A series of vignettes, based on the manga. There is no real chronological order until the end.
Rated as such for minor language and innuendo.
Insights
The depth of a relationship can be defined in the slightest of moments.
Yuuki's wonderful nap among the calm waves and the white sands of the beach had been marred by a constant beeping sound. She tossed and turned on her beach towel, willing the noise to go away, although it did sound awfully familiar to her cell phone ringtone...
The restless movements on the beach quickly transformed into restless movements on her bed. Yuuki willed her eyes slightly open, mourning the loss of her nice dream.
Her bedside clock glared a menacingly neon red 4:32AM at her. The cell phone next to it continued to happily chirp away.
Sluggish and imprecise movements got her phone into her arms. The name on the screen made her frown deepen. She should have never agreed to give him her number.
"Doumyouji-san," Yuuki acknowledged with a hoarse voice and an emphasized honorific - an action to keep her anger in check. "My phone bill is going through the roof with these calls."
"Sorry," the man replied in a not sorry tone. "That idiot woman never called! What the hell is she doing?"
Yuuki rubbed her eyes and turned onto her back. Always the same inquiry. "Tsukushi probably took the late night shift again and fell asleep when she got home. I'll talk to her when I see her again."
A slight pause on the other line. "Thank you. Punch some damn manners into her head for me too." Click.
Sleepy eyes vaguely took in the contact list on the screen as she quickly scrolled for the right person. A couple of rings and a generic voicemail later: "Tsukushi, this is Yuuki. Doumyouji-san woke me up with a call again. You've got to talk to him more so my phone bill won't explode and I can go back to dreaming about the beach."
Yuuki tossed the offending object somewhere before making a show of snuggling into her blankets. Her beach dream better come back easily.
Sometime later, Soujirou gave a hearty chortle to no one in particular. Although the sun hadn't risen yet, he felt his day would go wonderfully after such an invigorating voicemail. He correctly guessed that there were no contacts between Makino and Nishikado on Yuuki's phone.
Out of all of the people that would show up at the Nishikado mansion nowadays, the eldest son was not one that Soujirou would place on that list.
But there he sat across from him, looking sheepish at Soujirou's clear distaste of his tea.
"This tastes like shit."
"I figured. I've been out of practice after all."
Soujirou put the offending liquid down. "What do you want? Mother isn't here-"
"Thank god."
"And Father is definitely not here."
The older man shrugged. "I wanted to see how you're doing."
"Fair enough." Soujirou rested his arms on the table, choosing to forego manners. "So how are you doing, spending Father's money on an expensive med school degree?"
He frowned. "How are you doing, spending Father's money on loose women? Hell, at least I'm helping people."
"Oh I'm helping people too." He smirked. "I just choose a certain demographic and employ my own healing to their problems. Sexual healing." Soujirou imitated the last part to the popular English song, causing the other man to deepen his frown.
"Don't sing the rest, you have a terrible voice." He rose from the table and his younger brother quickly followed suit. "Don't become like Father."
"That's insulting. At least I'm not married and do that shit."
"Yeah yeah." He smiled suddenly, and Soujirou furrowed his eyebrows with confusion.
"What's with the stupid ass smile-"
"I was just thinking that you're calmer. Your mouth still needs scrubbing, but you're definitely calmer. You haven't tried to kill me yet." They walked towards the entrance, where the butler handed the former heir his coat. "I know that you're changing too, because the number of women that have come up to me asking if I was 'Soujirou's older brother' has decreased by twenty seven percent."
He leveled a look. "How the fuck did you get twenty seven percent?"
"Math, little brat. Learn it." He left the mansion as swiftly as he entered.
Soujirou bit back a growl as he retreated further into his home. He supposed he could retaliate by sleeping with twenty seven percent enough worth of women - or more, especially women who lived near that particular med school - but right now, that damn tea was ruining the taste in his mouth and he needed to fix it.
Tea was calming. Preparing tea was more calming. But in the small apartment that made up Yuuki's new living arrangements, there was simply no room nor equipment to prepare it in the traditional way. So she had settled with boiling a kettle of water and a tea bag as her evening drink.
She settled the hot mug on the vanity before taking a seat before it. The antique mirror would have reflected someone different over a year ago - a girl with more hair, a girl that teetered between expressions of fairy tale love and overwhelming sadness. A lovesick fool.
But Yuuki had changed, and there was some visual evidence to the fact - her short hair the most obvious. More subtly would be the resolution she summoned to her eyes every time she embarked on this exercise.
