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"Ouch! ...Fuck!"

"What'd you do?"

Kidd, 16-year-old redhead, was sprawled awkwardly on a slab of concrete while his red and black skateboard rolled away from him. The blood slowly oozing from the fresh wounds on knees and palms sharply contrasted with his pale skin. He was suddenly very tired and simply the thought of trying to move exhausted him.

"You mean you didn't see that?!" Kidd growled rudely at the random stranger that had spoken to him, rubbing a hand over his face..smearing blood on his cheek in the process.

The stranger said nothing and merely grabbed Kidd's skateboard and sitting cross-legged in front of Kidd himself. Kidd stayed silent as well, engaging in a strange staring contest with some blonde guy who looked like he might be the same age as him. However, the contest was slightly difficult- this was because the blonde's eyes were somewhere behind his messy blonde fringe, so Kidd looked where he thought an eye might be.

The blonde put the skateboard down in between him and Kidd, successfully distracting Kidd's gaze away from him.

"You should probably get that cleaned up," the stranger said almost monotonously, and he pointed to the large bleeding gash on Kidd's knee. "Might get infected later." Kidd brushed the suggestion away, making an annoyed face while staggering to his feet. The other guy stood as well, putting his hands into his pockets while observing Kidd some more from behind his blonde blinds.

"What's your name?" the guy asked, cocking his head slightly. Kidd gave him a weird look and faced slightly away from the blonde stranger, who was actually almost as tall as him. Kidd wasn't sure about this guy..

"...Kidd."

"Kidd.. you should clean your wounds."

Kidd scoffed, turning around to spit at the ground near the blonde's feet. "Don't fuckin' tell me what to do, faggot. You think you can just show up and start bossin' me around for no fuckin' reas-?"

The blonde held up his hand and calmly poked Kidd's nose with a finger before Kidd could even see the movement, which caught the redhead off guard. Kidd grumbled and smacked the hand away, sneering.

"I'm telling you to do this because I nearly died from an infection of a small wound like that."

Kidd blinked, nearly unfazed. "Why do you even care? You don't know me."

The blonde sighed and looked off to the side in the park they stood in. The weather was warm, as summer break wasn't over yet, but the area was slowly working it's way into autumn temperatures. Leaves skittered around the sidewalks in the breeze while the sounds of screams and laughter erupted from the playground. There was a child playing there in the line of his gaze, and he smiled.

"Because all lives are important."

"Psh.. You must be one of those Christia-"

"I'm Killer."

Kidd closed his mouth and glared daggers at Killer. Why did this 'Killer' guy keep on interrupting him, and worried about him, and all that? He had never even seen or met this guy before..! Then again, maybe they had met somewhere a long time ago and he just forgot..

Killer smirked at the redhead's expression, shaking his head. "C'mon. Let's go." The blonde bent over and snatched the skateboard into his hands, walking off down the sidewalk. Kidd was flabbergasted, but he followed after Killer anyway. He wasn't just going to let this stupid guy steal his stuff!

"Hey, the fuck do you think you're going with that?" Kidd barked, trying to grab the skateboard out of Killer's hands. Killer held the skateboard away from Kidd, laughing slightly as they were struggling in the middle of the sidewalk. Kidd was getting more and more irate by the second. Every movement he made caused the scrapes to burn and sting.

"Buddy, you don't want to make me mad-?!"

Killer had whacked Kidd very lightly over the head with the desired object and started running away, giggling like an idiot while the other dashed after him through the park and later out into the city neighborhoods. Kidd was getting tired and Killer knew it, but Killer still led him on. Soon the two hooligans came to a house with a relatively large front yard, and Killer ducked in between that house and the neighboring one, hopping the fence into the backyard. Kidd was a little uncertain of going through people's property, but he jumped the fence anyway. Kidd and Killer were soon in the middle of the backyard in a stalemate- Killer held the skateboard, and Kidd was deciding how to get it back.

How would he..

All of a sudden, the back door of the house opened, revealing a tall, slender woman. Killer and Kidd both turned immediately to the woman, wondering what they should do or say.

"Killer, what are you doing?" the woman asked sternly, folding her arms over her chest as she leaned in the doorway. Killer blushed, rubbing the back of his head.

"Just.. making friends?"

The woman smiled, shaking her head. "Do you and your friend want something to drink, then?"

