A/N I just felt like writing an un-planned, spontaneous family fic. Just for funzies. Enjoy.

Cousins

Rin was walking quickly through the cold, autumn day, when she saw her favorite cousin, Hiro, sitting, looking pensive. When he looked pensive, or anything other than angry, something was usually wrong.

She grumbled, wanting to go interrogate Shigure, but also wanting to comfort her cousin. She also had to worry about what she would even say to him. She may have a strange… fondness for the boy, but that didn't mean she wanted to get all emotional and such. She wasn't good at that crap.

Her conscious got the better of her, and she backtracked a few steps to the small boy who had still not noticed her.

"Hey, kid. What's wrong?" she asked, making sure not to sound like she cared at all. The look on the kids face told her that she ad failed. Damn that kid for knowing me so well, she thought.

"I'm fine," he said dismissively, in his usual, condescending voice. Most people were at a loss when such a small kid could be so tough in the face of people twice his age and size, but Rin understood. She and Hiro had a lot in common, but she would not admit that.

Another thing that came from being so similar was that she knew when he was lying. It was something she, herself, was rather experienced in.

"Fine. Whatever," she said, getting up and walking away, slower this time. Hiro had been trying to reach out to her for a while and now that he was returning the favor, he sure as hell was not going to dismiss her like that.

"Wait," he said, not bothering to make his voice sound any warmer. Rin stopped, still a few feet away. "Do you think I'll… be a good brother?" he asked, sounding more like a kid than he usually let people hear. Rin was used to it. He opened up to her. She, on occasion, opened up to him as well. They understood each other.

"You'll be a great brother, baka," she said, letting a bit of her emotion come through in her voice. To make up for that, she made the last word extra-harsh.

"I screwed up with Kisa. I screwed up with trying to un-screw up stuff with Kisa. I try so hard to be mature, and grown up and I'm still... just a… a…"

"A whiney brat?" said Rin. "Doesn't change the fact that you'll be a good brother. She will never have to worry about being hurt by some guy because I doubt she'll date until she's thirty…"

"Got that right," said Hiro, angrily. Rin smiled, happy that Hiro wasn't looking at her.

"She's being born into a family that is forced to live in a freaking jail, and she can't do anything about it. She'll hate me. I'm a monster and I'll be the reason her life is hell. That, or she'll just leave me. And… I'll never be able to hold her, or help Mom out with her when she's a baby. I'll be useless."

Rin promptly punched him in the arm. "You know I hate this 'happy-family' crap," she said. He did. They had most certainly been over this on several, memorable occasions. "But I'll tell you this:"

He waited, now looking at her in the eyes, his brow furrowed slightly.

"You're being a moron. You will be a mean, overprotective brother, and she will love you. You're damn lucky, so quit your whining."

He just kept looking into her eyes, his expression changed slightly. She looked away, rose, and continued on her path without another word.

"Rin," said Hiro, commandingly. Rin stopped, turned her head slightly, and looked at him impatiently. "Thanks."

"No problem, brat," said Rin, giving him a very uncharacteristic half-smile, and walked away.

A/N and the end. I was bored so I wrote that, and I'll post it just because. Not my best. Made it up as I went. No plot really. PLEASE REVIEW! XOXOXOXO