Ven felt dazed when Riku hung up, but thankfully, Vanitas had gleaned enough from Ven's side of the conversation to leap into action. In less than a minute, he was half-carrying Ven out of the restaurant, while Ven was too busy wondering what might have happened to Sora to focus on where he was walking.
The last time he'd gotten such a worrying call, Roxas had been sent to an intensive care unit after hurting himself. Sora had never shown any sign of that kind of behavior, but Ven still couldn't help but imagine that. Worse, Riku didn't answer his phone when Ven called again, meaning imagination was all Ven could rely on.
Vanitas drove silently, while Ven checked the address Riku had texted him on his phone. It was Twilight, a bar just at the edge of DSU campus, one Vanitas seemed to know.
"What would they be doing at a bar?" Ven asked under his breath. "They're high schoolers!" Vanitas's lips were tightly pressed together, but Ven could guess the answer he would have given otherwise.
The drive back from Daybreak to Radiant City had never felt this tortuously long, even though Ven knew deep down that it was as short as it always had been. Not knowing was eating up at him, draining his mental strength.
As they drove past Twilight, the high density of cars parked on all sides of the street gave Ven pause. He'd seen this once before—when he had gone with Terra to the party organized by DSU's sports teams at Traverse.
Vanitas looked at the state of the street too, grim. "I've been to the Twilight before," he said. "Their bread and butter is frat parties."
Hearing his thoughts confirmed didn't make Ven feel any better. "I just hope they're okay."
With a grunt of frustration, Vanitas pulled the car to a stop. "Screw it. Let's just go inside."
"Vanitas, we're in the middle of the street."
"Your brother needs you. We're not wasting time finding a parking spot miles away." He stepped out of the car decisively before Ven could protest, and though Ven was concerned, he couldn't help but feel grateful, too.
As soon as he entered the Twilight, Ven was brought back to the party at the Traverse. The setup was eerily similar—Ven supposed there were only so many ways to throw a party at a bar—except for the ornate greek letter logo on the banners, ΧΓΝ. Chi Gamma Nu. After Ven's previous interactions with its members, it felt like an ominous sign.
Ven's entrance turned a few heads; apparently, his identity was still of interest to some of the people here. Before he could get very far, Peter walked up to him with a loud, slurred, happy greeting. "Ventus! Didja change your mind about—"
"Knock if off, Pan," Ven hissed. Peter was barring his way in, his brother was nowhere in sight from where he stood at the entrance, and he was just about tense enough to fight anyone who stood in his way.
Before he could move, Vanitas's hand fell on his upper arm, holding him back. "We're looking for someone. Seen him? Shortcake, blue eyes, brown hair, Destiny Islander type. He's with his friend, um—"
It took a moment for Ven to catch up that Vanitas had never seen or met Riku. "Riku. Tall, long silver hair. Bit of a bad boy aesthetic."
Oblivious to their attitude, Peter winked. "This is a private party, so if you're not here to join Chi Gamm—"
Annoyed, Ven grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him, forcing Peter halfway to his knees with a yelp. "Listen here, you little shit," he said, practically growling, "if you don't want your fucking fraternity to deal with all the underage drinking going on here, which now includes two sixteen-year-olds, you either tell me where they are or you fuck off so I can find them. Understood?"
"S-sixteen?" Peter's eyes widened, and he flinched at Ven's scowl. "Okay, okay! Just don't call the cops."
"Or the dean?" Vanitas suggested in a sickly-sweet voice, the underlying threat obvious.
Peter raised his hands in surrender, and Ven let go of him. He collapsed on the floor with a thud, then scrambled to his feet. "Enjoy the party," he said, though he was already looking to some of his frat brothers, panic slipping through his mask.
Ven ignored him as he moved into the bar. "I can't see them," he told Vanitas. It was only at the sound of his own voice—high-pitched and breathy—that he realized he too was starting to panic.
"Well, Pan certainly looked like he saw them." Vanitas looked over the crowd, eyes narrowed. "Did you hear any background noises from the party when Riku called you?"
