Cain groaned as his already injured back hit the pavement without mercy. The lights behind his eyes flashed bright colours. His head's trickling injury reopened, and began bleeding freely again. He could hear the shrapnel rain around him, but didn't feel any fall on him. Instead, he felt a warm, light, strangely soft tent wrap around him, breathing in his ear.

Realizing how improbable this could be, he opened his eyes. Even the faint glow of the flames upset them. His vision blurred and swam, but he could make out an ivory cheek, golden strands of hair, and the smell of perfumed gasoline. A nervous voice whispered in his ear.

"Are you okay?"

He simply grumbled a response, brain unable to form coherent thoughts. Words like soft, female, pain, and explosion floated in his psyche, but his consciousness wouldn't put it together. He closed his eyes again.

Only until he heard a male voice start bawling, did his head start to clear.

"My bike! My beautiful, vintage, 1975 GL1000 Gold Wing!"

He felt a worried shake, and he opened his eyes again, groaning for her to stop. The first thing he was able to discern were her amber eyes, full of concern.

"Please wake up; we have to get you out of here."

Cain reached up and gently pushed her off. His strength was vanishing, but she rolled off him with little effort. He went to pick up the pipe, lying next to him, but she grabbed his arm and pulled him away. His fingers brushed the heated steel, as she began to guide him to his feet. Her voice was both hushed and hurried.

"We have to get away. Now. While they're distracted…"

A collection of male voices were audible over the crackling of the fire, collecting around the flaming pieces of twisted metal.

"Aniki, it's okay." A voice said soothingly. There was an agreement among the group of men.

"Yeah, yeah, we'll get you another bike. Won't we guys?" A group of yeses echoed their consent.

"You fools! You can't replace genius!" His tears started to flood the fire, dampening the inferno.

Cain started pulling away from his sister's frame, reaching for the steel bar again. This was the time to attack, while they were all distracted. He could be the victor this way. He tried to fight against her physical urging, but found his body was too weak to really resist anymore. He was not going to let her see him run away though. That was more shameful then dying the good fight. He tried pushing away again.

"No, we're leaving." She hissed. He turned and gave her a dark look, but she didn't back down.

"Onii-sama, no…Tsuruga-san. We're going." Kyoko wrapped her arm around his waist, and hoisted him fully to his feet.

Cain's eyes widen in surprised, then settled into Ren's yielding sigh. She used her small frame to tuck under his arm, and clasped his side as firmly as possible without touching any of the obvious injuries.

The sound of fire and police sirens broke the night's air, and there was a scuffle of feet hurrying away from the alley intersection.

"Noooo, let me die with my bike…"

When the firefighters and police arrived at the scene, only smoldering ashes remained.

****

*cries and bows into a dogeza* I'm sorry everyone! I thought it'd be obvious I was kidding around with the whole The End thing. I put it under my author notes, and I didn't expect anyone to take it seriously.

*watches her audience turn their back and walk the other way*

I only have three more chapters left, and they're mostly done! They just need some editing, and they contain lots of romance! Please, give me another chance!

And, thank you everyone for getting me over 50 reviews! *bows* I'm really appreciative of all your support, and criticisms! I'll go through the whole story once I'm done with it to try and fix the silly grammatical and word errors that always seem to slip past me. No matter how much I read it, I don't notice most of my mistakes until they're on the site.