HEYYY buddyboys! What's up! I'm sorry for the long gap between chapters, I wanted to have this up by New Year's but it just didn't work out! Things are starting to speed up. It occurred to me recently that things were going realllyyy slow and lagging, and I don't want this story to be like fifty chapters! Now, things are going to get exciting. I hope you enjoy it :D

DON'T OWN A THING...or else Kisshu would be my husband.

And that wouldn't work out very well for him.

Kisshu: DON'T EVEN SPEAK OF SUCH SUBJECTS

Chapter 10: Things are good...and then they aren't

The days slipped by just a little more speedily, and things were not the same.

Kisshu had never felt better. Never felt freer, lighter…happier. The combined healing effects of the Mew Aqua and of having finally talked to someone about the things that had happened on Earth had released him. He was still Kisshu, still the same person, just a so much happier Kisshu.

The building of the new village progressed, slowly but surely. The first building was up, and the second one was well on its way. Three families now shared the first building-it had been decided that those who needed it the most, the ones who had family members who were chronically ill or permanently lame, would live there. They were the ones who needed the most sunlight and fresh air, the most warmth. It was funny, Kisshu reflected once: In the old days, when everything had felt so desperate and uncertain, the people would probably have argued for days over who would live there. Now, most people were just happy that things were so much better now; the ones who weren't were overruled.

Almost every day, Kisshu worked on the construction. He liked it. Being out there in the sunlight and warmth, perching on the top of a building and hammering away, a breeze rustling through the trees and fluttering through his hair. Every once in a while, someone else would float up to him and bring him another board or other supply, and he could see it on that person's face, too: the newfound relief and relaxation.

In the evenings, whether outside or in the caves, he would sometimes sit with Taruto or occasionally Pai, discussing the building or Earth or anything. More than anyone, though, he found himself sitting and talking with Searadesi.

Things had changed between them. Somehow, telling her about his past had cemented something between them. He didn't know what it was about her, but he had never met someone so easy to talk too. They spent a lot of time together, whenever they could, just talking, sharing the stories of the past and wondering what was to come.

Kisshu learned a lot about her. She was fifteen years old and her father had died in a bad storm when she was two years old. Her mother had been ill for a long time and had passed away when Seara was eleven. She'd lived with her aunt since then, a kindly middle-aged woman named Lesta.

Kisshu could see the sadness in her eyes when she told him this. Hearing this from her made him want her to know he understood, so he told her about his family. He told her how his parents had been killed in a cave-in when he was seven. The memory stung-he never talked about it if he could avoid it, not even with Pai and Taruto. Searadesi patted his hand and said she was sorry, and he knew she meant it.

Kisshu learned more cheerful things from her, too. She loved music of any kind, and sang whenever she could. Her voice was beautiful-high and light, like a bird's, but full enough to carry a song. She hated mushrooms and thought Taruto was adorable, and her favorite color was gray, gray like the sky on a stormy day.

For the most part, she was Kisshu's best friend. But sometimes….It started one morning, shortly after construction had started. Kisshu had woken early to go get a head start on the work, and he'd found Seara standing in the woods at the edge of the clearing that the village was being built in. She didn't hear him as she approached. She was facing the clearing, but she wasn't looking at the partially put together buildings-she was looking at the sky. Something in expression was so calm, so relaxed, so at ease. Kisshu felt an odd little tug that he couldn't explain.

It wasn't just the one time. It was little things. They'd be sitting, talking, and she'd reach up to brush stray wisps of her satiny purple hair behind her ear. Or she'd flash a smile, laughing at something he said, and her whole face would light up.

In those moments, Kisshu would feel something he was uncertain and slightly afraid of. He didn't want to complicate things. Right now, being her friend was just enough.

It was on such relaxed occasion between them, where they sat and chat around a fire outside, that things began to change again.

Kisshu had just made some teasing insulting comment about Taruto and Seara, laughing, had pushed him playfully while defending her favorite buddy. Kisshu was trying to ignore that ever-growing feeling as he looked at her.

Suddenly, her laughter died out and she gasped. Her shoulders tensed up and her brow furrowed and her huge moon eyes were miles and miles away.

Kisshu understood immediately what was happening. She was having a vision. Lately, her visions had slowly been getting more and more frequent. Little things, mostly: it would rain the next day, or someone would catch a cold. Occasionally she had seen things that had been very helpful: someone would slip and cut their feet on a rusty nail, or a badly attached board would fall and injure someone. Kisshu was used to her visions by now-the first time he'd been very shocked and unsure what to do, but now he knew that the thing to do was just to keep calm and help her though it. Pai was still looking into exactly what it all was about.

But this vision seemed to be different. It was lasting a long time-normally she would snap out of it after a few seconds, but she was still staring off into space, her face someone absent and intensely focused at the same time.

Kisshu touched her shoulder lightly. "Seara-chan? You okay?"

Searadesi automatically flinched at his touch, but she still wouldn't look at him. He leaned around to stare her in the face. Her breath was coming faster now, heaving out of her chest in short little bursts. Slowly her expression became horrified, as if she were watching truly terrible things.

Worried now, Kisshu shook her shoulder. "Seara-chan? Seara-chan?" He looked around for Pai helplessly, but he was nowhere in sight.

Seara was shaking, her teeth chattering together as whatever she was being forced to witness grew more and more frightening. Kisshu grabbed her shoulders and shook her. "Searadesi!"

Finally, her face lost its awful distance and her eyes clenched shut. Breathing hard, slowly blinked a few times and focused on his face. "K-kisshu," she forced out, and she sounded like she might cry. She collapsed into his chest, shuddering, and Kisshu, surprised and confused, wrapped his arms around her uncertainly.

"Seara-chan, what did you see?"

She withdrew from him and his heart ached as he saw a tear slip down her cheek. "Kisshu…"

She took a deep breath. "It's Earth. Terrible things are going to happen to your friends there.

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