A/N: I'm so sorry this chapter is later than planned. I stupidly thought I would come back from the party con in the same state I went to it. I didn't. I was wiped out. I also stupidly thought that since the first scene of this chapter came together so quickly, the rest of it would happen that way too. It didn't.

I'm sorry guys - this is another rambling chapter. I've tried to fix it. But short of losing the third section entirely, I couldn't figure out how to. And I wanted to keep it. Please bear with it. I will be trying my hardest to stop future chapters being so wordy.

Once again, I started the next chapter before finishing this one. Next chapter is when the plot really starts to move - and Shinya will probably make a reappearance.

Uncle Guren was not sleeping with his secretary. It turned out that Uncle Guren was not sleeping with anyone. In fact, Yu wasn't sure Uncle Guren was even sleeping half the time. Whenever Yu went to bed, there he was at the breakfast bar with a pile of papers a pen and a frown. And whenever he woke up, there he was again with another pile of papers, a coffee and a look that said nobody was to speak until he'd finished it.

Uncle Guren looked vaguely pissed off around 70% of the time Yu was around him. It wasn't at Yu – sometimes the man made a conscious effort to smile at him when he noticed the boy staring. It was a shitty smile, and it was often followed by, 'You hungry?' or something like that but it was okay. This whole thing was okay.

Or at least it would be if it wasn't for the others.

'We've found your family.' Those had been the words the social worker – Ms Li, the big one with the poofy hair – had said to him.

Yu had been stunned at first. It wasn't until Mika, who had been on his bed as usual, had hugged him that it had really sunk in.

'Ahh, Yu, that's great news!' Mika sounded happy but his arms were shaking.

Yu had hugged him back so hard neither of them could breathe. For the past four years, Mika had been his family, the first proper family Yu had ever known. He smelled like home.

'This is my family,' Yu had protested as he was told his mother's brother had agreed to take him in, shown pictures of his new 'home'. 'This is my home.'

He was told not to be silly. All children at the Hyakuya Orphanage could be adopted at any time. This family was forever changing. He would make new friends, the social worker told him. He wouldn't and he knew it. Nobody at this new house would ever come close to Mika and Akane. They weren't his friends; they were his family.

They could stay in touch, the social worker told him. It wasn't goodbye.

It sure felt like it.

Reactions varied considerably. Some of the smaller kids cheered because this was Yu's happily ever after. Some were envious. Some were hopeful that it would soon be their turn. Because that was how it worked. You came to the orphanage and you dreamed of the family who would take you away again, make you feel wanted and loved.

It wasn't until you'd been there a while – and Yu had been there for four years, Mika and Akane much longer – that you really understood. You found your own family. You loved each other. You didn't need some stupid mom to cuddle you and kiss your forehead or a dad to pick you up when you fell over and play ball with you, not when you could do all those things for each other.

On Yu's last night at the orphanage, he felt more like a big brother than he ever had before. He fended off questions about his new house, his new school, his new uncle. He looked at all the going away gifts everyone had made him and packed each one away in his suitcase. He managed not to cry when Taichi told him that he didn't want Yu to leave.

When all the other kids had gone to sleep, Akane had hugged him so tightly he thought he might break. His nose tickled. Her hair smelt of the strawberry shampoo her friend at school had given her for her birthday. It was her special thing. She only used it for special days.

Yu made sure to smile at her as she paused in the doorway.

'You'd better stay in touch, you hear?' she said, glancing over her shoulder. Her lips smiled but her eyes were wet.

'Huh? Of course I'm staying in touch. I'll visit too, yeah! And then maybe you guys can come to my house.' He said it all with a grin and an unshakeable will that brought Akane's smile to her eyes.

For a moment, he believed it too. And then Akane disappeared down the hall and she took the sunshine with her. Looking over at Mika, he felt suddenly eight years old again and new to the orphanage, looking for someone to make it all right.

Just as he had on the day Yu arrived, Mika smiled. But his smile didn't reach his eyes either.

Yu ignored his bed and his suitcase and the clothes laid out ready for tomorrow, for the 'Big Day' as all the staff were calling it. It was big alright. Big, bleak and empty. He shook the idea away, climbed into Mika's bed beside him and rolled over so that Mika couldn't see his face.

