Wow, I…seem to have quite a few people looking forward to seeing updates to this story now. This has never happened to me before; it's a new experience for me. ^^; But I digress. Seriously, thanks, all of you. I'll work extra-hard on this story; I promise!

Please enjoy this read, even if it's a bit short. ^^;

Oh, and I apologize for any typos in advance!

Ch. 3: Interest

Well, mission failed. Goddamn it.

That old coot was made of sterner stuff. I couldn't get anything useful out of him for the past week! It was like he was deliberately avoiding giving me any answers about the guy that I'd run into a couple days back. I could almost imagine him with a sly smile like the stingy bastard he was as he continued to rebuff me and my onslaught of fake-out attempts.

I huffed in exasperation, sprawled out on my bed with my cane (I'm glad it was collapsible) in hand. "Damn it," I mumbled out loud.

This was too insulting. It was like he was taunting me.

The only information I had was the stuff he'd pretty much handed out to me back then – he apparently knew that guy, and he was sure that we'd be running into each other a lot. I didn't know what that meant, but I sincerely hoped that it was true (not that I'd ever admit that to his face) because I was going to find out who he was, even if it meant stepping out on my own accord and being the butt of my grandpa's jokes for the next couple weeks, because I had my pride to think of. I wasn't going to let that get insulted any longer.

Unfortunately for me though, I couldn't go outside, even if I wanted to. The weather was getting chillier, and I don't do so well in the cold – I get migraines in cold weather. It's bad enough that it's almost like instant brain-freeze hypothermia. Maybe it was the low temperature, maybe it was my low blood pressure, or maybe it was just all in my head because I sure as hell didn't know of anyone else who had to deal with this crap, but it still didn't change the fact that I felt like, well, crap out in cold weather, even when all bundled up. That sunny day last week must've been a pretty weak one, even though it had felt fine to me.

This must sound like utter bullcrap to you coming from a guy who likes the wind, but let me tell you something – wind isn't always chilly, and it doesn't only happen on chilly days, as I'm sure you know. Stagnant cold is not my best friend.

After a couple more minutes suffocating as I was trying to breathe in air that felt like a much thicker and warmer fog, I could stand it no longer.

"Argh!" I kicked off the bed covers and swung myself off my bed. I couldn't take anymore – my physical health be damned; I needed some fresh air. The air in the house was warm and toasty – almost muggy – and it was muddling my thoughts. Plus I could barely breathe.

"Gramps!" I called into the house as I felt for my shoes at the edge of my bed. "Find me a jacket or something! I want to go outside!"

There was no reply, but I heard the distinct shuffling of his footsteps approaching my room. I heard the door creak open (ha, he couldn't sneak up on me this time!) and click closed.

"What's this all of a sudden?" he asked me in his gruff voice. "You want to go outside? It's cold out; I'd think you'd avoid such weather."

I sighed. He really wasn't making this easy. "I know that," I said wearily. "I just can't breathe in this house right now. I need some fresh air and I'm not gonna get any of that with the house heating up like a stove."

"Why not just open a window?"

"Because," I answered with a hint of impatience, "that's wasting precious electricity, old man. You don't exactly have a high income. And I'm not going on some odyssey; I'm just going out to the backyard. Just give me my freaking jacket."

I heard him harrumph as he moved to where my closet was and slid the door open smoothly. "My, my; Vanitas. That mouth of yours couldn't get dirtier if it tried."

"I'll take that as a compliment, Gramps," I said as I worked my feet into the right shoes. "It means I can't get any worse than I am right now." I held out my hand. "Jacket?"

Right then I felt something soft hit me in the face and knock me back onto my bed. I pulled it off of me and righted myself with an angry retort. "Geez, what was that for?!" I demanded as I struggled to find the right holes.

"Terribly sorry, my boy. I must've misjudged my strength." Tch; yeah, right. That was totally on purpose. "Do you need help getting into the jacket?"

I huffed in exasperation. "I'm fine," I snapped, finally managing to find the sleeve holes and the collar and slipping my arms through them. "I can dress myself. Sheesh, I can't even remember why I called you in the first place." I managed to zip up the jacket and pulled the hoodie over my head. I could feel my skin perspiring already, but that was good – I wanted to trap as much heat as possible before heading out into the cold. "Anyway, what time is it?"

"Let's see here…" I heard him mutter. There was a brief pause, then he answered, "It's half past eleven."

"Got it." I assumed that it was eleven-thirty in the morning, because he didn't object to me stepping out (and he definitely would have if it had been in the middle of the night). "Call me when it's time for lunch, then."

My grandpa only chuckled as he shuffled his way out of my room at my remark, probably laughing at the fact that I'd called him to get a jacket out of my closet when I was perfectly capable of doing that myself. I knew the feel of each jacket so I knew what I'd be wearing, so calling him for help had been completely stupid on my part, not to mention a waste of time. I forget the degree of dependency I have sometimes, because of this stupid blindness.

Anyway, I digress.

