𝙱𝚊𝚍 𝙸𝚍𝚎𝚊𝚜 - 𝙺. 𝙱𝚘𝚔𝚞𝚝𝚘 𝚡 𝙾𝙲

Chapter Eighteen

After finding the waiting room her brothers were in, the sounds of their voices carrying through the halls having led them half way there, Idoki cleared her throat to gain their attention. "Hey, guys."

Immediately having zeroed in on their clasped hands, Masayuki raised an eyebrow at her, crossing his arms over his chest. "You never told us you have a boyfriend." He looked over at Bokuto before returning his judgmental gaze to his younger sister. "Too good to keep us in the loop now, Slugger?"

Idoki awkwardly chuckled as she used her free hand to rub the back of her neck. She hadn't thought this that far through. "We're not..." Idoki paused to find the right word to describe their relationship, not wanting to discredit both of their feelings. "Official."

"What is this, high school?" Arihito, her youngest brother, laughed as he ran a hand through his overgrown golden brown hair. "Do you like like him?"

"Shut it, Hito," she rolled her eyes.

"That's a good question though." Bokuto elbowed her side with a cheeky smile, relieved her family seemed just as friendly as she was. "Do you like like me, Doki Doki?"

"Don't act like you don't know," the redhead grumbled, shaking her head. "Why are we even talking about this right now? How's Tou-san? Have you heard anything?"

"Nothing yet," Tetsunori stood up and took the few steps to lessen the distance between them and held out a hand to Bokuto, who promptly completed the greeting and introduced himself.

"Ooooooh," Arihito laughed and stood up, dragging Masayuki up as well to also greet Bokuto. "The Bokuto-san? Why did that take me so long to remember? You're right, Chi – he is cute."

"Not for you." Idoki wrapped her free arm around the crook of Bokuto's elbow, leaving her stuck to his side in a way that made him feel overjoyed. She could've dropped his hand in a heartbeat when her brothers started teasing her but she didn't, she only moved closer.

"I don't know if you're right about that, Chi," he wiggled his well-groomed eyebrows at his sister. "Didn't realize he was so good-looking, damn."

Bokuto let go of Idoki's hand in favour of wrapping his arm around her waist, his cheeks turning the softest shade of pink as her youngest sibling complimented him in such an unexpectedly flirtatious way. Idoki looked up at him and her lips curved when she saw his blush. It wasn't often that he became shy, but she always found it so endearing when he did.

Waving away Arihito's teasing advances, Tetsunori motioned over to the row of seats they'd been occupying, letting everyone else take a seat before he himself did just so he could sit next to his sister. "I'm a little surprised that it wasn't Yacchan that you brought with you," he commented quietly, his ankle folded over his knee as he looked straight ahead at the very small plasma TV on the wall playing reruns of an old sitcom.

Idoki leaned closer to her eldest brother and spoke softly. "Yacchan's got enough on her plate right now as it is. I would never bother her to make the trip all the way down here."

"I see," he nodded, staring at the screen but not even registering what was on as he tried to gauge how serious this attachment of hers was."But you could bother Bokuto-san, hm?"

"We were out when you called, he um..." Idoki sheepishly glanced over at her brother. "He asked if he could come to support me."

"And you, Ichigo Idoki, said yes?" Tetsunori's lips curled into a teasing smirk despite feeling glad that his sister, who he knew was rarely one to admit she was anything other than okay, willingly accepted someone's help.