"You speak with a lot of double negitives," Keintem's voice was slightly shakey, standing in the center of Kyotoshi's beaten apartment. Kyotoshi himself was digging through a pile of laundry looking for another blanket so the kid wouldn't freeze in the night. Keintem couldn't help but notice the amounts of empty liquor bottles scattered across the room. What kind of person have I gotten mixed up with? He thought shakily. His parents would kill him if they knew.

Kyotoshi grunted and tossed the younger Hekshanian a scratchy blue blanket. "And you talk too much like a Human. Gotta learn round here to sound like yer from round here, aright? Or else you're as good as gone."

Keintem looked a little scared and kneeded the blanket with his claws, a sick feeling rising inside him. His paws began to shake and his voice grew even more unsteady. "You're going to let me be killed?"

Kyotoshi decended to a few short swears and held his head in his paws, walking from room to room rapidly. "No," he finally muttered at last. "No, I ain't gonna let you get killed..."

"Kyo, are you sick?"

The elder Hekshanian's head snapped up at this and he glared at Keintem. For a minute he looked ready to deny everything, but simply turned away instead, quelling his anger. "Craika, kid...In more ways than I wanna count..."

Keintem felt his eyes darken at that. He watched as Kyotoshi took a few quick strides into the one bedroom and sat down on the lone matress that lay on the floor, kicking at the bottles which stood there until one clanked over with a full sound. The yellow furred cat picked it up and snapped the cap off, drinking it back quickly. Keintem felt scared. From what he'd been taught, Kyotoshi would become dangerous and try to force him into drinking as well. He took a few steps back into the main room and sat down on the couch, trying to shrink into one small corner of it.

A sigh from the other room caused Keintem to perk up his ears. He didn't know what to do when danger came..maybe he expected to hide under the blanket and not be seen. He felt stupid. But it wasn't a shout or a threat that wafted into the room- just a soft, quiet, very sad voice. "Ya don't need to be so scared, kid, I ain't a murderer..."

The voice was so torn apart and tortured that Keintem felt almost ready to cry. What had happened to Kyotoshi? Why did he speak those words with such guilt? Keintem looked around himself again and saw the darkness his savoir actually lived in. There was nothing here to remind him of anything, except his addiction which was fairly aparent. Keintem moved his head to one side, watching Kyotoshi through the doorway to the other room. "Kyo?"

The voice that replied came at the end of a long sigh. Kyotoshi sat on his bed, his knees curled up and elbow resting on them, two fingers touched gently to the top of his head. His eyes were shut, dark, and Keintem thought he could see the faint glimmer of tears on fur. The bottle was held gently by the neck in the elder feline's free hand and just barely grazed the floor. "What, kid?"

Keintem made a leap of logic, hoping not to hurt this person further. "What are you trying to forget?"

Kyotoshi moved slightly, curling a little into himself. He began to speak but cut his own words short, incapable of completeing what he had begun to say. Keintem lowered his ears as the other cat's voice became emotionless, soft and dark. "Anything that happened," Kyotoshi sighed and took another drink from the bottle. "'N I suggest you do the same, Keinie."

Keintem curled up a little and looked down, wishing he was someone else or someplace else. Tears drizzled into his eyes and out the corners, streaking down his silver fur. "I wish I was home," he moaned.

Kyotoshi stood and walked into the room where Keintem was, his steps silent and his eyes downcast. Looking slightly at Keintem, he shook his head. "Ain't no home anymore. Best just to forget it." He drank again.

"I have a home," Keintem protested. "I was only here to visit, I was supposed to be home by-"

Kyotoshi continued to shake his head. "Not anymore, you don't."

"But I had a family!"

A nerve was struck in Kyotoshi, and he almost shouted. Pulling back the urge, he kept his voice quiet, even though he was feeling the pain well darkly within him. "So did I," he muttered. "We all did. But that ain't our world anymore. This ain't our world."

Keintem curled up even further and shivered, pulling the blanket tightly around him as if warmth would keep at bay the nightmares and tears that would soon be coming. "I don't want to be here," he choked out pitifully.

Kyotoshi dropped his eyes and walked darkly and silently back into his room.Keintem didn't even bother to watch him this time, just shivered and tried to withdraw into himself. His reality was too painful. The elder Hekshanian leaned into a corner and stared ahead, knowing sleep wasn't coming tonight. He glanced at the kid and wondered if he knew what he was doing trying to take Keintem under his wing. Speaking softly, he thought of her and of his parents. "Neither do I, kid..." He sighed. "Neither do I.."

"You're nuts!"
"You're too damn self rightous."

"We'll get caught, we'll get arrested!"

"Only if you keep yellin."

It was daylight again, out on the open street. Kyotoshi and Keintem had paused before a department store when Kyotoshi had suddenly disappered around the side of the building. Keintem, still knowing he was vulnerable to the dangers of this new world, followed his only source of protection. What Kyotoshi had found was an open loading hatch in the ground, which lead straight into the basement storage area of the store. Cloths and accessories to everyday life were all perfectly accessable if one took that tiny little jump. Kyotoshi was willing to go for it. Keintem, having been raised away from the need for crime, was argueing otherwise.

