writetomyheart | [Team 1] Roller Coaster of Emotions

~2200 words of kingdom hearts Ven, Sora, and Vanitas checking out the roller coaster at a fair. Fluff. Slight hint of Ven/Vanitas with a side helping of soriku.

“Let’s finish this up already!” Ven encouraged, grabbing two more practice dummies and hauling them into storage. “I wanna go to the beach fair!”

Sora had called him this morning to tell him about it. The games, activities, and, of course, the rides.

"You gotta come!" Sora had exclaimed an hour earlier, nearly pushing Roxas out of the gummiphone video frame in his excitement, "There's gonna be a roller coaster, Ven!!"

Ven smiled, "Okay! We'll be there!"

With the three of them, Ven, Aqua, and Terra managed to pack up the dummies in no time. Then they summoned their armor and made the quick trip to Twilight Town.

The small fair on the beach of Twilight Town had indeed lived up to every expectation Ven had. Lots of toys and games; A merry-go-round *and* a ferris wheel. And, of course: the promised roller coaster. Aqua and Terra had immediately challenged each other to one of the fair games, leaving Ven to go chase down Sora and Roxas, wherever they had run off too.

He eventually found Roxas and Axel on the Merry-Go-Round, Axel looking a little cramped on the toy horse, but acquiesced to Roxas taking numerous pictures.

He found Sora as well, carrying a large stuffed dog that was nearly as big as he was, Riku not far behind with a proud grin on his face.

"Ven" Sora shouted when he spotted the blond. "Look what Riku won for me!!"

"Wow!" Ven's eyes widened, as Sora showed off the dog plushie. "Where'd you win that?"

"In the 'show your strength game!" Sora's smile grew impossibly wider. "My boyfriend is so strong!"

Ven laughed when Riku's face flushed a bit, evidently still not used to Sora using the words 'my boyfriend' to refer to him. "Have you guys tried out the rides yet?"

Sora shook his head. "Not yet. Riku’s a little scared of the coaster."

"I'm not scared," Riku protested, even as his flushed face started to look a little green. "I just... roller coasters and I don't exactly..."

"I know," Sora said, all notes of teasing gone and turning to kiss Riku on the cheek. "Keep an eye on Tater Tot for me?" He passed the plushie over and Riku took a tight hold in it, leaning over to kiss Sora back on the lips.

Ven looked away at the sign of affection, and instead focused his attention to the roller coaster as the latest carload of people hit the top. After a moment of hesitation, the car dropped, sending people screaming in delight to the bottom of the hill. Ven felt his own stomach give an excited flop. It looked like the closest he could get to flying without his keyblade glider or pixie dust.

He and Sora got in line, Sora waving to some friends that were further ahead: Hayner, Pence, and Olette waved back eagerly.

"Are you excited?" Ven asked as they got closer. Every once in a while the roller coaster would fly past them, screams echoing as they passed by.

"Oh yeah!" Sora's grin was infectious. "When Riku and I were little, there was this fair that came to the island every year! They had a roller coaster like this one, and then they had one for like... toddlers. Riku and I would always ride the little one when we were kids, but then when we got older... Riku always said he was too cool for the bigger roller coaster, but, well, I convinced him to ride it once and he, uh— We decided that roller coasters and him really didn't get along."

"Motion sickness?" Ven asked.

Sora nodded. "It's too bad. I think he could enjoy them, but not when his stomach rebels against the idea. He can handle a gummiship ride just fine, even keyblade gliding it's just—"

"Yeah," Ven nodded in understanding. He didn't have the same issue, but he knew Aqua did. Her own face had turned green at the sight of the rollercoaster before Terra had distracted her with games. "We'll just have to have enough fun for him."

"Deal!"

They patiently waiting in line,finally getting to a section of the line where the roller coaster flew right by them. Sora waited eagerly, loving to see the happy faces of the riders.

But this time was different.

When the roller coaster flew by, there was no screams to accompany the mechanical noise. Instead there was the sounds of frantic squeaking. Instead of happy faces, there was several dark masses. Some were bluish-purple, and spiky, their tiny paws hanging on to the safety bar for dear life as they whipped by at lightning speed. Ven blinked, sure he hadn't seen them correctly, absolutely sure that his eyes were playing tricks on him. But then Sora spoke up.

"Was that..."

"Yep." Ven answered, even as Sora trailed off in disbelief.

"No way..."

But apparently it was true, as the next roller coaster car had the same. Now that ven was looking for them, he could see it better as they came down the hill: Three or so floods sat in the front seat, their paws clinging to the safety bar. Behind them, two bruisers sat, their own arms in the air in excitement. There were armored bruisers behind them, and then some more floods.

"Do... do unversed like roller coasters?" Sora asked his head tilting in confusion.

"I uh... have no idea?"

Ven hadn't even seen Vanitas in almost a year, though the occasional appearance of a Flood or Bruiser indicated that his wayward half was still out there, if a little quieter than he had been in the past.

"Should we go look for him?" Ven asked, already dreading the idea, but also feeling strangely hopeful. "Or we could—"

"Well... the floods are here. Maybe he is too?" Sora sounded hopeful, and he looked back at the line.

Ven looked too, they were near the front. If they left now then they would have to start all over.

"Maybe we can just... check afterwards?" Ven offered. "I mean.... if they're already here, then they're already here. And if they're not doing much else than checking out the fair... I'm not gonna chase them down for that. You?"

Sora shook his head. "Nah, This was supposed to be a keyblade free day. Riku and I promised."

Ven nodded. The next car held people in it, including the twilight town gang of Hayner, Pence, and Olette, along with three other kids Ven didn't know, though the sullen blond kid that was hanging tightly onto Hayner felt a little familiar.

