A/N: Thanks to the Leander, and again to Orkidee for reviewing this fic :3

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I wasn't sure what to think of Tony when I first saw him. I would have mistaken him as a girl if it wasn't for the uniforms, and the fact we were stuck in an 'all boys' boarding school. We were only five years old when we met. He didn't bully, or brag about his life or his games, or anything... He was just Tony.

I remembered that snowy weather; there was no recess that day. Winter vacation had started early that semester. I was relieved then, I could finally be alone for three whole weeks while the other students would go home for the holidays. I knew I would be staying in the school this time, nonetheless for a quarter of my life. As much as I didn't want to admit it, this place was my new home.

Walking into my quiet room would have been the best thing ever if it wasn't for the muffled sobbing I heard in my closet. And there he was, curled into a ball, hiding his face under his curly red locks and semi crossed knees, sobbing his heart out. I had no idea how he snuck into my room in the first place. The door was locked, so was the window, though it would have been harder to get to on the fifth story of the dorms. He might have come through the sealed door between the two neighboring dorms, I thought. Maybe he resided next door. But instead of kicking him out of my room, I left him there without saying a thing. I lay on my bed, reading a pile of books from the library that I had wanted to read for quite a while.

The room had quieted down so much that I had forgotten he was still in my room. I was startled when I saw him emerge out of my closet, I jumped so much, and I literally fell on the floor. I heard him gasp, voice still clogged in foggy emotions.

"No, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" He apologized rushing to my side of the bed, helping me up on the bed again, and picking up my glasses. His face was red, and streaked with tears. I thought back then how could he even cry so much when...

"Why are you in my room?" I heard myself hardly whisper. Tony sniffed.

"I needed a place...away from them. I hope you don't mind..." He hiccupped. I frowned.

"Did anyone... hurt you?" I spoke somewhat louder. He rubbed his eye.

"No, they only helped me miss my only ride back to my family... and now that I can't see my family for Christmas, I won't be able to see them until the school year is over!" He started to sob. "My life has been just horrible ever since I've come to this place! I have no friends, I can't see my mom or sister, and my teachers hate me because I can't get anything right... I just wanna go home!!" He sobbed sitting back on the floor brining his knees to his chin. It took me a while, but I knelt beside him.

"My family doesn't want me anymore..." I couldn't believe I was confessing to a boy I had barely knew. "I won't be able to get out of boarding school until the time comes, or I even graduate..." I wasn't sure when that would be. Tony looked up at me, sniffing.

"Why...? Doesn't your family love you?" I shrugged.

"I don't know...but I know mom does..." I said feeling my voice crack. Tony somewhat calmed down.

"What is your mother like?" He asked me, his voice becoming clearer. I sighed drifting my eyes up at the ceiling.

"She's… everything. My guardian angel if you will. Her embrace is enough to cure all of my pains, and if I hear her voice, I feel safe. She's the most beautiful thing I could ever have..." I told him. Tony's eyes became expressive, animated for the first time.

"That's kind of like my mom, until I forget to take out the garbage at night" He admitted. It was like this all night long, we confessed things to each other we had never dared to say before. I knew for the first time how it felt to have a friend outside of the family. I wasn't alone anymore; I had Tony to keep me sane. I didn't need presents.

Tony was the best possible present I could ever ask for. To: Jeff...

... from Mom

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The Universe Will Die Without You

Chapter three Mother

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I was high in the sky. I bit my bottom lip nervously as I grasped the handles in the sky runner for dear life. I felt the UFO rise up and down on its own. Eventually, this craft was going to crash to the ground, and take me with it. At least there were some sort of safety features, like an emergency exit, and a spare parachute. Looking out one of the small round windows, I flew high above a huge city with sky scrapers. Then soon enough I ended up flying over an empty desert...wait, did I just see two people sun bathing? I was just thankful that the traitor was cleansed out of my senses. If I got one more glance of him, I could have sworn I would puke. Or maybe it was the sky runner...

