"So...dare I ask why it was in the boys' dorm?"

"He was my partner, and I left him."

Protector of Silence

Chapter Twenty-One – Kellyn is the king of Scrabble

Kellyn's jaw dropped and his white pupils grew to the size of dinner plates as he looked at the two people in front of him. One of them was a boy of twelve with jet-black hair and icy-blue eyes. At his feet was an Eevee. The other was a girl a year younger with long curly ginger hair and moss-green eyes. Standing behind her was a Girafferig. She had four Pokéballs attached to her belt.

Clio? Luke?

"Good to see ya, stranger!" Clio grinned. Luke just nodded.

What are you doing here?

"Er, I live here?" Clio laughed. Luke jammed his hands in his pockets and kicked a stone away with his trainer.

"Sea route's out" he explained "Ice. Can't leave until next month when it's thawed out a bit."

Kellyn nodded in understanding.

"What about you Tiger?" Clio asked.

Birthday present

"Oh Kellyn, how thoughtful!" Clio beamed "A birthday present four months in advance!"

Kellyn shook his head with a grin.

Not you!

"Who then?" Luke spoke up.

A classmate

"Oh! A girl, is it?" Luke enquired. As soon as he saw Kellyn blush, he knew he was on the right track "Would you look at that! Little Kellyn's got himself a girlfriend!"

Normally Kellyn would have snapped for being called little, but at the moment he was too embarrassed to care. He bravely looked at Clio, ready for an onslaught of teasing. However, Clio had a blank look on her face, one Kellyn couldn't read.

"So, what's this classmate's name?" Luke went on.

Kellyn snapped out of his daze to answer.

Kate

"Kate huh?" Luke tilted his head or the side a bit "Is that short for Katherine or Katrina?"

Kellyn was about to answer, but Clio didn't let him.

"Luke, I left Gira's Pokéball at your house. Can you get it please?" she asked.

"Er, sure" Luke agreed "Come on Copper."

He jogged off towards Clio's house in the north of town, his Eevee and Clio's Girafferig following.

As soon as Luke was out of sight, Clio grabbed Kellyn's shoulders and dragged him over to the white fence of the Miltank farm. There she gripped his shoulders firmly, her nails seemingly piercing through his cloak and jacket into his shoulder blades as her hard green gaze made him shiver. He'd never seen Clio look like that before.

"Is it true?" she asked. Kellyn gave her a blank stare so she clarified "You're together with this Katrina girl?"

Kellyn's hand was trembling as he wrote the answer - this was so unlike Clio. Normally she was carefree and always laughing, how much had changed in the four months he'd been at school?

It's short for Katherine actually

Clio said nothing, just bore her green eyes into his. Kellyn did his best not to crack under the pressure and look away. Finally, Clio spoke again, but it was scary and monotonous, like she was disappointed about something.

"She your girlfriend?" was the question.

Kellyn shook his head.

We're just friends

"So you haven't kissed yet?" Clio asked. When Kellyn went beet-red Clio knew. "Let me guess, the mistletoe trick?"

Kellyn nodded, hanging his head. Then Clio perked up, even her deep-ginger Curls seemed to liven up a bit, and out on her signature huge grin.

"Well, sent my commiserations to dear Kate then!" she grinned.

Kellyn shook his head, smiling, and punched Clio lightly on the arm. This was more like the Clio he knew and was friends with.

"Ah! Alright, I'm joking!" she grinned, holding her hands up in surrender "So, it's her birthday present you're looking for?"

Kellyn nodded. Without a second's hesitation, Clio grabbed Kellyn's wrist and dragged him towards the market again. Kellyn panicked and dug his heels into the ground, but Clio pulled him like he was a mailbag.

"Well, I'm just the person to be asking for help!" she grinned "Nobody knows a girl's needs better than me!"

Kellyn eventually gave up trying to escape Clio's iron grip and resulted to putting all his energy into keeping up with her. Though it may have just been Kellyn's imagination, he thought he heard Clio murmur:

"You better look after him, Katherine."

