Chapter Text
“Wow! Thank you!” a deep bow from across the table he sat at, and Choromatsu gave a small blush. He could spot a NEET fan from a mile away—There was something particularly special when they came to visit during the conventions.
Choromatsu’s smile slowly fell as he looked over to his right to see Hiromi, who smiled, posed for another photo, but soon after again rubbed her head, as she had many times throughout the day.
“Are you doing okay?” he whispered, and she only nodded and motioned for the next fan to come up to the table.
For only being on their second manga, the line was impressive—Made up of people from about their age, to a bit younger, The ones in front of them now were a pair of girls, probably high schoolers, dressed as two of the main characters from their first volume.
“So you both really are married!” gasped one of the girls, as she clutched onto the hand of the other girl even tighter and looked down at Choromatsu and Hiromi’s matching rings--A pair of plain silver bands, plain just like the couple liked.
“Yeah, just a few months now!” Choromatsu piped up.
“See!? I told you!” squealed the excited girl in the light blue wig. “She doesn’t think we can be married and be creators at the same time!”
“It’ll just disrupt our creative flow…” mumbled the one in the orange wig with a scoff, pushing away her girlfriend's thumb that was pointing towards her.
“It actually made us work better, I think! But it might work different for everyone,” said Choromatsu with a light laugh.
“Can we get a photo with you both? Please? We’ll put it up in our workspace for inspiration!” exclaimed the excited girl, and Choromatsu nodded, and started to rise from his seat.
Hiromi wordlessly stood up from her place at the table, and the two started to pose for a selfie with the two girls—But instead the girl in the light blue wig was only treated to a series of photos that chronicled Hiromi’s eyes rolling in the back of her head and then her collapsing onto the floor.
“Mimi!?” Choromatsu spun to her as he heard the thud upon the floor, and he immediately began to shout in the middle of the convention for help for his wife.
Choromatsu paced back and forth in the hospital waiting room while his in-laws were seated in a corner of it, all waiting for any news about Hiromi.
“S-She’s had exhaustion like this before. I’ve tried to help her with her pacing, but sometimes she gets up in the middle of the night to work when I’m not looking… I should have kept a closer eye on her…” Choromatsu said with a bow of the head to her parents, shuddering as he felt the vibration of his phone going off once more.
Having ten sisters-in-law to keep updated was its own difficulty, the fact that video of her passing out at the convention had made it to the Internet and was circulating was its own special brand of hell.
He’d managed to make a small statement on their official web page, but it still wasn’t enough for some fans, who were demanding updates via Twitter.
Thoroughly over the Internet for the day, he shoved his phone back in his pocket and resumed his pacing. He hadn’t felt this useless since the height of his own NEET years.
He practically bolted over to the doctor when he walked out of the emergency room, a chart under one of his arms.
The doctor glanced up from above his glasses, and Choromatsu must have looked a complete wreck, because the doctor immediately held out a hand to calm him, “She’s all right. Why don’t we go talk in the back together?”
Choromatsu raised an eyebrow in confusion, and he barely registered the trip from the waiting room to the hospital bed Hiromi was laying in, and he hurried over to Hiromi the moment he saw her hooked up to the IV and dressed in the classic hospital gown. She didn’t say anything to him, only leaned against him as he wrapped an arm protectively around her.
“What happened?” he asked as he finally broke away from her, and the doctor gave a clearing of the throat, and pushed a chair over towards Choromatsu.
Hesitantly he took a seat in it, all while still holding onto one of Hiromi’s hands, as if when he let go, she would vanish.
“Were… You two planning on children?” the doctor asked as he eyed the two, and Hiromi went pale. Choromatsu gave a small, shy laugh.
“We figured we wouldn’t mind one if it happened!” Choromatsu chirped.
“Well, it happened,” replied the doctor, and Choromatsu’s slightly embarrassed smile immediately fell, replaced by a small twitch.
