Sometimes it was hard for Hakuryuu to be around his sister. As much as he loved her, her constant optimistic façade could drive him nuts. Instead of the smiles that weren't completely genuine and the small talk it would be nice if just once she actually came out and said what she was feeling.
At least that's what he was thinking as he sat in the restaurant across from her, observing the smile he recognized to mean she was only doing so because of obligation and the arch of her brows that indicated her annoyance.
That made two of them. It wasn't like he wanted to be there either. He had two tests to study for and a handful of papers to write. And to be honest, he would rather be spending time with Judal instead of doing any of the other things he really needed to do, alone time. But no, his sister needed to talk to him about the next family event or maybe scold him for not being at the last one. It wasn't as though they actually reached that part of the meeting.
He brought Judal with him to the lunch meeting so he could avoid too much conversation about family. Hakuei wouldn't mention anything too heavy with an outsider present, although Hakuryuu told his boyfriend everything so her secrecy would be worthless.
None of that mattered though. It was stupid to bring Judal. Hakuryuu wasn't blind to the fact that Hakuei didn't like Judal. Somehow in his attempt to avoid being annoyed by a lecture from Hakuei he ended up annoyed because she didn't like his boyfriend. It didn't seem that he could win.
He couldn't tell if Judal knew that Hakuei didn't like him and was ignoring that or if he was completely oblivious. What he did know was that under the table Hakuei had already sent a message to Kouen and soon he would have to deal with his cousin too. This was turning out to be a really shitty day. Maybe he could fake illness and hurry away with Judal before anything else horrible happened.
That plan was ruined too, when Kouen took a seat beside Hakuei. She must have texted him sooner then Hakuryuu thought.
At this point he would take anything, a fire, an earthquake, a robbery, whatever meant he didn't have to deal with the horrendously awkward lunch. He did his best to ignore what was happening at the table. Judal seemed to be doing alright in making conversation, starting to be quite animated.
Hakuryuu snapped out of his thoughts when Judal's laughter shook their side of the booth. He focused on catching up with what he missed. Judal and Kouen were talking like old friends. Hakuei was slipping out of her carefully carved calm mask and showing more annoyance every moment.
After a few more moments Hakuryuu gathered that Judal and Kouen actually were friends. Maybe friends wasn't the right word but they definitely knew each other well, and that just made Hakuei all the more annoyed.
Hakuryuu tapped his knee against Judal's and grabbed his hand. Judal always managed to make his day better, even if in the same day he deleted three weeks worth of notes.
Normally Hakuryuu would hate being in the same room as his cousin, especially when he and Hakuei were together, but today turned out to be pretty good. He didn't feel as much hate and discomfort for his cousin as he usually did.
Judal glanced over and noticed Hakuryuu's grin, an expression he never wore when he spoke of family. Judal got a mischievous look in his eyes and leaned closer and closer to Hakuryuu. At the last minute Hakuryuu looked over to see why he was so close and Judal pressed their lips together knowing Hakuryuu would probably kill him later. His young boyfriend wasn't a fan of PDA.