Never One Without The Other

@hikari-rp

((Private RP Blog))

112 posts

Hikari happily accepted the food offering and wasted no time digging in until she was interrupted halfway into her snack. “I’m no hair specialist but I don’t think you’re making it look any better,” she teased as she went back to munching back on her onigiri.

She was about to respond to Takeru that she was feeling a bit warmer thanks to the fire when what her brother suggested peaked her interest. Her head turned between him and Takeru who seemed to agree. “We’re a half hour walk away from our camp,” she frowned, “There’s already a chance that one of us is going to get sick.” Despite the fire, they were still wearing drenched clothing so there was a high chance that one of them would catch a mild cold at least. Most likely her since her unlucky self was illness prone but she definitely was not going to say that out loud. The last thing she needed was them worrying too much over something like that. They all needed to look after themselves too. “If we walk in this rain for that long, we’re all going to catch hypothermia,” she continued.

Although, she turned towards the depths of the cave. She didn’t know exactly how she felt about sleeping overnight in this cave either. It might have other inhabitants that she wasn’t so sure she wanted to meet.

Yamato immediately tossed the blanket back at Taichi, frowning at him. He didn’t have to play with the only dry thing they owned, but he couldn’t help throwing it back to his face, for being so casual about all this.

Maybe he was overreacting though, he had to loosen up.

“I said I’m fine,” he said, going to sit next to Takeru and Hikari, holding his hands up towards the fire to try to warm up. Slowly, the heat was coming back to his body, so it wasn’t that bad right now. Thing could have been definitely worse.

As Hikari mentioned someone getting sick, he let out a sigh. “If anyone’s getting sick, it should be Taichi” he joked, really hoping none of them would get sick though. He didn’t have any time for being sick and also, he didn’t want any of them getting sick either. Especially not Hikari, because that would make both his brother and his boyfriend really worried and he didn’t want that for any of them.

Not that he would say that out loud, ever.

“So we just wait?” he asked, looking at the younger couple then. “Or do you want to go check out the cave?” hHe glanced behind himself, the darkness of the cave didn’t seem too inviting for them to explore.

“Hopefully the rain will stop soon,” Takeru mused. As if reading Hikari’s mind, Takeru looked into the cave as well. He too didn’t like the idea of spending the night in here. There could be wild animals, and without their digimon they weren’t anything special.

Taichi picked it up from where Takeru stopped. “Even if the rain doesn’t stop, even if it just lessens a bit from storm to light drizzle, we should try to head back.”

He deliberately ignored Yamato’s comment and instead just poked his tongue out at him. He was such a crybaby sometimes. It was cute though. The blanket was now back in his hands. After a seconds thought he stood up and put it over his little sister, wrapping it nicely around her. It may not help as much as it should, seeing that her clothes were wet, but it would make it a bit better.

“I really don’t want any of us to get sick, but..” he scratched his head. “Wouldn’t it be good to get back to the tent where we could put on dry clothes and warm up properly?”

“Maybe...,” Hikari looked doubtful but their options were limited at this point. She welcomed the warmth of the blanket wrapped around her. But that only lasted a few seconds because she simply took it off from around her shoulders and laid it across the laps of the three of them sitting next to each other.

“What do you think Yamato?” She asked looking at the older blonde. She usually always stuck by her brother’s decision but she wasn’t sure about this one. Her boyfriend seemed to agree though and if Yama did too, she would just trust that they knew best.

Hikari happily accepted the food offering and wasted no time digging in until she was interrupted halfway into her snack. “I’m no hair specialist but I don’t think you’re making it look any better,” she teased as she went back to munching back on her onigiri.

She was about to respond to Takeru that she was feeling a bit warmer thanks to the fire when what her brother suggested peaked her interest. Her head turned between him and Takeru who seemed to agree. “We’re a half hour walk away from our camp,” she frowned, “There’s already a chance that one of us is going to get sick.” Despite the fire, they were still wearing drenched clothing so there was a high chance that one of them would catch a mild cold at least. Most likely her since her unlucky self was illness prone but she definitely was not going to say that out loud. The last thing she needed was them worrying too much over something like that. They all needed to look after themselves too. “If we walk in this rain for that long, we’re all going to catch hypothermia,” she continued.

Although, she turned towards the depths of the cave. She didn’t know exactly how she felt about sleeping overnight in this cave either. It might have other inhabitants that she wasn’t so sure she wanted to meet.

You Had One Job

There were basics when it came to planning a weekend camping trip.

Pick a proper location, bring a tent, pack enough food and water, a first aid kid and Check. The. Weather.

Taichi had been excited about this 3-room tent he found online and announced that he was planning a camping trip for himself, his boyfriend Yamato, and their two younger siblings. He had said he would take care of everything and all everyone else needed to do was pack their own things. He picked a weekend that worked for everyone and said it would be the perfect weather for this.

The trio made the mistake of trusting him and not checking the weather themselves.

After arriving to their rented campsite that was settled in a forest area on a mountaintop, they decided to take a walk to find a peak and check out the view. It was about an hour walk from their campsite so they made sure to pack some snacks and water for the trek.

Not even 30 minutes into their hike, out of nowhere, it had started down-pouring on the group. *Oh great*. Unfortunately, their campsite was too far to run back to at this downpour rate but thankfully they managed to fine refuge in a very conveniently located nearby cave.

Hikari sat on the cave floor in a circle with the others, shivering as she cursed herself for not checking the weather and trusting that her older brother actually had EVERYTHING under control. Was it really too much to expect something that simple from the leader of the digidestined?

Thankfully they had supplies to last them until morning since it seemed like they would be crashing here for the night. So much for the fancy tent. She looked up at her brother feeling a bit sorry for him simply because he was so excited about making this trip special but also not so much because she was shivering cold right now. She was sure he’d be hearing an earful from Yamato right about now. She leaned into Takeru for some warmth even though he was most likely just as cold as she was.

The weekend camping trip was such a good idea. A break from his busy life with some of his closest ones, no responsabilities burdening him or unexpected problems awaiting for a solution, just a weekend to relax and have a nice time.

It was a shame their Digimon partners couldn’t tag along, that way it could have been like the old adventure times, back at the Digital World. He thought of Gabumon and how much he missed him, it had been a while since he last met up with him after all.

Maybe next time, he mused as they walked through the forest area, looking around quietly. Such a peaceful scenery surrounded them, if they stopped somewhere to rest he was definitely going to pull out his harmonica and play for a while.

It was all going perfectly fine until the sky went dark in a matter of minutes and the downpour began, leaving the whole group completely soaked and looking for a place to hide.

Of course his hair-for-brains boyfriend had to forget one tiny little detail.

“You had one job!” He snapped at Taichi as soon as they found refuge in a cave, pushing his wet bangs out of his face. “Check the damn weather before you go camping to make sure it doesn’t rain!” He groaned in frustration, shivering at the feeling of his soaked clothes clinging to his body.

He glanced over at Takeru and Hikari for a moment before he turned back at Taichi, shooting a glare at him.

“At least tell me you brought something to start a fire.” He added after taking a breath, moving to sit down next to Takeru.

Hopefully the rain would stop soon, so they could go back to their campsite…

So far the camping trip had gone smoothly. Taichi was so excited to finally embrace his inner camper again after all these years. He had even brought his nifty little binoculars. Everything was ruined by the sudden rainstorm however, which lead them to seek refugee in a cave. Understandably, everyone got a bit upset.

“I did check the weather though, it said it would be sunny and clear!” Taichi retorted, conveniently leaving out the part that he last had checked the forecast two weeks ago. Upon being asked whether he had brought anything to light a fire with, he beamed as bright as the sun that never were. “You give me too little credit Yamato, It’s not just air going through here,” he said while tapping his soaked head.

He glanced over at the other two as he bent down to gather some twigs in the center. “I’m sorry you two got wet and cold, but it’ll all be better soon!” He hastily put all the twigs and any moss he could find together in a pile, pulling out a lighter, fittingly decorated with a flame, and started a fire.

“Wanna cozy up together so we don’t freeze to death?” He winked at Yamato as they sat down.

—–

Takeru had decided to just take everything easy at the moment. It wasn’t much they could do about the weather anyway.

As Hikari leaned against him he put his arm around her. “I regret leaving my jacket in the tent now,” he mused, while trying to warm her by rubbing his arm up and down hers.

“Brother, did you have the bag with food? I’m starting to get hungry.”

Takeru snuggled even closer to Hikari, not sure if it helped in any way to make her warm, seeing as he was wet too. “You can borrow my hat if you want. It’s big enough to warm your ears,” he smiled gently to her.

Hikari bit back a laugh at the lover’s quarrel happening in front of them. Even though they were soaked and cold, things could’ve been a lot worse. Having Agumon around though would’ve been really convenient right about now.

When Takeru brought up food, her stomach growled in response, “Yeah, me too...,” she replied sheepishly. They were supposed to have a quick snack dinner right about now on the cliff side enjoying the view. Oh wait.

Hikari pulled away from Takeru as she began unzipping her bag. “I figured we’d be sitting on the floor when we got to the cliff so,” she trailed off as she took out a blanket from her bag. Except she only had one and it wasn’t exactly big enough for all of them unless they wanted to get REAL close.

However, her decision who should get the blanket was made when her brother sputtered out that flirty line towards his boyfriend. She tossed the folded up fabric, aiming for his face, “You guys can use that,” she smirked then turned to her boyfriend, “And you can keep your hat, we can’t have you sacrificing that. What’s Takeru without his hat?” she teased as she leaned back into his side.

You Had One Job

There were basics when it came to planning a weekend camping trip.

Pick a proper location, bring a tent, pack enough food and water, a first aid kid and Check. The. Weather.

Taichi had been excited about this 3-room tent he found online and announced that he was planning a camping trip for himself, his boyfriend Yamato, and their two younger siblings. He had said he would take care of everything and all everyone else needed to do was pack their own things. He picked a weekend that worked for everyone and said it would be the perfect weather for this.

The trio made the mistake of trusting him and not checking the weather themselves.

After arriving to their rented campsite that was settled in a forest area on a mountaintop, they decided to take a walk to find a peak and check out the view. It was about an hour walk from their campsite so they made sure to pack some snacks and water for the trek.

Not even 30 minutes into their hike, out of nowhere, it had started down-pouring on the group. *Oh great*. Unfortunately, their campsite was too far to run back to at this downpour rate but thankfully they managed to fine refuge in a very conveniently located nearby cave.

Hikari sat on the cave floor in a circle with the others, shivering as she cursed herself for not checking the weather and trusting that her older brother actually had EVERYTHING under control. Was it really too much to expect something that simple from the leader of the digidestined?

Thankfully they had supplies to last them until morning since it seemed like they would be crashing here for the night. So much for the fancy tent. She looked up at her brother feeling a bit sorry for him simply because he was so excited about making this trip special but also not so much because she was shivering cold right now. She was sure he'd be hearing an earful from Yamato right about now. She leaned into Takeru for some warmth even though he was most likely just as cold as she was.

Stealing the Thunder

Yamato gave Takeru the money he needed and just watched him for a short moment as he left, he was so excited about that hat, it was really adorable. He couldn’t help but smile a little in his direction, then he turned to look at Taichi instead, “Hey, what are you doing?” he protested, not really pushing him away or trying to make him stop playing with his hair.

He eventually stood up as well and fixed his clothes. “No need to be so loud” he smiled, starting to head out. “Want to come home after this?” He mumbled to Taichi, then gestured to the other two, “Do you think they’d like to join? I could cook something for us all later, but maybe they already have plans” he shrugged a bit, trying not to make it sound too important. His dad usually worked until late so his apartment was empty most of the time.

“By the way, you weren’t really threatening Takeru earlier, were you?” He raised an eyebrow to Taichi as he stuck his hands inside his pockets. Taichi knew Takeru was a good guy, he’d seen him growing up, he literally couldn’t ask for anyone better to date his sister, so he couldn’t complain. He knew he was kind of biased, but those were facts, and if Taichi suddenly became too overprotective, he’d have to deal with him, still being too overprotective himself no matter how much he tried to hide. Takeru wasn’t 8 anymore and even then he proved to be way more mature than him, but he couldn’t help it, he just wanted the best for his little brother.

After clearing out all the trays, Hikari made her way to Takeru who was back at the counter to pay up the bill. “So this is going well,” she commented poking his cheek. “Who knew we’d end up on a double date to shop for hats,” she grinned teasingly. “What’s even more impressive is that one, we finally came out with our relationship without Taichi killing you AND we managed to get them to pay for our food.” The digimon sure missed out on this all you can eat opportunity, especially Agumon.

“I wonder if we can get them to get some makeovers,” Hikari pursed her lips in thought, a mental image popping into her head. It would definitely be a fun time for her and Takeru to witness something like that but of course, neither of them would push their beloved brothers that far. Or would they?

Hikari glanced at the waitress who didn’t say a single word as she took the cash from Takeru. Hm, something did seem off about her but again, Hikari didn’t think it was anything to worry about. She didn’t really give them a reason to think that anyways.

