Title: Killing Loneliness
Author: Cade
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Angsty General? Not quite sure.
Pairing(s): Sven/Train, if you tilt your head to the side, squint and do the hokey-pokey.
Summary: After two years, the cat returns.
Spoilers: Post Episode 23/anime/Eden Arc.
Warnings: Kind of AUish, a bit of OOC.
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by Yabuki Kentaro, Jump Comics, and Gonzo. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Author's Note: I've read a bit of the manga a long time ago and then I decided to watch the anime. Fell in love. Then I saw the ending, and was slightly unsatisfied. So I wrote this instead. This does take place as though the ending of the anime was true, however. Think of it as more like a personal Epilogue to the series. Also, in this story, the Eden Arc happened at the beginning of summer. They never gave a time period for it, so bwa! I'm making my own. Yay for artistic license. The information given here may be a bit inaccurate for the manga, but I figured it's easier to just follow the anime for this fic.

Two years. It had been two years. Two years since the battle at Eden. Two very long years since Sven had seen him walk away with the beat up duffel bag slung over his shoulder, his hand raised in a wave as he called over his shoulder, "Thank you. That was delicious milk. See ya around."

The "one-eyed" man sighed, leaning back in his chair. "Two years, eh?" he whispered, completely ignoring the coffee that Annette placed in front of him.

"Oy, Eve's doing well, isn't she?" the older woman asked.

"Huh?" Sven asked.

Annette sighed. "I said, 'Eve's doing well at school, ain't she'?" the woman repeated, sighing. Sven was always staring into space whenever he wasn't on a job. Thankfully his distracting thoughts never got in the way of a job, but it was only a matter of time.

"Yes," Sven answered. "Top of her class. She should be getting out for summer soon. It's that time of year again, isn't it?"

Annette nodded. Sven was especially spacey around now. Exactly two years next week, it would be. She heard from Eve that Sven had disappeared on that day last year, and no matter where she looked, she couldn't find him. He had returned the next with a smile on his face, a cigarette balanced on his lip and acted as though nothing had happened.

Annette wondered if he would disappear this year as well. "Oy, Sven," she said. The gentleman was spaced out again. She smacked him upside the head. "Oy! Listen to me when I'm talking."

"Sorry, Annette," he mumbled. "What were you saying?"

"If you plan on disappearing on his vanishing anniversary, tell Eve beforehand. She was frantic last year. That wasn't very gentlemenly of you, was it?"

Sven refused to answer.

Annette sighed. "Don't worry about the coffee. It's on me."

She moved back to the counter, barely catching the "Thank you" that escaped from Sven's lips as he lit up another cigarette.

Sven couldn't figure out what was wrong with him, and at the same time he knew all too well what was going on. He couldn't help it, as much as he wanted to. He couldn't stop it. It was like gravitation, almost. His thoughts kept on coming back to Train.

Train.

There. He thought the name. He could still remember the younger man's smile, his sharp amber eyes and his soft brown hair. He could still remember when he had met the Black Cat. Train had been so sullen back then, so angry at the world. He was glad that Saya had changed him, otherwise he would have never met his best friend.

No matter where Train was right now, Sven still considered him his best friend. Eve was still his little sister-partner. But Train was a lot more. They had gone through so much together, helped each other through everything for months and then… then he left. He just got up and left.

For a while, Sven had been angry. He had hated Train, had hated how much Train made him show his emotions, and how much Train reminded him of Lloyd. The two were completely different partners, but both had left him.

A little while after Eve had left for the boarding school that Annette had suggested, he had searched everywhere for Train, but he was no where to be found. Train had disappeared and he had left Sven behind.

Again.

Sven sighed again, picking himself up from the wooden chair and grabbed his attaché case before leaving the small café that Annette owned. He couldn't help it. He was only a shell of what he had used to be. Train… Train was everything to him. Train and Eve, but in two different ways.

Eve was his younger sister.

Train… he couldn't even think the words.

He bumped into someone on the way out. "Excuse me," he mumbled, not really caring anymore. He shouldered past the man, a hand on his hat in a silent gesture of apology as he continued on his way. He didn't notice the brunette look after him, a startled expression on his face.

Train Heartnet, former Black Cat, with Hades at his side, was not the man he once was. He wasn't the Black Cat any longer. He was a stray, a wayward cat that silently stalked his enemies. He was still a sweeper. It was a job he loved doing, but he didn't get the thrill from it anymore. He looked out at the summer sun. How long had he just been existing, walking through the world as a ghost? How long had it been since he had stopped himself from moving quickly just to have a glass of milk? He didn't savor the taste anymore. He didn't savor his milk – not like that last bottle that Sven had treated him too after Eden.

He kept moving, taking on foe after foe after foe. He couldn't stop. He couldn't get caught up in the past. He had to keep pushing himself for the goal.

