Okay. Hi everyone, I know it has been a long time since I updated, but better late than never eh? I'm feeling a bit better, though i'm not doing perfect and i'm still a bit fragile =/ I hope I feel better in my head soon. This is my only update before the new year and then according to everyone's reaction to this chapter, I will decide whether to carry it on or to shut this story down completely. I warn this though, I have an idea for this story and I won't change it.

I would like to give my thanks to: Becky5, NeveVanZZZ, HeatherTheFeathr, Diamonds and Bones, The nameless guest and Erin653867. Though most importantly I would like to thank: BrunoandShmuel4ever. Without your kind words. This chapter or me writing this story, probably would't be happening right now. As I said, I'm not going to be changing the story line now I have set it. If you review, please take it easy on me. I'm just getting my confidence back with this. Hope you guys enjoy this next chapter.


Shmuel sighed as he walked down the street in town, could that have gone any worse? He thought as he remembered his brother's eventful last visit home, maybe he shouldn't have pushed it to happen... but maybe he was hoping maybe, just maybe, Bruno could still have what he no longer could; a family.

But Shmuel never thought this would have happened. He never imagined himself walking down the streets of London to his new home with Bruno and his mother after she had found them both in their abandoned cottage which was being buried in the winter snow. He didn't even know what surprised him more, the fact that Bruno's mother had left that horrible man and decided to make a new start with the boys.

Shmuel came to a stop outside a glass window and stared at the put up sign of victory. "The war was won." He whispered, "But at what costs?"

"I ask myself that, every time I come here and see this sign." A voice sighed from behind him.

He half turned and stared into the porcelain face of the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. Her brown ringlets of hair fell from the sides of her hat and curled around her shoulders. Her lips were deep rouge and her eyes an ocean blue. "I've seen you around with that cute boy. What was his name?"

"My brother." He said quietly and stared back into her eyes. Just because this girl was the most beautiful he had ever seen.

Didn't mean he had to like her.

She looked at her gloves and stared at the boy as though she had only just recognised the American accent. "Do you come from America?"

"You could say that, I guess." He shrugged and began walking off. He pulled his arms closely around the bag he was holding and pulled it close to his chest. He had saved up his money for ages after getting a job to buy Bruno his Christmas present. He couldn't wait to see the boy's face next week when he opened it. "Hey!" the girl looked full of indignation as Shmuel simply had left her there in the snow without the attention that she was so evidently looking for. Looking for in Bruno's arms. Shmuel thought with a frown.

She soon stormed after him and followed in his foot prints. "Are you just going to follow me all the way home?"

"Until you give me his name, yes." She said.

"I'll be sure to let him know that a crazy girl is stalking him." Shmuel shrugged getting more and more frustrated by the way this girl was cramping him against the wall as she tried to pin him.

He hated being in tight and close spaces, especially after living the way he had in that camp. The smell of a hundred bodies slowly rotting and exposed as a harsh winter wind bit into their naked skin. Lying down on a mattress of wooden and rusty nails with a cold pillow of cemented floor to rest your head on, that had been his reality back then.

He had almost forgotten what a true bed felt like to sleep on. To feel a night of warmth and protection, not to feel a deep wrenching fear that at any second a man might storm through and start shooting his gun, screaming for them to get in line and go to… no… he couldn't even think it.

It was only when he was stood out their small new little stone brick house that Shmuel pulled himself out of his thoughts. "Just go away and leave us alone. My Brother doesn't need some… psycho watching his every move. He's got his father for that." His own words felt as though they didn't not even belong to him.

"You brat." Her eyes widened.

"Evidently that is you, if no one has sorted out your stuck up, self important, arrogant-"

"Shmuel."

The younger boy grimaced as he slowly turned around to see the black haired boy, stood with arms slightly folded and a curious look at him while a knowing slight glare at the girl. "Come inside, you're going to catch your death out here."

"Hey!" the girl fumed and thrust her arms down while stamping a foot on the curb. Shmuel and Bruno tried hard to resist laughter when she slipped. "You can't just leave me down here!" she scolded both and the two brothers exchanged knowing glances having a silent conversation tossed between them.

Another one follow you home? Bruno rolled his eyes.

