"Good morning." Aqua's oddly cheerful voice woke him.

He yawned loudly, stretching out and rolling over onto his stomach.

"Five more minutes…" he muttered, only to realize he wasn't actually tired. For the first time he could remember, he had slept peacefully. Even the cold, sand-dusted ground hadn't leeched the warmth from his muscles.

"Alright, but breakfast might be gone by then."

Vanitas shot up. "Breakfast?"

Aqua laughed, holding out a stick of blue ice cream that, for some incomprehensible reason, looked like it had a duck bill.

Whatever, Vanitas was too hungry to care if his food resembled an aquatic bird. He snatched it out of her hand and scarfed it down in two gigantic bites.

"Whoa." He touched his mouth, feeling a fizzy sensation on his tongue. It was a little salty too, but still delicious.

"Try running around," Aqua told him.

"What? Why?"

"You'll have to see for yourself." She crossed her arms and leaned back against the wall.

Rolling his eyes—he kept forgetting she could actually see that now—he stood up and took a few steps. That fizzy sensation on his tongue spread through his whole body, all the way down to his toes. It filled him with weird energy, compelling him to run, dash, jump.

"So that's what that looks like." Aqua stared at him, amazed.

"What? You already saw me without my—ohhh." He looked back, where a few ghostlike imprints of himself remained, like visible memories. When he reached out to touch one, it dissolved through his fingers.

"I use this ice cream as an item when I'm in battle," Aqua explained. "That's why I never thought to share it when you asked for food."

He grudgingly admitted that it made sense. Maybe he could forgive her for it, if he was the forgiving type. Which he wasn't.

"Wait, how did you get ice cream for an item?" he asked with a scowl. He'd never gotten ice cream for items, only stupid potions that tasted bitter and gross.

"This little duckling named Huey made it for me, out of—Unversed!"

"What!?" Vanitas burst out, wondering if he should throw up. Had he just cannibalized his own emotions?

"When I fought your Prize Pod Unversed, all of these strange ingredients spilled out," Aqua clarified. "Somehow the ducklings knew how to turn them into ice cream. Unfortunately, they're not here to make any more, and that Donald Fizz I gave you was my last one."

Vanitas just stared at her as the ghostlike glow around him faded away. "You ate ice cream that ducks made for you out of Unversed. And you think I'm crazy?"

She frowned, scratching at her suit around her forearm.

"I suppose when you put it that way… I didn't think much of it at the time."

Wait—forget how ridiculous it was. He could still make Unversed. He could still make Prize Pods. Could that mean—?

"Do you think we could make ice cream?" he asked excitedly.

Aqua's eyes widened, and she covered her mouth—but not before he could see that she was laughing at him.

"What?" He scowled. "It's a perfect plan. How else can we get food down here?"

"No, Vanitas—" she composed herself, "You just had this big grin on your face. It was—" She suddenly stopped.

"What?" He prodded suspiciously.

"Never mind." Her gaze retreated to the ground. Maybe after being so open with him, she'd finally remembered who she was talking to. A heart of darkness.

A heart of darkness who really, really wanted some more ice cream.

"Whatever. So do you think we can do it or not?"

She frowned thoughtfully. "I've seen them make it before, though I'm not sure I can replicate it…"

She took one look at the annoyance and disappointment he radiating off his exposed face.

"But I guess it's worth a shot," she amended.

That was good enough for Vanitas. He didn't make Prize Pods often; it took him a moment to focus on the emotions necessary to conjure them. It took a strange combination of hunger and nostalgia that he'd accidentally stumbled upon when he was first learning to form his Unversed.

Xehanort had never fed him. Vanitas wasn't sure the old geezer had known he needed food. Definitely not at the very beginning, when he barely had a face, when he had still been processing through the pain of Ventus's memories. That's when he'd found it—the one particular memory Vanitas couldn't stand. His—Ventus's—mother had taken him to an amusement park. She had never been able to afford much, but it was his sixth birthday, and she made it the most special day in all the Worlds. Bought him a bar of sea-salt ice cream, stuck a candle in the top, sang happy birthday to you—

The past memory of so much love. The present feeling of his starving body. Wishing on memory-Ventus's candle that everything would end, that this all could go away—

Aqua gasped as the bulbous purple Unversed tore themselves from him. Vanitas shook, but he kept his focus on the memory, until ten Prize Pods were fully formed.

"Vanitas…?"

He clenched his eyes shut, swaying dangerously. In his hunger for ice cream, he'd ignored how much those particular Unversed took out of him.

When he nearly collapsed, he was shocked to feel Aqua's arms catch him.

"Van, are you okay?"

He still had enough energy to snarl, "Did you just call me Ven?"

She looked taken aback.

"No. I called you Van…" she trailed off in some sort of dazed confusion.

It sounded too much like Ven. So why did the shortened name make him feel just the tiniest bit… warmer?

