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Fuyumi huffed at her lunch. She was on a lunch date with Rumi who had asked her out a few weeks ago after being a special guest at her school. The rabbit hero had flirted her way into getting her number, and they had been going out ever since. But she just couldn’t enjoy lunch right now. Not when her father and Shouto had had another ‘theory session’ last night and Natsuo kept talking about how Touya would’ve reacted if he was here. Her whole family was going to drive her insane!
“What’s wrong, Yumi?”
She huffed again and blew out a breath of air upwards that lifted her bangs. “Just thinking.”
“About?”
Fuyumi sighed, downcast. “My brother…”
Rumi furrowed her eyebrows. “What about him?”
Fuyumi didn’t respond, not wanting to go deeper into that mess, and changed the subject instead. “Did you know Hawks has a husband now apparently?” She asked and looked up at her date.
Rumi scoffed. “Yeah, stupid bird didn’t even tell me! I knocked him a good one for that.”
Fuyumi debated with herself before hesitantly asking, “Have you met him…?”
“Touya?” Rumi forked another bite of salad. “Yeah, I met him at the Emperor’s celebration two weeks ago.”
“What.” Fuyumi felt her vision fade in her shock and her heart stop cold.
Rumi made an unintelligible sound of questioning through her bite of lunch.
“You…met Touya?” Fuyumi fumbled for words through the numb feeling.
Rumi swallowed and squinted. “...yes?”
“You…met my…dead brother and didn’t tell me?!”
“Wait, what.” Rumi felt like she was just smacked sideways by a sledgehammer.
“What do you mean what!” Fuyumi practically shrieked.
“Touya’s your brother? He’s DEAD? But I saw him last week and Hawks was just simping for him this morning!” Rumi protested through her confusion.
Fuyumi’s heart dropped in disappointment. “Oh. You mean Hawks’ husband…”
“Mmrrph?”
Fuyumi slumped and looked down at her plate. “I had an older brother named Touya. He died ten years ago when he was 13. Burned to death…”
Rumi’s ears shot upward, startled. “Oh shit, I’m so sorry.”
Fuyumi bit her lip and continued, “My family thinks Hawks’ husband looks a terrible lot like my brother if he had grown up and hadn’t died so young.”
Rumi paused. “Hold up. Your brother looks like Hawks’ husband…whose name is also Touya…” She quirked an ear. “You got a pic of your bro?”
Tapping on her phone, Fuyumi pulled up the picture she took of Touya’s photo on the altar.
“Shit, that looks exactly like the guy!” Rumi exclaimed in bewilderment.
“That’s why we’ve been arguing. Half the family thinks it’s him or according to my father and Shouto, some kind of clone. Natsuo…I don’t know what he thinks anymore…but I’ve caught him doing research, so he probably thinks that is Touya.” Fuyumi sighed in defeat.
Rumi pondered, hand on her chin. “His last name’s Takami, but that’s a lot of coincidences.” She slammed her fist into her palm. “You know what, we’re gonna meet them!”
She pulled out her phone and called Hawks, who picked up after a few rings.
“What’s up, carrotface?”
“Lunch with you and the hubby. This weekend.” Rumi demanded.
“Whoa, what’s the rush? But yeah we’re free on Saturday if that works for you?”
Rumi looked at Fuyumi in askance, who hesitantly nodded in agreement. “Alright, see you Saturday chickie. Make sure Touya comes, I gotta talk to him. Text you the deets later.” She hung up.
“Well! We’ll have this cleared up by the weekend then!” Rumi fist pumped.
Fuyumi opened her mouth to speak, but closed it before saying anything. She tried again, “If you see my father, could you…not mention this to him please?”
“Sure thing, Yumi. C’mon we got ourselves a double date for the weekend!”
“There they are.” Rumi hissed as they approached the front of the cafe.
Hawks and the man who looked remarkably even more like her brother up close were facing the other direction where she and Rumi would have come from the train station if they hadn’t already arrived in the area about three hours ago.
Fuyumi could feel her resolve crumbling the more she stared at him. There was no way that could be her brother. Even if it was just someone who looked similar, there were differences! But the more she looked, the more he resembled their mother. He had the same delicate facial and bone structure, the fluffy white hair, the slim build, the petite nose. The scowl was a pretty classic Touya scowl though, she remembered that much. And those eyes so blue, she’s only seen them in the mirror and on their father’s face.
But there’s just no way…
She bit her lip in frustration. There was no way this was her brother Touya despite all the coincidences, and she was going to prove it, she decided determinedly. Flinging caution to the wind, she marched up to the two men. She saw Hawks turn towards her out of the corner of her eye, but she had her sight set on the pale skin behind Hawks’ Touya’s ear.
As Hawks stared in confusion, she wordlessly and fluidly reached up and lightly scritched.
Prrr .
They all froze in shock.
Fuyumi’s heart dropped, stunned at the familiar sound she never thought she’d hear again. Not from that particular voice, at least.
Touya froze, blood draining as he realized who was behind him and that he had just given himself away. There was only one person who’d ever done that before, not even Hawks knew about it. Not to mention the embarrassment of making that sound in public, he groaned inwardly.
Hawks wanted to squeal over how cute the purr Touya had just made sounded! Oh my god, his husband purrs !
