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Rei reaches out, his hands coming to rest on Akira’s head and Yuma’s shoulder.
“We had a long talk in the car on the way here. They happen to know almost everything about me.”
Yuma nods with a sweet smile. “Kento talked about you every single day!”
Akira rolls his eyes, crossing his arms and slouching against my knee, though a faint pink dusts his cheeks. “He also cried when he looked at your old school photos once. He told us he had allergies, but he was totally crying.”
“I did not cry,” I say flatly.
“You totally did,” Akira mutters, though there’s a fond softness in the smirk tugging at his mouth.
Yuma ignores Akira completely. His bright eyes fixate entirely on Rei’s face, studying him with unbridled fascination.
“Kento said you were pretty,” Yuma declares, “but you’re even prettier than he said! Your eyes are like honey!” Yuma launches his entire upper body forward, throwing his arms around Rei’s neck.
“Yuma, wait—don’t tackle him—”
A bright laugh spills from Rei’s chest as he catches Yuma neatly under the arms, absorbing the impact with an easy grace that leaves me breathless. He wraps his arms securely around the boy, pulling him close.
“Thank you, Yuma,” Rei murmurs into his hair. “You’re very sweet.”
“Yuma, get off him. You’re acting like a stray dog,” Akira grumbles, though he reaches out and casually straightens the hem of Rei’s sweater where Yuma’s coat had bunched it up. “You’re embarrassing us.”
“I’m not embarrassing anyone! He’s our brother’s brother, which makes him our brother too!” Yuma beams.
Across the room, near the large bay window, Luca is sitting on a velvet-cushioned bench, turning the pages of an illustrated natural history book.
Akira’s gaze snaps across the parlor, landing directly on the window bench.
His eyes go narrow, and he points an accusatory finger.
“Wait,” Akira says, his voice dropping into that grumpy teenage drawl. “Look. It’s that stupid boy.”
Yuma instantly releases Rei, spinning around on his heels. His eyes go wide. “Let’s go see him!”
Within thirty seconds, the two of them hop over to Luca and start cornering him.
“Rei… You didn’t have to do this.”
“I wanted to.”
“You didn’t need to put yourself in the middle of Kazuma business.”
“They aren’t Kazuma business, Kento,” Rei interrupts, shaking his head. “They’re your family. You grew up with them.”
“They could never take your—”
“I know, Kento,” Rei cuts in and places his other hand over mine. “I’m not jealous. I… when I first found out, I was a bit jealous. But I’m not anymore. Not even a little.”
He turns his head, looking toward the window. Over by the cushions, Yuma has completely stolen Luca’s book, holding it up while Luca tries to wrench it back, and Akira is swatting at Yuma’s wrist to make him share it properly.
“They’re really precious,” Rei whispers. He looks back at me, his eyes searching my face. “They’re sick, aren’t they?”
“Yeah,” I say quietly. “They don’t have that much time left.”
Rei lets out a weathered sigh. “Then we shouldn’t let them stay locked up. What kind of life is that? If their time is fragile… then we have to make every single day worth living. We have to give them a real life.”
My throat feels tight. Here is my brother, the boy who lost our father and had every reason to become bitter, angry, and cold. And instead, he sits here with a heart large enough to build a sanctuary for everyone I love.
