"Van. Van. Van!"

Vanitas leapt into action at the sound of Aqua's panicked voice. Something was strangling him, keeping him trapped, he had to get out had to get to her—

He summoned Void Gear and cut through… the sleeping bag. The lumpy fabric fell into a heap on the tent floor.

They'd been sleeping. Right. Somehow Aqua had gotten up and dressed without waking him. Gone were the days when he'd slept with one eye open.

"Oops." He winced. "I'll get you a new one?"

"Forget the sleeping bag." She kicked it aside, then gripped his shoulders tightly enough to hurt. "Ven is gone."

He blinked at her, dismissing his weapon.

"He… what?"

"He's gone!"

Red rimmed her wet eyes. He could feel her hands trembling on his shoulders. Her guard had completely fallen in a way he'd never seen before, not even at her lowest in the Realm of Darkness. He hoped that was just because she trusted him to see her weakness now.

He did the only thing he could, and pulled her close, letting her tears soak into the fabric of his jacket.

He didn't get it. Ven could be stupid, but stupid enough to leave the one person who actually cared about him?

Well. Aqua had said it yesterday—Ven had done this before.

"Hey." He rubbed her back, trying to come up with anything to say, anything to bring back the comfort they'd felt last night. "Maybe… he just had to go to the bathroom?"

Aqua looked up. Her wet eyes were wide.

"I—I guess he could have…?"

"Yeah," he said more confidently. "I bet that's it. He'll probably be back any minute."

"Right." She took a deep breath, wiping her eyes with her palms. When she straightened, it was difficult to imagine that she'd been so shaken just moments before.

"Right," she repeated more firmly. "Everything's fine. He'll be back. I'm sorry for waking you."

"Don't be. Looks like I slept in too long, anyway."

He stretched, popping his shoulders, and changed into his clothes for the day after Aqua stepped out. He made sure to be quick. Leaving her alone in this state seemed like a bad idea.

Outside, Aqua was bustling around the campsite, cleaning up the tiny bits of trash from last night, as if Ven would be hiding under an empty hot dog package.

Out of desperation, he tried to call on his old connection to Ven. It felt frayed and thin, like a rope unraveled to just one thread. He was pretty sure that Ven was still alive. Probably.

Ugh, he'd have to do this the old fashioned way.

Think, Vanitas. If you were an idiot, where would you go?

Ven didn't have anywhere to go. But he was an idiot. That wouldn't stop him. Ven had been so eager to leave home and explore the worlds, to be friends with pretty much anyone but Aqua.

Vanitas looked towards the bottom of the hill. Towards the town they'd flown over yesterday.

"Maybe… he went to the bathroom over there?" He nodded in that direction.

Aqua wasn't paying attention, though. She zeroed in on something next to the fire pit, using all the focus she normally reserved for shotlocks.

"Here!" She plucked a sheet of paper from between the rocks. "He left a note. He left—he left a note?"

Her voice flipped from relief to rage. Void. There was no darkness wafting off of her, but it was still the angriest he'd seen her. Besides maybe the first time he'd tried to touch her boobs.

"That's good, right?" he asked tentatively.

"No! He should have—why didn't he just talk to me?" The paper crumpled in her fist.

He loved Aqua when she was angry, but it was weird to see that anger directed at anyone but him. Especially Ven, of all people. Had he been wrong about them being too nice to stay mad?

"Did you even read the letter yet?" he asked.

She blushed and smoothed out the page. Her eyes scanned the words, but either she could read at the speed of light, or the letter was barely more than a sentence.

Regardless, Aqua's furrowed brow softened, and her clenched jaw relaxed.

"He went to the town. He needed something to eat."

Vanitas nodded. That was as good a reason for leaving as needing to pee.

"We had food here. He could've had food last night too if he hadn't run away," she grumbled before covering her mouth. "I should have offered him something to eat. Why didn't I offer him anything? Of course he ran away!"

"Aqua." He stepped closer to her. "He's just getting food. It's not like he's going off to fight Xehanort or anything."

Her eyes widened.

"What if there's a Xehanort here? He could be in danger!"

