The Shining Prince p2

Tamiko was not a generous, kind, understanding, or loyal person unless it suited her to be. Everything in life was a tool for her to use, to gain any goal she may desire. But desire came up short for Tamiko; she had a tendency to go with the flow of things, so desire came randomly and often resulted in dire consequences for those around her. There were only two people whom she felt she owed something to - her family - and as of yet, Akihiko did not fall into that category.
After dinner her parents left for work again, after all, the world need not stop for such a 'life-changing' event. So her life would go on too, and she would go clubbing that night like she had originally planned.
She found Akihiko in the study room, which was actually a library that no one cared to enter save the cleaners. He stared at the high bookshelves and modern future and desks but looked hesitant to touch them.
"Hey," she called, and to her surprise he didn't jump, instead he merely turned to face her with steady eyes. They looked challenging, as if he were a mice staring across the room into the eyes of a cat.
Tamiko thought, of course he knows no English, so she told him in her rusty Japanese, "I'm going out - would you like to come?"
She gave him one of her most innocent, friendly smiles. The kind where the corners of her lips rise and her eyes shine, welcoming and yet with a tint of playfulness that managed to attract people to her more than frighten them off.
"It's okay to speak English," he told her, stepping off the raised part of the floor where the shelves were and onto the lower landing that held the lounge chairs. He spoke well, but his accent was heavy, almost comical; she couldn't help but widen her smile.
"Alright," she replied, leaning up against the door, "I'm going to a club, and my friends will be here soon to pick me up. Do you want to come?"
He hesitated, then asked, "Is there enough room for me?"
A little laugh tripped out of her, and her wide-necked shirt fell over one of her shoulders, reveling smooth skin. Tamiko had no intention of charming her brother with sexual appeal, but natural beauty could never be turned off.
His eyes wandered to her exposed shoulder, and then back to her, "No thank you, I wouldn't want to bother you and your friends."
Nothing on the outside could possibly give away the shock that erupted from within her. Sure, Tamiko had never genuinely intended to take him along for his benefit, but still she was being gravely insulted in many ways.
"No trouble," she told him with a quick flash of her pearly whites, "I'll just tell them you're my cousin visiting from Japan. Don't you want to see the downtown area? Besides, it beats being all alone in this huge house."
"Being with twenty other people is not what I consider alone."
Tamiko couldn't help it, she glared. "For someone who hails from Japan, you are rather rude."
His form was unreadable and he never wavered in his gaze, "Which is why I was sent away from there. I'm not one to play games, which is what I think you are doing."
Something inside her cracked, like the first signs of ice breaking. It creeped through her until her smile wavered and her eyes widened ever so slightly. Never before had she been so openly exposed in her lifetime. Most let her do what she wanted, whether from devotion or fear, it didn't matter, she got her way.
"I hate you," it had come from deep within her, a little whisper that carried between the expanse of them, filling up the entire room until it stopped to rest in their bones. It had been the most childish thing she had ever said in years, and Tamiko had grown up fast.
"Good, because I hate you too," he replied, "and it can't be helped, considering our circumstances." He took a hesitant step forward. "I have no intention of staying here for long, nor of taking your place in our father's eyes. Unfortunately, it will take me some time to establish some sort of life on my own here, but I would rather not suddenly run away and disappear into a country I know nothing about. I've done that before, in my own country, and it wasn't in the least bit liberating. So for now we will have to live with each other, whether we like it or not." After a moment he added. "I'm sorry."
A tidal wave of emotion collided into Tamiko so that she had to struggle to keep her knees from shaking and her lips from trembling. Desire overwhelmed her; the need to hurt him somehow. Physically was her first instinct. She could grab a nearby lamp and smash him in the head, hitting that pretty face over and over until it no longer existed, or a number of other grisly things that could be fathomed from such an strong impulse. Tamiko, though, was a rational person, she knew that actions like that were considered illegal so the tidal wave turned into a storm of ideas that raged in her head, and they were all perfectly legal.
"I'm sorry, too," she mumbled, and the smile returned while Akihiko could only react to this in dismay.
"So you agree?" he asked carefully, shoving his hands into his pockets; a sign of nervousness.
There was no time to answer, though, because just then Tamiko heard a call down the hall that her friends had finally arrived. The two of them continued to stare at one another until finally, she laughed, a low steady chuckle that rang throughout the halls, even as she turned to leave.