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“Nii-chan! Nii-chan!” Genya calls, chasing after Sanemi, book clasped in his hands. Sanemi pauses on his way to his room, having just gotten back from school. Genya catches up to him, grabbing Sanemi’s hand in his and tugging to get his attention.
“Nii-chan! Book, please!”
“Eh? Aren’t you old enough to start reading on your own?”
Genya freezes, an embarrassed flush creeping up his cheeks. He scuffs his tiny shoe on the ragged carpet and pouts.
“But I like it better when Nii-chan reads to me…”
Sanemi smiles despite himself, fondness dripping from every inch of his bleeding heart.
“But you’re never gonna learn how to read on your own if I’m always doing it.” The boy visibly deflates and Sanemi pretends to think for a moment before kneeling to be eye level, placing his hands on his shoulders. “Tell you what, we can read it together. Doesn’t that sound fun?”
Genya visibly perks up, like a flower set in sunlight.
“Yeah? Nii-chan will help me read?” He holds up the storybook, a hand-me-down from Sanemi. It depicted one of the many adventures of Kintarō, a popular fable featuring a boy with superhuman strength who battled monsters and demons alike along with his animal friends. The story Genya proudly presented to him was of the time Kintarō hosted a wrestling competition in the forest and helped a woodcutter build a bridge.
“Yeah, Gen.” He musses the younger child’s hair and they walk hand in hand to their shared room. There’s a little playmat tucked into the corner and Sanemi shucks off his backpack, plopping down on the mat and pulling Genya into his lap. The boy happily kicks his feet as Sanemi cracks open the book and lays it across Genya’s legs.
He runs his finger over the letters as he begins to slowly and carefully sound out each word. “Kin-ta-rō, the na-ture boy. Can you repeat after me, Gen?” He drags his finger to the beginning of the line and lets Genya sound out the hiragana and kanji. “Good job,” he praises as Genya looks to him after finishing the line.
Genya claps his hands excitedly, eagerly trying to read the next line on his own. “L-lo-ong.. long, long a-go, th-eer?”
“There. Long, long ago there lived in Kyoto a brave soldier named Kintoki.”
“N-now… he fe-ell in… lo-vuh w-with a… a…” He looks at Sanemi for help.
“Now, he fell in love with a beautiful lady and married her.”
Genya groans and flops back against Sanemi’s chest. “This is hard!” He draws out the word ‘hard’ in a miserable moan. Trying to keep all the different sounds straight in his mind made his head pound and his heart beat faster with frustration.
“You’re the one who picked this book! You could have started with Zou-san!”
“But Mr. Elephant is for babies, and I’m not a baby. And I like this story.”
Sanemi clicks his tongue and shakes his head. “Then live with the consequences.”
“Nii-chan!!” he cried in indignation, and Sanemi chuckled. He crosses his arms petulantly, flipping the book shut. “I don’t wanna read with nii-chan anymore.”
“Eh? But you were just begging to read with me!”
“Nuh-uh! Nii-chan is mean.” He pouts and turns his head away. He tries to get up but Sanemi locks his arms around him, holds him against his chest, and blows a raspberry against Genya’s cheek. The boy squeals and laughs, a smile finally blooming across his chubby cheeks.
“There’s that smile! Look, we can try reading something else.”
“Like?”
He hums to himself for a moment. “Have you ever wanted to know how to spell your name?”
He grins in satisfaction as the boy lights up. “Yes! I wanna know!”
“Can you go get your crayons and paper for me? I’ll clear off a table for us.”
Genya hops out of his lap and runs to the cabinet to pull out his bucket of crayons while Sanemi sets to work clearing off a space for them. He can hear the rattling of the crayons and Genya’s excited humming as he trots back over to the table and plops right back down in Sanemi’s lap. The older boy chuckles at the almost bratty display.
“All right, so…” He pulls out a purple crayon and slowly moves through the strokes to spell out Genya’s name.
