#As for how Kanae got to stop the vehicle

[writerofcreativity]

The Twelve Zodiac (Chapter 16)

(Author's note: Posting this early due to going to a flight for my sister's wedding.)

During the car ride.

"The two of you need to pretend that you're our dates. It's to make sure that no one will be suspicious about our true goal." Nagayuki spoke as he drives the car and keeps his eyes on the road.

Ryoka let out a sigh "more like you two will steal money while we're busy killing the Celestial Beasts. By the way, where is my Cockscomb? I need that to protect myself if I am being attacked." She said.

"The Rat boy will bring your weapon." Nagayuki informed "don't worry about getting yourselves dirty, we'll help out before we can collect all the money." He added.

"Since the two of you been to that place, how many Celestial Beasts are there?" Misaki looked at the two of them.

"A lot of them. There are some in cages and others tied to leashes like dogs." Takeyasu answered.

"No matter how much you two hate the idea, just pretend your their girlfriends. No one will think you two will kill the Celestial Beasts and when they are not looking, you have my permission to kick some asses." Tsugiyoshi spoke through the ear piece.

~~~

Back to the present.

The four of them are walking towards the entrance, trying to act casual but it's not working so well with the Chicken and Snake "ow! You stepped on my foot with your damn heels." Takeyasu spoke quietly "you keep pulling me." She retorted. It's like being partnered with Kanae, it's like the women naturally hate the younger Tatsumi.

"Both of you be quiet. If you keep squabbling like children then we'll get caught, try not to blow our covers." Nagayuki whispered to the two of them who are now fighting.

Ryoka is pinching the left side of Takeyasu's stomach and he in return is pulling her hair with his right hand. (My cousin told me it hurts being pinched there, so I decided to put this.)

"Let go of my hair." She said.

"First you let go of me." He said.

Nagayuki groaned "it's like when we were kids, ore-sama and my ototo were fighting for the last ice cream sandwich." He said.

"Let's stop them. I'll take Niwatori-san and you can take your brother." Misaki said which he did not complain. She grabs Ryoka's hand and pulled it away from the younger Tatsumi's flesh and Nagayuki grabs his brother's wrist, pulls it away but pulled some green hair.

"You two did showed up and bought actual dates." The four saw Fredrick walking towards them wearing a black suit and has a gun strapped to his belt.

"We didn't want to miss the blood bath and we want to bring these two ladies to enjoy the show." Takeyasu grinned, puts his arm around Ryoka's shoulders and she uses a fake smile to fool Fredrick.

Nagayuki nodded "they are excited to watch with us." He smiled.

"I wouldn't normally watch anyone getting beat up alone but with Nagayuki, I feel safe to watch it and enjoy it with my loved one." Misaki said with a smile, even though she hates it to watch another human duking it out against the other.

Fredrick smiled "that's great. Follow me and hopefully we don't miss the good parts." He said walks back with them following behind.

"Thank God he bought it." Ryoka's smile vanished when Fredrick turned his back on them.

"Luckily but we need to continue with this act to complete our parts." Misaki said.

~~~

"Sounds like they bought it." Navi spoke driving a truck with his team inside with their weapons.

"For now. Let's hope that those four can pull it off long enough for us to arrive." Tsugiyoshi said holds Ryoka's Cockscomb until they meet up.

Michio looked at him "As far as I know, those two are good at acting and along with the two brothers. I thought you used your ability to see how it would go." He said.

"My paths only works when I am there. Right now I can't guess what will happen because I am not with those four, I can only see that we are arriving to that place but looks like we have to fight along the way too." Tsugiyoshi replied, crossed his arms to his chest.

A loud screech echoed nearby. Everyone saw it, in the dark sky is a giant bat flapping its wings and dives towards them. "Navi!" Tsugiyoshi shouted "I'm on it!" He quickly turns the wheel to the left, making others moved to the left but successfully made the bat creature missed them.

"Inonoshishi-san, fire your bullets at it." The teenager commanded.

"No need to tell me twice, boy." She responded, points Aishuu and Inochigoi at the bat and fires at it but the creature is fast.

"You shall not interfere, Zodiacs!" The bat screamed at them. One of it's claws extended and strikes Navi from behind, piercing through his right shoulder causing the car to swerved.

