---Chapter 2---

“Good morning, Ryan!”

Ryan growled and narrowed his eyes. “Do you always have to be this damned cheerful?”

Leon smirked. “Of course! If I wasn’t, then it wouldn’t be any fun!”

“Whatever. Just leave me alone,” Ryan sighed.

“Aww, you’re no fun! You need to be happy!” Leon said as he slung his arm around Ryan’s shoulder. “Cheer up!”

Ryan just shrugged the arm off and began walking away. He didn’t need to deal with this right now. At least his first class of the day wasn’t Math or Phys. Ed., or he would’ve screamed.

oOoOo

Ryan’s favourite thing to do in English class was let his mind wander. He almost never listened to the teacher when she was giving her lectures, and only came back to himself when Ms. Milder smacked his desk with a ruler.

Today was an exception, though. He was so lost in his thoughts that he hardly noticed the ruler hitting the desk.

‘It’s so odd… Ever since I looked into his eyes that day, I haven’t felt the emotions of anyone else except when I really try. What the hell did he do to me?’ He turned his head to look out the window. ‘Why the hell am I even thinking about this? I don’t care what he does! He pisses me off!’

He shook his head violently, and only just noticed the teacher hovering over his desk.

“Glad to see you back among us, Mr. Wells. Care to share your thoughts with the class?” A few of the students giggled at this, but were silenced by a glare from Ms. Milder.

Ryan stared indifferently at her. “If it’s all the same to you, I’d rather keep them to myself. They have nothing to do with you.”

Ms. Milder narrowed her eyes. “Maybe I should give you a detention for disrespecting a teacher? Or how about send you to the principal’s office?”

“Whatever.”

oOoOo

“Damn. Should have kept my mouth shut,” Leon muttered to himself on his way to the principle’s office. His eyes lit up, however, when he spied a certain somebody coming from the English corridor.

“Ryan!” he called with a grin. “What’cha doing? Aren’t you supposed to be in class?”

Ryan growled. Leon just grinned wider.

“Not that it’s any of your business, but I was sent down to the principal’s office for ‘disrespecting a teacher.’”

Leon smirked. “And what exactly did you do, may I ask?”

Ryan glared at Leon. “Told her that I’d rather keep my thoughts to myself.”

“And what exactly were those thoughts?”

“None of your damn business. What are /you/ doing out of class?”

“Oh, I got in a fight with someone, and the teacher decided that it was my fault and sent me down to the office.”

“Whatever,” Ryan said, and left it at that.

Leon just grinned, and from there they continued in silence.

oOoOo

“I refuse!”

“It’s not a question of wether you want to or not, I’m ordering you!”

Ryan, for the moment forgetting that he didn’t like Leon, looked at the black haired boy standing next to him, a questioning look on his face. Leon didn’t reply, instead stared intently at the closed door of the principal’s office.

“I refuse to follow any orders that put students in this school in danger!”

Ryan was shocked to say the least, especially when the door opened and out stormed Mr. Richards. As the math teacher brushed past him, Ryan could feel the pain and anger radiating off of Mr. Richards in nearly palpable waves. He would have collapsed if not for Leon placing a hand on his shoulder.

‘What the hell was that all about?’ Ryan asked himself weakly. ‘He was arguing with the principal about something… something that would hurt the students? What the hell could that possibly be?’

He was snapped out of his thoughts, however, when Leon asked him if he was alright. Only grunting in response, he quickly stepped away from the black haired teen.

“Ah, what a surprise!”

The two teens turned around, apparently not having noticed they had turned away from the principal’s now-opened door.

“Sir?” Leon asked politely.

“As pleasant as it is to have two students visiting my office, might I inquire as to why?” the principal, Mr. Brigdin, asked.

Leon’s face took on an expression of almost comical woe as he explained that they were wrongfully accused of crimes they hadn’t committed. He then went into a rant about the injustices that teachers placed upon the students, and how they should be more light-handed at doling out punishment.

While Leon was ranting, Ryan was carefully watching the principle for anything unusual. He was watching so intently, he almost thought it was just his mind playing tricks on him when the principal’s eyes flickered and changed to that of a snake’s for a split second before reverting back. He was so shocked, he almost missed what Mr. Brigdin was saying to the two of them after Leon finally stopped ranting.

“As much as I hate to say this, you two will still have to be punished in some way, or the teachers will be getting on my case about being too soft to run a school!” He thought for a second, then clapped his hands together. “I know! I will have you two write a five paragraph essay on the principles of proper justice, to be handed in to me by the end of next week. Is that clear?”

