Madness# 6: Little sisters are just so precious.
'Oh shoot.' I thought to myself.
I wanted to get a gun, shoot myself, float up to heaven and die. I've been so careless, and I dread to know what he'll do to me when he finds out that all this time, I've been hiding the truth from him.
He stood up, not taking his eyes off me. "There's something funny about you." He firmly stated. I gulped as I stared into his cold eyes. Did he already find out? Should I be saying my prayers right now?
"Natsume, what's funny? There is nothing funny. If there is, I should be laughing." The kid suddenly told her brother.
Natsume's glare faded in a snap as his little sister started talking. Thank goodness for little kids. His eyes softened and he got down on his knees to pinch the kid's cheeks. She giggled and Natsume gave her a warm smile.
Hold up.
WARM SMILE?
Since when did he learn to do that?
"Why aren't you sleeping yet, Buriko?" he said with a little tease in his voice. Ugh, it made me sick to hear him that way, that---nice.
"A-O-I! Not Buriko!" she complained. "I can't sleep." She added.
"Well, I gotta get back to finishing work while otou-san is away." He explained to her. He suddenly looked at me. "Oi loud mouth, watch over Aoi until she sleeps." He told me.
I clenched my fists, ready to hit him for revenge for what he just called me, but I remembered one thing: Violence isn't good for kids. I pulled Aoi away from her brother. Natsume returned to the laptop and Aoi and I left the room.
"What's your name again?" she asked me.
"Mikan. You are Aoi, right?"
She nodded her head in reply. "Can I call you Aoi-chan?" I asked.
She nodded her head again in reply. She's such a cute kid, very unlike her brother. I wonder how that happened? "So how old are you?" I asked her. She held a few fingers up and I smiled at her cuteness. "Oh… so you're 6 years old."
"Onii-chan, how come I've only seen you now? Are you Natsume's new friend?" she asked me.
I stopped walking and almost burst out laughing. I held it in instead; I answered "Yeah." Even though deep down inside, we're hardly even friends.
"That's good to know." She replied as we entered her room. "Are you friends with Ruka as well?"
I bit my lip in hesitation for my reply. "Yeah, I guess so."
I almost gasped.
It screamed "Princess Heaven" to me. Her room had drapings on the bed and on the ceilings. Most of the items were pink in color. She had a mountain of toys and her room had a huge flat screen TV just like Natsume's too. It made me somewhat jealous because I wanted a room like that. I lifted her up in arms and placed her to bed. "Onii-chan, do you know if Natsume has a girlfriend?"
I almost laughed and I really wanted to say, "Kid, try boyfriend or gay lover, which would be correct." But of course, I can't tell her that. So, I just replied, "Uhm…I don't think so."
She pouted and said, "That's too bad."
"Aoi, it's late, you should get some rest." I told her.
"But I'm not sleepy." She protested, crossing her arms over her chest.
I sighed and said, "Wait a minute, okay? I'll be back." I went out of the room and then made a call using my cell phone. I phoned my mom and told her that I'll be going home really late. Afterwards, I went back to the room again and smiled at Aoi who was playing with her toys.
"How about I put you to bed and we'll just talk until you fall asleep?"
Thirty minutes after, she finally fell asleep. I made my way out of her room and into Natsume's. I saw him shutting down his laptop. "Hey, it looks like I won't have to wake up you up today." I told him.
"And why is that?" he asked.
"Because you finished your work before you even had the chance to doze off."
"Aren't you finished with these files yet?" he asked.
"I haven't finished it yet since I was baby-sitting your sister." I answered. "Hey, I should get paid extra for that! And the cab I took just to get here!" I demanded.
"Alright, alright. You can finish the work tomorrow and I'll pay you for the cab and for watching over Aoi."
I cocked an eyebrow at him and said, "How come you're being awfully nice all of a sudden?"
"Because I'm sleepy, you idiot. I just want to get this over with."
"On second thought, just pay me for the cab, never mind about paying me for Aoi." I told him.
He looked at me weirdly and said, "You don't have to put the good guy image on. I know you want it."
I gritted my teeth and replied, "You're dead to me."
I grabbed my bag and almost headed out for the door when he suddenly called my attention. "Hey, wait a sec." he said.
I turned to him and asked, "What is it?"
He took a few steps towards me and said, "I'm not letting you get away with the fact that I think something is funny about you."
…And my heart thumped as he said that. "W-what the heck are you talking about?"
"How come you've got such a high pitched voice?" he asked seriously.
I sighed, "Okay, Natsume. Fine, I'll tell you the truth."
He fixed a glare at me while I began dramatizing. "Natsume, keep this as a secret between you and me, okay? It's embarrassing, but since I think you're getting freaked out by me…well, I scream like a girl when I'm scared or excited."
Okay, obviously, I lied.
Please let him buy that excuse.