Eiji withdrawn his saber and cuts the claw without any difficulty, allowing Navi to regain control of the vehicle to avoid crushing. Yoshimi grabs the talon and rips it out of the shoulder but causing blood to spray out "you need to let someone else drive this truck." He said "it's fine. Besides, there's another one in front of us." Navi responded.

They all thought that it is the bat creature but it is facing Toshiko who keeps on firing her guns at it. The one in front of them looked like a giant tree but more rotten and demonic looking, it stretches its tree branches at them. Eiji, Usagi, and Kanae use their weapons to cut down any branches being whipped at them.

"What the hell's going on over there?" Nagayuki asked through the earpiece.

"Nothing to be concerned. Focus on your part of the mission, we'll handle things from our side." Navi told him, as his hands gripped onto the steering wheel just to get over the pain.

Tsugiyoshi sighed "if only we have Snake's and Dragon's weapons then we can kill this pathetic tree celestial beast." He said.

"Sucks for you guys not having us there." Takeyasu spoke.

The teenager ignores that "well, how are things at your side?" He asked dodged a stray branch that came at him when Kanae cut it.

"Everything is fine for now, Nezumi-kun. So far no one suspect a thing about us." Misaki answered.

"We'll have these two investigate. They will have to be careful because these people are getting ready for a blood bath." Nagayuki said.

There was no need for an explanation, they knew that there will be a bloody fight and only one can survive, it's a kill or be killed situation. "Don't blow your covers yet. Wait for us to arrive and we'll fight as a team." Tsugiyoshi ordered.

"Understood." Both brothers and women replied.

~~~

Both women had been seperated and are walking around the building, it is very clean and the lobby is filled with other people who wants to see the blood bath, strangely there are foods and waiters serving them drinks like a dinner party. It is unsettling.

"I think those two brothers won't lift their fingers after we got separated." Ryoka sighed.

"Just because we fight for money does not mean we have black hearts." Nagayuki said heard from his earpiece.

"Now now, let's not argue. We can't afford to do it in the middle of our work." Misaki said prevented an argument from breaking out and noticed a huge painting of a woman but there was something odd about it, she touched it.

Ryoka sighed "what are you two idiots doing anyway?" She asked.

[leofemt]

cacophony

Bach becomes a more frequent visitor at the Otowa house. He seems to have his own reasons for getting close to Kanae- Beethoven doesn't know what they are, but he doesn't like them. 

on ao3.

The doorbell rings.

This in itself isn't an odd occurrence, even for the Otowa house, with Mozart skidding down the halls in his roller-skates, looking for more places to cause mischief, Schubert and Lizst doing... something in the back lawn, Chopin playing games, and Beethoven upstairs brooding in his room- only Kanae and Sousuke are near the main foyer, the former dusting the windowsills, the latter kicked up on the lounge, Pad in his lap, legs dangling off the arm of the sofa.

"Coming!" Kanae calls, and Mozart skids to a stop in the hallway overlooking the main room.

"A visitor?" He giggles, rolling down the stairs, tripping over himself. "Who is it? Who is it?"

"I haven't even opened the door-" Kanae begins, looking over her shoulder to glare at Motes- she pulls the door open without looking, and sees Mozart's face freeze in recognition.

"B-B-" Mozart chokes.

"What?" She frowns, concerned.

"Bach!" He shrieks, pointing. "Lud-kun! Bach is here! He's going to kill us with his terrible Muzik!"

In the hallway above, there's a faraway roar, and Beethoven's door busts open with a loud slam.

"Bach!" He shouts. "You've come to challenge us again!"

Bach, looking for all the world like a normal, if slightly eccentric, older man, stares at them.

"I came because the young Kanae invited me for tea," he says, in that deep, commanding voice, the one that cuts through any conversation with ease.

All eyes turn to Kanae.

"You did?" Mozart whines. "Why, Kanae-"

Kanae turns red.

"I-" She stammers, and Mozart leans closer, peering into her eyes, too close as always- damn him-

In the hallway above, Beethoven furrows his brow.

"Can I take your coat?" Kanae says, flushed. Bach smiles at her- the ClassicaLoids in the room almost have a collective heart attack- and unclips the navy cloak that's heavy around his shoulders. His hair is pale and spiked in the front, tied neatly back at the nape of his neck by a purple ribbon, and he's wearing another one of his impeccable navy suits. He hands her the cloak. She hastily hangs it on the coat stand.

"Follow me, the kitchen's this way!" She says. Bach- with a twist of his lips that almost looks amused- trails behind her. Mozart and Beethoven, leaning over the ledge, stare after them.

"Was-" Mozart says, confused. "Was that really Bach-kun?"

"It appears so," Beethoven mutters, eyes narrowed.

"Since when does Kanae have tea?" Mozart wails. Beethoven doesn't reply.

