Thanks to all of you who reviewed in the previous chapter. Please read the author's note at the end of this page. Also, you might want to read Yusuke's descriptions of Ema's friends, otherwise you'll be a bit confused in the second half of the chapter.
"Well," Masaomi sighed, standing from the couch and pulling the thermometers from his brothers' mouths in one fluid motion. "You're sick, alright. Although I have no idea why it's only you two, while Ema's perfectly fine. You managed not to pass it on to her. Are you sure you didn't spend any extra time outside the other day? Eat anything different recently?"
Fuuto hacked a nasty cough and scowled at his eldest brother. "Ask him! He's the reason losing money right now! I can't even speak properly, let alone sing, all because I was spending my time out in the snow!"
Masaomi raised a warning brow at the young star, before turning it on Yusuke.
"Did you drag him outside?"
"No!" Yusuke defended. "I was outside and then that brat followed me. Any sickness of his is his own fault."
"Well how could I not follow you? You made a fool of yourself in the lunchroom and I had to make you fix it, because unfortunately we're related."
"And I had a good reason to."
"To make a fool of yourself? I'll say."
"That's enough," Masaomi chastised gently. "Yusuke, why didn't Ema follow you? I'd expect that more of her than Fuuto."
Fuuto grumbled something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like a curse, and earned another stony gaze from the doctor. Masaomi sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Both of you do realize how strange this looks, right?"
And it was true. As Masaomi said it, he cast a glance at Tsubaki, snickering behind the kitchen counter as he grabbed a snack. Azusa smacked his triplet on the back of the head, nabbing a chip from the bag. Tsubaki only grinned to see them watching him, and sat at the table, phone in one hand and chips in the other, while Azusa took a seat opposite where Subaru sat with a sports magazine. Masaomi shook his head fondly before turning back to his patients, eyes filled with curiosity.
"I mean it, you two," he smiled, voice leaving no room for argument. "This really is a strange occurrence. I don't doubt that you two care for each other—" here, he waited for them to finish snickering. "—but Fuuto, you caring about something happening to Yusuke more than Ema cares does raise a red flag. Is everything alright between the three of you?"
Fuuto shrugged. "It's nothing. It'll probably blow over soon anyway. She'll get annoyed with him—"
"Annoyed with who?" Fully at attention, Masaomi leaned forward to hear what his brother had to say.
"With that Kaito kid," Yusuke growled, the name like a curse on his tongue.
"He's been flirting with her like nobody's business, and she's been humoring him," Fuuto cut in, feigning boredom. "But Neesan'll get tired of him soon enough."
Masaomi shook his head, almost like he didn't believe it. The other three spectators sitting in the dining room were listening now, eyes wide and intent. "I don't understand," Masaomi frowned. "What does this have to do with you getting sick? And I'd like to hear this story from Yusuke, please," he added as Fuuto opened his mouth.
"Well," Yusuke mused. "We were sitting at lunch. I'm sure you know about all of Hinata's new friends."
The blank gazes from all but Fuuto in the room told Yusuke otherwise. Nevertheless, he cleared his throat in embarrassment and continued. "Well, they're there."
"Are they good kids?" Azusa butted in from the dining room, no longer caring about eavesdropping.
Yusuke shrugged. "I don't know. They're not my friends."
"So... she's stopped spending time with you in favor of these others." Subaru said slowly, and Yusuke hesitantly nodded.
Tsubaki's voice was more urgent, more prying than his brothers'. "Tell us more."
Yusuke took a deep breath and closed his eyes in concentration, ticking off the list on his fingers.
"There's Akiyama Kiyomi, who's one of her closest friends. Tsukada Mitsuo, who's on the baseball, wrestling, basketball, I don't even know what else teams. Jinnouchi Asami, one of the schools best artists; Oshiro Katsu, that quiet third-year who can speak seven languages; Kajiwara Rei and Ryota, these second-year twins who carry around toolboxes and fix pretty much every technical issue the school has; Tamatsuki Tamotsu, who makes the best food you've ever tasted... and then there's Niikura Momoko, Kaneko Jirou, Okano Eiji, Wakata Yumi, Utsuno Sayuri, and a lot of others that I can't name. And of course there's Hashira Kaito."
