Unexpected Times

Fic, Fuji brothers, "Phoenix Return"

Mon, 23 Oct 2006 01:14:16 GMT

I've not had much time recently to work on any of my WIPs, but when the latest manga match concluded, I had to write fic for it, because it's such an important moment for Fuji. (And Yuuta was there watching, and calling his brother awesome... :D) This piece is what I think it would mean for the brothers together. Somewhat unusually for me, their relationship is platonic here...

By the way, this piece is very very cheesy. You have been warned... ;)

"You were awesome, you know," Yuuta says softly as he closes the door behind him. He doesn't know why he's speaking softly - it just feels like the right thing to do, especially after all the thinking he's done on the bus home and during dinner.

Shuusuke merely smiles at him from the bed, sitting Buddha-style and looking just as serene.

"I mean, you really were!" Yuuta adds, spinning his brother's rocking chair round to face the bed, anxious to be as supportive as possible before he says what he's come to say. "I've never seen you like that! You were on fire!"

"But I lost."

"Yeah, but..." Yuuta trails off as he realises aniki's still smiling. Obviously today is no different from all the other days they have conversations – even when aniki's lost a match, he's playing with him. But that's okay, isn't it? It's the very thing he's been thinking about all afternoon, the very thing he's been itching to talk about.

He thinks that aniki might already know what he wants to say. Which really should be impossible, because it means aniki's thought all his own thoughts about his loss and then thought about what Yuuta's thoughts about his loss would be, and really, who does that? Of course, though, as always, he's just answered his own question.

"But, uh, what I mean is that –"

"'It doesn't matter whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game'?" Aniki sounds innocent enough, but, in a rare occurrence, it seems he can't quite hide the ironic little smile that marks the remark out as 'Yuuta bait'. Once upon a time, Yuuta would have fallen for this, but he's spent too much time with aniki in the last few months to do so now.

"Yeee-essss, that's exactly what I mean," Yuuta says, doing something silly with his eyebrows and eliciting laughter from aniki in return. Mission accomplished: if you can make aniki appear human, you're halfway to having a real conversation.

He continues: "Except not. Well, actually yeah, but not like that..."

"What is it like, then?"

"It's like... it's like, even if you lose, you've won if you've learned something from it. That's what I think."

Aniki looks amused, in a doting sort of way. "So, you think I've learned something? What have I learned?"

Damn, Yuuta had intended to build up gradually to this so he could give an otherwise bald statement a context wig. Oh well, here goes...

"You've learned to care."

"I've always cared, Yuuta. Come - sit on my lap, and I'll show you..."

The flutter of eyelashes, though, gives way to the bold blue of surprise as Yuuta refuses to be derailed and manages to ignore him.

"Your game. You've learned to care about your game. You want to win now. You care."

Aniki looks into his eyes for a moment, gauging him, reading his mind like a psychic comic book villain, and then gives an easy laugh. "... Yes, I suppose I do. It feels good, doesn't it?"

"Best feeling in the world," Yuuta says sagely. He intends to go on to say that everyone watching had thought he was incredible even though he'd lost, but he's struck suddenly by the question his brother has (seemingly) so casually asked him – "It feels good, doesn't it?" – and for the moment he can't seem to speak anymore. All of Yuuta's thoughts of the last few months, the months since Seigaku had played St Rudolph in the districts, have hit critical mass now: he can no longer control them, can no longer stop them from rushing towards the destination he'd known was there all along but had thought he'd always be safe and far away from.

Shuusuke notices this change in Yuuta, and asks a question so apt that Yuuta is almost sure that aniki knows what he's thinking. "And you've always felt this way, haven't you?"

This is the last piece. There had been a barrier between them still, after Yuuta had started to realise, when aniki had played Mizuki-senpai, that he didn't need to be angry at his brother anymore, that his brother really did care about him. He watches himself crash through that barrier now, a skateboarder hurtling down a steep hill into oncoming traffic, and he is exhilarated.

"We feel the same now!" Yuuta wants to be more eloquent, and explain exactly what he means by this – that aniki no longer feels so far away from him, because he's fallible and feeling and outside the realm of the unreal now – but he settles for saying, with less of the embarrassing childlike glee, "It, uh, feels like we're brothers again now."

"We didn't feel like brothers before?"

Yuuta knows that aniki knows what he means (he seems to have known what Yuuta meant even before he knew it himself), so he isn't irritated by the question.

"Not like this. I understand you now." He grins self-effacingly. "Some of you, I mean. We're the same where it counts."

"Because I care about tennis now?"

Actually, maybe aniki doesn't quite know what Yuuta's getting at...

"Uh, not quite." He doesn't really want to have to say this next bit, but he swallows his manly pride and says it anyway.

"It's because you care about yourself now."

He waits for the witty brush-off, but aniki says, instead, "Yes. I suppose I do," and his smile seems more like Yuuta's than it ever has before.

Fic, Fuji, "Snow Life"

Wed, 11 Oct 2006 23:38:54 GMT

Not new fic, unfortunately. (I have four or five WIPs hanging about to be finished - I've just been crazy busy in the last few months :/) For ages I've had this nagging thought that there was a story I wrote that I never posted here, and tonight after some digging around, I worked out which one it was. It was the first Fuji character piece that I wrote for 30_gens on September the 26th 2005, for the theme "bad weather". I want all my fics available in the same place, so here it is again...

Summary: Life gives us snow days; Fuji has a snow life.

Fuji Shuusuke enjoys bad weather. It makes for interesting photographs, interesting walks, and interesting conversations. "It appears to be snowing," he'll say, and everyone in the locker room will think he's just being Fuji, as it's the middle of June - but no, it really will be snowing, and the corners of Fuji's mouth will quirk, just a little bit, as his team mates crowd round the window. His whole life is like snow in June, really – something absurd but nonetheless true; something beautiful but perhaps better enjoyed from beside a fire indoors; something that never falls exactly the same way twice.

People enjoy playing in Fuji, too, like snow. Shuusuke is intriguing and exciting, still and tranquil, soft and inviting. Until you fall through a hole in the ice, you'd never imagine that he was anything other than pure unblemished innocence. Few people fall through, of course, but if you damage Fuji's world – Yuuta is his world, Eiji is his world, Taka-san is his world – then the world will not hesitate to damage you back, to teach you the best lesson it can conjure. Such is nature, and such is Fuji Shuusuke.

Fuji throws snowballs at life. No one ever thinks they're his, at first. Kids do of course learn that the boy smiling serenely in the midst of chaos will always be the culprit, but they don't learn for a while, and Fuji enjoys his time while he can. There's nothing like a good snowball to shake things up in the otherwise boring playground that is life. Both Fuji and Inui are the type to store snowballs in the freezer to have an arsenal for the summer months, too, but the difference there is that Fuji needs to see bewildered faces in July, whereas Inui merely wants to. Fuji would never mix rocks in with his snow – that is not his style – but sometimes, he'd like to add salt, to see how his projectiles would melt and disintegrate mid-flight. He wouldn't know where to point his camera first, though, and so he just holds onto that possibility of snow spattering messily over everything in range, and thinks the image superior to anything life could provide him with anyway.

Like snow, Fuji Shuusuke is a blank canvas, full of possibilities and patches yet untrodden. He could be anything, be anyone, and the potential remains until he allows the world around him to sully the pristine scene, until it is scuffed and slushy and obviously enjoyed. The grass, the ground, is then wiped away like an Etch-A-Sketch, the snow falls anew once more, and Fuji starts again with ideas of what his life could be. He is only fourteen, he doesn't have to decide anything just yet, people tell him, but snow can only ever decide things by force – avalanches, sheer weight and volume, floods upon melting – and this is something of which Shuusuke is already aware. He doesn't think he minds much, though; to allow snow to turn to rain and just... drain away, would be to melt the photographs, the walks, the conversations, and that would not do, to build and continue building. Knocking down his snow forts every time is what he lives for; the thrill of what he could create next.

Fuji does not think he could weather good weather.

Fic, Fujicest, "The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe"

Tue, 18 Jul 2006 23:42:00 GMT

Gosh, I haven't posted anything here in foreeeever. I've been working on this fic on and off since May, would you believe? And it's still not finished! But at the rate it's going, it's only halfway through, and a 10,000 word PWP is a bit ridiculous (I guess it's a bit more than a PWP now, since it has some sort of plot. Sort of), so I chopped it in half. Next part will be up soon. :D

This is a Fujicest threesome (Shuusuke x Yuuta x Yumiko), and is rated NC-17. I'm sure you can imagine. ;)

It has nothing to do with Narnia, but everything to do with wardrobes, witches and lions...

A simple mission to appropriate concealer from his sister's bedroom shouldn't have ended up like this, Yuuta thought glumly as he drew the door of the wardrobe gingerly shut before his face, trying to make as little noise as possible. He'd only wanted it to see if he could cover up his scar! He didn't deserve to be stuck in a wardrobe for it!

He could just have owned up when his sister had entered, but his first guilt reaction was always to hide the evidence, which was unfortunate when the evidence was himself. He was still holding the bottle of liquid concealer in his hand; hopefully she wouldn't notice it was missing. If only he hadn't been made to feel self-conscious about his face at school! Aniki said his scar was sexy, but Yuuta, and apparently all of Yuuta's new high school classmates, disagreed. One girl had even suggested laser surgery! Yuuta had instantly dismissed it, though, because if Bond movies had taught him one thing, it was never to let lasers anywhere near your face.

He really should just have owned up straight away to this – Yumiko would even have helped him apply it, wouldn't she? That would have been embarrassing, but probably the good kind of embarrassing. His sister was weird, but she was nice to him and indulged his fits of incompetence. Not like aniki, who took weird to even more disturbing and worrying levels. He didn't want to think how aniki would react to his borrowing cosmetics from their sister's room.

This was bad. There wasn't room to sit down – there wasn't even room to stand up, really. Dresses and long skirts hung from the top rail, falling over his shoulders like silken capes in a pre-school play. He had to stoop slightly to avoid banging his head on the rail and on the ceiling. At least there weren't any shelves in it, or he really would have been in trouble.

He'd hoped that Yumiko would go straight to bed, or just come in for something and go out again, but neither of those things seemed to be happening. Instead, he heard her laugh softly and then say, sounding playfully scandalised, "Shuusuke, you're terrible!" Two sets of laughter followed.

