A/N: I am so sorry that I haven't updated in ages! Again, I blame school because what else is there to blame? Anyway, I trust that you have all been reading the latest chapters (81: Children, and 82: Wish). This is more along the lines of semi-AU now, but remember it will always be kind of linked to canon.

As always, may you all read happily!

Chapter 7 Reset: Deceptive Calm

Oz, the truth is waiting.

You were never meant to exist.

Nothing was ever truly yours.

Your very sin is your existence.

"Ollie…Ollie!"

Warm, strong hands shook Ollie's quivering frame that was lying on the living room couch.

"Uncle…Orman?" Ollie whispered, his voice sounding hoarse and raspy. Judging by the body build and blond hair, it was definitely his Uncle Orman kneeling in front of him by the couch, gently holding Ollie's left shoulder with his right hand, and wiping Ollie's tears (which he didn't even notice were there until Orman touched his face) with his left. Still, Ollie couldn't be one hundred percent sure. His vision was blurry with tears, and his eyelids felt as heavy as concrete.

"Ollie, are you alright?" Uncle Orman asked, a frown marring his usually cheerful face.

Uncle Orman's voice was slowly pulling Ollie away from his drowsiness. After a few minutes (that felt like eternity), Ollie was finally able to open his eyes fully when his vision finally cleared up as well.

"Hey squirt, had a bad dream?"

"Oh, hey uncle. Yeah, but it wasn't so bad. Sorry about that," Ollie reassured. "By the way, what are you doing here?"

"Well, I was just about to ask if you wanted to go out for dinner! It's a Saturday night after all. You shouldn't be cooped up here like some emo teenager! Heck, you should invite Anice and Gordon too!"

Ollie smiled at the thought of that. "That sounds like a great idea, uncle."

"Alright! We're gonna rock the house down!" Uncle Orman cheered.

Ollie laughed. "Uncle…"

"Yes, Ollie?"

"Please stop acting cool."

"Teenagers these days…"

"Thanks for inviting me, Uncle Ollie. I mean, you know, what with the Versailles and Nelby families and all…"

"What are you talking about, little Gordie?" Uncle Orman said with a laugh, heavily patting Gordon's shoulder and causing him to almost choke on his food. "We treat you as family. And you know you and Ollie are like brothers."

"Ye—yes I know," Gordon muttered, irritated with his semi-near-death experience. "And yes, Ollie and I are like brothers. Or, to be more accurate, I'm his play servant."

"Hmm, from that smile on your face, I'd say you don't really mind, now do you?" Uncle Orman teased.

Uncle Osman's query was answered with a mere blush, along with a look in Ollie's direction.

Gordon's stare seemed long enough to garner Ollie's attention, so the spunky blond teen who was happily observing Anice pigging out now turned his head to Gordon's direction. "What's up 'Little Gordie?' Why are you blushing? Were you and Uncle Orman talking about your stashes of porn?"

"We were not talking about porn!" the accused shouted.

At that, Ollie laughed. He was glad that some things never changed.

"He's fast asleep, isn't he?" Uncle Orman asked, glancing at the three friends sitting at the back of the car.

"Yes, he is," Gordon replied, gently removing his jacket and wrapping it around Ollie, who was sleeping peacefully on his right shoulder.

"He's been really sleepy lately," Anice said.

Gordon and Orman looked in her direction, urging her to continue.

"He hasn't been eating that much either. Whenever I would drag him out to lunch he would rarely buy anything for himself. The most he would buy would be a piece of bread and a drink, and even then, that didn't happen very often. Earlier, he didn't even finish his meat. He made me eat it."

"How…how long has this been going on?" Gordon asked.

Anice didn't reply for a few seconds, as if lost in thought; the only sign of her movement were the clenching of her fists on her skirt. "I don't really know. Ollie is amazingly good at distracting me. He would just talk and talk while I ate and he would seem okay. By the time I realized that he hardly ate, he looked like he had lost a bit of weight already. He had really big eye bags too. I scolded him about it once. I even teased him and said 'I don't want to be seen with a wimpy boy who looks like he's about to fall off his chair, so go get some sleep!' He just smiled and dismissed me like he always did."

Gordon chose not to reply anymore. Instead he wrapped his arm around Ollie a tad bit tighter.

Uncle Orman sighed, refocusing his attention on the stoplight that finally turned green. "At the very least, keep an eye on him you two."

