Well this took a lot longer than I intended. Between getting completely tramped into the dirt by RL and this being the chapter most in need of fiddly little changes. But now at least I can upload two more chapters in one go!


Hands wrapped around Kyu's throat, and he found himself staring down a terrifying snarl. Kyu had just enough time to think that he might be about to die, after planning as if he had a chance to defend himself.

Then the freshly-turned patch of earth they had been standing in front of suddenly exploded upward and outward. Something shot out of it, but Kyu could see little more than a large blur flying towards him. He knew, on some instinctive level, that it had to be Ryu.

In an instant Ryu was between them. He tore his uncle's hands away from Kyu's neck, shoving Kyu out of the way in the process. Kyu stumbled, tipping over his own feet when Ryu pushed him away so that he fell flat on the dirt. To his surprise, Ryu followed, all but collapsing on top of him.

It wasn't until he had Ryu practically laying on top of him that Kyu realized Ryu was wearing nothing but his dog tags.

"Ryu?" Kyu breathed uncertainly.

Ryu's neck and face were flushed red with what Kyu thought for an instant might be embarrassment of all things, until he noticed that Ryu's skin wasn't growing red just there. His shoulders, his chest, his arms, and in fact every inch of him that Kyu could see was either red or quickly reddening. It shouldn't have been possible for Ryu to get a sunburn so fast.

"Oh, Ryu," Ryu's uncle murmured. By all appearances his animal fury was already spent.

He lifted Ryu off of Kyu's chest, giving Kyu an unexpected, unobstructed view. Ryu's skin really was reddening everywhere, the burns looking more severe by the second.

"Why did you have to come out? You knew you would regret it."

"Don't touch me!" Ryu screamed.

Flinging himself out of his uncle's arms, Ryu stumbled, his posture crumpling as if flinching away from the sun overhead. This time Kyu tried to catch Ryu, only to have him cry out and thrash against the contact so that he fell into the dirt.

Ryu's uncle bent down to retrieve Ryu again, apparently ignoring Ryu's attempts to get away. Kyu wasn't about to let his friend be hurt any more. He took advantage of the fact that Ryu's uncle was finally ignoring him to whip out the tranquilizer, his hand clenching around it so tightly it was a wonder he didn't prick himself, and stabbed it into the vampire's outstretched arm.

"You little-" Ryu's uncle hissed at Kyu. He seemed ready to lash out, to retaliate for the insult, but even as he moved to grab Kyu he swayed, unsteady. His eyes rolled suddenly back in his head, and he passed out before he could even finish his angry snarl.

Once he was no longer an immediate threat, Kyu had no more attention to spare for Ryu's uncle. He was more concerned with Ryu, who had bent himself into a fetal position and was now gasping helplessly. Kyu bent over him, alarmed.

Ryu's skin was not only burning red in the sun. It was blistering and blackening right before Kyu's eyes. As Ryu's skin was roasted into brittle char it started to split, to peel back and ooze blood. Kyu tried to shade Ryu's body with his own, but he couldn't cover all of Ryu at once. All he could seem to do was watch as Ryu burnt and bled.

He had to get the sun off of Ryu's sensitive skin. His eyes fell on Ryu's uncle, passed out in the dirt beside then, or at least on his long coat. Kyu lunged for the coat almost before the idea had crystalized in his mind, yanking it open and bodily rolling Ryu's uncle over so that he could pull the coat off of him. His own T-shirt and shorts wouldn't be enough to shade Ryu, but a full body coat would have to help.

Kyu threw the coat over Ryu's burned and bleeding body. He scrambled to cover every inch of Ryu's skin with it, aided by Ryu trying to make as small a target as possible out of his huddled body. He could only hope that the helpless noises of pain that Ryu was making were a delayed reaction to the burns he had already suffered, not a response to being manhandled.

"Hold on, Ryu, just hold on! You're going to be okay now. I'll make sure it's okay. I won't let you get hurt anymore," Kyu knew he was babbling, but he couldn't seem to stop. All he wanted was to make sure those words were true, to make Ryu all better. "You'll see. It's not going to hurt anymore, Ryu. I promise. I promise I won't let you hurt anymore."

Ryu's little insensible cries stopped and he lay still. He was completely covered by the coat, so Kyu could only hope that meant that Ryu's pain had lessened, not that he had passed out or worse from his burns.

"I'm going to get you out of the sun now, okay? I'll find somewhere safe for you."

