This took me a bit longer than I expected to edit, but then again, I got hit with several things in the past week... Yeah. Not my best week in existence, but there were enough bright spots to say it wasn't all that bad.

Anyway, before you start, a few headcanons I mentioned/referenced, but didn't elaborate on:

Aiolia calls Aiolos adelfos, which is age-neutral Greek term for brother. Nii-san was sweet to hear from Aiolia's Japanese voice actor, but he's still Greek first and foremost, meaning he'd use Greek terms and not Japanese in my fic.

Mitsumasa Kido doesn't have birthday listed, so I arbitrarily decided to give him Scorpio as birth Zodiac sign.

Saga's darkness doesn't have a name yet.

Integra's name and parts of backstory I shamelessly borrowed from Saint Seiya Omega, but she's not that Integra.

Plus, thank you fantasy.92 and Meiyami for commenting! For fantasy.92 who wanted to know: yes, Yelena will still be a heavy influence in Hyoga and other kids' life, but that has also changed to fit this new fic.

Enjoy the story, everyone!

Saga leaned back into his chair, feeling the Pope helmet press into the top of his head, cut into the nape of his neck and strangle his temples. Why, oh why did he have to kill Shion? Not only that, he had also managed to get Aiolos, the only man he could consider his equal and his ultimate counterweight, killed. What would be coming next, ordering one of the higher-ranking Saints kill lower-ranking ones for questioning his decisions? Killing another Gold Saint if they disagreed with him?

He couldn't put his dark self above anything after last night.

Hehe, of course you can't, the monster spoke into his ear, and Saga moaned as he desperately fought to keep him under wraps. I'm your own darkness after all – everything you can think up, I can make happen sooner or later.

"Shut up!" Saga snarled, burying his face into his hands, not caring about the helmet's edges cutting into his palms and making them bleed all over the robes – they were dark enough to hide the stains for now, and no one would be surprised if some blood was on his robes. They'd just assume it was Aiolos' blood that sprayed him when Saga tried to stop him from killing Athena – a necessary deception at this point.

He had no intention of revealing it too – part of the reason why he asked Shura to bring Aiolos back was to stop anyone from questioning the nature of his and Aiolos' injuries and lack of any traces of what truly happened to Athena. He had to stay alive, he just had to – how else would he repent his own sins if he managed to die before Athena came back?

I hope my Lady comes back soon, I don't know how much control am I going to have over my own darkness.

A series of shouting and screams managed to reach his ears, despite him being on the top of the sacred hill: normally that'd be impossible, but almost directly underneath the Pope's residence, standing in the shadow of the Star Hill and its clock, was the coliseum the trainees and Saints used for training and sparring matches, and Saga had left the balcony doors open to catch fresh air.

Intrigued, he stood up and went out onto the balcony to see what was happening.

The source of the noise quickly became apparent: a gaggle of foot soldiers, trainees, and even some Bronze and Silver Saints had gathered at the entrance of the coliseum into three-file phalanx that would not allow a small group to come anywhere close to the Aries Temple. In the early morning's sun Saga could spot the tips of the golden horns peeking from the mass; so, Shura had returned, and apparently not empty-handed. As he watched, a child ran over to the group – Aiolia, Saga bit his lip when he recognized the distinct messy brown hair and the trainee getup with a Leo headpiece – and tried to strongarm his way through the phalanx to Shura.

However, it turned out to be a big mistake: about half of the phalanx stood unmoving, while the other half turned on Aiolia, surrounding him and starting to throw rocks and punches at him. Saga's heart broke, and a lump appeared in his larynx: what had the kid done?

He's a traitor's brother, and raised by him, his darkness cackled. How naive you are, Saga: of course they'll take their anger on him. Aiolos is dead, and beyond their power – the little lion cub certainly isn't.

No! Saga gripped the edge of the railing and cleared his throat, ready to shout down; Aiolia had nothing to do with this, had even supported Saga in his dreams of becoming a Pope to have more time with Aiolos! He would not let anyone harm him, not when his only fault was being a brother to a man who had Shion's favor over Saga!

