Okay okay. So yeah I got new story again. I just have had this idea for month and month and I have been putting it off for forever. But I finally got chapter 1 finished and it's a long one! Yay!

So yes this is a AU story where Vantias is the older brother to Sora and Xion. It's going to be a cute story, but it will also have a lot more than just cute.

My good friend harumaeda on Tumblr drew me this cover image for the story. So thank you for that!

Now let's get on to the story! Enjoy!

In a small orphanage in the town of Destiny Islands, there were three little orphan siblings. The oldest was an eight year old boy named Vanitas, and his younger siblings were five year old fraternal twins Sora and Xion.

The three of them had been living in the orphanage for over three years now. Over those three years Vanitas watched over and protected his little brother and sister. None of them ever wanted to be separated from one another...which made things difficult if someone only wanted to try and adopt one of them. Ever since they were left by their parents, Vanitas made a promise to Sora and Xion that he would always be there for them as their big brother, and always be there to protect them.

They stuck together in whatever they did, never once doing something without the others. But things started to grow harder over the time they were at the orphanage. Vanitas, being the oldest, he started to have worries about being separated from Sora and Xion. He always overheard the orphanage workers talking. They would talk about adults who wanted to possibly adopt him or his siblings. He didn't want that to happen. He wouldn't let that happen. Vanitas would do whatever he could to always be with his siblings. He had promised to always be there for them and he didn't want to break that promise. Little did he know though of the adventure that awaited them.

In the playroom section of the orphanage, Xion was sitting at one of the little tables. She wore a little dark blue dress that ended just above her knees. A medium sized moogle plush sat on top of table just in front of her as she draw on some paper. She happily hummed to herself as she doodled. In the second the moogle was snatched away out of her line of sight.

Xion turned to see one of the orphan boys, around her age, standing next to her. "Hey! Give him back!"

"No. You always play with this thing. You gotta share it," The boy responded in a taunting tone.

"But it's mine!" Xion pouted.

"No it isn't."

"Yes it is! Now give him back," Xion said as she tried to reach for her moogle plush, but the boy stepped back and stuck out his tongue.

"Nah," The boy said as he stepped back again, but he bumped into someone. The boy looked up to see a older boy wearing a red tank top and grey shorts. It was none other than Xion's older brother Vanitas, who was glaring down at him. The boy jumped away, "Ah! Um… Hi Vanitas?"

Vanitas looked down at the boy as he crossed his arms, "What do you think you are doing with my sister's moogle doll?"

"Umm...Nothing!" The boy responded quickly shaking his head.

"Then give it back to her," Vanitas responded casual, while still keeping his intimidating demeanor.

"Yes!" The boy said as he turned back to Xion, holding out the moogle plush. "Sorry…"

Xion reached out and grabbed the plush and held it tightly in her arms. She smiled happily and she hugged it. The boy than ran of to a different area of the playroom.

Once he was gone Vanitas sat down next to Xion and smiled at her. "Well I don't think he will bother you anymore."

Xion's smile grew even larger as she threw her arms around Vanitas, "Thanks Vani!"

Vanitas smiled again as he patted Xion's head gently, "Of course. So whatcha drawing? Vanitas asked as he looked over at the papers on the table that Xion had been drawing on.

"I was drawing a kitty, then some flowers, and then us," Xion said as she pointed to each of her drawings.

"You drew us?" Vanitas asked as he looked at the last drawing Xion had done. The most recent one had three clumsily drawn people. Vanitas could tell though that it was supposed to be Sora, Xion, and him. It had that cute 5-year-old style to it that made it look so much better.

"Uh-huh. See?" Xion said as she held up the picture to show Vanitas. "There's you, me and Sora." Xion pointed to each of them as she said their names.

"That's great," Vanitas said as he patted Xion's head again.

"But...I wanna ask," Xion said as she placed the paper back down. She looked at her drawing before looking back at Vanitas, her eyes wavering slightly. "What did mommy and daddy look like?"

Vanitas's smile faded away as he tensed up. He was a little hesitant to answer. Sora and Xion were only two years old when their parents had left them, so they wouldn't be able to remember them. But Vanitas was five when they left. He did remember them. He could not remember a whole lot, but he did have some memories of them. Vanitas never talked about their parents ever with his siblings as he didn't want them to worry or feel sad. "Why do you want to know?"

