Sora slowly awoke to see he was now sleeping in a nice big bed, realizing that he was now in Vanitas' room. "Well well well, good morning sleeping beauty." Vanitas chuckled from across the room.

"Vanitas? How long was I out?" Sora reluctantly asked.

"Hm…I'd say about 8 hours. It's 11 o'clock at night now. Namine already went home soon after I got back."

"What! I have to get back home! Oh man, dad's going to kill me!" Sora tried to race out of the bedroom, until Vanitas stopped him.

"Sora calm down. I told dad that you're moving in with me."

"You did what! Oh man, now I'm really in for it! He's going to come here and force me to go-" Vanitas suddenly grabbed Sora by the shoulders, making him lose his train of thought.

"Sora! Dad isn't coming for you! He doesn't even know where I live! Why do you think that I managed to hide from him for so long?" Vanitas embraced Sora in a tight hug. "I won't let him or anyone else hurt you ever again. If Seifer and his gang are bugging you, just come find me. I'll put them in their place."

"Why?" Sora sobbed, "Why are you doing all of this for someone like me?"

"Oh my…this again?" Vanitas moved Sora away so that they were now able to look at each other face to face. "Sora, you're my brother. In fact, you're the only one in our family, besides Roxas and Ven, that I can stand to be around. So in a way you are apart of me." Sora gave Vanitas a confused look causing Vanitas to blush. "Not like that you idiot! I mean that you're special to me. No wait! AHHHH! Why am I messing this up!"

"It's okay Vani, I know what you mean." It was Sora's turn to embrace Vanitas in a hug. "I'm sorry for making you worry."

"It's okay little bro. Just one more month and we'll join up with everyone in Twilight Town."

"Yeah I know."

-X-X-X-

The next few days at school were actually bearable for Sora. Seifer and his gang had stopped bothering him, and were actually avoiding him. It might have helped that Vanitas didn't let Sora out of his sight for a second while he wasn't in class. And for the first time since Riku left, Sora was happy. Even though all of his friends are now in Twilight Town with Riku, he was okay with it because with each day that passed ment that he was another day closer to moving day. Before he knew it, it was graduation time, and Sora was ecstatic. The day he had been waiting for was finally here. Sora was all ready in his cap and gown, waiting patiently for the graduation ceremony to begin.

"So little bro, you excited?" Vanitas smirked.

"Are you kidding? Today's the day I get to see Riku again! How can I not be excited!" Sora practically shouted.

"Hehe, let's just make it through the ceremony first. Our flight doesn't leave for another 2 hours, and the movers finally got all of our stuff out to our new place." While waiting for this day to come, Sora and Vanitas found a place to live in Twilight Town. They managed to find one that was pretty close to the address Riku gave them, so Sora was even more ecstatic about leaving.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. I'll be right back."

"And where do you think you're going?"

"To the bathroom Mr. Nosy. Even graduates have to go." Sora quickly made his way to the restroom, leaving Vanitas waiting in line with the rest of their class.

-X-X-X-

After Sora was done with his business and washed up, he made his way out of the bathroom and back to the rest of his class. 'Hehe, I can't believe it! In a few short hours, I get to see Riku again. I can't believe it!' Sora happily thought, but his thoughts were cut short when he accidentally ran into someone. "Oh, excuse me, I didn't see you th-th-there." Sora's eyes widened in horror when he saw who he ran into, it was his father.

"Ah Sora, so that's where you were. I was getting worried when I didn't see you with the rest of your class." His father said, with a smug look on his face.

"Wh-What're you doing h-here?" Sora stuttered.

"What? Can't I see my own son's graduation?" Sora's dad slowly started to approach Sora, backing him into a corner. "You know you had me worried when Vanitas came over and said that you decided to move out. You could have at least called me."

"I-It wasn't my idea to m-move-" Sora was cut off with a harsh slap to that face.

"Oh shut up you fucking slut. You think that you can just leave whenever you fucking feel like? Well guess what, after you're done with this graduation thing, you're coming straight home with me."

"Wh-what! No!" Sora was greeted with another slap to the face.

"You dare talk back to me! I'm your father, and you'll treat me as such."

