Routine

PROLOGUE

"I'm gonna catch you, Jax!" Taina Sazuki laughed to her little brother as she chased after him, her bare feet pounding against the grass in their back yard.

Jax let out a small giggle as he rounded a corner, dissappearing from Tiana's sight and, when she too rounded the corner of the house, her little brother was nowhere to be seen.

She stayed silent, listening to her surroundings for any sign of where he was before she heard small giggles from behind a nearby tree, causing the corners of her mouth to turn up into a small smile.

She crept towards the tree, being sure not to make a sound, and peered around it to see Jax leaning against it, covering his mouth to try and muffle the giggles.

He hadn't spotted her yet, so she took the opportunity to wrap her arms around his middle and pick him up, spinning him in the air and causing a small sqeal to escape his lips.

"Okay, you found me! You found me!" He laughed. She put him down, both of them falling to the ground while laughing but their laughter was soon interrupted by their parents voices yelling from inside the house.

"Don't you dare touch my children!" Their mother's voice, Caren, yelled.

"You don't deserve them!" Came their father, Axel's, voice.

Both of the children sat up, glancing at the house. Tiana saw her brother covering his ears, tears brimming his eyes as he squeezed them shut. She pulled him closer, placing her hands over his to help block out their voices.

"Shh, it's going to be okay. Just...don't listen. It'll be over soon," Tiana soothed as her brother sobbed. She was forced to hear her parents argue on but she was use to it because it had all but became a routine to her.

°°°

"PLEASE! YOU CAN'T TAKE HIM AWAY FROM ME!" Taina pleaded as she watched Jax being pulled towards a car by her father, tears streaming down his face as he cried out for his sister while Tiana struggled against her mother's grip.

"JAX!"

"TAINA!"

Jax broke out of his father's grip and ran to his sister, wrapping his small arms around her waist. "Please don't let him take me, Tiana!" He cried.

Tiana kneeled down and wrapped her arms around her brother's shaking form. "Jax, you have to be strong. I promise, I'll find you again," she whispered into his ear, tears streaming down her own face.

"Come on!" Their father sneered and pulled Jax out of his sister's grip, pushing him into the car.

"Remember, stay strong!" Tiana managed to call out as the door slammed shut and the car drove off, leaving Tiana alone with her mother.

"It was him or you, Tiana," her mother explained, refusing to meet her daughter's tearful eyes.

"So you decided to let a 9-year-old fend for himself!" Tiana yelled, outraged.

"Yes, I chose my daughter over a small, bratty boy!" Caren sneered, venom laced in her voice.

"How could you?! I hate you!" With that, Taina turned and ran down the road, not knowing where she was going but knowing she needed to clear her head.

°°°

"Promise we'll always be together, Tiana."

"I promise, Jax."

She had broken her promise. Her brother had been taken from her and there was nothing she could do about it. She felt like a failure, capable of doing nothing but standing to the side and watching.

She pulled her legs up on the park bench, crossing them and resting her folded hands on her lap. All she could do was stare down at her hands, not having any tears left to cry.

"Hey, Tiana!" A familiar, cheerful voice called out from a distance and, Tiana knew, the voice belonged to none other than her best friend, Runo Misaki.

Tiana only looked up as Runo approached her, not having the strength or the will to say anything. Runo's eyes widened when she saw the state her best friend was in, sitting down next to her and wrapping her arms around Tiana, not saying anything.

Even though Tiana thought that she couldn't cry anymore, she felt more tears slip down her cheek as she clung onto Runo's yellow crop top.

°°°

"What happened?" Runo finally asked her friend.

After Tiana had stopped crying, Runo had suggested getting something to eat and, realizing she hadn't eaten all day, Tiana had agreed. Now the two girls sat at a table at Runo's family restaurant, eating some food Runo's mom had prepared for them.

Tiana took in a deep breath and placed down her chopsticks but still continued to stare down at her plate.

"He took Jax," she said, bitting down on her lower lip for a second before continuing.

"My mother said that my father was going to take one of us, one way or another. So, she offered up Jax before I could do anything."

Runo looked at her friend sympathetically. She knew that Tiana came from a broken home but she had never thought that this would've been the outcome.

"I made a promise..." She chocked, squeezing her eyes shut. "I made a promise to him...that we would always be together. I-I broke that promise."

"This isn't your fault, Tiana. There was nothing you could've done."

"That's exactly the point! I COULDN'T DO ANYTHING TO STOP IT!" Tiana's voice echoed through the empty building.

They had closed up a while ago when Runo had brought her here, saying it was a slow day anyway and they might as well close up.

Runo stared at her shocked, not really being sure what to say. Realizing that she was probably making Runo uncomfortable, Tiana stood up.

"Thanks for the meal but I should probably go home. Even though she's a devil in disguise, I still don't want my mother to worry." With that, she walked out of the building, leaving behind a shocked Runo.

°°°

By the time Tiana had turned into her street, the sun had already set and the air had turned cold, causing her to shiver slightly even though it was in the middle of summer.

That's unusual...

She brushed off the strange feeling this night brought upon her and continued walking but she soon stopped when she noticed a strange card on the ground. She crouched down to pick it up, only for another card to fall dow next to it.

She raised a questioning brow before lifting her head to look up at the night sky, only to let out a gasp. Thousands of cards came falling down from the black sky like rain, not seeming to have a source.

Tiana slowly rose from her position, not taking her eyes off the sky. She held out both of her hands as a card came fluttering down towards her, landing neatly in her hand.

She eyed the symbols on the card strangely. There were six, each one with a different design and color and, she noted, each color was the color of an element. Red for fire, brown for earth, white for light, black for darkness, blue for water and green for wind.

She looked from the card and scanned the area, where people, mostly children, had come onto the street to see what was going on.

If only they knew what it all meant sooner...