Mika was sitting up, reading some book about hot air balloons. He had a thing for hot air balloons, had always said as a kid that maybe someday they'd all fly away in one, travel the world and make home the nicest place they saw on their journey. Yu heard him turn the page.

'Hey,' Mika said and Yu made a non-committal noise to indicate he was listening. 'Make sure you leave your address. If not, it's gonna be really hard to find you from my hot air balloon – and you can't skip out on the Hyakuya Family Round-the-World Trip.'

Yu rolled back over, stared at Mika. 'Ha, you're still talking about that?'

'Mmhmm!' Mika smiled. 'Okay, between you and me, doing it in a hot balloon is probably not going to happen. I'm now thinking maybe a cruise. But if I hit it big, it'll be private jet all the way. What do you say?'

In spite of himself, Yu grinned. 'Hit it big doing what?'

Mika shrugged. 'I don't know – work?' He flicked to the back of his book, where the author bios were. 'Hey, maybe I'll write a book.'

'You read enough of 'em,' Yu commented distastefully, and shifted in the bed to rest his chin by Mika's elbow.

'Just because you don't read, Yu,' Mika replied, closing his book on his lap and resting his hands on it. 'You should really read more, you know?'

'Don't need to.' Yu smirked. 'TV is better.'

'Easier maybe. Definitely not better.'

Yu did not need to see Mika's face to imagine the expression on it. He prepared himself to hear the usual talk about how there was so much more in books than there was in the films they made out of them. Harry Potter was most often Mika's weapon of choice. Yu still hadn't read it, didn't intend to either. Mika loved it.

But Mika didn't say it. And the unusual silence reminded Yu that they might never have this before bed argument again.

To break the silence, Yu quickly said. 'I'll read your book, when you write it.'

Mika turned the book over in his hands. 'Well now I have to write one.'

Silence fell again.

'Hey.' Mika broke it. 'You've gotta promise me you'll have fun at your new house. Make loads of friends, go out and stuff. Keep a diary – you're living quite a way away so it'll be a while before I get to see you again – I wanna hear everything too. Oh, and you need to write letters. I'll write back to you – well we'll all write back to you so just... have fun, okay?'

Yu sat up, sat very still and very straight. Mika smiled, eyes closed, head tilted to one side like it always did whenever he pretended something was okay when it wasn't. It worked on most of the kids, but not Akane and Yu, never them. Had it been any of the others, Yu would have promised all of those things. But it wasn't; it was Mika and it felt like it shouldn't be.

Biting his lip, Yu lent his forehead against Mika's shoulder and said something stupid and wrong because it wasn't Yu's job to dream; it was Mika's. Mika dreamed and planned and read. And the closest Yu got to independent foresight and planning was threatening to beat someone up if they dared keep looking at his family like that. But it was all wrong – everything was wrong. It was supposed to be Mika who got adopted and not Yu, because Mika was the smart one. No, they were supposed to be adopted together and Yu guessed that was what made him say it.

'Maybe my uncle will want another kid and he can adopt you too. Yeah, I'll ask him. And then we'll have the same last name and we can be proper family and-'

'We'll always be proper family.' Mika's voice was muffled. 'No matter where we're living.'

'Yeah, always,' Yu promised, enveloping Mika in a hug.

Uncle Guren did not want another kid. He'd said it when Yu had moved in 3 days ago. Not in so many words but it was obvious that's what he'd meant. Snooping around the house this weekend only confirmed it. Uncle Guren's house was big but empty – and downright dull.

He had a TV with all the channels. He let Yu watch whatever he wanted pretty much whenever he wanted to – for this weekend at least. That was awesome and Yu hoped it would continue. He also had a 'whatever you want' policy on the snacks. But he didn't really have anything else. There were no games, no comics, nothing but food and TV and bed.

Yu tried to think back to what he used to do at the orphanage but... that much was obvious. He hung out with Mika, Akane and the others. He always hung out with Mika. Sure his Uncle talked to him sometimes – between them they had made two lists of each other's likes, dislikes, birthdays etc. But he wasn't them. He wasn't the family Yu had chosen.

'Oi, brat! Ass downstairs – school!'

