Teppei-kun : All Grown Up.

T/N: This ficlet was born from a delicious idea that popped into my head from the extra where Teppei confesses he wants to be a 'bad boy' when he grows up. So, Teppei's personality as a teenager is based purely on my imagination and there's an original character. You might or might not like it, so be warned! Standard disclaimers apply.

"Teppei!"

A smile spread on his face at the voice and was getting ready to greet her too, but he never stood a chance against Fumino's bone-crushing hug.

"Nee-chan…can't… breathe…"

"Wups," Fumino said lightly and loosened her grip on her little brother, who was now a head taller than her. "Congratulations! I'm so proud of you!" she beamed at him and hugged him again.

Somewhere along high school – or was it middle-school - he had stopped calling her 'Bun-chan' and progressed to calling her 'nee-chan'. She wasn't going to deny that she was taken aback when it first began but got over it soon because he still added the '-chan' suffix as Kazuma kindly pointed out. She supposed kids had to grow up someday, eventually – though she would miss her nickname.

Fumino took a step back to absorb the moment. Teppei was dressed in his formal uniform and was clutching a scroll, and smiling from ear-to-ear. She found herself already was tearing from happiness even though she promised she wouldn't. But it was such a momentous event she couldn't help herself, so she decided it maybe was okay just this once.

They had returned to Kumaneko High School for Teppei's high school graduation ceremony. It was so nostalgic being here once herself, and watching Teppei-kun grow up so fast into a fine young man, despite the general problems when it came to teenagers. (Teppei had kept to his word!) Thankfully, Kazuma had experience with…that kind of problems and eventually managed to end Teppei's delinquent days soon enough and all that left was two extra piercings on his ear, access to a cooler attitude when the time called for it and motorbike (which he still used).

Teppei-kun was chatting happily with another classmate and was dragged over to take a couple of photos. With a quick notice to his over-emotional sister he went over to his friends. Fumino reached out to the person next to her and sobbed dramatically into his shirt.

"Bun-chan, wrong person," the owner of the chest she was unabashedly sobbing into informed her and quickly detached her arms and put it around the already seething Maa-kun.

Too over-whemled with emotion, Fumino did not notice anything wrong with the situation until it was shoved in her face, literally. She looked back to see that she had in fact, thrown her arms around Ryuu, mistaking him for Kazuma. Then she noticed her husband looking slightly annoyed with the both of them.

"Ah, Kazuma, I thought you were right next to me...so," she buried her face into his chest in embarrassment. Ryuu was laughing away and muttering something about 'stupid couples' before going to crash Teppei's photo session with his friends.

Kazuma looked down at his teary wife and pecked her on the cheek. "I know, but I still can't help myself sometimes," he confessed sheepishly. She leaned her head to his side and sighed silently as he wrapped an arm around her waist.

They stood in comfortable silence as they watched Teppei try to get Ryuu away from his photo session as the one-by-one, girls clamoured to get into a photo with them. Soon enough, the place next to the school gates had turned into a harem with half of the graduating class' girls eager to get one last photo with Teppei and Ryuu.

Ryuu, even after thirteen years, had not lost any charm and in fact, had developed that 'mature sexiness' charm to add to his credits. The same applied to Kazuma, or as he was still known in Kumaneko High School – class 3-B's (not 2-C anymore, they moved him up to teach English to the third years after his sixth year at the school) Ojiro-sensei.

Somewhere along the way (actually it during one of the sports week when he beat the famous fitness trainer, Kurosawa Ken at a special alumni vs. teachers event) he had become Ojiro-sensei-sama. His status had been elevated from plain-glasses wearing to 'most refreshing' teacher that caused the junior girls to literally swoon, much to his and (mostly) Fumino's discomfort.

And so, it was inevitable that one of the students spotted him standing ways off from the school gates and called out for him to join in with the photo session. Before he knew it, the whole group was calling him to join in and even Fumino was pushing him towards them. He smiled fondly at the antics of his students; it was like a tradition to them, whether they were aware of it or not.

"Not without you," he smiled and pulled her towards the large group of students. He smiled mysteriously as he noticed Fumino's blush, he suspected was from a memory of her own graduating day.

And they spent the hour or so being dragged around taking photographs.

Needless to say, by the time graduation week was over, there was a small mountain's worth of photographs received from various sources to be sorted out and since Fumino was in-between jobs, she took it upon herself to sort out all their photos (and when she said all, she really did mean all of their photographs) and compile it into an album. It was high time they did something about that box anyway.

