Brother Complex
kagaminevii's prompt
Rin always prides herself in practicality. She doesn't jump to conclusions until she has gathered enough evidence to formulate a reasonable enough suspicion. She doesn't overreact...much. Overall, she thinks she's better at keeping her composure than everyone else when it comes to such matters as...
"Hm? Then tomorrow at five? Yeah, she won't be here."
Her hearing zeroes in on the sound of her brother's voice from inside his room. Abandoning her trek to the kitchen for a glass of water, she carefully tiptoes closer to her brother's open door. No, she isn't being a nosy snoop. She's just curious, that's all.
"We'll get together, then," she hears her brother say. "Okay. Yeah, I'm excited, too. Bye."
Sounds of her brother moving around spurs her on towards the kitchen. It's not that she doesn't want to get caught; but that she needs time to absorb what she has just heard.
Her brother has made plans to meet somebody at five, at a time when she, Rin, won't be around. He is excited.
She slams her glass down a little too hard on the kitchen counter, and the bang seems to echo ominously in the silence afterward.
It's not that Rin is bothered that her brother is meeting someone. It's that her brother is meeting someone after making sure she isn't around. She glares at the glass as if it is the cause of her irritation. Why does her brother have to sneak around her, specifically?
"Are you all right?"
Rin whirls around at the sound of his voice and sees him standing by the doorway. He looks at her worriedly. "What's that look for?" he asks.
Ask him. Ask him. Ask him.
"Nothing," she says nonchalantly, leaning her hip against the counter behind her. "I just remembered I had to pick up something. Will you be doing anything tomorrow?"
"Nope. I can pick it up for you if you want."
YOU.
LIAR.
She turns around and fills her glass with water from the faucet. She doesn't think she can say anything longer than a "'kay," for fear that the lump in her throat will become more apparent.
No. She isn't overreacting.
The next day, Rin observes her brother far more closely than she usually does. Does he seem anxious? Is that a fidget? She stays to the last possible minute until she has to leave for her outing with Gumi.
Her brother doesn't even bid her goodbye.
She relays all this to Gumi, whom she acknowledges to be a fairly good judge of character, while they walk around the mall. Window shopping is a very calming pastime for one with frazzled nerves or sisterly suspicions. They practically go hand in hand.
"You say he's been acting funny since that phone call yesterday?" Gumi asks, touching a dainty fingertip to her lower lip.
"Yeah, and he lied about not having anything to do today."
"Maybe he just didn't deem this supposed secret meeting particularly important to share with you," Gumi says after a few moments of rational thinking.
"No. You don't get it. He LIED," Rin says, accompanying her apparently major divulgence with a wide sweep of her arm. She nearly decapitates someone while at it, not that she notices. "He never lies!"
Gumi, at this point, is tired of having to talk about the obviously small mole hill out of which her usually calm friend is making a mountain. She wants to talk about that knit sweater they just passed by a while ago. "Well, then he's seeing someone," the girl says with a calm finality.
Rin's brain fizzes out, which to Gumi, is a good thing. The green-haired girl can finally check out that sweater.
Rin returns later that night to find her brother relaxing on the couch with his laptop. At first she sees nothing wrong. Of course nothing's wrong. Her brother is just lounging on the couch, smiling so tenderly at his laptop like it's the most captivating thing in the world.
Staring at him so obviously in a bubble of contentment just. Friggin'. Gets. Her. Blood. Boiling.
Is he already mooning over someone? So soon? Or is she just now noticing the symptoms of something that has been going on for a long while?
Just.
No.
She stomps off to her room, ignoring her brother's calls for her to come back, and spends the rest of the night fuming under her bed covers.
Her brother can't possibly be seeing someone. It's her brother, for crying out loud. What is her brother in the face of so much good-looking men? Unless whoever it is has a thing for baby-faced dudes. ...ew. Gross. Oh, god, she just puked a little in her mouth. Who has fetishes like that anyway?
Rin doesn't bother to ask herself why she is bothered to such a degree that she loses a bit of sleep over things like these.
The following days fly by with Rin finding her brother in more or less the same situations. On Tuesday she happens to eavesdrop on another 'secret' conversation ("Can't, she's staying home today."; "I know, I want to meet, too. But it's hard to get her out of the house."). On Wednesday, she spies him wearing that same moony expression while ogling at his laptop screen. He is definitely mooning. It doesn't look at all like constipation. Thursday is a little embarrassing, since he manages to look up from his laptop just as she is looking at him.
"What?" he asks, a slight smile on his face.
"Nothing," she replies, and continues with her empty glass to the kitchen.
