Yao woke at the break of dawn. The sun had just appeared on the horizon, illuminating the room just enough to make the translucent canopy of the bed seem to give off a reddish glow. Yao yawned, stretched, and felt his body ache in complaint. He wondered why he was up at this hour.

Kiku grumbled into Yao's chest, miffed at being awakened by Yao's movements. "Too early."

Yao shivered, feeling Kiku's breath tickle his bare skin. Kiku noticed this and chuckled sleepily, almost as if intending to tease him more. Yao felt himself blush. Really, they shouldn't be doing this… but so much had changed about their relationship in the past century that this wasn't strictly wrong. They weren't humans, after all. His "family" hadn't really been family for ages, though most of them still came every new year to celebrate as they used to.

Ding. Yao's phone lit up the room. He groaned and turned around in bed, intending to grab his phone, but Kiku's arms locked around his torso in a vice grip. "What- ah…" Yao shuddered, startled by rough kisses at the nape of his neck. "Didn't you just say it was too early?"

Kiku made some sort of noncommittal noise, then moved his kisses slowly down Yao's back.

"Kiku…" Yao chided, growing uneasy.

Kiku ignored him.

Ding. The notification gave Yao some brief clarity, and he jerked up out of bed. Kiku let him go without further resistance. Yao turned back, a fiery look in his eye, to scold Kiku, but he couldn't find any words to say. Kiku averted his eyes from Yao's glare as he always did, so Yao just huffed in frustration and knelt to pick up his clothes from the floor.

Ivan was typing up a storm. By the time Yao dug out his phone and opened up his messages the new texts filled up the entire screen.

"WHAT," Yao typed, agitated, then muted the phone. He had just woken up; he wasn't ready to contend with both Kiku and Ivan at the same time. Wasn't it past midnight over there? Why was he up?

Yao glanced back at his bed where Kiku was already fast asleep again, then to his rapidly updating phone screen. He sighed and stood slowly; his various bones and joints protested the movement with sharp jolts of pain.

Yao managed to throw on his shirt one hand at a time, the other clutching to his pants and phone. He walked back to his own room, threw his stuff on the already messy bed, then slumped into it, face-down and exhausted. His body hated even lying down; a dull ache crept all over, from Yao's spine up to his fingers. He wallowed in this feeling for some time.

The phone kept buzzing away near Yao's head, and it was becoming hard to ignore. He picked it up to scroll through the messages, skimming through them so as to not involve himself too much emotionally. Ivan had some small troubles with his politicians, it seemed, and it was the straw that broke the camel's back.

[Vanya]: And he's just ignored me
[Vanya]: Does he realized that I have better memory of 30 years ago than a stupid human
[Vanya]: it wasn't like that at all
[Vanya]: I'm just so angry
[Vanya]: I don't want to go back to the way it was before I've seen what I was missing
[Vanya]: Yao
[Vanya]: Can you look outside when you wake up

[Yao]: WHAT

[Vanya]: sorry
[Vanya]: I just really wanted to see you
[Vanya]: you always make me feel better
[Vanya]: sorry I push this on you
[Vanya]: I just
[Vanya]: I promise not to complain any more I just want to see you that's all
[Vanya]: actually I can't promise to stop
[Vanya]: sorry I'm like this

Yao leaped up out of bed and stormed to the front door. Sure enough, a cursory glance through the peephole confirmed that Ivan was there, leaning against one of the stone lions in the courtyard and staring at his phone.

Yao threw open the door and called out to him. "How long have you been here?"

Ivan hurriedly shoved his phone into his jacket pocket as he made his way up to the door of the small palace. "Five."

"Five what? Minutes? Hours? Come on, I know you do these things-"

"Yeah." Ivan stated flatly in a halfhearted attempt at a joke. He'd been there since 5 AM, about an hour, waiting in the admittedly creepy way that he did. He remembered to smile then, a wide, innocent grin that pushed up the corners of his eyes like a genuine smile. Yao knew him too well to care about his facial expressions, but it was nice to practice. "May I come in?"

"Ah…" Yao glanced distractedly behind him, then pursed his lips. "How about we go on a walk instead?"

Ivan furrowed his brow in a look of confusion. "You aren't wearing any pants."

"Oh." Yao looked down, then gave an agitated sigh. "Hold on." He hurried back to his room, leaving the front door wide open.

Ivan winced internally at hearing Yao so mad. He thought about leaving, but didn't want to. He was already here, even if it was bugging Yao so much. He couldn't turn back now.

Yao was taking a while, so Ivan let himself in. The whole place was more dimly lit than he remembered it, the crimson walls looking more brown than red for lack of light. The darkness felt suffocating, so Ivan turned on the lights as he wandered, chasing away the listless feeling that had settled after he came down from his little meltdown.

