Warning for this chapter: Shinobu vs. Akihiko. No just kidding; I do find it funny though. Shinobu is really manly in this chapter. XD
On the downside, I feel like I can't get the emotions down well... forgive me...
I don't own Junjou Romantica, but I do own my OCs.
At the end of the week, the fun begins!
No, not really.
Misaki and Shinobu sat in Sumiko's room, munching happily on cookies they (mostly Misaki and his mother) had made earlier at the Takahashi residence before the parents (and Takahiro) had to go to work that morning; Shinobu had gone there to play as his parents and sister had stuff to do. And now they were both here.
As they sat here, Sumiko sat at her desk with papers of various kinds for her enrollment in high school. She didn't count on it to be so taxing on her soul, however. Which was why she asked Ritsu to come over and help her, and he was to come in a few moments.
Of course, things seemed to have smoothed down a bit with Ritsu and Masamune. With Ritsu being Ritsu though, Sumiko couldn't help but be worried. For some reason, Ritsu felt like big-little brother to her, no, like a little brother with cute love problems that you just have to help him with.
In the middle of her thoughts, she heard a thump, and turned around from her seat to see that Misaki had flipped Shinobu to the ground; both of them were laughing, so she didn't bother to panic. After they finally learned flipping a few days back, they just did it for fun and practice.
"I bought some drinks," said Aito, walking in with water. After setting it on a safe place on Sumiko's desk, he turned to the other boys. "Let's practice flipping from a higher and lower height in case the possible offender grabs you from either side."
"From the bed or on the stairs?" asked Shinobu.
"The bed. Mother said stairs is a walking and rushing only zone."
"But Ai-tan," said Sumiko, "I slide down the railings and sometimes climb through my window and she doesn't scold me."
"They are not stairs, so it is okay."
"I really want to meet your mom now and ask her questions," said Shinobu.
Aito just blinked and pointed out the door. "She's in the kitchen now bandaging one of the guys at the dojo, Kenji. What ever happens, don't mention anything about ladders."
"Um, okay," he said, going out of the room.
"You're mother sounds really laid back," commented Misaki.
"You think so?" asked Sumiko. "Some things though, like stairs and roadways, she won't let us play around them. That's pretty understandable though."
"Yeah," Misaki agreed, remembering what Aito told him the other day.
"Oh, Misaki-kun," Aito remembered, "Our family is going to go to the hot springs soon. If your family is able to, they can come; we'll be paying for everything though."
"Really?!"
"Hiroki-san said no;Shinobu-kun said yes, but only him, his family are busy with work. We already asked Aki-san and he said yes; Tana-san politely declined though. He said that Haru-san would be going though. So technically, Tana-san and the maids are getting a break... from them."
"That's nice for them too then."
"Yes it is, so remember to tell your family."
"Oka-"
They heard a scream downstairs. Aito rolled his eyes while Sumiko giggled. "Shouldn't have told Shicchan about the ladder thing."
Shinobu blinked at the Kenji guy as he fainted after he screamed. He certainly didn't expect that to happen.
"Thank you, Shinobu-chan," said Tomoe, Sumiko and Aito's mother, as she continued to bandage Kenji, "It's much easier now without him flinching."
"You're welcome, Hirakawa-san," Shinobu said politely.
"You can all me Tomoe."
"Okay, Tomoe-san." After hearing the doorbell, Shinobu went. "I'll go get that."
Tomoe smiled as she finished bandaging Kenji. "I'm so happy Aito made such good friends."
Opening the door, Shinobu found himself face to face with a shy looking guy and a girl that he thought was probably his sister. "So you're..."
"Ah, I'm Onodera Ritsu," said the boy, bowing politely.
Shinobu blinked and did the same. "Takatsuki Shinobu." He then looked to the girl, who also bowed.
"I'm Kohinata An, Ricchan's fiancée."
Looking at the girl for a while with an unimpressed gaze, Shinobu turned and walked up the stairs. "Sumiko's up here."
