Hearing Yukinoshita Shizuku come out with that, a flicker of panic crossed Hiratsuka Shizuka's eyes.
She tilted her head to look at her.
Those bright, glittering eyes were locked onto her, refusing to let go.
"Ahaha."
"Shizuku, what on earth are you saying?"
"Kagami and I are good buddies, that's all."
"Good buddies have fun hanging out together. Isn't that perfectly normal?"
"How did this suddenly turn into who likes who?"
When she was done, she reached over and flicked Yukinoshita Shizuku on the forehead.
Yukinoshita Shizuku rubbed the spot where she'd been flicked, but didn't argue.
Her gaze stayed on Hiratsuka Shizuka's face, as though searching for something.
The scrutiny made Hiratsuka Shizuka squirm, and she rolled over.
From lying on her back to lying on her side, facing Yukinoshita Shizuku.
Then she changed tack.
"What about you, then?"
Yukinoshita Shizuku froze for a second.
Hiratsuka Shizuka's tone turned breezy, but her eyes sharpened.
"You've lived under the same roof as Kagami for ages now, and you're not related by blood."
"I hear plenty of stepsiblings end up marrying each other."
"So you-"
"No!"
Yukinoshita Shizuku cut her off, the word coming out faster than usual.
"We're just brother and sister."
"Huh?"
"I hadn't even finished asking."
Hiratsuka Shizuka grinned, smug at having turned the tables.
"Hmph."
"You don't have to say it. I know exactly what you're thinking!"
"We're family, plain and simple."
"Just family?"
"Just family!"
"Then what happens when Kagami gets himself a girlfriend, hmm?"
Hiratsuka Shizuka leaned in close, as if she too wanted to read something in those eyes.
Yukinoshita Shizuku choked on her answer.
"He..."
"If he finds one, he finds one."
"You wouldn't mind?"
Hiratsuka Shizuka stayed right in front of her face, watching her with a smile.
Under that stare Yukinoshita Shizuku grew restless, and she shrank down into the covers without thinking.
Only her eyes showed.
"W-why would I mind?"
"Of- of course not!"
"As his older sister, it's my job to screen the candidates!"
Yukinoshita Shizuku remembered how Tsushima Kagami had asked her to fend off the women who tried to get close to him.
All at once her confidence came back.
She poked her head back out from under the covers. "Mm."
"Kagami said so himself, after all."
"He told me to vet them for him!"
"We can't have just any woman throwing herself at him!"
"You wouldn't be using the big-sister thing as an excuse to keep everyone away from Kagami, would you?"
"And then hog him all to yourself?"
Hiratsuka Shizuka asked out of nowhere.
"H-how..."
"How could that possibly be true!"
This time Yukinoshita Shizuku couldn't hold it back, and the words burst out of her.
Then, afraid of waking Tsushima Kagami in the next room, she clapped the blanket over her mouth.
"Oh?"
"Really?"
Hiratsuka Shizuka's smile widened.
"Really!"
Just as Yukinoshita Shizuku was about to explain further, the bedside lamp went out.
"The power's out again."
"Honestly."
"Koharu, why does the power always die whenever you come over?"
Yukinoshita Shizuku's exasperated voice rose in the dark.
"Huh?"
"How is that my fault?"
"It's obviously the wiring around here that's the problem."
"Seriously, with all the royalties you two have raked in,"
"why don't you move somewhere nicer?"
Hiratsuka Shizuka fired back at once.
"That's Kagami's money. We can't just throw it around."
"Besides, this place is perfectly livable."
"If you hate it that much, go home!"
"Aw, I was only saying."
"Don't be mad, Shizuku~"
And with that, Hiratsuka Shizuka wrapped her arms around Yukinoshita Shizuku under the covers.
"What are you hugging me for?"
"Aren't you cold?"
Hiratsuka Shizuka said suddenly.
With the power out, the heater had stopped running.
The temperature was dropping fast enough to feel.
The whole room was like a refrigerator with its door left hanging open.
Cold air seeped in through the gaps in the floorboards, through every crack in the walls.
Now that she mentioned it, Yukinoshita Shizuku did feel a lot colder.
Hiratsuka Shizuka reached out under the blanket and pulled her closer.
The two of them pressed together and tucked the blanket tight on both sides.
"There. Much better."
As if her energy had finally run dry, Hiratsuka Shizuka drifted off into a heavy sleep the moment she finished speaking.
Listening to their heartbeats and the wind outside, Yukinoshita Shizuku sank slowly into sleep too.
