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)

My mama, lonely maid (Got her buns in the oven and she never got laid )

⚠ Trigger Warning: Implied Spousal Abuse ⚠

<You are a wonderful human being > = The twins' secret code.

***

Seika pokes her brother's shoulder to catch his attention, looking away from her toy trains to catch a glance at what he was drawing in his colouring book. In response, Shouto blinks, putting down his red crayon to face his twin.

<What? >, he asks, turning towards her, eyebrows furrowed in silent question.

<I'm bored,> is her reply before switching to spoken word, "Wanna play somethin' else?"

Shou-chan shrugs, "M'kay, but I chose this time," Seika nods, slightly impatient from lack of proper stimulation. "Let's play with blocks today," he suggests, mouth slightly parted and head tilted as though deep in thought.

" 'Kay," she hummed before turning to face their nanny, who just so happened to be on her phone. "Miss Sasaki?" The woman looked up from the device and down at the child.

"Could you please get our blocks?" Seika looks at her and watches as the woman's face twists into an unreadable expression before letting out a sigh of exasperation. Seika could have easily gotten them on her own, but the face Miss Sasaki made when she was annoyed was really funny*.

"Sure," Sasaki said through a strained smile as she walked over to the other side of the room to fetch the box of wooden toys. Slowly, almost passive-aggressively, she set the box down in front of the children before sitting down in her rocking chair and putting in her earphones. Seika turns to Shouto.

He shoots her a look, <Why'd you that? >

<Why not? > She smiled, drifting into a comfortable rhythm as she picked up a wooden block and the two began building.

Towns turned to cities, houses into castles, and before long half an hour passed. Seika was finishing the walls of her palace (she needed to find her toy dragon later, so he could guard the princess) when she is distracted by the low growl beside her. She turns towards Shouto, whose face twitched in discomfort.

<Hungry? > She asked, the corners of her mouth upturned in a small smile.

<Yeah. Wanna go downstairs and see if we can find any soba? > Shouto was already standing, hand outstretched to help pull her up from the ground. Once she had risen to her feet, she dusted off her grey t-shirt, grabbed Shouto's hand, and the twins made their way to the staircase.

While heading to the kitchen, the all too familiar sound of their parents fighting rang in her ears.

She tunes it out.

The heterochromatic girl turns to her brother, "Mother and Father are yelling again." She whispers, squeezing Shou-chan's hand just a little bit tighter.

"It's fine," He says briskly, his tone revealing his true thoughts on the matter. He knows that she knows, and that's okay. Let sleeping dogs lie, as Fuyumi would say. Shouto lets out a sigh and his posture relaxes, "They'll stop later."

She knows that.

(It's nice to hear him say it anyway)

"Yeah....." she smiles softly, suddenly feeling tired, "They will."

When as they pass through the hallways of their quarters and passed the room their mother was in. Father had left and Mother...well, she was crying. That was nothing new.