Eighteen

"Aniki," he murmured. He was rooted to the floor in shock. But fought that as he threw his older brother onto the floor making the already bloody knife skid across the floor to where Fuji could not reach it. Yuuta slapped his brother hard and Fuji didn't bother to fight back. He just laid there lifeless and bloody and cried. Yuuta began to cry with him and held him close; not even caring that his clothes were going to be dirty.

Yuuta stripped his brother down and carried him into the bathroom that was connected to the master bedroom and laid Fuji in the tub. He turned on the water setting it to a warm temperature and let it fill. The water turned red; but Yuuta knew that Fuji would be alright. He was a fast healer and had not cut himself to death. Fuji just tended to loose a lot of blood even from a pinprick and Yuuta should know.

"Aniki, what happened?" whispered Yuuta.

Fuji's eyes opened after being closed since he was in the water. His eyes looked empty and broken instead of the previous tear and insane filled look that Yuuta witnessed when he walked in the door. Tears leaked out from his eyes but he smiled softly.

"He left the country to escape from all that is here," was all he murmured before his eyes close again. Yuuta continued to wash his brother. He cleaned up and let his brother soak in the water. He cleaned up the glass; placed the knife in the kitchen sink, and changed the sheets. Yuuta lifted his brother from the tub and drained the water after dressing him into some loose sleep garments and placing Fuji's small form into bed.

Yuuta knew who his older brother was talking about. He was angry at him. He was angry that he had hurt his brother. Tezuka has left; probably either telling Fuji in the harshest way possible or not telling him at all and leaving letting the tensai figure out for himself.

"Everything will be okay Aniki, I promise. Syusuke go to sleep everything will be okay. I promise," whispered Yuuta.

Syusuke gave a small broken smile and his eyes slid slowly shut as he drifted off into slumber. Yuuta clenched his fists tighter until he felt the pain of his nails tearing skin and cried silent tears. He didn't want to see his brother like this. He didn't want to see Syusuke broken and tattered to pieces because the love of his life left without even saying goodbye or having any hesitation what-so-ever. Yuuta quietly made his way downstairs into the den were various pictures a lined shelves.

If anything they were all taken by his brother himself. One of them was in a forest area when the picture was taken and probably was taken before Tezuka left for Germany because of how young everyone looked in the picture. All of Seigaku's regulars stood there looking happy huddled up in a group. Syusuke had once mentioned to Yuuta about taking pictures before Tezuka left for Germany. Oishi their vice-captain had suggested they should go hiking; this was before they knew Tezuka was leaving. They had all left late and stayed up all night just to see the sunset.

There were other pictures. Ones taken during everyone's highschool years. There was Eiji and Oishi together after what seemed like a long doubles match. None the less they looked happy. Eiji Kikumaru's bright blue eyes glittered in the picture as one arm was around Oishi; and the other was up his two slender fingers making a peace sign. His head leaned against Oishi's shoulder. Oishi himself was looking at Eiji looking as though he was laughing. He had his arm around Eiji's waist and looked just a happy. In the picture you could automatically see that the Golden Pair was very happy and there was nothing to break them apart.

There was one picture that caught Yuuta's eye. One that probably was taken on their last full day of school. It wasn't taken by Syusuke; Yuuta could tell. His brother eyes were open in the picture and beside him in the picture was none other than Tezuka Kunimitsu. Both seemed unaware of the camera as their fingers intertwined as they held hands. They looked at the sakura tree above them as the bright pink petals danced with the wind. It was a beautiful picture; one that Fuji probably cherished the most out of his collection.

"You said you had nowhere to go. Why did you leave him? You left him broken and nobody but you can pick up those pieces," whispered Yuuta. He whipped out his cell phone and called up Mizuki telling him to come over thinking that Mizuki could help take care of his brother. He was over right away thanks to having a car. His sister's old Honda; but it still was a new car since she had gotten herself a new Lexus just this year. Or at least that's what Haruko said.

"What happened to you?" asked Mizuki his dark blue eyes going wide.

Yuuta looked down at himself and rolled his eyes. His clothes were bloody thanks to his brother; but at this moment he wasn't the one who was hurt.

"Nothing is wrong with me. It's my brother we need to worry about," Yuuta answered darkly.

