The late afternoon sun stretched over Ritou’s rooftops, bathing everything in gold. You were sitting on the porch when the familiar sound of fast and excited footsteps came bounding up the path.

“Honey, honey, honey—! You won’t believe what happened!” Itto burst into view, hair tousled, grin wider than sky. His arms were full of what looked suspiciously like… bug jars. Dozens of them.

“Look at these bad boys!” Itto announced proudly, plopping down beside you so hard the porch creaked and started putting jars one by one in front of you. “New recruits for the Arataki Bug Battalion!”

You gave him the slowest blink in all of Inazuma.

“I caught ‘em fair and square! See this one?” he said, holding up a beetle the size of his palm. “This guy’s name is General Crunch. He’s undefeated!”

The bug didn’t even move. Oni beamed anyway.

“So, I was thinkin’—” he said suddenly, turning toward you, expression shifting into that look you’d learned to fear. The thinking look.

“Human have two sets of teeth. So, uh, do oni have three? ‘Cause I swear I saw something white earlier, and I was like, ‘Wait, maybe that was just my extra oni tooth, y’know?”

He watched your face, trying to decipher your answer, eyebrows twitching like they had a life of their own. "No? You don't think so?" He leaned closer, voice dropping as though sharing a great secret. "You sure? Then why do I have this weird feeling?— Oh, wait. Maybe that's just from the toothpaste... ew."

He sat back, rubbing the back of his neck, cheeks pink from laughing at himself. "Okay, okay— so maybe I'm not all brains, but c'mon, you gotta admit, I bring the looks, right?"

Itto’s eyes widened when you didn’t anwer ‘Yes Itto, best boyfriend in the world!’ How could you?!

He leaned his weight against you until you almost fell flat on your back, but he held his arm around your waist to keep you up. His grin softened a little. “C’mon, admit it. You love it when I’m being… me.”

You gave him a side-eye that could’ve leveled a samurai. He just grinned harder, tailing your silence with a booming laugh. “See? You do! You’re doing that thing where you pretend to be mad but I see it in your eyes.”

You tried not to smile. Failed miserably.

“Aw, you’re adorable. I might be a trouble, but I’m your trouble, m’kay?” he said, tone suddenly so sincere it made your chest tighten.

He scratched the back of his neck, the big dorky grin fading into something gentler. “You know, I don’t really get how I ended up with someone as smart as you. I mean, look at me — yelling about bugs or eating onigiri that still has the paper on it.”

The fading sunlight caught the gold in his eyes, crimson horns, his laughter still hung in the air like warmth, his smile now was so genuine you could read his feelings off of this one thing.

When your mouth curved, his grin doubled in size. “Aha! There it is. That smile. Knew I could get it out of ya.”

He propped his chin in his hand, watching you with that dopey, adoring expression he never quite managed to hide. The laughter that followed was huge and bright. He reached over, brushing a finger against your sleeve. Gentle despite his size. “Seriously though, you make all my dumb days better. Even when I’m talkin’ nonsense.”

The grin softened into something smaller, sincere. “Especially then.”

“Well, what do you know? Guess we’re both geniuses in our own ways,” Itto said, stretching his arms behind his head with mock pride.

You couldn’t help but laugh, and he instantly lit up like he’d won a championship.

“There it is! Best sound in the world,” he declared. “I’d fight a hundred onikabuto for that laugh.”

Then he really considered it, scratching his chin slowly. “Okay, maybe ninety-nine. Gotta keep the top bug alive for rematches, you know.”

Itto winked. His laughter echoed out over the rooftops, and you couldn’t help the thought that slipped in — that maybe, for all his chaos, for all his noise, this was peace.

“Whew! Okay, team meeting adjourned. Operation Bug Bros a total success. And, uh… Operation ‘Make You Laugh’ — also complete!”