Another bit of fluff for my guilty pleasure. Haven't worked up the motivation to catch up on this series proper, but that's not stopping me from posting short little one-shots. I had fun writing this, for reasons you'll soon see, enjoy.


Kyousuke shifted around on the living room couch for the umpteenth time that night, silently cursing the whole time. Damn it, why did this thing have to be so uncomfortable?

This was just his luck. Looking back, he really shouldn't be surprised something like this would happen to him. Well, then again, maybe that was the self-pity talking

Kyousuke took a leisurely stroll home today; having spent some extra time with Manami. The girl really did know how to brighten his day. Turning onto his street, he took look at his neighbors' house, groaning at the large vehicle parked next to it. The whole second floor was being torn down, so a miniature crane had been employed to help with the job. The thing sure made a hell of a lot of noise, having broken him out of studies on more than one occasion.

The whining of the crane arm told him it was currently active, and he noticed large piles of rubble being taken from the scoop to a waiting truck below. The arm unloaded its burden and rose back up. Only, that wasn't all it did.

As it got level to the second story, the crane arm started fidgeting, and then it overextended and took a sharp turn.

It smashed right into his room.

He still remembered his reaction, not that it had been much of one. How does one react to a large object tearing down their living space, anyway? It's not something you see every day.

Needless to say, a large dispute had followed, and his room was currently undergoing repairs. In the meantime, Kyousuke found himself sleeping on the living room couch.

And the unpleasant make-shift bed was just one problem he faced. Being that he was just a hop, skip and a jump from his parent's room was torture in of itself, for reasons the teen would rather not think about.

And then there was his sister. With no privacy of his own, Kyousuke had found increasingly less time to play the seemingly limitless supply of eroge she threw at him. The farther he fell behind, the more she began to breathe down his throat.

Metaphorically, of course.

He would have taken residence with Manami or Akigi some time ago but both household's had proven less than comfortable. Manami's because of her rather… unique family and their interest in the two friends' relationship, and Akagi because of the sibling's uncomfortably close relationship. Before it hadn't been noticeable, but now that Kyousuke knew about Sena's eccentric tastes, the younger sibling found it perfectly fine to flaunt on about it when he was around.

The setting quickly became one he would rather do without. Having someone openly fantasized about his being anally defiled saw to that.

Kyousuke's rather unpleasant reminiscing was cut short by the living room door cracking open. Startled, the teen did his best to feign sleeping; cracking an eye half open to see who would need to enter the kitchen at this hour. The patter of feet was too light to be his father, and the silhouette too short to be his mother. That left one possibility: Kirino, for whatever reason, chose this ungodly hour to enter his makeshift sleeping quarters.

"Kirino?" He groaned out, his mentally inhibited state preventing him from higher level thinking, which would have figured out that calling her out on such a suspicious activity typically wasn't good for his health. Kirino for her part yelped, her form tensing slightly as her name was called out. She quickly recovered, as was to be expected.

"What the hell!" She whispered. "Trying to get a peek at your little sister? Gross you pervert!"

"What?" No, there was no way she would turn this on him. It was her that was acting suspicious, not him. "You're the one entering the livingroom in the dead of night!"

"And you're the one waiting for your helpless little sister to come in so you can get a peek you sicko!" How does one rebuttal from that? It was obviously untrue, but no matter what he would say, she would just twist and skew his words.

"Ahh, whatever. For your information, I couldn't care less about getting a look at you, it's this damn couch." He lightly huffed; shifting on the cushions that were did not live up to their name. "Now it's your turn, why are you up this late?"

Kirino paused for a second, stuttering. "I- I just needed to get some water," she finally retorted.

"Mhm," Kyousuke, shifted under the blanket again. "Whatever, just get what you need and go back to bed. He was irritated enough without having a verbal spar with his sister. She made a couple of sounds, like she was preparing a comeback, but instead did just what he asked, grabbing a glass of water, downing it surprisingly fast, and heading back to the hallway that lead upstairs. When she heard him shift once more, she paused.

"So, uhm, that couch is really that uncomfortable?"

"Kind of, yeah." It wasn't always this irritating, in fact it used to feel pretty good to just plop down on the thing and rest, but a good week of sleeping on it removed any comfort he used to get from it.

"Well, I- ah, I was thinking…" if he could see her, he would notice her gaze directed at her toes, a faint tinge highlighting her cheeks. "Since I need you wide awake tomorrow so that you can catch up on eroge and everything, maybe uh…" now she was stalling, trying to justify whatever would come next. "Maybe you should, uhm…"

"Whatever you want to say, just say it, it's not like I'll berate you or anything, I already know most of your hobbies and secrets." Kyousuke tried to put it as gentle as he could, but the fact of the matter was that her stalling was wearing away at his nerves.

