I own nothing other than Ame and her emotions!

Lunchboxes

Ema hadn't been downstairs when I'd come home, which was strange but it could also just mean she was sleeping or busy, or playing a videogame with her headphones in. I burst into her room dramatically, scaring her in the process. "I'm home! And I saved you a cupcake!" I waved the pink bag at her temptingly.

"Ame-chan," she whined playfully and sat up on her bed. I grinned and tossed the bag at her, before walking over and faceplanting into her lap. I heard the crinkly sounds of the wrap being removed, and grinned into her lap. "You even got my favourite flavour!"

I shrugged as best I could in my horizontal position, and turned my head to face her stomach. "Yeah, well, anything for my little sister, right? Just don't spill crumbs on me when you eat! I am right here!"

She giggled, and we lapsed into comfortable silence. "So, how was your day?" She asked me.

I shrugged again. "Eh you know, the usual. My co-workers were really curious about all our new brothers, and Ukyo-nii did swing by to see me, but other than that it was fine," I sighed and closed my eyes. "I still have no idea what to do for my school project though." I did have to write a few essays and plans first before beginning the actual project, but as long as I didn't have a topic, I couldn't start anything.

"I'm sorry," she sympathised gently. "Why don't you do something on schools?" Ema suggested after a moment of silence. "You always said you wanted to be a teacher."

I sat bolt upright and stared at her with wide eyes. "You're a genius," I breathed, hugging her and realising a moment too late that she was holding a cupcake that would shake crumbs all over us. I ignored that and brushed them off absentmindedly. "So how was your day, Ema-chan?"

Quiet but insistent taps at our window interrupted us and made us look over, and I saw Juli standing impatiently behind the glass. The second I flipped the catch, he bounded in already talking. "I hope you realise what kind of danger you put yourself in!" He snapped like an upset mother.

Ema frowned. "I wasn't in any danger..."

"Of course you were!" Juli interrupted, standing up on his hind legs and folding his arms across his chest. His fur was on end, and he looked agitated. "Letting him in like that, do you have any idea what could have happened if Yusuke hadn't stopped him?"

My gaze swung between the two of them, understandably confused. "Uh...what happened?"

"Nothing really..."

"Nothing?! That creepy pop idol got into Ema's room and tried to attack her!"

What? Fuuto...he did what?

Ema was speaking now, trying to soothe me. "He didn't really! We just watched movies together! Nothing happened!"

"Yeah..." I nodded slowly. "Sure. Okay. Nothing happened," I turned towards the door. "Excuse me, I need to go...do a thing."

I found Fuuto – I say I, but I was being followed by Ema and Juli – in the upstairs hallway, where he was leaning against the railing and frowning at his phone screen. He looked up when he heard me, but I barely gave him a chance to move as I grabbed him by the wrist and yanked him forward.

"What the-!?" I ignored him, and Ema, and dragged him towards my room. I unlocked the door, shoved it open, and threw him inside, then slammed the door shut before Ema could get in. He scowled at me through the darkness from the centre of my room. "Hey, what gives?" He snapped, and then he smirked tauntingly. "Nee-chan, I didn't know you were into this kind of play~."

"Listen, and listen well," I flicked the lights on and marched towards him. This wasn't my space yet, but my things were there. I had finished pasting my posters on the walls, and soon I'd make this place truly mine. Until then, this was my territory, and I felt far more in control in here.

I stopped directly in front of him, and poked him hard in the chest. "I told you something morning, didn't I?" I asked. "Yeah, I did. I told you, very distinctly, to leave. My baby sister. Alone." A poke accompanied each point, and he stepped back to escape. I followed. "I love Ema dearly, so you'd better listen and heed my words: stay away from her. Are we clear?"

His eyes were wide in shock and, oddly enough, awe. Even stranger, he looked less chastised and more...what? His pupils were dilated, we were close enough in height and position for me to tell. His lips were parted. The expression was unnerving enough that I decided to step back.

