Notes: I posted this a while ago on Tumblr (specifically on Jounouchi's birthday, January 25th), but I figured I would go ahead and upload it now.

For everyone's reference going in, I follow the manga canon and this is therefore set in the manga 'verse. To that end, Honda does not have a crush on Shizuka, as he does not have feelings for her in the manga. Also, since it comes up, "sista" is how I've chosen to translate "aneki," so when you see "sista" used, that is how it's being used. Likewise, I use "big bro" for "oniichan," since "big bro" carries the cuter, closer feeling that "oniichan" does in Japanese, rather than the more often used "big brother."

Strolling So Casually

On her last day in Domino after the Battle City tournament, Katsuya took Shizuka all over the city.

She had done a little bit of sight-seeing with Anzu the day before, while Katsuya worked a long shift at one of his jobs and while he had dueled with Yuugi for their real Battle City final after. But going sight-seeing with Anzu was different from going sight-seeing with her brother. A trip around the city with Anzu was more like a guided tour; Anzu took her to all the landmarks that Shizuka imagined tourists might like, such as the art museum and sculpture exhibit down by the train station, and knew a handful of objective facts about each place they visited. Shizuka could almost see Anzu ticking places off in her head as she guided Shizuka around the city, even as she interspersed interesting tidbits of information with stories about what high school life at Domino High was like.

Katsuya, on the other hand, had an entirely different approach. Katsuya didn't take Shizuka to places like museums and science centers. Instead, he showed her this winding set of alleys where a bunch of stray cats lived—many of them kittens—and how they were super friendly if you offered them a tasty treat first to show them you didn't mean them any harm.

(Katsuya was allergic to cats, Shizuka thought, and her memory was proven correct when he started sneezing and scratching at the growing red hives on his arms, but he insisted it didn't bother him and so she took a bit of time to let the kittens crawl all over her anyway. They stopped back off at Honda's after that so she could change her clothes and not make him suffer through spending a day with her covered in cat hair, and so he could grab a jacket to cover up the hives.)

After kitten alley, Katsuya took Shizuka on a bike ride through what he claimed was a neighborhood filled with nothing but old people who didn't age. Old Man Kouzuki, Katsuya told her seriously, had been one hundred and three forever and was living on out of sheer spite for the modern youth. Old Lady Izumo, meanwhile, was secretly a witch who had sold her soul to bird demons who kept her alive until the day she could bring about the birdpocalypse.

"That's why she has so many bird statues in her yard," Katsuya had told her, and Shizuka, standing on the pegs of Katsuya's bike while he manned the pedals, did indeed count at least twenty different bird statues, some of which were more like smaller figurines perched on top of much bigger ones. "They're actually idols to her gods."

"I thought it was bird demons?" Shizuka had said, fighting back a smile.

Katsuya had grinned. "Well, yeah. They're demons to us, but to her . . . anyway, she's mega creepy, we better get out of here before she curses us."

Many of Katsuya's other stories about the elderly residents of the neighborhood followed in the same vein. Old Man Matsuoka was an avid gardener who cherished each of his plants like they were his own children, and was still holding a grudge against the sun for a summer four years ago in which the city suffered a drought, while Old Lady Yukari was an eighty-seven year old vigilante of justice who had, unfortunately, mistaken Katsuya for her arch-nemesis one foggy morning and had never quite shaken that perception of him.

"I mean, I can't really blame her," Katsuya had said, "given the fog and my roguish good looks and all—" Shizuka had stifled her giggles with one hand as Katsuya gave her a cheeky smile "—but it'd be nice if she stopped trying to whack me with her umbrella when I'm just trying to toss a paper on her porch . . ."

