Hello readers. Blarg, I've been having a hard time writing lately, so I know I have other stories I'm supposed to update before this one, but right now I'm just going with what will come to me easiest.
I guess moving completely across the continental United States, no longer having the books to physically flip through in order to immerse myself as well as the person I would rant to for hours about my plans and read the chapters to every single one of my fics for proof-reading now gone will do that to you. Never fear though, still write I shall do. It'll just take a bit for me to adjust to the changes. Hopefully it won't impact the actual quality of my work though.

Well, here's the next chapter, hope you likes.

Chapter 51

Husky was finding it extremely difficult to leave his bed the next morning. For some ungodly reason his brain had decided that it would be a great idea to not get any sleep last night, no matter how much he tried, or how long he laid in his bed staring up at the ceiling. By the time his alarm clock had rung he was still awake, but now excruciatingly tired and wanting nothing more than to just not go to school and sleep for at least a few hours.

What was even worse was that during the night his mind had also decided to run around with a million different worries and ideas, undaunted once his homework was finished. Worries about Cooro and his new therapist, if he was really telling them the truth about everything. It wasn't like Cooro to lie though, but something still seemed a bit wrong with this whole picture that he just couldn't place no matter how hard he tried. He guessed he just had to trust that if something really was wrong, Cooro would tell them about it. No matter how hard that was.

And of course, ideas about those horrid dreams and nightmares, what in the world they could possibly mean. He wasn't able to get any farther than what they'd already found out though, which was for all intents and purposes nothing.

So he was tied, didn't want to move at all and was making himself increasingly more paranoid and scared about everything that was happening, even if really not much seemed to be happening anymore.

The silver boy didn't bother trying to turn off his alarm clock as it continued to go off. Maybe the annoying buzzing would force him to get up and leave the room if he just let it go on for a little bit longer.

He ended up laying there for nearly ten minutes before Keane slowly creaked his door open. Husky didn't need to roll over and look at the older boy to know that he was probably confused beyond all belief as to why he was letting his alarm continue to drone on for so long.

"Myrrha? Your alarm's going off," the redhead said, loud enough to be heard over the buzzing, but just barely. Almost like he was afraid to actually wake Husky up, which was just weird, seeing as that's exactly what he should be doing at the moment. That is, if the silver boy wasn't already up as it was, no matter how barely.

"I know," Husky mumbled, still not making any move to actually turn the blasted machine off, or get up for the day or anything. Keane frowned at the response, by now it pretty obvious that something was definitely off with the other boy. Not that Husky would admit that. He was just tired; he would get over it in a few minutes.

"Then why aren't you turning it off?" he asked. With more effort than he should have needed Husky rolled over so that he could actually look at Keane. When he tried to focus on him though, his right eye wouldn't quite listen, instead causing his vision to be a half blurred, half clear doubled layered that was rather bothering.

"If the noise stops I'll fall asleep," he managed to say, which was definitely true enough. With the way he was now, he might actually end up falling asleep even with the noise, but it was definitely quite a bit harder.

"Didn't get much sleep last night?" the redhead asked, to which Husky just barely managed to shake his head, having closed his eyes once again by this point to avoid the annoying only half clear image.

"None," he slurred. Urg, he had to get over himself and just wake up already. He had school today, and he couldn't not go again, after all of the time he'd already missed. Before he could convince his body to move though Keane had started speaking once again.

"Maybe you should stay home today. It looks like you'll just end up falling asleep in class if you try to go anyway," the redhead suggested. Slowly, Husky managed to actually push himself into a sitting position, despite the wave of dizziness that washed over him immediately afterwards. He didn't go without sleep much, but when he did it didn't usually affect him like this. Barely managing to gather himself again, he shook his head.

"No, I can go, it's fine. Already missed too much as it is…" he insisted, even though he couldn't completely dispel the swirling of his head that was beginning to make him a bit nauseous. Maybe he was a bit more than just sleep deprived…

"Are you sure? You really don't look so good," Keane asked, and once again Husky barely managed to nod. He wasn't sure though, not at all. But that didn't matter, he had to go. Cooro and Nana would be worried if he didn't show up, especially after yesterday. Keane could just tell them that he was sick and couldn't come today though… but that still probably wouldn't stop them from worrying…

And Dylana wasn't here anymore, so he wouldn't have to worry about running into her if he stayed…

Husky had gotten so used to the constant buzzing of his practically forgotten alarm clock that it actually startled him when Keane had walked over and shut it off. The silence almost seemed to be louder than the noise.

"You should stay home, okay?" the older boy said, and despite the fact that it wasn't exactly worded like an order, even in his slightly delirious state Husky could tell that it actually was. Feeling too dazed to try to argue, reluctantly the silver boy simply nodded.

