The Quintessential Quintuplets: Marching Forward

Chapter Three: Changing Seasons

~Futaro~

"Alright! That's the last of it," Futaro's dad loaded up the last box onto the shipping truck. "Don't worry about your stuff. We'll get there a few hours after you do." He stretched and popped his back in a way that made Futaro wince.

"All this was entirely unnecessary," Futaro complained. "You didn't need to rent a whole truck just for my things. I could have left them here. And dad, you could be doing so much more with the money you spent on all of this. I don't even have much room in my apartment, to begin with."

"Stop it, Big Brother," Raiha scolded him. "We weren't going to let you go to Tokyo without a bed or a desk. The apartment was going to be entirely empty." she padded his pants and coat, "do you have everything? Wallet, phone, key money for the apartment?"

"Yes, now stop it. You're acting like a mom." Futaro gently pushed her away.

"Thank you for the compliment," Raiha teased.

From the moment that Futaro had received his acceptance letter to Tokyo University, his dad had been working ridiculous hours of overtime. He also refused any money that Futaro tried to give him, insisting that he save it. Futaro complained; he would never have agreed to it if he had known that the reason why his dad was exhausting himself nightly at work was to afford to buy him an entirely new furniture set for him to take with him to Tokyo.

Futaro saw his father's tired-looking eyes and his sluggish movements. The past few months of saving have been hell on him. And Raiha has taken up the slack on house duties— more than she already had been.

His dad cleared his throat, "Have you said goodbye to the Nakanos yet?"

Futaro frowned, "I was thinking of going right before leaving for the station."

"You know, it's not good to leave ladies waiting until the last moment. How about you go now? You don't want to keep Itsuki-chan waiting," his dad clasped his shoulder.

"Wrong sister, dad."

"Oh? Then which one is it? I can never tell."

"Yotsuba—the one with the ribbon?" Futaro puts his hands upright on top of his head so that his palms face towards his dad. "They kind of look like rabbit ears?"

"Ah, her," his dad nodded. "She plays well with Raiha, but I don't know. I guess I always thought it would be Itsuki-chan because I met her first. Then there was that whole episode where she stayed at our house for a few days, and I was really hoping you wouldn't do anything inappropriate with her with Raiha around. But then again," His dad tapped his chin, "you are are that age—"

"Don't you think I should stay here until we finish packing?" Futaro groaned.

"Nonsense," His dad snickered, apparently satisfied with getting under his son's skin. "Raiha is plenty strong on her own, and we've been dying to get you out of the apartment since December," He slapped his son's back, knocking Futaro forward. "I'm not supposed to say anything, but you're going to need extra time at the Nakano's today, so you might as well make the most of it."

Futaro cleared his throat, "okay," he hesitated, glancing at all his belonging packed tightly in the back of the truck. "I guess this is it, then."

His dad nodded, acknowledging his son's awkward attempt at goodbye. Futaro understood that his dad was often bad with words and nodded back, quickly turning his back uttering something about finally having more space in the apartment. 

I guess maybe now I see where my awkwardness comes from.

"Take care, Big Brother. It's going to feel lonelier without you," Raiha hugged Futaro. "Behave yourself."