Turning around, she followed Takeru out of the restaurant where the two older brothers were waiting on them. Looking up at the dark sky, she frowned slightly, “We better make it to the station before it starts to rain,” she pointed out. None of them had brought any umbrellas. Actually, they weren’t supposed to be expecting any rain today. Even if they make it to the station dry, they still had to walk from the station to the store and there was a higher chance that it’d be raining then. Oh well, a little water wouldn’t hurt anyone especially Takeru since his head would be dry. Maybe she needed to buy a hat…

Takeru and Hikari walked in the front, leading the group forward towards the station. They had plenty of time still, but those dark clouds weren’t looking good. “It’s a good thing we’re going hat shopping then, maybe they sell rain hats or umbrellas there!” he replied, beaming with excitement. It really was amazing how they managed to pull off a double date going hat shopping, especially with two guys who didn’t wear any form of hats at all. Takeru would make sure to make them all try on something, so that he could get a picture of it.

With Yamato and Taichi still walking a few steps behind the rest, Takeru called out again that there was going to be rain any minute, and that they should pick up the pace if they didn’t want to get wet.

Takeru looked back perplexed at Hikari as she started walking faster, as if he could feel some raindrops on him. “Makeovers? We would be in debt to them forever if we made them do anything drastic!” He gasped, imagining Taichi with dyed tips or shorter hair scaring him. The same for his brother- Yamato with longer hair or a perm would give Takeru grief for the rest of his life.

As they reached the platform, they could see the train arriving in the distance. They picked up the pace even more down to the station and when the clouds were at their darkest, the sky opened up a little bit.

Taichi slowed down his pace as he got outside, allowing for the others to catch up to him. Soon Yamato was at his side- asking him loads of questions. Taichi smiled, the older duo walking a bit further back than the younger duo; “Of course I wasn’t, but it’s my job as the big brother to put up a protective front!” He boasted. “Besides, she could have come home with a worse guy.. And Takeru’s a nice kid, I’m glad it’s someone I know.”

He patted Yamato’s shoulder reassuringly. No way Taichi would ever threaten him! It was all just for fun.

“Anyway, you know I’d love to come over,” he winked at Yamato and elbowed his side. “I’m sure they wouldn’t mind having another free meal, but..” he leaned in closer to whisper the next part: “..we should totally get back at them somehow. Can’t have them thinking they’ve got the upper hand on us!”

A few minutes later they were all on the platform, waiting for the train to stop and unload passengers. The boarding went smoothly seeing as there weren’t a lot of passengers on the train, so they all got a seat.

“Are you two busy later by the way? Yamato was wondering if you guys would like him to cook us some food.” As it had been asked, Taichi was already excited about the thought of more food. He was like a garbage disposal, everything went in!

Yamato just raised an eyebrow in response to his explanation of the whole ‘protective older brother’ thing. “Good. Just don’t be weird about it.” He said, frowning at him once he elbowed his side. “Hey!” He complained, pushing his arm softly but not moving away any further.

Looking up to the sky as they walked, he furrowed his eyebrows even more. It seemed like it was going to start raining any time soon and they didn’t have any umbrellas, he didn’t particularly feel like getting soaked today. If only he had checked the weather online before going out earlier… Back then he was still extremely nervous about their announcement, so that idea never crossed his mind.

“Of course you wouldn’t mind free food” A small grin appeared on his face then. “You get to clean everything up then.” He didn’t really like cleaning, but making food, especially for others, was actually kind of nice. “I like the way you think sometimes” he looked towards Takeru and Hikari for a moment, before looking back at Taichi. “I know Takeru wouldn’t mind some spicy food, if you’re up for it” his smirk was big now. “I’ll think of something” he added, and started to walk faster, expecting for Taichi to catch up, to get closer to the others.

Eventually when they were all seated, he perked up at Taichi’s sudden invitation and pouted a bit at him, his cheeks warming up. Did he have to word it like that? It was weird! “It’s okay if you can’t” he said, crossing his arms and looking outside through the window as the train moved. It was already raining over here, so their chances to not get wet were reduced to zero.

Hikari took a seat next to Takeru, the older siblings sitting across from them. “I think they’d make pretty girls,” she whispered to him, stifling a giggle. “But you’re right, shouldn’t overdo it too much.” Then she put a finger to her chin in thought, raising an eyebrow, “Maybe I should give you a makeover then with your new hat,” she suggested with a grin.

Turning to her brother who had asked them about hanging out later at Yamato’s, she looked at Takeru with a shrug, looking for some sort of affirmation from him. They didn’t really have much planned for the rest of the day. The older brother providing them more free food? How could they say no to that? “We didn’t really have anything else planned so why not,” she agreed with a smile. It was always nice to spend time with her older brother since school prevented them from that.

After about a 10 minute train ride, the group made it to their destination. Hikari stood with the rest of them just at the entrance watching it downpour. The hat store in question was about a one minute walk from the station or a 30 second run but with this amount of rain, they were going to get soaked either way. Except for Takeru’s hair. Maybe she could snatch his hat and just make a run for it.

“Only if you make me look handsome!” Takeru chimed, grinning as he actually thought about it. It would be a fun little activity to do for sure!

Takeru nodded in approval of the dinner plans. He had nothing planned for after the hat shopping, other than admiring his hopefully new purchase! “That would be nice, it’s been a while since I’ve been at yours and dads place,” Takeru smiled. “Do you think he will be home so I can see him?” Takeru thought to himself that he probably wouldn’t though- their dad was always very busy at work, often pulling all-nighters for several days in one.

As the train had stopped at their station and the doors would open soon, their primary focus was getting to the store as dry as possible. “I don’t know about you guys, but I’m running there,” Takeru announced, setting off in a sprint as soon as the doors had fully opened.

Taichi had no intention of acquiring a poodle hair-do from this rain, so he too set off running from the station, in pursuit of Takeru, who was the only one who knew where the store was.

Takeru was extremely happy that the store was within such close proximities. They finally reached it and as he had expected, there were a lot of people inside already. They all stormed inside, pretty wet too. A lady that worked in the store approached them with some small hand towels, so they could dry their faces. “Thank you!” Takeru bowed thankfully. His hat hadn’t helped him that much after all. He wiped his face dry, as well as trying to dab out the water from his damp hair. One who didn’t fair off so well was Taichi, or well, he didn’t think so at least. His hair was wet, but it had still kept most of its shape and height. Some of the tips were hanging down, much to Taichi’s dismay, as well as some of the shorter parts of his neck hair had started curling up. He looked at his “mess” of a hairdo and sighed, looking at Yamato dramatically as he tried to dry his hair with the towel. “Why did it have to rain today of all days..” he muttered. “The weather forecast didn’t even say it was gonna rain.”

While those two were by the mirrors trying to dry themselves, Takeru went further into the store, bringing Hikari with him. He was very eager to show her the hat they came all this way for. “Since there’s so many people I’ll be needing your help of location the hat,” he smiled at her. “It’s a dark teal colored bucket-type hat, with a pineapple on the front!”

Yamato smiled contently for a moment when everyone accepted the invitation, even though he wasn’t looking at them. He turned to face them, his smile fading into a more neutral face, and he just shrugged his shoulders in response to Takeru. “He’ll probably be working,” he said, their dad was always working after all. It had been like this since he got divorced from his mom, it made for a pretty lonely childhood, so it was always nice to bring people home, especially if Takeru was one of them.

When they got out, he reluctantly followed after the others who started to run towards the hat store to get there as fast as possible. It was raining quite a lot, so even though they got there quite soon, he was wet already, and so were the others. He thanked the lady for the towel and made sure to dry his face.

Just then, he turned to look at Taichi and snorted, his hair looked way too funny right now. “Well, you can get yourself a hat for rainy days” he grinned a bit, going closer to help him dry his hair with his own towel. “You look ridiculous” he continued to grin, finding this situation very amusing.

Takeru then got his attention back, so he blinked after he listened to the hat description. Takeru, why. “A pineapple? Really?” He raised an eyebrow at him, was he messing with them or was he really after this weird kind of hat? He couldn’t tell, Takeru had a special taste for hats after all. “Alright, I’ll… try to find your pineapple hat.” He said, before looking at Taichi and gesturing him to join him in the search.

Being soaked was not fun. As Hikari tried drying herself with the small hand towel the worker had kindly given them, she felt herself being pulled by an eager hand. “This hat better be worth it Takeru,” she grumbled but she already knew the answer. It was most definitely worth it for him but the other three however, maybe if they weren’t drenched in water.

She crossed her arms with a teasing smile not questioning her boyfriend’s taste in hats. It didn’t seem that surprising but Yamato had also done it for her. “You know,” she whispered to Takeru as she began sifting through the different hats, “They’re probably going to get back at you for drenching them and sending them on this search hunt. Can’t say if I’ll be able to protect you or not,” she shrugged reaching for a white cap that caught her attention.

Stealing the Thunder

Yamato gave Takeru the money he needed and just watched him for a short moment as he left, he was so excited about that hat, it was really adorable. He couldn’t help but smile a little in his direction, then he turned to look at Taichi instead, “Hey, what are you doing?” he protested, not really pushing him away or trying to make him stop playing with his hair.

He eventually stood up as well and fixed his clothes. “No need to be so loud” he smiled, starting to head out. “Want to come home after this?” He mumbled to Taichi, then gestured to the other two, “Do you think they’d like to join? I could cook something for us all later, but maybe they already have plans” he shrugged a bit, trying not to make it sound too important. His dad usually worked until late so his apartment was empty most of the time.

“By the way, you weren’t really threatening Takeru earlier, were you?” He raised an eyebrow to Taichi as he stuck his hands inside his pockets. Taichi knew Takeru was a good guy, he’d seen him growing up, he literally couldn’t ask for anyone better to date his sister, so he couldn’t complain. He knew he was kind of biased, but those were facts, and if Taichi suddenly became too overprotective, he’d have to deal with him, still being too overprotective himself no matter how much he tried to hide. Takeru wasn’t 8 anymore and even then he proved to be way more mature than him, but he couldn’t help it, he just wanted the best for his little brother.

After clearing out all the trays, Hikari made her way to Takeru who was back at the counter to pay up the bill. “So this is going well,” she commented poking his cheek. “Who knew we’d end up on a double date to shop for hats,” she grinned teasingly. “What’s even more impressive is that one, we finally came out with our relationship without Taichi killing you AND we managed to get them to pay for our food.” The digimon sure missed out on this all you can eat opportunity, especially Agumon.

“I wonder if we can get them to get some makeovers,” Hikari pursed her lips in thought, a mental image popping into her head. It would definitely be a fun time for her and Takeru to witness something like that but of course, neither of them would push their beloved brothers that far. Or would they?

Hikari glanced at the waitress who didn’t say a single word as she took the cash from Takeru. Hm, something did seem off about her but again, Hikari didn’t think it was anything to worry about. She didn’t really give them a reason to think that anyways.

Turning around, she followed Takeru out of the restaurant where the two older brothers were waiting on them. Looking up at the dark sky, she frowned slightly, “We better make it to the station before it starts to rain,” she pointed out. None of them had brought any umbrellas. Actually, they weren’t supposed to be expecting any rain today. Even if they make it to the station dry, they still had to walk from the station to the store and there was a higher chance that it’d be raining then. Oh well, a little water wouldn’t hurt anyone especially Takeru since his head would be dry. Maybe she needed to buy a hat…

Takeru and Hikari walked in the front, leading the group forward towards the station. They had plenty of time still, but those dark clouds weren’t looking good. “It’s a good thing we’re going hat shopping then, maybe they sell rain hats or umbrellas there!” he replied, beaming with excitement. It really was amazing how they managed to pull off a double date going hat shopping, especially with two guys who didn’t wear any form of hats at all. Takeru would make sure to make them all try on something, so that he could get a picture of it.

With Yamato and Taichi still walking a few steps behind the rest, Takeru called out again that there was going to be rain any minute, and that they should pick up the pace if they didn’t want to get wet.

Takeru looked back perplexed at Hikari as she started walking faster, as if he could feel some raindrops on him. “Makeovers? We would be in debt to them forever if we made them do anything drastic!” He gasped, imagining Taichi with dyed tips or shorter hair scaring him. The same for his brother- Yamato with longer hair or a perm would give Takeru grief for the rest of his life.

As they reached the platform, they could see the train arriving in the distance. They picked up the pace even more down to the station and when the clouds were at their darkest, the sky opened up a little bit.

Taichi slowed down his pace as he got outside, allowing for the others to catch up to him. Soon Yamato was at his side- asking him loads of questions. Taichi smiled, the older duo walking a bit further back than the younger duo; “Of course I wasn’t, but it’s my job as the big brother to put up a protective front!” He boasted. “Besides, she could have come home with a worse guy.. And Takeru’s a nice kid, I’m glad it’s someone I know.”

He patted Yamato’s shoulder reassuringly. No way Taichi would ever threaten him! It was all just for fun.