The younger Hekshanian raised his paws, feeling the butterflies return to his stomach. The older Hekshanian kept breaking laws and rules, and Keintem was terrified every time. This was the last straw. "I wash my hands of it. I'm not getting involved."

Kyotoshi scowled and glared. "You'll get involved or we'll both starve. It's the way things work round here."

"It's not the way things work for me!"

Kyotoshi's tone was never anything but quiet and calm. He was a patient teacher, he'd taught her almost everything for years before she left. He could handle one kid. "This world ain't what it used to be, Keinie. You either break the rules to live, or the rules break you. Got it?"

Keintem still looked pale, but didn't protest. Kyotoshi leapt down into the hatch quickly and motioned for the other to follow him. He just hoped Keintem wasn't the type to freeze.

"C'mon, c'mon. The longer you stand there the bigger the chance we got someone comes along and spots us. Get down here."

Ashen pale under his fur, Keintem slipped over the lip of the hatch and into the basement, his whole being shaking nervously. Kyotoshi rolled his eyes and smiled in good humor, trying to lighten the kid's spirits.

"Cool it, kid. It ain't as hard as you'd like to think." Striding through the basement of the warehouse, Kyotoshi selected several pairs of pants and shirts which he draped over his arm. He moved extremely quickly, grabbing what he could and leaving the rest where it fell. Keintem just watched open mouthed.

"What are you taking all those cloths for?" He couldn't possiably fathom the reasons someone who appeared to have enough clothing would need to steal.

"Fer you, of course. What, you think you can run around in those cloths all the time? Craika, just brand 'tourist' on yer forehead and get it over with, then. You gotta have cloths."

Keintem couldn't find any way to argue. Even when Kyotoshi tossed a bundle of cloths at him and instructed him to dress into them, he couldn't say a word of protest. He was so dumbfounded by the expertise of the elder Hekshanian, he obeyed dumbly. Kyotoshi nodded in approval.

"Yeah, that's about right. Now we need a bag...hmm..." Moving swiftly throught he basement, Kyotoshi tore through a rack of leather goods searching for a big enough bag. The other goods hit the floor with a muffled thump, echoing in the dank room. Keintem thought for a moment armed guards would burst in on them, but nothing happened. With shakey steps, he walked towards Kyotoshi, looking at the leather jackets.

He ran his claws against a dark grey one, one that looked like it was made for a pilot. He recalled vaugely that after he was supposed to go home, he was going to enroll in a piloting academy. Even though Kyotoshi told him to forget the past, he didn't want to let it go. Taking the jacket down and turning it over in his claws, the old urge soared within him. Kyotoshi noticed.

"Like that, huh? Pretty okay quality, looks like it anyway. Stuff yer old cloths in here." He held out a copious bag and Keintem dumbly obeyed again, still grasping the jacket in one hand. Kyotoshi almost smiled slightly to himself. "If you want it, take it."

"I...I can't simply take it!"

Kyotoshi laughed aloud and shook his head. "Just put it on. Trust me, you could do worse, ya know. This is actually a lucky break. Take what ya can."

Keintem blushed under his fur as he slipped into the jacket, only to try it on. He still didn't want to take it. He felt along the sleeves, his paws tracing the shape of his own arms under the fabric. "I wanted to be a pilot before I came here, you know. Before I was stuck."

Kyotoshi's expression changed a little, but he hid it quickly. "Really." It looked as if he was trying to forget something, but Keintem didn't notice.

"Yes, I was signed up for a school and everything...I can hardly believe that it's all changed so much..."

"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!"

Keintem and Kyotoshi spun around to the angry voice, the angry Human shopkeeper who was running down the basement steps to hunt out the source of laughter he'd heard. All he saw now were the two Hekshanian youths with his merchandise in their hands. He looked as if he was going to start shouting, but Kyotoshi reacted faster.

"Run for it!" With a whoop of laughter, the older Hekshanian leapt out of the hatch and waited just until Keintem scrambled up beside him to run. Below, they could hear the store owner yelling for security. Kyotoshi smirked and started running again. "Let's beat it!"

Keintem was totally pale. "You've got to be kidding! We're going to get arrested!"

Kyotoshi smirked and blew air between his lips. "Yeah, right kid. You forget who's been doing this longer. C'mon just follow me and it'll all be cool."

They ran for a few feet, but shortly after, Kyotoshi stopped running and just sauntered cooly down the side of the street. Keintem shuffled beside him, both horrified and exhilerated by the experience. Here he was, walking down the street in broad daylight dressed in stolen clothing. He had never seen himself doing this before, but for some reason it gave him a sense of control. He glanced at the older Hekshanian beside him with a new sort of awe. Kyotoshi was wise in the way of survival in a war-torn world..and Keintem could only hope to be equal to that.