Tokyo Babylon - Explanations
Title: Explanations
Fandom: Tokyo Babylon
Character(s): Subaru, Seishirou, Hokuto
Genre: Silly!
Rating: G
Warnings: Nothing.
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Notes: daydreamer64 requested the boys and Hokuto, with embarrassment of Subaru. Which is just like, my favorite thing to write ever, SO. Here you are then dear~ :D♥
Summary: Seishirou and Hokuto as a team are just bullies!
Word Count: 660


"It's okay, Subaru-kun," Seishirou was telling him, placing a hand on his shoulder, "We all have our little bad habits."

Subaru glanced up from the remote he was holding in his hands. They had just gone out shopping—Hokuto's insistence, of course—because the television was broken and she needed "a man" (which was Seishirou, not Subaru, apparently) to give his opinion on whichever new one she bought. Upon returning, Seishirou and Hokuto had run off to prepare dinner—Subaru had been left with the instructions to "figure out how to make the TV go."

He had been trying to get the back of the remote open for the past ten minutes, so he could put in the batteries. Apparently gloves weren't very conducive to that.

Subaru blinked in confusion, attempting to make sense of Seishirou's words. It wasn't working. "Our—what?"

"Hokuto-chan was just telling me about your gloves," Seishirou said, by way of explanation, apparently.

Subaru stared at him. Then—replied with a very intelligent, "Huh?"


A few moments earlier...

"But those gloves Subaru-kun always wears," Seishirou said, frowning slightly, "you mean neither of you really have any idea what they're actually for?"

"Well..." Hokuto returned his slight frown, placing her hands on her hips and looking introspective for a moment. "I'm not really supposed to talk about it."

"Really? Whatever would 'it' be?"

"Subaru would just die of embarrassment if he knew I told you," Hokuto trilled, "but, you see—he's always had this little problem."

"Problem?"

"Well, when he was little, I used to like to dress him up. So we could switch places. We are twins after all!" Seishirou made an interesting noise at that, Hokuto noticed, a sort of covered-up laugh. Her grin widened. "Anyway—I guess I could get sort of carried away. So, sometimes I would paint his nails."

Seishirou raised an eyebrow, but Hokuto wasn't deterred. "I guess he must've gotten into it, because it sort of became a secret habit or something. You should've seen Obaa-chan's face. Anyway, he never really got over it. Been painting them for years now. But Obaa-chan got on him about it right away—if he wasn't going to stop then he was going to have to wear those gloves all the time."

Hokuto sighed dramatically. "It's a shame you had to choose such a weird one to fall in love with, Sei-chan. Most kids outgrow the habit of chewing their nails. Looks like Subaru is just extra-special." She waved a finger at him. "But you probably should've known, anyway. It's always the quiet ones. I am clearly the only normal one of the family."

"Clearly," Seishirou agreed. "And here I thought the whole time that he wore those gloves to keep his hands perfectly moisturized."

.
.
.

"And then I said, 'This whole time I had thought he wore them to keep his hands perfectly moisturized!'" Seishirou finished proudly.

Subaru stared at him.

When he finally managed to get a sound out that wasn't a strange cross between hyperventilating and choking, it came out as the closest to a yell Seishirou had ever heard from the boy.

"Hokuto-chan."

"Yes~?" The girl spun around the entrance to the kitchen, sticking her head out from the open doorway, waving a spoon randomly. "Did you get the remote working?"

"I—what? No, I can't open the back because of my... gloves..."

Hokuto's laugh was positively diabolical, and Seishirou's manic grin added to the sound—perfectly was not the word to use here, Subaru thought as he stared at the two of them bitterly.

"You both—I don't—oh, augh," Subaru told them intelligently.

Hokuto winked. "Dinner's ready, boys," she announced.

Subaru followed them uselessly into the kitchen. He really hoped tonight had used up all its points on the Embarrass Subaru Scale. For life.

And then Seishirou and Hokuto were discussing shades of nail polish together and he knew that was clearly just too much to ask.