Later on throughout the hell ride, everything turned dark, and I was circling a small little town that seemed to have a circus attraction, as well as a cemetery. But then, once the machine made an alerting alarm, everything around me flashed red, as I felt like the whole world around me was crashing down, screaming as my world turned temporarily black.

--

"What was that?!" I heard a little girl say, muffled by some strange beeping sound.

"Don't go near it, you don't know what's in there, it could be one of Giygas's goons" A boy replied sternly. I tried opening my eyes, but my sight was too fuzzy, and my head was pounding.

"It's a boy! There's a boy on the ground! His glasses!" The little girl exclaimed as I heard her rushing towards me.

"Paula, stay back!" He shouted.

"No, Ness...I think he's our friend!" She said as I felt someone's hands touching my own.

"I hope he's not hurt, help me turn him over!" She said. The boy sighed aggravatingly as I felt someone's foot as a lever turn me over along with the girl gently. I looked up at them, but they were too fuzzy. That was when the pink blur seemed to reach for my forehead, and brush my hair out of my eyes. I squinted, until I felt her hands sneak behind my ears. I could clearly see a young girl, upside down, her golden blond hair hanging down her face, glistening blue eyes gazing into mine sympathetically. Her poof dress was bright pale pink, and the bowtie in her hair was out of line. Her rosy lips pierced as she gave the worn teddy bear in her arms a squeeze. She looked so young...

"...Are you okay...?" She asked softly. I could only grunt at the time, bringing my hand to my forehead.

"Where...where am I?" I asked groggily.

"We don't know ourselves, but judging by the hole you created in the ceiling and that nearby gravestone, I can only guess we're under the cemetery in Threed." The boy replied. Bringing my eyes to the voice, I saw a boy, frowning down at me, dark blue eyes dull, and worn. His build was very slender, almost too thin for his big yellow and blue horizontal striped t shirt and blue jeans. His black hair poked out of his red and blue cap that was twisted a certain angle on his head. He seemed to be holding a base ball bat. He was much older than the girl, but was no older than me, maybe even younger than me. His voice hasn't reached its peek into puberty like mine started to.

"You need help getting up?" He asked holding out a hand. I could only grunt as I weakly reached for his hand, until I felt his hidden strength kick in, and I was swiftly brought to my feet. I felt my knees wobble at first, but both of them kept me from toppling back down. The girl's head came to my middle waist, while the boy's forehead was in level with my eyes.

"That was some crash landing you had there, what the heck were you riding in anyways?" The boy asked. Trying to collect my senses together, I replied. "Something a scientist invented to take me here." I looked at the sky runner ruffling my dust covered messy blond hair. "But it's obviously broken now...oh well..." Neither replied, the boy forming an "O" on his lips.

"Alright...my real name is Jeff. I came because you called for my help...is your name Paula, young lady?" I couldn't help but somewhat smile as Paula's entire expression changed from worry to excitement. Even the boy's eyes somewhat lit up, ever so slightly.

"Jeff, it's you!" Paula cheered as she hugged my waist tightly which caught me off guard.

"Paula, you don't know him very well, what if he doesn't like that sort of contact?" The boy asked in bewilderness. "I'm sorry, she was just so-" I chuckled as I patted her head.

"It's alright, she's fine. Though I am kind of shy...near sighted, especially without my glasses, and somewhat reckless...I just gotten used to the contact thing. In fact, little Paula here is one of the first young ladies I've received a hug from in a really long time...it's kind of a nice change" I chuckled at the last part of my sentence. The boy's eyebrow perked up.

"What do you mean about a "nice change"? He asked me.

"Oh, it's just that most of my life; I've grown up in an 'all boy's' boarding school. This is the first time in around ten years since I've been away from my hometown..." I replied.

"You came to help us!" Paula cheered jumping up and down.

"So I guess then you're going to travel with us for a while, eh? I might as well introduce myself...my name is Ness" Ness said holding out his hand to me. I returned the gesture and nodded.

