Mikuo shut the front door with a distinguishable click. His fake smile faded, Luka having been dismissed after she admitted that Luki would need her for math homework (most likely a lie created on the spot). She had left in a hustle, her bubblegum hair flapping behind her and acting as a cloak.

There was no problem in Luka overstaying her visit, but at a time like this he wanted to talk to Miku in private. Luka was quick and perceptive, so she understood his unspoken request and left of her own record. Now all that was left was to find out where this nasty root had sprouted..

Mikuo propped his elbow on the doorway. A disconcerted frown marring his tan complexion, he eyed where Miku sat. Her stature seemed tense despite her nonchalant channel surfing. She could feel his stare, no doubt, but she wasn't acting on it.

Taking the incentive, Mikuo coughed into his fist. "So Miku, what happened at school today? I could've swore you didn't have a boyfriend this morning, but now you do. How is that?"

"I don't know," Miku answered dully. She didn't avert her eyes from the screen, a commercial of vegetable juice airing. An array of greens, yellows, and purple was the miniscule distraction it took for her to ignore the older brother.

Mikuo rubbed his smooth chin, glad he hadn't the need to shave yet. "Are you sure? Because I think that in order for two people to go out," he not-so-subtly hinted the new conversation subject, "they need to be in agreement. Which means they both have to say yes."

"I guess."

His patience diminishing, Mikuo huffed. "You aren't making an effort at explaining what that whole admittance was about."

"I didn't admit anything, Luka just told you something meant to be secrete."

Miku was being difficult again. She knew that when speaking to someone, it was respectful to look directly at them. Right now she was completely ignoring that rule. He would try to overlook that, but it was becoming increasingly tedious to attract her attention.

Mikuo pinched his nose, steadily inhaling. He was upset and he wouldn't try hiding it; Mikuo knew he had a shorter temper and sometimes she just drove him to the brink of anger. It wasn't a common spectacle of him showing such fierce emotions to her (Miku was the pampered, babied child he couldn't deny a thing to), but she could be so aggravating without even knowing it.

"Why would you want to keep it a secrete from me?" Mikuo tried training his voice to show the minimalist strain. "I'm your brother, so why would youㅡ?"

Miku's hair poured over her shoulder, her child-like eyes fixating his. Through that one thoughtful stare, she transmitted an unspoken, previously unthought feeling. Yearning. And an unbroken hope. "You wouldn't approve of me having a boyfriend," she informed, hushed. "You don't even like it when Kaito or Gakupo visit me.."

An arrow of guilt pierced his heart, and he winced. He was oddly protective of Miku, but that was only because their mom and dad weren't around! If they couldn't monitor Miku and assure that she wasn't being influenced, he would. He felt obligated to. His younger sister didn't deserve the pathetic excuses that were modern day hormonal boys.

"Had you told me yourself, don't you think it'd be easier? You know you can't keep a lie going, Miku."

Mikuo came to sit beside her. The cushion sunk under his light frame, leveling the two siblings to a perfectly shared height. Miku made to get up, but Mikuo chained her back with a firm grasp of her thin wrist. She landed unceremoniously back, her stealthy escape foiled. The younger Hatsune tepidly pawed at her brother's stationary hand.

"So who is he? Someone I know?"

Hiding herself in the dozens of strands of her sea green hair and burrowing into the leather couch, Miku peeked at him reproachfully. "Yeah, you know him.."

Mikuo probed through his mind. It had been undeniable that Kaito tried courting Miku beforeㅡon numerous occasions, actuallyㅡhis advances were so trying that Mikuo had taken to supervising the two closely whenever the situation allowedㅡbut recently he and Meiko had grown closer. Their fondness wasn't a secrete, but they vehemently insisted there was nothing brewing between them. Still, boys would be boys, and their tendencies to have more than one crush would keep Mikuo at edge. His suspicion was directed at the blue-haired teen, but Mikuo's instincts were telling him that Kaito wasn't disrespectful enough as to not forewarn him if he were seriously asking Miku out.

"Who is it?" Mikuo smiled sweetly, eager to lure the boy's name out from Miku's pouting lips. "I'm your brother, so wouldn't you want me to know?"

"I do want you to know! I do," Miku didn't sound convinced, nor exactly excited to tell him. "Just promise you won't get mad."

