Hello~ Enjoy this chapter~

Quote: Perfect happiness is a beautiful sunset, the giggle of a grandchild, the first snowfall. It's the little things that make happy moments, not the grand events. Joy comes in sips, not gulps. -Sharon Draper

When I woke up next day I felt... off. I wasn't sure if what transpired last night was my imagination acting again or if it really happened. Then mom came to wake us up and my thinking process came to the halt.

She entered with a smile on her face that fell when she spotted something on our cribs and instead it was replaced by a confused frown. She picked up two objects that were hanging on our cribs and examined them.

I narrowed my eyes at the two foreign things. They certainly weren't there yesterday. And so as I was individual that liked to be informed of everything that happened around me, I grabbed the front of my crib and pulled myself into standing position. Still I didn't see them in too much detail so I let adult in the room known that I was up.

"Kaa-saaaan."

She was startled for a moment by my sudden outburst but then she recovered and turned to me with smile back on her face.

"Good morning, Kou-chan! I hope that you've slept well, because today will be another exciting day!"

She was full of energy like always and proceeded to crush me in a hug. For such petite woman she sure had strength in her limbs. However to not look a gift horse in the mouth I took advantage of my position and examined closely objects in her hands.

It were two pendants, probably meant to be worn as key rings or if a cord was added as a necklaces. One of them was little green bunny with tinny collar where letter "I" was engraved. The other one was small blue (just a shade lighter than my favorite color, but it was still pretty nice shade) cat with letter 'K' on a collar.

I wanted to frown I really wanted but my mouth involuntary stretched into small smile. It was pretty sweet present and one doesn't have to think too much to decide from who it was. Although the one thinking about it had to know that our father was there. For someone (mom) who didn't… well I guess she must be pretty bewildered. Though that poses questions of why he didn't visit like normal person during day or at least why he didn't visit mom too, when he was already there… Troublesome man he was.

I wonder what our mom would do with pendants that just appeared out of nowhere... Will she throw them out or something?

Nope. Not a chance.

Being the awesome woman she is, she just shrugged and put them to their rightful places. Then, still having me in one of her arms she turned to greet my twin, who in the meantime managed to wake up too. I am not ashamed to say that I released sound between snort and squeal (was that even possible?) at the sight of him greeting/mumbling back his greating with a yawn as he squirmed in his crib to escape out of the blanket. And utterly failing.

Mom didn't hold in her amusement either and giggled, making him look up from sheets and at us. His expression was scandalized as he babbled indignantly at us. However he soon stopped and pouted when he registered that it made us even more amused.

Eventually after few seconds, mom took pity on him and dumped me back into my crib so she could save our big boy from evil clutches of his blue blanket.

xXxXxXx

At breakfast we were told (in easy slow sentences, so I actually understood more than half of what was said) that today our mother will have a day for herself. Okay, I could roll with that as she fussed relentlessly around us for past year and she deserved some rest time. No problem there.

However where I saw problem was fact that our grandparents decided to separate us. Now, I can be separated from my twin for a few hours... no biggie! Really not! ... Okay I may have developed a little over protectiveness... But! I can let him be watched by a competent adult instead of me for a bit... However what was troubling me the most in this situation was that I was supposed to be with grandmother… Alone… For hours…

'This royally suuuck,' I thought as I angrily stirred content of my bowl. Then I gathered some of it on my spoon and grumpily ate it all the while ignoring bits of food landing all around me (and sometimes onme) that flew from Izuku's side of the table.

I know I was behaving childishly however as I was physically child I didn't see why I should be ashamed of that fact. Okay, the mature part of my brain was face-palming right now but hell; I really didn't like that woman.

So as to clearly show how deeply displeased I was with their plan I continued to glower at my food for most of breakfast and if anybody (okay not everybody as I was psychically and physically unable to be mean to my mom and twin) tried to talk to me I sent them the deadliest glare this body was capable of. Though from the chuckles my grandparents were emitting and from how they continued in their endeavors to start conversations with me... it was sadly totally ineffective. And the worst part was that mom was laughing too! Traitor... And brother just cheerfully continued to eat in his messy way, throwing food everywhere.

Ugh... this day was just getting better and better. Do you totally see how overjoyed I was?

xXxXxXx

'Damn… is this woman socially stunted or what?!'

