The rest of the "day"—which was however long they could walk before they became too exhausted or bored—was rather uneventful. Aqua kept trying to take the lead, and Vanitas adamantly refused to let her, so they reached a stalemate of walking side-by-side for the first time.

"Are you tired yet?" Vanitas asked every once in a while, when the blanket of silence became too suffocating.

"No. Are you?" Aqua would reply.

"No," he scoffed. Of course he wasn't tired yet—it was a kind of internal challenge, trying to outlast her, especially after she had defeated the monster Heartless almost single-handedly.

This battle of wills continued through the chasms, in spite of Vanitas's aching feet. Trying to distract himself, he asked, "How's the suit?"

"Fine," she replied, her mouth set in a firm, straight line. He watched her pick at the veins on her arm from the corner of his eye.

"Itchy, isn't it," he mumbled, half to himself. She jerked her hand back.

"I expected nothing else," she said after a moment. "That's what darkness feels like."

His boot caught in a crack in the ground, allowing her to get a few steps ahead.

"How would you know what darkness feels like? he spat, catching up with a stumbling jog.

Her glare pierced his mask, but it was off slightly, targeted more at his forehead.

"How could I not know?"

Of course she knew; they were stuck in the Realm of Darkness. He just didn't want to hear her description, have it beat into his head again how darkness was awful and painful and evil.

At the same time, he was curious. She didn't know that he had a sick sort of longing for the light. Could she secretly feel the same about darkness?

"What does it feel like, then?" he asked.

She rolled her eyes, but most likely for the sake of conversation, she entertained him.

"Look around," she began, gesturing to the sheer stone cliffs jutting from the ground on either side. The crystal-studded walls twisted in jagged curves that didn't always line up, so the path narrowed and widened at its own discretion. "This Realm explains it all. Cold air, hard stone, paths that wind and create chaos and confusion—that's what darkness feels like."

That actually didn't sound so bad to Vanitas. He was cold all the time, and confusion was only a problem if you thought about it.

"You know nothing truly alive lives here, right?" she continued. "Life embraces light, like a plant always grows towards the sun. And so the Realm of Light supports all living things. Darkness only spawns Heartless and death."

Her tone was clipped, her opinion engraved in stone by her Master. So much for his theory.

"Yeah, well, you're wrong about one thing." Vanitas replied, mainly to annoy her.

"And what's that?"

"We're living here now." He smirked behind his mask. Like it or not, they were stuck here, at least for now. That meant she had to suck it up and deal with the darkness.

"No," she countered unexpectedly. "We're dying here."

"Everyone's dying, Aqua, in darkness and light. You ever heard of the Circle of Life?"

"…This is different," she still insisted. "This place drains life. Without this suit, all the forces of darkness would combine to eliminate me."

Point one for Vanitas, he thought to himself at the indirect compliment on his suit. He would've bragged, but he remembered one other thing about the Realm of Darkness that didn't match her assumptions.

"If darkness really drains life, then how come we don't need to eat here? Time even feels slower. For all you know, we could actually be immortal now." Not that he particularly liked the Realm of Darkness, but he felt obligated to stick up for it anyway, on principle.

"I…" Aqua looked down, but walked a little faster so Vanitas could only see the back of her head.

"Give up yet?" He asked, just as the exit of the chasms came into view.

The space spread out wide and flat ahead of them. The horizon was a straight line in the distance, like the line of Aqua's mouth when she didn't want to talk to him.

"We should camp here," she said, ignoring his question. "We'll be too exposed if we need to stop out there."

"If you need to stop, you mean."

She only sighed in reply. Apparently he wasn't worth her energy anymore. She set herself down against the rock wall. Not a very comfortable seat, but Vanitas couldn't think of anything better.

Someday, when he got out of here, he'd buy himself the biggest, softest bed in the Worlds. Or steal it, more likely. But for now he settled for a spot against the wall next to Aqua.

"What I'd give to be home in the Land of Departure…" she murmured, gazing across the flatlands. If he looked that direction and kept his eyes unfocused, the flat ground seemed to swirl and shift, like desert sand blowing in the wind.

Only there was no wind.

