I should mention this to all you HuskyMudkipz lovers, he is in this story, but may not make a full appearance until Book 2. Now originally Quentin was going to be introduced in Part 2, but I changed the plot of this book so now that is impossible. Quentin will be introduced in the next book, and he may make a small appearance at the very end, maybe.

Anyways, things are gonna start spicing up soon, Seto will gain some useful and confusing information, Part 3 is coming up, and sh*t will go down.

Next chapter will stray a bit from the plot, like a short story break from everything, I think you guys will like it. :)

~~~~~

Falling to Rise

Chapter 21

"Take small steps each day. You might not get there today, but you'll be closer than yesterday."

"Tyler."

"Seto."

For a moment it was silent, even Ian had stopped attacking Tyler. Silence as it felt like it was just Seto and Tyler; watching the two shocked pair was like watching two statues.

"Tyler..." Seto said his name again, he was at a loss for words, it's been an entire year since he'd seen Tyler. He never thought they would meet again, especially not here. How should he react, happy? Shocked? Angry...? He wasn't sure.

"Set," Tyler moved out from under Ian with ease, Ian made no attempt to restrain him, even though he did commit the greatest crime in Ian's eyes, "It's really you!" Tyler made his way to stand in front of Seto, ignoring the other people who watched in silence, "It's been forever! Ha, I can't believe you're here, of all places, Seto you remember me right!"

"Of course I do Tat--" Seto stopped mid-word, the slightest sign of his smile vanished as he turned away, "Tyler." He corrected himself, he shouldn't be happy.

The smile from Tyler's face vanished and he dropped his hands to his side and stared at the ground, "Right, you probably hate me..."

Seto stayed silent.

"I'm sorry, I had to leave, I couldn't stay there--"

"Why are you apologizing!" Seto cried out, glaring at Tyler's shocked expression as tears threatened to pour out, "You made your choice to leave! Even though Keuta was your home, even though I was your friend, even though you had family!"

"Set..." He reached out a hand. Jerome had silently made his way to them and stopped Tyler's hand by force. Remembering that there were burglars. Tyler brought out a hidden knife and attacked Jerome, who clung firmly to Tyler's wrist but dodged at the same time.

"Stand back, these guys are dangerous--"

"Leave them alone!" Seto weakly grabbed at Tyler's arm, the one that held the knife, even though Seto's physical strength was ten times weaker than Tyler's the action caught Tyler off guard and he faltered a little, "These guys are my friends! Why do you always jump to conclusions."

"Friends?" In that moment Tyler realized he was staring into the flustered face of someone he no longer recognized. In just one year, he saw that a person could change so much.

The shy, meek bookworm with a heart as weak and small as a grain of sand had become a person whose heart had now grown to encompass more sand. A larger pile when used right could disperse to the masses or stay together and strengthen itself.

The sky bookwork Tyler had always known had grown a little out of his shell, something he could never manage Seto to do.

He smiled as Seto continued to yank at his arm.

Who were these people that had changed the Seto he knew so well into some that was almost unrecognizable. Who had helped his dear friend in a way the he could never manage to do.

Tyler dropped the knife and placed a and on Seto's head and messed with his hair, "Glad to see you're doing well, not to mention making more friends than just me. And I'm really sorry, really sorry that I left without saying goodbye. I just knew I'd never be able to leave if I had to see you cry. Can you ever forgive me?"

Seto stopped fighting, looking up at the person who had left without a goodbye, without a word, and without consideration for his feelings. He looked at him, and with little reason, answered, "Of course, T-Tato."

Tyler grinned and brought Seto in for a tight hug, "That's my Set!"

The atmosphere changed from shock to very light in a matter of moments. Well, except Ian, "I'm heading to bed, I have a headache because I'm surrounded by idiots." The notice went pretty much unnoticed as Tyler immediately blended in well. His personality had always been easy-going and loud, something Seto admired.

"Now that that is settled and you're not trying to kill me, you can call me Mitch, nice to meet you." Mitch walked over and held out his hand all the while smiling kindly, like the day Seto had met him. Jerome let go of Tyler's wrist who rubbed it from the tight grip.

He stared at Mitch's hand for a moment and then at Mitch and then at the hand. "Well, aren't you going to shake my hand? It's a common courtesy..." Mitch continued to smile even through and agitated state that was now developing because of the akward silence.

Tyler took on last glance at the hand before frowning and glaring at Mitch, he muttered quietly to himself, "Shady."

Mitch's smile faltered before he raised his fist to the air and started yelling, "Dammit! Why the nether do all these Keutians hate me!" He glared at Tyler who just glared while protectively shielding Seto, "Who could hate me! The coolest guy they'll ever meet!"

"Probably because of self-centered comments like that..." Jerome snuffed and crossed his arms.

Mitch stopped having a tantrum only to glare at Jerome, "Shut it morvic!"

"Make me, princess." Jerome stuck his tongue out.

"That's it! You overbearing flea-bag! Come here so I can strangle you!" Mitch chased Jerome around the house letting everyone laugh at the comedic scene. Even Tyler was laughing.

"Haha! Seto, you sure have made some really nice friends."

Seto smiled, "Yea, they're nice. I'm glad I came down stairs."

Tyler glanced at Seto's expression, a mixture of sadness and joy. One thing that hadn't changed, was Seto was a easy to read as a book... well, technically he couldn't read, but it was just a saying. Simply put, nothing would change how easy Tyler could tell what Seto was feeling.

"Hey that reminds me!"

"Hm?" Seto said all the while watching his friends enjoy themselves and Jason's siblings have fun chasing after Mitch and Jerome, while name calling Mitch after what Jerome had called him.

"There's so much I have to ask, like how've you been this past year? And shouldn't you be in Emedo, along with why are you here, of all places?"

Seto's expression blanked, what could he say. He's a useless liar in all honesty, but he didn't want to hide the truth from Tyler... Would Tyler think differently of him is he found out what he really was?

"I've been good..." How was he going to explain that his parents were...dead? That he was a sorcerer, that he was on the run from the law, his goal to save a friend, a friend who may not even be human anymore? What could he say?

"The truth is..." Seto couldn't do it, it was too much! He couldn't handle it. He didn't want to!

"Seto?"

"Tyler was it? I can explain if you would like, Seto may not feel comfortable with everything that has happened." Adam came up to them. Adam was really good at getting serious when it was needed the most.

"Huh, O-Ok..." Tyler looked a little bit taken aback by this guy, who was originally appealed to him as stupid, but was actually very different to what he thought before, "W-Who are you?"

"Oh, right, I forgot to introduce myself, I'm Adam, a friend of Seto, he saved my life and I'm forever in his debt." Adam cleared his throat for a minute, "Now, how should I put this... At the moment we're in some very sticky water and are looking a certain rebel camp that Seto's cousin pointed us too. You see... The Magi side of the Vesuvius family has been executed...all but Seto, who needs a place to lay low."

"Executed..." Tyler echoed in shock, he looked back at Seto who looked down at the ground avoiding eye contact, "Executed..."

"I'm sorry, I didn't know how to tell you..." Seto's family was as much as a family to him as it was to Tyler, who lost his mother when he was younger.

Seto felt like he wanted to cry again, but Tyler hugged him, "Don't be sorry, you shouldn't feel sorry about this--"

"I couldn't save them..."

"That's not your fault, I may not know the whole situation, but I'm certain that it's not your fault." Tyler was always thinking about Seto, always selfless.

"Adam, I heard you mention something about a rebel camp right? Well funny story about that..."

