Don't feed the Space-Time-Manipulating-Cat

The Perfect Life

"Hey, it's okay." Gakushuu looked him over worriedly, checking to see if there were any bruises, but there were none. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine..." Karma rubbed his eyes tiredly. "How long was—"

"Karma, you're going to be late for school," This version of their father said impatiently, sighing. "Go get dressed and then come down for breakfast." He turned and already started walking away. "There's no excuses for being late for school."

Was this man for real?!

Gakushuu gritted his teeth and bit back his anger, but he pushed to the side and focussed on his brother. "Karma, listen to me. I can't go to school with you." He shoved the scrunched up paper in his brother's hand. "But you need to meet me at this park at lunch."

Karma rubbed his eyes and nodded. "Right..." He frowned. "Why aren't you going to school?"

"I don't know," Gakushuu replied, grimacing. "But it doesn't matter, we need to focus on finding that cat so we can go home."

Karma nodded, shakily standing to his feet while his brother steadied him. "Okay." He scrunched the paper in his hand. "Are you gonna be okay?"

He forced a smile. "I'll be fine." He looked down the hallway warily. "I'm going to shower, then I'll join you for breakfast." He gave his younger brother a tight hug. "Everything will be fine."

"...You said that last time," Karma mumbled into his shoulder.

Gakushuu ignored the pit in his stomach and just hugged his brother tighter.

***

Gakushuu had nearly fallen asleep in the shower but thankfully his counterpart kept a stash of unhealthy and alarmingly high caffein dosage of energy drinks under his bed; so that gave him a much-needed boost of energy.

He'd given some of his uniform to Karma since his brother's counterpart apparently didn't see a need to keep a spare uniform at their father's house (not a surprise since he couldn't see a reason to willingly live here). Besides, it wasn't like Gakushuu would need it since he was supposed to be at home all day, and he and Karma were more or less the same clothing size.

When they both came down for breakfast this world's version of their father actually looked up from his newspaper and raised an eyebrow when he saw Karma.

"...Interesting." The man looked pointedly at Karma's loose tie and blazer. "You're actually taking some pride in your appearance for once, perhaps your brother has rubbed off on you for once." He smiled condescendingly.

Karma bristled but wisely kept his mouth closed as their maid served them breakfast.

Gakushuu held back a grimace as he sat down opposite his father, with Karma reluctantly in the middle.

The man scrutinised his brother when he sat down. "That tie needs tightening though – Asano, attend to your brother."

Gakushuu sighed and leaned over to fix his brother tie when this version of their father shot him a warning look. "Hold still."

"Hey!" Karma scowled, trying to push him off. "I can fix my own tie, I'm not an idiot!"

Gakushuu quickly retracted his hand, caught off by the burst of anger. "Sorry..."

Karma glowered at his breakfast darkly as an uncomfortable silence settled.

This version of their father sighed, sipping his coffee before turning back to his paper.

Gakushuu looked at his brother worriedly, he knew he was probably just exhausted after the nightmare that had been last night but still... his brother normally didn't have bursts of anger like that.