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“You know, one time he kicked the ball into his referee’s face.”
“Ena.”
“Another time, he got called out for kicking another kid’s nuts.”
“Ena.”
“Oh, and also, he tried kicking mom after she refused to buy him a new game.”
“Ena!”
“He’s really quite the kicker!”
Akito stuffed his face into Tsukasa’s arm, red from embarrassment that trickled into his blood. Tsukasa, on the other hand, was red with fondness, smile wide and shiny like it usually is. “Did your mom get mad?”
“Mad? She got pissed! He didn’t leave his room for like a week! His kicked-nuts friend had to give him homework papers the whole time!”
“Ena!”
“What, what? Your boyfriend’s curious, get mad at him!” Ena yapped, shooing him off with her hand. When she realized what she did, she cursed and went back to her nail polish.
Akito rolled his eyes. How could he get mad at Tsukasa? He looked up at him. He was so cute. No way was he getting mad at that star. Speaking of, Tsukasa was painting a star on Akito’s left thumb. He allowed him to do it, as long as everything else was a dark green. “Yes, yes,” Tsukasa had agreed, unconsciously gaining that phrase from Akito.
“Can we move on from me? Ena, tell Tsukasa about the time you paid like ¥59,000* on Airi that one time,” Akito points to her, resisting the urge to smile like a demon.
(* $400)
Ena jolted and painted her entire finger.
She looked up and gave Akito a gracious grin. Tsukasa was curiously looking at her like a dog with the way he was tilting his head. She inhaled. Exhaled. “No, dearest brother. I do not want Tsukasa to know how much of a fanatic I am over my girlfriend.”
“But it’s your girlfriend!” Tsukasa protested, surprisingly-unsurprisingly joining in via pouting and tilting his head further. Dog, Ena spat in her mind. “I would gladly spend that much yen on Akito!”
“Okay, sap,” Akito told him. Tsukasa nuzzled his nose onto Akito’s orange hair as an oblivious act of affection. Ena gagged.
Ena shook her head, smile dissipating. “No, no, no. No way. It’s so— embarrassing!”
“Did she like it?” Tsukasa asks.
“Yes?” Ena replied.
“Then it’s not embarrassing! Here, I’ll tell you something embarrassing we did once!”
“Hah?!” Akito tried moving his arm to hit Tsukasa’s head but the other boy had a strangely powerful grip.
Ena ignored her brother’s reaction and grumbled, starting on another nail. It was white, but she made her ring finger peach, the color of Airi’s hair. Airi did the same, but with brown instead. Ena looked at what Tsukasa was painting—his star was disgustingly perfect.
“Okay, fine. But I can’t believe I spent that much on… Ugh. Ugh! Okay. We were friends since middle school and we’ve been dating a little after MMJ was created. We shop together at the mall a lot for accessories and makeup and plushies and whatever, and somehow Airi always knows what I want the best, so I wanted to get her something really good for her birthday,” Ena begins, refusing to look up at Akito’s smug expression and Tsukasa’s smile.
“So I looked online,” she continues, “there was a, um, cat mug for ¥5,900*, and I guess I was too excited about getting it and ordered ten… I couldn’t refund and I had nobody else to give them to since they were really specific, so now we just have them. Mom got so pissed…” Ena grimaced, remembering her parents yelling at her for buying such expensive items. Akito had actually cheered her up by using them constantly whenever he had the chance, but neither of them would ever admit it.
(* $40)
Tsukasa cooed, told her she was a great girlfriend despite the mistake. She rolled her eyes and told him to get started on what he and Akito did that could be more embarrassing.
“Ah, it was a while ago,” Tsukasa recounts, not before telling Akito to give him his other hand, “when we first started dating. I took him out on a date to some cafe, and it was a little fancier than the other ones we went to.
(“A little?!”)
“Akito suddenly started laughing at something and I was confused, so when I look back we see this man with a really… interesting outfit…” Tsukasa pauses to laugh, and Akito almost laughs with him. “Anyway… Ahem. I snort with enough force water comes out my nose which made Akito laugh harder and—“
“We got kicked out!” Akito finishes for him, finally letting himself laugh.
