This oneshot will take place nearly a day after the finish of Found (Why is it that the timeline is going backward with each new oneshot XD I swear, I'm not trying to. My brain is just like "THERE'S THIS ONE TOO" and I love it XD).

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Kai's emotions were all over the place, scattered and disorganized. One moment, he was happy that his friends were safe, The Dark Lord was finally defeated, and that he'd been able to experience a strange sense of peace ever since Dark Magic was eliminated; then the other moment, he was scared of what was going to happen to him and his friends, he was angry that so many people - including three of his friends - had had to die, and he was upset that none of them had homes to get back to. 

All throughout the first day, Kai had experienced fleeting moments of relief and happiness that he was finally back with his friends, and then those seconds were crushed by the realization: They were all going to have to move on without Luke, without Chase, without Amy. 

That was the part that hurt Kai the most. 

No matter how many times he'd told himself over the past few months, his mind refused to believe that Chase was dead. It was like a distant reality that he knew was real but didn't accept. The only thing he'd been able to picture when he'd thought of Chase was his smiling face, and then the realization that he wasn't going to ever give anyone that smile again, wasn't ever going to annoy Kai to no bounds, and wasn't ever going to be there again. 

It was like a dream that convinced Kai's mind that it wasn't real. Every time he'd told himself that Chase was gone, he could only fall into the anxious feeling of seeing his friend again. 

And now Amy was gone. Although Kai hadn't been close to her - he hadn't known her for long - he couldn't help but feeling the crushing weight of her death. She and Chase had been almost the exact same person - both reckless, both ridiculous for the laughs.

But they were gone. 

And Kai's mind still refused to believe it. The first night after The Dark Lord's defeat, he'd woken up from a vivid nightmare and had expected Chase to suddenly be there beside him, wrapping him in a sideways hug with comforting words. 

But he wasn't there. 

And he never would be. 

A soft knock on the door made Kai finally look away from the spot on the wall he'd been staring at for the past twenty minutes. He was sitting in one of the rooms scattered inside the castle's walls, having left the one Brethren had given him. He was on top of the bed, leaning against the back wall that it was propped next to. There was a single window that allowed him to view a part of the abandoned fortress, but he didn't bother look out of it. He'd been sitting crisscross on the bed with his eyes trained on the wall to his left, his hands folded in his lap. 

Kai hadn't realized that he'd been squeezing his hand tightly together until he unclasped them and found crescent marks on his skin from his fingernails. Sighing, he turned his head to the right, where the door was closed. 

"Kai?" his father's voice asked from behind the door. "Are you in there?" 

"Yes," Kai answered, just loud enough for Falte to hear. His voice was still hoarse from the nights of screaming in his room - either from the nightmares or The Dark Lord invading his dreams - and he didn't want anyone to notice, because then he would have to explain, and he didn't really want to relive those moments. 

"Can I come in?" Falte asked in a guarded tone, one that was hard to decipher what emotion was behind it. 

"Yes," Kai repeated in the same tone, biting back another sigh. He was starting to sound like Thorn, who he'd noticed had begun to sigh a lot. 

That was another thing. 

When his friends had been delivered to The Dark Lord, he hadn't expected to find Thorn with them. The Shadow Spirit hadn't been in his original form, so Kai wasn't sure how he'd known right away; but he as soon as Kai had seen Thorn, he'd figured out exactly who he was. 

Questions still filled his mind whenever he thought about the Shadow Spirit that had kept Kai under his custody for Kai couldn't remember how long. Why was Thorn a prisoner of the Darks? Where had he been before hand? Whose side was he on? Why had he protected Shintaro against The Dark Lord, the master of all Darks?

Kai didn't like Thorn, but it was like Linda and Shintaro had said: He wasn't exactly happy to see Thorn die. Kai knew his friends because of Thorn, so he felt that he owed him something. But he didn't really want to repay him, and he was a bit thankful that he never had to. 

Moon was another fact that raised questions in his mind, questions that he hadn't been able to ask Shintaro yet because the Light had been busy for the past day. Why was she here? Was she working with them? Why did she know Ruby? 

Many questions had piled on top of Kai's head by the end of it all. When had Zeke shown up? How had no one noticed Nanami was a Light? Why did Luke, Chase, and Amy have to die for that? 