He took her hands, running his thumbs over them soothingly. At least, he hoped it was soothing. Aqua didn't look very soothed.

"He doesn't even have his Wayfinder." Her voice was hoarse. "If anything happens to him… you'd know, wouldn't you?"

He wished he was wearing his helmet. There was no way she could miss his grimace.

"Yeah. Of course," he still attempted to reassure her.

Nothing was going to happen to Ven, anyway. The only one who'd ever been a threat to the idiot was Vanitas. It wasn't like the Norts could use him, either—even if Ven's half-heart had healed after their split, there was no way he had enough darkness to host a piece of Xehanort's heart.

"Good. Great," she said, though she didn't sound any more confident than he felt.

His stomach twisted at her buying his lie. He'd wanted her to, but…

Ugh. He just hoped they found Ven fast.

He wasn't a good enough boyfriend, girlfriend, or partner to comfort Aqua if the idiot ditched her forever.

XXX

"Too sweet," Ven mumbled, brow scrunching.

It was chocolate ice cream, though. Of course it would be sweet. What else would it taste like?

Sighing, he swung his legs over the roof's edge and nibbled on the stick of ice cream. It didn't taste bad, once he got used to it.

He'd liked chocolate before, hadn't he? Chocolate and fruit flavors. Sweet, just a little tangy. The ducklings had gotten the balance perfect with their Double Crunch recipe.

Something about eating it on a rooftop felt comforting, at least. If there was a reason, it was buried in the memories he couldn't dredge up.

He stared out at the ocean horizon. Sora had grown up on a beach. How much of his heartache at seeing the water was from Sora, and how much was his own?

He scooted over, swinging his legs off the opposite ledge. The forest in the distance didn't hold any baggage, positive or negative. The city below didn't, either. He was confident he'd never been here before.

…Though someone passing through the street did look familiar. A black coat that stood out against both the bright purples and muted earth tones. The person's hair was a shock of pink. He squinted down at them, but they vanished around a corner before he could piece out anything else.

Another dead end, I guess. He took another bite of ice cream.

His last bite, unfortunately. How was it gone so fast? If Aqua were here, she would've chided him about getting a brain freeze.

If Aqua were here, he'd probably be eating something healthy. Maybe a warm egg and cheese croissant, like he smelled wafting from a bakery a few roofs down. Or whatever savory meat was cooking across the street.

His stomach growled. His head throbbed with a brain freeze.

"Ugh." He gripped his empty ice cream stick tighter, pulling his knees to his chest. "What am I doing…?"

He didn't really want to be alone. But he couldn't be with Aqua right now. The weight of her expectations… it was just too much. It didn't matter if he apologized, or if she did—he didn't know which would happen, but either option sounded too draining to even consider. Despite his horrible sleep last night, he still wasn't used to being awake again. To feeling things.

He'd forgotten how exhausting it was just to exist.

Aqua couldn't see him like this. She'd just worry and try to fix things that couldn't be fixed. She'd worried enough.

She'd worried for twelve years.

He dropped his head onto his knees. She was trying her best, he knew that—but that was part of the problem. She was always trying, harder and harder and harder. How long could she bend and pretend, before she snapped?

He didn't want to be the one to do that to her.

He took a deep breath, and his stomach grumbled again. He'd fought enough Heartless between their camp and the island city to collect munny for more food. He might as well use it.

Before he could leap down from the roof, though, an unmistakable flash of blue caught his eye.

Aqua was here. How was she already here?

He ducked around the other side of the roof, peeking out over its peak.

Vanitas was following behind her, looking animated as he said something, but Ven was too far away to hear. Aqua didn't seem to be paying attention to Vanitas, for once. She was stopping every local on the street—and there were a lot of people out now.

Guess he wasn't getting more breakfast.

XXX

"Okay, that's enough." Vanitas grabbed the tail of Aqua's skirt-wrap before she could accost another group of busy townsfolk. "Lunch break."

"It's not even—" She cut off, staring up at the sky. The sun blazed unrelentingly overhead. "Oh."

"You're not going to find him on an empty stomach. Come on, I smelled some really good sausages a few blocks back."

