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“Hey, Sae, are we doing anything today?” Ryusei called out, popping his head in the bathroom where Sae was doing his skincare routine after his morning shower. Ryusei wolf whistled when he saw him, eyeing the towel wrapped around his partner’s waist, and Sae glared at him without much heat before turning back towards the mirror.
“Nothing in particular. Why?” Sae asked, patting his serum into his cheeks before rinsing his fingertips off under the bathroom faucet. He turned towards Ryusei with an eye of suspicion, wondering what the other man had planned.
“I had something I wanted to do today, so I just wanted to make sure it was cool and that you didn’t have anything for us!”
“Oh what is it?” Sae asked, pushing Ryusei on the chest lightly to get him to move as he exited the bathroom, wandering into their bedroom to look for clothes. Ryusei followed along behind him closely, lightly grabbing his hips as Sae dug through his dresser for underwear. “Give me a few minutes and I’ll get dressed.”
“Oh…” Ryusei started, stepping back to give Sae his space. “I was gonna go do something with your brother.”
Pausing in confusion, Sae turned around with a hand on his hip. “My brother?”
“Yeah, he’s gonna help me do something. He said he was free today.” Holding up his phone as proof, Ryusei stepped back again, out of Sae’s range as the look on his face turned dark. “But like I said, if you had something for us to do, I can-”
“No. Go. Have fun.” Sae turned around quickly, slipping his underwear on beneath his towel before dropping it, knowing it would disappoint Ryusei to not get a free show. Ryusei tried to invade his space for a hug, but Sae dipped underneath his arms, avoiding his touch as he continued to get dressed.
“Awe, don’t be mad, baby. I can stay with you.”
“I’m not mad. I told you to go, so go,” Sae snapped, pulling a shirt over his head before turning back to the bathroom to fix his hair. He turned towards Ryusei before he closed the bathroom door, smiling at him sweetly. “Have so much fun.”
Closing the door behind him, Sae stared at himself in the mirror, trying to relax his face back into his normal neutral demeanor. Grabbing his hair products, he styled his bangs, before neatly putting them all back into place. He flossed and brushed his teeth and took a deep breath before looking at himself in the mirror again. There it was. His normal mask that helped him keep it all inside, preventing him from feeling anything too strongly.
He didn’t like being angry at Ryusei, especially when it was over something so gloriously stupid as this. He shouldn’t be upset that Ryusei was wanting to spend time with his brother. If anything, he should be happy about it. Doesn’t everyone want their partner to get along well with their family?
But even so, Sae didn’t understand why , and that was the most important piece missing from this equation.
Why did Ryusei want to spend time with Rin? Why were he and Rin texting and talking to each other, seemingly long enough that they could make plans to hang out on their day off? Why was he getting left out of the equation, when he could have easily accompanied them?
Maybe that was why he was the most upset. His little brother monopolizing his boyfriend’s time like it was his own, rather than including him and letting him come along to do whatever was so important that they had to go at it alone.
Also, didn’t Ryusei and Rin hate each other? Maybe that question should have come first. When did they become close enough to make nice and actually hang out?
By the time Sae left the bathroom, Ryusei was gone. His keys and wallet and favorite pair of shoes missing, letting him know that Ryusei really had decided to leave him home all by himself so he could go hang out and do who the fuck knows what with his brother.
Sae felt his mask slipping again as his mouth turned down into a frown, and breathed in deeply through his nose. Exhaling slowly, Sae tried to calm himself as he left their bedroom behind, wandering into the kitchen and grabbing something for himself to snack on for breakfast. He looked around, seeing that Ryusei had actually cleaned up behind himself for once , and his cereal bowl and coffee mug were already sitting in the drying rack beside the sink. Determining he was no longer hungry, Sae settled on a premade smoothie for breakfast despite knowing it was full of preservatives and sugar and Ryusei would scold him later for drinking it. But it was really the only thing he could stomach when he was feeling so grumpy.
Snatching the smoothie from the fridge, Sae found his way to the living room, curling up on the couch with a blanket and his phone. He turned on the TV to fill up the silence, but not really watching or acknowledging whatever was on the screen. He simply tried to drown out his irritation by scrolling his phone.
Sae wasn’t used to being alone anymore, he realized. He used to prefer it, but ever since he and Ryusei had moved in together, it was like he was consumed by the other’s presence, and needed to be surrounded by it 24/7 or he would lose sight of himself. He didn’t know what to do on his own, because at this point, 90% of what he did was with Ryusei.
Sighing dramatically, Sae leaned back on the couch, moving from his curled up position to laying down. He wasn’t even tired, but maybe he was tired of himself being irritated and angry, because he found himself dozing off. He ignored the buzzes of his phone when text messages came through, and just maintained the half awake, half asleep lull. He was only moderately aware of what was going on until the front door opened, awakening him fully as he inched his way back into a seated position.
Looking at his phone, he checked the time to ignore the two who had just walked in. Ryusei announced that he had brought Sae lunch, and swooped down to give him a kiss on the cheek. Sae rolled his eyes but didn’t push him away, letting the big fool have his moment of affection before he hopped back into their bedroom with his shopping bags.
Turning his attention towards his brother who was standing there awkwardly in the doorway of the apartment. He was noticeably without shopping bags of his own, but he looked as if he had something to say to Sae.
“Still acting like a spoiled brat?” Rin asked, hands shoved deep in his pocket as Sae eyed him.
“You’re one to talk about spoiled brats,” Sae retorted, turning around fully to face him so that he wouldn’t have to keep looking over his shoulder. “But I hope you had so much fun today with my boyfriend.”
“You act like it's been days since you’ve last seen him. It’s been less than three hours.” Rin smirked, checking his phone before shaking his head. “I can’t believe you’re jealous over something so stupid.”
“I’m not jealous,” Sae spat, his voice taking on a childish tone.
“And I’m not going to steal him from you, so you can calm the fuck down,” Rin spat back, annoyance in his voice. “In fact, you can keep him all to yourself, because this morning was absolute torture.”
“Hey, be nice. He’s not that bad.”
Rolling his eyes, Rin sighed before shoving his phone back in his pocket. “It was for you, by the way. He wanted me to help pick out a present for you . So you can kiss and make up when he gets back. But I’m on my way out of here because I really don’t want to see any of that.”
Turning on his heel, Rin exited their apartment, making a quick escape just seconds before Ryusei returned to his side.
Plopping down on the couch beside him, Ryusei laid his body over Sae’s, sighing happily as he nuzzled up to his boyfriend.
“Still mad?” Ryusei asked, squeezing Sae tightly as he let his weight sit heavily on him, uncaring that he was squishing Sae just the littlest bit. Sae worked one arm out from under Ryusei’s heavy body, his fingers quickly finding Ryusei’s hair, playing with it and scratching his head in just the right way.
“I said I wasn’t mad to begin with,” Sae claimed, ignoring Ryusei’s incredulous look as he peeked up at him. “Besides, I have you back now, so it doesn’t really matter, does it?”
A broad grin spread across Ryusei’s face, and he scooted up Sae’s body another few inches until his lips could meet Sae’s.
Right, it didn’t matter not one little bit. Ryusei’s too good for Rin anyway.
And maybe, Rin’s a better little brother than he thought.