Stay Tuned As Life Continues

As he walked to his room he slumped his bag off his shoulder and into his hands. As he opened bedroom door he saw a figure lying on his bed. “Takeru?”
The figure on the bed didn’t respond. Yamato stepped dropped his bag by the door and stepped forward. The figure still didn’t seem to be moving. Yamato over to the closed curtains and ripped them open. The teenager lying on the bed jerked up, “I’m up, I’m up!”

“Relax Teeks it’s just me.” Yamato said grinning at his younger brother.

“Onii-chan?” Takeru asked in a groggy voice.

“Yeah it’s me. I’m here to move my stuff tomorrow remember?” Yamato said thumbing towards his closet.

Takeru leapt off of his brothers bed and hugged him. Yamato was taken aback, not because he didn’t like his brother hugging him, it was because he hadn’t seen his brother this excited to see him in a few years. Yamato smiled and hugged his brother back. The two stood there wrapped in each others embrace. “Ummm…..Takeru it’s nice to see you and all, but I have to go to the bathroom.”, said Yamato.

Takeru let go and started to blush, and with a little smile on his face said, “Sorry.” As Yamato walked out of his bedroom Takeru looked around. He quickly grabbed his clothes from around the room and tossed them in a small case of luggage. He gathered up papers that were on the desk and crammed them into his backpack. Looking around the room one more time, a slight smile came onto his face. However he quickly wiped it off, when his older brother came back.

“I’m going to order something for dinner, are you staying or going back to mom’s?” asked Yamato walking back out of the bedroom and into the kitchen, where he knew his father had a stack of menus from all the near-by delivery places.
Takeru looked around the room one more time before following his brother to the kitchen. “I’ll stay for dinner if you don’t mind.”

“What do you feel like for dinner? There’s pretty muchly anything you want.” Yamato said picking up a pile of multi-colored paper.

“Yeah I know.”, mumbled Takeru.

Yamato lifted his gaze from the papers, “What was that?”

“I said, what ever you want.”, covered the younger blonde.

Yamato spread the menus out in his hand like giant playing cards. “Pick one.” Takeru picked a menu and Yamato pulled it out. He looked at it and cringed, “That place isn’t that good pick again.” Takeru picked another menu, after a quick glance Yamato said, “That place moved.” Yamato then tossed it aside also . Takeru picked again, “That place was shut down, got the health inspector sick.” After a few more failed picks Takeru finally picked one that worked for his brother. “Pizza sounds great Teeks, good pick.” This put a smile on Takeru’s face. Yamato picked up the phone and called in the order. After Yamato hung up the phone, he turned to his brother.
“So Takeru, what brings you over here?”

Takeru stood there for bit before he said, “To see you of course.”

Yamato nodded, “Right. But you acted surprised to see me when I got here.”

Takeru paused before answering again. “You woke me up, of course I acted surprised. I had no idea what time you were going to get here so I got here after school and waited. And while I was waiting I must have dozed off.”

“Right……”Yamato stared at his brother, trying to see if there was something truly wrong with his little brother. But not wanting to push his brother, Yamato suggeted, “Well want to go see what’s on tv?” Yamato walked out of the kitchen, past his brother and climbed over the back of the couch in the living room and pulls the remote out from between the cushions.

“Are you going to get your ass in here and watch TV with your brother or are you going to make him come and get you?” Yamato shouted from the couch. With only the sound of the news coming from the tv filling the apartment Yamato stood up and turned towards the kitchen. He saw Takeru standing just standing there. Once their eyes met Takeru stuck his tongue out at his brother with a large smile. “That’s it.” Yamato leapt over the back of the couch. Takeru let out a yelp and took off for Yamato’s bedroom. It wasn’t long before Yamato caught up with his brother, Takeru leapt out of Yamato’s reach, but slipped on the landing and bounced off the bed and onto the floor with a soft thud. Yamato took this to his advantage and ran over to brother. Yamato got down and pinned his younger brother, and with a big grin on his face Yamato started to tickle his brother. Laughs filled the apartment both of Takeru and Yamato. For the first time in many years the apartment was filled with love, laughter and fun. This continued for many minutes. Soon both brothers were gasping for breath, and Yamato rolled off his brother and onto the floor. He didn’t remember his brother and him having fun like that for years. Yamato didn’t think they had drifted that far apart, but maybe they had. Was that the reason why Takeru was hiding something from him, because they weren’t as close anymore? But before Yamato could think anymore, he heard a knocking at the door.

Yamato stood up and looked down at his little brother. Takeru’s eyes were closed and a large smile was on his face. Yamato smiled at this sight, he decided he was going to find out what was wrong with his brother and fix it, so he could smile like that all the time again. Yamato walked to the door and opened it. The pizza boy handed Yamato a large cardboard box, and Yamato handed him some money. They both nodded at each other and parted ways. “Takeru, Pizza is here.”, Yamato shouted as he closed the door.

The two brothers grabbed their pizza slices and started to watch the tv. “Just like old times, huh Takeru?”

“Yeah Onii-chan, thanks for the pizza, you’re the best.”, said Takeru, he then turned to his older brother and smiled.

Yamato looked at his brother and started laughing. Takeru got a confused look on his face. “I’m sorry Teeks, but you’ve got a line of sauce going down your chin.”

Takeru patted his face with his spare hand, “Where? I don’t feel it.”

“Right here.” Said Yamato as he reached forward and ran his finger down Takeru’s chin. “There were go, I got it. No worries.”, said Yamato. Then without thinking Yamato then stuck his finger in his in his mouth to clean it.
Yamato and Takeru then returned their attention to the tv. A few hours later the front door opened and in stepped their father, closing the door behind him. Both boys called out to him, “Otousan!”

Hiroaki did a double take of who was on the couch, “Yamato? Why are you here?”

“I’m moving the rest of my stuff out tomorrow, remember? You said that you were going to help us move, and let us borrow the van.” Yamato said

“That’s right I did say that.” Mr. Ishida dropped his suitcase by the door and hung up his jacket. “Smells like pizza from that place around the corner.”

“Yeah, got the meat lover, it was on sale.” Yamato said.

“Good, that one is my favorite. So Takeru how was school today? Did you get your report done?” Mr. Ishida said as he walked and grabbed himself a cold slice of pizza.

“School was just fine dad, and that report was due two weeks ago, I got a B+ on it.”

“Two weeks ago. Really? Wow time sure flies.”

Yamato looked at his watch and jumped up, “Wow I didn’t realize it was that late. I still need to run to the store. I can walk you to the bus stop if you want Takeru.”

Mr. Ishida shot a questioning look to his youngest son, who simply shook his head. Mr. Ishida let out a slight sigh and took another bite out of his pizza. “Actually Yamato, I thought I could just stay here tonight, so I wouldn’t have to spend all this time traveling to mom’s and back.”

“Fine by me, You can help me go shopping and cook breakfast in the morning.”

“Breakfast? Here?” came a voice from the kitchen.

“Yes here, Everyone is coming for breakfast here at eight.” Answered Yamato.

“Guess I should clean the place while you’re out.”

Yamato and Takeru opened the door and stepped out of the apartment. Yamato holled into the apartment. “If you wouldn’t mind. Anyways, we’re off Dad, we’ll be back in a bit.”

Once he heared the door close Mr. Ishida came out of the kitchen and looked around and saw that there was lots of work to be done. As he walked to the closet to get a broom, a picture hanging on the wall caught his attention. It was a picture of Yamato and Takeru standing next to each other, with large smiles on their faces and Yamato’s fingers as bunny ears above Takeru’s head. Mr. Ishida then spoke to himself, “Why hasn’t Takeru told him?”