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It’s Halloween and Shou is having a party, because when is he not these days? Everything has been weird since Touichirou died and he inherited anything left. This comprises a big a empty house and nothing else.
Ritsu is excellent at costumes; Shigeo is not. Ritsu knows exactly what to do; Shigeo wishes he did, but does not.
They go together because they go together everywhere, even as adults. Ritsu returned home from university when Shigeo had a relapse with his powers; Shigeo’s shadow didn’t retaliate when Ritsu intervened because, apparently, he likes Ritsu. He is a reliable intermediary when things get rough.
“I’m going to be a ghost, nii-san,” he says, shrugging at his brother in the upstairs bathroom of their parents’ house. “It’s the easiest one people will like.”
“I was thinking we should go as each other,” Shigeo says, his eyes serious. “It’d be funny.”
Ritsu’s words catch in his throat. “I could never be you, nii-san.”
Now Shigeo smiles. “Of course you can, Ritsu. You can be anything.” He shrugs a little, repeating. “It’d be funny, I think.”
“Are you sure?”
Shigeo nods with a smile, but a shadow flickers next to him like smog. It nods too.
*
Shou’s house is full of lights and sounds and smoke. It’s horrible and Ritsu knows it’s on purpose, one last hurrah since the property is condemned.
Shou is just like that, one last hurrah, then burn it to the ground.
They’d planned for that too.
“Nii-san,” Ritsu says, laughing a little, “you’ve got the armband on the wrong arm. Here, let me help you.”
“Oh, thank you, Ritsu,” Shigeo says, holding out his arm, red band around his bicep. “I knew I could use my old uniform, but I wasn’t sure where that goes. I was never on student council.” He just shrugs as Ritsu corrects his armband position.
“There,” he says, patting his brother’s arm fraternally. “You look great.”
*
At some point in any evening—especially one at Shou’s—there’s heat, horny drunk people. Ritsu knows it well, but he’s always left beforehand. He doesn’t question Shou’s lifestyle as it evolves; it has nothing to do with him.
But there’s certainly a moment when during the night, many people disappear. Shigeo has been making awkward conversation, then texting with someone. Probably his pathetic boss. Ritsu hates him because he’s unworthy of Shigeo’s attention.
Most of the party has either retired into the dusty rooms of Suzuki Touichirou’s vacated empire, sheets likely well used and the music wanes. It’s almost stupid to stay now, since it’s so late.
“Thank you, Ritsu,” Shigeo says, smiling at little as he looks into Ritsu’s eyes as they stumble from the impromptu dance floor. “This was fun. I’m never very good at costumes.”
Ritsu is good at costumes, another role at which he excels.
And maybe he’s had a few too many cheap drinks from the bartender-not-bartender, but he slurs, “I love you too, nii-san. I’ll always dress up for you.”
And that’s when things get weird. But it’s the kind of weird that Ritsu has always wanted.
“Dance with me, nii-san?” Ritsu blabbers. “I don’t want to look like I’m not having fun.”
So they do, just moving together without music, Ritsu under a sheet that’s totally appropriate for a party of this kind, and Shigeo, wearing his omce-upon-a-time normal everyday clothes except with Ritsu’s red mark on his arm.
“Nii-san,” Ritsu murmurs into his brother’s ear, “I’m sorry.”
The shadow is there, vibrating inside flesh under the old gakuran. “I’m not,” an uncanny voice says. It almost lacks timbre. “You finally found something worthy of desire, Ritsu.”
Ritsu presses his face against Shigeo’s shoulder, hiding his eyes as they burn.
Tonight is a night of demons and devils. He figures that at least half of his brother loves him, in the wrong feverish way of suffering for sins, and he’s satisfied.
He pulls off his own appropriate costume, eyes closed. “Yes, I did.”
A ghost kisses him, shadow and darkness, and he weeps.