I'm so sorry this is late! I haven't been able to edit this for a while and my beta is me (I know, sad) so I've been putting it off; bad me! Anyway, why I'm up at 22:40 is beyond me, but I am so oh well. Again, I'm sorry that this is late, but I'll let you continue reading before I start ranting. ^.^ Enjoy~

Weeks passed and Link just drew more and more secluded until he couldn't even look in my general direction. It hurt—took me years to come back for him and Naa and him and now the main reason I came back was acting as if I didn't even exist! I continued to chew my cheek as I watched him type on his laptop at the table in the main place of our dorm. He was writing something—what? I don't have the slightest idea; something to do with fantasies directly influencing videogames that involve violence-by-sword or something like that. I only got a glimpse at it before he came back from the bathroom.

"Did Naa change her cell number?" I asked. No response—not that I had expected one. I picked up a soft pillow from the couch and chucked it at the back of his head, watching him jump and pick up the pillow, tossing it back.

"Huh? Oh, uh, no," his voice sounded distracted as he continued to type one-handedly with his eyes trained on the screen.

"No to what? Chinese food or Naa's new phone?" I had a feeling he wasn't listening.

"Both."

Kid's good.

I pulled out my phone, pouting slightly as I pulled up an IM chat with her, just in case.

ImBak says: Yo. Gotta talk.

DesertBeauty says: Thought you'd never ask.

ImBak says: … am I interrupting something?

DesertBeauty says: O//_//O Um right… IMing girlfriend.

ImBak says: Naa… next time just say yes…

So… who's the lucky girl this time?

DesertBeauty says: /Anyway/ what do you want?

ImBak says: Oh. U hurt me with ur words, Naa. Y u no answer?

DesertBeauty says: You won't tell me who you're dating, why should I tell you?

ImBak says: I tell u I am single because I am single. Anyway, we need to talk. Now.

There was a knock on the door and I jumped up, looking at it, startled. I stood up, quickly, slipping the Blackberry I had saved up for in my pocket and opening it, smiling to see Naa there, though she saw the clear puzzlement in my eyes. "How did you-?"

She smiled at me and looked over my shoulder at Link, silently. "I was already on my way to Midna's Dorm"—my eyes narrowed; she didn't go to college anymore, having finished Nursing school in only a couple years—"and vuala." She shrugged a bit as I nodded and she motioned me out. I looked over my shoulder at Link, who hadn't even shown any sign that he had heard the door. I grabbed my jacket and shrugged it on, closing the door behind me.

"What do you want to talk about?"

I opened my mouth to start out "all of the sudden" and shut it; three years wasn't all of the sudden material; a month changes that. "It's just that… I know that I wasn't here for three years and all and I know I didn't know him too long to begin with, but it was easy to get to know Link. I mean easy for me, and I've been getting to know people since before I met you when we were five."

"You're blabbering," she pointed out as we stopped outside the dorm building. "What are you trying to say?

I stopped and looked her in the eye. "Why is Link so withdrawn?"

Link walked out of his room and into the bathroom, murmuring to himself. I frowned and shook my head, watching his path with my eyes. I noticed that he would sulk into himself whenever he was around me, but if I looked at him and he didn't realize it, he'd hold himself like he knew he was being watched. He'd tense up every time his phone or IM went off.

I know I'm not made for forensics or anything of that sort, but I've always been good at reading people. Take Skull for a start, from one glance—before I met him—he had a name that wasn't usually found anywhere in society, or at least went by one (Skull—I never did learn his real name) I knew that he could fight and was a Sexual Sadist (the normal profile for Rapists, level one… ok yes I watch too many forensic shows, so what?) or would progress to be one in his late teens. I knew he liked to win and do what it took to do so, but was also willing to submit to someone as long as he got something out of it, which was why I had to offer him "protection" for him to be under my gang-leadership.

Naa: she liked girls since she was little, that much was obvious—and I mean really little, as in, four-year-old little; I'm serious. She liked kid's way back then. She was brought up in either a Pro-Feminist Neighborhood, Society or Household, which is why she wears the chesty and poofy pants that somehow manage to bring out her body—I never got that, even to today. And she's a girl who's not afraid to speak her mind and beat it into you to make sure you get something… that I got from first-hand experience.

Link? I think I might have had him wrong all along.

I frowned, listening to the toilet flush and the water from the sink come on before the door opened and the light shut off. He balled the sleeves of his long-sleeve shirt in his hands as he walked by and I narrowed my eyes, watching him walk back into his room. I caught the small grin he passed me as he turned around to shut the door and gave him one back.

