Disclaimer: Not mine!

Is it that bad? It's my first story ever. The language might be a bit awkward since I'm not a native English speaker. Thank you for reading though and reviews would be appreciated, so that I can improve. =)

Oh, and I've never read the manga or the novels. I just finished watching the anime around two months ago and I noticed that this fandom has so few stories. So I decided to write my first story here. I'm sorry if I got them a bit out of character.

Just like everything else about his sister, Kyousuke found Kirino's feet to be perfect. They were small and pretty, with toes that were delicately shaped and with a graceful arch that lent to an overall dainty appearance. From his position on the other couch, he could also glimpse a small silver anklet just above his sister's right ankle.

"I didn't know you like dogs."

"Huh?" Kirino looked up from the magazine that she was browsing through while waiting for Stardust Witch Meruru to start. She had dragged along Kyousuke to watch another episode with her, pretending not to hear her brother's protests. "What are you talking about?"

"Your anklet."

"Oh, that." Kirino lifted her foot off the couch where she was draped all over and fingered the small pendant that was shaped like a dog. "I bought it yesterday when Ayase and I went shopping after school."

Kyousuke stared at the anklet for a moment longer. "Do you want to get a dog? As a pet, I mean?"

"Of course not! Who would take care of it? They shed hair all over the place and they smell too. Why are we talking about this?" Kirino gave her brother an irritated glance. "And stop staring at my foot!"

"I'm sorry! I wasn't staring! I... I just happened to be looking that way!" Kyousuke winced at how stupid he sounded. "I mean... What I meant was... it was shiny, ok? Not your feet, the anklet! It was shiny! And I just happened to be looking... There was a dog... Okay, I'm going to shut up now." He could feel the sweat rolling down his face as he watched his sister's eyebrow rise higher and higher. For a second, he thought he was going to get another kick to the crotch (with those dainty feet with the shiny anklet, his brain insisted on mentioning), but Kirino just gave an irritated huff and turned back to her magazine.

Whew, safe. Kyousuke let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. He glanced at the television and realized that the show was about to start. He readied his mind, and his ears, for the thirty minutes that he would undoubtedly spend feeling baffled and uncomfortable. Sure enough, his sister let out a huge squeal as the opening song started.

As he watched Kirino singing along, he thought of how... adorable his sister was despite the violent tendencies she had toward him. He restrained the smile that was threatening to form on his face and settled down to watch. He needed to concentrate because he was sure that Kirino would ask a dozen questions after the show to ensure that he really did pay attention to what was happening on screen. He could not afford to get distracted.

Kyousuke felt a bit drained as he lay down in bed that night. After the show, Kirino had bombarded him with questions that Kyousuke knew he could have answered quite easily, if only he hadn't gotten distracted.

Earlier, while they were watching, he had caught himself stealing glances at that stupid anklet. And the worst part about it was, his fingers had just itched to touch. After realizing that his hands were clenched in fists, Kyousuke moved to sit on his hands just to prevent them from moving of their own accord. It was pretty hard to imagine what would happen if he actually did accidentally "on purpose" touched that shiny thing, but he had a pretty good guess as to what would happen to him and he just knew that it would involve a lot of physical pain on his part.

He was so focused on not looking and not touching that the next thing he knew, the credits were rolling on the screen and his sister was almost in his lap interrogating him about the episode.

Needless to say, he felt even more troubled and had even felt the beginning of a panic attack. He had unintentionally pushed his sister away, and as Kirino fell on the floor, he thought he saw a hurt look cross her face. There was a tiny pause, and then his sister had punched him on the chest so hard, he thought that he would get a bruise. He never knew Kirino could hit that hard. And as his sister had stomped off toward the stairs and onto her room, he couldn't help but feel guilty and a bit foolish in his actions. Scratch that, he felt totally stupid and had immediately ran after Kirino and had knocked on her door for a good ten minutes, to no avail, before he decided to give up and just go to his room.

Rubbing the sore spot on his chest, Kyousuke sighed and turned to his side. Dinner had also been pretty tense since Kirino refused to acknowledge him. Though Kyousuke had to admit that wasn't necessarily a new thing in their relationship, he still felt incredibly uncomfortable and had consequently lost his appetite.

Cursing himself for his idiotic behaviour, Kyousuke decided to get some sleep and closed his eyes.

