Archive of Our Own

“Samatoki-senpai…”

“What is it?”

“We’re… Going out, aren’t we?”

Samatoki startles awake and sighs, massaging his temples before running a hand down his face. Seriously, why that dream today of all days? Is something bad going to happen?

“Onii-chan?” Nemu’s voice is heard through the door, and he grumbles whilst getting up out of the bed and opening the door, revealing his little sister who for a slight second looks pouting but now flashes with concern.

“Are you… Okay?” her hand reaches out to touch his forehead, but Samatoki gently pushes it away with a sigh.

“Just a troublesome dream, nothing to worry about,” he tries to reassure her, which doesn’t seem to work much but thankfully she lets it drop.

“Well, if you say so. I made breakfast, it’s rather simple so go wash your face first, okay?”

Aah, geez, what an angel he has for a little sister.

Samatoki nods, patting her head out of reflex and snickers at the way she huffs and complains about him messing up her hair. “I can always style it too, you know?” he cocks his head to the side, crossing his arms as he leans against the doorframe.

“Geez, just get ready before breakfast gets cold!” she sticks her tongue out and then goes back to the dining room.

He couldn’t help the stupid grin from making its way to his lips upon watching her back leave. Now, it’s time to get ready. He walks towards the bathroom and within fifteen minutes, he’s out and dressed properly.

Samatoki runs a hand through his hair with a sigh as he makes his way to the dining room, spotting Nemu pouring coffee to his cup and he inhales the scent of grilled fish and miso soup floating around the room.

It’s enough to build his appetite, not to mention he can feel his mouth water.

“Simple, you say,” he scoffs with a playful smile adorning his lips and Nemu huffs with a fond smile on her lips. “But, I’m not complaining,” he muses whilst taking a seat across from her.

Once Nemu is seated, they both bring their hands together into a soft clap and mutter ‘itadakimasu’, and then they dig in.

He might as well shed a single tear at how delicious it is. Nemu might not be as skilled as he is in cooking, but Samatoki thinks she’s already doing a great job.

“Thank you for the food,” they both mumble and Samatoki gets up to clean up their plates, only to be stopped by Nemu.

“Onii-chan, you should hurry, I can wash the dishes by myself,” she reassures, Samatoki reflexively looks at the watch around his wrist and blinks.

“Right,” he says a bit distractedly before reaching out to pat her head, “Thanks for the delicious breakfast, I’ll tell you if anything comes up,” then gladly receives the lunch box she prepared for him.

What a thoughtful little sister.

Seriously, someone should be really lucky to have her as their wife–not that he’d let them approach her that easily.

“I’m off,” he says after wearing his shoes and waves a hand towards Nemu who peeks through the living room with a wave of her own hand.

“Be careful on your way~” she says with a bright smile.

“Let me know if anything happens–”

“I understand, just go before you’re late! Geez.”

Thankfully, aside from the crowded train as usual, nothing is out of the ordinary. He was a little expecting something bad would happen because of the dream he had this morning, that should be an omen of some sort, right?

He arrives with a sigh, waving a hand towards several of the co-workers who greeted him and couldn’t help the yawn from escaping from his lips as he walks into his office. He places his briefcase on the table and walks out of the office in the direction of the smoking area.

Jyuto is already there, early as always. He takes out his cigarette and grunts appreciatively when the bespectacled male offers to light it up for him. “Thanks,” he exhales the smoke slowly, leaning against the nearest wall.

“Apparently, they’re hiring a new manager,” Jyuto says out of the blue, nearly making Samatoki choke on the smoke he lets out.

“At this time of the year?” in the end he coughs instead and growls, “What the fuck were they thinking?”

Jyuto shrugs, resuming to inhale the nicotine stick in his hand with ease. “Probably because they fired one of them a few weeks back,” he mutters. “He’s going to be the youngest manager out of all of us, so don’t bully him too much,” he says with a lopsided grin.

“Ha! Who do you think I am?”

“Aohitsugi Samatoki.”

“Are you picking a fight with me, you bastard?!”

Well, at least that didn’t go as bad as he expected.

Aside from their usual banter, it was finally time for them to start working so Jyuto headed out first, after being summoned, that is. Samatoki just raised a hand as he goes, he stayed for several minutes more before walking in the direction to his office.

From afar, he can see the cup of steaming coffee on his table and pats Riou’s back as he passes by as thanks. The said orange-haired male just nods as he continues typing without sparing him a single glance.

Such dedication.

He should definitely do the same–but, nah.

Samatoki drops himself onto his chair and sighs heavily, time to work, he supposes. He starts up his computer, propping his chin up with a curled first and a bored look on his face. After making sure there aren’t any unread emails, he directs his gaze towards the piles of paper on the corner of his table and can feel a headache forming.

At least it’s not as much as he’d thought, but sitting around reading papers all day and making sure there were no mistakes every single day could get pretty boring. Although, the pay is pretty good so Samatoki supposes it’s fine.

Surprisingly, getting the rest of the papers done isn’t that difficult. He’s done within half an hour and now he has nothing to do.

He wonders idly what Nemu’s doing–

His thoughts are stopped when he hears the sound of his door being knocked, looking over to find Jyuto jerking his thumb over his shoulder. “You’re being summoned. Meeting room 1,” is all he says before going back to his desk.

Well, it’s better than doing nothing all day.

Samatoki grunts as he gets up, dragging his legs to the direction of the said meeting room and stopping for a slight second when he caught a tuft of black hair disappearing within seconds.

He blinks, shrugs his shoulders, and resumes walking. He lifts his hand to knock, but is stopped when he sees a familiar tall figure with long purple hair approaching. “Jakurai-sensei,” he greets with a nod of his head, to which the older male replies with a warm smile.

“Samatoki-kun, good morning. I see they’ve summoned you as well,” he hums and Samatoki nods in agreement, opening the door for Jakurai first, grunting lowly at the elder’s gratitude, and blinks when there’s only Ramuda in there.

“The hell, they’re not even here yet?” he clicks his tongue and takes a seat near the windows across from Ramuda, Jakurai himself sits a seat away from Ramuda, to which the pink-haired male just hums.

“You know how those nee-sans are,” he muses whilst opening a new candy and storing the wrapper into his pockets.

“Is this kid that big of deal?” Samatoki can a headache forming as he pinches the bridge of his nose.

“Supposedly, he’s the youngest from us all after all. I’m guessing he’s super great or have a great reputation or achievements or something,” Ramuda shrugs one of his shoulders as he props his chin up with both of his hands.

“I fucking hope so, because if not–they just wasted all of our fucking times,” even if Samatoki doesn’t have that much work at the moment, he could be smoking his white hair off or something.

Ah, that reminds him, he hasn’t even drunk the coffee Riou brought him–no wonder he’s getting a damn headache and was feeling extra pissy than usual.

The door then opens.

“Listen up, you lowlifes–”

What a one hell of a greeting, Samatoki idly thinks.

“This is the new manager who’s going to work alongside of you. Come on,” Ichijiku moves to the side to reveal a jet-black haired male with a beauty mark under his left eye, he bows to them.

“Good morning, I’m Yamada Ichiro,” he says with determination filled in his heterochromatic eyes, it’s pretty distracting if you ask Samatoki because he can’t figure out which eye to focus on.

“Pleased to meet you, I’m in your care,” he nods after casting a glance to all of them, stopping for a slight second at Samatoki who raises an eyebrow in return.

What the hell was that about?

“That concludes it, now get back to work. Ramuda, get him familiar with his surroundings,” and with that, she leaves the room and the some sort of meeting is over just like that.

“Roger~” the shorter male chirps with a salute, getting off his seat and wrapping an arm around Ichiro’s arm as he drags the raven out of the room. “My name’s Amemura Ramuda, that old man is Jinguji Jakurai, and that gangly looking person over there is Aohitsugi Samatoki,” to which Jakurai stares blankly at him and Samatoki to click his tongue.

“Now that it’s all cleared up, let’s get you introduced to everyone!”

“Amemura-kun, I think introducing him to his environment first is a better approach–”

“Eeh? I’m the one who’s in charge of him so I can do whatever I want~”

“Amemura-kun.”

As they both bicker on their way out, he catches Ichiro’s side-glance at him and it’s over before he can point it out to him.

What, did he accidentally bump into him and drop his things on the train or something? Though, Samatoki doesn’t remember doing such a thing this morning. It was a rather peaceful journey.

But then again…

Why does he look a bit familiar?

Samatoki opts to go back to his office, side-eyeing the Ichiro at any given chance and apparently, the said male notices this as well. Ichiro smiles at him politely before nodding to whatever Ramuda said to him as he wanders around the office.

Some of the co-workers greeted Ichiro, even Riou stopped whatever he was doing to chat with him a little, so did Jyuto. It’s a bit weird, seeing Ichiro around the office. He gets along with everyone almost instantly, he’s the friendly type, Samatoki concludes.

