Hi..!

It`s so good to be back with another chapter! :D I`m sorry about the wait, I really wanted to get it out sooner – but I`ve been so busy lately, I hardly had any time to write… Urgh…

Thanks for the response on the previous chapter, I`m glad most of you enjoyed it! And once again, I`m sorry about Sophie; I`ll miss her, too:(

I hope you will like today`s chapter, number 24! I think you`ve waited long enough already, so I`m not going to say anything more. Here you go, enjoy!

Chapter 24: Someone To Care For

The streets were so wet and cold.

The city was full of strangers.

He was surrounded by unfamiliar faces and voices he didn`t recognize; big monsters who didn`t even notice his presence, strangers who didn`t feel his pain.

Rex was terrified. The icy rain hit his cheeks and mixed with his own hot tears as he sobbed quietly at a brick-covered staircase on the outside of a tall building.

He was lost.

He was cold.

He was hungry.

His young mind was filled up with a variety of emotions he wasn`t even able to tell apart from one another; he felt scared, angry, sad – almost every single bad feeling he could name, all at once.

But most of all he felt alone.

Uncle Randall was gone.

Sulley was gone.

Mum was gone; and Uncle Randall had even said that she wasn`t gonna come back.

Rex let out another desperate sob; why had Uncle Randall said that? It was a very mean thing to say, and it wasn`t even true; mum would always come back. Mum had been there almost every single day of Rex`s life, and she loved him – so of course she would come back to him. She just had to wake up from her nap first.

Rex rubbed his eyes; partly to dry the tears and partly because he felt so tired. He yawned, let out a little hiccup, and guessed nap-time was approaching - and that idea caused the tears to start running again; where was he supposed to sleep? He didn`t know the way home to his and mum`s house, and he couldn`t find the way to Uncle Randall`s place, either. And he hadn`t even been to Sulley`s house before, so he wouldn`t even try to find that.

He sobbed again, as the tears continued to fall. They hit his tail, which he suddenly noticed was no longer invisible; Rex was very talented, but he still couldn`t fully control his blending-abilities - and despite giving it his best shot, the red-tipped tail remained visible for everyone to see.

The little monster sobbed again as he curled himself up in an attempt to hide his tail from showing, and as he did, he felt how his eyelids were getting heavier by the second; the feeling caused him to close his eyes, and eventually, after some more hiccups and sobs, he was carried off to sleep.

The sudden touch caused Rex to open his eyes in a flash.

Something had just brushed against his tail. The little monster sat up, disoriented, and took a look around; he couldn`t remember where he was, and the shock almost made him tumble down the staircase. Luckily, a pair of hands took hold of him and kept him from falling, and held him in a tight yet mild grip.

Rex overlooked his own body, and noticed that he was fully visible again; he had never managed to remain invisible during sleep before. He made a desperate attempt to camouflage again straight away in order to hide from the other monster, but his shivering body didn`t obey him anymore; he could hardly feel his own limbs.

The agonizing feeling of fear and complete failure caused Rex to cry even worse than before; he was surprised he had any tears left, but they just kept on coming. He grabbed hold of the stranger holding him and squeezed his head up against her chest, causing her coat to get soaked with tears; he didn`t care if she was a stranger anymore. All he wanted now was comfort, someone to hold around him, pat his head and stroke his back; someone who would whisper soft words in his ear. Mum. He wanted mum. And the thought of her made him cry even more.

"It`s okay…"

The female`s voice was just as soft as her hands, and the sound of it caused Rex`s breathing to calm a little; he let out some more hiccups as he buried his face in her soft scarf. He wasn`t done crying yet though, and silent tears continued to run down his face as the stranger kept talking to him;

"You`re safe now honey, there`s nothing to be afraid of anymore…It`s okay…"

Then she quickly flipped open a phone and dialled a number. She waited for a few seconds before somebody answered, and when she spoke to whoever was on the line, she still had that soft, calm tone to her voice;

"I have him".

The female monster talked for a little while, but Rex didn`t catch anything of what she was saying; he was too busy crying. It was as if his eyes would never dry up, and tears continued to run down his cheeks for a long time, even after the one holding him had hung up on the phone. Rex didn`t feel like doing anything else than crying.

Luckily, the other monster seemed to be fine with it. She just stroke his head and whispered friendly words as she carried him through the cold streets of the city. She even wrapped him up in her warm scarf, and that helped a little. Rex was much calmer now, and he finally managed to talk between the quiet sobs;

"W-why a thewe snakes o-on youw h-head? I`m n-not scawed of snakes, I like s-snakes, I`m vewy b-bwave..!"

"I know you are, honey..! And the snakes are there to…well, I guess they`re there to keep me company!" She smiled;

"My name is Celia!"

