A/N: Hello all! Over the next few weeks, I'm going to be reposting the fics I have hosted over on AO3 here on FFN. If you get antsy, you can read more over there. In the meantime, I'll be posting a fic or two every few days so I don't spam the category.

A friend on tumblr asked me to write a fic about all of the sextuplets finding out about Karamatsu and Chibita dating, so I ended up writing this fic. The main pairing is Karamatsu/Chibita, but there are also mentions of Ichimatsu & Christmas Couple (or Ichimatsu/Christmas Couple if you'd like to read it as such) and Jyushimatsu/Homura. I used nii-san and brother to differentiate between usual terms of address and Karamatsu's painful use of English. Thanks very much for reading.

Todomatsu let out a sigh of pure contentment and sat back in his seat. There were a lot of things that were pretty rough about living out on his own, but he was sure that the worst thing of all was the silence. He was used to idiotic chatter and willfully-ignored obscenities at home; coming back to an apartment that was dead silent save for the occasional sounds of passing cars and birdsong still felt foreign. Uncomfortable. There was no one to ignore, but there was also no one to talk to.

Fortunately, unlike the rest of his siblings, he did have friends outside of his family. And this, sitting inside a little cafe, making casual conversation with a couple of cute girls, was the perfect balm for a lonely heart. He didn't have to think about the echoing of his own words around his skull, nor did he have to think about the phantom pain of an old punch.

He just had to think about sweet milk tea, the latest gossip, and the cute way this girl laughed when he talked. At least, until he noticed his brother walking past the cafe.

Which one—ah, body sparkles. Definitely Karamatsu. He was wearing a smart suit instead of his usual stupid, tryhard jacket, but that wasn't enough to dim the painfulness that was Karamatsu. He was talking animatedly about something that was no doubt terrible, and he almost shone while he was talking. Definitely a bad sign for whoever was with him.

But Chibita, and it was definitely Chibita walking there next to Karamatsu, didn't seem like he was suffering. He wasn't wincing or gagging or frowning like most of of the people Karamatsu sparkled at. Instead, he was just... letting him talk. He had a sort of wry, fond smile on his face, the way a pet owner might look at a particularly stupid puppy.

And they were holding hands.

Todomatsu choked on his drink.

"Are you okay, Totty?" one of the girls asked, helpfully passing him her handkerchief so he could mop up the mess he'd made of his favorite pink button up.

"I'm—" he swallowed hard, forcing oxygen into his lungs. "I'm fine, really. I was just surprised."

She patted his hand comfortingly, and he let her. He needed the comfort. That goddamn Karamatsu, going out and getting a date like that! Even Todomatsu didn't have a steady girlfriend yet! And there was no doubt in his mind that Karamatsu and Chibita were going steady, not with the way that Chibita had been looking at his idiotic brother. Only a person who really loved him could put up with that level of pain.

Todomatsu sat back in his chair and glared at his tea. He was definitely going to have to up his dating game. There was no way he could let Karamatsu of all people one-up him!

The gnawing hunger had sort of become white noise to Ichimatsu, but the cold was new. He really had to find somewhere to live with a roof on it.

He remembered the cell phone number in his pocket for what was probably the twentieth time that day, and for the twentieth time, he discarded the idea. He wasn't that far gone yet.

He reconsidered that thought as he stumbled once more, and the world spun. He collapsed into a passerby, a warm, strong, familiar weight, and his last thought before he lost consciousness was, 'I have to stop meeting people like this.'

"—matsu. Ichimatsu!"

He heard the words as if through deep water, and his consciousness reached for them. He opened his eyes.

"Oh, thank god." It took Ichimatsu a second to place the face in front of him as Karamatsu's. Really, it was so troublesome to have so many people who looked so similar in his life. "Ichimatsu, are you okay?"

He nodded, and even though he ignored the way the movement made his head swim, he could tell that Karamatsu could tell. "No, you're not. Are you eating properly? Do you have a cold?" he asked.

Ichimatsu just leaned his head against Karamatsu's shoulder. Even though Karamatsu had somehow gotten him onto a bench, even just holding his head up seemed like so much work right now, especially with Karamatsu bleating questions at him like that. All he wanted to do was sleep...

When he woke up again, he was in a bright white room. After one muzzy second of panic, he realized he was in a clinic bed. Karamatsu must have...

