He'd picked the wrong time to come back to Destiny Islands.
The Islands were pretty tropical; the only weather they ever got was rain. Like any place near enough to the Equator, the rains came and went in predictable patterns--but the month of December was the most notorious. For an entire two weeks in December, it rained. Literally. Without end. The storm drains would overflow; the streets in the older parts of town would turn into ponds, standing water gathering in sunken asphalt. Looking at the monster storms on a meteorology map would indicate a gigantic, never-ending blob of grey. December constituted pretty much all of what the Islanders called "winter."
Vanitas had braved four buses, two ferries, and another bus, disembarking it only for the first step back into his hometown to be into a six-inch puddle of muddied water.
He was out of money, and out of luck. All of his funds had been tapped out just to get from the Mainland back home again. For the next four days, he had to be creative about getting food. Picking up change in places he knew it was likely to drop--payphones, vending machines, the mall--and using the meager funds to buy candybars. They were cheap and put sugar into his blood, at least. Thankfully, he'd arrived on a Thursday, which meant he was in time for the supermarkets to do what they did every Saturday and put out a dozen free samples. He got a full meal just from grazing the tables--and a lot of dirty looks, but he was too hungry to give a shit.
More than anything, he wanted to go home. He wanted to tumble into Uncle Xemnas's house and tell his guardian that he was back, that he was safe. That he was no longer under the yoke of...him.
Once upon a time, Vanitas had called that man "boyfriend." Now he could think of him as no more than a monster. That man had broken Van down in every way possible, including some ways he would have never thought probable. He'd exploited his insecurities, tormented him with his own weaknesses, manipulated his emotions--and worse yet, convinced Van that had actually loved the man. He knew better, now; all he had ever wanted was to possess Van.
Well, no more. Vanitas had run. He'd had to run--to take a backpack full of whatever he could grab and just haul ass out the door. He didn't know what the man was capable of anymore. Not after he'd felt those hands around his neck. The man had displayed a fetish for choking before, but that time...the look in his eyes...he'd scarcely looked human.
One year. From the end of his first Fall semester in college, to the following winter, Vanitas had been gone, mysteriously vanished with no more than a passing "I'm moving in with my boyfriend, he lives in Florida" before he was spirited away. He had nothing. Dropped all his classes; doubtless had to re-enroll, and doubtless it was way too late to get in for Spring semester--and besides, where was he going to get the money? He could get a job, but--
--but the same fear wracked him that kept him from going back home to Uncle Xemnas. What if he was found.
He couldn't apply to any jobs, because then his social security number would pop up on the grid. He couldn't go back to Uncle Xemnas's because that man knew that that's where he'd seek refuge. He'd put Uncle Xemnas in danger, and he couldn't do that, couldn't; his uncle had raised him, loved and cared for him. With a dead mother, a half-brother who despised him, and a father who barely acknowledged his existence, Xemnas was the only family he had, and if something happened to him because of Vanitas, he would never be able to live with it.
But he was out of money, and way out of luck. Four days of hunger. Four days of soaked, filthy clothes. Four days of little to no sleep, caught in fits and snatches in public restrooms.
He'd arrived on Thursday. Monday saw him sitting alone at a cafe patio table next door to a flower shop, the only soul on the whole street. No one wanted to be outside in the pouring rain. Vanitas had long since given up hope of staying dry; he sat under the deluge still as a stone, amber eyes staring blankly into the grey.
