Chapter Four

They are in the closet.

Mika isn't sure what to make of the situation. If Yuu is trying to pull some overused sexuality joke, he is definitely going to get himself a well-earned kick to the balls.

"Wow, haven't been this deep in here since tenth grade," Yuu mutters bemusedly under his breath, kicking through piles of unfolded laundry.

Boom. There it is. Mika wheels his leg back, prepared to strike, when Yuu pushes back a couple of winter coats and reveals a hidden door.

Yuu whirls around to shoot Mika a childish grin, and Mika plants his foot on the ground quickly, putting on a straight face.

"My desires are, shall I say, unconventional..." Yuu jokes, quoting the line from Fifty Shades of Grey, and Mika debates if it's not too late to give him that kick. Upon seeing his expression, Yuu raises his hands in defeat and laughs. "Okay, okay! Come on, it's actually pretty cool."

Yuu kneels down and opens the door, which is about half his height. He crawls through the passage, which has a ladder that leads up to a secret room, Mika assumes. He hesitantly follows Yuu up the ladder, which is worn down with age and use, eventually reaching a small, attic-like space.

There is a large navy blue bean bag in one corner, a tiny rug, a hand-powered radio with a crank on it, and random possessions like all kinds of books, photographs, an ancient Walkman, and art supplies. On one side of the wall is a circular window with a latch.

"Sorry about the mess," Yuu scratches the back of his neck nervously. "No one has ever come up here, so I don't bother to clean."

Mika bites his tongue to refrain from speaking the comment that threatened to brush past his lips. So I'm the first person you've showed this place to?

Yuu crosses the small room – which, Mika notices, is extremely cold due to a lack of central heating – and stands in front of the window. He fiddles with the latch and opens the window. There is already a step (really just an old milkcrate) by it; Yuu hoists himself up and climbs out.

Just a couple steps behind, Mika curiously follows him, and he is met with a gust of wintry air to his face as soon as he breathes in the outside fresh air.

They are on the roof; it is the slanted part, but it is safe to sit on because a makeshift railing has been built around the edge. Yuu sits by the edge, arms crossed on the railing and feet dangling off the edge. Mika can practically imagine his mother catching Yuu on the roof and nearly having a heart attack when she realizes he could fall down two stories and hurt himself. Mika also gets the impression that Yuu doesn't really mind the danger much and does what he can to get alone.

"So, you wanted to bring me to the roof?" Mika questions.

"Well, it's the best view," Yuu counters with a half-hearted shrug.

"Of what?"

Yuu points forward in response, and that's when Mika finally tears his eyes away from Yuu and he sees it.

The house overlooks a sparkling lake; crystalline waters that reflect the changing leaves of the maple trees surrounding it. As Mika stares at it with an awestricken look on his face, he watches as a single leaf falls from its branch and flutters down, landing on the water delicately and casting out soft ripples. From ground level, one cannot see the lake with the house blocking the way, but from the roof he has a perfect view of the water. Mika can see they have a back porch that leads out onto a long wooden dock. One of the trees has a knotted rope that must be used for swinging into the water, and a couple houses away are some more houses that are on higher land, sitting on cliffs that overlook the lake.

Mika feels like he can hardly breathe. He can only manage a breathless "Wow," and slides down the roof to join Yuu, unable to look away from the waters. Upon watching the way the water ripples back and forth, he feels immediately at ease, all his anxiety about the fake dating shebang washing away.

He sighs softly and allows himself to relax. It is the first time since he's gotten here that he actually feels calm.

Out of the corner of his eye, Mika notices Yuu is staring at him. He has an unreadable expression on his face, like he is trying to figure Mika out. Mika, upon noticing the way he has the slightest of smiles turning on his lips, forces himself to look anywhere but at Yuu's mouth.

The moment is broken by the screech of what Mika assumes to be Yuu's mother. "Yuichiro Hyakuya!" She yells with a tone Mika's only ever heard in one other person - his older sister and legal guardian, Krul.

Yuu mutters a quiet "Oh, shit." under his breath and looks down at his mother. She is standing on the dock, hands on her hips, looking up at him with an impatient expression.

