(AN) Well, I stood by my promise, I posted a chapter before my winter vacation was over. I was planning to finish this earlier, but Christmas wasn't going to enjoy itself, and cookies don't eat themselves-that would be weird. Consider this a late present for the holidays, like those cookies from my tia (or aunt for some people). But, this time I actually have an excuse for being late. This chapter is a LOT longer than I thought it would be, but I didn't want to shorten anything, cut anything out, or even split it into two or three chapters. I guess this can make up for all the lateness I've been having on this story. So, Enjoy. :)

MickyLove: That actually makes me really happy! I hope that I can make it continue well, and not ruin it at the end like Usagi Drop. (I really didn't like that manga ending.)

oh: Yeah I've been picturing what they were like younger for a while-it's one of the only things I actually do in class. I'm also not going to ever abandon this story. Even if it takes me weeks, months, or years, I'll make sure I finish it eventually. :)

"You've pretty lost in thought lately. What's up?"

"I'm not sure."

"Alright. What is it?"

"...Someone I know is suddenly acting very… different. Distant in a way."

"Who is it?"

"I'm not allowed to say."

"...Ok. How come?"

"I'm not allowed to say that either."

"Not only are you worrying me more, but you're also not helping me helping you."

"It's nothing criminal. Someone just told me I have to be delicate with what the other person is going through."

"Ok I have no idea what you're talking about. But, I'll just go along. Just tell me what's going on."

"...It's someone I've known for awhile, and they were always been… nice and cheerful. Bt lately they're shutting me out a lot, which isn't the weird part. What bothers me is just how much they seem to suddenly dislike me. They can't look me in the eye, they're always avoiding me, and when they do talk to me their way of talking is suddenly more vicious and flustered. I'm just wondering if I've done something wrong."

"Hm... Hey, does this person happen to go red a lot, and react only to you specifically? "

"... Actually, yes."

"Well then it's obvious. This person your talking about might just have a crush on you."

"Crush?"

"Yeah. It's weird. There're some people that just suddenly get all hostile when they have a crush on someone. It's supposed to be because they either don't know how to properly express themselves or that they're trying to protect themselves from being hurt. I don't really get it, but it happens."

"...Are you sure it's a crush."

"Sounds like it. They find it hard to be around you or look directly at you. They're suddenly rude but still flustered and blushing. And if it's only usually with you than I can only assume. But I can be wrong, I mean you can't exactly tell me the details… Hahh talking about your problems bums me out sometimes."

"...Then, if it really is a crush, what exactly am I supposed to do?"

"Do you want to go out with them?"

"No."

"Well then I think you should just let them be for a while. Bringing it up can only make them more flustered and frustrated. It's better to let them deal with their own feelings first, and you can get involved when they want you to be."

"For how long?"

"If they never want to get you involved, then until they get over you. Trust me, if it's just a little crush then it'll go away eventually. Just give them time."

That was a conversation a long time ago that Itachi had with Shisui. It was more or less a week after Haruka had begun to act rude-his Oka-san said she must have just been going through a sudden phase and not to pry too much. If Itachi thought about it, this started to happen when she was eight and he was thirteen. It was so long ago that at this point he can't remember what they were doing, where they were, or even what they talked about afterward, all that Itachi could remember at this point was the conversation.

He was never really good at reading people or understanding their emotions and feelings, and he was especially worse at understanding romantic feelings. So, he had to hear from his closest friend that his little sister had grown romantic feelings for him, surprising him just a little bit.

At the time he could only wonder if Shisui was right, afterall incestuous feelings wasn't exactly a normal thing. However, after taking Shisui's words and watching more carefully how Haruka acted toward him, Itachi began to believe his friend's conclusion. Of course, for her own sake, he never told anyone, not even Shisui, about her little crush. He just decided that, as suggested, to wait for either Haruka to explain herself to him-to which he'd be completely understanding if she just did-or wait until she finally got over it. And, to his lack of understanding what she could possibly be feeling, he didn't understand how long that would be.

He knows she's frustrated and confused, and he wants to just tell her he's fine with it. He knows she'll get over it with some time, she'll finally calm down, and they can go back to being brother and sister like they used to when they were younger.

However, Haruka has made the extensive effort of keeping a distant and not so much as looking him in the eye. He wants to talk with her, he wants to get close to her, he wants to actually eat dinner with her. He missed Haruka.