It turned out they didn't even need to get out of line to find Vanitas. As they reached the front, they heard the ride attendant arguing with someone.

"Sir, if you're not going to get on, then—"

"I'm going to ride it! I just... I'm not ready yet!"

"You can't just wait here until you're ready.

"Yeah? Watch me!"

"Vanitas?!" Ven gasped, sure that was the voice. It sounded like sora's but deeper and angrier..

He spotted spiky black hair first, then, surprisingly a black hoodie. Though... Underneath the hoodie Ven spotted the same darkness uit he had last seen Vanitas in. It was as if Vanitas tried to go for a casual look, but was very unsure how to pull it off.

"You know him?" The attendant sighed. "Look, could you convince your friend to either get on the ride or leave the ride? His pets are a little rambunctious and we have paying customers."

"Did I not pay for them all to go on?" Vanitas asked, holding out another large muneyball.

"Well, yeah but—"

"He'll go on with us!" Sora offered, walking over to Vanitas and practically dragging him onto the front car. "Ven, you sit next to him! I'll go behind you guys!"

Hesitantly, Ven sat next to Vanitas. "You... uh... okay?"

"I'm fine," Vanitas spat. "I kept hearing all the screaming and wanted to check it out. I didn't realize people could—"

"Scream in excitement?" Ven asked, raising his hands to the safety bar could go down. He encouraged Vanitas to raise his crossed arms as well, "C'mon, you'll want that down so you don't get tossed out of your seat."

"Why would I get tossed out of my seat? We don't even go that fast."

Ven hid a grin behind his hand. "You'll see."

The ride began it's ascent up the hill, each crank of the pull seemingly making Vanitas more tense than he was already.

Ven looked over. "If you're scared, you can hold my hand." He reached out with an offer. He knew what it was like to be scared, even of seemingly small things.

Vanitas huffed. "I'm not scared."

Despite his words, a tiny flood popped into existence between them, reaching up to hold onto the safety bar tightly. Ven gasped, not having much time to think about the creature's existence and instead reaching out ot hold onto the little creature as they crested the hill.

As they were in front, Ven and Vanitas had a moment of just hanging out over the edge of the hill as the rest of the car catched up. Then, they dropped.

Almost against his will, Ven opened his mouth and screamed in absolute delight, hearing Sora behind him doing the same. The butterflies in his stomach, the wind in his hair— it was amazing!

Then, as they reached the bottom of the hill and prepared to go up once more, Ven felt a suddenly tight grip on his hand. Looking over, he saw Vanitas's eyes were tightly closed, his other hand clenching the safety bar like it was the only thing keeping him grounded.

Ven smiled in sympathy, squeezing Vanitas's hand. "It's okay, We're going up the next hill."

The hand tightened even more.

They dropped once more before going up the next hill. The last section contained a tight whirlwind like turn, going round and round, passing the interior of the rollercoaster frame, then a few more smaller drops. Ven was glad the roller coaster didn't contain any loop-de-loops. With the pressure on his hand, he would need a heal spell anyway for the broken fingers.

Then the cart slowed before lsmanning to a stop, preventing the cart from crashing into the one in front of it. "It's over, Ven said, turning to Vanitas. "You can open your eyes now.”

Slowly, Vanitas did as asked, the fear in his eyes, slowly returning to normal, then Vanitas seemed to force a glare. "That wasn't so bad."

Ven laughed, loud and hard, and he heard Sora echo that laugh behind him. "Sure, Vanitas... sure."

They exited the ride, though Vanitas seemed to leap out of the seat. Then they quickly ran through the exit, Sora already exclaiming that he had to go on it again with Roxas.

Vanitas looked more than a little reluctant to follow Sora in his excitement, instead leaning heavily on a bench just outside the exit.

"Ah... so he was in the roller coaster line,"

"Riku!" Sora exclaimed, running up to hug his boyfriend tightly. Rik! IT was amazing!! No loops, but the turns were so tight, just like when we're racing on the keyblades! And oh! I could see the whole park from the top! There's a cinnamon apple place just on the other side of the Tilt-a-Whirl. Can we go?"

Riku chuckled, kissing Sora's forehead. Of course! But, uh... first..."

With a jerk of his head, Riku motioned over to a small sitting area nearby. When Ven saw what he had motioned to, he couldn't hold back as another laugh bubbled up. "I see you kept them entertained."

"It wasn't hard," Riku said, leaning over to pet a flood on the head "A little ice cream and they settled right down. "Besides, I promised Sora a "no keyblade" day, so I had to find other ways to subdue them."

Vanitas looked over to the nearest flood, gently picking it up by the scruff of the neck. The flood barely paid attention to the movement, only realizing that Vanitas was holding him when Vanitas took a bite of the ice cream. Then the flood lashed out in irritation almost as if saying "My ice cream! Go get your own!"

Sora laughed at the interaction. “Well, I think Ven has it handled from here. How bout we go get those apples. We'll bring one back for everyone. You guys gonna hang around here?"

Ven looked back where Vanitas was trying to steal another Flood's ice cream. "Yeah. See you guys in a minute."

Then he walked over to Vanitas. "C'mon. we'll just go get you your own ice cream."

Vanitas frowned, staring at him with gold eyes that still held a bit of a glare. "You're not gonna fight me? Wonder why I'm even here? Destroy my floods?"

Ven frowned "Well... know?" He shrugged, "You just seem like you wanna have fun... and you heard Sora and Riku. It's a no keyblade day!"

Next up is

knittenkitten. Your words are "It's a no keyblade day!"