Phoenix

1. Ambience

Damnation.

He really hated doing this, being subjected to the will of others. Well, that was actually an understatement compared to the worst that could come out of the day. Deep down within him, his conscience kept on promising him that the worst which was the inevitable was going to happen but he wasn't going to listen to it. No, he wasn't going to. It wasn't right after all these years, so why should it be now?

But there was just something about today's particular foreboding that disturbed him greatly. It was like his conscience was emphasizing greatly than usual and the feeling was irking. Talking about irking and irritating feelings, the action he was about to undertake was definitely quintessential to the aforementioned. But expressing his distaste of the action openly wasn't exactly polite or nice as it was one that was supposed to be loved greatly.

Arriving at the airport, he steered off by the right and eventually pulled over. Luckily for him, it was a weekday and not the weekend or a holiday where there was usually traffic at the airport - traffic both in form of a large number of cars and people, either arriving to pick up their loved ones or to travel.

Sighing for like the millionth time in the day, he put his finger to the ignition button and put off the car. He then opened the door and got out of the vehicle. However, it looked like his sojourn had been cut short as he noticed a certain figure approaching. He didn't exactly know if it was a good or a bad thing but one thing was for sure.

Today was definitely not going to be a good day.

"No need for that, we'd best be off." the figure said instantly, stopping him in his tracks as he put a foot out of the car. She then rolled her luggage to a stop behind the vehicle, clearly and speechlessly indicating for him to open up the boot. He got out of the car and walked to the boot of the car to stand beside her, so he could open the boot manually.

"You know, you don't have to sound like I'm the worst brother in the world." He smirked as he lifted the boot open and it made way. "I came here as fast as I could."

The girl, nonplussed and unmoved by his apology, carefully lifted her box into the car and finally gave him a quick glance with a smirk plastered all over. He was never good at reading facial expressions and she was always good at concealing annoyance. "What do you want me to say? You said it yourself." She paused and then walked over to the entrance of the passenger's seat upfront. "You came here as fast as 'you could'."

He smirked in return but still made his way to the other side of the vehicle to open the door for his sister. Of course, he could have done so from his other side of the vehicle, but he was only trying to make it up to her no matter how little the effect it would render on her current state. In fact, now that he noticed, it was only getting worse as he noticed her smirk was gradually turning into a frown.

She only sighed as he opened the door for her this time around and failed to open her mouth to make a comment. She looked up at him with another indiscernible look or so he thought. But whatever she was trying to convey, it was definitely not that she was enjoying the current charade.

He finally got back into the car with her and started the vehicle and took a cursory glance at her once more and found out she was fiddling with his fingers.

Now, he was worried.

His sister, Stephanie was definitely one of the brightest people he had met in his entire life and although he might not show it much but he loved her greatly and his other sister also. In fact, he loved his whole family, including his father and his brother-in-law. But the death of his mom some years ago had caused some friction between them all and they weren't just as close as they were before.