Warning(s): OCs, language, abandonment issues, so on and so forth.

I don't own Final Fantasy VII, Square Enix does! I only own OCs. c:

[xXx]

Her delicate, pale hand touched her son's forehead, a worried frown etched lightly on her plump, light salmon pink lips. Her eyes were cloaked in a deep shadow, one of which her son could not peer beyond, leaving her colorless, emotionless gaze to be a continued mystery to him. Her voice was soft, delicate, and in the form of a whisper, seemingly detatched from emotions, betraying her identity none as she said to the male, "You got yourself sick again... When will you ever learn...?" Her hand left her son's forehead, a gesture in which that was met with a small, sad sound. "It's alright. I'm just getting you a cold rag..." The male relaxed some. He felt a cold rag being laid on his forehead and relaxed more. "There..." Her son's aqua colored eyes fluttered closed, the young man feeling long, slender fingers running delicately through his white locks. "Feeling any better, Kadaj?"

A small, almost inaudible sound was Kadaj's response. He couldn't bring himself to try and open his eyes. It seemed to take too much of his energy, now. He just wanted to lay there and relax. He just wanted to relax with the woman's fingers running through his silvery white hair. She brought a comfort to him that he believed he had never felt with his own two brothers, and he wanted to continue to feel that comfort she brought to him. Unhindered and undisturbed. After a little while of a soft silence between the male and the woman, her hand retreated back from his hair. Kadaj gave her a small whine, drawing his brows together. He didn't receive a verbal explanation from the woman. Instead, he felt her hands peel away the warmed up rag from his forehead. After dipping the rag in cool water and wringing it out, she replaced it back on his forehead.

"I'm going to get you something to eat... Maybe something to drink, too..." the woman whispered to Kadaj. The male heard her stand from the chair that she had drawn up beside his bed and panicked slightly. If she left him alone again...! He sat up slightly, grabbing her arm. It seemed to bring the woman pause. Delicate fingers touched the back of his hand gently. "What is it, Kadaj?"

"Mother, I..."

Then Kadaj opened his eyes. There was no woman there. He wasn't holding the woman's frail, pale arm in his hand, trying to stop her from abandoning him all over again. No. Instead, it was Yazoo's thin, yet muscular, not as pale arm in his hand. The older sibling looked at the younger with a slightly concerned gaze. The younger male released his brother's arm and laid back in bed, a light dusting of pink coming across his features.

Yazoo, ever the attentive older brother, walked back over to Kadaj's bedside. He grabbed the cloth that fell from his brother's forehead and reapplied it to him. "You were dreaming again, brother," he told him in that eerily detatched voice of his. He pulled away and moved to go out of the room. "I'll be right back. I'm sure that you're hungry..." With that, the older sibling left the bedroom.

"Dreaming... Huh..." murmured Kadaj, clearly not happy that his dream had come to so abrupt an end. Whatever his dream mother was saying was probably whatever Yazoo had been saying... The older's words had more than likely managed to breach into his dream but could only come through to the sick male as whispers. It would explain why the woman in his dream, whom he only had ever assumed to be his mother and nobody else, sounded so... Detatched. He closed his aqua colored eyes and sighed to himself. "Mother..." He reached up and ran a hand through his hair. The touch of his dream mother's fingers running through those very locks was still burned into his memory. Though he supposed that maybe her touch was only just the touch of his brother Yazoo... Drawing his brows together, he quickly dismissed the thought. Yazoo would never run his hand through Kadaj's hair so tenderly.

In fact, the very image of it sickened the young male. Almost quite literally.

Yazoo returned with a tray of food and something to drink. He sat the tray to the side and helped Kadaj sit up nice and slow. He then grabbed the tray, setting it on his younger brother's lap. On the tray was a bowl of freshly made chicken noodle soup, some toast, a package of crackers, a glass of water, and a glass of apple juice. "I wasn't sure if the apple juice would upset your stomach more than it already is, so I went ahead and got you some water as well, brother..." the older explained calmly. He went to grab the fork in the bowl of soup as to help his younger brother eat only to have his hand slapped to the side by the aforementioned male.

"I can feed myself," Kadaj said a little snappishly, an irritated note in his voice. He took the fork and began to eat the soup with some silence and slowness. He didn't want to blow chunks all over again. No, thank you. He already spent the whole previous morning doing that, thank you. A quick glance at the clock would tell someone that it was around three in the morning of the second day. Loz and Yazoo had been taking turns throughout the day taking care of their sick little brother, the babying greatly annoying the younger. Kadaj could tolerate the rag changing, the bed tucking, and, Hell, even the being moved from sitting up to laying down and vice versa. But there was no way in Hell that the male was going to let his older brothers feed him when he was more than able to do so on his own.

