"Megumi onee-chan, Keiko onee-chan, this is Maki-chan, nya!"

Rin pulls on Maki's arm that almost makes the latter trip on her way to the cozy living room of the Hoshizoras. There sit two women, both with slightly lighter orange hair than Rin's. One has her hair dressed on a side ponytail while the other has shoulder-length wavy hair. Regardless, they still looked a lot like Rin. Only older, of course.

"G-good afternoon," Maki greets, smiling nervously as she regains her composure. "Sorry for the intrusion."

Megumi, the eldest of the three, looks at Maki with scrutinizing eyes while running fingers on her ponytail. On the other hand, Keiko, the second eldest, is the one to speak up to Maki with a gentle smile. They both share the same color as Rin's eyes too, by the way.

"It's nice to finally meet you, Maki-san. Rin-chan always talks a lot about you when we're home from uni."

"Oh, um, nice to meet you too," Maki slightly bows her head to the soft-spoken woman.

Rin bounces excitedly and asks, "See, Keiko onee-chan? Maki-chan is really pretty in person, right?"

"Yes. Beautiful, even. Quite the good match for a cute one like you, Rin-chan," Keiko nods approvingly. She shifts to look at Megumi. "What do you think, Onee-san?"

The eldest in the room is met with expectant eyes for an answer, but Megumi doesn't respond.

Uh-oh, protective sister alert.

Getting introduced to Rin's parents for the first time during one of Rin's track meets a few months ago was already sufficiently awkward for Maki. And now, well, it's still sufficiently awkward... especially with how Megumi has been looking at her the whole time with a resting bitch face. Rin always says that both her sisters, who are usually not at home due to college, are very kind and loving people. Oh, and they're also funny and crazy — Hanayo said that when Maki asked her about Rin's sisters from a best friend's point of view and experience. Either way, Maki can't see any of it completely right now.

Maybe only Keiko is the kind one? As for Megumi…

"Maki."

The voice is stern. Maki's nervous head quickly turns to Megumi and she gulps dryly. "Y-yes?"

They maintain eye contact for what Maki feels like an eternity. Great, the strict one who clearly doesn't like me already is finally going to grill me alive, Maki thinks.

"When are you and Rin-nya going to have babies?"

Holy mother of what—

"Onee-chan don't scare her, nya!" Rin shouts out of embarrassment, but still sounds like she's amused with the question anyway.

"I'm not! I mean, you guys are going out, right? It's a perfectly normal question," Megumi finally speaks animatedly — or maybe normally — and wears a smile too identical with Rin's playful one. All the air of strictness on her vanished with her giggling.

"Onee-san, that's too forward. They're still only on their third year of high school." Keiko reprimands. "You'll have to forgive our sister here, Maki-san. I think the right question is when do you plan to marry our little sister. We're pretty excited about it."

"Oh come on Keiko, why even beat around the bush? I wanna have cute nephews and nieces from our Rin-nya already!"

"Well, they're still too young to have children of course. But... Little Rin-chans and little Maki-sans running around, huh... Oh my, that really is a swell idea!" Keiko claps excitedly as she joins Megumi in hearty laughter.

"You guys… It's getting embarrassing, nya..."

Rin fidgets on her sisters' exchange while Maki remains standing on her spot frozen, too confused with how things are going down to even interrupt with a sane answer or any word at all. The pianist expected questions about their college plans, her family background, perhaps some rejection too and disappointment and scenes involving Rin's sisters telling her to stop seeing their precious little 'Rin-nya' because of reasons like, still believing in Santa or maybe her hair is too red for them. But no. She got questions about marriage and babies instead, first meeting alone.

So this is what crazy meant on Hanayo's words about Rin's sisters.

"I'm sorry Maki, I think I see why Rin-nya likes you so much. You just look like you're fun to play around with," Megumi says as their laughing died down. "Now come on you two, sit here with us and have some tea. You owe us cheesy stories about yourselves."

"Right, and then we can discuss your wedding plan," Keiko adds.

"Onee-chan, please!"

Oh, they're Rin's sisters, alright. The similarities are way too obvious, both physically and in behavior, including Rin's bubbly parents to be exact. Maki is too stuck-up and awkward on this kind of atmosphere but somehow, it still makes her feel very much at home, like she's been part of the family all along without really the need to verbalize it. Maybe this lightheartedness is why Rin grew up to be the happy little kid that she is. And maybe Maki will learn how not to get too rattled with this family's overwhelming warmth, all in good time.


A/N: This is what happens when you put me on a four-hour bus ride.

Rin's sisters' names are not canon. As for the names in kanji: Megumi 恵, "blessing, grace"; Keiko 敬子, "respectful child". From Wikipedia the shitty encyclopedia.