“I never thought riding a train could be this tiring…” groaned Ikusaki, half-dead as he remained sat down in a bench at the entrance of the shopping centre. “I wanna go back home…”

“If we put Tsugi’s ‘food escapade’ on the sidelines, I think it could have gone much worse,” pointed out Eki, offering a water bottle to Ikusaki. “They didn’t misbehave too much and we didn’t get weird glances from others either. The train trip was perfect, taking their hate for humankind into consideration.”

“That’s because you weren’t listening to Iru’s version of punishment games,” sighed Ikusaki, taking the water bottle from Eki. He opened the cap with a certain annoyance and downed nearly half of its contents in one go. He released another tired sigh, scratching the back of his head while glancing at the super soldiers afterwards. “But well… If we look at it from that point of view, then everything is going super smoothly…”

“See?” said Eki, a kind smile on his lips as he placed his hand on top of Ikusaki’s hair and ruffled it even further. “Let’s go, Shouichi. We need to keep all of them entertained or they may start burning a fuse or two again.”

“Stop treating me like a brat…” grumbled Ikusaki under his breath, a small pout on his face as he got up at the same time as he closed the water bottle. He hastily straightened his hair once again and then ran after Eki, back to the craziness of the soldier/super soldier mix.

“Are you feeling better now, Ikusaki?” inquired Murayama, a worried frown lightly creasing his brows. “It’s not every day we see you look so… dead and lifeless.”

“Earlier you were nearly drooling at the prospect of steak and then you just… deflated completely,” pointed out Mizusaki, also deeply surprised by the unexpected behaviour in his usually strong and health squadmate. He grew closer to Ikusaki, whispering behind one of his hands. “Was Iru’s ‘punishment game’ really that unbearable?”

“Because of you, yeah,” nearly barked Ikusaki, throwing an accusing sideways glare at Mizusaki. “Sorry for worrying you, Murayama-san, Miue-san. I’m fine now. A bit of fresh air and a good amount of distance from Iru made me get back up once again.”

“So I’m the bad one here?” inquired Iru, an eyebrow slightly arched in wonder. He looked over to Rei and tilted his head. “Rei, did I do something wrong?”

“I think Ikusaki-kun doesn’t like your version of ‘punishment games’, Iru-kun,” explained Rei, his head also tilted to the left a little bit as he tried to figure out an answer to that question. “Even though it’s such a good way to learn more…”

“Yeah, a way of learning bad knowledge,” snorted Miue, rolling his eyes around. He didn’t hear the conversation in person but he already got to hear plenty of tales about it while waiting for Ikusaki to regain his bearings. He sighed. “Well, putting that on the sidelines. We got even more delayed because of this incident, plus Tsugi’s lost situation. We need to get going, whether you feel at 100% already or not, Ikusaki.”

“I know,” acknowledged Ikusaki, lightly bumping his closed fist on his chest. “I’m ready to go. Shopping for clothes can’t be that bad, right?”

-.-

“This is worse than taking a woman shopping……….” groaned Ikusaki, sat down in a bench inside of one of the countless clothes stores located in the shopping centre. His arms remained crossed over his chest, a slightly grossed out expression on his face as he observed the three super soldiers going through every single item available in the male section. “Whose idea was putting Iru and Atsumu shopping for clothes with Rei…?”

“Mine and I’m regretting it already…” sighed Murayama, tired of being in constant alert over any funny business the three super soldiers might get involved with. “I mean, pairing Rei and Iru is sort of obvious. I prefer avoiding confrontation if I’m given that choice. But adding Atsumu to this group was clearly a mistake… Especially while Miue is away.”

“Rei-chan, Rei-chan! Try these next!” excitedly said Atsumu, pushing another pile of clothes to Rei’s arms. “I’m sure they will look adora- I mean, really cool on you!”

“If it weren’t for your outside shell, you’d have been throw out of this store by now,” sighed Iru, removing the bundle of clothes from Rei’s arms. He neatly started folding them before passing them back to Rei. “Rei, do you know how to put these on or do you want me to help you undress and dress once again?”

