Aiden to Haru Read online

  SMASHWORDS EDITION

  Copyright © 2019 by Alexia X.

  Copyright © 2019 by Alexia Praks

  All Rights Reserved

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without agreement and written permission of the author. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

  Contact the author at alexiaxchann.com

  CONTENTS

  Aiden to Haru

  1. Haru

  2. Haru

  3. Aiden

  4. Haru

  5. Aiden

  6. Haru

  7. Haru

  8. Aiden

  9. Haru

  10. Haru

  11. Aiden

  12. Haru

  13. Aiden

  14. Haru

  15. Haru

  16. Aiden

  17. Haru

  18. Aiden

  19. Haru

  20. Haru

  21. Aiden

  22. Haru

  The Brothers Series

  Alexia’s Books

  About the Author

  AIDEN TO HARU

  Haru has finally revealed his forbidden feelings to his older stepbrother Aiden, which, to his amazement, is reciprocated. Now the couple has been dating for six months, and after a grueling exam period, the two, along with their brothers, head over to Japan for a much needed, long overdue winter vacation.

  Just when Haru is beginning to enjoy the trip and his blossoming relationship with Aiden, the appearance of Aiden’s old flame threatens to destroy Haru’s newfound happiness. Adding to the already unpleasant situation is the emergence of changes in two of his other stepbrothers’ behavior toward him, which confuses Haru, stirring up a different sort of emotions within him that are hard to explain.

  Haru’s story is a yaoi harem romance. The uke (Haru) will gain his men (semes) one at a time as his story progresses.

  1

  HARU

  MY RIGHT HAND was shaking like crazy by the time I was done with the essay, at the same time the exam invigilator’s voice echoed across the hall. “Time’s up. Pens down, please.”

  I gladly loosened my grip, with the pen landing on the sheet of paper on the desk with a light thud. I groaned, suddenly feeling so damn exhausted.

  The final league of this semester’s exam was grueling, and I admit I hadn’t a clue how well I did. If I was optimistic, I’d say it was a fifty-fifty, since I sucked at economics.

  After taking a sip of water to satisfy my thirst, I relaxed back against my seat, my head now swirling. The words were still floating around inside my head, and I suspected it’d take a few more minutes until they disappeared and left me in peace.

  I felt something hard, like the end of a ballpoint pen, poking on the side of my arm. I didn’t have to turn my head to see who was working on gaining my attention.

  Jess’s voice came, “How was it?”

  I rubbed the bridge of my nose as I mumbled, “Shit.”

  Jess chuckled. “That bad?” When I nodded, she said, “At least it’s over, right?”

  I nodded again. Damn right.

  It was over. The weeks of studying my ass off were finally over. At least until next semester started.

  It was some fifteen minutes later when we left the examination hall, along with throngs of other very relieved-looking students. I didn’t blame them. None of us had looked like we had had any sleep since the last of this semester’s lectures ended, marking the beginning of the dreaded exam period.

  As we walked out the door, I felt like a ton of weight had been lifted off my shoulders. This last month had been stressful, not just for me, but for Reo, Mason, and Isaac as well, since they, like me, were university students. If I remembered correctly, Isaac had his last exam today, whereas Mason and Reo had theirs yesterday.

  “Time to chill and celebrate,” Jess said, spreading her arms out as she grinned brightly. “It feels so good to stretch, though it’s a bit cold.”

  “Yeah, it is,” I said, tucking my hands into the pockets of my jacket.

  “So, are you looking forward to it?” Jess asked.

  I turned to look at her, wondering what she was on about. “Looking forward to what?”

  She grinned. “To going to Japan. I’m so envious of you.”

  Now that she mentioned it, I hadn’t been thinking about the trip, since I was too worried about exams.

  We had put it off, my brothers and I, due to studying, and of course, Noah’s and Aiden’s jobs. Well, for Aiden, he could take his vacation anytime he wanted, but for Noah, he had just started his employment, and it wouldn’t look good if he just up and left for a holiday so soon after.

  Since everyone insisted they wanted to go, Aiden had suggested it was a good idea to wait until the Christmas holidays, which also marked the end of the fall semester for me and the others.

  “I’m looking forward to it,” I said, smiling. “It’s going to be our first trip together, and out of the country, too.”

  Jess said, “First time you’re going back to your homeland?”

  I nodded.

  Though I had been very young when I had first left Japan, along with Mom and Reo, and I didn’t remember much, I still missed it, especially the winter season when the village was covered in snow and me and Reo spent our time playing outside, eating delicious seasonal food, and, the best of all, bathing in the hot spring.

  “Take heaps of photos,” Jess said. “I want to see you guys having fun.”

  “Hm.”

  It was a bit later when I was on the bus, heading home, and Jess was tagging along, claiming she hadn’t feasted her eyes on a gay couple being lovey-dovey for months now. I was surprised Jess had banned herself from reading BL manga so she could concentrate on studying. I bet she’d binge read tonight when she got home as a reward for working hard. This blond-haired, blue-eyed beauty was a hard-core fujoshi, after all.

