Author's Notes

I started this about two years ago but then packed the sheets I wrote them on away. And when I found them, the lead had faded so much it was pretty difficult to read. Totally my bad there, but I loved the idea and thought I might as well finish it off. Some more sibling love.

Enjoy, and tell me what you think.

Mistaken

He's a tad bit overprotective. Though he should really learn not to let his paranoia manipulate his perception. And to have a little more faith in his brother.

Kouji M/Koji & Kouichi K/Koichi

Koji packed up his books as the bell rang, leaving the room at an easy, not too enthusiastic, pace while the rest, except the few who had failed their history tests and were now lined up by the teacher's desk, rushed out for sport.

Passing the arts classroom, he almost crashed straight into his brother.

'Sorry,' the boy mumbled, evidently not looking who he had almost collided with, apparently in a hurry.

'Koichi.' Koji caught his arm, before suddenly drawing back at the touch of something wet. 'What the-?'

His voice died in his throat at the sight of the red substance dancing across his palm. The same one that snaked down the other's wrist, though it had been smeared.

'I'm late,' Koichi muttered, looking anxiously down the corridor, where another boy was hovering. 'Koji, I really-ouch!' He hissed in pain as the other grabbed his wrist a little too roughly.

'You're bleeding!'

'I'm not, I-'

But he wasn't looking the other in the eye, still trying to convince his brother that he really was late.

The other boy came over. 'He's going to kill us.'

'I know.' Koichi bit his lip, like how he did when he was nervous. 'Koji, we're really late.'

'Just hang on,' he half-shouted, and the blonde looked between the two brothers.

'I'll just tell the teacher you're on your way,' he offered.

'Um…yeah. Okay.' Seeing as his brother wasn't letting go. 'Do you mind letting go of my wrist?'

Koji just brushed the other's sleeve back, staring at the red, blood-like substance.

But he wouldn't. Koichi just wouldn't.

'Let go of my wrist,' the other snapped, yanking his hand out of the other's grip, a little roughly for anybody and more so for him, but the other had really been holding it tight.

'What's wrong with you?'

'Nothing.' Koichi knelt down to pick up the books he dropped. 'Gotta go. Literature.'

He slipped past before the other could halt him again, leaving him staring at the red on his hands. Absentmindedly, he rubbed with his fingers, which seemed to dilute the texture a little if nothing else. He fingered around his pocket with his free hand, but finding no tissue, he decided to make a small detour to the bathroom and wash it off instead.

Most of his mind was wondering why the heck his brother was snapping at him, so much so that he didn't notice the teacher issue a demerit for being late before sending him to warm-up.

'You're late?' Takuya asked in surprise, jogging on the spot. 'What, you get a 10 or something?'

'83,' the other gruffly replied, wriggling his toes a little before doing the same.

'So…why are you late?' Natural curiosity.

'None of you business.

'Sheesh, no need to snap…'

'Where's Koichi?' Zoe asked, once everyone else had sat at their usual table and the eldest, having arrived first, had devoured half his lunch.

'I don't know actually,' Koji frowned. 'Haven't talked to him since Wednesday.'

'Wow, that's got to be a record,' Takuya mock-exclaimed, prompting the victim to kick him under the table. 'Oww.'

'Why haven't you?' the blonde asked, ignoring Takuya in a teasing sort of dignity.

'Line's busy when I call, except Thursday where no-one was home.'

'And school?'

'I had detention on Friday, he has drama club on Thursdays and I didn't even see him on Saturday.'

'You know,' JP commented, polishing off the last of his bento. 'He wasn't here for lunch on Friday either. And when I saw him on Saturday, he seemed to be in a hurry.'

'Or maybe he's avoiding us,' Koji said bluntly. He decided not to mention the blood-like substance. He was probably jumping to unreasonable conclusions. More likely he scraped himself and didn't notice.

There was silence for a few minutes, before Tommy shook his head.

'I don't think so,' he said. 'The drama club's putting on that play, so he could be really busy with that. When Yutaka was in the club, they had to spend every spare minute at school on it so they're clear to hold rehearsals after school.'

'Oh right.' Zoe suddenly clapped her hands. 'I forgot about that. Auditions were yesterday, weren't they?'

The bell rang at that point.

'Aargh, stupid bell.'

'But I haven't finished-'

The table erupted into a flurry of activity, but Koji and JP both stood, the former slipping his half-eaten lunch back into its container and the latter having finished.

'See you,' the elder called, vanishing towards his locker, as Koji headed for his in the other direction.

Picking up his books and depositing his bento box didn't take long at all, so Koji wasn't exactly in a rush as he made his way to sixth period math. However he hadn't counted on almost crashing into his brother again.

'Koji?'

Well, at least he was in a better mood. Or maybe because he wasn't in a hurry, regarding him with a slightly tilted head.

Koji's eyes automatically grasped the other's wet sleeve, then the few red stains trailing down the other's hand. The paranoia suddenly came back tenfold.

Koichi followed his gaze, before sighing. 'I thought I washed that off-' He stopped suddenly as the other grabbed his wrist again. 'What's with you and my wrist?'

'It's bleeding.'

'No it's not.' Just plain ol' confusion, but Koji didn't look convinced.

'You'd lie to tell me not to worry,' he said sternly, before adapting a more concerned look. 'If something wrong, if you're hurting or anything, you promised you'll tell me.'

The look he gave his brother told him it wasn't a question.

'That only matters if I'm bleed-' He broke off suddenly, looking at his wrist, before laughing. 'Oh, I get it.'

Koji broke off, abruptly letting go of his brother. 'Are you okay?'

'Sure.' Still chuckling, the elder twin set off for the bathroom, the younger trailing behind him.

