(I had to repost this story because it wasn't showing up when it updated. I changed the title (What Am I Even Doing) nd summary because they were a placeholder. I didn't think I would really be that invested in writing this. But I kind of am. :]
The summary still sucks, though.)
This is an OC-centric story.
I've never felt comfortable writing other people's characters, but I love the world Reborn! is set in.
It will probably have the main characters in it, but they will be off to the side (where I can't mess up their personalities).
Give it a whirl, please?
~ Ten Years Ago ~
"We shouldn't be here."
The boy stopped, looking back at the girl who called out to him. He grinned, balancing on a thick plank of wood that stretched across a small hole in the old house they had found. The siblings had been wandering around their grandparents' land, and had found the abandoned cottage covered in ivy and other foliage.
The boy, Yukio, had run inside, forcing his sister to follow out of the compulsion of being like her older brother. Once inside, she had found her brother carelessly jumping around, paying no heed to the creaks and moans of a house that had been abandoned for what seemed like centuries to the children, but was more likely around fifty years. The screens on the sides had faded and ripped, allowing light into the musty and derelict bungalow, and the whole house swayed with the wind.
The siblings weren't worried about the shabby state of the building, though. In fact, Yukio wasn't worried about much at all, while his sister merely worried about getting in trouble for going further into the field than their parents wanted them to.
Yukio bounced on the plank, which groaned but supported his fluctuating weight. He hopped off onto the other side and spun around before finally, lazily, answering his little sister, who stood hesitantly at the entryway. "Who said?" he kicked lightly at wood pillar before heading further into the decrepit house. "Dad just said not to get into trouble."
His younger sister rocked back onto her bare heels, clenching the faded stuffed rabbit in her hands. She called out once more, her voice quiet and wavering, "B-but, mom said not to do things that could cause trouble," she took a few nervous steps forward, scuffing her feet through the dust, "and this seems..." she gulped before whispering, "troubling."
The young girl jumped as she heard Yukio loudly laugh from the further side of the house. He called back to her, whilst messing with some old dishware in a box, and continued laughing, "That sounds like scaredy-cat talk!" He turned around to face his little sister, who stood fuming near the doorway. "Do you think it's haunted?" The eight-year old ran to the screen wall and shook it as hard as he could, making silly 'spooky' noises to tease his sister.
Said sister found her voice after her initial indignation, and cried out, angry tears forming in her eyes, "I am not scared-y!" She rushed in to prove her brother wrong, but the two of them stopped stock-still as a loud -CRACK-ing sound was heard overhead.
The two children held their breath as their eyes fervently searched the ceiling for the source of the noise. The house seemed to stand still as well, silent as the wind had ceased blowing.
After a good ten seconds of nothing happening, Yukio laughed once more, albeit a bit nervously, before turning back to the box he was searching. His sister let out a large breath before sobbing lightly, rubbing her eyes with her fists, still holding onto her old pink rabbit.
She stumbled forward, sniffling, and made a miserable attempt to tell her brother off. "Y-yuk-k-ki-nii, this s-seems like twouble.." at her slip into baby-talk, the girl sobbed harder, wailing into her stuffed rabbit. Her brother faced her, his eyes wide and startled.
Yes, the girl was scared now. The four-year old was terrified, horribly embarrassed at herself, and angry about her brother's teasing.
Yukio pushed the old cardboard box away in a huff. His stupid little sister had followed him in the first place, completely against his wishes, but his mother had told him sternly not to leave her alone. And now that she started crying, he would surely get into trouble, even though he was just following what his mom had said!
Muttering under his breath about stupid idiot crybaby little sisters, he stood up and bounded over to the shaking form of the sobbing girl. As he cleared the small hole in the middle, a violent wind tore through the field, shaking the paper screen walls of the house and causing the ceiling of the house to moan and creak thunderously. Dust fell and the boy gasped as he saw the largest support beam start to crack in the middle.
Rushing forward, Yukio screamed and knocked into his little sister, who was staring at the splintering beam, transfixed in terror. He had meant to push the two of them out the door, but overestimated his balance. The two siblings fell, Yukio painfully landing on his left elbow. The pain stunned him, he had hit a nerve and it confused him enough to forget the more pressing danger.
Yukio's sister was pinned under him, and she continued staring fixedly at the ceiling, but it was through a veil of tears as she wailed in fear.
As the beam finally split and collapsed downwards, time seemed to slow for the frozen siblings.
Yukio finally got his senses back, and he lifted his body to look in horror at the falling hunk of wood. Like his sister, he froze, and he briefly thought of his mom and dad finding their children buried under the rubble. 'Look how much trouble Yukio has caused!' they would cry, 'why didn't he save his little sister?!'.
The young girl had similar thoughts, but it was of how much trouble she had caused.
'If I had just stayed and played with Usa-chi like I was, this wouldn't have happened. Brother didn't want me, but I cried like a baby to follow him.
This is my fault.'
With the idea that 'this is my fault mine mine mine' in her brain, her head spun and she cried out, once more, out of pain and regret.
As she howled, a peculiar thing happened to her body. Sparks shot from her fingertips, bottle-green in color, and leaped all over her body, spreading to Yukio as well. The sparks joined together to form a light green shield that fitted to the siblings' enlaced bodies, hardening to protect the two from the collapsing ceiling.
The beam landed on the shield, sending skittering sparks across the floor, but rebounded harmlessly off to the side. More debris fell, not bouncing, but not harming the children.
It was over all too quick, and the remains of the house quieted and fell into their new place.
The two siblings were safe, but as the shield dispersed, were covered in chunks of wood and insulation. Both were unsure what happened, but they were happy and intact, so they quickly forgot in favor of hugging each other and sobbing in a mix of joy and unreleased fear.
Having heard their children's far-off screams, the parents (and grandparents) ran to the ruined bungalow, gasping at the sight of so much rubble, but running in all the same. Within half a minute, the siblings were dug out, and they all spent tearful minutes expressing their relief and fretting over the filthy children.
Later on, when asked what had occurred at the old house, the two children had differing answers.
'We were lucky,' was Yukio's grim reply. The boy seemed to have matured from the incident, and he spent the emotional car-ride back home in silence.
'It was a miracle,' was his sister's lighter answer. The girl had a strange spark in her eye, and babbled for months about how the gods had saved them.
The incident wasn't forgotten in the household, but the details of the siblings' survival were pushed to the side and ignored.
...until ten years later.
Review, please!
It starts off slow, but we'll get there eventually!
