Archive of Our Own

“So Tomioka is still alive, and Aoi said that he seems to be doing fine, which means Muichiro and all the others who got marks will probably be fine when they get older too.”

“That’s wonderful news. We’ll have to tell everybody else later.”

Yuichiro was currently in the kitchen with Hinatsuru helping her make lunch as he explained some of the contents of his most recent letter from Aoi. Tomioka, who had been one of the Demon Slayers to receive a mark, had turned 25 not that long ago. According to Aoi he was doing just fine, and hopefully that would mean all the others would be fine as well.

He had told Muichiro the news as soon as he’d found out. His brother, despite looking tired from having been woken up, had looked very relieved to hear it. Not just for himself, but he was happy all the others who had been marked looked like they were going to live. Yuichiro himself, was mostly happy about his brother, which he knew was selfish, but it was his brother. He was, however, also happy about the Iguros because he didn’t want the Iguro’s baby to grow up without his parents.

“You’ve been getting a lot of letters from Aoi recently,” Hinatsuru pointed out. It was true. For a little over a week now, he hadn’t gone a single day without exchanging a letter with her. They’d always kept in contact, but recently the amount of letters they sent each other had been increasing. It sounded like Hinatsuru was trying to hint at something, but Yuichiro couldn’t figure out what that was.

“We just have a lot to talk about. That’s all,” Yuichiro responded. Their letters were full of stories about what they got up to when they weren’t together. Yuichiro would tell Aoi about his brother, his cat, and the Uzuis while Aoi told him stories about her sisters and the Iguros as well as the occasional patient. And of course recently there had been the thing with Tomioka. “I’m going to go visit again in a couple days.”

“You’ve also been visiting the Butterfly Estate a lot recently.” It was starting to feel like she was questioning him, but Yuichiro couldn’t figure out why.

“Well she’s my best friend.”

“Is that all?” Her voice had a playful tone as she spoke. Yuichiro decided he didn’t like this. 

“What do you mean?” he asked, knowing full well what she was implying. He felt his cheeks start to grow warm, so he turned his face away in an attempt to hide his blush. This hadn’t been the direction he expected this conversation to go in.

“Do you like her?” And there it was.

“She, she’s my best friend,” he stammered. He was playing dumb, and he knew that Hinatsuru knew this. He could feel his heart racing and his face growing hotter. He looked down at the floor and tried not to think about how he felt about Aoi. In his head he reminded himself over and over that she was his best friend. That was all. It had to be. He had never thought of her as being more than that. 

“You know that’s not what I meant,” she teased.

Yuichiro had never even thought about the possibility of him liking Aoi like that. When they had first met, the two had hardly been able to put up with each other for a while, but somehow they ended up becoming best friends. He couldn’t even imagine what his life would be like without her now. She was just as important to him as Muichiro was. But she was never more than his best friend.

Hinatsuru interrupted his thoughts, and spoke up again, “Don’t overthink it,” she said, placing a hand on his head. “I was only teasing. If you just want to stay friends with her that’s fine, but it seems like you may like her more than that.”

Yuichiro tried to turn his attention back on the food he was helping to make, but found it to be difficult. He couldn’t focus. Now that the idea had been placed in his head, he couldn’t stop thinking about it. He thought about the relationship his parents had had, Amane and Oyakata, the Iguros, Tengen and his wives. He’d never thought that that might be what he wanted to have with Aoi. 

.The more he thought about it, the more he thought it was probably true.  He liked Aoi.

***

Yuichiro placed his foot on his brother’s shoulder, shoving against it with his heel. Muichiro groaned before half-heartedly swatting at his foot with his hand. It was much too late in the afternoon to still be asleep, even if he stayed up so late, so Yuichiro continued trying to shake him awake.

“Would you stop that?” Muichiro said as he finally sat up, shooting Yuichiro a quick glare. “I’m trying to sleep. This is the second time you’ve woken me up this morning.”

Yuichiro was knocked off balance a bit, as his foot fell back to the ground as Muichiro sat up, but he somehow managed to keep his balance. “It’s not morning.It’s time for lunch. You should already be awake.” 

“I don’t care. I’m tired. I just want to sleep. I didn’t sleep well last night.” 

Yuichiro knew that was a lie. He’d seen his brother slip out of their room after he thought he was asleep. It happened a few times each week. Normally he didn’t really care too much that his brother slept all day. It was just annoying on days like today when he had important things to talk to him about. 

“If you didn’t sneak out every night to go see Tanjiro, maybe you wouldn’t be so tired.” As the words left his mouth, Yuichiro watched his brother’s eyes grow wide in panic, and he regretted speaking. He had never let Muichiro know that he’d caught on to his sneaking out.