“Anyway, you know I’d love to come over,” he winked at Yamato and elbowed his side. “I’m sure they wouldn’t mind having another free meal, but..” he leaned in closer to whisper the next part: “..we should totally get back at them somehow. Can’t have them thinking they’ve got the upper hand on us!”

A few minutes later they were all on the platform, waiting for the train to stop and unload passengers. The boarding went smoothly seeing as there weren’t a lot of passengers on the train, so they all got a seat.

“Are you two busy later by the way? Yamato was wondering if you guys would like him to cook us some food.” As it had been asked, Taichi was already excited about the thought of more food. He was like a garbage disposal, everything went in!

Yamato just raised an eyebrow in response to his explanation of the whole ‘protective older brother’ thing. “Good. Just don’t be weird about it.” He said, frowning at him once he elbowed his side. “Hey!” He complained, pushing his arm softly but not moving away any further.

Looking up to the sky as they walked, he furrowed his eyebrows even more. It seemed like it was going to start raining any time soon and they didn’t have any umbrellas, he didn’t particularly feel like getting soaked today. If only he had checked the weather online before going out earlier… Back then he was still extremely nervous about their announcement, so that idea never crossed his mind.

“Of course you wouldn’t mind free food” A small grin appeared on his face then. “You get to clean everything up then.” He didn’t really like cleaning, but making food, especially for others, was actually kind of nice. “I like the way you think sometimes” he looked towards Takeru and Hikari for a moment, before looking back at Taichi. “I know Takeru wouldn’t mind some spicy food, if you’re up for it” his smirk was big now. “I’ll think of something” he added, and started to walk faster, expecting for Taichi to catch up, to get closer to the others.

Eventually when they were all seated, he perked up at Taichi’s sudden invitation and pouted a bit at him, his cheeks warming up. Did he have to word it like that? It was weird! “It’s okay if you can’t” he said, crossing his arms and looking outside through the window as the train moved. It was already raining over here, so their chances to not get wet were reduced to zero.

Hikari took a seat next to Takeru, the older siblings sitting across from them. “I think they’d make pretty girls,” she whispered to him, stifling a giggle. “But you’re right, shouldn’t overdo it too much.” Then she put a finger to her chin in thought, raising an eyebrow, “Maybe I should give you a makeover then with your new hat,” she suggested with a grin.

Turning to her brother who had asked them about hanging out later at Yamato’s, she looked at Takeru with a shrug, looking for some sort of affirmation from him. They didn’t really have much planned for the rest of the day. The older brother providing them more free food? How could they say no to that? “We didn’t really have anything else planned so why not,” she agreed with a smile. It was always nice to spend time with her older brother since school prevented them from that.

After about a 10 minute train ride, the group made it to their destination. Hikari stood with the rest of them just at the entrance watching it downpour. The hat store in question was about a one minute walk from the station or a 30 second run but with this amount of rain, they were going to get soaked either way. Except for Takeru’s hair. Maybe she could snatch his hat and just make a run for it.

Stealing the Thunder

Yamato gave Takeru the money he needed and just watched him for a short moment as he left, he was so excited about that hat, it was really adorable. He couldn’t help but smile a little in his direction, then he turned to look at Taichi instead, “Hey, what are you doing?” he protested, not really pushing him away or trying to make him stop playing with his hair.

He eventually stood up as well and fixed his clothes. “No need to be so loud” he smiled, starting to head out. “Want to come home after this?” He mumbled to Taichi, then gestured to the other two, “Do you think they’d like to join? I could cook something for us all later, but maybe they already have plans” he shrugged a bit, trying not to make it sound too important. His dad usually worked until late so his apartment was empty most of the time.

“By the way, you weren’t really threatening Takeru earlier, were you?” He raised an eyebrow to Taichi as he stuck his hands inside his pockets. Taichi knew Takeru was a good guy, he’d seen him growing up, he literally couldn’t ask for anyone better to date his sister, so he couldn’t complain. He knew he was kind of biased, but those were facts, and if Taichi suddenly became too overprotective, he’d have to deal with him, still being too overprotective himself no matter how much he tried to hide. Takeru wasn’t 8 anymore and even then he proved to be way more mature than him, but he couldn’t help it, he just wanted the best for his little brother.

After clearing out all the trays, Hikari made her way to Takeru who was back at the counter to pay up the bill. “So this is going well,” she commented poking his cheek. “Who knew we’d end up on a double date to shop for hats,” she grinned teasingly. “What’s even more impressive is that one, we finally came out with our relationship without Taichi killing you AND we managed to get them to pay for our food.” The digimon sure missed out on this all you can eat opportunity, especially Agumon.

“I wonder if we can get them to get some makeovers,” Hikari pursed her lips in thought, a mental image popping into her head. It would definitely be a fun time for her and Takeru to witness something like that but of course, neither of them would push their beloved brothers that far. Or would they?

Hikari glanced at the waitress who didn’t say a single word as she took the cash from Takeru. Hm, something did seem off about her but again, Hikari didn’t think it was anything to worry about. She didn’t really give them a reason to think that anyways.

Turning around, she followed Takeru out of the restaurant where the two older brothers were waiting on them. Looking up at the dark sky, she frowned slightly, “We better make it to the station before it starts to rain,” she pointed out. None of them had brought any umbrellas. Actually, they weren’t supposed to be expecting any rain today. Even if they make it to the station dry, they still had to walk from the station to the store and there was a higher chance that it’d be raining then. Oh well, a little water wouldn’t hurt anyone especially Takeru since his head would be dry. Maybe she needed to buy a hat...

Stealing the Thunder

Hikari laughed at the sight in front of her. Some people just never changed. Of course since it seemed like Taichi was eating the majority of the food, it didn’t seem like there would be a problem with him paying up the bill. “We have very good taste,” she commented with a grin as she crunched on a fry. “Actually, we should give credit to the person who picked all of this out,” she gestured to Takeru, ratting him out to his brother but they had already sealed the deal. The older brothers would be paying the price.

Her eyes landed on Takeru looking at something behind her. Raising an eyebrow curiously, she turned around to meet eyes with the waitress who had possibly given them the side eye a few moments ago. She turned back to Takeru with a teasing grin on her face as she leaned forward, “Wow, staring at another girl when I’m right here?” Takeru was a girl magnet and she didn’t know if it was because of his huge heart or because of his hat addiction. It was probably a combination of both. Takeru was really smooth with the ladies but it never made Hikari jealous or anything. She knew Takeru wasn’t that kind of person.

Meiko watched as the bunch seemed to be having a good time not noticing Takeru watching her. One of her hands clenched into a fist as she stared in envy. She would make the two elders notice her somehow. She didn’t care how it was done, but it would happen. She just needed a plan. When Hikari turned around to look at her, her hand unclenched as she quickly went back to busying herself with work. She needed to be more careful about looking suspicious in front of the younger ones. Although, Takeru looked pretty cute too and she wouldn’t have minded getting attention from him as well despite him being younger than her. People can explore new things, right?

Yamato gave Taichi a judging look as he ate like he hadn’t had anything to eat for days. Did he really have to act like that? Sighing, he just shook his head at him. “Just eat them” he pushed the nachos towards him, still slowly eating his piece of cake, enjoying it instead of just swallowing everything in his way like Taichi. “Just so you know, I’m paying for those two and myself. You’re paying your own food” he smirked a bit, glancing to Takeru and Hikari then instead.

The younger ones seemed to be talking about another girl, the cashier could be…? His gaze wandered towards her instead, narrowing his eyes at her for a moment. She seemed sort of familiar, perhaps. Maybe from school? A lot of people went there anyway, so maybe her face was just that common. But why was she staring? Was she judging them for Taichi eating like a pig and was about to kick them out?

Shrugging his shoulders, his attention went back to Taichi and he just pouted a bit, “Can you slow down?” He said, pinching the bridge of his noise. “You’re gonna get us kicked out” he stated as he finished his cake. “That was really good,” he quickly added, looking at Takeru, “good choice. Even though you went a little bit overboard with the food” he stared at his younger brother knowingly, putting the blame on him for their revenge.

Taichi was never aware of how much of a pig he looked like when he was hungry and just going for it. He slid the basket of nachos over to his side, but he didn’t eat from it yet. Everyone else were taking their time, actually enjoying the food. Taichi frowned a bit when he was asked to slow down, but he knew Yamato was right. “…Fine, I’ll behave,” he agreed, looking like a defeated little kid. He swallowed whatever lump of mixed food that was in his mouth, taking a sip of his soda to rinse.

He hid a smile though. Yamato acted like such an adult sometimes. The most handsome adult ever, if he might add.

Taichi on the other hand was, unlike his three companions, as inattentive as ever, not noticing at all how the waitress were looking at them. His mind was contemplating whether or not he would be able to play some soccer later today, wanting to squeeze in that last bit of training before the group session this upcoming Monday. He wanted to show his teammates a new move.

Watching Taichi admit defeat in the munching frenzy, Takeru chuckled amused. The other pair looked happy nonetheless, where topics like this would probably become a daily routine for the two. Poor Yamato, Takeru couldn’t help but think to himself. He just about caught a glimpse of Taichi’s vague smile, before Hikari got his attention.

He blinked at her for a moment, reeling himself back to this world. “No not at all!” Takeru replied with a smile. “I only got eyes for you,” he leaned over and whispered to Hikari.

Leaning back in his seat he swiftly wiped his finger along the plate Yamato’s cake once was on, getting a taste of the cream. “That is good!” Smiling he wiped his finger over the plate once more. “I think it was smart to get everything, considering loverboy over there is constantly hungry.” He mimicked over to Taichi, who was now eating the nachos a lot more slowly.

Taichi stuck his tongue out at the blonde duo across from him, muttering a simple yeah, yeah, yeah.

As Takeru continued with his food he unconsciously kept glancing between the waitress and the older duo. She seemed so interested in whatever the four were doing. He leaned in closer to Yamato, asking; “Do you know her? She keeps staring at you guys a lot.”

Taichi was such a big dork, Yamato knew it. He shook his head gently at him, unable to hide the smile creeping onto his face as he began to eat slower. What a big dork indeed.

He perked up slightly when Takeru leaned in closer and listened to him, furrowing his eyebrows as he gave him a confused look, then glanced over in the direction of the waitress. "Really?” He asked, looking back at Takeru. “I saw her looking over before, thought she was just really disapproving of Taichi’s behavior” he waved his hand dismissively, flashing a small smirk in the direction of his boyfriend.

“Don’t know her though” he added, looking back at Takeru. “Maybe she’s just looking at you?” He suggested, knowing his brother was quite popular with girls, even though the cashier seemed to be around his and Taichi’s age, so too old for his little brother. “What about you, do you know her?” He looked at Hikari as well as he spoke.

He then pulled out his phone and checked the time, it was still early. “Do you guys have plans for later?” Because his band practice had been cancelled yesterday so he was free, spending a few more hours with these guys would be nice.

“Wow you never listen to me but you’ll listen to Yamato, I see how it is Oni-Chan,” Hikari laughed softly as she watched her brother begrudgingly slow down on the eating. She reached over to steal one of his nachos as she turned to Takeru.

Grinning at Takeru’s answer, a light blush crept on her cheeks. It was a good thing Taichi was busy with his food otherwise Takeru would’ve had it. “Even Yamato agrees with me,” she teased not looking back again at the girl. Since the two brothers in front of her kept looking, it’d be kind of weird for her to look back again as well. “Nope, never seen her before,” she responded tossing the nacho into her mouth. “Maybe it’s because she thinks we’re going to run out without paying after buying all this food,” she shrugged not thinking too much of it. “Or maybe she goes to our school.”

“Takeru had very important plans,” she continued as she pointed towards her boyfriend, raising an eyebrow at him, “Why don’t you tell him about your plans Takeru,” she smiled innocently.

Looking up at the clock, Meiko realized she’d be off her shift soon. Finally. Biting her bottom lip, she mentally juggled her options. She could just go home and spend the rest of the night just laying in bed and doing nothing or she could innocently follow the group when they decided to leave to vicariously live through them. It’d be nice to see what it’s like to hang out with a group of friends. But what would she do if she got caught? But this also might be the only change she’ll get like this. Decisions, decisions.

“At me?” Takeru pointed at himself. He was in complete disbelief that someone would even look at him and think of him in that way. He wasn’t really aware of how girls seemed to take interest in him easily at all actually, so he decided to shrug it off. “Must be you or Taichi she’s interested in,” he concluded with and took a sip of his milkshake.

Taichi had caught up with some of the conversation by now, making him stare at the waitress too, and he wasn’t exactly doing it discreetly either. The only reason he stopped was because he saw how his little sister horrifyingly snatched a nacho away from his plate. “Hey!” He exclaimed. “You have your own food, don’t steal mine,” he continued, but of course since it was his sister, he would allow it, he just had to express his emotions, so he patted her on her head instead and continued eating. “So, what’s Takeru’s great plans for later?” He asked the younger blonde, still patting his sister on her head as a way of telling Takeru that he’s watching over her.