"What did I tell you about getting so close to the edge?" She screams hysterically, practically shaking with rage. "And now you're putting poor Mika in danger too? Why must you be so reckless?"

"You only live once, Mother!" Yuu shouts back with a wave. His mother is shooting daggers at him now, and judging by the way his hand is shaking as it grips the beam, Mika knows Yuu is secretly terrified of his mother's rage.

"Get down here this instant!" She points to the ground. "And come set the table, you insolent child!"

Yuu scrambles to his feet and makes a beeline for the window. Mika is just starting to get up when Kaori speaks again. "Oh, be careful, Mika, dear. I'm so sorry he's such a reckless child. We've been telling him to stay off the roof for years."

Mika thought it was perfectly safe, and Yuu is practically twenty years old now; surely he could take care of himself. Instead of speaking his thoughts, however, he merely nods and follows Yuu through the window and down the ladder.

"Dude, my mom is gonna kill me," Yuu says with a laugh (albeit, it is twinged with nervousness), running a hand through his hair. "Good thing you're here, though. She won't actually kill me as long as you're by my side."

The compliment is completely random and wasn't even that touching, but Mika feels himself blushing anyway. He chooses not to say anything and tugs at his hoodie strings nervously as he stares at his feet.

"Mind helping me set the table?" Yuu offers, and Mika finds himself nodding. They leave his bedroom, shutting the door along the way. As they walk down the hall, Mika takes a peek inside the other bedrooms; one is open, with a teenage girl typing on a laptop by her desk, and the other is secured shut. He pulls his gaze away and follows Yuu down the stairs, rolling his eyes at the way he slides down the banister.

Yuu's mother is waiting for him at the bottom of the staircase. She pulls at his ear, eliciting a squeal – much to Mika's amusement, who knew a fully grown man could make such a sound – and he cries in pain as she yanks him towards the kitchen.

"Aw! Mom! We weren't even that close!" He whines. She explains how she doesn't want to hear it and practically tosses him into the kitchen. Mika hears him laugh and a comment about how funny she looks when she's mad, followed by a cry of pain.

Mika's mother appears at the bottom of the stairs again, where Mika is clutching the banister and trying not to laugh. He bites on his bottom lip, forcing himself to keep a neutral expression.

"Is there anything I can do to help, with the dishes, Hyakuya-san?" He says with a magically unwavering voice. Kaori smiles warmly and waves her hand at him to shoo him off.

"Of course not, sweetie, you're the guest here. I won't make you do anything you don't want to do," She says with a gentle firmness in her tone. "And just Kaori is fine, you know. As Yuichiro's boyfriend, you're practically a part of the family now!"

Mika decides to pretend she didn't say that last part and continues to push helping out. He knows he will feel bad if he just sits around on his ass and watches everyone work for two weeks. "Please," He presses. "I do want to help."

"Oh, aren't you kind!" She gushes. "Well, I suppose you could go help Yuichiro with setting the table. "Setting the table in this family is a chore in itself."

Nodding, Mika hops off the bottom stair step and wanders into the kitchen, Kaori hot on his heels. He enters the kitchen only to find Yuu attempting to balance a stack of 10 ceramic plates, looking like a child's art project of the Leaning Tower of Pisa as he scrambles to balance the stack and bring them to the kitchen table.

He is about to drop them, but Mika swoops in just in time, catching the stack of plates before they tip over.

"Woah there!" He says. "Take two trips or something!"

"Two trips are for sissies," Yuu snaps sarcastically. Mika rolls his eyes and takes half of the plates from him before another accident ensues. He places each of the five plates he has in front of a chair, on top of intricately-woven, colorful yarn placemats. He sets the silverware for each place while Yuu gets drinks for everybody - Mika's never seen a person balance so many filled glasses of water so well before - and after a couple minutes of working together, everything is set.

"Mum, we're gonna go out to the lake until dinner's ready," Yuu announces, not bothering to wait for his mother's response before he tugs at Mika's wrist. Mika doesn't even have time to protest, allowing himself to be dragged out the back door.

Just like he saw from the roof, Mika is on the back porch, which extends into a long, wooden dock that ends in the lake. On the porch is a simple, pentagon-shaped porch table with five chairs and an umbrella, a hammock, and a canoe and some oars leaning against the railing.

