A/N: Today sucked. I'm hoping that by posting early I'll make someone else's day a little brighter (and I plan to post two more times this week if I can manage it!)
Chapter 17: Cruise Part 1
"This is so cool!" Wataru exclaimed, running on the deck of the giant cruise ship with his arms spread wide. "Look at all the ocean around us! How long do you think it'll be before we can't see land anymore, Mao-nii?"
"Calm down, Wataru," Masaomi gently admonished, pulling Wataru to his side. "You don't want to hit anyone."
"Awww," Wataru groaned, disappointed at having his excitement curtailed.
"It is really exciting," Ema said, her eyes bright as she looked around. "Though I'm still disappointed that not everyone could come." Only the twins, Yusuke, Wataru, Masaomi, Ukyo and Kaname had been able to come. Though Ema felt bad for all her brothers who had to stay home, it was her parting conversation with Fuuto that stuck out to her the most.
"It's not fair that I have my concerts to promote my new CD this week," Fuuto sighed, looking sadly at the floor. "I'll have to miss seeing Nee-san in a swim suit and playing at the beach. It's the last big trip you'll take before your senior year and I won't be there."
"You see me in a swim suit playing at the beach every time we go to our beach house," Ema said, both a little irritated and confused. Fuuto flirting with her always threw her a little off balance. She didn't know if he was just practicing for his fans or teasing her. Maybe it was both.
"I hope you don't have too much fun without me," Fuuto said.
"I'll miss you," Ema promised. "And all our other brothers who can't make it." Fuuto's eyebrow twitched in irritation. "Maybe I can watch a recording of your concert when I get back. Or maybe they'll have it playing on the cruise! I bet you're popular enough that it might be. That would be cool."
Fuuto smiled and leaned towards Ema. "Wouldn't that be a great reminder of me while you're gone?" He reached up and stroked Ema's hair. "But don't worry too much about me missing out, Nee-san. I am sad that I won't be there for all the excitment, but I promise that I'll make your senior year your most exciting year in school."
Ema still had no idea what Fuuto meant by that, but Fuuto was a little weird sometimes.
"Let's get all of our luggage put away in our rooms and meet back out here in ten minutes," Ukyo suggested.
"Okay!" Ema agreed before wheeling her suitcase behind her. Since she had a single room rather than a double, her room was in a different part of the cruise ship. The twins were rooming together, Wataru and Masaomi were sharing, and Kaname and Ukyo had a room and were making Yusuke sleep in a cot between their beds. Ema felt bad about being the only one with a room to herself, but it was one of the good/bad things about being the only girl in the family.
~.~
"Are you really going to put all your clothes into the dresser?" Tsubaki asked, watching as his twin put his carefully folded clothes away. "Why not just live out of your suitcase? We do it all the time when we travel for events to promote our animes and games."
"This is for longer than that," Azusa said, not bothering to look at Tsubaki. "And I don't want my dirty and clean clothes to get mixed. I'll put the dirty clothes in my suitcase after they're worn and leave everything else in the dresser."
Tsubaki sighed and shook his head. "You're such a neat freak sometimes. This is why I don't let you help me clean my room. Well, I'm bored of hanging around here. I'm going out on the deck. See you in a few." Azusa threw an absent-minded wave Tsubaki's way.
Tsubaki stuck his hands in his pockets as he sauntered down the hallway. He hoped that Ema was already there. She probably would be since she wouldn't want any of them to have to wait for her.
Tsubaki had to admit that Masaomi's idea of celebrating Ema's and Yusuke's last summer before college entrance exams with a cruise was a great idea. He was really looking forward to—All of Tsubaki's thoughts flew out of his head the moment he saw Ema on the deck. She was wearing an adorable summer dress that Hikaru sent her from Italy and Louis had done her hair in braids that morning. However, none of that was what made him freeze. It was the crowd of guys around her that pissed him off.