She had no idea how much time had passed when her mind began floating in that hazy space between dreaming and waking.
Then a wave of cold jolted her awake.
Groggily she groped for the blanket and found that most of it had been dragged away.
The bed beside her was empty and chilly.
She opened her eyes.
She patted the space next to her.
Hiratsuka Shizuka was gone, and the sheets had gone cold.
"Koharu?"
She called softly.
No answer.
She assumed Hiratsuka Shizuka had gotten up to use the bathroom.
But she waited a while, and Hiratsuka Shizuka didn't come back.
Only then did she pick up her phone from the nightstand and wake the screen.
Two forty-seven in the morning.
The glow of the phone was harsh in the darkness.
She threw off the covers and got up, bare feet sliding into fuzzy slippers.
With the power still out, the room had turned icy.
The chill crept up from her soles through her whole body, and she shivered.
Using her phone as a flashlight, she stepped out of the room.
The hallway was dark, lit only by a thin spill of streetlight through the window at the far end.
She went downstairs first. Nobody in the living room.
Then the toilet and the bathroom. Still no sign of Hiratsuka Shizuka.
She swallowed and, a little tense, opened the cupboard at the foot of the stairs.
Empty as well.
What am I even doing, she thought, and laughed at herself for the idea that had crossed her mind.
This isn't some horror movie.
And Koharu wouldn't hide somewhere just to scare me.
It's all Kagami's fault for always telling me urban legends.
Now I'm jumping at shadows!
Oh - Kagami's room!
She hurried back upstairs by the light of her phone screen.
When she reached Tsushima Kagami's door, she saw it hadn't been shut properly.
She took a deep breath and eased it open.
The phone's light fell across Tsushima Kagami's bed.
He was lying on his side, fast asleep.
The blanket covered him, but-
the shape under it bulged in a way that made no sense, as if there was one extra person in there!
Yukinoshita Shizuku walked to the bedside and yanked the blanket back.
The phone light washed over the two of them.
Tsushima Kagami slept on, dead to the world.
But his arm was stretched out, as though holding something.
And beside him, Hiratsuka Shizuka was curled up in his arms.
Her head rested on his shoulder, one hand draped across his chest.
She looked like a cat that had found the perfect nest, sleeping soundly.
The corners of her mouth were turned up, as if she were in the middle of a lovely dream.
The instant the blanket came off, cold air rushed in.
Hiratsuka Shizuka frowned and blinked her eyes open.
The phone light stung, and she squinted at the figure standing by the bed.
"Ah, Shizuku."
Hiratsuka Shizuka mumbled. "You're awake?"
Yukinoshita Shizuku stood there, phone held up in one hand.
Between the darkness and the glare of the screen, her face was like a car with its high beams on - Hiratsuka Shizuka couldn't make out her expression at all.
"Koharu."
"Why are you sleeping in here?"
"Mm..."
Hiratsuka Shizuka yawned, lifted her head off Tsushima Kagami's shoulder and rubbed her eyes.
"I got cold."
"I figured a guy would be warmer, so I came over."
Her tone was utterly matter-of-fact, as if she were describing the most ordinary thing in the world.
Yukinoshita Shizuku was silent for a moment, then her brows drew tight.
"Get up."
"Come back with me."
"Keep it down."
Hiratsuka Shizuka raised a finger to her lips and shushed her.
"You'll wake Kagami up."
"He won't wake up," Yukinoshita Shizuku said, absolutely certain.
"Once he's out, nothing short of the sun roasting his backside will wake him."
Hiratsuka Shizuka blinked, and her gaze lingered on Yukinoshita Shizuku's face.
"And how would you know that?"
The air in the room went quiet for a beat.
"Because..."
Yukinoshita Shizuku hesitated.
"I can never wake him up in the mornings."
"Ohhh~"
Hiratsuka Shizuka drew the syllable out.
Then she settled back onto the pillow and pulled the blanket up again.
"I'm not getting up."
"What?"
Yukinoshita Shizuku stared at her, lying there beside Tsushima Kagami.
If she hadn't been on the inside of the bed, where dragging her out would have disturbed Tsushima Kagami, Yukinoshita Shizuku would have hauled her off it then and there.
"I said I'm not getting up."
Hiratsuka Shizuka wrapped the blanket tighter around herself.
"It's so warm in here."
"Your room's freezing, Shizuku. I couldn't sleep."
"That still doesn't mean you can-!"
"Shizuku."
Hiratsuka Shizuka cut her off.
