Chapter Text
Koyuki is back in the hospital this week for her treatments, and so Keizo left Hakuji in charge of the Keizo Dojo. It wasn’t an uncommon occurrence. The students are used to Hakuji leading classes, and he has had all his certifications for several styles so he has been able to step in and be the teacher with no problem.
Hakuji was happy to do it; even took pride in it. Ever since he finished high school, his main focus was training for his competitive fighting tournaments and helping around the dojo anyway, so after 10 years of living with the Keizo family and watching class after class of students learn and grow, teaching came naturally to him as well.
Despite the hellish poverty he was born into, somehow Hakuji has carved out a little corner of the world for himself, somewhere he belongs and somewhere he is respected . He’d become someone who rational adults thought seemed responsible enough to train dozens of children and teenagers by himself.
Except something inexplicable happens after class every Tuesday and Thursday evening, when Rengoku Kyojuro walks into the dojo. All of Hakuji’s carefully practiced composure takes leave of his brain, and he is once again the shitty street kid that no one can stand.
When Hakuji saw Senjuro in class, he remembered it was Thursday, and by the time class was over, Hakuji made sure to sit himself in Koyuki’s seat behind the front desk, just so he could have all of Kyojuro’s attention the second he walked in.
“ Ow Kyojuro, looking good today.” And he was, his long hair half up, the rest framing his handsome face in waves. He was wearing a fall jacket over a green shirt that brought out his eyes.
“Hakuji,” he acknowledged politely. Which he always did, no matter what Hakuji said to him. Composed and gentile. The average person might look at this man and think, ‘what a nice guy’ but Hakuji could sense the embers of something wild inside him. Something that Hakuji couldn’t resist poking at. “Is Senjuro ready?”
“He’ll be along in a minute,” Hakuji said dismissively. Hakuji knew he didn’t have long, and so he let his eyes roam over the other man indulgently. Eventually when his eyes met Kyojuro’s he didn’t have the self-control to stop a wide grin from splitting his face. “Are you busy? I’d love to get my hands on you, take you through some forms.”
The pretty blonde blinked hawk-like eyes at him slowly, piercing straight through him and making Hakuji’s heart flutter excitedly.
“Are you really as shallow as you seem?” The words were cutting like a sword, but they just stoked the fire that seemed to burn inside of Hakuji whenever Kyojuro was near. Challenging him.
Hakuji loved a challenge.
“Why do you ask?” Hakuji leaned into Kyojuro space, and lowered his voice, “Do you want to meet up later and talk about my painful backstory?”
“No, thank you. Please let Senjuro know I’ll be waiting for him outside.” Pleasantly shut down once again. Kyojuro turned from him without another word and took all the sunshine with him.
“I’d do whatever you want, Kyojuro.” Hakuji called after him as the front door closed slowly behind him.
Almost everyone had gone for the day, only one or two students remained, waiting for their guardians to pick them up. Kyojuro was usually one of the last ones to show up for his teenage brother.
“Shit!” Hakuji nearly jumped out of skin when he turned and nearly ran into his student. When he had last seen him, he’d been putting away the cleaning supplies in the back office. How long had he been standing there?
The short blonde looked up at Hakuji with a look of complete pity, “oh, you’re stupid.” Well that answered that.
“Hey! I’m your senpai, you can’t talk to me like that.” Which wasn’t true, strictly speaking.
Hakuji teased his students almost relentlessly, and several of them chirped back in good fun. Senjuro tended to be on the quieter side, usually only giving small amused smiles at his expense, but these appear to be extenuating circumstances.
“Class is over,” Senjuro reminded him, zipping his water bottle into his bag. “That was really awful to watch.”
“Yeah, I know. Sorry, I didn’t mean for you to see that.” Hakuji scrubbed at his cheeks, hoping they weren’t burning from excitement and embarrassment as badly as they felt. He knew about boundaries, he knew , but, “why does he smell so good? Does he wear cologne?”
Senjuro’s nose wrinkled in disgust, “Please stop smelling my brother. Why can’t you be normal?”
Hakuji would love to know the answer to that as well. Senjuro rolled his eyes, and stepped around him lightly.
“Wait, Senjuro, put in a good word for me?”
Senjuro laughed at that. “See you next week, senpai.” Senjuro joined his brother outside, and through the window panel Hakuji could see Kyojuro’s face warm with affection as he pulled his little brother into a one armed hug.
What Hakuji would give to have Kyojuro look at him like that.
Hakuji slapped his cheeks bracingly. He desperately needed to get a grip.