"What goal?" a voice that sounded suspiciously like Saya asked at the back of his mind. "Live freely, Train-kun. Are you trapping yourself?"

Train gritted his teeth as he curled up onto his side on the rooftop. He couldn't answer. He didn't want to answer. He didn't want to trap people, especially not Sven and Princess and he would always be known at Chronos Number XIII, the Black Cat.

"You should go back. You're a wreck without your partners."

"Trust no one but yourself," the voice that had once been Zagine urged. "Other people are weakness."

"Go home, Train-kun. Go home."

"SHUT UP!" Train yelled. He jumped to his feet, holding his head tightly in his hands. He couldn't make the voices go away, the memories, the smiles, the good times, the bad times. He couldn't make anything go away.

Why not?

He gritted his teeth. He wanted to go back to Sven and Eve. He grinned slowly. He was a sweeper. He would do as his pleased. A true stray cat.

So, throwing his duffel bag over his shoulder, he set off towards Annette's, she would know where he could find Sven. He had wandered long enough, he thought to himself as he flicked the old bell on his neck. It was time for him to go home.

"Welcome," Annette greeted when she heard her door open. She was drying a plate with a towel, not really paying attention to who was entering her shop.

"Yo, Annette!" a male voice greeted. She looked up, her eyes widening as she took in the man in front of her. His blue coat was worn, his white baggy t-shirt was fraying at the edge, and his black pants had a rather nasty rip in them, but he was still grinning. The red ribbon around his neck, complete with golden bell, looked like it had seen better days and the brown holster on his leg had been sewn back together too many times to count. Only the heavy orihalcon pistol inside said holster looked to be new, even though she knew that it was the oldest thing the man wore.

"Train!" she let out, nearly dropping the plate in surprise.

"Hi."

Annette put down the plate and towel, walking over to where Train was standing, nonchalantly. She growled in her throat, the cigarette on his lips turned upward by the pressure she was applying with her lips. Her eyes held an angry glare.

Train was confused at her posture. Sure, he hadn't expected his homecoming to be all hugs and kisses, but blatant anger? That was something he hadn't been expecting as well. Thinking about it, he wasn't really sure what he had expected.

"Um… Annette, who was it that just left? He kind of reminded me of-"

"Sven?" Annette cut off, reigning back her temper. She didn't like that the Black Cat had returned so unexpectedly after so long. However, she didn't want to turn him out if he could help Sven.

Train looked even more confused. "Uhh… yeah."

"Stupid kid. That was Sven."

"WHAT? But he looked so thin, and dead… and his hat and suit are different."

"He got rid of the old ones, even the hat."

"Huh? But he loved that hat."

"Yeah. And he got rid of it."

There was a long pause, Train trying to figure out how that man could have possibly been Sven. Sven was always grinning annoyingly at the world. He was happy, despite what had happened in his past. He had taught Train how to be happy all the time as well. So what had changed him?

"He lost hope," Annette explained, even without waiting for a question that she knew would be coming.

"Huh? How?"

Annette smiled slowly. "You left."

Train was taken aback. "Me? I'm the cause of… of… that!"

Annette nodded. "You wouldn't believe how much he's fallen, you stupid brat. You wouldn't believe how much he's gone. It's worse than after Lloyd died. Lloyd couldn't come back. You could. And yet you didn't."

"I'm back now."

"After two years, Train. What did you expect?"

Train was silent. What had he expected when he had made the decision to come here? What had gone through his mind when he had thought up what he was going to do? Annette looked at him, expecting an answer, an honest one.

"I expected to come home."

Annette let out a disbelieving snort. "Right. You here for anything?"

Train stared at her, silently. The happy-go-lucky grin was gone, and a hard look had sharpened his features. "Where's he headed?" he asked.

Annette studied him, blowing out the cigarette smoke through her nose as she took it off her lip to hold it in between two fingers. "Who knows?" she told him. "He doesn't speak much anymore to anyone except Eve."

"Where is Eve?"

"Boarding school. She's coming home in three days."

"You mean she went?" Train exclaimed.

"Yeah. She's the best in her class right now."

Train couldn't help but smile proudly. "I knew she would be." He stretched. "Well, I'm off, Annette. I'll see you later."

Annette raised an eyebrow. "Where are you headed off to?" she asked.

He gave her a roguish grin. "Where else? I need to beat some sense into Sven. Living like this wouldn't suit his gentlemen's code!"

Annette couldn't help laughing as she watched Train prance out of her café. Something about him… she couldn't stay angry at him, especially when she had noticed the bags under his eyes and the unhealthy pallor of his skin. She didn't see his stomach through the baggy white shirt, but she had a feeling that Train's ribs were probably showing. These past two years hadn't been easy on him either.