Using the utmost caution, Kyu rolled Ryu in the coat as best he could before lifting his unresponsive friend into his arms. He took a few minutes to work out how to balance Ryu's body so that the coat couldn't slip off of any part of him. Once he had a good hold on Ryu, Kyu realized that he had no idea where to go.

There was forest all around them, and the trees could provide a good amount of shade, but Kyu wasn't sure that would be enough. If Ryu could burn that quickly, Kyu wasn't about trust that the bits of sunlight that could filter down between the leaves wouldn't make Ryu much worse. He would need to cut Ryu off from sunlight entirely.

With this in mind, Kyu started for the rocky outcropping that made up one 'wall' of their little valley. If he could find some sort of cave among the rocks, that would be the best place to keep Ryu safe.

Ryu was a heavy, limp weight in Kyu's arms. He didn't dare try to shift Ryu into a new position, for fear of exposing some bit of him to the sun again. He could feel Ryu panting for breath, and knew he still had to be alive, but beyond that there was no sign. Kyu tried to reassure him, to tell him they were getting closer and closer to safety, but there was no answer.

Kyu could still see Ryu's burns in his mind's eye. He could hear Ryu's hushed voice in his head, whispering, 'It's deadly,' as he had when Kyu had first mentioned sunlight. Kyu tried to put both thoughts out of his head. It was far too morbid. He didn't care how lethal sunlight was supposed to be. He wasn't going to let Ryu die.

Somehow, they made it to the rocks. By the time he made it to that potential refuge, Kyu's arms felt rubbery from carrying Ryu in the same awkward position. He stared up at the rocks, unable to tell if there was a suitable patch of shade. Now that he was here, Kyu had no idea how he was supposed to climb around and find somewhere to hide while carrying Ryu in his arms. Ryu was too heavy to carry one-handed, even if Kyu had dared to reposition him.

Instead, Kyu walked alongside the rocks, looking for some sort of crevice that was at the right level. He found a narrow crack between two rocks that looked at first like a long shadow, or a trick of the light. At the very least it was shade, and once Kyu realized that the crack was deep enough that the sun couldn't shine inside, he contrived to get Ryu inside. It took several awkward minutes to shift Ryu little by little without removing the coat until they were well in the shade, but Ryu made no noise of protest at his treatment.

The crevice widened and deepened past its mouth, opening into something more like a cave than a mere crack. The ceiling was far too low for Kyu to stand straight once he was inside, but it was long and wide enough for him to lay Ryu down with plenty of room to spare between him and anywhere the sun might shine in. That was enough.

Kyu finally stretched Ryu out on the floor and made him comfortable as best he could. He tried to cradle Ryu in the coat, finding that Ryu would only lay limp, however Kyu put him. He simply lay on his side, breathing in short, open-mouthed pants. As far as Kyu could tell in the dim light, his eyes were half-lidded and glazed and didn't seem to focus on anything. Ryu was entirely unresponsive.

"Ryu," Kyu called softly, leaning over Ryu's face. He couldn't bring himself to touch Ryu's burned skin, only touching him lightly through the folds of the coat. "Does this feel better? What should I do?"

Ryu didn't respond and Kyu pulled back, trying to think. He wasn't sure what he could do for Ryu's burns. Normally his first instinct would have been to get Ryu to a hospital or some kind of doctor, but he didn't think couldn't carry Ryu all the way back into the city without exposing him to the sun again. Even if he could, would a human doctor have any idea what to do for vampire sunburn?

At least Ryu was out of the sun now. How long had he been lying in that hole he had dug for himself, hiding from the sun? He had probably been there half the day, unable to move.

"I'll get you some water," Kyu decided. Ryu had to be dehydrated from laying there in the heat.

Kyu climbed out of their small cave, casting one last glance back at Ryu. He hated to leave Ryu here alone. The first thing he did was to check that Ryu's uncle was still passed out in the field where they had left him. The last thing Kyu wanted was for him to get some chance to catch up to Ryu and hurt him even more while Kyu was out of the way. He'd only need to drag Ryu out into the sun again if he wanted to finish him off.

If he was completely still, Kyu thought he could hear the gurgling sound of running water. He oriented towards that sound and scrambled off, dodging around rocks and half-stumbling over tree roots. He'd expected to have to stop periodically to make sure he was going the right way, the sound was so faint. Instead Kyu came up on his water source so fast that he nearly fell into it.

