Twin Flames [Private]

Seeing the smile finally come to the younger sister’s face at the idea of wearing the clothes was all she needed to make the past few minutes worth of convincing her feel worth it; she had gotten her point across, accomplished the goal of setting her up for success, and made her comfortable about it all in one go. That was a definite win in the elder sister’s books, and while she was almost sort of dreading the birds and the bees talk that would have to happen once they laid down, she knew it was going to be needed if she didn’t even understand why people were going to be staring and giving her double takes every day.

“Shy, more than likely. Probably a foreign word to you, but the truth is you are going to be getting a lot of those compliments from people. Best way I found to keep them from going too crazy was to kill them with kindness… which is an expression, by the way. You thank them, say no thank you to crazy offers which I’ll give you examples of in a bit, and generally dismiss them as politely as possible and they usually will gain enough respect to listen. And if someone touches you without you wanting them to, you make an example out of them. Don’t worry… before you go to school, I’ll have you all prepped for social interaction. If your head swells too big… well I got some Senbon and can take care of that...” The last little bit was a definite joke by the tone, and she already had a list of possible interactions, where to know was OK for someone to touch her to get her attention and when she needed to break someone’s fingers, all that good stuff.

Niko was very glad she understood what the gesture of kissing the woman’s eye had meant; she was accepting Shunko, flaws and all… and she would use every skill she had to turn her into someone that she loved when she looked in the mirror just as much as Niko, surprisingly in such a short time, had come to love so much.

She listened to the her plea towards the idea of seeking out her own vengeance, and she gave probably the scariest smile yet seen to the young woman. “We will take care of them together… but make no mistake, you will be with me, not the other way around.” There was a simple reasoning for this seriousness all the sudden; even with all the training in the world, Niko was still the eldest sister, and she was going to do everything in her power to make sure that Shunko stayed alive and safe. She wouldn’t deny her the chance to get her vengeance, but she sure as hell was going to make sure they both survived to tell the tale. This was not a subject up for debate.

The subject of relationships was an interesting one. “To be honest… I’m not entirely sure. I’ve always been able to read people and figure out their intentions, base my judgements on their actions and what their goals were with me. A lot of people wanted to court me, but I was always pretty busy… and the ones who were less than polite got an equally less than polite reply. After I broke a few bones they stopped trying to force themselves into my favor, and I gained some friends; people who were being picked on. You are strong and beautiful… those who are worthy will naturally gravitate to you. Trust your gut, and you’ll know who is worth it and who isn’t.”

The cleaning went off without a hitch, and she grabbed a pair of pajamas she had that would definitely fit Shunko (as it had been loose as hell on her when she was that age) and set it on the counter, slipping into her one-piece outfit that would keep her warm. Once everything was done, she would move to the bedroom holding Shunko’s hand and guiding her back there, and then sitting on the end of the bed. Having the talk couldn’t wait until sleep, so once the topic of Sex and Relationships and all that jazz was out of the way, she snuggled under the blankets, leaving room for her little sister to lay down with her.

[13]

As the talked about forming connections and she got to see her sister joke back. She gave an honest laugh, and felt in high spirits. She didn’t get a lot of it, but the flood of love and acceptance was something that for the first time made her glad to be alive. And when her sister gave that smile when talking about their vengeance and a promise at family bonding.

Shunko’s fighting spirit rose to answer, the red aura seeming to spring to life, as a feral grin blossomed at the sight, but nonetheless, she enthusiastically nodded her head, ”Definitely with ya all the way! And I gotcha, I might need ta regain what I lost, but ya need ta crush all ‘o them for all they did ta our family. Might be other reasons I don’t get, but as long as we’re together, I’ll follow ya ta the ends of the earth! I’ll even beat down the doors o’ hell ta stay by your side now that I finally found ya, no matter where it leads or how dicey things get, and I ain’t losin’ ya. Not a second time.”

As blood thirsty and eager the look on her face was. And the definitely excited and eager feel of her aura at the sight of the scariest face she saw on her Big Sis. Her declaration made it clear that she’d let Niko take the lead.

As the talk went onto other matters her bloodlust settled back down and she let herself enjoy the ministrations of her sister. And the mention of ‘trust her gut and she’d know’, she let out a confused grunt, before adding cautiously, ”I sure hope so. Ain’t that great at readin’ people outside of a fight. So I’ll definitely be outta my depth.”

She continued to ruminate it until she saw the PJs. But her own study of her own Camo-Print PJs was interrupted by what she saw Niko was wearing. Upon seeing the bunny, on Niko’s onesie Shunko let out a girlish squeal of excitement and joy ”BUNNY! Shunko yelled before glomping her sister and nuzzling the bunny rabbit image, ”I love bunnies! There so cute, and fluffy, and adorable!”

