Vash followed his usual routine like any other morning: got up at six, made breakfast for his family and the two would enjoy a quiet breakfast together before Lili's departure for school. Vash thought today was going to be a normal repeat of the past days he spent with Lili and nothing insane or over-reactive would happen. Lili and Vash hadn't been talking much about, well, anything for the past couple of days and although he knew they liked the quiet nature together, he thought she felt lonely during breakfast. Perhaps he could change the mood by entering a conversation or two, so the silence wouldn't get in the way of them improving their relationship.

However, something was different today. And it wasn't the good kind of difference but rather the type you often worried upon someone because they aren't telling you what is going on in their life and had something...visible on them, as though it would mark as a reminder of whatever happened...

In other words, the change Vash witnessed across the dinner table was...shocking.

Lili's neck had a large bluish mark that looked like a strange birthmark, hidden behind a few strands of golden locks. She was busy cutting her sausage with her knife and didn't notice her brother's agitated stares across the table. He had no honest idea what could have had happened to Lili with that nasty mark.

He hadn't touched his plate of eggs, sausage and toast, the feeling of anxiety raising tremendously. His whole body tensed and felt uncomfortable like a statue as his eyes continued staring at Lili's skinny neck with the bruise present, though it was an unbecoming eyesore. Struggling to keep his composure he tried desperately not to rage out of nowhere. That always made Lili confused and frightened when she witnessed him over-raging like a maniac. He had to think of something, something he could use as subtext to find the origin of the bruise without making it suspicious at the least.

After fighting a ball in his throat with a clear cough, he opened his mouth and spoke in a strained tone, "Are you all right?"

Lili looked up from her plate with a surprised expression, "Oh, yes, but are you fine? Is there something wrong with your throat?"

"Oh, no Lili," Vash lied trivially with the wave of his hand. "I was just...um, wondering..." Keep calm, Vash. "Is your...throat, all right?"

"My throat?" Lili asked, reaching her hand to touch her neck skin, but once her fingertips made contact of the bruise, her expression went from curious to shock to a frown. But the thing was, that frown wasn't guilt or fear but rather an embarrassed one.

"It's just that I heard...a virus was coming here, so I was worried you might have a bug or something and might not need to go to school!" Vash's mouth strained in a grin which to Lili looked forced yet tried to look normal.

"Oh...it's really nothing, all I have is this bruise from some time before,"

"Uh, you mean that bruise I saw...?" Wait, shit, I screwed up already! "J-just tell me, how did you get it?"

Lili then glanced away as though to avoid eye contact and with her hand raising slightly, she intertwined her finger around her golden locks and seemed hesitant to say anything.

"I...I..." I can do this, I shouldn't frighten her or else I'll upset her again. But the of someone, anyone, hurting his sister was so scandalous he could just grab all his missiles and riffles and start a war on whoever it was. He didn't care, he would do it for the sake of protecting Lili. And that showed when Vash rose from his chair and flipped out and shouted at the top of his lungs, but not at his sister, of course.

"I'M NOT GONNA SHOUT AT YOU!" Vash declared suddenly and raced out of the kitchen and went into the nearest bathroom. "I WILL SHOUT AT MYSELF FOR MY MISTAKE, BECAUSE HOW DARE I NOT PROTECT MY SISTER FROM-"

He was cut off when he heard, "Brother, this isn't a bad bruise..." Lili said, her head peeking out of the corner of the bathroom door. "I can explain if you promise not to freak out..."

"BUT IT'S MY FAULT FOR NOT PROTECTING YOU BETTER!"

"It's just a bite from Natalya, it's really nothing!"

Vash stared in disbelief at Lili and when he turned his head to look at himself, he felt bitter of his lack of protection.

"Natalya...did that to you?" Vash asked, his voice weak and small.

Lili looked away, expressing guilt on her face. Vash, on a verge of collapse, began hyperventilating uncontrollably. It became so rapid and furious his sister had to run off for a moment only to return with a plastic bag. She helped him by counting one through ten, patting on his back as his breathing became calmer by the second. This was going to be a lengthy conversation, that Lili knew.

"So you told him what I did?" Natalya asked casually and took a sip of her juice out of the straw.

Lili felt her whole life came to hell when she confessed to Vash about the brusise on her neck, and this was honestly all Natalya's fault in the first place. If Natalya hadn't been so persistent in showing her love through kisses and if Lili hadn't been so dazed (with love) during those kissing sessions after school, the purple bruise on her neck wouldn't have been there and life would have been normal.

"No offense, but you did get me into this mess..."

"Sorry, but I was just showing you love-" But then she turned her head behind her and shouted loudly, "YOU HEAR THAT, I LOVE YOUR SISTER!"

Lili turned her head to see if Vash was there; she didn't see anything. She felt Natalya was becoming paranoid as they walked onward to school. Natalya held Lili's hand tightly as she continued drinking her juice, Lili held onto her hand and had no idea that, inside the school at the garden area there would be a man with a fake mustache and a straw hat gardening the same area for the next ten minutes. At least there was something for Natalya today: getting annoyed and paranoid at Vash's protectiveness.