Archive of Our Own ^beta

At around six o'clock, Tiara races into the kitchen and grabs Kou's arm, teeth bared in the largest grin he's ever seen in his life.

"Kou!" she shrieks, shaking him violently. "Come watch Sonic with me, I just realized this is the first Shadow episode! You love Shadow! Come on, I can rewind it back to the start for you!"

"Ok, ok," Kou laughs, gently prying her hands off his sleeve and smiling warmly down at her. "Let me wash my plate and I'll be in with you in a minute, ok? Do you want more cake?"

He shouldn't really be offering given how many sweets Tiara already eats on a daily basis, but hey, he doesn't want to be the evil brother who has to tell her to eat her greens for once. One day with some extra sugar won't hurt. The way his little sister lights up at the suggestion makes it worth it, anyway, bouncing up and down on the balls of her heels and giggling between gap teeth and lipbalm-smeared lips.

"Yes, please!" she replies giddily. "Can you bring it to me? I want to eat in the living room while I watch!"

"Ah, Princess, you'll get crumbs on the floor," Teru pipes up. While Kou's sitting at the kitchen island, he's standing in front of the sink, leaning up against the cupboard below as he scoops cake into his mouth. "Do you want to take a placemat with you?"

Tiara pouts. "No-o," she whines, kicking her slippered foot off the tiled floor. "It's annoying having to look after two dishes instead of one! The crumbs'll just fall off the placemat anyway..."

Kou sighs, but Teru jumps in with a solution before he has to. "Ok, that's fine," he says with a smile. "I'll vacuum when you're done. Go back into the living room and I'll bring you your cake, ok?"

"Ok!" Tiara beams. Her mood has instantly flipped after having been told she can do as she pleases, which isn't out of the ordinary for her. She giggles and is already halfway out the door before she finishes speaking. "Hurry up, Kou, I don't wanna wait forever!"

Kou chuckles as she scampers away, shooting Teru a somewhat exasperated look. Teru hides a smile behind his fork, licking frosting off of the corner of his lips before setting his plate down and brushing off his hands.

"I can get her cake if you wanna finish eating," Kou tries, but Teru's already shaking his head, putting his hands up and gesturing for Kou to stay sitting as he takes the knife in hand and starts cutting through the cake himself.

"No need," he says, turning back around with a grin. The slice he's cut for her is thin, which is probably for the best. "I'm basically done anyway. Here, leave your plate and take her cake out when you go to sit with her, I'll wash it."

Kou smiles wide, not planning to protest further. "Who are you and what have you done with my brother?"

Teru takes his plate with a playful, flourishing gesture, pretending to bow. "Don't you worry a single bit," he says, and reaches out to ruffle Kou's hair before he can stop him despite having realized it was what he was about to do. "Just you go watch TV and let big brother do all the difficult work!"

"Pfft, this better be a permanent development," Kou teases, but does get up and leave Teru to clean up as he patters towards the living room.

It's darker in here, only one small lamp on in the corner instead of the overhead light. Most of the light comes from the TV, which Tiara has paused on the title screen of an episode of Sonic X. She's seen the show a hundred times before, as has Kou and as has Teru. Still, seeing her grinning so wide at the screen brings a smile to Kou's face, growing even bigger as he hands her her cake and she gleefully thanks him, crumbs already spilling past her hands onto the floor as she bounces up and down, hyped up from sugar and the excitement of the day.

The three of them are heading to the Misaki shrine tomorrow, so Kou shouldn't let her stay up late. It's only six pm, anyway - he'll be responsible later.

"What episode is this, then?" he asks, even though he knows very well. He makes himself comfortable, pulling his legs up and leaning close to his sister, who is more than happy to snuggle up next to him as she spoons cake into her mouth. "Shadow's first appearance, you said?"

"Mhm," Tiara confirms in a muffled tone. She wipes frosting off her mouth with her hands and is about to clean them on the couch before she catches herself and scrubs them with her napkin instead. "Well, just him in the capsule at the end, but you gotta watch all of this episode for the next one to be the coolest ever, don't you? Kou, move your arm so I can get to my cake, please."

"Ah, of course," he says, shifting to a slightly less comfortable position that allows Tiara to lift her fork without elbowing him in the stomach. Whatever it takes to make her happy. "Sorry, Princess. Rouge is in this one too, isn't she?"

"Yep," Tiara grins, cheeks glowing. "Oh, I should tell Teru to come watch, he loves her too!"

Kou laughs, biting down on his palm to stop himself. "Maybe later, Teru's washing the dishes right now and if we distract him, they'll never get done."

"You're right," Tiara says solemnly. She blinks up at Kou with sharp blue eyes and whispers close to his ear. "He's so bad at washing dishes, isn't he, Kou?"

"He sure is," Kou whispers back, and the two of them dissolve into silent giggles together at their hopeless older brother's expense.

Teru is good at many things, but household chores - not so much.

The episode begins, and Kou happily lets himself be swept away into the world of one of his favourite childhood TV shows. He and Teru were obsessed with this as kids, meaning that as soon as Tiara was old enough to comprehend what was going on on the TV, she was too. Anything her older brothers liked, so she did - she was a little copycat when she was younger, and sometimes still is now. Kou has to watch his language extremely carefully around her in case she catches onto any unpleasant curse words and thinks they're ok to say just because Kou does. He'd used to avoid swearing entirely, but being friends with three different people who sprinkle curse words into every conversation makes it hard, much to Teru's immense disapproval.

Tiara leans up against his arm, eating slower and slower as she gets into the episode and forgets that she has food in front of her. Kou hums and shifts her plate onto the coffee table so it doesn't fall, and Tiara smiles, dimples appearing in her cheeks and eyes glittering in the reflection from the TV.

After a while, the clattering and running water in the kitchen stops, and Teru sidles in, looking delighted at his younger siblings relaxing together. "Comfy?" he asks lightly, and then looks at the screen without waiting for an answer. "Oh, come on, are you watching the Shadow episodes without me?"

"Yep," both Kou and Tiara say together, and the former laughs and sticks out his tongue. "Sorry, Teru."

"You were too slow," Tiara chimes in gleefully. "If you come over here, you can watch the next episodes with us, though!"

Teru sighs exaggeratedly, but comes and flops down next to them, brushing Tiara's loose hair with his fingers. She giggles and allows him, leaning into his touch, as the episode changes and starts the brand new arc.