Yu flinched then groaned and rolled over. His new uniform sat untouched on the chair at his new desk. It was still wrapped in the plastic it had left the school store in. Yu had heard Sayuri telling Uncle Guren to take it out and wash it over the phone, but his uncle obviously hadn't. He was going to smell like plastic.

'Hey, you hear me?'

His Uncle's voice was getting louder. There were footsteps on the stairs. Yu reached for his pillow to bury his face in it. The door was flung open. Yu jolted upright.

'Oh, you're awake.' Uncle Guren barely spared him a glance before picking his way over to the window.

Yu shielded his face as the curtains were thrown open.

'You alive?' his uncle asked.

'No,' he muttered, sinking back into his pillow and turning his back on the offending sunlight.

'Come on, get dressed. We can't be late on your first day of school.'

A bag of crap hit Yu in the back. He lifted his head to see what it was. It was the uniform.

Uncle Guren suddenly swore. 'I was meant to wash this, wasn't I? Damn it. Well, it's clean from the shop, right?'

Yu rolled over in time to watch his uncle retrieve the uniform and rip the packaging on it. Letting the plastic fall to the floor, Uncle Guren held it between his finger and thumb, brought it to his face and gave it a good sniff.

Wrinkling his nose, he disappeared through the open door and left without closing it – just like Akane used to. Annoying. Yu threw back his covers and crawled to the end of the bed, from which he could maybe just about reach to close it.

But Uncle Guren came back, blasted Yu's blazer with deodorant and chucked it at him.

Balancing on the end of the bed, Yu failed to catch it and it draped itself over his head. It no longer smelled of plastic, but whatever it did smell of, it was chokingly strong. He held his breath until he was safely back onto his knees with the blazer in his hands.

'Better?' Uncle Guren asked, poised to also spray the trousers.

Yu turned it over in his hands. 'It's a bit creased but I don't really care.'

Uncle Guren snatched it from his hands and threw the trousers over his shoulder. 'Get dressed in what you have and come downstairs,' he yelled behind him as he disappeared through the door.

Yu supposed he had no choice. Feeling like he was bogged down with mud, he sluggishly pulled on the rest of the uniform until he reached the tie hanging over the back of the chair. His hand hovered over it without touching.

'Yuichiro, are you ready?'

Mika always tied his ties. Yu had never learnt how to. His own father had been a waste of space who would sooner strangle him with a tie than help him tie it and who couldn't even afford – or just didn't care enough to afford – his full school uniform. And that was only when he went. His mother had moved them around so much that he never really bothered about school or uniforms anyway.

Yu hadn't asked where Mika had learnt to tie ties. Nobody ever asked about anyone's family at the orphanage. They were each other's family – that was enough. But Mika did everyone's ties. He'd tried to teach Yu once but it had ended up being a tie fight, which had turned into a pillow fight, which had turned into the director being mad and the two of them having to run to school because they were late. At the time, Yu hadn't regretted any of it. Now he wished he'd paid attention.

'Yuichiro!'

Yu picked up the tie and stuffed it in his pocket. 'Yeah, I'm coming.'

Uncle Guren stood by the toaster with Yu's blazer draped over the breakfast bar behind him. He motioned for Yu to take it. 'Where's your tie?'

Yu took the blazer and shrugged it on, avoiding his uncle's eyes. 'In my pocket.'

Uncle Guren raised one eyebrow. 'It goes around your neck.'

Yu fidgeted. 'Yeah well... do I have to wear it?'

'Yes,' his uncle answered firmly, turning back to the toaster and cursing under his breath when the toast that came out of it was hot.

Yu dug the tie from his pocket, looped it around his neck and loosely tied it in a knot. It looked nothing like a tie should look. Uncle Guren reached for the cutlery drawer and paused, eyes on the poor excuse for a tie.

'C'mere,' he said, and Yu shuffled a small step forwards.

He lifted his head as Uncle Guren's fingers fumbled under his chin.

'Damn it... fucking.'

Yu looked down his nose at his uncle's expression of irritated concentration.

'Can't you tie a tie either?'

Uncle Guren gave the tie a sharp tug. 'Don't talk.'

'Kay.'

A couple of minutes and two near misses at accidentally hitting Yu in the chin later, Uncle Guren pulled the tie from Yu's neck and handed him the knife from the sideboard.

