( How could he have known? )


Title: A Heroine & a Sister (title pending)
Theme: Character-A-Day: Day 9, Shingo, sm_monthly, March 2008
Genre: Angst
Rating: R



When he finds out, he runs to his room and rips the poster off his wall. It rips easily, corners still stubbornly stuck on the wall, like a dying leaves ready to fall but clinging stubbornly by a stem. Manically, he shreds it to pieces, even using his teeth in attempt to erase the evidence. Tatters flutter the floor, and he breathes harshly into the floating drift.

He flings the Sailor V video game into a wall and stomps on it where it falls, not mad at her, but furious at anything that has to do with her.

He locks himself in the bathroom and climbs into the tub. He tries to forget all the times he has thought about Sailor Moon and fantasized about her, looking at blurred images and wondering what she looked like naked. He tries to forget what millions of other teenaged boys are dying to know: the identity of Sailor Moon.

His sister.

Her name doesn't even register anymore. His mind is consumed with who she is and what he used to do without that knowledge. He knows it's not his fault – they will tell him that years from now, over and over: he could not have known, it was Sailor Moon, not his sister.

But still. Still, Shingo tries to scrub himself away. 'No one else knows.' No one could possibly know how Shingo has shamed himself and his sister.

In one day, he has lost a sister and a heroine.

He balances on the edge of losing himself.


end