Naoki halted at the door to his father's hospital room. "I can't believe this," he muttered.

"Onii-chan!" His mother stood and caroled his nickname across the room. "You'd better hurry or there won't be any food left."

He stepped forward and looked at the makeshift dining area which filled half the hospital room and had been cobbled together from folding tables and chairs. An assortment of food was set out on platters. "I can't believe you convinced the hospital to let you do this."

"Nonsense!" His mother waved away his incredulity. "Thanks to all those helpful nurses, it was no problem whatsoever!"

"Better hurry, Onii-chan," Yuuki warned him between mouthfuls. "Dylan-san is taking all the good stuff."

Naoki nodded at the older man, who, true enough, had a full plate and was happily transferring the food to his mouth, then turned to his father. "Dad, are you sure you should be eating this? You've been on a strict diet for the past few weeks."

"Not to worry, Naoki-kun!" Mr. Aihara slapped him on the shoulder. "I've adjusted my recipes to the diet specifications and prepared all this myself. This is the preview of my restaurant's new traditionally flavored healthy menu items."

"Even though the hospital provides lots of nourishing food, there's no one on staff who can cook like you, Ai-chan!" The two old friends gave each other a bear hug and continued their raid on the food.

"What's this, Kotoko?" Naoki looked at the miniscule amount on her plate. "Did you fill up already?"

He was taken aback when she looked up at him with an expression of pouting misery. "Dylan-san measured me again and said this was all I could have," she whispered. "I was just one centimeter over… Why, when Otosan brought all this good food?!"

"Mm." Naoki placed more on her plate while his eyes dared Dylan to interfere. "Eat all you'd like, Kotoko. You can burn it off later."

She tilted her head at him. "What? Oh!" she gasped when she grasped his meaning. "Sure thing!" She began scooping more onto her plate.

"Oi, Kotoko! We've got to sleep some of the night," he teased.

"What's that you're saying, Onii-chan?" his mother asked.

"Ah, just that this food is… such a delight."

"Oh course! Don't be shy! Take some, take some!" she urged.

A few minutes later, Yuuki tugged on Naoki's sleeve. "Onii-chan, can I talk to you and Kotoko? Outside the room, in private?"

"Sure," he answered, taken aback. "Do you think he's going to ask for the 'birds-and-the-bees' speech from us?" he asked his wife on their way out.

"If he does, I'll let you do the talking. Your grades in biology were much better than mine."

He rolled his eyes. "Of course they were, Class F. Ouch!" He rubbed his side where her fist had landed. "So what is it, Yuuki?" he asked in the hallway.

His brother looked worried. "Is it really a good idea for Kotoko and me to leave for a week just after Dad gets out of the hospital? Won't that put too much of a strain on Mom, to care for him on her own?"

Naoki sighed. "First, she's going to be by herself with him the week before you go anyway. You and Kotoko—and me, for that matter—will be in school at that time. You're actually getting to skip the last few days of class for travel to Comic-Con, don't forget."

"Oh, that's right."

"Second, he's in great shape now. By the time you two leave, he'll be cleared to return to the office for part of the day. So while your concern for him does you credit, there really isn't anything to worry about."

Well, there is one thing, Kotoko disagreed silently, but I'm going to take care of that myself.

"Thanks, Onii-chan," Yuuki smiled at him. "That reassures me."

"No problem." Naoki grinned as he placed an arm around his brother's shoulder and ruffled his hair.

"Obviously I'm not needed here," Kotoko sniffed. "Well, while you two do your male bonding thing, I'm going to visit the little girl's room. Don't eat all the shrimp!" she warned Yuuki. "Otosan says it's really low in calories, and I'm coming back for more!"

"Makes you want to do just that when she tells you not to, doesn't it?" asked Naoki as she headed around the corner.

"Yeah, but I'd rather not deal with her wrath if I do," Yuuki sighed.

