The Universe Will Die Without You

by The-EverLasting-Ash

It’s so different without you... sometimes it’s frightening. AU JeffxNess, JeffxTony, Other pairings in the future. Novelized version of Jeff's point of view in the game. Not completely canon, Paula's 8 yrs old. Dark themes Shonen-Ai/slash

24. Butterflies

A/N: thank you, Revu and Mihakaku for reviewing my small chapter 23!

And aww, I'll try keeping the story alive as much as possible! X3 You guys continue to amaze me ;v;

After a day of having this chapter posted up on , I'm going to raise the rating to Mature. So, by default search settings, (or at least my default search settings for some reason) you won't find this story in the earthbound section, you'll have to search under also the mature rating in the section once I configure the new rating. So just a head's up so you won't be confused like, omg, she deleted her story! D: No XD

So, this chapter, despite what I said in the AN in the last chapter, is 59 pages long! So this is the longest chapter to date! Hopefully it'll stay that way! Just maybe… But I really wanted to keep this chapter as one unit.

This chapter has done what most of my recent previous chapters have failed to do, at least for me. This is probably the biggest it chapter to date… and you'll all see why.

This chapter is going to raise a lot more questions, a lot of major ones.

And… well…

Don't skip ahead C;

I'm exhausted as I type this, as I will try to edit this and look this over now as best as possible. Hopefully when I post this, there isn't any huge noticeable errors... I have a feeling that this website's document manager keeps deleting and wrecking some of the content in my story, like my X's go away, and the word K.O. got reduced to just K... while comparing to Microsoft word, I know for sure I typed K.O.'d, it's written right there! (too exhausted to look it over now though)

Anyways, thank you guys for being so patient, I'm sorry that this took so long! ;v; Now I get to wake up to a whole day of homework! /dies

And I don't know why , but looking over this chapter over and over again, the more I notice the second to last Pokey entry… the more freaked out I am about it. I wrote it, and I just kinda scared myself… that's a first XD You guys probably won't find it freaky at all... I don't think. I hope there aren't too many errors in this, I can barely look at the screen! x.x;

Please, enjoy! X3

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"Here the two of you go!" Ness's mother smiled as she handed us our sandwiches around the table. Ness's tongue licked his lips as mine couldn't help but do the same as I looked down at my little mid-day snack.

Ness was definitely right, Picky, even though you already know that Debbie's a damn good cook. But its thoughts like these that make me think of how… spoiled he is.

I know I know, Picky. Dad had the decency to give me some nice money once we left that household years later, and you got to live with mom, who ended up doing jack shit in the house but… well you know…

Doesn't it at least make you mad?

When it was almost 6, I had to leave Ness's house, even if I didn't want to leave. You know how it would be now if we got back home after curfew. Debbie was pretty awesome, especially at the time, and Ness, Tracy and I spent the rest of the afternoon playing in the back yard. I was starting to figure out what friendship was like…

When I entered the house again, the one thought that had been replaying in my mind was still there. Somehow Debbie hugging Ness at the beginning of the day couldn't leave.

Mom had been making dinner, earlier than usual, burning the meat like she usually did. Thinking back again at the hug scenario as I watched my mother cooked stirred an awkward feeling inside.

Without saying a word, I walked up to my mom as she put a few spices on the meat, I dared wrapping my arms around her.

I must have taken her by surprise, because when she gasped at the sudden gesture, her arm accidentally hit the handle, in which a hot, oily substance splashed my face. Recoiling painfully, I plastered a palm quickly to my cheek in response.

And boy did it burn…

"Pokey! What the hell are you doing?" She asked, swatting my head with the oily spatula. I bit my lip, looking up to her. She didn't seem really happy. And she didn't seem to have any sympathy as I could feel a tear trickle down my stinging cheek.

"It's 6:05. Did you do your homework yet?" She asked. I shook my head.

"We didn't have any…" I replied. She snorted, blowing her nose in the air without a tissue.

"Well then no dessert. Get upstairs and wash that mess off before your father gets home," She ordered me as she continued to flip the meat and season it. I took a moment to look at her in distraught.

"Yes mom…"

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The Universe Will Die Without You

Chapter 24 Butterflies

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The first thing that came to mind was the sound of geese in the distance as I heard a few fly away. I wasn't sure what my mind was thinking then as my eyes drifted into a conscious sight. For minutes I wasn't really absorbing what was actually happening, all until I could feel something stir behind the back of my neck, and in return, my eyes finally saw the white sky. My skin turned cold. But the back of my head was warm.

Right above me, Ness shivered, head buried in his arms as I could see his teeth bite his bottom lip as he vigorously rubbed his arms to keep himself warm.

"…Ness?" My lips formed looking up to the boy inches above me. It also started to dawn on me, when I moved my cold hands from my chest to feel up and down my body, particularly to my once busted ribs. Ness shivered once more before noticing my sign of life.

Trying to sit up away from his lap, my body didn't protest from pain but rather from the cold and stiffness. Double checking my body as I touched the once laser-destroyed shoulder, my lips finally formed a deep frown as my heart sank slightly.

"Ness?" I finally spoke in a low tone, turning around to see Ness curl up into a ball, shivering once more. He didn't use the rest of his energy on me… right? I wanted to reach out to him, but paused in the process, looking down. What had just happened? Where exactly were we in Winters? I looked up to Ness again, whom started to rub his arms again. I sighed.

Standing up while sacrificing my own coat, I quickly draped it around Ness's shoulders before plopping down right next to him to sling my arm around him, sort of flushing in the process, but mainly from the cold. My eyes looked the opposite way, but I could see and feel Ness from the corner of my eye react from my close presence. I wondered how long we were going to be here for.

"So… what now?" I finally asked. Ness was unresponsive at first. I turned to him, only to find his head buried again, holding his sound stone close to him.

Ness responded with a shrug. I frowned at this. I always hated it when he became like this. I tried refraining myself from getting frustrated in advance.

"So, how many times have you saved my ass now? Five… ten?" I asked. Ness ducked his head further. I sighed.

"Ness… thank you for saving me again. But… that energy used to heal me… that wasn't the last bit of it, was it?" I asked, bringing my arm to myself. I felt it was a long pause, but when he responded, his voice was hoarse and sick again, just like before. Maybe even worse.

"I'm… sorry…" He told me. My shoulders slouched even further. So if that was the last of his energy… then what were we supposed to do now?

"Ness… either way, we can't stay here. No matter how much left we can heal ourselves, getting back to Fourside is much more important right now," I told him. Ness poked his head up slightly, to look at me. I realized how weak he was at that point, and it almost stabbed me, just slightly. My mind quickly flashed to that man as my insides twisted.

"Did he do anything to you?" I quickly added. Ness shook his head slowly.

"No…"

"Really now?" Ness nodded, looking down to the snow again, burying his nose. I finally stood up.

"I don't believe you," I told him. "You sounded really pissed when you saw him… so my bet is that the two of you once knew each other. But now's not the time to dive into that. We should try finding clues or do what we can to get back to Paula and Kato," I said, looking around us.

Nothing but trees. No trails. Nothing that I have or haven't seen before. We really were lost.

"I don't think… I don't think I can go anywhere right now…" Ness finally muttered. I furrowed my eyebrows at him.

"What do you mean you can't go anywhere?" I asked, trying to make my voice less harsh. I could tell that Ness sensed the slight annoyance in my voice.

"Just… I can't. I'm too weak…" He replied. I slapped my forehead.

"That didn't stop you when we were out looking for Paula. And now her and that half-bald freak are miles away from us. And you just want to sit here and freeze your ass off?" I crossed my arms. Ness kept his entire face from me and said nothing.

"Ness… I can't say I know what it's like to go through… that. I didn't forget what you said back then… how you were afraid of your powers. I didn't think that they would have taken control of you if you didn't watch yourself! Nonetheless, you never told me!" Ness exhaled.

"I could have killed you…" Ness went on. I shook my head.

"You weren't going to kill me. I don't die easily, and neither do you," I told him. Ness seemed to hug his knees closer to him.

"… I'm tired Jeff… can we just stay here for a while?" Ness asked. As much as I could have given into his little weak plea, I squeezed my fists.

"No… we can't stay here. We have to get back now," I said. Ness let off a whine in protest.

"No… I'm afraid…"

"Afraid of what?" I asked. Ness paused for a while. I sighed.

"I don't know…"

"Yes you do. You don't want to tell me. I don't need to know, just get up. We'll go to my father's lab if we fucking have to, even if it's the last thing I want to do, but I'll do it to live," I said. Finally, after I could hear the chatter of his teeth, he held it out. His stone.

That's right… the sound stone.

I wasn't sure what to say right then… or what the right thing to say was. Ness brought the sound stone back close to him again, and when I got a glimpse of his eyes I noticed a gleam.

He was crying again. And I could hear the sniffle in his breathing.

"Ness…" I muttered, placing my forehead into my palm. "Stop crying." I had just about had it with this. Looking down at him again, he did the opposite as he dug his forehead into his knees. If I had let him stay like this, he might have been able to clean my coat with his own tears. I bit the inside of my lip.

"Stop crying…" I said again. Yet he still went on. I let off a staggered breath. I must have sounded extremely peeved at the moment, but for some reason, I didn't seem to regret it. And about a minute later as he kept crying, he shook his head in his knees. I blew out my cheeks.

"Stop… crying!" I yelled. "Crying isn't going to solve the problem Ness, it never does and it never will!" I spat. Ness flinched from what I said. I kept going.

"By staying here and crying, you're basically saying that you've given up on everything! How could you do that?" I stated. "Look at how far you've come… look at how far I've come… just because of you. I've learned over my time with traveling with you that… that…" I paused for a moment, thinking of the right thing to say as Ness had already shivered from my loud spurt of words.

"…I like traveling with you. I've realized over the past few months that I wouldn't have had it any other way… I feel like all the things that I've kept bottled up my entire life is finally being released so I can move on. I like being with you and Paula… yes, I still miss my old friends, but at the same time, I've found you. … I like you, Ness. Ok? It wouldn't be a burden on me if I helped you out of your rut, I want to do that… but you have to have the will to live too," I started to shiver behind what those words actually meant to me. I wasn't sure what he was thinking after I said that, but I continued on.

"And if you want to live… if you want the fucking world to live. If you want Paula, Kato and I to live. If you want your family, your sister, your mother to live… they can. But they'll all fucking die… if you just sit here and cry!" My face was starting to get hot enough to melt ice. Ness had finally looked up to me with red eyes. I was sure my eyes were frightening to him at the moment.

"Don't end up like me back when you were in the hospital Ness… crying like a stupid emo fagot about their mommy passing away before their eyes thousands of years ago. You still have time… don't just waste it by crying in the snow like a baby…" I said, before bringing my now hot forehead to my palm once more, still glaring down at Ness. When we just stared at each other for another minute, I spat again, making him jump slightly.

"What are you waiting for? Get the hell up and wipe those tears off of your face. The universe will die without you… without you doing something about it! So suck it up big baby, we have a universe to save." At this time, my teeth grinding was beginning to tire me out as my body shook with rage.

Finally, Ness stood onto his feet. All the while grabbing a handful of snow.

And soon my face met a hurling snowball. I blinked, looking at Ness to glare at him.

Only to find him glaring back at me with red, wet blood shot eyes. My jaw almost cracked just then.

Until a small giggle past Ness's lips. My shoulders slouched slightly. Ness of course as sick as he was still, covered his giggles with his mouth as he looked at my face again. Only to laugh harder.

What was so funny?

"What?" I asked, voice sounding strange. I think Ness laughed at that too. I frowned, now becoming grumpy.

"Whaaat? Tell me!" I demanded, as I felt the snow on my face melt. Ness started laughing.

"Your nose," He giggled.

"My… my nose?" I asked, bringing a finger to poke it.

"It was bright red, and the snow that was on it melted instantly!" He laughed. I flushed.

"Whaa…" It didn't matter, I thought as I looked away embarrassingly. Because now he was laughing.

At least he was laughing and not crying. I held out my hand to him.

"Ness…" I said. Ness looked down at my hand then to me.

"Let's figure something out. Let's get back to Fourside as soon as possible," I told him. A wide-eyed expression, Ness hesitantly lifted his hand to greet my own as I smiled. He then shivered slightly as he immediately thought to reach down to grab my coat. When he offered my coat back, I declined.

"You wear it. Let's get the hell out of here," I told him. Ness finally smiled, putting on my torn messy coat while rubbing his flushed nose with the hand holding the sound stone. And nodded.

---

About a mile in distance later of Ness and I marching in snow, I looked all around us.

"Yeah… crap, we're lost," I said. Ness frowned at me.

"But…" Ness spoke. I sighed.

"We'll figure something out. If I can just see any signs of civilization, or even the lake, we'll be golden," I said, putting my hand to my forehead in attempt to look around. Ness then tapped me on the shoulder. Turning to look towards him, he pointed in the distance.

And there was the beautiful answer to all of our problems.

A butterfly.

I was silent at first, as the butterfly fluttered towards us, mainly to Ness as it circled his head. But instead of disappearing away, it landed gracefully on his nose.

"Umm…" Ness flinched slightly until he let off a big sneeze. The butterfly, startled, flew onto my head for a few moments.

"It… didn't do anything," Ness said.

"No, it didn't… maybe this isn't the right kind of butterfly?" I asked. Ness frowned.

"What kind of normal butterflies would live up in a place called Winters where it snows all the time?" That was a bitch-slap to the face… well not in literal terms.

"Yeah… right," I replied as the butterfly landed on Ness's head. I sighed.

"Well… let's keep searching, I guess," I told him as Ness followed me closely.

About a few minutes later searching and looking around, Ness gasped. He held his head again, but slowly as if he was trying to hear something. I tilted my head.

"You alright?" I asked. A small pause.

"I lost her…" Ness spoke softly while his eyes kept shut.

"Lost who? Paula?" But he didn't respond. As much as I wanted to get him to snap out of his little trance, I didn't bother. I bit my lip after a minute.

He really did look like he was concentrating somehow. But I wasn't sure how… but as he held the sound stone to his heart again and breathed gently out of his nose, I couldn't help but think that I've seen him be like this before.

It happened a while ago, when we were back around Saturn Valley in Belch's lair. Remembering this and watching now, I blushed slightly in my deep thought again. About to look away from him, the butterfly started to glow a soft blue as it fluttered gently against the hand that held the sound stone. Ness's eyes fluttered open slightly, to open up his palm to reveal the sound stone.

I was astonished. When the butterfly went to sit on the stone delicately, it started to glow a soft purple. It was then that I could feel that flow of energy around us again. And in a matter of moments, the butterfly started to flutter around his head and disappeared like a fading ghost.

…

And then suddenly, Ness groaned once more, shaking violently as he grabbed his head. My eyes widened as he started to tumble.

"Ness!" I lunged after him to catch him before he made a nasty tumble into the snow. Turning him around quickly to let the back of his head rest on my knee, my body shivered as I saw that his eyes were shut again. I cursed under my breath.

