Sorry for the late update, but once I finished it, the site decided to crash on me....grrrr...

I am so grateful to my reviewers! Especially the continual ones who review to every chapter! MJFastlane and Demolition-GIRL-33236—where would I be without you?

And also thanks to my sister Tori (AzikaRue394) who reads all my stuff first and tells me how great *cough* horrible *cough* it is.

Anyway, this chapter is complete crap...according to me anyway, I hope you guys see it differently.

Also, if you were in tune to that last sentence, you'll notice that I have little faith in my writing abilities (especially in this chapter—maybe that's why it took so long to get it typed) and I don't think I'm a very good writer...but if you guys read it and like it, then I must have done something right.

That said, ENJOY MY FRIENDS!

It was a gorgeous, sunny day in France. The kind that would normally find two overly-active children running through the grounds of the giant mansion.

But, unfortunately, Paris' first nice day in a while had fallen on a Monday, which instead found the two boys inside—doing schoolwork of all things.

They were restless all day and there was much squirming and whispering during class. Until three o'clock arrived that is. At this time, the Frenchman and the Italian were set free, and without bothering to ask left the building to enjoy what was left of the day.

Since Oliver had had that talk with his mother, things were going a lot better.

Well, better for everyone but the workers. Now that Oliver felt better, he and Enrique seemed to be getting into even more mischief than ever (for some reason, the Italian was always to blame for the incidents, though we might say this is because Oliver had a way of making things turn out in his favor).

While the two trouble makers enjoyed themselves outside, an elegant Frenchwoman stood by the window watching them. She, of course, was happy for the change in her son's mood.

The pair disappeared from her view and she let the curtains drop back into place. She only wished she could enjoy life as much as her son was right now.

The divorce from her husband was proving to be a much more difficult case than intended. Their constant fighting had been the cause of the break in the first place, now it was making it hard to work things out without having to go to court.

At the moment, her mind was clouded with worries.

She knew they would get money, but she didn't know how much. Antionette also knew that it would probably be less money than they were living on now.

She didn't know if they would get to keep this house. It was, after all, her husband's house. But another thing she knew for sure is that she would get to be the one who kept Oliver. She wasn't letting her son stay with his father for life.

But by far the hardest uncertainty to bear was the thought of how much longer Enrique could stay.

The blond Italian had been with them his whole life—his parents were away too often to look after a child—and the thought of him leaving any time soon was not a pleasant one. Both Oliver and Enrique would be lonely without the other's company.

She hated the thought of sending the energetic blond home to be by himself with no one but the maids and tutors to look after him. He would surly be miserable.

But no matter how much she detested the idea, she may just end up having to do it. There would be less money and she didn't know if she could support herself and the two boys. Hopefully there would be enough, but Enrique's parents would want him back home sometime anyway. But even with these thoughts, Antoinette couldn't convince herself that Enrique leaving would be a happy affair.

The Frenchwoman sighed and slowly gravitated towards the couch to sit down.

She only had a few moments to herself after this, though, because soon enough the two boys barged in through the front door.

"Mommy! Enrique pushed me in the fountain!"

"I did not! He pulled me in after he fell in!"

The quarreling pair entered the living room at a run—sure enough dripping water everywhere. The smaller one was quick to jump into his mother's arms and explain his side of the story.

"I was walking around the outside of the fountain with Enrique, and he shoved me from behind into the fountain!"

"That is not true!" The Italian protested.

In his mother's lap, Oliver nodded vigorously, sending droplets of water flying. "It is! You know it is!" he pouted.

"Alright, maybe I pushed you a little but you weren't going fast enough and—!"

"See?! He admitted it!" The French boy pointed an accusing finger at his friend.

"No I didn't! I said I might have pushed you a little! You tripped and fell in on your own after that. And then you pulled me in, too!" Enrique pointed his own finger at the green haired boy.

Oliver pouted some more, then turned and looked at his mother, "He's lying! Punish him mommy!"

The woman laughed and looked Enrique, as did her son—although Oliver's look was still a pouting one.