Xion looked at her drawing again, tracing her fingers over it, "Should I draw them? They are family…"

Vanitas placed one of his hands over Xion's. He averted his eyes as he slowly shook his head, "No they aren't. They left us. They aren't our family anymore. The only family you have is me and Sora."

"Oh…okay," Xion said with a sigh. A second later she perked back up "Oh, can you at least tell me what mommy looked like? Was she pretty?"

Vanitas bit the inside of his cheek. Xion sure was in a mood for questions. Questions that Vanitas really didn't want to talk about or answer. But he knew Xion wouldn't stop asking him until she got an answer that made her happy. "She was very pretty. Almost as pretty as you," Vanitas said as he ruffled Xion's hair, causing her to giggle. "Now how about we go find Sora?" Vanitas quickly added. "I bet he is still napping. We should go find him and show him all your drawing you did."

Xion nodded as she jumped to her feet, "Okay!" She gathered up her drawings and moogle plush, holding them in one hand.

Vanitas sighed with relief as he stood up and took hold of Xion's other hand. They walked out of the playroom and down the hallway. They walked down until they almost reached the end of the hall. The turned to the right and entered into a large room with several bunk beds in it. It was the boys bedroom. On one of the beds in the room slept Sora, who wore a white t-shirt with blue trim and red shorts. He was sleeping on his side and his head had slide off the pillow and onto the bed.

Xion ran up to the bed and shook Sora's shoulder, "Sora. Sora wake up."

Sora moaned as he rolled onto his back, still not waking up. Xion pouted, "Sora. Wake up!" She pushed Sora more, but he still would not wake.

"He won't wake up," Xion said as she looked up to Vanitas.

"Well how do you think we should try to wake him?" Vanitas asked with a smile. "Should we tickle him like last time?"

Xion shook her head, "No…" She looked at Sora as she thought. "Oh! I know!"

Xion placed her drawings and moogle plush down on the nearby nightstand before climbing up onto the bed. Vanitas just stood there, curious to see how Xion would try to wake Sora today. Xion kneeled over Sora before shouting happily, "Sora! Wake up now!" She then flopped down onto Sora.

Sora's big blue eyes shot open as he gasped. His eyes then fixed on Xion, "Ah Xion! Why did you do that?"

Xion laughed, "You were sleeping and you wouldn't wake up."

"Okay. Now get off me," Sora said as he tried to push Xion off him, but she continued to lay on top of him.

"No. You'll fall back asleep if I do." Xion replied.

Sora turned his head towards Vanitas, "Vani help. Get her off me."

While crossing his arms Vanitas chuckled and shook his head, "Nope."

"Come on..."

"Hmm…" Vanitas hummed as he had a thoughtful look on his face, "Actually maybe I'll help." Vanitas stood over the bed before he flopped down on top of both Sora and Xion.

"Vani!" Xion laughed as she tried to push him away.

"That's not helping!" Sora shouted through laughter.

Vanitas chuckled, "I never said I was helping you." He then wrapped his arms around Sora and Xion and held them tightly. "Now you guys will never get up."

Both Sora and Xion laughed as they pushed at Vanitas's face, trying to get him off them, but he continue to hold onto them.

"Ahem." A voice spoke stopped the children from their play. They all turned to look to see one of the orphanage workers standing in the doorway. It was the kindest, sweetest worker at the orphanage; Aerith. "I'm sorry to interupt your fun, but will be needing Vanitas for a little while."

"What do you need me for?" Vanitas ask as he and his siblings sat up on the bed.

"Just please, come with me. It's important," Aerith responded.

Vanitas gave a long cold stare at Aerith before heavily exhaling through his nose. As much as he didn't want to see what Aerith needed him for, he knew that he would have to go anyways. "Might as well just get whatever it is over with…" He thought to himself as he hopped off the bed. He looked back at Xion and Sora, "You guys continue having fun, I'll be back as soon as I can."

"Okay!" Sora and Xion shouted in unison.

