A/N: Thank you, Thank you, Thank you TOIJPE, Remy for your reviews ;)

Chapter 15

Tsume knocked on his brother's bedroom door, none of the doors had locks, but Tsume made a point of knocking every time he wanted to talk to one of them, hoping that they'd eventually understand that he hated when they barged into his room.

"Come in!" Kiba shouted, he was laying in bed, reading, and didn't want to get up to open a door that was unlocked. He knew it was Tsume-the only one that ever knocked.

"Hey..." The older boy greeted, going over to sit on armchair that Kiba had miraculously fit into the tiny room. It was clean, for the most part. Kiba enjoyed an organized life where clothes went into the closet, not the floor (Unlike Toboe), and food belonged in the kitchen (unlike Hige), but he was still a teenage boy, so the room didn't smell the greatest.

"How's Toboe?"

"He's sleeping-he'll be fine." There was a pause, but as Kiba hadn't put the book down, not in a talking mood, Tsume pressed on. "Was Hamona okay?"

"Why does it matter?" Kiba snapped, finally looking up from his book. He liked the calm. He enjoyed being in control of his feelings, but there was this insecurity that he always held on to,and an anger that was always willing to come out.

"...She was having a panic attack the last time I saw her, It's not an unreasonable question, is it?" He asked, trying to smile, but finding that he couldn't. Instead, it looked like he was holding air on one side of his was a tension between the brothers, and probably always would be. They were both prideful-they had always needed a buffer. At first, it had been their father, who praised them equally and admonished them the same, and then it had been granny, who was so loving to both and firm that they respect each other. Nowadays it was Toboe, who always defended them equally, or Hige, who made them laugh, but when they were alone, when it was just the two of them, the hubris was suffocating.

Kiba glared at him, he glared back. It was stupid.

"She was fine. Did you want something?"

"I guess not, thanks for being an asshole."

Kiba frown deepened as Tsume walked out, slamming the door behind him, without thinking, Kiba threw his book against the door. 'This family is going to hell' He thought, as he covered his face with a pillow and swore.


Hige watched his little brother drink from his cup of water and lay back down on his small bed. He was okay, they would all be okay. The 14 year old moved from his own bed and crawled in to bed next to Toboe. They were best friends, and Hige was feeling the need to be close to him, though he'd never admit it.

"Man, I hate you! You're already the cutest, but now a broken arm? You're gonna get all the love and attention." He joked, as he carefully ruffled the younger boy's hair.

Toboe gave Hige a small smile, and a half shrug. "Sorry? It does hurt..."

"Yeah, yeah, that's what you said when you fell down granny's stoop when you were 8 years old, it was just scrapes!" That had been terrifying. Toboe's hands had been covered with blood.

"Hige! You pushed me off the stoop!"

The older boy gave a loud gasp, pointing to himself in total mock exaggeration.

"Not I!"

"Yes you! The only one that gave me extra 'love and attention' was you, because you felt guilty!"

"Oh ...yeah" Hige shrugged,trying not to think about how this was similar, in a way. It had been his fault that Hamona had rushed out of the apartment, Toboe had just wanted to fix Hige's mistakes, as always.

"You were mad because I ate one of your gummy worms, even though Granny had told me I could have one."

Hige huffed, remembering the whole incident. He had been a brat, and had hurt his brother. Nobody had been very impressed, and he'd felt like the wold's biggest jerk, but Toboe had forgiven him right away, that's the kind of person his brother was.

"It was a red gummy worm Toboe, red. "

"Whatever" Toboe muttered out, though his voice held humor. They laid there, for a while, and his eyelids began to feel heavy. He would have fallen asleep, except he suddenly felt his brother shaking next to him. It was quiet at first, but then he heard the unmistakable sound of his older brother crying. His eyes shot up, to confirm what his ears had been hearing.

"Hige...What's wrong? You're scaring me..."

"Sorry" The boy spoke, trying to compose himself. "I just...this was my fault too, Toboe, and I'm just so tired of hurting the people I love."

"How was this your fault? I tripped, Hige, and I'm totally okay."

"But what if you...I don't know, what if it would have been worse, I shouldn't have yelled at Mona..."

At that, Toboe sat up a bit and stared. Mona... She had said, 'My friends call me Mona' .

"Hige...You know her. You really know her." It was a statement. The 15 year old was now covering his face with a pillow, not knowing how much he should say. Toboe was a boy- he was an innocent.

"Hige...please tell me."

"..."

"Please.I promise I won't tell anyone unless you want me to." It was their age old promise to each other, they always kept each other's secrets.

"I...I knew her family, her sister, Jaguara. They were the family they sent me to, after granny died." This was new. Toboe constantly talked about the family he had been sent to those 5 months. They had been kind; a beautiful blond couple. Tsume and Kiba had spent those awful months at a group home. They had hated it, fought with other teenagers, and the staff, but at least they had been together. Hige had never talked about his foster family. It was as if he had no recollection of it.

