Star-crossed Lovers - Ushijima Wakatoshi Love Story

Chapter 23

Can I call you now?

Yukina looked at her screen and smiled as she was playing with Toshiro in her lap. Toshiro felt neglected lately and wanted to play with his big sister rather than his parents tonight. It was fine since she didn't have any homework.

Do you want to try to video chat?
Video chat?
（￣___￣；）actually I'm not surprised that you don't know this
No, I know what it is... I'm currently shirtless though.
That's fine! （＾ω＾）

"Toshiro, do you want to say hi to Toshi-nii?" Yukina smiled gently at the little boy who was flipping through his book. His eyes instantly lit up and he nodded profusely. Yukina laughed at his innocent reaction and pressed the button.

Yukina's and Toshiro's face appeared on her phone screen at the bottom left corner while the ringing continued. After the third ring, Wakatoshi picked up and his screen showed the ceiling.

"Wakatoshi! I thought you knew how to video chat?" Yukina pinched the bridge of her nose.
"Toshi-nii!" Toshiro whined.
"How do you flip the camera?"
"You push the button with the camera." Yukina sighed but smiled gently when his face came into view.
"Hi Toshi-nii!!" Toshiro waved to the camera as he was smiling brightly.
"Hello, Toshiro. Isn't it late? Shouldn't you be sleeping?" Wakatoshi furrowed his eyebrows.
"I want to play with Yukina-nee." Toshiro frowned, "I don't want you to use me as a ball!!!"
"Toshiro, I explained to you that it was just a dream. Toshi-nii won't hurt you."
"Your sister is right, Toshiro."
"But I'm scared." Toshiro was starting to get teary eyed as he was remembering the dream.
"If you're scared of Toshi-nii, then he can't teach you how to be a powerful volleyball player." Yukina cooed to her baby brother as she stroked his chestnut hair. Toshiro hummed as he was thinking hard about the decision.
"Okay..." he mumbled as he looked up at Yukina.
"Toshiro, what are you playing with your sister?" Wakatoshi asked with some softness in his eyes.
"We're reading a book!" Toshiro raised up his book but didn't realize his strength and so he accidentally slapped it across Yukina's face.
"Toshiro!" Yukina shouted as she rubbed her nose. She furrowed her eyebrows with such anger that it was scaring her little brother. But the anger quickly dissipated when she heard a soft chuckle.
"You need to say sorry, Toshiro." Wakatoshi firmly told the boy through the phone.
"Sorry, Yukina-nee." Toshiro pouted as he rubbed her nose. Yukina smiled softly as she stroked the boy's hair.
"It's time for bed, Toshiro." Yukina cooed softly as she can see the sleep taking over his eyes.
"But bedtime story!" Toshiro whimpered.
"Okay, okay. Sorry Wakatoshi, I should hang up."
"No, I can listen."
Yukina raised her eyebrows, "Are you sure? You probably need to do some homework?"
"I can do it at the same time." Wakatoshi slowly got up from his bed and made some movement towards his desk. He propped up his phone so that you can see him at an angle as he was working on his desk.

Yukina furrowed her eyebrows in amusement but she did the same. She took her phone to Toshiro's room as she was carrying both the boy and the book. She propped her phone up so Wakatoshi can watch that they were across the room and they were in bed together. Yukina opened the book and started to read Toshiro's bedtime story. As she was reading the book, slowly, Toshiro fell asleep. Yukina slowly got out of the bed as she finished the story and grabbed her phone, slowly walking down the hall towards her room. When she got into her room, she took a glance at her screen and saw Wakatoshi working diligently.

"Sorry we didn't get to talk much." Yukina gave him an apologetic smile.
"It's fine." Wakatoshi looked towards the screen, "You look tired though."
Yukina covered her mouth as she yawned, "Yeah, I'm gonna sleep. Good night." Yukina waved gently as she was closing her eyes ready to sleep.
"Wait."

Yukina quickly opened her eyes to see Wakatoshi frowning.

"Is it weird that I want to keep you on the line?"
"Uh... yeah... are you some kind of stalker?"
"Tendo kept mentioning that."
"Then you definitely are a stalker."
"Please?"