Dedicated to: Kitty! THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Notes: Laguna's mothers song is not mine. It was written by the talented and beautiful Kitty. *grin* Yes, I'm a terrible suck up, but if not for her this chapter might not have happened. Heh. Okay, so I'm exaggerating but... ah shush! Literary license! I got it! Heh.

Stupify

Chapter Eight

By Sniffles

"Laguna?! Laguna!"

When I was a child, I can remember my mother used to sing to me when I was hurt. While she was tending my wounds and putting on bandages or whatever, she would sing. Always a different song but the one I remember the most goes like this: 'Sweet child of love, don't you cry. For there are angels, who stand by your side.' Her singing would always make me feel better.

Right now, I can hear her voice. And somehow, just the memory of her voice makes my aching back feel better.

"LAGUNA! Don't you DARE die on me! Not again!"

What? Reluctantly I open my eyes and stare up at Kid Wonder. He looks strange. Kind of contorted and fuzzy. Does he have three eyeballs? Strange. I never noticed that before.

A guy having three eyeballs. That's something you'd think I'd notice. My vision clears, reluctantly I might add. He looks so worried... again. For the second time in two days I've managed to worry him. This kid who I thought couldn't feel emotion at all....

He's staring at me as if... as if he would die if I did.

No one's ever looked at me like that before. It's unnerving. "T-Rex?" I can't hear it anymore. "Hey, you all right?" His shirt is all bloody... ugh... blood.

"This isn't my blood." He puts a hand under my shoulder and helps me sit. "Are you okay?" He asks breathlessly.

"Sure.. sure.. just a little bruised." There, just a few feet away lies that blasted T-Rex.. and it's.. dead? "Ho... how did you kill it?" I've never heard of anyone killing a T-Rex alone. Especially not without a GF.

"When I saw you.. go down I thought.. I thought it had killed you." He says softly, his arm is resting around my shoulders. He pulls me close and buries his head in my hair, "Oh god... I thought it killed you."

"It's all right... I'm still kicking." I pat his shoulder. How do you comfort someone? No, let me rephrase that, how do you comfort someone you're more than likely to jump if they keep touching you and making you feel oh-so-good? You can't hug them, because then you wouldn't be able to.. ahem, contain yourself.

"Christ Laguna." He pulls back, grabbing either side of my head. His eyes meet mine, "I couldn't... I couldn't live if you died..."

"Oh.. I dunno." I laugh nervously, "I think you'd... get over me real quick..."

"No!" His eyes harden, as does his jawline. It's a fascinating transition. This is the Kid Wonder I like. The boy who looks like a serious bad-ass. The boy who looks like he could take on the world, and win.

He probably would to. He's strong. He's been through a lot of shit. I respect that in him. He drops his hands and gets up. His gunblade is lying beside me. It's covered in blood. Trying to stem the natural reaction, which would be to do more passing out or something equally inane, I grab the handle and lift the weapon. It's heavy. I didn't expect it to be so heavy.

I turn it experimentally, fascinated. Tentatively I place my finger over the trigger and lift the gunblade as I would my machine gun. I sight carefully, and pull.

Bang.

Holy shit! That was awesome. Absolutely no recoil!! What a weapon! Course, it can only shoot one bullet at a time, that sucks. And it takes a great amount of practice to be able to use the gunblade correctly in battle. Think I'll stick to my machine gun.. but still. It's a... cool weapon.

I glance up, feeling eyes on me. Kid Wonder is staring down at me, his brows arched. "Quite finished?" he asks, his voice oddly cold.

"Yeah. Heh. Sorry. I've never held one before." I hand the gunblade to him, then use the tree as support as I pull myself to my feet.

"Your machine gun?" He frowns, looking around, "I haven't seen it."

"I landed on it." I produce the weapon in question and grin. "First rule of combat; Never let go of your weapon. No matter if you've just been batted in the back by a T-rex and are flying through the air at sixty miles per hour.. you never let go of your weapon." I grimace, "If you do, you lose it. For good."

"Hn." He sheaths the gunblade, "If you had gone by that rule earlier you wouldn't be here now.. you'd be in battle with Kiros and the others."

