Sister Complex

Ame walked away from the bathroom feeling annoyed that she hadn't even gotten to bathe. Stupid Hikaru and his stupid mind games, she thought to herself with a disgruntled scowl. Her fingers tapped out a rhythm on the cyan blue shell of her phone-case. There was no doubt in her mind that she could and would ruin his career if he tried anything with her sister. Even if the blow wasn't as devastating as that it would, at least the very least, severely ruin his credibility as a journalist.

The woman ran a hand through her thick hair and began braiding it quickly as she made her way down the corridor and back towards the bedroom. As Ame turned the corner that led to an elevator, she looked up to see if Ema had already gone down or if she was still standing by the glass windows. Instead she found herself staring into a pair of bright brown eyes above an unsettlingly pleased grin. "Big sister! You're here!"

Ame sighed and walked past the younger boy. "Hello Fuuto," she spoke over her shoulder. "I guess your show's finished now?"

"And Ame-nee didn't even come to see me perform," he pouted and fluttered his – admittedly very nice – eyelashes at her. Fuuto trailed after her, staying just behind her and taking that moment to eye her from the top of her messy braid to the bones of her delicate white ankles. Her legs were slender, he noted, and they would look great wrapped around his wa-

"I would have." Ame spoke, inadvertently interrupting wherever his thoughts had been going. In all honesty, she really would have gone for Fuuto's show. Sure the kid might give her the creeps but family support was important and it wasn't like he was a bad singer. "But Ema had to stay in bed so I decided to stay with her. Sorry."

Fuuto shook his head even though she couldn't see him. "No, it's that idiot's fault. It's just a pity, big sister. I really wanted you to see me perform live."

They had reached the glass elevator now and he took that as an opportunity to step up behind her. Ame noticed with a feeling of horror that Fuuto was growing taller. When she and Ema had met him the fifteen year old had only been a few inches taller than Ame, however now he seemed to have grown even more.

Ame shuddered at the thoughts in her mind. Fuuto noticed and sidled closer to her. "Are you cold, big sister?"

She sighed and eyed him over her shoulder. "You know, that question might have been almost sweet if it weren't coming from you."

He placed a hand on his chest and let his eyes droop in a dramatic display of sadness. "That hurts big sister. I'm just being a loving little brother! In fact, I think…" he leaned forward and forced her into the glass elevator, pushing her against the ice-cold glass. He was so close she could smell the bubblegum he had been chewing and the faint hint of hairspray. There was still glitter under his eye from the show. "I think you should reward me…"

Ame regarded him coolly. "Reward you?" She echoed disbelievingly.

Fuuto nodded, his fingers dancing up and down her back but never straying anywhere too indecent. To her credit Ame continued to look completely unbothered and the challenge of breaking down that impassive expression was an attractive prospect to the young man. With a smirk, Fuuto planted one hand on the glass behind her. "I'm pretty strong aren't I?" He bragged. "After all, if I'm going to be an actor I need this much strength. You know big sister, I bet I could hold you down and-"

Click. Click.

Both of them started and their heads snapped in the direction of the source of the sound. They saw Natsume in the elevator opposite their own, his phone – the source of the comically loud noise – in one hand. He smiled sweetly at them when Fuuto shoved himself away and stormed back into the hallway.

"My, oh my, what a scene!" He trilled, pretending to be utterly invested in his phone. "This is a pretty big scoop, isn't it? What will your fans say about this?"

Fuuto scowled at the older boy, hunching his shoulders and back to make himself look more threatening. "What do you plan on doing with that?"

Hikaru shrugged like it didn't matter, "oh I'll probably sell it to some gossip magazine or something. After your live-show tonight someone would pay good money for this."

"Don't fuck with me-!"

"No," Ame said in a hard voice, cutting through the argument. She was tired and oh so done with the boys. Ame stared the older brother down with eyes like granite. "Don't fuck with me. Delete the photo Hikaru."

He sniffed at her, looking down at the much shorter girl. Hikaru couldn't deny that Ame was dangerous but damn was that danger and moral ambiguity sexy. "Or what?" He flirted, ignoring the dawning look of realisation on Fuuto's face that was very quickly followed by fury. "We're at an impasse, little sister. If you delete yours, I'll delete mine."

Ame gave him the scathing sort of look you tended to give to the oblivious or the stupid. "No we're not? Are you grasping at straws or were you trying to defend me? I do not need your help to defend myself. Since this seems to be hard for you to understand, I'll say it again: don't touch my sister and I won't have to do anything too uncomfortable." With that she flipped her hair and spun around, heading back for the elevator.

