"This is Tat-chan!" Eiri said proudly, introducing the one-year-old to their older sister. Mika looked down at the child and smiled slightly. It had been a year, and this was the first time she had ever seen her baby brother outside of the hospital.

"Tat-chan?" she asked skeptically.

"Hai! It's short for Tatsuha. I named him for Mommy."

"You named him?"

"Hai!"

"Why?"

"'Cause you and Daddy didn't. Wanna hold him?"

"Sure." Mika held her arms out, but the moment the baby left Eiri's arms, he started screaming. Eiri and Mika both winced, and Mika hurriedly handed the baby back to her younger brother. Tatsuha's crying ceased instantly. "I don't think he likes me."

"Maybe he just doesn't know you?" Eiri suggested, rocking the baby in his arms.

"Maybe."

~

"Tat-chan! Tat-chan? Tat-chan, where are you?" Eiri began to panic when he still could not find his brother. Soft giggling to his right told him where the toddler was hiding, and his relief was etched across his features. "Tatsuha, don't do that! I was scared! That was very mean of you."

The two-year-old hung his head and stared at the ground. "Gomen, Aniki," he sniffled. Eiri knelt down and hugged him.

"It's okay, but you'd better hurry, or we'll miss Oneesan's wedding and everyone will be mad at us." It had been two years since Eiri had made the vow to care for and raise his younger brother. Eiri had turned eight not lone before, and Tatsuha was two. Mika was sixteen, and had accepted Tohma Seguchi's marriage proposal. Their father was proud of her, and had taken time from his shrine duties to attend the wedding.

"Hello, who are you?" Eiri looked into the smiling blond's face and hid Tatsuha behind his back. "I'm Eiri. Who are you?"

"Hello, Eiri. I'm Tohma. Your brother-in-law." Tohma continued smiling, even though he was concerned about Eiri's reluctance to open up to him, or to let him see the dark-haired child behind his back. "Who is this?" Tohma asked, indicating the toddler. Eiri moved so he was between his brother and his sister's husband. The older boy seemed nice enough, but so had Daddy.

"That's Tatsuha. He's my brother. We gotta go now. It was nice to meet you." Eiri turned and walked away, gently pushing Tatsuha forward as well. Tohma was about to follow when he felt a presence at his side. He turned and saw his friends Ryuichi and Noriko talking to his new wife. Standing next to them was their American friend, K. None of them knew his real name, but they knew he had a wife, and that he was a secret service agent for America. Tohma walked over to the group, struggling to bring up his usual smile.

"What's wrong, Tohma?" Noriko asked. At fourteen, she was already showing signs of becoming a great beauty. The others turned their attention to him and he grinned, shaking his head.

"Nothing really. I just met my new brothers, and I can't help but wonder what's with Eiri-chan."

"What makes you think something's wrong?" Mika asked, worry and defensiveness struggling for control in her voice.

"Just the way he responded to me. He stayed between me and Tatsuha-chan the entire time, and it looked like he thought I would hit him."

"Oh, he's still just getting used to our mother's death. He'll grow out of it. He is only eight after all," Mika answered, dismissing the worry. K was the only one who saw the two children standing in the corner of the room, the fair-haired one cleaning his little brother up and acting too responsible for a child his age.

~

"I'm just saying that it might do some good if I took him!"

"And what, husband of mine, do you expect to happen to Tatsuha? You know the two of them have a strong bond. It would kill him to have Eiri taken away!"

"He'll survive, He'll be starting Preschool soon anyway, so it's not like he can't use the practice."

"He has practice! Eiri does go to school! However, they always see each other after school!"

"Do you really think it's such a bad idea?" Tohma asked. Mika wilted onto the bed, shaking her head in the negative.

"No, I just have a bad feeling about it. Tatsuha loves him so much. I mean, it's normal for children to look up to older siblings, but Tat-chan absolutely adores Eiri."

"I'm sure he'll be okay. Besides, I still need to get your father's permission before I take a ten-year-old to America."

~

"Tat-chan?"

"Hai?"

"Gomen."

"For what, Aniki?"

"Daddy says I have to go to America with Tohma. I can't take you with me."

"But- "

"Daddy already said he would take care of you, and he does a good job when he doesn't remember Mommy. You'll be okay, and I'll be back in a year."

"That's when I'm a whole hand big?" [1]

"Yeah. You'll be five."

"Do you have to go?"

"Yeah, sorry."

"But you'll come back?"

"Of course!"

"Promise?"

