Soon after everyone had left the room so that Yuri could get a good rest without being disturbed, there was a soft click as the door handle was turned and a small face peeked around the edge of the door. Yuri, who had woken up from a light doze at the sound, lifted his good arm and waggled his fingers slightly in greeting. It was too much effort to turn his head to look at the intruder of his peace, but he didn't need to turn around to know who it was.

He lifted his eyes up to meet the blue-black eyes of the child that sat down on the high back chair that he had previously occupied. Both sat in silence while Kyoru studied the arm that was wounded from his seat. Yuri was about to doze off again when he heard a slight rustling and opened his eyes to find Kyoru leaning over him, face fractions of an inch away from his wound, eyebrows furrowed in concentration or worry, Yuri couldn't tell.

The child's behaviour was unusual and Yuri felt a growing sense of apprehension gnawing at the back of his mind. Kyoru finally turned and locked eyes with him again, slowly reaching out to point at the padded spot on his arm.

"It cut a bit of your muscle," he said matter of factly. "You need to go to a hospital."

Yuri leaned his head back on a pillow and sighed tiredly.

"Can't you fix it?" He asked hopefully. There was no reply from the child for some time, causing Yuri to force his head up again to see what he was doing. Kyoru had travelled further along the length of the sofa and was now studying the other's hand. He carefully lifted Yuri's hand, supporting it by the palms of his hands.

"Bend them," he said, his voice still chillingly quiet and calm. Yuri did as he was told, knowing from past events that when the boy was in his current state that it was no use questioning his requests. The pain shot through his arm and announced itself dramatically in the base of his spine. He moaned, and collapsed against the sofa, the will to move flattened out of him. The effort it took to move his fingers had exhausted him and he could feel shivers raking his body. He felt his mind get a bit fuzzy and willed himself to not succumb to the blackness that threatened to envelope him. Forcing his eyelids apart for a split second, all he managed to sense through the dense fog that settled down around him was Kyoru kneeling beside him, hands poised over the stitched wound on his arm. Then he gave up the fight.

XXX

After the escapades of the night, everyone had drifted off to their own rooms not long after they left Yuri, exhausted. There was one person, though, who although was exhausted as the rest, could not fall asleep.

The scene between Haruhi and that girl called Raven seemed to be stuck on replay in his mind as he thought of what Ace had said about her. She seemed like someone who could be familiar. In the darkness of the foreign room he was able to admit that he was slightly disturbed by what Haruhi and Ace had done to her. There was something almost dear about her, something that he couldn't grasp, that made him feel slightly defensive about her. Maybe it was the way her eyes flashed when she was angry. Her eyes were so… expressive.

He could hardly believe that she was a trained killer, not with the way her eyes seemed to give away every single thought that passed through her mind. He had studied her in that room while she had lain there seemingly nonchalant, but he saw it in her eyes. Eyes that were a bright, almost steely shade of silver that seemed to change density when there was a change of light. He saw the fear there, the worry, the guilt. He knew, without a doubt, that Yuri meant more to her than she dared show.

Annoyed at the insistence of his mind in carrying out heavy duty activity while he desperately wanted sleep, he sat up and slid out of bed quietly, not wanting to wake the other person who shared the bed. He grabbed a jacket that had been hung on the back of a chair and made his way quietly across the room. He held his breath when he turned the handle of the door, relieved to find that it opened soundlessly. He slipped outside and shrugged into the jacket, making his way slowly along the dim corridors. Finally, he found himself in the dining hall and walked across to the glass doors that opened out to the garden that was drenched in moonlight.

He walked out to a small tree that offered him slight shelter from the briskness of the wind without blocking out the night sky. There, he collapsed onto his back, stretched himself out and stared at the countless blinking stars that dotted his view.

He lay there for what seemed like hours, his mind running at warp speed, and him just going along for the ride. He stared unseeing at the sky and the rustling leaves above him while he followed the multiple threads of thought that ran through his brain. He wondered at how he could be so sure of the emotions and thoughts that seemed to parade through the brilliant silver eyes that belonged to the raven-haired girl. No one else seemed to notice much besides what she physically projected. No one seemed to want to look beyond the surface of her exterior.

She probably preferred it like that, he mused. No one would like it if they were told that their eyes really were windows into their souls, and that everything that they thought private was in fact as public and as easy to spot as a wolf in a pack of sheep. The soft thud of something heavy on the ground caught his attention and he looked up just in time to see a silhouette of a person turn away from him.

"Wait," he called out before his mind registered what he was doing. The person froze, evidently unsure what to do. He decided that it was a night made for sharing.

"If you don't bother me, I won't bother you," he said almost softly. He knew that the wind and the night would carry his words. This time the person turned around to him slightly. He lay there waiting, propped up on his elbows, and watched them struggle until the other finally made a decision and trudged almost unwillingly over to where he was and plopped down next to him. The face that turned to him was hidden in a hood and the moon was against their back, but he had seen that jacket just a few hours earlier and had no doubt who it was.

He flashed his most charming smile at his companion and lay back down again, folding his hands behind his head to act as a cushion against the hard earth. His eyes drifted shut as he picked up from where his mind had left off earlier. Shortly after, he was vaguely aware of the other stretching out their body too, and let a small smile drift across his face.