Armed with a pen, scissors, several albums, and a whole day, Fumino brought out the menacing box brimming with loose photographs dating back from the time she first moved into Kazuma's apartment right up till now.

Thirteen years worth of photographs, huh?

Fumino let out a determined 'osu!', rolled up her sleeves and began work.

--------

Fumino couldn't believe the amount of pictures they had accumulated over the years. She hadn't even the slightest idea when Ryuu or Kazuma managed to snap the photos. Most of them were candid shots.

She smiled fondly as she spotted a particular one when it was Teppei-kun's first day of elementary school. Kazuma was so proud that his eyes were brimming in tears and Teppei-kun held up a 'peace' sign to the photographer (who she assumed was Ryuu)

She picked up another photograph that was down-turned to look at it. Her eyes bulged and she cried out in surprise. She had half a mind of calling Kazuma and asking him, where and how the on earth did he get this photo. Oh, the memory was still vivid in her mind and she blushed even harder now that she got an outsiders point of view.

It was a snapshot of her graduation ceremony and she remembered she was doing the usual photo session with her friends from 2-C when they called in Ojiro-sensei who was standing close by smiling contently as he watched another year of his precious students graduate, and this year was extra special – we all know why.

Taking advantage of the fact that they were outside school grounds, and that Fumino had graduated, he walked straight up to Fumino's group and took a photo with them. First it was the formal one but when her friends called for candid, Ojiro-sensei grabbed Fumino squarely by her shoulders and kissed her right in front of everyone and for the cameraman to snap a shot.

She also vaguely remembered hearing a torrent of aghast cries saying 'I knew it!' which she was sure came courtesy of Kurosawa-kun.

The photograph was quite comical in its own right, with her looking as shocked as the rest of the students visible in the photo while Ojiro-sensei looked positively mischievous as he kissed her in front of the whole graduating class.

Fumino blushed and chuckled at memory of how she spent the next half hour being interrogated by her friends as she slipped that photograph reluctantly into their 'family' album.

The next one she picked up was no less of a delight to see.

It was of her and Kazuma's wedding day. Yet another candid one, it was when she ran to Kazuma after the ceremony and hugged him. Someone managed to catch a beautiful picture of them laughing and smiling as he spun her around.

Following that was a picture of Teppei-kun in all his delinquent days' glory fast asleep by the door when he had come home too late after one of his nights out. At that time, he still had his jet-black hair but several chain necklaces hung from his neck and from his piercings were metal studs. His uniform was crumpled and had some blood stains on his white button-up. Yet, his expression was the same one he wore as a kid.

Fumino remembered clearly the day they found him outside she had one of the biggest fights with him, that even Kazuma and Ryuu failed to mediate. Oddly enough, the one to help get Teppei was back on track was Retsu, whom had been looking after Teppei when he joined the Higuma-gumi. Fumino could laugh at that now that the whole deal was over. She tucked the photo into the album regardless.

All the candid photos featured mostly, Kazuma, Teppei, herself and occasionally, Shouma. It was hard to find candid Ryuu shots because he was usually the one taking them. Fumino pouted lightly as she flipped the album for any pictures of Ryuu. He could be found in mostly the family shots, where a self-timer was involved.

Just as that thought crossed her mind, the photo she picked up next was photo of Ryuu clinging onto a not-so pleased Kazuma. Ryuu had a goofy grin on his face and a bottle of sake in his other hand. Fumino laughed at Kazuma's expression of disgust (but she swore there was a hint of amusement) and Ryuu, being well, Ryuu.

Fumino realized at the rate she was going, she was never going to get much done. So she limited her reminiscent time for each photo to less than 30 seconds instead of a minute or two.

But it was kinda hard when embarrassing photos of Teppei-kun cosplaying a 'new wife' with her, Kazuma being offered mountains of Valentine's chocolate at school and Ryuu doing silly things kept popping up.

----

Somehow, by late afternoon, Fumino had sorted out that monster of a box and packed all their old photographs neatly into the albums. Graduation photos weren't such a big problem because all she had to do were add them to the 'Special Events Album vol. 3'.

When she was done with that, she grinned proudly at the pile of albums neatly packed with photographs of their time together and couldn't wait to show it to the rest. Arranging photographs were surprisingly tiring and before she knew it her eyes were drifting close.

