A/N: Short chapter! Next one will be kinda long, and possibly the last one before a brief break. Gotta stay ahead of myself. But I had fun with this one! Thanks to ZainR and Hayashinkage17 for the reviews!

Hayashinkage17, I'm happy just to have you faithfully following along! Also glad to know you're thinking about continuing your fic. Completely understand the absence, it's been a hectic year and it can also really kill the muse. Thanks for the encouragement! For me and for Naoi, poor guy could use it. ZainR, oh man do I want to get to those parts of TPS. The NaYuri stuff at least! As for the Akuma friends thing, well, I may not get to it in TPS immediately but I'll certainly answer your questions in HC! (Thanks for the Naoi & Molly mental image, btw) And as for Baelfire, he's still important for Naoi to know about. You'll see.

Enjoy!


[Chapter 36]: He Ain't Heavy


Morning came upon him with pale sunlight and muffled kitchen sounds. Ayato was still too lazy to crane his neck and see into the pass-through, and his vision was still bleary from sleep. So he stretched a little, grumbling drowsily, and turned on his back.

Then he sat up with a yelp at the sight of the dark figure waiting by the window. Burning crimson eyes flicked to him in interest.

"Shiina!" he managed, when his vision cleared. "You almost gave me a heart attack!"

The woman looked unaffected by this.

"Why were you just standing there like that?" he pressed, still feeling his neck for a pulse.

"I was standing guard," Shiina said calmly. Her arms were crossed in her usual stance, and she looked very focused where she stood. Not too far from her favorite corner, actually, so perhaps this had been a sleepy overreaction.

"Standing guard…?"

"Yui was planning to draw on your face while you slept," Shiina told him. "Revenge for giving Ooyama back his memories."

Ayato sighed, faintly amused in his morning haze. "Of course she was."

"Hinata wasn't going to stop her," she added.

"Of course he wasn't."

Shiina's stoic expression broke, in favor of the tiniest of fond smiles. A mere crack in her polished stone. He couldn't tell which one of them she was more entertained by.

Hearing more rustling, some water running, and Hinata's heated voice, he guessed the pair had elected to make breakfast instead. Also, either Yui had fallen weirdly silent or Hinata was arguing with someone on the phone. He kicked his blankets away and got up off the couch, making his way towards the kitchen. Then he glanced over his shoulder.

"Well… thanks for holding them off, then," he said, and added with a snicker, "I know they can be a handful."

Shiina made a small indifferent noise. "I have two."

He looked at her oddly for a moment, then dismissed it with a harrumph and headed into the kitchen. With foolish confidence like hers, someday she would try to befriend a dangerous wild animal simply because she thought it was cute. As to be expected from one of the earliest of a group of imbeciles.

When he entered the kitchen, Hinata was using one hand to turn a knob on the stove and the other to cradle the phone as he scoffed things into the speaker. He was doing his best to keep a courteous volume, interestingly enough, but it was clear he was frustrated with whoever he had on the other end. Behind him, Yui sat at the table reading a book, completely unfazed by the argument that was going on.

As it happened, Ayato was lucky enough to catch the very end of the conversation.

"—not even anywhere near your business, moron," Hinata said as he leaned against the counter, then ended the call with an annoyed snort.

"Who was that?" Ayato asked, vaguely amused again.

"Just his brother," said Yui, without even looking up from her book.

Hinata tossed his phone on the counter, rolling his eyes.

"Yeah," he said, and ran a hand through his messy hair. "Just my brother being his usual self – a huge brat who thinks the dumb stuff he says is actually funny."

Ayato wasn't awake enough to suppress a snort. The next thing he said without thinking. "Oh, so it runs in the family I guess."

There was a pause after that, an awkward energy in the air that even Yui must've felt from the table. She stopped in mid page-turn to narrow her eyes and give Ayato a slight grimace.

"…Thanks, Naoi," Hinata said with a frown. He actually looked kind of upset, in a subtle way Ayato could've missed if he'd blinked.

As Yui got up and refilled her cup with water from the sink, he also noticed it was an excuse to come close to Hinata and touch his shoulder in a comforting gesture. That was when he remembered meeting Hinata's family. The first time they went to Kyuuya, back when they found Yui and Shiina.

Eichi – that was his name. He'd been loud, overbearing, and a bossy old braggart who seemed like he always had something obnoxious or critical to say. Perhaps as far as Hinatas went, the Battlefront could have recruited worse.

More than that, it was an unfair comparison. He never liked being compared to his father; it might be safe to say Hinata had the same feeling about his brother.

