[Log] Marui, Kirihara, & Hazue

[devilishelf]

Characters: Marui Bunta, Kirihara Akaya, & Kaidoh Hazue
Rating: PG
When: Way back on the first weekend that people moved into the SevenLines building
Where: Pet Store & random ramen shop
Summary: Looking at pets and eating some ramen.



Marui bounced a bit where he stood, waiting for Akaya and Hazue to join him by the entrance of the complex they now lived in. He was tired since it had been hard to fall asleep, but he was still fully awake. It would be fun to go and buy pets with the other two boys, and he was sure he would find himself a pet to live with him.

Akaya was the first to arrive. “Morning,” he called out as he went over to Marui. “You okay?” The other guy looked like he was about to fall over, kind of like when he was crashing.

Hazue got over to the other two once he spotted them. “Good morning.” he said in a not too high tone of voice. He hadn’t really talked to Akaya, so he was a little unsure of how to act. Why was it always so difficult to talk to people he didn’t know?

Marui hid a yawn behind his hand. “I’m fine, I’m fine.” He flashed the two a grin and gripped them by their arms. “C’mon, let’s go!”

“Sure you are,” Akaya snickered. “But yeah, let’s go.”

Hazue followed the two and after a moments of hesitating, gripped one of Marui’s hands in one of his, and one of Akaya’s in his other. He did not want to lose sight of them, or even risk it.

Marui glanced down at Hazue for a moment, smiling down at him. The kid seriously needed to loosen up a bit, so it was good that he showed his cute points. They didn’t want him ending up like Sanada or something like that. It was sort of like having another younger brother, only this one wasn’t as hyper as the ones back in the Marui-household.

Akaya gave Kaidoh the younger an annoyed look. First the boy had basically invited himself on this outing with them and now the kid was standing in the middle, separating Akaya from Marui. It wasn’t like Akaya cared or anything. It was just...Marui was his pet after all.

Hazue could feel Akaya glare at him, and he would have fidgeted had they not been walking. He looked down at the ground and bit the inside of his cheek.

Marui looked between the two younger boys that had come to join him for pet shopping. Akaya had a sort of dark look on his face, and it bugged him.

“What?” Akaya had a feeling the others were being quiet because of him. “Something on my face?”

Hazue quickly shook his head. “No..” he mumbled.

Marui laughed and reached over to poke Akaya’s cheek. “Now my finger is.”

“That’s because you can’t stop touching me,” Akaya replied, cheeky grin on his face.

Hazue looked up at the two, and wondered if he shouldn’t have asked to come along. But he didn’t want to ask Nii-chan, and Marui had talked about it first... He couldn’t help but smile slightly at the two older boys’ evidences of affection.

“So what?” Marui told the curly-haired boy. He urged them on to hurry. “I can see the pet shop now!”

“Last one there’s a rotten egg!” Akaya yelled as he dropped the hand that had been holding the young Kaidoh brother’s. He took off running.

Hazue blinked in surprise, then shot off after Akaya as he let go of Marui.

“Oi!” Marui laughed, running after the younger two. “That’s cheating, Akaya!”

“Whoever said I played fair?” Akaya asked from where he stood next to the door of the shop. He’d won, obviously, what with the headstart. “After you guys,” he snickered, holding the door open, shooting his sempai a look that read look, I can be polite.

Hazue stopped himself from crashing into Akaya, then looked back at Marui. He couldn’t help but giggle before he walked into the shop. He stopped right inside the doors and looked around with wide eyes.

Marui rolled his eyes, but he couldn’t stop another laugh. “Sure, sure.” He followed Hazue inside, pushing him a bit further into the shop. “Hey, Hazue-kun, don’t stop right inside the door. You’ll get stepped over.” He grinned.

Akaya let the door close behind him. “So, what do you want to look at first?” He asked, his voice coming from right next to Marui’s ear.

Hazue let out a low hiss and went further inside the shop, and then he looked over at the other two. Well, it had been Marui who had asked about if anyone wanted to some with him. Then his attention was caught by the sound of mewling, and he took a step back to look into another room. Kittens!

Marui jumped at the voice in his ear. “Hey, don’t do that!” He blushed, startled. He looked over his shoulder at the younger boy, before walking over to where Hazue was looking at the kittens.

