Just gonna leave this here. It was inspired by a chatroom conversation, so kind of random. I'm going to give a shout-out to my HikaChika for being awesome enough to inspire this. If you watch me on dA, then you knew this was coming, because I posted a little teaser thing at 2AM, but warning: I swear at 2AM.

Disclaimer: I don't own the anime or the characters...at least not yet.

"Mitsukuni!" A younger Yasuchika called, knocking on his brother's door. After a few seconds, he got no answer, and just opened the door to his brother's room, his mood instantly worsening, as first-place trophies and medals lined the wall, all from Mistsukuni's many years of martial arts and a constant reminder of the standard that he himself would never live up to. His brother was attempting to tie his black belt correctly around the white gi he'd put on, pouting a bit in a mirror as it came out wrong again. "Mitsukuni, you need to come downstairs." Without missing a beat, he walked across the room, swiftly fixing his brother's uniform. "Come on."

"I don't want to." The older, but clearly more childish between the two answered. "It's no fun." Contradictory to his own words, he reached out for Usa-chan, his beloved rabbit who had been sitting on his bed, who he intended to bring with him.

Yasuchika caught his hand. "Don't bring that thing downstairs." He instructed, before tugging on his brother's arm and starting to walk out of the room. His older brother was clearly stronger, but to Yasuchika's luck, the blonde didn't resist, following him down the stairs to the largest room in the house, which was now absent of furniture in preparation for the coming event, with the exception of a telephone and first aid kit sitting in a discreet corner. Their father was already there, and did nothing at glance at the two with disapproval as they entered, though the two children didn't expect anything more as they waited for the guests to arrive. "It's your turn to wait by the door this time." Yasuchika told his brother, trying to ignore the expression from his father that he hated so much.

Mitsukuni nodded, not really minding either way, as he already knew how the afternoon would go. There would be lots of fighting, and eventually everyone would either be unconscious, hospitalized, or shunned for backing out of a fight. See, this was how it went every year, when the extended family named Haninozuka all came to the house that belonged to the man named Yorihisa to visit. This was what other families did, he supposed, except for one important detail. When seeing another family member, a Haninozuka is required to instigate a fight, or risk being ridiculed by the entire family, as Yorihisa never took a sign of weakness lightly, and everyone knew it.

"Yasuchika will stand at the door." Their father informed, his expression unchanging as he looked at his younger son. Yasuchika knew much better than to protest, and walked to take Mitsukuni's place by the door to the room. Though it was unspoken, the man's reasoning was clear. Before anyone even arrived, it was known that Mitsukuni would be the single victor, standing alone when everyone else had been beaten. This was always the situation in the past, and would probably continue on for many more years, unless the reunion happened upon a day where he was sick, injured, or otherwise handicapped to a point where his fighting abilities would be dulled. Yasuchika, however, would fall somewhere in the middle, able to beat around half of the guests, and maybe more if fatigue wouldn't become a nuisance.

The three of them stood in silence as they waited, as there was nothing to be said between the three present Haninozukas, all of them who seemed to be radiating tension through their skin as they waited. The order of who would arrive was always a gamble, comparable to a game of Chicken. If one believed they were truly strong enough to beat Mitsukuni, they would try to arrive a bit early to be sure not much energy was wasted on other opponents. If one was weaker, though, they may also attempt an early arrival in the hopes of saying that yes, they beat a third of the people present in the home, which was only Yasuchika, but it was at least something. Nobody ever enjoyed these meet-ups, as the best outcome any of them could hope for was falling at the hands of a boy who appeared to be no older than half his true age, and was everything that the Haninozuka family frowned upon with his sweet personality and need for someone to be dependent upon. Even the way he spoke was almost foreign to the family.

Now, there were other things that Mitsukuni did that were considered strange, and nobody ever seemed to believe it until they entered the house with the sole intent of watching for such things. The most odd and unrespectable, perhaps, was that he generally tried to help his own brother out, taking on people who'd recently entered so that his brother could have a minute or two to catch his breath and was less likely to succumb to fatigue in the middle of the fight. To outsiders, this would seem a noble task, but their father didn't approve of any crutch that Yasuchika could use to improve his standings, even if it wasn't his fault at all.

Eventually, footsteps were heard coming down the hallway, and the door opened to the face of a familiar servant who quickly bowed and stepped aside to reveal a man who neither child knew the name of, though both knew he was a distant relative who had probably travelled a long way in preparation for this. His eyes immediately caught on Yasuchika, and both of them simultaneously leaped into action, with their next few moments turning into showers of punches, kicks, and blocks, with neither one the immediate victor. The two members of the boy's immediate family watched, with Mitsukuni's expression a mixture of worry that his brother would fail and hope that he wouldn't, and their father as blank-faced as ever.

Though watching the youngest member of the family prove his worth was completely interesting to both Yorihisa and his son, a second family member walked in, and, by tradition, it was the next lowest rank's turn to step up. Embarrassing as it was, this meant Yorihisa was next, as he'd been succeeded by his own son a few years back, and everyone knew it. A second fight began, and Mitsukuni already felt himself become crowded in the spacious room, already having to avoid blows that would surely otherwise nail him in the nose or jaw because of his height. He really didn't like this, as it was not how families should be, at least in his mind. Now he had to wait for a new arrival or someone to be beaten. The blonde was mentally begging for the latter, because it meant that there would be less crowding and accidental injury from getting in the way of another fight. Though, this was unlikely, since everyone seemed to be evenly matched, at least somewhat.

