He's not going to try and pretend that Minako's choice of a tank top and plaid pants is just a coincidence when she sneaks into his room, he gets the request for an encore, but his eyes go a little wild nonetheless. Hers just smolder like twin little suns above him when she slides in his bed covers, full of unsaid secrets and tenderness as she whispers.
"I take back what I said, I like it when you're shy."
His hands are tools he uses to fight and destroy, they're a bit mangled because of it too and playing any kind of instrument never crossed his mind before, but Akihiko can definitely see the attraction in being a musician now. He's not sure how to label the score yet, it needs a name, but it's a delicate duet full of colors that warms his heart to bursting.
She's like a copper and ivory lyre, with burning strings of flames that make verses with the barest of brushes from his fingertips on her bare skin, and he's catching all the gasping notes that escape from her lips with his own. The chorus parts are full of half-lidded red charring his soul, her nails gliding in his silver strands while she croons fire to him.
Eventually the melody slows to a bridge where he cloaks her into his arms to cuddle her close, and she melts her hands in his hair until she outros into sleep, content.
The weather is simply perfect for a run the next morning; vacations slowed time down to a leisurely crawl and he's not complaining. Akihiko is still in a dreamy, plushy red mood when he comes down to the lobby after his shower, with the intent to prep a protein shake for his usual lengthy workout routine, and he's a bit surprised to find Minako in the kitchen.
It's still early, but she usually zips out of the door pretty quickly.
"I thought I had more time before you came down, wait a sec!"
Her smile is dazzling when she turns her head to look at him. Even if he saw her less than an hour ago it feels like it was forever before, but the biggest surprise is her hair. Minako always has her mane of copper neatly ponytailed up with a complex setup of hairpins in full display when she goes out, no exception. It might be loose at night, and when she is winding down after a bath, but never when she goes out, not even in Tartarus or at the beach.
And she's definitely planning on going somewhere soon, judging by her attire and white sandals. Yet her red tresses are currently styled in a loose braid that curls around her neck, not a single clip in sight.
Just as adorable as during the festival.
And that simple thought makes his ears heat up because that night and that single step he dared take changed everything. Blinking to chase the blush and the memories out for now because they're at the dorm in a shared space, he looks around at the counter where she's sitting, trying to reach up to a shelf in the cabinet to put some clean bowls up there.
"I think we need a stepping stool in here."
Grinning in amusement, Akihiko steps close until he crowds her and takes the dish out of her hand to place it where it should go on the upper shelf, before closing the cabinet door.
"No, it's just you."
She gasps in mock shock with wide eyes when she turns around on the counter, always prickly about her short stature.
"The nerve, and after I took the time to make you this too. You ungrateful…"
Looking down at her hand, he spots one of his shake bottles, all mixed up already. Now that he takes stock of the kitchen with a side glance, the counter has a girly premade breakfast adorned with strawberries. Seems Minako has been busy while he was trying to dim the ongoing song in his mind under a shower head, and even used some of the fruits to repeat what she improvised for him after the last operation. Extending a hand toward it, he smirks.
"You didn't have to…"
"Wait, I never actually tried it when I made you one last time. I'm curious."
And before she hands it off to him, she narrows her eyes, takes it back her way, and sips some of the pink liquid herself.
"Mmmm, taste's not bad."
She takes a second sample to confirm. And it's the vivid picture of how her lashes half-close over red embers while she ponders the taste of her handiwork and the slight white crescent moon pressing down on the plushiness of her pink wet lower lip that makes him slip up again, this time spectacularly.
He just moves his jaw toward her in a rush and licks at the spot where the straw used to be, just wanting to judge the taste from there instead. The gasping moan that bubbles up her throat in shock parts her lips and his tongue slides in between to meet hers halfway. It's a mix of lava and ice, strawberry and burning sunlight and he freezes at the feel, mouth agape a hair from hers and blinking.
I uh…
"It's amazing."
Minako slowly flutters her lashes once over the crimson glassiness of her eyes and raises her free hand to his throat, gently curling her fingers toward his chin like a beckoning call. In reply, he just presses both his palms to each side of her jaw very softly, maps his mouth to hers sideways and does it again slowly.
I don't know where the rope is.
He's drinking strawberry-flavored liquid lightning like he's about to die, and the song is on full blast with a low humming vocal track that blanks everything else, barely clutching each other with trembling hands like they're about to crumble.
The fridge door suddenly closes with a soft smack, and that's when he jumps in fright and remembers where they currently are.
…Oh crap.
Minako tenses and looks over his shoulder at the intruder, biting her cheek with a weird expression, and he takes the time to blink at least thrice before he turns around with a very buzzing brain.
He's greeted by the very still silhouette of Minato, just standing there with a soda in hand, face completely expressionless. The single eye showing under his mop of blue hair flickers toward his sister, and he just pops his can open with a loud crack, staring hard at her. Mortified, Akihiko takes a breath and swallows, not too sure how to tackle this.
"This isn't …"
Shut up. This is exactly what it looks like.
The other teen takes a sip of his drink, moves a hand to his pocket and half takes out a blue key with a mask handle from it to get his twin's attention.