Going into her room, they found themselves watching as Aito, on the bed, jumped at Misaki, on the floor, who dodged by bending and somersaulting away. Sumiko continued looking at her papers knowing there was nothing to worry about.
Shinobu walked and sat on the bed. "What happened to flipping?"
Aito shrugged. "Dodging is also something important to learn."
"Look!" said Misaki excitedly, still in somersaulting position and moving around like an awkward box, "I can move like this!"
As he moved around almost as fluidly like a rolled dice, Shinobu's eyes lighted. "How far can you move?" he asked, approaching Misaki. Aito stiffened as he watched Shinobu carefully, fearing what the boy planned to do.
"I don't know..." said a clueless Misaki, "I think I can make it out the door..."
"Maybe the stairs too!" Shinobu added excitedly as he rolled Misaki out the door, Ritsu and An moving out of the way.
Aito looked at Ritsu and An frantically for a moment. "Why did you just let them go like that?!"
Without waiting for a reply, Aito went past the two. "Shinobu-kun, no!" Aito shouted, going after them. "No! Don't do it!"
As Akihiko approached the Hirakawa household, he wondered what Misaki was doing.
Since he had finished most of his work, including the troublesome homework, he decided to go to the Hirakawa residency upon Sumiko requesting that morning to come by and play with them as soon as she was done with her school papers. It should be okay if he was early...
Akihiko couldn't help but be surprised himself when Takahiro reminded him that he didn't like kids. But with Sumiko and Aito acting mature for their age, and Misaki being... Misaki, it was fine with him; that one friend they made though, was a total brat...
"Please, do not go any farther, Shinobu-kun!"
He looked up to see the brat himself;the boy was coming towards him pushing a strange object that seemed like a person, with Aito running after him.
Wait... then where was- Akihiko looked at the object the brat was pushing. "Misaki?"
Shinobu halted as Aito finally managed to get a grip on him, meanwhile, upon hearing Akihiko's voice, Misaki went back to regular form and looked up to see Akihiko and smiled at him. "Hi, Usami-san! Did you see that?! Wasn't it cool?"
Before Akihiko could say anything though, Shinobu jumped playfully on Misaki and held him close. "We should do that again, Misaki!"
"Yeah!"
"Le-" Shinobu stopped as he looked up to see Akihiko glaring at him and glared back in retaliation. 'What did I do?!' thought Shinobu, hugging Misaki closer unconsciously.
Akihiko continued to glare, thinking, 'He could have hurt Misaki and yet he touches Misaki so freely?! This brat...'
Shinobu seriously wondered what he was doing wrong, and then, he stared back and forth at the side of Misaki's head to Akihiko, and finally made a connection.
'This guy...' he glared at Akihiko once more, 'Is a friend-snatcher! He's trying to steal Misaki from me and Aito! He's totally weird if he thinks he can take Misaki!'
Meanwhile, Misaki and Aito didn't know what to do. Aito looked between them both warily while Misaki was at a total loss. "Should," Misaki began, and they all looked at him, "Should we go back inside...?"
"Yes," Aito agreed, immediately grabbing for Misaki and pulling him away from the strange boy and man, "Let's go."
As all that was happening...
"I'm so sorry!" said a panicked Ritsu, "Should I go after them?"
"It's fine, Ritsu-pyon~" Sumiko said from her desk as she sorts out the papers on her desk, not noticing An was in the room with them and looking at her strangely, "Ai-tan is them, so there's nothing to worry about. How are you and Masa-nyan?"
"...!" Ritsu began panicking, looking frantically from Sumiko to An, who just stared at Sumiko.
Hearing nothing, Sumiko continued. "It's okay to be shy about it, but don't be too shy, silly! Anyway, how's Sora-chi?"
"He... He's fine..."
"That's great!" She got up with her papers and turned around, "Okay, I sorted them out from the ones I finished, but these ones I..." She trailed off upon looking up and seeing An. "Oh, hello."
An held up her posture and presented herself. "I'm Kohinata An, Ricchan's fiancée," she bowed, "Nice to meet you."
"Ah..." She looked over at a guilty looking Ritsu, "Parents are good friends or business?"
