Hanabi 15/?? - ReitaXRuki
Title: Hanabi
Chapter: 15/??
Author: chuu ( akichuu)
Fandom: JRock, Gazette
Pairings: ReitaXRuki. Some other pairings in the background that you might find later on...
Overall Rating: PG
Genre: Drop dead fluffy.
Warnings: n/a
Summary: This time, Reita had screwed it all completely... How could he forget such an important thing?
Comments: Err... I don't know where is my new beta *pokes
momiji_manjuu*, but I can't keep everybody waiting for too long... This chapter is un-beta-ed, so point out the mistakes and I'll be happy to fix them.
Yay! I love this chapter, personally... And I love Nee-chan's part in this.
And to
fujipuri, you know what, this might be a het. fic like you said... But I like it, the merrier the better XXDDDD
Go on, read it, Chapter 15~ *dances*
Hanabi : 15
Reita and the world of premonitions... They never got along, and it was beyond Reita's predictions that he was going home just to meet a harsh punch on his shoulder coming from a furious little boy. But here he was, rubbing his pained shoulder, staring in disbelieve at Chibi who had just punched him--quite a hard punch, it was--and was glaring up angrily at Reita at the moment. "YOU SAID YOU WOULDN'T BE GOING ANYWHERE AFTER SCHOOL!!!" Ruki screamed, panting, his fists held shakily by his sides, and Reita didn't need a warning to keep his mouth shut and let Ruki blow up in front of him, otherwise he'd get one of those fists punching him hard on the face.
Reita startled when another person came out from the house, Nee-chan, her face looked troubled as she stood there a bit apart from the boys, seemed doubtful to come any closer, only shifting gaze from Ruki to Reita. "You said... You said you'd wait for me..." Ruki lowered his voice, but it sounded even angrier than his scream just before. A flash came into those watery eyes before Ruki narrowed them and screamed again, "REITA, YOU IDIOT!!!!" And the blonde boy ran off, pushing Reita out of his way before he jumped from the terrace towards the dark streets, while Reita stood confusedly, could only watch Ruki as he quickly disappeared beyond the front gate.
Breathing nervously, keeping his hand on his shoulder, Reita whispered, "What did I do...?"
Nee-chan came to his side, her hand patting on Reita's abused shoulder. "Brother, you've never been a sensitive person, haven't you...?" she shook her head, as if approving her own opinion. With her hand she led Reita to walk into the house. Reita halted, returned his sight peering towards the front gate, somewhere inside his confused mind he thought Ruki would be running right back entering that gate, to say that it was a prank, he was just fooling on Reita, that he wasn't really really mad at Reita. But Nee-chan sighed, "Come on, he's completely upset, Aki-chan. I don't think he'd be coming back anytime sooner or later tonight."
He blinked, turning his head to meet Nee-chan's pitiful gaze on him. "What did I do, Nee-chan?" he asked slowly.
So Reita left Ruki after school, but it wasn't the first time he did it, and Ruki had never been this angry just because of it. Reita didn't remember promising anything to Ruki that he'd be a loyal driver and wait for him everyday after school. He gave Matsushima a ride home, wasn't expecting that she'd be living that far away from Reita's home--it was practically crossing the town, the distance between Matsushima's residence and Reita's home, and Reita reached home just after 6 o'clock when it was already dark. He didn't rush, didn't think he had the reason to, didn't understand that Ruki would be waiting for him at home. Maybe it was a wrong thing, he wasn't giving a ride home for Ruki, but Ruki could always go to his house without Reita's permission, the little boy had oftenly done that.
He still had so many questions in his mind, couldn't evict the image of Ruki running off from him with angry face, but Reita followed anyways when his sister led him inside. As they both reached the living room, that's when Reita's struck with the hard and hurtful reality. He entered his living room with dazed eyes, wandering around to marvel at the distinct difference of decoration, at those balloons placed at many spots, colorful papers dangling, giving a merry kind of a feeling. His eyes stopped at one wall, where a huge white clothe was hung up, he read the writing that was spelled out there with colorful papers, and his heart broke into a thousand pieces.
