What We've Missed Without You

Chapter 28

*sorry for the mistakes*

Harue balanced two trays full of dirty dishes on her arms, making another trip to the kitchen's sink for the dishes to be washed and sanitized for the next guests to come in. While on the way there, she made a full stop; her chocolate-brown eyes shifted their gaze down into one of the booth seats to witness her older brother sleeping peacefully on his back, arms behind his head to act like a pillow while his one hundred yen earbuds leaked out slow-paced piano music (it was probably side B of the cassette tape). An angry tick appeared on the side of Harue's head, one of her legs lifting up to kick Yuuta.

"Oi, get up!"

"Is it so hard to get some respect as your older brother?" Yuuta mumbled, opening one of his sapphire eyes and plucking out the earbud lodged in his left ear. Another tick mark appeared on the side of Harue's head as she quickly got more annoyed, her eye twitching ever so slightly. "You were awake the whole time?"

"I was just waking up from my nap...What do you want?"

"Get up and do some work, you're leavin' gram and gramps to do all the work here...We gotta help 'em out!"

"It looks like you're doing just fine by yourself. Besides, Kana is helping..." Yuuta rolled his back to her, attempting to go back to sleep as more annoyance bubbled inside the hot-headed ten-year-old. She lifted up her leg again and kicked against Yuuta's leg with the front of her dirty tennis shoes, getting more frantic with each swing as anger slowly consumed Harue. "Get up, ya' lazy oaf! Get up and do some work for once in ya life!"

"Stop it, Haru..." Yuuta slurred out loudly, pushing leg against his little sister's foot. He turned his head towards the glaring girl, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes as his voice softly mumbled out. "I'm tryna sleep here...I don't gotta do work 'cause you're doin' most 'f it."

"Would it kill ya' to help out?! Go do the dishes in the kitchen, they need washin' before they get sanitized!"

"Tsk, tsk. Ordering around your older brother; where did'ya respect go? Ah...But you've never had it in th' first place."

"I feel like it's justified 'cuz your lazy butt won't do anythin' except sleep and eat! Ya never pull your weight 'round and just lazy around while Ma works her butt off takin' care of ya! She gives ya food, clothes, and that thingy you listen to! Ya' nothin' but an ungrateful excuse of an older brother: Aren't the older kids s'posed to take care of the younger ones when their parents are away?! All you've done is sleep for most of ya life!"

"You don't know anythin' about me, Haru. What makes y' think that you know everythin' 'bout me? Y'can't see anythin' or think anythin' with that hot head of yours." The pale blonde boy sat up slowly from the booth seat, an annoyed expression apparent on his face as he continued to clear his eyes of sleep. The animosity levels between the two siblings grew; Harue set down the trays of dirty dishes onto the booth's table before pointing at Yuuta and yelling at him. "I'm ya sister, 'f course I know a lot 'bout ya! Even though I don't wanna know! I know that ya nothing but a lazy idiot who doesn't do anythin' in life! Ya sleep in class, ya don't have friends, and ya never help Ma out with anything!"

"Watch your mouth, you don't know anything! Just shut up and LEAVE ME ALONE!" For a moment, it seemed like Yuuta's eyes flashed. It was probably in Harue's head, but she didn't get time to think on it because her leg automatically kicked the pale blonde's ankle. Her body reacted before her mind actually talked some common sense into it, a strangled groan muffled itself inside Yuuta's mouth as he pressed his lips together. Before anything else happened, Justin came around and hooked his arms around the younger's body to make her immobile. She squirmed in his grasp as he struggled to pull her away, trying to calm her down with a nervous laugh while Kana came around to Yuuta. She tilted her head and asked, "Are you okay, Aniki?"

"Yeah...Just annoyed. Glad that didn't happen when customers weren't around." Yuuta sighed monotonously, slowly getting up from the booth seat and standing up. "I'm going to the bathroom."

He slowly walked over to the public restroom near the kitchen, walking by the large open window that peered into the main stoves. He heard Shiori and Takeru freaking out:

"How the hell did these pots boil over so fast?!"

"What temperature did'ya put it at, Shio?!"

"Medium, like I always do! These pots take a while to heat up and I just put them on the stove!-AH, GET THE MOP! GET THE MOP!"

"OUCH, SON OF A BITCH, THAT'S HOT!"

"DON'T TOUCH IT, YOU OLD COOT!"

Yuuta entered the men's restroom and closed the door, locking it before finally letting out a hiss of pain. Each step he took with his left foot erupted in pain, it almost made him cry if he didn't shut himself up earlier. Carefully, he limped over to the sink and propped his foot up on the porcelain bowl of the sink, lifting up the leg of his cargo pants with one hand and pulling down his sock with the other to see a nasty purple color slowly overtaking his left foot as it swelled up. He was lucky that it wasn't deformed-looking, that meant that it would be broken, right? Yuuta's finger lightly brushed against the ugly purple blooming on his skin, hissing in pain. After examining it, he pulled his sock up and his pant leg down before gently setting his foot back down on the ground. He tried shifting most of his weight to the other foot to ease the pain, but he didn't want look like he was limping. He should probably head upstairs and rest before anyone saw this. They'll definitely blame Harue for this, she was the one who kicked him in the first place. But something about her doing that didn't sit right with Yuuta, it unnerved him:

It looked like she didn't even realize she almost broke his ankle.

Word count: 1-0-8-5