Chapter Text
Minato Arisato wasn’t sure exactly what he was looking at when he looked up at Velvet Apartments, but he wasn’t sure he liked it. How he’d ended up here, he wasn’t sure, it had all happened in a blur, really. He and his sister had been living with their cousin Ryoji and it’d gotten to be too much, so they started looking for their own place. A man had approached him and told him about this place.
He’d found it kind of odd to start, but Minako was this close to killing Ryoji that he didn’t have much choice. Minato didn’t want to be in charge of hiding a body for his sister, that would be...troublesome, to say the least. An apartment was a much better idea.
“Minato, earth to Minato!” Minako waved a hand in front of her brother’s face, pulling him out of his thoughts. “You were doing that spacing out thing again.”
“You say that like it’s all I do.”
“Have you seen yourself when you have headphones in? You’re dead to the world.”
Minato rolled his eyes a bit, but there was a small smile on his face. “You’re just as bad, though.”
“I am not!”
He shook his head and looked away. “Whatever you say.”
“I know you’re smiling.” Minako frowned, watching Minato carefully.
“I am not.”
The twins seemed to carry on with this, bickering the way most siblings do, for quite awhile. At least until someone came out of the apartment and made their way over to the moving van.
“New tenants? Need any help with all your things?” The man who’d come out smiled at them, casual as could be despite the bandage on his face. Either this guy got himself injured through a lot of fighting or he was clumsy, that was the only thought that passed through Minato’s mind.
“Well, I’ll be able to handle most of my stuff, but feel free to help my brother,” Minako sent him a grin, “he’s very frail.”
“I am not, but help wouldn’t be turned down.” Minato decided now was not the time to quip back. He would do that later, when he wasn’t in the middle of a first impression. Unlike Minako, when he said something that was meant to tease, it sounded kind of rude.
“Great! Well, I’m Akihiko Sanada, nice to meet you!” When he smiled Minato had to note that it was a nice one. It could give almost anyone a warm, fuzzy feeling (though it was odd, it was kinda...different than the feeling his sister’s smile gave him).
“I’m Minako Arisato, and this is my twin brother, Minato. Pleasure to meet you!” Minako sent Minato a grin and he grimaced. He knew that look, that was the look of Minako doing all in her power to set him up with someone.
“Minato and Minako, should be easy to remember,” he flashed that smile at both of them and Minato looked away. He couldn’t give his sister any satisfaction in all of this. If he did, he’d never hear the end of it.
“Let’s get going, then.” He made his way to the back of the moving truck and pulled out a few boxes, only for Akihiko to take them from his hands. Why did he have a feeling he believed Minako saying he was frail over his denial of that? That was totally the case.
Minato just shook his head and took some other boxes and started for the door. There was a lot to get up to the apartment, so there wasn’t time to pout about it. There was more important things to pout about, anyway.
He watched Minako make her way to the front desk and chat with the woman behind it for a moment. There she was, in her natural habitat, becoming friendly with just about anyone she met. It was always helpful when she did that, but Minato had to think now was not the time. They had so much to get up to the apartment…
“So,” Akihiko made his way over to Minato as Minako finished up her chat, “you’re twins, right? Which one of you is older?”
“That doesn’t really matter, does it?” Minako gave a laugh, “I mean, we were basically born at the same--”
“I’m older.” Minato was always too happy to tell people that, wasn’t he?
“Really, Minato?”
“Yeah, he asked, so I told him.” He shrugged his shoulders and pressed the button for the fourth floor on the elevator.
“I’m sorry,” the woman behind the desk smiled at Minato, looking him over with oddly yellow eyes, “the elevator is out of order, I’m afraid you’ll have to use the stairs.”
Minato sighed. Alright, that wasn’t the best news, but it could be worse. They could be on the sixth of seventh floor instead. It might just take a while to get everything up there, was all.
“Thank you for the information, well, let’s get to the--”
“One moment, I’ll call down some more help.” The smile was still on her face, but Minato couldn’t help but be a bit put off. She was so professional, so… inhuman. The eyes didn’t help kill that vibe, either.
