Ram leaned down and dove the gargantuan sized pot into the river. The earthen pot filled with clear water, and he lifted up in the crook of his hand, stumbling under the heavy weight. He was about to walk back, when he spotted two heads full of black hair. The two Gurukul bullies, Daura and Riku, laughing snarkily together in a fashion that sent alarm bells ringing in his brain. However, Ram shook it off, exhaling. Whatever they were going to do, it didn't matter, did it? They were just pretending to be scary as always. Bullying and demeaning others never made oneself look better.

Ram quickly traced his footsteps back to the hermitage. His feet had imprinted little prints in the thick reddish mud, and he stepped on them carefully. It was a wonderful day. The breeze was light and airy, and rushed through his hair in a friendly manner. A bit cold, yes, but as Ram took in a chilly breath, he found that it cleared his mind immediately, and grinned. The sun shone down and fallen tree leaves were blown this way and that.

The hermitage was a nice place. Each group of kids were assigned a cottage, and he and his brothers were assigned one too! It was nice as well, though Shatrughan often grumbled of how he and Lakshman could have made one much better. And Bharat snorted at that, shaking his head, and going right back to his painting. Ram wondered how Maa Sumitra could even raise those two troublemakers. It must have been some work.

But as he stepped outside of the thicket and into the main path that went through the ashram, Ram's smiling face disappeared. The cottage, their cottage, was up in flames, orange, yellow, and red, licking the clay bricks. People were running this way and that, shrieking their heads off, but among those people, were none of his brothers. Dropped clay pot shards were littered everywhere, but Ram did not add to the ceramic graveyard as he rushed towards his home for the past five years, throwing the water onto the fire.

Just one single splash of water, and the fire immediately receded as if without second thought. The flames disappeared, and Ram dropped his pot in alarm. Silence. Ram stumbled back, holding onto the nearest person, who happened to be Lakshman, fair face and arms covered with ashes. Their eyes, black and icy blue, met, and something clicked between them. Ram breathed a sigh of relief. Bharat and Shatrughan were safe and outside.

Guru Vishwamitra rushed forward and into the hut when the last spark of smoke, the last ember turned charcoal black, wisped away and peeked inside tentatively. "It was caused by two metallic daggers rubbing together," he murmured, "When they touched, they created a spark. One is a spearhead. The other is a dagger. The twins. They did it. " Everyone turned towards Lakshman and Shatrughan. It was well known that Shatrughan was one of the only ones who used a spear. And often, he fought with Lakshman, who kept a dagger with the same silvery hilt, in the pocket of his waistband. A pocket that was currently empty.

Bharat ran forward before anyone could throttle one of the troublemakers. "Wait! It couldn't be!" he shouted, waving his arms desperately. "They were-erm-they were with me!" Bharat could not lie to save his life. Shatrughan smacked his head as Vishwamitra's eyes burned like an inferno.

"Firewood collecting. This evening." Then he stalked away, touching his jaw with a grimace, leaving a bewildered Ram and a guilty looking Bharat. The twins just glanced at each other.

------O------

"Hey, where were you, were you even there when the fire started?" asked Ram wonderingly as the evening neared and his brothers collected their firewood carrying supplies. "What were you doing? Perhaps we can convince the Guru otherwise, perhaps." Lakshman and Shatrughan looked at each other, before the former cleared his throat.

"An hour before the fire, I had a duel with the Guru, since he wanted to test how far I had gotten into the warrior class. Daura and Riku watched, taunting me the entire way.Then Shatrughan bumped into me and teased me about losing and I threatened to kill him. So I chased him around the camp. That was all we did."

"Laksh, Shatru," muttered Bharat. "Don't go. It's raining, from what I can see through the window, and it's really, really cold. Besides, it's the winter months, it's the peak of winter season. You'll freeze to death carrying firewood! You both get sick really easily, that's why even Shatrughan doesn't venture out to prank people. Don't do it, I say, don't do it!" he shook his head and plopped back on the bed as Shatrughan walked forward and sat next to his feet, pressing them for a second before standing up again.