~~~~~~

Kanae and Bach don't emerge from the kitchen for another hour at least. Mozart tries to sneak around the back to spy on them through the window, claiming concern for Kanae's safety, but Lizst sighs at him and Schubert starts to make so much of a racket about his presence that Kanae would definitely have noticed, so he sulks back to the foyer.

"I couldn't hear them," he whines. Beethoven is standing in front of the closed kitchen door, arms crossed, feet planted shoulder-width apart. Mozart blinks.

"Lud-kun?" He says. "What are you doing?"

"Waiting." Beethoven says.

There's a moment of silence.

"Waiting?" Mozart says.

"Waiting." Beethoven nods.

A beat.

"Ok," Mozart says, a note of cheer returning to his voice, "well, I'm gonna go see what Schu-san's up to! Bye!"

He disappears. Beethoven stands before the closed kitchen door. On the other side of the room, the grandfather clock marks the passing of each second with a tick.

~~~~~~

After an hour and a half locked in the kitchen, the door finally opens.

"Contact me if you need anything," Bach is saying, and Beethoven feels an irrational irritation surge up within him. He does not understand its source. He resolves to reflect on it. He notices Bach has stopped in front of him, and he realizes it's because he's currently blocking the door.

"Beethes-san?" Kanae's voice comes from behind Bach, confused but slightly annoyed. "Could you get out of the way, please?"

With one more frown and what he likes to think is an impervious look, Beethoven steps aside.

He admits, Bach cuts a fine figure, standing in the doorway of the mansion, broad shoulders and narrow waist and legs long enough that he stands at least a head above Kanae.

A horrible thought strikes Beethoven. Has Kanae see these things in Bach? Is she... interested in him?

The first thing he thinks is that this cannot come to be.

The second thing he thinks is that he does not wish to ruminate on his reasons for feeling so strongly on the first thing.

"See you later!" Kanae calls after Bach, waving and smiling. Bach inclines his head and steps into his sleek black vehicle.

Beethoven feels unsettled.

~~~~~~

Later, before Schubert does the dishes, Beethoven happens to glance in the sink- there's two mugs in the dirty side, one with a painted cat and one with a printed bass symbol- for a moment, he tries to imagine who had drank out of each, and is struck by how ridiculous the image of Bach drinking out of either of them was.

"Hmm?" A feminine voice from behind him. "Beethes-san, are you looking for something?"

He jolts. Of course it's the girl.

"It's you." He says. Stupid. "I."

Kanae frowns at him.

"Are you alright?" She asks.

"I'm fine." He blurts. "Why wouldn't I be fine."

