It was a warm day of summer, with a bright blue sky, cloudless, sun shining brightly.

But as far as he was concerned, it could had been hailing clouds and cold outside, because that weather definitely didn't fit the mood he was in.

After looking through the window for a few minutes, he walked back into the maze of white corridors, swearing quietly to himself, and for once, praying everything would be all right, when nothing was right and when he was crossing the despair horizon.

It was a warm day of summer, with a bright blue sky, cloudless, sun shining brightly.

And since it was so good outside, and that it was everyone's day off, Mitsuki decided it would be a good occasion to spend the day with his little brother. It had been a while since they even had the opportunity to do so. He loved being an idol, but he had to admit it was a very busy lifestyle.

Not to toot his own horn, but Mitsuki was pretty proud of having had that idea in the first place. The day was going just amazingly: the weather showed no sign of deteriorating, nobody had spotted them in the streets (as much as he loved their fans, he wanted to be his brother and just his brother for a day) and he managed to get a few laughs from the usually stiff Iori.

Someday, he would have to train him or something not to be so stiff and be more open and expressing. One day, that would get him into troubles, a lot of troubles would he say so himself. For the time being, it was just the time to enjoy themselves like they couldn't had done so in ages.

They were discussing some I7-related things in a calm and desert street when Iori suddenly stopped in his tracks. Surprised, his older sibling did too, only to notice right after this there was a guy shooting at something at a few meters away from them. Like that. In the middle of a street, in public, shooting something hidden in a probably shady alley. Needless to say, he wasn't reassured, but he wouldn't let himself get scared.

"Let's turn back, Iori," he whispered, already backing a foot down to rapidly run away from the situation.

It was already too late. The guy had turned back, facing them and staring right at the younger brother. It was time to run away, as fast as they could, and lose the guy in the middle of the city. Grabbing Iori's wrist, he rushed back, thinking about where they could go to escape from him. There was no way he was trusting a guy who somehow had a gun on him. A fucking gun of everything!

Adrenaline rushed right when he needed it the most. Quick glances behind him revealed the guy was keeping up with them just as well, if not better, but wasn't shooting. He was probably unable to shoot them while running, that was a plus already. Still, they had to lose him if they wanted to spend the rest of the day peacefully and not in a morgue or something in the like.

There was no way either of them was getting buried anytime soon.

"Where are we going…?" his brother rasped between two breaths, blindly following him.

And, well, Mitsuki didn't have any idea of where they were going. He hadn't even thought about it, actually, in the rush of things.

"Huh… You have any idea, Iori…?"

The latter took a somewhat pensive stance as they were still running for their lives, turning sharply in a rather dark alley.

"I don't think we can actually outrun him, brother… Maybe… We should go to the wooden cottage where you used to bring me… And call for help there…"

"You're probably right on the outrunning him thing… Let's do that…!"

The wooden cottage was a place they hadn't been here in literally years. It was a panoramic spot they used to go to when they were children, and even if he never got to know the real name of the place, Mitsuki was grateful for two things: for his little brother to have such quick thinking, and for him to remember by heart the way there. Clearly, they didn't form an informal duo for nothing.

There, they would just have to climb a staircase they knew too well, get a shelter inside the wooden cottage and wait for help to arrive. It would give any of them the time to call the police or any local authority figure.

They were halfway there, and the guy still hadn't lost their track. Adrenaline was running off and, honestly, they were both breathless. He could only hope their enemy was as breathless as they were, if not even more. They couldn't keep running if they were exhausted anyway, so praying with all his soul they wouldn't be killed during a moment of vulnerability, he made the both of them walk as long as they were partially hidden by the darkness of one narrow, almost impossible to find street.

Walking with almost-empty lungs was painful, sure, but it was survival. There was no way they were dying today. He'd never allow that to happen, not when he could something about both his brother and him. As the older sibling, it was simply his duty to protect his younger sibling. And he would do so, just at the cost of no one's life.

Once out of the dark alley, Mitsuki was relieved to notice the armed guy wasn't behind them anymore. They had outrun him, right? Finally, he sighed in relief.

