Bless my brother

Big Brother

"How can I ever feel again?

Given the change would I return?

Why am I loved

Only when I'm gone?

Gone back in the time to bless the child
 

Think of me long enough

To make a memory

Come bless the child

One more time"
 

(Bless the child, by Nightwish)
 

-----------------------------------

This story is for two dear friends.
 

Adriann.

Finally I had have enough time to write a story about these two characters. I hope you like it that way.
 

Bianca.

You always wanted to hear a special sentence in one of my stories. This one contains it.
 

Thank you very much for your friendship, for your emails, for listening and for every single

Ramen.

--------------------------------
 

BLESS MY BROTHER

- A NOVELLA -

(by April Eagle)
 

Prologue: Big brother
 

"He's so cute!"

"You simply have to love him!"

"Just look at the way he moves. It's incredible!"

"And the way he sings..."

"Who?"

For a moment an embarrassing silence filled the small room and four stunned pairs of eyes

looked at a blonde girl. Her summer dress was dirtied with brown sports, probably chocolate

ice she just ate. Her mouth showed the same treacherous traces.

"Are you joking, Usagi?"

She frowned and turned again towards the TV screen. It was connected directly to one of the

cameras standing on stage. They showed a young man who held the micro tight in his hands.

His eyes were closed and he sang with all his heart, just like the young woman next to him

played her violin with all her deep feeling. It was a touching song and the blonde girl searched

secretly for a handkerchief. Surely she was thinking of her boyfriend who was thousands of

miles away studying at a foreign university.

"I meant Sejya, of course! Isn't he a dream?"

"Well, he sings quite nicely." Admitted the girl and sat down on the table covered with

water bottles. The concert would be over soon and the singers were always very thirsty

afterwards.

"It's Michiru and Sejya's last song. Afterwards we are going to PARTY!!!"

You could hear the other girl's exclamation marks, she was always talking that way. She was

always planning the biggest, craziest and often most chaotic parties. Just like she planned this

one. Okay, it was only a small room, but a big CD player stood in the corner and the other

girl, her name was Makoto, held a basket tight in her arms. Surely it was full of delicious

food.

To celebrate.

His birthday.

"He's going to get 18 this night."

"That's just the right age."

"Minako!"

"But it's the truth!" Now she was sulking, suddenly looking younger than her sixteen

years. However, it only lasted for some seconds, then she swirled around, peeking under the

blanket laying on the ground, covering some boxes. Coloured boxes in different shapes.

Presents. Birthday presents. For him. The star, the hero, the swarm of all teenager girls.

My big brother.

"So many nice presents. I am really excited what he'll say to them."

"I am sure he'll like them all."

"As long as he doesn't try Usagi's chocolate!"

"You are so mean, Rei, I really tried my best." Tears sparkled in the blonde's blue eyes

and she gulped visibly. Carefully she opened her handbag and produced a small package. It

was wrapped up neatly, surely her mother helped her with that difficult task. Maybe the

chocolate was inedible, maybe it was not even brown, but they all knew that it meant a lot to

the lead singer of the Three Lights. He fell in love with the blonde girl, that was an open

secret, only that the girl of his desire did not see it. Not yet.

It's in vain. I'll never stand a change against them.

A shadow laid a small envelope on the table and took a long look at the blonde now

carefully placing her own present under the blanket, still arguing with her best friend about

the quality of her self made chocolate. Finally the shadow turned around and left the small

room without being noticed.

I'll never stand a change against HER.
 

***
 

"Walt Disney's Cinderella or Rambo?" The tall woman held two tapes in the air and

looked with a pleading expression down at the little baby lying in its cradle next to the couch.

It held its teddy bear in its tiny hands and laughed happily as it saw the well known face.

"It's your decision, Himme-chan. The concert's over now, but I guess Michi'll need

another two hours before she'll return home. Enough time for us girls to enjoy the evening."

The tall woman robbed a little bit nearer to the cradle and held the Rambo tape a little bit

higher.