"No, he's lying, punish him! He fell in and pulled me down." The blond defended himself.

Oliver shook his head; once again sending more droplets of water everywhere. "No no no! Hepushed me in then jumped in instead of helping me get out!"

"No I didn't! You—"

"Boys," Oliver's mother cut him off, "Stop fighting! However it happened, you both ended up in the fountain, you're both soaking wet, and you both need drying off."

Oliver crossed his arms, determined for the blame to be put on his friend.

Enrique, however, smiled and said, "Actually, I was hoping we could go swimming!"

Antoinette just laughed then asked her son, "What do you think Oliver?"

"Well...okay!" He was still a little disappointed that he hadn't gotten his way, but swimming sounded like fun.

"Yay!" The blond was clearly overjoyed. He ran over and dragged his friend off Antionette's lap. He tugged the boy across the room, towards the door to the main hall by his arm.

"Wait!" The Frenchwoman said, stopping the two before they got too far, "You two can't stay out very long. I have a meeting at the courthouse at 6:30 and I don't want you out after I leave."

They turned to face her, Enrique still grasping his friend's arm.

"With dad?" Oliver asked timidly.

His mother confirmed this with a nod.

"What time will you be home?"

"I shouldn't be any later than nine, but I'll expect you two in bed when I get home." She informed the pair, well aware of how they'd do anything to cause trouble.

"Okay." Oliver sounded sad suddenly, so Enrique gave another tug on his arm.

"Let's go! We don't have all day Oli." the Italian pulled the Frenchman out of the room and upstairs to change.

Mrs. Boulanger sighed again. She wasn't particularly looking forward to this meeting, (they always ended in a fight, which made everything so much more stressful for everyone in the room) but it was necessary that she go.

She climbed the stairs and from her bedroom window looked down to see that her son and his friend were already enjoying themselves in the pool (with a maid watching of course).

Robert was lying in bed on his back, staring at the ceiling of his dark room. He had just returned from Johnny's room and was thinking about what had happened to get him in the Scot's room in the first place.

He had been asleep until a thud from the next room (Johnny's room) woke him up. He'd always been a light sleeper and hated it when he was woken up because of the fact. So he decided to go and investigate.

When he had entered the other boy's room, he'd found Johnny scrambling back into his bed—which he had obviously fallen out of. The redhead was also sweating and was breathing a little too heavily for someone who had been sleeping peacefully.

When Robert had asked what had happened, the only answer he received was, "Nightmare." and Johnny kicking him out of the room before he could ask any more questions.

Now, the German sighed remembering how Johnny had used the same harsh tone he always did—although it might have been slightly less so. He also remembered seeing an almost haunted and scared look in the other's plum eyes. Robert decided that it must've been some nightmare.

There was definitely something going on here, and he was going to find out what it was.

Although, he was becoming impatient and was burning with curiosity. That's what made it so tempting to let someone (his parents and the McGregors had both offered) tell him everything. But he wanted Johnny to tell him...even though that might take a long time.

Robert did have some idea what had happened, but the details were very vague. It had something to do with an accident (as he'd been told it was) that had taken place a year ago. Johnny and his friend—what was his name? Tyler. That's it. Johnny and Tyler had both been involved. But that was as far as his knowledge of the incident went.

This thinking wasn't getting the German anywhere. And he was tired.

Sighing, Robert rolled onto his side and went to sleep, determined to get Johnny to trust him.

The next morning was spent as most were here at the McGregor's castle. After spending three days here, Robert was used to this routine.

Johnny's parents and Robert ate breakfast together and as usual there was no sign of Johnny. His parents had to have food taken up to him—which he probably didn't eat much of unless he felt like it.

After the meal, Don and Kristen left for work. The woman would be back at lunch to check on Johnny, and then go back to work.

But that wasn't for a few hours yet, and while they were gone Robert could do what he wanted. Today he decided to go and talk to Johnny and see if he could find out any more about what happened last night. The Scotsman wasn't hard to find—this was because he never left his room.

Robert hesitated for a moment before knocking on the door.

