….
As the youngest of Hikigaya household, the girl knew three important things about the world:
One: Papa gave the best hugs when he was only half-awake.
Two: Onii-chan was the smartest person ever, even if he sometimes used too many big words.
Three: If you smiled at the right time, people forgot they were supposed to be mad at you.
That last one was very important.
She had learned it from Aunt Komachi, who visited often and always brought the best snacks.
Aunt Komachi had taught her lots of things - how to make her eyes extra sparkly when asking for dessert, how to tilt her head just right when someone was explaining something boring, and most importantly, how to read the room.
"Reading the room" meant knowing when grown-ups were about to say no, and doing something cute before they could finish the sentence.
It worked almost every time.
….
Tuesday morning started with a crisis.
Onii-chan had arranged all his books in a very specific order on the shelf - alphabetical, then by size, then by 'importance', whatever that meant.
The girl had been building a fort and needed something flat for the roof.
The book had been perfect.
"WHAT DID YOU DO?!"
She looked up from her fort to find her brother standing in the doorway, his face doing that thing where it got all tight and his eye twitched.
"I borrowed it?" she tried, using her most innocent voice.
"You BORROWED it? That was the first edition! Do you know what the first edition means?"
"...It's the first one?"
"It means you can't USE IT AS A ROOF!"
The girl's lip trembled.
She didn't actually want to cry - she was just checking if it would work.
Sometimes Onii-chan was immune to tears, but sometimes they made him feel bad and he had to help her instead of yelling.
Today, he looked torn.
"Don't… don't do that face." he said, but his voice had already softened. "Just... Why didn't you ask me first?"
"You were writing your essay about the trees." she said.
Which was true.
Onii-chan had moved on from pandas to deforestation, and he had been very focused. "I didn't want to interrupt."
He sighed - that big, heavy sigh that sounded just like Papa. "Fine. But next time, ask, and use a magazine or something, not my books."
"Okay!" She beamed instantly. "Can you help me fix the fort? It keeps falling."
He gave her a long, judging look. "That's becaus-"
Her face fell into a pout.
"…yeah, fine." he gave in, shoulders slumping. "Let's fix your collapsing empire."
She grinned wide.
Crisis averted.
….
Wednesday was Mama's busy day - the day she had lots of video calls with people in suits who talked about numbers and graphs.
The girl had learned to be extra quiet on Wednesdays.
Usually.
Today, there was a bee in the house.
She had found it buzzing against the living room window, clearly trying to get out but too confused to find the open door.
The girl remembered what Mama had said - about opening windows, about helping bees because they were important even if they were a little scary.
She carefully climbed up on the couch, which she wasn't supposed to do and reached for the window latch, which she definitely wasn't supposed to touch.
The window was heavy, but she managed to push it open a crack.
"Come on, bee." she whispered. "You can go now."
The bee kept buzzing against the glass, not noticing the opening.
"Bee, you are being silly. The exit is right there."
Still buzzing.
She tried waving her hands to guide it, but that just made the bee fly in confused circles.
"What are you doing?"
She turned to find Onii-chan watching her from the doorway.
"There is a bee! I am trying to help it leave, but it's not listening."
He walked over, assessed the situation with that analytical look he got when solving problems–
"Bees navigate by light. It sees the bright window and keeps going toward it. You need to darken this area and make the opening brighter."
"How?"
He grabbed a cushion and held it up to block the main window. "Now open that window more. The bee will follow the light."
She pushed the window open wider. The bee, suddenly noticing the new bright spot, zipped toward it and escaped into the afternoon air.
"You did it!" She bounced excitedly. "We saved the bee!"
"We did." he agreed, sounding pleased with himself.
"We should tell Mama! She will be so proud!"
"Maybe wait until after her call." Onii-chan suggested. "Remember what happened last time you interrupted?"
The girl remembered. Mama had used her Scary Calm Voice, which was somehow worse than yelling.
"Right. After the call."
They settled on the couch together, the window still open, letting the afternoon breeze drift through. The girl leaned against her brother, and he tolerated it without complaint.
"Onii-chan?"
"Hmm?"
"Do you think the bee will remember us?"
"No. Bees don't have that kind of memory."
"Oh." She sounded disappointed.
"But that's okay, we didn't help it so it would remember us. We helped it because we could."
She thought about that. "Like Papa said? About caring about things just because?"
"Yeah. Like that."
She smiled and snuggled closer.
Her brother sighed but put an arm around her shoulders.
….
Thursday meant visiting Aunt Hiratsuka's house, which meant dealing with Kaito.
Kaito Arigoro - he was six years old, two years older than the twins, and in his own words, 'too mature for baby games', He had his father's analytical eyes and his mother's stubborn attitude, wrapped in a tiny body that tried very hard to seem grown-up.
The girl thought he was funny.
"We are playing office." Kaito announced when they arrived, standing in the living room with his arms crossed. "I am the boss. You three are my employees."
Onii-chan looked at him flatly. "No."
"What do you mean, no? I am older, so I am in charge."