However, before he could do anything – or had to do anything – a large burst of Cosmo knocked out everyone in the straight line between Shura and Aiolia, but without any significant damage from what Saga could tell. He didn't have an archer's sight, and Cosmo augmentation cold only push your normal senses so far, but the seventh sense was telling him no one had been badly hurt. However, the way people were knocked out were interesting; if he didn't know any better, Saga would've said they were all knocked with hyperfocused Atomic Thunderbolt, and no Sagittarius Saint was currently alive…

Movement near Shura caught Saga's eye: someone swathed in white started walking towards Aiolia through the cleared-out area, carrying a red, brown and white-colored sack…

No, it wasn't a sack, Saga realized with nausea rising up, and up, and up, until it hit the roof of his mouth. It was Aiolos' lifeless body, smeared in dirt and blood all over and wrapped in equally dirty white cloth Gold Saints used as cape, and the person who was most certainly not Shura was carrying it closer and closer to Aiolia. Not wanting to see the heartbreaking image anymore, Saga turned away, but his darkness halted his actions.

Hoho, you don't want to see who's the person carrying darling Aiolos? Who's the one who had more mercy for him than you? His darkness egged him on, stroking the fire of the natural inner curiosity Saga knew he shared with his fellow air signs and Gold Saints Camus and presumably Old Master Dokho (he had never met the man, so he couldn't be sure). Come, Saga, are you telling you're not jealous, not even a little?

Yes, Saga had to admit he was a little jealous of the unknown person who could touch and hold Aiolos without feeling disgusted at themselves for causing his death or ordering it happen. Oh, how he longed to explain things to Aiolos, to assure him he wasn't truly in control, that it was his darkness tugging the strings, the darkness that tried to kill Athena and not Saga, the Gemini Saint (he couldn't call himself the Pope now, not after killing the previous one and ordering the chosen successor assassinated). However, that feeling did not mean he would look at the person who brought Aiolos home; he didn't deserve it, and he feared he'd blow his cover if he came too close.

As he stood half-turned to the scene underneath him, he felt the oddest sensation of being watched: it was less two holes being burned into him and more of two gentle, heated needles poking him to get his attention. Succumbing to the lure of the sensation and his own curiosity, valiantly ignoring his darkness' glee, he turned and found the white-swathed figure again. They had reached Aiolia in the time Saga had turned his face away, and the little one was draped over Aiolos' dead body, probably bawling his eyes out. However, the person's gaze was not focused on the pair of brothers; instead, their head was lifted up, looking straight at Saga.

Saga shivered from the intensity of the gaze. Who was that person? Sharpening his eyesight with a delicate touch of Cosmo (not as much as Aiolos could, but then again he was the archer – he was trained for far sight in addition to augmentation), he managed to figure out more about them.

First, they were a he: a young man, maybe in his late teens or early twenties, with wild brown hair, reddish-brown eyes and distinctly Asian features. Second, what he thought was a white wrap around them were actually enormous, white wings that were tightly tucked to avoid bumping into anything. Saga would've even said this was one of Artemis' Angels, if not for the fact he had no mask on and his wings had no metallic sheen to them. Third, he was most certainly an archer, and a well-trained one, on par with a Sagittarius Saint: the narrowed eyes, one of which was almost completely closed, the stance, they all gave him away.

Hehe, one more toy to play with ~ Saga's darkness sing-sang in the back of Saga's mind, and Saga instantly pushed him down as he took in the scene.

Who was this new player, and why was he here? Was Saga going to have to pretend to be Shion, or could he just behave normally without worrying about them knowing anything? His face was slightly familiar… he'll have to check in the Saint records the Papal Office held before he decided anything.

Satisfied with his findings, Saga went inside to sort things out and find the Saint record book, completely missing the man's little smirk aimed his way.

"ADELFOS!"

Aiolia couldn't stop screaming, even though he could feel his throat getting scratchy and dry and knowing he'd not be able to speak in any volume except whisper for days afterward. He had to see his brother; it couldn't be true what everyone was saying, it just couldn't! His brother was wonderful, nice and cared about everyone, and was so loyal to Athena Aiolia even feared at one point he'd abandon Aiolia to spend all the time with the newborn baby. He could never try to kill Pope or Athena: that just wasn't who Aiolos was!

"LET ME THROUGH!" Aiolia screeched, fruitlessly struggling to get through the ring of men spitting jabs and insults at him and his brother without using any of the Leo House techniques: Pope's warnings about using the powers of Gold Saint against those who did nothing wrong still ringing in his mind.

The task proved to be impossible, though: the men were packed too close, their voices too loud to reach Shura on the other side (and Aiolia had to talk to him soon – why had he gone after his brother?), and the ring was coming closer and closer with every passing second, threatening to collapse on Aiolia. For the first time in his life, Aiolia was scared to death – what were those men going to do to him?

ADELFOS!

