Chapter 26: Graduation

Ema took a deep breath before entering the café where she'd invited Tsubaki and Azusa to. Graduation was a few short weeks away and Ema had determined that she needed to talk about her feelings with everyone who had confessed to her before she graduated.

After talking with Natsume and Miwa, Ema realized that she was making things worse by doing nothing at all. She couldn't decide what to do or say, and truthfully had wanted to ignore all of it, but her ambivalence just made everyone hope that Ema would choose them. They had been honest with Ema, now Ema needed to be honest with them.

Tsubaki and Azusa were already sitting at a small table near the back. Ema went to join them, her heart racing from nerves. "H—hi," Ema said when she got to the table. "Thanks for meeting me here."

"Of course," Azusa said, standing up and pulling Ema's chair out for her. Ema murmured her thanks as she sat down. Azusa and Tsubaki threw each other looks over Ema's head as she looked at the menu. They could guess why Ema invited them there to talk. The only question was, what would she say?

When Azusa sat down, Ema pushed the menu away from her, knowing that she shouldn't use it as an excuse to not look at the twins. Tsubaki and Azusa deserved for Ema to give them her full attention when she said this.

"So," Ema began, looking between the two of them, "I—I wanted to let you both know how I feel about all this. When…" Ema clenched her fists on her lap, wishing that this wasn't so hard. "When I first joined the Asahina family, you were both so welcoming. Especially you, Tsubaki-kun." Ema flashed Tsubaki a tense, though genuine, smile. "I remember the first school event I had after moving in with you and the two of you came with Kaname-kun. I'd never had any family come before and it meant the world to me. I remember thinking that I wouldn't officially be part of your family until our parents got married, but when the three of you came, I thought that I didn't have to wait after all."

A waitress came by to take their orders and drop off waters. Ema gratefully took a drink after the waitress left before continuing. "Becoming a part of the Asahina family and having brothers there to support me was beyond a dream come true for me. To have a family like all of you was better than anything I could have imagined. I love all of you so much, but as my family. I've never thought of any of you as anything other than that. Thank you for being honest with me about how you feel, but this is how I feel."

Ema waited in silence for Tsubaki or Azusa to say something. Finally, Tsubaki sighed. "Well, we can't fault you for that. For being honest or for feeling that way about us. I'm grateful that you still consider the Asahinas to be your family, because we are, Ema. And we always will be no matter what happens. Although…" Tsubaki reached across the table to take Ema's hand. "It doesn't change the fact that I'm in love with you."

"Same here," Azusa said, taking Ema's other hand and laying a gentle kiss on it. "I love you, Ema, and I'll always be here for you. In whatever way you need me to be."

~.~

The next weekend, Ema found Subaru in the courtyard, a duffel bag beside him.

"You're leaving?" Ema asked in surprise.

Subaru shrugged uncomfortably, looking at the ground. "I accepted the offer of the professional team, but I need more training. I'm going to live on the Meiji campus so that I have the facilities right there and can focus more. I'm sorry I won't be here for your and Yusuke's graduation." His eyes flicked up to meet Ema's. "And I'm sorry for the trouble I've caused you. You can forget about what I said to you before."

Ema's heart ached at the pain on Subaru's face. "I know that this has been hard for everyone," she said. "But I'm glad that you feel like I was able to help you become better at basketball." Subaru looked surprised, obviously not expecting Ema to say that. "I'm grateful to everyone in this family—for all the ways everyone has supported me and for all the ways I've been able to support all you of you, because that's what a family should be about."

Ema laid a gentle hand on Subaru's arm. "I'm grateful that you told me how you feel, Subaru-kun, but for me, family is the most important thing. Right now, I'm not willing to do anything that might endanger that, the relationship we all have with each other as family is precious."

Subaru nodded, still looking sad. "I understand. Good-bye, Ema-chan."

"Bye, Subaru-kun," Ema said, her heart clenching at how final that sounded. She assured herself that she'd see him again. Subaru was following his dream and Ema was happy for him, though it did make her sad to see another of her stepbrothers leaving. Also, in part, because of her.

Ema had walked past Subaru when he called out. "I'll become a better man."

Ema turned in surprise to see Subaru looking at her, a determined look on his face. "I'll become a better man while I'm gone, Ema-chan. I promise that when you see me next, I'll have changed."

Ema smiled and nodded at Subaru before he grabbed his bag and left.

~.~

Later that week, Ema knocked on Fuuto's door, glad that he was home for once. Lately, his band had become even more popular and Fuuto rarely seemed to be home.

Fuuto answered the door and leaned against the doorjamb. "Yes, Nee-san?" He asked. "Something I can do for you?"

"Can we talk?" Ema asked him. Fuuto stepped back to let Ema inside, shutting the door behind him.

Ema walked into his room and Fuuto followed, sitting on his bed. Ema opened her mouth, but before she could speak, Fuuto asked, "Are you okay? I haven't really gotten to talk to you since you found out you were adopted."

Ema blinked in surprise. "Yes," she answered. "I really struggled at first, but…I'm okay now. I think some good things happened as a result of my finding out. I learned some important things."

"Good," Fuuto said, nodding. A moment later, the soft look in his eyes changed back to his normal sardonic stare as he leaned back on his hands. "Let me guess, you came here today to let me down easy. To tell me that family is the most important thing in the world and that you can't bear to choose one of us because that would mean rejecting the others and possibly hurting our family dynamic?"

"Well…yes, essentially," Ema replied, shocked that Fuuto already knew what she was going to say. She almost wondered if Fuuto had spoken with the twins, but Tsubaki and Fuuto were as antagonistic towards each other as ever. There's no way that Tsubaki would have given Fuuto friendly advice or that Fuuto would have asked for it.