“How did you know about that?” Muichiro asked nervously. He tried to hide his obvious panic at being caught.

“Because I’m still awake sometimes when you leave,” Yuichiro admitted. While he knew about the sneaking out, the fact that he was out visiting Tanjiro had just been a guess on his part. His brother had always seemed to get along with Tanjiro well, so he had just assumed that was the case. “I don’t care though. You can do what you want.”

“You haven’t told anybody have you?” Muichiro asked, still sounding a bit nervous, although Yuichiro had no idea what there was to be nervous about.

He shook his head as he took a seat next to his brother. He never felt the need to tell anybody, but he didn’t see why there would be an issue if he did. It’s not like he would get in trouble for sneaking out. For the most part the Uzuis just let them do what they wanted. They wouldn’t get mad. Regardless, Yuichiro didn’t mind keeping it a secret if his brother didn’t want them to know. It’s not like it was something they needed to know anyways. 

The answer seemed to calm Muichiro down for the most part. “Can I go back to sleep now? I’ll eat later. I just want to sleep.”

“Wait. That’s not why I came here.” He grabbed onto his brother’s arm preventing him from lying back down and hiding under the covers. 

Muichiro sighed. “What do you want then? Will this take long?”

“I don’t think so. I just really need to talk to you about something,” Yuichiro replied. He realized that now he was the one who sounded nervous. This wasn’t something he was used to talking about. He had never even thought about it before Hinatsuru put the idea in his head. “I like Aoi, and I don’t know what to do about it.”

“You finally figured it out then. I was wondering when you’d realize.” That was not the response Yuichiro had been expecting to get. He thought Muichiro might be a bit more surprised than that.

“What does that mean?” Yuichiro asked. 

Muichiro shrugged. “it doesn’t matter. I guess I just already knew you liked her, and you just took a bit longer to figure it out. Just tell her.”

Yuichiro groaned. “That doesn’t seem that easy.”

“It’s probably easier for you to say than me,” Muichiro mumbled under his breath, but Yuichiro still heard him. He wasn’t sure what that was supposed to mean, but he figured it wasn’t important enough to bother asking about. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to, I guess, but if you don’t say anything you’ll never get to know if she likes you back.”

“I guess.” Yuichiro decided he had plenty of time to figure out what he would do. He didn’t have any plans to see Aoi in the next few days. Hopefully that would give him the time he needed to figure things out. “Thank you.”

Muichiro yawned, and covered his mouth with his hand. “Can I go to sleep now?”

“Of course,” Yuichiro said, standing back up. As he started to make his way over to the door, Muichiro buried himself back under his covers. He closed the door quietly as he left, and as he made his way to lunch he started trying to figure out what he was going to do.

He just knew that telling Aoi was going to be a pain.

***

A little over a week later, Yuichiro found himself at the Butterfly Estate alone with Aoi as was normal. This was the first time he’d spoken with her in person since his conversation with Hinatsuru. As always they’d continued sending letters to each other, but Yuichiro was starting to realize that with letters it was a lot easier to hide his feelings than it was in person. 

It shouldn’t have been any different than normal. The two of them often spent time together, and Yuichiro had been visiting her here at the Butterfly Estate for years. They often just sat together and talked which is what they were doing. Or at least Aoi was talking to him. Unlike normal though, Yuichiro was having a lot of trouble paying attention to what was being said.  

Today it seemed like everytime he looked in Aoi’s direction, his cheeks would start to grow hot. However, he didn’t want her to think anything was off, so he couldn’t just avoid looking at her. Instead he decided to look in her direction but past her. He ended up focusing so much on that, that he struggled to make himself pay attention.

He knew Muichiro was right, and that he should probably tell her about how he felt. Even if she didn’t like him back, he’d probably be able to focus more knowing that he’d at least told her. At least he hoped. But then he started to worry about what would happen if she didn’t like him back. Would she even want to be friends anymore? That was the scary part. 

A finger jabbing into his cheek took him out of his thoughts. He focused his eyes on Aoi’s face and saw that she was looking a bit annoyed. Yuichiro felt his face start to grow hot again, despite all his attempts at preventing this. He just hoped Aoi wouldn’t notice and point it out. He had no idea how he would be able to respond to that.

“What?” he asked, his voice shaking a bit.

“You didn’t respond to my question,” she said. Yuichiro didn’t even know she’d asked one. “You seem very spacey today. Do you even know anything I’ve been talking about?”

“Of course,” he said despite not actually knowing at all. He couldn’t remember a word she’d said to him since he’d arrived earlier in the day. He wished he could do better at acting like everything was normal. Everything was normal. He was just acting like it wasn’t.

Aoi crossed her arms. “Then tell me what it was.”

