(I stg I'm gonna die, because I did something incredibly evil... I'm sorry for the hearts I'm about to break)

It was like she didn't even exist anymore.

No one had ever seen her this dead before. She didn't talk. She didn't smile. She didn't laugh. Hell, even her dance moves were zombified... Not even Kukui could get her to talk, which resulted in her getting sent out of the class once or twice. She didn't care, it wasn't like anyone would miss her if she was kicked out.

Unfortunately, at home wasn't any better. She spent all her time in her room, without eating and only leaving to use the bathroom. She didn't even speak to Luke! And, when work gave her a week off after seeing how tired she'd become, she didn't use that time for rest at all! She would just work on paperwork and other stuff to make some extra cash. And also to spite her boss.

It had even gotten to the point of Laura getting so worried, that she had literally dragged herself and Avory to the apartment and started crashing there until her little sister came out. She never did, of course...

"That's it, I'm going in there."

It was a sudden statement, one thought to have come from Megan's impatient and stubborn older sister. But instead, it came from the charcoal eyed male Laura called her boyfriend. The eyes of the two Artemus siblings were now on him.

"Wha-- Avory, no." Laura told him sternly "She'll come out when she's ready."

Avory turned to his girlfriend, and shook his head "She's been stuck in this state for too long, L... she's not gonna snap out of it unless someone else does it for her."

"Then shouldn't me or Laura do it? We're her family, after all." Luke suggested, still quite weary of the male. He had just met him, after all.

"Are you two willing to be harsh with her?"

"Fuck no! She's been through enough!" Laura snarled angrily to her boyfriend, but he was unfazed. Letting out a knowing hum, he turned to the oldest sibling with his eyebrow raised.

"What about you?"

The man's eyes widened at his calm tone, his charcoal grey eyes somehow sending shivers down his spine. But then he looked down sadly, shaking his head as he knew he didn't have the strength to stress his little sister out any more than she already was "No..."

"I thought as much," Avory sighed, standing up slowly so he could stand in front of the two brunettes and sliding his hands into his pockets "I know this may be strange, to be lectured by someone younger than the both of you... But you have to try harder. I know things have been tough ever since your dad got up and left, and then your mum had to leave for a job in Canada. But here's the thing, and I am going to be brutally honest because I think of Megan as family now; you weren't there for her. And that's why she is how she is. You didn't try. One of you worked your ass off everyday just so your family had a stable future, even though she needed you in the present. And one of you just left, with no explanation and no goodbye... I feel ashamed to be the reason behind that. I know you didn't mean it, and I know you want the best for Megan. But here's the thing."

Luke and Laura prepared for another blow, and Avory delivered without mercy.

"What Megan needs right now is tough love. And if you can't even give her that... it makes you pretty shit siblings."

They flinched. It was a hurtful thing to say, but the thing is... he was right.

"And look, I'm not making this about me. But I spent most of my life without my parents, and yet I never felt alone. Because when Ein and his family took me in, they made sure I never had to feel alone. That's where you went wrong."

Avory glanced at Laura, ignoring the painful pang of guilt from her disheartened expression. She had to know this, otherwise how could she ever become the sister Megan deserved. With a sigh he turned towards the door, before giving them a final glance.

"You may be divided, but don't let it stop you from being a family..."

And with that he left them to their thoughts and made his way to Megan's room, not bothering to knock as he knew she wouldn't answer. He took a deep breath and entered, before closing the door behind him.

He was immediately hit with darkness, and the loud volume of MCR almost burst through his eardrums making him wince. Her room was cold, messy and dull; kind of like her mood, which made him worry even more. He switched off her speakers and turned on the light.

Hissssss!!!

His eyes widened at the noise, eyes darting to the desk where the girl sat. Surrounded with piles of paperwork and empty junkfood wrappers.

This was worse than he prepared for...

And to make it worse, she hissed at him.

Frowning he made his way through the mess that was her bedroom, ignoring the nagging voices of his overly tidy nature until he was right behind the chair she sat in.

He reached over and placed a hand on her shoulder "Megan, enough of this. Look at me."

She didn't even flinch.

"I said look--"

"Fuck off, Avory."

The usual gentle expressed boy scowled.

Megan winced as a sharp pain met the back of her head causing her to turn to the man, hand behind her head as she frowned up at him in anger and confusion.

For Avory had just smacked her. Hard.

"I would've done the same to my own brother." He declared as he lowered his hand, his gaze hard and chilling "You're being pathetic."

Megan 'tch'd and turned back to her work "If insulting me is all you came in here to do you can leave, because I'm going back to work--"

A hand slammed down on the paperwork, preventing her from getting to it "No you're not."

