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Chapter 3

The next day

Merlin got out of bed feeling worse than before. She groaned as she walked out of her bedroom. Her eyes were burning like crazy. She immediately walked to the bathroom and looked into the mirror to see her eyes were red and was really dry. Meguro walked in on her and was took by surprise by her awkward posture. It was weird looking but almost beast like. Her body was twisted in an unnatural way. Her head turned to face him and was greeted with her huge red eyes. He noticed how dry her eyes were.
"Merlin..." He whined as he pulled out their plastic stool and made her sit on it.
While all this was happening, Merlin was just staring at her brother. Not saying a word nor considering if she should blink. Meguro's attempts to make her blink all went sour. No matter what he tried, she still wouldn't blink. He tried making her blink by just reacting to sudden noises. Like him clapping really close to her face or snapping close to her ears. He even tried to blow on her eyes but that didn't work either. She just kept staring at him effortlessly. The only way he made her blink was to personally do it himself and used his fingers to control her eyelids. This would cause her to jerk back a little every time. He eventually gave up.
"Do you want me to get father?" He asked her softly.
"Yes. It hurts." Her raspy voice erupted.
That's all she said. Nothing more. He did what she requested and went to their father and explained what happened to her. Horoki seemed annoyed but soon softened up. I mean, he needs his perfect little daughter in excellent shape after all. They then tracked back to the bathroom. When they came back to the bathroom, there she was. Merlin sitting with an innocent but worried look. Meguro found it very entertaining to how she could switch her personality so quickly. Meguro stood by the doorway as his father inspected his sister's eyes.
"You're eyes are very dry. How did you manage for this to happen?" He asked her.
"I just woke up with this." She replied in her soft voice.
Horoki sighed and took out eye drops from out of the cabinet and opened it. Merlin's body tensed up as her father came closer to her with the medicine in hand. While he was hovering the bottle over her eye, she was whimpering softly. Merlin moved a couple times but eventually Horoki got the medicine in bother her eyes. 
"You can go to bed and rest for today." He told her.
"Yes, Father." Merlin replied as she looked up at her father with now glossy eyes.
She did what she was told and the other two went off to their business. 

Later that day

Meguro walked into his sister's room quietly with a plate of food as he scanned the room. Merlin was lying in bed, sleeping. He was quite disappointed but that didn't bother him very much. He walked in whilst the plate of food in hand. His soft footsteps filled the room as the afternoon breeze accompanied it. Meguro sets the plate down on his sister's desk and walked towards her bed to wake her up. When he was standing in front of his sister's sleeping body, his hands slowly hovered over her. Meguro then firmly gripped her shoulder and shook her. The pressure on her shoulders was enough to drag Merlin out of her dreamland. And with her brother's rough shaking, it was sure is enough for her to fully wake up.
"What?" She asked him in a croaky voice.
Her eyes were struggling to adjust to the brightness.
"You're food's ready." Meguro replied back with his usual friendly smile.
Merlin was able to smile back and got up to walk towards her table. Audible popping sounds erupted as Merlin's body straightened out. It could easily been mistaken as breaking bones if you only heard the sound. Merlin made her way over to the plate of food as her slouching body slowly risen up. She sat down in front of the food and stared at it. Chicken soup? Her wide eyes looked back at her brother who was now sitting on her bed with a comforting smile. Merlin took a couple spoon full of the soup and stared at it.
"It tastes different." She blurted out.
"It's because you haven't eaten it in quite some time. Father's recipe changed a bit now." Meguro reassured her. 
Merlin looked at him for a while before continue eating. Despite the weird after taste, Merlin forced herself to enjoy the meal. It wasn't everyday she'll be getting this kind of food. When she was finished, she felt tired. But before she could do anything, she felt a slight tug on her hair. Merlin looked back, only to be greeted with her brother's huge eyes. It was slightly red and his pupils are contracted. Merlin said nothing and Meguro proceeds on to brushing her hair. Merlin was enjoying the gentle strokes of the brush on her hair. Meguro's raspy, heavy breathing could be heard and it was confusingly comforting.
"Your hair has gotten longer these past two years." Meguro spoke up.
"And yours haven't change a bit."
"Have you ever thought about cutting it?"
"It would be pretty cool to have short hair. I want it to look just like yours. But I don't think father will approve of that." She answered back. 
 Meguro felt a sense of relief, knowing that she views him as a role model. He then put Merlin's hair into a ponytail and styled it with a bunch of butterfly hair clips.

"It's not much, but here you go."
She looked at her brother and smiled widely. Merlin wanted to repay her brother in someway so she ran around her room looking for something. Meguro was confused at what she was doing until she pulled out a white container. She then quickly pull out something and ran back to him.

"Here." She gave her brother.
Meguro took it from her with wide eyes. 
"I made it when I was at camp. That was my very first charms I made."
And without warning, Meguro snatched Merlin into a hug. A very violent hug. His embrace was tight. 
"Meguro... loosen up a bit." Merlin wheezed.
"Oh, right."