#mastermind-marius

At the same time, Mira and Dio shouted into Eric’s ears; “Eric!” “Bitch!”

Eric covered his ears and sunk into his seat. He’d rather sit in the trunk than between these two.

Dio and Mira high-fived over his head and continued to talk loudly about how stupid this whole trip was, and Mira told stories about some of Eric’s more embarassing moments. He was ready for this to be over with.

He wasn’t the only one.

Gentarou and Delta were lucky enough to be in the front seats; Gentarou driving and Delta in the passenger. But they were still trapped in a station wagon with three bickering, well. Children, basically. And one could only deal with that for so long.

Gentarou had heard Delta mumbling from time to time throughout the drive. He at first thought the old man might be sleeping, but decided he was actively talking to himself instead. Thoughts of jumping out of the car, SHIFTing somewhere else, or just killing Dio.

Needless to say, Gentarou agreed with the sentiment. However, his thoughts were closer to either crashing the car and killing them all, or having Delta drive while he beat up the three in the back.

Intrusive thoughts, am I right?

It was an odd situation that brought them all together; a holiday dinner that originally only Delta had been invited too, since it was his family, the Klims. Then Luna had convinced them to invite Dio, and Diana invited Akane, Junpei, and Carlos. Akane invited Gentarou, and Carlos invited Eric, who in turn invited Mira.

Gentarou still wasn’t fully convinced they weren’t going to poison him. He had done some horrible things when he was younger. He swore he remembered Akane dying, but maybe not…

Somehow, the five assholes had managed to carpool and Gentarou ended up driving. And now he was hoping Akane was going to poison him. Lord help him if he has to drive back with these idiots.

Three hours into the drive, it seemed that there would be a ray of hope. Mira had fallen asleep, and Dio, now that he was without his partner in crime, was significantly more tolerable. Gentarou could breathe, Delta wasn’t threatening to kill himself, and Eric’s headache was fading.

And then the tire exploded.

The car jolted, waking Mira up and causing Dio to shout. Delta braced himself against the dashboard and Gentarou desperately tried to stop the car. they skidded off the road onto the flat desert, slowing to a stop as luggage flew off the roof.

When they finally stopped, there was a moment of dead silence, before Gentarou slammed on the horn to cover his swearing. Everyone else soon joined in on the shouting.

Taking a moment to collect himself, Gentarou ordered everyone out of the car. As he inspected the damage, Eric tried to collect the fallen luggage. Dio collected his own, refusing to let anyone else touch it, but other than didn’t help, and Mira simply leaned against the car and watched, determined to be as little help as possible.

Delta was an old man and nobody really wanted to force him to help, but he went looking for a spare tire in the back of the car and wouldn’t let anyone help him; he was old, not fragile.

Unfortunately, despite being a rental car, there was no spare tire. The five were stranded another hour away from the Klims. An hour by car, that is.

Overly dramatic as always, Dio sat in the trunk of the car with his luggage and groaned. “Can this trip get any worse? First I’m stuck in a car with you guys, then I lose the few bits of entertainment I had, now we’re stranded—”

Dio was abruptly cut off by Gentarou shutting the trunk. “Who’s got a working phone with a Klim’s number.”

Mira was inspecting her nails, and didn’t look up even when Dio started pounding on the window near her. “Pretty sure blondie in there has Luna’s. But his phone died like twenty minutes in.”

Gentarou looked to the older man kneeling beside the exploded tire. “Delta? They’re your family.”

“I don’t own a phone.” He stated. “Too distracting.”

Eric shifted around the several bags he was carrying, trying to find a good way to hold all of them. “Don’t you have Akane’s number, Gentarou?”

“Akane’s number changes almost daily. Also my phone has a habit of not working. And there’s no telling if she’s there yet, thats why I asked for a Klim number.”

“Ah. Right. Cool.”

Eric promptly dropped most of the bags, and Mira sighed, grabbing one of hers and tossing it to Gentarou.

Upon looking inside, he found at least 15 different phones, all of different makes and models.

“At least one of those used to be Phi’s.” Mira told him. “They all still work, just find hers and call her dad or whatever.”

Gentarou paused, fishing one out of the bag. “Why do you have a bag full of phones.”

Mira shrugged. “Finders keepers.”

Eric, likely more out of concern than curiosity, peeked into the bag and gasped. “Mira!” He whipped around to see her getting back into the car. “Half of these phones are mine! I-Is— Ar-Are you why all my phones keep going missing?!”

Mira smirks. “You snooze you lose.” She told him, and then climbed into the car, immediately starting an argument with Dio.

