Sunlight filtered in through the cracked blinds of her bedroom window, warming her face where it penetrated, and Ema stirred lazily. It was the morning after her lunch with Natsume, and it was a vision of him that came to mind first as she sat up slowly. She glanced about herself, groggy with sleep, and confused as to why she was on the floor. Then she remembered: she had been talking on the phone with Natsume, late into the night, long after the rest of the household had gone to bed. She had cocooned herself in her down comforter and posted up on the floor to play through the latest downloadable episode of "Viral Vacation", an independent shooter developed by a rival company.

She didn't remember falling asleep, and wondered if Natsume had still been on the other line when she did. She blushed. Her legs were sore from holding a lotus position, and she had to grab hold of her desk chair to help pull herself to her feet. Juli, who had been an unwilling participant in their late night, acting as a self-appointed chaperone to the long phone call, snoozed peacefully, curled in a ball at the foot of her stripped mattress. Ema smiled as she remade the bed, quietly tucking the corners of the blanket in around his furry body.

She just hoped Juli never found out she had called Natsume her best friend.

She located her cell phone on the floor, and saw an unread text from Natsume, timestamped just after 3AM.

Good night.

Ten minutes later Ema descended the stairs to the living room, clutching her phone to her chest and smiling thoughtfully to herself. She had gotten used to sleeping in now that she was on vacation, as had Yuusuke. It wasn't unusual for the boy to surface around mid-afternoon, hair unbraided and blood sugar hazardously low from oversleeping through breakfast. Ema had meant to adopt a more responsible sleep schedule herself, but her unexpected all-nighter had set her back again. She vowed to do better this coming week.

Good night. Natsume's wish still echoed in her mind. She could even hear it in his voice, almost as if he had spoken the words aloud.

"Good morning, Ema!" It was Ukyo's jovial salute from the kitchen that was the first to greet her. Seeing him still there in his apron, in what must surely have been approaching early afternoon, humbled her. She managed a desperately guilty greeting of her own, head bowed, and made straight for the pantry to don her own apron. When she came back out again, Ukyo beamed simply to have acquired her company, and even though it was unnecessary, helped her fasten her apron strings around her waist.

"You look well-rested. Your help in the kitchen is appreciated, of course," he approved. "I might ask you to run into town later for ingredients, if that's agreeable to you."

Ema bobbed a nod and mirrored his smile, happy to be of assistance.

"Yo, don't tell me Fuuto's back already," Yuusuke announced as he rounded the corner into the kitchen, a breakfast bun dangling from his mouth. "Hey." He lifted his hand in a wave to Ema. It was the same way he would always greet her in school, but it had taken him a while to feel comfortable enough with her presence at home to adopt it here.

"Oh, good morning, Yuusuke." She beamed a fond smile.

"Fuuto?" Ukyo repeated, as he handed Ema a tray of snacks to deliver to the living room. "No, I haven't seen him."

"Well when you do see him, tell him he's the last person I want to have to look at this morning!" Yuusuke declared. He was so concerned with making this intention clear that he almost missed his opportunity to aid Ema. Ukyo passed a pitcher of strawberry lemonade into his hands, and the cranky youth followed his stepsister dutifully into the living room.

Ema had expected to find more of their siblings present, but it was just Masaomi and Wataru sitting down to play a board game together. Wataru instantly lost interest in it the moment Ema appeared. "Masaomi, look! Big sis is finally awake!" he exclaimed excitedly.

"I'm sorry I kept you waiting," Ema greeted as she set glasses down for their lemonade and arranged small quartered sandwiches for them both.

"Wataru was hoping to play on the console as soon as you were up," Masaomi explained. "I'm afraid he's had to do with me devising distractions for him in the meantime."

"Jeez, give the girl a break, kid." Yuusuke thumped Wataru on the head gently (Ema hoped). "We just started our vacation."

"I know that." Wataru sank back into the couch with a huff at being chided, but uncrossed his arms and beamed as soon as Ema offered him a glass of lemonade.

"That is a rather large press pool outside," Masaomi noticed mildly, leaning to peer out the window over the back of the couch. "If we're sure Fuuto isn't here, could it be that Hikaru has a new book out?"

