day 30 - something hot

Kido's day had been very long and very difficult, and she'd grazed her knuckles on the wall when she'd tried to hit Kano before and missed, and so she was very irked when she was awoken in the middle of the night by a quiet whimpering noise. Her eyes snapped open and she glared into the darkness. Whoever that was, she was going to kill them.

Her anger melted away a second later when the noise happened again, and Kido was able to identify it as Mary. She squinted across the room, and sure enough there was a tiny shape in the opposite bed, trembling and shaking under the covers. Was she crying?

Kido crossed the room and sat gently on the edge of the mattress, hovering over the tiny girl, who sniffled.

"Mary, are you okay?" she whispered, unsure if she should wake her. Weren't you not supposed to wake people up from nightmares? Or was that just sleep walkers?

Mary shifted away from her in her sleep, and her shoulders were shivering. Kido felt a frown cross her face as the little girl's breathing shook her entire body. Her frown deepened as Mary whispered Seto's name.

Oh, what had he done now. Kido shook Mary's shoulder with determination. Whatever Seto had done to upset her, she had no qualms about waking them both up in the middle of the night so he could apologize and so Kido could go back to bed.

Mary's eyes flew open and she sat up with a gasp. She looked around wildly. "K-kido?" she stammered, pulling her knees to her chest.

She looked so frightened, but Kido was too tired to be anything but blunt. "What'd he do?" she asked, and Mary turned bright red, her eyes going wide.

"Um, w-what do you mean?" she asked, pulling the covers around herself. Kido sighed.

"You were having a bad dream about Seto, and if you guys are fighting you're going to make up right now if I have to drag him out of bed to do it."

Mary's blush deepened, if that was even possible, and she looked away. Kido waited, scowling. Finally, Mary cleared her throat. "It wasn't a bad dream," she said in the tiniest voice imaginable.

It took Kido about three seconds before she sprang off the bed, her own face going scarlet. "Mary!" she gasped, forgetting to keep her voice down, and the white-haired girl squeaked and pulled the blankets over her head, hiding her own burning face.

No matter what Kido did, she couldn't get her to come out again, and eventually she had to resign herself to trying to sleep and doing her best to forget what she'd heard.

…

Around five AM she decided that it wasn't even remotely fair for her to be the only one tortured by this and kept up at night. She waited until seven, when she heard stirrings in the kitchen. Exhausted and peeved, she levered herself out of bed and headed towards the noise, not bothering to change out of her pajamas.

In the kitchen, Seto was cobbling together some disgusting teenage-boy breakfast of packaged snack food and reheated soup. He shot her a grin as she came in, and she almost felt bad. Almost.

"Good morning!" he said, cheerful but quiet, not wanting to wake the other residents. She grunted. It wasn't a good morning at all. Seto laughed at the look on her face. "You don't look so happy," he chuckled.

It was him laughing at her that was the final straw. "Seto, look at me," she commanded, and to his credit he immediately turned to face her, instinctively following her instructions. She grabbed his face between her palms. "No, look at me," she said, stern, and his eyes drifted sideways and away from her.

"But Kido," he protested, like a small child, and she felt a surge of irritation. She could be asleep right now if it weren't for the two of them.

"Look at me," she repeated one last time and his eyes found hers again, blinking slowly. When he opened them, they were a familiar shade of red and she shoved the memories at him, pushing the thoughts of Mary's quiet whimpers and the sweat on her neck and her fingers tangling in the blankets. He made a strangled noise and tried to step back, but her fingers dug into his jaw and held him still. She re-played the shiver in her voice as she'd whispered his name in her sleep and he swallowed hard, finally remembering how to close his eyes.

He stood there for a second, his eyes squeezed shut and his face red, and Kido released him, her cheeks a little pink herself for going over the memories. She would feel bad, but she was still grumpy and groggy from being woken up.

Finally he rubbed his palm against his forehead and sighed. "Kido, that's not fair."

"You need to do something about it!" she said with rising frustration in her voice. Just because he was too much of a coward to actually do anything with the smaller girl didn't mean her sleep should be interrupted.

"I have!" Seto snapped back tiredly, and she stared at him. He cleared his throat. "I mean. We have. She never woke you up before, right?"

This information was new to Kido, and she floundered a little, used to knowing most of the goings-on in her little family. "What? When? How many times?"

Her interrogation seemed to embarrass him, because he wouldn't look at her again, though maybe that was due to what trouble looking at her had gotten him into. "I dunno. That depends on what you count—"

"Okay, stop." Despite her curiosity, Kido realized she did not want to hear it. "Look, just. You need your own room. Kano can sleep on the couch, I don't care, just. We're getting older, and you guys need your own space."

He brightened considerably; at least something good was coming of this whole affair.

"Really?" he asked, clasping his hands like a child, and she tried not to look at him, tried not to feel sad and nostalgic for the shared childhood they were all leaving behind.

"Yeah, really. I'll tell him tonight. Now get going. You're gonna be late."

Seto glanced at the clock and gasped, grabbing his packed lunch she'd left out for him and dashing for the door. Kido rubbed her eyes, exhausted.