Uncle Orman finally parked his car in front of Ollie's driveway. As he unlocked the front door, Gordon gingerly exited the car while carrying the still-asleep Ollie in his arms. Immediately he followed Uncle Orman to Ollie's room, all the while looking at the house's interior, seeing all the comic books strewn on the floor, and spotting the blanket on the living room couch Ollie had slept on earlier.

Uncle Orman, following Gordon's gaze, explained: "When I stopped by here earlier this evening to ask Ollie if he wanted to eat out, he was asleep on the couch and crying the whole time. He kept muttering something like 'No, I don't want to' over and over again. Do you have any idea on what's going on?"

Gordon frowned. How long had this been happening? "No, I don't. I've been busy with schoolwork lately, so I haven't had the time to hang out with Ollie and Anice during my breaks."

For the umpteenth time that night, Uncle Orman sighed. "Alright. Let's talk about this once you've tucked Ollie in. I'll meet you at the front door."

As Uncle Orman locked Ollie's front door, Gordon was simply lost in thought, standing just a few centimeters away from him. He didn't know what to do, and he didn't know what to say. What on earth was possibly happening to Ollie? What was he dreaming about? It must have been really horrible to have affected his life like this. Most of all, how long was Ollie planning to pretend that nothing was wrong?

Knowing Ollie (and god darn he sure did), he would never ever tell anyone; not even him.

God he needed a smoke right now. Maybe he should ask if Uncle Orman had a pack?

Uncle Orman, seeing Gordon's predicament, threw a pack of Marlboros towards him. Too bad Gordon was so distracted that it hit him in the head instead.

"Thinking about Ollie, huh? I know how you feel," Uncle Orman said, taking a lighter out of his pocket and lighting his and Gordon's cigarettes. "Actually, I got a call from the school doctor yesterday. He told me that Ollie has been stopping by the infirmary lately, asking for headache pills. It's not really something major to call the house for, but apparently Ollie has been doing it often enough for it to garner concern."

Gordon's eyebrows furrowed. He needed either another pack of cigarettes all to himself or to spend the whole night with Ollie and make sure he was okay.

"Now I know what you're thinking, kiddo. Watching over Ollie the whole night will only make Ollie feel like he's being babied and put him on the defensive."

"But…but…I can just leave right before he wakes up!"

"And how long do you think you'll be able to keep that up? Remember, you have school yourself."

Gordon sighed. Fine, he had no argument to that.

"I guess the most we can do is watch him from the sidelines. Hopefully, he'll tell us what's wrong," Uncle Orman said. "I know that sounds like we're barely doing anything, but I seriously don't know how to go from there. I'll do my best to watch over him outside of school. Everything else will be in your and Anice's hands."

Gordon, having finished his cigarette, throws it on the ground and extinguishes the fire. "Sounds like a plan."

The next day started horribly. Ollie woke up thirty minutes late for first period, so he made a mad, five-minute scramble to take a shower, get dressed, and grab a slice of bread from his fridge. The mad dash to school felt like a 7 kilometer race, even though it really was just a two-minute walk.

Fortunately for him, the classroom was devoid of any authority figures by the time he entered.

"Hey Ollie!" Anice greeted. "The teachers canceled classes for the rest of the day because they want us to cram for prom preparations."

"Oh. Whew, and here I thought I would get an extra load of homework!" Ollie smiled sheepishly.

"You overslept, didn't you? Had a rough night?"

"I told you, it's fine Anice. Everyone oversleeps every now and then."

Anice sighed. Ollie wasn't going to crack at this rate. "Fine. It's not my right to ask. I have to go to the gym since I'm part of the decorating committee. Ask our class rep which committee you're in. She should be roaming around the halls right now."

"Okay!" Ollie chirped.

"Take care of yourself, okay?"

"I will, Anice. I will."

A/N (2): Ugh, I wasn't able to put that much action into this chapter. Oh sigh. Actually, I intended for more action to happen in this chapter, but I guess there's nothing wrong with dragging it out a little bit. XD I promise to update a bit faster in the coming weeks as I am now on vacation. ^^

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Part-Time Reader: Hahaha, thank you so much! I always love striving for a logical explanation of story lines because they just become mind blowing-ly possible and amazing that way. I hope I do not fail to please. :D As for giving everyone a happy ending, I make no promises. ^^