"When did she even make all these friends?" Masaomi wondered.
"They've pretty much been flocking to her and that brat these past two months," Fuuto replied, rolling his eyes. Before his two younger brothers could go on throwing hate at this apparently evil boy, Masaomi turned back to Yusuke.
"You were talking about how you got sick because of Hashira Kaito."
Yusuke grunted. "Yeah. As I was saying, we were at lunch, and her friends seem rather elitist, if you ask me. They were all sitting with her at their lunch table, and they were laughing at something. I was sitting in my class section, and since their table is so close to mine, I couldn't help but overhear. Actually, these past few weeks I couldn't help but overhear."
"And they were talking about...?" Masaomi urged gently.
"Nothing. They were hardly talking about anything. Nobody could get a word in because they were all laughing so hard and joking around. Most of them were just laughing at Hashira and Hinata. He was flirting with her."
The temperature in the room seemed to drop twenty degrees, and the boys at the kitchen table moved to sit with the rest of their brothers and listen to the rest of Yusuke's story.
"How long has this been going on?" Azusa asked, gaze steely. "Only the other day?"
Yusuke shook his head. "He's been hitting on her these past few weeks. Billions of corny pickup lines. He never quits, but she doesn't seem to mind. That's why I left; I was getting..." Yusuke paused, face turning red as he struggled to find the right word. "...annoyed by it. So I went outside, and that's where Fuuto found me. Because I was sick of listening to him flirt with her constantly."
"Did she flirt back?"
The new voice made them all jump, and they looked up to find Natsume and Ukyo poised at the top of the stairs, seemingly having heard every word. It was Natsume who spoke, his knuckles white from squeezing the railing. Yusuke and Fuuto exchanged a glance.
"Sure looked like it," Yusuke answered, his voice filled with pain.
"You must be misreading things," Tsubaki finally concluded. "You said so yourself earlier, Fuuto. She's just humoring him."
The sentiment did nothing to ease their minds.
On the grass beside a gently meandering river two towns away, a large group of friends laughed and chatted among themselves, unaware of the conversation going on in Ema's home and the fact that they were being discussed. The artist of the group laid out a large picnic blanket. The cuisinier spread out the meal he'd put together for his friends. The pair of technician twins tinkered with a remote control airplane, flying it through the park while onlookers applauded.
"Okay, okay," Mitsuo said, tossing up and catching a baseball. "Who wants to go for a swim later?"
"Mitsuo, you idiot," replied the quiet Katsu, his eyes sparkling with something that only those close to him could recognize as a smile. "None of us brought our swimsuits."
Ema, who'd been watching her group's antics with a small, sweet smile, gently nudged Katsu, and addressing Mitsuo fondly, she said, "He's right, you know."
At this, Mitsuo frowned. "But there's nothing to do."
"It's not like we're here or anything," piped Kiyomi, pausing from her eating to smirk at him. "If you're so bored, how about you talk to one of us instead of playing catch with yourself?"
Kaito snorted and bumped Ema with his shoulder. "What do you say, Em? Want to go for a swim?"
She frowned, but the corners of her lips pursed up in a hidden smile at the implication. "Kaito, you've already told me the story of when you threw your sister into the river. That's exactly what you said before you did it; I'm not falling for that."
He groaned playfully and fell onto his back, pulling her down with him while she sleepily curled into his side. The sun was beginning to set, and lights along the river's sidewalk flickered to life one by one. Slowly, the group began to quiet, just as content to lie on their backs with Kaito and Ema as they were to tease and play. A few began to doze off, the reflection of stars still twinkling in their smiling eyes and staying painted there beneath closing eyelids. They were in their own little pocket of the universe. These were Ema's favorite times: only her and her friends, not a single care in the world as they dreamed in harmony. Soon, there were no sounds but the soft, deep breathing of those in slumber, the gentle whir of Rei and Ryota's remote control plane; and Katsu, his finger pointed at the sky as he quietly explained the constellations to a wonderstruck Mitsuo.
