Kai woke up in the middle of the night - the lights in the room were off. Moon was kind enough to do that. He was still sitting up against the wall and realized that was the second time he'd fallen asleep sitting up. He remembered thinking it was silly and strange when Shintaro and Chase did it; but now that he had done it, twice, there was nothing to laugh about. It only made him sore, so he moved onto his side and stared at Luke, who was near him. 

Linda had managed to clear up his head, but she said that she'd done all she could. Kai knew that meant that there was still going to be some troubles with Luke now, but at least it wasn't as bad as it was going to be. After a while, everyone got tired and stopped waiting for Luke to wake up and gone to sleep. It was only Kai awake, and he was thankful for that. Tears were brimming in his eyes as he ran over the dream he had just had.

Luke groaned suddenly, snapping Kai out of his revere. He turned to look back at the man lying in front of him and realized that he was waking up. Luke's eyes opened, and he groaned again.

"Luke?" Kai murmured, sitting up and facing him. "Are you alright?" 

Luke suddenly sat up and scooted back away from Kai, whacking his head on the wall behind him. He barely paid any attention to that, however, and tucked his legs close to himself. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, please don't..." He shielded his face with his hands, and Kai felt a pang of empathy and pity.

Had Kai really seemed like this at first? 

"I won't," Kai said softly, using his gentle voice. He inched closer, spreading his hands to show that he didn't have anything. "What are you sorry about?" He decided that he would start slow, hoping that he wouldn't make Luke too uncomfortable. Luke needed to get over whatever he'd seen, just like Kai did. But Luke was different, so maybe showing comfort and gentleness would help. 

"I hurt them, I killed them, they're all dead, and it's my fault..." Luke ranted quickly, still shielding his face. "They're all gone and I didn't do anything..."

Kai had been right. Something that traumatized him was Thorn using him to hurt and kill all those people. Kai figured that Luke was talking about his family, too, who were apparently dead from some accident in a forest.

"It's not your fault, Luke," Kai said gently. He scooted closer a few more inches, but froze when Luke peeked out from behind his fingers. "It wasn't you. It was Thorn, all of it was. You didn't try to do any of it. Tell me something, Luke. Did you fight against Thorn each time he had you do something you didn't want to?" 

"Y-Yes," Luke stuttered. "I-I did, as hard as I could."

"See?" said Kai, moving forward again. "You did everything you could to stop him from doing those things. I don't think that means that you did it. I think that means that you made Thorn hesitate each time. I noticed a few times that he did hesitate, and that was when you were fighting. You've probably saved lots of people by fighting against him."

Luke removed his hands from his face and stared at Kai with tears in his eyes. He opened his mouth to say something, decided against it, and closed his mouth again. Then he finally said what he had been trying to, or maybe something else. "Thanks, Kai." 

Kai smiled and scooted forward until he was sitting next to Luke. The man flinched a little, but relaxed after Kai settled. "Don't worry, Luke. What she said..." Kai started, but didn't know exactly what he was trying to say. Finally, he decided on something that he needed to convince himself, along with Luke. "What she said wasn't true. Isn't true. She's just trying to make us feel terrible about ourselves or that something. She enjoys seeing others suffer." 

Luke sighed and nodded. "Yeah, I guess you're right. It's... not true." 

~

The next morning, exactly when the lights flicked on, Kai woke up. He was leaning against Luke's shoulder, and Luke was leaning against the wall. He was asleep again, but he looked a lot more peaceful than he had before. Kai smiled a little and sat up completely, hoping he didn't disturb Luke. 

Shintaro was awake and sitting on Luke's other side. He had been watching Luke, but when Kai sat up, he turned his gaze to him. "Did he wake up last night?" he asked quietly.

Kai nodded. "I woke up right before he did. Shintaro?" Kai said softly when Shintaro nodded and started to look away. "He's alright, but be careful about what you say about Thorn." 

Shintaro sighed and nodded again. "Right. I will be. He hasn't been too comfortable since then, and now I figure that it's worse. What happened last night?"

"He was really scared of me, apologizing and saying that I was going to hurt him," Kai replied as calmly as he could. He still wasn't used to be this close to people, and he was holding a normal conversation now. He took a deep breath and let the comfort of being around actual people flood in instead of the fear and worry. "I told him that I wouldn't hurt him, then asked him was he was sorry for. He didn't really answer normally. Just ranted on about them being hurt and dead and gone. Something confusing, but I comforted him as best I could. I think he feels a lot better now. You should thank Linda." He nodded over at her, noticing that she looked pretty exhausted. She was sleeping soundly on her back, her mouth parted slightly and her bangs falling in her closed eyes.

Shintaro followed his gaze with a faraway look. He stared at Linda for a moment, then looked back at Luke. "I will when she wakes up. She needs her sleep." He blushed a tiny bit and covered it up with a cough. 

Kai smiled a little, thinking, He's adorable when he tries to hide his blush. Thankfully Linda's not awake to hear what he and I are thinking. She would be so embarrassed. 

The door slammed open, and a cackling Moon barged in so suddenly that Chase fell over from his sitting/sleeping position on the wall across from Luke. Shintaro jumped to his feet as Luke woke up and put his hands over his head. Kai flinched back, but touched Luke's shoulder to calm him down. Abby screamed in shock and folded her hands over her chest. 

Shintaro lunged for Moon angrily, but she only laughed louder.

"Just the man I want," she spat at him gleefully. "It's your turn, Light." 

~

OHMYGAWSH WHAT'S GONNA HAPPEN TO SHINTARO? AHJTAKSDTHKJGAHKS!! 

*cackling like an idiot and also like Moon* I CAN'T WAIT AHGJKASHJKHJKHAJGHHJGAAA!

SISTER, HERE YOU ARE, IT'S SHINTARO'S TURN IAHAGJHATHJHJSGAYTAGHA-

*stops abruptly* Well, until next chapter! *BURSTS INTO EXCITED BUT SAD TEARS* WHICH IS THE SPOILER CHAPTER!!! HATKHAKJGHJKSHAJKH!

Peace!~~~