It was August 1st. the middle of summer break. Makoto was cooking and Rei was busy keeping Nagisa from getting too overly excited for the birthday party they had planned later today.

It had, of course, been Nagisa's idea. He had been begging for the party for about a month already. Makoto hadn't been too sure about the idea for a lot of reasons. First off, he needed permission to get the day off from work, the second reason would be that he would need to have someone to invite over.

But once Makoto got permission to take the day off, he promised Nagisa that they would have the party and he then asked the boy who he wanted to celebrate with.

"Grandma, Grandpa, Ren-chan, Ran-chan and Kisu-chan," Nagisa had demanded. "And Mako-chan and Rei-chan too of course." He smiled at the last bit.

Makoto didn't find any problems with that. These were the ones he had thought of inviting anyways.

"When will they be here!" Nagisa now called from the living room. He was getting really impatient. It was understandable. He had been up since early in the morning because of his excitement.

"It won't be long now," Makoto said. "I said that they should be here around 2. It's almost time." He turned around to face Rei and Nagisa who were both standing in the doorway to the kitchen. "I'm held up with cooking, so you have to welcome everyone," he said.

Both children nodded and Nagisa started jumping up and down because he couldn't contain his excitement.

"Calm down, Nagisa," Rei demanded while placing a hand on Nagisa's shoulder.

Just then, the doorbell rang and Nagisa ran up to the door to open it. Rei followed right behind him and they both stood and greeted Makoto's family, who was waiting outside.

There was an exchange of hugs and cheerful conversations as Makoto's parents and siblings entered the house. Makoto's mother went to help her son finish cooking while Nagisa and Rei led the others inside the living room.

It took at least ten more minutes before Kisumi arrived. Makoto had, by this time, finished cooking and went to open the door.

"I thought you won't come," Makoto smiled as he opened the door.

"Sorry," Kisumi scratched the back of his head. "Guess I'm a bit late."

"Kisu-chan!" Nagisa yelled as he came running and jumped on Kisumi, hugging him tightly. Kisumi responded to the hug. It wasn't the first time he had been attacked by the small ball of energy upon arriving at the house.

Kisumi entered the house with his arms full of Nagisa, and after a quick round of hellos with everyone in the house, he too got seated and they were now ready to eat.

After they all had eaten, they sat around and just talked for a bit. Nagisa dragged Rei out in the backyard to play and Ren and Ran followed soon after.

"So, how are you holding up, Kisumi?" Makoto's mother asked. Since Makoto moved out, the rest of the family had only seen Kisumi when they ran into him by chance. This only happened rarely, so therefore they had a lot to catch up on. They did know Kisumi well because he had been by on a regular basis until Makoto moved out.

"Fine," Kisumi answered. "I moved out on my own a while ago," he said.

"You still work at that convenience store?" Makoto's father asked.

"Sure do," Kisumi smiled widely. "I'm going to represent us as the lead figure in the yukata contest at the mackerel festival next month,"

"Really?" Makoto turned to look at Kisumi. "You never told me that!" he exclaimed.

Kisumi only smiled. "We did it by votes. It was announced yesterday who had won. Apparently all but one had voted for me." He smiled.

"Who hadn't voted for you?" Makoto looked surprised, both at the results and the fact that Kisumi knew that one person hadn't voted for him.

"Since we didn't have to sign up as candidate, everyone was able to vote, so I was the only one who didn't vote for me," Kisumi said.

"Really?" Makoto asked.

"You don't have to sound so surprised!" Kisumi exclaimed.

"Sorry…," Makoto muttered.

It was then that Nagisa came running in with Ran in toe. They were both laughing hysterically as the older girl was chasing the young boy around the room. It seemed they were playing tag.

"Ran! Don't run inside!" Makoto's mother yelled.

Ran stopped and looked down as she apologized, first to her mother, then to Makoto.

"It's okay," Makoto answered. "You may as well stop playing anyways. I think it's time for cake now," he said.

