"Shuuya, are you sure you don't want to become a model too?"

"Don't even joke about that, Ryouta."

The sun is just right today. On a field of lush greenery, a camera crew is set up, creating a stage for the one and only Kise Ryouta's photoshoot.

The blond male, his smile the most picturesque existence on earth, strikes a classic pose. His clothing is designer, casual, yet looks amazing simply because it's on him.

Kano's never been fully interested in fashion or beauty, but he can't help but feel envious. After all, this was a man that made men swoon.

(Kano knew better.)

The gentle face. The dominant, alpha expression on his face as he poses with his female coworker. The depth in his tone, the curt smiles, so mature.

It's all a lie.

The childish farce. The slightly ditzy way he acts with his friends, with a high, whiny tone as he lets them push him around just so he'd get some attention.

That's a lie, too.

"Naomi-nee and Sayuri-nee's been trying to get you some jobs too, why are you rejecting them all?" Ryouta says to him, pouting slightly, "it'd be so cool to get some work with you, y'know."

Kano almost laughs.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Ryouta," he feigns, "unlike you three, I'm not good-looking at all. Of course I wouldn't want to be a model."

"You liar," Ryouta teases, "you have Kise blood in you. It's the pretty people genes!"

"Is that something you're supposed to say about yourself?" Kano chides.

-

Kano is the youngest, but he doesn't call any of them by those titles.

He's called a rude child-- because Ryouta really wants to be called Onii-chan, Naomi really wants to spoil a baby brother, and Sayuri is called Onee-sama by everyone except Shuuya.

(I guess, he'd be called the black sheep, right?)

Kano's never acted like a younger brother. It's not unusual in this family of craftiness and mind games, so he gets off easy. He doesn't want to act like a younger brother.

He's not anyone's younger brother except Ayano's.

He doesn't see this new family as his. But he's stuck with them, so he bears with it.

He smiles, laghs, and pretends he's having fun every day with this fake of a family he's forced to be with.

(They're not too bad, though.)

(They're a nice family.)

(They're just not his family and he hates it.)

He hates being alone.

-

Kano has an older brother and two older sisters.

(Oh my god, deja vu anyone? Just look at this, it's like, such a crazy coincidence! OMG this is a riot, everything's so different but he still has the same number of siblings in the right number of genders? Awesome!)

He breathes out, and sighs in a long-suffering way.

"Shuuya, what's wrong?"

Kano flinches. He sleeps on the top bunk, with Ryouta on the bottom bunk. He had only let his guard down for a second.

He lifts his head and leans over the edge, a smile on his face.

"Hm?"

Ryouta's eyes are narrowed. His posture is stiff and his gaze is stern, as if he's warning him-- no joking around, the message is clear.

Kano pulls himself up, and bites his lip.

(Why was Ryouta only like Seto in the most unexpected ways?)

"Shuuya," and Ryouta's head peeks over the top bunk now, "what's wrong?"

Kano tilts his head, confused. "Even if you ask me what's wrong... there isn't really anything..."

"Shuuya!"

Kano doesn't flinch, but he's surprised.

Ryouta's fists are tightened, his lips pursed and he's actually angry, "Shuuya, we talked about this! You're not supposed to lie to me!"

Ryouta's voice is rarely raised. As the most pacifist of the family, he is rarely angry. After all-- he was the childish, happy-go-lucky sort. He's not the serious type.

Kano's face is blank.

(When Ryouta blinks, he almost thinks Kano's eyes are red. But that couldn't be, right? They turned back to hazel in the next moment. Must have been a trick of the light.)

-

"I'm sick of soccer. Maybe I'll try tennis next."

"You're such an athlete, Ryouta," Kano says, sarcastically.

Ryouta dismisses his snarky remark. "I have to keep fit if I want to stay a model, after all," he says, "and it's not like I have anything better to do."

Kano trails after his brother toward the entrance ceremony. His brother had been club jumping since last year. Kano wonders if there was any club he hadn't managed to join yet. He might make it through all the clubs before his third year!

"But Shuuya, you might suit the drama club!" Ryouta tells him cheerfully. "I joined that one last year and the upperclassmen were really nice."

"Drama is too emotional for me, so I'll pass," Kano responds immediately.

"You didn't even think about it, did you?" Ryouta glares. "You're really good at acting, though. You're like, always in one mode or another. I think I've only managed to see your real self for about seven percent of the time."

Kano's smile stiffens.

(Hold on a minute, he's right?)

Ryouta walks ahead of him, but Kano stops in his tracks and spends a moment trying to understand what he just experienced.

Is Ryouta actually... frighteningly perceptive?

Kano prides himself in his ability to hide. To deceive-- he doesn't think he's ever stopped using his eyes. After all, with his eyes, he could hide the red. No one can ever tell if he was using it in the first place.

Kano hides behind a mask, wearing mask after mask after mask, until it all blurs out and even he doesn't know which is the real one beneath it all.

(Is there even a real face under it all? It's a question no one's been able to answer.)

And yet-- Ryouta could tell. Ryouta could see the few times Kano lets his guard down a little, and he cold even conjure a numerical value of it.

Why?

"He's really like Seto in the most unconventional ways, huh..."

Kano doesn't want to grow attached. Doesn't want to grow to have emotional connections to this family of fakes that were trying to replace his precious people.

He really, really doesn't.

(But he does, anyway.)