Kadar sat on his own in the corner of the coffee shop, on worn leather seats next to a battered table. He was meeting Claudia in an area a bit more familiar to him. It was in the west side of the city; near the outskirts where he had grown up. It was a particularly nice area; full of gang crime, vandalism, teenagers getting stabbed, but it was a place Kadar knew well and wanted to share with his friend. This coffee shop was on the end of the high street; a tube journey from the tower block he grew up in. he wasn't sure if Claudia was going to come when he had told her to meet him here, it didn't seem the kind of place she would stray into.

But, sure enough, Kadar looked up and saw her standing in the middle of the shop looking around for him. She was wearing skinny jeans and brown, flat soled boots with a white flowing top and cardigan over the top. Her hair was loose for a change.

"Claudia." Kadar called a gentle smile creeping on his face as Claudia snapped around to look at him. Her brown eyes brightened and she came to sit with him.

"Hey, sorry I'm late, I got slightly lost." She said, swinging her bag under the table and leaning forward. "If you ask me, everyone around here is a bit rude." She whispered so no one else would here. Kadar smiled knowingly.

"Hmm, tell me about it, you didn't have to grow up around them." Claudia's eyes widened.

"Oh, I didn't mean... you're not... I mean." Kadar chuckled as Claudia got flustered.

"It's fine, don't worry about it. Would you like anything? I'm paying."

"Oh, just lemonade thank you." Kadar got up and ordered. He glanced around and saw a man he knew sitting by the window. It was the man who used to live above them and who smoke weed on the balcony whilst hanging out his washing.

"So you lived around here?" Claudia asked when Kadar returned. Kadar nodded, blowing across the rim of his hot chocolate.

"Up until a month ago I lived in a tower block on the outer-city council estate, about a ten minute tube journey from here. Malik used to take me here when I was younger, sometimes he'd pick me up from school and bring me here... he'd buy me a milkshake whilst he got a bottle of coke and we'd sit on the curb for hours." Blinking, Kadar shut his mouth before he said anything else. He was dwindling in memories that flowed around this place.

Claudia was looking at him intensely; it was rare when he spoke of Malik in any kind of manner or spoke of his past in any way shape or form. The two were strongly linked and neither wanted to be spoken about.

"How is Malik?" Claudia asked quietly, trying to coax Kadar back out the shell he had retreated into. Kadar looked down at the table top, stained with coffee rings.

"He's okay; he got into a motor cycle accident the other day." Kadar mumbled. Altair and Malik had been very brief about it all... like there was something they didn't want to tell him.

"Oh god really! Is he okay, what happened?" Claudia asked urgently. Kadar studied her slightly. It annoyed him how close Claudia was to Malik, apparently they had been friends with her brothers and she had known him for quite a bit of her life. Kadar felt bitter; it should have been him who had grown up with Malik's presence, not Claudia.

"His face and legs are a bit done in, but apart from that he's fine. Some jerk went into the back of him and he lost control."

"Oh I'm sorry, tell him I hope he gets better soon." Kadar shrugged, eyes dulling as he sipping his drink.

"So, tell me a bit more about what it was like to live around here." Claudia said after a while of sitting in silence. Kadar was an interesting person; his life was a far cry from the one she was living. They were on opposite ends of the spectrum, yet they were the closest of friends. Kadar smiled and huffed slightly

"It was nothing special, living around here. You had to be careful where you went; people from one tower don't really like people from other towers. You had to be aware, you couldn't be stupid otherwise you'll end up in the wrong place at the wrong time and get a knife in the back of something like that." Once Kadar started talk, he couldn't stop. He told Claudia stories about people he knew, for his friends, for his Nan, even tales of Malik popped up now and again. Claudia listened with amusement to the range of stories, only interrupting now and again to ask questions.

"My Nan was pretty much the only thing I knew. All the other kids in my school, they had mums and dads and I had my Nan. She was a nice person, sometimes pushy and stressful, but she was nice." Kadar said as they walked down the street, hands stuffed in the pockets of his jeans. He had given Claudia his hoody since she was cold.

"What happen to your mum and dad, if you don't mind me asking?" Kadar kicked an empty can of Pepsi across the road, his face blanking.

"My mum died shortly after giving birth to me, heart attack or something like that. My dad died two years later from cancer. I've seen pictures of them and Malik used to tell me about them a lot when I was a kid; it used to help me sleep... hearing about when they lived in Jerusalem; he said he'd take me there one day but I can't see that happening now."