Maybe a little nap wouldn't hurt…

"Nee-chan? I'm ho-ome," Teppei called out. "Nee-chan?" he called out again. That was odd, he knew she would be home because of her new job.

He walked into the familiar space of the living room and the first thing he noticed was a new addition to their décor, about 10 super-sized albums and a huge empty box. It didn't take a rocket scientist to put two and two together.

Teppei walked quietly over to the albums and noticed Fumino sleeping amongst the albums and a mess of little snippets. Even though the floor heater was turned on, it was still winter and his silly sister only had a long-sleeved shirt and leggings on. He went to grab a blanket and covered her, a fond smile spreading as she clutched the blanket and muttered something in her sleep.

He took a seat next to her and grabbed one of the albums and began flipping through it.

He was thoroughly enjoying looking back at all the times they've had up till now and was on his second book by the time Kazuma came home.

"I'm home~ Ah, Teppei-kun? What's this?" Kazuma asked just for the sake of asking.

Teppei suddenly laughed out loud. "Maa-kun, check this out," Teppei held out the photo album he had just started on for him to see and pointed at that particular photo. "It's amazing I wasn't affected mentally as a child seeing you two behaving like that all the time," he poked.

Kazuma snatched the album out of Teppei's hands flipped through the album. To his horror (enjoyment) they were mostly photos that Ryuu managed to sneak of him and Fumino doing well, things that couples usually do. Nothing too x-rated, though. Just real embarrassing stuff. He closed the album shut and walked straight to his room with a smirk plastered on his face. This album was definitely for keeps - his to keep, to be specific.

"Let's go through the rest, shall we?" Kazuma said, with a voice that promised trouble.

Teppei, having gotten used to Hell's Maa-kun - plus having an alter-ego of his own to boost, simply smiled amiably and agreed.

"Aha," Kazuma exclaimed. He pulled out an album from the bottom, pretty sure the albums were arranged chronically, although Teppei seemed to not notice. He flipped through the first few pages quickly and thanked his lucky stars.

"Aw, Teppei-kun, look at you and Fumino," Kazuma said cheerfully.

A whole two-page spread featuring Teppei and Fumino in embarrassingly cute cosplay outfits stared right back at Kazuma and Teppei.

As Teppei was shocked speechless Kazuma pondered, "I wonder why we stopped the new wife cosplay…? Maybe it was when Fumino finally learned to make dinner? Or maybe it was when you started elementary and insisted on cooking dinner?" and sighed wistfully.

"I…I don't remember any of this!" Teppei exclaimed, the colour slowly draining from his face.

"Well, it's understandable considering you were only about 4 to 5 years old at that time," Kazuma answered, still in that wistful voice. "I miss Fumino in the bunny outfit,"

"B-b-b-but! This is…" Teppei spluttered. Kazuma peered at the photos again. There were a couple of Teppei with his fringe cutely tied up in a strawberry hair-tie while wearing frilly aprons, and one or two of him in a cat or bunny costume. He didn't see anything wrong with the photos. In fact, they looked absolutely perfect to him.

"I don't see anything wrong with it," Kazuma replied honestly. At that moment, Teppei, who had just received the shock of his life then being told that there was nothing wrong with it, glared daggers at Kazuma and proceeded to pounce on him.

Teppei was shaking Kazuma violently by the collar, "I swear, if anyone else sees this there will be hell to pay!" he growled.

Kazuma, not threatened in the least, pouted and purposely avoided his gaze, "A-ah~ whatever happened to the cute Teppei-kun who used to welcome me home with Fumino, dressed up in frilly aprons? So cute…"

Teppei shook Kazuma again and yelled in anguish, "Don't go blushing like that!! It's embarrassing! Darn it!"

"Hey, what's all the noise about?" a voice called out and interrupted Teppei's bemoaning. Fumino had woken up from all the noise Teppei had been causing.

"Nee-chaaan! Why didn't you stop me from cosplaying?" he went up to his older sister pleadingly.

"But you enjoyed it so much, it was hard to stop you," Fumino looked at him in confusion. Teppei was once again, shocked speechless, except this time he turned into complete stone at this new revelation.

Fumino tried to get him out of his shell-shocked state, but to no avail. "What did I do?" she asked Kazuma in such a lost voice Kazuma completely lost it. The siblings were just too adorable for their own good.

