*Sena pov*
Yuki came back in after grabbing another shirt and pair of shorts from her hoard. Takuto looked tired just watching the carefree girl while Elias resigned to his fate as owner of the walk-in mobile closet.
Once we were all relaxing in the living room in our respective seats we started chatting about normal topics and what Elias and I had missed at school, which apparently wasn't much.
“Sena! Can you come help us with the groceries?” Dad calls out after the door clacks open.
“Coming!” I yell back and put on a pair of slides. “Anyone want to come help?”
“I’ll come.” Takuto stands up and stretches lightly before meeting me in the hall.
“Cool. I think us four should be fine to get everything, you two can stay in here for now.”
“Thanks, Taky! I’m a little too weak to do manual labor, but you’re perfect for it!” The energy goblin calls out as we head out the door. I’m pretty sure I heard Elias stifle a laugh and chastise her too.
It doesn’t take long to get the groceries in, just one trip for all four of us. Takuto managed to get loaded up with the most out of all of us though thanks to all those muscles he’s so proud of. Yuki took a look at him when he entered the room and giggled before calling him a camel.
I can’t entirely blame her for the reaction as it was kinda funny looking.
“You can just put those bags down on that counter, dear.” My mom tells him after I set down my few bags on the granite countertop.
“Yes ma’am.” He politely responds before doing as told.
“Still as polite as ever I see. Quite refreshing after living with this daughter of ours.” Dad cackles while getting the stove up to temp.
“Hey! I’m polite!”
“Honey, not so loud in the house!” My mom chastises me with a smirk.
“Uhg! Why are you two picking on me?” I glare at the two adults trying to hide their grins.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about my lovely daughter.”
“My heart aches at these false accusations!” Dad feigns chest pain while faking a grimace.
My mom and I burst into laughter at the sight before I remembered what happened earlier. My dad clutching his heart as if having a heart attack just makes me feel bad about how Yun must have felt during her own. She nearly died during it too.
Mom must’ve noticed my mood drop so she moved over to give me a side hug. “Cheer up dear, there’s no reason to get all sad when everything’s alright. Takuto, would you mind grabbing the other two to help set the table. After we eat we’ll go over what I’m sure everyone’s waiting for.”
He nods at her request, pats my shoulder, and walks on into the living room to gather our friends.
My mom moves to the table to assist the three friends of mine in getting prepped, while I stay with my dad to help cook. Within thirty minutes, and after everyone else had moved to the living room again to wait for dinner and chat, the spaghetti we’d made was ready.
“Ooh! That smells amazing!” Yuki nearly drools as she sees lids coming off of pots.
“Hehe. Thank you, Yuki. We appreciate it, the sauce is a family recipe that’s been passed down on Sena’s father’s side of the family for a few generations.”
It really is a good sauce, I probably look similar to Yuki right now. Luckily I can hold back my drooling much better than she can.
“If you all want to grab your drinks, we’ll bring the food to the table. We have a few different juices and sodas in the fridge and a water purifier as well.” Dad chimes in while we all file into the kitchen.
“I’ll take apple juice if you’ve got it, Sena.” Elias says as he walks over to me with his cup. “I imagine Yuki will want the same.”
“Yep!” Is all I get while she stares at the pot of meat sauce being set on the dining table.
“We do, I drink it too so I make sure we keep it stocked.” Apple juice and lemonade are my favorite drinks besides water. Can’t beat a nice glass of cold crystal clear liquid after all.
Elias and I grab a few types of drinks to bring to the table and start pouring them for whoever wants them. My parents both have a little wine and a glass of water, Takuto goes for water as well, finally Elias, Yuki, and I all get apple juice. This does a number on the bottle though, I’ll have to head to the store close to the school after class this week.
Dinner is a quiet affair as we focus on our plates. The others look enraptured by the meal and I can’t blame them. I’d grabbed seconds first which prompted Yuki and Takuto to get their own. My parents just sip from their drinks while we all chat and throw in the occasional question about how their families are.
Fifteen minutes pass like this and soon we’ve all got rounded stomachs and slight smiles on our faces. I get up and gather a few plates while my father does the same, we lightly wash everything off and stick it all in the dishwasher for later, thus we soon head back to the table and sit down to start the real reason we all gathered at our house today.
