I don't think I've ever been left alone before - not even in my sleep; I share a room with my brother. I have so many close friends it seems like I never get time to myself. It's smothering.

I don't want to have so many friends...just my brother would be fine. Though he would be occupied by his friends all the time.

But now...I'm going to a movie alone. I actually quite enjoy it, though there was nothing good showing there. I'm currently sitting under the signs stating what movies were showing this night. I gripped the chain hanging out of my pocket and extracted money out of my wallet. I threw it on the counter in front of the attendant. She was obviously taking this as a part-time job, as she looked a bit younger than me, and her hair was a curly red color, bunched up into a messy bun at the top of her head. She has thick-rimmed glasses and braces.

"One ticket to a movie." I said and rocked back on my heels.

"Erm..." she put her hand uncertainly on the money. "Any movie? You don't care?" A bit of spit flew from her mouth and landed on the counter. I understood her. When I had braces a few years ago, I would not stop salivating. It was rather hard to cover up the spit problem, especially with all the friends with laser eyes watching me like hawks, their criticism seeping out, ready to lash towards me and strangle me to death!

Sorry for freaking out, but 17 years of never being alone and always being together with crazy people who act like the stereotypical populars can do that to a person.

I gave the ticket girl my best smile and nodded. "You can choose for me."

She flushed visibly and put in a random movie, letting the ticket print out and tearing it for me. "Enjoy your movie." She smiled and pushed it towards me. I winked and walked inside the theater lobby. I removed my scarf and jacket and hung them on my arm. I walked to the snack lines which were full, save for one line that was completely empty. I grabbed a Vitamin Water Power - C out of the mini refrigerators there and walked to the empty line. "Uh, are you open?"

The man turned around and smirked. "No, but I can be."

Crap.

I recognized that voice. His red hair swayed as he tilted his head back to laugh. "C'mon baby, why are you standing there with that face? Are you still denying our love?" This, is Axel. This is the man who is hopelessly in love with my twin brother. My twin brother is going out with Namine, this really pretty popular person at my school, and she's probably the only nice one. Anyway, Axel keeps trying to get their "forbidden love" to surface.

"Axel, if you really liked Roxas, you would be able to tell the difference between me and him." I smirked sheepishly.

His green eyes widened and he cursed. He looked closer at me and squinted. "Oh, yeah, your eyes have a bit of green in them, and your hair's darker. Damn, I should have been able to tell that!" He frowned and sighed. "Okay, what can I get for you, Ven?"

"Just this Vitamin Water and some Twizzlers." I pushed the drink forward. Axel looked like he was about to cry. "I should've been able to tell by the Vitamin Water! He likes Dr. Pepper! Why...why...why?" He began to bang his head on the counter. "Axel, Axel, calm down." I patted him on the shoulder.

"Maybe that's why Roxas hates me!" Axel sobbed. "No, no, it's okay, Axel. Roxas doesn't hate you. He just...thinks your...different..." I awkwardly soothed him the best I could. He sobbed even louder. "No, no, no, thats good! You're different in a good way!" Axel shook his head. "Nah, just forget it." He wiped his nose on a nearby napkin and sighed. "Okay, your snacks are on me. Have a nice movie, Ven." I smiled and nodded. "Thanks."

Before I walked off, I turned to Axel. "Oh, and you might have dinner reservations with Roxas tomorrow night at 7. And it just might be your favorite restaurant." I smirked as he looked at me gratefully. "Thank you so much, Ventus. You're a God-send."

I waved and sped my way to the theater I was to be in. My encounter with Axel was longer than I thought. When I got into the theater, all of the seats were taken. Literally. There was not a seat in sight. I squinted, knowing there had to be one, or else I wouldn't be able to even have retrieved the ticket. The commercials for other movies were playing as I looked my way around.

An employee was nice enough to guide me to the last open seat, towards my top-right. It was in between a girl who was a bit busy making out with her boyfriend, and a boy who was covering his face. I climbed up the stairs and stood beside the seat. "Erm...do you mind if I sit here?" I asked the boy.