Kellyn always looked back on that week of the holidays with a definite smile. He and Starlight were inseparable and they even moved their duvets onto the sofas so they could sleep in the common room, each happy for the other's company. Neither rose before 9:00, embracing the chance to have late mornings without Liam and Keith around. The cafeteria was near silent with it only being the two of them, the only sound being the sound of stainless steel utensils hitting porcelain. The majority of their week was spent in the common room watching movies, playing games and plotting ways to bring some extra spark to Mr Kincaid's lessons which probably wouldn't work but were fun to come up with. Starlight also taught Kellyn how to play chess and checkers, although Kellyn quickly realised he had too little patience for either game.

Actually, with the rest of school away, Starlight began to show another side of him. He was more bubbly and chatty. Whilst Kellyn couldn't talk, Starlight was more than happy to make up for the silence. Kellyn could never really grasp what Starlight was babbling on about - in fact he was pretty sure Starlight himself didn't know either. But Kellyn was happy to just sit there and let Starlight get it out of his system, it probably wouldn't last long.

"Oh come on! No fair!"

The day after going birthday shopping for Kate, Kellyn was sitting on one of the common room sofas with Starlight, watching a marathon of NCIS. He wasn't sure how they had come to watching said programme, but they had watched most of the movies already and it was more interesting than the game of Uno they'd previously been playing. It turned out that whilst Starlight was a great ranger and brilliant friend, he was no clairvoyant.

"It was the assistant all that time?!" Starlight's jaw was practically on the floor, despite the fact this was the third time he had guessed wrong, looking completely nonplussed "Man, I didn't think she had the guts to do it!"

Appearances can be deceiving

"Yeah, you're a living example" Starlight grunted, leaning against the sofa back and folding his arms, now looking annoyed.

The two sat in silence for a while, just sitting there and watching the last five minutes of the programme which was mostly a banter between three of the main characters in the office. As the frustrating break between programmes began, Kellyn looked over at Starlight. The taller boy had drawn his knees up to his chest, kicked off his shoes and buried his nose between his knees. Even from a metre away, Kellyn could see he was shivering.

Are you cold?

Starlight gave a small nod, his white shirt not providing much protection against the winter cold. Kellyn stood up and hurried into the boys' dorm. After a few seconds, he came back holding a pale-purple jumper. He held it out to Starlight.

"That yours?" he asked.

Actually, it's Kate's

"Er..." Starlight blinked in confusion "So...dare I ask why it was in the boys' dorm?"

Her brother Percy bought it for her for Christmas along with another one. They were both too big so she gave me this one

Starlight paused for a second before taking the jumper and slipping out over his thin frame. It was about his size.

"Purple's not really my colour, huh" he sighed.

Kellyn sat down on the sofa too.

It doesn't really matter when it's just the two of us at school

"Thanks Kellyn" Starlight smiled.

Kellyn just nodded and turned his attention back to the start of the new episode. They watched one more episode of NCIS before Starlight's pride couldn't take it anymore. To entertain themselves, they tried to play a game of Scrabble but Starlight quickly realised you can't win against a guy who writes 24/7.

"You're going to find it hard to use that Q without a U" the silver-haired boy informed his opponent with a smile.

Kellyn scowled and looked across the board. Then his face broke into a smile as he placed his last letter next to the I in 'fantastic'.

"Oh you've gotta be kidding me!" Starlight threw down his last four letter in protest "That can't be a word!"

Qi - pronounced 'chee'. Chinese origin

Starlight grumbled and began packing up the game.

Does that make me: Kellyn - The King of Scrabble?

"No, it makes you Kellyn - The King of Gloating" Starlight groaned.

Yeah, well, you still love me, don't ya?

"You're never gonna live this down, are ya?" Starlight sighed.

Kellyn shook his head, still grinning obnoxiously. He unlined his previous sentence.

Kellyn - The King of Scrabble!

Starlight face-palmed.

"What d'ya want, a picture in the hall of fame?" he asked sarcastically.

Yup, so I'm famous!

"No, you're obnoxious" Starlight told him dryly. He packed the Scrabble game away in the box and leant back into the sofa with a grunt.

Shadow leapt up onto his lap and circled round before curling up. Luna lay down on the sofa between the two humans whilst Kellyn tickled her white fur behind her large ear, making her purr.

For a while they just sat there, Kellyn basking in his glory as the official King of Scrabble and Starlight staring out the window. Then the silver-haired boy sat up.

"It's snowing again" he stated, looking over at his companion "Wanna go outside? Make a snowman or something?"