Train headed straight for the hideout that Sven, Eve and himself had had around here. He wasn't sure if Sven would be there. He wasn't sure about a lot of things anymore. He didn't think his leaving would cause this for Sven. He just needed to find something. He had to leave. He was getting restless, and so he needed to go. So he did. It was as simply as that. There was nothing more to it.

He had never found that something that he was looking for. So he had returned. There was nothing more to it.

Maybe he could find that something here. He wasn't hopeful for that, though. If he could find whatever he was missing here, then he wouldn't have left in the first place.

It was too confusing for him. He needed to focus on the task at hand. He needed to find Sven quickly. There was much he needed to say to the other man. Too much, and not enough words. He needed to know what had made Sven react so strongly to his disappearance – to any and all of his disappearances. He had done it quite a lot, and Sven had always followed him.

Train needed to know why.

So he continued his trek to the hideout they had built.

It was long before he emerged through the trees to the clearing where the hideout had been. The sight that met him was not the one he had been expecting. There was no longer a hideout. Some charred pieces of wood were littered around, and the grass was stained black with soot, but that was all that remained.

"W-What?" he let out, dropping his bag in surprise. He didn't know how to think of this. There were two options. One was that someone had found out its location and to fulfill some kind of vendetta, had burned it to the ground. The other was much more painful. Sven. Sven could have burned it to the ground. He wasn't stupid enough to have it happen by accident, so he must have done it on purpose.

Train shook his head. No. He wouldn't accuse anyone yet. He couldn't believe Sven would do something like this, so he wouldn't. He would just keep an open mind about this place for now.

He turned to head back to town and ask around, like any good sweeper does, when he saw something on the other side of the clearing. He turned back around, narrowing his eyes against the bright sunlight to get a better glimpse. There was someone over there.

Train picked up his bag and made his way quickly over to the sulking form.

It was Sven.

After leaving Annette's, Sven made his way quickly to where the old hideout had been. He had burned it to the ground nearly six months beforehand. A lot of the ashes had been brushed away from the site by the wind over the weeks since the act. He couldn't stand to have it there. It was a memory of what he had lost. It was here that he, Train and Eve had originally become a team. It was here it all began.

He lit a cigarette. Not even nicotine gave him any pleasure anymore, but once Eve came home, he would have to show a brave face. He knew that she was smart enough to pick up on the fact that he wasn't fine, but that didn't mean that he gave her an open invitation of exactly how off he had been since he had disappeared.

"What am I doing back here?" he growled to himself as he sat down at the edge of the clearing. There was nothing here except memories. He hadn't even been this bad when Lloyd died. Granted, he still went to the grave every year with flowers, as he had been doing before he met Train.

Train didn't have a grave. Sven couldn't visit him, or leave a humble offering to his spirit. He didn't even know if that damned stray was alive or dead and he hated it. It would be easier if he knew. He could hate Train…

No. That was the one thing he couldn't do. He could yell at him, punch him, spit at him, curse his name, ignore him, but the one thing he couldn't do was hate him. He couldn't bring himself to hate his best friend.

After all, that wasn't proper behavior for a gentlemen.

He let out a throaty laugh at the thought. If his old self could catch a glimpse of him right now, he would be in trouble.

Two worn boots appeared in front of him. He narrowed his eyes, not even looking up as he took another drag of his cigarette.

"Whoever the fuck you are, go away," he growled.

Train looked at his friend. The man… was this really all that remained? Was this really all that was left of him? He gritted his teeth in anger. After all the… his eyes flashed.

He dropped his bag and reached down, bodily lifting Sven off his stump. He set the man on his feet, keeping a hand on each shoulder as he stared at the sweeper.

"Sven," was all he could say. The man looked so much worse from a close distance. He wanted to go on, to yell, to scream, to punch Sven, but he couldn't. His voice caught in his throat every time that he tried to do so. So he left it at the man's name. In the end, that was all that really mattered.

At the soft whisper of his name, the man in question finally looked up. His eyes widened in surprise and his cigarette dropped from his lips as he recognized the man in front of him. He couldn't believe it. This… it…

"You!" was all that his mouth could form. His brain had shut down, focusing only on the fact that this… this… man was standing in front of him. He couldn't believe it. He didn't want to believe it.

"Yeah… it's me," Train replied, a small smile tugging at the corners of his lips. "I'm home."

Sven just stared at him. For a second, a moment trapped in the spans of his lifetime, it seemed as though the past two years of hell and high waters hadn't happened. It seemed as though Train had just wandered off for a few hours, and had come home for food, like he always had. For a moment, nothing mattered except that Train was here.

And for the first time in what felt like an eternity, Sven could smile again and really mean it. He engulfed Train in a warm hug.

"Welcome home, you stupid, stray cat."