"Ah! You're awake! My poor brother!"

Yep. There he was. Ichimatsu turned to look over at him.

"Ichimatsu, what were you doing walking around when you were feeling so sick? The doctor told me that you had a bad cold and you were almost starving!" Karamatsu said, and Ichimatsu forgave the lecturing tone if just because he could hear the frightened concern lingering below it. Their Karamatsu had always been the kindest of them, deep down. Even if he was annoying.

Ichimatsu just closed his eyes. "There wasn't anyone else to go to the store."

Karamatsu sat back in his seat. "Brother, you know you can ask for help when you need it, right?" he asked, and it was still there, that annoying worry.

"We're being independent now, aren't we?" Ichimatsu asked, and Karamatsu fell silent. Finally. "I can't call home every time something goes wrong. I need to do this myself."

"What? Why?"

Ichimatsu turned his head to the side, away from Karamatsu. "Everyone else is moving out and becoming stronger. I have to do that, too. It's the best thing for all of us," he said. Obviously.

"That's stupid," Karamatsu cut in, and he didn't sound suave at all. He sounded kind of angry. "Just because we're not living together anymore, that doesn't mean we're all doing everything ourselves! Jyushimatsu is working for Dr. Dekapan, and Choromatsu needed help moving all his stuff to his new apartment, and Totty is living in the same building as Dayon. And me... I wouldn't have been able to do anything without Chibita's help."

Ichimatsu opened his eyes. Then he turned so he could look at Karamatsu. "Chibita?"

Karamatsu nodded, and if Ichimatsu wasn't mistaken, that was a blush starting to dust his cheeks. "I'm living with him now," he said. "He took me in and encouraged me. That's the only reason I managed to stay strong long enough to get a job. I wouldn't be anything without him right now."

That didn't sound right, though. Karamatsu was an idiot, a shitty, painful idiot, but he wasn't nothing. He cared about his brothers even when it was stupid, and he worked hard once he got an idea in his head. He didn't give up, even when the odds were against him. Chibita might have given him a hand up, but he was sure that Karamatsu wouldn't have been sitting in a gutter like he'd been.

But Karamatsu was still going, totally ignorant to what was going on inside Ichimatsu's head. "It's not a bad thing to ask for help, Ichimatsu. There are people who care about you! They don't want you to be hurting like this! So it's okay to depend on them a little bit until you can do these things by yourself," he said.

Ichimatsu thought about the phone number in his pocket. He swallowed, then forced out a laugh. "Listen to you, trying to sound cool. Shittymatsu."

Karamatsu just smiled at him foolishly. "That's my job, isn't it? As your big brother? I'll definitely give you good advice and be a cool older brother!" he said, and he gave him a grin that sparkled even under the hospital's industrial lighting. Ridiculous.

Ichimatsu huffed again. He was ridiculous, too, wasn't he? He didn't need the slip of paper anymore. He knew the numbers by heart, had traced the lines with his eyes every night under the light of the moon. He could still feel the way it'd felt when she'd pressed the number into his hand, and the way his fingers felt warm for the rest of the night after being squeezed by two sets of hands. People who cared about him, huh?

He burrowed under the covers a little in an attempt to cover up his own embarrassment. "And what about you, nii-san? Are you saying Chibita cares about you like that?" he asked.

The deflection didn't work the way he'd hoped it would, though. Instead, Karamatsu just went bright red and toyed with the hem of his jacket. "Maybe," he muttered.

Ichimatsu looked at him. Then he sat up. "Are you and Chibita fucking?!"

Karamatsu's jaw dropped, and then he was yelling, too. "You can't just ask things like that in the middle of a hospital, Ichimatsu!"

"But you are, aren't you! Oh my god! Karamatsu-nii-san, you just said you could ask for help if you need it, but here you are selling your body for rent!"

"I AM NOT—" Karamatsu very suddenly realized how loud they were being and dropped his voice to a hiss. "I am not fucking him because of the rent!"

"But you are fucking him?" Ichimatsu hissed back.

"Yes, but—" Karamatsu had to raise his voice again over his brother's squawk, "That was after he let me stay! It's not—it's not like that. I like Chibita." He swallowed. "I think he likes me, too."

Well, obviously. "And you—you're happy? Doing that?" he asked.

