Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
DESPITE THE INITIAL DISREGARD OF TAKEO'S OFFER TO EAT, partially and almost completely due to the fact that Chizue was overtaken by emotions too large for any teenage girl regarding her mother, she decided to join her brother and his friend to express her gratitude at their presence.
Though the pit in her stomach didn't subside as she continued to throw food down her throat, the space it occupied certainly began to fill up. Takeo, who took more after their mother, pretended to ignore his younger sister's qualms and issues, and chatted animatedly. But his eyes were sharp as they bore into Chizue when she wasn't looking, trying to dissect the troubles plaguing her without her knowing. An older brother's duty was to silently resolve the problems that had solutions, even though he complained and liked to pretend that Chizue was no more to him than a disposable piece of gum in his back pocket.
Chizue, who currently walked the bridge between anger and understanding, was uncharacteristically silent. She only partially paid any mind to Inasa, whose hands were flying in every direction as he mimicked her during the obstacle course or the cavalry battle.
"I didn't even do that," She'd quip occasionally when his larger-than-life palms made too grand of a movement, rolling her eyes.
To that, his response would be something along the lines of, "I know what I saw, Minami Junior!" or a hearty pat to the shoulder that nearly sent Chizue reeling.
During the half-hour break, Kato Noa made no effort to pop out of the corner as Chizue had hoped, foolishly believing that her mother was indeed late and not altogether absent. Takeo did his best to distract Chizue from the growing weariness to her eyes and the droop of her already strained smile, but it was no use.
Minami Chizue already felt utterly defeated.
An eternity spent trailing after the waterlogged footprints of her mother, erasing their lineage with a power not all her own, Chizue yearned for hands that held — a warm body that stayed. She didn't fear the water when it was her mother's, didn't fear the weight of her sins clinging to her hair when it was Kato Noa holding the towel to her head.
Takeo pressed a palm against her shoulder in brotherly fashion — not enough to be affectionate, but enough to make his presence weigh heavily against the plane of her ribcage. It wasn't their mother's eyes that mirrored his eerily similar face when they crinkled to accommodate his good-natured grin, too dull to be true. Instead, he looked more like their father. And for a split second, Minami Chizue and Minami Takeo both cursed the man who hid beneath their childish features.
"You're not giving up, are you?" He asked, snarky and comforting all at once. Chizue scoffed. Not even the crushed hopes of his little sister could make Takeo lose his bite.
