day 23 - arguing
As Seto trudged up the stairs to the apartment, he heaved a sigh of relief. The day at work had been particularly trying for some reason, and though he hadn't let his characteristic smile drop, he was exhausted. His muscles ached, but he was glad to be on his way home, to spend some time with the people he loved most. He opened the door and called, "I'm home!"
No one replied. That was odd. If Mary was home, generally she came to greet him when she heard the door, and often the other two would at least shout hello. But there were murmurs of voices from within, so it wasn't like no one was there at all. Seto turned the corner to see who was talking.
Mary sat on the couch, and with her was, surprisingly, Shintaro. Seto hadn't expected him, but it wasn't like he minded him being here. All members of the gang were welcome to drop by whenever they liked, and the introverted boy was no exception. Neither of them looked up as he entered the room. Shintaro seemed to be showing Mary some comic he'd bought, and she was making excited noises as he turned the pages.
"I'm home," Seto repeated again, a bit confused about the scene before him.
"Oh, hey," Shintaro replied, not looking up. Seto hadn't really been looking for a reaction from him anyway.
Mary glanced over at him. "Welcome home!" she chirped, and then went back to the comic. Seto frowned.
He had to admit that while the amount of attention he usually got from Mary was very nice, he held no real claim over her and she could do what she wanted. Still, after such a stressful day, his shoulders sagged a little when she didn't come over to hug him like usual.
"Hey, where's Kido?" he asked. Often, she was preparing dinner at this time, but he couldn't smell or hear anything from that direction.
"She went out," Mary replied absently, "we're on our own for dinner tonight."
"And Kano?" The other boy's absence was far less strange; like an outdoor cat he came and went as he chose, and as long as he checked in every day or so they didn't worry about him.
Shintaro glanced up at him then, and he answered, "he's out too. They might be meeting each other, if you know what I mean."
Yes, Seto did very much know what he meant. As someone who grew up with the two of them, their tendency to clash but still seek each other out was no surprise to him. He knew it was stupid and silly and he was just tired, but he felt a little twist of resentment, for Shintaro to sit here on the couch with Mary and act like he knew Kido and Kano better than Seto did.
At that moment, his stomach growled, and he was reminded of how hungry he was. He decided to leave the two of them to whatever they were doing and go get some dinner. Luckily, there were leftovers in the fridge, and it was easy enough to heat some up. Afterwards, as he cleaned up, he decided he was being ridiculous. Shintaro was obviously here because he wanted to reach out to them, and Seto was obviously just lashing out because he'd had a bad day. With that in mind, Seto buried his frustration and pulled on a smile, going back out to the main room to interact with the newbie.
Seeing the book was obviously a difficult task, because when Seto saw the two of them again, they were far closer, Mary practically in Shintaro's lap. She held the book with both hands, smiling, and Shintaro reached over to turn the page. Then he looked up and saw Seto.
With a sideways, crooked smile that seemed unlike Shintaro, he tucked strands of Mary's hair behind her ear, then bent to murmur something to her. Seto couldn't hear what they were saying, but Mary looked up at him and then broke into peals of laughter. Jealousy bloomed in Seto's chest, though he fought it. He never felt angry when Momo and Mary were this close, so why should this be different? He struggled to keep his smile as sincere as before.
"Mary, I had a rough day and I'm really tired, so I'm going to go to bed. Are you coming?" He knew it was mean and underhanded to ask her like that in front of Shintaro, and that it painted the wrong picture. Shintaro didn't seem surprised, however. In fact, it was Mary who looked up with a surprised expression.
"Ah! Is it late?" She looked out the window to confirm that it was actually dark. "I didn't notice! Here's your book back."
She tried to pass it to Shintaro, but instead of taking it, he clasped his hands around hers on the cover. "You should hold on to it," he said, "it's not often someone like me gets to see a cute girl smile because of a comic like this."
Seto had never heard Shintaro use flowery language like that before, and he shifted his weight from one foot to the other, waiting for Shintaro to let go. Mary giggled, and the older boy finally released her hands and waved to the two of them. "I'll let myself out," he said, his voice dry, and then turned to leave.
Shintaro left, but Seto's irritation didn't. He didn't want to say anything harsh, because he loved Mary, and all this aside, Shintaro was his friend. But nothing made sense today. Though he'd said he was going to bed, he sat down on the couch with a sigh. Mary was turning the book over in her hands.
"He's nicer than I thought," Mary said, her cheeks a touch pink.
"Hm? Ah, Shintaro is?" Seto didn't really have any desire to talk about the subject. He just wanted to go to sleep. But he made sure he was still smiling even as he was unable to stifle a giant yawn.
She nodded. "I didn't know we had so much in common. He's really shy too, you know."
"Didn' look like it," Seto yawned again. Mary tilted her head, then turned to stare at him.
"Are you jealous?" she asked, her voice a mixture of surprise and…what was that other emotion? Flattery, maybe, or vindictiveness.
The combination didn't make sense to him, and he looked over at her in confusion. Her hands were clenched on the cover of the book.
"You never thought anyone else might be interested in me?" she asked quietly, "why? Because I'm flat-chested and a child? Because I'm slithery and gross and monstrous?"
Seto hadn't been thinking any of those things, but what shocked him most was that she thought those things about herself. "That's not what I meant. It's just, I dunno. You guys were pretty close. You're usually not like that with other people."
He'd thought it'd been clear for a long time that the two of them were essentially together, though they never put words to it or called each other things like 'boyfriend' or 'girlfriend'. In fact, he'd turned down several people— boys and girls— over the course of the years with the excuse that he already had someone. It was tearing his heart out to know that after all this time, she didn't feel the same way.
It was for that reason that maybe he didn't have the wisest choice of words in reply.
"He's odd, anyway Mary, have you heard Ene talk about him? He's a not-so-secret pervert."
Even though he didn't say it, she knew what he meant. Mary looked Seto dead in the eye. "At least he'd treat me like an grownup."
"You're not a grownup," Seto argued, knowing it was useless, but she bolted to her feet, glaring.
"I've been taking care of myself since before you were born," she hissed, furious, and then stormed out of the room. Seto watched her go, then flopped onto his back on the couch cushions, and let a long exhale of frustration. He should go look for her, he knew, but he didn't.
A few minutes later, Kano walked in. He carried a plastic convenience store bag in one hand, and Kido was nowhere to be seen (not that that meant anything.)
"Had a bad day?" he asked his friend cheerily, and Seto pulled a pillow over his face with a groan.
"You don't know the half of it."
