Notes: Things have been a little rough lately. It's probably reflected in the quality of the chapter.

oOo

Reality was often disappointing, he decided. It was an overused phrase, but it was simply the truth.

In all the manga and anime that he'd seen, a person's first kiss was supposed to be special. It was supposed to happen in some special setting: under a beautiful sunset or at the end of a long moonlit walk. Sparks were supposed to burst out into the sky and the air would be filled with sakura petals, carried by the breeze.

Okay, so he wasn't enough of a chuuni to believe that things actually worked out that way in real life.

But he certainly didn't expect his first kiss to happen here, sitting in the corner of an Italian yoshoku restaurant, with a beautiful girl in his lap that he hadn't seen in months stealing away his first kiss. And despite how nice it felt with her rather voluptuous body pressing him further into the little booth, the only thought that crossed his mind was 'god this is embarrassing.'

Everyone was staring. He could feel their gazes on them, hear their whispers and even a couple of wolf whistles, and didn't she care about image and propriety?

But he didn't move or push her away. That was too much to ask, he wasn't about to end the kiss. Not when her lips were so soft, and his heart was doing some weird backflips that he'd never felt before.

So it wasn't until a new voice sounded right behind them that they broke apart.

"Excuse me, Haruno? What exactly do you think you are doing? I never took you to be the type of woman to accost random strangers with such blatant romantic overtures." The voice was soft, but it carried an undercurrent of tension, of power that was unmistakable.

The voice belonged to a tall man with ruggedly handsome features and biceps that looked to be the size of his head, exuding an aura simply oozing with confidence and an unreadable expression on his face as he looked down at them.

This was the type of person that his parents had warned him never to cross.

Haruno, however, didn't seem to be fazed or surprised in the slightest by his appearance.

"I would say that I'm surprised by your confusion, but then you were never very good at paying attention to your surroundings, Shimada-kun. I'm enthusiastically greeting my boyfriend."

His brain short-circuited. Did she just say boyfriend?

The so-called Shimada-kun snorted, looking wholly unimpressed by her declaration. "You should put more effort into your lies, Haruno. This individual is your boyfriend? He looks as though he doesn't even know you. What did you say to him to get him to go along with this?"

"How rude of you!" Haruno laughed, but there was no trace of humor in her voice. Not even the fake kind that he remembered distinctly from their early interactions.

"Hikigaya-kun has always been my boyfriend. You've simply been too blind to the truth to understand that I'm wholly uninterested in what you have to offer."

"You do understand what your father is asking of my family, yes? Do you really think you have a choice in the matter?"

She laughed again.

"How charming of you, trying to use my own family against me is really a great start to any relationship. But you needn't have bothered. I have my own resources. My own way out."

"What are you saying, Haruno? That you're going to elope? With this boy?"

"Elope? Your sense of reality seems to be diminishing by the day, Shimada-kun. What did you think this was, some eighteenth century drama that your family forced you to watch as a child?"

"Being facetious for the sake of being difficult is unbecoming, Haruno."

"I shall be graduating this year, Shimada-kun. And it won't be very difficult to explain to my family that the person I love is the one sitting next to me, rather than the one trying to pretend that he holds any sway over my actions."

Love?

What was she talking about?

It was as if he had suddenly been placed in an alternate universe. He pinched himself, in case he had somehow fallen asleep and was dreaming.

But it was no dream.

Shimada-kun turned to him and smiled. It transformed his face, the almost dangerous aura that he'd had disappeared as though it had never existed in the first place.

"Is this young woman bothering you? If she is in any way disturbing your meal, please let me know. I'll make sure that she won't bother you again."

He wanted to say that everything was fine. That Haruno was telling the truth; that she was really his girlfriend.

He opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

He tried again.

"She-"

What was Yukinoshita Haruno to him?

Was she his girlfriend, like she had so boldly claimed?

He couldn't simply just say yes. He didn't even know… he didn't even know what was running through her brain. What did she want from him? Was she just using him to get what she wanted from this stranger? That thought didn't sit well with him at all.

Or was this just another joke to her? Something that she could play off later as just some harmless teasing?

He must have taken too long, because Shimada-kun took his silence as an answer.

"Come now Haruno, stop making a scene and let's go. You've embarrassed yourself enough. If we leave now my driver should still be able to get us to our reservation."

Shimada-kun reached out to grab her wrist. Haruno stiffened at his touch.