Cats. Not really Akaya’s thing. He was, after all, much more of a dog person but the kittens were cute enough. And this was for Marui to get a pet. He joined the other two.

A small blush tinged Hazue’s cheeks as he watched the kittens play with each other. Maybe he wasn’t as much of a cute-animals-lover that Nii-chan was, but he still loved cute animals.

Marui stood and looked at the small cats before crouching down to see them better. He was going to look at the other animals as well, but for now, he’d watch the kittens. He turned around where he sat, pulling at Akaya’s pantleg. “Come on.” he said, a bright smile on his face.

“I’m looking, I’m looking,” Akaya grumbled, crouching down besides Marui. Okay, these kittens were actually really cute. And they looked like they would be soft to pet. And that grey one that was going around pouncing on the others was really cute.

Hazue looked around a little to see if there was any signs up about it being allowed to pet them or not, then frowned a little as he didn’t see any.

Marui smiled at the others, then down at the kittens. They were too cute. His eyes were caught by a black little baby cat. It was really fuzzy, and combined with it’s green eyes reminded him of the older of the two younger boys with him. “Look, Akaya, it looks like you!” He pointed.

“Does not,” Akaya shot back. “It looks nothing like me.” He glanced around, wondering if they were allowed to pet or play with the kittens.

Hazue looked at the kitten Marui had pointed at. Then he looked at Akaya, and back at the kitten. “It does, though.”

“See?” Marui grinned. “Hazue-kun agrees.”

He decided that if it was this easy to just reach out and pet the little animals, it should be allowed to do so. He gently picked up the kitten that looked Akaya and put it on his lap. “It’s so cute.” he said as he petted it.

Akaya reached over, petting the fluffball. “We look nothing alike,” he whined, looking the kitten in the eye.

A giggle escaped Hazue as Akaya and the kitten stared at each other. But they did look alike.

“Could be siblings.” Marui laughed and scratched the kitten behind the ear. “Don’t you agree, kitty?” The kitten yawned and batted at Akaya’s hand, making Marui laugh more. “See?”

Akaya gave the kitten a dark look. “We are nothing alike,” he moped, holding his hand back from the kitten.

Hazue patted the kitten and looked at Akaya. “But wouldn’t you look like this if you were a cat, then? I mean... Maybe?”

“He would.” Marui nodded. “He’d be a cute little fluffball.”

“I’m not cute,” Akaya shot back immediately. He eyed the kitten, deciding he definitely was a dad person.

It’s not good to be cute? Hazue pondered. I thought most people liked cute things...

“Yes you are.” Marui said, still petting the fuzzy little kitten, who was starting to fall asleep on his lap.

“You better be talking to the cat,” Akaya growled softly. He looked at the fuzzball for a moment before looking around the shop. There were more than just kittens in the place after all.

Hazue turned his eyes to the rest of the kittens, and pouted in thought. He wanted a kitten really much, too..

“Who knows.” Marui laughed and lifted the kitten up carefully, putting it back with the others. Standing up and stretching, he went over to a cage not far away. He shuddered and quickly walked away from it. Ugh, spiders.

Following behind, Akaya saw the shudder. “Don’t like spiders?” He asked, stopping in front of them. “They’re fuzzy looking though.”

Hazue snickered at the comment, and hid his face behind a hand for a moment. Then he peeked at the spiders. “They don’t look that creepy, though.”

“I nearly swallowed one, once.” Marui told them. “Haven’t liked them since.” Then, it had been a pretty stupid incident. He sent Akaya a small glare. “Doesn’t make me like them better just because they’re fuzzy.” They were still small enough to be able to sneak into his mouth. He shuddered again.

“Well, why would you do something stupid like that?” Akaya asked, starting to walk towards where he heard barking and yipping. Dogs. Now that was what he was all about. He hadn’t planned on getting a pet--too much work and besides, he had Marui, but maybe he’d think about it.

“That does sound a bit.... odd..” Hazue agreed. He wandered off to look around the rest of the shop.

“It was an accident.” Marui pouted, stalking over towards where Akaya was heading. “Not like I did it on purpose.”

He couldn’t help the grin that settled on his face as he reached the dogs. So many puppies. Just seeing them made him want to get one. “Hey,” Akaya said, crouching down to get a better look a little white pup with brown eyes.

Hazue looked into the birdcages as he passed them. So many both pretty and cool birds...

