A/N: Thanks for waiting patiently, guys. I like to write when something comes to me, so sometimes it takes a while. So here's a new, pretty short chapter. Enjoy the angst!

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Two months. Two months they had been in this place, and the two lonely teenagers had started to form a routine.

Wake up to the sound of the guards banging on the rusty bars, followed by a witty comment about the ironic comparison to rattling cages by Seth, and the hopeful statement that had become more of a "Good Morning" than anything: "Two more years in this place, man. Only two more years."

But today was different. It was the anniversary. Of the day. The day that Seth would never quite be able to forget.

So this morning, this particular morning, the bars were rattled, the boys were woken, and…silence.

Ryan was a bit unprepared for this change of events. It wasn't as though Seth told Ryan his life story or even how he was feeling, but still, Seth always talked. About the weather, and girls, and how it was completely unfair that they didn't have playstation in a juvenile detention center.

But today, nothing. Not even the sound of a creaking mattress or a heavy sigh. So Ryan pulled himself over the side of his top bunk and peered down to find…

A sleeping Seth.

What the hell?

Seth was never one to spend precious hours sleeping when he could be, well, talking. Or doing something else more productive.

Actually, now that he thought of it, Ryan had never seen Seth asleep before.

Odd.

Well he was asleep now, that's for sure, though Ryan didn't see how he could stay asleep through the banging. Ryan himself started thinking about how annoying that rattling was, and how they could use something nicer like some sort of bell or something, when he was disrupted by a mumbling.

It was Seth. Nice, he thought. A chance for some good blackmail.

He started mumbling again, and Ryan leaned in towards his face to hear, so much that he could hear the soft, labored breathing coming from Seth's mouth.

"No…Why…Why are the flames here? They're supposed to be gone. I don't…I don't want to remember…the flames."

Wait…what?

Suddenly, Ryan felt like he was eavesdropping, listening in on some part of Seth's life he wasn't supposed to hear. At least not until Seth told him. While fully conscious.

"Seth…Seth." Ryan softly shook the gangly teenager, suddenly feeling some sort of closeness to him, some sort of bond.

Kinda like brothers.

And suddenly, Ryan didn't feel so lonely anymore.

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A/N- Hope you like! And reviews are fun and make me inspired to write more. So review!