Hanako's brow twitches once, twice.
She's hit with the distinct impression that there is someone out there to get her. Still, almost as if to prove her goodwill to this unknown force, she wills a somewhat friendly smile to her lips.
Fuuto's marble-carved features scrunch up at the sight of her as if he had just swallowed a lemon, "Oh, it's you," as if she had given him a reason to dislike her, instead of it being the other way around.
"Hi," the grip she has on the stack of books in her hands tightens imperceptibly and she uses her other hand to wave awkwardly, moving to the side to let him pass and hopefully get out of her hair.
He doesn't, staring at her for a long second instead.
Before she can force out any pleasantries, ask about his day, or something like that, the teen's eyes narrow thoughtfully, "You and your sister don't look that much alike."
That is enough to make the girl falter, plump lips parting and orchid-colored eyes widening.
Before the sudden, irrational jolt of fear can fully draw itself on her face, she schools her expression into something less tense, more natural, "You've met Ema? When did that happen?"
Because of his busy schedule and a bout of teenage angst, Fuuto had not spent one meal with his family ever since he came back from Hokkaido, and Ema had not mentioned the idol once in the single week they had shared a house - much to Hanako's happiness.
That brat had not done anything to put her at ease and she wanted him as far from her sister as what was possible given the conditions they'd all been forced into.
"It seems like she takes after you, creeping on sleeping strangers and all," the lines of Hanako's features harden at the veiled insult, eyes flashing almost dangerously, "The debate's still up on which one of you is the more scatterbrained of the two, although with her recent stunt, I'd say her."
"Don't talk about my sister like that," she says then, tone hard and unforgiving, all pretense of wanting to get along forgotten, "I don't know nor care what your fucking issue with us is but keep Ema out of it."
He smirks at the instant defensive posture she puts on when it comes to her sister, wrapping barbed wires around her as if there's no risk of cutting herself, "And me who thought we were getting along so well nee-san."
An unpleasant frown curls at her lips, his attitude grating at her nerves dangerously. So, she does what she does best in those situations - flee before she gets the urge to do something stupid like slap that perfect face of his.
Teeth clenched slightly, the girl walks off, trying to keep any hint of emotion from slipping out. Too busy staring straight ahead and ignoring Fuuto's whining, the girl doesn't notice the person who comes out of the common room's opened doors, ramming straight into her.
She squeaks, hands reaching to try and grab something, which proves to be difficult with the books in her hands, "I'm so sor-" there's a quiet huff when the corner of one her schoolbooks rams into a solid chest, a pair of hands landing on the girl's hips to stop her from tipping backward.
Hanako shakily exhales, closed lids slowly fluttering open once she's no longer at risk of falling on her butt, "We've got to stop meeting like this."
One of these days, her perpetual absentmindedness and uncoordination will lead to her death - Hanako just knows it.
The most recent victim of her clumsiness stares down at her curiously, politely letting go of her once there is no more threat of an impending catastrophe. "Right," Iori's voice comes off as both dry and amused, something she'd come to associate with the boy beneath the prince persona.
An awfully gentle boy for someone with such sharp, cutting edges, one with a wicked sense of humor.
"Thank you," she feels Fuuto's eyes on them and tries to keep herself from looking back and glaring, or something equally immature, "And sorry," she swipes a short strand of hair behind her ear, knowing it will inevitably slip out to fall into her face once again because of its length.
"Aren't the two of you disgustingly sweet," she hears Fuuto mutter behind her, watching Iori's hazel eyes dart to his brother curiously, perhaps even a bit reproachfully.
"Yes Fuuto," she rolls her eyes, looking back to see him at a distance far closer than what he had been moments earlier, "People can be nice to others with no underlying agenda, I'm sure that must be quite the shock to you."
She doesn't bother trying to listen up to whatever the teen has to say, bypassing Iori with a wave and a hasty see you later, before entering the room he'd just come out of, intent on getting herself a snack before starting some homework.
The girl's lips twitch when she receives a text from Ema, telling her she's almost home, having stopped by the record dealer to buy Maho-chan some of her favorite idols' records for her birthday.
Glancing at the books she had left on the counter, and the veggies she had been munching on with some tzatziki dip, Hanako quickly writes back that she's in the common room, asking the girl to stop by before going up to her room.
"Hi, sunshine," Hanako says, quickly reading the last few lines of the page she's on and slipping a bookmark between the pages of Hobbes' Leviathan, "How was your day?"
Before Ema can answer, however, Juli quickly jumps at the chance that has been offered to him - literally. He almost lands in Hanako's face in his haste at reaching the girl, paws fluttering to his sides uselessly when the girl catches him with a huff, "Nana! Thank God you're here! You have to reason with Chii, that little beast won't stop harassing her!"
