Thanks to: Bluumberry, Raven Deathstar, Dragonair-Ice Sage, Killua Bakura, Devlinn Reiko-sama, Keri Hiwatari, Lokisash, Keisan, Tariki Rania, Raku Ozzarian princess, Jirachi, crazy nek0-JIN, Pyro, Enelya Aldarion, SoulSister, FORFIRITH-on-a-sugar-high, KuronekoHikage, Songs make me cry, Devilburns, The Tigris, Shaka Dragomir Nocturnus, IndigoDeath666, Lady Snowblossom, Game-kid17, Kai-cutie-angel, and wolf-whirl!

Crystal: Umm…sorry for my lazy bum again for not giving you guys responses, it's just that, I'm feeling kind of err…depressed, sad, panic-stricken, and worried right now. I'm even surprised that I managed to write chappy 11 right now, go figure. Anyway, as a big, big thank you gift, here are some small glass wolborg, falborg, driger, and dranzer figurines for all of you! Now on with the fic!

Disclaimer: You already know what I'm going to say…so why bother say it?

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Breathe – Chapter 11: The Sniffles

"ACHOO!" A great sound was heard all over the castle in a rainy/sunny day. It has been at least a week ago since Bryan and Dizzi had made Kai and Rei kiss, since Max and Tyson locked them in the room, and since they made a truce not to hate or prank each other. So far, it had been great; everything was quiet, well except when Tyson and Dizzi argue at something or at err…nothing.

Though, during that week, it seems like everyone had caught a cold, well…more like one by one they did, only to make to others get the cold. The first one who got the cold was Max. Apparently, during that week, the weather was very cold and rainy even though summer was coming soon. The cheerful, hyper boy rushed outside and thought that there was some poor defenceless little rabbit there out in the rain. Though when he went outside, that rabbit the blond thought was –for some reason—a soaked pillow on the ground. Hence, the next day he caught the sniffles and was now lying on the bed, getting some rest.

The next one, who got the sniffles, was Bryan. Oblivious with what happened to his little cheery friend, he went to Max's bedroom and tried to get the younger boy do hand-to-hand combats with him. Max, being the poor sick fellow he is, refused to get out of bed, of course…making Bryan irritated at the same time. The lilac-haired boy threatened to drag Max by his hair all the way down to the training room. By the time Bryan actually makes this threat real, Tala and Tyson had come barging into the room, saving the sick boy out of Bryan's clutches. Of course, the next day, Bryan got the sniffles, and now he's telling EVERYONE that Max gave it to him.

Next one who got the sniffles was Dizzi. She was getting bored during that week, and decided to visit the sick boys. Kenny tried to warn her that if she goes in there she might catch the sniffles along with Bryan and Max. The dark-violet eyed girl shrugged and reassured the brunette that she'll be fine, getting a slight blush from Kenny. Anyway, when Dizzi had gone to see both boys, she found out that it was getting boring too, had gone and fell asleep on one of the lounge chairs in Max's room. When she had woken up, she got the symptoms of the sniffles, and went directly to the infirmary.

And of course, there's ANOTHER one who got the sniffles. Can you guess? Bah, I'll just tell you. It's our very own neko-jin, Rei! Unfortunately, Tyson—being the annoying one—thought that it would be really funny if Rei could get sick too. So of course, he dragged Rei all the way to Dizzi's room and thought that the girl would want some company. Rei, feeling sympathetic that Dizzi's sick and also thought that Tyson would stay with him, agreed and went with the young boy. Poor Rei, instead of having a nice company with his new friends, he got shoved into Dizzi's room, and just had to wait there for at least three hours to let him out (Dizzi was asleep at the time, and Tyson locked the door).

So now, all four of them are sick, except for Tala, Kenny, Tyson, and Kai.

"I'm bored…" huffed Tyson while lying down on the grass. While the other four were sick in bed, the rest are doing whatever they want. The adults aren't back until the next month so there was nothing to do. "Can't we do something fun…or whatever?"

"Not unless you want to be sick, that's fun isn't it?" Tala said sarcastically while throwing rocks at the river. Tyson glared at the other boy and looked at his surroundings. Kenny was leaning against a tree and reading a book, while Kai was sitting crossed legged with his arms crossed and eyes closed. Tyson was ready to look back up at the sky until he saw Driger taking a nap near Kenny.