“So, as I’m sure you’re all aware, the main reason we invited you all here today isn’t just to socialize. Though I’m glad we can all catch up like this, and we’d love it if you all came over more often. Especially after Yun gets discharged.” My dad decides to start the conversation with a serious but kind tone.
“Ah, so you guys really are adopting her then, huh?” Yuki pipes up with a question.
“Did we never officially tell you all? My, I’m sorry for that. To answer your question, we are.” Mom responds this time, I honestly don’t recall if we told them or not. I just figured we did but never actually checked.
“I guess she can’t really be sent to any blood related family she has after what happened…”
“Exactly. It’s far too risky as we don’t know how far the abuse went involving others. We’ve yet to get involved with any extended family, but I’m sure after the court appearance things will get hectic.”
“I hadn’t thought of that…” Elias mutters.
“There is one odd thing though; there has been no talk of any family members from Rachel’s side over all the years we’ve known her. We have met a few members of her dad’s side, but we aren’t that worried about them. What concerns us is that the police have started looking into Rachel’s family and seem to have found very little overall.”
“What would that mean for Yun?” I perk up as this is news to me as well.
“We aren’t really sure yet, but from the looks of it, anything really. Until we get full legal custody, which we’ve already applied for and the city’s working on, they can’t share that much with us. I suspect it won’t be as simple as Rachel just being from the countryside though.”
“...” I’m not sure what to say so I keep quiet and ruminate over that.
“Well, that aside, Dr. Grey has said she’ll assist us with the process should anything come up. She’s honestly been such a blessing.”
Mom seems to think highly of the doctor, and I can’t blame her. She was super nice and seemed to hold sway within the hospital system too.
“Back to the main topic though,” Dad starts to get the ball rolling once more. “Let’s start from this morning I suppose.”
From there he explained the supposed nightmare, the ensuing heart attack, Yun being rushed into emergency surgery, and finally what was talked about when we got out of school and went to the hospital. Mom and I would interject a few times to add points he missed or we thought were helpful.
The fun mood from earlier was replaced by a somber one pretty quickly. It didn’t help that after we finished telling them of all the physical things that had happened, we had to mention what we heard Yun say in her sleep.
“S-she really said that?” Yuki's eyes were watering so I moved over a little to hug her.
“Yeah… We would’ve missed it too if El and I hadn’t wanted to check on her for ourselves.”
The table stayed silent for a moment before Elias picked up where we left off. “After that whole situation, Dr. Grey seemed even more inclined to get her into therapy or counseling of some sort. Yun was apparently pretty against the idea herself, but had agreed to a session or two in the end. When she wakes up, I believe we should encourage her to go along with it. If all of us advocate for her to do so, she may be more willing.”
“That was one of the things I was going to mention.” My dad nods towards Elias. “As of now, they aren’t too sure of what her mental state is currently looking like. Though I wouldn’t be surprised if she woke up very differently from how we last saw her.”
“My aunt’s mentioned that extreme ptsd victims have a very hard time returning to normal life.” Takuto spoke up from his near silent vow during the conversation. “She’s dealt with a lot of unfortunate people, so I trust she knows what she’s dealing with. I asked my dad to see if she can come over and let me know what to expect, as roughly as she can of course.”
“That’s a good idea, maybe we can have her and Dr. Grey sit down with all of us at a later date to give us a crash course on how we can help. I already know it’ll be quite difficult based on some of the examples of trauma I’ve seen back when I was working.”
Dad had indeed seen a lot of unfortunate things happen to people he was close with, or seen them do things they’d rather not do. Some never recovered he said, while others would be completely fine. It was a coin toss at the end of the day.
Takuto ended up speaking longer with Elias and my dad about future opportunities to help. While they were doing as such, I saw Yuki had started to feel a little better.
“Yuki, you wanna help me get the extra futon out and set it in my room? We’ll have the guys stay in the spare room while you stay with me.”
“Really?! Yes!” Any sad mood still stuck in the girl was gone as soon as I finished talking.
“Yep! It’s still pretty early but I’d rather we get everything ready now rather than when we’re tired.” I then stood up and asked her to follow me. Mom had by this point gone to her study to work on a few projects she had going on and left the rest of us to fend for ourselves until we went to bed.
“Nice, you guys want to watch a movie in a bit?” Yuki called out to me and the guys as she stood up to head out with me.
