Fires And Family | Paradox Live

7

The next afternoon, Himari was folding laundry on the living room floor with Reo and Satsuki. Satsuki had been handed a laundry basket of socks and was sorting through the pile, tying off pairs and grumbling about missing socks. Reo was folding shirts on the coffee table when he suddenly stopped and slumped down a little, staring at the black material in front of him. It was one of Iori's shirts. Himari noticed, and put aside the towel she had just folded to lean towards him.

"Tired, Reo? Does your head still hurt?"

Reo shook his head, just a tiny movement from side to side. He seemed to be thinking of something.

"Well what about a break then?" Himari began on the next piece of laundry. "Satsuki, there's pudding in the fridge. Would you get yourself and Reo one?"

"'kay."

When Reo didn't react to the promise of pudding, Himari was sure he had something on his mind that was bothering him. She knew better than to push him, however. Knowing Reo, he would go to one of the adults with whatever it was when he felt comfortable to do so.

"You don't want one, Ane-san?" Satsuki said, placing a pudding cup before Reo.

"No, thank you Satsuki."

"Oi, Reo. This is that new one you were getting all happy about last week at the supermarket."

Reo picked up the pudding cup. "Mm. Thanks."

Himari and Satsuki returned to their tasks. For a while, Satsuki's grumbling was stemmed by the happiness of pudding and the living room was silent.

"Ane-san?" Reo had taken only a single spoon of his pudding until now. He had been staring into the depths of the cup as if hoping it would give him the answers he searched for. "Do you and Aniki ever argue about things?"

Whatever Himari had thought was on his mind, this certainly wasn't it. Satsuki seemed quite taken aback too. He turned red and spluttered, "Oi, what do you think you're doing asking embarrassing shit like - "

"Satsuki," Himari interrupted. "It's alright, I don't mind. And it's not really very embarrassing. But Reo, before I answer, would you tell me exactly what you're thinking of?"

Reo's shoulders slumped a little more. He continued to stare into his pudding and said, "They were always arguing. My parents."

Understanding dawned on Himari. "I see. Your trap?"

Reo nodded. He finally met Himari's eyes. "I was just thinking how it's so nice that Aniki and you never fight, but that's not right, is it? Everyone fights now and then, right? And... "

"Go on."

"Well, people always say that if you never really fight with someone then you probably don't actually care about that person. And when Satsuki and I fight, I've heard people say it's because we're close, and it's true because I only tease him because his reactions are so much fun. I'm not actually trying to hurt him, you know?"

"Oi, Reo," Satsuki growled. "What do you mean my reactions are fun?!"

Reo ignored him and went on. "And so, I'm worried because Aniki and Ane-san are always getting along and I like that but it also made me think that maybe... you don't really..."

"Are you worried I don't actually care about Iori-san and that one day I'll leave?"

Reo nodded. Satsuki looked between Himari and Reo, unsure of what was coming next. Himari smiled and began folding a pair of jeans. "Well, for starters, you don't have to read too deeply into what people say about fights with the ones you love. All of it has a little truth but none of it is a hard rule. How people communicate between themselves is different for each person and the point of communicating with people you care about is to learn how they do it and find a middle ground so that you can both be heard. So while it's true that everyone does argue, what that argument will look like to outside eyes is always going to be different."

"But my parents - "

"Were being immature," Himari cut him off. "The thing about becoming an adult is that you can't just yell and scream at each other when something upsets you. Especially around children. They should have found ways to settle their disagreements that didn't involve scaring the people they were meant to protect."

Reo gulped, digesting what he was hearing. Himari glanced over at Satsuki to find him listening intently too. She sighed. They really were just kids after all.

"To answer your question, Reo, yes. Iori-san and I argue plenty."

"Ehh?" Satsuki was the first to react. "No way! I've never seen you argue about anything."

Himari laughed. "True, lately we haven't had that much to really argue about. And any disagreements that may have come up were usually settled pretty quickly. It's just that the way we choose to deal with disagreements may not look like the arguments you're used to."

Both boys were now listening open mouthed. "But when we were younger," Himari laughed. "Wow. We had some real arguments back then. Like cats and dogs."

"Whaaat?"

"You can ask Zen-san. He's seen some of it. Although we'd started to run out of things to argue about even when he was around, so he may not really be able to tell you much."

"For real?" Satsuki couldn't seem to believe his ears. "But you guys are so - " He stopped when he realised what he had been about to say and blushed fiery red.

"See, now that actually is embarrassing," Himari giggled, also feeling her cheeks heat up. "But it's true, we didn't get along very well when we were younger."

"How come?" Reo asked.

Himari just shrugged. "It's all just stories now, so don't worry about it."

"You can't just leave it at that, Ane-san," Satsuki whined. "We wanna hear the stories."

"You can hear 'em later. Don't you kids have to go to school?" All three of the laundry agents flushed and looked up in shock. Iori stood in the door, pipe in hand and an amused smile creeping across his face. "Don't tell me you're planning to skip?"

"No, but - "

Himari glanced at the clock. "It really is time you went, though. Don't want to be late."

The boys looked crestfallen but knew when they were beat. They abandoned the laundry but took the puddings and hurried away to get their things together. Himari pulled Reo's unfinished pile towards her and called out, "Hokusai! It's about time for school. You ready?"

In the short silence that followed, Iori blew a trail of smoke and eyed Himari intently as she purposefully ignored him until Hokusai drifted silently into the living room carrying his bag.

"Satsuki and Reo?" he said.

Himari motioned with her head towards the front of the house. Hokusai nodded and passed Iori, stepping out just as Satsuki and Reo appeared as well.

"Ah, Hokusai," Reo said, sounding brighter than he had during their talk, much to Himari's relief. "Alright. We're heading out, Aniki, Ane-san!"

Satsuki and Reo ran past Iori to the foyer to get their shoes, followed by Hokusai at a more casual pace. Himari could hear them beginning another of their silly arguments before they'd even reached the gate. Shaking her head, Himari piled all the folded clothes into the laundry basket.

"How about a fight?" Iori asked suddenly. "For old times sake," he clarified with a shrug when Himari raised an eyebrow at him.

Himari laughed. "Iori-san, if you want the kids to see you lose that badly, all we have to do is get the chess board out."

"I thought we were pretty even on that though?"

Himari rolled her eyes. "Sure, Iori-san."