I have no idea why I made this, honestly.

All credit to respective owners!

"What's you're name?" The masked boy inquired the first time he met The Brat.

"Sora!" He replied cheerily, "Hey... Are you from another world?"

The masked boy seems a bit surprised at The Brat's inquiry but nods, "Yeah."

"That's awesome!" The Brat cheered, eyes bright and smile wide.

Vanitus stared down at the young boy of four, wondering if this boy even had a darkness in his heart. Vanitus was darkness, he was moulded from it, ripped in existence by Master Xehanort and following him like a lost puppy. In staring at him, he could see the way his light was so bright, so pure.

It should've been annoying, it should've have made Vanitus sick to have to see such a untouched beacon of light.

But all Vanitus felt was... whole and for once in his life, at peace.

The aching emptiness that constantly gnawed at him since his separation from Ventus seemed to ebb away as he stood next to this small, annoying brat. It should have worried him, it should have made him angry.

But he just wasn't.

When Vanitus wasn't observing Ventus, gauging Aqua, or watching the darkness growing in Terra, he often found himself sitting on the beach with the brown-haired brat. Sometimes they talked, sometimes they didn't, sometime they fought with wooden swords, and sometimes they played stupid games. Vanitus wondered one time how The Brat managed to convince him to build a sandcastle halfway after they started making towers with damp sand. One time, The Brat was laying on the sand and staring at the clouds while Vanitus was sitting up and idly picking up a handful of sand and letting them slip out of his grasp and back onto the beach.

It was peaceful here.

"What are the other worlds like?" The Brat asked out of the blue.

"Different." Vanitus simply replied.

"I know THAT." came The Brat's irritated reply, "But how are they different?"

"It varies kid." Vanitus specified.

"Varies?" The Brat frowned at the unfamiliar word.

"Some are pretty weird," Vanitus expanded, "Some aren't too different."

"Oh. Okay!" The Brat chirped, "Riku wants to go to the outside worlds one day, it sounds like fun! I want to go with him, when we leave, we'll all be together and have adventures that are will be so cool!"

Vanitus eyed the eager look on The Brat's face and snorted.

"What?" The Brat said, looking indignant.

"Nothing brat." Vanitus chuckled, "You just remind me of someone who's pretty stupid about following his friends too."

"Hey!" The Brat yelled, affronted.

Vanitus had goaded Ventus in leaving for the keyblade graveyard and sighed in accomplishment.

He was going to be whole.

"Finally."

"Hey! Found you again!" The Brat said as he ran up and hugged Vanitus in a way of greeting.

Vanitus was flabbergasted at The Brat.

"You want to hang out with me again?" The Brat asked eagerly, "I met another person from the outside worlds and I can tell you about her!"

"Sorry. I can't today." Vanitus said, wondering why in the hell he was apologizing in the first place.

"Hey..." The Brat realized, "I never got your name!"

Vanitus looked at The Brat and sighed, "It's not important brat. I am about to leave and probably won't come back."

The Brat looked honestly crestfallen at that, "Oh... Goodbye."

Vanitus didn't understand why he did what he did next, but knelt down to The Brat's level and called his keyblade to his hand and wrapped the The Brat's hand around it.

"The outside worlds can be dangerous. So maybe you need a weapon better than your stupid toy wooden sword... In your hand, take this Key..."

Sora watched from the ground as the masked boy walked off into a dark portal. The boy had rapped his knuckles lightly on Sora's head after he made Sora hold that key and Sora head felt fuzzy and muddled. The boy caught Sora and laid him out on the beach before waving his hand and opening the portal.

"The name's Vanitus brat. There are a lot of worlds to see and a lot of people out there and some are good and some are bad. I don't know why or how you made it so I care, but I want you to be safe. This is goodbye for a good long while, maybe forever. You don't need to remember any of this, but I want to. You remind me way too much of Ventus, and maybe that's not too bad."

Sora's eyes slipped closed and when Riku found him and woke him up, he never remembered the masked boy or his last words.

"Goodbye and thank you. Sora."