“W-What?” Choromatsu looked in-between Hiromi and the doctor, and then back to Hiromi. “How’d that happen?!”
Hiromi groaned and rubbed her forehead, and the doctor cleared his throat, “My next question was if multiples ran in either of your families.”
Baby A. Baby B. Baby C. All highlighted on the sonogram for them both to see.
From a family of two to five, in an instant.
It was half as many children as his parents had dealt with, but Choromatsu still felt as though he’d been punched and the wind had been knocked out of him when he was told.
Two months along. And when he thought about it, the signs had been there. Hiromi had been more tired, vomiting—But with their work schedule he’d just took this as her being more tired and working herself to the bone than anything. It also lined up to about the time they’d been upgraded to the fanciest hotel room Choromatsu had ever seen, and they agreed to not let it go to waste…
There was some weight gain, but he wasn’t enough of a fool to mention it…. Well, maybe there had been one mention of it, but the way she clutched her inking pen when she started to say something told him to stop while he was ahead.
“It would’ve taken five minutes for the old man to show us how protection works…” he grumbled from his spot at the oden cart, and Chibita tilted his head wordlessly. Hiromi had sent Choromatsu out not long after she was discharged, muttering something about being tired and needing some rest.
“Everything okay?” Chibita ventured to ask, knowing this was a loaded question whenever it came to one of his in-laws.
“Just realizing how small those apartments are…”
“Dammit, I know! I was telling Karamatsu that the other damn day! I’m thinking about taking your idjit older brother’s advice and looking at those houses not far from here! We’re running out of room for his damn clothes and alcohol!”
Right. Osomatsu had mentioned now and again that there was a new block of houses being built nearby. Choromatsu had been the only holdout, foolishly believing he didn’t need the space.
With a hyena-like cackle he knew that Chibita had spoken, and the devil had made himself known at the bench amongst the other brothers. And, true to form, he was wearing red.
“I knew everyone would come around! And hey, this is great; you’re one of the club now!” Osomatsu wrapped an arm around Choromatsu’s shoulders, and Choromatsu’s entire body slumped in return. “And hey, who would have thought you’d be such an overachiever!? Triplets!”
Choromatsu shifted his body to Osomatsu, and Osomatsu held up his hands playfully and scooted away from Choromatsu, bumping into Karamatsu in the process.
“H-Hey! Don’t point that thing at me! You’ve got a weapon there in your pants!”
“I could kill you…” Choromatsu grumbled.
“Heh, don’t go stealing my lines,” said Ichimatsu with a quiet, slightly amused tone.
“What’re you so worried about anyway, Fappy? You’ve got more than enough help!”
“Because this… This just…” Choromatsu couldn’t bring himself to finish his sentence, or his food. Three of them. Three children, and he’d barely been able to keep himself alive for most of his existence. “I’m no good with children!”
“That’s not true! The boys love when you play video games with them!”
“I-I mean babies! I… I just… Nevermind. None of you get it….” Choromatsu slid off the bench and sighed, his head tilted downward. “I have to make another update to the Web site… Fans have been worried about her all day.”
“You’re not going to finish your food?” Osomatsu leaned back on the bench, and Choromatsu didn’t even bother to turn around to face his brothers.
“I’m not hungry…” Choromatsu replied, shuffling away from the cart. Osomatsu scoffed and leaned against the oden cart as he slid Choromatsu’s bowl over to himself.
“Bastard. We don’t know what it’s like? I know exactly what it’s like…” Osomatsu grumbled.
“Eh, he’s probably in shock still. Karaboy was the first couple of weeks or so,” Chibita shrugged, and Karamatsu raised his head from his meal. “Don’t look at me like that. You were a sobbing damn mess!”
“I-I have no idea what you’re talking about, Chibita….” Karamatsu sputtered.