The soup was eaten and the broth was drank, leaving the toast and the crackers along with the water and apple juice left for Kadaj's future consumption. Kadaj sipped lightly on the juice, testing the boundaries of his stomach. When he found that it didn't upset his sick belly at all, he sat it off to the side for later. He took the toast and crunched on it a bit before deciding that his stomach wouldn't be able to handle too much food. He once more sipped the juice before letting out a belch. Groaning, he held his stomach. A hand rested itself on his back and rubbed it soothingly in small circles until he felt just the tiniest bit better.

"Are you alright, brother?" Yazoo asked, a worried look in his eyes.

Kadaj nodded. "Just a little too much for it to handle at once, is all," he informed his older brother. He took the juice and the water and sat them off to the side on the night stand beside his bed, shortly followed by the package of crackers. "I'm done eating for the moment. Thanks." He watched with tired eyes as his brother took the tray with a nod. Once his brother was once more gone, he rubbed his stomach a little sadly. An image of his birth mother, whom of which he had never seen before in his entire life, rubbing her own swollen stomach, pregnant with the male himself, flashed through his mind. Mother... he thought sadly, pausing in his motions. Tears stung his eyes. Mother... Where are you...?

"Brother," Yazoo's voice called softly from the door. Kadaj cursed under his breath and quickly rubbed at his aqua colored eyes, looked up at his sibling with some annoyance. "I'm going to bed now. Loz will be in here shortly..."

Kadaj sighed heavily. "Fine..." he grumbled out, waving a dismissive hand at his older brother. The younger watched as his long haired brother left, hearing his footsteps slowly grow quieter and quieter until the sound of a door opening and closing silenced them. It was a few minutes later when the younger brother heard the sound of a separate door opening and closing, followed shortly by heavy, slow footfalls. It was easy for the sixteen year old to tell who was coming down the hallway his way. Where Kadaj was the youngest, smallest (both in height and physique) and probably the one with the biggest attitude at sixteen years old and where Yazoo was the middle child, tall and almost lanky with some muscles, and the calmest and most collected one at seventeen years old, Loz was the oldest, tallest and most muscular, and the sweetest, yet strongest, guy a person could ever meet at eighteen years old.

Loz peered inside of the room his youngest brother was in, checking to make sure that he was awake. Once he was sure that his brother was awake, the large male entered the room, going over and sitting at his bedside. He offered his brother a smile. "How are you feeling, brother?" he asked the short haired male.

"Sick and wanting to sleep," Kadaj replied plainly.

Loz seemed to understand and nodded, a little deflated that he wouldn't be having the chance to talk to his youngest sibling at the moment. He helped lay his brother down, taking the discarded rag and dipping it in the water. He wringed it out before laying it back on Kadaj's forehead. "Get lots of rest, brother," he told the teenager. "That way, we can play sooner." He smiled, as though he were imagining the two of them playing together like little children. He snapped out of his thoughts when Kadaj began to cough up what sounded like a lung and a half, panicking a little. He laid his brother on his side in hopes that if it were a sign of him throwing up, it would help the boy out. When the coughing died down with no vomit to follow it, Loz eased Kadaj back onto his back. After once more placing the rag on his forehead, he told him, "I'm going to be in the living room watching some television while you sleep... If you wake up and need anything, just let me know..." He kissed the younger's temple, much to the teenager's discomfort. "I'll be checking in on you from time to time..." He stood. "Good night, brother..."

Kadaj watched as his oldest brother leave the room. He yawned tiredly, his eyes clenching shut. He sighed heavily before relaxing into his bed. Thankfully, his teddy bear of a brother completely forgot to tuck him in, so he had some range of movement for his search of comfort. Once he was relaxed in his bed, he fell asleep almost immediately.

After three days worth of being fussed over, a doctor's office visit, and making up assignments that Yazoo brought him from the school, Kadaj was finally feeling a lot better. He was cleared to go to school the next day, thankfully, but he also had the option of staying home and lounging around in the event of not feeling well in any shape, form, and/or fashion. For Kadaj, if he really wanted to stay at home with no brothers to try and pester him, all he had to do was gag and claim that he was about to throw up.

Sometimes, he thought to himself, it was just way too easy to fool his two older brothers.

Of course, being stuffed up in the same house all day for three long days was enough to make him want to go back to school.

"Are you sure that you are feeling well enough to go, brother?" Yazoo asked a little worriedly as he shouldered his backpack.

"Yeah," agreed Loz, grabbing his backpack lazily by the straps. "If you're not feeling well, you could always just stay home..."

Kadaj snorted at the both of them as he tossed his backpack onto his back. "I'm fine," he informed them both. "Besides, the fresh air will do me some good." He pursed his lips at them, standing straight and cocking his hips, placing his hands on them. "So please quit worrying over me already."