"M-m-my n-n-name is -" he was interrupted by another hiccup; "W-wex..!"

"It`s nice to finally meet you, Rex..! I`ve seen you before, at the factory – I work with your Uncle Randall, and Sulley, and Googley-Be – I mean Mike..!"

"…and m-mum..!"

"Yeah…" Celia hugged the little creature in her arms a bit harder;

"Yeah…That`s right, Rex..!"

She stopped for a moment to move the orange monster from one hip to another; Celia wasn`t exactly the strongest monster in town, and carrying Rex right now was like carrying a sack of potatoes - he was just hanging there, dead tired and surprisingly heavy.

"A lot of monsters have been looking for you, Rex…We were so worried…"

Rex answered with another quiet sob and didn`t do anything in order to help Celia carry him; he was too tired to make an effort. The only thing he did was hide his face in her coat.

"We were afraid something might have happened to you…"

"Was unca Wandall scawed..?"

"Yes, he was – he was terrified, Rex..!"

"He`s scawed a lot…" Rex whispered against Celia`s coat;

"He`s scawed of spidews…and thundew…gwown-ups can be scawed too, Cela…But I help, and I can make it go away…I can take cawe of unca Wandall, and he take cawe of me…"

The quiet mumbling was a bit too low for Celia to hear, and it was just getting weaker and weaker. And by the time she met up with Randall, Sulley, Mike, Fungus, Art, Terry, Terri, Squishy and everyone else who had left Monsters Inc. in order to help with the search, the orange creature she held in her arms was sound asleep.

After tucking Rex carefully into Sulley`s bed, a meek Randall thanked everyone who had helped him look for his little nephew. They had all headed for Sulley and Mike`s apartment after finding Rex, but now it was time for everyone to get back to work; except for Sulley, who had decided it was probably wiser to stay with Randall right now. Mike and Celia wanted to stay too, and waved good bye to the search-crowd as they stepped out of the apartment-door and left; relieved by the fact that everything had turned out well.

Then the little group of four sat down in the living room, and silence ruled for quite a while. Randall looked at the floor. Sulley looked out of the window. Celia looked at the ceiling. Mike looked at Celia – who slapped his hand when he tried to touch one of her tentacles;

"Not now, Googley-bear!"

Randall grinned at the gesture; he was okay with Mike now, but he still found it really amusing when things went against the little guy. Mike took notice of the smile;

"What`s so funny?"

"Nothing, it`s just…" Randall bit his lip;

"I just…Thanks…Thanks for helping me today".

His gaze dropped from Mike and down to the floor again;

"I don`t know what I would have done if I had been on my own when he disappeared…Or what I would have done if anything had happened to him…"

"Don`t think about it, nothing happened!" Sulley placed his hand over Randall`s;

"Rex is safe. We found him."

Randall`s eyes met with the blue monster`s, and they held the contact for a little while; long enough for Mike to cough. Randall pulled away, and looked at the wall as he continued talking;

"Yeah, we found him. And yeah, he`s safe." He took in a short breath;

"…but now what?"

"What do you mean?" Sulley`s hand was still holding Randall`s, and the furry monster didn`t understand what the scaly one meant.

"Sullivan, his mum`s dead. What`s going to happen to him?"

"I…I thought you -"

"I can`t take care of him, Sullivan. See what happened today!"

"But you`re his only family..!" Mike shot in; he couldn`t help it.

"Sure, but…It`s just…" The purple monster moved his gaze from one face to another;

"I can`t..!"

With those words, he got up from the couch and headed for the kitchen – or at least in the direction he guessed would lead him to the kitchen; he had never been in Sullivan and Mike`s apartment before, and didn`t know where things were located. Mike was about to follow him, but Celia held him back;

"No, googley-bear." She looked over at Sulley, and nodded;

"I think you better go after him..!"

Sulley was already up, and sent Celia a thankful smile as he followed the lizard-monster to the kitchen. He found him by the sink, pouring water into a boiler;

"What are you doing?"

"Making tea".

"Randall -"

"Do you want some?"

"No, I -"

"You were soaked out there; you should get something warm in you..!"

"Okay, fine – but Randall -"

"I know what you`re about to say, Sullivan… But I can`t take care of him, okay?" Randall turned his head to face the other, and Sulley was surprised to see there were tears on his cheeks;

"I`m his only family. But it`s just…It`s just too much, Sullivan..!"

"What`s too much?"

Randall put the boiler down;

"…I just don`t know how many more losses I can bear…"

Sulley didn`t say anything; he just looked at the guy he had gotten to know so well over the past few weeks. And when the lizard eventually spoke again, his voice was thicker than before;

"When he disappeared today...I thought I`d lost him, too…And I`ve been dreading that to happen since I got to know him -"

He rubbed one of his eyes;

"I`ve lost everyone I`ve ever cared about, Sullivan – my parents, my sister…my friends…"

"Isn`t Rex worth that risk you`ve been talking about?"