“I think I’ll be okay on my own,” deadpanned Rei, his grey eyes lacklustre after having tried out over 30 different sets of clothes in less than one hour. “Iru-kun, why don’t you try some clothes on too? You said if I don’t try them, then I won’t know if they fit or not. So why don’t you-”

“Ah, the dressing room is vacant again,” interrupted Iru, putting his hands on top of Rei’s shoulders, forcing him to turn around and then guiding him inside of the cubicle with an adjustable curtain in the front. “Start putting those on while I organise the mess of clothes Atsumu has made over there.”

Rei nothing said as the curtain was closed with a single motion.

Rei, you went from M0 to dress-up doll in less than 48 hours, inwardly cringed Murayama and Ikusaki, releasing some more sighs as they continued to keep an eye on the super soldiers from a certain distance.

“Atsumu, slow down a little bit,” said Murayama, using the opportunity when Atsumu was passing close by to their location to search for more suitable clothes. “I’m starting to deeply pity Rei here. Didn’t you mention before that he’s super scary when angered?”

“But… I want Rei-chan to have fun while outside in the human world…” explained Atsumu, putting on a child-like innocent expression on his features.

“I think he would have more fun if you and Iru also tried out the clothes together with him,” pointed out Ikusaki, leaning a bit backwards at the same time he put his hands on the bench area behind him. “He’s going to sulk at you if you keep excluding him.”

“Wouldn’t you be happy if you were to dress the clothes Rei suggested you wear?” added Murayama, his words a calculating suggestion. If he learned anything from observing Miue interacting with Atsumu and from reading his reports on it, Atsumu could be easily baited this way.

“Oh…” Atsumu came to a total halt, his body frozen in such a way that the t-shirt he was holding onto slipped out from his grasp. His expression told them that he had totally not thought about it from that point of view. “Y-You’re right… R-Rei-chan, I’m sorry!!! Rei-chan!!”

“I hope this makes it a bit easier on Rei…” sighed Murayama, also taking a seat next to Ikusaki. “Not that I have a lot of expectations that it’ll keep on working on the long run. To this day, I still don’t understand why all of them prioritise spoiling Rei above their own needs.”

“Neither do I but Rei has those kinds of vibes, right?” said Ikusaki after a shrug of his shoulders. “Like, he looks so small and fragile, you get the urge to protect him or some shit like that? Even though he’s as deadly as the rest of them, he doesn’t look the part. If Iru was to cut his sadism in half and Atsumu would shut the heck up, they could be easily misunderstood as regular humans. But Rei looks a regular human 24/7. Well, an emotionless human but still…”

“Ahh… I get what you’re trying to say, terrible explanation or not,” acknowledged Murayama, nodding his head a couple of times. “It really makes one wonder how come he’s the one who is more biologically different from us humans. Iru aside, Atsumu and the others were humans at some point. But they’re the ones that behave less like one.”

“They have abnormally eccentric personalities, that’s for sure,” scoffed Ikusaki, a small laugh getting stuck in his throat. “One more reason why I value Rei’s tame personality. And godly levels of patience. I don’t know how he can stand being near all of their craziness without turning out the same way as them.”

“Ahahaha!” Murayama couldn’t help but heartily laugh at those words. “That truly is a mystery of the universe.”

“Oh... No, wait. After all, he has been influenced by them in one thing,” said Ikusaki, coming to a sudden realisation. It had become such a usual event in their daily lives that it nearly slipped past him as an abnormal thing within human society. “That…”

The first thing Murayama noticed was a couple of store attendants whispering between themselves. The young women’s cheeks were lightly pinkish and giggles now and then erupted during their heated private conversation. If others were to see a man gently, lovingly help another man putting a jacket on, followed by a discreet kiss in the cheek, it went without saying that whispering would immediately happen within those in sight.

Though the only reason why their reaction was so mild was the lack of awareness that the two lovers were, in reality, blood-related siblings.

I’ve been avoiding it. I’ve been truly, really avoiding touching the subject, as the private matter that it is. I can somehow predict Iru’s reaction but Rei’s a complete unknown. Even so, I’ll have to ask them, won’t I?