He rolled over in his sleep, and was awakened by how cold and empty
the other side of the bed was. Ven rubbed his eyes, sitting up as his blurry vision adjusted to the dim lighting in the room. Everything looked the same as it did when he went to bed that night–– except there was the lack of a certain someone who had his arms wrapped around Ven as they fell asleep together last night. Ven looked to the door, catching no sight of the familiar jacket that was supposed to be hanging off the doorknob.

Ven had gotten him that jacket a week after they moved to the island together. Vanitas never left anywhere without it, so he must have gone somewhere.

‘But where?’ he wondered, his cloudy mind trying to remember Vanitas’ favorite spots. Yawning, Ven picked himself off the bed and felt around the room for something warm to wear. After fumbling around, he found a hoodie and pulled it on, his hair resembling a bird’s nest once his head managed to find the neck hole. After finding some shoes and grabbing a flashlight, he made his way to the front door and walked out, shivering as the cold morning air greeted him.

Vanitas– as Ven discovered at the start of their relationship– was a morning person. Somehow Vanitas managed to get up at the most ungodly hours and be done with whatever he had planned to do that day. Training, his share of chores, bickering with Sora and the others whenever they visited the island; all would be done before noon. It amazed Ven that he had so much energy to perform such a feat, since the two of them always went to bed pretty late.

Because of that, Vanitas being up this early wasn’t what had Ven feeling worried. It wasn’t because Ven woke up without Vanitas at his side.

It was because Vanitas hadn’t awakened Ven to tell him he was going somewhere.

The crown of the sun was barely peeking over the ocean that morning. Stars still lingered in the grey-blue sky and the tide was slowly retreating back into the ocean, the draw the moon bought out of it slowly fading.

Ven quickly swept his gaze across the shore, sighing when he didn’t spot Vanitas immediately. Usually he’d be a little close to the house, if not farther away to train and avoid waking Ven with all the noise he made.

Sometimes Vanitas would train farther down the shoreline. Knowing this and hoping to find him, Ven walked along the wet sand left by the tide, foam clinging to his skin and vanishing just as fast as it washed upon his ankles. His shoes were now soaked, squishing with every step he took. But Ven hardly paid it any mind.

This was a nice place. It was near Destiny Islands, yet far enough where Ven and Vanitas could have their peace and quiet. Terra had found it for them while Vanitas was recovering from his wounds, around a week or two after the finale battle with Xehanort. Though Vanitas hadn’t fully recovered, he told Ven he wanted to go there straight away and get settled down. Ven agreed, though it was only to stop Vanitas from diving into the ocean and swimming to the island himself.

Everything fell into place once they arrived. With the help of the others, Ven and Vanitas had their own little cabin along the beach. It had enough room for the two of them to sleep and a whole lot of extra room for the others to come and barge in whenever they wanted to visit. Vanitas could complain all he wanted about how noisy it was when they visited, but Ven knew Vanitas enjoyed their friends’ visits just as much as he did. No matter how much of a grump he could be afterwards.

Ven shivered, tugging on the draw strings of his hoodie as the morning air pinched his nose and cheeks. Knowing that Vanitas had taken his jacket at least reassured him that he would be fine in this kind of weather. Only for a while though. Vanitas could only stand being cold for so long. When it became too much for him back home, he’d dive under their blankets and call for Ven to come and warm him up.

Little memories like that warmed Ven’s heart, pushing him to keep walking and look for his lover.

The cold winds were beginning to settle down as the minutes passed. By now they were gentle and only left a freezing graze along Ven’s bare ankles. In a way, Ven took that as a good sign. At least now he wouldn’t have to worry about Vanitas getting cold in this kind of weather. The jacket he took with him could only provide so much warmth.

‘He’s never traveled out this far, though,’ Ven thought, stopping at one point to see if he could find Vanitas near the water or through the thick trees behind him. ‘I think we both saw everything on this island dozens of times. So there wouldn’t really be a reason for him to go out this far.’ He strained his ears to listen for anything, only to get the roar of the ocean in return. Ven sighed. ‘I’m worrying too much, but I know I’m not being stupid for thinking this is weird. He tells me when he’s going out because he knows I worry when he doesn’t…’

Ven didn’t want to leash Vanitas or make him feel trapped. That was the one thing he assured he’d never do when they first got into a relationship. Ven wanted Vanitas to experience what it was like to have someone who cared about him, something that Xehanot had never given him when he was under his thumb. He only asked for one thing; communication. Something they both had a fair share on. If there was something wrong or if they had a problem they couldn’t solve on their own, they’d go to the other for help. At first, this was a hard rule for Vanitas to follow. He was so used to keeping his own issues to himself and not asking for help. But eventually, Ven would have Vanitas finding him, sitting next to him and soon talking about what was on his mind. What lingering fears and feelings he still possessed. How the thought of being separated from Ven and finding himself back at Xehanort’s side scared him out of his mind.

On the day he confessed those feelings to him, Ven held Vanitas tight. He held the former masked boy so, so tight, promising him that he wasn’t going anywhere. He promised him he’d never feel those kinds of feelings ever again.

Communication was key to them. It was something Ven held in high importance. If it were just Vanitas leaving the cabin that morning with a quick, ‘morning,’ then Ven would have paid it no mind. He would have gone about his day and waited for Vanitas to come back. But in actuality, it was Vanitas’ behavior from the past few days that had him up and searching like this.

