It had been perhaps a week since the dress fiasco in front of the Tao family. Sure, everyone let it go. The Queen had a long talk with her sons about placing bets (as they both called it) right before a formal and important dinner, but even she threw the notion of punishment aside, knowing full well things would just get worse at the next if she tried to wrangle Hao in. Everyone forgot about it and just owed it to the usual attitude of the elder prince(ss). Life went on just as semi-smoothly as it had before.
…well, to an extent.
Now, every chance that he got, the Prince(ss) would flaunt the favor his otouto had paid him before him, making sure to do several twirls around him while wearing the most elegant of gowns. HE would wear the most damnable of smirks on that pretty face, seeing how the Prince would shrink in the slightest under his cape, or hide behind his bangs at every mention of the orange gown he had been put into.
"Doesn't this look nice and comfortable, Yoh?" Hao would purr as he sailed through the hallways, practically leaping off the walls and launching himself from the doorways as they headed down the hallways of the castle. While… Yoh had done everything he could to try and shake the Prince(ss) off his trail when he went through the homestead, he… always seemed to know. And, as Hao would say, he would never miss such an opportunity to tease the younger. Like now, when Yoh was headed back to their room for a decent nap he ingrained into in his daily routine.
"Doesn't it just flow in the wind and dance right above the ground? Not nearly as cumbersome as wearing pants~"
"Please stop it, Hao. You've been going on like this for days now and I don't want to hear any more about it."
There was a desperate whine in the Prince's voice, and he made it clear as he flung open the door to their room, stomping it and moving to flop headlong onto the bed, burrowing his head deep under the satin-coated pillows. Hao, of course, would come sailing inside as if guided by wind, and shut the door respectfully with an innocent smile, his cheery voice rebounding and seeing to echo upwards into the high ceiling.
"I can't imagine why not!" A few more steps, a few more bounces, and the Prince(ss) leaped onto the bed himself, somehow managing between the disrupting bounce to perch himself on the edge, legs crossed, hands resting on his raised knee, and eyes shining at the sight of his brother. …who was now jostled from his place, glaring at Hao from behind mussed bangs and a crumpled pillow. No. Yoh was not in the mood today, which made it all the more entertaining for the elder.
"You seemed to enjoy the dress when you put it on!" That innocent smile remained on the slim face, but the glitter in the eyes made the Prince flush a dark red. "And you didn't object to… role reversal that night, either… …You seemed to rather like that too-" A pillow was smacked into his face, interrupting him mid-thought. With a sputter, Hao pulled the satiny thing away, met with a grinning, red-faced Yoh who was now upright on the bed, who looked much too smug for his own good at his top-notch aim.
"Yeah, I did. But I'm not going around everywhere saying that ANIKI-" Yoh stressed this on his tongue with an amused snort, seeing Hao tense in the slightest. "-enjoyed wearing my clothes for a day. You seemed to like being in charge, weighed down with all the extra stuff.." He could feel his face becoming more and more red, but could see that the elder's was doing the same. It was enough to bring a surge of pride to his chest.
More ammo.
"You walked down that hall like you were proud of yourself! You refused to leave the cape and sword behind! You made sure the gloves were buckles and even told me that I needed to do it more often!"
Hao's chest swelled with indignation, his eyes glinting just as much as his brother's, and he found himself mimicking his brother's position on the bed, knees holding him up and hand gesturing accusingly at the other, the other in a tight fist and pressed on his hip.
Backfire.
"You asked how to wear the sash properly on the back! You tried to adjust the veils because they 'overlapped too much'! You got upset when you popped a seam on the edge because it began to fray!"
"You didn't want the cape to drag the floor and get ruined!"
"You walked in those shoes damn near perfectly!"
"You looked even better wearing a men's outfit!"
"You looked even better wearing a woman's!"
Finally, Yoh gritted his teeth, jumping forward and pushing Hao to the mattress, holding both wrists down and straddling the thin waist, trapping him underneath. Hao, for a mere second, gave a surprised expression, but even that faded to a smirk. "Can't come up with a clever reply, otouto? Have to resort to physical methods to silence my razor wit?"
But no, Yoh had learned from Hao. Maybe it was a physical method. But pressing his breathless lips against Hao's yapping ones was so much less crude than what he suggested. Much like that night before, Hao tried to fight against the kiss, knowing exactly what his little brother was planning, but… Yoh could prove just as insistent as him.
He melted, throwing his arms around the neck of the Prince and keeping him close, tilting his head and opening his mouth, allowing him access. There was irritation still, in how Yoh took that opening with such vigor, how he tried to remain dominant against the usual leader of their dance, and yet… there was the characteristic tenderness, his fingers released from Hao's wrists now finding his, intertwining them and holding tight.
"Stubborn… ass…"
"Lazy… bastard…"
The insults were slipped past on bated breath, but each was spoken with a loving smile on a heated face, and sealed with another kiss.
It would be said that, in the end, Hao would agree with Yoh's original prospect that he had proposed to their mother. Maybe it would be best if everyone walked around naked, instead of wearing clothes that could keep them in one place. …to each other, they looked best without clothes anyway.
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This one is shorter, but the next... I'm hoping to extend.
