Notes: Sorry it took so long. To be honest, I really have no idea how I'm gonna fix this thing with Hisou and Hisaki. Actually, this is chapter 11: reposted *dundundunduuuunn* I didn't like the first one much, so…

PART ELEVEN

Hisou opened the door to the kitchen.

"Oh good! You got everything?"

Before he could answer, he was relieved from his load by him mom. But his relief didn't last long for soon he was attacked with orders, "Okay, get those tomatoes and chop them. Do these, too." She handed him a bowl of potatoes and went on with her work.

"What are you gonna do? Feed all the hungry people all over Africa?"

Megumi looked at him, "Funny. But just so you know, we're having guests over for dinner."

Hisou looked at the potatoes and tomatoes in front of him, "Who? Three provinces in China?"

"Funny again. You know what, I might just laugh, but I have tons of things to do. Now get to work and Hisou, try not to make a mess of things, okay? I'm in trouble as it is."

Hisou picked up the knife and started copping the tomatoes, "But seriously, who's coming over? I didn't know we're having guests over."

"It's…a secret. You'll know later. For the meantime, do that." She looked at Houki, sitting on the table (okay, maybe not ON the table, but you know what I mean ^_^;;) "You'd have to do that reading somewhere else, Houki. Unless you wanna help…"

Houki looked up from her book, in the middle of chomping down a burger, "Huh? Oh, no thanks! I'll move to the den."

"Mom, can I change first? I feel dirty…" Hisou said, putting down the knife and walked over to the stairs before Megumi could say anything else.

Houki book marked her page and laid the book on the tabletop. She'd been reading for almost three hours already. Stretching, she stood up and walked over to her mom, helping her put away some of the groceries. As she was putting some napkins in the cupboard, her mom turned to her, "Have you noticed how quiet Hisou has been lately?"

Houki closed the cupboard and turned to her, brows scrunched in curiosity, "Quiet?"

Megumi stopped what she was doing and leaned on the counter, "Yeah. He's not as talkative as usual. He hasn't been since last Saturday. Have any idea?"

Houki also stopped what she was doing and leaned by the fridge, thinking, "No. Not really. You think he has a problem?"

"I don't know. Also," Megumi walked over to Houki and lowered her voice, whispering, "have you noticed Hisaki hasn't dropped by lately?"

Houki laughed, sometimes her mom could be such a gossip. Leaning closer to her mom, she also whispered, in the same conspiratory tone her mom used, "No, I didn't notice that. I was busy recuperating remember? Why, do you think they fought?"

Megumi blinked. She didn't know if Houki shared her curiosity or was just teasing her. Houki, the embodiment of curiosity, stared back at her, eyes wide, head darting back and forth between her and the stairs, watching out for Hisou in case he came back. She blinked again, realizing that Houki was, in fact, teasing her. "You're of no use. Go ahead, read that book and get out of my kitchen."

Houki giggled and walked to the table to pick up her book. As she was walking to the den, she called out, "Tell me if anything comes up."

Megumi shook her head and smiled. Sometimes she doesn't know where Houki takes after. She's not a gossiper like her, and neither was she a close observer like her dad. Checking the clock, she resumed working. Dinner's in two hours.

---

Hisou plopped down on his bed, closing his eyes. Argh, I'm so tired. He helped his mom prepare dinner almost all afternoon and was given time to rest just now. He must've stayed like that for some time because he heard his mom calling from downstairs. "Hisou, are you ready? They're starting to arrive," then, her voice became softer, "Houki, call your brother. Tell him we'll start with dinner."

He heard Houki mumble acquiescence and then footsteps were headed in his direction. He stood up from bed and went to the bathroom.

"Hey, you here? Mom said to go down. Ayame and the others just arrived."

He called out from the bathroom, "Yeah, I'm coming down."

He splashed his face with water and started to lather soap on his cheeks when he stopped, Ayame…?

