Shinya didn't know what to wish for. A better brother was up there in his mind but he figured that was rude, despite Takuya not getting him a gift. However, the candles were melting and their wax was almost dripping into the cake. It was just centimeters away from touching the icing so he just wished for a generic good year and blew out his candles. It wasn't like these wishes were going to come true. He was nine, and even he knew that. Even if he did wish for a better brother, it wasn't going to happen.

The candles got removed before the wax fell down to the icing, and his parents cut the cake into pieces to share amongst everyone.

"Hey Shinya," Takuya said, pulling him closer. "I don't have a physical present for you but you can play whatever game you want today and I won't bother you at all."

Shinya smiled. Maybe he should've wished for a better brother, then he could say his birthday wish actually came true. To be honest, if he had the opportunity to make any wish of his come true, even if it was just on a certain day and one wish, he would take it. That wish would always be having a better brother-

One who actually loved him.

"Thanks, Takuya," he responded as he took bite of his cake. To be honest, he was disappointed in gift he got, but it was Takuya - what did he expect. So he gave a big grin after he finished his bite and that seemed to suffice for Takuya.

"No problem!"

Half an hour later, Takuya went out again.

Shinya noted this as he booted up his favorite game, the puzzle game that Takuya always hated. Was he feeling bad about not getting Shinya a physical present? Shinya wasn't exactly greedy, but a new game would be... nice, after all, whenever it was Takuya's birthday he did his best to save his allowance to get him an actual gift. So it was only fair if the older brother brought him a gift for once.

Really, he should've wished for a better brother. He wanted to see how the Wish gods actually managed to change Takuya.

It took about twenty minutes for Takuya to return, bag in hand.

"Whatcha got there?" Shinya asked. Better be a present for me , he thought.

"Uh, some candles? And matches… Scented candles, don't worry," he said, his gaze towards the floor. He never looked to Shinya. He automatically chalked it up to his idiot brother not understanding how socializing worked, but then something hit him. Those items weren't normal. Takuya wouldn't buy candles.

Was he trying to hide something?

Or maybe he got into interior decorating and decided he needed candles for that.

Whatever, he might as well drop it. It wasn't like Takuya was going to do anything bad with these candles.

Although adding on the scented part was weird.

"I won't tell mom, go decorate your room however, I guess."

"Thanks!"

He immediately rushed upstairs, probably to his room to decorate it with candles. Shinya shrugged and went back to his game. He was getting bored of it, but this was the only time he could freely play it. He might as well beat the story mode for a second time. It was too bad the puzzles were getting too easy for him.

"Takuya! Mom said I can get a new game for my birthday as long as we both agree on it, is it okay if we get a puzzle game?" Shinya said, loud enough for his mom to hear him just to make sure she couldn't pull that trick of asking a Takuya who didn't know what was going on and taking away his game. Assuming Takuya was probably extremely busy… reorganizing his room with candles. Yeah that isn't normal, he thought and he got up from his position on the floor and went up to his room.

"Takuya?"

The door was ajar. Shinya completely disregarded privacy and opened the door some more so he could get a better view. He didn't exactly know what to think about what was going on. The room smelled, not strongly, but enough for Shinya to recognize the smell of fire. This in and of itself would've been normal… if scented candles had a smell different from normal candles. But this didn't smell like a scent, just burning candles. Then, once he got over the candle smell, he realized that they were scattered there on the floor and in Takuya's hand, fully lit and ablaze. It was also extremely close to his hand. one wrong move and it could easy burn Takuya. One wrong move-...

Shinya immediately moved back from the door, mortified, hoping calling for Takuya didn't startle him. One wrong move could just as well be disastrous.

Sure, Takuya was an annoying brother, but he didn't want him to get hurt because of burns that Shinya caused.

However, Takuya seemed to have completely disregarded everything that was going on. Instead, he purposely dropped the candle and the flame hit his hand. There was no scream. In fact, Shinya never heard screaming at all. That wasn't human. The human body responds to pain.

For some reason, he was fascinated, but in that terrified way.

Shinya kept watch as Takuya lit a match. He didn't bother to take the extra step to light a candle. He held the flame to his hand once again. He pressed it to his skin for as long as he could before he was forced to remove the match due to the pain Shinya assumed he was in. But that was for… for far too long. Takuya flinched a little, but he managed to maintain the match for far too long.

Then he turned around, presumably to look at the mess he made but his eyes locked with Shinya's.

"Shinya!"

He moved back from the door. "I...I didn't see anything."

Such lies, such bold lies. He watched the whole thing like a trainwreck you just couldn't take your eyes off of.

"Shinya, what do you want?" he asked, picking up the candles and arranging them in some kind of symbol. But he did so frantically like his momentum was disturbed. "I'm busy."

"Mom said I could buy a game for my birthday but we had to both decide on it."

"Puzzle game, right? Go buy it, I don't care. Just go leave me alone."

He did and he closed the door on a Takuya who was probably going to kill himself.

Was that really okay? he asked himself. He walked down the stairs to find his mom, who was most likely out back in the garden. He left his brother to go harm himself some more with fire. Last he checked, that was not okay with most people. He should've said something. Like: "Don't play with fire," or "Don't die".

He wished he had asked for a better brother, a sane one. He was starting to feel like the video game present was an excuse for him to go off somewhere and play with fire.

Oh god, it didn't just feel like that. It was exactly what it was.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

How was he going to get his brother back?

Take back my initial wish, Wish gods. I just want my brother back.

He snuck a bit of cake to make it more complete before his mom took him out to buy a game.

Chapter 1 End: Pyromania