Blessings in Disguise

Written by: CherryDrug

Disclaimer: "I am not the liable owner of the series or franchise of one Eyeshield 21. I do not own it's original plot, it's characters, the public figures, events, places and etcetera. I do, however, own the plot of this story, as well as my OC, one Kobayakawa Kanami. Arigatou for not suing me :)."

Rating: This'll be a T-rated fan fiction, so those who're expecting sex or mature themes, please wait for a while ahaha. I'm not yet ready to corrupt my virgin mind with lemons or erotic stories just so that I could please all you perverts, ehehe ;)

Genre: Family, Friendship, Adventure, Drama, a spice of Humor, and Romance some time down the road :)

Characters: Erm...there'll be a lot in the future, but for now, Kobayakawa Kanami will be our main character for this story of ours :)

Summary: I wasn't somebody important that died from a tragic yet all too coincidental accident, with no family to bury me and no friends to mourn my passing; whereas she had been unexpectedly born into a family that still welcomed her with open arms, grew up with a supposedly fictional main character for an elder twin brother. Dear God, why mix us together? SI!OC-as-Sena's-twin.

Pairings: Conclusion, just gonna let this story flow as it should until I get a pairing lol.

AN: I don't know about you guys, but I seem to be able to give birth to chapters at a quicker rate if I'm tired and stressed out. (Please don't support this. I don't think my heart can handle such unhealthiness, uhuhu.) Oh! And did you also notice that in the manga, Sena's birthday is on December 21, whilst in the anime, his birthday is on October! I find it kinda weird, because why do you have to change the character's birthday? But meh, it was their decision anyways.

And dear gosh was it a pain to write down Karin's dialogue, I swear.

And to be honest, I'm not even satisfied with this chapter, but it's needed for the ripples that Kanami's creating. And here, Sena plays a much larger part in the whole 'try to make friends' thing since Kanami's new to this kind of thing, and she doesn't have Sena's naivety to everything.

Chapter 4

It had taken one week—one week—for Hitomi-obasan to drop by the Kobakayawa household, with her daughter in tow this time, and Kanami hadn't really expected what Hitomi-obasan's spawn had been really like. She'd just assumed that Hitomi-obasan's daughter was just some kind of spoiled crybaby who was too shy to actually do anything, but when she'd taken one look at Hitomi-obasan's daughter, she'd been floored.

"Come on, Karin-chan," Hitomi-obasan coaxed, trying her very best to oh so carefully and oh so gently push her daughter up to the front, but the little girl hiding behind her back didn't waver even once, and Kanami noticed that Hitomi-obasan's daughter had merely tightened her grip on her mother's long skirt, adamantly stubborn and determined to hide forever. "Why don't you introduce yourself to Mihae-oba and her kids?" Hitomi-obaasan suggested softly.

Her daughter merely whimpered lowly behind her.

Feeling sorry for the other girl, Kanami stepped forward and plastered on a smile that was as amiable as amiable could get. "Hi," she said, waving, and she gave her twin brother a bemused look when he pulled her back by her arm. Deciding to ignore her older brother for the moment, she turned back to look at the shadowed figure hiding behind Hitomi-obasan, and she continued despite Sena's tight grip on her lower arm. "I'm Kanami, but you can just call me Kana," she offered.

Silence.

Hitomi-oba sighed and sent her mother an apologetic look.

Their mother just smiled. "It's fine, it's fine. Sena-kun was just like that when he was younger," she said, and Kanami could feel her older brother fidgeting as he blushed lightly. "I'm just gonna go get the brownies for the kids, so go make yourselves comfortable," she said just as she exited the room, and all three children perked up at the thought of brownies.

Hey. Give her a break. 19 years old Kanami may be in terms of mentality, but she was still a little kid by heart.

And once their mother left, Kanami elbowed Sena in the side, causing the boy to let go of her arm to protectively hold his aching side. He shot his younger sister an accusing, what did I do? look, and Kanami raised her eyebrows at him.

"Go and introduce yourself," She simply whispered, tilting head head towards Hitomi-obasan who was trying to coax her daughter out from behind her so that they could comfortably sit down on the couch. It still looked like her daughter was still pretty adamant and wasn't going to give up anytime soon on the 'Be One with Mother's Leg' plan, what with the constant whimpers that were coming from her.