“OH! I can do an impression of Karamatsu-nii-san!” Jyushimatsu straightened his posture at the bench, and cleared his throat. What came out was a near-pitch-perfect version of Karamatsu’s voice,
“I-I have a Karamatsu-GIRL?!”
“Woah!” Todomatsu gasped aloud, looking up from his phone for the first time, “Impressive, Jyushimatsu-nii-san!”
“Aw, you’re just saying that, hehe!”
“I-It was nothing like me!” Karamatsu yelped.
“The hell? He sounded just like you!” Chibita laughed. “Hey, Jyushimatsu, say something else!”
“I promise to pay for everyone’s oden tonight since I don’t have to pay for my own anymore. It’s my destiny as a brother!” Jyushimatsu chirped out, even mimicked Karamatsu’s “hand to chin” gesture in the process.
“Wow, so generous, Karamatasu-nii-san!” Todomatsu gasped.
“B-But I didn’t—”
“Sounds good to me,” added Ichimatsu. "I'll take another bowl, if that's the case."
“C-Chibita!” Karamatsu squeaked in a plea, and while Chibita tried to hold back a snort of a giggle, Osomatsu kept his eyes focused on the dark road Choromatsu had wandered down on his own.
Choromatsu had kept to his word of not drinking anymore. He’d done that much. But he did occasionally like a cigarette now and again; he blamed the conventions and the many manga artists who smoked like chimneys during their breaks.
He sat outside the door of his apartment, his legs crossed and the orange glow from the butt of the cigarette his only source of light in the evening. Other than that, the only souls awake at the same hour as him appeared to be the occasional lonesome driver in the night on the road ahead of him.
He jumped as he heard a creaking from above him, and thought it could be anything from Homura taking out some late night garbage to Totoko grabbing her own cigarette.
So he was surprised when he saw two small figures rush down the stairs, their red hooded sweaters barely visible in the night.
Yorumatsu was the one who locked eyes with his uncle, and he quickly gripped Himatsu by the shoulder and spun him around to see what he was looking at.
“We were just… U-Um… Stretching…” Himatsu suggested, and immediately began to perform toe touches. With a small smack to the stomach, Yorumatsu did the same, all while Choromatsu watched the impromptu and poorly-acted show.
“I guess being bad liars didn’t really skip in the family… What are you guys really up to?”
“…We were going to hunt for cicadas…” Yorumatsu admitted, glancing down at his worn red shoes the entire time.
“Eh? It’s August, so I doubt there’d really be many left…” Choromatsu said more to himself than anyone, and cringed at the sight of immediately change in the expression of both of the boys. Choromatsu jumped up from his spot as he watched what he thought were tears forming in Yorumatsu’s eyes.
“B-But we can always try! J-Just let me come with you, all right? Do you have a net or anything?”
The duo nodded their heads, and Choromatsu extinguished the cigarette with the heel of his brown dress shoe before wandering back into his apartment.
Hiromi was at the table, working per usual, with her phone-face down on the table as she continued her inking. She was just as over the phone calls as Choromatsu.
“Do you know if we have a net?” Choromatsu asked while opening the closet in their bedroom, and nearly being done in by spare blankets that jumped out at him in the process.
Hiromi looked up from her work and crinkled her nose, “A net?”
“Osomatsu’s boys. They want to go hunting for cicadas. What? We actually have one?” Choromatsu couldn’t hide his own amazement as he pulled one out from underneath a box of books from Hiromi’s old house, and he then began to search about from some bento boxes in the kitchen. “Hey, did you want to come with us?”
“I’m fine,” Hiromi replied. Then her phone buzzed again. She turned it over, read the name, and her eyes narrowed. “….Actually… Let’s go.”
“Really? You’ll be okay to?”
“I’m not sick…” she insisted, and Choromatsu gave a blush and nodded.
“R-Right…. B-But if you feel tired or anything, you can go back to the car.”