"It's my birthday..." he whispered painfully, understanding completely now just why exactly Ruki ran off from him that angrily. The words, 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY, REITA-CHAN!' hovered in front of his eyes like some surreal painting, along with the drawing of round yellow objects with eyes and laughing mouths that Ruki liked to name 'Taro-chan' that filled some spots of that white clothe. Watching this, Reita just understood how he had seriously hurt Ruki.
"Yes, brother dear, it's your birthday..." Nee-chan whispered, still standing right next to him. She gave him a kiss on the cheek that startled Reita, making him turn his eyes to look at his sister. "Happy birthday, Aki-chan," she smiled, the traces of regret and pity apparent on that smile. Reita turned right back around when he felt another hand on his back. His mother smiled generously and hugged him with one arm, while her other hand was carrying a stack of plates. "Happy birthday, Son..." she kissed Reita's forehead, while Reita could only gaze unfocusedly. "You silly boy... You even forget your own birthday."
After a while, his mother finally let him go, walking away towards the kitchen carrying those plates. "This..." Reita signed with his eyes rolling around the room, ended on the table in the middle of the room where a... What supposedly was a cake, decorated with little candles that were already burnt almost more than halfway down their ends, laid on top of that table. It wasn't saying anything, it could never say anything, but Reita could just feel the pressure inside his belly, could almost hear that cake blaming him too. "All this..."
"Ruki prepared everything..." Nee-chan uttered slowly, answering Reita's unspoken question. "This was what Ruki and I talked about that night, Aki-chan. This was that thing that I couldn't tell you, but I told you you'd find out for yourself..." She stood motionless as Reita extricated from her, walking towards the table and the deplorable cake. Reita could feel her eyes stuck on him as he kneeled down on the tatami. "Ruki planned the whole thing. We were supposed to surprise you when you got home... We didn't think..." Nee-chan didn't continue. She didn't have to.
Reita didn't really know what he was doing when he started to pull out the candles from the cake, one by one. He couldn't sum up what his sister was just telling him. Ruki planned... His birthday party? Ruki decorated the whole place, Ruki waited for him to come home... And Reita... What did Reita do? He went to go and become some girl's hero, forgetting completely his own birthday, abandoning Ruki and his family who were waiting for him at home. His hands moved and Reita thought they were moving by themselves, collecting the candles and placed them beside the cake, before he stopped to observe the cake's surface. There was a writing there, 'Happy birthday, Akira', he was sure it was his sister's writing, but underneath that big writing on top, there was a scribbling that spelled out, 'Baka Reita'. That must be Ruki's...
"Hey..." Reita startled at the hushed voice, finding Nee-chan kneeling beside him, her finger came to Reita's cheek. Embarrassed, Reita pulled away slightly, had only realized the tears that slid down from his eyes. This was the last thing he ever wished to happen, for his sister to see him crying, he hated that, his pride and joy being the only male of the family made him feel it was humiliating to cry in front of others. His own hands rushedly wiped off the tears from his cheek, trying his best to hold down the pressure that had climbed up from his belly and was already shortly down his throat. It's almost the same tense, excruciating feeling whenever he made his mother sad or worried, and he thought it was the only reason that could make him cry. But now he understood how much he had disappointed Ruki and it felt almost as painful. "It'll be okay," Nee-chan pursed her lips. There wasn't even the slightest assuring tone in her voice, and it didn't make Reita feel any better, but he didn't pull away again when his sister rubbed his back with her hand. "Ruki will forgive you, he always does."
Reita sniffed. "Not now. I don't think he will now." How would Ruki ever forgive him after this?
She didn't reply, Reita knew she couldn't find the words to console him, and even if she could, it was pointless. So instead, she turned her eyes towards that cake in front of Reita, reaching for a shard of chocolate coating and shoved it into her mouth. "I hope he does forgive you..." she muttered afterwards.
"Oh he will," Reita's mother's calming and relentless voice startled the two as she suddenly came back into the room, walking towards her children, a soothing smile plastered on her face (the only sort of smile that could alter Reita's feeling even at the worst of conditions). She came down to sit right next to Reita. "He's your friend, isn't he?"
