Author's note: Hello everyone. I know that I haven't updated Aster Fall, Sympathy From The Devil, or Pushing Me Away, but I'm going through another leg of writer's block with them, and then...everyone is on my case about my math test. I mean, so what if it was a 58!! It's just one test!! One test, I can make it up next time!! Okay, well, since this was the only thing coming through, I thought I might as well update it. So for all my readers, here you go!!

Kenny sat on the hospital bed staring at the edge of the bed. He wasn't all too interested staring at the edge of the place he's been sleeping on. His mind was immersed with something completely different in fact. That of course was a certain red haired teen. For some reason, no matter what he did, Tala's voice came back to haunt him, his words resonating in his mind over and over again.

It was strange, no matter how much he reasoned against Tala's words, something else came to him. As if Tala was there, telling him he wasn't going to let Kenny sit there, blaming himself for what his father did to him. For a while in fact since his thoughts remained interrupted, the voice in his mind, the one that told him he would never escape his past, was kicked to the back of his mind.

A calm overcame him once that happened, and here he was, sitting quietly listening to the silence. He had to admit this was the first time in a very long time he was not assaulted mentally or physically. It was like when he was eight and his father went on that trip for a few days, leaving him in the house alone.

{Flashback}

"Come here boy," Kenny's father said, yanking the boy of eight up out of his chair at the kitchen table as he did his homework. Kenny's full attention immediately fixed on the man, seeing if the usual scowl or sneer was locked on his face. Kenny could never tell the sort of mood his father would be in unless he smacked Kenny or hit him with something. If his father was angry with him, he hoped the man wouldn't hit him too hard so he could attend school.

"Have I done something wrong, papa?" the boy asked both cautiously and softly, just in case he was in one of those moods that the slightest thing triggered him off.

"Actually, for once in your miserable life I don't need to hit you for your stupidity," his father said. "You're lucky this time boy."

"What's happened?" Kenny inquired. This was a change of pace. For once his father was happy.

"Your father's been asked on a trip with a woman he met at the bar last night. I'm going to be gone the entire weekend, so you better act like you have sense, because if I come back and you've gotten me in trouble, I promise I will slit your throat open. You understand me boy," his father threatened.

"Yes, papa," Kenny nodded, a spark of relief overcoming him. His father was going away for a few days. Meaning he wouldn't have to be beat for random reasons. He didn't mind the being alone part in fact he thought it was the most brilliant idea in a very long time.

"Good. I'm leaving." And with that, his father was gone, leaving Kenny with the serenity of the house. Not exactly knowing what he wanted to do, Kenny went back to his seat at the table and looked around for a long time. The house actually felt warmer with his father gone. It wasn't the cold, fearful place he returned home to each day from school to be beat or starved. It wasn't a place right now that he needed to hide when his father was drunk. Nor was it a place he was going to cry alone in the dark, for the time being. It was like any normal house with a normal family.

{Flashback ends}

"Time seemed to fly by those three days he were gone," Kenny mumbled to himself. "Like I blinked and he was in front of me again, sneering at me. Of course he would have to come home drunk and..."

Kenny closed his eyes, still able to feel his back smack hard against the wall, a cry of pain the only sound he could make as a boot inserted itself square into his abdomen. Dropping him to his knees as the tears soaked into the carpet while he clenched his mid section, gasping for air, but it was just out of reach as another as he received another boot to the back.

The slurred words of hatred filled his ears with deeper wounds upon his heart. The utterances of how his father should have told the doctors to let him die when he was born. Why couldn't Kenny have died instead of the woman that he cared about more? Why couldn't God just strike his idiot son down and send him to hell for killing his wife? So many things that made Kenny wish God would strike him down for whatever sin it was to live in such a manner.

"I was such a coward then...but...I'm still a coward now..."

He could have done something, made a difference...but he was just a kid who was so afraid of his father to pick up the phone and make the one call that could have saved everyone some tears. Maybe that would have stopped his continuous descend into despair and darkness. If he had just...

'Just what?' the voice in the back of his mind broke free once again. 'You think you could have conjured up the balls to call the police? I doubt you ever could, if you had the chance.'

"I..." Kenny lowered his head onto his knees, which he drew to his chest.

'Are you going to let him continue to control your life forever?' Tala's voice rose up. 'You don't have to listen to a word he says, he can't hurt you anymore, nor are his threats any good. Stand up for yourself.'