"Iwasthinkingyoushouldsleepwi thme!" she said as quickly as she could.

"What was that?" Kyousuke was still partially impaired, and couldn't make out a thing she said.

"You know…" she shifted around uncomfortably. "Since you're not sleeping well, and I need you awake in order to help me out… not to mention my bed is decently sized, bigger than yours anyway, you could… sleep with me?"

If there was a brickwall in front of Kyousuke, and he was running at 50 mph, that would about describe what he felt like right now. Did she just say that? He wasn't losing his hearing, right? "You want… me, to sleep with… you?"

"We used to do it when we were little, so it's not a big deal, geeze." She turned away. "It's not like it means anything."

"Yeah, but that was when we were little. We're teenagers now, kind of different."

"Look, it's non-negotiable, you need to be fully alert if you're going to be useful to me," Kirino turned back and grabbed his collar, yanking Kyousuke off the couch. "Now come on." Startled, Kyousuke could only play follow the leader up to his sister's room. When they reached her still open door, she shoved him in, following behind and shutting the door firmly behind her, giving it a sense of finality. He had just been thrown into the hyena's den.

Not only was he trapped with his sister, Kyousuke was also given the wall side of her bed. Kirino seemed intent on giving her brother no means of escape. Sighing, he resigned himself to what would most likely be the most sleep deprived and uncomfortable night of his life.

Kirino wasn't fully wrong with what she said, the bed was certainly more comfortable, and it did have almost enough space to accommodate the two, almost. He was still forced to squeeze up against the wall, lest he make contact with the banshee. It didn't help that she seemed to be slowly inching closer to him. Finally he said something.

"Kirino, mind giving me a bit of space?" It seemed innocent enough.

Instead, she just curled up closer to him. Her back was against his chest, which only made the position ever the more uncomfortable, not that seeing her face there would be any better. So that wouldn't be getting him anywhere.

"You know, I remember when we used to do this," maybe making light of the situation would help. "I think I was like ten or something and you were seven. You used to get scared of thunderstorms all the time." Kyousuke chuckled at the memories. "You'd always come into my room and either sleep with me or beg me to sleep with you." He was audibly chuckling now. "Headstrong, stuck up little Kirino was terrified by the big bad thunder." He was smiling now. Those were simpler times, before his life became so abnormal and complicated, thanks in part to his little sister. Kirino for her part let out a hmph.

"Yeah, well at least I didn't run away from spiders like I was deathly allergic to them," she retorted.

"Fair enough, I guess," Kyousuke stared blankly at his sisters hair and absent-mindedly began running his fingers through it. The blonde froze at his touch, before letting out a shiver of content. He used to do this too. Kyousuke could vividly recall how him just brushing her hair would calm and sooth his little sister on those nights where the world was an evil creature out to get her.

Eventually, Kirino began to stir. Kyousuke took this as a sign and removed his had from in-between her strawberry hair. She growled at the loss of contact. "Did I say you could stop?" she muttered, so he continued where he left off. Then, unexpectedly, Kirino flipped around, deftly tucking her head into Kyousuke's chest.

"Ah, Kirino? What are you doing?" this sudden display was very unbecoming of the Kirino he knew these days.

"It's cold," she stated it as though it was obvious, although to Kyousuke's senses, the temperature was perfectly fine. Still, he chose not to object and let her stay curled up against him. He found it oddly cute, layered with a hint of nostalgia.

"Heh, you used to do this too," another wave of memories washed over the teen. "Always wanting to snuggle with your 'big brother,'" Kyousuke did his best to imitate her seven year old voice. It earned him a punch in the arm, but other than that Kirino didn't budge.

There are just some things in this world that a person can't deny, try at they might, and right now, Kyousuke was having one of those moments. Try as he might, it was irrefutable. On this second, this moment, he was more content, more at peace with himself, than he had been in a long time. Something about his situation just felt right.

"Say, Kirin-"

"Shush, I'm trying to sleep," his sister commanded.

He supposed that was alright. He should be getting some shut eye as well. Even though tomorrow was the weekend, it would be best if he was up early. Kyousuke closed his eyes, and wasn't able to bring them open again. All the fatigue and loss of sleep was catching up, and he was quickly slipping from the realm of consciousness.

Just as his last thoughts were shut off in favor of rest, he could vaguely hear Kirino whisper something. Something only she would know was said:

"Goodnight, big brother."


Dawwww, right? I hope so, that was the point. I know it's absolutely ridiculous that Kyousuke's room would get wrecked like that, but that's half the fun of fanfiction, now isn't it?

Please take half a second to leave a review (well, preferably more than half a second for a more cohesive one, but pick your poison.), it helps me to grow as a writer, especially the constructive criticism part.