What was aniki doing in here with their sister? In fact, what was he doing in here with their sister, to make her say things like that? Though he knew he probably shouldn't, Yuuta shifted forward and tried his best to peek out through the gap in the doors, just to try to get some sort of context for their conversation. If he closed one eye and kind of squinted, he could make out a sliver of the room – unfortunately, it wasn't the sliver of room they were currently occupying. That was sort of disappointing. What were they up to, to have been this quiet for a while? He'd have guessed they were mad at each other for something, but nee-san really hadn't sounded angry at all, and they'd been laughing...

"No, nee-san, keep the heels on..." aniki said, in a voice Yuuta hadn't ever heard him use before.

"I'll only end up kicking you, Shuusuke." Nee-san sounded amused.

"I would never turn down the opportunity to be kicked by a beautiful woman."

"I'm still not wearing them. Maybe I will one day, if you're very, very lucky."

"And what a day that will be..."

Being in the wardrobe was starting to feel really too dark and cramped - and if the awful, probably deeply perverted things he was starting to think about the conversation outside were true, it was only going to start getting more dark and cramped. And warm. Yuuta was already beginning to feel warm; whether it was the claustrophobic nature of his confinement or the really bad things that were running through his mind was open to speculation.

It felt dirty, to be thinking about his brother and sister like this. He was almost hoping that he was right about it, though, because if he was wrong, he would feel wicked and dirty and twisted forever. He'd never be able to look either of them in the eye again, and, and, and Yumiko was psychic, so she'd know what he was thinking, and oh God, would she know he was here now, in her wardrobe, thinking about her and aniki being intimate?

If she knew, she would have told him to come out, he rationalised, but that thought couldn't stop the panic and shame coursing through his body where blood should have been. For a moment he really had believed that nee-san knew all about the lurid images crawling through his mind. She'd be so disappointed in him. The prospect of that happening made him want to burst out of his prison and apologise and run away to his bedroom to curl up underneath his bed until his flood of apologies was spilling down the stairs.

He didn't, though, because he heard his brother moan and then say, in another un-aniki-like voice, "Nee-san, you're... mmm... moving fast today..." and he felt his shame start to bubble together with hormones like a sinful chemistry experiment in a shady, hidden laboratory. Which is what his whole ordeal in the wardrobe was being, really, he thought, in a desperate, scrabbling way. He was awful for staying, wasn't he, when it was obvious that he'd been right about whatever... it was... that they were... doing. He felt too embarrassed even to let himself think about it – really think about it – because they were his siblings, and it was wrong and strange and unnatural for them to be doing sexy things together, wasn't it?

He knew for sure that it was even more wrong and strange and unnatural for his cock to be twitching every time he heard his brother moan and his sister make throaty sounds he was sure he'd heard in his best dreams.

It didn't sound like they were actually... having sex yet, but nee-san was doing something very good to aniki. Yuuta felt himself get harder as he thought of nee-san's deep red lips enveloping aniki and aniki fisting helplessly at the bed sheets. He'd never seen his brother like that. He'd never seen his sister like that, had never even thought about her as a woman before. None of the girls in his class were quite the same, and now that he was hesitantly touching himself through his slacks, thinking about nee-san's lips on him, they never ever would be. Oh God.

"Wait there, Shuusuke," he heard Yumiko say, feeling a dull jolt below his stomach when she all but purred his brother's name. Where was she going, and would she do the same thing to him, if he came out of the wardrobe? Would aniki do the same thing to him, whatever it was going to be? He undid his top button, but then hesitated, warm hand resting against his stomach. It wasn't nice to pleasure himself in his sister's wardrobe, was it? He didn't think he could live with himself afterwards, even if it felt good at the time.

When aniki said "Oh, the silk scarves again..." he was forced to ignore nice, though. Would nee-san tell him he was a very bad boy? Oh, he hoped so...! His zipper came down almost of its own desire, apparently hoping so too. Plunging a hand into his underwear, he fought to swallow away a hiss as his fingers grasped his length, so hard he was almost surprised at how soft his skin was. Would nee-san have been thinking this about aniki as she licked him? He wondered what aniki tasted like and stroked himself faster, imagining how liberated he might feel, sprawled out on the bed and sucking his brother's cock. Maybe nee-san could be teasing him as he did that, impatient for when he'd be able to turn his attentions to her and make her melt with his impossible masculinity...

This was too much – he had to see what was happening out there right now, lest his imagination explode, burst through the door and give him away. Still stroking himself, he tried peering through the crack in the doors again, hoping they'd moved to where he could see them now. All that was visible was a foot, however. A bare foot, but still just a foot. Maybe if he pushed the door on the right just a liiiittle, very quietly... yes! It hadn't made a sound and no one had turned round or anything, and... holy shit, oh God, oh God – nee-san was riding aniki, whose wrists were bound to the headboard with those silk scarves, and her head was thrown back and her chest was bouncing and he had to bite his lip right then to stop himself from coming before he got to see more. She looked so soft, and aniki looked like a proud and dangerous creature chained, and fuck, he was going to have to stop touching himself completely for a little while because this would be impossible to watch otherwise.

As he forced himself to calm down, his thinking started to clear up, just a bit, and he realised how completely conflicted about this he really was. There were so many "shouldn't"s! He shouldn't be watching his brother and sister having sex; they shouldn't be having it; he shouldn't be enjoying it - and no one should be having sex with his sister in the first place! Brotherly protective feelings were clashing with sexual desire, like a twisted sort of fairytale, and he wanted to both tuck her gently in bed and take her gently in bed, under a canopy of silken drapes in pleasing pastel shades. He'd make a very chivalrous knight – but perhaps he wouldn't succeed in the ways he should, because thinking about aniki was keeping him equally hard, and so he couldn't take his brother away from nee-san however much he felt no one (else) should be touching her.

Leaning carefully against the side of the wardrobe, he knew, without any doubt at all, that someone should be touching him. He didn't have the willpower to properly cool down, not when... not when he was just a door away from an ever-flowing fountain of all the wet dreams he'd ever had. No normal boy was strong enough to resist, and even if he wasn't a normal boy, right now he definitely, definitely was. He couldn't not be, with his blood pounding in his ears, everything pounding all over.

He moaned softly as he let himself touch himself again, not expecting it to be quite so relieving or his hand quite so welcoming. He would have joined that fountain in the clouds and melted away, had he not heard his brother say, just loudly enough to be audible through the door, "Did you hear something just now?" He didn't sound particularly concerned, but then neither would Yuuta, if he were in aniki's wonderful place right now.

"Yes – it sounded like it came from over there..." Nee-san sounded about as concerned as aniki did. Maybe they'd leave him alone...

"Wait here, Shuusuke, I'll have a look." But no.

Aniki chuckled throatily. "It's not as if I can go anywhere anyway."

Crap crap crap, nee-san was coming this way and she'd find him, and oh God, he really needed to do his fly up right now...! The next few moments seemed to pass in excruciatingly fast slow motion as he scrambled and fumbled to make himself look like the charming opposite of a pervert, but then the dreaded moment he was waiting for – the moment where his sister flung open the wardrobe door – never came.

Instead, there was a small, inquiring knock on the door.

At this juncture, he knew he had two choices: ignore the knock and hope for the best, or be a good bad boy and own up. Nee-san, and almost definitely aniki too, knew that he was in here – probably that he'd been here all along, in fact - and although they would almost definitely leave him alone if he really wanted them to (they'd left him here this long, after all!), it would be so much more awkward if he stayed in nee-san's wardrobe until the end of the night, so he did the brave thing and pushed the door open a crack to show he was there. He didn't trust himself to speak just yet. Or ever. There was only one word on his tongue right now, and Fuji Yuuta made it a policy never to beg. Well, almost never. Only sometimes. Half of the time. If he really needed to ask. If he –

"Oh Yuuta, sweetheart..." Nee-san gave him a kind, soft look with her kind, soft eyes as she opened the door a little further in order to see him properly. From the tone of her voice, Yuuta knew, with shame in his stomach, that he must look terrified. His top half, anyway. He was worse than ever right now – he'd had to squeeze his eyes closed as soon as the door had started swinging, because nee-san wasn't wearing any clothes and she had breasts and it was impolite to stare!

"You don't have to stay all boxed up in here..." Yuuta squeezed his eyes shut extra extra hard as his sister took hold of his hand with one of her soft ones, half-hoping she was going to place it somewhere on her body for him to touch. There were lots of places he wanted to touch, but that was never going to happen, shouldn't ever happen! That was aniki's job, wasn't it...

"Yes I do," he said miserably, primed for running out and into his room with just one goal in mind.

Warm fingertips brushed gently over his eyelids. "We've been waiting for you, you know..."

"You... have...?" Yuuta's voice cracked just like the seal he'd placed on his eyes. His embarrassing faltering was worth it to see the look his sister was giving him, though; more than worth it. And when she turned and took his hand with her, making him stare at the curves he hadn't even had time to think about, all the embarrassment in the world became worth it. He was being taken to bed by a woman – a naked woman! - and for that, he'd suffer several lifetimes of embarrassment.

"Look what I found, Shuusuke..." nee-san said, eyes mischievous, as she settled back onto the bed, pulling Yuuta with her.

"Do you think we should call his parents?"

Nee-san swatted at him. "Oh Shuusuke, behave. Play nicely."

"I can't do much playing until you untie me." Aniki sounded like he was ready to pounce as soon as his restraints were removed. On whom, Yuuta didn't know, but he didn't much care, because both prospects were enough to make him wish he wasn't too polite (chicken?) to shed his clothes until he was invited to.

"You're more than capable of doing it yourself, Shuusuke." Apparently nee-san wore the pants on both sides of the bedroom wall. Yuuta would have been amused had he not very desperately wanted to submit himself to nee-san too. "I need to help our guest get comfortable..."

"If only that were the case," Shuusuke said, waving the fingers of one of his hands at Yuuta with a look that made him want to kiss him heatedly, messily; made him want to run his hands all over his chest and –

"Yuuta, honey, apparently I was too enthusiastic in tying Shuusuke up." Nee-san's laugh was like hair falling on silk. "Want to take a hand each?"

Embarrassed from getting carried away thinking about aniki, Yuuta just nodded, cheeks heavily flushed. How were they able to banter with each other like this when they'd been interrupted and were still very obviously in need of release? Did that come with time, or was this just another thing he was sub-standard at?

Nee-san didn't give him time to dwell on this, though, luckily, as she moved towards him on her knees and purred (at least, he thought she purred) "I think I should help you out of those clothes before we do that, though." It was amazing what warm hands rubbing over your chest could do for your self-esteem. And other parts of you. Oh God. How was she doing this without even touching him where he was begging for it?

