There was some games lined up against the wall, and there at one of them Vanitas saw Zack, Ventus, and Lea.

It was a game that had two large screens and both Zack and Lea held large guns of sorts. Lea was a little bit short standing up to a platform that was in front of him as well as Zack, but he still managed to get the gun over the top and pointed at the screen.

Ventus saw Vanitas and Isa coming close and ran over to them. "Hey! There you guys are! Zack and Lea already started, I told them to wait but they got too excited."

"They are still early in the game, so we haven't missed much," Isa replied.

Vanitas stared at the game and slowly moved towards the game that Lea and Zack were playing. On the screen there were men running around and Zack and Lea were clicking the triggers on their guns as fast as they could.

The men on the screen were hit with bullets seconds laters and then dropped to the ground and and Zack and Lea moved on to the next section. Vanitas stared a bit longer watching the bodies get shot and then drop, and slowly he back away from the game.

"I don't like that…" Vanitas mumbled as he drew near Isa.

"What? Oh the game? Yeah… it is a bit violent. I guess you don't really like that thing?" Isa asked.

Vanitas shook his head quickly. "No…"

"It's okay Vani, you don't have to like the game. Zack and Lea like it, but you don't have to if you don't wanna," Ventus replied, trying to cheer up his brothers.

"Okay…" Vanitas replied quietly.

"Would you like to see some of the other games then?" Isa offered. Vanitas took Isa's hand again and nodded. "I'll take that as a yes then. Ven, if Lea or Zack ask we will be elsewhere in the arcade."

"Okay then! I'm gonna watch dad and Lea for now," Ven replied, waving the two of them goodbye for the time being.

With that, Isa and Vanitas turned and started going around to the other parts of the arcade. They passed many more machines, like the claw grabber, dancing games, and even some racing games. The last one Isa was good at, and suggested it to Vanitas, but he did not seem interested all that much. However, after walking past a few more, something caught Vanita's eye as he stopped.

"What is it?" Isa asked when he felt some resistance.

"What's that?" Vanitas asked in reply, pointing towards a game he found interesting.

Isa looked towards his finger. "Ah that. It's called basketball. Basically, you throw the ball into the basket as many times as you can before time expires."

The more Vanitas watched the people that were currently at it, the more he wanted to try it. "Let's do that one then."

"Okay then we can do that. If you need help I can show you how to play as well, but first let's go over to the little kid version. You are a little short to be trying the big kid version," Isa said as he pointed to a few similar looking basketball games that were much smaller than the ones Vanitas first looked at.

Vanitas then walked over to the smaller one, which looked far more reachable than the other one did. Luckily, there was nobody at that one for the time being so they could start right then.

"I think that I get how to play. I watched the other ones," Vanitas said, referring to the people they had just seen playing.

Isa only nodded and allowed Vanitas go ahead and try. He showed Vanitas how to use the card that Aqua had given him in order to pay for the games to play. Once he had done that, the game was ready to be started up. It was a slow pace at first, Vanitas trying to learn how to properly throw the balls to where they needed to go. But soon after a few tries, he started to get the hang of it, landing nearly every other basket that he tried. Once it was over, there was a large smile on his face.

"Wow that was really fun! I wanna play again."

"That was good for your first time," Isa commented. "Wanna play together?" he asked, pointing to the larger machine that was just freed up.

Vanitas quickly nodded. The two of them then readied themselves and started to play together. Even though one was the normal version and one was the kids version, they still tried to compete with each other nonetheless. Isa was making each shot like it was second nature to him. Meanwhile, Vanitas was hitting his shots periodically, but he couldn't quite keep up with Isa. The duo played a few more games, each of them smiling at the good time they were having. After the last time, Isa stopped to talk to Vanitas.

"If you don't want to use up all your points on your card on this, you can try the other games too."

"That sounds like a good idea," Vanitas spoke quickly. "Can we go to Ven and my dad?"

"Sure thing. Let us go and find them."

Isa and Vanitas didn't have to go too far before they found the people they were looking for. Zack and the boys had since moved on from the shooting game that Vanitas had found a bit to violent. The game that they were playing now was one that had bright flashing lights everywhere on some kind of wall, and they would alternate off and on, almost as if in a pattern.

Currently Lea was standing in front of the game and was trying to hit the lights when they would come on. After a few more seconds, the timer went off and he stopped.

"Dang, only 445. I thought that I could get higher than that," Lea said aloud as he shook his head.

"Well, at least that's higher than you got the last time," Isa said, causing Lea and the others to turn to look there way.

"Oh hey Isa," Lea replied. "And I know, but I wanted to beat Ven's dad's score. It's really high."

"Well you've got a ways to go before you're on that level," Zack chuckled as he placed a hand behind his head while grinning.

"It looks really cool," Vanitas spoke up finally, trying to get a word in with everyone.

"Vani!" Ventus replied as he ran up to his brother. "Oh it really is fun. Maybe we could play some of it then?"

"You would want to?" Vanitas asked.

"Yeah, of course. We can have some more fun."

Zack then spoke up to them. "Yeah you two should try it taking turns first before playing together. It's really fun, but it takes a lot of focus. Come on Vanitas, I'll show you how it's played then."