She let out another squee before coming to her senses and jumping back aways, looking at the ground shyly, shuffling her feet, and large blush erupting across her face, ”Sorry … I jus’ really like bunnies, and bunny related objects. Always wanted one, but with my lifestyle … it jus’ never felt right ta drag a cute, adorable, ball’o fluff inta that.”

Shunko never really got where the love of those adorable balls of fluff came from. And letting out a sound so girly made her blush at having actually done something like that. But she’d let Niko guide her up the stairs to their room. When they got in Shunko went over and would try to implement her night time checklist, making sure the windows were practically jammed close, and hard to open.

That the door would either have a chair under the handle keeping it shut, or lightly barricaded. Enough to keep the door from easily opening, but easy enough to get past from her side if she needed to bolt. She’d look around the room for objects that would be sufficiently weapon worthy, and at seeing Niko laying on top of the bed asked, ”Why’re ya sleepin’ up there? Sleepin’ under the bed is where it’s safest.”

Niko beckoned her over and when she got close she was wrapped up in Niko’s arms, with her back firmly pressed against her sister’s chest. Niko would wiggle, and shift herself against Niko till she found a comfortable position, and just sunk into the snuggle, ”Damn, this is as good as a hu-” She interrupted herself with a mighty yawn, and grasping Niko’s arm would hold it between her chest like she would when snuggling a sheathed sword. And quickly fell asleep as all the day today had been hit her like a hammer.

Before she fell asleep, she felt herself say something but in her sleep addled mind didn’t hear here say, ”I love ya Big Sis Niko.”

// Thread Exit

[14]

Niko was legitimately excited to hunt down the people that hurt her family, that had ruined their lives and made them both orphans… and end them as quickly and brutally as she possibly could muster. What did that desire for blood say about her as a person? She couldn’t say for certain, but in all things considered, she knew that she was far more like Shunko than she allowed the younger sibling to believe. Everyone had something of a darkness, Niko just was better at hiding it than most people… and she made up for it with the sheer amount of good she put into the world.

Her oath of loyalty was enough to allow her a very shallow nod, but nothing more; she couldn’t tip that scale at the moment… no reason to let that side of herself actually show it’s true colors. Sure, Shunko will have seen just the barest of glimpses… the shallowest of peeks into something that Niko would have preferred to keep a tight lid on, but the possibility of vengeance at her parents killers, the ones who maimed Shunko and left her a nameless weapon… they would all pay in blood a thousand times over.

As far as meeting people, Shunko herself proposed a pretty good solution. “So, if you want to see if someone could be a friend, challenge them to a spar and have me or another teacher supervise. That way there is a safety margin and you get to see their true colors.” With that, the subject would drop as they got their pajamas on. They were both quite comfortable, but what she hadn’t been expecting was not only Shunko’s lack of hesitation to wear something when technically it shouldn’t have been necessary, but also how she all but tackled her to nuzzle the bunny printed on her onesie.

It took everything she had to simply catch the girl and keep her face from turning into a tomato; she had always been sensitive, but dear lord the suddenness of that had caught her off guard. Luckily, she recovered quickly, and was able to disband it almost entirely by the time Shunko pulled herself out of her chest and explained why she had put her into the situation in the first place. She took a wild guess at thinking that it would be a bad idea to tell her that Rabbit was one of the better meats that were relatively easy to come by. Shaking her head, she gave her a smile.

“It’s alright to like rabbits… just caught me off guard is all.” Such a cute reaction was not on the expected actions list in response to seeing her after all. She was going to have to get used to Shunko hugging a lot and such from the looks of things, but that was fine… she didn’t mind, and there was nothing but familial love between them, so no harm, no foul.

It was almost expected that she didn’t intend to sleep on the bed, but under it, and without a second thought she had managed to get her and pulled her into her arms. She felt safe there, and while it was a bit odd to have her arm literally being used almost like a body pillow, if that was what helped her feel safe, that was fine by her; she had slept in far worse positions before, and it wouldn’t be forever, but just until she felt safe in her own room.

She kissed the woman on the top of the head. “I love you too, Shunko.” Once she was certain that the woman was asleep, she took a moment to take a deep breath and relax… tears streaming down her face as she silently, finally, let the emotions of the day flow through her body, but even as she let them go, she knew that she had her work cut out for her in a big way. This was a massive responsibility she hadn’t been ready for, but thanked the Gods that they delivered upon her. Slowly falling asleep herself, she moved herself to be as close as humanly possible to the only blood relative she knew existed in the world.

// Thread Exit

[14]