Read Sakamoto Days

Read Sakamoto days

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uzuki x rion // artemis x orion

part 3 tee hee hee

Tired Natsuki and a drunken Shin 🥴

Natsuki is acting weird.

Well—weirder. He’s plenty weird in the first place, in Mafuyu’s opinion. And, as Natsuki’s younger brother, his opinion matters the most! Usually Natsuki is holed up at the university lab tinkering on his projects, working his part-time job at the antique store, or passed out in bed because of all the weird hours he keeps. He never hangs out with any friends and he never steps outside unless Mafuyu drags him somewhere, and his chronic RBF, more often than not, lands him in trouble with people who think he’s giving them attitude.

(Which, to be fair, Natsuki usually is. He had taught Mafuyu how to antagonize people before teaching him how to read and write.)

But now. Now! He smiles! At his phone! Not one of his smug know-it-all smirks that pisses Mafuyu off—no, these are real, actual, genuine smiles! Yeah, they’re small, because Natsuki isn’t much of a smiler in the first place, but they're still smiles! Mafuyu didn’t even know Natsuki could smile like that until he actually saw it. 

The other weird-er thing is that Natsuki has been venturing outside the house more these days. Usually Mafuyu would be happy that his brother is expanding his social life, but he never tells Mafuyu where he’s going, and he hasn’t told Mafuyu about anyone new, either! He leaves looking soft and dopey and comes back looking soft and dopey. Natsuki isn’t soft. He once tasered a guy for trying to proposition Mafuyu. Just what could have happened to make him act so bizarre?

It’s a whole new side to his brother that Mafuyu isn’t familiar with. It’s a whole new side that Natsuki solely reserves for this outsider in their lives, and Mafuyu doesn’t even know who it is. 

(No, Nao, Mafuyu isn’t jealous and he doesn’t have a stupid brother complex, shut up.)

Mafuyu has to get to the bottom of this. If something is wrong, his stupid self-sacrificing big brother wouldn’t tell him until it’s too late! 

“I don’t know, Mafuyu,” Nao muses. Her side of the table is messier than Mafuyu’s, who color-codes all his notes and has one of those giant tabbed binders that neatly houses all his assignments. Nao’s textbooks are stacked precariously at the edge of the table—pushed out of the way to make room for the food she ordered—and her homework is spread across the surface in stray sheets of paper. Later, when they leave, she’s just going to sweep everything into her bag without a care in the world. 

Nao takes a sip from her persimmon smoothie and continues, “Your brother probably has plenty of stuff he never tells you about. Are you sure you’re not just imagining things?”

“I’m not!” Mafuyu slaps a hand against his math textbook. “He’s texting all the time. He doesn’t have enough people he likes to text like that. And he smiles! The last time I saw him smile—and I mean actually smile—was when our parents got arrested!”

“Hmmm,” says Nao. “Has anyone ever told you guys that you need therapy?”

-- an excerpt from a natsushin coffee shop au, in which shin is works at the sakamotos' café, natsuki is pining but refuses to show it, and mafuyu is a worried little brother (ft. best friend nao and mildly crushing on amane)

Truly the most selfless man.