"We finally… escaped from him…" he told his brother, still out of breath.

Iori's face wasn't as bright as his. It looked more perplexed.

"I think we should still… reach the cottage and advise there… Who knows, he may just be waiting for us in the alley…"

Mitsuki gulped. He wasn't wrong. In fact, he was sharply right.

"Let's… Let's do that…"

They resumed getting to their promised land, this time around walking. It was silent at first: mostly because they were both still trying to catch their breath and preserve their energy, but it also allowed for them to spot any suspicious sound. Of course, Mitsuki was easily scared by the situation: any cracking leaf, any noise could be a sign of the gun-wielding man about to shoot them in the head, yet there was nothing.

Nothing about that guy was near them. He didn't know if he should had been afraid or relieved, but either way, there was still anxiety taking over all of his brain. He knew doing something irrational would be a disaster, especially if he slipped up, so he tried to push his impulsiveness on the side. He had to be patient and vigilant to escape danger.

After a while, they just resumed speaking. First about the mess they were in, because that was all his brain could process for a time, but it branched out from there after a while. While a part of him was still acutely aware of their surroundings, glancing back a few times every couple minute, another was infinitely soother than it could had been before and so by a landslide. It seemed like everything would be all right.

They peacefully arrived at the panoramic spot, and Mitsuki couldn't help but feel a rush of nostalgy going through his blood. It really had been ages since they had last been there. Not a decade, but still a long time ago. They were both so much younger, when he had last seen the spot. Actually, it had changed a bit since then: the cottage had been replaced by a hut who lacked a front façade. It was easier to see the landscape, he figured.

The place was, aside from that, identical to the one from his memories: a peaceful piece of grass and stone, with the wooden hut on top of a small hill, connected to the ground level by old stones which looked like they hadn't changed in centuries. It was quiet, with only the sound of the peaceful wind in the few trees surrounding them around the two.

They had almost reached the top of the covered-in-moss stone staircase when they heard rushing footsteps. In a reflex, fully knowing it was the guy again, Mitsuki blocked the way in the best of his abilities. A few pieces of wood here and there, some rocks, really anything. They were in a hurry, so he didn't have much time to think, except to block the small gate that closed or opened the way to the stairs and, as such, the hut. Once he had made sure (or at least, was sure enough) it was blocked, he ran to Iori, who was already at the stop of the stairs.

Even on the way to the top, Mitsuki got out his phone and dialled the emergency number. There was no way their potential killer wouldn't shoot on sight as soon as he had reached them. His "lock" wouldn't last that long. And, most of all: a gun didn't need to get past a gate to shoot them, especially if there was no real façade to protect them. They were in danger, and he was certain it just hadn't kicked them in hard enough yet.

A quick glance to the ground floor told him the guy was already in position to shoot. A bullet flew right past him, just inches close to damaging at least his clothes, if not his skin. He was a lousy shooter, but a shooter nonetheless.

"Big brother," Iori suddenly told him as he looked below them, "please continue telling them about us and our situation, and don't focus on him. I'll take care of it."

Mitsuki was, honestly, not sure this was such a good idea, even coming from his brother.

"You're sure about that? I have eyes too, you know, I can use them!"

"Please do as I say!" sputtered the younger boy almost in an impulse, stress getting to him too it seemed.

"O-okay, as you say…"

The older sibling put the phone next to his ear again, carefully listening to the other side of the line as he gave their location and tried to detail the scene. He couldn't look too much at it, in case it upset an already anxious Iori, but he did notice no bullet had flown past him for a while. The shooter really was a bad one, huh.

At one point, there was less light than previously. If he had to guess, it was Iori walking here and there, predicting where the next shot would be. The noise of bullets was more or less quiet, and he could be certain some of them only encountered the wall. Even if he was finished explaining everything, they had told him not to hang up, so the phone stayed on and on-dial.

"I'm finished! Everything's fine?"

Mitsuki saw red splatters on the stone floor of the hut where Iori was when he was calling.