"Go ahead." The voice was quiet and guarded, though it sounded familiar. "Thank you!" I smiled and sat down. The boy continued to cover his face, though I caught the glow of one amber colored eye.

As much I hated talking to people when you didn't need to, I found the need to introduce myself. "Hello, I'm Ventus." He nodded, and I assumed that I wasn't getting his name. "Uhh...do you know what we're watching?" I could see one fine, black eyebrow raise curiously.

"You don't know?" The voice was getting dangerously close to insinuating that I was an idiot.

"I told the ticket attendant to give me whatever. I'm just happy to finally be alone, I didn't really care about what I do." I sighed and sank into the surprisingly comfortable theater chair.

"Do you not like S-your friends?" He stuttered and I looked at him closely. Why was he still covering his face?

I squinted at him. "If you cover your face, you won't be able to see the movie." I said. "Er...yeah." He mumbled.

As he removed his hand from his face, I gasped. If I hadn't heard his voice beforehand, I would have totally thought he was Sora, my brother's best friend. And the fact that his hair was dark, dark black, and his eyes were a luminous yellow. "Uh..."

He sighed and mussed his spikes. "I'm Vanitas." I tapped my chin...where have I heard that name? I went into the recesses of my head, back to Sora's 17th birthday party.

We were in his living room, playing charades. The front door came swooping open, and in charged a black haired boy. "Vanitas! I thought I told you I didn't want you to be at my party!" Sora whined. "You're embarrassing me!" Vanitas growled, "Shut up, Sora. I'm just walking in through the freaking front door! The only reason why you are feeling 'embarrassed' right now is because you decided to bring attention to me." He stormed up the stairs. I remember after that, Sora wanted to change the subject quickly, after he had said, "Don't pay attention to him, he's trash."

"You're Sora's brother, right? From his birthday party a few months ago?" I tilted my head.

"Yeah." Then his tone grew bitter, "If you're going to start annoying me, just go ahead and don't." He looked away.

"No, that wasn't my intention at all." I said hurriedly. "I barely even know you, and your brother is kind of the last person I want to see."

He smirked, his once angered face smoothing out, creating a better glow about him. "Join the club." I smiled back at him. "You know, you look better when you smile. You should do it more often. The two times I've seen you, you never smiled."

Vanitas looked away, scratching the back of his head, a habit Sora has too. "If Sora saw me smiling, he would make sure I never did again."

I felt my eyebrows knit together. "Why does he resent you so much?" I asked softly. He looked back to me, his amber eyes locking on with my blue. "No reason." He says, though his eyes tell a much different story. They tell me it was a misunderstanding. "Oh, okay." I decided to let it go.

The conversation fell silent then, as I noticed the movie had started and I had already just missed the title. "We're watching Legend of the Guardians." Vanitas said, a chuckle underlying beneath his words. "Why are YOU watching this?" I asked.

"Well, after running out of things to do to keep me out of the house, I decided I should watch every single movie in theaters. No matter how much I don't want to." Vanitas rolled up his long sleeves to his elbows and leaned against the wall beside him. "I always sit in this same seat and eat the same thing. It's a little tradition, I guess."

I tapped my chin. "Hmm, sounds like fun." Sensing a dying conversation, I changed subjects. "Can I call you Van?" I asked sheepishly.

I looked at him from under my eyelashes and saw him looking intently at the screen. "Only if I can call you Ven." I smiled at him and nodded. "Sure." We both watched the rest of the movie, only talking for Van to comment smartly on something, or for me gushing about how soft the owls looked.

By the end of the movie, Van and I were walking down the stairs together and discussing how the movie was. "Well, I'd have to say I've seen way better children's movies than that one, but I think the kids themselves enjoyed it." I nodded my head in agreement. "Yeah, though I figured you would be freaking out about how stupid it was."

Vanitas shrugged. "I did at my first kid movie." I chuckled as we walked out. "You wanna catch a bite to eat?" I asked.

"W-What?" He looked at me like I had just sprouted two heads. "Is there something on my face?" I felt around my mouth. "No...it's just..." Van pursed his lips in frustration. "Why would you want to eat with me? Don't you have some plans with my brother?"

