But then came Trouble

Vanitas kept demanding he break as he hit him, cursing Ventus' name for everything he was worth, and Ventus took it, not giving Vanitas the satisfaction of even a whimper, even when Xaldin kicked him in the stomach and knocked the wind out of him. After a few minutes the three of them let up and stepped back, turning to walk away. Ven got to his feet, blood all over his face and his clothes. But instead of getting away, Ven ran at him and Vanitas turned around just in time to get his own nose punched and broken, stumbling back and cussing up a storm as he held his nose. He looked at Ventus as he took out his two lackies, kicking Xaldin hard between his legs and decking Xigbar, busting his left eye and knocking him out. With no more witnesses, Ven licked the blood off his face with a sick grin, Vanitas dropping his hand with the same smile.

"I'm ready for a fight Vani, a real one..."

***

Of course, Ventus didn't tell Roxas all of this, just that Vanitas beat him up. This side of him, even Roxas wasn't allowed to see, the part of him that loved a good fight, liked the pain involved and loved getting dirty. Vanitas knew though, he was the only one who knew, the only one who could give Ventus a damn good fight.

As said before however, Roxas had no clue about this, so the blond growled and said the thing a sane person would tell someone with an bully, "call the cops! Tell a teacher, do something Ventus, you don't need to put up with this!"

Ven sighed, "I can't do that, telling a teacher would just make a situation like this worse and you know it. Calling the police..." He looked away, remembering something before shaking his head, "Vanitas doesn't need that. You don't know what his situation is."

"That doesn't justify him beating the shit out of you Ven!" Roxas snapped.

Ventus gave the younger a harsh look, "nothing justifies abuse of any sort Roxas...but I can tell you one thing, what I'm going through is nothing compared to other people who deal with so much worse."

'I at least want it...'

***

At six forty eight in the evening, a black haired boy with gold eyes was walking home, blood on his clothes and hands from a broken nose, and licking the blood off his lips from the sucker punch to the face that Ventus had given him. Like every night however, he was afraid to go home. His dad would be home, he knew, and most likely drowning his troubles in whiskey bubbles again, and looking for trouble of his own. He won the fight with Ventus, like always, even though picking a fight with him made him feel worse than dog shit afterwards, he needed the release and Ventus gladly provided it. But at least that was a fight he could win, even though he knew Ventus let him some days. This though, he could never win, and he wasn't sure he wanted to win this particular fight either; if it wasn't for Sora...

He walked up to the gate of a house that was in desperate need of repair, brown clamp board with boarded up windows and trash littering the yard, beer cans and whiskey bottles being a part of the litter. The lights were on, so he knew his Pops was awake. Vanitas snuck around to the side, making sure to stay out of site of the windows, before reaching a window that was dark and knocking lightly on it.

The window opened and a head of spiky brown hair popped out, blue eyes wary before they set their sight on gold. Sora quickly looked around and waved him in anxiously, Vanitas climbing in before someone mistook him for a burglar or something along those lines. Sora scrambled back to the head of the bed, hugging his knees and the fourteen year old looked so much younger, eyes wide in fright as they looked at the door that has a chair jammed under the knob. Vanitas glanced over as well and grimaced, sitting on his knees on the dirty old sheets and whispering very low so as not to be heard,