When the bed moved, Kai started out of his thoughts to find Falte crawling into a sitting position beside him. He'd forgotten that his father had entered the room because he'd been so caught up in his questions. 

Falte leaned against the wall with a sigh, resting his hands on his lap and turning his head toward Kai. For a few silent moments, Falte's creamy brown eyes remained locked with Kai's as if searching him. Finally, Falte gave him a worried look and said, "Are you alright?"

Kai automatically opened his mouth to reply, but Falte held up a finger and spoke again.

"Answer me truthfully," he said sternly, but his tone held a gentle concern behind it. 

Kai blinked at his father with an open mouth for a moment, but then after clamped his mouth closed over the automatic response of "I'm fine". He worked his jaw for a few seconds, considering what to say.

There were so many things that he could just pour out, but he wasn't sure where to start. 

"I don't know," he finally said, turning his head away from his father and staring at his hands. His unkempt black hair fell over his eyes, but he didn't bother to brush it away. He'd learned to get used to the disarray of it, having not been able to brush or style it lately. He honestly didn't care what he looked like anymore. 

Falte blew a sigh through his nose, then slid one arm over Kai's shoulders. "Come here," he said quietly, gently pulling Kai closer. 

Kai didn't resist - he shifted his position to where he was folded perfectly into his father's smaller arms, burying his face against Falte's collarbone but making no move to hug him back. He felt that if he did, the tears would come spilling out without warning, unable to be stopped. 

He was tired of crying. 

Falte squeezed him tighter, and Kai had forgotten that his back and ribs were bruised until that moment. His body involuntarily flinched, and Falte craned his neck to look down at Kai with a questioning look. 

Kai took a long breath that sent a dull, aching throb through his now agitated ribs. Most of Brethren's commands had resulted in Kai refused to do them, which ended up with a harsh beating from The Dark Lord. But no matter how many times Brethren hit him, Kai would not break - he would not do the terrible things Brethren had ordered.

"Kai, are you-" another, deeper voice said from the doorway, but he cut himself off when he undoubtedly saw what was going on. The speaker was definitely Shintaro, but Kai wasn't sure what he was here for. 

"Oh," Shintaro said, as if realizing that he was interrupting something important. "Sorry." 

Kai heard him take a few receding steps out of the room, and he shot away from his father quickly. "Wait," he said hurriedly, but as soon as he'd said it, he wasn't sure why. What was he going to do? What was the purpose in calling Shintaro back? 

Shintaro was paused in the act of turning toward the doorway again. His hair was loose around his shoulders and back, swaying slightly after the swift stopped he'd made. His eyes, which were both a solid yellow now, were locked on Kai with a questioning, concerned look. 

"Wait," Kai repeated lamely, unsure of what else to say. He cursed himself for sounding so helpless, but he couldn't stop the next words that came out. "Please don't leave." 

Shintaro slowly turned back toward the bed with a small, confirming nod. "Alright. I won't." 

"I never- I never got to say hello properly," Kai said sheepishly, again cursing himself for sounding so ridiculous. He wasn't sure if that was an excuse to get Shintaro to stay or if that had actually come from somewhere inside him. 

Shintaro made that quiet chuckling sound that Kai didn't realize he'd missed so much. 

Kai pushed himself forward, slid off the bed, and marched over to Shintaro determinedly. Before, the experience of people touching him had become like a red flag to him, making him flinch away every time someone drew near. He'd hated himself for doing that because of the hurt looks that had crossed over his friends' faces, but now he was okay with touching - as long as he knew they were there. 

Shintaro grunted a little as Kai buried himself into the taller man's chest, wrapping his arms around his torso tightly. Kai wasn't sure what Shintaro's expression was, but after a mere moment's hesitation, Shintaro returned Kai's embrace, leaning down slightly to rest his chin on Kai's head. 

A moment later, Falte was there too, fitting himself against Kai and Shintaro's sides with a content sigh. He laid his head against Kai's arm, being too short to rest his head on his son's shoulder. 

"Don't ever leave again," Falte said harshly but playfully to Kai, elbowing him slightly. "Well, you can leave when you and Abby-" 

"Don't continue that sentence," Kai said quickly, feeling heat rise into his cheeks as he thought about what his father was going to say. He heard Shintaro and Falte chuckle a little and was glad that they both seemed okay with it. 

After a moment, Kai tilted his head back, looked up at Shintaro, and said, "Hello." 

Shintaro laughed.

~