Because, if I hadn't know any better, I'd have said he was...turned on. "Nee-chan..."

Okay, nope. "Okay, I'm glad we had this talk!" I rushed ahead and quickly opened the door. Ema stumbled backwards, face pink either from being caught eavesdropping, or from everything she'd overheard. I rolled my eyes at her, and waved a hand at Fuuto. "Let's never do this again. Out, now. And apologise to Ema before you leave."

Fuuto blinked, and walked over to us. He stared at Ema. "Sorry, Ema-chan," he said, in the same insincere manner he had before. Then he turned to me and leaned over so he could speak right into my ear. "I think I like it when you boss me around, big sister~," he said in a breathy tone. "Let's do this again when i get back~" And then he sauntered off down the hall without a glance back. I stared after him in shock, and then turned to Ema. She was glaring at me in that pouty and ultimately ineffectual way she had.

I reached up and patted her cheeks consolingly. "Wanna play videogames until we fall asleep?"

oOo

That was a bad peace offering suggestion on my part, as both of us conveniently forgot that Ema had school the next day. I remembered sometime around 1 a.m., after our third virtual raid on some unsuspecting schmucks, and herded her into bed where I promptly proceeded to pass out beside her.

Her alarm clock woke me up the following morning, and I had groaned and grumbled all through my morning routine. By the time I had showered and dressed I was firmly awake, and skipping down the staircase. I could smell breakfast cooking, which meant that Ukyo-nii was awake. "Good morning!" I chirped as I skipped into the kitchen.

He turned to smile at me softly. Most of his smiles were like that, and I liked that. "Good morning Ame-chan. Did you sleep well?"

"Yep!" I came to join him in front of the stove. I rocked up and down on the balls of my feet, and then spun to around to study the cupboards and counters that bore signs of food preparation. "I wanted to help with breakfast though," I pouted. Then I blinked and turned back to him. "Hey, does anyone need a bento?"

Ukyo's brows furrowed in thought. "Not really. Most of them have tight schedules, and there's hardly enough time to make one for everyone who might need one..."

"I could make them!" My hands went up in excitement. "Can I make them? Please?" I peered up at him through my lashes, and grinned when he flushed slightly. He quickly looked away with a chuckle.

"Of course," he replied in amusement. "As long as you make one for me as well."

I grinned and patted him on the arm. "Aw, of course! You're getting the prettiest one!" I whirled around and quickly went to work. I wasn't sure who liked what yet, but I was pretty sure I couldn't go wrong with the basic rice, eggs, fish and fruit. There were enough lunchboxes in one of the cupboards, and I quickly filled them with sticky rice, egg rolls and fruits/vegetables. Wataru's took the longest because I wanted to shape the rice into a bunny.

Iori was the first to come down, although I would probably not have noticed him had I not looked up at that moment and seen him with one leg already out the door. "Good morning Iori-nii! Are you heading out early?"

He paused, and stared back at me. Iori didn't talk much, I could tell, but he was really pretty. They were all really pretty, and this was getting ridiculous. He nodded slowly in response to my question. "Good morning, Ame-chan."

I frowned and quickly studied the boxes on the counter, then grabbed one of the full ones and clapped on the cover. "Here. You don't have to eat it, but if you get hungry at some point..." I trailed off, suddenly doubting my culinary abilities. I didn't have a lot of talents, and the few things I knew how to do were self-taught. What if the food tasted bad?

Just as I was about to pull it back, hands covered mine briefly before the lunchbox was lifted from between my fingers. Iori nodded at me a tad stiffly. His expression hardly changed, but his eyes were softer now. "Thank you, Ame-chan."

"You're welcome!" I grinned and bounced back into the kitchen. Subaru was next to come downstairs, and then the twins, followed by Wataru, and finally Yusuke. Kaname, I learned, was still at work. What did he work as anyway? I was almost afraid to ask.