Takeru chuckled half nervous, half amused at Taichi’s portrayal of ‘domination’. He’d make sure not to display too much affection around him yet, just to be on the safe side.

“Well as a matter of fact, I saw a hat in the latest issue of HATalk that I wanted to check out!” His eyes beamed with joy, as he glanced at everyone else around the table with glee. “It’s a Tokyo exclusive too, so if I want a chance at looking at it I have to do it by the end of today! I would sure love your opinion brother!” Takeru held onto Yamato’s arm fondly, wanting nothing more than his brother to fancy the hat as much as he does.

Yamato glanced over at Takeru and blinked at him, his little brother sure had a bit of a hat obsession. “Ah, sure” he furrowed his eyebrows at him, “Shouldn’t you ask for your girlfriend’s opinion instead?” He smiled a little bit, would his opinion even matter? He liked his own sense of fashion, but hats weren’t actually included in that… In fact, he couldn’t help but wonder why Takeru wore hats all the time, did he not like his hair? Asking him that would be weird though, so he decided to keep his questions to himself and let go of it.

Copying Hikari, he reached over for one of Taichi’s nachos and ate it, not because he was hungry but just because Taichi’s silly reaction to that had been kind of cute.

“So how long until you’re full and we get to leave?” He looked directly at Taichi as he spoke, then turned to Takeru. “And when’s your thing?” He didn’t want to arrive late, no matter how boring a hat event sounded. If Takeru was happy with it, and so was Hikari, then the older pair would have to deal with it just for their siblings sake.

He pulled out his wallet and made sure he had enough cash to pay, considering he’d have to split the bill in half with Taichi after all. He only wished they wouldn’t keep blackmailing them with his stupid comment earlier, otherwise he was going to be broke very soon, since those two ordered quite a lot of food because they could do it.

Hikari shook her head at her boyfriend’s innocence. This was another reason why girls always seemed to flock to him. Maybe his hat was on too tight which is why he was oblivious. And now they were going to go get him another hat, sounded like a good idea alright. But she did agree with Takeru that the girl seemed to have her eyes on the elders.

“Yes Oni-chan,” Hikari replied innocently as she reached for another nacho of his. Realizing his lingering hand on her hand, she rolled her eyes with a smile. Well at least this was better than him jumping Takeru or something. The reaction they originally thought he would have to their news.

“I think we’re ready to go right Onii Chan?” She asked her munching fiend of a brother. Hikari stood up to clear out some of the empty trays when Yamato took out his wallet to pay. She felt like if they didn’t pressure Taichi to leave, there’d probably be no end to the eating and if there was, he’d fall to the ground in a food coma and Takeru would never get his hat. “Also thanks for the delicious foods older brothers!” Hikari cheerfully thanked as she turned towards one of the trash cans, a tray in hand.

Stealing the Thunder

Hikari laughed at the sight in front of her. Some people just never changed. Of course since it seemed like Taichi was eating the majority of the food, it didn’t seem like there would be a problem with him paying up the bill. “We have very good taste,” she commented with a grin as she crunched on a fry. “Actually, we should give credit to the person who picked all of this out,” she gestured to Takeru, ratting him out to his brother but they had already sealed the deal. The older brothers would be paying the price.

Her eyes landed on Takeru looking at something behind her. Raising an eyebrow curiously, she turned around to meet eyes with the waitress who had possibly given them the side eye a few moments ago. She turned back to Takeru with a teasing grin on her face as she leaned forward, “Wow, staring at another girl when I’m right here?” Takeru was a girl magnet and she didn’t know if it was because of his huge heart or because of his hat addiction. It was probably a combination of both. Takeru was really smooth with the ladies but it never made Hikari jealous or anything. She knew Takeru wasn’t that kind of person.

Meiko watched as the bunch seemed to be having a good time not noticing Takeru watching her. One of her hands clenched into a fist as she stared in envy. She would make the two elders notice her somehow. She didn’t care how it was done, but it would happen. She just needed a plan. When Hikari turned around to look at her, her hand unclenched as she quickly went back to busying herself with work. She needed to be more careful about looking suspicious in front of the younger ones. Although, Takeru looked pretty cute too and she wouldn’t have minded getting attention from him as well despite him being younger than her. People can explore new things, right?

Yamato gave Taichi a judging look as he ate like he hadn’t had anything to eat for days. Did he really have to act like that? Sighing, he just shook his head at him. “Just eat them” he pushed the nachos towards him, still slowly eating his piece of cake, enjoying it instead of just swallowing everything in his way like Taichi. “Just so you know, I’m paying for those two and myself. You’re paying your own food” he smirked a bit, glancing to Takeru and Hikari then instead.

The younger ones seemed to be talking about another girl, the cashier could be…? His gaze wandered towards her instead, narrowing his eyes at her for a moment. She seemed sort of familiar, perhaps. Maybe from school? A lot of people went there anyway, so maybe her face was just that common. But why was she staring? Was she judging them for Taichi eating like a pig and was about to kick them out?

Shrugging his shoulders, his attention went back to Taichi and he just pouted a bit, “Can you slow down?” He said, pinching the bridge of his noise. “You’re gonna get us kicked out” he stated as he finished his cake. “That was really good,” he quickly added, looking at Takeru, “good choice. Even though you went a little bit overboard with the food” he stared at his younger brother knowingly, putting the blame on him for their revenge.

Taichi was never aware of how much of a pig he looked like when he was hungry and just going for it. He slid the basket of nachos over to his side, but he didn’t eat from it yet. Everyone else were taking their time, actually enjoying the food. Taichi frowned a bit when he was asked to slow down, but he knew Yamato was right. “…Fine, I’ll behave,” he agreed, looking like a defeated little kid. He swallowed whatever lump of mixed food that was in his mouth, taking a sip of his soda to rinse.

He hid a smile though. Yamato acted like such an adult sometimes. The most handsome adult ever, if he might add.

Taichi on the other hand was, unlike his three companions, as inattentive as ever, not noticing at all how the waitress were looking at them. His mind was contemplating whether or not he would be able to play some soccer later today, wanting to squeeze in that last bit of training before the group session this upcoming Monday. He wanted to show his teammates a new move.

Watching Taichi admit defeat in the munching frenzy, Takeru chuckled amused. The other pair looked happy nonetheless, where topics like this would probably become a daily routine for the two. Poor Yamato, Takeru couldn’t help but think to himself. He just about caught a glimpse of Taichi’s vague smile, before Hikari got his attention.

He blinked at her for a moment, reeling himself back to this world. “No not at all!” Takeru replied with a smile. “I only got eyes for you,” he leaned over and whispered to Hikari.

Leaning back in his seat he swiftly wiped his finger along the plate Yamato’s cake once was on, getting a taste of the cream. “That is good!” Smiling he wiped his finger over the plate once more. “I think it was smart to get everything, considering loverboy over there is constantly hungry.” He mimicked over to Taichi, who was now eating the nachos a lot more slowly.

Taichi stuck his tongue out at the blonde duo across from him, muttering a simple yeah, yeah, yeah.

As Takeru continued with his food he unconsciously kept glancing between the waitress and the older duo. She seemed so interested in whatever the four were doing. He leaned in closer to Yamato, asking; “Do you know her? She keeps staring at you guys a lot.”

Taichi was such a big dork, Yamato knew it. He shook his head gently at him, unable to hide the smile creeping onto his face as he began to eat slower. What a big dork indeed.

He perked up slightly when Takeru leaned in closer and listened to him, furrowing his eyebrows as he gave him a confused look, then glanced over in the direction of the waitress. "Really?” He asked, looking back at Takeru. “I saw her looking over before, thought she was just really disapproving of Taichi’s behavior” he waved his hand dismissively, flashing a small smirk in the direction of his boyfriend.

“Don’t know her though” he added, looking back at Takeru. “Maybe she’s just looking at you?” He suggested, knowing his brother was quite popular with girls, even though the cashier seemed to be around his and Taichi’s age, so too old for his little brother. “What about you, do you know her?” He looked at Hikari as well as he spoke.

He then pulled out his phone and checked the time, it was still early. “Do you guys have plans for later?” Because his band practice had been cancelled yesterday so he was free, spending a few more hours with these guys would be nice.

“Wow you never listen to me but you’ll listen to Yamato, I see how it is Oni-Chan,” Hikari laughed softly as she watched her brother begrudgingly slow down on the eating. She reached over to steal one of his nachos as she turned to Takeru.

Grinning at Takeru’s answer, a light blush crept on her cheeks. It was a good thing Taichi was busy with his food otherwise Takeru would’ve had it. “Even Yamato agrees with me,” she teased not looking back again at the girl. Since the two brothers in front of her kept looking, it’d be kind of weird for her to look back again as well. “Nope, never seen her before,” she responded tossing the nacho into her mouth. “Maybe it’s because she thinks we’re going to run out without paying after buying all this food,” she shrugged not thinking too much of it. “Or maybe she goes to our school.”

“Takeru had very important plans,” she continued as she pointed towards her boyfriend, raising an eyebrow at him, “Why don’t you tell him about your plans Takeru,” she smiled innocently.

Looking up at the clock, Meiko realized she’d be off her shift soon. Finally. Biting her bottom lip, she mentally juggled her options. She could just go home and spend the rest of the night just laying in bed and doing nothing or she could innocently follow the group when they decided to leave to vicariously live through them. It’d be nice to see what it’s like to hang out with a group of friends. But what would she do if she got caught? But this also might be the only change she’ll get like this. Decisions, decisions.

Stealing the Thunder

Hikari laughed at the sight in front of her. Some people just never changed. Of course since it seemed like Taichi was eating the majority of the food, it didn’t seem like there would be a problem with him paying up the bill. “We have very good taste,” she commented with a grin as she crunched on a fry. “Actually, we should give credit to the person who picked all of this out,” she gestured to Takeru, ratting him out to his brother but they had already sealed the deal. The older brothers would be paying the price.

Her eyes landed on Takeru looking at something behind her. Raising an eyebrow curiously, she turned around to meet eyes with the waitress who had possibly given them the side eye a few moments ago. She turned back to Takeru with a teasing grin on her face as she leaned forward, “Wow, staring at another girl when I’m right here?” Takeru was a girl magnet and she didn’t know if it was because of his huge heart or because of his hat addiction. It was probably a combination of both. Takeru was really smooth with the ladies but it never made Hikari jealous or anything. She knew Takeru wasn’t that kind of person.

Meiko watched as the bunch seemed to be having a good time not noticing Takeru watching her. One of her hands clenched into a fist as she stared in envy. She would make the two elders notice her somehow. She didn’t care how it was done, but it would happen. She just needed a plan. When Hikari turned around to look at her, her hand unclenched as she quickly went back to busying herself with work. She needed to be more careful about looking suspicious in front of the younger ones. Although, Takeru looked pretty cute too and she wouldn’t have minded getting attention from him as well despite him being younger than her. People can explore new things, right?

Stealing the Thunder

At the sudden reaction the dating topic being brought up, Hikari studied her brother’s face. So it was something dating related. “What’s with that face? Did Sora finally choose one of you two or something?” She teased with a smirk but that didn’t explain why her brother looked so….embarrassed?

She tried puzzling things together and a sudden thought caused her eyes to widen a bit as she began gesturing between the older brothers, “W-wait, d-don’t tell me…did she choose both of you? Are all t-three of you d-dating?” She stammered, eyes landing on her brother waiting for some sort of confirmation. This would definitely be a plot twist.

Yamato knew he had messed up, and he proved it when Hikari got up and Takeru followed up soon after. He let out a sigh, his cheeks never ceasing to be on fire.

“I didn’t mean that!” he grumbled at Taichi, why would he say such thing to their little siblings?! It was just a bad choice of words, and or course everyone else had taken it that way.

He pushed Taichi’s leg away softly after receiving the kick and rolled his eyes. “If Takeru slipped up and implied something like that you’d be crying on the floor right now” he teased with a small smirk, trying to relax and stop being so damn flustered already.

“So a few months hm?” He glanced over to the younger duo. “Our announcement was pretty much overshadowed after all.” The focus was on them now, good. He didn’t want to go through awkward personal questions about his relationship with Taichi.

Taichi grunted and placed his hands on the table, yanking himself back up. He had been getting quite a few stares now, being submerged under the table like that. Hopefully no one paid attention to their conversation earlier.

It was strange however, how their siblings had been able to keep this hidden from plain sight. Taichi assumed he hadn’t noticed because he was already so used to seeing them together all the time, and that it didn’t look any different now than earlier.

“I know right? And we had no idea! They’ve been sneeking around under our noses for a very long time Yamato. We need to be more vigilant from now on.” All of a sudden he was deep in thought, to which he after a short couple of seconds looked offended. “I can’t believe they stole our thunder! This was supposed to be our news, and then they say the same thing!”

Takeru was always caught off guard when Hikari sneakily kissed him, and this time was no difference. It always brought a smile to his face as well. She was just so sweet, he couldn’t believe they were even together sometimes.

