The Hispanic followed Lani through the hall. She needed help finding some things, and Nolo had volunteered quite eagerly. When they had left the garage, he hadn't missed the looks his teammates gave him. Especially the expression which he had interpreted as lovey-dovey, from Vert.

"I haven't been down this hallway before," he commented.

Lani looked back. "Not many people have. Usually, only Dr. Tezla and I use it. It leads to the library."

"A library? Why does he need a library?"

Lani giggled. "I'm not sure. It's full of scientific stuff mostly. It also seems to be a museum. But the reason we're going back is for a book I need to study."

"Taking up science?"

"No," she said. "It also has books on engineering, medicine, history, and a few other stuff. I need one on medicine."

They reached a door with a keypad. Lani punched in the code and the door opened. Stepping in, Nolo could see Lani was right. It had artifacts dispersed among the books. These, Lani explained, were found in some of his exploits, and in some of the realms.

"That's the section we need to search." Lani pointed at a group of bookcases. "You take the first row, I'll take the second, and we'll skip each others rows when we need to move on."

Nolo nodded and Lani gave him the title. An hour later, Nolo saw the book. Reaching up, h grabbed it and opened it to double check the title.

"Hey Lani! Found it!" Smiling to himself, he started to walk down the row.

Nolo looked down and caught sight of a book mark tucked in between the pages. Curious, he opened the book to look at it. It was near the middle, a section talking bout different bacteria.

Whoever was reading this must've got bored, he thought. No wonder. Bacteria? Boring. He immediately slammed the book shut, causing dust to rise. Not good.

Nolo tried to calm down as he felt his lungs tighten, making his breathing wheezy.

Lani walked around the corner. "Thanks! Listen, I need a quiet place to study, so I'll be in here if anyone needs me, okay?"

Nolo nodded and smiled.

Lani returned the smile and said, "Thanks Nolo. See ya later."

He nodded again, glad she hadn't seemed to notice his condition, before turning towards the door. His breath was coming in quick gasps and he realized he didn't have his inhaler with him. He began to jog, though he knew it wasn't going to help any.

A few minutes later he arrived at his room, struggling for breath. The door opened and Nolo stumbled into the room, scrambling for his inhaler. Grabbing it from the table by his bed, he took a puff.

Unfortunately, he was still having hard time breathing. Taking another puff from his inhaler, he couldn't help but wish for Tone. His older brother was always there to help calm him when he was having an attack.

Nolo smiled weakly. One Christmas, he was sick from a recent asthma attack so he was laying on the couch. He felt so miserable and was so weak, he couldn't do much but lay there. All that time, Tone stayed near him as much as possible keeping him company. Come Christmas day, he felt some what better, but still weak. Tone had gladly helped him with everything.

When the piƱata was out, Nolo thought he wouldn't participate; but Tone had other plans. He had crouched beside Nolo, letting his little brother crawl on his back. Somehow, he had managed to help Nolo swing the stick to hit the paper Mache burro.

Nolo felt tears well up in his eyes at the memory. This was his first Christmas without Tone and Nolo felt it. Nolo closed his eyes. He was still breathing heavily when he became aware of the door opening.

"Nolo?" He opened his eyes to see a concerned Kurt stand over him.

Kurt frowned as he saw the inhaler in Nolo's hand. He didn't know Nolo had asthma. Then he saw the tears. He went over and sat down beside his team leader.

"What's wrong?" Kurt asked. "Tone?"

Nolo silently nodded. He tried to blink the tears away, but they kept coming.

"Nolo."

He looked up.

"It's okay. You can cry."

Nolo nodded again as the tears flowed. He began sobbing. He felt Kurt pull him into an embrace, and he didn't resist. He collapsed into Kurt's arms. Sadly, he acknowledged the fact that the tears wouldn't bring Tone back.

After a few minutes he calmed down. They sat in silence.

Finally Nolo spoke. "I miss him. I wish he hadn't died. There are so many things I need him for. Especially with these realms. He would know what to do."

Kurt slowly nodded. "Well, I know what he would say if he was here now."

Nolo looked up at him. "What?"

Kurt looked back. "He would say Merry Christmas."


...And a Happy New Year! Thanks for the reviews!