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“O-Osomatsu, please--”
“Oh, shut up, it’ll be fine. It’s not like you use it anyway, and I need the money!”
“Isn’t there… anything else that you can possibly take instead? I’ll give you anything else!”
“Didn’t I just tell you to shut up?” Osomatsu says, and his nose wrinkles when he feels Karamatsu’s hands fist into the back of his sweater, stopping him from leaving the room. “Let me go! Stop being a dick.”
“I can’t… please, anything else, Osomatsu-niisan--” Karamatsu begs, and his voice is wavering, pleading. He doesn’t let go of his eldest brother and it pisses Osomatsu off more than endears him.
“You don’t even use it! You’ll never become famous anyway, either! So what’s wrong with me pawning it off for a little?” Osomatsu says, turning and shrugging Karamatsu’s hands off him.
Karamatsu reaches for him again, eyes locked onto the guitar in Osomatsu’s hand that he’s being kept away from. His brother’s words sting, but his mind is entirely focused on the object itself.
“Please, Niisan,” Karamatsu starts.
“It’s funny how you use the proper honorific whenever want something.” Osomatsu says without a shred of humor in his voice. “Pretty shitty if you ask me. You don’t really deserve this thing if that’s the case, do you?”
Karamatsu looks at him, mouth opening and closing and opening again with lack of anything to say. He looks back to his guitar held hostage in Osomatsu’s hand. “Please--”
“Enough, I said! You’re giving me a headache! Fuck off now!” Osomatsu says and he raises his socked foot and uses it to shove Karamatsu away from him. “I’m only pawning it-- once you save up money, you can buy it back!” Osomatsu reasons.
Karamatsu isn’t saying anything else but he’s clearly in a panic. Osomatsu hopes he doesn’t cry because that’ll be absolutely horrendous to deal with and he really doesn’t have the energy or time to do that. He has to get to the horse races soon! Karamatsu knows this, so why is he keeping him? What a selfish idiot!
“Look, I’m using this to buy tickets for the races. If I win, I’ll buy it back and even give you half of my winnings. Sound good?” Osomatsu says and he threatens to kick Karamatsu away again when the blue-clad brother gets closer once more.
“Mom and Dad got that for me for my tenth birthday!” Karamatsu says and his voice cracks into something weaker and it really annoys Osomatsu.
“Yeah, so? We share the same birthday and we’re sextuplets so it’s as much mine as it is yours!” Osomatsu says. “Now, leave me alone! I’ll get it back sometime. Or you will. Whatever happens first.”
“Osomatsu-niisan--”
The eldest feels hands on his sweater again and without a second thought he sends his fist flying behind him. He feels it connect with something and a quick glance behind him confirms the fact that he managed to get Karamatsu in the face, as Karamatsu’s hands are no longer on him and instead are covering his own face as he stumbles back.
Osomatsu leaves the room without hearing his brother out any further, feeling the beginnings of a headache begin at the back of his skull. Does Karamatsu know how painful he can really be to his brothers? Pretty inconsiderate, really. He shuts the shoji behind him.
Ichimatsu’s walking in the front doorjust as Osomatsu’s about to walk out, and the purple-clad brother notices the unmistakable instrument in his eldest brother’s hand.
“Ah, hello, Ichimatsu.” Osomatsu grins as he’s walking past, but the way he tries to shift the guitar behind his body as if it’s nothing catches the younger’s eye.
Ichimatsu doesn’t say anything, though. Not immediately. Not until Osomatsu tries to slip past him once more to get through the front door.
“Osomatsu-niisan,” Ichimatsu says, his gravel-filled voice low and haunting, even when he wasn’t trying.
“Move out of the way, Ichimatsu! Nii-san has business to do.”
“With Shittymatsu’s guitar?” Ichimatsu asks, raising a barely-there brow.
“What? Oh, yeah, he lent this to me! A real pal, that Karamatsu. Heh!” Osomatsu says, rubbing his nose with the top of his index finger, his grin in place.
“Hn,” A pause. “What for?”
This makes Osomatsu momentarily stop and Ichimatsu can see the minor bit of irritation that flashes across the eldest’s face. “What do you mean ‘what for’? I need money and he’s helping out! You know how he is.”
Ichimatsu is silent but his tired eyes scan over his older brother once more and then lands on the guitar still partially hidden behind Osomatsu’s body.
Osomatsu grows impatient then and without warning he pushes past Ichimatsu and out the door. Ichimatsu steadies himself and glances over his shoulder, watching his brother walk away. He blinks, then closes the door. Whatever.
He makes his way through the first floor of the house; first, the bathroom, then the kitchen for snacks, then the living room because maybe his cat-friend has visited today. A quick peek in confirms that no, his cat-friend has not graced him with his presence. That being said, Ichimatsu decides it’s naptime and promptly heads upstairs towards their shared bedroom.
