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(no subject)

WHO: Bakura & Alastair (semi open to the rest of Hell Towers 10th as relevant)
WHERE: 1006 Hell Towers
WHEN: Wednesday night, late.
WARNINGS: Emo, underage drinking
SUMMARY: Bakura's been just off since the weekend. And now he's staying up cooking for no apparent reason. Alastair decides to see just what's up with that.
FORMAT: Para

It was late. He should be in bed. He had work in the morning and he'd been distracted enough as it already was, he didn't need to add sleeplessness to the list of things killing his productivity.

But instead, he was cooking. With the door to the apartment wide open. Looking out to the hallway every now and then as if checking for something.

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Alastair had been in his room most of the evening, getting some work done in advance of his impromptu trip to Japan, but he heard the clatter in the kitchen and came out to look. He tended to be a night owl, all the better for when Kiryu came home from Dancitron, but that wasn't Kiryu making all that noise.

"Hey, Bakura?" He stopped at the edge of the kitchen and leaned on the wall, folding his arms. "What's up?"

"Eh?" Bakura turned, blinking at Alastair before rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. "Aaa-- just-- felt the urge, that's all," he attempted to wave it off. "With how everything's been the last few days, I thought it would help!"

"Uh huh." Alastair frowned. "The last few days everything's been fine for me, but you, on the other hand..."

Well, that wasn't entirely true. Alastair was privately grumbling about Edgeworth being ported out. But by now he'd gotten so used to the crushing disappointment that he could shrug it off better. But up until today, he had been fine, and that meant he noticed Bakura lurking around, clearly moping. He didn't even have to ask what was up, he just gave Bakura the look.

The younger teen pulled back from that look a little, trying to focus on his cooking. "There's... there's been things," he explained lamely. It wasn't a total lie!

"Things," Alastair repeated. "What kinda things? Work things, crazy friends things, boyfriend things? You got a lot of things going on right now, I wanna know which one's got you upset."

Bakura was quiet a moment, not looking over. "It's-- I'm not upset," he began, but couldn't continue.

He was doing enough lying already...

"Yeah you are," Alastair countered. He unfolded his arms and edged into the kitchen, not trying to corner Bakura necessarily but being closer usually worked to prod him to open up. "You think I haven't noticed? I don't always have my nose buried in my laptop, you know."

He poked Bakura's shoulder gently. "C'mon. Out with it."

Bakura shook his head, still not looking up. But his expression had changed. The mask had fallen away, leaving just a tired look. Opening up to Matsuka was one thing. It was easy there, Matsuka knew half the time anyway, and Matsuka would understand...

And he didn't want to fall apart in front of his brother. He was supposed to be getting stronger so that Alastair could be proud of him, not acting like a stupid girl about things.

"Don't make me shake it out of you." Not that Alastair would ever hurt Bakura, but he was bigger and had been training with Hiruma, he could at least put up a tiny bit of threat now. "Something really sucks and I wanna know so I know if I have to get in anybody's face about it. I mean, if it's work shit, I suppose I can't, but if somebody's..."

Even if it took him time to reach conclusions, he got there on his own. Bakura hadn't been out in the last few days. Just work and home. There was moping instead. He didn't have to be a rocket scientist to do that math. "...something going on with Quatre?"

The spatula stilled, Bakura's hair falling a bit forward to hide his face, an odd sort of slack tension in his stance. "I don't want you getting in anyone's face," he said in a very soft voice. That wouldn't make anything better.

Alastair came right up to him and leaned on the counter next to him, towering over Bakura and refusing to be ignored or put off. "Tell me," he demanded in a soft tone.

Bakura shook his head again, reaching up to rub one of his eyes, not trusting himself to speak. There was too much. And most of it was so stupid.

"Hey." Alastair generally wasn't very touchy-feely, but he could have his moments. This was one of them. He shifted behind Bakura and set his hands on the younger one's shoulders, squeezing very gently. "You know you can trust me. What are brothers for?"

Slowly, Bakura reached over to turn the heat off under the pan, eyes still hidden behind his hair. "I don't want you to think I'm being stupid again," he near whispered.

After all, Alastair's rejection had been similar, hadn't it?

"I'm not gonna think you're stupid," Alastair assured, even if he didn't know the full story. "Unless you really did do something stupid, in which case I'll just keep my mouth shut but maybe I can...I don't know. I'm not good with advice, but I can try."

"I was stupid. I got my hopes up, I.. I didn't realize that..."

Bakura rubbed his eyes again. "It isn't fair, Oniichan. I thought... I thought it would last..."

"Ohhh," Alastair groaned. "Did you break up? I was afraid of that. What happened? Who did the breaking - was it him?"

A small, miserable little nod was the only answer.

Sighing, Alastair just wrapped his arms around Bakura's shoulders and snuggled him, resting his chin on the top of that fluffy white head. "I'm sorry, man. You're right, it's not fair."

He let a brief silence pass, not wanting to babble on endlessly, but after a bit he added, "Stupid jerk. I warned him not to hurt you. Now he's gone and done it anyway."

Bakura gratefully leaned in against his brother's chest, shoulders sagging. "He's not a jerk," he protested weakly, voice more tired than anything else.

He just loves someone else.

But he couldn't say that part aloud. It hurt far too much.

"Yeah, he is," Alastair countered. "Everybody's a jerk these days. Leading people on, not being up-front and honest. They're all jerks."

Why he was censoring himself, he didn't know. Maybe it had to do with talking to Ruka.

"...I told him I'd kick his ass if he hurt you. Man, I shoulda seen this coming." He cuddled Bakura a little more in apology. "I should've known. But I thought being Trowa's ex meant Quatre was gonna, I don't know, get you involved in something that would get you physically hurt or killed. Thank god that didn't happen..."

Bakura's eyes widened.

"Trowa-kun's...." he repeated, voice a little faint.

It made sense. It all made sense. What had changed, why they weren't friends any longer, why things were--

The person Quatre was still...

...

Oh.

There was a sort of numb feeling that came with that realization.

Alastair sagged a bit, and then gave Bakura one more squeeze before letting him go. "Yeah...I'm sorry. Maybe I should have mentioned it, after Hiruma told me. But I didn't want to rain on your parade. You were so happy...I wanted to believe the best for you, too."

He ruffled Bakura's hair gently. "At least I can say you're not stupid. It isn't your fault."

"It wouldn't have mattered then," Bakura said quietly. It wouldn't have mattered until he'd known...

Alastair had been in love with Kiryuu. Quatre with Trowa. It just was how things were.

"Probably not." Alastair's right hand flexed a bit, clenching into a fist. "I owe him a punch in the face, though. If I ever see him sniffing around here, that's the first thing I'm gonna do."

He abruptly turned and rummaged around in the fridge, but wasn't satisfied with what he found in there. "I'll be right back, I'm gonna get something from the Mancave."