Unwanted and Unheard

Tsubaki hadn't meant to overhear their conversation.

He'd come home late, something that happened frequently enough that no one was really worried about it. Sometimes work went on too long or he wandered around town well into the evening hours and ended up finding his way home when the sky had long gone dark.

Subaru's footsteps grew softer as his younger brother left the kitchen and disappeared up the stairs. Tsubaki leaned against the wall and watched Ame as she absentmindedly tossed the ice cream from one hand to the other, her eyes staring blankly at nothing and her shoulders stiff with tension. Then he pushed himself into the light with a bright smile. "I thought everyone would be asleep by now."

Ame's eyes snapped to him so sharply that Tsubaki had to force himself not to take an automatic step back. Then she took a deep breath and seemed to force herself to relax. "You come home earlier than Kaname-san," she replied with a shrug and a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. If she suspected him of eavesdropping, she wasn't bringing it up.

Chuckling to himself, Tsubaki ambled forward until he was standing at the kitchen entrance. "Kaname-nii works odd hours," he said.

"Tell me about it," Ame hummed with a small but much more genuine smile, "honestly I'm never sure when he is working. He sends me so many texts all the time I don't know if he's on break or just being lazy."

Tsubaki grinned as well, hiding the sudden sharp vine of almost irrational jealousy that coiled around his heart. Texts? Of course they all had each other's numbers but he'd had no idea that Ame and Kaname-nii were so close. He recalled moments when he'd seen her smiling at her phone. Had she been texting him then? Had she been texting other people?

Ame was staring at him oddly so he quickly covered up his grimace with a question. "Why are you awake so late?"

"Ema wanted to make a family photo album so I'm helping her so she doesn't stay up all night doing it," Ame replied, and then she looked down at the ice cream she was holding. It was still frozen but the warmth of her air had turned the blue packaging and her hands wet with condensation. "Speaking of Ema, she's probably wondering why I took so long to get her an ice cream. Goodnight Tsubaki-nii."

She turned to leave and Tsubaki wasn't sure what made him do it but he suddenly lurched forward. His fingers wrapped around her arm in a grip that was as surprising to her as it was to him. For a few seconds they both stared at the link and then at each other.

Then Ame raised both eyebrows with a wry smirk. "This is becoming an odd trend," she said sardonically. "You're the second person who's done this."

Tsubaki tightened his grip on her wrist and caught the moment her expression changed. "How do you feel about Kaname-nii?"

"...what."

Although her response was phrased like a question, it did not sound like one. Tsubaki narrowed his eyes. "How do you feel about Kaname-nii? You talk about him often and you spend more time with him than any of us. You even blew off our date to go hang out with him."

"What? I blew off a date-?" Ame thought back. She hazily remembered something about a bakery but nothing beyond that.

That had been a while ago, had he been carrying that around this whole time? Yeesh.

With an internal sigh Ame turned her attention back to Tsubaki. "Kaname-nii is my older brother like you are, othing more and nothing less."

"Can I really trust that?" Tsubaki took a step forward, and then another when Ame took one back. "Is it just really that? I need you more than he does!" Oh geez, she thought."I was a bad person before and I did bad things. I just took what I wanted without thinking about others but I'll apologize!" What is happening why is he saying this oh no is the ice cream melting Ema's going to be so upset-! "Just kidding~!"

"Huh?"

Ame quickly pulled her wrist to her chest when he released it and watched with disbelief and a tiny bit of relief when Tsubaki pulled out a creased script from behind his back and tossed it on the counter. "Oh, so those were lines from your anime?"

"Yeah, something like that," he smirked. Then he suddenly reached forward and gripped her shoulders, yanking her into a hug. The ice cream tumbled from her hands, landing on the linoleum tiles with a wet smack. Ame's face was pressed against his chest, against the rumpled fabric of his shirt. This close she could smell his aftershave and lotion and feel the warmth of his body. It was too hot, too tight, cloying and uncomfortable and she wanted out, out, out!

"I won't apologize," he was saying. "Not for the kiss. Not for anything. I am serious about you and this is my proof."

As his head began to lower, Ame panicked and pushed him away. "Tsubaki, stop it. I don't-!"

Tsubaki's eyes hardened and Ame felt the first stirrings of actual fear. He looked frighteningly determined to do something to her, regardless of however she felt. Common sense told her to scream, to wake someone up, but anxiety warned her that almost everyone in this house was an enemy. So she reacted the only other way she could think of.

Her forehead connected hard with Tsubaki's nose. He let out a pained howl that was muffled by the blood seeping out of his nose. "Ow! What the fu-!"

"You want to know why I spend so much time with Kaname-nii?" Ame interrupted sharply. Her eyes were wild with fury and the remnants of her fear. There was a pink mark on her forehead from where she'd hit him. "Do you want to know why I text him all the time? It's because of this. It's because he fucking respects me. Do you understand that? Do you understand what the words 'stop' and 'no' mean? Do you think women like it when men force themselves on them? Don't you ever touch meor my sister you piece of tra-!"