Yuichiro froze and realized he might not be able to get away with this for much longer. She was going to find out. “Um, your sisters?” he guessed. She talked about them enough that there was a good chance he would be correct, but the look on her face was telling him that he was wrong.

Aoi shook her head. “I haven’t brought them up at all today. Is something wrong? You seem very out of it.” He was happy that she didn’t seem to be angry at him for not paying attention, and it was nice that she sounded concerned. However, he knew he wasn’t going to be able to completely tell her what was going on. He didn’t think he was ready for that.

“I’m fine,” he said. He was trying to be as truthful as he could. It’s not like there was anything wrong with him today. He wasn’t sick. The only issue was that he was that he was distracted and having a little trouble focusing. It wasn’t anything Aoi needed to get worried over. 

“Your cheeks are red. Are you sick?” She reached forward with her hand, likely to check to see if his forehead was warm, but Yuichiro quickly backed away. He knew he wouldn’t be able to handle her touching him right now. That would just make it worse.

“I guess I haven’t been feeling the greatest today. Maybe I should just go home and come back another day.” It was a lie of course, but Yuichiro figured it was close enough to the truth.

“I’m not going to send you home if you’re sick.” She sounded annoyed at the suggestion. Yuichiro had hoped to leave and try coming back another day after he’d gotten over whatever this was, but it looked like he wasn’t going to be allowed to do that. “You’ll be staying here until you’re better.”

Aoi moved to stand up, grabbing Yuichiro’s arm as she did so, pulling him up along with her. Once they were both standing, Yuichiro tried to pull his arm away, not wanting the physical contact to last any longer. He could follow her just fine on his own. However, before he was able to do so, Aoi had grabbed onto his hand and led him out of the room where they had been.

Although he didn’t know how it was possible at this point, Yuichiro was pretty sure his face was growing even hotter. She was holding his hand . If she could do that and not react like Yuichiro currently was, she must not feel the same way he did. He decided he should just get over all of this. Maybe he didn’t even like her. Maybe it was just because the idea had been placed in his head that he was reacting like this. But he knew rationally that wasn’t the case.

He was very thankful that Aoi had thought his face being red meant he was sick and not that he was blushing. He had no idea how he would have responded if he was questioned on why he was blushing. Thankfully, since she’d been running the Butterfly Estate for a few years now, her mind never strayed far from medicine. It was only natural her first thought would be that he was sick.

Aoi led him into one of the empty rooms and over to a bed that had already been made. They didn’t bother to make all the beds anymore since they rarely had more than a few patients at once, but he knew that they always made sure some were ready in case somebody arrived needing care. Currently nobody except Yuichiro was here.

Yuichiro climbed into the bed, pulling the blanket up over himself to hide his face. He didn’t think he’d be able to handle Aoi seeing him like this for much longer. Right now it would be best just to lay down for a bit and hopefully get his mind off things. Hopefully he could calm down enough to have a normal conversation with Aoi like he should have been able to have already.

“Get some rest,” Aoi told him softly. “I’ll come back later to check on you.” 

As she finished speaking, Yuichiro listened as her footsteps walked towards the door. Once he heard the sound of the door shutting, he pulled the blanket down from over his head, tossing it aside. He flopped back down onto his back, staring up at the ceiling, trying to let himself calm down. He just needed to get over this, and everything would be okay. Right now this was all very frustrating, but if he would just forget about all this, it would be fine.

Not long later, he heard the door start to open. Thinking it was Aoi, back already to check on him, he quickly reached for the blanket to pull it back over himself. However, it was only Naho who walked in, so he let the blanket fall from his hands. Acting normal in front of Naho wouldn’t be an issue. She wasn’t the one he was crushing on.

“Aoi told me to bring you some medicine,” Naho said as she walked over to his bed. She held up the medicine she’d brought in her hands to show him then lowered it back down. “But you don’t really need any, do you?”

“What do you mean by that?” Yuichiro asked. Was it really so obvious that he wasn’t sick? She’d only just entered the room a few seconds ago. She can’t have figured it out that quickly, right? If she had noticed, Aoi should have been able to as well.

“You’ve been acting weird since you got here this morning,” she replied. She placed down the medicine on the table next to his bed. It looked like she wasn’t going to be giving it to him. “But we all know, except for Aoi apparently, that it’s not because you’re sick, is it?”

So it looked like it wasn’t just Muichiro and Hinatsuru who had noticed. Naho seemed to know as well, and if she knew then all the other girls probably did too. He hadn’t even known himself, so how had they all picked up on it? But none of that mattered. He sighed, shaking his head.

“So you finally realized it then?” 

“What’s that supposed to mean?” How long had everybody known? 