Kou always appreciates times like this. It's rare that all three of them are free from responsibilities at once. Of course, later tonight Teru will have to go out on patrol, and they'll all have to get up and look presentable to go to the shrine tomorrow. He'll have to persuade Tiara into a bath, and she hates getting her hair wet, leaving bathtimes often ending in screams and tears. However, all of this is for later-him to deal with. Right now, all they need to do is sit here, and Kou's never felt more relaxed in his lifetime.

It's just been a good day. There's already so little to do at this time of year, especially since he and Teru took care of the big house clean a couple days ago and Teru had volunteered to do most of the chores today. He'd even ordered them dinner so Kou didn't have to cook, so Kou had gotten his favourite meal without even having to work for it. Maybe Teru's spoiling him too much. He's going to get lazy at this point.

Tiara kicks her legs, seemingly becoming restless. "Be right back," she announces, and leaps to her feet, darting towards the stairwell and up the stairs.

"You want us to pause this for you?" Teru asks, sounding somewhat amused.

"No!" Tiara shouts down. "I seen it all before!"

The brothers exchange looks. Kou sees a smile hidden on Teru's lips behind his hand as he pulls his phone out of his pocket to check it over.

He decides to do the same thing. The three of them have been so busy all day baking and listening to the radio in the kitchen that he hasn't had much time to be scrolling through Reddit like he sometimes finds himself doing absently without really absorbing the contents of any of the posts he's reading. Really, it's an idle habit, and he'd like to snap himself out of it before he lets it become a problem. He doesn't have enough time in the day to devote to an addiction to his phone as well.

Satou, Yokoo and Nene have texted him several times today, although the former two far more often than the latter. During the holidays, Satou and Yokoo spend a lot of time on their phones texting each other and Kou as well, and it's gotten ten times more insufferable since they had come out as a couple. Now they text each other long rows of hearts in their shared group chat and refer to each other as "babe" and "hubby," which couldn't possibly be more clearly a deliberate attempt to drive Kou to the brink of insanity. He hasn't commented on it yet, so they've continued doing it, and honestly, he thinks he might break soon if he receives another text containing the phrase "I wuv you."

Notably, communications from his father have been dead silent. Kou had expected this, and yet. And yet.

"Anything from Dad?" Teru suddenly speaks, as if reading Kou's mind. He doesn't look up from his phone, nonchalantly scrolling through what looks like his email without looking over at Kou at all.

Kou swallows. "Nope."

There's a pause.

"I don't care," Kou declares. He sinks further back into his seat, blinking slowly. "He's not obligated to text or call me or anything. I know he's busy."

On screen, Sonic races through the streets of Station Square at top speeds while GUN robots fire after him. Kou watches it absently over the top of his phone, watching Satou and Yokoo's conversation ping through, the two of them complaining about something or other without any care as to whether Kou reads or replies.

Then Teru shifts closer to him, closing the gap Tiara left behind, and pulls Kou into a tight hug.

"It doesn't matter," he tells him, right up against his ear. "He should make the time. Don't make excuses for him, Kou, ok? He's the one with the problem, not you."

Kou stiffens, surprised by the contact, but it's not unwelcome. He stays there for a moment, allowing Teru to stroke his hair the way he had been doing to Tiara before, electric shocks going through his scalp with every touch. It's nice. Really nice. He and Teru don't hug very often anymore.

"You took my spot," he suddenly hears, and turns his head against Teru's shoulder to see Tiara hopping back down the stairs, a pouty little expression on her face. "And you're hugging Kou without me!"

Kou laughs, holding his hand out for her. "Come join us, then," he says, and Tiara delightedly races into his and Teru's arms with a squeal. She smells very strongly of soap. Kou gets the feeling that when he next goes upstairs to the bathroom, he'll find a sink full of bubbles and a floor covered in water.

Tiara tucks her head underneath Kou's chin, her hair tickling him lightly, and flumps against his chest with her face turned towards the TV.

"Shadow's about to appear," she tells them, urging them to pay attention. "He's gonna steal the Chaos Emerald."

"Ah, is he?" Teru hums, as if he hasn't seen this episode a thousand times. Kou snickers at how attentive he is regardless of this fact, the child in him still excited at the prospect of seeing the same scene repeated yet again.

At this moment, Kou's phone pings. He has notifications silenced for the group chat apart from direct pings, so he doesn't know who it is. He shifts Tiara aside with a muttered apology so he can reach his phone again and checks the notification, heart thumping at the possibility of it being his dad, finally remembering.

It's not him. Kou's not sure if it's better or worse.

Mitsuba (18:50): YOU

Mitsuba (18:50): I'm outside your house

Kou's whole body runs cold. Even more so when he shifts and finds that Tiara's eyes have turned from the TV to his phone screen, although whether she's reading his messages or just annoyed by the bright light next to her face, he can't tell. He turns the screen off and sits up, taking a whiny Tiara with him as he moves.

"Can I go out for a little bit, Teru?" he asks, trying to keep his voice steady. "My friend asked if I can."

Teru frowns, and even Tiara lets out a disapproving squawk. "You're gonna miss the coolest part!"

"I'm sorry," Kou says sincerely, holding her cheeks in his palms and squeezing her gently until she cracks a smile, giggling softly. "We can watch Sonic tomorrow night too, it's a few days before we're back at school, remember?"

He glances at Teru, and finds his brother sighing and pinching his chin. He meets Kou's eyes, and the two of them look at each other for a long moment, Kou pleading silently with a pouty lip as if he's Tiara's age too.

"...I suppose I can't say no to you today, can I?" Teru eventually concludes, grimacing. "Fine, fine, but you have to come back before nine pm and I will be upset if you don't keep me updated. Take your raiteijou and take that new coat of yours. If you catch a cold, we'll all get it and everybody will be miserable."

Kou grins wide - he knows Teru's helicopter parenting stems from genuine love and concern, even if he can be too much sometimes. "Thanks, Teru," he says cheerfully, leaping to his feet after Tiara sulkily climbs off his lap and rushing to the stairs. His heart is going a million miles a minute.

He's dressed like shit in a pair of pajama bottoms and that accursed Transformers t-shirt, so he rushes to get changed into something slightly nicer. He yanks on one of the shirts he bought the other day and a pair of dark jeans, swinging his jacket over his shoulders and glancing out his window to see if he can spot him. Mitsuba is nowhere to be seen, which only makes Kou more anxious as he grabs his raiteijou and darts back downstairs.