And so began a nightly routine. Clad in her night clothes, for a couple of minutes before she began studying, Yuuki would say, out loud, that she should treat herself better.
Such exercises would have embarrassed her, but the tea assuaged those fears away.
The three men were getting used to entertaining only themselves, minus their loud friend who had surprised them all by being the first to grow up. And although they respected Tsukasa's weighted decision, they wanted to squeeze a little more fun time into their lives before his fate would ensnare them too.
Akira and Soujirou were chatting excitedly about a new night club, leading a gloomy Rui, who chose to glare at their backs. He wondered why he had even agreed to go to this new spot with them, before remembering that they had tricked him into go. He wasn't exactly the most perceptive after a late afternoon nap.
They stopped suddenly, causing Rui to run into them. His glare intensified.
"Soujirou," Akira started, "Are you seeing what I'm seeing?"
Rui walked around to stand next to them and promptly let out a hearty laugh. The noise caused the girl in their vision to turn curiously at the noise, before a heavy blush graced her cheeks.
Yuuki visited her family at least once a week for dinner, but her father had had a bad day at work and his pathetic muttering over their meal - partly due to work, partly due to lack of beer - gave her enough sympathy to buy some more.
She wondered if she was promoting some sort of alcoholism. The stuff he drank tasted so much like a disgusting form of water though.
Yuuki thought about running away, but she, being practically the height of their legs, would stand no chance. She chose to sulk as they approached her easily.
"I didn't think you were the type to buy a six pack of beer, Yuuki-chan," Akira teased. "Thinking of getting publicly drunk at a park with some piss water?"
They all laughed when she swung her purchase at them.
Soujirou couldn't stop laughing. "Careful with that! Swing it around too much and those cans will explode."
"Serves my dad right," Yuuki muttered darkly. "This stuff is going to give him heart disease."
Rui carefully chided the beer away from her hands, looking at the drinks with faint disgust.
Akira made a face. "You're buying this stuff for your dad?"
"Yes, he's had a bad day at work and is ruining dinner with his crying because he has no beer to drink."
Now Rui looked thoroughly disgusted. "Wine is healthier. It actually lowers the risk of heart disease, among other things. You should get him that-"
A strange, devilish look struck all three men then. Yuuki felt nervous.
"Alright!" Soujirou grabbed her arm and forcefully made her walk with him. "There's this excellent wine shop near here. We'll get a case and cheer up your old man in no time!"
"A case of wine? Soujirou, he just had a bad day, he didn't get fired! And I can't afford it!" Yuuki's protests were met with obstinate ears as she was quickly led to an excellent wine shop, with Rui handing the beer to a curious passerby to get the offending liquid out of his hands.
A whirlwind of events ensued. The case of wine was easily purchased by the three men, who quickly shot down Yuuki's ardent protests that she would pay them back. The men then had surmised that Yuuki couldn't have possibly carried the new, more precious and clearly heavier purchases by herself, and she had to resign to leading them back to her family apartment. And then her family had grown suspiciously excited about the arrival of three young rich guests - who brought expensive wine too! - and promptly invited them in for dinner. And since Rui really didn't want to go to the night club, he said yes on the men's behalf.
Noting the chaotic happiness that had occurred, especially fueled by wine that even her younger siblings had tasted ("A small glass never hurt anyone and we got it all the time as children," Akira had placated), Yuuki felt a little more understanding towards Tsukushi and her crazy situations with the rich.
And then a most embarrassing event happened, when her inebriated parents snuck off to their bedroom like hot-blooded teenagers. Yuuki could feel the blood flowing away from her face at the thought of what they were about to do and sprung into action. She had quickly assembled her young siblings, a change of clothes for them, and ushered everyone out.
"We haven't had a sleepover in a long time!" her young sister said excitedly. Yuuki could only sigh and turn her head towards the men, who were somehow still following her around.
"I'm sorry you had to see that, but you can head out now."
Akira grinned and lifted the partly filled case of a couple of bottles in acknowledgement. "Still got more to go though."
"And I wanna see your place, Yuuki-chan," Soujirou added in a flirting tone. "Especially your bed. I wonder if it's big enough for two-"
"Children! Two children." Sighing in relief at the image of her younger siblings clearly paying no attention to the adult's conversation, Yuuki added, "Behave, you guys."
Their smiles didn't make her feel better.