“Alright, thank you!” Minako smiled at her and punched Minato in the side, as if telling him to stop staring. “We’ll wait right here, then.”
The woman smiled and turned away for a moment, picking up the phone and seemingly calling someone. All that could really be caught was “quickly now” and “I’ll be waiting,” it seemed she was talking as quietly as she could then? It was hard to blame her, Minato wasn’t too keen on others listening in on him, either.
Soon enough, a man who looked a lot like the woman behind the desk came running down the stairs. His hair was slicked back in order to look neat and he looked like a bellboy or door greeter or something like that. Overall he looked like any average employee, if it wasn’t for the fact he had the same yellow, inhuman eyes.
“There you are, Theodore. Do be a dear and help them carry their items to their apartment, seeing as you weren’t at the door.”
“I’m sorry Margaret! Elizabeth was asking me to--”
Margaret held up a hand and shook her head. “Just go, Theo. They seem to have plenty of things they could need help carrying, we don’t want to make them wait any longer.”
“Yes sister, of course.” He turned to face them and smiled. “Hello, I’m Theodore, but you may call me Theo. Could I take some of those boxes for you?”
“Oh, sure!” Minako dumped her boxes in his hands as if this was the most normal thing to happen to her. After living with Ryoji, though, Minato could see why this wasn’t affecting her much. “I’ll go grab some more boxes and we’ll be done a lot faster!”
“Should we wait for her?” Akihiko raised an eyebrow and looked to Minato for an answer.
“Yeah, if we don’t I’ll never hear the end of it.”
“Do you two not get along?” Theodore frowned and tilted his head to the side, as if Margaret didn’t have a look on her face like she wouldn’t be letting Theodore hear the end of something after he was done with this.
“Oh, we get along great. We’re best friends, really.”
“So it’s that kind of sibling bond!” That seemed to excite Theodore, for some reason, as he nodded with a huge smile on his face. Odd, but hey, whatever made him happy.
“Alright!” And there was Minako, carrying way too many boxes for her tiny body. “Let’s get going!”
“Need some help?” Akihiko rose and eyebrow and Theodore reached for one of the boxes.
“Nope, I have this under control.” She smiled at them from around the boxes and stepped out of Theodore’s reach.
“Are you sure, you seem to be having some trouble--”
“I’m sure!”
Akihiko turned to look at Minato. “Can you...say something about all of this?”
“She gets her stubbornness from me.”
“Not what I was looking for, but alright.” Akihiko seemed to already know there was no point in arguing with such a statement. One twin being stubborn was enough to deal with at once.
--
About two flights of stairs up and things went wrong, fast. Minako was stumbling, the boxes stacked way too high for her to even really see ahead of her. It was a miracle that she only tripped when they made it to the last step up onto the second floor. That didn’t make Minato feel any better about her falling though.
Minato was just about ready to throw the boxes and move to help her up when a blond man came bolting down the hall. Guess he’d seen her fall and wanted to be helpful, that or he was looking for a chance to flirt. Maybe both, but Minato found people who wanted to do both of those things far and few between.
“Are you alright? That seemed like a beary bad fall!” He held out a hand to Minako, a smile on his face.
Minako blinked a few times before laughing at the (really bad) bear pun and taking his hand. “I’m fine, it wasn’t unbearable or anything!”
The blond’s eyes lit up, catching onto the stress she’d put on bear. “I-I’m Teddie, it’s nice to meet you miss!”
“I’m Minako Arisato!” She smiled at him and shook his hand, seeing as she was already holding it.
“A pretty name for a pretty lady!” Teddie kissed her hand and Minako blushed a bit. “Are you moving into the building?”
“That we are! My brother and I!” She pointed over at Minato and smiled at him, her eyes bright.
“What’s going on, exactly?” Theodore leaned over to Minato, confusion clear on his face. Oh, that was right, Minako hadn’t been that excited around this guy before now, huh?
“She just found her soulmate, probably.”
Theodore blinked. “Really?”
