A/N: Okay, uploading this a few hours late because 1) I was out of the house longer than expected, and 2) it's a half chapter/scene that I really wanted to fit in before Ch 45, something I've had in mind for a long time but only dared to start writing and include it today. Ch 45 will be next week for sure.

Thanks to ZainR for the review! I loved your reaction to the Neziguchi brothers reveal!

Enjoy!

[Chapter 44.5]: Figure It Out

Ayato stepped out into the brisk winter air, letting the blustering wind bite at his already rosy cheeks. The weather's harsh slap in the face was something he had desperately needed.

Turned out, hot cocoa had its dangers. Not just the scalding of his throat from sipping too soon. But a moment alone with Yuri while ambient seasonal piano music played, the flicker of firelight in the background, her eyes dancing with sympathetic laughter as she warned him to let it cool, to blow on it as she had. At one point while they were drinking and talking, a dot of whipped cream trembled delicately on her lip; he'd found himself strangely fixated on it, his thumb yearning to reach out and brush it off. Or maybe not just his thumb…

He was exceedingly grateful when Kaori, Sayuki, and Jinko interrupted before he could even think to lean in. The drama club girls, who were anxious to chat with her, chimed in their apologies right along with Yuri as Ayato got up from the bar stool and started walking away. He assured them he just needed to get some fresh air.

So much for that, he thought as he stood outside, taking in his surroundings. The lights of Shiga Kogen were certainly attractive at night, as were the stars in the steadily darkening sky, but a strong scent of cigarette smoke wafted from a nearby alley.

Wrinkling his nose, Ayato plodded through the snow to follow the smell into the alley. At first, he saw no one standing there, but then he noticed the puff of smoke that billowed up as well as out. A quick glance downward showed him Nezumi lying in the snow, staring up at the stars with an arm under his head and a lit cigarette between his fingers.

Ayato scoffed, taking in the full picture. "Shiruba's right, you are a drama king."

Nezumi's gaze flicked briefly to him in surprise before returning uncaringly to the sky. "Eh. Think that role's already been taken."

"By Masuda? Don't be ridiculous," he said. "You don't need to be in drama club to wear the crown. You could just, you know, get mad and push someone you care about down a hill."

Would Masuda ever have a moment where he snapped like that? The thought of it seemed laughable.

As if he were reading his mind, Nezumi started chuckling to himself, which turned into uncontrollable coughs of laughter. "Oh, man, I…" He freed his arm to wipe at his eye with his sleeve. "I can't believe I did that. He's right, I am such an asshole."

Ayato blinked. "He called you that?"

"Oh, don't be fooled by his angelic appearance," Nezumi said, waving his cigarette hand at him. Ayato stepped back, wary of the ashes, as Nezumi bit his lip in amusement. "When he's not trying to impress Ami, he can have a very colorful vocabulary."

"So, he caught up with you at the lodge," Ayato guessed, wondering if that was where Hejjiguchi had found him for their little brotherly heart-to-heart.

"Nah, I went to the arcade to hang with Chitose and Saki and the guys," Nezumi said. "The girls were coaching me through a winning streak on Space Paradise when he tracked me down and started laying into me. Like, how dare I have fun with someone else and ignore him for a whole minute when this whole week, that's all he's…" He cut himself off with a cross between a groan and a sigh.

A frown from Ayato. "It seemed like you two did get some quality time," he countered. Besides their roughhousing here, the two were inseparable in Akuma as well, and probably didn't have obstacles in the way of hanging out after school. Thinking of himself and Yuri, the other boy's complaint left him feeling slightly miffed.

But Nezumi tut-tutted in disapproval. "You sound just like him," he muttered, and took a drag of his cigarette. After a heavy huff, he took on a fake whiny tone. "'Nezumi, why are you bringing up Christmas again? We already talked about this!' Okay, yeah, but that was yesterday and now I'm mad again! What of it?"

Ayato couldn't help but laugh. Such shameless, honest pettiness. In some ways he reminded him of Yuri, which made his blossoming friendship with Hisakawa all the more interesting. "Yeah, I had work so I didn't get to spend Christmas with Yuri either," he said with a shrug. "She came by the shop, but she was with Ami and Masuda too that night."