"I'd really rather-"

"Haruno."

It wasn't loud. It wasn't angry. In fact, if one wasn't paying attention, it wouldn't have sounded any different at all.

But he was a master of observation. The most essential of the 108 skills. He'd studied human behavior for years. He understood the little things to look for, that would give insight into a relationship.

And so he'd never forget what happened when Shimada-kun took her by the hand.

She turned and looked to him, and he was floored by the desperation in her eyes.

She stared at him, even as she was helped to her feet by the hand on her wrist.

She kept staring even as she was led away, out of the restaurant.

She didn't say a single word.

But he wished she had.

He wished she'd said something, yelled at him, called him a liar. He even wished she'd told him that she hated him.

Anything so that he didn't have to face the fact that… in that moment, she had relied on him. She had needed him to say something. Anything likely would have been enough, would have been enough to at least make Shimada-kun pause.

But once again, the words were stuck in his throat.

And as she realized that he couldn't, or wouldn't help her, it was as if all the fight drained away at once.

Those very same eyes that had always been bright and teasing and cheerful were now dull and defeated.

He had always been drawn in by her strength and the vibrancy of her personality. He'd wondered how she could always be so cheerful. He'd wanted to see what lay behind her mask, so much so that he'd always tried to tear down those defenses when he was with her.

But now, seeing Yukinoshita Haruno's usual facade completely stripped away in the face of the raw emotions that had bled to the surface… it was ugly.

Yeah, he'd take her being angry with him over that any day of the week. Because this was something he never wanted to see ever again.

This wasn't the Yukinoshita Haruno that was pretty and perfect and entirely too concerned with ending up on your good side.

This wasn't even the Yukinoshita Haruno that laughed and joked and teased him in the library all those months ago.

This was Yukinoshita Haruno stripped bare, without the defenses that she had maintained for so long.

But that wasn't even the worst part.

The worst part was that…

This was Yukinoshita Haruno, for the first time since he'd known her, asking someone else for help; asking him to save her. She had always been so confident and mature that he'd forgotten she was only three years older than him.

Please help me. I don't want to leave.

All he had to do was speak up. All he had to say were a few simple words.

But he could only watch as she disappeared through the doors of Saizeriya.

And that was the last time that he ever saw this Yukinoshita Haruno.

oOo

He entered Soubu High the next year. The entrance exams wound up being a breeze after all the time he'd spent on his studies. He was so confident that he'd done well he turned up an hour late to the announcement board outside of the school where they announced enrollment, just so that he could avoid the crowds that always gathered when they posted the results.

Soubu was a top high school in the prefecture. There was little chance that the blockheads and riajuus that had gone to his previous school; the ones most responsible for making his life unpleasant in junior high, would have tested into this school. And even if they did, he was confident that none of them had tested into his class. Class 1-J, the first year class for the "academically gifted students with aspirations for studying abroad." He wasn't so keen on leaving Japan for higher education, but he certainly would accept admission into that class based on his test scores, for it meant that on the off chance some individual did manage to get into Soubu with him, he'd likely still rarely encounter them.

He was free. He was free from all of the scathing comments and maliciousness that had dogged him since his first years of schooling. He was even free from having to awkwardly share a class with Orimoto, although he couldn't help but know that she was attending the neighboring Kaihin Sougou High School.

A fresh start.

He was so excited that he left for the entrance ceremony two whole hours early. Who knew? Maybe there would be a couple of students that were also early, and they could form an early rapport. He could finally be accepted into a group! That sounded a little scary. He'd always been comfortable alone, even if there were times he'd wished he had company. But from the moment it had been confirmed that he'd be attending Soubu, he'd made it a point that he would change himself.

It was a beautiful spring morning. The sakura trees were in full bloom; the petals floated gently, carried by the spring breeze. A smile rose, unbidden, to his face and he pushed on the pedals of his bike a little harder. There weren't too many pedestrians on the sidewalks at this hour, so he wasn't too worried about running into people. He cycled past an elderly couple on a morning walk and a businessman who was probably late given that he was sprinting as fast as he could, his wheezing still audible long after he'd passed him by.

Bark Bark Bark!

"Whoa!"

He hit the brakes fast as a dog, having seemingly broken free from its owner given that the leash attached to its neck currently was not being held by anybody, sprinted straight at him on a direct collision course.

