Everchanging

Lies and Betrayal

!!TW!! Talk of abuse/rape/SA, discussion of rape culture/stalking, slight internalized homophobia

It was odd, Genya thought, today had been such a bland day. Sanemi was sleeping in after the late night he pulled to catch up on grades. Yuka napped in the bed with the older brother, her tiny body curled in the crease of his arm as she relaxed. Genya idly scrolled through his phone with the TV playing in the background, looking for something to cook for lunch.

Suika laid his heavy head on the boy's leg, big gray eyes looking up pitifully until he was awarded a pet. It had been rather calm, Genya thought. There were no bumps in the road or mishaps. Genya had slept through the night without a nightmare for once. He had taken his medicine unprompted under the watchful gaze of not one, but two animals. Things were looking up. Things were calm. Genya was calm.

That was, until the phone rang. Sanemi's phone dangled on the counter, buzzing until Genya was forced to get up and catch it before it fell. He thought for a second to wake his brother up before he recalled the sheer exhaustion Sanemi had to go through in the past few weeks. Genya looked at the caller ID, recognizing it as the police officer from before, and both curiosity and guilt urged the boy to answer the phone.

"Hello, Shinazugawa?" Genya could recognize Sabito's timber voice, he was gentle with his words. In fact, he sounded slightly happy on the other end. It served to ease Genya's fears a little. "Shinazugawa, you there?"

"Sorry, uh...This is Genya." He stuttered, now wondering why he thought it would be a good idea to answer his brother's phone. Obviously, the officer wanted to speak to the man, not Genya. This wasn't his business; Genya was being nosy. "Nem– Sanemi is sleeping right now."

A second passed and Genya wondered if Sabito was upset, but the man just breathed out a chuckle.

"Okay, sure thing. I just had some good news to tell him." Genya could hear the smile in his words, curiosity rearing its ugly head. Genya knew that Sabito was in charge of his case so he couldn't help but wonder if the good news had something to do with himself or Miyano. "I can call back later. It's no big deal."

"Wait! I–uh..." Genya hesitated, fearing that this was a mistake. He didn't want to upset the man who was in charge of keeping Miyano behind bars. What if he crossed Sabito and he decided to just...let her go? No, he wouldn't do that. Sabito was Giyuu's brother, he was too kind to hurt Genya. But still...Genya's sick brain couldn't stop screaming the possibility at him. "What's the news? I can–uh... pass it on to Nemi."

He tried to make it sound like it was more for Sabito's sake than his own, Miyano and Kyogo would do that when they wanted to get something out of Genya. The connection made him feel sick to his stomach, opening his mouth to take it back. He didn't want to be like them. He couldn't be. But, before he could fix his blunder, Sabito sighed on the other end. The rush of air served to make goosebumps sprint across Genya's arms. Suika raised his head, finally noticing his companion's tense demeanor.

"Y'know..." Sabito seemed to be thinking, something tapping in the background before he chuckled. "Nemi's a really adorable nickname. Where'd it come from anyway?"

The question felt disarming, innocent. And Genya found himself answering the man. His hand came to rest on Suika's back. His warmth grounded him.

"When I was a baby...I couldn't pronounce Sanemi so I would call him Nemi." Genya could remember the amount of difficulty he had with the beginning sound. He had always pronounced 's' sounds softly, a whistle more so than a hiss of sound. Shizu had tried to get him into speech therapy, but it was no longer considered a speech impediment by that time, so Genya wasn't able to receive any treatment for his speech pattern. It lessened over the years, becoming less noticeable, but sometimes he found himself slurring over the soft sounds. And after that night with Kyogo, Genya found that he would fall back on that old habit a lot lately. He blamed his scarred tongue for it but he wasn't even sure if tongues could scar. He often wondered if anyone else ever noticed or if it was only Genya. "I guess it just stuck."