A bell rang and somehow Fye felt like a shameful secret – he supposed that he was – being shoved through to the living-room, hearing the door slam behind him violently, in a rushed panic and then the much gentler opening of the front door. It still clattered, the hinges sobbing in agony after suffering months of abuse.

Then the world fell silent.

Renzu heaved a long-suffering sigh before averting her eyes, appearing as if she were sinking to a new low. She gripped two small hands tightly, painfully. Finally she lifted her head, raising her chin to bridge their gap in height and stare Kurogane in the eyes. "Are you able to look after the kids?" she asked with apparent difficulty.

Kurogane frowned, glancing her over mistrustfully, however she was one step ahead of him.

"I know!" she snapped loudly and then heard herself, bit her lip, receded again, feeling ashamed. "My sister's in hospital. I need to be there for her… but there was no one else I knew who could take the children at such short notice," she uttered in a much quieter voice, breaking and crumbling at the edges.

He glanced down to them, breaking into a smile beyond his control as he gazed towards their small, confused faces, their bags clutched grimly in tiny fingers.

Her voice rising steadily, she continued. "I know I should have called but I didn't want to explain myself to you and I still don't." Her eyes flicked up towards him, glinting not only with a seething and loathing taint but with traces of tears. "I don't want this to be a peace-treaty or anything, I just want to see if Ruka is alright." She bit her lip sharply, dropped her gaze, gulping away her tears.

"I understand," he muttered neutrally.

She glared daggers, pressing them tightly into his skin and twisting as she shook her head. "You don't understand. There isn't a trace of sympathy in your body. But I do know that you're willing to do anything for these two…" She emitted a breath, her voice strained and wavering, whether in anger or sorrow it was difficult to tell. She gave a small, desperate smile, her grip on their innocent and unknowing hands tightened, seeking comfort. "Please help me just this once and don't say anything."

Kurogane nodded bluntly, stoically, his mind grunting in aggravation 'Just pass them over'. He bit it back, watching her press motherly kisses into their cheeks, smiling soothingly. They said nothing, clearly perturbed at their mother's shaken state.

She left, a brief, "Thank you," awkwardly passing her lips and leaving Kurogane with their two children, their warmth passing gratefully into his skin… until he remembered…

***

"Should I leave?" Fye whispered in an almost panicky tone.

"Where will you stay?" Kurogane asked in a heavy grunt, pacing back and forth, scratching his neck in his own distempered form of worry. He couldn't leave them on their own in the other room for much longer either…

Fye smiled encouragingly, hands pressed in lap and shrugged. "I have enough money for a hotel."

Kurogane frowned towards him for perhaps slightly longer than necessary, staring at him with a dubious and uncertain tone beneath. As if he expected Fye to get lost in the urban darkness or run off into the night never to be seen again, perhaps carrying half his personal belongings. Or maybe he'd die relying on that fluffed up pincushion he called a brain to guide him in the outside world. "Er…" he mumbled, thinking.

He thought a little too long and found himself interrupted.

Usui peeked around the door, taking in the shared company with a great deal of interest and apprehension before asking, "Who's that?" to his father.

Fye raised his eyebrows, staring pleadingly towards Kurogane who, at that moment in time, was completely lost for words and ideas, desperately searching for an escape route, pointing towards the blonde intruder with a confused crease in his forehead and repeatedly muttering, "Ah … that's … that's….ah…."

Fye sighed, giving up on hope for this new and ingenious explanation, an expression twisted in disappointment suddenly flicking into a radiant beam. He pressed a hand to his chest, a grin shining brightly on a cheery face and exclaimed pleasantly, "Hallo, ich bin Fye," at a lack of anything else to say.

The small child blinked in confusion, his brows furrowing deeply, his lips pressed into a distempered pout that reminded Fye of the boy's father. His own gaze skipped back and forth between the two, smiling innocently, eyes daring Kurogane to complain.

Kurogane glared at him in annoyance before grumbling something under his breath, reaching for his wrist and tugging it sharply upwards, letting go once Fye had pushed himself curiously up on to his feet. Beckoning Fye to follow, he took his son by the hand and led them through to the kitchen where Mio was sat, using an expensive looking biro to scrawl some pregnant and tailed conjoined balloons posing as flowers on the back of a bank statement.