She gives him a strange look, but doesn't press, as is her nature.

~~~~~~

A few nights, Bach, Tchaiko, and Bada eat dinner with them. Kanae is suspiciously happy to cook on those nights. Beethoven feels like he's been hyper-vigilant of every and any mention of Bach, now that he suspects some... extraneous feeling involving him on Kanae's side.

He tells himself it's only because she was clean in her rejection of him that it matters, that it's a pride thing, and not anything more than that. What is the difference between him and Bach, anyways? Besides Beethoven being better in every department, he thinks, subconsciously straightening his shoulders, stretching his spine.

Yes. He's a fool for even spending thought on the matter. He eats a spoonful of soup, feeling re-invigorated.

Of course, it all goes out the window when he hears Bach, sitting at the prized seat to the immediate right of Kanae at the head of the table, compliment the girl's cooking, a small, charming yet sincere half-smile on his usually unreadable face, and sees Kanae flutter and blush like a tittering schoolgirl. She is a schoolgirl, but that's beside the point. He nearly bends his spoon in his fist with the force of his grip.

She stands to start piling dishes in her hands, says, "I'm going to start clearing up!"

Bach immediately stands with her.

"I will assist," he says, in his low, low voice. Beethoven grits his teeth.

"I will help, girl," Beethoven speaks up, before he can help himself, completely forgetting that Mozart next to him was in the middle of telling him some strange rendition of an equally strange story. He stands, scraping his chair back, and starts to gather plates, ignoring the strange looks from half the people present at the table. Kanae blinks at him.

"Uh." She says. "Thanks, Beethes-san."

He grunts, pulls a stack of dishes in his arms, feeling a completely petty rush of victory when he sees he's carrying more than Bach- and stomps to the kitchen. Schubert is already there, diligent as always, scrubbing his own plate and whatever dish Mozart had foisted off onto him, and Beethes settles in beside him, ignoring his jolt and stutter of "Senpai!"

He wipes another dish. Schubert sinks another plate into the suds. Bach and Kanae come into the kitchen, holding the rest of the plates and bowls.

"Oh, Schu-san, Beethes-san!" Kanae says, depositing her armload onto the counter, looking cheerful. "Thanks for doing dishes!"

And she gestures towards the door.

"Bach-san, the thing I wanted to show you is upstairs..." Her voice trails off as she and Bach disappear into the darkened foyer. Beethoven watches them walk up the stairs together in the dark, and quietly seethes.

~~~~~~

He cannot figure out the difference between himself and Bach.

Beethoven scowls at his ceiling. He is well accustomed to his ever-racing thoughts leaving him sleepless, but this is the first time the subject of his contemplation has been a person- or, rather, another person's feelings.

"I'm still a student," Kanae had said, flushed, eyes averted, as she rejected something he hadn't even been offering, but it stung nonetheless, in ways he was definitely not prepared for- that may be the case, and it is true that Beethoven is several years Kanae's senior, though he has never attended an educational institution in this life and he has technically only lived outside a stasis chamber for around a year- but if that had been the reason, Bach is most definitely older than the both of them!

He conveniently ignores the fact that technically, every ClassicaLoid has the memories of decades and decades of what is, by now, ancient history in their heads. Does this mean his age is 1 year, the amount of time he has been free of the stasis chamber, or the physical age of his biologically engineered body, or nearly 60, as the flashes of memory of his previous life have shown him? Is the differing factor, then, Bach himself? They share a common intensity of character, and a passion for music, and curiously spiky pale hair, but is Beethoven not the more available, more interesting of the two?

At least he doesn't have to put on a wig every time he uses his Muzik, Beethoven sulks, struggling into a more comfortable sprawling position on his futon. He happens to think his performance outfit looks dashing.

~~~~~~

Bach absently trails one finger along the edge of the newest photoframe on his desk.

"Take it!" Kanae had smiled, pressing the small frame into his hand. "I told him about you last time he called, and he seemed to be happy to know you're doing well... I'm sure he'd want you to have it. Besides, I've got copies."

The picture in the frame is of an older man, with frizzy brown hair and a haplessly dopey smile, making a peace sign at the camera with his round glasses perched haphazardly over his nose. He has his arm around a small, protesting child, whose face is turned from the lens and whose body is halfway out of the frame in an attempt to escape the man's persistent happy uselessness- the downturned mouth and hair barettes pinned in short brown locks make it obvious the child is a young Kanae.

"I wish you had not run," Bach murmurs, dark eyes unguarded and moonlight glowing around the outline of the back of his tall chair, unusually sentimental in the solidarity self-accompaniment of his grand office with its soaring ceilings and perfectly gleaming tall windows with his stomach full of Kanae's home cooking. He misses the scientist who brought him to life- his very own Frankenstein. He misses their easy conversations, for all he may have struggled through them, still unused to human interaction. He misses their lab.

He had only wanted to bring the Eight Sounds to their true peak with Kyougo there to support him. He had only wanted to realize the full potential of his dear fellow ClassicaLoids with the first human he had ever known at his side. Had that been wrong?

Despite everything, he thinks, Kanae is a good child. A good influence on the rest of the ClassicaLoids.

"I'l definitely, definitely let you know when Dad comes back!" She had said, balling her hands into a fist and mock-punching the air. "And you can help me give him a talking-to!"

She had smiled with cheer and youth in her cheeks.

When Kyougo comes back, Bach thinks. The new frame sits next to the two others that have been the only decoration on his sparse desk for a while- first, his oldest photo, of him, Kyougo, and Mitsuru in the lab, Bach clad in nothing but one of Kyougo's spare lab coats, and second, a selfie printed on glossy paper that he had been roped into taking with the rest of the ClassicaLoids and the two humans after they had sent the aliens back to their proper dimension.

His desk seems to be collecting more personal items, he wonders.

