New Life : A Second Chance

Kyle\'s mouth twitched as he tried to imagine the King of the Underworld needing protection. Well, Xing Han wasn\'t wrong but the way Xing Han said it, made it sound like Big Bro Nic was a helpless and weak person.

"I will be nicer to Nitocris then," Xing Han declared, "Poor guy. He just looks so big and capable, but in reality, he has all these problems."

Kyle coughed. Again, Xing Han wasn\'t completely wrong yet he wasn\'t exactly right either.

"Xing Han, Big Bro Nic is capable in what he does," Kyle felt compelled to tell, lest Xing Han started painting Big Bro Nic as harmless, "He has to be, considering his line of work. I just help him for things that he has to do in the dark as those people are rather hard to get to."

Xing Han nodded, patted Kyle on the shoulder and said, "I understand. It\'s okay. Yes, yes, your big bro is very capable."

"He is!" Kyle insisted, "His father built an empire but there were a lot of problems and he made a lot of enemies. Big Bro Nic not only had to fix that, he had to be tough to handle it."

"Kyle, I get it," Xing Han said, his eyes full of understanding, "The whole \'tough guy\' routine is needed. No worries, I got this."

Xing Han started whistling and went to get some clothes.

Kyle looked at his back, wondering if he should try to correct Xing Han\'s misunderstanding. Tough guy is a facade? Hardly. But Big Bro Nic is kind to those dear and close to him.

From what Kyle could tell of his observations, Big Bro Nic put the Elite Five within that category, though perhaps not the same as \'family\' as him but certainly, \'good friends\'. All because of him, Kyle.

However, the longer Kyle thought about it, perhaps the misunderstanding was for the best? If it made the relationship between the two better, why not, right? Xing Han was like this prickly puppy, yapping away at Big Bro Nic - as if protecting his territory.

This way, that prickly puppy would not be so defensive.

After all, it\'s not like the truth would make that much of a difference. With that decision made, Kyle didn\'t say a word.

Again, unknowingly, Kyle became Cupid.

With Xing Han\'s innate kind nature, the beautiful misunderstanding made him much more tolerant of Nitocris spending time with Kyle. He thought he ought to be much more magnanimous, considering that Nitocris didn\'t get to \'hang out\' with Kyle as much as he did.

Which, in turn, made Nitocris change his method of \'getting Xing Han\'s attention\' to something less annoying. Which, eventually led to ...

But that is a story for another time.

? Four Days Later ?

Sam was debriefing everyone about their next destination.

They were on the plane, on their way to Country I.

As usual, Kyle was lying back on the bed with Xing Han. Kay was at the chair, inclining it a bit so that she was much more comfortable. Sam was standing beside the dining table, looking at all of them.

"Keanu won\'t be here for this stop as well," Sam began.

"Auw man! Is it a teen\'s show again?" Xing Han exclaimed, rolling about on the bed.

Kyle was glad to see his BFF back to his normal, sunshine self, acting all goofy and unrestrained without that shadow in his eyes. He had managed to come to terms with that embarrassing incident so he didn\'t go off into his \'zoned out sad look\' now.

"Hey, don\'t knock teen shows," Sam huffed, "Even though Kyle does not intend to pursue acting, his presence helped promote the movie."

"Yeah," Kyle said, "The movie is geared towards the teens as well with all of its actions and such. So it\'s building the audience."

"But to get slimed?" Xing Han scoffed, "Though it was funny seeing you in green goo."

"And those slimy clothes got auctioned off at a very good price, too," Kay interjected.

"PoK website has the list of all the hospitals that we\'ve been donating to, but there wasn\'t much of a difference until now. Once PoK revealed which hospital the auction proceeds were donated to, the hospital reported that there\'s been an increase in donations there."

"That\'s good," Kyle said with a smile, "PoK does have its moments."

"Can\'t be denied that Sarah knows how to milk your popularity," Kay agreed, "After all, she\'s your greatest fan."

Kyle sighed.

Sam cleared his throat, and everyone was silent again, looking at Sam.