Tiara is now sitting in Teru's lap, and waves at Kou as he bounds towards the door. Teru nods in a serious manner, playing up the strict older brother act. However, as Kou yells a goodbye and grabs his shoes at the door, he hears Teru telling him to be safe right as he leaves.

Kou slips his shoes on, fumbling with the zips as he hops down the garden path to the gate, raiteijou under his arm, hoping he's not being played with.

He's not. Mitsuba is on the other side, dressed in that pink jacket and pale jeans, hair tied up in a glittery white ribbon. There's an easy grin on his face as he watches Kou stumble, breathless, still struggling with his shoe and grabbing the wall for support.

"You are seriously pathetic," is how he greets him, unimpressed, arms crossed over his chest. "Were you that excited to see me?"

Kou is so frazzled he nearly blurts out well, yes, but thankfully manages to pull himself together. "I thought you'd leave if I didn't come outside right away."

"And yet you didn't think to text me back," Mitsuba deadpans, raspberry eyes glittering. "Embarrassing."

All in all, he doesn't seem that hung up on whatever happened between them the other day. Well, saying whatever happened implies that Kou doesn't know, which he definitely does. At least, he knows what he had been trying to do. How is Mitsuba entirely unfazed by this? He had expected him to bring it up almost immediately, given how quickly and suddenly they had been forced to part last time they were together two days ago. Is Mitsuba waiting for him to bring it up first?

Should he say something, or will that only make it weirder?

"Whatever," he eventually says, straightening with a heavy sigh and taking his raiteijou in hand again. "What do you want, anyway?"

Now is the perfect time for Mitsuba to say well, I wanted to figure out what was up with you trying to kiss me the other day, actually, but he doesn't. Instead, he grins and tips his head. "Do I need a reason to be here?"

God. Kou might just die. "I guess not," he says, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly.

He's fucking this up so badly. Years of suppressing any romantic feelings for anyone has left him embarrassingly inexperienced with the concept of flirting, so he has no idea not only how to do it himself, but how to recognize it. He knows well enough that he's doing this all wrong, at least.

If he'd only liked more girls in his history than just Nene, maybe he'd know slightly more. Maybe he'd be able to figure out what's going on between him and Mitsuba. The idea of a rejection is very possible and very embarrassing, and if Mitsuba's not going to make a deal out of what happened, then neither will Kou.

"Where do you want to go?" he asks.

Mitsuba purses his lips, thinking. "Hmm..." he starts. "I don't know. I was just bored, and there's been nothing to do at the school. All I've done for the last two days is watch Youtube videos of people playing video games."

Kou cracks a grin. "Oh, yeah? Have you found a favourite yet?"

"Not yet," Mitsuba says, lips quirked. "I'm thinking about it. I've been going down a lot of rabbit holes, and I think the app is still figuring out what I want. So am I, coincidentally. There's so much to look at and see that I've never seen before."

Makes sense. Kou's shoulders rise as he shifts on the spot. "I could recommend stuff if you wanted. I mean, if you're willing to accept recommendations from a lame ass earring boy?"

Mitsuba glowers. "You know, it makes the jokes less funny when you do them."

Kou only offers a wicked grin. "Your power over me is waning."

The supernatural rolls his eyes. "Whatever. Have you eaten recently? I'm hungry."

Kou scrunches his eyebrows, and Mitsuba huffs. "As in, I want human food, not supernatural hearts."

Well, Kou has eaten recently, but just the thought of more food does sound appetizing. Teru's called him a human garbage disposal before, in a loving tone accompanied by a ruffle of his hair. He's not wrong. Kou's hungry a lot of the time himself, and can eat more than most. Of course, Mitsuba definitely surpasses him in terms of general hunger, for different reasons than just being a growing teenage boy. That makes these interactions easier, at the very least.

"Sure," he says with a grin. "We can see what there is. Sushi, or something else this time?"

Mitsuba slips his hands into his pockets, humming. "You choose," he decides. "Have you got your earbuds on you?"

Kou does, in fact, have them in his jacket pocket, fully charged in preparation for this exact occasion. "If I didn't know any better," he says, uncapping the case and handing the left earbud to Mitsuba. "I'd say you were starting to like my music taste."

"As if," Mitsuba scoffs, but he smiles as he inserts the thing into his ear and the two of them start walking together.

Kou's spent so much time with Mitsuba lately that it doesn't even feel strange that they're doing this. It's become second nature to fall into step beside him, making conversation about nothing at all and throwing insults back and forth. Maybe he should be more concerned by how easily he's let this all happen. Especially given that, even now, as Mitsuba's complaining about something or other involving the mokke following him around lately and threatening to take his third seat, Kou's smiling fondly just as the sound of his voice.

Something about Mitsuba's presence is comforting, despite how mean and catty he can be. Kou hadn't realized how much he'd truly wanted to see him today, how this is sealing the deal on an already fairly perfect day.

"- And then I think they gave up on it," Mitsuba is saying. "They'll try it again, I'm certain of it, but I think I've scared them off for now. Hey, are you even listening? Hello, Earth to Kou?"

"What?" Kou says, startling back to attention. "Sorry, I was thinking."

"That's rare," Mitsuba is quick to snipe back, smirking. "What about? What's distracting you from the cutest person on the planet talking to you right now?"

A difficult question to answer, when the thing distracting him is Mitsuba himself. "Uh..."

Mitsuba knocks into his side, nearly throwing off his balance. "Come on, share with the class," he says. "I didn't come all the way out to your house to make conversation with myself."

Kou sticks out his tongue, mind racing. The only way he can think to get out of this without lying, which he is notoriously bad at, is to sprinkle in some truths to his words. There is one thing that's been on his mind all day, despite how good everything else has been.

"My dad was supposed to call me," he says, making an attempt at a nonchalant shrug. "Which he hasn't done. I was just thinking about it. When you texted me, I thought it was going to be him."

Mitsuba frowns, eyebrows knit together. "Oh," he utters. "Well, that's shit. He was supposed to call for New Years, I take it?"

"...Yeah," Kou says, after a heavy pause. "That's it, yeah. It's whatever, we don't need to talk about that. Hey, you never told me what you got from those blind boxes I got you."

