My Karamatsu Boy - Karabita

Worries

Karamatsu walked down the street, muttering to himself. How could he do such a thing to his brother? Trying to steal away his girl...well, not intentionally. And where had that gotten him? Feeling sorry for himself as his little brother was in the hospital. He kicked a rock, mindlessly ending up at a certain oden stand.

"Idjit, do you have any idea how late it is?!" Chibita glanced up with an annoyed expression. "And where's the rest of the losers? I swear, you..." He trailed off, seeing the look on his face. "What's wrong?"

"Ichimatsu's in the hospital," he stated bluntly.

"What?!"

"He tried to kill himself."

"Dammit." He slowly slid a beer over to him. "I'm sorry."

"Thanks," he muttered, pushing the beer away. "I can't, I need to stay strong for my brother. It's my fault, after all."

"What do you mean?" Chibita listened as he explained everything, nodding and going "mmhmm" at some points.

"And that's what happened," Karamatsu finished.

"So let me get this straight, Ichimatsu jumped because he saw you confess to that one girl, whom he has a crush on? And he thought she loves you back?" He propped himself up on his elbows.

"Yeah. I'm horrible, aren't I?" He put his head down.

"No, you're not. You didn't mean to hurt him."

"Eh?" He lifted his head up. "What? I expected you to call me a jerk and say that it's my fault."

"Well, it kind of IS your fault," he corrected him. "But like I said, you didn't mean to hurt him. I'm sure he'll understand."

"No way he would, he hates my guts." Karamatsu rubbed his eyes, trying not to cry. "He always has."

"Why?"

"I don't know!" he snapped. "They all hate me! I try so hard to be a good brother, but they just push me away! You know this, they didn't bother coming for me when I was tied up in the damn ocean! They wouldn't care if I died, there'd just be one less painful person in the world! It wouldn't matter, there's five of them! They wouldn't even notice! So why bother?!"

Chibita stood silent, then he reached across the stand and slapped him. "Dammit, you idjit! Don't say that!"

"Ehh?!" Karamatsu brought a hand to his cheek. "What was that for?!"

"For being an idjit!" He grabbed his hand. "I hate seeing you like this, dammit! It tears me up inside! You're not just another one of them, you're different!"

"Chibita, my dear friend..." He threw himself at him, sobbing. "Merci! Merci, mon ami!"

"It's okay, idjit. It's okay." He ignored the slightly-painful French and hugged him. "It's going to be okay."