Relyshipping (Shizuka x Jonouchi)

She was crying in the corner again. He hated it when she cried.

A crash resounded from the kitchen. He winced, and she flinched, beginning a fresh set of tears. The shouts were never-ending in the kitchen. Something else shattered, and this time, she sobbed. It was such a tiny, pathetic sound…it ripped Katsuya's heart in half.

He clenched his fists, trembling with the anger. The shouts froze to a frenzied pitch, and something else crashed to the floor. Shizuka cried a little more. Why couldn't their parents see that they were the ones causing this? Both of them, together? It wasn't just one person's fault, like they continually screamed at each other.

It was both of their faults.

He walked over to her, where she trembled in the corner. He knelt down so that he was as small as she was. She looked up with wet eyes.

"Why?" she whispered. "Why do mommy and daddy yell all the time? It's scary."

He didn't have an answer for her, and that just made him angrier. Shizuka didn't seem to like the look on his face, because she buried herself into a tiny ball and cried more. The anger rushed out of him in a whoosh. Oh, no, he was scaring Shizuka, too.

He touched her shoulder, gently.

She glanced up again. With a shudder, she leaned into him, until they were hugging each other. Two small children huddled in a corner, while the shouts of nearby parents washed over them like harsh ocean waves. They leaned against each other, one sobbing, one trembling with something he couldn't quite place.

It wasn't fair for them to be in the corner all the time. It wasn't fair that Shizuka had to rely on him, instead of her parents. It wasn't fair…for them to be alone. He had to do something. Anything.

"Hey," he said. "Do you want…to go to the beach?"

A/N: Not a good couple, but a beautiful sibling relationship. Why anyone would want to ruin a beautiful relationship by making it romantic is beyond me. I love family relationships, sometimes even more than romantic ones. Next is Releaseshipping (Yami no Yugi x Marik x Ryo).