Mitsuba instantly brightens again, clearly grateful for a change of subject. "Right! If we were in my boundary, I'd show you, but I got a Cinnamaroll and a Badtz-Maru. I didn't even realize there was a penguin character, by the way, so that was exciting for me. He's kind of cute, but I wish he was pink or something."

"Of course you do," Kou replies fondly. He'd forgotten entirely that there was a penguin. "They were little figurines, right?"

"Yep," Mitsuba says cheerfully. "I should have brought them with me. Oh, you know what I do have, though?"

He slows his pace and lifts the bottom of his jacket to show the tiny Melody keychain attached to his belt loops.

"You weren't joking?" Kou laughs. Something about its presence there is very funny. "That's amazing. Is that a new permanent accessory for you, like the ribbon?"

"Maybe," Mitsuba says with a shrug. "Depends on the outfit. You look better than usual, by the way. If you took out that fuckass earring, you might even stop being entirely ugly."

Despite the insult topping it off, the buried compliment makes Kou flush. "Thanks," he says with a grin, "but that's not happening. Nice try, though."

"One day," Mitsuba vows, waving a finger in Kou's face. "I'm gonna destroy that thing."

"Don't forget about this," Kou says, and waves his raiteijou around. Mitsuba shrieks and kicks his ankle hard enough that it's certainly going to bruise.

"Bastard," the supernatural spits. "We've been through this, you like me too much to exorcize me!"

"I don't like you too much not to zap you," Kou grins. Nevertheless, he moves the thing away. "Don't you think you've escaped that. I'd do it."

Mitsuba opens his mouth, clearly about to retort again, but then he gasps. "A cat!"

There is indeed a cat, waltzing lazily along the top of a brick wall lining one of the residential buildings. It's soft and black, a pine collar fastened around its neck. Mitsuba clicks his tongue and raises his hand to coax it down, which seems to work almost immediately, as the cat leaps off the wall and onto the sidewalk, rolling over onto its belly as Mitsuba shrieks in delight.

"She wants belly rubs," he coos, obliging in the cats wishes and petting it gently. Kou watches, entranced, as the cat purrs, letting out soft little mrrps? whenever Mitsuba pauses his motions. His eyes are huge and sparkling. "Aw, Kou, look at her, isn't she a sweetheart?"

"She's so cute," Kou says softly, afraid to speak up in case he scares it off. He doesn't know whether he can come closer, either, so he stands behind Mitsuba with his hands in his pockets, watching it stand back up and rub its face along Mitsuba's hands before flopping down again.

Silently, he feels for his phone and makes the split second decision to snap a picture, just because. Mitsuba doesn't notice, too busy murmuring praises to the cat under his breath, so Kou gets the chance to look it over. In the picture, Mitsuba is actually visible, which he hadn't fully expected, although he has a hot white glow outlining him weirdly. Despite this, his squint and enormous grin are fully in frame. The cat is sprawled out at his feet, clearly enjoying itself, and it's a really good picture. A really, really good picture. Kou should set this as the contact photo for Mitsuba in his contacts.

"We're gonna be here forever just petting this cat," Kou says, amused, as Mitsuba continues scratching its ears sweetly. "Come on, don't you want food?"

Mitsuba pouts, clearly not enjoying the prospect of having to leave the cat behind. "What are we going for, anyway?" he asks, taking the cat's head in both hands and petting its cheeks while it purrs joyfully. "You didn't say."

"Yeah, because I don't actually know myself," Kou admits. "I don't remember what's open during this time, practically everything is still closed on the second of January. I'm sure we'll find something if we just walk around, though. Sorry, kitty, we have to go now, are you gonna let Mitsuba leave?"

The cat mewls, and Mitsuba giggles. "She says no," he tells Kou mischievously. "She says I have to stay here forever."

"Is that so," Kou says, quirking his eyebrows. "How do you know its a girl, anyway?"

"No balls, for one," Mitsuba says in a serious tone. "Anyway, all animals are girls to me unless I'm told otherwise."

"Fair enough," Kou says. He knocks his raiteijou off of Mitsuba's head, the jingling sound making the cat perk up with huge black pupils. "Get up, let's go. We can't be here all night."

Eventually, Mitsuba does push himself to his feet, albeit extremely reluctantly. "Fine, ok," he whines. "Goodbye, kitty, bye-bye, bye-bye!"

The cat watches them go from underneath a streetlight, licking its paws absently as they walk away.

Once they're a sufficient distance away, Kou shoots Mitsuba an incredulous look.

"You and that baby voice when you talk to a cat is absolutely something else," he says, shaking his head. "Where did you even learn that?"

Mitsuba scowls. "I didn't learn it, I'm just being sweet to the cat!" he snaps. "You could learn something or two from me about being sweet!"

"I could learn something about being sour and bitter, for sure," Kou mutters, and dodges Mitsuba's punch, snickering. "I wish we had more bunnies around here. You've never actually seen a bunny before, have you?"

"No," Mitsuba sighs longingly, fiddling with the ends of his scarf. "Just the mokke. Do you know anyone who has one? I would do anything to see one in real life."

"No, I don't," Kou denies mournfully. "Nene has a hamster."

Mitsuba shoots him a look. "That's not even close to being the same thing."

Kou shrugs. "They're both cute little creatures, aren't they?"

"I suppose..."

They continue on, leaving the neighbourhood and heading out into the busier, more public areas of town. Kou doesn't bother with his over-ear headphones - it's too late at night for anyone to notice or care what he's doing. He also decides against showing Mitsuba the photo he took, at least for now. It's slightly embarrassing, and he wants to keep it for himself.

The two of them find the local sushi place is closed, alongside the Chinese place they often order dinner from, the three noodle shops he frequents the most, and the hot pot place next to the post office.

"Wow," Mitsuba hums. "It really is dead, isn't it?"

It sure is. Mitsuba doesn't seem that sad about it, though, even though he'd wanted food in the first place. In fact, if Kou didn't know any better, he'd say he was smiling. It's difficult to tell underneath his scarf, which is coincidentally hiding his mouth from view.

"Yeah," Kou says, somewhat apologetically despite this. He can't even suggest the place he and his siblings ordered from tonight - it's over half an hour away on foot. "Options might be more limited than I thought."

"Eh, that's fine," Mitsuba shrugs. His eyes glow faintly in the moonlight. "I don't actually need to eat, you know? It's not a disappointment if you can't find anywhere to go, unless you're actually hungry."

"I'm not really," Kou admits. He makes a face, tapping his chin thoughtfully. "McDonald's might be open..."

