Tobirama

"I'll just go to my room! I need my charger!"

Izuna jumped out of his chair happily, basically skipped over the floor and out to the lobby.

"Tobirama..."

I jerked. I hadn't noticed I was staring after him.

I looked at Hashirama, and he was looking at me with a concerned expression. His suitcase was still beside him; he would have time to install himself into his room after the working day.

"What's wrong?" he asked. 

"Leave it", I said. I didn't want to ask 'What do you mean?' because I didn't want to hear the answer.

"Come on, you can tell me."

"I said, leave it."

Hashirama looked genuinely hurt, but so was I. Truth was, I was angry with him. When I heard him talk with Izuna, when I heard Izuna laugh at his jokes... He had even asked Izuna for his number, and Izuna had given it to him, just like that. And I was angry with my brother for it. But I had no reason to be.

Hashirama did leave it, and why shouldn't he? He had always respected my desire of privacy. But something was different this time. It felt strange, this tension between us, since I had never been mad at him before, but I couldn't tell him what the matter was because I didn't know myself. The airy, light mood that always surrounded us was gone, replaced by a suffocating negative energy that pressed on our eardrums.

"I'm back!" Izuna said, holding the charger above his head triumphantly. He really had an interesting style, I noticed, quite alternative while at the same time being very neat. "It took a while since I couldn't- Oh..."

He had noticed the mood change. Sensitive soul, I thought. Not like the models I used to date, that always stormed into any room to try and grab all the attention, or whatever crumb of it they could get.

"Should I leave?" my employee asked tentatively.

"Nonsense", Hashirama said. "Actually, there's a Japanese term in my documents I would like some help with. I don't succeed in my Google search."

They continued working, as did I, or tried to, but I had a hard time focussing. The cheerful mood between Izuna and my brother was gone, and it made me feel terribly guilty. Finally, with one hour left of the working day (for them; I would probably work until midnight) Izuna couldn't take it anymore, and I didn't blame him.

"I don't think I'll have any more questions. I'll finish this up in my room. I haven't found anything yet, Mr Senju, but I promise to report to you as soon as I find anything of interest."

His formal tone hurt me. Why? It had never hurt me before. I wished he would use the same familiar way of speaking as the one he used so naturally when he spoke to Hashirama.

"Don't forget to take your weekend off", I reminded him. "See you on Monday."

"Thank you, Sir. Enjoy your weekend."

I knew I wouldn't. 

Izuna

The day after, I sat looking out of my window in the morning, still marvelling at the fact that I was living in Tokyo. I tried to make up a plan for my Saturday, and suddenly, a thought struck me.

Me: Do you have any plans today? I would like to ask you to show me that cafe you were talking about :) 

Hashirama: Sure! :) I was going to ask my brother if he needed any help, but I can't get hold of him, so I'm free :*

I blushed. Did the man just add a kissing emoji?

Me: Great!

Hashirama: Lobby in 30 min? Coffee and cakes will be my treat ;)

Me: Wow, thank you! I will make sure to buy the most expensive one then ;) xx C u in 30!

Hashirama: Of course ;) xx

I was, without a doubt, excited. I liked the man, and he had been incredibly easy to converse with.  I brushed my hair and put on an oversized sweater and tight, ripped black jeans. I took a backpack and left, no coat today.

Hashirama was already standing in the lobby, looking incredibly stylish in a blue shirt and cream chinos, a pair of sunglasses resting on top of his shiny, chestnut hair that was pulled back in a loose knot. I found I blushed at the thought of my alternative self walking next to this preppy man.

"Good morning, lovely!" he said happily.

"Hi", I said stupidly.

I was afraid it would be awkward from there, but Hashirama took control with ease.

"Let's go! Breakfast was hours ago! I didn't see you there."

"I like to sleep a lot", I said shame-facedly. 

Hashirama laughed, and with that, he turned and started walking, and I had to hurry to keep up with his long-legged stride.

Hashirama was pure gentleman, pointing at sights as we walked along the buzzing streets. After half an hour or so we came to the cafe, which was modern and tidy, as basically everything in Tokyo was, and decorated in pastels and creams. We bought four small cakes to share; a sakura cheesecake, a strawberry and cream cake; a matcha tiramisu and a pistachio cream puff tart. Hashirama bought us a matcha latte each and we sat down to eat in amicable company.

"I didn't know Mr Senju had a brother", I said, trying not to sound too interested.

"We're not really brothers", Hashirama said. "By blood, I mean. But we are in every other sense of the word. We were in the same foster family for about a year when we were teens."

"Oh", I said.

"Yeah. We bonded as our names were so similar."

I asked him a bit more about his upbringing, and I found he was kind and funny. He was also interested in me, in my family and friends and previous life in North Carolina. It could be like this, I found myself thinking. I don't have to strive towards something unobtainable. I can be with a kind, sweet man like Hashirama and be happy with my life.

I smiled at him, took a piece of strawberry cake on my fork. Its flavours exploded in my mouth. 

When we had finished our cakes, I found I wasn't ready to part with him quite yet.

"I would love to go hiking one day, so I need to buy a pair of hiking boots."

"Perfect!" Hashirama said happily.

Turned out, he needed a new suitcase since his had broken on the flight here, so we decided to do some shopping together. He offered me his arm as it was the most natural thing in the whole world, and I took it. I found a pair of boots, and Hashirama found a suitcase, but we still didn't want to part. We kept going to different shops, and even a samurai museum. At some point, Hashirama took my hand to drag me with him to view the oldest samurai sword known in the world, and after that, he didn't let go. As we stood still in front of an armour, Hashirama turned to me.

"It's been a few hours since the cakes", he pointed out. "Would you be up for some food?"

I kept looking straight ahead at the armour without really seeing it.

"How about ordering room service from the hotel?"

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Hashirama smirk.

Back at the hotel, though, I would see something that would break my heart.