"So...can we get out of here now, or what?" He asked walking towards the door. Paula let go of me, and followed.

"You guys were locked in?" I replied searching through my bag for the broken key machine.

"Yeah, some blond bitch and her army of zomb..." Ness's sentence was incomplete as I immediately unlocked the door. His dropped jaw told me he was very impressed. Paula cheered.

"How...how'd you?!" I smiled as I adjusted my crooked glasses.

"Let's get going, shall we?'

--

The whole town put shivers down my spine. I felt like I was thrown into a horror film with all the weird encounters with blobs in trash cans, possessed puppets, and pumpkin headed children. Paula was grasping Ness's arm in fear, almost how Tony held mine when he was scared. Ness looked like he was dragging himself along, almost like me, except he seemed more worn down, especially in his emotions. For some reason, we walked around a circus tent as we saw two people run inside. Ness stopped in his tracks.

"Let's follow them..." He muttered as we walked into the tent.

--

"I was so scared that I left my wife and kids home and fled into this tent!" One man claimed.

"I wonder if we could somehow trap all the zombies into the tent, and then put it on fire" Another one claimed. We all nodded, as all three of us left the tent. As we headed down to another area south of town filled with cages, there was another circus tent.

"So… could you tell me what we're after exactly?" I asked Ness. Ness didn't reply, keeping his eyesight ahead of us. I put my hands in my pockets, averting my eyes down to the ground. We were both brought back from our reveries when Paula shrieked. As my eyes shot up, we spotted a rotted looking living dog. Was it a zombie? The blue molding dog's his was filled with venom and death.

"Great..." Ness growled back at the green toothed mutt, grasping his bat. Paula let go, and held out her hands in which looked like they were glowing. Though I hated the thought of using a gun, I decided why the heck not, and grabbed out my laser gun. The zombie dog lunged towards Paula, as Ness swiftly flew in front of her and whacked the dog forcefully across the face, part of his nose ripping away from its snout. It looked painful nonetheless. I aimed and shot the dog in the exposed ribs while near after Paula surprised me by her super human abilities as she shot something that looked frosty and blue at the dog until it crystallized, and shattered into dust. All three of us were panting. However I couldn't shed the feeling of someone panting along with us. Paula shrieked again, as we all spun around, and stared into the face of the circus tent. I watched in terror as a sharp toothed mouth sucking all three of us in.

All three of us scrambled back on our feet as the face of the tent laughed maniacally at us, attempting to strangle all three of us. Paula shot flames out of her palms it seemed, while no long after Ness threw a super human attack of his own. The tent wailed in pain. I thought I could never do the things they could do. I reached into my bag, and took out one of my personal models of the bottle rocket. Lighting a match, and setting it a spark, the bottle rocket was off in an instant setting off fireworks in the making. The tent was screaming as we were surrounded in the flames that the tent was being taken over. Ness covered Paula protectively as I guarded my eyes from the flashing glares of the flames.

Opening my eyes, the tent was to the ground, still going up in flames. Paula used whatever ice attack she used again, to kill off the flames. It was once the tent was gone that Ness shouted at a couple of unhealthy looking men around a trash can, as they ran off. Ness ran to the trash can, as me and Paula followed. When we made it, Ness was already digging madly through the trash.

"Why are you..."I started until he took out a jar of what looked like honey. Ness's eyebrows furrowed.

"Why would the zombies hide a jar of honey...?" He mumbled. A few moments later, a cell phone seemed to ring out. All three of us jumped, as Ness reached into his back pants pocket, and grabbed out a phone with only one button.

"Yeah?" Ness said in the receiver. It sounded like a man's voice on the other line.

"Zombie Paper?" Ness questioned. "...attracts them over time...?" Ness sighed.

"Alright...I'll look out for him when he comes. Thanks...yeah...ok...bye" Ness put the receiver away and turned to us.

