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“Hey. Wake up. Hey. Ena. Wake up.”
He’s not above using force to get her to move, but he can’t bring himself to shout loudly at her either. He can’t bring himself to raise his voice to her, and though he speaks back to her plenty, shouting at her would leave him with a guilty conscience. Instead, he reaches down and pulls the comforter covering his sister right off. Her face scrunches up, and her body reflexively curls up to keep from the cold of dawn. He has to be careful. She’s scary when she’s angry, and they hardly have time for her to get ready, let alone patch up any strikes of blood across his cheek should her nails get too close.
“C’mon, Ena. It’s almost eight, the café’s been open for an hour now. If you don’t wake up soon, they could sell out for the day.”
He grabs the string attached to the blinds of her windows and gives it a good tug. Morning’s light floods the normally dark room, and he’s rewarded with a shrill squeak of discomfort from his sister’s voice. She’s finally awake.
“You fucking asshole!” Slurred speech hardly obstructs the message, especially as Akito has a pillow thrown right into his face by his abrasive older sister. It falls to the ground soon after, and he’s left sighing with contempt. At least he doesn’t have to fight her for two minutes in the bathroom.
“Whatever,” he shrugs. “I’ll be waiting downstairs. If you’re not ready by nine, I’m leaving.”
Rather than respond with words, he hears her turn over and whine face first into her bed, whimpering like a dog. Sniffling as though close to tears, Akito keeps his heart hardened as he puts distance between them by walking downstairs. When his ears can no longer hear her, it’s only then that he can let down the wall and reflect upon his actions. He can’t see himself as having done anything wrong, and she was the one who begged him to wake her up anyway. Still, his head is racing with too many thoughts and not enough desire to really think about them too deeply. He didn’t even want to spend his morning like this anyway. If he could, he’d just go out and practice on his own, further his own goals, focus solely on his future.
It’s not so bad to sit down and have some pancakes though, from time to time. That’s the only reason he ever agrees to go on these stupid dates with his sister.
“One couple’s discount, please~”
Ena’s voice requests the special treatment with all the saccharine tenderness required to convince the maître d’ that the siblings standing before them are actually a normal unrelated pair of humans on a date. To help sell themselves visually, Ena is clinging to Akito’s arm with her chest rubbing against his elbow, her head leaning against his shoulder. He’s felt this exact same position so many times now that it doesn’t phase him, and that must show on his face. He’s relaxed, now that they’ve finally made it here, and he’s even able to confidently wear a polite smile. All goes according to plan, and they’re given a smile in return as they’re escorted to their booth.
Sitting across from one another, they wait until their server hands them their menus and departs before they allow their eyes to meet. Ena’s smile doesn’t fade, rather, it stretches out before she covers her mouth with her hand, yawning rather aggressively.
“Ugh, it’s too early.” Ena whines right on schedule, eyes drooping along with the corners of her lips. “Why can’t cafés stay open later? And just who came up with limited time offers anyway? It’s so annoying.”
“I can agree about the limited time offer part, but if you’re complaining about lack of sleep, you should have gone to bed sooner.” Akito finishes the statement by picking up his water and sipping from it slowly. It’s so bland, he really wants something sweet to drink instead. He eyes the coffee menu and searches the café’s lattes.
“Excuse me?!” Ena’s indignation is so obvious and expected that Akito doesn’t even raise his eye at the outburst. “I shouldn’t have to adjust my sleep schedule for that! If a restaurant wants to make more money, it should just be opened later. Everyone knows that. Breakfast foods are good no matter the time of day, I don’t get why they think people who work at night shouldn’t get a chance to enjoy them.”
“Mostly because there’s less of you than the rest of us.” Akito answers with a simplistic monotone, knowing that his sister will just get louder as she grows more defensive of herself.
“Even if there’s less of us, there’s still enough that our school offers night classes at all!” It’s not a terrible point, but Akito doesn’t care enough to argue for or against it himself. It’s just something she cares about. “Seriously, I’m so sick of that kind of thinking. I bet they would find plenty of people ready to work the night if they just looked.”
“So everyone else has to change their schedules because you don’t want to change yours?” Akito talks back. Why does he talk back? It’s not even intentional, it’s just a reflex at this point. To answer quietly to his sister feels just as wrong as ignoring her altogether. Her cheeks are puffing a bright pink color, and her eyes are widening, but he’s sure that if he said nothing at all, if he didn’t even acknowledge her, she’d be in shambles.
“Why you―!” Ena is cut off completely the moment the server comes over. She sputters, covering up her speech by taking a long sip of her water. She closes her eyes, lets herself calm down, and then puts on the cutest smile in the world as she excitedly orders for both of them. She even picks out a latte for Akito, one he definitely wouldn’t have ordered for himself, but only because the name is too embarrassing to say. The fact that she knew, the fact that she saw his finger linger on it only moments before, he doesn’t understand how or why. His sister just understands for some reason, and even asks for two straws under the guise that they would share. Well, they will in any case, but the second straw is totally unnecessary.
