Chapter Text
Ren looked up when a few of the other boys in his class crowded around his desk, squinting in suspicion at the sneaky looks on their faces. “What?” The boys nudged each other, snickering and looking like total assholes, and Ren knew he’d regret even giving them the chance to speak at all.
“Hey Ren, we were just wondering…What kind of girl do you like?”
“Huh?” Ren wasn’t sure what he expected them to say but that certainly wasn’t it, and he felt his eye twitch when they laughed at his confusion.
One of the boys nudged his friend with a cackle. “Ain’t he got two dads? Maybe he don’t swing that way!” They all laughed and Ren grit his teeth, he had to stay calm.
“Oh that’s right! So what kinda guy do you like?” A couple of the boys stepped back from the desk as if they were at the risk of catching something or, god forbid, be told they were Ren’s type.
The first boy hummed thoughtfully and looked to the side, where Kota was sitting watching the exchange with unimpressed disgust. “I got it! Since you guys are always spending so much time together, that must mean you want to kiss Kota!”
Ren’s quickly dwindling patience ran out and he slammed his hands on his desk, knocking his chair down as he lurched to his feet. “Shut it! As if I’d want to do something so disgusting!” He could feel his cheeks burning from anger and he couldn’t believe they were even suggesting that he’d want to k-kiss his friend.
At his clear anger, the boys laughed and ran out of the classroom, leaving Ren to huff and puff on his own. He turned to pick his chair back up and he looked over at Kota, flinching at the unexpected glare. “W-What?”
Kota sniffed and grabbed his bag, and he sneered at Ren. “Let’s be real, with a personality like yours nobody will ever like you.” With that, Kota made his way out of the classroom to head home, seemingly uncaring of how speechless he’d left Ren.
Ren had no idea what just happened, but he felt oddly hurt by Kota’s words. Was his personality really that bad? He thought he’d been improving lately, that he was a better person than he used to be. He threw his bag over his shoulder and started heading out, thoughts swirling in his head.
Ren kicked a rock down the street as he trudged towards home, and he just couldn’t make sense of any of it in his head. He didn’t understand why Kota had seemed so angry at him back there when nothing he said was wrong. Kissing him would be gross– not because they’re both boys, obviously he knows that’s okay, it was just…For him, it was...
Why was it gross?
With a groan, Ren slumped over the bridge railing and looked down at the river flowing fast beneath him. He was no good at this sort of thing, emotions and feelings and shit like that. He was the “get angry and think properly about it later” kind of guy. When he thought about doing something like that with Kota, his chest felt all tight and hot and he felt like he needed to puke, obviously he found it gross.
Surely Kota would think the same, clearly he didn’t think very highly of Ren anyway after what he said. Nobody would like him…
Ren shoved himself away from the railing and kept walking, and he tried so hard to ignore the burning in his eyes. What did Kota know? Who’d like him when his personality was just as shitty? His shoulder knocked against someone as he walked but he paid it no mind, he just wanted to get home already.
“Oi.”
A hand grabbed Ren’s shoulder and he stopped walking, tilting his head to look back at the guy he just bumped into.
“Don’t you think you should apologise to me?” The guy sneered down at Ren, and his equally scummy looking friends crowded around.
Ren breathed out slowly and let his bag drop to the ground, he really wasn’t in the mood for this. His dad was going to be so pissed but at least he could have an outlet now. “Fine…I need to let off some steam anyway.”
Ren closed the front door behind him quietly and kicked his shoes off, muttering a quiet “I’m home” before trudging up the stairs to his room.
“Ren? Is that you?” Umemiya’s voice drifted up from the kitchen and Ren paused on the stairs, hesitating for just a moment before he worked up a reply.
“Y-Yeah. Uh…I’m gonna work on some homework in my room!” He hurried up the last few steps and to his room, closing himself in before he could hear any kind of reply. Ren sank to the floor with his back to the door and he hugged his knees to his chest, heaving slow and shuddering breaths.
His knuckles stung, still sluggishly bleeding, and he could feel the aching of soon-to-be bruises under his skin. Fuck. This was all Kota’s fault somehow, with his asshole attitude and how confusing he was. Ren fisted at his hair and the sting helped cut through the harsh buzzing in his head, he was screwing everything up and he knew it.
