Krayonder was straight-up confused.

In his twenty-five years of life, he'd come to learn one simple thing; women are confusing. When he was about thirteen, he'd decided he would make it his goal to learn the secrets of these mysterious creatures and give the information to other young men who needed it. He even planned to write a book on it, and become a hero of mankind.

And now, many years later, he was still just as clueless as he was back then.

But at the moment, he wasn't worried about girls as a whole, no. He was worried about two girls specifically: Specs and Sarah.

Sarah was constantly hanging on him, batting her eyelashes. He would see her acting completely normal, but as soon as she noticed him, she would turn into this squealing, clingy mess of what looked like wild fangirling. To be honest, he found it extremely scary. He'd begun try and avoid her as much as he could, but it was a harder task than he'd anticipated. She seemed to be everywhere at once, attacking him with hugs from every corner.

And then there was Specs. She had begun to act, well… different. Maybe it was the makeup, or maybe it was the way she was dressing up all the time now, but something was defiantly up. He thought that maybe she had a crush on somebody, but who? He'd never seen her talk to anybody save for Vince, (who she seemed to hate.) Wesley, (who she'd only talked to once or twice.) and himself.

Who could it have been?

He needed a break from girls. They were amazing in small doses, but they could get overwhelming after a bit. So he was more then relieved when Vince suggested that the guys all pile in his car and go to this huge party in the town over. It would give him a night to relax and figure out what to do to get Sarah to lay off of him.

And more importantly, a night to figure out who Specs liked so he could beat them to a pulp. Unless it really was Wesley, 'cuz he was actually kinda cool. He would just have a loooooong talk with him.

When he met the guys in the school parking lot after class let out, he couldn't help but feel that he had interrupted something. Vince had grabbed onto Wesley's collar, and was glaring at him menacingly. Wesley, on the other hand, was looking up at him with his big green eyes as if he wanted to hide away in a hole.

"Uh… Hi…"

Vince turned to him, and the glare melted away instantly, as if he hadn't just been about to bite Wesley's head off. "Kray! You're here! Well, that's just about everybody, so lets get going!"

Aside from the three of them, there was two more guys tagging along. There was only four seats in the car, so they all had to squeeze in, half hanging out. It was completely reckless and unsafe, and Krayonder knew if he every tried that in his time, he would probably get pulled over. But in the fifties, nobody seemed to care. They passed several more cars full of teens doing the same thing. There seemed to be a certain disregard for authority in the air, and he loved it.

The party was at some guy's house. The house was Huge, big enough to fit any house Krayonder had lived in inside. (his parents had both been rangers, so he'd lived in small on-base apartments his whole life.) Vince told him that this guy's dad worked with his dad or something like that. The music was blasting so loud that he couldn't really tell.

Then he remembered; Vince's dad was the guy who made those blueprints they had to find. He'd actually forgotten that he was even on a mission.

He could almost hear Specs yelling at him. "We're on a mission, Krayonder! We're not here to relive our teenage years!"

But Specs was not there at the moment, so he could do whatever the hell he wanted.

Not really in the mood to flirt with the girls who were staring at him, (which is what he usually did at parties.) he walked over to a wall where he saw a dartboard. He plucked the darts off and started throwing them.

Wesley walked over, drinking a coke absentmindedly. He watched him for a while.

"You're pretty good at darts, huh?"

"Totally! Only, one person has ever beat me, and that was Taz, so it doesn't really count."

"Who's Taz?"

Krayonder's eyes grew wide. He wasn't supposed to mention anything from his time. That little voice of reason in the back of his head that sounded a lot like Specs was really yelling at him now.

"She's uh… she's just this girl from my old school."

"Oh. That's an odd name."

"Yeah…" he changed the subject, hoping that Wesley wouldn't get suspicious. "Sooo… what was going on with you and Vince in the parking lot?'

He leaned back against the wall. "I hate that asshole."

"Why? What did he do?"

"You know his girlfriend, Beth?"

"That really quiet girl?"

"Yeah…" he sighed. "Her. Well, Vince keeps thinking that I'm trying to steal her from him."

"Then why don't you tell him that you aren't interested in her?"

"'Cuz I am," he banged his fist on the wall, so hard that it bruised his pale skin slightly. "Do you see the way he talks about her? He acts like she's an object, like some china doll! She deserves so much better than that! She's this amazing, beautiful woman, and- and, I-" he squeezed his eyes shut.

Krayonder looked at this boy, do different from Vince. Pale skin instead of tan, jet-black hair instead of fair blonde. Kind green eyes instead of harsh blue ones. A kind heart instead of a cold one.

He put a hand on his shoulder.

"I've seen her with bruises before," Wesley was shaking with anger. "Her parents are some of the nicest people I've ever met, so I know it's not them. He's hurting her, and I want to help her, but every time I get close to her, Vince loses it!"

"That's horrible," Krayonder thought about how many times he watch good girls in his high school years stick with bad boys, and they always ended up cold and broken. One girl, who had actually been a good friend of his, committed suicide in his senior year. He had been at a party when she died.

He felt sick.

"Come on," he said, patting Wesley on the back. "Lets get out of here, I'm not really feeling like partying."

"I saw an ice cream place just a block back when we were driving."

The two walked in silence, and for the first time, Krayonder really saw Wesley. The boy was wearing an old, frayed jacket and patched up jeans. There was dark circles under his eyes. He looked almost like a puppy that had been kicked too often.

At the ice cream parlor, Krayonder ordered rocky road and Wesley ordered chocolate. When he saw the dark haired boy searching franticly through his wallet for money, he offered to pay for both of them. His cheeks had turned bright red, but after a bit of persuasion, he agreed. For the whole time they ate, they were completely silent. Anyone standing by would've said that it looked like the two boys didn't know each other well and that they had no idea what to say, but it was quite the opposite.

Krayonder knew what it was like to feel like to not be able to do anything about something. Sometimes, all you needed to feel a bit better was to have someone there, to be your friend.

They walked back to the party when they were done, where they found Vince and the other guys looking for them. It was well past midnight, and they all wanted to go home. Vince's eyes were glassy, and he reeked of alcohol, so Krayonder drove everybody home and walked from Vince's place (which was even bigger than the other guy's house.) to Robert's house.

Once inside, he really didn't want to go to his room. He just felt really sad, and he didn't want to be alone. He knew it was babyish, but he needed to be with Specs.

He tiptoed over to her room and quietly opened the door. The light from the hall fell onto her beautiful face, as she slept peacefully. A single auburn curl had fallen over her eyes.

She was so beautiful.

He shut the door behind him, and Specs slowly opened her eyes. "Krayonder?" she slurred sleepily.

"Specs, I- I'm sorry for waking you up, man. I was sad and… I need you."

She scooted over and patted the bed, motioning for him to lay down next to her. He gratefully dashed over and pulled the blanket around them. She cuddled close to him, resting her head on his chest. As he put his arms around her, he felt this wave of peace fall over him. There was bad people in the world, true, but there was also her in his arms, and that was all he needed.

"Goodnight, Specs."

She mumbled something, her eyes already closed. He placed a gentle kiss on her forehead, the love he felt for her swelling up in his chest.

They fell asleep interlocked in a sweet embrace, their hearts beating in time.