~~~~~~

The house is being attacked by rabid monkeys, for whatever reason. Something to do with Mozart, and bananas, and 17 liters of blue-colored rubbing alcohol. Muzik floods the air, pumping it full to bursting with golden light. Kanae and Sousuke have climbed up to the roof, away from the mud-flinging chimpanzees from God-knows-where, struggling to keep their balance and not be splattered by handfuls of soppy dirt or caught by one of the insane ClassicaLoids' uber-violent Muzik.

Sousuke's foot slips.

He screams, an ear-piercing, high-pitched shriek of pure cowardice and fright, and grabs onto Kanae's arm in a last-ditch attempt to steady himself. It has the opposite effect, and both he and Kanae tumble down the roof in a heap of shouts and flailing limbs, lost in the cacophony of the five mixed Muziks.

Well. Not entirely lost.

A streak of black- Kanae finds her drop through the air and down 3 stories suddenly halted. Her eyes are squeezed shut, but when the wind against her face abruptly gentles, and a shadow blocks out the sun.

She blinks open her eyes.

A shock of white hair fills her vision.

"Beethes...san?" She breathes.

Sousuke plummets to the pavement below, yelping when he crashes to earth.

"You should be careful of falling," Beethoven says. His brow is furrowed in his ever-present frown.

Kanae swallows.

"Ah," she says, blood flooding her face, suddenly remembering another time the same man had held her weight in his hands- had saved her from falling- and the result of that particular incident. He's holding her bridal-style, having abandoned his station at the front of the house to leap upwards to catch her mid-fall and land on the second-floor balcony that faces the gate, and they're now in the half-shadow of the alcove as the madness of Muzik rages around them. Kanae hears, as though it's muffled through a wall of water, Mozart's distinctive giggly laugh, the sharp edges of Chopin's techno-inspired turns on composition, a bubbly exclamation from Lizst.

"Thank you." She ventures after a moment, because Beethoven doesn't seem about to put her down. "Uh, Beethes-san?"

"Am I better than Bach?" He says, harshly, and the world stops for a moment.

"Wh-" She looks up at him wide-eyed- those eyes- "Bach-san? What does he-"

"You've been spending a lot of time with Bach lately," he says, slightly awkward, tilting his head away. It's difficult to get distance when she's literally in his arms, though.

She blinks.

"I mean, he's a ClassicaLoid-" she begins, and is this really the best time to get into this? But he whips back around, eyes boring into her, and she jerks against his arms.

She bites her lip.

"Okay," she says, and Beethoven feels a rock drop into the pit of his stomach. "He, uh-"

Beethoven grits his teeth.

"He's in love with my father," she blurts, looking up at him desperately, asking him not to laugh at what she says- he freezes in shock.

"Kyougo-san?" He mutters.

Kanae looks away again.

"I know it's crazy," she says softly, "but Dad seems to be really important to him, and- I know he's a deadbeat, and a loser, and a genius, but it hurts when you're left behind by someone you... love." She curls in on herself slightly in Beethoven's arms.

"Someone you trusted." She says, almost too quiet to hear, and Beethoven instinctively tightens his grip.

A fish comes streaming over the balcony and flops onto the floor a bit away from their feet. It flails helplessly. Beethoven cannot tear his eyes from the girl in his arms.

He sets her down.

Kanae blinks.

"Beethes...san?" She hesitates, looking up at him.