Itachi has never been good at understanding another's emotions, so he finds it very hard to understand Haruka. All he can understand is that she doesn't want to see him more now than before. She always used to leave the house early, but now she leaves before anyone else is awake. She comes back home in a rush and won't come out of her room. Haruka had always been distant, but she's been trying more and more for a week now, because of him comforting her after her attack.

He doesn't regret, with a fiber of his being, that he comforted her. He would do it a million times over and over again. But, he does regret that there's nothing he can do for her. He can't understand how to help her if she doesn't ask him for help to begin with, and he doesn't know if he even should help.

Itachi just wants her to get over her feelings, because once she does, he can have his little sister again.

So, sitting alone at their table, with a cup of Haruka's favorite coffee still sitting at the counter half empty, too early for anyone else to be awake, but too late for her to be home anymore, Itachi could only feel a stabbing pain of guilt for not understanding.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Haruka woke up with a jolt, and sweat forming at her temple. With her eyes wide, she tried to gulp up some air to calm her nerves. She stared down at the wooden table that she had been resting on, and after a moment to process what had happened, she let out an exhausted sigh.

'Another nightmare.' Haruka thought, tired out of her mind. It was the same dream over and over and over ever since her attack, and every time she woke up sweaty, scared, and unable to properly breathe. And of course, against her own will, every time she woke up she had a deep pit of a need to be held by-

"Good morning."

Haruka flinched at the sudden voice, and quickly looked to her side to see that she wasn't alone in the library.

She blinked up and saw that a seat away from her was an extremely pale guy with an obviously fake smile. "Um…" She had a slow race of thoughts as to what in the world was happening-since she'd grown so used to waking up alone in the library-not even the librarian was here yet this early in the morning. "Hi."

He just continued to smile at her in a way that made Haruka very uncomfortable. "Did you have a bad sleep?"

Another few blinks from Haruka before she answered halfheartedly. "Y-Yeah, nightmare."

"I read somewhere that if you drink warm milk before sleeping you'll have less of a chance to have a nightmare."

"I-I'll keep that in mind…" '...What now?' "Um… My name is Haruka. Haruka Uchiha. But everyone calls me Haru."

"Ah. So you already come with a nickname."

Slightly confused to the way he phrased it, Haruka just gave a small smile and nodded.

"My name is Sai."

With that, Haruka remembered who he was. "Oh! Aren't you the new transfer student?" Haruka remembered due to Naruto's immediate rant that he didn't like him-apparently they have gym together.

He nodded quickly, and she noticed his smile a little less forced. "Yes that's right. I moved two days ago."

Feeling her guard go down, Haruka turned to face him. "Really? Where did you move from?"

"I can't say."

… She just decided to ignore that and continue. " are you reading?"She noticed a book resting under his crossed arms.

Once she asked that he suddenly had something that looked like nervousness and embarrassment. "That is also a secret."

Something about his sudden change in calm demeanor made Haruka suddenly want to laugh, but-of course-held it in. "What can you tell me?" She said interested.

He seemed to think about it for a while, and then just smiled oh so fakely again. "My name is Sai and… um…" Slowly his smile began to waver a little more as he began to look nervous.

Haruka blinked at him curiously. "Are you alright?"

His lips pressed together slightly, and Haruka really did begin to worry about what was going through his head-she even noticed his hand twitch toward the hidden book. "Um…. Isn't it nice weather?" His composure seemed to have come back, but Haruka was let very confused.

"...I actually think it's getting too cold."

"Oh, I see… Does Haru-chan not like cold?"

"No not really."

"Then… you prefer… warm?"

"A lot more, yeah."

"I see…"

Once again there was a silence that seemed to get to Sai, and Haruka watched as his composure once again slipped away. She didn't quite get what was going through his head, but she could feel the stiffness in the air well enough to feel a little uncomfortable herself.

"...Um, Sai-"

SLAM!

Haruka's eyes snapped at the unfamiliar sound of the door slamming open in a library, and she quickly looked over her shoulder to see two girls-one very tired looking and one very excited.

"See Sakura, I told you he was here- Haru?"

Haruka looked at Ino-who gave her a confused look. "What are you two doing here?"

