Akane's nose twitched the instant a pleasant scent tickled her olfactory senses. She inhaled deeply, body instinctively stretching with the excess of air entering her body from awakening. Her eyes blinked open slowly, focusing her vision on her surroundings that were unusually comfortable and spacious for a cardboard… bed? She shot up into a sitting position, scanning the area around her frantically with momentary confusion and panic. Her fingers grabbed at the silk sheets beneath her, satisfying to the touch, far different from the old stained blanket she normally slept under crowded with her siblings.
…Her siblings?
Akane jolted again, eyes widening with desolation the second she realized she was all alone in the bed. No wonder it felt so open and surprisingly lonely for her standards.
"Li'l ones?" She called out to them, springing from the bed and stumbling into the empty living room, suddenly aware of her predicament. The last thing she remembered was sitting with Nekomaru as he cleaned dry blood from her knuckles before everything seemed to grow hazy. Unbelievable! She had fallen asleep! "Hello!"
There was no one in the apartment save for herself. Where could the others have disappeared to? She frowned, but didn't feel worried compared to how she may have felt if they were back at their house. Her gut was completely calm, there was no reason to become anxious. Seeing that Nekomaru was absent as well, she was quick to assume that he may have taken her trusting siblings somewhere once they woke up. Normally when they began to move around though, Akane would wake up too, but somehow, she wasn't bothered by them at all this time around. She sighed, rubbing sleep from her eyes, and certainly feeling reinvigorated from the inexplicable luxury of the bed. Her best option was to wait for their return, willing to put some faith in Nekomaru's good ethics based on what she had witnessed thus far.
Akane inhaled again, nose catching the pleasurable scent she had first smelled when she woke up. It was an unmistakable smell, one that had her stomach roar with craving and her mouth salivate with desire. The wonderful, delicious aroma of bacon and eggs for breakfast. Her nose eagerly guided her to the kotatsu table where her pre-made plate awaited consumption by her own hand. She beamed excitedly, nearly throwing herself to the ground as she scarfed the food down without a second thought. It was a minor snack; she wished she could have had seconds and thirds, but she wasn't ungrateful. Based on the stack of dishes in the sink, Nekomaru had likely fed her family once again. She was relieved to know that they had a good meal, but her pride was taking a beating thanks to him.
But… he wasn't a bad man. He was her coach now, and he had extended his hand out of kindness to her, promising to help her if she ever needed it. She remembered what he told her that night: "If you or your siblings ever get into danger, you can come here to my place. It doesn't matter what time it is, or what day it is, just come and I'll help you. Remember that."
His apartment wasn't terribly far from her place or the gym, and just being there gave her an overwhelming sense of security. Akane nodded to herself, promising to no one that she would remember his offer before rising from the ground and grabbing her plate, moving toward the kitchen. She didn't clean dishes very often, but it was her best way to show her gratitude in the moment.
By the time she finished, she heard the front door open, Nekomaru and her siblings swarming into the room with delighted cheers and giggles. They greeted Akane merrily, bags of groceries in their hands. Tatsuo had a new blue scarf cozily wrapped around his neck.
"Good morning sleepy head big sis!" Midori smiled, a chortle escaping her. "You were out like a lightbulb!"
"Nekomaru took us to the store to buy some food." giggled Kurenai. "Look! We have some canned food to take home with us!"
"Can food!" squealed Hana, holding a single can of beans in her hands as she shook it around like a maraca.
Akane tensed, her eyes searching the small party, "Don't tell me you guys spent the money I just got from the competition."
Nekomaru shook his head, "No way, I paid for it. The money is safe in the bedroom in the nightstand."
She paused, giving him a startled look, "You…paid for it?"
He only shrugged, "Most of it is for me anyway so I can cook some more stuff. I was running low on groceries so I figured I would take the kids with and let them pick out some stuff they wanted so they wouldn't wake you up. All in all, they mostly grabbed some canned stuff. Tatsuo found a scarf he really liked, and it looked better than having a towel around his neck all the time so I got that for him too."
To emphasize the fact, Tatsuo began to wave the different ends of his scarf around, making whooshing sounds like an airplane. He stormed over to Akane to show her excitedly, her lips curving into a smile as she lowered herself to fix his appearance. She felt her heart melt with indebted warmth, jumping to her feet again and moving to Nekomaru. Her hands clasped together in front of her face as she bowed her head to him.
"Thank you, coach," She said. "I… I don't know how to repay you."