Ena jolts again. This time she doesn’t mind, because she’s too busy imagining her brother and his boyfriend saying ‘Sorry, sorry!’ over and over to a manager for causing a scene over some dude’s ugly Christmas sweater.
“Tsukasa, you were so loud! And it was so quiet!” Akito cackles into Tsukasa’s chest, tears daring to slip from his eyes.
By the time they cool down, they are done with all of their nails. Ena was finishing up her right pinky finger as Akito stood up and stretched. “I’ll be back,” he says, smooching Tsukasa on the cheek, “gonna get water.”
(“Get me a juice instead!”
(“Yes, yes!”)
This leaves the older two, to look over their nails in silence. Ena glances over to his green and stars. “Didn’t take you for a dark-color kinda guy,” Ena states.
“Huh? Oh yeah—me neither! But Akito said if his nails are painted, mine will be painted the exact same. I just want to paint his nails more often,” Tsukasa admits, crossing his arms. Ena can see the bashful gaze at his hands, but doesn’t say a word. Instead, she laughs and starts packing up the polishes.
Ena shrugs at nothing, “Hanging out with Airi is more difficult nowadays, y’know, now that her idol-business is so much more busy.”
“Mm, I understand. Akito told me the same thing when I couldn’t go out on dates as much for plays.”
The conversation doesn’t continue for a while until Ena cracks and says, “I just miss her. Wh—what do I even do? I can barely text her, let alone call her. And I’m busy too, with—um—my art.”
Tsukasa scratches his chin, taking in her stress. “Well…” he begins, looking at his starred-thumb, “maybe you should ask Akito. I think he would understand the most, since I’m also in the entertainment business. We’ve—ah—had quite a few disputes because of it.” He says it with a grin, but Ena fails to see what’s so humorous about it.
Still, his advice is useful, she’ll just have to suck it up and ask Akito like he’s a grown man instead of her little nuisance of a brother.
Akito comes up shortly, two water bottles in hand and one peach juice. Ena takes her juice, almost downs it in one gulp, then stands up. “I gotta call someone,” she says quaintly, picking up her phone and heading to her room.
“Is she alright?” Tsukasa asks. Akito nods, leaning onto his shoulder and scooting into his neck. Tsukasa leans back on him, feeling the orange hair tickle his skin. “I think I have to leave soon, too. Is there something else you want to do, ‘Kito?”
“Mm. Tell your sister to bring your stuff over here, have a sleepover.”
“No, I can’t! I have to—“
He does.
Ena is still in her room talking to whoever, while Tsukasa gets situated in Akito’s room. Saki had gawked over the phone at first, but decided to go through with it. “This is unlike you,” Toya said over the phone as Saki grabbed a toothbrush and futon. “But have a nice rest over there. Akito snores just as loud as you.”
Toya was correct. While nobody could beat Tsukasa in the Loudest Snoring Competition, Akito definitely came up second. (Saki, Emu, and his dad were particularly loud snorers, and on the other hand, Rui fell asleep with no more than a ‘mu-mu-mu-mu…’ He also wondered if Ena was a loud snorer. Were the Shinonomes just as loud as the Tenmas? He explored the duel in his mind as Akito got out of the shower.
Shortly after, Ena entered the room, catching a shirtless Akito getting into bed with Tsukasa, futon completely abandoned in the corner of the room. “Don’t have sex,” she warns, “and don’t be loud.”
“Sex—we— Ena!” Akito growled, but she shut the door already. Tsukasa simply laughed, bringing Akito down to the bed.
“We have school tomorrow, don’t get so worked up,” Tsukasa tells him, mumbles into his chest.
“Geh,” Akito sounds, holding Tsukasa closer.
(They are loud. If Ena entered their room, she would be in the midst of five construction projects as well as a freight train, from Akito and Tsukasa respectively.)
“Love you,” Tsukasa says.
“Mm.”
(Love you, too.)