Broken Wish
Whispers

Ryo choose to not mention the floating ghost creature that looked like the object many children in Japan made to hang up in regards to warding off rain due to the fact nobody else seemed to notice the creature. His dark eyes blinked a couple of times upon seeing the creature float in front of him a second time, taking a deep breath in an attempt to pretend his mind wasn't going insane. Both Akira – or Keith as he preferred being called, unfortunately – and the girl who liked being called Pidge seemed to notice.

"You know, the fact they both don't like going by their real names says a lot." Ryo stopped eating briefly. "Something the matter."

Keith opened his mouth, only for Pidge to speak up first. "Nope."

The three finished the meal in quiet, and the old woman also made sure they had plenty of leftovers, which irritated Ryo that he had to help his cousin carry them. Pidge began to follow them to the bus when he finally had enough. "Look, are you going to ever go home.?"

"Um…" The small female blinked a couple of times, tilting her head to the side.

"Does your family know where you are?"

"Not really. I kind of snuck onto the base. I technically wasn't supposed to see Keith, as you were coming to pick him up, but the garrison psychiatrist had no problems with that."

"Yeah. What was up with that. Why was the garrison psychiatrist involved?" Ryo held onto his bag. "I need to get rid of her. She's such a nuisance."

"You're not very bright, are you." Pidge pushed up her glasses, and if she wasn't shorter than him, would have been looking down her nose at him.

"Yeah. Major nuisance."

"You saw the blood. Do you think they'd not get her involved?"

"Point taken." Ryo reached out his hand and waved it gently. "So, look here. You really should be leaving."

"I don't trust you."

"I'm not surprised." The older of the two cousins glared at her. "And isn't your family going to be wondering where you were? Don't you understand that intruding on another person's family is…"

"Pidge isn't intruding." Keith piped up.

Ryo found himself irritated by the fact his cousin didn't seem to understand that the young female was indeed intruding. "Look…"

"Speak in English."

"It's improper."

"Why?"

"Why?" Ryo's eyes blinked before he shook his head. "Come on! We need to talk without her butting in, as a family."

He watched Keith tense up, his eyes flashing with anger. "Family? You mean the family which shuffled me off to a side branch because they wanted nothing to do with me?"

The older cousin forced the air out of his lungs, shaking his head again. "Stop it. I don't want to talk about that nonsense of yours."

"It's not nonsense."

"What about the fact I need to talk to Keith without you butting in?"

Ryo ground his teeth together, his irritation at the small pipsqueak growing. "Seriously? He's not supposed to be left unsupervised. That's my orders."

"I can watch him."

The older of the three teens blinked a couple of times. "How can that not go wrong?"

"I told you that I don't trust you. So…" The sound of a phone went off, and Pidge's eyes widened before she removed her backpack, diving in to pull out a phone. "Hello?" There came a pause, and then a sigh as she hung up. "You win only because I have to go home. I'll see you later Keith. Sorry."

Ryo glanced over at his cousin, watching as Keith shifted nervously from foot to foot until their bus arrived, and Pidge waited with them for her own bus. He breathed a sigh of relief when they were no longer near that strange girl, and they sat on the bus. He noticed everyone staring, but also that the ghost like the thing had followed them, and landed on Keith's head, yet his cousin paid the creature no mind, making Ryo's eye twitch.

However, eventually, though his cousin noticed the look on his face when he turned his head. "What?"

"Nothing. There are some things we need to talk about when we get home." Ryo switched back to speaking Japnese.

"I don't want to."

"We have to." The rest of the ride home was silent, and Keith flopped onto the couch after dumping the paper bag onto the counter, leaving Ryo to put things away. The older of the cousins then picked up the bag of medicine provided by the garrison which was now set on the counter and noticed how the floor was clean. Letting out a sigh, before opening up his bag. "I have some things for you."

"I don't want anything."

The young man took a deep breath, letting it out of his nostrils. He picked out the item he received from his sister before walking over and dumping the object in Keith's lap. His cousin flinched, looking at the item as if he'd been stung. "Hey. What is this?"

"I don't know. It's from my little sister."

Keith poked the package. "Why?"

Ryo found himself in a rather nasty mood, not liking how Keith continued to brush him off and decided to push some buttons. "She's apparently gotten it into her head that she's going to marry you."

