Conflicted (Brothers Conflict)

Chapter Four

           

A/N: Soooo we all know what's happening as far as who has gained new siblings, and umm Evie and Natsume are going to be painfully dumb/unobservant/dense about a lot of coincidences....for humorous purposes... hahaha.... just play along ^-^

On the day I left home, dad informed us he and the woman he was seeing, were going to be getting married, and he wanted us to move into the estate with her children, we were going to gain 13 siblings, all brothers. Because I'd be out of the country during the move Ema would have to move both of our belongings and deal with all those boys on her own. This didn't sit right with me and made me feel even more horrible, it was bad enough I lied to my dad and little sister about my real reasons for accepting my dad's offer to study abroad, now I was leaving her alone to deal with such a drastic change, though she assured me repeatedly that she'd be fine and was so happy at the idea of having a house full of family since we'd been alone so much growing up.

Juli promised he would protect Ema, or as he called her, Chii, with his life. As he was a tiny cute fluffy squirrel I wasn't all that confident in his capability. I made her swear to call me at any time day or night if she was ever uncomfortable or unsure about anything.

The morning of my flight, I'd asked Natsume to meet me at the park and surprised him by tackling him with a hug, which seemed to fluster him a bit, but I couldn't leave the country without at least giving him a hug goodbye as in such a short amount of time he'd become someone I really treasured.

I'd been in France for a little over a week and was still adjusting to the time change. Luckily for my dad, I was actually enjoying the culinary classes I was enrolled in and giving it my all. I wouldn't feel right if I went into it without trying my best.  Natsume had messaged me a few times throughout the week, which really helped me to cope with being on my own in a foreign country.

I woke up bright and early at 5am, Natsume would be having lunch around now, Japan was 8 hours ahead. I still went running with Natsume, though he didn't like the idea of me running around a foreign country at ten in the evening so that we could run together, but I was pretty stubborn.

My phone buzzed and I couldn't help but smile as I saw a message from Natsume.

N: Good Morning, just thought you'd like to know you've become somewhat famous in the office. One of the guys in accounting has some premier subscription fighting channel and has been showing everyone clips of your last match.

I paled. I hadn't thought of that! I calmed down after a moment, dad wouldn't watch it and Ema wouldn't want to spend extra money on some subscription for such a thing, so they wouldn't see, but I still worried someone might bring it up to them at some point, though it's not like I gave my full name, everyone just called me 'E-chan'

E: Please tell me I'm not on a billboard somewhere!

N: Not yet, but if you keep winning, you just might.

E: Pretty sure someone has to ask for my permission for that, I hope! So, did you tell all your coworkers you trained with me?

N: I need to talk to you about that, call me after class.

My heart dropped. Did I do something wrong? Was this the part where he ran away? Maybe after seeing me in the ring he decided he couldn't put up with me anymore.

Feeling somewhat perturbed, I went for a quick run before getting ready for my day and heading off to class. Worry, paranoia and rejection were my constant companions throughout the day as my mind played through awful scenarios of what Natsume wanted to talk to me about, each more drastic, far-fetched and worse than the last.