A Month in the Life of Ventus and Yugi

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or Yu-Gi-Oh! Both are owned by their respective owners, and I do not plan on profiting off either of them.

Chapter 1:

It was 5:00 in the morning. Yugi Muto was sleeping soundly in his bed, tossing and turning a bit. In about thirty minutes, he would have to be out the door in order to get his daily cup of coffee at the local café. Then he would have to pick up some newspapers along the way in order to scope out the competition. Finally, he would need to drop Ventus off at school; summer vacation was over, and he needed to figure out how to work Aqua overtime to cover Ven's usual hours without getting slapped in the face. Now all he needed to do was slowly get up and-

"Yugi! Help me!"

The thirty-year-old man sighed. "And here we go." he mumbled.

Without putting on his shirt, he scrambled for his comb, put on his pants, and rushed out of his bedroom. His day had begun again.

Ventus was shaking uncontrollably; he was sitting on the bathroom floor, cringing in the corner. When Yugi finally arrived, he was greeted by a toothbrush thrown to his face.

Yugi's face turned red and his usual scowl appeared. "VENTUS! What the hell was that for?"

"It's about TIME you showed up!" Ven snapped. "What kept you?"

"Hmm…let me think about that…Maybe it was because I was SLEEPING, you nimrod!" Yugi put a hand to his face. "Ugh…" Giving up, he asked, "What happened?"

"Look in the toilet!" Ven pointed a finger in the toilet bowl, his eyes wide with fear.

Shaking his head, Yugi walked over to the toilet and looked inside. "I don't know what you're so worked up about. It's just a piece of – OH, MY GOD!"

Yugi nearly fell over upon seeing what was in the bowl. What was in the bowl, you ask? Nothing really; it was just a giant street rat eating chocolate mousse.

Yugi's mouth dropped open, and sweat started pouring out the back of his head. Slowly turning his head to the young boy, Ven shrugged. "I told you so."

Remembering what he had learned in yoga class, Yugi took a deep breath and cleared his mind. Then he calmly asked, "Ven, I'm going to regret asking this, but WHY is there a rat in our toilet, eating chocolate mousse?"

Ven gulped. "That's what I was trying to tell you. I saw our pet rat was pretty dirty. So I put him in the toilet to get clean, because I know how you feel about letting him in the shower. Also, he was kinda hungry, so I gave him the chocolate mousse from the fridge."

"How many times do I have to tell you; we do NOT have a pet rat, and I will NEVER get you one, no matter how much you beg and plead." Yugi sighed deeply and shook his head in disgust. "It's bad enough that we have Jimmy running around, but a RAT? That's unacceptable."

Jimmy was Ven's pet gerbil, which Yugi had won in a duel against a pet owner, after Ven had begged and pleaded for him to get it.

"Humph." Ven pouted. "You're mean." He stormed out of the bathroom, slamming the door behind him.

Brushing off the toothpaste on his face, Yugi left the bathroom and watched the fuming Ventus walk downstairs. He couldn't help but feel a bit sad about what he had said, right that it had been.

He sighed. "Ventus…"

It was around five-fifty now. Yugi was riding his black motorcycle with Ventus in the sidecar. The young Keyblade Master had his arms crossed and wasn't looking at the older man at all.

Yugi hadn't meant to snap at Ventus. He just got a little fed up with Ven's antics is all; Yugi cared for his friend a lot. He was very worried that the boy might do something that could get him in trouble someday, and he couldn't let that happen.

In his mind, Yugi decided to make it up to Ven; in the evening, they would go out and get two bars of ice-cream and sit on the clock tower. That will cheer him up, Yugi thought. Ice cream always cheers him up.

After he dropped Ven off at school, he waved him goodbye. "See you after school!"

Ven waved back half-heartedly. He just replied with a simple "Yeah" and walked off with Hayner and Pence, who had been waiting on the stairs for him.

After watching him for a while, Yugi took off for work, hopeful for today's haul.

Yugi was the head of a newspaper publishing business, the Keyblade Chronicles, which focused on providing the citizens of Twilight Town with pure, unbiased reporting on the stories that 'people wanted to hear'. Critics called the Keyblade Chronicles, or KC, 'the last non-junky news source since public radio.' Despite this praise and worthy fan following, however, they were only publishing about twenty-thousand papers a month; they faced heavy competition from The Setzer Weekly. It was owned by his rival Setzer and his lackeys Seifer, Fuu, Vivi and some random weird guy who says 'Y'Know' a lot. Yugi didn't remember his name, and neither did anyone else, he guessed. Not like it mattered.

On the other hand, his business consisted of his closest friends. There was Riku, who worked as the field reporter of the group. He wasn't around much as a result; however, he was really good at finding stories and keeping the Chronicles alive. And then there was Terra, the self-proclaimed 'face' of the KC. Whenever there was a scoop, Terra's picture was all that was needed for readers to catch it. His masculine charm was just as helpful as it was sickening (At least to Yugi, it was!). And finally, there was the beautiful and charming Aqua. She was perhaps the most important member of all. Even though she only did the 'Letters to the Editor' and 'Public Opinions' sections, it was her unique writing style that kept their readers faithful. Aqua was a very kind-hearted person who seemed to connect to people, something Yugi valued the most in her.

Ventus was just a part-time secretary, who took in calls of breaking news or any official business Yugi had to deal with. Whenever he had school, Yugi or Aqua (but mostly Aqua) took over those menial tasks. Being the leader and founder, Yugi had to manage each section and make sure each section was proofread and checked. He also scheduled interviews with celebrities and other famous people in the worlds and wrote the stories himself for his own exclusive 'This Magical Life' section.

The reason his newspaper was called the 'Keyblade Chronicles' was simple; every single member wielded the magical Keyblade. Riku, Terra, Aqua, Ventus and even Yugi all wielded the Keyblade, whose magical powers allowed them capable of feats normal newspapers were incapable of doing.

Yugi smiled upon thinking about the business he had created, with a combination of hard work, determination, and a little bit of magic. However, even as he thought this, his mind failed to neglect the wretch who kept trying to take it away from him.

"Setzer…" Yugi grimaced upon saying his name. The egomanic Setzer was Yugi's rival, in more ways than one. Not only was he the leader of the newpaper The Setzer Weekly, but he was also the current Struggle champion. At one point, Yugi had been a Struggle fighter who lived a rough life, until the day he challenged Setzer for his championship title. It had been a long battle, but the battle was finally won by-

"Ah!" Yugi grabbed his head in frustration. His memory of that incident was too painful to remember; every time he tried, it always caused him mental pain.

Yugi looked at his watch. "I'm late! I'm late! For a very important date!" It was 5:59! The store opened at 6:00! Yugi narrowed his eyes. "It's time to kick this baby into overdrive!"

He summoned his Keyblade, Fenrir. Yugi focused his energy and thought of his workplace. Then he opened a secret compartment in his handlebars, which contained a Keyhole. Then, he inserted the Keyblade into the Keyhole, and with all the energy in his body, Yugi turned the Keyblade.

At once, the bike emitted a yellow glow, and both it and Yugi were transported in a flash of light…

To be continued...