sorry i took another little break from posting, very busy with pretending to be an adult lately. ^_^ it's easier for me to keep up with things if i have a deadline, so how about this: if i get at least two or three reviews, i will have the next chapter posted within a week period? this will give me a goal to strive for, and hopefully keep me from procrastinating so much. i'm really excited about several future turns in the story, and can't wait to share them and get everyones opinion. though...eventually i'm thinking i may have to up the rating. O:-D no...particular...reason.
MidnightDilemma, Hajnalmadar, and Babyblues132...Thank you so much for your reviews! i hope you like this chapter as well! ^_^
Steps
Aya + Aki
By: L O K I
Catch
A trap lay in wait.
Aya wasn't even trying to be inconspicuous; she could be heard clomping up the stairs, humming some popular song under her breath. She jiggled the knob of the motel door, pushing in and ignoring the fact that her brother had locked it after she had left.
As far as escape and evade tactics go, she, in a word, 'sucked'. She was already in the room and half-way across the floor to the bathroom when he struck. Lunging out from behind the door, he swiped at the plastic bag, jerking it out of her hand.
"Aki!" she shrieked, snatching for it, but he backed out of her reach, smirking triumphantly.
"Give that back," she shouted, rubbing at her wrist though there wasn't a mark to be seen. A pretty scowl shadowed her usually bright face.
Pant-leg brushing the edge of the bed, Aki stopped backing away, clutching the precious bag in both his hands. He held it close to his body, like a dragon hoarding some precious treasure. "Toldya I would find out."
She actually stomped her foot, slapping her hands down on her hips in the classic mom-pose. "Not yet you haven't," she forced through her teeth, promising him a violent death with her eyes if he didn't do as she said.
"Watch me," he taunted, taking one hand away from the bag to open it.
She leaped, but he was ready for her, and neatly stepped aside at the last moment. She landed on the bed, but didn't stop. With the momentum of her jump, she rolled off the bed and landed on the other side, upsetting the nightstand slightly. Smoothing down her skirt, she gave a bored face, as if that move had been one she had meant to make. The shaking of her hands said otherwise.
Or maybe that was just her frustration.
He raised his eyebrows, giving her a look of admiration at the way she had recovered. Of course, the amused tilt to his lips told her that he knew more was owed to chance, than any real grace on her part.
"This is familiar," he commented sweetly, tipping his free-hand at the bed that was now between them.
She stuck her tongue out at him.
"Mature," he appraised, giving her an arrogant look.
She sputtered. "Look who's talking! You ambushed me at the freakin' door! Now give me my bag back!"
"Don't think so," he said brightly, tilting the bag one way and then the other, making the contents rattle.
"Don't do that," she cried, holding one hand out in protest.
His eyebrow shot up, his hand stopping in mid-motion. "Fragile, is it?"
She stared at him for a long moment, then pulled down her bored look again, dropping her hand to her side. "No..."
"Really."
"Aki." Ah, she was really getting irritated now. She only brought out that particular tone when she was about to go nuclear. Unfortunately, brothers had a natural immunity.
"You should have told me earlier," he sighed dramatically. "It's your own fault that I had to resort to these types of measures."
"Aki! That's completely unfair! You're so mean! I don't have to tell you everything, you know."
"Yes, you do," he nodded sagely.
She paused at that, blinking at him with absolute exasperation. There were no words for her aggravation, only incoherent sounds.
"After all," he continued serenely, "You need someone to try and keep you out of trouble. Please note that I stressed the word 'try'."
His sister was a particularly pretty girl, but at that moment, she looked more like a...bull. Biting his lip to keep from laughing out-right, he held the bag out a little and pantomimed a red cape.
He was curious about all her secrecy, yes, but it was more about keeping her distracted from all the bad situations that had to be spinning in her head.
It was a great distraction for him, too.
"For the last time. Give. It. Back."
"Nope," he said unrepentantly.
There's the breaking point. She charged, fingers splayed out like claws and a snarl curling her top lip. My sister, so aggressive, he thought fondly as he darted around to the other side of the bed.
She followed blindly.
He was a little surprised. Whatever is in this bag must be important or something.
The space was really too small to run, so he gave up trying to evade her grabbing hands. As soon as he reached a moderate amount of open-space, he turned and held his ground.
