Chapter 52 Just the Two of Us
"Is that all you got?" Zack taunts Ven from across the small rock island in Leon secret training room.
Ven glares back at him, but Zack can see the playfulness behind his expression. "Not even close," Ven says before running across the small space and swinging his keyblade down at Zack.
Zack deflects his attack and follows up with a slash of his own sword that makes Ven jump back to avoid the blade. Zack tries to strike him again, but Ven ducks under the sword and stabs at Zack's feet forcing him to jump. Ven faints to the right and tries to land a hit on Zack's left side, but Zack's sword makes it in time to block the attack. They continue to exchange blows, the room echoing with the ringing sound of metal on metal.
Zack swings at Ven and Ven deflects the attack easily, but before he can counter with one of his own, Zack moves in closer, too close for Ven to swing his keyblade. To Ven surprise, Zack leans down, cups his chin, and kisses him while lowering his sword to his side. Ven happily kisses back and lets his keyblade disappear so he can wrap his arms around Zack's waist.
Zack's fingers trail down Ven's arms causing him to shiver and press closer to Zack. Zack's fingers make it down to Ven's wrists and then suddenly tighten. Quicker than Ven can react, Zack pulls Ven's arms above his head and presses Ven against the wall of the training room. Ven gasps in surprise and Zack breaks the kiss. He stays pressed against Ven though to keep him against the wall. Still holding Ven's hands above his head with one hand, Zack gently touches his cold blade to Ven's neck.
"I win," he says with a grin.
"You cheater!" Ven says in protest. He wiggles but can't get free. "I was going to win fair and square."
"Sure you were Ven," Zack says in a low voice moving closer so his lips are less than an inch from Ven's.
"I was!" Ven says with a pout still struggling, but half heartedly now. Zack starts moving even closer, and Ven leans forward to bring their lips together. As they kiss, Zack let's go of his grip on Ven's wrists and Ven lowers his hands to put one on Zack chest.
He pulls back a moment and smiles at Zack who raises an eyebrow at him. "Thunder."
The bolt of electricity Ven lets out of his hand is very small but it is enough to make Zack jump back in surprise and trip on the uneven rocky ground. Zack lands on his back with a groan and tries to sit up, but before he can, Ven sits on him with his legs straddled over Zack's torso.
Zack tries to push Ven off, but Ven grabs Zack's wrists and pins his hands next to his head. "I win," Ven says smugly.
"I think I won too," Zack says giving Ven a grin and looking down.
Ven frowns and follows his gaze to see that in this position his hips are pressing down against Zack's. Blushing, Ven shoves Zack playfully before moving off him to sit beside him. Zack sits up too and pulls Ven close to him. With Ven leaning his head against Zack's shoulder, Zack runs his fingers through Ven's hair. He stops and frowns when he feels something sticky.
Pulling his hand from Ven's hair and inspecting it, he laughs. "Ven, you have sap in your hair."
"What?" Ven says in surprise, sitting up and running his fingers through his own hair. "Gross!" He says when he finds the spot. "Stupid possessed trees. Making me fight them and dripping sap in my hair," he mutters unhappily trying to get most of the sticky stuff out.
"Whoa, back up," Zack says his eyes lighting up. "Did you say possessed trees?"
Ven nods and explains to Zack about saving Snow White. As he talks he notices that Zack's smile gets smaller and smaller until Ven finishes and he is frowning slightly. "What is it, Zack?"
"It's...nothing," Zack says with a shrug. "Sounds like you had fun."
"Yeah, I guess so," Ven says still confused by Zack's change of mood. Zack nods distractedly and moves to stand up, but Ven grabs his hand to keep him beside him. "What's wrong?"
Zack sighs and runs a hand through his long hair. "It's just...you talk about other worlds and meeting new people and I remember when I was doing the same thing. It makes me think about-" Zack pauses and looks away for a moment before saying softly, "It makes me think about running away again."
"Zack…" Ven says quietly. He reaches out and turns Zack's chin back to face him. Zack is deliberately not meeting Ven's eyes. "We'll go together."
"What?" Zack asks, looking at Ven questioningly.
"We'll go see some worlds together, just the two of us," Ven says with a grin. He stands and holds out his hand to Zack. He takes it and Ven pulls him to his feet saying, "It'll be fun. You don't have to be trapped here and you don't have to run away. You can just go visit another world for a day!"
Zack smiles hugely and pulls Ven into a deep kiss. "Thank you," he whispers when they break apart. "Let's go now."
He pulls away from Ven and goes out the exit of the cave leaving Ven to follow.
"N-now?" Ven calls after him as he scrambles to keep up. Once they are in the Back Alley of Traverse Town, Ven takes Zack's hand and asks, "Won't everyone worry when they can't find us? We should let them know we're leaving."
"It'll only be a few hours," Zack says. "They won't even know we're gone. And if we tell them, they might say no."
