Brother Natsume

~…X…~

Five days later, Natsume decided to visit his family, especially Aria. Wataru could not stop talking about his new sister to Natsume the next day they went to the mall, and Wataru continued this for four days, as if sending Natsume a message that he too should spend some time with Aria, or else Wataru will annoy him until he gives in.

So that is what Natsume is doing now - standing in front of his family home carrying a bag of new video games. He sighed as he stared at the building in front of him. It was still early in the morning, and he was tired too.

He got home after midnight and he was hoping to stay in his apartment to rest, but for some reason, Wataru managed to call him that night. Wataru asked him if he could visit him and Aria in the morning.

At first Natsume hesitated. He really, really just wanted to rest the whole day.

"…S-sure." He said tiredly.

He really can't say no to his youngest brother. The kid is just too adorable.

That is when he remembered something. "Wait…Wataru, why are you still up? It's past midnight."

There was a moment of silence before Wataru spoke. "Oh! I just woke up! I was taking a little nap in Onee-chan's room!"

"Onee-chan…Ema?" Natsume asked.

"No! Big sister Aria!"

"Okay, then where is she right now?"

"Sleeping!"

"Are you still in her room?"

"Yeah!"

"Then you should talk a bit quieter, Wataru. I'm sure you wouldn't want to wake Aria up."

"Oh! S-Sorry…" Wataru whispered at the end of the line.

"The things I do for my little brother…" Natsume said under his breath as he walked inside the building.

Knowing that most of them are probably sleeping, Natsume headed to the living room, but he did not expect to see the person he wanted to see the most. He blinked and looked down at her from the second floor.

Aria was sitting on one of the red sofa with black headphones that had two white letter A's on both side. She was still in her sleeping clothes: a black sweatpants, a white short sleeve t-shirt, and a non-sleeve hooded sweater. Her black hair is tied into two loose ponytails. She had her head down, gazing at her cellphone and scrolling down the music list.

Wondering if he should interrupt her, Natsume began to think of how to approach Aria. Before he could even move from his spot, Aria slowly raised her head up.

"!" Natsume immediately bowed his head, feeling awkward from getting caught for staring at her. "G-Good morning…" He tried to smile, and she did not smile.

"Good morning." Aria said, barely loud enough for Natsume to hear. She removed her headphones and let it hang on her neck.

"Um…isn't it a bit too early for you to be up?" Natsume asked.

"No." Aria shook her head. "I'm a morning person."

"Oh. I see."

"…What are you doing here early in the morning?"

"I felt like visiting." Natsume shrugged his shoulder.

"Early in the morning?" Aria raised her brows up and a ghostly smile appeared on her face.

"…Wataru."

"I know." Her smile grew bigger.

"Huh?"

"I heard his conversation with you last night."

"Oh. I'm sorry that Wataru woke you up last night. He can be a bit…you know." Natsume bowed his head once again.

"It's fine. Anyways, please come down here." She stood up on her feet. "Would you like anything to drink?"

"Coffee is fine." Natsume answered as he walked down the stairs.

"Okay. I'll be right back." Aria left the living room and headed to the kitchen. She might as well make one for herself, too.

After a few minutes Aria returned with a tray of two cup of coffee in a white mug and a jar of sugar cube along with two tiny creamer. She walked over to the table and placed the tray down.

"Here you go." She grabbed one of the cup of coffee and placed it in front of Natsume.

"Thank you."

As Natsume stirred his coffee he watched Aria put several sugar cubes in her coffee. He looked at her and saw something cute. When she tasted her coffee she frowned in a cute way. It was interesting to see her look so serious yet in an adorable way trying to get the right taste for her coffee.

"You put quite a lot sugar in there." Natsume commented as he drank his coffee.

"I don't like bitter drinks." Aria said as she stirred her coffee. "Anyways," She let go of the spoon she was holding and looked back at Natsume. "You look very tired."

"Maybe this cup of coffee will help me for a few hours."

"You didn't sleep much, did you?"

"Yeah."

"Work?"

"Yeah. Oh, I got you something." Natsume looked down to his left side and lifted the bag up. "Here you go."

"Thank you." Aria said after taking the bag from Natsume. She looked into the bag and blinked confusingly. "What is this?"

"Video games."

"Video games?" Aria blinked and tilted her head to the side a bit. It has been a while since she last played any video game. She is not really that interested in playing video games, as she is more towards nature.

"I work in a video game company. We make games for people to play."

