Roxas could count the number of times he'd seen stars on his hands. Twilight Town never got dark and the World That Never Was was perpetually overcast and rainy. Most of the other worlds he'd been to had been much the same, or he'd never seen them at night.

The night sky of Land of Departure was beautiful – tonight especially, with its streaks of shooting stars. He'd spotted the first of them through Axel's still-open window and had carefully extricated himself from the pile the four of them had ended up in as quickly as he could without waking them.

Out sitting on the wall was the best place to watch the show.

He didn't hear the soft footsteps on the grass coming his way, entranced as he was, but nothing could have distracted him from the growing proximity of a heart so strongly connected to his. Still, maybe if Roxas pretended he wasn't there he'd take the hint and go away.

"Meteor shower," Ven said, coming to stand at the wall beside him – close enough that Roxas could punch him in the leg if he wanted, yet still far enough to give him space. "I haven't seen one since..."

Roxas clenched his hands over the edge of the stone wall.

"Who won?"

He didn't need clarification to know what Ven was referring to. "Who do you think?"

Ven turned to look at him. "Did it help?"

Roxas grunted noncommittally. It had, in that he'd been able to let out the pent up frustration that had been building for months. But it also hadn't solved the problem.

Ven sighed, sitting down beside him but careful to maintain the distance. He leaned back on his hands, tilting his head skywards. "The night before Aqua and Terra's Mark of Mastery exam, we sat here and watched a meteor shower."

Roxas glanced at him from the corner of his eye. Ven's attention was fixed on the stars, a small nostalgic smile on his face. Roxas' face. Sora's face? They looked the same apart from their hair. Roxas was Sora's Nobody. It made sense for them to share a face. So then why did Sora share Ven's face? Why did Roxas look more like him than he did his own Somebody? Why did Ven have more in common with him than Sora?

Ven met his eye. They stared at each other.

"Can we talk?" Ven broke the silence.

"What's the connection between you and Sora?" Roxas asked, ignoring the question and answering it in the same breath.

Ven blinked, caught off guard. His gaze dropped down to his lap. "Before I came here and met Terra and Aqua, I used to train under Master Xehanort."

Roxas frowned. He couldn't imagine why anyone would want Xehanort as a master. Then again, Roxas had worked under Xemnas, and while it wasn't exactly the same thing it was close enough, wasn't it? Maybe Ven hadn't been in a position to argue either.

"He wanted me to learn to control the darkness. When I wouldn't, he used his Keyblade to cut the darkness out of my heart," Ven continued. "It... broke me, I guess. The darkness in me became Vanitas and what was left was too fractured to hold itself together. Someone reached out to me – a heart, a new one – and it gave part of itself to seal the cracks until I could reclaim Vanitas." Ven smiled at him. "That heart belonged to Sora."

Of course it did. Even before he was a person, Sora was selfless.

"Is that why he looks like you?" Roxas asked.

Ven considered for a moment. "I guess so? I never really thought about it, though I figure that's why Vanitas looks like Sora."

Fantastic. Someone else who Roxas shared a face with. How many was that now? Three? But it still didn't make sense why Roxas looked like Ven instead of Sora. He was Sora.

He could feel Ven studying him and kept his scowl directed at his lap.

"We're not identical, you know," Ven said, as if reading his thoughts. "Your hair is darker than mine."

Roxas rounded on him. "Why do I look like you at all?! I'm supposed to be Sora!"

Ven's expression turned sad and he looked away. Roxas felt a stab of guilt for having caused it, despite the frustration. He knew it wasn't Ven's fault. No more than any of it had been Sora's. He knew that. But that didn't make dealing with it any easier.

"...I have a theory," Ven said after a long moment. "If you're really looking for an answer."

"Axel thinks it has to do with your heart being inside Sora's for so long," Roxas confessed quietly. The fight had drained out of him. He was so tired. It felt like he'd never stop fighting to differentiate himself from the others. Never stop being looked at by people and having them see someone else instead.

"I have a different theory. Or at least one that builds off that."

Roxas looked up, interested despite himself.

"When Sora became a Heartless, the hearts he carried inside his were freed, right?" Ven began. "Kairi's went back to her and she woke up. But I didn't. I think... I think my heart went with you."

