Chapter Text
Ichimatsu found himself once again lazing about. Self-deprecating thoughts were swirling around his head. Nothing new.
I’m trash.Worse than trash. My only friends are cats and my brothers - who probably only keep me around because they have to.
He coiled in on himself tighter.
I’m a waste. An ugly, fat waste of time. Waste of space.
He sniffled, choking back tears. He couldn’t cry. Not only would he hate if someone walked in on him like this, he felt he didn’t deserve to cry.
I don’t deserve anything, he thought. It’s my fault I’m like this.
He dug his nails into his arms through the sleeves, wondering if he did it hard enough, would he break skin?
He took a deep breath, grimacing as he felt as though taking that breath had selfishly robbed someone else of that air.
Before Ichimatsu could let his thoughts pull him further down, the bedroom door slid open.
There stood Osomatsu.
“Tadaima! Oh, Ichimacchan! I was hoping you were here!”
Bullshit. Who would ever hope for that?
“How’s my favouritest Ichimatsu today? I got a gift for you, my adorable otouto!”
Ichimatsu fought the heat in his cheeks. Adorable? Yeah, right.
“Here!” Osomatsu said, handing out a shopping bag. “I knew my precious baby bro would love it!”
The praise made more colour rise to Ichimatsu’s cheeks, but he accepted the bag.
Inside were several (six? Maybe?) stuffed cats, all stuck together somehow. He pulled them out; they were all pretty cute.
Of course they were cute, they were cats.
As he pondered why they were all connected and tangled so awkwardly, Osomatsu sat beside him.
“See? Their paws have magnets, so they can hold hands!”
What? That’s… so cute!
He couldn’t hold back his smile.
Suddenly, arms were around him, hugging him tight.
“Ah, my Ichimacchan is just too cute! Look at that smile! Onii-chan loves to make you smile like that~”
Ichimatsu grunted, but didn’t fight back. By now he was full-on blushing. He rarely got compliments so he didn’t know how to react.
“C’mon, hug Nii-chan back!”
Slowly, he raised his arms and settled them around his eldest brother.
“That’s a good boy. You’re adorable when you blush~”
With that he shoved Osomatsu away from him, face and ears burning, heading upstairs to the bedroom to find a place for his new plushies.