!WARNING!

Contains a PoV change, and some… emotional scenes… I tried to hold back. Sorry D: Next chapter will have something more light-hearted :D

Voices filled the room. Only whispering, but it was quite obvious about what they talked.

"Take a picture Lass!" Arme.

"They'll… get angry."

"Not if they don't notice."

That would be interesting. Blackmailing my brother to delete the pictures if he wouldn't want them to see them. However, my plans on staying quiet and pretending so sleep were destroyed them Lime moved and placed her heavy head on the wound on my chest.

It was too unexpected to suppress the pained moan and not a second later she woke up. Sighing I opened my eyes, looking at her.

"Sorry… I…" She yawned. "Didn't mean to hurt you."

I just nodded, tried to sit up. It worked better than before. Lass and Arme were standing next to the couch, but didn't look in my direction. I noticed Dio sitting on the ground, a blanket over his shoulders, hugging Zero. Both asleep. That was probably the reason why Arme ordered Lass to take a picture.

"Aw, that's cute!" Lime muttered.

"Shh! Don't wake them up!" Lass hissed quietly.

"I wouldn't do that… but… I'm hungry."

Lass put a hand on his head and sighed deeply.

"Dio's not the only person that can cook."

"I'm still surprised he learned how to…"

Oh that was an interesting question. I hated cooking as much as losing a bounty mission to someone else. Especially the good ones. Lass moved over to the kitchen, seemed to inspect the damage the bullets had done.

"Get new cabinets, they're ruined." I muttered.

"That stuff was expensive!"

"The bullets are expensive too."

"Ah shut up."

Rolling my eyes I did what he told me. Lime sat down on the carpet, looking deeply into my eyes.

"Where is Luca now? Why isn't he with you?" She asked again.

"He's still in the underworld, don't worry. He knows where I am."

"But the portals are closed." I wanted to punch Arme for reminding me of that.

Lime put a hand over her mouth. "But then… we can't see him?"

"No. Unless he finds a way to get to Aernas, or we find a way to open a Portal."

She lowered her head, then stood and walked over to the window. The sun was rising, the rain gone.

It took a while but slowly everyone started to wake up and sat down on the big table in the kitchen. Well. Excluding me as I still couldn't exactly move the way I wanted to.

"Aren't you hungry?" Lass asked me. Well. What I had told him about the flame had obviously worked, he was eating again. I shook my head, really wasn't hungry, but that was because of the injury. Sieghart yawned, complained why they had to wake him. Lime and Arme fought over the food. It was so familiar. But Dio and Zero seemed to not fit into the bunch. Both had similar expressions, speaking of sadness and desperation. They were holding hands, but it seemed that they were afraid of losing each other if they let go.

"Dio can you-" Arme flinched as if she had said something bad.

Dio looked up. "I…I'm sorry…. The salt I… just-"

The demon let go of Zero's hand and passed the salt over. A small smile on his lips as he leaned in and kissed Zero. I was probably the only one still getting embarrassed at this. The others seemed pretty used to it.

"Now that's a nice sight. Mind sharing some food?" My father. Why was he still here?!

"Go away you- argh…"

That much for my plan of punching him in the face. I couldn't even get on my feet. Awesome.

"Ah, you're awake…"

"Be glad I'm still alive! Asshole!"

Zero slammed a fist on the table. "I believe there has been enough fighting for one day."

His voice was shaking. Was he angry? My father sat down next to me, making me turn away from the others.

"You know I didn't mean to shoot you."

"But you meant to shoot Zero. And Dio… and anyone that interfered."

He showed me a paper. It was yellow, burned at the edges. It had Dio's face on it. That was a big amount of money for the head of a chieftain.

I ripped the paper apart. "You are disgusting. If you plan to hurt my friends you have to kill me first."

"Calm down… I won't do anything to harm them. That immortal guy over there made his point pretty clear."

Sieghart too? I wonder why Lime hadn't told me. I almost laughed when my father showed me the bruise on his right cheek. He deserved it.

"We could all go to the park later. With a picnic to celebrate that we're all together!" Arme suddenly suggested. I looked up, almost glad she had found a topic to distract everyone.

"What park?" Lime.

"Well if you don't know it, you have to go on a picnic there! No arguing, you're all coming with me! I even get the food!"

"Let me take care of that, shorty." Dio muttered.

"I'm not short and how can you cook without that-"

Dio looked at her with a glared that could have killed her. "Without what?"

"Without that arm." She finished.

Dio looked away. "I can go if you have a problem with it, shorty…"

Arme jumped off her chair. "I didn't mean it like that! It's just…"

"It's just that someone as crippled as me can't have a normal life, right?"

Dio stood, took his jacket and turned to leave. Zero didn't move so I assumed Dio had little fits like that more often than not. However, Dio seemed really touchy about that topic, and in a way I understood it. He always had been hot headed, he'd probably calm down in a bit.

"Dio!" Arme yelled. "Running away doesn't solve anything!"

"Arme stop it!" I shouted at her.

"You don't know what it's like! You can't understand it."

"Oh but you do?!" She yelled at me.

I showed her my left arm to remind her. "I know it quite well!"

She suddenly got quiet, as if realizing what she had done. Biting her lip she sat down, lowering her head. Lass was about to reacher for her when he saw what I saw.

Zero was biting down on his hand, his whole body shaking. As if he was barely suppressing his emotions. Anger?

"It is hard enough…" He muttered, his voice was trembling badly. "Please do not speak of this… in front of him…"

"Hey, you okay, Zero?" Sieghart wanted to know.

