Shion decided not to cancel the next day's training as to punish certain Saints — no need for names — for taking a little too many drinks... and he punished in the same go all the others 'to teach them good manners'.

Shun did not really mind. He woke up early and softly slid out of Hyōga's embrace for he could not wait to finding out how his brother was doing. Andromeda resisted the urge he had to directly go meet with him in his room (although he was the only one allowed to enter Ikki's room whenever he wanted.)

He decided not to hurry the latter too much for he was rather unsure of his reaction. Despite being Ikki's younger brother, Shun indeed preferred not to interfere when the Phoenix was dealing with (I mean, fighting) his emotions.
The young man put on his Cloth and grabbed his Nebular Chain and went out.

His green locks were fluttering in the soft  breeze. He was feeling fine, since for the first time in forever Ikki had not appeared out of nowhere to prevent him from sleeping in Hyōga's room.
He peacefully took the direction to the arenas.

An early riser too, Shiryū was already there. Hyōga was still sleeping and as for Seiya, Shun did not know if he had come back to his own apartment after he and Shaina went out to a night-club.
The Gold Saints were not there either as they had their own arena.
Shun felt a bit disappointed realizing Ikki was missing too. He did know his brother rarely trained with them, but he had still hoped to see him today.

Andromeda decided to train with Shiryū while waiting for the Phoenix.

'Hi Shiryū!' he waved at his friend. 'Care if I join you?'

'Of course not, want to spar with me?'

'Sure!'

The jet-black-haired placed himself in front of him and attacked him. Shun easily escaped and spread the Nebular Chain. It coiled around his colleague's arm but the latter successfully broke free.

'I hardly slept last night, you know?' Shiryū confessed while throwing another attack. 'I kept thinking about my master and Shion.'

The green-haired boy blocked the attack and smirked.
'Yeah, I can understand that. You must be pretty happy for them!'
'I truly am! But thinking that my master has been sitting still at the Rozan Falls for 243 years...'
'Sure makes the change!' Shun agreed laughing. 'And Shion was still dead less than a month ago.'
'Yes, and by the way it's very fortunate that Saga was planning on launching his latest reform,  otherwise my master would still be blaming him for assassinating Shion.'

'Even thirteen years later?' his friend uttered with surprise. 'But it happened in the past, plus Saga was not himself when he killed him. And he's still feeling so miserable about all of his sins... I thought everyone had forgiven him by now.'

The Dragon shook his head in disagreement.
'No, I don't think so. How would you feel if Hyōga had been killed just like Shion?'

'What? Who's gonna kill me now?'

They spotted the young Ice Saint coming to them, in his Cloth. Shun reassured him with a smile.
'Nobody, we were just talking.'
'Okay, great then. Hey, Shiryū. So I take it that Ikki's not here?'
Andromeda's smile vanished.
'See for yourself.'

'About that, I didn't see him yesterday, neither at June's oath nor at the party', their friend commented. 'How dare he miss such important events?'

For a moment Shun thought of telling him everything but then he changed his mind, as his brother did not like confidential information about him being spread, even to someone he did trust.
'He was there, he just came by and then walked out, I guess', Hyōga answered for him.

Then Seiya made his own entrance, looking amazingly in shape.

He began sparring with the Cygnus Saint while Shun and Shiryū resumed their own friendly fight.

For the whole morning the green-haired boy waited for his brother. The latter did not show up and his cosmo remained undetectable. Shun started worrying and feared Ikki might have returned to Death Queen's Island, just as he used to at any occasion before.

Yet the Phoenix had promised he would stay at the Sanctuary to watch over him — and currently he had pretty much made everything possible to remind he and Hyōga of his presence, especially when the Russian was staying too close to Shun.

At some point, the younger could not wait anymore and decided to leave after a exchanging a knowing look with his companion.

He crossed the path of a few Gold Saints on his way back but none of them had seen Ikki.

Shun took a quick shower and changed into his casual clothes before knocking at his brother's door.

'Ikki, are you there?'

Andromeda held out his hand to take the handle and move it but at that exact moment the door opened on the Phoenix, who gave a start.
'Dammit Shun, I didn't hear you!' he exclaimed.

He did not seem in a good mood but Shun was used to it (although Ikki would usually say hi even smile at him sometimes.)
'Where are you going?' he asked.
'Training', the older retorted, gesturing at the Phoenix Cloth he was wearing.

His tone was harsh but it was not what worried Shun most. Ikki had bags under his eyes and was looking straight in front of him.
'Nii-san, are you all right...?'
The firebird did not even lower his eyes.
'Of course I am, what's the matter?' he said, making an effort to sound softer.
Shun frowned.
'You're sounding weird, as if you didn't sleep so much.'
Ikki forced a grin.
'I did, I assure you. There's no reason for you to worry, Shun'.

Unconvinced, the latter was about to reply when the older one tousled his hair and got away, his phoenix feathers fluttering behind him.

Shun hated when the firebird was so evasive. Fine, Ikki had been to hell. Fine, he was strong and lonesome. Nonetheless everybody needed somebody. 

Still, the young man chose not to insist as he was never certain about his brother's possible reaction at tricky moments. He opted for relaxing and went to the library to read.

In the meantime Hyōga was coming back from the training session. He looked for Shun's cosmo and spotted it at the same time he spotted Ikki's. The Russian wondered if his companion had succeeded in getting him to speak.