"He was..." Reita sniffled again, the pressure became even more overwhelming when his mother fondled with his hair. He suddenly felt like he was 7 years old again. "I don't think he still want to be my friend after this," Reita mumbled sadly, his voice shaky, couldn't help the reigning thoughts that what he was saying was right. Ruki would never want to talk to him ever again for as long as he lived.
"Aww... My sweet Akira..." his mother pulled him close into her hold, Reita could breathe in the sweet, flowery scent coming from her and he could feel his tears melt again. He stayed there inside his mother's hold, didn't feel like he could pull away now and let the world see how he was crying so badly, his lip was bitten deeply to hold him from sobbing. "You know... There's that something special between you and Ruki-chan." That's how his mother called Ruki, Ruki-chan. "I can feel that. That exact day you two met at that playing ground, I can remember looking at you smile so brightly when that boy approached you. And that moment when you two shook hands... I knew that that would be a start of a very special friendship. I looked at how you both grew up together and how you have spent most of your times with Ruki... Your bond with him is strong, it's not going to break just because of this, Akira..."
Reita sniffled again when his mother kept stroking his hair. "Sometimes things go bad, like right now. But..." she pulled back, just when Reita was comfortable enough clinging to her. He lowered his face shamefully, knowing how messy he must've looked right now, his tears wetting his cheeks. But his mother's hand came to his face and wiped them off. "But if you just hold on to that feeling, that special thing, you can make it better, Akira. Ruki-chan will come back to you, smiling and grinning and he will disturb you again," she giggled lightly. If she were someone else, Reita would've thought that was insulting, to giggle when he was crying like this. But this was his mother, and her giggle was nothing else but soothing and relieving. "Just be who you are, be the Akira whom we all love, whom Ruki loves. It will be okay..." And she landed a sweet, soft kiss on Reita's forehead, finishing her speech. "Now," she shifted up, Reita followed her silently with his gaze. "I'll just return to be a generous mother and go clean up that mess that your sister and Ruki had made in my kitchen." With the last of her beautiful, glimmering smile, she left her children in the living room.
Nee-chan giggled. "Ah yes... We did make a huge mess..."
Reita turned to her.
"Well... Making a cake with Ruki's assistance wasn't exactly the easiest thing to do, but it was very entertaining," she explained, grinning. "You should've seen how he looked like with flour and chocolate all over his face."
Ah... He would look adorable, wouldn't he? Reita envisioned it, almost unconsciously, inside his mind he was seeing Ruki giggling, playing around with flour and wasn't doing anything helpful in the process of making the cake. He would be running around the kitchen, sneaking to dip in his finger into the melted chocolate and he'd lick it off. Reita could even see his sister yelling, but laughing at the same time, looking at how messy Ruki was. There would be flour on his blonde hair too, and Ruki wouldn't even realize it. If only Reita had the chance to see that...
"Ne, Aki-chan..." Nee-chan's grin faded into a small smile. "You really do love him, don't you?"
Reita knew he just blushed and could feel every bit of the warmth that flowed up to his face in a short tempo, he furrowed his brows together. "As a friend!" he objected, because there was something in his sister's tone that was trying to confirm it was even more than that, than what Reita kept saying to her.
"No, not just as a friend," she shook her head. Reita knew he was right when he heard that tone before. "It's more than that."
"Wha--"
"I'm your sister, Aki! I've known you since you were born," she insisted. "I can see how panicked you got everytime Ruki was upset. I know that adoring kind of gaze you had whenever Ruki was smiling, and I noticed how you would stare at him when he was laughing. You've become whatever Ruki wanted you to be, done everything that Ruki wanted you to do. God... You would even bust your legs just to make sure he's happy. It's too obvious... You love him, I know that, even if you hadn't realized it yourself."
"But--"
She breathed impatiently. "I've never known that anyone could be this dumb, like you, Aki. You can't even tell what you're feeling. I can't believe you would need me to be telling you when you're in love..." Reita opened his mouth again, trying to make another protest, but she cut him right off short, "Being stubborn now? Fine. Just tell me that you don't feel remorse or devastated at this very moment, and I'll accept it that you don't love him more than a friend!"
