Chidsengan:And welcome everyone to another- umm...

Ryuga:She can't insult herself anymore, which is hard for little miss whiny over here...

Chidsengan:Oh! Let me just say this! I still don't own the characters in this fanfic!

Ryuga:Finally... we're getting somewhere!

Chidsengan:And thank you all who read and review! I can't express how much you mean to me! You're all the best!

Thank you so much to

FutureCharacterDesigner4Pixa r

dreamlily

DragonFang2011

Allycat

Darknessrules

RoxasOtaku

Bes9200

The-Silver-Butterfly1500

SkylarkOfTheMoon

MoonBlazer

The Thunderstruck Tiger

Fangtooth

Tiger

Guest (Starless Skyline) (although, admittedly, I cried hysterically when I read your corrections at first... but they helped me so much! Thank you! :D )

And I'd like to dedicate this chapter to dreamlily, who was so nice as to update a story for me! Everyone, please, review her work, because it's great! I 3 U, dreamlily! I hope you enjoy this chapter...


New Words:

Míchoi Metáxi-Silk Stalks


Ugh...

Light...

Too much light...

Too much light... too much discomfort... too much...

Everything was just too much...

Kyoya's eyes slowly opened and he bit down on his lower lip to avoid screaming as pain stabbed through every limb... no... every fiber of his body...

Especially the places where he had received his wounds and, for some weird reason, his stomach...

"You took quite a beating..."a girl's voice said to the left of him.

Kyoya glanced as much as he could in the direction of the girl's voice to see someone who was perhaps a little younger than him grinding something with an old pestle in a small, clay bowl.

She had dark, green hair that was tied into two braids that hung down her back and her violet eyes were bright and cheerful. She was wearing a red dress that looked like it could have been finery back in it's day, but was now patched and threadbare in multiple places.

"Where... am I ?"Kyoya asked weakly.

Why did it even take effort for him to speak ?

The girl smiled at him and stood from where she had been sitting, then waved her right hand over the small room in a smooth motion.

"You're at a cottage in the Wang Hu Zhong Fields..."she said gently."Where my family and I work..."

Kyoya took in the tiny room he was in that was filled with herbs and scrolls... everything old and worn, but everything also impeccably clean.

"What... am I doing here ?"he queried.

"Currently, recovering..."the girl answered."Your friends stumbled into the fields four days ago begging my family and I to help you. We were going to say no since we can barely help ourselves, but you were in such a terrible way that we just couldn't. You were very close to death..."

Kyoya just stared at her for a moment, almost unable to believe what she had just said.

Not about being close to death...

Not about him recovering...

But about the others begging for this girl and her family to help him...

"They... asked for you to help me ?"he inquired weakly.

"Pleaded... practically on their knees. I don't know what relation you have to them, but they certainly think the world of you."

"And now ? Where are they now ?"

The girl placed a gentle hand on Kyoya's shoulder and grinned reassuringly.

"They're sleeping peacefully in one of the other rooms at the moment..."she replied."They've been quite worried about you, you know. Then again, with you being unconscious and all, I can see why..."

"Unconscious ?"Kyoya said the word as if it was poison on his tongue."For how long ?"

The girl's smile faded and she went back to grinding whatever if was she was grinding with her pestle.

"A week..."she answered at last, prompting a shocked gasp from Kyoya."You've only been here for four of those days... so your friends were carrying you around for three days through the entire wilderness."

Kyoya clenched his fists and looked down at the ripped quilt that was laid gently over him.

Three Days... he had been unconscious before arriving where he was now...

For three days... the others had taken care of him...

For three days... when he himself would probably have given up on an unconscious person had he been in the same boat...

Why had they done it ?

They certainly had nothing to gain from it...

As the girl finished grinding what was in the bowl, she nodded in approval and turned back to Kyoya.

"Alright..."she said."This is a poultice I made from herbs. I'm going to put it on some of those welts on your arms and it should take the swelling down. Welts. I can't believe it. How on Earth did you get WELTS ?! It's hard to get them even if you try to. How reckless you must have been to get so many..."

The girl applied some of the poultice to Kyoya's arms gently and, even though he flinched in pain, he remained quiet the whole time she was doing it... only speaking after she had finished.

"Are they..."he began meekly."The others... they're fine, right ? I mean... they're not hurt or anything like that ?"

"They're alright..."the girl reassured him."A liitle starved, maybe, but they'll pull through. They were telling me about their journey here earlier. It's amazing that they were able to survive so long without anything and then the other three days by only eating wild berries and edible plants... and not a huge supply of them, either."

As soon as she said that, an excruciating pain seared Kyoya's so horribly that he buckled over in agony, biting back a pained moan.

