She and Shouto are playing dollies when Father (bright father, distant father, he was loud loud loud) walks into their room. Not bothering to knock, or greet Mrs. Fujimori, he looks at them, face twisted into a scowl, and he sneers.
His body radiates stifling heat that makes the fire buzzing under her skin itch like a place she cannot scratch. Still, she turns to face him, instinctively scooting closer to Shouto as she does so, holding her hand in his. Feeling his cold skin pressing against her own. Don't let go
Father's eyes narrowed and the ominous reflections of swirling flames (red to orange, then red again. mine mine mine) in clear blue made them look like the diamonds in her picture books. Such pretty things.
"Stand up," he snaps, and Seika shoots upward, not wanting to face her fathers ire.
(not like mother, who is sad sad sad)
And Shou-chan seems to have a similar idea, because he gets up just at the same time she does. Squeezing her hands so tightly that her already pale knuckles are bleached a stark white, and his nails are digging into the back of her palm. She squeezes back, still looking at Father.
"You, follow me," Father glowered at the twins, who pressed together as though in search of heat. Father, even with his blistering flames and sandstorms was cold cold cold, "We have work to do."
And he smiles. It's a cruel thing, all teeth, and sharp edges, and vexed mockery.
He turns around, not bothering to slow down to accommodate the children, they hurry behind him. Following a trail of fire.
Why does he want them?
(why, why, why)
***
Shouto pulls his sister behind him as Father leads them out of their quarters, through the court, and into a part of the family estate they've never been in before. He opens door after door, keys making clicking noises as they hit each other.
Finally, they reach a mat room. Its appearance was starkly different to the rest of the estate, not carrying the same polished air the rest of the home seemed to drench itself in (it was empty, not of people, but of soul. there was no love in that house, no matter what fuyumi said). The walls were plastered with news articles, each one showcasing either Endeavour, or AllMight's achievements.
Shouto turned to Sei-Sei, eyes alight with confusion as Father looked at them, analysing them.
<What's he doing?> he inquires, watching as Seika looks at Father, trying to pick him apart.
They look...not the same, but remarkably similar. Father and daughter, examining each other.
And Sei-Sei inches towards him, tightening her grip on his hand, muscles stiffening. And Shouto... Shouto feels like crying as he shirks into himself, feeling oh-so small.
"Fix your posture, boy," Father all but snarls, "I will not tolerate slouching. It's unsightly."
And Shouto stands, knees trembling and eyes wet, and Seika stands beside him, back straight as she holds him close, as though daring Father to put a hand on him. Her face is settled into a deep scowl, and she has her thinking face on.
"You. Girl," and the way Father looks at Seika makes him squirm, as bright blue eyes glow, practically screaming mine (it makes shouto want to slap him), "Activate your quirk."
That makes him angry. The burning cold claws and cloys underneath his skin, begging to be let out. It's not her quirk, or his quirk. It was......
"Ours," Seika corrects, as though scolding a child, "We share it, so it is ours."
And maybe there is something going on behind the scenes because for all that Father stands still, his beard of fire (Sei-Sei's fire, His fire, but not at the same time) all but quake in excitement at such a revolution. It feels dirty.
<I don't like this.>
<Me either.>
"Well then, regardless," his lips are still curled into a snarl, and that makes Shouto angry because no one should ever be angry with his (warm sharp caring. His perfect perfect perfect) sister, but there is curiosity in his gaze, "Both of you, activate it."
And they do, because what other choice do they have?
Father picks Shouto up by the arm, and he can barely hear Seika's horrified screaming over the sound of his own heart beat.
"Fight back!" Father demands, and Shouto tries but he can't focus when Father's heat (not theirs, not theirs at all ) cuts through his skin and leaves his muscles aching. He breaks down coughing when Father drops him onto the floor and Seika runs towards him, whispering sweet reassuring words into his ears that Shouto knows she doesn't believe.
Father grabs Sei-Sei by the hair and gives her the same instruction. Fight back. He says it's for her good (it feels like a lie).
Seika cries and screams until she can't take any more and bites him. Father drops her to the ground, and Shouto can see the blood trickling from where her teeth had marked his flesh. He expects Father to be enraged but instead he looks pleased. "Good," he says, half grin, half sneer, "With your quirk next time, but good."
