Chapter Text
Arata’s not sure how this happened.
He was performing at the English-speaking bar, trying to keep up his practice and since the bartender owed him, he got free drinks. He hadn’t intended to go crazy, but there were so many happy couples in the bar, sitting at chatting and just. Being in love.
It was disgusting.
People like to say Arata has a habit of throwing rocks at couples in the park because he’s lonely. That isn’t true.
“Habit” implies it’s something he does often, and Arata will only occasionally be in a bad enough mood that he’ll see couples able to walk around and hold hands and smile at each other in the same lovesick way Arata used to look at Souma and Arata will think “why do they deserve to be happy” and he ends up tossing rocks at them. Except Arata doesn’t have any rocks right now, so he does the next best thing.
He gets back on stage and fiddles with the karaoke options until he finds something as miserable as he feels.
On my own…. Pretending he’s beside me….
Arata finishes the song, and some tall dude he doesn’t recognize comes up.
“Hey, can I sing?”
Arata throws a look to the bartender, who nods.
“Sure, it’s English only though.”
“No problem.”
Tall guy goes up, and Arata gets a drink as the stranger belts out “Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again.”
Ok, so this guy is good.
Not wanting to be upstaged, Arata goes up and hits him with “She Used To Be Mine.”
And they keep going like that, trading off sad showtunes and getting drinks while the other is singing, and soon they’re the only ones left and both completely hammered.
Ok so maybe he does know how he got here.
“Damn. I wanted my first drink to be with Souma,” Arata laughs.
“That your boyfriend? The one you were singing about?” Tall guy asks.
“Yeah. He’s my partner. Or he was.”
“Is he—”
“No, not dead, but he was hit by a car and can only move one hand. Who were you singing about?”
“My girlfriend Hikari. She is dead. If she could see me now she’d be so mad. Her grandpa, dad, and uncle were all alcoholics. She was worried she inherited an addictive personality so never touched the stuff.”
“Shit man, I’m sorry.”
“I just. I miss her so much. Even though it’s been so long, I just keep thinking she’s just around the corner.”
“Same. After a show there’s a split second where I expect Souma to congratulate me, even though I know he can’t leave the hospital. Singing wasn’t even really my dream. Like I was good at it, but Souma was the passion between the two of us.”
“Hikari was a dancer. She always lit up on stage. Then she broke her leg and got addicted to the painkillers. The very thing she was scared of. If I’d paid more attention, maybe I could have gotten her help or stopped her from overdosing.”
“If I had been paying attention at that intersection… we had the right of way but a car came out of nowhere. If I were faster I could have saved him.”
“Because he’s the one with the dream right?”
“Mm-hm! And all I want is to see him happy.”
“I know how you feel”
Toya’s excited. His parents are away at some international concert, and they think he’s staying at the Tenmas, which means he’s really staying over at Akito’s.
Maybe it’s a little petty, but Toya doesn’t want to have to share Akito’s attention with anyone. He wants to watch movies and cuddle with his partner, damn it!
And he’ll have Akito all to himself now that practice is over.
“Akito! Toya!” Kotaro runs up to them out of breath. “There you guys are! You gotta help, Tono’s at that English speaking bar and he’s completely drunk.”
“Why are you coming to us?” Akito asks.
“Uh because you’re his closest friends on Vivid Street?”
“When the fuck did that happen?”
Kotaro frowns and Akito sighs.
“Fine,” Akito says, “we’ll take him back to WEEKEND GARAGE.”
They head to the bar and find Arata, as expected passed out, but the real surprise is—
“HATSUAKI-ONIICHAN?!” Toya gasps.
“What the hell? Does he drink?” Akito asks.
“No. I don’t know how this happened.”
Suddenly Kamui-oniichan bursts in. “Oh thank God I found you.”
Toya glares at him. “Of course.”
“Ok, Little Maestro, I can explain.”
Toya sighs. “You take Nii-Chan back home, we’ll take Tono-san. Then I want an explanation.”
They lug Arata to WEEKEND GARAGE and Ken figures out his address to take him home, and then they go meet Kamui at Toya’s house.
Hatsuaki is asleep on the couch and Kamui is looking very sheepish.
“Ok, promise not to tell Mother and Father?”
“That depends on what you did,” Toya says. “What are you even doing here?”
“So you know how mother and father are out of town? They asked us to house sit.”
Toya raises an eyebrow.
“They asked Hatsuaki-nii to house sit, I happened to tag along because there was an incident at Julliard and I needed to lay low for a while.”
Toya crosses his arms. “And that incident didn’t happen to involve one of your legendary parties, or you getting into a fight with an ex?”
“Look, you can’t understand the complex inner politics of American graduate school.
“No but I understand you.”
Kamui-oniichan grasps his chest. “You wound me Little Maestro!”
“And this?” Akito asks, gesturing to Hatsuaki-oniichan.
Kamui shrugs sheepishly. “I might have been making myself a special drink, since Mother and Father keep the alcohol closet unlocked and—“
“And you didn’t tell Hatsuaki, made something with so much fruit juice you couldn’t taste the alcohol, and he accidentally drank the whole thing and got drunk,” Akito finishes.
