Chapter Text
"Oni-chan, you're being annoying," Hana whined, hanging upside down off the side of her brother's bed as she watched him walk around his room and shoving a few last things into his suitcase.
"Oh, be quiet," Eiji shushed, playfully batting his sister on her exposed stomach. "You're just not admitting that you're going to miss me while I'm gone," he said, sticking his tounge out at her as he shoved more socks into the suitcase.
"As if!" Hana scoffed, rolling her eyes. "Why would I miss your mug always moping around?"
"Because you love meeeee~" Eiji cooed, stalking towards her menacingly with his hands flexed like claws before lunging at her and picking her up in a violent hug.
Hana screeched and riled around in the sudden hold and tried to break out of her brother's grip, back onto solid ground. Obviously, with his past as a pole vaulter, Eiji has excellent upper body strength meaning all of her attempts were futile.
"Excuse me," the two siblings froze in their struggling against one another and slowly turned around to their mother, who was standing in the doorway with a less than impressed look on her face.
"Am I interrupting something?" She asked venomously with quirk of her brow, obviously telling them that there were very few excuses that she would take from them.
"Nope!" Eiji replied almost immediately, dropping his sister and moving back to his suit case, poignantly avoiding his mother's eyes.
"Nothing at all," Hana grumbled from the floor, glaring at the back of her brother's head for dropping her so readily.
Their mother, Mei, rolled her eyes at their antics but just ignored it for the time being, addressing her son. "Shunichi will be here soon, are you ready to go?"
"Yep!" Eiji responded cheerfully, zipping up his suitcase and lifting it up to prop it up on it's wheels. "I'm all set,"
"How long will you be there for?" Mei asked, making a motion and beckoning him to come closer before wrapping him in a tight hug. "Who am I gonna have to open jars when you're gone?"
Eiji chuckled into his mother's shoulder and squeezed a little tighter. "You still have dad,"
Mei scoffed. "Your father is just as bad at opening jars as I am,"
They heard an indignant "hey! I can hear you!" from the living room and the three of them burst into laughter.
"Don't worry mom, I'll open jars for you!" Hana declared, flexing her arm and patting her bicep.
Eiji laughed even harder and untangled himself from his mother, making his way back over to his sister.
"Yeah, who needs me when there's this gremlin," Eiji chuckled and squeezed her in another hug, blowing raspberries into her cheeks.
Hana screeched again as she tried to get away from him, only succeeding when Eiji willfully let her go, allowing her to scramble away.
"You suck so bad!" Hana whined, wiping at her cheeks as if she had been infected with something and desperately needed to get rid of it.
"Hana, your brother's leaving soon, at least pretend to care a little," Mei chastised but wasn't very effective do to her amused smile.
"I care plenty," She huffed, crossing her arms over her chest and pouting. "I care that he's not going to be here to embarrass me in front of my friends anymore and for that I am thankful,"
"Awe, but Rika and Tomo-chan love me,"
"Yea well I don't," Hana huffed again, rolling her eyes again too. "You don't need to share embarrassing stories about me to be liked,"
"But it works wonders," Eiji stated with a cheeky smile, leaving his sister fuming.
"Oh that's IT!" Hana yelled. "I'm gonna beat you up one last time before you go, come here!" She growled, lunging at her brother who very narrowly avoided her and jumped over the bed to get further away to which she quickly made her way to do the same when-
DING DONG!
The pair of siblings paused at the sound of the doorbell ringing heared their father downstairs get up to answer it.
"That must be Shunichi," Mei hummed, having also reacted to the doorbell and looking behind her, before looking back at her children, her unimpressed expression fixed back into place. "I trust you not to do anything stupid while I go to greet him?"
Neither of them had the will to muster anything but a shaky nod, which their mother accepted and turned to leave downstairs. After a few beats of silence, Hana still halfway onto the bed where she was going to lunge at Eiji from and her brother still fully prepared to sprint, the boy was the first to move as he relaxed his stance and grabbed his suitcase. Hana also relaxed, but moodily slumming against the headboard and not so studly glaring at her brother.