The four siblings abandoned their snack momentarily to step outside on the balcony and observe the bodies milling about in the courtyard below. Several reporters had even gone to shade themselves beneath the big tree and appeared to be napping on the job — whatever their mysterious business had called them there for that day.

They might be here for any one of my stepbrothers, Ema marveled. They're all so accomplished. Every one of them could be a celebrity in his field. Even Yuusuke, once he decides what he wants to do. "Hey Wataru, maybe they are here for you?" she suggested, turning to smile at her youngest brother observing on tip-toe beside her.

"Hey sis, you really think so?" It was still early afternoon, but the stars came out in Wataru's eyes. Ema stifled a giggle into the curl of her hand.

"Now now," Masaomi intervened. "Wataru has to finish his game with me before he goes to meet his adoring fans."

"Aw, do I have to?" The youngest Asahina puffed out his cheek, which was enough to soften the impoliteness of the question.

"Let's all go in," Ema suggested, holding out her hand to Wataru and completely missing Yuusuke's envious glare in the background. "You may have adoring fans, Wataru, but you also have an adoring family!"

"Yeah!" the boy exclaimed, taking her by the hand and nearly dragging her back inside.

Almost as soon as the late risers (and the homebodies waiting for them that afternoon) had settled, Ukyo reappeared sans apron with a shopping list in hand. "I'm sorry Ema, I got called in unexpectedly to the office. I was hoping to go with you."

He really did seem sorry to break the news to her. Ema shook her head to ease his worries. "That's all right! You'll be home later, won't you?" she asked as she accepted the list. "We can go over the ingredients together."

Ukyo, as always, looked surprised and almost immeasurably touched by her offer to help. "Of course. You can expect me," he promised.

Ema nodded.

"I'll go with her!" Yuusuke burst out suddenly. His contributions to any conversation often startled Ema; he was always much more voluble than what was called for, as if his decisions only came after the burst of a floodgate trying to hold them at bay.

His brothers, however, looked less impressed by his enthusiasm. Ukyo reasserted his glasses a bit higher on his nose. "Of course. She'll likely need help carrying the purchases." Ema had no way of knowing it was the man's own hands that he wished could be of assistance to her.

"Yeah, so a scrawny runt like you isn't going to cut it!"

Ema turned to find the twins coming down the stairs. Despite their recent travails, they looked as inseparable as ever; at least when it came to tormenting their younger brother, they always seemed in alignment. Tsubaki grinned in the wake of his insult.

"Two sets of willing hands are better than one," Azusa agreed. He directed his own smile Ema's way. "Good morning."

"Besides, I thought you didn't like to be seen with her in public?" Tsubaki mocked as the twins both took her by an arm. As always, she felt caught up in their current without any ready ability to swim against it. She was already halfway to the elevators.

"I — that's got nothing to do with it!" Yuusuke shouted. He turned redder upon realizing, too late, that he had just inadvertently confirmed Tsubaki's silver-haired seiyuu cackled like a conquering villain in an anime as the elevator doors closed on them.

"I didn't realize Yuusuke didn't like to be seen with me," Ema worried as the elevator sank with the three of them inside it. Azusa wordlessly stepped up to her. She was startled when his hands met behind her waist, but he was only untying her apron for her.

"What more proof do you need that the guy's an idiot?" Left without his own excuse to touch Ema, Tsubaki hooked an arm around her shoulder and reeled her in with a conspiratorial grin. "Am I right?"

"Besides, we were already headed down anyway," Azusa offered. "Some of the reporters from the gaming news outlets are outside."

"Oh, that's right!" Ema said. She had almost forgotten about the reporters. "So they must be here to interview you? Azusa? Tsubaki"

"They probably want us to spill the beans on Natsume's company's latest project," Tsubaki confirmed.

"Little do they know that we know next to nothing about it," Azusa continued. "Our brother has told us very little about the project except that we'll have to audition just like everyone else."

"Ha! If he's lucky!" Tsubaki crowed, steering Ema out of the elevator with his arm still wrapped around her shoulder. "Watch it be another zombie shooter. No thank you. I want something more complex to sink my teeth into."

