Family Matters: Chapter 17
Title: Family matters ~ Chapter 17/22
Pairing: Jun, Masaki, Sho, Satoshi, Kazu (there are going to be additional side-characters though. No OCs.) I'm trying to give each of the five their well-deserves spot-light <3
Rating: PG
Multi-chapter
Genre: family!AU in which Arashi are brothers :-) slice of life, a little drama (and I'm trying to add some light-hearted, funny moments to it too)
Summary: Since they were little they were always close to each other. And when unfortunate events force them to live together without their parents, it's only natural that they try to make the best out of it.
The day has started normally with him spending time in his atelier and painting, but continued completely weird. Actually it’s one of his regular lunch-meeting days with Sho, nothing unusual about that. Sho has sent him a message where to meet - a fancy restaurant, and surprisingly close to home, something they normally don’t choose as they need longer back to work. So, maybe Sho wants to take a longer break? And it’s not that unusual that he goes for new, fancy restaurants. But then, when they finally met, Sho basically waltzed into the restaurant with a broad grin on his face. He looked so silly and cute that it reminded Satoshi of the time when he was still a teen.
“You won’t believe what happened!” Sho says after they ordered their way too expensive food, and Sho didn’t even wince when he saw the price in the menu.
“What?” Satoshi wants to know.
“Yesterday around lunch Jun came to visit me,” Sho grins. “It never happened before! Isn’t that cool? I was so happy, and he was so cute. Ah~ I hope he will come and visit again.”
Satoshi almost chokes on his appetizer as Sho revealed this news. “For real?” he asks carefully. “He came without a fight? You didn’t have to drag him or blackmail him into having lunch with you?”
Sho grins. “Yes, completely without a fight, he was the one who surprised me, dropping by unannounced! We didn’t argue at all. We had an intense and good talk, and so deep. I’m so happy.”
Oh man, he can be so silly sometimes, it’s unbelievable. Satoshi chuckles. “Please tell me you didn’t react like that when he dropped by?”
“Of course not,” Sho hums while he takes a bite from his salad. “I’m saving all my exclusive reactions for you.”
Satoshi sneers. “Well, aren’t I lucky?”
He gets a warm smile as a reaction though. “I’m sorry,” Sho says softly. “I’m just so happy that Jun is all normal towards me again, almost like it was a few years ago. After all the drama I can’t believe he talks to me all casual and open again, takes advice from me, stops from provoking me when I point it out to him.” He smiles brightly. “And even consults me in a problem he has. I still can’t believe it. Oh my god, I think I need to get drunk to grasp it completely.”
Satoshi chuckles. That sentiment he can clearly understand and feel for. Of course Sho is happy to finally have a normal relationship with both his youngest brothers again. He is about to say something, but they get interrupted by a shadow approaching them. He hopes it’s their waiter with their drinks as he’s been waiting for his wine for half an hour now. But it isn’t.
Sho doesn’t look too surprised, but Satoshi looks up from his lobster in mere astonishment when Masaki basically waltzes into the restaurant towards them, dragging Jun along. He and Sho are the only customers sitting at the terrace.
“Masaki? Jun?” Sho says calmly. “I didn’t know you were coming.”
“Me neither,” Satoshi agrees.
“Oh, Jun was hungry,” Masaki explains.
“I wasn’t hungry.” By the glance Jun throws towards Masaki, Satoshi is pretty sure that the younger one was tricked into this. Masaki-chan seems to be quite good at manipulating them recently. He wonders when he learned these tricks.
“Don’t forget what you promised me. Friendly.” Masaki smiles brightly and waves at the waitress. “Lobster?” he asks Jun.
“I didn’t promise you anything,” Jun answers calmly. And- “No, I don’t like it when my food looks at me.”
Sho chuckles slightly. “You could have prawns,” he suggests.
“They have eyes too,” Satoshi intervenes. “How about calamari?”
Jun seems to waver for a moment, while Masaki forces him to sit down on a chair. “I’ll take prawns.”
Sho’s lips tug slightly in amusement. Satoshi on the other hand doesn’t know if he should let out a sigh now or grin. Jun has a very interesting way to lead this open war. He decides to go for the last option and chuckles. “I never thought I would slip down the favourite brother list. It’s unbelievable that even Sho passed me.”
“Even?” Sho mimics his voice, sounding a little bit insulted. “I’m working hard at being a good brother, you know?”
“There is a list?” Masaki intervenes curiously. “I didn’t know that. Where on that list am I?”
Jun looks at him for a while before he chuckles slightly. “Where do you think you are?”
Masaki laughs happily. “Not at the bottom it seems! I might just win against all of you.”
“This is not a competition.” Sho apparently tries to reason. He should know better, Satoshi thinks, because secretly it is.
“Well then-“ Masaki pats Jun’s shoulders and grabs the three baskets with ingredients. “I’m heading home. Happy lunch~”
With that he disappears like the storm he can be sometimes. With him the lightness of the situation disappears too. Jun clears his throat. “What are you even doing here?” he asks, apparently trying to sound casual. “Isn’t this restaurant way too elite?”
“Sho’s choice,” Satoshi says calmly. “I wanted to go for the snack bar.”
Jun smiles slightly. Then they all fall into an awkward silence until - out of all - Sho is the one who breaks it. “Wow.” He sighs. “Talking about a new stage of awkward and weird.” He looks at Jun. “What did Masaki mean with being friendly?”
Jun obviously feels a bit flustered at that question. “Masaki,“ he finally says carefully. “Was in his Buddha- and wise-old-man-mode again.”
“And?” Sho continues to ask. In this specific case, Satoshi is glad that Sho does the questioning. He is a bit surprised though that Jun answers without any sign of annoyance. But then, Sho has tried his best during the last weeks not to make his questions sound like an interrogation again. And Jun has obviously tried to make Sho’s life easier. He almost feels envious at how these two are able to move towards each other and settle their arguments and fights. “What did Buddha-Masaki say?” Sho continues curiously.