She didn't stop. Grabbing hold of one arm to try and keep him in place (though he wasn't trying to get away anymore) she reached around him and snatched at the bag.
The bag he was holding out, straight-armed from his body. Clearly pushed beyond logical thought, she continued to grab at it, forcing him back slightly as she did.
That's enough, he thought as she stomped on his foot. Without warning he jerked his arm free of her hold, slid it around her neck, and caught her in a gentle, yet inescapable headlock.
She squeaked, forgetting all about her precious bag in favour of trying to struggle free. She elbowed him in the ribs.
"That's enough," this time he said it out-loud, though he wheezed slightly when he did. Suddenly hooking his foot around her ankle, he lowered her to the floor. She grabbed hold of him, pulling him down with her. With a grunt they fell in a tangle of limbs, and plastic, and gold hair.
"Give," she demanded, her hand crawling up his arm as he tried to hold the coveted prize away from her.
With a smirk he shoved her over, and rolled with her, coming out the victor, but only momentarily, as her eyes snapped out that the battle was not yet won. "This is familiar, too," he said, settling his weight on her thighs. His bangs fell into his eyes as he grinned down at her.
Her hands instantly slapped down on his chest, shoving at him.
"Ah-ah," he taunted, catching hold of one of her hands. But this time she wasn't to be deterred, and she wiggled and twisted, trying to still reach for his other hand. Somehow he managed to hold onto the bag.
"Aki," she whined, kicking her feet as she realized she was trapped again. "Come on now, wasn't once enough for today?" She spoke calmly, but he could tell by the slant of her mouth that she was just biding her time.
"Guess not, since you were so bound and determined to do this again."
"Me?! I just want my bag back!"
"And I just want to know what's so important about it."
She stared up at him, determined now not to tell him, since he was practically demanding it of her.
"Not gonna say? Well, I have ways of making you talk..."
"And what are you going to do? You don't even have any free hands," she emphasized this by jiggling her left wrist in his right hand, but didn't bother to do anything with her other. "Stalemate. You have to let me go."
He didn't like those words, not at all. His hand tightened slightly around her wrist, without him even noticing.
She noticed. She wasn't sure why. It wasn't as if it hurt...
His eyes lit up, warming the lavender until it almost seemed to hold hints of gold. Her eyes widened slightly, not knowing what he was planning, but knowing that there was a plan.
He drew back his free arm in one motion, and threw the bag across the room. He no longer had possession of it, but neither could she reach it while he still held her.
"AKI! I can't believe you just did that!" she cried.
"Believe it. And now you're going to tell me what I want to know."
But she set her mouth stubbornly, her look only lacking crossed arms. Her eyes said, 'I dare you'.
There was only one important rule to remember while arguing with Aki. He never bluffed. With the quick litheness of practice, he caught her right hand and pushed it out of the way, then quickly placed his hand on her side and---wiggled it.
A startled breath, as if he had knocked the air from her lungs, and then she squealed, trying to curl her body up and struggle away from him, all at the same time.
"Aki, no! Stop!"
He did.
She went limp beneathe him in relief, panting.
"So, what is it," he asked conversationally, sitting back, but not letting go of her hand.
She took a few more deep breaths, staring up at him mutinously. Then she took another breath. And another.
He tilted his chin. "Aya. Don't stall," he chided, knowing his sister all too well.
Another deep breath, and she crossed her free arm of her stomach. Then that stubborn set slowly came back to her mouth.
"Aya," he warned, knowing it wouldn't stop her.
Her hand shot out, jabbing against his ribs. He yelped, jerking away slightly as she tickled him. But this hadn't been completely unexpected.
"Turnabout," she crowed in triumph.
He twisted one way, and then another, but couldn't seem to escape her hand. Finally he stopped struggling and lunged forward, grabbing both of her hands and holding them down on the floor.
She stared up at him with a crooked smile.
"Stalemate," she enunciated clearly, jiggling both her hands to point out that he now had no more use of his.
And with that, the scene somehow shifted for him. Gone was the innocent play of only moments before...and he realized suddenly that it hadn't been quite innocent from the start. He was doing it again. Acting just like himself, acting 'normal', but there was this undercurrent of emotion---trying to pull at her, trying to sweep him along.