Naho sighed and hopped down on the edge of the bed, swinging her legs. That must mean this conversation was going to last longer than Yuichiro had hoped for, especially with the way it was going. He did not want to talk about his feelings for Aoi with one of her little sisters. 

“We’ve all known for at least a year now,” Naho began. “Even Obanai and Mitsuri knew. You were very obvious about it, especially with how you look at her. It’s all very sweet. We were starting to think you’d never realize. It looks like we were wrong though.”

Yuichiro groaned, throwing his arm over his eyes. He just wanted to disappear. While it was upsetting that almost everybody else seemed to know before him, at least Aoi hadn’t seemed to catch on. Wait. Did she know too?

He sat straight up, startling Naho with the sudden movement. “Does Aoi know?” he asked in a slight panic. If she had known all this time, but hadn’t said anything it would obviously mean she didn’t like him back, and this was all just pointless.

“Of course not.” Yuichiro breathed out a sigh of relief and flopped back down onto his back. Naho continued, “She seriously thinks you’re sick. She sent me here with actual medicine. If she knew she wouldn’t have done any of that. So are you going to tell her?”

“No,” he replied. “She probably doesn’t even like me back.”

Naho jabbed a finger into his side. What was with these girls and stabbing at him with their fingers today? “You’re just as dumb as she is. I swear. The only difference is you realized your own feelings yourself.” He decided not to tell her that Hinatsuru had been the one to suggest the possibility to him. That would only lead to more teasing that he didn’t want to have to deal with.

Wait.

Yuichiro’s eyes grew wide. “What do you mean by that?”

“What do you think it means?” she asked, sliding back off the bed and reaching for the medicine she’d brought with her.

“Oh.” 

“So you’ve figured it out then,” she stated. She once again held up the medicine in front of him. “I’ll go dump this somewhere, and tell Aoi that I gave it to you.”

“Thank you.”

Naho walked back over to the door, but before she left she turned back to Yuichiro. “You need to decide what you’re going to do. It’s been driving us all crazy.” And then she was gone, leaving him on his own once again.

He wished saying something could be easier. 

*** 

After Naho had left, Yuichiro had some more time alone to think about what he should do. He was pretty sure by now a couple hours had passed, but he continued to struggle with his thoughts. He knew he was overthinking things, but that didn’t help him because he couldn’t stop himself from doing so.

It was nearing lunch time, so he knew Aoi would be stopping by soon to check on him and drop off some food for him. If Naho was right, and Aoi did like him back, then he should just be able to tell her, but even knowing that it still seemed too scary for him. However, he also knew if he didn’t say anything he’d just continue to stress over it. It was all too frustrating. He wanted to get it over with already. 

Eventually the door opened, this time revealing Aoi, just as he’d expected, with a tray of food in her arms. As soon as Yuichiro saw her, he jumped out of the bed he was in and met her halfway. Her face scrunched up in confusion as she looked up at him.

“Are you feeling better already?” she asked, looking him over. “Or are you just pretending, so you won’t have to stay in bed and so I’ll let you go home?”

Yuichiro shook his head. “I was never sick,” he admitted. He felt his hand starting to shake, and he quickly hid it behind his back before Aoi noticed. He didn’t want her to see how nervous he was. He still wasn’t totally sure he was ready. 

As he spoke, Aoi’s confusion seemed to grow. “What do you..? But you were acting weird all morning. Your face was all red, and you said you weren’t feeling well.”

“I like you!” he blurted out, louder than intended. He felt his cheeks, once again, start to burn. He hadn’t thought he’d be able to do it, but he did. Although he was still panicking over how she’d respond, finally saying it after overthinking everything for days was such a relief.

“Well of course. We’re best friends, aren’t we?” She tilted her head, trying to make sense of everything.

In the past couple hours, Yuichiro had run through this conversation in his head many times. He thought up multiple scenarios of how the conversation might go. This response, however, was not close at all to any of said scenarios. It seemed that Naho was correct, and that Aoi was dumb regarding all this. 

“That-that’s not what I mean.” He barely managed to get the words out. He had no plans in his head on where to go from that response.

“What do you mean then?” she asked, sounding exasperated. “Are you sure you’re not sick? You’re acting weird.”

“I like you as in I want to kiss you.” Yuichiro regretted the way he’d phrased that. He just wanted to hide his face and disappear. 

Aoi finally seemed to understand what he’d been trying to say. Her eyes grew wide and she seemed to freeze in place, completely speechless. Neither of them said anything for a while. After what felt like an eternity, but was really only a few seconds, Aoi took a few steps backwards before turning around and walking straight back out the door. 