After breakfast we moved to a living room where after few minutes of chatter our mom disappeared to wherever she wanted and after few seconds two males disappeared too, probably to our shared bedroom. For an old man our grandpa was surprisingly fast.

That left me and grandma in the living room. We just sat there and looked at each other in an unpleasant silence.

Awkward...

The older woman was stiffly sitting on our couch and looking as if she was ready to bolt at any sudden noise. I scrunched my eyebrows at that. Where was that dignified if a bit snarky woman from before? She didn't seem like a socially inept person from all those conversations and actions she did yesterday. This was total opposite of her attitude from before.

Even I in my past life wasn't that incompetent of holding conversation and that was saying something. Though point was that I've never had conversation with toddler before and it maaaay have ended like this if it came to it. But... I was her granddaughter, right?! So wasn't she supposed to... I don't know; do funny faces to make me smile or do all that shit grandparents did with their grandchildren?! Yesterday she did quite well in interacting with us...

Was it because she was alone now? Was she like that when she brought up mom, too? Maybe that's why they have such strenuous relationship...

That was actually pretty sad... Now that I've experienced how close relationship between mother and child could be... I could no longer imagine living without such bond. It was just so... warm, fuzzy and so joyful... I can't really explain how it felt, but I was sure that I felt more strongly about that than most people as I once lived without that feeling.

As I watched the squirming and frowning woman before me I started to wonder what was hiding inside that pretty head of hers.

'Well… time to find out I suppose," with that in mind I strengthened my resolve and paddled over to the sitting woman with serious expression on my face. She looked alarmed a bit and I wondered if she thought back to our... first encounter. I admit, biting someone on our first meeting was not something I wanted to be known of. It was pretty embarrassing now that I was remembering it.

I stopped few inches from her legs.

"What do you want, child? Go play with bricks or something," she tried to sound aloof and not at all affected but I could clearly see in the way she warily observed me, that she was affected and was trying to determine what I was planning.

I smirked, she narrowed her eyes in suspicion.

I reached under the couch she was sitting on and pulled out neon green plastic ball and threw it lightly at her. It bounced against her forehead and fell into her hands folded in her lap.

I snorted a little at her stunned expression but then I composed myself and let my expression melt into serious one again. I let my eyes connect with hers and spoke.

"Play."

She scrunched her eyebrows in confusion and looked from me to the ball in her lap and back at me again. I started to be impatient a little so I patted her leg to remind her that I was still waiting. I made sure to let her know for what I was waiting for, too.

"Play!"

"Geeez. Okay, okay, you impatient brat," she murmured as she took the ball into her right hand. She hesitated when she saw my satisfied smirk and her expression turned sour, however she still threw the ball. I was pleasantly surprised that she did but still I wasn't finished.

I caught the ball that was aimed at my stomach and shuffled away a little to bigger the distance between us. On the way I found another ball, this time yellow, and I took it into my other hand. Once I deemed the distance passable I clenched both of them tightly and prepared to throw them one after another.

'Let's see how long you can continue this, granny.'

Our eyes glinted with not-so hidden challenge.

I flung first ball and The Battle started.

xXxXxXx

I was defeated. Again. However... I think I was quite okay with my loss this time.

Our battle was long and tedious one and as I had disadvantage from the start because of my small and sometime uncooperative body (and because of grandma's superpower) I thought I would be overwhelmed and defeated pretty fast, but surprisingly she went easy on me. She gave me time to built my barricade (out of bricks and plush toys... not really solid, but hey beggars can't be choosers) and she didn't use her powers too (well she did use them when I sometimes missed so much that it ended on the other side of the room).

In the end it was my baby stamina that was my doom-fall though granny too looked quite winded. I was just satisfied with the fact that I didn't go down without a fight.

I was laid out on carpet and looked at the brown chandelier with my mind comfortably blank as I rested on my back. Shadow fell over my lying form as grandma moved to stand next to me. I looked at her curiously and waited for what she would do.

In the end she just plopped down next to me without saying anything. I was tempted to shift away a bit because God, woman, there was this little thing called personal space, you know? Don't forget about such important things! But in the end I remained in place, because hey, this was bonding time and I probably shouldn't mess it up as the outcome of our 'little bonding time' will affect all our future interactions. And like it or not, she was our mom's mother, so if I wanted to make mom happy I should be on at least decent terms with her parents.

