A/N - Do you ever hear a particular song, by accident, and it's just the exact right song for that exact right moment for where your head is at?

This is a short product of a long sleepless night and posted as is, so mistakes, as always, my own. Hope you enjoy. All Characters are the property of Rob Thurman.

WSwswswswswsWS

I felt the coldness as his fingers slipped from my own. Time stopped. I felt the ice creeping around my heart. Paralysing me. I felt the blood sliding from my out-stretched forearm where the knife had taken my strength. I felt the scream as it rose through my throat, burning its path from my body as my brother was torn from my grasp.

"Niiiiik!"

I reached further, throwing all my weight forward in one desperate lurch, the relative safety of the rooftop provided my safety no longer. If he was going, then so was I. Only I wasn't. Strong hands locked around my lower legs. Robin. Robin, No…

The image seared into my brain. A snapshot of a hell, far more horrific than any distant, Auphe world.

The trail of a golden braid, captured, frozen in mid-air. The flash of a warriors blade, twisting, empty of the warm, guiding hand of its master. Our grey eyes locked, our souls connected fully in that moment. He smiled. Just the barest twitch, but a smile, sent from his heart, through his eyes more than his lips. Time had frozen us both and I held onto it with all my might. My arm still reaching through the darkness, my sanity weakening as it rested on the brink.

Let me go Cal.

I can't Nik. I can't let you go. I won't let you go. Don't go…

Then he fell. He fell. Into the inky blackness, consumed, slowly at first, then completely as time re-started. Then he was gone. Gone. My brother was gone. My soul. My mirror, my sanity, my control. My humanity.

I collapsed back onto the rooftop, unaware I was now cradled within my friends arms. Then I screamed, and screamed, and screamed.

WSwswswswswswsWS

"CAL!"

"Cal! Wake up! Cal!"

Strong hands were fiercely shaking me. "Please little brother"

I hit the ground. Or that was what it felt like, and I hit it hard. I think I screamed again. Confused, trapped between two worlds. Un-aware of which was reality.

The voice called to me again, something about the desperation in it pulled me free.

"Cal, wake up, it's me Cal, come back" my shoulders shook again, "come back, please"

Everything hurt. Everything burned but my skin crawled from the cold breeze through the twilight of my room. Warm, firm hands suddenly cupped my face. I felt the sensation of cold sweat coating every part of me, dripping from my bare chest. Then I saw them, as they sought my own. Those grey eyes. My sanity, my soul. My brother. Alive. Real and here with me.

A concerned voice broke through the haze again, "are you with me? Cal?" my vision cleared further and the rest of his face came into focus in the pale moonlight streaming in from the open window, the curtain flitting in the night air.

I looked down then at myself and realised with shock it wasn't just sweat I was covered in, it was blood. Oh shit, blood. Nikos blood..? What had I done? I pushed myself back against the headboard, pulling from his touch, breathing heavily on the verge of a full blown anxiety attack.

"It's ok, Cal, its ok, it's not mine – you pulled your stitches again" the soft voice reassured, the hands placating but indicating my lower chest. I only then realised what he had said and that it was ok, it was mine, not his.

I stared up again, searching for that connection, those eyes. In that moment I wasn't a man. I wasn't a fellow warrior, or a participant of the night, like the other monsters, just beyond the windows threshold. I was a boy. A little boy scared shitless of being alone. A little brother, abandoned, without the only home he had ever known.

As quickly as I had scrambled backwards I rushed forward, scooting across the bed and throwing my arms around him in one smooth movement, my wound forgotten I buried my head in his sleep touseled hair, took a deep shaking breath and held on for dear life. The dear life of my brother, sitting quietly on the edge of my bed in the stillness of the fall night.

Startled for a moment by both the gesture and my speed, he returned the embrace just as fiercely.

"Don't let go Nik" I mumbled into his hair, I couldn't contain the sob that racked my exhausted body "I mean, just, just don't leave me, ok?" I felt the warm arms tighten and him breathe deeply. I did the same. Breathing in his life and the clean herbal soapiness that was Niko.

A soft voice returned, "I'm not going anywhere little brother" a light hand closed around the back of my head.

"There's nowhere on earth I'd rather be"

In that moment there was no reticence. No pretence. Just trust and comfort. It was understood. Given and received without expectation, selfless and true. It was love. It was accepted and returned. It was timeless and eternal - and it was a perfect moment.

Fini

A/N - Short but sweet. I hope you enjoyed. My muse and I needed some time together for my sanity despite the current trials of RL. And the brothers and I needed some H/C too. Reviews are so so gratefully received. I will be back with something longer and hopefully full of intensity, plot twists and action..I just need a little less of that in RL first :)