The pattering of the rain on the roof of Shintaro's tent brought back many memories of when he was young. It reminded him of the nights he would lie awake listening to the rain, hoping that it would drown out the arguing voices of his parents. It reminded him of the muggy mornings he and Cami would wriggle out of their mother's arms and play in the rain, even after Lilac's protests. It reminded him of the evenings he would hide under his bed to escape from his angered father. It reminded him of the nights that he, Cami, and Lilac - sometimes even Brethren, if he was in a good enough mood - would curl up on their couches by a warm fire, sharing stories or just sitting together. 

It reminded him of the morning he and Cami had found their mother- 

Sharply, Shintaro yanked his mind away from that memory, forcing himself to narrow in on the conversation the other guys were having. While they were eating their hastily made sandwiches, Falte was joyfully explaining how Kai - when he was younger - used to go around his house, dancing a little jig and singing at the top of his lungs. 

Thankful for something to get his mind of the past, Shintaro found himself smiling at the thought of young Kai, dancing around the hallways and belting some childhood song. It was hard to picture; but when the image did show up, Shintaro held back a scoff of laughter. He would never have pictured Kai doing something like that. 

"I see you scrunching up your face over there," Falte said with a laugh, and Shintaro realized that Falte was talking to him. "I know it's hard to imagine for you guys, but he did it all the time. Lots of times, my wife and I would join him in a line going down the hallway." He chuckled at the memory of this, and Shintaro found himself chuckling a little too.

Shintaro had never met Falte's wife; but he knew that doing something like that wasn't usually normal for her, either. From what Falte had explained, Haley had been the quiet, reserved wife - the one that kept things alight and peaceful between the family. 

He smiled at the forming image of the Watson family dancing in unison through a hallway with Kai in the lead, smiling broadly while his father and mother laughed joyously behind him. 

Gabriel was screwing up his face as well, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. "I'm sorry, but Kai doing that is so hard to imagine. When this is all over, I'm going to tease him endlessly about that." 

Falte stood up with a broad smile on his face, his mood remaining cheerful despite the mention of Kai's absence. "If you really want to get him, start doing this without context. He'll know what you're doing." 

Suddenly, he started dancing in place. 

It was the weirdest dance Shintaro had ever seen. Falte's feet were sliding across the floor one at the time, and he was lifting the other leg in a weird motion of walking in place. His elbows were bent and sticking out, his hands closed into fists and his arms swinging back and forth with each sliding step. He tossed his head side to side in unison with his swinging arms, closing his eyes as he did so. 

Gabriel burst into delighted laughter, throwing his head back and stabilizing himself with an arm on the floor of the tent behind him. It was a strange to hear such a hearty laugh come from Gabriel, but it was also nice to hear him laugh like that. 

Shintaro gritted his teeth, scrunching up his nose to keep from doing the exact same thing. He felt a grin tugging at the corners of his mouth and forced it down, clenching his hands together in a desperate attempt to swallow the laughter. 

Even Zeke looked like he was hiding a smile behind his "You're ridiculous" face that he was directing up at Falte, who had joined Gabriel's laughter. 

Shintaro finally allowed a smile to creep onto his face as Falte sat back down. Though he intended for the others to simply see an amused smile, the emotion hidden beneath it was gratefulness. 

He was glad that he knew Falte and that he'd met these other people. 

Though he didn't usually know how to interact with others, he felt that his bond with each one of these people ran deeper than even he knew. 

Shintaro was glad to have friends to distract him from himself.

~

Shintaro jumped awake in the middle of the night to a loud clap of thunder; but to his tired mind, it sounded like an explosion. He shot upright, accidentally slamming Zeke's forearm with his foot as he sat up abruptly. Shintaro heard Falte make a disgruntled and groggy groan of surprise as the thunder eased into low rumbling that seemed to come from underground. Gabriel rolled onto his side with a grunt, curling up and disappearing into his sleeping bag.

"Ow," Zeke said sharply from his spot by Shintaro's feet. He sounded completely alert, like he'd been awake before Shintaro. "Watch it. It was just thunder, calm down." Shintaro couldn't see Zeke's face; but he knew the other man was frowning harshly at him. 

Before Shintaro could reply that it had merely startled him, a loud gust of wind sent sheets of rain pattering against the wall of their tent. Falte jumped from his sleeping bag, finally sitting up and rubbing his eyes to wake up. 

"What's going on?" he asked in a drowsy voice, and his silhouette turned and reached for his glasses case. 

"It's just a storm," Zeke grumbled in annoyance. "We're not going to die. Go back to sleep. And maybe don't kick me while you're at it," he added to Shintaro roughly. 

"Apologies," Shintaro said in the same gruff tone. He scooted back into his sleeping bag, shifting to his side and tucking his arm under his head. Shintaro sat Falte lie back down again, but he had a feeling that none of them were going back to sleep for a while. 

A bright light illuminated the tent, followed closely by thunder that echoed loudly through the forest again. Shintaro heard Gabriel shift in his sleeping bag with another grunt of annoyance. None of them knew what time it was, which meant they didn't know how much sleep they would get.

That is, if they fell back asleep at all. Shintaro hoped that the others would, but he wasn't sure if he could. He'd always found it hard to sleep through thunderstorms, especially when the thunderclaps sounded like distant explosions. 

It always made him think that Darks were near, coming for them, bombing the area with Dark Magic, and killing anyone on sight. 

That thought always unsettled him, even from when he was little. 

Possibly thirty minutes later, Shintaro was snapped awake from his doze by a rush of wind that sent rain pattering against the walls once more. A bright light and a thunderclap followed the gush of wind; and when the lightning flashed, Shintaro saw Zeke sitting up in front of him, his shoulders hunched and his hands rubbing his face. 

"This is hopeless," he muttered to Shintaro, dropping his hands away. The outline of his head turned toward Shintaro, and Shintaro pictured him frowning in annoyance. "There's no way we can sleep through this." 

Falte let out a disgruntled "M-hmm" from beside Shintaro, sounding more annoyed than Shintaro had ever heard him. When Shintaro looked over, a bright flash of lightning allowed him to see that Falte was lying on his back, his eyes open and his mouth pulled into a frown as he glared up at the ceiling of the tent. 

"STOP TALKING SO I CAN TRY TO GO TO SLEEP," Gabriel's flat voice said roughly from inside his sleeping bag, where he was curled to try to block out the sounds. 

"Good luck with that, kid," Zeke said in the same flat tone, crossing his arms over his chest. "This stupid storm isn't going to decide to quiet down just so you can sleep." 

Shintaro sighed and laid back against his sleeping bag, hoping that he could find at least a little bit of sleep.

~

This is more of a silly chapter, mostly because I didn't really know what to write and this book needs context XD. I want to get to certain points in the book, but I have to make other chapters before I can get there.

Otherwise this book wouldn't really make sense, the time skips would be weird, and it would be basically twenty chapters long, possibly less.

XD It's fine, I'm planning as I go.

Thanks for reading!!

Don't worry, I am SO going to draw Kai and his family dancing down the hallway, just the way Falte described it. 

It's going to be amazing.

I hope you liked the "Kai dance" and "SHUT UP STORM" chapter!!

Thanks for reading!!!

LOVE YOU ALL!!

P3ac3!!!~~