He sips his coffee slowly, eyes not leaving the new manager’s back–only looking away when Ichiro looks like he’s about to turn around his way–though Samatoki is sure the other noticed it by now.

It feels like something isn’t right, he couldn’t place what it is, but there’s something bothering him about Ichiro.

Samatoki lets his eyes linger at Ichiro’s back for several seconds too long before looking away towards his computer.

Should he try looking him up?

He doubts the company would hire any weirdos or suspicious people, but Samatoki can’t just trust them that easily.

Judging from the information he had found, it’s nothing out of the ordinary. In fact, Samatoki supposes his company landed on a goldmine with Ichiro.

He counts the amount of achievements Ichiro got in a span of three years, they’re all admirable and he hums to himself upon seeing him doing a handshake with the director from his previous company.

But now, the question that arises from his research is…

Why the hell did Ichiro choose this company?

“Don’t you think he looks kind of familiar?” Samatoki asks as he inhales his cigarette, frown evident on his forehead.

Jyuto raises an eyebrow at his words, “Is this a new pick-up line or something?”

Samatoki sputters, “No, idiot!” he then growls and clicks his tongue after realizing that he had accidentally crushed his cigarette. “What a fucking waste,” he mutters under his breath before lighting up a new one.

“Didn’t you know about every single people in University back then?”

“I remember troublemakers like you very well, he doesn’t look like he has problems with school,” he muses, “How can you be so sure he’s from our school though?” he raises an eyebrow at Samatoki who in return shrugs his shoulders.

“Just a hunch,” and that didn’t help at all, he knows.

Jyuto heaves a sigh as if he’s dealing with an overgrown kid, and honestly, that’s not very far off. “I’ll have you pay me back for this,” Samatoki just waves him off.

“Yeah, yeah. You probably owed me in one way or another as well so why not call it even now?”

“Because it’s a pain in the ass,” the shorter male replies with a roll of his eyes and Samatoki agrees.

“Well, do your best,” he pats Jyuto’s shoulder and stubs his cigarette before leaving the bespectacled male alone.

Samatoki shoves his hands into his pants’ pockets, moving his legs into the direction of the vending machine and blinks when he spots the familiar jet-black hair nearby the trash bin. He raises an eyebrow when upon a closer look, that Ichiro isn’t alone.

If he’s not wrong, that’s Kuuko from the division across from them.

He can’t really hear what they’re saying, but they look close judging from how Kuuko has his arm wrapped around Ichiro’s shoulder and the latter smiling fondly.

Huh.

Maybe the kitchen still has some of ground coffee left.

Thankfully, the coffee pot still has half of the one Riou brew in the morning. He supposes not all people are into strong coffee, but then again, that’s alright because that means Samatoki can have it all to himself.

He was itching for a cigarette but opts it for next lunch break because Nemu will probably scold him due to the stronger smell of tobacco on his clothes. He takes a paper cup and pours the coffee into the said cup with ease.

What the hell was that, though?

Who knew that brat could put an expression like that–

Wait, why the fuck would Samatoki care about that?

He scowls and clicks his tongue, sipping the dark liquid before wincing. Still hot.

“Did you find anything?” he drops himself onto an empty seat next to Jyuto, crossing his arms against his chest with a bored look on his mien.

Though, he’s actually a bit intrigued.

Jyuto glances at him before pushing his glasses onto the bridge of his nose, a frown evident on his forehead. “Nothing much, there are plenty of people who goes by the name of Yamada Ichiro, you know,” he mutters before clicking his tongue.

Well, Samatoki guesses as much.

“Shouldn’t you be working or something?” Jyuto then asks, raising an eyebrow towards him before properly facing Samatoki.

“I should, but there’s nothing else to do so I’m here to piss you off,” he flashes a feral grin and Jyuto bristles at the sight of it.

“Fuck off.”

“Ouch, you hurt my feelings, darling~”

“Gross, don’t come closer to me!”

“Huh… They seem close,” Ichiro mutters against the rim of the cola Kuuko bought for him, humming lowly under his breath before averting his eyes.

 Not that it’s any of his business or anything.

Time flies, and it’s finally lunch break and Samatoki opts to eat with Jyuto and Riou instead of eating alone.

His mind has been full of a certain new manager with jet-black hair and heterochromatic eyes, it’s kind of driving him insane and thankfully, he has two people to keep him distracted.

Nemu’s cooking is delicious as always, and both he and Jyuto eyes Riou’s food in concern because he doesn’t think any kind of convenience store sells those kind of foods. Though, Riou doesn’t seem to mind and even tried to offer them some of his foods, in which they politely refuse.

So far so good, his day has gone pretty well.

That is, until it’s time to go home.

“Aohitsugi-san, going home?” the source of his worries voices out, and Samatoki who was smoking out of the building as he waits for Jyuto.

It’s not uncommon for them to go home together, it’s cheaper that way too in case they need to split taxis and Jyuto’s company isn’t so bad. The bespectacled male doesn’t talk too much and he doesn’t mind if either of them wants to smoke.

It’s perfect.

“Aohitsugi-san?” Ichiro asks once again, waving a hand in front of his face in which Samatoki pushes away easily with one hand.

“Waiting for Jyuto,” he grunts out and stubs his cigarette with a sigh. “You’re the new kid–Yamada Ichiro, right?”

As if it was his first time seeing Christmas lights, Ichiro beams. He nods, “Yes, Ichiro is fine. Aohitsugi-san is older than I am anyway,” he shrugs one of his shoulders and Samatoki couldn’t help but to stare at the way the pompom on his beanie seem to bounce from the force of it.

He himself has a coat and a scarf on, Ichiro himself seems to be way more covered than he is–wearing a knitted beanie, a scarf that seems to be enveloping whole, and a coat that probably does nothing against the cold.

Samatoki internally winces in sympathy, he can feel a chill running down his spine just from looking at Ichiro’s clothes.

“Ichiro, then,” he says easily, feeling a bit nostalgic to have the name roll from his tongue.

Huh?

Nostalgic?

He frowns and all his train of thought flies off the window when he feels a buzz from his pocket. A message, from Jyuto–it says that Samatoki should go on without him because something came up.

Samatoki sighs heavily, massaging his temples. Damn it, he could’ve gone home all this time. After replying with cussing at how Jyuto could’ve told him sooner and getting another rude reply, Samatoki pockets his phone.

Ichiro seems intrigued, his heterochromatic eyes glimmering in amusement slightly.

“Your lover?” Ichiro asks as he clears his throat, although Samatoki can clearly see the amused smile curling on his lips.

“My ass,” Samatoki scoffs, “Jyuto said something came up so I could go on ahead,” he sighs. “Where do you live? Far from here?” he lights up another cigarette.

Nemu will be furious for sure.

Ichiro, who doesn’t seem like he expected the question, blinks at him slowly. “I take the train, it’s not far from the station so it’s pretty convenient,” he scratches his cheek idly.

Samatoki raises an eyebrow.

What a coincidence.

“I also ride the train–you don’t mind if I smoke, do you?” at the shake of Ichiro’s head, Samatoki nods and begins to walk towards the train station. It’s not long, but it is pretty cold, so Samatoki reflexively walks faster.

Ichiro follows him like a duckling from beside him, and Samatoki can feel the younger’s eyes on him all the way until they’re in the station.

Samatoki eyes the way Ichiro seems to be a bit dazed as they take the stairs, and true to his guess, Ichiro stumbles. Thank God for his fast reflexes, he catches Ichiro by his upper arm and huffs.

“Watch your step,” he grumbles under his breath, not noticing the way Ichiro’s cheeks seem to redden to the tip of his ears. “Seriously, was today that tiring?” he scoffs and rolls his eyes, tone teasing.

And yet Ichiro falls for it all the same.

The raven grumbles and straightens his posture, “Thanks,” he replies with a low voice, choosing not to answer the question.

The announcement of their train arriving could be heard, and Samatoki just tugs Ichiro along with him until they’re inside of the train and Ichiro doesn’t even complain one bit.

“You didn’t sprain your ankle or anything, right?” Samatoki eyes Ichiro’s foot and raises an eyebrow.

It doesn’t look like Ichiro is in pain.

The raven then shakes his head, “No, not at all,” he mumbles, avoiding Samatoki’s eyes as he leans against one of the closed doors.

It’s a bit crowded, but not too crowded to the point they’re like packed like sardines.

“Just as I expected… You don’t remember me at all,” Ichiro whispers.

“Did you say something?”

“No, not at all,” Ichiro smiles as he shakes his head.

“Ah, I need to buy something from the convenience store so I’ll be going this way,” Ichiro says out of the blue, pointing towards the opposite side of where Samatoki was going and Samatoki, who already has a cigarette between his lips, just nods.

“See you tomorrow, Aohitsugi-san. Thank you for accompanying me today,” he says politely, bowing as well and Samatoki just waves a hand in a dismissal manner as he leaves.

“Be careful on your way back,” is all he says before he leaves.

