A/N: Written for the Mega Prompts Challenge, #500 – twist.
sometimes you need to stand up
What would he have done if he had two rebellious kids?
Maybe she should have tried it. Maybe then she wouldn't have almost lost her brother to the world. Almost lost her father.
Really, she shouldn't have lost either of them. When she was suffocating in that life, she should have just screamed out. Like her brother had. Before Akira had to pay the price for it all.
Maybe Akira didn't die for them, or because of them. But it was impossible to shake the feeling that he had. That he'd died in delivering a final blow to their father – a blow the brother and sister could have delivered far less painfully themselves. Except she hadn't fought any of it. She'd just sat there and played the role of the good little girl, let her brother struggle alone.
She'd just wanted their family to stay in one piece, but willing to sacrifice it, maybe the two of them could have chipped away the block of uncertainty that lay beneath their pain.
Maybe then Akira would still be okay.