“That I’m not being understanding and friendly enough towards Sa-chan. That I’m not giving him a real chance, while at the same time I ask him to do exactly that,” Jun answers honestly. Satoshi puts his knife and fork away when he hears that. “He thinks I’m being too impatient and harsh in my judgment.”
“Ah,” Sho says and tilts his head.
“So, what do you think?” Jun asks Sho directly now.
“He is probably right,” Sho agrees carefully. “Maybe not as dramatic as you made it just sound. But, well, we already talked about it…”
Jun nods. Satoshi’s wine finally arrives, together with Jun’s prawns. They have eyes. “Probably, it might be true,” Jun admits.
“It’s okay that you aren’t happy with me,” Satoshi interrupts their talk. “I know where you are coming from. Kazu-chan is too special for you. You are not too harsh in your judgment.”
“I promised him everything will be alright. And now I don’t know if I can keep up to that promise,” Jun explains while he pokes one of the prawns, his face grimacing in disgust when he tries to peel the little legs and the head of it. “Hm-“ Jun eyes Sho’s plate thoughtfully. “What are you eating?” he asks all of a sudden.
“Mussels,” Sho answers.
Jun nods. “Tastes good?”
“Yes, it’s alright.”
“They don’t seem to have any eyes… or legs.”
Sho blinks for a moment, then he grins. It’s so obvious that he is clearly amused. “Want to swap?” he asks. “I’m in the mood for prawns now, you know?”
“Well-“ Jun shrugs indifferently, but looks way too relieved when he takes Sho’s plate. “If you insist.” He doesn’t seem too happy with his new food either, but apparently he can somewhat handle it.
Satoshi waits for him to take a few bites before he picks up the topic again. “You promised it would be alright?” he wants to know. “To Kazu?”
“It will be alright,” Sho says and sounds surprisingly convincing in Satoshi’s ears.
“Jun,“ Satoshi starts carefully. “I love him, dearly. We just had a fight. You need to give us some time.”
“How long do you think you’ll need?” Jun wants to know.
“Good question,” Sho agrees and nods a bit. “If we all handled our last fights like that, Masaki, Jun and I would have probably stopped talking to each other last year already.”
Satoshi sighs. Sho has been pestering him with that topic since last week. Almost every day. He knows, he is right. It’s just that his and Kazu’s pacing is completely different, slower and more quiet. A bit lazy. Like they both wait and see, and watch and hope for the other to make the first step. When he told Masaki and Sho these thoughts last week, both of them had just rolled their eyes. You are the older one, for Christ’s sake, Sho has finally told him. Make the first step. My face is falling asleep until one of you finally makes a move.
This is worse than a soap opera. Masaki had agreed. Do you want to wait until you are 80!?
“You are dozing off, Satoshi.” Jun’s voice brings him back to reality. He chuckles all of a sudden, like he has forgotten to be mad at him. More likely though, Masaki’s and Sho’s words have finally sunk in and he just wants to be fairer.
Satoshi angles for something in his bag, pulling out a folder. “Here,” he says.
“Another picture?” Sho asks suspiciously before Satoshi can even tell him that it’s not about these new pictures but about the envelope at the bottom of the folder. “Postcards for the exhibition? What’s this-“ Sho takes one of the pictures in his hands. It’s one with a bunch of shadows, who almost break under the heavy package they are carrying. “Are these humans carrying the world on their shoulders?”
“Pollution, war, deforestation of the rain forest,” Satoshi tells them a few of the things he symbolized in this picture.
“They are so cool.” Jun sighs. He has always had a weird love for his pictures, much to everyone’s surprise.
Satoshi smiles warmly at that. “Thank you. But I wanted you to see what’s beneath it.”
“Couldn’t you say that earlier!?” Sho scolds him but takes the envelope nevertheless. He pulls a picture out of it, one with loud and radiating colours. “That’s the five of us, in rainbow colours,” Sho says in surprise. “So you know how to paint something with colours? Though you loaded it with symbols again. What do you want to say with it?”
Satoshi chuckles and takes the picture out of his hand to hand it to Jun instead. “We are family. We fight and make up. We always love each other, no matter what happens. But we are also five individuals who handle problems differently. It’s that difficult sometimes. And at the same time that simple.” He pauses. “Have some trust in me please. In us.”
Jun takes the picture in his hands and looks at it with warm eyes. “I trust you, Sa-chan,” he says. And: “I’m sorry for giving you such a hard time.”
Sho nods contently and Satoshi feels so relieved all of a sudden that he can feel how his eyes get teared up. His twin seems to have noticed because he throws him a sympathetic glance before he skilfully shifts the attention towards something else, much to Satoshi’s relief. “You know,“ Sho muses and pokes one of the prawns. “I’m okay with the eyes. But it’s really weird that they have legs.”
“Let’s go to Sa-chan’s snack bar next time,” Jun suggests “Or let Masaki cook.”
“That’s probably a wise idea.”
~~~
Directly after lunch he meets Kame. The restaurant was surprisingly near to the college Kame is studying at, so Satoshi waits outside, hoping he didn’t mix up the days and times the class ends as Kame has just told him about it a few days ago. But he hasn’t - gladly - and when Kame walks out of the building, his eyes light up in happiness about the surprise.
“I didn’t expect you to come,” he smiles as he approaches Satoshi in a fast pace, waving like crazy. He is so young and energetic, it’s almost impossible to grasp sometimes.
“Well, thought I could steal half an hour from you before I have to go back to the craziness of my exhibition preparation.” Satoshi smiles, taking Kame’s hand into his and tugging him along.
Kame points towards their hands. “Is that really okay?”
“Well, for me it doesn’t matter. Even in my job everyone already knows I’m doing whatever I want. Is it okay for you?”