Tsubaki stalked over, nothing on his mind other than getting those men away from Ema. He walked straight through the middle of them, grabbing Ema around the waist and pulling her close to him. "Ema-chan!" He exclaimed, pasting a bright smile on his face and ignoring the guys. "I hope you weren't waiting for me long."
"Tsubaki-kun," Ema said, blinking at him in surprise. "No, I've just been here for a minute."
"Oh, good. I hate the thought of you being bothered for long. I'm sorry that I left you alone."
"Who are you?" One of the guys asked, folding his arms and looking Tsubaki over. "Ema-chan said that she came here with her brothers. What right do you have to interfere if we want to talk to your sister?"
Anger burned inside Tsubaki and he found himself wanting to punch the punk in the face, which surprised him since he wasn't one to turn to violence. The young men looked like they were in college, which just pissed him off more. Ema would be entering college soon and there would be a lot of guys just like these who would be there, eyeing her.
Tsubaki gently grabbed Ema's chin and titled her face, kissing her cheek. "I have the right to interfere because she's mine. She did come with her brothers, but she also brought her boyfriend along." Tsubaki moved Ema closer to him, hiding the look of shock on her face from the guys. "So please stop bothering her."
The guys looked disappointed and somewhat apologetic as they left. In his arms, Ema was flushed bright red and looking very confused. "Th-they weren't bothering me that badly, Tsubaki-kun," Ema said, looking up into his eyes before looking down at the deck. "I mean, I am here to spend time with my family, not get a boyfriend, but you didn't have to lie."
Ema looked so adorable being bashful that all Tsubaki wanted to do was kiss her. "You shouldn't have to put up with flirting if you don't want to. The next time something like that happens here, just point me out and say that I'm your boyfriend. Saying that you're here with your brothers won't be good enough, that won't make guys back off."
When the young man asked what right Tsubaki had to interfere, the response that he was Ema's older brother hadn't even entered his mind. At least he had an absolute answer to his feelings and what he wanted to do about them now. You could say that he owed those presumptuous punks for that, at least. The moment he saw those guys around Ema, he realized that someday, some guy would come and take Ema away from him. At least, they would if Tsubaki didn't do something about it first.
"Th-that's okay," Ema stuttered. She finally looked back at Tsubaki and gave him a reassuring smile. "I don't plan to spend much time by myself on the cruise. I'll usually have one of you with me."
"Even better," Tsubaki said, cupping Ema's face and brushing his thumbs across her cheeks. "Just stay by my side and everything will be okay." He tried not to grin too widely when her cheeks turned pink again.
~.~
"I love the fancy drinks they have at places like this," Yusuke said, drinking fruit juice from a pineapple. He and Ema were sitting in lounge chairs in their swim suits by the pool on the top deck of the ship.
"Yeah," Ema agreed distractedly. It was the second day of the cruise and she still didn't know what to think of what happened yesterday with the guys flirting with her and with Tsubaki. She appreciated that Tsubaki wanted to protect her, but his methods were a little strange. Then again, Tsubaki was never conventional about anything. It was one of the things that Ema loved about him.
"You okay?" Yusuke asked, looking concerned.
"Yes! I'm fine," Ema hurried to reassure Yusuke. She didn't want him worrying about her. They all deserved to have a break during this vacation. Ema shouldn't get so caught up in Tsubaki being Tsubaki. "I'm going to go get one of those drinks myself." She just needed to relax, and then everything would be okay.
While Ema stood in line at the snack bar, she noticed a couple women gathered around a young man. They were all tan and wearing skimpy bikinis. Whoever they guy was, he must be really attractive.
Kaname was the type of guy who would attract attention like that. Ema was wondering if the man was Kaname when the women parted and she saw that he had dark hair. And looked a lot like Azusa, except without glasses. Ema did a double take when realized that it was Azusa. And he did not look happy with the attention.
One of the woman sidled up to Azusa. With Azusa wearing his swim suit, it had her brushing up against his bare chest. He moved back and said something, but whatever he was saying, the women didn't seem to be listening. Ema bit her lip as she wondered what she should do. The women were obviously interested in Azusa and he was too nice to simply reject them. Or his rejections were too polite so they weren't taking him seriously.