While Hikari was scavenging the menus again Takeru decided that he was indeed going to hold her hand. He slowly laced his own fingers with hers and gave her hand a gentle squeeze, while glancing at her, not knowing what else to do but chuckle nervously when she had suggested they get everything. “I’m not that rich, but I’m sure Yamato wouldn’t mind spending some extra bucks on us!” He then adapted Hikari’s wicked look from before. “It’s like you said, we’ve got leverage.”

He turned his head around to look at the other two, who was now in their own conversation. “Let’s order all the nice, expensive food and have them pay the bill for us,” he whispered to Hikari, then placed the order.

As Taichi spoke, Yamato simply raised an eyebrow at him. “Under our noses? Takeru and I don’t live together, you’re the oblivious one it seems” he shrugged his shoulders casually, not going to admit that he was also caught off guard with the news.

That wasn’t really a good enough excuse though; even if he in fact didn’t live in the same house as his little brother, he saw him frequently and checked up on him constantly, he really just didn’t notice any changes during the past few months. Maybe it was just because he wasn’t actively involved in his brother’s dating life, he ended up deciding, trying to convince himself of it and avoid thinking about what other important events he could be missing in Takeru’s life.

Yamato couldn’t help but snort at Taichi’s sudden outburst. “They stole our thunder? Really?” He snickered, shaking his head at him. “Maybe we stole theirs, since they wanted to meet up as well?” He suggested, still amused.

Hikari returned the hand squeeze, feeling a lot lighter now that they didn’t have to tiptoe around and keep looking around wherever they went to make sure Takeru wasn’t just peeking at them through a window or something. She rested her chin on Takeru’s shoulder and let out a happy sigh, “I really am happy for them though. They do seem like the perfect duo. I mean, they practically skipped the honeymoon phase and now they’re bickering like a couple whose been together for years.” Noticing Yamato glance over, her cheeks heated up and she took a step back away from Takeru and turned back to the counter. Yeah, sure they announced to their older brothers about their relationship but it would take time to adjust and be cute in front of them.

“Ooh, I like your thinking,” she grinned at Takeru as he ordered then turned to the cashier, an idea in mind. “Could you give the bill to the blonde and brunette sitting at our tables. Our older brothers said they wanted to treat us to whatever we wanted.

The cashier nodded silently as she punched in the different orders, using her free hand to push her glasses up the ridge of her nose. The duo in front of her seemed familiar somehow. Not in a way that she knew them, but they looked like people she knew. She didn’t overthink it though as she handed a number to the couple to indicate their order when she had to go up and serve them.

“Food will be out soon,” Hikari announced as she slid back into her seat next to Taichi, completely forgetting about the reason she had left in the first place. She was too excited to see the priceless faces of their brothers when the bill was handed to them. “Hopefully you guys will like what we picked out,” she gave Takeru a knowing look, a wicked grin playing across her lips. This was going to be good.

~~~

After about 10 minutes of waiting, the cashier from before was by their table, three trays balancing in her hands. She placed the tray with the four milkshakes down first before setting down the two trays full of food and sweets. Letting out a soft sigh, her hand dug into her apron to pull out the bill that she slid in front of the elder blonde as instructed. “We take cash or credit,” she spoke with a slightly emotionless tone until…her eyes landed on the elder duo and realization filled her eyes. No wonder the younger couple looked familiar. She was in the same class as Taichi and Yamato. Of course, she highly doubted the two would recognize her as she was that girl who would sit as far back in the classroom as possible because she didn’t think she would get along with anyone.

Her eyes quickly shifted between the four of them, her eyes lingering on Hikari the longest. She assumed that Takeru and Hikari were together and she was also accompanied by these other two guys meanwhile she couldn’t get a single guy to talk to her. She was cute though, she’ll give her that.

Although she would never act on it, Meiko would spend classes staring at the back of Taichi and Yamato’s heads. And of course, like plenty of girls who don’t get male attention, she daydreamed. She thought of Taichi as the sweet considerate boyfriend who would nag you to go play with him while Yamato was the mysterious boyfriend time that showed he cared through simple meaningful actions rather than words. She knew nothing about the younger duo other than the fact that the girl had all this male attention and the guy basically had all these friends and he was able to just mooch off of his brother while she had to work this horrible part time job.

More and more similar thoughts shot through her mind but thankfully since she was still waiting on the payment, it probably didn’t seem suspicious at all. She was good at being unnoticeable. A skill that she hated because no one ever seemed to notice her. She looked back up at Yamato trying to contain her emotions. “How did you want to pay?” She repeated.

“Technically, we were the first ones to ask to meet up though, I think that counts as us being the number one reason for being here.” Taichi was stubborn enough that he saw this as their initiative, hence, their thunder. Grinning because he felt like he won that teeny tiny discussion, he saw that their siblings were now returning to the table.

“Great! I’m starving!” he replied, clasping his hands together eagerly. Taichi was always hungry, but today’s wild events had worked up quite the appetite.

“We picked all our favorites,” Takeru chimed in with Hikari when they were both seated again. This was going to be fun. But, to be on the safe side of this, Takeru thought to himself that maybe they should have an escape plan ready? You know, in case their brothers decided that they were not the only ones going to help pay off the bill once they saw the amount of food. They had their leverage though, so hopefully that would be enough.

There was a reason to worry though. Taichi felt that their siblings were a bit too chirpy at the moment, and Takeru’s comment actually made Taichi swallow hard. What schemes had they done now. Sounded like something they couldn’t afford.

As the waiter approached with three trays, Taichi really did loose his mind when he saw the amount of food they had ordered. He didn’t even know what to say, other than letting a surprisingly shocked expression do the work. “E-Exactly how are we going to pay for all of this?” He whispered to Hikari, then looked over at Yamato, who was the unfortunate one to get the check handed to him.

Yamato decided to ignore Taichi’s last comment about the supposed thunder stolen from them, because honestly it was just ridiculous. Both duos just announced their relationship at the same time, nothing else. Probably their younger siblings were encouraged by their initiative, so their announcement was still the biggest thing this morning. So no thunder had been stolen.

Ugh, great. Now he was thinking of stupid things like Taichi. Not that he was going to admit it though.

He pouted a bit looking at the dork he called his boyfriend, then turned his attention to Takeru and Hikari as they returned to their seats.

“Hm, Good. I’m hungry too,” he added, not having eaten anything prior to this meeting because of how nervous he was. “You’re not allowed anywhere near my food” he sent a glare in Taichi’s direction, just in case he decided to eat his food or mix things up.

When the waitress came closer, he blinked, staring with a dumb expression at the three trays. Really? He narrowed his eyes lightly at Takeru then, guessing he was somehow behind this. His sweet little brother could be a little devil sometimes, he’d learned as he saw him growing up.

Returning his attention to the food, he grabbed the check that was being handed over to him and glanced up at the waitress. “Uhm, we’ll confirm when we’re done, thanks” he answered quickly, turning his attention back to the others. Takeru and Hikari weren’t expecting for them to pay it all, were they? Once the girl was gone they were going to talk about it.

Of course he failed to notice the waitress was a classmate of theirs, he wasn’t exactly the most social out there, especially not with people who didn’t show any special interest in him or his music.

Hikari smiled innocently at the older brothers’ reaction. She clapped her hands together, closing her eyes, the innocent smile still playing across her lips, “Thank you for treating us to this delicious meal after giving me a scarring mental image that I didn’t ask for.” And with that, she took a piece of fry, dipping it into her shake beginning her feast. Looking up at the waitress who was still just standing there, she noticed her giving Takeru and her a quick side eye before her attention went back to Yamato as he gave her an answer.

Hikari didn’t recognize the girl but the girl for some reason was giving them looks. Although, she was probably overthinking it and it probably meant nothing. She had more important things to worry about. She reached for a burger, thinking about replacing Takeru with it for a slight second. She was that hungry.

Meiko nodded at Yamato’s answers, looking at the two younger siblings for a slight second, her eyes involuntarily narrowing. Walking back to her station behind the counter, a frown made its way to her lips. Why can’t I be the one sitting with them and eating food? Neither of the boys had recognized her like she predicted. Typical, the two cute boys she daydreamed about everyday in class didn’t even know she existed. Whenever she could, she’d sneak a glance at Yamato but she had to juggle talking to the customers and Taichi’s hair blocking his face as he was seated in front of him. One day she’d make them notice her.

Stealing the Thunder

At the sudden reaction the dating topic being brought up, Hikari studied her brother’s face. So it was something dating related. “What’s with that face? Did Sora finally choose one of you two or something?” She teased with a smirk but that didn’t explain why her brother looked so….embarrassed?

She tried puzzling things together and a sudden thought caused her eyes to widen a bit as she began gesturing between the older brothers, “W-wait, d-don’t tell me…did she choose both of you? Are all t-three of you d-dating?” She stammered, eyes landing on her brother waiting for some sort of confirmation. This would definitely be a plot twist.

Yamato knew he had messed up, and he proved it when Hikari got up and Takeru followed up soon after. He let out a sigh, his cheeks never ceasing to be on fire.

“I didn’t mean that!” he grumbled at Taichi, why would he say such thing to their little siblings?! It was just a bad choice of words, and or course everyone else had taken it that way.

He pushed Taichi’s leg away softly after receiving the kick and rolled his eyes. “If Takeru slipped up and implied something like that you’d be crying on the floor right now” he teased with a small smirk, trying to relax and stop being so damn flustered already.

“So a few months hm?” He glanced over to the younger duo. “Our announcement was pretty much overshadowed after all.” The focus was on them now, good. He didn’t want to go through awkward personal questions about his relationship with Taichi.

Taichi grunted and placed his hands on the table, yanking himself back up. He had been getting quite a few stares now, being submerged under the table like that. Hopefully no one paid attention to their conversation earlier.

It was strange however, how their siblings had been able to keep this hidden from plain sight. Taichi assumed he hadn’t noticed because he was already so used to seeing them together all the time, and that it didn’t look any different now than earlier.

“I know right? And we had no idea! They’ve been sneeking around under our noses for a very long time Yamato. We need to be more vigilant from now on.” All of a sudden he was deep in thought, to which he after a short couple of seconds looked offended. “I can’t believe they stole our thunder! This was supposed to be our news, and then they say the same thing!”

Takeru was always caught off guard when Hikari sneakily kissed him, and this time was no difference. It always brought a smile to his face as well. She was just so sweet, he couldn’t believe they were even together sometimes.

While Hikari was scavenging the menus again Takeru decided that he was indeed going to hold her hand. He slowly laced his own fingers with hers and gave her hand a gentle squeeze, while glancing at her, not knowing what else to do but chuckle nervously when she had suggested they get everything. “I’m not that rich, but I’m sure Yamato wouldn’t mind spending some extra bucks on us!” He then adapted Hikari’s wicked look from before. “It’s like you said, we’ve got leverage.”

He turned his head around to look at the other two, who was now in their own conversation. “Let’s order all the nice, expensive food and have them pay the bill for us,” he whispered to Hikari, then placed the order.

As Taichi spoke, Yamato simply raised an eyebrow at him. “Under our noses? Takeru and I don’t live together, you’re the oblivious one it seems” he shrugged his shoulders casually, not going to admit that he was also caught off guard with the news.

That wasn’t really a good enough excuse though; even if he in fact didn’t live in the same house as his little brother, he saw him frequently and checked up on him constantly, he really just didn’t notice any changes during the past few months. Maybe it was just because he wasn’t actively involved in his brother’s dating life, he ended up deciding, trying to convince himself of it and avoid thinking about what other important events he could be missing in Takeru’s life.

Yamato couldn’t help but snort at Taichi’s sudden outburst. “They stole our thunder? Really?” He snickered, shaking his head at him. “Maybe we stole theirs, since they wanted to meet up as well?” He suggested, still amused.

Hikari returned the hand squeeze, feeling a lot lighter now that they didn’t have to tiptoe around and keep looking around wherever they went to make sure Takeru wasn’t just peeking at them through a window or something. She rested her chin on Takeru’s shoulder and let out a happy sigh, “I really am happy for them though. They do seem like the perfect duo. I mean, they practically skipped the honeymoon phase and now they’re bickering like a couple whose been together for years.” Noticing Yamato glance over, her cheeks heated up and she took a step back away from Takeru and turned back to the counter. Yeah, sure they announced to their older brothers about their relationship but it would take time to adjust and be cute in front of them.

“Ooh, I like your thinking,” she grinned at Takeru as he ordered then turned to the cashier, an idea in mind. “Could you give the bill to the blonde and brunette sitting at our tables. Our older brothers said they wanted to treat us to whatever we wanted.

The cashier nodded silently as she punched in the different orders, using her free hand to push her glasses up the ridge of her nose. The duo in front of her seemed familiar somehow. Not in a way that she knew them, but they looked like people she knew. She didn’t overthink it though as she handed a number to the couple to indicate their order when she had to go up and serve them.

“Food will be out soon,” Hikari announced as she slid back into her seat next to Taichi, completely forgetting about the reason she had left in the first place. She was too excited to see the priceless faces of their brothers when the bill was handed to them. “Hopefully you guys will like what we picked out,” she gave Takeru a knowing look, a wicked grin playing across her lips. This was going to be good.