Kellyn shrugged and nodded. Luna stood up an stretched.

"Sounds good. We'll be outside waiting" She and Shadow got up and trotted down the steps into the courtyard.

Kellyn headed back to the boys' dorm to wrap up warm. He located his school jumper, his blue rain mac, a yellow scarf and pair of matching gloves. He was about to reach for his knitted hat but then he realised it buried beneath a pile of Keith's dirty socks and it would have to be decontaminated before he could wear it.

"I can't see."

Kellyn turned to look at Starlight. The taller boy had located a long red coat, scarf and gloves, but was once again having trouble with a hat. He'd borrowed one of Kincaid's blue bobble hats, but this time the hat was too big and kept slipping down either over his eyes or off his head backwards.

Kellyn chuckled and removed Starlight's hat before forcing it down on his head again. When he was sure it wasn't going to slip off whilst he was holding on, he tied the tassels below Starlight's chin. Taking a step back, Kellyn glued his mouth shut to stop himself from laughing. He couldn't help but think Starlight looked a bit like he was wearing a bonnet due to that silly hat, but there was no way he was going to tell the older boy that.

"Thanks" Starlight nodded "Let's go." Kellyn nodded and they made their way downstairs, through the courtyard and into the field.

As they said so, Luna and Shadow were already there, playing in the snow. Whilst Shadow stuck out like a dot of ink on a piece of blank paper, the only parts of Luna that showed up against the crystalline snow was her indigo eyes and jewel on her forehead.

In the next half an hour, the four of them built a snowman that was actually taller than Kellyn. They were so proud of it they gave him a carrot nose and actual buttons for his buttons and eyes. They named him Mr Tumbleton, due to something that had happened whilst they were putting the finishing touches on him.

Shadow had been attempting to help at Luna's insistence, walking around on the snowman's head. In the process he had slipped and tumbled towards the ground, his legs and tail failing in the air.

"Don't panic!" Luna called up to him "Cats always land on their—" Before she could finish, Shadow hit the snow next to her. Luna wrinkled her nose "...face? What kind of cat are you?"

Henceforth the snowman was christened Mr Tumbleton.

Kellyn and Starlight took a step back to admired their creation, smiling with satisfaction. Shadow collapsed in the snow whilst Luna just looked proud of herself.

"Boys!" Both jumped as Janice opened the door and called to them.

Luna jumped behind the snowman to hide, Shadow didn't move a muscle.

"You have a phone call from Fiore!" Janice called.

The two boys looked at each other in confusion. Shrugging, they headed into the principle's office. At the principle's desk, the phone was turned upside down on the desk. Sitting in the comfy leather swivel-chair, Starlight put the phone on speaker.

"Hello?"

"Hey guys!"

Starlight and Kellyn looked at each other and grinned.

"Hello Kate."

"Just calling to check you guys are doing okay, being stuck at school and all that."

Kellyn thought he could hear voices and whacking things in the background, but it was probably just his imagination or the crackly phone line.

"Yeah, things are great here" Starlight answered "We built a snowman, I learnt I'm not clairvoyant and Kellyn failed at chess and became the king of Scrabble."

Kellyn could just imagine Kate on the other end of the line blinking her pretty pale-blue eyes in confusion.

"Sounds like something Keith would say."

"Yeah, well, things are quiet here without him."

Kellyn was now sure that smashing and yelling in the background wasn't his imagination.

"Things are really quiet here too. The beach is practically empty 'cos it's winter and the p..."

Kate probably said something else, but her voice was drowned out by the smashing and two loud voices.

"Die Xemnas! Die!"

"Ah! Sorrel! Can you please stop hitting me with your sword!"

"No! I'm the great keybearer Sora! And you're the evil Xemnas! So you must DIE!"

"Sorrel come on! Ow! That hurts! Why do I have to be the bad guy! Can't I be Riku instead?"

"Hmmmmm...okay!"

"Thank Arceus!"

"Die die die!"

"Ah! What?! I thought Riku was a good guy!"

"Not in the first game!"

"ENOUGH!"

Starlight and Kellyn flinched as Kate's voice roared down the phone line.

"Katie, we're only..."

"SORREL! REED! I'M TRYING TO MAKE A PHONE CALL! GO AND PLAY WITH YOUR SWORDS SOMEWHERE ELSE!"

