It was on February. Kisumi just exited the convenience store he was working at, having finished his shift for today. The air was chilly today. He had forgotten his gloves at home, and now he was annoyed with himself because of that. He won't be home until late anyways.

Kisumi started walking in the direction of the area where Makoto was living. Since Makoto was having his practical exam today so he couldn't make it home until the middle of the night, therefore Kisumi would have to look after Rei and Nagisa. He had already asked Makoto if his parents couldn't take care of them, but Ren and Ran were having exams right now, so Makoto didn't want to bother them, and the woman who was looking after Nagisa during day-time was visiting her family in Hokkaido.

Kisumi looked up at the light gray sky. In the weather forecast they'd said it would snow tonight. From the chillness in the air and the way the sky was looking, he found it hard to doubt.

He still didn't know Nagisa and Rei very well, in fact, he hadn't really tried much. Children weren't really his specialty. Sure he had always gotten along well with Hayato despite the age-gap, but this was different. Rei and Nagisa weren't family, at least not to him, but perhaps he should try and get along with them, just for tonight.

Kisumi walked up the stone steps to the small house, half-way up the mountain. Nagisa should be home so the door was unlocked, that was what Makoto had said on the phone yesterday at least.

Kisumi went up to the door and pushed down the handle. Indeed it was unlocked, so he let himself in.

"Sorry for the intrusion," he excused himself before he closed the door behind himself and looked around in the empty hallway. "Hazuki?" he called out. He was still not on first-name terms with the two children.

He didn't receive a reply though.

"Hazuki?" he called once more as he took off his shoes and went to look around in the kitchen. Here he found a note on the floor. He picked it up and looked at it.

Shigino-san. We're playing hide and seek. I'm hiding. You know what you've gotta do! I'm somewhere nearby. Look in and out, high and low, left and right, anywhere. I've hidden well.

See you once you find me.

Nagisa

"Hide and seek?" Kisumi scanned the note once more and then looked around. He didn't think he had time for these kinds of games. He was supposed to babysit the boy. Why would he want to play hide and seek in the first place? Now that Kisumi thought about it, it'd been ages since he played hide and seek last, probably around 15 years or so, at least not since he graduated from elementary school.

Kisumi started looking around in the house in an attempt to find Nagisa, but the task seemed impossible. He looked anywhere, through the living room, the bathroom, each bedroom. He looked underneath the beds, in the bathtub, in the closet under the sink, but he couldn't find Nagisa, no matter how hard he seemed to try. How hard could this game be? He wondered.

After around two hours of searching for the five-years-old, Rei finally returned home to find Kisumi in the middle of looking through the house a second time.

"What's going on, Shigino-san?" Rei asked.

"Your brother is playing hide and seek," Kisumi answered.

Rei looked confused at first, but then he nodded. "Nagisa isn't really my brother," he stated.

"Doesn't matter, just help me look," Kisumi said, slightly irritated. "This is getting on my nerve."

"Did he leave clues?" Rei asked.

"He left a note." Kisumi showed it to Rei, who read it quickly.

"Are you sure you looked everywhere?" Rei asked.

Kisumi nodded.

"Outside too?" Rei asked.

"He said he'd be nearby," Kisumi answered.

"He also said in and out, which is a clue to that he can have hidden outside," Rei said. "I've taught him not to just say random stuff, so he took it to heart. If he hides, there is always a note holding a hint to where he is," he explained.

"You've dealt with this before?" Kisumi asked.

"He hides whenever he wants to prank someone or there is something he doesn't want to do," Rei explained. "It has happened at least five times over the past two years."

"That's a lot," Kisumi said. "But if he's outside… isn't he cold?"

Rei nodded. "Probably. Go out and see," he encouraged.

Kisumi nodded and went outside. If Nagisa caught a cold while Makoto was gone, it would cause trouble for their friendship. That much Kisumi did understand.

Nagisa was indeed hiding outside, behind some bushes and the cherry blossom tree. He was smiling as he noticed Kisumi towering above him, looking down at him with irritation.

"You took your time, Kisu-chan," he said.

"We never became that close," Kisumi said before he turned around. "Come on inside. It's cold out here," he said.

"Okay," Nagisa ran up to Kisumi and grabbed his hand. "But since you're babysitting us, can we become this close?" he asked.

Kisumi took time thinking. "Do you really want that?" he asked.

"I do, so do Rei-chan, and I know Mako-chan wants it too. If we don't make friends, you can't come visit Mako-chan as much as before," Nagisa explained.

That child really had a good point, but he put it in the exact way that would annoy Kisumi the most. The strange thing was that Kisumi found he liked this approach. He smiled down at the blonde kid.

"Okay," he said. "Let's make friends, Nagisa," he said as they walked inside.

To warm up Nagisa after he'd been out in the cold for two hours, Kisumi made hot chocolate for all of them. They then started playing a card-game Rei had learned from a classmate the other day. After this, Kisumi taught them a game which neither of the two knew. Nagisa was half asleep when Kisumi remembered that they had completely forgotten to have dinner, so he got busy heating up the food Makoto had prepared for them and then they sat and ate.

After this, Kisumi demanded that it was time for Nagisa to go to bed, and so the child went to bed. After a while, Kisumi came up to say goodnight to him while Rei was downstairs, doing homework for tomorrow.

"Are you comfortable?" Kisumi asked as he entered Nagisa's room. The boy was still sleeping on a futon.

Nagisa looked up. "I'm fine… I just miss Mako-chan," he said.

Kisumi sat down next to him. "I'm sure you do," he said before thinking. "Can I help with anything?" he asked.

"Stay until Mako-chan comes home," Nagisa demanded.

Kisumi smiled. "I'm not sure I can do that," he said. "I still need to clean up the kitchen and help Rei out with his homework if it's needed, he also needs someone to watch out for him, you know," he said.

Nagisa nodded. "I know," he said. "Then… can you stay until I fall asleep?" he asked.

Kisumi nodded. "I think that's possible," he said.

They were silent for a while as Kisumi looked around in the room. There were already a few things that clearly were Nagisa's belongings. There was a small desk with penguin figures on it and a closet with drawings of penguins. There were also some board-games in a corner, these looked old and Kisumi was pretty sure they used to belong to Makoto's family.

"Do you like penguins?" he asked as he looked back at the drawing on the closet.

Nagisa nodded. "Penguins are my favorite animal," he said. "They're really cool, especially in the way they swim," he explained. "When I grow up, I want to become a penguin," he declared.

Kisumi tried his hardest to hold back the laugh. "Sure you do," he said, barely failing his attempts of not to laugh. "Penguins really are cool though," he said after calming down.

"I know," Nagisa said.

They were silent for a little while longer. Kisumi was nearly dosing off when he was snapped awake by a soft sound coming from Nagisa. It was the sound of him snoring. This meant Kisumi was free to leave, and so he did. He needed to go down and check on Rei anyways.

"Nagisa really has got great ambitions for his future," Kisumi said.

Rei looked up, confused. "Did he say he want to become a penguin or something?" he asked.

Kisumi laughed. "That's exactly what he said," he confirmed. "Is he always like that?" he asked.

Rei nodded. "If he's not like that, I start fearing he might be sick. He is random at times, usually gets crazy ideas and is always getting either himself or someone else into trouble. But he is not doing anything with bad intentions. He always smiles too. He is also very supportive," Rei smiled at this, more to himself than to Kisumi and the man got the feeling that the boy was talking from experiences, at least when it came to the last part.

He suddenly became very happy that Makoto had adopted, and especially that he had adopted exactly these two unique boys.