Disclaimer: Does not own.
A/N: Because, come on. Nanako is going to grow up the most cherished and looked-after little girl in Inaba.
~Every Day's Great~
Yukiko-chan is kind of like a mom, especially now that her cooking is getting better. She comes home with Big-Bro after school a lot and asks Nanako to help her make dinner.
"You're probably a much better cook than I am," she always says with a smile. "What do you think your brother would like to eat today?"
She always lets Nanako pick what they make, and she brings ingredients from Junes – even the same ones that Nanako likes to buy, so she knows Yukiko is really good at saving money like a mom would be. And nothing ever makes her mad, even when Nanako accidentally spills something; she just says, "That's OK. I do that all the time too, but cooking is supposed to be messy!"
She really likes Yukiko-chan, and she knows Big-Bro does too.
"Do you love my brother?" Nanako asks one day, while Yukiko-chan is brushing her hair (which is a lot like a mom, too, Nanako thinks).
For a moment she doesn't say anything. Then she turns Nanako around and smooths the hair from her face. "I love him very much," she tells her.
Nanako grins, relieved. "That's great! So do I!"
Sometimes, on Sundays, Chie-chan stops by to see if she and Big-Bro want to come out and play. First they go to the shopping district to buy snacks – "You buy anything you want, OK? It's gonna be my treat!" – and then they all go to the park or to the river.
Chie-chan is really fun, and has a lot of energy. They play tag, or hide-and-seek, and she always says that when Nanako gets a little older she's going to teach her "self-defense" so she can be strong like her dad and brother.
"Just 'cause you're a girl doesn't mean you can't be tough, too, alright Nanako-chan?" she says, looking really serious and determined, her fists clenched in front of her. "Being a girl just means that you have a whole lot of choices!"
And even if she doesn't know exactly what Chie-chan means, she knows that she says it because she's worried about Nanako's future, so the little girl nods and looks determined too. She pumps her fists, and when Chie-chan yells, "YEAH!" Nanako yells right along with her. In fact, Nanako has never yelled so much as when she is with Chie-chan.
This always makes Big-Bro chuckle, for some reason.
Nanako gets really excited when she finds out that Yosuke-kun's family actually owns Junes and he actually works there, so Big-Bro tells him to look out for her whenever she goes grocery shopping by herself. The first time she runs into him he is restocking shelves. The ingredient she needs is up on the highest one.
"Oh, hey Nanako-chan," he says when he notices her standing nearby. She doesn't know him as well as the others, so she's still a little shy. "So . . . you're doing the shopping, huh?"
The uncertain way he talks to her reminds her instantly of her father. She relaxes a little. "Uh, yeah! But, can you help, please? I can't reach it."
And she points out the thing she wants, and soon he has offered to take a look at her shopping list and help her find what she needs. He knows where everything is, right down to the shelf level! When they're all done he rings up her purchases and buys her some candy from the register display.
"But, um, eat your dinner first?" he tells her, kneeling down. He's kind of funny, because it always sounds like he doesn't know what to say, but she also feels a little bad because she knows what it's like to not know if you're doing something right.
"Thanks a lot, Yosuke-kun!" she says, giving him a hug before she leaves. He looks embarrassed, but he smiles, too.
When Big-Bro has to work late at the hospital, he asks Kanji-kun to come over and look after her (only, Big-Bro tells her to call him "Mister" sometimes, because then he makes a funny face and kind of blushes). And Kanji-kun is kind of like a mom too, even though he looks sort of scary, because he always cooks her really yummy dinners or cuts up an apple for her so the slices look like bunny rabbits. Those are her favorite, and she tries to copy them with Yukiko-chan, but they don't turn out very well and they decide to never try it again.
After they eat, Kanji-kun does crafts with her. Usually he brings her a doll or a keychain as a present, and then he sits down at the table with her and shows her how he made it.
He tries really hard not to use bad words, but sometimes they slip out anyway. "Don't repeat that!" he always cautions afterwards, his face all red. She tells him that her dad says those words too, when he's tired. She knows she isn't supposed to say them, so he can say them as much as he wants.
One time, her dad came home while Kanji was helping her make kitty puppets out of oven mitts, and he just stood there in the doorway for a long time with a really funny look on his face.
"Uh, so, d'ya want some udon?" Kanji asked, and Nanako looked back and forth between them while Kanji-kun stiffly went to get a bowl.
It's so cool! Rise-chan comes over all the time now, and she brings a karaoke machine with her! They sing together for Big-Bro, and he claps for them after every song.
"You're a really good singer, Nanako-chan!" Rise says. "I think maybe you should keep the karaoke machine here for me, so you can use it whenever you want."