The two other voices squealed with fear and there came the sound of hurried footsteps in the sand. Kate gave a half-groan, half-growl.

"Um, dare I ask what's happening?" Starlight asked, a bit nervously.

"My little brother and his friend Reed. Ever since he discovered he had the same name as the main character, Sora's been obsessed with a game called Kingdom Hearts."

"Oh" Starlight and Kellyn just looked at each other, a little stunned and confused "I...see..."

"Yeah, so, are you guys excited for New Year?"

"Not really" Starlight groaned "Putting up with Keith on a sugar rush with fireworks going off overhead, and then he wants to have a karaoke night."

Kellyn flinched and felt adrenaline fear coursing around his body at the mention of karaoke, but then relaxed as he remembered he couldn't do karaoke.

"Well, I am! It'll be my birthday, remember!"

"Oh yeah" Starlight remembered "How was your early birthday over there?"

"It was good yesterday - everyone was doing as I said! It was brilliant! But now - well - I think Sorrel just proved my point."

Siblings, what to do with them

Starlight gave Kate Kellyn's message.

"Yeah, who wants 'em?"

"I would say something, but I don't know if I even have any siblings" Starlight sighed.

Kellyn didn't know what to say to that, metaphorically. He realised how hard it must be for Starlight to spend the holidays at school, not knowing if he had a family who had missed him. Kate seemed to be on the same wavelength.

"Well, er, I'd better go. Calls across regions cost, you know."

"Oh, okay" Starlight agreed "See ya Kate."

"'K. Bye Starlight, Kellyn."

Starlight was just about to hang up when a voice called:

"Bye Katie's boyfriend!"

"SORREL!"

A lone figure stood upon the Peril Cliffs, his shadowy form just visible again the star-speckled sky. His black hair was plastered against his head due to water, despite the fact there was no rain. In the light of the full moon, his eyes stood out icy-blue, piercing the darkness. Though the blackness of the night hid his clothing, the orange and white crest of a ranger was on his left shoulder.

As midnight approached, a second figure made their way to the summit of the cliffs. This figure was older was older by a few years, perhaps two.

"Lost, Lind?" he asked. The first figure, Lind, regarded his new companion with an icy glare before it turned back to the sky.

"And you're not, Kazuki?" he enquired.

'Kazuki' snorted and scuffed his foot along the rocks. He clarified: "Not as much."

Lind said nothing, he didn't even look at the figure next to him. 'Kazuki' stood just there, now and then casting an aqua gaze over at his companion. Lind didn't move at all; in fact, to some it would seem like he wasn't breathing. Finally 'Kazuki' broke the silence.

"You can just call me Lunick, you know."

"I know" Lind shrugged, digging his hands into the pockets of his trousers "Old habits die hard."

Once more, there was a long silence. After a while, Lunick was almost sure Lind wasn't going to talk and was about to leave, when Lind finally spoke:

"Is there someone out there for me to protect?"

Lunick blinked and looked up, surprised by this question.

"Huh?"

"Like you with Kellyn" Lind pressed, still not looking at his companion "Will there ever be someone for me to protect?"

Lunick let a sigh escape his lips. "Is that what's been bothering you?"

"That, and other things" Lind let his head droop.

Lunick thought for a while before answering. "What about the child named after you, Dazuru's son?"

"His brother can look after him" Lind shook his head.

Lunick thought for a little but, coming up empty, decided to take his leave. As he made his way towards the edge of the cliff, Lind made him turn around again.

"Shadow-Of-The-Willow-Trees."

The spoken name took Lunick by surprise.

"What about him?" he asked.

"Is he safe?" Lind asked.

"Yes, of course" Lunick nodded.

"That's good" now it was Lind's turn to sigh "The least I can do is worry about him."

"It's not your fault what happened" Lunick reminded him.

"I abandoned him, left him to fend for himself" Lind blinked.

"It wasn't your fault" Lunick repeated.

Lind once again didn't reply, just stared at the stars. After a painful silence, he whispered: "He was my partner, and I left him." There was pain in his voice.

Lunick shook his head with a sigh, turning to leave again.

"You'll find someone to protect someday, Lind."

But even once Lunick was gone, Lind continued to stare at the stars above until all of them had faded into the dawn.