It took quite a bit of convincing to get Vanitas's family to leave for the night. Vanitas had too much to think about, but by the time they left for the night he felt himself drifting away to sleep. So as the steady beeping of his heart-rate monitor lulled him to sleep, he nodded off, wondering how Ventus was faring.

As Vanitas fell asleep Ventus was just getting home with Sora and his parents. When they were all inside the house Sora turned to his brother. "Hey Ven, can you come with me, I'm going to get my clothes out of the dryer."

"Sure." Ventus asked.

"Hey boys-" Began their mother. "Your father and I are going to sleep. Have a good night. Wake us if you need anything."

"Alright thanks mom." Ven replied as he and Sora walked off to a door connecting the living room to the garage, where the washing machine and dryer were. When they made it in Sora turned around to look at Ven, saying.

"Ven, you've barely said a word to me in days. How are you holding up?"

"Better now that me and Vanitas talked." Ventus said, realizing that the dryer was both off and empty he leaned up against the wall, breathing a big sigh. He didn't want to help do laundry anyway

"Yeah, but now that you guys are whatever you are now. Hiding from mom and dad will be tougher."

"I know, I know." Ventus sighed again. "I know. We won't be able to keep secrets forever, but we have to don't we?"

"I don't know. I hope not, but either way, I'm here for you, both of you." Sora extended a hand to Ventus, who took it and came in for a quick hug.

As the two left the garage, and parted ways for the night, they both could only wonder about what would come next.

By the time Vanitas's parents had arrived the machines had been disconnected from Vanitas. Who was talking to the doctor about how to take care of his wounds.

"So remember no strenuous activity. Walking is fine, but you might get tired quicker, you shouldn't worry too much about possibly fainting though. With how well you've been recovering that shouldn't be a concern." As he was talking Vanitas's parents walked in. Vanitas's mother came over to where he sat on the edge of the bed, now dressed in the sweats and t-shirt his parents had previously brought for him.

"How are you doing honey?" She asked.

"Better. Ready to get out of here." Vanitas replied, looking at the wall more than his mother.

"Oh hello, I was just going over with your son, what he needs to do to recover quickly. Don't worry, we'll have all of this printed out for you all to take home."

At that he began to go over more things with the three of them. Vanitas's mom did most of the replying as the other two just sat and listened. When the doctor was done he said. "Alright that is everything. We should have a wheelchair ready for him in a few minutes, just hospital policy, like I said there shouldn't be any mobility issues when he gets home, and while you are on the way out, I'll give you the prescription for his painkillers."

With all said and done, with Vanitas's father pushing the wheelchair, the three made there way to the car and Vanitas asked. "Are Ventus and Sora at school?"

"Yes, sweetie. Ventus really wanted to be here, but Sora helped us convince him to go today. It's almost one now so they'll be home soon."

"Cool." Vanitas said shifting in his seat, as his mind wandered to Ventus and his soft lips, trying to hide his growing erection.

By the time they made it home, Vanitas was feeling even better. When they finally did make it, his mother turned to him as he father exited the car.

"You should get some rest for today, I'll be here all day, your father is going to head into work to pick some things up, but he'll be back soon. Do you need anything first?"

"Just my phone. Do you know where it is?" He replied.

"Yes honey, it is on your bedside table. Is that all you need?"

"Yeah mom, thanks. For everything" At this point his father opened his and his mother's doors, and said.

"Hey bud, I'll see you in a few hours."

"Yeah dad, thank you."

When Vanitas made it to his room, he noticed that the few things that were laying on the floor when he was last there were gone and he could see some of them put away. He shuffled over to his bed and and opened his bedside drawer, which to his relief was untouched, strawberry flavored lube and all. He sat on the side of the bed and grabbed his phone which had been charging luckily and began to check the notifications on it. It was mostly e-mails that could wait, some of which were messages through his school's website from other students, there were a few missed calls from random people, and two texts he could see were from Cloud.

The first one read,

Hey Vanitas it's Cloud. Call me if you want to talk.

The second one was merely a URL link to an article from a local newspaper's website. He opened the link and when it loaded his jaw almost dropped. The title read,

Alleged gunman transferred from hospital to juvenile hall.

As Vanitas scrolled down the first picture he saw was of Braig. He could tell it was taken in after the shooting as his nose was obviously busted, with a metal brace over the bridge and his right eye and left cheek were bandaged. Underneath the picture was a caption that read,

Braig Hunter, alleged gunman

The second one was Terra's school photo, which said beneath it,

Terra Stone detained suspect until law enforcement arrived

The third picture brought his blood to a boil. It was his own school photo, the caption saying,

Vanitas Sky shooting victim

When he stopped seething about the release of his name he began to read the article. It wasn't very interesting to read. It was obviously a follow up to a more detailed article, merely stating Braig's name, which evidently was just released, and that he was briefly hospitalized and was at that point being transferred. It also mentioned that he had lost his right eye in the event, which Vanitas was too busy to feel anything about.

Most of the rest of the article detailed how Terra struggled with and was able to knock Braig out. As Vanitas had seen Terra fight before, he wasn't too surprised.

The final, most angering part, was the part about him. It was brief and said that while defending another attempted victim, as the article phrased it, he had been shot. The article stated that his injuries were relatively minor, but his release date was unknown, and his family declined to comment further. As far as he could tell none of the others had been named. His first instinct was to go and yell at his mother for releasing his name and not at least telling him, but he knew that that was not the right idea. Not then and not angrily at least. He knew he had to calm down and let his head clear first.

He put the phone down and laid down on his bed, looking at his ceiling. He picked the phone back up, considering calling Cloud, because he thought Cloud would be the most honest about whether or not people were talking, but it was still school time. He put some punk rock music on low on his phone and placed it on the bedside table. His mind wandered to the things he wanted to do when Ventus got home. Oh, the things he thought of for the next few hours.

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.