Disclaimer: I do not and will never own YnM, all the characters are the sole property of Yoko Matsushita. I'm merely borrowing them.

A/N: Sorry that I took so long to update . . . Had writer's block . . . Here's the next piece, enjoy! And thank you for keeping up with my story, Ama and Loretta! XD

Pieces of Me

Chapter 9: Saying Goodbye?

By: LadyYuina

Tsuzuki rummaged through his father's belongings. Something shiny caught his eye. Upon closer inspection it was a silver chained necklace. Tsuzuki fingered the exotic carvings that were engraved on the heart shaped piece.

"That's mother's necklace," Ruka said, standing behind him. "That was the first piece of jewelry that we found you--I mean that was the first piece of jewelry that father gave mother."

Not really thinking over what she just almost let slip he said, "it's beautiful."

"I'm surprised he still had it." Ruka rummaged through a box that had some antiques in it. "Think we should sell these?"

Tsuzuki turned in her direction and eyed the box. "Should we?"

"Father's will didn't mention anything about these . . ."

"Oh yeah . . ." Tsuzuki replayed the will in his mind.

This is my will and if you are reading this I am no longer alive. Asato, Ruka, I want you two to remain together and keep the house. All the money that I hid under the chest of clothes, you two can have. Everything in the house belongs to the both of you now, even my belongings. Do what you like with them. Goodbye.

The will was short and simple but it meant everything to Tsuzuki and Ruka. Owning everything in the house really took it's toll on them as they couldn't really decide on what to get rid of and what to keep.

A soft tapping was heard from the front door.

"Can you go answer that, Tsuzuki?"

"Sure," Tsuzuki said as he quickly got up. It wasn't surprising when he saw Ruka's friends at their front doorstep.

"Oh, Tsuzuki, hey. I'm sorry about your father, we just heard about the news," Benito solemnly said.

"It's okay . . . come on in." He moved out of the way as Benito, Joruri and Kohei walked in.

"Oh, hey guys, glad you all could come. Tsuzuki and I sure can use some help," Ruka said.

"We'll gladly help, what do you want us to do?" Joruri asked. Her short jet black curls lightly brushed the tips of her shoulders. Ruka looked over at the statues that were by the kitchen. "Help me move some of those statues to the living room, I need to sort them out."

"Okay, we'll get to it," Benito replied.

Once Ruka's friends were out of earshot, Tsuzuki asked, "are you sure you want to sell everything of dad's?" This was starting to make him feel as if she was getting rid of stuff to save up money so they could move out but that wasn't the case.

"I never said I was going to sell everything." Ruka presented him with a short-lived scowl.

"But it seems like you're going to."

"Don't worry about it, if there's something you want to keep, just tell me."

Tsuzuki started down at the necklace that was in his hand. "For starters, I'll keep this necklace of mom's."

"Suit yourself."

Tsuzuki pocketed the precious treasure. He stared at the calendar on the wall. "Dad's funeral is this Sunday?"

"Yeah… we decided together, don't you remember?" Ruka picked up something out of a dusty box and examined it. Tsuzuki creased his brows. "I don't remember agreeing to it."

"You were worn out, I guess you weren't really thinking about it when we discussed it."

"Hmmm, okay." He grabbed a book he saw lying by the bookshelf to their right living room wall and pulled it out. It was a photo album. "I never saw this photo album."

"Hm?"

"Ruka!" Joruri shouted.

"Hang on Tsuzuki, I'll be right back. Coming Ju!" Her footsteps disappeared down the hallway.

Tsuzuki softly rubbed his palm on the hilt of the photo album cover. The soft, dusty leather felt comforting to the touch. He gasped when he opened it, on the first page was his mother. Her gentle smile radiated from the page.

Mom.

"Ooohhh, you found this photo album," Ruka explained, as she stood behind her brother. He turned his head slightly to acknowledge her presence. "It's been missing for twelve years, I remember when father was searching for it but he never found it."

"It was in the bookshelf with all the other books." Tsuzuki replied as he let out a dry chuckle. Ruka swatted him on the head and laughed with him. "Mom looks really pretty. Her eyes are like the depths of the sea."

Ruka laughed. "I'm gonna go ahead and get the rest of the stuff moved, you can keep looking in it."

Tsuzuki watched her walk off as she made her way towards Kohei. His attention was then reverted back to the page that was laid out before him. He went on to the next one to see a photo of himself, his little chubby cheeks stuck out as he held onto his mother. The next one down showed Ruka and Tsuzuki hugging when he was just three, his face looked a little blue.

"Haha, you're hugging me too tightly," Tsuzuki mumbled out loud to himself. He continued to scroll through the rest of the photos, some brought back memories while some were left to his imagination.

That night at dinner, Ruka, Tsuzuki and her friends had a discussion about the future.

"So, Ruka, you think you'll ever get married?" Joruri asked.

Ruka blushed and said, "I haven't found anyone suitable yet."

"What about you, Tsuzuki?" Kohei asked. "After all, we aren't getting any younger, you're twenty-six right?"

Tsuzuki nodded his head. "And Ruka is now thirty."

"We're all getting old," Kohei complained. He placed his elbows up on the dinner table and leaned his chin on his hands. "I want to have kids someday too."

"How old are you?" Tsuzuki asked.

Kohei grunted in disgust. Tsuzuki didn't know whether it was directed at him for asking this question or it was proclaimed to Kohei himself. In a uneasy way, Tsuzuki stared at Kohei as he continued to grunt to himself. The others exchanged nervous glances before placing their gaze on Kohei again.