"She's my cousin." The color drained from Keith's family in a rather amusing manner.

"Cousins can marry in Japan." Ryo watched Keith swallow nervously, before looking up at him, making actual eye contact.

"You're sister's twelve."

"Eleven actually."

"That's disturbing, and why me?"

"Because you're closer in age than Takashi is."

"That's just creepy!"

"Oh, I know it is."

Keith stood up, shoving the package back at him, his own irritation showing in his eyes. "Then why the hell did you give this to me! She's your sister!"

"And what? Tell her that I didn't give you her present?" Ryo felt his mouth twist into a smirk, shoving the package back into the others hands.

His cousin's eyes narrowed. "You're only doing this because you're trying to annoy me." Instead of reacting further, Keith simply sat down, folding his arms across his chest in frustration. His lips pushed together, not responding to the package he set down next to him. Ryo took a deep breath. "You aren't going to open it?"

"So what? You can tease me about what your sister got me? No, thank you. You're always that way, you know. It's why I don't like you."

The older cousin felt his eyebrows shoot up. "You don't like me? I'm the one who doesn't like you. When have you ever messed up?"

A shudder ran through Keith's body, and he looked up at Ryo. "Don't…"

"You don't know what it's like, you know, to mess up."

The younger of the two cousins stood up, his face getting closer to Ryo's. "How can I not know what it is like to mess up? My very existence is a mistake. I can't for the life of me ever live up to the family expectations. If I had, I would have been accepted a long time ago. You, you're always doing exactly what everyone in the family wants, never messing up."

"No. I messed up." The words hit Ryo hard, a nasty memory of a feeling welling into his chest, yet he couldn't place where it came from.

"Doing what…"

The older of the two teens took a deep breath, a few flashes of memory surging forth. First the sight of a pilot's cockpit, then a shadowy figure he couldn't make out.

"Ryo."

He didn't like the concern in Keith's voice. "What?"

"You're acting like…"

"Like what?"

"Shiro when…" Ryo watched his cousin's body language carefully, how his hands clenched the back of the couch. The ghost finally lifted up off Keith's head, and this time as Ryo's eyes followed the thing, he saw his cousin's as well. This didn't register, not like the feeling of needing to fix something that he'd messed up on, but couldn't place.

Keith remained silent as Ryo returned to his bag, bringing out the sword wrapped carefully by their grandfather. He took a deep breath, watching as Keith sat down, burying his face in his hands. "Maybe you do know what it's like to mess up."

"Shut up Ryo. I'm done…"

"I'm not done talking to you, though." Ryo took a deep breath. "I know that you think that the family doesn't accept you, but that's not true."

He started walking over, carrying the blade, feeling as if some kind of healing could go on, but saw Keith's head shoot up. "Accept? You're one to talk. You never once accepted me. We've never gotten along."

"Nope. You never did accept Keith. You…" The thought buzzed away as if there were something important that he'd forgotten. He stood in front of his cousin, holding out the blade. "Grandfather, though, he felt it was the time you had this." He watched Keith's head dart up, noting the pain in his cousin's eyes. "Take it."

"I can't."

Ryo let out a deep breath, exasperated, but purposefully fighting back the feeling, as if there was a reason for doing so. "Akira." His fingers carefully unwrapped the cords, his throat tightening, remembering the fact Keith's training was limited in comparison. "If you're worried about the fact you've never used a real sword before, I can teach you the basics."

"That's not…" Keith's eyes drifted to the blade, which was adorned with a bright red strap, his favorite color if Ryo remembered correctly. That was also something Ryo never expected to remember, as he'd never been interested in his cousin beyond wishing he'd never existed. Yet something screamed things were different, despite the need to act like things were. "I can't."

Ryo let out a sigh, placing the hilt into one of Keith's hands. It was then that his cousin let out a hissing sound, as if in pain, just as his wrist buckled under the weight, dropping the sword so it clattered to the ground. "That…"

"I'm sorry." Keith tugged at the sleeve of his garrison uniform, his lips pushing together in frustration. Another sound of pain came.

"What…" Ryo knew his tone of voice showed worry, and of course, Keith picked up on it."

"I'm fine!" His cousin stood up, attempting to leave Ryo, and the sword behind, but Ryo grabbed his arm, knowing something was wrong, before pulling back the sleeve. What he saw made Ryo gasp.