Yazoo shook his head at his younger sibling. "You're our little brother, brother," he told him sternly. "Of course we're going to worry over you. Sick or not, might I add." He then eased up some. "Come on. I'll drive you..."

The younger shook his head. "I want to walk," he said. "My legs are all stiff from being forced to lay down for three god awful days." School was a good forty minutes away by foot, which was good for the younger because that meant his legs would get some exercise. He wasn't lying about how his legs were stiff at all. It was a bit of a hassle to walk as flawlessly like he normally did, his movements slightly jerky and, well, stiff. "I'll just text you when I get there..."

"You risk being late, brother," frowned Loz, tossing his bag onto his back. "Just let Yazoo drive you..."

"No, thank you," grumbled Kadaj, walking outside and leaving the two inside behind. He didn't care if he was being a little childish about it. He wanted to be actually moving around, not sitting in a car and being even more lazy than he had been. For a brief moment, a mental image flashed through his mind, causing him to pause for a moment. What he saw was his mother, or, at least, the version of his mother that he had made up in his mind, scolding him and telling him to ride with his older brother, fussing over his well being given the past few days. The young male had to fight down an embarrassed blush that resulted from the mental image. It was easy to see his dream mother in certain situations.

Too easy at times.

Forcing the mental image out of his head and the blush that resulted from it down, the male found that the long trek to school suddenly felt like it would take ages. Maybe if he decided to run? Nah. He didn't want to walk in sweaty and out of breath. That was not the best way of trying to get a girlfriend (not that he was really all that interested; they all were total bitches at his school, not to mention loud and obnoxious), not at all. Maybe he could just shoot Yazoo a quick text message to come and pick him up, that he changed his mind about being driven to school that morning.

Wrapped up in his thoughts of trivial things, he didn't notice, at first, the moving truck that was parked on his side of the street. When he did notice, he glanced up at the house that was being moved into. It was small and basic and rather bland, to say the least. According to the 'SOLD' sign out front, the house had one bathroom, two bedrooms, a kitchen/living room mixed into one, and a basement. That was it. He snorted to himself. My house has a lot more space in it... he thought a bit smugly to himself. In his shared home with his brothers, there were three bedrooms, a living room by itself, a kitchen by itself, two bathrooms, and an attic. Glancing around, he saw who was moving into the house.

A young woman, probably no older than Loz, himself, with long, flowing, wavy lilac hair that tumbled gracefully down to her back, exceedingly large assets upon her torso, lucious curves that would make a model glow radiant green with absolute and undeniable envy, caramel tanned skin, icy blue eyes, and... long, lightly muscled legs that belonged to a mid-level athlete.

The kind that trained up for a marathon...

Kadaj had to try hard to tear away his gaze, and he had to try even harder to not blush like the hormonal teenage boy that he was. He needed to get moving and get to school, not stand there and drool over a... well endowed... woman and... and...

Okay, maybe he could spend a couple of minutes staring like a dumbfounded idiot.

The woman saw Kadaj and raised a curious brow. She slipped outside of the front door, giving Kadaj a closer look at her. It appeared as though she wasn't wearing any pants underneath her long, black tank top, but the whitette was sure that she was, and she had on knee high black boots covering her calves. "Do you need something?" she asked him. Her voice was clipped and a little bit on the edge, as though she was unsure of how to judge the boy in front of her just based off of appearances.

And the male knew that it had to have been hard, given his choice of attire that day. Basic black t-shirt, plain, ordinary black jacket, black jeans, and black boots. He wasn't wearing any makeup, thankfully, but he was sure that she was judging him to be either a goth or an emo right off the bat.

The whitette shook his head, waving a dismissive hand. "Just curious, is all," he informed her, trying to play it off as though he hadn't been standing there for a good two or three minutes just watching her unpack some boxes a little ways in from the front door. "Saw the truck and couldn't help but want to know who was moving into the neighborhood..." His legs began to move of their own free will, moving along the sidewalk towards his school. "Sorry for bothering you, miss..."

"Dalaran. Suzanne Dalaran," the woman told him, her voice losing a little bit of its clipped tone.

Kadaj paused in his movements, contemplating for a moment as to whether or not he should say anything in response. He then decided that he may as well give her his name as well. "Higarashi. Kadaj Higarashi." With that, the two seemed to part ways with no knowledge of one another at all, aside from names and appearances and, in Kadaj's case, the location of homes. Neither one of them figured that they would be seeing much of one another after that morning. They figured that they would seldom meet again after that morning.

Of course, the Fates had other ideas.

Ideas that would seemingly change everything for the two. Whether it be for the best or for the worst, well, that depended on how the Fates wanted to play their twisted little game and how the two humans reacted to their actions.