#venlea

I.

THWAP! Ventus jerked forward in recoil from the snowball that had made him drop his bag, his books, and his patience. He turned around slowly frown forming and eyes narrowing in thought, there was only one possible culprit. Lea stood ten yards away, which was ten yards to far to punch, giving a smile that was nothing but teeth and bad intentions, and most unfortunately his hands were already together making another snowball.

“I know for fact that your school has another ten minutes till they let out and that there is at least a fifteen minute walk between here and Radiant  Garden’s Public High school,” Ventus said eyes shifting from Lea’s hands to his face.

“Your tone sounds way too accusatory, but rest assured there was only a half day for us regular kids—and no I do not skip anymore. I do it once and you and Isa act like it makes me a regular delinquent,” Lea stated bringing a hand over his heart in what Ventus would only call mock hurt.

The part that he left out was that Braig caught him in the garden square. Lea didn’t even go someplace that wasn’t regularly monitored. It was the dumbest thing Ventus ever heard because Lea literally introduces himself to anyone he meets. Everybody in this city must know his name, the fiery haired kid that wants to live forever and does incredibly dumb things—like skip class and go to his usual hang out spot and introduce himself to the on duty guard. Did he really think it was going to work out? Lea was lucky Ventus thought he was cute.

“You do realize we became friends because you decided to pick a fight with me right? I believe picking fights is part of the delinquent criteria,” Ventus jabbed and crossed his arms.

“Hey! That was hardly picking a fight!” Lea said indignantly and threw a snowball that narrowly missed Ventus’s face.

“I suppose you’re right, you would to have to win if you wanted to be a delinquent” Ventus teased.

“Please,” Lea said and rolled his eyes, “I let you win because you were looking sour”

“Oh really?”

“Really, I swear. Isa even made a comment about how I pick up strays when we left,” Lea said and his voice was practically dripping with self-entitlement, “In fact…”

Lea continued, but Ventus was hardly paying attention as he quickly grabbed his things off the ground, and subtly grabbed a handful of snow. Lea was still too enamored with his own theatrics that he hardly noticed, but Ventus still caught things like ‘saint hood’ and ‘princely’—words he would probably never use to describe Lea, no matter how much he thought he liked him.

“…Futhermore! Well Furthermore I never really get this far when I’m talking, what are—“

THWAP!

Perhaps Ventus’s aim was better than he thought as he looked at the honorable remains of the snowball that managed to nail Lea directly in the chest. Lea’s mouth hung open and his arms were dropped uselessly to his sides in what appeared to be shock. His eyes were transfixed to on his own chest and he was struggling with words.

“You didn’t really think I wouldn’t launch one back at you right?”Ventus said while trying to stifle his own laughter, but Lea still seemed to remain frozen.

“Uh, I didn’t actually hurt you did I?”Ventus called, his eyebrows scrunching together as he took a few nervous steps forward.

“What? No! It’s just you haven’t listen to a word I said,” He laughed with his head thrown back, “but I’m totally gonna push you into the snow for this,” Lea shouted and began racing forward.

Ventus jerked back and began to sprint away himself, he barely manage to fully escape the high stone fence that surrounded his private school and entered the park. He didn’t realize the winter wonderland that had blossomed while he was in his final hours of class. He only had about two seconds to appreciate it as Lea managed to tackle him down into the snow just off the cement path.

“Guh! Hey!”

“Take that!” Lea crowed as they tumbled down.

“You don’t really think you’re going to win this do you?” Ventus said wrestling with Lea on the ground.

“Of course I do,” Lea said proudly and pinning Ventus to the ground

It only took a wad of well-aimed snow to surprise Lea into loosening his grip, flipping him onto his back and to almost immediately regretting it, “Where’s that confidence now?” Ventus said suddenly hyper aware of how close they were—too close.

Lea’s face seemed to grow pink and while a part of Ventus said it’s because of the cold and another part of him said otherwise. He was suddenly extremely grateful for the thickness of his gloves not giving away the sweatiness of his hands and for the fact that mind reading was impossible.

“I-it’s a draw,” Lea managed.