Sora had to fight back the tears as he stared back at his so called father. "You were never my father."

"What was that?"

"The second you started beating me you were more of a stranger than a father to me. And I'm not going back home with you, I'm moving away to live with Riku and be far away from you!" Sora didn't know where the new found courage, but he wished he found it earlier, maybe things would have turned out different for him.

-X-X-X-

'Sora where are you? The ceremony is about to start.' Vanitas thought to himself, looking around for his younger brother.

"Seifer you are a genius, ya know?" Vanitas recognized that voice anywhere. He turned to see Seifer and his gang sitting in the bleachers, not having the grades to graduate.

"Hehe, I know. That faggot thinks that he can just leave here without one more good beating, ha!"

"He's here?" Fuu, the only girl in Seifer's group asked.

"I suppose so. I mean he sounded really pissed over the phone. But I'm sure he wouldn't miss one last chance to make his own son miserable." Vanitas' eyes widened when he realized who they were talking about.

'Dad's here! Crap! Sora's definitely in trouble!' Vanitas raced out of line, and quickly made his way to someone sitting in the bleachers. "Hey you have to come with me."

"What why?"

"Sora's in trouble, and he needs help, now!"

-X-X-X-

The next thing Sora knew, he was being help in mid-air by his throat, desperately gasping for breathe, but to no avail.

"You really are a faggot. I'd rather die than live knowing that not one but both of my sons are fags!"

"P-Please…st-stop this…" Sora gasped out.

"Oh I'll stop when you're a corpse. You aren't going anywhere! Especially not to someone who'll corrupt you even further than you already are!" Sora's father tightened his grip on Sora's throat, almost tight enough to break the poor teen's neck. Sora was slowly drifting into unconsciousness, his whole body began to go limp, his eyes clouding over making the entire world blurry. He truly thought that this was the end when all of a sudden his father dropped him to the ground. Sora's body was still limp as he didn't make any attempt to pick himself up. From what he saw, two figures were standing behind his father, one with black hair and one with silver. He assumed that the black haired person was Vanitas, but he couldn't think of who the silver haired person was, but then it hit him.

"Ri-Rik…"Sora tried to gasp out, but the pain in his throat cased him to stop.

"You son-of-a-bitch! How could you do that to your own son!" Sora didn't recognize the voice, but he figured it was a girl's voice, meaning it wasn't who he thought it was.

"This is none of your business bitch, this is a family matter!" Without a word in response, the girl took something out of her pocket and aimed it at Sora's father. "Wh-what are you doing?"

"Now dad, just get out of here, and nothing will happen. We won't press charges so long as you stay the hell away from me and Sora!" Sora's dad looked like he was going to respond, but backed away when he saw the girl get closer.

"Fine, I'll leave. But don't expect to get any support from me for the rest of your lives!" With that, Sora and Vanitas' dad stormed off. Vanitas and the mystery girl quickly made their way over to Sora.

"Hey, are you alright?" The girl asked, placing a hand gently on Sora's throat to see if there was any severe damage. Sora just winced, and continued to lay where he was.

"Sora, can you breathe?" Vanitas asked worriedly. Sora just shook his head. The girl, who was still blurry in Sora's eyes due to the lack of oxygen, leaned her head down to Sora's chest to check his breathing. He was barely able to get any oxygen in.

"I'll have to give him mouth-to-mouth." The girl explained, Vanitas just nodded. The girl placed her lips onto Sora's, giving him a few good breaths of fresh air into his lungs. She gently massaged his throat to make the air flow easier throughout his body. After about a minute or two, Sora was able to breathe on his own, and he sat himself up, his vision slowly began to go back into focus. "Are you feeling better?" Sora just nodded and finally got a good look at the girl.

She had silver hair that reached down to her shoulders, with sky blue eyes that were similar to his, and pale skin that made her look like a ghost. She wore a red sweater despite it being 80 degrees out with black jeans with matching boots on. But the one thing that stood out the most about her to Sora was a small black heart tattoo that rest just to the right of her right eye. He didn't know why, but it just stood out to him.

"Who…who are you?" Sora choked on his words, but it wasn't enough to cause him severe pain.

