15/16/17.

"So, let me get this straight. You invited your friends here for a sleepover."

"Yup!"

"And you didn't ask for permission from Father before he left..."

"Yeah, but I texted him yesterday and he said it was okay with him!"

"And you didn't tell me anything about this until two minutes ago…"

"Well, I guess that I should've said something…"

"And they're supposed to show up in thirty minutes…"

Feet shuffled, and eyes fell. "Uh, yeah, but—"

"And you didn't prepare anything for them at all…"

"Um…"

Leo groaned audibly, shaking his head. "You're so irresponsible. When do you intend to start acting your age? You're fifteen, Elise, for gods' sake…"

His sister scowled at him indignantly. "Hey! Don't bring my age into this! I'm plenty responsible, just... just not around you!"

"Then please, explain to me how anything you've told me demonstrates that, given that I was not around when you were planning this."

"Mmm… Fine, I guess you're right. But I still need you to help me! And…" She paused for dramatic effect. "... I'll let Camilla know that you helped me!"

"Is that supposed to motivate me?"

Elise giggled at him. "Heehee. I know how much you like it when she pays a lot of attention to you."

"Oh, shush."

Twenty-five minutes, an accumulated six flights of stairs, one phone call and a completed checklist later, the two siblings found themselves sitting on stools in the kitchen. Leo tapped each item on the paper with his finger, reviewing out loud everything he had done. "I've just ordered a pizza for you. There's pop and water in the refrigerator, popcorn in the pantry, and extra blankets in your closet. I found the DVD of your favourite movie, and it's on your desk. Is there anything else that you need to tell me?"

"Well, I think that someone, I think it was Sak—" Elise was cut off by the sound of the doorbell. "Oh, I'll get it!"

She jumped up excitedly, racing to the door. Even before she had consumed any kind of sugary food or drink, she was extremely energetic. She returned a few seconds later, with a pair of teenage girls, each holding an overnight bag. "Leo, I want you to meet my bestest friends in the world, Effie and Azura! Effie, Azura, this is my big brother!"

The hoodie-clad girl on his left waved in greeting, while the one with waist-length blue hair murmured a quick 'hello'. Leo inclined his head briefly, before looking back at his sister. "I trust that you won't burn the house down while I'm not paying attention?"

"Of course you can trust me! What kind of question is that?" Elise pouted briefly, and then perked up and dragged her friends away towards her second-floor room. "C'mon, let's go, we're going to have so much fun!"

. . .

Leo studied the paperback in his hands carefully. He was sitting on the couch in the living room, reading a novel. It was a historical fiction, a little different from what he normally perused in his spare time, but the story and characters sucked him in all the same. A deliberate set of knocks on the door made him look up. He had called for a pizza delivery earlier in the evening, but it was earlier than he had expected.

Snatching up his wallet from the table, he strode over to the door. It swung open to reveal a wisp of a girl with rose-coloured hair, about Elise's age, nervously fidgeting with the strap of her bag. She wore a white cardigan over her blouse, with a red skirt that reached mid-thigh, knee-length socks, and flat-soled sandals. Perplexed, Leo stared at her for a few seconds, almost mesmerized, but his mind clicked back into gear when she shyly looked away from him.

He cleared his throat awkwardly. "And you are…?"

"U-um. Is th-this Elise's house? I w-was invited here for—"

A thundering of footsteps behind him made Leo turn around, and the mystery girl lean sideways to glance around him. "Hey, Sakura! I was wondering when you were going to show up!"

The girl, Sakura, smiled at Elise, relieved that she found herself in the right place. "I'm s-sorry that I'm so late, my music lessons ran longer than I thought they would."

"Well, we haven't started the movie yet, so you're just in time! Follow me!"

Leo watched in mild amusement as his sister pulled the meek form of Sakura away. It seemed that the girl was yet another victim of his sister's enthusiasm.

. . .

"E-excuse me." A soft-spoken voice coming down the staircase interrupted Leo's reading again. "I was w-wondering if could you tell me where the bathroom is?"

The girl from before, who had arrived later than the others, shifted from side to side in front of him. Her name, if Leo recalled it correctly, was Sakura. He pointed behind him, down the passageway lit softly by a row of potlights. "If you go to the end of the hall, it's on your left."

He watched her as she wandered past him, her socked feet making squeaking noises against the varnished hardwood floor. Her pink hair flicked from side to side as she disappeared around the corner.

