AN: sorry for the wait. I've been busy with other fanfics. Warning for...everything goes to hell, actually. Enjoy!
-AP
He panted. He felt his arms ache in aftermath of everything he'd done. He felt Karamatsu's eyes burning into the back of his head as the boy dragged their elder into their room and laid him on a futon.
He said nothing.
Ichimatsu had never felt like this before.
Being angry is something he'd done often, sure. Being angry was nothing much. However, this was completely different, unlike anger at all. This was a burning which rose from his stomach, infecting his mind, submerging every single part of it in fire.
Todomatsu placed a hand on his shoulder, and Ichi was drawn back to reality.
The youngest was surprised how the expression of a cold killer could turn to that of a caring older brother within a matter of mere seconds. As soon as Ichimatsu noticed the younger, his features went uncharacteristically soft, and he spoke gently, despite the bleeding from his nose that the older had yet to notice.
"Todomatsu, are you alright?" The question made the social butterfly jump, and he rubbed his face a little, before nodding slightly. "It's only a bruise, really. I'm lucky you guys got there before..." He trailed off. Neither of them wanted to think about what could've happened if the two hadn't shown.
The possibility of Osomatsu causing permanent damage to one of them suddenly wasn't just a silly, unrealistic nightmare. Oh no, it was incredibly real, and incredibly plausible, and that scared Ichimatsu more than anything. Not for himself, of course, but for the two younger brothers who still had to stick in this house with the bitter boy.
It wasn't until blood dripped onto Ichi's hoodie that he noticed his bloody nose, and immediately rushed out of the room for some tissue. He also came back with an ice pack wrapped in a towel, which he offered to his younger brother. Todomatsu accepted, and sighed in relief of pain as the cold made contact with the blackening bruise.
Karamatsu came back out of their bedroom, face grave. "Where's Jyushimatsu? We need to talk. As a family." The two younger paused, slightly stunned by the sudden question. He could at least pretend to care more about their injuries; Though he did, but the current situation needed a firm hand.
"W-wait...O-Oso-niisan did this?!" Jyushimatsu looked scared, and upset, two things that Ichimatsu hated seeing on his little brother's face more than anything else in the world. The other three nodded in almost perfect unison. Jyushi seemed to be shaking a little, and wiped his face with his sweater-covered hands.
"A-and Todo's leaving?" Todomatsu nodded, looking sympathetically at his brother. Jyushi was technically older than the boy, but everyone knew Jyushi was the baby of the six in reality. "It's not your fault, Nii-san. It's Osomatsu. And, I've wanted to move out for a while, anyway."
"B-but what about us? Us six? L-living together f-forever?!" The boy had started sobbing by now, and Ichimatsu quickly pulled his little brother into a hug. Jyushimatsu clung to the back of his older brother's shirt, and curled his hands into fists. The melancholy brother rubbed comforting circles into his best friend's back.
Todo sighed. "Look, Jyushi, it could never stay like this forever. I'm sorry, I've really gotta go job hunting before I move out tomorrow. Bye!" He stood up and left quickly. The two older brothers had a feeling their youngest just wanted a reason to leave.
Or maybe, he didn't want to hear what came next.
A quiet sentence, with Jyushimatsu's voice cracking in the middle of it, tears seeping into his older brother's shirt, muffled slightly by the soft fabric.
"But I wanted it to."
As soon as those words left his little brother's mouth, Ichi swore that his heart broke. Cracked straight down the middle, and then shattered completely. Karamatsu had a dark, unreadable look on his face, and he suddenly marched out, slamming the door behind him. Ichimatsu knew he'd go to a bar.
And, in the peace of their home, with their parents paying no attention and their eldest brother unconscious a few rooms down, Jyushimatsu sobbed, and Ichimatsu comforted.
It wasn't long before he found tears slipping down his cheeks too.
He buried his face into Jyushi's shoulder and whispered, more to himself than his brother.
"Me too. I really hoped we could stay like this, too."
With that, the two wailed into the night, crying themselves to sleep in their living room, gaining no attention when their two other brothers came home in the early hours of morning, one upset and one blackout drunk.
And when they woke up, to achy spines and sore eyes, they looked at each other and realized something.
It had been a long, long time since anything in the world had ever hurt them this much.
They didn't even cry this much when their Sensei died. They realized something, though. Both of them, as well as all of the brothers in that house, that day.
The prospect of the sextuplets falling apart after being together for their entire lives was something none of them could bear. Even thinking of it made them angry or upset almost immediately. Because they didn't want to think about a world without their brothers.
Because a world without one of them would, no doubt, mean a world without all of them.
The world was always those six against everyone else. Even when they fought or got mad with each other, it was always them against the world.
Civil war. Civil war, which started for no reason, which hurts all parties involved, which continues entirely on baseless anger and jealousy.
They'd kill each other.
It wasn't their world anymore. They were breaking apart, one by one, going their separate ways.
As Ichimatsu felt the pang in his chest, he was sure all of his brothers, even Choromatsu, far away in his new job, felt it too.
AN: pfft. THIS TOOK A TON OF EFFORT. Anyways, thanks for reading!
-AP