Umemiya looked up the stairs with a frown, it wasn’t often that Ren hid himself away as soon as he got home from school and he certainly wasn’t idiotic enough to believe he really was just doing homework. Ren hated homework.
But he knew his son, and pushing and crowding him wouldn’t help with whatever was bothering him– he had to let Ren breathe and be ready himself to talk. Even if it was awfully infuriating sometimes. Well, he’d leave Ren be until dinner but not any longer than that. With a soft sigh, he headed back into the kitchen, where at least one of his sons was doing some actual homework.
Haruka looked up when Umemiya returned and he bristled like a kitten when his papa ruffled his hair. He huffed and returned his attention to his stupid maths workbook, but he was stuck and had no clue how to get the answer. He peeked up at his papa, but Umemiya was busy preparing dinner, so instead his eyes drifted towards the stairs.
His big brother was pretty dependable, so Haruka slipped off his chair and took his workbook with him, heading up the stairs without Umemiya being any the wiser. He quietly opened the door to their shared bedroom and peeked inside, spotting Ren laying on his bed with his headphones on.
Haruka may have been young, but he wasn’t an idiot and he knew there was something wrong since Ren came straight up to bed rather than even show his face to them in the kitchen, and their papa was bad at acting like he wasn’t worried. Used to moving pretty soundlessly, he slipped into the room and tossed his workbook on Ren’s desk before he turned his attention to his big brother.
Loud music pounded through his skull and replaced the thud of his pulse that had threatened to drive him insane, and Ren was more than happy to remain here for the rest of the night. Or at least until his dads decided to bother him with their concern. Life had other plans, however, and when he felt the soft pat of a small hand against his back he suppressed a heavy sigh– he knew exactly who that belonged to.
Ren was very tempted to ignore his little brother, but if he did then Haruka would probably cause an even bigger fuss and he didn’t need that right now. He pushed himself up and shoved his headphones down, the tinny music continuing to play as he looked down at Haruka. “What?”
Haruka paid no mind to the rather rude tone Ren took with him, he could be in as bad a mood as he liked but there was no way he’d kick him out. Probably. “Help me with my homework, I’m stuck.” He pointed at the desk and his haphazardly placed workbook, and he swallowed back a grin of pride when Ren turned his music off.
“Fine…Just for a bit.” Ren was weak to that face and he knew that Haruka knew that, and the little shit used it to his advantage all the time. He rolled his eyes at the way Haruka sat himself at the desk with a hum of success but stood up to look over his shoulder. “Right, let’s see what we’re working with…”
As Ren looked over the workbook, Haruka watched him carefully– the tightness around his eyes and the cuts and scrapes over his knuckles. So that’s what this was. “You fought someone?”
Ren paused and glanced down at Haruka, breathing a heavy sigh out through his nose. “None of your business. You got this one wrong.” He tapped one of the questions Haruka had answered downstairs in an attempt to get them back on track.
“Papa will be sad you didn’t tell him.” Haruka wasn’t going to take the bait, even if it did annoy him that he got one wrong when he’d tried so hard on his own. He saw the way Ren twitched at his words and he knew he’d hit the bullseye.
“Cheeky brat…” Ren reached down to pinch Haruka’s cheek until he whined in pain and then he felt a bit better. “He’d be sad too that you never told him about those kids in your class.”
Haruka scowled when Ren’s hand reached for his cheek again and he whacked it away with a hiss. “Stop it!” The two boys stared at each other and though they weren’t related by blood, they both had the same unimpressed shine to their eyes.
After a moment, Ren sighed and shook his head. “Whatever. He’ll find out once we go down for dinner anyway, I’ll just face the music then.”
“Who will find out what at dinner?” Umemiya watched his sons jump at the sudden sound of his voice and they turned to look at him with ridiculously guilty looks on their faces. “I knew I’d find you here Haru, after I’d been talking to myself for five minutes down there.”
Haruka’s shoulders hunched up when he remembered that he’d just snuck off without saying anything. “Sorry…”
Umemiya shook his head, not really mad since it seemed Ren had been trying at least a little bit to help with his brother’s homework. “Come on, dinner’s ready.” He stood aside to let the two boys file out and all he could hope was whatever they’d been talking about wouldn’t be too much of a headache.