Clinging to the loose bank to keep from sliding in, Kyu surveyed the stream he had stumbled upon. It was narrow, but deeper than he would have expected. There were trees crowded so close along it, he didn't think he would have found it at all if he hadn't heard it.

Kyu cupped water up in his hands, lapping some experimentally. He couldn't taste anything strange, so he could only hope that it wouldn't make Ryu sick. Giving up on using his hands, Kyu dunked his whole head in the stream to take a long, deep drink. He hadn't realized how thirsty he had been until he started drinking. Ryu must feel even worse in comparison.

Ryu would need water, that much was obvious. Kyu wouldn't risk carrying him out here, even under the trees. He couldn't make Ryu wait for the sun to go down, and carrying water back using nothing more than his cupped hands wouldn't do the trick either.

After taking a few seconds to study the problem at hand, Kyu took off his T-shirt and dunked that in the stream. He rubbed the cloth together, trying to rinse out some of the dirt and sweat it had acquired while he was trying to fight off Malcolm, and later Ryu's uncle.

When Kyu thought his shirt was as clean as it was going to get, he pulled the whole thing out, still sopping wet, and carried it in his arms back to the crevice where he had left Ryu. It dripped so much that the front of his shorts were quickly wet through, but it was still soaked when he finally reached Ryu.

Ryu's eyes had closed, but they cracked open again when Kyu crawled in beside him. He didn't respond to what Kyu had brought him until Kyu squeezed a few drops of water from his shirt onto the corner of Ryu's mouth. As soon as the cool water touched his lips, Ryu reacted. He opened his mouth with a pained gasp, which gave Kyu a target for the next few drops of water.

That was enough to rouse Ryu. He managed to lift his head. Gripping the corner of Kyu's shirt with one hand, he pushed the bit of cloth into his mouth and sucked the water directly out of it.

Kyu helped as best he could, turning his shirt over and over in his hands and presenting new damp sections for Ryu's mouth. Each place Ryu took the shirt into his mouth, he left an imperfect, bloody kiss-mark from his cracked lips.

It was such a relief to have Ryu respond, Kyu tried to ignore the way his lips and the corners of his mouth would split and bleed sluggishly, just from him latching onto the cloth. It was still difficult to watch. Every detail he noticed, even in the dark, only seemed to point to Ryu being in more and more pain. It hurt just to look at what was left of the burned skin of Ryu's face; blackened, blistered, split and scabbed until Kyu wouldn't have recognized him.

Even Ryu's hair. . . Kyu ran his fingers over it as lightly as he could, because it seemed the only part of him that wasn't burnt, bleeding, or both. Even then he had to gently comb through the blood and dirt caked in Ryu's formerly soft hair.

Only Ryu's eyes still seemed to be him, and Kyu focused on them. That was easy, since Ryu's eyes were focused on him in return, with an intensity that made it more difficult to look away. It almost seemed that Ryu's eyes glowed in the faint light.

Kyu had to keep resisting the urge to touch Ryu. He twitched his fingers towards Ryu's face, arresting the movement the last second for fear of hurting his friend. He couldn't stand to cause Ryu any more pain. He turned the gesture into a tugging at the edges of the coat. Ryu's movement had left him lying half on the cloth and half in the ground, and Kyu didn't want to see dirt rubbed into Ryu's wounds.

"Can you get this on? It'll help protect you."

With Kyu holding the sleeves out for him, Ryu managed to get his arms through so that the coat at least wrapped around him properly, protecting him when he lay down again.

"Ryu? What can I do?" Kyu asked, feeling helpless.

"I'll be okay," Ryu whispered, his voice painfully hoarse. "Th-that's how it is," he tried to explain, and somehow he managed to smile for Kyu, using just his eyes, "If something doesn't kill us in one shot, recovery is only a matter of time. I just need. . . ."

"You need your skin to grow back," Kyu pointed out, feeling less than reassured.

Something. . . it couldn't have been Ryu's expression, because Kyu found he couldn't decipher Ryu's expression when his face was like this, but something told Kyu exactly what Ryu had resisted saying.

"You need to eat."

Kyu swallowed hard. He should have thought of this at about the time when he realized that Ryu must be dehydrated. He hadn't gotten the chance to take Ryu out for a real lunch because Tanaka-sensei had taken them out on that case. The only thing Ryu had available for dinner was Kyu himself, and he'd obviously passed up on that. The last 'real' food he'd gotten was the egg Kyu had put into his ramen the night before last, and that couldn't have been enough. . . .

