Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Panic.

That was all you felt as you stumbled into this odd park, where your hotel was not.

You pulled out your paper map again, looking at the directions. You thought you followed them correctly? Where was this red dot supposed to be? Because, as far as you could tell, it sure as hell wasn’t here.

Why had you come to Japan alone ?

I mean, with a friend would’ve made total sense. Even meeting up with someone who lived here that you had befriended would have made sense. Learning some useful phrases in Japanese? The thought never even crossed your mind. Hence why you were very, very lost. You thought about asking a stranger, but they probably would only speak minimal English, if any at all.

You groaned and held your face in your hands, walking over to a nearby bench to sit down. How were you going to survive it here for two months if you couldn’t even find your hotel?

Suddenly, you felt a tap on your shoulder.

When you looked up, you saw some weird man striking a pose at you. Your face contorted into one of pure confusion as he monologued at you, changing poses a you every now and then, until he was finally on one knee in front of you, holding his sunglasses in his teeth, and holding his hand out to you. His stare was oddly intense, at you felt sort of uncomfortable. Plus, you had no idea what he was saying, and the few things he said in English were very mispronounced.

Wait - ENGLISH?!

Was today your lucky day?! Could this be happening?!

Even though there was the possibility of him being fluent, you decided to wait it out and play your cards. Lucky for you, you knew at least one phrase in Japanese:

“ My name is [First] [Last]. ”

The man’s weird act faltered for a second before he quickly stood up and posed with a hand under his chin.

“ My name is Karamatsu Matsuno. (unintelligible, unintelligible) Karamatsu. ”

So, his name was Karamatsu. Got it.

….

….

What do you say next?

He stood there, his gaze wavering as an awkward silence settled between you two. You coughed, and in a state of panic, responded with the only Japanese sentence you knew.

“ My name is [First] [Last]. ”

The man named Karamatsu’s eyebrows scrunched up, becoming confused at your behavior. He responded, probably something along the lines of “Yeah, I know that you idiot. You just told me.” You buried your face in your hands again, trying not to groan in frustration.

You spoke a bit slower than you normally would. “Do you speak English?”

The man’s confidence seemed to grow back, and he struck another pose. “A little, yes.”

You threw up your hands and cheered, tears of happiness threatening to spill over. He seemed a tad shocked by your outburst but he managed to keep his cool for the most part. You turned your body to face him. “I’m lost, can you help me?”

His face became puzzled, then he held his chin in his hands, trying to decipher what you said. “Lost…” he mumbled. “Help…” It took him a minute to get it, but when he did, he snapped his fingers and looked at you with a smirk. Pointing at you, he yelled out “Yes! I help you!”

His broken English made you smile as you sighed of relief. You stood up, grabbing your belongings that you had set aside earlier, and gave him a thumbs up. “Let’s go!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After a while, he ended up not being able to understand what you said. You probably got a little too complicated with your words, but hey, it was worth a shot.

He led you down the street, acting smug and winking at passerbys. It seemed off that, despite standing out like a sore thumb in those glittery blue jeans and leather jacket in the middle of summer, he seemed to go completely unnoticed, even if he tried really hard to get their attention. Poor guy.

He stopped and turned to a large building, dramatically letting a gentle breeze making his hair wave. You stopped behind him, waiting for him to say something. Then, of course, he began to monologue again. You stood there, awkwardly waiting for him to finish, but it took about 10 minutes. You just shifted feet, looking at him as his poses changed with each sentence. When he was done, he pointed at you, making that same, weird intense face at you as he had done earlier.

Your only response was “Okay. Can we go inside?”

Karamatsu seemed to turn to dust as you completely ignored him, but you couldn’t understand anything he just said. As realization struck that “Hey, this person doesn’t speak Japanese,” he stood up and posed beside you. “Yes! Let’s go.”

He helped translate (kind of) what the person at the desk was saying, and soon enough you were in the elevator up to your room. You sighed happily, putting a hand over your heart with relief. You decided to put what little knowledge you had in Japanese and spoke to him in his language.

“Th-thank you.”

The man looked at you, a bit shocked. He wasn’t really expecting much Japanese from you, but the fact that you were trying to make him feel comfortable made his face tint a light red. He just huffed out a “heh” and posed, probably because he was unsure of what to say.

He followed behind you as you arrived at your room. You took out your key and opened the door. Without thinking, you turned your body to the man and hugged him tightly. He seemed to be paralyzed, because he wasn’t hugging you back and he felt very rigid. You released him and smiled awkwardly. “Ah, thank you so much for helping me. I would’ve been lost and confused and embarrassed if you hadn’t come along and helped me, and-”

You took notice that he seemed to be very confused again. You paused and sighed. You wished you had a translator here with you-

“AAAAAAA! Idea!”

Your outburst caused the man to scream and jump away from you. Was something wrong?! Had he done something that was painful, and he hurt you because of it? As he was about to start apologizing profusely, you pulled out your phone and spoke your thanks into it. You tapped a button, and it repeated what you said in poor Japanese.

“I thank you for the help to find my way here. I was very lost, and it probably would be still if was not for you. You'll kind soul, very, thank you very much.”

It was a bit off, sure, but Karamatsu had gotten the message. He held out his hand, and you gave him your phone. After a minute of trying to figure it out, he spoke out a few sentences of Japanese, and the phone translated it:

“ I fate'm glad that led us to each other. Stars, you will be able to align my love to meet again.”

You snickered, because that’s probably not what he meant to say at all. “I fate’m?” What was that even supposed to mean? Your quiet giggles turned into laugher, and soon enough you were clutching your stomach. Karamatsu’s face scrunched up, puzzled as to what you were laughing at. He handed your phone back to you. You switched the translations around, and played it back in Japanese so he could hear the weird phrasing. He became even more perplexed at you, but laughed lightly.

“Not what I said! Promise!” He smiled back awkwardly.

You nodded, grinning. The awkwardness turned from a “what is going on” vibe to something… indescribable. It felt weird, but also… comfortable? And happy? “I know, I know. Will… will I see you again?”

His face scrunched as he tried to mentally translate what you said. When it came to him, his face blossomed a bright red.

“Y-you want to?!”

“If that’s okay…?”

“Y-yes! Okay!”

“Do you need my phone number?” You held up your device to help him out a bit. “You can help me when I get lost.”

He nodded furiously, pulling out a pen from seemingly nowhere and ripping off his leather jacket, revealing a tank top with his face on it. You wanted one of those shirts as soon as you saw it. He held out his arm for you to write on.

“Put phone here.”

He handed you the pen, and you wrote your number onto his arm. He smiled triumphantly the entire time.

He began to walk away, but then got an idea. Running over to you, Karamatsu pointed at you dramatically. “You are very confusing. Let’s meet again!” He then strutted away, leaving you with that odd statement.

You walked into your 2-month home, and it was beautiful. The blankets were pretty, and everything smelt nice and fresh. You felt right at home, which was good since you’d be living here for a while. You set all of your stuff beside your bed and jumped onto said bed. You inhaled the scent of the freshly-cleaned pillows and curled up, holding one of them to cuddle.

What a weird day, you thought.

Chapter Text

It had been a week.

No phone call, no sighting, nothing. It was as if the strange man known as Karamatsu had disappeared from existence. You thought you might have seen him a few times, ducking into alleyways, in anime and manga stores, and a few other places, but the one that had stood out to you the most was when you decided to stop by a cafe for a drink. The person taking your order looked exactly like Karamatsu. However, when you had stuttered out the name, they didn’t seem to make any kind of gesture to show that they knew him, so you just ordered something by pointing at the menu.

However, everything changed when you got a phone call as you sat on the floor of your hotel.

“Hello?”

“H-hello…? [Name]...?”

“Yes, that’s me.”

“ Success! [Name], it’s Karamatsu.” You heard some sort of clinking around and a yelp, then a thud. You assumed that he had dropped the phone, and this was confirmed when he responded with an audible gulp and a “Sorry! Dropped phone, heh.”

“It’s fine. What do you need, Karamatsu?”

“Let’s meet! I want learn English!”

You snickered at his enthusiasm, trying to keep it quiet so you wouldn’t bruise his confidence over the poorly pronounced words. “Sure. When do you want to come over?” You ended up laying on the floor of your room, staring at the ceiling.

It was silent for a minute on the other end except for an occasional shuffling, but you patiently waited. You guessed that he was trying to translate what you said. “Now?” He asked, seeming a bit nervous.

You pondered for a second, looking at the time on your phone. It wasn’t even past mid-day yet, so you responded quickly. “Sure, I’m not busy. Meet me at my room?”

“ Yes! Okay!”

“I’ll see you soon, then.”

You hung up, and rolled over onto your stomach. Did you need to change clothes for this occasion? You sat up again, looking at your outfit. No, what you were wearing was okay. Did you need to make food in preparation for your guest? Yeah, that would be nice. You lifted yourself off of the floor and walked over to the miniature fridge to see what contents it withheld.

And, as to be expected, it was empty.

That’s right, you hadn’t really thought about buying groceries. Your first week’s food was all from local restaurants and cafes - which were all really good - so you didn’t really feel the need to go out and purchase food to bring back. Plus, you had very minimal space to keep things.

Uneasiness arose in your stomach, oh god , you didn’t want to seem like a horrible host, did you? You rushed around and collected your wallet and some shoes. Maybe, just maybe, if you ran fast enough, you could get something to eat for your guest before he arrived.

You ran over to your door, phone in hand, and you opened it and -

Ah. He’s here, a hand lifted up as if he were about to knock. Wonderful timing.

Your face flushed a deep red, and you began to apologize flusteredly for possibly startling him and whatnot. Your hands waved wildly, and Karamatsu just stood there, looking at you oddly.

“You okay?”

You froze mid-apology, and looked at him. Nodding, you stepped aside and let him in.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It’s been fifteen, almost twenty minutes, and neither of you had done much. The thick silence was suffocating.

You could tell that your guest was trying to keep his cool, but was crumpling under the awkward atmosphere. You looked everywhere except for directly at him, because you might melt from “oh-my-god-what-do-I-do”-ness, and that would not be acceptable for a host to do.

So, you decided to slam your head into a nearby table.

Karamatsu immediately freaked out, panicking as he tried to comfort you. “Are you okay?!” He would yell every few seconds you didn’t respond, each time more worried than the last. He didn’t know what to do in a situation where someone who he had just met a week prior threw themselves against furniture. Was this a normal occurrence for you? He sure hoped not, because this would be a very stressful friendship if it was.

You lifted your head up suddenly and quickly, emitting a yelp from your guest. You turned to him with a smile, like nothing had happened, and Karamatsu was extremely perplexed. “Wanna go get food? I would’ve offered you some already, but you know, the thought didn’t really cross my mind until about half an hour ago.”

When he squinted at you, and you dumbed down your sentence a bit so that he could understand you better. He had gone a bright red, but, as per usual, tried to cover it up by acting smug. “Of course, (unintelligible) !” He began to ramble on in Japanese again,for what felt like hours. Mid-way through his speech, you stood up and began collecting your necessary items for shopping. He seemed shocked that you hadn’t either expressed disgust or ignored him. You just let him ramble on, no matter how confused you were. You didn’t try to stop him even when you began to do your own thing, and you still hummed to let him know you were attempting to listen (although his ramblings began to falter, just because his confusion over your actions was overtaking him.)

He became completely silent by the time your bag was slung around your shoulder, holding things such as your phone and wallet. You held out a hand to help him off of the floor. “Are you ready?”

Karamatsu cleared his throat and shakily grasped your hand. He wasn’t hard to pull up, but you guessed that the physical contact shook him up a bit. He seemed to get flustered by any sort of touching, so you decided not to bother him with it a lot.

However, you did keep a light grasp on his hand when you left.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“In English, this is ‘milk.’”

“Japanese, is ‘ miruku .’”

“This is an ‘apple.’”

“Ah, ‘ ringo. ’”

Every time you had decided to look at an item or put it into your basket, you would tell him the English pronunciation, and in return he would tell you the Japanese pronunciation. The two of you had been at this for about an hour now, and in all honestly, it was pretty fun. When you weren’t looking at different foods, the two of you attempted to make conversation. However, the language barrier was still very thick, making it difficult and awkward to communicate at times.

“These are ‘marshmallows.’”

“‘ Mashumaro. ’”

You put them back as you continued to walk along, Karamatsu stuck to your side. He seemed very nervous and looking for comforting, but you didn’t really know how , so you decided that pretending you didn’t notice was the best option.

“Cake.”

“Ah! Sweets!”

You turned your head to look at him, surprised that he called it that. “How did you know that?”

He stuck a hand under his chin and closed his eyes behind his sunglasses. “My brother.” You snickered at the very mispronounced version of “brother,” but you decided not to tease him about it. You continued walking down the aisles, looking for some everyday snacks.

“Tell me about your brother.”

“Ah, I have five.”

You whipped your head around to him again, stopping in your tracks this time. “Five?! That’s a lot! What are they like? Tell me in English, I’ll help you out.”

This could help as an exercise for Karamatsu. Every once in awhile, he’d mispronounce a word you had taught him, or not know what a word was in English, and you would have him use your translator app for that one word. He would then change his pronunciation, or use the newly-learned word to describe them, one by one. He seemed very determined to learn English; even when he messed up, he didn’t let his grin falter or his pride shatter.

From what Karamatsu was telling you, he was very proud of each of his brothers, even when they didn’t thank him. You made a mental note to show your appreciation to Karamatsu as much as you could to make up for the lack of it in his family’s house. By the time he was done talking expressively about how much he loved his family, you two were out the door.

You continued a light conversation with him, telling him about your family back home. He’d ask you to pause at times so that he could translate, or he’d ask you to use a simpler word if he didn’t know what it meant. It was mid-afternoon by the time you guys had arrived back at the hotel building.

Instead of going in with you, however, he bowed. “Thank you for lessons! I’m happy to learn!” He stood up, a shaky smile on his face. “Can we do this again?”

You eagerly nodded. “Yes, of course! I’d be elated to help you learn more.”

“E-elated…?”

“It’s like excited, or happy.”

“Ah, I understand!” He pointed at you dramatically. “Can I be here tomorrow?”

“Same time?”

“Yes!”

His excitement for the lessons was bursting through the cracks in his “cool guy” facade, and it made you laugh lightly. “Sure, Karamatsu. See you tomorrow.” You walked into the building, leaving Karamatsu behind you.

You hadn’t heard or seen him jump and yell out excitedly. He hadn’t seen you in your room, smiling and dancing around in circles. Both of you were happy that, by chance, he had decided to encounter you.

Both of you had made a friend in one another.

Chapter Text

‘I should ask him to teach me Japanese one of these days. I wonder where he got that shirt. I hope he doesn’t wear that leather jacket again, it’s really hot out today. I wonder...’

After your trip to the grocery store, he visited practically everyday. Sometimes, he’d bring snacks with him to share with you. He’d tell you all of the names in Japanese and ask for what it was in English. Sometimes, though, you wouldn’t know the English term, so you would just shrug.

It’s been three weeks since Karamatsu’s first lesson, and he’s been making extraordinary progress. He’s learned how to speak full sentences, even if they’re all really simple and short. You honestly couldn’t believe that he was learning so fast, he had to be doing some extra studying at his house.

As you were thinking about his progress, a knock on your hotel door caught your attention. You jumped off of your bed and jogged to the door, opening it with a smile. “Hey, Kara!”

Posing with a hand under his chin, he greeted you. “Hello, [Name]. I have brought a gift.”

He handed you a glittery blue, poorly wrapped package and “From: Karamatsu” written on it in big messy letters. Your face tinted pink at the sentiment, and you went to tear it open for the corner. Before you could though, a panicked hand found it’s way to yours. “W-wait to open it, okay?” You nodded with a puzzled look, wondering why he’d want you to wait when he handed it to you right now. Well, no matter, you simply complied and set the gift on that table you slammed your head into once. The memory elicited a small giggle from your mouth. Karamatsu cleared his throat, and you turned to meet his gaze.

“I wanted to, ah, thank you for the lessons. Can we do that today?” His face seemed dangerously bright, but by now you understood that he wasn’t used to having social interactions with anyone other than his immediate family; even then, it was rare.

“Really? You didn’t need to thank me, I mean you’re constantly feeding me when you come over, so you’ve already-”

“You’re talking fast,” he pointed out.

You sighed and ran a hand through your hair. “Yeah, okay then. What’s the plan for today?”

He took your hand and kneeled down. He removed his sunglasses (that for whatever reason, he kept on indoors) and gazed at you with that oddly intense stare that you’d gotten pretty used to by now. He let the silence linger for a second longer, and then he spoke:

“My [Name], we are going to lunch.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This wasn’t what you were expecting when he said “lunch.”

You thought that he had somehow saved up enough money through some sort of means to actually go out to a nice restaurant or something. Or, if he needed to, they would stop by a fast food place. This surprise was… well, surprising , to say the least.

Don’t get me wrong, though; this lunch was just as good, if not better.

You didn’t notice it prior, but he had a basket in his hand. Karamatsu took you to the park where he had first attempted to have a conversation with you. He paused in his walking at one point in the park and became stiff and trembly. Then you were about to lay a hand on his shoulder and ask what was wrong, he grabbed it and hastily intertwined his fingers with yours. It was clammy, sure, but you definitely appreciated the gesture. He was trying for you.

Karamatsu stopped leading the two of you when he reached the edge of a river, near a bridge where he had told you previously that he often hangs around. He quickly fumbled around in the basket, pulling out a blanket for the two of you to sit on.

You thought you heard something in the nearby bushes, but you must’ve been mistaken, because when you turned your head to the noise there was nothing there.

The picnic was splendid. The weather was perfect, the food was wonderfully made (It was a tad sloppy, but it tasted delicious nonetheless; Karamatsu probably spent all morning trying to make the food by himself) and the conversation between you and Karamatsu was nice.

“He actually did that?!”

“Yeah, it’s crazy.”

“ Alone ?!”

“And he didn’t tell us for two years.”

“Hm.” You turned your attention back to the sandwich in your hands, biting into it. “Oh, yeah, I have a question.”

He tilted his head slightly when he turned to you, curiosity very evident on his face. “What is it, my [Name]?”

“Do you think you could start teaching me more Japanese? It’s really interesting, and I want to understand the language better.” You took another bite of your sandwich. “Plus, when I go back home, it’d be cool to show off to my parents.”

“A-ah, [Name], you must be mistaken. I’m not a teacher.”

“Sure you are,” you responded before he could come up with any more excuses. “You’ve been teaching me Japanese since I started teaching you English.”

“B-but, that wasn’t teaching. I was just calling them in Japanese.”

“That sentence was a bit off. You’d say, ‘That’s what they’re called in Japanese,’ or something like that. Try that sentence again.”

“I wasn’t teaching. I was telling you their Japanese names.”

“That was good. You didn’t copy my sentence. You’re learning pretty fast.”

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, but wipe that smug look off your face. Look, the point is, you’ve been teaching me without even realizing it. All I’m asking is that you teach me while realizing it.”

“What exactly have I taught you?”

There was a rustling in the bushes again, so you turned to look, but alas, nothing was there. Was your mind playing tricks on you? You shook out those thoughts and continued the conversation.

“You taught me that mashumaro is marshmallow in Japanese.”

“That’s just one thing, though-”

“You also taught me that miruku is milk in Japanese, too.”

“A-ah, actually, that’s just ‘milk.’ For cow’s milk, it’s gyuunyuu .”

“That! Right there!” You pointed at him, your finger almost touching his nose. He was arching away from you, but the edge of the picnic blanket kept him in your reach. “You see? You just taught me that! I didn’t know that! I didn’t know they had another term for it! All that ‘I can’t teach’ talk is a lie!”

He blinked, his eyebrows scrunched up as he focused on you. “Are you sure…?”

You tapped his nose lightly before pulling your arm away. He sat normally now, no longer trying to avoid your touch. “I’m absolutely positive.” You smiled a sincere, comforting smile, hoping to let him know that he was appreciated.

His face dusted with a light pink. He seemed to think you were playing a joke on him at first, but your face conveyed to him that you meant everything you said wholeheartedly. He smiled back at you and nodded furiously. “Okay, I’ll teach you then!”

You celebratorily threw your fists in the air, chanting out quiet “Yes!”’s. You tackle hugged him, burying your face in his chest. Upon impact, Karamatsu let out a surprised grunt. “Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you , Karamatsu! You’re the best!”

You pulled away quickly so that he wouldn’t be too uncomfortable with the sudden contact. Your eyes shone brightly with excitement and you grinned at him. Feeling another burst of excitement, you threw your arms in the air again. “Take that, mom and dad! I won’t be completely useless when I come back!”

“Hey, [Name].” You paused your cheering to look at Karamatsu, whose face seemed oddly serious for the man. “You keep talking about going back. You don’t live here?”

You shook your head. You knew where this was going.

“Why did you come here? Why haven’t you gone back yet? It’s been a long time.”

You shivered and looked away from him. Looking at him would cause you to tell him everything, and you weren’t sure if you trusted him that much yet. The air had become  oddly quiet and damp.“I-I kind of don’t want to talk about this.”

“You seem mad at your family.”

“I-I am, but - don’t worry about it.”

Karamatsu grabbed your face and turned it to look at him. He had fierce determination in his eyes. “[Name]. I’m your friend. It’s okay.”

You tried so hard to control yourself, but in a moment, you slammed your fists on the ground and screamed.

Despite the assertive stance he was taking just a few seconds ago, Karamatsu released your face quickly and watched from afar. This was the most expressive he’d seen you since you had met. “They all expect so much from me! They think I can do everything, but I can’t! ‘Oh, [Name], you’re not using your full potential!’ I am , I’m just not as good at everything as you think I am!” You turned to him, your temper quieting down. “Do you - do you know what it’s like to have everyone looking down on you all the time, even when you’re trying your best? It sucks . It feels horrible that you can’t live up to everyone’s expectations. So, I finally had enough of it one day and used some money I was saving up for school to come here. No one knew, but I left them a note. Maybe they read it, but maybe they didn’t.” You huffed a sighed as you sat back down, holding yourself close.

“You - you just left?”

“Yeah.”

“Using school money?”

“Y-yeah?”

“Do you have a job?”

“I did , but they’ve probably hired someone else by now.”

Karamatsu was worried now; he wasn’t trying to deepen his voice for any reason, and his eyes were focused on you. Neither of you noticed the figures in the distance, the strangers surrounding you, the people walking by. In this moment, no one existed but you two.

“You left your life because you wanted to? You didn’t plan or anything?”

“Nope. No planning done whatsoever.”

“How do you do that?”

You turned to him, confused as to what he meant. The tone didn’t sound accusatory at all, but his choice in words made him sound pretty angry. “What do you mean?”

“I have to plan everything. If I don’t, it might not work. If it doesn’t work, I fail. If I fail, I’m made fun of. I have to be perfect. How can you just do it because you want to?”

“I-I don’t know. Listen, Kara, can - can we go home now?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was later than usual. Before you parted though, he voluntarily hugged you.

“If you need to talk, it’s okay to with me.” You smiled at his imperfect grammar.

“Thanks, Karamatsu.”

He pulled away, flashing you a grin and a thumbs up. “I had a good time today! Same time tomorrow?”

You made a thumbs up too, playfully winking. “Same time tomorrow.”

You were exhausted. You practically had to drag your body to the elevator, and when you closed the door to your hotel room, you almost immediately flopped onto your bed for an early sleep - hence, almost. A glittery blue, poorly wrapped package and “From: Karamatsu” written on it in big messy letters caught your eye. You decided now would be a good time to open it.

You were careful with the wrapping, because it was either pretty expensive or Karamatsu had made it himself. Either way, it was worth keeping. A soft fabric touched your hand as you dug inside the packaging. When you pulled out your prize, you gasped quietly and smiled.

It was a light blue tank top with his face on it.

Chapter Text

When he entered the door, Karamatsu was not expecting to be screamed at by a crazy person. By “crazy person,” he meant you.

You were wearing the shirt he had given you, which made his face tint red - he wasn’t expecting you to actually wear a tank top with his face on it. He wondered why in the world you’d actually wear it, but he wasn’t arguing - it fit you pretty well. He had chosen the best quality fabric for you, of course. Anything other than this perfect combination of-

“Kara! Kara! Kara! Kara!-”

Your excited chatter brought him back to his senses.

“Calm, my [Name]. What do you need?”

You grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him around, causing his glasses to fall off of his face. Oh, thank god he wasn’t wearing those tacky contact lenses - they looked really bad on him, and they irritated his eyes. You didn’t need him suffering for attention, he already did that often enough with his leather jacket when it’s this hot out. He seemed really worried at why you were shaking him around like a maniac, so you stopped that and pulled his face close. You caught a whiff of something that smelled really nice, but you pushed the thought aside.

“Please, please show me your favorite spot to think. I want a really good memory before I go home!”

Karamatsu blinked, very confused by your very out-of-character hyperness that reminded him of his brother. You could feel the heat radiating off of his face from being so close. Audibly gulping, Karamatsu attempted to put on a smug look and, with his newfound burst of confidence, he placed his forehead on yours and looked deeply into your eyes. ‘Without those contact lenses, his eyes are actually... wow, really, really pretty…’ your face pinked at the closeness.

“Anything for you, my [Name].”

You put your hands on his chest, pushing him away while turning his body towards the door in one foul swoop. “Then let’s go, okay? You lead!” You called as you shoved him out of your hotel room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You hadn’t expected a 30 minute hike through town just to get to the entrance of where this special place is. It was even further inside, and according to Karamatsu:

“Only an hour away!”

An hour ?! Oh god, you didn’t want to walk all of this, your legs were already weak from the walk around town. But you requested for Karamatsu to do this, and since he was kind enough to accept, you couldn’t back out now. Plus, it was nice to do this instead of English lessons for a day, especially since he had been making great strides in his studies.

He was wearing his blue hoodie and a pair of normal jeans today, which struck you as odd; the man loved his glitter, but there was none to be found anywhere on his body. Even his shoes were sparkle-free. He seemed much more comfortable this way; he wasn’t trying too hard to impress anyone. Was he finally warming up to you? You smiled. He could be himself around you, and not who he tried to be for the satisfaction of others.

“[Name], are you okay? You’re kind of behind.”

You snapped your head up to meet his eyes. He stopped walking and was looking at you, a seed of worry planted in those pretty eyes. A sheepish grin grew across your face, replacing the thoughtful look you had on seconds prior.. “Ah, yeah, I’m okay. Sorry, I was just thinking about some stuff.”

“Need to talk about it?”

“No, it wasn’t anything like that. I just kind of... spaced out, is all.”

“Ah.”

When you walked up to him, you grabbed his hand, startling him and causing him to jump. He blushed heavily from the unanticipated contact, to which you only snickered in reply. “Come on, let’s get going.” You gently squeezed his hand, causing him to squeak in response, however, he began to walk quickly. You laughed out loud this time, but he pretended as though he didn’t hear you and just continued to stiffly put one foot in front of the other.

As you walked hand in hand, you allowed your mind to wander once again.

When had you guys gotten so used to the constant contact? It made both of you intimidated from time to time, sure. I mean, neither of you had any real relationships that either weren’t a joke or didn’t end in a week. But he was getting better with it, you noticed. He wasn’t as jumpy when you would hug him out of the blue, he could tolerate to look at you when you held hands. It was really sweet in all honesty; he may have been a nervous mess most of the time, but he tried really hard to be able to give you the contact that you needed.

“We’re here, my [Name].”

You must’ve been in thought for a long time, then. He held out his hand dramatically, pointing you towards the scenery with his free hand.

You’d never seen anything like it.There was vibrant greenery all around, sakura trees in the most perfect of places, and the roaring water crashing down from above was the cherry on top. A pool of clear water edged up to the pebbles that made up the ground beneath your feet. As your heart clenched up at the masterpiece before you, your hand squeezed his reassuringly.

“This is - where did you-”

“I, uh, come here a lot. It’s pretty hidden and far from town. When I need to be alone, I come here.”

“It’s beautiful.”

You tugged on his hand, releasing it and running to the very edge of the water. You removed your shoes and tossed them further away so that they wouldn’t get wet. You remembered your phone, and quickly trotted over to place it by your belongings. Running back you smiled at your friend. “Come join me, Kara!” As you stepped into the water, a chill ran up your spine. It was really cold, so it’d probably take you a bit to get used to the temperature. You heard the crunching of rocks, and soon enough, Karamatsu was by your side in the water. His hoodie and shoes were neatly placed by your belongings.

“Hey, I have an idea, Karamatsu.”

“What is it, my [Name]?”

“First one to go under the waterfall and get completely soaked wins. Loser buys cheap take-out on the way home. Deal?”

“Are you sure? You could get sick.”

“But there’s food involved in the winnings. Free food.”

“I…I can’t say no to that.”

And you two ran and swam as fast as you could, playfully pushing each other behind. Water was splashing everywhere, getting in your eyes and all over your clothes. It ended up being a tie, but you two found a large rock to sit on behind the waterfall. You climbed up, shivering from the cold water and the lack of sunshine. The two of you sat in comfortable silence for a long while, allowing the time to warm up and catch your breath from your race. Even when you had been all rested up, you decided to enjoy just being next to each other. It was you who broke the silence.

“What do you think about when you come here?”

Karamatsu looked up at you inquisitively. He swallowed and straightened out his back. “Lots of things. Family, myself, more. It’s hard to say.”

Silence fell upon you two again for a while. You looked out past the waterfall and saw that it was getting darker out. “Is this a safe place for you, then?”

“Yes. I haven’t shown this to anyone else.”

Your eyes grew wide before turning your head to look at him again. You shifted your body to sit with your legs crossed in front of you. “Really?”

He nodded. “Really.”

“Not even your brothers?”

“Not even my brothers. They would ruin this place for me.”

For a second, the only sound that could be heard was the rush of the waterfall.

“Tell me something, Karamatsu.”

“Hm?”

“How do your brothers treat you?”

“Wh-why do you ask, my [Name]?”

“Because, from what you’ve told me, they sound like they don’t really care about how you feel. Like, they do their own thing and don’t really add you into the mix at all. Do they ignore you? Do they abuse you?”

He swallowed and looked away. “They care about me sometimes. Not all the time, though.” He brought his knees to his chest and lazily rested his head on them. “They cared enough to watch us the other day. At the park, they were in the bushes. They wanted to know about you afterwards, too.”

“Really? Do tell me more.”

“They asked if we were dating. They wanted to know where I found you. They asked if I was paying you. They told me that they didn’t know what we were saying. All they heard was ‘milk.’” He laughed a bit, then continued. “They want to know why you talk to me. They think you’re attractive. One of them wants your phone number, but I didn’t give it to him. I think he’d try to date you.”

You laughed loudly. “Man, Kara, your brothers are a riot. Me? Attractive? Not in the slightest. Also, why do they care so much about our relationship? Tell them to chill.” You paused, taking a deep breath and smelling the outside. “But other than that, they don’t care about you?”

“Not really, no. I once went to the hospital because they hurt me. They didn’t even notice I was gone, or when I came back.”

“That’s…really messed up, Kara.”

“Yeah, but it’s okay. They’re my brothers. I love them.”

You leaned back silently and looked into the water pooling around your guys’ rock. The sky’s orange and pink rays reflected off of the mirror-like liquid, and you decided it was time to go back.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I’m cold.”

“Here, take my sweater.”

“Are you sure? You might catch a cold-”

“You’re wearing a tank top. I have a shirt.”

“Okay, then. I’ll wear it.”

His sweater was undeniably soft. He must use a bunch of softeners and only the best of detergent when it came to the care of this sweater. If you weren’t walking around downtown with the take-out that you split the bill for, (How did he have money to pay for half the bill? You may never know.) you’d probably curl up and fall asleep in it. It had a distinct smell of cologne and a light hint of what you could only describe as “Christmas.” It made you feel like you were at home, snuggled up in front of the fireplace with those you love.

The town was really beautiful at night. It was even more beautiful when he “slyly” took your hand into his with a gentle squeeze. When you looked up at him, though, he wasn’t looking at you, or even straight ahead - he had turned his head in the exact opposite way of you. Even in the dim lighting from nearby shops, the tips of his ears were obviously red - from the cold or from the contact, you didn’t know. You smiled, huffing out a little bit more air than a breath, and kept walking.

Eventually, you had come to your spot where you had to split up. It was dark out now, around 10 pm, which is the latest you’ve ever hung around him at one time. You parted ways, and you tiredly dragged your worn out body to the hotel. How did he manage to wear you out like this every time you went to do something?

As you flopped onto your bed, not changing out of your clothes, you realized that he forgot to take back his sweater. You panicked; did he need this back? It seemed very important to him, maybe you should call him.

However, your eyelids disagreed as they closed quickly.

Maybe he wouldn’t mind if you slept with it for one night, right? You could give it back to him tomorrow when he came for a visit. You buried your face into the front of the jacket, cuddling into it.

It smelled just like him.

Chapter Text

“You really did mean it when you said you were sick.”

“Yeah, sorry.”

“Do you need any medicine right now?”

“No, I… think I’m okay.”

You sneezed again, grabbing a tissue from one of seven tissue boxes Karamatsu had brought you. He decided to surprise you with a call and see how you were this morning, and when you responded with a nasally “I’m good” and a sneeze, he rushed over with medicinal supplies as soon as possible. You were really glad for that, honestly, otherwise you’d probably stay in bed all day and not do anything to take care of your body.

“Did you get this from the waterfall last night?”

“Probably.”

“Oh, my sweet [Name]. I told you it was a bad idea.”

“I know. I just wanted to get food with you.” You pulled the blankets closer to your face, hoping he didn’t see the faint blush.

It was undeniable by now: you’d grown quite fond of Karamatsu.

He laughed and brought you over some hot chocolate, which you had requested he bring over the phone. It was still too hot to drink just yet, so you let it sit on the nightstand. The ceiling seemed pretty empty, you noted as Karamatsu brought a chair over to the side of your bed and sat.

“Is there anything you want to eat? Bread, maybe?”

“I’m not hungry.”

“[Name], you haven’t eaten anything today. You could - uh, what’s the word for having old food or stomach liquid come out of your mouth?”

“You mean ‘throw up?’”

“Yes. You might throw up.”

“But I won’t. I’m not sick like that.”

Karamatsu grumbled as he rested his head on his hands, his eyebrows knitted with concern for you. “Come on, my [Name], don’t be like this. You need to eat something. I’m going to get you some soup.”

You scoffed half-heartedly, rolling over to look at him. “Where are you gonna get soup, huh? The soup store?”

He stood up proudly, dramatically putting a hand up to his forehead and sassily leaning on one leg. “My dearest [Name], would I be cheap like that? For me, maybe. But for you-” He got down on one knee, looking at you with a burning passion in his eyes (thank god it wasn’t those oddly intense ones; he’d stopped using them after you expressed your discomfort). “You deserve the best in the world. I wouldn’t buy anything less than what a king would eat, because you-”

“Shush, you’re beginning to talk too loudly.” You expressed with a small smile. “It’s giving me a headache. Sorry.”

“Heh! Don’t be.” He flipped his hair dramatically. Karamatsu looked down at you and pressed a hand softly to your face, mumbling something in Japanese about “hot” and “sleep.” He began to walk away from you, but you managed to swipe at his wrist and get his attention.

“Where’ya goin’?” You yawned and let your eyes close part way. He smiled; he was right about you needing rest, so making the soup before you woke up would be easy to accomplish. You seemed very, very tired.

“I need to go make you soup from scratch! I will use the best foods!”

“Kara, you really don’t have to-”

“But, I will for you.”

You rolled your eyes and closed them completely. “Okay, be back soon, please.” You snuggled into the blankets and sighed contently as the door shut behind you. A small smile was set gently on your face as you began to drift off into sleepiness.

You don’t think he noticed that you were still wearing his sweater from the night before.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Hello, my brothers! I need your help.”

Karamatsu leaned up in the doorway where everyone else was doing their own thing. No one looked up except for Osomatsu, and that was just to see who was talking. When he saw who, he hummed in annoyance and went back to reading his manga.

“Please, it’s about [Name]-”

All of them shot up at once, focusing fully on Karamatsu.

“What is it? Is [Name] looking for a boyfriend? Can I volunteer?”

“No way in hell anyone’d want to date you, Osomatsu. You’re gross and reek of beer.”

“Like you’re any better, Fappymatsu! All you do is yank it to cat girls! Would anyone want to date you? I didn’t think so! Fappy, fappy, fappy-”

“Uhm, guys-”

“[Name] wouldn’t want to date either of you! I’m the cutest, obviously they’d want to date me~!”

“Shut the hell up, Todomatsu. You’re just as bad as the rest of us.”

“I wouldn’t say I’m just as bad. You sit in cat piss all day, waiting for someone to talk to you. That’s disgusting!”

“Guys-”

“I want to date! Me me me me! I’m cute, right! Me me me me me!”

“You’re too hyper to date anyone that cute, Jyushimatsu. Besides-”

“My brothers, please!”

Karamatsu was red in the face now with both frustration and jealousy. “[Name] is sick. I want to make them soup, or something. But really high quality, because they do deserve the best, after all.” Karamatsu posed with a hand under his chin.

“Awwww, does little Karamatsu have a cruuuush?” Osomatsu mocked, rubbing his index finger under his nose. “I should’ve known he’d fall for someone that cute.”

Karamatsu blushed at the oldest brother’s comment, waving his hands rapidly. “N-no no no no, i-its not that! I want to h-h-help them out-!”

“It’s okay, nii-san! [Name] is really cute! You’d be super lucky if you got them to like you back!” Jyushimatsu cheered, his smile ever-so present.

“A-anyways ,” Karamatsu responded in English, coughing into a fist. “I wanted some help to, you know, make it really good. Could you help?”

“Of course we’ll help you, Karamatsu! We’ll help you get the love on your life!”

“W-w-w-wait, please, it’s not like that, okay? This is purely platonic-”

“Whatever you say, Karamatsu-niisan.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Karamatsu growled at his rambunctious siblings. They weren’t any help whatsoever. They kept running around and screaming, and if they did “attempt” to help, it was usually something to be taken as a joke. Did they not care? [Name] was a living, breathing, wonderful, attractive, in-need-of-help human being! They all wanted to date them, too, but how could they when they weren’t even taking this one thing seriously?

“Hey, Karamatsu. Can we put cat litter into the soup? I think it’d add a little crunch.”

“No , Ichimatsu. I want real food.”

“Yeah, Ichimatsu. We need something edible, romantic, but still just as painful as Karamatsu.”

“Yes, exactly. Wait, what do you mean, 'painful'-!”

“So, obviously, a dozen roses straight into the soup will be perfect! The thorns give it a real ‘cutting-edge,’ per se.”

“Ahahaha! Osomatsu-niisan, you’re so silly!”

Karamatsu just sighed at his brother’s conversation. They weren’t any help. They seemed to be having fun, so why not let them be? He left them behind as he found the different broths. Just what kind would [Name] like? He thought about calling them, but seeing them curled up and asleep with a faint blush and tiny snores made his head a little woozy; plus, he didn’t want to wake them up when sleep was important for an angel such as themselves-

“Hey, Karamatsu. What are you looking for? Maybe I can help.”

Karamatsu turned to look behind him, and saw Choromatsu holding a paper in his hands. “Mom asked me to buy some stuff while we were out anyways, so I thought I could offer at least some advice.”

Karamatsu smiled gratefully, giving his younger brother a thumbs up and a wink. “Of course, brother! What broth do you think I should use for [Name]?”

“Well,” Choromatsu placed a hand under his chin thoughtfully, looking up. “Beef broth tastes good no matter what your health is, but chicken broth is more commonly used to cure colds and is also probably cheaper depending on the brand. It could go either way, really. What do you think [Name] would like?”

“I-I guess chicken, in that case.”

Karamatsu grabbed some broth and put it into the basket.

“Are you sure though, Karamatsu? What if they don’t like chicken? Plus, it’s so easy to get, you can find it in solidified form. I feel like if you got beef broth, it would feel more fancy and special, since it isn’t commonly used to make medicinal soups.”

“I think I’ll be fine-”

“Besides, beef broth is heartier than chicken. It’d have a stronger taste, and might even feel more refreshing. I’ve decided that [Name] would probably appreciate the beef broth better than the chicken broth.”

Without saying another word, Karamatsu walked away with his specially chosen chicken broth, leaving Choromatsu standing there to bask in his sins alone.

After what felt like days later, Karamatsu had purchased and cooked all of the ingredients that he had specifically chosen for his dearest [Name], along with purchasing cold medicine. He stored the soup in a container and walked smugly to the building that held his most precious [Name]; truly an angel they were.

Karamatsu rode the elevator up; his brothers were following him, and they probably ran up the stairs to meet him up there. As the elevator rang out, the sliding door opened to reveal his five clones. Just as he had assumed.

“We want to meet [Name]!”

“Yeah, even though they're sick, we think they'll be fine saying hello, right?”

“Pleeease, Karamatsu-niisan? I want to get their phone number-!”

Karamatsu pushed past them, completely ignoring their pleas. As he began to walk away, they chased him, clawing at his leather jacket and whining and crying. Were they all secretly 5 year olds? Probably. He just continued to ignore them, a blank look on his face, void of any emotion.

When he stopped at the door, the other 5 brothers rushed to hide behind the door frame. When he knocked, the brothers fell silent. Not a single one of them was breathing, save for Karamatsu. A loud groan came from inside the room, signifying that Karamatsu could enter quietly.