"Um—" Ven tried to recall, but his brain had been too panicked to register the details. Still, hearing the sound of the party now, he didn't think he would have heard Riku as clearly if he'd been in the thick of it. "I don't think so?"
"Let's check the bathroom."
"The bathroom?"
Vanitas shrugged. "It's where I'd go if I wanted a quiet place at a party like this. Relatively speaking, anyway."
As Vanitas led the way to the back of the bar, Ven's mind conjured up anxious images one after the other. He wondered why Vanitas knew this; had he been to such a party before, needing 'some quiet' of his own. Was it related to Unbirth? Was Sora awaiting in the bathroom of a bar, high on something dangerous and unable to even call his brother anymore without his boyfriend's help?
When Ven entered the bathroom, though, it was even worse than that. Vanitas had frozen upon entering, but Ven's vision tunneled on Sora, sitting against the wall, his face and shirt bloodied, and suddenly, he was back to last spring, and it was Roxas lying there, barely hanging on in a hospital bed.
Riku was by his side, but Ven didn't bother to acknowledge him; he was by his brother in an instant. Sora's eyes looked distant and glassy, but when Ven crouched in front of him, they acknowledged him, though they weren't focusing right. "Ven?" Sora whimpered.
"I'm here, Sora. I'm here. Tell me what happened."
"I—don't know," Sora replied. "Fell down, I think."
From beside Ven, Riku supplied, "He was carrying out drinks, and he fell down. He cut himself on the glass shards trying to get up."
Ven glanced down at Sora's hands, finding them clumsily wrapped in bloodied, wet toilet paper. "And you didn't call—" His angry rebuke died in his throat when he saw the guilty look on Riku's face. Besides, he had called for help—his.
"My head hurts," Sora added, frustratingly vague. "'S not a headache," Sora protested. "It hurts." He raised a hand to the side of his help, the gesture uncertain. The toilet paper fell from his palms, and he unhelpfully smeared blood from his cuts into his hair as he rubbed a wide area. Then he hand fell down, and he passed out.
"But that's just the booze, right?" Riku asked, frantic.
"Could be," Vanitas said from behind Ven. "Did he take anything else?"
"No!" Riku protested "We wouldn't—"
"I wasn't asking you."
Confused by Vanitas's rebuttal, Ven glanced back, and froze. In his rush to get to Sora, he'd walked right past the other man standing in this bathroom: Xehanort Ansem—the younger one. Vanitas was devoting his entire focus staring him down.
"I don't know I like what you're implying," Xehanort said. Vanitas simply glared silently. "I saw one of the younger Enix twins in need, and I offered my help. We're practically family, after all." He ended that sentence with a smirk that belied his innocent—almost indignant—tone.
"I didn't know who else to trust," Riku said. "Sora took a drink from someone, but I didn't see who it was. He showed up to the party after Sora fell, and he said he knew you, so I thought—"
Ven sighed, and smiled at him, hoping it looked convincingly soothing—even though he felt nothing close to that. "It's—complicated. We'll talk about it later."
"I was hoping I'd find you here, actually," Xehanort continued, still holding Vanitas's gaze. "And I guess I did after all."
"Aren't you supposed to stay away from him?" Ven said, more than happy to have an outlet for his rising anger. "I thought that was the terms of your truce. You know, after what you did to him."
Xehanort looked at him. "That's why I'm here. To make amends, as best as I can." He shrugged. "As a show of good faith, your brother's been dosed with Midazolam." He held up a small device, barely bigger than a phone, and held it out to Vanitas. "In case you want to double-check."
Vanitas took it with the same caution one would use when approaching a venomous snake, and read the device's screen. He turned his gaze back to Xehanort, somehow darker than before. He didn't say anything once he was done; he only turned his gaze back to Xehanort, somehow even darker than before.
"Okay," Ven said, "so—what do we do? Should I call an ambulance, or—"
"Best not," Vanitas said. "This doesn't require a hospital. "And—it'll just raise questions. Though it's your call."
"He—told everyone he was Roxas," Riku interjected. "Because he took the car, you know."
