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Title: A Lesson in Understanding

Rating: according to the standards set by FanFiction.net, this fiction is given a K+ rating at the moment, which means it contains things like graphic language and violence. May change as later chapters emerge, not sure how I'm going to do that yet.

Summary: Kei and Sho's relationship is becoming stronger as their years together pass. But, when a dark and sinister new power begins to rise in Mallepa, the duo finds themselves forging alliances with the unlikeliest of people. Danger is brewing on all sides, and in the midst of it all, Kei's shrouded past threatens to rise up and consume them. The tides turn when the world that Kei and Sho have fought and worked to build begins to unravel. Will they be able to save each other before everything is lost?

Notes: The first three chapters stick pretty close to the plot line of the movie, but beginning in Chapter 4, the plot bunnies turned rabid. I've removed one of the key characters of the movie and replaced them with a handful of original characters, including a blade weilding young woman with connections to the past and a bad guy that (hopefully) will make Chan look like a girlscout. For this fiction, I claim artistic lisence and do my darnedest to keep the gang as 'in-character' as I possible can. From the reviews I've gotten on FanFiction.net, I've done alright so far.

I'm going to keep this particular fiction to ten chapters, if possible, and if the story will continue, I'll do it under another title. One of my best friends here on campus is helping me out, along with my Gakuhai Muse and her giant rubber mallet, so she'll keep me moving as long as possible. What makes this all the more fun is that I'm actually writing it all out by hand before typing it up. I'm very much enjoying writing this. And I hope that you here will enjoy reading it.

Disclaimer: I do not own Gackt/Sho, HYDE/Kei, Leehom/Son, Taro/Toshi, Shinji (can't remember the actor x__x ), or any other part of the Moon Child franchise. The only characters that I can claim have yet to be put to paper/harddrive yet. Pure entertainment, that's all I mean by the writing of this.

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I think I'll post just Chapter 1 right now. See what folks think before I do more. Maybe I'll put up Chapter 2, seeing as all my chapters are short anyway. smile

I have Chapters 1 - 6 posted in random places, Chapter 7 is being Beta-read, Chapter 8 is being typed in preperation for my Beta, and Chapter 9 is being written out by hand a little at a time. If y'all like it, I'll post more. If not, then I won't. Depends on what folks here like. ^____^

"Kei... no... you can't... don't... so weak... why?"

It wasn't the words so much as the emotion in them that led Kei to slip silently into the dark room. His eyes shifted automatically, making it easy for him to navigate the room with little effort. Sho was lying on his stomach, still partially clothed, his bare back shifting as he breathed erratically. He clutched at his pillow. Kei could smell stale tear salt in the air. Sho had been crying until recently.

Kei settled himself onto the floor next to Sho's bed, staring into the face of the sleeping man in the darkness. Sho's face was contorted in what looked like sadness and agony. Kei could only imagine what Sho was dreaming about. No. He knew what Sho was dreaming about.

Since Sho had been a child, he'd only had one recurring nightmare. Kei had to coax it out of him bits at a time for two years before he was able to fully piece it together. Sho's one fear in the entire world was losing Kei. Though the boy would never have admitted it out loud, Kei knew it. Because there had been more than one occasion over the past years when Kei had been drawn to Sho's side in the night, had sat in the darkness of his bedroom, had listened to his nightmare voice twisting and twining through the shadows.

Tentatively, Kei reached up and shifted a loose braid from Sho's cheek. The man on the bed stirred lightly, blinking his shocking blue eyes open minutely.

"K...Kei?" he muttered, his voice sleep heavy.

"No," Kei whispered, calling forth the old answer he used when the boy-Sho had found him like this. "I'm a figment of your dream. Go back to sleep, Sho."

"Not... not twelve anymore... Kei," Sho shot at him, twisting his lithe body so he lay on his side, blinking slowly at Kei in the darkness.

"I know you're not, Sho."

Sho stifled a yawn with his hand.

"Go back to sleep, Sho."

Kei stood and turned to leave, but Sho's hand shot out in the darkness and latched onto his wrist with surprising strength.

"Kei? Please..."

Kei smiled into the darkness. Such a childish request, even left unspoken. He took hold of the hand that held him, brought the back of it to his lips, and kissed it chastely. He saw Sho smile. Moving softly, he moved to the other side of the bed and settled down. Sho automatically moved closer to him, molding his lean, muscular body into Kei's slender, wiry frame.

Sho closed his eyes. Kei listened to his breathing as it evened out, starting to drift off himself, when Sho's voice broke the silence.

"Do you love me?"

Kei stiffened, hoping beyond hope that Sho was talking in his sleep again.

"Kei?"

No. He was definitely awake.

