Chapter 3

Support

He had the day free today.

That meant he was allowed to stay in bed for longer than usual. No morning classes or shifts at the coffee shop, so this would probably be the most rest he would get for a while now.

And as a college student who also worked, those were hard to come by, to say the least.

"Hachiman…"

So, someone trying to shake him awake so early in the morning was definitely just a trick of the mind, right?

No way today, of all days, would someone have the need to barge into his room at dawn and interrupt his quite comfortable slumber, right?

"Hachiman…!"

Sadly, the fact that he was still being shaken by a small pair of hands belonging to a voice he recognized quite well told him this wasn't a trick of his mind.

Suffice it to say, the first thought that came into his mind was, what kind of game was Ai trying to play here by sending Ruby to wake him up so early?

That theory, though, died immediately the moment he slowly opened his eyes, just to see a teary-eyed Ruby frowning at him from beside the bed, truly looking as if she was about to bail her eyes out right there and there.

"Hachiman, mama's dying!"

It took his brain a few seconds to process what he had heard, but as soon as he did, his eyes went from half-lidded to wide awake. His body almost jumped out of bed as a sense of urgency filled his body, with memories of a certain past incident filling him with an even bigger urge to check on Ai.

He could only hope it wasn't too late.

Was it too late to just get back to bed?

"I told you it was just a fever, Ruby. You didn't need to drag Hachiman just for that." Aqua admonished his sister with a deadpan tone.

"B-But what if we need to reach something that's too high?!" And Ruby just whined in response with a pout, and it was good to know his function here was being taller than a pair of literal children.

He kept his gaze on the one responsible for said children to be in such a state, namely on the seemingly bedridden Ai.

He walked closer, her labored breaths alongside the sweat going down her forehead telling him everything he needed to know. He still put the back of his hand on her head though, just to be sure, and just like Aqua had said, she was burning up.

"H-Hachi?" He saw her slowly open her eyes, meeting his gaze with a tired stare.

"I'm here." He affirmed softly, just as he removed his hand and went to grab the wet cloth that he could only assume Aqua had left beside her bed. There was also some medicine, and a quick glance told him Aqua was quite well-informed when it came to treating something like this.

"She should be better by tomorrow." Aqua spoke just as he put the cloth on her forehead, producing a slight moan from Ai as she closed her eyes once again. "Today was your free day, correct? Don't feel forced to stay, Hachiman. I can handle this."

His eyes went to Aqua, who was giving him a look of nothing but the utmost seriousness, and while it might sound irresponsible coming from an adult, he truly did believe Aqua would have everything under control.

His eyes then moved to behind Aqua, where a more than anxious Ruby was giving him a pleading, almost desperate look.

He supposed there went his free day.

"Can't exactly leave you two alone." Well, not technically alone but Ai wasn't exactly in a state to do anything, let alone take care of her kids. "Have you two even eaten anything?"

"…No." It was Aqua who answered, at the same time Ruby rushed to hug his leg tightly, seemingly in relief. Did her level of concern regarding Ai alarm him a bit? Sure, but he could only guess any child would act like this if their only parent got sick.

Aqua was just the exception as per usual, he supposed, which is why he didn't even bother trying to pray Ruby away from his leg and instead just patted her on the head in what he hoped was a comforting manner.

"Let's see what we can come up with then, for you two and your mom." He would also need to call Saitou, assuming Aqua hadn't done so already. If someone needed to know about Ai being sick, it was definitely hers. "Want to help me, Ruby?"

That last offer came in an attempt to distract the still obviously distraught child with something, even if that something was going to make cooking breakfast arguably harder than it had to be.

Ruby's nod against his leg was all the answer he needed.

"Well…" Saitou lamented as she walked outside the room, earning his and the kid's attention. "I guess she caught on the same thing Tomoyo got…"

"I told you she would be fine." Aqua didn't even miss a beat, his tone almost making it sound as if he was whining if not for the stony expression he always wore.

"Aqua had everything under control before I got here." He backed him up when Saitou sent a glare his way, only making her glare at him instead of Aqua now.

