Ambien. Lunesta. Rozeram. Desyrel. Remeron.

His eyes wondered across the bottles of pills before he sighed and stuffed them all under the desk drawer. Most of the time, they did their job well enough, but he didn't like depending on them too much. He was learning to sleep well enough without them anyway; but he probably had one sleepless night every other day, unfortunately.

Textbooks were his respite during the nights. There was nothing more mind-numbing than poring over tracts and tracts of over complicated text, but it helped keep his mind off other thoughts. At first, he had been reading it for the sake of reading it, but it came in handy sometimes, enough to save his life occasionally.

He had been halfway through his physics textbook when he heard shuffling outside his door. He sighed, took off his reading glasses, pried his headphones off his ears, and laid them on the bed. The dim lamp next to him flickered.

"Come in Kirino," he intoned tiredly.

A mop of orange hair emerged from behind the creaking door.

"You're still awake?"

"The box of porn is in the cupboard, right next to my box of porn. And thank you for your concern," he replied as sarcastically as possible.

He expected an insult thrown his way, like pervert, or siscon, or something. But Kirino wordlessly groped around in his cupboard, eventually enclosing her hands over the treasured box, surprisingly less aggressive than he thought she would be.

Kyousuke's eyes flickered back to the textbook, his headphones blasting rock music into his eardrums.

"Why did you help me?"

Kyousuke passively regarded the question with mild amusement, but a larger portion of him was simply irritated. He ignored her, hoping it would make her go away.

Unfortunately, Kyousuke wasn't that lucky, because he felt his sister lunge for his headphones. Out of reflex, his right hand intercepted her arm, grabbing her wrist with enough force to jerk her sideways. It took all his willpower for him to resist the urge to send his left arm smashing into her throat, but he managed to catch himself just in time.

He let go of her wrist in trepidation, inwardly shaken at how close he had came to hitting his sister.

"Don't…make sudden movements towards me," he gritted out, as he shoved her arm away.

Any gratefulness he might have seen on her face dissipated. He didn't miss how she tentatively rubbed her wrist, as she shot holes into his body with her glare.

"…So why did you help me?" she spat.

Kyousuke shrugged.

"Don't know," he honestly said.

It was the wrong to say, considering how Kirino's expression darkened.

"Is that how you are about everything nowadays?" she hissed angrily, bringing her face an inch away from his.

"Well, how do you want me to react?" Kyousuke asked rhetorically, still half focused on his book.

His sister growled with irritation.

"Isn't it surprising that your outstanding, perfect little sister is into little sister eroge!? Isn't it!? Don't you even care?"

"You'll wake up mom and dad…" he groaned.

Though, his mom probably wouldn't give a shit while his dad would just get pissed that he was awoken at 1 Am in the morning. Point still stood though.

"Besides, you keep your secrets, I'll keep mine," he concluded resolutely.

"…" Kirino stood back and rubbed her right arm. "That night…"

"You make it sound like we had sex."

"You freaking pervert!"

Kyousuke laughed in response.

"Hey! I'm not the one with little sister porn…imagine people getting the wrong idea, the outstanding Kirino Kousaka going into her brother's room to retrieve the box of goodies in the middle of the night…"

"You…!" She burst, her face contorted into a bright red fury. "…Come to my room! And it's not little sister porn, its little sister eroge!"

What's the difference?

"…Wait, you want me to go to your room?"

"Do it! Or I'll wake up mom and dad!"

Kyousuke simply sighed in response.

There was nothing like bringing porn to your sister's room in the wee hours of the morning to give start to a glorious new day. Somehow, his sister had even maneuvered him into carrying the box into her room (despite the fact that it was her stuff) with her masterful coercion.

And so, he found himself kneeling on the mat while her sister lorded over him.

"I want you here…for life counseling," she said.

"Oh. Is that what you youngsters call that nowadays?"

Kirino spun around with an angry blush on her face, while Kyousuke simply smirked. For a moment, it looked like Kirino was about to kick him, but she turned around and let out a deep breath. He regretted it though, at least once he noticed with concern how her hands were balled into tiny fists, and how her entire body permeated with tremors.

She strode over to the closet, shoved the various clutter to the side, and opened another secret door. Behind the sliding board was thousands and thousands of stacked CDs, abruptly coming into view.

Kyousuke raised his eye brows.

"What's this?"

"It's…all my little sister eroge…"

Kirino sunk to the floor, all the pompous air in her deflating.

"Or porn, as you call it." Her body trembled. "It's weird huh, for someone like me to have them, but you probably don't even care anyway…"

"That's not true."

Kirino looked up, her eyes questioning yet shining with unbridled hope.

"It's less of me caring than it is just the idea not being that unusual."

"Wha..? But…But this is stacks and stacks of little sister eroge! Aren't you surprised?"

"It's little sister porn," Kyousuke corrected. "And I've seen worse hidden behind closets."

Like his own porn collection for example.

Kirino could only stare in response, blankly, at her brother, before turning her back to him. It was all too much. She had her darkest secret almost exposed to the very people she treasured so much, had obsessively feared her brother the past few days, and impulsively showed him everything. Her back trembled as she planted her forehead against her knees and started to cry; the guttural sobs muffled.

"Oh, come on," Kyousuke began in dismay. "I didn't even do anything! I um…jeez, uh…"

His eyes jumped about in panic, and in sudden inspiration grabbed one of the nearest CDs from the stache. He hurried over to Kirino and shook her shoulder gently.

"I'll play this with you alright? Just please stop crying?" he pleaded softly.

Kirino lifted her tear stained face and nodded, not really trusting her voice. Kyousuke immediately set for the computer, mumbling to himself all the while.

The next thirty minutes was spent in an uncomfortable silence as Kyousuke make his first attempts at a little sister porn game. He clicked, read, and scrolled through the visual novel, throwing glances at his little sister every now and then. It was only after he got Riko-chan in his PC's room that he elicited any response.

"Hey…" Kirino said, before sniffing and wiping at her eyes. "…You're actually pretty good…"

"Yeah…" he replied uneasily.

"Onii-chan, do you promise to never leave me?" the computer sang.

For some reason, his eyes rounded behind him, catching a glimpse of his currently emotionally vulnerable sister, and he regretted it. It was just a split second, but he saw himself in the exact pose as her, lonely and completely broken.

I don't want to be alone.

"I'm sorry," he sighed, pawing at his hair. "I didn't realize my apathy would hurt you so much."

"No way…do I…care what you think…" Kirino murmured, the protest ringing pitifully hollow even to her ears.

Kyousuke didn't even dignify that with a response as he swiveled back to face the computer screen.

….

"Promise to never leave me."

Kyousuke stared at the dark ceiling, his body pressed against his bed. Outside, crickets chirped in the night sky.

"You promised to never leave me! "She screamed.

"Shut up!" he snapped at nothing, throwing himself into a sitting position. "Just, shut up…"

He grabbed the physics textbook next to him, turned on the lamp and angrily flipped to the 15th chapter. Two hours of useless lying around, so he might as well just learn something, to drown out all of the disgusting-

There was suddenly shuffling outside of his door and Kyousuke made a beeline for the door. He came face to face with his sister, who stood her ground with shaky determination.

"P-Play…Play another eroge with me!"

Kyousuke stared at nothing, eyes shining with dull light.

"Sure."

…

A/N: Meh, I handled this is a pretty rushed way, but I decided not to obsess over this too much. Things seem straight on the canon side as for now, but the differences will start to make themselves painfully clear very very soon.

R&R?