“Yes, sir!” and “Whatever” were the answers he got.

“Good. You are dismissed.”

The two of them turned and walked out the door, Ryan slow and contemplative, Leon still bouncy and cheerful as ever.

oOoOo

Two weeks later, hoping to get home before he was attacked, so to speak, by Leon, Ryan tried to slip past the bench where Leon and his gang of friends hang out. He stopped dead, however when he noticed the two new people hanging with them. One of them was a boy with really long hair of a beautiful reddish brown colour, which was tied back in a tail at the base of his neck. The other new face was a girl, mostly normal looking, but with stark white hair tied up in two pony tails on either side of her head. Taking a closer look, Ryan noticed that the underside of it was died an almost unnoticeable shade of pink. They both wore similar clothing, although of different colours. The boy wore clothes of multi-shaded brown, while the girl was wearing mostly white.

Leon suddenly looked up, and locked eyes with Ryan briefly before calling him over. Ryan sighed before accepting the inevitable and walking over to where the five of them stood or sat.

Even though he had accepted the invitation, Ryan glared at Leon, almost daring him to do or say something.

“Hello, dear Ryan!” Leon said as he slung an arm around Ryan’s shoulders. “I’d like you to meet a couple friends of ours!”

“Considering you didn’t even introduce me to the other two the first time,” Ryan replied as he shrugged off the offending limb.

“I didn’t?” Leon asked wondrously.

Daniel spoke up before Ryan could say anything more. “Of course you didn’t, stupid Cat. Or is your brain so messed up that you didn’t even think about it?”

Leon only stuck out his tongue at Daniel, and turned his attention back to Ryan. “I guess I’ll just have to introduce everyone. That one over there,” he said as he pointed at the boy with long hair, “is--“

“I’ll introduce myself, thank you very much,” the boy interrupted. “I’m Kori, Kori Jackson. And this is my sister, Nikita.” He pointed at the girl with white hair. “Don’t even think of making a move on her or anything, ‘cause I’ll kick your ass if you do.”

Ryan just shrugged. “Whatever. I could care less about you or your sister.”

Leon pouted. “Ryan! Don’t be so mean and cold-hearted! They came a long way to get here!”

“I could care even less about that.”

“Ryan!! You’re so mean!!!” Leon cried as he latched onto Ryan’s arm.

“Whatever. Just get off of me!”

“Ryaaaaaaaan!!!”

“Leon, let go of him.”

Ryan turned to the other girl, who just flipped her hair over her shoulder, and glared at Leon.

“Aww, you’re no fun, Kara!”

Kara just shook her head.

“Just shut up and let go of him, stupid Cat.”

‘These people are still crazy,’ Ryan thought to himself.

“I told you before, we’re not crazy, just gifted. And you shouldn’t forget that,” Daniel berated.

“Fuck! Stop doing that!” Ryan yelled.

“But I didn’t do anything; it’s you who can’t properly shield your thoughts. I just pick up on what’s not shielded. You’re lucky that Leon is shielding you from leaking your feelings to the world, like you were doing when we met you. Anyone with any sensitivity would be able to feel them, and maybe even go crazy because you couldn’t shield yourself properly.”

Ryan stood there, shocked to the core. He almost couldn’t believe what Daniel was talking about, even though it made perfect sense. He remembered the day Leon came to his school for the first time. They had locked eyes, and Ryan had felt the shield go up, even though he hadn’t understood what had happened at the time.

He turned to stare intently at Leon. “I thought you were just obnoxious.” Leon just grinned. “Whatever. Thanks, I guess.” With that, he turned away from the group and began walking away.

He just barely caught the murmured “Your welcome” from Leon before he turned the next corner onto the street that would lead to his house.

oOoOo

Leon smirked. ‘What did I tell you, Mutt? I knew he would warm up to me.’

‘Just shut up, stupid Cat, before I wipe that smirk off your face.’

‘Aww, you’re no fun,’ he pouted.

“Well, I have to get home now. Parents have some chores they want me to do,” Daniel said as he walked by Leon, flicking said boy’s protruding lower lip. Leon stuck his tongue out at the retreating boy.

‘Keep doing that, and I’ll rip it out.’

Leon huffed and crossed his arms in front of his chest, pulling his tongue back inside his mouth. He watched as Daniel disappeared around a different corner than Ryan, and then told the others that he had to go too. They all decided to leave, and each went their separate ways, the two girls and Kori going the same direction until Kara turned onto the walkway of one of the closer houses.