Marui had to stop for a moment and just stare at his kouhai. Akaya was wearing a really gentle look on his face. He smiled, knowing that he was more than likely blushing. Not by much, but he still knew he was. He bit at his lip, not really noticing that he had been standing there for a while.

The pup barked excitedly, making Akaya laugh and put his hand up to the enclosure. “You’re a cutie,” he cooed as the dog tried to lick him.

Hazue couldn’t help but find it a bit amusing. Akaya didn’t want to be called cute, but he called animals and such cute. But then again, maybe some people were that way.

Finally catching himself just standing and staring, Marui walked up to Akaya and crouched down next to him. “D’you like dogs?” he asked, watching the puppies. They really were adorable.

“I’ve been wanting one since I was three,” Akaya nodded. He laughed as the white pup ran off over to some others, barking and trying to get them to play. “But my mother’s deathly allergic so...yeah, no dogs for me.”

In the meantime, Hazue continued to wander around and passed lines of animal-food and items for all the different types they had. He stopped when he came to another section where there stood aquariums. “You have the same colors as Nii-chan’s bandana.” he pointed out to the snake in one of the aquariums. He poked at the glass lightly and blinked as the snake seemed to look at him a brief moment.

“But you could get one now, right?” Marui asked, looking between the pups and his kouhai. “No one’s stopping you.” He turned his focus back to the small dogs. That was quite a long time.. since he was three, huh..? Marui sat and thought about that for a while, eyes following the movements of a pup with droopy ears and fur in black, brown and white. He knew close to nothing about dogs, but he knew they were just too cute not to get stuck and look at. A smile tugged at his lips.

“I could,” Akaya said slowly as if he was just realizing this right now. “I might need to think about this...” He looked around. “What happened to the kid?”

Hazue had crouched down and looked at the snake more properly. It really did have the same colors, just maybe a little more with mixed green colors thrown into the mix, too.

Marui looked around as well, catching a glimpse of him off in the other end of the shop. “There.” He stood up and stretched before walking over to where Hazue stood.

“What’d you find?” Akaya asked, walking with Marui over to Hazue. He shot a glance back at the puppies, a soft look on his face for a moment before focusing on the snake Kaidoh the younger had discovered.

“It has the same colors as Nii-chan’s bandana.” Hazue looked up at them as he pointed at the snake.

Marui snickered. “It does.” he agreed, nodding. “If you want to pet it, you could always ask, right?” The snake wasn’t as easy to just take out and pet. It was sort of funny with how fascinated the youngest of them looked as he watched the snake.

“Isn’t this the kid whose always going on about how he doesn’t want to be like his brother and whatnot?” Akaya asked, leaning over to whisper in Marui’s ear.

Hazue looked at the snake and leaned his elbows against his knees. A small pout grew on his face as his skin prickled and he turned to look up at the older two.

“It is.” Marui let out a quiet laugh. “Might be a brother-little brother thing?” His own brothers considered him to be weird, but in the end they were really similar. Marui looked down towards where Hazue sat looking up at them. “Think it’s called a bandana snake?”

Akaya stayed where he stood, shaking his head. Siblings were weird. He didn’t have any brothers though, just an older sister who he was nothing like, so that probably made a difference.

“I doubt it.” Hazue said, then laughed at the thought.

“What?” Marui grinned. “It’s possible. If we rename it.”

“Bandana the snake?” Akaya couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

Bandana the bandana snake. Hazue continued to laugh even though it might not be overly funny, but it still was funny, for some reason.

“But it’s fitting.” The redhead laughed, nudging Akaya’s arm. “You don’t think so, Akaya?”

“I guess,” he shrugged, not really caring one way or another.

Hazue wrinkled his nose and hissed when the snake stared at him and hissed.

With a smile on his lips, Marui explored the rest of the shop. There was funny looking birds, even some insects. He had to stop for a while by one to see any animal at all. Ah. It was a walkingstick, he noticed.

“You match,” Akaya laughed, watching Hazue and the snake. He lightly poked the boy’s side. “Two little snakes.”

Hazue pouted as he looked up at Akaya. Then he changed topic, asking something he had been wanting to ask but couldn’t ask while Marui was there. “You like Marui-san, don’t you?”

