Vanitas watched Ventus' face in what little lighting he had. His big blue eyes were wide and piercing with hope that he would accept. When Venus didn't keep going, Vanitas blinked.
"Are you serious?"
"Yes!" Ventus caught himself and clapped a hand over his mouth. "Yes. I've never seen anyone move like you before. And- well… Master Eraqus won't allow me any training, and Terra's too afraid that he'd hurt me."
"No."
Before Vanitas could shut his door, Ventus used half of his body to stop it.
Ventus made small noises of discomfort as Vanitas squeezed him in the doorway for a second before letting up. With a stumble, he stepped into Vanitas' room, looked around and focused back on the other boy.
"Please? I've been practicing on my own and against Terra's old dummies they throw out." He mock dropped into a fighting stance that by all means to Vanitas looked incredibly impractical. "I can't ask Aqua and-well, the Master would probably get really mad at me."
"And you expect to hit someone like that?"
Ventus stood straight after Vanitas waved his hand at his feet.
"Just let me show you! I… well…" Ventus looked down, rubbing the back of his head. "I couldn't lift the swords so I took one of the kitchen knives. But! I made sure to leave a bit of money for them to get a new one!"
Vanitas' single narrow eye sent the boy into a state of rambling. Xehanort confirmed that he wouldn't be sent off to any war, so maybe it wasn't too terrible Ventus was teaching himself how to fight with kitchenware. If someone tried to pillage his church, he'd have the means to weild the tools available. Probably.
"Be quiet. Fine, I'll watch. Do you have your knife with you?"
"Oh, I've hidden it in my luggage. I c-"
"Go get it, change into something, well, not that. And meet me in the training room."
Ventus' face acted as a sun as he beamed and thanked Vanitas profusely, leaving him feeling like someone doused him with light itself.
It was possible everything Ventus owned had been a bright color. This extended to the plain white shirt and grey short pants.
Vanitas looked to the scratched and blunted from constant force knife in his hand. It was bigger than he'd expected. Wordlessly he traveled to the rack and fetched a saber closest to it. With one hand, he handed it to the eager eyed Ventus and cringed when the weight dragged his arm down.
"Ugh, this is massive."
"You're just really weak."
Ventus laughed and placed the kitchen knife on the ground and kicked it away.
"Yeah, I've seen the way Terra works out outside sometimes. It's incredible. I try some of it on my own in the morning, but I'm nowhere near his level- oof."
After several steps back, Vanitas deemed himself safe if the blade went flying or if Ventus somehow impaled himself on the blunted edge.
Ventus seemed confident enough, testing his swings three times before launching into an attack. Not the most inspiring swordplay, but it was surprisingly functional. The blade clearly weighed him down, making some of his movements sloppy, but it could possibly work.
It would be an absolute waste of time to attempt to spar. It was obvious he didn't understand the basics nor had the core strength to not result in some form of self-injury later.
"All in all, pathetic." Vanitas chided. Ventus was out of breath before him, wincing at an ache in his arms. "You desperately need to be whipped into shape. Though I suppose I can't blame you entirely for that."
One of the Sister's faces flashed in Vanitas' mind as he remembered the soreness in his knees when kneeling for prayer.
"You're not in some Holy See, so I know you don't need to pray at every waking second." He waited a moment for Ventus to stop practically heaving and stand tall again. "I have some old books. Take them. Read them when you get back home and don't do anything stupid until you understand them."
Radiance shined from Ventus' smile and he fetched his old knife, clutching it tightly.
"You'd do that for me? That's-"
"Great. Yeah." Vanitas didn't want to hear another ramble. "For now, try doing some pushups and sit ups. In fact, I have a book for that too."
"You're the best!"
Vanitas felt every limb of his seize up as he was launched at in a one armed hug.
"I'll stop by your room tomorrow to pick them up! We'd better get some sleep, don't want to be late for breakfast!" Ventus laughed and jogged off.
Moments passed and Vanitas shook off the lingering feeling with a jerk of his shoulders. If Ventus or anyone attempted to hug him again he'd probably break their wrist.