The girl's spine straightens drastically, sending Ema an alarmed glance just as she's browsing through the girl's bag which holds some new records for Maho-chan's birthday, along with some second-hand, old-school movies she could see neither her sister nor Maho-chan watching.
"Ema?" she asks, watching her sister's cheeks tint pink with something akin to horror.
The teen looks down, playing with her fingers almost shyly, "Juli's blowing this out of proportions," she quickly says, "I just... might've accidentally said Fuuto's name out loud at the record shop just now, so as an apology for blowing up his cover I rented these for him."
Okay, the situation is not nearly as bad as what Hanako had first assumed, even with that prickly brat involved.
With Fuuto's mainstream idol status, it was obvious that going out in public would be quite the ordeal, and if he had planned to rent these, then it was only fair Ema would do so for him.
"Grabbing your face like that to shut you up was way over the line!" Juli argues and the DVD that had been in Hanako's hands drops onto the counter with a thud.
"He did what?" the room's temperature seems to drop by a few degrees at the frigid tone of voice employed by the older Hinata sister.
"Hana-nee..." Ema sighs, sending her sister a pleading look, "It's fine, I was being too loud, and it was just for a second."
Pearly white teeth come into view as the girl gives a too-large, too-sharp smile, hastily putting all her books into a neat pile and putting the dishes she had used into the dishwasher, "You need to go drop his rentals off, right? Let me come with you."
To the outside world, she looks like the very definition of composed, while Ema knows she is this close to blowing up.
"I'll play nice, I promise," she says at her sister's hesitance, giving the girl the illusion of a choice in the process, because no matter what Ema has to say on this, there is no way in hell Hanako is leaving her alone with that despicable stepbrother of theirs.
"Okay...he said he'd be waiting by my room," Ema quietly adds as they enter the elevator, wincing when her sister's left eye gives a dangerous twitch at the new information.
The trip to the fourth floor is just the right amount of time for her to text into her group chat with Kana and Mayu that she might need to be bailed out of jail.
Lo and behold, when they exit the elevator, Fuuto is casually leaning back on the wall between the two girls' rooms, swiping on his phone.
"Took you long enough-" the boy's face scrunches up when the girl who suddenly invades his personal space is not the one he was expecting, "What are you doing here?"
"Giving your CDs back of course," she hands him the bag with a little too much force, having taken out the records for Maho-chan and having handed them to her sister a while ago, "Have fun watching them, goodbye."
He doesn't leave, of course, he doesn't.
Instead, Fuuto tilts his head to the side, lips curling slyly, "Now, now nee-san, don't you think I deserve a bit more than that? Considering all the hassle I had to go through because I was recognized in public..."
From the corner of her eye, Hanako sees her sister waver, and she is briefly struck with disdain for the girl's too-big, too-trusting heart.
It's a trait Ema has that she both loves and hates, one she would not want to change for anything in the world even when she knows that this freely given, authentic kindness of hers would get her in trouble one day.
Or rather, that's what would inevitably happen if Hanako was not around to make sure no one would ever get the passing idea of taking advantage of her sister's perhaps a bit naive goodwill.
"Ema already rented all of your movies, what more do you want?" she asks dryly, with no intention of complying with whatever illusion the boy has conjured within his mind including Ema.
Over my dead body, the length of her spine straightens when the boy takes a step forward.
Fuuto's chin is angled in a way that makes it seem like he's looking down on her, despite only being a centimeter or two taller than herself, this calculated, cheap trick of his makes her lips quirk downward, "I know, how about some quality time with my dear sister over there, as a punishment for making me go through all of that, in her room~"
Hanako's eyes almost bulge out of their sockets, and for a split second, her vision turns stark white.
"You're fucking with me," Ema gasps from behind her at the foul language, muttering her sister's full name rather than her usual nickname for the girl, "Does anything I tell you even register in that half-wit brain of yours?"
Was she any less infuriated, maybe she'd reason with herself that he was only doing this to mess with her, having found that one sore spot that could get him the reaction he so clearly wanted to get out of her: Ema.
Right now, however, she doesn't give a shit.
Lips thinning threateningly, she stands her ground and rams two of her fingers in the center of his chest, making him take a step back as she crowds into his personal space like he seemed so fond of doing with her, "I mean it Fuuto, leave my sister, alone."
The boy's eyes cut to Ema who is staring at the scene with something like growing grief.
"You're so mean to me, nee-san," the boy mocks yet again, far too pleased with the whole situation, "I only wanted to watch some movies with my big sister, is that so bad?"
This little act of his is ridiculous, the fact that Ema is falling for it even more so.
"It could be fun, Hana-nee," the girl says, putting a reassuring hand on her sister's shoulder, "And I did blow his cover earlier," suddenly, she feels like pulling her hair out, or Fuuto's.