Mutely, Karamatsu nodded his head. Maybe it was just the lack of bombastic love confessions, or maybe it was the weirdly vulnerable look on his face, but Ichimatsu believed him. He sighed and leaned back against the pillows. "I should have guessed you were gay."

Karamatsu blinked up at him. "What?"

"You know."

"Wha—that was an accident, brother!"

"Sure."

But Ichimatsu was smiling, just the barest bit. Maybe Karamatsu was right. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad asking someone for help. Or maybe two someones.

Maybe they liked cats.

"Ugh," Choromatsu muttered to himself as he examined two different brands of mirin. How was he supposed to know which one to buy? He'd never realized this cooking thing was so complicated when his mother had been making food for him.

He put the cheaper one in his basket. No use getting fancy now.

"Hey, put that back!"

"But darling! Strawberries are the most romantic of all fruit!"

"What? Gross. Shut up, Karamatsu."

Choromatsu peeked around the aisle so he could get a better look at the two people talking. Just like he'd thought, it was Chibita and Karamatsu. He'd heard from his mother that Karamatsu had moved in with Chibita, but wasn't shopping together like this a little too domestic? And what was that creepy conversation all about?

Chibita, despite his earlier protests, let Karamatsu put the strawberries back in the basket he was holding. Then he grabbed a couple pears and put them in as well. "There. Those will be good to have with breakfast," he said.

"Wow, good choice, Chibita! Those are my favorite!" Karamatsu said, then wandered off to look at the baked goods.

"Yeah," Choromatsu heard Chibita mutter as he followed, "I know."

Choromatsu stared at them as they went, and his eyes only widened as he took in the casual way that Chibita touched Karamatsu's arm to get his attention. There was definitely no doubt about it. Karamatsu and Chibita were clearly dating. And not just that—they were a gross couple. They were the kind of couple who were so happily domestic that they made you want to hurl just looking at them.

Choromatsu felt a wave of real nausea as Chibita grinned at Karamatsu, and Karamatsu smiled shyly back. Of course Shittymatsu would be like this. Of course he would.

That guy was just so painful.

But... Choromatsu paused. If Karamatsu was dating Chibita, that could only mean one thing. Choromatsu definitely had at least one less rival for Totoko-chan's affections. Karamatsu had never had much of a chance anyway, but then that fucking idiot had gone and taken himself out of the race!

Choromatsu turned back to his own grocery list, and as he walked back towards the grains, he started whistling.

"Jyushimatsu? Is that you?"

Eh? Jyushimatsu wiped the sweat from his brow and turned around. "Oh! Karamatsu-nii-san!"

Karamatsu was all dressed up, nice and neat, which was kind of weird to see. Kind of nice, too. Jyushimatsu grinned a little wider.

"Hey brother," Karamatsu said, and shot his most winning grin Jyushimatsu's way. "You're working late on this starry night."

It was 6 pm, but okay.

"Yeah! I'm almost done, though." He surveyed everything he'd managed to get done. The feeling of accomplishment still felt kind of bizarre, but he couldn't deny that he liked it. He liked funneling all his energy into a real purpose.

"You look like you've been working hard," Karamatsu said. He paused for a moment, as if considering something. "Would you like to stop by our place for a drink on the way home?"

Somehow, impossibly, Jyushimatsu managed to brighten even more. Just like his nii-san, looking out for his younger brother like that! "Yes! Drinks, drinks!"

Karamatsu nodded decisively, as if he'd been asked a question. "Yes, it's important for us brothers to remain close, even if the rosy paths of our lives have diverged," he said sagely.

He waited patiently while Jyushimatsu finished up, talking all the while about the importance of choice and red strings of fate or something. Jyushimatsu wasn't really sure. Still, it was easier to get things done with another voice keeping him company.

Soon enough, he'd finished the day's work and the two of them were on their way. "Chibita doesn't mind me stopping by?" he asked.

Karamatsu's expression immediately switched from suave to cagey. "Well, he won't be done at the oden stand for another few hours, so he doesn't have to know that you came over. Besides, I wanted to talk to you about something."

Jyushimatsu tilted his head to the side. "Me?"

"L-let's just wait until we get into the house," Karamatsu muttered, his cool completely disappearing.

Jyushimatsu didn't bother fighting down the laugh. "Haha! Karamatsu-nii-san looks embarrassed!" he announced.

"Shut up, brother!"