“Yeah,” Kame grins. “Definitely. So, you are inviting me for coffee?”
Satoshi grins. “Apparently, now I have to.”
“Awesome.” Kame points at the direction where the coffee shop is supposed to be. “They have opened a new one here, with tons of fancy stuff.”
“Well then, let’s go there.”
The walk is about ten minutes, and for most of the time they stay silent, just enjoying the rare quality time with each other. “I’m sorry for being so busy recently,” Satoshi says all of a sudden. “It’s not like I don’t want to spend any time with you, you know that, right?”
Kame blinks in surprise, then he laughs. “Don’t worry,” he chuckles. “I know, the exhibition is crazy, and then you still have issues at home. I know and understand.” He halts and pokes Satoshi’s chest with his finger. “But once the exhibition is over you’ll reserve a whole day and night for me!”
“At least,” Satoshi grins.
They buy their coffee to go as they rather like to spend some more time alone, walking around, instead of sitting in the tiny coffee shop. Cappuccino for Satoshi, super-creamy-vanilla-nut-frappuccino-with-extra-marshmallow-topping for Kame. “You really need to meet Masaki at one point,” Satoshi mumbles in amazement when he eyes the huge cup with sugary coffee. “He will be so happy to finally meet someone who shares his addiction for sweets. It’s almost cute that you like all that stuff, like you are still 12 or so.”
“Hey,” Kame pouts. “Don’t make me sound like a child.”
Satoshi chuckles, and instead of answering he pulls Kame along. They roam the pedestrian area with some little shops, until something catches Satoshi’s eyes. “What the hell is that?” he asks in amazement as they halt in front of a fancy, extremely modern looking shop.
“Oh, that one is new.” Kame peeks through the shop window. “The owner sells drones and other fancy technology stuff.”
“Oh, that one…” Satoshi eyes a certain tiny object that’s shaped like a small bird. It looks cool and cute at once. “What’s that?”
“I think that’s for sending messages or something like that,” Kame muses. “I guess you can type messages into it and let it fly to someone. Of course only in a certain range.”
“Awesome. Kazu would be crazy about something like that.” It’s weird, isn’t it? Seeing this shop just reminded him of Kazu’s nerdy side immediately, the side Satoshi always found so incredibly cute. “I don’t know when it happened,” Satoshi muses all of a sudden. “But somewhere on my way, during the last years, I’ve completely forgotten how Kazu’s mind works. It’s like I’ve been so lazy and distracted that I didn’t even bother keeping up with him. No surprise he was mad at me.” He pauses. “I think I’ll buy that.”
“Cool!” Kame exclaims and grins. “This means I now know someone who owns something like that.”
Satoshi laughs.
It’s probably too much money he spent on this item, Satoshi knows that. And it’s only something fancy and cool to own, nothing really important and useful. But seeing this shop and these weird items, has made it dawn on him how well he once knew Kazu and how he doesn’t know him at all anymore. It’s like he found a puzzle piece again. For him as a bigger brother that’s really a huge failure. How could it even come that far? Would Kazu have dealt with his obvious problems differently if he had been there for him more like Sho was there for Jun?
When he comes back home he looks for Jun immediately. The latter is in the kitchen with Masaki, helping him to bake banana bread. “It doesn’t look tasty,” Jun muses. “You sure it will be good?”
Masaki grins. “First try. So no, I don’t know. But you are right, it looks horrible. I think I need to think of a way to make it more… appealing.”
“Well.” Jun frowns. “Good luck on that.”
“Hi guys,” Satoshi interrupts them. He throws a glance at Masaki’s creation and nods; it really needs some more appeal to it.
“Satoshi, I didn’t know you were coming home so early!” Masaki smiles and brushes through his brunette locks with his floury fingers.
“I’m just here for an hour maybe,” Satoshi explains. “I need to head back downtown to my atelier later. By the way-“ He takes the bag with the new-achieved item. “Jun, could you give that to Kazu?”
Jun blinks and eyes the package curiously. When he peeks inside, his eyes widen. “Cool! Kazu will love that.”
“Yeah.” Satoshi feels a bit embarrassed all of a sudden. “I basically stumbled over it and couldn’t stop myself from buying it. It probably was a bit too expensive.” He sighs. “Don’t tell him it’s from me okay?”
Jun and Masaki exchange a look and Masaki lets out a clear frustrated sigh. “Why not?”
Before Masaki can scold him for being such a scaredy-cat, Satoshi raises his hands. “It’s not what you think it is. I’m just not sure if he would take it if it’s from me. So, to be safe, just tell him you bought it, Jun.”
Jun sighs, and nods half-heartedly. “I will give it to him tomorrow though. He is at the hospital for a check-up right now, and I don’t think I’ll see him today.”
“Fine with me,” Satoshi says.
Apparently Jun’s task in the kitchen is over and he takes the bag and leaves them alone. Masaki meanwhile eyes Satoshi sceptically. “Is that really all the reason or are you avoiding Kazu-chan?”
To be honest, Satoshi isn’t too sure about that himself. Much to his relief though they get interrupted by Sho. “You are home early too?” Masaki asks in surprise.
“Well.” Sho smiles. “I took a few hours off. Will head to the office later. Listen Masaki…” Satoshi blinks when Sho stops talking, eyeing the ground like he is embarrassed. What the hell is going on now? To his surprise Sho shakes his head, smiling nervously. “Wait here,” he says. “I’m back in a minute. Need to catch something from the car.”
While he is away Masaki throws Satoshi a nervous glance. “Do I need to be scared now?” he asks carefully.
Satoshi frowns. “Not sure.”
Does Sho have a problem to discuss with Masaki, something bad, or did Masaki do something wrong in Sho’s eyes? This is weird because normally Sho is not that unpredictable. Gladly he is back soon, carrying a few bags that are so huge that he has difficulties tugging them along. “Here,” Sho says casually and puts them in front of Masaki. “This is for you.”
