Proceeding Pain Part 2

Randa: Not many reviews this time, but for taking so long here's a chap twice as long as usual.

Wonton: I think Ice is going to cry. Fire looks like he's gonna blow for people upsetting his twin.

DIF: (sniff) Well I hoped you like the last chapter.

DFF: (glaring) Enjoy this new chapter.

Tsume toiled all day the next day. He had been whipped quite a few time that day trying to keep his pack from dying out even more than it had. There was hope for escape so instead of letting them die he would help them live. Not really his forte but Kiba hadn't been so harsh today and every time he saw Gear or Cheza they smiled. He just grumbled and let himself get beat for his pack but he was harsher toward them in words.

When the place finally shut down for the night and he changed back to human form his clothes were ripped and he was bleeding pretty bad.

"Great. Just goddamned great!" Tsume growled. He was pissed. This was the first and last time he stuck his neck out for anyone. "Why is it when ever I do something nice I always end up worse for the wear?" His voice was so low that no human would hear him, to bad for him that the people listening to him weren't human, rather his listeners were a wolf, dog, and Lynx. Growling and trying to clean his wounds.

"You know I really don't want to go near him at the moment. Seriously It looks like he'd bite anyone's head off at the moment. SCARY." Gear said loudly and Cheza gave the husky a look.

"There's only ever been one person to get close to him when he's in this mood. Sadly, we don't know where he is at the moment." Kiba said with barely concealed sadness. Tsume glared at the white wolf for mentioning Toboe and his weakness toward the boy(1).

"This one knows. Though this one was told not to reveal as all would come in due time. Such cryptic words." Cheza spoke. "This one had always thought she was the only one to say things in cryptic ways." She giggled then.

"Well all assignments have been given so we need to move out." Gear got serious to show that this needed no error, and needed to be taken care of precisely. Tsume had a slight look of confusion in his eyes.

"You are coming with this one Tsume. You are in need of medical attention and the best attention you can get is with this one." Cheza said to the grey wolf.

"Well actually it's T but she would probably go haywire with any more people with her." Gear said contradicting the lynx.

"Not to mention she wouldn't be able to handle him in this shape." Cheza agreed with him, and with that they went to work. Cheza helped Tsume out of the building and into town with Gear and Kiba.

"Wait where's the rest of the wolves?" Kiba asked quickly.

"Didn't I tell you?" Gear asked. Kiba shook his head. "Well they went with my father on a quick sprint to the south, you know the free land." Gear answered. "Well this is where we go our separate ways. Kiba come with me I'll go with you as far as the pub but then I have to get home. My lady friend is waiting for me." He waggled his eye brows. Cheza huffed.

"You never leave that poor girl alone do you?" Cheza reprimanded.

"Nope, never, and she loves it to." And they went their separate ways. Gear and Kiba passed some rundown looking houses, went a few more blocks down, and turned right. "Now go down this street and once you get to The Crow, go in and ask for either Howling Crow or El Brown Crow. Though you might want to go just for El Brown Crow, you might get a bit of a surprise if you choose him, though you'll get throughly confuzzeled if you choose Howl." Gear explained. "Bye" He said before running off.

Kiba blinked at the quick retreat Gear had made. Was there something wrong the pub down the way? Kiba didn't know but knew he had to go down that way anyway, so he walked down the dark street. He had no idea what time it was, but knew it was really late. What pub stayed open this late? Again Kiba didn't know, but hesitated once he got to the door of 'The Crow'. It was an odd name to the white wolf and he didn't really understand what it meant, but guessed it really didn't matter.

Just as he opened the door he heard a slow song playing.