Vanitas walked over to Aerith and followed her out of the room, "So what do you need me for?" Vanitas asked as they walked down the hallway.

"Well," Aerith started slowly before kneeling down in front of Vanitas. "There is a very nice couple here who wants to meet with you."

Vanitas's whole body tensed up as he stepped back. Now it all made sense why she needed him. How had he not realized that was the reason? Gritting his teeth he looked up at Aerith with dead serious eyes, "I don't want to."

Aerith sighed, "Please Vanitas, don't be difficult with this. They are very nice people and they came all this way to meet you."

"I said I don't want to. I don't want to meet them," Vanitas replied as he faced away. He wanted to walk away. He didn't want to deal with this.

Before had even had a chance to walk away though, Aerith turned Vanitas around and grabbed onto his wrists. Her grip was firm yet gentle. "I know how you feel about talking with adults, but please just come and talk to them."

"If you know how I feel why are you making me talk to them? Let go of me!" Vanitas said as he tried to pull away, but Aerith kept her grip.

"Vanitas...please you have to do this. You can't keep avoiding this. Please just come and talk to them." Aerith persuaded in her kind-hearted voice.

Vanitas continued to try to pull away, but he was unable to. Lowering his head he gave up. He knew there no point in trying to get away. Aerith wasn't one to give on on subjects like this. "Fine…"

Aerith gave a small smile as she stood up and took hold of one of Vanitas's hand, "Come on then, let's go." With his head lowered he nodded and they continued to walk down the hallway.

They walked down the hall until they came to a door that opened to a walkway. The walkway lead over to a small building. Once then entered the building they walked down another hallway before turning left onto another. This hallway had a series of doors on each side. Soon they stopped in front of one door and Aerith opened it, letting Vanitas walk inside. They were now in a small small room had a table that took up most of the space. Vanitas was very familiar with this room. He had been there several times before. It was the room for orphaned children to talk with adults who may want to adopt then. Sitting at the other end of the table was a young man and women. Vanitas didn't really care to pay attention to what they looked like though.

Vanitas walked over to the open chair across from the couple and sat down, slumping down into it. Aerith walked over and leaned over, getting closer to eye level with Vanitas. "Say hello Vanitas."

While he continued to slump in the chair he looked up to see the couple smiling at him. "Hello…"

"Hi Vanitas," the woman said. "It's nice to meet you. Aerith has told us all about you."

"She has?" Vanitas asked. He wasn't actually curious. He was more tempted to roll his eyes in annoyance, but he held back on that. He had talked with adults enough times to get how it worked. But he still asked anyways, knowing it was the nice thing to do. H

"Yes, she has told us how you are really sweet and caring," the woman said.

"Especially with your younger siblings," the man added in.

"So you know I have siblings…" Vanitas said, not really asking it, but more stating it.

"Yes Aerith has told us how you are a very good big brother to them," the woman replied.

"And do you plan to also adopt them?" Vanitas asked, sitting up straighter in the chair.

"What?" the man asked, looking a little confused. He looked over to the woman who had the same confused look on her face.

"Vanitas," Aerith said in quick, strict tone. She knew where Vanitas was going to try and go with this.

Vanitas knew this too. But he choose to ignore the warning tone in Aerith's voice and continued, "You talk about how I am good to my siblings, but you don't plan to adopt them do you?"

"We...only are looking to adopt one child," the woman stated.

"That's how everyone is. No nobody actually cares that Sora and Xion need me and I need them. Unless you are going to also adopt Sora and Xion, you can't adopt me!" Vanitas shouted before jumping off of the chair and ran towards the exit of the room.

"Vanitas!" Aerith shouted as she made an attempt to grab him, but he just was too quick. She turned back toward the couple, both who had surprised looks on their faces. Aerith sighed as she lowered her head, "I am terribly sorry for Vanitas's outburst. As I mentioned before… he can be… a bit stubborn. Please excuse me." Aerith then turned and headed out of the room, running down the hall to catch up with Vanitas.

Vanitas had almost ran all the way back to the back to the main building. He was running as fast as he could and he didn't care. He was so tired of meeting with all those adults. They didn't understand. They didn't care. Vanitas knew that none of them cared that he promised Sora and Xion that he would protect them. No adult ever understood.