Swearing under his breath, he swerved past the creature and skidded to a halt, barely avoiding running straight into a concrete wall. He tried to calm his breathing as he turned to look for the stupid animal; that would've really hurt if he'd gone crashing into that wall.

The dog seemed to be a little perturbed by the fact that it had narrowly avoided getting squashed by a bicycle. It was now running around wildly, barking all the while. It didn't take long before it ran right into the middle of the street. And of course, as luck would have it, there was an expensive looking car that was barrelling down the road right at that very moment.

"Oh for fu-" he swore as he took off after it. There was no way that he'd just risked serious injury to avoid killing the damn animal only for it to get run over anyways.

He ran out onto the street and just managed to catch onto the end of the dog's leash, yanking it as hard as he could, sending the creature flying backwards towards the sidewalk. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see a girl with pink hair and a rather impressive chest rushing towards him in a panic. Was that the owner of the dog? How stupid did you have to be to drop the leash of your pet? Maybe all the nutrition really did go to her boobs instead of her head? At least they bounced quite nicely.

And then he felt a sharp pain in his leg as a loud crack echoed through the air.

Oh.

He'd always thought that flying was pretty cool. Was this how all those superheroes felt?

Then he went crashing to the pavement.

Everything hurt. His head was pounding, his arm was covered in what likely was a litany of scrapes and bruises, and his leg felt like it was on fire.

"I'm so sorry sir!"

He could just barely hear the voice shouting out in a panic, although it sounded very far away.

"I didn't see that there was someone on the road! Are you alright?"

The voice was getting farther and farther away.

"...-hospital and they should be getting here any-"

He blacked out.

oOo

The next thing he knew he was waking up to a tearful Komachi clutching his uninjured arm as though it were a lifeline thrown to a drowning man.

"Ow, ow, ouch, Komachi please. That's downright abusive to my arm."

"Onii-chan? You're awake! How are you feeling?"

"Like my whole body hurts, but it's probably a lot better than how it felt this morning. How long was I out?"

"A few hours. They've patched up your leg, but you'll be on crutches for six weeks at least. Never mind that though, how did you manage to even get run over by a car in the first place?!"

"Well, I tried saving this dog that ran out into the middle of the street and-"

"Oh right, yeah. That girl that came by did mention that you saved her dog. She brought sweets too!"

Sometimes, he wondered exactly how he and Komachi were related. Their brains simply did not work in the same way at all.

"Right anyways I had to run out into the road and-"

"I know all that, Onii-chan. But what I don't know is why you decided to risk your life for this dog. That's so unlike you, Onii-chan! I mean, you never want to take care of Kamakura and you didn't even want to get him as a pet from the get go." Komachi cut him off again.

"It's a little bit different when the dog's about to die, Komachi. Besides, Kamakura's a drama queen, so taking care of him is next to impossible when he doesn't like you. And he definitely doesn't like me very much."

"Ugh whatever. You probably took five years of my life off of me with how much I worried about you! Oh, that must've been worth a lot of Komachi points!"

For once, I didn't even feel like bantering with her. Huh. Maybe the brush with death really had opened my eyes.

"Yeah yeah, I'll treat you to something when I get out of the hospital."

"Ooh! Anything I want?"

"Anything you want."

"Yay!" Komachi did a little cheer that was way too cute to be legal.

"Oh by the way Onii-chan, did you know? The car that ran you over, apparently they knew you?"

"What? They… knew me?"

"Yeah. You were just going to be taken to the local pediatric hospital, but once they figured out who you were with your ID you got taken to this fancy shmancy top of the line orthopedic surgeon person who repaired your leg. They even paid for everything as well!"

"Really? Wow. I thought that this hospital looked a little bit above Mom and Dad's pay grade. They must've been rich," he muttered, taking a closer look at his surroundings.

"So who were they? These rich folks that ran me over."

"I think they're into local politics? They're dad's trying to run for the Chiba representative seat on the national Diet I think. Their name was… uhmmm…"

Komachi tapped her chin in thought. Even that action was cute.

"Oh yeah! It was the Yukinoshita family!"

His heart dropped into his stomach.

oOo

It took approximately three weeks for him to be released from the hospital. He'd spent much of it on edge, wondering if she would show up.

After all, there was no way that the Yukinoshitas would have stepped in if it hadn't been for her right?

And so, every time the door opened, he kept expecting to see her waltz through the doors and plop down in the seat that had been set up next to him for visitors, not that it saw much use. It was really just Komachi's chair at this point.