Husky practically collapsed back down to his bed immediately afterwards, not bothering to actually say anything to the older boy. He just needed to get a few hours of sleep so that his head would stop spinning. He could call the others after they got home from school and make sure they knew he was okay.

"Later," Keane said quietly as he went to leave the room.

"Bye," the silver boy practically whispered before he left. Husky wasn't able to acknowledge the sound of his door shutting and Keane walking downstairs before eventually leaving the house. Instead he felt his body very thankfully finally shutting down and letting the young boy quickly fall to sleep.

Cooro stood quietly on the front steps of the church as he waited for Husky and Keane to show up so that they could walk to school. It wasn't exactly like him to stand quietly, but he was still feeling a bit muddled from what had happened yesterday. That unpleasant dream wouldn't leave him alone, making him doubt whether or not it was the best idea to keep it from the others.

He couldn't tell them now, after what he'd said yesterday. It would be better to just keep it a secret, just make it everything stayed as stable as it possibly could.

It wasn't good to keep secrets, but he didn't think telling his friend about any of this would help them anyway. They already had no many problems after all; there was absolutely no reason to load them up with his own as well.

He ignored the fact that he was now using the same exact logic that Husky had been just a while ago, and how much he and Nana - well, mostly Nana, he just stood there hoping Husky would be his friend again – had argued with him about how wrong that was. They didn't mind helping him with his problems, and he knew that they would try to help him out if he told them about everything.

But despite all that, he couldn't bring himself to even think about saying anything to them. It'd be fine though, he could handle it on his own.

The black haired boy forced a smile onto his face when he saw the ones he was waiting for come into view just down the street. That smile immediately dropped however when he noticed something.

Husky wasn't there. Cooro almost immediately started down the stairs and towards the older brother, trying to keep as much of the paranoid fear he was feeling off of his face as possible. Keane was really simply an innocent bystander in all of this, since he was just unlucky enough to be Husky's brother. So it would probably be best to keep him as oblivious to anything being wrong as they could.

"Hey Keane! Where's Husky? Is he okay?" Cooro asked, cocking his head to the side in confusion and concern, but managing to keep himself from seeming overly worried. Or at least, he assumed he did, seeing as the redhead didn't do anything but smile slightly and nod at his questions.

"Yeah, he's fine. He just didn't get much sleep last night. I think he's getting sick too, so I told him to stay home," he explained, Cooro nodding in understanding. It was hard to keep a frown from forming on his face though. Staying home from school, even when he was sick, just didn't seem like Husky very much. Sure, he had stayed home during the whole mess with Dylana and having to stay at the church and such, but even then he'd tried to go at least once. It was only after he'd had that panic attack did he agree to not go.

He'd seen Husky stubbornly struggle through school with a cold before, so he wasn't sure if something like that alone would make him stay home. He dearly hoped he was wrong though, and that his friend really was simply tied and sick.

There was also the fact that Dylana wasn't there anymore, if he thought about it. So maybe that was a part of the reason why he didn't feel the need to stay away from home so much. Even before she attacked him, Cooro was pretty sure that he didn't like staying home when she was there. It wasn't really a surprise thinking that they didn't get along.

The first half of their walk to school was mostly silent, both boys apparently too wrapped up in their own thoughts to bother trying to start any sort of conversation. After a while though Keane finally broke the silence, surprising Cooro slightly.

"Hey Cooro…" the redhead started, Cooro quickly turning his head so that he was looking over at him.

"Yeah?" he asked back, not quite able to figure out the tone in Keane's voice. Besides that one time when Husky had stayed after school, he and Keane didn't really hang out alone very much. It wasn't that he didn't think Keane was nice enough to spend time with alone, but it just happened that Husky was always there too. He couldn't help but think of the redhead as 'Husky's brother' above everything else.

"Are we um, friends?" Keane asked, very effectively throwing Cooro for a loop. The black haired boy couldn't help but just stare at him for a moment as the question sunk in, before quickly nodding.

Even if he thought of him as just Keane, 'Husky's brother' most of the time, and when they talked he was usually concerned with making sure he didn't let the most important things going on in his life slip out, didn't mean he wasn't his friend, he guessed.

Thinking about it, he was the only friend he ever had that when he looked at it, was actually just a simple, normal relationship.

The redhead probably didn't even realize just how lucky he really was for that, just being able to be normal.

"Of course we are, why would you ask that?" Cooro asked back happily. They were starting to near the school now, and Keane shrugged slightly.

