He could hear them talking at the dinner table through an open window. Why Nicholas didn't just join them for their meal, he didn't know. Life was just too complicated right now... The need to figure out everything before joining them was his excuse for never eating with them. Nick still ate, of course - Kiseki never minded bringing him out food to eat, always asking if he'd prefer to eat inside. Nick would always reply with a simple, polite, "No thank you," feeling slightly ashamed afterward - he hoped she wasn't mad for refusing to eat with them. In any case, Nick figured she would understand - maybe she had been in the position before, although it was unlikely... But Nicholas just didn't feel like he belonged. The were a family - it felt wrong to butt in and change all that they had ever known. Not to mention... It just hurt too much. Being around Kiseki was odd, knowing that she had once killed him (of course, thanks to some magic, he was revived) and being around Keiichi just made Nicholas feel oddly empty. Nicholas supposed being around Naiomi was okay - she treated him like he was something special, not just some random guy who had deserved to be forgotten all those years ago.

"So what happened this morning, again, Nai?" he heard Kiseki ask - he could picture her smiling, leaning towards her daughter to seem more interested in the story. Then, he could picture Nai - eyes wide, mouth forming an "o" at the excitement that filled her before she finally spoke. "Well, Momma, some bad people tried to hurt me... But Uncle Nick turned into this ha-uuugggeee, fluffy, orange doggy and saved us!" He could hear them talking a bit more on the subject, but didn't bother to pay attention. He could imagine the reactions and didn't want to hear the words. 'They're probably talking about how it's weird to be what I am... About how I could hurt someone if I ever get too angry and can't control the wild Pokemon inside of me... Well it's their fault. Don't even say thank you...'

"Nicholas?" The words pulled him out of his thoughts, odd and unexpected. Okay, so they weren't odd - just the person who had spoken them was odd. 'He's talking to his hopeless little brother?' Nicholas mused bitterly, glaring at his feet and gritting his teeth.

"Yes?" Nick replied, trying to keep his words short - maybe Keiichi would leave then.

"You can come in now... Kiseki prepared a room for you."

"Oh."

"Well... Thank you for saving Naiomi. Well.. Goodnight, I guess."

"Yeah," Nicholas replied, waiting a minute before standing and dusting off his free hand while his other carried the plate. His brows furrowed upon seeing Keiichi there - why hadn't he left? Giving a growl that no normal human could muster, Nicholas pushed past the taller man, sliding through the small space he had managed to create. "Here," he muttered, giving Kiseki the dish before turning. Keiichi was there again, brows furrowed in obvious confusion. 'Yeah, well that's what happens when you abandon the only family you had left...' With that, he trudged off to bed.

The next morning, he was pulled out of his dreams of blue-haired Pokemorphs and ice caves by the smell of hot food. He sat up in the small bed in the guest room, glaring at a wall. Should he go join them with their merry little meal? A part of him laughed at the thought, but another part yearned for the company of another human - of a family - that he had lacked for years. He frowned at this thought, one hand moving over his chest to where he imagined his head was - under his hand, he could feel a dull thudding, and he sighed, once again wondering if he was better of dead. 'No,' he muttered to himself, despite the fact that a part of him truly believed that everyone he had ever known would have disagreed with this thought. 'Who cares about them, though? They don't care about you, why don't you feel the same way?' Nicholas growled in frustration, standing and pulling on the shirt he had worn yesterday - it was gross, yes, but Nicholas refused to wear some of Keiichi's (it wasn't so much that the shirt would probably be huge on him, but that he just didn't want to wear something of his older brothers). So, he began to descend down the stairs to the kitchen, dark hair messy and lips curled down in a frown.

In the kitchen, he was greeted by: a) a broad smile and a polite "Good Morning" from Kiseki, b) a "HIIIII, UNCLE NICKIE!" from Naiomi, along with a hug, and c) a blank stare from Keiichi. Nicholas stared back, arms being squeezed to his sides by his niece, while Kiseki asked him if he was eating breakfast with them. For a minute, dark crimson met light aqua, each as cold as the other - before Nicholas' gaze shifted to Kiseki, giving a small nod. She sat him down, he noted with a slight smirk, right across from Keiichi. After he had received some orange juice from his hostess and began to drink some of it, he caught Kiseki move towards her husband from the corner of his eyes - and thanks to his keen Arcanine hearing, he heard the words, "Just try to get along with him, Keiichi..."

Silence.

At this, Nicholas couldn't help but growl slightly, brows furrowing in a scowl. 'Bastard,' he cursed mentally, his hands now clutching the edge of the table as he felt the too, too familiar need to rip out his brother's throat and then burn him to a crisp. Granted, this time, there was no Chaos to help this feeling along - only hate and the emptiness within him created the beast inside of Nicholas, fueling his hate for his brother and nearly everyone else in the world. However, just as his hair began to turn a vibrant shade of orange, he felt a small tug at his long black sleeve and exhaled. "Yes, Naiomi?" he muttered, regaining his composure slightly - his teeth were sharper now, hair orange, and his skin was nearly the same color, but no more changes were made.

"I was just wonderin'... Why did you never come see us?" she inquired innocently, looking up at him with wide, hopeful eyes. The boy tensed, silent - Keiichi, he knew, had most definitely done the same. 'We're so alike... Why does he hate me?' Nicholas almost snarled at his helplessness, his need to be loved by his brother. Funny thought, though - to Nicholas, it seemed evident that their old bond could never be revived.

"Oh, no reason - I wouldn't want to ruin your happy little family," he mused after a minute of thought with a sly smirk, a mischievous sparkle in his light eyes. He had thought this over, and what he hoped Nai would say she did.

"Oh! I bet you wanna spend time with your own family, right, Uncle Nickyyy?"

"No, not that," he replied, pausing to glance at Keiichi. 'Let the bastard know how he affected me...' "See, people like me don't get married - well, not after their world comes crumbling down. You see, years ago, your daddy created something that made Pokemon evil-" he paused to snort, "-and left me to die. I wasn't that old then... Too bad my father and mother coincidentally died. A shame..." Another pause - Nicholas couldn't help but glance down, paying his respects to them before looking back at his brother. 'I'm avenging you two - let's see how he likes it when his life is a living hell and all he knows is misery.' "Then it was all over. I was dead when it was, of course... Luckily, I was revived by some priest - I think his name was Tyreal or something. Oh, Shizun led him to me - led him to the ice caves where Articuno froze me." His expression suddenly turned sour, malicious glee gone. "And when I awoke, there was no one there. Not Shinyuu, Alexis, Tyreal... Rose, Marie, Myuutsu... Nami..." He fell silent then, glaring at his feet - he had remembered them. He had not mentioned all of his old friends, but he had mentioned the ones he knew the names of - and the few (or many, in some people's eyes) he had mentioned struck a chord in his numb heart, making his dull eyes spark to life.