Upside Down

All I can do is nod as I stand within her arms shaking like a leaf and doing my d.a.m.nedest not to have an utter meltdown.

I"m bouncing back and forth between being terrified and furious as I hold Chinatsu tightly while we stand in between Chiaki and Sofi.

How long did this take? A few seconds? I didn"t even think, I simply reacted when he grabbed me. Thank G.o.d I did, who knows what they wanted or had planned.

Why can"t you people leave me be? I don"t want to hurt anyone or even see anyone hurt! Trying to take my nanites isn"t going to help you! I can"t take this.

"H-h-home, pl-please. I-I don"t wwant to h-have a m-me-meltdown h-here." I beg Chinatsu.

Thankfully, the police are already here and Chiaki quickly explains the situation to them. After a call, they told us we could leave and they would call us in for an interview later. I"m sure they could tell just how close I am to utterly losing it.

Chinatsu waves over Sofi and tells her, "Sofi can you get someone to checkout for us? Everything we need is there already. We need to get Sora home. She"s not doing very well."

Sofia looks at us, and replies,"Of course, that"s not a problem." She tries to gently rub my back and my flinch when she does which makes her frown angrily. I don"t think she"s angry at me, but the men who caused my reaction.

She picks up the hand cart, speaks to Chiaki for a moment, walks over to hand the basket to one of our backup guards, and speaks to him for a few moments.

After he nods, she comes back, and the four of us surround by additional security walk out to the car.

Once, we arrive home and are walking up to the house the door flies open and Mama races to me to wrap me protectively within her arms. At this point, my composure completely breaks down. All I can do is cling to Mama as I sob while she holds me, murmuring rea.s.surances in my ear as she attempts to calm me.

A few moments later, Dad comes out to pick me up. I wrap my arms and legs around him and bury my face against his neck as I continue sobbing. He leads us all back inside to the living room where he sits on the love seat and gently rocks me.

◇ ◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆ ◇

I wake up sometime later because I"m cramping severely, wedged in between Mama and Chinatsu in Mama"s bed. "Mama?"

"Hmm? How are you Sora?"

"I"m fine I suppose, but I need to get up, I"m cramping really badly. I need my meds and to change my tampon."

"Are you sure you"re alright? That had to be scary for you."

I sigh and shake my head slightly. "I wasn"t scared until it was over with. I was terrified and angry then. I really am fine now though. I"m calm, simply hurting a lot."

Sora tells me that, "he"s the reason I"m able to remain calm now."

I reply, "Thank you Sora. I"m happy you did this since I don"t want to worry anyone anymore than they already are."

"I told you I"d be here for you Sora. I"m sorry I did this without asking, but you were on the verge of a breakdown."

"Thank you Sora. I appreciate it. You"re a great friend or should I call you my brother since we"re basically twins?"

"Either is fine, but I like the thought of us being twins," he replies with a grin.

"Then you"re my Onii-chan and I"ll be your imouto. Sornii, thank you again."

I break away from our brief conversation as Mama says, "Okay sweetheart. Afterward, we probably ought to start making lunch. I"m sure Honoka and Mayumi are starving by now."

I glance at my watch. It"s not all that late, but it"s 1:30, so it"s been six hours since they"ve eaten. I nod in reply, hug and kiss Mama, and then gently wake Chinatsu. Taking her hand I head to the bathroom to change my tampon and then upstairs to take my meds.

Once those are accomplished, we check in on Honoka and Mayumi. We change their cooling strips and tell them we"ll be back soon with some food.

We head downstairs and I drop Chinatsu off in the living room to continue on to the kitchen. Mama"s already began to saute the prawns and broil the lobster tails.

I won"t bore you with all the detail of us making a Lobster and Prawn Bisque, but I"ll say this, if you"ve never had it, you have no idea what you"re missing. Pair all this with a nice salad and some fresh baked sharp cheddar, sourdough bread and it"s simply divine.

It takes Mama and I about an hour to make all this, but it"s far more than we can eat in one meal and that"s why I decided to make this.

I set two large bowls of it, along with a salad for each of them and several slices of bread and two large gla.s.ses of barley tea on a tray to take up to Honoka and Mayumi. I set down the tray when I enter and wake them.

"You two eat. Once you"re done, I"ll come up and take you down to bathe. I"m sure you feel icky, even after we wiped you down."

"Thank you Sora. A bath would be wonderful."

Mayumi nods. "That it would. It"s been a while since we bathed together."

