A/N: Thanks so much to everyone who's reviewed!

toolazytologin: I'm glad you like the story and the development! I really wanted to show how Ema affects/interacts with all the brothers as they live together. I agree that the anime doesn't do as good a job of showing why Ema comes to mean so much to the brothers.

xsafyx: I'm glad you love the story! And I love your reviews!

Chapter 6: Girlfriends and Italy

"Yusuke-kun, Em-chan," Louis interrupted the two thirteen-year-olds as they worked on their science homework. "I have someone I want you to meet."

The two looked up to see Louis standing next to a pretty woman with long red hair. "This is my girlfriend."

"Wh-why do you have a girlfriend?" Yusuke demanded, flushing bright red.

"That's wonderful, Lou-nii!" Ema said at the same time. "Is she staying for dinner?"

"I'm not sure," Louis said, looking over at the lady. "I don't think that she's decided yet." The woman leaned over to whisper something in his ear. "Yusuke, she says that she thinks you're cool."

"What?!" Yusuke exclaimed, flushing even redder. Ema couldn't help but giggle at his reaction. Yusuke was much better at dealing with girls than Subaru, but he still got easily embarrassed sometimes when girls were involved. "I need to go do my homework somewhere else," Yusuke muttered, gathering up his papers and fleeing the living room.

"Where did you two meet?" Ema asked.

The woman smiled brightly at Ema as Louis answered, "At the park a little while ago." Ema wondered if the woman was too shy to talk. She had whispered into Louis' ear earlier rather than speaking to Yusuke herself.

All three turned as the elevator dinged and Masaomi walked out.

"Welcome home, Mao-nii!" Ema greeted. "How was work today?"

"It went well," Masaomi answered, smiling at Ema. "I had a patient today who's terrified of shots, but Usa-tan helped calm him down."

"Masoami," Louis interrupted. "I brought someone home with me today." He gestured to the woman next to him. "This is my girlfriend."

Masaomi looked puzzled as he studied the two of them. Louis' girlfriend continued to smile brightly. "Uh, okay." He paused. "But Louis, why is Hikaru your girlfriend?"

"Hikaru?!" Ema exclaimed turning to give the supposed woman a closer look. The lady had a shocked look on her face and Louis looked surprised as well.

"How did you know?" The red head finally asked in a deep voice, proving that Louis' "girlfriend" was indeed Hikaru. No wonder "she" hadn't been talking.

"How did I know?" Masaomi asked, still looking puzzled as he titled his head. "How could I not know? We are brothers after all."

"Yusuke, Azusa, and Iori didn't see through it," Hikaru said, folding his arms. Ema couldn't help giving Hikaru a strange look. It was weird to hear such a masculine voice coming from someone who looked so feminine. "Maybe it's because you're a doctor. You're used to studying people."

"No, I don't think so," Masaomi argued. "As my little brother, I've been looking after you for a long time. No matter how you look at it, it's obviously you."

Hikaru burst into laughter before placing a hand on Masaomi's shoulder. "I apologize for underestimating you, Niisan. Thank you for showing me how deep humans are."

"But why are you dressing like a girl, Hikaru-nii?" Ema asked, her science homework completely forgotten.

"For research purposes, of course."

"Research? You want to know how it feels to be a girl?"

"No," Hikaru laughed as he sat across from Ema. "Girls have an amazing power that guys will say all sorts of things around them and to them. Even criminals. I want to write crime novels that are realistic, but criminals will never tell me their story and how things really work. A cute girl, on the other hand, is another story. I want to learn how to become a girl to do research for the novels I want to write."

"That's so dedicated," Ema gushed, her eyes glowing as she looked at Hikaru across the table.

"I'm not sure that's something you should be admiring," Masaomi said, looking down at his little sister in consternation.

"Hush, you," Hikaru said, waving a dismissive hand at Masaomi. "Of course our little sister should admire her brothers working hard towards their dreams. What kind of example do you want me to set for her? One where I laze around with women and drink like Kana-nii?"

Masaomi merely shook his head.

"We need to try again," Louis said, his eyes ablaze as he tugged on Hikaru's arm.

"What?" Hikaru asked, looking up at his younger brother.

"We need to try again," Louis insisted, still pulling on Hikaru's arm. "If Masaomi saw through your disguise so easily, I didn't do a good enough job. I know I can make you into a better woman."

"All right," Hikaru agreed, giving Ema and Masaomi a little salute as he stood up. "We're off for more experimentation." Ema didn't think she'd ever seen Louis look so fired up before.

