I think this chapter is, thus far, the saddest that I've written. I almost cried for some inexplicable reason while writing it. I don't know how y'all will react though. I think it will only be matched by a chapter I have planned for the sequel set, I dunno. (shrug) But, I'll try not to let it get this... emotional... again. XD

Chapter 7 is underway! Keep your eyes open for the introduction of the first of two original characters!

Happy reading!

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A Lesson in Understanding

Six

Young Sho let his mind wander a little, thinking that now he'd made it back to the warehouse he could let his guard down slightly. Lucky Shinji wasn't there, for the older boy would surely have reprimanded him greatly for it.

Picking his way carefully through the rubble, the boy slipped through a doorway, took two steps, and stopped, staring. There was a dead man in their house.

Moving closer. Sho took in the man's appearance: dirty blonde hair draped over his shoulders, his gaunt frame hidden beneath filthy black clothing. His eyes were closed and, Sho felt a touch of relief, the man was breathing, albeit a little raggedly.

Sho's eyes, already trained for such things at the tender age of eleven, lit upon the expensive looking watch that adorned the man's left wrist. Instinct kicking in, he eased forward and slowly reached for the watch. Lightening fast, the man's right hand flashed out and grabbed his wrist, releasing him just was quickly. In that split second of contact, though, Sho had felt something like electricity shoot through him.

The man's eyes were open now, their brown-green glow barely hidden by the deep shadows around them. Sho watched as those eyes slid downward, no far, but far enough to make the boy shiver slightly. As the man's eyes traveled back up, they suddenly closed in pain as the man made a sound somewhere between a moan and a growl. Sho's confusion slowly gave way to fear and concern when his deep blue eyes suddenly found the source of the man's pain. His left hand was burning!

Sho gathered his courage, swallowing hard.

"What's wrong?" he managed, glad he didn't squeak like normal.

"Go away," the man replied breathlessly.

"Are you alright?" Sho persisted, reaching out a hand, only to have it slapped roughly away.

"Leave!" the man hissed, making no effort to remove himself from the source of his pain.

The boy felt panic threatening to take control of him. Swallowing hard again, he looked around for something, ANYTHING, that he could use. The man at his feet was growling deeply now, pain in his cries, the burns nearly consuming his entire arm. The sun. The man was hurting because of the sun.

Sho spotted an old canvas under an overturned table. Shrugging out of his backpack, he discarded it as he scrambled over to it, pulling with every ounce of strength in his young body. Shrieking loudly as the man voiced another cry of pain, he managed to pry it free and flew back to the burning man. Near tears, Sho threw the canvas as best he could, blanketing the man with it. The awful cries were cut off immediately, for which Sho was grateful, but the stench of burned flesh lingered in the air. Stumbling back to the doorway, Sho wretched, his small body shaking with the effort of it.

He turned around and looked at the canvas, wiping his mouth with the back of a shaking hand. Slowly, Sho approached it and took hold of an edge. He half expected there to be nothing beneath it, thinking that he had imagined the whole thing.

He lifted the canvas.

The man had curled onto his side, the skin of his hand and arm already nearly healed. Blonde hair obscured part of his face, but Sho could still read the man's eyes, something he'd gotten good at doing. The brown-green eyes that stared back at him reflected pain, desperation, sadness and gratitude. Breathing deeply, Sho dropped the canvas, wondering what exactly he was going to tell Shinji.

Son kept his eyes lowered, full aware that Toshi had stiffened next to him, his fingers no longer playing through the rocks. Sho took a deep breath and looked at Kei. They'd known that this was coming. Son wasn't stupid, they knew. He and Kei had discussed just this scenario that very morning.

"He saved my life," Kei answered for Sho. "When he was a kid. I was trying to kill myself and Sho stopped me."

Son looked from Sho to Kei, still curious.

"Why? Why were you trying to..."

"Because I'd made some rotten choices," Kei explained, bringing his leg safely back onto the roof. "My life, such as it was, held very little meaning anymore. I thought that this world had no need of me. Everyone that I'd ever known and loved was already gone."

Kei fell silent, glancing at Sho. The younger man nodded.

"What stopped you, then?" Son asked, his voice quiet.

"Innocence," Kei answered simply.

Son cast a confused look at him.

"Sho was eleven years old when he stumbled across me. He could have done what countless others would have done and just moved on. But... the little pick-pocket couldn't. First, he tried to steal my watch, then he ended up saving my life. With hardly a word spoken."

