Yes I know these have taken ages – very sorry about that guys – but you like them right???? I've had the hits, just not the reviews :( REVIEWS ARE GOLD PEOPLE! PLEASE GIVE ME THEM! Oh and this isn't going to be a very long fic, or it's not planned to be at any rate...but then if you've read my other fics you know what I'm like at actually sticking to my plans...and my update schedule so I have NO idea how this is gonna turn out. Just a warning for anybody that cares!

He winced when he woke up that morning, his chest pulling painfully as barely healed wounds tried to stay together. Sitting up and grabbing his shirt of the drawers beside his bed James manoeuvred himself into his chair and groaned as someone started incessantly knocking on his door. After 5 minutes of hammering whoever it was, James snorted – it'd only be Kyle, gave up and started shouting.

"James! Open the damn door before I kick it in!"

James swore as he realised Kyle would probably do just that and hurriedly tried to wrench his shirt over his head before the other teen entered. A crash startled him and he froze like a rabbit in headlights with his shirt half over his head and the vast expanse of still healing cuts and scars over his chest clearly visible. Both boys' expressions mirrored each other as they stared at each other, James snapped out of it first and finished pulling his tee over his head and down over his chest to cover the cause of the situation he was currently in. Hoping to take advantage of the stunned Kyle James started moving towards the door attempting to slip beneath the teen's outstretched arms before he came to his senses. Unfortunately luck wasn't on James' side that day and Kyle grabbed hold of him before he could get very far.

"Explain. Now."

There was a hint of danger in Kyle's voice that James had never heard before and he was almost worried enough about what would happen if he didn't explain to contemplate not doing so. Unfortunately his natural instinct to hide his secret from the world won him over and he merely spat a firm "No" in Kyle's face before turning away, somehow finding the strength to wrench himself out of Kyle's grip and get himself to the elevator while the older was still reeling from the force of James' words. Angrily stabbing a random button James gave Kyle the finger just as the doors closed and Kyle threw himself towards them, trying extremely hard to get in. He gave in once he saw the direction the lift was headed and started sprinting towards the fire escape – he could get told off for it later, right now he didn't care.

Pushing through the door he was dimly aware that the siren had started blaring behind him and CHERUBs that were relaxing in their rooms streaming out of the door behind him, pushing and jolting him as they all tried to make their way to the ground. There'd been a fire practice only yesterday so as far as they were aware this was the real deal and they weren't taking any chances. Tripping over someone's loose shoe lace Kyle fell smashing his head against the metal stairs with an ear splitting crack, blood started pouring out of the gash and he blacked out with only one thing on his mind. James.

5 minutes later Kyle was liberated from the metal stairs by two teens who decided not to trample over him in their rush to get down as many others had done.

.............

Kyle slowly rose to awareness, the bright lights hurting his eyes as he opened them so he quickly clamped them shut and groaned gaining himself attention from the two people next to him.

"Welcome back to the world of the living Kyle," Meryl's voice was laced with amusement, "I'm impressed. Only you could half kill yourself going down a fire escape." She rolled her eyes and patted his arm affectionately, "Although it got James out of his room again, he came by yesterday to see if you'd woken up, didn't stay long though."

"He wouldn't. I'm amazed he even came." The mention of James brought a nagging feeling into Kyle's head, as if there was something he needed to say, or do, something important. He growled as it escaped him, the confusion surrounding his brain making it impossible to remember precisely what had happened earlier on, whenever it was that he, presumably, fell. "What happened anyway? Last thing I remember was breakfast however long ago that was – how long have I been out?"

Meryl sighed and launched into an explanation. "That was 3 days ago, someone tripped the fire alarm and the idiots that you lot are stampeded down the fire escape as if a pack of rabid dogs were chasing you, I'm never gonna understand teenagers. From what we can gather you tripped over someone's foot and hit your head on the stairs, took 5 minutes for people to stop treading on you though, Bruce and Kerry picked you up. You've got 4 stitches in your head and there's a few people who we've only just managed to kick out of here. You should be alright in a few days, although your memory's gonna be a bit fuzzy about what happened for a bit. I better go tell them all you're awake, they'd kill me if I didn't – and they're not gonna be best pleased I didn't tell them the second you looked to be waking up."

She rose from her chair and threw the dazed teen a smile as she left. Kyle raised a heavy hand in a half wave but quickly dropped it back on the bed as the effort it was taking to lift it up sapped what little energy he had. Besides once Meryl told his friends he was awake he wasn't gonna be getting any peace for a while, whether he wanted to go back to sleep or not. Maybe he'd find out what it was about James that was bugging him. That is if anyone else knew, James wasn't exactly one for company nowadays, or one to tell people how he was feeling.

...........

As John drove him back to campus James couldn't help the grin that had made its way onto his face. His stitches were finally out and he could walk again, kind of. He was still on crutches and he'd have to build up all the muscle he'd lost through atrophy in the past few months. He'd tried to keep moving it but the pain stopped it being worth it, as did the constant almost splitting of his stitches. John noticed the boy's slightly lifted spirits but didn't comment, it'd just put James on the defensive and make him retreat back into himself again, Kyle's injury had been a good thing in that respect.

James knew he couldn't risk cutting for a few days, even if Kyle didn't remember, if the wounds healed and scarred then they could be explained away by Ukraine, if they were still fresh...he didn't even want to think about it. He barely got out of counselling this time round, if all this came out he wouldn't be on a mission again for years. They'd deem him emotionally unstable to manage undercover work and have him on routine surveillance and recruitment missions until he got too old. Secrets were called secrets for a good reason. When people found out about them things tended to blow up way out of proportion. Yep, secrets were better kept secret.

The gates to campus were in sight by the time James had had this internal monologue and he sighed softly as memories started to assault him, bleeding through the blocks he put around them during the day. Those gates just signified too much, the canteen was worse but he could avoid that a lot easier than the gates. The gates were supposed to stop people coming in that weren't allowed, but they let Bethany and Nicole in. They let in the people that killed his sister! They let in the people that nearly destroyed CHERUB; that nearly destroyed him. He wasn't a big fan of the so called security on the gates after that one.

.........

Right well 1000 words was the actual chapter...the rest is just padding...yeah...and my GCSEs are coming up again along with my AS maths exam that I'm going to get a U for cos I've not even covered most of the stuff...should be fun. I'm also seriously stressed right now, there was a whole Prefect thing going on at my school and basically I've made the Assistant Head hate me – and she's the one that dictates whether or not I can go out of school, so yeah, not good. And I brought something up with my HOY that I probably shouldn't...but then many members of staff at my school keep asking whether I'm alright, I'd say the answer's fairly obvious from how I'm acting but maybe not. Hmmm, I dunno – it's annoying anyway, and it's teachers I see daily a lot of the time so it's not great – these stories are keeping me sane at the minute, even if I don't work on them much.

Ldf x