fanfic; the first miracle; part 4

[acperience]

▶ Part 3

—

“She’s just being lazy!”

“She’s ill,” he replies, his tone taking on a sharp edge. His mother looks affronted at the response, before glancing at Guriko, lying on her bed, with a glare. Not taking his eyes off his mother, he pulls the blanket over Guriko, who watches the scene with guilty eyes.

“If you’re concerned about the work that needs to be done in the house, I’ll do them in her place,” he says, keeping his voice as level as possible without losing its firmness. “If that’s all, then leave. Guriko needs rest.”

His mother stares for a few moments, before turning on her heel and storming out of Guriko’s room. He doesn’t wince when the door is slammed shut and instead turns to Guriko, smiling softly.

“Guriko is sorry,” Guriko says, appearing as if she’s trying to burrow underneath the blanket and hide her shame—even though she has absolutely nothing to be ashamed for, he knows.

“Don’t be,” he says, reaching over to place a hand on her head. Like this, she seems so young and fragile, as if she could break at any moment. With her illness, that possibility is more real than he’d like to think about.

Still, he won’t let that happen. As he watches over his sister until she falls asleep, listening to the quiet sound of her breathing, he vows—

He will never let anything happen to her for as long as he lives.

Get up.

Slowly, Minato opens his eyes. A sliver of sunlight peaks in through his curtains, as the only light in the otherwise dim room. Rolling over in his bed, he glances at the clock, lying near the cellphone strap Yukari gave him on his bedside table. The numbers, glowing red in their ever-mechanical fashion, read 10:47 in the morning. Probably later than he should be sleeping in, particularly as the blankets mixed in with the summer heat start to become uncomfortable, but he can’t bring himself to get up. Not even the worry that his parents will be angry at him for getting up so late is enough to persuade him to arise, as drowsiness continues to take a hold of him.

Walter is probably up by now, Minato thinks—sometimes, it feels like the other boy doesn’t even sleep. As for Guriko, Minato knows that with the nightmares that plague her, sleep is hardly something she cares to indulge in for too long. He’s likely the only one still in bed.

He really should get up.

Unfortunately, his body says no.

—On the other hand, apparently his little sister says yes as she slams open the door and storms into his room. Under his breath, Minato lets out a sigh of relief. If Guriko is willing to make so much noise, their parents must not be home.

Wordlessly, she walks over to his window, where she shoves apart the curtains, letting light stream through and fill the room. Minato squints, before rolling over and pulling the covers over his head. That doesn’t deter Guriko though, who simply heads over to his bed and pulls them back down.

“… It’s too early.”

“It’s almost eleven,” Guriko replies immediately. “You can’t use that excuse on Guriko.”

“Mmmrph.”

“Don’t ‘mmmrph’ Guriko,” Guriko says, tugging at Minato’s arm. “Get up. Guriko needs to talk to Nato-nii.”

“In a few more minutes…”

Guriko sighs, and though Minato can’t see her, he can imagine her putting her hands on her hips.

“Very well,” Guriko says. “Guriko shall grant Nato-nii a few more minutes. In the meantime, she’ll go fetch Ter-nii.”

Listening to the sound of her footsteps as they leave the room and head down the hall, Minato pulls the covers back over his head to block out the sunlight. Though tiredness still covers him like another layer, he finds himself unable to sleep and instead listens.

“What are you doing here…!?”

“Come with Guriko, Ter-nii.”

“No.”

“If you won’t, then Guriko will… gouge out your eye! With this spoon!”

It doesn’t take long for Guriko to return to Minato’s room.

You can’t sleep now.

Guriko drags them to the tree in the garden, almost in the literal sense of the word, between Minato’s obvious exhaustion and Walter’s own that he attempts to hide. Plopping them under the shade, Guriko places her hands on her hips, just as Minato pictured before.

“We have a problem.”

Walter looks away, blatantly uninterested. Minato, at the very least, has the decency to pay attention, even if he wishes he could sleep right now.

“Do we?” he asks. Guriko nods gravely as she leans forward. Despite being the youngest, as the only one standing, she towers over them.

Well, at least it’s cool in the shade.

“The problem is you two,” she says, pointing at them. That at least earns a glance from Walter, as he crosses his arms.

“And how?” he asks, almost muttering. Minato nods in support of Walter’s question. Guriko shakes her head, as if the two of them were her younger siblings, rather than the other way around. Then again, there’s a sense of maturity in her eyes, of a child perhaps dealing more than someone her age should. When she stands like this, looking down on them with a stern expression, it’s almost easy to forget how young she truly is.

It’s a strange thing to consider as her older brother and someone who’s watched her grow up, but sometimes, next to her, Minato feels so young.

Maybe it’s the sleepiness talking.

—And as if reading his mind, Guriko looks directly at him.

“Nato-nii is constantly sleepy,” she says. “Don’t fall asleep now either.”

“I won’t,” he tells her.

To be honest, he’s never been the most awake of people for as long as he can remember. The occasional urge to sleep in class, a nap every now and then, sometimes staring at the world through half-closed eyes—Minato’s always been somewhat lethargic by nature. However, he realizes that it’s been worse of late, with it feeling as if all his energy is being sapped up, absorbed away by a sponge. It fluctuates, like his body can’t decide how much strength it should have, with his energy levels rising considerably when away from home and with his friends. It occurs to Minato that perhaps there is something wrong with him, but he’d rather not worry Guriko—and he’s aware that their parents would be less than thrilled if he saw a doctor for something like this.

He’ll simply have to bear with it, it seems.