This time she flinched, as Avory leaned down to level with her. Slowly, she turned to him.

"You are going to sit there, still and quiet. And I am going to give you the wake up call that has been long overdue. So shut up, and fucking listen. Got it?"

She nodded quickly, heart pounding from fear. And no wonder. That wake up call Avory mentioned lasted half an hour of pure scolding; going at her with no mercy or even a breather. I'm not going to tell you exactly what he said to her, as it probably wouldn't be very pleasant for you.

But let it be known, that it did wake her up.

---

The Aether estate was always lively with the Garcìa family visiting- or it would've been if everyone was in high spirits. It seemed as if Joyce and Lusamine were the only cheerful ones, and that was because they didn't know the situation their children were in. The two women talked in the dining room and sipped tea; typical mother stuff, while the Aether and Garcìa siblings sat on opposite couches in the living room. They'd exchanged small talk and simple yes/no answers, but it was too awkward to look at each other let alone hold a conversation.

Rafe cleared his throat, rubbing the back of his head and smiling awkwardly. He had made it very clear that he didn't want to talk about the photo or the context behind, from the way he averted his gaze and went mute when Gladion asked about it, so it hadn't been brought up since. That didn't stop him from trying to lighten up the mood, though "So... how's everyone been since the ball?"

Everyone held back a scoff.

How'd they been? Well:

- Gladion lost his girlfriend

- Lillie lost her best friend

- And Sadie lost both the trust, and the attention of Gladion.

Yeah, things weren't all hunky-dory...

"We've been better..." It seemed like Sadie was the only one to react to Gladion's broken voice, by the way she lightly flinched at his response. Why wouldn't she; It was partly her fault he was like this. Rafe hummed.

"Lillie? How about you?"

The blonde shrugged, staring at the potted plant in the corner. Though, her eyes said all that needed to be said. He bit his lip, almost guiltily and turned to his sister. She looked back, eyes conflicted. He shook his head lightly, which caused be to stare down at her lap.

"How's...That girl holding up?" She whispered, resulting in two emerald glares turning to her.

"How would we know?" Lillie spat.

"And why would you care?" Gladion continued.

It's not like she didn't know why they were mad; they already knew she was the reason behind the whole ordeal. But they didn't know who was behind the photo, because if they did know they'd be way angrier at her.

How can you be forgiven, without apologizing?

"I... just wanted to know if she's okay." She whispered "I-I mean, I know you guys aren't friends with her anymore--"

"And what makes you think that, Sadie?"

"Because I--" she paused, before averting her gaze guiltily "I saw you guys don't really hang out anymore, and with that picture that was leaked to the entire class; I just figured--"

"Are you sure it's not because you were responsible?"

"Excuse me?"

"You were responsible for everything else," Gladion continued, jaw tight "So what's stopping us from believing that you scammed this picture thing, too? What if you tricked your brother into it, as well?"

Sadie gasped "I would never!"

"Fucking prove it, then!"

Rafe watched as his sister argued back and forth with the blonde siblings, trying her best to defend her innocence in this particular event. He suddenly averted his gaze down to his lap, his knee noticeably bobbing up and down much like how Megan's did when she was nervous.

And that's exactly what he was. Because down in the pit of his soul was a feeling he couldn't quite describe.

"Well maybe if you're entire personality didn't reek of lying bitch, we wouldn't be so damn skeptical!"

That one statement brought him out of his thoughts...And caused him to snap.

"Don't you dare talk about my sister that way." He growled likely, ebony eyes glaring at the female that said those words. Lillie was surprised about it, too. But she was more shocked Sadie was being protected right now.

"Pointing fingers won't solve anything." The man continued as a bit of his dark hair fell across his eyes "You can't just assume it was Sadie."

"Uh, we can too." Lillie scoffed "She's been trying to get Gladion to hate Megan since she met her, if course she'd go for where it hurts!"

"But she didn't!"

Gladion scowled at him "How do you you know?"

"I know because I--" He stopped, eyes going wide as he allowed his flexed hands to fall to his sides. His entire body slumped and his eyes cast down to the floor, finally realising that feeling in his soul; it was guilt.

"Because... I did it."

.

.

.

He glanced upwards after a few moments of silence, only to have his breath hitch when the Aether siblings stared at him with wide, unbelieving eyes. Even Sadie seemed shocked, because she thought it would be her to spill the beans after after all that pressure was put on her. But it seemed Rafe stepped out of his facade on his own.

"W-What?" Lillie whispered shakily, eyebrows pulling downwards as their eyes met. The man sighed, sad and ashamed.