Father leads them back to the main house. Shouto is too scared to leave Seika's side.
***
It was hard to sleep that night. Shouto and her changed into their night clothes silently, and lay down on their shared bed as the sounds of Mother and Father screaming floated up the stairs.
"Sei..." Seika turned to face her listlessly.
Shouto had tears in his eyes. Though they were nearly identical, their gender and hair being flipped the only difference between them, his eyes always looked bigger to Seika. Wider, and clearer like a lake, compared to the murkier, darker color of Seika's own eyes.
"I don't want to be like him," he confessed.
Seika rolled over completely on her side and Shou did the same. She took her brother's hand and squeezed tightly. Though she was nervous, she did well not show it, her poker face already too convincing.
"Me neither. I promise we won't be like him. One day we'll run away and we'll never see him again. We can even become hero's without Father if you like. And we can take Mother with us."
Shouto nodded, letting the tears slip down his cheeks as she drew closer to his twin. Seika threw her arm and leg around him, pulling him closer still until they felt like just one body. "Don't worry." She kissed the top of his head. She promised them both that night. One day they would escape.
***
Mama tried to put them in separate rooms a year later. Shouto cried. Seika screamed. They didn't try again.
***
Training hurt. A lot.
Seika's limbs were always pulled back farther than they should bend and she always ended up with near frostbite.
Shouto hated it even more than she did. His body ached and his cuts burned.
***
Father doesn't let them talk to their other siblings anymore. They did speak much to begin with, but it starts getting kind of lonely. Even if they didn't talk much. It's okay though, Shouto has Seika and Seika has Shouto. So they're okay.
Really, they are.
***
<We'll run away from here soon,> Seika said tiredly. She had taken a break from playing with her dolls to address her twin. <We just have to wait a little longer.>
Shouto nodded dully.
It didn't matter either way. The damage had been done. An entire childhood down the drain.
(Seika hated Father for it, but she's scared of him too)
Seika scooted closer to him with her chair.
"Do you want to run away tonight?"
Shouto looked up.
"I'm serious."
Shou-chan would never agree. Even before the training, he'd always been more quiet; more careful. Still...
The night air felt so cool against their skin. Summer days were dreadful but at night the air was calm and crisp. Shouto released an uncontrollable laugh seeing Seika trip over her own gleeful steps. They weren't actually running away. They were in the garden playing tag.
When they got near the fountain and Seika got distracted peering into the pool of koi fish, Shou-chan snuck up behind her and pushed her in.
"H-hey!" Her surprise turned into gurgling water and Shouto laughed and laughed until Seika resurfaced, floating serenely back to the top.
"Why thank you, brother, I was feeling a bit parched."
Shouto sat at the edge of the fountain, flicking water at Seika trying to get her to break her concentration. It didn't work, of course, but it was still funny.
"I always wanted to be a fish."
"You mean a mermaid?"
"I said what I said."
Shouto laughed. "You're a weirdo, I can agree to that."
Seika laughed too, and for a second, they were just twins again.
When they go inside, Seika grabs a pair of scissors from the box of hair supplies in their room.
"What are you doing?"
She doesn't answer, instead, she looks him in the eyes.
"Your hurt right, from the last time we...trained, right?"
Shouto nodded.
"I get my weekly break tomorrow,*" she continues, "And I have a good idea."
And her brother's eyebrows are raised and he looked at her, as though to say, "I'm listening."
"-switch with me."
Shouto stopped his pacing. Seika's eyes turned to stone. "We could get in trouble."
"No one has ever caught us before."
"But Seika" Shouto wanted to protest, but more than anything he wanted out.
"Switch with me," Seika placed a firm hand on Shouto's shoulder, <Trust me.>
<Okay.>
Shouto helps her cut her hair short.
***
Father doesn't notice in the morning. He doesn't pay enough attention to them for that.
Or maybe he just doesn't care. It works in their favour regardless.
Mother watches them, and Seika can just tell that she knows, but stays silent.
Seika can respect that.
A/N
*Both twins get one break per week, that day just so happened to be Seika's breaks day and because she wanted her brother to rest while hurt, she offered to switch.
:)