It was then that realization hit him. If Ayame's here, then…

Quickly washing his face, he grabbed the towel and dried himself fast. If Ayame's here, then… Quickly, he went out of his door and went down the stairs. The moment he opened the door, he could hear voices coming from the den, laughing. No, no, no… he thought.

"Let's move this to the dining room, what do you say?" He could hear his father say.

When he arrived at the dining room, he stopped short, lingering on the door.

"HI, honey, nice of you to join us. C'mon sit."

There was a woman, in her late forties sitting on his mother's left side, "Hello Hisou. How have you been? I haven't seen you in a while."

Trying his best to smile and not look like he was forcing it, he answered, "I'm fine, Mrs. Jinsoku. Thank you."

---

Dinner was…awkward, to say the least. They were sitting around the dining table with a tension so thick; you can cut it with a knife. His father sat at the head of the table, studiously chewing quietly on his salad, as if one wrong chew would change the whole world, he was on his father's left, himself quiet, Houki to his left, trying to make small talk with him and Hisaki, but obviously failing miserably, Hisaki to Houki's left, and from what he can see, he looked like he just swallowed a poisonous frog. He sighed. This is not going well. He looked across from him to his mother, seated at his dad's right. She and Mrs. Jinsoku were amidst some incessant chatter that they hardly noticed anything wrong.

Everything was wrong. From the seating to the whole atmosphere. Normally, when Hisaki stays over for dinner, Houki would move to sit beside his mom so him and Hisaki would sit together, it's always been like that. And when Mrs. Jinsoku would also come over, she'd sit with his mom, Houki would sit on his side, but Hisaki was still beside him. He always was, wherever they eat. Okay, so nothing was very wrong about the seating, but there shouldn't be this much tension around the table.

"So Hisou-chan, how's school?"

He was startled from his reverie by the voice of Hisaki's mom. "It's okay."

At least he managed to smile.

"How come you haven't dropped by the house in a while?"

He almost choked on his meatloaf. Like mother like son. Now I'm certain where Hisaki got his impeccable tact.

"He's been busy with school. And so was Hisaki, I believe."

He looked at his mom and she winked at him. Then, he turned his eyes to Hisaki, who was blushing furiously and it seemed like the frog he swallowed was even bigger than before. If this goes on longer, he'd die right there. Or Hisaki would, whoever does first.

Dinner lasted an hour and a half. Needless to say, Hisou just wished that he actually did die.

---

After dinner, he, Houki and Hisaki were in charge of clearing up the table and taking care of the dishes, like they always were while the adults moved into the den to talk more over coffee. And like in the table, tension was present in the kitchen as well.

Houki felt suffocated.

"Guys, you do the dishes, I'll clean the table."

Panic immediately took hold of both Hisou and Hisaki's face, but before any of them could interject, she was out of there with a rug. They both stood there for a while, looking at anything but each other.

"Rinse the dishes well!" Houki said from the other room. This startled them back to working on their task. At the same time, they moved to grab the same plate, but stopped short. Hisou looked at Hisaki and smiled, before picking up a glass and proceeding to wash it. They went on like this the whole time.

When they finished, they looked around, trying to see if anything else needs to be cleaned. Seeing none, Hisou dried his hands with a rug, while Hisaki dried his with a paper towel. After doing so, Hisou bolted out of the kitchen and passed by Houki saying he'll go up to his room if anyone needs him. Houki looked to his brother's retreating form and the closed kitchen door. She knew Hisaki was still there. She knew they definitely had something. And she knew that whatever it was, it's still not fixed and doesn't seem to be fixing itself.

She walked in the kitchen to find Hisaki leaning on the counter, still drying his hands. "Hey."

"Hey."

"So…uhm…oh hey! I have a new game upstairs! Wanna play?"

"Naw, I'm tired."

Houki blinked. Hisaki, tired for a video game? Hisaki no swearing?