Reita stunned, his lips couldn't move. He knew he couldn't say that. He was actually feeling the biggest remorse he had ever felt his whole life. And yeah, if this utterly painful feeling wasn't devastation, he didn't know what else to call it.
"It's there, so big and clear, but you just can't see it. Oh Aki, you idiot... Do I have to spell it out to you?" she sighed desperately. "You love Ruki."
Reita kept his gaze on his sister, not sure if he comprehend what his sister was trying to tell him. He... Loved Ruki? ...Love??
"Well... Puberty made you a man but it didn't make you an adult, apparently," she sighed again. "Us girls can be wiser than you boys could ever be. Aki-chan..." She shifted closer. "I know love when I see it. And you love him. I thought you'd understand it immediately when Aoi-kun came around and swept Ruki off his feet. You became the most jealous person I had ever seen. I thought by then you'd know just how you felt for Ruki, how Ruki meant for you."
His jaws were parted far, his mouth was open wide, Reita couldn't say one damn thing to contra his sister, even if his pride was banging inside his chest, complaining. LOVE??
"My idiotic little brother," Nee-chan propped her chin with one hand. Her eyes glared sharply into Reita's, making Reita feel like he was stripped off from his borders, from his protective fortress. At that, he turned his sight away, knowing his face must've had the color of a tomato when his sister mumbled, "You're deeply in love and you don't even realize that..."
Shards of blinding lights came crashing down on his vision, painfully stabbing his brain, his heart beating with frenzied rhythm that he thought he was having a seizure. LOVE??? He's deeply in love with... Ruki? His blood flowed around, all over inside of him, so quickly almost as if it was racing to match his heartbeat. Nee-chan's words swarmed in his thought and banged on his skull. LOVE...??
"Silly, silly Aki-chan..." Nee-chan stood up, finally, giving one last sigh as she looked down on his little brother. "You'll figure out that I'm right. It hurts the most when you have something you care about far away from your reach. You'll figure out how precious something is just when it's gone and out of your sight..." And with that final, sadly toned words, Nee-chan left him, walked out from the living room, leaving Reita with the biggest amount of confusion he'd ever encountered, mixed up with hunger inside his belly.
=====
fics list
Chapter: 15/??
Author: chuu ( akichuu)
Fandom: JRock, Gazette
Pairings: ReitaXRuki. Some other pairings in the background that you might find later on...
Overall Rating: PG
Genre: Drop dead fluffy.
Warnings: n/a
Summary: This time, Reita had screwed it all completely... How could he forget such an important thing?
Comments: Err... I don't know where is my new beta *pokes
momiji_manjuu*, but I can't keep everybody waiting for too long... This chapter is un-beta-ed, so point out the mistakes and I'll be happy to fix them.
Yay! I love this chapter, personally... And I love Nee-chan's part in this.
And to
fujipuri, you know what, this might be a het. fic like you said... But I like it, the merrier the better XXDDDD
Go on, read it, Chapter 15~ *dances*
Hanabi : 15
Reita and the world of premonitions... They never got along, and it was beyond Reita's predictions that he was going home just to meet a harsh punch on his shoulder coming from a furious little boy. But here he was, rubbing his pained shoulder, staring in disbelieve at Chibi who had just punched him--quite a hard punch, it was--and was glaring up angrily at Reita at the moment. "YOU SAID YOU WOULDN'T BE GOING ANYWHERE AFTER SCHOOL!!!" Ruki screamed, panting, his fists held shakily by his sides, and Reita didn't need a warning to keep his mouth shut and let Ruki blow up in front of him, otherwise he'd get one of those fists punching him hard on the face.
Reita startled when another person came out from the house, Nee-chan, her face looked troubled as she stood there a bit apart from the boys, seemed doubtful to come any closer, only shifting gaze from Ruki to Reita. "You said... You said you'd wait for me..." Ruki lowered his voice, but it sounded even angrier than his scream just before. A flash came into those watery eyes before Ruki narrowed them and screamed again, "REITA, YOU IDIOT!!!!" And the blonde boy ran off, pushing Reita out of his way before he jumped from the terrace towards the dark streets, while Reita stood confusedly, could only watch Ruki as he quickly disappeared beyond the front gate.