"Ness god damn it, stop passing out on me!" I ranted to myself, bringing my hand to lightly slap his cheek.

Ness, in a couple moments opened them, and with that, I sighed in relief.

"Ness, never do that again," I spoke, caressing my forehead. Ness's chest rose and fell slowly.

"I'm sorry… I'm really weak right now like I said… but… I think I can get us back to Fourside… let me collect my thoughts for a moment," He spoke softly. I frowned, looking down to him. Worryingly. Ness's eyes closed as I saw a snowflake land and melt on his cheek. When my knee started to burn from the blistering snow below us, my heart stammered from the weird position we were in at the moment. I couldn't think of any other day that I've had this many close encounters with him… it was almost making me nauseous.

"Ness…"

"Hmmm?" I bit my lip.

"You can collect your thoughts while you stand, right?" I asked, voice sounding awkward. And then a moment of silence.

"Hmmmm… I like it here…" He replied, bringing his hand with the sound stone to his heart again.

"It's… really cold…" He said again, clearing his throat and sniffing in mid sentence. It didn't quite dawn on me still that he had been decently sick this entire time. And when I finally thought about it, I slowly brought my hand to brush his bangs out of his forehead and planted it there.

…!

"Ness… you're burning…" I said. Ness tried opening an eye up to me.

"Really? That can't be good…" He said. Before I was about to take my hand away, Ness halted my movement by holding it down with his free arm, keeping mine softly plastered to his forehead. My heart skipped a beat as he smiled.

"You're warm…"

"Ness."

"And your heart beat… feels nice too…"

And with that, I kept silent, hoping that this would help him think faster about what to do next. Ness's cheeks were now a tinge of pink, I noticed, when moments ago, they seemed pale enough to glow from the snow. As another puff of steam came from his nostrils, he slowly let go of my hand.

"I think… I think I know what to do now…" He told me. I sighed in relief.

"Good. Let me help you up then," I told him, trying to cut to the point without sounding harsh about it.

"Jeff?"

"Hmm?" Looking down to Ness again, he looked up at me with those violet eyes of his.

"Thanks… for letting me listen to you," He said. I raised my eyebrow at his remark. I wasn't sure what he meant, but it still made me feel more blood rush to my cheeks again.

"Yeah…" I said, looking away as I helped him to his feet. He almost stumbled a bit, but by keeping his body propped up with my sleeve, he caught is balance again.

"You're really off-kilter right now," I said. "Are you sure you can teleport us safely? You are starting to sound less aware of reality right now." Ness however nodded.

"In the long run, that'll be a good thing for me," He said. Yet another confusing remark. But I chose to ignore it.

"When we find Kato and Paula, you're going right back to the hotel to wash up and go to bed until you fully recover from this weird sickness you have," I ordered him. Ness frowned.

"But…"

"But what Ness? You've been worrying all of us, I don't want you to end up in a hospital again," I told him. The word 'hospital' seemed to send shivers down his spine.

"Never mind…" He frowned. I shook my head. Obviously there was something else.

"Okay… I think I'm ready… as long as I have the sound stone, I'll be ok," He said. I nodded.

"Alright… take your time on this," I replied. For about a minute, the both of us stood there, hand in hand, until finally, he started to take the lead, walking at first.

And sooner than later, my eyelids were stretched to the back of my head as we finally descended out of Winters.

Anywhere but Winters, I thought.

---

This first school year with Ness was boring, but at the same time, it was the best school year I could have ever had. While I was normal at least.

Not too long later, it was Tracy that started going to school as well, and of course she was in preschool at the time. Or so she was, before the school year ended. It went by fast now that I think of it, but by that time it was nice and slow. And that was a really good thing.

Over the year, Ness had made the most friends of course. Picky, you remember a time when Ness was a popular kid at school, right?

Well he really was. It was easy to see why.

But he was still my only friend. Yeah I was friendly with Paula as well but it was Ness and I that made memories in each other's notebooks. I wonder where mine is…

Tracy's birthday was in the first week of June, one of the best weeks of the entire year, at least to a child's eyes. And for once I was invited to a birthday party.

Something I've never really had.

Well yeah, I got all the cake I wanted and some nice stuff, but it wasn't like it was a party. Not like this party at least.

I felt really special to find out that Ness chose me to be the one friend he was allowed to invite to her birthday.

"So you're Pokey?" The man of the house asked me. It was one of the few times I was able to even speak to the man one on one. I could only nod though. Ness's father chuckled.

"Ness has told me all about you and some of his other friends. I'm glad to finally speak to you," He smiled, looking down to me. I shied slightly, looking the other way. He could tell how uncomfortable I became.

"He really loves to doodle with you. He's never really drawn that much until you became his friend. You can find a lot of the doodles he's drawn on his own on the refrigerator," He continued. I smiled to him, but I still kept quiet for some reason. Ness's father seemed different though. I was more comfortable.

"Hey… don't be afraid to tell me anything. I know how hard it is to talk with your father haha… working for him and all, he's not easy sometimes. Go and have some fun with my son, Pokey," His dad smiled, ruffling my hair back out of my eyes and scratching my head lightly. He smiled before taking off again to help his wife in the kitchen.

"Pokey!" Ness cheered, tackling me from behind as I stumbled slightly. In response, I punched his shoulder and then grabbed his shoulders and rubbed his scalp with my fist.

"You can't take me down that easily!" I playfully taunted back at him as Ness giggled.

"Nooo, you're too squishy!" He laughed.

"Hah, told you!" I replied.

"I gotta get my new yo-yo upstairs, wait downstairs," Ness told me rushing upstairs excitedly. As more and more parents came to drop off their daughters and a couple boys Tracy's age, I tried merging away from the growing crowd, and the growing pile of presents. And I eventually moved into the kitchen. Ness seemed to be taking a long time up in his bedroom, I thought.

And sooner or later I finally confronted the refrigerator.

And I saw Ness's doodles.

Most of them I've seen. There was of course, his portrait of King as a super-dog shooting lasers out of his eyes while flying over the city to battle an evil… cat thing. And then his own portrait of the creature I created a while back, you remember Picky, the pink one with the wings.

But the one on the door was new to me.

It was a picture of Ness's family. Ness, Tracy, their father, Debbie, King…

And me…

Smiling like a happy family.

---

After the huge catapult that took us from Winters back to Fourside, the first thing I noticed was that we were headed towards mountains and mountains of junk. And what was worse was that once we had finally started to slow down, Ness's hand slipped from mine.

"Ness!" I hollered as he flew away from me. I widened my eyes as I was about to tumble to the ground with a big bang.

The rolling on the gadget manifested dirt scraped and cut my skin, tumbling to a halt as I lied there hissing at the new stinging sensation on my skin. Realizing that, my glasses had finally lost my face, I cursed under my breath, getting to my knees to feel around me.

"Hehe… look what we got here," I heard a sneering voice say in the distance.

Shit…

"Haha, look at him… he must be lost," Another one said. I bit my lip. Where were those glasses?! It just so happened that at this very moment, a familiar voice echoed in my mind.

"Jeff… Jeff can you hear me?" Paula spoke. I gritted my teeth.

"Paula, there you are! I've-"

"Did you find Ness yet?" She asked in a panic. I growled.

"Yes and no, he was just with me and now I'm trying to find my glasses," I said out loud. I knew Paula didn't like the sound of that.

"Do you think he's around you?" She asked.

"Most likely if I hurry and find my dang glasses!" I cursed as I heard more unwelcoming men around me.

"Look at this pathetic kid, talking to himself!" The man snickered.

"I found Kato so we're on our way to find the two of you," Paula continued. "Do you know where you are?" She asked. I bit my lip as the snickering grew louder.

"I think we're in the junk yard in the back of the city, do you know where that is? Anyways, I can't seem to find them, this is bad. Try contacting Ness, he really needs to hear you right now," I told her as my hand felt something metallic and scratchy before feeling the edge of an eye lens.

"Does this kid have a built in walky-talky or something?" The creepy man said approaching me as I slipped on my glasses. And once I did, I wanted to get up and run away as I saw two grubby non civilized men walking up to me snickering. But when my hand went back down to the ground to push myself onto my feet, I could feel my hand land on that unknown object again as my hand landed on and pushed down a sort of lever.

Suddenly, the back of my hairs sprung up as a gigantic beam shot out of the object, firing towards the two men that had been approaching me, only to be fleeing from me moments after. My mind went into a complete blank state as I saw smoke waft from the tube-like object that I had accidentally touched. I bit my lip, wiping the dirt off of the dark blue letters on its side. My eyebrows went up.

Bazooka 300… I thought. Curiosity welled up inside me as I tried picking up the decently large thing with a leather shoulder strap attached to it. My mouth curved up slightly.

How convenient, I thought.

"Jeff!" I heard Ness yell in the distance. Eyes snapping back to reality again, my heart skipped a beat.

"Ness?!" I replied, quickly draping the bazooka behind my back like a one-strapped back pack and took off around one of the piles of junk. Keeping my ears alert through the maze of tempting junk, I heard another holler for my name.

"Jeff!" Ness yelled out again. I bit my lip, hoping that he wasn't in any more trouble. Taking a couple more turns through piles of junk however, I froze while I heard another holler for my name.

A good few yards in front of me was the same taxi that I saw a few hours back. And even if it was off, I could only stand still, feeling the chilling unwelcoming message up my spine. Shivering, I took a few steps back before slowly taking the other turn to my left. It was just like that man before… I felt like I was being followed.

When I saw what looked to be a dog with the furs on its back erect, it was growling at something. And as I emerged closer, I could see what it was.

Ness seemed to be stuck under a bunch of old car rubble, the sound stone just inches away from his fingertips as he tried getting out of the position he was in, but the large piece of trash kept him pinned to the ground.

"Ness!" I exclaimed, running up to him, only to be halted when the large pit bull spotted my movement and started barking angrily at me as strings of drool sapped from its teeth. I growled back.

"Easy dog… I know we aren't supposed to be here," I told it trying to step forward, only to anger it even more. I sighed in defeat. Well not really.

Stomping forward, the dog jumped slightly but in response inched closer as it barked again. And so I did what an idiot would probably do.

I glared at it in the eye.

And suddenly the dog ran off whimpering. I smiled inwardly. Well that was cool, I thought.

"Jeff… help me," Ness whimpered slightly. Rushing to Ness, I knelt down to his level, where his nose had been bleeding slightly and his dirty arm was outstretched, I guessed to try and reach for the sound stone. Ness's eyes were squeezed shut, as I examined the thing that had kept him down. It almost looked like the hood of a car or the trunk of one, but it was bigger than an ordinary one. I frowned, kneeling down to Ness again, whom had been crying again. I frowned in sympathy as I gently picked the stone up and placed it in his hand, holding it for a few moments.

"I'm sorry…" I told him in a gentle voice. "I'll get you out of this mess." Standing back up, I gulped slightly. I really hoped that I wasn't about to make an even bigger mess. Dropping the bazooka off of my back, I grabbed the edge of the giant rubble and tried lifting up, with all my strength.

And man, was it heavy how it was leaning…

"Ness… if you feel like you can crawl out, do it. I don't… know… if I can… lift this all the way," I spoke while gasping and struggling.

"Jeff…" Ness mumbled as I could feel the blood rush to my head again as my arms shook from the struggle. Using my shoulder, I tried taking some of the weight off of my arms as they were getting too weak, digging my heels into the ground as I kept pushing.

"Ness… listen…" I said, looking down to him as I tried lifting with my arms again.

"I don't know what exactly happened to you before… or what Pokey has done to you, or why your powers scare you… but… I don't like seeing you hurt or sad… and… I-" I hissed, squeezing my eyes as I felt one of my muscles give way.

"Ahh… this is really heavy…" I spoke, looking down to Ness, who looked at me with this sad expression I couldn't quite read very well. But as I could feel the rubble shift slightly, Ness seemed to gasp a little as he attempted crawling out.

When he was finally able to get himself out and get himself a good distance away from the rubble that imprisoned him, I let my arms let go as I stumbled back a couple of feet before collapsing to the ground to catch my breath as the rubble fell to the ground with a thud along with some smaller junk. I rubbed my arms, feeling their strength already gone. Man it sucked being just a regular human, I thought…

"But you aren't a regular human," the other part of my mind spoke.

"Jeff, are you ok?" Ness spoke with his sick sounding voice kneeling down next to me. I rubbed off his question.

"Forget about me, are you okay?" I asked instantly, taking in another gasp of breath. "You scared me again haha…" Ness frowned.

"I didn't mean to…"

"No… it wasn't your fault. Besides… we're back, right?" I smiled to him. Ness's face was dirty and already blood written as he looked back to me with a slightly surprised unfocused look. I couldn't help myself as my eyes kept eyeing that small trail of blood from his nose as I licked my own thumb to wipe the blood off of his face. Ness looked away, a tinge of pink decorating his cheeks. I smiled softly.

"Can you walk?" I asked. Ness bit his lip, nodding without looking at me.

"That's good," I said, standing up and dusting off my pants before grabbing that new item I had picked up before.

"Jeff?"

"Hmmm?"

"… What did you want to tell me before?" Ness asked. I exhaled slightly then.

But it was then that I heard the sound of an engine igniting itself.

"Ness…" I held my hand down to him.

"I'll tell you when we get out of here… I don't think we're wanted here," I told him, voice not sounding like myself. Ness at fist paused for a moment, studying what I really meant, only to comply seconds later, taking my hand without saying a word. It was good timing…

"Hey, I think there's a couple ratty kids here."

"Yeah, let's get em and teach em no to trespass into our private property." Ness and I looked at each other with wide eyes.

And we started running again.

Still holding hands.

---

"Pokey!" Ness said, poking me in the back. Flinching, I turned around.

"Ouuuch that hurt!" I replied. Ness smiled his silly toothy grin. At this age, he had already lost 3 of his baby teeth.

"Hehe, sorry. Behold!" He said, holding out his beloved red yo-yo.

"Learn any new tricks on it yet?" I asked. Ness snickered.

"That's what I'm about ta show ya," He replied, poking his finger through the loop and letting his yo-yo go and stay close to the ground. And as he tried doing his trick, he failed. Twice. But the third time he got it.

"Woah, let me do that," I said, trying the trick out myself. I failed four times. Ness laughed.

"It takes practice, doesn't it?" He said.

"You could say that," I replied.

"Alright everyone, cake time!" Debbie announced. Ness threw a punch in the air.

"Yes, cake!" He cheered as everyone gathered around the table.

"The birthday was so typical, but at the same time it was new to me. I wasn't used to a big crowd around the table waiting for cake. Tracy had just turned five this year, which meant that Ness was still six years old and I had turned eight the previous year.

Her presents of course consisted of girly things that neither Ness nor I were really interested in, which included some ponies and a castle set. But it was after presents that everyone was excited for. When it was finally dark outside.