"Why don't you come sleep here too?"
Yukinoshita Shizuku went still.
"Three of us cuddled up will be even warmer."
Yukinoshita Shizuku stood by the bed, gripping her phone, not moving.
The light fell across Tsushima Kagami's profile. His lashes were long.
His lips were pressed lightly together. Asleep, Tsushima Kagami looked like a child.
She hesitated for a long time.
Then she set the phone on the nightstand and walked around to the other side of the bed.
She lifted the blanket and slipped in.
The bed wasn't large, and three people made for a tight fit.
Yukinoshita Shizuku lay on her side facing Tsushima Kagami, close enough to feel his warm breath brushing her forehead.
Hiratsuka Shizuka reached over from behind and tucked the blanket in around her.
"There, now nobody's cold."
Yukinoshita Shizuku said nothing.
She closed her eyes and let the warmth beside her soak in.
Outside the wind still blew, and the branches beyond the window still swayed.
But under the covers the heat crept steadily upward, and the chill was driven back inch by inch.
Her thoughts began to blur.
On the very edge of sleep, she vaguely heard Hiratsuka Shizuka murmur something.
"Kagami really is a good person, isn't he."
"So good you can't help wanting to get closer."
Hiratsuka Shizuka's voice dropped lower still, as though she were talking to herself.
"But you can't get too close..."
The room fell quiet.
The next morning.
When Tsushima Kagami woke, he was the only one left in the room.
Sunlight squeezed in through the gap in the curtains.
He sat up and rubbed his eyes.
Once he'd changed clothes, he stepped out of the room.
From downstairs came the clatter of a spatula against a pan, and the bubbling of water at a rolling boil.
He went down and found Yukinoshita Shizuku busy at the stove.
She was wearing that pale grey sweater, her hair tied in a low ponytail, sleeves pushed up to her elbows to bare her pale forearms.
The miso soup in the pot was boiling, white steam rising and blurring her profile.
"Morning."
"Morning," Yukinoshita Shizuku answered without turning around.
"Where's Koharu?"
"Still upstairs getting dressed."
Yukinoshita Shizuku turned the heat down and put the lid on the pot.
Tsushima Kagami nodded.
Then he headed straight for the washroom to clean up.
"Shizuku."
Hiratsuka Shizuka's voice came from the stairs.
Yukinoshita Shizuku turned around.
Hiratsuka Shizuka stood at the bottom of the staircase in a dark red sweater.
It was Yukinoshita Shizuku's.
A size larger than the one she'd worn yesterday, which meant it actually fit her rather well.
"Morning," Hiratsuka Shizuka said with a smile.
"Sleep well last night?"
"Well enough."
"Oh really?"
Hiratsuka Shizuka walked over, leaned in close and lowered her voice.
"Then why do you have circles under your eyes?"
Yukinoshita Shizuku touched the skin beneath her eyes before she could stop herself.
"I do not."
Hiratsuka Shizuka grinned.
"Didn't sleep well, did you?"
Yukinoshita Shizuku didn't answer.
She turned away and opened the fridge.
She took out some vegetables, put them in the sink and started washing them.
"It's all your fault," she muttered.
"I had to wake up early just to drag you back."
"It would've been bad if Kagami had seen us."
"So what if he did?"
"Kagami only cares about anime girls anyway."
"He definitely wouldn't get flustered over something like that!"
Over all this time, Hiratsuka Shizuka had picked up plenty of gossip about Tsushima Kagami from Yukinoshita Shizuku and Sayuri.
Enough to confirm that Tsushima Kagami was only interested in two-dimensional beauties.
Yukinoshita Shizuku thought about it, and the words slipped out before she could catch them.
"Maybe not."
"He might be interested if you put on a cosplay outfit."
The second it was out of her mouth she realized her mistake and clapped a hand over her lips.
That had been the fruit of her recent probing.
She'd even been planning to find a chance to test it out.
How had she let that slip?
When she looked over at Hiratsuka Shizuka,
Hiratsuka Shizuka was looking back at her with a wicked little smile.
As if she'd seen straight through the fact that Shizuku had never meant to share that particular secret.
"Is that so?"
"Then we'll have to give it a try."
"Oh, and what manga does Kagami like best these days?"
Hiratsuka Shizuka pressed on.
"How would I know."
"He reads everything."
Yukinoshita Shizuku clearly had no intention of supplying the enemy with any more ammunition.
"Stingy," Hiratsuka Shizuka said.
But she let the matter drop and joined in washing the vegetables.
____
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