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The beginning of the end came in the form of an innocent white envelope.

Horizontal and glued down, with a little blue stamp at one corner and an address scrawled in black ink with the rushed writing of some harried government worker, it would have been nearly indistinguishable from any other formal letter.

Ame held the unopened missive in one hand while the other tapped a discordant tune on the surface of the kitchen counter. She didn't need to open it, there was only one thing inside that was important to her and the issue wasn't what it said, but what she planned to do with it. The woman stared unseeingly at nothing as she waited for her sister to get home.

There were only two choices here. Well, there were more of course but these two were the only ones she was willing t seriously consider. Both involved giving Ema the envelope but then they diverged. One, she could lie and deny knowing anything about their adoption. It would be so easy too; Ame knew how to fake numerous emotions so the tears would be easy. Even more importantly, Ema would want to believe her. She wouldn't want to believe that her dearest older sister had been hiding something so important for so long.

The rhythm she was rapping grew even more broken until Ame felt her nail crack. She looked down at the plain nail beneath the false pink and blue plastic cover and sighed softly. The house felt so empty right then. Even though she knew several of the boys were upstairs, Ame couldn't help feeling alone.

When the door opened, she almost jumped and her head snapped up to see her sister walk into the house. "Ame-chan, did you collect the family papers?" Ema called as she kicked off her shoes and glided over to the kitchen area. "You should have told me! I went all the way to the office and they told me that you'd already been there..."

Ema trailed off when she finally looked at her older sister. She'd seen Ame upset before but she couldn't remember ever seeing her look so nervous. No, not nervous, scared. The hand that wasn't clutching the envelope was trembling on the table.

"...Ame-chan?" Ema came closer, her brows furrowed in fearful concern. "Ame, are you okay? What's wrong?" It was odd, Ema realised with a jolt, that she had never been in this position before. She had never had to console Ame before. It was always the other way around. Her sister's hands were cold when she covered them with her own. "Please tell me."

Ame lifted her eyes and stared at her silently for several long moments. She almost seemed to be searching for something. Whatever it was, Ema wasn't sure if Ame had found it when her sister eventually let out a miserably resigned sigh and retracted her hand, leaving the letter behind. "Read it."

Fear swirled in Ema's stomach at the absolute lack of life in her sister's voice. What did the letter say that it had caused such an emotional response? Did she even want to find out? Swallowing, she pulled the envelope towards herself and unfolded the paper inside. It was a list of names strung together by relationships, a standard family directory. Ema scanned it, searching for her name until finally she found it beneath her father's.

Hinata Rintarou

Hinata Ame (adopted daughter)

Hinata Ema (adopted daughter)

The world stopped for a moment, or at least it felt like it did. It felt like someone had filled her head with static and stuffed her chest with cotton. Adopted? She was adopted? The person she'd thought was her father for the past sixteen years, who was he? Why was she just finding out about this now?

And Ame! Oh gosh, no wonder she'd looked so shaken! She spun back around to hold her sister close, to reassure her that they were okay, they could get through this together. Their father would explain everything. Maybe this was all a huge misunderstanding, a random type, a mistake!

Then she saw the stony set of Ame lips and it hit her so suddenly that she felt like she had been pushed off a cliff and was hanging, suspended over a great height and if she looked down she would begin to plummet.

"...did you...did you already know?"

Her sister pressed her lips together so tightly they went white with blood loss but she met Ema's eyes when she nodded. "Yes. I knew."

The fall felt like sickness, it felt like cotton between her ears and snakes in her stomach. It felt like a knife going into her back and coming out through the front. Ema opened her mouth to say something but all that came out was a choking sound. She swallowed hard and tried again. "Why didn't you ever tell me?"

"I was just...I wanted to protect you."

Ema had never been an angry person. It had never been in her nature. She was an easygoing person who found that it was much easier to agree aloud rather than argue, even when she didn't like whatever she was agreeing to. At that moment however, rage lit her up from the inside. "Is that your excuse for everything?!"

"What was I supposed to do? You idolised father! You would have been heartbroken!"

"Then you should have let me be heartbroken! I am not a child! You had no right to hold this from me!"

"What do you mean I had no right? I had every goddamn right!"

"No, you didn't! You're not my mother!"

