Author's Note: Hey guys! Wow... this took a REALLY long time didn't it? I'm so sorry! School just never gives me a break. I wasn't sure if anyone was still reading this story so I held off on it, but I've finally decided to continue on anyway. Enough of that though, enjoy the chapter!

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters from Sekaiichi Hatsukoi.

Chapter 4

Light bleed through the broken window of the room and hit Takano's face with great intensity. The young man pried his eyes open at the light source that felt blinding, but then shut his eyes again soon after. He hadn't realized the window was there before because of the dark that was brewing when Haitani had pointed him toward the room, but now with the sun rising through the window and no saving grace blinds, he knew it was time to get up.

Takano rolled off of the bed and sniffed slightly and then wrinkled his face. In the light of day he could clearly see the urine stains that adorned the mattress; the same ones that decorated the lovely torn wallpaper in the living room. Takano let this little fact bother him for only a second, but he decided not to dwell on it.

The teen walked down the hallway, slightly disoriented, and nearly hit a wall while turning the corner to reach the living room where the older men were sleeping. It was weird being the first one awake for once and he took note of the sleeping positions both men took up. Haitani kept his arm underneath his head to act as a pillow, while he slightly bent his left knee to have his left foot planted on the floor. To Takano, he looked like the epitome of comfort.

He then turned to the other side of the living room to see Onodera using his rolled up jacket as a pillow as he laid on his side, facing the wall. All the while, the man was slightly shivering. Takano stared at the man for a few more moments and then took off his own jacket and placed it over Onodera's shoulders to give him warmth. He reprimanded himself for doing something a lovesick boy would do for his girlfriend, but then he realized that this wouldn't apply to neither him nor Onodera.

After getting up from his crouched position, he spun on his heel and headed out the back door toward the yard outside. When the teen gazed outside he was disappointed with the state of it. The grass was yellowing and patchy, with dry patches of dirt clumped up in random places of the lawn. Next to the door there was a burned pile of wood which must have been where Onodera cooked the goat last night. The only thing pretty about the scenery was the sun rising in the distance, giving off various shades of pink and orange.

He wasn't expecting much given that the yard was not taken care of for years, but he would have liked to think that this house had healthy vegetation similar to the ones at his mother's house. It was the one aspect of his life back then that he missed. He remembered sitting underneath a tree by the back porch of the beautiful home and just reading, falling into a different realm, and wishing that he could be a part of that place instead of the one he was living in.

Lifting his eyes from the ground, the black-haired boy noticed the fence that was at one point guarding the perimeter of the lawn was left in a saddened state of breaking in and falling over in many places of the wooden barricade. Takano jogged over to a gaping hole and peered out; there was a pathway downward into what he assumed was a creek since the plant life along the path seemed much greener than the grass under his feet.

The promise of water was very enticing; much so that Takano dared to venture out on his own without a care to his traveling companions. The boy walked out of the poor wooden enclosure to get a better view and sure enough there was a water source at the end of the path. He walked down the steep path and when he got to the creek, he got down on his hands and knees and drank it with much fervor.

When Takano finally quenched his thirst, he rose, but then soon realized that he wanted to be alone for a bit longer. A place void of any people was refreshing to Takano and he wanted to take advantage of the entire time he was there. He continued walking down the beaten path until it soon turned back into a sidewalk with evidence of abuse. He winced when he felt a jolt of pain at the bottom of his sole. He rose his foot and found the culprit, a rock. Takano regarded the rock with great disdain and then kicked it hard which sent it tumbling down the inclined roads. After giving a grunt of approval, the teen then continued to saunter down the walkway and gazed at the houses branched off of the sidewalk.

"What a shame. This would have been a nice place," he said to himself.

"It was indeed a nice place," a soft voice said behind him. Takano jumped and spun around expecting to see a thief, but mentally slapped himself when he realized it was just Onodera holding the jacket Takano placed on top of him.

"You followed me?" Takano raised an eyebrow. He extended his hand to retrieve the jacket which the twenty-six-year-old handed over.

"No, I just happened to see you walking out here." The older man smiled sweetly and then resumed walking through the residential area of Stanotis. Onodera stopped in at a corner where the sidewalk bent into a sudden 90 degree angle in front of a very old looking house. "There used to be a tall tree over here. Every other year it would grow apples, but whenever some kids tried to take one, the homeowner here would chase them screaming his head off about how they are worse than the scum at the bottom of his toilet seat."

