Todomatsu burst into tears, curling up in a ball on the bathroom floor as his arm began to sting worse and worse.

Cutting hadn't helped anything at all.

Guilt washed over him as his mind replayed Karamatsu's words over and over.

Karamatsu kneeled down on the bathroom floor and gently stroked his brother's head.

"Is there something you want to talk about?" Karamatsu asked softly, hoping he hadn't upset his youngest brother too terribly.

"N-No..." Todomatsu sniffed loudly. "It's fine..."

"No, it's not fine," Karamatsu spoke firmly, pulling his brother up into a sitting position, helping him lean against the bathroom cabinets.

Todomatsu's puppy dog-like eyes were swimming with tears as he tried to breathe slowly to calm his heart rate.

"Should we take care of your arm?" Karamatsu spoke softly once again, almost looking as if he were going to cry. "It looks..."

"I'm such an idiot..." Todomatsu whimpered, grabbing onto Karamatsu's hoodie in desperation. "I just want to be normal like everyone else! Why am I always being held back by life! Nobody even understands how terrible I feel each and every day. I hallucinate things, and now my hallucination friend is starting to make me see things in positive ways...bad things! I just want to go back! I want to just die or go back! Please!"

"Calm down, you're doing just fine, Todomatsu. Trust me, you're no different from the rest of us," Karamatsu comforted his brother. "Let's take care of your arm first, alright?"

Todomatsu sniffed and nodded his head, though he had no energy left to even move to his feet.

Karamatsu grabbed him by his clean arm and pulled him to his feet. Though his grip was firm, he remained gentle in each and every way possible. Todomatsu was wounded enough as it was.

After a few minutes passed, Karamatsu had fully cleansed Todomatsu's arm, having poured nearly an entire bottle of rubbing alcohol on it. He then proceeded, after helping Todomatsu stop crying, to wrap his arm in a long roll of soft bandages he kept in his own drawer.

"All clean," Karamatsu said gently as he finished wrapping the bandages around Todomatsu's scarred arm.

Carefully, the second son pulled Todomatsu into a loving hug, then immediately let go.

Todomatsu hadn't uttered a single word the entire time. All he seemed to feel was shame.

"He caught me...he probably hates me now..." Todomatsu thought bitterly, unable to face the soft, caring eyes of his older brother. "He's judging me...he'll tell everyone else what I've done...Choromatsu will tell our mom...then she'll send me to the hospital for mental help..."

Later that evening...

Sitting uncomfortably around the kotatsu with his five brothers, Todomatsu continued to keep his eyes down. There was no way he could ever meet Karamatsu's kind eyes. Not today. Not ever.

All of the brothers remained somewhat silent as they sat around lazily, munching on chips every few minutes.

Choromatsu flipped though a magazine, absolutely bored out of his mind. Sometimes, he would shift his sitting positions to get more comfortable, but that was just about all the movement in the room.

Even Jyushimatsu, who was usually loud and obnoxious, remained silent, petting a small cat with Ichimatsu.

Osomatsu yawned sleepily as he rested his head on the floor, his legs still beneath the warm kotatsu.

Only Karamatsu appeared interested in his youngest brother at the moment. This could be easily noticed, since he was just gazing at Todomatsu, watching his every little move.

Everything just seemed slightly off though.

"It's so quiet..." Todomatsu thought, a knot tightening in his stomach out of fear. "Did Karamatsu tell them...or..."

"Either way, it's all your fault," the figure hissed angrily within Todomatsu's mind. "You screwed up, good for nothing, piece of garbage."

"I only did what you told me to do..." Todomatsu thought bitterly in reply, accidentally cringing a little when he felt the figure sting him from within. He had forgotten the figure could even do that, since he was merely a 'hallucination'.

Unable to take the silence any longer, Todomatsu stood up from the warm, comforting kotatsu.

"Ichimatsu always goes to the roof to release his feelings bottled up inside, right...?" Todomatsu thought to himself, but just as he was about to leave the room, a firm hand had grabbed him by his clean arm.

"Todomatsu," Karamatsu spoke firmly, his sharp eyebrows raised in a frightening, dominant position. "where are you going?"

"I-I-I..." Todomatsu stuttered, at a loss of words. "I w-want s-s-some air..."

"You better not be lying," Karamatsu sighed, speaking in a much softer voice so the others couldn't hear. "If I catch you again, we're going to have to have a long talk, you know."

Todomatsu nodded his head vigorously, and Karamatsu released him.

"You know..." the figure chuckled a little, it's raspy voice getting deeper and deeper each time it spoke. "you're so fragile, if you jumped off the roof, you'd die. A perfect way for everyone to see. People would suddenly care."

Todomatsu opened up the door that hid the stairs that led to the roof, his frail hands shaking.

"Y-You're right..." he mumbled aloud in response.