Alice’s arms wrapped around Kaiden with ironclad possessiveness, as if she’d dissolve into dust if she let go for even a second. Her delicate frame trembled, not with fear, but with pent-up frustration and unspoken emotion.
She buried her face into his chest, then slowly tilted her head up to look at his much taller frame.
Her blood-red eyes shimmered, tearful and glinting with hurt.
"How dare you..." she whispered, voice cracking. "How dare you leave me like that... right after we finally got reunited after all those years?"
Kaiden raised a questioning eyebrow.
"Damned Mother dragged me away, and the next thing I knew, you were gone! I thought my world was ending! You!! You’re not allowed to do anything like that ever again, okay?! Never ever!"
Her words were accusatory.
Her trembling lips, her furious eyes, her clenched fists on his shirt, they all screamed yandere energy in its purest form.
Still hugging her close, Kaiden raised a hand and gently petted her lush black hair with slow, soothing strokes.
"I’m sorry. Will you forgive me?"
Alice pouted, her lower lip sticking out adorably.
"No! I won’t!" she declared with an offended sniff, still holding onto him like a child refusing to let go of her favorite toy.
"Is there any way I can earn your forgiveness?" Kaiden asked with a calm smile.
Alice’s eyes narrowed. She thought for a few seconds before she arrived at her answer.
"I demand a kiss!"
That caught everyone off guard.
Even Aria blinked a million times, trying to decipher the words her ears had just transmitted to her brain. Nyx was doing her utmost not to burst out laughing or, even worse, grab a camera. Luna just grinned and thought inwardly, ’Brocon? This girl needs a new description, that term doesn’t do her depravity justice...’
To Alice’s shock, Kaiden didn’t even hesitate to accommodate her demand.
"Sure."
Her breath hitched.
Her heart nearly exploded.
"Wait. Wait, wait, wait. What?"
She stiffened in his arms. Her face went red as a furnace. With shaky resolve, she closed her eyes, tilted her chin up toward him, and even pursed her lips into a shy, tight pucker.
She braced for it. Her first kiss. With her irreplaceable big brother. A sacred moment!
And then... warmth.
But not on her lips.
Her eyes snapped open.
He’d kissed her forehead.
Her world froze for an entire second.
Her jaw hung slack. Her heart, which had gone into overdrive, stumbled like a misfiring engine. Her cheeks puffed up in maximum pout mode.
She barely had time to seethe before she heard it.
The unmistakable sound of annoying female laughter behind her beloved Kai.
She twitched violently.
Nyx was giggling uncontrollably behind a hand. Luna smirked and nodded to herself multiple times. Aria covered her mouth politely, trying (and failing) not to exhale sharply. Well, at least the damned feline monster remained quiet.
Alice went dead silent.
She wasn’t going to give the tramps, who are entirely unworthy of receiving her big brother’s affection, the satisfaction of seeing her lose her cool.
Instead, she grabbed Kaiden’s hand possessively and yanked.
"Come. Inside. Now."
She dragged him into her room, and right after, the door began to swing shut behind them with heavy finality thanks to the force with which Alice slammed it...
But Kaiden caught it with one hand.
He looked back at his Valkyries and catgirl.
"Come on in."
And so, all four girls stepped into Alice’s domain.
The yandere brocon’s pout reached final boss levels.
If looks could kill, all four of them would’ve turned to ash.
...
Alice’s room was less a bedroom and more a temple.
A temple devoted entirely to one god—Kaiden.
The walls were completely covered in photographs, all of them arranged with obsessive care. Childhood pictures of Kaiden smiling, Kaiden sleeping, Kaiden walking to school, Kaiden drinking juice... anything and everything the girl had ever managed to sneak a picture of had made it onto the walls. Between them were drawings, some clearly done by Alice herself with shaky but heartfelt lines, all featuring him in heroic, princely poses. Most had glitter. Many were laminated.
The bed was oversized and covered in plushies... plushies of Kaiden. Handmade ones. Commissioned ones. She’d collected them all and arranged them around her sleeping space. The bedsheets bore his face. The pillowcases, too.
But not the entire room was this shrine of heavenly obsession.
In one corner, the mood changed.
Violently.
That corner was a shrine of hatred.
Posters of their three other siblings were pinned there, but not intact. No, these had been brutalized. Knife marks slashed through smug faces. Some posters had burn edges or were folded into angry crumples. One even had a dart sticking out of a forehead.
On the floor near the posters lay ripped plush dolls, one for each sibling. All three were covered in bite marks, stitches that had been torn open, and red marker scribbles resembling blood. It was like a voodoo pit of childhood vendettas.
And right in the middle of that war zone...
Sat Lux.
The petite, kind-hearted, and accepting girl, the twin-tailed little sister of Aria.
She crouched like a goblin, her knees tucked in, her back to the wall, and a big, mad grin plastered across her cherubic face.
She held a pair of safety scissors in one hand and in the other, a mutilated plush.
Stab. Stab. Stab.
She didn’t even look up. She just kept whispering, "Die. Die. Die," with every thrust of her tiny hand.
Stab.
"Ugly."
Stab.
"Rotten."
Stab.
"Douche."
Aria gasped, her hands flying to her mouth. "L-Lux!?"
Lux blinked once, then turned her head robotically like a doll on bad wiring.
"Big Sis?" she chirped, entirely unconcerned. "Oh! You’re here!"
"Yes, I am! Care to tell what it is that you’re doing exactly?!" Aria yelled.
Alice couldn’t help but grimace. "Ugh... So loud..." She moved Kaiden’s hands to cover her ears.
At the same time, Lux responded to her sister’s question, "I was playing with Alice! She invited me to play with her."
Aria stared at Lux with horrified disbelief. Then, slowly—very slowly—her neck creaked as she turned toward the real culprit.