Stay on your feet, Suzuki. (Mob Psycho 100 // Ritshou)

4

Ritsu woke up to the blinding sun shining on his face. Squinting his eyes at the bright light, he got out of bed, staring at his alarm clock. A few seconds pass as he continues paying close attention to the arms on it move with a satisfying click each time. The boy shifted his attention towards the calendar, where the current day was circled with a blue ballpoint pen, with the words "Shou" neatly written above it. Today was the day he was going to be hanging out with them. After their ordeal yesterday, he was...nervous. He knew that the other was most likely going to confess once they're done hanging out. Letting out a quiet sigh, he looked around. What was going to happen now? His parents were not going to approve if the first person he fell for was the son of the man with world-domination plans. Letting out a defeated sigh, he got ready for the day before making his way downstairs to the kitchen.  As usual, his older brother was sitting at the dinner table, getting his schoolwork done. 

"Morning, Nii-san." He greets, running his hands through his hair sleepily.

"Good morning, you sound...a bit tired today," Shigeo pointed out, his words laced with concern and a bit of worry.  

"Huh? Oh...I just stayed up a little late to do some work," Ritsu responds, which he certainly wasn't lying about.

"Ah." The older sibling nodded understandingly, "You should try to get enough rest, though."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. I'll worry about it later on," He makes his way toward the fridge, where there was a plate of rice nestled neatly beside an omelet soaked in a thick glaze. He assumed his mother must've made some for the two of them and placed his portion in the fridge since he wasn't awake yet. He reheats the food, sitting across from his brother at the table while eating spoonfuls of the delicious home-cooked food. 

"So, uhm...how are things with Shou?" Shigeo finally spoke up, eager to end the growing silence between the two of them.

"Well, I guess I'm hanging out with him today," His voice expressed little emotion to it, whether or not he was bored, sleepy or uninterested, it was nearly impossible to tell. 

"You don't sound very excited about that, Ritsu."

"I,...guess I sort of am, but I'm really nervous, too."

"But there's nothing to worry about, I doubt anything is going to go wrong."

"No, no...there's a lot of things that could go wrong. Some random psychic might challenge us to a duel, someone could blow up the cafe, it'll start raining,..." 

"But, what are the chances of those happening? If you're going to worry, it's best to worry about things that'll make sense,"

"Huh?" Ritsu looked up from his now empty plate of food, realizing how hungry he must've been to finish that so quickly, "Uh, then....there's just one big problem that I don't want to think about."

Shigeo shifts his attention from his textbook to Ritsu, curious about what it was, "And?"

The younger sibling stares at him as if he should've known already, "Our parents, Nii-san. I never want to do anything rash without their permission. If I head out, I'd inform them. And if I don't, then I feel bad, that's it. And if I don't tell them about this then...I don't know what's going to happen. What if they decide they don't want to take care of me anymore? I don't want that to happen, you know."

"...."

"So, what am I going to say if he does decide to tell me? I don't want to refuse, but I feel obliged to do so at this point," He buries his head in his hands, tired from stressing out about it. 

Shigeo could not lie, it was scary to imagine what would happen if his parents did not accept his brother's new relationship. But,...he knew, something inside him that constantly said that his parents won't be mad. That they'll accept it. That they didn't care about what choices he made, as long as he was happy and safe.