If I had to name it it would be…

More trouble in paradise (oh my!)

The hospital was a large stone-faced building nestled on top of a rather steep hill. Ambulances ran up and down its driveway at all hours of the day and night, sirens yelling. Since it was the only hospital in a 200 mile radius, it was extremely large and wealthy in its own right. There were some thin, lanky trees decorating the front of the place, as if to provide a view – however meagre – for the patients.

Since the driver of the car had been long gone, leaving his car behind, Seimei's wrath was not unleashed in front of the mall as planned. It followed him like a dark cloud, poisoning anyone who deigned to come near him. As he waited for someone to allow him to see his brother, the hospital staff was the first to outright receive some of his pent up anger. The lady who handed him a stack of papers to fill out was too slow to duck the chair that was hurled in her direction to avoid having her nose broken, red blood spilling all over the pristine floors. Still they left him there, because people were often mad in a hospital. The old man who came to sympathize was effectively shut up by a short but venomous speech that sucked the helpfulness right out of him.

Seimei was not a violent person; I mean that he didn't hurt anyone for no reason. If someone got hurt or died by his hand or fault, it was planned. It was a pawn in the grand scheme of things. He did not terrorize personnel regularly, but at that moment while he was unsure whether or not his precious Ritsuka was alive or not all he wanted to do was make the entire world pay for its carelessness. How dare they act so calm and composed when God's brother was dying, or already dead?

He sat relatively still for four hours, glaring holes at the abandoned plastic chair across from him. The other visitors had long ago given up on sitting anywhere close to him out of fear of getting hurt. He didn't care. Whenever a nurse walked past he would harass her from some news but they could never tell him anything because he hadn't filled out the papers, they said.

"Listen, Helena," he hissed as he read her nametag, "My brother – Aoyagi Ritsuka - is in this hospital and if you don't tell me where he is and how he's doing you might be joining him wherever he is."

She shuddered and eyed the button labelled 'security' across the room. It was quite far and Seimei knew that. He gave her a look that clearly said 'you really want to give it a shot?'. She did not.

"I'm…I can't-" she bit her lip nervously. "Wait…wait a second, I'll be right back."

He only let her go because trusting her was his only apparent choice for the time. He snarled and sat back down, smoothing down his pants angrily. He probably looked like a wreck and that darkened his mood further. At least the room was sterilized and smelled of cleaning products and medicine, which was a smell he'd always appreciated while others feared it. It meant clean. It meant no filth.

She came back, nearly running over to him; not because she was glad to see him but because she was afraid of what might happen if she didn't hurry. She looked around, trying to spot another nurse or doctor, and was satisfied to find none.

"He's in pretty bad shape, but he's okay. They wanted to put him the ICU but he refused." Ritsuka had been there once because their mom had a particularly big fit of rage when Seimei had been away. Something about it had scared him senseless. No wonder he did not wish to go back. "He's on the fourth floor, room 405. If anyone asks, say you're family," she added on a thoughtful note.

"I am family," he barked. She winced.

"But…the papers…"

He ignored her and turned his back to her, heading for the elevator. He jammed the up button seven times because it wasn't fast enough and when it arrived he insulted every present person out of it so he could go the fourth floor directly. He noticed oddly as he was going up that the stain on the elevator door looked like the motif on his brother's shoes' soles. He'd memorized it so he'd be able to recognize it if need be.

The fourth floor was for people who had been in accidents or had been beaten. There were hundreds of broken arms, mangled legs, open skulls, crooked necks and shattered spines in the rooms he passed but he cared not for any of them. What did they matter, anyway? They would all perish soon enough.

Room 405 was at the end of the hallway, unlike its name might indicate. The door was cerulean, as were all the doors containing children. Seimei thought that Ritsuka wouldn't like being in a children's room. A moving cart holding a few dirty plates stood next to the door, apparently abandoned. He pushed the door open and went inside.

The machines recording his brother's health beeped steadily, all cluttered in a corner next to a tall orange lamp. There was no furniture in the room other than a chair for visitors and a bed, a bit like Seimei's room. Ritsuka was lying on the bed, looking very small and breakable entwined in the sheets, as pale as a ghost. His face was twisted in a grimace of pain in discomfort despite the powerful painkillers running through his system thanks to the nurses and doctors. His left hand was curled into a fist in the sheets while the other one lay scraped and bandaged in the other side. His head was wrapped in bandages and it hid almost the entirety of his head. Because of the sheets, Seimei could not see much more to the extent of the damage and sat down in the visitor's chair.

