Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any of it's characters or else Donald would FREAKING HEAL SORA BEFORE HE ALREADY USED A POTION! But... I don't so Donald will forever make us all angry.
This is a more happy chapter, I'm gonna build Vanitas up a bit before Aqua and Terra's Mark of Mastery Exam, because he is a sweet little kitten who deserves to be happy damn it! So enjoy the warm fuzzies :)
Months went by, Xehenort treated Vanitas just the way Vanitas had always imagined him to treat Ventus. When they trained in the mornings, Xehenort actually taught him from scratch, going through the stances and moves, then the methods, then the applications, and Vanitas had become a much stronger fighter for it. They had gone through tactics for single, small groups, and large groups of enemies and it was noticeable that Vanitas was getting far less injuries during each battle. They had even started some basic magic like Fire, Ice, Thunder, and Gravity. Though Vanitas was still a novice at all of them and could not figure out the time stop at all.
Every morning Xehanort made Vanitas a nice breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and every day Vanitas would get excited over a new dish at least for dinner (the expanse of sandwiches was limited) and would gratefully thank his Master for every meal. After dinner, Xehanort would usually take him up to the tower to stargaze and just talk about the little things that friends would: hopes, ambitions, jokes, buckets lists, etc. And then Vanitas would sit on the couch under a blanket next to Xehanort and watch movies. Xehanort had been pleasantly surprised that Vanitas did not like cartoons and romantic comedies like Ventus always had, he loved action, horror, and occasionally sci-fi.
It was a bright Friday morning when Xehanort decided that today he would show Vanitas some advanced magic, not really expecting him to learn it just yet, but just to inspire him with what he could do if he practiced enough. He went to Vanitas' room and woke the sleeping boy up for breakfast and training.
When they stepped outside, Vanitas drew his keyblade ready for warm ups and drills, but Xehanort told him to put it away.
"Why, Master? I thought warm ups were essential?" Vanitas questioned so respectfully, you would never have recognized him.
"Today I'm going to show you some things, just for fun. You've been working hard and I want to show you some of what you will learn in the future if you continue working hard," Xehanort responded, taking off his coat to stand shirtless in just pants and boots.
"Magic isn't always offensive," the elder started, "It can do many things both defensively and creatively. The great Master Merlin actually uses most of his magic to do household chores," at that they both smiled at each other and Vanitas laughed a little bit. "When Yen-Sid's apprentice, Mickey, first started, he managed to flood the whole castle trying to enchant the mops to do all the cleaning so he wouldn't have to. He executed it poorly, but it was such a good idea that Yen Sid adopted it and you can still find a few brooms doing the chores around his castle, as well as an army of them in Disney Castle where King Mickey rules."
Vanitas looked surprised, "Yen Sid taught a King?!"
"Yes, he was one of my Master's apprentices, though much older than Eraqus and I. He only ever taught Mickey, but he is one of the administrators for the Mark of Mastery Exam."
Just thinking about the Exam made Vanitas a bit queasy, although he knew he couldn't take it for 2 more years at least.
"Merlin also enjoys the magic of transfiguration, though he has focused it on animals."
"What do you mean?" Vanitas was sitting down with his legs crossed now, looking like an eager child listening to his grandfather's stories.
"Well, Merlin likes to explore the worlds from different points of view, he prefers walks in the woods as a squirrel, or the oceans as a fish, instead of just exploring the world as a man can. If I recall correctly, he managed to get himself and King Arthur into trouble years ago when a pair of female squirrels took a fancy to them. Since then he is much more careful about transforming during mating season," Xehanort said it so gravely that Vanitas couldn't help but burst into laughter, and soon his master joined in.
Once they had both calmed down enough to talk again, Xehanort rebooted his speech, "Anyway... transfiguration has become a very important part of being a Keyblade Master ever since the worlds broke apart in the great war. When travelling we must fit in and be sure not to meddle in the affairs of other worlds, and so it is essential to look like the natives. The more advanced you are in transfiguration, the more native you'll be able to look. Sometimes its as simple as changing your outfit, but sometimes you may have to change your species all together! You may find yourself in Atlantica and need to change into a merman or a fish, or arrive at Pride Rock and need to change into a Lion, Elephant, Giraffe, or even a mouse, depending on which species you need to communicate with. If you go to a place like Atlantis, you would need to change your hair and skin tone to look like the natives as well. So mastering this art will make your travels go much more smoothly. I once had to go to a place called Neverland, and the rulers there are actually children. When I appeared as an adult, I was shot at and wound up ostracized with some pirates, but after transforming into a child, I was able to complete my mission, so sometimes it is not only helpful, but necessary. Are you following all of this?"
Vanitas nodded, whether he would remember every word was questionable, but he thought that transfiguration sounded fun, and the scenarios were only confirming his excitement.
"Good, now I will show you some basic transfiguration first, I'm not going to teach you because I don't think your magic is where it needs to be, and I don't want you practicing this when you haven't conjured up a shield yet. But I thought you would enjoy seeing some."
Xehanort closed his eyes and whispered some incantation and in a puff of smoke, he was an eagle. Glorious and majestic, he opened his wings and took off, flying high above Vanitas to the apprentice's awe. Then he made a glorious near-vertical dive towards the ground, and there was a puff of smoke that looked nearly like the break of the sound barrier, after which landed not an eagle but a cat, which landed on all fours and scampered around a bit.