Kotoko was humming the Kotorin theme as she headed back to Mr. Irie's room. A little itch, a tingle really, that she had felt before began to manifest itself again. Now I remember what this is, she thought. Someone's watching me. I just need to find out where…Aha! She spied a door cracked open a few centimeters. She sauntered past, then quickly reversed direction and pushed the door completely open with full strength.

There was an "Oof!", the sound of a body hitting the floor, and loud metallic clattering.

Oh, dear, Kotoko thought guiltily, maybe I shouldn't have done that… She peered around the door and exclaimed, "Nobuhiro-kun?!" She offered to call a nurse for him and was grateful that he chose to rely solely on her strength to regain his feet and set his IV pole back up. How would I have been able to explain that, by the way?

Nobuhiro sat on the edge of his bed, and Kotoko perched on the edge of the guest chair. After fidgeting for several minutes under his ardent gaze, she burst out, "How long have you been in the hospital this time?"

He lowered his eyes. "I was admitted the day before Mr. Irie was brought in. I, uh, noticed you during all the commotion."

Kotoko rolled her eyes. "Yes, Okaasan can make things lively. So you've been spying on me ever since?"

"Not just you," he admitted, bottom lip protruding slightly. "There's not much else to do all day."

She pointed to the red box next to the bed. "That's a 3DS. Don't tell me you don't have anything to entertain you."

He scowled. "I've mastered all the games already."

"How about school work?" she asked. "Surely you can't be ignoring that, just because you're in the hospital?"

"I'm a little behind. I don't always understand it because I'm out so much."

"Why doesn't your father hire you a tutor?" she asked practically.

"I haven't told him," he muttered. "Plus, he's been in Europe for the past few weeks."

"Then how about your mother?"

"They're divorced. I haven't seen her for several years."

Kotoko sighed. Such parents! "Well then, friends, maybe?"

"I'm in school so infrequently that I don't have any. Plus it's an all-boys school." He leaned forward. "Won't you come visit me, Kotoko-san? See, I remembered not to call you Kotorin!" He smiled up at her winsomely.

She frowned at him. "You can cut it out with the puppy dog eyes. I'm really not what you need right now."

"What?" he protested.

Ignoring him, she continued, "You need friends, you need a tutor, and you need entertainment." She stood up abruptly. "Luckily, I know where you can find all three, in one package. Hang on for a minute!"

"Wait!" he called fruitlessly after her.

"You mean that the nursing and medical students believe you and Kotoko are siblings?!" Dylan asked incredulously. "How in the world did that happen?"

Naoki briefly explained the initial misunderstanding, aided and abetted by the insularity of the medical department students. "Once the patient repeated the nursing student's story in front of medical students, the tale took a life of its own." He gave a short laugh. "The actual professors apparently know the truth but, according to my mentor, are staying out of it."

"That doesn't sound very responsible of them," Dylan commented.

"He said that the fiction might actually be safer for Kotoko than the truth. I'm not sure what he meant."

Dylan snorted. "You've never seen an honest-to-God cat-fight, have you?"

"Not really. Our family tends to prefer canines. Remember, you've met Chibi."

"Sorry, American idiom…" He shook his head. "No matter. I can't believe Kotoko is allowing the brother/sister assumption to stand, especially with that Irie Naoki Fan Club she was going on about."

Naoki shot him a look. "My wife talks to you entirely too much. Anyway, I've tried telling her, but she is absolutely convinced that they know the truth. You know how she can get," he tilted his head and raised eyebrows at the older man.

Dylan sighed. "And you're not planning to put a stop to it?"

A wide grin seldom seen outside of his immediate family spread across Naoki's face. "I'm going to let it run its course to its inevitable and—most likely—hilarious end." He pursed his lips as a thought crossed his mind. "Of course, there is the problem of Second Place Funatsu…"

"And that would be…?"

"An extremely competitive fellow student who seems to think that my concentration will be broken if he dates my 'sister'."