"Apple kid just called me. He said he's sending someone over to deliver one of his inventions...zombie paper" Ness shrugged.

"What the heck is zombie paper?" I asked.

"Apparently it's like fly paper, except it attracts zombies, even though he claimed he hadn't seen a zombie in his life. Someone's coming to deliver it to us really soon." He explained to me as we walked down the side walk. Paula was happily playing with her teddy bear while humming to herself.

"Apple Kid an inventor like my..." I trailed off before I said what I dreaded. Ness was skeptical at first but ignored the second part of my reply.

"Yeah... kind of a stinky guy actually. He invented the pencil eraser that erases...pencils." He trailed off awkwardly.

"Oh...well that sounds like a very useful invention" I sarcastically remarked.

"It... it's been useful for some things..." He said slightly flushing. I chuckled, looking down to Paula, whom was now leaning on Ness sleepily.

"Hopefully this paper will be more useful" I said to him before we heard someone in the distance shouting at us. The man took a breather, hands resting on his knees.

"He sent the pizza delivery guy?" I asked in confusion.

"Some...Apple Kid...wanted me to specially deliver this to a young man named Ness? I'm just going to hope that you're that kid. Here" He said shoving the package into my arms as he was off again. Me and Ness looked at each other and then shrugged as I handed the package to Ness. Ness opened the package, as the paper unfolded on its own falling to the ground. I helped him collect the giant sheet back up.

"Where are we supposed to put this?" I asked. Ness drifted his eyes around us until they seemed to lock to the 'un' possessed circus tent.

"I have an idea of what to do with this..." Ness smirked.

--

After we finished laying out the giant sheet of paper down inside the circus tent that everyone had been hiding in, Paula yawned and leaned her head on her teddy bear.

"There!" Ness said standing tall putting his hands around his waist. I tapped his shoulder and pointed at Paula who was literally standing and sleeping at the same time.

"Yeah...I guess you're right... we've been awake more than 24 hours" Ness explained. I eyed him.

"A girl her age needs a lot more sleep, Ness, just like you and me, we're still growing" I remarked. Ness shrugged as he slowly picked up the small girl over his back, giving her a piggy back ride.

"It was really hard for us to manage just the two of us, lost in an area we're not familiar with...Giygas's goons attacking us in every corner. That's when I guess you came along, so maybe we won't have that problem as much now..." He said smiling at me. I smiled back.

"You look tired yourself, Ness" I said. Ness snorted.

"Why don't you look in the mirror? You need more than a night sleep, you need a bath!" I chuckled at his response. He got me there.

"Yeah, I guess you're right..."

"Besides, this paper takes at least six hours he said until it starts luring in at least one zombie, so we have plenty of time to rest. There's a hotel in town, the bills on me" Ness smiled. Now it was my turn to be skeptical.

"Don't you want me to at least put in a dollar?" I asked.

--

"Okay, that will be 180 dollars sir" The hotel manager said, as Ness handed him a couple hundred dollar bills. My jaw was to the ground. How much money was this kid lugging around?! Ness took his change and the key and dangled it in front of my face.

"Told you; I could cover the bill!" He smirked playfully. I sighed, pulling out my only dollar bill which was worn, and covered in soot.

"Huh, I guess you're right." We were interrupted by the manager's cough.

"Sir, if you'd like to please wash your clothes, you can use the laundry room down on the bottom floor down that hallway, for your clothes are filthy!" He exclaimed closing his nose.

"Thanks..." I said sarcastically before Ness picked Paula back up and we headed up the stairs.

Our room was fairly nice. It had two queen sized mattresses however so it meant that at least two people needed to share a bed. The nice thing was that it had its own bathroom, with its own shower. Ness laid Paula in bed as she sighed contently.

"Ness...thanks..." She yawned as she received her teddy bear. Ness pulled off her shoes, and pulled the covers over her as Paula was already drifting into dreamland.

