Author's note: Do you all remember who Mikagami is? He's the male model who pretends to be Kirino's boyfriend. He was only in a few episodes of the anime. He appears slightly more in the novels I think- it turns out he was living independently, despite just being Kyousuke's age, because he's already so rich with his modeling and designing jobs.

"Mikagami. Thank you for coming."

In my desperation, I had been forced to reach out to a man I found most annoying: Mikagami. He had once pretended to be Kirino's boyfriend, driving me into a fit of jealous rage. He also drove me up the wall with his smug, pretty-boy aura. On the plus side, he was quite accepting of oneechan-imouto relationships, and he had quite a lot of money and connections, which he had used to help me out when I was living alone to study.

"My pleasure!" answered Mikagami, brightly. "It's great to see you again! And you, too Kirino- I'm sorry we haven't been able to work together for a while."

"Yeah, that's too bad." Kirino replied. "We were great together. And likewise, thanks for coming over so quickly. We really need your help."

"Of course!" Mikagami responded with that insufferable smile of his. "I will do anything I can to help your love grow."

Kirino and I looked at each other. She flushed. "You.. how did you know!?" She asked.

"Why, isn't it obvious? I could tell since I first met you. Isn't that why you wanted me to pretend to be your boyfriend, so that you could get him to confess? That's why I was so surprised when Kyousuke started dating your friend, since I knew that his true love could only be his own imouto."

Can you believe this guy? He said all that without a trace of embarrassment, still looking like a perfect male model.

"So, how is your relationship these days?" He continued. "You two have been dating for quite some time, right? You must be very happy together."

"Um... no." I answered. "We only became a proper couple a few days ago."

"Huh? You mean you totally wasted the last few months when you could have been together? Despite me and everyone else helping you be together?" Mikagami actually seemed angry. It was a little scary, since I had never seen him angry before.

"We didn't waste it!" Kirino slammed her fist on the table. "We were together! But then we had to separate. We wanted to go back to just being siblings, because we thought it would be too hard to be a couple. But... we couldn't. We realized recently that we needed to be a couple, no matter what."

"I see. Then I am truly happy for you. I hope you will be as happy with your 3D imouto as I am with my 2D ones."

Another strange response, but that was Mikagami for you. The guy was totally obsessed with imouto eroge, maybe even more so than Kirino.

"So, how can I help?" He asked.

"Mikagami, you're 18 right? And you've been working for a while?"

"Yes, I turned 18 6 months ago. Why?"

"We need someone to cosign an apartment for us. Our parents... wouldn't. Most of our friends aren't old enough. I am, but-"

"-But this loser doesn't have any work history or salary, so they won't rent to him. And I'm too young." Kirino interrupted, glaring at me.

"Ah! I understand. Yes, of course I'll help you get an apartment. You two need your own place together. But why wouldn't your parents help? Didn't they help you get an apartment for your own before, Kyousuke?"

"Yeah, just for me! That was to get me AWAY from Kirino! They're not going to help me live WITH her!"

"But why not? Don't they see that you love her?" Mikagami seemed genuinely confused.

Kirino answered him. "Sometimes society is just wrong. People have terrible prejudices for no reason, you know?" A nonsense answer, but Mikagami seemed to accept it.

"Yes, I see. Well that is very sad. But I will help. I hope in time they will see how happy you are together, and accept it. Now let's go together to a real estate office!"

And so, a few hours later, we ended up with a key to our very own apartment. The real estate agent was dazzled by Mikagami's smile and bank account, so they immediately agreed to rent to us with him as a cosigner. The place wasn't super fancy, but it was a lot bigger, and more expensive, than the small one where I lived alone before. It had two bedrooms, two bathrooms ("sharing a bathroom with you would be kimoi"), a living room, and a full kitchen. Kirino wanted to go all out and splurge on a luxury penthouse, but I persuaded her to settle for this. It still seemed like a lot of money to me, but I guess with her modeling work and anime/novel royalties she could afford it.

The only problem was that it didn't come with any furniture. It felt very weird to be sitting there, alone, in this empty space. It didn't feel at all like a home yet- it felt more like we had broken into an abandoned building. But after the long day of hunting for apartments and getting rejected, we were too tired to do anything about it. We simply fell asleep on the floor, using our clothes as a makeshift cushion and blanket.

Neither of us said a word to each other during the night. We were lying next to each other, but keeping a careful distance, too. We could have gone to separate rooms, but instead we both slept in the living room. I think we were still figuring out how to act in our new relationship.

I woke up the next morning feeling stiff and sore, but much more calm. It was reassuring to know that we finally had a space of our own, not living on the streets or moving from one hotel room to another. Little did I realize that our troubles were only just beginning.