“玄弥”
“This character here is ‘Gen’ and it means mysterious. And this one is ‘ya’ and it means full of! Sooo, your name means full of mystery!” He gently places the crayon in Genya’s hand and then sets his hand over Genya’s, guiding the boy through the strokes. “A line here… and that connects there… and there! See, that’s not too hard, right?”
Genya nods as Sanemi lets go of his hand, letting the boy write on his own. He copies the lines as best he can, but the characters come out wobbly and lopsided, not at all like Sanemi’s neat handwriting. Still, he looks incredibly proud of his handiwork, looking to Sanemi for approval. The older boy ruffles his hair.
“Just like that!”
He giggles and bounces in place, little feet kicking. “Can you teach me how to write your name? I wanna write Nii-chan’s name too!”
Sanemi pretends to think about it long and hard as Genya’s pleas get louder. “Mmmm I guess I could show you…”
“Yay!! Thank you, Nii-chan!”
Sanemi leans over to pick out another crayon, a lime green one this time, and just like before, slowly draws out the characters to his own name.
“実弥”
Genya squints at the characters as Sanemi points at the first one.
“Sane,” he runs his finger across the writing, then points at the second one. “Mi! Sa-ne-mi!”
Genya’s brow furrows and he points at the first character again. “I thought this meant ‘Mi’ too.”
“What? Like fruit?” Sanemi laughs. “Are you calling me fruity?” He tickles Genya’s vulnerable tummy, chuckling as the boy squirms like a little worm, shrieking laughter spilling from his mouth. The child gasps for breath, slapping at Sanemi’s arm in a plea for mercy, and the older boy relents.
“Where’d you learn to read the kanji for fruit, anyways?”
“It’s on my favorite fruit snacks! I asked Ma what it meant and she said it spelled ‘fruit!’ So you say it like ‘mi!’” He crosses his arms and nods to himself as if what he had said was law. Sanemi sighs.
“Well, you’re right. It is read as mi, which means fruit.”
“Told you! This says ‘Mimi!’”
“But! You can also read it as sane, which means truth.” He taps the second character in his name, then the second character in Genya’s name. “Look here! We both have 弥 in our names, but while it’s pronounced mi in my name, it’s ya in yours. Every Kanji has multiple meanings and ways to say it. So while you could say it says ‘Mimi’, it’s intended to say Sanemi. It all depends on the context of the kanji around it.”
Genya rubs his forehead. “How are you supposed to learn all this?”
“You memorize it.”
Genya groans long and loud and lets his head fall to the table with a thunk. There was no way he’d be able to learn all this! Sanemi snickers and ruffles his hair again. “It’s okay. You can call me Mimi if it makes you feel better.”
“Mimi-chan!”
“Oi, now isn’t that a little too cutesy?”
“It’s too late, you already said I could call you Mimi!”
He huffs, breath fluttering Genya’s tuft of hair. “I take it back. Now you must call me ‘Sanemi-sama.’”
“Nuh-uh!” He yanks himself out of Sanemi’s arms, screeching “Mimi! Mimi!” as he runs around the room. Sanemi jumps to his feet, chasing the little brat down. Unluckily for him, Genya could be incredibly slippery when he wants to be. He ducks under Sanemi’s arms and makes a run for the door, only to be snatched into the air at the last second.
“Got you!”
The boy squeals and flails around, giggling around his panting breaths. The door cracks open and their mother pokes her head inside. “What is going on in here?”
“Ma! Ma! Mimi’s teaching me how to read!”
“Mimi?”
“That’s nii-chan’s new name!”
Sanemi sighs in exasperation. “That name’s really gonna stick with you now, huh? It’s Nemi all over again.”
“Nemi-nii! Mimi-chan!” He singsongs.
Their mother covers her mouth to hide her giggles at her youngest’s antics. She would be having twins soon, and she sincerely hoped Sanemi was just as attentive with them as he was with Genya.
“Supper’s ready, boys. Come eat before your plates get cold.”
