At School and At Home

"Ms. Asahina will be joining us for the next three weeks as part of a class module. Please treat her with respect and kindness, alright?"

"Yes teacher!"

It had been almost a week since Ame had become a TA in the high school. Walking through those tiled hallways brought back memories of when she used to attend Hinode High as a bright-eyed little girl. It hadn't changed much in the three years she had been gone. There were still bits of familiar graffiti that hadn't been scrubbed away by time or underpaid janitors.

Ame passed by a row of lockers and paused to run her fingers over a faded ink drawing of an ai-ai gasa. The names underneath the umbrella were familiar even though she couldn't quite remember the faces they were attached to. H. Aoi and Y. Tsubasa, she wondered if they were still together after all this time.

It was a lovely day outside, perfect for any school event no matter how minor but this was no minor affair. Ame made her way outside, brushing aside a strand of hair that had refused to cooperate and be a functional part of her bun. As an assistant Ame tried to keep her appearance neat and strict enough to appease the teachers but not so painfully austere that she came off as a killjoy. The blue blazer and matching pencil skirt were something she had bought when she and Ema had gone shopping in Osaka last year. Ema had something similar in a gorgeous pearlescent shade of pink.

Speaking of Ema, Ame had been on her way to check on her. According to the roster and plans in the teacher's lounge, Ema was by the front gate welcoming new students and handing out flyers so that was where she was headed.

On her way there she heard the sounds of people screaming and several girls suddenly ran past her, screeching to each other. Regaining her balance quickly, Ame winced. He was here.

Fuuto stood in front of the small table laden with flyers. He resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the colourful, preppy art and instead bowed. "Good morning," he greeted Ema and Yuusuke, keeping his face perfectly straight if only because it seemed to annoy Yuusuke. "I am Asahina Fuuto and I just transferred to Hinode High School today. Please take care of me, senpai~."

He threw in a wink just to see Yuusuke's face turn the same hue as his hair. Ha, this was fun, but where was his other sister...

"What is happening here?" The voice cut through the air, loud and commanding. The gathered crowd parted and Ame marched past them. Fuuto's eyes lit up and drifted down slowly. Mmm...

Ame spared a second to glance at Fuuto before pinning her attention on the actual unexpected face. "Azusa-nii, I didn't know you'd be here." It was only a little bit irritating as Ame prided herself on knowing things. She did not enjoy surprises.

Azusa's smile was both helpless and amused. "Everyone else was busy so I decided to be there to complete his transfer," he explained. "I'm placing Fuuto in your hands, Ms. Asahina. I pray he won't be much trouble," Azusa bowed a tad theatrically and Ame couldn't help laughing.

"I'll make sure of that," she replied with a grin. The woman straightened her face and turned back to look at the hovering audience. "I suppose we should move to a more sedate location. Ema, Yuusuke, keep up the good work. Asahina Fuuto-san, Asahina Azusa-san please follow me. We should be able to fill out all the necessary documents before the assembly."

To Fuuto's credit, he managed to not say or do anything incriminating until they had left the registrar's office, Azusa had gone, and they were alone in the shadows of the cherry blossom trees that grew on the school grounds. Then he immediately sidled up behind her and wrapped an arm around her waist. "Big sister~"

"Do not," Ame immediately stepped out of his hold. "Fuuto – and I can't believe I have to tell you this – I am not. Interested."

"Don't be like that Ame-nee," he cooed, playing up his sweet, cute persona that had won so many hearts before. "I'm just being brotherly. Isn't this what siblings do?" He slipped his fingers between hers, pulling them closer to each other. His chest puffed out with pride when she had to tilt her head back to look him in the eye. "Did you notice, big sister? I've grown taller."

"I see that," Ame replied dryly while inside she groaned because, of all the Asahina brothers, Fuuto was the one who least deserved a confidence boost of any kind. She pushed him away again but was unable to get him to release her hand short of clawing at his hands. She stared at their linked fingers before heaving a sigh. "You are such a child."

Fuuto frowned at her. That was the opposite of what he'd wanted. "A child couldn't touch you the way I want."

No. "No, I meant that literally," Ame snapped, "you are literally a child Fuuto. I am a 20 year old woman and you are 15. Not to mention that you are also my brother. There may be no blood between us," she cut him off before he could begin to argue, "but we are siblings in everything but actual DNA. So let go of me. Right. Now."