He tried to pull her in that direction, but she didn't budge.

"We've already searched that way. We need to keep moving forward."

Vanitas stifled a groan. He knew she cared about Ven. He really did. He also knew she was stubborn, and could go an eternity without slowing down if he didn't stop her.

He wouldn't bring up how hopeless their search was, though. He didn't feel like getting stabbed.

"He could've doubled back. We might have missed him," Vanitas said instead.

The city was a lot bigger than it had looked from overhead. Buildings sprawled up and down the island mountain, and people clogged every street, bustling past them with cheery greetings or peddling various souvenirs. Everything was stamped with a golden sun symbol, from the cookies Aqua wouldn't let him stop to buy, to the purple handkerchiefs he couldn't care less about.

Ven would probably be buying souvenirs if he had any munny. Not that he had anywhere to keep them. Vanitas doubted that would occur to him until he had his arms full of useless junk, though.

Aqua still stood rod-straight, her eyes tracking every possible exit to the square they'd stopped in.

"Did you even hear me?" Vanitas asked, trying not to sound too petulant. Being ignored was annoying.

"Yes." She still didn't look at him. "I'm thinking."

"Could you at least think while we're eating something?"

She let out a frustrated sigh, but conceded by leading the way towards a different food stand. They were lucky that food seemed to be everywhere around here. Maybe this world wouldn't be a terrible place to live, either.

"Ven loves pastries. Maybe we'll run into him here," Aqua said as they stood in line.

Vanitas wouldn't turn down any type of food. The scent of meat wafting down the street still smelled more tempting, though.

"Yeah. Maybe," he mumbled.

He was starting to wonder if Ven's note had been honest, or if it was just a way for him to get a head start through the Lanes Between without being followed. Yeah, the city was big and crowded, but Ven was… Ven. He usually stuck out like a sore thumb. He would've made enough friends in the past few hours that everyone would know his name.

Ugh. He shouldn't have wasted his time worrying if Ven would forgive him. If anything, Ven owed him an apology after all this walking around.

Aqua ordered them some flaky cheese-and-lemon pastries. When they sat at the edge of a fountain and he sunk his teeth into the food, any complaints vanished as quickly as Ventus had.

"What?" Aqua asked when she heard him snort.

"Nothing," he said. She wouldn't appreciate the joke right now. Or ever, probably.

She appeared too preoccupied to press him. She took small, mechanical bites, her eyes still scanning the busy street.

"You gonna finish that?" he asked when he'd scarfed down his pastry. She'd barely finished half of hers.

"Hmm? You can have it, if you want."

Though it was tempting, he shook his head.

"I was joking. You need it more than I do."

She raised an eyebrow.

"Since when do you joke about food?" she asked, and he shrugged.

"It's either that or I start listing threats of what I'm gonna do to Ventus when we find him."

He expected her to tell him off for that, but she just sighed.

"I'm nearly to that point myself," she muttered.

"Really?" That would be entertaining to watch.

"Ugh. I don't know." She held out her pastry to him. "Seriously, you should eat it. I think I'll throw up if I eat anything else."

"Well I can't let that happen." He tried keeping his tone light as he took it.

He'd never been too upset to eat before. Was that normal for her? Or was she literally getting sick? He pressed the back of his hand to her forehead to check, and she gave him a funny look.

"Just making sure you didn't eat too many germs, or something," he explained. "You don't feel any hotter than normal."

She dropped her face in her hands, muffling her laugh.

"What would I do without you?"

"Keep moving until you blacked out, probably."

"...Yeah," she admitted. "I can't help it. I know there's not much more I can do, but I'm just so worried about him. It feels just like—just like last time."

Vanitas couldn't reply—half because his mouth was full of pastry, and half because he didn't know what to say. He was the reason for what went wrong last time.

"Well, uh." He swallowed. "I won't be hunting him down to forge the X-Blade, if that helps."

She looked up at him sharply, and he flinched.

"That's—oh, Van." She scooted closer to him and rested her hand on his thigh. "That's not what I meant, really. He was running away from me long before you did anything."

