Tokyo winters weren't very nice. They were dry and cold but not cold enough to provide an excuse to stay home from work. Hiro took refuge in the comic book store on his days off, although he rarely had enough money to buy anything. Luckily, his payday was coming up, so he'd be able to afford the issue he had his eye on.

Sometimes he dragged Ando along, but lately Ando was taking part-time side jobs to rake in a bit more cash than they made at Yamagato. Hiro was a bit jealous that Ando was the breadwinner in their relationship, but he didn't want to start another tedious "I don't want to be the sidekick" argument. Plus, he appreciated the extra financial support. Hiro was an extremely impulsive shopper—just the other day he had bought a rubix cube that remained untouched on his bedside table next to his collection of Star Wars figurines.

As he perused the manga section of the comic book store, searching for a trashy shoujo series to take home for he and Ando to poke fun at (it was something they did to pass the time when there was nothing good on TV and they had nowhere to go), Hiro glanced up and realized one of the store's employees was staring at him. Slightly unnerved, Hiro gave the employee a polite little bow and turned back to the shelf of manga.

"Ah, I see," the employee gasped after a minute. "You must be the version from the bad future, right? Oh, that whole arc was so emotional! It still gives me feelings every time I reread it."

Hiro took another look at the comic book store employee, whose name tag read Anzu. She was rather tall—she was almost a full head above Hiro—and her hair was short. She looked very boyish; Hiro noticed that she was wearing a pin on her collar with a rainbow flag and the words "CERTIFIED BUTCH" printed on it in English. Hiro breathed out a small sigh of relief; he could gather from her pin that at least she wasn't going to ask him out.

"It's amazing," Anzu breathed, leaning in a bit closer. Hiro flinched away instinctively. "Sorry, sorry," Anzu muttered. "It's just... you look so much like him! How do you pull it off?!"

Hiro had a growing suspicion he already knew what she was referring to. As a matter of fact, he'd had an experience similar to this... when was that again?... He realized with a jolt that it had been over a decade since his brain had been scrambled and he'd gone to a comic book store in Kansas to find out how to regain his memories. "I'm getting old," he mumbled aloud.

"So, was I right?" Anzu pressed. "Are you cosplaying as Future Hiro from that one volume? Or could you just not find someone to cosplay as your friend?"

Hiro was unsure how to answer. He wasn't cosplaying at all—he was just a not-so-regular guy in a comic book store. Thankfully, his phone rang just then, saving him from having to explain the situation. Anzu stepped away to let him answer the phone in peace and have a private conversation, but she giggled at Hiro's ringtone (an anime theme song) as she walked away.

Hiro answered the call without checking to see who it was from. "Hi! Hiro Nakamura speaking," he said.

"Hey, babe. When are you coming home?"

Ando's voice was a bit distorted through Hiro's phone, but it was still instantly recognizable. His boyfriend's familiar cadence was cathartic for Hiro as he replied, "I'm just at the comic book store right now. I'll be there soon."

"Could you teleport over here, actually?" Ando asked, sounding nervous. "I kind of need you right away."

"Okay, sure," Hiro agreed without thinking it through. "Bye bye, honey. See you in a sec," he said as he ended the call.

After quickly scanning the store to make sure nobody was watching—especially not that Anzu girl—he squeezed his eyes shut and concentrated on the small, one-bedroom apartment he shared with Ando. An instant later, Hiro stood in the living room, where the TV was playing a soap opera with the volume turned way down low. Hiro's first impulse was to turn the volume up so he could hear what the characters were saying, but he didn't see the remote. Then Ando came in from the kitchen with the remote in his hand.

"Uh, hey, good timing," he muttered, as if he hadn't just called Hiro and told him to get over there right away. "Kimiko's here, and she wants to talk to you."

"Oh." Hiro wasn't quite sure what to say to that; it didn't seem all that urgent, but it did explain why Ando seemed so on edge. His relation to Kimiko was a complicated, awkward one. "Well, don't worry. I'm sure it's nothing." He paused to give Ando a quick peck on the cheek before heading into the kitchen to see what his sister wanted to say.

Kimiko was rocking back on her chair and twirling a strand of her hair around when Hiro came in to sit down beside her. "Hello, little brother," she said, eyes darting up to meet Hiro's before dropping back down to her lap. The last time Hiro had seen her this nervous was probably when she'd had to call up relatives to explain that her engagement was off because her fiancé had fallen in love with her brother. "I suppose you're wondering what this is about…"

Hiro nodded, suddenly anxious. He couldn't imagine what could be so important that Kimiko would drive over to his apartment to talk about it. They'd never been particularly close, and still weren't for the most part, considering how many devastating events had shaped their lives that should have brought them closer together. Both of them having dated the same guy probably had something to do with it. Hiro often wondered if Kimiko resented him for stealing her fiancé, but considering that she had only been with women since then, he got the feeling both Nakamura siblings had benefited from the incident.

"Well, remember back when I was… when Ando-kun and I were…" Kimiko was clearly struggling to word her sentence, which was quite understandable. It was hard to find a good way to say, "hey, remember how I used to be engaged to the man you are currently dating?" to your younger brother without making it sound odd. "Remember how I asked you to give me away at the wedding?"

"I remember," Hiro said, wondering where this was going. Trying to lighten the mood a bit, he put on an exaggerated frown and said, "I knew it—you're planning to steal him back!" Kimiko gave him an obviously fake, confused-looking smile and shook her head. Hiro wondered if she thought he was serious. "I'm joking," he explained just in case.

"…I know."

The atmosphere was growing more awkward by the second. Part of Hiro suddenly wanted to go back in time a couple minutes and start the conversation over, but he didn't like to use his powers when it wasn't necessary. "Why are you bringing up what you asked me to do then?" he asked instead. "Are you going to get married?"

Hiro didn't expect Kimiko to answer that she was, but in retrospect, he couldn't think of any other reason she would have mentioned it. "Yes," she said quietly, a faint blush spreading across her cheeks. "My girlfriend proposed to me last week, and I said yes. So, I was wondering if you would give me away at the wedding—unless you're dying and haven't told me, like the last time," she added with a teasing glint in her eye.

"Onee-chan, that's amazing!" Hiro cried, jumping up to throw his arms around his sister. "Of course I'll give you away! When's the wedding?!"

"We haven't quite worked it out yet," she admitted. "We're thinking in the spring. You and Ando should drop by our place sometime! I don't think you two have even met her yet."

Now that Hiro thought about it, he hadn't—in fact, he didn't even know Kimiko's girlfriend's name. He felt kind of bad about it; this must have been another side effect of not being close to his sibling. He didn't really want to bring that up now, though, when things had finally stopped being awkward and started being exciting. "We have some time off next week," he said instead—they'd been planning to spend it outside of Japan, preferably somewhere warm, and maybe in a different time period, but he was sure Ando would understand. "Is Wednesday okay?"

"Wednesday is fine by us," Kimiko said, eyes sparkling. "Drop by in the afternoon and we can put some snacks out for you."

Hiro could tell she was excited at the prospect of introducing him and Ando (who was pretty much part of the family, and always had been in one way or another) to her girlfriend. Hiro was pretty excited about it, too—he always loved meeting new people, unless of course they were bad guys. But he doubted his sister would fall in love with a bad guy, so he had nothing to worry about.

"That sounds great," Hiro said, and he meant it. "See you then!"