A/N: Decided to get some stuff up really fast before I have to go finish up homework.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Kevin and I were getting pretty close to Bellwood after a few days of nearly constant traveling. We had tried hitchhiking part of the way and taking buses and then Kevin just flat out got bored, hotwired a car, and drove us until the thing ran out of gas. Which was a pretty nifty trick for a fifteen-year-old to execute so nicely.

There were nights when we just curled up in the darkness, my head in the crook of his neck, and slept for a few hours in turns to keep watch. It was almost like a paranoia for us to be watching out for ourselves when we were so exposed like this in the real world.

Neither of us had been on Earth in four years. Four years. Needless to say, we felt hideously vulnerable in such a foreign environment. My skin kept on burning when we walked in the sun and Kevin kept getting spit on for whatever reason. It was like some random guy would be walking down the street and he'd just spit on him. Which leads us to think "What the hell?" Yeah, the world changed pretty fast in four short years...

The hardest part about the journey was the awkward tension between us the whole time. When a night came along where we just camped out in a dark place, it was calm and was kissed a lot and we were able to carry on a decent conversation, usually about our lives before the Null Void. But when we started moving, a cloud of silence lingered over us. Kevin never spoke and he was always tense and wary of anything and everything.

Something inside of me was screaming. I could finally see the light at the end of this long dark tunnel. I could feel hopeful for the first time in years. I could feel alive again like I had a pulse and a heart and some faint love for the family that I had been so distant with for so many years now. It was like waking up from a horribly long nightmare and now I was just waiting to see my mom's smiling face as she stroked my hair and calmed me down from the terror of living in such a miserable world for so damn long…

And part of me didn't want to go home. Part of me wanted to stay with Kevin as a stray forever. We had managed just fine for this long, and I was actually starting to enjoy the run for our lives and the chase for a little bit of hope. Going home would make life easier for me, but where would the thrill go? Kevin wouldn't take me cliff diving anymore and I wouldn't be able to have any real fun with my parents supervising…

That scenario was only if they took me back and if they recognized me and if everything went over smoothly…

The first sign I saw was massive. The thing was made of wood and the big letters were painted a pale beige against the dark cherry bark of the main sign. I grabbed Kevin's shoulder and quickly jerked him awake before pointing out the window of the bus that we had managed to sneak onto. The sign was coming closer and closer. Kevin went tense beside me.

"Welcome to Bellwood," I read, unable to keep the excitement from bursting out of me. Finally, a chance to go home. A chance to escape the absence of family that had plagued me ever since I had been dropped into the prison with the crimson sky. "Kevin, I'm finally home." I turned to look at him.

He was as pale as a ghost and his fists were clenched tightly enough to make his knuckles turn to the color of ivory. His dark eyes weren't on me, nor were they on the sign. They were on the ground in front of us. It was like he was blocking out the world around him, dark hair finally succumbing to gravity's magnetic force and sliding around his face to hide his dark features like an ebony curtain across a stage. Kevin's bulging muscles were tight with the pure strength that practically radiated off of them.

"Kevin?" I asked, hoping to get him to maybe relax just a tad. He was so tense... I was almost… afraid of him…

"I'm trying," he said, the clear strain in his voice. I could faintly see the tendons stretching in his neck. "I don't want to lose control here, Gwen. I know that I'm going to have to see that-" He suppressed a vile word that threatened to suddenly spring from his lips. He swore a lot usually, but he was trying to keep it to a minimum nowadays. "-cousin of yours and I don't want to want to kill him."

That last sentence kind of made me start thinking because I had to piece together the words properly so that it actually made sense. "Kevin, you're better than that," I murmured, leaning over and stroking his ebony locks out of his face. "You're not a monster."

He still didn't look at me. His fist was still tightly clenched and his face didn't look like he was about to relax anytime soon. I could read him like an open book. I had lived with him for four years in Hell. How could I think that he would be able to control the urge to kill the guy who sent him there?

Instead of speaking more, I just took his chin in my hand and began to gently turn his head towards me until we were lined up enough for me to get my lips upon his with a slight sweetness. I let him take dominance in the battle of our tongues and I let his hand run across my chest and I let his fingers dance along my waistline. I knew how to keep him calm in the same way that he knew how to turn me on. Not just my overwhelming hormones in general, but my powers as well.

Kevin leaned over me a little bit more until I was practically pinned to the bus window, his lips getting rougher and rougher against mine. His hand began toying with the neck of my shirt as if he were debating whether to pull it down or not.

When we parted for a moment of air, I put a gentle hand at the base of his throat, pushing him away slightly while my chest heaved to draw air into my lungs. "More later," I breathed, my eyes holding his gaze of eternal blackness. "Just try to behave, okay?"

He took the chance to steal one last pecking kiss from my lips, a new hope blazing across his features like a wildfire. Two words came from him. They were the only two I needed to hear from a guy like him. "I'll try."

A/N: Tried to make it long. Anyways, reviews make me super happy!

~Sky