"I want to," Kenny said.

'Then do it! Stop saying that you want to and do something about it. You're not as helpless as you believe you are. I know that you're stronger than him, and can overcome this hurtle, just believe in yourself.'

"I...I want..."

'You don't want anything boy! You keep listening to them and you will never see your mother again!' growled the voice. 'I can make you go to hell when you die, and then you will never again be held by your mother!'

"Tala..." Kenny whimpered. "I...I don't know..."

'Are you going to listen to threats from someone that has no more power to control things like that than I do? There's a lot of things I won't be able to do, or promise to do, but I can make this promise, I would never lead you the wrong way.' Tala's voice said over the growl of the other voice.

"I..."

'Shut your mouth boy!' the voice sneered.

'Say it Kenny.' Tala's voice said soothingly. 'He can't control you now.'

"I...I want..."

'I will kill you next time when you go to sleep, you better not say it boy.' The voice grew louder, but Kenny could still hear Tala's voice over it. Calmly telling him that he could do it, that he had nothing to be afraid of.

"I...I want to..." Kenny whispered. "I want to...I want to see you..." And there it was, finally out in the open. He finally was able to say it. After all the effort sent in dissuading him, he finally said it. The growling voice faded to the back of his mind, the threats that were thrown at him unfulfilled. Yet, he said it, the thing that has been on his mind since that talk he had with the red haired teen. Since Tala said he liked Kenny.

The brunette wanted to know why. Why he cared so much about someone that he hardly knew? Why he could just shrug off things and still want to see him? Why Kenny wanted to see him again. Why the very thought of it sent an unfamiliar rush through him. Was this...was this feeling he was it possibly be love? The only other person he ever felt anything close to this with was Tyson. Of course that didn't last too long, and unless he figured out about Tala...but the thing is whether or not he really wanted Tala to mean more to him than just someone there to listen to him.

Whether he wanted to rely on Tala and his words to soothe the pain that Kenny increasingly felt all the time. Whether or not he really wanted to lay his trust down and stand back to see if it would once more be betrayed. Doubt, along with hope arose within the brunette at his increasingly complex situation. Many things swirled through Kenny's head as he finally slid off the bed to the phone near the door. There was only one way to find out the answers he wanted.

Kai's eyes fluttered open, hearing the ring of the phone beside the bed. Looking at the clock on the nightstand, he frowned slightly. Was it really already close to twelve already? He didn't even remember dozing off beside Tyson so his lover would be able to sleep. Looking down, he found that Tyson was still clinging to his shirt, but he was sound asleep, a change from the restless tossing and turning for the past couple of nights. Slowly moving to sit up, he reached for the phone.

"Hello?" Kai said, once the receiver was to his ear.

"Kai," came a soft whisper.

"Kenny?" Kai said, worried that Kenny might try something. "Is something wrong?"

"Kai...I...I got to thinking," Kenny replied.

"Thinking? About what?" There was a long pause before Kenny started again, as if he was contemplating saying more out loud. "Kenny?"

"I got to thinking about a lot of things. Not just me either. Kai...is it true what Tala said? About your family?" Kenny inquired.

The bitter taste again washed into Kai's mouth thinking about his parents and what his grandfather did. He still hated the man for everything, yet knew it would do no good to stand against the man on that subject. He had no evidence, but his own testimony for those many years ago, which would not stand up in court. His lawyer would find some way to say that he fabricated the story because of some grudge against the old man. The only thing he could do was live to make them proud.

"Yes Kenny, it's true about my parents. About my grandfather taking them away from me, for taking away my freedom, my childhood, and the warmth I've been without for so long, all for the purpose to be his perfect grandson. To obey him without questioning his words, to carry out his plans, sacrificing everything for what he wanted," Kai said quietly. "I know what it's like to reach out, touching just the surface but never breaking through."

"Did you...ever think about...?"

"Killing myself? There were plenty of times that I thought about just ending it," Kai said.

"What stopped you from doing it?"

A smile rose to Kai's lips thinking back to all the times back at the abbey or when his grandfather allowed him to return to the mansion when he thought about how easy to would be to die. "A certain red haired captain of a certain team."

"Tala...?"

"I suppose you can say that his pain, what his stepfather did made him wiser than most to that sort of thing. He would always scoff and tell me that I was nothing but a coward for it. That if I had the balls to kill myself, I should have more balls to live and make my own path. He was always saying that."