Masaki almost drops his kitchen knife in surprise. “What?” he squeals.
“It’s…” Sho blushes. “You know… I… It’s difficult to say,” he finally mumbles. “But I’m just going to tell you.”
“What?” Masaki asks curiously.
“I think recently, or rather during the last two years, I haven’t been particularly understanding and nice towards you. I have given you a hard time for things that weren’t your fault to begin with, and I have hardly shown you any respect for the many good sides you have. Because obviously we all have our good share of bad sides, not only you. But you are very forgiving, and understanding, and while this family almost broke apart, you kept it together. You pushed me towards Jun to understand where I was going wrong in my relationship with him, you were calming and like a solid rock when Kazu was waking up in hospital and you were the only one next to Jun sincerely there for him, you talked reason into Jun concerning Satoshi, and even right now you are doing everything to make Satoshi move towards Kazu.” He pauses. “You could say, this is both an apology from my side because I’ve been a jerk towards you sometimes, and it’s not true that you are not mature and behaving like an adult - I’m sorry for always saying that. And a thank you for all you did for this family during the last year.”
When he has finished, Satoshi’s mouth is basically wide open in surprise, and Masaki’s head is so red like an overripe tomato. “But it’s nothing,” Masaki stutters. “I didn’t do anything, Sho. You did much more. You were the one who changed completely, and who managed to make Jun open up to us again. I’m just around and being weird most of the time, and I hardly know what to say or do most of the time.”
“Well, it just so happens that I think you are awesome,” Sho explains calmly. “And I’m mad at myself for giving you such hard times.”
“He is right, Ma-chan,” Satoshi intervenes before Masaki can say something against Sho’s words. “Just accept that someone praises you, okay?”
Masaki looks like he is about to burst into tears. “You idiots,” he mumbles helplessly. “Of course I love you and would do anything for you. Don’t make it sound so special.”
Sho laughs. “Why don’t you open your present instead of fighting me? I’m dying to know if you like it or not.”
“Me too.” Satoshi eyes the packages curiously. “I have no idea what you bought him, Sho. You are not particularly a genius when it comes to presents.”
Sho smiles. “This time I’m pretty confident.”
His confidence is at the right place it seems because when Masaki roams through the bags, he squeals in delight for around ten minutes. “A popcorn machine, a hotdog maker and a cotton candy machine - I always wanted to have one!” He pauses, eyes gleaming. “A pop-art toaster and donut-maker for mini donuts. Oh my god, imagine all the things I can do with that for my shop.” He drops his bags and basically jumps Sho, wrapping his arms around him. “Thanks so much, you are so cute, Sho-chan. Thank you~ It’s so cool how much you changed and the person you turned into and-”
Satoshi grins. “Now you are both getting too mushy,” he interrupts them, and all of them laugh.
~~~
It’s hours later and deep at night that Satoshi comes home again. After he, Sho and Masaki had eaten the banana bread and Masaki had promised them to try out the hotdog-maker during the next days, he went back to work - Before an exhibition he always has a truckload full of work.
When he checks on the garage now, he can see that Sho’s car isn’t there. He is still at work it seems. Well, it can’t be helped. Busy times are busy. When he opens the door, Masaki waves at him from the kitchen and puts his finger on his lips, signalling him to be silent.
In the living room, he can see that Kazu fell asleep in front of the TV. “Let’s take him upstairs,” Satoshi suggests. “He is going to catch a cold otherwise.”
“Hm~” Masaki nods and hurries to his help. They waver dangerously here and there but manage to carry him upstairs without Kazu waking up. He still needs to take heavy painkillers, which is probably the reason why he sleeps that deeply.
“Good that Jun didn’t see us,” Masaki says with a grin. “He would have laughed at us like crazy.”
“True.” Satoshi smiles when he places a blanket over his younger brother’s body. He brushes through Kazu’s black hair carefully and sighs. “This family is really complicated.”
“Not really,” Masaki says light-heartedly when they both leave the room.
Satoshi closes the door behind them. “Sho is still at work?”
“Yes, he is handling a difficult and important case right now. He said it’s probably going to be really late when he comes home. We shouldn’t wait.”
“And Jun?” he looks around a bit. “It’s Friday. He is hopefully not studying.”
Masaki grins. “Nope.”
“Went jogging?”
“Nope.”
Satoshi chuckles. “You are making this too thrilling, Ma-chan. Where is he? At the movies with Shun?”
Masaki laughs openly. “No.”
Satoshi smiles brightly. “Don’t tell me he went on a date? With who? Our pretty Mao, Shun or the gangster dude? Please, don’t tell me it’s the gangster guy!”
“I don’t know who it is.” Masaki’s lips turn into a warm smile. “I’m not allowed to tell anyone it’s a date anyways because he thinks it’s not.”
Ah, Satoshi chuckles. In these terms Jun apparently is pretty similar to him. A non-date? He wonders with whom. “Jun is a lot more relaxed now, isn’t he?”
“Yes,” Masaki agrees. “He is. I think he stopped overanalysing everything.”
Yeah, Satoshi nods. He gradually grew as a person, more confident and less irritated, less angry. Jun is so much more confident right now. That’s good. Now that Satoshi knows that, he should probably start to focus on his own issues, shouldn’t he?
