AN: For the purpose of this fic Hibari is a year older than Lelouch, and two years older than Tsuna.

Chapter 1

They arrived at a refugee camp a few hours later. It was an old warehouse of some sort surrounded by a chain link fence that had been knocked down in several places. It didn't look very secure or welcoming, but it was better than sleeping on the side of the road.

Hibari let Lelouch down and the two boys approached the gate. A pair of armed Japanese men stood guard. Lelouch tensed as they got closer. He was certain that, somehow, these soldiers would recognize him as a Britannian prince. He kept his head down and hoped they wouldn't notice him. He had no such luck.

"The hell? What's a Britannian brat doing here?" The boys stopped in their tracks. The man made to grab at Lelouch, but Hibari pushed the younger boy aside and out of reach.

"This is for the people whose homes your kind destroyed," the second guard spat. "Not little Britannian shits like you."

"He's my brother," Hibari said in a cold voice, keeping himself between Lelouch and the men. The guard's eyes flicked between the two boy's faces. Hibari amended his statement. "Half-brother."

"Tch, damn half-breed," the second guard sneered in disgust. "Go on then. Better watch him. There are plenty who won't care how much Britannian is in him. Skinny thing like him will break easy." Then he looked Lelouch dead in the eye and smirked. "Sleep with one eye open, boy."

Lelouch shivered at the implications. Hibari grabbed his arm and pulled him past the guards.

Hibari found them a small, but secluded spot in the corner of the building. The other boy made a sort of curtain from old tarps to give them an illusion of privacy. Lelouch didn't ask were he had gotten them. He honestly didn't care.

The first night, Lelouch couldn't sleep. He stared up at the ceiling of the warehouse. There were holes were explosions and bullets had pierced the metal roof. It would be a problem when it rained, but the sky was clear that night. Lelouch could see stars through the holes.

He thought about Aries Villa, back when his mother was alive and Nunnally's eyes could open. He remembered pointed out the constellations to her, explaining how they connected to form animals, and beasts, and heroes of legends. Nunnally would crinkle her nose and tell him it didn't look much like a lion to her.

Hot tears slid down his face.

"Here."

Lelouch turned. Under the dim light of the stars he could just barely make out Hibari with his arm extended toward him. A scrap of cloth in his hand. Lelouch swallowed against the lump in his throat.

"Thanks," he said, accepting the cloth. Though, he wasn't sure he'd said it loud enough for the other to hear. He could feel the boy watching him wipe away the tears.

"I used to cry," Hibari said. To Lelouch it sounded like a confession. "After my parents were killed, I cried a lot. It was the early days of the invasion."

Lelouch's heart sank in his chest. Deep down he'd already known this was Hibari's story. His country was being invaded. Innocent people were dying everyday. But hearing it hit him harder than he expected. Hibari had helped him, and it was his father's war that killed his parents.

"Then," Hibari continued with a soft sigh, "I stopped crying. I decided I wouldn't be weak. I wouldn't be an herbivore to be preyed on. I would get stronger and make them the prey.

"You're an herbivore, but that's okay." Hibari smiled at him. "I'll protect you… otouto."

It wasn't a knight's oath – to protect and serve until death – nor was it the promise of friends to look out for each other, but it warmed Lelouch to know that someone did care what happened to him.

Over the next few days Lelouch found Hibari had a distaste for people in general, and avoided them when he could. It suited Lelouch just fine. The fewer people around the less chance there was of someone taking their frustrations out on him.

It had happened only a few times. A grief stricken mother whose child had been gunned down by Britannian soldiers. A man who didn't think he deserved to eat when his own children were hungry. A gang of boys whose homes had been bombed. Each time Lelouch got more bruises than he'd ever remembered having. He was immensely gratefully for Hibari, who's unnaturally good fighting skills and near omniscience had saved him each time.

"Why don't you care that I'm Britannian?" Lelouch asked, after Hibari had rescued him from yet another beating.

The boy glanced at him with a furrowed brow. "You're not Britannian." Lelouch opened his mouth, but Hibari cut him off. "You're not Britannian. If you were I would bite you to death."

Lelouch wondered if Hibari would feel the same if he knew who he really was.

Things in the camp only got worse. Tensions rose as Britannia tightened its grip on Japan. Support for the camp was dwindling.

It was the renaming of Japan that was the final straw. A man, screaming he was not a number, pulled a knife on Lelouch. Hibari took the knife and put it in the man's thigh. The boys decided it was time to go.

The Japanese government was quickly dissolved over the next few months. Elevens were made to turn over all weapons or face imprisonment. Clovis, the Third Prince of Britannia, was named Viceroy to Area 11. It was a grand event, broadcast all across Area 11. Lelouch and Hibari watched him on an old black and white television. The picture faded in and out, and the static nearly drowned out the sound.

Lelouch translated for Hibari, who only knew a handful of Britannian words – all of which were insults. The young, blond prince gave his deep, heartfelt condolences to the Elevens who had lost loved ones during the war. He asked the people to please join him in creating a better future for Area 11 so that their deaths would not be in vain.