He sighed and let himself sink down in the chair, his feet sliding on the slick floors, his backside almost falling out of the chair. He rested his neck on the back of the chair and gazed at the ceiling emptily before pulling his phone out of his pocket. He flipped it open and sent a text to no one other than his Fighter.

Grab a kitchen knife and cut yourself repeatedly on the legs and arms. Don't kill yourself.

Soubi had no right to be happy while his Sacrifice was in pain, that much was clear to him. He would hurt himself, but it would still be nothing compared to how Seimei felt. He felt empty but heavy at the same time, like the Earth was trying to beat him down and bury him in its soil. Guilt was not something he felt, so he did not feel guilty. He wouldn't say he was sorry. But he had done his brother wrong: he had failed to protect him. He had failed. Seimei never failed. He almost felt as low as the glorified apes that roamed the Earth in blind confusion, but it was gone soon enough when Soubi answered.

With pleasure, Seimei. Only for you.

That's right – only a God would have such a perfect servant. Only a God deserved it. He hadn't failed, he had just come across a little bump on the road. Nothing he wouldn't recover from. He let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding, letting his shoulders relax. He had let himself slip into a disconnected state of mind, something he had learned to control years back, and it wasn't about to happen again.

"Sei…mei…?"

The tall boy snapped out of his reverie and his eyes glued themselves to his brother like magnets. The smaller boy was trying to sit up, albeit weakly, so that he could see his brother without twisting his neck around. Seimei got up and helped him sit comfortably, expecting another shouting match for treating him like a helpless child. To his surprise, it didn't happen.

"Thank…you…" his brother breathed slowly. He was obviously having trouble breathing.

Seimei took the opportunity to brush some of the dark hair away from Ritsuka's face. It was wet from sweat and maybe blood and tears. Ritsuka surprised him again by leaning into the touch, something Seimei thought he'd never do again. He closed his eyes and rubbed himself against the hand. Seimei pulled the chair closer with his leg and sat next to the bed, keeping his hand near his brother's face.

"How are you feeling?" he inquired in as gentle a voice as he could muster. He smiled.

"Okay," was the only reply. He didn't seem capable of long sentences.

"Where does it hurt?" He didn't have to ask if it hurt anywhere, because the constant frown of pain on Ritsuka's face was a perfect indicator.

"My head…my arm…my ribs and…my leg, mos…tly," he wheezed.

"You didn't want to stay in the intensive care unit?"

"No. It's scary and they don't allow visitors."

A nurse came in to check up on him. Seimei allowed her to do her job only because she held his sibling's life in her hands in some small way. She hurried out quickly enough.

"I hope mom's not…mad I missed…supper. At five. Re…member?"

Seimei shrugged. He'd been angry when he said it. He could not care less who his mother was asking home for supper.

"All that…matters is that you…'re not…mad, Seimei," the younger sibling mumbled in an obvious effort to make up for earlier. Seimei had almost forgotten about that.

"I'm not mad."

"You were…earlier."

"Maybe," he answered vaguely, trying to steer the conversation away from that subject. His brother didn't need any more grief today.

"I wanted…to be a big boy…" Ritsuka droned on sleepily, squinting against his drowsy haze.

"You are," Seimei assured him warmly. He was smiling again, like he used to. Before…before what?

"I thought…being grown up meant…not needing anyone…but I love Seimei too…much," he drawled on, yawning. Plus, the petting on his head was putting him to sleep even more.

"Being a grown up means you can love even more. And you don't have to love anybody else, Ritsuka," he breathed near one of the fuzzy triangles atop the boy's head. "You don't need anyone other than me."

But now the boy was asleep, half curled in the bed, lying on his side. The sun was setting outside, painting the drab room dark yellow. Soon enough it was dark inside and Seimei flicked the light on because he didn't feel like sleeping.