Ven bites his lip. He really wants to do this to make Zack happy, and Master Eraqus probably wouldn't allow Ven to go after what had happened with the Star Shard.
"Alright," Ven says with a smile and Zack grins back. Ven takes a step back and activates his armor. "Do you have a helmet you can wear?"
Zack nods and disappears back into the secret training room. Ven summons his keyblade and tosses it into the air. It comes back to him as his glider and hovers beside him while he waits for Zack to return. Zack appears a minute later with the silver helmet he'd been wearing when Ven had met him for the first time at the Coliseum. Ven smiles at the memory of knocking the helmet off Zack's head and being stunned by the beautiful face it had been hiding.
"Are we riding that?" Zack asks excitedly, pointing to the glider.
"Yep," Ven says stepping onto it. He positions himself towards the front of the skateboard like glider and motions for Zack to climb on behind him. Zack hops on and takes a moment to find a balanced stance. "Hang on tight," Ven calls back as he urges the glider into the air. He smiles to himself feeling Zack's arms wrap around him and him lean against Ven's back. A moment later they've leave Traverse Town far behind and fly quickly through the space between worlds.
…
"So where do you want to go?" Ven asks as they flash past world after world.
Zack looks around a moment, waiting for some world to catch his eye. "How 'bout that one?" He says pointing it out to Ven. It seems to be one big city of tall skyscrapers all crowded together. Ven urges his glider towards it and upbeat music reaches their ears. "Oh yeah, definitely this one," Zack says nodding his head slightly in the the beat of the catchy music.
"Alright," Ven says with a laugh and they begin to descend. Once they get closer, Ven realizes that the streets of the city are crowded with tons of people hurrying about. So much for keeping a low profile. Strangely enough, as Ven lands the glider, no one even seems to even glance in their direction.
"Wow, look at this place," Zack says as he hops off the glider and looks around. Ven gets off as well and turns it back to his keyblade while making his armor vanish. Looking around, he is just as impressed. There are so many sights and sounds it is overwhelming, but at the same time incredible.
"What do you think this world is called?" Ven asks peering at the statue of a dog that they had landed near.
"I dunno," Zack replies. "Let's find out. Excuse me." He walks up to a woman in her mid twenties as she hurries past. "Could you tell me what this city is called?" She however totally ignores him and continues walking through the crowded street leaving Zack to watch her go confused.
"That was weird," Ven says standing beside him. "I guess she was in a big hurry."
"Yeah," Zack says after a moment. "Excuse me sir-" He tries to catch the attention of a man with a briefcase walking past, but the man brushes past them without a word.
"Hey would you mind telling me-" Ven says as two teenage girls walk past with their arms full of shopping bags. Like everyone else they just ignore them.
"Can I ask you-"
"Excuse me-"
"HEY!"
"HELLO!"
Ven turns to Zack totally confused and Zack frowns, thinking hard. Without a word he takes Ven's hand and pulls him to a bench near the dog statue. "Zack?" Ven says questioningly as Zack climbs onto the bench and pulls Ven up beside him. Zack doesn't answer and instead turns to Ven and kisses him passionately.
Ven is surprised, but Zack only pulls him closer in this sudden makeout session. After a moment, Zack pulls back and looks around quickly.
"They can't see us," he says to Ven before jumping down from the bench. Still confused, Ven jumps down as well.
"Really?" Ven says looking around. That would explain a lot.
"In a crowd this big there would be someone who would stare at us," Zack explains taking Ven's hand and walking down the street.
"So that kiss was just an experiment of yours?" Ven asks and Zack laughs.
"A fun one," he says, stealing another quick kiss.
They continue walking through the crowded streets until they reach a four way intersection with people pouring across each crosswalk. "Woah," Ven says. "There's so many people in this world!"
"C'mon!" Zack says tugging Ven's excitedly. "A lot of them are heading to that big building. Let's check it out."
Ven let's Zack lead him along as he looks up at the towering building. It is indeed attracting a large portion of the crowd, but there doesn't seem to be any name on it beside a big 104 above the doors. They snake their way through the crowd and find themselves inside a big department store. Teenagers and young adults are laughing and chattering all around them as they shop. Ven and Zack walk around soaking everything in.
"What's in here?" Ven asks curiously as he drags Zack into a store called D+B. The inside has a very club like feel with loud music and sparkling clothing. "Look at these!" Ven says excitedly running over to a display case of small pins of all different colors.
Zack goes to follow him, but is cut off by an eager store clerk. "Hey! And welcome to Dangerous Buffalo! My name is Tsubasa. How may I help you?"
"Wa-wait," Zack says in surprise. "You can see me?"
"What kind of question is that?" The store clerk asks, his smile fading slightly, but he quickly perks back up. "Have you heard about our hats? They're the reason we're top brand right now."
"What?" Zack says. "Nevermind. Can you just tell me what the name of this city is?"
"It's Shibuya of course!" The clerk says with a laugh. "Are you a tourist or something?"