Nezumi went quiet for a moment. "Yeah," he said, and then sounded more like himself with a snicker. "You got lucky with Ami, my friend. Not to hold a twelve-year-long grudge or anything, but the last time she plucked a guy's only friend away from him, she didn't deem him worthy of sharing." He scrunched up his face, looking thoughtful. "Well, not… I mean, kind of 'friend,' our moms were like the single mom friends so they had us play together… whatever, I don't care. Just… maybe it was us being dumb kindergartners at the time. Or maybe she just sees something in you. Maybe she tolerates having you around because she knows that you… I mean, the way you…" He gestures vaguely with his cigarette, growing frustrated with himself. "How you are with Yuri."

Now Ayato was just confused. He had gotten lost trying to unravel Nezumi's implications (a past friendship with Kurimu, per his best guess). But how they'd arrived here, he wasn't quite sure. "What? How I am with her…?"

Nezumi looked up at him incredulously, his features looking kind of funny from upside down. And then they turned sympathetic.

"Give me a break, Naoi," he said. "We aren't Takada. Let's not dance around this."

Ayato raised an eyebrow at him, waiting.

Nezumi heaved a deep sigh, putting his cigarette out in the snow beside him. "Okay, seriously, honesty hour," he said. "How do you feel about Yuri?"

Even standing in all this cold, with occasional flecks of snow falling on his head, Nezumi might as well have taken out his lighter and set him aflame. Ayato's whole body felt hot, his heart racing nervously. "What do you mean?" he asked, his tone bristly with suspicion.

Another sigh. "Look, level with me here," said Nezumi, folding his hands on his chest as he peered up at the sky, at the moon peeking into the alley. "On my life, this stays between us. Just…" he paused, biting his lip in thought, before taking another breath, "when you're with her, how does she make you feel?"

The question made Ayato hesitate. He had no idea his blood could feel so hot and so cold at the same time. It reminded him of how Shiruba looked when Ami revealed his obsession with Masuda during Christmas – a nervous rabbit, glancing this way and that, sensing an unseen and peculiar danger he couldn't quite pinpoint. Was this a trap? Was he being recorded? Had this been staged so that Yuri would be right within earshot?

Ayato looked around furtively, listening close. But when he glanced back down at Nezumi, there was no hint of mischief on the other boy's face. He was earnest, yet withdrawn, like a tired child waiting for a lullaby.

For whatever reason, Ayato decided to trust him. He walked around his legs, further into the alley, and fell against the wall with a sigh of his own.

"She…" Ayato began, wrinkling his brow as he pondered how to put it into words. He scratched at his neck; why was this so hard? "Well, she's my best friend."

"Ohhh. No shit. Thanks for pouring your heart out," Nezumi drawled.

Ayato briefly considered kicking him. So, he and Hejjiguchi really were related…

"She's smart," he continued more adamantly. "She knows how to make me laugh. She's… she's got this devious streak that not everybody knows about. Feels like she's the kind of person who would help me bury a body—"

"Thinking I shouldn't be alone in an alley with you," Nezumi said, and laughed when Ayato threw him a look. "I'm kidding. Go on."

Ayato huffed the bangs out of his eyes. "I only mean that she has my back," he said defensively. "I feel like I can trust her with anything. I feel… safe with her." Maybe it was some horrible heart-to-heart power these brothers had over him, but the words just kept coming before he could stop them. "At home, I've got this shit with my father and the ghost of my brother hanging over me, but with Yuri, she… she looks at me and she sees me. She isn't disappointed in me. She doesn't wish I was anybody else. She actually makes me feel like I'm important to someone."

Nezumi considered all of this, still staring up at the sky. "…She important to you?" he asked lightly.

"Of course she is," Ayato answered, frowning. What kind of question was that? "She was the first good thing in my life since what happened with my brother. She's made my life brighter from the moment we met. All I want is to do the same thing for her. I don't know what I'd do without her." Then he closed his eyes in remembrance. "Except I do, and the three weeks before the school festival were pretty much unbearable."

A smile from Nezumi. "Ah. Good thing Shiruba's cakes just happened to be strawberry, then, huh? Huh?" he said, poking at Ayato's ankle.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Ayato said, moving away from his jabs.