"I don't know…" he mumbled, before stopping and staring at the other boy. Cooro quickly came to a halt as well, looking back at the other boy in confusion. He liked to pretend that they could keep everything a secret from Keane forever, but he really doubted that would actually be the case. After all, he and Husky lived together, they were beyond lucky that the redhead hadn't seen the markings yet, especially seeing as they weren't in the easiest place to cover. Sure, they were fine with it being winter at the moment, but it would be very hard to explain why Husky was wearing turtlenecks in the winter. They were being delusional if they thought he wouldn't fine them someday.

Of course, even if he just saw the markings, that didn't mean they had to explain everything. As hard as it would be to explain a tattoo, it would be worse if they tried to tell him what was really going on. He could just imagine the poor boy fainting at the sight of his brother with a mermaid tail.

"Sometimes I just feel that there's something going on that you and Myrrha are keeping from me," he said, very effectively reinforcing Cooro's previous thoughts.

The black haired boy managed to keep any of his fears about Keane possibly finding out what was going on off his face as he turned his head in innocent confusion, before quickly smiling once again.

"Really? That's odd; I don't know what we'd be keeping from you," Cooro said, to which Keane reluctantly nodded. Yeah, it was definitely obvious that he suspected something, but the younger boy didn't actually feel particularly bad about keeping secrets from him. It would be better for him in the long run, after all.

The two had reached the school by this point now, Keane quickly going off to the middle school section after saying goodbye. It felt a bit strange for Cooro to go off to class by himself, even though Husky had missed so much school he really should be used to it by now. He guessed that despite everything he really had gotten used to the silver boy being with him so much. Not that it bothered him, in fact he didn't mind it at all.

Even though he had the time to, having actually arrived a bit early for once, he didn't see Nana in the morning. He couldn't tell if it was because he was still nervous about the other day to try to talk to her, or if he'd hadn't wanted her to find out that Husky hadn't come to school today yet and be worried all morning. At least if she just found out at lunch then she would only have to worry for half the day, instead of the whole day like he was.

Eventually though lunch did come and Cooro couldn't help but let out a small sigh when he sat down at the table. Nana wasn't there yet, or else he probably wouldn't have. He just really wasn't feeling like himself today, but he didn't want the others to see that and worry about him. In fact, it was probably a good thing that Husky was absent today because of that.

He did manage to start smiling again once Nana came into view. He was kind of happy to see her after all, it was rather boring being in class all by himself again. Sure, it gave him an excuse to pay attention, but it was still difficult with all of the swirling thoughts going through his head.

"Hey Nana," he said happily before taking another bite of his apple. She quickly nodded in response, glancing over at the empty seat next to him in a bit of confusion afterwards.

"Hi Cooro. Is Husky with the therapist again today?" she asked, sounding rather uncertain. That was probably because Husky wasn't supposed to go to therapy today, and the black haired boy quickly shook his head. That was obviously not the answer that she had been hoping for from the small frown that instantly formed on her face.

"Keane said that he didn't get much sleep last night and woke up sick, so he stayed home," he explained. It was clear that she was just as uncertain about the whole explanation as he had been, and he didn't blame her for that. Even still, he quickly continued, "I'm sure he's fine though, I'll call him after school to make sure everything's okay," he said, and Nana nodded at that, looking a bit less worried, but still not by much.

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea," she agreed. It wasn't that they didn't trust Husky, but there was always the possibility that he wasn't telling Keane something because he couldn't, if it had to do with dreams or their powers or something. It was still very possible that he was just sick, but there was also a chance that it might be something a lot bigger than that, and they just wanted to make sure that he really was okay.

The two started eating quietly after that, Cooro wondering when one of them would start a conversation. It didn't seem like any of them talked much about anything but the dreams and powers and everything else that was happening to them anymore. Of course, it was rather hard to talk about anything else when that was taking up most of their life and energy worrying about. They couldn't talk to anyone but each other about it either, so it wasn't like they could vent any other way.

It wasn't that it bothered him talking about all of this, they needed to after all. It was just a little strange once he thought about it. He finally had friends, but even though it didn't start this way, sometimes it seemed like they were more just friends by circumstances than anything else.

"Do you really think he's okay?" Nana asked, breaking him out of his thoughts. Cooro didn't need to ask who she was talking about, taking a moment to think her question over before nodding.

"I'm sure if anything major happened he would try to call us or something, or Keane would say something about it. Well, if it didn't have anything to do with the dreams or that stuff, but you know. He's just at his house, so I'm sure he'll be fine," the black haired boy tried to reassure her, as well as himself just a tiny bit. Nana nodded once again, fiddling with a pencil lying on the table as she answered.