After the cat, Xehanort turned into a lion, and roared for Vani, then a gray wolf and howled, then a mole and burrowed into the earth, and then came from the hole as a hooded cobra. After that Vani started making suggestions, excited to see everything his Master could turn into, and at last he made a rather shy request.
"Could... could you turn into... yourself? When you were younger?"
Xehanort returned to his true state and looked at his student, "How much younger?"
"Like um... in the painting in the tower..." Vanitas felt his ears get warm and knew he was blushing even though he tried to hide it. He looked away and stuttered, "N-never mind, that's stupid..."
But gentle fingers lifted his chin again, calloused but warm, to look into golden eyes, much brighter than before. Vanitas stared with his mouth open a little as he studied the smooth face, not yet covered in wrinkles around the mouth and eyes; the full, long, silver hair, swept back at the top but with some strands still left to frame his face. His lips were not pursed like they had been, they looked full and soft. And the voice that wafted into Vanitas' ears was no longer cracked and raspy, but deep and smooth.
"Like this, Vanitas?" The young man looked into Vanitas' eyes, trapping him in his gaze.
"Y-yeah..." Vanitas' voice cracked and his face got even hotter.
"Does it make you feel better to have someone closer to your age teaching you? To practice with like with Ventus?"
"Um... I... well... maybe... if you wanted to try that for a while... your still my Master, not my peer... but it might make practicing a bit easier..." Vanitas stumbled nervously through his words, feeling like he was meeting his hero for the first time or trying to talk to a celebrity.
"Very well then, we'll see if this helps your progress," The man pulled back to stand at full height, and without that hunched over thing Xehanort usually did, he was actually very tall.
Vanitas stumbled to his feet, still about 7 inches shorter than his Master, and looked everywhere but the handsome man's eyes.
"Well transfiguration certainly looks fun, I think I would want to be a raven most of the time!" Vanitas got excited again, looking back to his Master, "Or a black cat! I could sneak around at night and no one would even know I was there!"
Xehanort chuckled, "I can see you being a cat, but I don't think you'd sneak around much, you'd find some string and play with it for hours and never complete any of your missions."
Vanitas glared jovially, "Would not! I'd sneak up on people and turn into a leopard and eat them up before they knew what hit 'em!"
"Uh-huh, whatever you say, kitten," The elder smirked, but now it looked like a cocky high-school senior rather than a murderous villain.
"I'm not a kitten!"
"Then prove it!" Xehanort drew a Keyblade which Vanitas had never even seen before, it was black and had the head of a dragon at its base, it had two stems for durability and 3 prongs on the end for attack, there was also a bright blue eye embedded in the end that's gaze was even more captivating than Xehanort's himself.
Vanitas drew his own keyblade, a smile on his own face now before he summoned his helmet and immediately attacked his partner.
In the end, both men were sitting down panting, watching the sun set and laughing together like they had been wrestling over the last piece of pizza rather then beating each other with blunt metal objects to prove their might. Xehanort had won by far, but Vanitas was pretty proud of his performance. And as the sun went down and bathed the two in darkness, Xehanort stood up.
"Well, we had best go eat some dinner then," He said, holding out a hand to Vanitas.
Vanitas' stomach growled in agreement as he stood up and they both laughed, "I guess my stomach has a pretty strong opinion about that!" Vanitas laughed.
They went inside, ate, cleaned up, and Xehanort told Vanitas as he closed the dishwasher, "Best we get straight to bed I think, we'll be getting up extra early tomorrow to go celebrate how well you fought today. I really think you can beat Ventus when the time comes!" The elder smiled proudly at the younger and the younger felt a mix of pride and worry. He still didn't intend to fight Ventus... but could he really kill Xehanort after they had grown so close? Maybe there was another way to summon the X-blade, and then they could all be a happy family together. Vanitas would have to start studying in the library, figure out all he could about the X-blade, and then he could figure out what to do next.
Xehanort and Vanitas went their seperate ways, and as Vanitas laid down underneath his blankets, staring out the window at the moon, he thought of Ven, and wondered if they were both looking at the same night's sky. Vanitas decided that they were for his own comfort, and whispered a "Goodnight, Ven," before he drifted off to sleep.
A/N: Man! Before my Disclaimer and Author's Note, this chapter was 1,997 words! I thought it was cool because that's the year I was born in, I almost left out the extras so it would stay that way but oh well, I needed to say some stuff down here. Do not worry, gross old Xehanort and Vanitas are NOT gonna get together because even with him being all young with magic I can't get the image of gross old Xehanort out of my head. It's gonna wait til Xehanort regenerates or whatever you wanna call it so that I never never ever have to say "Xehanort's tongue travelled down Van's body"... except for just now and I shuddered a little bit. But I may give some romantic fluff to build up for when Vanitas is older and does get the boy. And AH! That little goodnight to Ven broke my heart, because Ven doesn't even know who Vanitas is anymore! Poor little Vanitas... he just wants his brother back and to have a family... I'm gonna wrap this up before I cry.
Stay tuned for a fluffy chapter next time and coming soon will be the Mark of Mastery Exam when Vanitas first arrived in Birth by Sleep. Oh and I want to give a special thanks to Monolaymoo, who has continually given good reviews and helped me stay inspired to finish this story! Bye-bye!
