First of all I'd like to thank my reviewers as it's very encouraging. And I'd like to thank a lot of you for reviewing nearly every single chapter. You rule. This was partially inspired by Freaku's "go hug him Jack you sissy boy!" comment. It started as something else but that idea exploded. I know I said this had no continuity but there are a few things I do keep in common with my other fics. Chase is the Dragon of Water, Guan Fire, Wuya Earth, Dashi Wind. He's also a orphan( which is one of his reason for taking such a liking to Omi perhaps,) and spent his youth wandering around China, and other places, looking for the Xiaolin Temple. This has to do with a completely different thing but mainly where the 4 monks get their powers. I hope I didn't confuse anyone.
Chase lay awake on his mat, in his matchbox room at the temple. His keen eyes followed the movement of a small moth by the ceiling. His hands rested on the floor beside him twitching uncontrollably and he sighed as he moved them on top of the blankets in an attempt to calm himself. They clenched into fists unconsciously and the monk groaned knowing the problem. Chase couldn't sleep and he knew exactly why he couldn't sleep, but to admit that would crumble years worth of neatly piled defenses against the inevitable truth that floated around in his mind. His fists clenched because he wanted to fight, to justify his own existence , and to reach out in the manner he was most familiar with.
There was a slight creak as someone inched Chase's door open. He sat up and felt his heart quicken its pace as he waited for the someone in his room to do something, anything. Chase expected a knife in his ribs, a blast of fire, or the cold clammy hands of a Jiang Shi that would use its advantage of surprise to drain him of his chi. He only needed to know how to strike it before it got him.
"Chase?"
Footsteps clattered slowly on the floor, cushioned by bunny slippers and their owners own shuffling walk, Chase felt a hand rest itself on his shoulder and his muscles tensed. There was a brief moment of silence and for that moment all Chase could hear was the beat of his own heart pounding in his ears. Telling him to attack the boy. He raised a hand to his heart and took a deep breath, horrified he would even consider that.
"Are you alright boy? Have a nightmare?"
There was a soft plop as he seated himself by Chase and scooted a bit closer then Chase would have usually preferred,
"You can't sleep, and it's me. Jack, incase you can't tell!" He replied with some of his peppy tone slightly daunted by his sleepiness.
"I know, Omi hasn't come into my room at this hour since he was five, " he said sightly unnerved by Jack's seemingly all knowing statement. He busied his hands with rearranging his blankets hoping Good Jack wouldn't notice how oddly he was behaving.
"The Heylin side is getting stronger isn't it?" Jack asked softly.
"It always seems like that, don't be afraid. I'll die before I let this temple fall."
Jack shuddered knowing it was true and asked his next question.
"And you're sad?"
Chase's heart stopped banging in his chest for a nanosecond.
"Of course not."
"Lonely then? Dojo said you and Guan were once the best of friends...do you miss him?"
Chase blanched and gave a sad sort of smile.
"Dojo's been running his mouth again? Yes we were friends in our time. But he chose his path and I stayed to mine, I was lucky. I had a chance to regret my decision."
Good Jack grabbed Chase's clenched fist and gave it a squeeze, Chase gave a sort of sigh and continued.
"I nearly made the same mistake, but there was intervention and what I drank was no magical potion but pea soup. I spit it out....I never thought...if only I had--" His words turned into dry, strangled, sobs as his mind dragged up all his old memories. Jack's arms wrapped around him in one of his signature bone crushing hugs and sniffled in the way that he did when someone else was sad. Chase sat hunched over too wretched feeling to complain about the violation of his personal bubble. They had been his first friends, his family, what had become of them? They had all drifted off towards evil or legend and left him, abandoned.
"You don't have to be lonely," Jack said softly. "We love you, we'll be there for you, because you've always been there for us."
In the darkness Chase smiled, who 'we' was, was quite obvious to him, and he smiled because in his heart he knew it was true.