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“Why’re you so exhausted, kid?” Alan asked his oldest nephew as the young man slumped over at the dinner table. “What’s with the new haircut?”
Taro forced himself to lift his head. He looked drained and frustrated, and his hair looked like he’d hacked it off himself. The front was relatively untouched, but the length he’d been growing out in the back had been cut short. With a tired and serious voice, he said across the table, “I have a stalker.”
It was like he’d dropped a bomb onto the dinner table, the way the pack exploded. Kenta was shellshocked, a horrified expression on his face, while Kim’s jaw dropped. Others demanded more information, how long it’d been happening and if Taro knew who it was, why he hadn’t told anyone sooner. Alan asked if he’d gotten hurt at all. Taro’s brother cried that he shouldn’t keep things like that bottled up anymore like he had when they were younger.
Pete and Martin exchanged a look and laughed. The others went silent to stare incredulously at the father and son duo.
“What’s so funny about Taro having a stalker?” Kim asked, voice halfway to a growl.
Martin kept giggling. Pete just smiled and said, “He doesn’t have one. His boyfriend is just being a bit much, that’s all.”
“I don’t have a boyfriend.”
“Fiancé?” Martin prompted instead.
“I said no!” Taro snapped. “He wasn’t being serious about that proposal- you both heard him say he was joking!”
They both exchanged another look. Taro did not know, but the proposal had indeed been real. He’d just been told by his almost-fiancé that it was a joke when Taro had started to get overwhelmed as he realized what was happening, saying that he couldn’t do it when they weren’t even dating or even friends, before any ring or getting down on one knee could happen. Not wanting to risk Taro outright rejecting an actual full proposal, his almost-fiancé had backtracked and pretended to be teasing. But Pete and Martin had seen the ring, and Pete had been able to feel the nervous anticipation and then disappointment with his ability.
“You were so bummed out after. ‘Cuz you thought it was just a game when you actually wanted-”
Taro quickly interrupted, “I was only upset because it wasn’t funny. As if I would care if Ai-chan actually proposed or not. He’s not my boyfriend.”
Pete leaned over to Kenta and whispered, “I’ll tell you about Aiko later. He’s interesting.”
“Don’t tell him anything! Aiko isn’t my boyfriend! He’s a stalker!”
“You got proposed to and didn’t tell me about it?” Buddy asked, incredulous, shocked that he had missed out on what seemed to be a major part of his brother’s life. He’d never heard Taro mention anyone named Aiko.
Eventually, after more grilling from the pack, Taro relented and said that Aiko wasn’t technically a real stalker, just a very persistent person he kept running into and spending time with whenever he went to Okinawa. Pete also offered up that Aiko had been perfectly friendly when they’d met him while dropping in to visit Taro when the three of them had ended up in Japan at the same time. “He’s an ikebana artist, the Japanese flower arrangement art. He took the three of us to an exhibition his work was displayed at.”
This soothed Taro’s parents and brother. “Did you meet him at one of the bonsai exhibitions you like going to?” Kenta asked.
“...No. I met him while he was skateboarding. And then we just keep running into each other whenever I’m in Okinawa.”
“Ai-chan told us he likes P’Taro so much because they’re fated mates!” Martin said cheerfully, another bomb dropped onto the pack.
Taro quickly tried to do damage control, protesting, “We are not! That’s not a real thing! He’s just annoying.”
“What’s that thing he called the two of them, Papa? Cain and Abel?”
“That’s weird,” Taro shot back. “It’s weird. Cain and Abel are brothers. Cain killed Abel. How could that be the same thing as being fated? He’s just weird.”
-
“How did you get my parents’ address?!” Taro snarled into his phone, as Kenta told Kim that maybe Taro was right and their oldest son did have a stalker after all. Kim couldn’t really try to argue against that. Taro hadn’t given his… acquaintance… their address, apparently, so he wasn’t sure how the other young man could have gotten it. All he could do was pat Kenta’s arm to try to calm him down. Thinking their son had some kind of stalker was really bothering his mate.
They both froze as they heard Aiko’s almost sing-song response over the phone, Taro having set it to speaker so he could properly yell at it. “Oh, Muse! My heart raced when I saw it was you calling me, dear Roseling. How rare, to receive a call from you, Beloved. Did you get the gift I sent to you? Did you love it? Tell me, truly.”
“Roseling?” Kenta echoed, incredulous.
Taro didn’t even notice the pet names, somehow. It was a sign of some kind, that he didn’t react to them, nor to Kenta repeating one. “Are these fucking flowers from your father’s house? Why did you send me roses? How did you get this address?”