Ema stepped out of the line for the snack bar and took a few steps towards Azusa before she stopped. What could she possibly do to help in this situation? She could already imagine the looks on the women's faces if she stepped in there to try to extract Azusa. They wouldn't take a little sister seriously at all and would just view Ema as an annoying interloper. Then a light bulb went off in her head and Tsubaki's actions from yesterday suddenly made more sense to her. A little sister wouldn't be taken seriously, but a girlfriend was another matter.
Panic struck Ema as she realized she'd have to be bold if she was going to scare those women away. But this was for Azusa. Ema could be brave if it was for the sake of helping one of her brothers.
Taking a deep breath to gather up her courage, Ema came up on Azusa's free side and wrapped her arm around his waist above his swimsuit. Azusa jumped at the contact, then froze when he looked over and saw Ema.
"There you are, Azusa," Ema said, placing her other hand on his chest. "Sorry I took so long in our room. I didn't mean to keep you waiting." She cast a look at the women and moved closer to Azusa, brushing up against him. "Are you ready to go swimming now?"
All Azusa could hear after that was a rushing in his ears. His skin burned where Ema touched him and he could barely think. He had no idea what Ema was doing or why, but he didn't want her to stop. It felt intoxicating to have Ema's skin touching his, and his face heated up at the thought that they were so close and both in swim suits. Especially with Ema in a bikini. Though a tasteful one, unlike the other women surrounding him, who seemed to be experimenting with how close they could get to naked without the cruise ship confining them to their rooms for indecency. Though he wouldn't mind seeing Ema in a swim suit like that if it was just the two of them. The thought came out of nowhere and he mentally smacked himself for even thinking it.
A couple things were said that Azusa was too distracted to pay attention to before he finally heard the ringleader of the scantily clad women say, "He doesn't seem very interested in you, Hun. Maybe you should let one of us try instead."
Azusa immediately wrapped one arm around Ema, secretly delighting in the soft skin of her waist. "Sorry," he apologized, "I was just surprised to see you up. I thought you'd still be sleeping since you seemed so tired after yesterday. Are you sure you're up to going swimming?" He leaned down and tenderly kissed Ema's forehead ignoring the women around him.
He heard one of them make a disgusted noise while another muttered, "You could have said you had a girlfriend." Finally, they wandered off, probably to harass some other hapless man. Maybe Kaname would be their next target. He would enjoy the attention.
"Sorry, Azusa," Ema said, looking contrite. "You looked like you needed help and I thought the best way might be by pretending to be your girlfriend. I didn't think they'd really care if your little sister came up to you claiming to need you for something."
"No, not at all," Azusa said, moving his free hand to cover Ema's hand on his chest. He hoped she couldn't feel his heart thumping a million miles an hour. "I appreciate it. Though I'm surprised you'd come up with something like this." He hoped it was a sign that Ema possibly saw him as something other than just as a brother.
"Well, I didn't really think of it on my own," Ema admitted, pulling away from Azusa, much to his disappointment. "There were some guys flirting with me yesterday and Tsubaki pretended that he was my boyfriend to get them to back off. It seemed like the idea would work well in your situation too." Ema felt much better about yesterday now. Obviously, Tsubaki had just been concerned about Ema being uncomfortable and wanted to help her out as fast as possible, just like Ema had today with Azusa. That was all there was to it.
While Ema was feeling relieved, Azusa felt upset. Tsubaki had already made a move on Ema and he hadn't even noticed. He'd have to watch his twin carefully during this trip. And figure out how to get closer to Ema. He needed to find a way to get her to think of him as a man instead of as a brother.
A/N: And the romance starts to heat up! Heck yeah, man! A thank you to all the readers who have appreciated my slow build up and who have been patient. I try to have everything make sense and flow well in my stories, which I know frustrates some readers. (I don't deny being that type of reader myself. I'm the one who's always thinking 'When are they going to kiss, dang it?!')
