The sky above my head was white and dark. I guess technically it wasn't a sky, more so a ceiling, but never the less it left me thinking many things as I lay in my new bed that night.

I just could NOT get to sleep. I kept tossing and turning, trying to find the sweet spot for my body to fall into slumber but it just was not coming.

I think it was because I was so excited. Don't forget, I was a real man now. With real feelings and real emotions – those two aren't the same thing, are they?

Eh? Who cares.

I finally landed face up, my back slamming to the bed as I stared frustrated up ahead and only heard a voice come to me from the other side of the thin wall.

"Ken...? Are you okay?"

"BARBIE!" I shouted back overjoyed and it felt like the whole house went 'SHUSH! To me. I quieted down immediately, gulping awkwardly as I whispered back loudly again.

"Barbie!"

"Can't sleep?" She asked me, her words slightly muffled when they reached my ears on the other side of the wall.

"No!" I whispered loudly back, gripping the edge of my blanket with my two tanned hands, "You neither?"

"I just..." Barbie went on, sounding sad but also nervous as she answered my question, "I didn't expect the Ken from my past to be here,"

"Me neither!" I whispered loudly back and smiled widely in glee at this fact, "Me neither! But I'm here now!"

I could feel a fearful air come between the two of us so I added quickly to reassure her of my commitment, "Forever!"

"For..." She peeped back in a sad low voice, "Forever..."

After that, she didn't say anything more, and I crooked my eyebrows in a confused expression.

Why was she so sad? Did she really miss me this much? Did I remind her of Barbie World and all that she left behind and lost?

I slowly got out of my bed and walked in creaky steps up to her room's door. As I stood there, I was about to knock on it to ask if I could come in... but something stopped me.

Like I was feeling something I had never felt before... I just didn't know what to call it.

I could feel her emotions as if they were my own... how could this possibly be?

I really wanted to ask Barbie this but I just knew, now, was not the time.

I pulled my knuckles away from the wood of the door and that minute an idea came to me.

I headed into the living room and saw an old computer desktop in the corner of the room, its red little light flashing showing it had electricity going through it.

I walked over to it quickly, pressing the 'on' button, and my eyes widened when the screen flashed a bright light before loading up the computer.

I looked left to right before back at the bright screen, and pulled over a chair with wheels, sitting on it and hovering over the keyboard.

I looked down at the mouse and slowly grabbed it, gazing at the bright screen and looked at the letters on the keyboard as I typed slowly.

What does feeling other people's feelings mean?

I sat back a little on the comfy soft chair and within less than a second I got over a thousand answers on the Google search page.

"How am I ever meant to get through these?!"

I looked at the first answer and read slowly out loud to myself, what it said.

"WHEN YOU CAN FEEL AND RELATE TO A PERSON IT IS CALLED EMPATHY,"

"Empathy...?" I whispered to myself and I was only filled with more wonder and awe.

It was nine o clock that morning when I jumped up frightened, hearing a voice shout at me annoyed.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

I blinked my heavy sleep-deprived eyes to the side, seeing Sasha standing there, looking at me in shock.

"I- I – I-" I said trying to explain and she yelled at me as she continued.

"You aren't looking at PORN? Are YOU?!"

"What's porn?" I asked back innocently and she shoved me aside, my chair rolling away from the desk as she looked through my search history before back at me.

"A hundred different searches about horses?"

I smiled uncomfortably, my teeth glinting a nervous grin.

"And..." Sasha went on, looking more at what I had searched for, "Two hundred searches for how to relate to others..?" She seemed to go quiet then at the discovery of what I had looked for on the net.

"Ken," She said to me, for a second seeming to understand me, and I knew she was feeling empathy for me... I just knew it, "Why are you looking this up?"

"Why?!" I said back, getting to my feet and looking back at the girl in deep sadness as I went on, "Because I'm changing and Barbie is changing and I just want to know WHY!?"

"You mean-"

"I feel her... I feel you-"

"Okay, calm down there, cowboy-"

"I know now that it's not all about me," I continued with deep respect now for the woman I loved, "I know now... that she feels things like me, SHE DOES!"

Sasha watched me with wide stunned eyes and I just stomped up towards the hallway and to Barbie's door, but the second I was about to knock on it I felt myself collapse backwards and in less than a second I was out like a light, asleep from exhaustion, whether I liked it or not.

~x~

It was hours before I woke back up from unconsciousness and my sight was blurry and wavering as I leant up from my bed.

I could see someone was sitting down on the edge of it, watching me with sad big blue eyes, and I knew her without a hint of confusion.

"Barbie-!"

"Ken," She interrupted me gently, and sighed till she turned her eyes from the ground, back at me, "Why didn't you sleep last night?"

"I had to know," I told her instantly back and she cocked an eyebrow up, asking weakly.

"Know what?"

"Know you..."

Barbie's eyebrows creased up her brow and she turned her eyes again back to her petite hands that were holding each other nervously.

"What.." She continued a bit nervous, glancing at me again as she asked, "What do you mean?"

"I felt you, last night."

Barbie's eyes widened in shocked disbelief and I remained there smiling at her, thinking she understood me.

But instead, she slapped me on my cheek, my head swinging to the side from the sudden impact.

"Barbie?!"