 Ventus suddenly panicked if his face was pink? Was Lea embarrassed because Ventus was embarrassed, was Lea even embarrassed for the same reason? Guh, crushes were stupid and he was pretty sure this was where people were supposed to kiss in the movies and Lea looked uncomfortable instead of transfixed, or did Aqua say they were supposed to be mesmerized? If he was braver this would be different.

“Uh, right,” Ventus said getting up too quickly and offering his hand to pull Lea up, “So where’s Isa aren’t you two usually together or something?” He began rapidly and lamented his poor attempts at changing the topic.

“Huh?” lea murmured as he brushed off some snow, “Isa is doing some extra credit thing for class? I know it’s boring and long and makes the half day a full day and a bit more,” Lea said and stuck his tong out, “I would have died.”

“Sure you would have,” Ventus said with a smile.

“Hey! I would!” Lea challenged.

“Right,” Ventus responded and put his hands up in a form of surrender.

Crushes were harder then he imagined.

II.

It should be against the law to give homework on winter break, Ventus thought wearily. Not that he should really be complaining, when he left Aqua and Terra at the library they both seemed to be drowning in their college work and studying for their Mark of Mastery Exam on top of it. He decided a quick trip to the nearest café would make getting his homework done a lot easier, or bearable. He was leaning towards bearable.

Lebreau Café would be a perfect place to get a drink to motivate him and who knows what else, maybe he would get something for Terra and Aqua too? He had a feeling just about anything could boost their moods and that included getting hit by a car or randomly combusting. He passed by an alleyway and gazed through the store window and was greeted with the perfect sight of a short line and only two occupied tables. One seemed to have trio of two girls who were most definitely sisters and some huge muscular guy, who made Ventus wonder if he had to duck to make it through the door.

The other table had two high school students one with blue hair and the other with red hair and were having an intense conversation that included arm waving and eye rolling. Upon closer inspection Ventus realized it was Lea and Isa, that his heart was suddenly in his throat, he was nowhere near the window anymore and was standing in the alleyway with his back against the wall.

He was never one to dodge an opportunity to see Lea, but every time he seemed to initiate those moments something seemed to go terribly wrong. Once he texted Lea to go ice skating and the whole time Lea seemed uncomfortable and extremely nervous and admitted—at the very end—that he never skated before, Isa even texted him later to see if Lea declined because apparently he hated ice skating. Ventus honestly couldn’t fathom why he would even accept. Another time Ventus had done a bake sale for a fundraiser at school, had left over peanut butter cookies—did the nice thing and offered them to Lea who ate them all, but apparently was allergic to peanut butter and did not tell him until he had to leave in rush, but made sure he knew that he loved the cookies.

Those were only a few of the major debacles and clearly Ventus couldn’t be trusted to start up or offer something without making it very awkward or very painful for Lea (Looking back he was sure the snow thing was him accidently hurting Lea and Lea being too nice to say anything). Ventus was not ready to have this many regrets in his life at fifteen years old, clearly he was doing something wrong.

Thirty seconds later and about one hundred different possible scenarios had played through Ventus’s head and he had decided on one possible option. He was proud to say it wasn’t leaving immediately, but in fact going in, buying his drink as quickly as possible and then leaving while saying a quick prayer that Isa and Lea would not notice him, or wave, or say hello.

He peered out of the alleyway and moved forward carefully—the absolute worst thing he could do would be to draw unnecessary attention to himself.

The door opened with a jingle and no heads moved his way, Ventus had to thank the tall muscular dude for talking loudly and being in a fight with one of the girls he was with. He had never had so much cover for sneaking in his life.

“May I have one small hot chocolate please?” Ventus asked giving his best ‘you are doing me a service’ smile.

“For here or to go?”

“To go! And could I have three of those gingerbread cookies please?”

“Alright your total is—“

“Ventus! Ven! Over here!”

Ventus slowly turned, a panicked smile making its way on to his face, “Hey you guys!”

“What are you doing here?” Lea shouted and made a dramatic motion to call him over while Isa made an apologetic face.

Ventus quickly handed out someone and uttered keep the change to the cashier. He probably could sit for a few minutes with them as his drink was being made, and then make an easy exit by having to return to Terra and Aqua. No stressful or awkward exchanges today and Isa was there being a great third party member.

“Just taking a quick break from the library, how are you guys?” Ventus asked.

