Title: Big Brother's Instinct
Fandom: Kamen Rider Gaim
Rating: G
Length: 384 words.
Content Notes: Really spoilery for episode 36, including all the implications of what Takatora is planning to do with his sister. Michi is a genderbent Mitsuzane. And because this is late-series Gaim, it's seriously depressing.
Author's notes: Same universe as my AO3 fic "Smoothing Skirts", featuring Takatora as the main POV character and mentioning stuff from chapter 6.
Summary: He should have seen Kouta's worth earlier.


Takatora noticed that Kazuraba had an odd smile on his face after they'd finished talking about where Michi had gone wrong. Karazuba clearly blamed himself for Michi's path into darkness when it was all Takatora's fault, and Takatora wished he would stop.

He wished that he could adopt Kazuraba - probably could, given how he was going to have to kill his baby sister to save the world, and their family did need a hero to get rid of the really bad reputation Yggdrasill had at the moment. Kazuraba was far more intelligent and insightful than Takatora had thought.

"What are you thinking about?" he prompted. He resolved to get some real food into Kazuraba after he took care of Michi. If he couldn't be the warm older brother that he should have been to Michi, he could damn well be it for Kazuraba. Kouta, his mind told him. If he was going to adopt the other Rider, he could damn well address him by his given name instead of his family name.

"I couldn't figure out why Michi didn't want to talk about her family, or let me take her home one time. Sometimes I just got confused by her. I thought it was because she was so bright."

"Michi was pretty secretive." Takatora wanted to reassure him again that there was nothing he could have done. Then Kouta's words hit him "Wait, take her home?"

"She didn't want to go home that night after she rescued me and Kaito. She wouldn't explain why. I offered to pose as her boyfriend so they'd get upset at me, not her. She told me her older brother would likely kill me if I did that."

Takatora found himself laughing despite the situation. "I probably would have, to be honest. I didn't know you then, though I knew your name and face pretty well. Actually, you'd have made a good boyfriend for her."

Funny how he saw things so perfectly in hindsight. To know that this street rat would have been there for Michi no matter what so that she wouldn't have done such awful things. If only he hadn’t looked down on Kouta so much. Well, soon he would fix his mistakes, and then he would ask Kouta to be a Kureshima, and all would be right with the world.