“That’s my best guess, at the very least.” His sister was an enigma sometimes, you know? He didn’t know everything about her.
“I see…”
By the time Minato looked back over at his sister, she’d gotten Teddie to help her carry some boxes. Well, she liked the guy well enough if she was letting him help her out, right? She usually would’ve brushed anyone trying to help off… Maybe the fall scared her, actually. It was hard to tell why she was accepting help.
Oh well, she seemed to be having a good time and that was all that mattered. Minato would just check for injuries when they made it up there. He couldn’t help but be worried, even if he was sure deep down she was alright.
“Minato…” Minako moved over to him and bumped against him. “Minato, are you okay?”
He blinked a few times and shook his head. “I’m fine, don’t worry about it.” They just needed to start up the next set of stairs already.
Too bad for him, Akihiko had ended up noticing when Minako walked over to Minato. He was totally going to take the boxes from him, wasn’t he? All because he let his guard down for a split second…
“Let me take a few of those.” At least Akihiko only took about half his boxes. Anymore than that and Minato would have mirrored his sister’s insistence about how many boxes they could carry from earlier.
“Thanks…” Minato sighed, shaking his head. If there was one thing he hated, it was being treated like this. Akihiko didn’t know that, though, so he’d let it pass for now. If Minako had anything to say about it, they’d be chatting a lot more anyway.
Speaking of Minako, though… This Teddie guy was going to help him distract himself right now. Minako wanted to set him up with Akihiko? Fine, but he wasn’t going to let Minako do that without having some fun of his own.
He made his way over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder, watching for her reactions carefully.
“Minato? What are you--” A gentle push towards Teddie cut her right off and Minato knew he wouldn’t be hearing the end of this later. Did that mean he would regret the choice? No, no it didn’t.
“Whoa,” Teddie caught Minako easily with one arm, “I’m the luckiest guy around today!”
Minako blushed and cleared her throat, standing up. “Don’t be silly, Teddie!” She turned to Minato. “You are so dead.”
“I know I am.”
Minako sighed and shook her head, steadying herself fully. “Let’s just get going, there’s still more down in the van!”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“So this is what it’s like when both siblings participate in the teasing…?” Theodore titled his head to the side for a moment before nodding. “Interesting…”
“...Is that guy okay?” Minato just had to ask now, leaning over to Akihiko.
“As far as I know, mostly? His sisters are just the type to bully, I guess.” Akihiko shrugged and started up the stairs. “Most of the residents don’t think about it much.”
“I see…” Then he’d just try and follow that example. Getting caught up with too many people wouldn’t be good for him. It never was.
“Minato!” How did his sister always know when he was thinking something negative? Was it a sixth, twin-related, sense or something? If it was, why did his never seem to be as good as hers was?
“What is it, Minako?”
“You keep over thinking like that and you’ll fall down the stairs!” She paused before giving him a smile and fluttering her eyelashes. “Unless you want Sanada-kun to have to catch you!”
“You know that’s not what it is, you brat.” He frowned, or maybe it was more pouted, at her.
“It was a joke, you brat!” She stuck her tongue out at him and kept moving up the stairs. “I mean, come on, you know it was!”
“Yeah, doesn’t mean I have to like it. Besides, weren’t you the one who just had to be caught by Teddie…?”
“That was your fault!”
Teddie blinked a few times, peeking around Minako at Minato. “Whoa, your relationship bearly seems healthy.”
“You just haven’t seen us when we’re not tired and in the middle of a move, I promise it’s usually much better than this.” Minako gave an awkward laugh and looked back at Teddie. “It’s been a long day, is all.”
“Besides, some bickering between siblings is healthy, isn’t it?” Akihiko looked behind himself, only to lose his footing and fall.
Minato, without even thinking about it, dropped the boxes in his hands and caught Akihiko at the last moment, barely keeping himself on the step. That could’ve been really bad, if he hadn’t kept his footing, ugh. Minako and Teddie would’ve gone down too--
As if the world was against him, though, he slipped back just far enough that he went falling down. Soon enough he was hitting into Minako and they were falling further, Teddie trying and failing to catch them. Next was going to be Theodore and then there would be injuries and pain all around. Just what Minato had wanted to avoid with this move.