The conversation from earlier has fizzled out, so it’s time for the next topic of discussion that will cause Ena to grow increasingly loud. Akito doesn’t plan on being the one to bring it up, so he pulls out his phone and opens it up to read the usual message boards. Just as it’s brought out, though, it’s plucked right from his fingers and gently placed down on the table. In its place, a small, dainty hand with perfectly manicured nails places itself in his palm, squeezing it tightly. He lifts his head and is greeted with the sight of his sister, hand pressed against her cheek as she’s staring at him with a familiar expression. It’s not one he gets to see frequently in person, but rather, he knows it from her selfie account. She’s made this face so many times, just to rile up the guys following her. Unfortunately for them, they don’t know the real personality behind the guise, and so Akito’s heart rate picking up is only momentary. It doesn’t last long because she’s his sister, that’s why. It would be weird for him to find her attractive under any circumstance.
“Akitooo.” She calls his name in a surprisingly quiet voice. Playful and sweet, she giggles and tugs his hand closer to the center of the table. “You’re supposed to be on a date with your beautiful girlfriend, you know. You shouldn’t be playing on your phone, you should be looking at me and acting like you really love me.”
Acting like he really loves her. Akito repeats the phrase in his head, and truthfully, the panic rushing through his system suddenly is very familiar. He recognizes this voice she’s putting on, this adorable affectation that’s trying to goad him into doing what she wants, and he knows how many times he’s lost to it. Not because of the voice itself, but because of what she was bargaining alongside with it. Using it on its own, however, the association of defeat comes with it. He should be on the defense, but his heart is primed for acceptance. Her brown eyes sparkle in the sunlight that pours into the space, shines in her eyes brighter than the particles visibly dancing in the air surrounding them. She squeezes his hand again, and this time, he reflexively squeezes back.
“What do you expect me to do?” Akito asks with genuine curiosity. They’re not a loving couple. They’re brother and sister who take advantage of each other. They go on dates with couple’s discounts because they don’t resemble each other from a certain distance. They experiment with each other’s bodies, all because Ena convinced him from a young age that it’s normal for siblings to do that type of thing together. Even with Akito being old enough to know better, it’s not like he wants to stop. Ena’s the most beautiful girl in the whole world. Akito’s not blind, he can’t ignore the fact that she’s gorgeous. She’s incredibly attractive to him. She’s basically ruined all women for him. Who is really going to be able to compete with her? He doesn’t want anyone else.
It’s the fact that he doesn’t want anyone else that scares him. It’s why he feels like he’s shutting down when she leans in. Her lips are shining, covered in a gloss he can smell even while leaning back against the booth seat. It’s strawberry, a flavor that causes his whole body to start riling up. It’s a flavor intensely associated with Ena, because she’s been using it since they first kissed. The café they’re in is on the second floor. They’re sitting in a corner, away from prying eyes. Even if anyone looked, could they even tell what’s about to happen? They just look like a regular couple, holding hands and leaning in towards each other.
“Mm. I’m leaning forward, so you should try too.” Ena answers Akito’s question in her own way, begging him to not make her intentions so obvious. He understands, and his heart won’t stop running away from him.
“Fine.” He does as asked. He excuses himself for his actions by blaming it all on her, just like he’s done since he was smaller than her. Leaning in ever closer, their current height difference is made apparent in even how tall they sit. She has to lean far more in to reach the center of the table, while Akito doesn’t. Somehow, though, they meet in the middle easily. His nose brushes against hers, and then their lips. They clasp together gently, curling around puckering. Tender but short, the kiss ends with the sound of footsteps approaching closer. They pull away, and their server drops off their drinks before telling them their pancakes will be out soon.
“Lame,” Ena pulls over her crème brûlée latte, covered in whipped cream and garnished with crumbs. She sips it slowly, kicking her feet under the table until they find Akito’s ankle and wrap themselves around it. “You should’ve just kept kissing me. We already warned the place that we’re a couple, they should expect us to be showing each other some PDA. It’s normal.”
It’s not. Akito screams the thought into his head that none of this is normal. Nothing between them is right, they shouldn’t have a relationship like this as siblings. They shouldn’t want to kiss, shouldn’t want to hold each other, shouldn’t want to do depraved acts that go against their nature. It’s weird, it’s wrong...He can’t bring himself to call it disgusting, though. He can’t call anything about Ena gross, even if it’s something that would otherwise be classified as such. She’s the exception to too many rules, and as Akito drinks from his strawberry mocha latte with strawberry drizzle, he finds himself once again playing into her logic.
“If you really think it’s normal, you’re gonna need to stop telling people I’m your brother one day.” Akito says it as quietly as possible, just in case anyone tries to listen in. They probably aren’t, they look like the most vanilla couple in the world right now, but the fear persists. “Everytime we meet someone, you’re so quick to tell them about us. We could easily come to one of these café’s one day and have someone we know here hear us getting the couple’s discount. What’re you gonna tell them, then?”