“Let me change out of my skirt.” Hiromi wandered into their bedroom, and Choromatsu was confused by what was a groaning noise from his room, followed by a grunt of frustration, and Himatsu and Yorumatsu, who had been stationed outside the opened apartment door, both popped their heads in simultaneously.
Choromatsu raised an eyebrow as she walked out in a pair of his old jeans, rolled up to her knees, and Hiromi’s frown was deep as she explained, clearly exhausted from the hunt for pants,“My shorts don’t fit anymore…”
“T-That’s fine! Those look great on you!” Choromatsu pulled out the photograph from the ultrasound out of his suit jacket pocket, and set it on the table before setting his green jacket aside and heading out to the boys.
Himatsu rode on the front of Choromatsu’s handlebars, laughing and enjoying the bike ride, while Yorumatsu clutched onto Hiromi from behind as she pedaled, the bike having enough for both the young boy and the tiny woman on it.
There was a field of tall grass not all that far from the apartments the brothers all lived in. Choromatsu remembered passing by it once or twice when the brothers were younger… Maybe Chibita had even lived there for a little while?
He’d never been keen on asking about Chibita’s family once he became old enough to understand Chibita’s “unique” living situation. It was one of those cases of “better off not knowing”.
Had Chibita ever had a family before? Choromatsu wasn’t sure, but he knew for a fact that Chibita had taken to it well enough. While working, Choromatsu would sometimes see the short man out with Jun, helping her practice her martial arts when Karamatsu was unavailable to. From what Choromatsu understood, he had even allowed Jun to help him out at the oden stand from time to time.
Chibita was a natural at it…. And all of this brothers seemed the same way. From Ichimatsu and his surprisingly detailed school projects he helped Matsuko with, to Osomatsu taking his sons out to weekly ramen nights, to even Jyushimatsu, who would jog alongside Homura for exercise while Matsuharu rode on the back of her bicycle.
They were all wonderful at it. And he was the responsible one.
So what if he was awful at it, and he wasn’t the responsible Matsuno brother that he always touted himself as?
“I think I hear one!” Himatsu hopped off the front of the bicycle as soon as Choromatsu brought it to a halt, and Yorumatsu quickly followed after his slightly older brother, the bento box in his hands while Himatsu held onto the net and rushed over towards a tree.
“W-Wait! Take this!” Choromatsu chased after them, stumbling over a root over the tree as he held his phone out to them, the flashlight already switched on. “Y-You guys just can’t go running through the grass in the dark!”
“Ah! He’s right! Remember the time Dracula-san was sleeping in it?” Yorumatsu said to Himatsu, and Himatsu gave a firm nod at the memory.
“....You guys really have to quit calling Iyami that. He doesn’t find it funny, even if it is.”
Choromatsu winced at the ache in his toes as he hobbled back to Hiromi, and the duo watched as the flashlight zigged and zagged around, in hopes of late night cicadas.
Hiromi winced as Himatsu ran into the tree, only to snort and laugh. Choromatsu joined her over by the bicycles, leaning on his good foot as he watched them.
“Were you and your brothers like this?” Hiromi asked as she watched Himatsu scuttle up Yorumatsu’s shoulders in an attempt to catch one of the cicadas on a higher branch of the pine tree.
“…Yeah… That’s about right,” Choromatsu admitted as he watched with a flinch as they two yelped upon seeing a large moth fly down, drawn by the flashlight on Choromatsu’s phone. “Um… Mimi… How’re you doing?”
“…I really want pickled daikon…” she said thoughtfully. “And caramel.”
“I-I can go get you some now, then!”
Hiromi stopped him as he went to climb on his bike by gripping on the edge of his white dress shirt that had somehow become untucked.
“...Let’s just… Catch some cicadas, okay?”
“What? Us?” Choromatsu blinked in surprise, and Hiromi pushed up her thick glasses and nodded.
“I… I need it for a reference. For the newest chapter I'm working on for you.”