"Be careful, nee-san – I think this bomb's one to be exploded in carefully controlled conditions."

"Oh hush, Shuusuke. You were young and eager once too, remember."

Aniki's smile was like that of a hungry, regal cat. "Mmn, and I'm still eager..."

"Just ignore him, Yuuta." Nee-san stroked his cheek and smiled at him in a way that made him think that maybe this really was where he was supposed to be. "And don't worry about coming too soon – we have all night, and nights after that, if you'd like, so just concentrate on feeling good, okay?"

"I – I can do that," Yuuta managed, mind reeling from the idea that there would be other times like this.

"Good boy." Nee-san rested her hands teasingly at his hips and pressed a kiss to his lips as she undid the button of his fly but nothing else. Her lips, like her everything else, were soft and warm and not in contact with his for long enough before being taken away again. He almost wanted to just continue kissing her all night, it felt so nice. He'd been kissed a few times before, but he'd never felt this charged, and the girl had never been a... woman. His sister. Confident and glamorous and sexy and very, very welcoming. Deep reds, deep curves, deep pleasure – he was completely and utterly lost in the depths, and he had no intent of ever resurfacing.

"Now, are you still sure you're okay with all of this? You can leave before we get too intense, if you're not ready or you're not happy." Yumiko looked very serious suddenly and squeezed his hand reassuringly. "Nothing will change or happen if you do want to go, I promise."

Yuuta sat up a little straighter and tried to make himself sound like he wasn't just completely wired for sex. "I want to stay. I – I know what I'm doing and what this means." He squeezed her hand back, although for exactly whose benefit he wasn't sure. All he knew was that he wanted to do more squeezing, and that he was okay with this – none of this was as weird as it should have been, and even if, as a Fuji, he was just immune to it, then that was okay too, because being a Fuji was for life.

Was this for life? God, right now he hoped so.

Yumiko smiled at him in a way that made his stomach go squiggly-flip; it was a smile that was a precursor to trouser removalage and therefore superior to all other possible smiles in the universe right now. He tried to steel himself, tried to not make any embarrassing squeaks or moans as his zipper was slowly undone and his trousers eased down over his thighs, and almost succeeded. In fact, success would actually have happened, had nee-san not allowed her fingers to brush over him every time she moved. It was impossible to ask him not to gasp at that.

It was also impossible to ask him not to make a funny noise in his throat as she hooked her fingers, nails a deep lacquered red, into his underwear and let them rest there, next to his hip bones, promising on his skin. He was sure that he was burning up and that she could feel it – even more sure when she kissed him again, his lips as hot as his heart was fast. Her kiss did nothing to help him: he still felt light-headed when she pulled away. It was probably unavoidable, given what was going to happen to him when she deigned to bestow mercy upon him.

Aniki was watching them intently, still aroused – God, Yuuta wanted to blow him while he was still tied up – and as nee-san finally exposed his throbbing cock to the comparatively cool air of the room, they locked eyes and Yuuta really wanted to blow him. There was a spark between them that was different from that of him and nee-san – ice blue to deep, maraschino red. He ached to experiment with both of them, to see exactly what could come of experiencing both his siblings.

"Oh, Yuuta..."

Nee-san was staring at him, and he almost didn't let himself believe that she was impressed with what he had – he was just Fuji Yuuta, after all – but then she reached out and trailed her fingers over him, making a soft, low purr of approval, and pride pooled inside him, forcing his shoulders straighter and his eyes darker. He'd read that technique was the most important thing in pleasing a woman, but seeing that he was physically something special made him feel more confident, more masculine. Was he more impressive even than aniki? He'd have to touch him to know for sure, but oh he hoped so. If there was just one area in which to be better, just one area in which they would both know his prowess, this should be it. He'd never be able to boast about it, and it would certainly never come up at family reunions, but they'd both know, and that was enough. More than enough.

"I think it's time to finally untie you, Shuusuke." Nee-san turned to Yuuta and gave him a siren's smile. "I warn you, he's terrible when you give him free reign."

Aniki carefully arched one eyebrow (something Yuuta had never quite mastered, though not from want of trying). "By 'terrible' she means... well. You'll find out for yourself, Yuuuta..."

Yuuta couldn't help looking exactly where he knew aniki wanted him to look when he said that. He flushed in places he hadn't known he could flush and scrambled to undo his side of aniki's scarves; his body wanted to know just how terrible his brother could be.

"Shall we tease him with the scarves, nee-san?"

"I think that would be cruel, Shuusuke."

"Shall we, then?"

Yuuta didn't think he could bear this, and so he reacted in the way he knew best: with devastating, panicked honesty. "Aniki, I want to give you a blow job!"

He cringed both internally and externally as aniki and nee-san shared a Look, but when aniki then smiled and told him he was being a very dutiful little brother, Yuuta wanted to moan helplessly. Aniki was going to let him blow him, and then he was going to... well, he honestly didn't know, but that didn't matter, because he was going to be pleasing aniki and nee-san and he was going to have sex, oh God.

"I think, however," aniki said, stroking his chest and breathing right next to his ear, pressed up against his back, "that we should give you your first taste of loving before any of that."

"You'll have a better time of it after this, honey." Nee-san was resting her beautiful hands on his thighs, leaning over on him so he could best experience her soft and voluptuous breasts. He thought he was going to die. He could come just like this, if aniki kept kissing his neck and nee-san kept smiling at him like that.

Of course, aniki reaching round his hips to start stroking him was perfectly okay too.

"You can touch whatever you'd like to," Yumiko encouraged him, placing herself in his lap as aniki continued what Yuuta was starting to realise was maddeningly slow rubbing. This didn't matter quite so much when he tentatively cupped one of the breasts before him – one of his sister's breasts – and then the other, and discovered how pleasurable it was to have them resting in his hands, soft and warm and heavy. He wanted to suck and lick at them – oh, how he wanted to suck on them! - but he would compromise aniki if he did that, so he did the next best thing and rubbed her nipples with his thumbs, jerking up into aniki's hand as nee-san made a soft little sound of approval. He'd never heard anything so wonderful, so he kept doing it, rubbing in time to aniki's fingers on his cock, which had thankfully become harder and more insistent. Nee-san responded this time by kissing his mouth, hot tongue teasing his.

Together, all this was overload; Yuuta took many sharp little breaths as though he was hyperventilating, and then came all over his chest, pleasure overwhelming him until he was empty and spacey. He sagged backwards into his brother's arms, resting, just being. It had all happened ridiculously quickly, as though his story ran "Once upon a time, the end"... but nee-san's kissing him back from the world of the sated told him that this was the proverbial never-ending story.

Aniki's hardness was at his back, pressing against his tailbone, keeping him from just drifting off. It was doing a lot more than that, in fact, because the sensation encouraged images of Yuuta kissing nee-san while aniki took him on all fours, drawn to experience the lack of control of old; or perhaps Yuuta could be pleasuring nee-san while aniki was pleasuring him. It seemed almost natural - sex games of an afternoon in an abandoned wing of their summer home, experiments on long, lazy days, left to their own devices.

"Aniki, I want..."

Intent on his fantasies that were drawing him back into arousal, Yuuta started explosively but fizzled away as he realised he wasn't exactly sure what it was that he did want. Did he actually want to share that much of himself just yet and bare more than just his body? It would be too embarrassing – never mind that he had been more than willing to say exactly what was on his mind when he had been on the maddening edge of desperation. Right now he was lucid and satisfied enough to be more cautious. He trusted his siblings – well, maybe – but he didn't just want to be little baby Yuuta, an over-eager puppy romping in a bed of Siamese cats or worse, lions. (The romping part sounded good, though.)

Aniki decided to fill in the gaps. "You want to give me a blow job, Yuuta?"

He shivered at the voice in his ear, very very aware of the cock at his back and the strength in aniki's arms, still wrapped around him.

"Or maybe" – aniki shifted so it wasn't Yuuta's back anymore – "maybe you'd like me to..."

Fighting back a whimper, Yuuta went down too many octaves and made a foreign- and strange-sounding sigh, vocal cords betraying at once how young and how turned on he was by the insinuation.

"I think I'd rather watch Shuusuke on his back tonight..." Nee-san was watching the two of them together with great interest. She shot a look at aniki, but Yuuta didn't read it; he was too distracted by the way her thighs curved together as she sat on the covers before him. It hadn't occurred to him that his sister would want to watch her brothers together. Would they see her slip a hand between her legs as he sucked aniki's cock? If he wasn't too self-conscious, he wanted to put on a show for her. Especially if it was going to get her hot for the loving he was hoping to give her afterwards. It didn't seem fair that he couldn't do all this at once, but that was the curse of the new and inexperienced, wasn't it?

"Mmn, I bet you would," aniki said to her, smirking a little. He seemed to get an awful lot closer to Yuuta suddenly, which probably couldn't actually be possible... but this was aniki. Everything was possible. "Although you already have, haven't you – just from a different vantage point."

"I was leaning back and thinking of England, though. This is different." Nee-san turned the full force of her 'smouldering passion' face onto Yuuta, and once again he thought he was going to die. His sister wanted to watch him naked, wanted to see what he could do – and, most importantly, she wanted to see him in control. That was why she'd chosen this, wasn't it? Until this moment, he'd always thought that the guy receiving the blow job was in charge, but here, aniki was just going to be lying down and taking whatever Yuuta was going to give him. He had to trust Yuuta, and make himself vulnerable every time he moaned or pulled an amusing face. No wonder nee-san wanted to watch this happen.

"Is there anything important I, er, need to know?" However much he wanted to seem cool and competent, Yuuta knew asking was easier for everyone in the long run. He didn't want to do anything awful to aniki! (Even if being punished for it might be sexy. That was probably something to suggest for another night, though.)

Nee-san seemed to think he was cute; she smiled at him, shooed aniki to go and lie down at the head of the bed, and then whispered conspiratorially in his ear, "Keep Shuusuke off-balance. It's the most important thing you'll ever need to know."

This explained why he was always owned. "How am I supposed to do that?" he whispered back, trying to subdue his despondency.

"Just ignore him when he's trying to put you off-balance. He's not used to it."

"Uh... okay." He was probably doomed. "When I asked about important things, though, I..."

"Oh!" Nee-san ruffled his hair. The movement made her chest jiggle a tiny bit. Perhaps it did pay to be adorable. "No teeth, don't try to deep-throat him – although mm-hmm, that's really what I should be telling him when it's his turn next time – and remember that licking is often better than sucking."