"You can repay me by working hard on training, starting today." Nekomaru declared. "I have the perfect plan thought up for you now. Once I put all this stuff away, we're going straight to the park!"
"Can we go too!?" gasped Kosuke. "I wanna train! I wanna be strong!"
"Me too!" cheered Midori. "Let's all get super strong!"
"That's the spirit!" Nekomaru bellowed proudly, setting the multitude of bags on the ground and quickly throwing the items in their designated places. "Now let's go!"
Just as rapidly as they had returned to the apartment, they scurried back out, the siblings leaving behind the food they obtained and racing through the building in their escapade to the park. Everyone ran as fast as they possibly could, beginning the training regime before they even reached the park.
While Akane had her chosen exercises to complete, Nekomaru willingly gave the children their own training plans, albeit less intense plans than what their older sister had to do. By the end of it, only the twins and Midori seemed semi-willing to continue, the others too bored or exhausted from it all, choosing to play around the park instead. If they were older athletes, Nekomaru would have disapproved their giving up, but they were only children who wanted to have some fun. He encouraged Midori and the twins to do the same eventually.
Akane had finally finished her fifth set of fifty push-ups by mid-afternoon, the final exercise of the day. She flopped onto the ground face first, groaning with weariness and hunger, but satisfied with her achievement.
"Nicely done Akane!" Nekomaru praised nearby. "We'll do this again tomorrow, same place, same time, same exercise!"
"Y-yeah." The worn-out female panted. "I'll be here, but I'm gonna challenge you to a fight first coach."
"Challenge accepted." He approved with a confident grin, extending a hand to help her to her feet. "I'll face you anytime you want. A manager's job is to support their athletes after all."
Akane accepted his hand, being hoisted up swiftly onto her feet. She called to her siblings to gather them around her, ready to return to Nekomaru's apartment to grab the food he had so kindly provided them with. To her excitement, he offered to do it to her when they returned to relieve any aches in her body from the intense training she endured. Her body prickled with yearning from the thought of it, and despite her weariness, Akane eagerly challenged everyone to a race to see who could get there faster just so she didn't have to wait from a slow walk.
Everything about her felt lighter when he finished his addicting massage. He performed it while her siblings gathered their cans of food, listening as Akane couldn't contain her explicit howling of pleasure with every press of his skillful fingers. As she stretched her arms out, she was greeted by her wide-eyed siblings who were genuinely confused by what they had heard, even more bothered by the fact that Nekomaru had removed his jacket and stood in his white tank top. They looked amongst each other, Hikari covering her mouth as if she was trying to stifle either a laugh or a blush.
Haruto eventually spoke up unreservedly, "Did you two just fuck?"
Nekomaru looked as though he was going to faint, face turning a dark shade of red as he began to sweat profusely, "ABSOLUTELY NOT!"
Akane was in his face suddenly, pinching the boy's ear and pulling, "What did I say about using that language, Haruto?"
"Ow!" Haruto grabbed at her wrist desperately, the other siblings giggling at his chastisement. "Sorry! It's just, you seriously sounded like momma when she gets it on with- "
"Okay! That's the end of that conversation, it's time to go home li'l ones!" Akane barked loudly, dragging Haruto behind her as he continued to hiss in pain, begging for mercy. "We'll see you tomorrow coach, as promised!"
"Bye Nekomaru!" shouted most of the children as they carried out their food items excitedly, Hikari chiming in, "Maybe we can sleep over again someday!"
Nekomaru grinned, waving after them as the door shut before he shook his head at Haruto's intense idea. Kids had such crazy ideas sometimes, and certainly didn't understand a lot of things. Still, for a little boy to think that far ahead?
His face felt uncomfortably hot for a good portion of the rest of the day.
Akane reprimanded Haruto for a few minutes before he worked his natural charm on her to get her laughing. The little stinker, he was too good at figure out how to escape her light disciplining. She released his ear, but he was promptly teased by his twin sister and Midori who pointed out the redness of his ear repeatedly. Kurenai replaced him at Akane's side, holding her hand the rest of the way home while Hana waddled along beside them. It had been a long day, and they looked forward to eating another virtuous meal provided by Nekomaru.
But the moment they arrived at the old shack, Akane wished she never returned.
The door was hanging off its hinges, swaying pathetically in the light breeze. Her immediate thought was to guard her siblings, there was no telling if a stranger was still inside, waiting to ambush them. The next thought brought a sense of worry over her: was her step-mother okay?
"Momma…?" Kosuke voiced her thoughts erratically, the rest following suit with fearful expressions as they wondered about their mother's well-being. He started forward before Akane shot her hand out to block him.