Dylan face-palmed. "And I suppose Kotoko is blind to his overtures?"

"Absolutely. Thanks to conflicting class schedules he doesn't run into her that often. I'm the one suffering when I have to listen to his puerile daydreams about her." He gave a huff. "If he spent half the time studying as he does thinking of ways to aggravate me… No, never mind. He'd still come in second."

"Egotistical much?"

Naoki ignored him. "And to make things even more delightful, Mother has persuaded herself that the male nurse assigned to Dad is crushing on Kotoko. Again, believing that she's my sister."

"You have the most screwed-up family life I've seen since the Skywalkers traveled the galaxy," Dylan complained. He and Naoki turned their heads toward the sound of clattering feet in the hall drawing near.

Kotoko slammed the door to her father-in-law's room against the wall. "You! Irie Yuuki!"

Yuuki jumped then squawked, "No, Kotoko! There's shrimp left! I didn't eat it all!

"What?" She shook her head. "Never mind. Come with me and bring your school bag." She grabbed him by the wrist.

Dylan handed the bag to him on his way out and waved cheerfully before saying, "Glad she didn't focus those laser eyes on me."

"Right," Naoki agreed. "She has some bee in her bonnet again. So," he crossed glances with the older man, "Rock-Paper-Scissors for the rest of the shrimp?"

"You're on!"

Kotoko may not have been the most athletic person, but once she made a good start she could move quickly. Yuuki was dragged protesting down the hall and spun into Nobuhiro's room when she flung the door open and took the turn too quickly. He skidded but won the battle against gravity and stood panting in front of the bed, school bag clutched to his chest.

"Are you trying to kill me, Baka?!" he roared.

"Don't call Kotorin baka!" Nobuhiro cried.

"You sounded just like your brother then," Kotoko commented. "And you," she turned to the other boy, "you called me Kotorin again, and without an honorific to boot. If you don't stop that, I'll make you refer to me as Irie-sama!"

Both boys stared at her, then Yuuki let out an aggrieved sigh. "So why am I here, Onee-chan?"

"This is Nobuhiro-kun." She indicated the youth on the bed. "He needs a friend who can help with his school work."

"And I'm supposed to be it?" Yuuki glared at the other boy.

"I'm not in the habit of begging for friendship," Nobuhiro said in a clipped tone.

"With that attitude, you wouldn't be very successful!"

"Then leave, why don't you?"

"Right! I'm outta here!"

"Boys, boys!" Kotoko captured Yuuki before he could escape back into the hall. "Maybe I didn't say it properly. Nobuhiro-kun has to be in the hospital a lot, and he's having trouble keeping up with his school work." She turned to the other boy. "Yuuki-kun here is my younger brother—"

"Brother-in-law!"

"—and he is always top of his class in grades." She patted the top of his head and added, "Just like his big brother."

Yuuki shoved away her hand. "Kotoko, I know you mean well…"

"Yes, I do!"

"But you can't force people to be friends. It doesn't work that way."

"Really?" She leaned forward into his face. "Do you have such an overadan—overbun—so many friends that you couldn't squeeze in one more?"

"Overabundance," He corrected her quietly then stepped closer to the bed and held out his hand. "I'm not saying that we can be friends, but I'll be glad to look over some of your class work until I have to leave."

"I don't want to keep you from your family." Nobuhiro's reply was stiff.

"Ah, it's okay. The old folks get to talking after a while and forget I'm there."

"Are you saying I'm old?" Kotoko squinted at him.

He snorted and turned to her. "You'd better go back and see if they left you any crumbs, Baka-chan."

"They better not have eaten all the shrimp, Squirt!" she called as she swiftly exited.

"You two have an…interesting relationship," Nobuhiro commented.

"Tell me about it! Now, what subject are you having the most trouble in?"

The two winced when they heard a shriek from down the hall. "No more shrimp?" Nobuhiro hazarded.

"Most likely," sighed Yuuki.