The boy scowled. He took a step closer while straightening up to his full height, and looked down at her. "Is it because of Ukyo-nii?"

Ame shot him a bemused look. "Is what because of Ukyo?"

"Do you like Ukyo?" Fuuto slid a hand over his stepsister's cheek. There was a strand of hair that refused to cooperate and he looped it around his finger. "Or is it Iori? Hikaru said he saw you in the kitchen with them."

Hikaru I swear, Ame snarled internally. "Hikaru sees a lot of things," she replied out loud. "It's probably part of being a journalist."

"Were you in the kitchen with them?" Ame realised that he had her backed against the building. The cold stone touched the back of her neck and that, combined with the position she was in, made her stiffen. Fuuto stared her in the eye; the common gleam playfulness was gone from his brown eyes and replaced by something else more mean-spirited. "It's not fair, big sister. You threaten us for spending time with Ema-chan but look at you. You want to be played with."

He wasn't expecting the shove. It knocked air from his lungs and sent him stumbling backwards so sharply that he nearly fell over. Ame glared at him, her eyes burning. Despite their actual height difference, in that moment she towered over him. "You think I put myself in the positions I do because I enjoy it?" Ame asked in a quiet voice. "You think I'm having fun? Do you think this is a good situation?!"

For a moment Fuuto expected to be hit but to his surprise Ame's eyes went unfocused. She blinked once, twice, and then closed her eyes. She appeared to compose herself and, when they opened again, they were dim and normal. "The assembly is half over. I recommend you catch the rest of it. I will see you in class, Asahina Fuuto."

Fuuto watched her walk away, her heels clicking sedately, almost robotically on the stones. He quickly fell in step with her. He was silent until they reached one of the entrances to the auditorium, and then he reached out to push her hair behind her ear. "You're really hot when you're angry, big sister. I look forward to a very stimulating experience with you, sensei."

oOo

"This isn't something to laugh about!"

"Calm down Yuusuke," Hikaru said, covering his grinning lips with painted fingers. "Fuuto hid this from almost all of us. It's Fuuto; what did you expect?"

"A warning?" Ame replied dryly, sliding a pointed look over her drink in Masaomi's direction. He didn't see this because he was scrolling through Ema's little camera with a fond smile on his face.

Ema nodded and put a hand on her chest. "When Azusa-san arrived at school I was really surprised," she said. "I thought something bad had happened."

"We didn't mean to worry you," Azusa inclined his head with an apologetic smile. Then he turned to Ame with a more serious expression. "He's in your class, isn't he? Please watch out for him."

"I will," Ame nodded. She and Kaname glanced over at Masaomi who was utterly engrossed in the pictures. "What are you looking at, Masaomi-san?"

He tilted the camera in their direction, revealing a slideshow of pictures from the entrance ceremony. "Aw, Ema-chan, what lovely pictures!" Kaname cooed. "What an eye for detail. I'd love to model for you someday."

"You don't even model anyway," Yuusuke muttered.

Ame leaned over and peered at the pictures. "When did you take these? I never even saw you!"

"I want to see, I want to see!" Wataru scrambled over Ema and Ame and tried to snatch the camera from Kaname.

"Fine, fine," Kaname handed it to him with a patiently amused smile. Wataru let out an excited chirp and ran off with the camera and Juli. "Be careful with it!"

Masaomi chuckled. "Girls are so naturally attentive," he said. "Since mom wasn't here, no one even thought about taking pictures."

"I just happened to have the camera on me," Ema shrugged with a demure smile. "With the wedding ceremony, the flower viewing, and all the other recent occasions it just seemed natural to want it close. I am trying to save up for a smartphone like Ame's so I can take more pictures."

"I've offered to buy you one," Ame pointed out. "She said no," she mock-whispered to Kaname.

Ema snickered. "Anyway, I was thinking of printing out some of these pictures and framing them for the family."

"Oh!" Masaomi stood up with an expression of delight. "Would you mind if we decorated this room with it?" He gestured to the living room which, although expertly and tastefully designed, was lacking in familial accoutrements. There were a few, like Wataru's lopsided clay decorations and Azusa and Tsubaki's scribbled-on scripts, but other than that the room looked like it could have been a Bed, Bath and Beyond set-up.