“Great!” Lea answered for the both of them, “And most importantly not at school.”

“I can relate, but all this winter break homework is killer, did you guys get any?” Ventus said and took a seat.

“None that couldn’t be finished in hour,” Isa said flippantly

Lucky assholes that didn’t even know they were lucky, “Guh.”

“How much did you get?” Lea said voice laced with concern and disbelief.

“GUH,” Ventus once again sad and banged his head on the table—why must he suffer in so many ways?

“Well, I should go to the bathroom,” Isa declared as Ventus lifted his head from the table.

Panic shot through him as that statement definitely sounded staged instead of a genuine need for the bathroom. Isa rose up out of his seat face far too solemn for the task at hand, gave a rather vindictive look to Lea and a polite smile to Ventus. This not what Ventus sat down for—what was Isa even playing at?

“Alright? Be quick I don’t think my drink has much longer and I need to head back to the library,” Ventus called to Isa who only deftly raised a hand that conveyed his nonchalant position on the situation.

“So,” Ventus said with smile and his eyes returning fully to Lea who was gazing in suspicion at the bathrooms, “What are your Christmas plans?”

“Uh?”

“Your plans for Christmas? Ah! Wait do you not celebrate Christmas?” God Ventus really knew how to be rude, “I’m sorry I—“

“No! No, I totally celebrate Christmas—I just got distracted. I, uh, usually spend it with my mom and brother, and Isa and his mom,” He said cheeks turning a bit pink as he scratched the back of his head.

“That’s pretty cool!” Ventus said easily, “Do you guys do anything in particular?”

Eraqus always said he could invite people to their Christmas party at the estate. They usually had so many people that the guest list often dipped into the hundreds. Ansem the Wise would come bringing his new adopted son Ienzo along with his lab assistants, Yen Sid would often be bringing his own entourage and not to mention the amount of people that arrive with Xehanort—so really the party was practically bursting. So Ventus was going to brave, extremely brave, so brave that he would probably return to that alley to regain his breathing after this daring act.

“Nothing really, we just watch some Christmas movies and eat dinner together on Christmas day,” Lea stated and looking away.

“That’s great! Do you think you guys would like to come to the Christmas Eve party my family has every year? I know it’s kind of last minute but I think it be a lot more fun if you were there” Ventus said little nervously,” And Isa! If you and Isa were there!” Ventus added quickly—this must be what hell is like.

“Uh sir? Your hot chocolate is ready?” The women from beyond the counter called with practically the worst timing.

Ventus got up, hopefully with his shaky knees and sweaty hands going undetectable to Lea whose mouth seemed to be opening closing at an alarming rate for someone not saying anything at all.

“Thank you,” Ventus chimed in with another appropriately placed smile while taking the drink.

“And the cookies,” The cashier said and handed the bag over.

“Thanks,” Ventus stated once again and turned back to Lea.

“So what do you say?” Ventus asked and took a sip of his drink to try and play it cool.

“I’ll have to talk with everyone else before I say anything for sure” Lea said still wide eyed.

“Understandable,” Ventus agreed while nodding his head gravely, “I guess I will just have to give you my number so you can text me your decision”

Finally a perfect excuse to share numbers, Ventus was getting a lot done today—perhaps Aqua was right. There is great reward in being just a little bit braver. Ventus grabbed a pen out of his bag and took a napkin that he wrote his number down and living up to his crazy wild behavior of the day even put a heart next his name before handing it over to Lea.

“It will be a lot of fun, I promise.”

Lea nodded mutely and tucked the napkin into his coat pocket, “Yeah…yeah I believe you,” Lea said and then began smiling far too broadly, “How’s your drink?”

“Huh? Good, do you want to try some?” Ventus offered and extended the drink out to him.

“Really? Sure,” Lea said without missing a beat.

“Haha, you know this kind of like an indirect kiss? Right?” Ventus said in an attempt to flirt—a really horrible decision on his part.

The drink dropped to the table immediately as Lea choked. The brown liquid spilled out dripping of the table to the ground and to Lea’s lap which had to be uncomfortable because of its boiling temperatures. Ventus attempted to save the drink and Lea by spastically handing napkins to Lea—neither seemed to be faring well

“I’m sorry! I’m Sorry” Ventus said hurriedly, “Oh god I am so sorry,”

“What’s going on here?” Isa called, shock painted so clearly on his face that even Ventus began turning red.

