Would it be completely ridiculous to consider this fic almost over. After the next big thing happens...I think it may end (gasp) I know, crazy isn't it? I have hopes of making it to at least 200 reviews, just to see if I can. I need...18 more, so please review! Lol, either way, enjoy!

freya kurenai: Hmm, trick you say? Hehehe, no trickery...well...kind of, but...you'll see. And you're right, I actually do know what's going to happen. Scary, isn't it? Oh, and as for your comment on Kiyotaka in your last review, I finally thought of a good role for him, so he'll be in here a lot more in the final few chapters. Thanks for reviewing!

Kazuya Arsashi: My talent is also a curse...if I sucked people wouldn't want me to update and I could do other things (perhaps even...productive things?) Ha! Yeah right...A lot of good things have come out of writing these fics, though. I've gotten plenty of friends from it like you, freya, CeTe, Polaris, Ri kun...a whole bunch of others as well. And I've even started writing a book that writing these fics inspired. Anyway, thanks for reviewing!

Polaris18: Kalelle: Not only are they crazy, but she stole your blachi line.

Kanone: (looks back at the review and sighs) What is the world coming to? I have copyrights to that!

Travis: Like my pout?

Kanone: Exactly, but people still pout without your permission.

Travis: (pouts) Why are people always taking things from me?

Kanone: I don't know, but we'll kick their asses if you want.

Travis:...okay (smiles).

Eriol: I didn't realize my brother was so violent...Thanks for reviewing!

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Kanone looked back and forth between the two men in his living room. He couldn't have possibly hear the oldest one right, "Moving in?" he repeated. Surely he'd heard him wrong.

Jack nodded, "Yes, moving in. As in, living with you until further notice."

Kanone just stared at them, "If I wanted someone to annoy the hell out of me and have sex in my house, I'd invite Kousuke and Ayumu to live with me." he informed them, "Whose idea was this anyhow?"

Jack frowned slightly, "It was mine." he said, "I just thought maybe it would help."

"Help?" Kanone echoed, "How would this help me?"

Jack hesitated now, glancing away. In all honestly, he had expected Kanone to be happy to have someone else around the house, but apparently he was wrong, "I just thought it would take your mind off things." he explained.

Kanone raised an eyebrow at the older man, "What, having you two making out and screwing everywhere will take my mind off me not having my boyfriend?" he asked, skeptically.

Chase almost rose to his lover's defense, saying that they wouldn't do such things, but he stopped himself. All three of them knew that Jack and Chase couldn't refrain from making out every ten minutes, even if they could restrain themselves from having sex, which wasn't a very likely outcome in itself. Jack sighed, "You're right." he admitted, the 'sorry' coming out as no more than a mumble.

Kanone watched the dejected form moving towards the door, Chase in tow. He sighed as he realized those two must be just as lonely as he knew he was, "Wait." he said, just before Jack walked out the door. Hopefull green eyes glanced at him, waiting for his next words, "I suppose I could use the company." he said with a slight smile.

Jack returned the smile with a gratitude-filled one of his own, "Alright." he agreed, softly.

A moment of silence passed over the three before Chase made his way towards the kitchen, "So, what kind of food do you have in this place?" he called.

"I don't know, but I'm fairly certain it all needs to be cooked." Kanone replied, smirking as he heard the lumbering footsteps falter.

"Bastard." Chase shot back. If there was one thing he couldn't do, it was cook.

After a few hours of beating him and doing the worst things imaginable, the grisly man looked Eyes' still-defiant form over. He was bruised and bleeding badly, but still held a glare on his face as if to ask was that all he had. The man growled, "Bastard, why don't you say anything?" he demanded, bring a hand across the younger one's face. Eyes' head snapped to the side with the force, but he just shook it off. He knew if he could make it through this, the man would not only leave him alone, but he wouldn't dare to mess with the ones he held close.

He had seen it before, namely at Chase's. A new, cocky, slave would come to the farm and Chase would beat and bend them until they broke. It wasn't unusual for the older man to reduce someone to a weepy mess when only minutes ago they had claimed they took no one's orders. There had been a few, though, that never cried, a few that never tore their sights from his and never showed him an ounce of respect. Those people were the ones Eyes had so desperately wanted to be back then; the ones that Chase held respect for. He didn't fear them, per say, but he certainly didn't mess with them.

Eyes knew that he had to stay strong and not lose out to this man, not only for his sake, but for everyone else's. He didn't know how long he would be stuck here or what he would have to do, but he knew if he stood up for himself now, it would make life much easier down the road. So, he turned his head back to gaze up at the man, not at all initmidated by his large size or rather aggressive personality. Another growl sounded deep in the man's throat as his eyes locked with still-vibrant blue ones. Not even after all the abuse and torture he'd put this boy through, he refused to break. He showed incredible resistance, and it was a bit annoying and extremely frustrating, to say the least.

The bastard, as Eyes had come to know him, smirked at him, "Fine then. If beating you won't do it, let's see how you do without food for a couple of days."

Eyes just continued to stare at him, an almost bored expression donned his face, "A couple of days, is that all?" he asked, "I've gone a week without food before." True, he felt like he was about to collapse every time he even took a breath and was constantly stumbling around from diziness, but this bastard didn't need to know that.

"You're a real smart ass, aren't you?" the bastard asked, grinning. He was starting to like this kid, despite himself.