"What, you got a nice bed there or something?" he asked, still trying to get comfortable. Maybe he could blast out a hollow with Thundaga…

"Yes… well, there was." Her eyebrows creased. "Before I transformed it."

"…Are beds supposed to transform?" He could create treasure chests that transformed into Unversed, but he didn't think that was the kind of transformation she meant.

"No," she gave him a glance with skewed eyebrows, "not my bed; the whole world. I sealed it away so no one can abuse the neutral ground."

"Huh." Vanitas didn't particularly care. He'd only been to the Land of Departure once, for Terra and Aqua's Mark of Mastery exam, and it seemed pretty boring. Big and castle-y, but boring.

"Well, at least you had a bed to miss," he mumbled.

He could see the question surprise her, like she never imagined he would want a bed—and why should she? He could read it in her tension, her snippy comments, her desire to be above him: she still saw him as little more than a monster. A monster that had trained himself to walk and talk and argue with the best of them, but still a monster.

"I know, you just thought I sleep on rocks and in caves for fun, right?" he challenged with bitter sarcasm.

"No, I just... didn't know." She almost sounded sincere. Even the blue of her eyes lightened a shade with sympathy, but it was probably just the glow from the crystals studding the chasm walls. "I knew Xehanort was cruel, but I never knew he wouldn't give his own apprentice a bed."

"Yeah, well, not everyone gets a master who actually cares about them." He curled his knees to his chest instinctively, then kicked them back out when he realized how pathetic he must look.

Aqua turned her face from him, but he could still faintly hear her muse, "If things had been different… if master Eraqus had taken you in along with Ven… do you think we would be here now?"

It wasn't as much of an inspiring question as she had probably hoped.

"No," he spat, "because I'd be dead."

"What do you mean?"

He rolled his eyes, but it had no effect. "I'm pure darkness, idiot. He would have killed me before I could even summon my keyblade. It's Xehanort's fault I exist, but my darkness is my own, not his. A light-crazy master couldn't change that, so don't even bother."

Vanitas skulked off to the other side of the chasm, which wasn't that far away, but far enough to show that he was done with the conversation.

He wasn't going to change. He couldn't change—so why bother fantasizing about it?

His helmet clicked against the gray rock when he lay down.

She had won. He was finally tired.

XXX

Aqua woke him in the middle of the night—or at least Vanitas assumed it was night, because he still wanted to sleep, and she'd kept a fire burning.

"Your turn to keep watch," she told him, hardly bothering to make sure he was conscious before lying down herself. At least she'd been smart enough to schedule a watch, so they wouldn't be ambushed by Heartless again. Even if that had technically been her fault in the first place.

Vanitas sat up against the wall and stretched the ache out of his hardened muscles. Sleeping, not sleeping, it didn't matter—he wasn't actually tired, not in a physical, need-to-sleep sense. It was more of a constant fatigue that never seemed to fade, regardless of how much he slept. Sleeping was more of a distraction than anything. If he wanted to, he could probably never sleep again, just like he couldn't eat again—until they got out of here, anyway. Which they would.

The few Heartless he had to take out while on watch weren't enough to satisfy his boredom, nor were the meager HP orbs they dropped enough to dull his chronic aching. There wasn't anything to even attempt to fill his vague hunger…

Was there really nothing down here to eat? The more he thought about it, the more his taste buds craved stimulation. Maybe it was real hunger, maybe just a sick memory; it didn't matter. There had to be something…

His eyes and thoughts briefly flickered to Aqua, and he shuddered with disgust at himself. He may be a heart of darkness, but he was no cannibal.

A second thought occurred to him, however. She'd been traveling alone long before being trapped here. Could she have any leftover rations from the Realm of Light?

Shadow-silent, he crept towards her, mouth already starting to water with hope. A smile rested on her face and her chest rose and fell regularly, thanks to that stupid charm hanging from the belt around her waist. His hope nosedived when he realized there was nowhere she could be keeping items. Her sleeves and wrapped skirt could have been hiding places, if they hadn't long since been replaced by the dark suit and a new skirt-thing. But he knew from his own suit that there were no secret pockets. That was what dark corridors were for. Too bad those didn't work here.