Yuichiro fell to his knees, and leaned backwards against the wall, closing his eyes. He still felt very shaky. The nerves still weren’t going away. That had gone a lot worse than he’d thought it would. He just hoped he hadn’t ruined everything.

***

Yuichiro ended up lying down on the floor on his back with his arm thrown over his eyes. He didn’t quite feel like moving at the moment, so he just stayed where he was. Once he calmed down and could get up again, he decided he would just go home, and most likely he’d never be coming back here again. That thought hurt, but he didn’t think Aoi would want to see him again after that reaction. 

Once again, the door opened, but Yuichiro didn’t bother looking to see who it was. Whether it was Aoi or one of the others, he just wanted to be alone. He wasn’t in the mood to talk anymore. Today had already been too much.

“Please just leave me here to die,” he groaned as footsteps approached him where he lay. When he didn’t get a response, he uncovered his eyes just in time to watch Naho kneel down next to him on the floor. When he noticed the frown on her face, he worried she was here to yell at him for upsetting Aoi even though she was the one who wanted him to talk to her in the first place.

“I’m sorry that my sister is dumb,” she began. That wasn’t what he expected to hear from her at all. Yuichiro decided he just wasn’t good at predicting how people would react to things, no matter how well he thought he knew them. “I think you just spooked her.”

“She hates me.”

Naho sighed, shaking her head. “No she doesn’t. She’s just really dumb, and she wasn’t expecting that at all. She probably just needs some time to think about it. I think she’s talking with Mitsuri right now, and she’s really good at this kind of thing.”

“I just want to go home,” he said, sitting up and turning to face Naho. When he saw that she was frowning at him, he glanced away.

“Don’t do that. Please just give her some more time. I know she likes you too. She just needs to realize it first.” Yuichiro stared down at his lap as she spoke. He didn’t know if he should believe her. He’d only managed to confess because Naho had said Aoi liked him back, but that had gone horribly.

“Why do you care so much?” he asked, looking back up at her.

“Because we all know she’d be very happy with you, and that’s all we want. She’d been through so much, and you know how she is, always worrying about us before herself. She always seems the most calm when you’re around.”

Yuichiro didn’t have anything to say in response, so he just sat there in silence while Naho continued to sit in front of him. After a few minutes with neither of them speaking, Naho stood back up, brushing off her clothes. 

“Promise me you’ll wait a little bit longer?” she asked.

Yuichiro let out a sigh. “I will,” he agreed.

“Thank you,” she replied with a smile, before turning away and once again leaving Yuichiro alone in the room.

***

Eventually Yuichiro was able to pick himself back off of the floor and move back into a bed. He’d spent too much of his day sitting around, and while he didn’t want to start getting lazy like his brother, he just couldn’t get himself to do much else. 

After a while he started to get hungry. When Aoi had left earlier, she’d taken the food she’d brought him for lunch which meant he hadn’t eaten since this morning. He didn’t feel like leaving the room to ask for food. If he left now he could make it back home in time for dinner, but he promised Naho he’d wait a bit longer, so he did.

Yuichiro waited for a couple hours, but Aoi still hadn’t returned. He decided that he’d waited long enough. He’d been alone in this room most of the day by this point. He would apologize to Naho later, but he couldn’t take the stress of waiting any longer. He climbed out of the bed and walked over to the door. 

When he opened the door, Aoi was standing on the other side, and the two of them froze when they saw each other. Aoi stared up at him with wide eyes, and the same panicked look she’d had the last time he’d seen her before she’d run off. He wondered how long she’d been outside the door. 

Yuichiro waited for her to say something, assuming that’s what she was here for, but when she didn’t he spoke up instead. “I was just about to head home,” he said. This time he didn’t feel his face start to heat up as he looked at her, which he was very thankful for. “I’m sorry about earlier. If you don’t want me to come back here anymore, I won’t.”

Before Yuichiro had the chance to squeeze past her, Aoi grabbed onto the front of his kimono with her hands, pulling him down and pressing her lips against his. His eyes grew wide, and before he even had the chance to process what was going on and react, she’d pulled away.

Her hands stayed where they were, and she pressed her face up against Yuichiro’s shoulder. She seemed to be shaking a bit. Yuichiro wasn’t sure what he was supposed to be doing, so he stayed still as best he could, letting Aoi latch onto him. He slowly lifted his fingers and gently touched them to his lips, still having a hard time comprehending what just happened. Aoi had once again surprised him. 

He lowered his arm back down to his side and opened his mouth to speak. “I-”

“Shut up,” she said, cutting him off, her voice muffled by the fabric of his clothes. “Just give me a second to talk first. Please.” 

Yuichiro decided it would be best to listen, so he shut his mouth. It’s not like he really knew what to say right now. He was still attempting to process everything. Aoi remained pressed up against him. She stayed silent for a moment before she continued speaking.