Just then they heard a door upstairs creak open. Ame quickly cut herself off as Ema appeared on the balcony, blinking down at the two of them blearily. "Ame, what's taking so long? It's just ice-cream. Oh Tsubaki-nii, you're home late – what happened to you?!"

Ame rubbed her forehead surreptitiously and after shooting him a poisonous glare, she scooped up the now soft and sadly disfigured ice-cream sandwich from the floor. "He walked into a door. Right, Tsubaki-san?"

The sharp tone of the lie wasn't lost on anyone, and Ema wasn't sure what to do as her sister marched up the stairs, shoved the ice cream at her, and disappeared into her room. Apparently she was done making family pictures.

oOo

Ema hadn't wanted to say it, but ever since that night Ame had been in a particularly bad mood.

It wasn't obvious. No matter how angry she was Ame never turned her temper on other uninvolved people. Still it showed. She was a bit curter and a little less quick to smile. She spent more time tapping away at her phone and scowling at whatever she saw.

Ema hadn't wanted to bring it up, partly because she wasn't a very confrontational person, and partly because she'd hoped that the problem would go away by itself the way most of Ame's tempers did. However it was been three whole days and Ame was currently glaring at the TV like it had spit in her tea.

On the widescreen display, Fuuto stood between two Grecian pillars and stared out at a beautiful panoramic view of the ocean. The sound of the waves and the chirping of birds played clearly through the high quality speakers and then, as Fuuto turned to smile charmingly into the camera, it picked up his voice.

"I didn't think a morning where I could greet you like this would ever come. I love you, from now on, eternally and always." And then right after that a mechanically cheerful female voice rattled off something about the Pan-Pacific Travel Service.

Yuusuke groaned loudly as the advertisement ended. "Ugh, I can't do this. I can't listen to this anymore!"

Kaname laughed and paused the TV right on a close-up of Fuuto's face. "He's not bad." He then passed the remote to Wataru who rewound the video again to the beginning and this time both Yuusuke and Ame groaned dramatically.

"Haven't you had enough of this?!" The redhead snapped exasperatedly and snatched the remote out of Wataru's tiny hands. "Why do we have to look at Fuuto's face over and over? Go find a picture if you want to do that!"

Kaname snickered as he watched the two bicker and then he turned to Ame who was sitting right beside him. "So what's your beef with Fuu-chan?" He teased.

"I have my issues," Ame replied cryptically. She paused for a long time and then added, "also I've seen this dumb commercial everywhere and if I see it one more time I may have to kill someone."

"Also some of the students kept playing the video in class so Ame had to confiscate their phones except then they crowded into my classroom and begged Fuuto to recreate the scene so Ame had to give out a bunch of detentions," Ema added.

"That too."

Masaomi chuckled. "But this commercial is quite popular. I guess Fuu-chan is popular even with older ladies."

"It's causing some commotion," Ukyo joined the conversation as he walked into the room. In his hands he carried a tray of steaming teacups. Ame quickly zeroed in on the milkiest drink. "This travel agency has never hired idols before. As a result the New Caledonia Hotel used in the advert is receiving a lot of reservations."

"I want to go there too!" Wataru chirped, bouncing up and down in place like a spring. "I want to go to New Currydonia!"

"It's New Caledonia," Ema giggled as she corrected him. "But yeah, it does look beautiful."

"Sounds good! I'd love to spend a holiday there with my little sisters," Kaname draped a casually affectionate arm around Ame who only spared the point of contact a brief glance before focusing on her tea.

"Then why don't we all go?" Masaomi suggested nonchalantly, as if spur of the moment international trips were something just anyone could do. Maybe they were when one half of your family were internationally acclaimed.

At least Ame wasn't the only one who was surprised. Apparently no one had expected that response."T-Together?" Ukyo stared at Masaomi bemusedly. "All of us?"

"Sure. What do you think about going during the summer vacation?" He turned to the two girls expectantly. "This would be your first holiday with us so I want you both to have fun, and I know Ema-chan and Yuusuke both have university exams coming up. You've both been studying so hard but it's important to take a breather once in a while."

"Masa-nii..."

Ema turned to grin at her sister and Ame smiled back at her. It seemed as though whatever had been bothering her was gone at least temporarily. Sometimes Ema wished that her sister would talk to her instead of bottling everything up inside, but then again if it was anything really bad, her sister would tell her. Right?

To the people asking why I changed their ages: when I first wrote this story I wasn't sure how old Ema was. I assumed she was 16 so I made Ame 18/19, but then I heard she was actually 17 so I got confused and long story short Ema's age was unclear to me because I am that dumb thank u.

Also why don't people like Kaname? I've seen a bunch of reviews of people not liking him like come on he is arguably the best brother here, a true ride or die (literally hehehe), and despite some minor flirting which honestly I think is just his default state homeboy respects u and your choices.