Chapter 14 finished! :D Yay!

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Kirino lazily smiled as he looked down at his desk of completed homeschool work. Reaching his arms up and stretching with a grin he then bent his arm down to check the time.

5:02am

"shit…" he mumbled with a frown.

I need to cook breakfast and prepare the table as well as make their lunches all by 6:30 because their school starts at 7, and that'll take a good full hour if I'm fast so… Great… I get to sleep for less than half an hour today…

Kirino sighed as he muttered, "better than nothing…"

He collapsed on his bed and rolled a bit to reach his phone to set an alarm, and when that was done he passed out seconds later…

…

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEE—bonk

"Uhgnmmfff"

Kirino rolled off the bed with a thud. He groaned and let out a high-pitched whining-noise before abruptly covering his mouth and looking around alertly to see if anyone had possibly heard.

…

"s-so girly…" Kirino mumbled self-consciously.

He stood up and walked down the stairs. Well, it was more like tripped or stumbled.

I feel like drunkard…

Kirino tiredly looked at the fridge with longing. He stood there a distance away from the fridge for a few minutes before snapping out of it and walking over to pull ingredients out to make Julia and Sasha's bento.

"rice… ugh no I forgot the egg…"

He fumbled with the seaweed wrapping of the sushi as he tried to think hard to remember what other steps had to be carried through to make an acceptable bento for the girls.

"hmm sausage, fish cake, vegetables… okay, I think I got everything.."

He wrapped up their lunches and started on the breakfast. Just when he was about finished he heard the sound of running footsteps coming down the stairs.

PAT-TAT- PAT-TAT- PAT-TAT- PAT-TAT- PAT-TAT-PAT

"SEEEENNNPPPAAAIIIIIIII!"

Sasha came skipping across the room towards him as the small boy braced himself for the usual lunge she always took at him from a few feet away.

GLOMP

"a-aahhh, Sasha, please don't do that… You could knock me over…"

Sasha replied with a giggle, "aww hmm yeah I shouldn't or else Id have no one to make my food for me! And that'd be craaaazzzyyyy!"

She jumped up and skipped over to the table to pack for bento for the day's lunch.

The rest of the day went on without much difference, all but one thing. Their mother was much more irritated at Kirino's slightly slower reaction.

"What's with you? Ugh the day after I tell you to smarten the fuck up you start acting even fucking SLOWER?! Now that's just disrespect. I should give you even more chores today but since you did so many yesterday there isn't much more to do around here…" She paused a moment before exclaiming, "BUT don't think that I'm going to let you off so easily. Do 2 days of homeschool work and then get out of my face until I want you again for like dinner and dishes and stuff like that."

She immediately turned around to fetch the books and when she returned she gave Kirino a list of school work to finish as well as a few books by throwing them unnecessarily hard towards the ground, but with Kirino's lack of sleep he couldn't react fast enough so they landed hard on his feet.

"aww poor you and your little crush toes. HAHA!" She said as she turned to walk out the door, gesturing a mocking kiss in the air in his direction.

SLAM!

It took Kirino a few minutes to pick everything up and get upstairs to his room. He couldn't function normally being so sleep deprived. Having had such a harsh day just yesterday and pretty much no sleep that entire night, his brain could barely function and now he was expected to finish 2 day's worth of busy homeschool work. He both looked and felt like complete shit.

A few hours later he had gotten just about nothing done.

I can't do this… I can't focus! I can't concentrate. I'm awake but my mind is blank… Maybe… Maybe I should just sleep and do it all tomorrow… or tonight… I don't care if it'll hurt my health because I'm sure they could hurt me more… I'll just do it whenever I can but right now… I'm not productive enough… I'll take a nap…

He stood up and dragged himself off to his bed and crawled inside and instantly fell asleep without a care.

Sleep…

Sleep was the only time he could escape…

He hated waking up and being brought back into this evil world every single time…

Sleep…

He wished he could fall asleep and sleep forever…

RING RING! RING RING! RING RING! RING RING! RING RING! RING—

"auughnmff…" Kirino managed to crawl out of bed and to the phone quickly enough although he was disoriented.

"H-Hello?" Kirino said in his most decent voice.

"Took you long enough to answer!" his mother replied, "so how's your work coming along, dear?"

Kirino frowned at her sense of humor in calling him "dear" but what bothered him more was not being able to say or do anything about it. He had to reply calmly and collectively.

"It's going alright…" he paused,

"um, you're so kind for calling to check on me…" he said in his most convincing genuine tone.

"Ohh hahahaha! I am, aren't I! I knew it! Well anyways, I want a fine dinner tonight so you better start now so you can finish in time for when I get back. Ohh I'm so responsible hahaha!"

Kirino listened for if she was going to say more but she left it as that and hung up the phone. He looked at his watch and grabbed his books and headed to the kitchen table. After dropping his books off, he went to the book shelf to find a cookbook for ideas. The recipe ended up taking about an hour or so and it would only take another half hour for him to finish it up and fry the dish before they came home so it left him with a little more than a few hours to finish his 2-days-worth of school work.

I better get to work…

It was impossible and he knew it too but he couldn't afford to think that. It was stupid but that was what was needed to be done. He had to try his very best, fail, and then accept the consequences.

A few hours later, Kirino found himself in the doorway of his room with a look of bafflement on his face.

She… she just excused the rest of my work? What did she say…?

"You worked hard today and made a delicious dinner for us all. You're free from the rest of today's school work! Nighty night, dear!"

Kirino wondered if this was real or not. A scam, maybe…? Quite possibly... Just a little prank to tease the poor boy? He shook his head, shrugged it off and took a quick shower before sleeping.

It would be better not to question things… it would be better not to care at all...

…

I won't care then… This probably isn't a gesture of kindness anyway… I should know better than anyone not to take anything for granted…

I miss you, mother…

Well, thanks for reading, everyone! I hope you liked it!

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