He slumped a little as he sat on Sumiko's bed. "Parents are good friends; we've been engaged since childhood."
"So," Sumiko looked between them, "You guys don't really like each other in that way?"
"N-no-"
"I" interrupted An, "I really like Ricchan! So..."
'Eh...' thought Sumiko, 'It's like that one drama Aito and I watched with Mama...'
"Sumiko!" Akihiko said loudly as he entered her room looking angry.
"Aki-chan? What's wrong? You're early..."
He grabbed her and pulled her to her window and pointed out. "That!"
She looked to see Shinobu adorably (to her) attached onto Misaki, his arms hugged around them and moving wherever Misaki was walking. "Eh? What's wrong with that?"
Looking up at Akihiko to see him glaring, and looked back to Shinobu, who noticed their watching and glared back at Akihiko, before hugging Misaki closer and sticking his tongue out at Akihiko. "Ah... I see..."
'Is this,' she thought, 'A misunderstanding? 'Cause Shinobu's just being friendly, and it looks like he doesn't like Aki-chan, so he's probably doing that because...' "Aki-chan," she began, "I think you misu-" She looked to see him still glaring, and she can almost see the fire blazing in his eyes. 'My words...! They... they can't reach him now.' Instead she patted his back. "Good luck, Aki-chan..."
After he left seconds later to go outside to the boys upon seeing Shinobu moving his face closer to Misaki's (He tripped a little and leaned closer to Misaki for support), Sumiko looked to Ritsu and An, who simply watched in curiosity. "That's Aki-chan... He can be like that..."
"Aki-chan..?" said Ritsu.
"Oh, sorry. His name is Usami Akihiko, one of my neigh-"
"The Usami Akihiko?!" excitedly interrupted Ritsu.
"Umm yeah," Sumiko replied, watching him amusedly, "I take it you read his book...?"
"Yes!" Ritsu smiled, "Senpai and I read it the other day! We tho" He stopped, looking at An. "I- um...!"
An pouted at him, before looking at the floor. "What's wrong, Ricchan. I want to hear too."
"I...I-"
At this, Sumiko pulled him off the bed and took him away a little to a corner.
"Am I the only one who knows about you and Masa-nyan?!"
"No!" He shook his head frantically. "S..Sorata knows!"
"That's different Ritsu-pyon! We may both be legit witnesses, but I'm the only one they can beat answers out of!"
"They?! Who's 'they'?! Why are they going to beat you?!"
Meanwhile, An watched as the two whispered in a panic off in the corner, and frowned as she went off to her thoughts.
'That girl... When Ricchan said he was going to her house. He never really goes out to another girl's house so I thought that he probably liked her...' She looked up a bit to see Sumiko flick Ritsu on the head a couple of times, 'She acts so casual with him and her other friends are very strange...'
'It's nice that he made a friend though, but I thought that I was also a sort of friend to him and he would begin to think more than that but he doesn't...' she gripped the edge of her skirt, 'That 'Senpai' is probably that person he's loved since middle school, huh? It's not really for me to judge that in particular, but Ritsu seems happier nowadays...'
'He never tells me anything though, and even though he just became friends with her she knows already. She also seems very supportive about it too...'
'I'm not angry about that though; I mean, I've dated one or two guys in the past year. But I really do love Ricchan... I think I'll still love him in the future. He doesn't feel that way though, and with our engagement, it's really complicated. I want him to tell me things...'
'Even though I confessed to him, and keep reminding him of our engagement, it probably should annoy him very much; but it doesn't. He's still nice and polite to me, because that's the type of person he is. I...'
"A..An-chan!" She looked up to see Ritsu bowing to her, with Sumiko beside him patting his arm to urge him to keep going. "I'm really sorry! I..." He stood straight and looked at her. "I think of you as a sister, so that's why I can't love you like you want me to; but really..."
He smiled at her sadly. "I really do love you though, like a sister though. And," his tone lowered, "It just... I don't want to marry my sister. That would be really weird. I'm sorry, An-chan."
"Ricchan..." her eyes watered a little at the feeling of heartbreak. It hurt a little the first time, but this time...
