A/N: Hi yes im back and it did not take me years like last time :P

Thank you so much for everyone that commented and reviewed! It really means a lot and helps motivate me to write more, so thank you

Sora's Heart Squad discord for anyone interested: discord .gg / vJCc9kRAAC

Published: 8/26/2021

Warnings: some Vanitas angst

Featured Character:

Sora
Ventus
Vanitas

Supporting:

Riku
Kairi

Antagonist:

None

Chapter 15

Sora and Sharing Do Not Interact

The second school ended, the other kids tried to swarm Sora, Vanitas, and Ventus. And, okay, Sora knew that Shadow and Light were pretty damn awesome, but they were also his, and Sora didn't like sharing.

Riku and Kairi were exceptions to that rule. Sora loved them with all his child-like heart, and you shared things with people that you love.

"Can you guys do any other magic tricks?" Wakka asked.

"Can you teach us how to summon fire like that?" Selphie cut in.

"Fire is lame! Can you do, I don't know, water or lightning or anything else?" Tidus added.

"That body suit is so cool! How did you get all those muscles?" Wakka said.

While Sora was annoyed that the other kids were trying to hog Shadow, it was kind of funny seeing the look on Light's face as he was mostly ignored.

"I can do magic too, you know!" Light huffed.

Selphie shot him an unimpressed look. "But, you don't look as awesome and you didn't scare our teacher into passing out."

"That was a good thing?"

"She forgot to give us homework because of it. Shadow is our god now."

Light spluttered a bit at that.

Shadow, on the other hand, looked downright pleased. He hadn't yet put his helmet back on, so the satisfied smirk that crossed his face was clear for all to see.

"I can, in fact, do other magic tricks," Shadow told the children. "Venty Wenty over there is only really good at making wind gusts," Shadow scrunched his nose in evident disgust.

"I-," Light began, clearly intent on going on some sort of tirade.

"Anyways," Sora interrupted, putting himself between his brothers and his classmates. "We gotsta go, mom said she's making my favorite dish for dinner since Van and Ven are visiting, so bye!"

"Wha- Sora, don't hog!"

"Yeah bro! Not cool!"

Sora, however, was not listening. Instead, the little boy grabbed onto both Shadow and Light's hands and began to drag them away. Sora paused, turning his head to look back.

Riku and Kairi were laughing at the whole thing, but still hadn't mooed from their spots. Sora pouted at them. "You guys are invited too! Come on."

Tidus attempted to give Sora a puppy dog eyed look. Unfortunately, as a master of the look himself, not only was Sora unaffected, he was also unimpressed.

And, okay, maybe it was a little selfish of Sora, but he didn't wanna share.

"We can always leave Ventus behind," Shadow suggested, a sly look on his face. "He's so boring that the kids will eventually give him back."

"Hey!"

It took the group several minutes to reach the beach, with several people shooting confused glances at Vanitas and Ventus, but no one really stopping them.

Shadow's resemblance to Sora was both uncanny and a deterrent against unwanted questions.

At last, they reached the sandy shores, and Shadow immediately spun on Light, jabbing a finger out and pointing rudely in a way Sora's mom always said you weren't supposed to do.

"Ventus! Fight me properly now, here in the real world, you overrated little twink!"

"I've kicked your ass in the 'real world' before and I can do it again! Bring it!"

If anyone was surprised that Shadow and Light wanted to have a brawl now that they were both free, they didn't show it. Instead, Riku and Kairi turned to Sora expectantly. If there was anybody that could reel those two in, it was Sora.

Sora, however, was all for it. Jumping up and down excitedly, the eight year old said, "Yeah! I wanna see you both spar!"

"Yes, 'spar'," Shadow said, smirking at Light. "That's what we'll call it when I bash his face into the ground."

"I can take you! Here, there, anywhere!"

"Venty, kids are listening, are you sure you want to use that kind of language?"

"Wha- You - That is not what I meant and you know it!"

Sora blinked and turned to Riku, confused. If anyone would know what Shadow and Light were rambling about, it would be Riku. Riku knew everything.

Riku, however, looked just as confused as Sora felt and shrugged.

Sura was shocked. He had thought Riku knew everything, and this admission that Riku too was lost was shaking Sora to his core.

Still, not to be deterred, Sora turned to look at Shadow and Light, "We can go to the Play Island! You two can fight there!"

Shadow looked downright giddy. Light himself also looked excited at the concept, cracking his knuckles, a smirk playing across his lips. Kairi, however, frowned, and proved her worth as the designated brain cell holder.