Sara's graduation to college had left Yuuki in charge of her school's tea ceremony club, leaving her to figure out how to gain more members for such a seemingly dated activity.
But if there was one thing that Yuuki was similar to her best friend in, it was certainly resourcefulness.
A mid-Spring afternoon found Soujirou in a not so new position - outside of a public high school while being appraised by many female eyes. Although these girls were no more than three years younger than him, he still felt a little creeped out. It must have been a rich guy versus the common masses thing.
Like the last time, Yuuki rescued him after a couple minutes of waiting. Unlike the last time though, the apologetic bow she gave was not as desperate. He made a note of this.
"Thanks again for doing this," she had said as she led him to the club room, although he had a hunch that she was leading him to the slaughter. "The club will get a lot of new members after your lecture today."
Confirmed. "Did you ask me again for my skills or for my looks?"
Yuuki turned her head to glance at him then, the curls of her short hair bouncing with the movement. She stuck her tongue at him. "Both."
Soujirou gave a sly smile. "So how will you make this up to me? Being ogled by common high school girls isn't all that great, you know. It's rather traumatizing."
She wasn't looking at him as she quipped back easily, "I could always sleep with you again."
He nearly lost his balance but completely lost his voice. It wasn't until he heard her loud guffaws that he got his bearings again.
Soujirou left that particular snippet out when he recalled that afternoon's events to his childhood friend one lazy hour at his home.
Sara had giggled between bites of processed sweets. "I thought about doing that too, but I figured you wouldn't want to be taken advantage of like that." She let out another laugh. "The club is in good hands with Yuuki-chan."
Soujirou had simply shaken his head in mock defeat.
He usually preferred to get to places at a practically slow pace, but a phone call had Soujirou close to a sprint one night. As such, he arrived outside of the apartment building at the same time as the weed girl.
"Nishikado?" Tsukushi had prompted between gasps. Her face was red and sweat doused her hair. "Did Yuuki call you too?"
Her clearly disheveled appearance gave him numerous comments to shoot off, but he probably didn't look too fresh either, nor did he feel up for it right now. "Do you know what's going on?"
Tsukushi was interrupted from answering when a perimeter facing apartment door opened, revealing an embarrassed Yuuki. She hurried towards the two overwhelmed friends.
Soujirou was the first to notice. "Yuuki-chan, your hand-"
"What happened?!" Tsukushi rushed to Yuuki's side, apologizing profusely at her wince when she picked up the overly bruised hand too harshly.
"I punched him," Yuuki replied. She sounded apologetic, almost. "He got a little fresh on our date tonight and wouldn't stop when I asked." Her voice took a sudden change. Triumphant or hysterical, Soujirou couldn't tell the difference. "Tsukushi, I actually hit somebody!"
"We'll celebrate later, but let's go take care of that hand. That's why you called me, huh."
Yuuki smiled. "Yeah. I know you're good at these things. Go on inside. I want to speak to Nishikado-san and then I'll be right in."
Tsukushi gave a noise of affirmation before hurrying into Yuuki's apartment. Soujirou didn't spare a second when he captured her eyes.
"You don't pick the right men, do you."
Yuuki looked offended. "Hey! I've had other dates that have gone well, thank you very much."
He regarded her appearance - a simple blue dress that fit her well, bare from the knees down, small studs on her ears and in the middle of her collarbone, held by a thin piece of silver. He didn't see any tear stains on her face, although her eyes were bright. She was quite charming, greatly contrasting with her ugly hand. "You called me because you want me to beat him up?"
She looked sheepish. "Actually, we were kinda in a public place when I hit him. And he seems like the vindictive type." Yuuki gave a nervous chuckle. "He may try to report me to the police. I figured you had a lot of connections and I just want to make sure this doesn't... come to light, so to speak. He didn't look like he was going to get up when I ran though."
Soujirou had to laugh. He felt oddly proud. "Well if he was ungentlemanly and you did drop his ass in a place full of people, then they won't care. But I'll keep an eye out, just for you." He shifted his weight around, as if nervous about the next thing he was going to say. "You need me to stick around?"
Yuuki shook her head. "I'll have Tsukushi bandage my hand. I just wanted to ask you for that favor. Thank you for stopping by though."
"Okay, Yuuki-chan. You take care of yourself." He had walked a couple steps away, lazily, before calling out over his shoulder, "If you get in trouble with another dipshit though, you can call Akira next time. He's got some real connections, if you know what I mean."