“You recognize them!” Aiko gasped, utterly delighted. “Don’t you just love them? My family’s roses are simply divine. Love in physical form. I knew I had to send you some, so you might think of me while we’re parted, little wolf.”
“Of course I recognize them,” Taro sneered. “They smell just like you.”
Pete and Martin were right, the couple realized as Taro said something that no one would ever say to anyone but a lover, much less to a stalker. Aiko was not some kind of predator going after their son. Rather, he seemed to be some kind of suitor instead. And not one that had been truly rejected either.
“And I got the address from your uncle, of course. He told me I should let my intentions be known to your family.”
“Uncle Pete didn’t say that. You said that.”
“Oh, dear heart, you know me so well. Of course I did. That was why I got his number from Papa and called him. But he gave his encouragement. It’s practically the same.”
“Don’t call my uncle anymore, Ai-chan! Don’t send things to my parents’ house!”
“Did they like the flowers as well, Roseling? They can have however many you’re willing to give them. Your brother as well. Just mind the thorns. The roses on the Shindo estate have always had such sharp thorns. Painful and piercing, like a true, deep love.”
“No,” Taro snapped back, as Kim said they were nice.
Kenta picked up the bouquet and looked at the card attached to them. “For my dark Lilith…?” he read it aloud to Kim, even more incredulous. That one gave Kim pause as well. He echoed it, confused.
Neither Taro or his almost-fiancé heard them. “Farewell, my dark Lilith. I have to finish setting up my exhibition now, before my client notices I’ve stepped out. I look forward to seeing you when you come home to me again! I’ll be waiting.”
The call ended. Taro grumbled to himself, then put his phone in his pocket. He sighed, then looked over at his parents. “What is it?”
“Some guy proposed to you in Japan for real and you didn’t tell us about it?”
“It wasn’t real!” Taro squawked. “He’s just weird!”
“Dark Lilith?” Kenta questioned.
“He says he can’t call me Adam or Eve, and the Cain and Abel thing is weird, so- ugh. It’s a long story. He just talks like that.” Taro dismissed it, as if it was something any of them could just dismiss, especially him. “I’ll make sure he doesn’t send anything else here. He knows my actual address, so he didn’t need yours. Ridiculous.”
“And you’re not dating?” Kim asked, trying to work out what was going on.
“Absolutely not,” Taro said firmly.
“Have you had sex?”
“Appa! What?!”
It wasn’t a denial like everything else had been. “Oh, so you have. It’s a friends with benefits thing?” Kenta looked a little weak as Kim said that. It was hard sometimes to be aware that the boys were older, that Taro was all grown up.
“We’re not friends either.”
“Nii-san has a situationship in Japan?” Buddy asked as he walked in, arriving home in the middle of everything. Kenta didn’t like hearing that kind of word from Buddy either. Though Buddy was almost an adult as well, he was still Kenta’s little pup.
They all stared at Taro. He floundered, but then went, “...I suppose? Don’t say things like that, Buddy! You’re just a kid!” Taro didn’t like to hear it from his baby brother either. “It doesn’t matter. He’s just some guy I hang out with in Okinawa. I’m sure he just sent this as another stupid joke.”
“...The roses look like a pretty romantic thing to me.”
“As if. Just forget about it. Ai-chan will get this out of his system and I won’t even mention him ever again.”
-
Buddy’s mouth dropped open as someone suddenly engulfed his brother in a big hug and started to nuzzle against him, proclaiming, “Surprise, my spider lily! It’s me! Aren’t you delighted, love? I came all the way from Okinawa for a visit!” A few days after the flower incident, Buddy had gone with Taro to his brother’s place. Only for someone to already be inside as they went in. Taro didn’t immediately try to gut the person for surprising him, so Buddy knew he had to be the Aiko that had been the pack’s hottest topic recently. While he’d been grateful for the focus of gossip to be about a potential boyfriend of his brother rather than teasing about his race rival, Rider, Buddy was still miffed that his older brother hadn’t told him about the Aiko guy. Even if they were just friends, he thought his brother told him everything about his social life, since his brother didn’t really have much of one to begin with. Taro had steadfastly avoided discussing Aiko, which only annoyed Buddy even more.