I stood up and, cane in hand, made my way to the back door of our house. I was glad for the fact that the house wasn't too big, because I was pretty desperate to get out of here, even if it meant suffering hours-long migraines afterward. Man, what indoor heating could do to a person. Especially for someone like me who probably looked sickly and thin because I spent so much of my time inside. Seriously.

After a minute or so my cane hit something hard, and I heard the recognizable sound of glass rattling in metal. I was at the back door, finally! It had felt like ages for me.

I raised my hand and felt for the metal latch, which clicked open with little difficulty, and I slid the door to the side. I quickly felt the cold air wash over me and overtake the muggy heat of the house like it was nothing. I stepped out, closed the door behind me, and breathed in the cold, brisk air deeply before exhaling. The first breath of air once you step outside is always the best. Seriously, try it sometime with your eyes closed. You'll notice the difference, even if subtly. It works best if you've been indoors for an extended amount of time.

I tried to avoid thinking about the cold as I slowly made my way toward the middle of the fenced-in backyard, and it seemed to work to a degree – the throbbing in my temples was at a minimum. For now, at least.

And since I had told my grandpa to call me when it was time for lunch, that meant I couldn't use my iPod. Tough luck, but what the heck could I do about it.

I eventually ran into a huge tree (not literally) and once locating a particularly large root, I sat down on it and leaned against the smooth bark. I came out here sometimes, whenever I actually felt like exposing myself to the outside world (and away from my annoying grandpa) and wanted to avoid thinking about my crappy life. Cheesy as this might sound, it was for me what some would call a "special spot".

I closed my eyes to keep it from stinging in the wind, which was surprisingly sharp – it cut almost right through my jacket. The pounding in my head intensified a little once I registered that, since the wind was blowing against the sweaty skin underneath the jacket, so I tried to keep my mind on something else.

The day was a relatively quiet one. Not too many cars, few birds were chirping, and mostly devoid of voices since most people were probably inside to escape the biting cold –

Damn it! There it was again. I was starting to feel a little nauseous now, which was not what I wanted. It was more vertigo-like than outright dizziness, but still unpleasant as all heck. I was trying to relax, and the cold was doing all it could to piss me off. I'd tried compromising with the weather, but it hadn't worked.

Okay, I get the point, cold. You don't like me. Just cut me a little slack for an hour or so, and I swear I'll be out of your hair; I promise.

…

You know you're starting to lose it when you start talking to the weather like it can actually hear you. And if it actually could, it was probably flipping a metaphysical bird at me right about now.

My reverie was interrupted by something heavy crashing into the bushes somewhere to my left. I swear I leapt about a foot in the air at that sound. It came completely out of nowhere.

"Who's there?" I demanded, unable to keep the tension out of my voice. I was partially hoping to hear a response – if it was a wild animal, I'd have no way to defend myself, and the only thing I'd be able to do was stay still and hope it didn't go for my neck. But at the same time I didn't want to, because it could mean that – if it was a person – he or she was trying to break into our house. Not much I could do to stop that, either. And my old man wasn't exactly a bruiser. I didn't exactly want to think about the consequences.

So you can imagine my surprise when I heard a familiar voice say, "Sorry! I didn't mean to trespass…"

The voice trailed off, like he was just realizing who he was talking to. Then the words, "Hey…you're that guy from last week!"

After hearing that familiar voice, my first reaction was to relax. Okay, not a burglar, not a wild animal. Just that weird kid that I'd run into that one time. I didn't need to be afraid of this guy; he wasn't a danger to me. At least, I hoped that he wasn't.

Second reaction was to become annoyed – apparently my grandpa had been right; I was probably going to run into this guy a lot. Not that I'd admit that to his face, though.

My third and final reaction was to get completely pissed off. "What the heck are you doing, falling into my backyard like that?" I snapped, whipping my head around in the general direction of his voice. "Are you mental or something?"

"Sorry – I swear I didn't know that this was your backyard; I'm not trying to break in or anything, honest!" he said quickly.

That didn't placate me. "What, then; do you just enjoy crashing into random strangers' bushes as a hobby?"

"No, it's not – ugh, but never mind that now; can you help me find a place to hide until they go away?" he asked desperately. "I promise to explain everything afterward –"

Damn, he sounded jumpier than a fugitive out of death row or something. I didn't know what the deal was (and I was certainly hoping that it wasn't what I'd just imagined), but I couldn't exactly say no to a plea like this. Hey, I may be a jerk, but I'm not that big of a jerk. I have standards, you know.

"Do you see a toolshed?" I asked him.

"Wh – oh, yeah," he said.

"Hide there. Nobody thinks to look in a toolshed for a missing person." Probably not true, but what the hell. He needed a hiding place and some reassurance, and I was gonna give it to him – even by lying to him. Besides, if I didn't do a good job of hiding this guy, where else was I going to get my answers?

Sounds of metal scraping against metal came from somewhere to my right after a moment of feet shuffling the grass, and everything was quiet.