Slowly so, painfully so.
"Tell me you're joking," the pleading, doe-like eyes that meet her own tell her that no, in fact, Ema is not joking. Don't get her wrong, she knows the girl wants to get along with everyone, so does she for that matter, but this is just ridiculous, "Oh, whatever, do what you want Em'."
At his smirk, she shoots Fuuto a sharp glare, ignoring Juli's hissy fit.
"There's no need for this movie session," her nose scrunches up as she drawls the words, "To be in her room though, the TV screen is much bigger in the living room."
"I don't want any of my idiot brothers interrupting," the idol rolls his eyes like that should have been obvious, "It's practically a circus at this time of the day."
It might have been a compelling argument without the unnecessary sass and displeasure tainting his features, she still does not trust the boy's intentions one bit.
"Hana-nee, I really don't mind-" the teenage girl falls silent when her older sister raises a hand, not tearing her eyes away from Fuuto's.
"But I do," it's not like she has any old-fashioned beliefs on boys in girls' rooms or anything like that, but this one doesn't seem to quite grasp the notion of boundaries, or respect, "At least if you two are alone."
To think she is even entertaining the thought goes to prove just how much Ema's wants and needs matter to her.
"It's either the living room, or we all watch those movies of yours together," Juli screeches bloody murder at her proposition, and Hanako doesn't miss the way her sister's shoulders drop in relief at the idea.
"Whatever," the teenager shrugs, smiling meanly her way, "Just get on with it, nee-san," so she does, resisting the urge to shove him as she bypasses him and heads for her room, motioning the two over when nobody moves.
The only thing worse than inviting the baby-faced menace in what she had made her safe place in the past two months, would be allowing him to invade her baby sister's privacy.
If she needs to scrub everything clean afterward, then so be it.
"Step out of line and I'll kick you out myself," she warns once Ema has passed the doorstep, still trying to appease a rabid Juli. As she watches Fuuto close the curtains and get quite comfortable on the plush surface of her bed, Hanako wonders if it's too late to back out of this monumental mistake she's just made.
Despite this inner turmoil, she puts in the movie the boy throws at her after a few moments of contemplating the DVDs in his hands with genuine focus.
Nothing is wrong at first, and it's like time stills for the first thirty minutes of the film - one she was surprisingly familiar with, although she favors the book over the movie despite the quite memorable actors.
The three of them are huddled on Hanako's bed, a sufficient distance between the two girls and Fuuto. Slowly, the older Hinata sister allows herself to relax and enjoy herself, a blanket thrown around her and Ema's shoulders.
Slightly mollified, she even offers a similar blanket to Fuuto - one of the knitted ones she seems to have in industrial quantity, varying in colors and patterns. If he refuses, his total focus is on the John Grisham adaptation playing on the screen and he doesn't even bother being rude in his answer.
Lulled into a false sense of security, she allows him to shuffle closer to the middle of the bed when he quietly mutters that he'd like to see the screen better.
If his gaze cuts to her sharply, she doesn't notice, and it's only when his knee bumps into her own that Hanako looks his way, more curious than outraged. He doesn't offer an apology, but does offer her an insincere smile under the pretense of it.
And you know what, Hanako will take what she can get.
"I've got to say, that was amazing!" she blinks, trying to pinpoint what the teenager meant by that - like most law thrillers, The firm starts off a slow, methodical pace, and despite the clues handed to the viewers, the action had not nearly started yet.
Hanako didn't really want or care to ask, noticing the intensity of his gaze on the screen, trying to pick apart every little thing displayed - Fuuto's attention being anywhere other than her and Ema was a colossal win if you were to ask her.
Still, she does wonder what it is that would grab his attention in such a way, and so she playfully quips, "You mean the part where we got to admire Jeanne Tripplehorn's perfect bone structure?"
If Ema hides a giggle behind her fingers, her arch nemesis of a stepbrother finds nothing about her words amusing and his eyes roll so far back she fears he might lose them forever, "Hilarious," his lower lip curls down viciously, but his gaze doesn't tear away from the screen, "That's the problem with you unwashed masses."
"What is?" she probes, a brow hiking high on her forehead, surprised that she's not nearly as offended by his prickly attitude as she would be usually.
He blinks, not expecting the girl to follow up on his comment, and the look he sends the two sisters is almost considering.
"Other than the fact that you mooning over that wonderful actress is starting to get quite irritating-" Hanako's lips curl higher, her eyes creasing further into little half moons, "People never notice just how incredible scenes like that actually are."
Ema's mouth parts, unknowingly interrupting whatever the boy was about to say, "How so?"
"As I was saying," Hanako sends him a warning glance when her sister flinches, knowing this fragile peace between them only hangs by a thread, "It's the small things like walking or sleeping that are the hardest to do, simple actions can't be faked, and that's where actual talent shows. I'm not even close to that yet...but I'm hoping one day I'll get there."