"Here we have a really good movie about a hero fighting against the world's evil. It's

called an action movie, Himme-chan, but we both know that it's very valuable. It has a great

moral worth about the ideals of a good man and how he's able to make this world a better

place. Oh... and the second choice is Cinderella. A boring story about a stupid girl who's not

able to protest against her bad step-mother."

The Disney tape was shown only for one moment before it disappeared under the

couch table.

"So, what is your choice, my little princess?" Dark green eyes sparkled as the little

baby stretched its arms towards blonde strands and tried to reach them. The tall woman

grinned happily and nodded her head in agreement.

"Rambo. A very good choice, Himme-chan. I see we understand each other." The tall

woman put the tape into the recorder and soon the sound of hard fights filled the living room.

"Now, where's the pop corn?" She put some blonde strands behind her ears while she went

into the kitchen to search the fridge for something to eat. Silently she decided to have her hair

cut even when her girlfriend liked it a little bit longer than normal.

I'll just tell her that they hang into my eyes and make them watery and that I can't

concentrate on my races when I have tears in my eyes.

She grinned satisfied and decided for an apple covered with brown chocolate. They bought it

at the last fun fair and now was the right time to eat it. However, first she had to feed her

daughter.

And then Michi will look at me with THOSE eyes and I'd even let my hair grow to my

knees.

She sighed, grabbed a little bottle and returned to the cradle. While Rambo fought against a

army of thousand men she bowed over the little baby and stroked through fluffy dark hairs.

"Do you want some milk? Are you hungry, Himme-chan?"

A bomb exploded in the background and the baby started happily to laugh. Obviously it

liked the movie very much, or it simply knew that nothing could happen if the crazy blonde

was by her side, protecting her with her life. The way she had done just some weeks ago...

"That's my daughter!" exclaimed the tall woman proudly and pulled the baby out of the

cradle into her arms. Grinning she danced with the little girl in her arms through the whole

living room and both laughed. "I knew that you'd be the perfect daughter, Himme-chan. You

like Rambo. Oh! I am so proud of you."

The little girl did not know anything about Hollywood movies nor did she understand her

mommy's words, but surely she did hear the soft tone in the voice she loved so much, surely

she could see the big smile on a so well known face, surely she could feel the tender hug the

blonde gave her. Happily she laughed louder and grabbed for blonde strands to hold them

tight in her tiny fists.

"I luv ya, Himme-chan." The tall woman kissed carefully the tiny forehead, her dark green

eyes sparkled. "No one will ever do you any harm. Do you hear me, Himme-chan? I'll always

be there to protect you. Nothing will ever happen to you again."

Dark eyes grew wide as the little girl realized that she couldn't pull out those strands but she

did not cry. Instead she opened her still toothless mouth and yawned widely.

"Oh, there's someone very tired." The blonde giggled and rocked her daughter for another

minute. It was such a good feeling to simply hold her tight. After all what happened during

the past months she had feared to never be able to see her little Himme-chan again.

I had been prepared to kill her.

The tall woman swallowed hard, looked with loving eyes down at the little girl. The way she

had watched her almost every night, during the past three months. Since Himme-chan had got

another chance, a second chance. To live, to grow up, to be happy.

With me you'll always be happy, little one. I promise you.

The blonde turned slowly but before she reached the couch the door bell rang.

Nani? At a time like this? Can't be Michi...

She frowned and laid her daughter back into the cradle. The little girl only smiled, Rambo's

fights didn't disturb her, so a lousy door bell could not scare her. Her mother corrected her

crumbled shirt and tried shortly to wipe away some red spots from her boxers, but of course it

was in vain. The same it would have been in vain to pull a comb through her messed blonde

hairs. Hell, it was Saturday evening, she did not have expected any one else than her girlfriend

- with whom she had planned to take a long bath when she would return. A nice hot bath were

clothes were not needed anyway.