"Are you alright ?"the girl asked, helping him sit back up as her violet eyes clouded with concern.

Kyoya tried not to scream as the pain subsided slightly and answered her question shakily.

"My... my stomach..."he said, panting."I... don't know why... but... all these stabbing pains... it's been like that lately..."

The girl looked at him sympathetically for a moment, then, for some reason or other, started laughing!

"What's so funny ?"Kyoya asked defensively, wrapping his arms around his stomach to try and subdue the duller, but still searing, pain.

The girl ceased laughing, but still giggled a bit.

"You're wondering why you're stomach's in pain ?"she asked him."THINK. Why is anything that's suffering in pain if it's not getting what it NEEDS...?"

Kyoya looked at her for a moment like she was crazy, and when he didn't answer, she shook her head and sighed.

"It's not getting what it NEEDS..."she clarified for him."You're HUNGRY, genius! THAT'S why your friend's so angry with you! It's trying to tell you that it needs something to ease it's own pain... and it's trying to get through to you in the only way it knows how because, apparently, you didn't listen to it before!"

Kyoya shrunk back a tad, not enjoying being scolded by anyone... especially someone he barely even knew... someone he'd just met.

But the girl had a point...

After weeks of starving completely following days of barely nothing... actually... years of barely nothing considering he had never even had a meal that filled a whole plate... his stomach had gone through torture...

And he had never paid much attention to it at all... especially lately and on the trails, where he had bit back every hungry snarl, every gnawing feeling, and every prodding pain that had tormented him because he was worried about everyone else.

Actually, now that he thought about it, it made perfect sense why the pains had started... and he was kind of embarrassed by the fact that he hadn't realized the reason sooner... or on his own...

How could he have been so stupid ?

Not to look like an idiot in front of a girl, however, Kyoya proudly sniffed and turned his head away with a smirk... trying to act cocky and self-confident... and smarter than he actually felt.

"Hmph. I don't think that's it..."he said arrogantly."It's probably something else, because I'm not even hungry..."

Right on cue, however, his stomach decided to call his bluff as an embarassingly loud growl came from it... sounding all the louder because of the echo-like acoustics in the tiny room.

Kyoya bit his lower lip again and lowered his head in humiliation as the girl just looked at him with a 'yeah, sure' expression on her face.

"So, you're stomach's the honest one around here, huh ?"she asked, trying not to laugh.

"No..."Kyoya spat through gritted teeth."I'm fine..."

Once again, his lie didn't get very far and his stomach snarled in disagreement... even louder than before, if such a thing was possible.

His face turned red... the heat of it feeling like it would catch him on fire and the girl giggled at his misfortune.

"I'll get you something to eat..."she said."What do you say to that ?"

Kyoya didn't get a chance to answer.

His stomach did once more.

"Okay... I've heard enough out of you..."he snapped at his complaining companion, intentionally not looking up to see the amused smile on the girl's face.

A few moments later, the girl returned with a plate and a small pear on it.

Shrugging a little, she held it out towards him with a small, friendly grin.

"Here..."she said gently."It's not much... but it's all we can spare, I'm afraid... with your friends eating us out of house and home and all..."

"No... it's fine..."Kyoya said quietly, taking the plate from her a bit sheepishly.

The girl crossed her arms over her chest and stared Kyoya as he messily ate the pear in a few bites... wiping his mouth with the back of his arm after he was finished.

"Here..."he said, handing the plate back to the girl.

For some strange reason, the small amount of food had made him hungrier than before... if such a thing were possible... but to mind his 'manners', he didn't say anything about it.

Too bad for him that the girl had noticed something ELSE wrong with them.

"You eat like an animal..."she said, disgusted a tad."Don't you have any manners ?"

Kyoya growled a tad under his breath, but turned his head away from her stubbornly.

"Aren't you tolerant ?"he retorted, sarcasm hanging on his every word.

"Actually, I am. That insult was minor compared to what I wanted to say..."

Kyoya was speechless for a moment, then crossed his arms over his chest and frowned while the girl smirked a tad.

"You're funny..."she giggled."Your friends said your name was Kyoya... isn't it ?"

"Yeah..."he answered shortly."And yours is... Miss Personality ?"

The girl extended her hand to him.

"Mei-Mei..."she introduced herself."Pleased to meet you."

Kyoya looked at her hand questionably for a second and Mei-Mei giggled once again.

"You're supposed to do this..."she instructed, shaking hands with him."Hasn't anyone ever taught you these kind of things ?"

"Really ? No."Kyoya replied.

"Not anyone ?"

"No."

"Not even your parents ?"

"..."

