In Gentle Tones of Warmest White | Oumami

Chapter 12

"So, you wanna know about Haruka, huh?" Rantaro and Kokichi were now in the former's room. They were unable to discuss the topic when it was first brought up- as Rantaro's sisters had come into the room and he preferred to not talk about it when they were around.

Now, after a few hours had passed (Airi and Eri had insisted that they should all hang out again), they were finally able to talk about the elephant in the room.

Kokichi nodded. "Yep!"

Rantaro groaned. At first, he was shocked with the sudden revelation that Kokichi had found out about his sister. After the initial shock had died down, however, he wasn't all that surprised. Of course Kokichi out of all people would find out- he always liked to stir up trouble wherever he could and stick his nose in places they didn't belong- it was only a matter of time before everything came to light.

"How'd you even find out?" He asked. Rantaro wasn't necessarily looking forward to answering Kokichi.

His attempt to avoid the question went just as well as he'd thought it would. "In the office, duh. Now tell me, before I figure it out on my own!"

A reluctant sigh left Rantaro's lips. He knew he didn't have to do this- after a bit of convincing, Kokichi would probably hop off of his case about it. He knew Kokichi was more than willing to find out on his own, though, and strangely enough, Rantaro would rather be the one to tell Kokichi than to have him figure it out himself.

"It was an accident, really," Rantaro plopped down on the bed next to Kokichi. "My family went on a boat trip when I was 8, Hikari was 6, and Haruka was 4. It was our first time, and I really wanted to explore, but my dad didn't want me leaving the boat. So, obviously, I sneaked off. Unfortunately, Haruka apparently followed me off the boat. I didn't realize she followed me, and because of that..."

Rantaro trailed off, not wanting to continue further.

Thankfully, Kokichi was able to take a hint and change the subject. Sort of. "So, is that part of how you got your title of Ultimate Adventurer?" He asked, twiddling a loose strand of hair between his forefinger and thumb.

Rantaro nodded his head. "It was the start of it, yeah," He answered. "I felt horrible and wanted to find her. It took a bit of convincing, but my dad allowed me to go back and travel on the condition that I help find partners for his business."

"And how did that go?" Kokichi hummed.

"Fortunately, I was able to find one of the two things. Unfortunately, it wasn't my sister." The corners of his lips twitched downwards into a frown. From the corners of his eyes, he watched Kokichi lean his head on his shoulder. Rantaro exhaled, resting his head on top of Kokichi's. "My dad let me go on more travels though, and after a few years I eventually got my title.

"Imagine getting to go outside of Japan..." Kokichi mumbled. "I take it you're still looking for Haruka?"

Rantaro nodded. "Yeah..."

There was a brief awkward silence between the two. Kokichi pulled away from Rantaro's side. "Well?" He asked. "You're just gonna tell me about how you got to go on adventures and not show me pictures?"

"Ah, sorry," Rantaro rose from the bed, walking to the closet. He came back out with a shoebox.

"Oh, hey!" Kokichi chirped. "It's that shoebox!"

"So you did find it the other day," Rantaro sat back down next to Kokichi. "I thought you only found the dress,"

Kokichi snorted. "Dude, that box was in such an obvious hiding spot it's almost as if it wasn't hidden in the first place." He rolled his eyes playfully. "Now show me the photos! I only saw boring newspaper articles in there!"

Rantaro took the lid off of the box, setting it aside on the mattress. "That's because you only looked at the top," He said, grabbing the newspaper articles and pulling them out. True to his word, only the top half of the box was filled with papers. The bottom half was filled with some small booklets and a few stacks of small photographs bound together by a rubber band.

There were a few loose photos scattered about in the box as well. Kokichi leaned forward and grabbed one of the photos, flipping it around and looking at it. "Oh. My. God." His grip on the photo tightened. Rantaro leaned back a little, craning his neck to catch a glimpse of the photo Kokichi was ogling at. "How old were you in this?!" He exclaimed.

"Oh, that?" Rantaro hummed. It was a picture of a beautiful body of water. A younger Rantaro could be seen in the reflection of the water, holding a small camera in his hands with an excited look on his face. "I don't know, around 10?"

"You looked so cute in this picture!" Kokichi cooed. "Where did it all go wrong?"

"Hey!" Rantaro raised his hand up to Kokichi's head, flicking his forehead.

Kokichi stuck out his tongue. "Just kidding! Baby Ranty-chan looks just as cute as Teenager Ranty-chan!"

The two spent a few hours looking at all of the photos. Surprisingly enough, there were a lot of photos stored within the photo albums. Rantaro had a story behind each and every one- and Kokichi listened intently to everything he had to say. The two spent so much time looking through the photos that the sun had set and they had to rely on the bedside lamp for light.

As Rantaro finished telling Kokichi about the final set of photos (the most recent set- taken in Indonesia), the latter let out a large yawn. Rantaro quirked a brow. "That was a pretty big yawn," He teased, tying the rubber band around the photos he was holding. (He had to get another booklet soon in order to make a new album. He kept forgetting to buy one, though. Perhaps he should write it down.) "Thought you were a late to bed, late to rise kind of person. What happened to that?"

"You're rubbing off on me," Kokichi groaned, lazily swatting his hand to Rantaro. He lay down on the bed in a relaxed manner, purple eyes watching as Rantaro started to put the newspaper articles back in the box. "It's horrible."

Rantaro laughed slightly. "Whoops. My bad." He grabbed an article, one of the more recent ones, and took a moment to read it. The frown from earlier had started to return as his green eyes scanned the words. He hadn't been on an adventure in a while- it was probably time to head out sometime soon. 

Before any more thoughts could enter his mind, a soft voice spoke up. "Taro-chan," Rantaro froze, slowly turning his head to the side. Kokichi was laying down, his arms outstretched towards Rantaro. "You can worry about that tomorrow. Come to bed,"

The words that left Kokichi's mouth paired with the expression on his face and the tone of voice he used caught hold of Rantaro's heart instantly. He obeyed silently, slipping the remainder of the newspaper articles into the shoebox and putting the lid back on. 

Rantaro left for a moment to put the shoebox back in his closet, and when he came back Kokichi still had his arms open- half-lidded eyes and a small, patient smile on his face. Just for him.

Rantaro obliged to the silent command, switching off the lamp before crawling into Kokichi's open embrace. Normally, Kokichi was the one in his arms- Rantaro found this to be a nice change of pace.

He listened intently to the sound of Kokichi's beating heart, closing his eyes and letting out a content hum. "Goodnight," He mumbled. Normally, Rantaro wasn't the type to fall asleep so suddenly, but he already felt himself starting to drift off to sleep.

Kokichi rested one of his hands on Rantaro's head, running his fingers haphazardly through his curly green locks. "Goodnight, Taro-chan,"

Kokichi glanced at the door for a few seconds, his brow slightly furrowed. He shook his head slightly, before closing his eyes and going to sleep.

~1.4k Words

Author's Note: Sorry this is kind of late- I genuinely didn't start writing this until late last night. I had the end planned, but I didn't know how I wanted to start the chapter off. And to think I wanted to have this chapter finished alongside the next chapter before I had to post so I could finish up the remaining chapters and release them back to back in a sort of grand finale. (Chapter 13 on the 28th, 14 on the 29th, and 15 on the 30th.) So much for that... Ah well, I kind of enjoy the three day schedule I have going on- I feel as if it'd be weird to suddenly break it.