Disclaimer: Do. Not. Own.
Warnings: Nothing much right now, but it's going to get creepy soon. AU, drastically different course of events.
When Sena was six-years-old, his parents died and took everything with them, including his name.
There was a man standing in the courtyard of his grandparents' large house. There was a small rock garden and a stone wall and Sena was clinging to his grandmother, hiding his face in her kimono, and the man was shouting, He's my son, you won't keep him from me!
"Please," said Granny, "he's still so young, he can't understand. Please, if you'll just—"
"He's my son," said the man. "She had no right to keep him from me and neither do you! I have a court order!"
Granny's hands were shaking. Sena would remember that for the rest of his life, the feel of his grandmother's trembling hands in his hair.
Sena didn't understand until much, much later that the man whose name he had been born with had not been his father. Kobayakawa Shuma was the name on his birth certificate, but Shuma had not been his father. This was a difficult problem for Sena to work out by himself, and he didn't understand what it meant until he was eleven, and even then it was only because Agon took the trouble of explaining to him, with a cruel turn of his mouth, The old lady ran off with her dick on the side while she was pregnant with you, idiot. Left us with the old man and split. She'd have flushed you too if the other guy hadn't convinced her not to. There's how much Mommy loved you.
But when Sena was six, he knew nothing of that—couldn't have known, even if someone had tried to explain it to him—and what he remembered was that loud, shouting man pulling Sena out of his grandmother's arms and carrying him away, telling him sternly, Stop that crying.
Father—for that was who it was, a tall, black-haired, black-eyed man Sena was supposed to call Father—told him that a lot. Stop that crying. Do you see your brother crying all the time? Stop that whining. Be like your brother.
The first time he met his brothers, he didn't understood that that was who they were. He was exhausted and stiff from a five-hour car ride, drained from crying and choked with the strain of trying not to cry again. The loud man carried him in from the car, holding him almost indifferently, and when the man put Sena down, Sena was standing on shaky legs in front of two older, bigger boys he was immediately nervous of.
"Agon," said the man, "Unsui. This is Sena."
They stared at him, those two boys. Sena lifted his tear-stained face and stared at them, too, forgetting to be shy, because these two boys looked exactly alike and he couldn't have told them apart if they hadn't been wearing different clothes.
"He'll live with us from now on," said Father. "I expect you to treat each other like brothers."
One boy raised an eyebrow, his mouth curving into a smile that was attentive and respectful. The other boy nodded, and looked at Sena with eyes neither mean nor kind.
A door closed behind Father and then the boy with the smile took a handful of Sena's hair in his fist and pulled it.
"You don't belong here," said the boy. "You're only here because Dad felt sorry for you, beggar. Don't you forget it."
The other boy frowned. "That's too much, Agon."
"You shut up," said Agon.
Sena whimpered at the grip on his hair, and tears filled his eyes. He put his hands, so much smaller, pleadingly on Agon's.
Agon made a disgusted face, but he let go.
The room that was to be Sena's was still a playroom for the older boys, cluttered with new and shiny playthings, including bikes and game consoles and a TV, things Sena had never even thought about wanting. There was no place to even put down a futon.
"You can sleep with your brother tonight," said Father. "We'll get you a bed tomorrow."
Agon looked at Sena and gave him a big, bright smile. Sheer terror made Sena clutch at the sleeves of his shirt with shaking fingers.
"I'll share with him, Father," said Unsui. "I don't mind."
"Ah, see," said Father, "that's what I want to hear from an older brother. You hear that, Sena? It's already like you all grew up together, isn't it?"
Agon rolled his eyes behind Father's back. Unsui ignored him and took Sena's hand. "Come on. You can wear some of my pajamas."
"Maybe someday you two can get married," said Agon.
Unsui was only a year older than Sena, but much bigger. Sena had to fold the sleeves and the legs of the blue pajamas several times to keep them off the floor, and even fastening all the buttons barely kept it from hanging off his shoulders. Unsui helped him.
The room was neat and clean and organized. The desk was high and stacked with workbooks and readers. Sena had never seen anything so spotless and tidy as Unsui's room. Unsui even carefully folded Sena's clothes and laid them on his desk chair.
"You should ignore Agon," said Unsui, as he led the way to the bathroom. "He'll get used to you being around sooner or later. Just don't make him angry."
Sena waited for Unsui to tell him exactly how to do that, but there was nothing more. Unsui helped Sena wash his hair and sat with him in the furo and then they dressed in their pajamas and went back to Unsui's room. It was late, but as they passed the playroom, Sena could hear someone inside, playing a fighting game.
The bed was long and wide and there was more than enough space for two little boys, especially when one was as small as Sena. Unsui let him take the side against the wall, saying to wake him up if Sena needed the bathroom, and then he turned off the light.
Sena laid there in the dark, listening to Unsui breathe and trying not to make a single sound. He wanted so much to cry, but he didn't want to bother Unsui, not after Unsui had been so nice to him. He had so many questions, but it was dark and he was supposed to be sleeping and the bed was strange and the light coming through the blinds on the window was strange and he wished Granny was there to tuck him in, he wished he could go to the room down the hall and get into bed with Mommy and Daddy and sleep safe and quiet...
"Sena-kun," came the whisper, almost in his ear. "I know you're sad. If you want to cry, I won't tell. Promise."
The tears rushed to his eyes and Sena couldn't do anything about it. He cried as quietly as he could, with his hands and arms over his face, miserable and scared and unable to understand why he had to be here, in Unsui's room, when he had his own pajamas and futon at Granny's.
Unsui turned the other way and didn't say anything, and Sena couldn't tell from the shape of his back if he was asleep or not.