"Sorry Mayumi, but with your temperatures being so high, we won"t be soaking in a hot tub. Even though I"d love bathing with you again, your health is far more important."

Now, I know I haven"t told Honoka about the attempted abduction, nor will I do so for the moment, since it would do nothing but make her feel bad for not being there to protect me. She"s like me, she"ll not admit that even with all the other security around me that it wouldn"t have made a bit of difference. At least, until she"s forced to do so, like I did with the pervert that touched Chinatsu.

Heading back down, I eat myself, and them help clean up. Afterward, Sofi pulls us to the side.

"Sora, I"m so sorry for today. I never expected that and I failed in protecting you."

"No, Sofi. You didn"t fail since you couldn"t have known. Anymore than I failed because of it. This is all on the people that did it. You did just as you should have to protect Chinatsu and me, same as Chiaki and the the rest of the security detail did. You two did exactly as you should have and you stopped what could have happened, so don"t feel bad, alright? Thank you for watching out for us. I don"t know you that well, as yet, but I have a good feeling about you."

She looks at me nervously for a few moments, then sighs. "Sora, my parents abandoned me when I was really young. I"ve never had a family and I"ve had to fight my whole life. When you"re father approached me about this I jumped at the chance to have a family. I"ve never had any of it, be it sisters or parents and I"ve always wanted both."

"Sofi, you"ll never have to worry about that now. You"re a part of this family. You have sisters. Just be with us in that that respect and worry less about your guard role."

Chinatsu chimes in at that point. "Sofi, you"re our family. Be here for us and we"ll be here for you, alright? Never forget that."

Sofi pulls us against her and whispers, "Thank you, I won"t."

Today"s been a lot more intense than I thought it would be. We unexpectedly gained another family member, and those men try to abduct me. Me fighting back like that without a single thought. Who knew that me wearing heels almost all the time would come in handy and make such a good weapon to defend myself. I"m fairly certain that man will have a permanent limp. Actually, the most amazing thing to me is I was able to stay composed as long as I did.

All of this aside, I need to go get Honoka and Mayumi so we can get them bathed. I"m sure they"ll feel better once they have.

"Okay, we need to go get Honoka and Mayumi so I can bathe them."

"Do you want some help?" She asks me.

"Sure, if you don"t mind."

"I don"t mind at all," she says with a smile.

We troop upstairs to Honoka"s room where I tap on the door and enter. They"re both sleeping at the moment so I go over to the dresser to pull out a pair of panties and a nightgown for Honoka. Then I delve into Mayumi"s bag to do the same for her.

Sitting beside Mayumi, I gently touch her cheek and smile at her when she looks at me. "Hi. Are you ready to take a shower?"

"Definitely, I don"t ever remember sweating this much before."

I nod. "I don"t doubt it, your fever is pretty high after all. Let me wake Honoka and we"ll go down."

I head over to Honoka and wake her in the same manner. When she opens her eyes, I ask, "Hi. Ready to take a shower?"

"Yes, but I"d rather take a bath, but I know that"s not a good idea right now."

"You"re right it isn"t. It won"t be long and we can soak together again." I wave Sofi over to us. "Nee-chan, this is Sofi. She"s Chinatsu"s security and our new family member."

"h.e.l.lo Sofi, I"m Honoka."

"Pleased to meet you Honoka. I"m sorry you"re not feeling well. Well, from what Dad tells me you the oldest of us, so I suppose that I should call you Onee-san."

"Whatever your comfortable with Sofi, but Nee-chan is fine. There"s no need to be so formal. So, how old are you supposed to be?"

"Thirteen. I"ll be placed in Chinatsu"s and Sora"s cla.s.s."

Honoka nods. "Well, you certainly look the part. You"re absolutely adorable."

Sofi blushes as she replies, "Thank you very much."

"Now, how about we get you two cleaned up?" I say as I stand, offering my hand to Honoka to help her up.

Once we get them down to the bathroom, we undress them and ourselves. Sofi really is adorable and has a pretty nice figure. Is it bad that I kind of want to feel her up? I wind up my hair and pin it into place.

It takes about half an hour to bath them and washing their hair. By the time we brush out and blow-dry their hair and get them back upstairs their both exhausted. I"m happy to see Mama and Chinatsu changed their bedding while we were downstairs.

After they sit down, I take two bottles of water off the table and give it to them.

"Make sure you finish that before you lay back down, alright? We don"t need you getting dehydrated. I"ll come back and check in on you before too long."

They both nod. Taking Sofi by her hand I lead her back downstairs as I think, "This has already been a very long and tiring day for me."