"I'll find you something." Not that Kyu had much of an idea of what or how, but if that was what Ryu needed, Kyu would have to find a way. He turned to go start looking.

"No. Stay here."

Ryu sat up, his fingers catching at Kyu's arm to make him turn around. Kyu was distantly aware that whatever shape the rest of Ryu's body might be in, he had recovered his siren's voice.

"But you need-" Kyu started to protest. He found himself caught in Ryu's eyes, and couldn't seem to finish his thought. That was fine. Ryu knew what he was saying.

"I can wait a little longer. Stay with me."

It was all Kyu could do not to lie down beside Ryu right then and there. He could hear the faint whisper of promised rewards under Ryu's words, something Ryu would give to him if he just came a little closer. Kyu wanted it so much he felt dizzy, without even knowing what he was being tempted with.

"But you need it," Kyu heard himself say. He focused on that, and that alone. What Ryu needed was more important than what Kyu wanted.

"Kyu, stay here with me."

"No," Kyu whispered. The word made it easier to ease his way back to the mouth of the cave, so he repeated it. "No. But I'll come back for you."

Once he'd managed to squirm his way through the crevice, Kyu bolted before Ryu had a chance to call him back. If he heard Ryu's voice again, he wasn't sure he would be able to resist going back to him.

Kyu felt strange, his head still fuzzy from the sound of Ryu's voice. That made it difficult to think about what he needed to do for Ryu. It was equally difficult to think about what Ryu had wanted with him. Even away from the direct influence of Ryu's voice, Kyu still couldn't seem to mind the idea of being seduced by Ryu's hypnotism.

This time, Kyu fell right into the stream. He was so distracted by his own determination to avoid turning around and going right back to Ryu that he didn't even see the stream coming until he was in it.

Kyu thrashed around in a panic before he realized that the stream was too shallow for him to drown in. The water only came up a little above his knees, just enough for Kyu to utterly soak himself by splashing around in it. At least the cold water seemed to shock some sense into him, and shock some of the effects of Ryu's voice out of him. Kyu found he suddenly had a much easier time focusing on the problem at hand.

Ryu had mentioned at one point that he'd hunted for himself. Unfortunately, Kyu was quite aware that he had no idea how to do something like that. He couldn't make Ryu wait until the sun went down and it was safe for him to go out and hunt, either. Especially because Kyu wasn't quite sure Ryu could get up and hunt for himself right now, no matter how he had tried to reassure Kyu that he would be okay.

Ryu enjoyed fish, Kyu remembered, belatedly. Were there fish here? He looked down at the slowly clearing water he was standing in. If there were any fish in this stream, they had all been temporarily scared away by his thrashing.

While giving them a bit of time to come out again, if there were any fish, Kyu tried to remember what little he had learned from his one fishing trip with Kinta. He didn't have anything to use for a line, nor for a lure or hook. Maybe he could dig up something to use as bait, insects or something. The hook would definitely be a problem. . .

Kyu was at the point of considering using his shoelaces as some sort of line when he noticed the first tiny and not-so-tiny fish glinting in the water. There were only a handful, he thought, but they kept darting in and out of the shadows so that it was hard to be sure of their number. As Kyu watched, one fish came close enough to nibble at his leg.

Staring at the inquisitive fish, Kyu tried his best not to move at all. It hadn't occurred to him that they might come to him if he was still enough. If he waited long enough, how big of a fish could he get to approach him?

Kyu waited, feeling the sun scorching down on the back of his neck. Little finger-sized fish flitted in twos and threes before disappearing again, and he considered them, not sure if he should take what little luck he had. There was one larger fish lurking in the dappled shade, maybe waiting for the foolish little fish to finish investigating Kyu and approach it. It looked a little larger than Kyu's hand. Kyu felt like it was taunting him, because it just wouldn't come any closer. Maybe it knew what he had in mind for it.

He was leaving Ryu alone for an awfully long time, Kyu realized. He needed to make a move, either on one big fish or start trying to catch the tiny, bite-sized ones, so he could at least bring Ryu something.

After waiting a few extra seconds, just in case his prey decided to oblige him by coming up to nibble his leg, Kyu pounced. He belatedly realized that fish were infuriatingly slippery creatures, and had Ryu's intended lunch slip right through his hands. Kyu swatted at the fish, overbalancing and falling headlong into the water as he did.