The next day proved to be no better. Kirino was still ignoring his apologies and his attempts to explain his actions the previous day. Kyousuke didn't know whether to be upset or to be relieved about this, since in actuality, he didn't know what he would say once he was given the chance to explain.

Oh, and she was still wearing it.

He really couldn't understand what exactly about the anklet was bothering him. On his way to and in school, girls kept giving him dark looks, muttering about perverts and the like. He realized it was because he was staring too hard at their ankles, trying to figure out what about it was disturbing him. Looking at the anklets that some of the girls wore didn't give him the same unsettling feeling that he felt whenever he glimpsed at his own sister's anklet.

By now, the situation was already starting to get to him. He couldn't stop thinking about the issue, and as a result, he had received two scoldings from his teachers for his inability to pay attention in class.

"What's wrong?" Manami asked him during lunch time.

Kyousuke absent-mindedly told her it was nothing before turning back to his lunch.

"No, really, what's wrong? Maybe I can help." His friend's concerned tone made him feel a bit better and so he decided to ask her advice. He thought about how he was going to phrase his question without sounding too weird.

"Do you have an anklet?" Okay, so maybe that was still a bit weird and out of the blue.

"Huh?" Manami cocked her head to one side. "Well, yes I do have one, but I don't really wear it. It was a gift to me from my aunt. Why do you ask?"

"Nothing... nothing. So, what's the deal behind wearing them anyway?"

"Well," Manami began, "I suppose that since they're considered as jewellery, it serves to make women feel more beautiful. I also read somewhere that a lot of men considered anklets to be sexy." At this, Manami blushed.

Oblivious to his friend's reactions, Kyousuke pondered on what his friend said. Suddenly, the word Manami had used reverberated through his mind. Men think it's se-... se-? Hell, no! Kyousuke couldn't even complete the word in his mind! He just couldn't reconcile the idea of his sister being... that. The idea made him extremely, unbearably uncomfortable, and he silently cursed his friend for telling him about it. Although he realized that it was actually his fault in the first place for asking, Kyousuke still felt that he could have lived better without knowing about that piece of information.

Kyouske was even more in a daze that afternoon. He had nearly walked into a pole and had almost been hit by a bicycle. Stepping into his house, he didn't notice Kirino until it was too late. The collision almost sent his sister sprawling backwards but he was just in time to grab her arm and prevent it from happening. Kirino immediately pulled her arm out his grasp and frowned at him. As she opened her mouth to scold her brother, Kyousuke glanced at her and followed his instincts.

He fled.

As he slammed the door to his bedroom, Kyousuke slapped himself in the face. Stupid! Idiot! Why did you run? Kyousuke took a deep calming breath and tried to rationalize the situation. He fled because he had panicked. He had panicked because... well, Kyousuke just knew he didn't really want to analyze that too deeply or he would panic all the more. He slapped himself again, just for good measure, and was just about to apologize to Kirino when his door was suddenly again slammed open.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Kirino's ear-splitting voice filled his room. "What exactly is your problem? Did I do something wrong? Do you realize that you're not making any sense?"

Kyousuke tried to hold down his temper. His emotions were already running high and were all over the place and he knew that all this was his fault somehow. He also knew he needed to calm down his sister.

"Ssshh. Please calm down, Mom might hear you." Upon hearing that, Kirino closed the door behind her. "Look, it's nothing that you did, it's just that –"

"Well then, what the hell is your problem? Are you trying to pick a fight? Is this revenge for everything I did to you back then?" Kyousuke noted that his sister was getting redder and redder with every sentence.

"I'm not trying to –"

"Just tell me already what's wrong! What do you want? You want to us to start ignoring each other again? Do you want me to stop talking to you again?"

"Please just listen –"

"Tell me what you're trying to do here because you're not making any sense and it's irritating and it's making me angry and –"

"I said listen to me!" Kyousuke shouted, ignoring his own warning earlier. Kirino's eyes grew wide and she moved away from her brother, standing with her back to the door. Kyousuke could see that he was scaring his sister and tried to compose himself. "I'm not trying to do anything here. I'm not trying to hurt you and I don't want us to go back to the way we were before. I don't want us to fight and I don't want you to start ignoring me again."

Kyousuke couldn't control the words that were flowing out of his mouth. He rarely allowed himself these moments of emotional outbursts but when he did, they were always beyond his control. He briefly remembered heatedly telling his father about his (supposed) love for eroge and also passionately confessing his (supposed) love for his sister to Ayase. It seemed that all the times that he lost control always had something to do with Kirino.

