Technical Difficulties (Brother's Conflict)

Chapter 29!

Mei sat at the table with her head down, her headphones half off. It was rare for her to be out of her room outside of meal times in the first place though, so no one was really complaining about her lack of conversation. Even Mei had to admit she was probably overworking herself, since the manga she'd been working on  for now a little more than two years would most likely be coming to an end soon, which meant she had to be working on the final arc while also working on her next proposal so that she could continue paying her bills. "Mei, could you come over and help me with dinner?"

Mei made some half-asleep noise of agreement as she hauled herself out of her seat. Ema was still putting her apron on as Mei opened the fridge, "Uh...Ema?"

"What is it?" The girl happily walked over only to stare just as disappointedly into the empty fridge, "I guess we need to go to the store then."

"What's wrong?" Masaomi spoke from his spot at the table while the girls continued to talk more quietly to themselves as they weighed their options. 

"Well, there's no ingredients. Ukyo must have been too busy, so we're considering going out to buy some stuff but-" Mei didn't want to mention she was partially being lazy and partially actually considering the logistics that dinner would end up being really late. Suddenly, Tsubaki's hand landed on her shoulder.

"Well, you both don't need to go that far. It's only us and Subaru so why don't we go out?" He grinned down at her but Mei immediately brushed his hand off her shoulder, the beginnings of that ugly feeling in her chest already getting to her. 

"A family restaurant, then?" Masaomi volunteered his idea but it was quickly shot down by Azusa.

"Family restaurants are boring too." He rolled his eyes while staring at his script, Mei having a distant urge to strangle him for getting rid of the easiest option for her. 

"Then we should go cherry blossom viewing! A picnic under the cherry blossoms!" Wataru was already hyped up enough for ten fully grown people, all packed into hyper energy in his small frame. He was practically running circles around Mei, whom he assumed would be easier to convince than Masaomi.  "Cherry blossoms! Cherry blossoms! Cherry-"

"Doesn't that sound good?" Azusa yet again puts in his award winning commentary, Mei noticing her fingers actually squirmed a bit at her sides as the need to shut him up became more prominent. 'Going outside and having to cook? That's going to be a no from me chief.' 

"Well, it doesn't sound like a bad idea." Masaomi smiled from his seat at the table, Mei quietly letting out a sigh of resignation. If the oldest was convinced there was no point in escaping. 

"What about Subaru?" Ema stated a valid point, but Mei had already assumed one of the brothers was coming up with a scheme for that too. 

"Don't worry about him. I'll let him know to meet us there after practice! Leave it to me." Tsubaki spoke with a funky grin and mock saluted at the end, which seemed to convince Ema and with that the last roadblock fell. "While I'm at it, lemme invite Natsume in case he can come!"

"Let's go, let's go!" He was tugging at the sleeves of Mei's sweater, the only one who hadn't voiced any opinion yet.

"Well, alright. I guess I had to go eventually." At her resigned comment, the boy released her and started jumping around, chanting 'cherry blossoms'. "Do you think there's enough in there for some karage(really tasty chicken my guys)?"

Ema looked at her thoughtfully before smiling, "Yeah, we should be good."

---

"How do you make it so fast?" Ema was looking over Mei's shoulder, having not gotten nearly as close to finishing with her batch yet. 

Mei had been humming to herself since a little while ago, a small smile on her face that seemed to brighten up the kitchen's entire atmosphere. "Well...did you know that when we first met, karage and other cherry blossom viewing snacks were your favorite foods?"

"Huh?!" Ema felt a blush creep all the way to her ears as she tried to think back to why she would be so obsessed with fried chicken and snacks specifically when she was younger. "W-why do you even remember that?"

"I've told you before, I remember pretty much everything."

"You can't even remember which direction our school is in but you easily remember what I liked to eat when we were 8? Perfectly normal." Mei laughed a bit at Ema's slightly spiteful tone, the slightly older girl joining in after a few moments.

"You got so excited when I first went home with you that March, you just kept listing off things you wanted to do like you'd been collecting a list since the minute you could think for yourself." The silence that held in the kitchen from her statement proved it was true, Ema had been unbelievably lonely without Rintaro or anyone else really. "You kept talking about having a picnic, something I'd never done before. When I'd asked what you eat at a picnic I swear you talked my ear off for at least two hours just going in circles about different kinds of food you liked and what you'd expect to be a good picnic."

Ema laughed a little wryly, "I hadn't gone to one in quite a while myself."

The kitchen was quiet as their hands both nimbly moved to cook the chicken or gather some other snacks. Mei finally spoke up again in a quiet voice, "This is much better than before, right?"

"..What do you mean?"

"You're much happier now, when you can share even something like this with more people. I can tell. It's like you're shining. That's what I meant, I'm just really glad you're happy to have a family this big, Ema." 'But someone like me...I don't belong in this kind of happiness, you know.' The older girl reached out carefully, placing a hand on Mei's upper arm reassuringly.

"You'll always be my family, Mei." 

Heterochromatic eyes widened for a moment, until her face settled into a satisfied smile. 

We needed more sisterly love-- fuck these hoes, they ain't loyal anyWay

also as perscribed by my irrational love for the man, Nageki will in fact make an appearance in this arc (as he always does) he will return soon so please don't nerf my stats i literally can SeE that there are less votes on chapters he's not in ; ))))) (sobbing existentially bc i know you're only here for the pretty anime boy i made and so am i)