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"My first kiss, huh?" Hiro Sohma scratched his goateed chin. "Well, your grandma kissed me a lot when I was little. And I kissed your auntie Hinata a few times when she was a baby. I suppose it was probably one of…"
"Daaaad, that's not what I mean. I mean your first real kiss."
The front door could be heard sliding open. "I'm home!" Kyo called from the entry.
"Kyo-kun!" Tohru called out in return. "Hold on, my hands are dirty and…"
“No, that’s fine.“ Kyo interrupted her. "Don't sweat it, you stay in there, I'll come to you." There were footsteps.
The kitchen faucet could be heard for a moment. Tohru walked to the kitchen entrance, drying her hands on the apron she was wearing over her light blouse and short skirt. Her whole being seemed to be glowing as Kyo walked up, dressed in a t-shirt and exercise shorts. He smiled at her. As he approached, she reached out her hands, which he took in his own. He stopped when they stood chest-to-chest with each other. "I'm home," he said softly.
"Welcome home," she answered in the same tone. He bent down and kissed her. Briefly, first, then a more lingering kiss. "I missed you."
"I missed you too." They forwent further conversation in favor of another lasting kiss.
Hiro didn't mean for his groan to be audible, but he just couldn't help it. "Hiro, shush," Kisa whispered to him.
Kyo looked through the door to the dining area to see Kisa and Hiro at the table. “They came over,” Tohru said in explanation, “and I thought we might have dinner together?”
“Sure.” He nodded in greeting. "Hey, you two. Saw your shoes in the entry."
"So you knew we were here, but decided to be exhibitionists anyway?" Hiro asked peevishly.
"If it's exhibitionist to kiss my best girl as much as possible…" He pressed another kiss to Tohru's lips. "...then I guess I'm guilty."
This time, Hiro did not suppress his groan.
When Kyo and Tohru separated, Kisa stood up from where she had been sitting at the dining room table. "H-Hello, Kyo-nii!"
"Hey, Kisa." He greeted her with a kindly smile.
Kisa blushed and sat back down again. Hiro looked at her with narrowed eyes.
Kyo turned back to Tohru. “So, what are you cooking?”
“I thought it might be fun to do Chinese-style sweet and sour pork.”
Kyo chuckled. “That’s perfect.” He motioned towards Kisa. “Because you’ve got sweet,” he motioned towards Hiro, “And you’ve got…”
“Oh, very funny. Ha ha ha. I guess since you don’t have to study for university entrance exams, you can mock junior high schoolers full-time now.”
Kyo frowned slightly. “Are you okay?”
His face reddening, Hiro got up and stalked out of the room. “Hiro!” Kisa called after him.
Tohru and Kyo looked at each other. Wordlessly, he nodded, following after the boy.
Hiro was sitting in the entrance, his stockinged feet resting on the tops of his shoes.
Kyo sat down next to him. “Hey, kiddo. I thought we were just bantering back there. If I said something that offended you…”
Hiro shook his head. “No, it’s fine. You were just teasing me, I get it. I should have just given you a snappy comeback.”
Kyo put his hand on Hiro’s shoulder. “Seriously. You okay?”
“I’m fine. Just…” Hiro’s face turned red. “Can you be a little less… obliviously in love while we’re here?”
“What?”
“I mean—every moment the two of you are close to each other, you’re touching or hugging or kissing or holding hands and isn’t it all just… “ He waved his hands around aimlessly. “A little much?”
“Come on, kiddo,” Kyo said not ungently, “you should know after this desert we’ve been through, it’s great to be able to touch the people you love. I mean, I guess Kisa was never a problem in that department for you, but I know your mom has to be hugging you every chance she gets.”
Hiro looked away. “W-well…”
“Yeah, I thought so. So no, I can’t and won’t stop being close to Tohru. I’m making up for all the time I couldn’t. But, to be considerate, I’ll try to make sure we don’t make out in your sightline.”
“Ha ha,” Hiro said mirthlessly.
Kyo started standing up. “So if you want to come back, I know a couple of girls who are a little worried about…” He stopped when the still-seated Hiro grabbed the side of Kyo’s t-shirt.
“There’s one thing I wanted to tell you, but…” Hiro looked behind them. “Is there a place we can talk with some more privacy?”
With a neutral expression, Kyo nodded and walked towards the stairs, Hiro following.
Once he closed his bedroom door, Kyo looked at Hiro. “What’s on your mind, kiddo?”
“I… I think.” He closed his eyes. “I think Kisa might… like you.”
“Are you having a laugh?”
“No, I mean it! She’s always blushing when she’s around you, and she talks about you all the time, and I think it’s because,” Hiro grimaced, “because she might have a crush on you.”
Hiro let those words make their impact. Kyo snorting loudly was not the reaction he expected. “Seriously? That’s your big worry?”
Hiro looked at Kyo indignantly. “I’m being serious here!”
Kyo sighed. “Right. Well, let me take a load off your mind. There is no way Kisa thinks of me like that. Hell, she used to be scared of me.”
“But the blushing…”
“She’s just getting used to talking to me normally, and she has to psyche herself up. She’s a little self-conscious, and I guess she turns red when she’s feeling that way. Tohru’s like her big sister, and that makes me her big sister’s boyfriend.” Kyo pointed at Hiro. “I’ll bet you that when she says anything about me, it’s only because she’s talking about me and Tohru together.”