He turned the knob and opened the door just a crack and looked inside. [Name]’s back was to the door, and they shifted uncomfortably, letting out another groan in pain.

“Karamatsu? Is that you? ”

“Yeah, it’s me. ”

“Come on in then. Sorry for the, uh, mess of tissues. ”

He laughed, and the brothers had no idea what was going on. Did Karamatsu know English now? Why hadn’t he told them? A few of them got pretty mad, seeing as this was a life-changing thing, and he hadn’t notified them that he was even taking lessons. They assumed that the reason they couldn’t understand them at the park was because of the distance, but was it possibly from speaking another language?

Karamatsu turned towards his brothers. “Listen, I know you want to meet them, but… not today. They need rest. Is that okay?”

The five other brothers looked at each other before responding with an in-sync nod.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You heard him step in and close the door, along with the shuffling of several pairs of feet from outside.

“Hi. Welcome back to my temple of sick.”

“Glad to be here,” Karamatsu half-joked as he sat down on the chair beside the bed. There was a tower of tissues sitting by his foot sadly, and your nose was sore and raw and very, very red. Karamatsu worriedly held up a hand to [Name]’s head and gasped.

“You feel like you're on fire, [Name]!” He frantically ran to the bathroom and got a cold towel to lay on their head. The sound of familiar footsteps running around soothed you, if only slightly. As a coldness was placed gently on your head, you let out an uncontrolled whine of relief. Karamatsu smiled softly.

Your hot chocolate was left cold and untouched. The soup, although smelling very appetizing, didn't seem like it'd satisfy your needs. Well, now was as good a time as any, you decided.

“H-hey, uhm, K-Kara?”

“What is it, my [Name]?”

“Th-this might be weird, but c-could you, maybe, uhm… ah, nevermind.”

“No, no! Tell me. I want to help.”

You scrunched your eyebrows together and mumbled something under your breath. When he tiled his head in confusion and asked you to say it again, you knew it was a mistake. “No, no, it’s okay! Nevermind!”

“How can I help you get better if you don't tell me, my [Name]? I don’t care what it is, I’ll do it. If it makes you happy, I’ll do it.” His tone sounded assertive yet soft. His determination to help you was oddly calming.

“Can you, maybe…hold me? I hurt, and… my mom would do this to me, and it just… helps?” You sighed as you tried to burry your face further into the blankets, your face extremely red from the mixture of a fever and the blush from the question you asked. “I-I’m sorry, that’s weird, you don’t have to-”

The bed bounced beside you as the covers were lifted. The sudden contact with the chilled air made a shiver run down your body as you scrunched into a tighter ball. He shifted under the blankets and covered himself. His presence beside you made a fiery ball form in your abdomen, and it felt like it was going to explode into a million butterflies.

“Do - do you want - where-” He took a moment to collect his thoughts before he nervously asked, “Wh-where d-do y-y-you w-want to be h-held?”

“Could - could you hold my w-waist? If that’s okay.”

He hesitantly wrapped an arm around you, scooching closer to you. There was still a small space between the two of you, because he was nervous and he probably didn’t want to catch your cold. “A-a-anything for m-my dearest [Name].”

“Thank you.”

You used a spare arm to wrap around his and hold his hand awkwardly.

“This means a lot to me, Kara.”

They shut their eyes and sighed. You could feel the nervous trembling from Karamatsu’s body; this was probably the closest he’s ever been to another human being besides his brothers.

“You mean a lot to me.”

His body went stiff as you leaned into him. He began to shake furiously, and despite the heat radiating off of you, you could still feel his blush. His reaction caused you to stiffle a giggle and hold onto him just a bit tighter.

“Good night.”

The soup was left untouched as he held you closely. You were still wearing his hoodie, and the familiar softness made him realize that you probably hadn’t taken it off since last night. You actually wanted his company. This was… new.

Karamatsu tried to hold in tears as he felt what it was like to be needed by another person, but the effort was futile.

Chapter Text

You didn’t know how this happened.

The two months in Japan had flown by. As you stared up at the ceiling of your room, you realized that you had to head home soon. Your stomach churned, and you rolled to your side, trying to not let your tears fall from your face. A sob choked out anyways, but you were sure to not let any tears follow, because if they began, you didn’t think they’d stop.

What about Karamatsu?

When you told him that you were leaving today, He didn’t do anything but look at you sadly, even when you had grasped his hand, even when you gave him a gentle squeeze. He only responded when you hugged him tightly by wrapping his arms around you and sighing, and although he said that he was fine, you felt his tears on your shoulder.

He tried to stay strong for you.

When had you two grown so close? Sure, you hadn’t met his family, but it felt almost wrong after these two months to not have him by your side. You held hands without it being awkward now, hugs were becoming more and more common, it was… strange. You acted like you were a couple, but you weren’t.

…

Were you?

Sighing deeply, you reached out and grabbed the tank top with his dumb, attractive face that he had given you a few weeks prior. By now, it was your most prized possession; you wouldn’t ever get rid of this. You decided that on your plane ride there, you’d wear the shirt, just to keep your memories fresh of him.

Why wasn’t he here now, holding you? Did it hurt too much?

He hadn’t even gotten the chance to teach you Japanese. Now what were you going to tell your parents? You had fled to a foreign country with little to no gain other than pleasure? They’d think you were pathetic, a child. Maybe if Karamatsu was there, holding your hand as he had done many times now, squeezing it and sending shockwaves of comfort, their disapproval of you might hurt just a little less.

And suddenly, an idea was born.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Where the hell was that guy?

Why wasn’t he hanging around at that fishing spot he constantly talked about? Why wasn’t he in the city, sitting against a wall and waiting for people to flirt with him? Why wasn’t he hanging around that bridge, sitting there in his leather jacket, sweating uncomfortably just because he wants people to notice him? Where was Karamatsu?

As you were about to toss yourself into the river to cool down your hot-headed self, your phone began to buzz wildly. You threw your arm into your pocket and pulled it out, answering quickly. Was fate helping you? It had to be! Because only one person would be calling you, and that’s-

“Karamatsu! Is that you?”

“[Name]? Listen, I-”

“Are you home?”

“Y-yes…? [Name], what’s-”

“Give me your address.”

“What?”

“I’ll write it down. What is it?”

Despite the obvious confusion, he gave you his home address. You saved the note on your phone with a grin.

“Alright, I’m on my way.”

“[Name], what are you-”

“Bye!”

You barely had time to put your phone in your back pocket before your legs carried you as fast as you could. It wasn’t too far. Your lungs burned, and you were panting. Tears sprung into your eyes from the wind hitting them, but you were smiling and laughing. Your legs grew tired, but your running didn’t cease. You couldn’t stop running. You didn’t want to stop running. You’d see him soon.

You had to see him.

You practically tackled the front door when you got there, begging for someone to open it. A hesitant hand opened the door, fearfully confused eyes along with it. You reached out and grabbed him by the collar, forcing a hug onto him and holding him tightly. His arms hesitantly wrapped around you, shaking with both confusion and fear of the unforeseen closeness that you two were suddenly sharing.

“I don’t have to leave you, Karamasu! I’m - I’m taking you with me!”

He pulled away, his face riddled with perplexion. His hands still stayed on your arms, though, as if you were a dream that he didn’t want to wake up from, like you’d disappear any second that he wasn’t touching you. “What do you mean?” He slid his arms up onto your shoulders and you pulled out a paper from your back pocket.

“I’m bringing you home with me! Come on, come with me!”

“Is that a plane ticket?! [N-name], this is so sudden! I don’t have anything ready! I can’t just leave-”

You grabbed him by his face (which was surprisingly soft and squishy, fitting for an all around squishy person, it seems) and pulled it towards yours. He became slightly rigid, as this closeness had a different feeling to it than every other time you had done it. The intimate softness was unexpected, even for you, and your faces were painted a soft red. His arms looked like they wanted to wrap around you, but they couldn’t, so they just floated by your side. “Yes, you can. I’m going to help you. It’ll only be for a few weeks, then I can fly you back out. I-” Continuing to gently hold his face in your hands, you placed your head gently on his chest, trying not to choke on your own words. “I just-” His heartbeat sounded in his chest, and it helped calm you down a little.

“I just can’t say goodbye yet.”

It took a moment of silence, but soon he started laughing - at first, it was soft, but grew into a loud chuckle. You laughed along with him, but you weren’t really sure why. A wetness hit your hand, along with the touch of his own hand. You pulled yourself away from his body and looked up at him. He was crying and laughing, but when he took his other hand and wiped your cheek, you realized you were crying, too.

“Wh-why are we laughing, [Name]?”

“I don’t know! This is so weird!”

“You did this! You made me weird!”

“What are you talking about, Kara?”

“You made me confusing like you!”

You laughed louder this time, and neither of your tears seemed to be stopping any time soon. “I’m not confusing, I’m just different than anyone else you’ve met before!”

“Well,” He moved away from you wiping the “extra” tears from his eyes (even though a light stream was still running down his face.) He looked at you with a soft yet intense glare, like the one he had shown you when he promised to bring you back the homemade meal from a few weeks ago. This one made you feel at home. “You being confusing is… interesting.”

You two stood by each other, having let go of each other as well as everything that just happened.

“Well, Kara,” you held out a hand like you were waiting for him to shake it. “What do you say? Wanna come home with me?”

He gladly took your hand, thrusting it up and down excitedly. “Yes! Let me go tell my family.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Your feet touched familiar soil. His touched new land.

You were home.

His brothers didn’t seem to care much that he was going to be gone; you were pretty sure they didn’t notice the two of you at all, even though you had been loudly laughing and running around for 20 minutes, constantly asking for help to pack. When Karamatsu told them goodbye, they waved him off with a “Yeah, yeah, see you later.” It wasn’t until you were out of the house that you heard all of them yell at once: probably something about you, since you heard your name. Karamatsu just grabbed your wrist and ran before they could interrogate the two of you.

The two of you had been hand in hand since you got to the airport, in all honesty. You didn’t let go when you boarded the plane. You didn’t let go when you took your seats next to each other. You didn’t let go when he noticed that both of you were wearing the same shirt, the one with his face, and laughed. You didn’t let go when you laid your head on his shoulder and fell asleep. You didn’t let go when you woke up and found his head placed gently on yours, sleeping with you. You didn’t let go when you shook him awake and told him that the plane was landing soon. You didn’t let go when you hopped into the taxi with your luggage and took the ride to your house. You didn’t let go when you knocked on the door. You didn’t want to let go ever again.

It opened up, and suddenly you were filled with dread. Now, you wanted to let go, to run away, to never come back. But now it was inevitable. You tried to let go of Karamatsu’s hand, but he knew what you were trying to do, so he kept a solid grip on you.

“H-hi, mom.” You trembled, and his grip tightened, now to the point that his hands were white. Was he just as nervous as you were?

“Ah, so you couldn’t even handle living on your own for two whole months, huh? Shame.”

Not even a greeting. Not even a hello. Not even a “where were you?” Not anything except for judgement.

“I thought you could actually do something with your life, y’know?”

Regret and terror shone in your eyes. You didn’t want to be here. This was too much. You felt like you were going to vomit.

“Oh, who’s this your boyfriend?”

You were about to shake your head when she clicked her tongue.

“Such a shame. You can do better than that, [Name].”

Chapter Text

Such a shame.

How dare she? How dare this woman try and call your best friend a “shame?” He was, by no means, a shame. He learned English in two whole months! God, you should’ve just punched her, right then and there. You wished that she didn’t terrify you so badly that even hearing her footsteps sent you into borderline panic-attack mode. You wished that, for once, you had the strength to fight that woman back.

Maybe you didn’t have the strength; however, Karamatsu had other plans.

“I can understand you, you know.”

“Oh, so it speaks! I was expecting a complete waste of my time, seeing as that’s all [Name] has managed to fish up. They don’t try hard enough, you know? It hurts to look at them sometimes, both the messes and my own kid.” She giggled as if she told a clever joke, covering her mouth with a hand. “Come on in, you two. Make yourselves at home~”

Despite her saying that, you were paralyzed. Your palms were sweaty, and you could only stare straight ahead. Why, oh why did you decide to come back?! You thought that maybe, maybe she’d have a change of heart. She strutted in, leaving the two of you behind.

When Karamatsu’s hand left yours and moved to your back, you could finally breath again, albeit a little shakily. He traced small circles, helping your back to loosen up under his gentle touch. The sensation was calming, even in your current state of fear.

“Why did you want to come back to this ?”

“I-I-” you coughed, tears prin picking at your eyes. “I thought, maybe, th-they’d see that- oh god, I don’t know, Kara. They’re family, if it weren’t for them I wouldn’t be here. I have to love them, you know? W-we should get inside. Dad gets impatient really fast.”

If this is how [Name]’s mom was, how was their father? The thought chilled Karamatsu to the bone. His hand left [Name]’s side, but he made sure to stick close to them. When they stepped inside the large house, all that was heard was a howling laughter.

“Ah, there’s [Name]! You’re back, eh? Couldn’t stand to be away from me?” [Name]’s father chuckled loudly again, smacking a hand on [Name]’s unexpecting back. They yelped quietly, hoping their dad didn’t hear; thank goodness, he didn’t.

“And you ! Who might you be, young man?”

“I’m Karamatsu Matsuno.”

“Well, good’ta meet’cha! You may be human trash; I mean just look at you ! But, I gotta say, you’re better than all the others they’ve brought home to meet me!” Another laugh emitted from the man. You flinched. That wasn’t really a compliment, was it…?

“We - we aren’t actually dating or anything, sir.”

“Oh, sure, sure! I see the way you look at each other! It’s disgusting , but that’s what horny boys do, right? They look at fragile people and take advantage of them. Every boy . Well, anyways, go ahead and go down the hall, [Name]’s room is that way as well as a guest room.” He pushed both you and Karamatsu with ease, leaving Karamatsu with an extra rough pat as he left them to their own doings.

“Your parents are... weird.”

“Y-yeah. I don’t know why I thought it was a good idea to come back. Maybe I should send you home sooner than planned-”

“No. I can’t just leave you here, alone and scared, my precious [Name].”

You turned to him and held him closely, but only for a second; you turned and pointed him to the guest room silently and entered your bedroom coldly. You were terrified, but you didn’t need him worried about you; in fact, that was the last thing you needed right now.

Karamatsu swallowed thickly; he did not like this, not one bit.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The first night was just…awful. Even though you tried so hard to just eat alone with Karamatsu, your parents insisted - no, forced you to eat with them. There was no conversation, and the silence was not pleasant; it was thick and rotten and it felt like someone was pouring wet cement onto your shoulders. You were absolutely miserable. Karamatsu continued to look over at you worriedly before you went to bed early and left your untouched food on the table.

Karamatsu ended up knocking on your door very early in the morning, around 2am you guessed. He was wide awake, trying to act sleepy, but to no avail. You had tried your best to sleep, but were unable to as well. Jetlag, you presumed. You invited him in and didn’t talk, just absorbed each other’s anxious emotions. It was nice that, despite the events of today, you could still find silent comfort in each other. He ended up falling asleep on your bed around 7am. You didn’t get any sleep, and you probably wouldn’t be for a while.

The two of you decided to leave the house and explore the stores and everything around the town. You acted like nothing was wrong, smiling and laughing and holding his hand like you had done many times before. However, he knew you were forcing it. It hurt to see you like this, because he knew exactly how you felt. He didn’t want to see his beloved like this.

Even though the two of you hadn’t bought anything, you still had fun; even if it was all just an act. You even took a little visit to the playground near your house. It was pretty empty, so it was nice to just have alone time and talk and hang out like you two had before. You were exhausted, and both of you wanted to go to bed as soon as possible, but once again, dinner was forced upon you. This time, however, it was not silent. You wished it was.

“So, [Name],” your mother began, taking a sip of the water she had before her. “What did the two of you do today, hm?”

“Ah, we just, y’know… walked around town, hung out at the park.”

“Ah, nothing productive. Thought you’d at least try to do something nice with little lover boy over there, but I suppose not.”

“S-sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry!” A laughter sounded from your father. You took a peek at Karamatsu, who was just as terrified of the conversation as you were. He hadn’t been told one good thing about himself, and you could see that the self confidence that he had been working so hard to build up had been pounded to mere dust by now. You looked back at your father. “You had fun at least, right?”

“Y-yeah, I think so.”

“‘Yeah, I think so.’” Your mother mocked mercilessly, shaking her head with a click of her tongue. “Can’t even do something that doesn’t even take any effort correctly. Answer the question, did you have fun or not? An ‘I think so’ won’t be getting you a house anytime soon.” She scoffed, mumbling something under her breath, and took another sip of water.

“Y-yes-”

“Oh, lighten up, honey!” Your father chuckled again, completely interrupting you. His laughter was so obviously forced by now that it hurt to listen to.

“... Why ?”

Your eyes widened as you snapped your head to the figure next to you. Karamatsu had been looking down the entire time, not even bothering to give his attention to the two monsters in front of him.

“‘Why’ what, kid?” Your father leaned back, and the tension was stronger than ever. You were sweating bullets.

“Why can’t you just appreciate [Name] for what they are?”

“Why can’t you just mind your own goddamn business -”

“Hey, hey, no need to get so riled up, honey. The boy asked a question.” Your father leaned forward on the table, and stared directly into Karamatsu’s eyes. Despite how much he wanted to look away and cower in fear, Karamatsu stared directly back at your father. “I don’t think [Name] does a good job at taking care of themselves. They saved up more than enough money for school and blew part of it on a trip to Japan, just to find a lowlife foreign boy who probably just wants to screw ‘em senseless, then throw them into the dust to rot. Am I right?”

“No, sir. I’d say you’re very wrong.”

“Oh? And why’s that; tell me, you pathetic pig.”

“Because a man wouldn’t do that.”

“ Oho !” Your father laughed maniacally, throwing his head back. “I wasn’t expecting such sass from a stranger! First, you come into my household, then you dare call yourself a man? My, my, you must be really full of yourself, huh?”

You dad threw his arms onto the table aggressively before entering the nearby kitchen. Your mom just scoffed and left the table, mumbling something about “I’m done with this” or something like that. You were terrified, did Karamatsu really just try to pick a fight with your dad of all people?!

“Dad, please-”

“No, no, [Name]! Let the boy prove himself.” He entered the dining room again, slamming down a bottle of your family’s homemade whiskey. That stuff could kill a horse. You were worried about Karamatsu, you wanted to tell him not to do it, but he didn’t seem to be backing down anytime soon. You swallowed, looking up at your father.

“ Let’s see if this narcissistic pipsqueak has what it takes to prove himself a man. ”

Chapter Text

It’s been one - no, two hours since this drinking brawl has started. Oh god, Karamatsu looked like he could pass out at any second. Surprisingly enough, your dad did, too. Karamatsu could really hold his own when it came to drinking. You had to make sure both of them weren’t going to get alcohol poisoning, so you sat around and watching for signs. Your dad was immune to it by now, you think, but Karamatsu was really worrying you.

You sighed as they both took another swig of whiskey, each slamming their glasses on the table. You let your head drop to the table. As of now, these two were acting like children, and you just wanted to sleep. Your mom constantly came to check up on the situation, catching you asleep at times and shaking you awake to keep an eye out for them irritatedly. She seemed just about as done with them as you were.

You had time to think back on your parents.

If you guys were rich, why were they always so stressed all the time? Okay, it makes sense, with the company digging into their backs like knives, but still, there was no reason to be this bad of people because of it - hell, they were literally drinking their own whiskey! That they sell! For a really high price! When you asked them why they couldn’t help pay for school, they responded with “We made our business from the ground up; you need to do the same.” That was a complete lie, your mother inherited the company when her grandmother died. When you asked if you could get a job with their company, “What? No! That’s like cheating!”

They used to be really sweet. Your mom used to be such a nice woman, your dad was so happy, but something unspoken of happened and it all went to hell at once.

You groaned as the two of them began to argue again, looking up tiredly.

“Come on, kid. You’re about to throw up, just do it.”

“No way, Mr. ‘I treat my kid like trash because I don’t believe in them.’ I’m gonna prove that I, am definitely, capable of taking care of [Name].”

It was so hard to understand what they were saying because of the slurring, but you got the message and stood up slightly. You were no longer seated, but you weren’t exactly standing, either. Just in case your dad decided to… do something. When all they did was glare at each other, their faces red with drunkenness, you sat back down.

You blinked groggily, resting your cheek on the palm of your hand. “Can we just-” you paused to yawn, stretching your arms up too. “Can we just go to bed already? It’s late, and you’re acting like toddlers.”

Your dad turned to you. “Toddlers would die of alcohol poisoning!”

“You will too if you don’t stop!” You threw up your hands dramatically to emphasize your point, then brought them back down to cross them over your chest. You sighed and walked over to Karamatsu, tugging on his arm. “Let’s go to bed, I’ll take care of you guys in the morning.

“Ha!” Your father’s laugh bellowed, echoing in the empty room. “You think you can take care of us when you can’t even take care of yourself?” He wiped his hand over his mouth. “That’s funny. You’re a riot, [Name].”

“[Name] can take care of themselves, you’d see that if you just let them be happy. Encouragement is important for raising a kid, y’know.” Karamatsu’s accent was really strong by now, and he was probably trying hard not to slip into Japanese from time to time. “You would know that if you could raise a kid right.”

Without another word, a fist flew from one end of the table to the other. With a loud smack , Karamatsu fell to the floor. You rushed over to his side; his nose was bleeding, but it didn’t seem to be broken, thank god. His eye was already starting to swell and turn black. You attempted to pick him up, but as soon as he was on his feet, he charged back at your father and socked him in the face.

“Stop!” You yelled. Oh god, oh god, you were panicking now. Your heart was beating, your adrenaline was racing, your breathing was hard. You half carried Karamatsu as you opened the door and ran as fast as you could. He kept stumbling, but you had to go before things could get worse.

By the time you were running through your grassy front yard, you heard yelling from your father, causing you to flinch. Men raising their voice in general is the most terrifying thing in the world; but when it was your drunk father, it was one hundred times worse than that. You thought you heard your mom’s voice as you kept running, trying to keep Karamatsu on his feet. You were proven right when you heard her scream.

You couldn’t help her.

The two of you ended up finding a crappy hotel just out of town to stay at. You wouldn’t be going home anytime soon, you assumed, and told the woman at the front desk you’d be there for around three days. She handed you a key and you made your way to your room.

“ [Name]-chaaaan~ ” Karamatsu whined, tired and still pretty drunk. He began to mumble things at you in Japanese, his deep-voice act breaking and slowly turning into his normal squeaky voice, one that he used rarely. Everyone in a while, you’d recognize a word, such as “ cute ” or “ soft .” You didn’t know what he was talking about so you just ignored him for the time being. When you unlocked the door to your room and opened it up, Karamatsu wrapped his arms around you like a sloth. “You’re so cuuuuuute , [Name]-chaaaan~ ”

“Oooookay, you’re delirious,” you commented, helping him sit on one of the two beds. You reached your foot back and shut the door. “Try and get some sleep, I’m gonna go buy you some Tylenol at one of those nearby ‘open 24 hour’ shops around here. One of them’s bound to have something.”

“Awww, [Name]-chan cares about meeee~! What a thoughtful person!” He cooed, flopping over to his side as he attempted to get the blankets over him. “And so smart, too! Oh, I’m so luckyyy!”

You rolled your eyes as you tried to help him get underneath the blankets of the bed. He tried multiple times to pet you, “ nya ”-ing at you as if you were a cat. You swatted away his hand multiple times. “How do you manage to be so angry and intense around my dad, but you’re this mess when we’re alone?”

“Your big, mean, scary dad makes me mad, but you’re really nice and soft and cute so you make me reeeeaalllyyyy haaaaaappyyy~” He made an out-of-character giggle before cuddling up to the sheets. “I love you, [Name]! You’re the beeeest~”

“Oh my god, shut up and go to sleep.” You spat with a faint blush. You grabbed the room key and walked out the door to find some medicine. He whined as you closed the door, but you were pretty sure he was asleep. He’s a strange drunk, that’s for sure. ‘Make sure not to give him alcohol. Got it.’

The nighttime air was chilly without a jacket, the slight breeze causing a chill to run down your back. You wish you had Karamatsu’s hoodie right about now. When the wind would hit your ear just right, it would remind you of her screams, ones that you had heard many times before. Ones that you have emitted yourself once or twice. He didn’t mean to get out of hand, but he really couldn’t control himself when he got this way. You can’t believe Karamatsu. What an idiot, trying to fight your dad like that.

Tomorrow morning, the two of you needed to talk.

Chapter Text

Tomorrow morning didn’t come until three days later.

The first night, Karamatsu was in no way ready to have a conversation that entailed what you were preparing for; when he first woke up, he started sobbing from the amount of pain his head was in. You helped him nurse back to health; from the hangover, at least. His black eye was a whole different matter. He could barely see out of it, and it required lots of icing. You were glad you were right about his nose not being broken, though, that would have been absolutely excruciating. You don’t even want to think about that sort of pain.

Every time you tried to apologize about what happened, he would quiet you by apologizing himself; whether it be for acting irrationally, getting you into this situation, or just to apologize. Each time an angry huff would leave your nose, because you were the reason they started fighting in the first place. You were the one who thought it was a good idea to bring him here. You knew your dad was dangerous, and yet, you… God, you were selfish, weren’t you?

That night, you kissed his forehead and wished him sweet dreams.

The second day, you focused solely on his eye while you were at the hotel. Constantly getting ice for it, making sure he didn’t lay on the left side of his face where the punch had landed, keeping him busy with conversation. He fell asleep around mid-day, so you left a note decided to go walk to the nearby hospital to see if your mother had been admitted in yet; fortunately, she was, and you decided to pay her a visit.

She was scowling at the TV when you walked in. You called out to her quietly, and she turned her head slightly. A large cut over her forehead, a swollen, lip, a broken arm, possibly more. Guilt bubbled up in your throat, but she didn’t seem to mind too much.

“Ah. It’s you. Come in, sweetheart .” You could practically see the venom dripping from her mouth. Yikes. You knew it wasn’t purposefully aimed at you, but it caused you to flinch nonetheless.

You pulled up a chair by her bed, playing with Karamatsu’s hoodie that you had decided to wear out. If she noticed, she didn’t seem to recognize it, and if she did, it was probably the last thing on her mind. The silence was heavy as you could only look at the floor and play with the edge of your sweater. Your mother made no attempt at conversation.

You finally swallowed your fear and spoke up. “I-I’m… sorry, mom. I left you back there.”

She rolled her eyes before looking over to you. “My god, please stop apologizing. Its annoying. The one time you do something that benefits others and you say you’re sorry.” She scoffed before looking back up at whatever cooking show was on at the moment. “You did alright. It’s over, now. He won’t be out for a while. Good thing little lover boy of yours didn’t end up like me, right?” She grinned bitterly. It wasn’t for you, but rather for the situation at hand.

You stayed silent again, looking at your shoes. She was… actually proud of you. Proud of something you did, even though she got hurt from it. She hadn’t said something even remotely encouraging to you since before your dad came back for the third time. It made you smile a bit.

Twenty minutes had passed before she broke the silence. “You’re not a bad kid, you know.”

“Hm?”

“You’re alright. It’s just… I expected you to be different than this.” She sighed.

“What do you mean, you expected me to be different?”

“I wasn’t -” she took a second to collect her thoughts before continuing again. “I didn’t think you would be so carefree, letting your emotions guide you. There’s more, but it’s hard to explain.” She stifled a sour laugh before turning to you ever so slightly. “You’re confusing, you know that?”

“So I’ve been told,” you looked down at the hoodie fondly, rubbing your thumb over the pocket’s outer edge. There was a brief pause before she responded.

“That’s his, right?”

So she did recognize it. “Mm.”

It was silent for another ten minutes of her just looking at you up and down before she looked back at the TV. “Go back to him. I’m sure he’s worried.”

“I left him a note.” You shot back.

“I’ll be fine, [Name]. Go take care of him. He’s worth it.”

You left a kiss on her forehead and wished her a better day.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Finally, the day that you had been dreading. By now, it felt like there wasn’t really anything to talk about with what had happened with your father; everything that had been pent up left you on your walk to and from the hospital. There was one thing that was bugging you, though.

“Are you ready to talk, Kara?”

“Yeah.”

He sat up and rubbed his head, still aching from the punch that had been delivered to his face only a few days prior. You sat criss-crossed in front of him. Each of you had a cup of black tea, sipping from it every so often. His facial features looked relaxed, but you could tell that he was tense.

“I’m not interested in the incident.” You bluntly stated. He looked at you, confusion riddled in his eyes.

“Then what do you want to talk about…?”

“Do you remember anything? At all, really?”

He shook his head slightly, then looked down at his lap with shame. “Not really, no. I don’t even remember the fight, honestly. I just remember kind of fading out, then waking up and my head hurting really bad.” He sighed, looking deflated.

“I didn’t think you would. I was just making sure.” He looked back up at you nervously. “Then, you probably don’t remember telling me that you-” The words caught in your throat, but you managed to cough them out.

“You don’t remember telling me you loved me, right?”

“ WHAT?! ” His entire face was scarlet, and he had to rub his temple from the dizzying effect his voice’s volume had. “A-a-a-are you s-sure I t-told you that?” He had an anxious smile on his face, as if he were really, really hoping you were lying to him.

“It could’ve been platonic, but you were also calling me ‘cute’ and ‘soft’ beforehand. I just want to know if you meant it as a friend, or… romantically. That’s all I want to know.”

He just sighed and held his head in his hands for what felt like an eternity. Neither of you said anything, until you heard him sniff. He began to tremble, and he lifted his head out of his hands. Was he crying?! You freaked out and began to reach out for him, but he began speaking before contact could be made.

“I like you! I like you so, so, so much, but I’m terrified!” He sobbed, looking down at his lap. “What if it doesn’t work out? You’re the only real friend I’ve ever had! I can’t afford to lose you, [Name]! It would - it would...” He took a minute to gather himself, taking in a deep breath. He he looked at you dead in the eye. He was completely vulnerable, but he was allowing you to see that - for once, he was letting you see how he felt without him trying to cover it up with some kind of an act.

With a still shaky voice, he whispered, “It would ruin me if I lost you.”

No one moved. It was silent, and the air was uncomfortably warm. After what felt like hours of deafening silence, your hands ended up finding each other and intertwining fingers. His hands were shaky, his breathing was ragged. Despite the events that have happened recently, you felt hope rise in your chest, and you smiled.

“That’s okay, Karamatsu. I can wait.”

His head whipped up to look at you. “Wh-what..?” He whispered, shock evident in his wavering voice.

You  looked up at him smiled at him patiently. “I can wait. You’re not ready, and that’s totally okay. If you want to wait, I can wait.” You gave his hand a reassuring squeeze.

“You…” he swallowed thickly, blinking to make sure you were actually there. He rubbed his thumb along the side of your hand. “You’d do that? For - for me?”

You nodded, the once patient smile turned cheeky. “Of course, dummy. Who wouldn’t wait for someone as spectacular as you?”

He practically tackled you into a hug, sobbing about how wonderful you were and how he couldn’t quite believe this was happening. After a while, the tears stopped, and he yawned. He was still injured, you remembered, and he layed back down. With a deep breath and a smile on his face, he fell back into a slumber.

You kissed his forehead and wished him a good night.

Chapter Text

You ended up staying in the hotel for about a week in total. You didn’t know when your mom was going home, or what the situation was in general, so you decided that staying for a few more days couldn’t hurt. Karamatsu’s eye had been looking much better each day.

You didn’t really talk much, the two of you; you just kind of sat there, getting him new ice, getting him Tylenol, the usual. There was a lot of physical contact involved, though; it was usually holding hands, but sometimes you would end up crawling into bed with him and running your hands through his hair to help him sleep. Other times, he’d end up subconsciously letting go when you were holding hands and rubbed your forearm gently for an hour or so. There was once where something he had snacked on wasn’t sitting with him right, and you made him some peppermint tea and layed in bed and held his waist gently like he had done when you were sick until the feeling passed. All were comforting in their own odd ways. When you would go to get food from a place nearby rather than making something work with the groceries you ended up buying one day, Karamatsu always begged to go with you, and you really couldn’t say no. He wore his sunglasses to avoid questioning glares when you went out for food, as well as when the two of you checked out of the hotel and went to visit your mom in the hospital. After seeing her injuries the first time around, you knew she’d definitely be there longer than a week, so you didn’t bother calling in to see if she went home.

You waved at her softly when you entered her hospital room, your other hand laced tightly together with Karamatsu’s. When he saw your mom, he froze up a bit, but then turned angry and protective. You squeezed his hand gently while rubbing your thumb into his skin, as to let him know it was okay.

“Hi, mom. Are you doing any better?”

She looked over at you and sighed. “Not really, I have two broken ribs. One almost punctured my lung. Come on in, take a seat you two.” She turned her attention back to the TV.

You shut the door as you entered, and you could tell that Karamatsu was still putting up a guard for you, just in case she tried to say something about you that he didn’t like. You pulled over two seats and sat beside her. Your hands never let go, though, and your mom took notice. She didn’t say anything, but she had a small, sly smile aimed at you.

“Hey, Karamatsu.”

His body went rigid as a chill ran down his spine. Neither of your parents had actually called him by his name until now; he’d only ever been called things like “a shame” or “a disgrace” or “a poor excuse for a human” and so on. He swallowed and hummed in acknowledgement.

“I’m sorry.” She looked back at the TV again. “You really weren’t any of those things we called you. I just, er, had to play along. I didn’t want to end up like this again.” She chuckled bitterly. “Ah, didn’t help, it seems. I know, that really doesn’t make me less of a bad person, but-”

“I accept your apology.”

Your mother seemed to stiffen for a moment before humming in response.

“Ah, by the way, mom.” She turned her head towards you. “I’ve decided that I’m, uh, gonna move to Japan when Karamatsu goes back. I’ll go with him. Will you be okay by yourself?”

“ What ?!” Both your mom and Karamatsu yelled, looking at you. You hadn’t told either of them yet. Oops, you had meant to bring this up to Karamatsu earlier, but the opportunity never really presented itself; you had been content with the comfortable silence.

“Yeah, so, do you think you’ll be okay?”

Your mom propped herself up using her elbows to look at you. “When did you decide this? This is really sudden, I don’t think this is a good idea.”

“I did it for two months, right? I’ll be fine, especially since I have connections.” You jokingly elbowed Karamatsu’s arm with a grin. “If I have trouble, I’ll come back. I just want to know if you’ll be okay alone.”

Her face turned sour and she looked away from you. Karamatsu’s eyes were still wide, and he looked at you. “Are you sure, my [Name]? Why didn’t you tell me, either?”

“Surprise, now you know!” You were smiling awkwardly at him, giggling with anxiety. Was this a bad idea? You hadn’t really thought so until-

“...Fine.”

You both turned your head to your mom, who’s face was still contorted in a bitter expression. She was avoiding eye contact with you, looking up at the ceiling. “You… you can go. I’ll be okay.”

Your eyes grew wide and a bright smile found its way onto you. You grabbed Karamatsu by the shoulders and shook him around a bit. “I’m going back! I’m going back!” Your head felt weak with happiness, so you let it hang down as you laughed.

Your quickly looked up with determination in your eyes and a small smile on your face. You squeezed Karamatsu’s shoulders. You were practically bouncing in your seat. You stood up, his hand still in yours, and gave a thumbs up with your free one.

“Let’s go!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After you had said your goodbye’s and “I love you”’s, you ran to your parents’ house to pack up all of your clothes. Karamatsu was supposed to be flying back any day now. Before you had left the hospital, though, your mom requested to speak to Karamatsu alone. You thought it was odd, but left them to do their thing. Five minutes later, Karamatsu came out of the room with a small smile and quickly grabbed your hand before exiting the building.

It took you a few minutes to find the spare key, but it was pretty simple, seeing as how often you used to run away for a few days at a time when incidents like this happened. You opened up the door to the now empty house and jogged to your room to pack your needed clothes immediately.

Honestly, there wasn’t a lot to pack; when you first went to Japan, you brought all the clothes that fit you or that you wore. You decided you’d drop the extra clothes off at a thrift shop before you left for the airport. Oh, speaking of which -

“Hey, Karamatsu, do you know how to buy plane tickets online?”

He shook his head. “It couldn’t be that hard though, right?”

“No, it’s not hard at all. Here, take this and go buy two tickets off of my laptop. It automatically connects to the printer in the guest bedroom if you could grab them when you’re done.” You handed him your credit card that you used when you were home.

“Wait, but isn’t it all school money?”

“Yeah, but I’ll get more. It’s more important that we’re gone before my dad gets out then school right now. I think my mom’s finally done with him.” He opened the laptop on your bed and listened to every instruction you gave him as you folded your clothes. After around 2 hours of work, everything was ready for the two of you to leave later that night.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And here you were, setting foot in Japan once again.

The familiar air hit your face. It was almost midnight, and the chilled air gave you goosebumps. Karamatsu wrapped an arm around your shoulders, his other hand placed sassily on his hips. “Well, [Name], we’re home.”

“Yeah.” You wrapped your arm around his waist and turned to hug him fully. His sweater’s scent flooded your senses, causing you to squeeze him tighter. “By the way, why do you smell so good?”

“Huh?”

“Like, your natural scent. It’s really nice.”

“I, uh, don’t know..?”

“Hm.” A short, intimate pause. “How’s your eye?”

“A lot better,” he said as he wrapped his arms around you. “All thanks to you, of course.”

“Good.” You reached up and pecked his left cheek before pulling away and grabbing his hand.

You ran to the luggage pickup hand in hand. After the two of you had gathered your things, you decided to stop by the bridge where Karamatsu liked to hang out. It had been a bit since he was here, so the two of you decided it’d be nice to pay it a visit. You had both leaned up on the edge of the railing; you were looking out to the water, and Karamatsu had his back turned and was looking up at the sky.

“Your mom, [Name],” He started, pausing to make sure you were listening. When you hummed, he continued. “She made me promise something.”

“What’s that?”

He paused, taking his eyes off of the sky to look at you. He just stared for a moment before closing his eyes with a hum. “She made me promise to take care of you and to protect you.”

Neutral silence floated gently in the air; both of you were unsure if this was a bad thing or a good thing. What exactly had she meant by that? Protect you from what? The possibilities of Japan? Your dad if you ever went back? You grabbed his hand and leaned against him, sighing. A small smile settled on your face.

“Well, then you gotta try and keep that promise. I believe that you can.”

Chapter Text

It’s been about a month since you moved to Japan.

When you first got there, you didn’t have a place to stay. Karamatsu ended up sneaking you inside his house to sleep on the couch and made sure you left by 5am, meaning you only got about 3 hours of sleep. When you asked why you couldn’t just meet his brothers already, he said “Do you really want an entire day of questions about yourself in a language you don’t speak? We’re busy tomorrow. That wouldn’t be a good idea.” You got some hot chocolate at a cafe with him that morning, and soon enough you were out looking for apartments. You eventually found one that wasn’t too far from where he lived and for a pretty affordable price; it wasn’t the best looking place, but it was good for now, just until you got a stable job to keep you on your feet.

Today, you were going to make a cake for Karamatsu when he came over - it’s been about three months since the two of you had met, and you wanted to do something special. You were walking back to your apartment when a man stood in front of you, stopping you from going any further.

He look exactly like Karamatsu. This was one of his brothers; you had recognized him from when you were helping Karamatsu pack to go visit your family. He had a large, unwavering smile on his face and a baggy yellow hoodie.

He just stared at you. You waved your hand slightly, unsure of what was going on. He threw both hands in the air with a “ BWOAH !”

You didn’t know what he meant by that. What a weirdo . You cleared your throat and looked at him.

“Karamatsu brother..?”

He brought his arms down and nodded twice, punctuating each one with a “ Yes! ”

You just looked at him for a bit, and he looked at you. The silence was extremely awkward, but it didn’t seem to be affecting him at all. His smile was still on his face, his eyes shining with excitement. This one was… odd. Honestly, you should’ve expected Karamatsu’s brothers to be odd, I mean just look at Karamatsu himself: he was constantly monologuing about who knows what, posing dramatically at every chance he got, and that awful intense look that you’re glad he’d stopped giving you completely. It made sense that his brothers were just as strange as him.

You swallowed and asked “Name?”

He jumped in the air over and over, shouting “Jyushimatsu! Jyushimatsu! Jyushimatsu!” Over and over and over again. He didn’t stop jumping and telling you his name until you stepped back to give him more space. When he did stop, he brought his arms to his chest and tilted his head. “Teach English?!” He practically yelled, his words very mispronounced - even worse than when Karamatsu first started talking to you.

“O-okay-”

“YAAAAAHOOOO! Hustle hustle! Muscle muscle!” He began to jump in a circle again. Just how much energy did this kid have?! Eventually, he jumped right in front of your face - I’m talking about three inches from your noses touching - and stopped with his arms spread out like he was going to fly. (He was probably able to do that, seeing as this guy seemed to be able to do anything with this amount of energy.) He paused for around five seconds, his mouth hanging open, then shouted “Let’s goo ooOOOO !”

He began pushing you in the opposite direction of your apartment.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“This is an ‘egg.’”

“Eggu!”

“No, egg.”

“Eggu!”

“Eh-gg.”

“Ehhhhhhhhhehehehehhhhhhh-gg.”

“Eh, close enough.”