She let herself smile as she went back to her apartment, deciding not to tell him that she did mean to call Akira instead of him. It was just that with the recently new entry in her contact list, Mimasaka was now next to Nishikado and she didn't feel too inclined to correct her accidental dial when she heard his soothing voice.
Tea was calming. Preparing tea was more calming. But some situations called for a harsher drink, something even more unforgiving than the bitter, traditional matcha that Soujirou was so adept at preparing. So he had settled with opening an untouched bottle of rare whiskey and pouring himself a generous amount.
Seated in his modern room, at the edge of his modern bed, Soujirou stared at his reflection in the amber liquid contained in a glass that he held in his hands. He knew he played a wicked game with wicked people, but this was the first time he was deceived. By a married woman, no less, who easily bedded him and threatened to use the act as political blackmail.
Such situations happened more than he cared to admit, although this time was different because of the man that woman was married to. A man that could easily soil the reputation of his family's company. And for all of his expertise in these wicked games, Soujirou was still no more than twenty. A baby, in the eyes of woman like that, and an easy target.
It would take more than hush money to tie this up. He'd have to talk to his father about it, and he despised talking to that man.
Such admittance of defeat would have embarrassed him, but the liquor assuaged those fears away.
"Well at least you can study business at Eitoku!"
"Luckily. Especially now that I'm part of that world somewhat... ick." Tsukushi stuck out her tongue. "So even though my college decision was a bit forced by that asshole, what about you? What will you study?"
The dango shop had a lull in customers and the two workers loved to take advantage of it with their easy chatter.
Yuuki paused in her task of refilling the display case. "I don't know. Maybe I can do something with a lot of travel."
"Traveling's not too fun though."
"So says the jet setter," Yuuki retorted playfully. "You've been to Canada, the United States, and you just got back from France-"
"All because of that idiot, I'll have you know," Tsukushi sighed with annoyance. "Not the most fun of trips either."
"I think my trips would be more calmer." Yuuki shook her head. Only her best friend could be so close to being murdered one minute and then catch a bouquet the next when traveling abroad.
The jingle of the door's bell alerted them to a customer, who left a happy moment later with a daifuku.
"Maybe I should go into teaching and do it abroad," Yuuki thought out loud, causing Tsukushi to look at her inquisitively. "Because then I could go to new places and learn new things, while helping people." She met her eyes. "It'll be hard, and scary, especially if I inherit your track record, but I think I can do it."
Tsukushi's eyes softened. "I know you'd do great in whatever you choose. You have the tenacity for anything."
Yuuki burst out laughing, confounded on how the Queen of Tenacity could possibly compliment her like that.
She could only shake her head at the sight before her. In her tiny apartment laid the bodies of her siblings, exhausted from the night's numerous games, as well as the grown figures of Akira and Rui. The former looked uncomfortable on the thin sleeping mat, while the latter looked almost angelic in his strange, contorted position. Three empty bottles of wine sat neatly by her trash.
Walking towards her bedroom, Yuuki bit back a sigh when her eyes landed on a drunk - slightly? completely? - Soujirou, who made good on his promise to try out her bed.
"Oi. I know you're still awake. Get off my bed."
"How could you sleep on this thing?" Soujirou turned his body to face her. He shifted his weight so that the bed made a loud creak. "So uncomfortable."
Yuuki stayed put, feeling more in control if she can stay at least six feet away from him while he rubbed himself on her bed. "It wasn't made for your weight."
He sat up then, a mischievous smile forming on his lips. "How could you possibly entertain men on this bed then?"
Yuuki wanted to retort on the floor, but she was too tired and had too much wine and for Gods sake her former dream who still looked remarkably sinful was in her tiny room. Her wits had left her. She had planned out all of the scenarios except this one. "I'm tired. Get out of my bed."
"Alright alright." The bed let out a loud groan as Soujirou rose, walking with mock grumpiness towards her. Yuuki moved away from her room's ingress to give him space to leave, but he chose to stand in front of her instead.
"How's your hand?"
Yuuki held it up to their eyes. "It's all better now. I can use a pencil properly again."
"Let me see your hand." Soujirou's voice had grown soft and curt.
She hesitated at the look on his face - seriousness was not something he graced her with most of the time - but let the palm of his larger hand caress hers.
His thumb swept over her knuckles lightly. "Does that hurt?"
"No."
"Good. Men won't mess with you again once they see these knuckles." His eyes darkened. "So what made you go out with that asshole anyway?"
