Hello, hello fellow authors! For those of you waiting for the next chapter of Sonic Forces: Join the Uprising!, I must apologize for the radio silence on my end. I haven't forgotten about the story, it's just that 2021 was a shit year as my brother took with a stroke and he's now wheelchair-bound, which nearly killed my motivation to write. While he's much better now... it was pretty bad. So, I've been writing little one-shots on A03 to help get me back in the mood for writing. This is one of them. This little Vanitas, Aqua, and Kairi themed one-shot is my way of letting you guys know that I'm still here. Please read, review, and enjoy.

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts.

It's Not What It Looks Like!

Aqua couldn't help but think back to how her life has been this past year. It was only a year ago she was doomed to forever remain trapped in the Realm of Darkness. But thanks to Sora and Riku, she was saved. And then they managed to not only restore Ventus' heart, but also managed to finally free Terra from Xehanort's thrall. Now here she was, reunited with her dear friends and back at the newly restored Land of Departure. And on top of that, she had an apprentice of her own in the form of Kairi. She was everything you could ask for in a student: Diligent, hardworking, polite, determined. In many ways, she reminded Aqua of herself when she was younger and still training under Eraqus. All in all, life was pretty good...

...Or, at least it would be if it wasn't for the 500 pound being of darkness in the room: Vanitas.

Vanitas is the darkness in Ventus' heart given form, former apprentice to Master Xehanort, and former member of Organization XIII. While searching for Sora in the Realm of Darkness, they found an unconscious Vanitas. It seemed that instead of returning to his own time, his heart migrated to the Realm of Darkness instead. Aqua was more than happy to leave him to his fate, but Ventus had other ideas. Namely, he wanted to take him with them to the Land of Departure. Aqua reacted just as well as you'd expect. Which is to say, not well at all. Aside from all the chaos he and the Unversed caused, it was partially thanks to Vanitas that their lives were ruined as they were, so what made him worthy of another chance? But Ventus was firm, believing that Vanitas was as much a victim of Xehanort's schemes as they were. And to her great shock, Terra sided with Ventus. Having spent the last decade in Xehanort's literal shadow, Terra knew all too well what it was like to be manipulated by Xehanort. Feeling outnumbered, Aqua relented, but made clear in no uncertain terms that if Vanitas gave her a reason to even think he was slipping back into his old ways, she would step in.

And thus, Vanitas had spent the past month living with them all. While Aqua will admit that Vanitas had mellowed out considerably since his days as Xehanort's apprentice, that did not make him the best company. Aqua sometimes found it hard to believe that he and Ventus were once the same person. If she were to make a list of undesirable personality traits, Vanitas would most likely fall under every category. Having a personality seemingly consisting of every negative emotion in the English dictionary, he fit the description of "complete jerk" quite well. With Terra, he seemed to ignore his existence. With Ventus, there were some occasional arguments, but it was mostly peaceful. But when it came to him and Aqua, Vanitas seemed to make it his life's mission to make her life a living hell. He would take advantage of every opportunity to antagonize, annoy, irritate, and provoke Aqua. He always had an insult ready for her, along with his dry and venomous sense of humor. Some days she could power through and tolerate his attitude. Other days, it took all of her restraint (and some additional restraint from Terra and Ven) to not cast a Mega Flare spell and just vaporize the little asshole.

But what worried her more was Vanitas interacting with Kairi. Honestly, it made sense why Kairi would be more accepting towards Vanitas. For one, Kairi didn't have a personal history with Vanitas like she, Ven, and Terra had. And two, he looked just like Sora (which really disturbed Aqua that someone so cruel could have the face of one so innocent), so it was probably the closest she would have to having the real Sora around. But that only made it all the more worrisome for Aqua. She knew full well how manipulative Vanitas could be, and while she wanted to trust Ven that Vanitas wouldn't cause problems, there was still the nagging feeling in the back of her mind that Vanitas was just biding his time and waiting to strike when they were most vulnerable.

Aqua was walking down the hall to her room. She had walked past Kairi's room when she suddenly heard a voice cry out "Why do I have to take my shirt off?!". That caused Aqua to stop dead in her tracks. That was definitely Kairi's voice, alright. But it was the next voice she heard that truly made her blood freeze. "Oh, relax!" the voice said. "I'm pretty sure Sora's seen more of you than I have." There was no mistaking who that voice belonged to. Vanitas and Kairi... were in the same room... alone... together. There was so much wrong with that scenario. Also, why did he want Kairi to take her shirt off? Curious, Aqua pressed her ear to the door and listened in.

"You're such a pervert." Aqua heard Kairi grumble. For a few moments, there was silence before she heard Kairi give a small hiss of pain. "Easy." she said. "No need to be so rough."

"Apologies, Your Highness." came Vanitas' reply. "Being gentle isn't one of my strong suits. And considering the pounding you took earlier, you seem to like it rough. Besides, it's gonna feel good in a second." And true to Vanitas' words, Kairi let out a more pleasurable moan. "Mmm, yeah. That feels good." She said. Aqua listened in as Kairi continued moaning. "Ah!" Kairi cried out sharply. "That's it. Right there, that's the spot."

"What's wrong? Wanna stop?" Vanitas asked.

