Kuon didn’t even have to look at him to know that Reon was in a terrible mood. The brunette was in his bedroom, strumming an angry melody on his electric guitar. It wasn’t plugged in, which meant he was at least trying to be respectful about it, as it was the middle of the night. The only reason Kuon had found him was because he’d seen the light on in the gap under the door, and when he listened he could hear it. He’d just gotten out of bed to drink some water, but here he was, listening to the plucking of strings producing a tune unlike those Reon generally wrote.

With a firm knock on the door, Kuon pushed the handle. He was relieved when he found the door unlocked, and entered when he heard the music pause for a moment. Reon was sitting on his bed, curled around his guitar. All the way from the door he could see red glistening in the light from the bedside lamp smeared on the sleek surface of the pink instrument. A sigh escaped his lips as he walked over to the bed, taking Reon’s bloodied hand in his as he sat down next to him.

“What’s going on?”

Reon stared down at their hands hovering over the guitar in silence for several moments before he lowered his other hand to rest on the sheets, staining it red. “Mum called. Apparently, now that we’re famous she wants to ‘reconnect’. I told her if she contacted Aki I’d never forgive her and she laughed at me.”

Suddenly it made sense for Reon to be up this time of night, playing until his fingertips bled. In school Aki and Reon’s parents had gotten a messy divorce that went out over their children. Their mum had taken Reon and left Aki with their dad, even though it turned out she had no plans on actually parenting Reon, or even being there. She’d purely taken custody of him to make things more painful for her ex husband. Later, Aki had found out that their mum had treated Reon terribly whenever she was home, and both brothers had broken off all contact with her, which had been easy, as she had practically abandoned the younger brother already anyway.

But now she was back, and he could tell that Reon was distraught.

Kuon let go of Reon’s hand long enough to remove the guitar from his lap, and then he tugged the other man up on his feet by the wrist. “Come on, let’s clean you up.”

“My guitar first-”

Kuon raised Reon’s hand so the brunette could look at it. “No, your hands first. The guitar will be fine even if we wait ten minutes. At most you’ll have to replace the strings, but the guitar itself will be fine.”

Reon had the decency to at least look a tiny bit sheepish, and he followed willingly when he was led to the bathroom.

“What time did she call?” If Reon had managed to play so harshly for so long that his fingertips were split, it had to have been hours ago.

“Like… soon after we had dinner?”

“Reon… you could’ve told me.” Kuon ignored the grimacing from the other musician at the words, continuing to speak as he forced his friend and roommate to sit down on the toilet seat. “You need to tell Aki about this.”

With a heavy sigh, Reon leaned back against the water tank, staring up at the shiny tiles of the ceiling. “I know. That’s the worst part. I don’t care what mum says or does to me, but Aki’s sensitive, you know? He was really hurt by what she did, this’ll make things worse again. You remember what happened during the divorce.”

He did. Aki had been devastated about his mother leaving and separating him from his baby brother. It was when Aki was new to high school and Reon was still in middle school, so they had barely gotten to see each other for a full year. Both brothers could count on their fingers the amount of times they had been able to meet back then. Things had improved greatly when Reon started his first year at high school and they got to see each other every day again.

Reon let Kuon clean his fingertips carefully with a cotton pad and salt solution, finishing it up by putting cute plasters they’d gotten from Momo a while back. They had little cats on them, dressed in silly outfits. Reon looked at the plasters with a pout. “Momo got his way in the end, he said he’d get me to wear them one way or another.”

Kuon dragged his bandmate to the kitchen where he started to prepare tea for both of them. He even took out the sugar and honey for his friend without being asked first. With a quiet ‘thanks’ Reon poured his tea full of enough sugar and honey to make a dentist cry, and Kuon reminded himself to force his friend to brush his teeth before going back to bed.

They sat there for a while in silence, next to each other, Reon pulling his legs up to his chest. “...I hope she hasn’t called Aki already. I told her not to, but you remember what she was like.”

Kuon wrapped his arm around Reon, rubbing up and down his arm in comfort. “We’ll talk to Aki when we get to work tomorrow.”

He brushed Reon’s hair out of his eyes before giving him a long and firm hug. “If she doesn’t leave the two of you alone we’ll sort something out. I’m sure DC will help us if worse comes to worst.”

“Can you get a restraining order against someone who hasn’t really done anything in a few years?” Reon stirred his tea, staring down into the mug. “I just don’t want her near Aki.”

It was heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time to see Reon worry so much about Aki for once. As the younger brother, it was often the other way around, so the sight would have been sweet had it not been for such a painful reason. “I don’t think you can. But if you end up needing to file one, I’ll help you.”

With a tired sigh, Reon leaned heavily against his friend’s side. “Thanks, Kuon. I know you’ve got Aki’s back.”

“I’ve got yours too, idiot,” Kuon smiled as he pinched Reon’s nose, much to the other’s dismay. “Now, you wanna sleep in your bed or mine?”

“I’m not a child,” Reon protested, but after a few moments of hesitation he grumbled out a small ‘yours’. “I gotta clean my guitar first though-”

“And brush your teeth.”

“Ugh, fine, and brush my teeth.”

Kuon let go a sigh of relief as he watched Reon rush into his bedroom so he could get the instrument clean. They’d sort this out. The Kashii brothers would be okay.

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