“Now put your brother down and go wash your hands. You can finish reading your story after we eat.” She smiles softly at her boys, opening the door wider for them to exit through. She watches them race to the kitchen, Sanemi conveniently losing at the last second.
Sanemi lifts Genya onto the kitchen counter and helps him wash his hands, singing their made-up little hand-washing song softly to know when he’s done. He helps him off the counter and washes his own hands, Genya toddling over to the table and sitting next to their mother.
Sanemi follows shortly after, sitting between Genya and the empty seat their father would normally occupy. Genya tugs on their mother’s sleeve.
“Ma? Where’s dad?”
Shizu tenses slightly, before forcing herself to relax and smile at their boys. Kyogo had been staying out late more and more lately, to the point where the small family didn’t even bother waiting up for him anymore. But every once in a while, Shizu can’t help but long for the days when Kyogo was present and actually happy to see them.
“Daddy’s… out. But I’m sure he’ll be home soon!”
She piles some food onto Genya’s plate. The boy was still awfully tiny for his age, though his doctor had assured her that he would hit his growth spurt soon.
Sanemi scoffs from his spot at the table, sitting across from their mother and beside Genya.
“Who cares where the old man went? If he doesn’t want to be here then that’s fine by me.”
“Sanemi!”
“Dad doesn’t want us?” Tears welled up in Genya’s eyes as he shakily set his chopsticks down. “Is that why he’s so grumpy when he comes home? Does dad not love us anymore?”
“Oh, sweetie, no. Your father is just going through a rough time right now. Sanemi, you shouldn’t say such things about your family.”
Sanemi doesn’t bother answering, angrily shoveling more food into his mouth as he stares at the wall. Shizu sighs, unsure how to alleviate the suddenly tense atmosphere. Genya sniffles and stares down at his food. They finish their dinner in silence, an oddly subdued Shizu standing to collect their plates and wash the dishes.
That night, as they are tucked into their beds, Genya turns to Sanemi.
“Nii-chan? Did you mean it?”
“Mean what?”
“That dad doesn’t want to be with us.”
Sanemi sighs. “C’mere, Gen.” He pulls back the covers, beckoning Genya to join him. Genya eagerly wiggles out of his own bed, climbing into Sanemi’s.
“It doesn’t matter what Dad thinks, 'cause Ma loves us and we love Ma. And we love each other too,” he says, as though it were really that simple. And to Sanemi, it is. Their father had been… mean lately, coming home stinking of alcohol and hardly ever even acknowledging them. He supposed it could be worse. At least, for the most part, the man left them alone.
Though, as the twins' delivery date inches ever closer, that seems to be changing as well.
“Nemi?” Genya breaks the comfortable silence. “Will you finish reading Kintarō to me?”
Sanemi sighs, leaning over to flip on the lamp next to them. He climbs out of bed, fetching the book that had been tossed aside in their earlier scuffle. He slides back into bed next to Genya, wiggling a little to get comfy on the ratty, old mattress. He tilts the book toward the light so he can see the words better and begins to read.
“Long, long ago there lived in Kyoto a brave soldier named Kintoki. Now he fell in love with a beautiful lady and married her. Not long after this, through the malice of some of his friends, he fell into disgrace at Court and was dismissed. He died, leaving behind him his beautiful young wife to face the world alone. Fearing her husband’s enemies, she fled to the Ashigara Mountains, and there in the lonely forests where no one ever came except woodcutters, a little boy was born to her. She called him Kintaro or the Golden Boy…”
Sanemi’s voice trails off as Genya’s eyes begin to grow heavy. He turns to face Sanemi, muttering a soft "love you, Mimi," and snuggling against his side as he drifts off. Sanemi leans over to flip off the light, shutting the book and setting it aside. He buried his face against the top of Genya’s head, smiling against his hair. No matter what hardships they faced, from their absentee father to the late nights they would listen to their mother's worried pacing, they would be okay as long as they had each other.