A/N : I don't own Kingdom Hearts.

Years.

Years, all gone.

How? Why?

He blinked - there was a scratching at what seemed to be a screen. A nudge. His body ached; he could tell that much, though any thoughts of his existence... ...

There it was, again.

That same nudge. He turned his head, vision trying to realign itself, but it clung to the idea of being stubborn. Images attempted to form, gather.

Someone - were they the one who ...

"Master Xehanort!"

The words finally wiggled out, forcing their way through the dull screen that surrounded the male's conciousness. That name... Familiarity wanted to stand out towards such words, but.. Confusion bubbled up to the surface. Was that him? He felt his brows furrow - as he pulled an inquisitive expression.

"Mas... ter... Xeha... nort?"

His tone gruff, rough. Had it always been that way, because it had seemed... worse.

The boy who had spoken the words frowned, concern etching his features immediately. He shifted, placing a hand gently onto the man's forehead. "T-That's your name," He stuttered out, that very worry easily coating his voice. "I... y-you're bleeding..! Let me see," He said hurriedly, gently starting to push his Master onto his back.

Xehanort flinched. Pain surged forth - and he could feel a throbbing on the side of his head. It hurt. He emitted a groan, and he started to lift a hand to feel it, but - the boy shot out a hand and stopped his hand.

"D-Don't," He said, still nervous.

"I just... want to feel it," Xehanort tried to explain, but the orange - haired boy shook his head.

"You could hurt it more," He argued.

He resigned, simply lowering his gloved hand back down to his side. "Who... are you?" He asked slowly, flickering his eyes onto the other, it causing slight tracers within his vision.

"I'm Ventus," He nearly whispered, heart hurting at the mere fact that his Master even forgot about him - everything? He tossed a look around their landscape - luckily the attack hadn't been their usual spot in the Badlands. They had only been right outside of a town this time - something of a break so Ventus could have had some 'relaxing training for once'. The boy had to resist rolling his eyes.

What a joke that was.

Xehanort grunted, wanting to pull himself to see more of his environment, even he felt like utter shit. But despite scattered thinking right in the moment, the boy quickly placed a hand on Xehanort's chest, stopping his teacher from moving. "Stay there," He commanded, thankful for a slight pull out of his thoughts. With a free hand, he dug out a small vial from a pocket on Xehanort's long coat - a small healing potion. "I remembered you've stored these just in case if anything would happen," He said with a relief, a hint of a smile poking through his other serious expression.

"Where are we?" The elder male questioned, simply staring up towards the sky, the tree leaves still looking a bit blurry.

"The Dark Forest, it's right outside of this town here," Ventus explained, now cupping a hand gently underneath the bald man's head. "Drink," He ordered, potion prepared.

"The.. Dark Forest?" He wanted more answers than that, the anxiety starting to get to him. What was wrong? What had happened?

Luckily, the boy remained patient, and nodded. "Yeah, it's full of..." He paused, blinking. How could he explain it if his Master had amnesia? "...creatures. Creatures we had to defeat. Well, I had to.." He grumbled the last bit. "Uh... you should drink this. Like, right now."

"..oh," Xehanort uttered, carefully drinking it. ...what's so important about i- His thoughts cut off right in the middle, his body starting to feel significant better just in a few moments of waiting for the potion to take effect. "I -It helped me?"

Ventus definitely looked more at ease, as he now checked Xehanort's injury once more. The bleeding had slowed, and the wound had mostly closed. A smile dared to peek onto the boy's face, and he laughed. "Yeah, it's freakin' great. You should be feeling better here soon. We'd still need to get back to town, though."

A groan escaped from the elder keyblade wielder as he tried to lean up more, his gloved hand messily moving to help himself up a bit. A little bit of swimming of the head as he carefully sat up, but it ebbed away carefully. He finally was able to take more in - tons of green, and brown. Numerous vines of plants had curled around in a few places. At least they were away from all the busy nature; the two were in a clearing of some sorts. The sun still tried to poke through the clouds and trees up above - but at the very least they both could feel the soothing breeze around them if not the warmth of the sun.

"It's nice here," He commented, a slight smile trying to tug onto his face.

Ventus rubbed at the back of his head. "It... really isn't half bad, no.. if not for the monsters."

This drew golden hues onto Ventus, away from the greenery. "What happened? We were fighting something you said?"

The boy blinked. "Oh, yeah, uhm.. I was able to finish them off. Apparently, too many spawned." He looked away, uncomfortable.

"Thank you."

Red filled Ventus' cheeks. He hadn't expected to hear that from his Master. Usually it had been demands, and otherwise. High expectations. "Uh, n-no problem." He abruptly stood up from the log he had been sitting on, turning towards the other. "Resting is good for you, but we really should get out of here, especially with you injuried, Master. Are you able to stand?"

Xehanort grunted, attempting to push himself up, feeling slight aches within certain parts of his body. Why? Did it have to do with the attack? "I think," He murmured, nearly staggering as he finally got to his feet with the help of a tree stump. He swayed, shooting a hand out towards a tree to stop himself from falling. "I'm alright... I think," he repeated, as he pushed himself away from the tree now, but the boy ended up hugging close to him before the elder male could fall.

"Please.. be careful," the boy remarked, studying the other a bit before tossing a look elsewhere to determine which way they had gone earlier.

"How.. bad was it?"

"I... Once... I heard the noise of you yelling, I knew something was up... so I rushed over. I saw blood." He swallowed hard.

Xehanort's mind attempted to try to pull up any sort of information. "I... I don't recall."

"That's what I'm afraid of..."

"Is my head.. broken?" He inquired, golden eyes on the other, prickling with worry.

"I- ..." He huffed a sigh. "I hope not, Master," He answered, starting to walk with him. "Come on, town is only a couple of miles away. We'll stop and rest if we need to."

Xehanort nodded, starting to fall in line with the boy's steps.

A/N: Andddd... there we go. I think i feel comfortable being around again... we'll see. I have mostly just stuck to AO3, heh. :P Enjoy.