'Right this isn't working. Butter your toast. I'll tie your tie on me and then we'll slip it over your head. If we leave in the next five minutes we can still be on time.'

After Uncle Guren had made him eat his toast in the car, taken two so-called short cuts, run three red lights and thoroughly broken the speed limit at least once, they were still late. This suited Yu better anyway – now he didn't have to deal with people staring at the newbie as he was escorted through the front door by an even more pissed off than usual uncle.

He dawdled a few paces behind Uncle Guren as they moved through the car park.

His uncle turned around sharply, 'Yuichiro, come on – school started fifteen minutes ago.'

Yu scuffed the tip of his shoe against the curb.

Uncle Guren sighed and stopped walking. 'Alright, what's your problem?'

'Huh?' Yu looked up from his feet, startled. The moment he took in his uncle's expression, he looked immediately back down again.

'Your problem,' Uncle Guren prompted, tapping his foot impatiently. 'You scared or something?'

Yu's head shot up. 'What? No! I'm not some little kid!'

Uncle Guren raised his eyebrows. 'Right, riiiight.'

'I'm not!' Yu insisted, taking a step closer to his uncle – a step that was meant to show that he was serious, that he wasn't scared and that he'd fight him on this, just see if he wouldn't.

Uncle Guren threw back his head and laughed.

Yu made a swing that was meant to give Uncle Guren a dead arm. Uncle Guren caught it and patted his head.

'Okay, okay, sure, kid. But if you're not scared, what is your problem?'

Yu, who had been glowering furiously at his uncle, scowled and looked away. School. School was his problem. Specifically this school and being new to it, and it not containing Mika.

Sure, he wasn't exactly new to the whole 'changing schools after the year had already started' thing. Before the orphanage, his mother had moved them on so much it felt like Yu was never not new when he was in school. And while that meant he knew what it was like to have everyone looking at you and asking questions, it didn't mean it was any better the billionth time around than it was the first.

And besides, whenever his mother made him move, it was obvious they were gonna move again soon and so Yu didn't care who liked him and who didn't – and they all thought he was weird anyway – and it was even worse when his father's reputation had gotten to them first.

But the last time around, it had been okay because Mika was in his class and Mika was already his friend so if Yu didn't have any others it didn't matter. But everyone liked Mika and if Mika liked Yu then the other kids soon learnt that he wasn't that bad. Mostly.

'Well?' Uncle Guren was still waiting for an answer.

Yu looked up at him. He looked smug, like he knew Yu might have been... not scared because that was too strong but... what was the word Mika used? Apprehensive? Yeah that.

'I just... don't wanna go, okay?' Yu snapped and brushed past the annoying adult.

He took it back. He took it all back. Uncle Guren wasn't okay at all. He was snarky bastard and it was probably his mission in life to take the piss out of Yu as much as possible to make up for having to take him in – not that he'd wanted to take Yu in anyway.

'Yuichiro,' Uncle Guren called and sounded... kinda serious but not pissed off.

Yu kept walking. Uncle Guren grabbed his arm.

'Look at me.'

Yu looked. Yu glared. Uncle Guren didn't let go of his arm, just made a pained kinda expression and brushed his hair back with his free hand.

'Look, you'll be okay,' he said. 'School sucks – sucks to be you – tough luck – suck it up – you'll be fine.'

Yu stared at his uncle incredulously. Was he trying to make him feel better about this or...?

'Look, my point is, don't worry about it. Go kick ass – uh, metaphorical ass – try not to kick any actual ass. Just introduce yourself, try not to be an insufferable little brat and you'll be okay, right?'

Weirdly watching his uncle's frown get deeper as he tried to string words together did actually appease the angry butterflies in Yu's stomach. As though he could take the awkwardness no longer, Uncle Guren pulled at Yu's arm and started walking, releasing him.

Yu followed, noticing that his uncle's cheek's were slightly pink. Maybe it was okay then to...

'Hey, Uncle Guren?'

'Just Guren, kid. Uncle sounds stuffy,' his uncle answered without turning his head.

Yu almost lost his nerve. If his uncle didn't want him calling him Uncle in public then it was hardly a good sign for what he was about to ask. Something that might have been hope sank into the pit of his stomach. He reminded himself again that it wasn't like his uncle had wanted a family anyway.

