Oden Delivery (Karabita Story)

  Chibita lifted and tilted his cutting board, using the edge of his knife to sweep some onions into the hot broth in front of him. After placing the kitchenware back on the counter of his oden cart, he stared off into the night half expecting to see someone walking down the dark street. The rain had finally let up which helped but it was still unseasonably cold that night. Chibita never let the cold bother him though, the heat coming off the oden was more than enough to warm him up. He took a deep breath, enjoying the cool night air but found his thoughts interrupted by the clank of a fork and a burp. “More!” Osomatsu demanded, his mouth packed with food.

Chibita turned back toward the five identical brothers sat in front of him, gobbling and slurping their meals and gulping down beer. He snatched the plate that Oso was pushing into his face “Maybe finish what's in your mouth first, ya idjit!” Chibita barked. Oso swallowed hard and rubbed his nose with the back of his finger.  

“Oi...” Chibita tossed a plate full of food back in front of the eldest 'matsu “Where's your brother?”  

“Brother?” Osomatsu pondered “What brother?” 

“We're all here, aren't we?” Todomatsu asked without bothering to look up from his phone. 

 
“I think he means Shittymatsu...” Ichimatsu mumbled between bites.  

“Karamatsu-niisan stayed home.” Jyushimatsu quipped.  

Choromatsu sipped his beer “He hurt his foot.”  

“He...” Chibita began but stopped himself, wondering if he should try to hide his concern. He felt like he'd been a little too obvious about his silly crush lately and the brothers had been giving him a hard time. There was no need to provide them with any additional fodder now. He crossed his arms in an attempt to act casual and started again “He hurt his foot?” 

Choro leaned forward on his elbows, his cheeks blushing from intoxication “He fell off the roof.”  

“The hell??” Chibita's arms flew up, all pretenses of not being concerned flying right out the window “Why was he on the roof?” 

 
The brothers all started yapping at once:  

“He wouldn't stop making noise!”  “He was singing again!”  “We all pushed him!”  “He's so obnoxious!”  “We made him go up to the roof!”    

“You forced him outside in this weather?” Chibita asked, his voice growing louder. “It's been pouring all day! Is he okay? How bad did he hurt his foot? How could you all leave him at home alone when this was your fault?”  

“It's not our fault he's a klutz!” Osomatsu said with annoyance. “And we were hungry.” 

 
The boys all returned to eating and drinking, their callousness leaving Chibita speechless.

    
  Karamatsu sat on the sofa waiting for his brothers to return. It was getting late, his parents had already turned in for the night but now he'd gotten so hungry. He decided he couldn't wait any longer and stood up on his good foot in an attempt to make his way to the kitchen. He managed a few good hops toward the door before losing his balance and landing on his injured ankle. A jolt of pain shot up his leg and he quickly stifled a yelp. 

He turned back around with tears in his eyes and carefully hopped back to the safety of the sofa.  

He hadn't realized how badly he'd hurt himself and tried to play it off like it was no big deal in front of his brothers but now with his foot swollen and throbbing, he wondered if he should have been more forthcoming. He felt foolish as tears streamed down his face, plopping down onto his pajamas leaving tell-tale splotches. Realizing his siblings could come home at any minute, he wiped the tears away with his sleeve and attempted to calm himself down. 

He took a few deep breaths, closing his eyes and rubbing his palms on his knees trying to think of something he could do that would calm his nerves.  

  Chibita let himself into the Matsuno house. He assumed Karamatsu was still awake by the glow of the light coming from the sextuplets bedroom. He didn't want to take a chance of waking Mr. and Mrs. Matsuno so he slid the front door shut quietly and made his way silently up the stairs. On the way he could hear the faint sound of solemn singing, which was low but became slightly more prominent as he approached the boys' room. He stopped short of the door... He could see Karamatsu inside through a small gap where the door was slightly ajar. The boy looked miserable... it wasn't often that Chibita was able to catch him during candid moments... when he wasn't pretending everything was fine no matter how hurt he was. Chibita had been looking forward to seeing him, but now found himself filled with shame...  this felt a bit like spying and he knew Karamatsu wouldn't want to be seen this way... He looked down at the box in his hand then the bag of items hanging in the crook of his arm... a twinge of embarrassment sending a chill through his body. He suddenly felt very out of place. 

'Maybe... I shouldn't be here...' Chibita thought 'I could just leave right now... and he'd never know I came...' He and Karamatsu had been friends for a very long time, in the past he would have never thought twice about barging in on any of the sextuplets... but sometime within the past year something had changed. Now he felt nervous and awkward every time he found himself around Karamatsu...    

