A/N - It's finally here! I'm so sorry for taking so long too write this. I've been going through a lot lately and had some trouble finding the inspiration to write. Lucky for you guys, I found such inspiration for the time being!

Just a fair warning, this chapter is somewhat of an introduction to the whole thing and has ABSOLUTELY no dialogue at all! It's all Nate's mind. Hope you don't mind that. It's also a short chapter, so shouldn't be that bad.

Enjoy! ^_^

"What goes around comes around"

Time and time again, horrible things have happened in my life; things that have been permanently etched into my mind for the years to come. The burden of all these memories would be too much to bear for the average person. I, however, learned at a young age to keep my head high and be grateful at even the slightest hint of hope. Because that's all I, Nate Fenton, have desired throughout my life… a hope… something that can reassure me that my life is headed somewhere.

Chapter 1 – Introduced to Hope

As a young boy of age six, I wasn't exactly a professional at making friends. I was, however, known to be remarkably intelligent for my young age, but that only made my peers all the more intimidated by me. I was known as "the smart kid". Nothing more, nothing less. In fact, most people didn't even know my name in school. Is "Nate" really that difficult to remember? Maybe they just didn't care what my name was since I wasn't necessarily friendly with most of them. In all honesty though, would you rather befriend the smart boy who, in comparison, makes you look less intelligent or an average person? No brainer I presume?

I did, however, have one friend back in those days. He went by the name of Richie. I'm not sure what exactly led us to be so close, but at the time it was my only source of friendship. We were both considerably short for our age, but that didn't mean we were at all alike in nature. While I was shy and kept to myself, Richie was quite the bragger and tended to be quite cocky. It was practically impossible to find that kid in a bad mood. He was also never that good at being emotional or sympathizing, but if you ever needed to cheer up, Richie would unintentionally do just that! It was almost as if he saw life as pure perfection.

Aside from Richie, the only other people I was close with were my parents, especially my dad. My dad was by far the best friend I ever had. We did everything together and nothing could tear us apart… or so I thought…

Over the summer of me being six years old, my parents and I had planned to go on a much needed vacation. Little did we know death was awaiting my parents that day at the airport. A death that not only terminated the lives of my parents, but put an abrupt pause on my life as well.

After dealing with such a heartbreaking scene at the age of six, I didn't know what to do aside from run. I had sworn to myself that I would cut all ties I had left with anyone so that I could never feel that kind of pain ever again.

For days I ran, so that I could live as far away from those who knew of my disappearance as possible. As far as I was concerned, if I couldn't have my parents, then I didn't want anyone.

After making my distance, I found myself living the city life. I spent an entire year fending for myself. I robbed people and slept in places you would never believe. My life was pretty much one big struggle to survive. To be honest, I'm not sure if I had a reason to live on at that point aside from a fear of death. Living that ind of life did, however, teach me to be grateful for anything I could get. Even though my parents were all I truly had before that point, I took them for granted far too much.

Even through such a life, I did have the yearning to be a regular kid again. I always dreamed of having a normal kid's life; having fun with a real family again. But as much as I wanted it, my disobedience led to the demise of my own happiness. Therefore, I felt as if I wasn't allowed to give myself a hope.

After a year had passed of living on my own, it became apparent to the public that I was in fact without parents. As the days passed, more and more people tried to "get me help", but I just ran away. Though a part of me wanted assistance, I just couldn't bring myself to accept it. Why would a kid like me ever deserve that kind of attention? If you really think about it, I'm nothing more than a cold blooded murderer.

My lifestyle worked out as best it could until the police began to take an interest in capturing me. On several occasions, I barely made an escape. It led to a point where I had to establish with myself that I would have to move on to a new location. That place was onto me, and if I continued living there, I would eventually be taken in. Just as I was about to leave though, something caught my eye. Something more amazing than anything I'd ever seen before. It was a boat, and a huge one at that. The biggest boat I'd ever seen. The word "Tipton" was spelled across the side in letters that were even larger than I was.

I watched as a pair of clearly higher class people boarded the ship. One was an older lady with jewelry covering every ounce of skin she possibly could. It was as if she just slapped on jewelry to show off her riches. The other was a man in formal clothing who carried two bags of luggage beside the woman. That ship was definitely not for people of my stature to say the least.

Obviously at that moment my curiosity overtook me as I entered the ship behind them. I easily snuck around the security as well as the front desk. I guess spending an entire year trying not to be noticed really helps when you're trying to creep past even the tightest security.

Initially, I had some trouble adapting to the ship, but I caught on fast. Within the first week, I had already begun snatching money from the upper class people around me. I managed to get money for food and even enough to spare on a bathing suit from the gift shop to use for the hot tub. Despite having a bathing suit, however, I still didn't feel any better. My money didn't change anything. I hadn't realized it at the time, but what I was missing was the presence of someone else; anyone else would have worked wonders in my life. And, although I was hesitant to let anyone else into my life, I found the one exception who changed my life forever.

I'm not sure why, but on one particular day I had the undying urge to visit the game room. I had been resistant in the past to going there, because it reminded me all too easily of my parents' death, but on that day it was as if my brain was on a different track…

Upon arriving at the game room, I started playing video games, but they were far from interesting. I looked around and saw groups of people playing together. All of them seemed so happy, but then again I guess that's the outcome of having a friend to have fun with.

As I watched all the other people having fun, I paused when I noticed something, or rather someone, who looked familiar. My eyes widened at first sight as I saw the older boy standing by himself. 'Could it be?' I thought to myself I stared intensely at him. I thought I was going crazy at the time, but I could've sworn I was looking at my dad in his teenage years! It was a spitting image of him to say the least. I immediately dropped my controller midgame and walked toward the boy, not knowing that this replica of my father would soon turn my life into all I'd ever hoped for and more. Luke…

Well, I decided to not include how exactly Nate's parents died in more detail quite yet. That will be in a later chapter! All that you know for now is that Nate thinks of himself as a "cold blooded murderer" as a result of his parents dying and that the game room reminded him of the whole scene in some way. Hmmm...

Please review so I have an idea of how many people want me to work on this. I need the inspiration and every review gives me inspiration. So please, if you want to see this updated, REVIEW!

And one last thing, if you have not done so, I highly advise you read "Dying For Love 'The Luke Version'" before you read this story. I will not be putting any flashback to the pieces that are in that story, so you will need to know it in order to get a few things. That story is M-Rated though, so you have been warned. If you REALLY don't want to read that story either for its rating or other reasoning, then please tell me via review or inbox message and I might slap an author's note of things you need to know from that story to read this one. Oh, and if you do read that story, PLEASE REVIEW that one as well. I want to hear as many opinions as I can on anything I write!