Aha, so he was bigger than aniki! Even if he didn't have the right personality to handle him in the way nee-san was able to, he would have confidence to draw on from this. It was worth at least one "get out of panicking free" card, probably more. He could calm himself with this any time he felt worried. It didn't matter that "it's okay to goof up because I have a really big cock" sounded really, really ridiculous. (Well, it mattered a little bit that it was ridiculous, but he was used to ignoring things.)

At least he wasn't going to mess up at the very first hurdle: from videos in the club room that were definitely not porn, he knew he should settle on his knees between aniki's legs; so he did that, feeling strange and odd and excited to be so close and able to see parts of his brother he hadn't since shared baths a decade ago. It would be a tight fit these days... but maybe that would be fun. Aniki wet, sliding against him, bracing himself against the tiles...

Aniki was looking at him intently, as though he was thinking the same thing: your body has changed and I need to know it and feel it and have it. Yuuta knew then that they'd do everything again and again and again whenever nee-san was out of town. It would be different, being alone together – aniki would slip out of the mental restraints nee-san had ordered him into, and Yuuta would let him explore him and do what they'd both been fantasising. He shouldn't want it – he shouldn't want to surrender control again like he had when they'd been little and he had idolised him – but even just admitting it to himself was getting him hard again. It was so easy to see himself with his legs spread, trying to stifle his cries of pleasure as aniki thrust into him, looking down and wanting him in the dark. He'd always wanted Yuuta to be his, hadn't he? He'd been so sad when Yuuta had left for boarding school two years ago. He should say something now, shouldn't he? Tell him he loved him and always had? But in front of nee-san, when he didn't know quite what he did want to say... perhaps not.

Kissing him right now seemed better for both of them, anyway.

Many thanks to elyndys and yukimura for the beta, and general encouragement. ♥

Fic, Fujicest, Fifty Sentences

Sat, 08 Apr 2006 04:46:51 GMT

Finally I have finished my fifty sentences for 1sentence! I've been working on them for a ridiculously long time, because it was surprisingly difficult! This format of writing really does not fit my writing style at all, and however much I tried to modify it, I'm, well, not so sure about it. We'll see. There are some frivolous ones and some more serious ones, but I tried to keep a humorous tone to all, since the other set that was written covered 'serious' very beautifully all on its own. :)

Thank you to elyndys for the beta. ♥

#01 - Walking

Yuuta frequently forgot that one should always walk, never run, when faced with a predator.

#02 - Waltz

He frequently forgot about dancing with wolves, too, but deep down he knew he'd made the house of straw his choice.

#03 - Wishes

"Rub my lamp, Yuuta, and I shall grant you wishes three..."

#04 - Wonder

It was a wonder that Yuuta actually did as instructed; the wishes were worth it, though, and that was the main thing.

#05 - Worry

That's what he kept telling himself, anyway.

#09 - War

Yuuta claimed he was too old to be a pageboy, but Yumiko and Shuusuke were having none of it: it was Yumiko's wedding, and Shuusuke's costume designs.

#10 - Weddings

"Catch it!" Shuusuke called, and Yuuta, to his later chagrin, instinctively did as he was told, echoes of "it's your turn next" falling upon his ears like confetti.

#11 - Birthday

When Shuusuke remarked that Yuuta was now nearly old enough to take a bride, Yuuta wanted to choke him with the wrapping paper strewn about the living room floor.

#12 - Blessing

He could, however, have made much more damning remarks with their parents present, so Yuuta left with just a nervous tic.

#23 - Question

"No one else is home, right?"

#36 - Sordid

"No, no one."

#21 - Quiet

Yuuta looked towards the door and then hesitated.

#08 - Whiskey and rum

"... You think we should break open the drinks cabinet, is that it?"

#28 - Jousting

Aniki thought dirty talk was funny; Yuuta did not.

#37 - Soliloquy

"2B or not 2B, that is the question..."

#18 - Balloon

"Aniki, stop musing about the lead in my pencil!"

#31 - Smirk

"Should I perhaps dip your nib in my inkwell instead, then?"

#27 - Jester

Yuuta tried to fight back with suggestions of funny hats, but this backfired quite, quite horribly.

#34 - Serenade

Yuuta was not so much embarrassed by Shuusuke hearing him sing in the shower as he was by Shuusuke's apparent ability to walk through locked doors.

#33 - Stupidity

"You were calling out for sweet, sweet love, though, Yuuta."

#20 - Bane

"What part of 'oh girl' do you think applies to you?!"

#39 - Share

"Would you like to find out?"

#47 - Valiant

Yuuta tried his hardest to say "no" and "get out of my shower" and "stop touching me there"... but really, he was a curious boy at heart.

#19 - Balcony

On holiday in Greece, aniki joined him out on the balcony, sliding the door easily behind him as though he'd had a worrying amount of practice when it came to trapping innocent prey.

#46 - Horizon

"It's, er, nice out here, isn't it? The view's better during the day, though," Yuuta said, trying to make conversation that couldn't lead anywhere inappropriate.

#13 - Bias

"I think the view's just perfect already," aniki said, honey dripping off his tongue; it definitely wasn't the sky he was looking at.

#26 - Jump

There went inappropriate... but Yuuta wouldn't throw himself off the balcony just yet: handling death in a foreign country wouldn't be very easy for his parents.

#16 - Breaking

"Why are you always staring at me?" he asked, feeling vaguely humiliated this time.

#29 - Jewel

Aniki stopped dripping golden honey onto his shoes: "Because I like looking at you, Yuuta."

#38 - Sojourn

"... Oh," Yuuta said, not sure what to think about this – not even sure that thinking was happening at all – but perhaps sure that he'd stay out here a little longer if aniki was actually being honest with him and not stupid like he usually was.

#06 - Whimsy

"Do you like looking at me too, Yuuta?"

#50 - Defeat

"What kind of question is that?" he asked, but aniki smiled knowingly at him regardless.

#30 - Just

"Just a question," aniki replied; they both knew what aniki's 'just a something's meant, though.

#14 - Burning

"What if I said yes?" – he'd be insane, that's what.

#42 - Neutral

"Then I'd be happy – it would be very flattering, after all, wouldn't it?"

#07 - Waste/Wasteland

Making a remark about aniki's happiness seemed wrong, under the circumstances: Yuuta had been responsible for the loss of some of it before, hadn't he?

#48 - Virtuous

"Then... then I like looking at you too," he half-stammered – and it wasn't just the responsibility talking, he knew.

#22 - Quirks

"I'm glad," aniki said, the corners of his mouth quirking as he slid closer to Yuuta, seemingly amused.

#44 - Near

"You're really very cute, you know," he continued, invading Yuuta's personal space but somehow making it seem as if it were Yuuta himself who was at fault.

#24 - Quarrel

Yuuta protested with a grumpy "I'm not cute at all," but his heart wasn't in it, because his heart was in aniki instead.

#25 - Quitting

Stupid heart.

#45 - Natural

"I'm not cute," he repeated, aware he was only stalling now; why he was putting off the inevitable, he really didn't know – it was just what Fuji Yuuta did, like eating sweet things or checking no one was hiding behind the shower curtain.

#49 - Victory

It seemed he probably wouldn't be checking behind the shower curtain anymore, though.

#17 - Belief

"I knew you'd be back for good one day," aniki said, taking his hand with purpose, like the racquet of Kawamura's he'd taken on that day at Hyoutei.

#41 - Nowhere

"Well, I'll be leaving again in a few years, so it's not really for good..."

#35 - Sarcasm

Yuuta wished he could have said something wittier, but he was used to this wish by now, and he knew that aniki would only have trumped him anyway had he managed it after all.

#43 - Nuance

"It's enough, though, to have you now."

#32 - Sorrow

Aniki paused, and then asked, in a low, raw voice, "Why did you come back?"

#15 - Breathing

The rest were stuck in his throat, so Yuuta picked the quietest of truths.

#40 - Solitary

"We were both lonely."

Tezuka Kunimitsu, Akashi

Sun, 02 Apr 2006 22:12:34 GMT

This song is for kashewmoo. Because she asked me to, and I am unable to do anything but acquiesce to her requests. ♥ I didn't like this song at first, but somewhere down the line, it grew on me a little. I still don't like Tezuka's singing voice, though.

Akashi - Proof

人影のまばらな　ホームにふたり
ただ黙って　座ったまま
込み上げる思いに　途切れた言葉
君の声が　震えていた

hitokage no mabara na HOME ni futari
tada damatte suwatta mama
komiageru omoi ni togireta kotoba
kimi no koe ga furueteita

In my soul's sparse home,
We were just sat silently.
With words which broke off with welling up emotions,
Your voice had been shaking

線路沿い揺れている
名も無き花のように心を
この風に委ねていたい

senro zoi yureteiru
namonaki hana no you ni kokoro wo
kono kaze ni yudaneteitai

Like a flower without a name, trembling on the roadside,
I want to have entrusted my heart to this wind

忘れない　今　この時を
僕達の時代を
何もない場所から始まって
旅立ちの刻を迎えた
変わらない　決して消えない
あの日の約束が
導く未来を　ただ目指そう
それが君と　出逢えた　証　　

wasurenai ima kono toki wo
bokutachi no jidai wo
nani mo nai basho kara hajimatte
tabidachi no toki wo mukaeta
kawaranai kesshite kienai
ano hi no yakusoku ga
michibiku mirai wo tada mezasou
sore ga kimi to deaeta akashi

I don't want to forget, now, this time, our time.
From this place of nothingness, we began – we went out to greet the start of our journey.
Unchanging, never-fading, our promise on that day was to just aim at the future we would be guided towards
That was the proof you and I encountered one another

放課後の校庭を　ただがむしゃらに
走る君を　ずっと見てた

houkago no koutei wo tada gamushara ni
hashiru kimi wo zutto miteta

After school I was always watching you just running recklessly through the grounds

「時が止まればいい」
君の言葉が胸に切ない
まだひとつ　季節が終わる

"toki ga tomareba ii"
kimi no kotoba ga mune ni setsunai
mata hitotsu kisetsu ga owaru

"You should just stop time"
Your words are painful in my heart
Another season has still come to an end

忘れない　いつでも此処に
僕達がいたこと
あの輝きが　あの苛立ちが
色褪せぬ青春を刻んだ
長い道のりに傷ついて
倒れそうな時も
前だけ見つめて歩いて行く
それが君と　出逢えた　証

wasurenai itsudemo koko ni
bokutachi ga ita koto
ano kagayaki ga ano iradachi ga
iroasenu toki wo kizanda
nagai michinori ni kizutsuite
taoresou na toki mo
mae dake mitsumete aruite iku
sore ga kimi to deaeta akashi

Being together in this place that I'll never forget,
That radiance, that irritation – they carved out that never-fading time.
Even in times when, a long way from home, we are hurt and it seems we're going to break down,
We will merely fix our gaze straight ahead and walk onwards
That was the proof you and I encountered one another

サヨナラの代わりに君を
抱きしめてしまえば
心が触れた　あの瞬間に
僕達は戻ってしまう
遠くなるレールの音を
背中で聞きながら
それぞれの道を選ぶことが
それがふたり　出逢えた　証

sayonara no kawari ni kimi wo
dakishimete shimaeba
kokoro ga fureta ano shunkan ni
bokutachi wa modotte shimau
tooku naru RAIL no oto wo
senaka de kiki nagara
sorezore no michi wo erabu koto ga
sore ga futari deaeta akashi

Instead of goodbye, if I embrace you tightly,
We will return to that moment when our hearts touched.
While I hear the sound of the train getting further away at my back,
Choosing our own paths - that was the proof the two of us met

Fic, Fujicest, The Five Stages Of Love

Fri, 10 Mar 2006 01:46:29 GMT

I entered stagesoflove this year with Fujicest - these are the five drabbles I wrote, for the themes attraction, romance, passion, intimacy and commitment. I tried a new style, and tried to improve on my drabbling technique in these. I wonder if it worked? I'm so used to rambling on in my narrative...!

