Trigger warnings: Implied/Mentions of rape (non explicit)
The door creaked as it opened slowly. Her heart fell into to her stomach. Her body broke out in a cold sweat as the figure crept closer. She could see his teeth glint in the darkness of the room. She desperately pretended to be sleeping, staying as still as humanly possible and slowing her breath. But it was useless. He knew. He always knew. Cigarette smoke and whiskey filled her nose as he sat at the edge of her bed. He brushed her hair out of her face with a cold hand. She shuddered. There was nothing she hated more than these late night visits. Nobody else was ever in the house to hear her soft cries and pleads for help. He whispered her name. She trembled. He planted soft kisses along her jaw, his stubble rough against her face. She flinched. Fully convinced she was awake he stood back up to unbutton his shirt and take his shoes off. He always liked it best when she attempted to take off his pants with shaking fingers.
"Setsuka." He called again, this time more sternly; demanding that she stop pretending to sleep. She always hated when he used that tone with her, it forced her to comply with the fear of being punished. She sat up slowly, dread filling every inch of her body. She refused to look at him, tears were threatening to spill out of her eyes. He hated when she cried.
"Setsuka." He snapped. Already his frustration was reaching its limit. She tried not to let the tears spill out of her eyes, she really did. But the second she turned to him sobs racked her small body uncontrollably.
"Setsu."
"Stop that shit already, Setsuka. Come over here." He snapped, this time in noticeable anger. She crawled out of her bed shakily standing before him.
"Setsu."
He smirked down at her and slipped his large hand under the strap of her pajama top, knocking it off of her small shoulder.
"Setsu!" Setsu bolted upright in bed. Tears were streaming down her face and her camisole was damp. She was drenched in a cold sweat and shaking terribly. A large hand guided her shoulder back down so that she was lying down again. She would have jumped had it not been for the familiarity of that hand. Her brother was looking at her worriedly. She immediately grasped onto his bare shoulders and drowned herself in the warm comfort that was Cain Heel. He wrapped his long arms around her as she cried. Rage filled him once again. He knew what her dreams were about, it was always the same thing.
He hated himself because of them. He hated that she hadn't gotten a full night's rest in the past week. And he hated that it was all his fault.
He hadn't seen the signs. He had thought she was just going through a stage when she first started wearing leather, a stage influenced by his own wardrobe. He thought she was just growing up when she started wearing skirts 2 sizes too small and filling her bras with paper tissue when she was 11. He hadn't seen the way her father's eyes had lit up when she strutted around the house like that.
When she started flinching away from everyone's touch he had just thought she was being rebellious.
He was supposed to be the one that knew her the best. How did he not see the signs? He reckoned that he had stopped paying as much attention to his dysfunctional family when he started getting involved with bad crowds.
When he realized that there were much worse things in this world than death and his own demons began eating away at his soul. He paid more attention to his own thoughts and stayed out all night during that time. Though their mother was usually out all night 'working', the thought never even crossed his mind that his younger sister and her father spent most nights in the house alone.
Rage burned at his body again when he was reminded of how he did find out exactly what was being done to Setsu. He had returned home early that night, planned activities going by the wayside when the police had shown up. He was so panicked when he got home that he didn't hear the noises at first, but as he walked to his bedroom he noticed that Setsu's door was open. Curious, because she made a point of never sleeping with her door open, he heard the sounds then and bore witness to the atrocities unfolding in her room. He remembered being blinded in his rage and he remembered leaving that night- blood on his hands and his little sister in tow.
Setsu had felt her brother's body tense up. Despite her condition her brother always came first.
"Stop." She whispered. "It's okay." It was not okay, Cain thought. Setsu knew he blamed himself for what happened and though she didn't blame him, Cain didn't understand how she didn't. If only he had been paying more attention to her she wouldn't have been subjected to that for god knows how long.
They remained silent for a while and slowly Setsu's tears had come to a stop and although she couldn't breathe well through her disgustingly snotty nose she refused to remove herself from her brother's protective embrace. Besides, although she was too scared to go back to sleep herself she could still watch Cain sleep.
He had such a peaceful expression on his face.
She took delight in the fact that she was likely the only person who was allowed to see him vulnerable. The rest of the world knew Cain Heel as a dangerous and threatening man who evoked fear into the heart of anyone unfortunate enough to meet with his steely glare. She nearly giggled out loud over the thought. To her Cain was a fragile man. Strong physically but struggling constantly mentally. Again, she was relieved that she was the only one who got to see him this fragile. If he acted to way he did around her with everyone else there would be girls lined down the block hoping to get a chance with her brother.
She loved him more than she loved herself and he felt the same way about her though he wouldn't say it in so many words. The world could say whatever they wanted about them but it would never matter.
She knew and he knew that they had each other.
Okay! I got the idea for this story a few nights ago when I was reading the new update for Skip Beat! (Did they have to leave it there?!) And I started (obsessing) thinking about my favorite characters: Setsu and Cain Heel. I've been wanting to write a skip beat fanfic for a while but because I'm dedicating all of my time to another story (that has yet to be posted) I kept putting it off because I didn't want to be distracted by thinking of another storyline. But the idea for this kind of just hit me and it felt right as I was writing. I can leave this as a one-shot but if you'd like to read more as much as I want to write more please let me know in a review and I'll get to writing!