Sora asked confusedly
" 'My Ven'? What do you mean?" Arthur stuttered
"O-oh sorry, that just… Kinda came out of me… I don't know why". Sora smiled
"Is he someone… Special, to you?" Arthur had to think about it, he was going through all the trouble to find this Mickey guy, to find Ventus, someone he barely knew. Arthur also sought to protect Ven from an unknown enemy, he wasn't sure of anything anymore.
"I… I'm not sure… It makes me feel weird inside thinking about it". Everyone else giggled and tried to stifle laughter, Arthur felt his face heat up and quickly said "not like that! I just feel… Confused, like there's a hole where my heart should be, like he's the only one that can fill it, and I feel like I can never be complete without him… But I don't understand why, and that makes me feel really sad" Everyone let out a collective "aw" and Sora smiled
"You'll find him! I just know it!". Arthur couldn't help but smile sweetly, like Sora was his child and he just said something thought provoking.
"Thank you Sora… I hope we do too"
Suddenly, Arthur had an idea
"Maybe this 'Roxas' will know who Ventus is, maybe they're long lost twins!" Sora immediately smiled and said
"That makes perfect sense! We should find their friends, and I know just the place! To Twilight Town!". Even though everyone thoroughly disagreed with the unsound logic, Donald and Goofy were dragged to the Gummi ship, a fascinating object to Arthur, it was a ship that could transcend the oceans of dark space, but somehow it felt familiar, but he could not place that feeling he got. He thought little of it, he knew it was connected to Ventus, and once they found each other, he'd put Arthur's woeful feeling at rest.
When they got into the Gummi ship, they realized a problem, there were only 3 chairs, and there was a fourth person, to which Donald said "oh what a shame! We might have to leave Arthur here after all, sorry Arthur" He was clearly smirking, Arthur already knew he would dislike the feathery companion, but Sora said
"No! Arthur could… Uh… He could sit on my lap!". Silence, they all looked at each other, Arthur was too confused to feel embarrassed, then, he thought of shoving that smug look back into Donald's face.
"Sure Sora, that would work now we all can go! Isn't that great Donald?" To which Donald grumbled and muttered some kind of half thought out reply.
Sora and Arthur were both red faced while Sora did his best to guide the ship to Twilight Town, while also trying to fight the uncomfortable rising feeling, he shook it off as they got nearer to Twilight Town, they landed at Twilight Town, Sora, Arthur, Goofy and Donald stepped into the world, Arthur was amazed, Donald and Goofy were happy for the scenery change, and Sora couldn't deny this nagging feeling of familiarity. They seemed to be in some main area, a sign confirmed it 'Tram Common Area'. They walked around, being mindful of the moderately paced tram circling the area, seeing a live screening of sorts, and Arthur was fascinated, he had never seen it before, but he was unable to pull himself away, after several movies everyone else joined in, including Sora, forgetting about their urgent task. Sora sat next to Arthur and was more fascinated by how mesmerised Arthur was, it was like a trance for him. Though Arthur had gone from a movie induced trance, to a Sora induced one, making Sora smirked as he asked "like what you see?" To which Arthur said
"Definitely". They both shared a laugh and Arthur was finally out of his mesmerised state, so they left, as to not create a scene. They walked around and they soon found a huge drop off, it seemed to go underground, perhaps it was a sewer, Goofy suggested that they check it out. Everyone but Sora seemed to express some discomfort with walking through the sewer system, but they encountered some enemies along the way
"The heartless!" Sora, Donald and Goofy shouted. Arthur just nodded and summoned his sword. Sora, Donald and Goofy took on the bigger threats as Arthur took on the smaller ones. He was wildly swinging, before he slammed down, making the sewers quake. When Sora and the others were done, they saw Arthur finishing the last of the heartless off. When he was done, Sora smiled and said "you're good at this, I guess the King was in good hands!". Arthur smiled
"Thanks Sora, that means a lot to me". He ended off the sentence with a genuine smile, but as he thought about how well he had done, his mind went back to his friends, and his smile dropped. Sora picked up on that and asked
"What's wrong Arthur?" Sora saw as Arthur got glossy eyes
"I had friends… They trained me to be good, and I just ran off, they must be so worried about me, I'm so stupid". Sora shook his head
"That's not true! I bet you had a good reason, you'll see Ventus, and you'll see your friends again, I promise". Sora smiled and went in for a hug. They both bear hugged each other and when they separated They looked at each other. When Arthur looked back at Sora he saw golden eyes, a smirk, and black hair. He looked almost identical to Sora, he shouted and fell backwards. Sora looked shocked, as did Donald and Goofy.
"Face to face, at long last". Arthur looked at him
"It's you, you look so familiar, like you're on the tip of my tongue, but I can't say". The boy looked over at him, and with a fake disappointed tone said
"Don't remember me? I'm so heartbroken, how could you forget Ventus's better half?" Arthur looked at him with anger
"Don't you dare talk about him that way, you're just some vindictive creep, you were on that barren land, in my dreams, tell me what you want!". Vanitas smiled and said "I just want to see you again, just like old times, then, I get back my brother, then I can choke the life out of that pitiful body, you and your friends are never going to be safe, never". Arthur looked straight up to see Sora, Donald and Goofy looking at him worriedly
"Oh dear, are you okay Arthur?" Goofy asked worriedly. Arthur was snapped back to his senses and nodded
"Sorry… I just… Just forget about it, it's nothing". They all looked at him with overt concern, but Arthur pressed onwards, leaving them to catch up.
Soon they quadruple found their way out of the sewer and ended up in a forest. Up ahead Sora spotted some gray figure a long way away down the beaten path, so they walked towards the figure. As the treeline cleared they noticed it was a big building, it was locked, but Sora felt his heart being pulled, like as if it was about to be pulled from his chest. He grasped onto that area of his torse and sharply in-took air, everyone was worried, but Sora fell to his knees, and tears streamed down his face. Arthur ran to his side and held Sora in his arms, as Sora closed his eyes "Ro…xas".
When Sora came to he watched as pure relief flooded into the trio of friends "Sora! You had me freaking out there, what happened?" Sora relived the moments, and gradually told him them.
"I was sitting on a clock tower, it looked like the one here in Twilight Town, I was with some spiky redhead, I recognized him from somewhere, I also saw a girl, she had black hair, they both called me Roxas, and we had some ice cream while we were there… Is-is it bad that I liked being there?" Arthur shook his head
"No way! I couldn't imagine doing that, that sounds really nice and relaxing, who wouldn't wanna do that?". Sora smiled, he appreciated the gesture, but it wasn't what he was trying to get at, so he just nodded, instead of explaining it to him.
"Thanks Arthur" Arthur gave him a big thumbs up with a 100 watt smile. Suddenly they heard footsteps behind them
"Woah, Sora, Donald, Goofy, s'that you?" Sora got up and looked to the teens approaching them