"Yeah, I guess so. It just doesn't seem like Husky to stay home because he's sick though. But I guess that's just because I'm so used to him not coming to school for other reasons," she said, and Cooro couldn't help but nod in agreement.

"I know, but I'm sure it'll be fine, Husky's a lot stronger than he looks, even if something else was wrong with him, I'm sure he could last the day," he said. Lunch ended not long after that, and the two children had to go back to their individual classes.

Well, at least trying to reassure Nana that everything was okay actually helped to reassure himself a bit. What he had said was true, after all. Even if it wasn't a cold, Husky would be fine for a few more hours.

If something was majorly wrong, something life threatening, Keane would have been able to see it. Despite the fact that he didn't know the whole story of what was going on at all, Cooro still felt that he could trust the redhead to make sure Husky was okay when he couldn't. It was obvious how much he cared about the younger boy, and he wasn't stupid. He'd be able to tell if something was really wrong.

Husky tried to keep everything to himself, but he wasn't the really the best at hiding things.

Cooro managed to get himself to stop thinking about his friends and focus on his lesson once he got back to class, despite how difficult that actually was. He wished it was winter break, so that he could just forget about school for a little while, but that was still several weeks away.

That'd be okay though, he just had a few more hours before school was out for the day. He could at least last that long.

Husky was still asleep when Keane got home from school. Not that the redhead had really expected anything different, with the way he'd been acting this morning. Even still, Keane couldn't help but peak his head into the younger boy's room just to make sure he was all right.

Just as he thought, Myrrha was still out like a light; his normally pale white face a bit pink from what Keane guessed was probably a fever. Once he woke up he'd have to make him take some medicine or something like that. He'd let him sleep for a few more hours first though, since that was what he probably needed most of all at the moment.

Keane was just about to leave when the sound of Myrrha's phone going off startled him. The silver boy didn't even flinch at the noise, surprising Keane slightly. He really was out of it. The redhead stood in the doorway for a moment, unsure about what to do. He should just let it go to the voicemail, he guessed. It wasn't his phone, after all.

It could be important though… It probably wouldn't hurt if he just looked at who was calling, so that he could tell Myrrha once he woke up.

Looking at the screen, he really wasn't surprised at seeing Cooro's name under a little ringing phone. The normally hyperactive boy had been rather quiet during the walk home, probably worried about Myrrha, seeing as he decided to call him almost as soon as he'd gotten home.

Staring at the phone for another second, the boy made a split second decision, practically running out of the room before answering the phone.

"Um, hello?" he said hesitantly, waiting for an answer.

"Hey, uh, is this Husky?" Cooro asked on the other side of the line. He sounded a bit uncertain though, having definitely expected to just hear his younger brother, and definitely not recognizing his voice as such.

"No, it's Keane. Myrrha's still asleep, I just heard his phone ringing," the redhead explained. "Do you need me to tell him anything? I can get it to him once he wakes up," he added. Yeah, that was the only reason he'd answered the silver boy's phone. So that he could take a message for Myrrha, since he was so sick and out of it.

He did trust Myrrha. What could they really be keeping from him, after all? Well, there was that thing with that Senri guy, but he knew about that now. And if there was anything else, he could wait for the younger boy to tell him about it. He would eventually, right? There wasn't any reason for him to try to sneak around and try to find out what was going in his life.

"No, that's fine, thanks though Keane. Could you just tell him that I called once he wakes up?" the black haired boy asked. Keane couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed that he didn't tell him anything.

"Sure, I guess I'll talk to you later than," he said reluctantly. On the other end of the line he heard Cooro say thanks and goodbye, before saying bye himself. Staring down at the phone, Keane sighed before sneaking back into Myrrha's room and putting the cell back down on the desk by his bed.

Quietly leaving the room, the redhead couldn't help but frown when he got back to his room, collapsing on his bed. No one seemed to acting much like themselves today. Myrrha was all sick and actually listened to him when he told him to stay home when he told him to, and Cooro had been acting strangely subdued.

Maybe he should just leave them all alone for now. After all, if they didn't want to tell him, then it wasn't any of his business. Myrrha was being a bit less introverted when it came to him after all, so that was a good thing, right? He was probably looking way too far into all of this anyway; Cooro had said that he had no idea what they could possibly even be keeping from him this morning.

As much as he tried to convince himself to just let it all go, for some reason he just couldn't. Something wasn't right, and he was going to figure out just what that was. Eventually…


And yay I actually managed to write a chapter. More random Keane… sorry about that, for some reason when I'm stuck, he's just really, really easy to write. Him and Husky both, but Husky was all sick and sleepy this chapter.
Well, hopefully I'll get back into the groove for all of my stories soon and begin updating faster again. As always, thanks for reading the chapter, and please review.