"I..."

"You know," Kai interrupted Kenny's sentence, knowing what he might say. Kenny had to hear this part before he figured that Tala was unaffected by the events in his life. "I don't think he was just telling me that. I believe he had to keep saying it so he would believe it too. After...things, he was severely depressed and once or twice, when he thought no one knew, he would hurt himself to keep from crying and feeling that pain. To remember why he was fighting to stay alive."

"Hurt himself...?"

"Nothing serious, just to remember that he could live and get over any pain thrown at him in life. He holds it inside, yet uses it to fuel the direction of his life. He refuses to let the past hold him down," Kai said.

"I see," Kenny replied, silence again residing between them before Kenny spoke again. "Kai, will you and the others really...can you really...?"

"Stand by you no matter what?" Kai finished the sentence.

"Yes. Would you really do that, even if I wanted to kill myself again? Kenny thought it was wasteful that someone would do that. He couldn't imagine himself doing that for anyone else, but of course his opinion had been twisted by the many years that his father has beat and put him down.

"Of course we would. You shouldn't ask that question," Kai said.

"Why?"

"Because you're a part of this team regardless. And because you're a part of this team, we can't let you give up on yourself. Things just wouldn't feel right," Kai admitted. "I know it sounds like something that Tyson would say, but...I want you to know that each one of you have changed my life. And..." There was a pause in Kai's voice.

"Kai..."

"Next to Tyson, I think I care about you more than the others. I want to protect you and help you keep walking. Neither one of us had our parents nor someone special to our hearts to lean on when we wanted to cry. We've kept it inside. What I'm trying to say is that...you're like a younger brother for me. Someone that you can come to if you want to talk. I don't want you to hurt, Kenny," Kai replied.

"I don't want to hurt either, but it is there, that pain," Kenny said. "Everything is there, eating at me and I can't stop it no matter what. I still can't believe that anyone can help me."

"Is that why you called?" Kai said softly. "Or, is it that you're starting to want someone to prove you wrong, that you can stop hurting?" Kenny fell silent, knowing that it was true. The reason he called Kai was to find a way to prove he was wrong. To figure out this whole mess of vines tangling him inside his brain, wasn't that the reason he fought against the voice this time? Wasn't that the reason he wanted to see Tala?

"I...he told me Kai...that he would listen to me," Kenny blurted out.

"Tala?" Kai inquired.

"He said that if I ever wanted to let someone know how I felt, that I could tell him. He told me that he liked me a lot Kai. That he wanted to see me again."

"I see, so I'm guessing that you want to see him to figure out why and how you feel about him?" Kai asked.

"I..."

"You don't have to tell me. Tomorrow morning I will get up and go to the abbey to get him for you, okay," Kai said with a short smile that felt like centuries since he last had one grace his lips. "I can understand that you might feel more comfortable talking with someone else before the rest of us."

"Kai..." Kenny hesitated. "Why..."

"Why what?"

"Why would he love me? I don't understand it I haven't been able to figure that out since he first told me. Why would anyone...?"

"Because you're a beautiful, and smart person," Kai countered. "You can't keep putting yourself down. You have to shake off things and step forward. Tala probably loves you because...well...with him, it's hard to tell. You'll just have to ask him that question tomorrow."

"I see." There was another long pause as Kenny thought about something, then spoke up again. "Kai...I want...I...I...I want to thank you. For what you've done for me so far."

"I told you Kenny, you're like a brother to me. I will do anything I can for you, all you have to do is ask," Kai said. "Now you should get some sleep, okay."

"Okay..."

"Night Kenny," Kai said.

There was a brief pause before Kai heard the changing note in Kenny's voice. "Good night ani (elder or big brother)." Kai felt another smile tug at the corners of his mouth as he hung up the phone. Leaning back down, he realized that slowly, Kenny was opening up. All those years his father dragged him deeper into the darkness was fading. All thanks to Tala of all people.

"I suppose...I won't have to worry as much as I have been. He's slowly falling for Tala. This might just be what he needs in his life. Someone as stubborn and insightful as that idiot," Kai murmured as he let his eyes close to go back to sleep. This probably being the first night he wouldn't wake in a cold sweat. Tomorrow might definitely have break through.

Okay, that's it. I'm done! I have nothing left to give for this chapter! Um...I guess I should try to squeeze another story out of my brain now. Until next time!