"I guess I'm alone again"

It was already night by the time imouto-chan and I parted. Such a nice and lovely girl. Truly, she's a gift to the world. I can see that DeadEyes-kun wasn't exaggerating with all his praises, if anything, they came short to describe the real Imouto-chan.

"I'm home~"

She truly does justice to the 'Imouto' archetype of anime! With such thoughts, I arrive at home just to find the usual.

Empty.

"Not that I blame you dad…but it would be nice to receive a 'Welcome back~' every so often"

I saunter around. My house is not a big deal, two floors, about three rooms and an office; two bathrooms, a hall and a kitchen. The kitchen is my objective and while checking the fridge, I see that it's mostly empty, though that's not weird. Considering that I'm the one in charge of buying the groceries. Weeeell~

"I guess dinner is instant ramen again"

With a deep sigh I prepared my dinner with some vegetables and dry meat that were just laying around.

"Itadakimasu!"

This scene is the usual one. Due to difficult work hours, my dad hardly has the time to eat at home, he will probably arrive at about ten or eleven. But by that time I'm already fast asleep. When I was younger, I always did my best to stay awake and say 'Welcome back~' when he arrived, though most of those occasions ended with him finding me sleeping in the hall with drool dripping on the floor.

I also tried cooking…that didn't end well, though the firemen had a good laugh at an eleven year-old trying to cook. With time…I realized that my efforts weren't in vain, my dad appreciated them, but while getting older, I started to understand that I was creating more inconveniences than anything. Though he always says that those are some of his fondest memories.

I tried hard…but really, I could never fill that gap.

You really were amazing, mom.

The plastic cup is empty now, sitting on the table I see little brownish droplets going down the cup and one or two pieces of noodles that went uneaten, it's empty…just like this house.

There's more than one reason as to why I was happy seeing imouto-chan…she was the kind of person that was capable of filling a house with warmth, that made the loneliness go away.

I could see it in the way DeadEyes-kun's eyes softened every time he mentioned her. And having expended a whole afternoon with her…it made this empty house a whole lot bigger.

Putting those thoughts aside, I clean everything and go to my room. From corner to corner there are around five bookcases filled to the brim with light novels and mangas, turning around there are a few consoles and video games. My eyes scan them slowly, I consider what I could do before going to sleep, but decide to go for the last volume of Fullmetal Alchemist that I still hadn't read. I would rather submit myself to torture than being mocked by DeadEyes-kun again. "'You're a fake Otaku' he said 'just a poser'" my hands ball into trembling fists. "I will show him!"

Like this I spend the next few hours just fast-reading. All my previous worries disappeared to the back of my mind as I immersed myself on this little book.

"Hehehe"

A few hours later I'm finally done, my mind is at ease while I inhale deeply. Such a good ending. I will have to give it to DeadEyes-kun, really...not reading this before could be considered a sin. Ryuk is probably hovering over me right now, just ready to write my name on his death note. Please, Shinigami-sama, make sure to write 'and she died of happiness'.

"What to do, what to do" I make a few popping sounds with my lips while swinging my feets from side to side in my bed. A little bored, I grab my cell phone and just play with it for a bit. Ah, Maō Gakuin no Futekigōsha has a second season confirmed?! I got to tell DeadEyes-kun! I check his number and then I realize…

"I don't have his number nor email, do I?"

It's quite disappointing, but I will have to wait until tomorrow...wait! This number? Imouto-chan! That 's right! She gave her contact info earlier.

"How can you have a little sister with who has hardcore social level skills and not get some for yourself?"

I should limit the times I speak to myself outloud too.

"Hmm"

Food for thought.

For now, let's bother her a little.

From: Me

To: Imouto-chan

Ne ne! Imouto-chan!

And...send!

I tilt my head from side to side while waiting, humming a random anime opening that comes to mind...Is it Shokugeki no Soma? Hard to remember.

Brrr~brrr

I don't waste any time and open the text I just recieved.

From: Imouto-chan

To: Me

Nee-chan! Do you need something?

I smile to myself...let's use this opportunity to fluster her.

From: Me

To: Imouto-chan

Give your brother a goodnight kiss for me, would you? ;* Make sure to make it wetty and long!