Ivan found himself in the kitchen as always, and as he flipped on the light he saw a mess of liquor bottles and shot glasses on the countertop. If Ivan wasn't so troubled himself he'd think to lecture Yao about drinking so much, but really, he was in no position to talk. He just shed his heavy overcoat and dropped it in a pile on a chair. The not-so-warm air hit his torso, and he shivered. His thin t-shirt did little to shield him from the effects of evaporative cooling. He must have been sweating when he was having his little meltdown.

Yao came back then, freshly dressed. There was an anxious air about him, Ivan noticed...

"What's wrong?" Ivan asked. Yao was even more worked up than Ivan was; his black, marble-like eyes darted all around the room and behind him, reminding Ivan of a cornered animal

"Nothing." Yao snapped, then softened his tone a bit. "Want to head out now?"

"Why do you want to leave so badly?" Ivan asked. "And what's this?" He gestured to the booze strewn about the counter.

Yao opened his mouth to respond but didn't know what to say. Kiku would be up any minute now, and these two had always had some sort of rivalry over Yao. There was no way this would turn out well.

"Yao?" Ivan murmured, moving closer. "Really, what's wrong?"

"Nothing." Yao replied again, quieter this time. He stared determinedly at the ends of Ivan's scarf, avoiding Ivan's prying stare.

Ivan ducked and weaved, trying to align himself with with Yao's gaze. When that didn't work, Ivan inched closer, hands up and hovering on either side of Yao's face as if cupping his cheeks outright would break him. Yao hesitated, then leaned into Ivan's touch, letting himself relax a little.

It was strange, and kind of laughable, that Yao was now the one being comforted, but he melted into Ivan's arms and forgot about it all. He felt himself trembling, balling up his fists and burying his face in Ivan's scarf, trying to keep himself from beginning to sob. He had been so starved of touch he would have done anything just to be held.

"I'm not mad anymore, I promise," Ivan cooed, reaching down to rub Yao's back. He still thought it was his fault, somehow. "Even if I was mad I wouldn't-" He froze abruptly.

Yao clutched at Ivan's scarf, hoping to keep him under control. He could feel Kiku's blank-looking yet jealous stare, feel it on his back where he was letting Ivan touch him so freely.

"What are you doing here?" Kiku's smooth voice came from right behind, far closer than Yao expected.

"Just visiting." Ivan responded innocently, holding Yao close. "What about you?" Yao could hear poison dripping from every word.

"That's between me and Yao," Kiku quipped.

Ivan stared Kiku down, confused but irritated by the shit-eating grin that had settled on his face. "What are you talking about?"

"S-sex," Yao stammered,making a pained face to himself. "We had sex." No need to draw this out any longer.

Yao felt Ivan's breath hitch in his chest, then settle into a steady, measured pattern. He couldn't imagine just what Ivan was thinking now.

Deafening silence fell between them. Yao held his breath, waited for someone to speak up, to yell, anything. Then, when the waiting became so much Yao thought he'd explode, he heard a bit of shuffling, then the metallic clicks of the front door, opening and closing.

He turned around. Kiku wasn't there.

Yao glanced up at Ivan, who stared straight forward uneasily. "Ivan…" He began, then trailed off. He didn't know what to say.

To Yao's relief, Ivan seemed to reset himself, brushing off the encounter and releasing Yao from his bear hug. "Ah… so that's why you smell so weird."

"Ivan!" Yao exclaimed, hitting Ivan's chest in mock anger.

Ivan laughed, hiding that Yao hit him a bit too hard. "You hurt me, Yaoyao… with your stink!"

"Okay okay, I'm taking a shower!" Yao huffed indignantly. It was like nothing ever happened, as always. They walked to Yao's bedroom together, Ivan making up some incessant sing-song about "stinky yao" until they were both sick of the gimmick and Yao flipped Ivan's scarf into his face to get him to stop. Ivan just kept at it, half singing, half laughing, unable to stop himself even though he could feel himself being annoying.

They got to Yao's room, and Ivan made a beeline for the bed, flopping face-first into it. It shut him up at last.

"Finally," Yao sighed dramatically, "it's over."

Ivan said something in response but with his face in the bed it came out as more of a "nmmphff".

Yao rolled his eyes at Ivan's cute, childish ways, then started stripping for the shower. "Don't look!" He shouted, knowing full well Ivan would look. When Ivan peeped, Yao threw his shirt at him. "Aiyah, so inappropriate!"

Ivan laughed, casting Yao's shirt off his head only to be caught square in the face by Yao's pants.

"Hmph!" Yao huffed in mock anger, then turned and strode into his bathroom.

Ivan's laughter died down as he heard the roar of the shower faucet. He flipped over to lie on his back, grinning ear to ear in an unhinged way. His thoughts wandered to Kiku, and his smile faded. Did he interrupt something? Did they have sex in the same bed he was lying in? He imagined Yao in bed with Kiku, or perhaps at that kitchen counter, cheeks flushed red with liquor and giggling as he fell into Kiku's arms. Then there was the matter of them being brothers…

Ivan's heart panged with disgust, jealousy, anger, or maybe lust. Yes, that was it… Lust… He closed his eyes and let his imagination run wild.