I waited for him to close the door before opening the pack by my shoulder on the ground and pulling out a pen and notebook. It was kind of funny, looking through all the different handwritings—don't get me wrong, it's my notebook, but I've had it since I was five.

Nabarro (spelt her name wrong then, too)

Zelda

Midna

Skull Kid

Aaron (quarterback that was arrested with possession)

Spencer (chess geek I used to play all the time)

Derek (gang member)

Penny (chick in my gang who was really good at hacking)

Twelve pages of people's names I couldn't remember from my past.

Midna (wait, she's in here twice? Oops)

Homeroom Teach (First period teacher when Link and I met)

Link

There were two pages dedicated to him and the list started again.

Teion Kesshi (1)

Shan Kesshi (2)

Annabelle

Josephine

And the notebook ended there. I flipped back to where I had done Link's two pages and found myself happy I had accidently given him two and flipped to the second, heading it After Effect (I'm not sure why I called my mom's murder the Effect but it just kind of happened) and going to the first line, writing:

He's different. Obviously. I'm using this page to tell me why, though.

Second line:

Withdrawn.

Third:

Anti-social

Fourth:

Abnormal obsession with keeping wrists hidden—nervous tick to fiddle with sleeves?

Fifth:

Dreads phone and internet interaction—note to self, if I need to contact him, call, don't text.

Sixth:

Keeps love-life personal—may or may not be because I told him I wanted him to be my boyfriend, left for three years and came back only to have him have a B.F. (Naa is witness to prep)

Seventh:

Keeps self locked in room.

I stopped my pen and went through the list, bulleting them all, just in case I ran out of lines. I paused and checked my watch before putting the notebook and the pen back in the bag, going to my room to get ready for bed.

I woke up to Link's muffled screams and jumped up, disentangling my legs from the blanket before running to his room, where I found him screaming into his pillow and thrashing. I pressed my hands to his back and shook him awake, roughly. He jumped and his breath came in rugged gasps as his shoulders shook. I sat on the side of his bed and he cringed visibly for a moment before glancing up at me sideways and letting out a rough sob. I decided to start talking. "Link, Link, it's me, Dark! Do you remember me or are you still asleep?" wouldn't be the first time something like that happened.

He took in a few deep breaths and nodded, pulling his legs to his chest and sitting up, taking in a few deep breaths as he tried to calm down. Then he looked at me and lost it, wrapping his arms around me and bawling into my chest. I held him there, tucking his head under my chin and rubbing his back gently. He finally looked up, long after he stopped cringing from my gentle back massaging and finally sniffled to a stop. "Thanks," he mumbled "just don't tell anyone about this."

"Never," I mumbled and hugged him tighter as he wrapped his arms around me even tighter than that. "Do I want to know what scared you so much that you were screaming and crying?" He tensed and shook his head, burrowing it deeper into my chest, as far as he could until I knew he couldn't breathe. "Ok, Ok," I replied "I don't need to be told. I won't ask again. I won't ask again, Link. Shh…" I felt like a mother calming a crying child….

Slowly, he started falling asleep and I moved to let him rest on his own when he caught me around the waist and yanked me down with him. I gasped and stared down at him shocked until he threw his blanket around me—when I stared at him confused. He pushed me onto my back and rested his head on my chest. "Stay. Please?"

My heart fluttered and skipped a beat before I finally let out a breath and wrapped my arm around him and pulled him closer, shutting my eyes. He smiled against my skin and shut his eyes, his soft eyelashes brushing against my skin delicately. I paused and put my one arm on the side of his head, holding him there until he fell asleep. I followed before I could move at all.

I woke up to Link's alarm clock going off in my ear and groaned, knowing that mine was going off in my room, too. Ugh, I have work! Link mumbled incoherently and reached over my face, giving me a quick sniff of what smelled like… is that… Neosporin? My nose curled—I never did like that smell, even when I was in my cutting stage from Gannondorf's punches.

He groaned and leaned up, brushing his lips against my jaw as he tried to go back to sleep. I paused and opened my eyes, smiling at the serene look on his face as I forced myself not to kiss him. I took his arm in mine and gently shook him awake. He opened his eyes and looked up at me, a beautifully innocent look on his face before he realized it was morning. "And if I don't want to move?" He mumbled, sleepily.

"I'll turn the bathtub on cold, pick you up and dump you in it, clothes and all." And I was being serious.

"Fine, fine," he grumbled, rolling onto his back and my arm. "I'm up, I'm up."

"You're lying right next to me, Link, you're not up."

"Why are you pushing me?" He groaned again, only this time it was a little easier to understand.

