Staring up at the ceiling did little to console Ulrich's nerves. He had finally remembered what had happened to him the day before but it wasn't exactly a pleasant memory. His uncle had already been angry that he'd gotten a B+ on his history test and while he was being tutored he continuously failed to answer a chemistry problem correctly resulted in his face being smashed against the wall. The last thing he remembered was his shoulder hitting the wall and then darkness.

However, it'd been nothing short of a miracle that he'd convinced Mr. Delmas to let him tell his parents about his concussion when they were to visit Kadic the next day. Of course, the principal had only agreed because he preferred to speak to Mr. and Mrs. Stern personally. His parents were actually coming the next day to watch the soccer game that they thought they were coming to see their son play in. Honestly he didn't care what Mr. Delmas had to say to them, he just wanted to see how they'd react when they found out that they might have permanently damaged their son.

At least everyone had bought his story of falling down the stairs; the problem was he knew his friends wouldn't be fooled.

Yolanda had him on mandatory bed rest for three days and he knew there was no way he'd be able to sneak out to his uncle's to study when Odd was watching over him. Deciding to get the phone call over with, he dialed his uncle's number on his cell phone.

"Hello, Uncle?"

"What is it Ulrich? I'm very busy," he sneered.

"I'm sorry but I won't be able to come over and study tonight. I'm sick and the school has me on mandatory bed rest."

There was a surprisingly quiet pause.

"Fine. But I expect to to study twice as long on your own and you better do well on that next chemistry test if you know what's good for you."

"I understand."

The line disconnected.

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Odd burst through the door and leered over at Ulrich.

"I thought I'd find you here." He dramatically jumped onto his bed and pointed at Ulrich. "You didn't go to the infirmary at all did you?!"

"Oh no Detective Odd is onto me again," Ulrich sarcastically said, "you think that I wanted to lie in bed all day?" Odd squinted his eyes at him.

"But of course! It's all a part of your plan isn't it?!"

"Cut the theatrics Odd."

Odd huffed and crossed his arms over his chest. "Well fine. Sorry that I was trying to make you feel better."

"How exactly was that supposed to make me feel better?" Ulrich asked while massaging is temple.

"They say laughter is the best medicine," exclaimed Odd.

"I don't think laughter will cure the flu."He felt bad about lying to his friend about what was wrong with him, but he couldn't let anyone else know he had a concussion.

"Well of course it won't with that attitude!" Ulrich rolled his eyes and turned to lie on his side, facing Odd.

"Hey, what happened to your lip? Don't tell me you were making out with Yumi…" Odd didn't even get to finish his sentence before a pillow wacked him upside the head. Ulrich didn't look at him when he replied, "I tripped."

He watched as Odd's expression became unreadable and he began slowly stalking towards his bed.

"Odd? What are you-?"

"BANZAI!"

Ulrich hissed in pain as Odd sprang up and on top of him, straddled his hips, and pinned down his arms. Gritting his teeth he tried elbowing Odd off of him but his friend saw it coming and dodged before he could make contact.

"Get the hell off of me!" Ulrich yelled while his eyes began to water. He may be scrawny but Odd's behind was putting pressure on all kinds of bruises. What was he even trying to accomplish?

"Ah ah ah! If you weren't so stubborn we wouldn't have to do this the hard way," Odd growled while clamping down on Ulrich's wrists with his right hand and using his left to pry up the other's shirt.

He only managed to see a glimpse of his friend's stomach before Ulrich managed to knock him onto the floor with his knee, however in that instant he saw more than enough to confirm his fears. Clenching his fists in rage, Odd got to his feet and quietly left the room.

How could Ulrich let someone do that to him? He was so upset that he completely ignored Yumi when she passed by him. Yet the only thing on his mind was that now that he knew Ulrich's secret, could he get him to tell him what was going on?

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"Hey," said Yumi when she came into Ulrich's room, "Heard you weren't feeling well. How're you holding up?"

Head in his hands, he didn't respond or gave any indication that he'd heard what she said. He was still so shaken up from Odd that he didn't even realize that anyone else had come in. If he didn't get a break soon he was sure he'd go crazy from all the stress.

Yumi placed a hand on his shoulder and she felt his body seize up.

"Ulrich? Is everything okay?"

Looking up and seeing that it was only her, he sighed and leaned back onto his pillow.

"Yeah I'm fine," he mumbled.

"Considering that I just saw Odd leaving here in a hissy fit I hardly doubt that's true."

She sat on the side of the bed facing away from Ulrich and he moved slightly to allow her more room. Relaxing and closing his eyes, he felt his ever present headache ebb away but then remembered that Yumi was probably waiting for an explanation still. Opening one eye he saw her worriedly staring down at him over her shoulder.

"Odd has a way of trying to worm his way into my business." She raised an eyebrow at him and patiently waited for him to say more but he didn't. He wondered if he should just go ahead and tell her already because there was no way that Odd was going to keep his big mouth shut, however, he wasn't sure he had the courage to tell Yumi himself. Thinking about the other things he was too afraid to tell Yumi made his face heat up.

"This doesn't have anything to do with me does it?" she asked. Ulrich's face heated up even more and he shook his head quickly but the motion made him dizzy and he rested a palm on his forehead. Yumi leaned over him and braced herself with her right arm against the wall and with her left she gently nudged his hand out of the way. Sliding her hand beneath his bangs in an attempt to check his temperature, her pinky grazed his head wound. Ulrich jerked and cried in pain while instinctively Yumi examined his face looking for the source of his pain. When she pushed back his hair once more she finally saw the bump and gasped, "Ah! What happened to your head?"