'I bet Ikki's in a terrible mood', he thought. 'Ha, so the roasted chicken stopped showing off right after love at first sight! Typical!'
He smirked as he recalled the proud Phoenix Saint blushing before an unmasked June.
'Yeah, it definitely was love at first sight. He did not look like a blood-thirsty beast anymore when he was looking at her. He rather seemed at a loss.'

Hyōga's smile widened.

Ikki had been pretty annoying, with his constantly trying to split him and Shun up. But who was laughing now?

The sound of several voices brought him back to reality. The Cygnus Saint realized he was now near the women's training arena. He hid behind a column and listened.

The Eagle, Ophiuchus and Chamæleon Saints were masked and sparring.

'Come on, June, focus!' Shaina was shouting authoritatively. 'You're officially one of Athena's Saints now, you have to be able to protect her!'
'Sorry!'

The attacks were bursting out. Then there was a thump and Hyōga guessed that one of the Silver Saints had knocked the young Ethiopian to the ground. He narrowed his eyes so that he could see better.

'Okay June that's it, just tell us what's going on already!' Marin commanded, taking her mask off.
Her younger colleague hesitated before the Japanese girl's insisting light-blue eyes.

Shaina took off her mask as well, her green eyes a bit more gentle. Fortunately standing with her back to Hyōga, June finally gave in and unmasked her own face.

'Something pretty embarrassing happened to me at the party last night.'

'Yeah, no shit. What was it?' the Italian asked while brushing a long green strand off her eye.

'Scorpio Milo, Gemini Kanon and Cancer DeathMask made me drink.'

'Oh yeah, I heard about this', Marin commented with a slight grin. 'Last night Aiolia heard Kanon being seriously told off by Saga although they were two temples down his. And it was also kicking off at the Aquarius Temple, Milo looked abashed when he came back to his.
'Oh, I so wish I were there!' Shaina regretted. 'It's so funny when Milo is at Camus's feet.'

The redhead gave her an amused look and waved at June so she could go on.

'Then I went to talk to Shun but I was pretty drunk and I wasn't going straight so I tripped... and I fell down, right onto Ikki.'

' You... what?!'

'But the worst part is...'

The Chamæleon must now be crimson red.
'I lost my mask and... he saw my face.'

'WHAAAAT?!!'

Hyōga had never seen the two young women so flabbergasted. Their jaw seemed about to fall off, even Marin's, whereas she was usually so hard to impress. June lowered her head.

'And... and then?' Shaina managed to utter. 'You know the Phoenix can't be killed...'

Judging by the expression of both Silver Saints, the Ethiopian's face must be shattering.
'Of course I know that! ... But that's not even the problem...'

The ginger girl frowned and exchanged a worried look with Shaina.
'June, please tell us you don't... have a crush on Ikki?'

As an answer the young woman let herself fall on her knees and hid her face in her hands, half in despair and half in anger. Her friends knelt down next to her biting their lip,  feeling bad for her. Marin laid a compassionate hand on the Chamæleon's shoulder and the Italian girl stroked her hair.

'Poor thing', Shaina said softly. 'Reminds me of when I fell in love with Seiya... It hurt, too.'
June suddenly raised her head again toward her.
'It's got nothing to do with it!! You can't understand! It's Ikki we're dealing with here! For Athena's sake, I like Ikki!! And on top of that I was already developing a crush on him before he even saw my face!'

'Shun, you're the best', Hyōga thought.

'Nobody can understand what it's about!' the Ethiopian went on with a shaking voice. 'You both can be sure you'll be damn happy with Leo Aiolia and Pegasus Seiya, whereas Ikki will never even so much as look at me.'

'What do you know about that?' Ophiuchus asked. 'I'm pretty familiar with stony hearts, I could have won a reward for mine, you know.'

June sighed.
'I just said it's got nothing to do with it, don't you ever listen? Shun used to tell me so many times about his brother, back when we were training on Andromeda Island. He meant so much to him... he even claimed he had to win the Andromeda Cloth just to make Ikki proud.'

She stared at them with pain and anger.
'He wanted to win a stupid cloth just to make Ikki proud, do you understand?! Even Shun, Ikki's own brother, thought he still had to prove that he was worthy of him! So, as far as I'm concerned...'

She kept quiet for a few seconds.
'... I don't have the slightest chance'.

Hyōga sighed.

'Of course you do! That stupid chicken is just acting like Mister StoneHeart and prefers controlling his emotions because they fucking scare him to death.'

'Don't say that', the Japanese Amazon objected, grabbing the Ethiopian's face to look her in the eye. 'Maybe Shun didn't have to worry but it still motivated him to fight and become better; and now he knows that he's important to Ikki. You could do the same, it might work.'

'But Ikki got away right after...!' her colleague moaned. 'I met him by chance this morning but he didn't even see me.'

'Yes he did, he just pretended not to', Hyōga corrected frowning. 'What an asshole! Shun's sure gonna be pissed at his stupid brother... Anyway, good news is there's no possible doubt on June's feelings for Ikki.'

He decided he had heard enough and went back to the Bronzies' quarters to tell everything he had witnessed and heard to his companion.

As he suspected, Shun did feel torn.

He was relieved that June's  feelings were confirmed but on the other hand he was indeed annoyed with his brother's attitude. He hated the idea of his friend suffering and for a moment he held Ikki responsible for it.

But then the Andromeda Saint remembered the state the Phoenix was in when he was at his threshold, so he was convinced that the young man truly did not know what he was causing.