But the best story, Shizuka thought, was the one Katsuya had about Old Woman Shigeta, which—as it turned out—happened to be entirely true. Old Woman Shigeta, Katsuya said, made the best pastries on this side of Domino City, and when he knocked smartly on her door (Shizuka wasn't so sure it was the best idea to knock on someone's door in the middle of the day looking for sweets, but Katsuya insisted), he was proven correct by the freshly made apricot bread Old Woman Shigeta offered them. She, apparently, was quite a big fan of Katsuya even if the other elderly residents of the neighborhood didn't seem to be ("My favorite little paper boy!" Old Woman Shigeta had cooed, and Shizuka laughed as Katsuya turned bright red and stuffed another slice of apricot bread in his mouth), and had been delighted to meet Shizuka, too. By the time they were on their way again, it was with a tupperware container filled with leftover apricot bread tucked into Shizuka's purse, and Old Woman Shigeta's insistence that they both come back to visit again sometime.

Although they had enjoyed plenty of tasty apricot bread at Old Woman Shigeta's house, Katsuya felt that they should get some "real" food to eat for lunch, and for him, "real food" entailed what he insisted was the best pizza in all of Domino City. (Shizuka had the feeling Katsuya was going to get her the best of everything, if he could help it, and she had half a mind to tell him that he didn't have to, but she had just as strong of a feeling that he wouldn't listen even if she tried.) The best pizza, as it turned out, didn't come from one of the major chains or even a big pizza parlor. Instead, there was a little hole in the wall pizza shop about three blocks out from Katsuya's neighborhood, squished between a comics store and an odd little incense and trinkets shop. The owner of the pizza shop was an older man with laugh lines and patchy hair, and Shizuka didn't know why she was surprised when Katsuya knew him personally (or when the pizza shop owner, at his own insistence, gave them a whole pizza on a discount), but she was, even as Katsuya added a couple sodas for them to the purchase and Shizuka thanked the pizza shop owner for his generosity.

"You have a lot of friends around the city, don't you, big bro?" she asked as they left the pizza shop. She sat properly on the back of his bike seat this time, the pizza box on her lap, and Katsuya stood up on the pedals to try and give her as much as the seat as possible, the bag of sodas swinging from the handlebars of his bike.

"I just know a lot of people," Katsuya said. "Hang on tight, okay, sis?"

With one arm on the pizza box and her other wrapped around Katsuya's waist, Shizuka nodded. "You got it!"

Lunch was spent in the park, in a secluded little spot on the far side of the large pond. It wasn't easy to see the little grove from the main path, and at first Shizuka wasn't sure why her brother was determined to ride his bike over the grass (especially since she was pretty sure that was illegal, or at least against the rules, or at least against park etiquette), but when he did and they reached the little grove hidden by tall trees and surrounding flower bushes, she was glad for it. There were no benches on that side of the pond, so they plopped right down on the grass, the pizza box between them as they used napkins in place of plates. At that time of the year there were plenty of ducks about, swimming through the water without a care in the world (and they were so cute, Shizuka thought, especially the little ducklings!), but as Katsuya wasted no time in pointing out, the most interesting part was how you could watch the other people in the park without them ever knowing you were there.

"Watch that kid," he said, and he pointed across the pond at a junior high student around Shizuka's age on the other side, standing on the bank. The junior high boy seemed to be saying something to his friends, who looked (and Shizuka was amazed that she could tell, given how far away they were, when just a couple months ago she wouldn't have been able to see the boy at all) less than impressed. "He's got no idea how loose the ground is right there, he's gonna wipe out in three, two—there he goes!"

Katsuya burst out laughing as the ground gave way beneath the junior high student's feet, sending him tumbling backwards (his arms windmilling all the while in a futile attempt to keep his balance) right into the pond. Ducks swimming nearby quacked in agitation and hastily swam away, while the boy's friends roared with laughter much in the same way Katsuya was.

"That's awful!" Shizuka said, but her words were punctuated by her own giggles. Katsuya noticed, and turned to her with a lopsided grin.

"You're laughing, too."

"I know, but it's still awful!"

When lunch was finished (and they had eaten the entire pizza, something which stunned Shizuka a little given how they had filled up on apricot bread right before), they decided to burn it off by hitting up the arcade. Shizuka had expected to go to the arcade near the train station, which was huge and constantly abuzz with flashing lights, blaring noise, and excited crowds. But while Katsuya said that the arcade near the train station was cool, and even admitted that he frequently went there with Yuugi, he also promised her that the arcade he was going to take her to was much better.

