Third Person P. O. V.

"He's stable. He has a breathing mask on now and he is awake. We just started his chemotherapy session so he might be a bit uncomfortable, but that's it. He's responsive and has a clear state of mind as well.

You three may come visit him but please limit physical contact and wear these surgical masks. The incident has rendered his immune system rather weak and we don't want to risk any infections."

They nodded and put on the masks he handed them and followed him past the double doors and took a right, then a left, and then another right, until they reached a set of doors that said Intensive Care Unit on the door.

They had to wash their hands and put gloves on before entering the room that had the words Hitachiin, Kuro on it. There was a list of instructions of what to do and what precautions to take on the door. What they saw was heart wrenching.

There, Kuro lay, pale and smiling at them through his oxygen mask. But that wasn’t what hurt their hearts.

It was the sheer amount of tubes and machines he was hooked up to: the EKG wires all on his head, IVs in his hand and arms that hooked him up to antibiotics, blood, chemo, anticonvulsants, and pain medicine, the large oxygen mask covering his gaunt face while you could hear the whirring of the machine pumping oxygen into his lungs, the heart monitor pads all on his small chest, and the pulse oximeter on his tiny pointer finger.

They all smiled sadly at the sick child and sat down in the two chairs next to his bed, Kaoru and Hikaru sharing a seat.

“Hey, Bubby,” Hikaru and Kaoru whispered lowly, almost afraid that if they made a noise any louder, their younger brother would shatter and fade away.

Kuro grinned at his older brothers, trying to comfort them.

“H-hi, Bubbi-bies!” He stuttered, smiling at his two look-alikes.

They fell into an awkward silence, not knowing what to say to each other.

Kuro spoke up hesitantly, "I'm s-sorry i-if I sc-scared you g-g-guys."

They nodded at him and fell back into silence until the distraught voice of Kaoru broke through it.

"W-why did y-you c-come outs-side, O-otouto? Y-you know M-mama doesn't a-a-allow you o-outside, e-especially s-since it's w-winter."

Kuro stared at his older brother in slight shock before turning his gaze down to the thin, itchy, white blanket covering his skinny, bruised legs and small feet.

Kuro took a deep, but shaky breath before answering, "I just wanted to play with you, to have fun, be a child. Be normal. I wanted to go outside and play in the snow without having to worry about getting sick with anything worse than a slight cold. But now I know that I'll never be normal. I'll always have to worry about getting infections and illnesses that could kill me easily. I'll never be able to just be a child. Wild, carefree.

I'm sorry, Kaoru, Hikaru, that you had to see me like that. If I could erase those memories from your minds, believe me, I would do it in a heartbeat. I'm so sorry I scared you but I won't take back today's events. I had a lot of fun playing with you guys, and that is something I'll never apologize for."

The two boys ran up to him, fresh tears in their eyes after hearing his confession, and held his small, pallid hands in their slightly larger, tan ones, remembering about having to limit physical contact with him.

~

They watched together, trying to hold back their tears but failing as they witnessed their younger brother, lying in his ICU hospital bed, screaming out silently in unimaginable pain as he was intravenously given stem cells. They watched, helpless, as their little brother screamed out for them, unable to take the pain of the process. They cried, forbidden to touch and forbidden to look away.

~

Hikaru and Kaoru were sitting with Kuro in his hospital bed, talking, when a rude nurse barged into the room, shoved an apple juice into Kuro's hand and handed him an empty urine cup with a lid.

"Drink then fill it."

Was all she said in a demanding tone before sashaying out of the room. The three boys stared for a minute, shocked, until a sinister smirk graced the youngests small features.

"Oh, I'll fill it all right," He chuckled.

A few minutes later, the same nurse came in, holding her hand out expectantly for the urine cup. Kuro went to hand it to the nurse but stopped his hand in mid air.

He smirked and said, "You know what? I'm thirsty."

And drank the contents of the small container. The nurse had a look of pure disgust on her makeup-caked face and Kuro looked up at her in fake curiosity.

"Oh, did you want some?" He garbled, mouth still filled with some of the liquid.

And proceeds to fountain spit some out of his mouth and it lands on her face and scrubs. She screeches at an unnaturally high pitch and sprints out of his room. Turning back to his giggling brothers and smiles brightly.

"Did you enjoy your entertainment?"

Both boys chuckle at their brother's antics and nod enthusiastically. Kuro turns back to the urine cup and proceeds to drink more out of the cup, letting out a loud, content sigh after.

"Ahhhh, I love apple juice," He says airily as his brothers continue to giggle.

~

Kuro looks up from his book on flowers and sees his two brothers quietly conversing. Knowing what they were discussing, he sighs, grabs his Gemini bookmark and places it gently in the crack of the open book and closes it softly.

He adjusts his beanie to cover more of his bald head and fidgets with his stuffed pandas before looking up at his older brothers, his glasses perched on the tip of his nose, and takes a deep breath before speaking.

"I think you should take this Suoh guy up on his offer. I think it would be good for you."

Both boys looked at each other and then nodded, looking back at their ill brother.

"Okay, Otouto. For you, we'll do it."

~

They sat beside Kuro on his white hospital bed, rubbing his back as he, yet again, threw up his previous meal, Kuro grimacing at the slight acidic burning in the back of his throat and the sight of his blood mixed regurgitated meal in the small trash can.

Kuro groaned and lied back into his bed, clutching his twin pandas to his chest tightly. Hikaru gently wiped his face with a napkin before joining Kaoru in cuddling their younger brother.

"I'm sorry, Nii-sans. I really tried to hold it down, but I couldn't," Kuro pouted up at his older brothers.

"It's okay, Ku," Kaoru reassured, "Do you want to try some of the soup we made for you today?"

Kuro hesitated, not wanting to puke again, before seeing his brothers' hopeful expressions and nodded.

Hikaru and Kaoru's faces broke out into large grins and Kaoru dug out the tupperware and spoon while Hikaru helped Kuro into a comfortable seated position so he could eat.

Kaoru helped feed him as he saw Kuro's hands shake from low blood sugar. They both smile as Kuro closes his eyes in pure bliss and hums in approval.

"I didn't know you guys could cook so well. This is amazing."

"Thanks, we didn't really know either, but we knew you were struggling with holding your food down and we thought we would give it a try. We're so glad you like it."

What Kuro didn't know is that the doctors were talking about giving him a NasoGastric or NG tube that night if he still wasn't able to keep anything down throughout the day, so they were really hoping that he could keep their food down.

When he kept the food down throughout the day, they informed the doctors, who already scheduled a time for the procedure later that evening.

They never told Kuro what might've happened that day if he wasn't able to hold the food down and they weren't planning to in the future.

End Flashback

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!! I'm so sorry I haven't updated! I've been really depressed lately and just not in the mood to write anything. I've gotten a couple of comments asking when I would be updating again and that they love my story and hope that I continue gave me a little spark to do this update. This will be the last flashback part so get ready for the story to restart. I'm probably going to go back on a few older chapters and edit them a bit because I reread this book a couple of times and I'm surprised no one has yelled at me yet. Anyway, I hope you guys like this chapter. And the one scene with the apple juice is from my sister's keeper(one of my favorite movies) well, at least from what I remember of that scene. I know most of you don't read the Author's Notes, heck I don't either, but if you are, I just want to let you know that I love you and all the love you guys give this book and my writing really inspires me. And someone please comment if you see any glaring mistakes. Also, sorry got ranting and the time skips.
Bye!!