Why am I always late? Why?

Yellow Roses

The newly married couple left almost immediately on their honeymoon, leaving the also newly combined siblings together to adjust to their new lives together in the same house.

Ema took to this new life in her chirpy, good natured way, while Ame simply altered her priorities to accommodate for this new situation; allowing for some things, and refusing others entirely. Much of her schedule now revolved more tightly around her sister's whereabouts, plans, and companions during said plans, although this wasn't particularly new.

For example, that evening Tsubaki and Azusa had invited the two of them to an event celebrating the announcement of a brand new game. While Ame didn't particularly care for video games the way Ema did, and while she wasn't entirely comfortable with letting her sister go off without her, she knew neither Azusa nor Yuusuke were likely to do anything to Ema. Tsubaki was a bit of a wild card, but she was fairly certain Azusa would keep him in check.

Her shift had ended early that evening, and she returned home to what felt like an empty house. "I'm home!" She announced cheerily, shrugging off her coat and kicking off her shoes. There was a delicious smell coming from the kitchen, and she followed her nose.

As she'd expected, Ukyo was standing over the stove. The blonde looked up to smile at her kindly. "Welcome back, Ame-chan. How was work?"

She made a face, and gave a half-hearted shrug. "Mai-chan!" Juli squeaked, scampering over and launching himself onto her shoulder, babbling all the way. "How was work? Where's Chii-chan? You didn't go with her? You know she's with Tsubaki and Yuusuke, right? I'm a bit worried!"

Ame patted the squirrel consolingly. "Azusa's there as well," she reminded him quietly. "And Yuuske's too bashful to try anything. Ukyo-nii," she raised her voice and came over to see what he was cooking. "Rice and curry?"

"It's for later," he explained, checking the rice. A cloud of steam wafted into the air, temporarily blurring her vision. "Wataru needs to eat after his nap, and then he may need help with his homework."

Ame huffed out a laugh, clapping her hands to her cheeks. "I may need help with my homework," she walked over to the front room and dropped her schoolbag on the couch, having gone to work straight from classes, and then come straight home. "Where's everyone else?"

"Tsubaki and Azusa are at the event with Yuusuke and Ema-chan," he consulted the colourful but complicated schedule board hanging on the kitchen bulletin board. "Iori is attending late lectures, and Louis seems to be working a late shift. According to the schedule, they'll both be eating out. As for the rest, they don't seem to have anything going on, but I haven't heard from them yet so I can't be sure…"

The rice cooker made a little buzzing sound to indicate that the rice had been cooked through, and Ukyo turned to empty it into the dishes. "Ema said she's on her way home now, and she mentioned that Yuusuke was stopping by the bookshop to buy study guides."

"Well if he plans to enter the same school as Ema-chan, he will have to put in a certain amount of effort," Ukyo lifted the apron over his head and folded it over his arms. The steam from the rice had caused sweat to bead on his forehead, and his hair had slipped out of its usual combed-back neatness, and now curled attractively over his brow. "I'm relieved to hear that Yuusuke seems aware of that, in his own way."

Ame scoffed quietly, still not really on board with Yuusuke's decision to tail her little sister to university, and then blinked as her phone began to vibrate with a message. She pulled it out from her pocket and blinked at the screen in surprise. "It's Fuuto." He didn't call or text her often – little blessings – but when he did, it was usually something indecently flirty and inappropriate. He still insisted on calling her 'onee-chan' in that weirdly husky way of his, which just made her feel gross. Luckily, this message was short and pretty tame. "He says the taping for the year-end special is running late, so he's staying overnight there." Ame quietly left out the part where he'd then suggested that, once he got back, maybe she could cook for him again as his lovely big sister~.

I am vaguely discomforted by this. "Oh, is that so?" Ukyo smiled, just as her phone rang with a call. This time it was Kaname, and she relaxed slightly. Ame liked Kaname, even if he was a bit of a flirt.

The man sounded like he was standing outside. "I was planning on having dinner with you tonight, but I've gotten stuck with having to eat with a patron."

"I understand. I'll let Ukyo-san know."

Kaname chuckled through the phone, his deep voice enough to warm the heart of any woman. "That's a little cold, don't you think? What I'd really like to hear is: 'awww, big brother isn't coming home?'"

"Wh-? You do realise that I am a legal adult, not a baby," Ame snickered silently; out of the corner of her eye she noticed that Ukyo was beginning to frown slightly.