He shook his head, struggling to stand on his own two feet.

"Forget it. Let's just get those…"

His head swiveled, scanning the room. No Prize Pods in sight.

He bit back a curse. When he'd accidentally made Prize Pods before, his instinct had been to hide them. After all, what would Xehanort do if he found out his apprentice had created an Unversed that couldn't even attack? Unfortunately, now that he needed them, they must still have the instinct to flee and hide.

"Idiots," he muttered. "Come on. I'm not letting all that energy go to waste."

Aqua still looked at him in concern. "Are you sure you're up for it?"

"Don't insult me." He glared.

Making Unversed used to be his job, his life. Sure, some were more painful to conjure than others, but he didn't need her pity. He knew what he was doing.

Still, she sighed.

"Suit yourself. I think they went that way."

She pointed down a tunnel that branched off of the sprawling, low-ceilinged room. There wasn't a sign of the Unversed, of course, and the Realm's darkness interfered too much to track them precisely, but his slight connection with his disobedient creatures pulled him on.

He darted down the tunnel with Aqua close on his heels. Unfortunately, as the tunnel sloped downwards, it became clear that this was some sort of drain for the sand dripping from the stalactites above. It wasn't nearly as bad as the quicksand, but the lack of traction did slow him down.

"Does it… always hurt that badly?" Aqua asked as they ran.

"Is this about my Unversed again?" he grumbled, irritated for some reason he couldn't explain. "Why do you care?"

"Because… I've never seen you look so…"

"So what?" he snapped, glancing over his shoulder.

Reluctantly, she finished, "So… helpless. In so much pain…"

His first instinct was to stop, spin around, and punch her in the face. He settled for only doing the first two.

"Never call me helpless again," he snarled, jabbing a finger at her sternum. With his outburst, a weepy-eyed Mandrake peeled itself out of him.

Aqua jumped back when the Unversed instinctively lashed out at her. Just as instinctively, she swiftly destroyed it with Master Keeper.

Vanitas tried to hide his slight flinch, but without the protection of his mask, his pained grimace was on full display. Just as he was about to summon his protective headgear, Aqua spoke up in concern.

"Vanitas? Did something happen…?" She vaguely reached towards him.

"Why do you keep pretending you care?" He shoved her hand away. "A few weeks ago, you would've been delighted to see me in pain."

"A few weeks ago, you hadn't saved my life," she retorted, concern making way for defensiveness. "I didn't know you were human then."

Vanitas laughed in a short, disbelieving burst.

"It's the face, isn't it? What, does it make you feel guilty?"

"No," she replied reflexively, but she squirmed under his yellow gaze.

Maybe he was more vulnerable without his mask, but in a way he was more powerful, too. He'd stumbled upon a new method of manipulation. After all she'd done with her piercing, light-filled eyes, he savored the turning tables.

"I just…" she continued, struggling a little for the words. "I don't want to see you in pain, Van. Things have changed; can't you see that?"

There it was again. Van. The nickname made his skin tingle; he shook his head to rid himself of it, but she must have thought it was in response to her question.

She sighed. "You don't have to believe me, but it's true. I just thought… if you told me about it, I might be able to help you stop hurting."

He snorted. Was she for real? No one had ever cared if he hurt or not. Especially not her.

"…Well for one, you could not brutally murder my Unversed," he finally muttered. Since she was so intent on asking.

"What?" Her head tilted in confusion.

"Stop killing my Unversed," he repeated more loudly.

"It hurts you… when I destroy Unversed?" She could barely seem to comprehend it.

"It's not rocket science." With a wave of his hand, a tendril of darkness, he conjured a Flood. "They're made out of my emotions. This one's Annoyance." The annoyance he was felling towards her, specifically, but he didn't say that out loud. "You kill it, and you're killing a part of me."

Her eyes widened in shock. "You mean I—?"

"Shut up, it doesn't really die," he clarified. The Flood tried to swipe at her, and she hopped back. "It hurts like it's dying, but it returns to me. So I also get a nice burst of Annoyance back with that pain."

She just stared at him, unsure of what to say. He'd expected as much. How could she react to knowing she'd basically murdered hundreds of pieces of him?

"I…had no idea," she murmured, eyes glued to the sandy ground, where Annoyance was twitching, irritated that its master was keeping it from attacking her. "…I'm sorry."

He snorted, absorbing the Flood with his outstretched hand. It didn't hurt that way, but he never particularly enjoyed getting those negative emotions back.

"Don't lie to me. Maybe things have changed now, but you still would've killed them without even blinking."

The guilt returned to her blue eyes, but he found he couldn't savor it. Instead, it only left a hollow feeling in the pit of his stomach. Which he still needed to fill—with ice cream.

"That's what Xehanort had me create them for. The perfect replaceable punching bag." No matter how much those punches hurt, he thought bitterly."Forget about it. You did your job, and I did mine. Now let's go get ice cream."

