A/N: This chapter contains a couple flashbacks. I hope I made it clear enough.

Thanks: ZalelTribal, and Killya008. :)

~ He wasn't planning on losing her to that loser Terra... ~

82) Sorrow

~ 7 Years Ago...

Vanitas had decided to pay Kairi a surprise visit at his old high school Radiant High. Just because he went to college now didn't mean that romance had to die, right? It was bad enough that he barely saw Kairi anymore.

Since he arrived too early, he decided to roam around in the hallways to see how much his high school had changed so far. At one point, he wasn't paying much attention to where he was going, so naturally, he crashed into someone in the hallways, hard. A big stack of papers fell out of the girl's hands, along with the books that she was holding (seriously, they have lockers for that). One moment the raven-haired girl blinked, next she burst out crying, just when Vanitas had wanted to snap at her to watch where she was going.

Vanitas' eyes softened immediately at the tears that were falling down the black-haired girl's rosy cheeks. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bump into you."

He sighed lightly, before bending down to help her gather her stuff from the ground. The blue-eyed girl (seriously, he'd never seen such vividly blue eyes before) wordlessly took her stuff from him, wiped away her tears with the back of her hand and thanked him under her breath before going her way. Vanitas watched her retreating back, wondering how it was possible that he had never seen her here before...

As fate would have it, Vanitas ran into the same girl a couple of days later, again while he was looking for his girlfriend.

What are the odds, he thought, mildly surprised.

She seemed to recognize him too, because her eyes widened at his sight. "Hey. I-I'd like to apologize for last week. For my crying and all. It...it wasn't my day." She blushed furiously, and he thought it was kind of cute. Not that he was going to tell her that.

Vanitas waved it away like it was nothing. "Don't worry about it. I can imagine. I'm sorry it happened, though. I didn't watch where I was going."

There was an awkward silence between them, until he asked her why it hadn't been her day.

"I hadn't slept well all week because of a stupid project for history class that consumed my whole life. Since I'm the new kid on the block I wanted things to go perfect, so I was stressed out. That collision with you was the last drop, you know?" she explained breathlessly.

There was something so adorable about her shyness and the way she looked at the ground when she felt embarrassed. The way her straight black hair fell in front of her face when she did that, made Vanitas' heart beat faster.

"Tell me about it. Don't you just hate peer pressure," Vanitas said with a small frown, remembering all too well how Kairi's adoptive father, the mayor of Radiant Garden, hated his guts for no apparent reason.

From that day on, Vanitas and Xion kept bumping into each other everywhere, sometimes even outside of school. It was as though fate had arranged this. At the same time, Vanitas was seeing Kairi less and less. Most of the time, the mayor was involved in a way; he would ground Kairi, or give her such strict rules to adhere to that he couldn't possibly meet up with her after school.

At one point, however, he found himself asking for Xion's free hours so that he could come and visit her instead. Vanitas realized that he preferred to spend his free time with her, rather than with Kairi.

~ 6.5 years ago...

Vanitas and Xion were sitting on the rooftop of Radiant High, enjoying their lunch together in the sunlight. Nobody ever came here, so they had the place all to themselves. Kairi hadn't showed up, as usual, but thankfully, Vanitas had run into Xion, and the latter hadn't been surrounded by her usual friends.

He didn't remember how it had happened, but suddenly, he found that he was only inches away from Xion's angelic face. Her lips looked inviting and he could've counted her eyelashes if he'd wanted to...

Vanitas woke up from the trance he was in and managed to pull himself together right in time. "Xion... I can't. It wouldn't be fair towards Kairi." Whom he was still dating, even if he barely saw her anymore.

Xion slowly sat back after that comment, a faint blush coloring her cheeks. "I-I understand."

It was quiet between them for a moment, while they didn't look at each other. Vanitas could only wonder whether he had done the right thing by refusing to kiss the girl he was crushing on. But there was one thing he would never accept, and that was cheating.

"I'm going to break up with Kairi tomorrow."

"Oh?" Xion's disappointment had made place for curiosity.

"Yeah. And after that, I'd like to take you somewhere. Pick you up at eight sharp?"

Vanitas flashed her a smile, and Xion couldn't have looked happier at that moment.

~ Present Day...

Vanitas shook his head to clear his thoughts from all the flashbacks that he was having.

Still, the days of sorrow were officially over, Vanitas thought, while cleaning out his bedroom. It was amazing how much trash had accumulated over the years. He barely recognized some of the items. Now he was getting rid of it to make room for new trash, the Konmari way. More importantly, he was now officially done with Xion, which was what sparked this summer cleaning in the first place. He had to start with clearing away all tose old pictures that were buried somewhere in his deskdrawer. It was time to give those memories a place somewhere in the back of his mind.

It was time to distance himself from his dark past.

He realized then and there that this was what Aqua probably had to go through as well when she had decided to forget all about that idiot of a Terra. Well, Aqua was his world now. Quite frankly, he had almost forgotten all about Xion. All he needed now was a little more time with Aqua to completely forget about his ex (and for Aqua to forget Terra of course, because Vanitas wasn't completely sure whether she had any feelings for him, or only played pretend to herself and to Vanitas).

Damn that guy.

His cuts were healing by now, but Sora had let out an audible gasp when he'd spotted his older brother, beaten and bruised. Well, the cuts had been easy to hide, but the bruises on his face and the large cut on his nose...not so much.

When he was done, he decided to pay a surprise visit to his girlfriend. He missed her and he wasn't planning on losing her to that loser Terra...

A/N: I know, it's mean of me to not continue where I'd originally left off, but we were forgetting all about Vanitas background story here. And with less than 20 chapters, there's still so much to tell you all. Sorry in advance for all the info dump. :P

In case you're curious as to how Vanitas and Kairi met, feel free to check out 'About Association and Stuff', my drabble collection 'The Best Memories' and 'Speaking Through Flowers' if you haven't done so yet.

Next chapter: So this is what it feels like when someone stabs you in the eye with a pencil, she thought.