Technical Difficulties (Brother's Conflict)

Chapter 4!

So here we left off, with Tsubaki holding Mei's hand as she lapsed into another nightmare because she hadn't slept properly in days. This all took place while their other siblings were amicably talking downstairs, now joined by Louis who had come home early from work. Tsubaki was still studying her perfected porcelain features, which were twisted in pain.

She muttered a low phrase that scared Tsubaki more than anything. "Mo..ther..."

After she whispered that one little word, Mei gasped for breath more harshly then she had before. She then shot up in the bed, narrowly missing a collision with Tsubaki, as she hunched over her blankets and gripped her chest tightly. She went to move the hand that was entwined with Tsubaki's and immediately made a surprised noise when she realized that her hand was being held.

"W-what are you doing? Where am I? What the hell?!" Mei was frantically looking around, still gripping her chest tightly as she ripped her hand away from Tsubaki's. 

"Woah! Woah! Calm down!" Tsubaki put up his hands in defense and treated her as though she was a feral animal, ready to attack him at any time. "You fell asleep on the couch and I brought you up to your room! Really, you're safe."

Tsubaki placed his hands on her shoulders which made her jump a bit, but when she saw the earnest look on his face she began to calm down. She replaced her worried look with a sheepish smile as she slid his hands off her shoulders gently. "Ehh..sorry about all of that. Thank you for calming me down and bringing me to my room, I kind of forgot that I moved here for a minute there."

As Mei let out an awkward chuckle about her idiocy, Tsubaki didn't really know what to do next but he found a question slipping through his lips that he hadn't meant to actually say. "What did you have a nightmare about?"

Mei's slightly cheerful expression turned into a wince. "I had hoped you would forget about that...Well, I guess you could say it was about my life before I was adopted."

Tsubaki remembered the mentioning that Mei had been adopted at the age 8, and it really showed through the fact she had no resemblance to Ema, but he hadn't expected her to be so nonchalant in talking about it. "Surprised that I don't care about being adopted?"

Tsubaki jumped and blushed, she had practically read his mind and she knew it. She giggled at the way she could read him like an open book, though she could do that with most people. "The reason I don't really care is because the place I'm in now is much better then where I was then. But I also don't hate my parents, in fact I still email them from time to time. They realize what they did was wrong and they also realize that we'll never be family again, so my situation with both my families is perfectly peaceful. Did that help you understand?"

"Not really. In fact I don't think I could ever understand, but if you're okay with your situation then its fine. I hadn't meant to pry in the first place." Tsubaki smiled at Mei and she returned it, only for their tender moment to be abruptly interrupted by knocking on her door.

They immediately put an extra few feet of space between themselves as an innocent Ema walked into the room. "How are you feeling Mei?"

"Fine, thanks. I just didn't get enough sleep last night because I was too worried about the move and work resuming next week. I'll be fine after I sleep a full 8 hours tonight."

"That's good, I was going to ask if you were going to take a bath tonight since your stuff is in one of the boxes in my room." Ema smiled kindly as she spoke, something that Mei always noticed and adored.

"Yeah I guess I will, I'll go grab the stuff now. Thanks again for all of the help, Tsubaki." Mei flashed a heart melting smile as the three of them left her room and split up.

"No problem.." Though, Tsubaki couldn't manage to say this until they were out of earshot, already halfway into Ema's room. He put a hand to his face and realized the heat that was rolling off of it from her smile. 'Shit, that was just too cute...'

Sorry this chapter is a little short I'm just really hyped about writing a bnha fanfic and I wanted to stop writing this to write that instead but I had to finish this draft at soooome point.