Breathing nervously, keeping his hand on his shoulder, Reita whispered, "What did I do...?"
Nee-chan came to his side, her hand patting on Reita's abused shoulder. "Brother, you've never been a sensitive person, haven't you...?" she shook her head, as if approving her own opinion. With her hand she led Reita to walk into the house. Reita halted, returned his sight peering towards the front gate, somewhere inside his confused mind he thought Ruki would be running right back entering that gate, to say that it was a prank, he was just fooling on Reita, that he wasn't really really mad at Reita. But Nee-chan sighed, "Come on, he's completely upset, Aki-chan. I don't think he'd be coming back anytime sooner or later tonight."
He blinked, turning his head to meet Nee-chan's pitiful gaze on him. "What did I do, Nee-chan?" he asked slowly.
So Reita left Ruki after school, but it wasn't the first time he did it, and Ruki had never been this angry just because of it. Reita didn't remember promising anything to Ruki that he'd be a loyal driver and wait for him everyday after school. He gave Matsushima a ride home, wasn't expecting that she'd be living that far away from Reita's home--it was practically crossing the town, the distance between Matsushima's residence and Reita's home, and Reita reached home just after 6 o'clock when it was already dark. He didn't rush, didn't think he had the reason to, didn't understand that Ruki would be waiting for him at home. Maybe it was a wrong thing, he wasn't giving a ride home for Ruki, but Ruki could always go to his house without Reita's permission, the little boy had oftenly done that.
He still had so many questions in his mind, couldn't evict the image of Ruki running off from him with angry face, but Reita followed anyways when his sister led him inside. As they both reached the living room, that's when Reita's struck with the hard and hurtful reality. He entered his living room with dazed eyes, wandering around to marvel at the distinct difference of decoration, at those balloons placed at many spots, colorful papers dangling, giving a merry kind of a feeling. His eyes stopped at one wall, where a huge white clothe was hung up, he read the writing that was spelled out there with colorful papers, and his heart broke into a thousand pieces.
"It's my birthday..." he whispered painfully, understanding completely now just why exactly Ruki ran off from him that angrily. The words, 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY, REITA-CHAN!' hovered in front of his eyes like some surreal painting, along with the drawing of round yellow objects with eyes and laughing mouths that Ruki liked to name 'Taro-chan' that filled some spots of that white clothe. Watching this, Reita just understood how he had seriously hurt Ruki.
"Yes, brother dear, it's your birthday..." Nee-chan whispered, still standing right next to him. She gave him a kiss on the cheek that startled Reita, making him turn his eyes to look at his sister. "Happy birthday, Aki-chan," she smiled, the traces of regret and pity apparent on that smile. Reita turned right back around when he felt another hand on his back. His mother smiled generously and hugged him with one arm, while her other hand was carrying a stack of plates. "Happy birthday, Son..." she kissed Reita's forehead, while Reita could only gaze unfocusedly. "You silly boy... You even forget your own birthday."
After a while, his mother finally let him go, walking away towards the kitchen carrying those plates. "This..." Reita signed with his eyes rolling around the room, ended on the table in the middle of the room where a... What supposedly was a cake, decorated with little candles that were already burnt almost more than halfway down their ends, laid on top of that table. It wasn't saying anything, it could never say anything, but Reita could just feel the pressure inside his belly, could almost hear that cake blaming him too. "All this..."
"Ruki prepared everything..." Nee-chan uttered slowly, answering Reita's unspoken question. "This was what Ruki and I talked about that night, Aki-chan. This was that thing that I couldn't tell you, but I told you you'd find out for yourself..." She stood motionless as Reita extricated from her, walking towards the table and the deplorable cake. Reita could feel her eyes stuck on him as he kneeled down on the tatami. "Ruki planned the whole thing. We were supposed to surprise you when you got home... We didn't think..." Nee-chan didn't continue. She didn't have to.
