Ryoma's Age- 4-6

Chapter 1: Truths Discovered

Part I- Loser

"Oh come on Kitten-san! You can do better than that!" Ryoma Echizen flinched at the nickname given to him by his younger brother, Rizaya. He collapsed to his knees from exhaustion and was immediately punished with a fierce kick to his face from his brother's Geta, traditional Japanese wooden sandals, to his face.

"Don't be a loser!" Rizaya yelled in fury at his older brother's lack of stamina and motivation. Loser…the severity of the word echoed in his mind. No, he was never going to let that happen, not as long as he could prevent it. "Hai," Ryoma mumbled in agony as he got up to continue kendo practice with his brother's harsh words etched deep inside his mind.

"Don't be a loser!"

Part II- Order

Two weeks later after the "accident" at kendo practice as the parents put it, the bruise was slowly starting to disappear and life at Echizen Estate slipped back into normality. Kazumi was constantly absent, Ruiji was constantly pulling pranks and making mistakes, Ryoma was being mute as usual, and Lain was isolating herself in her room doing god-knows- what as always. Rizaya himself was settling down, but still producing that "atmosphere" around him that made everyone go numb.

Everything seemed to be in order even as the siblings were called for dinner. Dinner was always at 6:00 pm sharp and varied from Japanese style to western depending on the day. Today it would be western since they got notified at 5:45 instead of 5:30. During western style dinner, the boys were required to wear black or gray tuxedos as would be expected in most formal gatherings and the girls were required to wear dresses or skirts. Everyone arrived at the dinner table at exactly six and sat down with the food already before them. Ryoma sat by Rizaya and Ruiji was on the other triplet's side. "How can you stand being with him all the time?" Ruiji whispered into Ryoma's ear and Ryoma just shrugged. "I can still hear you from over there." Ruiji cringed and scooted his chair away from his brothers.

"You shouldn't do that Ruiji it's not polite," Rinko warned as she eyed the chair.

"Gomenasai, Mother," Ruiji apologized, but still didn't move his chair back to its original spot.

Ryoga broke the awkward silence with an unexpected question that had been on everyone's mind, "Ano…Otou-san, where's Kaiko?" Kaiko was their youngest sister that had been born only four months ago and it was true that no one had seen the baby at all that day.

"You are excused." Rinko replied curtly without answering the question. She was always less forgiving with Ryoga than with any other of her children, even Ruiji, for no apparent reason even though Ryoga never did anything wrong.

Ryoga left without another word.

After dinner Ryoma accidentally took a glance at one of the papers in his mother's portfolio. "Kazumi," Ryoma asked hesitantly "Yea." What does 'disown' mean?" "It's what happens when a parent doesn't want their kid anymore." She answered. Rizaya chuckled.

That night Ryoma had trouble sleeping. Although the triplets had been sleeping together in the same room forever, Ruiji's snoring sounded louder this night and Ryoma swore he saw a human shadow that looked a lot like his older brother outside his door awhile ago. Not being able to take it any longer he turned over and looked at his brother sleeping in the bottom bunk.

"What is it now, Kitten-san?" Rizaya asked lazily when Ryoma peered down at his triplet.

"I can't sleep, I saw someone by the door."

"Let's go check it out."

"Nani!?"

The boys tip-toed through the dark, soundless, hallway until they reached a door that lead outside; standing by the door, the dark figure that Ryoma saw was there. As it turned and rested its gaze on them, Ryoma's body stiffened while Rizaya snickered.

"Hello Aniki." Rizaya grinned maliciously, "We came to say 'bye."

Ryoma was at a loss. "What are you talking about?"

"Let me explain Otou-san." Ryoga started, getting to the point, "I've always felt unwanted here so I'm finally leaving. Don't worry, I have plenty of relatives to go to and we might see each other again sometime. It's not that bad."

What was just happening? Leaving? It's impossible! A dream maybe? Yea, that's it. A dream. The stunned child opened his mouth to protest, but he was silenced by Rizaya who covered his mouth with his hand and simply said "'bye" while continuing to grin. Ryoga smiled once again and muttered "take care," before shutting the door.

Ryoma stood shell-shocked at what just happened in a matter of minutes. My brother just ran away. At first his mind could not comprehend the idea "Away" was connected to "gone" and "gone" was connected to "never see again" which was as bad as saying, "My brother just died." The experience was surreal. Instinctively, he turned to his brother for answer.

"Rizaya-san, what just happened?"

"Order."

"What does that mean?"

"By tradition, Ryoga should have been a leader over others since he's supposed to take over Otou-san's job after he dies, but he isn't."

Ryoma listened closely.

"But he isn't," Rizaya continued, "That's why Kazumi-nee will take over and that makes Ryoga a black sheep."

"What does that mean?"

"It means," Rizaya answered with an almost wild look, "That he's useless and can only be a threat to the family's image, that's why they had to make him go away one way or another."

Ryoma was officially scared out of his wits and trembling with tears rolling down his cheeks. However, he persevered onward. "W-who's the other b-black sheep? You said 'a'"

"Ruiji, of course. He's still young like us, though, so he doesn't have to worry – yet."

"Why?" Ryoma asked.

"Why, what?"

"Why do they have to get rid of everyone?"

"Because that's how order is, and if you don't follow it you get hurt. And one more thing"—Rizaya looked Ryoma straight in the eyes and smiled playfully—"from now on call me "Nii-san" or "Nii-chan" whichever you want to"—Then, he added—"You're not much of a leader, anyway."

Ryoma was still recovering from trauma, so he only followed. "Hai, Nii-san," he answered as his proclaimed older brother grabbed his hand and led him back to their room.

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See what you can do when you actually think before writing a chapter?

OKAY!!!

I'll get to the point I'll wait 4 days to see whether this will turn into RyomaXRizaya or Brotherly Love.

You chose. 4 days only. Begin the moment you finish reading this sentence.

Yaoi-2 Brotherly Love- 0