And, well, Iori wasn't there with the splatters.

Some of them had been smeared towards the back of the hut, as if someone had stepped in them then made their way back to the wall. It was when he noticed the guy was shooting anymore. Perhaps he had run out of bullets.

His eyes followed the train, while he was hoping it wasn't what it was, from the depths of his heart. He did, so bad. They lead to the wall, to the back. That was when his previously numbed hearing unveiled itself, and he heard one terrifying sound he didn't think he would hear in his life: the heavy, panicked breathing of someone dear to him, perhaps the dearest.

In a bolt, not ready to face what was awaiting him, Mitsuki looked at the back wall anyway. And instantly regretted trusting Iori.

The smeared blood lead to his own brother, sweating heavily, his skin three shades paler than it ordinarily was. His breathing had become panting, heavy yet fragile, trembling with every breathe-in and breathe-out. As if someone had stolen his air. There were tears forming in the corners of his eyes, ready to fall, something a pair of them had already done before Mitsuki looked at the scene.

His left lower abdomen was soaked in blood, a hand pressed against it, the other taking support on the wall, just like his back and back of his head.

Mitsuki just ran to his brother, almost throwing his phone on the floor if it meant reaching him sooner, instead putting it inside his pocket. Not a care in the world if it was still dialling or not. It wasn't his concern. Not now. Iori raised his head when he saw him approaching. A pained, if not sorrowful, look appeared on his face between two beads of sweat and a half-closed eye.

"Bro… Brother…" he muttered, barely looking up. Despite being taller than his sibling, he lost his height as soon as he glided along the wall.

Something had stolen Mitsuki's voice. He wanted to scream, scream at the guy, scream at himself, scream at Iori. Yet, he couldn't even speak. He was terrified and upset, just waiting for someone to save them when they couldn't do it themselves, and mostly, horrified by what had happened behind his back.

Instead, he just kneeled down to his brother and cried. He had always been a cry-baby, but there was no way he could retain his tears in this predicament. He was outraged, yet he couldn't find in himself the capacity to scream. All he could do was cry and whisper. Whisper to someone fucking dying in front of him!

"Why… why did you do this, Iori…?" was all that escaped his mouth.

Iori didn't respond, at first. Whether it was because he didn't know how, because he was considering all the possible options and their outcomes, or because he was losing consciousness, Mitsuki didn't know. All he knew, was that he wanted an answer, anything! He needed to hear him more than anything else and more than anytime yet!

"I took care of it…"

Well, that was all he was going to get, right? Iori was in no shape to talk about deep things and self-sacrifices at the moment. Even if it was what he had just pulled out even if it was a garbage idea with garbage consequences, because of course it would, he was the worst of them when it came to dealing with pressure and confrontation!

"I thought we had been clear on something, Iori… I was supposed to protect you, because I'm your big brother. Not the opposite way around!"

"He was going to… shoot you in the head…"

The cold tone of this sentence made Mitsuki realize there was a second bullet wound, on Iori's shoulder. Or, approximately, the height of his brother's head.

"You… you're right…" came out of his mouth in a horrified tone. Because that what he was. Horrified.

He really would had died on the spot, had Iori not taken the bullet for him, knowing it wasn't immediately lethal to him.

Unable to retain whimpers any longer, Mitsuki just clutched his brother next to him, pulling him into the tightest embrace.

"Please…. Please don't die on me…!"

"You're going to… have blood on you… big brother…"

"Who cares about that! You're dying, Iori!"

He wasn't controlling his words anymore.

"You'd have died, though… if I hadn't done that…"

Iori's faint voice and weak tone just tucked heartstring after heartstring.

"I know! I know that, Iori! That's why I can't blame you! That's why I can't have you dying on me!"

It was a warm day of summer, with a bright blue sky, cloudless, sun shining brightly.

It was meant to be a fun day between brothers, yet there he was, crying his heart out, clutching onto his sibling for the latter's life, sirens drowning his hearing, muffling it to the point he couldn't hear his own sorrow running down his cheeks.