Chapter Text
10 minutes… Only 10 minutes left in the school day and someone decides now would be the best time to approach him.
"Um, Tsugikuni-kun? …Tsugikuni-kun, do you have a moment?"
There’s an intense urge to ignore the shrill voice running straight into his ear, even to the point where he could get up and walk away. But he was just entirely too tired. And who knows what lengths people will go to annoy him.
So, just so he didn't have to handle this nuisance later, Michikatsu decides to drag his gaze from the window to the person wanting his attention.
"What do you want?", he answers, a little too harshly but that's over and done with.
The girl, he noticed, was cute. She had long hair, curled and tugged into two ponytails with onigiri hair ornaments on each one. Petite. Hesitant wide eyes.
Probably a confession... another one.
"Tsugikuni-kun...um...I wanted to ask you something."
Michikatsu raises an eyebrow, because, obviously. Why else would she call out to him? For roll call? He doesn't even know this girl. Her slow attempt at engaging with him was erasing any and all attractive features she might’ve had.
He stays silent, too exhausted to even respond. She’s going to prattle on anyway. They always do.
"O-oh! W-well it’s about Yori-, I mean, your brother.", she stutters, a bright flush blooming in her cheeks.
Oh. Of course,...
He can feel any pretenses of holding a neutral face, drop. Annoyance crawling up his back with its spindly legs.
"If your here to ask if he's single, I have no clue. If you're to ask what kind of girl he likes, once again, I have absolutely no idea.", his head was starting to ache just from the number of nerves being trampled from answering this question. "And if you wanna know what food he likes, take a wild guess and give it to him."
By the time he's finished speaking, the girl is stricken. Mouth dropped open, eyes glistening, just frozen still. Instead of watching the display any longer, Michikatsu turns his head back to the window to look at the dark storm clouds crackling with light in the distance.
"Besides-", he says, resting his cheek on his hand. "he's 17. What makes you think he'll go out with a 13-year-old, like you?"
There's silence. The whole classroom is quiet. Then there's sniffling that only rises in frequency and volume.
How troublesome.
"Tsugikuni-kun, this is why no one likes you! You think you're so much better than us!", the girl cries, her voice choked up with anguish. But, Michikatsu couldn't find it in himself to care. "I hope you have it 10 times worse, you-you asshole!"
Her shoes squeak just as high as her voice as she scurries off into whatever overly encouraging girlfriend group she came from.
"My God, he was brutal today."
They whisper behind his back because they don't have the guts to say it to his face.
"His brother is much cooler."
Yeah. Unfortunately, Michikatsu knows that.
He drowns out the rest of the conversation just as the first drop of rain splatters against the window.
As expected of a school filled with delusional children with a hive-like mentality...
His shoes were missing.
Everyone was already rushing past him, grabbing umbrellas or taking cover under their jackets to brave the heavy rain.
But, here he stands, looking at the locker void of his shoes, not even a note left like last time.
Michikatsu can only sigh to himself.
Idiots.
Instead of standing there, he walks off to the entrance, planning to just walk home in his indoor shoes. They can always be washed and dried at home. No big deal.
Just as he goes to grab an umbrella, something tingled in the back of his skull, like his instincts were warning him. And without thinking, he looks up.
Standing under a wide black umbrella at the front gates, surrounded by young girls and boys alike...
His elder brother.
Yoriichi.
Thank god for his senses being so sharp. He could've walked right into that....trap.
Being forced to walk with his brother home is the very last thing on his mind.
Yoriichi stands there, smiling gently at each person willing to greet him then scurry off. Watching the scene from afar twists his stomach in an uncomfortable knot. The sudden anxiousness comes on so quickly, it nearly makes him sick.
Remembering that the school's back gate doesn't close till 4, he resolves himself to that way. Looking back to the umbrella stand to grab one, his eyes fall onto… nothing.
His brow twitches.
While he was busy scoping out the scene, someone had taken the last umbrella...