It was only when Sakura reappeared around the same corner a few minutes later that Leo realized that his gaze had not moved an inch since she left initially. He quickly cracked open the book to a random page, pretending that he had returned to his reading. He couldn't say that he was disappointed when she paused next to him, poised to speak again.

"I f-forgot to thank you for helping me before, um… Xander...?" She asked questioningly, trailing off, quietly murmuring something else that was unintelligible.

Leo glanced up at her, tilting his head. "Pardon me? I'm not Xander."

"I, um, didn't r-remember who you were..." She winced at her words. "I'm really s-sorry. I knew that your name was either Xander or Leo, but… Oh, this is so embarrassing..."

"Well, it's not often that people mistake me for my older brother."

"Elise talks about you two so much, I got your names mixed up in my head. I'm r-really sorry…"

The blond chuckled softly, trying to ease the awkward tension. "You don't have to apologize so much. It's an honest mistake." He couldn't blame someone who had never met him for confusing him with Xander. Of course, anyone who talked to Leo's older brother for even five minutes never made that mistake again.

"Well, I just w-wanted to give you my thanks... So, thank you. And I'm sorry for disturbing your reading again."

"It's not a big deal. I was in a slow section anyway."

Sakura paused, considering her response. "Um… If you d-don't mind me asking… What are you reading?"

"It's the diary of a fictional battalion commander in the Second Nohrian-Chevois War. The events are historically accurate, as far as I can tell, but the major characters were not real."

"Oh. I'm not too f-fond of violence in my books…"

"It's not for everyone, that's for sure."

"Although, i-isn't that the war the first time they used the seraph drop antibiotic in battle? I think I remember reading about that…"

Leo quickly thumbed through the paperback. "I believe that you're correct about that… Yes, here, it's used to save the protagonist's life after he was stabbed." He looked up at Sakura with interest. "Where did you learn that?"

She pondered his question for a second, shyly sinking down onto the couch beside him. "I think it w-was in one of my science textbooks…"

The pair quickly lost themselves in their discussions. Leo found himself continually going off on tangents, but his companion seemed to be happy to listen to his rambling. Midway through a debate on the ethics of stem cell research, he suddenly remembered: Sakura had been watching a movie before beginning a conversation with him that had since turned into a half-hour long affair.

"Oh, I just realized, you're missing the rest of your movie…" Internally, Leo berated himself for making such a thoughtless comment. "I mean, I'm enjoying our conversation, but, um, surely your friends are wondering where you are by now."

He was relieved when Sakura casually ignored his blunder. "I honestly wasn't enjoying the movie very much." She smiled at him. "Besides, I think prefer talking to you over listening to another one of Azura's scary g-ghost stories…"

This time, it was her that changed the subject. Leo learned that Sakura was planning to study medicine in university, and he somehow found himself discussing his inferiority complex and his and Xander's strained relationship with a girl that he had just met.

"It's strange h-how much you remind me of one of my brothers," the pink-haired girl was saying to him. "Takumi tries to pretend otherwise, but he acts like Ryoma is on a level that he just can't ever reach, and he's—"

"Heehee! Are the two of you done flirting yet? I want to get some ice cream before it's too late!"

Leo and Sakura whipped around towards the staircase in unison, where they saw Elise staring at them from the steps, trying, and failing, to stifle her giggles.

Whispers from the second floor, the sources of which were out of view, drifted down. "Elise, you shouldn't have interrupted their moment…" "I think that even I could have been more subtle than that..."

Leo exhaled with thinly veiled annoyance. In the corner of his eye, he could see that Sakura was blushing red, but he willed himself to keep a stony face. "We were having a conversation on more civilized topics than whatever you were gossiping about up there."

His sister gave him a childish pout. "Hmph. You don't have to be so rude, Leo. All we were doing was watching the movie, and then Azura realized that Sakura was still out. Besides, you two are pretty cute together!" She looked further up the staircase. "Actually, on second thought, Azura, Effie, you guys can get the ice cream."

Elise ran down the steps two at a time, and grabbed Sakura's arm and began pulling on it, trying to abduct her to the second floor. "I want you to tell me all about your talk with my brother!"

"B-but we just discussing books! E-Elise, please, slow down a little bit!"

A single-income family owning a house in today's market? Hah, that's probably the most unrealistic part about this (actually no, that would be the socks and sandals).