Sometime during the evening Misaki entered the room slowly, as though unsure of her decision to even come at all, holding some flowers. They were yellow and appeared cheap. She was wearing a wrinkled flower-patterned dress and her face hadn't a shred of makeup, meaning she hadn't been planning to go out. That, or she was too crazy to remember to fix herself up.

"Go home mother," he ordered without moving.

For once she didn't seem to know he was there. She ignored him – she never ignored her eldest son – and stood at Ritsuka's bed side, frowning. She didn't place the flowers anywhere, just kept on holding them. Finally, she addressed him.

"What's wrong with him?" she muttered stonily.

"Nothing's wrong with him," he scolded her. She stared at him with scared eyes.

"The hospital called. They said my son was in the hospital," she explained.

So that's why she'd come, Seimei thought. At least it solved one mystery. But now she was here and she couldn't very well go home just yet. She was crazy but she didn't want to show it in public, and leaving so soon would make the nurses curious.

"Put the flowers on the table," he instructed. She did just that. Maybe they would cheer Ritsuka up when he'd tell him it was from their mother.

"When will you come home?" she asked Seimei. She seemed to have forgotten that Ritsuka was there.

"When Ritsuka does. Go home, mother," he repeated coldly.

She turned to start towards the door, then froze. She looked back over her shoulder at the boy asleep on the hospital bed, breathing painfully. She appeared to ponder something.

"When he was born, I thought you would drown him. I dreamt that you dropped him in the bathtub and held him down while we were away. We thought we'd have to get rid of one of you, so I was crying at the hospital. The nurses thought it was out of happiness. But when you saw him, you were okay. My Seimei always did know how to pick apart the good things from the bad. But you took him away from us. He was yours. Not mine. He's not my son."

When her little speech was over with, she left, looking as jaded as before, if not more.

That's because Ritsuka's mine.

Ritsuka woke up with the sun, his violet eyes appearing brown with the sunlight reflecting in them. He looked around for his brother and let out a long sigh when he found him in the same spot and position as he was in when he fell asleep. The painkillers were wearing off so he yelped in pain as he sat up, the bed creaking under his weight.

"You sat there all night?" He was happy to find that he could speak easier now that the pressure on his chest was lesser.

"Of course. I didn't want you to have any nightmares."

Ritsuka smiled. He then noticed the flowers lying innocently on the table, which Seimei had cared too little about to put in water. They would die regardless of how hard he tried to salvage them.

"You got me flowers? That's tacky!" Ritsuka yelled between bouts of laughter. He could not see his brother going to a florist – ever.

"I did not. Mother brought them for you last night," he said, knowing Ritsuka would be happy once the initial shock blew over.

"M-mom got me flowers?" he breathed, his tail waving madly behind him. Seimei frowned and began placing his brother's messy hair into an acceptable heap; as was uncustomary to Ritsuka, he didn't whine about it. Whatever teenage hormones had taken over his body for the last couple of months had been properly knocked out by that car.

"She did. I know you don't like yellow," he pointed out even if it was just to downsize their mother (considering the flowers had not been for Ritsuka in the first place).

"That's okay."

They spent the morning in relative silence, Seimei leaving only once to buy coffee, hot chocolate and donuts from a coffee shop close by because the hospital food was gag-worthy enough. He drank his coffee in silence while Ritsuka devoured the chocolaty treats, his ears pricked forward in interest. When a short blonde nurse began to drone on about how unhealthy such a meal was, he physically removed her form the room and shut the door loud enough to get a clear message across.

Ritsuka stayed in the hospital for one week, or until his bones were mended enough for him to live without painkillers. That did not mean, however, that he was healthy. In fact, he spent an extra week without moving from his bed and another one at home, watching tv and snacking. At the beginning of the fourth week, Seimei asked his brother to go back to school, not because he was worried about his academic success but because Seimei could no longer afford to watch his brother all day long since their mother didn't work. Ritsuka being hurt apparently didn't change anything in Misaki's messed up mind and, if Seimei was away, she wouldn't hesitate to hurt her son further. For a while Ritsuka even tried to spend time with her, still thinking the flowers were meant for him, but he quickly figured that it had been mostly a forced act of kindness. Knowing his older brother, he'd probably bought them himself and said they were from his mother.

XxxX

"I'm home."