He continued down the tunnel at a slower pace than before, since the sand had started to settle thicker along the floor.

Even though he had clearly closed the subject, she wouldn't drop it.

"If I didn't know better, I'd think you just forgave me," she said in disbelief.

He shrugged, breaking off the tip of a sandy stalactite that hung in his way.

"I don't forgive. Just forget."

She didn't seem to have a response for that, which was fine with him. Explaining his feelings—or rather, figuring out those feelings for himself—was too much effort.

"How far are those stupid Prize Pods?" Vanitas muttered to himself.

The tunnel widened out, flattened out into another shallow, stalactite-covered room. For all he could tell, it was the same room they'd started in. But the floor had sloped down the whole time, right? It couldn't have been a circle.

Aqua flitted around the room, peering around stalactites that hung just at her head level. Vanitas didn't even have to duck, another annoying reminder of their height difference.

Suddenly, from the other side of the room, he heard the bubbly sound of his Unversed reappearing.

"Van! I found them!" Aqua called, but she didn't summon her keyblade.

"Then what are you waiting for?" he yelled while running towards her. "Beat the food out of them!"

"But—" she glanced between him and the fluttering Prize Pods, "won't that hurt you?"

He shook his head in disgust. "I'm going to hurt you if I don't get my ice cream. Hurry up, before they decide to come back to me."

He had to swat down one Prize Pod with his blade when it got too close. The self-inflicted pain made him flinch, but several odd items littered the ground. After watching him do it, Aqua must have been a little more confident in destroying the Unversed herself. Quickly targeting all of the Prize Pods at once, she unleashed a rainbow shotlock that fired a barrage of energy bullets.

It felt like someone had rained Ragnarok down on top of him. He couldn't help crying out as Hunger and Nostalgia and Longing all returned to him at once, sinking him to his knees.

"Nngh…" He bit his tongue, keeping his cry to himself. Now, if Aqua would just focus on picking up items, not turn around—

Of course he couldn't be that lucky. She neglected the far more important ice cream ingredients in order to run to him.

"Van—!"

"Shut up," he cut her off, struggling to stand by bracing himself with Void Gear. "I'm fine."

"No, you're not!" she finally snapped back at him. "You keep wanting to hurt over and over again, like some crazy masochist—!"

"Shut up!" He swung out and up with his keyblade, making her jump back. "You think I want this? You think I make Unversed for fun and like feeling them get blasted apart?"

He banished his keyblade, but stepped forwards to meet Aqua's shamed gaze with a glare. "I'm only doing it this time to get food. I think that's worth it. So stop telling me what you think I want, because you have no idea."

Spinning around without giving her a chance to reply, he scooped up the "Prickle Peppers" and "Gaspberries" and "Cream Fluffs" that had spilled from the Prize Pod he'd destroyed.

But he had to wonder—was this worth it? Creating and destroying the Unversed hurt worse than he remembered. Come to think of it, though, he hadn't made so many at once since being trapped in the Realm of Darkness. Could his pain tolerance just be out of shape?

Once his arms were full of ingredients, he snuck a glance over his shoulder to where Aqua was collecting the rest. Her back faced him, but he could tell her shoulders were slumped, her head low. What, had he hurt her fragile feelings? Nah, probably just her pride.

She wants to think she understands. He snorted. Well, she couldn't. He'd been through more pain than she could imagine in her worst nightmares. Who did she think she was, thinking she could take it away with a snap of her fingers?

"Here," Aqua said quietly, dumping out the rest of the ingredients she'd carried in her skirt. Tiny vials of Rainbow Syrup and Soy Milk mingled with wrapped Cotton Cloudcandies and Fizzy Tizzies.

Vanitas stared at it all with a sense of pride mixed with disbelief.

"I've never made this much before. Pretty impressive, huh?"

"I suppose so." Aqua eyed their bounty dubiously. "I can't believe I've been eating items made out of your emotions."

"At least you get to eat. Now's not the time to be picky."

"Easy for you to say…"

"Look, I did just go through a lot of pain for this," he tugged at her guilt. "Don't make it go to waste."

She stared down at the pile of Unversed-based food products, and she nudged a Dancin' Lemon with the toe of her boot. The lemon sparked and spasmed angrily at the contact before going still again.

"This is crazy," she mused to herself. "I'm going to make ice cream out of monsters made out of emotions, with the person who used to want to kill me, under a pit of quicksand in the Realm of Darkness."

Sheesh, was she just realizing this now? She'd done half of those things already and apparently hadn't given it a second thought.

He shrugged. "Yeah. So?"

She shook her head, sighing heavily.

"Never mind. Do you want to try our hands at making that ice cream now?"

He grinned as he rubbed his hands together.

"Sheesh, I thought you'd never ask."