Just as Vanitas entered into the building he was grabbed by Aerith, her grip much firmer than before. Aerith kneeled down and turned Vanitas towards her again. Though he was now facing Aerith, he refused to look up at her. "Vanitas, look me." The tone in her voice was much more serious than before. He knew that Aerith was upset with him now.

"No," Vanitas replied as he stared down at the floor.

"Please Vanitas. Look up me. Now." Aerith's voice grew sharp and strict, a very rare tone for Aerith to have. She rarely ever was upset, and even when she was upset she never yelled or raised her voice very loud. But she still could be intimidating. "Vanitas...I am waiting. Please look at me."

Slowly Vanitas tilted his head up and looked Aerith in the eyes, "What?" Vanitas asked, as if he had done nothing wrong, though he knew what he had done.

"You need to go back and apologize to that nice couple. That was unacceptable behavior."

"No. I don't want to. They didn't want to also adopt Sora and Xion," Vanitas replied.

"You can't…" Aerith started before she sighed. "You can't keep acting like this. You know you will eventually get adopted."

"I don't want to get adopted!" Vanitas shouted.

"You can't stay here your whole life and not get adopted," Aerith replied calmly.

"If I had to get adopted I would want Sora and Xion to be with me. But no one wants to adopt all three of us," Vanitas muttered with a huff of air.

"It's uncommon that people come here wanting to adopt more than one child all at once. I know you love your brother and sister very much, but it isn't likely you will all get adopted by the same people."

"Then we will just wait until someone will want to!" Vanitas replied as he pouted. He was getting tired of this. All these adults coming and only wanting to adopt just one of them. He couldn't stand to think being without Sora and Xion, but these adults didn't seem to get that.

"Vanitas… you can't wait around for something like that. You all need nice, good homes and there are a lot of nice couples wanting to adopt. I… I wasn't going to tell you this now, but I might as well since we are on this topic," Aerith said as she sighed once more and closed her eyes.

"What? What is it?" Vanitas asked impatiently.

Aerith opened her eyes again, "This isn't confirmed yet...but… there is a couple who may be adopting Xion."

Vanitas gasped as he felt his heart drop. "What?! Why didn't you tell me this!?"

"I knew you would be upset. I was going to tell you though once I got the official confirmation from the couple."

Vanitas shook his head, his breathing starting to increase. He gripped his fists tightly and he glared at Aerith "You can't! You can't do that! You can't take Xion away from me!"

"I'm not trying to-" Aerith started, but Vanitas cut her off.

"No! You still don't understand! They need me, so you can't take them away from me!"

"Who's going to take me away?" A new voice asked, entering the conversation.

Vanitas turned around to see Xion standing in the hallway, clutching her moogle plush tightly against her chest. Her eyes wide and fearful.

"No one is taking you away sweetie. There is a couple though who may want to adopt you. Remember that nice couple you talked with a few times before? They are thinking of adopting you."

"No!" Xion quickly shook her head and ran over to Vanitas, she held onto Vanitas's tank top as she buried her head against him, "Not without Vani or Sora!"

"See? You can't take her away!" Vanitas shouted at Aerith as he wrapped his arms around Xion.

Aerith sighed again, sadness running across her face. "Vanitas….please understand that I have tried. I have tried my very best to keep you three together. For the three years you have been here I made sure you guys could stay together. I've done my best, but… this can't last forever. I would love it if you could all stay together...but it doesn't always work out that way. Please know that I have tried though."

"Well you're not trying hard enough! You don't actually care at all! I hate you!" Vanitas retorted before grabbing hold of Xion's hand, "Come on Xion, let's go play." He walked away with Xion down towards the playroom, leaving a sad and hurt Aerith behind.

For the remainder of the day Vanitas refused to say anything to Aerith or any of the other orphanage workers. He would talk and play with Sora and Xion, but didn't say a word to anyone else. When it came time for dinner, Vanitas still did not say anything to Aerith when she came by to hand out their food.

"Vani...why aren't you talking to miss Aerith?" Sora asked before taking a bite of his food.

"Because…" Vanitas answered, not really wanting to go into detail about it.

"Is it what she said earlier?" Xion asked.

