The slow beep, beep of the heart monitor had Kira on edge. With every green peak on the monitor, her eyes flickered from it to her sister's sullen face, trying to find a correlation between the spikes and Hikaru's unflinching being. The nurses had tried to convince her to get some rest herself lest she end up on her own deathbed but she sent them off with a tired but fierce scowl.
Their mother hadn't visited since Hikaru had been omitted. Their father had sent flowers. Only Kira remained dutifully at her sister's side, clutching her frail hand in her own as if to pass some of her own life force on to Hikaru.
The doctor's couldn't diagnose it. Whatever Hikaru had contracted proved to be fatal, slowly shutting down her body's organs that her weak heart so earnestly tried to revitalize to no avail. Kira all but exhausted her inheritance to bring in the best medical nins and their jutsus only to find that while they made life temporarily bearable, Hikaru would simply never be well.
The monitor began to beep at an alarming rate and Kira jumped to her feet in panic. "What do I do, what do I do?" She scrambled to find the bedside remote that would alert the nurses but it fumbled and fell from her hands. "Nurse? Nurse!"
Hikaru sputtered, eyes shooting opening as she gasped desperately for air. She tore the oxygen mask from her face and panted heavily, her hand clutching at the space over her heart. She coughed twice, dark blood speckling the white sheets before the rapid beeping subsided, returning to its monotonous rate.
Kira grabbed a cloth and wiped the sides of her sister's lips clean. She flipped it over, dabbing Hikaru's forehead free from the sweat that had formed. She forced a small smile before sitting beside her on the edge of the bed. "You've got to stop waking up like you're some monster from a horror movie," she joked although she regretted saying anything at all.
Hikaru managed a roll of her eyes before motioning to a water bottle sitting on the bedside table. Kira handed it to her and after she took a long drink, Hikaru cleared her throat to speak. "Only you again…" The way she said it sounded like a question but Kira knew it was just an observation.
"Itachi has visited," Kira assured, "as well as Shisui and Sasuke. Mother and father…well, I guess you could say they're handling it their own way."
When Hikaru returned her smile, Kira knew there was no pleasure behind the action. She could sense the malice, the betrayal Hikaru surely felt from her own parents. "You fell asleep," she confessed much to Kira's surprise. "It was only for an hour at most but in that time, a nurse had come in to check up on me. When she did, I asked her, though I think I already knew…" Her eyes narrowed as she focused her anger towards the IV in her wrist. "It's been you all along. It's always been you."
"Wha…What do you mean, Hikaru?"
Hikaru shifted her gaze from her arm to her sister's face and it was then that Kira witnessed the full intensity of Hikaru's rage. There were hot tears brimming the corners of her eyes and her brows were knit tightly, contorting her otherwise pretty face with sheer anguish. Although she was so weak, she had never seemed so fierce to Kira and it was devastatingly beautiful.
"All this time, I had thought that I would be the one to bring honor to our family. I've been mistaken, living in some sick fantasy in order to please the nobles. But let me tell you something, one-chan." Her words were laced with venom as she expressed her fury. "There is no nobility to be found in Konoha. Everyone around us is corrupt. Even our own family."
"Hikar—"
"No, shut up, will you? You don't understand." She pressed her eyes into the palms of her hands, shaking her head in grief. "Why aren't they here, did you ever ask yourself that? They should be here, they should be the ones spending day in and day out on the side of my bed; they should be the ones tucking me in; they should have been the ones trying to save my life but for all they care, I could rot in hell!"
"Hikaru!"
"It was you, Kirameki. It was you who had to come to my rescue; you who tried. And all this time, I swore that it would be me," she laughed humorlessly. "I said I would be the golden child; I would be the model Tottori. But there's no such thing. There is no pride in that surname; there is no goodness in our society." Hikaru's tears had subsided and she wiped away the ones that lingered on her pale cheeks. She rested her hand on Kira's shoulder and looked her dead in the eye with all seriousness. "Do not trust them. Any of them. They all have motives, they all have agendas. I can only be thankful for you and Itachi for keeping me around for this long."
"Hikaru…"
She leaned forward to rest her forehead against Kira's and closed her eyes. "I have been so horrible to you, Kirameki," she murmured, "but I need you to understand that I never asked for this." As she opened her eyes, the rage had subsided and in its place, a sadness Kira had never seen before turned like a hurricane. "I was never meant to live a life of my choosing and you…" Her hand rubbed the cloth of the hitai-ate hung loosely from Kira's neck. "You always looked like you were having so much fun…Don't ever let them take that away from you, Kira. No matter what happens, okay?" She wrapped her arms around Kira in an embrace, burying her head into the nook of her sister's neck. "I love you, Kirameki. Don't you forget that."
Kira squeezed her sister tightly to her, her own eyes burning as the tears poured from her eyes and streamed down her face. "Don't talk like that, you stupid chihuahua," she laughed then choked, holding her sister tighter to herself. "I love you, Hikaru. I am who I am because of you."
As they pulled apart, Hikaru sniffled and wiped her eyes once more. She managed a devious smile and said, "Trust me, I don't want to take credit in making such a brat like you."
"Like you're one to talk!"
They laughed for what seemed like hours and when the night rolled in, they found themselves in an easy dreamless sleep. Kira failed to notice that the sound of the beep, beep had disappeared into the night and Hikaru, along with it.
Ages: Itachi and Hikaru 14, Kira 13, Shisui 16, and Sasuke 5.