You cracked the egg on the side of the bowl and let the insides drip into the flour. You decided that you oughta start teaching him right away, especially since he didn’t really have any experience. He probably learned that one sentence online, and didn’t listen to the audio of it, just to ask you for lessons.

You pointed at the yellow orb in your bowl. “Yolk.”

“Yoka!”

“Yo-ke.”

“Yooooo-ka!”

“No ‘ka.’ Just ‘yolk.’”

You were about to slam your head into the counter out of frustration when you heard a knock on your door. You trotted over and opened it to see Karamatsu, standing there in his jumpsuit. He gave you double finger guns and a wink hidden behind his glasses. Suddenly a loud voice yelled “ NII-SAAAN!! ” From behind you, leaving you mere seconds to hastily step backwards before your guest tackled his brother and began shaking him around, yelling and rambling in Japanese. One time, Karamatsu’s face erupted in blush, but he quickly tried to hide it. Jyushimatsu would point at you and yell sentences from time to time, and one time you caught him saying “YOKA!” While doing so.

After he was done yelling, Karamatsu leaned around him and looked at you. “Why did he just call you an egg yolk? In fact, why is he here?”

You laughed sheepishly. “He stopped me on the street and asked me for English lessons, but he’s really difficult to teach.” You laughed, crossing your arms. “I don’t think I have that much patience to teach him, in all honesty. He’s just so excitable, I don’t think he really listens to me. Can you maybe help me with this process?”

“My brother wants to learn English…?” He turned back to his brother, asking him the same question in Japanese.

Jyushimatsu estatically yelled, lifting his arms high in the air. “ Yeeeessssss!!! With Nii-san!!! ” He began to giggle and bounce on his feet excitedly.

“Ah, my brother,” Karamatsu said empathetically. He spoke to him again, and you think he was explaining something to him. When he was done, Jyushimatsu yelled in anguish.

“Yoka! Yoka!” He said, turning to you with a sad smile on his face. “Brother teach English?!”

You nodded. “He’s practically fluent, as of now. But, I bet with time, you can be fluent too.”

He had no idea what you said, but it sounded encouraging, so he just smiled. He twisted his head to face Karamatsu, who translated what you said into his language. He let out a “WOOOOAH!” And grabbed your hands, shaking them wildly. “ Thank you! Thank you! ”

“No problem,” you said and pat his head. He laughed at your antics and ran out of your small apartment to yell excitedly.

“So,” Karamatsu poke up. “What were you two doing?”

“Making a cake. Since he’s gone, do you want to help instead?”

“Sure.” He walked in and looked over his shoulder. “What kind?”

“Your favorite, of course. We got it while we were visiting, remember?”

Before your dad had snapped, you went out for a day on the town. You had stopped by a small cupcake parlor that was famous for its red velvet and cream cheese frosting cupcakes. Karamatsu had ordered one and fell in love. Since then, he’s been begging for you to make some for him, and you decided that this was the right occasion.

You closed the door behind him as he cheered, an excited smile on his face. You followed him into the house to begin baking. Your thoughts floated to Jyushimatsu - what an odd character.

You were happy that you’d be seeing him more often.

…

Apparently, more often meant “right now,” and your door broke off its hinges to reveal none other than Karamatsu’s excitable brother.

“I help! Ehehegg! Yo- KA !!!” He began to jump around your apartment, headbutting your couch, somersaulting on your kitchen counters (without somehow knocking something over), and some other things that you couldn’t even begin to describe they were so weird. He was moving around so fast, you could have sworn he was teleporting around the room. You and Karamatsu just stood there in awe, watching the blur of a man.

Jyushimatsu, huh? He  was… something , alright.

Chapter Text

“[Name]! [Name]! Nii-san wants to learn, too!”

You looked over your shoulder to see Jyushimatsu, who - despite your first thoughts - was actually a really, really quick learner, especially with the constant help of his brother. It’s only been two weeks of teaching in total and he could speak pretty well. What was with this family and being extremely good at learning English?

Today, though, Jyushimatsu had one of their other brothers - who also looked exactly like the other two that you’ve met. By now, you had learned from Karamatsu that they were sextuplets, so this didn’t surprise you. The man waved with a small smile, attempting to introduce himself in English. His pronunciation wasn’t too bad, but you could tell that that was really the only thing he was confident in saying.

“What’s your name?”

“Ch-Choromatsu.”

You held out your hand for him to shake, but he seemed afraid. What the heck? Was he worse with human contact than Karamatsu once was? You grabbed his hand and shook it, leaving him a mess when you let go. His face was red and panicky and all Jyushimatsu did in response was laugh.

“[Name]! Teach nii-san English too?”

You nodded. “Sure, but I don’t know if I’d be able to teach two at a time, even with the help of Karamatsu.” You stepped aside, inviting the pair in.

They stepped inside, taking off their shoes by the door. You brought them over to your couch and had them sit down. “Okay, Choromatsu, how much English do you know?”

He didn’t respond but rather continued to smile at you, and when you looked at him like he was crazy, he began to freak out in realization that you asked him something and he didn’t know what you said. “Alright, so pretty minimal. That’s okay.” You patiently smiled at him. “Why do you want to learn English?” You turned to Jyushimatsu, whose face held a familiar smile. “Could you translate?”

He went into deep thought for a second, then quickly spoke Japanese to Choromatsu. When he responded, though, he wouldn’t stop talking for what felt like forever. It was probably only five minutes, sure, but he just would. Not. Stop. Talking . When he was done, Jyushimatsu turned to you and said “He does not know.”

You sighed, tilting your head back. You checked the clock really quickly, and even while being upside down, you realized something. You quickly rolled around to face the right way, and when you saw the time, you screamed.

“I’m late for my date!” You quickly got up, stumbling and almost tripping, before running to your room. “Bye, Jyushimatsu! Nice to meet you, Choromatsu! I’ve gotta go!” You ran out of your room with a backpack slung over your shoulder and ran out the door. They just sat there and watched as you ran out. Jyushimatsu yelled out a “Bye-bye!” In response, but he was pretty sure you didn’t hear it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I’m here! I’m here! I’m sorry I’m late!” You yelled, running over to Karamatsu and practically tackling him. You were panting hard, because you hadn’t stopped running the entire time. “I brought what you asked me to.”

“Ah, don’t worry about it, my [Name]!” He removed his sunglasses and bent down to look you in the eyes. “If this is what life wanted, was for you to be late, then it will all work out in the end. Fate has a way of bringing us together in the sweetest of ways, don’t you agree, my love?”

You snorted, covering your mouth with your hand. “What are you talking about?”

He took your hand and knelt on one knee, his eyes closed for dramatic purposes. “Today, my dearest, we have the world in our hands. Where should the wind take us?” He looked up at you, eyes blazing with determination.

“You told me to bring a blanket. Shouldn’t that mean you already have a plan..?”

“Ah.” He looked down in fake sadness, but you knew it was really because he was embarrassed, and he really didn’t want you seeing his reddened face. “So the secret is out.”

“Come on, then.” You grabbed his hand and pulled him up. “Show me what you’ve got planned.”

He led you out of town to a large, grassy area. Karamatsu pointed out a nearby hill, and led you to the top. You took out your blanket and spread it out, and the two of you laid on it and stared at the sky for a while. You would point out pretty clouds from time to time, laughing at how much some of them resembled animals. One time, Karamatsu pointed at the sky and said “That one looks like you.”

“I don’t get it,” you had responded. There were only a few clouds in the sky, and all of them were thin and tiny. You could barely see most of them.

“Right there,” He pointed again.

You followed his arm and you ended up staring directly into the sun. You hissed and looked away quickly, wiping your eyes. You had to blink the bright spots out of your vision, then you playfully punched Karamatsu in the arm. “What does that even mean? I’m hard to look at?”

“No, my dear [Name].” He rolled over, propping himself up on his elbow to look at you. “It means that you are so beautiful that you blind me. I can’t look at you without needing to turn away from you, the light of my life.”

“That was… really cheesy.”

“Hey!”

“I guess it was kind of sweet.”

“‘Kind of’?! I tried really hard to come up with that one. Do you have no appreciation for the poetic talents?”

You sat up now, facing him with a bewildered look. “Hang on, ‘appreciation’? ‘Poetic talents’? Where did you learn those words? I never taught those to you.”

“Yes, I taught them to myself to impress you.”

“Honestly,” you scoffed, laying back down and closing your eyes. “The fact that you even decided to learn English impressed me enough. You learned it so quickly, too. You don’t need to learn more to impress me, you’ve gone further than I ever expected you too.”

You let the sun warm you as you rested. When Karamatsu didn’t respond, you looked up to see him on the verge of tears. You sat up quickly and addressed the situation. “Are you okay?! What did I do?!”

“I… I actually impressed you?” He sniffed, rubbing his eyes. “No one’s ever told me that before. A-Are you sure?”

“What do you mean, ‘are you sure’? Would I seriously lie about something like that?” You sat up completely, sitting criss cross in front of him. Karamatsu mimicked your actions. “Obviously, I’m sure. If I told you that and didn’t mean it, I would be a horrible person.”

He chuckled and agreed with you, laying back down. You pet his hair and let the gentle breeze blow softly around you. He wasn’t wearing any hair gel today, you noted. He practically sweat the stuff, so it was weird. But his hair was also naturally soft and fluffy and wonderful to run your fingers through so you weren’t arguing. “By the way, Choromatsu approached me earlier with Jyushimatsu. He wants to start learning English with him.”

“Really? Hm.” He readjusted himself on the blanket, pressing his face against your leg. “I was expecting him to ask soon. After he saw how quickly Jyushimatsu was learning, he was interested.”

“Can you help me with him, too? He likes to ramble on a lot and I don’t know how to shut him up.”

He barked out a laugh, his soft cheeks squishing into your knee. “Yeah, he really does, doesn’t he?” He readjusted to snuggle up to you some more. You smiled softly and continued to thread your fingers through his hair. “I never really noticed that, it’s become sort of an everyday thing. My poor brother really doesn’t realize how annoying that must be to others.”

“Hm.” You paused before talking again. “Hey, it’s starting to get dark, do you think we should go back?”

“No. I like this.” He was practically glued to your leg by now. “It’s… nice. At least for a few more minutes?”

A few more minutes turned into a few more hours.

It was night time by now. The sun was completely down, and the sky had been completely cleared of clouds, and the moon shone brightly. The stars were visible, too; the part of town you were in was usually too bright to see them, and if they did show, they were usually very dull. It made you really happy to see them this bright tonight.

After the two of you had packed up, you held hands and began walking back into town. It was silent, and for some reason, Karamatsu had gotten really nervous. His hands were getting clammy and he wouldn’t even so much as look at you. You were worrying now; was something wrong? He didn’t seem to want to talk, so you didn’t ask.

You ended up at the bridge in the nearby park. It was nice having that be right in between both of your houses, because it was such a pretty and calming place to meet up for days out on the town. It was really beautiful at night, too; this was one of the only places in town that you could see the sky clearly.

“Well, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“W-wait, actually.”

You turned to face him, and he grabbed your face in his hands. They were clammy and trembling, and his face was a pale white underneath that layer of explosive blush. He froze up and stood there, his touch on your face becoming light and uncomfortable.

“Are you okay-?”

He captured your lips mid-sentence.

He was trembling, and you could feel the heat from his face (it hurt almost), but it was sweet nonetheless. Just as you began to press back on his lips, he pulled away and just stared at you for what felt like hours. The blush covering his face didn’t die down, and neither did yours. After a while, you spoke up.

“Does this mean you’re ready?”

It took him a second, but he responded with a hasty nod.

Neither of you could do anything except look at each other. You could only focus on his face and examine his facial features - his extremely dilated yet pretty eyes that shone underneath the moonlit sky, his thick eyebrows creasing from nervousness as if he were about to pass out, his hair messier than normal because of the breeze and the lack of gel. His glasses were placed on his head, but they looked like they were going to fall off. You could see the night sky in the reflection.

Somehow, without you knowing, your body pressed into his and you held him. He held back almost too tightly as he buried his face into your neck. You breathed in his scent - no cologne today, thank god - and sighed.

“I’m ready too.”

Chapter Text

Your lessons with the two brothers had come to an end for the day. You waved Jyushimatsu and Choromatsu off. They both left with a “Goodbye!” and a wave of their own. You smiled, placing your hands on your hips, proud of them and yourself for the work you had accomplished.

This past week had been an odd one, to say the least. Obviously, since that night, your relationship with Karamatsu had changed; you weren’t entirely sure if you could consider it romantic or not yet, but it was a lot more intimate than it had been prior. You couldn’t really explain it, but the things you did on a daily basis had a different feeling to them than they normally did.

You turned around and laid on the couch with a huff. Karamatsu, for the first time in a long time, was busy with something else today. You hadn’t really been apart since… well, since you met, you suppose. There was some coldness back when you visited your family, but you were still near each other for the most part. It felt really weird, but it was sort of relaxing to just be alone for a bit.

You were no longer alone when there was a knock at the door.

You hopped up off of the couch that you had just settled onto to see who was at the door - could it possibly have been Choro or Jyushi? Maybe they had left something while they were here and came to pick it back up.

When you opened the door, however, you were greeted with an “[Name!]” and a pat on the back. You were really weirded out - even though this man looked like the other Matsunos you had met, he definitely was not any of them. He smelt like old potato chips and had nothing really unique about him that you’ve seen, anyways. You pushed him away, getting a good look at him. With a smile, he rubbed his index finger under his nose.

He began to speak in Japanese to you, and you were pretty sure he was praising you. You didn’t know though, so you cleared your throat to shut him up. “English?” you asked. He only laughed and shook his head. You pulled out your phone and opened up the translator app, switching around a few of the options, then held the phone up to his mouth. “Speak.”

He did as we was told, putting every ounce of enthusiasm he had the first time around into his words. When he was done, he grabbed your shoulder and gave it a good shake. It took a second for the app to translate, but once it, did, it gave you this message:

“I just want to thank you for taking care of my brother! He is, you can be here is now much happiness. Because he is not painful either, etc., it is a plus! You he is really, really happy. We are all right, do not let get in the way of your relationship? He has a relationship, I had some rough patches in the past, and I think he really, really likes you.”

You took a minute to try and figure out what it was saying and eventually you came to the conclusion that he was thanking you for making Karamatsu a happier person. There was also something thrown in about rough relationships in the past, which confused you. It was mainly just thanks, though.

You flipped around the languages and spoke into the phone. “He’s really great, honestly. He makes me very happy, too. I hope he really likes me, it would be a bummer if he didn’t, especially after all of this. By the way, what’s your name? And what do you mean by rough patches in relationships?”

It took him a minute to get what the poor translation was saying, but he eventually got it. He introduced himself as Osomatsu, and you two shook hands. You kept talking like this, back and forth for about an hour or two through your translator app, talking about you and Karamatsu’s relationship until he finally decided to answer your question from the beginning. When talking into your phone, though, he had to pause and sigh a few times. He even began to laugh sourly at one point, and had to stop and wipe the tears from his eyes. But he was smiling and so happy throughout his entire speech. When it translated it back - although it was horrid and it made practically no sense out loud - you think you understood. This wasn’t a joke. This wasn’t fake. This was all too real for Karamatsu to have someone who loved him like this.

You smiled at Osomatsu and tapped the button on your phone. As you were about to speak into it, your phone began to ring from a familiar number.

“Hey, what’s up, Karamatsu?” You answered into the phone. Osomatsu took a seat in front of you and listened to you speak.

“Not Karamatsu!” A laugh followed after.

“Oh, hi Jyushimatsu. What did you need?”

“Nii-san wanted me to tell you-” he paused, humming in concentration. “Meet at bridge..! Yes , meet at bridge!”

“Okay…?” You looked down to Osomatsu who just shrugged. It’s not like he would’ve known what was up, anyways. You shrugged back at him. “What time?”

It took him a minute, and the entire time he was humming like a motor. “Ah!” He piped up, startling you a bit. “Right now!”

“ Right now?! Okay, thank you, Jyushimatsu!”

“Have fun with Nii-san!”

You hung up and ran over to grab your things. It seemed like time kept slipping out of your hands when it came to meeting up with Karamatsu - although, this one was unforeseen and not your fault. You two probably needed to work on planning things out. You helped Osomatsu up and led him out of the house. You bowed to him. “ Thank you .”

He laughed, patting you on the back again. When you rose up, he shot you a playful wink and a thumbs up. “Good luck, [Name]!” He walked away and waved to you. As you began to trot over to the bridge, you realized that it was already turning dark. Just what did Karamatsu want from you at this hour? He was an odd one, that was for sure.

You approached the bridge and realized that Karamatsu was facing away from you, and he appeared to be wearing a suit? This was new. You looked in the water and on the railing of the bridge - small, pink candles were lit on the railing and a few were floating in the water. All you could think was “This has so much time put into it, but it’s going to be so bothersome to clean.”

As soon as you set foot on the bridge, Karamatsu turned around, sunglasses over his eyes and a rose in his mouth. He posed, one hand on his hip and the other reaching out to you. You walked up cautiously until he pulled you to him and dipped you.

“Uhm, Karamatsu? What is happening? Is this what you spent all day doing?”

He hummed and placed his forehead on yours, still not releasing you from his dip. “Yes, my love. I spent the entire afternoon, handcrafting each and every candle to fit your beauty. When I was done, I was disappointed to see that not a single one could compare to you.” He “heh heh”’d and closed his eyes. “Now that you’re here, these candles do not shine as bright as they once did.”

“That’s sweet and all, but how is that rose not falling out of your mouth?”

“...huh?”

“I mean, you’re talking to me while practically facing the floor, but that rose is just sitting there in your mouth. It’s not even budging.”

He seemed really put off by the fact that you completely pushed all of his compliments out of the way, but your red face showed that you were just really flustered and needed a way to not focus on the burning sensation. Whether it was from the sudden contact or his poetic words, seeing you react this way to him made butterflies flutter around his stomach. To hide his own growing blush, he lifted you up and adjusted his glasses.

He pointed at you with a smile on his face, rose still in his mouth. “Love always finds a way.”

“That makes no sense.”

“Ah,” he seemed pretty disappointed. “Nevermind that. The reason you are here tonight, my love,” He held onto your hand tightly and knelt onto one knee. He removed his sunglasses to look up at you, his eyes shining under the setting sun. “I want to-” His eyes widened as he coughed, and you realized that his confidence was faltering. “I-I-I w-w-w-w-want t-t-o, u-uhm, I-”

“Take your time.” You squeezed his hand with a smile. “Take a deep breath if you need to. I can wait.”

He swallowed and looked down at his feet. He was still attempting to stutter out something, but you squeezed his hand and shut him up. He took a deep breath and faced you again, his eyes closed. He was still anxious, but not as bad.

“I want to kiss you again.”

As soon as he said it, though, he let go of your hand and hid his face in his hands. He rested on both of his knees, attempting to shrink away from you. You smiled fondly at him, trying not to snicker. He was making weird noises which resembled that of a hungry baby bird.

"You don’t have to ask, you know.” You let out a quick snort, trying to hide your laughter from him as best you could. “You can just, y’know, do it.”

Karamatsu looked at you, his face still red. The stars in his eyes shone brightly with excitement. “Really? I can just kiss you?!”

“Yeah, I mean, why wouldn’t you be able to?” You helped him to his feet, his eyes still wide and a smile placed on his face. He looked like a toddler who you just offered to buy ice cream.

“You mean it?!”

“Yes, I mean it.”

He let out a cheer, raising both of his arms in the air and spinning in a circle. You covered your mouth, quieting the laughter that you could no longer contain. He began to laugh happily with his cheers. When he stopped, he grabbed both of your hands and bent over slightly to look you in the eyes. His face still held a pink tint to it - whether it was from the setting sun or if he was genuinely happy that he could just kiss you, you didn’t know.

“Can I do it right now?”

“Mm-hmm.”

Karamatsu immediately threw the rose out of his mouth. He grabbed your face and smiled. Realizing that he was breaking through his cool guy act, he swallowed and put on the bravest face he could. His smile was shaky, and you could tell he was trying not to let it break out into a wide grin. His eyebrows furrowed. He quickly placed his mouth on yours and squeezed his eyes shut. You were finally able to return the favor, as last time ended too quickly for you to be able to react. Your eyes fluttered as you pushed back, but he suddenly pulled back.

“Can I do it again?”

“Yes.”

And he did. When he pulled away, he appeared to be getting more confident.

“Again?”

“Yes.”

He did.

“Again?”

“Yes.”

He did again.

“Again?”

“ Yes , Karamatsu. I told you, you don’t have to ask.”

He couldn’t contain his happiness anymore as he lifted you up and spun you around in a hug. “You are so wonderful , [Name]! I could kiss you all day if you’d let me!”

“I would let you, dummy.”

He stopped spinning. “You would?!”

“Yes.”

“Can we do that tomorrow?!”

“Oh my gosh, calm down. You’re getting really excited over this.”

He placed you on the floor, his gripping tightly to your shoulders. “I’ve never had someone do this for me! You’d - you just let me kiss you! That’s so cool!” He grabbed your hand and ran across the bridge. “Let’s go do it now!”

“Wait, we have to clean your candles up-!” You squeaked as he sped up, eager for this occasion to happen. “Karamatsu, please slow down!”

He didn’t.

Chapter Text

“Hey, [Name]! [Name]!”

“Yes, Jyushimatsu?”

“Did you know that you make Karamatsu happy!”

“Yeah, I hope so.”

“You do. It’s easy to see.”

“What do you mean, Choromatsu?”

You set down the tray of tea in front of your two guests. They both grabbed a cup and took a sip. Choromatsu hummed happily before looking back at you. “He does not try to talk. He wants to talk a lot, but we do not.”

“Yes! He is quiet now because of you, [Name]!”

“Wait, you guys don’t want to talk to him?”  You sat down on the floor, crossing your legs and taking a cup off of the tray for yourself. “Why not? He’s so sweet.”

At the same time, both of them set down their tea. They reached out with one arm then brought it back to their heart, tightly gripping onto their sweater. “Painful!” They yelled in unision. “Too painful!” and leaned backwards.

You barked out a laugh, not even attempting to cover it up. You threw your head back. You weren’t expecting them to be so in sync, even if they were two of six sextuplets. When you looked back at them, you realized that they were both staring intently at you, smiles on their faces, waiting for your input. “He may be awfully cheesy, but I don’t think ‘painful’ is the right term to use, y’know?” You took another sip of your tea, shutting your eyes as you did so. “Besides, that’s no reason to not talk to someone.”

“He’s annoying!” Jyushimatsu commented.

“Yes.” Choromatsu agreed.

“He’s not that bad.”

“Now, he isn’t!”

“Yes.”

“He talks about you when he’s not quiet!”

“Yes.”

“Wait, he talks about me-?”

“He only talks about you!”

“Yes. Only.”

An embarrassed blush spread across your face. “What do you mean…?”

“When he talks, it’s about you, [Name]! Never about him! No boring talk! Just you!” Jyushimatsu leaned in closer with a smile on his face. “He likes you, [Name]!”

“Y-yeah, I’m pretty sure he does. Did you hear what he did the other day?” You adjusted yourself to become more comfortable. “He set up an entire candlelit walkway just to ask to kiss me. What a weirdo.”

“WOOOAH!” Jyushimatsu yelled, pushing his brother behind him as he practically sprawled across the table before you. His eyes were wide and a big, dopey smile was plastered onto his face. “He wants to kiss you?!”

You nodded. “Yeah. And he did. Multiple times. And once a week before that.” You squinted your eyes at them confused. “Why do you say it like it’s a bad thing, or a shocking thing?”

Choromatsu leaned in now, leaning on the table. “It is not bad, but it is shocking! No one likes him. He is happy now.”

You were about to respond with furrowed eyebrows when Jyushimatsu cut in. “I see that!” He cheered, looking at his brother. “He was happy yesterday. Very happy! His face was red, too!” He looked back at you. “Why did you kiss him?”

“Because I like him..?”

“You do?!” The both yelled in unison. They were actually surprised at this? ”That’s so weird!”

You were getting frustrated with these two now. Why were they treating this like it was some sort of unnatural disaster? As if this was impossible, and you managed to somehow do it? “Why is this so shocking? He’s a good guy. He’s sickeningly sweet, he’s overly dramatic at the strangest of times and it makes me smile, and he takes time to make things nice, especially when it’s for me. He’s empathetic and does his best to make me happy. And as an added plus, he’s really pretty. Have you seen those eyes? Without the contacts? He smells good, too. He reminds me of a happier home.” You leaned forward, glaring at them. They both instinctively leaned back from the closeness. “Now, tell me what I’m missing here.”

They both swallowed and looked at each other.

“ We can’t tell you.”

“Yeah! Nii-san should tell you.”

“Ask Karamatsu.”

You stared at them bewilderedly. Why would they tell you to ask him rather than to just tell you themselves when they were here and obviously very able to tell you on their own? They quickly got up, bowed, thanked you for having them over, and left without any further question. You just sat there for a minute, trying to solve the situation, but to no avail. Maybe you’d just have to ask him yourself. You sighed and went to get changed into some more comfortable clothes: most likely Karamatsu’s face tank top and some sweats.

Summer was ending and autumn was just around the corner, you remembered.

As you walked out of your room in your fresh clothes, a knock was at your door - perfect timing. You jogged over and opened it, and Karamatsu immediately walked in, gasped with a smile, and picked you up to spin you around. “You’re wearing the shirt, my love!”

“U-uhm, yes? I’ve worn it before.”

“I know! It just fills me with joy whenever I see you in it.”

He set you down and took your hand, kissing it gently. Despite telling him that he could really kiss you whenever he wanted, he insisted on asking permission every single time. When you asked him why he didn’t ask the first time he kissed you, Karamatsu panicked and said “I thought I did?!” He felt terrible after that and you had to make him tea.

You pulled him back up, bringing him into your living room. He was wearing your favorite outfit of his - his jumpsuit, holy moly - and he knew. That smug man knew you loved this outfit and wore it so constantly nowadays; you think it was to spite you, but you weren’t completely sure. “You look good today.”

He turned to you with a hum, striking a pose. “Don’t I always?” He winked at you playfully. Yes, he was definitely wearing it to spite you. You laughed at him loudly which wasn’t the response he was expecting, but it was better than disgust. “What do you have planned for today, my dearest? A movie? Cuddling?” He paused and excitedly looked at you, grabbing your hands. “Maybe just kissing?!”

You snorted, reaching up to hold his cheek. “You were really serious about that, weren’t you?”

He nodded, his eyes still shining. You had to hold back another laugh, but you managed. “Well, yeah, we can do that if you want to-”

Immediately , he kisses you, holding your face gently. You pushed him away, and he seemed really confused. “Okay, I get I said ‘whenever you want,’ but don’t just interrupt me when I’m talking. That’s kind of not okay.”

“A-ah!” His face blossomed red as he hid his face in his hands. ”I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry-!”

You pulled his hands from his face with a patient smile. “Chill out, it’s fine. You were probably just excited, right?” He nodded, his face still red from embarrassment and his mouth shut tightly. You reached up and kissed him yourself - completely throwing him off - this has never happened before , it was always him who initiated the kiss - and he didn’t know how to react. You pulled away, rubbing circles into his hands, trying to calm the poor paralyzed man. “Then it’s fine. Just try to control it, okay?” He nodded again.

“Oh, hey, there’s something I’ve kinda been meaning to ask.” He looked at you, the bright red fading to a mere pink.

“Yes-” he put on his cool facade, throwing out the events seconds prior, grabbing your hand and falling to one knee. “My love?”

“Get up, let’s go to the couch.” Your voice turned serious, and he dropped the act. “It’s important.”

Chapter Text

You wrapped a leg around his as you both sat on the couch facing each other. He set his sunglasses down on your table and looked at you, waiting for you to speak. You were pretty nervous to ask him about this - if his loudmouth, I-don’t-think-about-what-I-say-before-I-say-it brothers wouldn’t even tell you, then it obviously had to be really important.

“Tell me, my sweet,” You scooted ever so slightly closer, looking away with anxiety ridden in your face. “Tell me about your past relationships.”

“What do you mean..?” He inched closer as well, and it was fairly obvious he was trying to hide something from you. “I don’t really count anything as a relationship that happened in the past. You’re my first, I like to think.”

Despite the butterflies that arose in your gut, you pushed. “No, really. Tell me what happened that’s so bad that not even Jyushimatsu and Choromatsu won’t tell me. Tell me why they think it’s odd to like you this much.”

He swallowed and looked away. This time, it was his turn to feel the butterflies swarm, and he focused on that wonderful feeling for a second before returning to the conversation. “Are - are you sure you really want to hear this? It’s not really important, my love - it’s a thing of the past. A mere vision to what once happened. It is not that truly matters in this instant-”

“Your past forms who you are today. Tell me everything .”

Beads of sweat formed on his forehead - he wasn’t expecting you to want to talk about this so soon. He didn’t think you really cared about his well-being enough to ask these kinds of questions. He formed a shaky, fearful smile to try and put you at ease. He obviously needed this sweet comfort more than you did, so you reached over and squeezed his hand. He let out a shaky breath and looked at you.

“Listen, my love. This doesn’t compare at all to what you had to go through, but I - I’ve shared your experiences, in a way.”

You didn’t understand what he was talking about. “Elaborate, please.”

“I… okay, I’m gonna have to explain this weirdly..?”

“That’s fine. I just want to know.”

He hummed, took a deep breath to steady himself, and told you everything.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“It was the last year of high school. It was almost graduation; at this time, all six of us still were pretty much clones of each other, but you could tell we were starting to find out who we were as an individual person. My grades were doing pretty well, for me at least. I had been working really hard to get into a school. I wanted to be an actor. I had even joined the drama club the year before. The club leader said I had lots of talent, that I was truly one of a kind. I loved her.

You - you have to understand, [Name]. She was beautiful. She had bright glowing eyes that radiated kindness, the sweetest voice. The curviest body I’d ever seen. I was... dumb. I thought I was in love with her. I decided to ask her out one day, and I wasn’t expecting her to actually say yes. She said so with a smile, a happy bright smile. No one in our club knew, though. She said that they would think I was using her to get the main role. I didn’t, though. I auditioned like everyone else, but I think she really did only give it to me because we were dating. She smiled and told me that even if we weren’t dating, she’d give it to me, but it was an obvious lie.

Quickly after, though, she began to do things I didn’t really enjoy. When we were alone, she’d try to snake her way up my shirt and down my pants. When I told her no, she’d say she didn’t even realize she was doing it and apologize. But she would try to do this a lot. Every time I asked her to stop, she would. I thought she was just letting me know that she was ready when I was. I wasn’t. But she kept telling me, [Name]. She wouldn’t let a day go by where she wouldn’t remind me.

One day, though, she tried at school. She tried to get me to do things at school where we could be caught. I told her no and she got mad. She got mad that I wasn’t ready and she slapped me. She told me that a good boyfriend wouldn’t let her suffer and wait. I told her that I was scared, and she put on a show and said she understood. She left me in the dust for a week after.

We had decided to meet up during a school period - not during lunch, not before or after school, but right in the middle of class. She asked me to, and I didn’t understand why until she shoved me into a bathroom and threw off my pants. I was terrified. I didn’t want this. When I told her to stop, she spat out that she was tired of waiting. I threatened to break up with her, she threatened to - to… It sounds so stupid now, but she threatened to take away my role as the main character.

I thought that that role was all I had to be different from my brothers. It was my identity. She threatened to take who I thought I was. I was so scared and so overwhelmed, but I s-still decided not to let her. I don’t know how I did it, [Name]. Something got me to stop her and I still don’t know how. She didn’t take the role from me. She let me keep it, and said I did excellent after our shows. She begged me to let her gift me with her gentle touch, but I just - I just didn’t want it.

We didn’t break up for a long time. She would drag me to her house when no one was home and  she would forcefully touch me. She would throw my shirt off and rub my chest, even when I asked her not to. She would ignore me and tell me to let her do her thing. I told her every time that no more, I didn’t want it, and every time she would respond with a slap or a kick or a punch. Even when I tried to be in charge of the situation, she would always drag me back down. One time, I had a bruise on my neck for a week because she bit me. She bit me, and I still stayed with her. Everyone who saw congratulated me, telling me I was lucky, but I was so ashamed.

Then one day, she didn’t stop.

I cried. She told me to keep my mouth shut. She told me that I’d be the best actor in the world if I let her do this one thing to me. I believed her. I didn’t tell anyone. Not even my brothers, [Name]. They don’t know.

She never did it again, though. She didn’t do anything else like that ever again, but it still scarred me. That’s why I was so scared, [Name]. I know you wouldn’t do anything like that, but she tricked me. She deceived me because she knew how perfect she was on the outside. You - [Name], you are so much better than her. You’re so much more attractive, inside and out, but I just… That’s why, before everything happened, I was so scared you’d turn into her. You just felt too good to be true. It still feels to good to be true. You’re an angel.”

He took a deep breath and attempted to wipe away the stream of tears with the palm of his hand. He looked exhausted. He looked like he wanted to go home. Your heart had shattered over and over again during his story. You felt empty and hollow like a scooped out pumpkin, getting ready to be carved. When he looked back at you, though, you felt rage and the urge to protect him.

“You - you didn’t want to hear that, huh?” He looked down at his lap with a bitter smile. “Yeah. I’m sorry. Do you, uhm,” he took a deep breath again, but his voice still shook. “D-do you want to leave me, [Name]? I’d understand.”

“Never.” You huffed out angrily. “Why would I want to leave you because you were under someone else’s control?” Your eyes were on fire with anger, your teeth grading on each other, your fists clenched tightly. “She was human garbage, Kara! No, I take that back - she was garbage . Nothing about that was human.” You grabbed his hand and squeezed it tightly. “I won’t do that, okay? I promise.”

“You were abused way worse though, [Name].”

“No, I wasn’t. I was just abused differently.”

It was silent for a while after that. A few minutes after, you went to go get a blanket to share with him. He gladly accepted the offer and snuggled up to you under it. You pulled up a movie to watch on your nearby laptop; you don’t exactly remember which one, but that didn’t really matter as much as taking care of Karamatsu. His head was resting on your shoulder, breathing slightly ragged. His hand was tightly clasped around yours, his thumb occasionally rubbing on the outside of yours. Your legs were melted together, and his dark hair gently brushed your cheek. Thirty minutes into the movie, he spoke up again.

“Don’t tell them.”

“Hm?”

“Don’t - don’t tell my brothers. I don’t want them to worry about me.”

It was silent again. You really didn’t feel like this was right. You felt like you had to do something, to tell someone, anyone. But he didn’t want them knowing. Then you got an idea.

“We should get you a therapist,” you offered.

He shook his head slightly, the moving fibers of his hair tickling your cheek. “No, I think I’m okay.”

“Really, Karamatsu. For your own sake. We don’t have to tell your brothers, and I’ll even pay.” You squeezed his hand, and you saw his face scrunch up with thought. He took his head off of your shoulder and looked at you, eyes glassy.

“Do you really think it’ll help?”

“Mm-hmm.” You leaned over and placed a sweet, long kiss on his cheek before rubbing his hand with your thumb. “I want you to see if it does, at least. Two months of therapy. If it doesn’t help, you don’t have to do it.”

He looked back down at your laptop, leaning up against you again. He stayed silent for the longest time. You turned your attention back to the movie, too, although you knew neither of you were truly watching. The moving images of the characters on screen weren’t distracting enough to ease what you’d heard. You can’t believe that anyone would ever take advantage of a man this sweet. Your hand squeezed tighter and he hummed.

“Yeah, okay.” He squeezed back and nuzzled your neck, taking a deep breath before letting it out. “I’ll give it a shot.”

Chapter Text

“Hey, I’m thinking I should go to school finally.” You cracked your knuckles and played with your own fingers.

“I’ve been thinking about getting a job.” He cracked his back and leaned lazily on the couch, playing with the hem of his shorts.

“I’ll probably need a job to help pay, though. Could you maybe start teaching me Japanese soon?”

“Yeah. Sure.”

“Like, really soon, m’kay?”

He curled up on you and sighed. “Mm-hmm.”

It was a peaceful, lazy day in [Name]’s household. You two didn’t really want to do much except for lay around and talk every once in awhile. Karamatsu’s head was resting on your thigh, his arms wrapped around it as well. Your bottom half was crossed, but your top half was laying on his tank top covered side with your arms extended out. You don’t know how this was comfortable, in all honesty; you two were a tangled mess, but somehow it was nice.

“How is therapy going, by the way?”

“I think it’s helping. I’ve only been twice so I don’t know for sure yet.”

“Sure, sure, I get that. I’m glad you’re liking it, though.”

He absentmindedly leaned in closer to your leg, and your arms relaxed around his waist. You felt an ache in your side and your eyebrows furrowed at the sudden pinch.

“Hang on, let’s move.”

You readjusted so that your body made a “U” shape around his body, and his head was rested on your stomach. Your head, on the other hand,  was upside down on his chest, and your arms wrapped around his waist. One of Karamatsu’s arms was lazily placed over your side as he gently rubbed circles into your back. Both of you sighed in sync. You closed your eyes.

“You play guitar, right?”

“I’m still learning, but I’ve been improving a lot in my opinion. Why?”

“You should play for me sometime. Write me a song or something.”

He “heh”’d and closed his eyes dramatically. “Already written, my love. I’m just waiting for the right time to play it.”

You smiled cheekily and poked his leg. “It’s always the right time to play a song for me.”

He scooted into you more, relaxing and let his fingers dance along your spine. You shivered from a ticklish spot being touched in just the right way to tickle. He stopped for a second, but when you didn’t say anything, he continued. You sighed and let your body unstiffen.

You blew a tired raspberry before continuing. “What if you did performances for work?”

“Hm?” He shifted slightly, not moving much but somehow made the position you two were in more comfortable.

“Like, what if you played guitar and sang for money? Go to parks, subways, leave your guitar case open and wait for people to throw money in. Just until you get popular enough to maybe do concerts or something.”

He hummed. “That actually… sounds pretty fun. Hey, let’s move again.”

You were resting on him this time, your head laid on his chest and one leg as under both of his, which were bent. The other one reached up and over onto his stomach, which he gladly wrapped an arm around. His other arm laid around your shoulders and pet your cheeks. Your arms still constricted around him, fingers still playing with each other. He was trying not to squirm because your movements on his side tickled him.

“What do you think you want to do for work, [Name]?”

You hummed with false agitation in response. “I don’t know.”

“I was thinking, what if you became a translator or an English teacher after you get your degree?”

“Ah, maybe..? What makes you say that?”

He attempted a shrug, but that was difficult with the weird position the two of you had trapped yourselves in. “You’re good with language barriers, so those two jobs just popped into my mind.”

“I’ll think about that.” You nuzzled lightly into his chest, breathing in his scent. “You still smell good. Thanks for that.”

“You’re… welcome? I don’t know how to respond to that sentence.”

You snickered, shaking his body with yours. He soon joined in with a quiet, puzzled chuckle. This was the comfiest position yet, because you could hear his heartbeat and feel his pulse on your cheek. It really reminded you that someone like him could really truly be here in the flesh. You tighten your grip around him and smiled softly.

“What about me attracted you exactly, Karamatsu?”

“I don’t know. Maybe it’s because you’re confusing.”

“Ah, back to that again. What exactly about me confuses everyone?”

He took a minute to think. You hummed softly with each breath, your vibrations sending comfort to him. “That's hard to explain. But, I mean, no one really understood you, right? I didn’t. I still don’t. I guess maybe, I thought I could get close enough to you to understand you.” It stayed silent for a minute. His heart began to hammer away, and his hand stopped stroking your face. Panic was evident in his voice. “I mean, that’s-!”

“-Sweet of you.”

His breathing stopped for a second before continuing. His heartbeat slowly went back to what it had been previously. He let one of his legs fall onto yours, and he attempted to move underneath to entangle yourselves even more. You obliged, lifting your limb for his to get comfortable. You hooked yours around his.

“What-” He paused, trying to form a sentence. “What exactly do you like about me?”

You hummed and answered almost immediately. “You tried to understand me. No one’s done that before.”

“I still don’t understand you, you know.”

“That’s fine. I don’t even understand me, so you aren’t alone.”

There was a light chuckle and a pause before he shifted slightly. “Hang on a second.”

You unhooked your leg from his and rolled over. He scootched down to place his face in the crook of your neck from behind. He used all of his limbs to hold onto you - his arms just underneath yours, his legs around your waist. You were in fetal position, your body so scrunched up that you could place your face in your knees if you bent forward enough. He held you close to him and kissed your shoulder before leaning into your neck.

“This okay?”

“Mm-hmm.”

He closed his eyes and breathed in your scent.

“You smell like the ocean.”

“ You smell like Christmas.”

You could tell he was trying not to laugh at your comparison. “What does that even mean, my love?”

“I dunno. Pine trees maybe? There’s something sweet mixed in, too. It’s nice.”

“Better than my cologne? Because that smells wonderful.”

“That smells the way you’d feel if you were trying to trick someone to murder them. It’s not pleasant and it makes me cough.”

“...Really?”

“...Really.”

He placed another kiss on your shoulder, staying there for a while before placing his forehead on your neck. You giggled, because his hair tickled your neck, and when he realized the source of your laughter, he kept rubbing his head on you. You scrunched up even tighter as you laughed loudly. He stopped, sucked in a breath, and blew a raspberry on your neck, throwing you over the edge. His body still tightly clung to you as you kicked and squirmed and grabbed onto his arms. He used his fingers to tickle your stomach, to which you threw your head back and-

“Ow!”