"Look, fireflies!" One of the girls cheered as she peered out of the back sliding door. And with that, everyone migrated outside.

One of the girls cried when Tracy showed them a firefly up close. But Ness and I were having too much fun as we caught as many as we could, putting them in clear jars with holes in them, only to let them free when the night was over.

Eventually Ness was apart from me, on the other side of the yard. It was then that I saw Ness truly mesmerized for the first time, putting his hands up to greet the glowing bug that fluttered in front of him.

Except this bug wasn't a firefly…

The butterfly, in which shown a soft blue; circled around his head as he closed his eyes. And after that, the butterfly flew into the sky.

And disappeared.

And you want to know what was the most mysterious of this moment?

"Ness, what are you doing? You look silly there with your hands out with your eyes closed," Tracy giggled. Ness looked at her while cocking his head.

"You didn't see it?" He asked.

"See what?"

---

Déjà vu hit me as Ness and I still held hands, rushing up to city grounds and streets as some of the passer-bys gave us strange glances. And for some reason, I couldn't stop running away as the nervous sensation arose in my chest. And when we got to a fairly quiet street, I could start feeling Ness's fingers slip from mine.

"Hah… ha… Jeff wait…" Ness gasped behind me. I bit my lip.

"We need to hurry-" I turned around to him.

Ness however did not look like he wanted to be in a hurry from what I could tell. Resting his palms clumsily on his knees, Ness's face was flushed and tired as he took in strangled breaths through his throat.

"I… can't… breathe…" Ness's words were cut off as he tried inhaling. And when he started to cough as well, my mind automatically ranted at me.

"Ness is sick you fucking idiot! How could you make him run like that in this critical condition he's in? You don't know where Paula or Kato are so why are you in such a huge rush?!" My mind screamed at me. Ness's hacking got worse as I wanted to reach out to him. But I wasn't sure what the right thing to do was at the moment.

"Ness… Ness, easy…" I spoke nervously, instinctively reaching out to touch his forehead again, which was still a flare and shimmered from a layer of sweat. I bit my lip as his coughs became softer but he still gasped for breath.

The air of Fourside probably wasn't the cleanest of air he could breathe in either, I thought, trying to rub his back, even though it was a pretty useless motive.

"I'm sorry… I'm sorry, I won't do that again," I spoke nervously again. Finally after a good minute or two he was able to inhale and exhale semi-normally, still holding his knees.

"Are we… still in the… junk yard?" He asked weakly. My face went pail.

That didn't sound good at all…

"No…" I replied. Ness exhales were elaborated as he spoke again.

"Really?" He mumbled. I bit my lip.

"Ness, open your eyes, please, you're really scaring me right now…" I said, without thinking as I brought my hands to the sides of his head, leaning down to look at his face. A twinge of guilt plagued me looking at his pained expression. He slightly blinked, eyes roaming around us.

"Oh… we're on a street…" He said before coughing again. I let my grip on him loosen as his eyes met mine. When I was sure that his mind registered my face, his frown deepened.

"You aren't mad, are you? …I'm sorry that I'm so sluggish today… I've wrecked today's plan up…" He went on. I frowned.

"Stop saying sorry, didn't I tell you that it wasn't your fault?" I replied. Ness shivered, taking in a weak breath.

"I don't know…" I slapped my forehead.

"Well it isn't," I said.

"Hnngg…" Ness grumbled. There was a moment of silence. I sighed.

"We gotta keep moving to find Paula and Kato… I'm getting a bad feeling about this area. I'm should feel more sorry for all this than you," I said as I took his limp hand to drag him along with me. But after two steps, his hand slipped from mine. I wanted to turn around irately, but something kept me from doing so.

"Jeff… I need to rest," Ness finally spoke softly.

This was starting to become a really serious problem.

I turned around, right at the precise moment when Ness looked like he wanted to topple over. But my reflexes spoke before my mind as I caught him before his shoulders could reach the concrete.

Heart stopping, I put my hand on his forehead again. "Stupid, you already know that he's running a fever, why don't you do something about it!" My mind ranted again. My body started to respond by shaking. What do I do what do I do what do I do…

I had to take him to the hospital or something… Ness's eyes opened a slit while a couple people passed us by. Weakly, he looked up to me.

"I'll be able to move again soon… just let me rest another moment…" He spoke with his groggily voice. My eyes furrowed sympathetically.

Though this wasn't the best time, old childhood memories came to haunt my current state of mind again as I thought of the first time Tony had been bullied. Ness's eyes fluttered closed again…

"Tony, can you walk?" I asked in a fit of panic. Tony's eyes were goggled as blood trickled from his nose and jaw.

"I… I can walk. Just give me a moment," He replied weakly as he leaned his head back closing his eyes. I bit my lip as he looked like he wanted to sit there for a long while. The more he sat, the more his eye and jaw reddened. I took his hand.

"Get on my back, I'm taking you to the nurse," I said, kneeling next to him. Tony's eyes opened again to a slit, revealing his tawny eyes to me. His mouth formed a deep frown as a tear trickled down his cheek.

"Jeff… buddy… I'm sorry, they won again."

"It's not your fault. Get some rest, and forget about them."

"Buddy…"

Ness at this time was sitting on his knees, and I wasn't sure if he was aware that he was leaning in my arms still. He opened his eyes again.

"I think I can't get up now…" Ness spoke again before shivering. So I finally decided what I had to do. I shifted slightly, where my back was turned towards him. Slipping the bazooka off of my shoulders, I sighed.

"No… get on. You're way too weak right now," I told him bluntly.

"But…"

"No buts. Get on," I ordered. "I'm tired of seeing you suffer." I probably sounded upset rather than sympathetic, but when I saw Ness's awareness of the situation, he finally complied, weakly grabbing my shoulders as he pressed his body against my back. Blushing slightly, I hooked my arms around the back of his legs and carried them around my sides. Finally standing and finding my balance, Ness was both heavy and not heavy, until I added the weight of the bazooka on my right shoulder. And as Ness wrapped his arms across my chest, my heart skipped a beat.

"Jeff?" Ness asked.

"Hmm?" I started to walk. There was no way I could run with over a hundred pounds on my back. Ness's fingers seemed to grasp my shirt.

"I'm scared of sleeping in the hospital… please don't take me there," Ness plead. Remembering that horrid drama of the day after we lost Paula, I could see why he didn't want to stay. Still… I think there were other reasons. Reasons I may never know about, but they probably were the same as mine. Loneliness. I smiled.

"I won't take you there, I promise. I'll protect you," I replied honestly. I could hear a sniff behind my neck as his nose must have been runny again. I had a feeling that he had been crying again. The poor boy… I closed my eyes, breathing toxic air in through my nostrils as I pressed the button to cross the street. It was more noticeable at the time that it was raining. Still…

"Thank you…"

I wished I was allowed into his heart more…

---

My feet were becoming exhausted from the added weight on my back. But we were moving… or at least I was, even if it was at a sluggish pace. I just really hoped I wasn't going to run into anything suspicious soon. Though on the other hand, I was kind of relieved… in a sense. But I was getting sick of these streets and stop lights.

While the air got wetter and colder, my back and shoulders remained warm. Ness's arms would sometimes shift positions whenever one of his arms got tired of hanging on. Other times, he'd shift his head. And then there were times when he'd mumble something illegible to himself. And despite the weight and cute mutters escaping his lips, Ness was, in a sense, a nice coat. I shouldn't be labeling him as low as an object, but his body temperature felt rather nice against my cold damp skin…

"Jeff, you dirty pervert," my mind taunted. I flushed violently; I was sure, as that thought passed my mind. Even so, my nose finally could memorize his scent. A soft must of vanilla mixed with a hint of mowed grass… and of course the scent of the chemical build-up of the human body. But that last part was to be expected. I kind of worried, if the cold rain was making his condition worse; I wasn't sure.

"Dad…" He mumbled to himself. Was he really asleep?

"Wanna play baseball, Jeff?" He mumbled sleepily moments later. I smiled, at the thought of that.

If he was a nice coat for me, from his sleep talk, maybe I was a good bed for Ness?

"Jeff, what the hell, you're weird," My mind said again.

Shut up, mind, it's hard to think logically right now.

I had received many glances from others, even offers and questions asking if Ness was ok. Most of the time, I would just reply, "He's just sleeping." It was true, even though most of them seemed skeptical at my response, in a humorous way.

And as I turned down a block, I had almost felt like we had taken a detour… or what it seemed.

That same awkward feeling arose in my chest, the same feeling at every "place" that didn't belong to me. The wall of graffiti, still a wall of graffiti, stretched out in front of us. I slightly cringed, remembering the man sitting around the same place as Ness had sat. I sighed, keeping myself moving…

…Until Ness had tugged lightly on the front of my shirt. I paused.

"… Here," Ness mumbled in my ear.

"What about here?" I asked calmly.

"This is where we were originally headed to…" He said.

"Don't we have to go through the sewers again to get there though?" I asked. Ness grunted slightly.

"I don't feel its barrier anymore… which can only mean one thing…"

"That the rat down there is done for?" The more I thought about it, the more I could see the reasoning. The last thing that happened before we got flooded out of there was a blinding flash… a strong one at that, as I could remember its shrieks and moans.

"Jeff, please… I need to get there," He told me. I frowned.

"How?" I asked. "You gonna climb this wall all by yourself?" I asked. Ness paused for a moment.

"Please…?" Ness asked again. I closed my eyes.

"First off, can you stand? Let me put you down and we'll see," I told him, lowering my arms to let his feet touch the ground. As Ness let go of me, he seemed to wobble at first, but he eventually caught his balance, as same went for me as my back felt like a feather at the time. My mouth curved down.

"I have a bad feeling," I told him looking at his condition. Ness, trying to hide the fact that he was both physically and mentally exhausted, smiled to me.

"That's because this isn't your place," He told me. I raised an eyebrow.

"Hah… right, right." Ness looked at the nonsense covered brick wall, looking up. He was so drawn to it; it was amazing, since the place did the exact opposite for me… even if it was in all honesty, harmless.

The good thing was that, the wall was climbable and tolerable, seeing a few bricks sticking out slightly along the way up. How interesting, I thought. But as I was waiting for Ness to make a move, he stayed put, just staring up at the wall.

"Want a boost?" I asked him. Ness looked at me blankly. For some reason, I took the look as a yes, even though he slightly cocked his head. Kneeling down to plant my hands together, Ness seemed surprised.

"Y-you sure?" He asked me.

"Me and my friend back in Winters had to jump plenty of walls, including the time when I had to come and save you; it's fine," I said.

"Okay…" Ness said in a low unsure voice, but complied as he stepped on my hands. At this point, Ness weight was very tolerable for me, as I lifted him up, until one of his feet stepped on a stuck out brick. As he made it to the top, he swung around and sat on top of the wall.

"Need help getting up too?" Ness asked. I cocked my head.

"Do I have to climb up too?" I asked.

"Maaaybe," Ness replied. I shook my head.

"Fine, fine," I said, starting my way up until I saw Ness's hand hang down to help me up. Tentatively grabbing it, I finally got myself up the wall as well. As we both sat on top of the fence to look to the other side, my jaw slightly dropped.

It was metallic, glittering in the shapes of pyramids and diamonds in the center of the small enclosed section of grass and litter. Despite that, there was no graffiti on the insides of the walls as everything seemed to be untouched since the barrier was put up. Even in the evening rain, the structure still looked sleek and shiny. When I looked to Ness again, I started to feel sympathetic again.

Because yet again, he was crying.

However, this time, a smile was spread across his face.

Something about this place… the place I didn't belong but he belonged… The hand that still held onto the sound stone tightened.

"Want to get down there so you can claim your prize?" I asked. Ness's glittering violet eyes, even in the rain, looked to me. He nodded.

As we got down there, the same scenario with all of the other sanctuaries took place, Ness fell into a trance as the structure had a PSIonic reaction. I started to worry, since this place was almost a PSI recovery point, what if that had a negative effect on him? Then on the other hand…

… This was Ness's place.

Out of eight in the entire world, this was one of them. And as Ness brought the sound stone to his head and smiled, I smiled too.

He seemed happier. And I was positive that if we hadn't come, he would have been miserable until we did. Yet again, it was mesmerizing; watching him absorb the place for himself, there was something surreal about it. Something magical. Something powerful, and moving.

…Something beautiful.

As the energy stopped, Ness took some last few moments before opening his eyes. It seemed dead silent right then, as he touched the stone to his head; to his mind.

"…. Every time I find a sanctuary, I remember something. I don't know how important these memories are, but somehow they unlock new things to my being," He told me. I didn't know how to respond, but he went on.

"It's almost like a puzzle… the more pieces I collect, the more complete I feel… I don't know if that sounds silly to you or not but…"

"… I get it," I finally said. Ness looked at me with open eyes.

"You aren't as collected as Paula and Kato… I've always noticed that. Well… at least with Paula, I still don't know that much about Kato. Do you feel like you can handle PSI more every time you find a sanctuary location?" I asked. Ness took a moment to absorb what I had just said, until he looked away and smiled to himself.

"Yeah… you could say that," He replied. It wasn't the clearest answer I got, but I figured, I wasn't going to get any clearer answers than that. And yet again, Ness closed his eyes and just stood there for a moment. I let him, thinking that it was something important. I then watched over the wall as another butterfly came fluttering about the area, all until it landed in perfect symmetry on top of Ness's head. A couple moments later, Ness opened his eyes calmly.

"Paula says we should try meeting them back at the hotel," He told me with a slight smile as the butterfly landed on his ear.

"Well then, I guess we should get going-" I replied until Ness and I watched the butterfly float on over to a nearby box.

A very decorative and colorful box.

"I wonder what this is?" Ness questioned, walking over to the pretty box, placing his fingertips at the edges of the lid. Opening it, he looked in as he reached inside.

"What is it?" I asked, walking over. Ness pulled out what looked to be a small round pointy orange object. With closer examination, it looked to be a key… the shape of a carrot.

"Is this a key?" Ness asked as the butterfly landed back onto his head as he handed me the key.

"A… carrot key?" I questioned, thumbing over its shiny surface. "Well… it was at your place Ness… your call whether we keep it or not," I said.

"It's not like it weighs 20 pounds or anything, why not take it? Usually these kinds of things become helpful at some point," He said, taking the key from me. As the butterfly fluttered onto his nose and as Ness's eyes became cross-eyed to look at it, I wondered of his condition again. After that moment with his sanctuary, he looked better… but his cheeks were still flushed and his voice still sounded hoarse.

"How are you feeling?" I asked him.

"Mmmmm… better," He replied. I smiled.

"That's good. Let's keep it that way," I replied. "How's your fever?" I asked, walking up to him to touch his forehead. At this point, Ness seemed more conscious, and the thought of me touching his forehead seemed to startle him slightly.

"Ahh, I don't have a fever, what are you talking about?" Ness spoke waving his hands before him. I ignored the gesture.