Walkingsticks were weird, Marui decided. He would have to ask Yanagi about why they looked so much like sticks, did they want people to throw them into a fire by accident or something? That didn’t sound very smart. He stood watching the stick with legs, before turning to the cage next to its glass container.

Akaya immediately went red as he remembered his match with Kikumaru a few days ago. “What makes you say that?” Though he wasn’t going to lie. He’d been disappointed when Hazue had come along. He’d wanted to just spend the time with Marui. Dinner in a few days would make up for that.

“Because you look like it.” Hazue stated, probbing his chin against one of his fisted hands’ palms.

The cage contained several small colourful birds, blue, yellow, green as well as several other colours, mixed in a big mess of bird. They were quite cute, Marui though. He could hear the murmur of Akaya’s and Hazue’s voices back by the snake, that he had decided to call a bandanna snake, no matter what it was really called, but he didn’t hear what they said.Well, it was good that they talked, anyway, so he’d let them be for a while.

He laughed quietly as a little budgie hid it’s beak beneath its wing. It sort of looked like it was being shy. Do birds get shy? he wondered. He had been shy on and off around Akaya, so.. He thought about birds and shyness for a while where he stood, watching them.

“How do I ‘look like it’?” Akaya asked, annoyed at this kid all of a sudden.

Hazue thought about how to explain it, but he couldn’t really put it into words. “You’re acting like nii-chan, only many times worse.” he finally settled for.

Marui leaned a little forward towards the birds, mind wandering between Akaya and the birds. Well, he almost had to make himself stop thinking about the younger boy all the time. But it was so easy for his thoughts to be pulled in that direction.

“Your brother’s got someone?” That was news to Akaya. “Who?” He shook his head. “And how am I worse?”

“Not really.” Hazue replied. “At least not that he’s aware of. Besides, I don’t remember his name. It was that buchou-person of his, though.” Never mind he was spilling his brothers secrets, heck, Kaoru didn’t even notice it on his own, so if anything, it might be good if someone knew and could tell him.

Because Hazue was most definitley not telling his brother that.

Marui was curious as to what the others were talking about. He wasn’t able to hear them at all from where he was. Pouting for just a little bit, he decided that oh well and walked over to another cage. He would wait for a while longer and if they got too quiet (or too loud), he’d go back to them.

Akaya laughed. He couldn’t help it. “He likes that stick in the mud? No offense kid,” Akaya said, still laughing as he reached over to ruffle Hazue’s hair, “but your brother’s one weird guy.”

Hazue hissed as he flattened out his hair as best as he could. It would become a birds nest if people continued doing that, seriously. “I dunno, it seems like it. I’m pretty sure I’m right, too. Nii-chan’s no good at covering up what he thinks.”

The short redhead peeked into the cage he now found himself standing in front of. There was a really small lizard there. It was sort of cute, he thought.

Akaya looked around the shop and frowned. “Think we should go track down Marui?”

Hazue hummed. “Maybe.” He looked around, but couldn’t spot Marui anywhere.

Still looking at the small lizard that was moving around behind the glass, Marui hadn’t noticed the two younger boys looking for him. He tapped the glass gently with a finger and laughed quietly as the lizard turned its head towards him.

“He’s got to be somewhere around here,” Akaya said. He started walking, figuring Hazue would follow.

Hazue got to his feet and followed Akaya in his search for Marui. He reached out and tugged at Akaya’s shirt, then pointed into a side-room.

Marui moved to look at the next animal, finding it to be a lizard but this one was rather huge. Especially compered to the other one. It looks like a dinosaur.. he thought.

Akaya looked at where Hazue was pointing. “Marui,” he said softly so only his younger companion could hear. He didn’t notice the way his face lit up. Turning to the kid, he whispered, “want to make him jump?”

Hazue grinned up at Akaya and nodded. Why not?

It was pretty fascinating with how different animals looked. Even within their own species, Marui thought. Not suspecting a thing and not at all noticing that the other two were watching him, the oldest of the three focused violet eyes on the big animal.

“Got it?” Akaya asked from where he’d been whispering the plan to Hazue. They were going to sneak up behind Marui and start tickling the guy, one of them on each of the older boy’s sides.

Nodding again, Hazue followed as Akaya crept up behind Marui. The redhead didn’t seem to notice them at all.

