Nearly a week later found Tenderheart back in the Hall of Hearts, picking at his breakfast, looking as down as he ever did. Bright Heart hadn't returned to his inventing. Nor had he found any other pastime to fill the void.

The following week had continued on much in the way Soulful had predicted. Bright Heart kept moving from hobbie to hobbie, task to task, and when he didn't instantly prove to be as adept with it as he was with science and inventing, then he would quit, feeling disgusted with himself.

This of course only worsened the self-doubts that ate at him when he quit inventing to the point where he in fact, expected to fail at whatever new endeavor he set out to do. Naturally, expecting to fail hastens one along in actually doing so. It was a downward spinning cycle of self-doubt, disappointment, and despair.

Soulful Heart called it a Catch-22. Tenderheart called it a nightmare.

Among his recent attempts, Bright Heart tried: cooking; which ended with him burning his paws and dropping a hot tray on Treat Heart's foot, directing cloud car traffic; there were three crashes in as many hours, portrait painting; he ended up getting Stellar Heart furious at him when Bright Heart portrayed Regal as being fatter than she actually was, swimming; which ended up him walking home, embarrassed and missing his bathing suit, and playing the trombone; nearly deafening half of Care-a-Lot with the noise a flatulent dying moose might make.

Bright Heart's mood declined along with his self-esteem. He was uncommunicative most of the time, and snappish when he wasn't. He might have almost been Soulful Heart on one of his better days, but Soulful's snarkiness was simply part of his character. With Bright Heart, it reflected a deep hurt.

Soulful Heart alternatively argued, pleaded, and insisted that Bright Heart go back to what he thought was his true calling. Bright Heart would simply dig in his heels and refuse. There would be arguments, fights that could be heard all across the Kingdom of Caring.

It made the others uncomfortable and nervous. The two of them were usually the best of friends, but now…Tenderheart suspected that Soulful's almost belligerent attitude towards the problem was a mixture of disappointment, sadness, and fear masquerading itself as anger.

Tenderheart once made the mistake of suggesting that he was too close to this problem and perhaps someone else should trying talking to Bright Heart. Soulful gave him a withering glace that made him feel like an ant under a magnifying glass on a bright, sunny day.

Of course, Tenderheart was lucky in at least one respect. He wasn't in the middle when Soulful and Bright Heart started going at it. Poor Gentle Heart looked crushed when they fought. She didn't know what to do, they were both her friends and it pained her when they fought.

In fact, Tenderheart turned around in his seat. Sure enough there they were at the back table, arguing furiously. Tenderheart, and everyone else there, tried not to hear them. Getting involved as a mediator would only get your head bitten off by the both of them, so no one tried anymore.

Even as far as the arguments went, this one was getting pretty bad. To say nothing of loud…

"You're going to kill yourself if you keep doing this!" Soulful said in what was a snarl in all but name.

"Better than killing all of you the next time something explodes!" Bright Heart snapped back, looking not all that far off from exploding himself. Gentle Heart tried saying something but as was her wont, was completely overlooked in the middle of the fight.

"So letting us all just sit back and watch you waste away is somehow preferable?" Soulful demanded. "Watch you squander your potential?"

"So I'm only valuable if I'm building things for you?" Bright Heart shot back, incensed.

Gentle Heart bit her lip and buried her face in her hands, her shoulders wracking in quiet sobs. Tenderheart got up to try to do something when things got even more out of hand.

"Now look what you've done!" Soulful demanded of Bright Heart.

"Me?"

"You made her cry!"

"You're the expert on that!" Tenderheart picked up his pace, hoping he could put a stop to things before they got worse. No such luck.

"If you cared one bit about the family you'd see how much you're hurting them when you deny your gifts like this!" Soulful exclaimed. Bright Heart's face grew stormy.

"Since when have you ever cared about this family?" He snapped, making Soulful's jaw drop as his voice rose. "I grew up with them. I was raised with them. What do you know about family? YOU WERE BORN IN A CAULDRON!"

That last angry word was still echoing off the walls when Bright Heart turned and stormed out of the hall, nearly knocking Tenderheart on his rear. Dead silence emerged after that. Everyone had heard the exchange and looked as if their world had turned upside down. Tenderheart was about to go after Bright Heart but looking at Gentle Heart's horror stricken-look, her paws grasped over her mouth, and Soulful, he decided he was needed here.

"Soulful? You know he really didn't mean that, he was just angry and it's been a bad week and—Soulful?" Tenderheart asked. The fox hadn't batted an eye in over a minute.

"Soulful?" Gentle Heart asked, concerned even though her eyes were still puffy from crying. The fox still didn't move for a long while. He just stared vacantly at nothing. Eventually he shook his head and looked like he was trying to say something, but couldn't get it out. His eyes started watering and he just covered them with one paw.

Oh, no…Tenderheart as he helped the fox get up and guided him to the door. Gentle Heart draped one of Soulful's arms over her shoulder and helped walk him out. "Come on…let's get you home."

The walk to Soulful's house was done in complete silence. Gentle Heart and Tenderheart exchanged worried glances. This was worse than anything they'd expected. Soulful didn't remove his paw from his eyes the entire way.

When they arrived at his home they had to help walk him up the front steps. "Are you going to be okay?" Tendeheart asked. Only a fool would as if he was okay now…

Soulful didn't answer, verbally or otherwise. He just opened the door and closed it behind him the second he got inside.

Dejected and not sure what to do next, Tenderheart and Gentle Heart started walking back to the Hall of Hearts. Gentle Heart paused for a moment, straining her ears. It could've been her imagination, but she could've sworn she heard sobbing coming from the other side of Soulful's front door.

Shaking her head and on the verge of tears again, Gentle Heart just followed Tenderheart as they headed back.