"Or something," Zack replies.
"Well if anything catches your eye let me know," the clerk says before hurrying away to a group of girls who have just walked into the store.
As he leaves, Ven comes hurrying back over with a huge grin. "Who was that you were talking to?" Ven asks curiously.
"Store clerk," Zack says glancing back at the guy. "He told me this city is called Shibuya."
"He could see you?"
"I guess," Zack says with a shrug. He doesn't understand, but it was nice that someone seemed to be able to see them. He notices Ven looking shyly at him for a moment and raises an eyebrow at him.
"I got this for you," Ven says putting a small pin in Zack's hand.
Zack looks at it closely. On it is a picture of a kiss and stars around it. Blown Kiss is written in small letters and Zack smiles. "Thanks Ven," he says putting the pin on his shirt.
Ven smiles and blows him a kiss before running off into the crowd in the store to check out the rest of the merchandise. Still smiling, Zack approaches the case holding all the pins for sale. He looks them over for a minute before the store clerk from before comes up beside him. "Anything catch your eye?" He asks eagerly. Zack smiles and points to a pin in the case. The clerk nods and pulls it out, handing it to Zack who pays for it with a few munny.
Concealing his purchase in his hand, Zack wanders through the store before spotting Ven in the back. He sneaks up behind him and wraps his arms around him from behind. "Hey you."
Ven starts slightly in surprise before leaning back against Zack. "Hey, you find anything you like?"
"Mmhmm," Zack says kissing Ven's cheek. Ven laughs slightly and Zack attaches the pin he had bought to Ven's jacket.
"What's that?" Ven says curiously, craning his neck down to read it. "Sexy D," he reads and his face face turns red almost instantly.
"It made me think of you," Zack explains biting his tongue to keep from laughing.
Ven elbows Zack in the ribs making him release him and turns around his face still tinged red. Just then a teenage girl runs into the store and shouts at the top of her lungs, "Hip Snake is having a sale on sunglasses!"
Moments later Ven and Zack are standing in an empty store except for the clerks working there as the other customers had all run out at the girl's announcement. "What just happened?" Zack asks the clerk.
"Hip Snake is the top brand now," the clerk says sadly. "They all ran to get the hot merch before it's all gone."
"Right," Zack says still confused. He turns back to Ven. "Should we check out some more of the city Ven?"
"Yeah," Ven says enthusiastically. He leads the way out of the store and out of the building. Back on the streets, they return to the overcrowded crossing, but now there is no one about. They stand in the middle of the intersection looking around in surprise. For having been so bustling with traffic before, the crossing is now eerily quiet. "Zack," Ven says summoning his keyblade and moving closer to his boyfriend. "Something's coming. I can feel it."
Zack has the same feeling. The hairs on the back of his neck are all standing on end. Tense, he draws his sword and stands at the ready his eyes sweeping back and forth across the empty intersection. Then, out of no where, monsters appear, but they aren't any kind of monster Zack has ever seen before. There are poisonous looking frogs all around them and wolves circling the perimeter. Towering in front of Zack is a bear like creature standing on two legs. It roars, a screeching noise that makes Zack want to cover his ears.
Out of the corner of his eye, Zack sees Ven lash out at one of frogs next to him, and Zack decides to act as well. Gripping his sword tightly, Zack heaves it in an over head slice that should cut the monster from shoulder to hip. However, to Zack's dismay, his blade cuts through the creature as if it is air and it is left with no damage. While Zack is trying to take that twist in, the bear creature lashes out at him and Zack is sent flying through the air.
"Zack!"
Zack hears Ven's shout just before he slams back into the pavement and pain erupts from his right leg. Zack groans in pain. "Fuck." He clutches at his leg and rolls onto his side.
A low growl nearby makes him look up to find two wolf like creatures circling closer and closer to him. They toss their heads and sniff the air loudly as if they could smell the hot blood Zack could feel under his fingers. Zack looks to his left and sees his sword lying not too far away. With a grunt of pain, he starts to drag himself towards it, but he only makes it half way when one of the wolves gets tired of circling and runs right for him. A snarl is all the warning Zack gets and he falls on his back defenseless as the sharp teeth snap down towards his neck.
TWEWY!
If you don't already know, TWEWY (The World Ends With You) is a video game also produced by Square Enix. It only appears in KH in 3D, but I thought it would be a great place for a date so I put it in this story.
I was gonna put their whole date in one chapter but if I had done that I wouldn't have had it done this weekend for an update. So instead I split it in two! More cute Zactus to come!
LightzMusic22: Don't worry no more breaking up! But that doesn't mean I'll make things easy for them!
Dream For Tonight: I went back and forth on if Terra would pass the test and become Master but I decided to let him pass since Xehanort wasn't there to screw with his head.
Zack! Oh noes! His sword doesn't do anything to the noise and those wolves are about to get him!
Quick Ven! Do something!