No Haven

Spring had arrived in its entirety. The occasional gusts of wintery cold air had fully given way to a warmer breeze perfumed with the scent of flowers newly in bloom. Most shops had started taking down their Christmas and New Year ornaments in preparation for the next commercialised holiday.

Ame sat in the back of one of the classes she routinely worked with, flicking through the papers she'd been given to mark. Once or twice her eyes would be drawn to the windows through which she could see other students walking around. The culture festival was coming up and the whole school was abuzz with it. Every class and club wanted to do something fun and unique and the teacher's had relinquished creative rights.

Personally Ame thought that was a terrible idea but she was used to the adults around her being functionally useless so it wasn't that shocking.

Her eyes drifted back to the students in the class with her. Class 1-A was a good class, she decided. Most of them were cheerful and kind-hearted and even the ones that spoke out of turn or broke the rules never seemed to have a mean-spirited aura or reason. It was surprising and very relaxing. Her lips twitched upwards as she watched two girls engage in a weirdly passionate balloon-blowing competition while three others cheered them on. Ame wondered what Ema's class was doing. Her sister had mentioned that her classmates had voted on a specialty café; pretty standard stuff really but Ema had been up all of last night looking up dessert and coffee recipes.

"Ms. Hinata?"

"Hm?" Ame looked up at the boy in front of her. He was holding a long string of bright blue ribbons in one hand and a pair of scissors in the other.

He grinned brightly, emphasizing the brown freckles all over his cheeks and nose. "Could please you help me curl these?"

"Of course," Ame shut the books and reached for the items. Out of the corner of her sight she noticed a flash of red hair. Instinctively her brain picks out Yuusuke and Ema walking beside him. They're both carrying a stack of brown boxes and laughing.

Instinctively Ame wants to walk out and ask what's going on, wants to plant herself between the two of them and draw boundaries.

She blinked and suddenly the feeling was gone. No, not gone, but there was something draped over it. Ame saw the scene through new lens. They looked happy, casual. There was nothing untoward happening, right? She didn't have to leap into everything, did she?

Besides, Ema didn't want her barging in did she? A cold voice whispered in her ear. You're not her keeper here. You have a life outside her, don't you?

"Um, Ms. Hinata?" The boy said hesitantly, staring at the TA who looked frozen in the spot.

Ame blinked and pulled herself out of her thoughts. "Oh, sorry. Let me do these for you."

It was hard to say what scared her the most; her sister's inability to notice danger when it was right around the corner, or the fact that she wasn't sure how to answer the last question.

oOo

One of the good things about the culture festival is that both sisters were allowed to go home at the same time since the school had decided to be somewhat flexible about closing hours. The train ride back home was spent mostly in silence; Ame was engrossed in her thoughts and Ema was too tired to carry on a conversation. Yuusuke sat beside the dozing girl, his earphones in his ears while he watched the skyline fly past.

The house was empty when they got home which was very rare. As Yuusuke made his way to the kitchen to make himself a snack, Ema stumbled up the stairs in the direction of her bedroom. Unfortunately she only made it to the couch where she collapsed face-first into the plush cushions and let out a quiet groan of relief.

That quickly turned into a whine when Ame began poking her. "You're not sleeping out here. Get up, right now. Your room is like, ten steps away."

"That's approximately ten steps too faaaaar."

"What are you, five?" Ame clicked her tongue disapprovingly but she couldn't keep back the amused tilt of her lips. "You're going to catch a cold if you sleep out here without a blanket. Come on, I'll help you."

"Nooooo..." Ema moaned, and then she kept whining even as she was hefted off the couch and half-dragged, half-carried to her bedroom. The sound abruptly stopped when she dropped face-first into her pillows, sending Julie bouncing a few inches into the air.

Ame snorted and pulled the covers over her sister. "Take care of her," she said to Julie who saluted solemnly before curling up in the curve of Ema's shoulder and neck and falling back asleep.

Ame sat down in the couch with a long sigh, her head falling backwards until she was staring blankly at the ceiling. Downstairs she could hear the clink of metal on ceramic and smell the faint scent of reheated miso. Her stomach rumbled but she wasn't bothered enough to get up and find something to eat.

Lethargically digging her phone out of her pocket, Ame held the screen up to her face to check for any notifications. There were a few; a few texts from Sora and Kaname, one from a teacher, something on her newsfeed about cheap housing and a celebrity scandal, and a video message from Ukyo.