"Now why would I get mad? As long as the guy doesn't have piercings, tattoos, a criminal record, or the alike, I think I'll be relatively fine."

Miku giggled and took her brother's fingers into her hand. Playing with his digits, she mentally assured herself that the worst scenario was Mikuo getting angry. She could handle that.

Ringing her skirt sheepishly, the girl sighed. "I'm not sure if you know him, but he's Kaito's cousin I think. His name is Taito Shionㅡ"

"Taito Shion?"

The interruption immediately made Miku uneasy. Squirming, she was reluctant to give a single bob of her head. "Y-yeah, Taito Shion. He's in one of my classes..and we used to go the same elementary school as him..?"

"Yeah," Mikuo bitterly said, "I remember him perfectly. One time he kicked a ball right in my face and laughed about it."

"We were kids, 'Kuo." Miku's smile slipped when she noticed her brother was anything but amused. His brows were burrowed, a crease forming when his downturned lip pulled, and his gaze was distant. He seemed focused on an object that was through her, an object that was upsetting.

Miku massaged circular shapes into his hand, her thumb's movements cautious. "Mikuo, what's wrong?"

He couldn't tell her what was wrong. He would sound like an old careworn maiden, some sort of nagging mother. To say that he didn't like Taito was an understatement; it'd be more accurate to say he indubitably loathed him. Generally, the Shion family was tolerable, granted that they kept their mouths shut, but Taito was a different matter. He and Akaito were the hooligans of the bunch. Kaiko had woefully informed him on various accounts that the two were the roots of most school mishaps, and that wasn't the influence he wanted around Miku.

His innocent sister could just as possibly go from the adept uncorrupted youth she was to a foul-mouthed, rebellious delinquent.

Mikuo cringed away from the idea.

"No."

"N-no?" Miku started, panicked. "No what?"

"I don't approve of you going out with that Taito Shion. I won't permit it."

"What? Why not!" She sputtered indignantly, thrown off by his sudden change. "You said you were fine with whoever I dated!"

"I am fine with whoever you date," Mikuo took a tactful pause, then went on, "as long as that boy isn't Taito."

Miku shot him an acidic glare, angrily racking up an insult, valid argument point, or anything to oppose his objection. She was at a loss for words, taken off her guard by her brother's instant dismissal of Taito. She didn't know Taito too well herself, but she was a firm believer that everyone deserved second chances to redeem themselves.

"But Mikuo! You don't have a say in who I like or not. It's not like you can stop me anyway," she added scathingly, having taken to barricading them with a pillow.

"You don't think I can?"

Miku's glare made it evident she didn't. He didn't really want to play the bad guy, but if she was stubborn enough to miss that Taito was a selfish womanizer, he would make her see.

Mikuo leant onto his knees, hands dangling uselessly between parted thighs, and exhaled irritably. She would forgive him for stooping so low. One day.

"If you don't listen to me when I say don't go out with Taito, I'll be forced to tell Mom and Dad."

The threat was deliberately slow and muffled, but that didn't stop Miku from hearing it. That didn't stop a feeling within her chest erupt in a sudden blaze.

Standing, the tealette crossed her arms. "Go ahead, tell them. See if I care. They aren't here from stopping me. They can't and neither can you."

"Understand that I'm trying toㅡ"

"Trying to act like a jerk! You would snitch on me to Mom and Dad over this? What are you, five? I thought we were able to tell each other things in secrecy," Miku angled her heated face downwards, trying to find where this burst of rebellion fountained from. "But I guess we can't."

With that performance, the teen whirled on heel and strutted from the room. Her footsteps echoed with every angry thud on the carpeted stairs. The shuddering slam of her door shook the house, and sent Mikuo spiraling deeper into his guilt.

This was for her benefit. He knew what Taito was, even if his credulous younger sister couldn't see for herself. He wanted to preserve her ability to trust and her scattered, still developing emotions. If she were to come home in tears because of this boy, he wouldn't possess the self-control to stop himself from going to Taito and..

Well, this was her decision. A dismay to the one who actually cared about her.

Him.

As you might have noted by now, these chapters aren't lengthy. Their size will probably be ranging from a short one thousand to three thousand words. This story was meant to be a distraction from others, something simple to plan and write, something enjoyable and alleviating for me.

Updates are intermittent, which you also already know.