"Hah, sure ya don't." Nezumi dropped his arm into the snow, his grin slowly fading. "She makes you kinda crazy, huh? Makes you do crazy things?"

"I guess so," Ayato said uncertainly, thinking back. He never would've stolen paint from Kimito's supplies if he weren't so driven to make her that birthday mug. And he supposed that stunt with the cakes was just a bit villainous. "She's rather chaotic herself. She brought her own brand of crazy into my life. It's not my fault if I like to lean into it."

Nezumi hummed thoughtfully. "You guys do have a lot of fun together, don'tcha…"

Ayato thought of their adventures from the past few days. Her mussing snow out of his hair. Their snowball fight. Watching her dance on the tabletop. Laughing with all their friend so hard they couldn't breathe. "Yeah," he murmured. "We do."

"And what about when she has fun with a guy who isn't you, how do you feel about that?"

Immediately Ayato stiffened and glared down at him, feeling on-alert. "What? Why should I care about that?" he pushed out. "She has other guy friends. I don't—"

"But weren't you guys fighting back then because you thought she had the hots for Masuda?" Nezumi asked. "That's what I heard, and when Takada suggested they kiss, man, if looks could kill…"

And with that, he started laughing, shaking his head and slapping a palm over his forehead. He dragged it down over his eyes, possibly missing Ayato's freshly flaming glare aimed directly at him. It wasn't even remotely that funny! Why was he still laughing? Ayato's boot twitched with the urge to kick some snow on him.

But then Nezumi's laughter weakened, started to sound like a lament.

"Ohhh, no…" he said, partially muffled by his hands as he dragged them down further. "Oh, this is not good."

"What is it?" Ayato asked, still feeling mutedly murderous.

Nezumi's laugh turned into a dying chuckle, then a low whine. "Oh, Naoi," he said into his hands. "I think we're both in trouble."

"Huh?" He peered down at him, skeptical. "Trouble?"

"Okay, maybe more me than you," Nezumi conceded, while pulling out another cigarette.

"Yes, I'm not the one lighting up in an alley during a class trip."

"Hey, if anyone finds us, it'll be Shiruba. This is like the Batman signal to him. He'll have to come yell at me some more." The flicker of orange went out with a click, leaving only the small glow at the end of the stick to light up the darkness. After a beat, Nezumi looked up at him. "For what it's worth… I hope you get Yuri one day, dude. She's hot."

Ayato gaped at him, a confused sound dying in his throat.

"Objectively," Nezumi added.

Finally, the sound wrangled itself into a baffled squeak of protest. "I'm not trying to get her!" Ayato yelped, embarrassment flooding his cheeks.

Nezumi scoffed a little, shifting his arm back beneath his head as he gazed up at the silvery moon.

"Sure." He took another long drag, lost in thought for a while. Then he released a slow exhale. "Little advice? Stop playing around and figure shit out now. Or else by the time it finally hits you, you just…" He sighed again, closing his eyes. "…you've already got it bad."

Ayato peered down at him doubtfully. Okay, yeah, sure, he'd remember that when he was lying in a moping heap in the snow. What did he even come out here for? He forgot. Wasn't it fresh air? He wasn't getting any here. Let Nezumi wave his smoldering Batman signal in peace. Maybe Shiruba could come yell at him, and Ayato could be done having heart-to-hearts with these goofy brothers.

Figure what out? Ayato wondered, feeling defensive as he stepped around Nezumi's legs and out into the street. He didn't need to figure anything out…

The door to the lodge opened and Yuri stood at the entrance, illuminated by the light, her whole face brightening as soon as she spotted him.

"There you are!" she said grandly. "Geez, get inside already! You must be freezing!"

"Oh, I am," Ayato said, smiling. He pulled off his skinny gloves and reached out at her. "Feel!"

She squealed in protest, laughing as she dodged away, and Ayato followed her inside, feeling immensely pleased and distracted. What was there to figure out?

Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Preview:

"I told you it works!"

"What, am I supposed to yodel or something?"

"This band saves lives…"

"I'm not really that good."

"I'll do it."

"I guess we'll find out."

"It's all I'm going to talk about—"

"SOUMA HEJJIGUCHI! Front and center!"

[Chapter 45]: Karaoke Night.