The Ranch

Returning (2)

Arriving at the dormitories, the two split up. Major Jax crashes onto his bed for some much needed sleep. He plans to by some sunblock and lotion tomorrow, before going to the Newbie Tournament to watch the show.

Tih follows the path to his apartment building. Sliding his ID in the door, he walks in to meet eyes with a stunned still Kai. Influenced by his stillness, Tih doesn't move as well. He looks into Kai's eyes flooding with emotions. Then, his eyes actually start to flood. Kai breaks into sobs and he rushes over and bear hugs Tih.

Kai puts all his weight into the smaller boy as his legs start to give out from relief. His long arms encircle Tih into a tight embrace as tears and snot run down his face. A mess of jumbled words fall out of his mouth, mostly apologies.

When he saw Tih fall down the cliff in his stead, regret swelled within his entire being. All this time, he told himself he was only hanging out with Tih for beneficial reason. He tried to convince himself that Tih was just like everyone in this world, when it came down to it, he would put himself first. There was no trust in their relationship, no real friendship. But before he realized it, Kai already grew attached to this weird and amazing child. Throughout the rest of the day, Kai thought he had killed Tih. His guilt was killing him from the inside. He wished he would have treated Tih like a true friend, one with trust. The more he thought about him, the heavier his heart grew, and his thoughts slowly started turning darker.

It was at that moment that his apartment door was opened. He turned a lifeless gaze over only to be shocked stupid. All kinds of emotions welled up within him as something wet started coming out of his eyes.

Kai has never cried since he was a baby. Even when the other children were whining and crying, he stood the pain and suffering in silence. He would watch everything happen like it was someone else's body that was being thrashed. He learned not to trust others, because all humans are evil.

But right now, in front of his eyes, is someone as pure as snow. Unique, cute, and the weirdest child he's ever seen. Kai's body moves on its own, pouncing on Tih.

Tih stands in place, neither comfortable nor uncomfortable, letting Kai do as he pleases without care. Kai breaks down into tears and mucus. He is, after all, still a child of thirteen years of age. Although he is more mature than most children his age, he is still a child.

His legs cave in and Kai breaks down, pulling Tih down with him. He leans against Tih, arms wrapped around his thin body, head laying on his shoulder. A stain appears on Tih's shoulder as body fluids accumulate.

They stay like this for a while and Kai calms down a little. With red eyes, he sniffles," Wa-*hiccup*  what happened to y-you *sniffle*?"

Tih remains silent like always. He stares at the clothes that Phillip gave him, that are still piled on the floor. Even though it's been a month since he's received them, so much has happened that he hasn't had time to put them away.

"W-well *sniff* looks like your fine anyhow. Next ti- *hiccup* next time, you can't do that! You can't sacrifice yourself for me!"

Although he technically did sacrifice himself for Kai, Tih relied purely on instinct. It had nothing to do with "friendship" or emotional attachment. Tih doesn't even understand what those feel like.

Kai rubs his eyes as he looks over Tih's body for injuries. Seeing none, he sighs in relief, "You must be tired *sniff*, try to get some sleep. I'll tell you what happened with the Parkour Representative Test tomorrow."

Kai stares at Tih silently for a second, before attacking him with another quick hug. Heads touching, Kai wraps his arms all the way around Tih's head and whispers," Thanks for being my friend," before dashing under the covers of his bed.

Tih takes care of a couple of things before going to sleep. He folds and puts away all the clothes on the floor, folds and stores the bags, and takes a quick shower.

Although he's been through a lot today, to Tih it was more like a light exercise to get his body back to peak performance. After waking up from the coma, his body felt uncomfortably stiff, but now it's back in working order.

For others, after a month of being unconscious, one would lose muscle strength, endurance, their bones would weaken, they would lose mineral content, and their metabolism would be affected.

Rehabilitating would take hard work and determination, but most importantly, time. For others, rushing rehabilitation might result in more complications or long-term damage, especially something as physically intense as Instructor Henri's Intermediate Parkour course or Major Jax's Trial. Combining them into one day would increase the pressure in the weakened body.

For the normal person, they would even be able to do that amount of strenuous exercise after just waking up from a coma. But Tih, this oddball, only gained from today's experiences. Instead of creating irreversible damage on the body, Tih has actually returned to his original condition before the coma.

Scientists and doctors would not be able to explain this weird phenomenon. If they knew about Tih's condition, they might even want to open him up to see what makes him tick.