“Oh my god, I am so sorry-!”

You quickly spun around and sat up. He sat up, too, but not as fast. He was rubbing his forehead where your skull connected to his harshly.  You could tell there was going to be a bruise, so you ran over to your freezer and got some ice. You pressed it to his forehead and continued to apologize over and over again.

“It’s okay, my love. It was an accident.”

“I guess we shouldn’t tickle me..?”

“We should tickle you,” Karamatsu adamantly corrected. “But we shouldn’t tickle you while my head is by yours.”

You smiled and removed the ice, examining the lump. It wasn’t as big as it would’ve gotten if you had left it unattended, which was good, but it would still leave a bruise. You placed a light kiss on it before returning the ice to its spot.

“Thanks, [Name].”

“Mm-hmm.”

He took the ice from your hand and leaned forward, resting his chin over your shoulder while using his arm to keep the ice in place. You wrapped your arms around him as he settled onto you. You “oh!”’d as you realized something.

“What is it, my love?”

“When will I go to your house and meet the rest of your family?”

“Most of them don’t speak English, you know.”

“Can’t you help me translate?”

“No.”

“What?! Kara, what do you mean ‘no’?”

He tried to hide a snicker as he buried his mouth into your shoulder. You tighten your grip on him with a cheeky smile, trying to get him to fess up.

“I mean, I will, but I don’t wanna.” He slurred a bit on that last syllable as he yawned, cuddling into your shoulder like a cat. “You’ll meet ‘em one day maybe.”

“You’re being a doof.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“Are you falling asleep?”

“Mm-... hmmmmm…”

“Okay.” You readjusted so that he would fully lay on you rather than just his head. He laid limp as his breathing immediately became one pace. He fell asleep so fast, you would’ve thought he’d been drugged. But alas, the poor boy was just tired. You hummed with laughter and you cuddled into him as well, yawning and getting comfy. “Sleep tight, my sweet.”

Chapter Text

Karamatsu held up a paper in his hands with the sentence “Have a nice day!” written on it in messy bold letters. He presented it so earnestly for some reason - showing it off as if it were a trophy. What could only be described as animated sparkles seemed to loom around both him and the paper. “Translate this.”

You squinted. “ Yoiichinichiwo ..?”

“Yes! That’s right!” He cheered, giving you a happy thumbs up. “Good job! You’re doing wonderful, my love! It’s only been two weeks and you know so much! You are doing excellently-”

“You don’t need to praise me so much. Next sentence, please.”

He sighed, defeated that you wouldn’t let him ramble on about how great you were, and put that paper behind the stack. He pulled out another paper, showing you a new sentence - “Where is the restroom?” - presenting it exactly the same as last time, but with a different pose.

“ O-O tearai wa deko desu ka . Right?”

“No, no, it’s doko desu , not deko desu . Deko desu isn’t even a word.”

“Oh, whoops. Sorry.”

“It’s fine! You’re still doing good.”

He held up another paper for you to read, and you looked at him with disappointment. He smiled, like he knew you weren’t going to translate this sentence, but he was hopeful anyways. “Come on! Say it. You know this one.”

“ Damare .”

“Hey!” He scrunched his eyebrows. “That’s not nice!” He pouted and folded his arms, leaning forward. “I’m trying to teach you Japanese, and this is a way to express yourself to others.”

You scoffed, crossing your arms as well and leaning back from him. “I’m not telling you that I love you in Japanese just so you can hear it.”

“That’s not why I’m teaching this to you!”

“That is definitely why you’re teaching this to me.”

“...Still.” He looked away, his face now red and the pout even poutier than before. “That’s no reason to tell me to shut up.”

You snorted, and Karamatsu quickly snapped his head up towards you. You attempted to not let him know that you were going to laugh at his childish actions, so you held your mouth tightly shut and looked away. Another snort soon followed, and you ended up covering your mouth with your hand. You took a quick peek to Karamatsu to see a cocky grin spread over his face as he leaned forward. You scooted away.

“Why are you laughing?”

“I-I’m-” You let out a quiet snicker as if to lighten the load. “I”m not.”

“You are ! Why are you laughing?”

“I’m not !”

As he got closer to you, the more you leaned away or scooted. He groaned playfully and just lunged forward, pinning you to the ground. Karamatsu’s cocky grin still spread over his face. His sunglasses leaned forward slightly, and he took them off and set them down on the floor beside you so that they wouldn’t fall onto your face.

“Tell me why you’re laughing or I’ll be forced to tickle you.”

“I’ll headbutt you again.”

“We’re already butting heads, so I guess a headbutt is fitting.”

“Oh… oh god , that joke was so bad!”

He let out a low chuckle as his body loomed over yours. He turned his head to the side as if to hide his amusement at your suffering.

“No, no, don’t laugh at that!” You pushed on his shoulder lightly and playfully to get him to stop, but it just caused him to laugh harder. “That joke was bad!”

His shoulders scrunched, and he barked out a laugh. “It was good, though!” His laughter quieted as he looked back at you, a handsome, toothy grin replacing his previous one. “You gotta admit, it was pretty good for off the top of my head.”

“But it wasn’t !” You leaned forward, pushing him to his butt, startling the man. You grinned, sitting on your knees and grabbing his cheeks. His face warmed lightly under your touch. “It was really bad! It didn’t even make that much sense!”

“It made total sense.”

“No, it didn’t!”

“Okay, okay. It may have been bad, but it makes me glad to see you mad.”

“Please, for the love of god, don’t ever say that to my face ever again. It hurts. Now I understand why your brothers called you painful.”

“What are you talking about?! I’m not painful! I’m hilarious! I should be a comedian!”

“You’re really not. You are pretty, though.”

“What! Pretty? No, no, you’re mistaken! I am not ‘pretty’!” He too sat on his knees now, crossing one hand over his heart and the other sassily placed on his side. He hummed and looked away from you, those strange sparkles fluttering around him. “I am a handsome man! A true gentleman. ‘Pretty’ does not describe me, not one bit!” He tried to argue with you despite the ever growing blush on his face that told you that he actually really appreciated the compliments. “Am I right, my Karamatsu lover?”

“No, you are definitely pretty.”

“Hey-!”

“How do you say that in Japanese? How do you call someone pretty?”

He looked at you like you were a maniac for a second, but shrugged off the confusion in an instant. He shifted his body to sit comfortably before looking at you again. “It would be ‘ Anata wa utsukushīdesu .’ I mean, that’s ‘beautiful,’ not ‘pretty,’ but it’s close enough.”

You repeated the sentence back at him excitedly. He pretended to scoff at you, turning his head away, but his face was really really red. “I know I am, but you (unintelligible) (unintelligible) (unintelligible) -”

“Say it slowly. I’ll repeat what you say. Afterwards, tell me the translation.”

His face blossomed somehow even redder as he looked at you. A crooked smile grew as he let out a nervous giggle. “U-uhm, o-okay.” He cleared his throat and spoke slowly. “ Kimi wa watashinojinsei no aidesu. ”

You spoke even slower than he did, and he looked onto you nervously. “ Kimi wa watashinojinsei no aidesu. ”

He swallowed as a lovesick smile wavered on his face. His eyelids closed happily, and you began to distrust him and what you asked him to say. “ Kimi wa saikōdesu. ”

“ Kimi wa saikōdesu. ”

“Watashi wa mainichi kimi no koto o kangaemasu. ”

“Split that into parts? It’s a bit much.”

“ Watashi wa. ”

“Mm-hmm.”

“ Mainichi kimi. ”

You nodded.

“ No koto o kangaemasu .”

“Okay, so watashi wa mainichi kimi no koto o kangaemasu ?”

“Yes, mm-hmm!” He closed his eyes tightly, as if to imagine you weren’t there. He swallowed thickly and looked back at you anxiously. “ Koko ni ite kurete arigatō. ”

“ Arigatō ? What are you thanking me for?”

“I’ll tell you in a second, my hunny. Repeat the sentence.”

“ Koko ni ite kurete arigatō. ”

His breathing hitched as you spoke out the sentence. His eyes shone brightly, and his mouth was open slightly, as if his jaw couldn’t close all the way. You shifted awkwardly under his gaze. “Did I say that right?”

“You said it perfectly.”

“Is there more..?”

“Ah, right!” He shook his head before smiling comfortably at you. His cheeks still shone, but he seemed to be okay with it. “ Watashi o aishite kurete arigatō. ”

“ Watashi o aishite kurete arigatō. ”

With his normal “heh,” his eyes shone proudly, like you hadn’t been just droning the words back at him. He had a very dopey, lopsided and lovesick smile on his face. He reached up to his own heart and clutched the shirt over it tightly, but this was probably for dramatic effect. “Thank you, [Name].”

“What did you make me tell you, anyways?” He laughed before quickly turning around, facing away from you out of embarrassment. “Hey, that’s not fair!” You crawled over to him, but as you were about to place your hand on his shoulder, he translated.

“You are the love of my life. You’re the best. Thank you for being here. Thank you for loving me.”

Your hand retracted slowly as you stared at the back of his head in shock. Is that what you actually said? Did he try to confess to you, and did you repeat his confession back? You couldn’t talk, you couldn’t breathe; all you could do was sit there, your face just as red - if not, redder - than his. You swallowed multiple times, trying to wetten the dry spot that had opened up in your throat, but it just wouldn’t quench.

“I - I love you too.” you croaked out quietly. You weren’t sure if he had heard it until he barely turned his head over his shoulder to look at you.

“Really..?”

“Ye-” your voice cut out, but you swallowed again and repeated. “Yeah.”

He flipped around to where he was on all fours, looking at you with stars in his eyes. “Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

His eyes widened as tears formed. You were about to panic and comfort him when he lunged forward and kissed you happily. After a second of that, he changed the way he sat so that he could hold your face in his hands with his lips still connected to yours. He had been smiling into the kiss the whole time, and you finally joined in with a contented sigh. He pulled away, his eyes sparkling more than his pants, and he wrapped his arms around your neck and leaned onto your forehead. He hummed happily.

“I’m so glad.”

Chapter Text

“Who wants some tea?”

“Me!” Three voices yelled in unison, each body raising their hand. You grinned cheekily as you placed down the tray in front of them. They each rushed to grab a cup, Jyushimatsu grabbing the teapot before the others could. As soon as he was done pouring his tea, Choromatsu took it from him. He set it down when he was finished, not even bothering to hand it to Karamatsu, and took a sip. Jyushimatsu was excitedly pouring in a ton of sugar - he found he liked it better that way - and Choromatsu had to get him to stop before he had too much. Karamatsu took a sip of his tea, set it down on the table, and patted the floor next to him. You slid into the offered spot and smiled at the other two, who were trying to keep the sugar away from the other. Choromatsu grabbed it from his younger brother’s hands and set it down beside him, opposite of Jyushimatsu. The younger brother groaned, “BWWWOAH!”’d, then landed on his brother's legs, earning a yelp and, of course, a scolding. Karamatsu decided to try and step in, standing up to go and get Jyushimatsu off of the middle brother. He ended up having his leg held onto tightly and tripped onto his other brothers. It was a loud, rowdy mess, and you couldn’t help but laugh.

When you did, however, they all stopped their antics and looked at you. You waved them off, telling them to continue, and at first they didn’t; they all just looked at you oddly. You were about to ask them what they were doing when Jyushimatsu bit Karamatsu’s ankle tightly. He yelled and pounded away on his back, and Choromatsu was getting frustrated and yelling at them in Japanese, and you continued to laugh. Choromatsu somehow managed to squeeze out from underneath the two of them and crawl over to you. He was panting slightly as he looked onto the two brothers - Karamatsu now had Jyushimatsu in a headlock. Jyushimatsu was laughing at his older brother before flipping him around and putting him into a headlock.

You continued to laugh, and once again, Choromatsu just looked at you. As you paused for breath, a smile still on your face, you turned to him. “What are you doing, buddy?”

His face erupted and he waved his hands wildly, telling you that it was nothing and to not pay attention to him. “Please, go back to laughing! Not me, it’s okay!” he attempted, but it didn’t work.

“No, really, why were you looking at me?”

“Ah, well, [Name], you - you are confusing.”

“Oh, great, back to this again. I still don’t get it.” You leaned forward, a mischievous yet bored look on your face. You rested your cheek sloppily on your hand. “Can you explain it, maybe? What makes me confusing?”

“Well… you’re having fun with us. That’s confusing.”

“Why?”

“People don’t like us a lot.”

“You guys are really strange and fun to be around. Even when you’re doing things like this.” You gestured to the two wrestling brothers - just as you looked over, Jyushimatsu popped up from under his brother and yelled “OCTOPUS HOLD!” and wrapped his body around Karamatsu. There was more yelling and squirming as you snickered again. “It’s entertaining.”

“We are just glad you like us, [Name]! It is nice to make a real friend.”

You gave him a playful wink and a thumbs up. “It’s nice to not be lonely here in Japan, too!”

“You would not be, though.” He pointed back at the brothers - Karamatsu was standing triumphantly on top of a wriggling Jyushimatsu, who was yelling in Japanese about “ let go! ” and “ please! ” with some other things thrown in here and there. “You still have Karamatsu, even if he is painful.”

“Yeah, I do suppose that’s true.” You leaned back with a smug grin on your face as you looked over at the to of them. You cleared your throat and spoke loudly to catch his attention. “Even if Kara is a little painful, I guess he’s pretty alright!”

Karamatsu, who was now struggling underneath his brother, paused for a second and looked up at you with offence. “I am not painful! I am handsome, comedic, a true role model-”

“SQUEEEEEZE!”

“ACK!”

Jyushimatsu tightened his leg grip around his brother’s neck. Karamatsu began to whine in his native language as best as he could with restricted vocal access. He threw his fists on the ground repeatedly like a little kid having a fit. You laughed again, earning another odd look from Choromatsu, before telling the two of them that that was enough.

After a minute or two of having them calm down, cleaning up themselves, and having a short breather to sip tea and stay quiet, Jyushimatsu piped up. “Hey, [Name]! You should come to our house soon! Nii-san and Totty still haven’t met you!”

“Hm?” You looked up from your cup, swallowing the sweetened tea. “I’ve been wanting to visit for a while, actually. When would be a good time, do you think?”

Jyushimatsu held his face in one hand, putting on his “serious thinking face” as you put it, and was silent. Karamatsu was about to begin to intervene when Choromatsu spoke up. “We are not busy tomorrow night. Or tomorrow at all. Come over tomorrow, [Name].”

“Yeah, that sounds fun-!”

“Nii-san, is it true that you and [Name] kissed?!” Karamatsu was taken back by the sudden question, but he hastily nodded. Jyushimatsu hummed and closed his eyes in response. “Wow, that must be so cool..! Hey, hey, [Name]! Can you kiss me too?”

“What?! No!” Your face was red from the offer, and you began to sweat in fear. Karamatsu’s eyes shone of sudden jealousy.

“Ah, so Nii-san isn’t paying you?”

“ No !”

Choromatsu hummed in curiosity. “[Name], you are weird.”

“Ooooooooooooo-kay! Time for you to leave!” Karamatsu lifted his brothers up by their arms and shoved them out of the door - it wasn’t even opened at first, he had to walk around them and open it before he could continue pushing them. Once they were fully out, he waved them off with a “bye-bye!” and a slam of the door.

“That was a bit out of character if I do say so myself.”

He shivered at the sound of your voice, immediately turning around and posing. “Ah, my love, you must be mistaken. A true charmer takes on no persona to win the heart of his love, the apple of his eye-”

“You are literally putting on an act right now.”

“I-I was merely protecting you from the thieving hands of such peasants-!”

“They’re just weird. You’d ask for a kiss from someone, too. You do it constantly.”

“Th-th-they w-wanted to-”

“You were jealous, right?”

“HA! Or so you thought !” He jumped into a kneeling position gracefully (what the heck? How did he do that?) and grasped onto your hand tightly. He was trembling and his grip was clammy. “They don’t believe that you are anything more than an illusion, my dear. They think you are the one, putting on a show! To test you, they wish to use you for their own profit, and I will not allow such things to my love! I must protect you from the monsters that one might call my brothers-”

“Okay, hush. You’re jealous, it’s okay. It’s whatever. But know that I’m not gonna leave you for any of your brothers, okie dokie?” You leaned back on your hands sassily. “They’re not my type, really.”

“We all look the same.”

“I’m not talking about your looks, you dork! I’m talking about their personalities. They’re both pretty self absorbed, especially in comparison to you.” You grinned compassionately. “Okay? Get it?”

He let out a deep breath and fell into the same position as you were in. “Yeah, I guess so. But-!” he shot up again, looking you in the eyes anxiously. “Don’t let them flirt with you, okay?”

You smiled playfully, a mischievous smirk spreading across your face. “Can I flirt with them ?”

“No! That’s just leading them on! That’s cruel! Especially when you’re dating me!” He was very puzzled at your actions, and his face was scrunched so much you thought he was going to implode. You snorted and laughed at him, and all he did was pout. “Seriously!”

“Did-” You took a deep breath to stop yourself from laughing any more. “Did you take that seriously? It was a joke, I’m sorry. But man, your face was priceless . I won’t flirt with your weirdo brothers, m’kay?”

“Good. No joke flirting, either. They’ll take it seriously and flirt back. Especially not with Osomatsu, he has fast hands.” He sat down and leaned onto your side. “Ichimatsu would die, too. Don’t do that to Ichimatsu. That’s unfair.”

“I don’t think I’ve met him yet, right? Or ‘Totty,’ as your brother put it. I haven’t met either of them.”

“No, you haven’t. I think they’d like you, though!” He smiled and posed, pointing a thumb at himself. “I do have the best partner in the world, after all. It’s hard not to like you.”

You snickered with a light blush as you leaned onto his shoulder. You sighed contentedly. “I can’t wait to meet ‘em.”

Chapter Text

You took a deep breath as you knocked on the door.

It was swung open excitedly by none other than your flamboyant boyfriend. He was wearing his jumpsuit and was greeting you with a wink and a finger gun. “Welcome to my humble abode,” he grinned at you. You pulled him out of the house, giving him a sweet kiss, then held onto his hand. His face as tinted red, but he happily led you into his home.

As soon as you set foot into his home, though, you were immediately pulled away from Karamatsu’s grip by a small identical man with a white shirt and a pink jumpsuit tied around his waist. He grabbed your hand and began to shake it up and down. “Hello there! You must be [Name], right? Oh goodness, you are so cute~! I can’t believe someone like Karamatsu won your heart over!” He released his grip and posed with a peace sign. “I’m Todomatsu, the youngest brother~!”

How was he speaking fluent English? He didn’t even have a slight accent. What the-?

“I have many friends who live in America, Britain, pretty much everywhere that they speak English, so it should be easy to talk to you!” He explained as though he had read your mind.

“Ah, gotcha. That makes sense.”

You looked up at Karamatsu, who had an extremely bewildered look on his face. “You can speak fluent English? Since when?” He questioned his youngest brother in disbelief.

“Oh, at least five years now. I didn’t want any of you asking me for lessons, though, so I never told you.” He smiled sweetly with a wink, then walked down the hall. “Come on, this way~!” He waved with his right hand as he seemingly skipped away. You and Karamatsu looked at each other, shrugged, and followed Todomatsu.

You entered a room where three brothers all wearing matching jumpsuits excitedly greeted you - Jyushimatsu tackled your legs, holding them tight and yelling about how excited he was to see you, and Karamatsu had to put his hands on your back so that you wouldn’t fall over. Choromatsu waved at you with a small smile, and Osomatsu greeted you in sloppy English. There was one body, however, that had his messy hair and his purple-clad back turned away from you, ignoring any commotion that was in the room. You wanted to go over and ask him what was wrong, but Todomatsu quickly grabbed your hand and led you to the floor.

“So, [Name],” Osomatsu began, leaning forward. “Why Karamatsu?”

His accent was extremely thick, but you managed to understand him. You put on a mischevious smile. “I don’t know. Just sorta happened.” Karamatsu made an offended choking noise, and you just snickered. “Oh, do you know English now, Osomatsu?”

“Little!” He grinned and rubbed his nose with his index finger. “To talk to you.”

“Ah, gotcha.” You felt a sudden feeling of despair that quickly dissipated, leaving you with a chill. You looked around the room, but no one else seemed to have felt it. The body in the corner of the room, however, was looking at you from the side - his eyes were half lidded like he was about to fall asleep, but he was watching you intently, and his gaze was heavy. It felt like he was lodging needles into you. You could tell that the freaky aura was coming from him.

You hadn’t even noticed that the other five were yelling and waving themselves around, trying to get your attention, until you felt a familiar hand on your back. “You okay? They’re asking you questions.” You looked up at Karamatsu who had slight concern written on his face.

“Ah, I’m fine,” You reassured with a smile. You pointed to the man in the corner, who’s form jumped in shock at the fact that you were giving any attention to him. “What’s his name, though? He should come and talk with the rest of us.”

“Ah, that’s Ichimatsu. Hey, Ichimatsu! Come (unintelligible). [Name] wants (unintelligible) talk to you. ” Karamatsu waved his brother over.

Ichimatsu didn’t do anything except for scrunch his eyebrows and look away, though. You sighed sadly and shrugged. “Ah, well, Ichimatsu. You’re always invited to join the party.” You turned your attention back to Osomatsu, who was excitedly asking questions about you and your relationship with his brother.

“You kissed?”

“Yes.”

“Lots?”

“I-I guess..?”

“Sex?”

“No, oh my god !”

“Why not?”

“Its-” You had to pause to come up with the right sentence that he’d understand. Your face was beat red, and so was Karamatsu’s. “It’s only been a month or two, and we aren’t rushing things like that.”

“Osomatsu, (unintelligible)! (Unintelligible) do not ask [Name] (unintelligible) ! Not okay!” Choromatsu cut in before things could get anymore awkward (as if it could ) and scolded his brother. In return, Osomatsu whined and argued about “ I’m not being bad! ” and some other things. They began to torment each other, Todomatsu soon got involved somehow, and Karamatsu just held his face in his hands and sighed at them in frustration. Jyushimatsu started laughing for seemingly no reason, but that body in the corner just trembled. You got up and walked over to him, placing a hand on his shoulder. He jumped at the sudden contact.

“Hey, are you okay?”

He ignored you, curling tighter in his ball and trying not to shake.

“What’s wrong?”

He just shook more.

“Ichimatsu-”

“ GET AWAY FROM ME! ” He yelled, jumping up and pushing you away. He began to yell and stomp in anger, and he kept walking towards you menacingly, backing you into a wall while he spat seemingly venomous words at you. The others watched as he broke down, and you had no idea what he was talking about, but the others looked absolutely terrified . Karamatsu quickly got up and stood in between you and his brother, talking to him as calmly as he could, but in the middle of his speech Ichimatsu walked around him and out of the room, slamming the door shut.

Everyone silently watched the exit for a minute to see if he’d come back, each worried about what just happened. You weren’t really scared, more confused than anything. You were the first to move, taking a step towards the door. Karamatsu grabbed your arm and looked at you with concern and agitation.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, but I don’t think he is. I’m - I’m gonna go check on him, m’kay?”

He looked a bit startled at first, but understood, and smiled, hoping to calm you down. It did; it gave you a serene and peaceful feeling. “Okay. Be safe, my hunny.” He planted a kiss on your forehead before you made your exit.

It took you thirty minutes of looking around, but you eventually found him huddled up and playing with a cat in an alleyway. When you took a step towards him, he sniffed quietly as if he had been crying and was trying to hide it, and barked out a “Go away!” in English.

“Ichimatsu, talk to me.” You took another step, and he threw a rock in your direction (although it was very far from actually hitting you) and looked away again. The cat he had been playing with ran into the alley.

“Go away! Please, leave me alone!” He sniffed loudly, then stopped as though he was embarrassed.

“Ichimatsu, tell me what’s wrong.”

“ NO !”

“Ichi-”

“I said NO !”

You took in a deep breath, then walked towards him as if you were walking into a waterfall. His dark aura hit you like a bucket of bricks, but you continued your advance towards him until you were crouching beside him. You were right - he had been crying, as shown by his puffy eyes and red cheeks. The lower half of his face was hidden behind a mask and buried in his arms and knees. He shot daggers at you, and you could feel his attempt at hating you.

“You know, I can’t help you unless you tell me what’s wrong.”

He growled at you and shuffled closer to the wall, looking away from you completely.

“Did - did I do something wrong-?”

“Yes! Go away!”

“What did I do?”

“ GO AWAY, DAMMIT !”

You sighed and sat down next to him, to which he practically phased through the nearby wall trying to get away from you. The floor was sticky, but you assumed that you’d be here for a while, so it didn’t really matter. It didn’t seem like he wanted to open up to this subject soon, either, so you changed the topic.

“Where did you learn English?”

He scrunched up his thin eyebrows and jumped a bit - you don’t think he was expecting you to talk to him this way, and turned his head away from you completely. He appeared to be staring at some graffiti on the wall, but you weren’t too sure.

“Jyushimatsu has been teaching me,” he mumbled, shifting awkwardly.

“Oh, cool!” you cheered. He seemed pretty uncomfortable with this conversation but he seemed to be letting go bit by bit, so you continued. “How long has he been teaching you for?”

There was a pause before he responded with “Since he started.”

You hummed and sighed. “I’d be happy to teach you, you know. If you want we can even do one-on-one lessons.”

“I don’t like you,” he shot back immediately.

“Yeah, I got that. But that’s okay, you know.”

“I hate you.”

“‘Hate’ is a bit of a strong word for someone you just met today, don’t you think?”

“I really, really hate you.”

“Ah, that’s a bummer. Guess it can’t be helped, though.” You sat criss cross and leaned forward on your thigh, looking at the side of his head. “I’m sorry for whatever I did.”

“You changed everything without a warning.”

This caught your attention. Raising an eyebrow, you looked over to him. You caught his glance for a second before he quickly looked away. “Like what?”

“Karamatsu.” he responds quickly with no explanation. There’s a long pause, maybe ten minutes or so, before he speaks again. “He’s never home. It is weird not hearing him be around a lot. It is weird to not have him talk about something other than how happy he is. I don’t get it. I hate you a lot.”

“Oh, I see. Do you miss him when he isn’t home?”

Ichimatsu scoffed. “He’s gross. He’s painful. But it’s weird without him.” He seemed to loosen his tense muscles, even if it was only a little bit, but you were happy there was at least a little improvement. “You took him.”

“I didn’t mean to, you know.” You began to drum your fingers on your leg. “He was my only friend for a while, so I guess we just bonded a lot. I don’t think there’s any way to give him back, though.”

“You were his only friend. Other than us, you were his only friend.”

“Hm.”

It was silent for a bit, but Ichimatsu seemed to prefer it that way. The cat from earlier came into view and hissed at you before running back into the alleyway. You don’t think it was used to a lot of people other than Ichimatsu. Then, you realized, maybe that’s how Ichimatsu was, too. Maybe it was weird for him to open up to a lot of people and was scared to do so.

“Do you want those lessons? That offer is still on the table.”

“I really don’t like you.”

“Yes, I know.”

He grunted before falling silent again. Ichimatsu seemed to like the silence a lot. It was always as if he was in deep thought, because his sentences all had been very well translated and clear in what he was trying to say to the best of his ability, so you assumed he was having a constant conversation with himself in his head. What an odd character.

“Why are you still here?” He spat at you.

“I thought you needed help with what happened. I’m here to make amends with you.”

“What are ‘amends’?”

“I’m here to fix what I did wrong.”

He threw his hands over his ears and let out a loud yell. His eyes were closed, and his mask had fallen off of his face. “That’s it ! That’s what makes me so mad! That’s why I don’t like you!” He looked over to you, his eyes still red and his eyebrows knit so tightly you thought they were going to fall off. “You don’t do anything for you! You didn’t do anything wrong! You’re so frustrating! I don’t get you, [Name]! I don’t get you at all!” His voice broke at the last word, and he began to sob again. He quickly hid his face in the sleeves of his jumpsuit and quieted his cries. He mumbled that last sentence again, although you could barely hear it.

“Ah, that’s fine, Ichimatsu. No one really gets me. I’m used to it.” You shrugged before leaning back nonchalantly. “You don’t have to immediately accept me, either. I get it, I kind of just showed up one day and changed a lot about what’s happening at home, it seems. But, hey - could you at least give me a shot?”

Ichimatsu held his breath and opened his eyes wide. He looked at the ground for a while before going back to his half-lidded, careless stance. His face was still hidden in his sleeves. You stayed quiet as he calmed down. “I… guess so.”

You smiled and hummed before lifting yourself off of the dirty floor. You wiped your hands on your pants and held out a hand to help him up. He ignored it, though, and chose to get up himself. Ichimatsu quickly walked away, leaving you in the alleyway for a minute before stopping and turning towards you.

“ Hey , are you coming?”

“Ah, yeah, sorry!”

You trotted up beside him, holding your hands behind your back. He looked away from you as he mumbled something that you couldn’t really hear. “I’m sorry, could you repeat that?”

“I-I’ll get lessons. From you. Alone, though.”

“Tomorrow?”

He was silent for a bit, but you two continued towards his house. It was sunset by now, you expected that this whole ordeal took about an hour or two. He didn’t give you an answer to your question until you were at his doorstep.

“Yeah. Tomorrow.”

Chapter Text

The rest of that night had been really weird.

Karamatsu practically tackled you when you walked in the door with Ichimatsu, rambling about how he was so worried that you had gotten lost, or hurt, or kidnapped, and all of these other possibilities that could have happened to you - at one point during his anxiety-filled speech, Choromatsu chimed in and said that he had almost called the police. You had to tell him to calm down and that you were obviously fine, but he still took extra precautions by constantly making sure you didn’t have any cuts or bruises throughout the rest of the night. He stayed very, very close to you. You were pretty sure he was holding your hand for ninety-seven percent of the night.

You met his parents, too, which you hadn’t been expecting - yes, he told you he still lived with his brothers and his parents, whatever - but you didn’t think they’d make an appearance that night. Obviously, it was a fatal mistake to not prepare for this possibility.

Their mother, who introduced herself as Matsuyo, had said some pretty weird things. Karamatsu had to translate it for you on pen and paper because he was way too bashful to say them out loud. Some of the things had been “Thank you for taking care of my NEET!”, “When should I be expecting grandchildren?” (her guess was around 2-3 months, which terrified you), and some other things that you probably shouldn’t repeat. She was a lot like the eldest son, especially when asking over the top questions about your relationship with Karamatsu. At this point, most of the other brothers had left the room either out of sheer embarrassment or to grab a bag of popcorn and watch the show. Karamatsu had practically melted into his free hand, silently begging for this awkward torture to be over. His other one, still holding yours, was like a sauna. Since you had no idea what was going on, though, you just sat there and let her do her thing. The one time she stopped talking was to ask about the grandchild thing again. You didn’t understand most of what she said, and Karamatsu had to fumble over his own words and choke out a translation. You ended up having to get Choromatsu to explain what he had said, too, because you could barely understand your boyfriend through that stuttering mess. Your face blossomed when you finally found out what Matsuyo had been asking you. She seemed pretty upset that you didn’t take a large interest in having a child anytime soon - adopted or not.

Matsuzo - their short, stubby father - was almost the complete opposite. He didn’t say a lot other than a self introduction and the occasional calming down of his wife when she got too excited. He seemed low-key surprised that you actually wanted to date one of his sons, and the only thing he had asked that was a bit uncomfortable to you was when you and Karamatsu would be moving in together. You had to explain (and have Karamatsu translate) that you had only been dating for a few months, and you weren’t really into rushing things romantically. For some reason, this statement seemed to calm Karamatsu down drastically.

After your... “oddly charming” day with the Matsuno household, Karamatsu walked you home. He was profusely apologizing about that night, not only about his brother (who he was absolutely livid at for calling you the things he did) and his mother (who managed to somehow make things worse than they already had been), but because the two of you really didn’t get to do much with each other like he wanted. He said something about how he wanted to show off the light of his life and blind his family with the passion and love the two of you shared - basically, he wanted to make his brothers jealous about how cool you were by showing affection. You shrugged him off with a laugh, saying that “Obviously things aren’t always going to go as planned,” and continued to walk hand in hand. He countered that argument with “It’s nice to have a layout for what happens, though. If you don’t, you could end up lost and confused and it could ruin everything.”

You both decided that the other had a fair point.

Now, though, it was the next day. Since you didn’t have any idea what time your guest would be coming over, you woke up at around 6am and got ready as fast as you could. You don’t know why you had been so excited to meet him, though; he had something bout him that attracted you to want to be his friend. I wasn’t for another six hours after waking up that he showed, though. There was a light knocking on your door that you would have missed if you hadn’t been intently listening for, and you practically threw the door off of its hinges ( again , thanks to Jyushimatsu) with a smile.

“Welcome, Ichimatsu!”

He grunted in response.

You stepped to the side, inviting him into your apartment. He stepped in and kicked off his sandals before walking over to your couch. You weren’t expecting three or four cats to follow him in.

“Go ahead, take a seat,” you told him, yet he chose to just sit on the floor. The cats swarmed onto him immediately. You sat down across from him and smiled, excited to get the lessons started. He didn’t make eye contact with you, and you could tell by the way he was twiddling his thumbs that he was pretty nervous, even if his facial expression seemed like he could pass out from boredom at any second. For being silent most of the time, he was really easy to read.

“So,” you began, getting his eyes to dart up and look at your face. “You know about as much as Jyushimatsu, right?”

“Mm.” He swallowed and looked to the side with a small nod, attempting to keep his sleepy facade up.

“So I should start teaching you slang and more complicated words.”

“Mm.” He looked back at his hands.

“Well, first off, it’s rude if you don’t make eye contact with the person you’re holding a conversation with. It may be inappropriate in Japan, but in most places where English is spoken, it’s custom to make eye contact.”

He practically squeaked as he changed from his huddled ball position to sitting on his knees, even if he kept the same look on his face. His eyes glared almost intimidatingly into yours. You held back a snicker at his nervous enthusiasm.

“Sorry, didn’t know,”

You waved him off. “It’s fine. Now, what kind of slang do you want to learn?”

Without a second thought he responded with “Swear words.”

You snorted. “No, you can learn that on your own if you really want to. Those aren’t necessary for you to hold a conversation. In fact, if you’re talking to a stranger, it can be considered rude.”

“Exactly. I do not want people talking to me.”

You laughed out loud, startling the poor boy in front of you. “Ah, swearing isn’t gonna help that, Ichimatsu! Swearing doesn’t help anything. All it does is make you seem disrespectful, and you really don’t want that.” You shifted so that you were leaning towards him. He looked pretty perplexed at your sudden outburst, but you continued anyways. “So, slang words or phrases we use in English, such as ‘to make amends.’ That’s what we’re gonna be learning today.”

He nodded quickly and the two of you got to work.

Despite telling you previously that he “really, really hates you,” he didn’t seem to be giving you a cold shoulder. He was still pretty quiet and wouldn’t say anything other than grunts and nodding and the occasional repeated sentence, but you were happy that he showed up at all. He said a lot of sarcastic or weird comments, such as “Teach me the sex words,” which definitely cracked you up. You told him that no, you were not going to teach him “the sex words” because they weren’t useful in everyday conversation.

In the middle of talking, he fell backwards and just stopped listening to you. You quickly crawled over to him to make sure he was okay, but his eyes were closed and he wasn’t responding. You panicked and quickly got up to call someone before he said “I’m hungry. I forgot to eat. Please.”

You ended up treating him to some sushi from a nearby restaurant that wasn’t too expensive. Ichimatsu didn’t talk much, only grunting in response to your attempt a conversation from time to time, but the faint blush showed to you that he was extremely thankful for your actions. You did poke fun at him for it, making a teasing comment about the pink on his face. This may not have been the best plan, though, because he immediately got up and left the restaurant without another word.

Weird.

You quickly followed him back to the house. You realized that your mail came, and you brought him along with you. You had some spam as per usual, but a letter from your mother caught your attention. You’d be sure to read that when Ichimatsu left.

You walked back upstairs, but when you turned around, he was gone. He was nowhere to be found. You went inside and made sure that you didn’t miss anything in your mail, and there was a paper that you hadn’t seen before. What was this?

“ Thank you. See you next week. ”

You could only assume that Ichimatsu had stealthily slipped this note into your possession before sneaking off without telling you. This guy was weird, to say the least.

. . .

And yet you were excited for your next lesson with him.

Chapter Text

“So winter is here.”

You sit up to take a sip of your hot chocolate before leaning on Karamatsu’s shoulder again.

“So it is.”

He adjusted the blankets around his shoulders to wrap his arm around your waist. The two of you watched the snow together, talking every once in awhile, but other than that it’s been silent. You’re wearing his hoodie, that he specifically brought over for you, and he has twice as many blankets wrapped around himself than you do. There’s one that’s wrapped around both of your shoulders, bringing the two of you closer. You’re sitting on the stairs that lead to the outskirts of town and away from your apartment. They were cold as well. After ten minutes of sitting outside, you had to go inside and get some pillows for the two of you to sit on. Now, it’s been all day that you had been watching the snow fall.

“First snow this season, right?”

“Yeah. It is.”

You hummed and snuggled up closer to him. He sneezed loudly, then blushed furiously.

“Ah, you’re getting sick.” You stood up and lazily pulled on his arm. Come on, let’s get you inside before you freeze to death.”

When the warm air hit the two of you in the face, you both sighed and slumped over with a smile. You may have been warm while you were huddled up together under the blankets, but it was nothing compared to the constant coziness that your apartment exhuberated. The two of you quickly dropped most of the blankets and both pillows before trotting to the couch. You cuddled up onto each other with a peaceful smile and a light blush.

“Ah, you’re so comfy.” You snuggled into his body with a cheeky smile.

“Hm!” He quickly wrapped his arms around you and copied your actions. The two of you were so close that you were practically fused together. “Not as soft or as comfy as you are, my dear! Why, I could hold you for eternity if you’d let me-”

He sneezed again.

“Ah, man, you really are getting sick. Hang on, I have some medicine so that you don’t get a full blown cold or something.” You ran over to your bathroom and struggled to find some cold medicine. WHen you did find it a few minutes later, you hastily trotted back. Karamatsu was holding an envelope in his hand and was looking in your direction. “This says it’s from-”

“Ah, yeah, my mom. Still haven’t read it yet, I’ve been kind of avoiding it honestly.” You walked into your kitchen and grabbed a glass, filling it up with tap water.

“Why, though? She was pretty nice after… yeah . From what I remember, at least.”

“Ah.” You turned off the faucet and looked at the sink for a few seconds before turning to Karamatsu with a smile. “Yeah, no. That’s not how she usually is. You still haven’t really met the ‘real’ her. When my dad was around, she became cold hearted so she wouldn’t get hurt. When she was in the hospital, she doused her words in honey so that if for some reason, she passed, I would keep a good memory of her. She’s, in reality, kind of… nihilistic? I don’t know how to describe it, but it’s some sort of ‘happy medium’ between her other two personalities, if you could even call it happy.” You handed the cup of water to him as well as the small packet of cold medicine.

“What does ‘nihilistic’ mean?”

“She doesn’t really care. She doesn’t have any sort of regard for others. Life feels meaningless to her. Et cetera.”

He swallowed the second pill before nodding in understanding. “Well, I’m here in case she chooses to be that way in this letter, m’kay? You should really read it.”

“Mmm…” You took a seat next to him, grabbing the envelope from his hands and looking at it; you flipped it around once or twice, examining the outside. One of the corners had been bent, but other than that it seemed fine. “Yeah, I guess so.”

. . .

“Dear [Name],

Have fun in Japan. I have no desire to visit you.

Also, he’s out again.

Stay safe, my dear. Make sure lover boy protects you, and you do the same.

~You know who”

It was silent for a minute after reading the letter before Karamatsu spoke up. “...Wow. I wasn’t expecting that.”

“Told ya.” You crumpled up the letter and threw it behind you, melting onto your boyfriend. “Oh well. I didn’t think she’d put a whole lot of effort into it anyways.” You felt his arms wrap around you again as a gentle kiss was placed on the top of your head. You moved away quickly and placed a kiss on his unsuspecting lips, causing him to yelp in surprise before quickly kissing back. You pulled back and laid on his side again.

“Your parents are weird.”

“Ah, yeah.”

“Do you know what happened to make them that way? I mean, you told me once that when you were sick, your mom would hold you, right?” He shifted slightly before looking at you again. “What’s up with that?”

“Honestly, I have no idea. One day, though, it was just… really tense in the house. My dad wasn’t there, and my mom was really snappy. I was young, so I don’t remember much, but I think they had an argument about something. I didn’t tell anyone, though, because I didn’t really know much about the situation.”

“You didn’t talk to anyone? No one at all?”

“Well, it’s not like I really had anyone to talk to about it.”

You could practically hear his heart drop when you said that. “What do you mean, my sweet?”

“Ah, I was kind of… pissy back then. I used to think I was better than everyone else because my family was important, and I was just a huge snot because of it. Then, things at home started to get progressively worse, and I realized that I was just like everyone else. That even my household has issues. I tried to make friends, but no one really bothered because they all remembered me as the rich kid who thought they were king.”

“Hm.”

“Should I start looking for a job as a translator?” you suddenly asked. He hummed questioningly, urging you to continue your thoughts. “I mean, I know most of the Japanese language by now, right? It’s been a few months, so I should be finishing up soon.”