"It's smaller, so it's not as well known," he said, "but the games are all in good shape and they have a lot of 'em. The fact that it's not as well known is a plus, too, because it means you can usually get on whatever game you want to play without waiting a hundred years."

"But if it's not as well known, doesn't that mean it won't get as much business and it'll shut down?"

"It better not. I'll keep it running out of pocket if I have to," Katsuya said, and though Shizuka wasn't sure how he would manage that, she had to admit that she would have never dreamed he could have found the money for her operation, either. Her brother had done more miraculous things before, she had to admit, so when he said he would keep the arcade open out of pocket, she couldn't help but believe him.

The arcade was on the other side of town, down by the art district, and was small just like Katsuya had described. It was also mostly empty, as he had promised, which meant they had their pick of games. Shizuka made a beeline for the Guitar Hero station, and even as he walked up next to her and grabbed the second player guitar from the rack, Katsuya gave Shizuka a look of exaggerated exasperation.

"You're gonna kick my butt at this, aren't you?" he asked.

Shizuka grinned, her tongue poking between her teeth. "Maybe."

She did. It wasn't much of a contest, but then, Shizuka knew it wasn't exactly fair, and that he would beat her just as soundly if they decided to play a game of Duel Monsters instead. Despite the fact that the arcade was mostly empty, by the time they finished the third song a small crowd had gathered around them, and by the time they finished the fifth people had come in off the street. This, Shizuka thought, was probably due to her habit of turning away from the screen during difficult parts, due to playing along by listening to the music rather than looking at the notes (because after all, why look at the screen when it was easier for her to know what she was supposed to do by audio cues alone?). Katsuya, for all that he tried his best to keep up with her—and for all that he wasn't a bad player, really, just inexperienced—couldn't quite manage to get even close to her score, and after they played ten rounds, he threw in the towel.

"There's no way. You're just too good, sis," he said, and Shizuka smiled a bit sheepishly, even as the gathered crowd around them applauded.

"I've just had some practice, that's all. I bet if you played more you cou—"

"Wait. Stop." Katsuya held up one hand, and Shizuka blinked, taken aback. He was staring at the screen, his eyes wider than vinyl records, his mouth open a little. "Holy fricking—you did it."

"What? I did what?" Shizuka looked back at the screen, and the second she did, she saw that a cursor was blinking in the first spot on the scoring chart, waiting for her to enter her initials. "Oh."

"Oh? Oh? Shizuka, do you realize what you just did?" Shizuka looked back to find Katsuya beaming at her, looking so thrilled she might have thought he won the lottery if she didn't know what he was actually so excited about. "You just beat Kaiba's score. He had the highest freaking score on every freaking arcade game in Japan and you just took him down!" Katsuya let out a roar of triumph that caused several people gathered around to jump back, and punched both fists into the air as he spun on the spot and crowed, "This is the best day of my life!"

Shizuka laughed, and as she tapped her initials into the top spot on the scoreboard she asked, "Even though you weren't the one to beat him?"

"Are you kidding? Of course even though I wasn't the one to beat him! You beat him! My awesome kid sister took his haughty ass down!" Even though Kaiba was nowhere in sight to see him, Katsuya still turned to the doorway of the arcade and shouted, "Suck it, rich boy!"

The crowd had all but dispersed at this point, and after Shizuka put her guitar back on the rack (her initials now proudly displayed for, Katsuya explained to her, everyone in Japan to see), they played a few of the other games in the arcade. Katsuya fared much better at the racing game, whereas Shizuka was awful at it ("It's not a thing like real driving, it takes a lot to get used to," Katsuya assured her), and they were equally horrible at the shooting game ("If Honda was here, he'd disown both of us," Katsuya said, and Shizuka laughed).