Takano laughed with the brown-haired man but nevertheless he gave him confused stares. "How do you know?" he asked, although he expected the answer before Onodera uttered it.

"I was born here!" the man offered this statement with a very broad smile. After a moment of silence from the teen, the older man continued, "I lived here until I was sixteen, then I went to Listriv to study magic. It was mostly on a whim." Onodera gave out a loud sigh, "But, well, you've seen how bad I am at it… I failed my first year. So I studied language instead; it's easier for people like us, you know?" Onodera chuckled softly.

Onodera continued his personal story again although Takano didn't ask for more information. "I lived there for three years, and in that time this city was completely evacuated; my mother told me all about it in the letters she sent me. So, I went to Viburm instead when I finished my studies."

Takano looked at Onodera's sad face and then asked the question that was bugging him for some time, "Why did they leave in the first place?"

Onodera sighed, "It's complicated, but I'm sure you can handle it."

Takano nodded his head and then gave the brunet his undivided attention.

"Well, you know that Listriv is a monarchy." When Takano nodded in assertion the man continued. "The way of life in Listriv is that everyone follows their king for advice and he calls the shots, no questions asked. In the past this worked great; there were strong leaders who would bring prosperity to the nation and they knew effective ways to help the needy.

"However, the country's recent king is not very strong, and I don't mean physically, I mean in any sense. The previous king was tactful, but it's clear that his son didn't inherit any of that; or, he had no training ahead of time. So, the whole population is blindly following this man who has no idea what he's doing, and eventually the country meets with a famine. The king does nothing while the people affected by the famine starve. When he realizes that something needs to be done about it, he does the only thing he knows how to do; he takes it from someone else. Now, it's no secret to anyone that Heliconis is very well off. This and the fact that they are a bordering nation with Listriv is the incentive that the king needed to ask for some food. But instead of asking for it like a civilized person, he threatened our country, and told them that if they didn't cooperate, they will blast Stanotis off the map. It's closest city to Listriv so that would probably be the reason for that. Anyway, since Heliconi people didn't fully understand the magic that Listriv had; they assumed that they could very well blow them up to smithereens. So out of terror, the people who lived here evacuated immediately."

Takano listened to every piece of information that Onodera fed him, but couldn't help but feel that the information was very biased. "Is that all there is to it? It seems like quite a leap to just threaten someone else."

Onodera crossed his arms across his chest. "From him I wouldn't doubt it. He's just desperate because he doesn't have the brains to take care of his people, and everyone is expectant from him."

"Anyone would panic if the people they were taking care of were going hungry; it's kind of like you when I don't take my lunch to school," Takano added wisely.

Onodera shifted his eyes from Takano back towards the apple tree and gave a piercing gaze that was borderline a glare. "You can think whatever you want to, but if you meet him you'll be very disappointed."

Takano looked into Onodera's fiery eyes, and knew that the man was very upset about this topic. It didn't take a genius to figure that out; he loved this place and now it has gone to shit because of that man. Then he thought back to one little word Onodera said. "'If'?" Takano said softly. "What do you mean by 'if'?"

Onodera gave no response but instead remained sagely silent at his question. "Let's get back. Haitani will have my head if he thinks I kidnapped you or something," he threw over his shoulder as he turned away.

Takano was about to blindly follow him, but he was feeling bold. "No. How about you answer my question that clearly was not answered?"

"I have no obligation to answer your questions." Onodera said with no indication of turning around to look at Takano.

Takano was dumbfounded. Onodera had never acted like this before. Perhaps visiting this place was not good for the older man as it has shifted something within him. Regardless of how Onodera felt, Takano hardly thought that it was a good reason to act hostile towards him. If leaving this place would return Onodera to his usual self, the boy wanted out straight away. Although he was in no mood to follow Onodera's orders, he did anyway; he would be sure to ask the older man about what he said again once they get out of the place.

The pair returned to the house through a series of sidewalks took a much longer time than Takano's method of going through the creek area behind the houses. Once they returned, they were greeted with the face of the beaten in house featuring a very distraught looking Haitani who was crossing his arms over his chest. Once the tall man got sight of them, he walked briskly in their direction. "What the fuck?" he almost snarled through his teeth.