Suddenly her hand moved and was unexpectedly placed on my short hair. She tousled it gently. I made and annoyed sound at that and light chuckle was heard from the person sitting next to me.

"You are good kid."

Well... glad that you acknowledged that as I was trying really hard to be good child, you know? It was not easy at aaaall to put on an act of a child when my mental age was over thirty, but I think I was getting used to it (too fast I'd say). Oh wait, she was still speaking.

"Your brother too... I am glad that my daughter is in such good hands."

Damn... What was with this sudden development?! Seriously woman! First you make me dislike you and now you say this?! How I am supposed to dislike you now!

I looked at her with creased forehead, trying to find insincerity on her face. But all I saw was small smile and glazed over eyes as the older woman continued to be lost in her memories. I grumbled to myself, still feeling little grouchy because of the confusing woman next to me, but I was sort of resigned with a fact that another person wormed itself into my heart.

Sigh escaped me and I shuffled a bit until I closed the distance between us fully and plopped my head onto her lap. She blinked few times as she slowly came back to reality and looked down at me with flabbergasted expression. I gave her crooked smile that soon dissolved into big yawn as sleepiness started to craw up on me. I made myself more comfortable on my human pillow and let myself succumb into dreamland.

xXxXxXx

I woke up few hours later in my crib. Nothing startling as I expected that I would be moved to my bed but what was certainly unexpected was warm body lying next to mine. I blinked few times as I wondered why exactly we were sleeping in the same crib. Well not sleeping anymore as even my twin started to wake up from his slumber.

I stared at him as he yawned widely and drowsily looked around himself. His still half-closed eyes ended up being locked with mine. He was half-asleep and still processing what he saw but soon his eyes opened fully and the smile that stretched across his face nearly blinded me by its intensity.

He immediately rolled over to me and crushed me under his weight as he yelled into my ear.

"Kooouuuu!"

Yes, yes bro I was happy to see you too, but I will kind of need to use my sense of hearing for few more years so if you would be so kind and tone it down a bit?

I poked his side to let him know exactly that. It helped thank God. Instead of yelling my ear off he moved his head away and started to excitedly babble about this and that, probably trying to tell me about his day.

I decided to just roll with it and nod my head here and there to show that I was listening. He continued to lay on me through his tale and I found out that I didn't mind it all that much. His weight was kind of comforting and I squirmed a bit until I found more comfortable position to lay in.

We stayed in that position for quite some time and we only moved when it was time for food.

Later I would find out that we were in the same crib because Izuku started to fuss when he saw me being asleep and couldn't be placated. He only calmed down when he was placed next to me and once there he proceeded to stick to me like a glue and eventually he too fell asleep.

That made me giddier than I anticipated and if I let him cling to me with fewer complaints from that point on (and even returned back the favor)... Well... my brother was just so cute and I think was developing huge case of brother complex.

xXxXxXx

You know how I said before that this week will be very unpleasant? Well... I think I made that decision too soon (it was happening quite often, wasn't it?).

It wasn't that bad (well there were moments) and I dare say that I actually enjoyed it a bit. Mother looked very refreshed and when granny apologized to her on the third day, again and this time she truly meant it, she looked positively delighted and hugged the older woman with all of her scary strength. I didn't try to hide my snorts at the awkward face granny made (it earned me a light slap on the head from the older woman. Totally worth it.).

My relationship with grandma continued to get better after that second day, although we 'fought' most of time (either with neon colored balls, plush toys or with our glares - the last ones were quite tedious battles), it was fun kind of fighting and sometimes we joined forces to battle against Izuku and gramps with mom playing referee.

After this one week our stamina increased quite bit because we could play longer day after day. Thought our sleeping habits were certainly totally overturned as we always crashed on the nearest person, sometimes on each other after battle and slept for hour our two and at night it was always pain in the ass to try to fell asleep again – for me at least, bro was out as soon as he dropped his head on the pillow. Lucky guy.