A/N: I think it's been forever since I wrote from Satoshi's POV Oo
At least Satoshi bought a present for Kazu (though he didn't give it to him personally ><)
Well, I guess, he knows he is overreacting and should try to settle his issues with Kazu, but he was really worried before. It's hard to put all these feelings aside. Also, he and Kazu didn't have such a huge fight like Sho/Jun, nothing that cleared the air between them (They should be lucky they have their other three brothers to push them :D)
Masaki got praised from Sho! He should probably mark this date in his calendar *lol*
Pairing: Jun, Masaki, Sho, Satoshi, Kazu (there are going to be additional side-characters though. No OCs.) I'm trying to give each of the five their well-deserves spot-light <3
Rating: PG
Multi-chapter
Genre: family!AU in which Arashi are brothers :-) slice of life, a little drama (and I'm trying to add some light-hearted, funny moments to it too)
Summary: Since they were little they were always close to each other. And when unfortunate events force them to live together without their parents, it's only natural that they try to make the best out of it.
The day has started normally with him spending time in his atelier and painting, but continued completely weird. Actually it’s one of his regular lunch-meeting days with Sho, nothing unusual about that. Sho has sent him a message where to meet - a fancy restaurant, and surprisingly close to home, something they normally don’t choose as they need longer back to work. So, maybe Sho wants to take a longer break? And it’s not that unusual that he goes for new, fancy restaurants. But then, when they finally met, Sho basically waltzed into the restaurant with a broad grin on his face. He looked so silly and cute that it reminded Satoshi of the time when he was still a teen.
“You won’t believe what happened!” Sho says after they ordered their way too expensive food, and Sho didn’t even wince when he saw the price in the menu.
“What?” Satoshi wants to know.
“Yesterday around lunch Jun came to visit me,” Sho grins. “It never happened before! Isn’t that cool? I was so happy, and he was so cute. Ah~ I hope he will come and visit again.”
Satoshi almost chokes on his appetizer as Sho revealed this news. “For real?” he asks carefully. “He came without a fight? You didn’t have to drag him or blackmail him into having lunch with you?”
Sho grins. “Yes, completely without a fight, he was the one who surprised me, dropping by unannounced! We didn’t argue at all. We had an intense and good talk, and so deep. I’m so happy.”
Oh man, he can be so silly sometimes, it’s unbelievable. Satoshi chuckles. “Please tell me you didn’t react like that when he dropped by?”
“Of course not,” Sho hums while he takes a bite from his salad. “I’m saving all my exclusive reactions for you.”
Satoshi sneers. “Well, aren’t I lucky?”
He gets a warm smile as a reaction though. “I’m sorry,” Sho says softly. “I’m just so happy that Jun is all normal towards me again, almost like it was a few years ago. After all the drama I can’t believe he talks to me all casual and open again, takes advice from me, stops from provoking me when I point it out to him.” He smiles brightly. “And even consults me in a problem he has. I still can’t believe it. Oh my god, I think I need to get drunk to grasp it completely.”
Satoshi chuckles. That sentiment he can clearly understand and feel for. Of course Sho is happy to finally have a normal relationship with both his youngest brothers again. He is about to say something, but they get interrupted by a shadow approaching them. He hopes it’s their waiter with their drinks as he’s been waiting for his wine for half an hour now. But it isn’t.
Sho doesn’t look too surprised, but Satoshi looks up from his lobster in mere astonishment when Masaki basically waltzes into the restaurant towards them, dragging Jun along. He and Sho are the only customers sitting at the terrace.
“Masaki? Jun?” Sho says calmly. “I didn’t know you were coming.”
“Me neither,” Satoshi agrees.
“Oh, Jun was hungry,” Masaki explains.
“I wasn’t hungry.” By the glance Jun throws towards Masaki, Satoshi is pretty sure that the younger one was tricked into this. Masaki-chan seems to be quite good at manipulating them recently. He wonders when he learned these tricks.
“Don’t forget what you promised me. Friendly.” Masaki smiles brightly and waves at the waitress. “Lobster?” he asks Jun.
“I didn’t promise you anything,” Jun answers calmly. And- “No, I don’t like it when my food looks at me.”
Sho chuckles slightly. “You could have prawns,” he suggests.
“They have eyes too,” Satoshi intervenes. “How about calamari?”
Jun seems to waver for a moment, while Masaki forces him to sit down on a chair. “I’ll take prawns.”
Sho’s lips tug slightly in amusement. Satoshi on the other hand doesn’t know if he should let out a sigh now or grin. Jun has a very interesting way to lead this open war. He decides to go for the last option and chuckles. “I never thought I would slip down the favourite brother list. It’s unbelievable that even Sho passed me.”
“Even?” Sho mimics his voice, sounding a little bit insulted. “I’m working hard at being a good brother, you know?”
“There is a list?” Masaki intervenes curiously. “I didn’t know that. Where on that list am I?”
Jun looks at him for a while before he chuckles slightly. “Where do you think you are?”
Masaki laughs happily. “Not at the bottom it seems! I might just win against all of you.”
“This is not a competition.” Sho apparently tries to reason. He should know better, Satoshi thinks, because secretly it is.
“Well then-“ Masaki pats Jun’s shoulders and grabs the three baskets with ingredients. “I’m heading home. Happy lunch~”
With that he disappears like the storm he can be sometimes. With him the lightness of the situation disappears too. Jun clears his throat. “What are you even doing here?” he asks, apparently trying to sound casual. “Isn’t this restaurant way too elite?”
“Sho’s choice,” Satoshi says calmly. “I wanted to go for the snack bar.”
Jun smiles slightly. Then they all fall into an awkward silence until - out of all - Sho is the one who breaks it. “Wow.” He sighs. “Talking about a new stage of awkward and weird.” He looks at Jun. “What did Masaki mean with being friendly?”
Jun obviously feels a bit flustered at that question. “Masaki,“ he finally says carefully. “Was in his Buddha- and wise-old-man-mode again.”
“And?” Sho continues to ask. In this specific case, Satoshi is glad that Sho does the questioning. He is a bit surprised though that Jun answers without any sign of annoyance. But then, Sho has tried his best during the last weeks not to make his questions sound like an interrogation again. And Jun has obviously tried to make Sho’s life easier. He almost feels envious at how these two are able to move towards each other and settle their arguments and fights. “What did Buddha-Masaki say?” Sho continues curiously.