Yuu seems dead set on walking down the dock, pulling Mika along with him. He plops down, almost defiantly, at the edge of the pier and rolls up his jeans until they are cuffed above his ankles. He allows his legs to dangle over the side of the dock and his feet submerge in the clear water. Instead of copying him, Mika pulls his legs close to his chest and wraps his arms around him, resting his chin on his knees and staring out into the lake's horizon.

"So, you've already met my mom, and my twin siblings," Yuu started slowly, the first conversation topic to come to mind. "There are a lot more members to my family, though. Let's see if you can remember them all so everyone will be impressed at dinner."

Mika gulps and nods.

"There's my mom, Kaori, my dad, Teiji, and I have five siblings," Yuu starts.

"Wait, I thought you said you have four?" Mika questions.

"Ah, right," Yuu nods, looking nervous. "Sorry. Okay, what are the twins' names?"

"Lucy and Noah."

"Right, they're both eleven. And my older brother?"

"Uh, Tadashi - no, Takashi!"

"Right. He's twenty-seven. What are his kids' names?"

"Aoi, who's one, and Hinata, who's four."

"Nah, she's three," Yuu shakes his head. Upon seeing Mika's discouraged look, he touches his shoulder. "Don't worry about it. You'll get it. What about my other sister?"

"Hana," Mika says. She must be the one he saw in the bedroom across from Yuu's, typing away at her computer.

"Right. She's fifteen. Both she and my dad are really quiet, so don't expect much out of them. They'll open up as you warm up to them, though, promise."

Mika didn't want to tell Yuu this, but he prefered introverted people much more than Yuu's type - they were much more manageable to talk to and didn't suck all this energy out of him. Still, he nods, forcing himself to remember all the information. There was something about it that made him feel like a bad boyfriend - fake or not - if he couldn't recall their names and ages. Someone should know about their boyfriend's family, right?

"You seem tired," Yuu notices, swinging his legs back and forth. His feet kick up small cascading ripples of water, curling in the air like ribbons before splashing back down a split second later.

"Mmm," Mika drops his chin and rests his forehead on his knees. "I'm just nervous. I don't - if I fuck it up on the first impression, there's no going back."

"Aw, come on, Mika," Yuu whines childishly, punching him lightly in the shoulder as a form of encouragement. "My family will love you. I promise."

His words send a shiver down Mika's spine, because surely, someone pretending to be your fake boyfriend doesn't actually want their family to like you, right? How would Yuu know if they'll like him, anyway? They've never met him.

Mika doesn't have much going for himself: he's too quiet, his hair is always disheveled, his grades are mediocre at best, and he hardly has a family of his own.

So how can Yuu be so sure?

"Hey, quit doing that," Yuu interrupts his inner battle.

"What?"

"Thinking so much." He deadpans. "You have nothing to worry about. Just be yourself."

Mika sighs and finds himself nodding anyway.

"And hey!" Yuu interjects positively with a wide smile, "Worst case scenario, I just talk for you, and you can spend the evening stuffing your face with the best rotisserie on this planet." That earns a laugh from Mika, although a small one. "There's that smile I fell for," Yuu elbows him with a flirtatious wink.

Mika's heart lurches on instinct, and he swallows to keep it from jumping out of his chest. "Don't say things like that if you don't mean it," Mika mutters under his breath.

"What was that?" Yuu asks airily.

"Nothing," Mika dismisses him quickly with a shake of his head.

The window that leads into the kitchen unlatches and opens, revealing two over-excited children who Mika recognizes to be Lucy and Noah. "Guys!" They yell. "Time for dinner!"

Mika is standing up before Yuu even has time to react. "Coming!" He shouts back with a forced cheerfulness to his voice.

"Hey, wa-" Yuu tries to call out to him, but Mika is already speed-walking down the dock, too absorbed in his own mind to hear him (though, Mika isn't sure if he'd stop walking anyway).

Damn you, Yuu, he silently curses the black-haired boy, his cheeks still flushed from the stipid things Yuu said. You really have no idea what you are doing to me.

- - - -

A/N: Oh, Mika, you obliviously lovestruck idiot.