In all honesty, Seijuurou had always assumed he'd make the first move. The moment Gou Matsuoka tumbled into his life, he was sure that he would be the one to ask her out. But he was wrong, and somehow, he found himself walking up the long public stairs to her house for their study date.
Maybe he was getting ahead of himself, but he wondered if she liked him in a romantic sense. Nervously, he ran his fingers through the orange mop that stuck out of his head, biting his lip and adjusting his backpack. All he had to do was casually ask her out, to try not to pressure her into it. Seijuurou was normally the kind of guy who played things by ear, but he had a plan.
When he finally reached her door, he was just about to knock when it flew open. Jumping in surprise, Seijuurous found himself staring into a pair of violet eyes, which were guarded by some thick red glasses. They belonged to a young man, maybe a bit older than Seijuurou, who was giving the ginger quite the dramatic look.
"Gou!" The man yelled, his cobalt coloured hair swishing wildly as he turned. "I thought Rin told you no guests!"
"Rei-kun, please!" Gou's voice began to approach, and Seijuurou felt oddly at ease, despite the daggers the stranger was glaring at him. "This is my friend and upperclassmen, Mikoshiba-kun."
Rei gave Mikoshiba a skeptical look, sizing him up. "You're pretty fit, what do you do?"
"I'm the captain of the school swim team," Mikoshiba answered, trying his best to seem formal. Whoever this guy was, it was obvious that he and Gou were close, so a good impression was mandatory on Seijurrou's part. "Gou-kun needs me to help her with her math homework, so I'm here to do what she asked."
Gou, who had squirmed her way past Rei during Seijuuro's introduction, took the older teen by the hand and tugged him inside the house. "Sorry about him, he was just leaving!" Gou chuckled, and before Rei could object, she pushed him onto the porch and slammed the door.
"...Who was that guy, if you don't mind my asking?" Seijuurou raised and eyebrow, blushing a bit at the fact Gou had yet to release his hand.
"Rei-kun? He's one of Onii-chan's friends. He lives with us," Gou trailed off, almost as if she wanted to add more, but shrugged it off. She laughed and let go of Seijuurou's hand, "Come on, I'll show you to the living room. Want anything to drink?"
"Ah, no, I'm good!" Seijuurou smiled, following her down the hall. It was a nice house, kind of old fashioned, but nice. He didn't question her any more about that Rei fellow, deciding it was normal for a guy in college to have a housemate. And since Gou's mother worked overseas, she had to live with her brother, too.
Just as he was entering the room, he noticed a small picture taped to the wall. In the pihotograph, Rin, Gou's brother, stood in a swimsuit with four other guys, after closer inspection, Seijuurou noticed the one on the far right was Rei. They all held a trophy together, grinning with teary eyes (actually, one of them was staring into the distance, not smiling or even looking at the camera).
Suddenly, Gou's voice was right next to Seijuurou's ear. "I see you noticed this old thing," she laughed, smiling brightly as Seijuurou met her eyes.
Gosh, she was so close to him!
"Old? When was this taken?" He stared intently at it, not seeing any difference in Rei's appearance in the photo and his current one, other than clothing, of course.
"About two years ago," she smiled, poking Rin's face on the picture. "This was the last school tournament they all participated in, and my brother wasn't on their team, he totally photobombed this picture."
Seijuurou laughed, "Who won? He's holding the trophy, so...?"
"That's actually Haruka's trophy," Gou traced her finger towards the guy that wasn't looking at the camera. "He said he didn't care, and he let Onii-chan hold it for the picture."
Seijuurou let out a hum of understanding, face going redder by the second as Gou continued to stay so close to him, their bare arms brushing every two seconds. He coughed, "I guess we should get to work, right?"
"Yeah!" Gou beamed, skipping off to the kotatsu. Wait, a kotatsu? Seijuurou was a bit puzzled as to why it was out in the middle of spring, but said nothing.
As he sat down, he noticed Gou already had all her math books out. "Okay, I'm really stuck on this question." She scooted next to him, pointing one out in the book.
For the next hour or so, hat was how things went. Seijuurou would help explain the problem, Gou would answer it with his guidance, and then it repeated again. It would've been boring had Seijuurou been with any other girl, but he never got tired of Gou pouting at the theories and calculations. And he still had to ask her out, so he waited patiently for his plan to come into action.
"Thanks for helping me out," Gou said when they were finally finished her homework, smiling at him.
Seijuurou grinned back, taking the opportunity by the reigns. "It's okay, you can just repay me by joining me for dinner sometime."
When the request sunk in, Gou's face was almost as red as her hair. "R- really?"
"Yeah, I'd love it if you went on a date with me, Gou-kun." Seijuurou propped his elbow on the table, facing her with one hand holding his head up. "So, what do you say?"
She opened her mouth to reply, but was abruptly cut off by the door sliding open all too quickly. Startled, Seijuurou sat up straight, eyes shooting towards whoever had interupted.
Red hair, shark teeth, and blazing magenta eyes glared at him, taking the embodiment of Rin Matsuoka: Gou's older brother.
