This will be a small collection of short stories of Tatsuya and Miyuki that cover the time between him saving her life and when they entered high school.

First Birthday

Miyuki had a very difficult problem to solve: what should she get onii-sama for his birthday? In the past presents from her would be procured by someone, usually a servant. The servant would be told what kind of gift to get, and it would be wrapped and presented to her brother, probably by the same servant.

Miyuki would have absolutely no hand in it. She likely would not even have remembered that he was having a birthday. It wasn't as if the family would throw a party for a guardian or anything, so the day was treated like any other, without much thought being given to it by anyone. It was probably considered a kindness that anyone remembered enough to send a servant out for the gift.

Onii-sama's birthday would never be like that again, Miyuki vowed. There would always be at least one person with him on that day to acknowledge and celebrate it. One person who would give him a gift from her heart to show how much she appreciated him. He would know that there was at least one person in the world that would view his birth as something other than a "failure" or an unfortunate occurrence.

It shamed her to think she had never thought about his birthday before. She'd never given him much thought at all, except as a nuisance. She had been self-centered and selfish and, in a word, spoiled.

She was still a child, and that gave her some excuse for her actions, but childhood was about learning and changing and growing. She could forgive herself for her previous actions, but only if she learned from them and moved forward. Some of that change would begin with this one small thing.

It was a beautiful day for shopping. The sun was out and it wasn't too warm or too cold. The parasol she carried would ward off the harmful rays of the sun from her delicate skin.

On a trip like this, her aunt would normally insist that Tatsuya accompany her as a safety precaution. He was her guardian, after all. But she couldn't have him along on this trip.

Using the excuse that she would like to try on some dresses and that she may need some female assistance in the dressing room, Miyuki requested that a maid go with her instead.

"Then Tatsuya can tag along also. He will wait for you outside the shops." That was her aunt's argument.

"No-no, that's not necessary. A maid will be just fine. Really." It wasn't much of an argument, but Miyuki hoped it would be enough.

Miyuki watched nervously as her aunt thought this over. Miyuki could see dawning realization in her eyes, and she knew that her aunt now understood the true reason for this request. Her frown was not encouraging, but the words she spoke next did not show any trace of disapproval.

"I see. Very well. Satoko will accompany you then." Like all staff in a Yotsuba household, Satoko had fairly extensive combat training. Not close to the level of training a guardian would have, but she would be able to hold her own quite well in a street brawl or a kidnapping attempt.

Neither aunt nor daughter understood why this request wasn't just made honestly and openly.

Maya wondered why she couldn't just say that she was going shopping to buy a present for her brother. She put it down to being shy. Truthfully, she was not happy with this change in their brother-sister relationship. She much preferred a Mistress-guardian relationship between them, but there was nothing to be done about it at the moment.

Miyuki herself had no idea why she had gone about it this way. Perhaps she thought she would be scolded for doing something so personal for someone seen as beneath her. She had never even considered being forthright with her aunt about this. Having gotten permission for the trip though, she did not think on this for very long.

Now she was in town, maid in tow, looking for an appropriate shop. But she still didn't know what she could get for him. She didn't have to consider anything he might need. All his needs were taken care of by the family. That was the case for any guardian.

At least she could rule out socks and underwear. The thought made her giggle, but then her face turned scarlet. The thought of buying unmentionables for her brother made her blush furiously, prompting Satoko to ask if there was anything wrong with her. She was well into the shopping district before she could get herself back under control.

Back to the matter at hand. All she had to consider is what onii-sama might want. And that was the problem. She barely knew him, really. She had no idea what he might want, or even what kinds of things he might like. The only thing she ever saw that he had an interest in was the pistol CADs that he was given by Captain Kazuma. She wasn't going to get him anything like that.

She wasn't going to buy him clothes either. She wanted something personal. Something that would remind him of her whenever he looked at it. Besides, she had no idea what size clothes to buy him. Jewelry, maybe?

She was about to give up and ask Satoko for advice when she saw it in a shop window. It was a 3D glass snowflake, about the size of her hand, that was mounted on a small stand. It wasn't a hologram, like many of these kinds of things were nowadays. Some sort of crystal, most likely. Blue, orange, and purple rays played on it's surface as Miyuki walked back and forth in front of the window to see it from different angles. It was absolutely beautiful. And it could sit on Tatsuya's desk while he studied his boring magic texts, but not be a distraction.

Miyuki's name meant deep snow and she was known throughout the family for her skill at manipulating temperature, especially cold. What better reminder of her than a brilliant snowflake? Onii-sama had to have it. It was perfect!

Looking at the rest of the shop, she could see that it was high-end. It seemed to stock knick-knacks from around the world, and the prices reflected that.

When told that this was to be a gift, the proprietor offered to wrap it for her, but Miyuki declined. She picked it out herself and she would wrap it herself, too. She wanted everything as personalized as possible for this occasion.

A few hours later...