Ino quickly smiled again as she noticed Sai. "Well me and Sakura thought we'd get here since it's hard to find the new guy in the morning."

The wheels began to turn in Haruka's head, and she realized what was happening here. Looking from Ino-her eyes glued to a smiling Sai-and Sakura-her eyes looking slightly tired and dazed-Haruka can tell that Ino has gained another interest to another boy on their school. Realizing this, she could only faintly smile. "Sai this is Sakura Haruna, and-"

"I'm Ino Yamanaka, but you can just call me Ino." Ino chirped as she made quick strides over to the two of them-dragging a protesting Sakura with her.

"Ino, I want to go back to bed. Class doesn't start for an hour and a half!"

"Sakura just hush!" Ino quickly looked frustrated to flirtily happy in a split second as she looked back to Sai-Haruka was beginning to feel forgotten. "I'm sorry for my friend she isn't very nice in the morning."

"And whose fault is that?" Sakura muttered.

"But it's so nice to meet you~. I've been wanting to talk to you, but we don't have any of the same classes and you sometimes seem to just disappear out of thin air."

"Do I?" Sai said with a still fake smile.

Haruka just watched half interested as Ino began her probing, and Sai seemed to just answer-seemingly not understanding her advances.

"Hey, Haru?" Haruka turned her attention back to Sakura-who seemed to just realize she was there. "Is… um…" Sakura's face began to redden, and she seemed unsure of how to properly speak.

Sakura was kind of like Ino in the sense that 70% of the time when they talked to Haruka they usually wanted to know where her little twin brother was. However, Haruka still prefered Sakura's attempts to be subtle and not be a nuisance than Ino's… well… Inoness.

Haruka just smiled up at her. "No sorry, Sasuke isn't here. I left a lot earlier than he did this morning."

Sakura's face fell and she looked slightly to the floor disappointed. "That so."

"Oh yeah, how come you and Sasuke aren't together?" Ino chirped up-finally snapping out of flirt mode. "You two are usually pretty inseparable."

'Is that how other's see it?' But before Haruka could answer Ino's eyes slightly widened as a guess seemed to form in her head.

"Don't tell me you left earlier to meet Sai too!" Haruka blinked at the accusation, but, again, before she could speak Ino just went on-looking slightly playful. "Were you also trying to win him over?"

Haruka tried to speak, but she was again cut off, but this time not by Ino. "What do you mean by win me over?" Sai asked actually looking interested. By 'actually' that meant he looked less forced.

Ino smiled up at him happily and waved a hand playfully. "You know, try to make you fall for her and date her. The usual~."

'For you.' Haruka thought slightly irritated.

Sai just smiled down at Ino-making her blush slightly. "Oh, well Haru-chan isn't really my type."

This seemed to take both Ino and Sakura off guard-though Haruka didn't know why.

"Really?!" Ino said with disbelief in her voice. "Then what is your type?"

Sai seemed to actually think about it for a while, but just gave his fake smile. "I don't know, but perhaps someone pretty."

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Cold. "Haru…" Dark. Alone. "Haru…" Screaming. Why is there screaming? "HARU!"

Haruka snapped awake at the sound of a very annoyed voice, and blinked up through dazed eyes to see it was Sasuke that stood over her. She blinked up at his expression of annoyance, impatience, and-somewhere in there-worry. She let out a sigh and looked down to see her desk with her paper slightly crumbled from her resting on it. "I fell asleep again?"

"By the end of class." Sasuke took the seat next to her-even though he sat behind her-and rested his cheek in his hand as he looked at her. "You're lucky Kakashi Sensei was too distracted today to notice someone sleeping in the first row."

"Yeah, lucky I guess." She muttered tiredly while letting out an exhausted yawn.

"How much sleep have you been getting?"

Haruka just looked at Sasuke and flashed him a small smile-even though she felt horribly drained. "Enough."

Sasuke didn't seem to buy it-not that she expected him to-but he also seemed to drop it. "When are you going to start sleeping in your own damn room?"

'When I stop expecting him to show up in my room every time I wake up from a nightmare.' "I can't just enjoy having sleepovers with my brother?"

...Sasuke looked annoyed, but Haruka knew that he was just worried. She didn't really blame him. For the past three days-since...that happened-she keeps waking up from a nightmare every night, and she ends up wandering into his room and laying on his floor wide awake over that empty feeling in her chest, and by the eeriness of her recurring nightmare. In total she's been getting around an hour of sleep every night and not counting all the naps and knock outs she's been having-to which the nightmare still occurs. All in all, Haruka has never felt so tired.