Once they finally arrived, Chibita's place looked pretty much exactly how he'd expected it to. It was as small as he was, but it didn't seem uncomfortable. It was neat and homey, though he could see the odd sign of Karamatsu's painfulness mixed in with the decor. A pair of sunglasses here, a tatty old guitar there.

Still, "This is really nice, Karamatsu-nii-san! How long are you going to be living here?"

Karamatsu's hands shook a little as he poured out cold tea for the two of them. "That's sort of what I wanted to talk to you about," he said, and his brother's voice was higher than it usually was. Jyushimatsu's curiosity only deepened. Was Karamatsu so worried that he'd forgotten to try and sound cool?

Karamatsu sat on the floor, hands on his knees, and he looked into his cup like it held all the answers of the universe—and all its problems, too. "Jyushimatsu... How do you know if you're in love?" he finally asked, voice soft.

Jyushimatsu was glad that he'd already put his tea down, because if he'd been holding it, he probably would have dropped it, and then where would Karamatsu be when Chibita finally came home? He tried to ignore the way his throat was thickening, the way weight seemed to descend onto his shoulders as thoughts he'd tried hard not to think about came seeping back in. It'd been a long time since he'd let himself think about love.

"Why are you asking me about a thing like that?" he finally managed to squeeze out. "Is Karamatsu-nii-san looking at a girl?" He tried to grin. "Is she cute?"

Karamatsu laughed a little, and Jyushimatsu tried to ignore the way his voice cracked. "Really cute. That's why I have to be sure," he said.

Jyushimatsu sighed loud and long and looked up at the ceiling. "Well..."

He remembered a cute face and an even cuter smile, but he remembered the way she'd made him feel even better. The way he'd feel lighter than air when she called his name, and the way every laugh from her felt like a victory. Like she was a little more at home with the world, and with him. Like he was accepted for who he was, finally, no matter how odd or goofy he was. He was full of it, with love for her and with love for the way she made him feel about himself. She'd been a precious person. She still was, even if he didn't know where she was right now. He had to believe that.

But how could he say all that to Karamatsu? He tilted his head back down again, mirroring Karamatsu. "You feel like a better version of yourself when you're with the person you love," he admitted. "Like just being around her is enough to lift you up. She may not always make you happy, but she makes you feel like happiness is always around the corner. It's easier to believe in things like that when you're in love."

Karamatsu worried at his lip. "And if it's not a she?"

Jyushimatsu blinked. Karamatsu was full of surprises today, wasn't he? "You're in love with a boy? Huh? That's kind of weird, nii-san!"

Karamatsu's face crumpled a little at that. "I know."

"But weird isn't always a bad thing, is it?" Jyushimatsu continued, and it was easier to smile then, especially when Karamatsu's face went bright red. He looked like a tomato!

"N-no," Karamatsu agreed. He looked up at Jyushimatsu. "So you think it's okay?"

Truthfully, Jyushimatsu thought that Karamatsu had struck out with enough girls that he might as well start trying with boys. It couldn't be any worse than what he'd already been doing, and he definitely couldn't be any more painful. But all he said was, "Definitely! If Karamatsu-nii-san is in love with a boy, I'll root for you!"

He jumped up to his feet. "Muscle muscle! Hustle hustle!"

Karamatsu was snickering now, and that was much better than the serious face he'd been showing him up 'til now. Jyushimatsu liked all of his brothers much more when they were smiling. And now that he thought about it, Karamatsu had been smiling a lot more recently.

Jyushimatsu looked around the room again, seeing all the little traces of Karamatsu mixed in with Chibita's things in a whole new light. "Hey... You're in love with Chibita, aren't you?" he asked.

Karamatsu froze mid-snicker. "Um."

"Wow! You totally are, aren't you?"

Karamatsu muttered something under his breath, but Jyushimatsu could tell the true answer from the sheer magnitude of the blush making its way down his neck. "Have you said anything to him yet?"

Karamatsu made another strangled little sound, but then he cleared his throat and tried again. "We've been dating for a few months now," he said, voice low in his throat.

"Wow! Way to go, nii-san!" Jyushimatsu wasn't sure what he was more impressed with, that Karamatsu had actually managed to land himself a boyfriend, or that he'd managed to keep it from his brothers for so long. And really, Chibita had a job, he had a house, he was nice... "You're really lucky!"