“Nope, not even close.”

You nodded sassily before snuggling up to his chest again. “Cool.”

Then it was quiet for a while. Both of you ended up falling asleep - his heartbeat was like a lullaby in itself. Your last thought was a reminder to ask him to sing that song he had written about you sometime soon.

Chapter Text

Jyushimatsu began to jump around as soon as you invited him in. He was laughing and babbling, and you had to grab his wrist and hold him in place. Finally, he gave you a coherent sentence. “[Name]! [Naaaaaame]! Can we go for food? I heard you did that with Nii-san weeks ago!”

You held in your snicker from his grammar; somehow, Ichimatsu managed to retain knowledge of proper sentences better than Jyushimatsu, and he was the one who taught the fourth brother. “Where’s Choromatsu? He usually comes with you, right?”

“Stayed home! Let’s get food, [Name]! Please please please please-!”

You groaned playfully and walked over to the door, grabbing a scarf before the two of you headed out. “Let’s go.”

“ YAHOOOOO!!! ”

Jyushimatsu ran, jumped, and tackled your door, breaking it for the third time this month. You should ask him to stop doing that.

He requested that you take him to a Chuck E. Cheese (which you politely declined because those walking talking animals scared you) before he finally agreed to go to the same sushi place you had taken Ichimatsu before. He seemed a bit upset, because he was really excited to play skee ball, but he brightened up quickly after because he remembered that he would be getting free food. The pair of you sat down, and the heat of the restaurant immediately caused you to become uncomfortable. You removed the scarf that you had on prior, not even realizing that your shirt’s collar had slipped.

“ WOAH !!! [Name], is that a hickey ?!”

You squeaked and quickly hid it with one of your hands. The other one went to fix the collar of your shirt before readjusting yourself and grabbing a menu to look at the different kinds of sushi.

“Ahahaha! Did Karamatsu nii-san do that, [Name]?!  Are there more?!”

“Quiet down, Jyushimatsu. We’re in public.”

“ OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH , there are!!!! Show me, [Name]!!”

Your eyebrow twitched involuntarily as you huffed out an aggressive breath. “It’s not a hickey, Jyushimatsu. Pick out what kind of sushi you want.”

“It really, really looks like one, [Name]! Are you sure?”

“I will not pay for your food if you bring it up again. It isn’t .”

He laughed loudly and quickly grabbed a menu, shoving his face into it. Not even a second later, he threw it down onto the table with a snap! and smiled at you. “I’m ready to eat!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After you had treated him to lunch, he was all over you about the “hickey” thing. You loved the kid, he was like an excited puppy, but if you said that you didn’t want to punch him right now you’d be lying. He would not let the issue go - a new question about your so-called hickey would tumble out of his giant dopey smile, and you would ask him to leave it alone, and he would. Then, he would bring it up not even 2 seconds later, and this cycle would repeat itself until you finally reached your apartment.

A body was standing at the doorway, and by it’s messy hair you knew it was Ichimatsu. Why was he here-?

“Nii-san!” You looked to your left, where Jyushimatsu once was - and now, he was gone. You looked back up to your doorway to see that he was crazily grabbing his brother’s hands and shaking them up and down rapidly, yelling about how he was so excited that he was here and how he’d like all three of you to hang out together. Ichimatsu looked very nervous; he just wanted to go home during his younger brother’s rant. ‘How did Jyushimatsu get there so fast?’

You walked up to your door and Jyushimatsu grabbed you by your shoulders and pulled you close to him. He was yelling in Japanese about how you treated him to lunch, and Ichimatsu seemed to calm down now that his brother wasn’t flinging his arms around in every which direction. The grip on your shoulders from the excited yellow-clad boy was beginning to hurt, and you tried to scramble out of his arms; however, his grip was like iron and you couldn’t leave no matter what you did.

“ Hey, Jyushimatsu, let [Name] go. I think you’re hurting them. ” Ichimatsu deadpanned to his brother, who’s grip immediately loosened. You hadn’t even noticed that he lifted you off of the ground during his excited babbling until you plopped onto the ground. Your scarf had been falling off as well, so you grabbed it and scrunched it up in your hand.

“Sorry, [Name]!” Jyushimatsu had a worried look on his face as he apologized.

“You’re fine.” You laughed awkwardly as you looked over at Ichimatsu. “What are you doing here, anyways?”

“I got bored.” He stopped. You expected him to continue, but after a few seconds of silence, you realized that he wasn’t going to. You smiled and fumbled around for your keys and opened up the door. As you were about to step in, a hesitant hand rested on your shoulder.

A not-normally-curious voice questioned you: “Is that a hickey? ”It was almost teasing the way Ichimatsu asked.

“It’s not !” With an upset groan, you rammed your head into the door. Both of them were used to your head-ramming antics, so it didn’t startle them too much.

“There’s only one. Was Shittymatsu really that bad?”

Your eyebrows knitted angrily as you turned to him. “One, Ichimatsu, I don’t appreciate that nickname that you’ve given my wonderful boyfriend. Don’t call him that. Secondly, as I said, it’s not a hickey, okay?” You huffed as you walked into your apartment.

“It’s bruised and blotchy. It couldn’t be anything else.”

“Ichimatsu,” you turned to him and with the sweetest smile you could muster. “It’s not a hickey. Don’t. Bring. It. Up. Again.”

He got the message.

They ended up lazing around your apartment for a while until a knock on the door was heard. “Ah, coming!” you called out. Karamatsu, as soon as you opened the door, shoved a bouquet of giant roses into your face. These weren’t any old roses that you could get from a stand - each one was as big as your face and smelt very strong, and you’re pretty sure you saw a bug crawling around in one. “Where did you get these, Kara?”

He laughed in his typical fashion as he grabbed your hand, completely oblivious to the other two sitting on your couch. “Ah, my love, my dearest [Name] - I would thank Mother Nature’s caretakers for this gift I have delivered to you on this wonderful day. If it weren’t for the hard workers who are just as passionate as her, you may not have this display of love held in your hands.” He winked at you.

“Did - did you just go around people’s gardens and cut these off their bushes?!”

He didn’t respond as he walked in and removed his shoes, “heh”ing as per usual. That was probably a yes.

“It’s the middle of winter, how did you not find these wilted-!”

“Love always finds a way.”

You set the roses down on the counter as he finally realized that his brothers were sitting there, and he greeted them. They responded shortly and quickly before resuming what they had been doing. Karamatsu quickly turned to you, grasping your hand. “My love, what were your plans for our day-” his voice died down, and his eyes went dead. He seemed terribly heartbroken.

“Kara? Are you okay?”

He was trembling as he slowly reached for your neck.

Oh, this again. Great.

“Kara-”

“Did - did you actually - is this - am I-”

Your hands found their way to his face, and the brothers in the back paid full attention to the situation at hand, suddenly interested. Had he not given that to you? “No, no, don’t cry, Karamatsu. Hey, it’s okay - it’s not a hickey, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“I-It’s not?” he sniffed, trying to hold the tears that had accumulated.

You kissed his cheek softly and hastily before continuing. “No. it’s not. I wouldn’t do that to you.”

The tears still spilled anyways, except he seemed really angry. He grabbed your shoulders and stared at you with such intensity that you could’ve crumpled under it if he wasn’t holding you up. His expression confused you, until he spoke up.

“Who hurt you.”

“What-?”

“Who did this to you?! You’re bruised, this is not okay, I’ll-”

“Kara-”

“ Who ?!”

You sighed with a smile, trying your hardest to not laugh. Despite yourself, you snorted, and rubbed circles into his cheeks and wiped some stray tears away. “It’s - Kara, it’s a bug bite. I’ve been pinching it instead of itching it so that it wouldn’t grow, and I’ve bruised it. No one gave me a hickey, no one hurt me. I’m okay.”

“...Oh.”

It was silent before Jyushimatsu began laughing again, and you could even hear Ichimatsu snickering quietly.

“That’s so funny, [Name]!” Jyushimatsu choked, coughing before laughing again.

“Why were you not telling us that, [Name]?” Ichimatsu mused.

You took a deep breath. “Ah, sorry, sorry. It was sort of embarrassing, I’m sorry. I should’ve just said something.” You looked up to Karamatsu, who still had some tears in his eyes. His eyebrows were scrunched, and he just stared at you. “Kara, sweetie, are you okay?”

“ I’m going to fight the bug .”

Chapter Text

You looked around the crowded train station with a pamphlet in your hands that showed you a map of the station and where you were supposed to go. ‘Ah, this way is the subway, right? It should be that one over there-’

You heard the strum of a guitar and you felt the gears turn in your head, immediately set on looking for the source. You couldn’t see anyone, but you were oddly determined to find them - for some reason, the way they played reminded you of Karamatsu. You haven’t heard him play, but the melody sent your thoughts running to the glitter-obsessed man. Your footsteps sped up. You had to find this guitar player before your train left. You weaved your way through the crowd, but you kept getting pushed back and to the sides from the oncoming traffic of people. As you moved with the crowd, the sweet sound would get quieter, then you would try to force your way through and the sound would get louder again.

The music, as you got really close, also had a smooth voice singing to it. A wave of nostalgia hit you like a bus and you ran, now shoving your way through the multitudes of people. You found the cause of the sound and your heart beat quickly.

Ah, no wonder why the sound reminded you of Karamatsu. It was Karamatsu; of course it was, who else would wear those gaudy blue sparkling pants in public? He’d actually taken your advice and played his guitar at the subway station - his case was open, and there was an estimated ¥6,500 or so sitting at the bottom. His eyes were closed as he sang, so he didn’t notice you standing there and admiring his performance.

With a cheeky smile, you decided to try something. “ Ah, sir, your music is really good! Who taught you? ”

As he played the final chords, he “heh”’d and tilted his head up to the voice. “ Ah, thank you, dear listener. I am a self taught - [Name]! What are you doing here?!” He set down his guitar and stood up. You immediately embraced him and kissed him, and he returned your hug twice as lovingly. When you released each other, you took both of his hands in yours.

“Ah, I have to be out of town for a bit, but I should be back by 2 or 3 if you were wanting to come over for a while later.” You waved your linked arms in and out a bit playfully. “What are you doing here?”

He chuckled and stopped your arms, intertwining your fingers finally. “I decided that I needed to start paying for my own therapy, so I thought that your idea was the best course of action and started playing my sweet music in the subway. I don’t attract a large amount of attention, but doing it over the weeks has accumulated enough for me to open up my own bank account. I should be able to start payments pretty soon-”

“Ah, Kara, you don’t need to do that! I’ve already told you that I could do it on my own.” You stood on your tippy-toes and pecked his nose - man, did you love his nose - and squeezed his hands in a comforting way. “I still have plenty of money left over, so you shouldn’t have to do that.”

“Yes, but I want to. I also want you to use that money for possible education later.”

“Kara, are you sure-?”

“Why are you going out of town, [Name]?”

At first, you were a bit angry that he interrupted you, but it was probably just a quick passive way to ask you to stop. The conversation must’ve made him uncomfortable, so you complied. Your eyes grew wide at his question, however, and you looked away bashfully. “No reason, no reason at all.”

“No, no, none of that, [Name]. Tell me.”

“Ah - I was wanting to keep it a surprise, though. Would you rather wait for the surprise or have it ruined now?” Your eyes glinted mischievously, telling him what you prefered, but he didn’t seem to catch on.

“How long will I have to wait for the surprise?”

You shrugged, waving your interlocked hands again. “Maybe just until tonight, maybe a week from tonight. I won’t know until later.”

“Ah, that’s no fun.” He playfully pouted before you took your hand and pinched his cheek, to which he chuckled. “But I guess I’ll have to wait. Oh! Right!” He grabbed his guitar and swung around, sitting in his folding chair that he probably brought with him. He grabbed your hand and pulled you closer, kissing your knuckles before looking up at you. “This one is for you, my love, my angel, the light of my life - my wonderful, beautiful [Name].”

Despite snorting at his compliments, your face lit up like a lightbulb. He ran his fingers over the chords, testing them, before he took a deep breath and played.

As he sang, at first, he was hesitant to look anywhere except for his fingers. A lyric that he sang struck him, though, and then he didn’t take his eyes off of yours. You couldn’t look away, either; he was nervous, but his stare was so enticing and vulnerable and sweet that you couldn’t help it. His voice was shaky, but real - he had deepened his voice for the previous song, but his natural softness and affection was present in this song. When it hit you that this was the song that he had written for you, your heart lept into your throat, because these words were so sickly sweet but so genuine at the same time; you couldn’t believe that this was how he was feeling about you the entire time. The two of you hadn’t noticed the crowd that stopped to watch him, but that didn’t matter; all that mattered was the two of you.

You noticed that he didn’t have sheet music to look at, or paper with lyrics; he memorized this. Or maybe, he was just winging it, telling you how he felt at that moment through his lyrics. Either way, it made your head fog with requited affection for the man in front of you.

Karamatsu strummed the last chord and a sheepish smile found its way to his soft cheeks. He let out a shaky breath and looked back down at his fingers.

You were breathless. Not that you knew what to say, anyways; it was… “Wow.”

He set down the guitar and stood up, grabbing your hand. He had a proud smile on his face and looked hopefully at you. “Did you like it? I - there were some parts that I ended up fixing during the song, b-because I felt like it fit better, and because that’s how I was feeling. I-I hope it was okay-” He stopped as you sniffed and wiped at your eyes.

“Ah, wow, Kara. That was - wow.” You laughed and sniffed again. “That was… really, really pretty. I - you wrote that for me?”

His smile grew and he nodded. You pushed your face into his chest and held him tightly - you two suddenly noticed the crowd of at least twenty people clapping for the two of you, and you turned to look at them. They were all cheering and asking for encores, and someone yelled out how cute you two were. The comment made you laugh bashfully as you pushed your face back into his leather-clad chest. He chuckled and picked you up, spinning you around as people threw their money into Karamatsu’s guitar case. When the crowd had almost completely dispersed, an older woman came up and told you that she believed the two of you would do great things together before walking away - she had left a generous ¥10,000 tip, to both you and Karamatsu’s surprise.

You quickly checked your phone and squeaked - “Oh, crap, I gotta run. I’m gonna be late.” You grabbed him by the collar of his jacket and quickly but passionately kissed him. “I love you so, so much. Thank you for that.”

“Y-you’re w-welcome..!” He cleared his throat before grinning at you - there were stars in his eyes and a heavy blush painted onto his cheeks. “Good luck with your surprise, my love.”

“ Understood! I will do my best! ”

He laughed before pressing his lips to your forehead and sending you off with a light wave.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That night, as soon as Karamatsu set foot into your apartment, you tackled him lovingly, cheering and screaming and hopping around. He laughed a tad awkwardly at your notion, and attempted to get you to stop jumping around so much - to no avail, one might add. “What is it, my love-?”

“ I did it, Kara! I did it, I did it, I did it-!”

“ What did you do exactly, my [Name]?”

“I - I got a job!”

He pushed you back and held your shoulders tightly - despite how much he tried to suppress your outer happiness, your energy made its way to your face and your eyes were wide and your grin was so big he could even compare it to Jyushimatsu’s.

“You did? How?”

“Ah, well, I went to a place where they do in-house translations, and they said they’d even train me more on my Japanese! It’s got long hours, sure, but being in-house means I get a steady pay and I don’t have to worry about booking my own clients or anything.” You smiled, trying to be calm, but you couldn’t help but stomp around excitedly. “I did it! We did it, Kara! We’re taking a step forward! Together!”

“...T-together? Really?”

“Mm-hmm!” You grabbed his hands and smiled up at him again.

“Wow.”

You cheered and hugged him again, knocking the breath out of him. Karamatsu held you just as tightly before pulling away and grabbing the ¥10,000 that the older woman had given him earlier from his pocket. “Let’s go somewhere nice tonight and celebrate!”

Chapter Text

“ Why are we going to eat again, [Name]?”

“Because I just got my first paycheck and I wanna spoil someone.”

“Spoil your damn boyfriend then.”

“Ah, I don’t appreciate the swearing.”

“Sorry.”

“Wait - where did you even learn to swear, anyways? Did you use the internet?”

“Yes. I also learned ‘hickey’ from the internet.”

“You’re a lot smarter than you lead on, Ichimatsu.”

“N’eh.”

Despite seeming like he wanted to ditch you and go home, Ichimatsu walked very closely to your side. His hands were shoved into his pockets, and his thin eyebrows were knitted so tightly that you thought they would fuse together. His eyes bore straight ahead at the few passerbys that walked past you two. Some might think that he was either going to fall asleep at any second or was on some sort of drugs or something, but from hanging out with him for the past few months you understood that his anxiety was acting up a bit right now. That was okay, though. He just needed a little more patience than some others. Ichimatsu took a peek at you and noticed that you were looking at him already. His nose crinkled and he looked away.

“Don’t - don’t look at me.” You snorted and he turned to you, his cheeks on fire and his face contorted into embarrassment and slight disgust. “Really, don’t! It makes me feel weird to be looked at.” You burst out laughing and he huffed and looked away again. You decided to listen to him, though, and continued walking and looking at the buildings on both sides of the street rather than at his noticeably chubby cheeks.

“You’re no fun. It’s just looking, y’know.”

“It makes me nervous.”

“Ah, sorry.” You stopped in front of a building, Ichimatsu quickly following suit. “Is this place okay?”

He looked up slowly, scanning the entrance, then screamed when he saw the name. “H-Here?! Are you crazy?! This place is very, uhm - very... cost money..?! This place is very cost money !” You laughed loudly again, and he didn’t understand why. You had to lean on him - which made him very uncomfortable - because you couldn’t contain the laughter that was bellowing out of you. Your body shook with such force that you couldn’t stand on your own, and you had to use the poor cat boy to hold yourself up. He used his arms to push you to a respectable distance from himself, though.

“‘This place is very cost money!’ Oh my goodness, Ichi, you’re a riot!” You sighed and wrapped an arm around his shoulders playfully. “The word is ‘expensive’ or ‘pricey,’ by the way. Okay?”

He looked away and his nose crinkled again. “Sorr’.”

You waved him off with a sigh. “Ah, you’re fine, don’t worry about it. So, once again, is this place alright?”

Ichimatsu’s face grimaced as he looked back at you. “It’s ‘expenseeve.’ Are you sure this is okay?” He shifted awkwardly away from you. His eyes screamed out ‘bewilderment’ like he had no idea why you were doing this for him, but wasn’t it obvious..?

You hid your snickers of his pronunciation for “expensive” behind your hand before nodding. “Yes, of course it is, Ichimatsu. You’re my friend, why wouldn’t I want to treat you to something special on an occasion such as my first paycheck?” He seemed to tense at the word “friend” like he hadn’t been expecting it to fall from your mouth. He looked bored with an undertone of pissed off, but the pink dusting his cheeks gave away what he was really thinking.

Then, Ichimatsu’s head couldn’t hold itself up anymore and his face fell to the floor - no expression, no words. He was completely silent after that. He stood there, not budging an inch, and just seemingly staring at his feet. You didn’t say anything else, either. All you did was open the door to the restaurant and held it open for him. He stayed for a few seconds before sauntering in with a mumbled ‘thanks’ and waited for you to follow.

Soon enough (by that you mean over an hour later) the two of you were seated by the window. The view from there was great - you could see the nearby park, the vibrant green grass from the oncoming springtime and the shimmering fountains of water really caught your eye. Ichimatsu just looked at his palms on the table, twiddling his thumbs again like he usually did when he was nervous.

“Ah, look Ichi, a cat!”

He quickly snapped his head to the window. Outside, a small white cat with small brown spots had been walking on the path before it saw a bird and chased it. It didn’t catch it, though, as the bird flew away before the cat even got near it.

“Ah, too bad.” You chuckled quietly. “You win some, you lose some, I guess.”

Ichimatsu hummed. “That one lives kind of close to us.”

“Really? But this is so far away from your house.”

“M’h. He lives 8 kilometers from our house. Not too bad.”

You leaned forward, resting your cheek on a fist with a grunt. “How far do you usually walk around your area to be able to feed the cats in your area?”

His facial expression didn’t change except for the light squinting of his eyes in thought. After a few minutes, he responded with a curt “Maybe 25 kilometers.”

You laughed once, fondly, quietly (it reminded you of Karamatsu’s “heh” - the guy was really rubbing off on you) and smiled. “Good job, Ichi. I’m proud of you.”

His breathing suddenly hitched, and it threw him into a coughing fit. You reached over and began to rub his shoulder comfortingly, but he tensed under your touch as his face was enveloped in a powerful blush. He laid his head as gently as possible (so not very gently) onto the table so that he wouldn’t have to look at you anymore. You felt bad because you didn’t know what to do to comfort him, so you let him do his own thing.

Fifteen minutes later, a waiter came and took your order. Another thirty minutes later, they finally brought out your drinks. It wasn’t until over an hour later that your food was finally delivered, and by then your stomach was growling enough to cause a natural disaster. “My god, I get that they’re a fancy restaurant and that they’re kind of busy, but this is outrageous.”

“Don’t pay them expenseeve.”

You snorted and shook your head. “Yeah, no way. No big tips.”

It was silent after that, having enjoyed your meal that was finally placed in front of you. It wasn’t until the two of you were almost finished that Ichimatsu spoke up.

“Th’nsk,” he slurred. He seemed to slur his words when he was embarrassed or shy, you noticed. You kept a mental note on that because it was sorta charming in it’s own weird way.

You smiled cheekily. “It’s ‘thanks,’ not ‘th’nsk’, but you’re welcome.”

He huffed before darting his eyes towards yours. “Hey, if Karamatsu ever bothers you, tell me.”

You lifted an eyebrow questioningly. “Huh? What do you mean, Ichimatsu?”

His pupils dropped back down to his plate, where he used his fork to play with some of the remaining bits of food that didn’t interest him. “If he’s ever stupid, or does something stupid, or lives stupid, or you’re tired of his dumb stupid face, tell me. I’ll punch him for you.”

You laughed out loud, but quickly cooled down so that people wouldn’t look at you. “Why, though? Do you have a crush on me or somethin’?” you teased him, and he tensed and his face pinkened. “Kara’s been whining to me that he’s worried that you do.”

“Ew, no.”

“ Thanks ,” you replied sarcastically.

“I don’t think of you that way. You are my f-f- ... friend . F-f-fr… frieh...” he swallowed before continuing nervously. “ Friends help friends, right? ”

You nodded, a small smile on your face, happy that he called you his friend. “ Yeah. Friends help friends. But I don’t think you’ll need to do that to Karamatsu . He’s fine, he’s not stupid. ”

“ Then, if you ever need me to punch a guy, any guy, I’ll do it. ”

You snickered before looking back fondly to the cat boy. “Thanks for the offer, Ichimatsu. You’re a sweetie.”

“Ooo-kay,” he stood up and wrinkled his nose at you, his cheeks rosy. “Thanks, [Name]. Bye.” Then he walked away.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ah, this was nice. What a great day. Having a fancy meal with a friend, going out for a nice walk, taking a nap, and being pleasantly surprised by Karamatsu when you woke up from said nap. He had brought over ingredients and wanted to make dinner with you that night, and of course you said yes. (Karamatsu had offered at least an hour worth of cuddling beforehand, which you also agreed to.)

He wanted to make homemade ramen, which although was a bit difficult, sounded really good. You had been prepping the flours and other ingredients to make the noodles themselves (when you said homemade, you meant everything had to be made by scratch) when your phone started buzzing wildly.

“Ah, hang on, Kara. Let me get this.” You picked up the phone to look at the caller I.D. - usually, the only person to call was Karamatsu from the Matsuno household’s home phone, but he was here helping you, so it couldn’t be him . It was a number from what appeared to be your..?

What was this? This couldn’t be right, right..? Ha, no, this must just be a coincidence. Maybe someone in Japan had the same familiar number.

“Hello?”

“Ah, [Name]. I didn’t think you’d pick up.”

Oh.

Oh no .

Why was he calling you?! Why was he speaking to you through the telephone, with his mouth , with his words , and why did he sound so defeated?! Why was his voice rough and patchy like he had been crying?! This was unlike him! Oh, oh no , this couldn’t be good news. Your stomach started to bubble nervously, and you wanted to throw up. Your panicked stare just gazed at the floor as you listened to his heavy breathing.

Karamatsu took notice of your behavior and stopped working on the meal immediately. He brought a hand to your back and began to rub light circles into it to help soothe you - thank god Karamatsu knew what he was doing, because those calloused fingertips took you from 100 to 50 in just a few seconds. Your breathing slowed down a bit, and your eyes shrunk back to their normal size.

“[Name]? Are you there?”

Oh, right. You hadn’t exactly responded. You cleared your throat. “Y-yeah, sorry…” it came out as a raspy squeak more than actual words, but it was enough for him to continue.

“Right. Listen, I - I’m so sorry, [Name]. My wife - your mother - she’s-”

He sniffed, coughed, and took a shaky breath before continuing. Wait, no, what was he-?

“She’s dead.”

Chapter Text

“She’s dead.”

Your body froze.

You could feel your heart fall to the pit of your stomach, and all you wanted to do was fall. Fall onto the floor, fall through and into the apartment under yours, fall past the foundation of the building until you reached the earth’s core where you could melt. Your bones, your blood, your thoughts - all of it felt like lead, poisoning you slowly until today. He - he was wrong, right? That couldn’t happen to her, she - even if she was nihilistic from time to time, she was so strong willed and powerful and a role model in your life. No, she couldn’t just die like that.

…

...right?

“[Name?] Are you there-”

You interrupted him with a loud bitter laugh. It was faked, anyone could tell, but it was at least enough to fool you. “Ah man, Dad, you’re hilarious! Thanks for the joke, but you need to get better material! One that doesn’t give me pain to hear. Love you, bye!”

You quickly hung up and threw the phone down onto the table. You turned around to Karamatsu with a smile. His eyebrows were scrunched with concern and you could tell that he didn’t believe your facial expression. He reached up to hold one of your cheeks in his hand.

“What was… that?”

“Ah, nothing, just a dad joke. Just a ‘funny thing’ that definitely wasn’t funny. Anyways, we should get back to-”

Your phone started ringing again, and you groaned in annoyance.

“Yes?” You responded into the speaker harshly.

“[Name], I’m serious. She’s dead .”

“Mm-hmm, okay.” You turned back around began to check your fingernails with false boredom, because maybe if you put on this act, then the situation really would be a joke. Karamatsu stood in front of you and watched with concern. “Then, just tell me, what happened exactly?”

“She-” Your father paused, taking a deep breath and trying to find the right words. “We got into another argument. About you. It - it’s not your fault, don’t think that. She just got mad at me about everything - how I treated you, how I treated - Kiramatsu or something, right? Just… just how I acted in general. I know I shouldn’t be so protective of you, but it’s… I can’t help it. You’re the only good thing I’ve ever done. After that argument, sh-she... she ran out of the house and drove away. I guess she had went to a bar or something and got way too drunk. She tried to drive home and crashed and died. I’m - I’m so sorry.”

You stayed silent.

Your breathing was heavy. It felt like there was a bowling ball in your chest. It hurt.

Your throat was dry. Swallowing wasn’t much help, because your mouth was just as parched. It tasted filmy and gross. Your tongue desperately clawed at your teeth, trying to get you to open your mouth and just say something , but your emotions wouldn’t let you.

Your head felt foggy and dizzying, and your vision was blurry. It didn’t feel real; none of this felt real.

“Her funeral is this weekend. I’ve emailed you plane ticket information if you wanted to come, two tickets if he wanted to come, too. I feel like we have things to talk about in person. Me and you, me and him, all three of us. We need to have a discussion.”

And he hung up.

. . .

You hummed in thought. “Well. I’m sorry to cut this short Kara, but I think I’m gonna head to bed. Nighty night.” You smiled at him - your eyes clearly empty and lost - before taking a step towards the hallway that led to your bedroom.

“Wait-” Karamatsu reached out and grabbed your wrist, stopping you in your tracks. “[Name], what happened? Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” your voice cracked. “I-I’m okay.”

“That did not sound reassuring in the slightest bit.” With his grip still on your wrist, he walked in front of you with a worrisome look on his face. “Really, [Name], you can tell me what happened. I’m here for you, okay? No matter what, I’m here-”

You tackled him immediately, burying your face into his shoulder and crying loudly. Karamatsu didn’t know what to do - he didn’t know how to help you because he’d never actually seen you cry before. He wrapped his arms around you, though, and that seemed to help. He traced his fingers in small circles on your back, and your breathing wasn’t as heavy as it was. You were still emitting loud sobs, but at least this seemed to be helping you a bit.

“She - Karamatsu, sh-she-” You let out another loud sob, trying to focus more on his fingers than the pain you were feeling. “She’s dead! She’s gone, she’s gone, I never got to say bye! It’s all my fault, it’s all my fault, it’s-”

“Hey, hey, it’s not your fault.” He placed his nose in your hair and gave a small kiss to calm you. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”

You gripped him tightly wailed even louder. “She died to get away from me! She died because I’m horrible and I can’t make anyone happy ! I can’t do anything right, I always do this, it’s all my-” You hiccupped, and your words were drowned out by your own tears.

“[Name], that’s not true. You make me happy, and I’m someone, right? There’s no way that you killed someone. There’s no way that anyone’s death was your fault.”  Karamatsu rubbed up and down your back soothingly, attempting to slow your breathing to something that wouldn’t accidentally strike up hyperventilation. “Who was she, [Name]?”

“It was my mother! I killed my mother! It was me, it’s-”

“ Not your fault. It’s not your fault. You aren’t to blame.”

Karamatsu continued to whisper these sort of things into your ear while you roughly grabbed him and sobbed. After about an hour of self-depreciation and crying, you felt at least a bit better. The half-cooked meal still sat on the stove, but you did truly want to go to bed. You were exhausted, and any sort of sleep would be better than the none that you were expecting to get tonight.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“H-hey, Kara, uhm…” You blew your nose into a tissue that Karamatsu had grabbed for you after you had settled into bed. He sat on the floor next to you, holding a toilet paper roll just in case the tissue box ran empty. “My dad said that he bought a plane ticket for you, too, in case you wanted to come to the funeral in a few days. H-he wants to talk to you about something, but I don’t know what it is. You don’t have to come if you don’t want to, but I thought I should at least let you know.”

He grabbed your hand and rubbed circles into it. “I’ll come along. I’ll be with you though this whole thing, okay?”

You nodded and smiled sincerely for the first time since the first phone call you had gotten that night. Even if it was small, it was improvement. “Thank you, Kara. You - hey, you won’t leave me, right?”

“No, I won’t leave you.”

“Promise?”

“Yeah. I promise.”

It was quiet for a while, and despite your haunting drowsiness, you couldn’t fall asleep. Karamatsu stayed by you, though, continuing to rub circles into your hand to help lure you to sleep. Only the sound of you two breathing filled the air for the longest time.

“I miss her, Kara.”

“I’m sure you do.”

“I mean, I really do. She didn’t even do that much for me, but I feel so empty and horrible now that she’s gone.” You pushed the blanket up to cover your shoulders more completely, burying your face into the front of it. “When I was a kid, she’d make me chicken noodle soup and let me sit in her lap while she knit. She would take me to the dog park, even when we didn’t have a dog, just so I could play with the other people’s pets. When I was sick or sad, she would always climb into bed with me and hold me by the waist and press her nose into my neck until I fell asleep. I just want that back. I want her to be here, and be alive, and love me like she did before it all went to hell.”

You squeezed your eyes shut and took a deep breath so that you wouldn't start to cry again. Karamatsu got up and off of the floor. You felt cold and alone until you realized that he was getting onto the bed to comfort you - like when you had gotten sick. Like what your mother used to do. It felt nice to have his arm comfortingly wrap around your middle and hold you close. It tickled when his breath his your neck, but it felt comfortable. It felt nostalgic. It felt like home.

“I know I’m not her, so this feels different but… I’m here.”

That’s all he needed to say for you to cry again, although this was out of relief. He held you even closer, if only slightly, and kissed the nape of your neck until you fell asleep.

Chapter Text

“Hold my hand.” You reached out towards his arm, hand open. Karamatsu took it quickly. “I’m nervous.”

Standing in front of the door now brought back lots of anxiety. The events from last time were definitely not going to repeat, with your father having become distraught at… everything. But the memories were still fresh in your mind, even after so many months of being away and being happy. Just the thought of the prior incident have you chills. You swallowed, and Karamatsu’s thumb rubbed gently over your knuckles. You reached up and gave the door a light tap.

You didn’t think he’d hear it, being that quiet and all, and you were about to knock again. Almost immediately, however, the door flung open, and your hand clenched around Karamatsu’s  instinctively. You knew your dad wouldn’t even attempt do anything, but fear was still clogged in your throat at the sight of him. Karamatsu continued to rub your hand, helping a bit but not much. Your father smiled sadly, took a look at your intertwined hands, then invited you two in silently.

After the two of you stepped into the door, he spoke. “Feel free to set your luggage by the couch, you can get it later.” The two of you did as you were told. You turned around to give him a smile, but he was already slipping on his boots. “I’ve got some snacks in the kitchen if you’re hungry. I’ll be out for a bit.” Your father grabbed his coat and exited the door without another word.

He didn’t even say hi.

That was… weird . Really weird. You don’t think you’ve ever seen him so solemn before. He was so quiet, too - normally, his whispering could be heard for miles. But it almost seemed as if he spoke too loudly, he’d break something. Maybe he actually thought that. That hurt to think about. The rumbling of the car outside brought you back to your senses.

“Hey, so - last time, I didn’t really get to do a whole lot with you, right?” You turned to Karamatsu and smiled as happily as you could. “Why don’t I show you around the property?”

Karamatsu puckered his lips in thought. “You don’t want to settle in or anything first, [Name]? Because if you need to, we can.”

“No, no, let’s just look around! I mean, unless you’re hungry or tired or something, then we don’t have to. But it’s just - this place is huge! There’s so many useless rooms and cellars and so much property in the back, it’s insane. We have a lake. With ducks.”

“Ducks?”

“Yes, ducks.”

“You’ve won me over. I want to see the ducks.”

You smiled cheekily (Karamatsu was so happy to see that smile again; it’s been a while. He missed it) and tugged on his hand. “We’ll see them later. Save the best for last, right?” You brought his hand up to your lips and kissed it before bringing it back down, giving it a light squeeze.

His face lit up with excitement and he squeezed your hand back. “Can we bring bread? Can we feed them? I want to feed the ducks. If that’s okay. I like ducks.” Karamatsu’s excited rambling brought another smile to your face. He seemed genuinely happy, and that made you feel happy, too. It was a constant cycle - you’d feel happy, then he’d feel happier, then you’d feel happier. It was as if you two were just feeding each other bliss for the time being.

It was like everything was right again.

You nodded enthusiastically. “We should have bread. My dad likes sandwiches. Let me go check, m’kay?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You didn’t have bread, but you had saltines. That was enough for Karamatsu, though.

First stop on your home tour was the unused cellar underneath the house - it was huge, almost as big as the house itself was. It was also empty, save for a few bottles of very, very old wine that you know your parents didn’t put down here when they moved in. There were lots of creepy crawly bugs everywhere, which made Karamatsu cling to you like a baby (and he said he wanted to fight a bug). You kept him under a protective arm for most of the time until you decided to push him away and yell “Tag!” before running off, leaving him alone with his pack of saltines. He called out to you and chased you through the corridors until you tripped and scraped your knee. It didn’t hurt that much, but Karamatsu insisted that he carry you back to the house.

You got lost for an hour (at least) and Karamatsu got too tired to carry you back after about five minutes of looking.

When you two finally made your way out and got your knee bandaged up, you took Karamatsu to the second floor and showed him around - the movie theater, your parent’s private elevator that went up to their room, the quiet room with soundproof padding and a bed in the corner, your loft area that was just a room that had windows for walls and a giant hammock, and every other little thing. Karamatsu’s eyes lit up like stars and you could tell that he was low-key jealous on the inside. How cute.

You changed your bandage because it started falling off and then continued to the lake. He was so excited to see it, he was giggling and jumping around and doing little twirls on the way there and you couldn’t help but laugh with him. When he saw it, he charged over to it. When he saw how close the ducks were to him, he stopped and began to walk very slowly. Karamatsu patted himself down to find his pack of saltines, and began to freak out when he couldn’t find them. You tapped his shoulder and jumped at the speed that he turned around to look at you.

“You handed them to me when you carried me out of the cellar, remember?” You waved around the packet of crackers and he flushed.

“Right.” You put them into his reaching hand before he turned around to the lake again. He opened the packet, the loud noise startling a few of the ducks and causing them to fly away, before he sat in the grass and threw a cracker into the lake. The ducks quickly rushed over and began to bite at it, and Karamatsu’s face lit up.

Your heart throbbed at his genuine contentedness.

Taking a seat next to him, you gestured for him to give you a cracker as well. He handed you a piece and you tossed it in. The birds rushed over to it just as they had previously done.

“I feel like an old man,” you commented with a slight snicker. “A lonely old man who eats oatmeal for breakfast and wears a black button up coat and goes outside all day just to sit on a bench.” You looked over to him with a cheeky grin. “Ya feel?”

“‘Ya feel’ means ‘you understand,’ right?”

“Yeah. Ya feel?”

“No, I do not feel.”

You snorted and covered your mouth with one of your hands. “Right, right.” You turned your attention to the next saltine thrown into the lake. “Why do you like ducks so much, Kara?”

“Ah.” He cracked his back before throwing in another cracker. “I like all birds, but ducks are my favorite I guess. I just like birds because they remind me of my brothers in a weird way.”

“What do you mean?”

He set down the pack and leaned onto his arms. “I dunno. They kind of act the same in some ways. I take the time to give them something I know they’ll enjoy, but they just don’t know how to thank me for it except by ignoring me. When all I have is gone, they leave me alone again.” He looked out at the lake and saw some of the ducks swimming away. “It’s sort of a weird coping method in a way, I guess. That’s what my therapist told me at least. I feel like the birds genuinely like what I have to offer them, though, and they don’t try to hide it. Except for maybe geese. That’s why Ichimatsu reminds me of a goose - he’s secretive and snappy and bites children.”

“Ichimatsu bites children?”

“You’d be surprised.”

You let out a loud chuckle, and Karamatsu joined in. Most of the birds quickly swam away at the sudden noise, but that was fine - you were almost out of saltines anyways. You helped him up then walked back to the house hand in hand. Karamatsu was humming quietly. You recognized it as the song he wrote for you, and you leaned into him affectionately.

Opening the back door and seeing your father at the table reminded you of why you were here in the first place. It wasn’t to enjoy yourself, it wasn’t to spend time with your boyfriend, it wasn’t to play tag in the cellars.

Break time was over.

Hearing the door open, your father’s head whipped around. His eyes seemed droop with exhaustion, and you knew exactly how he felt. “Ah, welcome back.” Your father sighed into his hands and wiped the drowsiness off of his face before turning back to you. “Should we get our little conversation started? There are some things I’d like to talk to each of you separately about, but I’d like to start it off as a group activity. We can go from there.”

He stood up and walked over to both of you. Man, he was tall, towering over both you and Karamatsu by a head. It was rather intimidating to say the least. He placed one of his large hands on your left shoulder, the other on Karamatsu’s right. He smiled what he thought was probably nice and comforting but just made the dread in your stomach grow.

“Come, take a seat, you two. Let’s start our discussion.”

Chapter Text

“First off, I must apologize.”

Your father looked at both of you, examining your faces. You felt very awkward, and you were guessing that Karamatsu felt the same. Your dad wasn’t really the best with words, you knew that, but it’s been at least ten seconds and all he’s done is look at the two of you. Fifteen more seconds pass by, and you feel the need to say something, but you don’t know what exactly to say.

“Go on, sir.”

Thankfully, Karamatsu does.

He raises an eyebrow as if he’s looking to start trouble, but your father quickly decides that this is a bad idea. “Right, my apologies.” He sits back in his chair and crosses his arms over his chest. “I shouldn’t have treated you two the way I did - especially not you.” He looked at Karamatsu almost threateningly. Karamatsu swallowed, and he looked like he wanted to scrunch up into a ball and die. “You did nothing but stand up for [Name], and I applaud that. I just thought that maybe they…”

He stopped talking and looked you you two again. The tension was even worse than last time he did this. You took a quick, nervous glance at Karamatsu, who seemed very confused and nervous.

Twenty seconds pass. It feels like an eternity. “Dad,” He looks over at you with a curious grunt. “You thought I’d what ? You didn’t exactly finish your sentence.”

He grumbled and stayed silent for a few more seconds before continuing. “I thought that maybe [Name] would turn into me. Would turn into us .” His eyes landed on an empty chair beside him, and you felt your heart ache. That’s what he meant. “So, I acted irrationally. Every other person [Name] had brought home used them then threw them away. I just - I didn’t want another one of those cases.” He emitted what almost sounded like a growl and looked hard at Karamatsu. “You’re different. You’re a man. I’m glad that [Name] found someone like you. For that, I thank you.”

You looked over at Karamatsu. His cheeks held a soft pink, and his eyes shone. His mouth was hung open slightly. After looking at your father for a minute, he turned to you and examined you for only a few seconds before flicking his head to his hands in his lap. He mumbled something quietly, excitedly, then sheepishly grinned to himself.

He was proud of himself.

“Now, that’s it for you two. I would like to speak to him alone, [Name].”