He still couldn't believe Aqua would be completely empty-handed. The void in his stomach prompted him to think harder… and that's when he took a closer look at her chest. It was so much bigger and more weirdly-shaped than anyone else's that he knew. Chests were supposed to be flat and square, not round, right? He could tell just by looking that his chest was much tougher, denser than hers. More solid. Hers was probably hollow inside instead of being made of muscle.

His brain whirled with a frenzy of ideas. It made perfect sense—that had to be where she hid her food. Maybe she even ate some while she was on watch, but more likely she would wait until she really, really wanted it, otherwise he'd see her chest getting smaller and figure out her secret. But he was ahead of her, 'cause he already knew. Well, she wasn't going to hog all the food for herself. Not on his watch. He reached for her chest—

And suddenly found his wrist in a vicegrip as he was flipped onto his back jujitsu-style, with Aqua now pinning him under her weight.

He hadn't expected her to be so heavy. Not that he'd expected to be flipped at all.

"Never touch me," she snarled, which was rather ironic, as she was now the one touching him. A dark purple aura pulsed off of her in choking waves, but she made no effort to suppress it—she probably didn't even notice it was happening, focused as she was on drilling her lesson into Vanitas's helmeted head. The helmet didn't make a difference though; he could still feel her ice blue eyes burning through his mask, leaving spots when he blinked. "Never. Especially not there."

The violent scowl on her bloodflushed face sent a bolt of fear down his spine. He had never seen her so furious, not even when he'd snapped Ven's keyblade and she'd called him a freak. This was something even deeper, even more personal.

"Sheesh, I didn't know you took your food so seriously," he mouthed off to disguise his fear. It also had the welcome side-effect of catching her off guard.

"Excuse me?" Her grip slackened with her composure, and he slipped out from under her and scrambled to his feet, brushing himself off.

"So what is it? Steak? Ice cream? Special Land of Departure food?" Fear wasn't going to get the best of him; he would still figure this out. One way or another.

She stared at him like he was speaking a foreign language. "What in the Worlds are you talking about?"

"Your chest!" He pointed to it, and her face colored two shades redder. The darkness hadn't stopped pulsing from her, but it had settled a little, like the tide going back out after a storm. Now it neared high tide again. "Don't play dumb. I know that's where you're hiding it."

"Hiding what?!"

"Your food, idiot! Why else would your chest be so big and weird?"

With her hands on her hips, she was somehow even more intimidating, not even counting her darkness that stuck in the back of his throat and smelled like decay and nausea. Was that how she usually felt about him and his smell? He hated to admit it, but he could understand why he disgusted her if that was the case. It was like he'd finally smelled his armpits after a lifetime without deodorant.

"Because I'm a girl, idiot!"

She even sounded like him. Forget anything he'd thought, he didn't want her to turn to darkness. This was getting disturbing.

"What's that have to do with it?"

"Everything!" she shouted, but then her posture relaxed a little."You—you… really don't know, do you."

The purple tide of her darkness receded once more. Hopefully for the last time. He'd hate to throw up inside his helmet.

Ugh. In his desperation for food, he must have made a pretty serious mistake. He still had no idea what that mistake could be, except that it had something to do with being a girl. How was he supposed to guess that?

"You mean you don't keep food in there?"

Aqua sighed deeply, but her darkness was finally under control. He wasn't sure if he should tell her and risk her letting it out again in her panic, or if he should just let the small victory go.

(It didn't feel much like victory anymore.)

"No, I do not." She closed her eyes, and a momentary struggle seemed to wrack her before she took a seat. "Sit down, Vanitas. If I have to spend who knows how long with you, we need to have a talk."

XXX

By the end of Aqua's "talk," a few things finally made sense. There were places that he instinctively didn't want to be touched, either. She was very insistent that he not let anyone touch him in those places, just like he couldn't touch her.

Other things—like why the heck she had big boobs and he didn't—were just more confusing. From what he understood, as long as he didn't touch her, everything would be okay, so he just filed the rest away and hoped he wouldn't be tested on it later.

"…any questions?" She finally ended, looking ready to throw up, yet relieved at the same time.

Vanitas stayed silent, letting his mask shield the confusion in his expression.

"Good." Aqua sighed. "Now, if you ever talk about this again, or light forbid, touch me again, I will kill you."

He found that fair enough. One warning was better than none.