Marui jumped and let out a sound that sounded very much like a girl’s ‘kya’ as both his sides were attacked simultaneously. It wasn’t that he was extremely ticklish like Akaya, or something like that, but with such a surprise-attack that it was impossible to not feel it. “Ah! What are you-” He didn’t get further than that, only able to let out little gasps and laughs mixed together as the younger boys tickled him.

Akaya laughed. “Good job,” he grinned at Hazue.

Hazue grinned back at Akaya as he laughed at the reactions from Marui.

“Oi!” Marui protested. But he couldn’t help but having a smile sneak its way onto his lips. He reached out both arms, one towards either boys side and tickled them back. He already knew what it would do to Akaya, but he didn’t know if Hazue was ticklish or not. An opportunity to find out and get revenge at the same time.

Akaya immediately squirming and twisting, jumping back and away from that hand.

Hazue clapped his hands over his mouth to try to supress a laugh. He backed and now he and Akaya was far enough from each other so that Marui couldn’t reach them both.

Marui had a sly grin on his face. “Hahaa~” So now he knew that both were equally sensitive to tickling. He let out a laugh. The expressions on their faces were way too amusing.

“Why are you grinning like that?” Akaya asked, wary.

Hazue nodded quickly in agreement to Akaya’s words, hands still clasped over his mouth in case any stray laughter wanted to escape.

“Oh nothing~” Marui said, moving his fingers as if in preparation to go in for a tickle-attack. “Just thinking about how I can use this against you, is all.” He smiled sweetly, but he knew very well that it wouldn’t fool either boy.

“Sempai,” Akaya said in that tone, “you’re not fooling us.” He crossed his arms defensively but the effect was ruined by the smile on his face.

“You can tickle Kirihara-san however much you want, you don’t need to tickle me.” Hazue said, grinning at Marui.

The redhead faked a hurt look. “Aw, I’m not?” Marui’s hurt expression turned into a teasing grin. “See, I like this kid’s attitude.” he laughed, jumping and pulling both boys towards him, reaching to ruffle both black mops of hair. “Are you being good kids, children~?”

“Hey!” Akaya yelled after Hazue spoke. “Kid had a good attitude, now I’m not so sure,” he grumbled. “And I’m not a kid.”

Hazue brushed a hand through his hair and pouted. “Don’t do that.” he said.

Marui just let out a laugh as response at the grumbles and pouts coming from the two. Both of the younger boys were being really cute and he thought that they were so much fun. “You’re both younger than me, so yes, you’re kids.” Marui stuck out his tongue at Akaya, teasing the other. Well, age was about the only thing he had on Akaya. At least Hazue wasn’t taller than him, and hopefully wouldn’t be for a while. If at all, but it wasn’t really hard, given his own height.

“D’you get so lonely without being near me?” he teased, grinning at the younger boys.

“Nah,” Akaya answered, “we just had to make sure you weren’t lost or something.”

“Yeah.” Hazue agreed. “Thought you’d wandered off and gotten stuck somewhere.”

“Yeah, I was very lost.” Marui rolled his eyes. Really, the pet shop wasn’t that big and it certainly wasn’t big enough to get lost in. “Glad you found me.”

“We’re the brave adventurers,” Akaya rolled with it, grinning and glancing at Hazue, “it’s our job.”

Hazue snickered and nodded.

“My little heroes.” the redhead said between laughs. His stomach decided that that was a good time to let out a loud growl, making him laugh again. “So, my little heroes treating me to lunch?” he teased, looping an arm over Akaya’s shoulders and looking between the other two, playful smile on his face.

Akaya made a face. “Well, I guess I’m supposed to since you are my pet.”

Hazue tilted his head to the side but didn’t ask anything about the pet-comment. “Lunch?” He perked up at the thought.

“Yep.” Marui nodded, agreeing with them both. “Nice owners feed their pets.” He grinned down at Hazue. “Akaya’s treat.”

Akaya shook his head. “Only ‘cause I like you,” he told Marui. “Where you want to go, kid?” He asked Hazue.

“Ramen?” Hazue suggested.

Marui laughed, but couldn’t help a weak blush that slipped onto his cheeks at the ’like’ part. “Ramen sounds good to me.” His mind went back to the first time that he and Jackal had really talk-talked to the younger, just for a second. It had been ramen that time, too.