Just as he expected, there’s something off about Ichiro.

“I’m back,” he calls out after entering the apartment, toeing his shoes off as he takes off his scarf and coat to hang it on the coat rack beside the door.

“Welcome back, onii-chan!” Nemu greets him cheerfully, “I made dinner, it’s hamburger steak!” she chirps happily and takes the briefcase away from his hands.

A literal angel.

“Thank you,” he sighs out before leaning to press a kiss to her forehead, only to be pushed away by the chin with a grunt.

“Onii-chan, you reek of tobacco,” just as he expected.

Samatoki huffs out a small laughter, patting her head as he heads towards the bathroom to take a shower. Today wasn’t even that eventful and yet he’s pretty worn out already.

He’s not even that old yet.

Right?

After finishing his hot shower, Samatoki idly dries his hair and leaves the towel on top of his head as he walks into the kitchen. “You’re a saint,” he breathes out whilst taking a seat, smiling tiredly.

Nemu smiles knowingly and takes the seat across from him, “Of course, now dig in before it’s cold,” and just like that, they eat dinner.

“Let me do the dishes, you haven’t taken a bath yet, right?” he pats her head again, stroking the snowy-white strands gingerly as his little sister blinks up at him.

Nemu smiles sheepishly, “Thank you, onii-chan,” she hugs him briefly and Samatoki squeezes her back with one arm and ushers her to the bathroom, joking at how she stinks.

Which is clearly a lie because Nemu never smells bad, never.

But then again, that might just be because Samatoki is her big brother but whatever.

After drying the last plate, Samatoki dries his hands as well and turns off the lights to the kitchen so that the living room is lit.

He yawns, scratching the back of his head as he places the towel on top of the seat in his room. He turns the dims the light to his room and then flops unceremoniously to his bed, squirming under his comforter and resting his head onto his pillow.

Within seconds, he’s out like a light.

This time, Samatoki wakes up before he can hear his alarm and sits up, stretching his body lazily and sighing in relief once he hears the sound of popping from his back.

Time to go make breakfast.

He ties his hair back, washes his face, and then strides to the kitchen. Not forgetting to wear his apron, a dark blue with a skull painted abstractly in front, a gift from Nemu.

What should he make for breakfast?

In the end, he makes a beef stew and adds the remaining grilled fish to the miso soup from yesterday’s leftovers. He pours green tea for Nemu, and coffee for himself, as usual.

Once deeming that he’s finished, Samatoki unties his apron and hangs it onto the original post before going to knock on Nemu’s door.

It takes a few tries, but Nemu finally makes an appearance with a rather adorable bedhead and Samatoki snorts as he tries to fix it for her. “Breakfast is ready, go wash up,” he says, tone fond.

His little sister obliges, and Samatoki walks back to the dining room and turns on the TV for the time being as he waits. Nemu has always taken her time in getting ready, something Samatoki doesn’t mind because he finds himself doing the same thing more often than not.

When Nemu appears, yawning with a hand over her mouth, Samatoki turns off the TV and snickers at the sight of her sleepiness. Although, before he can say anything else, Nemu seems to have woken up from the smell of breakfast.

Her pink eyes gleam in excitement, “It smells great!” she says happily, wasting no time in taking her seat and they begin to eat breakfast in silence, aside from the occasional clink of their utensils against the plates.

“I’ll wash the dishes–”

“I’ll help!”

“Don’t you need to get ready?”

“My class starts at nine, so I still have plenty of time,” she flashes him a peace sign and Samatoki sighs albeit with a smile on his lips.

He really can’t win against her.

“Fine,” he snickers and they spend their morning talking about nothing in particular, but Samatoki cherishes moments like these the most.

“I’m off.”

“Be careful on your way!”

Samatoki smiles at her before closing the door with a click, and blinks when the neighbouring door also opens–although he couldn’t see their figure because of the door.

“Jiro, Saburo, if we don’t go now, you’ll be late for class!”

“Stupid Jiro, hurry up!”

“Shut it, Saburo! Hold on, nii-chan, I forgot my train pass!”

He hears the both of them sigh, and Samatoki should just go before he’s late himself. As he walks past them, he catches a glimpse of familiar jet-black hair and stops in his tracks.

Slowly turning his body around, his ruby red eyes couldn’t have mistaken the mismatched eyes in front of him.

“Ichiro?” he voices out, frowning faintly.

The owner of said name then turns around to face him, mouth open in surprise as he blinks repeatedly. “Aohitsugi-san?”

What a damn coincidence.

“You… Live here?” what a lame question, but Samatoki could barely think of anything else to say because–seriously, what are the chances?

“Yes, we just moved in last week,” he says whilst scratching his cheek, and then his eye moves to–Saburo, his mind supplies–must be Ichiro’s youngest brother.

“Sorry to make you wait, nii-chan! Let’s go–”

Are all of them heterochromatic?

How is that possible?

Why is Samatoki thinking about it so much?

“Oh, these are my little brothers. Jiro,” he holds a hand out towards the tall and skinny one, “And Saburo,” then to the shorter one. “This is my colleague, Aohitsugi Samatoki-san,” he introduces them.

Samatoki grunts as they eye him suspiciously for one second before greeting him properly.

Rude.

Well, whatever.

“Let’s go, then,” Samatoki urges and begins walking behind them to smoke.

He can definitely the judging two pairs of heterochromatic eyes glancing at him once in a while though.

Not that he gives a fuck or anything.

 Their journey to the train station is anything but quiet, mostly filled by Ichiro’s little brothers’ squabbling almost at every single thing only to be stopped when Ichiro scolds them.

It’s a little endearing.

Samatoki wants to punch himself in the face.

He had finished his cigarette long ago, and now they’re waiting for the train to arrive. Both Jiro and Saburo sticks to Ichiro like glue, and again, it’s kind of cute. Especially how Ichiro’s expression turns soft once in a while whenever his little brothers aren’t fighting.

His hand idly rubs the spot where his heart is, maybe he has been smoking too much lately.

They aboard the train which is thankfully not as crowded, probably because they’re taking the later train and all, and Samatoki stands a bit far from them, not wanting to impose.

“Oh–we’re off, nii-chan!” Jiro waves at Ichiro excitedly where Saburo nods with a warm smile.

“Be careful on your way to work, Ichi-nii,” he bids them good bye and Samatoki muses to himself as Ichiro nods and waves at them, telling them to be careful as well.

It’s a few stations away from where their workplace is, it’s not far.

“Aren’t they cute? My little brothers,” Ichiro beams with pride, a bright smile present.

Samatoki may or may not have squinted a little from it, “They’re just little snot-nosed brats,” he scoffs and Samatoki snorts at how Ichiro looks like Samatoki just stepped on a puppy’s tail or something.

“They’re really adorable!”

“Them? My little sister is a gazillion times cuter than them,” Samatoki scoffs and rolls his eyes.

“Oh?” his tone is challenging, and Samatoki doesn’t like it one bit.

They spent the entire train ride arguing why their younger siblings are the cutest, some people might have stared at them, but one glare from Samatoki has them all looking away.

At one point, they’ve begun calling each other with brother complex and sister complex, neither are wrong, but it’s not like either of them are going to admit it that easily.

Time passes and they’re finally inside of their working building, their bickering lessening into a rather comfortable small talk and idle chatter here and there.

Samatoki finds out that Ichiro is living with little brothers only, the location of his parents unknown, that he makes breakfast every morning and lunch boxes as well, and that his love for cola, miso-stewed mackerel and melon bread is something else.

Albeit reluctant, Samatoki also shared bits and pieces of his personal life too. Maybe it’s because their living situation are quite similar, who knows. Samatoki himself is living with his little sister, they take turns in cooking, and he’s addicted to coffee and smoking and prefers eating meat.

It’s hard saying no to Ichiro’s pleading face, Samatoki isn’t sure whether he’s doing it on purpose or not, honestly.

With Ichiro’s office across from him, they part ways, but for some reason, Ichiro manages to make him agree to eat lunch together later on.

All he’s thinking about is what to say to Jyuto and Riou–although he’s kind of sure that the both of them wouldn’t mind, they’d ask several questions, especially Jyuto, but Samatoki hopes that’s it.

Once he arrives in his office, he finds a cup of coffee, courtesy of Riou, and returns the favour by giving him two cans of coffee from the vending machine when he walked back from the toilet.

The orange-haired male seems to be surprised, but flashes him a small smile in gratitude in return. He also got one for Jyuto, the latter eyeing him rather sceptically but then huffs and mumbles his thanks to Samatoki.

He’ll brew coffee for them next time.

Now, to start working.

Today isn’t as laid back as yesterday, he has new piles of paperwork on his table and he has received several emails that thankfully only need his approval.

Not that much of a busy day, but it’s better than lazing around doing nothing for two days in a row, he supposes.

Now that he thinks about it, he skipped his morning smoke in the office–well, coffee is a pretty good substitute anyway, so he supposes it’s fine.

