LONGING AND DESIRE ❪ inumaki toge ❫

THREE: THE SINS OF A BROTHER THAT TRIES TO PROTECT.

The maids exchange glances that speak of a thousand words as they set dishes and the like in the large dining room. It is so silent that the air seems to have stretched taut, the usual chatty girl so upset that she doesn't even lift her eyes from the china dishes in front of her to greet her brother when he comes in. It's a different sort of silence. The maids have witnessed the reproachful kind ( when Shiro has yelled at someone after they stirred his temper ), the bashful silence ( one that occurs from others joining this cornered off room ) and many more. But this silence is stringent, almost acidic in the way the only sounds in the air are the cutlery clacking against one another. Shiro is discomfited, a frown on his face. His sister has always been stubborn, the kind inherited from their father and his never ending pride, but she's been weak to his pleading gaze time and time again. This time, is different. Her chopsticks stab the grains of rice as if they're personally wronged her, her pink lips twisted into a dark scowl and her shoulders tense.

"Fuyumi," Shiro speaks after a clear of his throat. "How's dinner?" his frown deepens when she continues to ignore him. "Fuyumi-"

"Don't ask about me if you won't even indulge in this whim of mine," she snaps, eyes blazing as she glares at him.

"I've indulged in plenty of your whims but this one is nonsensical,"

"You're being ridiculous, Shiro!" the maids gasp, hands fluttering to their mouths at the blatant disrespect. "Do you think I'm stupid? Just because I've relied on you for everything, you've tricked me,"

"Tricked you?"

"You think I wouldn't hear about your attempts to reduce the amount of people visiting the compound? Or how you've made sure Inumaki-kun is never invited back to the compound because you took his lack of knowledge of me as a slight against you?" Shiro winces, turning his gaze down to his hands as his sister continues to shout at him. "And now, now you've passed the limit. How could you lie to me about attending the school? Half of the school year is gone just because I trusted that you would tell me about it,"

"I did all of these things to protect you, Fuyumi. There's not only that boy there, but a Cursed one as well! What would you have done if you had gotten hurt from it?"

"I don't know what I would have done because you never let me go in the first place!" her tone reaches a pitch equivalent to a scream and the maids hurry outside, faces pale at the first fight between the siblings in nearly a decade. "How could you, Shiro?" her voice cracks, tears glinting in her eyes at the betrayal. She hadn't believed it when she had heard the elder Akiyamas gossiping about her fight with Shiro.

'The poor princess doesn't even know that half of the school year has nearly passed,' one of them had clicked their tongue sympathetically and Fuyumi had marched over, demanding answers and 'what exactly did they mean by half the school year?'. Her heart had seized with the knowledge they stammeringly presented her with; Tokyo Jujutsu High had started the school year many months ago and Shiro hadn't informed her because he had completely dismissed her thoughts and ambitions about becoming a Sorcerer.

"I would have expected such back handedness for someone else, but you? You're my brother,"

"I promised Okaa-san and Oto-san that I would protect you,"

"How are you protecting me?" she demanded, anger swelling in her chest from how he wouldn't even look at her as he made his point. "By making me a completely useless Sorcerer? Sorcerer only in name, that's who I am-" his eyes snap to her at the snide tone her voice takes, a mockery of the words whispered around in the compound despite how many times he tried to silence them.

"How do you know that? How do you know people call you that?" she looks back at him, for once realizing that her brother might be a little more naïve and trusting than she suspected. She softens slightly, tugging at her black tresses discomfortingly as it's her turn to look away from his burning gaze.

"'Pretty princess', 'spoilt little Akiyama', I've heard thousands of variations of the names, and they're right," she refuses to let him interrupt her, rushing on to continue when she sees him open his mouth obstinately. "I'm spoilt and kept in the shadows and a mockery of the title 'Lady Akiyama' is supposed to be. Okaa-san wasn't like this," silence hangs over the dinner table and Fuyumi bites her bottom lip so hard it cuts under the harsh treatment. "What are you going to do when someone attacks us?"

"Nobody would dare attack the Akiyama Clan," she shakes her head almost pityingly.

"You've grown too confident, Shiro. I'm not stupid, you know. I know you're aware of every Sorcerer present in society right now, poring over the young ones and trying to find weaknesses so that if they ever do try to attack us, you'd be more than ready to defeat them. But what's the use of such a method to protect your clan? Shouldn't you be training me along with the younger Sorcerers so that I can defend myself? Even the maids are more trained than me,"

"You should have never had to be in this position," Shiro disagrees. "If Okaa-san and Oto-san were here-"

"They'd agree with me. You know that better than anyone," Fuyumi pushes aside the platter of food on the dinner table, smoothing the silky fabric of her gown down as she stands up. "I will find a way to leave the compound if you don't let me go, Shiro. You can place as many guards as you want, but desperate people will dig through tunnels for freedom,"

"You consider this place a prison?" hurt swims across her brother's face and she turns away, not wanting to be swayed by it. Fuyumi has always been a slave to Shiro's emotions, not wanting him to drown her with her worries, but this time she's putting her foot down.

"You made me consider it as such," she says simply.