A quick aside, Ema came down when I was about halfway through and I enlisted her help in making Yusuke's because I thought it would be funny to see him blush and act all tsundere when she handed it to him.

"Here you go," I handed Wataru his own bento last, and smiled when he took it with an exclamation of total delight. "I wasn't sure what you liked, so I put a little bit of everything. After school, you can tell me what you like and don't like and I'll see what I can do, alright?"

"Thank you, big sister!"

Awww! I planted an exaggerated kiss on his cheek and waved him off. A moment later, arms wrapped around my shoulders from behind me, and a warm body pressed up against my back. "No fair~. Where's my kiss?" Tsubaki whined deviously. "Little sister, don't I get good morning kiss?"

I rolled my eyes and twisted around to return the hug. "Isn't that a thing for couples living together?"

"Maybe~"

"Stop teasing her, Tsubaki," Azusa rolled his eyes fondly.

Tsubaki stuck his tongue out at him over my head. "I don't wanna! Our little sister made us bentos! Ame-chan would make such a good wife, don't you think?" He pressed an equally loud kiss on the cheek closest to him, and received a smack on the side of his head courtesy of his twin. "Ow~"

"If you're done, we do have a meeting that we can't be late for," Azusa arched an eyebrow. I carefully squirmed out of Tsubaki's arms and held out two boxes to them at the door.

Tsubaki grinned down at me. "Do I at least get a goodbye kiss~?"

"Bye Tsuba-nii," I shut the door and turned to stare at the area of my workspace that was covered in rice grains, specks of oil, flour, and bits of grated cheese. Time to clean up...

While I cleaned, I thought about my new brothers and their...behaviour. They were all men of age, and they had only lived with each other, of course the presence of two girls would make them curious in more ways than one. Still, none of them – barring Fuuto – had done anything to either of us (and I was also discounting what happened with Subaru because he was drunk and probably not in his right mind).

I still had to keep a look out though. I didn't trust them all that much, barring Wataru of course. People are capable of acting without thinking, and if one of their actions hurt Ema then there would be hell to pay.

Once I was done cleaning, I curled up on the couch to watch some TV. I was bored, and aside from scrolling through my social media platforms and periodically glancing up at the TV while I tried to banish the pervasive feeling of laziness so I could start on my project, I really didn't have much to do.

Ema's suggestion had given me an idea about a topic, and I flipped to my notepad app so I could review the few notes I had made, and add more. It was while I was doing this that the door of the flat opened. The tired shuffle and click of wood on tile told me that Kaname had finally returned home at – I glanced at the clock – ten in the morning.

He looked tired, but even that wasn't enough to alter his natural charm and good looks. He seemed surprised to see me, but quickly smirked and walked over. "Good morning, my darling little sister," he greeted smoothly.

"Good morning," I patted the space beside me, and he settled in with low sigh of relief, glad to be off his feet. He smelled of incense and perfume, and there was an obnoxious red stain on his right cheek, as though he'd been trying to wipe away a lipstick stain.

But hey, that was none of my business, but it did make me wonder where he worked and what he did that made him return home so late, or early if you want to look at it that way. "Have you eaten anything recently?" I asked instead, pawing curiously at the purple and gold cloth around his shoulders.

"There were several shops still open," Kaname chuckled and lifted it so I could wrap it around my shoulders like a shawl. It was a bit stiffer than I would have liked, but pleasingly warm from Kaname's body heat. It smelled like him too, which was a good thing. I tugged it higher, until my eyes peeked out from above the hem. Kaname regarded me with a smirk. "I didn't realise you missed me that much, little sister."

I poked my head above the top to yawn. "I didn't," I replied drowsily as I let my eyes slip shut. "I was just bored."

He hummed amusedly, and then I felt fingers in my hair. "You shouldn't fall asleep near men you don't know, little sister," he told me, sounding closer this time. I forced myself not to tense up. "You don't know what could happen."

"I do know you though," I replied sleepily. "I trust you, big brother." With that, I let myself fall asleep.