A/N Here's chapter twenty-two!

Misaki ran through the alleys of downtown Tokyo once more. They seemed to be haunting him at this point. But before, he had been more focused on running in fear that the man had been right on his tail. Tonight he knew for sure Takana would not be following him, so he didn't get very far before he fell to his knees, panting heavily.

He continued gasping for air before looking up to get a look at his surroundings. He was right on the edge of a street, at the same red light Akihiko had been parked at the night they "met." The boy looked to his right and thought about running for the beach again, but decided against it. He stood back up and took a left, going wherever he thought felt safe. He didn't want to be reminded of Akihiko.

He kept running until he was nearly on the outskirts of the city, where it was empty and quiet. He didn't want to be around anyone. Anyone. Because by this point, he knew that history could easily repeat itself, and he didn't want to go through it a third time.

He stopped when he reached an area that contained several large forts made of empty shipping boxes by a dock. He stood for awhile to catch his breath before collapsing once more, curling up into a ball and crying silently to himself. Although he had successfully escaped, his tears were cathartic for, as far as he was concerned, Akihiko was dead and there was no getting him back.

He kept sobbing silently until he felt a drop of rain hit the back of his neck. Looking up to the stars with teary eyes and a weak heart, he felt more droplets of water hit his face. Soon, it began to rain hard. He crawled over to a box fort and sat under them, sheltering himself from the cold rain as much as he could. It was still leaky, but it was better than nothing.

The flower sat curled up in a ball, staring out into the rain for quite some time. He closed his eyes in exhaustion, and rested for a moment. He had to admit, it felt nice to rest. Even if it was just for a moment, before a flash of lightning startled him, followed by a huge clap of thunder. He began to feel scared again, and curled up more.

He stayed still for several miserable moments before looking at the gun he was still carrying. As soon as his eyes met the deadly weapon, everything horrible that had happened in his past flashed in front of him, as if his conscious was encouraging him to suicide. And, it was working. He stood up quickly, his eyes shut tight. Without giving himself time to have any second thoughts, he put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger.

...

...

...

...

But, nothing happened.

He peeked an eye open when he felt no different. He pulled the trigger once more. And again... and again, and again, and again. But there was no change.

He averted his gaze to the weapon while still constantly pulling at it. There was a clicking sound, but no bullets coming out. He felt his heart drop in disappointment. He had used every last shot on his taskmaster.

His thoughts were interrupted by a sudden bright flash of light and the sound of several sirens surrounding him. He immediately knew it was the police and began to panic.

No... no... the police will make me go back to my brother... no, I don't want to...

When he made out a figure coming inside of the box fort and towards him, he felt afraid again. The officer slowly made their way towards the shaken up boy with caution.

"It's alright," a gentle female voice cooed as she approached Misaki.

Misaki shook where he stood, his sanity swallowed whole by past events. He kept pulling the trigger, hoping something would happen, but it wasn't working. He dropped the gun and began to back away from her.

"Hey," the officer said when she was within poking distance. She lowered the flashlight to reveal her face. It was Yumi. "I won't hurt you. I'm here to help you."

But Misaki's trust in humanity had been temporarily disabled. He backed up into a metal fence before dashing off to the right, where there was another entrance into the fort, only to be stopped by a backup officer. He backed away from that one and made for the left, but no luck there, either. He was completely surrounded.

"Leave me alone!" Misaki cried out to nobody in particular. This night, this past week, these past ten years had caused him to momentarily lose his sanity. He wasn't thinking straight, or about anything at all except for the fact that he just wanted to die.

Yumi approached the boy and gently gripped his shoulders. "Misaki Takahashi?"

Misaki stopped panicking to look upon the older woman. He had slightly come back to his senses upon hearing her gentle voice, and also his name. He looked up at her in a state of awe.

"W... What... you... I-" He stuttered.

Yumi just smiled down at him. "I've been looking for you. There's someone waiting to see you. They've been worried sick about you."

Misaki blinked. Someone worried about me? There's no way... the only person I can think of is...

Usagi...

But... Usagi is dead... Nii-chan? No, why would he be worried about me? He's the one who handed me over to those guys in the first place...

While lost in his thought, Yumi had taken his hand and led him to the police cruiser. She then opened the door for him, waiting for him to step in.

"Don't worry, Misaki. You can trust me."

Misaki hesitated and stood still. A person he didn't know stopping him from committing suicide, addressing him by his name, telling him they could be trusted then bringing him into their car felt too familiar. It wasn't an unpleasant a little over a week ago, but he had learned a lesson; happiness was short lived and there was no way you can expect anything good, or bad, to ever happen. Nature could not be tamed.

"W... Who is worried about me?" He asked nervously, looking back up at her again.

She just giggled. "It's a surprise."

A/N Another short chapter. :I Meh. I'm sorry.

The reason the past few chapters have been so short is because I've been typing them and publishing them while at school. But today is my last day of school so the chapters will be getting significantly longer from now one.

But I hope the fact that the story has taken a huge step forward within these few short chapters makes up for it. c:

ili777: You're quite welcome! And yes, actually my original plan for the story was that Misaki shoots Takana and actually kills him. I changed it because A., Takana deserves much worse. B., I didn't want to put Misaki through anymore PTSD than I've put him through already. And also you gave a good reason, Misaki is no killer. I don't want to ruin my sweet, innocent portrayal of Misaki too much. Because frankly, I enjoy it. c: And I guess you got your answer for what Misaki was planning to do with the gun. XD Guess it's a good thing it was empty. Thanks for reading and enjoying my story so much! It means a lot to me!

Soulhearts: Yeah! I've managed to find time between studying for finals to update my story. Even though the chapters are short, buuuuut, yeah. I'm honored that it's one of your favorites! I understand the whole ongoing thing, a lot of stories I love haven't been updated in years or only get updated like once every few months, so I try to avoid that. And you can expect Takana to pay for his assholery. ^^

ClaryJace777: Indeed he is, he does posses this side of him when he's forced to bring it out! Which helped him immensely in his situation. XD I'm glad you're excited, I hope you enjoyed this chapter!

Guest (I wish I could call you by a name! :c): I noticed you reviewed Chapter 20 instead of 21. Did you not notice the update? ^^; I'm sorry. Well SURPRISE! :D I hope you like it! Thanks for your continuous enjoyment and following!

TechSavvy123014: Oh yay! :D Well I'm perfectly fine with long-time-listeners, first-time-callers. Yeah, hiding the key in the TV was something I came up with spontaneously. It wasn't until I had written that chapter until I actually figured out where I wanted to hide the key. I'm kind of proud of myself. xD And I compeltely understand. I had that BS too. I'm like if someone is incapacitated, they're incapacitated. They won't be going anywhere anytime soon!

SuzukiChiyeko: Well thank you. c: Yeah I might have derived the basic idea of this story from Okane Ga Nai but I didn't want to copy it completely. As much as I love the story, I don't want to like. Plagiarize? Or something. xD Also I understand the whole liking the yaoi genre but not the yaoi series mostly. There's only a couple of yaois I like, like Junjo Romantica obviously. Others I don't care for, like Kirepapa I find odd. I mostly just ship two male characters from normal shows that usually aren't canon. XD I like that type of yaoi! 3

RitsuKitten: Who knows what'll happen to him now. I can't give anything right now, but it will be worse.

TBC,

-Tiny