"Nope. Besides, I like you better. So let's go. I'm thinking Panera Bread." I grasped his hand and walked him to my lime green slug-bug Volkswagon. "Before you comment, I know this is a chick car. Don't make fun of me." I glared.

Van snorted and pointed to a car of the same type, just across the parking lot was a bright cherry red. "That's my car."

I flushed, just making an embarrassment of myself. "Oh." I shook my head. "Fine, anyway, after we eat, I'll drive you back here." I opened the passenger side of my door. "Ladies first."

"Why thank you, kind sir!" Van replied in Princess Peach's voice. And this promptly made me laugh my ass off. "I didn't know your voice could go that high! Hahaha!" He laughed with me a bit before motioning towards the car. "Let's eat, I'm hungry." My stomach made a sound of it's own, signaling that I agreed with him.

"Onward march!" I pointed in a random direction and unlocked the door. We both got into the car and I pulled out swiftly.

When we got to Panera, it was more full than I thought, with people from my school hanging on the inside and outside. "Wow, we're the first ones here!" Vanitas exclaimed sarcastically. I chuckled, something I had begun to do more often since I met Van. "Let's just order our food so we can get ready to wait."

One tip for a restaurant thats covered in high schoolers: Look for signs that they are going to get up and socialize. When they get up, steal their tables.

It's survival of the fittest.

After we ordered our food, Vanitas and I had begun scouting. "That girl from table 3 is eyeing me." Van said. "Huh-oh! Beckon her over and I'll sneak around. G'Luck!" I tip-toed around the wall pillar, keeping my eye on Van. He had this sort of...'sexy' look going on. He cocked his head and smirked devilishly as she walked up to him, flashing a big smile.

I took this as my chance to sneak over to the table. I sat down at it and stretched my legs. This caught Vanitas's eye and he walked straight towards me, ignoring the girl's flirtatious moves. When he arrived at the table, he decided it would be fun to randomly knock everything off the table.

"Ah!" The girl shrieked. "What are you doing?"

Van shrugged and sat down. "Sorry, you left the table." He picked up a plate off the floor and said, "See, nothing on your plate. You were finished eating." He dropped it and gave her a devilish smile. "On your way now." He shooed her away.

"What's going on here!" An employee came running out. "I don't know!" Vanitas stood up, his facial expression changing quickly. "This girl randomly came up to me and my boyfriend's table and called us fags and pulled all the stuff off the table!"

I could feel my face flush at the "boyfriend" part and gasped. The employee gasped. "Ma'am, I'm going to have to ask you to leave the property."

"But-"

"No buts! I will not tolerate this type of act." The woman pulled the girl by the arm away outside.

Vanitas sat down like nothing happened and smiled at me. "Where were we?"

"Why...why am I your 'boyfriend'?" I stuttered out. Van shrugged. "Well, I needed to make a reason for her to hate us, and it just so happens that I know the manager and employees here are mainly homosexual, take for instance that employee who didn't tolerate it." He explained.

I snorted, "Okay, I have to laugh. You're a good actor."

"People tell me that a lot." Vanitas tells me. The waiter appears with our food and puts it in front of us. "Thanks," we both said and ate in silence, at least for now.

"Ventus! What are doing here with...with him?" Uh-oh.

I shifted my eyes to Vanitas, measuring his reaction. He was covering his face and looking away from his brother.

"Sora, I believe you've met your brother, Vanitas?" I joked to make a little light of the situation. Sora raised a disapproving eyebrow at me.

I glared at him. "I ran into him when I was at the movies, and we decided to go out for some food together. Now, if you don't mind, either be respectful to your sibling, or leave." I finished.

"Vanitas," Sora began, ignoring me, "I believe I've told you to stay away from my friends."

"Yeah, and I was going to," Van began bitterly, glaring banefully at Sora, "but then I decided that I didn't need to take your orders and follow what you want like I have been for these past 10 years! So, I decided to show my face to him anyway!"

Well, I guess that explains why he was covering his face at the theater.

"So why don't you leave, Sora." Vanitas stood, continuing. "You're the one not wanted here."