They left the arcade once they had played every game once, and on their way to get ice cream they stopped by a record store. The record store, unlike the other places Katsuya had taken her to, was fairly large and near the train station. The selection was wide, and although Shizuka didn't find anything she either didn't already own or couldn't get herself (she didn't want Katsuya to spend any more money on her, if she could help it, though she kept that to herself because she knew he would swear up and down it wasn't a problem), she loved seeing her brother's tastes. His taste was narrower than hers—while Shizuka had something she liked in just about every genre, Katsuya seemed to stick more to variations of rock (alternative, grunge, punk, metal . . .) with a little bit of rap thrown in for flavor. They spent about an hour browsing the record store, listening to different albums and artists together, and although they left without buying anything, having a better idea of what kind of music Katsuya liked (especially since she now had an address she could send birthday gifts to) was gift enough as far as Shizuka was concerned.

It was still warm even though the afternoon was winding down, so Katsuya bought them popsicles (the kind that came with two stuck together, so they could split it and each have one), and with their ice cream in hand they made their way to the playground of their old elementary school. Given that it wasn't a school day the playground was completely empty, and so Shizuka and Katsuya were able to climb to the top of the little metal arch—the climber, Shizuka thought it was called—and enjoy the solitude as they ate their popsicles, their legs dangling off the side. For a time they sat in silence, enjoying the ice cream and each other's company, but when she was halfway finished with hers and Katsuya was just about through with his, Shizuka finally brought up something she had been trying to figure out how to tell him since the Battle City finals.

"So . . . Mom's dating again. Actually, she has this one guy she's pretty serious about. He, um—he's living with us now."

"Oh. Good for her," Katsuya said. His tone was neutral—completely even—and given how easy it usually was to tell what he was thinking, Shizuka felt a little nervous that she couldn't get anything out of his voice. A second later, he snorted. "Whoever the guy is, he can't be worse than Dad." He paused, then, and a dark scowl overtook his face. "At least, he better not be. Is he—?"

"No, Mom seems really happy with him," Shizuka said quickly. "They get along well, and—"

"I don't care about Mom," he said, and while the swift bluntness of his interruption did hurt her a little (she understood why he felt the way he did, and she couldn't really say she blamed him given that their mother didn't even like to talk about Katsuya, much less ever talk to him, but all the same), the intensity of the gaze he turned on her told her exactly what he had meant, and she felt a surge of affection for her big brother all the same.

"He's really nice to me, too," she said. "He treats me well. He's always trying to do things for me, whether it's taking me to school or just picking up something I need. He makes an effort even when I don't do my best to return it."

Katsuya relaxed, so much so that she could practically see the tension as it melted out of his shoulders. "Good," he said, and he fixed her with a serious look. "But you know I'll kick his ass if he ever hurts you, right? Seriously, Shizuka, if he ever puts one foot out of line, you just tell me. I'll—"

"I know," Shizuka said, although she wasn't sure she would ever take him up on that offer. The last thing she wanted was for her brother's first visit to Hanafuda City end in assault charges. "Thank you."

He smiled at her. "Anytime. You know that."

"I do." She was quiet a moment more, wondering if she should ask, but knowing all the while that she couldn't help herself. No matter how much she didn't want to know (and already knew, on some level) the answer, she knew she had to. "Um, so . . . how are things with . . . with Dad?"

Out of the corner of her eye, Shizuka saw Katsuya shrug. "Fine," he said. He was staring at the ground, twirling his empty popsicle stick between his fingers. Shizuka could spare a second to appreciate the fact that she could see the blue residue on the stick.

"Is he still . . . um . . ."

"He's Dad." Katsuya shrugged again, and started flipping the popsicle stick between his fingers so that it started pinched between his thumb and index finger, and ended between his ring and pinky finger, before he started flipping it back again. "Same as ever, no big deal."