"The genre is getting rather stale," Azusa agreed as he hung up Ema's apron on the wall hooks and presented her with her coat. She let herself be directed into it, head still spinning, as it always did when she and the twins were together. When it was just one of them, she understood the conversation; when it was both, it was like they were having a whole other conversation in addition to the one she heard aloud, like there was some sort of twin frequency that only they operated on. That was partly Natsume's assessment, anyway.

Natsume. Ema's hand closed over something unexpected in her coat pocket, and her heart kicked out of rhythm. His spare apartment key! She had seen him yesterday and still forgotten to return it to him. He hadn't even brought it up while they were chatting over the phone last night. He must really think she was a scatterbrain — either that, or that she was purposefully hanging onto it. But she wouldn't do that, not unless he —

Azusa was the only one to notice her distracted look as the three of them approached the doors. "All right, this oughtta be interesting!" Tsubaki was saying. "What do you think our female fans will do when they see us with a girl as cute as this?" He took hold of Ema's hand, the one that wasn't toying with Natsume's key in her pocket, and seemed primed to take the most controversial photos possible.

"Ema! Ema Asahina!" The pool of reporters rushed the three of them, nearly blowing them back through the door. As they found themselves submerged in unfamiliar bodies, surrounded by portable microphones and phones that were livestreaming, Ema wasn't sure she had heard right.

"Yes? I'm... I'm Ema Hinata," she stammered.

"So you're not the Ema who is the sister of the famed voice actors Tsubaki and Azusa Asahina?"

"She's our sister all right," Tsubaki said, tugging her close. Ema was half-buried in his collar by this point, and not exactly trying to escape. What was going on?

"What's all this about?" Azusa demanded. Neither of the twins could completely disguise their astonishment at being passed over, but they were good at publicity, and good at adapting when the script called for improvisation.

"We're here to get our first quotes from the newcomer, Ema Asahina!" shouted a youthful intern from the back. "All outlets are making the casting announcement today!"

"Miss Asahina, what would you say to your detractors who would cite nepotism as playing a role in your being cast?"

"I'm sorry, I don't know what to say," Ema admitted. "I don't even know what you're talking about — "

"So you're saying that your older brother, Natsume Asahina, had no hand in your being cast as the lead female role in his company's newly announced game?"

"Natsume?" Ema felt dizzy, and focused on the one word in the woman's sentence that she understood out of context. "Natsume's company — "

The twins exchanged a look — or they would have, if their cell phones hadn't pinged identically. They both pulled up the text in the same instant.

On my way. Distract them! - N

"Aren't you guys missing the bigger story?" Azusa stepped smoothly in front of Ema, still being sheltered by his twin, and adjusted his glasses.

"Are... are we?" The female reporter who had been so quick to hound Ema now looked perplexed, and slightly winded, by his closer proximity.

"Yeah," Tsubaki chimed in. He maneuvered himself in front of Ema the same way, until she was completely eclipsed by the two of them; she held onto his sleeve, and he smirked. "Sounds like no one's got the scoop on the Asahina twins' involvement with the project!"

"So you brothers are involved?" Cameras and mics craned closer, and Ema shrank beneath the full protection the twins offered.

"We can neither confirm nor deny the basis of any rumor you might have heard," Azusa responded seamlessly.

"You wouldn't want me to get in trouble with my agency, would you?" Tsubaki winked at the female reporter, whose uncontrollable blush at this favored treatment was also livestreamed for all the world to see. "Or maybe you would? You look like the type who enjoys trouble."

Amidst the hail of questions that followed, in the sea of swimming faces, Ema saw one figure fighting its way toward the front. A space opened up between two cameras, and Natsume appeared, wedging himself between the bodies. He was dressed for the office but looking completely disheveled; still, his eyes were determined, and his jaw set as soon as he spotted her in the crowd. Relief flooded Ema at the sight of him.

"About time!" Tsubaki exclaimed as he pushed her toward Natsume. "Get her out of here, will you?"

"We'll handle this," Azusa confirmed.

"On it."