Roxas stared at him. Axel had asked him once if he was sure he didn't have a heart. Roxas hadn't really understood what a heart even was back then, but he was certain he'd always been able to feel, no matter what the others had said. His friendship with Axel and Xion had always been genuine, even if it hadn't started that way for the two of them. If Ven's theory was true, did that mean those feelings had been because of him? Were the things he'd felt not really him at all?

"I wasn't really awake, I don't think," Ven continued, oblivious. "But there are... snippets? Or dreams? Emotions you must have been feeling. I think my heart connected to the one you were growing for yourself."

Some of that old anger he'd thought he'd outgrown resurfaced and Roxas pulled his knees up to his chest, wrapping his arms around them to hide his face. "Figures," he spat, voice muffled. "Even the parts of me that I thought were me came from someone else."

"What?"

He suddenly longed to be somewhere else. His first thought was the clock tower, but could he really call that his now? Ven had said that he and Terra and Aqua used to sit and watch the stars together. Axel might have been the one to bring Roxas up to the clock tower that first time, but the friendship he'd felt... had it really only been echoes from Ven's heart the whole time?

It wasn't fair.

He had his own heart now, but its foundation was as stolen as the rest of him. Was this how Xion felt? Did she still feel like this? She shared her face with Kairi and Naminé, though she'd never once complained about it. Then again, she hadn't complained about a lot of things Roxas knew had hurt her.

The rustling of clothes told him that Ven was moving. Roxas held himself tighter. If he let go, he might fall apart.

"Roxas."

Maybe he should go home. Axel would understand.

A hand cautiously landed on his shoulder and Roxas instinctively uncurled enough to pull away. Ven let his hand drop to his lap. He'd shifted so that the distance between them was now a matter of inches.

"I don't think I explained it properly," he said apologetically.

"What's there to explain?" Roxas countered. "It makes sense, doesn't it?"

Ven shook his head. "I didn't mean that you were feeling my emotions. I meant I was feeling yours."

"Nobodies don't feel anything," Roxas recited automatically. The others had acted otherwise, but they'd made no secret that it was just echoes from memories. Roxas hadn't had any memories, so he hadn't understood it like the rest of them. He'd just felt what he'd felt and assumed that was that. It made far more sense that it was Ven's emotions he was feeling than that a blank slate like him had had his own.

"I don't believe you," Ven challenged. "What I felt from you wasn't some echo. You can't tell me your friendship with Axel and Xion wasn't real, not when you tried so hard to stay together. Maybe my heart helped yours grow faster but it was still your heart."

Roxas let out a shaky breath.

"Do you feel any different about the things that happened now as you did then?"

"No." He still loved Axel and Xion exactly the way he had before – more even in light of how close he'd come to losing them forever. He still felt the injustice of losing Xion, and the anger at Axel's secrets. The fury of Saïx's treatment of Xion, and at the way he'd been used and discarded by so many people so easily. The frustration of always being second-best to Sora.

"But it's just you in there now, right?" Ven smiled. "So they have to be yours. Otherwise it'd be like saying that the things Sora felt while my heart was with him weren't really his either."

Roxas snorted at the thought, reaching up to wipe at his eyes. Sora was too Sora for that to be true. He felt enough for all of them.

"We might look the same, but right from the beginning you've always been you."

It was what Roxas kept telling Xion, and what Sora was always insisting. He'd started to believe it after meeting Sora in person. Maybe it was true for him and Ven, too.

"There are people out there who are born identical, you know? They're called twins," he elaborated when he caught Roxas' eye. "Sometimes they're so similar people have a hard time telling them apart. But no matter how confused they get, they never doubt that they're two different people. Even if they share all the same interests." A warm smile crept onto his face. "It's the same for us and Sora."

They lapsed into silence, Roxas not knowing how to respond and Ven apparently satisfied now that he'd said his piece.

"Hey," Roxas said a few minutes later. The stars streak by overhead.

"Yeah?"

"Earlier. What did you want to say?" Before Roxas had derailed the conversation.

"Oh," he ran a hand through his hair awkwardly. "I wanted to ask if I'd done something to upset you. Xion said it wasn't really me you were avoiding, but I couldn't figure out what other reason there could be."