Sena shifted in place a few more times, looking every bit as the shy boy that he was, before he looked up at the shadowed figure hiding behind Hitomi-obasan. "E-Eto...H-Hello. M-My name is Kobayakawa Sena, b-but you can just c-call me Sena," he said, before he swiftly looked down at the floor, completely abashed.

And surprisingly, once Sena had finished introducing himself, the little girl hiding behind Hitomi-obasan curiously peered out from behind her mother's legs before hiding back once again; this time, her whimpering stopped, and there was only silence from the other girl. Kanami didn't know whether to take this as a good thing or bad thing.

"Come on, Karin-chan," Hitomi-obasan tried again; however, instead of trying to gently push her daughter out from behind her like before, the woman pried off (and Kanami uses those words strongly, because it was like trying to separate a wooden pencil from its eraser, with wriggling and twisting and all) her daughter and placed the little girl in front of her for all to see.

And Kanami and Sena got a good eyeful of a blonde-haired little girl dressed in a light pink dress.

And that was it.

"A-Ah!" Hitomi-obasan's daughter cried out in surprise and despair, before trying to scramble back behind her mother's legs. Hitomi just tutted at her as she sat down, and her daughter tilted her head back to give her mother a betrayed and hurt look as she clenched tightly onto her mother's skirt.

...Kanami assumed that Hitomi-obasans daughter looked betrayed and hurt, but she couldn't really tell for sure, what with all that blonde hair covering her face. 'Oh no!' Kanami thought sarcastically. 'It's Ju-On!' She internally wailed, despite the way her shoulders trembled from trying to reign in her giggles.

"No, Karin-chan," Hitomi-obasan said sternly; for the first time looking and sounding incredibly rebuking and upbraided with her daughter's actions. "You're just being mean and rude to Kana-chan and Sena-kun, and we've already talked about this at home. You need to at least try to make friends, or you won't make any at all," Hitomi-obasan said, shaking her head, before looking down at her daughter with big, brown eyes.

Kanami knew that look very well, even though it held little to no effect at all on her since Sena's puppy dog eyes was much more stronger.

"Come on, Karin-chan," Hitomi-obasan crooned, jutting out her bottom lip even more to make it poutier. "You promised okaa-san that you'll at least try," she said, and Kanami could just imagine the imaginary arrows stabbing right at the other girl's guilty points.

Hitomi-obasan's daughter contemplated it for a few, very (and Kanami stresses the 'very' strongly) long moments; then finally, with few more encouragements from her mother, the little blonde-headed girl introduced herself. "H-H-Hel-Hello," she stuttered out, completely butchering that one simple word, fidgeting a few more times, and Sena had to quietly ask Kanami what the other girl had said. "I-I-I'm K-K-Koi-Koizumi K-Karin. P-P-Please treat m-me we-well," Koizumi stammered out, looking at the ground the entire time.

It took a while for Kanami to decipher the words, but once she did, she nodded slowly and asked for clarification. "Koizumi Karin?" The name didn't really strike her as familiar at all, so Kanami brushed off the idea that Koizumi was a prominent or even a semi-prominent character of Eyeshield 21.

Koizumi flinched, as if startled, but she hesitantly nodded. "Y-Y-You ca-can j-ju-just c-call m-me K-K-Karin," she muttered, and what little features that Kanami could visibly see on her face flushed a light red.

"...Karin?" Sena tried, looking at the aforementioned girl to see if he'd pronounced her name right. It'd seemed that he hadn't quite understood her stuttering, judging by the bemusedly hesitant expression upon his features.

Koizumi—Karin, Kanami silently reminded herself, meeky nodded and fidgeted once more, gripping the skirt of her dress quite tightly.

Sena visibly glanced at Kanami, and Kanami was forced to look back at Sena since he began tugging at the back of her clothes when she didn't immediately look back at him. She raised an eyebrow at him, and he pointedly looked at Karin, the message in his brown eyes all too easily read and understood by Kanami.

(That was a funny thing that Kanami was trying to get used to. She didn't know whether it was because they were twins and that 'twins can read each other's mind' thing was real, or merely because of the fact that she was older and was able to easily understand the wants of a child considering that she'd been raised in an environment filled with snot-filled little brats who needed to be catered or they'd start wailing, but Kanami was getting a little spooked out herself by how she and Sena were able to understand each other with no words necessary. But it was cool as heck, she'd admit that.)