"For fuck's sake," Mitsuba says in a faux exasperated tone, a laugh lighting up his voice. "I don't need to eat. I was just bored."

Kou turns to face him and grins, slowing as they approach a crossing. "Ah, so you needed an excuse to get me to go out with you, huh?"

"As if," Mitsuba shoots back quickly, but the way he turns his face away makes Kou think it might be because he'd just hit the nail on the head.

Once they've crossed the street, Kou finds himself rather lost on where to go. They've kind of just been walking around aimlessly for a while with the excuse of looking for open food places, but now that that is out the window, he's not really sure what to do. Maybe he should take Mitsuba back to the school? Is he missing something here that he should be doing instead?

Hanako had once very seriously asked him if he wanted any advice for picking up girls, which Kou had respectfully declined, and now he's kind of wishing he had heard him out. He might have had at least something useful to say.

Is this flirting? Did Mitsuba want him to say something? Kou has such a tendency to overthink. He probably thinks it's really weird that Kou's not saying anything right now. He should probably try and -

"It's really nice out."

Kou blinks and turns to look at Mitsuba. He's slowed his pace to a stop, face craned upwards to stare at the sky. They reflect off of his eyes, the streetlamps illuminating the grin on his face. He looks peaceful. Relaxed, completely at ease.

Kou isn't sure exactly when their relationship changed from strangers to reluctant allies to whatever this is. When Mitsuba had stopped flinching at the sight of Kou's raiteijou, and became comfortable enough in his presence to completely disarm himself without a care as to what Kou could do to him. It's a difficult timeline to follow. At least Kou himself can say, with absolute certainty, that he was screwed from the very beginning, from the moment he saw Mitsuba shaking and soaked in gore, hunched over in the Hell of Mirrors and pleading for someone to save him.

Suddenly, those sharp raspberry eyes are on him, curious and bright. "Don't you think so?" Mitsuba says through curved lips. "The sky is so pretty, but especially when the stars are out. I spend a lot of time out in the schoolyard at nighttime, watching them. It's an ok view, but it feels so much nicer out here when I'm not cooped up in there."

Oh.

Kou finds his mouth dry when he tries to speak. "Uh... Yeah. I mean, yeah. I guess it is pretty."

Mitsuba tilts his head, gaze practically bearing through him.

"Humans must take a lot of little things like that for granted," he comments. His hands slip into his pockets as he starts walking again. "I don't know how else you can be so casual about something like that."

Kou swallows and falls into step beside him. "You're probably right. I've seen the sky basically every day since I was a baby, but everything is more new to you. It makes sense that you'd find it more interesting than I do."

Mitsuba meets his eyes for a moment, something flickering across his face that Kou can't decipher, but gives him the distinct stomach-churning feeling that he's failed a test of some kind.

"Hm," is all Mitsuba says to that, before he glances back up. "Tsukasa says that the stars form patterns in the sky called constellations that humans gave names to based of off animals or figures from myth. He taught me a whole bunch of them, but I'll be honest, the way he explains things is always stupidly complicated and I didn't take a lot of it in. Do you know any of them by name at all?"

Suddenly, Kou wishes he did, if only so he knew more than Tsukasa. "Sorry," he says, grimacing. "I'll read up on it so we can figure it out sometime. There are probably some awesome stargazing spots within the boundary on the map we have to stay in that I could find."

What are you doing, stargazing is possibly the most romantic activity you could have suggested, he finds himself screaming internally at himself, but then Mitsuba smiles and says, "Sound fun," and Kou's heart starts beating on two times speed.

He should just say something. He can't keep going through this cycle of pretending nothing happened, the same way he had the first time when Mitsuba had kissed him and he hadn't called him out on it until it was too late for it not to have come out during an argument that Kou still regrets having happened to this day.

"Hey," he says, heart pounding, looking anywhere but at Mitsuba. "So, the other day, when we -"

The sound of the ending credits song from Transformers 2 suddenly begins to play from Kou's pocket.

God, you can't be serious.

"Someone's calling you," Mitsuba says, unhelpfully.

"Gee, are they?" Kou snaps back in a sarcastic tone as he wrenches his phone out of his pocket. Mitsuba sticks his tongue out at him, and Kou mimics the gesture before looking at the caller ID, fully expecting to see Teru's name and the picture of him posing on the beach in a Hawaiian shirt and pink sunglasses that he has set as his contact photo.

His heart stops when he sees his father's name and the blank picture that accompanies it.

Mitsuba is clearly looking over his shoulder, because Kou hears his breath hitch. "Uh," he says, voice pitched, "you want me to -"

"Yes, please," Kou says quickly, and Mitsuba nods before scurrying off around the corner, giving Kou some privacy to walk down the street towards the dog park as he clicks to answer the call on the last ring.

For a moment, the call is silent. Kou is suddenly terrified that he answered too late and his father is already gone, giving up on Kou's response.

Then he hears the sound of rumbling, faint music playing from somewhere on the other end, and a hearty laugh fills his ears.

"Kou!" comes his father's booming voice, causing Kou to cringe at the volume of it in his earbud. "Happy birthday, son!"

For a moment, Kou is silent, too overwhelmed to say anything. Then, he manages to eke out a quiet "Thanks, Dad."

If his father notices anything off about his tone, he doesn't say anything. "I'm so sorry I called so late," he says, and sounds genuinely apologetic, too. "I meant to call last night when you would have just woken up, but I had to sleep early so I could get up early today. It's nearly seven am right now, I'm on the road with the squad to a business meeting! Say hi, boys!"

Kou's phone is suddenly filled with deep cries of hey, kid and a few of happy birthday! in unfamiliar voices speaking broken Japanese that he doesn't really know if he's expected to respond to.

He swallows, throat dry, and tugs his coat tighter around himself. The relief at his father's words is palpable. He simply hadn't called because of timezones. It all makes perfect sense, so much so that his stomach is doing flips from how quickly he'd gone from pure anxiety to relaxation.

"I understand," he says breathlessly, once his father's back on the phone. "It's - it's ok, Dad, I know you would have called earlier if you could."

Nevermind that he didn't call at all last year, or that he'd had a perfect excuse that made sense then, too. If Kou thinks too hard about that, he might just throw up.

"How has your day been?" his father asks him. "Make yourself a cake or something, eh?"

