It was summer, dreadfully hot, and I couldn't sleep. I played with the doll Touya had got me, making her do flips, as I stared up at the ceiling. I cooled my hands and placed them on my head, running them across my body only to be hot again a second later. I could have opened the window, but the moonlight might have woken Natsuo, who slept fitfully on the mat across the room. He was a light sleeper, and he needed all the rest he could get with all the stress and bullies he had to endure at school. He wouldn't tell mother or father, but although I was almost a year older, we were in the same grade, and I knew they all teased him and pushed him around for being quirkless. Just a week ago one of the bigger kids had punched him so hard he fractured a rib and had to go to the doctor for pain medicine. He had told them that it was just an accident while playing ball.
Sweat dripped down my forehead, my mat was also soaked, even my doll felt wet. Taking painstaking care not to make a sound, I got up and tiptoed out of the room and into the hall. Doll gripped in one hand, I made my way to Touya's room, sliding the door open and peering in.
"Touya... TOuya. Are you awake?"
"No." the grumpy reply came from the middle of the floor, where he was flopped on his back, wearing only shorts. He propped himself up, looking across at me, "What's up sis?"
"It's too hot to sleep, and I wanted someone to talk to." He got up, stretching his arms behind his back than idly picking at a portion of the huge burn scar on his neck. The doctors had diagnosed him with an unstable quirk three years ago. Father had only stopped trying to train him to become a hero a year ago, and the scars his own quirk had given him across his whole body would never fully heal. He joked that it was a fun way to scare the other kids at his high school, letting them guess how he had gotten so many scars, and watching them squirm.
"Let's go outside so we don't wake up the nanny or the old man," he said.
We sat on the front porch of our big, traditional house, making each other laugh over stupid things, talking about bad food, good books, and our newest conspiracy that the nanny might secretly be the new pro hero, Clean Up. It was good to see my big brother laugh again after father stopped training him he had gone through a depressed spell for a while, staying in his room all day and not talking to anyone. At least he was getting better, unlike mother who now spent most of her days in her room alone or having hushed conversions with grandma on the phone. She purposely avoiding all of us except Shoto. Father had avoided Natsuo and I since the day he realized we didn't have the potential to be heroes, but mother used to care. It made me sad.
"I wonder what the stars are really made out of?," I mused, "They don't seem the same as the sun."
Touya measured the sky with his thumb, sticking out his tongue, and scrunching up face.
I giggled as he turned up his nose putting on a superior accent, "You see my dear child, there once was a family known for their glowing butt quirk, and they were having a terrible feud with a family known for their massive tennis racket hand quirk. One day-"
A hospital ambulance rolled up to our house, sirens off, but lights blaring.
We both stared as two workers hopped out, one walked up to Touya, "Hey, kid! Go tell your father we are here and he has nothing to worry about." The other worker held a straitjacket in his hands.
Touya jumped up facing the man, "What the hell do you mean? Why the hell're you even here!?" The front door opened, and I whipped my head around, to see my father standing in the doorway, holding my mother by both wrists as she struggled to get out of his grasp, half his size, feet kicking for the ground, and crying.
I started towards her as she pleaded, "I didn't, I didn't mean, oh no, why, WHY?! Don't hurt my boy, please, please, don't hurt him, why, I didn't mean, no, no! Enji you're a monster, you're a monster, let me talk to my mom, I want my mom, MOM!" Over and over again. I was frozen, not by my mother's words, but by the icy indifference in my father's eyes, how easily he forced her into the straitjacket, how cooly he explained to the workers how she had gone crazy and poured boiling water on Shoto's face, holding her up as easily as I held my doll.
"No," Touya whispered, "You bastard." We both stared in horrified silence as she was pushed into the back of the ambulance, still yelling and crying. My eyes stung, and I dropped my doll on the ground, clenching my fists to my head, tears dripping down my nose.
Natsuo came running out just as the ambulance door shut, "Mommy!" He started towards the door.
Touya grabbed his hand pulling him back, "You can't do anything. Don't try to get her, she's already gone."
Natsuo struggled in his brother's arms, face pained and streaked with tears, white hair falling into his eyes, "Mommy, don't leave us!" The ambulance pulled away from our driveway and drove off into the night. After the lights disappeared Touya let go of Natsuo, who fell onto his hands and knees sobbing into the dirt, an arm clutching his rib cage.
I sat down next to him, hesitating before patting him on the back, too shocked to properly react.
My father turned to face us, "Go inside. Clean that muck off your face child." Natsuo, wiped his dirty hand across his equally dirty face, still shaking and sniffling.
Touya picked my doll off the ground, back to my father, "You did this to her. It's all your damn fault. You hit someone around that much and they're bound to break sometime."
Father grabbed Touya by the wrist, yelling at us to come and slamming the door behind us before Natsuo was even all the way through the door, hitting him in the back with it. Then he moved his hand up to Touya's neck, slamming him against the wall and raising him so their eyes were level, Touya making clipped gasping sounds. Natsuo looked away, I watched.
"You need to learn your place," He gripped his hand tighter on my brother's neck, Touya's hands clawing at Father's arm desperately, his feet kicking at the air.
Father let Touya struggle for seconds of agonized wheezing, before finally dropping him and spitting out, "and just like with that wretch, I'll do whatever I have to you in order to protect my goal, my heir, and my status as a hero."
"You're not a hero," Touya choked out in a raspy whisper, eyes narrowed and blazing, "How do we live in such a sick, twisted world that the public praises an abusive asshole like you? You're a freaking monster! You deserve to be the one behind bars. It's all your fault you bastard-" He kicked Touya, who curled on the ground, hands up to protect his head, a flame igniting along his jawbone. He kicked him again.
I reached out, "Stop!" I covered my mouth, snotty-nosed from crying, and shaking all over with fear, unable to even meet his eyes. He didn't say a word, slapped me so hard I saw stars and fell on my butt, and kicked Touya again before leaving us. I let the pain crawl across my face. It felt like I had been burned.
Slowly, I crawled over to Touya, "I'm sorry, he kicked you again because of me."
"You didn't do anything wrong." He struggled to get up, bright teal eyes threatening to break into tears, and brimming with pain but holding it all back, trying to put the flame on his face out. I froze my hand trying to quench the flame but he pushed me away, "No, it's too hot, you'll hurt yourself."
"But I want to help."
"I don't need help!" The flame was already turning blue, halfway down his neck. He grabbed the doll of the ground, using it to blot out the flames, and then looking down at the ruined cloth, realizing what he'd done. "I'm sorry I'll get you a new doll."
"It's ok," I took it gently out of his hand, "Natsuo and I should go back to bed. We have school early tomorrow."
"Do you need something for your face?"
"No... Should I get the nanny to help you?"
"No, she's probably too busy with Shoto's burn. Plus he's probably with them, and I don't want you to go near him again."
Natsuo lay on the floor, both hands around his ribs, "gone, gone, gone."
Touya pushed himself over to Natsuo's side, "Get it together."
"She's gone! Gone, gone, gone, gone-"
Touya took Natsuo by the shoulders shaking him, "Calm the hell down!" Natsuo cried out slightly, pain clouding over his eyes, along with the wide fear of a cornered animal.
He whispered, "Don't hit me," and Touya let go of him, bringing his hands to his face and starting to sob, each cry wracking through his shoulders and back.
I tried to put a hand on Touya's back, but he jerked away from my touch, "Just go to bed, and leave me."
"But brother-"
"Go!" The flame on his face had reignited, and his tears sizzled into smoke as they rolled down his cheeks.
"I'm sorry." I half led, half carried Natsuo back to our room.