That was weird. Usually Ukyo called or sent really short, precise texts. He had never struck Ame as the type to send videos. She tapped the play button and turned up the volume.

At first all she could see was a ceiling – the ceiling of his office she assumed – and then the screen flashed down and Ukyo's tired face filled the screen. There were voices in the background, not quiet like you'd expect from a law firm, but loud jeers. Ame noticed that although Ukyo's eyes were red and drooping, there's a wide smile on his face.

"Ame-chan, you're so popular!" Ukyo said. "I told my co-workers all about my new sisters! They really likes your bento!" Someone in the background yelled something that Ame couldn't catch but it makes Ukyo laugh and look away from the phone. "Yeah, it is like having a wife! But you can't have mine!" More raucous laughter and then Ukyo faced her again. "I'll be home late Ame-chan, I just wanted you to know so you wouldn't be worried!"

The video ended there. Ame stared at her now blank screen for a moment and then she sighed loudly. Yuusuke's voice drifted up from the kitchen. "Was that Ukyo-nii?"

"Yes," Ame called back.

"Oh. I guess he got drunk then. He said a business partner was having a party," the voice gets louder and clearer until Yuusuke appears at the top of the stairs.

Ame blinked. "Drunk?" So that hadn't been his office after all.

Yuusuke shrugged and grinned the way all siblings do when they know they're about to embarrass another. "Oh yeah, Ukyo-nii is a terrible drunk. You'd never know it just by looking at him but he's an absolute lightweight."

"...huh," Ame let this information sink in while Yuusuke yawned and padded off to his room. She spent the next hour or so scrolling through social media feeds and plans until her eyes grew tired and she shut them. It would only be for a moment; she wasn't going to fall asleep out here like she'd told Ema not to.

A few minutes later though Ame heard the door downstairs click open. She listened with half an ear to the shuffle of slippers on wood and the rhythmic thump of someone coming up the stairs.

Fuuto ran a hand through his hair, his expression twisted into a scowl that quickly morphed to surprise when he saw her. Ame blinked at him, projecting an aura of calm even as she quickly planned the quickest way to leave this situation. Fuuto grinned and dropped himself down beside her on the couch. "Big sister, you left me at school~! That's mean~."

"You were busy with your class," she replied coolly. "We were tired."

"I see that," he made no show of hiding the way his eyes flickered up and down her. "Sleeping alone in a wide open area like this isn't safe, sister. It's like you want someone to take advantage of you."

Ame gritted her teeth and decided it wasn't worth telling him that she hadn't been asleep. The urge to lash out viciously flared up in her chest. She could hurt these people. Not physically no, Ame wasn't a very imposing woman, but she could hurt them the way she knew best.

The way she had promised Ema she wouldn't do again. So she turned on her phone and focused on the lockscreen. "Get lost Fuuto."

A finger looped into her hair and she stiffened. "You're getting so serious, sister," Fuuto cooed. "Learn to take a joke. Or was I right on the mark after all?"

"You don't know anything about what I want," Ame hissed.

The boy rolled his eyes and retreated. "Yeah, yeah, you want to keep Ema-chan 'safe and sound'." Somehow he managed to imbue those words with so much mockery that Ame felt something in her chest crack a little. "Does she even want your help though? I mean honestly," he chuckled darkly, "what makes you think this isn't what she wants? She isn't always going to be your innocent baby sister forever. What are you going to do? Follow her around for the rest of her life?"

Ame didn't know how close she was to tears until a hand cupped her cheek. When her head snapped around to stare at Fuuto, she realised that she couldn't see him clearly through the film of tears. The fingers on her skin ghosted downwards and traced over her lips.

Fuuto's vulpine smirk was still visible as he leaned towards her. "Why not do what you actually want for once?"

Oddly enough, that actually snapped her back into reality. Ame jumped backwards and scrambled off the couch, furiously wiping the tears from her eyes. Then she stopped, the heel of her hand pressed against her temple. "Maybe you're right," Ame sniffled.

"...right about what?" Fuuto asked warily.

The glare she shot him through those bloodshot eyes was chilling. "Maybe we aren't safe here."

I'm not certain but yeah canonically Ukyo is a bad drunk. Can someone correct me if I'm wrong? I think it had something to do with his ex-girlfriend. Also I'm sorry these chapters are so short I'm just really busy!

I do recognise that people will say it's not really incest because they're not related by blood but imo that's kind of rude towards people who adopt? Like it's saying that's not really your child/sibling/parent because u don't share blood and as someone with 2 adopted cousins i will fight