"He what?" Ven averted his gaze before he lost his temper, closing his eyes and counting to ten as he took deep breaths. "We're dealing with that later." He looked back to Vanitas. "Where to, then?"
"I have a first aid kit back in my dorm room," Vanitas said. "Should be all we need. And he can sleep it off there, too."
"Okay," Ven said. "Okay, let's do that. We'll get Sora to your car, and I'll go get Roxas's car back—"
"No, leave it," Vanitas said. "You had drinks at dinner. You're not driving right now. It can wait until morning."
Ven prepared to protest, but the truth was he didn't want to get away from Sora anyway. "Fine, I'll—"
"Let me help with the car," Xehanort offered.
"No." Vanitas's answer was short and hard. "You're leaving."
"Not until I've said my piece. See, Dad had a few interesting words with me since the last time we—"
"Not interested," Vanitas said. He finally stepped away from where he'd been planted this whole time, and came to kneel beside Sora, motioning at Ven to help him carry him out.
To Ven's surprise, Xehanort let them out of the bathroom, and when they stepped outside, the crowd inside the Twilight parted for them in a sea of shocked gazes. Though among them, Ven noticed, were more than a few phones and camera flashes. Reflexively, Ven threw Sora's hood over his face, though he doubted it was much help.
Vanitas's car was still in the middle of the road where they'd left it. Riku took over for Ven to help get Sora settled in the back seat, but before he and Vanitas could get to their seats, a hand fell on Ven's shoulder. He whirled around, and saw that Xehanort had followed them—and stopped both him and Vanitas in their tracks.
"You need to understand," Xehanort said. "When Dad wanted you to get close to Ventus Enix, we only thought you'd become friends, and then he'd spring the truth on you, not—" He sighed. "He was so broken up about us, you know. So when he found out you slept with your brother again—"
Ven's mind went blank. "He—what?"
Beside him, Vanitas looked like his entire brain had shut down.
"See for yourself." From the inside of his coat, Xehanort pulled a thick envelope, and held it out in front of him. When neither of them moved, he sighed, stepped forward, and reached for Vanitas's hand. Vanitas hissed at him when they made contact, but he remained still as Xehanort pressed the envelope into his hand, then stepped back. Vanitas still didn't move—not even to look at the envelope's contents.
Ven didn't care much for those contents. "That's ridiculous," he said. "How would that even—"
Xehanort shrugged. "What do you think? Our Dad really hates your family. He found an opportunity to get back at you, so he took it." He glanced at Vanitas. "By taking your twin brother. Twins run in your family, so he just had to"—he mimicked plucking a flower out of thin air—"take one. The goal was to get his share of the company back through Vanitas, though, not—" He nodded at the two of them. "Well, I guess I don't get to judge."
"That's—" Ven started, but his retort died in his throat.
"We're leaving now," Vanitas said, his voice devoid of emotion. "Kid needs care."
He shrugged off Xehanort's hand and shoved him back, forcefully but without animosity—like he was an inanimate object blocking his path. Ven hesitated another second, but the reminder of Sora urged him to follow.
Still, once they were in the car and Xehanort vanished in the rear view mirror, Ven couldn't help but notice the way Vanitas's eyes never met his.
The one silver lining was that Twilight was close enough to campus that the ride back was mercifully short. Ven wasn't sure that really made anything easier.
Because it was still plenty of time for his brain to go over things he knew about Vanitas. His dyed hair. His eyes, laden with gold after a medical procedure, hiding their natural color—blue? Their similar size and stature; Ven was intimate enough with Vanitas's body to know just how similar they were.
Similar enough to be twins? It seemed like a stretch, but with Vanitas's scars and tattoos, and his more muscular build, it was hard to be sure. And the way Vanitas wouldn't look at him only made Ven's fears worse.
Once they were back at the dorm, they set Sora down on Vanitas's bed, and Vanitas gave Ven his first-aid kit silently. It took all of Ven's focus to summon his first aid training as he got to work, but that was probably for the best, since it meant he couldn't think of, well, everything else.