Kanami narrowed her eyes at him and jutted out her bottom lip, giving him her best I don't wanna do this, please don't make me do this look; but Sena was stubborn, and he pinched her in the middle of the back. Surprised by her brother's action—it was supremely rare for him to resort to physical violence when he wanted something once he'd turned one and learned that throwing around things was not the ideal way of getting attention—Kanami yelped. causing everyone in the room to look at her.

Hitomi-obasan looked concerned. "Kana-chan, are you okay?" She asked; even Karin seemed to look look a little bit worried or maybe she was weirded out by Kanami's sudden yelp, even though she tried to burrow herself into her mother's lap.

"Y-Yes, Hitomi-obasan," Kanami said, managing a smile, even though inwardly she wanted to shove Sena down to the ground, because ow! That pinch really hurt, dammit! "I just suddenly felt, um, cold, ahaha," she lied through her teeth, and the older woman didn't look one bit convinced but allowed it to slide just this once.

Kanami bit the inside of her cheek, resisting the urge to kick her brother in the back of his legs because Sena was just oozing smugness.

"If you're sure..." Hitomi-obasan said, just as their mother came into the room.

"Sure about what?" Their mother asked as she placed the plate of brownies on the table.

Nobody answered her, because all three children and Hitomi-obasan reached out to take a brownie from the plate. Kanami noticed with amusement that Karin had been the first one to take a brownie from the plate; when the blonde-headed girl noticed that she was staring at her, Karin squeaked lowly and she looked back down at the ground right after she'd retreated back to her mother, beginning to nibble down on her delicacy.

"Oh, Sena!" Their mother suddenly cried, and pulled out a glass of water from out of nowhere. "Eat your food slowly! It's not like they'll run away from you," she scolded as she thumped her son on the back before she let him drink from the glass of water

(Unbeknownst to anybody aside from Kanami and Sena; just a few moments ago, Kanami had jabbed her older brother in the side just as he swallowed his brownie, causing the boy to constrict his throat out of surprise, and in turn making him choke on his own food.

And Kanami didn't feel one bit guilty about it as she chewed through her brownie, not even once looking like she'd noticed the glare her brother had sent her whilst their mother had innocently turned around.)

"Here," their mother said, and Kanami jolted upright to look up at her mother in surprise. "Take these brownies up to yours and Sena-kun's room so that the two of you and Karin-chan can play up there," she suggested, beaming brightly, and Kanami wordlessly took the plate of brownies from her mother. "Hitomi-oba and I have something to talk about," she said, and she shooed all three children out of the living room.

Karin looked absolutely terrified without her mother in sight, and she helplessly looked up at the closed door that led to the living room, hesitant to go back in there since she didn't really want to offend anybody just because she wanted to be with her mother.

Kanami noticed the dilemma that Karin seemed to be in, and reluctantly decided to help the girl out. "Do you want to play with us?" She asked first of all, even though deep down she didn't know whether to be annoyed by such a clingy child (but the other girl was only three years old, so it really wasn't any surprise that Karin was so dependent) or pitiful for such shyness.

Mamori hadn't been that bad, and she'd been the one who'd actually experienced what being bullied felt like.

Karin immediately froze, and she mechanically turned to face the other girl. "A-Ah?" She said, looking fearfully confused.

Kanami resisted the urge to heave out a loud sigh. "Do you want to play with us, Karin-san?" She repeated.

Karin looked down at the ground, fidgeting nervously as she played with her fingers. "A-Ano, you...y-you do-don't m-mind?"

Kanami looked at Sena, silently urging him to add his own two cents to the mix. It seemed her older brother seemed to understand the gist of her silent message after looking at her in the eye, because he gave a brief nod and turned to the shy, blonde-headed girl who didn't seem to know exactly what to do.

"Nope," he said, shaking his head. "Why would we? The more the, ugh..." Sena trailed off, looking thoughtful as he tried to search for the word that he was looking for; unfortunately, he failed to, and he flushed a beet red when he realized that both girls were expectantly looking at him, and he embarrassingly looked down at the floor, steam practically coming out from his ears.

To the utmost surprise of the Kobayakawa twins, an amused giggle chimed from Karin, causing the twins to look at Karin in surprise—well, Kanami tried (keyword: tried) to be discreet about it as she pretended to spot something incredibly interesting in the brownies that she held, whereas Sena peered upwards with his big brown eyes.