Ritsuka jumped off the stool and wobbled over to the front door, one hand on his damaged ribs. He poked his head through the doorway and waited for Seimei to finish putting his coat away. He always seemed to wear one, rain or shine, fifty degrees or five.

When Seimei was close enough, Ritsuka felt himself being pulled and and he wrapped his arms tightly around the warm neck, ignoring the pain that shot through his body. He felt his brother kiss his ear and snorted. The tackiness always did make him laugh.

"School okay today?"

"Yeah. Erika made me cookies so I'd feel better." He pointed to a bag of caramel cookies lying on the kitchen counter, untouched.

"Your girlfriend?" Seimei teased, setting the boy down. Ritsuka gasped as his face turned red.

"I…I dunno."

Seimei had meant it as a joke, but if it were true…

"You like her?"

"Uhh…yeah."

If Ritsuka were a normal boy with a normal family, he'd have been just the age to start dating a nice girl who did nice things for him. But Ritsuka, being who he was, couldn't have nice. Nice was for drab, regular people, unlike himself. Seimei felt his disposition change against his will and he grabbed the end of the kitchen counter tightly, his knuckles turning white.

"Seimei? I know I haven't introduced her to you yet but…maybe tomorrow…?"

The clearly psychopathic young man would have loved to say no, slip into her room at night and cut her limbs off one by one. The only reason it was unacceptable was because Ritsuka liked her. Somehow that made her…unreachable. For the moment, anyhow.

"…okay."

"Really?" the youngest sibling's eyes lit up with excitement.

"Of course. Tomorrow, then."

When Ritsuka was busy watching a childish cartoon on the television, Seimei stormed - no, dignifyingly walked – up to his room and sat down at his computer, opening up one of his games. At least he could kill some innocent villagers and get away with it just fine.

(I know dignifyingly isn't a a word)

The next afternoon, when Seimei came home, he nearly burnt the place to the ground when he saw a pair of feminine shoes littered haphazardly next to the spot dedicated to dirty shoes. That's right, she put it next to the spot cleared out for her shoes. He followed the girly perfume stench deeper into the house and found the two teenagers sitting dangerously close on the couch, talking in low whispers.

"I'm home," he said in a falsely gentle voice. Ritsuka stood up from the couch, grinning. He motioned for the girl to stand up too.

Erika was a bit short for her age, a few inches smaller than Ritsuka. She wore some faded blue jeans, a yellow camisole and her dark hair went just past her shoulders in a straight fashion. She was so abhorrently unoriginal that he nearly gagged, but instead he smiled and extended his hand. She shook it, her small nails scratching the skin of his hand.

"Ummm…Seimei, this is Erika. Erike, Seimei," Ritsuka introduced them slowly. He'd never done this before.

Erika liked Ritsuka very much and was glad to have such a nice, sweet boy in her class that year. She was delighted when he invited her over to his house to meet his brother, the man he spoke so highly of all the time, dressed extra nice and washed her hair twice to come over after school. When she saw the elder brother, the first thing she thought was that he was significantly more handsome than his sibling and exerted an aura that made her momentarily forget why she was there in the first place. When she shook his hand, she noticed that his skin was neither hot nor cold and it was very soft. She shivered. But when she finally looked up and locked eyes with him, she saw too much hate and anger in them to be human. While his lips were curved into a smile, she felt as though he would give anything in the world to get rid of her. She nearly broke out in tears.

"Erika…you alright?" she heard someone whisper near her ear.

"Y-yeah," she laughed it off nervously.

"Are you thirsty?" he asked again.

"…sure."

The glare Seimei had sent her felt like it had drained every substance out of her body and she was, indeed, very thirsty. She followed Ritsuka into the kitchen and felt an ominous presence hot on her heels, drilling holes into the back of her head with his eyes.

Ritsuka handed her a cold glass of lemonade and she chugged it down in a not-so-elegant manner before setting the class down. She suddenly felt very hot.

"Seimei! Erika's a vollerball player, you know," the younger sibling bragged, his tail perked happily.

