Everchanging

No Promises

!!TW!! Very slight talk of SA/Bullying

The air was frigid, the wind not helping as the siblings walked in the early morning. The streets were empty, the sky a dusty blue that promised snow later in the day. Neither teen spoke for a while, silent as they turned another corner and watched their breath turn into smoke in the cold morning.

Gyutaro let his sister hold his hand, but he wouldn't look at her. He couldn't, not without feeling ill at the sight of bruises and scabs on her pretty face. His stomach turned uncomfortably, and he knew that avoiding the issue wasn't helping. He knew that it hurt Ume how he wouldn't look at her, but he couldn't bring himself to face his karma.

Gyutaro laid in his bed, unwilling to leave his room as he listened to his uncle fix dinner. He couldn't face him, not after the conversation with his mother. Gyutaro found that he couldn't bring himself to do a lot lately, not with his mother's words still rattling around in his sick brain. He sighed, tossing his phone to the side as he turned to his side and glanced at his alarm clock. Ume should be back by now; the convenience store isn't that far away.

"Probably flirting with the fucking cashier again." He huffed to himself, pinching his eyes shut to fight off whatever guilt he had been battling lately. He hated Genya, for so many reasons he couldn't even begin to explain. But... maybe he had gone too far. Maybe Ume and him went too far.

But it wasn't like he killed him. He was just having some fun, blowing off some steam. He hadn't beat the kid up or hurt him. He had just said what he thought, told people what he felt was the truth. He picked on the boy, it's what teenagers do. Genya was too soft, took everything too seriously. He wasn't going to survive high school if he shut down the minute a kid made fun of him.

And what did he expect? That everyone was just gonna let him assimilate quietly, with that giant ugly scar across his face? No way in hell. The boy shouldn't have expected normality when his whole situation was out of this world. Of course, kids were gonna talk, he survived a mass murder, that was talk-of-the-town worthy.

It was stupid how everyone dropped everything for the boy, like he was some fragile babygirl. Even Kaigaku switched up on them, all because of what? Genya went through some shit and was now useless because of it? Completely stupid.

But... Maybe Gyutaro had gone too far. Maybe he shouldn't have brought the rape into it. That definitely crossed a line, he could admit that now. But it just didn't make much sense. Genya was a big guy; he could have stopped the woman at any point in time. Why didn't he? Gyutaro didn't understand.

Either way, Gyutaro shouldn't have poked at that wound. He could accept that now, even if he didn't understand the situation fully.

The boy sighed, louder this time as he thumped his head back down on his pillow. He didn't want to think about what he did wrong; he didn't like it. He hated feeling like this, all guilty and childish. So, he wouldn't, he wouldn't think about what he did wrong. He hated Genya, he wasn't wrong for that. He was allowed to hate people; he was allowed to be mean. That was that, end of story.

Touma's clanking paused when the phone rang, the man humming peacefully as he went to answer it. Gyutaro checked the time again, his uncle's talking white-noise as he sat up in his bed. Ume was taking forever, and he didn't feel like going to pick her up when it was this cold out.

The teen sighed, deciding he would take a piss and then go scold his baby sister for taking so long. With that, he moved out of his dark room and into the hallway and his uncle's chatter was a little louder now.

"Yes, I'm her guardian." Gyutaro almost laughed, it seemed like Ume was also in trouble. He wondered if she was going to be expelled too. If so, he was definitely going to yank on her chain about it. It must run in the genes. "She what? I– yes, yeah, I'll be there."