"Don't be ridiculous, I've already felt your forehead twice and it was hot enough to cook an egg," I replied, stepping close enough to him to where I could feel his forehead. At first he seemed to want to push me away, until I hushed him.

It was still unbearably warm, just as I thought. Ness let off a shaken breath, as he must have been surprised at my gesture.

"You're still running a fever Ness, we need to get you back as soon as possible," I told him, letting go of him. Ness seemed to be zoned out for a moment, keeping his eyes averted from mine as he nodded his head. I sighed, looking up at the wall again.

"Well, I guess we should get over this wall again, yeah?" I said, walking over to it, only to find that Ness didn't follow me along. I looked back as I saw Ness just staring down, in deep thought. I cocked my head.

"Are you sure you're ok? I can give you a ride if you need me to…" As nice as that might have sounded, that was, in a sense, a selfish statement. Maybe I really wanted him to say yes.

"Why have you been… so caring all the sudden…" Ness spoke softly. I frowned at him slightly.

"Why do you think?" I replied. Ness was silent for a moment.

"I don't know…" He said. I could feel a slight blush as he looked over to me with deep eyes. I looked away.

"Well… think about it. Let's get over this wall," I told him. It took him a moment before he complied, walking slowly towards me. His breath was slightly labored again. I knelt down. Ness quietly complied as I helped him over the wall. And when he helped me up as well, there was something softer about his grip. Which worried me if his sickness was acting up again on him.

When I kept my bazooka strapped to my back, trying to balance myself on the wall, I felt like I was about to topple over until Ness quickly grabbed my shoulder out of reflex. My heart skipped a beat, looking down to the ten or so feet below us.

"Don't fall now…" Ness lightly laughed. I nodded.

"Thanks," I replied. Ness seemed to shiver slightly as he brought his hands to himself again, only to accidentally lose his balance himself. Quickly responding, I did the same for him, but in the process as he tried gaining back his own balance, the sound stone slipped out of his hand and rolled onto the sidewalk.

"Ahhh…" Ness tried exclaiming.

"I'll get it," I replied, jumping down to the ground on my feet with a thud as the bazooka hit my back. Rubbing it, I walked over and picked the stone up, then went back to Ness to offer a softer landing for him. Ness seemed hesitant at first, looking down to me as the butterfly was still nestled on top of his head. The rain drops started to become more noticeable as a couple clashed against my glasses.

"Trust me," I told him again. Ness nodded slowly as he scooted himself off the edge. In return I caught him. It was just barely a second, but Ness was in my embrace again, just until he was able to register the ground below his feet. I started to notice how quiet Ness had become today, ever since I told him not to cry.

"There," I told him, handing him his rock. Ness took it and held it like he had been all day. It was just like a child clutching to their favorite teddy bear. Ness looked at me again. I always didn't know what to do except look back whenever he looked at me. Was he starting to follow my lead today?

"So… to the hotel we go," I told him. "Can you walk?" Ness bit his lip, shaking his head no slowly, but then suddenly it was a yes. I cocked my head, slightly smiling.

Ness is so cute, I thought.

"He's sick," My mind stated back. "Stop having your gay admirations with him and get him to a safe place with Paula and Kato."

"Are you sure?" I asked again. Ness finally nodded.

"Yes…" He replied. I smiled.

"Alright then. Let's get going and get ourselves out of this rain as soon as possible," I replied to him, beginning to walk as soon as he started to walk.

I was starting to feel calm again, so far, nothing horrible happened, in fact, I think both of us could agree that this day was just as much of a success as all the other days.

And it was when we passed the second block away, I could feel something brush slightly against my hand. It was subtle at first, but the second time I could feel the touch even better.

I responded by accepting Ness's hand into my own.

---

By the time that the night sky was finally starting to turn darker, Ness and I had passed the Monotolli building. Keeping my eyes ahead, I couldn't say the same for Ness as he kept looking back up at the building.

Neither of us could forget the ordeals that surrounded that building. But they were over, and we had to keep moving on and push forward. As we approached the next stoplight, I could feel Ness's hand violently rip from mine. I flipped around quickly as a man dressed in dark sweats seemed to yell at him.

"Hey kid, watch where you're going!" The man told him as he stomped his foot towards Ness, making him flinch backwards. I growled at the man as he didn't drop the subject. Slipping in front of Ness, I glared at him.

"Knock it off," I told the man. "That's enough." The man glared back down at me as if he was going to try and push me around as well, and he almost did, until I could see a sense of fear click into his eyes.

My eyes, I kept thinking. I know how to use them now. The man spit down to the ground, aiming for my foot but misses as he walked away, grumbling to himself.

"S-sorry, I was just-"

"Stop saying sorry, when that wasn't your fault…" I replied, taking his hand and walking again.

"But Jeff, I wasn't paying attention, he was right, so I bumped into him," He said. I rolled my eyes.

"If he knew where he was going, he would have avoided you if he wasn't around to cause trouble. He ran into you on purpose, just so he could pick on you for not paying attention. Get it?" I told him. Ness seemed to ponder this as I watched the butterfly flutter around our heads.

I noticed, around that time that… no one else noticed the butterfly, did they? I was right, I thought looking around at the other faces, keeping to themselves. We were the only ones that could see it. When the butterfly landed on his head again, the light said we could walk. I grabbed his hand.

"I'm out of PSI again…" Ness said, changing the subject. I grunted.

"Well yeah, you're sick from a weird fever, we went over this," I told him.

"Yeah…" Ness said. Man, did I wanted to get out of this rain, I thought. The sooner, the better.

"You can't contact Paula back, can you?" I asked.

"No…" Dang, I thought.

"Umm… Jeff?" Ness asked.

"Hmm?"

"… What were you trying to tell me before?" He asked curiously.

"Tell you what when?" I replied. Ness was silent again for a moment.

"… When we were in the junk yard…" He said. Oh… that…

"Uhh… I don't remember really," I spoke sheepishly. "It was probably the same kind of thing I told you when I wanted you to stop crying," I chuckled. However when I looked to Ness again, he had a small frown on his face, but big eyes. Something about his eyes, they were very expressive today.

"Well… even if it was really small and doesn't mean much, when you remember, can you tell me?" He asked. "I really would like to know." I flushed at that statement.

"Cummon Jeff, just admit it already, you can't hide it from me anyways. Besides, I really think it's cute," Paula spoke in my memories.

I rubbed the back of my neck sheepishly, feeling my heart flutter. What was I trying to tell him? I really wasn't sure if it was even that.

"Yeah… I'll let you know as soon as I remember something," I replied, biting my lip. I had a feeling right then that, in a sense, Ness saw right through me… I just hoped he didn't see all the way through me.

"You almost look guilty of something… something I'm not supposed to know yet?" Ness asked in a lighter tone. My heart skipped a beat.

"Wh- what is that supposed to mean?" I chuckled shamefacedly. However, a small smile crept up on his face. Was he enjoying this? Ness started to walk in front of me, holding out his hand to the butterfly.

"Oh, I don't know… I can't know until you tell me," He playfully taunted, turning around to me and smiling. I just knew right then that hinting something on… and I was blushing like crazy.

"Yeah… like I said, I'll try to remember," I said, scratching my head. Trying to change the subject, I looked around us.

"I think we're almost there, Paula and Kato shouldn't be too far off…" I said. Ness however, was still smiling to himself about before.

"Mmmhmm," He replied. I sighed.

"Your spirits seem lighter but you do still sound pretty sick," I told him. "You're taking a nice warm bath and then it's straight to bed with you," I told him. Ness giggled to himself.

"What's so funny?" I asked.

"You're just so concerned… just like a mother almost. I haven't had anyone else besides my mom and dad that care about my condition as much as you do," Ness laughed. I frowned at his statement.

"I say that, because it's true," I finally spoke, taking a hold of Ness's shoulder. Ness was slightly taken aback by my sudden gesture. Soon resting my other hand on his other shoulder I looked at him as he looked at me with a surprised wide-eyed look.

"I'm really happy that you're happy now, and that's great. But look, you're sick. It was part of the reason why you broke down before… when I saw you approach us while I was about to… about to die… I was so scared. Not for my life but for you… you had no control over yourself and when you finally let go of all of your energy and when we were in Winters because of it… you gave the rest of your energy to me, when I probably wasn't even worth it… And now it's like you're laughing it off like it's no big deal… Ness, if something really bad were to happen to you and if I couldn't do anything to prevent it, I don't think I would be able to forgive myself… you really scared me back there…" I told him, looking into his eyes again. Ness finally looked a bit more serious then, gazing back to me, as if he were trying to read what was going through my mind right then.

"Jeff…" Ness muttered. "I'm…"

Don't say sorry… sn'ot your fault… I wanted to say again, like I told everyone else. However, the both of us were silent again, in the rain, looking into each other's eyes. There were many things I wanted to do right then… many things I wanted to tell him. But… I couldn't speak, for Ness's eyes were all I could focus on. If only I could communicate my deepest thoughts to him through just a gaze… And then my heart fluttered again, as both of us seemed to inch closer…

…

Ftstfstfstt…. Vroooomm…

My eyes slowly started to widen in fear. Ness seemed to react quickly to my expression.

"…Jeff?" Ness asked. My heart started to sink slightly. I quickly grabbed his hand.

"We need to get going, now," I stated to him, voice cracking in mid sentence.

"Wh- yeah I know, but, did something happen? Jeff please say something," Ness replied. Just keep calm Jeff, keep calm keep calm…

How stupid was I? This street was pretty empty, I should have known not to pick any streets to go down that were empty! But when we made it to the end of the street, Ness and I looked back.

And sure enough, at the other end where we once were, a lone taxi sat. Right in the middle of the street. Ness exhaled.

"Huh, that's weird… when did that taxi get here? I wonder if-" I grabbed his hand again, but this time I started to run.

"Run. Now." I ordered, and soon enough the headlights lit up to spot us. I knew deep inside that Ness didn't want to do anymore running, but god damn it, that taxi.

"Jeff, why is the taxi chasing us?!" Ness started to panic.

"Just keep calm and follow me!" I told him, as we dashed by the museum. Soon enough, the car was roaring after us.

"Jeff, we can't outrun a car!" Ness told me. Well duh.

"We have to outsmart it! Cars might be faster but they can't maneuver very flexibly like we can!" I replied. Ness gasped from all the running.

"And how do we do that?!" He asked as we turned a corner.

"Huff huff… at the end of this road, we'll split off to opposite sides of the road, you go that way and I'll go this way, but hurry before it turns the corner!" I told him picking up the pace but making sure that Ness wasn't falling behind. As we made it to the end, I dashed to my brick wall and hid myself while Ness seemed to just barely make his chance, clasping his back against the brick wall and panting like crazy. Well we both were…

And suddenly it fell silent again, but I could have sworn that I heard the motor still running. It was waiting for us to appear again. I tried whispering to Ness, or gesturing to him, "I'll go this way and you'll go that way," I told him. However, Ness shook his head, as he clutched his chest, his face pained as he tried breathing properly again. Shit, I thought. I peered over my corner carefully. I couldn't see any headlights on the wet ground surface from where we were standing so maybe… possibly…

The taxi was gone. And while I sighed in relief, something on the inside of me cringed slightly. I had a feeling that it didn't matter and we'd run into it again. Double checking, I dashed over to Ness's side.

"Ness, I'm so sorry…" I told him, holding his shoulders as he caught his labored breath.

"It's… not your fault… huff…" Ness gasped. I shivered slightly.

"Where are we?" I looked around. From what I could tell, we seemed to have taken a detour once we hit the street between the museum and the Topolla theater. I sighed.

"Ok, can you walk at least?" I asked Ness. Ness nodded with a shiver.

"I'll do it to live," He told me. I took a moment to absorb those words from him, wanting to smile but the situation wouldn't let me. Still I took his hand and we descended down the rest of the street.

"If we take this path, we should run into Jackie's Café… it's on the same street as the hotel we're staying at," I told him. Ness could only grunt slightly.

"That thing… is it trying to kill us?" Ness asked with slight fear in his voice. I sighed.

"Well Ness, let's recap. What, in technical terms, that would actually go so far to chase us wouldn't have had the urge to kill us? The chosen ones?" I asked him.

"Ohh…" Ness's voice shook. "There's no one around on these streets, is that normal?" Ness asked.

"I don't think so Ness, I don't think so…" I replied, as we cut across the street to look around the corners. It was really starting to bug me; Ness's labored breath from all the downtown exercise. I started to wonder if we could really get back ok, without any detours or anything.

"I think it gave up," Ness said.

"I really doubt that," I replied as we approached the edge of the wall of Jackie's Café. We could go into the Café, I thought. Until more people in the streets showed up. As we peered over the corner however, there was a sign by the door:

Jackie's Café- under re-modeling construction. Closes at 6 until given date. Terrific. Ness tugged on my sleeve. I shivered, looking behind us.

And sure enough, it was quiet enough, quiet enough to hear the roaring engine approaching us from afar. We looked at each other, before dashing off again, down the street, all until the taxi cab made a sharp turn onto our street, right ahead of us. Ness and I slid on our heels to a stop.

"Shit," I swore out loud, as the three of us just stood there, listening to the running motor of the car.

"What do we do?" Ness asked.

"I don't know…" I replied. I would have told him for us to split up, but Ness wasn't physically strong enough at the time, despite him saying to himself that he'd move to live for him to run by himself in another direction. What would have been the consequences if, we did split off, for us to find each other quickly and safely enough? And what if, if I had to end up carrying Ness to save our hides, I wasn't strong enough to support all of our weight?

We were utterly screwed.

I could tell Ness to just sit on the sidelines and me face the taxi off all by myself, but what were the odds of the taxi just wanting to kill me? Wouldn't Ness be an easier target?

I flinched as the car roared its engine again, like a tiger, warding off its enemy. Ness seemed to have a larger reaction as he almost jumped.

"I… I could distract it maybe," Ness told me.

"Are you nuts? I'm not letting you do that," I replied. Ness's grip tightened.

"But what else can we do? How can we defeat a car?" He asked. I exhaled through my nose.

The car was awaiting our next move.

"This is scary…" Ness winced.

"It can't be any scarier than Giygas or what you…" I cut myself off. Ness had no response.

"Ok… so far it hasn't done anything," I told him.

"But it will do something," Ness replied. I growled in frustration. What to do…

"Jeff… I'm going to go this way," Ness told me.

"No," I replied.

"There's two of us, the car can only choose one of us," Ness said.

"But what if it chooses to go after you?! Don't even think about it," I told him again. Ness exhaled.

"Well if we're together, it can get both of us," He told me. I bit my lip. The engine roared again.

And then suddenly Ness started to run.

"Ness!" I yelled, instinctively running after him. And as expected, the car started up again and lunged towards us.

"Jeff, go the other way!" Ness gasped at me, voice cracking horribly in the process.

"You'll tire yourself out, you idiot!" I replied, until I knew what he sort of meant.

