Ventus had almost forgotten about the weird letter in his locker about a week after the incident, but the next shock came soon.

Because all out of no where, the rumor of suspicious people sneaking around the university was spread by a lot of different students Ventus talked to.

He found it a bit weird, to be entirely honest, especially since he expected that these kind of people should normally be found relatively fast. It made him wonder if it wasn't a set-up scenario, safety controls or something like that.

Then again he remembered the bad feeling he had walking down the halls, and the weird note he had had in his locker. It all lined up too well to be a coincidence, didn't it?

Maybe reporting the incident had been a good idea after all, then. Of course he didn't know if it would change or help a thing, but at least he had tried.

What worried Ventus the most though was the fact that no one seemed to be honestly concerned about any of this, like one of these Sports students he had met one day.

"Nah, I wouldn't think too much into it! They've got cameras and all, right? It'll be a-okay!"

While it did sound like a highly naive try to take the seriousness out of the situation, he decided to appreciate it. Why not? Panicking probably wouldn't help him much either.

Still, he would make sure not to get into unnecessary trouble and go home as early as possible, just to be safe.

Maybe he was thinking too much into it. Hardly anyone seemed to really care about it, probably because this city was known for hardly any criminal activity. Even small things like shoplifting was rare.

Even so, hours later, he couldn't quite shake the fear off, which caused him to bump into someone so heavily that both of them fell.

He was embarrassed and helped the other person up, but the man apologized, saying it was his fault, and was gone before Ventus could say a word. This was terrible, and on top of it all, it hadn't even taken half a day for him to forget that he had wanted to go home early.

But since he made it back to his apartment safely, he decided it was alright. However, leaving Vanitas alone for too long couldn't be the best thing to do either.

The second Ventus opened the door, he knew he was right about that.

There was absolute chaos in his apartment. The kind of chaos caused by a couple fighting and throwing things at each other. Or by someone breaking into the place, which was obviously what made more sense.

He was cautious on his way to the living room, but not enough so, as the second he stepped into it, something carried him off his feet and into the air headfirst. It was like in a very bad movie.

"Vanitas, you royal jerk! Let me down!"

Ventus wasn't sure why, but there was no doubt his unwanted roommate was responsible for this, and it wasn't funny at all.

"Interesting. You feel like you've got everything under control, but you're missing the obvious details right before you."

The voice came from the kitchen, shortly followed by that horrible guy, that monster, that abomination stepping into the living room with a malicious grin on his face.

"Shut your face and tell me why my apartment looks like this!"

"Exactly how am I supposed to, what was it? Shut my face and explain something to you at the same time, idiot? Anyways: I tested you. Oh, and in case you want to know: You failed miserably."

That much was for sure. His failure had started when he hadn't called the cops on this guy immediately when he had had a chance. Everyday made him regret it a little more.

"Was it necessary to mess up my new place in order to do that? Look at this clutter you caused!"

"You sound sulky. I heard tidying up can help a lot with that."

"Oh yeah, you're so funny. Let me down!"

But Vanitas didn't even seem to consider doing that, instead casually leaning onto the door frame.

"The university, it was mentioned in today's news. I wonder if you got an idea why."

"Hm, I don't know. Maybe we won the national chemistry contest? I don't give a damn."

"Funny."

He laughed and made a few steps towards Ventus, whose mood was decreasing rapidly, partly to the fact that he was immobile, but mostly because the blood rushing into his head gave him a serious headache.

"Apparently there's criminals running around that place somewhere. And what does that tell us, Ventus?"

"Probably that I hate you."

"Wrong answer."

Vanitas stopped, right in front of Ventus, and due to the fact that they were both pretty short, they were almost at eye level. It was annoying.

"Yeah, cool, right. You enjoyed yourself and now it's time to let it go and live on, will you? It stopped being funny minutes ago."

"That's not the right answer either."

Ventus passionately rolled his eyes and gave up. There was just no getting through this insanity. However when his head was grabbed, he panicked and did the first thing that came to mind – spit in the perpetrator's face.

It wasn't the greatest idea ever, as obviously Ventus couldn't do much about his sweater being pulled down to clean the saliva off, but he did try to fight back nonetheless.

"Well then, I'll explain it to you."

Vanitas took a few steps back to the kitchen before turning around with the same bored, slightly mad expression he usually had. Now it didn't seem like he was having fun anymore at all.