He closed his eyes and decided if he couldn’t stop the fall he’d at least brace himself as best he could and try to lessen the injuries to Akihiko (Minako and Teddie being under him made it basically impossible to help them without more quick thinking than he had at the moment). He took a deep breath, throwing his hands in front of himself to try and push Akihiko up the stairs, away from the fall and--
And they never hit the ground. In fact, they stopped moving, as if they’d all been caught by something or someone. Cracking an eye open, he glanced over his shoulder and there was Theodore, having not budged an inch, holding Teddie up with one hand. How in the hell could he support them all with one hand? No one could be that strong, could they?
“Are you all alright? That seemed like it was going to end badly!” And he was acting so casual about this too, was this normal here? Judging by the look on Teddie’s face, it wasn’t.
“W-Well!” As if realizing a huge mistake Theodore stumbled back a bit and fell over in such a way that no one really got hurt. “We should hurry up and make it to your apartment, before someone falls again!”
--
Finally they made it to the apartment and Minato sighed. That had been an adventure, to say the least, and something about Theodore was really off to him after the incident on the stairs. Was this apartment really a good idea?
“Minato, you’re doing it again…” Minako sighed and shook her head. “How to deal with this…?”
Before he could ask what she meant, she gave him a push of her own, right into Akihiko. Unlike Teddie, though, he wasn’t able to prepare himself to catch Minato and went stumbling back himself. Soon enough it was like a bad snowball effect, hitting into Teddie and then into Theodore, who happened to have his back turned this time.
“Oh, you guys…!” Minako paused and jumped back a step, seemingly in fear of something.
“What is it, a monster?” Minato hoped his joke helped Minako calm down about...whatever it was.
Akihiko looked behind him and laughed. “No, it’s not a monster, just Shinji. His face is kinda scary, though.”
Minato peeked over Akihiko’s shoulder and blinked. Looked like someone had stopped Theodore from face planting, and that someone must’ve been that Shinji guy.
“Oh, Shinjiro, thank you very much!” Theodore straightened himself quickly and took a step back.
Shinjiro shrugged a bit and looked over at Akihiko, a frown on his face. “Aki, new friend of yours?”
Akihiko blinked a few times before both he and Minato realized they were pressed up against each other still. Well, that wouldn’t have mattered if someone hadn’t pointed it out, right? Minato told himself that that was the case.
“Wow, Sanada-kun, your face is really red right now!” Minako just had to note that as she moved in front of them to help Teddie up, didn’t she?
“Don’t know who this lady is, but she’d right Aki, your face is about the shade of a tomato right now,” Shinjiro seemed to say that with a laugh held back.
“Like you can talk, Shinji!” Akihiko seemed raring to go now, yet didn’t move to push Minato away. “Did you not notice the new addition to your arm?”
Shinjiro glanced over and shrugged when he noticed Theodore standing very close to his side. “Doesn’t he always do this to people?”
“I mean, fair enough, but still. Seems to usually be you.” Akihiko rose an eyebrow, as if he was challenging Shinjiro to deny it.
Shinjiro, however, just shook his head (though Minato was pretty sure he could see a glint of Shinjiro thinking about saying something before that) and turned to look at the twins. “So you two are moving in, huh?”
Minako, still looking at least a little putoff by this all, smiled and nodded. “Yep, yes we are!”
“...I see.” Shinjiro nodded a bit and looked around at the people nearby. “Quite the group you have helping with the move, huh?”
“We just kept getting more and more help, I guess.” Minato shrugged, moving to stand next to his sister. She had the key right now and needed to open the door…
“I see, well--”
“Minato! Minako! I knew I’d find you two here!”
Minato wasted no time taking the boxes from Minako. If he hadn’t done that, he was sure they’d be smashed into almost nothing from Minako’s anger. Of course, of course this was going to happen.
“Ryoji…”