"Sure. I'll have a Coke. Kidd, whadya want?"

"Uhh.." he was so confused at that moment he had no idea what was going on. "Water?"

"Alrighty, a Coke and water. Be right back," the woman said, disappearing back into her house to retrieve the drinks. Kidd stared at Killer.

"What just.."

"Oh, yeah. I forgot. That's my mom, if you couldn't tell. This is my house," Killer explained with that smirk of his. Kidd's mind was clicking and whirring then, connecting the dots. Killer didn't seem like the kind of guy to just go rampaging through strangers' property, but then again, he did just steal a skateboard from a stranger and ran off with it. Kidd was bamboozled.

The woman came back out into the backyard, carrying two glasses over to a glass-top table on Killer's patio. The woman stood back in the doorway while the other two walked over to the table and sat down, although Kidd was naturally a little more hesitant to do so. The woman smiled down at Kidd.

"Kidd, does your mom know you're here?" Killer's mother asked calmly. Kidd shook his head, not even realizing that the woman knew his name. Killer and his mom looked at each other, and then the woman spoke again. "You might want to call her, then. You can use Killer's phone."

Kidd glanced between the woman and the new 'friend'. Killer handed Kidd his cell phone while Killer's mother retreated back into the house once more. Kidd tapped his mother's phone number onto the keys and held the phone to his ear, wondering what the heck he would tell his mom.

'Hey, I'm at this random guy who stole my skateboards house.'

'Hi Mom, I was at the park, but now I'm with this blonde guy named 'Killer'.'

"Hello?" a female voice on the other side of the phone suddenly said, jolting Kidd out of his thoughts.

"Oh, uh, hi Mom, it's Kidd," Kidd said nervously, looking anywhere but at the smirking blonde across from him.

"Kidd? Hi! Whose phone are you calling from? Are you alright?"

Kidd blinked, confused at the tone of concern. "I'm fine, and.. Well, uh.. I'm calling from my.. uh, my friend Killer's phone. I'm at his house.. not really sure where it is though, to be honest."

"Oh, okay! You can stay as long as you're allowed over there. Be polite to Killer and his mom, O.K.? I'll see you whenever you get home!" Kidd's mom said happily, way more cheerful than Kidd had heard his mom sound in a long time. Kidd was about to say something when his mom said 'Bye!' and hung up. Kidd sat looking at the call ended bubble on the phone for a minute before handing the phone back over to a now grinning Killer.

"What's up with you..?" Kidd mumbled, folding his arms whilst looking towards a concrete slab in the backyard which had a basketball hoop on one end of it. Killer noticed where Kidd was looking.

"Wanna shoot hoops?" Killer asked, taking a sip of coke. Kidd glanced at him and then took a drink of water, debating. He forgot to answer, though.. He felt something tugging at the back of his mind, urging him to ask questions..

"Have I met you before?"

The question surprised Killer, but he still grinned before thinking of his reply. "Maybe. Would've been a while ago, though."

That response made Kidd's brain hurt. Did the blonde know something he didn't? Was he lying? Why did Kidd feel like he'd been there before? Why did it seem like Killer's mom had met him before? And why did his own mom sound so accepting right away of a guy called 'Killer'? His head began hurt..

"I.. guess I'll shoot hoops.." Kidd finally responded, having the reoccuring thought of 'whatever' float in circles around his mind.

The two got up and walked over the concrete slab, and Killer stooped and picked up a basketball that had been lying there. He then threw it over his shoulder to Kidd, who first flailed and then managed to catch it. Killer grinned.

Kidd figured this would difficult, considering how nimble Killer had been when fending him off from grabbing the skateboard and hopping over the fence..not to mention the look on Killer's face.

Yes, Kidd had his work cut out for him if he wanted to win.

The two ended up sprawled on the concrete sweating like pigs, trying to regain their breath. This feeling felt familiar to Kidd, but he wasn't sure why..

"Hey Kidd.." Killer said suddenly, grabbing the redhead's attention, "how old are you?"

"Sixteen. You?"

"Eighteen."

"You a senior, then?" Kidd asked, rolling onto his side to face Killer. Killer just laid there, looking up at the puffy clouds in the sky.

"Yeah. And you're a sophomore."