"Oh..." Was all Toboe could manage, but it was enough for the bough to break, and for Hige to unleash all his memories of terror and abuse at the hands of Jaguara.

Toboe listened patiently, he tried to react more maturely than he felt. There was an anger building inside him, that he hadn't realized was possible. He had never hated anyone, ever. He wanted Jaguara to rot in jail, he hated Hamona for mere association, and he loved his brother all the more. What was he going to do?


Hige mindlessly flipped through the channels of their old TV, nothing was on, and so, with a sigh, he walked to the kitchen to find something to eat. Toboe had been allowed to stay home, as he only had a soft cast on his broken arm, and it was no secret he was a total klutz. Hige had volunteered to stay home and take care of him, and to his surprise, no one had disagreed.

At the memory, he frowned and grabbed the orange juice from the fridge a little too aggressively. 'They're probably still mad at me...' He figured, though he was unsure if it was because of how rude he was at dinner, or the Blue thing, or some other stupid reason.

He was about to slam the refrigerator door closed when the doorbell rang, startling him. 'Who the hell...' Hige took his time walking to the door, unsure if he wanted to open the door. He opened it slightly, in his teenage mind the person on the other side of the door could have easily been a serial killer. Close enough. Standing sheepishly, with a plate of cookies in her hands, was Hamona.

"Un-fucking-believable"

She winced at that, and the boy had the decency to look uncomfortable. Granny would be so ashamed by his language, maybe even his parents, though he didn't quite remember if they ever swore, or not.

"Hige! I...I..."

"You brought cookies? Really? Like, sorry my family treated you like shit, have a cookie?' Again, the swearing. Tsume would not be impressed. Hell, he might even hit him again. Hamona blushed, but didn't immediately speak. If he needed to take his anger out on her, she was okay with that, she really was.

"They're for Toboe, I didn't realize you'd be here..." She said, honestly. She had called Tsume to ask if Toboe was at home, he didn't mention Hige hadn't gone to school. She knew it was a gamble to call, Kiba could have told him everything by now, but she supposed he hadn't, as Tsume hadn't confronted her. It was wrong, and she was planning on getting out of town, but she had wanted to see Tsume one last time...

"Oh. He's asleep..."

"Don't wake him, honestly, I had just wanted to check on him, and say goodbye..."

"You're leaving." A statement. He hadn't moved the door at all, so she was still standing awkwardly outside the apartment.

"I am..." She took a deep breath, and tried her luck. In her experience people weren't always understanding or forgiving, and they didn't have to be, but seeing the boy...after all this time, she wanted his forgiveness.

"Could I come in, Hige? Please, just for a minute, to talk to you?"

"I have nothing to say to you."

"Could I talk, and you...you don't have to say anything...you don't have to like me." He stared at her for too long, and she was ready to back down and walk away, but before she could, he opened the door another inch, and went to sit down on one of the couches. Tentatively, she went inside, closing the door, setting the plate of cookies down on the coffee table, and sitting.

"You can have one" She offered, with a small smile that was not returned.

"I want to apologize to you, and you don't have to forgive me. I made a mistake when I told my parents that Jaguara was hurting you." An uncomfortable pause, and then she went on. "I should have told the authorities. You should have been better protected."

Hige laughed now, a bitter, angry laugh that startled her. "You think you're this good person that needs to make things better, Hamona, but you're not! You promised you wouldn't say anything! You did, and I was sent away, your parents said I was a troublemaker...and because of that, it took longer for me to reunite with my family! You made it worse!"

"..."

"You just made it worse" He admitted, again, remembering how it had taken 3 extra weeks for him to see his brothers. He had been shuffled all the way to a small town, where paperwork was slower, and his spirit had died a little, thinking he'd never see his family again. He blamed Hamona, and her ignorant heart.

"Hige, I, I am sorry. I'm sorry that you see it that way, and that my actions hurt you, but all I wanted was for my sister to stop hurting you..."

"No! What you wanted, was for me to be wrong about your sister, you wanted me to be wrong!" He yelled, and immediately heard Toboe's footsteps running toward the living room, the boy was prepared to defend his brother.

"Hey, leave him alone!" He yelled, immediately getting in front of Hige. "He doesn't want to talk to you, Hamona! Go Away!"

She immediately nodded, standing up and walking to the door. Of course she was hurt, or course she didn't want to be judged for her sister's actions, of course she would have done it again-not kept Hige's secret, but she also didn't want to make this worse for him, even now, even if she thought she could.

"Hige...she's still out there. If you ever want to send her to jail, let me know. I'll back you up, 100%"

To be Continued...