Work Text:
Teru groggily opened his eyes, rolling over and looking at the alarm clock sitting on his night stand.
‘7:15 am’ it read. Far too early for when he went to bed last night. But as he closes his eyes to try and fall asleep again, he realizes it's not gonna work, and gets out of bed anyways. He gets in the shower to wake himself up further, making sure to reapply his testosterone patch after he’s done. He throws on the outfit he left out for himself the night before, and leaves his room.
The first thing he’s greeted by is his little brother, excitedly waiting outside his room.
“Happy Birthday Teru!” Kou exclaims. He cringes a little at Kou’s loud voice, but then remembers that today was in fact, his birthday. He’d been so busy with his exorcist work he’d completely forgotten about it.
“Oh… That’s today, huh?” He said, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. Kou frowned a little, but Teru brought him in for a hug and kissed his forehead. “Thanks for reminding me.” He said with a smile.
“I woke up an hour ago, I wanted to make sure everything was set up right. I didn’t start breakfast cause I wasn’t sure when you’d be up, but when I heard the shower running I got very excited!” Kou pulled away from the hug and skipped into the kitchen. Teru took a look around the room and realized all the decorations Kou had strewn about. He wasn’t sure where he got them all, but they made him warm nonetheless.
“I’ll start breakfast right away!” Kou said from the kitchen. Teru made his way to the kitchen table to watch Kou work. He was still far too tired to do anything, but watching his brother make food gave him enough enjoyment to try and ignore it.
Before long, many bowls of food began to fill up their table, rice and egg and fish and miso. All things Teru loved. He especially liked how every food was in its own separate container.
Once Kou was done preparing everything, they said their prayer and began eating. Kou was excitedly recounting all the shopping that he did the day before and this morning, while Teru didn’t say much and just ate.
The food was delicious, Kou’s food was usually pretty good but today they seemed infused with a special kind of love. This was how it usually was on Teru’s birthday, but being completely blind-sided by it all made it all the more nicer. Teru made sure to repay Kou in kind, especially on his birthday, with lots of snuggles and head pats and affectionate attention. He loved that sort of thing and Teru was gonna see to it that he be rewarded for being such a good brother.
They finished their meal, and Teru insisted that he help clean up. They washed the dishes in silence, but Teru just enjoyed the cooperation. Sometimes things can get a little confrontational between them, especially when work is involved. Some days when Teru is completely exhausted after work he snaps at Kou, but he knows that his brother is just tired.
“Anything else planned for today?” Teru asked as he dried the final dish, setting it back into its place.
“Well, I was gonna make dinner. I got a nice dessert planned too, but I thought we’d just do whatever you wanted to do.” Kou replied, drying his hands off. Teru wasn’t sure what he wanted to do. Work was so consuming he rarely had time to himself, and if he did, he spent it smothering Kou with attention. It had been a long time since someone actually cared what Teru wanted.
“I…want to go to the park.” He said finally.
“We can do that!”
The two finished up tidying around the house and set off for the nearest park. Kou spent the whole walk there babbling about whatever was happening at school or his friends. Teru didn’t say much but he was content to just listen to his brother talk about what’s exciting him.
They made it to the park, and spent a bit of time walking around before they found a bench to sit at. They sat for some time, enjoying the spring breeze, listening to birds and watching people walk around and what not. Teru looked over at his brother and saw him staring at a dog, and gave him a small peck on the cheek, startling him out of his gaze.
The two continued on through the park, stopping at a shrine and giving a small prayer. Teru wished for Kou to have a good school year.
They finished up at the park just in time for some lunch and Teru decided he wanted to go out to have lunch--since Kou said he didn’t have anything planned.
They stopped for some stir fry, taking the leftovers home when they were finished. When they got home, Kou put the leftovers in the fridge.
“What now?” Kou asked. “I have an idea, but what do you want, Teru?”
Coming up with one thing he wanted to do was hard, the second was even more difficult, but now he had to come up with a third?
“Let’s… watch a movie.” Teru let out. It seemed like the thing to do.
“Ok!” Kou said giddily. “I’ll make some popcorn.” Teru made his way to the couch and began scrolling, unsure of what to watch. He could hear the sounds of popping coming from the kitchen, hoping that Kou wasn’t going to set it on fire again like last time.
Teru usually likes watching scary movies, but today didn’t feel like a time to be reminded of work. He came up with a couple options, and thought he’d run them by Kou when he came back with the hopefully not smoldering bag of popcorn.
Kou came back with a big bowl full of popcorn and it smelled great. Well, as great as artificial butter and salty popcorn could smell, but it wasn’t burnt.
“What are we watching?” Kou asked as he sat down, setting the bowl on the coffee table.
“I chose a few, I wasn’t sure what you wanted to watch. I’ve got a cheesy romcom, a drama thriller, or an action comedy.” Teru said.
“Let’s do the romcom.” Kou said, beaming up at his brother. He couldn’t deny a smile like that.
Kou cuddled up to his brother, putting the bowl of popcorn in his lap. The movie was very cheesy, but a few lines were pretty funny. Kou ate most of the popcorn as Teru didn’t like the feeling of the butter on his fingers; but everytime he would go for some Kou got very excited, so he ate some if only to see that face. The bowl didn’t survive the movie, and once it was gone Kou snuggled into Teru’s side even further. Making sure to clean off his hands to not get Teru’s clothes dirty. Teru wrapped his arm around Kou and leaned into him.
When the movie was finished, Kou took the bowl into the kitchen and began cleaning it.
“Hungry enough for dinner?” Kou asked. “It’ll be a bit if you’re not entirely hungry right now.” Teru sat up and tried to gauge his hunger. He didn’t eat a lot of popcorn, but ate light enough all day so as to ensure he would be able to eat whatever Kou made for dinner.
“Sure, I could eat.” Teru replied with a smile. He washed the popcorn off his hands and pulled out a book to read at the table while Kou prepared dinner. He figures he must have really gotten sucked in because before long Kou was already setting the table. The smell from the kitchen was immaculate, and Teru found himself even hungrier than he thought he was.
They said their dinner prayers before devouring the rice and beef and noodles and vegetables. Everything tasted great. He thought about how much his brother had really improved at cooking, he seemed very into it, and he was good.
When they finished they cleaned the table again.
“We can hold off on dishes for now, I made dango!” Kou said, getting it out of the fridge. Teru loved dango, and he had figured this would be what was for dessert, but appreciated it regardless.
The dango, like everything else Kou made today, was delicious. The two cleaned up the kitchen again, before going back to snuggling on the couch.
“Thank you, for today.” Teru said, looking down at his brother. “This has been the best birthday yet.” He said with a smile. Kou loved it when he could get Teru to smile, since he’s usually stoic and grumpy.
“Of course, I’d do anything for you.” Kou said, snuggling into his arms further. The two spent the evening watching another movie, before heading off to bed. Kou asked to sleep in Teru’s bed tonight so they could cuddle more, and he didn’t see a reason to deny the request. As Teru lay in bed with his sleeping brother in his arms, he couldn’t help but feel like he could take the coming days of work with relative ease.