"Y-Your brother..? What happened!"

"That son of a bitch is what happened Mizuki. He promised my brother that they would go to the top together. He promised him! Tezuka said he had nowhere to go that there would be n reason to leave him. I don't exactly know what the hell happened and all but it about killed my brother! Syusuke was about to fucking die if it wasn't for me coming over when I did!" spat out Yuuta his eyes dark with anger and hatred as he went on with the sentences.

Mizuki placed a hand on Yuuta's shoulder and squeezed a little making Yuuta wince.

"Yuuta-kun calm down alright? I know it's really hard for you to right now and I don't blame you. Please Yuuta, relax just a little and I'll help you through this. Most of all I'll help your brother through this if he'll allow me to," he whispered.

Yuuta closed his eyes. Mizuki was right; he'd have to take this all in calmly or he wouldn't be able to help his brother.

"Mizuki; I'll have to stay here for the night to make sure he's going to be okay," he said.

"Then I'll stay with you. If you happen to want to fall asleep leave everything to me. I'll take care of your brother when he wakes up," said Mizuki.

Yuuta smiled and kissed him softly on the lips.

"Thank you. I know this isn't exactly your-"

"Whatever burdens you Yuuta, burdens me. Remember, we're together now and everything we face we face together," Mizuki reminded him.

"Alright. I'm going to watch after Aniki for awhile. I'll tell you when I'm heading to bed. For now just make yourself at home," said Yuuta.

Mizuki nodded and watched Yuuta head upstairs.

Mizuki looked at various trinkets that laid on the tables from where Fuji was not finished unpacking yet. There was quite a couple beautiful glass objects of swans, crystal balls, and a lot of dragons believe it or not. They probably would look beautiful in daylight making the whole room glisten and glitter as the sun hit the crystal. There were other small things, cacti that was near the window. Probably Fuji was going to place them outside when he got the time to do so.

Mizuki decided to go up stairs and see both brothers. He opened the door to see Yuuta asleep on his brother's lap and Syusuke wide awake, stroking his brother's hair. His eyes shot up as Mizuki entered the room. Mizuki saw fear in those eyes but hatred too. But he dismissed it he was here because Yuuta wanted him here.

"I didn't know that you had came as well," said Fuji.

"I came because Yuuta wanted me to. You gave him quite a scare you know? Me too at the matter," Mizuki replied. Finally Fuji Syusuke was actually talking to him without being a jerk about it!

"You have no clue what happened." Hissed Fuji.

"Yuuta told me that Tezuka left. I'm not that clueless Fuji-san and might I tell you that I also know you're in love with him!" snapped Mizuki.

Fuji looked taken aback.

"How would you know?"

"Because one time I was just as broken as you. I know how you feel; the only difference is that I can't bring the person I loved back because something happened. I know you love Tezuka out of common sense. I saw you two at graduation and I know you care about him deeply. Enough to where you'd be in this condition," replied Mizuki.

"What happened to the person you loved?" asked Fuji looking down at the covers.

"Not that it's any of your business. He died. For a very long while Fuji-san, I thought it was my fault. For many years I thought that," began Mizuki and he glanced at Yuuta once before continuation-"But someone made me realize that it wasn't fault; that I just ended up being in the middle of it. That the person I loved just had a decision to make and he chose one out of the many alternatives he had."

Fuji smirked.

"It was a he?"

Mizuki rolled his eyes.

"And Tezuka isn't?" he snapped.

There was a long silence and then.

"You need to stay out of this for your own good. Stay away from my little brother too while you're at it. Go home Mizuki-san," ordered Fuji.

Mizuki shook his head no.

"I'm not leaving. Yuuta wanted me to be here and I'm not leaving until he tells me to go. Whatever his burden is, it's my burden too," he answered.

"I could care less. Get out, you're trespassing my property," snapped Fuji.

Mizuki sighed and glanced back only once before leaving Fuji's room and heading downstairs and out the door. Hopefully someone would be able to help him.

(A/N: I hope this answered some questions that some of you had in this fic as well as 'Memory'. Mizuki and Fuji absolutely do not get along ne? It's amusing; it truly is. I hope you all stay around for the next chapter! Especially those of you who've read 'Memory'! )