"I didn't order any pizza, but I'd like to take one with cheese and pineapple if you have one."

She grinned as she opened the door. To be honest she did not really know whom she had

expected but her smile fell as she saw the small figure standing outside on the stairs. The grey

suit was soaked and wet silver hairs hang into a pale face, covering it with shadows, hiding

the expression there.

"Yaten?"

Shortly she looked up to the sky, saw all the dark clouds there and how rain fell hard on the

dusty ground. It had been a long hot summer with little rain. Now the earth was dry and hard

and not able to take all the water in so easily. Muddy puddles formed quickly on the street.

It started to rain? Strange, didn't hear it.

But on the other hand it was no wonder that she did not hear the rain. She was living right

next to the sea and got used to the noises of the waves crashing against the beach.

"Yaten?" she asked again but he did not react. His shoulders trembled and he looked like an

abandoned puppy. He was the youngest of the pop group called The Three Lights, the

youngest of three brothers. Just as he was the smallest. He hardly reached her up to her

shoulders as the blonde stepped next to him. From the first moment she met him he

remembered her of a small boy, a lost boy she wanted to take care of. Oh, she hated the other

two, especially that daredevil Sejya who really tried to get a kiss from Usagi, their future

Crystal Queen! There was hardly a day the blonde did not argue with that arrogant singer,

when she did not try to break his right arm but was stopped by Usagi or her girlfriend, when

she wished him to go back to where he came from. No, she did not like the other two guys an

inch, but she cared a lot for their little brother. There was something about him that let her

forget all her distrust she normally had against strangers. Strangers who fought against the

same enemies she had - but at the same time also fought against herself. Someone who tried

to seduce her shinning queen was automatically her enemy. However, this boy was different.

Maybe because he remembers me so much of someone I loved so dearly...

She sighed deeply and put her hand under his chin to force him to look right into her eyes.

His face was wet, surely not only because of the rain. His light green eyes showed so much

despair, it almost let her heart break.

Someone like him shouldn't look so sad. Not again...

"Hey, Yaten, what happened? The concert finished an hour ago, why aren't you at the

party?" Still no reaction. Yaten's lips trembled and so he bit on them. Hard he tried to hold

back his sobs but his body trembled even more. He wanted to stare again at his dirtied shoes

but the blonde did not let him. Her green eyes looked asking at him and again he wondered if

she could see right into his soul. His dark, his dirty soul.

"Today's Sejya's birthday, right? Why aren't you with your brothers to celebrate it?"

Sejya.

Celebrate.

Brother...

More and more tears filled his eyes and he simply let them fall. His legs trembled and he

gave in. However, he did not hit the muddy, slippery ground, because two strong arms

suddenly embraced him and held him tight. He grabbed a white shirt and seized hard on the

warm person next to him. Now he could not hold back his sobs any longer and let the tall

woman rock him as if he was a small child again. A small boy being in his mother's embrace.

Being comforted, being not so damn alone, being loved.

Loved...

"Hush, it's okay." Whispered the blonde and sat down on the stairs, then she pulled the

crying boy on her lap and rocked him tenderly. "Everything's gonna be alright."

What the hell did happen? What the hell did that asshole do this time?

The woman stroked comforting through silver strands. She knew that Sejya and Tahiki

teased their little brother around. He was small, shy, and obviously disliked all the public they

got with their music and their beginning success all around the world. However, she had

always thought that they teased him more in a loving way, just like big brothers would do, just

the way Rei always teased Usagi and Setsuna teased her, but both would have gone through

hell to help the other one. She had always thought that Sejya and Tahiki loved their little

brother and were just... well... brotherly... just like two older brothers normally were, but the

longer she held the sobbing Yaten in her arms the more she was unsure about her former idea

concerning the Three Lights.

Again she saw Sejya before her eyes, saw his arrogant grin, saw the way he treated the

Sailors whenever there was a fight against those strange enemies they've never met before -

who were also Sailor Senshi themselves - saw the way he lusted after Usagi, and the way he

teased his little brother around for being too shy with the girls.