A net might have been a good idea, Kyu realized as he came up, coughing and spluttering and shaking off water. His intended target was probably gone, not that he could tell once he'd muddied up the water again with his thrashing.

When he turned to pull himself out of the water, Kyu couldn't believe his luck. Either his final, futile swat, or the wave he'd made by falling over and splashing around in the stream had swept the fish he'd been after up onto the bank. Before the fish could flop its way back into the stream, Kyu caught it with both hands.

Taking a steadying breath, Kyu mentally went through what Kinta had tried to teach him. He had no idea what kind of fish this was, but not too big and no nasty teeth were enough for him to know what to do next. He slipped a finger in the gasping fish's mouth, braced his thumb at the back of its neck, and pulled the head back until he felt something snap. Just like that, he'd hunted something for Ryu to eat.

Kyu finally pulled himself out of the water, looked up, and suddenly he really couldn't believe his luck. How long had Ryu's uncle been standing there? He hadn't even noticed. Kyu froze, staring up at the angry vampire towering over him. Ryu's uncle was squarely between him and his escape route back to the crevice where he had left Ryu. Was Ryu all right? Had he been found?

"What did you do with my coat?"

Kyu couldn't even seem to find the breath to answer. He's made the mistake of looking into those glittering eyes, and now he felt entirely frozen. He should have guessed that hypnotism ran in Ryu's family. He could feel that voice getting inside his head, and unlike with Ryu it was not a welcome invasion.

"What," Ryu's uncle hissed, stepping up to where Kyu knelt, "did you do with my nephew?"

Unable to flinch away, Kyu found himself hauled to his feet by a painful grip on both shoulders. Sharp fingernails were digging into his skin, but he was having difficulty focusing even on the pain. That voice made a vicious cacophony inside of Kyu's head, shutting out everything else. He couldn't even sort out the command that was being forced on him, the way he normally could with Ryu. Kyu simply felt paralyzed by that voice.

As if struggling away from that voice, his thoughts turned directly to Ryu. Almost unbidden, his mind conjured up his last sight of Ryu as he left the cave. There was a perfectly clear memory of Ryu's eyes, of his voice, of the plea that he had made in more than words.

'Come back to me. Stay with me.'

That command was still rooted in Kyu's head, though he'd managed to fight it. Now it broke through the new command Ryu's uncle was trying to lay over his mind, leaving Kyu clear-headed. He had only one goal now, to get back to Ryu.

Ryu's uncle bore down on Kyu's shoulders, pushing him to his knees again. Kyu didn't even struggle, waiting for that furious face to come close to his.

When Ryu's uncle darted forward, perhaps to bite Kyu, or just to scare him, Kyu struck back with the first thing that came to hand. He hit Ryu's uncle in the face with all his strength, with his hard-won fish.

The tranquilizer seemed to have a long term effect, as it had with Ryu, because Kyu found himself released. He scrambled to his feet and bolted before he could be grabbed again.

Kyu dashed back to the perceived safety of the crevice where he had left Ryu, clutching the dead, battered fish to his chest. He expected to be overtaken and caught at any moment, but he wasn't. Instead, he could hear Ryu's uncle laughing behind him. The noise only made Kyu run faster, until he was stumbling without stopping over everything in his path.

Sliding into the crevice like a baseball runner, Kyu tried to roll over to make sure nothing was coming in after him and scramble back towards Ryu all at the same time. He dropped the fish in his panic, but that was okay. He'd done what he needed to do and made it back to find Ryu in one piece.

Just as Kyu had reassured himself that no new threat was coming from the outside, he found himself tackled and slammed bodily to the floor. Kyu jerked around in shock to find Ryu sitting on top of him. The glint in his eyes was not one Kyu considered 'friendly.'

Belatedly, Kyu realized he could feel something warm and sticky on his chest. He remembered nails digging hard into his shoulder, hard enough to draw blood. Ryu's attention was focused entirely on those wounds, so that he didn't even seem to notice Kyu's useless attempts to squirm out from under him.

Ryu bent his head over Kyu's shoulder, his mouth opening hungrily. No matter how he thrashed, Kyu couldn't seem to knock Ryu off of the course he was intent on. Kyu couldn't seem to make a sound, until he felt something hot and wet slide across his collarbone.

Kyu choked on his own terrified yelp before he realized that Ryu had only licked him. He had been expecting to feel Ryu's fangs slicing into his neck. Once he realized that Ryu wasn't biting him, Kyu was able to breathe again. He could live with having Ryu lick him a little. It didn't even hurt.