Sora was, ultimately, mostly unharmed. The cuts on his hands were only skin-deep, and easy to patch up. Most of the blood actually came from a slightly deeper cut on his forehead, just under his hairline. Stitching it closed was nerve-wracking, but Ven refused to give into it. His brother needed him, and nothing else was allowed to matter right now.
Once he was done, satisfied with the stitches, he wrapped the wound with gauze, and finally, there was nothing more to do.
He looked at Vanitas. Nothing more, except that everything else he'd been ignoring. At some point, while Ven was busy, he'd changed out of his suit, and into one of his more usual outfits—black jeans, black-and-red hoodie, combat boots. As if getting ready to fight someone, or run away.
"Can you get him undressed?" Ven asked Riku, without tearing his eyes off Vanitas. "And keep an eye on him. We'll just be a minute."
Riku glanced at him, confused, but Vanitas had already caught on to his intent, and was heading out, so Ven went out of the room after him, closing the door behind him.
"Midazolam is a cousin of roofies," Vanitas said. "Common date rape drug."
It wasn't what Ven had expected to talk to him about, but it was enough to cut him down in his momentum. "I'm going to kill them."
"The whole fraternity?" Vanitas scoffed. "Maybe I'll help you."
His glib retort gave away his state of mind, and it was enough to set Ven back on track. "We have to talk about this. You can't believe him."
"Oh, I don't believe many things my foster brother said tonight. Like that it was a coincidence that he was there. I'm familiar with Midazolam thanks to him."
Ven suppressed a shudder at the implication. "Riku said he showed up—"
"After Sora fell, yeah. Probably had an accomplice. But still. I know him." He paused. "That's why I know—"
"Vanitas."
"Don't say my name like that."
"Like what?"
"Like I'm worth your love."
Ven bit back his retort. He had hoped they were past that point, but Vanitas had just faced his abusive brother. "Look. I'm gonna prove to you that he's lying. He has to be lying."
"How are you gonna do that?" From his pocket, Vanitas fished out an all-too familiar envelope—but it was now ripped open, its contents peeking out. He must have read them while Ven was taking care of Sora. "DNA test. We're a match."
Ven scoffed. "And you believe that?"
"Do I believe that they found the perfect way to hurt me again? I wouldn't put it past them. Besides, it would be just like me to do this, wouldn't it? First boyfriend's my foster brother, where else could I go for the second one?"
"This has nothing to do with what he did to you. I'm sure you realize that."
"But that's the thing, isn't it? It's actually worse than what he did." Then his gaze shifted—from pained to determined. "You didn't wonder why there were two beds in the nursery?"
It took Ven a moment to connect the dots Vanitas was hinting at—the pictures his Abuela had sent him. "Vanitas, it's just a mistake—"
"Is it? Because if it's for Sora and Roxas, where are you in that picture?" He raised an eyebrow. "And—"
"And it wasn't their nursery in the picture," Ven completed. "It was my childhood bedroom." It was a detail he hadn't caught on at the time, but it was now at the forefront of his mind in stark clarity.
Vanitas nodded—maybe he'd guessed, or maybe he had other arguments in store Ven hadn't considered yet. Either way, he didn't argue any further. "I can't deal with this," he said instead. "Not again."
"Then what—"
"Stay with your brother, Ventus. The one who actually deserves it." His hand got a hold of Ven's, briefly, and when they parted, his room key rested in Ven's palm.
His meaning was clear. "And where are you going?" Ven asked.
"Don't worry about me, corazón. It's other people who'd better beware."
The use of the pet name broke Ven's heart, enough that when Vanitas moved away, he couldn't bring himself to follow. By the time Ven got moving, Vanitas was in the elevator, the doors slowly closing between them.
In the time it took Ven to cross the hallway, they were firmly shut.
He considered going after him. Running down the staircase, even—all seven flights of them if needed.
But then he looked back. His brother—other brother? the thought still seemed ludicrous, no matter what Xehanort or Vanitas claimed—was right there, and he needed him.
And yet, Ven couldn't shake of a sense of dread from the look in Vanitas's eyes. "Please stay safe," he whispered to himself.