  “Tadaima,” I said as we entered the apartment.

  “Okaeri,” Mason’s voice came from somewhere in the kitchen.

  Jess and I headed in that direction, and as we came in, we saw Mason giving us a warm smile. As usual, he looked charming, even more so today with that golden-blond hair cut and styled. He must have just had it cut this afternoon, since it didn’t look like that this morning before I had left for the exam. He was currently preparing some root vegetables, slicing them into pieces. I noted two chickens, still raw and in their packaging, sitting on the countertop, and I suspected we were having roast chicken tonight.

  “Preparing dinner?” I asked.

  Mason nodded. He glanced at Jess. “Hey, Jess.”

  “Hi, Mason,” Jess replied.

  “How did your exams go?” Mason asked.

  I pulled a face. “Can’t remember much now. I just know it was shit.”

  He chuckled merrily. “But you studied hard, so I’m sure you’ll pass.”

  Jess, already putting her bag down and taking her jacket off, was now rolling up her sleeves as she said, “It was super easy for me.”

  I didn’t expect to hear anything less from the golden girl. She had been the top student in our grade back in high school, after all. The girl had beauty and brains. I bet the guy who managed to claim her heart would be a damn lucky person.

  That idea caught me off guard.

  Wait a minute! Reo!

  He liked Jess, didn’t he? Now that I thought about it, he had always shown signs of liking Jess in a romantic sense. I mean he was always teasing her and doing things to draw her attention to him.

  “Tadaima,” a voice echoed loudly from the hallway. “Anyone home?”

  Speak of the devil.

  I flicked my gaze to Jess and saw her jolt in her spot the moment Reo’s voice came. She was blushing red, too. This intensified my suspicion that Jess also liked Reo in a romantic way.

  “In the kitchen,” Mason said. “We’re preparing dinner.”

  “We?” Reo’s voice came again. “Don’t tell me that brat Haru is helping you with the cooking, Mason. He’ll burn the food and we’ll have to have takeout for dinner again.” This was followed by a merry chuckle.

  I frowned. As usual, that blood brother of mine was making fun of me.

  When he grandly appeared at the door, I gave him a good glare and said, “I’ve only ever burnt our meal once, Reo, and that was two years ago. I’m better at cooking now, thanks to Aiden.”

  “Is that so?” Reo said, clearly showing signs of doubting my statement. He flicked his gaze to Jess then and gave her a smile. “Hey, Jess.”

  “Hi, Reo,” Jess replied, still blushing.

  Reo came over and tousled my hair as he asked, “How’s the exam?” He turned to Jess and patted her head, too, which made her flush even redder in the face.

  Jess said, “It…it was easy.”

  I, on the other hand, didn’t comment, knowing he’d lecture me if I were to tell him I wasn’t confident in my results. Instead, I rushed to the door and before disappearing, I said, “I’ll just put my bag away. By the way, Jess is staying for dinner.”

  Mason said,
“Good. Let’s celebrate now that everyone has finished their exams for this semester.”

  In my closet-sized bedroom, I left my bag on the floor. I was just unzipping my jacket when my cell phone buzzed. Quickly retrieving it from my jeans pocket, I saw that it was Aiden’s name on the screen.

  “Hey,” I said to the man I had been in love with since middle school and had been dating for the last six months.

  “Haru?” Aiden’s deep voice came through. “How did it go?”

  I sighed. Everyone just had to ask about my exam, didn’t they? I guessed it couldn’t be helped. I had been stressing out about it, after all, and they were worried.

  “I don’t know how well I did, but it’s over and done with now,” I said as I fell back on the bed.

  “It’s good to hear you sounding relieved,” Aiden said.

  He could tell I was relieved by the sound of my voice? As expected of Aiden.

  “I’m glad. Even if you failed, you can always repeat. There’s no need to rush.”

  I guessed he was right. There was no need for me to rush. There was no need for me to kill myself stressing out about not passing exams. If I couldn’t do it the first time, there was always a second chance. Worst case scenario would be for me to change courses.

  “I’ll be home in half an hour. I’m just leaving the office now.”

  This was Aiden’s habit, since we started dating. He always either phoned or texted to tell me when he’d be home.

  “Okay,” I said. “See you soon.”

  “Yeah,” he said. “See you soon. Love you.”

  “I…I love you, too,” I stammered.

  I heard him chuckling, probably amused, and I quickly ended the call. I headed back into the kitchen to see Reo preparing the chickens while Mason put the vegetables onto the baking tray and Jess cleaned the benchtop. I rolled up my sleeves and pitched in as well, helping Jess with the cleaning.

