Marionette

Cosmos, Chapter Twenty Five - Arekuruu [荒れ狂う]

Amaya's patience was well and truly spent.

She'd already known that before she'd arrived home to wait for her siblings to return from school, but it was proven clear shortly afterwards.

She had changed into a pair of shorts and a long-sleeved shirt, discarded her belongings into her room and settled down on her bed for a few minutes – time enough to retrieve that novel Yuta had got her her last week.

It was immediately after she'd opened it up to her current page that the door of the house practically slammed open with a resounding bang.

'BIG SISTER MEOW!' Samuel practically shouted across the room, sheer excitement dripping from his voice. 'WE'RE HOME! LETS GO! LETS GO NOW!'

'Wait-- Sammie!' Reiko's voice called out from outside. 'Why are we running?!'

'WE HAVE TO CATCH BIG SISTER MEOW BEFORE SHE RUNS AWAY! I WANT TO SEE THE BIRDIES!'

Amaya carefully tucked the torn piece of notebook paper back into place to mark her page, before she let it drop onto the covers of her bed.

She was fine with excited, enthusiastic children.

After all, children were supposed to be happy.

But this was excessive, and it happened all the time.

If she didn't sort this out today, she was likely to explode at the blond the next time he opened his mouth about something like this.

And she did not want that, at all.

'BIG SISTER MEOW!' Samuel called at her door as he opened the door with far more force than she was pleased with, bringing Amaya to turn her head to look at him. 'WE'RE HOME NOW SO LETS GO!'

Instead of responding to his exclamation, Amaya's gaze instead shifted straight to the boy's feet.

'What are you doing wearing shoes inside?' Amaya asked slowly,

'We're going anyway!' Samuel responded innocently.

'Go take off your shoes at the door!'

'B-but--'

'Samuel!' Came Yuta's voice all of a sudden, before the blond was grabbed by the elbow and dragged away quickly. 'Take off your shoes! I keep telling you shoes aren't allowed on inside the house!'

'But that's not fair! We're going to see the birdies soon and I don't want to take them off if we're going soon!'

'We're not going right now! So calm down and take your shoes off!'

'WHAT?!'

As the disagreeing voices of her brothers died down slightly, Amaya buried her face in her hands and let out a low sigh.

Yes, this was going to be sorted out.

And she had a feeling none of her siblings were going to be happy with the assignment of "Rules and Chores" beyond taking shoes off at the door.

Amaya let out a breath as she picked herself up off her bed after a few moments, stashing the novel into her messenger bag before she headed back into the rest of the house.

There was no sign of her siblings anywhere in the living area of the house, however, she could hear footsteps upstairs, and Yuta's familiar nagging.

Even though Amaya knew how bad Yuta could get with his nagging at times, she found it more of a relief to hear it now.

It meant he was starting to get comfortable after his forced relocation earlier in the year.

But since Yuta could keep nagging for hours if he was agitated enough, Amaya decided it would be best to intervene now while she had an opportunity.