And as if sensing something inordinate, Karin stopped giggling once she'd realized that both Kobayakawa twins were staring at her as if she'd grown a second head. With all the blood going to her face, Karin blushed a bright shade of red as she meekly looked back down at the ground. "I—a-ah, um, y-you, I-I," gibberish flowed out of her mouth for a while, before she managed to form the appropriate words. "I-I'm v-very s-s-sorry! I-I d-didn't mea-mean to l-laugh!" She stammered out loudly right before bowing lowly.

Sena looked at Kanami for guidance, having not understood what Karin had just said.

"She's trying to apologize," Kanami whispered to him. "And she looks about ready to cry too," she added, inquisitively looking at the girl. Well, Kanami couldn't be absolutely sure that Karin was close to tears, but the way the blonde-headed girl's shoulders trembled greatly, Kanami was slightly sure that the girl was almost close to tears.

Maybe.

Weak to anybody but mainly girls crying, Sena tried to placate Karin to the best of his ability. "P-Please don't cry!" Sena pleaded, looking at Karin with his devastatingly irresistible big brown eyes that were as adorably wide as they could get. "You can laugh all you want! I-I mean, you can laugh whenever you w-want to, that is, because it's very pretty and—" Sena paused, and took a moment to review his words until his entire face transformed into the color of a tomato once he'd realized what exactly he'd just said.

Karin didn't look any better once she'd realized what he'd said as well.

Kanami just smiled, amused with the two, before she remembered that she had a plate of brownies in her hands that smelled awfully delicious. Her stomach gurgled pleadingly, and Kanami rubbed her stomach to calm it down. "Come on, you two," she tried to encourage, making her way towards the stairs. "Let's go to my room. The faster we get there, the faster we can eat these brownies," she said, raising the dish up to emphasize her point.

Both Karin and Sena's gazes immediately trailed towards the plate of brownies, entranced and probably drooling in their own ways. They scampered after Kanami when they realized that she was already half-way up the stairs; however, before Sena could place one foot on the first step, Kanami suddenly stopped climbing and turned her head to bark at him.

"Oi! You remember the rules, Sena!" Kanami berated, and both Karin and Sena halted in their tracks. "You have to hold hands when you go up the stairs!" She admonished him. It was a rule that their father had created when he'd seen her and Sena go down the stairs one time, with her nearly tripping even though they were already at the bottom step. His ultimate rule was that she and Sena were to hold whatever stair railings they could reach whilst holding hands, no matter how difficult it was. Kanami approved of this idea, since she didn't want Sena to accidentally hurt himself, and also because rules like these provided for interesting situations for Sena with people like Mamori.

Oh~! The way he'd blushed when Mamori had delightfully taken his hand; even though she was the one leading them up the stairs instead of him.

(Her brother was just too uke to be a seme, you know.)

Sena looked absolutely mortified once Kanami mentioned the rule. "E-EH? But Kana-chan! I thought that was only for the two of us!" He exclaimed, not noticing how Karin had flinched at his words and negative reaction, sulkily thinking that Sena must have just been joking about her laugh a while ago and that he didn't really like her at all.

"Then what about Mamori?" Kanami pointed out, narrowing her eyes at her brother. "Why can she follow that rule, huh?"

Sena had nothing to say as he looked down at the ground, fidgeting and shifting in place for all he was worth. Kanami knew her brother couldn't open his mouth once more without saying something that might actually and truly hurt Karin, and she knew that he knew that as well. Kanami casted a glance at Karin, and her gaze softened when she saw that the girl was getting more and more uncomfortable as they talked.

"Can't you just hold her hand, Sena?" Kanami asked, her tone much softer this time. "I don't want the both of you getting hurt when you climb up the stairs," she added after a moment, knowing that Sena would usually take her worried bait.

Sena just stared up at her, a flicker of...of something passing across his features, before he nodded in defeat. "Okay, fine," he said with a small huff, before he turned to face Karin and, almost gingerly, held out a hand for her to take, his entire face as dark as a cherry by now.

Startled, Karin jumped back, and Kanami assumed that the blonde-headed girl was staring unsurely at Sena's hand, as if it would poison her if she so much as grazed it. Karin shuffled in place, finding the floor a rather fascinating sight. "Y-You d-don't h-h-have t-to ho-hold my h-hand i-if y-you d-don't wa-want t-to..." she stuttered out, and it didn't have to take one to be a genius to figure out the hurt and sadness in her voice.