"...come in." It seemed Robert wasn't the only one hesitating today. Although the voice was hard, it was also edged with tiredness.

The young German entered the room and saw Johnny sitting on the ledge by the window. Robert crossed the room and stood next to him.

The redhead was glaring out at the unnaturally sunny day as though it had somehow offended him. He looked grumpy and tired—a very dangerous combination with the Scot, as Robert had learned.

Still, he wanted to ask Johnny all the questions he'd been meaning to ask last night. "Hello Johnny," he greeted the other despite his obvious bad mood.

"What do you want?"

His companion sounded worse than he appeared, so the German decided he better get straight to the point. "You had a nightmare last night...what was it about?"

Johnny whirled his head around to look at Robert, "I'm not telling you!"

"Well that's rather childish." Said the other child, "Why won't you tell me?"

Johnny crossed his arms and went back to staring out the window. "Once I told everyone else, they saw me as too much of a nut case to stick around. Some of them left before, though."

"Everyone else?" Robert was slightly confused.

"Do you seriously think you're the only one who's tried to help me? Soon as the 'accident' happened, mum called up all her little therapist friends to make sure I would be 'mentally well' and to try and help me 'get over it' as one of them put it. Just because I didn't feel like talking to her." the redhead responded perhaps a little too violently.

For the first time since he arrived there, Robert finally felt like he was getting somewhere and made the decision to push his luck as far as it would take him. "What happened to them all?"

Johnny just huffed and said, "I told you, they left. One at a time she called them, one at a time they came, and one at a time they got frustrated with me and left. I was too much for them to handle apparently."

"Really?" the German inquired still further.

"Yes. They went to...amazing lengths to get away from me..." this had a surprisingly lost tone to it. Robert continued his questions nonetheless.

"Amazing? How so?"

Here, again, there was hesitation. "....Well, some of them stormed out, most of them just found some excuse to leave, and this last one—" he was speaking quietly now, and seemed to have stopped radiating sarcasm and the harshness that always seemed to be there had nearly vanished.

"What happened to the one who was here before me?" Robert wanted to get all the answers he could before Johnny threw him out again.

"She..." There was a long pause and it seemed the Scot wasn't going to answer. Johnny swallowed and Robert noticed there were uncharacteristic tears in the redhead's eyes. This was a side of Johnny that Robert had not seen and he decided he had better change the subject.

"What did you do that was bad enough to make them leave? You don't seem that bad to me."

Johnny seemed to calm down some (meaning he didn't sound as sad anymore) and answered the question in a voice that was tired and maybe a little cautious. "Nothing that I haven't done—or probably will do—to you. I threw temper tantrums, threw them out of my room, locked them out of my room, completely ignored them, 'harmed them in some way'—as my mom put it. I've refused to talk to them and even hurt...myself." this last part was said with reluctance.

Now that was surprising to Robert, he knew that Johnny was bad, but he would never have thought that the Scot would harm anyone—let alone himself. "Do...do your parents know any of that?"

"Well some of it I've done to them, but those stupid counselor people probably told them everything." Johnny's voice was angry once again as he kept his attention focused out the window; determined not to make eye contact with the German.

"Why would you hurt them, though?"

Johnny stiffened slightly, "I was angry. Or as one of them so kindly put it, 'possessed by demons.' They always tried to force me to talk to them about the...accident...and they never left me alone. I got sick of them, and I threw a tantrum when they refused to leave me alone. I ended up landing a few punches actually."

Robert, coming from the background that he did, had been blissfully unaware that such a disrespect could occur until just a few minutes ago, and therefore was taken by surprise at the whole idea. As it was, he'd also been ignorant of self-harm.

"Well then why did you hurt yourself?" He wanted to know the reason behind such a thing.

"I'm not..." Johnny hesitated, not sure if he should share. "I really don't know how that started. I guess I do it in my sleep—because of the nightmares. It's not really anything major...but my mom freaked out when she saw. I didn't even know I was doing it until she told me she'd seen me 'digging my nails into my arms.'"

