Title The Brother Project
Author
Disclaimer I own nothing.
Genre Drama/Romance/Slash
Rating PG-13
Summary Hotohori and Nuriko are given an assignment where they spend one
week with the other at their house, then go to the other's house for the week.
What a pivitol two weeks they shall have.
I own nothing.
This will be the final chapter of The Brother Project and I would like to thank all the reviewers from everywhere and also apologize for the slip and slide updates that have taken place all this time.
I'm glad that you all enjoyed this fanfiction.
Also if the style kinda has a few changes, just remember I've done a bit of growing in the past few months.
Uozumi
The Brother Project Chapter Fourteen
They were sitting on a pier near a lake. The sun had yet to set, but it was getting close. They had an hour and a half to talk and then the park would close and whatever words had to be said would be lost forever.
Nuriko intertwined his fingers, sitting cross-legged. His braid hung over his shoulder and he sat as though he was deflated.
Hotohori chose to stand, hands in his pockets as he surveyed the lake around them. It was small with a trail around it. Behind them up on a grassy hill was a picnic area and the parking lot where Hotohori's car was parked.
"So how did this happen again? Isn't it odd to marry a son off to a man?"
"In our family," Hotohori stared out at the lake with Nuriko, neither wanting to look at the other, "when someone sleeps with another, it is a sign of - "
Nuriko glared up at him at that moment. "I didn't sleep with you! We were going to sleep seperatly - "
"Listen," Hothori held his hands up, speaking calmly, "I just know what our family thinks."
"'Our family?'" Nuriko glanced at him. "That only lasts until the weekend and then I go home, to my true home."
Hotohori sighed, then watched Nuriko turn away. "You've never protested before now. You could have said something the first time you heard it."
"You forget that I am their child at the moment," Nuriko responded bitterly. "I can't talk back to them. I've just had enough." Nuriko stood up and glanced over his shoulder at Hotohori. "When I become a Tiao again - not that I haven't ever not been one - I'm never going to speak to your family again. They have no right to tell me what to do. I will decide for myself."
Hotohori nodded. "Honored Mother thought as much."
Nuriko stared. "What do you mean?"
"She told me that this would be hard for you most likely. You 'lacked the diciplin to be a true Li' so she told me to be prepared for when you would 'crack.'"
"Well, I've done that," Nuriko replied. "I tried not to, trust me I did, but I just...I hate being told what to do by people who are not my family!"
"So what if they didn't tell you what to do? What if you could make your own choice?"
Nuriko eyed Hotohori. "You're acting weird."
Hotohori held his gaze until Nuriko looked away. "Fine, fine, fine...I've cracked like 'Honored Mother' predicted. I am not made to be a Li, and I am proud to say that."
Turning away, Nuriko murmured, "Let's go," before trudging up the hill to the car.
Miaka burst out of the theater's doors, her smile bright. "You always know what I like, Tamahome!"
Tamahome smiled and shrugged. "I just know that you've worn some sort of Peter Pan shirt since forever."
Miaka frowned then. "But you haven't known me since forever."
Tamahome shrugged again and led her to the car. "Well, it feels that way. Want something to eat?"
"Of course! I'm starving!"
-
Hotohori Li
15 May 2003
Mr. Miao
Sociology
The Brother Project
Imagine coming from a family in which one has so many siblings, but at the same time has none. Everyone seems to be on their own path and they must take theirs, and none can converge. The parents stay distant and encourage everyone else in the family to do so as well even if the family takes meals together. When one grows up with such a situation, they become virtually alone.
For one week, I stayed with the Tiao family in a middle-class neighborhood. It opened my eyes to other perspectives and the idea of a close-knit family. I learned responsibilities there that I never encountered before in my life. The family worked as team to keep the house clean and keep it running. Coming from the home life I had, I learned how to do the dishes, vacuum, and other such chores. I now have a stronger respect for our maid who keeps up our home.
Another thing that differs from my home is how the family is run. In our family, there is so much formality. We address each other by "Honored Brother" or "Honored Third Sister" and other such titles. In the Tiao household, however, the use of nicknames and other such informal addresses were the norm. Another thing that was strikingly different was Mrs. Tiao. She was warm and open, and she wasn't afraid to ground me if I stepped out of line (which I never did). She was not what I expected, but after I started to adjust to this new family, I found it refreshing. My mother would never be so up front, would never be what I can only describe as openly loving. It's not to say that Honored Mother isn't loving, but there was what I can only describe as an openness and she left no questions as to if she loved her children unconditionally.
If I had a chance to change families, I do not think I would. It is tantalizing to think that I could live in a family so different from my own. However, I cannot imagine a family without our stiff respect, our distance, and traditions. When one lives with such rigorous expectations and pressures, one cannot simply leave them. To become a member of the Tiao family would be comparable to moving to another country. There would be so much to learn and to adjust, and in the end, there would always be an attachment to their original country.
That is why I cannot think of living with any other family. It goes beyond the fact that I have personal duties to perform, because the Lis are my family and not the Tiaos. The blood in my veins is not the same as the blood flowing through Nuriko's veins, and that I think is what creates a bond of family in this type of situation. So even if I am alone sometimes and my family seems stiff, formal, and distant, I cannot help but stay a Li.
Nuriko Tiao
May 15, 2003
The Brother Project
I do not want to be a Li. From the moment that I stepped into the house, from the moment I met Mrs. Li I knew that I did not want to be a Li. Yet, I had a project to do and thusly was held hostage in a crazy family's house for a week straight. The only thing that got me through the torture was Hotohori, which I think is the entire point of the brother project. The brother project is something deeper than just finding out what it is like to be a part of another family; it is about what it is like to rely on another person.
We started the week out at my house. Hotohori gave up such things as his fancy car, his servants, and a lot of other such perks of being a rich kid to really understand my family. We shared a very small room on two mattresses and it was a lot like when my older brother and I shared a room in our old house. I helped Hotohori with how to do the dishes and other menial chores that I have known how to do for years, and I think that now I am glad that I know how to do these chores.
Then after a week of seemingly normal routine with an extra person, I had to pack and move to the Li mansion for a week. The Li family is like no family I have ever seen even on television. The mother is definitely the dominant person in the entire house and she controls everything from her husband to even my own life and choice. It made me so happy that I was born into my family and not Hotohori's family. In my family I can make my own decisions, I can be candid and frank, and I certainly am not told who to marry and who to be friends with. The most degrading moment I think was at the beginning of the week when Mrs. Li bestowed her approval upon me. I felt so inadequate and I still wonder what would have happened had she not liked me.
So my decisions is definitely that I want to always and forever be a Tiao. Well, naturally, someday I will have to integrate myself into someone's family, but never will I ever have to completely to submit myself to anyone like this ever again. Even if I were to marry into the Li family, they could not take such control over me ever again.
In conclusion, I am and forever will be a Tiao, and if I ever were to marry into the Li family as Mrs. Li proclaims I shall, I will not take the Li name. Whoever I marry will take my name because the last thing I want in life is an invitation for a person to control my will.
The End