Kurogane released his son's hand with care, allowing him to drift over to the table and take in that hard and stern image within his father's eyes, demanding for just one minute to be heard.

Fye's eyes narrowed towards him questioningly, his lips held in an almost fearful and uncertain expression as the children's eyes began to settle on him.

"This is Fye," Kurogane said to them in Japanese, voice clipped in reluctance and gesturing towards the blonde stranger blinking in bemusement beside him. "He's staying here for a while."

He glanced towards Fye for a mere instant, registering the inquisitive glare he was receiving and pushing it aside dismissively, turning back towards his children and their young, confused expressions, their eyes staring in undiluted interest.

Fye bit his lip in frustration, almost frightened that he had no idea what was going on, but his attention was soon diverted, his expression and panic soothed as a sweet little voice came from his knees, a tiny tug at his jeans. He stared confusedly down upon Mio as she asked him a polite little question, her eyes beaming innocently. Her words meant nothing to him but he smiled nonetheless, softly and calmly, something pricking at his heart.

Her father answered for him. "Yes, he stopped you from chasing your balloon a few weeks ago."

Mio's face immediately scrunched up, turning to glare pointedly towards Fye, like a small creature nibbling at his shoes. Without understanding, he burst out laughing, voice singing delightedly and pleasantly, a free and amiable personality within. Her frown sank back into her face and her own smile lit up – precious and amused.

"Why doesn't he talk?" she asked her father, tilting her head and tugging at Fye's jeans again.

"He's German," Kurogane informed her, crossing his arms as if spectating and attempting to judge what direction this was all going in. "He doesn't understand Japanese."

"Why not?" Usui asked, frowning with a childish lack of reason.

"They don't speak Japanese in Germany, they speak German," he informed his son, surprisingly calm despite their constant questioning, so much so it was beginning to frighten Fye.

"Why isn't he in Germany?" Mio asked as she continued to play with the material of his jeans at his knees. Fye smiled softly as her stubby little fingers pinched and teased interestedly in a strange mixture of boredom and fascination.

"Because," Kurogane started… and then abruptly stopped. He'd never thought much about it before and had never asked – even if he did, he could tell that Fye would simply smile and brush it away with a single motion of his hand. Did it really matter what reasons he had for being here? He's here now… He stared towards his guest with a face full of suspicion and hesitance.

Fye raised his eyebrows, sensing the question in Kurogane's eyes, and turned away with a faintly cruel twist to his lips. Not telling.

Kurogane bit back a remark, fiercely whipping his head back round and proclaiming, "It's a secret."

"A secret?" Usui repeated with a slightly slack jaw, something desperately interesting within his young and imaginative grasp.

"Yes a secret," Kurogane said, repressing a groan. How the hell had he ended up in this mess in the first place… Quickly, mind jolting into a proper pace, he added with a thick layer of importance, "so you can't tell your mother about him."

"Mummy said we shouldn't lie," Mio suddenly exclaimed, waving her finger in the air to show just how serious she was being, because lying was a terrible thing … apparently.

"We're not lying, we're keeping a secret – it's fun," Kurogane corrected her in a morbidly gravelly and edgy voice that made the art of keeping a secret sound about as fun as dancing on a pile of sharpened tacks.

"What if we get asked if we have a secret," Mio pointed out, overly precocious, "then we have to lie."

"No, we say we can't tell them the secret," Kurogane informed her with a markedly more compassionate edge than usual, taking their bags easily in hand and making his way to the spare bedroom – Fye's bedroom.

Fye sighed, preparing to move his things back through to the living-room, until someone small tapped his elbow, standing on the very tips of her little toes. With a pleasant smile, Fye bent down and plucked the drawing she was waving encouragingly at him out of her hands, gazing upon it with silent wonder.

He turned to her, slightly confused but asking her slowly, cheerily and animatedly, "Möchtest du meine Meinung hören?" (Do you want to hear what I think about it?) He really had no idea why he was addressing her in German but it made him feel better to talk to her properly. Besides this warm little pool had started to emerge within him as it had slipped off his tongue, that realisation that he'd missed his own language digging painfully into his heart. That and she seemed incredibly interested now, her eyes gleaming in fascination.