"Oh…I have this Chemistry homework that I can't seem to understand, can you help me with it?"

"I ain't good with Chemistry."

"Hm…" Well, there's really nothing Houki can say about that, he's actually saying the truth. But by now, she's getting really desperate to just take Hisaki up and maybe coax him to talk to her brother so they can fix this thing. They maybe getting used to this, but she sure as hell wasn't. She missed hanging out with Hisaki, damnit!

"Dya…just wanna come up to my room?"

Hisaki looked at him. She's trying to help him and Hisou fix things, he knows it. He'd have to be some kind of stupid not to notice that. He really should just say no, but with him giving those looks, there's pretty much nothing he can do to disagree. Well, he really can't do anything to disagree to Houki with anything in the first place, googy eyes or no. "Fine."

Houki smiled, at last. Now, the next thing would be to get him and Hisou to talk.

They went upstairs to Houki's room. Hisaki sat on the bed and Houki went to the closet, rummaging. Actually, she was just stalling. She hadn't thought this far, yet.

"Damn! I think I'm losing something. Can you wait here for a while?" With that, she went out the door, leaving Hisaki staring at her back.

Houki closed the door to her room, grinning. Now to the next part of the plan. She waited for a while, walking over to the stairs. After a efw seconds or so, she came back up, making as much noise with her feet as possible and opened the door to Hisou's room. "Hey, have you seen my sweater? I can't find it anywhere!"

Hisou looked up from his book to his sister by the door, "No. Have you checked your closet?"

Houki gave him a duh-ya-think?! Look and proceeded to walk in. "I looked EVERYWHERE! And I can't find it! Help me!"

Hisou put the book down, marking his page, "You don't have to be so worked up about it. Stop looking and it'll turn up sometime."

Houki looked at him, agape. "Hisouuuuu, that's my favorite sweatshirt! Mom gave it to me on my birthday! I have to find it!"

Hisou sat up, "Fine. What can I do?"

Houki's smile stretched so wide, her face looked…well, stretched. She walked over to Hisou's bed and grabbed his hand, pulling him to her room. When they entered the room, he saw Hisaki sitting on the bed, shock written all over his face, as he was sure was the same case with him. He knew what Houki was doing, she's trying to help him and Hisaki. Truly, he wanted things to be fixed between him and his best friend as much as Houki does, but there's nothing he can do about it.

Houki knew how they were both feeling, their reaction told her as much. Letting go of Hisou's hand, she walked back to the door, "Okay, you look for it here, I'll look for it in the other rooms, kay?" And then she left.

For the second time that night, Hisou and Hisaki were in uncomfortable silence. Hisaki sitting on the bed, Hisou standing by the door. Hisou smiled, "Well, we better look for it, huh?"

Hisaki didn't know what to do. There's no need to keep up the pretense that he was mad. Well, he really was before, but it kinda lost its groove over the week. Now he had no idea how to approach Hisou, "Hi—"

"Hi—"

They stopped and smiled uncomfortably at each other. Hisou fidgeted, Hisaki looked at the ground. Finally, not being able to take anymore of this, Hisou started, "Hisaki…I know you're not comfortable with me, and frankly I don't blame you. You don't have to be here, you know. I'll…I'll just look for Houki's sweatshirt on my own. You can go downstairs and…" he smiled.

Hisaki looked up, "Naw, man…'sokay, I'll look for it with ya. Not like there's any fuckin thing I can do downstairs, with yer mom and mine talkin about shit…"

Hisou laughed despite himself. He knew how long it takes for Akemi and his mom to talk. Running out of words to say, they returned to their uncomfortable positions.

Behind the door, Houki sighed.

They both heard it and looked at the closed door. "It's not fuckin missing." Hisaki said.

Hisou shook his head, smiling. Then, his expression turned serious, "But she's right, you know."

Hisaki looked up at him, "Huh?"

"She's right. We should stop this. This is stupid."