“They’ll be so loud in the apartment… But all right…” Choromatsu picked up another empty bento box that had been left on the back of his bicycle, and the two began the hunt in the dark, Hiromi keeping hold of Choromatsu all the while.
“I got one!” Yorumatsu cheered, holding up the victory of his catch over this head.
“I think I see one!” Himatsu called out, waving his net towards the tree.
“Anything?” Choromatsu whispered, and Hiromi shook her head. Choromatsu stopped after a few more feet, and bent down at the familiar loud buzzing. After a few blind claps, he’d gotten a grasp of the chirping thing.
Hiromi quickly open and shut the container, giving a satisfied chuckle as she glanced through the clear box as best she could.
“Hey, how many are you guys up to?!” Choromatsu called out excitedly.
“Four!” Himatsu shouted back.
“Woah, seriously?!”
“We’ve got to catch up then,” said Hiromi, and Choromatsu shot his head over to her.
“We’re not competing with kids, right?” he asked. The determined look on her face said different. It was the look she usually only got when she found out there was a rush for the larger booths in the artist alley.
So they were competing with kids, right.
He found the second cicada sitting lazily on the bark of a tree, easily enough.
Finding another proved a challenge. He thought, for sure, that they had tapped out the area’s supply of large insects, when Hiromi suddenly stopped, and visibly shuddered.
“What’s wrong?” Choromatsu turned around to his wife, and Hiromi squeezed her eyes shut, and clenched her fists.
“I found one.”
“Eh? In this dark? Wow, you really are great! Where’s it at?!”
“…Down,” said Hiromi through gritted teeth.
“Down?” Choromatsu murmured, and began to examine the ground as best he could.
“It… It crawled down my shirt.”
“….I see.”
“D-Don’t just “I see” that! Help me out here!”
“R-Right!” Choromatsu circled around her, and cleared his throat before he clutched onto the hem of her T-shirt.
“Is everything okay?” Himatsu called out.
“Do you need us to help?!” Yorumatsu added, changing the direction of his flashlight in hopes of finding them.
“You guys stay over there! I’ve got this!” Choromatsu called out, and he shuffled in front of Hiromi to block her as he approached the situation as delicately as he could.
He was too focused on his task at hand to hear the car pull up, or the door slam shut. He and Hiromi only really became aware of the police officer when the flashlight suddenly flooded them, and the officer on duty came upon twin boys in the midst of climbing a tree, and an older man who looked close enough like them to be their father further away, with both of his hands up the shirt of a young woman.
“G-Good evening, officer…” Choromatsu choked out, not even moving to pull his hands out from their precarious spot.
“He looked mad….” said Hiromi as she stood in front of Osomatsu’s shut door next to Choromatsu.
“Did… Did I really get chewed out by a slacked just now?”
“Chewed out, swallowed, and spit back out,” Hiromi replied.
The two had fortunately avoided jail time, but they were all driven back to their apartment in the police cruiser, and given a stern warning. Yorumatsu and Choromatsu had worn twin petrified expressions, Hiromi held the need to vomit back as best she could, and Himatsu, who gladly took the front seat of the cruiser, excitedly reached over and turned on the sirens at one point, leading to curious glances from everyone else in the apartments. Choromatsu swore he saw Todomatsu pull back his curtain and snap a photo.
Osomatsu loomed in the doorway of his apartment, a tall, demon-like figure. He was cheery and calm enough when Himatsu and Yorumatsu walked in, and asked all of the usual questions—Were they all right, had they been arrested? This was followed by a lecture of how they had worried him and Totoko, and then a doling out of punishment—Grounded for two weeks.
Totoko rose from her spot on the couch and ushered the two disappointed boys into bed, and Choromatsu was on his way to leave when he felt himself gripped by the back of the shirt collar.
He didn’t know Osomatsu could move so quickly, or possessed the strength he did, and was stunned when he was pinned against the opened red door of his brother’s apartment.