This time I am going to kill that asshole!

For sure, no matter what Michi says!

She could not define how long they sat out there on the roofed staircase leading up to the big

house by the sea, however, Himme-chan decided that it was enough and that she needed more

attention. Especially her hungry stomach needed more attention - and her milk. Loudly she

started to scream.

The blonde slowly let Yaten go but grabbed for his right hand as he tried to turn around and

to go back to his motorbike he had parked under the tree near the garage's door.

"Don't even think that I'd let you drive like that." She said and pulled him inside the house.

He tried to protest, but as always he was too weak to really defend himself, like he had always

been too weak his entire life.

"First I'll feed Hotaru and then you'll tell me what the hell happened at this concert."

"But... Haruka..."

"No buts!" The blonde pulled him upstairs into a big sleeping room. Shortly she searched the

wardrobes and put down a tracksuit on the large bed. She winced as Hotaru's protesting

screams even increased. Damn, she was hungry, what did her mother took so long?

"Change your clothes before you catch a cold and come down when you're done." Haruka

grinned sheepishly. "First, I have to feed my little predator."

Why do I trust her?

Yaten looked at the closed door for some moments then he had to cough. Sceptically he

looked at the tracksuit. Surely it was one of Haruka's, and surely it was too big for him. But he

could not stay in his soaked suit, he would have dirtied Michiru's expensive carpets and he did

not want to catch a cold. Not again. He had been ill almost the whole of August because of a

bad summer flu and Sejya had been furious about him, because they had to cancel different

concerts and wasted so many chances in finding back their princess.

Kakyuu...

He sighed deeply and finally stripped his clothes. As he had expected Haruka's clothes were

much too big. He felt like a little boy again. Like a eight year old boy getting different clothes,

getting the clothes of his new home planet, getting the old clothes of his big brother.

A small boy...

That's what he always felt when he was with Haruka. He did not understand it, he had never

trusted a stranger so quickly before. Maybe, because no one really wanted him, he had never

been sure if he was accepted until he spent a long time with his new family to see that they

really loved him. It was so much different with Haruka. From the first day he met her he felt

that she accepted him immediately. Whenever he needed her she was there and took care of

him in such a natural way as if he had came all this long way just to meet her. No, to find her,

finally find her back. Sejya often mocked that he fell in love with a lesbian who already had a

girlfriend and a small daughter, but Sejya did not understand. He never understood anything.

Never.

He never understood my feelings...

Yaten hiccuped and ran his hands over his burning eyes. He hang his wet clothes into the

bathroom next to the sleeping room and sighed again deeply. He wrapped a soft towel around

his head, then he went slowly downstairs. He did not even intend any longer to go back to his

motorbike and to drive away. Where should he have driven to anyway? Back to the hotel they

had stayed in for the last months? Back to the suite he shared with his brothers? Back to the

sleeping room where he only stared at the ceiling the whole night without finding any sleep at

all?

No, he would not drive back to the hotel where he would be all alone. Sejya was surely

celebrating his birthday happily and Tahiki had another chance to talk to Ami, the intelligent

student who was the only one understanding his math problems. Problems Sejya had never

been interested in and Yaten never wanted to see in an exam.

Slowly he went over to the living room and stopped near the door just to watch Haruka

feeding little Hotaru. The small girl smacked loudly and looked very satisfied to have got

back all of her mother's attention - and her favourite banana milk as well. Love was written all

over the blonde's face and again Yaten had to think of his mother. His real mother he lost so

early in his life. His beloved mommy he missed so much. No, he could not share this pain

with his brothers. They would have looked at him in a funny way and thought that he was

ungrateful. That he did not thank them enough for all they had done for him during the past

years. That during all this time he did not learn how much their parents had also loved him.

Hai, I've also loved them, but it's not the same...

