BAREFACED

Chapter 23

After dinner Mitsuya gets them ready for bed. Luna didn't want to go to sleep, and Mana refused too. Mana ended up falling asleep anyways and right after Luna did too. You sit in the living room at the table doing your homework. Mitsuya quietly closes the door to the room his sisters are sleeping in and sits down next to you. 

"Doing homework?" He asks picking up one of his sister's toys. 

"Yeah... I'm doing all of my missing schoolwork from the days I wasn't at school." You reply.

"Oh. You're in grade 2, right?" Mitsuya asks. You nod. He nods along with you. You slowly look up at him. 

"Are you always taking care of your sisters?" You ask. 

"Yeah... for a while now. My mom is always working very late... so I take care of my sisters. I have been since I was little." He smiles looking down.

"It must be a lot of work..." You softly say looking down at your paper. He softly smiles, looking at you. "Thats admirable." You sooth, smiling down at your paper. You look up at him and notice him holding a stuffed toy crab.

"What is that? A brown crab?" You ask. Mitsuya chuckles and nods.

"Yeah... I thought this brown looked nice." He replies.

"Oh?" You tilt your head looking at the doll.

"Yeah." He moves the crab around in his hands as he examines it. "I actually made this." He adds. You look at the toy, wide eyed.

"Really?" You question. He nods. 

"When I was younger, we couldn't afford toys, so I made my sisters toys. I was pretty decent at sewing back then." Mitsuya chuckles putting the toy back down.

"You like to create things...? You're really good at doing so..." You comment. Mitsuya smiles at your compliment. "Are you going to use your talent for design in the future?" You ask. He nods.

"I want to." He softly says. 

"You should." You respond. He smiles at you making you smile. He tilts his head a bit to the side looking down at your lips and then back into your eyes. He has a soft look in his eyes. It's soothing. He leans towards you a bit, leaning his arm on his knee. You stare at him as he leans towards you. He stops inches from your face, staring down at your lips. He softly smiles and leans back a bit.

"Are you going to the festival tomorrow?" Mitsuya asks. You slowly nod. He sighs and looks forward. "I wish I can go but I can't."

"Why can't you?" You ask.

"I have to watch Luna and Mana... that's why." 

"Oh... You will go one day... Maybe not this one... but one of them." You comforted.

"Yeah..." He nods. "When I do go to one... will you come with me?" He asks. You smile and nod.

"If you want me to then yeah." You sooth. He smiles to your smile. 

"You have a pretty smile." He says softly. You blush a bit looking away and back at your paper. He still looks at you with a soft smile on his face. He gently pushes your hair that is weirdly braided to the side causing you to look back at him. "You should smile more... It looks good on you." He coos. You smile hard to his comment. He smiles more. He feels closer than before, but you don't notice much. He leans in closer towards you, inches from your face.

"Taka..." Mana sobs. Mitsuya pulls away and looks at Mana whose eyes are teary. 

"Mana... what happened?" He asks.

"Monsters... Wahhhh..." She cries. Your eyes soften from the small child. Mitsuya stands up and walks over towards Mana and hugs her. 

"I'm going to go home..." You say slowly getting up and putting your stuff into your bag.