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“I’m starving.” Nobara groaned, slumped into the hard bench.
“I told you to let it go,” Yuuji sighed beside her, “We could’ve been eating some froyo, but nooo. We had to go and start a fight instead.”
Nobara scowled from her seat. She doesn’t understand how Yuuji would rather let them get away with all the shit they say about him behind his back than confront them. They’re a bunch of cowardly bullies and she wasn’t just going to stand around and let them get away with it, not when it came to her best friend.
“We can still go after this,” Megumi spoke up from the seat across, voice muffled behind the ice pack he was holding up to his bloody nose. His father hadn’t seemed too mad about being called into the principal’s office, only stopping to ask him if he had won the fight before striding into the office.
“As if Choso would let me.” Yuuji scoffed. This was the fifth fight they were involved in this month alone. Yuuji would be lucky if all his older brother did was ground him till he was old and grey.
Before either of them could attempt at consoling him, the door to the principal’s office waiting room slammed open and Choso stormed in.
“I said no more starting fighting, Yuuji.” Choso groaned as he knelt down next to his little brother and gently moved his face this and that way to inspect the array of bruises covering his face. This close Yuuji could see how deeper his older brother’s eye bags were and with a pang of guilt, he dropped his gaze to the floor.
“They started it, Choso-san. Well, technically I threw the first punch,” Nobara amended, “But they deserved it. They keep picking on Yuuji behind his back and to his face, saying all kinds of horrible stuff about him.”
Choso looked back at his little brother, whose head had completely dropped down and wouldn’t meet his gaze.
“How long?” He asked. He had known something was up, no matter how hard Yuuji tried to pretend everything was okay, Choso saw the way he would rub at his scars more often or the way he would half cover his mouth whenever he laughed and his scared lip would tug awkwardly and more recently the sudden constant unexplained fighting. His chest tightened at the thought that his little brother was getting bullied this whole time and Choso never even knew, too worried about upsetting Yuuji to ask.
Yuuji shrugged his shoulders without looking up.
“We barely found out this month,” Megumi said gently. That would explain the sudden number of fights the three had gotten in.
“They’re assholes.” Nobara snarled out, eyes shining with anger that was reflected in Megumi’s as well. They had always been close, the three of them, but since the accident that nearly took Yuuji from them all, they had become downright hostile to anyone that so much as looked at him wrong. For something this big to have gone unnoticed by them as well said a lot about how hard Yuuji worked to hide it.
Choso let out a sigh. “Okay.” He whispered, leaning in to press a kiss to Yuuji’s temple. “We’re going to talk about this later.” He said into the boy’s strawberry pink hair.
The three descended back into silence as Choso made his way into the principal’s office, hands clenched at his side.
Nobara sent Yuuji a worried look. “I’m sorry,” she said after a moment.
At this Yuuji shook his head. With a deep breath, he rubbed at his eyes and finally looked up and met Nobara’s gaze.
“It’s alright. He would’ve found out at some point.” He sent her a small but genuine smile. “We’re okay.”
She nodded and turned her head away pretending to be unbothered but the way she scooted closer to Yuuji on the bench said otherwise.
But before they could settle into silence again the door slammed open. Megumi tsked and Nobara groaned at the sight of Yuuji’s other older brother.
“Brats.” Sukuna greeted, ignoring the way Yuuji’s little friends bristled as he walked over towards him. He grabbed his face much more harshly than Choso and twisted it around unbothered by Yuuji trying to jerk it out of his grip.
“That’s it?” He scoffed, unimpressed.
“My ribs hurt too,” Yuuji admitted. Sukuna grabbed the bottom of his shirt and hoodie and yanked them upwards catching sight of a nasty bruise before Yuuji snatched his clothes back down with an indignant yell.
“Let me guess, Mahito and his little gang?” Sukuna asked. “How pathetic to get beat up by the likes of them.”
“You’d think you two would be besties.” Nobara scowled at him not breaking her glare when Sukuna turned towards her with a snarl.
“Enough. What is it to you anyway?” Yuuji interrupted.
Sukuna sent Yuuji a strange look but before he could respond, the door to the principal’s office opened and Choso walked out.
“Please don’t tell me you got in a fight too,” Choso begged.
“Of course not.” Sukuna grinned. “I’m just here to tell you I’m going out with some friends today and to not wait up.”
Choso didn’t even bother asking what they were going to do, just nodded his head and waved him away. Sukuna could take care of himself and the younger boy preferred his independence.
“Come on, kid. We still have to go pick up your sister and cousin.” Toji urged Megumi out of his seat.
“Maki?” Nobara asked. “Hey, can I get a lift home? My parents are out of town.”
“Sure whatever.” Toji shrugged. Megumi sent her a knowing look that she purposefully ignored.
“Come on. We should be heading home too.” Choso nudged Yuuji.
He nodded and picked up his backpack, saying a quick but heartfelt goodbye and thank you to his best friends before following his older brother out of the school.
The car ride was silent and the tension in the air was almost palpable but Choso didn’t know how to break it. In the end, he settled for pushing the inevitable talk towards later in the day and making small talk about what Kechizu and Eso had planned for dinner today.
It worked. By the time they were pulling up to their driveway, Yuuji was smiling again.
“You’re not getting suspended, none of you are, I made sure of it.” Choso offered once he turned off the engine.
“Thank you. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about what was happening.” Maybe their talk shouldn’t wait any longer.
“Don’t be. I should be apologizing to you. I was too scared of upsetting you to ask if something was going on.” Choso held up his hand before Yuuji could protest. “I mean it, I’m sorry. It’s my responsibility as the oldest to look after all of you, but you the most. You’re the youngest, yet you’ve been through so much, it’s not fair. You need support and I know it’s been tough lately but I just want to remind you that you’ll always have mine. I love you, we all do. Please don’t be scared to lean on us.”
Yuuji stared at his older brother, tears welling up in his eyes and spilling down. He hadn’t wanted to worry anyone, he had told himself he could deal with it on his own. But watching the way his friends and his brothers came to his aid, he realized he didn’t want to deal with it on his own, he wanted someone to help him. He was tired.
Choso pulled his little brother over to his side of the car, tucking him into his arms. His heart broke as Yuuji’s frame was wracked with sobs but he knew that it was good for him to let everything out.
Once Yuuji’s sobs turned to small sniffles, he pulled them apart enough to get a good look at his face.
“Kugisaki is right, you know? They’re a bunch of assholes. Nothing more. Little shits whose lives are so miserable they have nothing better to do than pick on others. Your scars show your strength, how you’ve grown and thrived despite it all. They add to you, Yuuji, not take away. And I think a certain grouchy spikey haired someone would agree that they don’t make you any less handsome.” Choso added to lighten the somber mood.
Yuuji let out an embarrassed groan and shoved at Choso’s arm turning to exit the car but not before Choso could catch sight of his blushing face.
Kechizu and Eso were quick to bundle their little brother up on hugs the second they walked in, chattering away about their day and the delicious meal they had prepared, and we didn’t even need the fire extinguisher this time, it was small enough we just beat it down with a towel!
Choso stayed in the doorway a bit longer, happy to watch his whole family interact. Well, almost his whole family. Choso took out his phone and checked his text messages.
Don’t worry about those little shits, they won’t bother him anymore.
And check the brat’s ribs, he’s got a nasty bruise on them.
If Yuuji makes a dessert, leave me some in the fridge.
please
Choso smiled. Despite it all, he thinks he’s doing a fine job at being the eldest.