The day went from there as it normally did for Ventus. Starting with more sex, before he and Vanitas went their separate ways for the day, and even more sex before bed. This was the basic routine for Ventus and Vanitas until that Saturday. It was the afternoon when Ventus was being driven home by Terra and Aqua after an early morning movie which was interrupted slightly by Terra and Aqua making out very loudly next to him. Oddly enough it was a violent action movie, but Ventus was not one to judge. Ventus sat in the back as Terra and Aqua sat silently in the front, the only noise being the radio. Despite the silence Ventus was just happy that the fighting had finally stopped. The three arrived at Ven's house and the three walked in to see Sora, Riku and Kairi watching a movie themselves in the living room and Vanitas was eating in the kitchen. Sora spoke first when the three walked in, from his spot nestled under Riku's arm. "Hey guys! How was the movie."
"It was awesome." Replied Ventus walking over to the kitchen. "But there was some rude couple next to me making out the whole time." Kairi giggled as Riku and Sora laughed and Aqua turned red.
"Were we really that bad?" Asked Terra with a grin.
"Like vacuuming a soaking wet carpet." Replied Ven with a laugh. At that the seven teens all laughed even Vanitas who stood up to say something to Ventus when there was a knock at the door.
"That's my ride." Said Kairi as Sora called out.
"Come in!" The door opened to reveal Kairi's twin sister Xion. Who walked in awkwardly when she saw Vanitas. Vanitas had never hid his feelings for Xion, who he blamed for what happened to Roxas, but even though he was keeping quiet Ventus could still see his displeasure. Xion closed the door behind her and asked.
"Hey is Braig here?" She looked around worriedly. Braig was her boyfriend, but they would often be seen arguing, and the way she asked made the others worry a little.
"No, why?" Replied Vanitas after a pause where he waited for someone else to answer.
"His car is here."
"We haven't seen him." Replied Sora, as Kairi stood to leave when the door was slammed on twice, before it swung violently open to reveal Braig himself with a pissed off look on his face. Vanitas stood up and walked towards his friend saying.
"Speak of the devil and he sha-" Suddenly Vanitas paused as did the others when they noticed Xion flinch away in fear. Tell could all tell that it was fear that he would hit her. Vanitas turned angrily "Braig?! What did you-" He paused again as Braig pulled from a holster behind his back a silver handgun that he could see was rusted in several spots.
The room went silent as Braig cocked the gun's slide, still pointing it at the ground. Vanitas was the first to make a noise as the others just stared, stuck in fear and confusion. He said. "Braig. Are you alright?"
"Do I look alright?" Replied Braig angrily. There seemed to be nothing wrong with him but Vanitas stayed calm replying.
"You look angry."
"Hell yeah I'm angry! This bitch-" He lifted the gun to point it at Xion who whose face turned white. "Has pissed me off too many times!"
"Hey just calm down a bit." Said Vanitas lifting his hands to where Braig could see them."What happened? What did she do?" Vanitas began to slowly walk towards Braig who began to rant.
"She won't even let me look at her anymore and I touch her one time and she says she's gonna call the cops! I'm gonna kill her!"
Braig again pointed the gun at Xion and in what had to have been only a few seconds but felt like minutes to those around them, he pulled the trigger. Right before he did so Vanitas hopped and slammed himself sideways into Xion screaming. "Get out o-" As the first shot cracked through the air, another quickly following, Vanitas collapsed immediately as Ventus shot up screaming. Braig pointed towards the noise and fired again. This shot was louder and was followed again by a scream. This time it was from Braig himself as the very old very worn gun backfired and metal exploded outward which is what caused his scream of pain as he dropped the now broken gun.
The next few seconds went in silence except for Braig pained breathing as the reality of the situation hit and suddenly with no warning Ventus ran towards Vanitas's crumpled body and Terra with an angry scream ran fist first into Braig and began to pound him with fists and kicks. As he did this Ventus collapsed to the ground and grabbed Vanitas's head, able to say nothing.
Vanitas looked around as his vision began to blur, he vaguely heard the sound of Aqua calling Terra's name as Riku pulled him off of Braig. He looked around at Xion who had pulled out her cell phone and began to dial what he hoped was 911. By this point the swimming of his head made hearing impossible when he looked up and saw Ventus looking at him. Ventus was worried and afraid and all Vanitas wanted to do was hug him and say everything would be just fine. He couldn't help but think of that and of all the things he wouldn't have a chance to say when the pains in his chest and abdomen intensified and he grunted once before falling unconscious.
The next thing that Vanitas could remember was waking up with a jolt. He had no idea where he was and he looked around, his vision was blurry to see anything though and when it began to focus he shot up from the bed he was in.
"Whoa whoa." Came a quiet soothing voice. Vanitas looked around and saw a man in his mid thirties who had short black hair with a prominent widow's peak, large ears and big brown eyes, sitting in a chair next to him. The man wore a doctor's uniform and Vanitas looked around. The room was dark and he could see little other than the doctor, as he looked around he began to remember what happened. Vanitas's tightly balled his fists and he angrily asked.
"Where is Braig?"
"Alright let's just calm down. The one who shot you can't hurt you again. He was apprehended by the police."
"What happened to me?"
