"Try the peacock blue," Hikaru commanded, pointing to the pile of designer gowns currently taking over Megumi's couch. Megumi didn't bother to stifle a sigh of irritation. This was the fifth gown she'd tried on, and even though she thought the first four looked perfectly fine, Hikaru was far from satisfied.
"What was wrong with the green one?" she huffed, stalking over to pick up the silk gown Hikaru wanted her to try next.
"It made you look too hippy."
"Are you calling me fat?" She glared at him.
"Not at all. You have a small waist, though, and we want to accentuate that. And for you, the lower the neckline, the better. You have a perfect bust."
Megumi dropped the dress she was carrying. "Seriously? I'm practically dating your brother, and you're commenting on my breasts?"
Hikaru looked completely unconcerned. "I'm not commenting on your breasts. I'm commenting on the way clothes hang on your frame."
"And it's so easy for you to separate the two?"
"Yes, Megumi, as a matter of fact it is. That's my job, you know. I wouldn't be much good at it if I hadn't learned to separate sexual attraction from objective evaluation."
She sat down on the couch, shoving the dresses together in a pile. "You are so different from what I expected."
"Because I've managed to grow up a little in the ten years since we never actually spoke to each other? I'm flattered." He rolled his eyes. "Did you honestly expect me to hit on my twin brother's … whatever you are."
"On second thought, maybe you're not that different after all."
"I didn't mean it like that." Hikaru sounded genuinely apologetic. "I just didn't want to presume. Trust me, I am more than well acquainted with the undefined relationship. Although since we're on the subject, what exactly are your intentions here?"
"Is it entirely appropriate for you to be playing the paternal Victorian heavy for your brother?"
"In case you hadn't noticed already, Kaoru and I never really gave much of a shit about appropriate. And you didn't answer my question."
"Probably because that's really something I should be discussing with him, and I don't see that it is any of your business whatsoever," Megumi said, more patiently than she felt.
Hikaru sighed. "Look, I swear I'm not trying to scare you off here, but Kao and I? We are always each other's business. I can't begin to fathom that ever changing. Is that going to be a problem for you?"
Megumi considered him for a moment. "I think the better question is, will it be a problem for you if it does change?"
"Are you planning on changing it?" His voice was wary.
"Of course not. But people grow. Relationships change. What will you do if Kaoru does get married, and has a family? You don't think your role in his life will necessarily lessen in importance?"
"Can I have some tea?" Hikaru asked abruptly.
"Of course," Megumi said, manners taking over automatically. "But I think I deserve an answer to my question."
"Well, I think you only deserve an answer to your question when I get an answer to mine," he returned, standing up to follow her into the kitchen.
"Are we six now?"
"This isn't about tit for tat. If you're not planning on being a part of Kaoru's life, than you have no right to ask me that kind of question."
Megumi pulled down several boxes of tea, indicating that Hikaru should take his pick. She brought the kettle over to the sink to fill with fresh water. "Not counting school, which shouldn't count because it's not like we ever really talked to each other, I basically met your brother a month ago. And you're asking me if I'm planning on being a part of his life? Hikaru, that is completely putting the cart before the horse."
"God, Jen is going to love you. Two peas in a fucking pod," he muttered to himself. He handed Megumi the box of genmaicha, and she measured out the tea into two mugs.
"You're very protective of him, aren't you?" she asked calmly, watching the kettle.
"Kaoru takes up a lot of space in my head," Hikaru explained. When Megumi laughed, he gave her an unfriendly look.
"I'm sorry, but that was the exact phrase he used about you. Even the intonation was the same." She paused for a moment, wondering whether to reveal what else Kaoru had said. But her instincts were telling her this was a conversation that needed to be had, and probably it was just as well to hash it out now. "He also said he was starting to think that wasn't necessarily the best thing in the world."
"He said that?"
"I think it was more along the lines of he didn't want to be thinking about you and your problems while he could be enjoying a nice day instead."
Hikaru laughed, looking inexplicably delighted. "Really? He really said that? You actually got Kaoru to stop obsessing about fixing someone else's problems and just enjoy himself?" Megumi nodded cautiously, and Hikaru grabbed both her shoulders, kissing her forehead. "He has to marry you. There's just no alternative now."
