"What's that?" Makoto leaned over his mother's shoulder to stare at the card she was reading. It was a pale cream color with lace on the edges, and the writing was done in very professional-looking calligraphy.
"A wedding invitation," she replied. "Up in Hokkaido. Your cousin Hatori, remember him? Looks like he's getting married in a couple weeks."
"Hokkaido's pretty far away," Makoto said. "Are we going to go?"
"I think we might." His mother hummed thoughtfully. "You'll have to take a few days off school, considering the date, but it should be alright. I'll have to talk to your father about it first, though. He took Ren and Ran to the aquarium, but they should be back soon."
"We're back now," Mr. Tachibana announced as he came through the door, twins in tow. The two children held plush aquatic animals bought in the aquarium gift shop and they both hurried up to Makoto to show them off. "What's this we need to talk about?"
"Hatori sent us this..."
His wife showed him the invitation while the twins dragged their elder brother into the family room to excitedly inform him about everything they had seen on their day trip. Makoto sat and listened to it, occasionally chipping in bits of trivia he'd picked up over the years. Eventually the children exhausted the conversation and for a long moment they were silent, listening to their parents making travel plans in the kitchen.
"Oniichan?" Ran finally spoke up, fiddling with her pigtails.
"Yeah? What is it?"
"Why do people get married?"
"Oh, um..." Makoto paused, pondering the answer. There were really a lot of reasons why two people might get married. "Well...when two people are around each other for a long time, eventually they might fall in love. When they love each other as much as they can, one of them asks the other to get married. So they do!"
"Hm..."
The twins frowned, then Ren asked, "So when are you going to ask Haru-niichan to marry you?"
Makoto spluttered. "W-Wait, what?!"
He was dimly aware of the fact that the conversation in the kitchen had abruptly stopped.
"Hey, yeah!" Ran grinned. "You said when two people know each other for a long time they fall in love, right? Well, you've known Haru-niichan for longer than we've been alive!"
Ren nodded emphatically. "Plus, he's over here a whole lot, or you're over at his house. An' you have a lot of sleepovers and when we see you sleeping you guys are always all tangled up."
"Also you share popsicles."
"And shirts and stuff."
"Yeah I think you love each other," Ran announced decisively, crossing her arms. "You get a bunch of looks on your face when Haru-niichan's around, ya know? You're both old so you should hurry up and get married so you can be together all the time."
His face a bright red, Makoto raised his hands defensively. "Wait, hold on! Haru and I aren't in..." he swallowed dryly, "i-in love. A-And even if we were, nobody would want us to get married!"
Ren called into the kitchen, "Mama, would you like it if Oniichan and Haru-niichan got married someday?"
"I can't say I would mind terribly." Mrs. Tachibana sounded like she was trying very hard not to burst out laughing.
The twins turned their expectant looks onto their brother.
"Haru and I are just friends..." was Makoto's weak defense.
In the kitchen, Mr. Tachibana sighed and shook his head. "My son is a dense idiot."
"He'll come around eventually," his wife assured, smothering her giggles with her hand. "Haruka-kun isn't the most patient boy. If Makoto doesn't make a move first, he certainly will."
"I'm willing to bet on that."
"Five thousand yen."
"Done."
A/N:
I'm going to drown myself in this ship and nobody in the RotG fandom can stop me. Could be seen as an add-on to It Makes A Difference, I guess, even if I have yet to update that one...ehehe...