What is this? An actual conversation about something he visibly cares about, has the sky toppled over their heads yet?
"You want to be an actor," despite its formulation, the words don't quite come across as a question and Hanako observes the boy's side profile, "I can imagine that actually, better than that idol work of yours, making poor teenage girls actually find you charming."
If a muscle in Fuuto's cheek twitches, he doesn't interrupt her, or rather she doesn't let him, "You're pretty enough," she decides thoughtfully, ignoring the way Juli starts to shout obscenities her way, and how Fuuto nearly jumps, "And you're obviously putting a lot of thought into this."
Ema quietly inputs that it's admirable how he's found a goal so young, but the idol doesn't even glance her way, those milk chocolate orbs of his firmly fixated on the girl next to him, not paying him that much attention as her thoughts whirl.
"What type of roles are you thinking of? The thought of you starring in one of those one-dimensional dramas as eye candy makes me want to barf," she teases, trying to jump into this new dynamic that he'd set for them. One where he's not as testy, or as inconsiderate and all-around unpleasant to be around.
Hanako is adaptable if anything else, after all.
Fuuto seems to malfunction at her question, mouth opening and closing like a fish's, "...I'd like to be an all-rounder at first, get into bigger, more meaningful roles once I've established myself as an actor."
"And you already know how to interact with the camera, so that gives you an advantage," she continues, humming slightly, "It suits you I think, acting."
That's when Ema's phone rings, startling all those present.
"Oh! Sorry," she goes to close the ringtone, deciding against it when her father's number and the nickname Papa show up on the screen. The look she sends her sister is ecstatic, and Hanako ushers her out of the room quickly with a thumbs up.
"Say hi to him and Miwa for me!" she calls out as the girl skips over to the next-door room, Juli trailing after her all the while sending their second-youngest stepbrother warning glances.
Hanako closes the door behind them, something warm curling between her ribs.
Sufficiently distracted, she barely considers who she had been left alone with, eyes sparkling like jewels as she goes to settle back on her bed, "If you'd rather I shut up so you can catch the rest of the movie, I won't min-"
She doesn't expect his next move just as she goes to sit, tripping over his feet when Fuuto shuffles to steal the spot she'd previously been occupying.
The sudden movement nearly sends her sprawling, a squeak escaping her lips as she fumbles not to land completely over the boy with almost the same stature as her, not wanting to actually flatten him.
Deft fingers slide over her hips, sliding her off his lap, which she'd inadvertently sat on for a nanosecond, and onto Ema's previous spot, "Clutz," Hanako's mouth opens, struggling to find what to say.
"You did that on purpose," confusion coats her tone of voice, and as she tries to wiggle around, she finds that this new position puts her right between Fuuto and the two walls bracketing her bed, with not much room for movement, "Okay, there's more than enough space you can take-"
Rather than listen to her, the boy purposely crowds her space further, leaning towards her with an indecipherable look on his face.
"You know," the words leaving his lips are suspiciously honeyed, doing nothing to put her more at ease as she retreats further into the corner to try and put some distance between herself and the boy, "It's quite dense of you to expect me to just take that lying down."
"What?" she quickly tries to think of what might have offended him this time, coming up short, "I don't know what you're talking about Fuuto, back off."
"Nobody's ever actually taken me seriously about acting, not my brothers, not my agency," he says, the area between his brow pinching for a second as his face approaches hers like...
Like something she doesn't want to waste time thinking too deeply about.
She raises a hand to push at his cheek, tilting his head to the side and further away from her, "Yeah, well you're not exactly the most pleasant person to be around," she scoffs, blinking owlishly when he grasps her wrist, holding it firmly to his cheek with a look she does not like at all.
Hanako shivers, "Okay that's enough," she cuts whatever Fuuto was about to say, nearly making him topple off the bed as she springs forward, whipping around to face him as soon as she's up on her two feet and off the bed, "I'm removing myself from, from whatever this is," she says primly, perhaps a bit unkindly.
"Ukyo should be getting home soon anyway," when she finds nothing else to say, Hanako trips on her own words; stumbles over her thoughts, "I'll see you at dinner."
Silently, she closes the door behind her, making her way to the closest elevator as if on autopilot, "What in the world was that," she mumbles, chin tilted upward, faked assurance in her posture, in the confident steps she takes.
Refusing to be thrown off balance by this, the girl goes on about her day as usual, monitoring carefully her limited, half-civilized interactions with Fuuto who had unexpectedly joined them for dinner.
It's of little importance, she reasons with herself when she spots nothing odd about the boy's acidic, prickly behavior towards all of them, just your imagination.
Beneath their feet, this fragile middle ground of theirs shakes.