Flipping through old picture books while sharing tokes and drinking livers away, wasn't exactly how Jack expected to spend his night. But for the most part, he did not mind it so much. At least he was with someone. That someone being the only person on this unforgiving earth that he didn't find bothersome.

As the young man beside him laughed and commented on the old photos of Jack's childhood, the green eyed man couldn't help but feel a spark of something fluttering in his unfeeling heart. And for once in his life, the emotion didn't bother him. Not one bit.

"What? You used to have long hair!?" Hades cried out as he burst into laughter.

Jack had blinked, snapping out of his thoughts as his eyes shifted from the boy beside him, to the picture in front of them. A wave of heat washed over his face at the sight of the forsaken photo. He, himself, couldn't help but chuckle as he stared at the boy in the book. His shoulder-length, wavy dark hair, screamed for a much needed cut, but yet the boy in the photo didn't seem to mind it. In fact, Jack remembered that right after that photo was taken, he was forced to shave it all off.

"Not gonna lie...You look better with your hair cut short, miss brunette," Hades teased.

Jack scoffed, nudging the teen with his elbow.

"At least I bothered to keep a maintenance on my hair," He shot back, eyeing the other's messy bronze mane.

Hades rolled his eyes.

"Whatever," He grumbled, and continued with flipping through the album.

Jack cackled, leaning back against the couch as he lit up a cigarette and relaxed as the smoke escaped from his mouth and nose. His eyes landed on the back of Hades' head, focusing on the sections of hair that stuck out like bed-head. Without hesitation, he reached up to run his fingertips through the mess, smoothing it out the best he could.

"Who is that?" Hades suddenly ask.

Jack sat up while he inhaled another drag of smoke into his lungs. Slowly he let the cloud out, letting the silence speak for itself as he glared at the photo of a man with a stoic, cold expression. The seriousness in the pose made the male seem so proper and elegant, with his dark hair combed neatly into place. The fierceness in his eyes almost burning right through the page. Still, Jack could remember the greenness of greed they held in them. Still he could remember that very green as if it were the only color in that black and white photo. The pride and hatred they held in them. So much rage and destruction, a thirst for pain and chaos. How lifeless they looked while the man laid in a puddle on the kitchen floor.

He let out another puff of smoke, letting it blow directly onto the page before he answered with as little of emotion as the man in the picture held.

"That is my brother," He said, letting the remainder of his cloud out.

"Really? I didn't know you had a brother. What's his name?" Hades asked, oblivious to the shift in the other's tone.

"Edum.." Jack answered monotonously.

Hades had looked up then, now aware of the tension the picture had caused. A twinge of guilt stabbed at his throat as he chewed the dry skin on his lips. Curiosity still ran through his mind. He wanted to know everything he could about his patient. No matter how big or small, or even how deadly it was.

"What happened to him?" He asked, though some part of him already knew the answer. Jack's reaction was that of surprise. How could Hades not have known what had happened? Anyone who had worked at the hospital would have known. It was the talk of the town at the time, but then again, Hades might have been only thirteen when the murders had happened.

Now he would know how much darkness was in the green eyed man's past. Perhaps now he would steer clear of any emotions, or sympathy toward Jack. There was no use in lying, Hades had known that death was involved in his patient's past. He just didn't know who those victims were.

"I killed him.." Jack replied.

Already he had mentally prepared himself for the young man's reaction of horror. He had set his expectations for that of everyone else's image of him. A monster with a thirst for blood and suffering. There was no question to his label, at least for the ones who feared. So he knew better than to think this would be any different. But it wasn't as simple as that. Not for the boy whom he sat next to.

"Why?" Hades had asked.

Again the question was not the reaction that Jack had thought he would receive. This, however, still did not sway his mind from going down the path of of haunting memories.

  Jack's eyes had darkened in their stare as the smoke of his cigarette tickled his nose, taking him back to a nightmare of a place. There, anything white had been stained red. Screams of terror, agony and the gut-wrenching scent of death lived. While that man's eyed grew dull and cold, Jack's burned with a fire of everlasting rage. Though there was a light in all of that darkness. A warmth to the coldness of the room. There, an image of a girl in her white nightgown, flowed about in his mind. The thought so clear and vivid, he could have mistaken her for truly being there. With her light brown locks flowing around her, the gentleness of her stare through piercing green eyes, laced with specs of blue.

He let out a sigh at the thought as tears filled his lower lids. That very image of beauty and pure innocence, was now ruined by the stain of red and gore, as it disappeared with a fading scream of his name, echoing throughout his mind.

"Because he took her from me..." He said, squeezing his eyes shut as he timidly rocked back and forth. A chuckle escaped from his trembling lips while he brought whatever was left of his cigarette to his lips. "A life for a life, right?" He asked. Still cackling as he blew out the smoke and opened his eyes to the picture in front of them.

He sneered as he glared fiercely at the photo, mumbling incoherently to himself as he put his bud out on his brother's face.

"He deserved it," Jack said without a trace of remorse. "For what he did to her, to me, to our family. He deserved every single thing that he had coming to him. He was ruthless and cruel,and for that...He will never be missed."

Hades could see as clear as day how much that man had hurt Jack. He had stolen every ounce of innocence that was still left in him. He had skewed the world in Jack's eyes to be looked at as something to stray away from. A harsh and cold irrational reality was created for the green eyed man. There was no doubt that he was suffering. For this, Hades didn't blame him for any crime. In his eyes, there was no crime for one still a saint in his own image.

"I love you..." Hades said. His own eyes went wide at his own claim. He had not meant to speak his thoughts out loud, but the emotion was far too strong for him to contain. It had slipped from him so easily. Rolling off his tongue as if it was second nature to say such a thing. For what it was worth, he had meant exactly what he had said. It was too late to take it back now, so he had no choice but to own up to his words.

But the look in Jack's eyes had made it almost impossible to do so. His eyes were almost as big as Hades', and his expression was that of a child hearing a horrible tale of a boogeyman living in his closet. Though that boogeyman was a mythical being in an adult diaper, carrying around heart-shaped arrows. It had shot Hades' in the back, thus granting him the idea that he could love someone such as Jack.

This is what truly terrified the green eyed man more than anything else.