[-Chapter Nine-]

"Hikari, please?" Aiko whined, trailing me from our shared bedroom to our pathetic excuse for a kitchen.

"No, Aiko," I sighed, trying my best to be patient. I loved Aiko to death. I would go to any lengths for her, and I knew she loved me and looked up to me. But I didn't want her working at all; more specifically, I didn't want her walking home from work at all. The strange boy in the alley still haunted my mind… I shivered when I considered what could have happened to my baby sister.

"Please?" she begged for the hundredth time that minute. A tiny hand clasped the edge of my green shirt and pulled; I turned to meet her brown eyes, seething with exasperation. Aiko stared up at me, her silken black hair hanging down her back. Her angelic face was set into a pleading expression that few could resist.

I didn't understand why she wanted to follow me around so much, why she admired me so. SHE was the one that everyone loved. I just lurked around in the shadows, more athletic than pretty and definitely not an engaging person to talk with. "No," I repeated.

"Please, Hikari?" she asked again. I looked down at her and instantly regretted it: her eyes seemed a hundred times larger than normal and were practically welling up with tears. That was always what got me, and she knew it. I couldn't stand to see her cry. Silently, I nodded, and the tears vanished. She leapt for joy with a squeal thrown in.

"But you stay by my side," I instructed. Aiko stared up at me eagerly, nodding. "Don't wander off… don't get hurt." My heart thumped out of time for a few seconds. "Don't talk to strangers, don't leave my sight—"

"Can I play with Manchu?" Aiko's voice was so innocent and curious that I remembered I hadn't told her about her friend yet. A lump formed in my throat as his screams and pleas rose to my mind, unbidden.

"I don't think Manchu's working today, Aiko," I whispered. Not wanting to answer any more questions about the half-insane little boy, I grabbed Aiko's hand and we crossed our living room in two strides. She gamboled along beside me, a huge smile splitting her face open. She laughed and pointed out our tracks in the fresh snow, and icicles hanging over our heads, and the pretty way that the snowflakes fell; her mood was so infectious that I found myself joining in.

Then she stopped in the middle of the road and coughed. Terrified, I whirled around and grabbed her by the shoulders. "Are you okay?" I demanded. My mind was already racing: She can't get sick. I can't earn enough to afford her medicine. Dad? No, even with both of us I would have to borrow money from Makoto… But if he gets caught doing that he'll lose his head…

"Yes," she answered. Her voice seemed somewhat strong, but I studied her face a little closer and found the slightest hint of a flush in her cheeks. Alarm coursed through me: was she getting sick? "What's wrong, Hikari?"

"You shouldn't work today," I decided.

"No, Hikari, don't be silly!" she protested. "I can work. I want to work with you."

"Well I'm not sick," I reminded her brusquely. "Come on, Aiko, we're going back inside."

"No!" she said fiercely. "You can't tell me what to do. Well, you can, but I won't listen. If you put me inside then I'm going to sneak back out and come and work anyway. I like spending time with you! Don't leave me alone Hikari, please!" Aiko brought out the eyes again. With a heavy sigh I took her hand a second time and we continued down the road towards our jobs. "Besides," she muttered, and I detected some rebellion in her tone, "You should be staying home, not me."

"What are you talking about?" I asked, but my mind wasn't really on her statements. I was frantically going over our options; how would we treat Aiko if she got sick? I would have to stay home again to care for her, which meant less money to buy food for myself. Usually I gave up half of my meal to add to Aiko's when she wasn't looking, so then she would get less food as well. Maybe I could just skip dinner. I'd never tried that, but then I'd never missed two days of work in a row before…

"You don't eat anything." She said it accusingly, like I was doing something wrong.

"So what?" I demanded, keeping up our pace to my job. I was counting on the blood flow to get Aiko warm and keep her from getting cold. She was already wrapped up in my threadbare jacket, sleeves rolled several times. There wasn't much else I could do for her, unless I gave her the shirt off my back. The wind bit harshly into my bare arms but I barely noticed; I could only focus on getting Aiko inside and out of the cold, no room in my head for myself.

"Why don't you eat anything? I know some of the girls at my parties don't eat because they're afraid they'll get too fat…"

"People with money have that problem, Aiko. We can't afford enough food to get fat."

"And aren't you cold?"

"No. Since when are you taking care of me?"

"Since you stopped taking care of yourself!" Aiko stopped in the middle of the road and I was afraid that she would start coughing again: we were nearly halfway there and it would waste so much time, so much food, to go back. But to my amazement, she shrugged off her coat—my coat—and threw it at me. I caught it, stunned. "I know you give me food that you should eat. And I know that you need this coat, so put it on!"

"I'm keeping you alive," I hissed, irritated that she would reject what I was doing for her. She stuck her nose up in the air and marched on in her threadbare coat. I hurried up to her side, held out the coat in a peace offering. "Please, Aiko, put the coat on."

"No," she snapped. "I'm not putting it on because it's yours. And I don't want my favorite big sister frozen in the snow. You want to take care of me so much? Then start taking care of yourself." I half-smiled: when had she gotten so stubborn?

"You've grown up," I observed quietly, but I put the coat on. It wasn't for my sake, but for hers when she inevitably grew cold. At least the jacket would be warm. "When did you grow up?"

She slipped her hand up into mind and we continued down the road. "We're sisters. We take care of each other." I'd told her the same thing, time and time again, when she was much younger. I didn't think that she'd actually paid attention. "I know you'll always be there for me, Kari, even when we're fighting. And when I get older and I can actually do something for you, I'll be there for you, too."

I was about to answer with a comment about stopping the sappy flow of love, but then Aiko stopped dead for a third time. Her eyes were rooted on a location just up the road, black and smoldering. I squinted for a moment, uncertain, and then I understood what I was looking at. Up ahead lay the burned and charred remains of what was once Arisu's home.

A/N: Awww yay, sisterly fluff! I suppose it's not really fluff, because there's underlying tension about voluntary starvation and death... but oh well, the emotion is fluffy :D

Mitsuko - Yay for reuniting with old friends out of nowhere! Woohoo! :)

Tainted - Thanks for your review! Aaaaaand now Arisu's house has burned down. Oh dear :(

So, finals are a little bit (a lot a bit) CRAZY! One final tomorrow morning and a 12 page paper the next day... that's all that stands between me and my relaxation time... Please pray for my sanity x.x Hahaha :) See ya in a week!