I'd have to say, Vanitas was looking awfully ominous. His clothes helped. He wore a gray button up shirt and a blood red tie. Hip-hugging black slacks hung on his legs and his cherry red converse glowed and surprisingly added to the look. His amber eyes luminated in fury.

Sora scoffed and walked away, not forgetting to cover up his offended face.

My raven haired companion sat back down and grinned brightly. "Let's try this again."

I stared dumbfoundedly at him, opening and closing my mouth repeatedly like a dying fish. "You're incredible! One second your completely pwning your brother, the other your having small-talk with me!" I glanced at the table then back at him. "How do you do it?"

He smirked softly and leaned back. "Years of being alone can do that to you. You sort of..." he did the universal gesture for not knowing what to say, "learn, I guess. It's kinda automatic." He shrugged and leaned forward.

"We've been talking about me this whole time, it's time to pry into your life."

Vanitas, your changing of topics was smooth, but not unnoticed. "Hm, okay." I sipped my green tea. "Shoot."

"Does your brother act anything like mine?" He inquired.

I shook my head rapidly. "No, not at all. Now, around Sora, yes, he is. But around me, or Namine, he's super nice. But," I looked to an interesting spot on the table. "he's just like them, in a way. He's willing to bend to their customs. I did, too, for a while."

My eyes traveled their way to Vanitas' flaming ambers. His eyes looked as if they had molten amber flowing freely around in circles around his pupils. It was like a fountain of gold. It was just like the lost city that mankind covets. His orbs stared solely into mine, and nothing else, like he was actually interested in our conversation. Wait...what?

"I - uh," I was getting so distracted by his eyes that I didn't even realize I had forgotten what we were talking about. "Uhhhh. I have to use the restroom." I said quickly and left the table.

When I arrived to the restroom, I could feel my cheek's heat in the cool room. I looked at my reflection in the mirror. "Crap," I muttered. I was beginning to develop a little crush on him.

It was one of those little crushes that you seem to get with every good looking, funny person.

My glowing face told me that I obviously have to cool down a bit. To waste time, I decided to make reservations for Axel and Roxas at The Restaurant That Never Was, as promised.

Vanitas flew through my mind almost instantly. Should I ask if he wants to go, too? Just in case, I reserved a table for four.

He probably won't want to go, now that I went and made it awkward thanks to my automatic teenage hormones.

I walked out of the bathroom and back to our table where Vanitas was eating silently. "Sorry for the wait, I just had to make a phone call real quick." I sat down and smiled sheepishly at him. "W-Would you like to go out tomorrow night?"

His face hardened. "Oh - oh, crap! Not OUT, out, I mean, uh...out." His expression remained the same. "Gah!" I was panicking. This wasn't working at all like I wanted it to!

"Well, um, I'm helping out my buddy Axel by setting him up with my brother tomorrow, and I figured it would be fun if you came, too." I fidgeted nervously. "It's at 7. Ah, I could, um, call you, or come pick you up..."

Van motioned for a waiter over and whispered in her ear. She handed him a pen and paper and walked off. He scribbled some things down and shoved it towards me.

It was his number.

"I probably won't remember, so just call me an hour before, and I'll be there." He said, smiling. I grinned back and continued to eat my chicken ceasar sandwich.

The silence was comfortable, not awkward at all, as I had expected it to be. That was until I heard a weird noise across from me. It was deep and throaty, emitting a rumbly noise. I looked up and lifted one of my eyebrows. "What the heck was that?"

He gave me a silly smile. "I burped."

It was silent for about 32.5 milliseconds. Then I laughed. "Oh my gosh! How did you do that? SO EPIC!"

Vanitas raised his hand. "Hoch Funf!" When I didn't respond, he grabbed my hand - succeeding in making me blush - and put it to his raised one. "Hoch Funf - it's German."

I beamed, "You know so much! It means 'high five', right?" We dropped our hands and set our finished plates of food on the side of the table.

"Hai, tadashii desu." Vanitas rested his chin on his intertwined fingers.

"Now I know that one! Japanese?" I guessed and leaned forward.

"Magnifique!" He chuckled and batted his eye lashes. "Je parle la langue de l'amour."