“That I’m not being understanding and friendly enough towards Sa-chan. That I’m not giving him a real chance, while at the same time I ask him to do exactly that,” Jun answers honestly. Satoshi puts his knife and fork away when he hears that. “He thinks I’m being too impatient and harsh in my judgment.”
“Ah,” Sho says and tilts his head.
“So, what do you think?” Jun asks Sho directly now.
“He is probably right,” Sho agrees carefully. “Maybe not as dramatic as you made it just sound. But, well, we already talked about it…”
Jun nods. Satoshi’s wine finally arrives, together with Jun’s prawns. They have eyes. “Probably, it might be true,” Jun admits.
“It’s okay that you aren’t happy with me,” Satoshi interrupts their talk. “I know where you are coming from. Kazu-chan is too special for you. You are not too harsh in your judgment.”
“I promised him everything will be alright. And now I don’t know if I can keep up to that promise,” Jun explains while he pokes one of the prawns, his face grimacing in disgust when he tries to peel the little legs and the head of it. “Hm-“ Jun eyes Sho’s plate thoughtfully. “What are you eating?” he asks all of a sudden.
“Mussels,” Sho answers.
Jun nods. “Tastes good?”
“Yes, it’s alright.”
“They don’t seem to have any eyes… or legs.”
Sho blinks for a moment, then he grins. It’s so obvious that he is clearly amused. “Want to swap?” he asks. “I’m in the mood for prawns now, you know?”
“Well-“ Jun shrugs indifferently, but looks way too relieved when he takes Sho’s plate. “If you insist.” He doesn’t seem too happy with his new food either, but apparently he can somewhat handle it.
Satoshi waits for him to take a few bites before he picks up the topic again. “You promised it would be alright?” he wants to know. “To Kazu?”
“It will be alright,” Sho says and sounds surprisingly convincing in Satoshi’s ears.
“Jun,“ Satoshi starts carefully. “I love him, dearly. We just had a fight. You need to give us some time.”
“How long do you think you’ll need?” Jun wants to know.
“Good question,” Sho agrees and nods a bit. “If we all handled our last fights like that, Masaki, Jun and I would have probably stopped talking to each other last year already.”
Satoshi sighs. Sho has been pestering him with that topic since last week. Almost every day. He knows, he is right. It’s just that his and Kazu’s pacing is completely different, slower and more quiet. A bit lazy. Like they both wait and see, and watch and hope for the other to make the first step. When he told Masaki and Sho these thoughts last week, both of them had just rolled their eyes. You are the older one, for Christ’s sake, Sho has finally told him. Make the first step. My face is falling asleep until one of you finally makes a move.
This is worse than a soap opera. Masaki had agreed. Do you want to wait until you are 80!?
“You are dozing off, Satoshi.” Jun’s voice brings him back to reality. He chuckles all of a sudden, like he has forgotten to be mad at him. More likely though, Masaki’s and Sho’s words have finally sunk in and he just wants to be fairer.
Satoshi angles for something in his bag, pulling out a folder. “Here,” he says.
“Another picture?” Sho asks suspiciously before Satoshi can even tell him that it’s not about these new pictures but about the envelope at the bottom of the folder. “Postcards for the exhibition? What’s this-“ Sho takes one of the pictures in his hands. It’s one with a bunch of shadows, who almost break under the heavy package they are carrying. “Are these humans carrying the world on their shoulders?”
“Pollution, war, deforestation of the rain forest,” Satoshi tells them a few of the things he symbolized in this picture.
“They are so cool.” Jun sighs. He has always had a weird love for his pictures, much to everyone’s surprise.
Satoshi smiles warmly at that. “Thank you. But I wanted you to see what’s beneath it.”
“Couldn’t you say that earlier!?” Sho scolds him but takes the envelope nevertheless. He pulls a picture out of it, one with loud and radiating colours. “That’s the five of us, in rainbow colours,” Sho says in surprise. “So you know how to paint something with colours? Though you loaded it with symbols again. What do you want to say with it?”
Satoshi chuckles and takes the picture out of his hand to hand it to Jun instead. “We are family. We fight and make up. We always love each other, no matter what happens. But we are also five individuals who handle problems differently. It’s that difficult sometimes. And at the same time that simple.” He pauses. “Have some trust in me please. In us.”
Jun takes the picture in his hands and looks at it with warm eyes. “I trust you, Sa-chan,” he says. And: “I’m sorry for giving you such a hard time.”
Sho nods contently and Satoshi feels so relieved all of a sudden that he can feel how his eyes get teared up. His twin seems to have noticed because he throws him a sympathetic glance before he skilfully shifts the attention towards something else, much to Satoshi’s relief. “You know,“ Sho muses and pokes one of the prawns. “I’m okay with the eyes. But it’s really weird that they have legs.”
“Let’s go to Sa-chan’s snack bar next time,” Jun suggests “Or let Masaki cook.”
“That’s probably a wise idea.”
~~~
Directly after lunch he meets Kame. The restaurant was surprisingly near to the college Kame is studying at, so Satoshi waits outside, hoping he didn’t mix up the days and times the class ends as Kame has just told him about it a few days ago. But he hasn’t - gladly - and when Kame walks out of the building, his eyes light up in happiness about the surprise.
“I didn’t expect you to come,” he smiles as he approaches Satoshi in a fast pace, waving like crazy. He is so young and energetic, it’s almost impossible to grasp sometimes.
“Well, thought I could steal half an hour from you before I have to go back to the craziness of my exhibition preparation.” Satoshi smiles, taking Kame’s hand into his and tugging him along.
Kame points towards their hands. “Is that really okay?”
“Well, for me it doesn’t matter. Even in my job everyone already knows I’m doing whatever I want. Is it okay for you?”