Dinner was a quiet affair and Ren could feel his dad’s eyes on him the whole time. It was kind of impossible to hide his bloody knuckles whilst eating, and he hadn’t looked in a mirror but he assumed the bruises he could feel were starting to show.
“Ren…”
There it was, that sad tone Ren really hated to hear. He tried to look too busy and invested in his dinner to reply but Umemiya wasn’t going anywhere, and it was far too awkward to just ignore him and keep eating. He hesitantly lifted his eyes to look over at his dad and shrank under the gentle intensity in that gaze.
“Ren, do you want to tell me what happened?” Umemiya’s voice was soft and careful, but though it was phrased like a question there was little choice behind it. Ren would have to spill eventually, Umemiya could be very patient.
The temptation to act like nothing had happened and play it all off was strong, but Ren knew there was no getting out of this now. He looked all over just to avoid those imploring eyes and eventually he let out a huff– before his dad, it was only a matter of time before he spilled his guts. “I think…I might have fought with Kota…”
“You think?” From where Umemiya was sitting, it looked pretty obvious that Ren had fought someone.
Ren leaned back in his chair with a grimace, sometimes he really hated how patient his dad was about things like this. “I don’t…know what happened, it just…” He waved his hand in the air as if that explained anything at all and he was extremely frustrated with himself, and Kota, and those idiots in his class. Pretty much everything. Eventually Ren heaved a sigh, weary and deep, and looked down at his hands in his lap.
“I think I really screwed it up with him today.”
Umemiya smiled softly and reached a hand over to grasp Ren’s shoulder gently, feeling the tension slowly bleed out of his son under his touch. “It’s not like you two have never scrapped before, I’m sure it’ll be water under the bridge by tomorrow.”
If only it was as simple as them punching each other, something that had indeed happened many times before this. But no, Ren feared he’d messed up royally this time. “It wasn’t him I punched, it was…I think I said the wrong thing.” Ren knew he wasn’t the best conversationalist at the best of times, least of all when he was stressed and way out of his element, the worst words always ended up bursting out of him.
The whole time they’d been speaking, Haruka had been stuffing his face, and only when his plate was empty did he look over at his big brother. He was an idiot, clearly, and Haruka wasn’t even very good at people stuff. “Just say sorry then, duh.”
Umemiya watched Ren scowl at his little brother’s words and he couldn’t stop the little laugh from slipping out of him in time, and he hurriedly straightened his face when that scowl was directed at him. “Sorry, sorry. But Haru’s right, did you say sorry for what you said?”
“Well…” Some of the heat left him and Ren deflated, cheeks flushing in embarrassment. “N-No, but…” He trailed off with no way of actually defending himself, stuttering for a moment before his brain caught up. “I didn’t know he was gonna get mad at me! I just said the thought of kissing him was gross!”
There was silence for a moment and Umemiya leaned back, looking at his eldest son carefully. His cheeks were pink and growing darker by the second and it took so much power to not laugh at him again– if he did Ren might actually try to deck him. “Ren, sweetie, do– why do you think Kota might have been mad about that?”
Ren pursed his lips at the question, how the hell was he supposed to know? Who knew what went on inside that dumb, pretty head?! His face flared hot at his own thoughts and he jumped to his feet as if he’d been burned. “Y-You might be gay but I’m not, alright?! I-I don’t wanna kiss Kota!” With that outburst out of the way, Ren hightailed it away and back upstairs, wishing the ground would open up and swallow him whole.
“Ah, Ren…” Umemiya watched him disappear up the stairs and he sighed, navigating a teenage boy’s emotions wasn’t easy, especially a boy as emotionally stunted as Ren. He looked over just in time to see Haruka slipping some food off Ren’s abandoned plate and he slapped his hand gently. “Haru! You’ll make yourself sick eating that much.”
As Umemiya grabbed their plates to clean up, he cast another glance towards the stairs. He’d have to see what Hiragi suggested they do to approach this without scaring Ren off, this could make or break their son’s confidence and it’d be a shame if he lost his friendship with Kota over this. Who knew kids would be so troublesome?