Yaten swallowed hard and did not even try to show a forced smile as Haruka looked up and

pointed him to sit down next to her on the soft couch.

"Come here, she's almost done." Haruka held the bottle a little bit higher and Hotaru yawned

before she drank some more gulps.

I can't tell them my feelings and my fears. Not these fears.

Yaten nodded and stumbled twice over the tracksuit before he finally managed to reach the

couch. It was a bright colour. Surely Michiru chose it, not thinking about Haruka and Hotaru,

because you could see some red and some yellow spots on it, surely ketchup and banana milk.

The little girl was crazy about banana milk, but when she was full she simply pulled the bottle

away and whenever Haruka or Michiru were not fast enough some milk dropped on the

couch. However they never really cared about it. Maybe they would buy a new couch one

day, maybe they would only cover it with a soft blanket. Just like the one laying on the

ground, covering some tapes beneath.

No, I can't tell THEM but I can tell her.

"You are watching Rambo?" asked Yaten after he watched Hotaru drink and pulled his legs

to his chest wrapping his arms around his knees. Although the tracksuit was dry and warm he

felt incredibly cold.

"Well..." Haruka grinned and blushed a little bit as she held Hotaru to her shoulder to let her

do her burp. "I wanted to watch Walt Disney's Cinderella but Himme-chan insisted to watch

Rambo instead. You know, I can't resist my charming daughter."

"Of course not." For the first time this evening Yaten had to grin. Hotaru's big yawn was

infecting and he leaned back on the soft couch closing his still burning eyes. His fingers felt

frozen and he wondered if he caught another flu.

Please not, Sejya's going to kill me!

The next moment he opened his eyes again as he felt a soft blanket being wrapped around

his trembling body. Haruka's face was near and he could see the concern in her dark green

eyes.

"Do you want to tell me what happened today?" she asked as she switched off the TV set

and sat down next to him, watching him in silence, showing a patience a lot of people would

have never expected from her.

"Well..." Yaten coughed again and closed his eyes as some more tears made their way down

his cheeks. "They prepared a big party for Sejya. In his cloakroom, right behind the stage. It's

okay, we are fighting against the same enemies and since Usagi thinks that we are friends...

well..." helplessly he shrugged his shoulders. "I mean, I don't have anything against that party,

it's his birthday and... well... their presents were so big and mine was so tiny... I mean, it's

okay, they are friends and.. Usagi even made chocolate for him, although Rei teased her that it

wouldn't taste, that's okay... I mean, they are friends..."

He paused and opened his eyes again to look into her understanding face.

"I don't make any sense in what I am saying, right?"

"You are afraid that Sejya would forget your present over theirs." It was not a question,

again Haruka proved how well she was able to look right into his soul to see all his thoughts,

all his doubts, all his fears there.

Yaten nodded and kneaded the ends of the blanket with his icy fingers.

"I mean... what a chance do I have against self made chocolate from a real princess?" He

gulped but again there was no shocked expression on Haruka's face, her dark green eyes never

lost its warmth, no matter what idiotic stuff he just said.

No, she did not freak out when he declared her that he fell in love, a long time ago: with

Sejya, another man, his older brother. Well... declaring... actually Haruka found out and

simply asked him when he was down again after another fight with is brothers about the

exhausting concerts. She did not yell at him, but simply embraced him and comforted him for

she could not see any hope for his love - just the same he knew that it was in vain. But still he

hoped, no matter what happened. He simply could not give up all the feelings he kept inside

his heart for so long years, eight long years...

No, Haruka did not judge him. Instead she seemed to be the only one in this world, in this

whole universe who seemed to understand him.

"It's just a phase, Yaten. Usagi will never return Sejya's feelings. She already has a boyfriend

and I am pretty sure that she'll marry her >Mamo-chan< when he'll return from America."

Tried Haruka to comfort the teenager, but they both knew that Sejya would fall in love with

another girl when he had to see that Usagi would really chose her prince instead of him.