He wasn’t entirely sure about what Osomatsu said through gritted teeth, Choromatsu just knew to nod and keep nodding as Osomatsu spoke. And then Osomatsu released him, and slammed the door shut with enough force it resounded through the concrete walls.
“Ugh, you see, that’s why we’d be no good at this…” Choromatsu grumbled as he walked down the stairs, Hiromi behind him. He rubbed his aching neck all the while opening the door, and Hiromi hurried past him, two of her hands disappearing under her shirt along the way.
She returned from the bedroom with her bra, a bright pink G-cup, in one hand, and in the other, a cicada.
“So it was in there!” Choromatsu said with amazement. "Did he stay still?"
“No. I was just too scared at the thought of going to jail and having to explain that on top of everything else to or fans. I’m going to burn this thing…” Hiromi added as she tossed the bra on the floor and looked at it with a glare.
Choromatsu took the cicada from her other hand, and placed it in the box with the others. “So…. I guess that makes three for us.”
The two both stared at the worn green bento box with the slightly melted lid from where it had accidentally been microwaved, and Hiromi was the first to snort out a chuckle. Choromatsu’s face twisted in confusion, but he started not long after with his own twitch of the mouth, followed by a chuckle, and then a full-on laugh. Hiromi sat down on the floor next to him, and the two continued their laughter together.
“W-What are we even going to do with three?! How did this even happen?!” Choromatsu snorted through his laughter.
“I guess the maid outfit we got at the con worked too well—But you sure looked cute in it!” Hiromi added through her own giggling.
“There’s no way I could be as good at my idiot brothers at raising kids! I… I almost got two six-year-olds arrested!” Choromatsu removed his glasses from his face to wipe the tears he was shedding due to the laughter, and he didn’t know when exactly they turned from tears of laughter to just laughter, but just regular tears. “I-I mean I’m a mess of a human! I’m not as put-together as everyone thinks! I’m always the last for everything, and I’m a nervous wreck most of the time!”
“…Cho?”
“And an idiot like Osomatsu can do it… How’s it make it look so easy? They all… They all make it look so easy. How do they all make it look so easy!?”
“Cho.”
Choromatsu turned his head, and Hiromi was next to him. He had laid back on the floor, and she had laid beside him at one point.
“S-Sorry… I’m just thinking about myself again, and… I promised I wouldn’t do that anymore. And here I am. I… I’m sorry I did this to you.”
She leaned forward, and much to his surprise, flicked him on his forehead, “I didn’t fall in love with a crybaby of a senpai. Get it together, and don’t just blame yourself. This is just as much me!”
“Mimi… What’re we going to do? I mean, we can afford it. At least we have that going for us. Ichimatsu didn’t have that… When he and Nanako had Matsuko, I went over to their place, and the fridge was empty. I mean, there wasn’t even a jar of mayonnaise. Osomatsu and Totty went out and bought a bunch of groceries, Karamatsu fixed up a few of the things that had broken in the place, brought over some baby clothes….”
“It was tight when I was growing up, but there was always someone to help, too…”
“We work from home. Would… Would you be okay if we did it? You don’t even like kids, do you?”
“I don’t like people pushing their kids on me, just because I helped take care of my sisters when I was little. The ones I know aren’t that bad. Your one niece scares me though.”
“Matsuko? Ah, she does that with everyone. She can’t help it, it’s her nature.”
“…We could do some cute cosplays…”
“…Cardcaptors…” Choromatsu whispered in awe, and Hiromi snorted a laugh.
“…Ah! Wait! I’ve got it!”
“What?”
“Starter Pokemon!” Hiromi gasped, sitting up from her spot on the floor.
Choromatsu rose up from the floor beside her, his mouth slightly open. “Which generation?”
“First, of course.”
“…I’ll start on the designs.”
“I’ll get my pens to finalize them!” Hiromi stood up from the floor with a bit of grunting, and placed a hand on her stomach. “…Maybe get some different pants, too…”
“Mimi, you’re… You’re okay with this, right?”