"Ah, but you're still my darling little sister, aren't you Ame-chan?" Kaname's voice dropped huskily as he stressed the word 'darling', and nearly cooed out the syllables of her name.

"…goodbye, Kaname-san." With that, she flicked her phone shut and sighed. What a massive charmer, she thought, and then she jumped as her phone began to ring again with another call. At least this time it was from Ema. "Ema! What's up? Are you nearly home?" She could hear people in the background, and want sounded faintly like a train.

"Almost, I just wanted to tell you that Masaomi-san called me to say that he won't be home tonight. One of his patients took a turn for the worse so he has to stay back."

"But didn't he do that last night?" The woman frowned worriedly. "Never mind, I'll tell Ukyo-san, so get home safely, okay! Oh! On your way back, could you pick up some cheese from the convenience store?"

"I will!" There was a clicking sound as she hung up. Sighing, Ame turned to Ukyo. "It looks like Kaname-san and Masaomi-san won't be home for dinner either. What's wrong?"

Ukyo's eyes fluttered, and he quickly smoothed his brow, but he couldn't really hide the disappointment in his expression. "It's just that…in the past, all those calls used to go to me…"

"Oh…" The hand holding the phone was lowered to her side, and then Ame shrugged. "I don't think you should worry about it much. It's just been guys in the house, hasn't it? My guess is that they're just excited to have new family members. You're still the best caretaker." Ukyo's lips twitched into a small smile, grateful for her words. Ame gestured towards the still simmering curry. "Want me to take over?"

"Thank you." She held still as he looped the apron over her head, and gestured for her to turn around so he could tie the strings together. It was large on her, but at least it covered her clothes much better than Wataru's did (even if the bunny-themed apron had been way more adorable).

The woman focused on the cooking food. "I'm home!" Ema's voice rang from the doorway, along with Juli's excited squeaks. Ame rolled her eyes with a smile; the squirrel rarely lavished her with that much affection, mostly because he was Ema's pet. "Ame-chan, I got what you asked!"

"Thanks!" She turned to pull her sister into an affectionate hug, and then stared at Subaru as he came down behind her. "Did you both come home together?"

"I saw him when I was coming out of the supermarket," Ema explained. Ame nodded in understanding, internally cursing. She narrowed her eyes as he finally managed to tear his gaze off Ema long enough to greet her.

"Good evening, Ame-chan. Dinner smells delicious," he glanced around curiously, likely for Ukyo. "Where is everyone else?"

"It seems everyone is going to be late home tonight," Ame replied, keeping her arm looped around Ema's waist. "Ema, why don't you help me finish up here?"

One thing could be said for Subaru, Ame thought to herself as she ate, he had a very hearty appetite. It was likely from all the sports he played, he needed the energy. She and Ema watched silently as he devoured every bite and bit of food on his plate, downed his glass of water in record time, and got up. He nodded at Ame. "Thank you for the food."

"Restless sort of guy, isn't he?" Juli commented dryly. Ame eyed the plate and glass he'd left on the table, and wondered just who he thought was going to clean up after him.

Deciding to suck it up and clean up, because otherwise Ukyo might have to do it, and he had enough on his plate at the moment, Ame got up and stacked his plate underneath her own. This little sister/housewife/maid deal is not what I signed up for.

Once Ame had disappeared into the kitchen, Subaru turned around to face Ema. He hadn't wanted to say anything with her sister in the room because, quite frankly, Ame scared him. He got the feeling that, if she caught even the tiniest inkling of his crush on Ema, she'd deck the shit out of him. Ema blinked at him with those big, beautiful brown eyes of hers, and he felt himself wanting to retreat bashfully, but he forced himself to stand firm.

"Right now, I've been dropped from the line-up, and I'm not in any games, but I'll get back in the regular line-up for sure, so…when that happens…" he flushed pink. "When I do, I want you to come see me play."

"Subaru…?" Ema stared after him in confusion while Juli muttered to himself. In the corner of the kitchen, Ame leaned against the wall with her head lowered so that her hair shadowed her eyes. She could hear Subaru's footsteps going up the stairs above her, and she smiled and switched on the dishwasher.

It was worth it to hear the way he tripped himself running up. Once she was certain he was gone, Ame flipped out her phone and tapped at the screen until she had pulled up the number she wanted.

I think you mean 'if'.