I had some moments with gramps too but they were lesser than with granny as apparently he always wanted son but sadly they were only blessed with two daughters (it was quite shock to find out that mom had an older sister) so to compensate he was set on pampering our 'man of the house' as he liked to say. I didn't really mind as he didn't treat me any lesser than my brother he just spent more time with him so they could 'bond as a men' whatever that meant. And truthfully while I quite liked him, sometimes he looked at me with this reaaaally creepy look that caused me to feel like I was some kind of specimen under microscope. Not something that made me feel comfortable as you one could imagine.

Thus week ended in the blink of eye and it was time from our grandparents to set sails.

So on the day of departure I sat on the floor next to Izuku as adults said their goodbyes and other pleasantries a bit further from us. I had bored expression on my face while I pated my brother's back as he sniffled into his sleeves.

Really bro, it was not like we won't ever see them again, they've already said that next year it will be us who will visit them so I don't really get the fuss (okay I may have get it a little but hey it was better if there was only one upset child).

As adults finished their talk, their turned to us and I furrowed my brow in the way I always did when I needed to think deeply about something. This time it was about what we were supposed to do in this situation. Should we wave at them or something? Luckily my brother was 'toddler of action' and he waddled over to our grandparents to hug their legs before I could do something that probably wouldn't be normal for small child. He no doubt got his snot all over their clothes too… ugh not nice image, at all.

He was promptly picked up by grandpa who then proceeded to cuddle him to death all the while emitting weird squealing noises that were of course totally 'manly'. Yeah... I was really glad I didn't have to be present for their 'bonding time'. Then after he finished saying his goodbyes to my brother (who looked quite cheered up after the cuddling... he wasn't that happy when I comforted him... I was not jealous.. totally not...) he handed him over to his wife who stretched her hands in front of her and held him in the air all the while whispering something to him... why did get Lion king's vibes just now...?

Meanwhile I was approached by gramps who lifted me off the ground and thankfully didn't start to cuddle me, instead he only lightly pressed me to his chest and patted me on my back. It was... nice and because I was feeling a little bit sentimental in that moment, I stretched my hand to his chin and... slapped him (it was meant to be pat, I swear! Damn this uncooperative body of mine). I looked with horror-filled eyes at my disobedient hand.

The chest under me started to rumble and shake as the old man started to laugh at my misfortune. I may have sported light blush as I sent sour look at his laughing face above me. Here I was trying to be nice and all. Screw you old man, no more pats for you.

My sour mood certainly wasn't improved by him patting my head apologetically. I was not a dog who could be consoled by a pat!

Thus by the time I was passed over to granny I wasn't really in a mood to behave nice, so I just stared at her, clearly not impressed as she lifted me into air like she did my brother. Was this some kind of ritual or what?

She didn't whisper anything and just looked. Okay so another battle of glares? I am all game. I narrowed my eyes.

She chuckled and closed her eyes with a shake of her head and then looked mirthfully at her husband who returned the amused look. Um, what. Did I miss something or what? Slow down with the silent communication a bit.

Wait.

Shit. Was that grandpa's power?! Telepathy or something?! I looked at the man in alarm, however his expression didn't change when I thought that. So... no telepathy? I certainly hoped that that was the case, but then if he really did read my mind he certainly would be more... wary of me or something, right? But wait communicating with thoughts and reading one's mind doesn't necessarily have to be in one package, right?! He could only have the 'communication' part… Hopefully.

Apparently not noticing my inner crisis they continued to silently communicate with each other until I was suddenly moved out of the air and into the warm embrace of granny who gently tussled my hair and whispered into my ear.

"You are quite headstrong little lady. It's a good feature to have if you know how to use it. I hope you continue to use it well to... light lives of this family," she smirked at the end as if she made the greatest pun.

I just stared, bewildered, at her. Uuuuh... what? I think I was lost again. What should I do with the family? Please again and more comprehensibly?

I continued to try to decipher the meaning of her cryptic words even as I was placed next to mom. I distractedly grabbed her pants to stay upright when I felt that my feet touched the ground.

And like that they left, leaving behind dejected adult woman, sniffling toddler and totally perplexed adult-child.

xXxXxXx

Few weeks after the departure of our grandparents life was back on track where nothing really interesting or live-changing happened anymore (thank god I don't think I could survive another surprise). Well if you didn't count sudden interest my brother had in emitting weird quack-like sounds.

I blame the fairytale that once was on TV. It was about a duck, who with his faithful friend horse (what the hell?!) was on quest which purpose was saving a duck-princess from the clutches of an evil human... I think the author of this fairy tale was high or something when he made it. At least it made me laugh a little.