"You FELT ME UP?!

My own eyes nearly popped out when I realized that's what she thought I did.

"NO! No! No!" I went on quickly, waving my own hands about to calm her down, "I mean... I EMPATHIZED with YOU."

She remained very still when she heard my confession and slowly her mouth formed a believing 'o' shape before she only burst into laughter.

I, too, watched her for a bare few seconds till I started to laugh in hysteria, as well.

"Oh Ken," She said, slapping her hand on her left thigh, a kind of joy in her eyes as she turned her gaze back at me, "I've never laughed like this before... at least, not from you."

"They say that laughter is the way into a woman's heart,"

She crinkled her eyes for a second, looking at me with a cheeky grin.

"And some sites also said, into her pants."

Her charmed expression quickly changed into one of disgust.

"But honestly, I don't want to wear your pants, Barbie."

"Good," She said back quickly with a firm nod of her head, "They would look terrible on you anyway."

"...Barbie?" I then asked her innocently and she waved off her offended bad mood quickly, "Why did I collapse before?"

"Ken," She told me, and reached over to my hands, holding one gently as she said, like a nurse to a patient, "In the real world, if you don't sleep, you-"

"Collapse?"

"-DIE."

"What?!"

Barbie smiled at me weakly, trying not to scare me with her true words of wisdom.

"You have to sleep every night... you have to restore your energy and be strong for each new day."

"Wow," I said to her and squeezed her hand tightly in mine, "You are so smart. You are probably the smartest woman in the world,"

"Well..." Barbie said back to me with a blush and my heart nearly stopped that minute when I saw the pink come to her cheeks. I had seen Barbie blush only a few times before, but never from something I had said to her.

She was BLUSHING AT ME.

BECAUSE OF ME.

She was feeling for me and a big blush went up my own cheeks as she let go of my hand and slowly stood up.

"I have to go, Ken."

"I will go with you-"

"N-no!" She shouted back at me quickly, stepping away fast as she headed for the door, "I have to be alone right now."

"Oh..." I uttered and she smiled at me weakly, before she crept out through the door and slid it closed slowly till it was shut all the way.

I quickly got up though and nearly tripped over the blankets that were over me when I was asleep.

I stumbled to my feet and pressed my ear against the door's wood as I heard Barbie say to herself.

"What is wrong with me...?"

I listened so intensely as I tried to catch every word she spoke.

"Why am I feeling this way... for HIM? I don't understand this at all..."

I wanted to pull the door open then and say to her with a big booming smile, I LOVE YOU TOO! But something stopped me.

A feeling I had never had before.

To give her her space... to let her come to her own discovery. If I barged out of here and confessed my undying love to her... I knew then that it simply wasn't the time for that.

She wasn't ready... I empathized with that.

For once, I felt like I was in her shoes – and not actually in them as they wouldn't fit my feet size, but, like I understood her so much better.

"Barbie..." I whispered her name to myself as I pressed against the door before sliding to my rear in sorrow on the ground.

"I can't be feeling for Ken..." She whispered to herself on the other side, "I don't want to..."

But I knew without words that she was.

We weren't staying static in our relationship like we did in Barbie World.

No... we both were changing as human people do. I had a penis now, I had deeper feelings and I... well, I hope I could have her too.

When I got back shakily onto my feet, I creaked open the door slightly, before pulling it all the way and saying in a loud warm voice.

"Barbie!"

But there was no one there... she had gone.

"Where's Barbie?" I peeped out, asking anyone who was there if they knew where the love of my life was, "Where's Barbie gone?"

"She left to be by herself," Sasha spat the words at me as she was laying on the couch in the living room, texting on her phone as she watched the small mobile screen with dead silence.

"Why?" I asked, but I felt like I already knew the answer.

"She just needs some space so she can cope," Gloria said to me as she came out from the kitchen stirring a coffee that was in her hands.

"What's wrong with her?" I asked back, so very lost and confused.

"You," Sasha said with venom on her tongue and her mother nudged her hard at her upper arm, shaking her head as if embarrassed for her daughter and was scolding her for her rude behaviour.

"Me...?" I whispered back, my heart skipping a beat as Barbie was feeling for me again.

And maybe... she was actually feeling for me for the first REAL time.

"Should I follow her?" I asked aloud and Gloria looked my way as she said.

"Maybe, learn to keep some of your words in your head. You don't have to proclaim everything you think out loud."

"Maybe you're right..." I said back to her with a nod, "But now I have to pee, so excuse me."

"Maybe keep that part IN your head?"

"Maybe..." I said to myself, contemplating this advice, "Maybe..."

After I had gone to the loo I stepped outside the house to the bright sunny suburb and my heart hurt for a second as I realized something for the first time.

I was alone in this new world, turning into something I had never been before.

A human.

A real man.

And I felt not only my own emotions... but now someone else's... now more people than just me.

And I was scared a little bit...

Because I didn't want to be all alone in this world that was becoming my new home.

And deep down, I don't think Barbie wanted to be alone either.

Should I search for her? Or should I let her be?

My heart said GO, but my mind said, JUST WAIT.

So what did I do...?

I waited.

I would wait for her this time.

For the first time.

I felt for her... and that was enough of a new discovery for me for that day.