She grinned, a childish smile filled with tiny and round little teeth, and said something else in Japanese, pointing towards her drawing scrawled across the financial details.

"Oh, eine Blume?" (Ah, a flower?) he exclaimed, a bright beam spread across his face as he pointed to the splodgy petals and the tiny stalk. He faked a gasp, a delighted smile slowly blooming. "Das ist ja wundervoll!" (That's so wonderful!)

He stood, hearing her giggle, and dramatically pointed towards her picture, declaring, "Super!…Aber…" (Great! … But…) His voice slinked delightfully, youthfully and he laid it down on the table with a flourish, picking up a pen. "Da fehlt eine Hummel, findest du nicht auch?" (It's missing a bumblebee, don't you think?) he probed as he doodled, eyes catching, fast-paced and full of wonder, and finally lifted the piece of paper back up, handing it back to her with a joyous smile, soft, friendly and inspiring. She smiled in excitement, gazing gleefully at his quaint little scribble of a bumblebee by the flower.

"What are you doing?" Kurogane asked him in scathing and curious English as he came back through, Usui following him adoringly.

"Drawing," he smiled, pointing to Mio's artistic efforts.

She clambered up on to one of the chairs by the table, slapping the ruined document down with an intention and taking the pen back in hand. Fye glanced over her shoulder as she drew, hand wavering as she pressed a bit too hard, a bit too fiercely, and Usui scampered over, jumping up to see over the table and check what was going on. She brought the piece of paper up to Fye's eyes, holding it proudly and briefly explaining despite the language barrier – "It's the sun!"

"Ah, die Sonne!" (Ah, the sun!) he proclaimed, a smile equally radiant playing on his lips and his eyes sparkling as he looked at her drawing.

"The sun's long gone, Mio," Kurogane stated, scooping her up into his arms and lifting her with ease up out of the chair, "It's time for bed."

Fye smiled endearingly, picking up the pen and flipping it between his fingers as he watched him carry her off, kicking slightly in his arms and whining, his son scurrying faithfully behind them. He sighed, standing, beholding the family in awe, touched.

***

"You're so much a caring father, Kuro-tan," he sighed, perhaps not in perfect English but getting his point across nonetheless, lounged across the sofa, his head pressed into his hand, his elbow on the arm of the seat.

"And?" Kurogane asked sharply, feeling almost offended as he channel-surfed, bent forward, perched on the edge of the sofa with his arms on his knees.

"And it doesn't seem like you," Fye explained with his eyes closed, voice both soft and smooth, slipping from his tongue. When he opened his eyes they slinked over to stare towards Kurogane teasingly, his lips twisting into a playful smirk. "You're usually so… so…" He struggled with his words, pressing his fingers to his lips while Kurogane narrowed his eyes, glaring at him challengingly through the darkness illuminated in a sick wash of artificial light by the buzzing TV screen.

"What?" he asked, a daring and dangerous edge beneath. He smirked, cruel and lop-sided.

Fye smiled much more gently, a toying twist beneath the graceful curve in his lips and he lunged for his dictionary, long fingers flipping methodically through the pages. He landed on one word, pointing emphatically and decisively slamming the book shut. "You're very grumpy."

Kurogane raised an eyebrow, staring at him in confusion before picking up his own dictionary, placed reliably by his side and flipped through it roughly before coming to the right page. He frowned, gritting his teeth as he muttered, "Tch!" and threw the book aimlessly, only half-hearted, towards Fye, colliding with his shoulder and his ringing laughter, singing beautifully through the night.

a/n: I'm baaaaack after ages =) But there was no way I was posting this until all my exams were out the way. A huge thanks to 'mon amie' for helping me with the German in the first place (my very helpful linguistically-skilled friend IRL ^^) and to maijame on livejournal for correcting it! Thank you to everyone who helped with my German last time and who offered to help again, it was just easier for me to use LJ mail at the time. So hope you're still enjoying this and please comment! Seriously, please comment, I have one or two things I might be posting and writing soon and it'll really help my confidence!

PS. Yes, my kiddy characterisation sucks -_-