Although now my brother will not stop quacking and bothering me to play the horse. I will not neigh, not a chance. I think it was enough that our mother played along and quacked back when she played the duck-princess.

"Nee-chaaaaan... pweaaase?"

"No."

"Pweaaaaaaaseeee"

Not even with your puppy-eyes bro. I was already quite immune to them. Nice try though.

"NO."

... Silence...

Then...

*Random quacking sounds*

Oh god... there it was again. I was starting to think that I was the sanest person in this house and that was saying something about sanity of the other two.

Just as I was thinking about disadvantages and advantages of either leaving him alone in the living room to play with his plush duck or stay and try to persuade him to play with something better, my choice was instantly made thanks to the sounds my mother made in the kitchen where she was preparing snacks for us.

*Another random quacking sounds, this time from ktichen*

'Fuck this shit. I am out.'

xXxXxXx

"Nee-chan! Nee-chan! Nee-chan! Look! Look!"

I was laying on a carpet of our shared bedroom when my brother stormed into the room. He was quite hyperactive kid and even I with my constantly bored adult mind that wanted stimuli couldn't often keep up with him. How mom managed to do it was a mystery to me.

"Hmmm? What?"

I stopped my eyes from following a fly that flew in and laid them on my brother's excited form. Further inspection of him didn't point anything out of the norm except for the small package in his hands that seemed to disrupt his standing balance. I signed, knowing that with him here it would be impossible to rest. I sat up and patted the place next to me.

He took the invitation instantly and plopped himself onto patted place, placing the package in front of us. He was certainly very interested in what was in it and it sparked some curiosity in me too so I send him questioning look that was soon disrupted by my mouth stretching into yawn. I frowned at my own body's interruption but I knew it was unavoidable as I didn't sleep well last night. It was one of those nights in which my dreams were plagued with not-so pleasant things. Fortunately these nights started to be pretty uncommon as the days passed so they weren't that big of a problem now. Still they were pain in the ass.

I was broken from my thoughts by light tap on my furrowed forehead. I blinked and looked at the pouting face few inches from mine.

"Neeeeee-chaaaaan! Present! Present!"

I placed my hands on both of his cheeks and pushed him out of my personal space a bit. He made an annoyed sound but didn't fought against the pushing. Once I deemed the distance good enough I turned back to the small package that was wrapped in dark orange paper and tied by simple yellow string.

Our birthdays were still few months away so what was this?

As if summoned by my question our mom entered the nursery and moved to sit on the carpet opposite of us.

Okay, so from what I understood it was a present from grandpa who was in Tokyo because of his work. He decided to send us souvenirs from there and a letter to ask how we were doing (though I wonder why he didn't just call?). When I asked mom what kind of work grandpa did (of course in simpler curt words) she told me that she didn't know exactly, too, but that it had to do something with quirks, science and things like that. Well that certainly didn't tell me a lot. But hey I could always ask on our next visit.

We opened the package and in there was... Food. More precisely sweets.

...

Well certainly that was not what I imagined and by how my twin proceeded to walk into corner and sulk there, he didn't either.

However...

Crunch. Crunch.

As I continued to chew and nibble at sweet pink thing in my hands I couldn't really say that I minded. After all I always had fondness for sweets

xXxXxXx

I critically observed my work.

We visited park which name I didn't really bring myself to remember. After our mother set blanket on the ground we proceeded to have small picnic under the shade of bloomed Sakura tree.

From what I picked up, this was some sort of tradition named Hanami, where families and friends went sit under Sakura trees to... I don't know exactly why they were doing this; it probably has something to do with celebrating the arrival of spring.

It was probably pretty important celebration too as we weren't only family who decided to visit this particular park. No, in fact, it was pretty crowded here. I was just glad that we had our small tree for ourselves and nobody was interrupting my efforts in finishing my life's masterpiece. Even though it currently looked more like tangle of colors instead of wonderful picture I envisioned in my head, I was sure that just little change there and here and it will look just like I wanted.

Mom, who was sitting next to me and eating sandwich, nodded sagely at my explanation and encouraged me to continue doing my life's work. She even helped me in picking up the right color to continue to draw with when I had trouble to choose.