It was a big deal, and Shizuka swallowed a catch in her throat as she looked down at her popsicle, which was only mostly finished and melting all over her fingers at this rate. Shizuka had been seven when their parents divorced, only a kid (and a kid with terrible eyesight, at that), but she wasn't so young that she couldn't remember what their father had been like when she was a child. She remembered the constant fighting between their parents, remembered how easily their father had lost his temper. Katsuya had taken the brunt of it—he always had, even when it was her fault and she should have been the one punished instead—but that didn't stop Shizuka from remembering how their father had no problem screaming at their mother or knocking Katsuya around when he got in one of his tempers, or when he managed to get Shizuka herself by her hair when he was near enough and she had done something wrong, usually just before Katsuya intervened and got himself hurt again.

She hadn't understood why their mother had left Katsuya behind all those years ago, and if she was honest, she still didn't really. She knew their mother's reasons for it—knew that, in their mother's eyes, it had come down to money, that it was hard enough for them to get by with just the two of them, and that Shizuka's father would be able to take better care of Katsuya if it was just the two of them back in Domino, too. But Shizuka had also overheard their mother and grandmother talking about how their grandmother would have taken care of Katsuya, had he moved to Hanafuda City with them, until their mother got back on her feet. She knew, too, that Katsuya worked as both a paper boy and a convenience store clerk in the evenings now, and from what Old Woman Shigeta had said, it sounded like he had been working as a paper boy ever since their parents had divorced. Couldn't Katsuya have worked in Hanafuda City, too, if money was a problem? Couldn't he work there now, if it wasn't too late to move?

Shizuka didn't know if money really was the real issue, or if it had been the only issue back then, or if it was the only issue now. But she did know that even though she had been young and going blind back when she lived in Domino, she hadn't been stupid. She remembered what life was like back then, and what it must be like now for Shizuka to have to stay at Honda's instead of at their father's apartment while she was in town, and before she could help it the catch in her throat was too big to swallow and she could feel her eyes stinging.

"I'm sorry," she said, and she hated how when she cried her voice got all choked up and her nose got all congested and made her sound even worse, but she couldn't help it any more than she could help the fact that she was crying in the first place.

"For what?" Katsuya asked, and as she sniffed and pressed her lips together to try and stop them from trembling, he turned to her and said (his voice sounding pretty alarmed now), "Whoa, what's wrong? Why are you crying? What—?"

"I'm sorry—you got left behind," Shizuka said, and she did her best to make her voice steady—took a deep, shaking breath as she tried to tell him all the things she had already cried over for years, every time she missed him when she made the mistake of listening to a scary movie before bed, or when she heard a funny joke on the radio she knew he would laugh at, even though she had no way of sharing it with him. "I got to move with Mom, and you had to stay with—you had to stay. And I'm sorry. I know I've had a much easier time than you have since I got to get away from all of that, and if you—if you—"

"Shizuka, you were going blind," Katsuya said. "I wouldn't exactly call that having an easier time than me."

"Yeah, but Mom was nice to me, and Masato-san has been, too, and so was Grandma," Shizuka said. She squeezed one of the bars of the climber with her free hand, rubbing the metal against her palm, as the remainder of her popsicle melted off the stick and fell to the dirt below. "And Dad is—he's—"

"He's Dad. I can handle Dad."

"But you—!" Shizuka took a deep breath, more to stall for time to find the words she was looking for than anything else, before she continued. "I don't think—I know it's not fair that I got to go with Mom while you had to stay here, and I'm sorry for that. If you . . . if you resented me for that, I would—"

"Hey, whoa, wait, no, stop." Katsuya hopped off the climber and turned so that he was standing directly in front of her. Whether it was because he was really tall or the elementary school playground climber was really small, when he stood in front of her they were on eye level despite the fact that she was seated on the very top of the climber. When he had made eye contact with her, Katsuya said, "Shizuka, I don't resent you. I could never resent you."

Shizuka sniffed again, and wiped the back of her hand across her eyes. She wished she had a tissue for her nose. "But—"

"But nothing," Katsuya said firmly. "How could you think I—you think I could really—" Katsuya ran a hand through his hair, and took a deep breath and released it before he fixed her with another firm gaze. "Nothing that's happened is your fault. None of it. What have I got to resent you for? You haven't done anything wrong!"