“I’m sorry for running away earlier,” she apologized. “I didn’t know what else to do. I was scared. But I’ve thought about it, and I like you too. I, I want to kiss you too.” She pulled her face away from his shoulder and looked up at him with a blush spread across her face. 

Yuichiro tried to think of a response, but before he had the chance to say a word, he heard a squeal from down the hallway, causing both him and Aoi both turned their heads in the direction of the noise. As they looked, Naho, Kiyo, and Sumi all disappeared into another room. Apparently they had been watching them.

“Uh, maybe we should take this somewhere else,” Yuichiro suggested, speaking up now that Aoi had said what she needed. “It looks like we’re being watched.”

Aoi nodded, taking a couple steps backwards, and letting go of Yuichiro. She looked down at her feet, likely avoiding making any more eye contact. “Let’s go into town for dinner,” she suggested. “I stole your lunch earlier, and I don’t think you’ve eaten anything since. And, um, I guess it can be like a date.” The blush on her face seemed to grow as he finished speaking.

“I, I don’t have any money with me.” He hadn’t expected he’d be going on a date, so he hadn’t taken any money when he’d left home that morning. 

“That’s fine. I can pay.” While Yuichiro felt bad making her pay for everything, he knew it would be best for them to leave the Butterfly Estate, so they could talk without having to worry about being watched or interrupted. 

“Alright.”

***

The walk into town was very awkward. Neither Yuichiro nor Aoi seemed to know how to act, and neither of them spoke until they reached their destination. Aoi led Yuichiro to a small restaurant that he’d seen before but had never visited. They were quickly seated and had their orders taken, but still neither of them spoke, and they continued to avoid eye contact.

“Shinobu used to take me here sometimes,” Aoi said, being the one to finally break the silence. “I haven’t been here since…I haven’t been here in a while, but I thought it would be a nice place to go.”

Just as she finished speaking, their food arrived, and the two went silent again. This time at least the silence wasn’t as awkward, since they had the excuse of eating, but it still felt a bit weird. Yuichiro just didn’t know what there was to say at the moment. Talking with Aoi used to be so much easier.

Once again, Aoi was the one to break the silence. It made Yuichiro feel a bit guilty for still not having said a word since they left the Butterfly Estate. “How long have you known? It feels like I was the last one to find out.”

“It seems like I was also one of the last to know,” Yuichiro admitted. He forced himself to look at her and not continue staring down at his food. “Hinatsuru suggested that I might like you about a week ago, and it’s been bugging me since.”

“So I guess both of us had to be told then. Mitsuri is the one who told me after I ran off earlier. She said that she and Obanai have known for a while now, and that the two of us were both pretty obvious about it.” 

“Muichiro also seemed to know. And Naho said she and the other girls said that they’ve been waiting a while for us to notice.” Yuichiro was annoyed at himself for taking so long to notice since almost every person he knew seemed to have known for a while now.

Aoi let out a nervous laugh. “I guess that’s why they were spying on us earlier then. They must have wanted to see how it would go.”

Yuichiro noticed that as their conversation continued, it got easier to talk. It felt just like any other conversation the two of them would have. They were able to actually look at each other and joke around. It made him smile knowing that things weren’t changing too much like he’d been worrying about so much today. 

“What are you smiling at?” Aoi asked him.

“I was just really worried that things would be weird now. I thought I might have ruined our friendship. But everything seems to be going well now.”

Aoi reached across the table, once again jabbing him with her finger. “Of course you weren’t going to ruin it. We’ve been friends for about seven years now. Something like that wouldn’t ruin it at all. It’s just a lot to get used to.”

As they continued their meal, the conversation strayed from the initial topic. Aoi told him the story she’d been trying to tell him earlier in the day when he had been completely spaced out. This time he was actually able to listen, and he ended up telling a story of his own as well. It was just a normal conversation the two would have at any other time.

Once they finished eating, Aoi paid for their meals, and the two of them made their way outside. While they had been eating the sun had gone down, and now the stars were out. After having missed out on seeing them for so many years, Yuichiro tried to go outside as often as he could at night.

“Is it okay if we take our time heading back?” Yuichiro asked, wanting to be able to spend a bit more time outside. He turned to face Aoi, and despite it being dark out, he noticed a faint blush on her cheeks. 

“That’s-that’s fine,” she stammered and nervously turned her head away slightly. It wasn’t until then Yuichiro realized that this would mean spending more time alone with her on the walk back, and he felt a blush start to form on his cheeks as well. He’d already made the suggestion though, and he couldn’t just take it back.

To prevent the walk back from being as awkward as the walk into town, Yuichiro decided to make sure they kept a conversation going. “I wonder how everybody is going to react. The girls seemed very excited earlier.”