"Oh, okay. Thanks, that would help a lot."

As Vanitas walked up to where Zack was, Lea spoke up again. "Well, if you guys are gonna do that, Isa and I might go and find something else for now. Right Isa?"

"If you would like to do that we can."

"Good, cause I wasn't taking no for an answer. Well, we'll be over in another part of the arcade then. Got it memorized?" he said as he placed his single index finger to the side of his head.

"I'm sure they do," Isa commented with a sigh. "Let's go then if you want to do something."

Lea didn't wait around as he and Isa then walked off towards the other side of the building towards some of the other game areas. That only left Ventus and Vanitas with their father now. Zack smiled and pointed to the game, ready to explain it. "So the goal of the game is to click as many lights that glow as possible. It can get pretty fast at times, but it's fairly simple to do. So who wants to go first?"

"I will!" Ventus said while raising his hand.

"Okay Ven, you're up first. Let's see how you do," Zack said as he stepped to the side.

Ventus stepped up to the platform and scanned his card on the machine, then he clicked a button and waited. The lights started to come on and he began clicking as many of them as he could. He sometimes missed some of the buttons, since it was hard to focus on all of them, but he clicked as many as he could.

At the end, when the timer went off, Ventus had a score of 230. He smiled and turned around to Vanitas and Zack. "Did I do really good?"

Zack smiled and patted Ventus on the head. "Of course you did. Now it is your turn Vanitas."

Vanitas watched as Zack nodded to him, gesturing for him to stand up on the platform. "Just scan your card and pick 'one playter' and then it will begin."

Vanitas did as he was told and he saw the lights come on. Doing what he saw the others do, he started to hit as many of them as he possibly could. When the timer went off he looked up at the top to see that the number read '240'.

"Wow! Vani you beat my score! That's really cool!"

Vanitas smiled happily at his score once more. Looking at the number on there really did make him happy he was able to get that many points. "I guess I did a good job."

"Yeah! Now we can play together, right dad?" Ventus asked as he looked to Zack.

"Of course, now you just have one of you scan the card and this time pick two players. How it will work will be similar expect you only get half of the lights to click. Still is fun though."

Ventus was readied up before too long, and Vanitas followed what Ventus did in order to make sure that he was set to play as well. Once they were both ready, the game started and the two boys started moving their arms wildly, trying to hit all the lights that they could. The first game, Ventus won. The second game, Vanitas won. They kept playing the game for a little while, each one edging out the other every now and then, but both boys were laughing and enjoying themselves immensely.

Soon enough, both of them stopped, hassling for air as they had gotten tired.

"Wow, you boys sure do like to compete. It's good to see Vanitas so gung-ho about it too," Zack chimed in after they had stopped.

Before he could say anything else, his phone vibrated in his pocket. When he took it out to check what it was, it was a message from Aqua.

'Food is finally here and ready so bring the boys back please. :)'

He then tucked his phone back away and turned to the boys. "All right, your mother said that the food is all there now. So who's hungry?"

"Me!" they both shouted in unison.

"Then let's go get some food shall we?" Zack suggested.

They each made sure they had collected all the tickets that they had won, and then were ready to go. They followed Zack all the way back across the arcade and to the party room. Once they arrived, everyone else, even Isa and Lea, were already waiting for them.

"Come over here Vani," Aqua said as she pulled out a chair from the middle area of the table.

Vanitas walked over and took the sit and right away Ventus sat down to his right. He looked over to his left and saw that Lea had taken the other chair. "Hey, is it okay if I sit next to you?"

Vanitas thought for a moment. Lea was still rather loud, but he was excitable like Ventus, though probably even more. He didn't see it as too much though compared to the first time, though he still prefered Isa's quiet and calmness. He chose not to say that though, knowing that he shouldn't. "You can sit there."

After everyone else was seated around the table, whether it was next to Ventus or Lea or across, everyone had a seat. Vanitas started to wonder what was going to happen. He knew about birthdays, but he had never properly experienced one. He had no idea what to expect or what he should be doing. All he could do was wait and see what would happen next. Thankfully he didn't have to wait long as some people came into the room, all carrying quite nice smelling food.

"Oh boy that all looks great!" Zack exclaimed as the servers sat the food down on the table.

Once all the food had been delivered, everyone seemed ready to dig in. However, none of them started and all turned towards Vanitas. Aqua was the one that spoke up after that.

"Vani. Since it's your birthday, you get firsts. Get whatever and however much you want okay?"

Vanitas looked around at everything, not being able to decide what he wanted. It all looked so fresh and delightful. In a moment though, a loud grumble was heard from him, or rather from his stomach. This caught a laugh from some around the table, but the sound and feeling was all it took for Vanitas to know what he needed.

"Okay!" he excitedly said, and began the birthday feast for the evening.

We are still wanting Vanitas to have a good time and be able to live a normal life now. So we just keep the fluffs going. What will happen next though? As far as we know now, the next chapter will be the final one so stay tuned for that update when we are able to get it out. Let us know how you enjoyed the chapter, as we do enjoy the feedback for sure. We will see you all next time!