Lately, Vanitas has been distant. It would have been hard to notice at first, since the two of them were usually glued at the hip. But like the way Vanitas liked a few extra pillows in bed and how he prefered spices over sweets, it was the subtle things that gave him away. Maybe an embrace in the morning would last shorter than Ven liked, or he would pull his hand away whenever Ven reached out to hold it, or sometimes Vanitas would space out every now and then, but the one change Ven had noticed was Vanitas staring off towards the ocean. He’d catch Vanitas gazing at it through the windows, while he rested on the porch steps, and sometimes after training along the beach. Vanitas would stare far off into the waters, as if searching for something. Ven shrugged it off as spacing out the first few times he saw it, but now Vanitas was doing it more often than usual. Ven started to wonder if something was wrong.

Ven remembered the story about Xehanort in his youth. He couldn’t remember if he heard this from Sora, or Aqua, or whoever. What he could remember was the beginning, when Xehanort would stare off towards the oceans that surrounded Destiny Islands. A youth who longed to travel to other worlds and leave behind his home, being pulled in by his desires and walking down a path undoubtedly shrouded in darkness.

Xehanort always stared at the ocean…

Ven began to walk faster.

The sand was kicked up below his feet as his walk turned into a jog, the cold no longer a problem for him as he began to look in all directions, looking for something, anything that could have told him where Vanitas had gone.

It didn’t take him long to find his shoes and jacket.

They laid upon the sandy bank, tossed and kicked aside, like Vanitas had been in a hurry to get them off. Ven picked up the jacket, his hands starting to tremble as he looked around the area. He glanced over to the ocean, eyes widening as he saw Vanitas trudging toward the water. His back was to him and arms cutting through the water as he tried to make his way through it. With every step he took, the ocean swallowed him up more. The dark waters reminded Ventus of the dark; rippling, never-ending shadows that tugged and drew Vanitas in until he was becoming harder to see.

“Vanitas!”

Ven shouted his name, began to scream it as he charged straight into the water, yanking and chucking his shoes off and tossing them over his shoulder unceremoniously. The tides had tickled him when they brushed against him during his walk but as he bolted into the water, they were swiping at his ankles, trying to knock him off his feet, trying to push him away from Vanitas. Ven didn’t let them stop him, though. He kept pushing. He kept swimming. He kept screaming his name.

‘Don’t take him away from me,’ he thought, sea water stinging his eyes that were already filled with tears. ‘Please, please, please don’t take him away from me!’

“Vanitas!”

Vanitas reared his head up, turning around with a confused expression as he saw a familiar head of blonde hair bobbing through the water. “Ven-?”

A giant wave came out of nowhere, crashing straight into his back and sending him and Ven tumbling back to the shore. Though the currents and bits of broken shell and seaweed, Vanitas had grabbed Ven and pulled him towards him, holding onto him as they were taken straight to the wet sand.

“What… What are you doing here?” Vanitas coughed, looking down at Ven. “It’s too early for you…” Ven was shaking. At first, Vanitas thought it was because he was cold and it would make sense since the both of them had just been slapped by the ocean. But Ven was gripping too tightly to his shirt for it to be that. It was something else. “Ven?”

“You scared me,” Ven wrapped his arms around his neck, his breath hitched with worry even as he held Vanitas closer to him. “You didn’t tell me where you were going, and you’ve been so distant lately. I thought something was going on and you weren’t telling me anything.” His words were coming out in a rush and god he was probably sounding absurd, but they just poured out of him, pushed out by his heart as it tried to jump out of his throat. “I thought I was going to lose you…” he murmured at last, shutting his eyes.

“Lose me? You think you’re going to get rid of me that easily?” The words were meant to tease him, but Ven could hear the sincerity in them. This was Vanitas being the way he was. And Ven loved him for it. “I guess I have been breaking the rule we made about talking, huh?”

Ven nodded, still clinging to him.

“Not gonna let me go unless you’re sure I’m staying, huh?”

Another nod. The hug was long. The arms around his neck were starting to feel like a vise.

“Will you if I explain myself?”

The grip loosened a little. “That would be nice.”

When Ven gave him enough room, Vanitas grabbed his waist and scooted the both of them until they were back to dry sand and their shoes. Ven was now shivering from the cold by the time they got back. “Sheesh,” Vanitas reached around and pulled over his jacket. “Your clothes are soaked, sunshine.” he said, wrapping his jacket around Ven like a blanket

“Your’s are, too.” Ven still clung to him, trembling with chattering teeth and now red in the face.

“I was doing it on purpose.”

“What?” asked Ven, confused. “Why?”

“I was looking for these,” From his jacket pocket, Vanitas revealed a handful of sea shells. Some of them were whole and intact while the others were cracked or brittle, already breaking apart in Vanitas’ palm. They were all white with a hue of green along the edges. “They wash up on shore during the morning, when the sun’s just about to come up. I had to find them before the tide washed them away or cracked them.”

A person would really have to get up early in the morning to find these, Ven observed. So early that they would only have time for a quick hug goodbye.

Vanitas huffed at the collection he had in his hand. “This haul bites, though. The good ones I just found in the water were crushed when that wave hit us.

Now that Ven was taking a closer look, he could see a few scratches on Vanitas’ palms. Some were recent and others looked a few days old. Maybe his hands would hurt if Ven reached out to hold them. And the scratches would lead to questions that Vanitas couldn’t answer just yet. Like why he was looking out to the ocean.

“But why?” he asked again, still lost. “Why did you need shells?”

“To make you a wayfinder,” Now Vanitas was blushing and Ven’s heart was set to bursting. “To promise you I’ll always be by your side.” Vanitas curled his arms around his waist, pressing their foreheads together as his eyes glimmered under the rising sun. “Even if you don’t hear me say it often, you’ll have something to remember that.” A smile ghosted his lips. “Got that, sunshine?”

The tides were crashing beside them, pulling away Ven’s fears and worries with them while they pushed him straight towards Vanitas and his embrace. He sighed, breaking that last bit of distance between them with a soft kiss.

“Got it.”

The tides were calm.