The kettle began to boil, and Megumi gently but firmly pushed Hikaru away so she could pour the hot water into the waiting cups. "You're not upset?"
"Upset?" He laughed again. "Woman, I have been trying for years to get Kaoru to do what you managed to do in one month. If that's the rule rather than the exception when he's with you? I don't want to be the one to tell tales out of school, but you have no idea what an impression you must have made on my little brother."
Megumi felt absurdly pleased, but still. They'd known each other for a month. They hadn't even had a conversation yet about whether or not they were in an exclusive relationship. Because he has so much competition, she thought to herself wryly.
Hikaru picked up on Megumi's reticence. "I know, cart, horse, not in the right order. I'll shut up now."
"I'm not planning on not being in his life," she admitted quietly. "I'm not going to have this conversation with you, particularly not before I've had it with Kaoru. But this isn't casual for me. I like him."
Hikaru smiled at her, for once no hint of irony or sarcasm in his expression. "For what it's worth coming from me, I'm pretty sure he likes you too." He took a sip of his tea, leaning back against the counter. "And to answer your earlier question, I don't see why increasing the number of people we love would ever make Kaoru and I less important to each other. He's my twin, Megumi. You can't begin to understand that relationship."
"Didn't you just get finished saying you two need to get out of each other's heads a little more?" Megumi took a sip of her own tea.
"It's complicated. I'm not sure I can explain it very well." Hikaru stared down into his cup, as if he were hoping to find inspiration there. "It's like … you have a seed, right? And you plant it in the ground, yeah?"
"As you do with seeds," Megumi said drily.
"And then you cover it up. It doesn't see the sunlight for a long time. Not for months and months and months."
"I think you're talking about bulbs rather than seeds, but go on."
"And then suddenly it starts to grow, and it pokes out of the ground. And from that point on, the plant needs sunlight. It'll die without it. But it doesn't stop needing the ground. It never stops needing the ground, even when it needs other things as well." He shrugged. "We're each other's ground, I guess."
Megumi stared at him. "Hikaru. That was downright poetic."
He gave her a cocky grin. "Every now and again I've been known to hit one out of the ballpark." Growing serious again, he continued, "Look, I know that if he does get married, have kids, he's going to have a lot less time for me. I know that hanging out is going to take a back seat to changing diapers and giving baths or whatever the hell it is you do with babies. But that doesn't mean that our relationship is any less foundational." He looked at Megumi. "That has, on occasion, freaked some girls out. Made them run for the hills, so to speak."
Megumi smiled. "I think I'm made of sterner stuff than that." A thought occurred to her. "Is that part of the problem between you and your Jen?"
"No, Jen is pretty familiar with the concept of foundational commitments. It's just a question of whether or not our particular foundational commitments can fit into each other's lives."
"Oh?" she prompted gently.
He looked thoughtful. "Well, for one thing, she told me she absolutely cannot move to Tokyo because there's no place where she can get a good pastrami on rye." Megumi raised her eyebrows, and he continued, "In her defense, I have had the pastrami at Katz's and it is life-changing. Follow it up with a couple chocolate-covered grahams from Russ and Daughters down the block? Tam ganeydn."
"She has a foundational commitment to pastrami?"
"Among other things."
"Well. She sounds just lovely," Megumi said.
"Don't jump to conclusions," Hikaru had the smallest edge to his voice.
"Sometimes I do that," she said apologetically.
"Yeah, I had noticed." He finished his tea and put the cup down, rapping his knuckles sharply on the counter. "He doesn't need perfect, you know. None of us need perfect. For one thing, it would be annoying as all fuck."
Megumi laughed a little and finished her tea, taking both cups and rinsing them out. When she was done, Hikaru grabbed her hand and tugged her back into the living room. "Come on. You still need to try on the peacock blue. I have a good feeling about it."
Author's Note: Thanks so much to Allison West, Izzyboopers, Chalice13, and mutemuia for the reviews, and to MS. QUEEN21, River-of-Fire, and reader4ever98 for the favorites. You guys have no idea, really. Tam ganeydn means really good, delicious. Literally, taste of the garden of Eden. My Nana's apple pie was tam ganeydn, and so is chopped liver from Russ and Daughters. Personally, I can take or leave the pastrami.