A noise behind her prompts her to turn around as she was filling her glass with water, and she sees her brother lean against the kitchen archway. "Will you be going out again tomorrow?" he asks once he realizes he has her attention.
Why? So he can ask his secret visitor to come over? Rin's hold on the glass tightens minutely.
"Yeah."
Somehow...seeing her brother look so happy and excited is upsetting her more and more. She's supposed to be happy for him. She's supposed to be supportive. She's his sister, after all. Aren't sisters supposed to cheer on their brothers when they find someone they like?
Again she shares this dilemma with Gumi the next day.
"Why does it piss me off to see him so happy?" Rin asks her eternally happy-go-lucky friend as they browse through racks of brightly colored tops. When in doubt with oneself, consult the racks. It helps the economy and drains your wallet!
"You mean, why are you pissed that he's moving forward with his life and is leaving you behind," Gumi says absently as she compares a lime green camisole and a billowy apricot lace top side by side. "Or why are you jealous that he's getting a girlfriend and is neglecting you? You have a serious complex, you know. Getting a boyfriend might fix that. Why don't you get one?"
Rin doesn't know what to say to that.
—
Len glances at the time on the upper right corner of his laptop and frowns. His sister is late in coming home. He checks his phone, which is laying innocently on the coffee table, but sees no new messages or calls. Worry starts to gnaw at his gut.
Just as he is about to place a call to his sister's phone, he hears her enter the front door and hurriedly sets his laptop aside. He gets up and walks down the short hall to the foyer where he sees his sister taking off her shoes.
"You're late," he says, causing her to stiffen and look over her shoulder at him. Her expression seems lost; in fact, her very posture screams vulnerability. It makes Len frown. "What's the matter?" he asks her. "Did something happen?"
She shakes her head but bites her lip; it is a characteristic sign that she is trying to hold something back. Frustration starts to seep into his words. "Out with it," he says sternly. "Something's obviously bothering you."
"Niichan..."
"What?"
"Niichan has a girlfriend."
"What?"
He can only stare at her incredulously as she raises her face. Her brows are knit together, her eyes large and watery. Her lips look like they have been gnawed on for a good few hours. The topic obviously bothers her a great deal. "Do you?" she asks.
"Of course not," he scoffs. "Where did you get that idea?" But before he even finishes talking, she is already shaking her head.
"You're lying again!" she exclaims. "You're meeting someone every time I go out and you keep chatting with them online and..."—"Our birthday."
She stops, stunned. "What?" she asks in a tiny voice.
"It's our birthday soon," he explains, reaching up to scratch his ear. He has been caught, anyway; he may as well let her know. "I was planning a surprise for you."
"But the calls and the computer..."
"I was consulting with someone about things you liked," he grumbles, embarrassed. "And I was looking at our pictures on the computer. We're growing up, you know. It feels sudden."
"So you don't have a girlfriend?"
"I don't."
"Oh," she finally calms down enough to sit down, her legs folding on either side of her. A blush rapidly spreads along her cheeks as she looks down at her knees, appalled at her irrationality.
"Tell you what," he says, kneeling down before her. She sneaks a glance at him, and he gives her a smile. "I promise I won't get a girlfriend until you get a boyfriend. Will this make you feel better?"
"Y-yeah..."
"Of course, your boyfriend will have to go through some tests before I'll allow him to date you. Okay?" Len smiles brightly at her, already plotting impossible tests for her future boyfriends.
Like how fast the boyfriend can dodge explosive projectiles and how durable he is wedged under a ten-ton truck. And how fast he can dig a hole and die in it. Of course, he doesn't tell his sister this. He is content to let her know that he loves her enough to look out for her best interests. After all, his sister can only be his sister for so long before someone snatches her away from him. He needs to enjoy whatever moment he has left with her.
"What kind of tests?"
"You don't need to know."
"'Kay. What about my surprise?"
"That's still a surprise."
—
End.
kagaminevii's prompt: Rin jumps to conclusions about her brother having a secret girlfriend and gets jealous. Must have a heart-warming end.
Blaaaarg. It's not a drabble anymore. Forgive me. Is that heart-warming? D:
Writing about this reminded me of my freshman year in high school, when my brother who was already in college at the time got a girlfriend that I found out about. I remembered hating her even though I hadn't even met her yet. lol Brother complexes are adorable and irrational and stupid. ;A ;
The boyfriend test is a portion of what my brother, cousins, and father discussed among themselves when I reached dating age. They're cruel bastards.
As I was on my way to bed when inspiration bit me in the ass for this prompt, there might be some mistakes due to sleepiness. If you find 'em, feel free to point them out and I'll fix.
Hope you had fun reading~ Next up will be another user-submitted prompt: Borrowing without asking permission.
(081411)