When the car seemed to choose me as its prey, I stood for a moment, in front a wall as the car accelerated towards me. As soon as it could have hit me, I jumped out of the way, watching the car, nearly crashing into the wall, right before it swiftly gained control as it steered itself sharply down the sidewalk. At this point, I felt the bazooka weighing me down. Burnt rubber flared from its tires as it tried turning around. Standing up as fast as I could, I shakily grabbed the bazooka to fire a beam at one of its tires.

... vrooooooo- click click click. I kept flipping the switch.

… it stopped working. Shit.

Throwing the bazooka aside, I ran for my life, looking down the street where Ness was catching his breath. Bad news as I heard the car quickly approaching behind me.

"Ness!" I yelled, looking back quickly over my shoulder as I dodged out of the way. The car however, zoomed past me as he now seemed locked onto Ness. My heart skipped a beat.

Ness looked tired again, but when he spotted the taxi coming towards him, he tried running towards and around the car, hoping that once the car was set in one direction, he would get out of that way. Ness you risky bastard! I was darting towards them, as the taxi sped past Ness, but the dodge made Ness fall down onto his stomach violently, making it hard for him to recover.

As I made it to him, the car had skidded to a violent stop down into a tight corner. Where were all the people inside of the buildings? I thought to myself. Helping Ness up on his feet as he wobbled, I caught Ness again as he tried keeping his balance, but as the car was starting to maneuver back into control again, I quickly ushered Ness onto my back as I ran for our lives again.

Ness was panting again as was I as the car raced again after us. Knowing for sure that I couldn't out run it, my palms turned sweaty.

"Jeff!" Ness exclaimed as he looked behind us. I could only think of dodging, the only thing I could do. And as we ran past Jackie's Café again, I noticed the alley way next door, and before the car could barely reach us, I slipped us past the alley walls as the taxi cab flew right by.

"Jeff, we have to get out of this alley way!" Ness huffed into my ear. I shivered, as I was about to dash out again.

Until I noticed the car had made a u-turn and was about to sandwich us between the wall and it. All I could think at the time was slip back into the alley way as it crashed into the wall before it. I literally tumbled back, almost falling off kilter.

"Oh no," I said out loud, heart sinking.

We were trapped now.

The taxi, putting itself in reverse, situated itself to face us so it could get a good charge at us down the alley. I started to shiver in fear, feeling as if I had let us down, let Ness down. Ness squeezed my shoulders.

"Jeff," Ness spoke in a low scared tone. My name seemed to be the only thing he could say tonight, and it really scared me. It kept reminding me that, he depended on me. And I failed.

"We're not dying here," I growled at him, with an unsure tone behind those words as the car roared again into drive.

And accelerated down the alley.

Our grips, tighter than ever… bracing for the make it or break it moment.

Sling!

It was barely noticeable, as the car seemed to rumble off of its track, all until an older boy, dressed in those foreign clothing swiftly jumped down, and literally put his hands on the bumper of the taxi, pushing back, and countering its force.

Ness and I were taken aback, watching him literally saving our skins as their weight slowly shifted towards us, all until his strength overpowered the car and made it to a stop, right in front of Ness and I.

"K-Kato?" I questioned.

Kato looked back at us, and smirked, as his body shook from the mere force of the large object. Ness and I could feel another wave of energy, not around us but around Kato, as he literally growled to himself.

"You two hurry, and get out of here," Kato ordered us. After a small pause looking at Kato's unbelievable strength, I nodded sheepishly as I slipped Ness and I past him and the taxi, running out of the alley way.

"Jeff, Ness!" Paula exclaimed seeing us. "Stay clear!" She told us, pointing at a safe distance. I nodded immediately, getting ourselves out of the way. From my perspective, after Kato dashed out of the alleyways with his sword as a few scraps of metal followed him, Paula unleashed a mixture of fire and ice PSI attacks into the alley, controlling it in a way that would only affect her target, and not what was around it, at least not to a destructing degree.

A small explosion, as smoke and debris flew out of the alley way. Kato twirled around to face the action down the alley way as the both of them braced, observing if the taxi was really down or not. I put Ness down.

"Stay here," I ordered him.

"But-"

"Jeff, your hyper beam," Kato said, digging it out of his back pouch and tossing it towards me. Fumbling at first, I caught it, very sloppily. But knowing that, a working weapon was back in my hands again, it was a great feeling, as I waited with them. And soon enough, the car, on fire, blazed out of the alley way. The three of us attacked, Paula and Kato used the same kind of ice attacks while I fired my hyper beam, trying to aim for its tires if I could. The car skidded to its side, as it charged again, past us, as I dashed again, after the car.

"Ness, out of the way!" I told him as Ness noticed the car charging towards him, only registering the information a little slower than usual. Ness wanted to dash towards me in response. It was good timing, as Kato transported himself to the front of the car, bringing his hands out to steer the car off into a different direction. At the same time, Paula fired another PSI attack making the car flip in response, the opposite way of Ness and I. Ness nearly tripped in the process, and my reflex caught him, so he wouldn't make a nasty topple down to the ground again. Ness and I shivered again, at that small moment that we were in close contact again, keeping him away from that car as we all watched it pathetically lie on its back, spinning its already flat and damaged wheels. Paula and Kato together, shared the final blow, destroying the entire hood of the car, until the angry taxi was beyond repair.

And finally it was the end of that angry possessed car. Ness and I sighed in relief, watching the steam and smoke rise from the pile of rubble.

"You two ok?" Kato finally asked, after letting his guard down. Ness and I nodded sheepishly.

"Only because you two came in and rescued us…" I replied, placing my forehead into my palm. How embarrassing of me, I thought… Paula and Kato walked up to us, Paula smiling to the both of us, but keeping her distance. Kato looked back at the car, scratching his head.

"I suppose I can't just leave this here…" Kato said. "Be right back," he spoke as he ran, swiftly, around the taxi, until the both of them were gone in a flash. I frowned.

"So… if Kato could teleport all this time… couldn't you guys just have found us anywhere in the blink of an eye…?" I asked.

"Well, we had to find out where exactly we were… and where you were too… we kinda ran into our own trouble finding ourselves here too," Paula laughed. Hmmm, I thought.

"Communication problems, yeah?" I asked.

"Yeah…" Paula replied.

"It was probably my fault…" Ness replied with his weak hoarse voice. I rolled my eyes.

"Why would something like that be your fault?" I asked. Ness inhaled weakly.

"Because… it's hard for me to accept any form of PSI right now… and while Paula can use telepathy to her heart's desire, I can only guess that I blocked all of her messages from reaching us… I'm sorry," Ness spoke quietly.

"And you couldn't contact me either?" I asked Paula. Paula shook her head no.

"We were holding… yeah… so my sickness blocked her messages from you too," Ness replied. I was confused.

"And since you couldn't talk to us… you couldn't know where we were, so you couldn't find us. I get it," I replied. Paula smiled. Sooner than later, Kato came rushing back, with a small gust of wind. As his speed settled down, he walked up to us, as I watched his long braid sway behind him.

"So… this was an interesting day," Kato commented. Ness smiled slightly, before coughing again, only this time violently.

"Ness!" His coughs always worried me for some reason, as I patted his back. However, Paula and Kato both kept their distance.

"Ness needs a lot of rest and quiet," Kato said. "He needs plenty of time away from the world to recover," He said. Ness's hacks got calmer, as he cleared his throat, as I rubbed his back.

"I'm ok… I got the melody I needed after all today… thanks to you," Ness spoke, looking at me smiling. I could only chuckle.

"It's… you're welcome," I ended up saying. "It was the least I could do." Paula smile deepened, which made me nervous.

"However..." Kato continued.

"Your sickness troubles all of us," Kato continued. "The only problem is that, since your sickness is PSI related, I can't heal you… and our contact could be bad," Kato continued. It was then that both Kato and Paula stood back again.

"I don't think it can harm us though, right?" Paula asked. The both of the flinched again as Ness coughed. I sighed. I knew where this was going. Which made me nervous slightly.

"And if you two were to catch whatever Ness had… that would mean trouble, wouldn't it?" I asked. Paula and Kato slowly nodded.

"It would be really bad indeed," Kato added.

"It would be a great opportunity for Giygas, or anyone that were out to get us, to get the opportunity to succeed at it," Paula added, frowning as Ness coughed again.

"Ness, are you sure you'll be ok?" Paula asked. Ness, after he cleared his throat tried chuckling shamefacedly towards her.

"I'll be fine… like you said; it's just a small PSI-related cold, right? Hahaha…" Paula and I frowned at his statement.

"He needs to be quarantined… as harsh as that sounds, Paula and I can't come into contact with him. But, since you don't necessarily have PSI yourself Jeff, you wouldn't be affected," Kato added. I rubbed my head as Ness coughed again. I bit my lip, as the three of us watched the delicate butterfly, land on his head while Ness clutched his stone to his chest.

"You're right… let's get him into a bed immediately," I said, looking around us, until I spotted it.

As we silently made our way back to the hotel, along the way, I picked up the bazooka.

"What's that?" Paula asked.

"Something I found along the way here… I'm going to study its structure a little bit," I replied. None of them replied. I didn't think any of them even could.

---

It was about 9 when we finally got ourselves into the hotel, as the manager had to literally pin up his nose. We had forgotten, out in the smoggy down town; that we smelt like sewage.

"Please, feel free to let us wash your clothing, they're filthy!" He mentioned as he handed us our keys. The man scanned us over again for a moment, this time looking at Ness.

"Will he be ok? I can send some fresh tea and soup up pronto," He mentioned. I nodded.

"That would be great, thank you," I replied. After a bit of speculation, the four of us finally decided, that, Kato and Paula would both share the room with the king mattress while Ness and I would somehow manage with the twin bedroom. I figured to myself of course that, Ness would automatically get the bed. So be it, I thought.

"We'll call you two in a few minutes to see how it's going," Paula told us.

"Aight," I replied, as we went our separate ways, Ness still using my body for support.

"We're almost there Ness. Then we can all finally rest, especially you," I replied to him. Ness at the time, could only grunt, his breaths clouded in fluids, and his face, which was plastered against my shoulder was still relatively warm. Ness at this point was exhausted, and his fever made me nervous. I didn't quite know exactly how to take care of them, all I knew was to just keep the victim of the fever as comfortable as possible. As Ness and I walked up to the elevator, I paused, slapping my face.

Elevators under maintenance - the sign read. I sighed.

"Get on my back," I told him. Ness could only nod, looking the opposite way, as I knelt down to him. I realized then, how awkward this was starting to become, and I had a feeling Ness felt the same way, carefully getting on my back as I lifted him into the air and started walking up the stairs.

Neither of us could say a word then, the day was finally over. No more rushing cars, no more creepy stalking scientists, no more old grubby men trying to kill you, Jeff… at least not today. As we approached the hotel door, Ness handed me down the card key as I slid the thing in and walked us inside.

The fresh smell of the hotel sheets yet again reminded us, how gross and smelly we actually were, and while Ness probably couldn't smell anything, I could, and it was really gross. Sitting Ness in the hotel room's chair, I rotated my shoulders. All Ness could do was sit there, looking away, and shiver. The silence was awkward.

"Stay right there," I told him in a low monotone voice, as I put the bazooka down to the floor and slipped into the bathroom.

After using the toilet, I ran the water in the bathtub, letting the water warm up. Walking back out, and seeing Ness, almost lifelessly laying in that chair, I planted my hand on his head. Still hot, I thought. So did that mean the water couldn't be as hot as him? I could only assume so. But warm enough to where he wouldn't shiver… I bit my lip.

What if he didn't have the strength to stay conscious in the bathtub? He had to get clean, he was filthy, and there were most likely cuts on his body that needed washing. Going back into the bathroom, to adjust the temperature and add the bubble soap, I finally flushed in realization to what I was doing. I was preparing a bath. For Ness. Whom I was starting to have feelings towards. Whom was sick. And who needed a bath, but couldn't stay awake. I groaned, rubbing my temples.

I looked around the room, realizing that, all of Ness's and Kato's belongings were in this room. Rummaging through some of the things in the room, I found exactly what I was looking for, in a box in the closet.

Opening the first aid kit, I eyed all of the small tools, until spotting the obvious one. Getting the thermometer, I brought it to Ness. Ness groaned.

"Nooo…" Ness protested.

"Yes," I replied, trying to slip the small stick between Ness's lips, until Ness grit his teeth together to block his mouth. I flushed at how silly this was while furrowing my eyebrows at him.

"Open, now," I replied, heart fluttering as I had to get closer to him to emphasize my point.

"No," Ness pouted. I sighed a staggered breath.

"It's just a thermometer Ness, now open up," I ordered. Ness bit his lip, pouting at me with flushed cheeks. Ness finally complied, letting me slip the small stick gently between his lips, underneath his tongue as I closed his lips with my fingers. Ness furrowed his eyebrows at me, looking away before shivering.

"There," I replied, as the room phone rang. Standing up to get it, I had almost tripped over the box before answering the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Jeff," Paula spoke on the other line.

"Hey," I replied. "I'm taking Ness's temperature now, how are things doing down there?" I asked.

"I let Kato take his shower early since I like taking nice long baths hehe… is Ness in bed?"

"No… not yet, he needs to bathe, we all stink and he might have some cuts and bruises I'll check here soon…" I trailed to silence with that sentence, looking over to Ness, who still looked pouty, sitting with his legs crossed and hands resting on his feet, looking at me with strange doe eyes.

"Haha… have fun trying to do that," Paula told me giggling. I scratched my head.

"Not now… I might need time to myself here soon…" I told her.

"I can come and watch him for you if you want," Paula told me. I smiled.

"Only if you want… don't go anywhere without anyone else though," I told her.

"Ok, well, I'll call you soon. Get Ness in that bath and into bed, will ya?" She added.

"Haha… aight, see ya," I spoke, putting the phone down, and eyeing Ness. In response, Ness looked down, as I walked to him and took the thermometer from his mouth. One hundred and three degrees, I thought.

"What did she say?" Ness asked.

"She just wanted to know how we were… that's all. They're doing fine," I replied, checking the bath water again quickly, as it was very full. This would be good for him, I thought. A nice warm bath where Ness could let his mind wander, it was something I liked doing a lot, at least. I sighed finally, feeling the blood rush to my cheeks again. This was going to be awkward, I thought. Very, very, very awkward.

Walking out of the bathroom again, I got the first aid kit again, and got out the cotton swabs and the alcohol, and stood in front of him.

"Ok Ness, bath time," I told him. Ness looked at me with an expression I couldn't quite read yet.

"O…k…" Ness replied in an awkward voice. I sighed.

"I'll help you there, how about that? I'm counting on you to do… the rest…" I replied. "Without me… trying to help you," I told him. Ness's nod was small, as I helped him out of his chair, as he hissed slightly.

"My joints ache still…" Ness mentioned. I frowned, ushering him to the bathroom.

"Are they wounds or are they just sore from all the walking?" I asked.