"But I got to leave when you had to stay," Shizuka said in a quiet voice. "I—"

"Yeah, but you think you chose that?" Katsuya said, and she closed her mouth. "Mom and Dad chose that, not you. And even if you had, what does that matter? Anyone would choose to get out of that hellhole. There's no way I could blame you for that."

"But you had to stay," Shizuka said again, and her voice cracked a little. An expression like the sound had physically hurt him crossed Katsuya's face. "And you just said it yourself, anyone would choose to get out of there. So you would too, right?"

"Someday, yeah," Katsuya said, and he mussed his hair again. "But that's not the point. What's done is done, right? And it wasn't your fault, you had nothing to do with it. So—what was that?"

She had mumbled under her breath before she could stop herself, and she had hoped that her brother's hearing wouldn't be sharp enough to catch it, though she supposed the fact that he was looking right at her ruined any chance of that. "I said 'except for my eyes,'" she said, and when he continued to stare at her, elaborated, "Mom and Dad always used to fight over my eyes, because of how expensive the appointments were and the treatments would be. I remember that. And Mom had my medical bills to think about when she moved out, too, so—"

"That wasn't your fault," Katsuya said again, and now his voice was so firm he almost sounded angry. There were times when Shizuka thought her brother's glare was fiercer than any dragon's, and now was one of those times. "It's not your fault your eyes went bad, or that doctors are expensive, and definitely not that Mom and Dad fought, okay? That's on them. It was always on them. All of this is on them, not you."

Shizuka looked down at her popsicle stick again. "But—"

"When we were little, do you know why I wanted to come home? Why I always wanted to come home, even though sometimes I just wanted to run away instead?" Katsuya waited until Shizuka looked up at him before he said, "You. I always wanted to come home because you were there. I knew that if I didn't you'd be there by yourself, just you and Mom and Dad, and I didn't want to leave you there alone. I also wanted to play with you, so that was incentive, too."

Despite herself, Shizuka snorted a laugh. "Because all boys like playing with their dumb little sisters."

"Well, I never had a dumb little sister, so I don't know about that, but I sure liked playing with the cool little sister I had," Katsuya said, and Shizuka's smile grew a little more. "But I did. I always wanted to come home because you were there. Otherwise I probably wouldn't have bothered. After you left, there were a lot of nights when I didn't."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Used to piss Dad off real good. You know, 'cause I—well, because he needed me there. Or it wasn't really me he needed, but . . ." Katsuya ran a hand through his hair again. "Not the point. What I'm trying to say, Shizuka, is you were always my biggest motivation when I was a kid, and to be honest that didn't stop when you left. Why do you think I went to Duelist Kingdom, huh? Or Battle City? You were always on my mind. You were the one I was fighting for."

"But that's not the point, Katsuya," Shizuka said, and he raised his eyebrows as she said, "That has nothing to do with the fact that Mom took me and left you—"

"It is the point, because you're sitting here saying I should resent you for something Mom did, and I'm telling you that's a stupid way to think," Katsuya said, and he ignored Shizuka's frown. "I could never resent you, Shizuka, not ever. You're the best sister I could ever ask for. You're one of the best people I know, period. How could I ever blame you for what Mom and Dad did, huh? Their screw-ups are theirs, not yours. Never yours."

"And not yours, either," Shizuka said, and Katsuya shrugged.

"This isn't about me. It's about you, and how you think I should resent you over something dumb."

Shizuka rolled her eyes. "I don't think you should, just that if you did it would be fai—"

"I don't, and it wouldn't, but that's okay because I never would," Katsuya said, and Shizuka huffed. In spite of her frustration, Katsuya smiled, his eyes soft. "I love you, sis. Always have, always will, and that's the end of it. Okay?"

It was silly to start crying again when she was crying because she felt guilty before, and felt only bubbly love and affection for her brother now. But more tears slipped down her cheeks as Shizuka nodded, and without warning she pushed herself off the climber so that she could wrap her arms around her brother's neck and hug him tightly. A warning wasn't necessary, anyway; Katsuya opened his arms automatically to catch her, and wrapped them around her in a bear hug before he spun her around to set her on her feet. She smiled up at him, and wiped her hand across her eyes again.