It isn’t until he gets closer to the closed bedroom shoji that Ichimatsu hears it.
Sniffling? Coughing? Whimpering?
It makes Ichimatsu stop outside of the bedroom, listening momentarily. If one of his brothers were crying in there he didn’t want to bother them. He wasn’t good at that type of thing and would rather not deal to begin with, as shitty as that sounded.
Ichimatsu was just about to turn around and leave, deciding then to nap on the couch, when he heard it again.
A sob, soft, but so immediately recognizable.
Karamatsu nearly jumps out of his skin when the shoji is slammed open with enough intensity to make the woodwork of it tremble.
“A-ah, Ichimatsu,” Karamatsu says, wet, red eyes wide and staring up from his spot in the middle of their bedroom at the younger brother that stands in the doorway. They stare at each other for a solid few seconds before Karamatsu comes to and starts scrambling to wipe his face off with his sleeves. “S-sorry, I didn’t think you were coming home so soon, please don’t mind me--” Karamatsu says, ducking his face into his sleeve as he moves to wipe his eyes and nose as fast as possible. He doesn’t hear Ichimatsu approach him, nor does he expect to feel hands grip his wrists and pry his arms from his face.
Ichimatsu is suddenly right there and Karamatsu’s breath hitches in his throat with a hiccup. The younger’s normally exhausted demeanor is now very aware and scanning the details of Karamatsu’s face. Karamatsu tries to pull his arms back to himself to hide again, feeling uneasy from being looked at so closely but Ichimatsu’s fingers tighten around his wrists and prevent him from doing just that.
“You’re crying.” Ichimatsu says, matter-of-factly.
“N-no! No, it’s allergies, mom must be cutting onions in the kitchen--”
“I was just in the kitchen, mom’s not home.”
“Ah, then I thought of something sad--”
“ Karamatsu,”
The use of his name makes Karamatsu freeze, thick brows furrowed as he stares at his brother.
It’s silent as they stare at each other and Karamatsu sniffs loudly and gulps.
“It was Osomatsu-niisan, wasn’t it?” Ichimatsu says, immediately recalling how their eldest sibling was only minutes prior.
“D-don’t worry about it, Ichimatsu, really--” Karamatsu starts, and Ichimatsu wants desperately to do just that; to not worry about it and not care, but he can’t ignore the way Karamatsu looks when he cries, the way he sounds. It’s always sort of hit him in a spot Ichimatsu can’t ever seem to figure out, mostly because he doesn't want to.
Karamatsu tries tugging himself free once more and this time Ichimatsu releases him with an annoyed huff. There’s a moment, kind of an awkward too-many-seconds where they’re both sitting and staring at the ground in front of them. The silence is broken by another sniff from the eldest of the two and Ichimatsu grits his teeth.
“Which pawn shop did he go to,” Ichimatsu mumbles out.
“Huh?”
The purple-clad brother growls, not wanting to repeat himself and face what he’s doing. “Which pawn shop did Osomatsu go to.” He enunciates his words a bit sharper this time, a bit louder.
“A-ah,” Karamatsu pauses, the simple question itself seeming to have halted his gears. He stares at Ichimatsu who doesn’t dare look back, and it’s too long before he answers.
“T-the one around the corner, within walking distance--”
Ichimatsu is off the ground and out the door in a matter of seconds and it leaves Karamatsu in a daze. What just happened? A part of him felt awful that Ichimatsu had seen him like that, but part of him was also extremely confused because he had never really seen Ichimatsu like that either. He looked so… focused . On him. In a way that Karamatsu doesn’t particularly recognize.
It takes him a few moments to gather his thoughts before the weight of the situation catches up to him and he realizes that he’s once again alone in their shared bedroom. Immediately his mind goes back to his too-light wallet to try and fathom how much it would be to buy his guitar back from the pawn shop down the street. It would be difficult, saving up that amount of money as fast as possible before somebody else falls in love with his beloved guitar.
The stress of the situation gives him a headache, and Karamatsu opts to set the futon up early tonight. The rest of his plans for the day had consisted of him having that guitar, but now that all seemed cancelled until further notice.
The second eldest spends the next few minutes hyper-focusing on spreading out the futon and the sheets and blankets on the ground, plopping each of their pillows in order right after. The less he thinks about his guitar and the words Osomatsu had said to him, the less he feels like crying even more, which he definitely doesn’t want to do because he knows his other siblings are probably not far away the later it gets.
Karamatsu is just about finished with making sure the bedding looks perfect when he’s scared out of his wits again by the slamming of the shoji door to their bedroom. He immediately whips around to see who it is, only to get hit with a heavy feeling of deja vu when it’s once again Ichimatsu staring right at him.