As if the Lady Athena herself looked down on her servants and took pity on him, a huge Cosmo appeared from the other side of the ring and shot straight for Aiolia, dropping the men down like flies, bloodlessly so, Aiolia noticed, before landing at his feet in the shape of the golden arrow.

Brother?

Aiolia didn't dare hope too much – while arrows weren't the sole property of the Sagittarius Saint, the only ones with permission to use gold ones were Sagitta and Sagittarius, and as far as Aiolia was aware there was no currently active Sagitta Saint. Aiolos had complained numerous times of the fact, wishing for the Cloth to finally choose a wearer so he could have a proper match in the archery – not even Saga was capable of truly matching him, despite the handicap of no Cosmo augmentation Aiolos imposed on himself.

Looking ahead, Aiolia first spotted Shura, fully decked in his Cloth and eyeing the Asian-looking man with pretty and huge white wings with a strange look Aiolia could not interpret. Behind him were a gaggle of men Shura took with himself, mostly House guards judging by the sigils on their breastplates, but those did not interest Aiolia too much.

His eyes searched for another glint of gold and the red bandana his brother never seemed to take off, claiming he wore it because he didn't want to cut his hair but also didn't want flyaways blocking his line of sight. Scanning the face of the winged man, he noticed he was alternating his gaze from something in his arms and the Pope's residence, and focused his gaze to his arms.

At first, Aiolia didn't really understand what was the man carrying in a princess-carry: it was larger than a sack, awkwardly shaped and wrapped in a white cloth that was smeared with dirt, dust and russet red patches Aiolia long since learned to associate with blood. As the man approached him carrying his cargo, Aiolia realized two things: first, the white cloth was part of the Gold Saint attire – he had washed his own and his brother's a few times when he got them dirty due to his own stupidity and then tried to hide the damage.

Second, a bright red bandana was peeking from underneath the white wrap, right were the object the man was carrying had a head-like shape.

"ADELFOS!" Aiolia cried out and rushed to the man, hands outstretched.

"Aiolia, get back!"

He had heard Shura's shout, but he didn't care anymore; the only thing important was seeing his brother – his body, a nasty part of his mind spoke up, but Aiolia beat it back. His brother couldn't be dead, right? He was so strong, and was the best at defending himself: there was no way he was dead! He was probably badly injured and the man who found him didn't want anyone to see how bad it is – it wouldn't be the first time.

He just needed one touch, one word from his brother, and then he'll leave it to Sanctuary's healers to fix up his brother; they always did so before, for big and small injuries everyone there went through.

"Aiolia, hm?"

Aiolia suddenly found himself stumbling back and falling to his bum, milliseconds before he managed to touch Aiolos. Looking up at the man's face, he was suddenly reminded of his brother and strangely enough of the portrait Shura kept in his House, the one of Capricorn Izo. He had that same facial structure as Master Izo, but his wine red eyes were soft, looking at Aiolia like Aiolos would always look at him when he was about to start talking about things Aiolia would have hard time understanding.

"Hey, Aiolia, my name's Tenma," the man awkwardly sketched a bow, trying not to jostle Aiolos too much, and Aiolia's fear lessened at the sight. This man was trying really hard not to injure his brother further. "I know you want to be with your brother, but I need to get him to the ninth House first."

"Ninth? Why not the healers at the coliseum?" Aiolia blinked. It was rare that the Saints got treated at the Houses: apparently, it was to teach them not to go overboard in training, and because it was a genuine hassle to get to higher-placed Houses in the Zodiac.

"Ah..." the man, Tenma looked away and up, and Shura interceded.

"Because we need to clean him there first."

Aiolia was still confused. Okay, it was true the healers never liked their patients dirty, something about the sanitary reasons and bacteria and infections; Aiolia didn't know anything about it, but Aiolos had drilled the respect for healers' orders into him, so he learned not to question them. But in the extreme cases like how Aiolos' seemed to be, no one cared about the protocol and did everything to fix the mess.

"But why? He's really hurt, why isn't he being taken to the healers?"

"Isn't it obvious, kid?" Deathmask, the annoying crab who liked to freak everyone out by sending them morbid gifts and whom Aiolia had to call his neighbor in the Zodiac appeared next to him. "He's dead!"

"Deathmask!" Shura snarled and the Crab Saint answered back, starting an argument, but Aiolia stopped caring at that point about everything happening around him.