~~~

After about 10 minutes of waiting, the cashier from before was by their table, three trays balancing in her hands. She placed the tray with the four milkshakes down first before setting down the two trays full of food and sweets. Letting out a soft sigh, her hand dug into her apron to pull out the bill that she slid in front of the elder blonde as instructed. “We take cash or credit,” she spoke with a slightly emotionless tone until…her eyes landed on the elder duo and realization filled her eyes. No wonder the younger couple looked familiar. She was in the same class as Taichi and Yamato. Of course, she highly doubted the two would recognize her as she was that girl who would sit as far back in the classroom as possible because she didn’t think she would get along with anyone.

Her eyes quickly shifted between the four of them, her eyes lingering on Hikari the longest. She assumed that Takeru and Hikari were together and she was also accompanied by these other two guys meanwhile she couldn’t get a single guy to talk to her. She was cute though, she’ll give her that.

Although she would never act on it, Meiko would spend classes staring at the back of Taichi and Yamato’s heads. And of course, like plenty of girls who don’t get male attention, she daydreamed. She thought of Taichi as the sweet considerate boyfriend who would nag you to go play with him while Yamato was the mysterious boyfriend time that showed he cared through simple meaningful actions rather than words. She knew nothing about the younger duo other than the fact that the girl had all this male attention and the guy basically had all these friends and he was able to just mooch off of his brother while she had to work this horrible part time job.

More and more similar thoughts shot through her mind but thankfully since she was still waiting on the payment, it probably didn’t seem suspicious at all. She was good at being unnoticeable. A skill that she hated because no one ever seemed to notice her. She looked back up at Yamato trying to contain her emotions. “How did you want to pay?” She repeated.

Stealing the Thunder

At the sudden reaction the dating topic being brought up, Hikari studied her brother’s face. So it was something dating related. “What’s with that face? Did Sora finally choose one of you two or something?” She teased with a smirk but that didn’t explain why her brother looked so….embarrassed?

She tried puzzling things together and a sudden thought caused her eyes to widen a bit as she began gesturing between the older brothers, “W-wait, d-don’t tell me…did she choose both of you? Are all t-three of you d-dating?” She stammered, eyes landing on her brother waiting for some sort of confirmation. This would definitely be a plot twist.

Taichi was pretty sure he stopped breathing for a solid minute, following Takeru’s joke-who-is-actually-correct. “That’s not it no,” he answered, looking bewildered. “It’s.. just the two of us,” Taichi admitted out loud, somehow making it sound depressing by looking so shocked himself.

He glanced in Yamato’s direction. He was awfully quiet too.

Yamato glanced nervously between the younger ones as they tried to guess why they were asked to meet them today, they were awfully close, despite the playful tone in his brother’s words. His face was gradually becoming hotter with every single word exchanged without his participation.

As Taichi admitted the reason they were there, he glanced down avoiding Taichi’s gaze, his cheeks burning by now.

“That’s- uh… that’s it. Just us” he grumbled, sounding mortified and not content about it. He then peeked up to meet Takeru’s eyes, to see his reaction about the sudden confession.

Now this took a completely different turn than what Takeru had expected. He was actually surprised that he hit the nail so perfectly. His brother looked worse for wear, his face all read and Taichi just looking like his brain stopped working. Eventually Takeru caught his brothers stare, to which he smiled gently back.

“I don’t understand why you guys were so scared to tell us to be honest,” he shook his head, looking at both of them. “Were you scared we wouldn’t like it?”

Taichi let out a very quiet sigh of relief when Takeru spoke. He felt a bit lighter at heart now and smiled relieved at Yamato, who was still a bit flushed. It was cute. He inwardly smiled.

“So you’re fine with it too?” He glanced over to Hikari, who hadn’t said too much yet.

Hikari blinked at the guys not saying anything, not because she wasn’t okay with it but realizing her thoughts may have gone to the extreme with including Sora into this mix. Oops. Although she always expected if a dating related conversation were to happen between the four of them, it’d be her and Takeru coming clean to their older brothers.

Her brother’s words snapped her out of her thoughts realizing she was probably silent for a little too long which may have come off badly. A sweet smile spread on lips as she leaned forward. “I can’t believe you guys were this nervous to tell us.” Her sweet smile shifted into a teasing one, :Although I am surprised that you chose to put up with him,” she pointed at her brother as she turned to Yamato.

“I wasn’t scared to tell you” He huffed, crossing his arms in front of his chest. “It was just that we didn’t know how to say it without sounding cheesy.” He continued, trying to deny how obviously scared he was.

“I don’t know how I put up with him either,” he took the chance to change the subject and went for it, letting a small smirk appear on his face as he looked in Taichi’s direction for a moment. “And you” he frowned at Taichi. “Couldn’t you have waited until we ordered something instead of blurting it out like that?”

If their siblings approved of them then they should be fine.

Taichi feigned innocence, holding up his hands in defence while shaking his head. “Woah woah- Takeru was the one who brought it up so soon. Figured I might as well roll with it since saying anything else would’ve been a lie.”

He then smirked, obviously wanting to turn the tables on his oh so sweet boyfriend. “You know.. one of us has to be the man in this relationship and take charge. I just decided that it would be me.”

Taichi oozed with self pride at the moment, but obvisouly, to him, he was just making a joke.

On the opposite end of the table Takeru’s eyes widened in surprise, covering his mouth with one hand dramatically. Oh boy, this should be good.

Hikari thought to herself for a moment thinking this may or may not be a good time to possibly hint to her brother about her situation. Takeru and her had decided to hold off on telling their brothers because well, they both knew Taichi very well and knew how he would react but since this brand new information was presented, it wouldn’t hurt to try?

“So…,” Hikari started, crossing her arms onto the table. “Since you’re dating now and you told us and we were very accepting of it and we are really happy for you… hypothetically,” she made sure to put emphasis on the last word, “If I was to present similar news, you’d reciprocate the reaction, right? Hypothetically, of course,” she repeated as she stole a quick glance at Takeru hoping he wouldn’t be too upset with her for bringing this up. Not that she directly said anything yet. She turned to her prideful brother with an innocent smile on her face.

Yamato just furrowed his eyebrows incredibly at Taichi then. “You’re the idiot in this relationship for sure” he grumbled, looking away from him because he was incredibly annoying sometimes.

He focused his attention on Hikari’s words then, peeking briefly at Takeru to see his reaction. He always thought his brother had a sweet spot for Taichi’s sister, but that he was never going to act on it, so he wanted to see his reaction to her choice of words instead.

“Hmm, it’s none of my business, but I guess I’d have to help Taichi to kick whoever-this-is’s butt if they hurt you, naturally,” he casually replied, shrugging his shoulders.

Taichi was quick to direct his attention to Hikari as soon as she spoke about her *hypothetical* situation. He narrowed his eyes considerably, probably trying to read her expression of who it could be. His eyes of course caught on to her looking over at the hat fanatic across the table. He narrowed his eyes even more.

“Hypothetically,” he emphasised, making sure his eyes were drilling accusing holes into Takeru’s soul. “I would be fine with it.” But today is not that day, he thought to himself.

Across the table that now felt too little if anything were to suddenly come lunging at him, Takeru swallowed hard. He knew breaking the news to Taichi would be one of the scariest things he would ever have to go through in his life.

“BUT!” Taichi continued, averting his stare from Takeru and back to his still so sweet and innocent sister. “You don’t need my blessing because you’re too young for such commitments. I think it’s best if you stay single for at least 20 more years,” he finished with, a big bright smile to accompany his words.

Hikari shot Takeru an apologetic smile as her brother threw a threatening one his way. “I’m going to ignore that second part considering I’m only two years younger than you Oni Chan,” she matched his smile in a sarcastic matter.

“I just want to remind you of how nervous you were to tell us about you two and how accepting we were and happy for you two,” she repeated again slowly, to make sure every word got to her older brother.

Unfolding her arms from the table, she placed her hands on Taichi’s arm, partly as a comforting gesture but moreso to stop him from tackling down her hat-obsessed boyfriend when she broke the news. He probably long forgot about the hat they were supposed to go check out after this meeting.

She kept inwardly convincing herself that this was the best time to bring this up since it was already the topic being talked about and since the hypothetical scenario was thrown out there, it was now or never.

She slowly removed one hand from Taichi’s arm and reached over the table to hold Takeru’s, her eyes not leaving Taichi in case he decided to pounce. Although with Yamato here, he would be able to stop him in case he actually did decide to just do that.

Taichi narrowed his eyes slightly, assessing the situation that played out in front of him. His sisters hand was reassuringly on his harm one second, then migrated to the hat obsessed blonde’s arm. Taichi’s eyes was a mix of frown-narrowed right now, as he displayed the least amount of joy he ever had as he realised his sister wasn’t joking - she was dating Takeru.

He was fighting his inner self hard at the moment, trying not to act on his overprotective-big-brother-feelings. “How..” he started, having to swallow his pride for a bit. “How long have you been going out?”

While they all had watched Taichi go through a various range of emotions in just a few minutes, Takeru decided that he for once should take the wheel. “For a couple of months,” he began, trying with a gentle smile towards the elder. “We.. wanted to tell you guys sooner but,” he glanced from Yamato to Taichi. “Well, we know how overprotective Taichi is so it was a bit scary.”

Taichi replied with an incredulous look, not really understanding how he was the overprotective one. He didn’t feel he was overprotective at all.

Yamato’s eyes went from Hikari to Taichi, listening to them in silence until his own brother was revealed to be part of the situation as well. Oh, well that explained everything then.

He simply smiled at the younger ones, “That’s good, congrats.” He glanced over to Takeru then, happy for him. He had probably liked Hikari since he first met her, he couldn’t think of a better match for him than her.

“Why were you scared of Taichi though? It’s not like he’d do anything to you, Takeru” he raised an eyebrow, looking in his boyfriend’s direction. He wouldn’t dare to do anything to Takeru, and in case he did, he’d have to deal with him first. “You two are old enough to know what you’re doing, even someone with hair for brains like Taichi can understand that,” he smirked a bit at Taichi, feeling slightly relieved now that the focus wasn’t on them.

Takeru was literally beaming with joy at his brother’s approval. “Thank you, big brother!” He threw himself around Yamato, giving him a big hug. His approval really did mean a lot to Takeru, who had always looked up to his brother.

“I know, but he is very protective of his sister. I know you would kick his ass though brother, if he ever tried anything,” he said jokingly, as he slid back into his seat.

Taichi on the other hand was full on pouting. “Don’t insult my hair, it has feelings!” He replied, as if Yamato insulting his intelligence wasn’t a big deal in comparison to his hair. “I’m a big brother though, it’s my job to keep this one safe.” Taichi patted Hikari’s head and smiled a little. “She’s the most important thing in my life!”

Yamato blushed a bit after his brother literally launched himself onto him, pulling him into a hug. “Oi- what are you doing?” He asked, putting an arm around him to return the hug for a brief moment though. “Just hug your girlfriend instead” he gave him a pat on the back and moved back as Takeru did the same, his brother was still a cute little boy sometimes.

“Don’t worry, leave Taichi’s ass to me” he answered, then realized that the way he worded it wasn’t exactly the most appropriate one. “… You know what I meant-!” he grumbled, turning deep red at the implication of his bad choice of words.

“A-anyway,” he hurried to drift the conversation elsewhere but there. “I’m also a big brother” he frowned at Taichi, his face still red, “but I know Takeru can handle himself and take care of Hikari-chan as well, it’ll be fine.”

Hikari let out a low sigh of relief. Although she noticed Taichi’s face change more than Takeru changed hats, he was actually taking it rather well. She gave Takeru’s arm a squeeze in comfort, knowing he was probably feeling relief too and it showed when he hugged his brother.

Retracting her arms from her brother and now public boyfriend, Hikari eyed the three boys with a small smile as they basically argued who was the better bodyguard for her. Of course, she was more than capable of taking care of herself but she didn’t want to get involved in the lover’s quarrel nor did she want to deflate any male egos today. Too much testosterone was just flying around.

The situation didn’t improve with Yamato’s comment. Eyes slightly widening, she looked between Yamato and Taichi. Okay, she was cool with their whole relationship but she didn’t need to hear…these kinds of things. It wasn’t exactly an image she wanted in her head. “I uh- I’m g-going to go order us food,” she stammered as she got up from her seat, walking towards the counter before anyone could stop her and without asking them for their orders.

Everything was going smoothly, even Taichi seemed to be okay with things. Takeru was smiling happily, but leave it to their brothers to make things.. Well weird again? Takeru just sighed at his brothers comment, shaking his head and almost starting to laugh, while watching Hikari fleeing the scene.”Onii-chan…” he grunted, now having to actually stifle his laugh as he saw Taichi’s horrified expression. “I’ll uh, go see if Hikari needs any help.” And with that Takeru fled the table as well.

