Watching as Alethea and Tousuki ran out of the room, Keiichi blew a breath. He was doing it again, every day at some point Tousuki left him alone. Though he never asked and only assumed it was work. Tousuki was the only family he had left after his mom and dad died in a car crash, and his relatives died mysteriously. Being left alone wasn't pleasing so he distracted himself with baseball, where he has a team, a family. It did always leave him thinking, it made no sense that his parents died and a few months later so did his relatives, he just never had enough guts to ask the only person who seemed to know, Tousuki.
Something peculiar caught his attention when he turned his head to look at the people around the large table. It was funny how everyone seemed to relax now that Tousuki was gone. He watched as every person in the room slowly turned their head to look at him.
"Uhm…"
"Keiichi Norigani, wow, I never thought I would meet you," said a brown-haired girl.
"I'm sorry, but who are you? Where is this?" Keiichi said standing up, he walked to the chair that his brother had just sat on and pushed it aside, "Can you please give me answers?"
After a few glances here and there, the silence seemed everlasting as everyone stood thinking. Keiichi, as confused as a trapped bird in a room, slowly walked back and sat on the chair he had just turned away, once again his breath had been wasted on useless questions which were yet to be answered.
Why is it always like this?
He put his hands on his head slowly massaging his temples, as he sighed loudly. They say that when you sigh happiness escapes you, it was likely that all of Keiichi's happiness was long gone by now.
Looking at Keiichi with pitiful eyes, they thought they should at least give him some kind of explanation, without revealing too much of course.
"Look Keiichi, we are not allowed to give you a lot of information, Tousuki's orders, and we--"
"And why do you have to listen to him?! All my life he has been controlling me, 'Kei don't hang out with him' and 'Hey Keiichi don't leave the house' or 'Keiichi you can't go here or there.' He's never let me question anything or do anything without his permission, I could never leave the house without his permission either! Like what is he? My mom? Last time I checked, she…" he paused a little before deciding it was okay to continue. "...she was dead."
It took him a little time to settle down with the fact that he was saying something he hadn't said in years. For a second his facial expressions went soft as he gazed at the dark marble floor, but not a second after his gaze hardened as if he remembered what they were talking about; his brother. The anger from before seemed to have rushed back as he took a shaky breath.
"Tousuki may be my biological brother but he's never acted like an actual brother for a day. He's always so... so… " Keiichi made fists in his hands as he looked for the right word to call his controlling older brother, "uptight!" An angry Keiichi slammed his fist on the table making fire come out of his clenched hands.
Shocked by the sudden outburst of anger, everyone watched as the fire in Keiichi's hand burned a little longer before finally going out with the wind Vanessa had released from her hands. Keiichi looked between his right and left hand with wonder before his face scrunched up with discomfort. He squatted down while clutching his right hand in agony, releasing a cry of pain.
His mind stood on what had just happened, his gaze seemed far away as Vanessa slowly wrapped Keiichi's burned hand in the bandage. His train of thoughts had once again reached a stop when he flinched at the pain in his palm. Vanessa looked up with a look of sympathy, hoping to reach his eyes, before continuing with a sigh when she noticed that Keiichi wasn't going to meet her eyes.
"Keiichi..." she started.
Vanessa hoped to get his attention, but his eyes just blinked while staring at the other beds in the huge infirmary like room and didn't glance her way even once, she slowly lowered her head in disappointment, nor before continuing.
"Tou, your brother, he… he has a tough job, and I hope you can one day understand—"
"Who are you?" His electric blue orbs finally reached her chocolate ones.
"My name is Vanessa, Vanessa Forest," she said, taking his non-bandaged hand and awkwardly shaking it.
"Keiichi Norigani… but you already know that" he slightly mumbled.
Keiichi seemed to be struggling with something as he looked at the blue beds once again.
"Uhm… Sorry!" He said with a slight bow of his head, surprising Vanessa.
"I may have come off as rude earlier, I'm sorry for my acTIons," he said with a small voice crack.
Vanessa giggled at the blushing boy in front of her, this was like a very old version of Tou when he was younger, it made her smile to see that Keiichi wasn't as dead inside as his brother, and it was all because of him.
"Keiichi I too would have acted like you if I were in your shoes, so don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. How about I go introduce you to all the others?"
"Sure, I would like that," he said while hoping off of the hospital-like bed and walking out of the infirmary.
He glanced back to see the room once more, cream-colored walls, with a countertop full of cotton, bandages, and bandages on them. Medical-surgical equipment seemed to be inside of the counters of the table. The window across from the doors let the moonlight shine on the wooden glass cannier which had the first row full of prescription bottles, and many pills. First aid kits are on the second row, the third row was full of creams for rashes, burns, bug bites, etc. The two last rows consisted of Medical books and binders with names.
On the right side of the window were more countertops with a sink base and cabinets hanging from the ceiling. The way each bed had a curtain, kinda reminded Keiichi of the school infirmaries from Tokyo. The room smelled very… germ-free.
Walking through the halls Keiichi noticed that this wasn't a house, it was a mansion, with four floors, and an elevator. As he walked down the beautiful red-carpeted stairs, he looked around to see that the only light shining on the dark stairs and halls was moonlight coming from the windows. The mansion almost seemed as though it was made to make a person get lost in darkness if they didn't know the way around. Keiichi stuck close to Vanessa hoping not to get lost, when they reached large wooden doors, he knew that they were in the lounge.