Miyuki went to her brother's room and nervously requested that he come back with her to her own room for a little while. Without question, he followed her, wondering what could be on her mind. She was obviously still nervous as they stopped outside her door. With a deep breath, she composed herself.

"Please enter."

He opened the door and stopped at the threshold. The room was darkened, but he could still see the coffee table and the cake that was decorated with what looked in the dim light like chocolate icing, along with some blue and pink icing looping around the sides. Why would she bake a cake for herself? It was obviously home-made. Some of the colored icing was a bit off, and the overall shape was a little crooked. He also noticed the gift-wrapped box next to the cake.

Then he remembered that it was his own birthday. That only shocked him more that she not only would remember it, but would go through all this effort just for him. He was almost speechless.

"Is...is this for...me?"

He sounded so unsure of himself! She had never seen him when he wasn't in complete control of himself, always so resolute and unflappable. It amazed her to see a side of him she had never seen before. To realize that she had caused this made her so very happy! It was so wonderful that Miyuki wanted to hug him.

"Of course it is, silly. It's your birthday, isn't it? Happy Birthday, Onii-sama! Now sit down over here, please." She guided him to a seat on her small sofa in front of the cake as she took her position standing opposite of him.

She bent over and lit each of the thirteen candles on top of the cake. When she had lit them all, she cast her eyes downward as she informed him, "I will not embarrass you with my singing of Happy Birthday, so please go ahead and make a wish and blow out the candles."

He closed his eyes and hesitated for a moment, trying to come up with a wish. He blew all the candles out with one breath, and Miyuki clapped her hands in approval.

"Onii-sama, what did you wish for?"

He looked into her eyes and said, "This is a wonderful surprise, and so I wished that we could have many more celebrations like this." He ducked his head slightly in embarrassment.

Miyuki was so overjoyed at this that she felt as if she could float to the ceiling. She felt something warm inside her she never felt before at thought that she had made her beloved brother happy.

It more than made up for the frustrations earlier this afternoon as she tried for the very first time to bake a cake. It was most fortunate for her when she found out that baking had been a hobby of Satoko's and that she would show Miyuki how to bake one.

She also found out from Satoko that chocolate was Tatsuya's favorite. At first, Miyuki found herself upset that one of the servants knew that about her brother and she didn't. She banished that irrational thought immediately. Of course others knew more about him than she. She had never given any effort to know him before! From now on, however, she would learn all she could about him. Someday there would be nothing she wouldn't know. And there would be no secrets between them ever again.

But before all that, she had to learn how to bake a cake. It took a couple hours longer than Miyuki had anticipated because she refused to let Satoko do anything except instruct her on what to do. Miyuki would bake and decorate her brother's cake from start to finish. And that's exactly what she did.

The result of all that effort was sitting in front of him now, the smoke from the candles still wafting into the air.

"Would you please open your present now, Onii-sama?" She picked up the box, wrapped in green paper and red ribbon, and handed it to him.

She watched him nervously as he carefully untied the ribbon and undid the wrapping. Self-doubt crept in on Miyuki. Would he like it? It was just a stupid knick-knack. How could he possibly like it?

All of that doubt fell away as he looked upon his gift and...smiled. He smiled! Still smiling, he looked up at Miyuki and said, "Thank you, Miyuki. It is beautiful and it's the best gift I have ever received. I will keep it on my desk in my room and every time I look at it I will remember this time."

He was smiling at her. The first time he had ever given her his full smile. She felt as if her heart would burst yet again. She would remember this day forever.

Masking these wild emotions, Miyuki calmly went and turned on the lights and brought out a couple of small plates and forks. She cut a couple of slices from the cake and handed him the plate with the bigger piece on it.

This was the final test. Would he like the cake? He would never be so rude as to tell her that the cake tasted bad, but somehow she felt that she would know if he truly liked it or was just being polite. She found herself holding her breath as he took his first bite.

She watched as his eyes widened a moment as he swallowed. He turned to her to render his verdict. "This cake is delicious, Miyuki. Did you make it yourself?" And he was smiling again.

"Ye—yes. I made it myself. I am so glad you like it!"

As if to prove to her that he really did like the cake, he ate two more pieces as they talked and drank coffee until bedtime.

As he took his leave, he leaned over and lightly kissed her forehead. "Thank you for the best birthday I've ever had."

She had a hard time falling asleep that night, of course. She hugged her pillow tightly as she rolled restlessly from one side of the bed to the other. She felt that she had gotten so many gifts this evening she could be excused for thinking that perhaps it had been her own birthday today instead of his.

Before, when she had even bothered to think about him, she saw him as her guardian first and brother second. She could never look at him that way again. He would always be her onii-sama first.

As Miyuki finally began to nod off, she realized that she would always remember this as the first day of their new life. Not as strangers who happened to be related by blood, but as true brother and sister. Her smile lingered as she finally surrendered to sleep.