You nodded, standing up and setting a hand on Karamatsu’s shoulder. You rubbed a circle with your thumb and smiled at him. Remembering that your dad probably didn’t remember his name, you spoke up.  “Good luck, Karamatsu.”

He nodded, stars still in his eyes from prior, and smiled.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You felt something warm and soft on your shoulder, shaking you gently.

“[Name]...”

“Gmnnn…”

Karamatsu chuckled breathily. “[Name]...? My [Name], wake up. Your dad wants to talk to you now.”

Your eyebrows knit as you scrunched into a ball. Now that you were awake, you knew that you wouldn’t be falling asleep again anytime soon, but you wanted to keep up the charade for just a bit longer. “Mnn-nnhh… I ‘dun wannaaaa…” You took a deep breath and allowed your eyelids to feel heavy again.

He shook you just a bit harder than before. “It’s been over an hour. Come on, [Name], we can nap again later if you want.”

You rolled over and opened your eyes just barely. He had a soft smile on his face and was trying not to laugh at you. My god, he was glorious. Maybe his attractiveness was emphasized just because of how tired you were right now, but you swear he had an essence of confidence that he didn’t have before. You could feel it radiating off of him, you could see it in the way he looked at you man man oh man you’d be lying if you said you he was just attractive. You’d fail a lie detector test in an instant. He was way more than that, what an angel-

“[Name]? Why are you looking at me like that?” He bent over to face level with you, an uncharacteristically devious smirk on his lips. “ Have you really fallen that hard for me? ”

You reached out and grabbed his face and kissed him deeply. To say he was shocked was an understatement - he practically screamed at first, but quickly melted into your touch. Despite how used he was getting to your physical contact, sometimes it still startled him when you’d do it spontaneously. You actually had to break the kiss earlier than you’d hoped because his reaction made you laugh so hard. While you were giggling uncontrollably, you cracked an eye open to see his face. He was flustered, confused, but still radiating happiness and confidence and for some reason it just made you laugh harder. You kept your grip on his soft cheeks as you rode out your laughter.

With a deep breath and sigh, you opened your eyes to look at him, your stare filled to the brim with adoration. “I’ll only wake up now if you promise to take a nap with me later, you adorable angel you.”

He smiled, his cheeks chubbed like a little kid’s because of your hands. “Yes, definitely! Anything for my sweetie pie.” You kissed him again with a hum, squishing his cheeks while doing so, before releasing him entirely and sitting up. You stretched and cracked your back. Karamatsu offered you a hand up.

When you finally walked out to the living room, your father looked rather displeased at you. You laughed tiredly in response. “Sorry, I took a nap. I’m tired.”

“Well, wake up. This is very important.”

Oh. Okay then.

You sat down, slapped your cheeks a few times, rubbed circles into your eyes, and yawned before you were attent enough to listen. “Go on, dad. Let’s talk.”

He grunted and slid a paper across the table. You twisted it around so that you could see what its contents had in store for you. Your heart froze when you saw the name written in perfect cursive at top. This was your mother’s handwriting. This was her paper. You picked up the sheet off of the table and scanned it. This wasn’t just any piece of paper that your mother wrote on, this was her will. Her dying wish. Your eyes widened and your eyebrows scrunched as you looked up to your dad for confirmation. With a silent nod in response, you kept reading it. You froze upon reading the sentence:

“I will be leaving the company to [First Name] [Last Name], my child, when I pass.”

You had to reread the sentence a few times - she was leaving the whiskey company to you? What? You had no idea how to run a company! Plus, your dad was still here, alive and breathing, why couldn’t he take it? You swallowed the dryness in your throat away as you set down the paper, sliding it back towards your dad.

“I don’t want it. You can keep the company.”

Your dad seemed, for the first time in pretty much all of his life, bewildered. Puzzled. Absolutely confused. “You… what do you mean you don’t want the company?”

“I don’t want it. That’s what I mean.” You scootched forward and brought your hands to your lap, looking at the table. “I don’t want to have the responsibility of such a large company sitting on my shoulders until I die. I saw what it did to you and mom - I don’t want that happening to me and Karamatsu. I want to be able to do a lot more than just own a company. I want to have my own experiences, earn my pay, live my life the way I’ve dreamed of living it. That dream didn’t ever once include owning the company. Because of that, I have to pass.”

It was silent for a moment. Both of you were taking a minute to let it sink in. You heard the creaking of his chair as he leaned back, causing your eyes to flicker upward subconsciously.

“You…” He paused, and his eyebrows creased. “You really like this boy, don’t you, [Name].”

“I - yeah, I do, but what does that have to do with anything?”

“You’re planning your life around him - with him. You like him so much that you’re willing to put aside living the dream, living big and bold, just to stay with him. You’re comparing what might happen to the two of you together with what happened between me and your mother. We were married. We had you. You haven’t even been around him as long as me and your mother were before we even brought up the topic of marriage, and yet here you are, already planning your life and your future around him. Does he really make you that happy-?”

“ Nothing would make me happier than living with Karamatsu for the rest of my life.”

Your father stayed silent, glaring at you, but you were a blushing panicking mess. You hadn’t meant for that to slip out so suddenly, practically interrupting your father, but the deed has been done. You basically just confessed your undying love for the flamboyant man that your dad hated up until a few days ago.

Good going, [Name].

The silence was deafening. You looked everywhere but at your father - your lap, the salt shaker, out the window towards the pond, back to your lap again, and more. Not a single square inch of the room was left untouched by your nervous gaze. It felt like hours, days, weeks - one millennium, even, until your father spoke again.

“Well, if he really makes you that happy, then I can’t refuse.” He grunted and leaned back in his chair again.  You let out a silent breath that you were holding. “Also, before you go to bring him back, there’s something I thought I should tell you.”

Your blush finally faded, and your heart was beating normally. You looked at your dad with pure curiosity. “Yeah? What is it?”

“I - I’m getting help. A therapist or something. I dunno, I mean - his whole thing is my fault. Your mom wouldn’t have - nothing would have happened if I could control myself. So, I just - it’s a start. I’m doing something.” He looked embarrassed. Why was he embarrassed?

“That’s good,” you smiled at him. “You’re changing for the better, That’s good, that’s really good. I’m proud of you, dad.”

“Thanks.” He stood up and walked into the kitchen before calling out to you, “Go get Karamatsu, maybe he can help me with dinner tonight.”

Chapter Text

The funeral was as every funeral was.

Somehow, you hadn’t shed a single tear. Karamatsu, on the other hand, was bawling like a baby, patting your back and holding onto you, telling you that it was going to be alright. He used an entire box of tissues during the first thirty minutes of people’s stories about your mom and your father had to give him a new box. Turns out, that one was empty, and your dad apologized.

Since when were two of the closest guys in your life so… sobby ?

After you shared your stories and memories (eliciting more cries from your father and Karamatsu) and your mother was buried, everyone headed over to your house. Many had come up to you and told their “I’m so sorry for your loss”es, gave their pats on your back, even that one old lady who had been friends with your grandmother - not even your mom - showed up and gave you a kiss on the cheek. You couldn’t even remember her name. After the majority had left and all that was left was your “cousin” (how did you even know her again? She wasn’t your real cousin, so why was she even here?) and her gross dad who probably hadn’t showered in a week. They decided not to fly back that night and to just sleep in one of the twelve guest rooms that were littered endlessly around the house. That kind of sucked, because you’d rather that you just had the house to your dad, Karamatsu and yourself, but it was nice of them to show up at least.

Despite having twelve guest rooms littered endlessly around the house as previously stated, Karamatsu was awfully anxious about having strange new people around him. Like, man, there are eleven empty ones around the house, you’re gonna be okay. However, he asked if he could sleep on the floor in your bedroom. You told him no, of course. “That’s just awful, making you sleep on the floor. My bed is huge. Sleep on the other side, you’ll be fine.” He stumbled for a second and coughed and almost passed out at the offer - this wasn’t for reassurance or “I’m sick, send me good vibes,” or anything like that - you wanted him to sleep in the same bed as him because you cared for him. You wanted to be by him. Was this romantic? Platonic for some odd reason? S-sexual?! Karamatsu didn’t know what to do. He ended up slumping on the floor during his anxious thinking and you dragged him onto your bed for the night. When you woke up the next morning, he was sloppily sprawled all over the bed and all over you. You chose not to move under his one arm, one leg, and knee on the other leg. How was he sleeping comfortably? You decided not to question it as you attempted to slide back into sleep. However, this was quickly proven futile, as Karamatsu was a sleep cuddler - you remembered this from when you were sick, he had subconsciously wrapped his entire body around you and that somehow broke your fever at the time.

One of his many sleep cuddling habits was to find your hand, hold it for a few minutes without budging an inch, then slowly break out of your grasp and hold you tighter than before. It was charming, and each time he did it it made you feel like you were on cloud nine. The fact that he wanted to hold your hand even in his sleep - and was this man a heavy sleeper or what - made your heart erupt like a second-grade science fair volcano project. Not quite an actual volcano, because there were many other things he did that made you want to scream because of how affectionate he was on accident. You realized that you were still awake and that you were thinking about how much this man meant to you. That was... cool. Genuinely cool.

Fast forward to the present. One month later, flown back in, laying around in your apartment, ignoring the commotion right beside you. Why were you thinking about that? Right now? You just wanted some physical affection from your guy man but he was out of town for some strange reason. Karamatsu tried to explain it in that over-the-top dramatic way he does, and for once you couldn’t understand what he was trying to say. You almost always got the gist of his monologuing, but you couldn’t grasp the concept of his words this time around. You nodded awkwardly, said “Yes, okay, you go do that,” and then he hung up the phone without another word.

With a groan, you let your head hit the side of the couch.

“What’s wrong, [Name]?! Are we being too loud?!” One of them gasped and ran over to you, pushing you to the ground and hovering over you on all fours like the exoskeleton of a tent. “Wanna be loud with us, [Name]?! It’s looooots of FUN!”

“Fun,” the other monotoned sarcastically. “Very fun.”

“Nii-san! That’s not loud!” With a laugh and a “Hup!” the younger of the two rolled over, sitting beside you, before quickly crabwalking over to the elder. “ THIS IS LOUD! BE LOUD, NII-SAN! ”

“Aaah.”

“Louder!”

“ Aaah .”

“ Nii-san, come on! LOUD! ”

“... a a a h.”

“You whispered that!” He playfully punched his older brother in the arm, laughing at his antics. The older snickered quietly along with him. “You’re funny, nii-san!”

“Really? Thanks. I try.”

You groaned again and flopped over onto your face. Your limbs were starfished out to the sides and you let out a second, even louder groan.

“Sorry, [Name]! We’ll be quieter!”

“No, Jyushimatsu, don’t worry about it. You’re not being too loud. Not for me, at least.” You flipped yourself onto your back, arms and legs still extended. “Maybe for the neighbors, but I’m okay with it.” You let out a sigh and waved your hands up and down pathetically.

“Do you need to take a sh-?”

“Ichimatsu, please!” You sat up and scrunched your eyebrows. “I’ve told you before and I’ll tell you again, you don’t need to be so vulgar about literally everything!”

“But it’s fun.”

“You know what else is fun? Playing connect four. Y’all wanna play connect four?”

Jyushimatsu laughed and bounced up and down with excitement. “Oh boy howdy , do I!”

You laughed out loud. Jyushimatsu was silent for a minute before joining in. Ichimatsu stood up and ruffled both heads of hair playfully before walking into the hall. “I don’t understand youse Western folks,” he had chimed in while rummaging through the closet down the hall.

Soon enough, Ichimatsu smacked the standing board for the third time in a row with an aggressive squawk. Jyushimatsu scrambled to pick up all of the chips, Ichimatsu crossed his arms and pouted, and you let your head drop to the table with a bang. No one noticed when the door opened and another one of them walked in with a box. Jyushimatsu stood up with all of the pieces in his hands, but did so too quickly and showered all of the plastic playing coins onto the two of you. You pretended to dramatically sob and Ichimatsu sat there and watched as some pieces landed on your back and stuck to your head. The door closed and someone walked over to the table and sat down. Ichimatsu plucked the pieces off of you, one by one, and threw them back at his brother. As he reached to grab another coin off of you, you sat up and let the coins fall onto the floor behind you. Jyushimatsu immediately scrambled to pick them up once again, and Ichimatsu held his hand away from you and hissed. You laughed and leaned onto the figure beside you.

Right. You noticed. You always noticed. Thank god you did. One less thing for him to fear, to dread every day.

“Hey, Kara.” You grabbed his hand in the midst of the other two screaming and flinging plastic coins at each other. Quietly, you asked, “How was your day?”

He squeezed it reassuringly and rubbed his thumb on the outside of your hand. “Pretty good. I brought something, by the way.”

“I saw that. What is it, anyways?” You scooted closer to him as Jyushimatsu got a coin lodged into his throat. Everyone panicked for a short second until Jyushi gave himself a Heimlich and coughed the coin onto Ichimatsu’s face. It stuck.

Karamatsu shook his head and turned his focus back to you. “Nothing much, really. Just a gift for the loveliest, most perfected human being of all of history. Not even Queen Cleopatra’s charming looks could compete against yours. Why, the only thing that comes even close to your beauty is mine, and even you far surpass that-” He stopped with a squeak and a coin to the face.

Ichimatsu grunted at his older brother. “You’re so painful. Stop it.”

“Ha ha! Nii-san got hit in the faaaaace!!” Jyushimatsu put his hand to his face and blew a raspberry playfully before falling backwards and laughing. He accidentally kicked Ichimatsu in the jaw during his laughter fit. He stopped and went to comfort Ichimatsu, who rubbed his jaw in pain. Jyushimatsu was about to apologize again before Ichimatsu tackled him to the floor.

“Okay,” you caught Karamatsu’s attention again. “Really, though, what’s in it?”

He quickly pulled you up and away from the chaos and to the counter where he set the box. The box was actually pretty big now that you were right next to it, what could he-?

“Tadaaa~! Just for you, my dearest.” He whipped out a plastic bag - quickly, yet gently - and something small and orange was floating around inside. “What would you like to name it, my dear?”

You snickered. “You - did you get me a fish? Why did you get me a fish?”

“I thought that maybe if you had a cool underwater companion,” Karamatsu paused to strike a pose. “You wouldn’t be as lonely when I’m away.”

You couldn’t hold in your laughter anymore, doubling over and placing a hand on Karamatsu’s shoulder. “K-Kara, I- oh my god ,” You wheezed, and the commotion from behind you slowed. “That’s why you were out all day? Was to get me a fish?”

“Yes!” He placed the bag of water and sea animal on the counter to strike a two handed pose - one fist proudly over his heart, the other sassily placed on his hip. “I couldn’t just buy you any fish - I mean, it has to be a replacement of me, when I’m not here! I had to look for the coolest, best fish one could possibly find. And alas, here he is! I found him alone-” he placed the hand from his heart to his eyes, as if to cover up tears. “Hiding in the back corner of his tank. He was so alone, so sad - it was like we were made for each other. And so, if me and that fish were made for each other, and you and I are made for each other, it only makes sense that you and that fish would be made for each other as well!”

You wiped the stray laughter tear from your eye. “You’re so over the top and so perfect, oh my god. Thanks, Kara. I’ll name him after you.” You stood on your tippy toes and placed a delicate kiss on his nose. He leaned up a bit and caught your lips in his.

You’d been craving his physical contact since this morning. Finally, all of your pained groaning could come to an end now that you could embrace him freely.

“My turn, my turn!”

… almost freely.

“Jyushimatsu, I’m not kissing you.”

“Just on the cheek!” He threw his arms up. “Please! Please! Please! Please-!”

“Fine, fine.” He lept up and bounded his way over to you like a puppy, a large smile on his face as he awaited his kiss. You placed one on his cheek and he cheered and “WOO!”d and jumped around crazily. You felt an arm drape across your shoulders. Looking up, you came eye-to-eye with Karamatsu.

You snickered and pecked his cheek. “You don’t hafta be jealous. I love you and only you, m’kay?”

A chill went down his spine, and you felt it in the squeeze of his hand. You looked at his face - at first it seemed extremely terrified and distraught, but he swallowed and gave you a genuine shaky smile. “Th-thank you, [Name]. I love you too.”

With that, you gave him another kiss.

Chapter Text

“Okay, everything is set up.”

You looked around your newly moved into apartment, proud of your work. Ever since you had gotten the job as a translator, you have been making bank , and you were finally able to move out of that old place. It may have had its good moments, but this was much, much better. It was a bit further from the Matsuno household, which was a downside, but you had the most beautiful view. It was also a larger space, and everything was updated and kept up - it was just a better decision. You looked over at your kitchen counter and smiled.

“Welcome to your new home, Sparklefish.” It darted for a split second, as if responding, before slowing down to its previous pace. You smiled. “Should I call them over now or wait? I mean, Kara said they weren’t doing anything today, but maybe their mom had something planned, y’know?” Sparklefish darted twice again. “Yeah, you’re right, I should just call.”

So, following Sparklefish’s advice, you picked up your cell phone and called Totty (who recently texted you out of the blue, so now you had his number). After a few moments, someone answered on the line.

“ Hello, [Name]~! What’s up ?”

“Hi, Totty. The household isn’t too busy today, is it? ”

“ Nope, not at all! Did you need something~? ” He giggled in that oh-so-cute way that he does.

You hummed. “ Yeah, actually, I did! Can you bring your brothers over to my new apartment ? I can text you the address if you want. ”

Todomatsu giggled again. “Ah, your accent is so cute, [Name]~! But yes, of course, of course! When should we be over? ”

“As soon as possible, please.”

“Alright, see you then~!”

With a beep from your phone, telling you that the other has hung up, you jumped. Yes, yes, all was going according to plan! The cake on the counter, the decorations hung on the walls, even Sparklefish was celebratory - the edge of his bowl had a cone-shaped hat taped to it. You quickly typed in your new address to Todomatsu, sat on the couch, and waited.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A knock on the door made you jump and almost spill the last-minute lemonade. You shouted a quick “Hang on!” and mixed it a bit more before placing it by the also last-minute punch and last-minute lemon water. With all of these snacks and decorations, one might think you were throwing a party or something.

Ah, yes. That’s because you were.

You ran over to the door and opened it, six familiar faces greeting you with a smile. “Welcome, guys! Come on in!”

You stepped aside, holding the door open for them. They flooded in, looking around at the decorations, and took off their shoes. A second later, you were tackled by one of them. “[Name], [Name]! Did you do this all for us?!”

“Yeah, Jyushi! Do you like it?”

“Like it?” He pulled away from your bone-crushing hug and looked at you with probably the biggest grin you’ve ever seen. “I LOVE it!! You’re so nice, [Name]!”

“Hey, [Name],” Choromatsu commented over the talking between the brothers. “Is this for-?”

“Yep!” You interrupted with a smile. He looked slightly offended for a second, but you ran in front of them and jumped onto your couch, throwing your arms in the air excitedly and waving them around like a kid.

“ Happy Birthday! ”

All of them made a quiet, in sync “Woah…” and looked at each other for a moment. They turned back to you, who was still smiling, before they erupted into a loud cheer. They were laughing and smiling and blushing happily. Karamatsu quickly ran over to you and grabbed you by your thighs, spinning you around and laughing and nuzzling his face into your stomach.

“How did you even know it was our birthday, [Name]? I never told you!” Karamatsu laughed into your stomach.

“Ah, yeah, you might not have told me, but Jyushi wouldn’t shut up about it for at least three weeks now.”

Jyushimatsu giggled in response. “[Name] is the best!” Jyushimatsu yelled in the midst of all of the laughter and commotion. “[Name] is the best! [Name] is the best!” Soon, Osomatsu joined in on his chant, and Ichimatsu mumbled with it, too. Karamatsu set you down and wrapped his arm around you, using his free arm to fist-pump excitedly. He too joined in. Soon enough, though, they were all wrapped around you and chanting “[Name] is the best!” over and over until you were pretty sure the sentence would be burned into your mind for weeks.

Eventually, they stopped, and were just hugging you excessively. You tried multiple times to stealthily escape their hug trap, but each time you were close one of them would pull you back down. Even Choromatsu seemed to join in on their childish behavior, finally letting go of being the straight-man for a day.

“Guys, come on, I gotta go do something really quickly.” You pushed down on one of the heads of hair.

“Unless you’re gonna piss your pants, you’re not leaving,” Ichimatsu commented. Osomatsu and Jyushimatsu laughed, and you groaned.

“Okay, fine. I’m gonna pee my pants.”

They all immediately scrambled to get off of you. You cheered and ran down the hall to the office space that you had now thanks to the new apartment. You grabbed half of the boxes and stumbled down the hall. You couldn’t see because of how they were stacked, and you couldn’t look around them, either. Eventually, someone came and took two of the boxes - Karamatsu, you presumed - and helped you carry them to the group of the remaining five. Karamatsu - you presumed correctly, good job [Name] - sat down with the rest of them before you ran off to go repeat the process. Two boxes too many, Karamatsu got up to help you, then sat down with his brothers.

“Alright, you guys, what order should we go in? Oldest to youngest?”

You shouldn’t have asked for their opinion, because they all wanted to be first. Of course . They started to explain how each of them should be first instead of someone else, trying to outrank them for whatever reason. Choromatsu stood up before things would escalate to wrestling as they constantly did. “What if we all went at the same time? That way, no one’s first, but no one’s last.”

They all nodded and made sounds of agreement. You shook your head, however, and stood up. “No way. Just because it’s each of your guys’ birthday today doesn’t mean we should treat it like it’s all one thing. We’re each going to have an hour party for each of you. So, since you guys can’t agree on some sort of order, we’ll just go from youngest to oldest.” You snickered as the oldest two groaned in protest. “Reverse chronological order!”

So, you gave Todomatsu his present first. It was small, and the wrapping paper was a pastel pink with white polkadots. A curly hot pink string was tied around it as well. “Hohoho,” Todomatsu chuckled excitedly as he pulled out the slip of paper from within the wrapping. “Hohohoh-OH my god! That’s so nice of you, [Name]! Wow, and I don’t even know you that well!” He waved it around excitedly. “A shopping trip for up to 10,000 yen… You’re so generous, [Name]!” He continued to cheer you on for a bit until you stood up and put your hands proudly on your hips.

“Okay, guys, it’s time for Totty’s birthday event!” You spun around on the ball of your foot and pointed down the hall. “Follow me!”

For Todomatsu’s birthday, you all sat on your couch and the floor surrounding and watched a fashion show from America that was on VHS tape. They called you old fashioned, but you just rolled your eyes and went on with your day. Every once in a while, Todomatsu would saltily comment on an outfit, and the rest of the brothers would go into a five minute conversation sharing their opinions before going silent again. Honestly, since you hadn’t talked to Todomatsu all that much prior, you asked Jyushimatsu what you should get him and what to do for him; he actually helped you plan a lot of stuff for their birthday.

Next up was Jyushimatsu. When he opened his box, he sure as heck wasn’t expecting a signed baseball bat from baseball legend Sadaharu Oh. He screamed louder than you’ve ever heard him and immediately tackled you into a hug. “ HOW!!!!! HOW HOW HOW DID YOU GET THIS, [NAME]!!!!!! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOOOOOOUUUUUUUU!!!!!! ” He held the bat in his hands as he started to run around your apartment, chanting “HUSTLE HUSTLE!! MUSCLE MUSCLE!!” as he usually did.

“How did you get that, [Name]?” Choromatsu inquired, his eyebrows scrunched in confusion.

“Let’s just say,” you winked playfully and pointed at him. “I know a guy.”

Jyushimatsu was even happier when you told him that his birthday was going to be playing a game of baseball with his brothers. Despite some signs of protest from the others, you forced them to play the game without an argument. You didn’t know a whole lot about baseball, but you think you did pretty well for a first timer. Jyushimatsu’s team, consisting of him, Choromatsu, and Todomatsu, won with little to no surprise. His teammates didn’t do a whole lot as Jyushimatsu dominated the field with his extensive knowledge and practice with baseball, but that was to be expected from the boy.

Ichimatsu, honestly, didn’t know what to expect for his birthday. He didn’t think you knew him a whole lot, yet he knew a whole lot about you , and was honestly shocked that you got him anything at all. His gift was a whole nother surprise, though. “Why did you get me a…” he examined it carefully before continuing. “Ukulele? With a cat on it?”

“Well,” You leaned back on your arms and smiled at him. Every other brother listened intently as well. “I don’t think you realized that you had left a flyer for a Hawaiian music festival one of the first visits you were over. Since then, I’ve been examining your reactions to musical instruments. Whenever you’re here and Kara plays his guitar, you always seem to watch really closely. And, even if you don’t notice it, your fingers always seem to try and imitate his. I - I kind of just got a hunch after I was looking online that you’d like it.” Suddenly, you became very ridden with nervousness. “I - I mean, if you don’t l-like it, I can always-!”

“It’s… nice. Thank you.” He attempted to play a few notes with it, examining it with a soft gaze. You sighed quietly with relief.

“It was pretty cost money , too, so be careful with it, m’kay?”

“Don’t mock me.”

You snickered, and almost every other brother lost interest. Ichi’s attention on you was soon stolen by Jyushimatsu, who was trying to get Ichimatsu to play him a song. The only one who was looking at you now was Karamatsu, who had a small pout on his face. You closed your eyes sassily, rolling them and sneering at him sarcastically with a playful ‘Are you kidding me?’ look on your face. He gestured spastically with his hands as if to say ‘What did you expect?!’ You gestured the same way he did, except lazier, in response. He pretended not to see you and went back to pouting, and you snickered. He took a quick peek back at you and you mouthed ‘You really don’t have to get jealous over cat boy, okay?’

“[Name], what’s my special treat.”

It was more of a threat than a question, but you turned and smiled at Ichimatsu nonetheless. “I was thinking a cat café , or as I like to call it, a Catfé . Is that okay with you?”

He hopped up faster than you’d ever seen him before he took off to the door and slid on his shoes quickly. The rest soon followed.

On your walk there, your hand slid into Karamatsu’s stealthily. “Kara, don’t be a doofis. Just because me and your brother are close doesn’t mean I’m gonna leave you for him. You know that, right?”

He grunted with a troubled look. “I know, I’m just… worried? Constantly anxious? I don’t know. Sorry. I’m trying.”

“Apology accepted, jealous-pants.” You gave him a kiss on his knuckles and a squeeze. “I’m glad you’re trying.” The crease in his brow eased up as he turned putty-like in your hands again, a small smile soon returning to his face.

Soon after the small trip to the Catfé, the brothers were once again lined up in front of you. Choromatsu’s smile was upturned to a happy little ‘v’ shape. “Ah, I am so nervous! What did you get me, [Name]?” His smile grew as you handed him the green striped gift box. Despite the growing excitement on his face, he sure took his time opening it. He would carefully remove the tape from each edge and unfold the paper.

“ Fappymatsu, what are you doing? Just tear it open! ”

With a scream and a tightened grip around his present, Choromatsu stared accusingly at his eldest brother. “ Don’t call me that in front of [Name]! It’s a good thing they don’t speak Japanese, but please , Osomatsu, don’t do that. ”

“ Actually, ” you butted in with a cheeky smile. “ I’m almost completely fluent in Japanese. I even have a job as a translator. How else do you think I afforded this place? ”

Choromatsu shrieked again before burying his face in his hands. You snickered before leaning forward and helping Choromatsu carefully unwrap his gift. After about a minute of fumbling as best you could with his grip still tight around it, he regained enough of his dignity to do it himself. He was pleasantly surprised when you got him two tickets to his favorite Idol’s concert and told him that he could take whoever he wanted. He immediately said “I’ll take you, [Name]!”

For his birthday excursion, you simply took him to a nearby mall and let him loose in the manga and anime store. The other brothers looked around as well, but not as excitedly as the green one was. Karamatsu stayed close to you the entire time, following you and wherever you would choose to look. At one point, you pulled out a manga and showed him the cover - two people who you assumed to be lovers were staring at each other romantically, but there was no way that position was comfortable. The man had grabbed the smaller girl’s felt arm and pulled it past his head, and his other hand was cupping her cheek. However, the height difference was absolutely insane, and both of their arms looked like it was broken.

“Reenact this with me.”

“Yes.”

You posed like they did on the cover, and you were right - even without the extreme height difference, this position was horrible. Karamatsu’s arm was bent backwards and he looked like he was struggling to keep a straight face. Your arm was stretched past its limits.

“This is the worst possible thing.”

“Can we stop?”

“Yes.”

However, the two of you kept pulling out mangas from the shelves and posing like they did on the covers - at one point, though, Ichimatsu yelled at the two of you and told you that it was time to get going back. Karamatsu kept an excited grasp on your hand the entire walk home.

A line of six sat in front of you again. None of them looked to be overly excited for their turn until you handed the second a blue gift. His face lit up as he remembered that he was next for his birthday party. Karamatsu practically shredded the wrapping paper open like a carnivore and babbled as soon as he saw his gift. “How did you - this is so - where did you-!”

“I know you’ve been looking for a new mirror, you dork. Look,” You crawled over to him and pointed out a bunch of cool things. “It’s motion sensitive, so when it senses that you’re close, the light around the mirror activates. You have to get really close to it for it to look right, though, or else everything is blurry. You can see practically every pore on your face, too. It goes up on a wall if you wanted it to.” He began to tear up with excitement as he grinned at you. “I had to order it online since it came from an American store, but-”

“You are a blessing , my angel!” He pulled you into a bone-crushing hug and nuzzled his face into your neck. “My wonderful, amazing royal-”

“Okay, okay, I get it.” You placed a gentle hand over his face playfully and giggled. “Shut your mouth before you use up all of your compliments and you can’t find anymore to use without recycling.”

He nodded enthusiastically, not even paying attention too much to what you said like the airhead that he was, before hopping up and posing expressively. “Okay, so what’s my birthday going to be, my hunny?!”

You stood up and beckoned the six same faces to follow you. You opened the door back to the room where Todomatsu’s birthday was and brought out another VHS tape. Everyone groaned again at your old fashioned habits except for Karamatsu, who was bouncing up and down excitedly. “What are we watching, my [Name]?!” He grinned and continued to bounce.

You grinned at his antics and held up the box. “I got this mailed in from my dad a few days ago. Yeah, it’s a bit longer than an hour long, but listen - Disney’s Robin Hood is a great movie. I’ll see if there’s Japanese subtitles for you too, Osomatsu, so that way it’s easier to unerstand .”

“ Thank you, [Name]! ” He gave you a thumbs up and a grin.

Unfortunately, this VHS tape didn’t have subtitles - you forgot. Whoops. After apologizing to Oso, and having him tell you that it was no problem, you popped in the movie and cuddled up to Karamatsu happily. He almost cried during the movie and you had to tell him not to sob over furries. Ichimatsu overheard and looked over to you, deeply offended. By the end of the movie, four out of six had fallen asleep around you - only Jyushimatsu and Osomatsu were awake. Kara had curled up and around you, holding you like a body pillow. Ichimatsu had subconsciously grabbed your leg in his sleep, and Choro and Totty were passed out in the opposite direction of you. Osomatsu jumped on top of Choromatsu as soon as the movie was done, shouting “ WAAAAKE UP, SLEEPYHEAD! IT’S MY TURN!!! ” and woke up everyone else in the process.

Following the previous habits, they lined up in front of you. Osomatsu’s hands reached out at you selfishly, flexing his fingers quickly as if to say ‘Gimme, gimme!’ Handing him his red box, he shredded it to bits and pulled out his lucky prize. He practically drooled over the lacy red bra stuffed with ¥10,000 and a slip of paper that said “For Pachinko!” in your messy Japanese. He picked up his gift and began spinning in circles and cheering and whooping.

“Yeah, I don’t talk to you all that often either, so I asked Jyushi what I should get you. He said ‘money and boobs!’ so this is what you get. You can use the bra for your crossdressing needs or whatever.”

Every other brother, except for Jyushi, yelled in shock and turned to Oso. Osomatsu began to sweat nervously, and Jyushimatsu cheered. “Yeah, yeah! You bought skirts! You need boobs too, right?!” Osomatsu shoved the bra back in his box, took the money, and walked to the door.

No one got up to follow him, so he turned to you and said “We’re going to Pachinko for my birthday, right? Let’s get going.” and walked out. How he knew that, you didn’t know, but you all followed him anyway. He spent all of his ¥10,000 in a matter of minutes and lost it all. He got nothing . Well, his birthday ended early then, you suppose. At one point on the trip back, Choromatsu asked you how you were able to afford so many expensive presents, and you told him that you still had a ton of money saved from school. Somehow, the topic escalated to your family life, and all but Kara practically screamed when they heard your family was rich, and each began trying to mooch off of you for money.

When you got back to your apartment, you served up cake immediately, because six hours without food was awful and that’s what all of you had done. They all shoved at least three large pieces into their mouths before you even managed to cut a slice for yourself, and then they all passed out on the floor and slept. These guys were freaking animals, oh my god . You got them each blankets and draped them over their bodies. The half a piece of cake leftover for yourself, was eaten rather slowly. You stood at your kitchen counter next to Sparklefish, who still had his party hat taped to the edge. He darted around, and you remember that you hadn’t fed him yet. You quickly sprinkled some of his fish flakes into the bowl and watched him eat.

“Do you think this party was a success?” The fish darted in response, and you smiled fondly at him as you ate another bite of your cake. “Thanks, my man. I couldn’t have done it without you. You’re the life of the party.” It sat there for a second, its fins waving, before it swam around slowly. You yawned and realized how exhausted you yourself were.

You looked over at the mass of clones, and each of them were asleep in their own way - Osomatsu was sarfished out, slapping poor Choromatsu in the face. Choro was rolling around, trying to get away from him, but his limbs just seemed to always find their way back to punching him or kicking him in the face. Ichimatsu was huddled in a ball near the corner of the room. Jyushimatsu and Todomatsu were using his side as a pillow. And Karamatsu-

Karamatsu’s arms were outstrtched as if he were holding someone. He was probably the furthest away from the rest of his brothers. His arms looked so comfortable, and before you knew it, you found your legs dragging you over. You laid down and snuck your way inbetween his arms. Karamatsu smiled in his sleep and held you closer, pressing your face into his neck. You kissed the skin by your face and exhaled tiredly. Just before you fell asleep, you mumbled something to him.

“Happy birthday, Karamatsu.”

Chapter Text

“Hey, while you’re over there, can you feed Sparklefish?”

Karamatsu snorted and turned to you. “Is that what you’re calling him now?”

“Yes.”

“Wonderful.”

He did as asked, grabbing the fish’s food and sprinkling it in. You laid your head back onto the couch and sighed contentedly. It was nice to finally have the apartment to just yourself and Karamatsu - who, right now, decided to bake you some sort of surprise. You had offered to help, but he declined and went into a passionate speech about how much he loved you and how you shouldn’t have to do anything but relax like the royalty that you were.

You flopped over onto your stomach and watched Karamatsu as he (somewhat) gracefully slid around the kitchen. He would spin around and read the cookbook that he had open, then would twirl like a ballerina to wherever the ingredients he needed were. Karamatsu lunged and opened the door to your fridge simultaneously to grab something. He held it up high before spinning again, kicking the door shut on his way over to the bowl of ingredients and putting in just the right amount. He attempted to jump and land in a splits, however he almost tripped and had to hold the counter so he wouldn’t fall over. You snorted into the palm of your hand, flailing your feet around like a kid. “Don’t laugh at me!” Karamatsu called out, joining you in joyous giggling. He pulled himself up, still chuckling, sighing happily and putting the gallon of milk back in the fridge.

“Kara,” you huffed a sigh as you readjusted your arms. “You sure you don’t need help, my love?”

He lit up light a light bulb before quickly shaking his head. He had a big dopey grin on his face, probably because of the whole “my love” thing, and continued to dance around the kitchen even more excitedly than prior. You smiled and watched him prance around some more when an idea hatched.

Ooh, that’s a really, really good idea, [Name]. Go for it.

You got up and walked to the kitchen slowly. That way, if Karamatsu’s joyous antics somehow got too close to you, you could dodge it and then force him to make up almost punching you with a bunch of kisses. It’s a win/win situation here. He didn’t leap your way, thankfully, and you walked up beside him. He didn’t notice you watching him stir the contents in the bowl furiously with his eyebrows scrunched in determination and his little tongue sticking out the side of his softly smiling mouth and gosh, was this heaven or what? How did you get this perfect mass of cheesy, glittery softness to fall in love with you? You didn’t even do that much, from what you remember - you just talked to him and taught him English. And got him to take care of you only after a few weeks of knowing him when you were sick. And brought him to your home, where he got a black eye from your dad. And had him tell you his deepest, darkest secret that not even his brothers knew, then got him to go talk to a complete stranger about it. And brought him back to your home when your mom passed just to be there for you so you could be emotionally stable.

You made him cry more times than you can count on your fingers by now - although none of them had been because you made him sad or angry or anything other than happy, but it still made you feel at least a little bad.

You really haven’t done a whole lot to deserve him, huh?

Ah, there it is. Some sort of odd bubbling in your stomach. Nope, nope, you gotta ignore whatever anxiety this is. There’s something that you did that made him fall for you, and you just have to put your trust into that. You can’t doubt him. He’s done nothing but shower you in love and affection, there’s no reason to doubt. No reason to doubt.

With these thoughts flooding your mind, you wrapped your arms around his middle and leaned onto his arm that wasn’t furiously stirring ingredients together. He stopped suddenly, his face pinking at your sudden contact, before pouting at you. “My [Name], you can’t be over here right now! You can’t know what I’m making for you!” He set down his cooking stuff and half pushed, half carried your body back to the couch. “Stay over here, my Karamatsu lover, m’kay?” He smiled sweetly at you and planted a happy kiss to your forehead and skipping back to the kitchen.

You realized that he was wearing a cute frilly apron. Oh dear god, this guy was going to be the end of you. Why was he wearing ruffles and polkadots and a big bow in the back? You took in a deep breath and shoved your face into the couch. How did this have such an effect on you? Did he know that he was making you want to shove that apron in his face and suffocate him for being so gosh darn adorable? Nope, nope, you could not have this man being so cute. Not in your household you couldn’t.

You got up again and trotted over softly to him as to not make any noise. He squeaked when your arms quickly wrapped around him, you staring up at him with a playful pout.

“[Name], come on, silly. What are you-” You reached behind him slowly, which for some reason cut him off. You grabbed a handful of the flour in the bag behind him and brought it back to you. He saw your hand and stared at you quizzically. “No, really what-?”

“Close your eyes.”

“You’re just gonna throw flour onto me, [Name]! I may be dumb but I’m not stupid.”

“You’re not dumb.” You furrowed your eyebrows together with a playful smirk. “Come on, just close ‘em.”

“Don’t throw flour on me, okay?”

“Yeah, just close your eyes.”

“I trust you, then.”

With that, his eyes shut and he leaned onto the counter behind him. You kind of patted/slapped his cheek with the handful of flour. A little bit of it poofed into the air, and he quickly opened his eyes. He tried to look mad at you, but the grin that was growing on his face couldn’t be helped.

“I told you not to throw it at me!”

“Technically,” you corrected him while rubbing the flour hand into his cheek and over his nose, painting his face in white power. “I didn’t throw it. I placed it onto your face.”

He reached behind him and grabbed some flour too before slowly piling it onto the top of your head. “I didn’t throw it at you either,” he smirked. As you continued to smear the rest of the flour onto his cheeks, the heat from his growing blush made your fingers tingle. You giggled and reached behind Karamatsu to grab more flour.

He closed his eyes with a smile, attempting to anticipate your next move of “more flour to the face.” He anticipated wrong though, and you quickly pulled out the front of his shirt and apron and proceeded to pour the flower down his frontside. He squeaked and pulled his arms forward, shaking his shirt aggressively and trying to get the flour out from underneath.

“Hey, that’s not fair!”

“You said no throwing it at you, and I didn’t.”

“I’m gonna hafta shower now.”

“Yep.”

He looked at you, oddly serious for a second, before reaching back and grabbing more flour. He pulled your shirt back and dumped the handful down your backside. You screamed and pushed yourself into him, trying to get away from the cascade of flour. “Hey, no, I have an undershirt! That’s unfair!”

“Yep.”

You looked at him, almost truly upset for a second (even though you were far from that) and grabbing the entire bag of flour and pouring it onto his head slowly. He gawked and grabbed the bag from you before all of its contents had spilled. Karamatsu aimed the front towards you and shoved it in your direction, flour hitting your chest and falling onto the floor.

With a snicker, you grabbed some of the flour from his head and smeared it onto his chest. He grabbed your floury cheeks with his floury hands and pulled your face forward. You thought he was going to kiss you at first until he put the top of his head and poured the remaining flour onto your head and down your shirt. You let out a yelp and backed away from him, trying to reach down the back of your shirt and get it all out. Karamatsu laughed as he watched you dancing around, leaning back on one hand and attempting to rub out the four with the other.

You stopped halfway through your deflouring ritual to watch him. His smile was the biggest you had ever seen it, his eyes closed with merriment as he laughed. Tears started to prick at the corners of his eyes as he took a few deep breaths. He stopped to look at you again, and with your face covered in flour and your hair a mess and your eyes mixed with bewilderment and passion, he was thrown into another laughing fit. You took notice at the light dimple on his right cheek, and how it was a lot more noticeable with the flour covering his face.