"Oh Sora, this is Hikari, she came here all the way from Twilight Town." Vanitas answered.

"T-Twilight…T-Town…?" It hurt to speak, but he managed to get those two words out.

"Yeah, Riku asked me to come." Hikari explained, and this made Sora's eyes light up. "He really wanted to come and surprise you by coming to your graduation, but something came up, so he asked me to come and video tape it." She showed Sora a video camera she brought. "So you're Sora? Riku told me a lot about you." Sora smiled at the statement.

"Um I know you two just met and all, but we'd better get back in line. You two can talk on the plane ride to Twilight Town." Sora and Hikari nodded, Hikari leaving the brothers behind. "Okay Sora, upsy-daisy." Vanitas helped Sora off of the ground, brushing off the dirt on dust that got on his cap and gown. "Let's go little bro. Let's get this show on the road."

-X-X-X-

The rest of the day went smoothly. Sora and Vanitas both got their diplomas, and Hikari got the whole thing on video, making sure to zoom in on Sora per request from Riku. Right after everyone in their class got their diplomas, they all tossed up their caps in the air in their first real celebration of freedom. Once they made it through the sea of graduates, Sora and Vanitas found Hikari.

"Hey, congratulations you two!" She cheerfully greeted, giving each of them a hug. "How does it feel to be free men."

"It's incredible!" Sora excitedly replied giving her another hug. "I probably wouldn't be here to celebrate if it wasn't for you and Vani here." Vanitas playfully punched Sora in the arm, Hikari just giggled.

"Don't thank me, I wouldn't have known you were in trouble if 'Vani' didn't tell me." Sora smiled at his brother.

"Oh, um…"

"Yes? What is it?"

"What did you…? How did you…?"

"'How did I make your dad back off?'" Sora just nodded. Hikari reached into her pocket and took out a stun gun. "I never leave home without it. You never know when you might need it." She explain, placing the device back in her pocket.

"Well I for one am really happy you had it."

"Hehe, no problem. So you guys want to head toward the airport now? Or do you want to say goodbye to some people?" Sora and Vanitas looked around to see most of the students leaving with their family.

"No let's go, all of our friends are waiting for us." Hikari nodded and headed over to the parking lot, leaving Sora and Vanitas behind so she can get her car.

"You sure you're going to be okay?" Vanitas asked.

"Yeah I'll be fine. All that matters now is meeting up with everyone at our new home." Vanitas nodded, and waved down Hikari who was driving up in a blue Mercedes. "Whoa, is this your car!" Sora was in awe.

"Yep, I keep this at my parents house, hop in. You don't want to miss your flight do you?" The two boys hopped in the car as it sped away toward Destiny Island Airport. Sora and Vanitas went to the restroom to change while Hikari went and took care of their luggage and got their tickets. When they got back, Hikari was sitting next to their gate, waiting for their flight to get ready.

"Hey so you got everything?" Vanitas asked.

"Yep, so who wants the window seat?"

"I do!" Sora practically shouted as he grabbed the ticket from Hikari's hand.

"Hehe, I guess that means I'll take the aisle seat." Vanitas said, taking the other ticket.

"Alright, so I'm in the seat right next to you Vani. Hehe."

"You know I'm going to kill you for telling her my nickname right?" Vanitas glared at Sora.

"Hehe, oh you can't kill me, you'd miss me too much." Sora said, giving Vanitas his signature puppy dog eyes.

"Yeah sometimes I wonder about that." Vanitas replied.

"So Hikari, how's Riku? Is he doing alright? Is he making enough money? Tell me everything!"

"Hehe, don't worry Riku's fine. But he made me promise to let him tell you how he's doing, so you'll just have to wait until we get to Twilight Town."

"Grr, that's just like making me wait." Sora pouted, Vanitas and Hikari just laughed at the poor guys' face.

"Don't worry, we'll be there in no time." Vanitas reassured. The three of them waited until their flight was ready, and each boarded and sitting in their assigned seats.

'I can't believe it. I get to see Riku and everyone again. I wonder if they're still the same.' Sora thought to himself as he drifted off to sleep as the plane began to take off. 'I hope Riku hasn't changed…'