Chapter Text
"Isn't there normally six of you here?" Chibita spoke over the siblings' usual banter at his oden stand. He quickly re-counted to be sure. "Yeah, there's one missing! Where's Choromatsu?"
Choromatsu whined, looking offended. "That's me! Who did you think I was?"
Chibita shrugged. "...Karamatsu?" Choromatsu looked deeply wounded.
"Tch, I am the true Karamatsu," gleamed the second eldest with a wink.
"Eh? You're not Osomatsu?" The blue hooded figure flinched, also disappointed.
"Chibitaaa," Todomatsu whined, absently swirling his beer can in his hand, "You should know who's who by now."
"I can't help it that you all look the same!" Chibita snapped back. "But ya idjits still didn't answer my question. There's only five here. Who's missing?"
"Ichimatsu is home!" Jyushimatsu answered helpfully, shoveling food into his mouth at an inhuman pace.
"What? Again?"
Choromatsu sighed. "He doesn't leave the bedroom upstairs anymore. We've tried everything to get him to go outside, but he just won't. He's turned into a total hikikomori."
Chibita tilted his head. "That's no good. A NEET is bad enough, but a hikikomori, too? That's just as bad."
"Eh," Osomatsu stretched, "It's kinda nice having one less brother around all the time, actually."
"Osomatsu!" Choro snapped.
"Fine, fine..." Osomatsu waved his hand dismissively, "It's weird without him around, but I'm haven't heard much complaining." He let out a yelp when Choromatsu pinched him on his hand, glaring him down.
"You don't have to be so blunt about it, you know. He is our brother."
"Either way," Osomatsu continued, rubbing his hand to soothe the pain, "I've tried to get him to leave the house. I gave up once he gave me this for just trying to be a good older brother." He lifted up his bangs to show a fresh bandage covering up the rather large welt on his forehead. Chibita winced a little.
"In fact..." the eldest's devious grin spread wider, "I'll bet half my weekly pachinko savings that nobody can make Ichimatsu leave the house on his own within the week." Choromatsu groaned exasperatedly. Of course the eldest brother would want to try and make some money off of this... Except for Jyushi's noisy eating, the group didn't even bother to acknowledge the bet; looking, instead, immensely bored by the offer.
"R-really? No one?" Osomatsu looked disappointed. "What about you, Totty?"
"For as little as you have, it's not even worth the hassle," Todomatsu lazily waved him off.
"Yeah," Choro agreed. "None of us likes to pass up free money, but it's impossible to get Ichimatsu to change that fast, so even why bother?"
"I also prefer not having my knee kicked at so much under the table," Karamatsu added quietly.
"That only happens if you say something painful," Choro explained.
"But he does it so often--"
"What about you, Jyushimatsu?" Oso leaned over to catch the fifth brother’s attention as he vacuumed up his fourth serving.
"Huh?"
"Think you can get Ichimatsu to finally leave the house on his own?"
"Hmm..." Jyushi rubbed his chin as he thought about it for a moment. He hopped up to his feet excitedly, lifting his arms up in the air. "Yes! Okay!”
“You only get a week, so don’t--”
“One week! Let’s go!!" The excited sibling suddenly took off running from the oden stand and straight back to the house. There was a surprised pause as the brothers watched him dash away with inhuman speed.
“Well… that was easy,” Osomatsu back turned in his seat with a particularly wicked grin. “Now does anyone want to place bets on if he can actually pull it off?”
The brothers traded looks with each other. Once Jyushimatsu decided to go all out at something, there was no stopping him. Hesitantly, they began to fish around for spare change.
"Fine," Choromatsu rolled his eyes. "But what we're betting doesn't leave this table, understand?"
"Wouldn't dream of it, Fappymatsu," Oso grinned, rubbing his nose in excitement as he feverishly counted the change.
"Oy, oy!" Chibita shouted, shaking a bamboo skewer threateningly at the four. "Just make sure whatever you put down covers your tabs first, ya idjits!"
Ichimatsu lazily opened one eye in the dark bedroom, peering out from the overstuffed comforter that enveloped his body like a protective cocoon. He had a sudden feeling of worry come over him, as if he was in danger, but he couldn’t quite place why. The house remained silent as he waited, holding his breath in order to hear past the soft ticking of the clock downstairs. Twenty seconds managed to tick by before Ichimatsu began to grow bored of his paranoia and rolled over in his blankets, dismissing the feeling as having been a sound carried by the wind, or the like. He allowed his eyelids to start to droop, eager to return to his nap.
“Nii-saaaan!”
There was a loud bang as the bedroom door slammed open and Ichimatsu’s eyes shot wide awake in response. Before he could even get a word in, Ichimatsu felt his body being scooped out from out of the blankets, readied, and then pitched like a baseball right out the balcony door.
“Fast ball!!” Jyushi cheered as he tossed his screaming brother at full speed.
Cat-like instincts kicking in, Ichimatsu managed to catch the balcony’s ledge and use his momentum to swing himself back inside of the house, landing on all fours effortlessly. Well, more or less. He shook out his hands, wincing at the sting the sudden impact had left him.