It’s almost lunch break, and thankfully he only has little work left. At least he wouldn’t have to go home late today, and if he remembers correctly, Nemu has classes until late in the afternoon.

“Dinner, huh,” he mutters idly.

“You’re already thinking that far?”

Samatoki refuses to acknowledge the fact that he was startled by Ichiro’s voice. He blinks up at the younger male, who smiles widely in return and laughs carefreely.

It’s…

Kind of cute.

Wait, what–

Samatoki mentally slaps himself across the face with his remaining paperwork.

“Anyway, it’s lunch time,” Ichiro easily brings up a new topic, “Shall we go? To the… Canteen?” he sounds unsure.

Samatoki couldn’t blame him, he’s been here for one and a half day after all. “There’s a break room we can use, not many people go there because they’d rather eat on their own desk and all,” he rummages around for his lunch box.

He raises a hand towards Riou and Jyuto and jerks his thumb towards Ichiro, who in return bows with a polite smile. Riou blinks and nods as well, but Jyuto’s confused gaze lingers for a second too long even as Samatoki leads Ichiro the way to the break room.

They didn’t talk much on their way there, but they did stop by the vending machine because apparently, Ichiro must have at least one cola a day or he’ll disintegrate or something. A joke, of course, but somehow Samatoki could see that happening.

Samatoki himself probably couldn’t live without coffee, or it wouldn’t be the same.

True to Samatoki’s words, the break room is empty, save from a co-worker passing by and greeting them with a nod. They sit across from each other and opens their lunch boxes quietly–Samatoki didn’t notice it before, but Ichiro has two lunch boxes with him, and he couldn’t help but to stare.

Ichiro, seeming to notice his stare, just smiles sheepishly and rub the nape of his neck. “I eat a lot,” is all the explanation he gives and Samatoki accepts it easily.

Ichiro finishes at a speed that is inhuman in which Samatoki just stares for a moment before continuing to eat his lunch box. It’s amusing, and very much concerning. He hopes Ichiro’s stomach and digestion is alright.

Anyway, Ichiro ended up buying another cola and buys coffee for Samatoki–who didn’t expect it and huffs.

“Thanks,” he mutters under his breath, watching at how Ichiro seems to smile widely from ear to ear with a bob of his head.

Cute–

Stop it.

What, is he pent up or something?

Samatoki pinches the bridge of his nose when he’s inside his office, lunch break finished and ended with them parting ways and promising to go home together later.

“You two seem close,” Jyuto says, ambling to lean against the corner of his table with his arms crossed against his chest and an eyebrow raised.

Samatoki had hoped this wouldn’t happen, but he supposes it’ll happen sooner or later.

“We went home together yesterday, and turns out he’s my neighbour. How fucking crazy is that?” he waves his hand around as if daring Jyuto to believe those two coincidences.

Jyuto, who seems to agree with him, just cups his chin with a thoughtful frown apparent on his forehead. “That is a weird coincidence,” he mutters under his breath. “But anyway, it’s nice seeing you get along with someone other than Riou and I,” he teases and Samatoki growls at him.

“You’d better get out of my office before I kick you out,” he grumbles and judging from the amused smirk on Jyuto’s lips, the threat isn’t really that effective.

“Sure, just wipe that blush off your stupid face first,” and Samatoki throws one of his pens towards him.

It hit Jyuto on the head.

Samatoki had hoped the pen would be stuck on his head forever, though, even if that’s impossible.

Time flies, whether it’s a busy day or not, Samatoki feels like time passes by quickly whenever he’s at work.

He stretches his arms over his body and stifles a yawn, reaching over to take a sip of his coffee yet finding it empty. Well, it’s time to go home anyway, he can always grab one on his way home.

Samatoki ends up buying a cola as well along with his coffee, careful not to jostle the soda around as he walks over to where Ichiro’s office is.

Apparently, the said raven is still tidying up his desk with a stern look on his face–Samatoki has to do a double-take upon seeing it because he’s not used to seeing that serious side of Ichiro.

Probably because of the kid would always be smiling at everyone and all, he’s probably friendly by nature or something, just like Samatoki had guessed in the very beginning. But seeing this side of him isn’t so bad, it’s just a way to remind him that Ichiro is also a human being.

“Ichiro,” he taps the corner of the cola onto Ichiro’s head, who startles and blinks wide-eyed at him. “Time to go home, unless you still have work?” he leans against the younger’s table, letting Ichiro grab the cola and hold it with both hands.

Samatoki himself had opened his coffee and is now taking an occasional sip as he eyes Ichiro’s co-workers. Most of them had already gone home, leaving Ichiro alone as he rummages around to tidy some paperwork on his table.

“I’m done,” he says idly whilst capping his pen and putting them along with his other stationaries and smiles at Samatoki.

He refuses to admit that his heart did a jump from the sight of the brat’s smile.

“Then, let’s go. We’re gonna miss the train,” he says whilst getting up and waiting for Ichiro to grab his briefcase and soda, then nods to Samatoki.

“Let’s,” he smiles toothily and Samatoki can barely hold back the urge to ruffle Ichiro’s hair.

It’s soft to the touch even after hours and hours of staying in the office, which should be damp with sweat or something.

It’s amusing to watch Ichiro carefully open the cola as if it’ll spray him, if Samatoki were in his place, he’d do the same thing too, though.

He snorts at the look of relief when the cola doesn’t spill or burst open, and he sulks at Samatoki for laughing at him. “Please stop laughing, Aohitsugi-san. You’d be cautious too if coffee has the consistency of soft drinks,” his laughter gradually dies down, all’s left are chuckles.

“They’d taste horrible, I think,” Samatoki muses idly.

“Didn’t you know they made coffee flavoured soda?”

Samatoki nearly chokes on his coffee, thankfully he finished it in one go. “What?” he asks out of shock.

It’s Ichiro’s turn to snort and laugh, “Yeah, they did. I tried it and let me tell you, they tasted horrible,” the younger grimaces and Samatoki laughs again.

As they wait for the train to arrive, Ichiro entertains him with his vast knowledge in soda flavours and Samatoki might have listened to it far more intensely than he had thought because by the time Ichiro finishes, he can barely take his eyes off of Ichiro, staring in awe.

Ichiro, upon noticing this, feels his cheeks heat up and he laughs it off, saying how the look on Samatoki’s face is way too hilarious in which Samatoki replies by putting Ichiro in a headlock.

He doesn’t give a damn if people are staring at them.

“Oh, did you make up your mind on what to eat for dinner?” he voices out when they’ve boarded the train, it’s fairly empty.

Come to think of it…

Samatoki shakes his head, “No, I was going to make stir-fried vegetables with meat but,” he hums thoughtfully under his breath, cupping his chin. “If you have any great ideas, I’m willing to lend an ear,” he smiles lopsidedly.

He can see the way Ichiro’s eyes twinkle, and it’s making his stomach do somersaults for some reason. “I was going to make katsudon, I think we still have some miso soup left but I’m thinking of adding more to it,” he muses. “We can cook together to save some time, wouldn’t that be fun? Plus, Jiro and Saburo should already be back so we can either cook at your place or mine–although, we might need to buy some stuffs,” he frowns.

Samatoki raises an eyebrow before huffing out a small laughter. “You really do love cooking, huh,” he comments idly, making Ichiro blush all the way to the tip of his ears.

Adorable.

Stop it, seriously.

“Sure, what’s the harm in it anyway?” he shrugs his shoulders with a low hum, closing his eyes for several seconds and opening them once they’re near their destined station.

“Tiring day at work?” Ichiro asks once they’re off the train, “Though, you do look more tired than usual,” he muses.

“Probably because I wasn’t able to smoke much,” Samatoki huffs, “I mostly drank coffee all day today,” he pinches the bridge of his nose and heaves a rather heavy sigh.

Ichiro hums, “Well, you can just wait outside and smoke while I buy the needed ingredients,” he pushes Samatoki to the direction of the nearest seat in front of the convenience store by the train station, patting his shoulders with a small smile.

“I won’t be long, so don’t fall asleep, okay?”

Samatoki grunts in reply and fumbles to take out his cigarette as Ichiro disappears into the store.

“Aohitsugi-san, I’m back–he’s asleep,” Ichiro blinks several times, carefully placing the plastic bag full of ingredients on the table beside them and reaches out to take Samatokis’ unlit cigarette away from his lips.

“Seriously, you haven’t changed one bit, Samatoki-senpai,” he whispers under his breath, a wistful smile making its way to his lips as he props his chin up with a curled fist and making the table creak at the movement.

Samatoki stirs awake due to the sound, grumbling awake as he rubs a hand down his face and blinking slowly as he takes his time to process where they are.

“Hey, you fell asleep–thankfully you weren’t mugged,” Ichiro says with a low voice, not wanting to disturb Samatoki for the time being.

“How long was I asleep for?” he questions with a hoarse voice before clearing his throat.