Koichi immediately turned on the tap, scrubbing away at his hands. The red came off, mixing with…blue? It must be, seeing as purple streaks were washing down the drain.

'Red paint,' the elder twin explained, trying to turn all parts of his hands and arms back to their original colour and pushing his sleeves up. Apparently, he had missed some spots in a hurry. 'And blue, brown, black and a truck-load of other colours. The drama set.'

In that minute, Koji felt extremely stupid as the other wiped his unblemished arms off on a towel, up to his elbows. 'Oh.'

'Yeah, a murder scene, so lots of blood.' Koichi grinned. 'Red, black and a tinge of brown did the trick.'

'No wonder it looked like blood.' Koji frowned. 'Why'd you snap at me though?'

'I was late and Ms Mayumi's really strict about tardiness, and you were holding my wrist too tightly.'

'Oh.' An awkward pause, then: 'sorry. But why haven't I talked to you since Wednesday.'

'Busy with the play, and that's the fifth time in less than as many minutes someone's asked me that.'

'The rest of the gang?'

'Of course.'

'Okay, fine, at school, but what about your home line?'

'Mum's been using the phone.' The elder twin scrunched the paper towel into a ball before throwing into the bin. 'So you seriously thought I was cutting myself?'

'Well…you have been acting kinda weird lately, so when I saw the red stuff running down your hand, I thought you were…umm…'

'Cutting myself?' Koichi repeated dryly.

'Umm…yeah. Or maybe you just…well, cut it.' He was fully aware of how stupid he sounded, but the blood-red paint had been pretty convincing. Especially since the other claimed that was the paint posing as blood in their scene.

The elder of thee two rolled his eyes, opening the door.

'You already have the "emo" department covered,' he said plainly, walking out with the other following, in both statement and the unrelated action.

'Yeah, I-wait! I am not!'

'Sure you are,' Takuya's voice quipped from behind them. 'The only thing that surprised me is how you,' here, he looks at Koichi, 'managed to say that with a straight face. I burst out laughing every time I try.' The remark was punctured by a small burst of laughter.

Said twin shrugged, and the lack of response promoted the younger twin to retaliate. 'Maybe because we all don't possess your unfortunate lack of self-restraint.'

'Like you're one to talk, emo-boy.'

Koichi didn't even try to stop them.

'I'm not the moody twin here.'

The brunet paused slightly. 'Hey…you're right.' Then, overriding the other's shout of triumph, he turned to the ex-warrior of darkness. 'What's been with you lately?'

'Apart from the paint/blood incident,' Koji hurriedly added. 'And the play. And don't say nothing because you were rather spacey on Wednesday.'

Koichi opened his mouth to answer, before closing it again, a strange expression suddenly gracing his face, a cross between awkwardness, shame and slight guilt.

'Mum's boyfriend proposed,' he mumbled finally. 'And he's been over a lot since she accepted, planning and stuff, and…'

'Things have been a little awkward?' Tommy's voice piped up from an adjacent corridor, preceding the ex-warrior of ice himself.

'Yeah.' Koichi blinked, while the other two showed a little more response to the sudden appearance…actually, Koji seemed more shocked at the news, though the second sudden appearance had startled him.

'When were you planning on telling me?' he exclaimed, before the other statement clicked. 'So that's why Mother's been on the phone so much.'

The other shrugged, a bit guiltily. 'I thought you already knew. Mum rang our father and told him.'

'He's in Odaiba and won't be back until tomorrow.'

There was an awkward silence for a few minutes, before the ex-warrior of light broke it in his desire to be illuminated. 'Is he good?'

'Of course,' was the reply. 'You've all met him. The doctor who took care of me after my fall at Shibuya station.'

Koji opened his mouth to ask something else, only for the elder twin, in a reversal of roles, to cut him off.

'You need to stop being paranoid.'

'He sure does,' Zoe's voice chirped from behind Takuya, making the said brunet, along with Koji who both had their backs to her, to jump.

'Zoe!' Koji yelled.

'Hey! It's rude to yell at girls!' three voices shouted in conjunction: Zoe, Takuya, and…

'JP!'

Apparently, he hadn't noticed the ex-warrior of thunder standing there.

'I think I know my own name,' he laughed. 'But why didn't anyone tell me there was a meeting?'

'There isn't,' Takuya explained. 'We just met here.'

'And we should break this "meeting" up,' Koichi interjected before the goggle-wearing brunet went off on a tangent. 'The bell went five minutes ago.'

'I wish random people would stop showing up,' the younger twin grumbled as the group went off together.

'We're not random,' Takuya counted. 'We're your best friends. '

The two had stopped in the middle of the corridor, and the others paused a little way ahead.

'We should hurry,' Koichi murmured. 'Before we're-'

He was suddenly interrupted by his science teacher.

'What are you six doing out of class?' he bellowed. 'The bell went over five minutes ago. I expect better from you at least Kimura.'

'I'm sorry,' he answered, bowing to the waist. 'I-'

'It was my fault sir,' Koji interrupted. 'I held him up.'

The elderly male looked between the two, then at the other four.

'We were just running late and bumped into them,' Zoe (wisely) explained before Takuya could open his mouth.

'Well, see that it does not happen again,' he stated, before turning to the teacher's exit. 'And Kimura, I expect you in class in two minutes.'

'Two?' he asked. 'It takes a student at least five.'

'Then you had better start running,' Takuya commented, grinning.

Post Author's Notes

Some schools have specified teachers entrance/exits, which are generally short-cuts. Our school, my high school that is, had them, so when it takes a teacher two minutes to get from one place to another, it takes a student somewhere between five and seven. If you run though, you might make it in two, but it's a hit and miss because it depends on the amount of people in the corridor, your speed, and if there is a coordinator or principal around you or not.