火と氷とわたしたちを結びつける約束(of fire, ice, and the promises that bind us)

For what it's worth (it was worth all the while)

Seika's earliest memories, like most people's, are all washed out and blurred together. Flashes of screaming and crying paint an unsavory picture not too different from her current life.

The main constant in the whirlwind of chaos that was her painfully young mind was Shouto.

He had always been there. In fact, she doubted either of them had a single memory of being apart. His hand had always been held in hers, freezing cold piercing through warm skin.

Shou-chan was quieter than she was, not by very much, just a bit. When he wants to be, he's so silent he could almost be mistaken for a ghost. Seika, despite her age, was self-aware, and knew that she could be very much the same way when their nannies were being stupid.

She also knows he's not a ghost, but it helps to feel his soft skin press against hers every time they held hands. It reminds her he's still there.

***

Seika doesn't know when quiet words and gentle whispers turned into subtle glances and tiny movements but they do, and she can't truthfully say that she minds.

It had started as a game, Shouto could read her easily and vice versa also was true. They wanted to try speaking without, you know, speaking.

In the beginning, the twins had stuck to simpler messages. A tap against the table to signify hunger, blinking twice to indicate anger. She and Shou-chan would work on their secret code for hours. In the tub when the nanny's bathed them, or in bed as they lay together.

Steadily, their language grows. Accommodating more words, more sentences, more emotions, more, more, more. Soon it's a staple in their communication. An ever-growing cipher only they could use. Speaking wasn't necessary anymore.

Fuyumi calls it cute, Natsuo calls it creepy, Shouto calls it convenient, and Seika......Seika calls it fun.

***

Shouto makes her feel warm, with his soft kisses and cool hands. It's different from Mothers consuming blizzards and Fathers engulfing heat.

Shouto is a lot like Mother, she contemplates, with his soft smile and kind eyes. She is young but she's not stupid, she knows that their family isn't happy. Even if she was oblivious, the nannies whisper so loudly that it's impossible to not know.

Her mother was kind, warm, (well, cold would be a better description she supposed) but... faded. Like she had been hollowed out and turned into this shell of a human being, always being walked on by her father.

Shou-chan wasn't washed out at all. He was bright and colorful, bursting with life.

Shou-chan was too good for this place.

His presence keeps her grounded and she never separates from him. And if Shouto isn't lying, and he isn't because if he was she would know, then he felt the same about her. So they do everything together, from eating, to bathing, to sleeping. Boundaries didn't exist between them, they never needed to.

Father was distant. Mother didn't really talk to her much, her other siblings were much the same. Shouto was different.

Shouto was the best, and she loved him dearly for it. More than anything. Even more than soba! And that was a whole damn lot.

A/N

Hey babes, hope you enjoyed the short chapter.

I'm trying to flesh out her character and I want it to be clear that Shouto feels more or less the same way about his sister at the core.

Oh! And they're like three and a half or something in this chapter.

I'm hoping to set the stage for their future relationship and I want you to see how they got to that point and where they started.

They are going to be mutually codependent in the most delicious of ways.

It's not one of my stories without a healthy dose of mentally ill/unstable characters.

Am I projecting? Probably :')

Have a nice day/night