It wasn’t late at night, but it was dark and quiet as most should be in bed at this time. Especially high school students like Kichi and Kougi, who need to get their sleep to be awake and alert during class. However, that wasn’t what she was up to as the girl gently knocked on her younger brother door. She didn’t wait for a response to open it either.

“Kichi? You still awake?” She quietly said as she peered her head inside. He was indeed awake, but the boy seemed so intently focused on whatever it was on his desk that he didn’t respond. Sensing she had the element of surprise on the guy, Kougi silently entered the room.

As he continued to work on whatever it was he worked on. She slowly crept behind him until they were mere inches apart. This was when she made her presence known with a somewhat loud sound. “Boo!”

“Ahh!” It scared him enough to quickly turn around to try and defend himself. Thankfully this was not a dangerous situation as all he was able to accomplish was falling off his chair and onto the floor below. His screams somehow didn’t wake up their parents.

“Hahaha, I totally got you.” She pointed and laughed as he picked himself up from the ground. “So what were you up to?” Kougi looked at the table. The room was dark, only illuminated by the single lamp he had on his desk.

“It’s not that important.” He quickly put his hands over the top of it to obscure her view. Kichi had a growing blush, not over the subject of what he had been working on. But more so in the thought of her being able to sneak up on him so easily. This was his room and he could’ve easily been doing some more inappropriate things that she could’ve caught him doing. “Can’t you at least knock first?”

“I did.” She answered in coy fashion. “But you looked so distracted by whatever you were doing that I couldn’t help myself.” He sighed, but knew it was baked into her nature to always prank him. Despite being closer than ever before, he knew that part of their relationship would never go away. Which wasn’t as bad as it sounded. He did miss her doing that during their time apart when he was only dating the twins. “You’re not going to tell me what this is all about? It’s not some weird fan fiction, is it?” There did seem to be a lot of writing on it from her view, so much so that it almost seemed like he tried to write a book.

“Of course not.” He finally got himself composed enough to tell her what it was all about. “I was just trying to figure out a plan.”

“A plan?” She asked. “A plan for what?”

“About what to do with the three of you.” He answered. Kichi knew that it was already a challenge to juggle between two people. Now adding a third person into the mix only added into the hectic factor. He was still only one boy, so this meant finding a way to keep things balanced and fair.

“You know you’re not in this alone, right?” She reminded him the girls were a part of this equation to ensure the relationship worked out. While they all had their own personal biases towards themselves. They were also committed to keeping things free of drama for the most part. “It’s not like we’re all at each other’s necks.”

“Ah, I wish I could just keep things simple.” He pulled out his coin. It was too bad for him that there were now three of them, so he couldn’t simply rely on his prized possession to lend him aid. It could still come in handy though if there were any 50-50 choices going forward.

“Ah, don’t worry about that.” She put her hand over his and pressed aside the coin. To replace what had previously been in his view, she put her face in front of his just barely a foot away. “Why are you so obsessed about that thing when you’ve got such a cute girl in your room anyway?”

“No particular reason.” He turned his face from hers. Even though they had agreed on moving on with their relationship. It was still easy to be unnerved with her. He still had to work on the mental block on the obvious matter of their familial relationship.

“Come on.” She brushed aside his stuff and sat onto his lap. “I know it’s not easy, but can’t you loosen up a little?”

“Are you sure we should be doing this now?” Despite her suggestion, he did exactly what she had been criticizing. Kichi was too worried paying attention to their surroundings as they were in his room. While it was a private place, it also was at home where their parents were both at right now considering it was nighttime. Even with a small chance, there was a nonzero chance of them being walked into in this position. That would not be an easy thing to explain.

Kougi pouted in response to his concerns and got off him. It seemed, it would be a challenge to get him comfortable with anything. This normally wouldn’t be a problem since she could live with being patient. However, it was impossible to want to be patient after learning what he had already accomplished with the twins. A kiss and getting a little frisky? Now she felt she had some catching up to do. So the girl was going to be a little selfish tonight.

“Okay, how about we just sit with each other on your bed?” She decided to move things to a spot he might feel more at home with. “It’ll be just like when we used to sleep together when we were younger.” He certainly held some nostalgia for those days, but he also knew it was when they were real young. Definitely during the times when they were simple elementary school students.

Thinking about it more, he wondered when exactly she started to feel a little more like he was more than just a brother in her eyes. According to her when he asked, she couldn’t pinpoint when that had occurred. Just that it was something that happened over time during their time together. “Please?” She gave him puppy dog eyes in a bid to beg for him to lay down to relax.

“Okay, we can do that.” He relented and put away everything he had to turn in for the night. Kichi turned off the lamp and went over to lay besides her. The intention was to simply lay over the blankets and cuddle a bit, but she had other plans in mind as the girl took his arm and pulled the boy under the blankets.

He was a bit taken aback be her bold moves, but it wasn’t something he was against either. Just that she made herself appear a bit desperate for his attention. It wasn’t as if she needed to try so hard for him to be there for her. They did live with each other and that was an advantage she would never lose to the twins for as long as they were together during high school.

“You know, I really missed doing this.” She said. “When did we decide to stop?”

“It was probably when I felt like I was too old for this.” He answered. While Kichi would never say there was a point where he himself didn’t like doing this. It was obvious at some point they would grow a bit too old to be sharing a bed as siblings. Now they were doing it again as high school students and a bit more than just siblings.

“That’s kind of sad.” She mulled over it as their bodies got so close, there was no space between them. “It’s kind of a shame people would look at you poorly just for wanting to stick by your sister.” It was understandable, but from her point of view, something that only held him back for so long. He still appeared to be holding back in this moment. “What would you do if I were Airi or Aoi instead?”

“Uh…” Her question put him right on the spot. He had never considered what he would do if he ever found himself in this position with either twin. Just a quick thought to consider things made him realize that they would’ve gotten pretty far in their relationship if he was literally sharing a bed with one of them. With Kougi, the laying in bed part had a lower barrier to entry, so the moment wasn’t registered as largely in his brain until she mentioned it.

“You don’t need to sugarcoat it.” She decided to answer it for him after his hesitation. “I know you’d be really enjoying yourself if they were with you. So can’t you enjoy it a little when I’m with you?” Being up this close to her, he could sense her growing anger.

“I’m going to try my best.” He continued to battled again his mental blocks for her sake. “Really, you don’t have to worry about what I’m going to do.”

“I’m not worried.” She put her face right up to his. “As long as you don’t worry about what I’m going to do.” With that, she gave him a small little kiss under the sheet. If Aoi already got one, then there’s nothing wrong with stealing one for herself, right? And with that, even though they didn’t mean to, the pair fell asleep together on his bed.