"Then he's an idiot," he said without thinking. He wouldn't take it back, though.

"No, he's just…" Aqua trailed off. "I can't even come up with an excuse for him. I don't know why he's like this. Maybe… I never knew him at all."

She frowned down at her lap. Vanitas took her hand, twining their fingers together. Their hands were both sticky from the pastries, but she didn't seem to mind.

"You don't have to defend him every time, you know," he said. "He hurt you. He's still hurting you. You can be mad."

"I can't." Her voice was strained. "I spent so long trying to save him. And we did. I can't ruin things now. If I'd listened better—"

"No." He pressed a finger to her lips. "You're always trying to do better. Being perfect isn't going to stop Ventus from being stupid. You didn't make him run off like a spooked Prize Pod."

She smiled a little at his metaphor, though her brows were still upturned with worry.

"But if I didn't—if it wasn't my fault, then…" Her hand tensed in his as she finished quietly, "Then I can't fix it."

He wrapped his arms around her middle, tugging her to his chest. Even though she was still taller than him, he tucked her head under his chin. She deserved to feel safe and protected too. Even if her spine probably wouldn't appreciate him for it.

"Who says you have to?" he asked. "Personally, I think your friends should learn to clean up their own messes for once."

She tensed, as if she wanted to argue. But she didn't say anything. She shifted from his embrace, resting her head in his lap instead. Slowly, her breathing steadied, blending with the soothing gurgle of the fountain behind them.

"I don't know how to stop trying," she murmured. "I'm not sure which is worse. If I don't help them and they need me, or if I don't help them and… it turns out they never needed me at all."

"Maybe they'll realize how much they need you and stop being idiots about it," Vanitas pointed out.

He combed his hands through her hair, working out the tangles. She relaxed into his touch.

"I wouldn't be so certain." She sighed. "They're both too stubborn for that."

"Like someone else I know?" He smirked.

She swatted his chest, but she was smiling.

"I hope you're talking about yourself."

Laughter bubbled up in him, nearly coming out as Inversed. He had to be careful in such a crowded town. A row of little girls sat on the fountain's ledge by them, doing each other's hair. He could imagine them falling into the water like dominoes if he spooked them.

While Aqua's eyes drifted closed, he tried to mimic what the girls were doing. Something like tying knots in the hair, but on purpose? The hairstyles weren't anything he was familiar with—not that he was familiar with much—but he was sure they would look pretty on Aqua.

He stuck out his tongue as he concentrated. This shouldn't be that hard, right? It was just hair. But his knots didn't look nearly as pretty as the girls' did.

He bit his lip, suddenly anxious about Aqua opening her eyes and seeing her reflection. Right now she nearly seemed asleep. Maybe she really had pushed herself too hard.

"Excuse me, sir?" One of the girls tugged on his coat, and he nearly fell back into the fountain. "Can I braid your girlfriend's hair?"

"Huh?" He blinked.

"You'll probably do a better job of it than he will," Aqua said, her eyes now open and smiling up at him.

"Hey!" He pouted. "I was… I was doing my best." He crossed his arms.

The girl giggled.

"You did okay! I can show you how, and then you can do even better!"

"...Fair enough," he muttered as Aqua sat up.

The girl practically gasped as she saw Aqua's hair fall around her shoulders.

"You're the prettiest girl I've ever seen," she said, like it was a fact. Which it was.

"Yeah. She is." Vanitas smiled, once again pushing down giddy Inversed.

Aqua's face was bright red, but she couldn't hide a smile either.

"Um, thank you," she told the girl.

"I want to have blue hair like you when I grow up. Is it magic? Are you the lost princess?" she asked in rapid succession. Her hands moved even more rapidly to tangle strands of Aqua's hair into a thin rope.

"I'm no princess," Aqua said quickly. "But yes, it is magic. …Do you have magic here?"

"Sometimes." The girl didn't elaborate. She held her left arm out behind her, holding Aqua's hair in her right. "Greta. Ribbon."

One of her friends gave her a pink ribbon, which tied off the end of the hair-rope. The girl quickly started another.