"I don't know…" Ness replied as I helped him through the door. And at that time, there we were. In the bathroom. Ness shivered again, letting go of me.

"Ok… time for me to take a bath, I guess," Ness chuckled. I nodded.

"Yeah… go take your bath," I replied, walking out of the bathroom, awkwardly. I could hear him plop down onto the shut toilet.

"Jeff?" Ness asked.

"Hmm?"

"… Did you remember what you wanted to tell me before?" Ness asked. Not this again!

"I'm sorry, I really don't remember…" I replied, rubbing my neck. And for a small pause, Ness and I just stared at each other. Ness reached down to his belt, with fumbling hands.

"I need help… with my belt," Ness spoke in a quiet voice. Okay… I silently complied, walking over to him. I don't think I could recognize my voice very well.

"What do you want me to do?" I asked again. Ness shivered, as I knelt down.

"My belt… is hard to unbuckle with fumbling fingers…" Ness told me. I shivered, not from the cold, but from the situation. Instead of going for the belt at first, I untied his shoes; Ness silently watching me, slip them off his rather smelly feet. Mine wouldn't have smelt any better though. Slipping off his other shoe; Ness made a small peeping sound, as I could see his socked toes cringing up. Everything was cold when you were feverish. That's why, I had to gain permission, to take off his socks; I could only assume he was too tired to bend over to do that. Ness nodded slowly, biting his lip, as I took the rim of one of his socks and slid it past his ankle. Ness's breath shook, as the sock slid past his toes. Why was I making this process so slow? Taking off the sock, I did so at a faster pace, feeling my own fingers fumble in the process.

"Thanks but… my belt," Ness said. Oh right, his belt. I nodded silently, shivering as I bit my lip, not daring to look at Ness in the eyes as I unbuckled the belt as quickly as possible, trying not to be violent. God, I hoped my face wasn't scarlet, I'm sure it was, as I finally managed to unbuckle Ness's belt, something I wasn't expecting myself to do anytime soon.

But bringing my fingers up rather quickly from his belt, to bring back to myself, a couple of fingers ended up accidentally getting caught in the hem of Ness's shirt, accidentally dragging up his shirt slightly in the process. And before I could claim my own hands back again, Ness, in the physical response, quickly put his own hand on top of my fingers, keeping them hooked to the rim of his shirt. Ness looked at me for a moment, before looking away, exhaling. Ness had managed to gain control of my other hand as well.

Both of us were shaken. What were we doing? Neither of us however, protested, which was strange, and unusual. Punishment? I wasn't sure…

But when both of us started lifting the rim of his shirt, I felt possessed, slowly pulling the shirt over his shoulders and over his head, exposing dirty, olive colored skin. And as I let the shirt drape down to the floor, all I could do was stare, astonished and shocked. Ness just sat there, looking down to his side, flushed cheeks and shoulders. Why did he…

Then the sound of a knock at the door rattled me up.

"I… I gotta go get that," My voice stuttered, zipping out of the bathroom, almost tripping in the process as I opened the door.

"Hi Jeff, I thought I'd bring your stuff over"-

"Paula… you came here by yourself?" I asked, hiding my forehead into my hand. "You know better not to do that!" I told her. Paula frowned.

"It's not like we're in the hostel," She spoke. "Anyways, I ordered this room some nice hot tea and soup for you two to share. Where's Ness?" She asked. My lip was sore from all the biting.

He's in the bathroom… about to take a bath," I told her. Paula tilted her head at me.

"You look really flustered Jeff… are you sure you're alright?" She asked me. I sighed heavily. A moment of pause.

"By any chance, did you come here to keep an eye on Ness for a little bit? Or… could I ask that from you please? I need some fresh air…" I told her. Paula nodded slowly.

"Yeah Jeff… I don't mind," She replied. I nodded.

"Good. I'll umm… go visit Kato in your room or something… I'll call you when I feel like coming back," I told her, slipping out of the room. "Sorry…" Looking back at her, frowning. Paula however, could only smile. That was the only thing she could do at times like these.

"Just get your air," She replied. I nodded sheepishly before I walked away.

---

As I walked down the stairs to the lobby, looking around there was almost no one in sight. Well… there was one man, leaning on a wall, at the start of a hallway. He looked strange to say the least… not totally bum like, but not as sophisticated either? He was probably waiting for something, I thought, as he looked up at me with these weird eyes. But before I could really get a good look at him, I continued on to the other side, to climb more steps.

Making it to the other hotel room's door, I stood there, breathing in. What was I doing anyways? I didn't know Kato enough to have a conversation with him. But I knocked, waiting patiently for the door to open.

"You can come in," I heard one's voice say from the other side of the door. I breathed in through my nose, as I opened the door.

The room was already lit up by the lamp in the room. Closing the door, I stood at the entry way for a moment. The bathroom light was on, and as I passed the open door to look and see if Kato was there; he was. He was definitely there; shirtless and letting his hair loose from his towel. What perfect timing, I thought. No no, stop with the shirtless torsos! And for god sakes, I grew up with this! Why was I suddenly too flustered to look at a male torso?! I jumped back.

"Ah… I didn't realize you were changing," I spoke awkwardly. Kato hummed. Surprisingly, I couldn't help myself, but watch as he let his long hair just drag down to his mid to lower back. Such long, black hair I thought… and I finally realized then, how muscular he really was… it was something my body couldn't even create out of itself, even if I tried. His tan skin, wrapped around his body like silk… why did I just say that in my mind?

"How's Ness?" Kato asked. This was already starting to get awkward, I thought.

"I… he's ok…" I replied. Kato finally faced me, white eye glittering in the bathroom light.

"We were worried, we couldn't get a hold of either of you… it was good timing when we did find you… very slim, I might add," He said, flipping the bathroom light off. It was hard for me to look at him in the eye, I immediately thought. Some inevitable force kept me from doing so.

"Come in," He told me, walking past me, as I could see the long sleek black hair sway behind his back like a grandfather clock. He must have just showered, I thought, smelling a fresh odor from him.

"So he got the melody after all?" He asked, sitting down in one of the chairs, offering the other one to me. I slowly complied. It just was so awkward, now that he was finally talking to me. Rather normally, I thought.

"Yeah… I helped him over the wall to get there, we always knew where it was, we just couldn't get to it without defeating the rat down in the sewers," I explained. Kato ahhed in replied.

"And besides the car incident, you two were ok?" He asked me. I paused for a moment, thinking back at the man… and the uncontrollable PSI energy.

"Judging by that lack of reply, I'll assume no I guess," He replied. I frowned.

"And you… did you and Paula do ok?" I asked. Kato brought his hair around his shoulder, as he grabbed water from the table and drank it. I could only stare as he gulped it down, seeing the ripples move down his throat.

"We ran into a few incidences with some strange folk, but nothing out of the ordinary like you two did. We felt bad; you had no weaponry, and we didn't know about Ness…" I could only nod, looking the opposite way, breathing in. A moment of silence.

"So… you look bothered. What happened?" He asked. I tightened my fists, closing my eyes as I let the events of today pass through my mind.

"… I just don't get it. Every day, it seems like I run into an incident that I can never forget… today, I was scared again. I'm always scared…" Why was I saying this to Kato? Why was I suddenly trusting his company? "Do… are you ever afraid of anything?" I asked. Kato seemed to observe me, with those hawk like eyes of his.

"You can say that… plenty of times," He replied. "Some that I'm not quite ready to tell many people yet, but of course I've gotten scared at times," He said, grabbing a vine of grapes from his pouch.

"…"

"Just say it…" He said, taking one of the grapes and placing it on his extended tongue. "I won't judge you now," He said. I bit my lip, mind flashing back to that man.

"Someone… someone I've sworn I've seen sometime in my past, seemed so determined to… kill me today… but when Ness came along… his intentions were different with him. I don't know… I don't think he did anything to Ness but…" I started to shiver on my words again, as I grabbed my head, feeling a tear reach out of its peak.

"He was… so determined to kill me… I've never seen anyone as determined in my entire life… and it was just to kill me and only me…" I shivered, the more I thought of those gray eyes. I knew that this man would haunt my nightmares for the time being. Kato, I was sure, was silent, observing my now lost state as I continued.

"And I… I couldn't do anything… just thinking about that… I…" I bit my lip, to try and keep it all in.

"… This may shock you… I know what you're feeling… to a certain degree," Kato said. I looked up to him, as he bit another grape, but stared at the wall.

"See… I grew up in a kingdom of wealth in its own right… in the past, we've had complications… some which had taken many lives… sometimes in a society like that, it doesn't matter who you are or what you do for the people… if you're in that certain position or ranking… people might not like you as much… some people hate. Some people might even hate because they want to get out of the position they're in," He said. I had no idea what Kato was talking about.

"And… where are you from again?" I asked. Kato smiled to me.

"Far off into the high east… Dalaam," He spoke, as I remembered Pokey's words.

"I'm not saying that humans can't learn this so called PSI... in fact, there's someone in a faraway country, Dalaam, that's studying it as we speak. I'm pretty sure he has to keep using it constantly... he wouldn't be able to harness it naturally like Ness and Paula can. But maybe you'll meet him someday, and ask him what it's like. I know I'd like to know," Pokey spoke in my memories.

"So… what's it like?" I asked. Kato frowned slightly. I frowned in return.

"It's in the high mountain ranges… far from regular civilization. We're known as the cloud or sky people to some societies. I'm sure you'll see it sometime soon," he told me. I nodded.

"And may I ask… how you know PSI?" I asked. Kato paused for a moment. And I knew, even before entering the room, that he wouldn't tell me any details.

"Lots and lots of training… enough training to split you in half," He replied honestly. I gulped, taking his words literally, as I looked at his eyes wander to the ceiling.

"This man you speak of… he sounds kind of mental… even though most of the killers are," He mentioned. I gulped.

"I remember… I could have sworn I saw him before… in the house I lived in when I was a child… one night, he was just in my room, wanting to reach down to me… then he spoke words to me that, for the longest time I held dear to me… now I don't know what to think of them anymore…" I shuddered. Kato frowned.

"I hate to say it but… if you really want to live, you can't let your emotions take control of you like they are," Kato told me. I wanted to snarl up at him… but he was right.

"Yeah… you're right," I replied. "But… I'm not strong enough to stop a car… nor am I strong enough to handle these feelings," I told him. Kato could only look at me again, eating and sucking the grape below his tongue. I looked down again.

"No… I want you to look at me," He told me. What? I looked back up at him, back at one deep dark black eye and one piercing white hawk eye. He bent over, observing me again. I shivered slightly, slouching back into my chair. We weren't that close, but somehow I felt like my space was invaded. I looked at him, but I didn't focus on his eyes.

"Want a grape?" He asked, smiling slightly. I wasn't sure how though…

"Uhh… no thank you," I replied. Kato shrugged.

"You can't even focus your own eyes… I guess tonight isn't the right time for that," He said. That made me a bit curious… but I didn't push deeper into that segment.

"Don't let one guy rattle you up Jeff… there's plenty of other people that probably want to kill us out there… they might not even have a reason either," He said. That didn't make me feel any better. Not the slightest.

"Well… someone else I know would love to have the pleasure to kill me, I know that for sure," I mentioned. Kato laid his back on the arm rest facing me, and crossed his legs over the arm rest that was closer. He bit off another grape from the vine he ate. Almost giving himself a royalty pleasure in this awkward moment.

"Really?" I bit my lip.

"…He's one of our main enemies… Pokey. He's… pretty strange to say the least," I said.

"Pokey… I see. I haven't met him before, but I suppose I will soon," He said. I sighed.

"He knows all about you though… he told me about you before we even met," I said. Kato looked over at me with a strange expression by only moving his eyes.

"That… doesn't surprise me… hearing Ness talking about him, he would know everything… especially if he's our enemy. Enemies always study their enemies… it's a common fact," He explained.

"Well yeah, I know that," I said. "I just find it weird that… if he's an enemy of us, then why won't he kill Ness or Paula… preferably Ness?" I mentioned. "He didn't sound keen on killing either of them… but perfectly willing for me," I said.

"I'm pretty sure you couldn't- or he couldn't say the same about Giygas," Kato finally said. I looked up at him again. That's right… then there was Giygas.

"Just what is Giygas anyways? I keep hearing about this… Giygas guy. I can only assume that he's caused a lot of this mayhem, but… we haven't run into… Giygas yet. I'm starting to question if such a thing even exists," I said. "Are they even human?" Kato stared at the ceiling.

"Giygas is the reason you're here in the first place. When was the first time you noticed anything strange about your being, destiny, or the world around you?" He asked. I paused for a moment, wincing slightly, thinking back at the humanoid figure in my past… I widened my eyes in fear. Kato observed this, very very closely.

That astronaut that killed mother… that wasn't Giygas… was it? Shaken up by this new theory of mine, I wanted to bolt out of there for some odd reason.

"Whatever scarred you in the past… was probably caused by Giygas," Kato finally said. "As bad as that sounds, it's true. I can only imagine if, Pokey won't kill Ness nor Paula, Giygas won't have any problem doing so. How much do you know about Pokey anyways?" He asked me. I pondered this for a moment.

"… Not that much," I replied, keeping the diary on the back of my mind.

"I see… well Jeff, there's a lot on your mind right now. Why don't you, while you still have the chance, just let all of those thoughts disappear for tonight and relax? There's not much we can do right now, not until Ness can recover from his weird sickness," He said. I sighed.

"Yeah…" I said.

"Did Paula go watch Ness for you or something?" He asked. "She better be keeping a good distance from him."

"Paula's smart… I'm sure she'll be fine," I replied. Kato nodded.

"She's charming, isn't she? She takes a lot of this better than any of us, always smiling," He said. I smiled.

"She keeps us moving… always keeping us on track, despite her age. She'd put many parents to shame," I chuckled. Kato looked at me again, as I kept our stare unlocked.

"So Ness… what is he to you?" He finally asked. I shivered.

"Ness? Hah… he's a good friend now… I think. We've had our moments but…" Now my mind wandered to his PSI energy and his scared expressions throughout the day.

"He seemed to cling to you a lot today… since he can't cling to any of us." I frowned, thinking back again to Ness's weak pleas.

"Please don't take me to the hospital…" He spoke into my memories.

"Are you still afraid to tell him anything that's on your mind? I'm sure he'll listen to what you have to say," He continued.

"Do you remember what you wanted to tell me before?" He spoke again in my mind. At this time, there was a knock at the door again. We paused for a moment.

"Come in," Kato casually said as the door opened, revealing Paula at the door.

"P-Paula…" I said. Paula smiled.

"Ness is in bed now. He kinda got lonely in the bathroom," Paula chuckled. I frowned.

"But he's… you know."

"Yes yes, he's clean. It's a good thing that he was able to make it to bed in time without me having to help him," She mentioned. "I'm sure that, since he doesn't have any PSI in him now that, it wouldn't be too bad if we made physical contact with him…" She said.

"I don't think so," I replied, remembering back in Winters when his body rejected the butterfly.

