For the first time in a long time, Horohoro found himself falling asleep in the night. It was a really strange feeling, he hardly even remembered it at all. But he hated having to sleep again, all the memories of Ren came flooding into his dreams. He couldn't stand it. Why did he have to be thinking of it all the time? It made everything so much more painful, even if they were pleasant memories and not nightmares.

"Ren, hold on to me, okay? Don't let go."

"O...Okay..."

"Are you scared, Ren? It's okay. Don't be. Trust me, alright?"

"I...I trust you, Horohoro."

"Good. Are you ready?"

"I guess so...AAAAAH!"

The adrenaline rush that followed as Horohoro jumped, with Ren holding onto him, was simply thrilling. As they splashed into the cool, clear lake, a feeling unlike any other took over his senses: it was happiness.

He was laughing, and Ren was too. Ren looked so cute when he laughed. They were both dripping wet, and they both looked ridiculous, but they were having too much fun to care.

Horohoro groaned softly in his sleep. When would this mental torture end? Not any time soon, he realized, as another memory took over his dreams.

"Dammit! Why is this so hard!?" Horhoro threw his pencil onto the table in frustration, gritting his teeth. Math was always his worst subject. He wrinkled his brow, glaring at the sheet in front of him.

He had spent hours trying to do his math homework, finding that he simply did not understand.

"What's wrong, Horohoro?" The Ainu spun around to see Ren standing innocently in the doorway, waiting for his reply.

"Nothing much," he grunted in reply. "I just don't really get my math homework, and there's a test on it tomorrow, that's all."

"I-If you want...I can help you...I mean, I'll try..."

Horohoro's eyes lit up. "Yeah! I could really use your help, Ren! Come on, sit right here." He pulledu p a chair next to him and aptted the seat, gesturing for Ren to sit down, which he did.

"Okay..." Rne looked at the assignment, scanning the problems. "The reason it's so confusing for you...is because you're getting the tangent, sine, and cosine all mixed up..."

"Ohhhh." Horohoro slapped his forehead. "Stupid me."

"See...? If they ask for the tanget value in the triangle, you have to divide the opposite side by the adjacent side...if you can just remember the formulas, it's really easy..."

The next day, Horohoro took his test. He didn't have too much trouble with it.

And he ended up getting a 95.

"Ren!" he screamed, bursting with happiness as he skipped cheerfully into the door. "Look, Ren! An A! I got an A on the test!" He ran over to Ren, swooping him off his feet, holding him in his arms and spinning around and around, laughing and grinning.

"It's all thanks to you, Ren! You're a good teacher, huh? Thanks Ren, I owe you..."

This memory shifted to another one.

This was worse than any nightmare that Horohoro had ever encountered. It was as if his own mind was taunting him, rubbing in and carving the fact in his heart that eventually, Ren was no longer going to be with him, and he would have no more memories like such with him.

"Mornin', Tao. The school year's started again, and you're the same nerdy little piece of shit."

Ren froze as he heard the local school bullies speak to him. Horohoro and his friends had long stopped bullying him, but there were still the other kids to consider. Most of them were the flunkies who thought picking on smarter kids would make them look cooler. He tried to ignore them and move along like nothing big was happening, but he found that nearly impossible as they grabbed him by the hair and jerked him back.

"Where d'ya think you're going? The fun hasn't even started yet."

He found himself being slammed into the wall, a pair of hands gripping at his collar. "Let me go!" Ren yelped, struggling furiously. His efforts were met with a slap across the face. He gasped, his cheek stinging.

Ren was shoved to the floor as punch after punch and kick after kick rained upon his frail body.

"Stop it...please..."

The kids who were beating him laughed, pointing out that he was indeed crying, and therefore a crybaby. His eyes widened as he was jerked roughly back to his feet and thrown against a row of lockers. A hard blow to his stomach caused him to double over, and the pain worsened as he recieved yet another blow.

The abuse suddenly stopped, and he could hear a familiar voice. Ren looked up to see Horohoro standing there with his arms crossed, glaring. In short, he looked like he was pretty much pissed off.

"What do you think you're doing, you insignifigant little brats?"

"Oh, uh hi, Horohoro...we were just doing your job for you..."

"What job?" Horohoro hissed, taking a step forward. "Who gave you permission to contaminate Ren with your filthy hands, huh?"

The kids looked confused and scared as Horohoro glared at them. They had thought he was still the old Horohoro, and that beating up Ren would surely make them more favorable with him, thus heightening their social status in the school. Of course, the Ainu gave them no such quarter.

"I asked you a question. And you'll answer me." Horohoro grabbed the leader of the small group by the collar, throwing him disgustedly to the floor. "You're all pathetic little wannabes. Get the hell out of my sight before I kick your sorry little arses."

Terrified, they scrambled away like frightened dogs.

Horohoro turned to Ren, kneeling down next to him. "Are you alright?" he asked, his tone instantly becoming softer. "Did those freaks hurt you badly? Oh...Oh gosh, Ren, your bleeding..." There was a gash on the boy's cheek from where he had been kicked by one of them.

Horohoro pressed his sleeve to the wound, trying to stem the flow of blood. "Aww, I'm sorry. It's all my fault. If I had come earlier..."

"No...I-It's alright," Ren insisted. "It's not that big of a deal..."

The blue-haired boy wrapped his arms around Ren, ruffling his dark locks of hair. "Don't worry about it, Ren. You saved my life last year, remember? I owe you mine."

Horohoro snapped awake, heart pounding and sweat pouring down his forehead. His hand touched the area under his eye, and he realized he had been crying, too.

If there was only some way he could somehow exchange lives with Ren. He would rather die so that Ren could live instead of watching his condition worsen each day as his life slowly slipped away and disappeared into thin air.