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“Well, I guess I’d better be off,” Yuusuke says, smiling. Most of the time they visit new Worlds, and not every World is one any of them have made friends in, but sometimes it’s good to visit. Like now, having visited Wataru’s World. Wataru’s doing good, which Yuusuke is glad of. Things have been stable once again, since the one incident, with the attempted coup. Wataru had assured him when asked - twice, and Megumi backed him up.
She’s a nice girl, a nice Rider too. He trusts her and Taiga both, to take care of their World and of Wataru.
(Wataru had covered his face, when Yuusuke said that, but it’s true, so Yuusuke hadn’t budged.)
“Do you know wher the others are?” Wataru asks. Yuusuke shrugs.
“They said to be home by around now,” he says. “I think Natsumi stayed home, but Tsukasa went somewhere else entirely. You want to come say hi?”
“Of course,” Wataru replies. “I still have…” he checks his watch. “An hour before my meeting, and unless there’s an attack that calls me…”
Yuusuke smiles. Wataru had put his all into his role and become a good king, helping keep the peace between his kind and humanity in a hundred ways. The fourteen year old boy has come a long way from the boy scared of his own existence. Yuusuke is helplessly proud.
“If that happens, we’ll come and help,” Yuusuke says. “No harm done.”
Wataru smiles back. He smiles more. Probably helps to have friends on his side, too.
Again, Yuusuke is so proud, almost like one would be of a much younger brother, but…
(Well, he hasn’t been able to think of himself as an older brother for a long time.)
Of course, there is a fight, and it isn’t even one called up, it’s literally just circumstance that they see the Fangire attack. Sometimes fate is such a simple thing that, if one brings something up, it occurs. Wataru gasps. Yuusuke looks over at the Fangire standing over a very much already drained human.
“That’s…” Wataru says.
“That’s who?” Yuusuke asks.
“A well known serial killer,” Wataru replies. “She targets human girls - none of us have beaten her.”
Sometimes, often, a twinge of guilt fills Yuusuke when facing a foe which can learn better. Not today, not nearly as much.
“Let’s do it together, then,” Yuusuke says, calmly as he can.
They win, of course. Wataru is still shaking after, and Yuusuke turns to him.
“Wataru, are you okay?” He asks. Wataru nods.
“When I was a kid, I didn’t mind killing Fangire,” he says. “I thought it was a lack of control. Monsters like her remind me it’s a choice.”
”In a way,” Yuusuke says. “That might make it worse. But I do understand how that might make things harder. Still, someone has to do it. And I’m always here to help, if you need me.”
Wataru sighs.
“I know,” he says. “Thank you, Yuusuke-Nii-San.”
Yuusuke freezes.
(Sometimes fate is such a simple thing that, if one brings something up, it appears.
Sometimes, you merely have to mention it)
“What did you say?” He asks. Wataru looks confused.
“Thank you?” He asks. Yuusuke shakes his head.
“No,” he says. “You called me Nii-San.”
He’s sure, meeting Wataru’s gaze as the boy’s eyes widen, that the other must see his undeniable emotion. He can’t hide it - he’s never been good at hiding his emotions, but this is something he always keeps in check.
His little sister.
“I’m sorry,” Wataru says. “I didn’t mean to call you—”
“It’s okay,” Yuusuke says, too fast. Before he can think it over. “I don’t… I don’t mind.”
And it’s true. He still misses Minori - of course he does, but that grief had gotten all tied up in anger, and then in how he acted selfishly as Kuuga, in the beginning, and…
“You don’t?” Wataru asks. Yuusuke shakes his head.
“I’m just glad you think so highly of me,” he says, a smile back on his face. “You… could even keep calling me that, if you like.”
“Oh,” Wataru says.
“Only if you want to,” Yuusuke reiterates. “I mean it.”
“No… I do,” Wataru says. “Thank you, Yuusuke-Nii-San.”
(“He called me Nii-San! ” Yuusuke reiterates for the fifth time, at least. Tsukasa, who he had attached himself to before bursting into tears of utterly undefinable emotions, pats him.
“We heard you the first five times,” Daiki, who had also arrived home with Tsukasa, says.
“Daiki!” Natsumi says. Yuusuke finally stops crying, looking up and beaming because, you know what? He is so, so happy. This doesn’t replace Minori in his heart, but… Yuusuke already had a place for Wataru in his heart.
Little brother…
It sounds right. He has a little brother, who he is so very proud of. And he wouldn’t want it any other way.)