Kazuma laughed heartily at the whole situation, never imagining the consequences of him asking the siblings to cosplay in exchange for dinner. Although he had to admit, this was pretty enjoyable. Maa-kun obviously hasn't lost his sadistic streak even after thirteen years of marriage.

Just then, their door burst open and shut close again, "Bun-chan, Teppei-kun, Maa-kun! Look what I found!"

The three of them looked up and found themselves looking at Ryuu standing at the door holding a CD case and waving it merrily. "Your DVD player is working, isn't it?"

Not even bothering to wait for an answer, Ryuu jogged over to their DVD player and inserted a disc into it. Teppei caught a glimpse of the CD cover and had a really bad feeling. "Don't tell me…"

Teppei's fears were confirmed. The living room was now filled with sounds of people chattering away, and an air of anticipation could be sensed from the crowd. "Oh no…" he groaned and buried his face under a pillow.

"Ah! I remember this!" Fumino exclaimed delightedly.

"Me too!" Kazuma added.

They smiled happily at each other.

A barely audible voice that sounded absolutely dismal could be heard, "You do…?"

"Everyone, welcome to Sunameri's Children's Day celebration!" announced a jovial voice on screen. "Ah, Ryuu, that's you!" she pointed excitedly at the screen.

"As you all know, this year the kids have decided to do a play," a round of generous applause from the audience followed.

"Without a due, presenting Alice in Wonderland!"

Teppei who had probably retained some memories of his first ever play whimpered miserably as the play begun. Fumino and Kazuma weren't helping much either by letting out squeals of delight whenever Teppei appeared on screen.

"Teppei! Look! That white rabbit costume fits you like it was made for you!" Kazuma exclaimed when he appeared on screen with Alice. "Kawaii…" she sighed and hugged Teppei who had curled up into a ball and had his head buried in his knees.

Teppei didn't have to look to tell his sisters' eyes were in the shape of hearts by now.

"Actually, it was made for him y'know," Ryuu whispered importantly to them. Fumino's mouth formed a 'O' and nodded before turning her attention back to the screen.

They were barely into the third minute when another interruption came in the form of the doorbell ringing.

"I'll get it!" Teppei shot up and scrambled to get the door, eager to escape the humiliation.

Standing at the door was one of Teppei's classmates; Ryuu had poked his head to see who it was. Fumino and Kazuma were too engaged in the video to bother.

"Shiori-chan! Long time no see!" Ryuu greeted, shoving Teppei aside as Teppei tried to prevent Ryuu from coming close to the door.

Teppei looked urgently at Shiori and said, "Let's go," but he was too late as Ryuu had already invited the unsuspecting girl inside, much to Teppei's horror.

"Thank you, Ryuu-san. Good evening, Kaji-senpai, Ojiro-sensei! What're you all watching?" she sat down, interests drawn to the television which everyone seemed glued onto today.

"Shiori, weren't we supposed to meet up for dinner with the rest? We're gonna be late," he emphasized.

Teppei, one of the most charismatic and admired (not to mention dangerous) students of his year at Kumaneko High School, was ignored.

"It's Teppei-kun in his first ever school play," Fumino explained delightedly. Shiori let out a squeal of pure delight. "Really? Which role?"

As if the fates above enjoyed seeing poor Teppei writhe in discomfiture, his five year old self reappeared on screen.

"There!" Kazuma, Ryuu and Fumino stated in chorus.

"Kyaa! Kawaaii!"

Now, Shiori too, had hearts in her eyes. Teppei didn't just know it, he was sure about it.

Then, what seemed like a blessing came when Shiori's phone rang. "Hello?"

"Ah, yes, so sorry! It's just!" she squealed again, unable to contain her glee.

"Alright, alright we're coming. See you," she shut her phone deftly and turned to the rest solemnly.

"As much as I would love to watch more, Saiko-chan demands that we get there soon or they won't leave any food for us, so…"

"We'll be going now, bye!" Teppei finished her sentence for her and they were out the door in record time.

"See you…?" Fumino didn't get a chance to reply.

-----

"Teppei-kun, you never told me you were so cute when you were a kid!" Shiroi teased on the way there and punched him lightly on his arm.

Teppei silently mulled and prayed she wouldn't get any ideas.

"Do the rest know?" she asked suddenly. Teppei tried not to show any reaction whatsoever but Shiori did not miss the colour drain from his face at the very mention of it.

"Heh."

-END-