He awaited her as dawn rose from the furling midnight petals of the twilight hours, a lone figure on the freezing sands. Behind him their tree sprawled ominously into the sky, eerie as its branches twisted in gnarled configurations against the brightening sky. A premonition that Cera did not recognize, for what little warning it would give. Ranjiri had stopped returning at dusk, where the pair would sleep in what had once been a feathered configuration around Ryuu. He had lost both nephew and sister in short time, and his sister's continued avoidance of him would not be tolerated. Though he could not fathom her reasoning behind avoiding him, Cera would not allow it to go on any longer regardless.

He had lost her once, had suffered through the dark nights and terrors that had consumed him whenever he'd attempted to find slumber. It had been their own pride which had gotten in the way, that time. Whatever Cera had done, had missed, he intended to rectify it. With Hototo gone, Ryuu disappearing, Ktulu a distant figure that was closer to Ranjiri than to Cera, and Midas all but absent in their lives...Ranjiri and Cera were the only ones left of their ragtag little family. His heart was tender and too gold for all it had suffered, and it would not bear any further loss.

His sister was his world and gravity, his soul and spirit, passion and forgiveness. They complimented one another, and as much as he'd like to knock their heads together sometimes, he loved her so fiercely that sometimes he wondered how he did not simply dissolve beneath its weight. The gods had not given him much in the world, but they had given him his sister. If they never deigned to spare him from further agony, cast it righteously down upon him, he would continue to worship them if only for that one flawless, precious gift. Cera lived and loved for the girl so fiercely that he could have turned the romanticized emotion into a more befitting blade of protection and fine-tuned destruction.

So he watched, and he noted when she would creep back to their tree for her own slumber - always after Cera left for his own duties, if she could manage it. His heart clenched, wondering what could have possibly driven her to leave him in such absence. Cera had never told her about his problems with abandonment, had never explained his scars or the nightmares he'd awaken from with choked down screams inside his ribbon-torn throat. He had tried so hard to keep her safe, to shelter her from the cruelties of the world. But she was passion and fire, magma and might. Too bright, too beautiful, drawing all attention to her whether good or bad. He had failed her somehow, as a big brother. Did she despise him for it? Was that why she could no longer bear to face him? Or had something more sinister happened, and she was trying to play the martyr, protect him from the pain of whatever secret she was hiding?

Her form was distant but familiar on the rosen horizon, and he stood a statue, vigilant and motionless. Two forces prepared to clash, as they were wont to do. He called out to her when she came close enough to hear him, Ilaria watching nervously from the tree branches, removed from the situation. "You've been avoiding me," he noted softly. "What have I done?" He had tried so hard to be angry, but it came out wounded and agonized, a golden heart crumbled into shards that cut him with every further movement. "First Hototo, then Ryuu and now..." he choked and turned his head away, eyes blinking fiercely as Cera swallowed down the sounds of his pain. "What happened, Anji?" And there it was, the nickname he'd given her the moment he'd laid eyes upon her tiny, newborn frame. It hadn't been on his lips in so long, but it was familiar and cherished nonetheless.

Dear Anji,

I remember when you begged me to stay, when you cried as Father took me away back to the Throat. It killed me to watch you stay behind, tucked against Ktulu's flank. I don't know where I found the strength to ever leave you, back then. I certainly don't have it now.

Do you still want me to stay? I'm here now. I promised I would be, but you're the one who's fading away. I'm not worthy of being called big brother, but I offer you my love and life for however long I live it.

Love,
Big Brother