Disclaimer: I do not own any characters/places from Seraph of the End and everything belongs to its respective owners.

Chapter 1: A New Brother

There had been several calls sent in to the police about the noise level in the quaint house next door. A woman's distressed screams could be heard inside, witnesses said. By the time the police got to the house, it had caught fire. By the time the fire was put out, everyone inside was dead except for one: eight year old Yuichiro.

With no other relatives able to take him and the fear of an organized killing, the authorities sent the boy to the Hyakuya orphanage, where he would be well cared for. Yuichiro knew the truth though. His parents were dead because of him, because they had thought that he had to be killed before 'the end' came.

Whatever that had meant, he didn't know. He just knew he wanted to be alone, anyplace other than here. The bright colors and smiles of the other children were enough to make him want to vomit; it was a stark contrast to what he was feeling.

"Children, I would like to introduce you to your newest brother, Yuichiro," the caretaker motioned towards the boy standing beside her before smiling at the rest of the kids again, "make sure he feels welcome here."

"OK!" an extremely happy-looking child with blonde hair raised his hand, smiling excitedly at him. Yu decided that he definitely didn't want to be around that kid, so as soon as the introduction was done, he took his small bag filled with some belongings (he really didn't have anything of his own that hadn't perished in the fire, so the authorities had given him a small 'care' package) to the room they would be sleeping in.

The room was pretty bare compared to the larger one he had been in. This one had a grey wall with two windows and several beds filled the space. He did a count of the beds and it seemed like there wasn't enough for all of the children to sleep in. Did that mean that some of them slept on the floor or shared? I'd take the floor over the latter.

"Hello," a friendly voice came from behind him, causing him to peek over his shoulder at the owner – the blonde haired boy from before. "My name is Mika. Everyone here – we've all had families in the past, but now we have a new one. You'll-"

"'Family'?" Yu repeated the word bitterly, cutting the other boy off. "That's stupid. My mother was screaming that I had to die and my father tried to kill me. If you ask me, a 'family' is-"

"I'm sorry about that," Mika's voice was softer and something had flashed in his eyes at the black-haired boy's words. There was sadness, but also something else: something protective when Yu had started insulting their 'family.' "My parents used to beat me up. Then one day, they got tired of me and threw me out of a car. My old family wasn't so great either, but I really do like my new one. You'll learn to like it too."

The other boy's hand was held out towards him. Yu simply stared at it before he felt uncomfortable; he had to turn away and continue unpacking. It was stupid, all of it was. They just don't understand, he thought, listening for any signs that the blonde would leave.

Unexpectedly (or maybe his unconscious self wasn't surprised), Mika knelt down beside him, leaning on his knees for support. "Do you need any help unpacking?" the kindness radiating from the other orphan was starting to get on his nerves, but he wasn't wanting to start a fight.

"No."

"Are you sure? We could find a place to put your things," Mika looked around the room before another smile appeared on his face, "we could even share a cot, or you could just have mine."

The other boy's words made Yu stop unpacking. Why couldn't he just be left alone? "I'd rather take the floor."

For some reason, the blonde laughed. Yu didn't understand what was so funny. "It's not infested with germs or anything. We're able to wash the covers every three weeks or so."

The black-haired boy stood up, bringing the bag and its contents with him. He walked to the other side of the room, leaning the bag against the wall. There, that would be his space, or at least the closest thing he could get to space. It didn't seem like privacy existed here.

He heard humming behind him, coming from Mika. Of course this couldn't get any worse; he's overly optimistic, won't leave me alone, and hums. Just great.

"Hey, I have a better idea!" the blonde's voice was filled with excitement as he hurried towards Yu. "I can give you a tour. This place isn't very big, but it's good to know where everything is."

Yu stared at the other orphan for a few seconds, knowing he wouldn't give up. "I don't really have a choice, do I?" he asked, figuring he should at least do something. Maybe then he would be left alone.

"Come on, be happier about it!" Mika laughed again as the blonde grabbed his hand, pulling him out of the room. Yu realized that it was going to be a long day.

Hello everyone! As a notice, I am not dead… just really overwhelmed. This fanfiction has been in the works behind the scenes for a while now, and is the second part to AnimeWolfGirl16's "Before" (so if you haven't read that one, I highly recommend going to do so!). I felt kind of terrible with my lack of updates in the recent past, so I figured since this was pre-written (and I have a lot of it planned out) that this would hopefully sate everyone until I can get my other fanfiction chapters completed. Don't worry, they are in the works and will be posted (hopefully) soon, but things have been quite hectic. Working two jobs (one retail) and finishing out a degree has taken up the majority of my time recently, but I'm hoping to get fully back into writing once finals end. So until then, thank you for bearing with me and I hope you enjoy this! On another note, I know it's not exactly like the anime/manga, but more of a rewrite of Mika and Yu meeting. I'm going to post the next chapter sometime next week, which is where the diverging starts. Also, the timeline for this is probably going to be wrong in accordance with the timing of actual events, but I want to write as many one-shots as possible for this one :)

-AnimeWolfGirl9