“Safe!” Jyushimatsu gestured automatically, impressed that Ichimatsu had successfully avoided taking a single foot outside.
“Jyushimatsu, what the hell?!” the other spat, furious, “What are you trying to pull!?”
“Osomatsu asked me to get you out of the house!” Jyushi answered politely, rushing forward to toss his brother out the window again.
No longer half asleep this round, Ichimatsu readied himself for the attack. The moment Jyushi was close enough, Ichi jumped into the air and leapt off of the other's shoulders, sending the excitable brother careening into the tatami floor. Ichimatsu bolted down the hall without so much as a second glance.
Hearing footsteps behind him, Ichi threw the bolt to the bathroom door shut just before his brother reached him. There was a small thud as Jyushi hit the door. Ichi clutched his chest as he slumped down to the bathroom floor, wheezing for air. He wasn’t used to running like this at all.
“Ichimatsu!!” Jyushimatsu called for him disappointedly as he rattled the locked door. “You can’t stay in there forever! Come on out!”
“Just watch me!” Ichimatsu shot back, pulling in his knees to his chest as he tried to get rid of the sickening feeling in his chest. He had been so close to being outside again, and the fear was overwhelming. He clenched his hair with shaking fists, trying to focus on counting the floor tiles. ‘It’s okay,’ he told himself. It was safe in here.
He was on his fifth count over the bathroom floor before Ichi realized Jyushimatsu had stopped trying to force the door open and was simply sitting outside the door now, waiting anxiously. He let out a heavy sigh.
“Go away, Jyushimatsu.”
“But…”
“I don’t wanna hear your reasons! You all have been bothering me for a month on making me leave but, it’s not gonna happen, understand? I'd sooner die than go outside again!”
There was a long pause as Jyushi waited for Ichimatsu to calm down a little.
“O-okay, nii-san," he finally spoke, "I won’t force you to leave if you don’t want to. But... would it be okay if I came in there with you, at least?”
The elder brother blinked up in surprise. Jyushi wanted to keep him company? “…W-why?”
The other shuffled about uncomfortably. “I, um... have to go.”
“Oh.”
Ichi stood, his bare feet quietly padding over to the locked door. He hesitated a moment before flipping open the latch.
The younger brother burst in without so much as a thank you and immediately rushed over to the toilet. Ichimatsu hissed and shielded his eyes from the unwelcome sight. "Agh, at least wait until I'm not looking!" he winced, retreating back upstairs. He hoped that his blankets were still a little bit warm, at least.
Jyushimatsu had been considerate enough to keep his distance from the other for the rest of the night, watching baseball games on the television downstairs until the rest of the brothers returned from Chibita’s oden stand, feeling buzzed and tired. As usual, they found Ichimatsu already sleeping face down on his spot in the bed roll and in ten minutes had joined him, clicking off the light to go to sleep.
As the sounds of his brothers snoring gradually grew, Jyushimatsu found himself staring up at the ceiling, feeling bothered and unable to sleep. He sat up to look at Ichimatsu, who hadn’t stirred once since they came upstairs. Despite having grown up with Ichimatsu his whole life, Jyushi couldn't help feeling like the other was slowly becoming a stranger. Ichimatsu always kept things bottled up inside, but he at least always made an effort to join the group in whatever dumb thing they wanted to do together. The others could pretend as much as they wanted, but when Ichimatsu was missing, things just felt... lonely.
“Ichimatsu?” Jyushi whispered quietly. The other didn’t reply, but Jyushi continued. "Why don’t you like going out anymore? We used to have a lot of fun together, but... you started spending less and less time with us. I’m not sure why, but it just doesn’t quite feel the same anymore...”
Ichimatsu remained silent, fingers curling up slightly in his pillow. It's not that he wanted to be cooped up forever, Ichi frowned, but the reasoning behind it all just felt so... so stupid. He was happier indoors where he wouldn't have to be reminded of the pain. Jyushimatsu or any of his brothers would never be able to understand why.
“…Is there something out there that you’re afraid of, nii-san?”
Ichimatsu flinched, but hoped to pass it off as a simple sleep spasm.
“Well, I'm sure that whatever it is must be a really big deal,” Jyushi continued, “because not a lot gets to you. Or at least, you do a really good job of hiding it from us..." The younger fiddled with the blanket between his fingers as he thought. "I'm sorry if you're mad at me for throwing you out the window. I won't do it again, but I just wanna help fix you, nii-san."
Ichi's heart ached, guilt rising as he heard the sadness in Jyushimatsu's tone. Of all the brothers he had managed to upset, it just had to have been Jyushimatsu. Why did that matter more than the rest? Why did he care?
"Can I help fix you, nii-san?" Jyushi whispered, his expression falling slightly from worry. The fifth brother shuffled back down into the bed, feeling dejected. The clock ticked away downstairs for a few seconds, before he heard a quiet reply through a pillow at the other end of the mattress.
"...Okay."
The fifth brother smiled sleepily, letting out a contented yawn. "Good night, Ichimatsu-nii-san," he stretched and shut his eyes.
"...Good night, Jyushimatsu."
The room stayed quiet until morning.