"I don't know how to feel about them going to you first instead of me." She told him in a defeated tone, only making him shrug while Ruby, who was sitting to his side, ducked her head and tried to hide her now red face behind the cards she had in her hands.

"I just live closer." He tried to throw her a bone, but Saitou simply glared at him even more, obviously not believing that that was the only reason he had reached out first.

He decided to not mention how he was the one that decided to contact her rather than the kids, for her pride's sake.

"I can watch over them now though." She declared, now leveling him with an even stare. "So you can go back to… whatever you were doing before."

He decided to also not tell her that the thing he had been doing before was having nice dreams about winning the lottery and not having to work a day in his life.

Going back to sleep definitely sounded tempting enough, however…

"Do you really have to go?" Ruby asked by his side while pulling at his sleeve, her gaze once again telling him everything he needed to know. It was quite the contrast, really, for Ruby to be this open while Aqua usually felt like an impregnatable wall.

A weird description for a six-year-old, but it definitely fits the bill.

"Is it a problem if I stay?" He confirmed with Saitou, not commenting on how Ruby's gaze lit up at his words. His petition only made her look at him with a raised eyebrow, her eyes seemingly trying to find something in his own gaze before she simply sighed while massaging her forehead.

"I think we both know the answer to that."

"Are you going to stay there the whole night?"

"Someone has to."

He hummed at Aqua's response, right as he put a chair right to the left of where Aqua was sitting before taking a seat.

Aqua didn't even react though, and still kept his gaze fixed on the slumbering form of Ai, who admittedly looked far better than on the morning.

"I thought you said everything would be under control." He pointed out, deciding to approach this slowly. He wasn't going to be babying Aqua, as he knew the boy hated that by now, so his question was more out of curiosity than anything else.

"It is, but…" He saw Aqua bite his lip, a surprising amount of frustration showing on his face. "…better to be safe than anything else…"

He nodded slowly at that, understanding that, as different as the twins were, they were both worried sick about Ai, even if they had different ways of showing it.

For Ruby, it had been to still panic until he put her to bed, while promising her nothing would happen to her mom while she was asleep. He had ended up just staying there with her until she had finally dozed off.

That left just one stubborn member of the pair.

"I can take over for you." His sleep cycle was already a mess anyway, so he could definitely stay awake for far more time than Aqua, even if he didn't think it was needed as Ai was already looking better.

Aqua remained silent, however, almost as if he was ignoring him. He knew that rather than that, the boy was just deep in thought, which is why he didn't mind.

There was still something that needed to be said though.

"There's nothing wrong with relying on adults once in a while, you know?"

He knew that Aqua liked to try and carry everything on his shoulders. It was something he had realized the longer he knew them, that Aqua liked to be the responsible one of the three.

He didn't know if that came out because of how carefree Ai and Ruby could be, or because he was the only guy among the three, but he definitely had the feeling Aqua thought he was supposed to take care of them both no matter what.

Which was definitely a commendable disposition, he wouldn't argue that much, and he understood in some regard, having a sister of his own.

But a bit too much for a child, in his honest opinion.

"You aren't that old." Such was Aqua's comment, which only made him snort. Sure, it felt weird considering himself an adult when Aqua put it like that, but he was one!

At the very least, he was certainly more of an adult than Ai and she had kids!

Something told him his words did have an effect, however, as he visibly saw Aqua's shoulder relax just a bit. He was definitely not going to sleep any time soon, but he could already see his eyes dropping just a bit.

He didn't need to push anything further, just being here was enough, in his opinion, for Aqua to relax, at least just a bit.

If that says anything about how much trust the boy had in him, then well…

He just hoped to not let him down.

Half an hour later he had a very asleep Aqua resting against his arm.

"Hmmmm!"

As much as he liked to pride himself in his ability to pull all-nighters, even he had to give up at some point in the night.

"Hmmmm!"

Which is why he only found himself opening his eyes slowly when the sound of someone humming came to his ears, coming right from his left.

And considering the first thing he saw was an empty bed, he could put two and two together pretty quickly.