He walked up next to Hikari, who still looked a bit shocked. “Leave it to those brothers of ours to make a nice day awkward,” he said, laughing cheerfully. “We did it though,” he turned to look at her. “We finally told them about us. Feels relieving right? Like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders!” Takeru was extremely happy as a matter of fact, because now he didn’t have to tiptoe around the Yagami household whenever Taichi was around as well.

“So, what are you having? My treat,” he smiled sweetly, brushing his hand with hers. He’d keep the hand holding at a minimum for now. At least when Taichi’s around.

“Girl or guy, those are the last things I want to picture about Oni-chan and Yamato,” Hikari mumbled when Takeru took his spot behind her. “ Though later on, this will be a good thing to use against them if we ever need anything from them,” she continued, reading her brother’s mind. Number one rule about being a younger sibling is always have a stash of things to use against your older sibling whenever you needed something out of them and you knew they’d say no.

Turning to Takeru, she grinned cheerfully as she turned to him, “See, I told you he wouldn’t kill you. Now we don’t have to hide it anymore.” Peeking over his shoulder, Taichi’s back was towards them. Well whatever was left of him since he had slouched down all the way and Yamato was fixated on her dorky brother. Hikari gave Takeru a wicked look as she quickly went on her toes to sneak a quick peck on his cheek.

Smiling innocently, she turned back towards the menu as if nothing had happened. “Well since you’re treating, might as well get everything on the menu,” she teased. “I could definitely go for another milkshake though.”

Stealing the Thunder

At the sudden reaction the dating topic being brought up, Hikari studied her brother’s face. So it was something dating related. “What’s with that face? Did Sora finally choose one of you two or something?” She teased with a smirk but that didn’t explain why her brother looked so….embarrassed?

She tried puzzling things together and a sudden thought caused her eyes to widen a bit as she began gesturing between the older brothers, “W-wait, d-don’t tell me…did she choose both of you? Are all t-three of you d-dating?” She stammered, eyes landing on her brother waiting for some sort of confirmation. This would definitely be a plot twist.

Taichi was pretty sure he stopped breathing for a solid minute, following Takeru’s joke-who-is-actually-correct. “That’s not it no,” he answered, looking bewildered. “It’s.. just the two of us,” Taichi admitted out loud, somehow making it sound depressing by looking so shocked himself.

He glanced in Yamato’s direction. He was awfully quiet too.

Yamato glanced nervously between the younger ones as they tried to guess why they were asked to meet them today, they were awfully close, despite the playful tone in his brother’s words. His face was gradually becoming hotter with every single word exchanged without his participation.

As Taichi admitted the reason they were there, he glanced down avoiding Taichi’s gaze, his cheeks burning by now.

“That’s- uh… that’s it. Just us” he grumbled, sounding mortified and not content about it. He then peeked up to meet Takeru’s eyes, to see his reaction about the sudden confession.

Now this took a completely different turn than what Takeru had expected. He was actually surprised that he hit the nail so perfectly. His brother looked worse for wear, his face all read and Taichi just looking like his brain stopped working. Eventually Takeru caught his brothers stare, to which he smiled gently back.

“I don’t understand why you guys were so scared to tell us to be honest,” he shook his head, looking at both of them. “Were you scared we wouldn’t like it?”

Taichi let out a very quiet sigh of relief when Takeru spoke. He felt a bit lighter at heart now and smiled relieved at Yamato, who was still a bit flushed. It was cute. He inwardly smiled.

“So you’re fine with it too?” He glanced over to Hikari, who hadn’t said too much yet.

Hikari blinked at the guys not saying anything, not because she wasn’t okay with it but realizing her thoughts may have gone to the extreme with including Sora into this mix. Oops. Although she always expected if a dating related conversation were to happen between the four of them, it’d be her and Takeru coming clean to their older brothers.

Her brother’s words snapped her out of her thoughts realizing she was probably silent for a little too long which may have come off badly. A sweet smile spread on lips as she leaned forward. “I can’t believe you guys were this nervous to tell us.” Her sweet smile shifted into a teasing one, :Although I am surprised that you chose to put up with him,” she pointed at her brother as she turned to Yamato.

“I wasn’t scared to tell you” He huffed, crossing his arms in front of his chest. “It was just that we didn’t know how to say it without sounding cheesy.” He continued, trying to deny how obviously scared he was.

“I don’t know how I put up with him either,” he took the chance to change the subject and went for it, letting a small smirk appear on his face as he looked in Taichi’s direction for a moment. “And you” he frowned at Taichi. “Couldn’t you have waited until we ordered something instead of blurting it out like that?”

If their siblings approved of them then they should be fine.

Taichi feigned innocence, holding up his hands in defence while shaking his head. “Woah woah- Takeru was the one who brought it up so soon. Figured I might as well roll with it since saying anything else would’ve been a lie.”

He then smirked, obviously wanting to turn the tables on his oh so sweet boyfriend. “You know.. one of us has to be the man in this relationship and take charge. I just decided that it would be me.”

Taichi oozed with self pride at the moment, but obvisouly, to him, he was just making a joke.

On the opposite end of the table Takeru’s eyes widened in surprise, covering his mouth with one hand dramatically. Oh boy, this should be good.

Hikari thought to herself for a moment thinking this may or may not be a good time to possibly hint to her brother about her situation. Takeru and her had decided to hold off on telling their brothers because well, they both knew Taichi very well and knew how he would react but since this brand new information was presented, it wouldn’t hurt to try?

“So…,” Hikari started, crossing her arms onto the table. “Since you’re dating now and you told us and we were very accepting of it and we are really happy for you… hypothetically,” she made sure to put emphasis on the last word, “If I was to present similar news, you’d reciprocate the reaction, right? Hypothetically, of course,” she repeated as she stole a quick glance at Takeru hoping he wouldn’t be too upset with her for bringing this up. Not that she directly said anything yet. She turned to her prideful brother with an innocent smile on her face.

Yamato just furrowed his eyebrows incredibly at Taichi then. “You’re the idiot in this relationship for sure” he grumbled, looking away from him because he was incredibly annoying sometimes.

He focused his attention on Hikari’s words then, peeking briefly at Takeru to see his reaction. He always thought his brother had a sweet spot for Taichi’s sister, but that he was never going to act on it, so he wanted to see his reaction to her choice of words instead.

“Hmm, it’s none of my business, but I guess I’d have to help Taichi to kick whoever-this-is’s butt if they hurt you, naturally,” he casually replied, shrugging his shoulders.

Taichi was quick to direct his attention to Hikari as soon as she spoke about her *hypothetical* situation. He narrowed his eyes considerably, probably trying to read her expression of who it could be. His eyes of course caught on to her looking over at the hat fanatic across the table. He narrowed his eyes even more.

“Hypothetically,” he emphasised, making sure his eyes were drilling accusing holes into Takeru’s soul. “I would be fine with it.” But today is not that day, he thought to himself.

Across the table that now felt too little if anything were to suddenly come lunging at him, Takeru swallowed hard. He knew breaking the news to Taichi would be one of the scariest things he would ever have to go through in his life.

“BUT!” Taichi continued, averting his stare from Takeru and back to his still so sweet and innocent sister. “You don’t need my blessing because you’re too young for such commitments. I think it’s best if you stay single for at least 20 more years,” he finished with, a big bright smile to accompany his words.

Hikari shot Takeru an apologetic smile as her brother threw a threatening one his way. “I’m going to ignore that second part considering I’m only two years younger than you Oni Chan,” she matched his smile in a sarcastic matter.

“I just want to remind you of how nervous you were to tell us about you two and how accepting we were and happy for you two,” she repeated again slowly, to make sure every word got to her older brother.

Unfolding her arms from the table, she placed her hands on Taichi’s arm, partly as a comforting gesture but moreso to stop him from tackling down her hat-obsessed boyfriend when she broke the news. He probably long forgot about the hat they were supposed to go check out after this meeting.

She kept inwardly convincing herself that this was the best time to bring this up since it was already the topic being talked about and since the hypothetical scenario was thrown out there, it was now or never.

She slowly removed one hand from Taichi’s arm and reached over the table to hold Takeru’s, her eyes not leaving Taichi in case he decided to pounce. Although with Yamato here, he would be able to stop him in case he actually did decide to just do that.

Taichi narrowed his eyes slightly, assessing the situation that played out in front of him. His sisters hand was reassuringly on his harm one second, then migrated to the hat obsessed blonde’s arm. Taichi’s eyes was a mix of frown-narrowed right now, as he displayed the least amount of joy he ever had as he realised his sister wasn’t joking - she was dating Takeru.

He was fighting his inner self hard at the moment, trying not to act on his overprotective-big-brother-feelings. “How..” he started, having to swallow his pride for a bit. “How long have you been going out?”

While they all had watched Taichi go through a various range of emotions in just a few minutes, Takeru decided that he for once should take the wheel. “For a couple of months,” he began, trying with a gentle smile towards the elder. “We.. wanted to tell you guys sooner but,” he glanced from Yamato to Taichi. “Well, we know how overprotective Taichi is so it was a bit scary.”

Taichi replied with an incredulous look, not really understanding how he was the overprotective one. He didn’t feel he was overprotective at all.

Yamato’s eyes went from Hikari to Taichi, listening to them in silence until his own brother was revealed to be part of the situation as well. Oh, well that explained everything then.

He simply smiled at the younger ones, “That’s good, congrats.” He glanced over to Takeru then, happy for him. He had probably liked Hikari since he first met her, he couldn’t think of a better match for him than her.

“Why were you scared of Taichi though? It’s not like he’d do anything to you, Takeru” he raised an eyebrow, looking in his boyfriend’s direction. He wouldn’t dare to do anything to Takeru, and in case he did, he’d have to deal with him first. “You two are old enough to know what you’re doing, even someone with hair for brains like Taichi can understand that,” he smirked a bit at Taichi, feeling slightly relieved now that the focus wasn’t on them.

Takeru was literally beaming with joy at his brother’s approval. “Thank you, big brother!” He threw himself around Yamato, giving him a big hug. His approval really did mean a lot to Takeru, who had always looked up to his brother.

“I know, but he is very protective of his sister. I know you would kick his ass though brother, if he ever tried anything,” he said jokingly, as he slid back into his seat.

Taichi on the other hand was full on pouting. “Don’t insult my hair, it has feelings!” He replied, as if Yamato insulting his intelligence wasn’t a big deal in comparison to his hair. “I’m a big brother though, it’s my job to keep this one safe.” Taichi patted Hikari’s head and smiled a little. “She’s the most important thing in my life!”

Yamato blushed a bit after his brother literally launched himself onto him, pulling him into a hug. “Oi- what are you doing?” He asked, putting an arm around him to return the hug for a brief moment though. “Just hug your girlfriend instead” he gave him a pat on the back and moved back as Takeru did the same, his brother was still a cute little boy sometimes.

“Don’t worry, leave Taichi’s ass to me” he answered, then realized that the way he worded it wasn’t exactly the most appropriate one. “… You know what I meant-!” he grumbled, turning deep red at the implication of his bad choice of words.

“A-anyway,” he hurried to drift the conversation elsewhere but there. “I’m also a big brother” he frowned at Taichi, his face still red, “but I know Takeru can handle himself and take care of Hikari-chan as well, it’ll be fine.”

Hikari let out a low sigh of relief. Although she noticed Taichi’s face change more than Takeru changed hats, he was actually taking it rather well. She gave Takeru’s arm a squeeze in comfort, knowing he was probably feeling relief too and it showed when he hugged his brother.

Retracting her arms from her brother and now public boyfriend, Hikari eyed the three boys with a small smile as they basically argued who was the better bodyguard for her. Of course, she was more than capable of taking care of herself but she didn’t want to get involved in the lover’s quarrel nor did she want to deflate any male egos today. Too much testosterone was just flying around.

The situation didn’t improve with Yamato’s comment. Eyes slightly widening, she looked between Yamato and Taichi. Okay, she was cool with their whole relationship but she didn’t need to hear...these kinds of things. It wasn’t exactly an image she wanted in her head. “I uh- I’m g-going to go order us food,” she stammered as she got up from her seat, walking towards the counter before anyone could stop her and without asking them for their orders.

Stealing the Thunder

At the sudden reaction the dating topic being brought up, Hikari studied her brother’s face. So it was something dating related. “What’s with that face? Did Sora finally choose one of you two or something?” She teased with a smirk but that didn’t explain why her brother looked so….embarrassed?

She tried puzzling things together and a sudden thought caused her eyes to widen a bit as she began gesturing between the older brothers, “W-wait, d-don’t tell me…did she choose both of you? Are all t-three of you d-dating?” She stammered, eyes landing on her brother waiting for some sort of confirmation. This would definitely be a plot twist.

Taichi was pretty sure he stopped breathing for a solid minute, following Takeru’s joke-who-is-actually-correct. “That’s not it no,” he answered, looking bewildered. “It’s.. just the two of us,” Taichi admitted out loud, somehow making it sound depressing by looking so shocked himself.