  It wasn’t long when Isaac, followed by Noah and Aiden, arrived home. As usual, Isaac made a lot of noise, this time chatting nonstop about his latest exam, which he had just finished. Noah, on the other hand, loosened his tie before he got himself a beer from the fridge and then went to sit on a chair behind the dining table. He looked worn out. Working at a gaming company must be tough, especially if you were a member of the marketing team.

  Aiden came to me the moment he walked in through the door, and before I knew it, he planted a solid kiss on my lips, which took me by surprise.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jess watching us, a big grin plastered on her face.

  I also happened to see Noah looking pissed as hell as he slammed the can of beer down on the table, while Mason looked rather gloomy. Eh?

  When Aiden moved back, I asked, “How was work?”

  “It was fine.” He chuckled. “Finally, I’m getting a decent vacation.”

  “Your last day at work before the vacation?” Jess asked.

  Aiden nodded. “How was the exam, Jess?”

  She chuckled. “Piece of cake.”

  Aiden tousled Jess’s hair. “As expected of you.”

  2

  HARU

  NOAH STILL HADN’T UTTER a word by the time we settled down for dinner, and none of us wanted to bother him, since he looked ready to chew our heads off. And of course, dinner was, once again, as rowdy as usual, especially with Isaac.

  “It totally sucks that none of my friends are coming along for the trip, but I’m so pumped and ready for it,” he said, beaming. “Like I heard hot springs are crazy awesome in Japan. And Hokkaido is especially beautiful in the winter, with all the snow and stuff.”

  Reo said, “Hokkaido is beautiful in summer, too, with the blue sky and the sea.”

  “And the seafood,” Isaac said as he eagerly picked more pieces of chicken from the tray in the middle of the dining table. “I can’t wait to eat a load of seafood.”

  “Me, too,” Mason said. “But I heard winter is really cold in Japan, right? Especially in Hokkaido where we’re staying with Uncle Jin?”

  This conversation regarding our trip to Japan continued until dinner was done, by which time Noah had silently disappeared to his room, probably to have a good night’s rest and recuperation. Jess decided to leave as well, since she had a few things to do, and Reo had offered to drop her off in a used car he had just bought a month ago. Before she departed, Jess explicitly reminded me again at the door to take heaps of photos. She had insisted that most of them were to be of me and Aiden doing lovey-dovey stuff, and she especially stipulated at least a few of them should be of us wearing kimonos.

  After convincing her that I’d fulfil her request, I shut the front door and returned to my room to retrieve some clothes. Then I headed into the bathroom and took a shower.

  Done and dressed in pajamas some ten minutes later, now feeling fresh and clean, I returned to my room, only to see Isaac there. He was taking out my clothes from the drawers and leaving them on the bed.

  I asked, “What are you doing?”

  Isaac looked at me for a moment and then said, “Exam period is over, isn’t it?”

  I raised a brow. “Yeah. But what does that have anything to do with you doing that?” I pointed to my clothes on the bed. “Or are you so pumped for the trip that you decided to help me pack? But seriously, I don’t need that many clothes for the trip. We’re only going for three weeks.”

  Isaac laughed as he waved my reasoning aside. “That’s not it, Haru. I’m helping you move.” He grinned cheekily. “Aren’t I a great bro?”

  I still didn’t understand what he meant and asked, “Move?”

  “To Aiden’s room,” he said. “You guys are practically husband and wife now, so it’s strange for you two to sleep in separate rooms.”

  Heat rushed to my face and I stammered, “It’s not strange. We’re only dating. We’re not a married couple.”

  Isaac rolled his eyes. “If you’re so traditional about it all, then you should just get married so you can move into Aiden’s room. I know he wants you to move in with him since you guys announced your relationship.”

  Really? Aiden had wanted me to move into his room since we started dating? I didn’t know that.

  I picked up my clothes from the bed.

  “What are you doing?” Isaac asked.

  “I’m putting these back into the drawers,” I said. “Even if I decide to move into Aiden’s room, this room is still mine.”

  “What? No way!”

  I chuckled. “So, is that why you took the initiative to do this? Because you think you’ll get this room as your man cave?”

  “Damn right, you little rascal!” He wrapped his arms around my shoulders tightly and teasingly rubbed my head with his knuckles. “I want this room, you hear. It’s your job to give it to your big bro.”

  “Ouch! Ouch!” I groaned loudly, chuckling at the same time. “Let go! Let me go!”

  The door flung opened then, and Noah’s roaring voice came, “For fuck’s sake! You two are too loud. Keep it down, will you!”

  Isaac and I froze in our spots and we stared at the disheveled-looking Noah. His complexion was damn pale. There were shadows under his eyes, too.

  “Sorry,” I said.

  “You okay, bro?” Isaac asked. “You look like shit.”

  Isaac got that right. Noah looked like shit, not only tonight, but for the past several months. His mood seemed to have gone from jovial to moody to plain exhaustion and a roaring demon since he started work six months ago.