Ame isn't a psychopath, just a very good planner and actress. We will address her emotional and co-dependency issues later.

Ice Cold

"Does it hurt when I do this?" Masaomi carefully manipulated Ema's ankle up and down, rotating it occasionally. He kept one eye on her face, gauging her reactions.

Ema winced minutely and then smiled bravely. "Only a little," she replied. The pain was negligible compared the shock of nearly freezing on a mountain. Even though she was warmer now that they were all inside the lodge, her body still trembled with little aftershocks.

The doctor nodded and after massaging her instep a little, he put her foot down. "I don't think anything is broken. It looks like you just have a light sprain. The pain should disappear in a few days as long as you're careful," he smiled at her. "That means plenty of rest and no hard exercise."

Ema giggled. "I'm not the active one. Thank you Masaomi- san. Thank you Kaname-san," she turned to the other brother with a smile that dimmed at the sad look in his eyes. "Kaname-san?"

He blinked, coming out of whatever depressing thoughts he'd been having, and managed a small smile. "Ah, I just don't want to see any misfortune befall my family."

Both sisters wondered what he meant by that, but were pulled out of their musings by Yuusuke. The redhead leaned forward and bowed so low it was as though he wanted to dig himself into the hotel floor. "I'm so sorry! This all happened because of me!"

Ema smiled, lovely and forgiving young lady that she was. "It's not Yuusuke's fault-"

Ame interrupted her bluntly. "It was. Let him apologise and then you can forgive him." She eyed Yuusuke with a cold expression that transformed into a look of girlishly wide-eyed worry the moment Masaomi turned to look at her. "I was so worried about you!"

He smiled at her and went back to massaging Ema's ankle but Natsume looked between the three of them, sensing that something was off. Where had that bruise on Yuusuke's face come from anyway?

"At any rate, Ema-chan we need to move you to your room," Masaomi lowered her foot and turned to the brothers. "Natsume, can you help? Yuusuke, can you call room service and order some hot cocoa?"

The aura that something wasn't quite right persisted until Yuusuke disappeared around the corner and Natsume caught the subtle loosening of tension in Ame's shoulders that he hadn't noticed before. As he stared at her, she pushed a strand off her behind her ear and he saw her bruised knuckles.

He stiffened and, as though she'd caught the movement, her eyes snapped to his and stared him dead in the eye. Natsume stared back, unsure of what to do. There was no fear in her eyes, not a hint of surprise or even guilt.

"Natsume?" He jerked and broke eye contact to stare at Masaomi who was frowning down at him. "We should get Ema to her room as quickly as possible. You take her shoulders and I'll carry her feet."

When he looked back at Ame she was staring at him looking completely innocent, even a little hurt. For a moment he couldn't understand why until Ema frowned at him and asked accusingly, "Natsume, why are you looking at Ame-chan like that?" and he realised that he was glaring at her.

He shook his head and snuck one last glance at Ame. "I'm sorry. I was just lost in thought." Carefully so as not to hurt Ema, he and Masaomi carried their injured sister to the elevator and punched in the floor their rooms were on.

Ame trailed behind them, clicking her bright blue nails against the plastic of her colourful phone case. She allowed them to put Ema to bed before taking a seat at her younger sister's feet. She watched Natsume eye her even as he left the room and then turned to watch Masaomi take a seat at Ema's bedside.

"I'm sorry that this happened," he frowned, looking quite despondent. The glow from the low lighting made him look younger.

Ema smiled sweetly. "It's okay. It was just an accident. I'm just happy Kaname-san was there to help."

"Kaname is pretty cool, isn't he?" Masaomi chuckled. "He may seem scatterbrained, but he's actually very reliable. Helping a person in that kind of situation, I don't think I'd be brave enough to do that."

Ema frowned and pursed her lips. "Even though I don't think I can say it properly," she began, "I think you have a special personality that can lead other people. Even just by you being here, I feel calm. Whenever we're all eating at the dining table, everyone always asks 'where is Masa-nii?' That's why, if I had to make a comparison, Masaomi-san is like a roof. We may not realise that a roof is important, but it's always there to protect everyone from sunlight and rain. It reassures people just by being there."

All the while she had been talking, Masaomi had felt his heart begin to thump harder and harder. His face broke out into a smile. "I'm…I'm happy. I'm so happy to hear that! Thank you!"

"It's the truth," Ema replied.

They both smiled at each other, sharing a moment. "That reminds me, the onsen in this hotel has an indoor bath. If you're feeling better later you should go and try it out. It's already been reserved for the family. Also it's better if you don't attend Fuuto's live concert. It would be bad to push yourself."

"Yes Masaomi-san," Ema pouted, looking a bit down about having to miss the show but ultimately too tired to feel too bad about it.

"Then have a good rest," he turned to Ame who had been silent the whole time apart from the near-silent tap-tap-tap of her fingers against the screen of her phone. "Ame-chan are you going to come to the show?"

She blinked at him for a second, and then shook her head. "No, I'll stay with Ema."

Masaomi didn't see the point of that considering that Ema would likely be asleep due to the painkillers she'd taken, but he could understand her not wanting to go out and have fun after her sister had gotten lost in a blizzard, suffered from mild hypothermia and currently had a sprained ankle. "Oh. Alright. I'll let the others know."

With a parting smile, Masaomi left the room. Ame remained in the same spot, still tapping away at her phone and listening to the whispering going on outside their door that soon lessened and disappeared. Eventually she put her smartphone away with a quiet sigh and carefully slunk up the bed to lie next to her sister.

Ema stared at her silently for a long moment. "You hurt Yuusuke."

It was an accusation and not a question. "He almost got you killed," Ame said calmly.