This three-way communication seemed to pass in the space of a heartbeat, not even picked up by the cameras. And just like that, the triplets coordinated her escape. Natsume grabbed hold of Ema's wrist, and she was all too happy to be dragged out of the press pool and back into relative anonymity. Still, just escaping the crowd didn't appear to be enough for Natsume. As soon as they were free, his long strides broke into a half-run, fettered only by Ema's failing attempts to keep up with him. She knew he still ran every day to stay in shape, and there was no way she was equipped to match him; he seemed to realize this, or at least to take pity on her, only after they were a few blocks away. He slowed his pace as they entered the park.

When they arrived by the lampposts, Ema dropped gratefully onto the bench, panting, and Natsume sank down beside her. She did not object when he pulled out his pack of cigarettes and shook one out.

For a long time, neither of them spoke. Finally, Ema gripped the key in her pocket, and broke the uncomfortable silence. "I don't understand," she admitted. "Surely there's been some mistake — "

"It's only a mistake if you want it to be," he interrupted. Chastened, she stared at him through the twisting veil created by his smoke. After a moment, Natsume exhaled, half-dioxide and half-monoxide, and his face softened. "I'm sorry. Let me back up. I owe you an explanation. One hell of an explanation," he seemed to echo to himself. "When we met yesterday, I wasn't being completely honest with you."

Ema waited. She couldn't find fault with him for deceiving her, not yet. Not when she had no idea what this was about.

"When we... when I took you to lunch, I recorded your voice using an app on my phone. My producer had heard you leave me a message previously, and wanted to hear more of what you were capable of."

"You recorded our conversation?" Her voice was barely audible, too insubstantial to be even a whisper. Now Natsume was averting his gaze from her with something bordering on extreme prejudice.

"I'm sorry," he said in a rush. "I betrayed your trust. After you declined to see the script, I didn't think you would want to audition. Casting the female lead as soon as possible is imperative to us securing more funding for the project, but it's more than that." He took another drag from his cigarette and exhaled. "I didn't want you to pass up an opportunity to work in an industry you've always shown such passion for. I was afraid your natural humility would get in the way of you seizing that opportunity. But there's no excuse for what I did."

This was a lot of information for poor Ema to process. By his explanation, she understood that Natsume's heart had been in the right place. Still... "And you made the announcement already?" she wondered. "What if I didn't get the part?"

"Our producer made the announcement this morning on social media without giving anyone the heads-up." Natsume grimaced. "He cast you despite being unagented. You could say he's been your biggest fan from the start, and he likes the idea of bringing another member of the Asahina clan up from obscurity. You have both the name recognition and the underdog story. It's going to be tough to retract, but I'll get our marketing team started on issuing the corrections to all the outlets."

"What about your game?" Ema pressed. "You said that you needed to secure funding — "

"Let me worry about that," Natsume advised her. "I've given you enough to worry about already. Just leave it to me to make this right by you." He glanced down, distracted by the chime of his phone, and pulled up his texts. "The twins say the residence is clear. I can take you back now."

Ema nodded numbly, and they both stood. "Oh, Natsume. Before I forget." She dug inside her pocket and produced his key.

She was surprised when his hand closed over hers, overruling her offer. "Keep it," he said quietly.

"Natsume — "

"Odds are I'll be at the office a lot in the coming weeks putting out fires. I might need you to look after the twins for me."

Ema nodded her understanding, and his hand lingered on hers. It was only when her helpless blush started to form that he seemed to realize and pull away.

They walked together back to the residence. Natsume was quiet; Ema had no way of knowing he was already calculating the amount of hours it would take to wipe the footage of her taken that morning. All of the reporters who had had their phones out had been streaming live, which was how he had known to jump in his car and speed immediately over to intervene.

And as for who else might have seen it —

When they came upon the front gate to the mansion grounds, they were both surprised to see a familiar silhouette standing outside. "Subaru?" Ema said in disbelief. The figure turned, and she saw that she had not been mistaken — it was Subaru. His hair was shaggier than she remembered, and was it really possible he had grown taller, or had she only forgotten how far above her he had always towered?

Before she could open her mouth to voice her astonishment at seeing him, his storming eyes locked on Natsume. He approached them at a brisk pace, and Ema was overcome with a horrible premonition of deja vu.

Natsume, also evidently surprised to see him, was even more surprised when Subaru hauled off and punched his older brother in the face.