"Kyoya ?"

"It's... that's something that... they're... do we have to talk about it ?"

Mei-Mei looked at the boy sympathetically as he glanced down... sadness etched on every inch of his face though he was obviously trying to hide it.

"I understand..."she said with a nod, then turned to leave."I'd best be getting back to my work. If you need anything... I'll be outside. But try not to move too much... you're still weak..."

Kyoya nodded back to her as she sighed and opened the door;ready to leave when Kyoya said something that stopped her.

"Umm... thank you..."he said uncertainly, not really all that sure if there was a certain way one was supposed to use the word or if he was using it correctly.

Mei-Mei just smiled at him.

"You're welcome..."she said sweetly.

Then, she headed into the fields to join her family in their work.

* Y * Y * Y *

Despite what Mei-Mei had said, Kyoya was out of bed and on his feet only about an hour later and, though he was shaky and dizzy, he wasn't about to become an invalid when there were goals to be accomplished.

When life gave you lemons you made lemonade.

It wasn't hard to find his other companions, considering there were only two other rooms in the small cottage and one of them was the main living quarters.

The others were, just as Mei-Mei had said, sleeping peacefully... though in some odd positions because of how tiny and cramped the room was.

Only Madoka, Sophie, Kenta, and Yu looked truly comfortable because the others had given them a fair amount of room... everyone else was crushing eachother in some way or other and they were all sleeping on the wooden floor.

As Kyoya glanced around, however, he realized that not EVERYONE was there...

There was one person missing.

Julian.

"Hmmm..."Kyoya said quietly, closing the door gently behind him as he set off to find the prince.

As it was, Kyoya didn't know how to think of the royal, but in a completely different way than he didn't know how to think of Benkei.

Benkei was overly happy... overly optimistic... overly enthusiastic... it just wasn't natural. Not even Gingka and Masamune combined measured up to Benkei's level of cheerfulness, and Kyoya found that just plain odd... like everything about Benkei, really.

But Julian was different.

Julian seemed easy enough to read. He was more on the serious side... more quiet... and he had a competitive streak, also, which Kyoya had noticed even though Julian had mostly kept his distance from everyone the whole time. But Julian... he always seemed to be tortured by something or other... worried... alone, even. Things Kyoya, although he'd never admit to it, could greatly relate to, and he had secretly been wanting to have a little discussion with the prince to try and figure him out a little more... to see if Julian's struggles would put everyone else at risk...

And this could have been Kyoya's only chance to do that.

If he could find him.

Kyoya headed through the thick, brown stalks of a plant that was known as 'míchoi metáxi'... a plant where silkworms made their homes and lived within it.

Glancing a bit farther out into the field, he saw Mei-Mei and three boys slicing down the stalks and placing them in baskets for later use. Apparently, The Wang Hu Zhong Fields were actually míchoi metáxi fields and Mei-Mei and her family most likely spun the silk and sold it to make a living.

Not a very profitable job in some cases, but at least it provided some income.

Kyoya sighed and looked at the clouds drifting overhead.

He had always envied clouds... always thought they were so free... free to do what they wanted... free to go wherever they wanted whenever they wanted...

To him, they had always seemed separate from the rest of the world. No attachment. No worries. No pain.

When he was younger, he wanted to be a cloud... until Ryuga had talked him out of it... saying that his wish was 'impossible' and that he was 'pathetic'.

Ryuga had been right, of course... at least about the impossible part... but Kyoya still, to that day, would still look at the clouds and imagine what it must have been like to live without any problems... without any pain...

"If only..."he said quietly."If only there weren't such a thing as..."

"As what ?"a familiar voice asked from behind him, making Kyoya jump a bit.

He had had no idea he wasn't alone in the fields.

Kyoya turned around to see Julian laying in the branches of a tree, his head resting on his arms which were crossed behind his head.

Julian looked as if he hadn't slept in days and tiredness was visible even in the smallest of her movements... even the rising and falling of his breathing chest.

"Nothing..."Kyoya answered."But I've got to say, I never would have pegged you as the tree-climbing type..."

Julian frowned and shifted slightly in the branches... moving his arms from behind his head and wrapping them around his knees... pulling them to his chest.

"I don't know what I am anymore..."he said with a small sigh, trying not to show his emotions but failing horribly at it.

Kyoya grabbed onto one of the lower branches and began to skillfully climb the tree to where Julian was.

"Well... you know..."Kyoya started, taking hold of another branch."You should have a good sense of who you are better than anyone else here. For starters, you're royalty. Royalty is always supposed to be sure of things. Next, you've got friends that would follow you anywhere. They'd be happy to tell you who you are if you gave them a sob story... or, at least, they'd be happy to flatter you. And thirdly, you don't seem exactly stupid. You could figure it out yourself if you put your mind to it."