Ichiro offers a canned coffee he had bought from the convenience store and the older male gratefully accepts it, “Fifteen minutes, give or take?” he glances at his watch.

Samatoki takes a rather big gulp of his drink and Ichiro winces in sympathy, “Are you done shopping?” to which Ichiro replies with a nod of his head and then a voice in affirmation.

“Should I have bought an energy drink instead?” he looks back to the direction of the convenience store’s entrance briefly before looking at Samatoki who shakes his head from the corner of his eye.

“No need, thanks for the coffee. Let’s go before your brothers wonder what happened to you,” he gets up with a sigh and takes the plastic bag without preamble.

Ichiro just blinks dumbly at him and then follows him from behind, “You don’t have to–”

“You bought the ingredients, it’s the least I could do,” comes the reply in between sips of his coffee.

In the end, they chose to cook in Samatoki’s apartment because that way Nemu wouldn’t be worried in case they weren’t done with cooking to find Samatoki nowhere to be found in their apartment.

Well, Samatoki could always text her but it’s easier this way, killing two birds with one stone.

Jiro and Saburo excused themselves upon entering his apartment and Samatoki is already making his way to the kitchen with Ichiro not far from him after excusing himself as well. He takes out the ingredients and places them on the kitchen counter.

Thankfully, he has an apron to spare–although, it’s Nemu’s and Nemu’s apron is rather dark pink. For some reason, it almost suits Ichiro. The younger didn’t complain about it, only commenting on how cute it is, especially because of the graffiti with abstract background on the front of the apron.

Since four people will definitely be a crowd in his kitchen, Jiro and Saburo sits by the dining table with matching pouts on their lips. Ichiro consoles them by saying that they can help setting the table once they’re finished, which seems to do the work because they beamed as they nodded.

“Now, let’s get to work, shall we?” Ichiro flashes him a broad grin.

“Yeah, let’s fucking do this,” Samatoki replies with a smirk of his own.

It takes them approximately an hour to cook the katsudon, they didn’t add anything to the miso soup because they deemed that it was enough and added tamagoyaki instead to their dinner.

Needless to say, both Jiro and Saburo have been waiting eagerly for them to finish.

Nemu arrives not long after, commenting how good it smells from the hallway and asking if they have guests–probably noticing the extra pair of shoes aside from Samatoki’s.

“Oh–hello, I’m Aohitsugi Nemu,” she introduces herself with a bow and a friendly smile, both Jiro and Saburo introduced themselves as well, along with Ichiro.

“Colleague,” Samatoki says as he jerks his thumb towards Ichiro, who takes off his apron with a sheepish look on his face.

“I see,” she giggles.

“Wash up, then we’ll eat together,” he huffs and rolls his eyes, she complies with a cheerful hum.

Once done, Nemu sits beside him with Ichiro, Jiro, and Saburo sitting across from them. They eat in peace, aside from the expected occasional bickering from Ichiro’s little brothers who gets silenced pretty quickly by Ichiro, saying that they’re in a guest’s house and they should behave.

Nemu giggles at that, and Samatoki just smiles against the rim of his glass as he drinks.

Nemu, Jiro, and Saburo offers to clean up, neither Samatoki nor Ichiro refuse them–they look like they’re getting along well so Samatoki excuses himself to go out the balcony to smoke.

He didn’t expect Ichiro to follow him though, not that he’s complaining.

They stand side-by-side in silence, the occasional breeze sweeping their hairs by. Samatoki is thankful it’s not that cold.

“Aside from your hairstyle, you didn’t change much,” Ichiro comments off-handedly.

Samatoki side-eyes him in return, raising an eyebrow. Was his hunch about them having met before true? “What do you mean?”

Ichiro doesn’t seem to be really surprised by his answer, “I suppose you really don’t remember me,” he says with a wry chuckle, scratching the nape of his neck. He reaches out to take Samatoki’s cigarette away from his lips, in which the latter didn’t protest, and leans over to press a chaste kiss to his lips.

This close, Samatoki can smell the waft of strawberry shampoo from Ichiro and suddenly, the wave of nostalgia crashes down on him with one sweep.

His breath caught in his throat, he stumbles back and presses the back of his hand as he stares wide-eyed at Ichiro who’s still holding his cigarette.

Ichiro has a weak smile on his lips now, heterochromatic eyes hinted with sadness as he looks away from him. “My name… Used to be Amayado Ichiro,” he says with a small voice, glancing at Samatoki briefly.

He feels like as if there’s a lump in his throat. He swallows thickly and before he’s even aware of it, he has a hand curled into the collar of Ichiro’s jacket and he can feel the seething anger that’s bubbling over.

“You son of a bitch–” Samatoki hisses.

“Ichi-nii, Jiro says he has homework so–” Saburo pauses and his eyes widen when he sees the scene unfold.

“Oh? Then we need to go back soon,” Ichiro’s voice sounded face, not that he can hear properly because of the loud ringing in his ears. “Thanks for dinner, I’ll see you tomorrow,” he uncurls Samatoki’s hand with ease, handing over the cigarette onto Samatoki’s hand.

He bids him and Nemu good bye and thanks them once again as he leaves.

Samatoki is still standing stiff on the balcony, cigarette crushed onto a nearby ashtray and runs a hand through his hair out of frustration. “Fuck!”

He knew everything was too good to be true.

The next day, Samatoki couldn’t get a good night’s sleep.

What Ichiro said keeps on being repeated in his head like a broken record.

My name… Used to be Amayado Ichiro.

Amayado Ichiro.

Amayado…

Ichiro…

“Shit,” he curses, punching his pillow out of anger before throwing it across the room. A knock comes from his bedroom door then, Nemu pops her head in and there’s worry written all over her face.

“Onii-chan? Are you okay?” although they both know that he’s obviously not.

Even though he hasn’t said anything to Nemu, his little sister understands and complies without even asking him anything about what happened with him and Ichiro the few minutes before.

But seriously, what kind of sick karma is this?

Of all people, of all people, Yamada Ichiro is Amayado Ichiro.

He should’ve been able to connect the dots.

He felt so stupid.

Well, thank God he wasn’t a detective or something.

How is he supposed to face Ichiro at work?

“I made breakfast,” she offers, sitting beside him as she reaches out to brush several of his messy white-hair away from his face. “Or, if you’re not feeling well, you can always rest today. You can probably take a day off a day or two, right?” she smiles gently.

What did he do to deserve such an understanding little sister, seriously?

Samatoki shakes his head, pressing Nemu’s hand against his cheek, “It’s fine, I’ll go to work,” he grumbles out and lets her nuzzle against the side of his neck before she leaves the room.

He gets up from the bed, grabbing his pillow only to throw it back to the bed and stomping towards the bathroom. He refrains himself from slamming the door closed though, Nemu is already worried enough about him.

The breakfast Nemu made, consisting some of the leftovers from last night, felt like sand in his throat when he swallowed. But he finished them all in the end, not wanting to waste food even if the memories from last night still haunts him to no end.

It was an omen after all.

Samatoki leaves with a small smile on his lips and Nemu hugging him good bye, wishing him luck for today at work and Samatoki doing the same for her.

Aah, he really doesn’t feel like going to work today.

Samatoki boards the train without any complications so far, complications meaning meeting Ichiro or his little brothers.

In the smoking room, he almost smokes half of the entire box if it were not for Jyuto who confiscates his cigarettes. Samatoki lets him, and it’s enough to make Jyuto even more worried than usual.

When it’s lunch break, Samatoki doesn’t even open his lunch box and just stares blankly at it.

“He said his name used to be Amayado Ichiro,” just saying that name is enough to spark anger from deep inside of him.

Jyuto stays silent for several seconds before realization dawns upon him. “What? He told you that?” he hisses and looks around the room in a mixture of disbelief and anger. “He couldn’t be–Amayado Ichiro has green eyes and…” he swallows thickly, “It couldn’t possibly be him,” he ends his sentence lamely.

“Well, that’s what the fucking brat told me!” Samatoki yells.

Thankfully, they’re on the rooftop, there might be several people eating there, but their place was pretty much secluded and reserved for them only.

“He was probably wearing contacts or some shit,” Samatoki pinches the bridge of his nose and sighs harshly.

“If I remember correctly… Amayado Ichiro was your ex-boyfriend in University?” whereas Samatoki grunts in agreement, Jyuto replies curtly.

“We went out several times, he confessed first. We slept together, and the next day he left without saying anything and didn’t leave as much as a note,” Samatoki spat, bitterness apparent in his tone.

Riou frowns at that, “Sounds suspicious,” to which Samatoki glares at, “But maybe he has his own reasons,” he continues, ignoring the way Samatoki gives him a dirty look.

“At any rate, I guess it’s better to let you cool off first,” Jyuto speaks, even though he sounds like he’s still angry as well for Samatoki’s behalf.

Thankfully, Riou doesn’t possess their short-tempers.