"Ryu?" Kyu whispered, wanting to ask if that was all Ryu had wanted. Ryu had gone completely still all of a sudden.

Ryu practically threw himself away from Kyu, scrambling up and off of him so quickly that he hit the low ceiling and had to sit down again. He pushed himself backwards until he was against the far wall of their crevice, his eyes still locked on Kyu.

"Ryu," Kyu started uncertainly, pushing himself into a sitting position and finding that at least Ryu hadn't managed to cause any new injuries by pouncing on him. "It's okay," he whispered, though he wasn't quite sure himself.

"I could have hurt you."

"It's okay," Kyu repeated.

Moving slowly, Kyu crawled closer to Ryu. The last thing he wanted to do was spook Ryu and have him try to escape outside with the sun still up. Ryu only pushed himself back into the wall in his attempt to avoid Kyu's approach.

"Kyu, I could have killed you," Ryu gasped faintly.

"You didn't," Kyu reminded him. Now that Ryu had regained his senses, Kyu felt no more reason to be afraid of him.

Simply telling Ryu he was going to be okay was never going to be enough, Kyu realized. He had to show him somehow. The only thing he could think to do was to grab Ryu by the coat he was wearing, pull him away from the wall, and press their mouths together.

He'd only wanted to prove that he trusted Ryu not to bite him, but Kyu could feel a shudder go through Ryu's whole body as he pressed his mouth to Ryu's. He tasted blood on Ryu's lips. As he relaxed his hold on Ryu and let him fall back, Kyu realized that he'd pressed too hard, and Ryu's abused lips had split and bled under the contact. For a moment, the lingering taste of Ryu's blood on his lips was the only thing that kept Kyu from repeating the gesture. He wanted to touch Ryu, to reassure himself that they were both still alive.

"Everything is going to be okay," Kyu managed to say, "I brought you something to eat. You're going to be fine."

"What?" Ryu whispered, his voice faint and breathless with what Kyu could only guess was confusion.

Kyu had to feel around on the floor to find his fish. It was rather worse for wear after being flung and used as a weapon, but he had managed to bring it this far for Ryu. When he dropped it into Ryu's lap, Ryu only looked between the fish and Kyu. Back and forth, as if he didn't know how to react to Kyu bringing him food.

"You need to eat something. I caught it for you," Kyu had to explain.

Finally Ryu seemed to realize what Kyu was getting at, because he grabbed the fish out of his lap and tore into it. Kyu moved towards the front of their crevice, giving Ryu a little privacy. He could hardly see Ryu eating in the dark, but he still didn't want to see Ryu tearing into the fish like a starved animal.

Kyu watched the crevice for any sign of Ryu's uncle, ignoring the sounds of Ryu eating behind him. It seemed he had gotten away cleanly, because he couldn't see any sign of a vampire sniffing around the crevice in search of them. Maybe he expected Ryu would have finally broken under his hunger and weakness and eaten Kyu.

Even when he could no longer hear anything behind him, Kyu didn't turn around. He was determined to keep watch, to do something to keep Ryu safe. The shadows of nearby trees slowly stretched out across the patch of ground Kyu could see.

After hours that felt more like days, Kyu noticed that the light was fading incrementally. He could hardly tell at first that it wasn't just trick his eyes were playing on him. The sun would be setting now. Soon, it would be safe to take Ryu outside. . . and then what? Where would he find help for Ryu?

Kyu shivered. It was cold in the darkness of their little cave and his shorts and hair were still soaked. He tried to focus on the fading light, tried to think about their next step, tried to calculate how dark it would need to be for Ryu. He tried not to focus on how cold he was starting to feel, now that he wasn't running or fighting for his life.

He didn't hear Ryu approach him from behind, only felt Ryu suddenly drop the coat over his shoulders. Kyu looked around at Ryu in surprise, only to have Ryu slip bonelessly past him and out of their crevice.

In spite of the fact that most of his skin had burned black, Ryu's movements were controlled and confident as he stepped out into the last, faint glow of twilight. He stood perfectly still for a moment, as if testing to be sure the sun was far enough gone not to burn him any further.

Finally he turned back to Kyu and said softly, "This time, you stay here. I promise I'll come back for you."

Before Kyu could even open his mouth to protest, Ryu was gone, darting off between the trees.