A/N Wow, I discontinued this only to come back way before expected and with a nearly 2000 word chapter! Hope you guys enjoy! And a warning in advance, some of this was written in the late hours of the night and my tired mind ended up going a bit too deep into society's morals...so, yeah.

Phil woke up with a start. The lights had been switched on in whatever room he was in and the second he was about to groan out what he thought was going to be a 'Dan, please, it's too early' was silenced by the sound of heavy footsteps, multiple of them. Phil's eyes finally focused, the light still painful on his eyes, and he found himself not staring at any familiar room was a hospital room.

Phil looked down at himself to see a bandage around his waist. The pain returned. The knife wound. The knife. The pain. Dan. Where was Dan?

'How are you feeling today, Mr Lester?' A nurse asked, male with a simple brown hair cut and dull brown eyes. Phil didn't answer, his thoughts cut off but his mind still spinning. He glanced around the room, no sign of his short friend. Panic encapsulated him, his breathing picked up a notch but a firm hand on his shoulder cut him out of it.

'Mr Lester, please calm down, what's wrong?' The man asked, his eyebrows furrowed, his eyes flashing with a twinge of annoyance- clearly too tired to check up on his patients- it was the morning, after all, Phil thought as he looked out of the window.

'N. Nothing.' Phil shook his head, trying to clear his mind and steady his breathing. With mild success, he was as much back to his usual self as he could be. He looked at the nurse, about to ask where his friend was when he paused. Dan. A Neko. He wouldn't be here. Or would he?

The nurse, still scowling, went to leave the room, with the statement that he would return with a bottle of water. 'Wait!' Phil called out just as the nurse was about to pull the curtain behind him.

'Yes?' The man sighed, their exhaustion more visible than ever.

'I was wondering? Is there anyone waiting out there for me? Is there a way you could find out?' Phil asked, adrenaline pumping through his veins as the fear set in and the realisation that Dan may have been out there. And, if he was, what did that mean?

Phil remembered very little but yes, he remembered Dan. Dan was the one who had called the ambulance. Phil remembered trying to protest, his leaps sealed together by the sluggishness caused by his blood loss. A sluggishness that was still trying to grapple on to him.

'I'm sorry, your friend had to leave.' The nurse replied, throwing the curtain behind them before running off quickly. Phil's eyes widened, not quite understanding what he had heard.

Dan had left.

No, that wasn't what was important. Dan leaving could mean so many things, could have so many outcomes. Phil didn't want to hear the worst. He didn't want to hear his thoughts aloud.

Dan had not left, had he? He had been taken away. Phil knew by now what Dan was like. He was stubborn and would do anything for Phil because he felt he had to repay him for what he had done. Phil didn't quite understand that dedication.

He also knew that Dan could not retract his ears for long. The final fact, that Dan was definitely not covering his ears- at least, not when he had called for the ambulance.

Phil was now more worried than before. The nurse, who had just returned with a crinkling, plastic bottle in hand, looked stern but seemed to sense that Phil was in no right state of mind.

'Your friend,' he began, placing the water by the side of his bed, 'was taken away. He was Neko. I'm sorry.' Phil's eyes widened with shock, probably the reaction they were expecting. Or maybe they expected disgust? Fear? Who knew, Phil wasn't experienced with the Nekophobia that had spread across the US like wild fire.

Phil, for a short second, wondered how other countries acted towards Neko's. Phil hoped that somewhere, anywhere, they were revered. They deserved to be. They were beautiful, interesting and unjustly oppressed. But, knowing the state they were kept in his own home country made Phil doubt that they were treated any better anywhere else.

'Are you alright?' The nurse asked, gently as if he was as scared as Phil was supposed to be.

'No, I'm not alright.' Phil spat, speaking no further. He knew, for his own safety- something he knew Dan would want him to preserve- that he couldn't tell them that he knew that Dan was a Neko already.

'It's fine that you didn't know. Not many do recognise them, especially one like your friend who's rather tall for a male Neko. Just be glad that you're safe now.' Phil had to resist the urge to punch his nurse and instead, scowling heavily. His hands trembled, the anger running through his veins like adrenaline.

'Safe? Was I ever in danger?' Phil broke out, his voice louder than intended. That anger had morphed into something else. It coursed through his veins like fire. Dan hadn't done anything wrong.But he just had.He had just revealed that he was on the side of the Neko's. He had just revealed that to a society of Nekophobes whose aim was to eradicate the world of the half men. Because they were different. Yes, that was a good excuse, wasn't it?

