Yuuta managed to respond with a slightly confused-sounding "yes", after nodding into the receiver and then realising he couldn't be seen. Yumiko then hung up, and Yuuta was left wondering exactly what they'd been talking about. His brother was coming to visit him this afternoon (quite why he'd insisted on it, Yuuta didn't know, because he was coming home for the summer holidays next weekend, but it was better than being dragged to the TV lounge with Yanagisawa to watch soap operas all afternoon, as so often happened on a Saturday), but he hadn't mentioned any big announcement he was going to make, or really anything at all – he'd just said he wanted to see him again, which was bad enough really, because it never sounded normal when his brother said it like that.
Whether he actually minded his brother talking to him like that or not was entirely beside the point, of course.
If Yumiko had just dropped aniki off, then it would be only a matter of minutes before he arrived at Yuuta's door, knocking with the most obtrusive unobtrusive knock Yuuta had ever heard. It was designed to sound as innocuous as possible, but there was something instilled in it that made Yuuta leap to attention even before hand met wood, which he'd long ago stopped believing was impossible. Yuuta had long ago stopped believing anything was impossible, because it was damaging to his pride to be proved wrong time and time again.
Everything was neat and tidy, right? His desk was a bit of a disaster area, but what schoolboy's wasn't? Apart from Mizuki's, of course (unless pink and purple fluffy feathered pens and peacock feathers everywhere counted as a disaster, which they undoubtedly did), and aniki's, because everything of aniki's was neat and tidy and annoyingly pristine; even his mess was well-ordered, if he ever made any. It wasn't healthy, surely?
Oh, he better hide the stuffed rabbit poking out from under the bed covers, as no one needed to know that he still slept with Bun-Buns. It was embarrassing enough even before people found out that its name sounded like a cheap stripper. Why had no one stopped him when he was three? For the same reason Shuusuke still had a bear called Mr Snuggles, he supposed, but even then, his brother had had better naming sense than him, because at least his toy didn't sound like it had been brought in off the streets. Or maybe it did, if you thought about it very carefully, but Yuuta really didn't like the idea of aniki canoodling with anyone named 'Mr Snuggles'. He also really didn't like thinking about this at all, because now he was going to feel weird the next time he did see Shuusuke's teddy bear, wherever he kept it these days. He didn't think that aniki would still sleep with a stuffed toy, but, as he was already aware, he was wrong about these things all the time.
Secreting his rabbit in a desk drawer (under the bed was too obvious, and besides, it was possible that Atsushi-senpai would come in later and root around under there if he got desperate enough), Yuuta dusted himself down – why was he dusting himself down for his brother? Must be all that thinking of Mr Snuggles – and then unintentionally threw himself sideways in the direction of the door as the beginning of Shuusuke's not-really-a-knock rippled through the space-time continuum and infused itself into his brain. As long as nothing else that aniki did could make his body act in weird ways, Yuuta was fine with it, really. Living at St Rudolph accustomed you to having out of body experiences.
Opening the door, Yuuta wondered exactly what he was going to say to his brother. If he was angry, as Yumiko had said, then how could he best calm him down, or make him feel better? It hadn't sounded as if aniki was angry at him (could that ever happen? It would be the day that Yumiko married Mizuki-senpai if it did...), so at least that was good, because Yuuta really couldn't think of anything he'd done or said this week that had the potential to have tipped his brother over the edge, but it meant that he was now entering dangerous territory, with feelings and careful conversation and a soft manner, which was entirely Shuusuke's domain. All the rest of Yuuta's friends punched walls when they were angry. Except Kaneda, who now tended to use Akazawa-buchou as his personal shouting wall. Yuuta knew this because everyone else in the dormitory knew it as well. It was hard not to. It was just a shame, really, that he never shouted anything entertaining, and that Akazawa was actually secretly understanding.
"Yuuta - so eager to see me, you opened the door before I knocked? Mmn, we're going to have fun this afternoon..."
Aniki didn't look angry, or even upset. In fact, he looked... well, he was looking at Yuuta in such a way that made his cheeks flush just on instinct. Maybe there was surgery he could have to stop this happening.
"But you did knock... didn't you?" Yuuta decided it was easier to just give up while he was behind, and ushered his brother into his room, closing the door behind them. "Er, make yourself at home..." he said, as aniki was already walking over to his desk. Why was he looking over there? Did he know his sleep-mate was hidden in one of the drawers? Was he jealous of it? Aniki had made no secret of the fact he wanted to sleep with him (Yuuta always felt uneasy when aniki was ambiguous like that), and it would be terrible if fur started to fly.
"You kept the love letters I sent you..." Shuusuke said, sounding pleased, holding them out in his hand like shining trophies after having locked in on them through the towering piles of books and papers and videogames.
Not Bun-Buns, then.
"It would have been rude to throw them away..." Yuuta stuttered, embarrassed that he hadn't thought to hide those too, and embarrassed that he'd only kept them out on his desk so that he could think more carefully about them, which was nonsensical, because they'd only been sent as some sort of weird joke, hadn't they?
"Mmn, you're a good boy, aren't you, Yuuta?"
Yuuta thought it best not to answer this, and instead brought into play a masterful diversion. "Er, why are you here, anyway? I'm coming home in a week, and then you can read me the letters in person."
His brain shook a fist internally at his mouth. Why did he lose all power of sensible speech on occasions like this!
Instead of capitalising on Yuuta's slip-up, though, Shuusuke merely went quiet for a moment, and then said, "Actually, I have something to tell you."