"Of course I don't mind!" Ema looked excited.

"Mom should have some picture frames somewhere," Masaomi gestured to her to follow him and the two walked off to go look for them. While they were gone Ame showed Kaname and Azusa the more impromptu pictures she had taken on her phone. Most of them were blurrier than Ema's but she'd also gotten a video of Fuuto sprinting away from a crowd of fans which got a laugh out of everyone.

When Ema and Masaomi returned, he was holding a stack of books. "What are those?" Azusa quizzed before he let out a groan. "Oh no."

"Are those baby photos!?" Ame snapped to attention. "I need to see those!"

"Oh my goodness, look at you!" Ema squealed and pointed to one of the pictures. "Kaname-san, you're wearing a bunny costume!"

Kaname pretended to succumb to a violent wound. "Oh no! Such embarrassing moments revealed! How can I ever recover from this?"

"You can't," Azusa informed him dryly causing Ame to start giggling.

Ema kept cooing as she flipped through the pages, the brothers chiming in occasionally with stories when they could or just to tease each other. Eventually Tsubaki came home and joined the impromptu party. "Looks like you're all having fun," he grinned as he settled next to his twin. "What are we doing?"

"Looking at baby pictures," Ame replied. "Look, there's Masaomi and Yuusuke! Look at how fluffy his hair is!"

"Oi, don't look at that!"

Wataru leaned forward, pushing his head under Ema's arm. "Where am I? Where am I?"

"Oh, um..." Ema flipped several months into the future, "here! Aw, you were so cute!"

Wataru grinned with pink cheeks before examining the two pages. "How come there aren't that many pictures of me?"

"It's because you're still young," Hikaru smirked at him. "You'll get more pictures as you get older."

Ame chuckled at Wataru's pouting face. She turned another page in the album and something slipped out from between the pages. She picked it up curiously; it was a picture of either Azusa or Tsubaki, and it looked like either the photographer or model had been moving because it was quite blurry. "Who's this?" She asked.

"Oh, that's me isn't it?" Azusa leaned over to study the picture. "And the one who took that picture was Tsubaki. I think we were playing with mom's camera outside."

Masaomi nodded. "I remember that. It was too blurry to put in the albums but we didn't want to just get rid of it."

"Hey, don't treat it like garbage!" Tsubaki snapped. "I was just a kid!"

"No, you're right," Ema took the picture from her sister. "I don't have that many baby pictures either, so I think it's important to treasure them. I'm kind of jealous actually. Being able to capture the good times in pictures with your family is something wonderful." Only Kaname caught the way Ame had briefly stiffened and then drooped at the mention of baby pictures.

"Would you like to have it then?"

Azusa's sudden and unexpected offering surprised everyone but when he tried to backtrack Ema stopped him with a sweet and genuine smile. "I'd love to have it! Thank you!"

"O-Oh, well...if you're sure..." his eyes darted to Ame quickly, too quickly to catch, and he blushed faintly.

LONG A/N HERE I HAVE MANY THOUGHTS IT IS WHY I AM AN AUTHOR:

So someone suggested I change the genre of this to drama and not comedy, which is fair I mean. When I started this I didn't actually plan for Ame to have her current personality but I just thought it would be an interesting departure from the norm.

Also I get that some people don't like Ame's approach, and that's fair. I am not trying to tell you how to feel about a character because you are free to have opinions, but imagine the situation she's in. She's in a home, surrounded by 12 men who are not only her stepbrothers, not only are they physically bigger and stronger than she is, but they also want to bang her underage sister. Ema isn't safe in her own home and their parents aren't there to protect her because goddammit Ema is 16 fucking years old she is a child the only two people she could legally date are Fuuto and Yuusuke and one of them tried to sexually assault her in her sleep oh boy that's gonna be a fun chapter.

The girl literally just wanted a family and instead she got a harem of perverts, a yandere with suicidal tendencies, an actual fifth grader holy shit, and most of them apparently don't understand the meaning of consent. Hikaru even suggests that they should all try forcing themselves on Ema but luckily Kaname punched him which is why he's my favourite.

Anyway that's why I personally don't feel bad about Ame being a complete mother bear because Ema is a pure weak damsel which is the fate of those cursed with being otome game heroines. Thanks for coming to my TedTalk.