While silently watching his father and other relative (someone who he assumed was his uncle or cousin) fight, someone falling to the ground caught his eye. Had Yasuchika really won that easily? The moment his eyes followed the movement, he was shocked. It was Yasuchika that had fallen, flat on his back as the older male aimed to finish him off. Yorihisa did nothing more than glance over, grumbling to himself as he concentrated on the man that was still brutally trying to attack him. Mitsukuni, however, did not ignore the fact that his brother had fallen, and ducked around the fight still in progress to get to his brother. "Chika-chan!"

Now, this was an absolute violation of so many rules that Yorihisa had half a mind to give Mitsukuni a good slap across the face, if he wasn't busy with his own fight. With Yasuchika not quite unconscious or seriously injured, the fight could not be considered over quite yet. Still, with his brother unable to get up or knock the other down, it would most likely end with broken ribs. If Yasuchika was injured, he wouldn't be able to stay as head of the Karate Club or the Judo Club in school, which would only anger their father further. Before the attacker even knew what was coming, Mitsukuni had his arm and was flipping the full-grown man over his shoulder. Not even giving the other a second to realize what happened, Mitsukuni spun to face him again, fully ready to do the thing he'd been dreading all day, if it was going to help his brother.

At the same time, Yorihisa had gained the upper hand in his own duel, knocking his own opponent backwards with enough force for the other's head to crack against the wall, knocking him unconscious. After quickly regaining his breath, his attention turned to Mitsukuni and what had happened, as Yasuchika was not yet unconscious, just lying on the ground and breathing heavily as he wondered what had happened. Mitsukuni had easily beaten the man in less than a minute, and ran to his brother's aid. "Chika-chan, are you okay?" He asked, before he felt a heavy hand on his shoulder.

"What was that?" Yorihisa asked through gritted teeth, trying not to yell. He quickly motioned for a servant at the door to leave, and once they were alone, he spun Mitsukuni around. "Did you just finish Yasuchika's fight for him?"

Despite knowing he could probably easily beat his father, Mitsukuni was frightened by the man's tone, as any sensible child would be. "He was going to get hurt." He said quickly, though he knew there was no understanding of family or love from either of them.

"I don't care!" The eldest of the three yelled, giving Mitsukuni a blow to the face. It wasn't near as hard as he could have done it, but enough to catch the blonde off guard and leave a nasty red mark. "Let your brother fight his own battles!"

Mitsukuni didn't answer, holding his hand to his stinging cheek and looking up at his father. Yasuchika had managed to get up into a sitting position by this point, and was watching this with mixed emotions. Sure, he'd wanted to win and prove he wasn't the worthless child he was made out to be, but there was a part of him that knew Mitsukuni didn't deserve this; he was only worried, and for good reason, too. "He was just helping." Yasuchika mumbled, not daring to even look up at his father while he spoke.

"What?" Yorihisa's eyes quickly moved to his younger son. "What did you just say to me?" He had not been expecting this at all, not from Yasuchika. Yasuchika always listened to him, always sided with him in arguments. What was going on? He wasn't even getting a response from his own son, now. "Yasuchika."

Yasuchika couldn't help but wonder the exact same thing. Why had he said that? Why had he purposely done something to anger the person he only desired to please? And of all people, why was he defending someone who he'd openly said he hated and despised many times over? He was truly wondering this, telling himself that no, he still hated his brother. The moment of gratitude had passed, and now he must return to his true loyalties, before his father decided he was a traitor like Mitsukuni. The word seemed to catch in his throat, though. Nothing. Why he couldn't he simply say that no, it was nothing, and he was sorry? Maybe because he wasn't.

"Yasuchika!" Yorihisa was getting frustrated, and not afraid to strike a blow to Yasuchika's face as well, though he was hoping his words were enough, as they usually were for his loyal youngest son. But still, Yasuchika did not answer, and his father grabbed him by the front of his gi, shaking him roughly. "You listen to me!"

"Maybe he doesn't want to." Mitsukuni spoke up this time, looking up at his father with the closest thing to a glare that he could muster on his childlike face. "Maybe you're the one doing things wrong."

With this, Yorihisa's face went red with fury, and he let go of his son. "You have no place to tell me what's right and what's wrong!" He snapped harshly. "Now both of you, up to your rooms, now!"

Mitsukuni waited until his brother recovered from the violent shaking before leaving the room. After they were both out in the hallway, they stopped, just looking at each other as they waited for someone to speak or something to happen. Less patient, Mitsukuni ended up breaking the silence first. "Why'd you defend me?" He asked, tilting his head with typical childish curiosity.

"Shut up. I still hate you." Yasuchika quickly stormed up to his bedroom, leaving his brother behind.

For the first time in a long while, Mitsukuni was sure that this was not true. His brother didn't hate him. He smiled as he realized this, and scurried up to his own bedroom, positive that this would not be the last time an episode like this would occur.

Expect more OHSHC short stories, because everyone in this chatroom is just so amazing and ohmygods I cannot even.

Meep, on a side note, I made a tumblr. The link is on my profile, because I can't put the whole thing here. It's peacelovepastablog, though so if you aren't uberlazy then you can just type some keys and get there like that. Until then, my lovely pastaphiles~

:3

PLP