“Ichimatsu--” Karamatsu starts, but stops his own words. Ichimatsu looks different-- his hair and clothes are more disheveled than they definitely were before, and the dark, sharp glare in his eyes makes Karamatsu’s skin heat up.
In his hand, however, is a guitar-- his guitar, to be exact, with one string hanging broken from it.
“Oh! You have it--” The eldest of the two starts, but is once again unable to finish his sentence because Ichimatsu is stomping towards him and before Karamatsu can understand what’s going on, the wall is meeting his back and head with a painful thud and Ichimatsu had dropped the guitar in favor of fisting his hands in the fabric of Karamatsu’s blue sweater.
A sound of submission and fear escapes Karamatsu’s throat and his eyes are screwed shut. He can feel the weight of his brother pinning him entirely against the wall and he’s going through everything and anything that he could’ve possibly done to piss him off again.
When nothing happens after a moment, Karamatsu dares open his eyes and he’s greeted once again with that dark look in Ichimatsu’s that makes his stomach twist. This close, however, he can also see a red mark blossoming on the edge of Ichimatsu’s jaw that definitely wasn’t there before.
“Ichi--”
“ If this happens again, you come get me immediately.” Ichimatsu hisses out through gritted, sharp teeth and it makes Karamatsu flinch.
“H-huh?” Karamatsu asks, noting that Ichimatsu is still breathing hard against him.
“You heard me, Shittymatsu-- if something else happens to you, you come get me. I’m the only one allowed to make you cry like that. Do you hear me?”
There’s an authority to his voice that Karamatsu has never heard before and Karamatsu is finding it hard to stand suddenly. If it weren’t for the wall and his brother holding him up so tightly, he may have fallen just then. He isn’t sure why.
“Y-Yeah, yeah of course,” Karamatsu says, as if it’s the most natural thing to agree to such a statement. The red on Ichimatsu’s chin gains his attention again and he voices his question aloud. “Did he hit you too?” There’s a level of anxiety backed up by anger at the thought that Osomatsu may have laid a hand on any of their younger siblings, but it’s quickly shut down by Ichimatsu’s suddenly infuriated look.
“Too? ... Does he hit you a lot?” Ichimatsu asks, but it isn’t voiced like a question. There’s a dread in him that begins to rise at the realization that maybe this whole situation wasn’t a one-time thing he happened to walk into this time.
Karamatsu doesn’t answer, but the way he looks away is telling enough and Ichimatsu finds himself growling again, his fists twisting tighter into Karamatsu’s sweater. This close, he can smell his brother’s overpowering cologne and it only makes everything worse.
“It won’t happen again. This whole thing won’t happen again-- and if he hits you, you tell me, Shittymatsu.” Ichimatsu snarls out, watching Karamatsu cower away from him. “Everything about you belongs to me, do you understand?” Ichimatsu doesn’t know what he’s saying, but it feels right, feels like something that should be said-- something that should’ve been said a long time ago.
“Ichimatsu--” Karamatsu tries, but he can’t ignore the way his knees are still weak like his body wants to crumble before his younger brother. He can’t ignore the way his stomach flips at the surprising authority in Ichimatsu’s voice-- and he definitely can’t ignore the way Ichimatsu’s stare makes his face feel warm.
Ichimatsu jerks him once, thumping the eldest against the wall with the movement. “Say it.” He warns. Threatens. Begs, maybe, just a little.
“E-everything about me-- it… It belongs to y-you, Ichimatsu,” The sentence is hard to get out if only because it’s ultimately embarrassing, more than anything.
It’s enough for Ichimatsu, however, and suddenly Karamatsu is released and he immediately slides to the floor in one heap.
Ichimatsu doesn’t move though and he looks down at his brother who is looking back up at him in turn. They’re both breathing hard, and his chest is thudding unnaturally.
Karamatsu looks good where he is, Ichimatsu thinks. On his knees in front of him, looking up at him with dazed eyes as if waiting for an order of sorts. He looks great, actually, like he belongs there.
One second too many passes, and Ichimatsu jerks away as if he was suddenly burned by the air itself. He stumbles backwards but catches himself in time before falling, and it only serves to make him feel worse. He doesn’t look at his brother when he speaks next; he just isn’t able to.
“The string broke but I figured that’s better than not having anything at all, I guess.” He mumbles out.
“Thank you, Ichimatsu,” Karamatsu says, but his voice is light. Out of breath. The sound of it sticks to Ichimatsu’s brain like a bad memory.
“Don’t fucking mention it.” Ichimatsu says, and he leaves before Karamatsu can say anything else, shutting the bedroom behind him as he goes.
His first immediate stop is the bathroom then to take care of the erection he had suddenly gotten with no clear explanation as to why.
He decides not to think too much about it; all he knows is that the image of Karamatsu on his knees in front of him looking all cried out was absolutely refusing to leave his head.
He’ll hate himself later he decides as he’s shutting the bathroom door.