Fuuto shook his head. "You're so predictable, but fine, wax eloquent about the importance of family and how much it means to you. It still doesn't change the fact that I've never seen you as part of my family and never will."

Ema couldn't deny that those words hurt, but she comforted herself with the thought that at least Fuuto cared about her and accepted her presence at Sunrise Mansion.

"And," Fuuto said, stressing the word, "if you're going to expect me to try to understand your point of view, then I expect you to try to understand mine. I won't accept you thinking of me as your little brother. You know how little importance I place on family, and that's not what our relationship is." Fuuto mentally added that, unlike family, Ema was very important to him.

"Fine," Ema huffed, crossing her arms in irritation, but trying to meet Fuuto halfway. "Does that mean that we're just friends then?"

Fuuto smirked. "Sure, whatever you want, Ema. Just know that I don't plan on keeping things that way for long."

~.~

A week before Ema and Yusuke graduated, Masaomi piled Ukyo, Wataru, the twins, Yusuke, Kaname, and Ema into two cars, being very secretive about where they were going. No matter how many times Ema asked, no one answered, just gave Ema a soft smile and told her that she'd find out soon. The only thing that Masaomi would say was that he felt it was important and he wanted as much of the family to be there as possible.

Ema was surprised when they drove up to a cemetery. "What are we doing here?" Ema asked as they got out of the car.

"There are people here who we all felt we should meet," Masaomi explained, holding a hand out to Ema. Ema stared dumbfounded at Masaomi, realizing who he must be talking about. Slowly, Ema gave Masaomi her hand and let him guide her along.

Eventually, they stopped in front of a tombstone that read:

Nagame Kenji

Husband

Father

Adventurer

Next to the first tomb was one that read:

Yukie Kenji

Wife

Mother

Ema's hand tightened around Masaomi's. "How did you find this?" Ema whispered.

"Rintaro-san told us," Kaname explained. "We told him that we wanted to bring you here."

"We wanted to thank your parents," Masaomi explained. Ema looked up at him in confusion and he smiled down at her. "We're sorry that you lost your parents so early and didn't get to know them, but we're grateful that we have you in our lives. We wanted to thank your parents for having you even though they didn't get to raise you so that we could have you in our family."

Ema looked back at her other brothers, standing behind them. Her vision was blurry from tears filling her eyes, but she could still see them smiling at her. "We're all grateful, Ema," Tsubaki said. "For all that you've done for us and all that you are for us."

Unable to hold her tears back, Ema wrapped her arms around Masaomi and buried her face in his chest. "Thank you," she whispered.

Masaomi smiled, wrapping one arm around her and placing the other on the back of her head.

~.~

Ema was grateful for the atmosphere at her and Yusuke's graduation party. After she'd talked with her brothers, the atmosphere had become less tense at home. Things weren't the way they were before, of course, and it wasn't perfect, but things were better. However, Ema still had one more person to talk with before she was done.

When Natsume went out onto the balcony, Ema followed him out.

~.~

Yusuke sighed as he watched Ema walk outside after Natsume. Part of him felt like a coward for not confessing his feelings to Ema at graduation like he'd promised himself he would, but, thick as he was, he did eventually figure out that part of why things were so awkward at home was because some of his brothers were also in love with Ema and had confessed to her. How he'd been so stupid as to not notice other guys falling for the woman he loved, he didn't want to think about. However, after seeing how stressed and upset Ema was over everything, he couldn't add to that by telling her his feelings too, at least, not right now. He hoped the day would come when he could tell her.

~.~

"Natsume-kun?" Ema said gently. "I—I wanted to talk to you for a minute."

"Yes?" Natsume asked, turning away from the city to look at Ema. "What is it, Ema-chan?"

"I wanted to say thank you for your feelings—for being honest with me and for always being there for me. I don't know what I would have done without you. I also wanted to tell you that I can't accept your feelings right now. This family is all that I ever wanted, and it's something that's precious and should be protected."

Natsume sighed and smiled sadly. "I had a feeling you'd be saying something like this to me soon." He stepped close to her and bent down to whisper in her ear. "But it's also not good to suppress your own feelings. If you change your mind, know that I'm right here waiting for you." He kissed her cheek before giving her another smile and going back inside.

Ema held a hand to her cheek, blushing. Then she pushed those thoughts aside. She still had one more announcement to make before she was done.

Walking into the living room, Ema cleared her throat and said, "I have something I need to tell everyone." Her eyes moved around the room until they landed on Louis, who gave her an encouraging smile. Ema smiled back before continuing. "You all know now that Louie-nii's biological father contacted him and asked him to go to France to get to know him." She paused as her brothers exchanged confused faces, wondering what this had to do with Ema. "Louie offered to bring me with him and I accepted."

The room erupted into a cacophony of noise as multiple brothers spoke at once. "Why?" Tsubaki demanded. "We—" He cut himself off before saying 'we backed off', though he felt irritated that he and Azusa had backed off and Ema was still leaving.

"What about college?" Yusuke asked, feeling panicked. He'd tried so hard to get into the same college. And barely managed to.

"When did you decide this?" Ukyo asked.

"It's only temporary," Ema said, raising her voice and waving her hands in a calming motion. "I'll be gone for the summer, but I'll come back in time for school. This isn't because of anything that any of you did." She looked around the room again, meeting her brothers' eyes so that they knew she meant what she said, she wasn't leaving to escape them or because she was upset at them. "This is for me. I need to think about what I want in my life and who I want to be."

"Why can't you do that here?" Wataru asked plaintively.

"I just think that it would be a good experience," Ema tried to explain to Wataru. "But I'll be back soon. I promise."