“That sounds fun, we’ll finish up our little planning and move to the spare room to set up for these two as well then.” Looks like my dad wanted to join in too, we wouldn’t ban him from it either as, the more the merrier.
“Sounds good to me.” Both boys nodded back while one answered.
Leaving them to their strategizing, I took the small girl with me to get her bedding prepared. All we had to do was fold the futon I had pushed off to the side of my room down into a bed shape and give her a few blankets and a pillow from my closet. After a few minutes of doing so, we were finished and on our way to the living room. We passed by the spare room the two guys would be staying in on the way and found them finished as well. Now as a party of four, as our fifth member went to ask mom if she wanted to join, we quickly arrived at the sofas in front of an admittedly large tv. In our down time, most of us lounge around the living room while doing our own activities. We try to stay to ourselves yet keep a healthy balance of family activities thrown in.
Tonight wasn’t our typical movie night, but it worked nonetheless as mom joined us. Apparently, she finished writing up a guideline for a few chapters of her next novel, she mentioned something about getting inspiration earlier so I was wondering what that was about. We then hopped on Metflix, the renowned streaming service, and searched for a movie. We ended up picking a pretty lighthearted comedy to raise our moods a little, which we desperately needed after the past couple of days.
The film we chose ended up being pretty corny, but that’s the fun type to watch with friends. Bad movies were the best for hangouts.
I’d make sure we got more than our fill of these peaceful events once Yun came to live with us… At the very least I’d always be by her side, whether she wanted me there or not.
“Ahh. That was pretty fun, I had my reservations at the start to be honest. But I liked it anyway.” My mom stretched and let out a yawn while complimenting our choice.
“Same here, I haven’t actually watched a comedy in a while too. A nice change of pace.” Dad was similarly into it.
“I think we’ll turn in for the night, kids. We’ve had a rather busy day and need some rest. Don’t hesitate to wake us up if you run into any problems though.” She said while grabbing a cup and filling it with water from the kitchen.
“I doubt we’ll need anything but we’ll keep it in mind, thank you Ms. Meyer.” Ever the gentleman, Elias was the one to accept their offer.
“Mn.” Takuto agreed.
“Aww.” Mom stopped as she walked towards their room when she saw Yuki passed out and curled into a ball at my side. “Isn’t she the most adorable little girl you’ve ever seen, honey?”
“Yeah, why can’t you be as innocent and pure as her, Sena?” And of course dad started his teasing again.
“Oh?” I glared at him slightly while a smile crept up my face. “Who’s the one who said ‘That’s my daughter! See, I told you she took after you, honey!’ Hmm?”
He paled a little as mom’s head snapped towards him.
A smile very similar to the one on my face appeared on hers as she took on a different tone. “Oh~? Do you not think I’m cute, honey?”
“Uhh.” At this point you could see him trying to plot an escape route. Though that wouldn’t do much as she just grabbed his shoulder.
“We’re going to the bedroom to have a talk. Good night, kids!”
“Nooo! It wasn’t my fault! You’ll pay for this, Sena! You’ll payyyyy-” The sound of a door closing cuts him off.
“Pffft. Hahaha!” I can’t manage to keep my laughter in anymore and burst into giggles.
“Pfft.” The other two awake ones try their hardest as well but fail in the end.
“Eh?! What’re you guys laughing about?! What happened?!” The ball shaped girl unraveled herself as it looks like she got spooked when we started laughing. How she managed to sleep through a comedy confuses me a little.
“N-nothing. Pfft. Just my parents being dumb.”
“No need to worry Yuki, we weren’t laughing at you.” Elias says before thinking for a moment. “Though it did start because of you, so maybe we are laughing at you.”
“Eh?! What was said about me?! Tell me!”
“Nope~! It wasn’t a big deal anyway, besides, aren't you ready for bed, little cat?”
She gives me a confused look to which I just point at her shirt. She put her sleeping clothes on before the movie and was currently wearing a pair of soft looking near form fitting shorts paired with an oversized top. Both ‘coincidentally’ had cute illustrations of animated cats printed all over.
“You were also curled up in a ball after you passed out next to me.”
Her cheeks flush a little before she pouts at me. “Cats are cute, and I’m cute, so it makes sense that we match each other!”
Ah, she’s embraced it and become one with the cat.
So envious.
