Work Text:
You choose a date, place, and brother.
You're going to have to get this right every time for it to work.
You go with Choromatsu because he was the first to leave.
The thought of instead using Karamatsu occurred to you. He lives closer and would be easier to overpower, but some petty part of you blames Choromatsu and you just want to take it out on him.
You send Choromatsu the letter on a Friday. He'll recieve it on Monday. You read the letter over and over before you send it, trying to burn the exact words you've written into your head. Who knows how many times you'll have to write it.
You get the response midway through the next week. A date. An address. Exactly what you need.
You arrive at his house at 9:28. You wait until the seconds on your watch flick over to exactly 9:29, just be safe.
You knock on the door and he answers. Between the two of you, you exchange friendly small talk. You keep your responses to what he says basic and memorable.
"Osomatsu! Long time no see, eh? How have you been?"
"I've been good."
"Want to come in?"
"Yes thanks."
"How do you like my new place. Do you like what I did with it"
"It's nice."
The gun in your pocket feels heavier than anything else you have ever carried before.
While he speaks, you try to pick out a key word to be your cue. You decide to go when he first mentions Todomatsu's name. He's bound to say that eventually and it will be easy to remember.
"How's Todomatsu been?" Choromatsu asked with a happy hum in his voice.
Any shred of happiness in him quickly disappears and is replaced with cold horror as you point a gun at his head.
"O-Osomatsu-niisan?" His voice is shaking in fear. You almost feel bad.
You stare at your watch. 9:43. You wait for it to tide over to the next minute, just to be safe.
9:44.
You pull the trigger.
Choromatsu's talking excitedly about his new job. Under the table you check the time.
9:39, just as planned.
You nod in all of the right places as he continues on for the next four minutes.
"How's Todomatsu?"
9:43. You pull out the gun. 9:44. You pull the trigger.
You're on the train. It's a fair while to Choromatsu's place and you can't drive nor did your parents feel like driving you. So you're on the train.
You check the time with a yawn.
8:44, just as planned.
You already know you're going to miss your bus so you don't bother chasing it down. While walking from the bus stop to the front door you control your pace so you arrive right on time.
You knock on the door at 9:29.
The two of you chat. He's just finished talking about how work is going and he's interested in how the others are going.
"How's Todomatsu?"
9:43. You pull out the gun. 9:44. You pull the trigger.
Something wakes you from your bed with a start. You roll over and grapple for your phone. When you turn the screen on the bright light hurts your unadjusted eyes.
3:44, just as planned.
You had that dream last night again.
After you have breakfast and get dressed later in the morning, you open up a drawer. In it is a gun. It doesn't feel heavy anymore. You slip it in-between the waist of your pants, snugly hidden underneath your hoodie. Choromatsu is telling you how exciting it is to live on his own. He's considering getting a pet cat and there's a cute boy he's considering asking out.
"How's Todomatsu?"
9:43. You pull out the gun, 9:44. You pull the trigger.
Choromatsu's letter arrived in the mail today. You're going over his tomorrow.
You decide to bring a book to read on the train. You can only play the same part of a DS game over and over so many times before it gets boring. You're not one for reading but it's a long trip.
While Choromatsu's speaking about his job you realise there's a light in his eyes you mustn't have seen the past few times around. You feel a bit of guilt about ruining this all for him and the others. Are you really going to destroy all of their hope of success just to fulfil your own selfish desires?
Well, yeah.
You don't even notice you've tuned out until you hear him calling your name.
"Oso? Osomatsu?"
"Huh..." You blink groggily. This is new.
"I asked you how Todomatsu has been?"
Oh. Fuck. It's 9:44. You scramble to pull the gun out and shoot him in the head.
When you're lying on the floor of the living room a few seconds later you quickly check your phone. It's a week ago. You let out a sigh of relief. Thank god, that was close. You're unsure how many times you're going to need to do this and you lose track anyways. It becomes some sick routine for you.
Write a letter.
Send it.
Receive letter.
Train.
Knock on the door at 9:29.
"How's Todomatsu?"
9:43, pull out the gun.
9:44, pull the trigger.
Bang.
In the time inbetween, you lay around the house doing nothing. You're not sure exactly what it was you did in the last week, month, two months, year. All you know it was not much.You pray to god lying around doing nothing won't mess the timeline up for the others. It has to be the same.
Your first sign of progress comes at a month. Ichimatsu was the last to move out and you wake up sharing a bed with him. Oh how you've missed that. You feel almost tempted to tell him his fate when he leaves, but something in you makes you feel he already knows it. How would you tell him that you're going to walk past him starved half to death in an alley way in a couple weeks anyway?
9:44. You pull the trigger.
Over half of them are back. Karamatsu and Jyushimatsu are looking for a way out, to be like the others. Jyushimatsu's applying for jobs and Karamatsu leaves tabs open on the computer for cheap apartments in the area.
The four of you go to Chibita's oden stand one night. You almost forgot Chibita existed with the way you've been obsessively avoiding him. For some reason, you thought Karamatsu moving in with Chibita was out of the blue and just a baseless way to get out. Now you notice how they look at each other and blush when they catch the others eye. Karamatsu seems happy when Chibita pays him attention and he goes out of his way to throw tacky lines his way. How long had Karamatsu been flirting with Chibita that you didn't realise.
9:44. You pull the trigger.
Todomatsu seems anxious to leave. There's tension between you whenever you're in the room together. At least... he feels there is. You've reached the complete utter point of apathy and watch in a form of curiosity as Todomatsu looks at you with disgust and distances himself from you.
What did you even do wrong? You can't remember for the life of you.
Out of curiosity, you go to check out where he's staying now. It looks like shit. You almost feel sorry for him. Was he so desperate to get away from you that he put himself into a bad situation?
9:44. You pull the trigger.
You don't know how to explain to the others why you're grinning that day. Choromatsu calls you a weirdo. He's going to a Nyaa Chan concert tonight.
Everything was back to the way it was.
And you're going to keep it that way.