Eyes glared in return, "I am no such thing, I simply stated a simple truth."

An actual chuckle errupted from the bastard's throat, as if Eyes was merely there to humor him, "Where could you possibly have come from where not eating for a week is simple?"

Eyes didn't know how Chase acted around those people who managed to gain his respect, but he imagined it had to be something like this. The bastard had done a complete 180, acting much akin to how Chase after he took him back for that brief period of time. However, conversations weren't Eyes' thing, at least not with people he despised such as this man, "Where I have lived and what has happened to me is none of your concern. If you are merely planning to continue in this mindless banter than I'm taking my leave."

An eyebrow shot up at this statement. It wasn't a request to go back, it was a fact that he was leaving, "Why do you think I would let you go?" he asked, crossing his arms.

Eyes studied him for a moment, "Because, I know people like you and how you function. You can't break me so now you'll attempt to gain my respect by seeming civilized, which is about the furthest thing from what you are." he informed the bastard, "When that doesn't work, in about an hour you'll send me back after effectively deteriorating my mind with this senseless ranting of yours. I would perfer to save myself from that particular torture, so unless you plan on beating or raping me, then I'm going back to my room." Even if the man was a bastard, he wasn't quite as horrible as Chase, which is why Eyes knew he could handle him. He had yet to even attempt to rape the younger one yet, but Eyes knew it was coming; people like this were all the same.

Evidently, he had this one pegged wrong because his dark-brown eyes widened slightly in suprise, "Rape you?" he repeated, ignoring the boy's insults for now, "Why in the hell would I do that?" Eyes made no move to answer, figuring the idiot could at least come to that simple conclusion on his own. Eventually, he did, "You've been raped?"

Eyes had to hold back the laugh that he felt bubbling up inside him, "What do you think?" he asked, bitterly. He pushed the worse thoughts of Chase and even Kanone out of his head, and focused on getting out of there to see them again. Even after all the hell Chase had put him through, Eyes couldn't be more thankful for it now. Before when he was beat and crippled, he had nothing to live for, nothing to look foward to, so he didn't necessarily need the strength that he had. Now, though, he had so much to live for, so much to look foward to, and he couldn't thank Chase enough for that strength he had given him. Though, he didn't exactly approve of the means by which he gave it to him.

This new knowledge seemed to open the man's eyes to exactly what kind of person he was dealing with; someone who had had everything taken from them, who had lived in such agony for so long, and yet they still held their head high. Anyone who could survive something like that wasn't someone he needed to screw with, in his opinion. The boy before him was beyond messed up, which was evident by how calmly he told him of all these horrid things that had happened to him. He wasn't a completely heartless bastard, yet he didn't feel pity necessarily for the boy, though he was sure it was there somewhere. No, he felt something else towards this young boy, who couldn't be more that 15 or 16, though he looked several years younger and acted ages older. He couldn't place a finger on what he was feeling, though, so he dismissed it.

There were few people that he had ever felt this way about, almost a sort of admiration of them, but he knew that beating the kid would do nothing but piss him off. So, he simply smirked at the boy, putting up his cocky, controlling mask once again, "Alright, get your ass back to your room." he said in a stern voice, which Eyes only found amusing, "But don't you cause any trouble for me. I'm letting you off the hook this time, but one slip-up and I'll find new ways of hurting you."

Eyes turned his back to the man, heading towards the door, "Good luck." he said, almost sarcastically yet with a hint of sadness in his voice. There was no way this man of all people could hurt him. He'd lost too much already to be hurt so easily.

"Eyes?" Jeremy's frightened voice asked, looking the bruised and beaten boy over. His eyes watered as the silver-haired boy limped towards him, a faint, reassuring smile on his lips, "What did they do to you?"

"It's alright." he assured Jeremy, kneeling down in front of the boy and cupping his face gently, "I just made sure no one would hurt you." It was true that a large part of Eyes' reasoning for taking such abuse was to protect the young boy before him as well as his mother and the others he knew and cared for. He wasn't about to let them suffer if he could do something about it.

Jeremy bit his bottom lip, running a small hand over his cheek where blood was still seeping through a rather gruesome gash, "I don't want them to hurt you." he said, whimpering slightly as his sight moved down to the azure-eyed boy's ripped and bloodied shirt.

Eyes kept that small smile on his lips, "They won't." he promised, hugging Jeremy tightly, "They won't hurt any of us anymore."

Outside the boys' room, a dark figure lurked, smirking at the naive child in the older one's arms. It was humorous how he believed such empty lies coming from his friend, but that was why everyone always said naivete was both a blessing and a curse. He could tell, though, that the silver-haired one knew his promises would fall short if someone with any power made a sudden decision to change the way things worked. Of course, that was exactly what they had done, wasn't it? They were about to change the way their society functioned completely. Life as the people of that poor, underdeveloped town knew it was about to be flipped upside down.

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Hmm, who was that guy? He didn't seem very nice...heh. I don't really have a name for the bastard because...well, I can't think of one. All these little minor roles have sucked up all my names. I'll give him a name next chappy unless one of my lovely reviewers can think of something. (hint hint)

"You're not thinking of doing something stupid, are you?"

a)Blind Spot in the Web

b)The Sound of an Iris Freezing and Melting

c)All Things That Are Possible To You

d)Whispering Shadows