He had braced himself, wondering how she would greet him. Would she be angry? Would she just pretend like nothing had happened?

Would she pretend to be all lovey-dovey with him?

He hated that he even considered that possibility. He hated himself even more because the possibility excited him.

But the girl that showed up during his second week of recovery was not Yukinoshita Haruno.

It wasn't even the pink-haired girl whose dog he had saved. He was kind of upset that that girl hadn't even come by once, but maybe she was busy. A lot of girls tended to be busy, if his junior high experiences were to be believed.

But the girl that showed up; he did recognize her.

He recognized her because he had met her once, a long time ago. Even though it shouldn't have been possible to have met her back then.

The resemblance was uncanny; there was no way to mistake this girl for anyone else.

"Hello, Hikigaya Hachiman. My name is Yukinoshita Yukino, and I am a classmate in your class at Soubu High School. I've come to bring you your assignments from the first week. Please excuse me."

It was the woman from the cafe, if she had suddenly become a first year high school student.

"...Damn. The family genetics are simply unfair," he muttered.

Needless to say, they got off to a rough start.

oOo

He really wished that he could go back to that time in the cafe when he had apparently first met Yukinoshita Yukino at Funiculi Funicula.

She was so much nicer back then. And more gorgeous. And she loved him. And more developed. And didn't look at him like he was some kind of pervert.

He probably deserved that last one. He had been comparing, after all.

In his defense, it was kind of difficult to refrain from it after having one set pressed against his chest for an extended period of time.

"I had thought better of you, Hikigaya-kun. Not many people can catch and maintain the interest of Nee-san, but it appears that her taste in men has always been simply abysmal."

Yukinoshita Yukino hadn't paused for even a second in her onslaught of vicious denigrations against his character. It had gone on for long enough that he was genuinely beginning to wonder how she had built up such an extensive vocabulary since she still hadn't used the same insult twice.

"Whoa, whoa hold up," he managed to cut in, holding up both his hands. "Your sister's taste in men? Where'd that come from?"

She glared at him. "Is that the only thing that reached that monkey brain of yours?"

"Yes- I mean nope. But that was the first thing you said that I hadn't expected."

"Didn't Nee-san have some sort of weird relationship with you from childhood? She kept talking about how she already had a boyfriend whenever Father tried to matchmake her with Shimada-kun. She'd never tell us who it was, but then Mother found out her own way anyway."

"She… found out?"

Yukinoshita grimaced. "Mother has her ways. Nee-san got quite the lecture that day. They managed to skip the entirety of dinner."

The picture that he had been attempting to put together after that day, which he'd begun calling the Saize incident, was getting a little clearer.

"So then-"

"As lovely as a discussion about the internal workings of my family may be, that is not the purpose of my presence here. I'm simply here to deliver your assignments."

She handed over a stack of paper.

"They're expected to be completed by the end of this week. I'll return to collect them once you're finished."

"Why even bother with the conversation or the insults if all you're here to do is play errand girl for the teacher?" he muttered under his breath.

Without missing a beat, she replied, "Unfortunately, I had been curious about what type of person you were, and hence volunteered to deliver your work. It's such a shame that you turned out to be a disappointment."

Evidently, Yukinoshita Yukino had excellent hearing. Unlucky.

oOo

His release from the hospital really couldn't have come any sooner. He was going stir-crazy being essentially tied with his leg elevated and carefully protected inside a boot. To celebrate, he honored his original promise to Komachi that first day after he'd gotten into his accident.

He took her out for a treat. Anything she wanted, like he had promised.

Komachi had always had a bit of a sweet tooth. So he'd readied his wallet for the fifteen hundred yen that he'd likely have to blow at that French pastry shop that she had always been fond of.

So he was quite surprised when she decided that the place she wanted to go wasn't the French shop, but rather-

"Can we go to the place where you got that chocolate mousse cake from last time?"

He raised an eyebrow at her request.

"Chocolate mousse cake? What chocolate mousse cake? Haven't I always been buying you fruit tarts and creme brulees?"

She shook her head stubbornly. "No! It was during the summer. You went out for hours and came back home with some sort of chocolate mousse cake. I thought it was weird that you'd buy something new, so I expected it to be pretty bad, but it actually tasted really good! I never got a chance to ask you where you got it from though, so I want you to take me there today. Komachi's in the mood for some chocolate mousse!"