"I promise, Tat-chan. I'll come back."

()() Present Time ()()

"Is that when you met Yuki?" Shuichi asked. Yuki nodded. Tatsuha and Ryuichi were quiet. Ryuichi because he remembered Tohma's wedding, and Tatsuha because he was hearing things that he had never heard before. He hadn't known that grief was what made Eiri first start to take care of him, but it made sense.

"Father still hadn't started taking care of us?" Tatsuha asked, not remembering much of that time period.

"No. He didn't start taking care of you until after I left. He's never taken care of me, though. If you remember, when I first got back, it was Tohma that actually made sure I was okay, and you're the only one who could get me to live."

"What do you mean 'live'?" Ryuichi asked.

"When I first got back from America, I was in shock. I only ate when someone forced me to, and I only ever talked to Tatsuha. I stopped talking at school, and I never said a word to anyone but Tat until about a year after I got back. Tatsuha was about six by that time, so he might be able to remember a little more of what happened.

()() Ten Years Earlier ()()

"Aniki? Aniki, please eat this! I know it's your favorite, I watched you make it before you left!" Eiri turned dead eyes to Tatsuha, and numbly held the bowl. He looked down and stared at the chocolate, not really seeing it. "Aniki, say something! Please, anything! Just don't leave me again." Eiri looked back up at his brother. Tatsuha was crying, begging him to talk. Eiri moved over to sit next to Tatsuha and put a hand on the younger child's shoulder.

"I'm still here Tat-chan, but it hurts. It hurts so much. I'm here, but I'm dead. Eiri's dead."

"What are you saying, Aniki?"

"I… Something happened when I was in New York. Something I can't tell you about right now. Gomen, but I can't talk about it to anyone."

"I don't wanna know what happened in New York, Aniki. Can you talk about something else?"

~

"I'm not Eiri anymore." Everyone in the room stared at the twelve-year-old in shock. He had just spoken for the first time in a year. No one in the room knew about his and Tatsuha's private conversations, so they didn't know that he talked nearly every night. Tohma offered the child a small smile that Eiri did not return.

"If you're not Eiri anymore, then who are you?" Tohma asked him, as if speaking to a very small child who had no idea what he was saying.

"I'm not Eiri Uesugi anymore. I'm Yuki Eiri." Tohma's smile froze at the name that only he and Mika recognized, but the smile still stayed in place until the child's next words. "Please don't call me Eiri anymore Seguchi-san." Eiri had never felt comfortable enough to call Tohma Oniisan, but until that time, he had never been so formal with his brother-in-law.

The others gathered in the room stared at Tohma, not knowing what kind of reaction to expect. They had been discussing business and what to do about Eiri, because the child's teachers had been sending home complaints concerning his lack of social skills. In the room at that time were Tohma and Mika, Ryuichi, Noriko, K, and Mika and Eiri's father. A year prior to taking Eiri to New York, Tohma and his two friends had formed the band Nittle Grasper, and a year later, K had become their manager.

"You can't just change your name," Eiri's father told him. Eiri stared at the man in defiance.

"Why not? It's my name, isn't it?"

"You can't change your name!" The shrine owner towered over his son, shouting. The blond child continued to stare at him, seemingly unaffected by his father's voice and threatening stance.

"Daddy?" The tiny voice brought all the attention in the room toward it. Tatsuha stood in the doorway, looking like he was about to cry.

"What is it, Tatsuha?" he asked, walking towards his youngest child.

"You aren't gonna hit Aniki, are you?" His innocent question stopped everyone in the room.

"Why would you think I was going to hit him?"

"Because you looked really mad and your hand was above his face."

"I wouldn't hit him."

"Yeah, Tat. Father would never hit me," Eiri reassured his younger brother. "I almost wish he would, though." And with that said, Yuki walked out of the room.

~

A/N: Yeah, I'm kinda leaving you hanging there, but I'm getting tired and I still have stuff to do tonight before I can go to bed. Don't worry, I will explain that comment in a later chapter (if I remember writing it! ^^) Please review and let me know if you thought it was good or bad or if it just needed a little more work.

[1] – I heard a kid say this once. You know how they measure how old they are by the number of fingers they hold up? Well, there's five fingers on a hand, so…

Oh, and if their ages get confusing, in the first flashback scene, subtract sixteen years from everyone's ages. (I'm making Mika 30 in the present time.) When Tat-chan is two, subtract fourteen years from everyone's age. In this chapter, subtract ten years from everyone's age. That's all.