There were a minute of silence as Kanami and Sena deciphered her stutters.

Sena blinked at that—and Kanami felt like banging her head against the nearest wall. 'Sena's an exception, of course,' she thought dryly—and the boy tilted his head to the side, his eyebrows drawing together to form an almost puzzled expression. "Eh?" He started out aloud, making Karin flinch. "What are you talking about? I-I don't mind holding your hand, i-if you don't mind," he said, his face getting even redder if that was even possible, as he shyly looked down at the floor.

What little facial features that weren't covered by Karin's blonde hair turned a bright red.

'Kami,' Kanami thinks, snorting ever so quietly. 'They're three. If this is supposed to be some kind of deranged form of flirting, I don't want to watch it anymore. All I'm doing is getting myself hurt watching them,' she thought, pursing her lips soon afterwards.

Fortunately for her, Karin tentatively slipped her hand into Sena's and together, they clambered up the stairs right after Kanami.

'Oh my gosh,' Kanami thinks, resisting the ever loving urge to giggle creepily like an obsessed otaku at the most fabulous sight of Sena leading his first girl up the stairs (except her, of course. Kanami didn't count anyways, since she was his sister and all and yeah). 'Where the fuck is my phone when I need it the most.' It'd never occurred to her that the last phone she had was probably back in her old orphanage in her old life; all she knew at that moment was how freaking unlucky she was because she didn't have something to capture this moment that would never be shown in the manga or anime, but only in real life.

Conversation with Karin was extremely retarded, Kanami would learn after about half an hour of getting the girl to actually answer one of her questions, and it had taken an entire plateful of brownies and lining up every stuff-filled toy she and Sena ever owned in front of Karin—apparently, the girl had a weakness for soft and adorable things, and it also helped that she was more likely to talk if said soft and adorable things were within her visage.

It wasn't like Karin was a terrible conversationalist—the girl was shy, Kanami would give her that, and she had exactly zero self-esteem; Karin was much worse than Mamori, and Kanami had to wonder what had made Karin into this ridiculous ball of fear and tears. Frankly, Kanami was getting tired of having to deal with anxious kids, since she decided once and for all that it wasn't really good for her heart and all to deal with such stressful emotions that would give her grey hair at the age of ten, but what could she do? Abandon the little tykes? Hah, as if. Like she could ever deal with the brunt of her mother's disappointing stare, haha. She'd be better off digging her own grave. Yeah, she was that whipped—but realistically, Karin was the most stunted conversationalist to have ever walked the Earth.

(Kanami would count trees and walls onto the list, but last time she checked, neither of those could walk.)

She and Sena had been tag-teaming for a while; one of them would figure out a way on how to make Karin open up even just the slightest bit, whilst the other would sit on the sidelines and simply watch. Right now, she was the one taking a break as her older brother tried to encourage Karin to play 'Rabbit Rockets' with him.

But now that she was watching Karin interact with her brother, Kanami could actually see what was wrong with the girl. It wasn't that Karin was just shy, or a crybaby, or spoiled—no, all of those traits just attributed to the fact that the girl had little to none social instincts, something that Kanami hadn't seen in anybody, and that was saying something since Amelia'd grown up being smothered by little devils. So frankly, Kanami had absolutely no idea about how, exactly, to deal with Karin. Kanami couldn't just treat Karin's lack of social instincts as she would treat Mamori's predicament of being bullied; it would be like treating breast cancer and lung cancer similarly, and while the two diseases had the same procedures of origination, the procedure of treatments weren't. It'd be like saying salt and sugar were the same, and that'd be stupid, and Kanami had never been stupid in her past life.

(Amelia only had one thing to take pride about herself: it was her brain. She'd never really been beautiful, nor was she athletically or artistically talented. The only thing she had going for her was her head, and that was it. But she wasn't a prodigious genius; she was just smart. Kind of.)

And, when encountering something of the unknown, the first course of actions that one should usually take was to ask questions—or, summarily, to find the origination of the unknown per say, if it was possible of course.

'Ugh,' Kanami thought, holding the top of her head as she felt a headache start to form. 'I really should stop overthinking sometimes,' she decided, rubbing her temple.

