- Thank you so much for reading and the nice reviews! :) And Alphine: I'm going to try and include romance (UsUk hopefully, but I'm not good at romance stuff) ^^

"So do you know how to unlock the cage, like where's the key?" grinning Al asked as he glanced around the area briefly. In truth he was extremely interested in his new 'friend' and had loads he wanted to ask it, but first he wanted to get him out of here as soon as possible and to his house where it was safe. Though his friends had often said he couldn't 'read the mood' (which admittedly he couldn't), he could still tell when something was serious and needed dealing with, …he really wasn't as stupid as most people seemed to think he was. Matt just sat quietly where he was trying not to move or draw any attention to himself… which would normally be easy for him, but the creepy and tense atmosphere that hung around the place was making him twitchy.

"Hey… are you all right there?" Al asked the fox thing, his grin fading and voice sounding a little worried now. The creature seemed to have gone into a sort of daze as it stared in Alfred's direction with its head tilted to the side slightly, its eyes looking completely blank and hollow, yet it was still smiling oddly. It didn't move or show any sign of hearing Alfred, it just sat there dead still and unblinking. Concerned Al leaned closer holding onto the bars of the cage with both hands to support himself. He tried again this time slowly reaching out one of his hands into the cage to get its attention. Matt felt his heart freeze at this, terrified as a graphic image of his brother getting his arm ripped off suddenly played through his mind. He wanted to move, he wanted to grab Al and drag him away from the cage and out of here right now. But his body felt frozen in place, unable to move or speak.

"Hello? Are you okay? … cause, well, you're looking a little… strange. Do you feel sick?" Al asked a little louder this time but keeping his voice gentle, not wanting to frighten it. He waved his hand slowly in front of the things face but again it showed not reaction or movement whatsoever. It didn't blink and its creepy smile stayed stuck on its face, making it look kind of like it was stopped in time, like a living photograph. Frowning Al carefully slipped his hand under the things unruly bangs and lightly felt its forehead. As he had thought it was unnaturally warm.

"Dude, you have a pretty bad fever! But don't worry, okay? Cause I'm gonna save you!" concern and confidence set in his voice as he made up his mind that he would definitely save it no matter what the cost. Absentmindedly he let his hand fall from the things face as he tried to figure out a way to open the heavy lock that was securely on the cage door. At the loss of contact it blinked once and glancing up Al noticed its eyes move sharply and focus on him. Al grinned, happy that it finally noticed him.

"Hey! You with me now? Do you know where the keys are?"

"Why?" its voice sounded spacey and light, like it secretly found something amusing, but it had a slight edge of something else to it that Al couldn't place.

"Well, So that we can open the door, why else?"

"Why?"

"… I just said-" Alfred jumped and voice cut off as the thing unexpectedly took hold of his wrist with its human hand. Al had forgotten that he'd left his arm in the cage. It pulled his arm closer to itself and lifted it in front of its eyes curiously, turning it gently now and then to see it in different angles. Alfred relaxed again once he realised that it was doing and let it continue, feeling a smile tugging at his lips at how weirdly cute it looked holding onto his wrist like that.

Cautiously it lifted its other animal arm and lightly touched its paw on the pack of Alfred's hand. After applying a little pressure a few times it moved the paw in a side to side motion as if stroking his hand, it seemed to have gone in a daze again but its smile was a little softer and less sadistic looking than it was before… it almost looked like it was in pain somewhere. Al watched in fascination, barely daring to breathe in case he would interrupt it, its paw was surprisingly soft and delicate but he could also feel the hidden sharp claws brushing gently over his skin, if it wanted to it could probably rip through his flesh with ease…

At some point it had turned Al's had so that his palm was facing upwards, gently it rested its paw in his open palm. Just barley it could feel the humans warm pulse beating through his hand and into its own paw. His skin is so soft… it thought distantly, somehow it made this one seem so kind and different compared to the harsh cold skin of that other human it'd felt…and it also reminded it of something… from a long, long time ago when it was still a child. The distant and long forgotten memory took it off guard, making its heart ache painfully against its chest and its stomach clench sickeningly.

Curious as to why it'd stopped moving, Al dragged his wide eyes away from the paw resting in his palm up to the things face. He frowned when he saw that for the first time since he'd seen it, it wasn't smiling. It's rather large brows were furrowed together and its emerald green eyes were now misted over with unshed tears, he could also make out a sharp canine tooth pressed harshly over its bottom lip close to drawing blood. Alfred felt a pang of pity pulse through him at this. For some reason he really didn't like seeing his new 'friend' upset like this.

Carefully Alfred closed his hand, wrapping his fingers securely around the others paw gently to hold it. Surprised and brought out of its daze it quickly looked up at Alfred, bright blue and deep green eyes instantly locking with each other. It mumbled something under its breath that Alfred could only just make out as 'why'. Al smiled kindly and gave the its paw a reassuring squeeze.

"Don't worry about anything! The hero's here now, and as long as I'm here everything's gonna be fine, okay?" The thing looked at him blankly for a second before its sadistic grin suddenly appeared again and it hunched over laughing loudly and making a series of amused barking like noises at the same time. It was a odd sound to say the least. When it had managed to compose itself a little it looked back at Al with tears in the corner of its eyes and wearing an almost crazed expression. Its grin seemed to have doubled in size and its eyes almost appeared to be giving off a green glow as they bored deeply into Al's own. Alfred just stared back.

Opening its mouth it looked as if it was about to say something to him but stopped, suddenly closing its eyes and pulling its paw away from Al and up to its mouth as it began to cough rather violently.

"Whoa! Hey, hey dude! are you okay?" Al shouted, panicking he reached towards it in an attempt to rub its back or something but he couldn't reach that far through the bars. Slowly it looked at him when the coughing stopped, it was struggling to breathe a bit but thankfully (to Alfred anyway) its usual twisted smile was stuck back in place.

Shakily it moved closer to the bars of the cage. Closer to Alfred. It held onto the same bars as Al to support itself, its hand and paw inches from touching Alfred's own two hands. It looked even more pale than had before as it brought its face so close to Alfred's that he could almost feel its breath against his skin. Al suppressed a shudder as he felt a something fluttering in his stomach.

"Why are you bothering to help something like me?"

- and that's it for this chapter, Thankyou so much for reading! ^^ (sorry for OOCness and any mistakes) … does anyone still want me to continue the story?