"Guru Vishwamitra only said this once, bhaiyya," Lakshman stated softly, clapping a hand on Shatrughan's shoulder. "We can do it. Besides, a little cold is nothing compared to the sage's wrath when he would learn that we did not do as he asked us to." Bharat nodded, having first hand seen the sage's inferno eyes and the power he commanded.

Ram gulped his words down. His protective nature was relit. Lakshman got hurt very easily didn't he? He shouldn't go out, this was practically the recipe for disaster. But Ram remembered how he couldn't always be there to protect his brothers. Perhaps this was necessary, so the youngest two could do something on their own for once. Perhaps he should just wait and see. Why was he so paranoid, after all? Nothing could harm them in the hermitage! Yes, it was just his overprotective nature acting up, nothing else.

"How did you see anything through the window anyways, it's very tiny, honestly. Besides, even if we didn't light the hut on fire, it's a nice workout lifting firewood. We need to exercise anyway, Shatrughan has been eating too much at the eating table. There's going to be a ladoo shortage soon enough. You are going to have a flabby, flappy, old-man stomach soon enough, mark my words, Shatrughan." Shatrughan gasped in playfulness as they headed outside.

"Are you kidding me, Laksh? Have you seen me? That food is all pure muscle, baby! Pure, rippling muscle, to catch all the ladies!" Bharat and Ram burst into laughter as Lakshman groaned. It was going to be a long night.

-----O----

It had been. The rain had not stopped. Neither had the twins. Now Shatrughan lay on his bed, his fair skin turning even paler. His body was covered in shivers, and not even the warmest of blankets thrown upon him did not stop his hands from turning into icicles. Bharat stood by his bed, rubbing his hand to warm him up as Ram bit his nails as Bharat bit his lip and looked up, shaking his head quickly; Shatrughan was not warming up.

Ram's head turned towards Lakshman's cot, where his second brother lay pale and weak. He had collapsed the other day from exhaustion and overworking. They had returned from the rain, leaning on each other, both soaking wet and shivering from the cold. Ram recalled how Shatrughan coughed so hard that he spat out blood in his fist. He remembered how every breath of Lakshman's was a wheeze, how it looked like every inhalation of air resulted in a shard of glass embedding itself in his chest.

A rage, burning and fiery, rushed up his spine, and he clenched his fists. The twins had not lit the cottage on fire. Why would they? It was not possible. Ram took a deep breath, and his eyes narrowed, flashing a bright red. Bharat shook his head, patting Shatrughan's head, before he turned to stand next to Ram, looking curiously but helplessly at Lakshman.

"It's bad. A 103 degrees in the least. It's going to be very hard for him to sleep it off. We're going to need some herb broth or something. Blankets thicker than the thin sheets that we give him now." Bharat turned back towards Shatrughan. "I could have helped him! God, why was I so forgetful and selfish that I stayed behind! I'm-Gods!-I'm so stupid! I am so very stupid! Now my brother is hurt, and it's my fault-"

Ram cut him off, shaking his head agitatedly. "No, no, it was neither of our faults. It was the fault of the person who allowed our brothers to be wrongfully accused. Who actually started the fire in our hut, meaning badly. Who forced Laksh and Shatru to go outside in the freezing rain. We will find them, Bharat, and we will find them, and we will show them why you don't mess with our younger two brothers."

-----O-----

Ram was busy sweeping the floors of the cottage, which got dirty very easily, piling dust up in the corners and wooing about his terrible life, when something caught his eye. Ram placed his broom aside, sniffling a bit from the dust, and leaned in a bit closer, his brows furrowing together in a frown. Something was hazy, and he reached down and picked the object up curiously, wiping it off with a bit of cloth.

It was a jagged shard of glass. Ram hissed, and almost dropped it, where it would have shattered, but instead, he placed it on his nightstand, breathing a sigh of relief. Now where could that shard have come from? Ram looked back to where he had found it, and swallowed hard at the small trail of powdered glass. Ram traced the path of glass shards right to the window, which was open and completely free of glass.