"I wasn't going to die-"

"Because Kaname found you before the cold caused your heart to stop. Look at you Ema, you drank two cups of hot chocolate – one of them with melted mini marshmallows – and yet your lips are still a little bit blue!"

Ema pressed her lips together, both to hide them but also out of some mild frustration. She tried a different approach even though she knew it wouldn't make any difference. "You know he didn't mean for any of that to happen."

"Then that makes it worse and he can consider it punishment for not thinking ahead," Ame rolled her eyes. "You're a beginner and he took you to an advanced course just because he wanted to impress you!"

Ema covered her eyes with a groan. "He didn't want to impress me! I wanted to do it so I could show you! I wanted to impress you!"

If she had been looking, she would have seen her sister's eyes softened. "Oh Ema-chan, Chii-chan, you don't have to impress me. You always impress me. You're my sister and that means I will always be protective of you. Even if the snowstorm hadn't hit anything could have happened to you! You could have fallen and hurt yourself!"

"Ame…"

A hand that smelled like vanilla and marshmallows covered her mouth. "Just let me be overprotective and angry on your behalf since you don't seem to have a single vengeful bone in your body, alright? Now go to sleep."

Ema huffed but burrowed herself into her duvet. "You should have gone to the concert," she grumbled but she was asleep before she could hear Ame's response.

oOo

Ema awoke an hour later feeling refreshed. Her body was no longer wracked by odd tremors and the pain in her ankle had lessened to a dull ache. Ame lay beside her, her hair fanned out behind her in tangles despite the braid holding the strands in place. Light sleeper that she was, Ame snuffled and woke up as soon as Ema started moving. "Wha-?"

"I'm feeling better," Ema whispered, giggling at her sister's bleary expression. "Should we try the onsen?"

"Yeah. Yeah sure, let me just find my bathing stuff."

The indoor onsen was set in a moderately sized room, tastefully decorated with minimalist paintings. The bath itself took up more than half of the room. There was a little section in one corner were you could change unseen, and a set of three showers.

Ema stripped and showered for a few seconds before hopping into the bath. She sighed contentedly, enjoying the steam and the hot water soaking into her muscles that were worn from the skiing they had done earlier. "I wonder if Fuuto's live show is going well," she mused aloud.

"It probably is," Ame said from behind the partition. She was struggling to re-braid her hair and was considering just leaving it and wrapping a towel around it like Ema had. Still her hair was longer than her sister's and she didn't want to leave strands in the bath for the next guests.

That was when she heard the door to the bath open and shut. Ame froze, her mind whirring. Who was that? Masaomi had said that he had been booked the bath for the whole family, so which brother was that?

She grabbed a towel and peered out from behind the wall to see someone tall and a flash of red hair. Hikaru. She frowned, unsure what other emotion to reach for other than worry. Hikaru had never seemed unduly interested in flirting with Ema, but he'd never felt completely safe either. She also suspected that he was aware of Ame's duality but if he was he had never felt the need to tell anyone.

Ame thought for a second and grabbed her phone. A moment later she walked over to her sister at the same time that Hikaru stepped out of the shower.

He smiled at them and Ame noticed that he was still wearing lipstick. Whatever it was, it hadn't come off despite all the water. She made a mental note to ask him for details. "Good evening little sisters," he said to them as though it was perfectly natural to walk in on two girls in the bath.

"Hikaru-san," Ame greeted shortly. She handed the towel she was holding to Ema and glared at Hikaru as her sister hurried to wrap it around herself. Without taking her eyes off of him she asked her, "Ema, are you done with your bath?"

"Yes," Ema answered in a small voice, her face bright red and her eyes downcast.

Ame nodded. "Go change. I'll meet up with you in a moment."

Ema slunk past her, shooting her sister a worried look that did nothing to dissuade her. She could see the miserable tilt of Ema's lips and how pink her face was. Her younger sister's privacy had been breached, and by a man they barely knew abusing his position in her life.

The moment the door shut behind her, Hikaru cocked his head with mock curiousity. "You're not done with your bath?"

Ame sighed. "I don't understand you."

"Understandable. I've been told I'm quite mysterious," Hikaru preened.

"No. As in, I don't understand why you wanted to play this game," Ame replied. "You know what I'm doing and you know why. Yet here you are. What I don't understand is why."

Hikaru shrugged. "I thought it would be interesting. I was curious to see what you would do. I know you're the reason Subaru doesn't come home until late, and that you're the reason he hates Natsume even more than before. You are a pretty little snake in the grass, aren't you?"

"And you've decided that the best way to get my attention was to stomp all over where I rest?" Ame arched an eyebrow. Then she sighed and shook her head. "Fine then. I can't forgive you nor excuse this so check your phone in about ten minutes. Maybe that'll cure you of your curiousity. And if I ever catch you doing anything like this, the consequences will be dire."

Hikaru slid into the water and sighed. A large grin broke across his face. Minutes passed and he heard his phone chirp. He reached out and grabbed it, careful to hold it firmly and above the water as he unlocked it. The grin dropped from his face.

There, on the screen, was a side picture of him naked. His face was clearly visible in the mocking smirk he had worn when he'd walked in and seen Ema bathing alone.

Above the image were the words Renowned Journalist a Fraud? In large black print. Though the article was clearly fake and made on one of those online news generators, the threat was clear.

Despite the low thrum of panic, Hikaru couldn't help laughing. God what had they brought into thei family?

I don't dislike Hikaru nor do I think he is a predator, but he did act pretty creepy in the OVA and walking in on your sister while she is naked in the bath is very, very weird. In that instance he was abusing his position as her stepbrother and deliberately ignoring the fact that he is more or less a stranger to her (he doesn't live with the family) and ignoring her privacy and emotions by claiming that it wasn't weird for them to be naked together because they were siblings.