Then she heard Hikaru's muffled laughter. "You-You think this is about Ema-chan?"

Ame turned to stare at him warily. "Everything is about Ema-chan," she said with a frown that grew more pronounced when Hikaru's snickers grew louder. Even Fuuto was staring at her with a strange look on his face? "What?"

Her younger stepbrother rolled his eyes and glared off to the side. Hikaru stopped giggling and pretended to wipe a stray tear from his eye. "Little sister you are very scary, but so oblivious. We like you, not Ema-chan."

The girl stared at them silently as her brain made several very fast calculations and rerouted itself to a new conclusion. Then finally she said, "Ah." Then she went, "I have no idea how to respond to that."

"What do you mean you don't know how to respond?" Fuuto stormed over to her. He stopped when Hikaru grabbed the back of his jacket and turned to scowl at his brother.

Ame shrugged blithely even though on the inside her mind was still going a hundred miles an hour. She needed to think, needed to sort through past interactions and edit her plan a little. "I don't get that many confessions. Not to mention you're both my stepbrothers. This is fairly new territory that I'm not all that interested in exploring. Oh look! The fireworks will be starting soon!"

She jumped into the elevator and pressed the down button. The door slid shut before either of them could enter and began to descend to the ground floor. The downward motion wasn't helping Ame's stomach at all; in fact it just made her feel worse. They liked her? That wasn't part of the plan! Fuuto and Hikaru were supposed to be scared of her like Subaru was!

Ame pinched the bridge of her nose and exhaled. Ugh, why? She hadn't been lying when she'd said that she didn't get a lot of confessions, but that was for the same reason Ema didn't get a lot of confessions.

You see, as the girls had grown older and the bullies bolder, Ame had upped the ante on her choices of appropriate retribution. By the time Ema was fourteen all the boys and girls had heard the rumours that followed Ema's older sister around.

Did you see, did you see? Ame-san got a teacher fired!

Did you know, did you know? Ame-san got that girl expelled!

Did you hear, did you hear? Ame-san runs a gang!

Stay away, stay away! Ame-san controls the local police!

To be fair, at least two of the aforementioned rumours were actually true.

The elevator glided to a stop and Ame decided to put it out of her head at least for the moment. As she stepped out of the building and headed towards the large snow-covered Christmas tree, a bright orange Catherine's Wheel exploded into sparks in the semi-darkness. People began whistling and applauding as more fireworks began shooting into the sky.

"Ame! Ame over here!"

"There you are!" She walked over to her sister, her bad mood dissipating almost entirely at the sight of her bright smile. "Did you dry off properly? Are you cold at all?"

"We found you~!" Kaname came over, followed closely by Masaomi, Natsume and Yuusuke. Ema waved at them cheerfully and Kaname looked her over with a concerned smile. "Should you be out walking? Do you still feel any pain?"

Ema laughed. "You all fuss over me so much! I'm fine!"

Yuusuke grinned although it froze on his face when he saw Ame arching an eyebrow at him over Ema's shoulder. "I-I'm glad you're feeling better!"

"Don't you have anything else to say?" Fuuto strolled over, followed by Hikaru who smiled and waved an Ame when the girl scowled. "Since all your fault, how about you actually take some responsibility? Right, big sister?" He cuddled up to Ame who planted a hand on his chest and forcibly placed some space between them.

"Watch it kid."

His eyes narrowed at her. "Do you only see me as a child, big sister?"

"You are a child!" Yuusuke jeered at him. Fuuto snarled at him and took a step forward like he was about to physically fight the redhead.

Luckily Kaname got between them. "Now, now, calm down!" He said in a pacifying tone. "It's Christmas after all. Besides, Ame-chan and Ema-chan see us as her loving brothers, don't you?"

"Of course!" Ema chirped, clearly not feeling any of the tension. Sometimes Ame wished she could be just as oblivious.

A firework exploded overhead, bathing them in magenta light. Ame sighed to herself as she watched the sparkles flicker and die before being replaced by more. She had some things to think about before the New Year.

I would like us all to remember that Ame is not a bad person, just someone with her own personal brand of justice. And yeah she is super possessive of Ema. Not in a creepy way, more like the way some people are possessive of their friends. You know when you have a BFF and one day they introduce you to someone else that they met like at camp or at church and you're like "NO U CAN'T DO THAT YOU'RE MY BEST FRIEND"