They were all the picture of young, innocent serenity, their legs tangled together and their hair splayed out behind them, long blonde mixing with short black mixing with ponytailed brown. Kaito stirred, never having been truly asleep, and sat up before placing a gentle kiss on Ema's temple, a gesture the two had recently grown fond of.
"I'm going to go get some ice cream," he said softly, careful not to wake those of his friends who slept. "There's a store just down the road that sells them party-size. I'll get some for everyone. Strawberry for you, right?"
Ema nodded as he stood and skillfully navigated the tangled labyrinth of lazy bodies and peaceful faces. Her eyes traveled to him, admiring his tall, generous form as he stretched the sleep from his bones; he nearly reminded her of Kaname, arms extended to the sky in prayer. Yet Kaito looked more holy in that moment than Ema had ever seen her brother, the heavens twinkling on the river that lapped at the edges of their picnic blanket, the distant silhouette of trees forming a divine congregate: singing birds in the distance were the holy choir, and the lone, warbling owl was the reverent priest. And Kaito was the deity they exalted, one with the earth and sky. Ema couldn't tell where his outline stopped and nature began.
Her face turned pink at the direction of her thoughts, and Kaito turned to her, dimples winking mischievously as though he knew the depth of her admiration for his body. And that small action reminded her of what he was, took away any glorification she'd dreamed up only moments before; he was just a simple boy. Not a god, not a deity, not a holy being. He was just a boy who loved her with the beauty of a forever-blooming flower; a boy who loved her enough where buying her an ice cream was as natural a part of him as the heart that beat for her, as the eyes that admired her, as the breath that hitched at the sound of her voice.
Somehow, she was more glad for this version of him than the celestial one.
Kaito patiently awaited the two tubs of ice cream that he'd ordered, his thumb nimble along the screen of his phone.
"Are there any toppings you'd like with your order?"
He looked up at the server behind the counter, startled. "Sorry, what?"
The woman laughed and pointed at the row of candies, fruits, and nuts behind her. "I can get you some containers of toppings to bring back as well."
"Oh!" Kaito scratched the back of his neck with a sheepish laugh. "How much extra will it be?"
"Only a hundred yen for five," the server answered.
"Sure," he nodded contemplatively. "I'll text my friends first, see what they'd like me to bring back. Can you put a hold on my order, please?"
The server nodded and tucked away his ice cream into a fridge while Kaito sat, pulling up Ema in his contacts list and firing off a text to her asking for the toppings she wanted, signing off with their standard "love u :) -k."
Two towns over in Sunrise Residence, ten of the thirteen Asahina brothers paused from their late dinner, curiously turning their gazes to their sister's forgotten cell phone when it buzzed at the end of the table.
Alright, so I've edited the last chapter to include this announcement, but for you only reading this now, I've received very many PMs asking for Ema to end up with Kaito. So there is officially a poll on my profile where you can vote for the end pairing. The two other things I will be counting as votes will be PMs I receive and reviews that explain why you want Ema to end up with whoever. I won't be counting reviews that just state a name.
Additionally, I'm also considering making a companion piece to this story, each chapter being a oneshot pertaining to Ema and her friends. I might also write alternate endings for any of the boys who doesn't end up with Ema. These are only ifs at this point, though, so please, please, please let me know what you would think of stories like these!
Lastly, I'm considering getting a beta. Please message me if you're interested.
Anyway, I've mostly got the ball rolling on this story! Big shoutout to unwonted, whose thoughtful review motivated me to finally write the last couple of paragraphs on this chapter. This chapter probably wouldn't be up yet if I hadn't received that review. Additionally, please let me know if there's anything you'd like to see. Constructive criticism is always appreciated.
As usual, review and vote!