XXX

She hadn't meant for it to happen. They were all being overdramatic and a little bit more than ridiculous. Raven was half sure that it was just an act to make her feel bad. But she had told the truth that he hadn't been her target. They should all know that. She would never, ever, upon her very soul, want to harm him.

He was all she had.

It was his own fault for moving so much. It would have been better if he had not sensed the man behind him at the last second and tried to turn around to block it, or the knife would have hit home. Albeit, the knife still embedded itself solidly in the man's chest, but not before slicing through Yuri's arm first.

She ignored the nagging pain that ate at her heart when she thought of how deep that wound had looked.

Raven didn't say it out loud for fear of being yelled at even more than she'd already been, but the wound looked like it was deep enough to have sliced through muscle. That would have explained the intensity of pain that Yuri felt. If it was just a flesh wound he would have shrugged it off. He wouldn't be pale and exhausted just from that, since there wasn't really much blood loss.

Or maybe that was an act too.

Raven sat up suddenly in bed. Guilt and anger swam around in her head and lying still in the dark only served to make it all worse. She tossed back the bed sheets and stood, reaching for the first article of clothing she felt on the foot of her bed and stuffed her arms through the sleeves. She zipped herself in almost viciously and tugged the hood up over her head. Careful not to make too much noise, she opened her door slowly and peeped out into the corridor, not really expecting to see anyone.

As she assumed, the place was deserted and dark, but for the light that shone from the light fixtures of the walls that were too dim to be of much use. Raven passed out into the corridor and walked down familiar steps and memorized paths until she found herself in the gardens outside the dining hall. She stood just beyond the door for a while, lost in thought as her eyes took in the fluttering leaves of the plants, and her keen hearing picked up the rustle and hush of nature.

Iceland had been a bad idea. She had done that mission to get away from all the people she loved and cherished, a reason she would never admit to, but one that she believed the others already knew. She was not good with displaying emotion, but they had known her for so long that it hardly mattered. They could see right through her.

When her spine started to feel uncomfortable from the position that she held, she took a leisurely walk to her favourite tree. It was the perfect kind of tree to lie under, there was enough shade that in the daytime it kept out the sun and the wind at night, but it was bare enough to let in a view of the sky.

She was so lost in thought that she was only a few meters away from her tree when she realized that there was someone else there before her. The anger in her head almost spilled over at the sight of the intruder but she shook herself out of it, knowing it was irrational to be upset over a spot under a tree. There were plenty more trees around that she could lie under. She was turning to leave when he called out, making her freeze. She didn't want to have to share her space with someone else, but she didn't have the energy to find some other place to lie and watch the sky.

"If you don't bother me, I won't bother you," he said, as though he could read her mind. His voice was so soft, the words barely making it to her ears. Without realizing it, she turned slightly in his direction, her body having made its decision before her mind had run its course. Finally, she turned completely and walked heavily over to where he lay stretched out, propped up on his elbows and his upper body hidden in the shade of the tree. She wanted it to be completely obvious that she didn't enjoy having to share what she considered her private space with anyone else. She sat down and stared at his face, eyes exploring his upturned face, safe in the knowledge that he couldn't see her because the light was against her back and the hood covered her head.

She had seen him earlier in the room along with a gang of five other boys. She didn't know them by names yet, but she had a pretty good idea who he was, their names were hardly anonymous. Raven was surprised when he suddenly grinned at her, and resisted the urge to reach up and check her hood. Those golden eyes had seemed to have pierced through the dark and seen her. A shiver ran down her spine, she had never been seen when she didn't want to be.

Though she expected him to try and make petty conversation, he held true to his word and just lay back down and continued what he had been doing before she had appeared. Minutes later, she too, cautiously lay down, biting on her tongue to stop the slight sigh of satisfaction as her spine was supported by the solidness of the ground and the softer grass.

XXX

The first thing he noticed when he woke up was that he wasn't lying on leather anymore. He was lying on a bed - his bed, as he confirmed when he opened his eyes and registered his surroundings. Yuri tried to sit up, but the pain in his arm prevented him from moving much. He gave up and craned his neck around his room, trying to make out the shadows in the dimness. There was no light save from the slight parting in the curtains. From that he could tell that it was morning and that he had probably been out a day, if the sluggish movements of his muscles were anything to judge by.

He caught sight of the small form Kyoru curled up on the sofa that sat against the wall that was across from Yuri's bed. At the rustle of bed sheets, the small form uncurled itself and got off the sofa. Eyes wide open as though he had not slept at all, Kyoru perched himself on the other side of the massive bed and smiled at Yuri.

"You're feeling better." Again, with such surety, as though he could read the other's mind. Yuri was about to refute his comment because there sure as hell was a lot of pain when he tried to sit up. However, he lost the words when he instinctively tried to move his arm and realized that it did in fact, feel better. Much better.

Yuri beamed at the child and reached out with his good arm, "I feel good enough for a hug." He grinned when the boy leaned over and wrapped his tiny arms around Yuri's neck.

"I'm glad," he whispered.