Pushing past the doors he saw that everyone was now happily chatting away the day, well at least all the girls, the boy seemed to be gone. Keiichi quickly looked around the room once again, there was a bar? He knew tousuki didn't drink, and all the boys in the room at the time of the meeting only seemed one or two years away from Tousuki, maybe the same age. When a girl that almost seemed to be their age came into his eyesight, his daze was interrupted.
"Hello, my name is Keira Shell," the same brown-haired girl from before said with her hand outstretched.
"You're Keiichi Norigani right, I wasn't here when you came in, but I was here during the meeting. I'm Rhett Elliot," said an ombre haired lady.
Keiichi took Keira's hand and shook it as well as Rhett's. The last girl was the one who had spoken before but was stopped by his brother.
"I'm Noemi Nightingale," she said with a small voice, her wavy hair slowly moved as she moved.
Why are they telling me their last names?
Keiichi had noticed this before but it was unclear to him, he looked down once again and his thoughts were confirmed.
"You're pregnant…" he said while staring at her swollen stomach.
"Why is that the first thing people notice of me? Am I really that fat?" she said with glossy eyes, sending Keiichi into an immediate panic.
"No!" he yelled, startling Noemi and making her tears fall from her eyes, "ah, sorry for yelling, please don't cry… um…"
The girls held back a giggle as they left Keiichi to deal with the moody pregnant woman. What they did not expect was what he did after making her cry. Keiichi very slowly wiped her tears away with his thumb, he gently lifted her face to look at him and he smiled.
"Please don't cry, I'm sorry for being loud, you are not fat, you're just carrying a precious life, so smile okay? I'm sure you look pretty when you smile, so show me," he said trying to charm the pregnant girl into smiling, surprisingly it worked.
Noemi wiped her tears away and blew her nose into a tissue Keiichi had given her. She smiled as she mumbled "thanks" to Keiichi for the tissue. Walking back to the couches, she sat down and took off her slippers before sighing. Looking at the shocked girls and a relieved boy, she made a face of disappointment.
"I did it again didn't I? I cried in front of another stranger," She mumbled.
The girls looked at Keiichi who was looking at Noemi with clear relief and happiness in his face. The only other person who had calmed down Noemi in the same way Keiichi had just done was no other than Tousuki himself. Rhett began to laugh, catching the attention of everyone in the room. Keira gave her a confused face, and Vanessa's pale face asked "what's so funny".
"It's just that," she started taking in a deep breath, "they really are brothers. Both of them calmed her down the same way. Charm."
She continued to laugh while Keiichi's cheeks began to heat up. He stomped over to the couch next to Noemi and looked at the floor hiding his face.
"I'm used to it that's all. Many girls have confessed to me and when I reject them they start to cry."
The girls smiled a bit before finally calming down. The silence in the room was uncomfortable, but it was unbearable for one of the girls, Vanessa.
"Hey Keiichi, just wondering, why were you so… happy with the fact that Noemi is pregnant? I mean when you saw her stomach your face started to glow." Vanessa asked with curiosity.
Keiichi smiled as he looked at Noemi, his gaze slowly falling to her round stomach. The sight of life being grown made him happy, but to explain the reason for these curious girls made the reason more embarrassing than it already was.
"I've always wanted a little sibling, brother or sister, it didn't matter, someone smaller than me I could take care of; but when my parents died, those chances were taken from me. I then thought that it was okay because I could just look after a smaller cousin and treat them like a sibling, but my uncles and aunts later died as well. I was alone with a brother who was almost like no relative of mine, just a person I knew," Keiichi stared at Noemi's stomach a little longer with happiness before reaching out his hand," can I?"
"Sure."
A sudden kick made Keiichi jump, the baby had kicked! He looked up to see Noemi smiling, she looked at Keiichi with a smile, that same smile masking what she really felt for him, pure pity. Keiichi knew he was never going to get this unless his brother or he got a wife, but he knew that was impossible as they were still teenagers. Even if they became adults, the bad reputation they had would probably stop them from ever being in love. Rejecting girls may seem easy but it's hard to know that another girl who is just interested in looks had confessed once again and the possibility of a person falling in love for who he was was getting lower and lower.
A sigh escaped his lips as he felt another kick, this may be something that may not happen in his life again, so he savored it. He rubbed the spot the baby had kicked. Keiichi felt a tear fall down his face. The sight of her stomach blurring as he felt a sudden wave of reality. His parents were dead, his relatives, dead, and his brother was just as far down to the other side as his parents. He kept rubbing her stomach as he felt more tears come out, one after another. Covering his mouth he tried to stop a small sob from escaping his mouth, but the reality he knew was harsher than any other. He continued to rub Noemi's stomach as he tried to calm down, slowly but surely his heart began to pace down.
A small hand rubbed his back assuring him that it was okay to cry. He rubbed his eyes clearing them of tears before clearing his throat. He thought that there was no hope for this, there was much more pain in store for him, almost no chance of happiness with the life he led. Only that he didn't know the secret his brother Tousuki was keeping, the detail that was yet to be noticed by the other brother, Keiichi.