Kou bites the inside of his cheek. "It's been ok," he says. "And no, Teru got one from the bakery. We all shared it. It was really good, it had, uh, strawberries on it."

"Of course he went to the bakery," his father laughs down the line. "Always been hopeless in the kitchen, hasn't he? May the Gods bless him with a skilled wife in the future. Speaking of, there haven't been any developments on that front since I was there last, has there? He won't tell me any time I call, always insisting that he's still looking and changing the topic. I wouldn't be shocked if there was a secret girl that he doesn't think I'd approve of, that naughty boy."

It's just like his father to make a conversation about Kou into one about Teru in barely a few sentences. "I don't think so, Dad," he replies, kicking a pebble on the ground into the road. Teru's love life is an enigma to Kou. He's always been jealous of how easily people are attracted to him, and confused by how little Teru seems to care. He's rejected more girls than Kou thinks have even looked in his direction in his entire lifetime. "I'm sure he would tell you if there was someone he was interested in."

Now that's a blatant lie. Teru would rather get up on stage at one of their school assemblies and announce his feelings for someone there than tell their father. Teru would probably rather do that same thing than tell Kou, either. Kou can't really blame him. Neither of them have ever once discussed their love lives with each other - Kou for obvious reasons, and Teru because there has never been any love to speak of - and starting now would be the most agonizingly awkward thing on the planet.

Yeah, if Teru was into someone, Kou would probably find out on their wedding day.

Although - this does make him wonder about all those outings to "Aoi's house" that he's clearly been lying about. He couldn't possibly be going on dates with someone, could he?

If so, he'd have to laugh about how the tables have turned. He's half tempted to wait until the next time Teru comes back from one of these trips and ask him how his date was, just to see how he likes it.

He's snapped back to the present by his father's loud laugh. "As if! That boy never tells me a thing. Do you know, when I spoke to him on Tiara's birthday, he was rambling on about wanting to go to s- college - in the - ridiculous, he should - job in the exorcism business like me, you know?"

"What?" Kou says. He frowns at his phone, seeing his own connection is fine. "Dad, I think you're breaking up a bit, I couldn't hear you."

He hears his father sigh deeply. "Ah, it's fine, just an old man's ramblings," he tells him, the line evening out again. There's a tiredness present in his voice, bleeding through the cracks. "How is my little princess? Did she enjoy her castle?"

Kou forces a chuckle, Teru's anger at the gift returning to his memory. "Yeah, she liked it. Teru set it up in her room, she plays in it every day. It's her favourite thing. She loves the little omamori you sent her, too, she's taken to wearing it as a necklace like me and Teru used to do."

"Isn't that sweet," his father hums. The line crackles again, his words briefly becoming unintelligible. "I worry about - powers at a young - needs to be taken care of, you know."

Kou's moderately worried that his father is going to become annoyed if he mentions the line breaking up again, so he doesn't. "We look after her really well," he says, plastering a smile on his face and hoping it comes through. "There's no need to worry. We've been doing just fine."

There's a small pause. "That's good," his father says, softly. "That's really good."

Kou shivers, cold wind tickling his neck, and he's just wondering if his father already has nothing more to say to him before he speaks up again.

"So," he says. "How have you been lately, my boy?"

It's such a loaded question that for a moment, Kou is floored, unable to answer for the life of him. How has he been? Since he last spoke to his father, he became friends with the School Mystery that his grandmother had put so much effort into sealing away. He met a girl who he was briefly head over heels for before a boy came into his life, a supernatural, who Kou was infatuated with before he could even draw a breath. He fought another School Mystery, the Grim Reaper himself, and held his own without any formal training. He had his first serious fight with Teru since they were little kids and the most they had to worry about was who got what seat at the dining room table. He was injured by another supernatural two months ago and it hasn't healed. He exorcized his first supernatural in order to feed its heart to the guy he likes. He came out as bisexual to two of his closest friends.

There is not a single one of these things that he can tell his father, and it only makes the thousands of miles between them feel infinitely farther. Not that it makes a difference. Even when Kou was a kid and his father was standing right beside him, it always felt like they were worlds apart.

A painful pang of grief goes through his chest, and suddenly, his throat is very tight.

"I've been -" he starts, and swallows, blinking quickly. "I've been ok."

"Fantastic news," his father booms, a smile in his voice. "Found a girlfriend yet? I was always sure Teru would be first, but maybe you'll surprise me, eh?"

Kou feels sick. "No, Dad," he says softly. "Not quite yet."

"Ah, oh well," his father hums. "That's alright, you're still young, aren't you? Fifteen years old now, my wonderful son. I know you'll find the perfect woman for you one day. Although - if you continue the track you're on, you might end up being the one who stays home to cook and clean while she brings all the money in, ah-ha-ha!"

He can hear his father's coworkers laughing in the background, too, and he gets the sudden fear that his father has him on speaker. He doesn't think he does, there would probably be an echo, but the line quality might just be so bad he can't hear it. Kou hopes they're just laughing at his father's responses. Nausea rolls in his stomach.

"Haha, yeah," he laughs weakly, throat burning. "I - I guess we'll see what happens, huh?"

His father hums in agreement, staticky. "Of course, of course. You're a good kid, Kou. Don't you worry your cute little head about it. You know your brother will take care of it, don't you? As much as I'd love grandchildren from all of you, your brother will take care of it if you can't."

Those words dig into Kou's brain and stick there. The air around is suddenly so cold that he's shaking.

"Yeah," he whispers. "Teru will take care of it."

He swallows, again, a lump in his throat, trying to keep his voice steady. "Sorry," he manages to get out. "I want to make you proud too."

"Ah, what was that?" his father replies in a confused tone, sounding very far away. "Navid is driving us through a tunnel, signal might be a little off. We're heading out to Washington today, looking at establishing an official connection with - private security, you know, for - government in the - exorcism in this state, but I think we can bring it back."

Hopelessness wells up in Kou's chest. "Y-you're still breaking up," he sniffles, barely able to hide the upset in his voice, but it doesn't matter if his father can't hear him anyway, does it? "Are you still there, Dad?"

"Still here, but likely not for long," he hears him say down the line. "Really sorry, Kou, I'm gonna do my best to call you again another day when I have more time and better signal, ok? You're a good kid, and I know you're doing your best. Not everybody is perfect, you know? But you're smart, and you're good at what you do, and I appreciate you holding the family together while I'm not there. You're a good kid. Keep your studies up, and find yourself a good woman to be your wife one day. That's all I ask of you."

