Title: Once
Series: xxxHOLiC and Clover
Characters/Pairings: Kunogi family
Rating: PG
Summary: Himawari had a sister once.

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Himawari had a sister once. But she did not know that. She was long dead before Himawari could cognitively form a memory of her.

When Oruha was pregnant with Himawari, her older sister would rest against her mother's stomach, pressing her ear against her swollen belly to listen to the baby inside. The young girl would smile and look up at her mother, her smile crinkling the corners of her eyes.

"When will she be born?" Suu asked Oruha.

Oruha smiled. "Soon."

The little girl would smile and her green eyes would close in thought as she pressed her ear against Oruha's belly again. And she would sing along with her mother and hope that the baby inside could hear and enjoyed the melody.

Himawari was born three weeks later, and Suu waited anxiously at home with the elder neighbor from next door. And when Oruha returned with Kazuhiko and a small bundle of blankets, the little girl had smiled and quietly walked forward to observe her new sibling.

She brushed her fingers across the girl's pale cheeks, brushing over curls of black hair so similar to her mother's.

The family seemed happy. Things seemed good. But then Suu started getting sick. She would sleep in longer and stay up at nights staring at the ceiling and she would cough. She went deaf in one ear—the ear that had rested against her mother's belly for months on end.

But the family didn't make a connection between Himawari's birth and Suu's degrading health. Suu hadn't been the healthiest of children, and they took her to the doctor. The doctor said it was a cold. The cold became the flu. It wasn't anything serious. She'd be fine.

One night, when Himawari was two, she toddled into Suu's room and crawled into her bed. A chill ran down the older girl's spine but she smiled at her sister. She felt sick and tears collected in her eyes.

"Why are you up?" she asked her little sister.

"Sister," was all Himawari said and she kissed Suu's eyelids before falling asleep on Suu's pillow.

The next morning, Suu couldn't see.

But Kazuhiko and Oruha saw no connection. They brought Suu to doctors, but none of them could find the reason for the sudden loss of sight. Himawari held Suu's hand tightly and looked around the hospital, unsure what she was seeing and easily distracted.

Suu felt cold, and the warmth only returned when Oruha took Himawari to the cafeteria in the hospital to get some food. She turned her head towards where she thought Kazuhiko was and smiled sadly.

"Sorry," was all she said.

Suu died that night.

The doctors didn't understand why.

The family of three—should be four, should be four, should be four—drove home and they were silent. Himawari didn't understand the absence, but she understood the sadness and pain in her parents' eyes. She didn't understand where her sister was, but she understood the sorrow in her parent's voices when they denied her request to see her sister.

And as Himawari grew, she slowly forgot her sister. She forgot gentle green eyes. She forgot soft hair. She forgot small little smiles and a gentle hand that held her tight. She forgot her sister, and everything her sister was to Himawari.

To Himawari, she was an only child.

She had a sister once. But her sister was no more.