"Hey! There's Driger!" Tyson sat up and went towards the tiger was taking a nap. Driger, being a watchful feline that he is, sensed Tyson walking towards him and sat up. "Ty…are you sure you know what you're doing?" Tala arched an eyebrow, watching Tyson come closer to the white tiger.

"Of course I know what I'm doing! Why…no wait, never mind…" Once Tyson said that, Driger started to walk towards Tyson, like the tiger found its prey or something, its sly yet cunning at the same time. The bluenette started to back away, while Tala was just watching in amusement. He knows that Driger was just playing with the younger boy, but Tyson was too naïve to notice.

"Right…so you were saying?" asked Tala, while Kai saw what was happening and smirked. Tyson gave them both a glare and kept on backing away from Driger. "I said never mind! Sheesh, anyway, Kenny? Since this is Rei's tiger, and…hehe…you're one of his best friends…uh, a little help?" the younger boy laughed nervously.

Kenny looked up from his book, and then shook his shaggy hair. "As much as I would like to help you, Tyson, the only thing I would suggest is, run. Run away as fast you can." With that, Tyson ran as the speed of light, with Driger following him. Tala laughed his butt off, while Kai kept his smirk on.

"Now that Mr. I'm-so-hungry-all-the-time is gone, we can get on to business," Kai looked at Tala like the other boy grew another head. Kenny closed his book, and went closer where Kai and Tala are.

"Ok, what the deal is happening between you and Rei?" asked Kenny while Tala is nodding his head off. "Yeah, I mean, you guys were actually flirting with each other for the past week, what's up with that?" asked the icy-blue eyed boy.

Kai glared at the two boys, although it was very true. For the past days, before Rei got the sniffles, it seems that the neko-jin and the stoic boy were, ahem…flirting to say at least. One time, when they were eating dinner, Kenny accidentally dropped his spoon and when he went down the table, he saw Kai's and Rei's foot, playing footsies like they actually had been doing it since they met each other.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Tala rolled his eyes. "Hah! Like I'm going to believe that, Kai. It's so obvious, that even the servants know! Can't you just admit one eensy, teensy bit that you're fascinated about your dear neko-jin?"

"Look, Tala. Rei is nothing than but an accomplice to me. Besides, little Minamoto here might have had some hallucinations going on." Kai sneered then went back inside the castle. Kenny frowned and shook his head disappointedly while Tala just smirked inwardly and muttered, "Denial…"

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"ACHOO!" Rei sneezed for the 3rd time in a row. His hair was all out of its hair wrap and his nose was all red because of the cold. The neko-jin looked outside the balcony and saw the sky was clear blue, with no signs of any clouds hovering the sky. 'Ugh…stupid sniffles for making me sick, stupid Tyson for tricking me, stupid whatever that's going on…' Rei thought, while blowing his nose for the last time.

He was about to go and cover himself with a blanket more, when he heard someone come in the door. Rei looked at the wooden door and saw it closed, which made him confused. Who would come in the door, if the doors were closed? Then in a nanosecond, he saw Max, Bryan, and Dizzi sitting at the edge of his bed smiling upon him, even though their faces were sort of pale (well for Bryan, paler).

"Hey Rei! How are you feeling?" asked Dizzi, while Max sneezed again.

Rei gave a small smile and said, "Feeling crappy, like a carriage drove by you or something." Bryan coughed slightly and snorted. "Aren't we all feeling that way…" he muttered.

"So, what you guys doing here? And how'd you come in here in the first place?" Even though Rei was too sick to stand up, he bombarded the others with questions, which made the rest sweat drop.

"Hehe…you probably don't know this, but…they have secret passages here, too like in our kingdom! Isn't that cool or what?" Max, ever so hyper even though he's sick, made Rei slightly optimistic.

"Really? Wow, that's cool," replied Rei.

Dizzi just gave a giggle and told the other boy that once they're all feeling better, she'll show them later the secret passage. "Now, we have other things to talk about, right?" She gave Bryan and Max a look, like somehow they're passing messages just by looking at each other.

"Err…is there anything wrong?" Rei asked, burrowing his eyebrows ever so slightly. "Well, don't mind me to be so bold, Rei, but…what do you think of Kai?" asked Max, crawling over where Rei was sitting and sat beside him.