Finally, Sasuke just sighed. "You sleep talk too much."

Haruka's eyes slightly widened. "I don't sleep talk."

"You've been doing it since we were kids."

"That's never happened before."

"I heard you have an argument with Goku that he was eating all the dangos."

"That didn't happen!" Even though Haruka faintly remembered having that dream in the second grade.

"Little too loud Haru."

Haruka looked over and saw it was Shikamaru that spoke-quite lazily as always. He currently lounged on the seat to the other side of Haruka-despite having a seat in the far back.

Haruka raised a brow at him. "You're awake during brake."

Shikamaru just shrugged. "It's pretty hard to nap with Ino waking me up just to ask me about my views on beauty."

"At least she was quiet for once during class." Sasuke commented-with the usual slightly harsh tone.

"I don't know. It's cool since she's not being a drag, but then it's also kind of unsettling."

Haruka actually looked around the classroom, but found Ino wasn't there. "I wonder if it's because of what happened this morning." She muttered quietly.

"Well what happened?" Shikamaru asked-though Haruka wondered if he would stay awake for the answer.

But, either way, she just went on to say what happened in the library.

Of course what Sai said had said bugged Haruka a little-she was human after all-but it seemed like Ino took it harder than she did somehow. Haruka didn't quite get why but after Sai said that it seemed to have made Ino feel a little… defeated somehow.

Once she finished, however, Shikamaru did look a little surprised-nowhere near as surprised as Ino and Sakura, but surprised. Haruka was taken off guard to see Sasuke had a similar expression.

"Am I missing something?" This was the second time this day she felt lost to why she was the only one not as impacted by what had happened.

Shikamaru sighed. "Well that kind of explains it."

"Pretty much." Sasuke imputed.

Haruka was feeling a little bothered by being left out. "What does?"

"I don't understand much about girls, but isn't this something like 'if he doesn't think she's pretty then what does he think about me?'" Shikamaru seemed pretty half asleep as he explained.

After understanding what Shikamaru said Haruka felt suddenly tired. Of course she'd been told quite a few times how 'attractive' everyone seemed to think she was, but she always thought of herself as a fine average. "Ino's perfectly pretty. I swear you guys overreact about me."

To this both Sasuke and Shikamaru gave her absolutely blank looks.

"This is why you have trouble making female friends." Sasuke said.

"If you say that to Ino you'll get a real mouthful." Shikamaru said.

And Haruka was left even more bothered.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Walking home from school Sasuke couldn't keep his eyes off of Haru-his idiot of an older sister. She looked like absolute crap. Her hair was pretty messy, she was even paler than usual, and she had large, dark roles under her eyes-eyes that she can barely keep open.

He has no idea why Haru has been having such trouble sleeping lately. At first he just assumed it was because of what had happened with Itachi, but it's been a week, too long for it to still be bugging her this much. For God's sake he was worried she was sleep walking right now!

"Haru!"

She blinked, looking dazed as all hell. She looked up at about his chest with her eyes rapidly trying to blink away tired. "Mmmm?"

"Did you even hear what I just said?"

"Mmmm. Ya. Everything."

"Haru I didn't say anything." 'Just how tired is she?' Sasuke thought with a pit of worry.

Haru seemed to think about it for a-long-second, and shook her head and rest her forehead into her palm. "Sorry. I'm just really out of it."

'I can tell.' "Get some damn sleep then."

She was quiet for a second and then let out a quiet, dry laugh. "Yeah I should shouldn't I?"

...Sasuke sighed and decided to try talking to her when they got home-even though he knew she'd try to brush him off.

They both came to a stop at the edge of the sidewalk as the cars began to race by.

...VVVVIIIPPPP

Sasuke felt his phone vibrate in his pocket and made a grab for it. He felt his heart jump into his stomach as he saw the caller ID say 'Hinata.' He unlocked his phone and read her message.

Haru-chan has been acting very weird lately. Are you sure she's alright?

He sighed, as he could practically hear her soft voice ringing in his head.

Taking a look over at Haru he saw her looking tired to the point that her eyes were shutting.