~.~

In the following weeks Ema got used to the sight of the female version of Hikaru popping up now and again. Louis was teaching him to do his own make-up and he would go out and practice his woman voice on unsuspecting citizens. He went all over the place working to perfect his act. The supermarket, the arcade, the park, the mall. Most of their brothers thought he was just weird and Ukyo said this was even worse than Kaname working for a host club that pretended to be a shrine.

What Ema wasn't used to seeing was one of her brothers' actual girlfriends being inside the house. Especially without said brother present. Ema warily eyed Amamiya Reiko, Ukyo's girlfriend, as she worked on preparing dinner. They had unexpectedly been out of beef (probably because Subaru took it all since he was at an all-day training camp for basketball) and Ukyo had run to the store, leaving Ema alone with Reiko. Ema tried to be nice to everyone, but this woman reminded Ema of a pit viper for some reason, and none of her brothers liked Reiko (except for Ukyo, of course).

Thankfully, Reiko didn't come to the Sunrise Mansion very often. She claimed it was too noisy, but since many of their brothers were otherwise occupied tonight, Ukyo had brought her home for dinner.

"So, Ema-chaaan," Reiko said, drawing out the chan. For some reason, Reiko's tone made Ema nervous. It was a fake nice tone that made Ema think Reiko was about to say something mean. "Have you enjoyed moving in with so many handsome and well-connected young men?"

"What?" Ema asked, thrown by Reiko's question and not understanding what the older woman meant.

"You're lucky your father married Miwa-san. Now you have every opportunity to snag one of the Asahina brothers for your own. Which one do you think you'll go for? Or maybe you've got more than one in mind?"

Ema tried to figure out Reiko's meaning, but still didn't understand. What she did understand was that Reiko was probably being cruel to her for some reason.

"Oye," a voice said, followed by a boy with artfully tousled hair. "It's not very ladylike to show how threatened you are by someone much younger and prettier than you." Fuuto gave his trademark smirk. "If you're so concerned about Ema stealing a better guy, maybe you should work on yourself first."

Reiko drew herself up, looking enraged as her face turned red. "You—you worthless little brat. I hate this family. All of you are so conceited and think you're so much better than everyone else."

"Isn't that ironic coming from someone who wants to take advantage of the Asahina's money and power? Isn't that the only reason you're dating Kyo-nii?"

"Ingrate," Reiko hissed, snatching her purse and stalking out of the room. "I'm leaving! Feel free to tell Ukyo you both chased me away."

"Ingrate is an old lady word," Fuuto called after her. "You shouldn't use it if you're already so worried about how old and ugly you are."

Ema stared at Fuuto in shock. What she should have been thinking about was how upset Ukyo was going to be that Reiko had left. Instead all she could do was be shocked that Fuuto had actually defended her. In the two years that she'd lived here, she had yet to hear any kind words from Fuuto (at least, no kind words that he didn't quickly turn mean and sarcastic).

"What?" Fuuto demanded, turning and seeing Ema's expression. "Don't get the wrong idea. It's not like I've come to accept you as my sister or anything. I just can't stand that woman." Sitting down at the counter, Fuuto grabbed an orange from the fruit bowl and started peeling it, ignoring Ema. Inside he was thinking that it was kind of nice having Ema around to help with the cooking and helping to take care of him and his brothers when they got sick. When he had the stomach flu last month she'd made Fuuto whatever he wanted and brought him all sorts of movies. And he didn't always hate it when she reminded him to do his homework.

When Ukyo came home soon afterward and demanded to know where Reiko was, Fuuto shrugged. "She said it was still too loud even with just Ema and me here. Maybe you need to get her earplugs, Kyo-nii. Better yet, maybe you should get her a muzzle. I think that most of the noise she complains about comes from her."

Ukyo gave Fuuto a dark look as he tossed the beef on the counter.

~.~

Ema walked down the street, immersed in her phone. Ukyo had texted her asking her to pick up some ingredients for dinner on her way home from school. He was studying for BAR exams tonight and wouldn't have time to pick anything up.

Ema was trying to figure out which store would be best when she passed a woman who loudly cleared her throat. Ema looked up in surprise, wondering if she'd stepped on something that belonged to the woman.

"You're not just going to pass me by without saying anything, are you?" A smooth voiced asked her.

Ema gaped when she realized who it was, then she smiled. "You've gotten really good! If I didn't recognize you, I never would have guessed that you weren't a woman. Has Tsuba-nii been helping you with your voice?"

