Julius and Yoshiro got back to the dojo just before three in the morning. Both Ken and Blaine were asleep, or so they thought.

Yoshiro went straight to bed after having a large glass of water, and Julius was left to his own devices.

Julius grabbed a blanket from the woolen cupboard and wrapped it around himself as he turned the TV on and dropped onto the sofa. He felt a little tired but could not get himself to sleep.

Julius flicked through the channels, pausing briefly on a short late night broadcast, which showed the blazing house they had been in earlier.

"Admiring your work then?" a voice said from behind him.

Julius turned and saw Blaine standing in a dressing gown, illuminated in the ever changing light from the TV.

Julius moved over and motioned for her to sit. She did so and smiled, shaking her head.

"What did you use this time?" she asked, looking at the footage of the fire. "A Molotov cocktail?"

"You hit the nail on the head first time," Julius remarked, grinning. "How did you know?"

"I saw the bottle earlier," Blaine said. Suddenly there was a bright burst of light and Julius saw something strange.

"Are you alright?" he asked, frowning. "You look like you have been crying."

"I have," Blaine sighed. "You really didn't expect me to recover from... from our ordeal so soon did you?"

"I did," Julius confessed. "But it was only because you seemed so much happier."

"I'm really sorry I had to drag you into this..." she said sadly.

"Don't be stupid," Julius replied, putting his arm about her shoulders. "If we hadn't met at Central Park... none of this would have happened and you..."

"I would still be being beaten," Blaine finished. She sighed. "I should probably say sorry for the way I treated you that day... I didn't know about your brother... I just thought you were a nutcase..."

"Hey, it's ok," Julius whispered, looking into her beautiful round eyes. "If you hadn't, I probably would have been dead by now. When we met I was thinking about revenge for Augustus."

Blaine got up slowly and pulled Julius up too. She turned the TV off and led him down the hallway to her room in the dark.

"Please... I don't want to be alone tonight," she whispered.

Julius let himself be led into the room and heard the door shut. Suddenly a light came on and Blaine was sitting on her bed, taking the dressing gown off and tossing it onto the floor.

She wore a light blue singlet and a pair of boy shorts. Julius stripped off his jacket, shirt and jeans, leaving only his boxers and climbed into bed.

The light went out and Julius found himself holding Blaine in his arms, relaxing, and finally going into a deep, almost dreamless sleep.

-----

Suddenly Julius snapped awake. Sweat drenched his body and there was a slightly damp patch on the sheet under him. It took him a few seconds to realise where he was.

He looked at the illuminated time on the clock radio next to the bed.

5:23 AM.

Oh God. Not even an hour and a half he was asleep.

He looked the other way to see Blaine's sleeping figure under the sheet. He frowned.

There was an empty space there. He decided not to worry about it and then got out of the bed, knowing that he wouldn't be able to get back to sleep anyway.

He found a pair of boxing shorts from the cupboard in the hallway and put them on, then went to the dojo.

He dragged out a punching bag and hung it up on a hook in the corner. He started punching away at the red weighted bag.

Punch, punch, dodge, punch, dodge, punch, punch, punch.

All the while, he had the nightmare stuck in his head.

Paul Harrison, alive, back in Blaine's apartment. The fight was going on all over again. There was Blaine on the couch, helpless. Paul was stronger now, much more stronger. He sneered at Julius, his rotting teeth glinting in the light. Punch after punch.

Somehow he had gotten hold of Julius's gun. His finger squeezed the trigger, and Julius had woken up.

When he collapsed, near exhaustion from the intense workout, beside the punching bag, Julius's knuckles were bleeding from not wearing any gloves.

He pulled himself up and stumbled to the bathroom, where he turned on the cold tap and collapsed at the bottom of the shower, barely awake.

As the cold water hit his sweating body, Julius felt steadily more awake, and he contemplated how he could have been so fatigued in such a short time. He came to the conclusion that it was mostly stress that had caused this, but he still didn't understand why he had been so affected by murdering Paul Harrison.

It was just another dead body wasn't it?

Julius pushed the thought out of his mind and turned off the shower, now feeling thoroughly refreshed. He wrapped a towel around his waist and went out into the kitchen. He poured him self a coffee and turned around to go to the living room.

He almost dropped it.

On the couch was Blaine, crying silently in someone's arms.

"Blaine?" Julius asked.

"Oh, Julius," she said, pulling away from the older woman. "Julius, this is my mother, Sandra. She has come to take me back to Philadelphia."

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A/N: Cliffie!!! SO SO SO sorry for the incredibly late update but I had NO inspiration whatsoever! Anyway I hope you don't hate me... please review, you know I love reviews and I will review in return. Love Archangel Jeremiel