Hi everyone. As I explained in The Unearthly and the Human before it was deleted, I have always thought that Natori and Natsume looked incredibly similar. Of course all characters drawn by the same mangaka have similar features, but these two even more so. For the purposes of this fic, you can Natsume's getting corrective glasses (or he's being a hipster xD). Enjoy.
When is Natori coming back?
Natsume shifted his feet uncomfortably and fixed his new glasses. Once again, Natsume wished that the exorcist was at his side and that they could leave this place already. Natsume glanced again at the girls standing several feet away.
They were staring again. He was sure of it.
One of his female observers had shiny brown hair, pink shirt, and sported a smile that held secrets. Gold eyes met her dark brown ones for a fleeting second before the girl whipped her head in the opposite direction faster than Natsume could blink.
There was a short minute of silence before their whispering started again.
That settles it. They're definitely talking about me, Natsume thought, frowning.
He doubted that they were making fun of him, but Natsume was bothered nonetheless. Lately, he had been getting extra attention from strangers, especially women. At school, on his way home, in the grocery store, women would slow down and give startled looks when he passed by and, if they were walking with somebody, whisper excitedly into their friends' ears.
It was unsettling. The extra attention didn't flatter Natsume. He wasn't annoyed by it either, just…really confused. What was there to talk about him after all? He wasn't famous and to his knowledge, he wasn't infamous either. Among the youkai, Natsume had garnered a reputation from his grandma Reiko, but he was no one special among humans.
While Nishimura sulked in the corner, whining about how Natsume was getting all the girls, a blushing Sasada had assured him that the glasses made him look more handsome and mature and that people were just taking notice.
Snippets of the two girls' hushed conversation reached Natsume's eardrums, the same stuff he had heard from his other spectators.
"Is he-?"one started to ask.
"Of course! Just look at the face behind his glasses. Who else could he be?" the other girl shot back.
"But I'm not so sure. He looks kind of different in person. Paler first of all. And he's shorter than how he is in movies…and a little cuter."
Natsume could practically hear the blush in her voice, and he soon felt an embarrassing pink spread across his own cheeks as he listened to these girls scrutinize him like a painting in a museum.
"His hair also looks paler than I remember. But that could just be because of the light…"
"Hm…probably. People are bound to look a little different in real life than on screen. It's parted at the front the way it usually is, though."
What did they mean? Natsume wondered. Were they mistaking him for somebody else? It sounded as if they were talking about a celebrity…
"—Okay. I'll go ask him" was all Natsume caught of their conversation before the soft footsteps of a school girl approached him.
"Excuse... m-me…" the brown-haired girl stuttered. Natsume stood there, with beads of sweat swimming down the side of his head, not sure of what to say to the shy girl in front of him.
"My f-friend over there and I think your acting is splendid."
"Um… thank you, but you see…" Natsume started. Might as well tell her now that he wasn't who she thought he was before this conversation continued any further.
"We bought your album Unloved last week and thought it was great…"
"Um…"
"C-Can we have your autograph please, Natori-san?" she finally asked, dropping into a respectful bow and offering a ballpoint pen and a crumpled receipt to write on. Her eyes were squeezed shut in anticipation as she waited for the weight to leave her hands. But no hands received the paper and pen.
"Natori-san?" she asked, looking up only to see that "Natori" was in some sort of shock. Natsume appeared to be frozen, save for one twitching finger. Even the sweat bullets had somehow stopped dead in their tracks.
The girl briefly considered tapping the boy's shoulder or shaking him back into awareness before a man with red eyes and a lizard tattoo sprinted over.
"Sorry for the wait Natsume!" the actual Natori said between breaths, panting from the run. "A couple employees wanted to take pictures with m—oh hello Miss." The actor/part-time exorcist immediately flashed a dazzling smile, eliciting a deep red blush from the puzzled fan girl.
"Wait, if you're Natori-san, who are you?" she asked, facing a recovering Natsume.
"He's a friend," Natori answered. The girl's eyes widened.
"He's not your brother? I'm surprised since you two look really similar."
Natori raised an eyebrow at the question. "No. I have no siblings."
"I see."
Natsume turned to look at his older friend as he gave the girl her autograph. It had never occurred to him that he and Natori looked related. The girl was right; if he looked closely, he could see that they both had the same hair style, nearly identical hair color and same fair complexion. What set them apart were their eyes: brownish gold versus startling red. But this difference was not as noticeable now because of the glasses they both wore.
But despite the similarities in their appearances, they didn't act like brothers. They were complete opposites, so much that Natsume sometimes wondered how they became friends in the first place; Natori was flamboyant and confident in comparison to Natsume's timid and quiet self.
And they didn't do anything remotely brotherly. Brothers don't battle shiki and crazy exorcist cults together. Brothers don't run mini marathons to escape malicious youkai together. Brothers don't teach each other youkai sealing techniques.
At least, normal brothers don't do those things.
"So, are you ready to go 'lil' bro'?" Natsume heard the exorcist ask before a hand ruffled Natsume's hair playfully. The grandson of Reiko sighed heavily.
"How long are you going to call that?"
Natori could hear the smile in the boy's words and grinned. "I'll stop after a few weeks."