A/N: I don't know how often I'll be able to post three times in a week, but since it's now too cold to each lunch outside, I've started working on this fanfiction while sitting at my desk eating lunch since I'm there anyway.

Chapter 12: Gaming

"Are you sure this is okay?" Ema asked as she entered Natsume's apartment on a Saturday morning. "You're so busy with work during the week, and I already drag you around hiking a couple times a month. I'd hate to take away what little free time you have."

"Are you kidding?" Natsume asked. "I think I've made my thoughts about our hikes clear, and gaming is one of my favorite ways to spend my free time. You remember that, don't you?"

"I remember," Ema said. After she mentioned missing two-person games during their last hike, Natsume had invited her over to try out a new one that had just come out.

While Ema loved their hikes, she was excited for his. Despite the seven-year age gap, they'd been good gaming partners, whether playing against each other or as a team, before Ema had left. The only person who'd Ema had to play games with for seven years was Arisa, who didn't really like gaming, and Erik for a while. Erik had enjoyed gaming, but hadn't been as good as Natsume. She pushed thoughts of Erik aside hoping he'd soon stop popping into her head on a weekly basis.

Meowing brought her attention back to the present.

"Oh, you have cats!" Ema exclaimed, bending down to pet the cat twining itself around Natsume's legs. "They're so cute."

"Tsubaki, do you really have to be in the way all the time?" Natsume asked, dancing around to stop himself from being tripped.

"Tsubaki?" Ema repeated, looking at Natsume with a curious expression. She took a look at his second cat and realized it was nearly identical to the first. Ema grinned. "You named your cats Tsubaki and Azusa?" If the one she was petting was named Tsubaki, she couldn't imagine the other cat's name could be anything other than Azusa.

"Yes," Natsume sighed. "They're named after my triplets."

"Isn't that a little confusing when Tsubaki and Azusa come visit you? Or did you name them that because you missed your triplets more than you thought you would when you moved out?"

"I assure you I did not miss those two more than I thought I would," Natsume said dryly. "They're names kind of happened by accident. I wasn't planning on getting any pets when I moved out, but a few years ago there was a pet adoption fair next to a place I like to buy games. I decided to go over and just have a look. These two caught my eye. Azusa was sitting calmly while Tsubaki ran around like crazy, getting into everything within reach, including harassing his brother. Every time Tsubaki tried to get his brother to join his antics, Azusa seemed to have this resigned look on his face, but would get on his feet and follow his brother around."

His eyes went to Azusa, who was sitting calmly on a cat stand as Tsubaki stalked up behind him. Natsume smiled and it surprised Ema. From what she remembered, Natsume didn't smile very often. The smile looked good on him.

"It reminded me so much of my triplets that I ended up in a conversation with one of the ladies running the adoption fair. The next thing I knew, these two were in a carrier ready to come home with me and the lady had already named them after Tsubaki and Azusa. The names were so fitting that I couldn't think of anything else to change them to, so I let the names stay. My brothers don't mind."

"And is it confusing?" Ema prompted when it seemed Natsume had forgotten her first question.

"Not as much as you would think," Natsume said wryly. "Tsubaki the man causes about as much trouble as Tsubaki the cat. Usually, I'm chastising them both at the same time."

Ema giggled. Natsume had always had less patience for Tsubaki's antics than Azusa. "I see. And how do Tsubaki and Azusa the men feel about their feline namesakes?"

Natsume shrugged. "They don't seem to mind. I think they're equal parts baffled and flattered by it. Enough about the cats. Ready to move on to our game?"

"Yes!"

~.~

Juli scurried around the house, searching for his quarry. With Chi out of the house now was the perfect time to speak with him. He knew Chi wouldn't want him to do this. She was completely ignorant of the situation she was in and refused to listen to a word he said.

Admittedly, nothing had happened yet, but it was the yet part that was important. Juli was grateful none of the brothers had pounced on Ema when she arrived, but that didn't mean they weren't planning to later, or that their feelings wouldn't change. He only trusted one of them with his precious Chi. Well, maybe two or three of them were okay. The youngest seemed to only regard Chi as an older sister and the oldest seemed pretty responsible, but Juli wasn't ready to rule either of them out as possible threats just yet.

He just hoped his quarry would agree with him. And that his quarry was home. He seemed to spend a lot of time at work.

Juli was out of breath by the time he reached Louis' door. He wasn't used to living in a house with so much space. Why did these boys need a freaking apartment complex as their home?

He paused to catch his breath before scratching at the door, hoping Louis would answer.

Thankfully, Louis did open the door. He looked around the hallway, a bemused expression on his face.

"Down here!" Juli called, waving one paw.

"Oh, it's you," Louis said, stepping back to allow Juli into his room. "What can I do for you? Is Chi out right now?"

Juli nodded as he walked into Louis' room. "Yeah, she's over at Natsume's playing video games with him." He resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "That girl's as crazy about games as ever and I think she's just been waiting for an opportunity to play video games with Natsume again since she set foot in Japan. She complained that she hasn't had any real gaming partners for years, and no one in the house is as good as Natsume."

