Okay, personally I like this one. Why? Two words: MANABE KAKERU. I had a heckuva lot of fun writing this one, which is why I refuse to comprehend the fact that there is a scarcity of Manabe fics in (shakes head) You guys don't know what you're missing.

For Eletriarnation. Because it's Machi~

Enjoy guys!

/EDITED: 19.06.08

Disclaimer: Not mine. Credit goes to Takaya. And the insanity? Insanity belongs to everyone.

Powerful Words

4. Sorry

"I DON'T UNDERSTAND WOMEN!"

Machi groaned inwardly, and drew her book closer to her face. She didn't feel like looking at her half-brother at the moment.

Talking to him, more so.

"I don't get it I don't get it I DON'T GEEEEET IIIIIIT! I freakin' APOLOGIZED to her, but she STILL blew me off! Machi, what am I doing wrong?"

Machi pretended not to hear him. He wasn't really talking to her anyway. He was talking to himself and working out the problem, mentioning every single thing that happened and getting frustrated with every passing minute.

She understood that this was his way of releasing all his pent-up emotions, but darn it, WHY did he have to be so LOUD about it?

...And why did he always have to do it all over at her place?

"Machi…." Sob sob. "I feel so idiotic."

You are, she thought privately, shifting her legs to find a more comfortable sitting position, holding her book upright as tightly as she could manage. She thought she should continue to spare herself the sight of Kakeru at his most pathetic until he had calmed down. By then she would probably be able to talk to him with a straight face, and he would be subdued enough to listen.

By the looks of things, however, the possibility of him calming down in the near future was bleak.

"Argh! I just want to KILL something right now!"

A cushioned thump told her that he had seated himself on her bed. The ripping noises that followed and the pieces of fluff floating about in the air told her that she would need to buy a new pillow soon.

She sighed. The Stage of Rage. The title rhymed and sounded pretty and all ('Pretty? Where'd that come from?'), but it told her that she had a loooong wait up ahead. Whenever Kakeru argued with his girlfriend, he usually – for some freaking reason – attached himself to her; place, time, or occasion notwithstanding.

Once he had sat in during one of her classes, bawling his eyes out. Bawling. In front of all her classmates AND her teacher. And they had taken pity on him. The class had not even had fifteen minutes of lessons when the sensei paused to ask him what on earth he was doing. And when he all but yelled his problems to the world ("MY GIRLFRIND HATES ME AND I AM THE DIRTIEST THING ON EARTH SINCE THE INVENTION OF THE GARBAGE CAN!"), the man had tears in his eyes and he said, "Son, I know how you feel."

The whole affair was ridiculous. Her female classmates had flocked to his side, offering him handkerchiefs and sweets in a bid to 'help the poor thing feel better', and her male classmates patted him on the back, openly dissing all of womankind for their fickle natures and telling him that heck no, he WASN'T the dirtiest thing on earth since the invention of the garbage can – he was their hero!

Really. If it weren't for the fact that she could tell he'd truly been crying, she would've sworn he was just making everything up just to get some kicks.

As it was, that situation had been contained quite easily because, after all, he was going through the Stage of Grief back then, and the Stage of Grief was one of the stages that were easy to handle. Kakeru often went through different emotions during these times, and even though disagreements with Komaki were a rare thing, she believed that her brother had been able to go through all the emotions ever created in a span of three arguments in five months. He was much worse than a middle-aged woman suffering from menopause, for goodness sake…

Sniff sniff. Bawl.

"Maaaaachiiiii…"

Oh... Stage of Grief. Here we go again… she thought, wondering when all this insanity would end.

Sniff sniff sniff. Baaaaawl.

"…I ruined your pillow! How could I? I am such a bad brother!"

Her ears perked up at this and she listened to his next few words very closely.

He hated himself. How dare he destroy his beloved imouto's one and only pillow (not technically true, as she had a spare in the closet)? He truly was scum. He didn't deserve to live. He didn't deserve to be happy.

Yadda yadda yadda.

Yup. He was all vented out. It was safe.

She sighed, relieved.