"You were shot. Twice." Came the doctor's calm response as Vanitas processed this news the doctor continued. "What is important is that you should fully recover."
"Where is Vent- My brother."
"Your brother Ventus is over there." The doctor pointed towards a chair in the corner which Vanitas had missed in the dark. Now though it was obvious that Ventus was sitting in it covered in a blanket. As Vanitas moved to get up the doctor stopped him with a gentle hand to the shoulder saying. "Please relax you shouldn't get up yet. Besides this is the first time he has slept since you arrived. Also your parents and other brother are here. They stepped out for a bite from the cafeteria."
"How long have I been here?"
"Well you were admitted in the afternoon on Saturday, and now it's about 7:30 pm on Monday." Vanitas looked around as his head cleared and the fact that he was in a hospital bed was beginning to sink in. Attached to his left arm was an IV tube which connected to a small clear bag filled with blood and also hooked up to his arm were a few different machines that were monitoring him. After a bit of looking around Vanitas began to hear clunking footsteps from outside of the door. Footsteps he recognized to be Sora's, who was the first to enter the room holding a sandwich wrapped in cellophane, followed by their parents.
"Oh shit. You're awake." Sora said almost as a question and after a momentary pause of confusion their parents ran up to the hospital bed, their mother saying.
"Oh my god Vanny you're awake." She embraced her son and Vanitas, shocked at hearing a pet name he thought he might never hear from her again, could only respond with.
"Yeah Ma." With that the room again went silent for a few seconds as their father walked up and put his hand on Vanitas's shoulder saying.
"Your brothers told us about what you did. How you tried to calm him down and how you pushed that girl, Xion, out of the way. You did you best to help everyone around you, hell Ventus could barely go a sentence without saying it. Point is I'm proud of you son." For the first time in a long time Vanitas looked at his father and didn't immediately think of that night, and he wasn't sure what to do about that. So he responded with a simple.
"Thank you. Dad." Following that Vanitas looked at the doctor to avoid more silence and asked
"How long am I going to be here doc?"
"Well-" The doctor began looking at his chart. "-right now we've gotten your blood to a normal quantity and we are focusing on its oxygen level. that should all be finished by tomorrow morning when you wake up. We'll do some more tests mostly as a formality and coach you on how to keep your stitches from opening up while you're moving about. Besides that there is nothing left for us to do here. So if all goes well from there, tomorrow afternoon, maybe tomorrow night."
"Thank god. I'd go stir crazy if I had to stay here too long." The doctor chuckled a little and stood up walking towards Vanitas's parent's
"Don't worry. We want you to get back home and to your routine almost as much as you do. You'll be out soon. But first, I'd like to direct the two of you to some more forms that need to be filled out about his discharge." The three began to walk out after their mother gave Vanitas's hand a gentle squeeze and the doctor continued to talk as they walked away. "Yes, there was a misspelling on our part so we need-" As he trailed off Sora sat down next to Vanitas.
"Hey bro, you doing alright? You hungry?" He unwrapped his sandwich and offered one of the halves to Vanitas who shook his head and replied.
"Not really. I never am when I wake up."
"That's true." Sora said through a mouthful of food. "I remember when Mom had to force feed you blended waffles for breakfast so you'd have something at least."
"She tried that once. You act like I ate that every morning like a weirdo." Vanitas laughed.
"Well you're still weird. Let's get that straight."
"What does that make you?"
"The King of the Weirdos." The two laughed again which was enough to finally wake up Ventus. They looked at Ventus who stirred for a little until he woke up enough to look at the two. Suddenly he shot up and bolted across the room pulling Vanitas into an embrace and planting his lips on his. They stayed like that for a few seconds and suddenly a thought entered Vanitas's head. 'What if I had died and never saw him again?' The thought went away as Ventus pulled back and put his head on Vanitas's chest in order to hear his heart beat for himself. He panted as Sora whispered.
"Ven what if Mom and Dad saw you?"
"I don't care. I don't care anymore." He began to tear up as Vanitas head swam with thoughts of the time he spent with Ventus those past few weeks. "You almost left me. I need you. I need you to stay with me." At this Sora stood up and said.
"I'm going to leave you two alone. I'll try to distract Mom and Dad. Either way I'll let you know when we're coming in." With that he was gone leaving the two lovers alone. Ventus wiped his eyes as he got off of Vanitas and sat in the spot next to the bed. He spoke, calmer this time.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have told you all of that. You're in the damn hospital. You need to relax. I'm so stupid."
"Stop." Said Vanitas as he could hear his own voice break. "Don't talk about yourself like that. I should be sorry."
"Why? What did you-"
"For shutting you out. For never telling you how much I cared about you, and-" He paused knowing what he was about to say couldn't be taken back. "For never telling you about me and Roxas."
"What do you mean?"
"When Roxas left it wasn't just because of Mom and Dad. It was because he didn't want them to know about me too. About me and him." Ventus and Vanitas both looked away from each other.
Ventus turned to look at Vanitas first. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because I didn't want you to think I was a freak for falling in love with someone who was supposed to be my brother." He looked back at Ventus. "Or that I'd be crazy enough to do it again." Ventus leaned in quickly and the two kissed again. It was softer and gentler than any kiss they ever had before. When they broke apart Ventus smiled and said.
"Don't talk about yourself like that."
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.