Gentarou tossed some phones to Eric as he leaned against the car. “Help me with this, won’t you?”

Eight phones later, Gentarou frowned, showing Eric a lockscreen. “Isn’t that, uh, Dio’s only friend?”

“Luna?”

“Yeah, her.”

“No, but it is Diana. And I think that’s Phi and Luna and Kyle in the background?” Eric looks closer. “Maybe it’s Sigma’s phone.”

The two guessed Sigma’s password easy enough, found Diana’s contact (labelled “💖❣️Darling Dianya💜💕”), and called her.

Diana was sympathetic, and promised Sigma would come and get them all. Of course, it would still take an hour.

When Sigma got there with a tow truck, he was greeted with the sight of Gentarou in the car, head on the wheel, Mira and Eric lounging on the roof, Delta writing nonsense in the sand, and Dio still locked in the trunk.

He sighed. He hadn’t expected anything less.

Sigma had everyone help him attach the broken-down station wagon to the tow truck, and then everyone piled in and started the drive back. Luckily, most everyone was too exhausted to bother eachother.

By the time they got to the Klim household, dinner had started. But there were plenty of seats at the table.

“You always fight with him.”

“Wow. Your standards are so high for me.”

“It’s not fight-fight. It’s like you’re always bickering because you want his attention. You always fight with the boys you like.”

“Well, what do I do to girls?”

“You flirt normally. It’s boring.”

Aoi got up and searched the end table holding their massive cache of skincare goods for his eye cream. Picking up one tub, he squinted to check the label before realizing he couldn’t remember if this was his tub or Akane’s tub of the exact same brand. “I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I don’t like him.”

“Okay,” Akane said in her know-it-all tone. The one she used when she was right.

The next time Light prodded him and he wanted to respond, Aoi had to ponder if Akane was right about him. Them. Whatever. It was so stupid, Light chuckled under his breath at Aoi’s suggestion during a meeting and Aoi could shrug that off but he wanted to add, “At least we consider my ideas.”

“Don’t put your fragile ego back on me.”

“You’re the one trying to make a scene–”

“Please stop,” Junpei said tiredly. He was often the sounding board for problems the two had with each other because their sisters wouldn’t listen to it anymore. By the look on his face he was wondering who would corner him later. “I’ll kick both of you out.”

“No, no,” Akane said although she didn’t look up from doodling on her notepad. “They’re important too.”

Aoi put his chin in his palm and rolled his eyes because the other couldn’t see it. “Yeah sure. If it makes him feel important.” After the meeting wrapped he was unfortunately cornered.

“Do you have a problem with my being here?” Light asked.

When the Fields showed up at Crash Keys’ metaphorical door, looking for a new employer, Aoi didn’t protest. He had some natural paranoia considering Crash Keys was on SOIS’ hit list, looking for any opportunity to arrest and hold them for the whole kidnapping SOIS’ agents stunt, but after a few months he started to relax because the Fields were acting trustworthy. They contributed, they were decent company at Happy Hour, and Akane and Junpei liked them.

Naturally the Fields were fairly cool to the Kurashikis for a long time, but now that they’d hustled their way up to more senior positions (Junpei’s interference he suspected, putting bugs in Akane’s ear) and attended higher management meetings, they conversed with them easily. At this point Aoi, didn’t question if they were cordial.

Yet the bickering came about because, Aoi thought, they had naturally clashing personalities; Aoi hated the need to make himself known as an intellectual and Light made comments to the effect that he found Aoi boorish and impatient. Aoi didn’t act like himself around him; he was quicker to lose his temper and more likely to engage in childish banter.

Aoi scratched his ear. “No, I have a problem with your behavior. Which is part of you, so in a way…yeah I guess I do. What about it?”

“I don’t dislike you.”

“Thanks.”

“I mean it. I…” Light made a ‘tch’ noise, pushed his hair behind his ear, and excused himself, brushing past Aoi’s shoulder as he did.

“He’s so weird,” Aoi commented to Junpei, sitting at the table forgotten, and Junpei just shook his head.

He was weird but he played music well. A few times he’d be humming to himself when he thought he was alone or practice his instrument and Aoi would stop and hover by the door to listen.

“Do you play anything?” Light asked once.

“Guitar,” Aoi answered hesitantly. He had years ago but fell out of practice. “I sing though.” That he knew he was fine at; one time Junpei stood outside the bathroom door and clapped after Aoi was done singing in the shower.

“Why don’t you join me next time?”

