Hey! Lizy here again! More one shots. This one's for Takumi and takes place on the night his family was attacked. Excuse my use of the English language, For you Americans out there, one part may confuse you. For future reference: Bangs fringe in English.

Takumi - Humans

The bustling nurses and doctors around him did nothing to ease his increasing headache. Childish hands clutched a mug of warm tea, an over sized blanket draped over his small form. He usually liked tea, not to the point of obsession, but enough. But now his stomach refused to take anything within it's empty hollows, liquid or solid. His long, dirty brown fringe hung down, obscuring his eyes, though not the tears that rolled down his cheeks.

He supposed he'd never drink his tea. It would be too salty now anyway. The teardrops distorted his reflection as they hit the surface of the beverage.

For a split second he saw another man's face in the reflection.

He sourly emptied the tea in a nearby plant pot.

At the shouting of a few urgently rushing nurses, he looked up. A woman was convulsing on a hospital bed, crying out in her delirium and thrashing out at unseen horrors. Many tried to hold her down, but again she screamed and again.

"TAKUMI!"

The boy ran.

Out of that horrible place of death and dying, into the cold rain, loosing the oversized blanket, revealing blood soaked clothes.

The blood wasn't his.

He came to a slow stop under a tree, he couldn't breathe. There was so much rain, and for a moment, as lightning arched across the sky, the water turned to the red life blood of his family.

Screaming with the roar of thunder, Takumi collapsed into the sodden mud as the tree above him exploded into a thousand flames.

So be it, let him die here. His family was probably gone, his sister was missing, his mother driven half mad and his father…

He stared blankly up at the flames as they hissed and rebelled at the rain, one or two being snuffed out by the torrential downpour. Takumi supposed humans were much like fire. A sudden flare, then before you know it, it's gone, snuffed out, you can't bring that same flame back again. Just like that. Gone. Only a very small indication it was ever there at all, if any, and eventually that would disappear as well.

How pointless.

There was a cracking sound as the branch above him detached and began to fall. This was it. This was the end. How he would go.

It was taking too long.

Takumi opened his eyes, surprised he had closed them. He wasn't surrounded by fire anymore, just the dull grey rain. And a boy. One Takumi was rather familiar with.

"Rai.." he muttered, his voice hoarse. The boy had his back to him, but Takumi was sure it was him. He didn't know any other blond boys who's hair stuck up like that even when it was wet. Rai was watching the burning tree and took his time before he spoke.

"I heard what happened." he said quietly, barely audible over the thunder. Takumi watched the flames on the tree die with him. "I'm sorry." Rai added. There was silence. This was all quite different from the usual Rai, all loud and hyper.

Takumi was grateful.

"Why?" he questioned into the empty silence. "I was ready to-"

"Far too many lives ended tonight." Rai cut across him. "You will not join them." He turned and gave Takumi a very stern look. Understanding passed from electric blue eyes to dull grey. Takumi looked away, the tears welling up again even as he willed them to go away.

"It hurts… so much…" he sighed after a long while. Rai stared at the last embers of the tree, almost longingly.

"Yeah…" he muttered at last. "I know…"

The rain stopped and the sun broke through the slightest gap in the grey mass. It was all peaceful once more as the dust of the tree was carried away by the wind.

Takumi wondered bitterly how long it would last.

Lizy: Awww, cheer up Takumi-kun!

Takumi: I refuse. Also, you'd better start running because I did not give you permission to write about this.

Lizy: Ehehehe, you're just kidding right Takumi kun? Takumi kun? Put the pointy thing down... what are you doing with those handseals? Ahhh! HELP! HEEEEELP!

Rai: Uh... Review please? Click the little button down there. Go on. You know you want to...