“Yeah,” Kame grins. “Definitely. So, you are inviting me for coffee?”
Satoshi grins. “Apparently, now I have to.”
“Awesome.” Kame points at the direction where the coffee shop is supposed to be. “They have opened a new one here, with tons of fancy stuff.”
“Well then, let’s go there.”
The walk is about ten minutes, and for most of the time they stay silent, just enjoying the rare quality time with each other. “I’m sorry for being so busy recently,” Satoshi says all of a sudden. “It’s not like I don’t want to spend any time with you, you know that, right?”
Kame blinks in surprise, then he laughs. “Don’t worry,” he chuckles. “I know, the exhibition is crazy, and then you still have issues at home. I know and understand.” He halts and pokes Satoshi’s chest with his finger. “But once the exhibition is over you’ll reserve a whole day and night for me!”
“At least,” Satoshi grins.
They buy their coffee to go as they rather like to spend some more time alone, walking around, instead of sitting in the tiny coffee shop. Cappuccino for Satoshi, super-creamy-vanilla-nut-frappuccino-with-extra-marshmallow-topping for Kame. “You really need to meet Masaki at one point,” Satoshi mumbles in amazement when he eyes the huge cup with sugary coffee. “He will be so happy to finally meet someone who shares his addiction for sweets. It’s almost cute that you like all that stuff, like you are still 12 or so.”
“Hey,” Kame pouts. “Don’t make me sound like a child.”
Satoshi chuckles, and instead of answering he pulls Kame along. They roam the pedestrian area with some little shops, until something catches Satoshi’s eyes. “What the hell is that?” he asks in amazement as they halt in front of a fancy, extremely modern looking shop.
“Oh, that one is new.” Kame peeks through the shop window. “The owner sells drones and other fancy technology stuff.”
“Oh, that one…” Satoshi eyes a certain tiny object that’s shaped like a small bird. It looks cool and cute at once. “What’s that?”
“I think that’s for sending messages or something like that,” Kame muses. “I guess you can type messages into it and let it fly to someone. Of course only in a certain range.”
“Awesome. Kazu would be crazy about something like that.” It’s weird, isn’t it? Seeing this shop just reminded him of Kazu’s nerdy side immediately, the side Satoshi always found so incredibly cute. “I don’t know when it happened,” Satoshi muses all of a sudden. “But somewhere on my way, during the last years, I’ve completely forgotten how Kazu’s mind works. It’s like I’ve been so lazy and distracted that I didn’t even bother keeping up with him. No surprise he was mad at me.” He pauses. “I think I’ll buy that.”
“Cool!” Kame exclaims and grins. “This means I now know someone who owns something like that.”
Satoshi laughs.
It’s probably too much money he spent on this item, Satoshi knows that. And it’s only something fancy and cool to own, nothing really important and useful. But seeing this shop and these weird items, has made it dawn on him how well he once knew Kazu and how he doesn’t know him at all anymore. It’s like he found a puzzle piece again. For him as a bigger brother that’s really a huge failure. How could it even come that far? Would Kazu have dealt with his obvious problems differently if he had been there for him more like Sho was there for Jun?
When he comes back home he looks for Jun immediately. The latter is in the kitchen with Masaki, helping him to bake banana bread. “It doesn’t look tasty,” Jun muses. “You sure it will be good?”
Masaki grins. “First try. So no, I don’t know. But you are right, it looks horrible. I think I need to think of a way to make it more… appealing.”
“Well.” Jun frowns. “Good luck on that.”
“Hi guys,” Satoshi interrupts them. He throws a glance at Masaki’s creation and nods; it really needs some more appeal to it.
“Satoshi, I didn’t know you were coming home so early!” Masaki smiles and brushes through his brunette locks with his floury fingers.
“I’m just here for an hour maybe,” Satoshi explains. “I need to head back downtown to my atelier later. By the way-“ He takes the bag with the new-achieved item. “Jun, could you give that to Kazu?”
Jun blinks and eyes the package curiously. When he peeks inside, his eyes widen. “Cool! Kazu will love that.”
“Yeah.” Satoshi feels a bit embarrassed all of a sudden. “I basically stumbled over it and couldn’t stop myself from buying it. It probably was a bit too expensive.” He sighs. “Don’t tell him it’s from me okay?”
Jun and Masaki exchange a look and Masaki lets out a clear frustrated sigh. “Why not?”
Before Masaki can scold him for being such a scaredy-cat, Satoshi raises his hands. “It’s not what you think it is. I’m just not sure if he would take it if it’s from me. So, to be safe, just tell him you bought it, Jun.”
Jun sighs, and nods half-heartedly. “I will give it to him tomorrow though. He is at the hospital for a check-up right now, and I don’t think I’ll see him today.”
“Fine with me,” Satoshi says.
Apparently Jun’s task in the kitchen is over and he takes the bag and leaves them alone. Masaki meanwhile eyes Satoshi sceptically. “Is that really all the reason or are you avoiding Kazu-chan?”
To be honest, Satoshi isn’t too sure about that himself. Much to his relief though they get interrupted by Sho. “You are home early too?” Masaki asks in surprise.
“Well.” Sho smiles. “I took a few hours off. Will head to the office later. Listen Masaki…” Satoshi blinks when Sho stops talking, eyeing the ground like he is embarrassed. What the hell is going on now? To his surprise Sho shakes his head, smiling nervously. “Wait here,” he says. “I’m back in a minute. Need to catch something from the car.”
While he is away Masaki throws Satoshi a nervous glance. “Do I need to be scared now?” he asks carefully.
Satoshi frowns. “Not sure.”
Does Sho have a problem to discuss with Masaki, something bad, or did Masaki do something wrong in Sho’s eyes? This is weird because normally Sho is not that unpredictable. Gladly he is back soon, carrying a few bags that are so huge that he has difficulties tugging them along. “Here,” Sho says casually and puts them in front of Masaki. “This is for you.”