He mentally jerks himself away. He smiles. Standing before her, clad in his star-studded conductor's greatcoat, shimmering between pitch-black and midnight-blue under the sun and the shadow, his frilled sleeves spilling from the arms of his jacket, that bright red cravat flush in the wind of frantic Muzik, he conjures his baton again in a shimmer of golden light.

He takes her hand. He presses his warm lips to its back, and bows a full 90 degrees before her.

There's something to it- a profession of loyalty, ever since he had waved his magic and transformed her to bring their Muzik up to the stars, had hovered at her shoulder and smiled so knowingly and said "you've grown strong,", said "I must, because the girl asked me,", or maybe since she had first misinterpreted his desperate bid to hide a pink-splotched roof from her view as a love confession and blushed under his panicked gaze before frankly rejecting him, or maybe since she had remembered the secret ingredient to her father's sweet-and-spicy gyoza that had so eluded him, or maybe since she had first scolded him for not paying rent or for starting fires in his room, or maybe- maybe neither of them knows since when. Kanae finds her breath short and her capacity to respond shorter. When he raises his head again, he is still smiling.

He turns to jump back down from the balcony.

"Wait!" She calls, before she knows what she's going to say, if he even stops. He does stop. He turns halfway. His hair is wild, and his eyes are sharp, and he looks the same and different from how he always does simultaneously. A continuous pulse of raw power beats under his skin and throbs through his fingertips where they curl around the handle of his baton, and in that moment, he is hers to command.

"Were you..." she says, voice turning incredulous, "jealous?"

He makes a noise, turns that same highlighter-pink as the time he had caught her hand when the bridge had splintered under her feet, and quickly whips his head away. He swings himself over the railing. The tails of his coat are a black flutter returning to the sunlight. He is lost to the cacophony of Muzik, unless Kanae looks closely, and she can see the penguins congregating around a particular splotch of white hair.

She gently, hesitantly touches the back of her hand where his lips had brushed with her fingertips.

What had this modern reincarnation of Ludwig van Beethoven been thinking during this most crucial moment in both their lives? No one knows, but if Kanae pressed those fingertips to her lips, then giggled, and laughed, and bent in half clutching her stomach with mirth and unfettered, wild emotion before seeking a black-clad form out from an explosively colorful musical battle waging below, it is no one's business but her own.

NOTE: beethoven thinking his performance outfit is gorgeous is me. I love his performance outfit. i

The ending is horribly rom-commy but... god... I love them... jKSDNLBSKGJD

[persorene]

*slides you a twenty* I know you're very busy but can we get modern Jakob and the boys? Maybe with some brotherly bonding?