Aiolos was… dead? That was why Tenma wasn't allowing with him to come close to the body? Now that he looked closer, he could see no signs of breathing, and his brother's head was covered as well, which would be stupid to do if the person was alive but not stupid if they were dead…

"It's okay to cry, kid," Tenma murmured over the sound of the argument, and Aiolia realized he had kneeled down to his level, bringing Aiolos down closer to Aiolia, and that his eyes were burning and leaking liquid. "Here, I can remove the wrapping from the head, but the rest you'll see only after I clean him up, mh? We'll send him off all pretty."

"I-I -" Aiolia couldn't put what he wanted to say in words; the words escaped him, the air didn't want to leave his lungs, and he felt flushes of hot and cold as he sat down on the cold ground, not moving and shaking despite the ground and air being quite warm still.

"I know," Tenma shook his head and gently removed the white cloth covering Aiolos' face.

Even in death, Aiolos was calm; there was no pain in his features, nor any damages to the head, Aiolia noted as he crawled over to look closely. The bandana was coming loose, and with shaky hands Aiolia fixed it back, tightening it just the way Aiolos had shown him. Brushing all the stray dirt from his cheeks and combing his brown hair with his fingers, Aiolia fell over his brother's lifeless body and started sobbing, Tenma shielding him from the sight with his white wings.

"He's playing with fire; we had stayed under Olympians' and Sanctuary's radar for so long, so why is he doing this?" Izo said, leaning back on his column.

Integra sighed as the arguments between the Celestial Guardians continued over Tenma coming down and Yelena and Asmita basically enabling him by either letting him go or not going after him. She personally couldn't care less if the Sanctuary re-learned of their existence – it wasn't like anyone living could reach their summit, the gorgeous council with no roof and hidden deep within the clouds that circled the Earth as their inhabitants checked over their charges and watched the world continue existing even after their formal physical death, and demand anything out of them. Olympians were specifically barred from entering as well, due to the fact quite a few Guardians had managed to piss off one deity or another during their lifetime, so the whole argument boiled down to the expression of 'beating the dead horse'.

"Quite annoying, aren't they?" Albafica came over to her from his column to sit, still keeping a polite distance from her and not touching her despite his blood not being poisonous to anyone for over two centuries. Integra found it a little charming and reassuring, that little habit of his: she also couldn't help but constantly look at the stars for hints about the future, opening Another Dimension regularly at random places just to be sure her mentally unstable sister Paradox hadn't appeared somewhere to wreak havoc. Of course, she could've just asked Hakurei or Yelena, who had far more experience and talent in reading the stars and winds, or Asmita to tap into eight sense and seek out Paradox's soul, but this was her own routine she carried over, and since no one asked or offered anything, she continued it.

"They are," Integra agreed, twirling her golden hair lock around her index finger. "I do wonder when they'll realize what the bigger problem is."

"Bigger… ah yes, of course," it dawned on Albafica, and he produced his red Royal Demon Rose to play with. "As Guardians, we should not interfere no matter what."

"Technically, Tenma's doing nothing wrong," Itta's voice came from up above, and Integra and Alabfica craned their heads up to see Itta, Guardian Libra, sitting on the top of Integra's column. "There is a precedence for what he's doing, because of the upcoming Holy War."

"There is?" Albafica twirled the stem of the rose, sounding as curious as a cat. The arguments around them lowered down in volume: everyone seemed eager to find out what their oldest member had to say.

"It's in the documents the Houses have," Itta shrugged, looking down on the eleven Celestial Guardians from his perch. "You would all know if you took your time going through your House's records."

"All that boring paperwork?" Francisca boomed, the most unbecoming grimace twisting his face, Integra thought. "Why bother when you and Aquarius Guardians do it for us anyways?"

"Lazy ass," Yelena rolled her eyes, but there was a soft smile on her face. "Yes, there is a precedence for Houses whose Saints die in the eve of the Holy War, and I suggested Tenma use it… temporarily."

"How temporary is it?" Izo immediately wanted to know, and Integra snorted. The ornery goat never liked changes in the routines.

"As long as the Cloth is unrecoverable, or the replacement Saint is found," was Itta's laconic answer, and Integra had to stop herself from laughing out loud.

Yes, such wonderful conditions they had to meet, find another Gold Saint candidate or recover the Gold Cloth from the fallen Saint. It was like choosing between the two Gemini temples once the Maze of Illusions was activated – both options were hellish, and if you had to, you'd rather not be offered the choice at all.