He had been gone for only five minutes, but Ventus already made a major mistake—he offered something to Lea.

“I’m sorry!”

“Lea what did you do?” Isa said dryly and threw Lea a devastating look.

“Please, I’m so sorry” Ventus cried.

III.

It was two hours into the party and Lea and Isa were nowhere to be seen, or at least Ventus had not been able to make a break to see them. He had seen Reno who admitted to being Lea’s brother much to Ventus’s surpirse. Lea always talked with such disdain towards his brother that he could hardly believe that it was Reno all this time, Turks did have sketchy reputations, but not the one that Lea believed.

Vanitas had also commandeered him for an hour, when Aqua shared that he invited Lea to the party Vanitas decided it was his personal mission that Ventus would feel utterly idiotic for having a crush on someone who was less well off on then them. His brothers words were more along the line of ‘gross poor people’ and Ventus didn’t have the heart to remind him that they were both adopted and were, in fact, poor before that—but Vanitas’s selective memory and the need to not start a fight was too strong.He didn’t really know how he was going to find them at this point or when he was going to find them but he—

“Are you seriously telling me you have an invite here kid?”

Could always count on Braig to find Lea and Isa and have a loud fight with the two of them. He has yet to truly let Ventus down, his Lea radar was rather formidable.

“I’m pretty sure they are, I put them on the list myself,” Ventus stepped in with a smile, “Don’t worry so much.”

Braig made a distinct huffing noise before nodding and turning to leave, clearly he was still feeling foul about the argument that happened with Terra a little earlier, not that Ventus knew what that was about.

“Sorry about that,” Ventus began, “I hope he didn’t ruin the party for you guys?”

“Of course not, I’m sure he only spoke to us because Lea just had to make a scene when seeing his brother,” Isa replied.

“Hey!”

“It had to be wild, but I must admit even with you two having the same last name I didn’t realize you are Reno’s brother!” Ventus said.

“You know Reno?” Lea said incredulously.

“Yep, Rufus comes every year and usually brings his Truks along for the ride.”

“Wow,” Lea said dryly while glaring to the floor.

“Well,” Isa said before Ventus could step on anymore toes, “I promised my Mother that I would bring her some desert and now that Braig’s left us, I think it’s time I delivered”  

Isa made a hasty escape, but not before uttering something to Lea that made his face turn pink and punching him in the arm. Ventus wondered if Isa knew he would consider paying him to stay instead of immediately leaving—Ventus wasn’t saying he needed a babysitter when talking to Lea, but he needed a babysitter. Stat.

“So…” Ventus said.

“So,” Lea replied giving great flare to their conversation.

“Are you really enjoying the party?” Ventus asked—what if he ruined the night by his impromptu meeting between Reno and Lea?

“Of course! My brother doesn’t have the power to ruin my whole night,” Lea reassured.

“Really? Mine does.” Ventus said and began to lead Lea towards the balcony

Their conversation drifted from school to work, to other key holiday traditions, to what their summer plans were. Nothing had spilled, fallen over, broke, or suffered an allergic reaction which coincidentally was better than all other previous interactions. It was new record.

“So it’s true then, your family totally does Chocobo racing?” Lea said with grin

“It’s called betting! And it’s completely different from racing!”

“How’s making bets better then racing?”

Ventus rolled his eyes and felt the panic he had been waiting to feel all night while talking with Lea. Above them, wrapped in white and red stripped bow, was thing of nightmares—mistletoe. He suddenly felt his options become limited. He wanted to kiss Lea, but if he couldn’t do it when he was alone in the snow the odds of him managing it in here with large quantities of people where small. So he could pretend to ignore it a valid option but the time was already—

“What are you looking at?”

Out.

“It’s mistletoe,” Ventus faking calm so well that he almost would have believed it if he did not feel like throwing up.

“Oh.”

Ventus closed his eyes briefly and thought about punching Lea instead of kissing him for a moment. If he sounded any less enthralled with idea of kissing there was very little he could do.

Be brave.

“You do know what you’re supposed to do under mistletoe right?”

Be brave.

“Uh.”

Be very brave.