"Good morning, Hachi." First thing in the morning and he was greeted softly by one Hoshino Ai, although she kept her gaze glued low, to where Aqua was still resting on her lap.

How she managed to lift him and put her on her lap without waking either of them up, he could only guess.

"Morning." He grunted out as he passed his hand through his face in an attempt to shake the sleepiness out. "How are you feeling?"

"Hmmm, quite good actually." Her tone was still soft as he saw her play with Aqua's golden hair, not even pausing for a second as she suddenly rested her head against his shoulder. "Thank you for being here, Hachi."

"...I didn't really do much, it was mostly Aqua and Saitou." He explained with a sigh. It was the true, after all. Aqua had seemingly no issue with holding the fort, and once Saitou got here she was able to take control of everything, including even giving Ai a bath at one point.

Frankly, the most he had done was to keep Ruby distracted.

"You know what I mean." She released a sigh of contentment herself, her smile still soft as her only movement was that of her fingers through Aqua's hair.

"Eh?!" He caught her by surprise though, which was a nice reversal of their usual roles, as the next thing he did was to put his free hand on her forehead, gaining a small squeak of surprise from her.

"Just wanted to make sure." Yeah, she looked better now but still, better safe than sorry.

"…There are better ways, you know?" He heard her whisper as he removed his hand, his face displaying confusion right until she raised her hand that wasn't playing with Aqua's hair, and slowly brought it up to the back of his head.

At that moment, he didn't know if it had been because of how tired he was, or because he didn't want to suddenly wake up Aqua by trying to stop Ai, or maybe because of the other multitude of excuses that flashed through his head at the time.

But no matter the reason, he ended up doing nothing as Ai brought his head closer to hers until both of their foreheads were touching softly, with the only thing his eyes could see now that he was trapped being coy glint shining in Ai's purple eyes.

"How is it?" She whispered, although he could have sworn it almost sounded like a purr. "Am I still hot?"

He didn't comment on how he could see her face growing slightly red after she spoke, for it didn't take a genius to know that it had nothing to do with her previous fever.

Of course, it was his turn once again to be the responsible adult here, as much as being this close to her was making his heartbeat go up way too high for how early it was.

"You're fine." He whispered back while grabbing her hand that was holding his head, her lips forming into a pout as he went back to his previous sitting position, creating some distance between them.

"M-Mama!"

And maybe it was because of how distracted they were, but neither of them had heard Ruby entering the room until she quite literally launched herself at Ai, with both of their gazes being that of surprise until Ai's softened as soon as Ruby hugged her chest.

"W-Wha?" Of course, the action was more than enough to actually wake up Aqua, whose confused gaze was first received by Ruby's angry pout.

"Stupid Onii-chan trying to take the lead while I was asleep!" Ruby accused, hugging Ai even more tightly, much to her obvious delight and much to Aqua's annoyance as the boy had no problems with glaring back at his sister.

"I was just making sure-wuee…!" Aqua started, but was interrupted by Ai suddenly hugging them both tightly to herself, with Ruby certainly not minding the extra affection from what he was seeing, while Aqua's sudden blush and conflicted gaze told him he wasn't having it easy.

"Sorry for making you worry." Such was Ai's response to the whole debacle, her words making Aqua actually try and return the hug, albeit in a far more awkward manner compared to Ruby.

And as he saw what he could only describe as a family moment, a sight that he had no shame in admitting made his lack of rest worth it, he quietly left his seat, deciding that it was best to give them their privacy.

Besides, someone needed to get started on breakfast anyway.

Longer to update but I hope the chapter is still to everyone's liking.

Some reviews have asked about other characters' PoV and also want to see previous stuff like Hachiman and Ai's first meeting.

All of that will come with time, but first I wanted to hammer down the dynamic of the four main characters, so to speak, since most of this fic is going to be completely different from the canon because, well, Ai's alive and most of the fic is going to be in the period of time after her death in canon but before the time skip.

Thank you all for having read this far! And thank you all for the follows, favs, and reviews!

Next Chapter: The Babysitter?