"Maybe it isn't contagious… hopefully… but his body can't come in contact with anything PSI related… we discovered this when we ran into one of his butterflies. If he tries absorbing it, his body rejects it. I just hope whatever this is leaves his body soon… it worries me," I explained. Both Paula and Kato examined my subtle change of sadness in my voice.

"Just what happened?" Paula asked. I squeezed my fists, remembering the incident again, with the strange murderous man and Ness's freak out session.

"…There might be another new strange figure in the ways of our missions… and I don't know what he's trying to do… besides kill me," I told them, looking at Paula seriously. Paula could only stare back.

"What did they do?" She asked. "Did they make Ness's condition worse?" She asked.

"I really don't know… I don't think so but…" Kato and Paula waited for me to continue.

"Don't you think it's strange that… he told me how to cure Ness, and it worked?" I finally said. Paula and Kato looked at each other.

"Continue," Kato said. I gulped.

"Just tell us exactly what happened, Jeff," She said. I sighed.

"Fine… while I was trying to find Ness or you or anyone, I ran into this guy. Or… I kept running into him. Do you remember a man with dark hair past his chin and a dark brown coat this morning? He was near the museum… well that was the first place I saw him. Then after that, he kept… following me. And when I finally asked what he was doing, he just started lashing out at me… my mind went blank then as he seemed to want to really hurt me… but then when Ness suddenly showed up… things started getting worse. Ness was still having his little PSI freak out…" And the more I thought of this… the more I thought of what if… what if Ness hadn't have come? I would have died…

"And…?" I bit my lip.

"Ness had no idea what was going on, but he freaked out… that was when I guess the man stopped trying to hurt me but rather told us… told me how to get him back to semi-sanity…" I explained.

"What was the cure?" She asked. I sighed.

"Let him abuse his power… let him use it all up," I spoke exactly what the man told me. "Ness needed to get every ounce of PSI out of his body, I guess since his body was rejecting it… and still is. But before I could get anymore out of him, he left… and I did exactly what the man told me to do, I told Ness… or I made him unleash all he had… even if it were to kill me in the process," I spoke. Paula looked down.

"It was a good thing I prayed for the two of you…" I stayed silent.

"Well… we'll have to look out for the man in the future… that's very irregular," Kato said. "Someone we don't know, knows about PSI?" He mentioned. I shrugged.

"I'm starting to wonder how many people do… there might be more than we think," I said.

"Did… Ness have any familiarity with him?" Paula finally asked. I paused.

"You're just like him…" Ness rasped in my mind.

"Why do you say that?" I asked her.

"…Ness knew someone from his childhood; someone that he wanted to meet again, ever since we started journeying. He hasn't told you about him yet?" She asked. This was interesting, I thought.

"No…" I replied.

"An older man… old enough to be his father… he told me that his parents banned them from each other fearing he was someone bad… I don't know many details. You'd have to ask Ness about him more," She said. I bit my lip.

But would he even want to? I thought.

"I should go back and see him before he worries…" I said, getting up.

"Do you need me and Paula to escort you back?" Kato asked. I paused.

"I'll be fine… thanks," I said, walking out the door.

"I can't thank you two enough… you saved our lives," I said. "I hope someday, I can repay the favor somehow." Paula giggled.

"Just go to bed," She said. I smiled slightly.

"Thank you…"

"The room is locked by the way, so no one can get in without a key," She said. I nodded.

"Aight… goodnight… thanks," I said before descending out of the room.

---

You know that man I spoke about, Picky? The one that looked like he wanted to kill me?

Well, I kept seeing him again. But he wasn't in the park.

He was around the playground of our school. None of us paid him any mind though at the time… everyone thought he was a father, picking up their child.

I didn't notice anything extraordinary at first, though keeping my distance from him. He still didn't seem very mentally stable, at least what I could see. After school, as all the kids walked home giggling and laughing, I tried spotting Ness and Tracy, seeing that I could hang out with them for the rest of the afternoon.

And there they were, holding hands as they walked past that same man. I froze for a moment, not wanting to pass the man myself. It was weird, almost eerie at the time, but I learned well over the years that I would have done far worse with my current state of mind if I was in his position.

For the first time ever, his eyes were fixed on something. They were fixed upon the boy walking past in the red and blue cap, staring right back at him. I wasn't sure what his intentions were, but he kept still, looking at Ness. Tracy however grew impatient, as she tugged his arm to come along with him.

And as I kept a distance from the man, following Ness and Tracy on the other side of the street, all he could do was stare, as Ness walked away.

It was the first time that; I could tell; the man's eyes could focus… almost as if he remembered something important to him.

Something so important, that it brought him back to reality.

---

As I passed through the lobby again, I could hear the sound of a hand dryer, coming from one of the downstairs, public restrooms. Someone must have just left, I thought, as I made my way to the stairs, until I heard the dryer turn off. But then as I descended upstairs, it turned on again…

I didn't pay it any mind though.

Getting to the floor with our room, I got out my key, and slid it into the door…

Only to find out that apparently the door was already open. I cocked my head. Did Paula forget to lock it? Maybe she locked it, but then while she left, room service came up and delivered the tea and soup to our room. I opened the door.

Walking in, I froze.

The bed sheets were open, and the bathroom was dark and empty.

"Ness?" I spoke out, looking around the bed, in the bathroom, in the closet…

But Ness was nowhere to be found. Oh no…

My first intention was to reach for the phone and call their room, but when I did, their line was busy.

"Damn it, who could you be talking to?!" I swore out loud, punching the dresser, as I slammed the phone down, and stomped out of the room. Locking the door behind me, I looked around.

"Ness? Ness where the hell are you?!" I spoke out loud, inattentively making my way down to the lobby. Was he making his way to Paula and Kato's room because he was lonely? Did he not know how to use the phone?

As I made my way to the lobby again, it was still dead silent… which I still found very strange…

All except for that hand dryer running in that restroom…

Slam!

I jumped slightly, hearing the sound of, what could have possibly been, a stall door, slamming against a wall. My eyes widened slightly, as I dashed towards the noise.

My footsteps ended up leading me to the men's restroom, where I could definitely hear that hand dryer running. I took in a deep breath, opening the door and stepping right inside.

When I walked in, not only was the hand dryer still running, but so was one of the faucets. The trash can, laying on its side, littered the floor with wet and wadded up paper towels. And all the stalls seemed empty… except for the handicapped one. I wasn't entirely in the bathroom yet, but I was going to, in a split second.

"What is a pretty little, young boy like you doing out in the public restrooms so late by yourself?" A creepy voice spoke. "You should know better if you don't want to run into any trouble." After that, the whimper of a young familiar voice…

"No… stop," Ness whimpered. My insides twisted, as I literally dashed towards the bathroom door and rammed my entire body into it.

BAM!

As I tackled the door in, I saw just exactly what I had expected.

I was disgusted to the maximum, as I saw a strange, older man, possibly the same man I had just seen out in the lobby minutes ago, cornering and trapping a poor, helpless Ness in his white and blue striped pajamas. Partly unbuttoned.

Ness was completely and utterly horrified. I snarled.

"You sick fucking bastard," I swore, as he turned around to greet me with his perverted face. I returned the greeting with a fist, across his cheek bone and his nose.

"Jeff?"- Ness squeaked as, the man recoiled into the wall next to us. I glared at Ness for a moment.

"Get out of the stall," I told him. However, Ness couldn't move, as his back was plastered still against the wall. I snarled as the man tried scrambling back up on his feet. Immediately, I kicked him, right in the ribs.

"God damn it Ness, you got yourself into this mess like the disgusting bastard said! Now I'm getting you out!" I rasped, handing out my hand to him. By this time, the man had found his own stance again.

"Hey, you think… a little punk like yourself can push me around? We were busy!" He growled at me as he threw a punch at me. Dodging, but not totally successfully as his whole body flew behind his punch, I pushed the man off, as he grabbed my shirt to toss me on the ground. The man's breath smelt like liquor, and his eyes were unfocused… which sent another shiver through myself, as I growled, trying to get the man off of me. But as soon as Ness finally walked around, he kicked the man, right in the back of the head, as I dodged his kick myself. The man groaned, as he grabbed the back of his head.

Scrambling up, I soon grabbed Ness's wrist, whether he liked it or not, and dragged him behind me, as we watched the man squirm in agony and pain.

"He's fucking drunk," I commented. "And he isn't the good kind of drunk either, he's the sick kind," I said, as he tried patting around him on the ground, probably so he could try standing up to get to Ness again.

"Get out in the streets where you belong!" I told him, before I was about to drag the petrified Ness out of the bathroom, until the hotel manager and a security guard both walked in.

"What's going on in here?" The security guard asked. Ness's hand in my grip was shaken.

"This man is drunk, he mistook my friend here as his wife and tried to come on to him," I semi-lied to them. The two of them looked at the man in the stall.

"Ugh, not this guy again, wasn't this the same man that was here a few nights ago?" The hotel manager mentioned. The security guard got out the hand cuffs.

"Well he won't be coming here any longer; this is the second time he's caused trouble here. You two kids can go back to your hotel room now," The guard told us. I squeezed Ness's hand, taking one last glare down at the drunk man. To an extent, he probably had no idea what kind of drama he had just created.

"Thank you," I replied, before dragging Ness out of the room.

---

As we made our way up the stairs, I was literally force-dragging him with me, whether he liked it or not. I was utterly pissed then, and I regret it. I couldn't help it though, just why. Why did that even happen in the first place?

When I unlocked the door and locked us in our room, I turned around, to Ness, whom looked mortified still. I rubbed my temples.

"I… I'm sorry"-

"Just- why did you leave without calling or telling any of us that you were… going to the lobby restroom when we have our own bathroom in our room Ness, god what the hell were you thinking?!" I spat at him. Ness flinched, as his body shook from the traumatic event.

"… I went to use the hand dryer to dry my hair so it wouldn't be so cold, alright?! I thought since… Paula was ok, that… that…" Ness's face was already stricken in tears; red rub marks decorated his jaw and his chest plates as well as his shoulders. I scratched my head.

"So, when you're obviously sick, you thought it would be a good idea? Do you… even realize… how good of a target you are? Especially right now? That sick pervert could have been one of Giygas's"-

But as soon as I said that, Ness had started to tear up again. I fell silent, as I thought about what I had just said or was about to say.

Ness brought his hands around his chest to grab his arms, to hold himself, as his eyes were shut tight.

It didn't matter if it was Giygas or not… this was something personal.

I wanted to hug him. So bad…

… but after that happened tonight, what if he thought I was a major threat, even at this moment?

"Ness…" I spoke, feeling my own emotions well up. Ness shivered.

"It's so cold…" He whimpered. I could only shiver in response. Away from the comforts of your own home… with a fever, I thought. And still facing events that scare you to your living core...

Damn it Pokey, what the hell did you do to him…

So I finally wrestled with the logic of my mind, and listened to my heart, as I stepped forward to hold him again… just that one moment, where, if I really could, keep him warm and secure.

Away from Giygas.

Away from that man or Pokey.

Away from the cold…

… but what if he needed to be away from me? As Ness slowly accepted my embrace, weakly wrapping his arms around my waist, I slowly opened my eyes. I probably smelt gross to him… if he could even smell. I needed to shower.

"You need to go to bed now Ness… clear your mind and sleep," I whispered into his ear, next to his now soft and dry hair. Ness, it seemed, protested with a small whine. What did that mean?

"They sent us the tea; I'll go make you some…" I told him, as I finally broke our embrace. Ness gave me a look; I wasn't sure what to think of yet. Tired. Not aware. But sad… almost longing, as I ushered him into the twin bed, where he could sleep and have all to himself. There were extra pillows and blankets in the closet, so I could either sleep on the floor or in the chair and keep an eye on him.

As Ness finally lay in bed, I prepared the tea, which wouldn't take too long thanks to the interesting coffee-tea makers they had in each of the bedrooms.

"I want you to stop saying sorry… even thought that's hard for you to do," I told him pouring the hot water into the mug. "Ordinarily, that kind of trip for someone would have been care free… but realize that you're special. Don't think of yourself as a bad kind of special though. You're really valuable to many people," I said, chuckling slightly as I thought of his smile for some odd reason.

"But also… I like seeing you smile. Forget about today, or… focus on what good happened today… you got your next melody… be happy… even though that might be hard for you right now…" I went on. What was I even talking about? I was rambling… and my hands shook slightly, as I picked up the tea and brought it over to Ness's night stand. Ness looked up at me, silently, hiding his shoulders underneath the covers.

I need to wash up… but I'll leave the door open a hair…" I flushed at how strange that must have sounded. "The door is locked, they already got the creep… no one should be able to come in here without permission," I told him, as I dug through my bags to find some clean clothes. When I looked back to him however, Ness still stared at me.

"Be right back," I told him, going into the bathroom to get a wet, lukewarm towel to drape over Ness's forehead. As I came back out to put the towel over Ness's head, his violet eyes were gazing and swirling. But he stayed silent. I smiled slightly. I wasn't sure what else to do for him.

"Go to sleep," I told him, before going into the bathroom to wash up.

---

It was a different story, as I scrubbed my scalp harder and harder and harder, in the shower; hot blades of liquid drenching my skin, as my mind couldn't get not one man, but now two men out of my head. The one that wanted to kill me…

And the man that nearly… I frowned.

He didn't really intend on… raping him… did he?

"Not enough to steal his virginity…" Pokey spoke into my brain. My heart sank.

No wonder Ness was so weird around me… he was afraid I'd do something so low as…

No Jeff, get a grip, Ness knows you wouldn't do anything like that! I dug my nails into my scalp harder then.

"So when did you start thinking of him like this?" Paula said in my memories again. I frowned, feeling my heart sink even lower.

I turned the faucet off…

Drying myself off, I slipped on my clean pair of boxers and pajama pants. Whipping my hair clean and dry as I reached down to grab my white t-shirt, I touched the cold toilet lid instead. I strained my eyes. Did I really forget to grab my shirt? Opening the door to the let warm steam collide with cold hotel room air, I strained my eyes, to search for my shirt, as I stumbled over to the dresser, where my bag and my bazooka where. Finding my shirt, I ran the towel over my hair again, sighing as I blindly made my way back into the bathroom, looking at the bed, which was blurry to me at the time. But I could see the dark spot above the white covers, assuming that was Ness's head.

But was he looking at me still? I flushed slightly, as I hurried on to put my shirt on over my head. And when I put my glasses on over my nose, letting my eyes focus, I rubbed the steam covered mirror clean to observe myself again.

I was tired to say the least, bags drooping below my eyes and an even colder look upon my pale face. I studied how I frowned. My heart kept sinking as I looked into my own green eyes… or… no, they were mine. Mother's eyes were warm and green.

This feeling kept draining me, after thinking in the shower, thinking back to today and last night, today was horrible for all of us…

And the more I thought about that stupid drunk man in the bathroom, the more I realized that… Ness and I couldn't go further than just friendship.