"THEN WHY DID I HAVE TO FUCKING ACT LIKE ONE?!" The words burst out like a dam breaking. "Then why did I have to take care of both of us from the second I knew how?"

Ema snarled at her sister. "No one asked you to do that! No one asked you to stick your nose into everything!"

"No one asked-? Ha!" Ame's laugh was a sharp, cruel bark. "No one asked? That's rich 're so angry now, but you never questioned anything before. You've never fought your own battles and you've never fucking tried to! You were always so happy to let me step in and do everything! You know what I think? I think you're a little coward who couldn't stand up for yourself if you were being threatened by child."

"And do you know what I think?" Ema got right up in her face. "I think you're a self-righteous bitch who thinks she has to insert herself into other people's lives to make herself feel better. You're cruel, you've always been mean, and now I see that you're also controlling!"

"I don't want to hear this from the girl who's so blind she can't admit that all our stepbrothers actively want to fuck us?!"

The slap was unexpected. The harsh sound faded into abject, horrified silence. Ema stared from her open palm to her sister's bright red cheek and then back again. She curled it to her chest as tears began to brim in her eyes. "Ame, Ame I didn't mean it! I-"

Ame faced her again. Her left cheek glowed with the imprint of Ema's palm and her eyes glittered strangely with something that wasn't quite tears. She blinked a few times, and then she grinned a wide, vicious smile. "Wow, you picked a wonderful time to develop a backbone."

Ema gritted her teeth, resilient enough for one more barbed comment. "You talk so much about me sticking up for myself, why don't you leave me alone and let me do that for myself?"

With that, she shouldered past Ema and disappeared up the stairs, almost bumping into Kaname and Ukyo. They had been listening to the argument, both wanting to intervene but at the same time neither wanted to insert themselves into the crossfire. Ame glared at them and disappeared into her room, slamming the door behind her.

Downstairs Ema was shaking with a combination of fury and disbelief at her own actions. She had slapped her sister! Slapped! Ema had never consciously hurt another living being before, it wasn't in her character. From where they were pressed to her chest, her fingers stung as a reminder. The tears that had clung to her lashes trailed down her cheeks.

"Ema-chan?"

Her head snapped up and she stared blankly at Subaru. Behind him stood Iori who was silently watching the stairs where Ame had gone. The fixed, almost obsessive gleam in his grey eyes unnerved her. Had Iori always looked at Ame that way or was she only just noticing for the first time?

She didn't know what to do. The paper that had started this whole mess lay on the floor, half crumpled and nearly forgotten. Ema shook her head and closed her eyes. "I...I can't..." she ran to her room, shutting the door behind her. Her whole body shook with her sobs.

oOo

Ame was gone the next morning.

No one really noticed at first. It was a Saturday and she often went early in the morning to run. Ema was a little bit relieved. She didn't know how to face her sister. Ame rarely ever got angry with her, and when she did they were for minor infractions that she was quick to forgive. This was the opposite of minor. This was the biggest fight either of them had ever had and Ema didn't see an easy way down.

She was still angry that Ame hadn't told her about their adoption, which was another issue altogether that she was still processing, but hopefully they would both cool down and be able to talk about it without yelling. Ema prepared breakfast and frowned at the taste of the eggs. It wasn't bad by a long shot, but it had been a while since she'd had an omelette that hadn't been made by Ame.

By dinnertime however when Ame still hadn't resurfaced, worry began to ripple across the household. Eyes flickered upstairs and to the door that hadn't been opened since it had been shut the night before. Those same eyes flickered to each other, to Ema, and then repeated the cycle. No one knew what to say. Even Wataru who was too young to understand what had happened could read the room.

In the end it was Kaname who went to check on her. He was only gone for less than two minutes when he came back down, his eyes wide. "She's gone!"

.

.

Somewhere else in the city, Ame kicked her suitcase to the side and flopped down on the apartment futon. It was small and cheap, with plain walls and the barest necessities they could scrape in, but no one would know she was here. She stared up at the ugly ceiling, white with a large grey discolouration spreading out from the central light fixture, and finally let herself cry.

Sorry this is late, I have had a week like u would not believe. Also I got a job at a pet shop! It has the dumbest looking dog and I love it.