It's No One's Fault (Part 19)
CookiesSummary:Amidst all the mess that happened, Sho is glad that Masaki came into his life.
Masaki had been crying since they left their home and Sho wanted nothing more than to make his brother feel like everything will be alright. After receiving news that their father was doing okay so far and visited him in his private room, Sho dragged his brother to the rooftop. Masaki had stopped crying by then and was throwing Sho fake smiles. As if it was going to make Sho believe that Masaki will be alright. Hell, he was a mess inside too but he didn’t want to appear weak to Masaki. It would just make things worse.
“It’s okay, I’m here,” Sho whispered as he pulled his brother to the back of a shack. He wrapped his arms around his brother’s thin shaking frame and he felt like wanting to cry too. Why had things become this way while he was so blindly falling in love with his brother? No, Masaki wasn’t at a fault here. None of them were.
“Will mama and Jun run away together?” Aiba hiccuped as he wrapped his arms around Sho as well.
Sho shrugged. To be honest, he doesn’t even know anymore but he was sure that he hated the both of them. “I don’t know, Masaki. What they did was unforgivable.”
Masaki hiccuped. “But they love each other. Isn’t that what matters?”
Sho pulled myself away from Masaki but he kept his arms around his body as if he was afraid of losing him. “Aren’t you mad at them?” Sho asked in disbelief.
“Yeah, but nothing can beat love, Sho-nii,” he said as he hiccuped. “If we can love each other, then they can love each other too.”
“But she betrayed papa,” Sho pointed out with a shaky breath, realizing that Masaki had a point. This whole thing with falling in love with his adoptive brother was wrong in the first place and for his mother and Jun to have an affair… “Love really doesn’t have its limits, huh?” Sho sighed as he his brother’s soft cheek. “But how could they say that? Papa collapsed because of them.”
“They couldn’t have known about his condition… I don’t think he told anyone yet.”
“So he was trying to tell us earlier,” Sho concluded, recalling how their father sounded so serious about leaving his company. He thought that he was going to inherit it on his 25th birthday, which was the plan since his birth. But for it to be so soon…
“I don’t want to lose papa too,” Masaki began sobbing as he pulled Sho towards him.
“We’re not going to lose papa, I promise.” It was far from being a promise because he was not some miracle worker, but he hoped it would make Masaki better…
He pulled himself from the embrace once again and cupped Masaki’s chin. “Look at me.” His brother sniffled and looked at him with watery eyes. “It will all work out somehow. We just have to hope, okay? Papa is strong and he can go through anything. Remember when mama got mad at him for messing up her kitchen after making a lasagna explode?”
Masaki laughed as he wiped away his tears. “Yeah, I do… it was so funny. She was chasing after him with a butter knife, threatening him to clean up the kitchen.”
Sho laughed too, remembering the memory as if it only happened yesterday. Then his mother’s and Jun’s affair had to come barging in. “It’s so unfair,” he whined. “Why can’t things be normal?”
“How can it be?” Masaki let out a light chuckle. “Our relationship isn’t normal, nii-chan.”
“But think about it: if we never became brothers, we would have a non-sibling relationship, and if mama had married the man she truly loved…”
“Then you wouldn’t exist,” Masaki continued for him with a sad sigh. “I don’t want things to be normal, nii-chan. I want things to be the way they are.”
“Then you’re okay with mama and Jun?”
“No,” Masaki shook his head. “But she’s still our mama and that’ll never change. And I liked Jun because he saved me.”
Sho sighed in relief, glad that Masaki wasn’t okay with this despite Masaki’s insight on all of this mess. “That is true. I don’t want to lose mama.” After all, he still loved her and Jun wasn’t that bad of a guy.
“What about papa?” Masaki asked then, snapping Sho out of his thoughts.
“... He has us,” Sho said confidently. “We’ll be there for him and make sure that he’s happy.”
Finally, Masaki smiled the most genuine smile Sho had ever seen amidst all this depressing mess. “We’ll make papa happy.”
Sho smiled back, truly glad that he has Masaki in his life. As he stared at his brother, he wondered if meeting him in preschool was some kind of fate. If he hadn’t, his whole life would have been boring, normal, and dull. “I love you,” he blurted out of nowhere, catching Masaki in a surprise as he leaned in to kiss his brother on the lips. It was still very wrong to do this when their father was sick in bed, but Sho needed Masaki as Masaki needed Sho.
Masaki sighed into the kiss and let out a moan that Sho had never heard him do. As if it was instinct, he pushed his brother against the wall of the shack and pressed their bodies together. He could feel Masaki reacting wildly against him and Sho began to feel hot. Just as he was about to push his hands inside of Masaki’s shirt, however, he heard a loud gasp to their right. Sho immediately broke away from his brother’s grasp and turned his head towards the gasp.
“What the hell?!” Jun yelled angrily as he looked between Sho and Masaki.
Sho inhaled sharply. “It’s not what it looks like…”
“I clearly saw it. What the hell… Actually, how long has this been going on?”
“...”
“Spit it out,” Jun snarled and threw his cigarette on the floor. It made an uncomfortable sound as Jun crushed it underneath his foot and it made Sho less likely to talk to the angry man.
“For three months,” Masaki was the one who answered. Sho could tell that his brother was just as terrified as he was. Gulping, he held out his hand behind him to which Masaki immediately grabbed.
“I’m going to tell your mother,” Jun said after giving them each an angry glare.
“Please, don’t!” Sho yelled causing Jun to turn around. “I didn’t tell on you when I found out about you and mama.”
“I don’t care,” Jun snapped. “I’m still Aiba’s caretaker and this is just morally wrong.”
“But it’s not illegal,” Sho retaliated. “What you’re doing with mama is illegal.” Masaki tugged on his hand, but Sho ignored it. Sure he and Masaki had come to terms that their mother and Jun was free to do whatever it is the hell they wanted to, but Sho had to defend himself and Masaki. Even if it meant questioning the law and morality.
“That doesn’t matter.” And with that said, Jun turned around and headed to the elevator.
“I’m so sorry Sho-nii,” Masaki began to sob once again. “This is all my fault.”
“No, it’s not,” Sho sighed and hugged his brother. “This is my fault. I’m the one who kissed you first.”
“No, Sho-nii. I’m the one who showed up in your life and--”
“Don’t say that,” Sho snapped and hugged his brother tighter. “Don’t you ever say that.”
“I… I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be, Masaki. We’ll try to do something about this. I promise.”
Masaki sniffled. “Okay, nii-chan. I’ll be prepared for anything.”
TBC
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