CLOSER TO THE HEART

Author's Note Standard Preamble- Just a fluffy little one-shot I thought up, with an attempt to make something "cute".

FEBRUARY 13TH

7:35 PM

"Ui..." Hirasawa Yui was standing at the edge of her home's kitchen, fingers making a pyramid, looking anxious about something.

"Onee-chan, are you alright?" Her sister, Ui, asked her, noticing just now jerky she looked standing there. That was odd, Ui thought, her sister wasn't usually nervous about anything.

"May I borrow the kitchen!" Yui ended up yelling. The kitchen was Ui's place, her domain per say, and intruding in it felt wrong without invitation. If Ui had been gone, that would have been a different thing, but she was here and Yui didn't want to be a bother to her. It was past dinner, the dishes were cleaned, dessert was eaten, so it shouldn't have been too much of a problem for her to use it, but it still felt wrong not to ask.

"I-" Ui managed to say before Yui interrupted her, frantically speaking in a quick voice.

"I promise I won't make a mess, and I already bought everything today that I need! I'll only be a little while, so you won't even know I was here!"

"Onee-chan..."

"Fine, I'll tell you what I'm making!"

"But I-"

"I'm making a Valentine's Day chocolate for someone, and I want it to be perfect so I need to use the kitchen and I already bought everything!"

"Is that-"

"I can't tell you who it's for though because it's a secret. I didn't even tell Azu-nyan and she was with me when I bought the ingredients, and she even asked but I couldn't tell her because it was a secret!"

Ui giggled at her sister's tangent, finding it adorable, "Onee-chan, you don't have to ask to use the kitchen, it belongs to everyone."

Yui smiled and blushed while scratching the back of her head, "T-Thanks. Tomorrow has me all nervous, I'm not really good at Valentine's Day."

Her sister thoughtfully smiled, and put her hand on Yui's shoulder, "I think it's wonderful you're making something for someone. I'm sure they'll like it even if it doesn't taste good..." She realized that could be taken wrong, and instantly panicked, "...But I know it will be delicious so there's no sense in even worrying about that! Um, I can help you make your chocolate if you want."
Yui shook her head and gave Ui a determined look, "No! I have to do it on my own. But, thank you for asking." She gave Ui a tight hug, turned around to grab her three grocery bags full of things, and returned to the kitchen; immediately setting off to work. Ui couldn't help but smile at her sister bustling about, trying to so hard to create a thoughtful gift.

She sat down on their couch, and couldn't help but wonder who it was for. Could it have been that Yui had gotten a boyfriend without her knowing? Their school was female exclusive, so that didn't seem likely. Unless Yui had been somehow finding a way to go see him without her knowing. Ui peered over the back of the couch into the kitchen, and saw Yui taking out every single pot and pan, and placing it on the counter. She could tell that this night wouldn't end without her coming to her sister's aid at least once. This person must have been important to make Yui work so hard. Ui thought that maybe it could have been that she secretly admired someone, and that this was her way of showing her feelings. Such a romantic thought was enough to make her heart flutter.

Wait, I know how I can figure this out! Ui realized, and silently walked up the stairs to Yui's room. She felt a bit guilty for intruding in her sister's room, but she wasn't about to lose sleep over wondering whether or not Yui had a boyfriend. Her target was laying right there on the desk, amidst a pile of loose change. Ui picked up Yui's cellphone and flipped it open, now feeling like she was breaking and entering. With trembling fingers, she checked Yui's latest text messages. The last nearly 200 or so were to Ritsu, with some Mugi laced in between for extra flavor. This covered a span of about two days, and Ui was feeling a bit discouraged when she realized how long it would take to scroll through them all to find a boy's name. Ritsu, Ritsu, Ritsu, Mio, Ritsu, Ritsu, Himeko,

"Himeko?" Ui mused aloud. That didn't sound like a boy's name, and she had never seen it used as a boy's name. This was going nowhere fast, after another minute of scrolling, she still couldn't find any boy's names. There really wasn't any discreet way she could ask Yui about Himeko either, without her coming off like a stalker.

"Onee-chan? Uh, who's Himeko?" Ui would ask her.

"Why were you going through my phone!" Yui would surely gasp in horror, enraged at her privacy being invaded.