“If it’s someone who knows us, they’ll understand!” Ena smirks at the proposed argument and continues to pull Akito’s leg closer to her from underneath the table. “It’s like, we’re just doing it for the discount, right? If we see someone we know here, we’ll just act like ourselves and they’ll get it. It’s not weird, it’s being smart.”
“...So are we not being ourselves when we’re doing this?” Raising his other foot beneath the table, he caresses it against the side of her thigh, pushing underneath her skirt and tracing the shape of it. Ena’s expression doesn’t change, save for a slight dip in her smile.
“We are being ourselves now.” Ena claims, and rather than get louder as the conversation progresses, she’s actually growing quieter. “Our real selves are just...Too spicy for the world to handle normally, right? I guess I see what you’re saying. Yeah, maybe one day when we’re both out of the house, we’ll just let everyone assume we have the same last name because we’re married already.”
Akito’s heart skips a beat. He feels it, he feels his heart stop and then start again. His leg drops, but quickly latches around her ankle as well. Knotted together out of sight from everyone’s eye level, neither of them acknowledge the food placed on their table outside of their hands moving out of the way for their server. Once she’s gone, they’re left alone again with the last words said still echoing around in Akito’s head.
“You know that means you can’t marry anyone else, right?” Akito grabs his knife and fork, using the task to restart his brain, and the first thing that comes out of his mouth is that . The only thing he can do is double down. “If you get with anyone else, they’re not gonna be able to understand why you keep insisting on using your brother to get discounts when you could just use them instead. They won’t get why you have a limp the day after you’ve visited me either. They’ll really question all the bite marks and bruises too. What’ll you do about that?”
“Well, duh.” Ena brushes off the question as if it’s not important, and that in itself is what causes icey fear to strike Akito’s heart. Without hearing her speak more, he already feels what she’s about to say. He knows it, because he’s thinking it too. They’re siblings, after all. It’s in their nature to be similar, even if they try to deny it. “I don’t even need to marry anyone else. You’re enough of a pain to be both my little brother and my husband. Having more than just you would probably drive me crazy. Besides, I...I don’t want to think about any girl getting to touch you aside from me, so it’s better for both of us to just accept each other as we are now, even if there’s so much about you I’d like to change. You’re the only one who’s ever been there for me through...Everything. So―I just want you.”
Breaking her words to eat, to chew, to swallow, to sip, and then talk again, Akito lets her finish for once. He doesn’t interrupt her, he doesn’t question her, he just accepts her words as she says them. When she’s finished, when she’s really finished and looking at him to speak, to accept her for everything she’s said, Akito can’t find what he wants to say. What could he say that she hasn’t already? He feels like his head is about to burst. She’s really suggesting this. She’s really suggesting that they treat this like it’s more than just two siblings playing house for an extended period of time. She’s asking him to move in with her one day, adopt a couple cats, and make love to each other as though it’s not a problem for them to do so at all, like they’re really just a couple who’s loved each other for a long time. She’s asking him to love her.
“Ena...” Akito says her name, and her hands still. He watches as her shoulders tense. It’s like she’s preparing herself for a rejection. He swallows down his spit. It’s sweeter than normal. “I get all that, but...You know you went out into public today with a tear in your tights, right?”
“EH?!” The Ena he knows snaps awake as she quickly reaches down to grab her thigh. “No I didn’t―” She stills as she finally feels it, the tear that’s right underneath her thigh. It’s small, it can probably only barely be felt, but Akito could feel the fabric pull more easily there as his foot brushed past earlier. Her face is red. “Ah...”
“It’s fine,” Akito starts to dig into his pancakes, taking a bite before meeting her eyes. “When we get home, I’ll take care of them for you.”
It’s not like he knows how to sew. No, he’s not going to repair them at all. Ena knows what he’s talking about. He’s going to rip them further, until they’re nothing but trash. He’s going to rip them off of her while she’s wearing them. He’s going to expose her legs beneath him, and then move on to the rest of her clothes. He watches as she lifts her head, and then tilts it as she raises a hand to cover her smiling mouth.
“Ah, so you’ll take a nap with me when we get home?” Ena’s taking advantage of him again with that sweet voice that tastes like strawberries. Of course, he’ll do anything she says. “That’ll be an excellent way to pay for your crimes against me this morning. I’ll happily even let you sleep on my chest even, if you think it makes for a better pillow than one of mine~”
“No thanks,” Akito denies as he focuses more on his pancakes. “Just sleep on top of me. You make a good weighted blanket.”
“Weighted?!” Ena’s screech hits the next octave, and Akito feels eyes finally starting to land on them. He can’t exactly de-escalate where this is going with his words, but for once, he doesn’t care. She’s right. They’re nothing like siblings at all, so what’s wrong with a little PDA?
Thinking that, he grabs her chin and pulls her in, aiming for the whipped cream on the left side of her lip.