Haruka sighed deeply and leaned forward to stroke some silver strands out of his pale face.

They stuck out of the towel and made Yaten look like a sheikh. Deeply Haruka looked into

light green eyes and smiled a sad smile.

"To talk to him would be not such a great idea, huh?" she suggested and knew the answer as

she saw his eyes widening with fear. He gasped and shook his head.

"No. No!" It sounded pleadingly. "Please, don't tell him, he would never understand. I... I

don't want him to look down at me and... and hate me..."

How should anyone ever hate you?

"But you can't live your whole life this way, yearning for him from a distance you can't bare.

You are slowly breaking inside, Yaten. I can't watch it, because it makes me break, too."

Yaten looked at her and blinked, and blinked again. Those words were so comforting, but at

the same time so Haruka-unlike, so poetic.

"Did Michiru write that line for you?" he whispered and had to giggle through his tears. He

knew that her words were true, so damn true, but he had to laugh - otherwise he would have

cried even more and he did not want to cry any longer. "That did not sound like you."

"Oh, very funny!" sulked Haruka but had to grin a little bit, too. "Do you want a hot tea?"

She rose from the couch and went after a short look at her sleeping daughter over to the

kitchen to take care for the water. She was a lousy cook, but with the new boiler even she was

not able to burn water - at least not any longer.

Haruka sensed that Yaten needed a break and something warm in his stomach. She really

hoped that he would not get another flu - or she would take care that he'd stay here to recover

again and not with his silly brothers, especially not with Sejya. The arrogant singer was so

angry that he could not give enough concerts in August because of Yaten's illness that the

small singer had been really desperate and recovered even slower.

I don't have any race the next weeks, because Michiru has some concerts and I've

volunteered to baby sit Himme-chan, so I can take care of him as well!

Haruka clenched her fists and winced as Yaten suddenly stood by her side, watching what

she was doing. Her tracksuit was really too wide for him, he almost disappeared in it. The

cloth covered his feet and his hands completely and the blanket, which he had wrapped

around his shoulders and which covered the ground behind him, strengthen the idea of a small

child that had formed in her mind. Indeed, he looked more like a small boy than a sixteen year

old teenager to her and she resisted the desire to hug him like a mother would hug her child.

Or an older sister her little brother...

"I can't tell him my feelings, he wouldn't understand." Sighed Yaten and reached for his still

empty cup to play with it, trying not to let it fall as a sleeve slipped again over his hand. "It

was already hard enough to be accepted as his brother, he would never accept me as someone

else... someone more than that..." he looked at her and shrugged helplessly his shoulders,

almost losing the blanket. "I am not his real sibling, you must know. His parents adopted me

when I had been eight years old."

Haruka looked up from her hard work in making tea and frowned.

"I didn't know that." However, suddenly she realized it: Tahiki and Sejya looked a lot like

each other, the same brown eyes, both had different shapes of dark hairs, both were tall young

men. Yaten had silver hairs and light green eyes, he was small. No, he never really fitted to

the picture of the three brothers.

"Hardly anyone does, because it doesn't matter. Not really..."

"But for you it does."

Yaten nodded at her silent statement and again some tears escaped his eyes.

"I am such a jerk!" he sobbed and put the cup away before it could escape his trembling

fingers. "I have two wonderful brothers, their family gave me such a wonderful childhood, I

should be happy to have them and not so... so..."

"Desperate?"

"Jealous! Jealous like hell!" Yaten rubbed his burning eyes and wiped away some more

tears. "He's my brother! I shouldn't feel this way! I should be happy whenever he's happy!"

But at the same time he knew that it was a lie, just one of so many. Sejya was not his real

brother and after what had happened during the first year after they'd met Yaten could never

really see him as a sibling. Tahiki... that was a complete different story. Tahiki was Yaten's

big brother, he accepted his parent's decision and loved the small, shy boy from the first

moment he came to their castle. He welcomed him as a brother and never let him forget that

he was a Kou now. Sejya had a harder time to see a little brother in him, not a rival or even

worse...