Ui quickly set her sister's phone down, but noticed something else on the desk there. An old photo album laying closed. She hadn't seen that old thing in what had to have been years. Ui happily held it in her arms, and eagerly went downstairs to ask Yui where she found it, and then go through it, reliving all sorts of old memories.

"Onee-chan, you found our old photo-" Ui stopped when she saw Yui laying on the kitchen floor, sprawled out in what had to have been an uncomfortable pose. She dropped the photo album and nearly screamed, "Ahh! What happened!"

"Uiii..." Yui groaned, holding a hand out to her, "Ui..."

"I'm here Onee-chan!" Ui was holding back tears, and was deathly afraid of what might of happened to her sister while she was gone for several minutes. She should have known leaving Yui alone in the kitchen was a bad idea. Their parents had rat poison in one of the cupboards, and all sorts of cleaning things under the sink. Ui could only too easily imagine Yui accidentally adding one of those things to her chocolate, than sampling it by accident, "W-What happened?"

Yui raised her other hand, it was trembling, and in it was a rectangular shaped object. It was a bar of chocolate, "Ui...water..."

"Water!" She gasped, remembering briefly about some American woman dying from drinking too much water trying to win a game console or something.

"Need...water..." Yui moaned, holding out the bar of chocolate to Ui. The younger sister took it, put it on the counter and went pouring Yui a glass of cold water with panicking, trembling hands. It took her several tries to get the water in the glass. As she was filling the glass, she observed the wrapper of the chocolate bar. It wasn't chocolate, it was 100% cacao baking chocolate. It wasn't meant to be eaten, and Ui learned that herself years ago when she accidentally took a square off the counter to munch on. It literally tasted like chalk. Not "sort of like chalk" or "so bad it may as well be chalk" but "100% cacao sidewalk chalk".

She bent down and gave Yui the glass of water, nearly dropping it.

"Onee-chan, you're not supposed to eat baking chocolate!" Ui informed her, just a tad bit too late.

"They should tell you that on the wrapper." Yui grumbled, sipping at the water. Although Ui would never admit it, she thought Yui's "angry" voice was absolutely adorable.

"Oh, I was in your room picking up and saw you found our old photo album!" Ui changed the subject, and pointed at the fallen book. Part of her felt guilty about creating a lie about why she had been in her sister's room. It didn't help that the room was a mess, clothes everywhere and such.

"Yeah, it was under my bed!" Yui replied as she got to her feet, and went back to working on her chocolate surprise.

"I'm going to look through it for a bit, okay?"

"'Kay!"

Ui slipped into the kitchen to pour herself something to drink, a melon soda, and sat down at the table in the living room to browse through some old memories. Much to her disappointment, most of the photo's in the book weren't exactly memorable. At least a dozen of her sleeping as a baby, twice that for her sister, a few off centered pictures taken at holidays. The latter would have actually been nice if it weren't for her dad's thumb taking up most of the shot, and just how badly off centered they all were. One picture stood out in particular though, one of the two of them sleeping together on a futon on the living room floor. Ui had a fluffy stuffed rabbit in her arms as she slept, and she vaguely remembered that stuffed animal. It had belonged to Yui, who gave it a silly name like "Poptart" or something along those lines. Ui remembered how Yui had given Poptart to her for Christmas back when she couldn't have been older than three. Being that four years couldn't really purchase gifts, Yui had found it fit just to give her one of her most cherished belongings.

Something about remembering that was strangely heartwarming to Ui. But she remembered how Poptart met his grisly end. It had been a few years later, and the two of them got into a fight about something trivial, and Poptart ended up in the middle, was subsequently torn in half. Ui felt almost bad for the poor stuffed rabbit, he never hurt anyone, and all he ever did was help her go to sleep if the night was especially dark or scary. Yui had done that with her on several occasions too, sharing a bed on rather unpleasant nights. Ui wondered if that was normal, but certainly didn't mind the company.

9:01 PM

Ui had been busy sending text messages back and forth with Jun-chan when she realized that Yui had been working in the kitchen for nearly an hour and a half. She couldn't help but appreciate the dedication her sister was showing towards this. Her only hope was that whoever she was working to please would show the same dedication towards her, even if it was just a for a friend like Azusa or Ritsu. However, it look liked she was working just a bit too hard for just a friendly gift. Ui was confused about it, and really couldn't place a guess on who she was making this for. She had been thinking about it off and on for most of that hour and half, but hadn't even come up with a single person.