-
Senjuro dumped his bag into the back seat before settling heavily into the passenger seat, pleasantly sore.
The car rocked gently as Kyojuro climbed into the driver's seat next to him. He took a deep breath, before turning with a sunny smile. “Good class?”
Senjuro nodded, “yeah! Senpai had us work on throws today, so that’s always fun. I got to throw this really big guy in class, and I think it surprised both of us. I bet I could throw you too now anuie, so watch your back.”
Kyojuro let out a barking laugh, “I can’t wait for you to throw me. That sounds like fun. You’re getting so confident in your techniques. I’m glad. You seem like you’re getting stronger.”
Senjuro glowed with the praise. Their dad had insisted that the both of them train in kendo like he had, and while Kyojuro had picked it up as easily as breathing, Senjuro could never really get into it.
Now, Senjuro had the opportunity to explore his own interests, but even that was bittersweet.
“I wish we had the training mats.” Senjuro mused absently. Senjuro winced a moment later, wishing he could take back those words. The joy in Kyojuro seemed to dim, just for a second, before another bright smile forced its way back onto his face.
“They were good mats. Maybe we can find something else that will work, for now.” Kyojuro turned away from him then, the conversation apparently over.
Senjuro sighed and watched his brother tap the wheel quickly as he put the car in reverse. He wondered if Kyojuro knew all the little ways he showed his anxiety.
“How was work?” Senjuro ventured; that was usually safe territory. Although, Kyojuro didn’t answer immediately, which wasn’t a great sign.
“I have to work this weekend, I’m sorry, I just found out.”
“Oh,” Senjuros voice sounded hollow to his own ears, but he couldn’t help it. He didn’t really want to spend the weekend alone, and that also meant, “does dad know?”
Kyojuro shook his head, “I wanted to talk to you about it first. If you still want to go see him, I could ask Tengen or Kanroji to take you. They’ve offered in the past.”
Senjuro wasn’t sure if he wanted to go without Kyojuro either. Guilt and obligation warred silently in his chest, his post-exercise high feeling like it was moving further and further away, like they were driving away from it as the dojo slipped from view.
Eventually Kyojuro broke the silence, “We can try to go next weekend instead. I’ll let him know.”
A lump formed in Senjuro’s throat. “Do you think he’ll be mad?” He asked quietly.
Kyojuro hummed pleasantly like he was asked about the weather. “I don’t think you need to worry about that.”
Kyojuro drove the long way to get to their apartment, purposefully avoiding driving by the burned down remains of what used to be their childhood home. Senjuro still knew what exit would lead that way, and he always thought about it whenever he thought about home anyway, but he didn’t say anything about it to his brother.
Kyojuro already had too much on his plate. He’d dropped out of college to come back and take care of him when it had happened. He found a job in this city to support them until the insurance money was released. Assuming it wouldn’t be ruled as arson.
Senjuros head hurt when he tried to think about what the cops had said to him, what the lawyers had said to him, and even what the social workers had said to him. Kyojuro was his legal guardian while their dad was in rehab. Senjuro wasn’t clear what Shinjuro would have to do to get guardianship back, but the judge hadn’t made it sound easy.
Senjuro knew there were parts of it Kyojuro wasn’t telling him, and while he was so grateful to him for his help, another smaller part of him didn’t feel like it was fair. Kyojuro was only 7 years older than him, barely out of his teenage years. That didn’t feel like enough to have this chasm in responsibility suddenly open up between them.
Senjuro wanted to take care of Kyojuro too.
“You know,” Senjuro began slowly as a thought occurred to him, “in class before we started throws, there was a demonstration, and Hakuji-senpai let all of us take turns throwing him to show us the proper technique for falling.”
Senjuro knew he had Kyojuro’s attention by the way his split eyebrows were creeping up his forehead. Senjuro kept his voice innocent, “I wonder if he banged his head during one of those falls, because he asked me to put in a “good word” with you as I was leaving today.”
Kyojuro was chewing his lip now, looking like he was going to burst.
“I mean, what do you think that could mean?”
“I’m sure I have no idea!!” Kyojuro said loudly.
Senjuro nodded like that made perfect sense. “In that case, I’ll make sure to ask next week. Maybe he has something important he wants to say to you.”
Kyojuro let out a long groan, and Senjuro laughed brightly. The tension from before dissipating into relief. The change in subject worked like a charm, and the brothers easily transitioned to discussing dinner plans, and what homework Senjuro still needed to do. Back to feeling like brothers, back to almost feeling like normal.