Disclaimer: I don't own anything!

Author's Note: I have finally found something I hate more than math. The dentist. Just thought I'd share.

I was fortunate enough to be able to go to Megacon and Wicked in the same day. Absolutely incredible.

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There's no other love like the love for a brother. There's no other love like the love from a brother. ~Astrid Alauda

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Yuan flopped back on the bed, not minding when Kratos did the same not a moment later, lying partially on his arm. He was aching in places he wasn't sure it was possible to have aches, but he didn't mind them because it meant that things were changing. "That old man's crazy."

Kratos turned his head so he could see Yuan properly. "He's helping us."

"I know. Doesn't mean he isn't crazy. Sometimes I think he'll run us into the ground with those drills of his." But something about Yuan thrived under that kind of pressure, when people worked him so hard that they thought he might fail. Something inside him rose up, rebelled and made him work even harder, push farther.

"Y'know…this means people won't be able to push us around anymore."

Yuan smiled. He got pushed around more because he was a slave and it was okay to do that to half-elves here. He'd fought back before, had gotten beat down for it, but now he could really fight. "I like that."

And he knew that Kratos liked that too, even if he didn't usually get beat up on too much these days. Everyone was too concentrated on Yuan. With Kratos, it was mostly smaller stuff like knocking books out of his hand and shoving him into walls. And the name-calling.

Sometimes, Yuan thought that the bullies knew just how to hurt people the most. With Kratos, it was words because Kratos knew the power of words and Kratos, with his fantastic memory and love for words, would remember every one, would hear them echoing in his mind for days afterwards.

"…Someone came to talk in one of my classes today." It had been bothering Kratos all day, nagging at the back of his mind. He knew of no one better than Yuan to talk about it to. "Started talking about life after school."

"You've been here, what, six, seven months? How long does school last anyway?"

Sometimes, Kratos forgot that, before they'd met, Yuan hadn't even known what a school was. "I know I'm supposed to graduate when I'm seventeen."

Yuan's face creased with an emotion Kratos didn't quite know how to describe. "You're twelve! You've got forever until you turn seventeen. Why are they worrying about what you're going to do then?"

Five years. The number was small, but the time seemed so very long. Kratos remembered five years ago. He was seven, he was lonely and he'd never met the boy beside him with his slanted eyes and bright laughter. Yuan was right. Five years was forever.

"I dunno."

Perhaps Yuan sensed his mood, the concern beneath it all because he rolled over on his side, blue eyes watching him. "What do you want to do? When you're a grownup, I mean."

"…I wanna be a writer. Or a teacher. I think I'd like those."

"You're a real good teacher, Kratos." Yuan wasn't looking at him, embarrassed. "Not sure I ever told you that."

He didn't have to. Kratos saw it when Yuan's face lit up with every new word he learned, with every sentence he read. With each math problem he solved correctly and every time Kratos asked him what time it was and Yuan would look at the clock and proudly proclaim the time.

"We'll get out of here one day." Kratos said. "We'll find a place where no one will bother us, where they won't care whether I'm a human or you're a half-elf and we'll live there. And you can find that girl you're gonna marry—"

"And you can have a house with a room full of books and it'll be all yours."

"And we can live right next to each other—"

"And you'll be my kids' uncle." Yuan hesitated slightly before saying that, perhaps guessing Kratos' reaction.

A slight crease of confusion wrinkled Kratos' brow. "I thought that, to be an uncle, your brother or your sister would have to have a kid."

"I dunno…you just…I guess…we're like brothers, aren't we? I thought it would be okay." It was like that back home. Everyone in their building was family, even though Yuan knew he hadn't been actually related to most, if any of them. But they shared Celsius Days and festivals; anniversaries and birthdays. They were there for just about everything that each other went through. Wasn't that family?

Kratos was staring at him like he couldn't believe what he was hearing. "You really want to be my brother?"

Yuan glanced away. "I-If you don't want to, th-that's okay. I mean, it does sound kinda stupid—"

"It doesn't sound stupid at all!" Kratos said and he was smiling big and wide like Yuan had just given him the world. "It sounds wonderful!"

Yuan's smile was uncertain at first, as though he didn't totally believe what Kratos was telling him, but when Kratos didn't laugh or change his mind, his smile widened. "Brothers?"

"Yeah. Brothers."

Yuan held out a pinky. "You gotta promise. Promise that we'll always be brothers."

Kratos grinned and hooked pinkies with him. "Of course we will! Forever."