"Ui!" Yui screamed from the kitchen, sounding beyond panicked, but outright terrified. Ui hurried to the kitchen, and was met by a small fire on top of the stove on the wok Yui was cooking with. Why was she making chocolate with a wok! She also recognized that smell, this was a grease fire.

She calmly stepped into the kitchen, "Onee-chan, step away for a moment, I'll handle this."

"R-Right!" Yui stumbled out, looking and sounding scared about what she had managed to do. Ui turned the burner off and wok both off, wonder just why both of them were on. The wok had been greased, but had caught fire from...something, she couldn't be sure. The fire was small, and Ui was able to douse it by throwing a towel she had soaked in water real quickly over it. She didn't know if that was how you stopped grease fires normally, but it had worked here. Still, she couldn't help but wonder just what Yui had been trying to do, make suki-yaki to go with her Valentine's Day gift? And now I'm in the mood for suki-yaki, great... Ui knew her craving couldn't be satisfied this late into the night.

Ui wiped her wet hands off on her pants, and smiled at her handiwork. Yui didn't look too happy though, her face was red, and tears were in her eyes. The kitchen was an absolute mess, with most of the pots and pans stained with various brown substances that only made Ui wonder just what Yui was trying to make. At her feet was a pile of flour, mixed with baking soda as well. The more Ui looked around the kitchen, the less any of it seemed to make sense. A sniffle from Yui's direction signaled she was about to lose it. Ui gave her best smile and tried not too look confused or upset at the disaster scene here in the kitchen, "Do you want me to help you, Onee-chan?"

"No, I have to do it on my own!" Yui repeated, wiping tears away with the back of her sleeve. She wiped her nose with a handkerchief and stepped back into the kitchen, determined to finish this.

"Good luck." Ui told her, and went to go get ready for bed. It was getting late, and could feel her eyelids getting heavier and heavier. She took a short bath, dressed in her pajamas, and wondered something. Yui had gotten home from shopping just before Ui had finished making an early dinner, ate, played her guitar for a bit, ate dessert, then requested to use the kitchen. That didn't leave anytime for homework. She didn't want to be naggy about it, but knew it wasn't something Yui could neglect either.

When asked if she had found the time to do her homework, Yui's eyes went wide. She had been stirring something that didn't quite smell like chocolate, or anything really edible either, and stepped back away. Once again, she looked like she was going to cry, instantly making Ui regret bringing it up, "I forgot about it, what do I do Ui? I can't leave here, but there's not much, just history."

"Don't worry, I'll finish cooking for you, and you can do your homework." Ui suggested, already walking into the kitchen to rectify Yui's chocolate to make it look more like a Valentine's Day gift instead the wretched spawn of Yog-Sothoth.

"No, I have to do it on my own!" Yui once again repeated her mantra. Ui was touched by how hard she was working, and knew that this anonymous person must have been pretty important to Yui; but if only she knew who it was. "Ui, could you bring my homework down from upstairs so I can work on it while making chocolate?"

Ui shook her head, "Onee-chan, you can't do that, there's no room in here."

Yui hung her head in defeat, "I guess I'll have to work on it in the morning tomorrow if I can."

An idea sprung into Ui's head. It wasn't a particularly good one, but she wanted to help Yui complete her gift at all costs now, "I'll do your homework for you. It's history, so I'll do it next to the computer, and use the internet to find the answers to things I don't know."

Her idea was rewarded with Yui grabbing her into a tight hug, "Thank you, thank you!" She cheered, and kissed Ui on the cheek, "I'll love you forever! You're so smart and helpful!"

Even if it was just an expression, Ui felt her heart flutter at the compliment, and gladly returned the hug. Her sister's compliments were what made her work so hard, something about them held so much meaning, more than the praise from someone like her parents. Her mother and father weren't around to really appreciate the effort, so any thanks for compliments from them didn't seem to hold as much merit compared to Yui's.

"Ui, you can let go of me now." Yui had been standing there for a full minute with Ui latched to her.

