A/N: Written for
Digimon bingo, the non-flash version, #551 - hat
Diversity Writing Challenge, d32 - write in the family genre
Becoming the Tamer King Challenge, Silver Task 2 - Write about a spoilt brat kind of character who in fact has deeper motivation for their behaviour.
Hatmaker
She whines and cajoles until she gets her way. Or, at least, that's what other people say.
Nene knows better, because Nene is essentially the mother and father as well as the big sister, so she knows Kotone better than anybody else out there. And that's how it's meant to be, except Nene should have had a mother and father as well because she's still young and impressionable…
But they make do, no matter how everybody else thinks Kotone is just a spoilt brat milking off her idol big sister.
That's a lie, anyway. Whoever says that clearly doesn't understand what being an idol is all about: doesn't see Nene smiling until she bleeds, or all the knots in her muscles Kotone has quickly learnt to knead out so her big sister doesn't wake up all stiff tomorrow, or see how relaxing it is to do something, just the two of them.
She's not spoilt. She picks up ideas and runs with them because it's what the proverbial doctor's prescribed for her big sister. But that's fine, too, because it's their time and if everyone gets it wrong, that means there's a sheet of something keeping their private lives private in the midst of the public idol scene.
So when Kotone brings a library book on hat-making home, Nene knows exactly what it's for. When they go shopping for materials, the store-owner frowns at the little girl fawning over expensive felts and the not-so-much older girl indulging her. 'That there's for professionals.'
There's no law against window-shopping though, and when they find just the perfect ribbons for the finish, they get them – because Kotone saves her allowance for these very things, even if people seem to be under the impression that Nene will buy her every whim.
It helps, of course, that they exaggerate pretty badly. They don't even pick up new projects all that often because years of just the two of them has taught them a lot about efficiency and recycling. So they've already got some cloth at home, and buttons, and mesh and wools and a few other things that might find their way there. Because crafts is a great way to spend some stress-free time together, just like it was once a great way for their mother to make little trinkets for that charity stall in the mall because she wasn't healthy enough to do anything else.
And if some of their own products found their way to that same stall… well, it was nobody's business but theirs. So what if the world thought the idol Amano Nene had a spoilt brat of a little sister? Kotone's not arguing it. She's a brat when she wants to be and if they're calling her spoilt, it means they're blind.
And for their privacy, it's best they stay blind.
That way, they won't see the two sisters spread out on the living room carpet with scissors and papers and cloths and that library book. They won't see the ridiculous disasters they come up with (even though they both know how to sew because it's kind of a necessary skill in idol-land) and then the ones that look good enough to keep, and then good enough to donate. They won't see the number of times Kotone stubbornly pokes holes into her fingers before she's gotten the hang of sewing felt, and the many more pokes from threading said needles because Nene is an idol and poked fingers are only going to sting with all those chemicals.
Nene offers her revitalising cream, anyway. Another perk of the job. Another thing that doesn't really fit into the "spoilt" subheading but oh well. She's not the idol that needs to fit into roles, even if they try to slap a few on her. They tried the daintily younger sister in distress but that was before they got a load of her. She doesn't care to get along with people who'd use them to fuel their own egos and Nene only smiles because she's paid good money for it (so long as she keeps smiling).
Well, Kotone knows the real money-earners are the smiles at home: those small real ones when Kotone spits a curse when she manages to poke her finger again, or when she plops the first successful hat on Nene's head, or when Nene puts her far more elegant one on Kotone's.
Those two are staying, naturally. Most of the ones after that go into their little donation box.
Then there's the slightly exasperated smile when Nene scrubs Kotone's fingers clean of blood and full of fancy cream after they're all done. 'Why hats, anyway?'
'Why not?' Kotone shrugs. 'It's something we haven't done before.'
And that's the important part, that "we" that idolisers are willing to strike from existence but Nene… nope. And not Kotone, either. They won't get rid of her that easily. She might be unbearable in their eyes but she's not doing anything wrong and she's not quite old enough to get into any mess that would really damage her big sister's reputation so they can't do much with their words.
If she cared, it'd be a different story, but she doesn't. She whines and cajoles until she gets her way because she doesn't feel the need to compromise with people she knows she'll never get along with. Maybe she's throwing in the towel too early, but behind her fake smiles Nene does the same. They're better at reading people than that. Maybe there are missed opportunities, but more often there's missed exploitation and that's the important one. Two young girls adrift in the world… no-one's going to look out for them, after all, but they themselves.
So Kotone may be young and inexperienced but she's stubborn and she's clear and simple and she can work out what she wants for the most part and that's enough. And Nene – big older singer and idol star Nene – can act the adult while still a child in the outside world but in Kotone's company, at least, a little closer to her age.
But Kotone can't get everything she wants, because she can't take that burden away from her sister completely. In fact, she can't take very much at all.