"Because if I don't you'll miss your first literature class. I know you don't like the Prof but that doesn't mean you get to skip 'cus' you feel like it. Don't make me do the tub thing because I will."

He sighed and nodded, rolling off the bed by going over me and stepping onto the cold tile. He shivered slightly and smiled at me before pulling some clothes from his closet and going into the bathroom. The shower started and I closed the door.

I've got ten minutes to search the place.

I found nothing but a half-eaten, sealed bag of jerky next to an open notebook on his desk and an old, rusted and blood-stained razor that smelled profoundly of cocaine. I pouted and slipped it into my pocket, eyeing the bathroom door as I slipped back into my room and got ready for my job at the Student Union.

The car drove up to me late that night, just after my 8-10 PM seminar. The black blanket that was his car screeched to a stop without even so much as bothering a pebble it drove next to. I looked back and forth, uncertain as the window rolled down and he said "D-L, I haven't seen you for, what now? Ten years? And suddenly you call me up asking for a favor? That's not like you, man. What's on your mind?"

"I was thinking a bit of forensics" I remarked, rolling my eyes. From what I could see, he had tanned skin and gold-yellow eyes with red makeup under them. Dark blue hair came down in points just in front of his ears and pulled into a long, high ponytail. There was also a green bandana on everything from the bridge of his nose, down. "The fuck happened to you, Byrne?"

I didn't have to see it to know that he smirked with that half-laugh that escaped his nose. "C'mon, man, you were how old the last time I saw you? Ten or eleven?"

"Eight, for the record, and the leader of the Outback Raiders, thank you." I replied, curtly. "Listen, something's going on with my roomie. I think he… I think me may be cutting."

"So? It's not like you haven't dealt with that crap 'fore, D. C'mon, man, I'm serious, this thing's burning gas."

"Wow, shocker," I rolled my eyes, listening to the words linger in the air around me. "That thing's a V8, right? I mean, seriously, the things a guzzler. The station must love you." I rolled my eyes. "We're getting off track, Byrne. I'm serious; this guy doesn't fit the profile. I haven't found a trigger yet, but I'm not even sure if he is cutting."

"Then what do you want me to do?"

"I know you have connections and I don't want to have to ask you this because I just got back in town and all but this is serious. I know all about cutters. It's hard not to when you were one. We don't start it randomly. There is something that triggers it. I know I started because of Gannondorf. I know that Will from down the block started it because his mother had already caught him injecting, snorting, smoking and eating it straight." I froze. Shit, the razor smelling like coke man, is he…? I looked up at the building and shook my head; I'd notice those signs without blinking. "I'm working on his trigger, but I want to be certain that he is cutting before I go digging into his past." There was a pause and I fished out the knife out of my jacket pocket, holding it out for him. "Just do it quick and quiet man. I don't need anyone to know about this. I'll pay you when you get me the results."

"If anyone finds out," he warned, taking it. "My boss will have my head."

I laughed gently, shaking my head. "If your boss finds out, I'll be the one keying your car for getting caught. You're sneakier than that—you and Vaati were my teachers, after all."

Byrne smirked under his bandana and nodded, rolling up the window and driving away. I looked around a bit before going inside, where I was met with the sight of Link sleeping on the couch. I took the time to cover him with a small blanket before I sat down and pulled out my note book.

Line Eight:

Neosporin

Nine:

Nightmares

Ten:

Bloodied razor

I then drew a small between Eight and Ten, bringing it together to write Cutter? at the point.

I glanced at Link as he lifted his head, groggily, and looked at me. "Sleep well, Sleeping Beauty?" I smirked at him, leaning back on my hand as I looked at him.

He moaned in the back of his throat before rolling onto his shoulders and I bounced the tip and the back of the pen on my leg as he continued, "there's a famous problem in logic and cognition. Sleeping Beauty takes a sleeping potion on Sunday. That night, her friend flips a fair coin. There are only two options. If it comes up heads, Sleeping Beauty will be woken up for good on Monday. If it comes up tails, she'll be woken on Monday but given an amnesia pill and put back to sleep until Tuesday, when she'll be woken again," my eyebrow rose and I listened to him, intently. "Each time she's woken, her friend will ask her what she thinks the probability is that the coin came up heads."

"So?" I shrugged. "What's that got to do with anything?"

"What's today? Thursday?" I laughed gently as he slowly moved so that the arm of the chair was against the small of his back. I smiled at him, moving so that I was sitting the same way, resting the notebook and the pen in my lap as I wrote down cringes at back.

"What do you think?" I asked. He shrugged and murmured a bit.

"I think its Thursday."

"And what may possibly make you think that, Mon Amie?"

"I'm too tired to think of anything else and I don't need the Latin course."