"I can't run anymore

I fall before you

Here I am

I have nothing left

Though I've tried to forget

You're all that I am

Take me home

I'm through fighting it"

Kiba looked around and no one looked at him. They were all staring at the singer on the stage. A girl about two years younger than Kiba stood there. The girl looked and smelled a hell of a lot like Toboe except she was… well a girl but her sent was the same. Her pants were a hip hugging, tight, boot-cut, type of pants, showing her curves. Her shirt the same color but it didn't button up, it was just a form fitting long-sleeved t-shirt. She also had on a green cotton vest the same shade as her pants that hung down little past her hips. She had on boots though they came up almost to her knees. She also had eyes the same honey brown color. Her hair was the same strawberry-brown and her bangs with the same messy side part. Then came another change the rest of her hair was pulled into a loose braid showing that she had extremely long hair because the braid went down to mid-thigh. Her voice very beautiful and well practiced in singing.

Kiba didn't get any more time to examine the singing teen on stage as some one tapped him on the shoulder. Kiba turned to look at the person and when he saw who it was, Kiba immediately hugged him. Then, once he noticed what he was doing, let go of the person in front of him.

"Sorry, it's just I thought..." Kiba was cut off.

"Shh I know. You though I was one of the shot runners. Fortunately I had Gear there to help me out." The brown haired mad in front of him said. "That was really weird to hear you sound like that Kiba. I have never once known you to get so emotional." The guy teased. Kiba lightly blushed knowing that the man was right.

"Well it's been a stressful week, Hige, and Tsume was being really out of character. He got really me..." Kiba was cut off by a hand on his mouth. Hige shook his head and nodded toward the stage.

"Don't finish that. T could hear you, if she found out something happened to Tsume she might freak." Hige informed.

"I've been hearing a lot about this 'T' flipping if she heard about Tsume. Why?" Kiba asked throughly confused by all the talk about 'T'

"So you've heard about 'Flower Kitten' right?" Kiba nodded. "Well there's also 'Blue Collar Puppy' and 'the Howling Crow' that we know. There's also 'Watch Dog', 'Air Bud', and 'Black and White'(2). 'Blue Collar Puppy' is Blue, she was named this because of her eyes, the collar she wears, and that she's a dog. Do you get that?" Kiba nodded again. "Well then you've, most likely, have met 'Watch Dog', Who happens to be one husky, Gear, and I'm pretty sure you understand that. Then there's 'Air Bud', Gear's older brother. Now I've met this guy where you haven't and he loves sports and anything to do with balls, literally, and so this is why James was named 'Air Bud'. I can't really tell you about 'Black 'n' White' cause I haven't met him. Now from what I've told you can you figure out who T is with the name HOWLING with it? Tsume probably would have had it by now with all the clues." Hige finished.

Kiba thought. T obviously had the t in her name. Her name went with... "Toboe. Are you saying that girl up there is Toboe?" Kiba asked incredulously. His eyes were wide and his face full of surprise. He then heard a magnified giggle. He looked to the stage again and saw the girl looking at them. She had obviously heard what he'd said and found it funny.

"Now all for my last song to night, WHAT DO YOU ALL WANT TO HEAR!" She screamed with a smile.

"Fields of Innocents." Came from the right.

"Missing!" Came from a rather large group of people from the left.

"Solitude!" Came from above.

"BRING ME TO LIFE!" Came from all around. Hige laughed and joined the chanting of 'Bring Me to Life'. Then turned to Kiba.

"You can tell the travelers from the locals because of what songs they choose. See T hasn't sang 'Bring Me To Life' yet tonight and all the travelers ask for the ones they've heard before that they like the best." The girl started speaking again so Hige stopped talking.

"El Brown you only want me to sing that song because you get to help sing it!" She accused with a laugh.

"Nuh-uh!" He yelled back. "Air-head is here. I want to hear the original." He finished. A guy with shaggy black hair stood up and gave a mocking glare toward Hige. "Besides I have a friend to entertain!" He laughed. "The guy that went up is James, Gear's older brother, who is pretty awesome."

James got on stage and went around trying to find his stuff. Once every thing was together everything got calm.

