I have shipped Ventus and Sabrina since 2013, their ship name is VenSabi, and you can pry them from my cold, unfeeling fingers.

i mean

um...

Let's talk about Vanitas! Or not. Maybe later-ish. Maybe.

Thank you for reading!

There were going to be about 50 new First Year students this year- Ven did the headcount. Was it a bad turnout? It seemed like a low number to him, considering how large the school was. He couldn't even remember his student orientation to recall the amount of students there. But weren't all the students cherry picked from around Departure County? Maybe this count was right after all.

'She's not here.' Vanitas grumbled somewhere to the left of Ventus.

"She is." Ven mumbled back, making a vague motion to the sound of Vanitas's voice. "She promised she would be."

Yet, despite telling himself otherwise, Ven still couldn't see Sabrina in the crowd. Right now, the new First Years were taking their house tests en masse in the auditorium. When they were done, they were to give their tests to the headmasters -all five sitting on the stage itself at a very long table- and wait for the others to finish. Once everyone had their tests reviewed, each headmaster took turns in announcing who was a part of their house. It was a very nerve racking time; it almost rivaled the stress during finals.

Ventus had thought that choosing to hide out in the balcony seat would have helped him see Sabrina better. He had been quickly proven wrong in that regard. Sure, he could see everyone, but he couldn't see them clearly. From the back you couldn't tell who was male or female- you only got a very good look at the back of their multicolored haired heads. Sabrina's hair was a raven black. He's never forget that. Too bad she wasn't the only new student with black hair, though…

"There she is!" Ventus declared, almost a bit too loud, when he saw Sabrina head up to the stage to hand her test in. It took all it had in Ven to not shout her name and wave over to her in hopes of getting her attention. But it was a massive relief in knowing that she was attending Daybreak Academy; he didn't have to call for her because she'd be on campus from now on. Maybe if the orientation finished quick enough, they could have lunch together.

Ven let out a sigh of relief as he relaxed now. Knowing that Sabrina was here led him to wait for the orientations to finish. He was so relieved that, when Invi stepped forward to announce the students coming into her house, Ventus almost didn't hear Sabrina's name among them. It took a solid minute for the realization to sink in, and when it did, Ven's heart nearly stopped.

He and Sabrina were not going to be in the same house. Okay, yeah, sure, it had been a one out of five shot. They wouldn't be sharing many classes, but they could still see each other after. It could still work. You know, just like it did with Ephemer and his other friends. Nothing to freak out about. It was just… disappointing. Yeah… Really disappointing…

The orientations finished up about 30 minutes after the house results were announced. Ven had snuck out just before the stream of new students came out of the auditorium. He waited at the front entrance for Sabrina to come out- idly passing time by watching the clouds roll by.

He only had half a second to register the happy exclamation of "Ven!" before being tackled from behind. A loud, undignified shriek escaped the boy's lips as both he and his tackler crashed into the ground. Ventus blinked for a moment, waiting for his senses to come back, before realizing who had now pinned him to the ground.

"Sabrina!" he rasped. "You… you're…!"

A wide smile stretched onto Sabrina's face. "Lemme guess," she said, "I'm a huge surprise! Or the best thing you've ever seen! Or, or…!"

"You're crushing my ribs."

"Oh." was the small answer. "Sorry about that..." and she quickly got off of him soon after. She even helped him get back onto his feet.

"So now what?" the girl asked him. "Classes start tomorrow, right? So what do we do now?"

Ventus blinked. There was no stopping with this girl, huh?

"We could go get lunch." he offered. A nervous laugh escaped the corner of his lips. "The cafeteria isn't that far from here."

"Sounds great!" Sabrina agreed with a cheerful nod. Ven smiled and before he was able to tell her anything else, Sabrina quickly grabbed him by the hand and led them both to the cafeteria.

. . .

"I can't believe we won't be in the same house." Sabrina pouted. "What a bummer."

"Yeah..." Ventus agreed with a little nod. "It'll be a bit harder to get together, but not impossible, I don't think."

"Will the schoolwork be the same?"

"Should be. I'd have to ask Brain or Lauriam about that." After a short pause, Ven then let out a small sound of remembrance. "Oh!" he exclaimed, "That's reminds me..."