"Yes," Hikaru said, slipping an arm through Ema's and walking with her. "Our dear brother is learning some useful tricks at that school of his. I'm confident enough now in my disguise that I do all my shopping like this."

"That's amazing! I really admire how hard you work to become a better writer and to gain new experiences." Ema felt very lucky to have so many good examples to look up to. She wanted to figure out what she wanted to do with her life so she could follow her dreams just like all her brothers were doing.

"Right," Hikaru said, becoming somber. "But to continue to learn new things and gain more experience to help me become a better writer, I need to venture out in the world."

"What do you mean?" Ema asked, pausing in the middle of the sidewalk to stare up at Hikaru.

Hikaru sighed and placed a gentle hand on Ema's cheek. "I'm leaving Japan next week."

"Next week!" Ema exclaimed, wondering how long Hikaru had been planning this for. It didn't sound like this was a spur of the moment decision, but she never knew with Hikaru. He could have been thinking about this for years or he could have decided just yesterday. Hikaru seemed to hold the characteristics of dedication and whimsy in equal measure.

"Yes, next week. I wanted to ask you to look after our brothers while I'm gone. Not that you don't do that already, of course. And I'll come back to visit now and again to take you shopping for cute clothes." He smiled at Ema and patted her on the head before tugging her arm to get her moving again and out of the way of other pedestrians.

"I can leave without any worries thanks to you. I'm grateful that we Asahinas have an actual mom figure, so to speak, to take care of us now since our own mother can't be bothered. From the day you joined our family you've stepped into the mother role in caring for everyone. You help Ukyo cook and clean, you help Masaomi take care of us when we're sick, you make us lunches, listen to our problems…All the things Miwa should be doing."

"She's really busy with work," Ema defended quietly. It did seem odd how little they saw Miwa. She was even worse than Ema's father, though she'd seen less of him since moving in with her brothers. Thankfully, they took such good care of her and took up so much of her time that she often didn't notice.

Hikaru scoffed. "Mom has always loved babies and small children. She was always so excited when she brought a new baby home, but she's a career woman at heart and soon enough she'd be back to work and flying all over the world. Taking care of all her employees and business deals, and forgetting all about her children. It's nice to have an actual woman in the house."

Ema flushed. "I'm just a girl. I don't do all that much."

Hikaru threw back his head and laughed, still keeping in character he gave a light, tinkling laugh. "You may be just a girl right now, but I know you'll grow into an amazing woman. I predict you'll have almost any guy who knows the real you vying for your attention. Of course, they'll have to make it passed us brothers first."

~.~

Ema ended up making dinner alone that night since Ukyo had to stay out later than he anticipated. He finally arrived home almost as Ema was headed to bed and she tried to get his attention to tell him about Hikaru's announcement that he was leaving for Italy, but he seemed oblivious to her with a dark scowl on his face.

"Oye!" Tsubaki called to Ukyo, stepping up behind Ema and wrapping his arms around her. "Our adorable little sister is trying to talk to you and you're ignoring her."

"What?" Ukyo snapped, whipping his head around. Ema flinched against Tsubaki, having never seen Ukyo so upset before. And he'd certainly never talked to her like that before.

Tsubaki's eyes turned unfriendly as he protectively pulled Ema closer to him. "Whatever happened to piss you off, you do not take it out on Ema. You want to yell at me instead? Go ahead."

Ukyo pushed his glasses up and tiredly rubbed his eyes. "You're right. I'm sorry, Ema. I didn't mean to snap at you."

"It's okay," Ema said quietly, still tucked into Tsubaki's arms. "I know you have a lot of stress with studying for your lawyer exams. I can take over all the cooking until you're done."

"It's not that," Ukyo said, shaking his head and staring at the floor. He clenched his fists and glared at the ground. "It's over between Reiko and me."

"Seriously?" Tsubaki asked. "Then we should be celebrating, not mourning."

Ema twisted to give Tsubaki a disbelieving look.

Ukyo turned his glare on Tsubaki before stalking away and muttering, "I don't know why I bother telling any of you anything."

Once Ukyo was out of earshot, Tsubaki turned towards the couch and called, "Azusa, did you hear that? The wicked witch is gone and out of Ukyo's life! I wonder what happened though. From Kyo-nii's attitude, it seems like she probably broke up with him. Oh well." He turned Ema around and clasped her shoulders. "This calls for a celebration. You should stay up late tonight and watch this new anime that Azusa and I are checking out."