“Hard to argue with that logic. You ready for bed? What about you two?”
Elias answers while Takuto nods at me. “We are, we’ll be heading to bed shortly after you two. I wanted to fill him in a little more on some things I wanted to do for Yun later.”
“Oh, awesome. If anything I can do comes up, don’t hesitate to let me in on it.” I’d always be up for helping her, no matter how hard I’d need to work.
“C’mon Sena, let’s go to bed. Besides, she's gonna be living with you. There’s hardly anything more you can do than house and keep her safe.” Yuki had started pulling on my sleeve while giving me puppy eyes.
“I guess…” I guess they're right about that. If I end up burning myself out while trying to help her it could backfire. “Still though, you know what to do if I need to help. Let’s go, Yuki.”
The two boys bid us a goodnight so we can finally get to bed. We both enter the room with me staying by the door and lightswitch as she gets directly into bed.
“Lights going off, you all tucked in, kitty cat?”
“Mew!”
“...”
“I-I don’t know why I did that… Turn off the lights!” Instead of facing her shame, the cat orders me to plunge the room into darkness so I can’t see her growing blush.
“It was cute so you get a pass for that.” I comment while walking through the dark room with practiced ease.
“S-shush!” The kitty hisses.
“Heh.”
A few minutes passed as the room stayed silent. I’m not one of those people who needs a fan to sleep or white noise for that matter. Yuki put in earbuds right after the lights went out so I get the feeling she usually has some sort of background sound when she sleeps.
Ten minutes later and I’m still sitting awake staring at the ceiling. I just can’t find the will to close my eyes and let rest take me. Eventually, the rustling of covers tickles my ears and draws my attention over towards the futon.
When I look over I lock eyes with Yuki who takes her earbuds out.
“What’s up? Can’t sleep?” I ask.
“Yeah… Just can’t seem to get those pesky thoughts gone, y’know.”
“Haa. I wish I didn’t know what you mean. So much happened today yet so little, it’s hard to process…”
“I know.”
We let silence prevail for a moment before she picks the conversation back up with a question.
“Sena, can I ask you something personal?”
“Of course, what is it?”
“...” She takes a minute to formulate her question. “What’re you gonna do about your, uh, y’know, when Yun officially becomes your sister.”
“H-huh? W-what do you mean?” What was that question?! Why would she ask something like that… Unless she knew how I felt about Yun…
“Sena, I’m not an idiot.” Her giggle rings out softly. “I’ve known you’ve had a crush on Yun for a long time now. You didn’t think you were hiding it super good did you?”
“... Haaa.” I bring my arm out from under the covers and pinch the bridge of my nose. “I did think I was hiding it pretty well. When’d you figure it out?”
“About two years ago.”
“What?!” I sit up and stare at her in surprise. “That’s pretty much just a year after we met!”
“Yep, and I had a year to watch your goofus self act all wacky around hi- her while you were clearly feeling things for her. What I was confused about at the time was why you liked her, when you always said you had no interest in boys. Not like the other girls though as you showed no attraction to boys. Only Yun.”
“Uhg.” I really had acted weird back then now that I look back on it. I always liked her, but only recently had I started to really think about her in that way. “To answer your question, I don’t know.”
“I see...” She purses her lips to think for a few moments. “In my opinion, you should feel her out a little and see how she feels about you. Not soon though. There’s no way she could deal with the stress of her best friend being in love with her on top of all this. Even if she one hundred percent felt the same way back, it would be rough.”
“...” Minutes pass before I respond, thank god Yuki’s patient. “Do you think she feels anything for me?” Hesitantly I ask Yuki the dreaded question.
“... I can’t say for certain, but I think there’s at least a basic attraction. It helps that she’s been around you pretty much all her life. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say her parents, in their own sick delusions, shipped you with her. They tried to delude themselves into thinking she would be the perfect young man. There’s no way she’d be allowed to date a guy, even with how well society has evolved to handle such relationships. Nothing gets past insanity.”
“Yeah… Even if she doesn’t feel the same way, I’ll still do everything in my power to help her… As her sister. Her wellbeing and safety is my number one priority.”
My response seemed to give Yuki what she wanted as she doesn’t comment any further and turns back around to plug her earbuds in.
A few quiet minutes pass before my consciousness fades and I’m thrust into dreamland.
Thank you for the chapter.