“Well, let’s go then,” Akaya cheered, leading the way out of the pet store. “I have no idea where the nearest ramen place is but I’m sure there’s got to be one around here somewhere.”

“I know.” Hazue stated. “At least I think so.” He had been to a petshop with his parents and nii-chan once, and they’d gone for ramen. But that might have been some other place, too. “Maybe.”

“Well, we’ll find one one way or another.” Marui grinned.

“Lead the way then, kid,” Akaya decided. If worst got to worst, they’d just end up wandering around and getting lost or something.

Hazue looked both left and right before deciding to go left, silently hoping it would be the right way.

Turns out it was the right way, because after a few minutes of walking, they could see big kana reading ’ramen’. Marui grinned. “Good job, kid.”

Akaya held the door for the two, letting them go in first. “Order what you want but, please,” he requested, “keep it in reason.”

Hazue asked “is simple ramen alright?” because he liked the simple ones the best.

“Miso ramen.” Marui said as Akaya got in after them.

“Like I said, get what you guys want,” Akaya told them. “Those are fine.” At least they didn’t want anything expensive.

Hazue sat down by a table and looked up at the older two.

“Great. What a nice owner you are.” Marui teased, flashing Akaya a toothy grin. Now, they’d just have to wait for the food and they’d be all set.

Akaya went red as he sat down across from the younger boy. He avoided looking at the older boy.

Hazue looked between Akaya and Marui, and knew that he had been right when he asked Akaya if he liked Marui.

Marui let out a snicker at Akaya’s expression. For once it was the younger going all red, not him. He sat down next to Hazue, reaching over to poke at Akaya’s nose. “No grumpiness, now.”

“Not being grumpy,” Akaya grumbled. “Not at all.”

“Then what are you?” Hazue smiled innocently at Akaya.

Marui nodded in agreement to the younger Kaidoh’s question. “If you’re not grumpy, then don’t pout like that.” he laughed.

Akaya stared at the two for a moment. “I hate you both,” he decided, putting his head on the table so they wouldn’t get to see how red he was becoming.

Hazue hummed and looked up at Marui for a second. Then he looked back at Akaya. “Nope.”

Marui laughed, a fake innocent look on his face. “But you like us so much, how can you say such a thing?

Akaya kept his face down, staring at the tabletop. “Definitely hate.” He could feel his face getter warmer. This wasn’t even that embarrassing so why in the world was he turning so freaking red?

Hazue snickered and patted Akaya on the head.

Marui couldn’t help but laughing even worse as the smallest of the three patted Akaya on the head. “Get up from licking the table clean and turn that frown up side down.” He ruffled Akaya’s wild hair.

“I am not licking the table,” Akaya’s head popped up and he gave his two companions a dark look. “I should make you two pay for your own meals...”

“You already say you’d pay.” Hazue smiled.

“No way, no way. Be nice, hero-san, you promised to treat us.” Marui flashed him a sweet smile. “You don’t want to?”

Akaya gave them both a dark look, shaking his head. “Fine,” he grumbled. “I’ll pay but only because I already promised.”

“Yay~” Hazue couldn’t help but grin widely. It was fun being with these two.

Marui thought Akaya looked cute, no matter if he was grumpy or angry or happy and anything else. He couldn’t help but blush and smile, Tapping the heel of his shoe against the floor. “Thank you~”

“Only because I promised,” he reminded them. Akaya looked around, wondering how much longer it’d be before the food arrived.

Hazue snickered again, then looked up as their food was brought to them. “It looks tasty.”

“Yeah.” Marui grinned, both at Akaya and the food. “Itadakima~su.”

Akaya dug in. He hadn’t thought he was hungry until the food had arrived but he was.

Hazue clapped his hands together and mumbled “itadakimasu” and then picked up his chopsticks. “Yummy.” he said to himself as he tasted the ramen.

The redhead nodded. It really did taste great. Tokyo had some great places as well, it seemed. Well, would’ve been bad otherwise, being the capital and all.

Looking up after he’d finished about half, Akaya glanced towards the redhead. “Any ideas on what kind of pet you’ll get?”

Hazue glanced at Marui for a moment, then continued to silently eat his ramen.

“No idea..” Marui looked down at his ramen in thought. “Maybe a kitten.. but those puppies were cute too..” He looked up at Akaya. “But I know practically nothing about dogs, so you’d have to help me a bit. Especially in the beginning.” Because since Akaya had been interested in dogs for so long, he should know plenty more than he did.