Ram hissed. So that was how the culprit got inside. Broken glass, crawl through the window using a ladder or a rope, get into the cottage, "drop" the weapons and run away before they were caught. It was simple, but genius. He tucked the glass into a safe pouch tied to his waistband, and was about to call the Guru when he thought better of it. Wasn't he the man who judged his brothers wrong? Ram shook his head, and opened the door when the hinges squeaked, and he winced.

-----O-----

While he was sitting outside and meditating, something caught Bharat's eye as well. A flash of silver. A very bright flash of silver that had caught the light of the sun and was now blinding him! Bharat blinked his eyes a few times before he squinted again, getting off of the willow tree. What could that flash be, and why was it so blinding as if the gods themselves wanted him to see it?

Daura and Riku headed into their cottage, presumably to leave the thing behind, before the two ran out towards Guru Vishwamitra's hut. Bharat glanced this way and that, before he walked into their hut casually, and looked around. "Gods! This place stinks!" he cried exasperatedly, scrunching up his nose, and pinching it. What he got was a weird smell of wet, old clothes, and something else.

WIth a shrug, he began to search. He peeked under the bed, where he found the fang of a monster. "Hmmm, Daura and Riku always wanted one of these badly, I wonder how they got it," Bharat shrugged, poking around some more, but all he could see was some clippings of brown hair, a coiled rope, and a plate of rotting food.

Finally, he found what he was looking for. "Aha," he hissed excitedly as he reached down and picked up the silver dagger. One carved with the initials of Lakshman. "And if this is here, why shouldn't this be?" With a grin, he found a spearhead with Shatrughan's initials engraved painstakingly on it, as well as a small crown. "It seems that I have found some evidence, haven't I?" Shaking his head, he stealthily left the cottage.

-----O----

"Bharat!" cried Ram, waving his arms as Bharat walked into the courtyard. "I figured it out! I figured it out!" Bharat nodded excitedly, beaming as well.

"Me too! I know who did it! It was Daura and Riku! I know! I know!" Ram nodded quickly, and put the glass shards in front of himself in excitement.

"So, they broke into the hut through the glass window, crawling up a rope or ladder or something," Bharat nodded; he had found a rope. "and they placed the dagger," Bharat raised the silver blade, "And the spearhead," That too was waved excitedly into the air. "In the center. Then, they started the fire, and then quickly left. They knew that Lakshman and Shatrughan had threatened to fight each other!"

They looked at each other quickly, then looked around. Guru Vishwamitra was walking towards them, hurriedly, his eyebrows raised, inferno rekindled in his dark eyes. "Great, great, great news! I truly shall tell this to everyone! Now, give me that, and I shall hold Daura and Riku accountable! Great, truly amazing news! Great sleuthing!"
Ram frowned. Something felt off. Then he swallowed, looking up at Bharat. "Daura and Riku could not have done it, they were near the river when the fire started." The Guru stopped his retreat. "That means, even if they had planned it, someone else in this ashram did it." Bharat frowned, before he looked up, eyes popping in alarm.

"You know, didn't Lakshman mention that he was duelling with Guru Vishwamitra? Usually, Vishwamitra doesn't duel with students, but when he does, it's with the dagger, which, a few minutes later, Lakshman lost. Daura and Riku were watching, weren't they? Why would the Guru let one of his pupils be taunted right in front of him?" Ram stumbled back, sitting on the grass path, his mind racing a mile a minute.

"The window, Bharat, the window is way too small for anyone but the thin Riku to crawl through, and if he was at the river, it means that no one could crawl through it!" Ram swallowed hard, and where he left off, Bharat picked up quickly.

"You know, one would have to have been very fast to light a fire, and then escape through the window. Daura and Riku are not fast, definitely not." He looked up again. "You know, I found brown hair clippings in the hut, singed. Daura and Riku do not have brown hair, they have black hair!" Ram nodded. "You know what else I found? A monster fang." Ram swallowed hard, crossing his arms.

