Red West II.

Chapter thirty six - Expose

For a few long seconds, nobody moved. Leo seemed to be too shocked to even say anything and as for Jin and Kame, the encounter with him was too sudden to react somehow right away.

Then Jin's hand slid down from the younger one's back slowly and clenched into a fist. Kame was trying to recognize the younger Akanishi's expression anxiously, but it was almost impossible. Leo's face was hardly recognizable in the shadow created by the bright daylight behind his back.

"Leo... I can explain..." Jin spoke in a somewhat restrained tone, breaking the heavy silence. But he didn't get a chance to continue, since his younger brother just turned on his heel and walked away without a single word.

Kame turned to Jin, hesitating what to say: "I'm sorry," he managed to get through his constricted throat. "I didn't notice him at all..."

The older one stared at the empty exit for a while, before he looked at Kame. His eyes were strangely unmoving and the younger one had a feeling that Jin didn't even hear what he had said.

He took a determined breath: "Jin, I can..."

"No. Just no," the older one cut in, shaking his head. He was gathering his thoughts only slowly, but he sounded quite decisive. "It's all right. Leave my brother to me," Jin stated and then hurried after Leo.

Kame just stood there, under that unfortunate ladder, feeling helpless.

Even though Jin wasn't very eager to reveal their relationship to the others, Kame was quite sure they would have done it, eventually. But not like this... Not being caught out by his brother as some horny teenagers. There was basically no solid reason for it, but Kame was really worried about how Leo would react to such a discovery.

When he finally made his feet move forward, they led him back to the stalls, to the stable from which his dear mare was watching out for him already; as if Ukushi knew that her master would come to her, seeking some composure. Her silent presence helped Kame calm down a bit, but it didn't take long before his ears caught two quite loud voices from the outside...

*

Jin thought that his brother went right back to the saloon, so he set off across the back yard in fast pace. But then he stopped so abruptly that his boots almost slipped in a muddy puddle. Leo was still outside. His younger brother was sitting on the wooden block for chopping behind a small tool shed, and he was smoking.

The older Akanishi took a deep breath and made a few steps back, approaching him slowly. Leo didn't pay him any attention, not even when his brother stood right in front of him.

"Just listen to me, Leo, all right?" Jin started carefully. "What you saw... I didn't want to tell you about it, because... You know... Me and Kame..." he really wanted to say it so that Leo would understand, but somehow he felt absolutely lost trying to find correct words.

His younger brother suddenly chuckled, in a quite mocking manner: "Hey, it's ok, Brother," Leo stated somewhat too lightly and took a deep draw from the cigarette. "We all have our flings from time to time, right?"

"What? No, it's not..." Jin tried to explain the situation again, but his brother didn't let him.

"It's true that I'd have expected to catch you out with some chick instead, but when you have to, you have to," Leo threw only a half-smoked butt away and pressed it to the ground with the tip of his boot, before he got up. "No need to be ashamed, Bro," he grinned, but it seemed to be forced. "Everybody can see that Kame is almost as pretty as a girl, right?"

"Well... I..." Jin stared at his brother, slowly comprehending what the other one meant by that statement.

"It's your privacy. What happened, happened," Leo shrugged. "I'll forget that I ever saw something and we'll never talk about it again. Problem solved, huh?"