In The Calm of Winter

Vanitas slowly gets up. His face hot, even though the air is freezing cold. A wave of embarrassment washes over him. He lets out a small groan as he slowly rises to his feet. He looks behind him. The door. He goes to open it but notices that the light isn't on. He furrows his brows in frustration and lifts his keyblade. He aims it at the door and lets a large fireball hit it. The door is burned to bits. No point in it being there if it has no use anymore. Vanitas lets his helmet slowly vanish. Then, the cold air hits him. A cold wind wraps around him. He shivers. His eyes widen. It... it was beautiful. The area was completely covered in white. The ground, the trees, everything. Little white things were falling from the sky. 

He held his hand out. His keyblade disappeared in a flurry of purple flames. The little white things landed on his hand and melted. Vanitas's cheeks were flushed from the cold. But the cold felt... refreshing, almost. It was way better compared to the blistering heat of the graveyard. It always seemed hot there. Even at night. His breath came out in a small cloud. It was kind of amusing to him. But the best part was the scenery. A nearby waterfall and small lake had been frozen over. The ice was a bright blue. Almost as bright as the sky above. The sun came out from behind the clouds and warmed him up a bit. Then, there were the trees. Little water droplets had frozen on the leaves and moss on the trees, making them seem like decorations. Vanitas approached the tree. The sound of snow crunching as he walked seemed rather loud compared to how quiet the area was.

He slowly lifted his hand and ran it through the leaves. The frozen water droplets hit each other making a sort of tinkling sound. A very small smile appeared on his face as he ran his hand through the leaves again. He looked up. The trees were covered in the white stuff also. He wanted to explore. But the little voice in his head spoke up. You don't have time to be messing around. You have to merge with Ventus. Get back what is rightfully yours. But Vanitas pushed the voice to the back of his mind. He could wait. Just a little bit. And so, he went off to explore the surrounding area.

***

The area was really beautiful. Everything seemed to be covered in the white powdery stuff. It was really nice. But it was getting pretty cold. Not even the sun could warm him up enough. His arms were wrapped around himself as he shivered. The area was nice and it was way better than the heat of the graveyard, but it was a bit too cold. The area had lots of mountains. Maybe that's why it was so cold. So, he decided to climb down. It started to get a bit less cold. But, not warm enough. He looked out at the view in front of him. He had quite a long way before he would be completely down the mountain. He could see a large body of water that surrounded what looked like... civilization. A kingdom. He could see a castle. Curious, Vanitas decided to go down there.

As he got further and further down the mountain, he noticed that it started to get warmer. A bit too warm. That was weird. Why would it be cold and then suddenly warm? He was at the edge of the kingdom when he ran into something. It wasn't very tall, since it hit him in the knees. When he looked down, he cocked his head to the side in confusion. A walking... snowman? Honestly, it shouldn't have surprised him. Just ten years ago, he had fought a rat with a keyblade. 

The snowman looked up at him. Why was there a cloud following it? And why was it raining the white stuff? "Oh! Hello! I haven't seen you around here." The snowman said cheerfully. Vanitas's face morphed into one of disgust. He was cheerful. Disgusting. "My name is Olaf!" The snowman said. "I don't care," Vanitas retorted. The snowman named Olaf ignored him. He then circled Vanitas and looked him up and down. "What are you doing?" Vanitas asked. "You look a lot like Sora," Olaf said. Vanitas scowled at the snowman. "I'm not Sora." He growled. Of course, the snowman knew Sora. Everyone and their grandmother seemed to know who Sora was. "You sure look a lot like him, though. Are you his brother?" Olaf asked. Vanitas hesitated for a second. "...Sort of..." Vanitas mumbled. He didn't know why he was talking to a snowman. But he had nothing better to do. He could care less about Xehanort. And Sora wasn't the brightest person out there. So he wasn't worried about him trying to wake up Ventus for a while. Hopefully.