Ventus opened the door and saw Aqua standing there looking off to the side. "Hey Aqua." He said awkwardly.

Aqua looked at him and replied "Hey Ven. I'm sorry about yesterday."

"It's okay, come in." He stepped out of the doorway and Aqua walked in. The two walked over to the couch, both feeling the tension in the air. "So I heard you and Terra made up."

Aqua's face lit up as she replied. "Yeah we talked for a long time yesterday."

"That's great." Ven stopped trying to think of a way to ask her what Terra told her. Having known Ventus for as long as she did she knew what he was going to ask her and she spoke first.

"Terra told me that you were dating another boy, but he said he couldn't tell me who. It's fine if-"

"It's Vanitas!" Blurted out Ven. Aqua did not respond at first, she just made a face that Ventus knew to mean she was shocked silent.

"Van- Vanitas?" Aqua replied after almost a whole minute.

"Yeah." Again the room went silent. This time though the silence went by quicker.

"Ven can I ask you a personal question?"

"Of course." Replied Ven without hesitation.

"How was the sex." Blurted out Aqua. She immediately looked away and turned red while Ven just sat there slack-jawed. "Oh god. I'm sorry I don't know why I asked that."

Ven began to laugh and said. "It's fine. Um- I guess it was good. I don't have anything to compare it too."

"Really!?" Now Aqua was looking at Ven again.

"Yeah. I guess though I would call him rough but he always make sure I, you know, finish." He of course didn't want to tell her about things like the picture or how Vanitas made him swallow his own cum.

Aqua laughed a little and said. "That's always something."

"Yeah, he really is nicer that he can act sometimes."

"I hope so, but, if you're happy Ven, I'm happy for you."

"Thanks." The two friends smiled at each other. Ven was sure things could only get better.

After talking for a few hours Aqua left and Sora came and the two step-brothers hung out for a while, eventually though Sora went to bed and Ventus sat watching T.V. in the living room when Vanitas finally got home. wearing his leather jacket, his motorcycle helmet and thick knee pads over his regular clothes. He also had a backpack which he dropped near the door.

"Honey I'm home." He said as he began to remove his jacket.

"And what time do you call this?" Replied Ven as he looked up and saw Vanitas visibly struggle to take off his jacket. Ventus sprung up from the couch as he could tell Vanitas was in pain. "What's wrong? Did you crash?"

"I'm fine." Replied Vanitas as he let his jacket hit the floor, obviously not fine. "I went somewhere to let off some steam. You should see the other guy."

"You got in a fight?!"

"I could respond with sarcasm, but I'll be nice and let it go."

"Are you alright?!"

"You are making this very difficult Ventus." Ven now next to Vanitas began to unbutton Vanitas's shirt. "Whoa slow down, I just got home." Vanitas said laughing.

"Shut up." Ven, having fully unbuttoned Vanitas's shirt, opened it to see several ovular bruises. He looked up at Vanitas who was still wearing his full covering motorcycle helmet, and slowly pulled the helmet from the older boys head. "Oh shit." Vanitas had one large bruise on the top right side of his forehead and another on the bottom left side of his jaw.

"I'll be fine Ventus." Vanitas said in a voice that was calm and reassuring, more so than Ven had heard from his brother in a long time.

"What happened?"

"I went to a fighting club and got in a fight to let off some steam. I was stressed about some shit with Braig." Braig was an old friend of Vanitas's, and the current on-again off-again boyfriend of Xion, but Ven hadn't seen hide nor hair of him in months. "I haven't had this much trouble in a while though." Vanitas chuckled a little and threw off his shirt.

"How often do you do this."

"It's been a few months, but anytime I get too stressed I go, sometimes a couple times a week."

"Who did you fight?" Vanitas didn't answer at first. He just walked over to the couch and sat down. He pulled out his phone and Ven sat next to him as he turned the camera on to face himself. Vanitas stared at his bruised face for a few seconds before Ven said. "It was Terra wasn't it? That's why you won't answer."

"Yep, and I know you're smart enough to connect the dots."

"How is he?"

"From what I could tell, no better or worse off than me."

"Were you trying to threaten him?"

"Of course not." Vanitas turned off his phone and turned to face Ven. "If you trust him so do I. It's just that-" Vanitas looked away trying to find his words. "We were talking a bit before and after the fight. You can open up to someone better when you see them and they see you when you're both vulnerable."

"And I know how bad the two of you are at opening up." The two began to laugh. After a minute or two Vanitas stood up still chuckling.

"Alright Ventus get up. Few thing make by blood run faster than a good fight. I've been hard this whole time."

"Good to know, I guess." Ventus stood up and followed Vanitas to his room.

After three and a half years I have finally decided to scrap this story. When I began this story, I was not in a good place mentally, something that you may be able to tell from this story's contents, having said that I want to move past the part of my life that this story represents. I will keep this story up, but it will no longer be worked on. I will continue to write stories in a similar setting to this story, so if after all this time any long time readers are seeing that I updated all of the chapters to have this message at the end I hope that you continue to follow me for more content.