He took another deep breath before leaning back again. He didn’t look at you, but rather just looked up at the ceiling with a content smile. “I’m so lucky. So, so lucky.” Then he turned to you, smiling brightly. He sighed happily and continued. “How did I ever get you to fall for me?”

“I asked that same question about you earlier, you know.” You slid onto the powdered floor, Karamatsu following suit. “Like, you’ve done so much for me and you’ve been there every step of the way, but I haven’t done a whole lot in return. It makes so much sense that I’d fall for you, but not vice versa. I mean,” you lifted an arm and gestured at him. “Just look at you. You showed up out of nowhere, span me around my living room and kissed me so many times my face was numb, fed my fish that you bought for me, then proceeded to bake me whatever you were baking me. What were you making me, anyways?”

“Uhm, cookies, I think?” He reached up and pulled the cooking book off of the shelf. Karamatsu laughed and turned the book around to you. “I dunno, it’s covered in flour. But I’m pretty sure it was cookies.”

You laughed. “Yes. You came in here and started to bake me cookies. In a cute apron, too. You’re just too good to be real, it feels like. What - how did I even win your heart over?”

Karamatsu leaned forward and grabbed your hands tightly in his. He took one, opened it so that he could see your fingers, and kissed your thumb.

“One - you let me talk about myself and my problems without passing harsh judgement. You let me talk out my feelings and rant, which not a lot of people have done for me before.”

He kissed your index finger.

“Two - you listen to me when I do. You don’t just let me ramble, you nod and show that you’re actually there, taking in details that are easy to miss.”

He kissed the middle finger.

“Three - you complimented me on things that others had only told me to stop doing. Things that I’m passionate about, things that I enjoy doing. Things I’m usually put down for, you lift me up and praise me.”

He continued from there, kissing each finger and naming off something else that he feels like you did for him to earn you his love.

“Four - you push me to be better, helping me improve along the way. You always help me see the right direction to take.”

“Five - you stand up for me in situations where no one else would even bat an eye. It’s always nice to have someone there for you when you’re hurting, even if they don’t know that you are.”

“Six - have you seen how attractive you are, my angel?” You laughed at that one, a blush crossing your face. “I could pet your [color] hair for centuries. If you’d let me, I would spend the rest of my life just staring into your enchanting [color] eyes. I never want to let you out of my grasp, because if I do, I feel like I’ll lose a celestial being from my life, and I don’t want that to happen.” He stared at you for a moment, taking in your features before kissing the next fingertip gently.

“Seven - somehow, you fell for me, and that in itself is a mystery. Not even my own brothers love me.” He sighed sadly at that one, but before you could try to correct him or comfort him, he spoke up.

“Eight - you’ve helped me through situations I thought I’d only ever face alone. Thanks to you being here and helping me, I didn’t have to take action in fighting these demons by myself.”

“Nine - you take care of my family. Even if they don’t show it often, they are truly grateful for you and everything you do for them. And because of that, I’m grateful.”

“Ten - you shower me in affection, even when I don’t deserve it. You take time out of your day just to show me how much you love me. Do you know how happy that makes me feel, [Name]? For as long as I can remember, I’ve only ever been condemned for just being here. Now, with you showing me that I can really, truly be of worth something to others, I - it’s…” He intertwined his fingers with your and looked away for a minute as if he was lost in thought. He beamed suddenly and looked back at you. “You’re so good to me, [Name].”

You felt like you were going to vomit butterflies. Your face burned like the sun, and your head felt dizzy from all of the emotions that had stockpiled throughout his entire speech. You scooted forward and held his face in your hands, kissing him with a smile. He pushed back with a just-as-big-if-not-bigger smile himself. You used your thumb to wipe away the tears that were bound to spring at any moment from his amazing chocolate eyes before pulling away slightly.

“I would keep going but it seems that I’ve ran out of fingers,” he spoke against your lips. It tickled and caused you to giggle.

“You can always use the same fingers again if you wanted to, but-”

“Oh, you’re right! Eleven-” he paused and kissed your thumb. “You’re smart and you always show me new opportunities and open doors and paths that I should follow to get to my dream and my true potential.”

He kept this up for the next thirty minutes, going over your fingers one by one, sometimes kissing down to your knuckles before telling you the next thing he loved about you. You hadn’t meant to spur this on with your simple comment, but you weren’t arguing - he was ecstatic to shower you in compliments and tell you every little thing he loved about you.

“Twenty-three - Your jokes may be awful, but it’s really cute to see your expression when you know it’s especially bad. The way your eyes light up when waiting for my reaction to a horrible pun is the sweetest thing.”

“Thirty-six - you cheeks are so soft and squishable! I just love to hold them in my hands when I kiss you, it’s the greatest feeling in the world. I want to hold your face all the time.”

Finally, when he got to number forty or fifty something, you stopped him mid-sentence and kissed his nose. His words got caught in his throat as a dorky smile crossed his lips.

“Okay, do you think we should make those cookies or whatever?”

“Heh,” He stuck a hand under his chin, closing his eyes. “Even if we did, they would never be as sweet as you, my love.”

You snorted and playfully hit his shoulder. Standing up, you offered him a hand, which he gladly accepted. Then you got to work.

Chapter Text

You sniffed, trying to hold back a sob as you collapsed to the floor. Karamatsu rushed over to rub your shoulders, and Ichimatsu looked just as bad as the two of you put together. Jyushimatsu ran out of the house a few minutes ago, but that didn’t matter.

You broke. Your tears ran down your face, and Karamatsu held onto you tightly. You gripped his hoodie, and you sniffed again, trying not to cry.

“I - I’m so sorry, [Name], it was an accident, I’m…”

Ichimatsu didn’t know how to react in this situation. He didn’t know what to say other than “I’m sorry,” but even that didn’t sound good enough. He didn’t know what to do other than tremble in sorrow. All he knew is that his body was wracked with guilt and that he wanted to hold [Name] and apologize to them for what he did. Karamatsu turned to his brother, giving him an angry but forgiving look, then turned back to his crying lover. He reached up to his eye and wiped away a tear of his own.

With another sniff, you spoke up. “Ichi, you’re forgiven. I just…” You exhaled heavily, and Karamatsu squeezed you tighter. “I can’t believe he’s dead. I loved him like a son.” The last part of your sentence rasped as you attempted to breathe away the pain.

Karamatsu rubbed his hand up and down your arm. Your tears subsided, but you continued to hug him. “He was our child,” Karamatsu whispered as he put his face into your hair. “We should hold a proper burial service. Should we call the rest of my family? Technically, he was their nephew.”

“Do you think they’d care, Kara? They didn’t know him that well.”

“They should, it’s their nephew. ”

As they continued to talk, Ichimatsu’s guilt slowly subsided. He had to continuously tell himself that it was an accident, that he wasn’t a murderer, that even though it was his fault that he could make it up to [Name] and that they would forgive him. His breathing evened out slowly but surely as Karamatsu comforted his lover. Once his panic had faded to only a heaviness in his gut, he realized that they were calling the thing their child. Overdramatic, but somehow their words made him feel worse. Karamatsu, not even looking at Ichimatsu, spoke up. “You should stay and help with Sparklefish’s memorial service, and you should probably get Jyushimatsu, too. He would want to be here for this.”

Ichimatsu nodded and headed out the door to look for his brother who ran off. Karamatsu placed his chin back on the top of your head as you thought about the whole thing.

Ichimatsu and Jyushimatsu, as per usual, were over at your apartment doing who knows what. You and Karamatsu were playing some sort of hand game from your country, and he kept losing because he didn’t understand the game. You would explain the rules again, and he would nod, but then forget what you had told him two seconds later. During the midst of your game with Karamatsu, you heard a crashing sound and whipped your head around to the kitchen. Jyushimatsu looked extremely distressed, holding the fish food in his hand, trembling and staring at the floor. Ichiamtsu’s hands were in the air like he was holding something, but his hands were shaking and his eyes were wide. His mouth wavered like he was about to cry before he came to his senses. Ichiamtsu tried to rush to the counter. As he reached for the fish scoop, he froze, and his eyes grew wider than before.

“Ichi, Ichi, no, no-!” Jyushimatsu yelled, trembling and backing up. “[Name], I’m sorry! I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m-!” He ran out of the apartment, his entire body trembling. Ichimatsu quickly backed up, trying not to vomit. His instincts kicked in and he tried to wipe the goo off of his foot, backing away very far from the shattered glass, a hand covering his mouth. He realized what he was doing, froze up, then rigidly turned his head towards the two of you. By the time he looked over, he looked absolutely terrified, and you and Karamatsu were standing up.

You quickly ran over to Ichimatsu, your hands up and prepared to help him. “Ichimatsu are you okay?! What happened-?”

You paused as you saw the smear of red on the floor leading to Ichimatsu’s bare foot. You took notice of the shattered glass and puddle of water. You darted your head up to examine Ichimatsu’s face, who was struck with terror, shaking his head “no” slowly. You realized what happened and immediately fell to your knees.

Now, here the four of you were. Standing around the toilet bowl, toilet paper-wrapped corpse in Karamatsu’s hand. Karamatsu called the household, to no response, eso it was just the four of you. He was trying to hold back the tears that were already cascading down his cheeks. Jyushimatsu’s sleeve-covered hands were over his mouth, a tremor wracking through his body every so often. Your arms wrapped around yourself protectively, as Karamatsu’s arms were busy, and Ichimatsu took it upon himself to stand as far away from the group as possible in your one-person bathroom. You didn’t want that. You reached over and grabbed his hand, pulling him to the group, wrapping your fingers around the palm of his hand. He tried to pull away, but with each tug, you brought him back. Eventually, he gave up, letting you hold his awkwardly sweaty hand.

Karamatsu went into his burial oration, holding the ball of toilet paper in the palms of his hands. Halfway during his off-the-top-of-his-mind speech, he hung his head and let the cries come out of his body. “I’m sorry, I can’t-” he let his sentence drift off. You let go of Ichimatsu and grabbed the fish from his hands.

You gave him a moment to quiet down before continuing. “So, I guess we say our goodbyes.” You held the fish out to Jyushimatsu, who pulled his hands away from his face. He put on a shaky smile and looked at the ball.

“Sparklefish,” he started, his accent awkwardly thick from the tears he’s been shedding. “I’m sorry for all of this. I did not mean to hurt you. I just wanted to feed you and decorate your bowl. Thank you for being co-oo-ol, and for celebrating out bii-ii-irthday with us, and…” He paused and took a breath, trying to even out his cracking voice. “For being a great fish.” Karamatsu patted his younger brother’s back, who smiled at him sadly in returned. “I’m really sorry,” Jyushimatsu said and looked away. “Really, it was an accident. I wanted to be his friend.”

“You’re forgiven, Jyushi,” you said, catching his attention. “Just be more careful next time, and maybe ask if you can play with ‘im. I can help you with it.” His eyebrows scrunched like he was about to cry. “You just hafta learn from your mistakes.”

Jyushimatsu smiled nonetheless and nodded. You let Karamatsu bawl his nonsense (you felt bad for not understanding a whole lot of it through his sobs) which went on for five minutes or so until he couldn’t talk anymore. Poor Kara, he’s such an emotional guy that even something like this (which, in his defence, was an absolutely gruesome sight) could break him down to pieces. You held him with closely one hand, the toilet paper in the other, as he shook and bawled onto your shoulder. You looked over to Ichimatsu, who jumped when he caught your stare and quickly looked away.

“You wanna talk, Ichimatsu?”

‘No,’ he wanted to respond, but that wasn’t a nice thing to do after you killed someone’s pet. He would’ve felt twenty times worse, probably. So he sucked up his pride, swallowed the lump in his throat, and croaked out the most romantic goodbye he could.

“Uhm, I… your death sucks. Sorry.”

Well, that wasn’t good. But honestly, Ichimatsu couldn’t think of anything else to say. He couldn’t just spit out some flowery monologue like Karamatsu could, and he didn’t know how to display his emotions without being vague and blunt. Thank god [Name] or Karamatsu didn’t take any offense to it, or he would’ve wanted to die right then and there. I mean, he already did because of his awful accident, but that would’ve made it a hundred times worse. “Thank you, Ichimatsu,” you had even said. That made him feel a little better.

You sighed and looked down at the homemade coffin in your hands. Inside was the fish that was supposed to represent your boyfriend while he was gone, according to him. That thought made a shiver run down your spine as Karamatsu was still bawling onto your shoulder. “Well, I don’t really know where to start, Sparklefish,” you casted a glance to the audience around you before continuing. “You made me happy. I’m glad for the life you lived, and the life you will live next time. Take care, Sparklefish. May we meet again.”

With that, you dropped the toilet-paper-and-fish ball into the toilet. With a silent drop of the lid and a turn of the handle, Sparklefish was off to be somewhere else.

‘Maybe,’ you think to yourself, ‘Maybe this will bring us somewhere good.’

Chapter Text

What a nice day. The sun was shining, the air conditioning was turned up, a few Matsuno kids were tossed carelessly around your apartment. A green one was on laying on the floor, idly kicking his feet as he read his magazine on whatever topic he had chosen for today. The yellow one was bouncing excitedly in front of your TV, watching the infomercial channel - how he got so much entertainment from that, you didn’t know. The red one was halfway on the other end of the couch, halfway melted onto the floor. Your blue boy was lying in your lap happily, his eyes closed and a soft smile expressed on his face as you combed your fingers through his hair. You were examining every soft, squishy feature of his face, listening to the background noise of a man attempting to sell kitchenware.

Summer was here, and it definitely felt like it.

It was calm and comforting, though. No one was talking, no one was moving, and all were at peace. It was as if the world was sleeping, and everyone could sleep along with it. One large slumber party for friends and foes alike. However, no foes were invited here - only lovers and companions. That’s what made it great.

The red one at the opposite end stood up. The room turned their heads to the disturbance in the peace, with the exception of the unconscious blue. The green one caught his gaze, flashing him a worried and questioning look. The red tossed him a playful hand before walking to the kitchen. Your fridge was opened, and now it felt like the peace would soon not return. Shame, you were enjoying the quiet contentedness.

The red one closed the door, sealing it with a suctioned pop, before putting whatever he had grabbed in his pocket. You sat up the slightest bit, as to not wake up the happy blue one but to still show alertness in his actions. Red rolled his eyes and pulled out a packet of sliced cheese, then shoved it back in his pocket. Why he needed your cheese, you know not, but you let him have the packet anyways. His eyes shone happily as he slipped on his shoes.

He opened the door, the hot summer breeze invading your cooled shelter with a bite. Yellow waved excitedly as he left, his bright smile lighting up the room, and soon the door was shut. The chill of the indoors hit you as the boundary to the outside was closed off, and you let out a content sigh.

And all went quiet again.

You looked back to the TV to see what new infomercial was on, however it had not changed - the only difference was the three-for-one offer if you called right then and there for the exquisite cutlery that the man was selling at a pretty high price. The yellow boy still seemed fairly intrigued, so you didn’t dare break the silence again with an offer of the remote. You turned your attention back to blue. His chest was rising and lowering ever so slightly, his straight dark brown bangs fluttered messily over his forehead. The usual intimidating arch of his thick eyebrows were lost at this moment, peacefully and delicately floating above his eyes. A small pink was powdered onto his cheeks from a possible sunburn. His eyelashes intertwined together, causing an intricate web of darkness to block the chocolate hues of his irises.The small smile on his face was enough to make you smile back, even if he couldn’t see it through his deep slumber.

If you had to describe yourself in this moment with one word, it would be ‘lucky.’

You felt so blessed to be able to be here in this moment. Nothing about the sticky disgusting past was here to block your clear vision. The future was giving you a break, putting away its wide arrange of ammunition for another day. The present was allowing you to have this for once, protecting you from all sides as you laid with your lover. The pages of the magazine turned, the bouncing of the yellow one had not yet ceased, but that was okay. It felt normal.

You watched the spring boy on the floor, flipping through his magazine happily. You were glad to see him back; you missed his presence a lot, most of your time being taken up by the sun and the moon. How the opposites managed to walk along the same path so peacefully, you’d never know, but it brought upon many great instances and many bright smiles when they chose to do so, so you weren’t arguing. The green one must have felt your eyes lingering over the back of his head, because he turned to look at you. He tilted his head precariously, his mouth turned downwards to an upside down ‘v’ shape. You smiled at him, and he happily returned the gesture with a faint blush before turning back to his work. He waved his feet more than prior, signaling to you that he was in a good mood.

A light touch on your hand forced your eyes down to the man lying on you. He was still asleep, the familiar wrapping of his fingers around yours was a habit he had. You smiled as he leaned into you, rolling over just a bit so that his pappy cheek molded itself to the fabric over your stomach. The grip on your hand didn’t falter after a few minutes, so you deftly rubbed your fingertips over the back of his hand. His smile increased as he slowly pulled his grasp from yours and continued on with his nap.

You turned to look at the TV again, however you were met with a pair of ecstatic eyes. His smile grew when he noticed that you had noticed, and he waved excitedly as if you were a cute puppy who was up for adoption and he was trying to befriend you. You couldn’t help but giggle silently at his childish actions, and with your free hand, you waved back. His smile grew even wider when you returned the gesture, and he whipped his body around and back to the TV. His bouncing increased with his joy, and he began to rock himself back and forth - however, this motion was barely noticeable.

Your eyes fell to the figure below you for the umpteenth time that day. His angelic, baby-faced looks captivated you to no end, and this was just further proof of that. His eyelids tensed for a second, and you almost woke him up in fear of a bad dream, but his earthy eyes shone out from under the featherlike lashes. The blue one blinked a few times before turning his focus to you. He was still extremely drowsy, unremembering that he even fell asleep. When he realized who you were, his soft expression quickly turned into a blissful beam of sunshine. Your heart danced inside of your ribcage, pumping extra blood to your cheeks. What a pure, happy boy. You could just stare at that radiant expression for the rest of your life.

He reached up and cupped your cheek. Although the angle of his arm looked painfully awkward, as if it were shattered into a million pieces and could bend every which way, his smile didn’t budge at all. In fact, he seemed even happier to be holding onto your face than when he wasn’t. Your heart felt like a flower, blossoming all at once with pride and joy from the sunlight. When you placed your hand over his, placing your fingertips in the gaps, he grinned. The way his face lit up told you that he knew exactly how you were feeling, because he was feeling it, too.

A light tap at your door alerted you of a new guest’s arrival. You were about to tell them to come in when they already chose to do so on their own. The purple-clad boy entered, black fabric case in one hand and a cat in the other. The feline jumped out of the boy’s arms, rubbed itself on his leg, then bounded out the door to explore the great outdoors. Although slightly disappointed in his friend, purple let the cat off the hook and shut the door quietly behind it. He slipped off his sandals at the front door before turning to you and greeting you with a light wave of his hand. You smiled back.

He walked over to you, case still in hand, and pointed to the spot on your right. The other side of the couch had been taken up completely by the blue one’s body. Your right arm was lazily propped up on the armrest of your couch, though. You tapped blue’s cheek lightly, alerting him to migrate just a bit south. He complied without another word, your body quickly following suit. The purple one grunted and hopped up beside you - his back resting on your arm as he faced the wall, his legs in a somewhat crouched position against the armrest.

Purple examined the room, making eye contact with the sun and the grass before pulling out an object from his case. He cradled the object, giving its threads a touch. He looked back at you, as if to receive the okay to go on with his performance, and you nodded. The body on your lap adjusted itself comfortably onto you as the former began to play a melody.

The TV went silent - although its programs were still running just as loud as they had been before - and the once quiet flips of the green’s magazine were quickly reduced to nothing more than a ghost’s whisper. The only sound that filled your ears was that of the carefully practiced, precisely strummed tune of the purple boy’s instrument. As he played, more for himself than for others, you stared at the embodiment of satisfaction below you. His eyelids were already drooping again, his smile peacefully fading into a resting state. You picked up where you started last time, brushing his strands of cocoa drifting to and fro between your fingers. He sighed and found your hand again, squeezing it and rubbing circles into the backside until he fell asleep to the sound of music.

What a nice day.

Chapter Text

“Ah, you’re so cute, you know that?”

Karamatsu’s dopey grin grew at the compliment.

“You’re the most adorable thing I’ve ever laid my eyes on,” he shot back in return.

You poked his nose lovingly, his smile joyously expanding until one of his cheeks squished against the pillow. The dimple in his right cheek revealed itself, and you couldn’t help but scoot forward and kiss it. When you tried to pull back, however, you were caught into the embrace of your lover, his fingers tangled in your hair lovingly. You attempted to pull away again, but his grip only tightened.

“Kara, what are you-?”

“Fluffy! Soft! You’re like a sweet marshmallow, [Name]!” With his grip still on you, he pushed your head back gently to look at your eyes. “Hey, remember that? ‘Marshmallow,’ that was one of the first words you taught me in English! We went to the grocery store together and I had no idea what you were saying half the time!”

You beamed at him and laughed. “Oh, yeah, I did! Then you took me to that waterfall a week or two after, and I got sick.”

“Yeah, you dork! I even warned you that’d you’d get sick, but did you listen? Nope!” He laughed at the memory.

You loved having the weekends off. You could choose to spend them alone, with some of your crazy friends, or here, happily with your boyfriend. You loved seeing him smile, especially when you were the one to cause it - he always looked so goofy and excited and so stupidly in love with you. You felt the same, all the time in fact, but seeing it on the love of your life’s face was a different feeling. It made you feel like you were wanted, like you were needed. It felt good.

“You used to be so hyper,” Karamatsu continued, snapping you out of your thoughts. “What happened to you?” His eyes grew ‘romantic’ as he stared into your own. “Has your energy, once used to express your happiness or anger, been turned into that of expressing your love for me?” He tossed you a wink.

You grinned cheekily. “Yeah, probably. However, I still have enough energy to do this!”

You jumped over him, the motion of you moving had Karamatsu quickly retract his arms away from you. You pinned him to the bed. Karamatsu’s face turned a bright red, and he looked everywhere except for at your face. “M-my flower, what a-are you-?” As you put your hands on his cheeks, he tensed, very unsure of what was happening. However, he looked at your eyes this time, trying to read your next motion.  You let your hands glide slowly, teasingly down his neck and onto his chest, staring him in the eyes the entire time. He was nervous, almost scared looking, but he continued to watch your every move. You stopped your hands on his stomach. Soft. Everything about him was soft. His heart, his body, his feelings, his smile. You loved it.

He tried to stutter out a sentence, but all of the blood in his face was hindering him from doing so. He cleared his throat a few times before being able to say something. “Wh-wh-wha-at a-are y-you d-d-doing..?”

“Is this okay?”

He was silent. His eyes examined every millimeter of your face, trying assess the situation at hand. For a minute, he didn't do anything. He just sat there, testing the waters of wherever this was going. Karamatsu looked back at your eyes, focusing on you, then nodded.

You tickled him.

He obviously wasn't expecting this as told by his squeak of fear followed by uncontrollable giddy giggling. He reacted without thinking, throwing his head back and laughing while covering his stomach. “Stop! No, stop!” Karamatsu giggled, kicking his legs under you. “ It tickles, stop! [N-na-ame] c-come o-hohoho-n!” The slip between languages just caused you to tickle him more, tears beginning to prick at the corner of his eyes. Karamatsu tried to pry your hands away, but you would quickly escape his grip and continue with your attack. You couldn’t help but laugh along with him. The bed beneath the two of you bounced with each rampant kick of his legs.

Eventually, though, when his face was red with exhaustion and tears were streaming down his face, you stopped. He had the biggest, goofiest smile you had seen on his face in the longest time. He took deep breaths to calm himself down again. You took this opportunity to rest yourself on his chest and listen to his heartbeat. You let your hands slide up his arms and intertwine themselves with his own hands.

Both of you were quiet as you felt the other's body touching yours. It was comfortable. It was nice. It felt like home. Most would feel the desire to do more after this, however you were content just to be near him. This closeness was intimate enough to leave you satisfied. For some reason, your thoughts wandered spastically in the matter of 2 seconds and you remembered something that’s been on your mind for a while. How it got to this from feeling the love you had for your boyfriend, you didn’t know, but you went along with it anyways. You let go of his hands and sat up.

“Hey, Kara, what if we got a dog?”

His eyebrows scrunched in thought for a second as he stared at the ceiling. Karamatsu soon followed your actions, propping himself up and leaning on the backboard of your bed to look at you. “A dog, eh?” He wrapped his arms around you, a happy smirk growing on his face. “What kind of dog do you have in mind?”

You responded with the lines that you had diligently studied over the course of the past two weeks. “Something family friendly, so we can keep it in my apartment. It shouldn't be too small, but not too big, either. It should be okay with large crowds so that you can bring it with you to the subway station when you play your guitar. I think you can bring dogs there, right? Oh, oh, it should be fluffy, too! And talented, the dog should have talent. I mean, all dogs have talent, but it’s gotta have big talent, ya feel?”

Karamatsu grabbed your widely spread gesturing hands, smiling brightly. “Yes, I feel, don’t worry.” He took the back of your hands and kissed them lightly. You could feel the excitement with each peck of his sweet lips. “But, don't you think it’d be a bit hard to take care of a dog together when we don’t even live together?”

“No, not really. Do you see an issue with it?”

“Well, I’m just a bit…” Karamatsu looked away for a moment in thought, trying to think of the right word. “... Hesitant. ” He looked up back to you with worry and concern despite the smile on his face. “We just lost a pet, do you really wanna rush this, my sweet [Name]?”

You scrunched your face in thought before nodding adamantly. “I want a dog. I loved Sparklefish with all of the part of my heart dedicated to pets, but we need to move on eventually. I think his death was a sign of change.”

He hummed with a smile, removing one of his hands from yours and moved it to gently cup your cheek. “We should wait, at least a bit longer. I don’t think I’m ready for a dog after Sparklefish, not yet at least.”

“M’kay then.”

You laid back on his chest again, Karamatsu still leaning on the backboard. With one arm, he held your waist close to him, and the other gently stroked the back of your hair. You nuzzle into his shoulder, taking a deep breath of the holiday scent, then sigh. “Hm, hey, didn’t we meet about a year ago?”

He made in inquiring noise in response. “I think so, actually. What’s the date?” You leaned backwards again, pulled your phone out of your pocket, and checked to see.

You gasped excitedly, keeping your stare at the phone for a second, then looked up at him. “Wait, Kara, today is the day we met!” You threw your phone carelessly behind you and grabbed his hands.

His expression shifted from confused to ecstatic in an instant, his face glowing with bliss. “That’s amazing, really?! Wow, that’s - I-” His eyes started to glisten with tears. “W-wow, y-you’ve put up with me for this long… you must be serious about us, huh?” He looked up at you, and for some reason, even though he looked perfectly content, it shattered your heart.

“Kara, my love,” You looked over his face fondly before smiling. “I didn’t put up with you. I will never put up with you.” His face faltered a little bit, his smile becoming shaky. “I do, however, feel so absolutely lucky that you decided to talk to me on that one fateful day, one year ago.” Karamatsu’s eyebrows furrowed, his mouth opened slightly. “If I hadn’t met you, I’d be friendless, jobless, and probably homeless. I’m not any of those things, though, all because you helped me find out where I was supposed to stay for those two happy months. I was so deep into my own pit of hatred and depression because of my family that I would have never gotten pulled up from without your helping hand. Kara, I’ve said it once before and I’ll say it again - You mean a lot to me.”

And then he cried. He began bawling like a small child, a bittersweet smile spreading over his cheeks like melting butter as he buried his face into your shoulder. You held him tightly, the feeling of his tears seeping through the tank top he gave you a while back with his face on it made you want to cry yourself. You knew that this was because he was happy, because he felt special and needed, but it made your heart hurt over the fact that just saying something as simple as that sent him over the edge. You kissed the top of his head, rubbing his back soothingly as his wailing turned to happy whimpers.

“You know, I still don’t think they care about me.” He sniffs and pulls his face away from your shoulder just enough to wipe his eyes without you seeing it. He sat up and smiled sadly. “My brothers, I mean. Sure, they may seem to hang around me a lot more than they used to, but that’s because I’m always with you. They’re only ever around me for you, [Name]. I’m glad, though, that they like you.” He pressed his forehead to your shoulder again and sighs. “That would be awful if they didn’t, because I like you. No, I love you, [Name]. I love you so much.”

He heard your heart skip a beat. Too flustered from this genuinity, you pressed your lips to the top of his head again and sat there, keeping your face pressed into his hair. “I love you too, Kara. I love you too.” You muttered softly.

All was perfect. Embracing each other in genuine passion, love, and openness. Nothing could ruin this moment except for that growling in the pit of your stomach. Karamatsu laughed into your neck, the vibrations tickling you and causing you to laugh as well.

“Hey, it’s a celebration day. One year anniversary. Wanna go get pizza?”

“It’s much more expensive here than your home, [Name]. It’s about four-thousand yen, are you okay with that?”

“Dude, Kara, it’s a celebration. Yes, I’m okay with that.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You sighed happily. “I have never had pizza in Japan before, and I must say, that was an experience.”

You leaned out in your chair, stretching after sitting down for so long. Kara hummed in response, leaning back as well. “Should we pay then start heading home?” You nodded in response.

Soon enough, the two of you were walking around town, hand in hand and smiling. You passed by the park where you had first met Karamatsu. Today had been really nostalgic with all of your rememberings and such, hadn’t it? Ah well, looking back fondly on the nice memories from your beginnings was always fun.

A few blocks down from the park you could see bright flashing colors coming from a large building. As the two of you neared the front of it, you could see that the building was an arcade, and a pretty popular one at that. That sounded pretty fun, actually. You squeezed Karamatsu’s hand, grabbing his attention from his own thoughts. You silently pointed to the arcade across the street and he quickly complied.

As you entered, you looked around the building - loud noises, more flashing lights, even more people than those out on the town this night. You couldn’t help but feel excited. Good thing you had a bunch of change on you, or else this entire trip would be futile.

And thus, you and Karamatsu played a lot of games. Racing games, retro games, even Western game show games like Wheel of Fortune, which you were shocked to find they had. At one point, Karamatsu excused himself to use the restroom, so you found yourself wandering. In the very back - like, in a tiny corner, back where all of the not-as-fun games were located - was a machine set up of about eight glass contraptions. You know, the ones where you put in the coin, spin the knob, then a little prize or some old candy comes out. You found yourself walking over to these little machines, one of them catching your eye - it was one that dispensed little metal rings with fake gemstones glued onto them. As if you were on autopilot, you took out a coin from your pocket, putting it into the coin slot. You twisted the knob before opening the metal flap in front of the hole at the bottom to let the plastic ball fall into your hand. You shoved it into your pocket and made your way back to the bathroom area to meet up with Karamatsu.

Two more hours of gaming and the two of you were wiped. You both agreed that he would spend the night at your house that night, because neither of you were going to let the other walk home alone after dropping them off at the respective household. You held hands on the way back, Karamatsu letting you wear his blue hoodie because you “felt like it.” It was warm, your hand was warm, your feelings were warm - everything felt so warm. And - you smiled at the realization - everything felt so right.

You passed up the park again on the way to your house. For some reason, when you saw it, you stopped in your tracks. Karamatsu didn’t notice until he tried to walk but you held him in place. He turned around to you, worried. “Are you alright, my love?”

You looked back at him and nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just reminiscing is all. Speaking of which, wanna take a quick stroll through the park before we head home?”

Both of you were about to pass out from drowsiness within the next thirty minutes. However, neither of you were about to say no to this journey as you walked into the park. You stopped once you were on the bridge, both of you leaning on the railing to look at the moon’s reflection in the water below. It was full tonight, and the way it waved with each ripple of water was enchanting. You took a quick peek over to Karamatsu, and the way the silver glow shadowed his face made him look like an angel. You flushed and looked away. Something about this place just felt so perfect right now.

“First meeting,” Karamatsu mumbled. He probably hadn’t meant for you to hear it, but you did, and decided to follow up on it.

“First picnic.”

He whipped his head around to look at you, but your vision was ensnared by the reflection of the moon. Karamatsu inspected you for a moment, waiting to see if you were going to say anything else. When you didn’t, he blinked and resumed.

“First date.”

“First kiss.”

“First time I fell in love.”

Your body triggered itself into its own set of motions. You didn’t mean to. You had no idea what you were doing. Your mind was racing, your heart was beating wildly, but you didn’t attempt to control your actions. You scrambled to get the metal ring from your pocket and out of the plastic ball thing, dropped down to one knee, and looked Karamatsu in the eye. He was confused, but as realization dawned on him and his eyes grew wide, you found yourself to speak up.

“F-First marriage proposal.”

Chapter Text

Karamatsu studied it in his hands, sitting criss-cross on the couch in his home alone. Three plastic diamond studs on the top, the one in the middle larger than the rest. The square platform that they were embedded into had rows of lines. The plastic was painted in a reflective gold. The line around the base stood out, and some of the paint was already wearing off, but that didn’t matter. It didn’t even matter that it was plastic, or that [Name] had gotten it from an arcade.

Karamatsu was engaged, and he couldn’t wait to tell the whole world about it.

He did wait, though. For some reason, despite wanting to shout it from the rooftops and tell every stranger on the street that his sweet [Name] proposed to him on the most romantic of nights while wearing his sweater, he didn’t. He kept it secret - from the world, from his neighbors, from even his family.

He continued to look at the ring happily, turning it over and around and upside down, a small smile on his face. His heart beat quickly at the memory of his beloved’s proposal. He wasn’t expecting it, and he didn’t think [Name] was either.

He wanted to be the one to propose, in all honesty. He had been saving up for months, trying to afford a ring to do so, but his [Name] had beaten him to it. He liked it better that way, though. Now he could take all of that hard-earned cash and use it towards the wedding. He had it all planned in his head already. Closing his eyes, he envisioned the scene before him:

The theme was white and blue. It would be held in a grand church on a bright day. The sun from outside would shine in through the windows, illuminating the walkway for his angel. He, in his white tuxedo and blue tie, so excited or his love to meet him at the altar. [Name], as they entered, should be wearing the most extravagant of dresses. The rich blue detailed design on the bottom lightly coated in sparkles. When their face hit the light from the windows, it was as if a Greek god had just come into view. He could feel his chest heat with emotions as you stepped towards him, ever so gracefully, one foot at a time. Finally, the love of his life stood before him. He wanted to kiss them so badly, oh so badly, but he restrained himself. It was hard with this beautiful deity standing before him. He could feel the tears-

“Karamatsu, hey-”

With a squeak, Karamatsu quickly shoved his hands into his lap and looked over at the doorway. Osomatsu was staring quizzically at his younger brother. “You okay there, bud?”

“I’m fine, my brother, no need to worry about me!” With his free hand, he gave him a quick salute. “What might you be doing this fine evening?”

“Me and the bros are gonna be heading out to go to Chibita’s for Friday night drinks, wanna come with?”

Maybe he should. Maybe there, he could tell them the great news. He could share it not only with his brothers, but one of his childhood friends as well. Knowing the small man, Chibita would probably give him free food as well. But something in his gut told him it was a bad idea. That something would happen and he wouldn’t be there for it if he went. That wasn’t a good thing.

“No,” Karamatsu smiled at his older brother. “I think I’ll stay here tonight. Will you tell Chibita I said hi?”

Osomatsu grunted concerningly. “Wait, really? You almost always come unless you’re sick or hiding something.” He walked into the room and towards his younger brother. Karamatsu tensed with fear, still not ready to tell them all of the proposal, hoping that Osomatsu was as oblivious as ever tonight. “Is something the matter? Are you goin’ somewhere? Is it with [Name]?”

“No, no, nothing like that.” He flashed a smile at him, giving him a thumbs up. “I’m fine, I just don’t feel like going out tonight is all.”

Osomatsu stared at him for a minute. It wasn’t a hard stare, more like he was trying to contemplate if he should believe him or not. The look, although not meant to, intimidated Karamatsu to no end. What if he interrogated him further? What if he decided to physically check him to make sure he wasn’t sick and found the ring? It might save him a lot of trouble in the future, not having to hide it, but man oh man he was terrified of that. What if-

“M’kay, stay safe Kara.” Osomatsu reached up and ruffled his brother’s hair. “If you do end up leaving, let us know, alright? See ya.” With a wave, Osomatsu exited the room and closed the door. Karamatsu let out a heavy sigh, leaning back into the couch. He adjusted his shorts and his tank top to fit comfortably in this new position. He was silently cheering, happy that Osomatsu didn’t take more time to examine him. A few minutes after, he slid the ring on.

He didn’t mean to nap, but hey, a lot of unplanned things have been happening recently. Might as well add another nap to that list.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A sharp, incessant sound rang through his ears. Karamatsu warily blinked, the noise of knocking waking him up. He sat up and popped his back before wiping the drool from his mouth. He got up and walked over to the front door. “ Coming, ” he called out groggily, punctuating his sentence with a yawn. He opened the door, and there you were, bouncing and smiling and so excited to see him.

Just the sight of you made his heart do flips. “Ah, hello, my sweet [Name]. What brings you here this fine evening?” He yawned again, and [Name]’s heavenly giggle filled his ears.

“Ah, you’re so cute. I just wanted to see if you were busy tonight.”

He grinned at the compliment. “Nope, not a bit.” He rested on the doorframe, looking at [Name] from the side. “I felt the future tugging at my heartstrings earlier, telling me to wait here for my lovely [Name].”

“That’s good. Are you busy tomorrow? Or the day after?”

Karamatsu’s eyebrows scrunched as he looked at you. This was odd, normally you never planned things out. You felt no need to plan things out, so why start now? “No, and no. What’s going on-?”

“Oh, good, good!” [Name] leaned forward, quickly pecking his cheek. “Come on, let’s go inside.” [Name] grabbed Karamatsu’s wrist as they ran into his house, pulling him with them. He closed the door quickly behind them.

The pair rushed into Karamatsu’s room. [Name] immediately went to Karamatsu’s dresser, shuffling through his clothes. They pulled out his blue suit, examined it, then nodded to themselves. “Yes, this will do.”

“[Name], hang on a sec.” He sat down beside them, crossing his legs and resting his chin on a hand. “What are you even doing? What do you need my suit for?”

He saw the way your eyes lit up, and without even thinking, his followed suit. Seeing you so happy and excited to do something with him always made him feel like the luckiest guy in the world. He knew he’d never get used to it, either. Even now, when you two were engaged, he couldn’t help the way his heart sang with joy when he saw you. From the first day, it’s been like this. He was so glad that you were here.

“-ramatsu, did you hear me?”

He blinked, shaking his head. “Sorry, no, I didn’t.” He flipped himself over, resting his head onto [Name]’s leg and sticking a leg in the air. With his eyes closed, he continued. “I was too busy thinking of how the mere thought of your angelic self can throw me into such a fit of love and passion.” He opened his eyes to stare at [Name] for a few seconds before winking. “You feel?”

[Name] grinned cheekily in response. “Yeah, yeah, I feel. As I was saying, remember how I wanted a dog?”

“But of course, ” Karamatsu switched his legs, throwing the opposite one in the air dramatically. He placed the back of his hand onto his forehead. “How could I forget such a wish from my lovely [Name]?”

“Well, I got a little impatient. You see, I really want a dog. So I called my dad up and asked if he knew anyone in Hawaii-” Wait, just where was this going..? “And he did. I had them reserve a resort hotel room for us-” No, really, where was this going?! “And we’re gonna be going over for a few days. He even got his friends to set up a small place on the beach, and we’re gonna wear hula skirts and coconut bras, and-”

“Wait, [Name],” Karamatsu rolled over onto his stomach, resting both of his arms and his chin on your leg. “What are you saying exactly..?”

“Dude, we’re gonna fly over to Hawaii in 2 hours, and we’re gonna get married.”

Karamatsu made a choking noise, planting his face into [Name]’s leg. This was happening so quickly! He hadn’t even told his family about the proposal, how would he tell them that he got married? Without them there?!

“Are you okay with that, Kara? I can call it off at any time if you need me to.”

He sat up and looked at [Name]. Their eyes were lit up like candles, shining with fiery excitement. Their cheeks held a sweet glow, and they still held Karamatsu’s suit in their hands. Their eyebrows were knitted with concern, though.

Karamatsu looked down at his hands, then casted them to the side. “This is… really quick. I mean, I had a whole image in my head, and…”  He squinted his eyes, thinking for a moment. “Why do you want to do it so spontaneously?”

“Well,” they set down his suit and turned towards him. “First thing is, I really love you and I wanna get married as soon as possible.” Karamatsu let a small grin spread across his face. [Name] cupped one of his cheeks, their soft touch causing him to melt into it immediately. [Name] smiled and leaned in, kissing him deeply. He felt his heart thump around in his chest as he grabbed their waist and held them closer. When they pulled away, they looked into his eyes dreamily. He knew he was looking at [Name] the same way by the quiet, lighthearted giggle they were trying to keep quiet. “Secondly, I really want that dog. The faster we get married, the faster we get a dog.”

Karamatsu didn’t know how to react except for laughter. His shoulders hunched as he chuckled. [Name] laughed along with him before leaning forward again and catching his lips. Feeling their smile on his was the greatest thing in the world. He leaned forward as well, holding [Name]’s waist closely to himself. [Name]’s arms wrapped around his neck lovingly. This felt right. For some reason, it all felt right.

“Yeah,” he whispered against their lips breathily. “Let’s get married.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here they were. No friends. No family. No one else except the two of you - as promised, both were wearing hula skirts and coconut bras on the beach - and the wedding officiant. The sun was very close to being fully asleep. You held hands and stared at each other for the longest time. Finally, before the officiant could even complete his sentence, the two of you kissed in a loving embrace.

