Though Toshiro had spent the last week with Rangiku, he knew it was time to go back and see his brother; he had a bad feeling that something was wrong with Jūshirō. Rangiku was kind enough to drive him back to his old apartment and, when they unlocked the door and stepped in, they were rather worried to find that the home was empty.

"Oh, what has he done now...?" Toshiro mumbled to himself as he pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialled his brother's number. He waited several seconds before the other end of the line answered, and he was confused to hear Nanao's voice.

"Toshiro-kun, you..." Nanao sounded sad as she continued speaking. "...You should come over as soon as you can..."

"Is my brother okay...?" Toshiro almost didn't want to hear the answer.

"...No. I don't want to talk about it over the phone, so it will be best for you to come here so we can explain things to you."

"I'll ask Rangiku to bring me over," Toshiro replied as he hung the phone up. He then turned to look at his girlfriend, not surprised by the look of concern on her face. "Ise-san wants for me to come over... I assume Jūshirō is there if she answered his phone..."

"Did she say what was wrong?" Rangiku asked as she shepherded the teen out of the apartment and closed the door behind them.

"No, but she sounded stressed. I'm worried, Ran..."

"Yeah, I bet you are. Come on; we'll head straight over."

Toshiro was silent for the rest of the trip, his thoughts on his brother. He knew that Jūshirō was very... damaged, to say the least in terms of emotions, so what had happened this time...?

At Shunsui's apartment~~

"There." Shunsui tried to smile at his best friend as he taped the bandages together, looking down at his work. He had been forced to wrap more bandages around scars that had been reopened, not wanting to stress Jūshirō further and take him to a hospital seeing as he could mend them here. "Please, don't take the bandages off, okay...?"

Jūshirō just looked at the older male with teary eyes. He couldn't answer that, not wanting to lie or give Shunsui false hope – they all knew that Jūshirō would cut himself again, no matter what was said or done.

"My boss gave me the day off, so I'll sit in here with you, okay?" Shunsui moved closer to the pale man on the bed, grabbing the TV remote from of the bedside table. "Let's watch some TV. It'll take your mind off things."

Jūshirō closed the gap between them and rested his head on Shunsui's shoulder. He let a few loose tears stream down his cheeks, but he didn't speak.

There was silence between them for a long time, broken only by the sounds of the TV. Shunsui was sure that Jūshirō was just about asleep when the bedroom door opened and Toshiro poked his head in.

"Is he awake...?" Hitsugaya whispered, his green eyes fixed on Shunsui.

Jūshirō moaned in response, opening his eyes slowly. He looked absolutely exhausted as he tried to move off the bed and head towards his brother, but Shunsui grabbed his shirt and pulled him back onto the bed.

"You're not going anywhere, Juu," Shunsui said in a soft tone. "You need your rest. He can come to you, I'm sure."

Toshiro understood what Shunsui meant and hurried towards his brother. He climbed onto the elder's lap and hugged him tight.

"...Is it true...?" Toshiro whispered as skinny arms embraced him in return. "...Did you really... try and hang yourself...?"

Tears slipped down Jūshirō's cheeks as he nodded. "...I-I'm sorry..."

Toshiro was no fool as he noticed the fresh bandages covering his brother's wrists. He sighed. "And... you're cutting again, now..."

Jūshirō cried at these words. He felt so weak and stupid for being unable to cope with the things that had been done to him; Toshiro had suffered more than he had, and he didn't do silly things to himself...

"Juu-nii..." Toshiro whispered before he sighed. "...Juu-nii, you're being stupid."

These words didn't do much at all to help Jūshirō, and he instead broke down into hysterics. He let go of his brother and moved back to Shunsui's side, climbing onto the brunet's lap and burying his face in the strong chest.

Shunsui sighed as he wrapped his arms around the younger. "Toshiro-kun, I believe it will be best if we refrain from saying such things to him..."

"Sorry..." Toshiro mumbled, feeling ashamed of himself.

"Do you want me to try and talk to Byakuya again?" Shunsui asked, squeezing the body in his arms.

Jūshirō nodded. It was clear that he was in more pain by losing Byakuya than any of his friends would ever understand.

Shunsui pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialled Byakuya's number. He allowed Jūshirō to climb onto his lap and wrapped his arm around the skinny waist, waiting for the call to be answered.

"Hello?" Byakuya's tired voice spoke over the phone.

"Byakuya, it's me," Shunsui started, hoping that Kuchiki would hear him out this time. "I need to talk to you. It's urgent."

"If it's about him, forget it," Byakuya hissed. He was about to hit the end call button before Shunsui's desperate voice all but pleaded with him.

"Byakuya, he tried to kill himself!"

Byakuya bit his lip at these words, his chest tightening in worry. "...He did...?"

"He's here with me now, Byakuya. He's been here with me for over a week. You... You have to talk to him, Byakuya... I... He's cutting himself again..."

Byakuya was silent for a long time before he processed these words. He eventually nodded, more to himself than anything else, before he spoke again. "I'm on my way."

Shunsui thanked the younger male before he ended the call and kissed Jūshirō's cheek. "He's coming, Jū-chan."

Jūshirō couldn't help but twist in his best friend's arms so that he could bury his face in the older man's chest and cry.

Tōshirō sat by the side, rubbing his brother's back gently. He sighed, not knowing what to do. He went back out to the living room where Rangiku and Nanao were talking quietly and climbed up on the blonde woman's lap.

"Are you okay, Tōshirō?" Rangiku whispered as she kissed her young boyfriend gently.

"...I... I would like to leave..." Tōshirō knew he wasn't being supportive for Jūshirō, but he just didn't know what he was supposed to do. Why did he have to do this? He's been through enough in life; why can't he just be left alone to do the things that made him happy?

"Let's go see Ichigo and the others." Rangiku smiled as she hugged the boy tightly. She then turned to Nanao, a look of concern on her face. "You'll let us know if something else happens, right?"

"Of course." Nanao nodded. "We're both doing our best to look after him."

Rangiku picked Tōshirō up in her arms and carried him out of the apartment, a soft goodbye thrown over their shoulders as they left.

Once they were sitting in the car, Rangiku getting ready to leave the car park, Tōshirō started to cry. Rangiku turned the vehicle back off and reached over, hugging Hitsugaya tightly.

"What's wrong, honey?" Rangiku whispered as he rested her on the white hair.

"I'm such..." Tōshirō cried harder as he tried to speak. "...I'm such a bad brother...!"

"No, you're not," Rangiku soothed. "You just don't know what to do, and that's understandable. You shouldn't have to be dealing with this."

"I just want him to stop doing this to me..." Tōshirō wrapped his arms around himself, finally revealing his feelings towards his brother. "I hate him for making me wonder what he's going to do next...! I hate him for doing this to me...! I want him to die, Rangiku!"

Rangiku didn't reply to this, but she knew she shouldn't; Tōshirō must have been holding back feelings of resentment towards the things Jūshirō did to himself, and was now unable to stop seeing his own brother in that same light.

As Rangiku released the boy and started the car once again, she could only hope that things would work out sooner rather than later.