"You said 'l'amour'. That has something to do with love right...IN FRENCH!" I smiled in victory, not knowing that I knew that many different languages.

Vanitas nodded, "Si il mio amico."

I tapped my chin. "Spanish." A sudden abrupt buzzing noise once again strangely coming from Van.

"Wrong! Just because I said 'si' doesn't mean its Spanish. It was Italian, glupi." Vanitas crossed his arms and stuck his nose snootily in the air.

"What did you just call me?" I don't know what he said, but I was already offended.

"Krijgen in mijn broek."

"...Oh yeah well...your momma!" I had no idea what he was saying, so I decided to pretend he was insulting me. It was better than just sitting there and doing nothing...I hope. "Ha, ti si tako slatka." He said, smiling devilishly at me. "Yndig."

I pouted. "What are you saying?"

He touched my face, his fingertips burning my cheek. "Que ets especial." He frowned a bit and cocked his head to the side. "Moet nie laat hom verander nie."

The air of our table had changed, it didn't feel as playful anymore. He was saying something I wished I could understand. I grabbed his hand from my face and held it in my own. "Help me understand you." I whispered, hoping he understood my double-meaning.

His eyebrows knitted together. "Ma soovin, met sa varem."

Already I felt a connection to him. I don't know whether it was because of how Sora was, but all I knew was that I liked this. I wanted to stray away from the group that had held me unwillingly and go and have a real friend. I could tell by how many different languages he could speak how alone he used to be. All this time...while I was surrounded by people, he was outcasted. We both envy each other's life.

I smiled at him and let his hands go. He smiled softly back and I dropped my gaze to the table, my eyes tracing the long lines swirling about. I was going to spend a lot of my time with Vanitas, and I'm going to take my brother into this new, welcoming world.

Who knows, maybe he will like Axel better when he leaves that group. I looked at a clock on the far wall and gasped. I had been gone for 3 hours! 3 hours of...peace. Happiness. I grinned and beamed at Vanitas.

"I've been gone for 3 hours."

He looked up at me and lifted an eyebrow. "So?"

I giggled, "I haven't been alone for this long in forever!" Vanitas frowned and casted his eyes away.

Did I say something wrong? I analyzed the words quickly in my head.

...Oh.

I said "alone" when I was really only alone for 15 minutes. I must've hurt him by accidently implying he meant nothing. "Well, not ALONE," I corrected, "But...I guess not-smothered could be a better wording for that. Its more comfortable around just one person or you than Sora and all his lackeys."

With that, the corner of Van's lips lifted a bit.

"Ah," I had just remembered to check my phone. "150 new texts, 56 missed calls, and 10 voice messages." I read aloud. "I guess thats what happens when I ignore my phone for 3 hours."

"Holy...shit!" Van cursed. I laughed ruefully, "Let me weed them out real quick."

I got 3 texts from Namine, 10 from Kairi, 15 from Roxas, 50 from Sora, 20 from Riku, 1 from Axel, 20 from Terra, 10 from Aqua, 11 from Xion and many more. Most of the calls were from Sora and Roxas, and all the voice messages were from Sora except for one.

Most of Sora's calls and messages were telling me about how I'm not invited to his parties if I'm going to hang with his brother, how we aren't friends anymore, etc.

Roxas' were saying that he heard I was talking with Vanitas and I should fill him in on the details later. Others were urging me to make up with Sora.

All of the other people were telling me about how horrible I am for being mean to Sora by hanging out with Vanitas.

Except for Namine, she was just telling me to not listen to everyone and to be myself. Such a sweet girl.

I frowned at Van. "Sorry, I better get going. I'll drive you back to your car." I grabbed my coat next to me and donned it, waiting for Vanitas to get up.

The drive back to his car was a silent one. It was slightly uncomfortable, but not as much as I expected it to be.

When we got there, Van smiled at me and got out. "Call me later, if you want. I can understand if you want to get back to your friends." His once molten amber eyes solidified into cold gold.

Though when I tried to protest, he closed the door and walked to his car. I waited until he started it til I began to drive off.

Things aren't going well right now, but I'm sure they will when I call him. I'm almost positive.