And with subtle whispers it had been guiding his hand. Injecting just enough suggestiveness into the situation in hopes that she would begin to wonder. And in wondering, she would perhaps think about it. And in thinking, would then grow curious. Curiosity could be the door that opened her mind to him. To them...
He wanted...
Aya lay beneathe him, her chest rising and falling rapidly as she tried to catch her breath. Her face was flushed from exertion, a nice, healthy glow that seemed to brighten the blue of her eyes. Her hair was spread around her in lovely gold tangles, crackling with static electricity as it stuck to her cheeks and clung to his fingers. It did that sometimes, sparking with light as she moved, or brushed her hair, or danced in the dim darkness of any number of their friends' living rooms...
Her wrists were slender, but strong in the cage of his fingers, not struggling but resting limply in complete trust.
And she stared up at him with eyes so like his, it was like looking into a mirror.
"Did you hear me, Aki? I win," she grinned victoriously, finally catching her breath.
"Is that so," he mumbled, still staring down into her eyes, still feeling as if his very blood carried the beat of his heart, and it was slowly spreading out throughout his body.
He wanted...
He wanted to be closer. He wanted to breathe her in. He wanted to taste her.
He leaned forward, parting his lips.
He wanted her to want---
Before he could finish that thought, he lunged forward, pecked a quick kiss to the end of her nose, then leaped up, scrabbling to the other side of the room while she was still shocked. While he was still shocked.
He scooped up the fallen bag, spun back to the bed, and dumped out its contents.
Then stared.
It took him several seconds to think beyond his fear. But when he did...he stared some more. Aya's voice came echoing back through his head, filled with frustration and tinged slightly with embarrassment. 'Why?! I'll tell you why! Because I'm a girl, baka!'
She had meant that quite literally.
But also...he reached out, carefully bypassing the box of tampons, and lifted up the disposable camera. Aya now stood on the other side of the bed, watching him.
"Because all our pictures are…"
"Gone," he finished her sentence absently, turning the packaging over and over.
"Yes," she nodded once.
He felt both sad and happy, and terrified out of his mind.
"Aya..." He wanted to say something. Something deep and profound, something that would comfort her. But when he opened his mouth all that would come out was her name.
"It might not be a good idea, not with the kind of life we're going to be living for awhile..." She began hesitantly, playing with her fingers, "But I wanted...I wanted..." She frowned in puzzlement, as if she didn't know what words to use. Or how to explain her thinking.
"...To remember," he said slowly as her head shot up, her eyes wide on him. "And make new memories. Because..." Now he looked hesitant in the choosing of his words.
She smiled, a gentler version of her usual light. "Because the future is uncertain, but we still have this moment. And I want to capture this moment for eternity."
Yes, he thought, but didn't say out-loud. It was moments like these, as he stared warmly across at Aya, that he couldn't bear to think of his feeling for his sister as 'wrong'.
He loved her. How could that ever be wrong?
Catch v. t. [OE. cacchen, OF. cachier, dialectic form of chacier to hunt, F. chasser, fr. (assumend) LL. captiare, for L. capture, V. intens. of capere to take, catch.] To attain possession. To be held or impeded by entanglement or a light obstruction. To take hold. To spread by, or as by, infecting; to communicate. a person regarded as a good matrimonial prospect. a break or check in the voice (usually a sign of strong emotion). to attract and fix. capture as if by hunting, snaring, or trapping. be struck or affected by. check oneself during an action. grasp with the mind or develop an undersatnding of. 1. To lay hold on; to seize, especially with the hand; to grasp (anything) in motion, with the effect of holding; 2. To seize after pursuing; to arrest; as, to catch a thief. 3. To take captive, as in a snare or net, or on a hook; as, to catch a bird or fish. 4. Hence: To insnare; to entangle. 5. To seize with the senses or the mind; to apprehend; as, to catch a melody. 6. To communicate to; to fasten upon; as, the fire caught the adjoining building. 7. To engage and attach; to please; to charm. 8. To get possession of; to attain. 9. To take or receive; esp. to take by sympathy, contagion, infection, or exposure; as, to catch the spirit of an occasion; to catch the measles or smallpox; to catch cold; the house caught fire. 10. To come upon unexpectedly or by surprise; to find; as, to catch one in the act of stealing. 11. To reach in time; to come up with.
TBC...