And then, as if because he'd been thinking about his relationship, or maybe just because he'd been praised for it, Karamatsu seemed reenergized. "Yes, I am," he said, and that smooth, suave, very painful tenor was back in his voice. "Chibita is like a lovely desert rose, and I'm lucky enough to see him every day!"

Jyushimatsu didn't know about all that, but he did know that Karamatsu seemed really happy when he talked about him. And who knew? Maybe that would be enough.

It was weird. This was weird, right?

It was beyond weird to be sitting there at Chibita's oden cart, shoulder-to-shoulder with his brothers and buzzing with alcohol, as if nothing had changed. But it had. It had.

To one side of him, Jyushimatsu was still wearing his work jumpsuit, and on the other, Choromatsu was wearing a suit. His tie was loosened somewhat and his hair was mussed, but that was the only sacrifice to casualness that Choromatsu had made, even when going out drinking with his brothers. Both of them had probably come straight here from their jobs. Maybe it wasn't just the beer that was making Osomatsu feel vaguely nauseated.

Totty, at least, seemed just about as shitty as he always had. He acted like he was so much better than the rest of them, moving out on his own the way he had, but he was dressed casually and Osomatsu knew for a fact that he still hadn't managed to get a real job. The asshole smiled at him like he had a secret, but when didn't he?

And then there was Karamatsu. Osomatsu glanced over just in time to see Karamatsu and Chibita trading some kind of look. It was the sort of look he'd seen his parents exchanging before, the kind that spoke of silent conversations and Meaningful Things. It couldn't have been that important, though, because all Chibita did was hand Ichimatsu another serving of oden and wave off his muttered thanks.

As for Ichimatsu... Osomatsu had no idea what Ichimatsu was doing these days, and wasn't that the weirdest feeling of all? It was like he was sitting alongside strangers that he'd just happened to spend twenty years of his life with.

Osomatsu's stomach roiled, and he looked away, tried to block out the cheerful conversations. How could they all be so happy like this? How could they all move on so easily when he was still right where he'd always been?

"It's getting late. I'm going home." The words were out before he'd even registered their sentiment.

His brothers looked up at him in surprise. 'Late' was a relative term; it might have been late for working men like them, but it had never meant much to a NEET like him. At least it hadn't when they'd all been NEETs together.

But—"You're right," Choromatsu said, and scooted back in his chair. "Tomorrow is another early morning." He gave his brothers a lopsided grin, and most of his brothers returned it in understanding.

Osomatsu pressed his lips into a thin line.

"Oh..." Choromatsu dug around in his pockets, and then pulled out a handful of coins. "How much do I owe you, Chibita?"

There was a clang as Chibita dropped his spoon in shock, and the sound was almost as loud as Osomatsu's heartbeat in his ears. "U-um. 1100 yen," he said, voice strangled.

"Ah." He dropped his coins into the dish. "Thanks for the food, Chibita," he said.

"Yeah, thanks!" Jyushimatsu added, pulling out his own wallet.

Across from them, Chibita's face was starting to look more frightened than shocked. "Is this some kind of joke...?"

"No," Jyushimatsu said, then cocked his head to the side. "Do you want one?"

"No, no!" Chibita cut in, waving his arms. "That's—that's okay, idjit. I don't need anything like that."

And then, as Todomatsu started tipsily going through his wallet, Chibita went absolutely pale and rounded on Karamatsu. "You're not about to start scaring me, too, are you?"

The corners of Karamatsu's lips turned up in a sort of artful laziness, that piece of shit, and he lowered his sunglasses so he could give Chibita his best set of bedroom eyes. "Don't worry, my dear. I'll be making it up to you when we get home," he purred.

Around him, all of his other brothers groaned, and Osomatsu had to hold back a gag on his own part. Karamatsu was so shitty! So painful!

He expected Chibita to join in, or maybe throw his spoon at Karamatsu's smarmy face, but instead, he just threw back his head and laughed. "I'll be holding you to that, Karaboy!"

That... That sounded almost like real flirting. Osomatsu looked from Chibita, who was still grinning with just the slightest dusting of pink on his cheeks, to Karamatsu, whose expression had softened to something just slightly above besotted. Then he shook himself. No. Chibita was reddening due to the summer heat, and Karamatsu was just drunk. There was no way someone would actually flirt back with Shittymatsu.

Osomatsu shuddered again, then turned to walk back home. At least things could never change that much.