Approval Forgone ~ Attraction

Aniki's looking at him again. He wishes he wouldn't do it in front of their parents; they're watching television, oblivious, but just the thought of them witnessing the sort of look that promises to exchange his soul for a few heady touches of black, crushed velvet decadence makes Yuuta want to defect to angels instead.

Their mother would approve of angels.

Yuuta wants to approve of angels, but sin had been faster, much faster, and so much more persuasive, and he knows it's too late to back down now.

From here, it's merely a matter of lips in the dark.

The Door That Will Always Be Open ~ Romance

Yuuta has stood outside aniki's door for five minutes now, raising his balled fist at regular intervals like a malfunctioning but persistent robot, unsure if he really does want to knock. Just as he's about to decisively make contact with the door, his brother calls him from within, and he wonders how he knew he was there, but accepts that it's just the way of the world.

"Aniki, I..."

Shuusuke puts his book down. "Are you okay, Yuuta?"

Yuuta hesitates, gaze irresolutely resting on the bedspread. He doesn't know if he is okay.

"I... want to touch you," he says.

On Cotton Or Flannel ~ Passion

"You can still say no," Shuusuke murmurs against his ear. He slips a hand beneath Yuuta's old cartoon t-shirt and shifts closer when Yuuta does not flinch away.

"No I can't," Yuuta moans, in despair and surrender. The pillows are soft against his cheek and the duvet a comforting weight over his body, a barrier between them and the world outside.

"No I can't," he laments again, unable to help himself from rubbing up against Shuusuke's body, soft and warm beneath his pyjamas.

He'd asked to touch, but he's scared now.

When he'd asked, he'd imagined lips in the dark.

Cords ~ Intimacy

"Did you have a good day at school?" Shuusuke wishes his phone wasn't cordless. His fingers don't feel right twisting around nothing.

"It was good, yeah," Yuuta says. His voice always sounds a bit older over the phone. "Practice was fine, dinner was good – apple pie! – and Kisarazu-senpai lent me a really cool game. And no, it's not beach volleyball again," he adds pre-emptively. "How was, er, your day?"

"It was a day."

Shuusuke hears a tapping come from the receiver. His answer hadn't been satisfactory, he knows.

"I..."

The tapping stops. "Father spoke to you again, didn't he?"

"Yes."

Behind Closed Doors ~ Commitment

Shuusuke had once thought that the thing he wanted most in the entire world was for Yuuta to come home once he had finished junior high. It had been a family goal, almost: have Yuuta come back for good.

They'd destroyed that, though, both brothers together.

Shuusuke had felt time-dissolving fear when Yuuta had been declared the sole perpetrator in what should have been their sanctuary. If only he'd remembered to lock the door... but he doesn't think about that much anymore, not after Yuuta was sent away again.

The one thing Shuusuke wants now, he knows, is glass windows.

Fic, Fujicest, "The Key"

Sat, 18 Feb 2006 21:25:32 GMT

Happy birthday, Fuji Yuuta. ♥ For this occasion, I wrote something a little bit different. Yumiko's tale is true; I merely embellished it and utilised it for my own purposes. :3

Aniki's room was peaceful when he wasn't in it, Yuuta thought as he closed the door behind him and just stood, basking in the particular scent, texture and feel of the room as one would in sunlight. Everything looked normal: aniki's cacti were lined up carefully on the window ledge and bookshelves; an LP had been left on top of the gramophone, resting casually atop its cardboard sleeve; a pair of pyjamas was folded neatly beside his pillow. The room looked exactly as it always did, right down to the particular alignment of the cushions on the rocking chair.

Yumiko had told him a story that morning that had made him curious about his brother's room. From anybody else, he would have dismissed the story as ridiculous – but Yumiko was different, and, he might have thought, possibly the same as Shuusuke, if what she had told him was really to be believed.

He was almost prepared to believe in it completely: there was just something he had to check, first. Yumiko had not mentioned it – it was something Yuuta had concluded with his own thoughts – but he knew he had to do it before he believed, and before he acted on that belief. If the story was true and aniki was as he had been described, it was almost inevitable that Yuuta would act. Only those like Shuusuke, who possessed the inner dignity required to withhold from pressing buttons that should not be pressed, could hold themselves back from forces that pulled at them. Yuuta leaked, Yumiko had said, which was why events happened as they did: he was drawn, apparently, to those with the seals and the poise that he did not.

Was he drawn to aniki? Was aniki really what their sister had claimed? Yuuta would find out at this moment, on this quiet, lazy afternoon.

The bed felt normal as he sat down in a manner not far removed from 'gingerly'. He'd expected it to, because this was the easy part, but even aside from his sister's story, this was aniki's bed, and that was a set of worries all its own. Would aniki know he'd been here? Of course he would, even if he covered the traces.

Even if they covered themselves.

He didn't want to rise; he didn't want to have his fears confirmed in any fashion, which would happen once he stood up and turned around. This was ridiculous, though, so he forced himself to stand and turn, and lo, he was met with a depression in the duvet marking where he had just been sitting. Everything was completely normal.

"Do you need some help?"

In his concentration, Yuuta had missed aniki's entrance. He'd thought he was out, but maybe Yumiko was right and he did leak. Aniki didn't leak. Aniki didn't seem surprised to see him, either.

"I... er... I don't know." And he didn't. Did he need help? Yes; but from aniki?

"You can continue what you were doing, if you'd like. Don't let me stop you."

Aniki was completely unruffled. If Yuuta had found him in his room without permission, acting shady, Yuuta would have been as ruffled as a parrot in an unfortunate exploding accident, and twice as loud. Aniki was always calm, though, and always anticipating things. Anticipating Yuuta, anyway. Because he leaked?

"Do I leak?" he blurted out, both answering his own question and embarrassing himself in one time-conserving utterance.

Aniki looked at him out of the corner of his eye, looking surprisingly guarded.

"Did Yumiko tell you a story?" he asked, trying to set his expression back to one of ease and measurement.

"Er, yes." Yuuta didn't know whether to feel foolish for having taken such a story to heart, or gratified for finally knowing what his siblings had known before him. "Is it... true?"

"Perhaps." Aniki crossed over to him and patted the rumpled patch of duvet, inviting him to sit down. As he sat, watching Yuuta dither over whether to sit or not, he said, "Do you think it's true?"

"I could... believe it," Yuuta said slowly, still standing.

"She told it to me a long time ago, and I believed it then."

"Do you still believe it?"

Shuusuke looked up at him, and Yuuta knew at that moment that he believed. This was why aniki's eyes were as they were, and why Yuuta's own were grey and washed out in comparison. This was why everything was as it was.

"I found, after a while, that it did not matter whether I believed or not."

Yuuta tried to think this over, and found he had to sit down as he formulated a reply. Aniki's hand closed over his knee as he began to speak, but it was warm – curiously warm – and Yuuta was surprised to find that he didn't mind it that much. The story had affected him more than Yumiko had perhaps imagined.

"You mean, it's true whether or not you believe it...?"

Shuusuke squeezed Yuuta's knee gently. "No. But you guess well, Yuuta."

Was he meant to be proud of that? Was it wrong that he did feel proud?

Shuusuke leant his head on Yuuta's shoulder and decided to expand on his last remark.

"It does not matter whether or not I believe, because it does not matter whether or not it is true."

"How does it... how does it not matter? If it's true, I leak!" Yuuta was more concerned about leaking than his brother's head on his shoulder. He'd imagined it to be heavier than it was, but there wasn't time then to ponder the inconsistency.

"If you did not leak, you would not be you."

That did make sense. And yet...

"But... there could be a better me who didn't leak! There could be a me like you, couldn't there?"

Shuusuke lifted his head from Yuuta's shoulder, as if waking from a dream in which he had existed for the whole conversation until then, and considered him carefully.

"There could be a you like me, but I would not feel the same, and you would not feel the same."

"I... but..."

"How do I know how you feel?"

Yuuta nodded slowly.

"Because you leak, Yuuta."

*

"Since it's your fourteenth birthday, Yuuta, I'll tell you a story."

Yumiko was graceful even at the kitchen table. It was the way her hair settled itself over her shoulders, maybe. She was like aniki, in a way.

"A long time ago – thousands of years ago - far away in Polynesia, the people there discovered something that would forever change the way they saw the world. They knew that there were spirits in the air and the trees and the rocks upon which they walked, but there were spirits in people also."

"Spirits in people?"

"You'll see." Yumiko smiled at him, amused. "The first time they discovered these spirits, someone died. There was no doubt, then, that there was spirit energy within certain individuals. The person did not mean for their fellow tribesman to die; they just possessed more spirit energy – mana – than anyone else was ever meant to join with. If they were touched, the shock was too great."

"Like sticking your finger in an electric socket?"

"Exactly like that, although more holy. They discovered that some people are born with too much mana – kind of like our ki – and there was nothing that could be done. Those people became taboo – that's how the word originated: those you could not touch were taboo, for you would die. Those who were taboo were revered, for mana was holy."

"How could they tell who had too much mana?"

"If no one accidentally died first, then they could be identified by the intensity of their eyes."