"I hate you," She grumbled under her breath, crossing her arms over her chest again and glaring more.
"Hm? What was that?" Eiji question with a cocky, knowing smile that just made Hana glare at him even harder.
Without waiting for an answer, he grabbed his bag and made his way downstairs, shortly followed by his sister.
"Good morning Ibe-san," Eiji greeted as he made it to the bottom of the stairs, smiling warmly at the man.
"Good morning Ei-chan," he greeted back, equally warm. "Are you all set to go?"
"Yes, all ready to go," Eiji anwered, gesturing towards his suitcase.
"Is that going to be enough for the whole trip?" Ibe asked, looking oodly at the bag. "We could be there for awhile."
"Probably not," came a voice behind him, and Eiji trurned to glare half heartedly at his sister. "He doesn't really have anything else to bring with him though,"
Ibe chuckled at the insult. "Well, good morning to you too Hana-chan," he greeted even more brightly then before. "Isn't that a little mean?"
Hana scoffed. "It's the truth,"
Eiji lightly hit Hana in the arm before turning back towards Ibe, ignoring her indignant complaints. "When does our flight leave again, Ibe-san?" He askes.
Ibe, wisely, also ignores Hana and answers the boy's question. "It leaves in roughly four hours, which means we should leave now since it takes a while to get to the airport,"
Eiji made a surprised noise and looked at his watch to confirm. "Oh, alright, I-"
"I'll bring your bag to the car, you say goodbye to your family" Ibe said, interupting the boy and quickly grabbing the suitcase and exiting the house with it.
"Ah, right," Eiji nodded stiffly, showly turning towards his parents who, up until this point, he had largely been ignoring. He cringed slightly as he saw tears already forming in their eyes.
"Ma-" Eiji didn't even get a chance to get a word out when his mother burst into tears and threw herself at him, embracing him in a tight hug.
"Eiji!" She cried, squeezing him a little tighter. "Oh, don't you dare stay out there too long or I will beat you with rice spoon,"
Eiji chuckled and hugged her back, taking in the warm embrace of his mother for the last time for a while. He felt his father approach them and place a hand on his back. Eiji brought his head up from the crook of his mother's neck and looked at the other man who was wearing a pained smile and clearly trying to save face.
"You better bring us lots of souvenirs, I want proof you did more then just a job while there you workaholic," He laughs wetly, clearly struggling not to let tears fall. "You've got a chance at life so live it, got it?"
Eiji couldn't help the even wider smile that was spread across his face as he extended an arm to his father and beckoning him to join their hug. "Of course Papa..." He said softly once the older man finally relented and left the three of them just hanging there in the foyer.
"Hana, come join us," Their mother tried to beckon her as well but the younger girl just stood off to the side, stubbornly, with her arms crossed over chest.
"Yeah, no, I'm good thanks," she said, rolling her eyes slightly.
The three of them hung there more for what felt like a very long time but when they finally let go, it still felt too soon. Eiji awkwardly said a short goodbye to them all, unable to look any of them in the eye, then made it to the door. He paused, unsure if he should look back or not, and right when he was going to push forward and leave, he felt a tug on his shirt. Eiji turned to see his sister, holding onto his sleeve and blushing, looking away to avoid eye contact.
"Oh?" Eiji smiled at her, though probably not as cheeky as he meant to. "Finally going to admit you love me, huh?"
Hana scoffed and rolled her eyes, letting go of him too. She stood there silent for a few seconds, shifting uncomfortably in her spot for that time before seemingly exploding, grabbing his hand, pressing something into it, and shoving him out. "OkayweloveyoucomehomeanddontdieGOODBYE!" She shouts and slamming the door immeadiately after. ("Okay, we love you, come home, and don't die, GOODBYE!")
"Whelp, she's as lively at ever," Ibe said, standing next to the very whiplashed Eiji, most likely there to grab the younger man for them to leave.
"Yeah..." Eiji says slowly, nodding in agreement before looking at his hand to see what she had given him before rolling his eyes and turning to head towards the car. "But just as annoying," he grumbled.
Love? What was she thinking?