Kidd was a little weirded out as to why a senior was messing with him, coming out of nowhere and befriending someone younger than him. He didn't really want to ask why, though. That was beyond his comfort zone.

"What highschool do you go to, then?" Kidd asked, choosing something to ask that he figured wouldn't be too intrusive. Killer smirked, but Kidd didn't know why until a second later.

"Yours."

"Wait, really?" Kidd was so confused he wanted to rip his hair out. He now figured why Killer looked so familiar, but why didn't realize that they went to the same school? What was wrong with him? Then again, it was a big school.. So was Killer stalking him or something?

"Yeah. And aren't you the kid that got in that plane crash earlier in the summer?" Killer asked, looking over at Kidd whose eyebrows were so scrunched it almost made the blonde laugh. However, he figured it wouldn't be polite..

"Yeah.."

Killer didn't want to pry too much, because he knew exactly what happened, but wondered if Kidd knew..

"Do you remember what happened?"

There was a silence.

"No.. I don't remember anything after some time in elementary school. My parents told me went into a short coma and got some form of amnesia when the plane came down, which, according to what my parents told me, I'm surprised I didn't die," Kidd admitted. There was another silence, and Kidd's thoughts started churning and spinning. He suddenly looked up at Killer with wide eyes and the expression of some form of epiphany. Kidd could see Killer's eyes with the way his face was turned.

Killer..

Long, blonde hair. Blue eyes. Tall. Played on the basketball team. Liked playing tennis, too, and never had a girlfriend. Broke his arm in junior high after falling out of a tree. Had an older brother, who had been a pilot..

"Oh my god.." Kidd said, sitting up suddenly. Killer got excited as he too sat up, and he could feel his heart racing.

"I remember!" Kidd burst out, clutching Killer suddenly against his chest. Killer put a hand hesitantly on Kidd's back while the redhead started bawling. Killer couldn't cry anymore- his eyes had cried years' worth of tears in the past months that he just couldn't.

It had been a relatively nice, sunny but humid afternoon a few days after summer break had begun. Killer's brother had offered to take Killer and Kidd for a flight around the area in his small passenger plane, a Cessna 172S Skyhawk, that he kept in a hangar outside the city. It was a 30 minute drive to get to the hangar out in the valley, and the three were excited.

It would be the first joy-flight that Killer's brother would make since returning from the Air Force, where he flew B-52 'BUFFs', or, Big Fat Ugly Fuckers. He had dropped several AGM-86C CALCM, or, for our purposes, air-launched missiles, in Iraq. Killer's brother seemed extremely normal for just having returned from war, but Kidd and Killer payed that no mind as they all boarded the plane.

However, in the middle of their happy flight, a sudden movement from one of the two made a loud sound and the plane shook slightly. Killer's brother had locked up then, looking frantically around the sky and at the barely-visible land below. He glanced around the plane with a crazed look, as if trying to locate the radars and launch buttons and gears and whatnot that a BUFF would have. With the influence of PTSD he was under the impression that the plane had been hit with a missile and was going down.

"We're hit! We have to land! We're going down!" the man had kept shouting, pushing and pulling random things all over the panel. Killer and Kidd had looked between them, suddenly terrified.

"Hey, hey, we're fine!" Killer had shouted above the whirring sound of the wind, putting a hand on his brother's shoulder gently "you're not in Iraq anymore!

His brother hadn't even heard him, and he suddenly put down the landing gears, preparing to make a landing. They were currenly above a patch of rolling hill-land covered by forest, though. In the man's mind they were in the flat desert, and he pointed the nose way further down than was needed in the small plane. Alarms started blaring, signalling quick and steep descent, but Killer scrambled forward and attempted to pull up on the steering wheel, but was only slightly successful. The plane pulled into a slightly more horizontal path above the trees. He pulled away back into his seat and covered his head, telling Kidd to do so. Kidd never heard him, though.

Within seconds the plane was scraping the tops of the trees' branches, creating a deafening sound. The propeller had tried to hack through the twigs and small branches but broke almost immediately. Another milisecond later, the planes wings were momentarily caught against bigger branches with a jolt, sending a frozen-in-shock Kidd's head against the back of the pilot's head-rest, this causing the first amount of trauma. The pilot had done a similar thing, head being tossed against the wheel. Then, the nose found branches that crashed through the windshield and more trunks that finally tore the wings off in a unimaginably loud and horrific rucus.