Aoi sighed. “Well they’re probably going to make fun of us for taking so long to realize how we feel.”

Yuichiro groaned, knowing that was exactly what was going to happen, but he just knew it would be worse for him than Aoi. She only had the girls and probably Mrs. Iguro to tease her. He had Tengen, and he’d been awful about that before all this, which made Yuichiro realize that he’d probably known for a couple years now. 

“I think I’m just not going to tell Tengen,” he announced.  “He’s been teasing us for years already. It’ll only get worse if he finds out.”

“Oh you’re right. I’m sorry you have to deal with that.” She sounded amused as she spoke, obviously not really meaning what she said. He glanced over at her and realized she was hiding a smile behind her hands as she tried not to laugh.

“It’s not funny,” he whined.

“I’m sorry,” she said as she started laughing. “I can’t help it.”

They continued walking most of the way back until the conversation started to die down as they ran out of things to talk about. However, the silence wasn’t awkward like it was before. Everything continued to feel more normal.

They were almost back, when Yuichiro felt Aoi slip her hand into his. For what must have been the hundredth time today, he felt his face start to heat up. He looked over at Aoi, but she had turned her face away from him, likely embarrassed by what she’d just done.

A smile made its way onto Yuichiro’s lips and stayed there the rest of the walk back.

***

Early in the afternoon the next day Yuichiro made his way back home. The second he and Aoi had returned to the Butterfly Estate, the girls were there waiting to tease them and question them about what had happened during their date. They two of them weren’t able to escape it no matter how hard they tried, and Yuichiro felt bad about leaving her to deal with that, but he did need to get home at some point.

He had decided that he would tell Muichiro, and that would be it. Tengen did not need to know, because Yuichiro did not need any more teasing. The girls were enough for now at least. If this whole thing continued he’d probably let him know later. Although, Yuichiro figured he’d somehow find out on his own anyways.

As soon as he stepped foot inside, there Tengen was, seemingly waiting for his return. Yuichiro sighed and hoped that whatever it was he wanted wouldn’t take too long because he really just wanted to talk to Muichiro, and tell him about what had happened since he was the one who had first told him he should tell Aoi about how he felt.

“What do you want?” Yuichiro asked.

“I heard you went on a date with Aoi. You two finally figured out how you feel I see.”

Yuichiro froze. No, no, no. He was not supposed to know about that. He had no idea how he had managed to find that out. Tengen was blocking the hallway, so there was nowhere for Yuichiro to escape, unless he wanted to go back outside, but that wasn’t going to help him get to his room.

“You know we’ve all been waiting for you two to get together,” Tengen continued. “We’ve all known for years.” 

It was the same thing everybody else kept saying. They’d been very obvious about it, and everybody knew except for Yuichiro and Aoi. He was tired of hearing the same thing over and over again. He prayed this wouldn’t last much longer.

“Now I know I’ve said this before…”

No, no, no. Yuichiro knew exactly what was coming. It was exactly what he’d been dreading and was the main reason he didn’t want Tengen to know yet. It was one of the few times where he wished he had two hands, so he could cover his ears and try to ignore what was being said.

“Please stop,” Yuichiro said, trying to cut him off. It was all he could do to prevent what was coming.

Tengen just smiled and continued, “But I don’t want grandkids yet. I’m too young for that.”

“ Please ,” he begged. He knew Tengen was doing this on purpose, and he hated it. He prayed it would stop.

Before Tengen could say anymore, Hinatsuru appeared just behind them, calling out to him, which made him stop talking and turn to face her. Yuichiro silently thanked her and hoped with this he’d be able to make his escape to his room.

“Makio and Suma are fighting again, and I need your help,” she said. She looked past Tengen to Yuichiro and gave him a quick smile. She was helping him on purpose, he realized. 

“Alright,” Tengen said, his attention now completely on her. “Take me to them.” And with that he was led off down the hallway, giving Yuichiro the chance to walk down the opposite way to his own room, escaping some of the embarrassment.

When he arrived at his room he realized that all the suffering he’d gone through in the hallway had been pointless. Muichiro wasn’t in their room at the moment, and neither was Kage, which meant he was likely outside. He could have left before the teasing had even started. But it was too late for that now.

Yuichiro turned back around and headed back outside in search of his brother, eventually finding him sitting alone in the grass, watching as their cat played with a leaf. Yuichiro walked over to him, and joined him on the ground.

Muichiro turned to look at him and smiled. “Yui, I didn’t think you’d be back so early. You don’t usually come back until nighttime.”