As soon as he got home, Leon quickly ran upstairs to his room to drop off his school bag and other stuff that hadn’t fit in the bag. Knowing that his adoptive parents wouldn’t be home until later that evening, he shed his clothing and opened a window, shivering at the cool breeze that came in.

“God I hate doing this…” he muttered. He began to shift his shape to that of a cat, his bones shrinking and shifting, as well as his skin, which also grew a thick coat of black fur. As disturbing a feeling as it was to shift shape, it was over in less than a minute, which was a good thing.

He quickly hopped up onto the window sill, looking around to make sure nobody could see him from below. He hopped down to the ledge just below his window, then to shed roof. Again he paused to look around, and then he leaped to the fence on the other side of the shed, and from there to the ground. Slipping silently through the alleys, he quickly made his way over to Ryan’s.

oOoOo

Scratching at his window forced Ryan to look up from his homework, which he wasn’t even really working on. He looked over to the window to see the same black cat with stunning silver eyes that he had seen for the past week, always scratching at his window. Ryan sighed and opened the window, which had had its screen removed a long time ago, and the cat bounded in.

“You do know that you’re interrupting my homework time, right?” The cat looked at him, head tilted to the side. “You probably don’t even understand me, ‘cause you’re just a cat.”

The cat meowed and hopped up on Ryan’s bed. He stretched out like cats usually do, and seemed to take up more space than was natural.

“Hey! You can’t just waltz in here and take over my bed!” The cat just glared at him. “Meh, whatever. I’m just gonna get a snack. You stay here.” With that, Ryan walked out the door, making sure to close it again behind him.

oOoOo

Leon mentally grinned. ‘Heh. A week of persistence really pays off.’

He curled his cat-form up into a ball and began to purr, thinking of what he would do when Ryan came back. So lost in thought he was that he almost didn’t notice when the door opened again. He hopped off the bed and ran over to Ryan, and began to rub up against the boys legs.

“Heh. Silly cat,” he said as he set his snack, which consisted of a few chocolate chip cookies that his mom had made earlier that day and a glass of milk, on his desk. He then sat down and began to work again, mostly ignoring the cat as it continued to rub against his legs.

However, he was forced to stop working and acknowledge the cat when it jumped up on his lap. He shook his head, and scratched the cat’s head just behind its ears. He was hardly surprised when the cat started purring almost immediately.

Leon was content to just sit there and purr, shifting every so often to give Ryan a better angle.

Ryan was content too. The cat’s fur was so silky, as silky as he imagined Leon’s hair was. He stopped scratching the cat’s head, and just stroked the fur, revelling in the feel of it against his hands.

The two of them sat there for a while, in silence save for the cat’s contented purring. Ryan became so relaxed for the first time in a long while, he began nodding off in his chair. Picking up the cat with one hand and still petting it with the other, he moved to the bed and lied down, placing the purring ball of fluff next to him. No sooner had his head hit the pillow, when he fell into a deep sleep.

oOoOo

As soon as he made sure that Ryan was asleep, Leon got up, extra careful to not disturb the slumbering boy that still had his hand laying on the silken fur of Leon’s backside.

‘Pleasant dreams, dear one,’ he thought, ‘for they may be all that are pleasant.’

Very gently, Leon licked Ryan’s cheek, and finally left through the still open window.

Seconds later, Mrs. Wells came into the room to check up on her son, and, seeing that he was asleep and that the window was open, she closed the window and turned out the light. “Sweet dreams, honey,” she whispered, and closed the door behind her.

---To Be Continued---

So, like it? Hate it? Wish it would spontaneously combust? Please review and tell me what you think!

This chapter is slightly shorter than the last one, but that’s okay, right?

Anyways, review replies!

Alex Boi: I’m so glad you think this story is worth it, and I totally agree with you about the amount of junk. I love how Ryan turned out, and don’t worry, he’ll eventually warm up to Leon. It’ll just take a while. I’m sorry I didn’t use any of your titles, and I hope you can forgive me!

Tyra Kaelar: I’m glad you like it! By the way, it doesn’t just toy with the paranormal, it has a lot of supernatural elements as well. And thanks for inadvertently giving me a title that I hope fits! Yes, that was the villain of the piece, and it was sort of my intention to grab the readers attention right there, although I don’t know if I can keep it…

Thank you all for the lovely reviews, and I hope I keep your attention long enough to get more from you, as well as from other readers! See ya next time!