"One of the greatest things in life is having the ability to know the difference between family and friends. Friends were once strangers... and they can be that again, but family has always been family."

— Forbidden Love

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

•┈••✦ ❤ ✦••┈•

Marinette practically slammed the bedroom door open, almost wishing she hadn't when the palm of her hand turned a somewhat blood-shot red color. But the anger inside of her was fuming. "Krissy!" She shouted angrily, and she watched as her sister fell over the side of the bed, her eyes widened in fear. "We need to have a word!"

Marinette didn't have to explain for Krissy to understand. Krissy's eyes were as wide as a deer caught in headlights, and she scrambled up against the foot of her bed, back pressed against it. "Please dear sister! I did not mean to trap you in freezing weather!" Krissy pleaded, "You must believe me!"

Marinette's rolled her eyes. "Spare me the pleasantries of excuses, Krissy. You are practically a murderer now."

"It was an accident, I swear!"

"Oh, I am sure it was," She smiled, despite her serious facade. "But in all seriousness, how could you forget that you left your own sister out to freeze?"

"I do not know!" Krissy exclaimed, or more like wailed. Marinette rolled her eyes again and stepped closer to her younger sister. "I had not meant to leave you there! I was planing on returning, I swear my life on it!"

Marinette sighed, and slipped down to meet Krissy's level. "Krissy, I know you did not purposely leave me outside to catch phenomena." She chuckled lightly as she moved so that she could sit next to her sister, her back resting against the bed beside her. "But why, may I ask, did you bring me there to begin with?"

Krissy sighed, her head hanging low in embarrassment. "Well... you got drunk. I could not let anyone see you in such a state. Imagine if Aunt had known!"

Marinette hummed at that. Aunt would have been more than just not pleased. "She would have had my head, that is for sure."

But Krissy refused to take the joke so lightly. "Look, my dear sister, for some time I have come to accept your way of thinking. But it has gotten out of hand." She looked up into he sister's eyes with timid ones, "Marinette, I love you very much. You are my closest sister, and we relate the most with each other. But I can no longer sit still and watch my sister live in her fantasies."

Marinette's furrowed her eyebrows slightly, and for some particular reason, she did not like where this conversation was headed. "What do you mean by that?"

"Life is life, Marinette," Krissy tried to explain a topic Marinette despised. "We cannot change what is meant to happen to us. It is just mother nature's way of telling us our place. I wish I could help you understand to not cross that line."

Marinette felt a bit hurt by her sisters words. "What do you mean to tell me, Krissy? That because I am a woman, I am not allowed to attend college? Or to vote, because I do not have the same brain capacity as a man? If you really observe a man, what on earth do you find so intelligent about them?"

Krissy shrugged, avoiding the question entirely.

"And, since I am a woman, I should just submit myself to a man who wants me? Hell no I will not. I am not an item who can be easily handed off into greedy hands."

"What if the man really loves you, Marinette?" Krissy butted in, her eyes pleadingly searching her sister's.

"What does it matter if he loves me or not?" Marinette retorted, "I have said it time and time again. I do not need a man to succeed."

Krissy's sighed disappointedly, her eyes staying glued to the floor. "I just want you to be happy."

"I am happy." Marinette said through gritted her teeth.

"Well then, that is all I wish for." Krissy whispered, and reached out to tenderly rest her hand on top of her sister's.

Marinette suddenly felt guilty, and her eyes softened as she studied Krissy. How could she simply snap at her younger sister in such a way? "I-I am sorry, Krissy. I did not mean to talk to you so cruelly...I just—"

"Marinette, it is alright," Krissy assured her, interrupting her sister gently. Krissy sent her sister a small smile, and she felt greatly relieved that her sister was so forgiving.

Marinette smiled back, happy that her and her sister could always seem to stay on good terms. Even though Krissy had left Marinette to freeze on a balcony, Marinette had learned that holding such a silly grudge could never solve anything.

A shiver ran down Marinette's spine, and it suddenly felt awfully cold in her room. She shivered again, her whole body suddenly rising with goose bumps. Krissy immediately turned to eye her sister, and right away, she caught onto what was wrong.

"Cold?" Krissy asked tenderly, a teasing smile on her lips.

Marinette only nodded, wishing that the cold weather would simply disappear and that the summer would return. She had always hated the winter, especially when the first snow arrived. It was always too cold for her liking. "A bit."

"Maybe I could persuade Aunt to turn up the heater in our bedroom." Krissy suggested, but Marinette knew it is all false hope. Women did not have clothes that were meant to protect them from the cold. The only option they had to escape the cold was to wear a double layer of clothing or wrap themselves in the sheets of their beds. The markets carried boots for women too, and Marinette had always fantasized in having her own pair for the longest time. But Aunt had always declined the idea, saying boots were only for men to wear.

What an absolute load of donkey dung.

"You know Aunt will not agree into turning the heater up," Marinette sighed sadly, "Especially for our room."

"I know." Krissy sighed as well.

Marinette eyes lowered. It was a disappointment knowing that her aunt had been willing to let her nieces freeze instead of letting them have some heat. Their aunt had always insisted the heat was for their uncle and him only. And although the man never left his study, Aunt pampered and treated him as if he were the king of England himself.

Marinette's eyes suddenly raised as she suddenly remembered she had a men's tailcoat in her wardrobe. Why had that not occurred to her before? Men's clothewear were warm indeed, especially their coats. She had stolen the tailcoat she owned now from her own uncle. How could she not have remembered that she owned it? "Krissy, could you reach over and snag my tailcoat off the bed? That will for sure keep me warm."

Krissy had never been fond of meddling with men's clothewear. But she nodded nonetheless and reached up behind her to pull the tailcoat to the floor. It fell along with her pulls, and when it fell to the floor, something fell from its pocket and a clinking sound followed shortly afterwards.

Marinette didn't notice, and she simply retrieved the coat from Krissy's hands and slipped her arms into the inviting warm sleeves. She sighed contently as the warm fur inside the sleeves tickled her skin, chasing all her chills away.

Krissy's eyes focused on the object that had fallen onto the wooden floor, and she slowly picked it up to observe it closer. The object was unknown to her, and she turned it Marinette's way. "What is this, Marinette?" She asked curiosity, yet innocently.

When Marinette did turn to look at her sister, her eyes only froze and locked on the item pressed between Krissy's thumb and pointer finger. The small trinket she had been keeping hidden from everyone in her home. 

The arrowhead.

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