Reita didn't really know what he was doing when he started to pull out the candles from the cake, one by one. He couldn't sum up what his sister was just telling him. Ruki planned... His birthday party? Ruki decorated the whole place, Ruki waited for him to come home... And Reita... What did Reita do? He went to go and become some girl's hero, forgetting completely his own birthday, abandoning Ruki and his family who were waiting for him at home. His hands moved and Reita thought they were moving by themselves, collecting the candles and placed them beside the cake, before he stopped to observe the cake's surface. There was a writing there, 'Happy birthday, Akira', he was sure it was his sister's writing, but underneath that big writing on top, there was a scribbling that spelled out, 'Baka Reita'. That must be Ruki's...
"Hey..." Reita startled at the hushed voice, finding Nee-chan kneeling beside him, her finger came to Reita's cheek. Embarrassed, Reita pulled away slightly, had only realized the tears that slid down from his eyes. This was the last thing he ever wished to happen, for his sister to see him crying, he hated that, his pride and joy being the only male of the family made him feel it was humiliating to cry in front of others. His own hands rushedly wiped off the tears from his cheek, trying his best to hold down the pressure that had climbed up from his belly and was already shortly down his throat. It's almost the same tense, excruciating feeling whenever he made his mother sad or worried, and he thought it was the only reason that could make him cry. But now he understood how much he had disappointed Ruki and it felt almost as painful. "It'll be okay," Nee-chan pursed her lips. There wasn't even the slightest assuring tone in her voice, and it didn't make Reita feel any better, but he didn't pull away again when his sister rubbed his back with her hand. "Ruki will forgive you, he always does."
Reita sniffed. "Not now. I don't think he will now." How would Ruki ever forgive him after this?
She didn't reply, Reita knew she couldn't find the words to console him, and even if she could, it was pointless. So instead, she turned her eyes towards that cake in front of Reita, reaching for a shard of chocolate coating and shoved it into her mouth. "I hope he does forgive you..." she muttered afterwards.
"Oh he will," Reita's mother's calming and relentless voice startled the two as she suddenly came back into the room, walking towards her children, a soothing smile plastered on her face (the only sort of smile that could alter Reita's feeling even at the worst of conditions). She came down to sit right next to Reita. "He's your friend, isn't he?"
"He was..." Reita sniffled again, the pressure became even more overwhelming when his mother fondled with his hair. He suddenly felt like he was 7 years old again. "I don't think he still want to be my friend after this," Reita mumbled sadly, his voice shaky, couldn't help the reigning thoughts that what he was saying was right. Ruki would never want to talk to him ever again for as long as he lived.
"Aww... My sweet Akira..." his mother pulled him close into her hold, Reita could breathe in the sweet, flowery scent coming from her and he could feel his tears melt again. He stayed there inside his mother's hold, didn't feel like he could pull away now and let the world see how he was crying so badly, his lip was bitten deeply to hold him from sobbing. "You know... There's that something special between you and Ruki-chan." That's how his mother called Ruki, Ruki-chan. "I can feel that. That exact day you two met at that playing ground, I can remember looking at you smile so brightly when that boy approached you. And that moment when you two shook hands... I knew that that would be a start of a very special friendship. I looked at how you both grew up together and how you have spent most of your times with Ruki... Your bond with him is strong, it's not going to break just because of this, Akira..."
Reita sniffled again when his mother kept stroking his hair. "Sometimes things go bad, like right now. But..." she pulled back, just when Reita was comfortable enough clinging to her. He lowered his face shamefully, knowing how messy he must've looked right now, his tears wetting his cheeks. But his mother's hand came to his face and wiped them off. "But if you just hold on to that feeling, that special thing, you can make it better, Akira. Ruki-chan will come back to you, smiling and grinning and he will disturb you again," she giggled lightly. If she were someone else, Reita would've thought that was insulting, to giggle when he was crying like this. But this was his mother, and her giggle was nothing else but soothing and relieving. "Just be who you are, be the Akira whom we all love, whom Ruki loves. It will be okay..." And she landed a sweet, soft kiss on Reita's forehead, finishing her speech. "Now," she shifted up, Reita followed her silently with his gaze. "I'll just return to be a generous mother and go clean up that mess that your sister and Ruki had made in my kitchen." With the last of her beautiful, glimmering smile, she left her children in the living room.
Nee-chan giggled. "Ah yes... We did make a huge mess..."
Reita turned to her.