They walked across the bridge that went over the river. Kadar lent against the railing. There was several notches hacked into it, each other marking the number of people who had jumped off the bridge to commit suicide or dropped doing something stupid. Claudia lent besides him, their shoulder and arms touching.

"stop me if I'm being rude or if I'm intruding; but what happened between you and Malik, you never like to talk about him and you say you don't particularly like him and I was just wondering."

Kadar sighed watching the dark, sallow river flow beneath them. He hadn't really spoken about what had happen to anyone, not his social worker who he kept tight lipped around, not even his Nan who after weeks of questioning told him to stop asking.

"Malik had always played the role of the protective big brother. He was always telling me to try my hardest and not to take any shit from anyone. He told me that I should be proud of who I am, despite the fact I'm a different race and my life style is a hell lot different. He was always there for me."

"But then he met Altair and everything spiralled out of control. Malik started staying out later and later, he got into arguments with my Nan- I don't know what they what bout but I could always hear them from the other room when I was in bed."

"We got a phone call from the school saying that Malik's attendance was poor and that he hadn't been at school for several weeks. Nan got really angry and had a go at Malik. It was the first time I had seen her get so angry, but Malik refused to say anything and she slapped him. I begged them to stop fighting but they wouldn't listen. Then Malik just refused to come home, he didn't go to school or work and he stayed with Altair all the time. There would be times when he didn't come home for days on end, when he did come home Nan and him would argue again and he'd storm off."

"Nan hadn't picked me up form school one day and I walked home by myself. A car came to a stop near me and Malik came out. Altair was in the car as well, and they dropped me home. Malik made me promise not to tell Nan I had seen him and drove off with Altair. That was the last time I saw him."

"I waited for him to come home; I thought it was just him going off again. But weeks turned into months and he never came home. We got no word from him, the police went out searching for him but it was like he had just disappeared for the map... the same with Altair. But I didn't believe them; I waited and waited for him to come through the door. Eventually Nan stopped being nice about it and told me to just accept the fact that he was gone and wasn't coming back... that he was dead."

Kadar swallowed the massive lump that was forming in his throat. Tears were pricking at his eyes as he remembered everything like it was yesterday.

"She got rid of all the picture of Malik, for all the possessions he left behind. It was like he had never been there. We didn't talk about him. as I got older, some of the kids at school and in the tower said stuff about it, they told me Malik had jumped off a bridge or got shot or had joined the mafia and stuff like that. I'd get angry and I'd punch their faces in. in my eyes, Malik was alive and that was all that mattered. "

"The Nan passed away- nothing bad it was just her time to go- and I crumbled. I didn't believe Malik was alive anymore, it was just me alone in the world. I lived with my friends for a bit but then the social workers found me and forced me into a home. They somehow managed to track Malik down. When they told me he was alive... I felt so happy but I felt so angry, so hateful that he'd made everyone think he was dead when he wasn't. I saw him for the first time since he left at the funeral. He didn't say much and I didn't say much either, it was mainly the social worker talking and trying to get a conversation going. I sat in front of him and I just wanted to punch his face in, I wanted to scream at him for not being there for me... I still do. It's hard, I want to form some kind of relationship between us but I can't, every time I try saying how I feel I flip and say something I shouldn't, then he gets mad or upset and we won't talk to each other for days. I just want my brother back."

By now Kadar was crying, his knuckles were white as he gripped the wet and slick metal bar. Claudia wrapped one arm around his should and hushed him. Kadar felt stupid crying like this; but confusion and an overwhelming feeling was taking over him. Claudia held him tight, bowing her head into the back of his neck, feeling his shoulders shake beneath her arms. She didn't expect Kadar to break down like that; he'd always been so stoic, so strong. They stood there on the bridge, and as Kadar cried, the sky cried too.

A/N: god damn me and my cheesy endings. Sorry about the amount of talking in this, but Kadar basically told us his side of the story. I only did this because I will not be writing a prequel about Kadar but I am writing a prequel for this story about Malik and Altair (but not until this one is coming to an end so not for a while yet). Kadar and Claudia, aren't they awesome together XD. The next chapter involved Maria...

Oh and before I go, I have an English Assessment tomorrow (I have to write a review of Twilight in two hours) and the grade I get will go towards my final English grade so wish me luck ;). See you guys next time.

And another thing; it you want to know more about me and my life then please visit my blog. I post about my thoughts and life as well as fan-art and some small stories. So yeah, check that out and tell me what you think about it . smack this in your address bar .com/