He racked his brain. Chocolate mousse? During the summer? Where had he gone during the summer to get a-

Oh. Right.

And he winced.

Was he really going to bring Komachi there?

Cute, cheerful, best little sister Komachi?

This didn't sound like a good idea at all. He was about to make up some excuse to her when she tugged on his arm and gave him her pleading puppy eyes look.

Normally, puppy-eyed looks and pleading did nothing for him.

But Komachi's could never be denied. And so, with some trepidation, he set off with his little sister in tow.

He'd gotten a new bicycle, since his previous one had been absolutely wrecked in the accident. This one had a larger passenger seat on it, which made things a lot more comfortable for Komachi, who had outgrown his previous bike. She was singing its praises as he slowly made his way to the cafe.

They wound up outside the familiar corner alley where he paused, wondering if he could get away with not talking about Funiculi Funicula's more peculiar offerings at all.

oOo

Clang-dong!

He jumped again.

Komachi laughed at him.

"I thought you've been here before, Onii-chan?"

He scowled at her, "It's been a while since I last came."

"Welcome!" A voice called out from deeper within the kitchen. There was the sound of some pots and pans banging together before the waitress appeared.

"Oh, it's you. It's been a while; I suppose I should say welcome back."

Maybe it was his imagination, but the hostility that had so defined their earlier interactions with each other was absent.

"You two know each other?" Komachi asked out of the corner of her mouth.

I nodded.

"Oh, it looks like you've brought someone new with you." That was the waitress again.

"Welcome little lady, to cafe Funiculi Funicula. I suppose you've heard about our cafe from your Onii-chan?"

"Ah, actually-" He tried to cut in.

"Hello hello, waitress-san! You're right, my brother mentioned this cafe to me and I wanted to come check out the place for myself. He got me this awesome chocolate mousse cake last time and I was dying to try it again. So I was hoping to get myself some today."

The waitress looked more than a little taken aback. It was quite common; nobody that had ever known both he and Komachi could believe that they were siblings, given how different they were.

"Oh and what was your name? It feels a little weird just calling you waitress-san all the time, haha." Komachi grinned sheepishly

"Ah, it's Akari," the waitress responded slowly.

"Akari-san! Thanks for having us today. I hope you're still selling some of that cake? I need something sweet to make up for all the years my brother took off my life these past few weeks."

Akari gave him a strange look, but didn't pry.

"Yes, we have our chocolate mousse cake. Would you like a slice or a whole cake?"

"A whole cake?!" Komachi turned to him, her eyes shining. "Onii-chan!"

"I'm not buying you a whole cake, Komachi. Mom would throw a fit."

"Huh? What do you mean, she wouldn't care at all! Besides, you promised you'd buy me anything!"

"Within reason. I'll buy you a slice, and I'll even add coffee on top of it!"

"Onii-chan, you made me miss our entrance ceremony and I brought you food every single day while you were in the hospital. I can't believe you won't even buy me a cake for that. You're going to lose so many points for that!"

"My dear Komachi, please have mercy."

"Nuh uh, nope! I know you still have a lot of leftover money from the last time Mom and Dad threw money at you for your cram school. A whole cake or Komachi's gonna be sad!"

He sighed and turned to Akari, who had been watching their exchange with a completely bewildered look on her face.

"How much does an entire cake cost?"

"Well, you'd have to order those in advance. And it'll be 4000 yen."

He winced, but nodded anyway.

"I'd like to place an order for one then. How long does it usually take?"

"You can come back tomorrow to pick it up if you'd like."

"Right, okay."

He handed over a five thousand yen note.

Akari punched something into the clunky old cash register.

"A thousand yen is your change."

He accepted the change and turned to Komachi, only to find her grinning cutely back at him.

"Ehehe, thankies, Onii-chan! You're the best!"

He grumbled under his breath a bit, but couldn't hold back a slight smile at her antics.

"You know, you're quite different when you're with your sister," Akari suddenly said.

"Really?" He turned back to the counter.

"Yeah. Not quite so gloomy. Pretty whipped too. Are you a siscon?"

"I'm not a siscon!" he protested, only to falter when he saw that Akari lips were upturned.

It was the first time that he'd seen her smile.

"You're messing with me," he realized.

"Maybe."

Komachi watched their back-and-forth exchange with a look of wonder on her face.

"Oh my god, maybe there's hope for Onii-chan after all."

oOo