"Uh. Could you go a little slower?" Vanitas asked while trying to follow along on the other side of Aqua's hair.

"Oh! Yeah, sorry. Here, you'll want to braid it like this…"

Braiding. That's what it was called. It wasn't too difficult, once the girl—Hilda—explained the process a little better. There were always three cords of hair, and they were woven more than knotted together. It helped that Aqua was the perfect test subject, too. She could remain perfectly still, even when Vanitas accidentally tugged too hard or messed up and had to start over.

"That looks great!" Hilda smiled at him, even though his finished braid was a lot looser than hers. "Now watch this! Greta, pins."

"Pins!" Greta echoed, passing over a handful of metal pieces.

Vanitas's eyes widened, but Aqua didn't flinch when Hilda stuck the sharp objects into her hair. They held the braids together at the back of her head, almost like a crown.

"Tada!" Hilda beamed. "You can do the finishing touch. Here!"

She pulled a crumpled purple flower from her pocket and handed it to him.

"What do I…?" He hovered over Aqua's hair, trying to figure out where to put it. Did he need one of those pins?

"You can tuck it wherever you want!"

Well, it would look pretty on Aqua anywhere. He tucked the flower under the braid on the left side of her hair, just above her bangs.

"Well?" Aqua smiled. "Do I look pretty?"

Before he could answer, a Drizzle popped out of his chest. He panicked, grabbing it by the antennae before it could do anything stupid.

"Wow!" Hilda pressed her palms to her cheeks. "You're magic too?"

"Uh… I guess so?" He smiled awkwardly as he reabsorbed the Inversed. "That's not what people usually call it."

"It is magic." Aqua kissed him on the cheek, making him flush and nearly release a Drizzle again.

"Awwwww," the girl—and all of her friends—cooed. "I want a magic boyfriend when I grow up too."

Aqua giggled. "Well, I can't help with that, but…"

She touched the tip of Hilda's braid. Color spread from her fingertips, painting the red hair blue.

The girl squealed in delight and threw her arms around Aqua.

"Thank you, magic lady!"

The other girls scrambled to get their hair color changed next, and Aqua indulged each of them. Greta chose pink, the other two purple and green.

Vanitas had been right—Aqua would make a great mom. He wouldn't have been surprised if she ended up passing the keyblade down to one of these kids as an excuse to take them with her. Hopefully she'd at least wait until they finished saving the worlds, though.

"Alright. We'd better get going." She squeezed his hand once the girls were distracted showing off their new hair to each other.

"Back to the grind, huh." He tried not to sound disappointed. She'd taken a longer break from Ventus-searching than he'd expected her to.

"Hm? Oh, not exactly." She smiled a little. "Ven can find us when he wants to. We do kind of stand out."

"Really?" He gaped. "You're actually taking my advice?"

"What, did you not want me to?"

He shook his head.

"No, I just… didn't expect you to change your mind."

"Because I'm so stubborn?" She smirked.

"Well. Yeah."

She laughed.

"I have to keep you on your toes somehow." She tugged him up by the front of his shirt, pulling him into a head-spinning kiss.

"...Yeah," he breathed when she pulled back. "You're good at that."

He was still so dazed and flooded by her light that he almost missed a familiar scent approaching from behind. At first he thought it was Ven, but it was just a tad sharper, more antiseptic.

"Look! Another girl with magic hair!" The little girl with purple hair squealed.

Vanitas turned around. He almost forgot about the smell when he saw the girl they were talking about. Her hair snaked through the street, accidentally tripping a few passerbys. Or maybe not accidentally; Vanitas wasn't going to judge.

"Magic hair? Who has magic hair? I don't have magic hair!" the girl with the impossibly long hair said way too quickly.

Even if her lie hadn't been flimsier than a wet sheet of paper, Vanitas would've known the truth. He could smell the light coming off of her in searing waves.

"Good grief, how many of you are there?" a man standing next to the Princess asked, his eyes flickering between Aqua and the younger girls.

"Maybe I shouldn't have drawn so much attention," Aqua murmured sheepishly.

"Actually, I think you did her a favor," Vanitas said. "If you didn't draw so much attention, the Princess would have."