Masaki almost drops his kitchen knife in surprise. “What?” he squeals.
“It’s…” Sho blushes. “You know… I… It’s difficult to say,” he finally mumbles. “But I’m just going to tell you.”
“What?” Masaki asks curiously.
“I think recently, or rather during the last two years, I haven’t been particularly understanding and nice towards you. I have given you a hard time for things that weren’t your fault to begin with, and I have hardly shown you any respect for the many good sides you have. Because obviously we all have our good share of bad sides, not only you. But you are very forgiving, and understanding, and while this family almost broke apart, you kept it together. You pushed me towards Jun to understand where I was going wrong in my relationship with him, you were calming and like a solid rock when Kazu was waking up in hospital and you were the only one next to Jun sincerely there for him, you talked reason into Jun concerning Satoshi, and even right now you are doing everything to make Satoshi move towards Kazu.” He pauses. “You could say, this is both an apology from my side because I’ve been a jerk towards you sometimes, and it’s not true that you are not mature and behaving like an adult - I’m sorry for always saying that. And a thank you for all you did for this family during the last year.”
When he has finished, Satoshi’s mouth is basically wide open in surprise, and Masaki’s head is so red like an overripe tomato. “But it’s nothing,” Masaki stutters. “I didn’t do anything, Sho. You did much more. You were the one who changed completely, and who managed to make Jun open up to us again. I’m just around and being weird most of the time, and I hardly know what to say or do most of the time.”
“Well, it just so happens that I think you are awesome,” Sho explains calmly. “And I’m mad at myself for giving you such hard times.”
“He is right, Ma-chan,” Satoshi intervenes before Masaki can say something against Sho’s words. “Just accept that someone praises you, okay?”
Masaki looks like he is about to burst into tears. “You idiots,” he mumbles helplessly. “Of course I love you and would do anything for you. Don’t make it sound so special.”
Sho laughs. “Why don’t you open your present instead of fighting me? I’m dying to know if you like it or not.”
“Me too.” Satoshi eyes the packages curiously. “I have no idea what you bought him, Sho. You are not particularly a genius when it comes to presents.”
Sho smiles. “This time I’m pretty confident.”
His confidence is at the right place it seems because when Masaki roams through the bags, he squeals in delight for around ten minutes. “A popcorn machine, a hotdog maker and a cotton candy machine - I always wanted to have one!” He pauses, eyes gleaming. “A pop-art toaster and donut-maker for mini donuts. Oh my god, imagine all the things I can do with that for my shop.” He drops his bags and basically jumps Sho, wrapping his arms around him. “Thanks so much, you are so cute, Sho-chan. Thank you~ It’s so cool how much you changed and the person you turned into and-”
Satoshi grins. “Now you are both getting too mushy,” he interrupts them, and all of them laugh.
~~~
It’s hours later and deep at night that Satoshi comes home again. After he, Sho and Masaki had eaten the banana bread and Masaki had promised them to try out the hotdog-maker during the next days, he went back to work - Before an exhibition he always has a truckload full of work.
When he checks on the garage now, he can see that Sho’s car isn’t there. He is still at work it seems. Well, it can’t be helped. Busy times are busy. When he opens the door, Masaki waves at him from the kitchen and puts his finger on his lips, signalling him to be silent.
In the living room, he can see that Kazu fell asleep in front of the TV. “Let’s take him upstairs,” Satoshi suggests. “He is going to catch a cold otherwise.”
“Hm~” Masaki nods and hurries to his help. They waver dangerously here and there but manage to carry him upstairs without Kazu waking up. He still needs to take heavy painkillers, which is probably the reason why he sleeps that deeply.
“Good that Jun didn’t see us,” Masaki says with a grin. “He would have laughed at us like crazy.”
“True.” Satoshi smiles when he places a blanket over his younger brother’s body. He brushes through Kazu’s black hair carefully and sighs. “This family is really complicated.”
“Not really,” Masaki says light-heartedly when they both leave the room.
Satoshi closes the door behind them. “Sho is still at work?”
“Yes, he is handling a difficult and important case right now. He said it’s probably going to be really late when he comes home. We shouldn’t wait.”
“And Jun?” he looks around a bit. “It’s Friday. He is hopefully not studying.”
Masaki grins. “Nope.”
“Went jogging?”
“Nope.”
Satoshi chuckles. “You are making this too thrilling, Ma-chan. Where is he? At the movies with Shun?”
Masaki laughs openly. “No.”
Satoshi smiles brightly. “Don’t tell me he went on a date? With who? Our pretty Mao, Shun or the gangster dude? Please, don’t tell me it’s the gangster guy!”
“I don’t know who it is.” Masaki’s lips turn into a warm smile. “I’m not allowed to tell anyone it’s a date anyways because he thinks it’s not.”
Ah, Satoshi chuckles. In these terms Jun apparently is pretty similar to him. A non-date? He wonders with whom. “Jun is a lot more relaxed now, isn’t he?”
“Yes,” Masaki agrees. “He is. I think he stopped overanalysing everything.”
Yeah, Satoshi nods. He gradually grew as a person, more confident and less irritated, less angry. Jun is so much more confident right now. That’s good. Now that Satoshi knows that, he should probably start to focus on his own issues, shouldn’t he?
A/N: I think it's been forever since I wrote from Satoshi's POV Oo
At least Satoshi bought a present for Kazu (though he didn't give it to him personally ><)
Well, I guess, he knows he is overreacting and should try to settle his issues with Kazu, but he was really worried before. It's hard to put all these feelings aside. Also, he and Kazu didn't have such a huge fight like Sho/Jun, nothing that cleared the air between them (They should be lucky they have their other three brothers to push them :D)
Masaki got praised from Sho! He should probably mark this date in his calendar *lol*