"Did I-"

"No, you didn't say anything to offend me if that's what you're thinking. I'm forty-two years old." Kohei sighed this time and plopped is head into his hands.

Tsuzuki's eyes grew overwhelmingly large. "What! You look like you're in your twenties!"

"Haha, you kidding me? He looks like a teenager!" Joruri added. She lightly elbowed Kohei who still had his head in his hands and he was now doing a shaking movement of the head. Benito stared at him, when he didn't look up he asked, "you okay? Did we hurt your feelings?" Kohei still didn't look up but now his shoulders started to tremble.

"Kohei?" Ruka asked, uncertain of what to expect.

"Uuueeeehhhhh, you guys are the best!" Kohei bounced out of his chair and hugged Joruri. "Do I really look that young?" Everyone burst out laughing.

Ruka eyed him closely. "You really do, now that I think about it. You're so lucky to have such a young looking face and a fit body."

"Is it because of his chocolate brown eyes that makes him look young? If that is so, I think he looks like a kid," Tsuzuki said.

"Tsuzuki!" Kohei said jokingly. "If I look like a kid then you look like a middle aged man!"

"Ahem guys, aren't we a little off the subject?" Benito asked. "Let's get back to the conversation at hand."

"Right," they chorused.

"Mind helping me with the invitation cards, Tsuzuki?" Ruka handed him a pile of blank cards.

"Sure, what do you want me to do?"

"Help me write down the dates, I'll do the rest," Ruka instructed.

"Okay."

"We'll give them out today, better to let people know well before the funeral."

Tsuzuki gave her a funny look, in which she returned one of her own. "Um . . . the funeral is in three days, you call that early?"

"Hum . . . I guess not, oh well."

Pretty soon they were out on the road. They went from house to house of their father's many friends. "How many friends does he have?" Tsuzuki asked.

"A lot."

"This might take all day," Tsuzuki whined. He glimpsed a cotton candy stand which made him stop immediately. "Let's take a break and get something sweet to eat. Like cotton candy for example!"

"Soon okay? I want to pass out a few more."

At one of the crossings that Tsuzuki and Ruka were going over a out of control carriage came wheeling by. "Watch out!" Tsuzuki shouted as he pushed his sister out of the way. A horse neighed and the sounds of bones crushing, limbs tearing, and screaming could be heard. Blood splattered onto Ruka's face.

Wide eyed she cried out her brother's name over and over. "Tsuzuki! On no . . . Tsuzuki! Tsuzuk. . .!"

Out on the street was the mangled form of Tsuzuki Asato. A bright and a usually cheerful man, only twenty-six years of age, and he almost saw his life flash before his very eyes… Brunette hair bathed in blood matted his cheeks and forehead. Slow, uneven breaths rose and fell with the erotic beating of his heart as he struggled to breathe. He had went into shock and didn't feel any of the pain.

Shouting at the top of her lungs, Ruka cried, "someone call for the ambulance! He needs medical attention right away!" A crowd had gathered around the body of Tsuzuki. Paramedics soon arrived and rook him to Muraki Inc. Hospital.

"Dear lord, this one looks really bad. Think he's gonna make it?"

"Hmmm, not sure."

"He's in shock, he doesn't feel any pain but when he recovers he will so bring over some painkillers, Nanami."

"Okay."

"He has . . .let's see . . ." Upon inspection of the body, face, arms and legs the doctor found a lot of injuries. "Three broken ribs, an arm, six toes, fractured skull, internal bleeding and a busted nose. Get me the tubes. He can barely breathe on his own any longer."

"We need to stop the internal bleeding first."

"What type blood is he?" A piece of paper was passed around to a pair of gloved, bloodied hands. "Type A."

"Going to get some now, he's losing a lot."

"Guys hurry up with the tools, this patient needs to be cut open as soon as possible. (A/N: I don't really know the procedures that a doctor goes through and I'm pretty sure someone with that many injuries cannot survive for long but . . . Tsuzuki is tough! Tsuzuki is the bomb! LoL . . . He'll live . . .) Sedate him, Kotarou."

Tsuzuki watched as the men and women scurried around his body, sticking tubes and stickers here and there along his entire body. Despite all their probing and touching, he couldn't feel a single thing. A gas mask was placed over his face, his eyes drifted shut within moments.

Ruka once again found herself waiting in the waiting area. She could remember the day she was here huddled in Tsuzuki's arms and having a conversation with him. She moved around every so often and kept glancing at the clock. This reminded her too much of the time of their father. She didn't want to lose Tsuzuki either, like she had already lost her mother and father. She never expected to say goodbye to him . . .just yet . . .

He's such an idiot! Why did he push me out of the way! That should have been me! It's all my fault!

Ruka stayed till she was forced to go. "Miss, you've been here all day, please go home and get some rest. Get cleaned up even." Ruka slowly opened her eyes, they were bloodshot. Her hair was greasy and her face had blood splattered here and there.

"No . . . I need to stay."

"You're Tsuzuki Ruka, correct?" the man asked. She nodded. "Asato is still in intensive care, please go home and get some rest."

With much urging, Ruka was taken home. Stumbling into the bathroom she went into the shower fully clothed. Tears intermingled with the warm water that rained down upon her head. Red water could be seen as it went down the shower drain.

Tsuzuki . . . I'm not going to say goodbye to you. You better hang on . . .