Julian glanced at the clouds overhead and frowned as the blue sky became slightly overcast whilst darker clouds rolled into view.

"You're not very tactical... are you ?"he asked Kyoya.

The other boy merely shrugged.

"I never had a reason to be."he answered simply."Not everyone's worried about how nicely you put things when they're trying to see that you spend your life in a dungeon..."

"Well maybe if your stopped stealing what others' own you wouldn't constantly be in so much trouble."

Kyoya scowled at the prince, his grip tightening on the branch he was holding in anger he was trying to fight back.

"If you haven't noticed... there isn't any other way for people like me to get a meal in this world..."he said with an indignant scoff."And they aren't even decent meals, either. I only take what everyone can live on... not even what they need. Sometimes I wonder if that's the reason everyone always goes after me. It never seems like the big-time thieves get in any trouble, but I do."

"Do other thrived steal clothing, as well ?"Julian returned coolly, printing a small growl from his companion."Don't try to act innocent with me. Your friends told me all about you. It's probably bad for my reputation that I'm even traveling with someone like you..."

Kyoya leaped onto a branch that was only inches from where Julian was and pointed at the prince accusingly, blue eyes flashing in fury.

"Let's make two things clear, rich boy..."he started angrily."One: my 'friends' aren't even my friends... they're just a bunch of kids who've had it not so great in this world. Two: You can't take what my 'friends' say about me to heart, because they really know absolutely nothing about me. Three: Since, I'm the one who's keeping you alive, I think your 'reputation' can deal with being around me for a little longer, at least. And four: DON'T try to act like you know me, princey. You know NOTHING about me or my life. Even if you did, you wouldn't be able to relate. Someone like you who's had everything given to him his whole life... never having to wonder where you're going to sleep or where your next meal's coming from if there's any coming at all. You could never understand what it's like to be alone... to watch everyone around you live their happy lives... to beg and never get anything but cold glares in return. You don't know what it like to be like m-"

Kyoya stopped himself before he could finish his sentence.

He had already ranted enough and shown too much emotion in front of someone who probably wasn't even listening to a single word he was saying...and if he wanted to rant to someone about his problems, he would be better off doing so to someone other than Julian...

But one thing Kyoya would never do was cry. Never again for as long as he lived. He had promised himself that years ago...

And he wasn't about to start now.

Julian's face softened just the slightest and he looked down at his hands sadly as if there was something he was supposed to see within them.

"You're right... I don't know what it's like... not knowing where I'll sleep or if I'll eat every day..."he admitted."Until these past few weeks... I knew nothing about exhaustion and hunger. I've never begged in my life. And now..."

Julian's voice trailed off and Kyoya glanced at him, curious as to what he was going to say.

"What ?"he prodded."'And now' what ?"

Julian sighed, closing his eyes tightly shut.

"And now... I have to figure out what all of that's like... all at once..."he replied quietly.

Kyoya shifted in the branch he was sitting in uncomfortably and gnawed his lower lip a little in thought.

That must have been hard... what Julian was going through.

He was living in a place that was worlds apart from all that he had known... all that he had been taught... all that he was...

As rough as it had been, Kyoya had been raised in the place they were in now... raised with poverty, loneliness, and grief... he was used to it.

But Julian... Julian was royalty. He had been raised being told that he would be the next king of Peproméno... not that he would be stealing what he needed to survive and coming off weeks of starvation.

As much as Julian may not have been able to understand Kyoya, Kyoya had to admit that he couldn't really understand Julian all that well, either... and he couldn't imagine what the prince was going through right now.

Kyoya cleared his throat and glanced over at Julian, deciding to try and be a little gentler with him.

"Um... don't worry about it..."he started uncertainly.

Sympathy was hardly his forte.

"I'm sure that... you'll figure it all out..."Kyoya continued as Julian looked at him with a bit of a confused expression on his face."I mean... sure... things get tough and all, but..."

"It's not that simple..."Julian returned sadly, shaking his head."It may seem easy for you... but that's because you were raised like this... you had to grow up at a young age. But me... I'm still just a boy... a boy that's now trying to be a man..."

There was a stagnant silence that hung in the air over the two of them before Julian broke it with a heavy sigh.

"One day it will be you who will be the entruster...not the entrusted..."he quoted, remembering King Konzern's words to him on the balcony that night... only hours before he had died."No matter what their rank in this world, be it royalty or peasant, a person is still a person. We're all just human beings in different types of roles. A good king... must be both... a sword... and a shield..."-he looked at Kyoya, who was static at him with perplexion at his words-"My father... he told me that... the night he died. I think... he was trying to teach me something... something that... I still haven't learned... something I might never learn..."