Why had he said something like that so thoughtlessly?

"Eichi wasn't exactly the best big brother growing up, you know," Yui said as she took hold of Hinata's arm, confirming his suspicions.

Frowning, Ayato opened his mouth to say something, but Hinata interrupted.

"Genetics doesn't mean shit, anyway," he said gruffly, turning to the fridge and opening it in a bored search. Ayato nicely didn't scold him for wasting electricity. He looked over his shoulder at him for a second, then grabbed a drink and shut the door. "I mean, you're a twin. But are you really anything like your brother?"

Ayato, feeling better and somewhat validated, puffed up at the question. "I'm much smarter."

Hinata laughed as he cracked open his drink.

"Smarter than a ten-year-old. Alright, you go ahead and brag about that," he said, grinning again. But after a moment, the grin faded halfway, like it'd been tainted by a depressing thought. "What was he like, anyway?" he asked casually, taking a drink. "Hayato, I mean."

The question surprised him, in an oddly nostalgic way. Nobody had asked him about Hayato in a long time, not since his Akuma days. In Mizuzaka, he was almost sure most people didn't remember (or even know) he ever had a twin. But this particular conversation reminded him of a couple others, including the one he'd had on the walking bridge in Haruna Forest seven and a half years ago.

"Gullible, really," he decided, walking to the cupboard to get a mug for water. "Competitive but naïve. I didn't know any better at the time since he was older by a few minutes, which obviously made him invincible. He liked to beat me at races and tree-climbing and stick swordfights. We played outside a lot."

That is, whenever they got the chance to play together.

"You'd probably hypnotize him all the time if he was still around," Hinata considered, rubbing his chin.

He laughed at the thought. "I don't know about that. It'd be like hypnotizing myself."

Hinata looked over at his wife, intrigued. "Yui, you got a mirror?"

"No!" Ayato warned.

Hinata and Yui grinned at him expectantly. He rolled his eyes at them, but went on.

"Not to speak ill of the dead, though," he amended, while Hinata nodded very seriously. "He was a good worker. Very focused for his age. One of the things my father always liked about him."

He parted between Hinata and Yui to get to the sink, preferring to focus on the running water than the other things his father had lauded about his brother.

"He just focused too much on one thing, sometimes forgot to pay attention to his surroundings." After filling his mug, he shook his head as he took a sip. It was that focus that ended up getting him killed. Despite this, he laughed into his drink. "He'd be chasing a rabbit and run his head right into a tree branch. I really thought I'd never meet a bigger idiot."

"You thought?" Hinata repeated curiously.

Ayato raised his eyebrows and gestured wordlessly as he took another sip, allowing him to draw his own conclusions.

Laughing, Yui slapped her husband's shoulder while a light dawned in his eyes. Making a face and an offended choking sound, he was about to retort when Otonashi, Matsushita the Fifth, and Kanade came into the kitchen.

"You guys aren't making anything, are you?" said Otonashi, and he motioned to the stove. "Hold off on that. Yuri just called us."

"We're meeting the others for breakfast in twenty minutes," Kanade told them.

Hinata looked curious. "We're not doing dinner?"

"They decided on breakfast," Matsushita said with a lighthearted shrug. "It seemed more like an Ooyama kind of meal. Optimistic, sunny, kind of overlooked but important?"

"Alright, good point!" Hinata turned around and shut off the stovetop. "Let's go!"

On the burner, his pan remained unused and filled with tepid water. Ayato cast it a despairing look before he and the Battlefront left the kitchen.


"You know, servers are going to start hating us more and more every week," Otonashi informed them all from his corner of the booth.

They were at the restaurant, seated in another half-booth half-table situation. Two tables of six had been pushed together, actually. Or, rather, two tables each with three seats on one side and half-booths on the other. But that didn't matter. With Fujimaki and Ooyama arriving five minutes after they did, that made them a party of nine. Now they were just waiting on Yuri.

Again.

Ayato snuck another glance over the top of the booth, towards the front door. No sign of her yet. They'd already gotten their drink orders!

"Why's that, Otonashi?" Hinata asked, passing a look aside to him from the other table. Ayato was surprised he and Yui didn't scoot over to take the empty spots next to him. But then, he supposed, they wouldn't be across from Shiina.

With Kanade sitting across from her husband, Otonashi's booth side of their table looked pretty lonely. He'd move there himself if he weren't the chair-side type.

But Otonashi didn't seem to mind, kicking his legs onto the booth as he answered.

