Chase and Kai were the only ones awake when Shintaro returned. Everyone else had fallen asleep, and surprisingly Chase hadn't. He complained of a headache and told Kai that he couldn't sleep with one. The two boys were chatting quietly about things they used to do at home when they heard someone coming through the woods.

Chase held up his hand in caution, but Kai felt his heart lift. He knew that it was Shintaro before the older man came around into the mouth of the cave.

Chase relaxed and smiled up at his father. "You're back. Did you get anything?"

Shintaro held up his hand and showed them a Light magic bowl full of water, then showed them a small patch of berries. "These won't hurt us. They're safe to eat." He walked over next to Chase, beckoning Abby and Linda, who had woken up, forward.

Abby started eating immediately. Chase came right after, but he was slightly reluctant. He only took a few berries, making Linda scrunch her nose at him.

"You should eat more than that," she said. "You're sick, and you need your strength."

Chase shook his head. "My stomach disagrees with you." He popped a berry in his mouth. "I don't think I could eat much."

"Oh," Linda murmured, taking a few berries for herself. She then turned to Kai and gave him some.

He smiled gratefully and put some in his mouth. They weren't the best tasting berries - they were slightly dry and sour - but at least they were food.

Shintaro took only a few for himself, then sat back and checked Chase's fever. Based on his frown, Kai guessed that it hadn't gone down much.

Chase waved his father's hand away. "I feel better than I did this morning. It's fine."

Shintaro sighed. "It's hardly gone down at all. We need to find a town to get you looked at..."

"And Kai," Chase said. He poked Kai's side, making the younger boy squirm. "He's got a wound, too." Chase continued to poke him, and Kai waved his hands in surrender.

"Alright, alright," he giggled. "I'll get checked when we get to a town. But mine isn't as bad at your's."

"Why are we comparing injuries?" Abby said in a silly tone. Her smile didn't reach her eyes, which were worried, scared, and tired. She had slept, but things had probably been very exhausting for her. 

Kai smiled in her direction, mostly to reassure her. He opened his mouth to say something, but Chase stopped him by saying "He started it." and laughing. Kai joined his friend as Linda started laughing too. Abby soon joined in, and Kai caught Shintaro smiling at them. 

Luke wasn't laughing, however. He was watching with a smile, too, but his didn't reach his eyes either. They held so many different emotions that were super confusing to Kai. The younger boy tried to read them, but they switched from one to another too fast. 

Kai gave up and tried to enjoy the moment. 

~ 

Kai woke in the middle of the night - it was dark and he could hear the crickets chirping loudly - in a cold sweat. Another nightmare had haunted his dreams. He shoved the nightmare aside and took a deep breath. He wiped his sweaty palms on his jeans and sat up slowly. 

He was shocked to see Chase sitting at the mouth of the cave, his head tipped back to stare at the stars. His hair was loose and resting slightly on his shoulders, which were relaxed in a slump. His hands looked like they were folded over his crossed legs, and his back was slumped as well. He didn't register as Kai scooted a little closer to him. 

"Chase?" whispered Kai, hoping not to startle the older boy. He moved to sit next to him.

Chase didn't even flinch. He kept his head tipped back, not even glancing in Kai's direction. "My mother used to take us out stargazing all the time," he said softly, so quiet that Kai had to strain to hear him. "Stargazing was always something I hated." 

Kai cocked his head, confusion running through his thoughts. "Why did you hate it?" He followed Chase's gaze and noticed how truly beautiful stars were. 

"They always seemed so free," Chase replied in a hushed way. "I hated that they had perfect lives. They could relax during the day and had the job of sitting up in the sky during the night. They could disappear. That was something I wanted to do, and I was jealous of it. That's why I hated it. Of course I didn't tell my mother. She was too nice to take us every Saturday night, and she and Abby enjoyed it, so I pretended to too." He sighed. 

"You wanted to disappear?" Kai said softly. "Why's that?" He hoped he wasn't being too pushy.