But still, he had to ask. The closer they got to the doorway with 'Reception' printed over it, the heavier Yu's legs became, and the sicker he started to feel. With no Mika, it felt just like all those other times he'd had to start again. Except this time, his mother wasn't there promising that this would be a fresh start for them, that this was his forever school.

'Play nice,' she'd say.

Uncle Guren had just told him to kick butt. They weren't the same but still... still, Yu couldn't shake the feeling that nothing had changed.

Uncle Guren was looking over his shoulder expectantly. Yu swallowed and said, 'What's my surname now? Ms Li said you were adopting me so...'

'The same as it was before,' Guren answered with a loose shrug. 'I figured you'd want to choose your own name.'

'I don't want it-' Yu blurted out and quickly regretted it as his uncle stopped walking and gave him a questioning look.

For a moment, neither of them said anything. And then Uncle Guren raised his eyebrows and it was obvious that Yu was going to have to finish the conversation he'd started. His heart thumped somewhere between his ears.

'Amane is my dad's name,' he said gripping the sleeves of his blazer tightly. 'If this is meant to be a fresh start-' Crap he'd used the same words as his mother. It really was happening all over again. '-could I – is there a way I could just... not have it?'

He made the mistake of looking up. Uncle Guren was watching him intensely. 'You want to take my – your mother's maiden name?' he said as if confirming it himself.

He didn't. He wanted the same surname that Mika wanted – that all the kids secretly used, the name of the orphanage, of their little family. He was, as far as he was concerned, Yuichiro Hyakuya. But if his mother's family's name was going, he'd take it. He'd take anything.

'Y-yeah,' Yu replied and felt like he was asking for the moon, or like his mother was going to jump out at any moment and start yelling about blasphemy and being an ungrateful little wretch.

Uncle Guren nodded slowly. 'Alright, I'll see what I can do about the paperwork at the weekend.'

Yu's elation quickly turned to desperation.

'N-no, I...' he fidgeted. His uncle's eyes never lifted from his face. 'I don't want to be introduced as Yuichiro Amane today. I don't want anyone to use that name.'

He looked up at his uncle then, feeling the blood rush to his cheeks. He met Guren's gaze and hoped his uncle could see that he was serious.

Uncle Guren's eyebrows had lifted. His mouth opened slightly and for a brief moment, no sound came out. Yuichiro watched his uncle's lips move in what felt like slow motion, waiting for them to form a 'no'. They never did.

Instead he sighed, lifted a hand to push back his hair and, holding it there, said, 'Ahhh, what have I gotten myself into? Fine, fine. I'll talk to your teachers today, tell them something about paperwork being delayed – I'm sure they'll understand.' Letting his hand drop back from his shoulder, his eyes met Yu's and he added, 'That it? You good now?'

For a moment, Yu simply stared. And then he waited. Waited for his uncle to change his mind. Waited to be taken to live with someone else. Waited for his father to appear behind him and drag him by the neck to yet another school. Because it wasn't meant to be this easy, he was sure.

Was it?

'Yuichiro? We're still late, you know.'

Yu's face betrayed him. He grinned up at his uncle like they were really family – the proper kind, not the blood kind. When the man shrugged his shoulders and held the door into reception for him, Yu took a breath and remembered the words Mika had left him with.

'Have fun, okay?'

Fun... Maybe that was a bit of an overstatement but maybe, just maybe, this time around it wouldn't be so bad.

A/N: Thank you for reading! ^_^ Comments and constructive criticism are as always greatly appreciated! I will take any comments on board - especially about the length and perspectives. I have been tempted to alter this story from one perspective per chapter to multiple sections, each with a different point of view. I wondered if it might save chapters that do a bit of retelling like this one from being quite as dull.

Chapter 3's Useless Trivia:

- Guren uses Old Spice, but he also owns a can of Lynx that he keeps purely because Sayuri hates it. He keeps it under the sink.

- Little Mika originally wanted to be an inventor.

- Yu wanted to be an explorer - specifically a jungle explorer. He wanted to see the lions. Nobody had the heart to tell him that the rainforest wasn't the best place for that. He also liked orangutans and wanted one as a pet.