"Stay out here," Akane commanded. "And run back to Nekomaru if you hear me yell. Do you understand?"
They nodded reticently, huddling closer to each other while Akane made her way inside, fists clenched at her side. She turned a corner sharply, ready to strike just in case, but felt minor relief to see a familiar face instead. The first thing she noticed was her step-mother sitting on the old dingy couch, glaring directly at her with a cross expression, prepared to start yelling at her for something she had no idea as to what was going on. Then she saw a newly made hole in the wall, as if it had been kicked violently in a fit of rage. Nothing seemed abysmal, not even when her step-mother began to question her absence and the reasoning for the damages to the house, until finally, she saw the carving in the wall, resolute and clear with a single name forming in the letters: Kuraim.
Akane squinted at the name, nothing clicking in her mind to tell her she had any inkling as to who it was, but she had her opinions. If it was the man that had nearly killed Tatsuo, she had reason to be highly concerned. She jumped when a hand grabbed at her arm, reflexes nearly kicking in if she wasn't aware that it was likely her step-mother. The woman was yelling at her for answers, questioning the damages in the house and the name carved in wall. Akane sighed, setting a hand gently over hers and shaking her head.
"I don't know." She interrupted tiredly. "It's probably one of the men you keep bringing home, mother."
"I don't remember any of this." Her eyes began to water, emotional stability breaking apart as easily as ever. "Where are my babies? Are they safe?"
"Yes, they're fine." Akane called for them, and they immediately congregated inside, clustering around their mother once they realized she was sober enough to acknowledge their presence. She seemed to relax, embracing each of them and kissing their cheeks.
"L-look momma, we brought some food home." said Hikari, holding up her bag of groceries. "Are you hungry?"
"Wh-who's Kuraim?" asked Midori, her eyes locked on the ominous carving.
"No one." Akane quickly intervened. "Don't… worry about it."
Luckily, their mother turned their attention to hunger, encouraging them to open a few of the cans so they could eat. While they feasted, Akane took it on herself to tear apart the carving, to destroy whatever sense of dread would linger in their home. It was a minor fix to the large problem, but nothing about her wished to wake up and see the name first thing in the morning.
She watched her family eat, aware of the tension among them. They rarely ate with their mother, they hardly saw her as it was, and she acted concerned about them when it was nearly too late to even care. The optimism her siblings usually gave off was lacking, it wasn't hard to miss, though the fact went clear over their mother's head as she asked about their days and their health and whereabouts. Their answers were truthful, but soft. She asked Tatsuo about his scarf, and he told her about Nekomaru, avoiding anything and everything about him being suffocated by the hands of a man she brought home. Generally, they knew to avoid those topics simply because she never remembered her nights and would start to cry excessively if there was any mentioning of her children being harmed.
Akane remained silent, unable to tear her thoughts away from the fact that just the night before, they were all in high spirits with Nekomaru. The air was completely different from then. It was oddly disheartening.
As she tucked them into bed, their wonderful cardboard mattress and singular pillow with an old blanket, she sighed heavily.
"Li'l ones…" She whispered to them. "I dread the idea of leaving you alone after today's wonderful discovery."
"But… you have to go to the competitions big sis…" replied Kurenai. "So you can get the money!"
"How could I possibly leave you guys here though?" Akane growled. "I won't be here to protect you from that creepy guy if he comes back! We can't rely on mom to be here, and there's no one I can- "
"We have Nekomaru!" chimed in Kosuke.
"Yeah!" agreed Tatsuo. "You told us to run to him anyway, if something happened here!"
Her gray eyes widened, slowly nodding. Yes… she could rely on Nekomaru for help. His words whispered through her mind again. She smiled, "You're right."
"You know big sis…" Midori spoke up gently, her eyes shining. "Nekomaru… He feels like a nice big brother…"
"N-not that he replaces you as a big sis!" stuttered Hikari. "He would never replace you Akane! We love you too much!"
"Wuv you!" giggled Hana.
"Stupid! Why would she think we would replace her?" commented Haruto with a bemused expression. "That's silly, she's our big sis! No one else can beat our sister!"
Akane pounced onto her siblings in a large bear hug, earning a cheer of laughter from them. She wasn't going to admit to them, but it meant the world to her to hear them say such a thing. If only they knew how much it meant to her in the end, and how impractical she felt to have even considered the idea once before.
Author Notes:
The next chapter will have a time skip. Not sure how large of a time skip frankly, but things will start picking up! Toodles!
