Immoral

legxcy​:

dcay replied to your post

no

yes

no

“No, I’m not.” 

“It’s nothing. Just some dribble being spilled by idiots.” 

oh fuck no

     “But…”  There was a moment of silence that stung the air between them.  Quiet that resonated so thoroughly between the elder and the ill.  Ichigo, mind so diluted with fever, was unsure of what to say about that.  Perhaps the truth?

    He squeezed Akuami’s hand slightly, looking back to him.  A slight smile came across his face.  “You tried.  I still knew things were bad…”  How could he not?  He was a child, but he was not an idiot.  Their parents, though absent in general, stopped showing up entirely.  Around that same time his brother became oh so flustered, so stressed.  Akuami was good at hiding the difficulty he underwent, but Ichigo knew how to read his brother.  It’s how he was able to determine that things were becoming… less than moral.

    “Everything fell on your shoulders.  I just wanted to be something nice for you back then- so I didn’t talk about it.  I just tried to make things a bit easier… the world was unfair, but you were good.  That’s why I knew there had to be other good people too.  Not all of them but… most of them.”  Even in this sick state, he held to his belief.  People were good at heart.  Even if he was wrong about one in particular….

Another beat of silence stretched between them, the air heavy with the weight of the words exchanged. How much of this would the smaller remember? Was there a point? The boy Ichigo knew was dead and yet. And yet. 

He’d thought his sibling blind to it, but no. He’d noticed and opted to hold his silence, to be respite. Had it worked? Or would talking about it had presented them with a different path? 

An amused puff of air left his nose at the last statement, the damaged skin around his eyes creased in open amusement. Good? Good? 

He dragged his thumb over the other’s knuckles, almost absently. “Little brother, do you know what I was doing to keep our lights turned on and to keep the medication coming? Even that young?”