…

Why was I thinking about that again? I slapped my forehead, and walked out of the bathroom.

Looking over to Ness's bed, Ness's head was buried slightly under the covers as he was facing the other way. His tea cup was still moderately full. I smiled slightly.

Finally, I thought. Finally, Ness was sleeping. But what was I to do now?

I looked around the room, as I saw the chair. But on closer examination, it smelt slightly like sewage. Wanting to avoid the smell as much as possible, I tried thinking of another solution, grabbing my blankets and pillow and putting them down… in the bathroom, I thought? No… maybe Ness would like me to sleep out here with him so he wouldn't feel so alone, I thought. I made my 'fake' bed next to Ness's, but my current intention was different, as I went back to claim the bazooka and my tool box. I couldn't sleep yet, for some reason, I thought.

Maybe working on this new bazooka I found will help me take my mind off of this whole mess… I thought, turning the bathroom light on and closing the door all the way to a crack. Just so Ness didn't have to hear any of my tools clanking about.

---

"Pokey Pokey!" Ness said, running to me up at our porch. Looking up to him, I thought, "There he was."

You didn't know this Picky, but I was sick at the time, and all I was doing all day long while mom and dad were either gone or busy was draw and doodle in my sketch book. But as Ness came up, I immediately hid them from him.

"I hung out with Mr. Odd again!" Ness smiled happily. I sighed.

"But I thought the teachers told you not to talk to strangers, did you get in trouble?" I asked. Ness shook his head no.

Mr. Odd… in case if you were wondering Picky, was Ness's name for that strange man.

"Why do you look up to him anyways? He's just an old bum!" I told him. Ness gave me a pouty look.

"Is not… look," Ness said, showing me his notebook.

"I've never shown him my notebook," He told me, flipping to the page of his imaginary friend, the flying man.

"Yeah, what about it?" I said. Ness then, dug out of his pocket, a yellow scrap of lined paper to let me unfold.

"He just gave me that today…" He said. "He knows him…" My eyes went wide.

Because on this piece of paper was a drawing of the same character. But it wasn't Ness's drawing, or any other style I could recognize.

"You told him about the flying man," Pokey told me. Ness then turned to a blank space next to him.

"Flying Man, did I ever tell him about you?" He asked his imaginary friend. At the time, I rolled my eyes.

"See, he says no! Pokey, believe me… Mr. Odd is really weird!" He said.

"Yeah, weirder than you," I replied. Ness pouted again, furrowing his eyebrows at me.

"Yeah, well at least he understands me more than you do!" He pouted, stomping down from my porch and walking back to his house. All I could was stare again, at where Ness was just standing. Maybe the Flying man was still with me… maybe he flew along with Ness. I looked at the piece of paper again:

To my good friend. The Flying Man watches over us both.

…

The next two pages were blank, because in between the pages was a yellow, lined piece of paper. Taking the piece of paper into my hands and opening it up, my heart twisted slightly, knowing that I wasn't the one supposed to read this diary.

The yellow paper had a sloppy drawing of a humanoid bird. At the bottom of the page, in pointy, sloppy handwriting:

To my good friend.

The Flying Man watches over us both.

I looked at the bottom of the blank page in the diary.

Don't tell Ness that I kept it. He hasn't seen it since.

---

I sighed, as I examined the bazooka for the millionth time. What a strange structure, I thought. I thumbed through my father's notes, as my eyes went in and out of focus. I rubbed my eyes.

I want to make a good weapon to aid Ness in his journey… something I can use to actually protect him, and Paula… possibly Kato, but he's proven himself to be a steel wall. I bit my lip slightly, as I unscrewed one of the panels along the skin of the bazooka. I had a feeling that the thing was missing some important details… if only I knew what they were.

Somehow pricking my finger as I reached into the bazooka's opening, I withdrew my hand, as a drip of blood started to grow on my fingertip. Wiping the blood onto my pants, I reached in with one of my tools again, and flashing a light inside to see what was happening inside the bazooka.

I didn't realize at this time, but, the bathroom door opened slightly. Just slightly. I looked up, thinking that I heard something. But a few moments later when I was minding my own business, the opening door was more noticeable, as a pair of fingers curved around the door as well as a poking head, looking past the door to see what I was doing. I looked up, not too surprised, but a little nervous as Ness looked down to me with tired, but sad eyes.

I sighed, looking down to continue my work. I didn't know what to tell him, that much. He opened the door more, as he realized that I was aware of his presence.

"You're having trouble sleeping?" I asked quietly, looking down to my tools, smiling to myself. However, Ness was unresponsive vocally, as he slowly slipped around the door and closed it to a crack behind me. Looking up, I couldn't read his expression as he still stared at me. Was it a glare? No, it was tiredness… but his eyes kept reading that same expression today. I wondered why he was here.

"You should be back in bed though," I told him, reaching for another tool. However, Ness shook his head no, slowly. I frowned slightly, as Ness closed the door behind him, sliding slowly down to the floor in front of me. All he was doing was staring at me. I sighed.

"It's hard for me to concentrate…" I told him. However, Ness still stared at me, hugging his knees to himself.

"It's too cold and lonely out there for me to sleep," He told me in his weak, sick voice of his. Oh…

"So… you just want to stay awake and watch me fail at fixing something?" I chuckled. Ness was silent as he leaned his temple against his knees. I flushed, at how he looked to me.

"Yeah… ummm… well anyways, this broke so… I wanna fix it. For a possible weapon. Hopefully a good one if I can do it, haha…" I said; rubbing the back of my neck as I nervously found a random tool.

"Forget I'm here… work like you usually work. I wanna see…" He told me. Yeah, that didn't quite help, Ness!

"Don't you need a blanket?" My voice shook. Ness shook his head no slowly. I exhaled.

Ness… despite his dramatic experiences today, was strangely calm… watching me do what I was supposedly known to do best. And that was it… I thought.

Ness just wanted company, I figured. Or at least he wanted to know that he wasn't alone. Ness shivered again.

"Are you sure you don't want a blanket?" I asked. However, Ness still shook no. No Jeff, I don't need a blanket.

So I went along with my business, reading and scanning important notes about the energy in rockets and chemistry; I was surprised that his handwriting was easier for me to read, my father's. Ness eventually slid down to lay on his side, still curled up in a ball, hugging his knees as he watched me. Like a patient child waiting for someone to stop playing on the tether ball pole. Or a dying cat sitting in a box in the rain, waiting desperately for someone to hold them in their arms.

"You look good… doing what you like doing," Ness barely mumbled. A slight comment, I brushed it aside, smiling slightly. But I kept silently working.

"Do you ever rest…?" Ness asked. I looked up to him. I nodded, and continued. I didn't want to say too much, hoping that he would fall asleep soon, but so far, it's failed. A few moments later… Ness spoke again. Was he trying to get me to say something? … Do something?

"I hope you're right… I don't want you to get hurt either…" He said. I sighed, thoughts running back to the murderous man. I wanted to avoid as many topics as I possibly could… for his sake.

"I won't hurt myself if you don't want me to…" I told him, reaching for another tool. At this moment, Ness had finally struggled to sit up again, still staring. Still anticipating.

"Jeff…?"

I just knew he had a question. And I had a feeling I knew what it was.

"Hmm?" I said, finally looking up to him again. Ness bit his lip, as he wanted to hid his nose behind his knees.

"…I want to know. So badly…" He said. Badly? How badly did he want me to say what he wanted me to say?

"Badly…" I repeated.

"… What do you really think of me… please be honest," Ness asked. Oh boy…

"Didn't I already tell you? You're my friend Ness… you'll always be my friend," I told him.

Stop lying, Jeff. Ness can see past your lies now that he's watching you.

"If we're friends… and just friends… then why am I so nervous… desperate… when I'm around you?" He mumbled quietly, as if he was trying to hide himself. I looked at him again, as he shivered, looking back at me. But the word desperate… I thought. What was he desperate for?

"What… what do you mean? If you think I'd…" I stopped in mid sentence. No, I thought. We've been over that, you've shown him, especially today… that you'd literally die, just to keep him safe. How dumb of you, to question why he would think you'd hurt him now? I bit the inside of my lip…

… Because you already have.

"I'm sitting here… waiting… take your time because… I want to know," Ness said. I sighed, but I felt out of breath. I was trapped now.

"I must be your closest friend… if you really did do what you did for me today," He said. "I don't know anyone out there, that would have had held my hand… yelled at me for crying… carried me… hug me… save me… all in one day. Just to keep me on my feet… I can't… even feel myself completely in reality… yet I can't sleep… and all I can do is watch you," He said. I had a feeling, after he said that, that he actually did watch me from his bed as I blindly found my shirt. I flushed slightly.

I had no idea how to reply to that.

"And just to get me to bed so I can go to sleep and recover… is that really what it's about?" He continued. At this point, all my tools were out of my hands, as I looked down to the tile floor, listening to Ness's rambles. I wasn't sure if they were rants… but somehow, I had a feeling that Ness was starting to get right on the dot. And I still denied it.

"Hah… I'm sure Venus would be jealous of me," He continued. "If you did all that, just to make up your hero time for me…" He told me. A hero? Me?

"Why are you saying all of this?" I finally asked. Ness was silent again. I sighed.

"What do you really think of me?" He asked again. I closed my eyes, hiding my forehead in my palm.

"Ness… is this really the best time?" I asked.

"…I'll never get the chance to ask this ever again…" He replied. What did he mean by that?

"Ness, you're making no sense right now…you need rest. You're sick, probably hurt… not to mention cold… aren't you cold?" I asked. Ness frowned slightly.

"Not colder than you must be…" He replied. I had a feeling that he didn't mean that comment the rude way, but rather a pitiful way. My sigh fell staggered, as I had almost had it with his company. I can't tell you…! I just can't, not after what just happened!-

…

As I tried standing up, instead, I didn't pay attention, as I totally disregarded the multiple tools and gadgets at my feet, my right one, slipping on one of them…

I stumbled forward, catching myself, sloppily with the door, before, and barely landing on top of Ness.

I was startled, rattled out of my state of mind, as my body hovered over Ness's crouching form, Ness looking up at me with those violet-indigo-silver- who the fuck knew eyes… as longing and desperate as ever. And despite the logical mind of mine, my body couldn't move. I was paralyzed, holding myself with the door above his perfectly fair face. I shivered, as my knee was literally against his now.

And there we were… staring at each other again, not knowing what to do.

My heart stopped… as Ness reached up to my face, claiming the ticket to my sight, placing my glasses onto the tile floor below us.

…

And in return for my loss of clear sight, I gained a pair of warm, soft lips… planting themselves against my own.

As I wanted to widen my eyes, I hadn't the strength, as my racing heart stole that energy.

Ness had kissed me.

And the kiss was still there, only moving slightly, as his; our bodies started to shift. Ness's kisses were more noticeable, and as soon as I was sure that Ness understood what I had been wanting to tell him all this time, my blurry eyes fell shut. And I told him everything. Everything I had wanted to tell him so badly, through my own sloppy kisses, in return.

Ness hands clenched my shirt, so I couldn't escape anytime soon. But it didn't matter that much, as I, myself, had kept him pacified to the door. There was no escape, and we enjoyed every moment of it. As our mingling became more and more set in stone, they were more controlled, and stronger. In moments when Ness took a second long gasp of air, lips forming my name as our fight for dominance continued.

Darting my tongue out to poke and prod with his juicy, honey-tea flavored lips, Ness groaned slightly, immediately accepting my invasion, as he let my tongue slide past his lips. Wet. Hot. Slightly sticky, was all my mind could register, as my nose breathed in his scent. It was a moment where, I was so thankful, that I wasn't a PSIonic kid. Tongues lapping against each other, exploring each others mouths until the wet, heart racing exercise literally K.O.'d the both of us.

As our kiss finally broke apart, all we could do was catch our breath again, shocked and astonished, as we shifted back into our own spaces again. I touched my lips as I kept breathing heavily.

I had just made out with the boy of destiny, I thought. What in the world have I done… I shivered, not knowing how things would play out after what we had just did. Finding my glasses again, I looked up at Ness again, focusing my sights at the adorable boy in front of me.

Ness was smiling slightly. Which made me flush. I shivered, but so did he.

"Well…" I said. "I guess that could… answer a few things," I told him. Ness could only smile in return, that goofy- goofy but adorable- small smile of his. But finally, my logics kicked in.

"Alright alright… bed time now," I said, sounding more serious, as I stood up, using the door as a support of course. When I looked down to Ness again, he started to frown again.

"What…?" I asked, trying to help him up to his feet. However, Ness shook his head.

"Ness, we can't just keep sitting in the bathroom and keep kissing, you have a fever to get over," I told him, shivering at the words I had just said. However, Ness held his knees to his chest, seeing the fear well up in his eyes again.

"… It's too lonely and cold… to sleep in the bed… and I keep having nightmares… I'd rather be in here with you…" He said. I frowned sympathetically this time to him.

Come on, Jeff you're tired, he's tired. You already kissed and made up again, just make him happy so the both of you can go to bed finally! I blushed scarlet, putting a hand over my head.

"Maybe… for just one night…I can sleep in the same twin bed with you," I told him. When I looked down at Ness again, there he was, with that cute smile of his again, this time, his cheeks seemed to glow a certain shade of pink themselves. He held his hand up.

Well that got him to re-think his decision, I thought, flushing to myself. As Ness used me as walking support, I led him to the bed-that's-supposed-to-fit-one-person, and helped his aching joints adjust to the position of lying down. When I pulled the blankets up to his chin, Ness finally closed his eyes and smiled, a tear crawling out of the corner of his eye.

"Thank you…" He spoke again. I finally smiled. I wasn't sure whether to thank him quite yet, but I couldn't help myself, looking down at Ness's sleeping face, as I reached down to plant my lips against his forehead, before flipping off all the lights and grabbing my own pillow, and crawling under the covers with him.

And as Ness and I huddled closer in the dark, keeping ourselves warm and secure, our fingers intertwined.

And we drifted off to sleep… listening to each other's heart beats… beating and resting in harmony.

---

It had been a day sine I saw Ness, after the two of us had one of our rare fights. And I grew impatient and lonely as I lacked the company of my friend. I had stopped doing homework, ever since I became friends with him Picky, so I didn't get many desserts, if any.

But with the lack of a friend, I became depressed, as I would wander out in the sidewalks, and walk around the town, mostly around his house, just waiting for him to show up. And as I waited on one side of the street, I heard one's familiar voice.

"Hey, Pokey!" Ness hollered at me from the other side of the street. As I looked up through dirty long locks, I spotted him, waving cheerfully at me. My smile grew so wide as I saw him smiling cheerfully at me, as I immediately started to cross the street.

Screeeetch!

Before I knew it, my body was violently pushed down to scrape against the pavement of the road, as my body screamed from the sudden pain, just moments afterwards.

"Pokey! Pokey!!"

It was the last thing I could recall at that moment.