"What do you mean by that?" he managed, swallowing.

Sho shifted, rolling onto his back and staring up at the ceiling. Kei could see his eyes glittering in the darkness.

"I mean what it sounds like."

"Okay, you mean what it sounds like. Why ask?"

Sho fell silent, thinking.

"Because, you've only told me once in my whole life with you that you love me."

Kei blinked.

"What?"

"When I was fifteen," Sho said, his voice taking on an agitated tone as he fiddled with the sheet that lay across his stomach. "I'd just come from seeing Shinji. Nii-chan was being horrible to me about you again, and I was crying."

Kei suddenly remembered. Sho had come into the apartment, brand new at the time, grinding his teeth in an effort to keep the tears at bay. Kei had been sitting on his bed, reading a book, when the door had slammed. Looking through the metal bars, he'd seen Sho throw himself onto the couch, pushing his face into a pillow. Concerned, Kei had silently approached the boy and knelt beside him, placing a hand on his shoulder. Sho was shaking, and Kei knew that he was crying silently.

"Sho?"

"Go away," was the muffled reply that he'd received.

"No. Sho, what's wrong?"

Sho had turned bleary red eyes on Kei, making the vampire shiver with empathy. The pure blue of his eyes stood out in contrast to the redness.

"Nii-chan..." he managed before he sobbed again, putting his eyes back into the pillow.

Kei needed no more explanation. He bit back a growl, muttering "Baka," darkly under his breath as he rubbed Sho's back.

"Don't worry about him," Kei said softly, leaning closer to the boy's ear.

"Why?" Sho looked at him again. "He called you a monster again! Said you'd turn me into a monster too if I stayed with you! Told me that I couldn't be his brother if I stayed with you! Why doesn't Nii-chan love me?"

Kei's heart flared with anger at Shinji and broke with agony at the form of Sho, so desolate and lost, lying before him. He petted the back of Sho's head, staring into those clear, and sometimes creepy, blue eyes.

"Sho... Shinji may not seem to love you, but he does. He's afraid. Maybe he's afraid of me, or maybe it's just that he's afraid of what I am. But he does love you. He wouldn't say those fearing things if he didn't."

Sho sniffled, the battle between trust of Kei and disbelief of his words showing in his eyes. Taking a great chance, Kei leaned forward and brushed his lips against Sho's forehead.

"And, if it counts for anything at all in this entire world... I love you."

Kei sat in the darkness, reliving the memory. Sho was still waiting.

"Yes, Sho," he began slowly, picking his words carefully. "I do love you. You're the only family I have."

Sho smiled and Kei knew this answer would suffice for the moment. The young man turned back to his side, sliding an arm beneath his pillow and settling back down under his sheet. Kei settled back down himself, knowing that he had narrowly dodged that bullet. Again.

Kei's mind wandered in the darkness again, his senses painfully aware of how close Sho was to him. He willed himself to be calm, to remember what Sho was, that he was mortal, therefore Kei could not touch him. Not unless he intended to do the one thing he swore on the souls of everyone he'd seen live and die in his cursed life that he'd NEVER do to Sho. He would never make Sho bear the burden he himself bore in relative silence.

He knew what Sho was to him. He knew that, had it not been for the large-eyed, quiet boy that day in the abandoned warehouse, Kei would certainly have let himself die. Sho had come into his life, had ripped and torn his way into Kei's heart, had broken through all the barriers that Kei had erected around himself through his years of solitude after Luka's death, and he'd stayed. Kei had found a reason to live, a reason to go on. In the small, independent, and already arrogantly bullheaded boy, Kei had found a life he could live. Even if only for a while.

Sho lay in the bed, listening to Kei's breathing. It soothed him still as it had when he was a child. He remembered nights when his nightmares came and he's awaken to find Kei sitting by his bed. Somehow, the vampire had always known when he was needed in the dark. Kei would comfort him the same way each time, telling him he was a figment of dream, then leave once Sho was sufficiently calmed and going back to sleep. The first few times, Sho had let him go. But, one night, more asleep than awake, he'd asked Kei to stay. At first, the vampire, then a giant in his child eyes, had been reluctant, but Sho had pleaded softly, and Kei had stayed.

And now, Sho needed him again, and Kei was there. He was always there. Sho knew that he took it for granted, but he couldn't help himself. Kei was more than a friend. He was a father, a mentor, and a brother, all rolled into one. Sho couldn't remember the time before Kei, and he didn't dare imagine a day without him.

The two men, so different yet so alike, drifted into peaceful sleep there in the darkness. Neither one dreamed, neither one moved. They were content in their lives. Unknown between them, they shared one common thought. Each man needed the other.

More than anything in the world.

(End Ch. 1)