Chapter Text
The late morning sun streamed through the windows of the gymnasium, bathing Saturday basketball practice in golden light. Girls ran up and down the court, sneakers squeaking against the floor in counterpoint to the heavy rhythm of the dribbling ball. In the center of it all, the team captain shouted instructions and encouragement, glowing with passion, or maybe it was just the sunlight filtering through her short hair.
Isana was trying to catch herself when she thought things like that about her, though she didn't bother to stop herself from staring at her long time best friend.
Mari was a grade above her, but they'd been together since they were little, living only a few houses apart in their tiny town in the middle of nowhere. There had been no question Isana would go to the same high school as Mari, or that she'd become the basketball team manager as soon as she did. But something else had happened since her entrance ceremony, something she didn't really understand even now. It seemed to involve a lot of staring at the lean lines of Mari's body as she lost herself in the game and getting irrationally angry every time someone stammered their way through a confession that Mari invariably shrugged off with a laugh and no hard feelings.
It was a troubling problem. An absorbing problem. Which is why she was devoting all her concentration to watching Mari's smile and didn't notice someone had sat next to her until he said, "Morning."
"Masanori-kun," Isana said coolly, annoyed at the interruption. Mari's brother, the only person around even freakishly taller than her, and Isana's classmate. "What are you doing here?"
"Aneko forgot her lunch," he said, lifting the bundle in his left hand as if to prove it.
"Just leave it there, I'll give it to her," Isana said, turning her gaze back to the court. It took her a few moments to register he wasn't leaving. "What?"
"You're not very subtle."
"Pardon?"
"You should be my girlfriend."
Though Isana was often silent, she was rarely speechless. Masanori was no help; he just stared at her from behind his glasses. Her mouth moved through several shapes before finally settling on, "No."
Masanori's expression didn't move. "Why not?"
"Because I don't like you like that. I'm not sure I like you at all." That last part wasn't true, but it could be if he didn't decide to back off in the next ten seconds.
Confusion settled in the lines of his face, and he clarified, "I don't mean you should date me."
"Then what do you mean?" Isana demanded, feeling completely lost.
"If you're my girlfriend, no one will ask any questions about how you stare at Aneko."
"I do not," Isana whispered loudly, careful not to let her voice carry and mortified at being caught. "And even if I did, that doesn't mean anything."
Masanori didn't say anything.
Isana took a moment to think, jumping on the obvious question as soon as it occurred to her. "What's in this for you?"
She was half expecting him to use this secret as leverage, or maybe even to declare himself to just be that much of a saint. Instead, he did something she'd never seen him do before: he looked away and blushed.
"You already have someone," she accused him in a fierce whisper.
He met her eyes again, but the blush stayed. "We met three weeks ago when I took the train into the city."
"And pretending to take me on dates would give you an excuse to go out there more often," she said flatly, beginning to see the general shape of the situation. "What school does she go to?"
"Aomori Gakuen," Masanori said quietly.
Aomori was private, prestigious, and... "Isn't that an all-boys school?"
"Says the girl with a crush on my sister."
Isana glared at him for a few seconds before conceding the point. "Fine. We'll cover for each other. What do you want me to do?"
"Come with me on the train twice a month. Other than that, whatever you'd do if you were actually dating me."
First she squinted, then she reached out and snatched his glasses and tried squinting again. Shaking her head, she handed them back. Even though they were siblings, he could never be mistaken for Mari. "No guarantees."
He shrugged.
While he put his glasses back on, she took the opportunity to snatch Mari's lunch and chuck it over to rest haphazardly next to her bag. Then, Isana grabbed the whistle hanging around her neck and blew three short blasts. "Good work, everyone, let's break for lunch!"
Mari made a beeline for her waterbottle, taking a big glup, and wiped her face with the towel on her bag. Then, without realizing she hadn't put it there, she picked up her lunch and brought it to where Isana and Masanori were sitting. "Ah, that was a great workout, I'm starving!" She smiled brightly at Isana, then said even as she began tearing into the tupperware, "What brings you here, little bro?"
Isana cut in before he could answer. "He came to talk to me."
"Oh?" It was slightly muffled from the half a riceball she'd stuffed in her mouth.
"Yeah. I'm his girlfriend now."
Quick reflexes saved her from being showered with rice, and she didn't bother to hide her snigger at how Masanori had taken the brunt of the spray as Mari had inevitably choked on her lunch. Petty revenge achieved, she stood and slapped Mari hard on the back, before sauntering off coolly. Her expression betrayed none of her unease at what she had just agreed to. What she had gotten herself into.
* * *
"What are you doing?" Isana hissed as Masanori hurried to follow her out of the classroom.
"We're dating, remember?" he said under his breath.
Oh. Right. "Fine." She didn't slow down, leading him up to the roof, where she ate with Mari everyday.
The older girl was already there when they arrived, smiling widely when she saw them. "If it isn't the lovebirds."
"Shut up, Aneko," Isana snapped. She didn't know what she had expected, but either way the greeting made her usual good mood at getting to eat with Mari evaporate.
Mari laughed, the same way as always. "I didn't know you were in to verbal abuse, little bro."
Isana could see Masanori prickle, which she imagined was his perpetual complex about Mari lording her barely-a-year lead in age over him. Even though she knew the two of them would protect each other fiercely if the chips were down, even she could be fooled into thinking they hated each other at times.
"She doesn't abuse me, only idiots like you."
Something in Mari's eyes brightened a little at that, before being visibly snuffed out of existence. "Then I guess it must be true love," she said lightly.
He said nothing in response.
Something heavy settled at the bottom of Isana's stomach. Of course Mari was too dense to understand that she only criticized her so heavily because it was the only way she could say anything without dying of embarrassment. Stupid Mari. Stupid, stupid Mari. "I guess it must be," she said venomously.
Mari whipped around to face Isana, no trace of her usual smile. It was only a split-second, but it was enough to make Isana regret having said it. Mari recovered quickly, forcing an awkward laugh. "You guys probably want to eat alone, huh?" she said, sweeping her lunch of convenience store breads and snacks onto her skirt and using it to carry it all, unconcerned the shorts she wore underneath were on display. "You need to tell me when I'm being a third wheel, you know how clueless I am. Enjoy." With a self-deprecating smile, she disappeared into the staircase.
Isana just glared at Masanori, even as she knew it was more her own fault than his.
He was silent for a long moment, before he said, "You're going to have to be the one to say something."
"What?"
"I've been trying to get her to see it, but she either can't or won't."
She was honestly surprised that he would have devoted any effort at all to his sister's love life. "That's uncharacteristically altruistic of you," she said not a little suspiciously
"You don't have to live with her," he replied cryptically.
Deciding it probably best to let it go if she was going to keep up the fiction they were dating, she didn't respond, letting herself get lost in her confusing feelings instead.