Kei smiled softly at Sho, earning him a precious smil in return.

"So you stayed with him," Son said.

"Yes," Kei returned his gaze to Son. "I stayed, at first, because Shinji, Sho's older brother, had been shot. I helped out until he was more or less healed up. But, by that time the other two, Sho and Toshi, had begun to depend on me. Especially Sho," Kei smiled again. "So, even after Shinji was back on his feet, quite literally, I stayed."

"I caught him actually trying to leave once," Toshi suddenly said. "It was in the middle of the night in that first apartment we had. You guys remember that place? What a dump. Anyway, I was going to the bathroom, trying not to wake Sho and Shinji, and there's Kei, standing in the doorway. I was going to say something, but he turned around and saw me first. I won't forget that look you had, Kei. That painful look on your face. You were crying. Scared the hell out of me."

Kei was staring up at the full moon, remembering with Toshi. Sho was staring raptly at his friend. This was new. Toshi took a deep breath.

"You motioned me to you, kneeling in the doorway. 'Toshi,' you whispered to me, 'do you and Sho need me?' I was scared, Kei, so scared. You grabbed hold of me and I almost cried. 'Do you need me?' you said again, and I did cry because I knew that you were leaving..."

Toshi broke off, wiping the tears from his eyes.

"You told me," Kei picked up, his eyes closed and his voice low, "that you did need me. That you and Sho needed me so much because Shinji couldn't protect you anymore. Not if he couldn't walk."

Kei slowly opened his eyes, looking directly at Sho, his Sho, his guardian Angel and saving grace.

"I stayed," he whispered. "For the good and the bad, I stayed."

---

Son left that night with fewer questions than he'd gone in with, but still he had the sneaking suspicion that they hadn't told him everything. But, Son considered, they were showing trust with what they're already told him, so he wouldn't push his luck.

After watching Toshi trundle away on his scooter, Sho went back into the apartment. Kei was curled on one end of the couch, a cigarette held loosely in his lips.

"Were you really going to leave us?" Sho asked, closing the door.

"Sho, you wouldn't believe how many times I tried to leave in those first few months," Kei replied.

"Why?"

Kei looked up at Sho. The man was leaning agsint the door, hands in his pockets as hurt played on his face.

"Because I never wanted to hurt you."

"Hurt me? Kei, you've never..."

"Yes, I have," Kei cut across him sharply, getting to his feet. "Sho, you're becoming me in all ways but one."

"What?"

"Think about it. When's the last time you slept through an entire night? When's the last time that you went out in the day without me practically throwing you out the door?"

"But..."

"But nothing, Sho! You're basing your life on the schedule of a monster, and if that's not hurting you, then I don't know what is!"

Sho stared at him for a long moment, an eternity in the vampire's mind, before turning and quietly going down the hall to his room. The door clicked shut softly and Kei fell back onto the couch. Hadn't he just said that he didn't want to hurt Sho? And what had he just done? Hurt Sho. Kei wanted to cry.

He wanted even more to curse Toshi for bringing that up. He had almost been sure that the man had completely forgotten the whole incident. Why had be even thought to bring it up in the first place? Why tonight, with Son there? Kei was having a hard enough time keeping their "ultimate secret" from slipping out as it was. The man's timing was just horrid.

Kei mentally slapped himself, biting down roughly on the heel of his left hand. Toshi hadn't known, couldn't have known, the affect that memory would have. Toshi couldn't be blamed for this. No one could, really. They were each just as trapped in this mess as the others.

Rubbing his face roughly, Kei leapt to his feet and made for the door, stopping only long enough to take his red jacket from the closet. He only had a few hours before sunrise, and Kei was hungry.

Sho heard Kei leave. He was sitting on the edge of his bed, leaning back on his hands. Part of him screamed that the vampire was leaving for good, carrying out the plan he'd has when Sho was a child. That part of him screamed at Sho to go out after him and beg his friend to stay.

But Sho listened to the tiny, rational voice for once.

Rationality told him to wait. Kei would be back, because Kei needed Sho damn near as much as Sho needed Kei. Rationality also reminded Sho that Kei hadn't eaten in a few days.

Sho sighed, laying back on his bed, feet still on the floor. He'd wait. Kei would come back. Kei always came back. That's the way it always was.

Always.

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