Gridlock Grief

Cast: (Hinoka & Takumi)
Prompt: Modern AU where Hinoka and Takumi are stuck in traffic on the way to work

HONK … HONK … HONK… HONK-

"Knock it off, Takumi! I'm sending a text message!"

"Well maybe if this lousy traffic cleared up, you wouldn't need to send a message, and I wouldn't be hitting my head on the wheel!"

Hinoka and Takumi, the two middle children of their family, both on their way to the clinic. However, countless other drivers had seen fit to impede their progress and stall them.

Hinoka frowned. "You know, it's not even your job. So you don't have to get so worked up over it."

"Well, why aren't you more worked up about it? I don't see how you could stay so calm!"

"Think of it this way, Takumi. We left home on time, right?"

"Yeah…" Takumi was not sure where this was going.

"And this is the path to work I normally take…"

"So?"

"So it's not my fault! Now let me focus, I'm trying to text my boss that traffic's keeping me."

Takumi tightened his grip on the wheel. "Yeah. Figures, the one day I actually take you to work is when you show up late!"

"What did I just say?! It's not our fault everyone decided to get on the road!"

"Look, I… I just wanted to do something nice for you! But of course something had to go and screw it up!"

Hinoka frowned again. "Takumi, it's fine! I appreciate that you wanted to help me today." Takumi sighed, and his sister narrowed her eyes in thought. "What's really going on?"

"What? Nothi-"

"That's a lie and you know it. You usually don't get road rage." Surprising as that is, she thought to herself.

"I just… I wanted to show you I'm not useless."

"… Seriously?! You think that I think you're useless?!"

"No! I mean…" sigh, "I'm the one who thinks I'm useless… I never got to help any of you guys growing up. Ryoma never needed help, and now he's off on his own. And now Sakura's away in college and I can't help her… It's just us now, and I jumped at the chance to be useful to you."

"… Are you serious?" Hinoka rubbed her hand through her hair. "Did you just forget about all those times you took care of Sakura when we were growing up?

The driver raised his eyebrow. "Yeah, and? It's not like I did anything special, you could've done it just as well. You could've done it better!"

The redhead punched her brother's shoulder. "Stupid! You really thought that wasn't helpful?! A lot of times, we didn't have to worry about Sakura, because we knew you were handling it! And she loved you for it! You were always her favorite!"

"I was?"

"Of course you were! She's always posting online about things that remind her of stuff you used to do together!"

"Well, uh-"

"Well nothing! Takumi, you need to stop selling yourself short!" Hinoka hung her head. "This isn't the first time you've talked about this. And every time it happens, I feel like I've failed you as a big sister." Worry seeped into her voice. "Did I not encourage you enough? Did I ignore you?" She gulped. "Did… did I actually say something that made you feel horrible?"

"No, no! Never!" Takumi cried. "You were great! In fact, that's why I always felt like I came up short! You and Ryoma were practically superhuman, taking care of us when Mom died. I wanted to be more like the two of you, and, well…"

Everything went quiet. Nodding to herself, Hinoka held out her arms. "… Come here."

"Not while I'm driving."

"We're still not able to move yet. Come. Here." She kept her arms out. Takumi sighed and tried to return her hug. It was a physically awkward one, since they were still in the car, but the thought was what counted. "You're not useless. Stop telling yourself that you are. No exceptions. Got it?"

"I…" He sighed. "Yeah… okay. I'm not useless." Hinoka smiled. She ended the hug and ruffled Takumi's hair. "H-hey!"

"You push yourself so hard, it's like watching a younger version of me!" She gazed out the window, wistfully. "I remember Ryoma and I had this same conversation once. Not very long after Mom's… you know…"

"I never knew you felt that way…"

She looked back at Takumi, with a grin on her face. "Yeah, but Ryoma talked some sense into me. So I knew I had to do the same for you."

HONK!

"Move already! Stop being such a tease!" called a driver behind the two siblings. Takumi and Hinoka looked and realized the cars ahead of them were finally beginning to move.

"About time!" Takumi called. He silently observed that it seemed as though the traffic waited for him and Hinoka to finish their talk before clearing up.

With the roads clearing up, it was not much longer until Takumi and Hinoka had finally reached the Veterinary Clinic.

"Are you sure your boss won't be mad?" asked Takumi.

Hinoka nodded. "She understood. She's pretty good about that sorta thing. Besides, I'm really not very late."

"All right, then. I'll pick you up at closing, I guess."

"Sounds good!"

"By the way…" Takumi hung his head, blushing lightly. "I'm glad we had that talk…"

The older sister smiled again. She quickly pecked Takumi on the cheek and hurried out of the car. "See you later!"

Takumi groaned and tried to wipe his cheek. But after a few seconds, he smiled.

Thank you.

A/N:

Another Modern AU involving Takumi. I really wanted to take this request because I was interested in seeing some Hinoka & Takumi interaction (even if it is in an AU). As such, I tried to keep their struggle somewhat close to the canon characters. I intended this to be a funny "Takumi has road rage" fic, but it turned into angst and fluff instead.

Writing for the blog has brought out the fluff in my writing I guess.

Go to the blog if you have requests.