Nothing too fancy. Nothing too out of this world.

Just the beautiful sunset, the old officiant, and the tight but loving grasp that the two of you held each other in.

Before you left Japan, Karamatsu taped a note to the door saying that he’d be gone for a few days. His mom caught the two of you before you could leave, though, and asked where you two were going. You excitedly spat the news, and she was ecstatic. She cried, held the two of you closely and wished you good luck. Karamatsu asked her not to tell his brothers, and she promised to keep her lips sealed. Then, they packed up and caught their flight to Hawaii.

You honestly don’t know why you picked Hawaii of all places. Maybe it was the carefree, “do whatever you want” vibe that the island gave off. Maybe it was because it was close to Japan, so it was an easy flight. Whatever the reason, you don’t know, but you were glad you made this decision - the tacos the two of you shared after your short and sweet wedding was fantastic.

Your flight was delayed a few hours, so by the time you came back home, both of you were deliriously tired. The two of you were walking back to your apartment hand in hand. You both had crappy plastic rings on, trying to uphold the tradition that you started. You squeezed his hand happily, and oh my gosh, you are a married human being now. You can share a bank account. Buy a house (most likely not, but it’s a possibility.) Get special prices on Valentine’s day for couple’s dinners. All of this stuff that you had been missing out on for all your life - wow.

You could also get a dog. That was the best part.

The two of you arrived at the door of your apartment. You could have sworn you heard shushing and the distinct pattering of human footsteps, but you just brushed it off as jet lag playing a joke on you. You grabbed your key from your pocket, stuck it in the door, and turned the knob. You pushed open the door, turned on the lights, and-

“CONGRATULATIONS!!!”

You screamed and fell into Karamatsu’s arms as a response to the unexpected action. Five faces popped out from behind different articles of furniture, each holding up their arms excitedly. An array of foods were laid out on your kitchen counter, and a large banner that said “ You did it! ” was strung on the wall above your couch. You blinked.

“How did you get into my house?!”

“We broke the window!” Jyushimatsu pointed to his right, where shattered glass and a few blood stains laid.

“How did you - It’s on the third floor?!”

“I jumped!” as if to prove his point, he sprang up and hit his head on the ceiling, although it looked to have little to no effect on him. “You see? I can do it!”

You knew that will all of his energy he could fly. You called it. Score, [Name].

However, you still had more questions. “What… what is this for?”

“Ichimatsu saw everything!” Todomatsu spoke up, waving cutely at you. “He said he saw you two running off, smiling and blushing and being ‘grossly cute’! We all know what that means. After hearing of such an event, we had to celebrate, of course! You’re the first in our family, even if you are a bit painful. ” Todomatsu muttered the last part of the sentence.

Karamatsu squinted at the group of them, puzzled. “Wait a minute, didn’t you all go out to get drinks or something? How did Ichimatsu see us?”

“I didn’t go with them. My cats needed me.”

You nodded slowly. “Okay, okay. So your mom didn’t tell you?”

“She basically did,” Choromatsu spoke up. “When we asked her where you two were going, she said ‘I cannot tell, because it is private!’” He gave you an oddly creepy smile. “We know what you did.”

Karamatsu swallowed, grabbing your hand in his clammy one. “I-I’m sorry, my brothers, for not telling you about this. I should’ve told you when we decided-”

“Ew, no!” Ichimatsu growled. “Don’t tell us those things! We don’t wanna know, especially not any details! We just want to know after. ”

Well, that didn’t make any sense. Sure, Ichimatsu wasn’t the fondest of cute couples, but why was he getting so grossed out over getting married? Maybe he was angry that he didn’t get to go to the wedding. You felt bad and reached out with a hand hesitantly. “Oh, gosh, I’m sorry. We should’ve invited you-”

“ NO NO NO NO! That’s disgusting! Oh my god,” Todomatsu cradled his head in his hands. “I had no idea that [Name] was like this, oh boy. What has Karamatsu gotten himself into.”

“I don’t understand.” You spoke up over him. “Wait, what is this party even for..?”

“Well, duh!” Jyushimatsu jumped over to the two of you, flapping his arms around wildly. “It’s super duper obvious! Karamatsu nii-san lost his virginity over the weekend, right?!”

Oh.

My god.

You bust out laughing as hard as you have in all your life. Karamatsu was beside you, screaming at the top of his lungs, his burning face buried in his hands. You ended laughing so hard that you couldn’t stand up anymore and had to sit on the ground. Karamatsu copied you and fell to the floor, although it was out of embarrassment rather than laughter. The entire room, other than the two of you, was silent. You fell onto Karamatsu’s shoulder, your body still wracking with laughter.

“Oh, oh my - no, Jyushimatsu, no, that’s not what happened.”

He blinked at you a few times, his face almost uncomfortably close. Karamatsu reluctantly lifted his hands off of his face to look up at Jyushimatsu. “Huuuuuh?! It’s not !?!?” He turned his head back to his brothers, all of them shrugged. All at once, they turned their head to Ichimatsu. He suddenly seemed to crumple like a tin can underneath all the stares of his brothers.

“ I-I just - I saw them, and they looked… I kind of - I thought- ”

Oh god, you had to save in and help cat boy before he decided to take a dump on your table. “ Don’t worry about it, you guys. I mean, thanks for the thoughts and all, but no, that’s not what happened.”

Osomatsu rubbed his index finger under his nose. “ Oh, really? Then what were you two doing? ”

You looked over to Karamatsu, whose eyes were already trained on you. The blush on his face had died down immensely, although his cheeks still held a soft glow. You smiled at him, hoping to reassure him that it was fine that his brothers were just here out of nowhere. You gestured to his hand with your eyes, asking him if you should tell them. When you looked back up, he nodded.

You helped each other up, holding hands, then you both flashed your rings. “Guys, we got married. ”

The room went silent. Todomatsu quietly came up to examine the rings on each of your fingers, making a face when he found that they were plastic. Ichimatsu almost looked like he was gonna throw up, but it was more out of shock than disgust. Osomatsu and Choromatsu began to have their own quiet, happy celebration together in the corner of the room. The only one making even a slight bit of noise was Jyushimatsu, jumping around and whisper-yelling “Yahoo!”

“Okay, yeah, in that case,” Ichimatsu held his hand up, calling all attention to what he had to say. “Why didn’t you invite us to the wedding?” Then, all heads turned back to you.

“Ah,” You flashed an apologetic smile. “I wanted it to be small and not extravagant. We might  have a ‘re-marriage’ thing in the future or something so that Karamatsu can have his big wedding day that I know he wants, but I just wanted something quick and happy. So we flew to Hawaii, ate tacos, spent the night, and flew back.” You wrapped your arm around Karamatsu’s waist, pulling him closer. “It was nice. Sorry, once again, for not inviting you. I hate to ask this of you guys, but can you maybe, like, pack up and leave? We’re super tired and just want some sleep.”

The brothers looked at you for a second, looked at each other, then went to work packing up everything. Osomatsu and Jyushimatsu were working on pushing the furniture back into their original spots, Todomatsu and Choromatsu were taking down and folding the banner, and Ichimatsu went to pack the food. “Ah, Ichi, you can leave all that.”

“Hm? I thought you wanted everything packed and out?”

“Yes, but that’s food. Leave it here, I’m hungry.”

Ichimatsu looked… offended? No, that wasn’t the right word, but he squinted at you almost menacingly. You shivered, and he just shrugged and dropped a bag of chips and walked towards you. “Hey, congrats.”

You smiled wide. “Thanks, Ichimatsu. That means a lot.”

He looked at you for a moment as if he was contemplating something. He decided that he should go for it - he quickly wrapped you in a tight embrace, whispered “Thanks for everything,” let go and walked away before you could say anything else. You smiled to yourself.

After what seemed like hours, they finally had everything and began to leave. Each one congratulated you on the way out, and finally the door was shut. You cuddled up to Karamatsu, bag of chips in hand, and watched a movie.

“I can’t believed that you’re my spouse now.”

“I can’t believe it either, Kara.”

“It feels nice.”

“Yeah, it does. I like it.”

Chapter Text

Inhale. Exhale. Snuggle closer to him. This had become a routine for you by now.

The soft rays of sunshine filtered in through the window, illuminating the bed sheets by your feet. You pressed yourself into him, breathing in the air of and around him. His arms were tightly wrapped around you, his head buried into your hair. Your arm was wrapped around his waist, touching his bare back - his shirt rode up throughout the night, you presumed. It felt too early to be up, and it was, hence why you were trying to fall back asleep.

Just as you were about to slip back into your dreams, you were startled by a hand being clamped around your middle. You attempted to say something, but hands found themselves to your face as well. When you tried to struggle, your movement was restricted. You screamed, opening your eyes and seeing Karamatsu in the same state as you - a hand covering his mouth, his eyes wide with fright, squirming to get the person off of him - you only caught a glimpse, but the robber looked familiar. You were about to ask if you knew them, but you couldn’t because of the hand. A blindfold was put over you.

You felt your heart leap into your stomach as one yelled loudly when he jumped from your newly patched window. Somehow, you ended up unscathed.

They didn’t have a car. They carried you through town on a bright sunny morning, each step punctuated with a “hup!” from each one. They sounded oddly familiar, one louder “HUP!” actually making you feel at ease. That’s not to say that you didn’t struggle - no, you were still squirming around, trying to escape their grasp as best you could. The loudest of the voices paused for a second, causing you to feel very uneasy. “Hey, [Name], stop wiggling! We’re almost there! You too, Karamatsu!”

No.

No way.

Was that Jyushimatsu?!

You tried to yell through the hand that was still muffling you, squirming even more than before. “ Seriously, [Name], cut it out! ” Honestly, you wanted to know how these people kidnapped you in broad daylight and not one person walking by did anything to help you. Also, was that voice Osomatsu?!

You heard a sharp squeak and a slam behind you. Now realizing that you’re indoors, you decided to bite the hand that was covering your mouth. The person screamed and dropped you, your back falling in between two other sets of arms. A chaos occurred, everyone yelling and screaming. You heard a thump and a groan, but the arguing continued. All at once, you were dropped to the ground, hitting the floor loudly. You let out a cry of pain, and immediately, all noise was cut short.

“[Name]! Oh my goodness, are you okay-?!”

You were quickly held in a pair of familiar arms. You finally lifted off the poorly tied blindfold, blinking and adjusting to the light of your room. Before you was an extremely worried Karamatsu, holding your face and inspecting you for further injury. Casted off to the side was a group of five similarly-faced hooligans, staring at the two of you with concern and fear. You glared at them, Karamatsu’s head turning in the direction of the boys.

They all shivered under your stare. Choromatsu rubbed his hand (you think you probably bit hit) and swallowed nervously. “H-hello, [Name]... Karamatsu…”

When you squinted your eyes menacingly at him, he squeaked and hid behind Ichimatsu. Ichimatsu tried to shove him away, but alas, Choromatsu was frozen in place. Jyushimatsu didn’t even look all that ashamed - despite the look of nervousness, he was crouched down as if he was about to jump and had his arms raised. Totty and Osomatsu looked like they were trying to distance themselves from the rest.

“What was this all about?” You turned towards them, Karamatsu still holding onto you. “Why did you come into our apartment at - what time is it?”

“N-Nine a.m.”

“Yeah! So like, eight a.m.! You break into my house at eight a.m. just to break my window again!- Jyushi, I’m looking at you.”

“Sorry.”

“-and then kidnap us! That’s illegal, you know!” You hadn’t ever been so angry at them before, but man, you were really tired from work yesterday and you just wanted to sleep in. They were lucky it was a weekend, or you might not have a job anymore. “What is your problem?!”

They began to grumble at each other, trying to figure out who was going to step up first. The grumbling became aggressive rather quickly, small shoves and pushing around until Osomatsu was presented to the two of you.

“We want to make wedding!” He proudly stated in awful English.

“You what now?”

“ We decided to throw you guys a wedding! Since you didn’t invite us to your other one - which was super mean, by the way - I thought that we should throw you one ourselves! ” He rubbed his nose with his index finger proudly as if his masterful plan hadn’t included kidnapping two grown people. “ See? Aren’t I great? ”

“Well, you could have, I don’t know, invited us over and thrown the wedding? Or just say ‘hey, we’re throwing you guys a wedding’? Or just not take us from our home very early in the morning while we were happily cuddling? You know, things like that. I say your plan needed a little revision.”

“Well, we had no time, [Name]! Nii-san just came up with it last night, you see!” Jyushimatsu giggled, bouncing a little.

“I don’t even know how weddings work, though! I’ve never - I haven’t actually been to one that I remember. We have no practice for it. Usually weddings have practice rounds before it actually happens, right?” You felt a squeeze on your hand, and you looked over to Karamatsu.

“Don’t worry about it, my honey. I’m sure my brothers will help you.”

You doubted him for a moment, but the earnest look on his face quickly made you think otherwise. You sighed in response. “Okay, okay, fine. I’m just - are we sure this is gonna work?”

“[Name], this is - this is gonna be the perfect wedding.” His face visibly brightened, his smile pure and filled with joy. “My family is gonna be there. My friends might even be there. I know you wanted a quick wedding, but I also wanted a big one. Now, we get the best of both worlds!” He squeezed your hands out of excitement. “I’m glad that we didn’t have our family at first - trust me, I truly mean it. Having all of them there would’ve been an absolute mess. But now, we get to have them here! We can have that mess without screwing the entire wedding over!” His eyes shined as he cupped your face. “Can we put a little bit of effort into this? Please?”

You hurt. You didn’t realize how much a wedding with his family actually meant to him. Then you also remembered that he loved his family so much despite what they put him through on a daily basis. You don’t know how he did it, keeping up the constant track of love - because if you had to deal with five rowdy demons 24/7 for the entirety of your life, you know for a fact that you wouldn’t be able to do it - but he did. And you failed to notice that.

“I-I’m sorry, Kara. I didn’t mean to disregard your feelings. I just - I’m sorry. I guess I really didn’t see how much you actually cared about your family’s presence at these sort of things. I’m going to put my full effort into this wedding, okay?”

He nodded with a small, blissful smile.

Jyushimatsu threw his arms into the air. “Then off to work we go!”

They gave you some clothes to change into, an orange or two to keep you full until lunch, then everyone headed out. The boys split you two into groups. Osomatsu and Choromatsu took your husband (wow, it felt really weird to say that - you liked it) out of the house to go look for the perfect tux. You were grouped with the youngest three.

“Okay, [Name],” Todomatsu held up a sketchbook and a pencil. “You tell me what kind of dress you want, I’ll draw it out, and we go to try and find the best fitting one we can get. Okay?”

You nodded and told him exactly what you wanted. In all honesty, you had never worn a dress before, and if you had it must’ve been when you were super young because you really don’t remember it. You were unsure if it’d even be comfortable, but you decided to trust Todomatsu. Every time you came to a split between two contradicting ideas, Ichimatsu and Jyushimatsu would give their input, and from there you’d make your decision. It took only thirty minutes before your ideal dress was created and sketched out for the four of you to see. Your eyes lit up - wow, that was really pretty, you realized (good job at making great dress decisions, [Name]) and smiled. “So, are we going to go look for it now, then?”

“Yes!” Totty stood up excitedly. “I am super ready for our outing! I’ve never done this with anyone other than a few people from work, and even then it wasn’t for anything as big as a wedding!”

You walked around downtown with the trio, all three of which surrounded you like a group of bodyguards. Todomatsu stopped in front of a shop, pulling all of you in before searching for a dress to match his sketch. He found three that were similar in style and had you try them on for fitting reference. All three had been too small, and Totty pouted. “Man, that stinks! Oh well, onto the next shop!”

The next place had something that was so, so close to fitting you - it was just a tad too big, and it kept slipping down your chest because of it. They got you another one, which was just a little too slim on the waist. Bummer, man. Real shame.

This process continued throughout at least three more stores - too big, to small, simultaneously too big and too small, or just nothing that came close to what you were wanting. You sighed and offered to buy the tired group some food while you were out. They all agreed without hesitation, and you took them to a nearby restaurant.

As you entered the building, you saw a group of three sitting not too far from the entrance - you were shocked to see that it was the eldest three Matsunos. (Technically, you were a Matsuno now too, but you just weren’t used to calling yourself that yet.) You seated with them and ordered up a large meal for you all to share. Neither side was having good luck so far - apparently, finding last-minute wedding apparel was harder than you thought. Your food came, and you all pigged out as fast as you could, everyone eager to get the wedding ready for later today. As soon as you were done, you threw down cash onto the table, and the group ran out and split up again.

Todomatsu was getting impatient. “Okay, listen, this is gonna be the last place we look.” He opened the door to the shop and let you in. “If it doesn’t work out, we’ll have to either redesign or settle on something else.”

He found three dresses for you to try on before shoving you into a dressing room. “We have like, three hours until you gotta be walking up to the altar. I’m just gonna do both you and Karamatsu’s makeup sweet and simple when we get back, okay?” You let out a noise of understanding.

The first dress was a mess, and even though it sort of fit, Todomatsu told you that you would not, under any circumstances, be wearing that. You shrugged then took it off, trying on the second dress. You walked out of your dressing room, Todomatsu helped you zip it up all the way, and all three of the brother’s eyes lit up.

One simultaneous “Yes.” was spoken. There wasn’t even a need to try on the third one.

You purchased the dress then immediately began running to the house. They wouldn’t let you walk, but you grew tired and began to slow down anyways. So did Ichimatsu. There was no way you were gonna keep that pace. Eventually, you ended up walking with Ichimatsu, the other two trotting up ahead. “No, no, we have to hurry!” Jyushimatsu yelled at the two of you. You waved him off, asking for a break, but sunshine boy wasn’t gonna have any of that - he ran over to both of you, picking you up in his right arm and Ichimatsu in his left, and ran back up to Totty, who was doing surprisingly well at keeping his pace. They both kept running, no breaks whatsoever, for fifteen minutes - you didn’t know how they did that, in all honesty, but you didn’t question it. Especially not Jyushimatsu.

Finally, you saw the house. It was coming into view. You were almost there  after being uncomfortably carried for at least a mile. You saw a street that turned into the one that you four were running along, and down it was the other group running just as fast. They caught up to you - Choromatsu was wheezing like a sick puppy, Osomatsu seemed to be doing just fine despite his very out-of-shape body, and Karamatsu was huffing and puffing his way down the street. You looked over to Karamatsu, who ended up being beside you during his run.

“Hey! How’re things going on your end, my love?”

“A-Ah!” He panted out, keeping his pace. “Good! We got a tuxedo, huff, So I just have to change, huff, let Totty do my makeup, huff, and then we’re off to the wedding!” He smiled through his sweat and continuous running.

You smiled back at him, giving him a peace sign with your tongue sticking out. “Good, good! We finally got me a dress, too, so I just have to do the same routine. This is actually pretty fun, y’know! I’m glad we’re doing this!”

“ Hah! Me too, My dear-!”

“Shush! Hah, we are here!” Choromatsu panted out, rushing to open the door. Jyushimatsu took both you and Ichimatsu to the nearest room on the right side. Todomatsu quickly followed in, shutting the door behind him. Karamatsu’s group took the room opposite of yours. Todomatsu gave you some simple instructions: rid yourself of your clothes, pat yourself down with a towel to get rid of any excess sweat, then spray yourself with his fancy scented something-or-other. He said he would help you into your dress as well if you needed it. The three exited the room and waited until you gave them permission to enter again.

Once you gave the okay, they rushed in, Todomatsu with his bag of makeup in hand. He gave Ichimatsu some hair supplies and told him to make you look pretty. Jyushimatsu just watched and gave you compliments from time to time.

Todomatsu patted your face with a makeup pad, making sure your face was perfectly smoothed out with the liquid cover-up. As he began to put your mascara on, there was a shout from the other room.

“ OH MY GOD, KARAMATSU, IS THAT A HICKEY?! ”

“ Osoma- oh my god, that is! Karamatsu, you already got that far with [Name]?!”

Your team of Matsunos froze up for a few seconds and screamed. They quickly left you behind to go look at the marks you left on his skin, and all of them were wildly amazed. “[Name], did you guys do it?!”

“That’s none of your business! Get out of there and fix my face!” They either told you to give them a second or flat out ignored you, all of them wanting to verify if the marks were real or not. You were red to your neck out of embarrassment, and you pointed to your half-done makeup. “Just get over here and finish, please! It doesn’t matter what we did, we’re technically married! Oh, and did I mention that it’s none of your business? ”

Usually, these boys didn’t bother you. Today, they were pushing all the right buttons.

However, despite your complaints, they continued to evaluate Karamatsu’s hickeys for at least five more minutes before slowly trickling off to continue their work. The first to return to you was Ichimatsu, who started back on your hair as soon as he sat down.

“Y’know, I didn’t think you had it in you, [Name]. Does that mean you have some, too? Or was he too chicken to do anything-?”

“Ichimatsu, please, stop talking and fix my hair. I’ll elbow you in the gut if you don’t.”

And he went completely silent.

A few minutes later, Todomatsu walked in and continued to do your makeup. “I have to be quick, I gotta find something strong enough to cover those marks on Karamatsu.” He paused and looked at you slyly. “You must’ve enjoyed that, huh?”

“I will sock you in your pretty little face, Todomatsu.”

“Alright, alright! Yeesh.” He finished up his mascara on one eye before switching to the next. “It was just a joke, no need to get so defensive about it. By the way, give me your ring. I got Karamatsu’s already, but we’ll need it for later.” You slid it off your finger and handed it to him. Even though it was plastic, he still got out a ring box from his back pocket and put the ring in.

Jyushimatsu ended up just staying over on the other side, hindering their work on getting Karamatsu fancied up for his big day. Every once in awhile, you’d hear a “Jyushimatsu, get out of the way!” followed by said boy’s laughter. You didn’t bother trying to stop him, though. He couldn’t be getting in the way a whole lot, so you assumed he was fine. With the last line of eyeliner, you were finally done with your makeup. Ichimatsu finished fixing up your hair, which he didn’t really do much with - he kind of just stuck a sparkly blue pin on the side of your hair, brushed it out a bit, then styled it to what it was normally. It looked really nice nonetheless, considering you had been kidnapped just an hour or so before you went out to shop so you didn’t have much time to fix it beforehand or anything. You smiled, thanked the two of them for their work, then sat and waited as Karamatsu got ready as well.

As they were fixing him, Osomatsu entered your room and shut the door behind him. No one else was there except for the two of you. He sat down criss crossed in front of you, then rubbed his nose with his index finger. “ How goes it, [Name]. If I may be so bold, you’re looking as cool as a fair number of cucumbers. ”

You snickered. “ Thanks, Mr. Animal Crossing. ”

“ No problem, my guy. ”

“ What brings you here? ” you leaned back on your arms, curling your knees to the side to hide whatever was under your dress. “ Shouldn’t you be helping Karamatsu with whatever he needs or something? I mean, that is your job today, right? ”

“ Well, I was, but then they started doing his makeup and everything, so I got booted. ” You gave him a displeased look before he quickly waved his hands around.” Not just that though, [Name]! I wanted to thank you also. Remember the first time we met, where I told you about Karamatsu’s bad relationship, and how you were doing wonders to heal him? ”

“ Yeah, yeah. I didn’t understand what you meant by that until Karamatsu himself told me the story. I wanna punch the gal that did that to him. ”

“ Trust me, we all did. ” Osomatsu leaned back as well. “ We didn’t - and we still don’t - know a whole lot about her, or what she actually did to Karamatsu to turn him into that terrified kid, but we all hated her. Totty actually sabotaged her the worst, though. He had a bunch of classes with her at the time, and he made sure that he was her partner on everything they had - science, English, you name it. After Karamatsu broke up with her, He would constantly mess up their project, but bring in his own copy for himself on everything. Write a paper on DNA in biology? He would say he’d print her copy at home for her, then she’d believe him. In actuality, he just printed out a bunch of BS of her paper, but she never looked it over, so she ended up getting a bad grade. Totty, however, made his paper a work of art.”

“ Good. ”

“ But anyways, that’s besides the point - the point is, I’m here to thank you again. Y’know, I don’t think we’ve been very good brothers to Karamatsu. He might’ve said something about it. ”

“ Yeah, he has, but he didn’t really want me to do anything about it. Which sucks, because I love him and I don’t wanna see him hurt, but he said he was fine, so I let it go. ” You sighed. “ I feel like I probably should’ve done something about it, though. ”

“ Yeah, we’ve been awful. He doesn’t want to hurt us, which is dumb, because we hurt him all the time. I feel bad about it, but, but - I think you’ve definitely filled that lack of love he’d been missing out on for a while. Like, no, that’s no excuse for being horrible brothers, but you really made him genuinely happy. Before he met you, if we ignored him, we knew that smile was fake. But recently, if we ignored him, any thought of you made him feel like everything was okay. ” He paused for a second, then looked to the floor a bit bashfully.  “ But, we’ve apologized to him, and I feel like we owed you an apology, too. We’ll try to do better. ”

He looked back up at you, and you smiled. You were so proud of these boys for actually stepping up and owning up to what they’ve done. “ Thank you, Oso. That means a lot. ”

“Come on, [Name], we gotta blast!” Totty opened the door to your room, the sunshine boy standing behind him with a wide smile. “We’ll have Jyushi carry you so that you don’t accidentally ruin your dress or anything, okay?” You shrugged in response and let Jyushimatsu throw you over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. However, you didn’t feel like just a sack of potatoes - today was a special day, one that you would remember for many years to come. You felt like a pretty sack of potatoes.

As Jyushimatsu carried you down the street excitedly, some passerbys stared, some waved, some even congratulated you. You yelled a quick “Thank you!” to those ones who were nice like that. After a while, though, Jyushimatsu’s shoulder began to dig into your gut with every step, and it kind of hurt. You patted him on the back. “Hey, can you carry me differently? Or-”

“Weeeeee’re here, [Name]!” He slid-stopped in front of a large white building with a screech. Jyushimatsu set you down, dusting you off for whatever reason, then forcing your body around to face the church. You stared in awe for a moment. Glass stained windows, religious statues, this church had everything. “Is it good? Do we need to get you a bigger place?”

“No, no, this is perfect. Karamatsu will love it.”

Jyushimatsu laughed. “Good! Okay, let’s go in, then! Karamatsu will be here in a few minutes, we’ll all get changed, then I’ll let you walk down the aisle!”

You entered the church, and the first thing you took notice of was that it was cold. Like, as if you were in a cave in the middle of winter. Your teeth almost chattered. Karamatsu would probably like this temperature, he’s always been one to prefer the coldness of winter over hot summer days. Jyushimatsu didn’t seem to notice your discomfort as he pushed you down the hallway and into a side room.

Jyushimatsu sat down in front you you, wiggling his legs and rocking back and forth a bit. “Are you excited, [Name]? I am! I’m really excited!” He laughed, rocking once very hard with laughter before going back to his normal pace. “I get to see my big brother Karamatsu and my best friend [Name] get married! I might cry!”

Your eyes grew wide and you put your hand onto your cheek. “Awe, Jyushi, that’s sweet. You don’t have to cry if you don’t wanna or can’t, though, but it’s always okay to.”

“No, no, I’m gonna cry! It’ll be happy tears! I’m gonna cry good happy tears!”

You laughed, and he joined in with you. The sound was cut short, though, as the door opened up. “Jyushi, we’re here. I’m all ready already so you can go change.” Ichimatsu opened the door a bit wider to reveal what he was wearing - a black suit, purple bow, holding a white plastic bag as well - as he pointed out the door. “Just a few rooms down, Choro has your outfit.”

“M’kay! Thank you, Ichimatsu!” He jumped up and sprinted sloppily out of the room. Ichimatsu watched him for a second with a chuckle before turning his attention back to you.

“How are you holding up?”

He walked in and shut the door behind him. He took Jyushimatsu’s place on the floor, knees up and head resting on his fists, bag to his side. Despite expressing his perpetual tiredness as per usual, he actually looked rather nice for the occasion - he even attempted to comb his hair. You think. Granted, the two strands on the back of his head still stood up, but that was to be expected of most of the brothers.

“I’m doing pretty good, actually. I mean, I’m kind of getting nervous about the whole ‘it feels like a real wedding’ vibe, even though it isn’t. It’s just presented more so as one.”

“Yeah, I understand.” He turned his attention to the ground for a moment, looking at the carpet. His eyes widened for a second. “Oh, yeah, I thought you might be cold. Karamatsu likes to be freezing, so I brought you this just in case.” He reached into the white bag beside him and pulled out a leather jacket. “It’s his, so I don’t think he’ll mind if you wear it.”

Bless cat boy and his darkened soul, knowing exactly what you need to survive. “Thank you, Ichi.”

“Mn. No problem.”

Then it was quiet for a minute. You slid the jacket on, relishing it in its warmth with a smile. Ichimatsu fiddled with the his tie nervously, his other hand tapping away at his lap. It was quiet outside the room, too - despite there being who knows how many people, there wasn’t a single sound.

“You know,” Ichimatsu spoke up suddenly. “You’re pretty okay, [Name]. Karamatsu’s done much worse in the past. Honestly, I couldn’t even put you near those other gross people without feeling like you’d change them for the better.”

You were silent. That was… really nice. And poetic. Especially from Ichimatsu. You smiled bashfully. “Th… Thank you, Ichimatsu. That means alot coming from you.”

“I-It’s nothing.” He adjusted himself uncomfortably. “You’re good for him. That’s all.”

You stayed quiet for the remainder of your wait time, which had only been maybe five minutes at most. A sharp knock sounded on the door. “Come on, it’s time, it’s time! The others are already up there!” Jyushimatsu yelled. Ichimatsu got up before you and helped you up. You went to take your jacket off, but Ichimatsu stopped you.

“It’s even colder in there than in here. I don’t think he’ll care if you wore it.”

You stopped half-way, then slowly slid it back on. If he insists, then you’ll keep it on.

“Ready, [Name]?”

“Yeah. What about you, Ichi?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be to send my best friend off to some kind of glitter-wearing freak like Karamatsu.” You laughed a bit at that - here he was, telling you what a good person you were for his brother, just to turn around and insult him a bit. You would’ve probably nudged him disapprovingly if you didn’t know he was joking. He took your right arm, Jyushimatsu rushing over to take your other one. There was a muffled shout for people to rise, and then you three walked into the sanctuary.

Two people you didn’t recognize held the doors open for you - one, a small child with an all black suit and a flag poking out of his head. ‘Does that hurt?’ ran through your mind, but was quickly forgotten as you looked at the other door. The other person was a small, round, bald man wearing a blue and green striped suit. Maybe these were Karamatsu’s friends. The wild age difference was strange, though. You took your first steps down the aisle and chose to examine the guests before you did your husband.

You looked into the crowd of people - some you recognized, some you probably would at least know about if they said their names, and some who you had no clue at all. The only two female audience members in the entire crowd was your now moher-in-law (who sat with her husband) and a younger brunette woman with pigtails. She appeared to be around the same age as the Matsuno brothers, sporting a little pink dress with a fish pattern at the bottom of it. All in all, she was pretty cute. She was crying, too, so you assumed that she was pretty close to Karamatsu. You wonder why he’d never talked about her before. A few others you recognized based on Karamatsu’s descriptions of them - the one small man who looked like a baby with only one hair prodding from his head, that must have been Chibita. Karamatsu said that that guy was probably one of his best friends, so you found it odd that you were only seeing him for the first time now.

Then, you looked up, and you’re pretty sure you went into a trance.

There he was. Karamatsu Matsuno. Your husband. Wearing exactly what you knew he’s been dreaming about for a while now - white tuxedo, blue bow. Sunglasses, too, of course - how could he not - but he quickly whipped them off and hung them on his collar. Even from here you could tell that the poor boy was trying not to cry as soon as he saw you. You wanted to run up to him, tackle him and tell him how amazing he looked and how much you loved him, but you couldn’t - would that be rude to do at your own wedding? Probably. Well, even if it wasn’t, you still had two boys walking you down the aisle. You couldn’t just shove them aside, because that for sure would be rude. However, your footsteps did speed up a bit, and the two boys matched your pace.

They walked you up to him, and yep, you were right, he was trying not to cry. He was so happy and nervous and so adorable - honestly, what in your mind made you think to do a quick wedding like that when you very well had the option to do this? That didn’t matter now, because it was here. It was happening. It was real.

You wanted the two brothers to let go on you so you could wrap your lover in your arms, but they kept you still. ‘Right, that’s not how a normal wedding goes,’ you reminded yourself. Then, you noticed that Choromatsu was - was he the wedding officiant?

You tried to mumble, but it came out louder than expected - “Choro, why are you up here? Where’s the actual officiant?”

“We would get you an actual officiant if this was an actual wedding. But, it is not, and we do not have the funds anyways, so just pretend that I am one.” You held back a snicker. However, it was time to continue - Jyushimatsu tackled you in a hug, giving you a big sloppy kiss on the cheek. Ichimatsu barely made contact with your cheek before he followed his brother to the side of Karamatsu  - Todomatsu and Osomatsu were dressed in similar fashion, excited to be there for their brother. You practically ran up to Karamatsu, smiling and bouncing with joy. He wiped at his eye a few times, trying to get the tears out without messing up his makeup. You grabbed his free hand, giving it a gentle squeeze, before his other hand slid into yours as well. You could hear Choromatsu talking, but honestly, you weren’t listening - you were too busy focusing on Karamatsu.

‘You look nice. The leather jacket adds a nice touch,’ he mouthed at you. Somehow, you were able to read his lips, and mouthed back a ‘Thank you.’ and a ‘You look nice too.’

You don’t think he was listening much to Choromatsu, either - probably for vocal cues for when to talk, but nothing more. You should’ve been doing that, too, but it was so hard when this ocean wave of love had swept you up in his beauty. You felt your heart pounding away nervously at your chest - no, it wasn’t pounding. It didn’t hurt that much. Dancing? No, no, it couldn’t be that elegant and soft, either.

Krumping. Your heart was krumping nervously in your chest.

(Good one, [Name].)

“ I do. ”

Oh, wait, pay attention, [Name]! Stop thinking about your feelings for this guy, this beautiful man, your husband - and pay attention to the wedding! You’re gonna be in serious trouble if you don’t. Choromatsu won’t appreciate that.

“ -ake this man to be your wedded husband? ”

“ I wouldn’t have proposed to him otherwise. ”

“ Please just say- ”

“ I do. ”

As what happened first wedding, before Choromatsu could even finish the “you can kiss” sentence, you and Karamatsu were already holding each other tightly, lips connected. You felt his tears stream down his cheeks, and you did your best to wipe them, but you were too focused on the sensation. Loud cheers came from the pretty small crowd, and finally, it was done.

You both had your ideal wedding.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The reception outside was great. You finally met Chibita, who was the caterer for the wedding. He actually had some of the best (any maybe even only) oden you’d ever eaten. When you praised him, he acted tough and smug, but you could tell that he was actually rather flattered. Matsuyo and Matsuzo congratulated you, patting you on the back and giving you hugs and crying. You looked for Karamatsu, and he was talking to the young brunette girl from earlier. You hope you get to meet her.

A man with the biggest overbite you’d ever seen came up to you and attempted to hit on you, but Ichimatsu hit him over the head with a rock from out of nowhere, rendering him unconscious. You looked over to Chibita for advice, but he just said “That’s what he gets, that damn idjit!” and continued to cook. Okay, that must be normal then. Flag boy and striped suit man both came up to you and introduced themselves separately - the child, who was actually the same age as Karamatsu, shook your hand and told you to call him Hatabou. He said that he was the one to actually get the church for them. When you asked how, he made a face he probably thought looked scary, and told you “ I had to call in a few favors. ” The other man called himself Dekapan, and that’s it. No other conversation, just a greeting, a congratulations, then he walked away. Odd. You sparked up another conversation with Chibita, making small talk for just a few moments.

You felt a tap on your shoulder and turned around to see your husband. (You were starting to get used to calling him that - well, no, not really, but you were trying.) “Ah, what a lovely god sitting here before me! Might I ask, what is your name, dear deity? And are you alone on this fateful afternoon?”

You laughed. “Ah, it’s [Name] Matsuno.” His blush went crazy, and you had to stop yourself from snickering to keep your act going. “I’m sorry to say - well, no, I’m happy to say that I’m already taken by the loveliest man in the universe. Perhaps you know him - charming, loves the color blue, handsomest guy I’ve ever met.”

“P-perhaps I do know him. Ah, my apologies. This is Totoko, a childhood friend of mine. ”

You were about to introduce yourself, but she flung her body onto you and started crying again. “ Thank you so, so much, [Name]! One less monster to be chasing after me is a blessing, and you’ve just come along and swept him off his feet - thank you for taking him from me. God, he’s so painful. I don’t know how you handle it. ”

“ With care, ” you responded smoothly. Good one, [Name]. The lady laughed at you, and Karamatsu’s face was blazing, but Totoko waved herself off and walked away.

“ Hey, you guys!” You and Karamatsu whipped your heads around, eyes meeting with Ichimatsu’s. He waved you over to him. “Follow me, I’ve got something to show you.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Ichimatsu, where are you taking us?”

“Trust me, Karamatsu.”

“I wanted to talk to Chibita and Totoko more. They were nice!”

“Just follow me.”

Your reception wasn’t even halfway done, and yet here you were, hand in hand with Karamatsu, following his sketchy brothers down the street. Jyushimatsu was wearing a dog costume (how did he even get that?) and Ichimatsu was walking him. Jyushimatsu was acting as though he was an actual dog, too - running on all fours, pretending to bark, sniffing the ground, he even peed once. Gross. Eventually, you were walking around downtown. It seemed pretty late in the day for a lot to be happening, but the streets were oddly crowded.

Ichimatsu stopped in front of a store and pushed its door open. You didn’t bother reading the sign for what this place could possibly be, but as soon as you saw inside, you knew.

Ichimatsu had brought you to a pet store.

He walked you guys to the center of the building - a large, fenced area with lots of dogs running about. You read a sign on the side of the fence, and you gasped, clenching your hand tightly around Karamatsu’s hand. “No way. Ichimatsu, are you-?!”

“I - I’ve kind of… been playing ukulele for people, and, uh… I got enough to buy you guys a dog. Karamatsu won’t shut up about it whenever he’s over and packing his stuff for the past couple weeks. I thought - it’d be - nice… or something…”

You wrapped your free arm around him, giving him a hug. “That’s so nice of you, Ichi! Thank you! God, I’m so excited for this - which one do we want, Kara?”

Ichimatsu slid out from under your arm, but you didn’t notice much because you were putting all of your focus onto choosing a companion. Karamatsu scanned the pack. “Well, let’s go over your checklist of what you wanted again.”

“Family friendly and good with crowds.”

“So none of those ones cowering in the corners, none of the barking ones, none of them in kennels. Right?”

“Yes. Not too small, not too big.”

“So a medium sized one?”

“Yes.”

“M’kay. There’s really only a few left, then. There’s-”

“I want that one.”

You pointed to the side of the cage, where a Shiba Inu was doing tricks. A child pointed his fingers at him in the shape of guns at him, then shouted “ bang! ” The dog flopped over onto it’s side, pretending to be dead, and the kid laughed. His parents quickly walked over and took him away from the pen, telling him that they couldn’t get a dog.

But you could get a dog. You were married and could do whatever you wanted to.

So you looked up to read Karamatsu’s expression. He was already looking at you. “It’s also fluffy, and it seems to have lots of talent,” he pointed out. “I like it.”

“Can we get ‘em?”

“Yes.”

Ichimatsu stepped up to the gate, bringing Jyushimatsu up close to smell it. “Do you think it’s a good choice, Jyushi?”

His tail wagged (how? It’s a costume?) and he yipped excitedly. It almost sounded like he was saying “ yes, yes! ” but you were unsure. You were happy he approved, though.

Boom. Y’all just bought a dog.

You and Karamatsu were trying to pick a name for him, but you couldn’t think of one just yet. That’s fine. They gave you a leash and a packet of his papers, congratulating you both on the dog and the wedding (which was only apparent that you had because of your attire), then sent you off. You purchased some dog food before you left, too, with help of one of the workers to decide which food would be best for your new dog’s diet.

You couldn’t help but coo at the dog and scratch his butt and love on him during your walk back to the reception (which Choromatsu would be livid at you for for leaving). He was just too fluffy, too talented, too-

Before you could internally compliment him again, a loud crash was heard from the sky, and the dog yipped in fear. Your group quickly found coverage underneath the stone roof of a nearby building as rain began to pour from the sky. Karamatsu hugged your waist in an attempt to keep you warm. Ichimatsu and Jyushimatsu sat on the ground next to your dog. Another shout of thunder and a flash of lighting, and the dog yipped and trembled. You hoped that the reception was okay.

“Ah, it’s okay, buddy,” you said to him. “You don’t need to cry. We’re here, we’ll protect you.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Karamatsu agreed. With his free hand, he pat the dog on the head. Karamatsu laid his head on your shoulder, took a deep breath, and closed his eyes. “Trust [Name]. They’ve been able to help me through my own fears, so they’re sure to help you through your own.”

“Karamatsu can do that too, doggo,” you kissed Karamatsu’s head. “Because when we first met, I couldn’t find where I was going. I was lost. I was afraid. But, as soon as Karamatsu came along, I no longer felt panic. ”