Rock Between Us (Stardew Valley Fanfic)

Unanswered Urgent

"He still hasn't responded."

The words were said to nobody in particular as the speaker looked at their phone as they sat on the bus. The response was muttered as if the speaker didn't think he would receive a response to what he said, or perhaps the speaker didn't realize he was speaking aloud.

"You mean aniki?" said the young girl sitting on the bus next to him, holding onto a pastel pink slime doll.

The speaker in question lifted his head, realizing that he'd said it aloud, and received a response. "Uh, yeah, San-chan. He's not responded to my text letting him know we're paying him a surprise visit. I wonder if doing this was a good idea."

"Why? I miss seeing him. I don't understand why he couldn't come and live with us instead of going and living with his mom."

Yuichiro gave what she said a pause before saying, "It's our mom. And our sisters weren't very welcoming either, but to be honest, I wasn't either. So he probably doesn't want to see me, which might be why he's not thrilled about responding to my texts.

"Was I not welcoming? Does he not want to see me, Yu-nii?"

He flinched, then smiled. "I'm sure that's not the case, that he doesn't want to see you. And you were the furthest thing from being unwelcoming. You—you really didn't understand what was going on or that he could be..."

Yuichiro paused, letting out a sigh, not wanting to go into things that his thirteen-year-old sister, who was only nine, didn't need to know. He then sighed.

"Could be what?"

"Not exactly sociable."

"But he got me my favorite slime toy." Sannan held the pastel pink slime plus up. "And I still have it. He saw I wanted it and won it for me at the festival. And he always paid more attention to me than Choujo and Jijo did."

"Even me, I guess?"

"I didn't mean it that way. Aniki always seemed lonely, though, and he seemed to smile less and less."

"Well, as I said, our mom didn't make him feel welcome. After all, she's not her kid. And..." Yuichiro frowned. "She was never happy I wasn't firstborn—that it was him, and I picked up on that resentment even though dad only ever wanted us to be brothers. I wish I'd done more to get close beside those trips. Dad took us on."

"Trips?"

"Yeah. We'd go mountain climbing on the weekend, and I actually had fun, though it was, I admit, awkward. He was always awkward, but—I've kind of come to miss that, you know."

"Did you tell him that you missed him? As you said, you would tell him I miss him?"

"No. I don't think he would believe me. I did ask if he had a picture from one of those trips—the last one we took, though, but he hasn't responded. And I don't know how to feel. I kind of deserve it, even though you don't." He let out a laugh. "And don't worry. I am quite sure he's not responded because it's me trying to contact him, and he likely thinks it's some kind of trick."

"Trick?"

"Well..." Yuichiro frowned. "I did play some tricks on him, sometimes because I was mad because of the circumstances, but sometimes—well, it was kind of easy sometimes. Because he can be so dense at times."

She frowned, still holding onto her stuffed slime. "He's not stupid."

"No. But some things still go over his head, and I wouldn't say I liked that because I thought it meant he was stupid. And the things that went over his head drove mom nuts because not only wasn't I..." Yuichiro tilted his head. "I just thought of something."