"U-um, a-are y-you o-okay, K-Ka-Kanami-san?" a quiet and meek voice jolted Kanami from her thoughts, and Kanami mechanically turned her head to face Karin, blinking in surprise that the girl had even spoken up, much less to her and not Sena who was her current playmate.

"Huh? Uh, yes, I am," Kanami nodded, smiling politely. "Why?"

Karin turned her head to the side, and Kanami assumed that the other girl was fixated on the toy in Sena's hand just to avoid meeting her gaze. "I-It's just...n-nevermind," Karin stuttered out, shaking her head as if trying to get rid of any unnecessary thoughts.

Kanami knew that she shouldn't pry—really, she shouldn't, not when she and Sena were slowly making process in trying to get Karin to open up—but just a little bit of pushing wouldn't hurt, right? "Come on," Kanami urged, scooting closer until she was sitting next to Sena and leaning against him. Her older brother wrapped an arm around her waist as she wrapped an arm around his. "You can tell me. I won't mind," Kanami continued, hoping that her smile was defenseless and just plain amiable.

(She'd never really learned how to properly smile, not until she became Kanami. Amelia didn't have a reason to smile so she never really tried.)

Karin still didn't look at her; instead, the other girl looked as if she hadn't heard her and was now abiding her time by fiddling with the toy nearest to her.

Kanami and Sena exchanged a few wordless looks before the former sighed and pulled away from her brother, mentally pondering on which course of action to take in order to seal up the wound she'd stupidly created. Taking a random toy from the ground, Kanami scooted closer to Karin, ignoring the look of pure panic that Sena'd shot her. Kanami stopped when she was just close enough to Karin that they'd be able to play dolls with one another, but far enough from the girl to give her her own personal space.

It took a few more minutes of coaxing before she and Karin were holding a proper game of dancing dolls, and by then Sena had come over to join their game with one of his toy robots. After a few more minutes, the dancing game had evolved into something more of a rescue and fight game with Sena being the hero, Karin being the damsel in distress, and Kanami being the evil overlord intent on subjugating every single toy in the world.

"Ne, Karin-chan," Sena started off just as Kanami had made her doll dramatically plummet to the ground in an act of complete defeat by the hands of Sena's toy, and Kanami didn't miss the way the blonde-headed girl had perked up at the usage of her name with a suffix. "What does you face look like?" He asked, and Kanami had to stare at her brother, silently wondering if he'd asked that because he either wanted to see what she looked like or simply because he wanted to see if Karin even had a face.

Oh the woes of having such an adorably silly brother.

"M-My f-face?" Karin stammered out as she gently placed the doll on the ground. "Y-you wa-want t-to s-see m-my fa-face?" She asked, and Kanami could very well hear the surprise and confusion in her voice.

"Yup!" Sena chirped, before he realized how overly eager his response had been and flushed brightly once again.

Kanami had expected Karin to shyly squeak out a protest or respond in a negative way; however, much to Kanami's astonishment, Karin had unexpectedly complied with Sena's request.

"U-Um, o-okay," Karin shyly said, and both Kanami and Sena leaned in just as the other girl parted her long blonde hair to reveal her face.

As Sena stared wordlessly at Karin, Kanami just blinked as Karin pushed her hair behind her ears so that her face could be scrutinized by the Kobayakawa twins. Kanami took note that Karin looked a lot like her mother. An oval face filled with baby fat, thin eyebrows, brown eyes framed by thick lashes, a small nose, high cheekbones, a sharp jawline, and naturally pouty lips.

Kanami took a moment to briefly wonder how a three-year old could be so pretty—but then she remembered about one of her mother's friends who had naturally pink hair, and Mamori's own unique hair, and decided that the incomprehensible logic of the anime world shouldn't even be comprehended at all unless one wanted a headache.

"W-Wow," Sena managed to say, looking a little bit hypnotized by Karin's face. "Y-you're really very pretty, Karin-chan," he blurted out, his big brown eyes zeroed in on Karin whose bright red cheeks took on an even darker shade of red. "I mean it! You're really pretty, Karin-chan!" He exclaimed, leaning in forward until his face was just inches away from Karin.

Karin looked up at Sena through her eyelashes. "Y-You think so?" She asked softly, quietly, and Kanami couldn't help but take note that Karin had just barely stuttered out her words. There was still hope for the girl after all.