Izuku was a little ways from us in crouched position fixedly studying something on the ground. Probably some kind of bug, boys liked those horrendous creatures, right? Well he could look at it them he wanted, but whatever he may want to do with them after he looked enough... just don't bring it close to me bro.

"Nee-chan, look at this!"

...Shit...

I've never climbed up the tree so fast.

xXxXxXx

It was start of a July and we were supposed to be on our way to our grandparent's house. However unfortunately grandpa fell ill and it was decided that the visit should be postponed to another year. They will try to visit for few days throughout the year but it wasn't one hundred percent certain that they will come.

I was... certainly saddened by that, but not as much as Izuku who cried for a whole hour after which he sulked in his corner in the room. I tried to cheer him up by playing with him but it didn't help much.

In the end what cheered him up was when mom told him that on next day we were going to visit aquanarium to celebrate her birthday, that was on 4th of July by the way. Of course I had to force her to tell me that and after that force her again into celebrating it.

Seriously, such complicated mother I had, of course I wouldn't change her for anyone.

Next day was very nice. I quite liked the interior of the aquanarium as everything was in shade of blue that I liked best (I think the right name for the color was sapphire?). Of course I liked other things too, like, sharks. I had silent stare down with this tiny cute shark, from which I emerged (oh emerged... nice pun there) as a winner, because one of his friends bumped into him, which forced him to lose eye-contact with me. I was pretty smug for the remainder of the day as this was my first victory in this life. I think I will go back there soon because I was sure my new friend will want a rematch.

I think Izuku made some friends there too as these brightly yellow colored little fishes became absolutely rabid when he neared their tank and flocked theirs side of the glass as they pushed each other to be near him.

He looked pretty stunned by that and he wasn't the only one as the whole aquanarium looked agape at the display. I think they even debated if he didn't have power allowed him to speak with fishes or something. It was all so hilarious that I just stood on the side laughing my ass off. Sure, I admit that it was a little weird but as I was used to freaky things happening around me... I didn't even think this was something to be alarmed of.

xXxXxXx

Eleven days later it was the day of our birthdays and this year there was only one present for both of us as it was very costly one. It was decided that for our birthday we would be given a new bed. Actual bedand not a crib.

I was pretty excited and my brother was too, because for him it meant that he was 'big boy' now - his words not mine. I hid my chuckles behind my hand when he said that because, no brother, you have so much growing before you could be called 'big boy'.

And yes I said bed and not beds as it was bunk bed we picked in the end. It was made from dark brown wood and was really simple in design. I immediately reserved the upper bed because no, I didn't believe that my hyperactive and sometimes clumsy brother wouldn't kill himself when climbing up. He didn't speak with me for a whole ten minutes after that, but in the end forgot why he was angry in the first place and was back to chatting to me excitedly about some kind of bug he found last Saturday. Eeew

We chose some new bed sheets for us when we were at it too. For me it was dark blue one with white fluffy sheep on it. I instantly fell in love with that one; it was pleasant to touch too. My brother chose light blue with frogs on it. He had this stage where he was awestruck by bugs and frogs. Seriously... at least I vetoed the one with bugs on it. I would have burned that one if it was bought.

So it was arranged that the bed will be constructed in our room at the day of our birthday. The cribs were hid in the cellar by the worker from the furniture store too, because they were too heavy to be carried by mom alone. Though I did wonder why she didn't use her power on it... Was it only limited to light things?

After the worker left we instantly came to check the new furniture in the house. As my brother flopped himself into his soft mattress on the low bed I carefully climbed up the ladder and was pleasantly surprised to find that I quite liked the height I was in. I was worried before that it would make me feel ill or something. The mattress was heavenly too.

Before I forgot, I hung up my cat charm at the corner of my bed, then sighing in content I continued to laze around as rays of sun warmed my skin. I rested on the soft mat and concentrated on my brother's happy chatting that was sometimes interrupted by mom's light giggle. The charm jiggled gently in a wind that came from the opened window.

'Man, I love my life.'

The end~

It's nearly midnight where I am and I totally forgot what I wanted to write here, so you will not have any trivia today. Except the one where granny says 'light the lifes' did you see what I did there? Yes? No? Big hint: Kou-chan's name means light... so... yeah. It was meant to be pun or something.