"Kehehehe"

I could just picture her red face, steaming through her ears and stuttering all around. So cute!

Brrr~brrr

"Hooo"

Well, this was...unexpected. Just what kind of relationship do you have with your Imouto, DeadEyes-kun?

From: Imouto-chan

To: Me

Do you want me to give him another kiss? I just gave him one. Maybe you want me to use my tongue?! You're such a pervert Nee-chan!

I'm not really sure who the pervert is here.

Brrr~brrr

From: Imouto-chan

To: Me

But if you insist~ (_)

I don't think I insisted one bit.

Brrr~brrr

"What the...?"

I can see DeadEyes-kun with his face completely flushed and a kiss mark on his cheek, Imouto-chan is in the forefront of the selfie with badly put red lipstick on her lips giving a peace sign with two daindly fingers. That is the picture she just sent me.

"Scary~"

This little sister's teasing level goes to Infinity...and beyond! Like this, I spend the rest of my night exchanging text messages with Imouto-chan.

My chest feels warm, and this big house doesn't seem so lonely anymore.

"Hichiman?"

Have you ever thought about how meaningless life is? In a realist approach, we live our day to day life in an utterly boring routine. No matter how hard the environment in which you survive, you will come up with a routine. Some say that life is what happens in between the big moments in your existance. I do agree. That's why I appreciate every little and meaningless cloud that passes above my head.

"Hakiman, then?"

The little conversations that do not matter, and the people that cross you in the street. All of them I could consider background characters that would run at the sight of my eyes and many girls would do so while screaming 'Pervert!'. But reminiscing of my talk with Ramen-chan, I came to the conclusion that these people, all of them, will always be those two dimensional characters as long as I allow them too. Meaning, that if I acknowledge their person, so will they do the same for me. I will always be this grumpy, lonely and 'perverted' teen for them if I don't try to or show them that I'm not what they think I'm.

"No? Well, how about Hachigayaman?"

Ramen-chan said that it didn't matter, really. She says that as long as I had at least one friend, it was okay, and that those that were worth my time would see beyond my 'Aura of loneliness and perversion', as she called it.

"Yeah yeah, I like it!"

Though that didn't prevent her from turning this into a game. What does she wanna do? Well...in her words 'Lets make you a superhero! It will be your alter ego. You will have a Minoru and a Kazuya side!' So...now she was putting all her effort into naming my charismatic side. Though I didn't really know I had a charismatic facet to myself.

"Hachigayaman will be the kind hearted, handsome teen that will enchant every maiden he lays his eyes upon. Muahahahaha!"

"Isn't the evil laugh too much?"

"What do you mean?! I just created a monster! Just do your work and let me be!"

It was another day and another lunch. My work as a server has become quite easy. If I say so myself, once you get used to it, it just becomes part of the routine, and once it becomes a routine, it only takes time and patience to do it.

"You know that today you're our only patron. You could say that my job is to bother you, besides, it 's my break, I can do whatever I want. and I really don't know how you managed to convince Ojichiro-san to prepare lunch for you on cleaning day."

Cleaning day was a special day for the ramen shop. Once a month, Ojichiro-san would close shop and do a deep cleaning of the store. I was on my lunch break right now, so I was eating ramen next to Ramen-chan.

"Oh...I'm flattered, are you saying that you enjoy spending time with this little old me?"

"What happened with your kuudere routine? Since when does a kuudere tease the romantic, naive and innocent target?"

"Geh" she makes a dramatic gesture while holding her breast—her heart! Yes! her heart. "You're thinking something dirty, aren't you? And who is this 'romantic, naive and innocent target' that you're mentioning?". You would think that she's saying this with a deadpan or offended tone, yet her lips form a condescending smirk. And just to make me suffer, she crosses her arms below her chest, bringing her boobs up.

"You're doing it on purpose, aren't you?"

"My my...whatever are you talking about~"

I have to get this woman away from Komachi, she's a really bad influence if that wetty kiss from last time was anything to go by.

Even with those thoughts in mind, I was happy.

A/N: Thanks for the support guys! I'm glad to know there are people still reading this fic even though it went abandoned for months. See you next time!