Vanitas turned his head away, "Maybe." There was still a lot going through his mind. He was still mad at Aerith for not telling him about the possible adoption with Xion, but he also didn't know what else to do. He turned back towards Sora and Xion and gave a smile, "Don't worry about it. It's nothing. Let's just eat our food."

By the time all the children were getting ready for bed, Aerith walked up to Vanitas. He didn't stop to talk to her or listen to what she was going to say. He just continued down the hall to the bedrooms.

"Vanitas?" Aerith asked. "I'm sorry."

Vanitas slowed down and looked back at Aerith, he gave a long cold stare before be continued walking again, "Sure you are…"

Once all the children were in their beds and fast asleep, Aerith made her way to to break room for the workers. Once there she prepared herself a cup of nice hot tea. Sitting down she stared at the tea, waiting for it to cool off. Leaning her arms on the table she let out a sigh.

"Hard day today?" A voiced asked. Aerith looked up to see Tifa, one of the other workers, standing at the other end of the table.

Aerith sighed slightly, "Just a little."

"What's up?" Tifa said as she sat down next to Aerith.

"It's Vanitas… It's getting more difficult to get him to talk to the adults coming to meet him."

"Are you sure you don't want me to talk to him?" Tifa asked.

Aerith shook her head before taking a sip of her tea, "No, it's alright. It's just hard to see him act this way…"

"We need to do something about that, we can't let him act like that any further, otherwise no one will want to adopt him," Tifa said rather bluntly.

"I know...I'm looking into things. But I don't want them to be seperated...but I also don't want them staying here their whole lifes. I want them to find nice, happy homes, but I haven't found anyone wanted to adopt them all together. Vanitas still doesn't really understand that." Aerith replied. "Do you remember when they were first brought here?"

"Oh boy do I remember," Tifa said as she leaned back in her chair. "Vanitas wouldn't stop shouting and crying for nearly a week. It was a nightmare."

"Yeah. But I stay right by him and tried to help him in whatever way I could," Aerith said as she closes her eyes, recalling memories that felt so long ago. "I would talk to him every night until he fell asleep. I let him help me take care of Sora and Xion, though he claimed that I was the one helping him." Aerith chuckled at the found memory. "But I think...he changed once he learned that he could get adopted without Sora and Xion."

Tifa placed a hand on Aerith's back, "Hey, I know we will be able to figure out something for them. Maybe we just need a little more time."

"I hope so."

Vanitas was fast asleep in his bed, until he felt someone shaking his arm. He slowly opened his eyes to see Xion standing in front of the bed. She was holding her moogle plush as always. Vanitas blinked a few times to adjust his eyesight, making sure that he was in fact seeing her. "Xion? What's up?"

"Can I sleep with you tonight?"

Vanitas nodded, "Sure." He adjusted himself back a bit on his bed and Xion crawled up onto it. She cuddled up against Vanitas and he wrapped his arms around her.

"I'm too scared to sleep tonight by myself…" Xion whispered.

"Why's that?" Vanitas asked.

"You… You won't let them take me away will you?" Xion asked, her eyes were wide and close to tearful.

Vanitas held Xion tighter, "Of course I won't let anyone take you away from me."

"Thanks Vani," Xion smiled.

Vanitas then felt someone poke him in his back, he looked behind and saw that Sora was standing on the other side of the bed. "Can I sleep with you guys too?"

Vanitas nodded and Sora climbed onto the bed. Both Sora and Xion snuggled up against Vanitas while he laid on his back and wrapped arm around each of them. "Remember the promise I made to you guys? The really really big one?" Vanitas asked as he looked back and forth between Sora and Xion.

"Yeah. You said you would always be there for us," Sora responded.

"You said you would always watch over us 'cause you're our big brother," Xion added.

"That's right. That means I will do whatever I can to keep us together forever. I'm your big brother and means I gotta look out for you two. I'll find a way to keep us together, don't you worry. I'll find way."

And that wraps up chapter 1!
Whew that was far longer than I thought it was going to be. But I hope you all enjoyed! Let me know what you thought!

I got a lot planned for this story, so I will see you in the next chapter or another story! Thanks for reading.