(Part 7)

Kyrano woke up to a new day with the distant feeling that he had had a pleasant dream the night before. He wasn't sure what exactly he had been dreaming about, but he definitely recognised that it left him feeling rather good as he woke up minutes before his alarm rang. Turning it off so that he would wake neither his mistress nor his sister, he climbed quietly out of bed.

The cool tiles beneath his feet was a clear morning refresher as Kyrano stretched his arms, feeling a little sore at his side. There was a strange feeling of something stiff on his arm, as if something had dried there overnight. Still, it was nothing he could see in the dark, early morning and thus he made his silent way over to the bathroom with the clear intention to have a quick shower down.

Still feeling a little sleepy, Kyrano stepped into the bathroom and headed over to the toilet, casting his eye over the well-kept room. There was nothing in sight demanding his immediate attention, and so he proceeded to attending to his personal needs first, relieving himself before moving to freshen up for the day.

He had been in the process of grabbing his towel when he caught eye on something. Pausing shortly in his act, he stared at the mirror for a few seconds, staring at the reddish-brown patch that had dried on his outstretched arm. Frowning now –and seeing his own frown through the mirror –Kyrano moved closer to the mirror to ascertain what exactly the patch was exactly.

It looked like dried blood, and Kyrano wet his fingers a little over the sink, wiping it lightly over the patch, and seeing the smudge of red across his arm. Definitely blood.

A little more alarmed now, Kyrano washed the rest of the dried blood on his arm away, trying to search for a wound of some sort. He did not remember getting hurt on his arm the day before, but he could have easily somehow gotten himself cut in the middle of the night while he was sleeping. Yet, try as he might, his pale skin eventually showed that it was rather unmarred.

The blood wasn't his.

Still top-half naked because he had slept that way, Kyrano decided that the shower would have to wait until he found the source of the blood. Was it someone trying to play a prank on him? If it was, and if someone had managed to come all the way into his room, then it meant that someone must have been able to enter his mistress's room as well.

A quick check on his mistress showed that she was still sleeping well, and when Kyrano turned on a soft light that he knew his mistress would not wake up to, there was no blood on her bed, or in the near vicinity. He checked the door to his mistress's room, and still it was locked.

No one had come in in the night.

The refreshed feeling from the morning gone, Kyrano could feel it taken over by a great sense of unease as he went back to his room. Perhaps his sister had started menstruating in the middle of the night? She was, after all, ten years old, and well into her puberty years.

Once more, Kyrano turned on the soft light to his room as he made his way silently over to the bed that he had only recently vacated.

It was not menstrual blood.

"Kyra!" Kyrano rushed around the bed from the side he had been on to his sister's side, gently taking her shoulders and giving her a shake. "Kyra, wake up."

It was utterly terrifying for Kyrano when his sister did not heed his advice. In fact, she didn't react despite the fact that he was beginning to shake her harder in a desperate bid to wake her up. The blood that coated her lips was bright red –as was the red blood that was coated on the pillow that she had been sleeping upon. Seeing the blood both clicked answers into his head, but also scared the hell out of him as he slowly begin to realise that his sister was not waking up.

Barely remembering his life-saving classes, Kyrano rushed to take his sister's vitals, and realized something that he had been too afraid to accept. She was burning, and her breathing was shallow. Kyra's heartbeats were tiny flutters that stuttered scarily, and Kyrano's heartbeats followed in the increasing, painful beats.

Something was horribly wrong with his sister.

He had to do something.

Gathering his sister up in his arms, ignoring the fact that he had yet to shower or dress, he kept Kyra rested against his chest as he ran for the door, no longer remembering to keep quiet. Butler in Black Kyrano was gone now, and only Brother Kyrano was around when he pulled open the door to his room forcefully in his desperation.

"Kyrano! What are you doing?" Louise's exclamation stalled him temporarily in his bid to the door that lead to the rest of the dormitories. He turned just in time to see his mistress –having been woken up by his cries calling his sister –turning the lights on to the room.

"Miss Louise, Kyra..." Kyrano lost his words for the first time in his life, and he saw as his mistress's initially sleepy eyes widen at the sight of him half-dressed, and his sister laying in his arms, bridal-style.

"What is this?"

"She is not waking up. She coughed up a lot of blood in the middle of the night, and her breathing is very shallow. We need to get help." Kyrano's voice was almost begging, as if he were terribly ready to go charging out of the door. Louise acted rather quickly for a woman who had just been woken up from her peaceful sleep as she climbed quickly out of bed.

Grabbing a bathrobe laid out on a chair near her, Louise tied the sash quickly over her nightgown. Then, distantly remembering that her butler was still top-half naked, she grabbed his coat off a hanging rack, and joined Kyrano who stood close to the door, looking almost as if he were ready to bolt out like a scared bunny.

"Let's go."

There wasn't even a need to ask where they were going.

____________________________________________________________________________________

"Did she not tell you?" The doctor looked up from her clipboard, meeting the eyes of the flustered brother. There was something rather like an apology in her eyes, and Kyrano almost lost the strength to listen anymore. He knew in his bones that there was something horribly wrong with his sister, but he didn't want to listen. He didn't want to accept it. His little Kyra... she could not be sick.

"No..." Kyrano answered quietly, "I work away from home. She came over to my workplace to visit me all of a sudden a week ago, but she never said why..."

