Dancing in a Cage (Mafia!Brothers and Sister!Reader)

Chapter 7

The next week passed too quickly as I began to pack my things, sometimes solo and others assisted by my brothers whenever they had some free time on their hands, which seemed to now be even more rare than before. I had packed my violin up and found myself staring at the four small boxes of things that I wanted to take with, each box stuffed with journals, pictures, simple jewelry that I wanted to keep, small figures of my favorite fictional characters (there were also some custom ordered figures of my brothers), and a large picture frame that held a complete family portrait of how we were before, including Papa and Mom. They both looked tired in the picture, my brothers sitting close to them as I stood behind Karamatsu and Ichimatsu near the far left of the portrait.

I waited on my bed whenever I found myself with nothing to do, bringing my left knee up to my chin as I listened to the grandfather clock in the hall tick the seconds away. There wasn't much left to pack, as I had a feeling that bringing too much would give Atsushi more leverage over me if I disrespected him -- too many things he could use to blackmail me into doing whatever he wanted. The boxes I had packed weren't immune from being used, having a lot of memories tucked away inside.

I took a deep breath and sighed, feeling that Atsushi would find a way to hurt me anyway if I didn't obey whatever he wanted me to do.

The horror stories that I overheard the maids and butlers say about their previous employers sent shivers down my spine. I didn't want to be abused physically or emotionally, but I had no choice now. If I refused to respect Osomatsu's decision, I'd have to be punished by either Osomatsu or waiting for me in the street, contracted by Atsushi. Granted, all I had to go on was what I felt that night at dinner; however, I felt everything but safe when his eyes were on me. It was like his presence had become a black shadow that was always creeping behind me, threatening to swallow me whole if I even tried to look at it.

A soft knock on my door brought me out of my dark thoughts, seeing a pink slipper step out from behind the partially closed door.

"Todomatsu?" I raised my head from my knees. The youngest sextuplet fully stepped into the room and held two cups of something steaming in his hands, a gentle smile on his face.

"Mind if I sit with you?"

"Oh, of course not," I moved over and relaxed my legs, letting them fall off the edge of my rather large bed. He nodded and held out one of the cups as he settled next to me, tucking his left leg under his right knee. I took it and saw the deep chocolate color -- homemade hot chocolate.

"I found myself some time since my gift to you is currently updating for the upteenth time. I thought I'd spend some time with you, despite being in constant contact with you," I looked from my drink up to him, noticing he didn't have any Bluetooth earpiece in either ear with no tablet or phone in sight.

"...I guess," I let myself buy his excuse, "I wish I could've done more for you guys while I was here."

"Whoa, you're not going off to your death! We wouldn't let that happen," Todomatsu rubbed my back with his free hand before sipping from his cup.

"No, I meant that...I wish I could've helped out the family more, instead of focusing on what I wanted to do," I couldn't help but feel sad that somehow my actions were responsible for this happening. Before I could say anything else, I felt Todomatsu's arm around my shoulders.

"Have I ever told you why Mom gave you the color gray?"

The topic jump derailed my regrets, simply raising my right eyebrow in confusion as I looked up at him over the rim of the cup.

"Seriously? Have none of us told you this story?" He looked a little shocked, putting his empty cup on my bedside table, "I was so sure that Choromatsu told you...I guess that the honor falls to me."

"No, wait...what?" I struggled to keep up with the topic, "I thought I was given the color because Mom and Papa didn't want me to have anything similar to you all."

"That's not true. When we were all kids, you'd be the only one that wasn't crazy or out of control. You'd always follow us around like a baby chick, apologizing to everyone whenever they'd get hit with our pranks. Of course, we thought you were annoying and were a little sister that we never wanted," He smiled cautiously as he caught my emotionless stare, "What else did you expect? We were brats that wanted nothing to do with girls, much less Mom and you. But as time went on, right around middle school actually, Mom bought us all bulk clothes and we chose what colors we liked. You, however, went straight to the gray sweater."

"Really...?" I raised an eyebrow in disbelief.

"Yeah, really. When asked why you wanted a neutral color by Mom, you stated that you 'wanted to have a color that everyone can be happy with'. When she heard that, she gave you that color. I know it's not a great story, but I will always remember it because you've been someone we've all been happy with. Gray goes great with everything, even my bright pink," He raised his pink nightshirt to my gray sweater, "See?"

"I...guess," I lowered my eyes to the floor, rubbing my thumb against the rim of the cup, "Do you think I'll be able to stay in contact with you guys?"

I felt his arm stiffen around me slightly before relaxing and giving it a squeeze.

"I'm not sure, (y/n). I'd really like you to try, though."