"We don't want them breaking anything there," Kairi pointed out. "Besides, the other kids use those play islands too, we should go somewhere else for that."

True. Sora did not want to share his siblings with anyone other than Riku and Kairi right now. Maybe later, when he got more used to them being around, but for now? For now, only Riku and Kairi.

"Hm. I'm sure we can find an empty island. There are plenty of those around," Riku said, before turning his head to look at their boats on the dock.

Their three small boats, which barely had room for each of them alone.

" ... I suppose some of us will have to sha-," Riku began.

"Last one there is a rotten venti!" Shadow cackled, instantly teleporting himself onto Riku's boat before rather quickly escaping the dock in ten seconds flat.

Once he had finally registered what had just happened, Riky let out an offended cry. "Hey!"

Shadow responded by laughing at him, even as he continued to row the boat away with those large muscular arms of his.

"Why am I not surprised Vanitas is willing to steal from children," Light sighed.

"You kind of look surprised," Riku said.

"No, this is my 'disappointed in Terra' look," Light clarified. "It seems to apply more and more to Vanitas these days, and I'm actually kind of scared of whatever unholy alliance those two working together would look like."

Elsewhere, Mickey Mouse was forced to run for his life. He'd found a strange portal in the Hall of the Cornerstone and had decided to investigate, and well...

Mickey still had no idea where Terra himself was, but his armor and what looked suspiciously like a Vanitas clone had both taken offense to Mickey's breathing and had just tried to end it, permanently.

Also… Mickey could have sworn he'd found them playing with Pokémon cards, of all things, but that couldn't be right, could it?

Either way, Mickey would have to make sure to seal that portal. He'd survived, but only barely, and others might not be so lucky.

"Hm... I don't know who that is, but I don't wanna be a 'rotten venti'!" Sora repeated before grabbing Riku's hand. "So, bye suckers!" Sora yelled at Ventus and Kairi before dragging Riku off towards his boat.

Ventus sighed. "Vanitas is corrupting today's youth," he lamented, before following Kairi towards the last boat. The pair of them took a leisurely pace, not interested in running around like mad like the rest of the boys.

Kairi, Ventus decided, was definitely his favorite out of these kids. Not that he would ever tell Sora that, those big blue eyes of his would whimper at him until Ventus fell to his knees and apologized for hours on end.

Half an hour later, unintended consequences decided to rear their head at all of them.

The ability to exit Sora whenever they wanted was admittedly useful, but Ventus and Vanitas soon learned that it did have its drawbacks the minute they had attempted to actually spar and had been unceremoniously shoved back into Sora's skull so quickly that it gave them both whiplash.

"Wha - how'd we get back here?" Ventus cried out, stumbling face first into the sand.

Vanitas, on the other hand, had far more grace and composure and managed to catch himself before face faulting.

Looking around, it didn't take a genius to figure out that they were back in Sora's heartscape, except... Vanitas squinted up at the night sky and the stars glistening above.

That could only mean one thing.

"The kid fell asleep," Vanitas pointed out the obvious.

Ventus, who was currently crouched over and spitting sand out of his mouth, looked up at Vanitas incredulously. "What? What do you mean, he fell asleep? It's the middle of the day!" Ventus paused, likely because he realized this was Sora they were talking about, who could nap literally anywhere. "It's the middle of the day, and Sora was wide awake and cheering us on!"

Vanitas tilted his head, lost in thought. Annoyingly enough, Ventus was not wrong, so Vanitas couldn't just dismiss the words off hand, but facts were facts: Sora had been wide awake, and he was now asleep. Asleep so rapidly part of Vanitas suspected it was the work of a sleeping spell, or-

Oh. Oh.

Shit. Duh! The answer was obvious, and right in front of their faces. with a grimace, Vanitas looked up at Ventus, who was watching him expectantly.

"... I may have... Miscalculated the energy needed to summon us?" Vanitas winced and then waited for the oncoming storm.

Ventus did not disappoint. Shooting to his feet, the smaller boy raised a fist angrily in the air. "What do you mean, you 'miscalculated'!?"

Vanitas rolled his eyes. "Calm you little twink ass down, Venty," Vanitas said, ignoring the way Ventus twitched. "Sora's fine. However, since we don't actually have physical bodies and were materializing out of his will, doing so drains him. Which, us running around was fine, but uh," Vanitas scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. "Us fighting definitely pushed the line. No kid Sora's age has the stamina to sustain the kind of spell work that we like casting."