Kyousuke stepped closer to his sister and leaned forward, placing his hand on the door by his sister's head. He could feel how wary Kirino was right now, as if she was afraid and unsure of what to do next. He gazed into his sister's eyes and tried to soften his voice. "I'm sorry. It's not your fault. I can't really explain it to you, because I don't really understand it myself. I don't know what's wrong with me. I don't know what to do about it, except perhaps, maybe... you could... stop wearing your anklet?"

He took another deep breath and exhaled slowly. He was so near that he could feel Kirino slightly tremble. And that upset him because he didn't want to make his sister feel afraid. "I'm sorry for running away from you earlier and I'm sorry for shouting at you. I know what I'm asking for doesn't really make any sense, and please don't ask me to explain, because you know that I really can't, but please..."

He knew he was babbling and he wasn't really sure if Kirino could understand him. She was just staring at him with a look on her face that Kyousuke couldn't understand. She was so close. He could feel and smell her breath and it was sweet and intoxicating and he didn't really know what he wanted and he didn't really understand or even want to understand why she was getting even closer. In the back of his mind, he was aware that it wasn't actually Kirino but him that was closing the distance between them, but details like that flew right over his head as his brain sought to explain what was happening at that moment. Warning bells were ringing in his mind, telling him that this really wasn't a good situation to be in. He also noted that Kirino was just standing there, holding her breath, as if waiting for something, anything to happen.

Just as his mind was starting to comprehend the situation, a sudden loud noise from downstairs made them both jump up and move away from each other. Their father was home, the noise coming from the heavy thud that the front door made whenever their father was the one to close it.

Kyousuke turned his back on his sister and took a deep breath, trying to slow his heart's erratic pace. "I just... please, stop wearing it. That's all." He looked back over his shoulder and was startled to see a smile forming on Kirino's face.

"Okay."

"Okay? What do you mean by okay?" Kyousuke's brows scrunched in confusion. He never really expected his sister to give in to his plea.

Kirino's smile grew wider and became more amused. "Okay. I'll stop wearing it."

"That's it? I mean, that's all? You're actually saying yes?"

"What else did you think I meant when I said 'okay'? I said I won't wear it anymore." Kirino gazed at her brother warmly. Kyousuke's jaw dropped in surprise. "Good night, Brother."

And with that, Kirino stood on tiptoe and dropped a small kiss on her brother's cheek, who was still standing with his mouth hanging open. She then slipped out of Kyousuke's room, closing the door gently behind her. Kyousuke was left staring at his bedroom door for a long moment, with a slightly dazed and slack-jawed expression, brain unable to grasp what had just happened. Finally, shaking his head, he trod over to his bed thinking that this would all make better sense in the morning.

The next day, Kyousuke decided to put everything that happened the night before in the little "ignore" box in the back of his mind. Lately, his ignore box seemed to be getting quite full, and he resolved to do something about it soon.

As he was standing in front of the refrigerator, about to pour himself a drink, he heard his sister enter the kitchen.

"Good morning, Brother."

Kyousuke nearly dropped his glass in surprise and turned around to face his sister. "Hi... uh... good morning..."

Kirino merely smiled and reached behind him to grab for herself something to drink. Kyousuke noted that his sister had just taken a bath, he could smell the shampoo that she used that morning, the one that smelled like green apples. He knew that she alternated using that shampoo with another one that had a citrus smell. Catching a whiff of her hair always gave him the nonsensical urge to visit a fruit stand or something. Mentally, he smacked himself, realizing how strange and illogical that sounded. His perception of apples and oranges had forever been altered.

Kyousuke cleared his throat. "So... are we okay?" He knew he sounded awkward but he couldn't help it. It WAS awkward.

Kirino only looked at him oddly and said, "Of course we're okay. Why wouldn't we be?" before she turned around and headed towards the dining table.

Kyousuke felt a wave of relief wash over him and he stole a glance at his sister's ankle. He smiled as he saw that Kirino really didn't wear her anklet today, but then his eye caught something else. His smile turned into a frown as he tried to catch a better look.

Suddenly, Kyousuke felt like banging his head on the counter. This isn't fair, he thought. Without another word to his sister, he strode out of the room, picked up his bag, and immediately left the house for school. As he closed the front door, he could hear his sister giggling. Damn it.

His sister was wearing a toe ring.

-End-