"I love you too, big bro," she said, and he grinned back at her.

"Yeah, I know," he said, and she snorted another laugh at the ridiculousness of his response before she realized that both of her hands were now empty. She stared at her empty palm for a second before she realized what must have happened, and then she looked back at her brother with a sheepish smile.

"Um, big bro?" she said, and he raised an eyebrow at her. "I think . . . can you turn around for a second?"

"Huh? What for?" Even as he asked Katsuya obliged her request, turning halfway, and when she saw her popsicle stick stuck to the back of his denim jacket, Shizuka clapped her hands over her mouth to try and stifle her sudden laughter. "What?"

"I'm sorry, it's just—my popsicle stick got stuck to your jacket," she said, and Katsuya whirled back around to face her, looking exasperated and amused all at once.

"Aw, seriously? Come on, Shizuka, this is one of my favorite ones!"

"I'm sorry, it was an accident!"

"Well, come on, help me get it off, would you?"

Fortunately, it was easy enough to peel off (though with the fuzz stuck to it now, it no longer looked even remotely close to appetizing), and Shizuka reached up to smooth the denim of her brother's jacket once she had the popsicle stick secured.

"I don't think it did any damage," she said, and Katsuya scoffed as he turned back to face her.

"Wouldn't care if it did, to be honest. It'd just make it look more badass," he said.

"Then why were you complaining that it's one of your favorites when the stick was stuck on there?"

"Because a popsicle stick is not gonna make it look more badass, it'll just make it look stupid," Katsuya said, and Shizuka found she couldn't argue that. "Now come on, we should probably head back to Honda's. I've gotta think they're probably sitting down for dinner soon, and Honda's mom wigs if anyone's even one minute late for dinner. She'll at least give more leeway for you, since you're a guest and all, but for the rest of us . . ." Katsuya pretended to shudder.

"I don't know, Honda-san's parents seemed nice," Shizuka said as they started back across the playground.

"Of course they did. Like I said, you're their guest. But it's the rest of us whose necks they'll wring. 'Course, I might be able to skate by as a guest, too, but I wouldn't bet on it. I've been friends with Honda too long. His parents know me. Plus I'm pretty sure his sister and her family are gonna be over for dinner tonight, and even if his parents wouldn't kill me, she definitely would just for—" He paused, looking up at the sky, and then said, "Well, for a lot of things, really, but only about half of them are justified."

Shizuka didn't know what that was supposed to mean, so she didn't question it. "I did hear Honda-san's parents talking about his sister's family coming over for dinner at breakfast this morning," she said. "She's not spending the night because I'm using her old room, they said, but they were concerned about space around the dinner table. Still, I think it'll be fun to have a nice big dinner. It'll almost be like we're one big family, right?"

"Yep!" Katsuya dropped his popsicle stick into the trash bin they passed as they exited the playground, and Shizuka did the same with hers.

"What's Honda-san's sister like?" she asked. "Is she nice?"

"She's cool," Katsuya said, "and speaking of which . . . Shizuka, I need you to do me a favor."

"What is it?"

"When you meet her, call her 'sista.'"

"'Sista?'" For how serious Katsuya had sounded when asking her for a favor, Shizuka couldn't deny that she felt a little bewildered by the strange request. "Why—?"

"Just do it, okay? For me. I'll never ask you for anything else."

"Okay," Shizuka said, and a wide, mischievous grin split her brother's face as he tossed his head back and laughed. "If you say so."

"I do say so. And I also say that you are, without a doubt, the best sister ever." Katsuya turned his grin her way, and Shizuka—well aware that no matter what shenanigans occurred as a result of her following her brother's odd request that this was the best day she had experienced in a long time—grinned right back.

"Well, what can I say? It's really easy, considering what an awesome brother I've got in return."

Katsuya didn't say anything in response, but his smile looked somehow warmer, and he threw an arm around her shoulders to pull her in a one-armed hug as they made their way back to Honda's house.