There was a long pause. Then the redhead said: "I got real mad at her for coming into my room without permission and I tried to get her out, but that only upset her. She hasn't left me without someone here since then..." His voice was still quiet and careful.

Meanwhile, the German was still extremely surprised by all this. It took some time to swallow what he had heard before he could ask, "Can't you stop?"

"I told you! I didn't know I was doing it! How'm I supposed to stop if I can't control what I'm doing?! If you remember, I do it in my sleep!" Johnny was obviously very angry right now, Robert's questions must have annoyed him after only the first one—and answering them all was also, in it's own way, annoying for the Scot.

Robert knew he better stop the inquiry now, before Johnny threw one of his tantrums. "I guess I should go now. Your mother will be back in a few hours for lunch."

The redhead stared hard out the window, trying and failing to control his temper. "I know! And I don't care! Now get lost! I don't want to answer any more stupid questions! So you can just get out of here and leave me alone!" He turned to stare at the Jurgen heir with hatred, "You aren't going to stick around much longer anyway, you've only been here longer than two of the others—and no one's ever stayed longer than a month. You definitely won't be here that long."

The German noble just looked back at the other with a hard stare, "Really?" Johnny's statement presented a challenge for him.

"Yes really!" The reply came through clenched teeth. "Now get the HECK out of my room!"

"Okay then," Robert said in a slightly defensive tone as he was headed for the door, "I'm on my way..." He probably shouldn't have said that, because before he could make it to the door, random objects started flying across the room and slamming into the wall in front of him.

Johnny was sitting on his knees and throwing everything within reach at the German in an attempt to chase the unwanted guest out of his room. He wasn't exactly aiming at him, which is why it surprised him when one of the objects glanced Robert's shoulder.

Robert yanked open the door and left as quickly as he could, only relaxing once the door was closed. He heard several objects hit the door before Johnny gave up.

He walked the short distance to his room next door and sat on his own bed, thinking hard.

He had actually been able to ask Johnny some questions, most of which had been answered. The Jurgen still didn't know what happened to the woman (Johnny had at least told him that it was a she) who had come here before him, or what exactly the 'accident' was.

He knew Johnny was very reluctant to talk about the accident—well he was actually reluctant to talk about anything. The other boy also didn't seem used to calling it an accident. Robert had noticed the slight hesitation there was every time before the Scot said it.

Oh, and Johnny himself was another story entirely. The boy was infuriating! Sure, Robert was young himself, but he and Johnny were two extremely different people. The redhead wouldn't cooperate or tell the German anything and he refused to trust anyone completely.

Johnny also angered real easily and his temper—and his tantrums—could be dangerous. He decided his new neighbor had a lot of issues.

No wonder all the others left! Johnny's turning out to be terrible!

Actually, he wasn't even sure why he was still there himself. He'd have certainly left a long time ago and would gladly go home now—but something kept him here.

Robert wasn't quite sure why, but for some reason he couldn't leave. Johnny's attitude should've sent him home long ago, and after that little incident in the redhead's room, he definitely had a good enough excuse to get out of here.

But whatever it was (and now he strongly suspected the sense of honor and duty he'd been born with), it was doing a very good job of keeping him here in Scotland with one of the world's worst behaved kids.

Robert groaned and fell backwards onto his bed, not for the first time completely exhausted. It wasn't even noon yet! Young as he was, the German should have been full of energy. He blamed the nights he'd stayed up worrying—yes worrying—and thinking about Johnny.

He sighed yet again as he realized he would have even more to think about tonight.

Stupid Johnny. Stupid 'accident' that made the boy this way. Stupid parents for getting him into this. Stupid responsibility. But most of all, stupid everyone else for leaving him to be the only one left willing to help! He was only a child himself, and should not be expected to emotionally heal someone.

Robert's last thought was that he was in charge of mission impossible, before he fell into the kind of sleep one can only get if one is utterly drained.

There you go! I hope you liked it, all things considered.

Ah well...review please? And try and review—not necessarily for every chapter—but more than once so I know you're still enjoying the story or how I can make it better.