A Bond Beyond Blood

"I need to go check up on something, I'll be right back." I said.

She shrugged and said she'd wait for me while I did.

I went upstairs and knocked on the door to my room, my sister coughing out a "Come in." Her state still seeming quite bad. In a daze she looked around when I entered.

"Oh... onii-chan... up early?"

"Yeah, I'll go make breakfast for you soon, Chiori." I said, realising she's probably hungry and dehydrated due to her fever.

"...Thank you, onii~" she said in a strained, but happy tone, before promptly falling to sleep the next moment. 

Despite being exhausted, it feels like she still was doing her best to not worry me. I changed the pillow below her head carefully, so that she wouldn't have to sleep soaked in her own sweat. I tried doing the same for the blanket, but she seemed uncomfortable when I tried, tugging at the blanket with whatever power she had. I kept it like that, and grabbed my school uniform, leaving for the bathroom to go dress.

Once I got back downstairs I caught a small glimpse of her still dressing up, before deciding to sit on the couch again. She only had a plain white shirt, her hoodie tattered from the cold outside. Surprisingly, no bra.

"Welcome back, Takumi."

When she looked directly at me, I could see the faint outline of her chest. I looked away while diverging my thoughts to a different matter.

"I'll go make some breakfast for us. Hope you don't mind onigiri and tea?"

"I'll take anything you make, Takumi-san~" she teased, "beggars can't be choosers after all~"

while making both a tuna and a salmon filling and cutting the nori, I let the rice boil, and steamed it after I was done. After which it was simply a matter of filling it and wrapping the rice in nori.

I handed one to the girl and left to head upstairs with a cool bottle of oolong. I left it beside her bed, so Chiori can drink as much as she wants throughout the day. I took a seat on the edge of the bed and ate my portion while she was in a deep sleep, softly stroking her hair while she was softly snoring.

I whispered in her ear to get well soon, staying quiet as to not wake her up, before heading downstairs once more. 

My guest had a satisfied smile on her face while she licked the remaining few riceflakes off the tip of her fingers.

"Wow I missed having these. Thank you, Takumi-san."

"Ah, no problem, you can leave the cup by the sink and I'll clean it up later."

"Okaaaaayyy~, wanna go out soon by the way?"

"Going out?" I was a bit taken aback by the suggestion, before promply realising what she meant.

"Morning walk, you know?"

"It's a bit early but I guess the weather is pretty good... sure, lets go."

We headed out and basked in the sunlight, lazily stolling through the streets.

I don't have to call Kinoshita today, which is a breath of fresh air compared to the usual same antics from him every morning.

But since we would be way too early, we decided to take a leasurely trip on our way to school, branching off from the usual path to look around the city for a while. We chatted about different subjects, whether about the upcoming tests, our hobbies or what kind of stories we have.

"Usually tests are pretty easy if you learn outside the box a bit. It's not about memorizing only, but about understanding."

She gave me some advice as to how to learn for the midterms, and offered to help later on to help me keep my grades up. But while the topic shifted to going to my house, a thought popped into my mind.

"Say, I've been wondering, why did you leave your home?"

She went deeply into thought, before grabbing my hand and dragging me down a different street parallel to the path we were taking.

"See, that's where I live." she said, pointing at a house that looked worn down and messy, "And that's the reason why I don't wanna go back, it's a living hell being with that guy."

"Your dad, right? Are your parents divorced?"

"...Yeah."

She suddenly fell quiet, and looked down.

"You don't have to talk about it," I hastily commented to get her to cheer up, "I just wanted to know a bit about it."

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that... I'm sure my dad tries his best in his own way." she backtracked suddenly, not having the same power in her voice as before, meekly apologising instead.

As if suddenly a switch had been flipped in her brain.

"That man isn't trying his best as all, if you have to live in a shithole like that." I said, sighing. "You deserve to have a place better than that to call 'home'."

"You don't get it..."

"Either way, I much rather have you stay over at my place for a bit than you having to be there. Do you know where your mom lives?"

"I haven't...8...already." she mumbled into herself. It seems she doesn't know.

My hand reached out, and I patted her head subconsciously to try and cheer her up. She looked up at me with a confused expression. I couldn't really explain why i felt the need to do so. Only my gut feeling telling me it was the right thing to do. Even if it was strange to do, it seemed she kind of enjoyed it.

She rubbed her hair against my hand, not at all minding what I'm doing. But instead of making a quip out of it, she remained silent.

"Can you tell me a bit more about... well, how it is there?"

I was being aversive about the topic but felt like I had to ask. I needed to know what happened to her. I want to help as best as I can.

"It-... is a nightmare. A nightmare I made for myself. The perfect definition of 'making my bed and laying in it'. I ruined everything."

Using vague descriptions it was clear she faulted herself for the abuse she faced.

"I don't think you have any of the blame to take for it."

"Then you don't know just how awful I am, yet." She said, flashing a weird, almost pain looking grin at me. "You'll know soon enough, though..."

"I don't think you could be as bad as me at least." I joked.

"Heheh, wanna bet on it~? Then.. help yourself in. But be quiet, I hate that guy, and I don't want him to wake up. I need my uniform anyways."