"I see. But I don't have the console for these games." Aria sadly said. "I really appreciate you giving me these, but, I think it's better if you give it to Wataru." She handed the bag back to Natsume, only to be pushed back to her.

"No, I want you to keep it. Don't worry, I'll buy you the console."

"No." Aria blinked, a bit surprised that Natsume is willing to buy her something that she did not ask. "Please, you don't have to do that. I've gotten many presents already."

Receiving six presents from her new brothers are enough for her. This is the first time she had gotten more than three presents in one year.

I'll still get her one. Natsume thought and nodded his head. "We can play them later if you want. We can use Tsubaki's PS4."

"Okay."

"So...now that we are brother and sister, why don't we get to know one another?"

It is only right for them to get to know each other, as they will be seeing each other a lot from now on.

"Sure."

"Can you tell me about yourself?" Natsume asked.

"Anything?" Aria asked.

"Anything."

All Natsume know about Aria are that she is nineteen, her hobby are stargazing, she likes to cook, read, and that is it.

Either she doesn't like talking much, or she doesn't trust me enough. Natsume chose the latter. He is going to have to work to earn Aria's trust. "Wait…what about your birthday?" He asked.

That is one thing he actually wanted to know.

At that moment, Natsume saw Aria's eyes darken. "My birthday is not important." She looked away and suddenly found the floor interesting.

"But it's a –"

"It's just a day a person is born in." She cut Natsume off, her eyes a bit col, telling him that she did not want to continue this birthday conversation any longer.

He knew that he had step over the line. It is too early for him to try to get close to Aria. Now it might be hard to even get close to her later on. He needed to think fast before she puts him on her bad list.

"I'm sorry." Natsume said. "I didn't mean to go over the line. I just want to know more about you, that's all."

The coldness in her eyes disappeared. "It's fine." She return to drinking her coffee in silent.

Aria did not mean to put her words in a harsh tone.

Her birthday reminds her of many unwanted memories of the past. One happened to be the day her biological mother leaving her in front of the door of the orphanage on her third birthday. Another one is when her brother, Caius, another orphan boy who is a few years older than her, left her on her eight birthday. He got adopted by a middle class family.

She never really knew much about her mother, but, Caius was everything to her. He was the one who looked after her, the one who loved her and cared for, and the one who she sees as her true family.

When Aria looked back at Natsume from the corner of her eye, she sighed inside. She can tell that he was still thinking about what he had said to her moments ago and that he was feeling guilty.

"Look." Aria said. "Why don't we start over again."

Trying to get along with all of the Asahina siblings is hard.

She placed her cup of coffee down on the coffee table and reached her right hand out to Natsume.

Natsume looked at her with a confuse look, not knowing what she meant.

"I want a handshake." Aria said, leaning forward to him. "Shake my hand." She ordered when he did not grab her hand.

"O-Oh!" Natsume quickly grabbed her hand and shook it.

"I am Aria. I am the new sister of the Asahina family. It's nice to meet you."

"I'm Natsume Asahina." Natsume said. "And I'm the youngest of the triplet."

"Let's get along, Natsume." With a faint smile she let go of his hand.

"What are you two doing?"

A voice asked from the second floor of the living room. Natsume and Aria both looked up to see Tsubaki leaning on the railing with his chin resting on his palm and gazing down at them with sleepy eyes.

He had just woken up a few minutes ago. He did not expect to see the two introducing themselves to one another with a serious look on their faces in the morning.

"We were just getting to know one another." Natsume answered.

"Hmm." Tsubaki moved his eyes to Aria who looked back at him. "So, do you like my little brother? He's not the boring, is he?"

"Natsume is a nice man. He even gave me presents." Aria lifted the bag of video games up for Tsubaki to see. "He said that he and I will play these games later."

"That's great!" Tsubaki grinned. "Can I play with you guys, too?!"

"Sure." Natsume shrugged his shoulders. "But we're going to use your PS4."

"I don't mind! In fact, I will bring it out right now and we can play them here in the living room!"

Tsubaki hurriedly run back to the elevator, leaving the two alone again. This is a great opportunity for Tsubaki as well. With Natsume around, he would not have to worry about being awkward around Aria.

The two looked at each other and laughed.

"Your brother, he is quite interesting." Aria said.

"Yeah. I can say that he's the weirdest one out of the triplets. But he's a fun guy."

"Hm." She smiled again and took a sip of her now cold coffee.

Their meeting may not have gone to a good start, but in the end, things turned out well for the both of them.

~…X…~