"Jeff, you can have a bed for your own tonight. I hope you don't mind...it's just we don't know you as well..., and I don't want Paula by herself in a bed. And you claiming you're shy and all... you get me, right?" Ness asked rubbing the back of his head. I nodded.

"I understand perfectly, Ness, don't worry. You really seem to care for her a lot" I smiled glancing down at Paula. Ness rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

"Yeah...she was my only companion for a while...and she's still just a little girl, though she's too mature for her age in my opinion. It makes me wonder what kind of life she was living before I met her..." He said sadly.

"How old is she?" I asked curiously.

"Eight. Six years younger than me..." He said.

"I see...so you're fourteen?" I asked. Ness sighed as he plopped on the bed.

"Yeah...I just turned fourteen a couple of months ago..." I nodded. So I was older than him I thought.

"You look crashed, dude. Get some sleep, you need it." I said going through my dirty bag, and grabbing out my black and green plaid pajamas.

"...Alright. You take a shower" He sighed taking his cap off and shaking his now loose short black hair around. I chuckled back at his response before heading into the bathroom.

--

I let the warm water wash through my oily muddy hair. Grabbing the shampoo, I massaged my scalp twice over, reaching spots I usually skim over in my regular showers. Sometimes I would just stand there, looking down at my feet, watching the dirty water wash down the drain. At least the tub wasn't always clogged here I thought, thinking back at the bath tubs at my boarding school. I brought my thoughts to my so called father that everyone phrased, and how he didn't even acknowledge his own son appearing before him for the first time in ten long years. He still hasn't changed. I was just like one of his failed projects. I was just a useless item to him that he would throw to the side in a dusty corner, only to move on with his next so called brilliant idea. I balled up my fists, and turned the shower knob to the coldest temperature. It was freezing and I shivered from the mere force of it. I didn't care though I just wanted to wash that jack ass out of my mind.

After drying myself off, brushing my teeth, and slipping on my pajamas, I took out a roll of tape out of my tool box, and wrapped the tape around the center of my glasses. After adjusting them to my comfort, I sighed as I opened the door to let the steam out of the room. Flickering off the lights, I snuck over to my bed, looking at Paula sleeping soundlessly on her side of the bed while Ness was absent on his side. My eyebrows frowned as I checked my watch that read 12:37 am. Where the hell could he have gone to, alone at this hour, and leave Paula alone in bed?

Though I didn't like the idea of leaving Paula alone in our room, I snuck out of our hotel room, my dirty clothes in hand as I stepped down stairs into the lobby area.

"I mean, I'm fine!" I heard Ness state in hostility. I stopped in my tracks, and looked around the railing. At the front counter talking into the phone was Ness in his vertical blue stripped pajamas, more frustrated than I've ever seen him. I felt horrible for eavesdropping, but I sat on the stairs, high enough to where he wouldn't see me.

"What do you mean her fault?! We're always wondering where the hell you go in the middle of the night, since you're gone all day at work anyways, Dad! Where the fuck are you calling from anyways?" I winced as he swore angrily into the phone's receiver. I heard the sound of someone shouting on the other line.

"Dad, you're drunk! No one threatened to run you over in our driveway! How...how the hell could I have threatened you?! I'm in Threed, talking to you over the phone! And I don't even know how to drive, I'm only a kid!" ... There was a long pause, until he slammed the phone on the counter angrily. I was surprised to not hear any foot prints approaching me, until I heard him talk again.

"Mom? Hey..." My eyes shot open. He was talking to his mother now...

"Mom, stop crying, I'm right here..." I frowned as I put my chin on my knees. Ness's voice was flustered.

"I'm in Threed right now...yeah...that's good...he didn't hurt you, did he? ...Good... is King ok? That's good...mom, please stop crying... I promise I'll come visit you soon...yeah of course I'll bring my friends along. We met a new friend today, his name is Jeff...yeah, he's nice so far... I guess he's smart, I don't know him all that much...I think he's slightly older than me...taller too...yeah...alright...I'll stay out of trouble...talk to you soon...ok... I love you, mom… if dad comes back alright, tell him I love him too… alright…bye." He hung up as he started pacing towards the stairs. I started to panic, but once I was going to make a move, Ness had already spotted me. He was crying...