Zero took a deep breath, then looked up. "Please leave me alone for five minutes…" He stood, walked toward the front door, but turned left and went into the bathroom.

The mood was so bad, I thought it couldn't get worse. I wanted to do something… this was like everything would fall apart if I wouldn't do something… was that what would happen? If I wouldn't have returned they had never met again… or at least not so soon… Lime would still think singing in that bar was everything he ever did… I would think everything was like it had been… but Lass would have killed himself eventually… Considering Zero and Dio… I didn't know everything that had happened, but this seemed to be more than just what I heard. A lot more.

Silently I turned to the table, my wound reminding me that I shouldn't move at all, but I ignored it when I took the book under the table. I couldn't lift it though.

"Stop moving, you'll open the wound again." My father scolded as he lifted the book and shoved me back into the pillows.

I almost jumped off the couch when someone suddenly slammed something on the dining table. Arme screamed in shock and I looked over the edge of the couch, ready to fight whoever attacked. But it was Sieghart standing there, fists on the table.

"Rufus, give me that book." He ordered.

"I can't walk, get it yourself."

He rushed over to me, grabbed the book then stormed back to the table. He was searching for a page and when he found it he grabbed Arme's arm and dragged her over.

"Read it! And read it carefully!"

I watched her, having a good idea what she was reading. It was about the fire. A few minutes passed then she suddenly crouched down and started to cry.

"I didn't mean to… I-I… I didn't mean to be so…"

"Read the next page." Zero muttered. He just came back, his face sad and desperate.

"I…I'm sorry….I didn't want to be so mean!"

Zero took in a shaky breath. "Tell him. Apologize to him… He is not the same anymore, Arme… please… please understand that…"

He took a step backwards to lean against the wall, then quickly lowered his head. "I… apologize, I cannot…-"

Sieghart rushed outside, probably getting Dio back. What the hell was happening here? What was wrong with Zero?

"What a bunch of emotionally unstable kids…" I heard my father mutter.

"Read what Arme just read, you'll get it then." Lass hissed, took a chair and moved it over to Zero, probably for him to sit on, but Zero didn't move.

"And be sure to read the part where the demon you wanted to kill saved my life."

I sighed, this was getting too much. Why did I have to be wounded… I wanted to be alone… just for a few minutes…

Dio came back, but it didn't seem like he wanted to because Sieghart dragged him inside. But when Dio saw Zero, he stormed over to him and hugged him. Zero's legs gave in and now both were sitting on the ground.

"I cannot… hold it…."

"You don't have to you freaking idiot!" Dio yelled.

What then happened made me gape like a child that saw the first shooting star. Tears. That demon was crying!

Dio was shocked, not able to comprehend what was happening. All he could do was holding on to Zero, trying to calm him down. Never before had he seen him cry. Those years had left marks on his body too. Being chased by the queen… locked away for months after they caught him. Dio and Lass had searched the whole town. In the end they knew every window, every stone. But Zero was not found. Then one day he was just there, and all he had ever told Dio was that the queen had caught him. He refused to be close to Dio for a while, and when he finally allowed it again Dio had noticed scars on his flawless body. But Zero had never told him what happened. Dio didn't want to ask, afraid of the answer, and none of the others even knew that it was the queen who held Zero captive. That was when Zero had started to draw. And Dio had collected all the pictures. Only realized much later that they told him a story.

And what they told him was worse than losing an arm, or the wings. Or the throne and home… But Dio had been too cowardly to talk to Zero. Too scared of his answer…

It was no surprise this happened now… and still it shocked Dio. Zero was never weak, always strong, stubborn, never giving up. But there was a limit to everything… wasn't it? If Dio was honest, he had seen it a long time before. Zero's wall was crumbling. He was more open with emotions and ever since the Grandark had left the sword's body Zero had changed. Sometimes he even laughed. But the dark memories, his and Dio's too, were tearing him apart inside, and Zero had endured all of that on his own. He never got angry, never lost a bad word. Kept the façade, and made everyone believe that everything was fine. The wall was falling apart. It was slow, the hints little, but Dio had noticed it. He just refused to believe. Was using Zero for support, took so much, but never talked about how Zero felt. Now the shell had broken. It could have been prevented, Dio was sure about that. But he was seeking comfort in Zero, didn't want that to fall apart if he knew everything.

How selfish he was… And Still Zero stayed by his side.

Zero hadn't said anything, the tears just falling without any sound audible. Dio was stroking his back, holding him as tight as he could. Lass put a blanket over Zero's shoulders, then retreated. They were quiet, but no one took their eyes off the couple on the ground.

"I'm sorry…" Dio whispered, not wanting anyone else to hear it.

"I shouldn't have ignored your feelings… I think… I didn't even do it on purpose… fuck… why did you never say anything…"

Dio flinched as Zero moved his arms around him, holding him tightly.

"I apologize for acting like this…"

"It's okay for fucks sake! I'm… I'm a selfish bastard…. Why the hell did you never tell me?! Why did you endure all this shit without ever telling me…"

Why. That was a good question. But Dio knew the answer. It was because Zero was afraid of how Dio would react.

Dio sighed deeply, kissed the hair of the smaller demon. All he could do now was waiting for Zero to calm down and then try to talk to him. This had to happen on day…

I didn't exactly mean to... write that down. It was planned for some time.. but i changed a lot in the end and took out something and rewrote it. If you read it carefully you will probably realize what i was hinting at. If not, that is okay too. This is a T-fic, i cannot write things like that.

Aaaand I apologize again, I really really planned on writing something funny, but Dio acted on his own...