"Yeah.. I guess." But I'm not sure that would have been... good. I mean, since I was forced to stay here.. I got a chance to know him. That's something I'll treasure forever.

The stars are so ... breathtaking. I place my hands behind my head and smile up at the sky. Yep. I could lay like this forever, just staring at the night sky. Being lazy and pretending my body doesn't ache. I kinda' feel like I've been run over by a truck or something. Trees are evil. They really are.

He's lying beside me. I was surprised when he asked me to come out here with him, but I'm glad he did. I feel more and more guilty when I'm with him though. Because ... I know how he feels. We haven't talked about it since his startling confession. I wish.. I could talk to him about it, but I don't know what to say.

"How do you feel?" His voice breaks the silence. I don't mind.

"Like hell..." I turn my head so I can see his profile. He's staring up at the sky too. He's got a great profile. Strong. Proud. "What about you?"

He shrugs. "Laguna...?"

"Yeah?" Uh oh. This doesn't sound good.

"You love Kiros?"

"Huh... well..." I feel my cheeks growing hot.

His lips curve down. Wow. Doesn't he look happy? Erg, what did I say? "Do you love him Laguna?" He asks again, his voice sharp.

"Y-yeah. I.. I guess I do." I've never said it out loud though. And I've certainly never told anyone. But he knows already, so what's the harm in telling him?

"Tell him." He says softly. He turns his head. His gaze clashes with mine. So intense. His eyes are always so intense.

"T-tell.. him?" I repeat, feeling as if I'm in a daze. He's got me under a spell. Some weird, screwed up spell.

"He'll be back tomorrow morning... tell him." He repeats quietly.

"I... I..."

He places his finger against my lips to shut me up. His touch makes me ache. Damn... I'm desperate aren't I? Can anyone say: horny? desperate? needy? pervert?

That sorta' has a nice ring.. doesn't it? Horny, desperate, needy, pervert. Heh. My new anthem.

"You tell him, as soon as you see him again." His voice rumbles in my head.

"All right." I agree softly.

His face is so sad. So... .... He moves his hand... ah shit.. he's going to kiss me again. I should move away...

But I don't.

I don't really want to.

See? I told you... I'm a hentai.

His lips press against mine ever so softly. His eyes remained locked with mine as he nibbles at my lower lip. "I'm sorry." He whispers as he moves back.

"Sorry for what?" I stutter, my brain has shut off. It does that when I get anywhere close to anything remotely resembling sex.... sheeit... I'm like some teenager in puberty or something.

I feel him before I see him.

I turn, looking up.

His brown eyes... so warm... he looks at me, his face hard, then he turns and...

"KIROS!?" I scramble to my feet and try to run after him, but I succeed only in tripping over my own feet and landing face first in the grass.

"Kiros?!" Kid Wonder rolls to his knees and looks into the trees.

"He was here! oh my god.. oh my god... I hope he didn't... oh christ." I get back to my feet. I have to go after him. If he saw us kissing...

Ah shit.

"Shit!" Kid Wonder snaps vehemently. He's on his feet before I can think of moving. He's past me and running into the trees.

Damn... damn, damn, damn...

I run after Kid Wonder. I have to find Kiros. I have to...

Explain? Explain why I was kissing Kid and enjoying it. Explain why... why I..

I run into something large and hard. I hit it so hard I'm unbalanced. I feel myself falling, but large hands grab my arms.

Ward?

I look up into his face.

Where did he come from?

"Ward? Where is Kiros? I have to find him." I ask him desperately.

He shakes his head. "What?" I glance over his shoulder.

He nods, communicating with his eyes all that he cannot say with his lips. "But Ward.. I have to-"

He shakes his head again. Gripping my left arm tightly he begins to lead me off the training grounds. "Ward!"

He ignores my struggles to get away and just keeps walking.

Big.. dumb... ox.

His eyes narrow. He looks down at me, his lips drawn in a tight line.

Shit.

"I uh... didn't mean it?"

Yeah. I think out loud when I'm stressed. Bad habit. Really bad. Especially when you're mentally calling one of your best friends a big, dumb ox.

Kiros?

I glance back, one last time. And then the training ground doors swing shut and Ward is dragging me to my room.

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