Nanako has never received such an expensive present before – at least not from someone she wasn't related to. She looks at Rise-chan with wide eyes, and then runs over to where Big-Bro sits on the couch.
"Can I- Can I really keep it?"
He smiles at her, and whispers, "Well, I guess it wouldn't be nice to refuse a present."
Beaming, she runs back to Rise-chan and gives her a hug. "Thank you so much! It's really, really cool!"
She squeezes Nanako back really hard and has what she calls a "kawaii-attack." "Oh, Nanako-chan you're the absolute best! You're the sweetest girl ever! Now, you have to practice singing a lot, OK? So you can put on a concert for me next time I come over!"
"I get to have a concert for Rise?"
"Yeah! I can't wait!"
So, almost every night Nanako sings for her dad and Big-Bro, and Dad says, smiling a little, "Rise's created a monster."
Whatever that means.
Teddie keeps his promise, and comes over to play with her a lot. He even brings her snacks from Junes that they don't sell in the shopping district.
She figures out quickly that he doesn't know how to play many games, so she begins to teach him with a deck of cards from the junk drawer. They make Big-Bro come over and play too, even if they have to drag him downstairs from studying or working endlessly on paper cranes. He ends up teaching them how to play poker, and they bet with the Junes candy.
Teddie loses a lot because he has a hard time hiding his reactions. They feel bad for him, so she and Big-Bro always share their winnings.
"I never thought I'd get to have such great friends!" he says, pulling them both close.
"Why?" she asks, looking up at him. "Why wouldn't anyone want to be friends with you? You're so nice and fun to play with!"
This makes him cry, and Big-Bro has to explain to her about "happy tears" while Teddie runs to the bathroom to blow his nose.
When Naoto-kun starts coming over, Nanako goes up to her room at first. She's a detective, just like Dad (only "not exactly," says Big-Bro), and Nanako doesn't want to get in the way because they always talk really seriously about things.
One time, though, Nanako is downstairs watching her favorite quiz show when Naoto-kun and her brother come home.
"Do you mind if I join you, Nanako-chan?" Naoto asks, while Big-Bro walks over the refrigerator and starts getting food out for dinner.
Nanako welcomes her uncertainly, and the girl sits down across from her at the low table.
She understands that everyone thought Naoto-kun was a boy for a long time, but she doesn't understand why. She knew she was a girl the first time she saw her. Still, the mystery and the fact that Naoto is a hard-working detective like Dad makes her nervous to say much.
Thankfully, it turns out that Naoto-kun is nervous too, kind of like Yosuke-kun. And she's really good at answering the quiz questions, which impresses Nanako a lot.
"I bet you would win if you went on the show," Nanako tells her. "You're really good at it!"
And then Naoto-kun smiles really wide, and tells her thank you, and her voice suddenly has that same gentleness that Big-Bro's has when he talks to her.
Nanako doesn't go upstairs when she comes over anymore.
One Sunday, Dad takes her and Big-Bro to Samegawa. They have lunch under the gazebo, and they don't talk about anything serious at all. She usually worries a lot, about Dad and Big-Bro arguing, but she doesn't think about it today. He's teasing Big-Bro about Yukiko-chan coming over to make dinner the night before, and he's smiling.
It's been a really great day. Kanji-kun sent a package of the bunny apples by in the morning, and Dad let her have coffee and she told him all about the crafts he helped her make. Then she, Dad, and Big-Bro left to go spend the day at Samegawa. They stopped by Junes first to buy soda, and they saw Yosuke-kun and Chie-chan there. They were arguing, but in the funny way like on TV.
Chie-chan told her, "Yosuke's just the kind of guy that needs to be kicked into gear – sometimes literally – or else he's totally useless."
Nanako takes that to mean that Yosuke is useless without her, and she laughs happily.
At Samegawa, Big-Bro plays with her and lets her feed a stray cat while Dad sets out the food. Then they all sit down together and Dad wants to hear all about how school is going. She talks happily.
At school, they like to discuss family a lot, and her teachers always ask her what hers is like. She used to always say, "It's just Dad and me," while some of her friends could talk about all their brothers and sisters and cousins. A "real" family, with a mom and dad and lots of kids. She never really felt bad about it, but she did kind of wish for a big family, where everyone took care of each other.
But, now she has Big-Bro, Yukiko-chan, Chie-chan, Yosuke-kun, and everyone. And they always look after her. She isn't lonely anymore, because Rise-chan sings with her and Kanji-kun makes snacks for her. Teddie grins and promises her that he is always going to protect her, too. Naoto-kun talks to her, and makes her feel grown-up.
It's like a dream, only it's more "real" than she could have ever hoped for.
Pff. She's such a sweetheart, and I just spaz out during her social link. Thanks for reading!