Seijuurou started to introduce himself when Rin pounced, cussing angrily in English.
"Onii-chan, stop!" Gou cried, trying to hold her brother back as he held Seijuurou tightly by the collar of his shirt.
"What the hell were you doing with my sister?!" Rin snarled, ignoring Gou entirely.
"I was helping her study!" Seijuurou exclaimed, trying hard not to kick Rin off of him. He could have taken him out easily, but Gou was right there, and being 'the guy who beat up her brother' wasn't exactly what he wanted her to see him as.
"Yeah right!" Rin snorted, getting to his feet and pulling Seijuurou with him. "What's your name, bastard?"
Ticked off, it took the ginger all of his restraint not to deck Rin right in that grumpy face. "Mikoshiba, Seijuurou."
Releasing him, Rin squared his shoulders. Mikoshiba was taller than him by a good few heads, and his muscles were much more visible; it was quite obvious who would win in a fist fight, unless Rin was secretly trained in martial arts.
"Stay away from my sister," Rin hissed, standing protectively in front of Gou.
"I think Gou-kun's old enough to decide who she hangs out with on her own, Matsuoka." Seijuurou said, staring at him coldly.
Gou, who had been watching this display with embarrassment, gave Seijuurou a grateful smile. Rin, however, just seemed to get more upset.
"Get out of my house!"
"Onii-chan, stop!"
As the siblings wrestled to get to him, Seijuurou took an instinctive step back. His back collided with a small frame of a person, and upon turning around, he realised it was one of the boys from the picture. The blond one, with big amethyst eyes and a childish face.
"Hey, what's going on in here?" He gave Seijuurou a glance, then immediately ran to seperate the siblings. "Stop it, you two! Someone tell me who that handsome stranger is, please?" He threw a wink in Seijuurou's direction, and the ginger could've swore he felt a shiver run down his spine at being hit on.
"That's Mikoshiba-kun," Gou gasped, glaring daggers at her brother. "And don't even think about it, Nagisa, he's not available!"
That made Seijuurou's heart swell, "Does this mean...?"
"Yes, I will go out with you!" Gou declared, crossing her arms as if to prove her mind was made up. "I was going to say 'yes' before Onii-chan interupted us."
The room went quiet, so quiet you could've heard a pin drop. Rin soon broke this eery silence with a scream of frustration, "I knew you weren't just studying, you liar!" He ran for Seijuurou with pure fury, his fists at the ready.
Before Seijuurou could even think of defending himself, Rin was suddenly tackled to the ground by a blur of brown hair, more muscles than Seijuurou, and green eyes. Yet another stranger from the picture, and he had Rin pinned to the ground and sat on him like an armchair. "So," the brunet said, "What did I miss?"
"Mako-chan, I think you're killing him..." Nagisa murmured, poking Rin's face (which was slowly turning blue) with his foot.
"Uh, Makoto, this is Seijuurou." Gou said, laughing awkwardly to hide her embarrassment. "He's, uh, he's my new boyfriend."
Seijuurou could've died of happiness right there and then if Makoto wasn't giving the biggest puppy dog eyes he'd ever seen. "EHH?! Really?!" Makoto leapt to his feet, allowing Rin to gasp for breath, and grabbed Gou's hands. "I'm so happy for you, Gou!"
He then turned to Seijuurou, still grinning. "You're a lucky guy, Seijuurou-san."
Seijuurou opened his mouth to reply, when Nagisa cut in, smiling sweetly. "If you ever harm a hair on her head, I'll smother you with a pillow in your sleep!"
The room was silent, minus the gasping of Rin, who still hadn't recovered from Makoto's tackle glomp. Seijuurou nervously smiled at Gou, "I think I'd better go before he tries to kill me, again..."
"Yeah, I'll walk you out." She gave him an apologetic smile, leading him out of the living room.
They made it out of the house and to the edge of the hill before Gou spoke again, smiling through her obvious embarrassment. "They, uh, they're all in college, so they decided to live together. And since my mom transferred because of her job, I have to put up with all of them."
"That makes sense," Seijuurou sighed, glad that there was some explanation given.
Gou laughed, rubbing the back of her head. "Uh, Haru lives with us, too. He probably went right upstairs, though..."
Seijuurou patted her on the shoulder, "Hey, I don't mind. Really," He let his hand travel to her cheek, brushing his thumb against it. "I think I like you even more, standing up to all of them like that."
She leaned into his touch, bringing her own hand up to cover Seijuurou's. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow, then?"
"Yeah," Seijuurou said, feeling his heart twist. He'd actually done it, he had asked Gou Matsuoka out. She leaned up on the tips of her toes, giving him a brief, surprise kiss on the cheek.
"Thank you," Gou murmured, and she quickly scampered off, obviously trying to hide her embarrassment.
Little did she know, Seijuurou was so happy he broke into dance in the middle of his walk home. That earned him some might odd looks from the locals, but he ignored them and continued his merry fit.