He was still holding his hand. Yuuki wished she could run away. "He seemed nice enough and we had been out on a date before. I didn't realize he would be so... aggressive." She sighed, wondering why she could admit so much to Soujirou. She could tell her life's story if he sat still long enough. "I'm getting better at reading people, but I have a long way to go."
"It happens. We all make bad judgment calls. But you defended yourself, so you should be proud." He guided her hand to her side before gently letting go. "I certainly am. I still would have been glad to beat him up for you."
Yuuki couldn't help the laugh that bubbled to her lips. "I know, Nishika-"
"You know you called me Soujirou today."
He grinned devilishly at her confused and quickly reddening face. "Yeah, when I dragged you to the wine shop."
"W-well, you shouldn't have manhandled me like that," Yuuki offered weakly. She made a bee line to her bed, for it was a safe place. Or was, before that man dragged his scent all over it.
"Anyways, why'd you go hiding in my room?"
Soujirou gave a shrug from where he stood, choosing to be immobile. "We made plans to go out tonight. I had to text back a bunch of angry women that I wouldn't make it out like I thought."
He was surprised when Yuuki giggled. "Ah, sorry. Didn't mean to derail your plans like that."
Another shrug. "We had a lot of fun tonight. Nice to see what a real family should be like. We should do it more often."
Yuuki willed herself to not read more into that than she should. "They like you guys," was all she could say before turning her eyes away in embarrassment.
Some things never change. He smiled at the sight. "Besides, it's a lot of work to gain back twenty seven percent of quantity."
She looked at him from her bed, confused. "Eh? Twenty seven percent?"
"Got to pick quality over quantity." Soujirou took advantage of her confusion and quickly made for her bed, sitting beside her. The bed groaned, as if agitated. "So can I sleep on your bed?"
Yuuki's answer was quick. "Nope. You can sleep on the floor though. There's an extra mat in the closet." Her smile was slight, and perhaps playful. "There's no room out there, so you can sleep next to my bed."
"Like a dog."
She stuck her tongue out. "Yeah, exactly!"
Her laugh was jovial as Soujirou shoved her body lightly onto the bed before rising to procure the spare mat.
Back in the room with his new bedding, Soujirou made a series of harrumphs as he made himself as comfortable as possible on the floor.
"Makino told me you might become a teacher," he piped up after he settled down, and Yuuki paused in her task of securing the blankets over her form. "Said you wanted to travel."
She peered over her bed then, to look at her former dream - a well off man who was now lying uncomfortably on a thin piece of material in her tiny apartment. As if humbled. As if real. "Probably, but I'm still trying to decide."
"Hmm." He smiled at her, a warm smile. "Well go somewhere with a beach so I can come and tan with you."
"Only if you come teach more of the tea ceremony sessions."
"Hey, I want sex for those things."
Yuuki threw a spare pillow at his laughing body before ignoring him for the rest of the night.
The sun warmed Yuuki's body wonderfully and though her eyes were closed, she could hear Soujirou's laughter in the distance as he pawed at the lightly lapping waves. But then a beeping noise took over...
Yuuki's eyes opened, taking in the clock. Big red letters and numbers stared at her. 4:10AM.
She needed a new clock. And a new phone number.
Noting that the occupants may wake up from the noise if she didn't answer soon, Yuuki grabbed her phone and angrily answered.
"My phone bill, Doumyouji-san," Yuuki hissed.
"Eh? What about it?"
Unbelievable. "Look, I'll see Tsukushi today and I'll insist on having her call you more-"
The cell phone was suddenly not in her hands. Yuuki registered the new, red tinted image in front of her with sleepy surprise and felt pale.
"Yo," Soujirou started, easily evading her weak grabs for her phone.
"Soujirou?" Tsukasa was even more confused now. "Why do you have Matsuoka's phone?" A gasp. "Are you sleeping with my woman's best friend?"
He laughed into the phone. "Somewhat. Anyways, she needs her beauty rest. Bye." He ended the call and set the phone softly on her night stand.
Soujirou could make out - with the aid of the neon red digits from the alarm clock - Yuuki's confused and sleepy look. Touched by the sight, he patted her cheek. "Back to bed with you. I'll pay your phone bill. A gift to make up for his indiscretion."
She gave a glare that held no malice before settling back into her blankets. He followed suit with his own measly bedding, willing himself to return to a dream land of beach and sun and Yuuki.
End