"Goodmorning, sleeping beauty. Your breakfast is already on the table though I'm sure it's cold by now." Jakob muttered. Dwyer groaned as he shuffled groggily through the kitchen and found his seat at the table, a platter of immaculately prepared breakfast already waiting for him. Kana sat across from him, happily kicking his feet back forth as he finished off a glass of orange juice."Why are you still here?" the teenager asked his father as he cut into the fluffy stack of pancakes on his plate."Kana had a school project that I had to help him get ready. Your mother wanted to be here but the board meeting wouldn't wait, so I'm here. And you should be grateful! I made you a full breakfast, didn't I?" Jakob sighed as he straightened his tie in the mirror and smoothed his hair back into it's usual sleek ponytail."It's cold.""That's your fault though, isn't it?" He snapped "And Dwyer, I'm going to drop Kana off at school and help him carry in his project but I need you to pick him up this afternoon."Dwyer leaned his head on the back of his chair and sighed "But dad, why?""Because Mom and I will be at work all evening, we have to catch up on the new budgets and there just isn't time to get away early today.""What if I had plans?" Dwyer grumbled."Like what? Napping? That can wait long enough to pick up your little brother.""Dad!""No, no arguments. You will get your brother and if I find out you didn't I will personally sit in your room every single evening for a month and shriek like a banshee every time you try to nap." he spat back quickly."Like a bird!" Kana chimed, imitating the caw of a large bird and laughing at the idea of his stoic father doing anything loud."Yes, Kana-bean, like a bird." Jakob laughed at his youngest son who was flapping his arms like wings "You ready to go, kiddo?" With the skill of a seasoned professional, he slung his bag over his shoulder and lifted the boy's diorama into his arms all the while balancing two travel mugs of coffee that he'd tucked under his elbow."Yup!" The boy said with a smile as he clumsily pulled his backpack on and stood from his chair."Good. Now, Kana, when Dwyer picks you up what are you going to do?""Buckle my seat belt!" Kana beamed with pride at how quickly he'd answered."Good answer, munchkin!" Jakob smirked and ruffled the boy's already messy white hair "Now go get in the car."He paused a moment to look back into the kitchen at his older child "Dwyer, I'm serious. Do. Not. Leave. Him.""Dude, I'm not going to leave my seven year old brother alone. I'm not that lazy.""Well, good." "Daaaaaddy. I'm waaaaitiiiing!" Kana called from the foyer, interrupting the exchange between his brother and father."Coming, Kana, I'm on my way. Please get in the car and buckle in!" Jakob bellowed through the house. He repositioned the diorama in his arms to better hold the coffee as he dashed for the door._______________________________________Dwyer sat in his car in the pick up lane, tapping his steering wheel to the beat of a song. He grumbled as he leaned his head back on the headrest. Truly he enjoyed spending time with his brother, though he didn't enjoy sacrificing his afternoons by sitting in front of the elementary school.Ten minutes after his arrival, the teen caught sight of the white haired boy as he trotted happily out of the school, his little fists tightly clutching the straps of his backpack. Dwyer quickly leaned across the passenger seat and flung the door open for the child "Hey kid. How was your day?" "Good!" Kana smiled as he slid his backpack into the car "Can you come in and help me pick up my diorama?" The teen held in a sigh "I guess, I'll have to move the car though...""No you won't! It'll only take a minute and everyone else is doing it. Come on bubby!" Kana shouted as he turned amd ran back to the building.Dwyer groaned and looked around him, Kana seemed to be right, many children and parents were walking from the school to the vehicles, hunks of colourful cardboard and craft supplies in their arms. He slowly exited his car; he always felt awkward here, clearly he was the only older sibling to do this. The teenager was clad in all black, his shaggy red hair hung over his eyes and his favourite studded bracelet clung to his wrist. He couldn't have been more out of place if he tried, silently he shuffled through the mass of well dressed parents and caught up to his brother at the entryway."Alright, Kana, where are we going?" Dwyer muttered."Follow me! It's in my classroom." Kana chimed and burst through the doors, dashing away down a hallway in a matter of seconds. Dwyer jogged to keep up with him before he got lost and looked any stranger than he already did here.Kana rounded the corner into his classroom with his brother close at his heels. "There it is! Can you pick it up?" Kana trilled, pointing at a loving made and intricately detailed example of a tiger habitat. A shimmering blue ribbon hung from the corner, displaying the boy's victory."Did you win?" Dwyer asked as he stepped forward to scoop up the box.Kana nodded proudly, a brilliant smile lighting up his already cheerful features."Way to go, kid!" "Thanks, bubby!""How about we stop for some ice cream to celebrate?" Kana gasped as his eyes widened "Really! You mean it?""Yeah, 'course I do. Come on." Dwyer smiled his crooked smirk of a smile as he walked toward the door with the display tucked safely in his arms.Dwyer slid the diorama into the backseat, leaving enough room for his younger brother to sit in the rear passenger seat. "Seatbelt?" Dwyer asked as he slid into his seat and fastened his own."Yup! All buckled! Where are we going for ice cream?""Hmm, your pick.""Uhhh, the place by the park?" "Sure kid. Hey, wanna pick a song?" He asked as he slid his phone into the backseat.Kana sat in silence as he thumbed through the playlists "I got one!" he suddenly shouted.Dwyer listened as the song began "Oh no! This one?" "You like it too! Don't lie." Kana teased."Yeah, maybe just a little." He turned the knob, filling the car with music."Wanna sing with me?" The child in the backseat asked."Ah, why not?" Dwyer replied with a smile, his lips curling softly as he prepared for the chorus "Ready?"Kana nodded before belting out the chorus in unison with his older brother. The pair burst into giggles as the song wound down to an end and they pulled into the parking lot of the ice cream parlour. "Alright kiddo, let's hurry or mom and dad will beat us home." Dwyer chuckled as he walked alongside his younger brother toward the door.