And now the guy was in Taro’s house, and Buddy didn’t know whether or not he was upset anymore that his brother hadn’t mentioned him. He probably would have thought his brother was crazy, if he’d started to describe his new friend. Taro kept to himself, and kept himself lowkey. He’d continued to wear dark clothes even as they grew up, and nothing too fancy or eye-catching, with only the occasional pop of green or something team related underneath motorcycle jackets.
Aiko was all loud and color, eye searing patterns of flowers and hearts and different merchandise graphics, covered in a multitude of accessories and different layers. He practically jingled with every excited motion, chains and charms and jewelry all dangling and clinking together. He had a bright yellow Pikachu winter hat on that almost fully covered his dark blue hair, only visible in his bangs that peeked out underneath. Nothing went together at all, but it all screamed for attention. Buddy liked a little color in his wardrobe, but it would be far too much for even Uncle Sonic or his cousins.
He was overwhelming to look at. Buddy couldn’t see how Taro had ended up being friends with someone who just being near should have bothered his brother.
Especially a friend who was all over him, not letting go and rubbing against him like they were lovers meeting after a long separation. Taro liked his personal space very much. Only close family could freely touch him.
When Uncle Pete had said that Aiko was an ikebana artist, Buddy had pictured someone quiet and traditional. His brother liked plants a lot, and would tell him about plant nurseries and gardens he’d visit while on his work trips. So he’d thought Aiko would look like the kind of person that frequented those places, even after hearing how excitable he was on the phone. Loud, but still down to earth. Not… what Aiko actually was like.
“Why? Why are you in my house?” Taro asked, sounding strangled. “Why are you in Thailand, Ai?”
“To see you! I missed you! I just couldn’t wait for you to come back!” Aiko said loudly, right in Taro’s face, releasing him from the hug. “I needed to see my muse, so I bought a plane ticket right away and came here to see you as soon as possible! I have an ikebana competition I need to come up with ideas for, and the theme will be love, of course, but I just couldn’t get into the proper headspace for it without my beautiful-” Aiko suddenly stopped as he got far back enough to see Taro fully.
Buddy just watched, bewildered by everything he was witnessing. It was too weird even seeing his brother near so much color. And it was kind of hard to even notice his own brother with all the accessories on Aiko catching his eye. Sanrio characters, Pokémon, other cartoons, and an overabundance of hearts…
Taro also blinked, confused as Aiko stopped. Buddy had only seen Aiko for just a minute, and had walked in on the phone call, and he didn’t seem like the kind of person that ever stopped. Maybe that was why his brother could put up with the other man. He didn’t have to contribute much to any conversations.
“You cut your hair! I can’t believe it- your lovely hair!” Aiko said, agonized, reaching up with one hand to tug at Taro’s hair as though he were a ruined doll. “Oh, but you looked so beautiful with your hair grown out- why on Earth would you cut it, Roseling?” he fussed.
Scoffing, Taro brushed aside Aiko’s hand. It quickly just grabbed the longer front part again. “I can’t stand it being long. I look awful.”
“I thought it looked nice,” Buddy said, because it had, and he’d never heard his brother ever complain about his own looks before. His brother had nice hair. It was dark like their dad’s, and as long as he brushed it it always looked good, suiting him at any length. But now it was still choppy and uneven, still looking like he’d hacked at it.
“How could you cut it? You know I love it so much!”
“It looked weird on me. I left it longer on the front so you won’t have trouble grabbing it, don’t worry.” He left it long in front so this guy can pull on it? Buddy’s jaw dropped again. Maybe Martin and Uncle Pete had been right after all. He couldn’t believe his brother had just said that. They also both seemed to be unaware he was even there. Not very surprising from Aiko who had zeroed in on his brother like he was locking onto a target. But it looked like his brother had forgotten him.
After a bit more tugging on Taro’s hair as if to soothe himself, Aiko finally took notice of the third person in the house. He stepped forward into Buddy’s space and beamed up at him, practically bursting with charm and personality with just a smile. “Hello there! You must be Buddy- Your brother told me all about you. I’m Kikuchi Aiko, but everybody calls me Ai-chan.”
“Just call him Aiko,” Taro said, rolling his eyes.
“Your brother sends me your races! You’re so good on the motorbikes. He’s pretty good on his bike himself, but nothing like you! You should come to Okinawa next time. I know a great place to do motorcycle tricks. Have you ever tried skateboarding?”
“...Skateboarding?”