"Mina."
His lone eye flickers to Akihiko, but he doesn't smirk and nothing on his face gives any hint as to his emotions.
Well, this is awkward.
Next to him, Minako slides off the counter, flipping her braid absently as she hands him his protein shake, then takes the breakfast she prepared in her hands.
"I'm going to… bring this to Yukari before we leave, okay Min?"
She looks at him with a lopsided smile and burning cheeks and zooms out of the kitchen like a comet. Minato takes another slow sip in utter silence, blinks once at him and gets out of the doorframe as well, walking away nonchalantly.
A few steps removed from brushing the hair from her face I take it.
It takes about two hours for Akihiko's phone to ding with an incoming message and he's a bit apprehensive as to its content. Removing his boxing gloves and wiping his brow, he flips it open to find the first SMS of a new conversation with an unknown number that he assumes is a certain blue-haired twin's.
Strip mall, 5pm.
What is this, a duel invite?
You're paying.
So, he texts like he talk, this should be a fun meal.
Minato's just standing standoffishly near one of the benches at the Iwatodai mall plaza, looking nowhere in particular when he approaches him. The whisper that comes from under the blue hair is very neutral and his eyes never even fall his way at all.
"Pick your poison."
Hi to you too.
"Alright. Follow me."
He had the whole day to contemplate how to tackle this and Akihiko decided that being agreeable is the best way to proceed until Minato plays his cards, because with those twins, you never really know what you're going to get.
His companion doesn't speak while their beef bowl order is placed, seemingly content in letting him choose from the menu like she did. He keeps glancing at him with that unreadable face, like he's pondering something, yet Akihiko stares back hard every time.
I'm not backing down from this, or her.
Their meals come in after a bout of silent glares. The smell is just so tantalizing and the twin's silence deafening, so he digs in because he's hungry and that keeps his mind busy. And that's when Minato decides to chip in with a soft voice.
"I know you're sleeping with my sister."
Akihiko almost chokes on the bite he took a second ago and coughs, blushing bright red.
Holy... what?
Minato takes a clump of steaming food in his mouth and chews it slowly before he talks again, staring at him.
"Not like that. I think I'd know."
And now he smirks.
Both of them sometimes, I swear...
"It's not about that… Do you know what day we are?"
Weird subject change but okay.
Thinking back on the calendar in his room, he answers.
"August 22nd, why?"
In reply, Minato stares back at him with a weird expression and taps the hair on the side of his head to trace something as he eats, mouth full.
Why the date? Lines, in hair… hairpins? But why…
And then a few pieces slot into place in a rush because their pattern is indeed a number, and it means something very specific.
Yukari, do you… remember the date?
Sometimes in August 1999. I can't recall the exact day, why?
It happened today, then years ago. And she wears the date in her hair like a memory.
Except today she did not.
Maybe the realization is written all over his face or Minato is as adept as his sister at reading his mind and body language because he nods to him with the slightest of smiles.
"For the first time in ten years, she's not thinking about it. Because of you."
That's... well...
He feels like blushing at the thought, yet... Then it hits him, it was both of them and Akihiko looks at him with compassion.
"What about you?"
The blue eye flickers in response, unreadable.
"It hit different. The Dark Hour sucked though."
That accident created the time anomaly, so that…
"You don't…"
Dark hair bobs in confirmation.
"Since then, yes."
Akihiko remembers when he started to live that hour of nightmare, with no explanation as to what the phenomenon was, and it was scary to say the least.
The voice that comes from his companion is softer than he expected; Minato is always so abrasive in his delivery, but now he sounds… almost like Minako after their runs, it's pensive.
"That's irrelevant. The point is…"
Akihiko can't help but look up at his eyes, and for once Minato is showing a touch of emotion, and it's a bit raw and unsettling. It's so eerily similar to hers but tinted like the sea.
She was right, he is changing.
"My sister is everything to me, but I trust you, you're… noble."
He's not sure what to answer, it's definitely not what he expected when he invited him here.
"Be there for her tonight, keep the calendar and nightmares away. I'll cover her."
You don't even need to ask.
He nods, and Minato smirks yet again.
"She's really happy at the fact we joined SEES, and so am I."
And that wording right there sends him back to a specific phrase that keeps nagging at him since he heard her say it.
But he seemed happy at the fact that we joined SEES…He mentioned several times how our presence here got things moving in the right direction.
"What's wrong, Sanada?"
Akihiko looks down, mulling. He's been a member of SEES since its creation, he's been at this for years now, and everything just hits him like a ton of bricks.
"I got a hunch and I'm not sure I should... It's something she mentioned, about the physicals the chairman made you run."
The twin blinks, taking another bite as if to ask him to continue his train of thought.
"I just realized… there never was any full moon shadow before you both came here. The first one appeared after you arrived at the dorm."
The blue eye closes over a somewhat pained expression.
"…Don't tell her."
"I'm not at ease with lying, especially to her."
Minato shakes his head negatively, not looking at him and a smidge shaken like he knows something.
"It was her idea to come back, she'll think it's her fault. Let me handle that one."