[ When Renji told me that Ayame-san had a few words with my brother, I did not realize that would mean Akihiko would want to, quite literally, have a... brother to brother discussion, if that's what it can be called. For the first time since I can remember, he treated me out for dinner, and then we wandered around the neighborhood for about an hour and a half; we ended up at a nearby park where we used to go together in the summertime when we were children.
For years Akihiko and I have been... hn. Not growing apart, per se, but as a general rule our personalities have clashed and we haven't been able to jump that hurdle in a long time. My brother will always be one of the most important people in my life, but admittedly, neither he or I had really been recognizing that as well as we should have been all this time.
I now understand why he did what he did. The conclusion I drew was premature and ultimately resulted in making a mistake that, while rectified, was still a mistake that never should have been made, and only I can be of fault for that. However, from this point forward he is not going to say anything regarding it as long as I pay more attention to my surroundings if I want to keep it relatively low key. It may have been merely Akihiko last time, but what would happen if that person was my grandfather? Father? Is it not a situation of which I would like to find myself in.
Akihiko is always going to be Akihiko - he cannot change the person he is. But even with that in mind, I do hope from this point forward he will be more respectful of both my feelings and the events that happen in my life. In addition, I believe we're going to start doing something at least once every couple of weeks just the two of us - what that will be, I'm not sure, but I'm looking forward to spending proper time with him, again. My mother would certainly be thrilled.
Furthermore, I'm going to cease to think so extensively about the far off future and take things one day at a time. I will miss out on important things if I allow myself to become too wrapped up in family duty and responsibilities - I have an entire lifetime ahead of me for that. ]
May I ask when my hat will be returned to me?
[ooc: private cut viewable to Renji, Seiichi and Atobe.]