Lelouch had never been so disgusted by his half-brother. When it was over Hibari smashed the T.V.

A year after the invasion the boys found a more-or-less permanent home. It was a small, rundown building that was probably a shop of some kind before the war. There were others vying for the space, but Hibari ran them all off quite effectively.

Hibari sought out fights wherever he could. Every night he would come back covered in new cuts and bruises. A month had passed before Lelouch finally had enough.

Violet eyes burning, he turned on the now twelve-year-old. "I thought you wanted to live. What happened to getting stronger? To making them pay?"

"I'm doing it." Hibari bit back, grabbing a water bottle out of Lelouch's hand and placing it against his blackened eye. It would have worked better if the water were actually cold. He laid down on the thin mattress on the floor.

Lelouch hissed at the battered boy, "Idiot! Getting yourself killed is what you're doing. Going out there and getting beat up by teenagers isn't going to bring down Britannia!"

"I always win."

"Until you don't! Eventually someone's gonna get sick of a stupid Eleven kid," Kyoya snarled at the number. Lelouch pushed on, "that thinks he's better than them. And then what?" And then Hibari would be lying in some alley with an hole through his skull.

Hibari quieted as the words sunk in. Lelouch turned away, unable to look at his swollen, black eye and split lip.

"I'll… be more careful," Hibari relented.

Lelouch nodded, and let out a relieved sigh. "Good."

Hibari stared at him for a long time. Lelouch refused to fidget under his gaze. He glared back.

"What?" He demanded.

"You're weak."

Lelouch raised an eyebrow indignantly.

"You're too thin, too slow. You can't fight to save your life. We start training tomorrow."

"So you're just going to trade beating up strangers for beating up me?" he asked, more than a little horrified. Suzaku had tried to teach him to fight once. By the fifth time Suzaku knocked him to the ground, he had flat out refused to get up again. Suzaku had been a terrible teacher, but Lelouch had no doubt Hibari would be worse.

Hibari smirked, taking pleasure in his discomfort. "Training, otouto," he corrected. "The point is to teach you how not to get beat up."

Lelouch frowned, the faces of his real older siblings flashing in his mind. "We're not brothers."

There was no warning before Hibari chucked the water bottle at him. It struck Lelouch hard in the face, knocking him onto the floor.

"Ah! You bastard!" He shouted and cradled his face in his hands. A stinging pain bloomed across his cheek.

Hibari rolled onto his side, his back to Lelouch. "Get out. I'm going to sleep. If you wake me up I'll bite you to death."

Lelouch clenched his jaw. Hibari rarely threatened him, but Lelouch knew better than to think he wouldn't deliver on that threat. Throwing on his coat, Lelouch stormed out the door.

Namimori Middle was reopened as a school for Honorary Britannians. Under Britannian law, public education for Elevens was only offered to children whose parents had Honorary status. Neither Lelouch nor Hibari met criteria for admittance, but that didn't stop them. Lelouch stuck to the lie of being Hibari's half-brother, and his test scores were impressive enough to make the Admissions Office look the other way.

Hibari's admittance had been a bit more difficult to arrange. The Japanese boy had outright refused to apply for Honorary status. The older boy's own scores were nothing to scoff at, but it was Hibari's intimidating nature that got him a place at Namimori. Judging from the way the faculty went stark white whenever they saw him; they were all far to scared to refuse. One day Hibari showed up wearing an armband declaring him head of the disciplinary committee. Lelouch was sure he hadn't gone through any official channels to get the position.

The classrooms were pitiful compared to what Lelouch had known growing up. The textbooks were written in Britannian and full of propaganda. They didn't have much choice, however, and Lelouch took to tutoring Hibari in the language. In exchange, Hibari made good on his threat to train him.

Every night after school, the older boy would pummel him into the ground. Lelouch regretted ever telling him to stop fighting.

He lay face down after Hibari had delivered a brutal kick to his abdomen. He really didn't think he deserved this.

"Get up, otouto."

"No," Lelouch refused, stubbornly. He never wanted to move again.

"Get up."

"So you can knock me down again? I don't think so."

He took a threatening step towards him. "It doesn't matter to me if you're on your feet or not," said Hibari, his voice low the way that meant business.

A chill ran down Lelouch's spine. He reluctantly pushed himself onto his feet, his body aching as he did. He braced himself for another hit… but it never came.

Instead Hibari relaxed his stance. "You're getting better. It takes longer to knock you down. You're better at seeing attacks coming and preparing for them. Soon you'll be able to avoid them altogether."

Lelouch felt his face heat. Hibari had never praised him before, especially not at something he was so obviously miserable at. "I – thank you."

Hibari nodded, his expression blank, and turned back towards their home. "We'll continue tomorrow. Get some rest."

Chapter 1 End.

Some Hibari/Lelouch bonding! I said I didn't know when I would update this… and then immediately started writing.

Otouto is Japanese for 'little brother'.