Rumi had just caught up to Fuyumi’s march and just stared as her girlfriend had essentially reached out to a random man she didn’t know and scratched him behind the ear?
“...FUCK. You ARE Touya!” Fuyumi shouted as she slapped Touya on the arm repeatedly.
“Ow ow ow, Yumi, stop it!”
“NO. YOU FAKED YOUR DEATH FOR TEN YEARS AND YOU THINK I’M GONNA LET IT GO?” Fuyumi shrieked. Passerbys turned to stare at the commotion.
Touya groaned. “C’mon, let’s go inside and get out of view.”
Fuyumi jumped and clung to his arm. He wasn’t getting away now that she had him within reach. She teared up.
In a private booth, the two siblings finally reunited and had a conversation for the first time in ten years. Hawks and Miruko sat next to them having their own quiet chat, distracting themselves with food to allow the two siblings semi-privacy to have their talk.
“W-where were you?” Fuyumi asked through her tears.
Touya shrugged helplessly. “Honestly, I couldn’t even tell you that for the first three years. Woke up in some weird lab, ran home, saw our sperm donor still beating up on his kids…left.” He averted his eyes.
“But where did you go? Did…did you end up with Hawks for the past several years? Why did you hide from all of us for so long?” Fuyumi felt hurt that Touya hadn’t just come home. What was so important out there that he wouldn’t come home after so many years? Why show up now?
“Nothing that fancy. Was on the streets most of that time…” Touya trailed off. “Met Hawks after a while. He liked me enough to marry me.” He grinned sardonically.
Fuyumi let out a bark of laughter through her tears. “You did joke that you’d become a trophy wife in the future. Guess that actually happened.”
“Guess that actually happened.” Touya echoed. He sighed, “Look, I don’t want to talk about most of what happened.”
“But-” Fuyumi protested.
“No.” Touya firmly shut her down. “Some of it might be relevant in the future, but until it is, I’m not talking about any of it.”
Fuyumi glowered stubbornly.
Rumi poked her. “Maybe it’s stuff that he doesn’t want to remember?” She whispered, not that either men were oblivious to what she said. “Isn’t there something in therapy about how you shouldn’t push the patient to talk?”
Fuyumi frowned and looked down at her lap sadly. “I just…” She sighed. “Alright, what have you been up to lately then?” She decided to switch gears. Rumi had a point.
She paused. “Wait, who else knows?”
“Natsuo found me a few weeks back.” Touya admitted.
Fuyumi groaned and huffed. Natsuo was going to be insufferable. He already constantly talked about what Touya would have done or how Touya would have reacted, even before this whole fiasco had come to light. Recently, he had also started hinting about what if Touya was still alive. She had shut him down every time, of course. But since evidence to the contrary was sitting across from her right now…
“What about Shouto? And…our parents?”
“Nope.” Touya pops the word. “Enji needs to suffer longer for what he’s done.”
Fuyumi frowned in disapproval.
Touya cut her off before she could speak, “Shouto…if he finds me, then he finds me. Sounds like he’s been having fun with theories anyways.”
Fuyumi snorted. She wasn’t sure she’d call it ‘fun,’ but they sure were something. “And mom?”
Touya hesitated. “I’m…thinking maybe I’ll visit sometime…” he mumbled.
“...are you mad at her?” Fuyumi looked down. “You had to do so much to take over after she left…”
Touya scowled. “Left? Don’t make excuses. She didn’t leave because she wanted to.” He ran his hand through his hair and breathed out. “Look, I get why she broke, and while I don’t think I can forgive that she didn’t take us and run…” He sighed in frustration.
“There’s nothing easy about the situation. Don’t stress, babe.” Hawks interrupted them.
Fuyumi frowned. “She’s our mother.”
Hawks shrugged. “And? There were plenty of things wrong with the whole situation. Touya should be allowed to take care of it on his own time. He doesn’t owe her anything.”
“But…” Fuyumi began, before turning to Rumi for support. “Rumi…”
“Sorry, Yumi. I know you want your family back together, but forcing it probably won’t help anyone.” Rumi apologetically agreed.
Fuyumi pouted.
Seeing his little sister petulant reminded him of their younger days. Touya sighed, “Rabbit, switch seats with me.”
“What? Why?” Rumi frowned.
Touya rolled his eyes. “Just do it before I decide to not do this anymore.”
She was still frowning as they switched seats. Hawks watched on in curiosity.
Touya then laid down and put his head on her lap. “You can pet me.” He huffed. Touya was like the cat that laid on people’s laps asking for pets while pretending that he didn’t like it.
Fuyumi lit up and happily did so. It was something they did as kids when she was sad. They weren’t allowed pets, so Touya had pretended to be one sometimes. It was how they found out he really liked head scritches in that one spot.
“We should have a family dinner sometime.” Fuyumi hummed. “Without dad,” she quickly cut in before Touya could protest again. She wanted all her family together, but they can work on that part later. She had her older brother back, the one person she had thought she would never see again. It was more than she could have ever imagined, considering they had all thought he was dead and gone forever.
Touya grumbled but settled back down and dozed lightly amidst Fuyumi running her hand through his hair.
Hawks and Miruko watched on in both confusion and incredulity at the siblings.
“This our new norm?” Miruko muttered out of the side of her mouth.
“...guess so.” Hawks peeped quietly.