A/N: Another chapter of this was in order.

Disclaimer: Idea by Crushed Hale.x. Characters by Man of Action. Written by Skylark Evanson.
Warning: This one is going to be rated… slightly higher. Just be forewarned. Definite T rating here, but it's not too horribly bad that I feel the need to change it to M.

The thing I was most scared of was the fact that he could possibly be right.

Did Ben look for me? I figure he would've. He's my cousin and all, so he should've. Family rules above all else, right? ...right?

It was a sleepless night for me. I was racked with these thoughts that haunted the darkest corners of my mind, making me search desperately for a distinction between the truth and lies.

The Vegas streets never stopped moving. The people were always roaming outside the mouth of the alley, drifting across the sidewalks like ghosts floating over water. Drunks stumbled past Kevin and I as my beloved slept, his head resting against mine. A few strands of his hair, black as night, tickled my cheek as his rhythmic breathing created a lulling tune for me to try and sleep to.

I hardly even closed my eyes for more than a second. Even then, it was just to blink.

Had Ben looked for me? Did he even remember me? How did he turn out? It had been four years since I saw him and beck then he had been a self-centered jerk about everything and anything. The hero side of him went to his head. It upset me that my own cousin was such a bastard half the time.

And if he hadn't looked for me... I would side with Kevin. Four years of my life had been wasted in Hell. I had lived beneath a demonically red sky that loomed over my every movement. A monster had been my companion for a time until he was finally healed of all his pain and suffering. And I had nearly died multiple times. The pale scar that remained slashed up my forearm was proof of that. And I had many more scars to show for what happened with Kevin and I in the Null Void.

I knew enough to know that I probably would've heard something if Ben had been looking for me. Or at least he would've come back through the projector's portal to at least search for me. And he didn't. I didn't hear anything about anyone searching for me. Kevin did have a point.

I quietly stroked his locks of ebony while he slept, trying to figure out why he was so keen on keeping me all to himself. Maybe it was because he'd been alone for too long. Or because he'd been hurt worse as a child than I knew. He was Kevin. I'd practically grown up with him. He was the best boyfriend a girl could ask for. We had never once fought in all the time we'd been in love. It was so perfect, so way we adored each other. This was our first real fight, and it felt more like we were a married couple instead of a couple of young teenagers.

What if Kevin was right? What if I was unwanted?

My only choice in that scenario was probably to stay with him. Kevin was open to the idea of taking me back to New York and showing me the ropes. I could read that much in his deep obsidian eyes whenever he looked at me. He was willing to keep me forever, no questions asked.

But another thing I had read in his eyes scared me. The second I said Ben's name, I felt him go hostile. I noticed when every muscle in his body tensed to it's maximum limit. I could see the veins in his neck pulsing blood faster through his system. I just knew Kevin. Maybe a little too well. Because I knew he probably wasn't going to be able to hold back when he saw Ben again. Ben may have been my cousin, but Kevin's rage was enough to kill him a thousand times and still not be satisfied.

That's why I was worried. Kevin was ready to kill on the turn of a dime. And part of me was siding with him.

Kevin was awake before I was the next morning. I must've dozed off eventually because he offered an apple out to me the second my eyes were open. "Morning," he said, a smile on his lips; it was as if the discussion from the night before had never happened for him.

I took the apple and bit into it. It was the first thing of real food I'd had in four years. It really was the best thing I'd ever had. For once in my life, I was grateful for an apple. I felt so pathetic. "Where did you get this?" I asked, wondering if he'd left me or if he'd just found the food lying around in the alley or something.

"Same place I got these from," he answered, tossing me a small plastic bag full of something limp and heavy.

I stuck the apple in my mouth and held it there with my teeth while I peeled open the bag that he had tied up nice and tight. Clothes. I put it beside me and took the apple out of my mouth to say, "I love you."

Those orbs as black as a pair of endless abysses glittered down at me as he stretched a little bit, arms behind his head. "Yeah, I'm pretty awesome, right?" he asked rhetorically, a little laugh coming from him as he pulled another bag out from wherever he was storing all this stuff. "I got myself some too so we're not walking around and standing out in crowds."

I had to piece together the puzzle that he laid out before me. "You stole this stuff?" I asked, realizing that he had to hide in a crowd because someone had to be looking for him in the first place.

"We got no cash," he pointed out weakly, looking out into the mouth of the alley. I could read the smallest trace of fear in his night-colored eyes. "Just get changed so we can go. I got us bus tickets too so we can get you home faster." He began to pull off the wings he had used to function as shorts.

After practically devouring the apple right down to the core, I also began to strip out of my makeshift clothing, slipping out of the top that had contained my and slid on a bra and blue shirt that Kevin had grabbed me from wherever he had been shoplifting. Neither fit because they were too tight and I wondered if he did that by mistake or on purpose. I slid out of my skirt just as he was successfully getting some boxers on to cover up his manly parts. I then slid into a pair of panties and then a skimpy skirt that barely fit better than the shirt and bra did. "I'm ready," I told him, grabbing the flip-flops he had shoved towards the bottom of the bag and slipping them on.

"I'm almost done," he said, casting a glance at me before pulling a black shirt on over the gray one he was already wearing. "Like, two more seconds and then we're out of here."

I fixed my hair, pulling it out of the knotted braid it had been in and raking my fingers through it, trying to get the worst of the dust and grime out. "Okay," I said, looking him over to see how perfectly the tight fabric highlighted his finely toned muscles. "And your fly's down," I said, trying to stifle a giggle.

He looked down before looking back up at me with a signature grin. "Now how do you know I didn't do that on purpose?" he asked as if playing with me.

Yeah, it was a little weird that we were fine getting naked in front of each other, but it was only because we were so close. The cave back in the Null Void only had one space to function as a room and we were both growing up too fast to try and hide it. I was getting bigger up top, and he was changing. Puberty hit us hard and we just dealt with it. And the fact that we were in a relationship didn't help much either. We had come so close to going all the way more than enough times, but we knew the risks were too high if something went wrong. He was strong and I was fragile. And the way our DNA is... And if I had gotten pregnant... It would've been a nightmare. So Kevin and I just dealt with it. It was how we were. Things just became natural.

Two teenagers in love. What was there to do? We made out naked. We weren't afraid to do anything. The prison we had been trapped in for almost our entire lives had made us nearly immune to fear. Kevin and I weren't scared of anything physical except for losing each other.

"Alright, let's bounce," Kevin said, taking my hand and pulling me out onto the sidewalk. His eyes were shifty the second we hit the gray concrete. "We've got a lot of ground to cover."

I followed closely behind him for a while before proudly taking my position beside him, a soft smile spreading across my face as my long hair that was easily down to my knees flowed out behind me. I leaned a little closer to him so that our shoulders were brushing, and then his rough, calloused hand found mine. Those orbs of darkness found me and a loving smirk crept across his somewhat tanned features.

But for some reason, I could tell he was scared.

A/N: See why I wanted to post the warning? Anyways, this was just a little piece that I needed to get down so they're on the road. Things were hinted to, but nothing was actually done so I don't feel like I had to change the rating. So sorry if you think I had to. I post a warning whenever the ratings go up on just one chapter. Anyways, please review. Thank you for reading.

~Sky