"No. No, keep going." Kairi said. "You're really good at this."

"Would you believe it's my first time?" Vanitas asked.

Aqua's eyes widened in shock as she listened in. "Okay, let's recap:" she thought to herself. "Vanitas and Kairi are alone in a room together and it sounds like they're... No, no, no, no, no, no. Get a grip, Aqua. So they're in a room together. That doesn't necessarily mean something... inappropriate. Don't jump to conclusions." With that, Aqua was about to head to her room until she heard Kairi speak again. "Okay, it's my turn now." Aqua pressed her ear to the door once again. "Wow, Vanitas, you're hard as a rock." Kairi said.

"You're making it hard." Vanitas replied with a grunt. "You're really good with your hands, Princess."

"Well, I've had plenty of practice with Sora." Kairi replied. Aqua backed away from the door with her hand clamped over her mouth and her eyes wide with horror. "Oh. My. God!" she thought to herself. That shock quickly gave way to anger. She knew it. She knew the bastard couldn't be trusted! And now he's trying to take advantage of an impressionable young woman? Her own student, no less?

Not in her house!

Summoning Stormfall to her hand, Aqua kicked open the door, fury and rage etched into every feature of her face. "YOU GET THE HELL AWAY FROM HER, YOU SON OF A-!" As quickly as it came, Aqua's anger vanished and was quickly replaced with confusion as she surveyed the room. Vanitas and Kairi were in the room, yes, but contrary to what Aqua was expecting, they were fully clothed. Kairi was dressed in a sports bra and shorts while Vanitas was dressed in his usual muscle shirt, black fingerless gloves decorated with spiked wristbands, and the pants and waist cape from his dark suit. Kairi was right behind Vanitas with her hands on his shoulders. For several moments, awkward silence filled the room as the trio stared at each other. Eventually, Kairi made the first move to break it.

"Um, hey Aqua." Kairi greeted. "What's up?"

"Um... what's.. going on?" Aqua sheepishly asked.

"Vanitas and I were training out in the woods and I fell into a hole and cut my back." Kairi explained. "So Vanitas was rubbing some ointment on me. And I thought I'd return the favor and give him a shoulder massage." A blush quickly spread across Aqua's cheeks as she quickly realized she has completely misinterpreted the situation. "And it was just a massage?" She asked, dismissing her Keyblade.

"Well yeah." Kairi said, seemingly unaware of what Aqua was implying. "What did you think it was?"

"Well, judging by the way Aqua barged in here with murder in her eyes, I suspect she thought we were doing something rather... explicit, am I right?" Vanitas finally chimed in with a nasty smirk.

Aqua's cheeks turned a darker shade of red as she realized she was caught red-handed. "Well... in my defense, it did exactly sound like a massage." Aqua retorted.

"So what did it sound like, Master?" Vanitas sarcastically asked, using her title more like an insult. "Thought I was taking advantage of a vulnerable young woman?" Suddenly, his voice adopted a mocking, high-pitched tone as he tried to imitate Kairi. "Oh, help me, Master Aqua! Vanitas is trying to violate me!" Vanitas broke out in derisive laughter. "Well, as you can clearly see, nothing happened. So you can take your mind out of the gutter, Mom."

"Don't turn this on me, Vanitas." Aqua snapped, crossing her arms over her chest. "I have no reason to trust you, that's all."

"Right, even though I've spent the past month living with you idiots during which I could've killed you all at any time." Vanitas scoffed. "You're really just drowning in that paranoia, huh? Tch, whatever. Besides, I'm sure you and Terra have gone at it a few times."

And in that moment, Aqua discovered that it was indeed possible to choke on air. Sputtering and blushing profusely, it took quite a bit for her to calm down enough to speak. "Excuse me?!" Aqua shrieked. "Yes, we're dating, but we aren't... there yet."

"Really?" Vanitas asked. "So you and he weren't having an intimate moment together yesterday?"

"That was just meditation!" Aqua shouted, her face beet-red.

"Oh, meditation. That's what you call it?" Vanitas teased, wearing the biggest shit-eating grin he could make.

"And we're done talking about this." Aqua said. "Both of you just stay out of trouble. Especially you." With that, the Keyblade Master hurriedly left the room, closing the door behind her. Her face was still flush with embarrassment and shame. "Way to go, Aqua." she thought to herself. "You put your brilliant mind to the test and came to the wrong conclusion. And you ended up making a colossal fool of yourself in front of your student. Some master you are. And you know Vanitas is never gonna let you live it down."

Vanitas, meanwhile, sat back on the bed, feeling pretty pleased with himself. "You know, you really shouldn't antagonize someone who can and has kicked your butt before." Kairi said as she went back to massaging Vanitas' shoulders.

"Well, it's pretty fun to knock her down a peg every once in a while." Vanitas replied. "She makes it so easy. Besides, the bitch has had it out for me ever since I came here."

"Gee, I can't imagine why." Kairi grumbled, rolling her eyes. As much as she's gotten to know Vanitas, even she could get a bit exhausted with his attitude sometimes. Still, the fact that he went out of his way to help her showed Kairi that Vanitas could be a good person at heart...

...at least when he wants to be.

The End


Well, that's my story. Till next time!