Fuck.
The back of his neck prickles and he automatically knows he's been seen. So, instead of taking off down the hall in a sprint. Michikatsu looks through his bag, turns from the entrance and walks calmly down the hall as if he has forgotten something.
Just as he turns the corner, his feet are pounding the linoleum as fast as he can. Speed is never on his side compared to his brother, but maybe going the opposite way of the gate, he can throw him off.
Sliding at turns and dodging lingering teachers, Michikatsu sees the door to the rusted back gate in view.
Clasping his bag closed, securely, he slows down to push the door open, quietly, slipping out. And then he's off.
Immediately, as he passes through the gate, he's soaked.
His shoes splash through every puddle in the godforsaken street. But he doesn't slow, even when his pants are being pulled from the weight of the water.
The whole time he's running, his eyes are scanning the street corners, making sure the coast is clear.
With how close the high school and middle school are from each other, he expected there to be more people to squeeze through. But the rain may have given him a break today, seeing as barely anyone was on the sidewalk.
Then again, he's taking the long back way.
The water is coming down so heavily that when he looks up, he can barely see the street name. But he can recognize the sweets shop his mother likes, and he knows he's a block away.
He really wants to stop and wait at the sweet shop until the storm blows over. But his guts tell him to just aim for home instead. Or maybe it’s his sudden lack of appetite warding him away. Who knows...
Rushing past the shop, he goes to makes the turn down the street, but he feels his slipper sink into a deep puddle. It was too late to ease it out, because of how fast he was going, so it's pulled right off his foot.
He stumbles, but catches himself, hunched over with his hands on his knees.
What a pain.
Panting heavily, he brushes the long hairs, tangled at his neck. It’s then he realizes that his hair tie had slipped off, leaving his hair sticking uncomfortably to his uniform.
His body is just so tired. Sports, working out, anything of the sort stopped being his thing when his parents divorced a year ago. So, now his body has gotten small, soft even, from the negligence. He definitely regrets it in times like this, when he needed to be gone, like, 30 minutes ago.
With what little energy Michikatsu can spare, he heaves himself up. Yet, as he turns, his heart nearly leaps out of his chest when he sees someone crouched down, pulling his soggy shoe out the puddle.
Michikatsu scowls as his eyes go up and up the closer they come.
Relief doesn’t come. Even when he can no longer feel the ruthless drops of rain with the large black umbrella over his head.
"Michi.", comes his brother's smooth baritone. That soft look he normally wears is full of worry. "Are you alright?"
Michikatsu looks off to the side to avoid his elder brother's all-knowing gaze. He knows his brother won't acknowledge his attempt to run home by himself. Yoriichi wouldn't dare bring to light that Michikatsu would rather brave the storm than walk with him.
Or maybe he doesn't think like that at all...
"I'm fine, Nii-san. Can you give me my shoe back?", he asks instead, still refusing to look at those kind, brown eyes that always seem to shake him to his knotted core.
Yoriichi hands him his shoe and Michikatsu slips it back on, he goes to turn and walk away when his brother speaks up.
"Would you like to tell me why you're wearing your indoor shoes?"
Michikatsu sighs roughly, running chilled fingers through his wet hair, attempting to find some order. "Not particularly. It wouldn't matter if I told you anyway. What's done is done."
He starts walking anyway, knowing his brother will keep up. And there's not even an ounce of surprise when his brother's hand finds its way to his lower back. Though the itch to fling it off lingers.
"You know, Nii-san can handle them if you would like. Just say the word and I'll be there to put a stop to these...happenings", the hand slips to the side of his waist, pulling Michikatsu closer to his brother's warm, dry side. "You can always trust me to come to your rescue. I want you to remember that well, Michi."
Michikatsu says nothing. He can feel the power thrumming through the hard muscles of his brother's arms, his side. He knows for sure his brother will handle any and every bully with ease. There would be no mercy in that handsome, compassionate face.
Michikatsu knows that all too well.