Ventus frowned at him, fist lowering. "I- you- but that doesn't make sense? If that's the case, why can we use spells in here?"

Vanitas shot him a look that Ventus had become increasingly familiar with over the years. It was Van's 'you're a complete fucking idiot, I can't believe we're actually related' look. "Ventus, you fool-"

"Who even says fool?" Ventus muttered.

Vanitas ignored him and carried on, "-the spells we cast in here aren't real. This," Vanitas waived around them, "is Sora's mind and heart. We're not casting spells, so much as imagining that we are."

Well fuck. There went Ventus' plan to awe Aqua with his new elemental magical mastery, Ventus thought.

Because he was going to see Aqua and Terra again. That was a promise.

Wait...

Ventus squinted at Vanitas. "If the process of summoning causes that much of an energy strain, how were you able to unleash so many Unversed?"

The look Vanitas shot him in return contained such pure poison that Ventus instantly regretted the question.

"Xehanort spent four years training my natural 'gift' by repeatedly beating me and making me eat dirt while you got to go off to lala land with your precious friends that fed you home made cakes."

Ventus flinched, but held Vanitas' gaze nonetheless. Several tense moments passed before Vanitas let out a sigh, jerking his head away as he tossed himself down onto the sand.

"You know, Ventus... I hated you, at first. I was just... I was just so jealous." Vanitas admitted, which shocked Ventus. Van didn't often open up like this. "You got to be happy, and I could feel you being happy, but me? I just... I was alone. I would never call the old goat company. And... While I'm glad to be here with you and Sora now," Vanitas looked up, and there were tears looking like they were just ready to burst from those eyes. "The memories... They sting. And then, there's you: You, who forgets." Vanitas spat out the word so sharply that Ventus felt as if he'd been physically jabbed.

Ventus couldn't exactly refute that. He was pretty prone at forgetting things, it seemed.

Still, Vanitas was hurting, and while Ventus didn't really have any words of comfort he could offer for that, because he wasn't even going to sit there and pretend that he got this, he could offer support instead in any way he could.

Ventus walked forward, mind and emotions telegraphing exactly what he was planning to do.

When they'd gotten here, Vanitas would never have allowed this. Hell, nowadays, he still rarely allowed it. Ventus plopped himself down next to his brother, reached an arm out, and brought him in close.

No more words. Just silence, as they stayed there, under the night sky.

Riku poked Sora with a stick. Sora snored in response and sleepily tried to bat the stick away.

"Riku!" Kairi hit his shoulder. "This is serious! Stop that!"

Riku shot her a look. "Oh, come on, he's fine: you know Sora, he can fall asleep anywhere."

Kairi raised her eyebrows. "Even while watching Shadow and Light about to spar with each other?"

The three of them were currently far away from anyone else, on one of the smaller islands. Like Kairi had suggested, they'd found one of the other islands for Shadow and Light to have their fight.

And, despite Rika's complaints, Destiny Islands weren't exactly small. There were plenty of them around, not to mention the mainland which stretched out for several miles, as far as the eye could see.

It was the sea here that was downright mythical.

Travel too far through the waters, and you're never heard of again. That's what had ended up happening to Tidus' father, but no one really liked talking about Tidus' father.

The island they were on now didn't really have anything built on it, which was perfect for a fight between Shadow and Light, only for Sora to collapse right as they started, which resulted in Shadow and Light both fading.

Riku continued to poke his best friend with a stick, smirking evilly as Sora made a grumbly face and tried to bat it away from his face.

"Riku!" Kairi hissed. "Stop that!"

Riku rolled his eyes, turning towards her. "He's fine, Kairi. I mean, okay, him falling asleep all of a sudden like that was weird, but I think he was just really tired? He was yawning the whole boat ride here," Riku pointed out.

Riku would know. After he and Sora had been forced to share a boat, Riku had ended up doing most of the rowing because Sora was a lazy bum. Shadow and Light didn't have boats, so Kairi had shared with Light and Shadow had pretty much stolen Riku's because he was a bitch that stole from children.

Still…

Riku glanced down at Sora's sleeping form.

"Okay, maybe we should take him back to his mom's? He looks fine, but…" Riku bit his lip, worry overtaking the young boy's features.

He was sure Sora would be fine, but that didn't mean this whole thing wasn't making him panic just the slightest bit. Sora always did have to be troublesome, didn't he?