There is a long pause, in which his father gets even further away in every sense of the word, and there is nothing left for Kou to even say.

"Ok," he whispers. "I love you, Dad."

"What was that? Sorry, signal break - Tom, roll the window down, will you? Ah, Kou, am I lucky that most of these bastards here speak some Japanese, English feels like a brick on my tongue sometimes. Happy birthday again, ok, kiddo? Your present from me - mail - on - soon, yeah? It's nothing too - real sorry, I tried - not as easy to buy for as Tiara, haha! I'll see you - whenever - home. Might be a few - don't know for sure, this business - exorcize the hell out of - Look after Teru, ok? He's - good kid, real good - love -"

Suddenly, the line goes dead.

"Dad?" Kou manages, even though he heard the call cut off and knows he can no longer possibly hear him. "Hey, Dad?"

Everything is silent, perfectly silent, for a long moment.

"It's your birthday?"

Kou spin around and comes face to face with Mitsuba.

He looks surprised, even more so at the tears pouring down Kou's face. Standing like this, he looks even smaller than usual, fists clenched in his sleeves, eyes fixed on Kou.

Kou buries his face in his sleeve, far too late, teeth gritted. "What, you were fucking eavesdropping?" he spits, angry at no one in particular. "What the h-hell, Mitsuba? I asked if you would give me some privacy, so what -"

He glances up over his arm, and sees Mitsuba holding out the left earbud in his palm.

"The call started coming through on your headphones," the supernatural says awkwardly. "I took it out as soon as I realized, but I heard him say - I heard him wish you a happy birthday, so, I just, uh -"

He doesn't say anything further. Kou squeezes his eyes shut and scrubs the tears off his face, stupidly upset, wishing he were anywhere but here.

"I know you're upset right now," Mitsuba continues after a moment. "And you're, uh, crying and stuff -"

"I'm not crying, a fly flew into my eyes -"

"-But I just want to know why the hell you didn't tell me," Mitsuba finishes. At the very least, he doesn't sound angry, just baffled at the situation. "And don't you dare say it's because of that time last year with my birthday, or - or the original me's birthday, or whatever, because that was different and you know it!"

Kou sniffles and finally manages to look up. Mitsuba's expression is flat, but his eyes are swimming with concern.

He might as well get this over with now, then.

"It was - only kind of related to that," Kou says, and rushes to finish before Mitsuba says anything. "When it was Sousuke's birthday last year, you were really upset because you were supposed to be aging and you weren't. You knew you were never going to get any older, and it wasn't fun, realizing that you weren't going to get to live the future you fantasized about when you watched the other students at school talk about it, or the future even Sousuke might have wanted to live. You were angry, because I'm alive and you - aren't - really. You were angry at me for getting the chance to be human, and now I'm fifteen years old, and you haven't aged, and I didn't - I didn't want to upset you like that again. Ever again. You were so sad, and I didn't want to make that worse, or remind you that you weren't... human."

The two of them stare at each other for a long, heavy moment, breathing silently.

Then Mitsuba punches Kou in the stomach.

"Ow!" Kou yowls, clutching his stomach and reeling backwards in case he tries it again. He holds up a hand to prevent this. "Mitsuba, what the fuck, that hurt, what's your problem?"

"You're such an idiot, Kou Minamoto!" Mitsuba yells. There's a fierce, angry expression on his face, eyes alight with the force of it. "It's your birthday, and you were going to just lie about it? What were you gonna do if I ever asked? Tell me you were still fourteen? You idiot! You absolute jackass! What the hell is with you, you're always doing so much bullshit to please other people, it's like you don't even care about yourself at all!"

"It's - it's not that serious," Kou stammers, which is clearly the wrong choice of words, because Mitsuba's eyes practically bulge out of his face at that.

"Yes it is!" he screeches. "Why the hell would you lie about that, just to try and make me happy? You don't think it's more upsetting that you wouldn't tell me something that important? I know humans care a lot about birthdays! I know it means a lot!"

"I've never cared that much about mine," Kou says. He sighs shakily, scrubbing at his face, a few stray tears still falling. "It's the day after New Year's and nobody remembers, and nobody is ever free from family responsibilities to do anything, and no stores are open anyway, and no one gets me gifts beside Teru and my dad because Christmas and New Year's just happened and no one has the money or they say whatever gift they got me before counts as a birthday gift too. My birthday doesn't matter, I've been told this before and it's true. I don't tell anyone about it. It's not like I was specifically only avoiding telling you."

Mitsuba listens to him say all of this, blinking slowly and not saying a word. Kou is out of breath by the time he's done, and he's freshly upset himself again because he's remembering his father saying a birthday is such a hassle to deal with during hatsumode, do we really really need a cake and everything? to his mother when he thought Kou couldn't hear. It angers him, too, the idea that his father's call that he'd been desperately awaiting all day had finally come and all it had done was make him cry. He's sick of tears. He misses his father and at the same time hates him so badly it physically aches.

Even the day he was born wasn't good enough for his father. Nothing ever will be. Find yourself a woman to be your wife one day. That's all I ask of you.

All he wants from Kou is one thing that he likely will never do. Nene is an outlier in his bare romantic history. There's no guarantee he'll ever repeat that again. And yet, all his father wants from him is a wife and kids and grandkids and for him to carry on the Minamoto line.

He hadn't realized how wound up he's gotten. Kou needs to calm down. So he takes a deep breath, forcing back the tears and biting back more blurted words, and brings a faux smile to his face.

"It's ok," he says, in a wobbly, cheerful tone. "It's ok. It's fine. Do you want me to find a food place, or do you want me to walk you back to the school?"

He prays that Mitsuba will ignore everything else and let him change the subject. Of course, Mitsuba never does anything that Kou wants him to do.

"You're still crying," he points out.

His tone is softer than it was before. Kou hates it. Kou hates it more than anything. Mitsuba is so brash and snarky and unfiltered, and seeing him shifting uncomfortably and speaking nicely because he's afraid to do any kind of serious damage to Kou when he's vulnerable is infuriating, because really, nothing is wrong. Nothing should be wrong.

Kou has had one of the best birthdays in years today, and everything had been ruined by his father and his sharp words with faraway promises stitched into them, no room for argument with his impossible demands, no room to step around the eggshells to acknowledge the elephant in the room.

