Closed No Escape

[Elijah Edogawa]

For Eli there were a lot of things he wanted to do, some of which meant he needed to keep his focus. There was more to that than he would have liked, especially since he’d been so distracted lately, and he was annoyed enough that he was determined to pull his grades back up. Those E’s he got last semester had been a sort of slap in the face, and if it meant he had to work harder with less free time than so be it, but he still had to try and make time for Jonah too, but that was hard since his brother didn’t seem to want him around much, to the point that Eli tried not to approach him unless it looked like Jonah was going to come to him first. Every time he approached Jonah first his brother always looked like he was about to try and run away. It only made Eli feel very sad, and he didn’t really know what to do about any of it anymore. Maybe he shouldn’t have treated Jonah so harshly in the beginning, but he had only been the same as he had always been before and it hadn’t done anything then - he wasn’t sure when it had changed, he only knew that it had.

He’d thought of going to dad several times, but, well, honestly there just wasn’t much for him to say, he knew that his dad would probably try to do something about it, but the problem was Jonah, he didn’t know if Jonah would be receptive because he hadn’t been whenever Eli had tried before. Things just kept getting worse and he honestly just didn’t know how to deal with it. Mostly he just wanted to cry, but how could he do that when he was too worried about what Jonah would think? He’d think he was being stupid, that was what he’d think. If Jonah wasn’t crying about it, then what right did Eli have? All he could do was sit there, staring at the roses as he tried to collect himself again - nothing he did changed anything, it didn't matter. Something between all of them have broken and he had no idea how to fix it.​

 

[Hinata Edogawa]

Things had been different in Hina's family lately. It seemed like ever since the triplets and Sayuri entered Hogwarts it had been a snowball rolling down the hill. No. Actually, it felt more like an avalanche. Something had gone wrong somewhere. Hina bit her lip as she watched her younger brother stare at the roses, he'd been doing that for some time now, and she didn't think he'd noticed her arrival just yet. She didn't know exactly what had gone wrong, but she knew, something had gone wrong with the triplets last year. Hina would never voice it out loud, but she wondered if she could have stopped it from happening if she'd only watched over her siblings more than she threw herself into her studies. She'd gladly switch out her prefect badge if it would help fix what was happening. She bit her lip as she watched Eli move just a tiny bit but still continued to stare at the roses as if they would hold all the answers. She really should have intervened ages ago. Hina stepped up to finally settle behind Eli and wrap her arms solidly around him. She wanted to tell him she was here, that he could tell her anything and she would do her best to fix it even if she didn't know how. "Oh otouto," she said, tearing up a little too as she hugged him tighter.​

 

[Elijah Edogawa]

Eli didn’t realise he was crying until he felt his sister’s arms crushing him. He only noticed he was crying, because he felt her crying, which drew attention to himself, and he started to feel the tears pricking the sides of his eyes. Even when he told himself he wasn’t going to cry because he wasn’t allowed to, apparently his body, or maybe his eyes (were they counted as the body?) didn’t want to listen to him. “Dammit,” he hissed at himself, sharply wiping the tears away, but careful not to roughly throw his sister off. If she was crying for him she was way to empathic for him to throw her off. He should have treated Jonah the way he treated Hina. Rose and Sayuri weren’t very empathic, they rarely got moved by other people’s emotions, but Jonah had always felt everything everyone else felt in the room, like Hina. It was his fault there was this massive rift between them now - he wasn’t allowed to cry about it.

“I’m fine,” he lied, but didn’t move, letting her crush him as she wanted because frankly, it felt nice to have someone trying to hold him together for once, rather than him feeling like he needed to be the one holding others together. He didn’t know what he was going to do when she wasn’t in the school anymore. There was so much happening, he’d almost forgot this was her second last year, then she’d leave him and he’d be left to have to figure out how he was supposed to fix things with Jonah, keep Rose and Sayuri where they were supposed to be and look after Lewis - he was the oldest after all. Hina had been lucky, she’d had Mikael, and he’d always looked after the girls especially. Eli felt like he was on his own most of the time. “You can let me go now.”​

 

[Hinata Edogawa]

Hinata could feel the moment Elijah clocked in on his tears and how she was holding him so tightly. It broke her heart to watch him wipe his tears away as if in frustration. Almost anger. As a younger sibling, she'd always looked up to the older ones, Co-nii especially. He was silly, like he'd been hit with a bludger one too many times, but he was always there and even when he'd started to live with Roxas-nii, Hina had never felt like she couldn't rely on her brother. She wanted to be that kind of sibling as well when the triplets, Sayuri, and eventually Lewis arrived in their household. She wanted to be the type of sister they could look up to and rely on. Lewis was a free-spirit more than anything. Sayuri preferred to keep to herself. And the triplets have always relied on each other more than they have others. But things had shifted in Hogwarts and more often than not, she'd find the triplets separate from each other than together. She never would have thought she would find Eli upset without Rose or Jonah there to keep him company. And it hurt to have him lie to her about being fine so she didn't loosen her hold on him at all. "You don't always have to be fine," she reminded him. "W... Why don't... Tell me," she said, almost pleading. "Tell me what's wrong so I can help," she couldn't fix what she didn't know.​

 

[Elijah Edogawa]

Eli let her hold onto him, breathing shakily as his fingers tightened slightly where they rested. He hated that she was seeing him like this because he tried not to show this kind of emotion around his family. They were a big emotional family, that was true, but that often meant that Rose and Jonah, the ones considered the most emotional, had priority over him. If he’d written to Kaachan and asked her to come, would she have? But she’d come for Jonah, she’d seen Jonah last year without seeing the rest of them. Rose had Touchan, who did Eli have? Rica and Ru had each other. Sayuri was logical, sometimes he wasn’t even sure she knew how to feel (sorry Sayuri I love you!) and Hina was probably the most empathetic and compassionate, she didn’t choose sides when it came to her siblings. Sometimes he just wished someone would choose his side.

“I’m fine,” he repeated, a little quieter this time, becuse he wasn’t sure he believed himself anymore. But Hina wasn’t letting go, she didn’t even ease up, instead he thought he could feel her squeezing him even tighter. He wasn’t used to her holding him like this, or being held this way at all, honestly, like she actually wanted to help him carry the weight of whatever he was feeling, share the load. He grit his teeth in frustration, though it wasn’t directed at her, more at himself for being so stupidly stubborn and finding it so difficult to just talk to his sister. It shouldn’t be this hard, he knew that.

“I don’t know, Oneechan,” he said eventually, frowning and leaning into her slightly. “I don’t know anything anymore.”​