"Do you have some time?" Yaten gulped and took the handled handkerchief to blow his

nose. "I'd like to... to show you something..."

"Of course." Haruka's answer came without hesitation, she did not even glance at the clock.

From the moment she met Yaten she wanted to be there for him, to take care for him no

matter what it would cost. Time did not play a role, especially not with Michiru being on a

concert with her beloved violin.

"OK... be right back..." marbled Yaten, put the handkerchief away and stumbled back

through the living room. There he put down the blanket and the towel. One moment later

Haruka could hear the front door, but before she could follow him out in the rain to convince

him that it was a really bad idea to run out into the night with only a tracksuit he already

returned again. His pale cheeks flushed a little bit as he sat down and pulled something out of

the wet backpack he had brought inside. It was a small but thick book, being wrapped up

carefully in a white scarf. An old scarf. Haruka took care for their teas before she came over

to him, sitting next to him, and placing the two cups in front of them on the small table.

"What's that?" she asked and looked curiously at the old cover as Yaten put the fabric away.

It seemed to be very old, the paper was used and yellowed. Yaten did not answer, instead he

opened the book and she looked into different laughing faces, all being captured on photos in

black and white or in colour. All being saved outside time.

"Is that your family?" Haruka leaned a little bit closer and pointed at a photo which showed

a young woman with a small baby in her arms, it was not older than Hotaru lying in her

cradle, sleeping deep and tight. The young woman was a real beauty, her dark hair was

braided into a thick plait, lying over her shoulder. Her skin was darker, a lighter shade of

bronze, almost like Setsuna's skin whose ancestors emigrated from India to Japan a long time

ago. Black eyes looked down at the baby in her arms, love was written all over her smiling

face. The baby smiled back at her. Its skin looked strangely bright, almost white in her bronze

arm, the head was covered with fluffy, silver hairs.

"Your mommy?"

Mommy...

"Hai..." Yaten gulped visibly and nodded as he heard Haruka's question. "I was my mother's

only child, she never got another child although her husband wanted so badly to have a real

heir for his house."

"Her husband? Real heir?" Haruka frowned, because his words sounded so well considered

and at the same time so strange in her ears.

"Hai. I was born on a planet nearer to our sun. The climate's very hot there and the planet's

surface is covered with sand. To be protected from the burning sun, the skin of the people

there is darker and harder..." Yaten stroked over the picture of his beloved mother. It was very

old and a little bit crumbled at the corners. Haruka suddenly wondered what Yaten had went

through to keep it during all those years, during the dangerous journey that laid behind his

brothers and him.

"I've never been like them. My skin is almost white and I get a sunburn too quickly. I've

never really got used to the sand and had often been an ill child. No one of my family ever

had silver hair, neither my mother nor my father's family." Yaten sighed deeply. "They said

that I was a bastard. I didn't know what this word meant when I had been younger. My mother

had always been there to protect me. She always declared that I was my father's child, but no

one believed her, not even her husband who loved her too much and tried to ignore the other

people's rumours, which had not always been easy for him since I had always been around."

Yaten turned the page. Now Haruka could see a little boy of maybe six years. He was clothed

in a greyish dress which looked a little bit like a kimono but at the same time completely

different. Silver hair could hardly be covered by a turban. He looked like a little sheikh. An

incredibly cute sheikh. An incredibly sad sheikh...

"I had been eight when my parents died and the Kou family decided to take me. No one of

my so called family wanted me, the bastard. My mommy and Tahiki's mommy had been good

friends at a boarding school and so she wanted to take care of me..."

Yaten turned another page. It showed the same sheikh, this time with even sadder eyes and a

doll in his small arms. A too big suitcase was standing next to a totally frightened looking

boy.

"That picture was taken on the day I arrived at the Kou's castle. On the day when I first met

Tahiki and Sejya..."
 

***