"The rope was not singed. It would have had to be if they used it to reach the high window. You know what else, Bharat, I found?" Bharat shook his head. "The door was squeaking. Shatrughan had replaced the rusty bolt with a new one, and I found exactly that. A rusty bolt on the ground that could not have been removed without the aid of magic." Bharat looked up, biting his lip.

"So that means..." They both looked at each other. "Guru Vishwamitra stole Shatrughan's spearhead and Lakshman's dagger, then he unlocked the door with his magic powers and put the bolt and the dagger inside, then he went out, making sure to break the glass so that we got a false trail. Then, he turned around in a circle and blamed it all on Lakshman and Shatrughan. He worked with Daura and Riku to memorize their schedules beforehand, and he has brown hair, doesn't he? Singed."

Ram shook his head. "It's perfect, except for one thing. Why was the fang there? Why did he have a toothache? And Guru Vishwamitra would never do such a thing, you know? Besides, he cannot unlock doors that he only closed magically. He provided us with a lock, when we first came here, a lock that he claimed even he could not unlock."

Bharat widened his eyes. "So...Guru Vishwamitra is a monster?" he asked uncertainly. They both looked at each other, then towards the Guru, who had now fully turned around, his eyes turning a blood red with anger.

"Good, good, good." He slowly clapped his hands. Some people shrieked as horns began to grow out of his heads, and his nails, normally trimmed and neat, began to grow into long claws. "So you have finally caught on, have you?" He lunged towards them, but Ram neatly cut him off with an arrow to the chest.

"Nobody touches Lakshman and Shatrughan," hissed Ram as he looked down upon the dissolving asur. "Not even you, Roop-Asur." Bharat clenched his jaw angrily, and turned towards his brother.

"So, that means, that Guru Vishwamitra is not a monster? That means they must have overpowered and hid him somewhere, which explains the rope. The question is...where? This ashram is huge!" Bharat waved his hands around, but then, suddenly, he stopped as Ram too began to worry. "No, Daura and Riku had wet clothes in their hut! And you say that they were near the riverbank too?"

Ram glanced up excitedly, and nodded, and they rushed towards the riverbank. Indeed, there he was, tied right to the edge. Ram quickly worked on untying him as Bharat told him the entire story. Finally, the ever-powerful Guru stood up, scowling. "Yes, very smart of you both. I hope that the twins get better soon. I only need to tell you this. Roop-asur would have killed you too. He is powerful, but not as powerful as to overpower me. Something other than those two idiots, Daura and Riku, was working with him. Some very powerful demon." his eyes darted everywhere. "Be careful, sons. Stay safe. I shall never forget this."

-----O-----

Not even a day later, Shatrughan and Lakshman were back to normal. Apparently, it was the Roop-asura's powers that had kept them sick. That didn't stop Bharat from being paranoid, however. "STOP!" he roared as Shatrughan went to put a ladoo in his mouth. "That could be poisoned. Hand it over for a taste test." He snatched the sweet, and sniffed it, before taking a tentative bite. "Hmmm, I can see why you like these, Shatru," Bharat murmured, taking another bite, then another, then another.

Ram, however, was even more overprotective. "Bhaiyyaaaa," Lakshman whined as Ram snatched away his bow and arrow with thin lips pressed together angrily. "Nooo! That's my bow and arrow! Now how will I practice? Gurudev is going to kill me! Give it baaaaaack, bhaiyya!!!" Ram shook his head stoutly, putting the bow and arrow into the weapons room, and wagging his finger. "Bhaiyya! Give...aaah!"

Ram had stuffed a mug full of Kadha into his hand. "Drink," he ordered. "I will not have you sick again! I was worried! I was so worried!"

Lakshman frowned. "But bhaiyya, I am not even sick..." he trailed off when faced with his brother's glare, and with a huff, he took a long sip.

A/N-Okay, so, this is a rewrite for @n-i-t-h-y-a. I absolutely butchered your prompt in the previous chapter, and that is my baaad. This may be more of what you were looking for. Enjoy! Okay, I might rewrite it again, because I don't think this fits your request either! Sorry! I get carried away sometimes...