Today felt slower than normal.

Samatoki tries not to let it bother him so much.

He overhears Kuuko’s loud voice from across the room asking for Ichiro and asks his co-workers the reason why he didn’t come to work.

It’s a bit faint, but Samatoki can make out one of Ichiro’s co-workers say that Ichiro called in sick.

Samatoki ignores the way his stomach churns upon hearing it.

He ended up going home early.

What the fuck is he doing, seriously?

Samatoki stands in front of Ichiro’s door, probably half out of spite–wanting to laugh at his misfortune for disappearing for almost fourteen years from Samatoki’s life out of the blue–and half out of pity.

No clue why he’d pity the kid, but whatever. Nemu would probably tell him to send some porridge to Ichiro as well so might as well kill two birds with one stone.

Samatoki idly wonders if he’s just really this stupid, this head over heels over what seems to be his first love and at the fact that he had half given up on dating because they never ended well after he dated Ichiro.

He knocks on the door–dumbly half expecting Ichiro to open the door and find him healthy as a horse or something–but nothing came, not even footsteps towards the door. He wonders whether he should just put the porridge and medicines on the doorhandle and leave.

Although… He can’t bear to be the receiving end of Nemu’s disapproving look…

With a heavy sigh, Samatoki opens the door–finding it unlocked and briefly wondered if Ichiro taught his brothers right about locking the door or maybe Ichiro never got the chance to lock the door because he was too weak to leave the bed or something–but anyway, he excuses himself inside, finding the room not too different from his own apartment aside from some trinkets and furniture used.

If the layout is the same, then the bedroom should be right over–Samatoki pushes one of the bedroom doors which was already slightly opened ajar, finding a bundle of blankets on top of the bed–here.

“Jiro?” the bundle croaks out and Samatoki winces in sympathy.

“What’s wrong? Did you forget something?” it seems like he’s struggling to sit up, but when he succeeds, he stares and blinks at Samatoki dumbly. “Aohitsugi-san?” he frowns, as if pondering whether he’s hallucinating or not.

Samatoki only grunts in reply, approaching Ichiro carefully as he tries to ignore the loud heartbeat threatening to tumble out of his ribcage at any given moment. “I thought idiots don’t get sick,” he says whilst sitting next to Ichiro, who laughs breathlessly with his flushed face and heavy breathing.

It’s concerning.

But the ice pack on his forehead makes the corner of his lips twitch upwards.

“Brought you food and meds,” is all he says, wanting to sound uncaring but ending up sounding soft and mushy and ugh. “Can you even lift a finger to feed yourself?” he frowns deeply.

“Pretty sure I used up all my energy to sit up earlier,” Ichiro jokes, wheezing out only to break into a fit of coughing.

“Did you even eat?” he can feel his frown deepening, hand itching to check Ichiro’s temperature. Ichiro mumbles something unintelligible, “I’ll take that as a no,” he mumbles with a sigh. “Good thing I bought you porridge, huh?” he smirks and Ichiro just smiles weakly in return.

Samatoki ends up spoon-feeding Ichiro until there’s none of the porridge left and he makes sure Ichiro has drunk the medicine before cleaning up a little bit and changing the ice-pack on Ichiro’s forehead.

By the time he’s back to sit beside Ichiro, watching at how those heterochromatic eyes he had fallen for more than a decade ago have a glassy shine to them and seemingly trying to focus on him.

“Once you’re better,” he starts off slowly, “We’re going to fucking talk and you’re going to tell me every single fucking detail, you hear?” despite how cruel he might have sounded, the hand brushing away Ichiro’s front baby hairs are gentle and Samatoki finds himself stroking the side of Ichiro’s head with his thumb.

Maybe, deep down, he still harbours feelings for this brat after all.

Not that Samatoki himself is surprised.

When Ichiro falls asleep, Samatoki texts Nemu, telling her that he went home early and is in Ichiro’s apartment to take care of him because Ichiro’s sick. Nemu replies lightning-quick, wishing him all the best and for Ichiro to get well soon.

Samatoki wasn’t aware for how long he had fallen asleep for, but by the time he wakes up, Ichiro is staring at the ceiling and after noticing that Samatoki is awake, the older male grumbles as he sits up and check for Ichiro’s temperature.

“How’re you feeling?” he hands over an opened water bottle over to Ichiro who accepts it gratefully, taking small sips and handing it back over to Samatoki who closes it and puts it on the nightstand.

“Less shitty than before, but still shitty nonetheless,” Ichiro offers a weak smile and coughs against a curled first. He sighs and closes his eyes, “I owe you a lot of explanation, huh,” he mutters absentmindedly, sniffling.

“Damn right you do,” Samatoki rolls his eyes with a scoff, “But none of that now, you need to focus on getting better first and then we’ll talk,” he pinches Ichiro’s cheek, earning himself a pathetic whine from the younger. “If you need me, just cough or something,” he ruffles Ichiro’s hair lightly before getting up.

Only to be stopped by Ichiro’s hand around his wrist, looking a bit frightened for a slight second.

Silence envelops the room and Samatoki is the first one who breaks it, “If I get sick because of you, you’ll be the one taking care of me,” he deadpans, then lies down next to Ichiro who smiles in content.

Samatoki’s cheeks definitely did not burn at the sight of it.

“Thanks, Aohitsugi-san,” is all Ichiro says before closing his eyes, not even letting go of Samatoki’s wrist even for a slight second.

It’s half past six when Ichiro wakes up again, and this time he looks a little better than before. “Want me to reheat the soup?”

Ichiro squirms to give him a confused look as if Samatoki had said the earth has been under the control of aliens this whole time, it lasts for almost a minute before Ichiro nods.

“Wait here,” Samatoki pats his head several times, getting off the bed to the direction of the kitchen, and then comes back several seconds later with a bowl of soup in his hands.

Ichiro had apparently closed his eyes again as he waited for him because when he feels the bed creak from Samatoki’s weight, he opens his eyes little by little and Samatoki helps him to sit up after he puts the soup on the nightstand.

Samatoki begins feeding Ichiro soup not long after, then the medicines, then he’s out like a light afterwards.

Half an hour later, Jiro and Saburo came home, surprised to find Samatoki beside their big brother but after realizing that Samatoki had been the one taking care of Ichiro, they reluctantly thanked him.

Well, it’s not like he’s doing it for them–he’s doing it for himself.

Hopefully, Ichiro will be a lot better tomorrow because if not, Samatoki might as well go insane.

Weirdly enough, he doesn’t feel all that drained when he went back to his apartment.

Nemu hasn’t come home either, so Samatoki chooses to make dinner as he waits for her to arrive. This time, it’s fried rice. Nothing too fancy, but nothing too bland either. He made sure to add several other side dishes such as cucumber salad and tofu teriyaki.

He made plenty enough for Ichiro, Jiro, and Saburo. Once finished, he goes over to hand the food over to them, surprising Jiro and then Saburo who then thanks them.

“Make sure your idiotic brother eats too.”

“Nii-chan isn’t idiotic!”

“That’s true, Jiro is the stupidest one, after all.”

“What’d you say, Saburo?!”

“How Ichiro manages not to get his head exploded because of you two is astonishing,” Samatoki massages his temples, “Don’t forget his meds as well, let me know if you need anything else,” and with that, he goes back into his apartment.

Just as he’s setting the table for he and Nemu, his little sister announces her arrival from the hallway and compliments the smell of his cooking.

It never fails to make him smile.

Then, after finally remembering that he hasn’t eaten anything since he took care of Ichiro, Samatoki’s stomach growls loudly and they both snort and laugh.

“Let’s wash up quickly so we can eat soon, yeah?” he pats her head to which Nemu nods her head in excitement in return.

They finish dinner in a record’s time, Samatoki absentmindedly hopes their digestion is fine, and then they clean the dishes together, making small talks here and there.

Nemu side-eyes him, smiling gently, “I’m glad you’re looking better than you were this morning,” she nods and Samatoki might have stared at her for a second too long. “Or… Maybe not?” she continues upon not hearing anything from her big brother.

Samatoki shakes his head, “Not yet, but… I guess I felt a little bit better,” after knowing that Ichiro isn’t running away from him or make excuses not to meet him.

You know what, Samatoki is glad Ichiro got sick.

In a way.

Tomorrow comes and Nemu makes waffles for them, a bit odd, but it’s Friday so Samatoki doesn’t really complain.

“Good morning, onii-chan!” she greets with a bright smile that is very contagious and it’s making Samatoki smile as well.

“Someone’s in a good mood,” he comments whilst taking a seat, letting Nemu place the waffles on the plate in front of him and presenting the syrups and toppings he can add.

“That’s because tomorrow’s the weekends! And both of us can finally rest and laze around all day,” she sheepishly smiles and honestly?

Samatoki agrees.

“Coffee?”

“You know what, I think I’ll go with milk today.”

Nemu gasps, “Tomorrow might be snowing!”