"I have the same powers as my father," said Chase. "Everyone hated it. They thought I was Mr. Perfect, running around with nice family and always having a good life. They were jealous of me, so they physically and verbally bullied me in school. I couldn't tell my parents. I was too scared to. My father was - and still is - an intimidating person. He would have whooped their butts, and then their parents would get all angry. I didn't want to trouble my family any more. My mother's condition was already getting worse by the day, and Dad was stressed from work. I kept the bullying problem for myself to figure out. I tried to ignore them. I really did. But one day it went too far." He paused. 

"What happened?" Kai said, leaning in as though he was listening to a ghost story being slowly told. 

"They pushed me into a river," Chase said, and he unfolded his hands to curl his fingers. Kai saw that his hands were shaking. "I hit my head on a rock and fell unconscious. When I woke up, I was in the hospital with my father tending to me. He told me that someone saw and called 911." He shivered a little. "I told him that it had been happening for a long time, and he got really angry. He told a nurse to tend to me and left the room. I don't know what he did, but when he came back, he didn't say anything. The only thing he did was hold my hand until I fell back asleep." 

Kai touched Chase's hand gently. "That's... terrible. I'm sorry." 

"Ever since then," Chase continued, "I wanted to disappear. Those people never did anything else to me, but still, I could tell they wanted to. They would glare at me and tell everyone lies. Everyone at school then started staring and whispering, spreading rumors that weren't even true. The worst one was ..." He took a deep breath and tried again. "The worst one was that I had tried to kill those three boys that almost killed me. They would say that I tried to throw one boy over the river, but lost my balance and plunged in instead. Everyone avoided me, thinking I was some insane murderer. Even the teachers avoided most contact with me. I tried so hard to ignore it all. I really did. It was so hard. Soon, they started saying that I was Mr. Perfect again, and that my life was great. I had a family, a home, and a magical power that was the symbol of good. The bullying wasn't as bad until those boys came along." 

Kai squeezed Chase's hand when he paused to breathe a little. 

"I finally snapped. I proved that I was the insane child they thought me to be. Someone muttered 'There goes Mr. Perfect.' and I totally lost it. Somehow, I knocked that person out. I climbed up on top of the lockers and screamed at the top of my lungs: 'I'm not perfect, okay? I can't be! I don't have a perfect life! My mother is slowly dying, and my sister has the same condition! My father works at a hospital and has to see all of those sick and injured that come in! He's like me, too, and neither of us have perfect lives! Leave me alone!' After I screamed all that at them, my father had somehow arrived. He took me home. That was the first time we moved." Chase shuddered. "Everywhere we went, the same thing happened, so they decided to home-school me instead. I still wanted to disappear, to die. I wanted to at least be free, like the stars were. They could disappear, for at least a short time. I wanted to be gone during the day and secretly come back at night just to see my family. However, my family were the only ones keeping me from ending it all." He took a deep, shaky breath. "I wanted to be like the stars. I wanted to have a carefree life, like them. But now that my mother is gone, and all of this has happened, seeing them makes me happy. At home." His body shuddered and slumped even farther. 

Kai still had a grip on Chase's hand, and he didn't let go. "Chase..." He couldn't find the words. It took him a minute or two, but he finally found something to say. "Chase. You're already a star. You glow like one perfectly. The only difference you have with a star is that you don't disappear. Sometimes, no one wants stars to disappear. No one wants you to disappear, Chase. Please don't fade away like stars do. You're a better version of a star - you stay out, glowing brighter than others. You can't disappear." Kai squeezed Chase's hand again, and the older boy finally looked over at him.

"Thanks for listening," he said softly, his voice shaking. "I think I just needed to get that out." Tears were running down his cheeks, but he was smiling. "Don't worry, Kai." He glanced over the younger boy's shoulder at his family. "I won't fade away just yet."

~ 

Here ya go! Sorry I haven't updated this in a while. Things have been busy, and stressful too. 

Thanks for reading! There's a backstory for Chase. 

Hope you all enjoyed! I'm really liking what I'm doing with my OCs. 

Peace!!~~