Rei widened his tired golden orbs slightly. Why would they want to know what he thinks about Kai? Rei thought really hard about the older boy. What does he think about Kai? 'Well, he's cold hearted although he can be really nice at times, also I'll admit he's cute when he smirks…'

"That'll do. Thanks for sharing, Rei-rei!" Dizzi chirped, while sneezing again. Rei widened his eyes even more and started to redden at the bridge of his nose, even though he was already flushed from the fever. He said those things out loud?!

Bryan was supposed to say something, when there was a sound of footsteps coming from the other side of the door. Max put his hand over his mouth while Dizzi motioned the other boys to go back inside the secret passage with her. They knew that they weren't allowed to go out of their bed or else they will be in big trouble. They said their good byes at Rei and right before the door could open, they were out of sight.

Rei looked at his visitor, and saw that it was Kai. Thinking upon what he said—or blurted is the much better term—Rei blushed even more, though you can't really see it since he was already flushed. Kai came in the room to see if Rei is feeling any better, when he saw the raven haired boy looking all red, he couldn't help but think that Rei's even sick than he was before. But we all know that isn't why he's red…oh boy, if only Kai knew…

"Err…are you ok?" asked Kai as he took a seat at Rei's bed. "You're looking redder than before…"

Rei shook his head. "N-no! I'm fine, but what are you doing here? You're going to get sick if you come in here." Kai ignored Rei's rambling and put his hand on the neko-jin's forehead. "You're not that sick…though you're face is really red, are you sure you're all right?" asked Kai, frowning a little bit.

Rei gave him a cheerful smile, "I'm fine! My face is just red because…because of the blankets! Yeah, the blankets! It's really getting hot so yeah…" Kai looked at him doubtfully, though he decided not to push Rei any further. "Well, I just came to check on you, umm…hope you, uh…feel better soon?" asked the slate haired boy, while Rei just nodded. Yep, both boys do feel something…although they can't figure out what…

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"What are you doing?!" Tala yelled, while catching Bryan standing and not on his bed resting. "Are you nuts or something?! You're sick for gods' sakes'! You should be in bed, resting, now go!" He pushed the sick boy back into the bed, where Tala also accidentally falls into the bed with Bryan right under him.

"Errmmm…" Bryan said, getting uncomfortable and comfortable at the same time. He's already admitted to himself that he's feeling something for Tala, although he just thought it only nothing, but then again, it was something. Tala was also feeling the same thing that Bryan is feeling. Although he already accepted it right before he found out.

'He looks so…angelic even though he's sick,' Tala thought. 'Oh what the hell, I can't take this anymore!' With that Tala crushed his lips into Bryan's into a passionate kiss. Bryan widened his eyes and responded back, making Tala moan in ecstasy. He licked Bryan's bottom lip to seek entrance until…

"Bryan?" a voice just came out of nowhere, making Bryan realize that what was happening was all just a dream—or a fantasy more like it. Bryan groaned inwardly, not only that he was sick; he was also hallucinating! He turned around to look at the person who owned that voice and he thought he was going insane. Apparently, the person who said his name was the very same person who he was fantasizing about.

"Are you ok? You looked spaced out there," Tala said while opening the balcony door. "Ah…fresh air, gotta love that. So, how are you feeling?"

Bryan shook his head to get back to reality, and much to his surprise, it worked perfectly. "Crappy, although I can't say that I'm feeling way better than yesterday."

"Hm, well that's good. Ok, now… the healer told me that you need to drink this herbal tea." Bryan saw that Tala was holding this big goblet with something gooey inside it. "Oh no, there is no way in hell I'm going to drink that," Bryan started to back away from Tala.

"But you need to drink this to make you feel better!"

"No! I refuse to drink what looks like watery shit!"

Tala sighed. "Come on, please?" He tried to put on a puppy-dog look and pout so that Bryan would agree with him, though unfortunately Bryan's eyes were shut tight so he couldn't see the puppy-dog look of doom. Tala sighed again, and sat back on a lounge chair. Yep, he would refuse to leave until Bryan takes the gooey stuff.

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Crystal: ;-; I am so, SO sorry for such a very short chapter…but I'm still feeling err…depressed, sad, panic-stricken and worried still so I can't really focus most of the stuff yet. Although, I hope you guys like the Kai/Rei, Tala/Bryan moments. I promise, I'm putting Ty/Max in the next chappy along with Diz/Ken! Umm…hope you guys will forgive me for the short chapter and please don't forget to review! =) Your reviews always cheer me up, and then maybe I'll be cheerful again! Well, ja ne minna-san!