“Not the fuzzball,” Akaya groaned. He could deal with a cat but not the black fuzzball. “I’ve never had a dog...” He’d just always wanted one. He looked at Hazue. “What about you, kid?”

“I don’t know. I might have to talk to nii-chan first, but I dunno.” Hazue shrugged and slurped up the last of his ramen.

“The fuzzball was cute, but one’s enough.” Marui said, meaning Akaya. “Even though you’ve never had one, you know more about them than I do.”

“I‘d say Bandana-chan.” Marui said, turning to Hazue. “It was kinda cool.”

“Are you calling me a fuzzball?” Akaya tried to glare and pout at the same time.

Hazue giggled at Akaya’s reaction, then nodded at Marui’s second statement. “I’ll think about it.”

Marui, who had been sipping on some water, almost choked on it when he started to laugh at the expression Akaya was making.

“Bandana-chan was cool,” Akaya told the kid, deciding he’s just ignore Marui for the fuzzball comment.

“Yeah.” Hazue agreed. “But I’d have to get information on how to take care of a snake first.”

Marui finally stopped coughing and calmed down enough to be able to breathe normally. “Sounds like a good idea,” he said, not looking at Akaya. He was sure he would burst into laughter again if he did right now.

“Think your brother would have a clue?” Akaya glanced at the redhead. He couldn’t help it. His eyes just kind of wandered over to the guy for a moment.

Hazue pouted as he thought about it, then he shook his head. “Not a clue. It’d be fun not telling him beforehand, though.”

Marui sat in silence for a while, thinking. About the animals, about Akaya, about this entire situation. Then he looked at Hazue. “Just to see his surprised face?”

“If you do get that snake, you have to keep the name Bandana-chan,” Akaya grinned. He looked back at his half-eaten bowl of ramen. “Om nom nom,” he murmured, digging in to eat the rest.

Hazue smiled and nodded. “Since it’s already named, it might take offense if I change the name, anyway.”

“It is a bandana-snake, after all.” Marui agreed. “So it’s gotta be Bandana-chan.”

Akaya glanced over at Marui. “He’s gonna get this snake, isn’t he?” After all, it already had a name and everything.

Hazue placed his hands against his cheeks and rested his elbows on the table, only smiling innocently at Akaya.

“Not a surprise if he does.” Marui grinned at them both.

“Let me know when, okay kid?” Akaya paused eating for a moment. “I want to see the look on your brother’s face when you bring back a snake.”

“Okay.” Hazue nodded.

“Me too, me too.” Marui put up his hand, waving it slightly. He was sure it’d be totally amusing.

Akaya finished and looked at the other two. “You guys done?”

“Yup.” Hazue put down his chopsticks.

“‘most.” Marui replied, finishing his ramen just a few seconds after giving his answer. “Now I’m all done~”

“Well, what do you guys want to do now?” Akaya asked as he paid for their meals. “Want to go anywhere else?” Not that he’d be paying for all of them again if they did go somewhere.

“Dunno.” Hazue said, truthfully not really sure.

“Same.” Marui stretched as he stood up. “Should we head back? We could always do something back there.”

“Sounds good to me.” Their whole outing had been to accompany Marui to the pet store after all.

Hazue nodded and waited for Marui to get up. He was sort of stuck between the wall and the oldest of the two older boys.

Marui laughed. “Sorry sorry.” He moved out of the way so that Hazue could get out from where he sat. Well, it had been a really good day, he concluded.

“And off we go again,” Akaya declared once they’d left the ramen shop.

“Are we going back now?” Hazue asked. He didn’t know if he wanted to go back or not yet, but he didn’t want to wander around alone.

“Either way is fine by me.” He didn’t mind if they went somewhere else or if they went back, really. “I’ll let the two of you decide.”

“I honestly don’t care.” And Akaya didn’t.

“I don’t know.” Because he didn’t know what he wanted right now.

The redhead rolled his eyes. “Well that sure helps.” He tugged at both boys. “Let’s just go back, then.”

“Whatever you say,” Akaya shrugged, letting himself be pulled along.

Hazue followed silently, allowing Marui to drag him towards the apartments.

Marui just hummed happily and continued to pull them after him down the street.