“The girls wouldn’t stop teasing me and Aoi, so I left a bit early, but Aoi didn’t mind. They’ll probably be easier on her now that it’s only her.” He leaned over onto Muichiro, resting his head on his shoulder. He was exhausted. 

“I heard you told her about how you feel. Tengen received a letter from the Butterfly Estate,” Muichiro explained. So that was how everybody already knew. Mrs. Iguro must have told them. It wasn’t fair. “How did that go?”

Yuichiro thought of how he should explain everything that had happened. He thought maybe it would be best to skip past the parts where Aoi had run off after he’d confessed to her. Because aside from that everything had gone well, and Muichiro didn’t need to know about how dumb Yuichiro had been for most of the day.

Yuichiro started off by telling his brother about how distracted he’d been for a lot of the day. He told him how eventually he’d managed to confess, and how Aoi had kissed him. His brother found it funny that everybody else had known, and that the girls had been watching him.

He then went on to tell him about the date he and Aoi had gone on. He started with telling him how awkward it had been at first and how it had improved as the night had gone on. He ended with talking about how they’d held hands for a short bit of the walk home.

“I’m really happy for you, Yui,” Muichiro said with a smile on his face. “It’s nice to see you happy. You’ve been through so much. You’re doing so well now.”

“I hope you’ll find somebody someday too.” He wanted his brother to be happy too. Muichiro was always putting him first, but he deserved to be happy as well.

Muichiro didn’t respond. Instead he turned away to face the cat, who continued playing around in the grass. He reached forward to pull him into his lap, starting to pet him. “You don’t need to worry about me,” he said eventually. “Let’s go back inside.”

***

As the months passed, Yuichiro was happy to find that not much changed with how he and Aoi got along. It was still a bit awkward at first, but it was getting better. They continued to visit each other just as they always had, and they kept sending each other letters. 

One thing that had changed a bit, which annoyed Yuichiro constantly, was how their families seemed to constantly tease them. He was never good at reacting to that, which meant they only continued to do it. Especially Tengen. He was always the worst about it, so he usually tried to avoid him when Aoi was over. 

Something that had surprised Yuichiro at one point was when Muichiro admitted that he was also seeing somebody. However, no matter how much Yuichiro bugged him, he wouldn’t tell him who it was. The only reason he’d told him to begin with was because Yuichiro had been bugging him, constantly asking when he was going to find somebody for himself. Apparently they’d been together since before Yuichiro and Aoi had. At one point Yuichiro decided it was just best not to continue bugging his brother about it. 

Currently Yuichiro was visiting Aoi at the Butterfly Estate as he often was. He liked to visit her more than having her visit him because her family was more gentle in their teasing than Tengen was. He’d also begun to visit more often, spending sometimes weeks at a time here. He’d arrived a couple days ago, and he’d been with Aoi almost the entire time.

Last night, however, a patient had arrived, and she’d had to spend most of the night taking care of him. Yuichiro had helped her of course, but she’d hardly been able to get any sleep, so now she was resting, leaning up against Yuichiro, half asleep.

Yuichiro had been talking with her for a bit, but after a while he’d noticed she’d stopped responding, so he decided to stay quiet and just let her sleep. He was just happy to be there with her. He wanted it to last forever.

“We should get married.”

Suddenly Aoi sat straight up, turning to face Yuichiro with a slightly panicked look on her face. It wasn’t until then he realized he’d spoken out loud. He attempted to hide his face in his hand from embarrassment. Although he meant it, he hadn’t wanted to say that out loud.

“I’m, I’m sorry,” he stammered. He could feel a blush forming on his cheeks. “We don’t have to. I didn’t mean to say that out loud. Just ignore me. You should get some sleep.”

Aoi frowned at him. “You don’t need to apologize,” she said. “But since you say you said that by accident, does that mean you don’t want to?” She sounded almost disappointed.

“Um, well I guess I wouldn’t mind,” he admitted. He looked down at his lap, still embarrassed by saying that all out loud. 

“I want to,” Aoi said. She seemed to have calmed down from her initial panic at the suggestion. “I’d like to get married someday. But maybe we can talk about this all some more later.”

Yuichiro nodded, wanting her to get some sleep first. This would be better to discuss when she wasn’t so tired. “Sorry for not giving you a better proposal.”

Aoi just laughed. “It’s fine. It doesn’t matter how you propose. I’m just happy to be with you.” She let out a yawn, and this time instead of lying down on Yuichiro’s shoulder, she decided to lay down on his lap. “We can talk more when I wake up, okay?”

“Okay,” he replied. Within a few minutes Yuichiro saw she’d fallen asleep. He smiled down at her as she slept and started running his fingers through her hair. That short conversation hadn’t been how he’d expected his day to go, but it ended up being something nice.

Yuichiro was happy.