“Well, that might be true.”
“And even if she did, there’s no way I’d feel the same way back. Tohru’s the one I love, nobody else.”
Hiro blushed. “I can’t believe you can just say that out loud like that.”
Kyo grinned. “Believe me, I have to restrain myself from talking about her constantly.”
Hiro thought silently before he quietly asked “What’s it like?”
“What’s what like?”
“To be able to just say stuff like that? That you love her? And that you don’t care who hears it?”
“What’s it like?” Kyo beamed. “It’s the best. Every second. No fear, no anxiety. Just love. You’ll be just like that someday, then you’ll see. The feeling can’t be beat. You’re going to love all the hugging and kissing and touching.”
“I’m not sure.” Hiro didn’t know why it was easier to tell Kyo his deepest anxieties, the ones he could barely admit to himself. “I actually don’t know if it will ever happen.”
Kyo snorted in disbelief, then tousled the boy’s hair. “Kiddo, you’re twelve. Give it time. ”
“I’m thirteen, actually.”
“Oh, that old? My mistake then,” Kyo said with comic gravity. “If you’re already thirteen, then I guess you’re screwed.” The tousling turned into a noogie.
Hiro grabbed Kyo’s wrist. “You can be a real jerk sometimes, you know that?”
“Don’t worry, I know. Yuki makes certain I’m constantly aware of that fact. But seriously, if you want to worry about something, worry about your grades. Don’t worry about whether Kisa likes you. She definitely does.”
"How could you possibly know that?" he said, desperately wanting to be convinced.
"The truest proof of love: because she willingly spends time with you when you’re at your most obnoxious."
“You can be such a jerk.”
Kyo raised his hands in a mollifying gesture. "To be fair, that's the same way I figured out that Tohru liked me." Kyo reached over and placed a hand on Hiro’s shoulder..
The boy resisted the urge to push Kyo’s hand off. “Why are you being so damn encouraging? I thought you couldn't stand me!”
Kyo chuckled. "Eh, what can I say? Over time, you sorta grew on me. You know, like athlete's foot."
Hiro looked at him. Blankly for a moment, but then finally smirking. "But in that comparison, doesn’t that make you the big sweaty foot?"
"Cheeky little shit. I'll show you sweaty." Kyo bear-hugged Hiro who tried in vain to free himself.
“This is so gross! Let go of me, idiot!”
“Never!”
Suddenly, there was pain. Hiro hissed in distress. “My eye!”
Kyo, sensing that it was genuine, set him down, looking at Hiro’s face. “Which eye?”
“Right one. Something hurt.”
“Here, look at me.” Kyo closely examined the eye. “Did something get into it?”
“Yeah, I think so.” The eye was rapidly tearing up.
“Hang on, let me get a tissue.” Having fetched one, Kyo gently dabbed the corner of the eye. “Just keep it open, I know it hurts.”
There was a knock at the door. “Kyo-nii? Is everything all right?” Kisa asked.
“Sure.” While still facing Hiro and holding his face to look at his eye, Kyo stuck a leg behind him and deftly slid the door open with one foot.
Kisa, who had not expected the door to open suddenly and had been leaning on it slightly, stumbled into the room.
She bumped into Kyo’s still-raised leg, pushing him off balance.
Hiro, who wasn’t expecting Kyo to actually let Kisa in, panicked slightly, and moved to push Kyo’s shoulders away, putting himself off balance as well. This matter of being off balance caused his sock-clad feet to slide forward on the hard floor.
Realistically, it didn’t take much more than a second, and yet it felt like an eternity falling on his butt, pulling Kyo down with him.
It was most unfortunate that because of their relative positions, once they landed on the floor, Kyo’s face fell onto Hiro’s: forehead to forehead, nose next to nose, lip to lip.
For a fraction of a second, Hiro could only reflect that Kagura might have killed to be in his position right now. Then a fraction of a second of humiliation of the ridiculous position he found himself in with his older cousin. And finally, shock and humiliation were forgotten when he was hit by the pain.
Kyo clapped a hand over his own mouth. “Shit!” he said through his fingers. He rolled off Hiro onto his own back and gingerly checked to see if any teeth had been loosened. He sighed in relief when his dental work all seemed to be in order. “Hey, your teeth all right?”
Hiro felt his, one by one. “I think so.” The last thing he wanted right now was to have to make an emergency dentist visit.
Having satisfied himself that his mouth was in working order, Hiro nudged himself up on his elbows to look at an open-mouthed Kisa.
Oh. Oh no.
Hiro waved a hand in denial. “It’s… it’s not what you think!”
"Obviously, my first real kiss was with your mom."
His daughter smirked at him, her smug face looking like the spit-and-image of his own at that age.
“What's so funny?” Hiro asked, rather cross at his own expression being used against him.
“That’s not what mom told me,” she said in a sing-song way.
“Well, if you asked your mother, then why…” He paused. “What did she tell you?”
She looked quite pleased with herself. “Mom said your first kiss was Uncle Kyo.”
Hiro growled. “Accidents! Don’t! Count!”