Then, he noticed, as the cars raced by quickly, that she had begun to lean tiredly, dangerously forward. Sasuke felt his skin go cold, his heart stop, and his throat tear out her name as he saw she wasn't stopping.

She was really tired.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

"Itachi." He looked up from his book-that he was absentmindedly staring at-and saw his mother entering the living room with a smile. "What are you reading?"

He looked down at the book and realized he didn't remember, so he just smiled over at his mother. "Nothing much."

...There was a short pause, to which he was confused to why she was just staring at him. Then, she sighed softly and walked over to take a seat with him. She still smiled at him, but it looked more sad and worried-in that sort of way mothers tend to smile.

"Is it about Haru?" She asked softly.

...He thought for a moment. He thought about how he couldn't get her out of his head. He thought about how he's done nothing but worried about her. He thought about how he didn't know what to do about her. He thought about how much he'd been thinking about her, and wondering what she was thinking about.

But, he-unable to look his mother in the eyes-just closed his book and got up to put it back on the shelf. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Itachi walked over to the bookcase, and he didn't look as he heard his mother follow him across the room, he just put away the forgotten book-that he noticed was a collection of fairy tales.

He felt his mother lightly hold his arm, and he finally looked down to her as she gave him a gentle look of a mother. "I know that Haru's been very different with you than she used to. I know she's been avoiding you and being distant with you for a long time. I'm as clueless on why she's been acting like this as much as you."

'No you're not.' Itachi thought silently.

"And, I know it's difficult for you to handle it… She used to be attached to you 24/7." His mother let out a small laugh at the memory, and he couldn't help but slightly smile as well. "She used to be so open with you. She never wanted to be away from you, and she would tell you everything. Sometimes your father was even a little jealous at how much attention she gave you." That surprised him a little, considering how little he seemed to care. "But now she's… well, not like how she used to be. And it's hard for you because you want her back, but you don't know how to, right?"

As usual, his mother was frighteningly right. "What am I supposed to do to make someone happy, when they neither want to talk to me or be near me?" When he said it, he realized just how desperate he was for an answer.

"...Haru has always been hard to comfort. She locks herself away when she's sad or hurt, and she'll try to make sure everyone around her think she's fine. It's difficult to help a person that won't ask for it. So, you have to try picking your moments. Sometimes, you listen to when they want to be alone, and sometimes you just have to break yourself through their walls yourself."

"How do I know when to do which?"

"You just have to think what will happen if you don't help, and try to decide from there."

…Itachi let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding, and he looked back to the book he'd put away and he remembered it was one of Haruka's favorites when she was little. He remembered her sitting on his lap as he read to her. He remembered the way her eyes lit up at the stories, and he remembered how much she smiled at him. He really missed that smile, and he really wishes he could see it again…

RIIIIIIING RIIIIIIING

They both jumped at the sound of the house phone ringing, and his mother walked over to the phone to pick it up. "Hello- Sasuke?"

Itachi's attention was snapped back, and he walked over to his mother who suddenly looked worried.

"What is-? Sasuke? Sasuke, calm down. What happened to Haru?"

To that Itachi couldn't stop himself from snatching the phone out of his mother's hand. "No you're not fine!"

"Sasuke, what happened to Haruka?"

"Nii-san?"

"What happened to Haruka?"

"She almost collapsed into ongoing traffic, and now I need someone to come pick us up-!"

"Sasuke hang up!"

Itachi felt his heart leap at the sound of Haruka's voice in the background-at least she was fine enough to talk. "Sasuke where are you I'll pick you both up-"

"No!"

"Sasuke I'm not going in the same car as-!"

"Just shut up for a second!"

"Sasuke, where are-"

"Nii-san, can you send Oka-san to pick us up?"

Itachi was about to deny that request and force Sasuke to tell them where they were, but…

He sighed frustratedly, and handed the phone back to his mother-who was looking scarcely anxious. "Itachi wasn't wrong?"

"Sasuke needs you to pick them up. I'll go call Oto-san on the other line."

With that, his mother went to talk to Sasuke some more, and Itachi went off to do as he said.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

"You nearly got yourself killed, and you want to treat it as though nothing happened?" Their father said-not yelling, but not exactly speaking.

"That isn't what I said." Haruka said meekly, and slightly shaken.