"Age doesn't determine leadership capability." Onii-chan said in that matter-of-fact tone that made adults laugh and other kids confused. "It determines physical development and accumulated experience, neither of which automatically grant authority."
Kaito's face scrunched up. "What?"
"He means you are not the boss just because you are six." the girl translated helpfully.
"I am though!" Kaito insisted. "My mom said I am responsible!"
"Being responsible means cleaning up your toys." Onii-chan pointed out. "Not bossing people around."
The girl could see this was going nowhere. The boys could argue about nothing for hours if left alone. She had learned this the hard way.
She walked right up to Kaito, standing so close he had to look down at her, and tilted her head with her brightest smile.
"Kaito-kun, what if we played your office game, but everyone gets to be the boss of something? You can be the boss of... um..." She thought quickly. "The building! And Onii-chan can be the boss of the rules, and I can be the boss of making sure everyone's happy!"
Kaito's ears turned slightly pink. He always did that when she got too close.
"That's... I guess that works." he mumbled, looking away.
"Great!" She clapped her hands. "So what does the building boss do?"
"Uh... decides where things go?" Kaito was trying very hard to look anywhere but at her face.
"Perfect! Onii-chan, you make the rules fair, okay?"
Her brother sighed. "Fine. But no unfair rules, Kaito."
"I wasn't going to make unfair rules." Kaito protested weakly, still not quite recovered from having the girl in his personal space.
The game went surprisingly well after that. Kaito decided the couch was the 'main office' and the armchair was the 'meeting room', Onii-chan established rules about taking turns and not making people do embarrassing things.
The girl made sure everyone got snacks and compliments.
By the time their mothers called them for lunch, all three were sprawled on the floor, surrounded by papers covered in crayon 'reports' and 'important documents'.
"Did you three actually play together without fighting?" Hiratsuka asked, leaning against the doorway with an amused expression.
"Kaito wanted to be a dictator." Onii-chan reported.
"I did not!"
Hiratsuka looked at Yukino. "Your kids talk like tiny adults."
"I am aware." Yukino said dryly.
"It's terrifying."
"Also aware."
During lunch, Kaito sat very straight and tried to eat properly, clearly still trying to prove he was mature and responsible.
The girl noticed he kept glancing at her when he thought no one was looking.
She smiled at him.
His ears went pink again, and he nearly dropped his chopsticks.
Onii-chan noticed and gave her a knowing look.
She smiled innocently back.
After lunch, they played in the garden.
Kaito tried to organize a 'training exercise' that mostly involved running around and occasionally stopping to salute at nothing in particular.
"This is stupid." Onii-chan declared after the third lap.
"It's not stupid! It's discipline!" Kaito insisted.
"Can we just play tag?" the girl asked.
Both boys looked at her.
"Please?" She added the sparkly eyes for good measure.
"...Fine." Kaito muttered.
"Whatever." Onii-chan agreed.
Tag was much better.
Kaito was faster because he was bigger, but the girl was sneakier and her brother was strategic about corner-cutting.
They played until everyone was sweaty and tired, collapsing on the grass in a heap.
"You are not bad." Kaito said grudgingly to Onii-chan. "For a little kid."
"I am four. You are six. That's only a two-year gap, whic-"
The girl put her hand over her brother's mouth. "He means thank you for playing with us, Kaito-kun."
Kaito's face went red. "Y-yeah. You are welcome."
She removed her hand, and Onii-chan gave her an annoyed look but didn't continue his explanation.
"Kaito-kun?" the girl asked sweetly.
"Yeah?"
She leaned closer. "You are really good at running. Can you teach me how to run faster?"
His face went from red to almost purple. "I... uh... it's just... you have to move your legs?"
"Like this?" She demonstrated, pumping her little legs in exaggerated movements.
"Y-yeah, like that." He was looking at the sky, the grass, anywhere but at her.
Onii-chan watched this interaction with the expression of someone conducting a scientific experiment.
"Thank you, Kaito-kun! You are the best!" The girl beamed.
"Uh-huh." Kaito managed weakly.
When it was time to leave, Kaito stood at the door with his arms crossed, trying to look cool and indifferent.
"Bye, Kaito-kun!" the girl said, waving enthusiastically.
"See you next time." he said, attempting a casual tone.
She ran up and hugged him quickly before he could react.
He froze completely, arms stuck out to the sides like a startled cat.
"You're a good friend!" she declared, then skipped back to her mother.
Kaito stood there, completely red, unable to form words.
Hiratsuka laughed so hard she had to lean against the doorframe.
In the car, Onii-chan looked at his sister thoughtfully.
"You do that on purpose." he observed.
"Do what?"
"Make Kaito-kun all weird and embarrassed."
"I just like being nice to him!"
"That's weaponized niceness."
"Is that bad?"
Her brother considered this seriously. "I don't think so. He is less annoying when he is embarrassed. So it's actually helpful."
"That's what I thought!" She smiled brightly.
….
.
[To be continued…]
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