"...Jeff?" His eyes were wide in shock. I nodded, but was then startled.

"You idiot! You left Paula alone with the door unlocked?!" He shouted racing up the stairs passed me. I slapped myself mentally. Both of us barged into our room, pacing in quickly only to find Paula still sleeping soundlessly. Ness's sigh was shaken as he brought a hand to caress his forehead.

"Jeff, if you knew that I wasn't in here, than why did you leave as well?!" He whispered harshly at me. I winced.

"To go find you, that's what! I had to make sure that nothing happened to you!" I muttered back at him. Ness looked worryingly at Paula and sighed.

"I...'m sorry...I should have known that you were going to go downstairs to wash your clothes..." He said. Walking to his bed, he took both his shirt and jeans along with his spare underwear and the hotel key.

"Go lock the window, and we can go wash our clothes together..." He yawned as he took out a notebook, scribbling a note down for Paula just in case.

--

I flipped on the light inside the big laundry room that no one had been using at the time. Ness opened the closest washing machine, threw in his clothes, as well as Paula's spare dress and some laundry soap, and almost slammed the door shut, turning the machine on. I did the same with mine, except a lot more gentle, putting it on a more intense wash.

"So...is it ok so far?" Ness asked me. I glanced at him and raised my eyebrow.

"What do you mean?" I asked back. Ness sighed as he plopped down in the nearest chair, while I sat in the chair two seats away from him.

"I mean, how is it now that...you're away from home the first time in a very long time?" He asked leaning forward running his hand through his short black hair. I formed an "O" on my lips.

"It's...just...different, that's all." I replied. "A lot less snow, and warmer too" Ness glanced at me.

"You traveled really far from home, didn't you?" I leaned forward myself resting my elbows on my knees and crossing my arms.

"Yeah, I guess you could say that. Paula woke me up in two in the morning. It was hard for me to explain to my roommate why I was leaving him so early...on his birthday..." I mumbled at the last part of my sentence thinking of when Tony tackled me against the lockers. I tried to hide my flush if I even had one.

"Was he a good friend of yours?" He asked.

"Yeah...the greatest friend anyone could ever ask for." I smiled. Ness snorted slightly.

"You're a lucky guy then. I made some wonderful friends back in my hometown Onett... but my neighbor always scared them away, one after the other. He wouldn't even let me have one friend over for dinner... I think he was jealous of my other friends, that he became obsessive…" He frowned containing his anger. I frowned with him.

"If it makes you feel better... me and my friend had our fair share of damage at our school when we were younger...it was until we became upper class men, and I was one of the top in my class that everyone backed off."

"Were you popular with your class?" Ness asked. I sighed.

"Somewhat, yeah, we were. My friend was more popular though in the fine arts crowd...I leaned more towards the science and math crowd...but there were still people there that hated our guts too"

"I don't think I could stand one minute in a boarding school...let alone, I don't know how I'm standing this either..." We were both silent for a while.

"...Were you listening...to me on the phone...?" Ness asked timidly. I was unresponsive at first.

"I guess I heard a little bit...I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to" I replied. Ness growled in frustration which made me a little intimidated myself.

"If dad would just come clean sometimes, none of this stuff would even be happening to us. I don't understand him sometimes...I know he's a good guy...he just doesn't seem to want to act like one sometimes...it makes mom sad whenever he either doesn't come home at night, or he comes home drunk...sometimes with his other drunk ass hole friends...that's when things can get pretty nasty" Ness brought both of his hands to his forehead. By this time, Ness's washing machine beeped, Ness got up, and threw his clothes in the dryer.