11:45 PM

"Not much" home work had turned into nearly two hours worth. Midway through, Ui had come across a question asking which country won the War of 1812. Three different countries had three different answers about that. She had done the work at Yui's desk, sipping tea, and listening to music as she worked. Now it was nearly midnight, and Yui hadn't come to bed yet. She was too tired now to worry, but she felt like it would be a good idea to check on her.

Downstairs she found Yui asleep on the couch, curled up into a little ball. On the table was a heart shaped pink box tied with lace without any sort of tag or indicator as to who it was for. Miraculously, the kitchen was completely spotless now. Everything had been put away accordingly, all messes cleaned, all the dishes washed. After seeing Yui's face so determined with her work, it was relieving to see it in peaceful repose as she slept. She had earned that rest, and Ui felt glad that doing her homework had allowed her to complete her gift and get everything done.

Ui planted a gentle kiss on Yui's lips, and went up stairs to bring her a pillow and blanket. She would have liked to carry her upstairs, but was too tired and physically inept to do that.

That night, Ui went to bed with a smile on her face.

FEBRUARY 14TH

5:10 PM

With all the chocolates Ui had gotten from her friends that day, she wondered if it was even worth it to make dinner now. Still, she decided it would be a good idea to make something for when Yui came home from band practice. The whole day had been spent in anticipation about Yui's gift, with her eagerly awaiting her sister to come home from practice to tell her all about it. Her mind danced with fantasies of Yui bringing home a handsome boy who was nice, funny, and polite all at the same time.

"Oh no!" She shouted when she saw what was sitting on the kitchen counter.

That heart shaped box Yui had worked so hard on. After everything that had happened yesterday, the homework, the grease fire, the apocalyptic baking chocolate; Yui had simply forgotten it at home. It was so sad to look at that Ui felt like she could have just burst into tears. Her sister had poured her soul into that gift, and it wouldn't be the same just a day late. Just as she was thinking this, she heard the door open, and Yui called out her name, telling her she was home.

"Hi Ui," Yui waved to her, not yet registering the sadness etched on her face, "I think I need a new patch cable, the one I got with Gitah isn't being very agreeable anymore, and- Ui, is something wrong, you look sad."

"Onee-chan, you forgot your present." Ui pointed at the Valentine's Day gift lying unopened on the counter.

"Oh." Yui simply said, looking more surprised than anything else.

"It's not too late to give it to who you were going to give it too, is it?" Ui asked, clearly much more upset over this than Yui was.

"No, it'll be fine." Her sister replied, and stepped over past her to pick up the chocolates, "I wanted to give these to the person I admired the most, that's why I worked so hard. There's still time."

"Oh, who's that?" Ui excitedly asked, hoping to finally find out who it was for.

Yui, held out the Valentine's Day chocolate to Ui and smiled, "I wanted to thank you for everything you do for me so... Happy Valentine's Day!"

Ui took the heart shaped box into her hand, wasn't sure how to react. She was so happy at that moment, she was worried she would die horribly from happiness overdose. All that effort Yui had put in, nearly dying from eating baking chocolate, had been for her. Her heart was beating at an uncontrollable pace, and the tingly feeling in her stomach was overwhelming. Ui hugged Yui as tight as she could, tears of happiness running down her face. She counted this as probably the best Valentine's Day ever. Not because of the gift itself, but because of the amount of effort that was put into it.

"Glad...you like it..." Yui managed to say through the bone crushing hug.

Those chocolates ended up tasting awful. Unbelievably bad. From what Ui could tell, Yui had somehow mixed up sugar with salt during the process and completely ruined the sweets. She realized it was probably a good thing those chocolates went to her and not anyone else, because if someone didn't know Yui better, they would have thought she was trying to kill them with the salty chocolate of death.

But even if eating more than a small bite sucked all the moisture out of her mouth and made her want to throw up, Ui wouldn't have traded them for any other gift in the world.

THE END

Author's Notes (again)- Well, I hoped everyone enjoyed my little attempt at fluff. I wrote this all in one sitting, pretty much on a whim, so I'm not really expecting it to be received as a literary masterpiece. Still, I worked on it for a good four hours, so I hope someone likes it. If you did enjoy it, check out the sequel And Forever It Shall Be.

Fun fact- 100% cacao baking chocolate is absolutely awful. Go out and buy a bar of it and see for yourself. Try to eat the whole thing in one sitting, without drinking anything. I managed to do it, but lost part of my soul.