Work Text:
The overwhelming sound of Coconut Mall filled the living room, so loud that no other sound could be heard through the commotion. An aggravated growl cut through the jaunty music as Jiro sat up. “I gotta lock in,” he said, mostly to himself.
A laugh sounded from where Saburo lay on the couch. “Why? ‘Cause you suck?” he said with a pointed glare.
“Shut up, dude,” Jiro grumbled. The tip of his tongue poked out between his teeth and his eyes slowly narrowed as he truly began to get into the game. He adjusted his grip on the controller so the buttons didn’t dig into his skin, which was also noticed by his little brother.
“My hands don’t hurt because I’m so good at this game. Not even breaking a sweat,” Saburo uncrossed his legs and let one hang off of the couch while he put one knee up and rested his controller against it.
Jiro didn’t break focus to chide back, because he’d definitely lose if he got into it with Saburo while playing.
The round ended, and Saburo emerged victorious. He lifted his arms in the air and exclaimed, “Yay!” while Jiro sighed heavily and put his controller down on the table behind him. “Whatever. That was fun,” he said as he stood up and stretched his aching legs. That was the fifth full round they had played, so his legs were cramping.
Saburo laughed and threw his controller away from him on the couch and picked his phone up. “It was fun because I won and you lost. I’m just smarter than you like that,” he flashed him a playful glare.
“Saburo,” Jiro turned toward him and crossed his arms, “don’t fucking say that.”
Saburo furrowed his brows and sat up. “What?” he asked with an accusatory tone. “I was joking,” he crossed his arms right back as he spat the words out.
“Jokes have to be funny,” Jiro shot back.
“Then make fun of me, too! Make it even! Did I really offend you that bad by calling you stupid? I call you stupid all the time!”
“And I’m sick of it! Stop it!”
“Then you need to tell me that!”
Saburo stood from his place on the couch as they started to argue back and forth. Jiro claimed that he had complained about the intelligence comments before and how it made him feel, but Saburo argued that this was the first he was hearing of Jiro being upset with said comments. They tried to reach a conclusion by themselves, but they ended up continuing to argue about unrelated matters, so they did what they thought would be best– go to Ichiro.
“Ichi-ni!” Saburo called as he opened the door to the office where Ichiro usually was at this time of day. “Can you tell Jiro to stop making shit up?” he stopped just short of the desk where his older brother sat.
“That isn’t– tell Saburo to stop calling me stupid!” Jiro followed right behind Saburo and stood beside him by the desk.
As soon as they actually laid their eyes on Ichiro, they could tell that something was wrong. Their oldest brother sat at the desk with a pile of papers in front of him and gripping the pen he was using to write with. His hand was even shaking. Ichiro looked up at his brothers with a calm expression– too calm. “Is that it?” he asked coldly.
Both Saburo and Jiro took a step back from the desk. They exchanged a nervous glance, and Jiro spoke for the both of them, “We were just arguing, and we needed you to step in.”
Ichiro put the pen down and sighed as they covered their face with their hands. “I need you two to leave me the fuck alone,” he said, then uncovered his face to keep speaking, “now. Leave the office, figure your shit out by yourselves. Maybe stop trying to rip each other's throats out. Can you do that?”
The two younger brothers were taken aback by their sibling’s firm, cold tone. If Ichiro was frustrated when stuff like this happened, he would usually let them know. This behavior was reminiscent of who he used to be. “We can,” Jiro said with a firm nod. Even Jiro was reverting to his old self… Saburo just stayed quiet and watched the exchange with anxious eyes.
Ichiro pursed his lips and sighed as he let his head drop. “Guys, I… can I talk to you two later?” he lifted his head up, his eyes sad. “I need to sleep before we talk again.”
“Sure,” Jiro nodded and took a gentle hold of Saburo’s arm and guided him out of the office. “Talk to us later,” his voice was quiet as he left the office with Saburo close behind him.
The door clicked shut, and Ichiro was left with the unpleasant memory of his words and an unbearable ringing in his ears. He was glad he had managed to save his tears until his brothers left. He breathed in a slow, shuddering breath and sat back in his chair and pressed the heel of his palm against his eye. Sleep deprivation, the stressful job, and his brothers bursting into the office to ask him to diffuse another fight combined at the wrong moment and caused an emotional explosion. Ichiro hated treating his brothers like that. He still regretted how he acted back then, and reverting to that old self made him feel disgusting. He took a deep breath and looked down at his work. It was time for a break.