Realizing how uncomfortably close he was to Karin, Sena flushed brightly as he leaned back into his seat right next to Kanami. Sympathizing with her brother, Kanami hooked her arm around his and slipped her hand into his, intertwining their fingers and squeezing his hand soon afterwards. Sena looked down at her, his full attention having turned to her, and Kanami smiled encouragingly at her brother, making Sena blush even further.

"I..." Sena started off, before he swallowed the imaginary lump that had accumulated in his throat. He ripped his gaze off of Kanami and placed it on Karin, who was still looking at him with flushed cheeks. "Yes," he said shortly, before he looked down at the ground with thinned lips.

Kanami couldn't help but giggle at the two blushing children in front of her, which only made both children blush even brighter if that was even possible. Right after that, Kanami would have encouraged both children to join her back in their game, if a most interesting question hadn't popped up in her head. "Hey, Karin-san," Kanami said, and the aforementioned girl perked up at the mention of her name, the embarrassment of what had happened earlier still lingering but having been easily forgotten once the conversation had strayed away to a new topic. "Why do you cover your face?"

Sena raised his head up to look at Kanami, wondering how that question had even formed in his sister's head, but he also had to silently agree that she did have a point. To him, Karin didn't have a reason to hide how pretty she was.

"I-it's n-not l-like I-I t-try t-to hi-hide it," Karin stammered out. "I-I just d-don't li-like i-it w-when o-okaa-chan t-ties m-my hair," she said softly. "I-It really h-hurts m-my head," she ended with a low whimper as she tightly clutched onto the skirt of her dress.

"Then why don't you wear headbands?" Kanami proposed.

Karin shook her head. "T-The e-ends d-dig a-at t-the b-back of m-my e-ears a-and i-it h-hurts too," she muttered.

'Kami,' Kanami thinks. 'Doesn't she know that once she hits puberty with that kind of hairstyle, acne will be a total disaster? Oh yeah, wait, she's three, and she's one of the most difficult children I've ever met,' she concludes. "Then how abut braiding your hair," Kanami suggested, deciding that this one would be the last before she decided to go back to playing, having come to terms with the fact that fixing Karin's hair was as close to hopeless as possible.

Karin blinked. "B-Braiding?" She questioned aloud.

"Want me to try braiding your hair?" Kanami offered, hands held out, and a smile painting her lips

Karin leaned away from her, appearing ready to refuse, but then the girl paused, looking as if she was pondering seriously about something. "It won't hurt?" Karin asked softly; for once, not stuttering, much to the surprise of the Kobayakawa twins.

After recovering from her own surprise, Kanami laughed softy. "Not unless you want it too," she said with a wink, making Karin squeak out and loudly proclaim that no, she didn't. Laughing once again, Kanami just breathed out a happy sigh. "Alright. I promise that this won't hurt," she vowed as she sat behind Kanami and began combing her fingers through the girl's long hair, wondering what kind of braid she should make as she reached for the rubber bands hidden underneath her bed.

Once Kanami had finished, she pulled away from Karin's trembling form. "Done," she announced softly, and she smiled when she heard Karin breath out a loud sigh of relief. "Did it hurt?" Kanami asked once she was seated right next to Sena, bumping her older twin brother who seemed a little too dazed.

Karin shook her head, eyes straying towards her braided her, looking fascinated by it. "N-No," she admitted. "T-This is r-really n-nice, K-Kanami-san," Karin said, before a bright and sweet smile bloomed across her face. "T-Thank you," she sincerely said, looking grateful and with a blush adorning her cheeks.

"Your welcome," Kanami said with a smile, before she leaned forward so that she could push a forgotten strand of blonde hair behind Karin's ear. "There, no need for you to hide that pretty face of yours," Kanami says, and she takes pride in how dark Karin's face burns in embarrassment.

"T-Thank you," Karin repeats, and Kanami just smiles a sickly sweet smile, swallowing down the creepy giggle that's threatening to burst out from her throat, because d'aaawww, Karin is just kawaii as hell.

And then, afterwards, when Sena manages to persuade Karin into playing a couple of board games, Kanami can't help but wonder why Karin just looks so damn familiar with her hair braided lowly like that; and Kanami's pretty sure that Karin isn't a prominent character in Eyeshield 21 that she should remember; after all, Sena was the only shy character there, right?

And besides, Mamori and Sena's supposed girlfriend should be the only female characters there right? Aside from that Oujo's American Football club manager, and that Band-something Spiders manager, right?

Right?

Well, alright then.