When her brother was 'all vented out', it meant that he had completely resigned himself to the knowledge that he was without a doubt the lowest being in existence – not only because his girlfriend despised him, but also because of many other reasons which he himself would conveniently think of in order to further demean his character in his own eyes. At this point in the whole "My Girlfriend Rejected Me" routine, Kakeru was at his humblest. And his meekest.

Slowly, Machi began to lower her book. One-fourth of the way down, she could see minute pieces of what used to be the stuffing of her pillow, hanging in the air as if they were suspended in time. Two-fourths of the way down, and she saw the top of Kakeru's head, and a part of his shoulder covering the side of his face. Three-fourths, and she noticed that he was actually lying down on her bed… And when she lowered the book to the floor, she stared at his still form disbelievingly as she realized that he had not made any sound for the past five minutes.

"Mmm…snort …. "

Well, except for that.

"Kakeru…?"

No reply.

She stood up, and walked over to him.

"Kakeru?" she called, this time as she bent over him, closer to his ear.

Again, nothing.

I don't believe this… she thought, face-palming herself in her mind, The fool fell asleep…

On my bed.

"Maaa…" she muttered to herself, "Kakeru, you baka. Where am I supposed to sleep now?" She threw another disdainful glare at his sleeping form. Even though he was older, she always, always ended up taking care of him. Wasn't there a law stating that it had to be the other way around?

Ugh. Be as it may, when did he ever abide by the rules anyway?

Attempts to wake him up would be futile, she knew. He would wake up eventually – ironically, he took deeper naps at school; said something about being most comfortable sleeping there or whatever. All she had to do was wait for him to awaken, kick him out (brother or no brother, he had trespassed on her privacy for far too long), and catch as much shut-eye as she could before daybreak. Simple enough.

If she wasn't so tired herself.

Looking at the peacefully dozing form of her brother only made her feel even drowsier than before, so she decided to sit at her desk. At least there she would have her back to him for most of the part. Maybe she'd be able to pass the time studying…

The last thing she remembered was her vision blurring for a split second as she opened up one of her school books and placed it on the desk. After that, there was only the feeling of her head falling against something soft, and her eyes – heavy with sleepiness – closing upon themselves and allowing her mind the soothing sight of darkness.

That morning, her alarm clock had gone off late so she awakened fully in a panic over the possibility of receiving a tardy mark in class. She got up and was in the middle of storming through her morning habits when her memory caught up with her and she realized, with a shock, that she had been lying on her own bed. No traces of her errant brother were within sight but for the disappearance of the pillow that he had mutilated. Upon closer inspection, however, she found it under her desk, stuffed with a single piece of crumpled paper which she unfolded and read:

Machi,

Congratulations on finding the hidden treasure! ('Treasure?' she thought, 'Had he even considered me not seeing this? For all he knew, I might've ended up throwing it away.')

I still feel really bad about this pillow…Let me make it up to you. After school, let's head for the shopping district and get you a brand new one! It'll be on me. Anyway, I think I found a store that you might be interested in. It has a lot of those anime stuff that you like so much.

Don't leave school without me or I'll hunt you down.

Toodles!

- Kakeru The Black Avenger

Machi was, in a word, speechless. She stared at the crumpled piece of paper for the longest time, and… giggled to herself. After the part about anime was a rather obscure figure which she had mistaken for an erasure. A second glance proved it to be a rather horribly drawn Mogeta wearing a mask, a feathered cap, and a cape – all black – and smiling a demented smile while doing the peace sign.

It was all so disproportional that she just had to laugh.

Whatever he had claimed to be good at in using his hands, Kakeru was definitely not an artist.

Still, it was a rather sweet thing to do. It had touched her. Her brother was still very much a thoughtful person, even when he brooded about his problems and generally seemed to be thinking of himself – and ONLY himself – twenty-four seven.

She resolved to help him patch things up with Komaki – no matter how troublesome he would be later on.

End

(1634)

Next: "Yes" - Kyou could not understand why this girl was ALWAYS agreeing to things. (Kyou, Tohru, and bit - a very small bit - of Yuki)