'You were, sir. Nekos are a huge danger to mankind.' The nurse continued as if Phil was simply oblivious. Phil wasn't. He was the only one who could see clearly. Well, at least, metaphorically, his contact lenses said much differently.

'Oh.' Phil found himself with no other words. He had realised his mistake and he didn't make a move to repeat it. Even if he had to lie, at least he knew that he believed what was right. Or what he thought was right. Does that make it right? He thought of Dan's face and felt so obliged to believe himself correct. Dan hadn't harmed a soul. He had to be right. But Phil couldn't see everything. Dan could be an anomaly. But, that didn't change anything. One human's wrongdoing didn't send them to extinction. But, it seems one Neko's mistake sent them all to the darkness of the afterlife.

Phil shuddered, this wasn't the time to be thinking these things. He laughed at how much he felt like Dan, the boy who- despite the lack of education- seemed to contemplate life so deeply. The boy who not let anything out of his grasp. That was what starvation had done to him, everything had been robbed from him so his only choice was to think of it. The more his mind was on it, the more he found himself questioning it.That's just how conscious beings are. If you use something enough or think about it long enough, you will find yourself questioning it. Questioning what is a question in itself that cannot be answered. That depends on the person. But, there is one answer, Phil questioned his own race's morals.

He couldn't do anything to fix it, though, could he?

He soon realised he was alone. No doubt he had ignored the nurse long enough for them to leave. He was glad for the peace, no matter how short-lived. It was something that allowed him to calm his thoughts. He needed to think more rationally. This wasn't doing him any good. He knew that, he saw the state Dan sometimes ended up in when he went down a similar path.

That peace ended with his curtain being pulled back. He had no warning and couldn't help but jump in shock as five people walked in, their police uniforms stating as much as Phil needed to know. 'Phil Lester?' One asked, a woman (probably in her thirties) with a long blonde braid falling in front of her shoulder. Her gaze was piercing and harsh, her dull blue eyes boring into him as if he were already guilty. He wasn't sure of just what he was guilty of.

No, he did. He simply wasn't sure of what he was being accused of.

He nodded albeit warily. He had no choice but to answer, he had nowhere to go if he ran nor did he think he had the capacity to run in the first place. 'Well, Mr Lester, are you okay for us to ask you for a few questions about the Neko living in your residence?' Phil once again made no move to speak and only nodded his head. He didn't trust his voice. He hoped they couldn't notice the lies he gave from his body language alone. He didn't trust his speech as much.

'How long has it being living with you?' The question was short for a purpose. They simply needed to see Phil falter but he wouldn't let on that easily. He would answer their questions with as much as emotion as they asked them with. Although, he did struggle not to scoff at the use of it and not he as if they failed to see him as anything but an inanimate object. Well, if that were the case, they would have no reason to persecute him in the first place.

'A few months.' Phil kept his answers vague, specifics would back him up into the corner he had been so careful to avoid.

'Did you have any sense that there was something off about him?'

'No.' That was the truth. There had never been anything off about Dan. Despite having more secrets that Phil could ever think of harbouring, Dan was an open person. Phil had known who he was from the beginning. What Dan hid was for the benefit of others and not himself. Few people wanted to hear of the trauma Dan had been through. Phil had been given the start of the tale and it had put him off hearing the end. He only would if it were for Dan's benefit. Then, he realised, he might not even have the opportunity to hear the end of Dan's story because wherever he was, that was most likely not a place in which he could communicate with Phil.

'Had he ever told you that he was running from something?''No.' Phil made sure to not let his answers be too quick or too hesitant. He knew that he came off as awkward and vague but at least with that, they had no proof of anything. He was an awkward person and for once, that was helping him.

'He doesn't know anything.' Another officer voiced, placing a hand on the questioning officer's shoulder. They nodded and soon enough, each and every officer left, a few giving suspicious looks over their shoulders as they went. Phil made it his task to give them no reaction.No reaction, no proof.And with that, Phil was alone again. This time the period was much longer and despite being able to hear the bustling hospital around him, it was enough peace and quiet to have some time to think of a plan. A plan to do what, he wasn't even sure. But, what he did know was that it would save Dan.

word count: 1884

published: 16.07.17