Our Conflict. A Brothers Conflict Fan-fiction

Chapter 7

Rinatarou and Miwa had exchanged their vows and were now cutting the cake together with the largest grins on their faces. I would have stuck around to witness it but instead found myself wandering around the gardens in an attempt to clear my head of my shredded thoughts.

"How did I not even realise? How stupid am I, like seriously he's my brother," I rambled to myself. I stopped in my tracks and held my head tightly, almost tearing out hair in the process "I thought he was perfect!" I whined.

"Are you okay Aiko?" A voice asked me, I whipped around and saw Subaru standing with his hands shoved deep in his trouser pockets and grey eyes fixed firmly on my frame. I hesitantly nodded as I released my grip on my hair. "Oh, um yeah I am. Thanks for asking," I said to him after frantically trying to flatten my hair.

Subaru didn't exactly look convinced, he stepped towards me slowly and bent over to be closer to my level. "Are you sure? You really don't look it." I stared blankly into his grey eyes, I had never noticed just how silvery they were before. With a sigh I glanced away from him to the direction of the ceremony. There was no way I could tell Subaru what had happened, I'd just have to deal with it by myself.

"I'm just a bit stressed about things, I'll be fine though."

Subaru straightened himself up but never looked away from me. It was like he knew I was lying but didn't want to push further. "Alright. We should probably get back to the wedding."

I wandered back to the ceremony with Subaru at my side in silence. I just hoped that Natsume wasn't going to be in my line of sight. Once we arrived I stood with Ema and a group of women unaware of what was happening. "Ema, how have you been?" I asked my sister who turned to me with a wary glance. I was listening to her reply when I felt like something was coming towards us. In reflex I stuck my hand in the air in an attempt to shield myself from it, only to end up catching something.

I turned away from Ema and looked at what I had caught, I blinked a couple times and my eyes widened at the sight of a colourful bouquet of flowers. Wait, did I just? I moved my eyes upwards where Miwa was smiling at me, I had just caught it.

I smiled at her hesitantly then turned to see my brothers lined up. "Well we know who will be married next." Ukyo said with a grin. I looked at all of the brothers and my eyes landed on Natsume, he looked at me and since I was an awkward human being; I blushed and turned to Ema giving her the flowers. There was no way I would get married to someone, ever.

I laughed awkwardly "Psh, who would marry someone like me?" I joked, pointing a finger at myself. Anyone would be mental to marry me, I'm annoying as hell and difficult to understand.

"Should we do it now?" Hikaru asked his brothers, Ema and I looked at one another in confusion then back to the brothers. What were they talking about? "There's no better time," Iori said.

"Welcome to the Asahina family sisters!" All the brothers yelled in unison. I smiled at them all and giggled at their excited faces. Aiko Asahina huh? It had a rather nice ring to it.

***

The wedding ceremony moved onto a rather large dinner with all of the guests in a expensive looking restaurant. As we all wandered in to our allocated seats I looked around and took in the sight, its large windows were framed with glorious embroiled curtains that hung like silk. Each of the wooden tables were decorated with a vase of flowers and in the corner a grand piano stood proudly, already being played.

My eyes skimmed over the table to find my name on a little piece of card, I picked it up and ran my thumb over the swirls that decorated it. Everything looked so pretty and I still found myself in awe of the whole thing despite disliking weddings. I sat down in my seat and waited for the other four seats to be filled. Tsubaki, Azusa and Iori all sat down but the fourth had yet to appear.

"Oh look, we're sat with the little miss!" Tsubaki's cheery voice announced as he sat down beside me.

I laughed and took a sip of my drink. "The one and only."

From the corner of my eye I saw the other seat beside me be pulled back and my attention snapped towards them with a smile. My face instantly dropped when I saw who it was. Natsume had sat down and averted his gaze from me as soon as he realised who I was. I mentally cursed everything and everyone I could think of for putting me in this unfortunate situation but tried not to let my outer appearance give too much away.

Don't get me wrong, Natsume still had a place in my heart, a place bigger then all of my other brothers but I hated the feeling I got whenever he was around now that I knew the truth. "Oh that's right, Aiko you haven't met our finishing third. This is Natsume." Azusa piped up forcing my attention away from my hands.

I wished I could have just said we had already met or not even replied but then they'd instantly know something was up. "It's nice to finally meet you, I've heard a lot of great things." A large fake smile grew on my face as I looked up at Natsume. His eyes looked at me and I felt my chest tighten as I gazed into his eyes that although looked serious held a certain type of gentleness and honesty. Those violet irises killed me.

I extended a hand for him to shake which to my surprise he accepted, "Lovely to meet you Aiko." At the sound of his deep voice saying my name I felt my breath catch in my throat and the moment our hands made contact my skin began to tingle.

The night continued and I tried my hardest to ignore Natsume's presence. I swear if this feeling truly was love it meant that the one person to make me believe in it turned out to be my stepbrother. Damn how cruel life truly was.

"I'll be right back." I spoke up from my silent state and excused myself from the table. I wanted to freshen myself up in the bathroom but I also just wished to get out of the situation I was in by leaving the cause of it behind for a few minutes.

****

As I exited the bathroom I noticed the open door that led to the small area of greenery in front of the restaurant and decided to get some air. As soon as I stepped foot outside I was met by a cool breeze that gently caressed my skin. I closed my eyes as I stood with my head tilted towards the sky, a large sigh passed my lips.

In truth, no matter how much I'm hurting I was glad that I found out sooner rather than later. The love that planted itself in my heart was cut off early so it could wither and die instead of bloom.

"You'll catch a cold out here."

A deep voice caught me off guard. I darted my head around and my eyes settled on a tall male slouched against a wall with one hand stuffed in his trouser pocket and the other holding a cigarette firmly in his fingers. His purple eyes were staring at my small frame and I watched as strands of his ginger hair drifted around in the breeze. Natsume...

I cleared my throat on impulse and turned away from him, "I'm fine."

I heard him sigh and caught movement in the corner of my eye but refused to glance in his direction. I wanted to say something to him but I couldn't, had I not gotten so attached, had I not talked to him like I did and not done things I now regret I would probably be able to get the words out. "Listen Aiko, I don't want things to be awkward between us now that we know we're siblings."

His words were like needles and I found myself grimacing, maybe he knew that I had feelings for him, or maybe he knew that we shouldn't have acted the way we did. "Nothing will be awkward," I replied, finally gaining the courage to turn around and face him. "We were just friends Natsume, and yeah I'll admit that it's kind of weird to find out your friend is actually your brother but it's not a big deal."

"We were nothing more than friends." As I spoke my eyes remained locked on his face, he had finished with his cigarette and had now straightened himself up. I didn't want to give him a single hint that I was lying straight to his face. Sooner or later my feelings will disappear and I will be left with how I feel about every other person I have acquainted myself with.

Natsume was just another person,

Just another guy,

Just my brother.