For some reason, it felt really permanent.
"I... I understand. I'm like your sister right? So I... I'll try my best to... g-get ov..er it..." She wiped some of the tears off her face. "Jus-just give me some time..."
"I'm sorry..."
"Wah..." They looked to see Misaki and Shinobu at the door, who seemed to have heard the conversation. Misaki just simply stared while Shinobu looked at them teary eyed, before actually crying and running back downstairs.
Misaki however, went to sit next to An and patted her head. "It'll be okay. My Mommy told me she didn't meet Daddy until after college, so you have lots of time! She also said crying is good, so cry it all out and feel better again."
An couldn't help but smile a little at the little boy. "Okay, thank you."
Some two hours later...
"So..." Sumiko inched closer to An while Ritsu was gone using the bathroom. Seeing that their drama was over for the day, they finally finished going over the papers for Sumiko's enrollment. "I have a question..."
"What is it, Sumiko-chan?" After finding out that Sumiko was only twelve from Ritsu really surprised her; and she was more than happy and interested to help Sumiko with school.
Sumiko couldn't help but be curious. "When did your chest start growing..?"
"I think I was 10 when it started..."
"Oh," Sumiko said, putting a hand on her chest, "I feel late somehow..." Like An, her mother had started around that age, why not her...?
"I don't think you need to worry, Sumiko-chan."
"Okay..." 'Yes... Patience is the key...'
Meanwhile...
Ritsu continued to wander a bit, not being able to find the bathroom. "Where is it?"
Finding himself near the stairs, he went down to see Akihiko sitting with the younger boys on the couch watching a random anime. Trying his best not to lose composure in front of the already awesome author and especially the boys, he asked his best without stuttering. "Do you guys know where the bathroom is?"
"Oh!" Misaki got up and pulled his hand. "I'll show you! I got lost earlier too."
"Ah, thank you!"
After they left and seemed to be out of earshot, Shinobu glared at Akihiko. "This isn't over yet!"
"Is that so?" said Akihiko as he glared back.
Shinobu nudged Aito while continuing to glare. "You too! We have to fight back! The battle begins now!"
"Fight for what exactly?"
"Looks like it's just me then..."
"Wait, fight for what exactly?!" asked Aito, feeling strangely left out. "How can I fight for something I have no knowledge of?"
"It's okay. I'll never know if I'll lose you too, so you just stay safe." Shinobu planned to never really admit it, but they were about his only friends outside of school that he bothered to like, and now he was attached to them. So obviously, he wasn't going to lose them to this guy who, as cool looking as he is, can take them away.
"Safe from what?! I don't understand, Shinobu-kun!"
"Don't worry about it, you're not the one in the line of fire right now."
"Th..the line of fire...?" Aito was officially lost now.
"Listen here!" Shinobu loudly announced to Akihiko, "Misaki's mine!" 'Aito too!' he thought, 'When you try and take him away as well!'
"You..." Akihiko glared daggers into the boy who continued to stay strong against him.
"What are they shouting about?" asked An as she and Sumiko came down the stairs for a drink. "Are they arguing?"
"I can't really tell you the details, but let me tell you that it's a really big misunderstanding."
Whew... I hope I got at least some emotions across well.
Aito never really had friends his age, so he is very new to it. Especially a combination of friends like Misaki and Shinobu.
Sumiko is well aware of Akihiko liking Misaki, from that chapter when she asked him about his revelation when Takahiro took Misaki away for the weekend.
Aito does too, he's just confused about the Shinobu vs. Akihiko, that's all. Cause he knows Shinobu just being friendly, but he doesn't understand what Shinobu keeps talking about. He also doesn't want to go against Akihiko in any way either, as Akihiko is sort of a brother to him.
For those of you who wondered, Kenji recovered fine and went back to the dojo. Daddy Hirakawa couldn't help but make fun of him though and mentioned step-ladders, which was even worse.
Mommy Hirakawa Tomoe happily watches over her kids and their friends when she can, because nowadays, they're all out and about doing different things.