By Your Side (ioriku)

6

Iori comes home late that day. The sun had set and the full moon was out, and Iori rushed to get home before his brother did.

When he arrives, the house is quiet and peaceful. Too peaceful.

"Iori," a disembodied voice startles him from the dark living room. The small television is the only thing illuminating the room, and Iori notices a concert playing on it. But before he could even begin to decipher who the three on screen were, his older brother appears out of the blue, staring him down with an irate look on his face and his hands on his hips.

"Nii-san..." Iori gulps, taking a step back clutching his chest before sighing, "What are you doing in the dark? You scared me."

"That's not important," Mitsuki says, raising his chin to look up at his brother. "So, tell me, you went to see Riku, right?"

"Eh? How did you know I-"

"That's also not important," Mitsuki brushes off.

Mitsuki flips the lights on suddenly. Iori blinks, adjusting his eyes to the brightness.

"So? Was he nice?" Mitsuki asks, taking a seat on the sofa. He's already dressed for bed unlike Iori who was still wearing his uniform. Iori proceeds to take a seat on the couch with caution, mentally preparing the punishment that awaits. "Tell me everything."

Iori lets out another sigh. "Fine, if you insist."

So Iori told him everything. But, he excludes the moment where Riku called him cute, and when he may or may not have indirectly called Riku an angel, and every time he and Riku made prolonged eye contact. So, maybe he didn't tell him everything.

"That's a relief!" Mitsuki says. "I'm glad he was nice."

"He was nice," Iori repeats. "He was even better than I imagined him to be."

Mitsuki smirks. "Oh? How did you imagine him to be?"

Iori's face grows warm. "That's not important," he clears his throat, ready to change the topic. "A-Anyway, Nii-san, I... ended up skipping school today."

"I know," Mitsuki says, voice firm all of a sudden.

The room is quiet, and Iori wonders whether he should say something or not. He expects to be reprimanded, a long speech about how skipping school is wrong, a punishment of some sort, but it never comes.

"Well?" Iori asks, raising a brow. "Aren't you going to scold me?"

"Why would I do that? I guess it's not like you to skip school, but I suppose kids these days will do anything for love."

"Huh!? It's not lo...," he coughs, shaking his head. "It's not."

Mitsuki laughs, finding pure enjoyment in seeing the faces his younger brother made whenever he was playfully taunted.

"Well, you get a pass for today. But next time, if you stay out late without telling me again, I might really have to scold you," he warns sternly, but his eyes are filled with relief. He stands, approaching Iori and ruffling his hair. "Now go to bed, you still have school tomorrow."

❧

The teacher rambles on and on about the different formulas that can be used to solve a single equation, and for the first time ever, Iori doesn't care.

Instead, his mind is focused on Riku, it's the only thing he can focus on.

"Iorin, did you get in trouble yesterday?" Tamaki asks, poking Iori in the back of the head with a pencil.