“I hope not, it’s cold as balls already.”

“Onii-chan, language!”

Samatoki laughs boisterously as Nemu giggles.

It’s a good morning.

When he bids Nemu good bye and closes the door, he finds Ichiro opening the door not long after him–weirdly enough, alone. With no noisy bickering little brothers to be seen.

He checks the time, still pretty early.

Ichiro, who is looking a hundred percent better with more colour in his complexion, smiles a little. “Jiro doesn’t have any classes today and Saburo got up early because he was on class duty,” is all he says.

Samatoki hasn’t even said anything, let alone open his mouth.

“Is that so,” he hums, not willing to admit at how he adjusts his walking pace to Ichiro’s so that they could walk side-by-side. “You remember what I said yesterday, right?” he suddenly asks whilst taking out his cigarette and lighting it up with deft hands.

The raven walking beside him nods, “I do, don’t worry,” that’s good, Samatoki idly thinks.

Samatoki then pulls Ichiro so that he’s walking on his right, as to not get smoke onto his face and smell like an ashtray all day. It took a few seconds for Ichiro to realize it, but when he does, he has this… Softest smile on his lips and Samatoki may or may not want to kiss him at that moment.

Hold your horses, Aohitsugi Samatoki.

They aboard the train in silence, aside from occasional comments from Ichiro about how the weather is getting more and more increasingly cold each day and how his nipples could probably cut through glass at this point.

Samatoki chokes on his cigarette.

Thankfully, he didn’t swallow it.

Ichiro, though, just bursts out laughing with tears in his eyes and Samatoki–

Samatoki really wants to kiss him.

But he doesn’t.

They still need to talk and get their shit straight after all.

But he really, really, wants to though.

Curse Yamada Ichiro for being an adorable little shit.

When they arrived at work, their eye contact would probably count as longing as they go their separate ways. Although, technically, their offices are sitting from one across the other but still.

Jyuto eyes him and then Ichiro briefly, Riou just gives him a thumbs up in which Samatoki snorts and rolls his eyes at. Right, Jyuto is more like a nagging mother, he forgot about that.

“So, I’m guessing the two of you are… Okay?” Jyuto says slowly, as if testing the waters.

Samatoki appreciates it.

“Not yet, we’re gonna talk about it later at lunch, probably,” he shrugs one of his shoulders whilst typing up a report, Jyuto replies with a hum.

“Well, let me know if you need anything.”

“Actually, can you buy me coffee–”

“I retract my offer.”

“Asshole.”

Okay, this is it. The moment they’ve been waiting for.

“You ready?” Samatoki flashes Ichiro a sharp grin, ruby red eyes glinting in mischief.

Ichiro, replying with the same intensity and determination, nods, “Bring it, old man,” he prepares for himself and–

Catches the flying strawberry into his mouth, Ichiro whoops out of celebration as he throws his fists into the air triumphantly and Samatoki’s wheezing laughter nearly made Ichiro choke on his strawberry.

“Okay, shits and giggles aside,” Samatoki can see the glee in Ichiro’s eyes and it’s making him smile wider, “Let’s talk now before we get interrupted or anything, yeah?”

Chewing the strawberry in his mouth and swallowing it once it’s chewed enough, Ichiro nods.

“We can move to the rooftop,” he offers, packing his lunch box as Ichiro does the same, puts it away before dragging his legs towards the rooftop.

He’s not sure what part of him is so patient with Ichiro right now, maybe it’s because of Nemu’s impact in his life that he becomes much more tolerant or something. Or maybe it’s because it’s Ichiro.

Who knows, Samatoki doesn’t think much on it.

Not many people were there, thankfully. Samatoki opts to sit on the space where he’d usually eat Jyuto and Riou and crosses his legs as Ichiro sits beside him.

He tries not to notice the way Ichiro fumbles with his fingers as he opens his mouth, “What I remember was–”

“Samatoki-senpai…”

“What is it?”

“We’re going out… Aren’t we?”

Ichiro stared at the older male sitting in front of him, cross-legged on his bed with cigarette between his lips. He could see the way Samatoki’s eyes seem to widen for a split second before turning into crescent moons.

The older of the two laughed.

“What are you, a kid? Well, I guess you’re still a snot-nosed brat,” Samatoki snickered as he tousles Ichiro’s hair, blissfully unaware of his inner turmoil.

Were they… Not going out?

Was it all a part of Ichiro’s imagination?

Was he hoping too much?

Ichiro bites down on his lower lip, feeling heat spread from his face to all over his body within seconds.

How embarrassing.

“You never really answered so I just… Assumed that we weren’t,” Ichiro seems focused on his hands, not wanting to look or even spare a glance towards Samatoki who’s watching him intently.

Samatoki wants nothing more than to punch his younger self for being embarrassed upon being asked that kind of question.

He stays as calm as he could, though, with flaming cheeks because why the fuck was he so stubborn? “And? You disappeared from my life after that disastrous event?” he applauds himself for not breaking his voice.

“Not… Exactly,” Ichiro scratches his cheek absentmindedly, earning himself a raised eyebrow from Samatoki. “Uh… My dad took us to America because of his job,” okay, hold on, what?

It seems like whatever question Samatoki has on his mind, is apparent on his face because Ichiro shrugs with a self-deprecating smile.

“I know, we were still living together back then, and he said he was taking us no matter what along with our mother so… I stayed in America for ten years I think? Then we went back to Japan and mom and dad went away so,” he mumbles whilst shrugging his shoulders.

“I… Couldn’t stop thinking about you, you know,” he confesses, a small smile curled upon his lips as he finally looks at Samatoki. “Ugh, embarrassing. And I’ll let you know, it’s a total coincidence that we ended up being in the same workplace and all. The house that we used to live in wasn’t far from my current apartment and apparently dad had sold it when we moved,” he laughs, it sounds rather hollow and Samatoki hates it.

“What a dad, right?” he props his chin up with a blank gaze as he looks forward.

“You didn’t use to have heterochromatic eyes though,” he points out and Ichiro blinks.

“Ah, I used contact lenses because they attract less attention,” he admits sheepishly, “They didn’t have suitable red contacts for me so I thought, green’s okay too,” he hums whilst leaning against the wall.

Samatoki hugs one of his knees with a thoughtful hum of his own, “Sorry I was a shitty partner,” he says with a small voice, to which Ichiro just blinks wide-eyed at him and waves both of his hands in a hurry.

“No, no! You were everything I had wished for–my insecurities got the best of me and I wasn’t really in a good place and–” whatever Ichiro had wanted to say, gets stopped when Samatoki cups his cheeks with one hand.

“You finish that fucking sentence and I’m gonna kick your ass off the building,” Ichiro blinks, stunned. “Seriously, you haven’t changed at all. You’re still the same kid who bottles everything up even if it’ll kill you,” he clicks his tongue.

“Listen, brat. Whatever fucking insecurities you have, any problems at all, you fucking talk to me, understand?” he loosens his hold a little and watches how shades of red envelops Ichiro’s cheeks.

“You’re terrible at talking, not that I’m one to talk but seriously. I can feel myself several braincells from worrying about you, geez. And seriously, how could you think that we weren’t going out? Did you seriously think I’d do that kind of shit with just anyone?” he huffs and frowns when Ichiro only stares wide-eyed at him. He who notices this, can feel his frown deepening with a confused look on his face. “What?”

Snapping out of his stupor, Ichiro clasps Samatoki’s hand to remove it from his cheeks and squeezes it lightly. “You sounded like you were confessing your love to me or something,” he mutters and tries to lighten the mood by laughing but it has the opposite effect.

Samatoki himself can feel his cheeks heating up within a matter of seconds and yet couldn’t bring himself to smack Ichiro on his stupidly handsome adorable face.

“I mean, technically, we’ve never really broken up, so…” Ichiro spares him a glance and Samatoki swallows thickly.

What the fuck is this brat saying now?

“And I haven’t gone out with anyone since you,” Samatoki couldn’t bring himself to say that he has been the same way.

Samatoki exhales harshly, “Seriously, you’re so fucking troublesome,” he runs a hand down his face, hating how cool his hand feels against his burning face and how Ichiro seems to be looking at him with hopeful eyes.

“That’s not a no,” Ichiro points out, smiling widely and Samatoki pinches his cheek, tugging it a little and earning himself a whine from the younger.

“Shut it, brat. I’m still angry because you left without saying anything.”

“You were the one who was too stubborn to admit we were in a relationship!”

“Shut up.”

So, that pretty much ended well.

Even though Samatoki still has some questions about Ichiro’s past, he figures he can take all the time he needs to catch-up later on.

As they walk back to their office, Samatoki buys a cola for Ichiro and coffee for himself–relishing in the fact that Ichiro blushes lightly upon receiving it.

It should be alright if he kisses him now, right?

Samatoki takes the opportunity to land a kiss to the corner of Ichiro’s lips when the younger is busy trying to open his drink–thankfully not letting go of his hold and turns scarlet.