Further in the house on his brother’s couch was a Hello Kitty backpack with a black skateboard strapped to it. The bottom was painted with dark roses and a thin red flower that Buddy didn’t recognize, not at all matching with Aiko’s bright style. Aiko turned to follow his gaze and then went over and grabbed the board. He tossed it up with his hand to rest it on his shoulder, almost like he was holding a baseball bat instead. His charming smile turned into more a smirk as he told Buddy, “Of course! Your brother and I had our fated encounter-” Taro made a face and shook his head to Buddy. Aiko completely ignored the denial of his claim that they were fated mates and continued smoothly, “-while I was skateboarding. And thus our beautiful love story began with a bang!”
Oddly, he let the skateboard drop forward and he lightly swung it. Buddy had no idea what that was supposed to convey. Maybe the bang sound effect of a bat hitting a ball?
“Don’t tell him about that,” Taro’s voice got a bit firm, and he rushed forward to press a hand over Aiko’s mouth. “We just met on the street one day, that’s all. Ai skateboards a lot. And we kept running into each other.”
His brother was absolutely hiding something. But Buddy was worried it was some kind of hook up story, so he did not want any further details. Maybe it was childish, but he had no desire to hear anything about his brother’s sex life. He’d overheard enough about his uncles’ sex lives growing up. He didn’t need anymore unwanted knowledge.
Aiko had to twist to put his skateboard down on the couch so he could free his hand to pry Taro’s off, since he could not use what was left of his other arm to try to get free. Once free, he complained, “It’s so unfair of you to do that when my hand is full! I can’t defend myself!”
“Ai, you don’t need any hands to defend yourself. You’d manage even if you lost that one too.”
“You guys seem to get along good,” Buddy observed. It was kind of fun to see his brother get flustered by that after Taro had abandoned him to be teased about Rider by the rest of the pack. A bit of payback.
Only it didn’t satisfy him for long, Aiko replying with something that just confused him again, “Of course an adrenaline junkie like your brother gets along so well with me!”
Not once had Buddy ever heard anyone describe his brother as an adrenaline junkie. Sure, his brother enjoyed riding cars and bikes on occasion, and the both of them had loved riding along with Appa in his cars, but Taro hadn’t gone into racing like he had. He’d just… gone into some kind of business thing that bored Buddy too much to understand it, even though Taro would chat about his work when they video-called each other every day whenever Taro went abroad. Some kind of overhaul and then management of shipping and import/export businesses that meant Taro had to take short, semi-frequent trips up to Japan, where the businesses were based.
Yet another thing that made it more obvious to Buddy that Taro and Martin were half-brothers when he thought about it. Taro had gone into the business world like Uncle Pete. But he didn’t need to think about that.
Especially not when his brother’s eyes went wide when his maybe-boyfriend maybe almost-fiancé called him an adrenaline junkie, meaning it was true.
“Yeah? With you skateboarding?” Buddy asked, needing to pry at this bit of information before his brother could change the subject. Somehow it was related to skateboarding. Did his brother skateboard? Taro had never mentioned ever trying that.
Aiko beamed again. “I take him to place that are good for skating and his bikes! We go out at night and it helps him sleep.” Since there was only a two hour difference between them whenever Taro went to Japan, Buddy never called him at night, thinking they would both be tired and going to bed. “The Ducati is the best for racing, but I like the whatever Ninja one better-”
“My Kawasaki Ninja. Don’t just call it a whatever.”
“-because I can ride on the back. If only skateboards worked for two, but he’s hopeless on a skateboard…”
“Nii-san, you… you have a Ducati and Kawasaki…?” Buddy had never heard of his brother buying the two superbikes. Taro had not told him. He just had a normal motorcycle he used to get around in Bangkok, and had never mentioned how he got around in Japan. Buddy had just assumed taxis or rental cars.
“W-wait, Buddy-!” Taro stammered, realizing that his little brother was going to kill him for letting his situationship be the only person in his life who knew about his superbikes.
“They’re up at his place in Okinawa. You should go up next time. I bet we could do a three-way race. You two on bikes, and me on my board.”
“When did you buy them? Why haven’t I gotten to ride them?! Appa took us to Suzuka for the race weekend the other month! I could have! This isn’t fair at all!”
“You let me ride your bikes before your brother?” Aiko asked, also surprised. “I know we’re two halves of a whole heart, Love, but we’re not even dating. He’s your brother.”
“I don’t want Dad to know that I have superbikes! He would be worried!” Taro tried to defend himself. “They help with my insomnia! The adrenaline crash knocks me right out! If I told you, then you would want to go with me on my trips all the time, and Dad would get suspicious because you think my job is boring, and I’m not a professional racer, so-”
“Nii-san!”