"Exactly a week ago, your sister came in for a checkup after being referred by her school's doctor. We gave her a letter to inform your mother about her condition, and asked her to come back once your mother has decided on the course of action for her. It appears that your sister must not have done so and come to you instead." The doctor inferred, words becoming gentler at the sight of the man in front of her becoming increasingly frail.

"I speak for my mother when I say that we will do anything to let her get well." Kyrano answered quickly, with renewed determination. "So please, doctor, do all that you can to save her. The money isn't a problem. I just want her to get well again."

The doctor knew that the elder brother who sat before her now was desperate to do anything to keep his sister safe and sound, but the painful truth had to be said. It was for the best that hope be raised in suitable amounts, or this obviously emotionally attached brother might collapse as well.

"We put in our best effort and place our best doctors and nurses on her case, Mr Reyes. But her cancer cells have already spread to the major organs. We cannot do any operation on her at this point."

Kyrano buried his head in his hands, bowing forwards as if he could not bear to face the truth.

"You're saying that it is not looking up for her?"

There was no easy way to say it.

"Yes."

The doctor watched as Kyrano Reyes freeze at her honest reply, and then silence ensued. Recognising that the man needed time to come to acceptance to this horrible news, she offered no words and instead watched him carefully to make sure that he did not end up hurting either himself or the people around him. To be faced with a family member who suddenly had last-stage lung cancer was a horrible thing for anyone, and the doctor had been through a fair share of distraught kins.

"I understand." Kyrano finally broke the tense silence, and when he drew his face out of his hands, a haggard brother looked back. "Thank you."

"It will be a hard journey for you and your family, Mr Reyes. If you need anything, just say it. We will do our best to provide you with the services that you need." The doctor said –both in concern, as well as by her professional obligation. There were always kins needing counselling after the death of their beloved, or through the painful journey.

"Save it." Kyrano's answer was resigned, even as he stood from the stiff seat. "Save your efforts and services for Kyra only. I will survive."

It sounded like a promise.

____________________________________________________________________________________

"How can this happen?" Keyron pressed himself against the glass window, wishing and praying that he could step foot inside there. His legs felt weak and numb and his insides were a mush. This was the first time Keyron had ever felt so helpless and defenceless, as he stood on the other side of the room in which his sister was suffering in. "She was so happy and lively just a day ago! We just went to the amusement park three days ago!"

"She must have wanted to spend her last days with her brothers in happiness, Keyron." Brandon stood at his side in worry, truly hoping that his presence was enough to keep his butler from breaking into distraught pieces. "Kyrano said she knew of her situation, but instead of telling your mother, all she did was to pack up her bags and come running to St. Clair to find him –and you."

"I know what Kyrano said!" Keyron exploded, the hand that had been pressed on the glass fisting with built-up anger. "I just can't believe that we didn't suspect a thing! How can I be worthy to be Kyra's brother when I could sense nothing wrong?"

"None of us knew what was going to happen..." Brandon advised, but it did not help that his arguments were getting weaker and weaker, losing out to his own guilt and shock. Both men had received a horrible wake-up call in the morning by Louise, who had been on the ambulance along with her butler and the little girl. They had immediately taken leave for the day –helping Louise applying for her leave as well –before rushing down to the hospital, but the news that they had received upon reaching had completely not been what they expected.

Kyrano had later gone to speak with the doctor alone to decide for Kyra the course of treatement, and when he came out, Kyrano could almost speak no words. The man had become a statue, simply sitting and staring through the window at the little girl fighting for her life at the other side.

"It's no excuse..." Keyron's explosive anger had run out like a draining pipe, and he fell to his knees in front of the window, eyes locked on the sleeping form of his sister. It was only yesterday that she was still smiling at him, absolutely nothing wrong in her eyes when she teased him about him being a 'lousier version of her big brother'.

No, there had been something wrong. Kyra had been coughing, and it had only increased in intensity over the week that she had stayed. At first, Keyron had thought that the young girl might be suffering from a flu, but the way Kyra was acting did not seem as such. Perhaps just mild coughing; Keyron had told himself sometime halfway through the week.

It was one hell of a bloody cough.

"Keyron, don't be like this, please. She is still fighting for her life, and you being like this isn't going to help her." Keyron's master, worried beyond his wits, followed him to his knees. A dim realization hit Keyron that he was making his master kneel beside him, but his butler instincts simply could not rise at a time like this as he closed his eyes, pressing his forehead against the window. He could not bear to see this any longer. He wasn't helping his sister being like this.

He couldn't help his sister.

The distinction of 'would not' and 'could not' had never been clearer for Keyron Reyes as he helplessly stared at the form of the sister who was even paler than he could ever remember. From what Louise had told them initially, Kyra had coughed up blood in the middle of the night all over the bed and even on her big brother.

Keyron could not even begin to imagine what he would have done if he were in Kyrano's position at that time.

"Keyron, please..."

"Please leave me alone!" Keyron burst out, wiping the tears angrily from his eyes with the back of his gloved hand, and then jumped to his feet taking off as fast as his legs could take him. He was the one running now. Like Kyrano, he was the one running away from the situation now.

He was doing it physically; his brother was doing it emotionally.

They were so alike in different ways that it hurt.

Most importantly, they were alike in the way that they were both losing a sister to something that they, no matter how capable both of them were, could not stop.