"The—wait, she's—?" Aqua cut off.

She glanced back and forth, then pulled him through the crowd, into a nearby alleyway.

"Thanks, the smell was pretty strong back there." He grinned.

"She's a Princess of Heart," Aqua said quickly. "There's a Princess of Heart here. Which means a Xehanort could be here, too."

He frowned. Right when he'd finally gotten Aqua to relax. Stupid Xehanort always ruining everything.

"We didn't see anyone that could be a Nort yet, though," he pointed out. "And we searched a good chunk of the city."

"It's impossible to search everywhere," she said.

He snorted. That's what he'd wanted to tell her hours ago.

"Maybe…" she bit her lip, "we should split up?"

"No," he practically growled. He tried to play it off as something being stuck in his throat. "I mean, I can totally look for a stupid Nort on my own. But. It would suck and I don't want to."

She laughed.

"I don't really want to, either. Do you have any better ideas?"

"Yeah. We could go get some more food, and go shopping for a new sleeping bag, maybe even some more clothes. And then you could braid my hair so we match. And then we can both be cooler and prettier than Ventus and he'll see how stupid he was."

She stared at him. He could tell she was trying not to laugh, which was pretty rude, considering he was being completely serious.

"I mean it. The Norts always seem to do a good enough job of finding us on their own," he insisted. "Why should we make it any easier on them?"

"Okay, fine, you have a point," she admitted. "We should stay close to the Princess, at least. Any Xehanorts will be as likely to target her as us."

"Sure, whatever." He shrugged. He could deal with the smell if it meant not going on another wild goose chase. "She can wait a minute longer, though."

"Hmm?" Aqua's head tilted in confusion.

The alley was narrow. Out of the way. The first bit of privacy they'd had practically all day. Which meant he could finally do what he wanted to in the first place.

He channeled his relief into a trio of Archraven Inversed and sent them fluttering into the sky.

"Those should be discreet enough to keep an eye out for any Norts without scaring anyone." He smiled in satisfaction.

Aqua's brow furrowed. "Why didn't you do that when we were looking for Ven?"

"I tried to. You weren't paying attention when I tried to get you to slow down."

"Oh." She blushed. "Sorry."

He nodded in acceptance of her apology, but she continued.

"I can slow down now." She smiled a little sheepishly, then leaned in and braced her arms on either side of him.

His heart sped up at the look in her eye. She was definitely paying attention to him now.

He put his hands on her waist, and she crashed against him like a wave.

It was different, being kissed against an alley wall. He would've expected to feel trapped. Instead he just felt wanted. Needed.

She deepened the kiss, chin knocking against his helmet piece roughly. It always sent a little thrill through him that the metal didn't stop her. He'd told her that he could take it off, but she apparently liked it, for some reason. It did make his jawline sharper, he guessed.

He let his hands wander across her back, his hand slipping under one of her crossing straps. She shuddered and bit down on his lip. Did she like that? Would she like it if he bit her back?

He was about to try it when she moved to kissing his neck. He felt more teeth, and he shivered, holding back a laugh. It tickled, but felt strangely nice?

"Do I taste good?" he asked her teasingly.

"Salty," she murmured against his skin. "You sweat a lot."

That time he did laugh, until she shut him up with another kiss. For once he didn't bother suppressing his Inversed, though he did try to make sure they were Archravens. Might as well make his delight productive.

"I like that," she said, pulling back just enough to rest her forehead against his.

"That I'm sweaty?" he asked in confusion.

"No—er, I mean, that's not bad either." She blushed. "But I meant when you let out your Inversed. I can feel them, for just a moment, when we're close like this. I can feel your emotions."

She cupped the side of his face, metal piece and all.

"I can feel you."

She was in luck, because those simple words sent more Inversed fluttering from his chest. No matter how many burst free, it seemed that his well of positivity didn't run dry.

"Then I guess I don't need to tell you I love you, huh?" he joked, adjusting the flower that had nearly fallen from her hair.

"Well, I wouldn't say that." She smiled back, taking his hand and twining her fingers with his. "I love you too, Van."