The weight Yumiko had put on that made Yuuta wonder the purpose of the story.

"Like... aniki?"

Yumiko only smiled.

"So aniki has too much mana? How come nobody dies when they touch him?"

"Perhaps he has a balance."

It was amazing how similar aniki and Yumiko sounded sometimes.

"Do I have mana?"

"Everyone has mana."

"How come aniki has too much and I don't...? Did he take some of my share?"

"You give yours away, Yuuta."

"I... give it away?"

"You leak it by accident, and so you're drawn to those who possess the emotional strength and tenacity to keep theirs within. You're different from Shuusuke, you know."

"Yeah, I know. You never know what he's thinking."

Yumiko smiled.

"I do."

*

Yumiko had said that aniki had a balance of some sort, to stop his reserve of mana from being dangerous.

As aniki kissed him, Yuuta realised what it was.

Fic, Fujicest, "When You Say Nothing At All"

Wed, 11 Jan 2006 16:31:21 GMT

For almost a week, I've had problems getting Shuusuke to play properly (which is terrible, because I owe an exciting RP tag, but can't deliver!), so I set myself the challenge of writing a Fujicest saga, from birth 'til death, in exactly one thousand words. I did it, but I'm not sure that the end result is actually worth reading. Oh dear. I like the beginning, but the end is a bit iffy, for sure!

At the very least, I think I've reminded Shuusuke of how much he adores Yuuta, so hopefully I can return to RPing...! ^_~

When Fuji Yuuta was born, baby Shuusuke was enthralled by his new brother. At first, he was content just to watch him lie there, but he soon graduated to curious poking, and Yuuta's reactions were pleasing, for he would laugh and giggle every time Shuusuke poked him, so Shuusuke continued. It became his favourite past time, and it seemed that Yuuta appreciated the company, even if he wasn't aware of exactly what company was at that time.

When Yuuta's first word was "Shuuuu", Shuusuke took his hand and helped him toddle up to their mother, hoping he would do it again. He did.

When Yuuta drew an ambitious portrait of him and his brother on the living room wall in crayon, in an attempt to please Shuusuke, Shuusuke took the blame. This suited him fine, because his punishment – scrubbing it off the walls – meant that he could admire it a little longer. Yuuta never discovered that Shuusuke had been punished: he had fallen asleep after fashioning his masterpiece, and when it was gone upon waking, he forgot of its existence entirely.

When Yuuta was left behind on Shuusuke's first day of school, Shuusuke found he was lucky he already knew everything at the first year level, because he spent most of the day trying to psychically communicate with his brother. They were – somewhat – successful. It was something in the genes.

When Yuuta started school himself, Shuusuke gave him cuddles in the playground and they played dinosaurs. (They weren't allowed to play doctor anymore) The other kids were boring anyway.

When Yuuta was beaten up for having a brother who cuddled him, Shuusuke discovered how intimidating his icy rage could be. The bullies barely noticed his pink shirt and girly hair.

When Yuuta was still being beaten up, this time because he was naïve and an easy target, Shuusuke began to develop a hero complex. Yuuta was happy to encourage it: his nii-chan was perfect, after all, and Yuuta just couldn't help getting into fixes. He never wondered why Shuusuke was never picked on.

When Yuuta began to play tennis, to stay close to his big brother, Shuusuke was delighted. He coached Yuuta until Yumiko was sent out to find them, because they weren't meant to stay out after dark.

When Yuuta never won any cups or medals, Shuusuke felt uneasy; winning didn't matter to him, but it did to Yuuta. Yuuta, however, knew that he just had to work harder at it.

When Yuuta was left once more when Shuusuke started junior high, Shuusuke knew that they were no longer as close as they had been, because he had new friends and new activities and more homework, but he didn't know what to do about it; so he did nothing.

When Yuuta started at Seigaku himself, Shuusuke felt distressed: his natural abilities were causing Yuuta pain and difficulty. What was worse was that Shuusuke didn't even care about his natural abilities. But again, he didn't know what to do about it; so again, he did nothing.

When Yuuta did something himself, Shuusuke wished he'd known what to say to Yuuta, but it was too late. Yuuta resented him for the shadow he cast, and asserted that he hated him. Shuusuke wished he had been a better brother.

When Yuuta left for St Rudolph, Shuusuke was cold, because once again he didn't know what to say.

When Yuuta had seen how much Shuusuke cared for him after all, on the day St Rudolph played Seigaku, Shuusuke realised exactly what he should have said to Yuuta a year ago, but instead merely tried to lure him home with pie. It worked.

When Yuuta had started to come home with increasing frequency, Shuusuke told him what he'd been wanting to say for years now. Yuuta didn't come home again for a month.

When Yuuta finally did come home again, Shuusuke replied, when Yuuta asked him if he'd been serious about what he'd said, with a simple "yes". Yuuta went up to his room and slammed the door, but he did not leave, like he had last time.

When Yuuta first kissed him, Shuusuke was not surprised, although he pretended to be, imagining it would make the experience more satisfying to Yuuta. When they eventually ended up in bed together, months later, Shuusuke was surprised. He'd thought Yuuta had got a girlfriend when he'd entered high school months ago; apparently Yuuta had too. He'd seemed preoccupied, his almost-girlfriend had said, and that had been the end of that.

When Yuuta decided he needed some space when Shuusuke became a student, Shuusuke was sad but understanding. Yuuta's final year of high school was important.

When Yuuta graduated university, Shuusuke suggested that they got an apartment together. Yuuta was, however, engaged. His fiancée was the epitome of loveliness, and there was not a thing Shuusuke could find to dislike about her.

When Yuuta wanted Shuusuke to be his best man, Shuusuke was unable to refuse. Getting dressed before going to the ceremony, Yuuta had stared, and Shuusuke could have sworn that Yuuta had been about to kiss him, before they both straightened their bow ties and headed for the taxi. When asked later, Shuusuke claimed that he always cried at weddings.

When Yuuta had his first child – a beautiful little girl – Shuusuke was in Africa, on a photography project. When Yuuta had his second – an equally beautiful little boy – Shuusuke was obliged to visit, but did not stay for long. He wasn't good with children, he said.

When Yuuta asked him why he never saw him anymore, Shuusuke replied "Don't you?" Yuuta said it would be nice for the children to see their uncle; Shuusuke didn't know how to say he had eyes only for their father, and so said nothing at all.

When Yuuta asked Shuusuke if he was going to live in Rome permanently, Shuusuke said, "Yes."

"Will you ever come back?"

"No. "

When Yuuta hung up, Shuusuke never spoke to him again.

Fic, Fujicest, "Alternative Normality" #9

Sat, 07 Jan 2006 02:43:22 GMT

Ninth part of Alternative Normality. Yuuta attempts to iron out the very last creases in his plan, Shuusuke is acting at once familiar and bizarre, and finally it's time to go home...

One | Two | Three | Four | Five | Six | Seven | Eight

When Yuuta awoke on Friday morning, he had a message on his phone from aniki.

"I'm looking forward to seeing you later. Are you excited? Don't forget I'm seeing you alone tonight..."

Yuuta had most definitely not forgotten. In the too bright for this time of the morning could he go back to bed please light of day, he wasn't so sure about the excited part, though. Had he really decided last night to let himself be seduced by aniki? Had he really packed aftershave in a fumbling attempt to smell good? It all felt a bit too sketchy to be real. In fact, it all felt as if he had been handed a doodle of himself and aniki holding hands, drawn badly on an Etch-A-Sketch, and had then decided to base all of his future thoughts, feelings and decisions on it. Love was child's play, after all.

At least he had finished all of his packing last night, so the only things left to do were go to lessons until lunchtime (physics and classical Japanese), and then... be collected by Yumiko and aniki. It was a short list, certainly, but on reflection, perhaps that was all it had going for it.

Responding to aniki's message with an "As excited as I can be this early in the morning, and no, I haven't forgotten", not wanting to be as transparent as he feared he already had been (what if he changed his mind about flirting when he got home, after all? He'd feel terrible if he ended up leading aniki on. The way the girls in his class talked about it, only the very worst boys led people on, and Yuuta quivered at the possibility of confusing female retribution for such a crime), Yuuta then made his way to class, finding himself unable to look any of the girls in the eye once he'd shuffled into the classroom. But that was okay, because the teacher arrived straight after him, and the class fell silent before anyone had said more than good morning to him.

What was not okay was that he was supposed to be devoting this time to pondering what his course of action would be if he ended up having erotic thoughts (oh, that sounded embarrassing) about aniki while he was in his presence, but had no ideas whatsoever. His whole plan consisted of following aniki's lead, and although at thirteen it would probably help make him a man to take the initiative, Yuuta wasn't sure how manly he actually wanted to be just yet; not when aniki was around to sweep it all out from under his feet with a mere look!

Time ticked ever onwards, and several questions he'd been unable to answer (a distracted-sounding "beavers?", followed immediately by a flustered-sounding "fifty three kilograms!" as he realised what he'd said, was never going to be a correct answer to a physics problem, not even if one was actually a beaver) and one physics lesson later, Yuuta was no closer to an answer to his brother problem, but was certainly closer to being the unofficial class entertainment representative. Thankfully, he was usually very good at physics, so his teacher had put his bizarre, obviously-had-not-been-paying-attention answer down to it being the last day of term and had not made a point of making Yuuta feel any more ashamed than he already was; the laughter of his peers (and really, they were a talented class for that particular skill) was enough that day.

Thinking that there had better not be any beavers in his classical Japanese class, Yuuta put his head down and started scribbling frantically in his notebook while there was a brief gap between teachers arriving and departing. In the centre of the page, he wrote 'aniki' and drew a bubble around it: his brother was both the heart of the problem and the centre of the universe (also possibly the centre of his universe, but it was best to put that to one side just for now), so it seemed sensible to begin his brainstorming from there. To its left, he wrote 'dreams', outlined it, and then connected it to 'aniki' with a careful line.

Now all he had to do was think of some things to connect to 'dreams'.

*

The lesson passed with almost alarming speed for classical Japanese, and all Yuuta had managed to come up with, since he'd had to devote half of his attention to the teacher for fear of beavers happening again, was 'cold water' and 'think of Yanagisawa', both in bubbles and linked to 'dreams' with neat pencil lines. The latter would be more practical, but much less desirable, and Yuuta wasn't sure that either would actually be achievable. He'd just... have to cross that bridge when he came to it. Yuuta liked bridges. They were often picturesque (and he did like that sort of thing; he just didn't publicise it, in case aniki then took it upon himself to take Yuuta out on very very long, very very dangerous 'nature walks' that could well have ended up as naturist walks), and usually beaver-proof. But were they aniki-proof?

