1. I hate him
'I wanna see the moon. I wanna see the stars and the night sky again.' I groaned silently to myself as I was sitting in the forest, looking at the small river running in front of me. I was alone at the moment. No, not really. I was never alone, they never let me be. Right now they were everywhere around, behind trees, rocks and bushes. No, I lied again. They were the trees, rocks and the bushes.

I sigh heavily and  turn my gaze to the deep blue sky. White clouds were riding slowly across it,  and the sun was shining brightly and strongly from the highest point, but to my relief was currently hiding behind the top leaves of trees surrounding me. I could sense the air the getting slowly thicker. 'Rains coming.' Smile spread slowly across my face. Besides night-time, I loved rain. Rain and thunder. I thought that rain kind of washed and cleaned everything and everyone under it. And thunder... I shivered excitedly while memorizing those feelings thunder gave me. I didn't know why it gave those feelings, it just did, and I loved them. Maybe tonight was going to break a real storm. I was hopeful.

I got snapped out of my thoughts hearing familiar male voice echoing through the silent forest. I groaned again. I hated that voice, as I hated the man using it.

"Lumi! Lumi-chan! There you are, I've been looking for you." Out of bushes came young man around his twenties with short light brown, nearly orange hair and dark brown, warm eyes. He had ANBU outfit, and he was carrying his cat-mask in his hand. He had a friendly, slightly concerned smile on his face, as he looked down to me. If you looked at him now without knowing him, you would've thougt that he was caring, kind, friendly young shinobi, but I knew better. Much better.

"What is it, Koeru-san?" It took all my concentration to hide the hatred from my voice and add the title after his name. I hated that man so much,  but I knew what he was capable to do, and didn't really want to piss him off right now.

"I was told to get you back inside, we think it's going to be one hell of a storm pretty soon." My face fell when I heard that one of my rare outdoor times was going to be cut short because of one of those also rare things I loved. I opened my mouth to protest, but I didn't have time to say anything when his face was suddenly only inches away from mine.

"Now, Lumi, we don't want you to catch cold, do we? Besides you know very well that we can't take the risk and let you be in the darkness." The warmth of his eyes was gone, like it never even existed there, while he was staring straight to mine light grey ones, so light that they were almost white. The faked friendly-like smile returned to his face as I closed my mouth and slowly nodded. That was one of the moments I thanked my dark skin, preventing him to see my face turning pale. It was awful enough knowing that he saw the horror in my eyes.

He got up quickly, giving me enough space to rise also, and he offered me his hand for help, still smiling. I turned away and got up myself, ignoring his hand. I knew he now noticed my irritation, but right at the moment, I didn't care what he would do. I just stormed past him making my way back to the laboratory, back to my prison.

{Half an hour later}

I was lying on my bed, face turned to face the wall, trying to hide my face from the light. I listened longingly the rain and occassional thunder from the outside. I hit my fist to the strong, light grey concrete wall, strong enough making the thumb voice echo in my room. I waited few moments, hoping the wall would break down. Nothing happened, and I hit my fist again to the wall, repeating the whole scene. I continued with that, listening only my thoughts, the storm outside and the repeating thumb.

'Why am I here? How did I get here?' My mind started to wander, but I didn't remember well, only a short flashes. What I could remember, was beautiful nightsky, fullmoon, strangers attacking to me and my brother, big fire, lots of running, and blackness. Confusing much? Very. True memories I can remember are from this place - first from here is his face. My expression hardened when I thought of it. 'Koeru, you son of a b*tch...' I know I couldn't remember well, but I did remember that he was our friend. I had no idea what had happened, but I wasn't stupid - he was the one who took away the things I loved - my freedom, the night, the rain, my--

"Aww, God dammit!! F*cking sh*t with that m*ther f***ing wall!!" I continued with the list of words of which every parent would've given me from belt if they heard it, as I held my bleeding fist in my other hand. I must've accidentally hit too hard the wall while I was deep in my thoughts.

"You should consider cleaning your mouth, that's not proper language for a young lady." I heard amused snicker from the door of my room and stiffened, eyes wide. 'Can it be...?' I turned around with hopeful eyes and screamed a little from joy and surprise.

"Niisan!!" Indeed, there he was, only family I've ever got. Tuli was two years older than me, currently nineteen. He had the same soft dark brown hair as me, same dark skin, and many same small features. But there the similarities ended. His eyes were also nearly as pale as white, but they got a hint red in them. Our eyes were the reasons for our names - mine were light grey, nearly white, as cold as snow, and that's what Lumi means, snow. His were slightly red and warmer than mine, like fire, in other language Tuli. Hi was friendly and warm, as I was agressive and outgoing, occassionally little mean too.
I got up quickly and ran to the door, forgetting all about my bleeding hand and the pain. Guard behind my door opened it letting him step in. As soon as hi was in my reach I tackled him and we both fell to the ground, me on top.

"Wohou, hold your horses sis, you're strangling me!" He just laughed as I wrapped my arms around his neck and hugged him with all my force. I was so happy about seeing him, it felt like ages since I last saw him. I slowly loosened my grip around him and got up, helping him up too. When we both were standing I hugged him again, never wanting to let him go again. I felt him wrapping his around me, hugging me back. He was taller than me, I could feel his breath in my hair. I raised my head and looked into his flame-like eyes.

"I missed you so much, niisan. But why did they let you come?" I was trying to forget the niggling doubt inside of me, but it was just too weird - they never let us meet each other, but kept us separated. Only chance to see him was at our airing chance, and it was only pure fortune if we met.

Tuli just shrugged, I saw the same doubt in his eyes as I felt inside. "They just picked me from my room and let me to yours. I heard they say something about you being 'pissed as a bull after seeing a hint of red'." Smirk found its way first his face, short after that to mine.

"Damn right, of course I'm pissed, they shortened my airing time, like they aren't short enough without that." I finally releiced my grip and crossed my hands to my chest. His smile widened at first, but disappeared quickly and changed into worried expression as he noticed my bleeding hand. He took it quickly but gently into his hands, and that was when I remembered that the wound was pretty painful too.

"Ow, sh*t, be careful niisan!" I whined because of the pain. It's not that I wasn't used to pain, or was afraid of it, I just wasn't the kind of masochist they always blamed ninjas should be. Frankly, I hated pain. I could manage with it, it didn't kill me, but I hated it, and avoided it as much as possible.

Tuli didn't answer me, just gently examined my hand, his expression turning more and more worried. He raised his head and looked through the room, and stopped his eyes on the red stain on the light wall. I turned my head following his eyes, and turned my gaze down in embarrassment. I heard him sigh heavily, when he realized the cause of my wound.

"Come on, your hand is probably broken, we have to let them fix you."
I raised my face quickly and looked at him, little angry. I didn't want anything from them, and opened my mouth to protest, but for the second time this day strong eyes interfered with my intentions. This time they weren't cruel though, but a little sad and worried.

I sighed and nodded. He was right of course. I followed him to the door as he was already talking to the guard. He looked at me, then my bleeding, nodded to Tuli and opened the door. I sighed as I followed my big brother and the guard to the hospital-wing of the building. I felt an arm wrapping around my shoulder and looked up - Tulis warm smile answered to my tired face. I couldn't help but smile back, wrapping my healthy hand around him. I didn't care anymore where I was going, as long as he was with me.

To be continued

Thank you for reading!!   Love, JiiBee