He couldn’t help the huff of laughter tumbling out of his lips at the sight of a flustered Ichiro.

Aah, he might have missed moments like these.

After ruffling Ichiro’s hair and swiftly dodging his swatting hand, Samatoki lands another kiss to his cheek, effectively turning Ichiro into the colour of a cooked crab. He takes the chance to pinch his nose, feeling his cheeks hurt from smiling too wide.

Too cute.

Ichiro really is too cute.

They’re walking to the train station when Samatoki is reminded of something, he reaches a hand out to stroke Ichiro’s earlobe–to which the younger yelps because Samatoki’s hands are cold, he says in defence.

“Do you still have the earrings I gave you back then?” Samatoki’s eyes wander from the earlobe, to Ichiro’s flushed cheeks.

Ichiro’s eyes linger at him for a while before he looks elsewhere, “I do, they’re in a box in my nightstand drawer,” he mumbles and all of the sudden, Samatoki feels very aware of the heat forming on his cheeks.

He hasn’t let go of Ichiro’s earlobe though, pressing onto it lightly before letting go and snickering at the younger’s sputtering.

“But who would’ve thought you’d turn out to be this cute,” Samatoki muses, wrapping an arm around Ichiro’s shoulder and dragging him against his side, effectively making Ichiro squeak in surprise.

Cute.

“Don’t say cute to a man in their twenties, stupid,” he hisses and yet Samatoki can clearly see the redness making its way to his ears.

“You were cute back then too, Samatoki-senpai this, Samatoki-senpai that, always following me from behind and wagging your tail in front of me–”

“What am I, a dog?”

“An overgrown puppy, to be exact.”

Ichiro squawks and Samatoki snorts, “And I guess you’ve grown up well too,” he hums whilst groping Ichiro’s waist here and there. Ichiro is squirming under his hold with several giggles tumbling out of his lips, “Look at all these muscles, the fuck?” he scoffs as Ichiro keeps on laughing under his hold.

There are a lot of people who looked at their way, probably confused as two why two grown men were sticking close to each other–if not one tickling the other while waiting for the train to arrive.

Not that Samatoki gives a single flying fuck about it though.

“Samatoki-senpai, are you busy today?”

Samatoki lifted the magazine away from his face to raise an eyebrow at Ichiro, grunting as he sat up and stretched his arms over his head. “Not really,” aside from making dinner for Nemu later, he had no plans whatsoever.

“Why do you ask?”

His ruby red irises watched as Ichiro opened and closed his mouth several times–which honestly pisses Samatoki off a little so he huffed and scratched the nape of his neck.

“Spit it out,” he sighed out, propping his chin up with a curled first on his knee.

Ichiro looked away from him and from this angle, he could really see how red Ichiro was getting. “Would you mind accompanying me to the bookstore?”

Oh.

He thought it’d be something much more nerve-wracking–but looking at the brat now, he must be really nervous.

He shrugged one of his shoulders and failed to hold back the small somersault in his stomach when Ichiro beamed at him when he nodded his head. “Sure, I had nothing planned anyway,” and with that, he beckoned Ichiro over.

 The younger obliged–a bit too obediently, Samatoki should say–and took a seat beside him who was lying on the sofa. Samatoki grabbed him by the arm, effectively making Ichiro fall on top of him with a startled squeak.

As Samatoki’s laughter echoed throughout the room, Ichiro buried his face in Samatoki’s chest and Samatoki reached over to pat his head gently.

“Aohitsugi-san, wake up–”

“Aohitsugi-san, our stop is next.”

“Aohitsugi-san,” Ichiro shakes him by the shoulder, jostling him awake.

Samatoki grumbles and rubs his face with one hand, sighing heavily. “We there yet?” he slurs, somehow managing to make Ichiro smile in the process of it for some unknown reason.

“Almost–” and just as he says it, the announcement for their stop comes and he helps Samatoki get up, letting Samatoki lean against him as they get out of the train together. “Come on, Aohitsugi-san. You’re not a teenager anymore, you’re quite heavy, you know?”

“Stop it with that,” Samatoki grumbles, “Just call me Samatoki-senpai adorably like you used to,” he huffs, nuzzling against the crook of Ichiro’s neck like an overgrown cat.

When he pulls back to look at Ichiro, eyeing at the way Ichiro’s face turns beet red as he gawks at him. Samatoki, feeling more awake than before, blinks repeatedly at him.

The hell?

“What? Too embarrassed to say Samatoki-senpai now?” he grins broadly only to have Ichiro’s palm pressed against his lips.

To which Samatoki licks and earns himself a yelp from Ichiro who takes his hand away as if it had been burned. “Ugh… Fine! S-Samatoki-senpai,” he mumbles, a pout on his lips.

That, that should be illegal.

Samatoki can feel his own body heating up and he covers his face with one of his hands, sighing heavily. “Never mind,” he mutters, hand reaching out to tousle Ichiro’s hair.

When they’re out of the station, there weren’t that many people around them. Maybe not a lot of people get off from this station after all, Samatoki absentmindedly thinks.

He’s brought out of his daydreams when he feels Ichiro’s fingers intertwining with his and obviously trying not to let his face be seen.

It’s adorable.

Samatoki replies with squeezing Ichiro’s hand as he runs his thumb through the younger’s knuckles, putting their intertwined hands into his coat’s pocket. From the corner of his eye, he can see Ichiro getting impossibly redder and Samatoki coughs to mask the huff of laughter that almost escapes his lips.

Their trip back to the apartment is filled with silence, not an uncomfortable one so Samatoki doesn’t comment on it. Although, it’s Ichiro who breaks the silence first.

“Do you want to… Go out tomorrow?”

“Your voice is so tiny, what?” he knows he’s teasing Ichiro too much, but his reactions are amusing.

“Ugh, never mind! I didn’t say anything,” Ichiro huffs and turns his head away from him, Samatoki can see the way his cheeks seem to puff up a little.

He wants to bite it.

Samatoki chuckles and bumps their shoulders together lightly, “Just kidding,” he rubs his face onto Ichiro’s shoulder who in return just glances at him before huffing, “Do you have somewhere you wanna go in mind?” he purposefully leans more against Ichiro, making the younger push him out of retaliation.

“You’re heavy!” Ichiro wheezes out, visibly sulking and Samatoki reflexively reaches a hand out to pinch his lips, making the younger squeak. He stays silent for several more seconds before Samatoki lets him go.

“Wanna go to the aquarium?” Samatoki offers, rubbing his nose idly with the back of his hand as he looks away from the younger.

“The… Aquarium?” Ichiro repeats, blinking slowly as he processes Samatoki’s words.

“Yeah, we went one back then, right? I remember you looking like you enjoyed our time there,” Samatoki moves to scratch his cheek idly, feeling his face warming up at the memory.

Ichiro, probably remembering how that day went for the both of them, explodes with a brilliant shade of red and Samatoki couldn’t help but to glance at him. “That was because I was happy going anywhere as long as I was with you,” Ichiro mumbles and Samatoki suddenly has problems breathing.

“But, I did enjoy our time in the aquarium,” he continues a few seconds later.

God, just kill him now.

“Alright, aquarium it is. I’ll pick you up at eight so we won’t be late, just in case–besides, how do people go on dates now when they’re working anyway?” he huffs and runs a hand through his hair, relishing in the way Ichiro snickers beside him. “I suppose aquarium works because you can find a new scenery and all, but other than that? Aren’t they a bit risky?” he sighs out.

Ichiro hums from beside him, “We can always cook dinner together again or something? Or maybe laze around all day,” the younger continues with a small frown on his forehead. “I dunno, I remember spending most of our time reading books back then–at least in my memories,” he nods.

“That’s because you read lots of mangas and light novels,” Samatoki answers with a light huff of laughter, “That reminds me, do you still do it now?”

Ichiro replies with a sheepish smile, “Old habits die hard. I mostly read them through my phone now though, or whenever I’m free at home,” he muses with a low hum.

Samatoki also replies with a hum, and within a few minutes, they’re already in front of the door to their apartments and Samatoki reaches over to tousle Ichiro’s hair–pressing his lips against Ichiro’s own for several seconds.

Ichiro tenses up for a brief second before melting into the kiss, Samatoki’s hand which moves to cup the back of his neck is a bit distracting to the point his breath stutters.

The white-haired male is the one who breaks the kiss first, sliding his tongue against Ichiro’s lower lip who gasps and sinks his teeth down teasingly.

Pride blooms in his chest at the thought that the one who made Ichiro looks drunk just from a kiss was him.

“Night, Ichiro-kun. Dream of me, and don’t be late tomorrow,” he flashes a sharp grin to which the younger just scoff, seeming to regain his composure.

“Good night, Samatoki-san,” the brat cheekily smiles and Samatoki rolls his eyes at him, ignoring the way his whole body washes over with warmth at the way Ichiro says his name.

Fuck.