A/N: So I'm not happy with anything last night except for Young Justice. Ben 10 was just… bad… I'm really upset with television now… Nothing is good anymore… Nothing. It's sad, really. Ah, and now what am I going to do? Nothing to look forward to…

Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Gwen's POV.

As soon as we got into Bellwood, I was automatically checking on maps to see where everything was. I had lived there for years before the Null Void, but I just wanted to sharpen up my skills.

Everything was just as I had last seen it. It was peaceful and calm and I was just glad that I still had at least a vague idea of where I was going. I didn't want to be wandering around in my own hometown like a bumbling idiot. And I had to lead Kevin because he didn't know where he was going and he had to rely on me to get him somewhere safe from here. This had been my realm just like New York and the Null Void had been his.

"My house is this way," I said, taking his warm hand and pulling him along on the sidewalk. "My parents should still live there, I hope." I kept tugging him along, watching out for a familiar face or a family member that could've been wandering the streets. "They said they wouldn't move until I left the house for college."

"So they still have, what, four years before that happens?" Kevin responded, eyes watching out for anything that looked relatively dangerous in his world. He wasn't taking any chances in a place where he knew he could get killed at any moment.

I loved Kevin, but I wasn't sure if I could fight Ben off if he came around. And I definitely didn't know whose side I would take. Ben was right and Kevin was a criminal, but now he was sweet and innocent. He wasn't the same guy anymore. He was just fighting for a living. And I didn't want to fight Ben because we were bound by blood. He was my family. I wasn't about to betray family. It's a thing. Family means nobody gets left behind. I'm pretty sure I saw that in a movie once.

The streets were the same as they had been last I saw them. Cars were still parked out in driveways and houses still had ugly shutters. The roofs were as neat and precise as ever and the lawns had never become overgrown. "This place is the same as always," I remarked to my boyfriend as if he knew the difference too. He didn't, obviously. He'd probably never even seen a nice neighborhood like mine before.

He just gave me a little shrug and retracted his hand from mine, sticking it along with the other one in his pockets.

And I was worried about him. I knew he was tense and I could feel his self-control fading into dust right before my eyes. I had watched this guy beat down monster after monster in the Null Void, only caring when they had gotten a scrape on my arm or knocked me unconscious. But now it was something personal and he was completely losing it. On the inside, of course. He'd never let it show.

"You going to be okay?" I asked, already feeling out of place in my own home. I had picked up his words, his language, his slang. It was all so… strange. Especially when I knew I should've reverted back to that prim and primped little girl I was back before I had fallen into Hell.

Kevin's answer was curt. "Fine."

I was about to ask him what was really wrong, but I caught sight of my house in the distance. And I was bolting ahead without even thinking. I felt the wind surge through my hair, dragging the long red locks out from being stuck to my back and up to where they were flowing out behind me in the open air. My feet were thrumming against the cement sidewalk and I couldn't help but run a little bit faster, desperate to keep running and moving. I only wanted to get home. Home at last. Everything was in sight. I could've had it all. My suffering would've finally been over. Home.

Home.

Home at last.

Kevin's footsteps were close behind me and I was up on my front lawn in a matter of seconds, immediately checking inside the glass windows as I raced to the door. I couldn't see anything inside, the drawn curtains not letting me see anything. So I stopped on the stoop and looked over my shoulder just as Kevin was coming up beside me. "Do I look okay? Do I loo-"

"You're fine," he murmured, just brushing a few stray strands away from my face with a weak smile kissing his features. "You're beautiful, got that?" Kevin raked a few fingers through my hair to take away some of the frizz in the mess. "Much better down instead of braided."

I gently slugged his shoulder and scowled in his direction for a moment. "You are annoying sometimes."

He grinned nicely at me and continued to fix my hair like any good boyfriend would. "It's the cherry on top of the roguish charm sundae," he insisted before taking a step back to look at me. "And seriously, don't put your hair up again. I don't like it."

Again, I hit him. Because I could. And because he was annoying. And because I could and he was annoying. Kevin… So cute, but so obnoxious…

"Now get in there and do whatever you would do with parents," he said, again taking a step back towards the sidewalk and away from me. "I'll-"

"You're staying here and you're not going to leave, got it?" I grabbed the collar of his shirt and hauled him closer to me again. "I'm not going to lose you. Just because we're here and not in your home turf doesn't mean that you're allowed to wander off. I'm not letting go of you."

"I was just going to hide in a bush across th-"

"No." I held onto him and gingerly knocked on the door. "You're staying with me." I released him and fixed my hair one last time, hoping I didn't look like wolves had raised me. "I need you now."

Kevin sighed for a moment, eyes darkening slightly. "Alright." He reached over and took my hand, squeezing it tightly to show that he was there for me. Never had I ever felt more comfortable with him. "I'll stay. For you."

I smiled my best smile before returning my eyes to the door that was unlocking from within and the knob turned.

Home. Finally home.

A/N: Cliffy. So review!

~Sky