Archive of Our Own ^beta

"osomatsu."

the door slides fully open as karamatsu walks inside the room, seeing only his older brother laying down on the floor, his arms and legs outstretched. he's been there for a while, choromatsu had told him— though that was two hours ago before he went out. the household was empty except for the two eldest brothers of the matsuno family.

karamatsu walks forward and sits down next to osomatsu, crossing his legs and leaning over his older brother. osomatsu's eyes were closed, mouth open a bit as he snored softly. the second matsuno pokes his face.

"osomatsu," he said, "i know you're not sleeping."
no response, just more snoring.
"osomatsu."

he knew that his older brother was in a bad mood since they lost their invitational match two days ago, taking one day to get over the massive hangover and the next day to... mope around, apparently. to karamatsu, this wasn't good; if osomatsu wasn't in a good mood to boss everyone around, the "older brother" role usually went to choromatsu, mainly because everyone always ignored the second brother. choromatsu given the responsibility he's always wished for? not a good idea.

"nii-san." he finally says, instead of the usual "brother" he used to address everybody else. to his surprise, osomatsu stretches his arms, pretending to yawn.

"eeehh, karamatsu... i thought you hated using that... haha," he replied sleepily, "i almost fell asleep, but you woke me up, shittymatsu!" a laugh.
"brother," karamatsu started, ignoring what osomatsu had said, "are you alright? choromatsu told me that you've been here all day instead of going outside today."

osomatsu frowned, sitting up as he crossed his arms. "of course i'm fine! i'm just a bit sleepy, that's all."
"for eight hours?" a raised eyebrow. "it's four in the afternoon, and you've been here since ten in the morning, choromatsu told me."
"i don't know what you're talking about, karamatsu! i'm perfectly fine, reading this..." osomatsu scrambles as he grabs the nearest paper at arms reach, picking it up from the floor. he grimaces, but shows it to karamatsu anyways. "...idol magazine. trying to get into choromatsu's shoes, y'know?"

karamatsu frowns. osomatsu smiles.

"...what, is there something wrong?" osomatsu asks, tilting his head.
"i'm just... worried about you," karamatsu replies.
"aww, you're worried about your nii-san!" a hand reaches up to give his younger brother a noogie. karamatsu squints, causing osomatsu to take his hand away rather quickly.

"agh, karamatsu, don't you ever leave me alone sometimes? i'm ok, see?" he stands up, spinning around once before plopping back onto the floor, in his previous position, "no reason to worry about me!"
he frowns as karamatsu seems unconvinced by his act, though he hasn't said anything after expressing his worries. there's a few minutes of silence, mainly full of staring at each other and osomatsu giving the other a nervous smile.

"did you miss us?" karamatsu finally asked, turning his body away towards the window. "what happened while we were gone?"
osomatsu smiled. "oh, it was great! i got the futon all to myself, and totoko asked to go on a date with me—" a wince from karamatsu— "and i got to eat as much food as i wanted. it's a shame, that we were invited to the invitational," he chuckled nervously, "i was just fine living without you guys!"

he's laughing at himself before quickly glancing at karamatsu, whose eyes seemed to look as if he had seen a ghost. he stops.

"o-osomatsu—"
"i know what you're gonna saying: 'oh, my dear brother, you're lying! brothers should never keep secrets from the others, i'm in so much pain that you've done this to me! you should nev—'"
"shut up!"

he does so, osomatsu's fists at his side as he stares at karamatsu, who had a worrisome look plastered on his face. "i want you to tell me the truth, osomatsu. about what happened that made you like that before we all left." karamatsu said. the other brother left his sitting position and went back to lying on the floor like he had earlier.

"once choromatsu said he was planning to leave... i started to wonder: is that it? is our time together acting like kids over? we're not going to be together forever anymore?" he started, "i didn't want anybody to leave, but the thought of it made me on edge when choromatsu left. once he did, everyone else started to leave. i wanted to stay." he turns, his back now away from karamatsu. "i thought that was it, you know? our story together, finished."

there's silence as karamatsu stares at his brother's back, his eyes watering at the reminder of his only older brother, was lonely and left behind just a mere week ago. now they were back together, as if nothing had happened. "i-i'm sorry for leaving you," he finally said, his voice shaky and not the usual low pitch. osomatsu sits up, turning back around to face his brother, a wide smile that stretched ear to ear on his face.

"hey, don't cry, karamatsu! it's over now, right?"
"b-but aren't you still—"
"sad about it? nah! i'm only sad that my brother is crying over me!"

wiping away one of karamatsu's tears with his thumb, osomatsu brings his younger brother into a big bear hug, patting his back.

"you just promise that you guys won't leave me alone again, right?"
"of course, why would we?"
"haha, good! because you guys can't get rid of your eldest brother that easily!"