For about ten seconds.

This time I heard the hinge of a metal door screeching in protest as it was opened, and footsteps approached in my direction. I was assuming that it was the same people who were chasing this guy last time, because having different sets of people chasing you every week is kind of…unorthodox.

The footsteps stopped about a hundred yards from where I was sitting.

"Oh, it's this kid again," I heard that familiar man's voice say in annoyance.

Yep, the same guys! Unless this guy had some other silent partner dragged along for chasing some minor up and down the streets. That tone was practically saturated with This guy won't be of any help to us implications.

Which normally would have irritated me, but at this point in time I didn't really care. Hey, getting them out of here faster meant that I'd be getting my answers faster. I wasn't going to let this golden opportunity get away from me so easily.

Oh, did I ever mention that I was a good liar? No? Sorry, should've mentioned that sooner. Comes with the occupation. Heck, you can lie without even meaning to. It is the best way to get rid of people if you're anything like me.

"Hey, least it seems like you're learning from your mistakes, mister," I said with false pride in my voice, which immediately changed into irritation. "So take a hike, since you're trespassing on private property. And maybe you haven't noticed, but that's not a nice thing to do. As in, illegal. I could totally get my grandpa to call the cops on you."

Absolute silence. No shuffling of feet, no whispering voices. Just the sound of the wind blowing through the trees and bushes.

I then decided to cut to the chase. "Just get out of here is what I'm saying!" I snapped, shooing them away like they were pesky flies to emphasize my point. "Geez. You stupid or what?"

As if the two intruders were desperately trying to prove me wrong, I immediately heard their heavy footfalls as they retreated back through the backyard gate. I could've sworn I heard one of them mutter, "Punk." under his breath. At this point, I wanted to chase them down and beat them to a pulp with my stick, but I didn't because I was obviously handicapped, plus it was cold.

I sat there for a couple minutes to make sure that they weren't coming back, and when no sounds were forthcoming, I called out to the kid, "Hey, the coast is clear. You can come out now."

A metal screeching against metal, a loud squeak, a crash, and a muttered curse later, I heard a new set of footsteps come toward me and stop a couple feet to my left.

"Thanks," I heard him thank me from that spot. "I don't know what I would've done if they'd caught me."

"Run away again?" I guessed.

The guy scoffed. "Right. If they'd caught me just then, I'd be on permanent lockdown. Running away in that situation would be impossible. Lucky you happened to live here; I never would've gotten away if I'd crashed into some other person's backyard."

"Speaking of which," I cut in before he could say more. "Didn't you have an answer for my question before we were so rudely interrupted last week?"

"What –" he started to say, but then he caught himself. "Ohh, that. Right, I forgot."

You seem to do that a lot, I thought to myself. How did this guy manage to keep his head on his shoulders while acting like such a ditz, no less manage to elude those two weirdoes following him for a week straight?

"Anyway," he went on, snapping me out of my thoughts. "I don't mean to sound like a jerk or anything, but I'd like to have your name first. I'm not allowed to give my name to strangers…so to speak."

He sounded a bit incredulous at the end, like he couldn't believe that he was actually following this advice. I could see where that was coming from; that was a pretty stupid rule to apply to this case – we weren't strangers; not technically. We'd met before; we just weren't on a name-calling basis.

"Vanitas," I answered without missing a beat as I pushed myself to my feet. "Your turn."

The guy laughed. "Heh, you're pretty impatient, aren't you?" he noted with amusement.

Oh, shut up, I thought acerbically. I don't need hear that from you. Just give me your damn name! Quit toying with me!

"I've been told that before," I said aloud, trying to keep my voice level. "But are you gonna spit out your name sometime today or what?"

He chuckled again. Damn it, this guy was making me want to pop a vein; this was infuriating! The cold wasn't exactly helping, either. I was starting to feel nauseous again, but I did my best to ignore it as I waited (rather impatiently) for his answer.

"Sorry, sorry," he apologized, the laughter still plain in his tone. "You just got me thinking about someone…anyway."

He then suddenly took my free hand in his and shook it once. I was too surprised to shake him off, and by the time I got my bearings back, he'd already let go of my hand. I tried to get the blood flowing in my fingers again when he finally spoke up.

"The name's Ventus," he finally answered me. "Thanks for all your help, Vanitas."

Oh man, this chapter could've been so much better than this…most of this was filler, up until the second half, anyway…wonder why this chapter even exists. *sigh* Maybe that's why this chapter is so short. Eh, whatever; least you got something, right? This is just one thing out of the way for now! Two more things left on my immediate to-do list! :D

Anyway, I hope this chapter was enjoyable for you guys. The reveal of the mystery character shouldn't be too surprising to you, heh…unless you went the "obvious" route (which is only possible if you've been reading me long enough or we happen to think alike). I've been pressed in working on my updates all at once, though I know I shouldn't be doing that…just be patient for the next update, is what I'm getting at, all right? I'm sorry. ._.;

See you next update, guys!