polygon: ([tkrb] .................ok)
atla. ([personal profile] polygon) wrote2018-03-02 03:14 am
Entry tags:

[wip amnesty] scrapped samonji trio modern au stuff

The fan rotating overhead cuts vague shadows across the ceiling from the ambient light of the city outside the window. Before this summer, Kousetsu had lived with Sayo in their father's home, which had an air conditioner in the bedroom they'd taken to sharing in the wake of Souza's departure. It had been old, it hummed and buzzed when turned up, and there was sometimes an odd smell if they left it on too long, but Kousetsu thinks that he would take even that in place of the open window and the fan blowing stale air around. Sayo is, he thinks, asleep, if the small kicking of his foot against Kousetsu's shin is any indication. When he's lying awake, Sayo is still as a statue, afraid to disturb Kousetsu even though Kousetsu hardly sleeps. (Perhaps, Kousetsu concedes, because he hardly sleeps.)

He hears the front door swing open and shut, distantly, and forces himself to sit up. A light flicking on - the kitchen, Kousetsu presumes - shows a slash in the half-dark under the bedroom door, and Kousetsu slides out of the bed he shares with Sayo to his feet. Sayo makes a small noise behind him, and he leans down to touch his brother's hair until Sayo settles down again. When he's satisfied Sayo won't be waking with school in only a few hours, he straightens up to pull the bedroom door quietly open. It squeaks the barest bit at three quarters closed, and he makes a note to grease the hinges again. His lack of dutiful door maintenance does, at least, offer the benefit of letting Souza know someone else is awake, so that when Kousetsu raps his knuckles against the cabinet just inside their narrow kitchen, Souza's reaction is small. Souza breathes out like he thinks Kousetsu doesn't notice his tension, and Kousetsu lets him have that peace. Worrying at Souza's wounds has only made them worse.

"The bath is still warm," he says. "I see you've found the dinner I left for you."

Souza nods, touching his fingertips to the plastic wrap covering his share of the simple dinner Kousetsu and Sayo had shared hours before. "Thank you, brother," Souza says. "Did I wake you?" He asks that every time.

"No," Kousetsu reports, simply, as he does, nearly every time. Souza smiles, nodding his way through picking up the kettle to fill it. Kousetsu turns to pull a pair of cups from the cabinet, and sets them carefully down on the counter. Their elbows brush as Souza sets the kettle down again, and Souza freezes long enough Kousetsu reaches down to turn on the burner for him. "Was your shift busy?"