Aiko didn't cry. She whimpered and tears rolled down her eyes, but she held in her urge to ball. Her arms were cut in a dozen places, flesh blood ran down her dress. None of the cuts were deep enough to expose bone and at first glance, nothing important was cut. Fuzen would probably thank whatever God laid in heaven for that if he wasn't freaking out. Fuzen may hate this little girl, but he also feels guilty about how he's acted. Seeing her in such a state...

He used all of his strength and picked her up, he heaved as he quickly placed on the kitchen counter, the cleanest place in the whole house. Fuzen grabbed Aiko's shoulders and said, 

"stay here." before running off towards the bathroom. He scoured the cabinets and found no alcohol, he did find a package of band-aids, but nor gauze. The cuts weren't deep, but they were long.

"Dammit." Fuzen cursed as he rushed back towards the kitchen with a pair of tweezers in hand. He wanted to pick out any glass that was left in her, but he couldn't see clearly because of the blood. Aiko continued to sniffle. He looked around the kitchen and found a fresh new roll of paper towels, he eyed the little girl for a moment thinking, 'It's a good thing you're so responsible.' She had probably bought it to help her cleanup when she made herself sandwiches. Fuzen grabbed a couple of towels and dabbed away at the blood. Aiko winced in pain, but after some time, fuzen could finally see. He picked out several pieces of glass and threw them in an empty cup. 

Fuzen did not know much about medicine, but he knew that if he left her wounds like this they would be infected. It might not be a huge problem if it wasn't for the place that he lived. Fuzen cursed himself. He didn't have any antiseptic, but he did have Sake. He pulled out a bottle and poured it onto a fresh paper towel. 

"This is going to sting." Aiko nodded smally and Fuzen went ahead a dabbed her cuts. She flinched every time the paper towel hit her skin, but did not scream in pain. When he was done, he left the kitchen again, scouring the house for something to wrap her arms in. All the clothes were dirty, sheets too. Paper towels break too easy, band-aids would not cover the wound, and he had no gauze. Fuzen stopped for a moment and looked at his parents room. Maybe there was something in there. In truth, this was probably the only room in the house besides Aiko's that was clean. Fuzen didn't ever bother to go in there unless it was for money. 

He stepped in and started making a mess of a room that had been in pseudo stasis since his father died. In a chest below the bed, he found some extra curtains. The box was shut tight enough, so the curtain was fairly clean. Fuzen swiftly took his knife to it and cut it into strips. He headed back to the kitchen to see Aiko still sitting there obediently. He looked over the wounds again and cleaned them up once more before wrapping them up tightly with his curtain-cum-gauze. He tied the ends and asked Aiko if they were too tight. He wanted to stop the blood from leaving the body, he didn't want to stop it from getting into her arms. Her asked her multiple times, because he saw how strong she was being about the whole situation. He didn't want her to lie to him about this, so he could only keep asking. When he was sure she was ok, he threw her on his back and started unsteadily marching towards the hospital. It was better to have the professionals deal with this.

For the first half of the journey, there was just as much noise as there was when they came back from Hiroha. However, eventually Aiko started to giggle. Frustrated out of his wits, Fuzen asked with annoyance apparent in his voice, 

"What's so funny? Do you like being cut?"

"No," she giggled, "Its just funny." Fuzen's eyebrows furrowed, and he asked in half exasperation and half confusion,

"What is?"

"Big Brother, my legs are fine."

...

Fuzen stopped walking. He took a deep breath and placed her down while saying, 

"Then why the hell am I carrying you? Walk your damn self." Fuzen started heading off towards the hospital in a huff, while Aiko was giggling uncontrollably.

She followed behind him closely and watched his back in thought.  The sun shined brightly in front of them while Aiko slowly asked,

"Big Brother, do you blame me for hitting Chizu?" Fuzen stopped walking for a moment, and spoke as soon as he regained his stride. What was he supposed to say? 'Yes, you interrupted my drinking?' Fuzen decided to humor the girl when he thought back to how he pushed her into the glass. He remembered the blood. He remembered how quiet she was. She had been through a lot, all she asked was a question. She deserved at least that much.

"Don't bother about what I do or don't blame you for. You should look into your heart and ask yourself if what you did was right. I'm not going to wag my finger at you for this, God knows some bitches need beat with books. Just try not to bother me about it all the time, ok?"

"Ask myself?"

"Other people's words are just buzzing unless you care very deeply about their thoughts. Otherwise, do what you think is right, isn't that enough?"

"Ok!" Aiko skipped up to Fuzen and grabbed his hand. He wanted to pull his hand away, but... 

Fuzen sighed, thinking about all that had happened today, he would indulge her this one time. 

A brother and a sister walked down the road hand in hand, their shadows stretched by the sun. The brother's hunched back and gaunt skin were hardly the picture of health. His skinny body looked like it would be blown away with just a gust of wind. The heaving of his lungs were interrupted only by the coughing fits he would get after smoking. Even, so the little girl who held his hand looked up to him like he could carry the world on his shoulders.