"I don't know Latin—it's French; I took it in High School while you were in Spanish courses and, by the way, it's Friday."

"Damn." I laughed gently and shook my head. "What?"

"I never thought I'd live to hear the day when you cursed openly, Link." I paused. "I gotta say, I think I like it better when you don't. It makes you seem innocent."

"Which I'm anything but."

Twelve:

Denial of innocence

"You don't have to be innocent to look it."

His breathing hitched as he smirked. "Yeah, well, maybe the some of the ones that aren't innocent don't want to look it."

Twelve (cont):

——pushes subject away from self.

"Maybe some people have an air to them." I paused. "But you know there aren't any amnesia pills."

"What's this getting at?"

"Technically, there aren't any amnesia pills. Sure there are pills that have side effects that may lead to amnesia through trauma such as allergic reactions to this or that that could be bad enough for someone to go into shock and have something close to or even attributed to epilepsy attacks—deadly, yes, but can contribute towards amnesia." I was curious to know if he realized that I had left Rohypnol off the list (Byrne would be proud of me if he knew I called it that and not 'date rape').

There was a long pause and he replied. "You should do law enforcement, not Bio teacher. Besides, you don't like kids."

There was a pause and I smiled brightly. "I've been told that since I was four years old, man. I haven't heard that in years. Who told you?"

"You just demonstrated it to me."

"Don't use big words," I groaned, leaning against the side of the couch and closing my eyes. "It's too late to use them."

"Epilepsy? Trauma? Allergic reactions?"

"The last one's not as big as the others," I replied, rolling my eyes and resting my legs on the side of his hips, closing the notebook and slipping it inside my pack. He laughed and did the same with his legs, stretching his out. I lay down normally and rested my forearm on my forehead.

"Something wrong?"

"My head won't stop pounding," I mumbled. "I'm just glad that I don't have to work tomorrow and I opted out of weekend classes."

His phone vibrated and I put my left leg on his hips before he could reach over to it. "Fuck the phone, Link. We were talking. If it's an emergency or important, they'll call back." I sounded like a bastard and said "screw it" to the part of my mind that screamed at me not to be—that same part that changed when I hurt Link all those years back.

"Ok" his voice was resigned and, underneath it, I could hear the edgings of fear and an overblown sense of happiness. I moved my leg and watched him tense slightly. I shrugged it off—my eyes were tired and my head hurt from all this crap. He leaned forward and sat up again. For a while he sat there, looking at my pained face before he finally asked "why does your head hurt?"

I paused. I knew the answer: Byrne. I always get headaches when I have to talk to him… we may not have seen each other for ten years, but we kept in contact. I've been a contact for the Crime Lab since I was eight—back then it was for gang bangers, then I showed off a bit and vuala, it happens: I'm suddenly a contact. Him working as the head of the Homeland Securities department way out here probably doesn't help.

I hate Byrne beyond the human concept of how much hatred can grow. Can't tell you why, though; something about us doesn't click… we're like one person, too close of Alpha Dogs to work. But he doesn't need to know about Byrne and I seeing each other for the… razor in his room (great ice breaker: hey, dude, I snooped around in your room and found an old bloodied and rusty razor and from the way you're acting, I think you're a cutter—great way to get a date) so I finally decided on "because my Prof speaks much too loud and I even sit in the back of the room. I feel bad for the goodies who take the front." He laughed gently and nodded, standing up. I watched out of the corner of my eye as he walked into the small kitchen-area we had set up, messing with something until he came back with an icepack and rested it on top of my forehead. "I'm going to go to bed. Good night Dark."

"Night, Link." I replied and watched him leave.

Ten minutes after the door shut and the light turned off, I realized he left his cell on the table and reached over, picking it up. I was ready to flip it open and read it when I stalled, looking up at his door. He may have problems, but it's just… his boyfriend (probably). Maybe they're having problems and he thinks that he may break up with him. That's it. They're close to a break up.

I stood up and walked to his door, opening it and putting it down on his nightstand. When he opened his eyes, I smiled at him and left.

I just wasn't ready to find out why he dreaded his phone—and why the ID for that number wasn't programmed with a number or with a name.

In all actuality, I should have taken my chance right then. At least then, the rift wouldn't have formed at all.

Wow, long. Seriously, long. 7 pages. That makes up for the 1 page crap I pulled last time. Anyway, I 3 anyone who stayed this long! Here's a cookie!

(1) Kesshi is Japanese for "Hero" and seeing as how Teion and Shan are close relatives to Link, I thought it fit. Link Hero, nice. :)

(2) Shan is Japanese for "Beautiful" :)