InsaneJournal

How much longer?" The airy little voice asked petulantly. The slight
crack in the voice that should have been bright and bubbly-used to be
bright and bubbly-was what caused Anya-Mari to tighten her hold on the
little girl currently taking rest in her arms. She tried hard not to
think on the fact that said little girl could probably do without
having her too thin frame suffocated by the desperate hold of her older
sister. Instead she concentrated on the fact her little sister had a
frame ... unlike her parents. And that she knew where said frame was
... unlike her brother's. She concentrated on the fact that her little
sister was at hand and alive if not necessarily well.

"Soon, mars bar. Soon. Just a few more miles and we'll rest. Then we'll
walk little more and we'll be there tomorrow."

Yuki didn't say anything about that. She didn't say anything about how
today was tomorrow, and yesterday had been tomorrow, and the day before
that, and the day before that. She didn't complain more than she had
to. Because Nakamura's wouldn't complain. Her father would have been
very disappointed in her with the way she'd been needling Ahnny. But
she couldn't help it. She really couldn't. She was tired and cold and
hungry and sooo sleepy. She was too afraid to go asleep and she too
worried about Ahn to say anything. Therefore, she settled in putting
all her pent-up frustration into whining. It wasn't as if daddy could
do anything about it. He was dead.

"Are you hungry?" Anya asked, her normally low voice pitching lower
into a comforting tone when her usually talkative little sister had
stayed silent.

She was starving. "No." She whispered petulantly.

"You sure?"

"Mmmhm." She nodded her head slowly, firmly, her riot of curls tickling
Anya-Mari's chin and nose.

"Because I could-"

"I don't ... like it. I don't like it when you do things like that."
When you steal. The words weren't said but they were so obvious.
Had been obvious when big dark chestnut colored eyes had looked up into
her big sister's own brown ones with resigned disappointment the first
time Ahn had had to steal. It'd been a knife to Ahn's gut.

"Okay." And she left it at that. She'd find a way to feed her later.

They walked barely a few more feet before Yukiko asked, for the
millionth time, "Why we going back to Sundance?"

"Because my friends are there. I heard Tyler and Danni were there."
It'd been difficult to find any information on her childhood friends
but rumors spread even all the way to the quarantine camps. She wasn't
the kind of person who put much mind to rumors. She tended to be
shallow, yes, but she wasn't stupid. However, she was desperate. If
Sundance was the place to go then it was the place to go. Besides even
if it turned out to be a complete waste of time it wouldn't be much
worse than any other place else. At least Sundance had been home for
many years.

"I don't like Tyler. He's a jerk" Yuki's voice took on what
their brother used to call 'full-on whine mode'. Where her voice would
simultaneously deepen yet raise in octave and her cute pixyish features
would curl back in a disgusted sneer that had no place on it.

Anya-Mari let out a chuckle and she grinned slightly. She probably
barely even recalled who Tyler was; she just wanted something to say.
"You think everyone's a jerk."

"I don't think Danni's a jerk ... She's the girl right?"

Ahn's grin widened, "Yes. Danni's the girl."

"Well, I don't think she's a jerk."

Big sister knew better than to argue with little sister's logic.
"Tyler isn't a jerk either."

"He isn't?" The dry disbelief in Yuki's voice was enough to make Ahn
laugh again.

"He isn't." She said firmly, loyally. However, Ahn was an honest
person.
"Tyler isn't a jerk ... he's special."

"Like dragon?"

All traces of a smile slid from the twenty year old's face as she
thought on their missing brother,
"No." She answered softly. "No one is quite like dragon."