The buses were slow, and it was almost seven before Yuuta made it back to St. Rudolph. When he got to his room, he found Akaya sprawled on his bed playing a video game. "There you are," the other boy said. "I was starting to think you'd gotten lost on your way back from the tennis courts." Yuuta, preoccupied with more important things than bantering with his roommate, didn't say anything. Akaya sat up and eyed him suspiciously. "What's going on, Yuuta?"
"It's nothing," Yuuta mumbled. He stood still for a moment, considering, then said, "I think I'm going to go home for the weekend."
Akaya gave him a funny look, but didn't ask any questions. "Okay," he said, turning back to his game. Yuuta threw some clothes into his bag with his schoolbooks and headed back toward the bus stop.
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He got home late and starving, having completely forgotten to eat dinner. Yumiko opened the door and beamed when she saw him. "Yuuta!" she exclaimed. "I didn't know you were coming home."
"I decided at the last minute," he said vaguely. Yumiko could read him like a book most times, so she had to know something was going on, but he hoped she wouldn't ask too many questions. She just smiled, and he added, "It's nice to see you, nee-san."
Syuusuke came in from the kitchen as Yuuta went to drop his bag in his room "Hello, Yuuta," he said. There was a faint hint of reproach in his voice, as though to ask 'What are you doing here?' but he smiled anyway.
Yumiko looked at the two of them suspiciously, but she didn't comment, for which Yuuta was grateful. Syuusuke walked past her and sat down to watch TV, and Yumiko, apparently deciding to let it go, turned to Yuuta and asked, "Are you hungry?"
"Famished," he said. "I missed dinner." They went into the kitchen, and Yumiko put some leftovers in front of him. They talked about school and life and other less-important things that they hadn't had nearly as many opportunities to talk about since Yuuta went away to school. The sounds of some explosion-filled TV show drifted in from the other room. It seemed almost like old times, before he had gone to St. Rudolph and before he had come to resent his brother, and for a moment Yuuta let himself forget why he was there in the first place, forget anything was wrong. It was a nice feeling, however false.
The illusion was shattered when Syuusuke came in at 9:15 to say he was going to bed. "Are you all right?" Yumiko asked worriedly. Yuuta figured she was allowed to ask since she was the big sister and was supposed to be motherly, but he wanted to know too.
"Fine," Syuusuke assured her, flashing an extra-bright smile. "It's been a long week."
Yumiko had to know he was lying—she could read both her brothers perfectly, even the usually inscrutable Syuusuke—but she only said, "Good night."
"Good night, aniki," Yuuta said, and Syuusuke left before they could ask any more questions.
Yumiko tried to continue their conversation after that, but Yuuta's mind was on his brother, and probably Yumiko's too, so it just wasn't the same.
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Yuuta had been hoping that coming home for the weekend would help him worry less, but he tossed and turned worse that night than the night before. He woke up at eleven feeling like he'd barely slept and rolled out of bed despite his body's protestations.
Syuusuke and Yumiko were lingering over breakfast, carrying on the kind of inane conversation only they were capable of. They were currently discussing the plausibility of recreating some anime character's hairstyle, given the laws of physics and the limits of hair dye. Syuusuke said it couldn't be done, while Yumiko insisted that with enough bleach and hairspray, anything was possible.
"Good afternoon, Yuuta," Syuusuke said brightly, and this time his smile didn't look at all forced.
"It's still morning," Yuuta grumbled, slumping into a chair, and his siblings laughed. Despite his exhaustion, that made Yuuta feel better. If Syuusuke was laughing easily, whatever had happened to him couldn't be too bad. He was probably just making a big deal out of nothing the way he always seemed to do when it came to his brother.
"Do you want to weigh in on the great debate?" Yumiko asked, grinning.
"Probably not," Yuuta said. He found it safer not to get involved in his siblings arguments. They were both dangerous people to cross, especially when you were their little brother, even if it wasn't serious. Besides, he rarely had an opinion on whatever the issue was.
"You just want him to say something because you know he'll agree with you," Syuusuke accused, laughing.
Before Yumiko could retort, the phone rang. She picked it up, still chuckling, and said, "Hello? Oh, hi. Yes, he's right here. All right. Eiji," she explained, handing the phone to Syuusuke.
"Hi, Eiji," Syuusuke said. "Oh, really? Yeah. Well...no, not right now. Yuuta's home for the weekend and...yeah. Maybe later. Okay. Have a good time. Yeah. Bye, Eiji."
"What did he want?" Yuuta asked when he hung up. He was trying very hard to curb his worrying at this point; he'd complained for years about his brother mothering him, and yet here he was doing the same thing. He couldn't say he liked being treated like a small child by someone only a year older than him, but he thought maybe now he could understand why his brother had always tried to protect him. Despite his efforts, he found himself wondering why Syuusuke had turned his friend's invitation down. His presence was a perfectly good excuse, but he couldn't tell if that was the real reason or just an excuse.
"Just to go see a movie," Syuusuke said absently, as though he didn't know exactly what Yuuta was thinking.
Judging by the way she was looking at Syuusuke, Yumiko was probably having similar thoughts. She'd held her tongue so far, but Yuuta was sure it was only a matter of time before she demanded to know what was going on. Syuusuke probably thought so too, because he preempted any awkward questions by asking, "Yuuta, do you want to go play tennis?"
For once in his life, Yuuta was in no mood to play tennis, but he wasn't about to turn his brother down either. "I didn't bring my racket home," he said.
"You can borrow one of mine," Syuusuke offered. Using an unfamiliar racket suited to a very different play style would put Yuuta at a disadvantage, but the truth was that he wouldn't win anyway unless Syuusuke let him. Yuuta hated that his brother was so much better at tennis than he was without trying nearly as hard, and he tried to ignore it most of the time, but it was a fact of life as immutable as his position as the youngest sibling. After all, no matter how hard you worked, you couldn't become a prodigy.
"Fine," he agreed. It had been a long time since he'd played against his brother. If nothing else, it might distract him from his fretting for a little while. Maybe it would even be fun. (And maybe if he told himself that enough times he would be convinced.)