So now Aoi had agreed to sing some lyrics Light was testing out while he played the harp. The lyrics were hand-transcribed by someone, likely Clover. Often Aoi had watched her sit in while her brother was composing, taking excellent musical notation so it could be later transcribed into Braille. The lyrics themselves were nice, some extended metaphor about the ocean but it didn’t feel trite the way it was expressed. He imagined it sounded best put to music of course. “These ain’t bad.”

“Normally I don’t write lyrics for my harp compositions, so I’m a bit nervous,” Light admitted. “Give me your honest opinion when you’re done.” He began to play and Aoi forgot how to read. After he missed the beat, Light stopped and quirked his head. “You do know where you come in right?”

“Yeah, yeah, play,” Aoi muttered, and then hummed a note, wishing he’d warmed up more before coming. When they restarted, he began to sing, the first word tremulous but he quickly stabilized and the music leant a smooth quality underneath his voice (which he didn’t think was half bad). To do it justice he had to up his singing game; he closed his eyes at the second chorus and put his effort into the meaningful words. It felt good to be wanted for this. He closed the song by humming with the music, swaying slightly. He felt a calm aura in the room and when he opened his eyes he saw Light’s head was bent at the harp but he was smiling to himself.

Clapping cut through the moment and they both startled. Aoi turned to see a small group of employees applauding their performance, all looking rapt like this was an intentional concert for them.

“Go back to work!” Aoi barked at them.

“Thank you!” Light called as they dispersed. “And thank you, Aoi. That was a good performance.” He smiled at Aoi, that gentle close-lipped but still warm smile he usually gave to his sister or Junpei, and Aoi’s blood raced through his veins. “In fact, can I ask you for a favor?”

“Sure. What?” Aoi asked, waiting and hoping it was related to him wanting Aoi around.

Aoi straightened the sleeves of his blazer, running his palm over what was either a wrinkle or a hallucination from nerves. He didn’t regret accepting Light’s proposal but he also wanted to disappear backstage. Instead he hovered in the doorway, watching the small stage and trying to make out people in the audience. Light had a surprisingly big following, and he said they’d appreciate Aoi’s presence even if at first they would be “intense.” Almost like he peppered that in with a smirk to make Aoi nervous, saying he would leave them wanting. Jerk.

“Get behind me,” Light said, appearing over his shoulder. “I’m the star here.”

“So why am I here?”

“Because you’re a good singer.” Light tugged on Aoi’s collar, making Aoi swat his hand away. “But I’m the headliner so get behind me.”

Aoi did so, not eager to deal with the crowd. Junpei said that Aoi loved attention of any kind but Aoi doubted that judging by how his heart was somewhere at his feet. When he felt the stage lights he perked up a bit; he watched the other catch the light and the energy of the crowd and Aoi tried to absorb that. He shifted on his feet at the mic as Light introduced him, and with a last look at the crowd he squeezed his eyes shut and waited for the music to start.

When it did he found his feet again, and as he fell into what he knew he heard the other accompanying him with humming as well as the harp. Who knew they could work together (Akane did, she would say). Aoi held his breath when he was done; the crowd had been quiet while they were performing and in the beat of silence after they finished he worried nobody liked it, and then the room applauded.

“How was that for a first timer?” Light asked the crowd and judging by his tone Aoi knew he should be insulted. “Thank you for supporting him, he was so nervous.”

Yeah, he was definitely dead. When Aoi turned, unable to help himself, the other grabbed his shoulders, turned him to face the audience, and pushed him into a bow. After a moment he let go and bowed as well so they were in synch.

“No, I think you did wonderfully. They would’ve been vocal if you were disappointing.” Light swirled his straw through his drink again, a habit he had and Aoi only became aware of because he did it whenever they talked yet not when he spoke to someone else. Why he’d become so interested in Light’s drinking straws was his own secret.

“Thanks. You sure can motivate someone.” Aoi didn’t mean for it to come out as sarcastic as it did; on one level he meant it and on the other he had to keep up some semblance of banter. It was why he was startled when Light put a hand on the table, sliding it as if searching for something, and then his hand leaped to cover Aoi’s when he bumped into Aoi’s pinky finger.

“Why don’t we do that again?” he said.

“Huh?” Aoi was too focused on the physical contact, unsure how to respond in case this was a joke. They were espers but surely he hadn’t been transmitting stupid interest for as long as he’d been feeling it.

“I said why don’t we perform together again?” He squeezed Aoi’s hand, and when Aoi wrested it and put his hand on top, fought to cover it again. They tussled silently before Aoi won. “Child,” Light muttered.

“Showoff,” Aoi said and squeezed his hand over the table. “They’ll like me more than you by the time we’re done.”