"How can you see into my eyes like open doors

leading you down into my core

where I've become so numb

without a soul my spirit's sleeping somewhere cold

until you find it and lead it back home"

Toboe sang on and eventually James joined in. Kiba was amazed. He had thought that the girl was good singing the previous song but this was glorious. The girl waved at Hige in a shooing motion and Hige nodded.

"Come on. My shift is over, we can get to the house and get some rest." Hige lead the way out of the pub and back the way Kiba had come. Hige stopped in front of one of the rundown houses. He got out a set of keys and let them in. Kiba hesitated. Weren't they going to at least make sure he really was Kiba. Then Kiba remembered, the nose. Hige could sniff out anything and remember every sent down to a t. "Soo where do you wanna sleep? There's the AM room or my room. Take your pick." Kiba rose an eyebrow.

"She seriously keeps all the AM's in the same room? I really don't want to be there. Do you mind?" Kiba asked.

"I wouldn't have offered if I did. Now come on before we wake anyone up. I seriously don't want to wake Leera. If she's anything like when she's awake." Hige shivered. The two went up two flights of stairs and went to the very end of the hall. Hige opened the door to the room and let Kiba go in first. The place wasn't lavished in special stuff. It was rather plane and sort of dull. Hige came in and sat next to Kiba on the bed.

"It doesn't really matter, space wise, how many more people or other's come to this place. It's the food we're having problems with. The AM's and FM's won't help with anything. The pups and BS can't because they have their own jobs. So that leaves the FD's and Sergeant, because the other two sets went south. I wish the AM's and FM's had gone too. Their such freaks." Hige ranted.

'You do know I'm an AM, right?' Kiba asked with just a raised eyebrow. Hige smirked at the expression.

"You're different. You are with me and have yet to try to break order." He leaned forward and kissed Kiba on the lips before getting up and going into his closet. When the brown haired teen came back out he was in a pair of sweat pants and no shirt. He then tossed a set of sweats in Kiba's lap. "Might want to go change in the closet. There's a lot of room in there, so you won't be bumping around." Kiba, still shocked, just got up and went to the closet.

Hige went and pulled down the bed spread and sheets and climbed in. He was closest to the window and was facing it. How could I just go and kiss him like that? Now he's gonna be uncomfortable. I'm such an idiot! He didn't know Kiba had come back into the room until a soft weight settled behind him. A bare chest pressed against his back, a set of arms wrapped around his waist, and a pair of lips touched the juncture of his neck and shoulder. Hige let out a gasp.

"You don't know how torn up I was at the thought of you being dead. When I heard Gear talking about you I was overjoyed that you were still alive. I had thought when I was younger that I would still love Cheza, but when I saw her last night I couldn't conjure those feelings. I was still soo caught up in the fact you might be dead that I couldn't really see Cheza." Kiba's voice held no emotion. It wasn't cold or hurtful just devoid of feeling, but Hige had turned a bit to look into the other's eyes that were always filled with emotion. There was pain, relief, sadness, and... Did he really see it... love? "I noticed that... I love you Hige. I know you think that what you did would make me 'uncomfortable' but it really put things in perspective." Kiba's voice still held no emotion but his eyes showed nothing but love.

Kiba leaned down and kissed Hige, who returned it with vigor. The two then broke apart Kiba laid his head down on the pillow and they fell asleep in the other's arms. Though before the fell completely fell asleep Hige managed to mumble out one last thing.

"I love you, too." was said lower than a whisper. "Good thing, too, because Cheza's got Spot and Blue's got Gear. We would have been left alone." Kiba chuckled and they drifted off.

1- They don't know Toboe is a girl.

2- Those just cam up out of no where.

Randa: Can anyone tell us if Kiba was too OOC?

DIF: We also need a new Beta. Any one up for it?

DFF: Hoped you liked it. Also to diclaim again: All songs used in this fic are copyrighted to Evanescence unless said other wise. First song was October and the next was Bring me to Life as said in the story.

Wonton: There you go complete fluff there at the end. Anyone opposed to this?