Yuuta wasn't sure that anything was aniki-proof.

And he was right; at least over the course of lunchtime, when Yumiko and aniki himself arrived to take him home, and aniki walked into his room while Yuuta was getting changed out of his uniform. He could have sworn that he'd locked the door, but then he could also have sworn that he had to register guests down at reception before they could enter the dormitories, so he just gave up and instead scrambled to cover himself with the trousers he'd just removed. Aniki had not averted his eyes - although this in itself did not add any extra weight to Yuuta (and the eight ball)'s theory that he had feelings that were far from brotherly for him, because aniki did that sort of thing all the time.

He didn't however, usually say "My apologies, Yuuta – I should have knocked." Yuuta had been expecting something like "My, your thighs look more strokeable every time I see them..." or possibly "Black underwear suits you better": certainly not an apology. Aniki was acting weird this week, and weird for aniki was downright cracked for the rest of the world at large; Yuuta would have to be careful, especially if it ended up being contagious, and especially if it was spread by bodily contact.

"Yeah, you should have done," Yuuta replied, trying to sound grumpy but unable to really put his heart in it. "Will you turn around – I need to finish getting changed."

"I'd prefer you stayed like this, but needs must, I suppose." Aniki flashed him a look that he couldn't interpret, and then dutifully turned his back, beginning to hum to himself quietly. Yuuta recognised the tune as one of his old jazz records, but he didn't know the name of the song, or the singer, or even any of the words, and as a result, he was going to have the song in his head all day now, wasn't he, until he was forced to ask aniki about it and be subjected to hours of jazz music in a language he barely knew. There were worse things, though, than sitting close to aniki while listening to something he loved.

It was at this point that Yuuta realised that yes, he really was too far gone to be saved.

Hastily pulling on a pair of jeans (it wasn't that he expected aniki to peek, because aniki was not that crass – he would have just turned back around openly if he'd intended to watch, after all – he just felt vulnerable, being in a room with his brother without his trousers on, and being vulnerable around aniki was not at all desirable), Yuuta coughed to let aniki know he was finished, and then slung his uniform into the suitcase on the bed.

"You have a good wrist technique," aniki said indulgently, letting his gaze linger over Yuuta's hands as the case was zipped up. "And you didn't even have to sit on it this time – you're improving."

"Yeah, well, I only packed nice things this time, because I..." Yuuta paused, as he caught up with what he'd started to say. "Because I wanted to travel light."

"Whatever for? You could bring three cases back if you wanted to, Yuuta."

Aniki always, always, had to be difficult for the sake of it, didn't he.

"I'm not like you – I don't have three outfits for each day of the week." That sounded more derogatory than he'd intended, but aniki deserved it for walking in on him, ogling him and then humming jazz tunes and being difficult. No one else's brother ogled them when they accidentally walked in. And actually, everyone else's brothers really actually walked in by accident; Yuuta didn't have that luxury, and aniki didn't have those scruples.

Of course, Yuuta's primary concern was whether aniki had liked what he'd seen, which wasn't the regular course of events for normality either, but at least Yuuta wasn't out to make others uncomfortable like aniki, who seemed to thrive on it – nay, even live off it.

"No, you are quite right: you don't. Perhaps we could go shopping together next week." Aniki sounded thoughtful, and, as always, Yuuta couldn't tell if he was serious or just being annoying, so he decided to just ignore it for now. Hopefully it would go away, for clothes shopping with aniki, and all the groping in barely-private changing rooms it could entail, would be a scarring experience - one which Yuuta really didn't think he was ready for just yet, if ever.

Once more, though, the awkward thought that being groped in actual private might be enjoyable hit him straight between the eyes with a comedy squeaky mallet, and he was forced to look away from aniki while he desperately tried to regain any remaining shreds of dignity or decorum; either, at this stage, would do.

"Looking forward to tonight?" Aniki had moved closer to him, which was bad, bad, bad! He wasn't excessively close (aniki never did anything to excess, after all – he was far too refined for that), but he was close enough that Yuuta could sense a disturbance in his personal space (or in the force) and feel the bizarre sort of connection with aniki's body energy that he always had when they were closer than perhaps they should be. Aniki was looking at him – expectantly, predatorily, it was impossible to tell – and Yuuta wasn't quite sure what to say in response. "Yes I am, and if you try to seduce me I've decided to go along with it"?

He settled for "I hang on every word you have to say, aniki," which made his brother chuckle, and for a moment Yuuta wondered if aniki was going to lean in and kiss him, since the look they shared at that moment was worryingly and yet pleasurably intense, but no, aniki twirled away and picked up his suitcase and headed towards the door, glancing back with a look and a smile that could have said "grab your rucksack and try to keep up", but equally could have said "I can't wait to see you in your underwear again". Yuuta hoped it was the former, because while the latter might actually become enjoyable later on, he knew, from reading Akazawa-buchou's magazines in the club room, that men tended to look rather silly in underwear, and the last thing he wanted was to look silly in front of aniki, although he knew that aniki probably wouldn't care.

At least he knew to remove his socks before anything else. There was nothing, according to Glamour Girl magazine, nothing worse than a man who was naked save only for a pair of socks.

Fic, Fujicest, "A Fuji By Any Other Name"

Fri, 30 Dec 2005 00:46:37 GMT

I wrote this fic for top_cagnotte in September, posted it in November, and then forgot to post it permanently here! Better late than never, I suppose?

Anyway, I was requested to write a fic where Fuji and Yuuta go on a date to Tokyo Tower, with Fuji wearing a St Rudolph girls' uniform, so that's exactly what's inside the tin. Three thousand words of comedy cross-dressing and Yuuta being embarrassed when they come across half of the Sei Ru tennis team... >:D I had tremendous, tremendous fun writing this.

"Aniki, remind me again why we're doing this."

Yuuta was looking straight ahead and refusing to catch his brother's eye as they walked down the street - too packed for Yuuta's liking right now - from the subway station. There were worse things to be doing on a Wednesday afternoon during summer, but not many.

"Well," Shuusuke began, putting a finger to the corner of his lips in a way that would have annoyed Yuuta were he watching (which he was). "I rather thought it was your idea."

"What." Yuuta didn't believe in wasting question marks on things that really shouldn't need to be asked.

"You asked me to," Shuusuke said, sounding as if he was enjoying this (which he was).

"What."

"You said to me, last month, that if I really wanted to go on a date with you, I'd have to dress as a Rudolph's girl." Shuusuke picked up the edges of his skirt in demonstration of the fact that yes, he actually had. "I don't know what you're being so testy about."

Yuuta did look at his brother now, an all-too-familiar blush starting to grace his cheeks. "I didn't mean for you to actually do it! I didn't think – I mean, I didn't expect – I didn't want...!"

"You didn't expect me to make the effort to go out with you? Yuuta, do you know me at all?!" Shuusuke wrung his hands together in a way that made Yuuta wonder if Rudolph bows could somehow transmit girliness by proximity, but no, it was just aniki being embarrassingly over the top, as usual.

"I wish I didn't," Yuuta muttered, although they both knew that that wasn't true. It was just that Shuusuke would spontaneously combust if Yuuta let him know that he did care for him, that was all.

And then Yuuta stopped. And peered down, incredulously.

"Are you... did you shave your legs?"

Shuusuke looked down at his legs too, as if he'd only just noticed they were there.

"No," he said sweetly.

"But – but... what?" Yuuta stuttered, still looking at aniki's unnaturally silky-smooth thighs. Wait – legs, not thighs. That way lay madness.

"I waxed." Shuusuke ran a hand down his thigh – leg, not thigh! – in demonstration.

"You... what? What." Yuuta was used to having his speech reduced to single syllables around his brother. A lot of other people were too, he knew, so it was nothing to worry about. Really it wasn't.

"I didn't want the hairs growing back all prickly, so I waxed. It was quite enjoyable, really." Shuusuke ran a hand down his other thigh – leg! his leg! – apparently wanting his money's worth of smoothness.

Only Fuji Shuusuke would find waxing an enjoyable process. Yuuta knew, from reading the magazines that got left in the clubroom (everyone thought they were Mizuki's; only Yuuta knew Akazawa-buchou's secret), that waxing hurt like hell. No wonder aniki liked something that was the wasabi of women's beauty regimes.

"Stop doing that!" Yuuta hissed, looking furtively up and down the street, as if people would forever brand him as the boy with a girlfriend who felt herself up in public. "You can... I don't know, stroke your legs all you want when we get back home! Just, don't do it here..."

"Don't you want to feel them too, though, Yuuuuta? They feel so good..."

"I am not touching your legs in public!" Yuuta exclaimed, louder than he'd meant to. A couple with a pushchair passed by, giving them strange looks. Yuuta's cheeks burned brighter than a can of petrol on a campfire. Shuusuke seemed unaffected.

"So you'll touch them when we get home?" He sounded hopeful.

"I'll touch whatever you want, aniki, as long as you stop touching yourself here."

"Whatever I want, Yuuuuta?"

And then Yuuta realised what he had said.

"No no, I didn't mean – I was just – I was... I...!"

But Yuuta sighed in defeat as aniki caught his hand in his own and started walking again, swinging their arms as if they were a showy couple in the full blossoming of young love. If only the world knew the truth.

Well, actually, maybe it was best for the world that it didn't.

***

"So what do you want to do here?" Yuuta said with resignation as they approached the infamous Tokyo Tower. "We've been here a million times – there can't possibly be anything that exciting here, can there?"

"Mmn, you're forgetting," Shuusuke said, "that you're here and we're on a d-a-t-e. Isn't that exciting enough? Besides, they have live music on Wednesdays..."

Yuuta sighed. "What kind of live music? Couldn't we just have caught a movie instead?"

"You have no sense of romance, Yuuta! We can see a movie any time, and I can't put my legs up on the cinema seats if I'm wearing a skirt, anyway. As such a gentleman, you should be thinking of these things!" Shuusuke swatted playfully at his shoulder. "And it's jazz they're playing tonight. So you can't say no to me now, can you?"

"No; no I can't." Yuuta's tone was long-suffering, but he was smiling really. Deep down, where he hoped Shuusuke couldn't see it, because his brother could smell weakness. "What are we doing in the meantime, then?"

"I thought we could look at the wax museum and have you pose next to Brad Pitt. I know he's your idol, and I brought my camera!"

"He is not my idol! I don't have an idol!"