Scorpio Ecarlate did not bother with the restraint like Integra and laughed out loud, startling Aries Alen and Cancer Hakurei who were quietly talking with each other. Izo, Kaiser who so far had remained silent (a shocker, but even the dumb kitties knew when to shut up apparently) and Francisca all shot him dirty looks, but the man just didn't care and continued laughing.

"Yes, let's find another Saint who can reach the heights of the Gold Saints, or find a Cloth who could be in the last circle of Underworld for all we know – did the guy proposing this back then intentionally wanted to take a break from this job or something?"

Not exactly how Integra would've put it, but the idea behind was certainly something she'd been thinking about when Itta announced the conditions for return.

Itta and Yelena exchanged looks, and Integra's co-conspirator on Earth's lips twitched upward, cluing Integra in on the joke: Ecarlate must've struck far closer to home than what he may have intended to when he let out his words. Regardless, neither have spoken up, so Integra did not comment on it (though she had spotted Albafica's eyes narrowing before a small smile graced his unfairly pretty face).

"This means he'll be away for a while," Kaiser broke the silence, looking a little uncomfortable as everyone looked at him. "How will that change things here?"

"The shifts will have to switch around," Integra spoke up, finally in her own element and grudgingly thankful for Kaiser raising the point before she thought about it. "Yelena and Itta usually paired up with him, so they'll need new people to help them."

"I can finish my remaining shifts with him easily – it's only one more week," Yelena shrugged. "And as far as I know, Itta did his own before, so the only issue are the future shifts he's slated for and his record."

Integra took out the notebook with all the regular shift slots written in it, which she always carried just in case someone needed a last-minute switch, and flipped over to the Sagittarius slots. Going through, she found exactly was she thought she would find – most of the work he did was through May, June and July, with leftover work in late August and early September and mandatory month of day-watch during the time his sign reigned over humans. His volunteer time was also impressive: he had agreed to switch with other Guardians quite a few times, so there was no real pbjections to be raised over his record.

"The only problem I see is his normal day-watching time," Integra informed them, closing the notebook. "His record is otherwise exemplary."

"He has grown a lot," Asmita spoke gently, and everyone fell quiet to listen to Virgo Guardian.

Integra didn't, as a rule, like her fellow Saints just because they were her colleagues, but Virgo Saints always seemed to be, if not liked, then at least well thought of, and Asmita was no exception to the rule. He was very different from the Virgo Saint she knew when she was alive, but they both did have the same ability to make everyone at least listen to them in full before arguing with them to kingdom come.

"He has grown, and I believe he will continue observing his duty as he swore to when he became one of our members," Asmita said with a final nod to Yelena, Itta and Integra. "While it will tax us, we must also remember the trying times that are headed for the Sanctuary and our Lady."

"Speaking of which, what will we do about Lady Athena?" Ecarlate demanded, tapping his right index finger which hid Scarlet Needle to his other hand. "She certainly cannot stay ignorant of her powers and responsibilities, and the man Sagittarius kid handed her to is not exactly a model man to raise a just Goddess."

"You know that how exactly?" Kaiser raised an eyebrow, and Ecarlate huffed.

"You dumb overgrown cat, of course I know – he was born under my sign!"

"Who did you just call dumb cat?" Kaiser said with a soft hiss, and a subsonic growl of a Nemean Lion echoed throughout the chamber.

"Enough you two!" Albafica had had enough, and threw several Piranhian Roses at them, forcing them to disengage and focus on him; Integra had to commend him for not reacting earlier to the idiocy.

"No need for Pirahnians, Albafica," Kaiser all but pouted, and Integra rolled her eyes. Truly, this one deserved to be called dumb cat.

"Ecarlate does have a good point," Izo also joined in, coming down to talk as well. "We cannot simply have our Lady handed to someone and hope for the best possible education."

"I think you are all worrying too much," Hakurei relaxed in his seat, sounding quite bored. "Athena's future is heavily intertwined with some of her Saints already."

"Is that so?" Izo turned to the once-Pope. "The stars told you?"

"Not exactly," here Hakurei grinned at Yelena, who shifted a little in her place. "How's the little one?"

"He's fine," Yelena said shortly. "And I'd like to note that just because he is the likeliest of the candidates to succeed Camus, it does not mean he'll come close to Athena."

Hakurei didn't deign this with the answer, leaving Integra to speculate on what was happening here.

Several nights afterwards

Natasha was rudely woken from her sleep by the incessant banging on her front door and her little Alexei's cries at the most ridiculous time of night – to call it dead of the night would be a severe understatement. According to her old clock, it was way past four in the morning, and the snowstorm outside was mercilessly battering the walls of the house – no one sane or honest should be knocking on her door.