The plane came to another rough and final suspended halt, sending Kidd into the seat again while Killer had put his arms against the back of the seat in front of him to try and prevent that kind of head damage. Killer's brother had been launched through the windshield, after cracked glass had flown into his head and face already, and his poor landing 12 feet below on his neck killed him instantly. Kidd was unconcious, and Killer was the only one left in a semi-aware state.

Luckily, the patch of forest was surrounded by farmland, and one of the farmers had been out and had seen the plane struggle and go down, although there were no outward signs of engine failure. He had gotten to the scene and called the emergency responders and other surrounding farmers. By the time the paramedics had gotten there, Killer had managed to get himself together and out of the suspended plane only with a broken arm (the same arm he had broken in junior high), and thus finding his brother coated with glass and blood, and with a broken neck, dead.

They were just lucky the plane didn't explode and/or catch fire.

Bringing the boys home, one in a bodybag, was difficult for all involved.

Neither of the boys would be allowed to be in the armed forces their parents decided that day.

Then, for several weeks Kidd was in a coma, and Killer visited him in the hospital. He was deciding what he would do, in case Kidd woke up with severe memory loss. He didn't want to overwhelm Kidd by being right there and having to bring on so many memories and aggravate him, so he decided re-friending him from scratch would have to do. He knew it wouldn't be easy for himself, but it would be the best for Kidd. Killer then informed the families of his plan, and it was approved.

So, Killer pretended Kidd didn't exist until he happened to run into him that day at the park, two months later- he had just gotten his cast off his arm. Kidd wasn't supposed to be skateboarding, but him being him he did it anyway, and as he was attempting a rail-trick, he failed the landing and boom, the story began.

Back to the two reunited friends, now.

The mushy-moment was weird to Killer, but Kidd didn't seem to even notice. Eventually, Killer hauled Kidd into his house against his will to finally wash off those scrapes. Kidd was sitting on the toilet in the bathroom while Killer sat across from him on the edge of the tub. The entire time Killer dabbed the wounds with alcohol Kidd would hiss and try not to keep sobbing. He didn't want Killer's mom to hear him keep crying like a baby..

"That hurts, damnit.." Kidd grumbled with a sniffle while Killer just smirked at him.

"Yeah, yeah."

Kidd had been wondering about Killer's brother, though he wasn't sure if he wanted to ask about him.. but he did it anyway. "So, what happened to Nick..?"

Killer sighed. "Glass impaled his chest and face before he flew through the non-existent windshield. He then fell 12 feet to land on the ground awkwardly, which instantly broke his neck and killed him."

Kidd looked down at his feet. "Oh.."

The blonde punched him in the shoulder suddenly, making Kidd look up at him quickly. Killer was ever grinning.

"It's okay. I'm over it, really. The whole time he was in Iraq my family and I were preparing to hear that he had been blown up in a car bombing or was shot down by rebel mortars, if they even had any.. I was excited when he came home alive, but that feeling of disattachment was still there, so losing him didn't affect me as much as it would've someone else," Killer explained, going back to bandaging Kidd's knees. "And, if you're blaming yourself, don't. None of us knew he even had PTSD, so it would've surprised him, too."

The younger looked back down at his shoes again, thinking.. "Were you injured?"

"Nope. Well, got a broken arm from trying to let myself down from the plane, which was stuck in the tree branches, hahaha. Just got my cast off a week or so ago. Oh, and our parents decided that we wouldn't be allowed to join the army or anything after high school, by the way."

Kidd kind of laughed. He could kind of imagine him and Killer side by side on the battlefield.. but yeah, he didn't want to be blown up, or see Killer get blown up either.

"At least it's not World War I where we get drafted at random," Kidd noted. Killer nodded.

"Yeah. I couldn't imagine that.. ugh.. trenches."

Their minds wandered back one hundred years, seeing from the eyes of American, French, British, and German soldiers, shooting a machine gun's bullets at anyone who dared peek their head above the trench or at anyone who had a death wish and stepped into No Man's Land. Not to mention the planes above dropping bombs, and wearing a gas mask for days on end without eating their molding biscuits. They both shivered.

"I'm so glad we're here, alive.. friends," Killer finally said, breaking the death-consumed thoughts. Kidd nodded.

"Me too... It's good to be back."