Chibita waited in the hall a moment more trying to decide what to do. He thought about Karamatsu's injury... he needed to see how bad it was. He had very little faith that his brothers would actually care for his foot so he mustered up the courage to slide open the door.   

 
Startled, Karamatsu seemed to choke on the last note of his sad song “Chibita! What... what are you doing here?”  

Chibita rubbed his head “I heard about what happened... I... brought you some oden.” He said holding up the box in his hands meekly. His eyes refused to stop looking at the carpet.  

 Karamatsu's stomach made a soft rumbly sound breaking the tension. Chibita couldn't help but laugh “Kekekekeke... I guess I don't need to ask if you're hungry, Kara-boy.”  

“Heh!” Karamatsu placed a hand on his belly, slightly embarrassed by it's betrayal. But mostly he felt relief that Chibita was there.  

Chibita placed the box on the sofa beside Karamatsu along with the bag of goods he'd brought with him. “Let me take a look at your foot first...” He bent down (which admittedly wasn't very far for Chibita) and was surprised to see how swollen it was. “Damnit, ya idijit! You should really have this elevated!” Chibita whipped off his coat and tromped across the room to retrieve a large box from the closet. He slid it in front of Karamatsu and carefully lifted the boy's leg, propping his foot on top of the box. He began removing items from his bag; a brand new ace bandage and a reusable ice pack, already frozen and ready to use along with a couple of beers to take the edge off. He handed a can to Karamatsu who held it gingerly. Normally he'd be waxing poetic about the selfless act of staying home so his brothers wouldn't worry too much about him... but Chibita's kindness had left him with nothing to say.  

“Tell me if this is too tight...” Chibita said as he began wrapping the bandage around Karamatsu's ankle.   

Karamatsu nodded “That... actually feels a lot better, Chibita.”    

“Ah, good! It's probably just a sprain, hopefully it'll be better in a few days.” Chibita secured the bandage with the clips it came with and draped the ice pack over the boy's foot. “There we go.”  

Karamatsu lifted the oden box into his lap and opened the flaps. The condensation from the hot items dripped out and Chibita hopped up from the floor. “Let me get you a towel.”  

Chibita rushed from the room and returned with a small kitchen towel in hand. With a tilt of his head, Kara beckoned Chibita over to the sofa and the small man had to hold back from running across the room. Karamatsu looked over the food items in the box. Golden brown and still warm they smelled so good. Chibita leaned toward Karamatsu, resting his head on the boy's shoulder half expecting some protest... but that just wasn't Karamatsu. No matter how many times Chibita had snuggled up to him, Kara never complained. It was obvious that he craved any sort of physical affection.    

“Arigato, Chibita.” He said, carefully selecting an item from the box. 

“Eh, it's no problem. I figured you must be getting hungry, it wasn't any trouble to pack a box up for you at the end of the night. Besides, your brothers ate most of it tonight anyway...”  

Karamatsu swallowed his bite “Where are my burazas anyway?”

  
Chibita's face flushed and he turned his head away, a low whistle escaping his lips. 

  “Chibita?” 

Bonus Epilogue: 

 
Chibita: “Karamatsu... what was that song you were singing before?”

Karamatsu: “Ah, yes... just something I've been working on recently.”

“You wrote it?”

“Heh, of course! It's about the beauty of friendship in summer.”

“If I go get your guitar, can I hear it?”

“Ch-chibita... really?”

“Kekekeke, I'll be right back...” 

Hey, everyone! So, this is a Karabita story I've had in the works for a really long time now and I'm happy to finally be able to get it completed! This is my first time attempting to write Osomatsu San fan fiction so I really hope I did an okay job. If you've been following my Karabita art for a while, you'll probably know that Chibita has a crush on Karamatsu in my AU, and while Chibita is less than subtle with his advances he still hasn't really come right out and said anything either and Kara is a bit oblivious. I do plan for that to change in the future but I wanted to get the ball rolling on this story first before moving on to deeper stuff with their relationship.

I intended to keep this story funny and light but a little bit of angst slipped in there anyway... hopefully it still flows okay and isn't too heavy. I really had a lot of fun working on the text and illustrations. I don't feel like you really need to be all that familiar with these characters to get some enjoyment from this story, but I'd be curious to hear your thoughts. If you have some comments, please feel free to leave them below.
 

Thanks so much for reading and for your support! I hope you are all having a great day!