However, there was a small possibility it was someone who needed help...

"Who?" she murmured, pattering blearily to the door, snagging a pocket torchlight from the desk and taking Alexei into her arms, who quietened the moment she hoisted him up. "Shh, zvyezdochka, mama is here."

"Ma-ma," Alexei babbled, waving his hands to her face, and Natasha smiled indulgently at him. "Ma-ma!"

The banging came again, and Alexei fell silent, piecing blue eyes Natasha hoped he would never grew out of focused unnervingly on the front door.

"Da?" Natasha called, approaching the door and opening it a smidge. "Who's there?"

"Your dear friend, Natalia," a familiar female voice murmured from the other side.

"Oh, Yelena! I wasn't expecting you!" Natasha flung open her doors wide to let the blond, blue-eyed friend of hers she had met in her travels around Europe in. "How did you come here, the snow storm is terrible right now?"

"Ah, Natalia, is your memory that of an elephant or of a goldfish?" Yelena chuckled, closing the doors behind herself and taking off her long cloak, revealing the same clothes she always seemed to wear: white Greek-style dress with the wide belt, golden armlets and anklets with Aquarius sign etched into them and sandals. "I like cold."

"I still don't understand how does being born under Aquarius correlates with your inhuman resistance to cold," Natasha murmured, rocking Alexei until his eyes closed completely.

"It's better you don't know," Yelena shook her head and went to the stove. "Vodka or tea?"

"Tea, vodka makes me sleepy and Alexei likes to wake at all times of the day," Natasha sat down, gently carding her fingers through Alexei's fine blonde hair. "How are you?"

"I could be better, but that's a long story I don't have time to tell you properly," Yelena sighed, turning on the stove and putting on the kettle. "Is Hyoga better?"

"Alexei," Natasha corrected her friend gently. "His father calls him Hyoga, but for me he's my little Alexei."

"Alexei Hyoga then? It's a pretty name," Yelena smiled as she turned around and leaned on the stove. "I'm glad he's better now – he gave even me a scare back then, the silly thing."

"I know," Natasha spoke, cradling Alexei closer at the reminder. "Thank you for helping me warm him up. I've been locking all the doors and windows ever since."

She still had no idea how her little one managed to get out of his crib, out of the house and to the one of the largest glacier spires in the vicinity before falling asleep there and nearly dying of hypothermia. Natasha had almost died of worry when Yelena, who had been visiting at the time, brought Alexei in, lips still blueish but slowly recovering under her ministrations. It was the first time she was grateful for the fact her friend's body temperature was slightly lower than normal, for it allowed for a smoother rise of Alexei's body temperature and lessening the chance of him getting hypothermia.

"Good. He looks a lot like you," Yelena said, looking at Alexei with soft gaze. "I don't see a lot of his father in him."

"No, I suppose not," Natasha agreed with a soft sigh. "But I don't mind it too much. He was a nice man, but I'm not sure he'd be a good father."

"I see," Yelena looked troubled. "That makes his recent adoption even more worrying..."

"He adopted a child?" Natasha blinked, and Alexei shifted in her grip a little. "I haven't heard about it yet – the news come slowly here."

"The stories are contradictory, but most agree he adopted her in Greece and brought her to Japan," Yelena relayed it to her. "Some even say a dying man gave his own child away to him to save the baby girl from a fate worse than death."

"Oh no," Natasha covered her mouth with the hand she could spare. "What horrible luck..."

She had never imagined this happening to Alexei, and she fervently prayed to the God to protect her baby from such a fate.

"M-hm," Yelena hummed and turned to the whistling kettle. "He might at one point even ask you to send Alexei to him."

"To keep the girl company?" Natasha guessed, frown appearing on her face. "I don't like it… a girl and a boy, with only him and his hired help as the supervisor and no female influence is not exactly a good idea."

"You could always go with him," Yelena shrugged, pouring them tea and carrying it to the small coffee table. "To make sure everything is okay."

"If he calls, of course I will," Natasha nodded with a firm dedication. "But please promise me: if anything happens to me, take care of Alexei. I know you're really busy," she stopped Yelena before she could open her mouth to protest, "but at least make sure he's not growing up all alone in the world."

"You're asking a lot out of me," Yelena sighed, looking forlornly into her teacup, "but I promise."

"I won't leave Alexei Hyoga alone."