"The fact that criminals run around at the university that you, coincidentally, attend, tells us that there might be the smallest kind of chance that they could be on your tracks, out of all people. You never know, do you? Well, and as I prefer not being woken at night by someone trying to kill me, it is probably inevitable to explain a few basic things to you."

Ventus shook his head in defense, closing his eyes.

"Listen. Even if I wanted to hear all this, I don't think I could comprehend anything right now. The blood almost makes my head explode, so if you'd be so kind, I'd be oh so grateful."

Vanitas seemed to be considering if it was worth it, then decided to in fact let him down with some weird construction somewhere in the kitchen. Just how had he managed to do this in such a relatively short time? And why?

He managed to let himself drop on the small bit of sofa that was still to be found between books and a chair, and leaned back, sighing audibly.

"Seeing that you have come down to earth, I suppose we can continue. Considering a TV was a slight mystery to you when we met – you do have a mobile phone, right?"

It was a dumb question, and Ventus rolled his eyes at it, but eventually nodded.

"Good. Where?"

Not that it was any of Vanitas's business, but thinking about it, Ventus hadn't checked his phone for quite a long time today, so he might as well…

Weird. It was not in his pocket, where he was sure it had been when he left the library. Maybe it was in his bag? You never knew, so he went to the hallway and checked that. Nothing.

"I...don't know," he admitted upon re-entering the living room.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh what could it mean, asshole?! I lost it, whatever, it's gone, doesn't matter."

Of course it did matter. He hardly had the money for food, let alone a new phone, and he was definitely not going to ask his parents for support with that just because he was too stupid to take care of his belongings.

"Don't be an idiot. One does not just lose a phone like that. Did anything happen on the way back?"

Why was this guy so overly protective, while at the same time being such a major dick? It was confusing and made Ventus mad beyond belief.

"Not really, I guess. Bumped into someone and fell on my sorry ass. Might have lost it there, I guess."

And with that, he wanted to let the topic rest as it should. However for Vanitas, this seemed to be just the beginning of it all.

"Oh, you bump into someone and your phone is gone. Quite coincidentally on the same day your university is declared possibly dangerous. There isn't, by chance, anything weird about that to you?"

He was mad. If it were anyone else, Ventus might have even used the term nervous, but this was Vanitas, a weird, crazy, downright creepy guy who had his feelings under control way too well.

"Just what am I supposed to do about it? It's gone and that's that!"

"No, it's not, Ventus. Consider this: Someone who wants to harm you, deliberately runs into you, catches you off guard and steals your phone. Do you have an idea of what that someone can do to you? The people you are close to? Don't make it sound like everything's okay."

"Could you stop being so paranoid? This wouldn't have happened if you hadn't shown up here in the first place!"

"Don't blame me for acting like an idiot."

"It's not my fault these things started happening once you made yourself my very unwanted roommate!"

It was when Ventus finished the sentence and saw the angry, furious look on Vanitas's face, that he realized he had made a mistake.

"These things?"

"You're not my mom and I'm not obliged to give you an account of my whole life!"

Ventus didn't even see the hand reaching for his collar before he was harshly pushed against the wall behind himself. Struggling to free himself didn't help at all, he wasn't nearly as strong as Vanitas, and also somewhat scared of what was going to happen now.

"I feel like you're missing my point"

"I don't want to get your point! Let me go!"

"I don't care about what you want. Are you fine with putting others in danger? Because if not, you better tell me about those other things that happened before."

"If you let the hell go of me, I would!"

He hesitated, but then probably realized that this wouldn't do much, and let go of Ventus.

Just why, why did this have to happen to him out of all people? Maybe if he were fast enough, he could lock himself in his bedroom, but then he wouldn't even have a damn phone to contact anyone with. It was cursed.

He took the note he had found in his locker from his nightstand's drawer and handed it over.

"Happy?"

But with every passing second, staring down onto the piece of paper, Vanitas seemed to be less and less happy.

"You're telling me this now?"

"Do you ever tell me anything? I'm not your prisoner!"

Instead of answering to that, Vanitas grabbed his jacket off the chair that was resting on the sofa and went to leave, but then turning back when he was almost out of the room.

"You're staying here. If you dare leave this apartment, I will not hesitate to break every single bone in your body. Lock the door."

With that, he was gone. No room for arguments, no room for reasoning. It was not like Ventus wanted to go out anyway, but still? What was happening here, where was Vanitas going and most of all, why was Ventus so sure he would see him again sooner than he wanted to?

He sighed, desperately shaking his head. Would his life ever return to normality?