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“Nii-chan, the school sent out a mail to all parents and-” Jiro stops when he hears a noise on the other side, hand about to turn the doorknob of Ichiro’s room. He hears another noise, one that sounds very much like his brother’s voice doing something that his brother’s voice had very much never done before and Alright, maybe he was interrupting something?
“N-Nii-chan?” He says it to the door, and then he hears movement again, this time followed by a half whine from Ichiro and a laugh from a voice he doesn’t know all that well but that he feels he’s heard somewhere befo-
Wait, a what?
“Nii-chan are you alrig-”
“I’m fine!” From the other side of the door, making him recoil and move his hand away, as if a current had passed through his fingers and made him let go. Ichiro sounds a little agitated, and Jiro wonders if his brother really is alright or if maybe there was something going on, maybe there was someone else inside (no, there was definitely someone else inside) but his older brother was the best there was no way he was having trouble in there-
There’s another weird noise, the evident sound of someone falling off the bed, and then a weird yell from a voice that should very much not be making those kinds of yells in there what the he-
The door opens and Jiro jumps, Ichiro looks at him from the other side, hair disheveled and a leash in the hand not on the doorknob. Jiro wonders.
“Are we getting a dog?”
Ichiro seems to stop breathing for a second, then leaves the room and slams the door shut behind him after throwing in the leash.
“No, we’re not, Jiro” Jiro looks bummed out, he guesses, and he feels even more confused than before.
“Then why-”
“Don’t” He gets cut off, and he looks at his brother with questioning eyes, hand going up to take away his cap and run through his own hair. He’s about to speak up again, but Ichiro interrupts him with a hand on his shoulder.
“Don’t mention this, to anyone, ever” Jiro wonders what’s so bad about a leash, but he nods and stares at the door behind Ichiro. There’s still movement in there, and Ichiro turns sharply when there’s a bang on the door. He kicks the door lightly, and then there’s silence again.
Alright.
.
.
.
“Woof” Ichiro chokes, Jiro stares at the door and squints.
Alright, that wasn’t a dog, was it? He could tell that wasn’t a dog, but what else would you use a leash for it it wasn’t a-
Ichiro kicks the door, and Jiro can hear a laugh from the other side. Said laugh is followed by another kick to the door from Ichiro, which then causes the laugh to turn louder. Ichiro sighs loudly, tightens his hold on Jiro’s shoulder.
“Listen, just…” He kicks the door again, and the person on the other side seems to the wheezing already. Jiro feels he knows the voice, but he isn’t really sure. “Don’t ask”
“I wo-”
“Good” Ichiro interrupts before Jiro can finish, then lets go of his shoulder and turns around. “Ah” he pauses with a hand on the doorknob “I’ll check my email later” Jiro nods, then Ichiro opens the door and rushes inside. The second it’s open he hears a laugh, sees blue hair and a green jacket through the crack.
And then the door closes, it’s quiet again, and Jiro has no idea what just happened.
____
“Saburo” he walks in on his younger brother doing homework. He’s tidy as always, papers stacked neatly together with pens and utensils Jiro doesn’t even understand the use of. Saburo ignores him, starts writing down numbers a little bit faster. Jiro scowls, insists with a tap on his shoulder. “Saburo” He gets ignored again, what a shock, Jiro insists again. “Sa~bu~ro~” he drags the syllables a little too aggressively, firmly places a hand on Saburo’s shoulder.
Saburo turns in annoyance, Jiro lets go.
“Alright, alright” He slams his pencil down, rolls his eyes. “what the hell do you want?” Saburo glares, Jiro glares back and sits himself down on Saburo’s bed. “Get of-”
“What would you even use a leash for?”
“What?” Saburo squints.
“You know, a leash” Jiro makes a motion, as if showing a leash in his hands “what would you use it for?”
“To walk your pet?” Saburo scoffs “Are you stupid enough you don’t know something so ba-”
“But” Jiro cuts him off before he can keep insulting “That wasn’t a dog”
“What?”