"I'm going to check on Paula, alright? I'll be right back..." Ness mumbled walking out the door. I leaned back in my chair, and watched the flickering light on the ceiling. At least his mother was alright...

My washing machine finally beeped, and I took out my sopping school uniform and threw it in the dryer right next to the one Ness threw his clothes in, but I noticed that he had forgotten to turn his machine on, so I turned both of them on at the same time. Not so long after, Ness walked back in.

"Thanks, I forgot to turn the load on" He said bringing one of the chairs over to sit in front of the dryer. Ness seemed to watch his load spin and spin around in circles, maybe to hypnotize himself? I leaned on my dryer taking my glasses off to adjust them again.

"Do you need a new pair?" Ness asked before yawning silently. I put them back on while balancing them on my nose.

"Nah...I'll be fine for now, they've been kind of like this before anyways" I replied. "How's Paula?"

"Just like she was when I tucked her into bed." Ness smiled. I nodded.

"If you don't mind me asking...is your mother ok?" I asked. I saw the realization in his eyes when he glanced up at me.

"She just got into an argument with dad, that's all. I just wish I was there to protect her if anything else happened. I guess my dog, and my sister could take that role if anything did happen. I just get worried about her a lot, so I call her to make sure. I call my dad a lot too...I have to admit, he's the one handing me all this money into my bank account..." Ness explained. "You won't tell anyone else about what I just told you...right?" I couldn't ignore the desperate pain in his eyes when he looked up into mine. I averted my eyes and nodded.

"There's no need for me to. But there was also no need for you to tell me all about your personal life either you know..." I said.

"Just like there was no need for you to eavesdrop while I was on the phone with my folks?" Ness replied. Damn it, I was caught again.

"Yeah...like that..." I agreed. Ness sighed.

"...Do you contact your family? If you don't mind me asking...what's your family like?" He asked. I didn't want to reply...but I said "Not very often, no. And to put it bluntly, my dad is a jerk himself." Ness nodded as he fiddled with his fingers.

"…And your mom?" He asked innocently. My eyes hardened as I looked the opposite way. There was a long pause, after I growled in frustration.

"It's ok...you don't have to tell-" I slammed my fist against the dryer turning my back to him. I didn't miss how he jumped out of his seat from my sudden anger spurt. However, I said nothing as both dryers stopped working in unison. Neither of us made a move, until I went for my clothes first. Ness timidly approached his clothes. I felt bad; I didn't mean to startle him so much. I glanced over, and he was even shaking as he opened the dryer door to retrieve his stuff. When I had my clothes in hand, I noticed there was a spare sock hanging on the edge of his dryer. I went down to pick it up for him, only to find that his hand went to reach for it first, and my hand landed right on top of his. Ness shivered from the contact as I immediately took my hand away.

"Sorry..." I mumbled as I went ahead of him. I opened the door, and offered to hold it open for him silently. Ness nodded without looking at me and went through the door. I did the same for him when we entered our hotel room. Neither of us said a thing as we crawled into our own beds, Ness lying next to Paula, and me sleeping in the middle of my own. Though I tried to get to sleep right away, my eyes drifted to the slightly open window as I gazed into the stars. My mind started to drift off into my sentimental memories…

I was crying out for help when I must have locked myself in my own closet. My dad was nearby, but was unresponsive. He must have been working on something special, but I could only guess for my glasses must have fallen off outside the closet, and I was surrounded in darkness. It was when I heard an angelic voice that I saw a crack of light, and then her worried face, framed in hair weaved from gold, reaching out to me; her face becoming clear once she held me close to her face. My eyes were wide from the sad look she gave me; whatever she wanted to tell me then must have been important, though I wouldn't have understood. She thumbed my tears away, and murmured comforting words into my ears; cradling me in her arms as she tenderly kissed my ear and Eskimo kissed me, which always made my nose tingle. I clung to her like a wet frightened cat, until she sang me a lullaby and I felt myself drifting off to sleep.

That must have been when I was finally able to fall asleep