My fingers started fidgeting and I tried to hide them behind my back. Then, he suddenly said, "What a lame excuse."
"What, you don't believe me?" I asked him, my eyebrows furrowing as I felt the tension in the air.
"It's too hard to believe." he replied in a bored tone.
"You kiss people when you're crazy as hell drunk, don't you? that's hard to believe. If Ruka wasn't the one who told me that, I wouldn't believe you." I replied.
He glared at me and suddenly I felt like we were part of a show in the Animal Planet in which the predators capture the prey. He seemed mad at what I just said to him. "I'll call you tomorrow, loud mouth." he said.
So does that mean he bought my lie?
"Just shut up about my secret, or else, like I said, YOU. ARE. DEAD. TO. ME." I warned him and turned to the door to leave.
I headed home after that with three things on my mind:
Number One: How long will this lie possibly last?
Number Two: I wonder if I can still make up excuses to hide my real gender.
Number Three: I had to behave less of an idiot or else my cover will be blown soon.
The next day, I got a call from Natsume in the middle of recess time. He asked me to come over because:
Number one: Aoi was looking for me.
Number two: I had to finish my work.
Number three: I had a new job.
I can fully understand number one and two, but I wonder what number three is going to be. He usually gives me such odd jobs so it makes me kind of nervous to think what job he's planning to give me next.
4:00 pm
"Oniiiiiiii-chan!" The very adorable Aoi greeted as she ran and jumped at me.
"Aoi-chan, how nice to see you again." I said as I smiled at her.
If there is anything that I love about appearing in the Hyuuga residence, it's seeing Aoi. She's adorable and I wish I had a sister like her. "Where's Natsume-kun?" I asked.
"Upstairs in his room. He's waiting for you. He said you got work to do." She answered.
I smiled and said, "Yes, we do have work to do. I'll hang out with you after I talk to your big brother, okay Aoi-chan?"
She nodded and went up to her room. I headed to Natsume's room and again, I forgot to knock. "Hey." I greeted as he was looking at some papers.
"You forgot to knock again." he reminded.
I bit my lip, "Oh yeah…I forgot again."
"Hey, it's really really killing me to know what your other concern for me is right now." I told him.
"You have unfinished work, right?" he reminded.
"Of course." I replied with a hint of sarcasm in my voice. "But you said there was another job for me, I want to know what that is."
He dropped the papers on the table and asked, "Do you have a little brother or sister?"
What an odd question. "No, I don't. I'm an only child, why do you ask?"
"What do you know about kiddie parties?" he followed up.
I became weirded out by his second question even more. Then, it dawned into me that it might be Aoi's birthday. "Is it Aoi's birthday today?!" I almost panicked.
"No, it's not. It's next week, I actually just remembered this morning. I forgot to hire an events planner to take care of the party preparations. It's too late to hire one today and I'm busy." He replied.
"So what do you want me to do?" I asked him.
"Plan Aoi's 7th birthday party."
I grinned as he said that, "Will you pay me extra?" I just had to ask.
He shook his head at what I said. "You greedy idiot." He called me.
I paced the room for a bit and thought of some things I recalled from past 7th birthday parties I've been to. I stopped at my tracks and said, "So don't 7th birthday parties just have food, balloons and clowns?"
"Aoi hates clowns." He retorted.
"Okay then, I need to know what stuff she likes."
Fortunately, he suddenly pulled out a piece of paper from his drawer. "She just gave this to me this morning." He said as he handed it out to me. "It's a list of what she wants for her party."
I carefully read the list. "Balloons, food, lots of cupcakes, games and prizes, a special performance by singer, Reo Mori?" I read aloud the list, and questioned the last item.
Author's note:
First of all, a big thank you to:
StarAngel02, angelakawaii, pukite, Cuna999, WindAssasin, 'Blue Moon and Roses', sakurahua2x, halftherainbow7, Cutenatsumexmikan, Irumi Kanzaki, Omg.Wtf.Poke, Mid-Nite-moonlite, anitsirhc, JoiZ. D, CLYDIN, Lovely C. Mercado, chris3169512, Twaelight, Masked Mistress, xAngel of deathx for reviewing the last chapter! Your reviews made me happy. =) THANK YOU. =)
I know Natsume's sister is only a year younger, right? But I edited her age in this fic. =) I hope ya'll don't get mad at me for that.
I have a TERRIBLE case of writer's block, hence, the very bad comeback chapter. I'm trying to write better chapters. I do hope I get cured of this soon. Anyway, I desperately NEED suggestions for the whole story. I wont be able to write the next chapter without any idea at all. So please just drop them in a review or Pm if you like.
To those who don't know, Buriko means a girl who acts weak and cute. Its what Natsume calls his sister in the manga as stated from Wikipedia =)
Onii-chan means Big brother
'till next time.
