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)

Welcome To The Family Jewels

The day starts off much like any other.

She and Shou-chan wake up and Mrs. Fujimori bathes them, eyes distant and sad as she watches them play in the tub when she thinks they aren't looking.

But Seika notices. She always does.

It's mid-February and had stormed last night, leaving the twins more than excited for the opportunity to play with the freshly fallen snow outside. So when they finish their lessons the nannies swaddle them up in hot, stuffy jackets, and they run outside, bright-eyed and cheerful.

They into the snow with Miss Sasaki walking slowly behind them with watchful eyes as they run farther ahead in the yard.

They build a snowman and name her (yes, she was a girl miss sasaki) Yōko and Seika quickly bolts back inside to find one of the hair accessories she has but never wears. She settles on a baby blue hairbow and goes back outside just as quickly, ignoring the amused stares of two other nannies as she bolts through the door.

When they finish, Shouto grabs her hand and pulls her forward, bursting into a sprint, and Seika grins as she trails behind him, paper-pale cheeks flushed red from the cold. She tackles him and pins him down, she's about to shove a handful of snow in his face and—

Wait.

What was that?

A warmth, stifling and consuming roars in her gut before her entire right arm is consumed in (bright, bursting, hot hot hot) flames, but it feels right.

And well, she doesn't act immediately, for a second, she admires.

It's beautiful. Seika's never seen red this deep. Not the flushed colour of Mother's face when she's sad, not the vermilion patterns that adorn the curtains of their room, not the scarlet of her hair. It puts even the fire lilies that grow out in the front yard, sharing its namesake, to shame.

The colours flicker and white hot flames shimmer through fierce yellow and into burnt orange and back to brilliant red and she's mesmerized.

It's hers.

But her transfixion ends as quickly as it started when Shou-chan lets out a shocked cry. He's in pain. Shouto is in pain, and panic replaces the feeling of rightness in her chest as she tries to make the fire go away because she's burning him, she's burning him and she can't turn it off.

(she's hurting him, she's hurting shouto. she hates it, she hates it, hatehatehatehateha—)

She jumps back and Shouto follows suit. The snow around them is melting and she tries to rub her cheek against his, to tell him it's going to be alright despite her own blinding panic but flinches away because he's so cold. Colder than the bite of the winter air around them and it hurts.

She sees Shouto in front of her, and his white side is freezing over, covered in ice like a protective blanket and she screams.

(out of the corner of her eye she sees miss sasaki running, as though to get someone)

Mother comes sprinting out of the house, yelling directions that Seika can't fully hear through the ringing in her ears as the overwhelming heat is replaced by a sudden, terrible cold. It settles in her body differently but it's still hers. But then when feels ice (mother's ice) begin to spill from the confines of her skin she feels more tears begin to pour from her eyes, and...and... this is Shouto's ice. As much his as it was hers, but fear reigns supreme over any urge to understand what was happening. Instinctual and primal. She's scared.