"Who cares?" Kou snaps through a sob. "It's fine. It's all fine."

Mitsuba takes a slow step closer, until he's right in front of Kou. His eyes shine deliberately under the moonlight.

"It's your father's fault, isn't it?" he utters. "He's really that bad?"

Kou blinks rapidly, stifling another sob. "It's not his fault," he tries faintly, unable to muster the strength required to make this believable. "He's just saying the truth. I can't blame him. I'm the one with the problem."

Mitsuba stares at him, a calculating expression on his face.

"I could kill him for you," he offers, as nonchalantly as one would offer an umbrella in the rain.

Kou lets out a sharp, wet laugh. Mitsuba does not.

Neither of them moves for a moment, both reading into the other's reactions.

"You're - you're not serious," Kou falters. His hands are shaking so badly. "That's not funny, Mitsuba, take that back."

"I am serious," Mitsuba says lightly. His eyes pierce through Kou's, the faint glow prominent in the dark. "I would do it for you if you asked. He sounds like a real worthless piece of shit anyway, so I can't say I'd feel any guilt over it."

Heart hammering, Kou shakes his head quickly. "N-no, Mitsuba, you - you can't say things like that. You couldn't even - do something like that anyway. He's not even in the country. Mitsuba, you can't seriously - be - be offering to do things like that. He's way more powerful than you anyway, he'd exorcize you in a heartbeat. Don't say things like that, Mitsuba, don't - don't tell me. Y-you can't. You can't just offer to t-take someone's life."

Despite the horrible topic of conversation, Mitsuba's lips curl upwards at the corners, no amusement on his face. "I killed and ate three people when I came back from the Severance," he says, matter-of-factly. "I'm already a murderer and a cannibal without even wanting to be. Those people almost certainly didn't deserve what I did to them. What would a little more bloodshed be if it was a guaranteed asshole on the other end of it?"

Kou lets out a stuttering breath, blood thumping in his ears. "No, Mitsuba, you can't. I make him sound worse than he is, anyway, you wouldn't need to resort to - to something like - just leave it, ok, I don't need you to -"

"Alright," Mitsuba says softly. "Alright. It was only a suggestion, anyway."

Kou sniffles and wipes his face. "It was a terrible suggestion!"

"Was not," Mitsuba argues, but a smile slips onto his face. "You are such an ugly crier, do you know that?"

He reaches out and scrubs the underside of Kou's eyes with his sleeves. It stings slightly, but he's not rough enough that Kou feels like he has to say anything. He just stares blankly, shivering, while Mitsuba cleans him up. Tears still leaking from his eyes against his will.

"Sorry," Kou croaks. "We were having a good time."

Mitsuba hums. "It's not like it's your fault."

He says this so lightly and innocently, but a frown still forms on Kou's face. "Were you actually being completely serious?" he whispers, terrified to hear the answer. "You would kill someone for me?"

He watches as Mitsuba recoils slightly in surprise. "Yeah," he says, after a moment. "I already told you why. Don't look so shocked, did you really think I was just bluffing?"

For some reason, Mitsuba's serious answer makes fresh tears well up in Kou's eyes. "Don't offer to do things like that again," he demands, a sob hitching from his throat. "I don't ever want you to do anything like that for me."

"Ok," Mitsuba says simply. "I won't."

For a moment, the only sound is Kou's quiet crying, ringing through the dark, empty streets.

"But seriously," Mitsuba continues, and Kou winces in preparation for him to say something else on the topic. Fortunately, he doesn't. "You still have the Transformers end credit song as your ringtone?"

The sudden change in conversation makes a damp laugh explode from Kou's chest.

"I changed it when I first got this phone, literally three years ago now," he admits, wiping his eyes. "I've just never been bothered to change it again. No one ever calls me except Teru, you know? I never thought about it!"

Mitsuba cackles, and Kou shoots him a sharp look. "I'm telling you," he says, "when you actually watch the movies with me, from the start, you will understand."

"Absolutely the hell not," Mitsuba disagrees, but there is a smile on his face.

Mitsuba walks him home. It's such a core part of their routine at this point that Kou has basically nothing to say about it, and neither of them actually acknowledges what they're doing. Kou knows better than to point out Mitsuba's niceties - if he does, he'll stop whatever he's doing immediately and probably punch Kou in the arm for his troubles.

They don't end up getting food, either. Anything in a nearby radius is well and truly closed, just as Kou expected. Instead, Kou puts his music back on and lets Mitsuba try and fail to convince him to start listening to BTS, which makes for an interesting change of topic after everything else they've just discussed. Either way, it's funny to hear Mitsuba speak so passionately about something. It almost reminds him of Sousuke, in a distant manner, which makes Kou's chest hurt in a way that's difficult to explain.

Mitsuba doesn't take him all the way to his house. The chances of Teru looking out the window in wait for Kou are high, and neither of them wants to risk that. Instead, Mitsuba leaves him a couple streets away, like he usually does. It feels different this time, though. Maybe because they'd nearly kissed when they last were alone together, or maybe because Mitsuba had just seriously offered to kill someone for Kou, just to make him feel better. He's not sure. Any of these things could be it.

The idea that Mitsuba would offer to do something like that is insane. What's even more insane is the fact that Mitsuba could do it if he wanted.

Probably not specifically his father, though. He's an exorcist ten times more powerful than Teru, and could probably annihilate even a Mystery if they were outside of the school in a heartbeat. Besides, Kou doesn't want his father to die. While his father may be upsetting and unpleasant to be around, Kou would never wish for something like that.

"I'll leave you here," Mitsuba says. He smiles, handing Kou his earbud back. "Think about what I said. If you like this shit, you'll like BTS. You've just got to hear me out on this."

Kou quirks his eyebrow. "Sure, sure. You're so full of shit, Mitsuba."

"Am not," Mitsuba fires back. "You're just closed minded."

Then he steps away, clearly preparing to leave. "See you whenever you're back at school," he says. "Happy birthday, Kou."

Kou - is about to say something, he doesn't know what, but something, when a sudden gust of wind makes him wince, throwing his hands up in front of his face. When he manages to crack his eyes open again, the surrounding area is empty. Mitsuba is gone, vanished in an instant.

...Typical. He can't teleport far outside of the school. He's probably watching Kou somewhere nearby, giggling his ass off.

"Bastard," Kou says aloud, just in case. "Goodbye, you jackass."

The wind only whistles cheerfully in response.