"But that's what you're thinking, isn't it?"

To that Haruka could only dart her eyes to her floor, back at their father and then to her folded hands.

"Haru, what's wrong?" Their mother piped in gently-putting a hand on their father to trying calming him down. "What happened today? We're all just worried."

Haruka seemed to find it very hard to look at her mother, and her mouth slightly moved as though she were trying to say something, but didn't know how to say it.

"She hasn't been sleeping." Sasuke sharply commented-worried to the point that he was angry.

As Itachi felt a stab of guilt thinking it was something on his part, their mother took a quick looked over at Sasuke and then back to Haruka. "Haru, why haven't you been sleeping?"

To add to more of his guilt, Itachi noticed that Haruka couldn't even look in his direction. "...I …I keep having a nightmare." When she said it, her voice trembled, and her grip on her sheets tightened lightly.

Then, Itachi began to remember something unpleasant.

"What dreams have you been having Haru?" Their mother spoke as softly as possible.

Haruka looked up to their mother, and then back to her hands. "I...I don't…"

"Haru," Sasuke leaned in, suddenly looking confused and intense. "What are you dreaming about?"

Haruka blinked up at him, and, once again, her eyes fell to her shaking hand.

"I-I don't really know… I… I'm in some kind of box, and… I think there're guys outside, and… I-I don't really…"

Suddenly, Itachi realized just what was going on. He could tell his parents knew as they gave each other quick glances. 'She's remembering? Or maybe she's just having dreams about it. Did that attack trigger it?' His mind began racing, and he thought about that horrible day. When he found her in there, and when she clung to him so tightly he could barely breathe…

"Sasuke, go to your room." Their father ordered, and Sasuke only took one painful look at Haruka-who couldn't look up from her bed-and just left the room.

Their mother gently placed a hand on top of Haruka's head. "Try to get some sleep tonight, you can take the day off tomorrow, and if you keep having the dream then…" Their mother glanced up to their father as he looked slightly strained.

"Then we figure something out. Come on let's go." He took his wife by the hand, and began to walk them both out. He gave Itachi a quick look. "You too."

But, right before they left, Itachi noticed his mother give him a desperate look.

When they were both gone he looked over to Haruka, and he noticed just how cornered up she looked. Her eyes were glued to the bed, her lips tightly pressed together, and her cheeks were tinted red. She was aware that they were the only two in the room, but she seemed against telling him to leave.

He just stared at her expression, tired, exhausted, embarrassed, and somehow, a little scared…

He left her room, and closed the door, but for a long time he could only stand there in the hallway. Thinking about what to do, and thinking about what was happening to her.

What happened was something he never wants to remember, and it's something that she long since forgotten-he's glad that she did. But the attack she had in that shed triggered back the nightmares she used to have-though not the night terrors. She used to have constant nightmares after the incident, but they stopped once she repressed her memories.

Then, he thought about how every time she woke up from those nightmares she'd always go to his room-or he'd go to hers after she woke up screaming. Every night he'd be there to hold her and calm her down. She even told him that she couldn't sleep unless he was there… But that was back when she wanted him around, and when she followed him around everywhere he went. Now, she doesn't even want to be in the same car as him…

But… She's too tired, and she'll only grow more tired…

Realizing he hadn't taken a shower all day he slowly made his way to the upstairs second bathroom.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Haruka let out a breath of air once she heard his step finally walk away from her. At the echoing sound of his footsteps she just let herself fall into her pillows-feeling exhausted beyond help… Him just standing there, with his eyes digging into her, was painful in its own right. It made her breath get caught in her throat and her face flare in shame. Yet, she couldn't tell him to leave all because somewhere deep, deep, deep down she…

She sighed and threw the blanket over her head, and tried to erase those piercing black eyes away. She didn't want to think about him, about her tiredness, or even about the damn dream. She didn't want to linger too long on how she suddenly felt her body shut down on itself, and then the next second she was suddenly pushed back onto the cement with Sasuke pale as a ghost hovering over her.

She just wanted to sleep. She wanted to sleep away all her problems, and she wanted to finally rest this body of hers that could barely move. Even though she knew, once she was asleep all that would happen is that she'd wake up all over again, tired, sweaty, and terrified to those echoing voices.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Haruka's eyes snapped open, but it wasn't because of another nightmare. It wasn't because of the sound of a loud bang onto her tight box.