“Like” Jiro stands up, throws his cap aside and runs a hand through his hair and face “That was a person” Saburo stares, Jiro stares back. “A human...person, like, that couldn’t have been a dog-”
“Alright” Saburo raises both his hands in front of his face and speaks a little too loudly. “What the actual hell are you talking about?”
“Nii-chan” Jiro throws his hands into the air.
“Ichinii?” Saburo stares in disbelief “What does he-”
“He had a-”
“Leash?” Saburo finishes the sentence and Jiro nods.
There’s an awkward silence for some seconds, and then Saburo is leaning back into his chair and covering his face with his hands. Jiro looks at him in confusion, sits back down on the bed.
“Please, don’t” Saburo pauses, takes a second to recompose himself, lets his hands fall to his sides “don’t you ever mention this to anyone”
“Nii-chan said the same thing but I don’t-”
“Don’t!” Saburo cuts him off, turns back to his homework “It’s fine, just don’t ask, you’re an idiot so it’s fine if you do-”
“What the he-”
“Don’t! I’m busy! Alright!” Saburo starts writing down again. Jiro throws his cap at him, Saburo dodges. “Leave my room”
“No” Jiro replies, lets himself fall on the bed to stare at the ceiling.
He still had no idea what the leash was for.
___
Jiro spends the next week wondering what a leash could be used for, if maybe his older brother was hiding a dog in the house, if maybe the person inside was someone with a dog and not someone who was on a leash or something like that-
His thoughts are stopped when he spots blue hair past the open door of Ichiro’s room one day, the same blue hair he had spotted a week prior. He stops walking, ponders whether to walk towards the door and ask what the hell are you doing in my house I will kick your ass- or if to just, leave, pretend he didn’t see anything, and maybe ask his brother later about it, because if the other person was in the room then that surely meant that Nii-chan hed let them in and-
Whatever, alright, he’s curious, he’s at least going to knock, he needs to find his brother anyway.
He knocks on the door once, twice, thrice, and then the other person moves and sits up with a yawn. Jiro watches, quiet for once in his life. The other man stretches, turns to the door and waves with a smile on his face and a collar on-
A- a what now? A collar?
“Welcome home~!” Jiro shakes his head, blinks, focuses anywhere but on the other guy’s neck because alright, what the hell is going on here and why would you put that on someone, is that what fashion is like, is that what’s in lately, is th-
His thoughts stop again as he gets a good look of the other guy.
“Arisugawa…? Dice?” Jiro hope he remembered the name right. Dice blinks on the bed, then smiles wider.
“Dice!” He mirrors, stands up to stretch, the little bell on his collar rings, Jiro feels his head spin.
“Why’re you here-”
“Food!”
“Food?” It’s Jiro’s turn to mirror. Dice nods with a smile, throws himself back on the bed.
The bell rings with every movement.
“Your brother said you’re cooking today?” Dice looks excited, Jiro just feels more confused every second. Why, yes, he was cooking today, but what was Shibuya’s- Fling Posse’s Dice here, at his house, waiting for his food, sleeping on his older brother’s bed, acting like he owns the damn place-
“Yeah” he blurts out, shoves a hand in his pocket, the other going to play with his shirt. “Yeah, yeah” he repeats, eyes going to the damn bell that keeps making noise with every fucking-
“I’m looking forward to it!” he drags out his words, looks genuinely excited. “The food here’s always so nice” Dice looks content, and Jiro is about to scream.
“Always?” Always?! Always?! What the fuc-
“You look like” Dice pauses, makes a motion with his hand in Jiro’s general direction “you saw a ghost or something, what the hell, man”
Jiro doesn’t say another word and leaves the room.
__
“Saburo” Jiro opens the door without knocking, Saburo glares.
“Jiro”
“I think I-” Jiro pauses, closes the door behind him and looks up at the ceiling. “found the dog…?”
Saburo looks ready to faint.