"I…" Randall bit his lip;

"He is, but…Sullivan, I would worry sick about him every single day..! It would tear me apart; what if something happened to him?"

Sulley walked up to Randall and wrapped his big arms around him. Randall hugged him back, and as he allowed his body to relax, the tears started flowing again.

"I definitely think it`s a risk worth taking, Randall…"

The lizard didn`t answer; he was busy burying his face in fur and letting his desperate tears out. Sulley stroke his back and gave him what he needed; time. Randall had been through so much in a very short amount of time, and the blue monster couldn`t even imagine going through what the purple one had experienced. So he just continued stroking him until he felt ready to talk again;

"I…I love him, Sullivan..!"

"I know."

"What if I fail?"

"You won`t fail."

"What if something happens to him?"

"You can think like that Randall; it will drive you mad..!"

"But what if..?"

"…then we`ll help each other through it…best as we can -" Sulley ran a finger along Randall`s cheek;

"That`s why it`s great to have others in your life to care for – who cares about you in return…when something bad happens, unpredicted, there`s someone else around to take care of you..!"

The scaly monster didn`t reply straight away; he needed some more time to think. But when the answer came, he glanced deeply into Sullivan`s eyes, and his voice was surprisingly calm for what he was actually saying;

"I`m glad that someone is you, Sullivan..!"

He leaned closer and placed his lips against the soft blue ones. The feeling still amazed him; it felt different each and every time. He ran his upper set of hands through the fur on the other monster`s shoulders, and when Sullivan stroke his fronds in return his entire body shivered.

"Well, hello..!"

The voice caused Randall to break free from the kiss. He peeked over Sullivan`s shoulder and spotted Mike at the door – the little green monster smirked, and walked slowly up to the two which were already present;

"Celia was wondering what took you so long, but I just figured it out..!"

"I…was going to get some tea…" Randall coughed;

"And then…then…your hairy friend walked in, and…"

"Hey, it`s okay..! I`ve known about it, Randall -" Mike`s face gained a more compassionate expression;

"…ya know; you and Sul."

Randall sent a glare in Sullivan`s direction, and the blue one started explaining immediately;

"M-Mike knew I was into you even before I did, Randall..!"

"…and I couldn`t be happier! You`ve gotten yourself quite a catch here, lizard-boy!" Mike shot in.

He really was happy about it; when Sulley had told him that he had finally kissed Randall a couple of nights ago, Mike had gotten so excited Sulley had to calm him down. The green monster wanted his best friend to be happy, and if Randall brought him bliss, then Mike couldn`t dream of doing anything else than giving Sulley`s choice his blessing.

"Great, so I guess all of Monstropolis will know about this in a few days` time now, huh..?" Randall frowned as he spoke;

"Or have ya already called the news-channel, Wazowski?"

"I haven`t told anyone, Sul told me to keep my mouth shut about it!"

"And you will, right..?" Sulley shot in with a touch of nervousness to his voice;

"It`s still very new, Mike – we don`t know exactly what`s going on, okay?"

"I know, I know…Whenever you`re ready!" Mike gave both monsters a pat on the back;

"Now, wanna start working on that tea, Randy?"

Then he turned on the heel and walked back into the living room. Sulley looked after him with a grin, shaking his head, and Randall took hold of the boiler again and filled it up with water;

"Okay, then…"

"Okay what?"

"I`ll take care of Rex."

"Really?"

"It`s not like I have a choice, do I?"

"Yes, you do have a choice, Randall – but it`s just…I think you would regret it if you didn`t -"

"I know… But I love Rex, Sullivan. He`s worth it. I`ll take care of him. I want to take care of him. I want to keep him safe."

"I`m always here to help you out, you know that?"

"I know -" Once again, Randall leaned closer;

"Thanks".

He kissed the bigger monster once more, and was yet again surprised by how wonderful it felt. The future still terrified him, but he brushed the thoughts of it away by concentrating on the present, here and now; and right now, he explored more of Sullivan – there seemed to be new things to discover every time he kissed him.

Well, that`s it..!

What do you think? Please review/PM and share your thoughts with me:)

Like I said earlier, I`ve been really busy lately – busy and tired. And unfortunately, the next week looks rather packed too; so I don`t have much time to write.

But the good news are, I actually started chapter 25 a few weeks ago, so I think I`ll be able to publish it within a week:) Yay!

Everybody take care now, and please come back to check out the new chapter when it`s ready! I`ll see you then;)