Ventus reached down into his backpack and pulled out a three-ring binder filled with paper.

"I, uh, I wanted to give you some of the notes I made last year." he nervously said to her. "We won't have the same teacher for a lot of classes because we're in different houses, but it should still help. I think."

"Sweet!" Sabrina declared, taking the binder without a second thought. "Thanks Ven!"

The boy bashfully smiled while scratching the back of his neck as Sabrina poured through his notes. They weren't the best, but they would still work for studying. Ven watched her- he was quick to notice the faces she made as she tried to make sense of curriculum she had yet to learn. Her eyebrows were knit together and her nose was scrunched up, almost like a little rabbit.

"What was it like being adopted by rabbits?" Ven asked her- not at all realizing what he said before it came out of his mouth.

"Hmm?" the girl hummed. It took her a moment to realize what he was asking; when she did, she looked up at him with her nose even more scrunched up in disgust. "Ortensia's a cat. Oswald's the rabbit."

"O-oh..." Ven stumbled, "I didn't mean..."

"'S okay." Sabrina told him with a little wave of her hand. "I know what you're sayin.' It wasn't bad, honestly. Can't complain. They had a lot of money that they didn't know what to do with. Such as it is when you've got a multimillion billionaire to call a brother, and he's one of the slightly more generous ones. Or maybe he has a really guilty conscience? Old Ozzie was cut off from the money for years, so I've been told."

Then Sabrina's face softened a little. She looked Ventus over with a curious eye before asking, "What about you? What's your family like?"

If it was possible, Ventus's face went from a bright red to a ghost-like white. "M-my family isn't special." he sheepishly claimed, averting his eyes from her. "My parents are nice. I've got some siblings, but it's not..."

"How many?"

"Huh?"

"How many siblings do you have?"

"I have… four." Ven confessed. "Last year, just before I started going to school here, my mom had a pair of triplets. Sora, Roxas, and Xion. Roxas, he… he looks a lot like me. It's really weird. I haven't gone to see them in awhile though- I plan on doing it soon. I've kinda been waiting for Mom or Dad to give the okay. Gets kinda hectic raising three babies at once, or something."

"And what about the other one?"

He didn't mean to, but Ventus flinched. "What do you mean?" he asked her. But Sabrina wasn't having it; giving him an impatient click of her tongue.

"You said you have four siblings," she pointed out, "So what about the other one?"

"It's a long story."

"I have time."

But Ventus shook his head. "I can't tell you." he told her in a quiet voice. "You'll never want to be my friend again if I did."

Sabrina raised a bemused eyebrow at this. She's probably only known Ventus for a full day now and she had massive doubts that she would suddenly decide not to like him. Family was family- how bad could it really be? And, by golly, was she a stubborn one.

"Can I have a name, at least?" she asked him- she even put on her best puppy pout. Ventus made the mistake of looking at her for half a second and immediately gave in.

"Vanitas."

Without wasting a second, Sabrina followed up with another question. "What house is Vanitas in?"

Ven shrugged as he looked back down at the ground. "He's, uh, he's in An… guis..." He paused, only know realizing what he had said. He looked up at Sabrina with wide, fearful eyes. "Oh no."

"Oh yes." the girl snickered. "So he's here, at Daybreak, and we're in the same house! That's so awesome! I can't wait to-"

"But you can't!" Ventus quickly told her; he almost leaped at her to take her by the shoulders, but just barely stopped himself in time. "Vanitas is… Vanitas is…!"

His new friend was giving him a weird look. "Vanitas is…?" she repeated. She even rolled her hand at him- a not very subtle hint that he just needed to spit it out and get it over with. Ventus once more averted his eyes.

"You'll hate me." he mumbled. Ven's fist started to clench as he thought about Vanitas. He couldn't tell Sabrina about his brother. She wouldn't understand. She just wouldn't…

Ven jumped when he felt Sabrina calmly placed her hands into his. He looked up at her to be met with an unreadable expression. His heart leaped into his throat in realizing how much older she looked when she wanted to be dead serious; it was like the ten year old had switched bodies with a thirty year old instead.

"Ven," Sabrina then said, her voice quiet and still, "Is Vanitas even real?"