He glanced in Yamato’s direction. He was awfully quiet too.

Yamato glanced nervously between the younger ones as they tried to guess why they were asked to meet them today, they were awfully close, despite the playful tone in his brother’s words. His face was gradually becoming hotter with every single word exchanged without his participation.

As Taichi admitted the reason they were there, he glanced down avoiding Taichi’s gaze, his cheeks burning by now.

“That’s- uh… that’s it. Just us” he grumbled, sounding mortified and not content about it. He then peeked up to meet Takeru’s eyes, to see his reaction about the sudden confession.

Now this took a completely different turn than what Takeru had expected. He was actually surprised that he hit the nail so perfectly. His brother looked worse for wear, his face all read and Taichi just looking like his brain stopped working. Eventually Takeru caught his brothers stare, to which he smiled gently back.

“I don’t understand why you guys were so scared to tell us to be honest,” he shook his head, looking at both of them. “Were you scared we wouldn’t like it?”

Taichi let out a very quiet sigh of relief when Takeru spoke. He felt a bit lighter at heart now and smiled relieved at Yamato, who was still a bit flushed. It was cute. He inwardly smiled.

“So you’re fine with it too?” He glanced over to Hikari, who hadn’t said too much yet.

Hikari blinked at the guys not saying anything, not because she wasn’t okay with it but realizing her thoughts may have gone to the extreme with including Sora into this mix. Oops. Although she always expected if a dating related conversation were to happen between the four of them, it’d be her and Takeru coming clean to their older brothers.

Her brother’s words snapped her out of her thoughts realizing she was probably silent for a little too long which may have come off badly. A sweet smile spread on lips as she leaned forward. “I can’t believe you guys were this nervous to tell us.” Her sweet smile shifted into a teasing one, :Although I am surprised that you chose to put up with him,” she pointed at her brother as she turned to Yamato.

“I wasn’t scared to tell you” He huffed, crossing his arms in front of his chest. “It was just that we didn’t know how to say it without sounding cheesy.” He continued, trying to deny how obviously scared he was.

“I don’t know how I put up with him either,” he took the chance to change the subject and went for it, letting a small smirk appear on his face as he looked in Taichi’s direction for a moment. “And you” he frowned at Taichi. “Couldn’t you have waited until we ordered something instead of blurting it out like that?”

If their siblings approved of them then they should be fine.

Taichi feigned innocence, holding up his hands in defence while shaking his head. “Woah woah- Takeru was the one who brought it up so soon. Figured I might as well roll with it since saying anything else would’ve been a lie.”

He then smirked, obviously wanting to turn the tables on his oh so sweet boyfriend. “You know.. one of us has to be the man in this relationship and take charge. I just decided that it would be me.”

Taichi oozed with self pride at the moment, but obvisouly, to him, he was just making a joke.

On the opposite end of the table Takeru’s eyes widened in surprise, covering his mouth with one hand dramatically. Oh boy, this should be good.

Hikari thought to herself for a moment thinking this may or may not be a good time to possibly hint to her brother about her situation. Takeru and her had decided to hold off on telling their brothers because well, they both knew Taichi very well and knew how he would react but since this brand new information was presented, it wouldn’t hurt to try?

“So…,” Hikari started, crossing her arms onto the table. “Since you’re dating now and you told us and we were very accepting of it and we are really happy for you… hypothetically,” she made sure to put emphasis on the last word, “If I was to present similar news, you’d reciprocate the reaction, right? Hypothetically, of course,” she repeated as she stole a quick glance at Takeru hoping he wouldn’t be too upset with her for bringing this up. Not that she directly said anything yet. She turned to her prideful brother with an innocent smile on her face.

Yamato just furrowed his eyebrows incredibly at Taichi then. “You’re the idiot in this relationship for sure” he grumbled, looking away from him because he was incredibly annoying sometimes.

He focused his attention on Hikari’s words then, peeking briefly at Takeru to see his reaction. He always thought his brother had a sweet spot for Taichi’s sister, but that he was never going to act on it, so he wanted to see his reaction to her choice of words instead.

“Hmm, it’s none of my business, but I guess I’d have to help Taichi to kick whoever-this-is’s butt if they hurt you, naturally,” he casually replied, shrugging his shoulders.

Taichi was quick to direct his attention to Hikari as soon as she spoke about her *hypothetical* situation. He narrowed his eyes considerably, probably trying to read her expression of who it could be. His eyes of course caught on to her looking over at the hat fanatic across the table. He narrowed his eyes even more.

“Hypothetically,” he emphasised, making sure his eyes were drilling accusing holes into Takeru’s soul. “I would be fine with it.” But today is not that day, he thought to himself.

Across the table that now felt too little if anything were to suddenly come lunging at him, Takeru swallowed hard. He knew breaking the news to Taichi would be one of the scariest things he would ever have to go through in his life.

“BUT!” Taichi continued, averting his stare from Takeru and back to his still so sweet and innocent sister. “You don’t need my blessing because you’re too young for such commitments. I think it’s best if you stay single for at least 20 more years,” he finished with, a big bright smile to accompany his words.

Hikari shot Takeru an apologetic smile as her brother threw a threatening one his way. “I’m going to ignore that second part considering I’m only two years younger than you Oni Chan,” she matched his smile in a sarcastic matter.

“I just want to remind you of how nervous you were to tell us about you two and how accepting we were and happy for you two,” she repeated again slowly, to make sure every word got to her older brother.

Unfolding her arms from the table, she placed her hands on Taichi’s arm, partly as a comforting gesture but moreso to stop him from tackling down her hat-obsessed boyfriend when she broke the news. He probably long forgot about the hat they were supposed to go check out after this meeting.

She kept inwardly convincing herself that this was the best time to bring this up since it was already the topic being talked about and since the hypothetical scenario was thrown out there, it was now or never.

She slowly removed one hand from Taichi’s arm and reached over the table to hold Takeru’s, her eyes not leaving Taichi in case he decided to pounce. Although with Yamato here, he would be able to stop him in case he actually did decide to just do that.

Stealing the Thunder

At the sudden reaction the dating topic being brought up, Hikari studied her brother’s face. So it was something dating related. “What’s with that face? Did Sora finally choose one of you two or something?” She teased with a smirk but that didn’t explain why her brother looked so….embarrassed?

She tried puzzling things together and a sudden thought caused her eyes to widen a bit as she began gesturing between the older brothers, “W-wait, d-don’t tell me…did she choose both of you? Are all t-three of you d-dating?” She stammered, eyes landing on her brother waiting for some sort of confirmation. This would definitely be a plot twist.

Taichi was pretty sure he stopped breathing for a solid minute, following Takeru’s joke-who-is-actually-correct. “That’s not it no,” he answered, looking bewildered. “It’s.. just the two of us,” Taichi admitted out loud, somehow making it sound depressing by looking so shocked himself.

He glanced in Yamato’s direction. He was awfully quiet too.

Yamato glanced nervously between the younger ones as they tried to guess why they were asked to meet them today, they were awfully close, despite the playful tone in his brother’s words. His face was gradually becoming hotter with every single word exchanged without his participation.

As Taichi admitted the reason they were there, he glanced down avoiding Taichi’s gaze, his cheeks burning by now.

“That’s- uh… that’s it. Just us” he grumbled, sounding mortified and not content about it. He then peeked up to meet Takeru’s eyes, to see his reaction about the sudden confession.

Now this took a completely different turn than what Takeru had expected. He was actually surprised that he hit the nail so perfectly. His brother looked worse for wear, his face all read and Taichi just looking like his brain stopped working. Eventually Takeru caught his brothers stare, to which he smiled gently back.

“I don’t understand why you guys were so scared to tell us to be honest,” he shook his head, looking at both of them. “Were you scared we wouldn’t like it?”

Taichi let out a very quiet sigh of relief when Takeru spoke. He felt a bit lighter at heart now and smiled relieved at Yamato, who was still a bit flushed. It was cute. He inwardly smiled.

“So you’re fine with it too?” He glanced over to Hikari, who hadn’t said too much yet.

Hikari blinked at the guys not saying anything, not because she wasn’t okay with it but realizing her thoughts may have gone to the extreme with including Sora into this mix. Oops. Although she always expected if a dating related conversation were to happen between the four of them, it’d be her and Takeru coming clean to their older brothers.

Her brother’s words snapped her out of her thoughts realizing she was probably silent for a little too long which may have come off badly. A sweet smile spread on lips as she leaned forward. “I can’t believe you guys were this nervous to tell us.” Her sweet smile shifted into a teasing one, :Although I am surprised that you chose to put up with him,” she pointed at her brother as she turned to Yamato.

“I wasn’t scared to tell you” He huffed, crossing his arms in front of his chest. “It was just that we didn’t know how to say it without sounding cheesy.” He continued, trying to deny how obviously scared he was.

“I don’t know how I put up with him either,” he took the chance to change the subject and went for it, letting a small smirk appear on his face as he looked in Taichi’s direction for a moment. “And you” he frowned at Taichi. “Couldn’t you have waited until we ordered something instead of blurting it out like that?”

If their siblings approved of them then they should be fine.

Taichi feigned innocence, holding up his hands in defence while shaking his head. “Woah woah- Takeru was the one who brought it up so soon. Figured I might as well roll with it since saying anything else would’ve been a lie.”

He then smirked, obviously wanting to turn the tables on his oh so sweet boyfriend. “You know.. one of us has to be the man in this relationship and take charge. I just decided that it would be me.”

Taichi oozed with self pride at the moment, but obvisouly, to him, he was just making a joke.

On the opposite end of the table Takeru’s eyes widened in surprise, covering his mouth with one hand dramatically. Oh boy, this should be good.

Hikari thought to herself for a moment thinking this may or may not be a good time to possibly hint to her brother about her situation. Takeru and her had decided to hold off on telling their brothers because well, they both knew Taichi very well and knew how he would react but since this brand new information was presented, it wouldn’t hurt to try?

“So...,” Hikari started, crossing her arms onto the table. “Since you’re dating now and you told us and we were very accepting of it and we are really happy for you... hypothetically,” she made sure to put emphasis on the last word, “If I was to present similar news, you’d reciprocate the reaction, right? Hypothetically, of course,” she repeated as she stole a quick glance at Takeru hoping he wouldn’t be too upset with her for bringing this up. Not that she directly said anything yet. She turned to her prideful brother with an innocent smile on her face.

Stealing the Thunder

At the sudden reaction the dating topic being brought up, Hikari studied her brother’s face. So it was something dating related. “What’s with that face? Did Sora finally choose one of you two or something?” She teased with a smirk but that didn’t explain why her brother looked so….embarrassed?

She tried puzzling things together and a sudden thought caused her eyes to widen a bit as she began gesturing between the older brothers, “W-wait, d-don’t tell me…did she choose both of you? Are all t-three of you d-dating?” She stammered, eyes landing on her brother waiting for some sort of confirmation. This would definitely be a plot twist.

Taichi was pretty sure he stopped breathing for a solid minute, following Takeru’s joke-who-is-actually-correct. “That’s not it no,” he answered, looking bewildered. “It’s.. just the two of us,” Taichi admitted out loud, somehow making it sound depressing by looking so shocked himself.

He glanced in Yamato’s direction. He was awfully quiet too.

Yamato glanced nervously between the younger ones as they tried to guess why they were asked to meet them today, they were awfully close, despite the playful tone in his brother’s words. His face was gradually becoming hotter with every single word exchanged without his participation.

As Taichi admitted the reason they were there, he glanced down avoiding Taichi’s gaze, his cheeks burning by now.

“That’s- uh… that’s it. Just us” he grumbled, sounding mortified and not content about it. He then peeked up to meet Takeru’s eyes, to see his reaction about the sudden confession.

Now this took a completely different turn than what Takeru had expected. He was actually surprised that he hit the nail so perfectly. His brother looked worse for wear, his face all read and Taichi just looking like his brain stopped working. Eventually Takeru caught his brothers stare, to which he smiled gently back.

“I don’t understand why you guys were so scared to tell us to be honest,” he shook his head, looking at both of them. “Were you scared we wouldn’t like it?”

Taichi let out a very quiet sigh of relief when Takeru spoke. He felt a bit lighter at heart now and smiled relieved at Yamato, who was still a bit flushed. It was cute. He inwardly smiled.

“So you’re fine with it too?” He glanced over to Hikari, who hadn’t said too much yet.

Hikari blinked at the guys not saying anything, not because she wasn’t okay with it but realizing her thoughts may have gone to the extreme with including Sora into this mix. Oops. Although she always expected if a dating related conversation were to happen between the four of them, it’d be her and Takeru coming clean to their older brothers.

Her brother’s words snapped her out of her thoughts realizing she was probably silent for a little too long which may have come off badly. A sweet smile spread on lips as she leaned forward. “I can’t believe you guys were this nervous to tell us.” Her sweet smile shifted into a teasing one, :Although I am surprised that you chose to put up with him,” she pointed at her brother as she turned to Yamato.

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