“Then wandered off, found a bar, and got more drunk,” Toya adds.
“In my defense, he’s a lightweight! None of my friends would wander off like that after one glass.”
“In your defense, you’re an idiot.”
Suddenly, Hatsuaki-oniichan opens his eyes. “Hikari?” He mumbles, before falling off the couch scrambling over to hug Akito before any of them can react. “Hikariiiii”
“Squeezing too tight with your noodle arms!” Akito says, trying to break free.
“Hikari… I’ve missed you, even when you insult me…”
“Ok, what the hell is going on.”
“He thinks you’re Hika-nee,” Toya says.
“Makes sense, she could be kinda a bitch sometimes,” Kamui says.
“What did you say about the love of my life?” Hatsuaki-oniichan says darkly.
“Hey we love that about her!” Kamui adds quickly.
“Well how do we get him to stop?” Akito asks. “I’m barely keeping my balance here.”
Suddenly, Toya realizes the date. “…maybe we should let him have this.”
“The most jealous man on Vivid Street is ok with this?” Akito asks.
“It’s Hika-nee’s birthday,” Toya explains, and Akito’s eyes soften.
“Ok. Alright. Let’s get you back to the couch and watch some movies.”
And that’s how Toya ends up sitting across from his partner while his older brother sobs into said partner’s lap.
Toya pushes down the jealous part saying that he should be the one with his head in Akito’s lap. They’re all naturally repressed in the Aoyagi household. Toya lets it out by performing street music, Kamui lets it out by being a chaotic party animal, but Hatsuaki-oniichan doesn’t have anything.
If mistaking Akito for Hika-nee is what it takes to let those feelings out, Toya can put aside his jealousy for a bit.
“Hikari,” Hatsuaki-oniichan slurs. “You have such pretty eyes.”
…Toya can definitely put aside his jealousy for a little bit.
Hatsuaki doesn’t know when he got home, but he’s happy because Hikari’s here and he loves her.
“Sorry for drinking. I know you don’ like it.”
“It’s fine, it was Kamui’s fault. Just sleep it off and you’ll be better in the morning.”
“Gotta apologize for other stuff too, though.”
“Other stuff?”
“Yeah. Like you got hurt ‘cuz of me.”
“No I didn’t,” Hikari says. “It was a normal dance accident.”
“No. It was ‘cuz of me. God hurt you to punish me for trying to give up classical.”
“WHAT?!” Kamui and Toya are on the other couch, but Hatsuaki ignores them. He wants as much time with Hikari as possible. He missed her so much.
“Dad and Mom always said that our talent was a gift. That we were born to play and bring meaning to other people’s lives. But I was selfish. I was upset people always compared me to dad or called me ‘Harumichi Aoyagi’s Son’ when they introduced me. I wanted to be known on my own merits… unless I was with you. If I could be ‘that guy who plays music for Hikari Haesadori’ I’d be so much happier.”
Hikari doesn’t say anything, so Hatsuaki continues on.
“Pride’s a sin. It’s the worst one. That’s why God punished me. I was too focused on what other people thought and considered giving up classical so he hurt you and then he took you away.”
Oh? Someone’s crying. Is it him?
“Onii-Chan…” Kamui says. “I didn’t realize—“
“Any God who would punish you like that isn’t a God worth caring about,” Hikari says.
“Huh?”
“‘Classical brings meaning to people’s lives?’ What about your life? How can someone enjoy music that they know is making someone miserable. If you don’t want to do classical, that’s fine. If you do, then that’s fine too. A true God, one who cares, would want you to be happy. And if he doesn’t, then screw him.”
The room falls into a stunned silence, then Hatsuaki laughs.
“That’s just like you Hikari. You’d fight God if it meant getting what you wanted. I love you so much.”
“I know. I… love you too. Now would you please rest?”
“Okay. Yeah.”
Hatsuaki wakes up with a horrific headache, sees Toya asleep on the couch in front of him, but for some reason Toya’s boyfriend on the couch next to him, not Toya.
Hatsuaki carefully gets up and looks around to see Kamui grinning at him.
“Morning sleeping beauty!”
“What did you do.”
“All I did was get my big brother a hangover cure!”
“A hangover…” it WOULD explain the headache, but Hatsuaki doesn’t drink.
“You took the wrong glass last night.”
“Drunk off of one glass? What did you put in it?”
“Oh it was more than one glass, but you’re not going to judge me if you don’t want me bringing up what you did while you were wasted.”
“And what did I do?” Hatsuaki knows he’s a responsible person, he couldn’t have done anything that crazy while drunk.
“You thought Toya’s boyfriend was Hikari and then basically clung on to him all night.”
Hatsuaki feels the color drain from his face. “Do NOT tell Mother and Father.”
“I won’t, but you gotta do me a favor when I ask.”
“Yes yes whatever just don’t bring it up and delete whatever video you took.”
“Who said I—“
“Kamui!”
Kamui pouts and deletes something off his phone as Hatsuaki takes the hangover cure and heads up to his room. He got drunk and accidentally hit on his brother’s boyfriend. He’s never living this down.