Ichiro left the office quietly so as to not startle his brothers. He leaned forward to peek into the kitchen as he caught a glimpse of black hair. They were cleaning..? Ichiro saw Saburo open the fridge and pull out an old pizza box. He opened it and made a grimace that Ichiro could see from the door to the office before shoving it at Jiro to throw away. Ichiro smiled softly and went to his room. He’d be sure to talk to them once he was better rested.
Jiro jumped to the side as Saburo shoved a cold pizza box into his arms. “Trash?” he asked with raised eyebrows. Saburo nodded quickly and went back to the fridge to keep looking for other things that needed to be thrown away.
Saburo hadn’t said a word since the… situation. Jiro didn’t know how else to describe it in his mind other than a situation. What had just happened in the office could have been a memory from a couple years back if he didn’t know that it just happened today. Jiro shoved the take-out boxes in his arms into a big trash bag. He felt pissed off, but what could he do? He didn’t want to try to talk to Ichiro right now, but it was all he wanted to try to do. He was pulled out of his thoughts by an annoyed hum from Saburo behind him. “My bad,” Jiro stood up straight and held the trash bag open so Saburo could throw away what was in his hands.
A beat of silence passed between the two before Jiro spoke up again. “Hey, you know that Ichi-ni isn’t really mad at us, right?” he asked with a soft voice.
Saburo just nodded as he continued his search for expired or old food to throw away. He opened a tupperware lid and grimaced as the foul smell hit his nose, then dumped the contents into the trash bag beside him.
Jiro needed more than that. “For real. I think he was dealing with a really difficult job when we came in,” he continued.
“I know,” those two words were all Saburo could get from his aching throat. If he said anything else, he’d start crying, and he’d rather die than cry in front of Jiro.
The rest of the time spent cleaning the fridge was time spent in silence. They moved to the dishes, then to sweeping and mopping, then the counters. Jiro was impressed with their time– they had only spent an hour and a half in the kitchen. “Living room?” Jiro asked with raised eyebrows. Saburo nodded with a hum and gave his brother two thumbs up.
Saburo and Jiro spent four hours cleaning the house while Ichiro slept. By the fourth hour mark, the house was cleaner than it had been in months. Saburo groaned and flopped onto the couch, which ruined the careful work Jiro had put into arranging the throw blanket on the back of it. Jiro just huffed and rolled his eyes as he sat at the table on the floor, much like he was earlier that day.
The silence was comfortable between them. Eventually, Saburo spoke up with something… unexpected. “Sorry for calling you stupid all the time. I didn’t know it upset you that much.”
Jiro looked at his brother with wide eyes. “Oh, you’re fine. I didn’t ever tell you. Sorry for yelling at you about it,” he replied as he averted his gaze.
Saburo looked away, too. “Are we good?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Jiro said quickly with a nod.
After their apologies, they heard the door to Ichiro’s room open. They both sat up and turned to watch as their brother walked out of his room, bleary-eyed and yawning. “Hey,” he said with a voice thick with sleep.
“Hi, Ichi-ni,” Jiro and Saburo said at the same time. If this happened under any other circumstance, they would have glared at each other.
Ichiro came closer to his brothers and held his arms out for both of them. “Hug?” he offered.
The other two brothers quickly obliged. Once they were both comfortable against him, Ichiro wrapped his arms around them in a tight hug. “I’m sorry, Jiro, I’m sorry, Saburo. I shouldn’t have talked to you two like that. I was frustrated with work and I’ve been getting behind on sleep, and I took it out on you guys. It won’t happen ever again,” he said as the three of them started to sway back and forth in the hug.
“We forgive you,” Jiro replied almost instantly. Saburo didn’t say anything– he preferred to soak in the moment.
Ichiro smiled and pulled back just slightly to look down at both of them. “Good. We’re all we got. We gotta stick together. Something like this isn’t gonna break us, right?”
“Right.”
“Right.”
The three of them hugged again, then Ichiro pulled back and took in the sight of the house. “Damn, this place looks good. Proud of you guys,” he said as he put his hands on his hips.
“Thank you! It was my idea,” Saburo said confidently.
“Like hell it was! I’m the one who started cleaning!” Jiro replied.
“Nuh uh!” Saburo stuck his tongue out at Jiro with a glare.
“Guys,” Ichiro said with a warning, but soft tone.
Saburo and Jiro turned to their brother. Jiro smiled sheepishly as Saburo looked at the ground, and they mumbled their apologies to each other.
The house was at peace again after that.