Rainy nights seemed to linger like a haze to Lucas. No one noticed, because no one was ever in his room.

That was, until one of his friends stated over because of the weather warning.

Lucas didn't mind having Ness in his house; he filled a presence gap quite nicely and comfortably. There were heights written on planks painted, chalk washed by rain, words exchanged one ear and out another... But Ness filled a small bit of the gaping hole that Lucas felt coming home to an barren home.

Then the flash had Lucas's head leaning on Ness's back.

Ness was writing down some unimportant glabs down, but stopped as the blond shifted.

The silence wasn't uncomfortable, but it had a stark emptiness to it. It was the dry desert air at night, both boys blanked from words, but nothing unbearable.

Ness smiled as Lucas poked his back and turned to face him.

"Yes...?" Ness offered, staring into the pale boy's eyes, mirrors of the sky boring into Ness's clouded murk. Lucas just shifted under his light gaze.

Ness just smiled and offered again, "You don't like thunderstorms, huh?"

Lucas shook his head, bringing his lips to form a strained, straight line.

"I hear Tazmily used to get lots of them; that's why some of your sheep are charred, if I'm remembering correctly?"

Lucas seemed to not be in his brain. His eyes started to not shine; his gaze empty.

He responded anyway, "Yeah... Surprised they didn't suffer major damage."

"Mrs. Forman says it was a phenomenon, and suddenly it just..." Ness looked towards the falling raindrops as the thunder boomed as he references their Living Enviornment lesson. "Stopped."

"They were lighting storms."

"Huh?"

"Lightning, not thunder." Lucas monotonously croaked.

"Same difference." Ness dismissed, chuckling to himself at his dumbness.

"No, there was a difference." Lucas seemed to remove himself further away from his eyes; the mirrors becoming pools of the depths of a lake. Soon, it'd be an ocean.

Ness was puzzled and replied, "Different how? You can't have thunder without lightning."

"But you could when it wasn't her."

"...Who?"

"Mother Nature." Lucas's depth-full eyes wandered. "It just takes space and time to turn and cry wolf."

It took a moment of bewilderment for Ness to respond, "Lucas, why are you talking in epics...? Why wasn't there a naturalistic phenomenon?"

"Because man is evil."

Lucas wasn't looking at Ness, but the grey that overcame his eyes was just as horrid as the weather outside.

Ness reserved himself from saying something stupid... Or at least, tried.

"Red haired; blue eyed; brainwashed. That's what he was. The marionette. The puppeteer was fat and lacked the appeal he used to have. His memories were obscured. Things were missing; censored." Lucas seemed to become more and more greyscale. "I was the marionette's thread. We shared a last name."

"Claus."

Lucas snapped to look up at Ness, his lower eye brimming with tears that shared his body heat. The tears were cold.

"He's gone now. No need for names." Lucas spewed, short in temper.

The change of mood had Ness taken aback, but lightly resting his hand on Lucas's shoulder. Lucas's tear ducts instantly gave way with the small action, Lucas wracked with ugly sobs. Ness brought him closer, resting his chin on the blond's head, curling around him.

"H-He ch-chos-se him. Wh-Why does it st-still hurt?!" Lucas cried. "H-He's the Masked Man. B-but wh-what a boy he w-was."

"Lucas- hey, hey. It's okay." Ness reassured. "No one, and I mean no one has lived through the pain you've been through. It's your burden, I know."

Lucas pushed him away so he could look in his eyes. The daytime met the night, and the day couldn't help from raining.

"I d-didn't even know w-what he w-was like." Lucas sighed. "W-Who'm I to s-say w-who he w-was."

Ness brought the blond in his lap, Lucas taking his head's place on his shoulder, Ness's hands soothing the blond's tense back.

"You knew him, Lucas." Ness's Adam's apple bobbed against Lucas's shoulder humanly; comfortably. "You knew him more than your dad or your mom; hell, probably more than you as a whole. Siblings have a unique bond that cannot be broken. That's how you were able to show him he wasn't Pokey's."

Lucas nuzzled deeper into Ness's shoulder; tears drying.

"He couldn't handle himself. We couldn't keep him-" Lucas's breath hitched as he grasped Ness's shirt. "Alive. Chimeras don't... Live that l-long."

Ness intently listened, and Lucas noticed so he continued. "He felt like a dog. An old dog. Some mutt we all loved, but by the time 13 rolled around we had to p-put him down."

"I don't know how you feel, Lucas. And I never could begin to imagine." Ness sighed.

"Ness," Lucas looked into Ness's eyes- searching. "You've filled the hole that him, Mom, and Dad have carved. I want to keep saying your name just so I know I'm not insane and that you're here..." Lucas's gaze faltered. "... Right?"

"Lucas. Look at me."

Lucas refused to look up, squeezing his eyes shut. "Ness. Please?"

"Lucas."

"You're here! I can feel you! You're Ness. You live a few towns away. That's all." Lucas was speaking around a lump in his throat. "Nothing else, Ness."

Ness gently tried to push the boy off of him, Lucas fighting back and grasping onto him.

"The year is 2006. It's 2006." He whispered to the ravenette.

"No, Lucas." Ness pushed Lucas off of him, forcefully this time. "It's not 2006." Ness stood up and looked down at Lucas, whose hands were shaking with sky blue auras with pink undertones.

"You're not living with your town." Ness spoke, his voice losing its warmth. "What year is it, Lucas?"

"It's 2006."

"How old are you?"

"Thirteen."

"Lucas, do you know how many days have passed since your journey?"

"... No."

"It's 2010, Lucas. You're seventeen. Your brother died four years ago."

Lucas crumpled in on himself.

"It's not! It's 2006!"

"It's 2010 in Tazmily. You know that, Lucas." Ness paused and watched Lucas be wracked with sobs again. "You also know it's a different time where I'm from."

"No! Stop!"

"It's 1998 where I'm from, Lucas."

Unsteady breathing.

"Where are you right now, Lucas?"

"H-Home. B-Bed."

"You're not home," Ness seemed to become weaker as he spoke. "But you're in a bed."

"S-Stop. L-Let me l-live h-here, Ness. I deserve to be here!" Lucas snapped his head up to look at him. "Don't tell me who I am!"

"You've been in a hospital bed for the past month. You've been sleeping the days away." Ness looked down, his un-capped hair falling in his face. "I've only known,you for a month, now haven't I?"

Lucas didn't respond. He rasped his breaths away.

"Claus's death took you into a depression. You started not to care about life anymore. You were so-" Ness looked up at Lucas, who was looking at the floor with clamped eyes. Ness felt tears begin to fall. "You were so sad. You were so stressed. You became bedridden due to that stress."

Ness kneeled to place a hand on Lucas's back.

"Wake up, Lucas. You can't stay here." He whispered.

"I want to stay with you. Away from them."

"Kumatora's here-"

"Away from everyone-"

"She seems worried-"

"Stay with me, Ness. Stay.

"Stay."

"...Lucas?"

His eyes snapped open with a screech. Warm arms wrapped around him.

"Wh-where is he?!" Lucas demanded.

Green eyes met his blue. Sky met forest.

"Who, Lucas?"

"Ness! Ness... He was here!"

The eyes darkened, but her tug on their hug tightened.

"Wh-where is he... Kumatora...?"

"He's not here, Lucas. He never was." Kumatora tightened around Lucas's heaving chest. "He's just on a screen in New Pork City."

"No. No, he was going to stay with me! I know it!" Lucas cried.

He heard a whisper in the back of his head.

Say "Hi," to Boney for me. He lives to see the daylight, as should you.

Telepathy.

He should've known.