"And presents?" Nagisa asked eagerly.

Makoto thought about it, then nodded. "And presents too," he said.

So Ran and Nagisa went to get Rei and Ren back to the house while the grown-ups went to get the presents and Makoto then went to get the cake.

They started off with the cake and then sat and talked some more before Nagisa got too impatient and started reaching for his presents. This stopped all conversation and everyone turned to look at the small boy.

He picked the largest present as the first one. It was from Ren and Ran. It was an old board-game, one that they played a lot when Nagisa was over. Nagisa had grown fond of the game and in lack of any good new games, Ren and Ran had decided to give Nagisa this game instead.

The second present that Nagisa got was a homemade blanket that Makoto's mother had made for him. It was yellow and with a strawberry theme. She said it would be better to use in winter, but all her children had a homemade blanket and so she thought that her grandchildren would need one too. She also added that Rei would get one on his birthday too.

The next present Nagisa picked out was from Kisumi. It held a picture-book about penguins called "Iwatobi's Penguins"

"The convenience store had a handful of them, and since you read a lot of those picture-books at the library, I figured that a rare book like this would be a nice present," he said.

Nagisa stared at the cover for a while before he smiled at Kisumi and thanked him happily.

Now Nagisa picked up the last present, which was from Makoto. He tore off the giftwrap and sat with a penguin plushy in his hand. He stared at it for a bit and then looked up at Makoto with teary eyes and a happy smile.

Makoto smiled sheepishly. "Rei told me how you gave one away to a girl in need and then I well…" he stopped, not knowing how to continue, but Nagisa understood. He jumped up and ran to Makoto full-speed and hugged him. He had so much force that he caused Makoto to nearly fall over and he was then lying down with Nagisa on top of him. The boy was clinging to him with a happy smile on his face.

Makoto smiled, slightly overwhelmed by the child's act as he tried to sit back up. He needed help from both Rei and Kisumi to pull it off though.

Once Makoto and Nagisa both sat back up and Nagisa had let go of Makoto and hugged everyone else, they started playing the board-game he had gotten from Ren and Ran. They kept on playing until Makoto had to go prepare dinner. He got help from Kisumi with this and after they had eaten dinner, Makoto's family and Kisumi all left.

Rei was helping Makoto washing up while Nagisa was lying on his new blanket in the living room, reading the picture-book he had gotten from Kisumi.

"Thank you, Makoto-san," Rei said as he wiped off another plate.

"For what?" Makoto asked, looking down at the nine-years-old.

Rei hesitated. "Everything," he said then. "All that you've done for us, especially Nagisa,"

"He's of great concern to you, isn't he?" Makoto asked as he handed Rei a glass to wipe off.

"He is like a little brother to me," Rei answered while a slight pinkish shade crept across his cheeks.

Makoto smiled at this. "I'm amazed you have that kind of bond with him even though you aren't related," he said.

Rei blushed a little more. "I think it's natural for us. It is as natural as it is to see you as our parent,"

Now it was Makoto's turn to blush slightly. "You… You really see me as your parent?" he asked.

Rei nodded. "I don't remember my biological family. But you are nice to us, you care for us and you try to raise us without trying to change us, like most other adults have," Rei explained. "Thanks to you, Makoto-san, we've both got the feeling of belonging somewhere, we've got a family and a place to really call home,"

Makoto smiled. "I… I'm happy you think so, but really, I was just acting like what I thought was best and like my parents probably would have. But I've become more comfortable with the role as parent and I've also started to really see the two of you as my children. You're right," he said as he turned off the water. "It really does feel like we are a family."

Rei nodded and wiped off the last pot before he handed it to Makoto who put it in place on the top shelf. Then they walked into the living room to find that Nagisa had fallen asleep with his head resting on the open book and with the penguin plushy tugged close to him.

Makoto removed the book from under Nagisa's head and closed it, before he picked the small boy up and carried him to bed.