Not my fault they like you. Shmuel laughed quietly and flicked his growing hair out of his eyes. At least when it had short, he had managed to keep it out of his eyes and not have to worry about it all the time.

"HEY!"

"WHAT!" both boys turned around on the girl, no longer having patience to deal with her childish behaviour.

"First of all." she smiled at Bruno with what she thought must have been her most charming and beautiful face. "Hi, my name is Rose."

"By your attitude it seems you have a few thorns stuck in you." Shmuel muttered thinking his brother had not heard. But Bruno just grinned slightly and waited for the girl to actually make a point of this. "Yeah so?" he shrugged.

Now the girl was beyond fed up. She glared at the smaller of the two. "Watch it shrimp. Go away and let the big kids talk."

"You see." Bruno's mouth instantly dropped into a frown the way it always did when someone was horrible to his little brother. "Have a nice day." He said shortly and curtly.

"You should always help a lady in distress!"

"If you see one, let us know." Bruno slammed the door in the girls face and stormed away. "Shmuel." Bruno turned his head towards the grinning boy who was running up the stairs.

The frown melted from Bruno's face as he laughed and chased after the boy. "NO RUNNING IN THE HOUSE!" shouted his mother but Bruno was already half way up the stairs.

Shmuel laughed as he closed the door and began to hide the present. "You can't come in! I've got your present in here!"

"Want to bet?" Bruno lent against the door frame as the door easily swung open and he twirled the key on his finger.

"Hey! That's cheating."

"All is fair in love and war…" Both boys stopped as he said that. "I'm… I shouldn't have…"

"Shut up." Shmuel pushed for a light hearted grin

"Hang on." Bruno did a double take as he looked at the smaller boy sat on the bed. "You got me a present?"

"Yes. Now get out I want to wrap it!"

"Aw, come on, a little clue?"

"No." Shmuel giggled as he watched Bruno's curiosity burn like a kindling fire in the depths of his eyes. The crazy adventurous boy. Shmuel shook his head grinning like mad at the boy.

"Well what am I going to get you for Christmas then?"

"Uh… Bruno?" Shmuel laughed and waited for the boy to put the two pieces together in his head.

"Oh… my bad." The boy threw a hand behind his head and ruffled his hair the way he always did when he was nervous or made a mistake. "But still. I could always get you a small gift." Bruno sat on the bed next to the smaller boy and smiled.

"Like what?" Shmuel suddenly felt very embarrassed and he knew that it must have shown as he felt his face warm.

"Are you okay?" Bruno rested his hand on the boy's forehead. "You feel a little warm." He frowned and sighed. "You caught a cold, haven't you?"

"Maybe a little one." Shmuel murmured and then watched Bruno pull back the covers of his bed.

"Come on, get those wet clothes off, you're going to freeze like that."

"Bruno I'm not getting undressed in front of you!"

"Why? You've already seen me." he shrugged.

"WE WERE TEN!"

"What, Shmuel, we're two guys. Why would it make you uncomfortable?"

"Yeah." Shmuel laughed, why. He slowly pulled off the wet clothes which stuck to his skin and folded them into a pile on the floor before he climbed under the covers. "Happy now- wait what are you doing?" Shmuel turned bright red as Bruno began to lie next to him and pulled his arms around him.

"I warming you up." The boy said matter-of-factly. And it was true, Bruno felt like a furnace while Shmuel felt like the ice that had formed on the streets outside. "Now get some rest. We don't want you sick over Christmas."

"Because that would be absolutely horrible." Shmuel laughed quietly as he rested his head against the shoulder where Bruno had been shot.

This just felt like one of those nights where he had woken up from a nightmare. Bruno being so close to him felt so comforting. With a protective arm around him, just the way his Papa used to do before they were in the camps. After his father had vanished, Shmuel had had no one else. No one until Bruno had appeared. He had been so lonely, so without hope.

Bruno had saved him in more ways than one.

As his eyes began to close he felt Bruno slip away to the window where he stared down presumably at the girl who still hadn't left. He lifted the window and heard the girl shout up. "Do you want to get a drink?" through nearly closed eyes Shmuel watched his brother regard him for a few seconds before Bruno turned back and said. "I'll be right down."

As he slipped away into sleep a single tear formed at the corner of the young boy's eyes and he fell into his haunted dreams.

But he didn't care no more.

He was used to crying now.