Roxas rested his chin on his knees. "You didn't do anything." It was this conversation he'd been avoiding, more than anything. Isa was right – he couldn't solve all his problems by hitting them. Unfortunately, ignoring them didn't work either.

"Does that mean you're not going to run away every time you see me now?" Ven teased.

A small smile tugged at Roxas' face. "Only if you make good on that ice cream you promised."

Ven jumped up from his seat. "Wait here," he said and then he was running back towards the castle.

Roxas watched him go until he disappeared from view, before turning back to the meteor shower. He'd almost forgotten about it.

Ven returned barely five minutes later, a tub of one of the Disney Town flavours in hand. But instead of sitting down again, he gestured for Roxas to get up.

"I had an idea," he said, holding out the ice cream and a spoon. "You're having trouble with Command Styles, right?"

Roxas frowned at the reminder. "What of it?"

"Try this," Ven grinned. He knew something Roxas didn't, clearly.

Uncertain what ice cream had to do with Command Styles, he hesitantly reached out and took a scoop. It was Honeybunny.

"Go on," Ven encouraged when Roxas eyed him suspiciously.

It just tasted like ice cream. The same stuff he'd given them for their birthday. Except-

"Whoa!" Roxas gasped. His whole body was glowing – and this time it wasn't his doing. There was a steady thrum of energy under his skin. Kingdom Key appeared in his non-spoon wielding hand without being called on. "What?"

"Disney Town ice cream can activate Command Styles without fulfilling the criteria," Ven explained. "I figured if you could experience what it felt like when activated, you'd have an easier time the long way."

"The ice cream you gave us never did this though?"

Ven shrugged. "We had it made special so you could just enjoy it as ice cream." He summoned Wayward Wind, sliding into a ready stance. "Wanna try it out?"

.

.

Roxas had been gone when Xion woke the following morning. Isa and Axel were still there, though, all three of them tangled together. She'd slept well – the softness of the bed had probably helped a lot – and she was content to lie there with them a while longer. Except that she really needed to use the bathroom.

She ran into Roxas in the dining room afterwards. Only he, Aqua, and Ven were there. Roxas and Ven looked like they hadn't gotten any sleep.

Xion took the empty seat beside him and set down her bowl of oatmeal. "Good morning."

Roxas rubbed at his eyes. "Hey."

"Do you want an elixir?" she pulled one out of her pocket. "You look tired."

"I've got some, but thanks," he assured her. He tapped his last few bites of toast against his plate.

Xion pretended not to notice him glancing at her out the corner of his eyes, busying herself with her own breakfast.

"Hey, Xion?" he hedged, voice low enough that Aqua and Ven wouldn't hear them. "Can I ask you something?"

He wasn't looking at her anymore, focused intently on his plate.

"Sure."

"Does sharing a face with Kairi and Naminé ever bother you?"

It wasn't what she'd expected him to ask, not that she'd known what she'd expected. Her attention darted briefly to Ven. She knew sharing a face bothered him.

"Yes," she admitted just as quietly. "Sometimes I wonder... which bits are me and which bits are someone else."

This would normally be where he protested. Instead all he did was hum knowingly. There was something very thoughtful about his expression. Thoughtful and understanding. He took her hand and dropped something small into her palm.

"Did you know that sometimes normal people are born identical?" he mused, letting his hand fall back into his lap. "They look exactly the same and because they grow up together sometimes they end up liking the same things, or having similar personalities. But no one ever doubts that they're different people."

Xion stared down at the object left in her palm. It was a keychain – a very familiar one. "Aubade."

"Maybe we're a bit like that. The same but different." He stood, pushing away from the table, and called on his Kingdom Key.

She watched in silence as he unclipped its keychain and replaced it with a different one. Kingdom Key's shape changed into another familiar form. Rejection of Fate.

He gave her a small smile. "We might share Kingdom Key with Sora as base forms, but where we go from there? That's us, not him."

She wondered what had happened; she'd never seen him so comfortable with himself.

"Yeah," she curled her fingers around Aubade's keychain. Maybe she was a bit like that too.

Old building blocks, new tower.