She didn't even get a chance to get into stage one of sleep until she heard her bedroom door open. Weakly and slowly, she got up and looked through eyes glazed with tired, and she saw that absolute last person she wanted to see.

Her eyes snapped open in an instant, and she practically jumped onto her knees-slightly wobbling at the movement. She glared up as harshly as her tired eyes could be, but she couldn't hide the ache in her heart or the heat of her cheeks. "What are you doing here?!" She cried out weakly as she felt her body shake, and began to worry that she'd now started hallucinating.

For a moment he was quiet, but she could still feel the drilling of his eyes as they looked directly at her face-with what expression she couldn't tell in the dark-and she found it excruciatingly hard to look at him head on.

Then, she heard the low sound of him sighing. "Haruka, are you really ok?" With that he began to reach out his hand.

Her mind froze on itself, and all she could bring herself to do was flinch away from the hand, and continue half heartedly glaring at her bed. "D-Don't touch-"

"How much sleep have you actually been getting?"

'Why can't you just leave?' She thought desperately as she became more and more aware to how the door was closed, he was standing so close to her, and he was only wearing sweatpants and a muscle shirt with water dripping from his hair. More importantly, she became more and more conscious to the yearning in her chest to feel what she had felt after she was freed from that shed and put into his arms.

"Th-That's none of your buisn-"

"I'm your brother," And with that he stung her. He stung her more painfully than he could ever realize he did. And she was now hurt at not only his presence, not only her feelings, but at the fact that his hand was once again moving toward her. "Of course it's my business."

His hand was only an inch from her face. It was already radiating off the warmth she was craving. Her breath hitched, and her eyes widened. She felt her lips tremble, her hands tremble, just about everything trembled. But, like he just said, he's her brother.

"Don't touch-!" Her loud shriek-that hurt her throat-was cut off short as she suddenly realized a blanket was thrown around her. She could only blink at the way it flowed around her in a split second before falling softly on her shoulders. Tired and confused, she didn't have time to react to the sudden arms around her.

She couldn't breath and she couldn't stop her eyes from trying to escape her skull. She could only remain paralyzed at the wonderfully warm sensation that took over her body in an instant. It was comfortable, it was safe, and it was what she had been begging herself to not crave.

"...I know you really don't even want to look at me, and that you're really against me even being here." She tried as hard as she could to not shiver at the feeling of his breath on her ear, and she tried as hard as she could to not listen to him, and just push him away. "But I don't want you to have another nightmare and suffer. I'm sorry, but I'm not leaving you alone. You can give me the cold shoulder as much as you want when morning comes, but for tonight, no matter how much you protest, I'm not letting you go."

...But she couldn't protest. She didn't want him to be so much in control of her, she didn't want his voice to make her shiver, she didn't want his words bring her to tears, she didn't want his warm make her want to submit, but it was all against her will.

Him here, with her alone, this was something she's been silently begging for every time she had to wake up freezing in her own cold sweat, with her heart thumping louder and louder in her chest out of fear, and with her lungs crying out for the air they thought they had lost. She knew that this, him, was the only thing that could ever possible calm her down. She knew with a heavy heart that she could never feel this save and warm in a thousand lives if it weren't for him.

She knew that this was something she could never deserve, not with the sins her feelings bear.

But she really is tired. She hasn't had a proper sleep in what's felt like years. Her body was collapsing on itself, and her brain was eating away at itself. She was painfully weak. Too weak to fight it, the heaviness of her lids, the limpness of her limbs, and her entire being that leaned into his.

He slowly-to make sure she wouldn't protest-began to lay them both down-her face buried into his heaving chest, and his arms tightly around her-only being separated by a thick blanket.

Somewhere there was reason, somewhere there was a voice screaming at her that she was being stupid, that she was being ridiculous, that it will only hurt a thousand times more if she gave in here. But she could barely hear it over the pounding of her heart in her ear. She could hardly feel it with the heat his light caress in her hair gave her. She couldn't think left from right with his scent of sun burning into her nose. She was also far too tired. Her body had no strength to resist, and she had no will to do anything other than tighten her grip on his chest and weakly, quiety whisper. "You're too cruel…"

Then, she finally, finally, had a peaceful night sleep, in the arms of the only person she could ever love so much.