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It was just your average day in the Shinezugawa household. Sanemi grading school quiz papers, Genya in his room, either on FaceTime with his boyfriend or reading the literature assigned from his English class. Despite one of them being a teacher and a very good one at that, he had to go to the room of his younger brother for advice.
“Genya!” Sanemi barged through the door of the younger siblings' bedroom.
“Jesus Christ! Don't you know about a little thing called knocking?! I could've been getting changed or something!” Genya yelled. Partly a mix of annoyance and shock at his brother kicking through the door.
“It's not like you go anywhere, so what's the big deal? Anyways, moving on, there's something I need to ask.”
Holy shit, is he actually asking me a genuine question?!
“Is this.. Have I reached heaven? Is the day that my brother, who's a literal teacher, asks me a question because he's too dumb to answer, finally upon me?" Genya asks the imaginary camera, a stream of silent tears already falling from his eyes. Sanemi simply folds his arms as he slots himself down in the rolling chair Genya had tucked away at his desk.
“Ha ha, very funny, I'm being serious right now though,” he admits, a stern look on his face as he glares over to the other person in the room. Genya watches from his bed, grabbing a plushie and tucking it in his lap to lean on.
“Ok? What's up?” he asks, curious as to what has his older brother all confused.
“You're gay, right? You and that Kampachiro kid or whatever, I forgot his name.”
“Aniki… I've brought him over several times, he's had dinner here multiple times as well, he's IN YOUR CLASS, you're just doing the name thing on purpose at this point" Genya silently laughed to himself, his face hidden in the palm of his rough hand. Finding how his brother could mispronounce the boy's name so horrendously amusing,
“Okay?” Sanemi sassed. “I don't like the kid, he's too heavenly. He just has this aura about him,” The white haired teacher sneered at the mere thought of the younger boy. “I'm not here to talk about him; he can get fucked, he's not worthy of you,” he mumbled under his breath quietly so that the boy opposite him didn’t overhear. “What do you even see in guys? Like, what makes them so appealing? How did you even find that out?”
Genya thought to himself for a second, trying to configure a way to describe how he came to the realisation of Oh shit, guys are HOT.
“Well.. I don't really know how to explain it. When I was younger, I used to be a little homophobic, but again, we did grow up in a catholic primary school, so who wasn't a little homophobic. I can't really tell how I came to that realisation. One day I was fine and the next I was looking at this guy in my class that had been talking to me, and I was like ‘damn, he's so cute.’ and my internal reaction was like ‘wait, straight guys don't usually think that, do they?’ so I guess I just accepted it.” The boy rambled.
As he finished, he looked over to his brother, trying to analyse any reaction that he might've gotten. Fortunately for him, there was a clear reaction to the words he had just said.
“Oh, I mean, I guess that's fair. But like, what do you even see in kombucha?" Sanemi asked again, mispronouncing the name of his sworn enemy. People were allowed to be sworn enemies even if said enemy was sixteen years old and he was in his early twenties, okay?
“He's cute, he's sweet, he just has this really nice vibe that makes you want to be around him, y’know? Maybe you don't know.. What's wrong with you?” Genya mused.
“Nothing's wrong with me; there are plenty of people I want to be around. It's just not him,” defended sanemi, pulling out his arms from their position and cracking his knuckles.
“Alright! Alright! I get it.” Genya threw his hands up in a fake surrender. “It's just— he's a good guy and I'm really glad he gave me a shot,” he sheepishly admitted, a light blush warming up his normally amber skin. A small smile tugged at Sanemi's face seeing Genya be so comfortably infatuated with a single guy; of course, he was glad that his younger brother had someone he could lean on, even though he had wished it was himself. He couldn't complain all that much about the fact that it was Tanjirou, the high school's known sweetheart.
“How did you know he was the one?” he gently asked, curious as to how his little brother found out he was pining after such a guy. The question made the black haired boy think some more.
“It was probably when it was recess, we were walking down the hallway, just us two to go to the cafeteria, I had heard they had some new item, god knows what it actually was, I can't even remember, and while we were walking through the crowd, I felt his hand hang onto mine so gently. Warmly. All that was going through my head was just how I didn't want to let go, how I wanted to get closer instead of getting away like how I usually am with touch." Sanemi nodded in his hands, hearing the sound of Genya's love brought a warm feeling to him, knowing how he became so infatuated with this guy.
“I'm glad you found someone like that, Genyaa, I really am,” he said genuinely as he pushed himself up from the chair. Maybe being twenty-one was starting to get to him. The albino man walked over to the bed, bringing his hand up to ruffle up the mohawk the other boy sported.
“Fucking- stop that!” The younger Shinazugawa cried as he attempted to get his brother's hand out of his hair. Keyword: attempted. He wasn't doing that much, but it was still an effort. Regardless, Sanemi pulled his hand from Genya's signature mohawk.
“Nahhh, it's too funny. Alright, I'll catch you later, loser. I'll leave you to facetime loser no. 2.” sanemi said as he approached the door, waving his hand as if dismissing Genya. The younger Shinazugawa glared at his older brother as he slowly closed the door, only to throw it open while running away.
“DAMN IT, ANIKI!” he yelled as he jumped from the bed to the door, peeking his head out the frame to catch a glimpse of the other man disappearing down the hallway into his own room.
Whilst Genya closed his door, sanemi leaned against his own closed one and slid down to the floor. His back curled as he sat.
Fuck! You've got to be kidding me.. He cried to himself. You may be asking why Sanemi even asked Genya those questions? Sometimes you have to get answers from someone else to solve your own. As the man shuffled over to his bed, he threw his head into the soft pillow and groaned. That groan slowly evolved into a loud shout.
“Shit,”
Brr, brr. Brr, brr.
A sleek blank phone rang from the bedside table next to him. Sanemi turned his face away from the pillow to stare at the device. After a while of debating whether or not it would be worth it to pick up, he chose to answer.
“Hello?” The man reluctantly said. His voice was gruff from the exertion of the moment prior.
“Shinazugawa? This is your neighbour, Tomioka. I heard a loud yell, and I was wondering if you were okay?” the caller asked with a tone layered in concern. Of course, the one responsible for sanemis' current problem would come and call right now.
I want to hold his hand, I want to hold it and never let go— No! Stop thinking like that about your freaking neighbour.
“Yeah, I'm fine, sorry for any disturbances. Have a good night,” Sanemi hurriedly replied, immediately pressing the red end-call button at the bottom of his screen.
“Wait! I wanted to ask-” The teacher watched as his phone went back to his home screen. He sat himself up against the wall on the side of his double-twin bed. The device fell from his loose hands as he gripped his short hair with his fingers.
Damn it.
Is this how you feel about Kamado, Genya?