“I think I will be until my sisters find out and cram our place full of stuff we don’t need.”
“Well… Maybe we should think about those houses then.”
“Eh? I thought you were against them. You said it'd be a waste of space.”
Choromatsu scratched the back of his head, “Well, yeah… That was before… Everything. T-There’d be enough room for an office for us still!”
It was no use. She’d already pulled up her laptop, and was looking up references at the low table they did most of their work on, and Choromatsu gave a small, unusually relaxed grin as he sat across from her. She was in the work zone, and it would be hard to yank her out of it.
He pulled over a sheet of paper to himself, and much to Hiromi’s surprise, began to write on it.
“What’re you doing? Making a script for the latest chapter?”
“Eh? Just a little something I need to… There!” Choromatsu waved the paper back and forth to dry the ink quicker, and he stood up from the table with the paper still shaking in his hand. “I better return these, too. You don’t want them to crawl on you again.”
Hiromi shivered, and Choromatsu lifted up the bento with the crawling insects in it, and headed back outside his apartment.
He first released the cicadas, setting the box down on the ground open so they could make their flight for freedom—If Matsuko didn’t find them and adopt them first, that was.
He then made the long, slow walk up to Osomatsu’s apartment door, and knocked—Once, briskly.
“Oh well, he must not be home! I tried” Choromatsu chuckled to himself not a moment after knocking, and began to turn when he heard the door open.
“Oh, hey, you’re back! Thank God, you forgot some of your bugs!” Osomatsu chuckled as he rubbed underneath his nose. Gone was the demon Choromatsu had been faced with... And back was the money-grubbing slacker.
Osomatsu only stared when Choromatsu made a sharp turn and bowed, holding out a letter to him.
“…What the hell is this?” Osomatsu giggled as he unfolded the letter, stopping halfway. “Wait. This shit’s not going to set on fire, is it?”
“What in the hell are you talking about, idiot?!” Choromatsu growled.
“Just asking, just asking! Let’s see… Hehe, you really don’t write letters much, do you? Your handwriting's pretty bad. And even I can tell you this is the wrong kanji to use.”
Choromatsu, remaining in his bow, looked up and hissed, “Just read it!”
“…What is this?”
“It’s… It’s a proposal.”
Osomatsu balked, “Eh? But you’re married! And I'm about thirty percent sure that's illegal here!”
“N-Not that kind!” Choromatsu stood straight up, just as straight as he’d bowed, and clenched his fists. “It’s… Asking for your help.”
“My help?”
“In… Helping out with everything.”
“Aw! Are you saying you want Nii-chan to do his big brother duties?! C’mere, you!”
“W-What’re you—Get off! Get off!” Choromatsu tried his best to wriggle out of the embrace, only to have Osomatsu attempt to latch on harder while hugging him.
“You idiots shut up!” Todomatsu finally shrieked after winging the door to his apartment open. “People and children are SLEEPING!”
“So shut up yourself, asshole!” Ichimatsu had slid open the window to his apartment. "You're just as loud!"
With all of this screaming, there came the sounds of three shrieking infants between the two rows of three apartments, followed by the groans of the more adult residents.
“Yeah, it’s gonna be a lot of that in your future!” Osomatsu laughed as he held Choromatsu’s head in a headlock under one of his arms, and reached over to ruffle his younger brother’s hair. “You sure you’re up for this?!”
“No! But if you don’t get off me I’ll die before I figure out if I can!”
Osomatsu finally let go of Choromatsu, gave him one last playful nudge, and headed back into his own apartment.
And Choromatsu shuffled down the stairs, rubbing his even more sore neck all the while. At least it wasn't a choke this time.
He stopped to look down at the bento box, with its slightly ajar lid, and noticed the cicadas were all starting to make their way out of the box.
“Three…” he chuckled to himself, and wandered back into his apartment. He had some costumes to design, after all.