"Well... Making a cake with Ruki's assistance wasn't exactly the easiest thing to do, but it was very entertaining," she explained, grinning. "You should've seen how he looked like with flour and chocolate all over his face."
Ah... He would look adorable, wouldn't he? Reita envisioned it, almost unconsciously, inside his mind he was seeing Ruki giggling, playing around with flour and wasn't doing anything helpful in the process of making the cake. He would be running around the kitchen, sneaking to dip in his finger into the melted chocolate and he'd lick it off. Reita could even see his sister yelling, but laughing at the same time, looking at how messy Ruki was. There would be flour on his blonde hair too, and Ruki wouldn't even realize it. If only Reita had the chance to see that...
"Ne, Aki-chan..." Nee-chan's grin faded into a small smile. "You really do love him, don't you?"
Reita knew he just blushed and could feel every bit of the warmth that flowed up to his face in a short tempo, he furrowed his brows together. "As a friend!" he objected, because there was something in his sister's tone that was trying to confirm it was even more than that, than what Reita kept saying to her.
"No, not just as a friend," she shook her head. Reita knew he was right when he heard that tone before. "It's more than that."
"Wha--"
"I'm your sister, Aki! I've known you since you were born," she insisted. "I can see how panicked you got everytime Ruki was upset. I know that adoring kind of gaze you had whenever Ruki was smiling, and I noticed how you would stare at him when he was laughing. You've become whatever Ruki wanted you to be, done everything that Ruki wanted you to do. God... You would even bust your legs just to make sure he's happy. It's too obvious... You love him, I know that, even if you hadn't realized it yourself."
"But--"
She breathed impatiently. "I've never known that anyone could be this dumb, like you, Aki. You can't even tell what you're feeling. I can't believe you would need me to be telling you when you're in love..." Reita opened his mouth again, trying to make another protest, but she cut him right off short, "Being stubborn now? Fine. Just tell me that you don't feel remorse or devastated at this very moment, and I'll accept it that you don't love him more than a friend!"
Reita stunned, his lips couldn't move. He knew he couldn't say that. He was actually feeling the biggest remorse he had ever felt his whole life. And yeah, if this utterly painful feeling wasn't devastation, he didn't know what else to call it.
"It's there, so big and clear, but you just can't see it. Oh Aki, you idiot... Do I have to spell it out to you?" she sighed desperately. "You love Ruki."
Reita kept his gaze on his sister, not sure if he comprehend what his sister was trying to tell him. He... Loved Ruki? ...Love??
"Well... Puberty made you a man but it didn't make you an adult, apparently," she sighed again. "Us girls can be wiser than you boys could ever be. Aki-chan..." She shifted closer. "I know love when I see it. And you love him. I thought you'd understand it immediately when Aoi-kun came around and swept Ruki off his feet. You became the most jealous person I had ever seen. I thought by then you'd know just how you felt for Ruki, how Ruki meant for you."
His jaws were parted far, his mouth was open wide, Reita couldn't say one damn thing to contra his sister, even if his pride was banging inside his chest, complaining. LOVE??
"My idiotic little brother," Nee-chan propped her chin with one hand. Her eyes glared sharply into Reita's, making Reita feel like he was stripped off from his borders, from his protective fortress. At that, he turned his sight away, knowing his face must've had the color of a tomato when his sister mumbled, "You're deeply in love and you don't even realize that..."
Shards of blinding lights came crashing down on his vision, painfully stabbing his brain, his heart beating with frenzied rhythm that he thought he was having a seizure. LOVE??? He's deeply in love with... Ruki? His blood flowed around, all over inside of him, so quickly almost as if it was racing to match his heartbeat. Nee-chan's words swarmed in his thought and banged on his skull. LOVE...??
"Silly, silly Aki-chan..." Nee-chan stood up, finally, giving one last sigh as she looked down on his little brother. "You'll figure out that I'm right. It hurts the most when you have something you care about far away from your reach. You'll figure out how precious something is just when it's gone and out of your sight..." And with that final, sadly toned words, Nee-chan left him, walked out from the living room, leaving Reita with the biggest amount of confusion he'd ever encountered, mixed up with hunger inside his belly.
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