Kyoya didn't say a word as Julian buried his face in his hands and tried desperately not to sob.

"What if I can never understand what my father was trying to say ?!"he quivered, his hands clenching into fists."What did he mean ? The entrusted...? The entrusted...? Swords... shields... peasants... royalty... what did he mean ?! I wish he... I wish my father was here right now to tell me what he meant... I... I-"

"Stop whining!"Kyoya snapped at Julian suddenly, causing the other boy to jump at the shock of being snapped at.

He glanced shakily at Kyoya, who was glaring at him with his arms crossed over his chest... looking as if he was going to yell at Julian...

Which he did.

"Stop being such a baby!"he scolded him."You wish your dad was here to tell you what he meant ? Is that the ONLY reason why you miss him ? Because daddy's not around to answer all your questions ?!"

"I-"

"Grow up!"Kyoya cut him off."Stop being such a child! Your dad's NOT here! He CAN'T answer you questions! Don't you see that if he didn't want you to figure them out on your own he would have told you what he meant ? Obviously, he had Faith that you could figure it out on your own! And it's not as hard to figure out as you think!"

Julian's eyes widened slightly.

"I-it's not ?"he stammered.

"No."Kyoya answered him without a moment's hesitance."The answer's there right in front of you. What makes the entrusted become the entruster ? What makes swords and shields useful in battle ? What makes a king a king ?"

Julian shook his head slowly, indicating that he didn't know the answer, and Kyoya growled under his breath.

"THINK!"he ordered him."The answer's obvious!"

When Julian still couldn't answer, however, Kyoya scoffed at him.

"You really can't figure it out ?"he asked disbelievingly."Fine. I'll tell you, then..."-he stared Julian down seriously-"The answer... is COURAGE..."

Julian gasped slightly and shrunk back a tad... the moment Kyoya said it everything forming more clearly in his mind.

"Courage is what makes warriors brave enough to carry their swords and shields into battle... without it, they'd just be useless pieces of molded metal..."Kyoya explained to him."Kings can't be good kings if they're cowards... cowards always fail. Courage is what sets good kings aside from bad kings. And lastly, courage is what make the difference between boys and men. When a boy becomes a man, that's when the entrusted become the entruster. Anyone who's going to do anything in this world has to have courage... wether they're peasants, kings, orphans, or whatever... it's the same for everyone."

Julian bit back a growl at being talked to so bluntly while all his life he had been pampered to and told by most everyone he had no fault... and Kyoya's blatant way of speaking to him was just another thing that was too strange for him to take at that moment.

"ENOUGH!"he snapped at him."How dare you speak to me with such disrespect ?! Do you have any idea what I'm going through right now ?! I've lost everything! I have no place to go... no reassurance that everything will work out... both of my parents are dead! I have no one left... nothing left!"

He panted breathlessly,not used to losing his temper and getting so worked up.

Being a prince... he had always had to stuff his emotions so not to let others know that he had weaknesses... that he could be vulnerable. As a prince, he had always had to paint the mask of a perfect, almost emotionless pillar that his people could lean upon.

But for some reason, the barrier had broken down for him at that moment and all the emotions he had been hiding his whole life had just broken him.

He was expecting for Kyoya to snap back at him for losing his temper in such a way, but, to his surprise, the boy didn't snap at him.

"So ?"he asked with another small scoff."So what ? You don't have anything... you're an orphan... you're alone. It's tough. Is that what you were trying to get at ?"

Julian tried to think of an answer, but Kyoya started talking again before he could.

"Like I said before... grow up."he said, turning his back to Julian and preparing to climb down the tree.

"How ?"Julian couldn't help but ask, still angry."Didn't you hear what I just said ? I have nothing here for me anymore!"

"So ?"Kyoya repeated.

He glanced at Julian over his shoulder, his face void of any emotions.

"None of that ever stopped me before..."he said coolly.

And with that being said, he climbed down the tree, leaving Julian to think about himself and just what had happened in Kyoya's life that had made him like he was...


Chidsengan:Again, thank you so much... and please, read and review all these authors work:

FutureCharacterDesigner4Pixa r

dreamlily

DragonFang2011

RoxasOtaku

Bes9200

The-Silver-Butterfly1500

SkylarkOfTheMoon

MoonBlazer

The Thunderstruck Tiger

Fangtooth

Thank you all! You mean the world to me!

Ryuga:And because she forgot, this chapter translates to: 'Courage Makes the Difference Between Men and Boys'.