~~~~~

Sitting now at the table, eating mediocre rabbit stew that Tyler had made, Adam and Seto listened to what he had to say. Jason's sibling had eaten and gone upstairs to bed, and Mitch and Jerome were passed out.

"Wait, you mean to say, we were this close to the camp all along!" Adam half shouted half whispered when he almost woke Jerome up.

"Yea, both Jason and I work there, the camp is just a little southwest of here. It's the reason why Jason is so late, he's working a late shift right now, so he asked me to take his siblings home."

"He didn't tell you we were here?" Adam asked.

Tyler shrugged, "He must've forgot, he was pretty tired when he asked me to help. It's tough for him to play the role of a parent and work a job that can sometimes go well into the night"

Adam sighed, "Well this kind of sucks, we had no idea where to start looking or who to trust if we asked... We could've been there by now."

Tyler laughed, "Don't worry, Jason's always happy to help, I'm sure he'll take you if you ask."

"I'm happy to do what?" The three turned to see Jason walk through the door, he looked completely exhausted, his hoodie was covered in black smears.

"Jason, you're back!"

"Yea, yea... are they safe?"

"Of course, don't worry, their upstairs sleeping like babies."

"That's good." Jason pulled out a chair from the table and slumped in it, burying his face into his arms.

This is only the second time Seto has seen Jason. "You should've told me you had guest here, I almost killed two of them thinking they were burglars," Tyler laughed light-heartedly. He looked so natural, "If it wasn't for Seto here, I think I would've killed to innocent people."

"You mean get annihilated by Ian." Mitch sat up and grumbled, Tyler coughed.

"N-no."

Jason looked up and realized he was face to face with Seto, "You're up, I didn't realize you were down here, I'm sorry."

"Oh, no don't be, you must be tired."

"Heh, it's no biggie," Jason sat up and grinned, "Just glad you're feeling better.

"Ooo! Jason, guess what, Seto here is the friend I was telling you about, the one from Keuta!" Tyler hugged Seto, "And you know what's even funnier, he's looking for Captain Moron's camp, which is where we both work!"

"Oh, that's nice--Tyler! You can't go around telling them classified things, they could be--"

"Seto's fine, he's my friend, I'd trust him with my life, these guys are on our side...Emedo is targeting Seto, I don't know why, but Seto would never lie." Jason searched Tyler's eyes, when he found nothing off, he sighed.

"Alright fine, I suppose if you say so then we can show them the camp...but I'm only taking three of them, if all of them go it might be suspicious, plus Venir is catching a cold so it would be good if Venir, Glen and Ava can stay home with someone watching over them."

"Me and Mitch can do that," Adam volunteered, "We'll make sure your siblings are fully cared for!"

"Hey, don't volunteer me for things, what if I want to go the camp!" Mitch shouted from the floor, waking Jerome from his exhausted sleep.

"Then it's settled, we leave at sunset, you should all get rested now if you want to get enough sleep, Tyler you can stay the night, it's too dangerous for you to walk home."

"I call bunking with Seto!" Tyler shouted.

I swear ^^^^ not shiping, even though you guys will take it that way, this book will probably contain almost no romance, and if there is romance, none of it will be with Seto. I have nothing against Seto, but for this story, romance is not an important thing. 

But keep shipping anyways, because I like it when you guys get hyped up for non-romance but take it as romance anyways. XD

~WrittenDarkness