"What?" Onodera sneered back at him.

Haitani kept his furious expression painted on his face. "You know exactly what I mean, bastard. The next time you take him away without my knowledge, your ass will be fried."

"Excuse me, but he wandered off on his own. You should be thankful to me for finding him," Onodera said indignantly.

"Bullshit. Stay away from him for the rest of the trip and I'll spare you this time around." Haitani opened his mouth again to add another batch of remarks, but the annoyed expression on Takano's face stopped him dead in his tracks.

The foreign man pouted slightly but then headed for the entrance of town with the other two males in tow. When they reached there he took his favored spot, behind Onodera and next to Takano in their usual triangular formation, there was no doubt that he was going to keep to this position for the rest of the way; especially after what happened a few minutes prior.

After a day and a half of walking the group of men reached the border of the two nations, after taking a little detour due to a couple mishaps they finished their journey with ease.

The area was filled with many guards from both nations, and it was quite easy to tell which ones were from which country; the ones with heavy armor and weaponry were from Heliconis, and the ones void of the weaponry were from Listriv.

The border contained a fort that extended left and right as far as the eye can see in order to keep stragglers away from crossing to the other nation without a passport or permission to visit the neighboring country. The stone structure that acted as the divider was a pristine white and various words in Listrivian were painted on different parts of the building.

Takano gazed around the place and took in all that his brown eyes could, everything minus the signs. He couldn't for the life of him understand how to read Listrivian; the letters were so different than the ones used in Heliconi. Takano got annoyed when he was unable to decipher what the words said so he looked ahead of him to see their little group was about to cross the border. He sighed out of relief when he noticed that they were the next in line to pass customs.

"Next please," the tall guard said in Listrivian with her low voice. Takano guessed that she called them forward since the two older men he was with moved forward.

Haitani passed the woman his identification while Onodera gave her his passport. The woman took these and studied them carefully. She nodded and handed the cards back to the men. She then let her eyes fall towards Takano, "Where's yours?"

Takano looked at Onodera and then to Haitani desperately for help since he had no idea what to say to the lady.

"You don't have your passport do you, Kid?" Haitani asked.

Takano gulped, "No, I never needed one."

Haitani sighed he then turned to the guard who had an expecting expression on her face. "Listen, King Isaka wants to see him as soon as possible. You would have seen in my identification that I work directly under him."

The tired guard nodded curtly.

"Well, he gave me special permission to bring him back to the castle. I know you are doing your job and this may be hard to believe, but-"

Haitani was unable to finish was about to finish, but he was cut off by the woman. "I believe I was given orders to let this young man pass if he came by. His name is Takano Masamune correct?"

"Yes, that is correct," Haitani said with a hint of hope present in his voice.

"Alright," she then turned to Takano, "You may pass"

The woman finally noticed Takano's very confused expression for the first time, although it remained that way for the entire time he stood in front of her. "You may pass," she said to Takano in Heliconi with a very strong accent. It took the black-haired boy many moments to figure out that she was speaking in a language that he could understand. He thanked her and then followed the two older men out of the fort and onto foreign soil.

"So, how far away is the capital from here?" Takano asked. He looked around to find that Listriv seemed to be more colorful than Heliconis. The nearby trees had colorful fruit half of which Takano recognized and half of which he did not. The dense forest next to the road was unlike the ones from back home. They seemed safer and less dark. To say the least, first impressions of the new country did not disappoint in Takano's opinion.

"Not far. Since we are back in my home I know all sorts of short cuts."

Although Haitani hoped to ease the boy's apprehension, it seemed that he was still hesitant on walking the rest of the way like how they traversed Heliconis.

Haitani hummed softly. "You know, since we are in Listriv I technically have more power here, so we could potentially find a different way of traveling."

Takano snapped his head towards the taller man. "Like what?"

Haitani chuckled and then motioned toward the carriage that was parked to the side of the fort waiting to be used by weary travelers like themselves. "It'll be free for us and it'll probably take less than a day to get back to the capital."

Takano kept his stoic expression, but he was leaping with joy inside at the realization that he didn't have to walk anymore.

"Yes. I think we should do that," he said in a monotone expression.

It was easy for Haitani to tell that Takano was excited at this information. He placed his hand on the sixteen-year-old's shoulder, and then turned him to the carriage as they continued toward their destination.