"Yeah, it is."

"So…are we friends?"

"Yeah, man. But…can you tell me this? Why'd ya hafta hide it from me?"

Hisou flinched, he knew they can't go back to normal without having this talk. "I…uhm…I was afraid…you'd…"

But Hisaki cut him off, "Afraid of what? That I'd turn my back on ya? Man, you know me better than this. I'd never turn my back on ya, never."

Now, Hisou felt ashamed, "I…I know. I just got scared, that's all."

"Of what?"

"Of…of being different, of being a disappointment, of…of…being…"

"Gay?"

Hisou smiled, "Yeah."

"Wut the hell for?! Yer not different, yer cool, yer smart, yer goodlooking, yer every fuckin girl's dream…and a handful of guys, too, that I'd be willin ta name." Hisaki grinned.

Hisou's eyes widened at that. "What? You think some guys like me?"

"I know," Hisaki said, luxuriously stretching on the bed.

"Yeah? Who?"

Hisaki looked at him with wide eyes, "Dude! You really are gay, aren't you?!"

Hisou's smile faltered a bit at this comment, he knew Hisaki didn't mean anything by it, but it still stung in places. Hisaki, on the other hand, didn't seem to notice the effect of his words and continued talking, "Well, ya know that guy in soccer? The one with blond hair, blue eyes, the works? Well, I saw 'im checkin ya out when ya walked pass him."

Hisou stared at him, flushed, "He did NOT!"

"Yeah, man. And then there's this guy, the one we saw at the library before. The one who helped ya with that book ya were looking for yer research. The one who---"

Hisou waved his hands, once Hisaki started explaining, it'll be years before he stopped, "Yeah, yeah, I remember him what about him?"

Hisaki looked a bit annoyed by the interruption, but continued, "Well, he was looking at yer ass when ya reached for the book at the top shelf." He grinned.

Hisou was still flushing.

Houki's eyes widened from her position behind the door. Hisou's GAY?!

"Houki, honey. What are you doing there?"

She nearly jumped out of her skin at her mom's voice, "I…uh…h-hi mom…I was just…going in…"

Megumi looked at her, totally not believing. "Well, after you go in, could you call on Hisaki? They're going home."

Hisaki and Hisou were laughing when they heard voices from the other side of the door. Eyes wide, Hisou turned to Hisaki. Houki was there! She heard them!

They waited for a minute, not really knowing what to do, and then the door opened. Houki looked at them. They were still in the same position as they were when she left them. Hisou standing y the door, Hisaki on the bed. But something was different, they were both relaxed and there wasn't as much tension in there as there was earlier. Aside from the abrupt change in atmosphere, what she noticed the most was their reactions. Hisou's eyes were wide, like he just saw a juggling ghost enter the room or something. Hisaki wore pretty much the same expression, but his mouth was wide, fangs shining in the light and his shoulders were slumped. All in all, he looked like a hungry kid who just watched someone throw a piece of bread away, in short: pathetic.

Houki smiled at them, despite their reactions…or rather because of it, " 'Saki, go down, you're going home."

Hisaki stood up and straightened his shirt as much as one could straighten a permanently crumpled shirt, "Well, I'm off. Hisou, see ya! Houki!"

Hisou gave him a pleading look, he didn't wanna be left in a room with his sister when he had the crazy feeling that she heard him and Hisaki talking about him being gay. Hisaki grinned at him and walked out the door.

He was about to do the same thing when he heard Houki's voice behind him. "Oh no, you don't."

He groaned.

AN: Aaahhhh! I finally got that out of my system! I really wasn't exactly planning for them to make up this easily, but I have to move on. I haven't even gotten to the main plot yet and I still have one issue to settle. *groans* But anyway…at least it's done. Soo…wanna tell me whatcha think? C'mon! I spent days thinking about this! It practically ate my whole nonexistent life on those times I was thinking about it. Ne…whatcha think?