"The one behind the photo ordeal... it was me. It was my idea, I tricked Megan into it."

Holy shit...

Gladion felt like his lungs closed up. His best friend; someone he looked up to for the longest time... He scammed the whole thing, the event that made him hate someone he cared about.

"Why." He asked, distrust in his voice.

"Because..." Rafe trailed off, his mind feeling heavier each second "I wanted to help my sister. We knew part of you still liked Megan, so I thought of a way to get her out of Sadie's hair once and for all..."

"But I--" Lillie stopped, not wanting to believe any of this "I thought you cared about her!"

"I still do! She's a precious friend to me! And I never meant for this to get out of hand, I didn't know that picture was to be sent to your entire class! I just... Sadie and I needed this to happen."

"Why?"

"For our mother's recognition." This time it was Sadie who answered. She wasn't smirking, or scowling, or giving that fake seductive smile of hers. At that moment, for the first time she looked vulnerable "All my life, all she ever wanted from me as a person was to marry you, Gladion. Before then, I was just a trophy to her... I had all her attention, but not in the way I wanted. I figured if I married you, she'd finally see me as her daughter..."

"But... you don't want to marry me?" The blonde male asked slowly, and was answered with a shake of her head.

"No. Trust me, I didn't constantly hit on you because I wanted to. Maybe when we were children, I had a tiny fairytale crush on you and pictured us getting married. But I was young and naive, and it wasn't until I got older when I realized I didn't really like you. Heck, I don't like men, period."

It took a moment for Lillie and Gladion to process what she just said, then it clicked.

"WAIT A MINUTE!" Lillie suddenly screamed, scaring the shit out of literally everyone else "So you like--?!"

"Yes."

"And your mother wants you to marry my brother!"

"Indeed."

"That means she doesn't know." Gladion frowned "Why haven't you told her?"

"You seriously think she would approve?" The girl scoffed "My mother's a perfectionist, which means she wants everything to be the way she likes it. Perfect life, perfect husband and perfect kids... She went off the rails when Rafael--"

"Rafe."

"When Rafe got all these piercings... imagine what she'll think when she finds out about this." She hugged herself and fell into her brother's side, who wrapped a comforting arm around her "It's another reason why I wanted to do this; to cover up this little part of me, because I know this cruel society has no room for a rich lesbian... I just didn't know what else to do..."

"Sadie..." Lillie didn't deny she felt sorry for the dark skinned girl in front of her "That doesn't make what you did right, you know."

"Believe me, we are both well aware..." Rafe sighed out "I don't even have a proper exuse, other than being tired of not being noticed by mom... But, once we found out about the leak, and when we saw how much we were hurting all of you... well, we left that little club Leven had started. We will never, ever cause you hassle again, you have our word."

"No words could tell you how sorry we are..." Sadie added with a small sniffle, as the two of them bowed before the Aether siblings. They were gobsmacked, to say the least.

"Oh my gosh!" Lillie suddenly gasped, pulling out her phone "We have to call Megan and set this right, we--"

"Lillie, Gladion!"

They froze.

Lusamine ran into the room with wide, tear filled eyes which made her childrens' hearts pound with worry. She held a phone in her hand, which showed she was on call with someone and probably forgot to end it. But they didn't care about that right now.

"Mom, what's wrong?!" Lillie asked urgently, running over to her mother and holding onto her shoulders. Gladion stayed back, nervous sweat forming on his forehead as he awaited the news from Lusamine.Though the feeling in his gut told him it wasn't good.

And it was right.

Lusamine swallowed and allowed a few years to fall, before addressing her children in a dreadful wrangled voice.

"It's your father..."

---

As soon as Megan exited her room alongside Avory, she immediately threw herself into the arms of her sister and murmured apology after apology. She would've hugged both her siblings, but Luke was nowhere to be seen.

"He's on the phone." Laura assured, still holding onto Megan tightly "It seemed pretty damn important..."

"Oh..." Was the younger sibling's only reply, before once again burying her face into Laura's chest. The woman looked up at her boyfriend and mouthed 'what did you say to her'. He only smiled, winking as if to say it was a secret. Laura rolled her eyes, and went back to tightly hugging Megan.

Until Luke's door slammed open.

"We gotta go, now!" The man yelled urgently, causing his siters to jump apart. Just looking at him told them something was seriously wrong.

"What happened?" Megan asked, gripping the collar of her shirt nervously "Where are we going?"

"The Aether estate." Fear suddenly struck her "That was Lillie just now, she told me to get all of us there right now."

Lillie? But I thought... "Why?"

She wished she never asked.

"Because their father's been hospitalised, and Gladion's gone."