Thread by @meekswrites

You know how when the Miya brothers start fighting, everyone kind of laughs and comes running to watch?

I just get the sense that no one else fights them, and this is all their peers get. And this is why. [Cue ugly ramble and no writer brain.]

CW: Violence, bullying (I think) +

As kids, they always had each other. Even at their most antagonistic, they paired up for activities and drills automatically - not necessarily out of desire to be together more than they already were, but often out of a sense of competition.

And others, perhaps intimidated by their determination to win, often shied away from them.

Aran Ojiro was an exception. He had the quiet steel of independence and resolve that the twins admired and wished to emulate.

They fought for his attention sometimes, and, when necessary, he’d always partner up with anyone but one of the twins out of fairness.

He also could tell them apart long before they started dying their hair.

Still, when they were particularly tiresome, he’d call them each by the wrong name, as if it were a slip, to startle them out of their argument. Their looks of betrayal were a bit heartbreaking though, so he saved that approach for dire circumstances only.

And as they grew older, their personalities began to diverge in clearer ways to people around them.

Osamu was approachable, calmer without his brother, and he would agree to a teacher or fellow student’s request easily. But afterward, he’d sometimes completely ignore it entirely, just not do it at all, if he didn’t want to.

Atsumu was rowdier and needed more attention without his brother at his side. He’d argue loudly and stomp his feet, scowl, snap back with insults, but he’d comply with any request in the end after his thoughts were aired.

Atsumu’s flaring reactions made him a bigger target for kids with a penchant for snapping back as loudly as him. But Osamu’s indifference bought him some ire too.

One time, after school, someone had beef with Osamu and started shoving him.

Of course, Atsumu was right there too behind his brother and took a flying leap before Osamu could respond.

“I wasn’t even talking to //you//!” the kid yelled. And he looked up past Atsumu’s glare at Osamu’s impassive expression.

“When you talk to him, you talk to //me//!” Atsumu shouted back before the kid shoved him off and ran away. After Osamu helped him up, Atsumu cried, overwhelmed with emotion. Osamu felt gracious and held his snotty hand all the way home.

Another time, Atsumu came into the cafeteria with a split lip, boasting about being the victor in a fight. But Osamu took one look at him, saw his red-rimmed eyes from crying, and knew the toll of winning.

The next day, he found the kid that hit his brother, bunched a fist in his collar, and hit him once, twice, three times in the mouth - a punch each for the split lip and two red-rimmed eyes he saw on his brother.

“Touch him again,” he said evenly, and the kid nodded, crying, not needing an end to the threat.

Atsumu stared at Osamu’s raw knuckles that night when they nudged at each other for space over the sink as they brushed their teeth. It was clear he knew what they were from, a twin set of abrasions on his own knuckles, but

he just caught eyes with Osamu for an extra second and never said a word about it.

And the next day, if he nudged the chocolate-flavored pudding onto Osamu’s tray, Osamu didn’t mention it either.

He accepted it calmly, but he also kept his own vanilla pudding and stared Atsumu down, daring him to try to take it. “You still owe me three more,” Osamu said.

And after that, kids learned not to mess with one of the Miyas lest they want to deal with both.

And later, Osamu says he doesn’t want to be like Atsumu. He wants to be nice. And it isn’t just because Atsumu isn’t nice, because he is, really, deep down.

But more so because,worth he proper incentive, Osamu knows he himself can be ugly, vicious, petty and vindictive in ways Atsumu isn’t. He has a further path to go to being “nice,” when all is said and done.

Still, he remembers it sometimes, that split lip and two red-rimmed eyes, and he thinks he’ll always forgo nice in a heartbeat.

///

This is messy.

Also hahaha wow past tense! Where did that come from?