For that, Juli was grateful. Gaming seemed like too good an opportunity to get close with Chi. The last thing Juli needed was to worry about one of the brothers spending hours with Chi every week playing together. Luckily, Natsume no longer lived at Sunrise Mansion, and the only gamers in the house who could hope to compare were Subaru and Yusuke, neither of which seemed inclined to be close to Chi. And they had better stay that way if they knew what was good for them.

Louis nodded. "I see. She did always love video games, didn't she? Are you here because you're bored with her gone? I have a new hair treatment I could try on your fur."

Juli opened his mouth to refuse since that wasn't why he had come, but then paused. Why not treat himself a little while he told Louis about his worries? His fur was looking a little lank these days. Probably because he was stressing so much about Chi's safety in this house.

"Well, I didn't come here because I was bored, but I would love to talk while I get that hair treatment you mentioned."

Louis smiled. "All right. Let's move to my bathroom then."

Juli started talking while Louis got ready.

"I've wanted to talk to you about this for a while. You're the only brother I can trust with this."

"Oh?" Louis paused for a moment to stare at Juli, then continued. "Go on. What is it you can trust only me with?"

"Well, you see…" How to say what he needed to say without offending Louis? He definitely couldn't talk to Louis the same way he talked with Chi about the Asahina brothers. "I have some concerns with Chi's living situation. You see, she's a girl. A woman, I mean. A young, beautiful, vibrant woman who is suddenly living with a bunch of boys. None of whom, as far as I can tell, have a special lady in their lives."

"You're worried about Chi living with a bunch of guys who aren't related to her?" He clarified as he started working the hair solution into Juli's fur.

Juli fought down a purr at how good it felt. "Exactly. I'm not saying your brothers aren't good guys." Except, they probably weren't. "It's just the situation that has me concerned."

"I see. Is Chi concerned as well?"

Frustrated, Juli folded his arms, though had to unfold them a moment later so Louis could lather his arms. She should be, is what Juli wanted to say. "No, I can't say that she is. I've talked with her about my concerns, but she thinks I'm being silly." He winced. He was here to try to convince Louis to be concerned as well, not make him think Juli was being paranoid like Chi did. He tried to fix his mistake.

"I mean, she hasn't been around all that many guys, so she doesn't know what can happen when guys and girls are close and they spend a lot of time together. You know what I mean?" He mentally prayed as hard as he could that the answer would be yes.

Louis nodded thoughtfully. "I think I do. Whether Chi realizes it yet or not, it's probably difficult to be the only girl in a house with eleven boys. And you never know what could happen. Some of my brothers are close in age with her." Louis made a hmm sound as he worked through a tangle in Juli's fur. "So, what is it your proposing we do about your concern?"

"I think we should form a coalition to protect Chi," Juli immediately said, happy Louis seemed receptive to what he was saying. "I want to keep her from being alone with your brothers as much as possible. At least until everything gets settled." That last part was a lie, but Juli hoped in the meantime Louis would realize what a perilous situation Chi was in and agree with Juli that it was best that Chi always be watched around the Asahina brothers.

"I'm not always home very often," Louis said. "I work odd hours at the salon since we need to meet the needs of customers who work during the day, but I'll do what I can to help. The 'Protect Chi' coalition is officially formed."

Juli wanted to shout for joy, but managed to keep his shout on the inside.

~.~

"You really are incredibly good," Natsume said, then nearly winced as he remembered the conversation he and Ema had the first time they went hiking. He hoped the compliment wouldn't upset her. The two of them had played together on several occasions before Ema moved, but now she was even better than him. He felt it was a little shameful since he worked on video games for a living.

Ema shrugged one shoulder. "Lots of dedicated practice," she said lightly. "I did enjoy exploring whatever new area or city Dad and I lived in, but you can only do that for so long."

"True," Natsume agreed, wondering if, even beyond the struggle of making friends, Ema had gotten tired of always being in a new place. Exploring new places was an adventure in and of itself, but new was fun because it was different from your normal routine. If new was your normal routine, it might not be so fun.

For the first time, Natsume really thought about his mother's decision to offer Ema a home at Sunrise Mansion. He'd thought his mother's only motive had been to allow Ema to attend a normal high school, which was a perfectly understandable and justifiable motive, but maybe there had been more to his mother's decision. Had she known something about Ema's situation or Ema's feelings that had prompted her to make the offer? Was it the struggle with friends, or had something else happened?

He was contemplating that when his character died. Again. "How did you do that move?" Natsume asked. He'd finally figured out where she'd gotten her flame thrower from and gotten one himself, but now she'd used it to cause an explosion.

Ema grinned. "Tricks of the trade. You can't be the best at video games if you just give your secrets away."

Natsume smiled back. "I suppose. You always seem to find out the secret moves and levels with these games." Then a thought occurred to him and he paused the game.

"Something wrong?" Ema asked, turning to him.

"Not at all," Natsume said. "I was just thinking that you would make a really good demo girl for my company's games."

"Demo girl?" Ema asked.

"Sure. I could bring you demos of new games if you'd give me feedback. Let me know if it's too hard, or if there's glitches we didn't catch. It can be really valuable to get input from our target market before release. What do you say?"

Ema's grin was back in place. "I'd say that it'd be worth it to have come back to Japan just for that."