"I just uh- fell. It's nothing."

"You've got to be kidding me?!" she yelled at him, "What happened to you?"

With a sense of impending doom settling in his gut, Ulrich decided that he might as well deny it as long as he could.

"Nothing okay?"

Yumi stood up and turned her back on him.

"I guess I was stupid enough to think that you could trust me now," she uttered before leaving Ulrich alone in his room. Frustrated with himself more than ever Ulrich rolled over in bed and punched the wall angrily. What was he supposed to do now?

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"Hey buddy, I brought you some dinner," Odd said while handing Ulrich a plate of food. He stared at it before leaning over and setting in on the floor by his bed and rolling back over onto his side.

"Thanks but I'm not really hungry." Odd sighed and sat down on his bed. He knew his friend would be angry at him after what happened but eventually he knew his best friend would forget him.

At least he hoped so...

"I didn't tell any of the others y'know," he said while praying his good buddy hadn't been brooding all day, "but I will if you don't let me see all the damage.

Dedicated to his story and rather annoyed by the thought of Odd blackmailing him, Ulrich muttered, "What are you talking about?"

"Dude I don't want to have to hold you down again."

Refusing to dignify Odd's threat with a response, Ulrich narrowed his eyes at him and braced himself for an impact that never came. Odd wasn't stupid, he knew that his little stunt earlier had really caused Ulrich a lot of pain and there was no way that he'd try something like that again. His desperation had gotten the better of him before but now he knew how to crack his best friend's tough shell.

"Whoa, take it easy there I'm not going to try anything," Odd said while holding up his hands in surrender, "but humor me for a second."

He could tell from the other's face that Ulrich had no idea where he was going with this and Odd was quite proud of that. If the situation called for it, he could be serious and smiled slightly when Ulrich tentatively nodded once to show that he would listen.

"Let's say that I came back from town one day with a black eye. How would you react?"

Rolling his eyes, Ulrich replied, "I'd probably ask whose girlfriend you tried to steal."

"Okay so that was a bad example but seriously if I was really hurt and tried to hide it from you wouldn't you say something?"

"If it was really serious I would," Ulrich admitted. Happy to actually get some positive feedback, Odd felt his pride swell slightly.

"You're kinda being a hypocrite Ulrich, I mean if one of us gets hurt than by all means we should figure out what happened but you're hurt and it's not cool for me to ask about it?"

Fuming once more Ulrich huffed, "First of all, it's not even that bad and secondly it's not that simple! This isn't a school bully or XANA's work." His 'good buddy' was really trying his patience today. He had no idea what he was trying to worm his way into.

"It wasn't like you were hiding a couple of bruises Ulrich. Actually it is that simple, weren't you listening at all good buddy? And for the record how are either of those two examples simple? You're comparing saving the world to-"

"I'd rather fight XANA than my own family!" Ulrich shouted. Redder than a tomato the realization quickly dawned on him that he'd said way more than he'd wanted to. "I mean-I…" he attempted to take back what he'd said but he ended up trailing off instead.

"You don't have to explain," Odd said cautiously, "I won't try to pry anymore or try to get you to see where I'm coming from, just let me see what's under your shirt and I'll drop everything." He really didn't want to let the conversation go yet he'd already gotten everything he needed to out of Ulrich and the look on his face when he'd hit his breaking point was tough to stomach. Also, he was afraid that if he kept drilling him that his friend would completely shut down and he'd get absolutely no where after all this.

He watched silently as Ulrich fidgeted his hands in his lap and looked totally at a loss. Odd had pushed him into a corner and there wasn't any other way out. Just because he had to show him the bruises and cuts didn't mean that he had to say how he gotten them; for that loophole, Ulrich was thankful.

"Alright."

Moving as if he was about to face impending doom, he swung his legs over the side of the bed so that he could rest his feet upon the floor and slumped his shoulders as he slid his fingers to the edge of his t-shirt. Deciding to simply get it over already he roughly pulled his shirt up and over his head.

There were three prominent bruises on his gut that Odd thought looked like the products of fists, several markings creeped around his upper arms like someone had been restraining him, random splotches all over his skin, and sickly yellow bruises everywhere in between.

Seeing his friend in such a condition made him sick to his stomach. He had no idea how someone could do that to their own flesh and blood. Ulrich was refusing to look at him but Odd could see how ashamed he was of himself; his body and his pride had taken tremendous damage. Odd didn't even want to think about how Ulrich was dealing with all of this mentally. He couldn't imagine walking into a lion's den every day.

"Satisfied?" Ulrich grunted to which Odd only nodded and made to sit on his own bed. Caught up in his thoughts, he didn't watch as his roommate tensely shrugged his shirt back on and attempted to stand. When Ulrich got to his feet, head swimming slightly he stumbled sideways a few steps until he was able to brace himself against the wall. Finally noticing the other, Odd asked, "You okay? There's no need to push it, you've still got two more days of bed rest."

"I'd like to take a walk."

Sighing at Ulrich's antics yet smiling all the same, Odd watched as his friend hobbled out of the room.

"Call me if you pass out somewhere so I can come and getcha!" he hollered after him.

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That's all for this chapter! I hope everyone's all cleared up now (: but I was kind of sad at the amount of reviews I got for Chapter 3 so I have a proposition for you guys. If you lovely readers could kindly get me to 25 reviews in the next 24 hours...I'll immediately post two more chapters! Otherwise I'll just keep updating whenever I feel like it so it's up to you guys. Anyways thanks again for reading and I hope to hear from you guys :D