"I mean, there are ten of us now," he said with a little laugh, sounding happy about it and yet at the same time incredulous. "And growing strong. Imagine what it'll be like once we've found GlDeMo. We'll have to rent out a place!"

Ooyama laughed nervously, leaning forward and waving his hands wildly in defense. "We really didn't need to go out to eat just for me!"

"'Course we did!" Fujimaki boomed. He kicked back precariously in his chair, stretching his arms behind his head. "I like it. Reminds me of eating in the cafeteria together after an Operation Tornado."

"Hm…" Ooyama tapped his chin, thinking, then broke into a smile. "Maybe we should do a picnic next time! Over in the park. Yui's right, it'd be a great place to see Iwasawa during a performance!"

Yui beamed lovingly across the table at him. Beside her, Hinata looked a bit suspicious, possibly remembering the time in the Battlefront headquarters that she threatened to show Ooyama her moves instead.

"Uh, yeah," he said, draping an arm over Yui's shoulder. "Speaking of which, we've gotta make our bets soon. I won this week, which of you suckers is gonna be the lucky one next time?"

"I am!" Yui said stubbornly. "This week was just a fluke. Right, Naoi? Naoi?"

He heard her, of course, but he didn't answer. And he wasn't going to put his money on Iwasawa again. Nobody would be putting their money on anyone until everyone was present and ready to play along.

As it was, a certain somebody was holding up everyone's fun with her petty tardiness. Another check over the booth proved futile.

When he lowered his eyes, Otonashi was looking directly at him. Apparently his peeking over the top of the man's head wasn't exactly as inconspicuous as he'd hoped.

"She'll be here," Otonashi said, smiling much too gently.

Ayato's entire face burned with mortification. Even more so when Hinata overheard and turned away from his wife to jeer, "Was Naoi looking again?"

"Looking at what?" Ooyama asked.

Hinata opened his big mouth to reply – but Otonashi thankfully cut in.

"Hinata!" he hissed, waving and pointing at his phone for some reason. "Discretion!"

"You call that discretion?" Hinata said, unimpressed.

The meaning of his words – and the gesturing – finally hit him, and Ayato was completely aghast as he gawked back and forth between Otonashi and Hinata.

"Are you two texting about me?!" he demanded, glaring across the table for an explanation. "Otonashi?!"

Panicked guilt flashed across the man's face. "He texts me! I don't condone it!"

"We mostly just text whenever you're really obvious about your undying love for Yurippe," Hinata said easily. "So… yeah, I guess that's a lot."

Ayato jumped out of his seat, slamming his hands on the table. "I'll break both your phones!"

"Whoa, even Otonashi's…?"

He started to answer, but stopped when he spotted a head of wine-colored hair near the front of the restaurant. And then, when the host pointed in the direction of their table, surprised green eyes meeting his.

He allowed himself to be pulled back into his chair by a laughing Matsushita. "Down, boy."

Not more than a heartbeat later (depending on whose), Yuri finally came around the corner and appeared at their tables with a bright smile on her face. To Ayato's surprise, she wasn't alone. A familiar face peeped around her shoulder.

"Sorry I'm late!" Yuri chirped, nodding to her guest. "Since this is a Battlefront meetup, Ryou wasn't sure she'd be welcome. You all don't mind, right?" She flicked a sharp eyebrow in Ayato's direction.

He stared at Ryou for a moment, who was purposefully avoiding his gaze, then back at Yuri. What was this, what was she playing at? Was this supposed to be some sort of power move? It was absolutely pitiful.

Moving his legs off the row, Otonashi gestured to the space next to him.

"Not at all," he said grandly. "Here, I saved you a seat!"

And now Ayato was back to gawking at him, because it was only then that he realized the only open spot left was the vast booth space between Otonashi and Hinata. Right across from him and Matsushita! God, had the two of them actually planned this seating arrangement? He wouldn't put it past them now!

Yuri peered doubtfully at the empty spot next to Otonashi, then turned to Ryou with an inquisitive frown. The girl in question shook her head no very fast. With a resigned sigh, Yuri slipped into the booth first, and Ryou took the spot beside her.

Then there was an odd slamming thump and a jingling of the table – and Otonashi widened his eyes as if he'd been injured.

"Thank you, Otonashi," Yuri said sweetly.

Otonashi wheezed. "Anytime…"


Preview:

"Seven months since the concert?"

"I would never do something like that."

"She's just being a little elusive right now."

"Shake it up a little!"

"He knows who his dad is."

"I wanna freak her out!"

"Is that a threat?"

"I want it to be Noda."

[Chapter 37]: A Guess as Good as Mine.