Guriko looks at him for a few moments, before turning her attention towards Walter, sitting beside Minato with his arms crossed.

“And you,” she says, as Walter stares back with an unreadable face. “You keep collapsing. Can you explain that?”

As Minato promised, he informed Guriko of Walter’s previous incident, despite the sharp look he’d earned for it. He’d been somewhat surprised when Guriko had failed to act on it then, though in hindsight, he supposes that he should’ve thus been prepared for something like this.

Walter merely looks away with what Minato knows to be his this-is-a-waste-of-my-time expression (though, granted, said expression is often hard to distinguish between his other ones). Guriko watches him for a few moments, before she crouches down to meet Walter at eye level.

“Is Ter-nii sick?” she asks, her voice quieter.

“I’m fine.”

“Ter-nii, you could have a hole in your chest and you would say that you’re fine.”

“She’s right,” Minato comments off-handedly. Walter lets out a sound of derision.

Inwardly, Minato goes through a list of everything that collapsing might indicate—a rather long list, unfortunately, making it difficult to decipher what’s wrong with Walter. It could honestly be nothing more than exhaustion—though at that level, that wouldn’t quite be ‘nothing’—but neither Minato nor Guriko is willing to take that risk and leave it be. Considering Walter’s personality, it’d likely end up with a bigger problem they started with.

Minato lets out a light sigh. If Walter hears him, he makes no sign of it.

Guriko opens her mouth, but before she can interrogate Walter any further, a sound rings out.

—The door.

They all tense for a moment, before logic kicks in. Their parents have keys, after all, and Minato has never known them to be forgetful enough to leave them behind.

“I’ll get it,” he says, rising. Back slightly slouched, he walks at his usual easy pace, though it’s hastened somewhat to reach the front door in a timely manner as he moves through the house. The doorbell doesn’t ring again after the first time, to which Minato can only hope that he isn’t too slow.

Fortunately, that’s not the case when he opens the door. Standing on the front step is a familiar blonde-haired girl, smiling gently.

“Hello,” Shirley says, bowing her head slightly. In the sunlight like this, she seems to shine brighter than Minato’s ever seen her. “Is… Is Walter home?”

“He is,” Minato affirms, tilting his head to one side. “What brings you here today, Shirley-san? You don’t usually come here…”

Belatedly, he remembers that that’s because she was always too ill to leave the house. A sense of guilt drapes over him when he realizes how insensitive that could’ve come across, but luckily, Shirley doesn’t seem to be offended by the remark.

“Well, I mean…” Shirley says, her voice trailing off as she looks away shyly. “He hasn’t seemed so well this past while, so I thought I should check on him and see how he’s doing. I’m not being a bother, am I?”

“Not at all,” Minato replies, smiling softly. “It’s nice to see you. I’m sure that Walter will be glad to see y—”

“Lady Shirley?”

—Speak of the devil. Minato looks over his shoulder to see Walter a few feet behind him, looking around him to see their guest.

“Ah, Walter!” Shirley says, also peering around Minato. “How are you doing…?”

“That’s not important,” Walter says, brushing past Minato, who would like to argue that it is. “You shouldn’t be here. Did you walk all the way here?”

Shirley looks crestfallen. “Should I… have not come?”

Minato can’t help but smile a tad at the ever-subtle way Walter’s expression softens. “… It’s not that. But in your condition, you shouldn’t leave your house like this.”

“I’m fine!” Shirley insists. “I’ve been doing really well lately. My family’s even starting to think that my illness is gone…”

Walter’s face changes in a way that Minato can’t quite detect. He would think it to be concern, except he notices that, almost imperceptibly, Walter’s body relaxes.

“Still, you should be careful.”

Shirley looks uncertain for a few moments, as if debating something, before staring at Walter straight in the eye. “… But what about you, Walter? You don’t seem to be feeling well recently.”

Sure enough, Minato notices that Walter looks paler than he did just a while ago. To that, Walter opens his mouth, before closing it again. His eyes shut for a moment—too long to merely be a blink—before he glances away. Finally, he speaks.

“… Excuse me for a moment,” he says, seeming to have to force the words out. As soon as he finishes talking, he turns on his heel and quickly walks away.

“Walter?” Minato and Shirley say at the same time, watching his disappearing back. They then look at each other, with Minato shrugging—and then, after a pause, both follow after Walter. Though they’ve already lost sight of him, it hardly takes long to find him.

Even behind closed doors, the sound of retching is difficult to miss.

Minato stands in front of the bathroom door for a few seconds, before deciding that privacy doesn’t matter much here. Turning the knob without hesitation, he opens the door to the sight that he expected to see but didn’t want to.

Like with Guriko, it’s sometimes easy to forget how young Walter is. With the way he stands straight, remaining stoic and distant from others, he’s always given off an adult air. Hunched over the toilet, however, as he vomits into it—none of that applies here. Right now, he’s a human boy and, above all, Minato’s younger brother.

You have to protect him.

Walter shoots him a brief glare before he returns to his less-than-savoury business. Minato doesn’t waste any time in walking over to him, before gently pulling the other boy’s bangs away from his face as Walter retches. With his free hand, Minato rubs circles on Walter’s back until he finishes throwing up. He can feel Walter tense at the touch, but he doesn’t pull away. Minato knows Walter will hate this memory—this display of weakness—later, but Minato couldn’t care less about that.

“Leave.”

“No.”

Walter can resist as much as he wants. No one’s going to leave him alone. Not Shirley, not Guriko, and certainly not Minato.

—

▶ Part 5