Seimei was seething inwardly. This girl – this boring, uninteresting girl – was making his precious little brother happier than he'd seen him in a long time. He didn't care that she'd won a gold metal last summer or that she had a cat named Rust. What was important was that he wanted to make Ritsuka happy. He could give him everything. He'd love him more than anyone on Earth could, he had much more money than anyone could suspect, he was smart, good-looking and loyal, he had connections and he could have sex just the same. He didn't need this girl. He didn't need a girl. So what if they were brothers? This way they already knew everything about each other and could understand each other better than any couple. Why couldn't Ritsuka open his eyes and see all of that? Had he forgotten that he'd promised his brother his ears?

He didn't even know what that meant. It didn't count.

Shut up.

"That's very impressive," he complimented dryly.

"You know that new water park that just opened up outside of town? I was thinking me and Erika could go together since…well, you'd probably think a water park is boring," Ritsuka continued, oblivious to his brother's anger and his friend's discomfort.

Of course water parks are boring. But you're not.

Erika was just too damn scared to say or do anything.

She left not an hour later, saying she needed to go to the store before it closed. When Ritsuka tried to hug her goodbye, she was too scared to reciprocate with Seimei eyeing her with hate from the doorway. She just ran without so much as a goodbye. Ritsuka looked a little crestfallen. They went back into the house and sat in the living room.

"You don't want to go to the park with me anymore?" Seimei broke the silence in a monotone voice.

"You hate water parks, I know you do." He sounded confused. So confused. "Why do you do that? You always go to places you hate because I ask you to. You hate lasagne but you make some for me twice a week and you eat it too so I won't feel bad. You hate disorderly things but you never get mad at me for leaving my things on the floor or making a mess. You hate – and I mean really, really hate – to be touched by anyone. But you touch me all the time like there's nothing wrong with it. Why?"

Seimei stayed silent, his face remaining stoic.

"I don't understand, Seimei. It's not just because we're brothers, is it? Is it?" He sounded a bit angry now.

Maybe he'd catching on.

"You told me you'd never hurt me. But that's what you're doing now. Because you're hurting too, even if it's not exactly the same, because you're not like everyone else. I want to know why you act this way, because if I don't I can't make it better."

…what?

"You always take care of me whether you feel like it or not, and if something makes me happy you go out of your way to get it for me. I've never done anything for you, and I want to know how to make you happy now."

"That's not necessary," he finally answered. His logical mind was working hard to place everything Ritsuka was saying and to decorticate every word to understand everything. But for some reason his brain felt like it was working on slow-motion.

"You know how I can make you happy. You know because it always feel like you're going to go ahead and make me give it to you, but then you don't. I don't understand what you're scared of."

That sounds so crude. It sounds like he wants me to rape him.

"Don't bother," he replied sternly. Things were not going the way he'd planned and as hard as he tried to quickly shape up another one, he was having a hard time.

"Please!"

Seimei stopped trying to make sense of everything and thought for a minute. His brother wanted to know what Seimei wanted from him, and why he was scared. He was afraid he'd lose Ritsuka…wasn't he? No, he wasn't scared, just reluctant. But even if he did tell his little brother, how wrong could things go? Ritsuka seemed very determined to go leaps and bounds to satisfy him. A bit like Soubi, except that Seimei would cherish him for as long as he lived. After all, he was a God, and Ritsuka was his angel. Soubi was just a mongrel.

"Come here, then."

Ritsuka obeyed quickly and stood right next to his big brother, back rigid. Seimei grabbed the front of his shirt with one hand and pulled him forward so that their noses touched and he could feel Ritsuka's breath on his face. Ritsuka still didn't get it and blinked innocently at him. Instead, he moved his hand to grab the back of the smaller boy's head and forced him closer to he could press their lips together. Ritsuka was perfectly still as his brother had fun with his mouth for a while, all brain function shut off, his heart hammering in his chest. After a minute of so, his brother pulled away, panting lightly. His hair was a bit messed up, something Ritsuka had never seen.

"Ritsuka…?"

Enddddddd (for now)

…I'm into cliffhangers suddenly. I know. They suck. I've been on the receiving end too much and now it's my turn. I'm kindof in the receiving end too cause I don't know what's going to happen. Unlike Seimei I just don't plan…at all…

Lol Erika. She's not coming back. (or is sheeee?)

I decided Ritsuka doesn't like yellow because I don't particularly like it either. Too bright.

R&R and I'll update real fast, like I just did. Two chapters in two days. If that's not merit-worthy then I don't know what is.