"Oh? I must've been thinking of my other brother. Oh well, you can just take my picture with the Beatles, then! Won't that be fun?"

Yuuta knew very little about the Beatles, but there was that song, wasn't there?

Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away...

Perhaps it wouldn't be so bad. Maybe he could accidentally open the back of the camera at the end of the day so that no photos of his brother in a skirt ever saw the light of day (or the dark of day, since it would be a black day indeed if it ever happened). Shuusuke'd be temporarily disappointed, but if Yuuta was having to stroke his legs and... more, once they got home, then he'd surely be able to get over it. Yuuta wasn't sure if he'd ever get over this, but as long as his brother took the uniform off before any of the activities he'd been coerced into began, he'd probably survive.

Probably, that was, until Mizuki Hajime appeared before them, somehow having escaped Yuuta's peripheral vision until it was too late.

"Ahh, Yuuta-kun! And a lady friend, I see!" He had looked as if he was going to say more, but he seemed to be stuck on looking at Shuusuke curiously.

Aniki, please don't say anything, please don't say anything, please don't say anything!

Yuuta needn't have worried, however, as Mizuki, instead of looking surprised or confused or incredulous, just looked enchanted, and Shuusuke had remained silent.

Why was Mizuki looking at his brother like that? He couldn't possibly be working up to recruiting him to the team, especially as he was, well, a she, as far as Mizuki was concerned right now. Which left only one conclusion: that Mizuki really was obsessed with the Fuji family, even if he didn't know it. Was crushing on Yumiko really not enough for him?!

"Aren't you going to introduce me to this delightful creature?" Mizuki asked, beginning to twirl his hair. "Are you two attached, or merely... acquaintances?" He looked hopeful for the latter.

Shuusuke didn't have a name yet. Oh God. Yuuta's mind went blank and all he could see was a line of hair-twirling Mizukis, all trying to hit on his brother.

"You'll have to excuse my Yuuta," Shuusuke said, kicking Yuuta's ankle while Mizuki's eyes were otherwise engaged. How had he made his voice do that?! "He didn't get enough sleep last night, if you, ah, know what I mean..." He didn't giggle, but he may as well have done, and Yuuta's cheeks burned.

"I – I – I got plenty of sleep!" Yuuta stammered, while trying to sound masterful and in control. "Mizuki-san, this is... Fujiko-chan. She just, ah, transferred to St Rudolph this holiday; she's in the third year so you'll probably be seeing her around after the summer. Fujiko-chan, this is Mizuki-senpai, the manager of my tennis team. I've told you about him already, haven't I?"

"Oh yes, you certainly have," Fujiko-chan said, smiling like a werebear. Hopefully Mizuki wouldn't notice. "I hear you've been training Yuuta hard, teaching him new moves!"

"Well, yes," Yuuta said, before Mizuki had finished puffing himself up to speak. The last thing he wanted was the sure-fire disaster that having his brother talking to his manager about the Twist Spin Shot would be. Why couldn't aniki just behave himself! "I've certainly been training hard, and Mizuki-san is a very good manager." Yuuta fervently wished that he was managing right now. Why was his world full of the most eccentric personalities that Japan had to offer? "How are you doing today, anyway, Mizuki-san? Are you meeting someone here...?" Steering the conversation away from his brother seemed sensible. Unfortunately, Mizuki had other plans.

"Not exactly a rendezvous, but I'd heard talk that your brother was going to be here, and I intend to invite him to match ourselves skill for skill in a game of tennis, if he does meander into this locale. Do you know what he's doing today, Yuuta-kun?"

"I'm afraid not, Mizuki-san. I have no idea what he's doing today." This was not strictly a lie; just, he didn't mean it the way that Mizuki would take it. That was okay, though, wasn't it? He wouldn't feel guilty for what was really just telling the truth, would he?

"I see..." Mizuki looked disappointed for a moment, and then brightened, putting a fatherly hand on Yuuta's shoulder, oblivious to the looks that Fujiko-chan was now shooting him because of it. "Do you have your cell phone with you, Yuuta-kun? You could give him a call for me, see if he'll come out to meet with me? He'd do anything you ask of him, you know, and you'd be pleasing your senpai..."

Yuuta hoped, very, very fervently, that his phone, secreted in his pocket, would not ring at the moment he chose to open his mouth.

"I'm afraid I don't have it with me, Mizuki-san," he said, in the most apologetic tone he could muster. (And this was really quite apologetic, because spending too much time being flustered made you very, very sorry for everything.) "This was, er, supposed to be a date with no interruptions, you know?"

"I understand completely," Mizuki said, entirely oblivious to his overly-large contribution to Yuuta's rising blood pressure, the only 'rising' technique he'd be experiencing today. "There's nothing worse than some plebeian stealing away precious quality time with your beautiful girlfriend with inane chit-chat." He then paused for a moment. "You don't suppose your brother's on a date, do you?"

"It's quite possible that he is," Yuuta said edgily, facing the dual trials of questioning and Fujiko-chan's hand starting to grip his far too tightly.

"Where do you suppose he'd go? Who would he take? How long would he stay?" Mizuki was beginning to sound a little bit manic. Had he planned his whole day around playing and defeating aniki?

"Er, I'm not sure..." Yuuta said at the same time as Shuusuke said, decisively, "Hello Kitty Land."

"Hello Kitty Land?" Mizuki's eyes lit up with a neon bulb, and Yuuta's with a hundred watts of pain.

Fujiko-chan nodded and smiled, or, at least, showed teeth. "Yuuta takes me home with him all the time, and I get to have conversations with his brother while he's freshening up. He's told me all about where he intends to take the person he has his eye on if he had the chance. It closes at five, so perhaps you should hurry!"

"Yes, perhaps I shall..." Mizuki took a moment to twirl his hair one last time for Fujiko-chan's benefit, and then smoothed down his shirt. "I shall bid you two adieu for now..."

And then, luckily, he was gone.

"Oh God, what was that." Yuuta sighed and was about to beseech some more deities, but Shuusuke had pulled him into some bushes on the side of the path and was now looking at him expectantly.

"What?" Yuuta was trying to stall the inevitable.

"Aren't you going to give me a kiss for being so good back there?"

"Good? Hello Kitty Land?!" Yuuta didn't feel that his brother had even had 'good' in view when he'd opened his mouth.

"Pink, purple, what's the difference? He'll have a good time."

As much as he wanted to refute this, Yuuta felt he had to admit that his brother was actually on the mark this time. He had other ammunition to keep him temporarily at bay, however.

"But what was all that about bringing you home all the time and freshening up and not getting enough sleep?! He's going to think... well, he's going to think that we...!"

Shuusuke smiled innocuously. "Well, if he's thinking it, then there's no shame in making it real, is there?"

Yuuta had to kiss him then to make him stop talking; in retrospect, probably a bad idea, but around aniki, you always had limited options. He'd intended no tongue, but it seemed a small price to pay to avoid a plaintive look afterwards. It also felt kind of nice, maybe, if he tried to forget that he was in the bushes at Tokyo Tower kissing his brother who was dressed as a schoolgirl, but only maybe. He'd deny it if asked. Yuuta was good at denial by now – often it was the only way to cope with his ludicrously ill-fated life.

"Mmm, I love it when you're masterful," Shuusuke purred, looking very much like a tiger with a little bell round its neck.

"Don't say things like that...!" Yuuta's blush had returned with a vengeance. It was just a shame that the target of its vengeance was himself. "And if you'd wanted to kiss me all day, then why did we bother coming all the way out here?"

"Because that's what we're doing tomorrow!" Shuusuke's tone was playful, but the fangs were tangible.

Yuuta no longer had the strength to argue. "Let's just get going again, before we run into any other crazy people, okay? Okay?"

Fate, however, was mocking him; as soon as they stepped out of the bushes, they were met with a wild call of "Wa-HOW, Yuuta's girlfriend is CUTE, DA NE!" and for the only time in his life, Yuuta wanted to step back into the bushes with his brother.

"Yanagisawa-senpai!" Yuuta's good-natured smile was starting to look a little forced. "And Akazawa-buchou!"

"Having fun, Yuuta?" Akazawa said with an embarrassingly exaggerated wink. "You didn't tell us you had such a beautiful woman all to yourself!"

"Didn't he?" Fujiko-chan asked, for what Yuuta believed to be solely the purpose of stirring up trouble. "Why haven't you told anyone, Yuuta, after all we've done together? Are you embarrassed to be seen with me?"

"Looks like you're in for it now, da ne!" Yanagisawa crowed, laughing and hitting himself accidentally with his tennis racquet.

"I, ah, just didn't want to have the possibility of any delinquents stealing you away!" Yuuta stammered, trying his very best to not look as if he was everyone's bitch.

"Scared of the competition, hey?" Akazawa nudged Yuuta in the side in a jocular fashion, completely missing the point of Yuuta's last remark.

"Oh, Yuuta does his very best to satisfy me," Fujiko-chan said helpfully. "He better try extra hard tonight, though..."

"Yeah, try your hardest, Yuuta! Show her your super rising, da ne!"

Yuuta wanted to scream "Aaaaargh!" very loudly, for an extended period of time, but his vocal cords were, fortunately or unfortunately, no longer working. Standing there dumbly with a look of horror on his face wasn't quite the same thing, but it was what he was going with anyway. It was comforting in its familiarity, at the very least.

"Er, senpai, what are you both doing here today?" he asked as suavely as possible (which was not very), but in the time he'd taken to scream internally, Fujiko-chan had started a hushed conversation with Akazawa that could be nothing but damaging, and Yanagisawa had started to snort about cute girls to him and was asking if Fujiko-chan had any sisters. She did, of course, but Yuuta was forced once more to lie, for he'd rather even Mizuki had Yumiko than Yanagisawa, and he thought Yumiko would wholeheartedly agree.

The rest of the afternoon passed in a purple-tinted haze for Yuuta; the last of Mizuki's legacy. He had to take pictures of his beautiful girlfriend posing in ways the Beatles would never have expected in the wax museum. He was dragged through the Trick Art Gallery, aniki all the time pointing out the optical illusions that took on an impolite flavour if you looked at them right (which his brother always could). By the time they reached the holograms of the Mysterious Walking Zone, which would have been impressive had it still been the 1980s, Yuuta was ready to break down and offer to touch aniki as much as he wanted if only they could go home now.

"You really mean that, Yuuuta?"

"Yes," said Yuuta, a broken man.

"Let's go home, then. Wait 'til you see what I'm wearing underneath all this!"

It was a pity the viewing platforms were enclosed completely by glass for safety reasons.