Something deep inside of Hikaru screamed for him to wake up; call it brotherly instinct, or maybe just the fact that he could hear Kaoru's frightened voice through the this walls. But whatever it was, Hikaru was jolted awake, feeling nothing but fear.

He threw his blankets aside, sensing something was wrong, and jammed his feet down onto the carpet, ignoring the still sore cut on the bottom of his foot and hobble uncertainly into dark hallway. His eyes whipped to Kaoru's door and saw the shimmer of light creeping out from the crack under the door.

Near the door in a flash, he wrenched it open, blinking once to adjust before gasping in surprise. There was no one in sight of the room, until he looked towards the source of a cold breeze. The window was open, full and wide, and Hikaru had looked just in time to see Kaoru push himself from the side of the house, diving towards the hardened ground.

"Kaoru," Hikaru spoke, almost disbelieving as his brother disappeared from view. And when a hard thump hit somewhere outside, it all become real. "Wha… Kaoru!" he screamed suddenly. He raced to the window and flung his head out into the cool air and looked below into their silent backyard.

Kaoru was lying still, but Hikaru couldn't make out much more in this darkness.

Shit. Could a second story drop kill someone? Hikaru didn't wait to find out. He turned and rampaged through the room, almost running into a wall as he turned the harsh corner into the hall, and sprinted all the way to the opposite end to his mother's room. "Mom!" he hollered, ripping the door open with a bang.

"There is something wrong with Kaoru!" he screamed.

She flung into a sitting position, completely terrified by Hikaru's arrival. "What are you talking about?" she replied in a panic.

Hikaru didn't reply. He was already taking two steps at a time, plunging downwards. His bare feet skid across the kitchen floor as he dodged around the counter to the backdoor. He fumbled with the lock with shaky hands but eventually got it open with a harsh click of metal. The door banged open and he didn't bother to close it as he raced out onto the brown, frozen and dead grass, to his brother who was lying just next to the light streaming from the bedroom window.

"Oh God, Kaoru," Hikaru gasped, skidding to Kaoru's side and dropping to his knees. He immediately placed a hand to Kaoru's chest and pressed an ear to feel his for breathing. There was no warm return on Hikaru's cheek and it set in the utter panic and terror.

He brought his hand from Kaoru's chest to Kaoru's neck instead, to feel for a pulse. "Oh my God," Hikaru whispered as he felt nothing. "Oh God, no!" he said louder with rising fear. Hikaru was frozen for a second, staring at his brother, fearing the worse. What should he do? What should he do?!

And suddenly something swelled inside of Hikaru. It was a warm and impossibly calm sense of assurance. Through complete instinct, Hikaru placed his hands on his brother; one hand on his heart, one hand on his shoulder, and he breathed slowly.

Closing his eyes, he shot somewhere into the darkness, feeling completely lightheaded, but free. Something ripped through him, not painful, but it was a sense of detachment. Hikaru opened his eyes.

He was standing outside of himself, watching his body press his hand to his brother. He glanced at his own hands and wasn't surprised to see them completely translucent and transparent.

"Hikaru, what are you doing here?"

Hikaru turned to his brother just next to him, staring at him in complete confusion. "Get back in your body," Hikaru demanded, gesturing to his body just below where they both stood.

"You mean it's still not my time to go?" Kaoru's soul asked, tilting his head.

Hikaru tightened his eyes. "You know it's not."

Kaoru huffed. "You're so bossy." But he did as he was told and walked to his limp body and kneeled down by it. He glanced once more up at ghost Hikaru, and Hikaru nodded to him. Then Kaoru placed a hand into his body, jolting both Hikaru and Kaoru's souls with the harsh sudden pulse of Kaoru's heart. "See you soon?"

"I better not," Hikaru replied. And Kaoru disappeared into his body, laughing like it was so damn hilarious.

Hikaru sighed but smiled to himself. He's saved his brother from his stupidity once again. Breathing out slowly, he prepared himself to return to his own body. Distantly, he felt sad that he would forget what he'd done for his brother once again, but he shrugged it off and squatted next to his body.

He reached in slowly until he remembered nothing, and his body dropped unconscious next to Kaoru.

Yuzuha stood frozen at the edge of the yard, barely able to breathe. She watched with blank eyes as Kaoru twitched suddenly under Hikaru's touch. Then, a few seconds later, Hikaru fell with a thud into the grass beside him.

Her breath caught once more and her hands were clammy and cold. This wasn't just a coincidence. She'd seen this same scene once before.

"KAORU!" Yuzuha screamed, racing to her bleeding boy in the pavement, with Hikaru in her arms. She was crying and sobbing as she dropped heavily to her knees into the puddle of blood, and placed Hikaru down beside her. She didn't want Hikaru to see this, but what could she do when her other baby boy was bleeding out in the street.

She let go of Hikaru and instead carefully scooped Kaoru into her lap, getting blood all over her hands. Kaoru was bleeding heavily from his head and a gash in his shoulder. There were other scrapes and gashing across her little boy but none as serious as those two.

Somewhere in the crowd that was circling them, Yuzuha could hear someone calling 911, and she hugged her boy tighter as his hair turned from orange to red from all the blood. "Check for a pulse," someone told her, kneeling nearby.

She did… and she felt nothing. He was dead or would be dead, she was sure of it. She cried out in a strangled sob, "There's nothing there."

Beside her, she heard Hikaru's wail again as he began to cry once more and he pressed himself into his mother's side. Remembering her child, she pulled him to herself with bloody hands, pressing her face into his soft locks of hair. "It'll be okay," she lied through a sob. Her embrace left a bloody smear down Hikaru's blue shirt.

The sirens were somewhere in the distance. There was no way it would reach them in time to make any difference. So she held her boys and continued to cry. How would she break the news to her husband? How would she tell him that they had outlived their six-year-old son?

Suddenly, Hikaru struggled out of her grasp. She tried to regain her grip on him, but he pulled away and sat down next to his lifeless brother.

Yuzuha's tears glistened silently from her eyes as she watched as her son placed a careful hand on Kaoru's heart and another on his shoulder, closing his eyes. And he sat there, still as could be, and she didn't know why.

But after a moment, Kaoru gasped suddenly, and there was uproar from the crowd around them. "Oh Kaoru!" Yuzuha cried, once again feeling for a pulse. It was there and strong.

She turned to hug Hikaru in her excitement, but she ended up catching the toddler as he fainted, right into her arms.

Later, Kaoru was called a miracle child. But Yuzuha eyed her son Hikaru, and wondered if he had anything to do with it.

So... what do you think?