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Hana Kohinata took a deep breath in as she stepped out of the school. The other kids ran past her, not even bothering to stop. It was finally summer break, so why would they? They never stopped normally for her, so why stop now?
She looked around for her parents. Normally, one of them would pick her up, but she didn’t see either of them today. She frowned. Maybe they were late?
She then spotted it through the crowd of kids and parents. There was a bit of light brown hair peeking through the sea, which she immediately recognized as the same shade as her mom. Smiling, she pushed through, getting closer. She got close enough, and realized that it wasn’t actually her mom.
While she looked identical to Hibiki Tachibana, her eyes were a little narrower, a bit harsher. Instead of the sharp red zig-zag hair pins her mother Hibiki had, the hair pins were rounder and orange, a gift from her other mother, Miku. She was dressed in an orange and black jacket that was zipped open to a white t-shirt (surprisingly no toku character today). She wore black shorts and purple sneakers. Around her right wrist was a purple bracelet, and she saw the outline of a pendant underneath her t-shirt.
“Yo, Hana.” She said, with a wave.
“Auntie Rui!” Hana said, surprised. “What are you doing here?”
“Your moms were busy, so they asked me to pick you up.” Rui answered. “Typical of my sister to suddenly call me up out of nowhere.”
“So you’re gonna take me home?” Hana asked.
“Not just yet.” Rui said, walking over to her motorbike. She put on a helmet before tossing a spare one to Hana. “Anywhere you wanna go today?”
“Huh?”
“You heard me.” Rui said. “It’s the first day of summer break, right? Where do you want to go?”
Hana looked at the spare helmet, before smiling. “We can go anywhere?”
“Well, Ride GearStriker doesn’t have enough gas to go to Antarctica or something like that, but anywhere in the city, I can take you.” Rui reworded.
“Good enough!” Hana pulled Rui into a hug. “I love you, Auntie Rui!”
Rui smiled. “Love you too, kiddo. Now, come on. Let’s go.”
“So this is the first place, huh?” Rui said.
They were in the local mall’s arcade, a place Rui was all-too familiar with. It was the same place she, Hibiki and Miku had taken Tsubasa and Maia for a day out together.
“It’s a pretty nostalgic sight.” Rui mused to herself, before looking to see Hana was already playing at a crane game. She slammed on the button, before letting out a screech like a pterodactyl. “Yup. Definitely nostalgic.”
“Auntie Rui! This game is rigged!” She yelled.
“Hana, you gotta approach it slowly-”
“Maybe if I hit it, it’ll work!” Hana suggested, pulling back her fist.
Rui quickly ran forward, restraining her niece. “No, do not hit the machine! I don’t need to send SONG repair bills for this thing!”
After leaving the arcade (Rui thankfully managed to stop Hana from obliterating the machine), they stopped by a clothing outlet.
Is she doing this on purpose? Rui thought, seeing Hana comb through the racks of outfits and recognizing this was also the same clothing outlet. Lord help me if she goes to the same karaoke bar too.
“Here you go, Auntie Rui!”
Hana thrust several outfits into Rui’s arms, causing the older girl to stagger a bit before standing stable. She looked at the various different styles that the outfits had, briefly glancing at the price tags and sweating at the cost. “You want me to buy all of this for you?”
“Not exactly.” Hana said, hands behind her back as she waited for her aunt to get it.
Something else on the tag had caught her eye, as she looked at the sizes. “Hold on, aren’t these too big for you?”
“They’re not for me, silly! They’re for you!” Hana grinned.
“Wait what.” Rui said flatly.
“Every time I see you, you’re either wearing mostly black, or one of those Kamen Rider shirts!” Hana said. “You need to try something new!”
“But I like what I’m wearing right now, and some of these aren’t exactly my style.” Rui said. “I’m not gonna waste money on-”
Rui stopped herself upon seeing Hana’s sunshine-like expression that caused all the protest in her to fade away.
“...did your moms teach you my weaknesses?” Rui sighed.
“Yup!”
“I’m gonna have to have a word with them later…” Rui grumbled as she carried all the outfits into the changing room. “And don’t you dare take any pictures when I come out, Hana!”
“You know I can’t promise that, Auntie Rui!” Hana laughed, already holding her phone.
While Hana was giggling and looking at the photos she had taken, while Rui was looking at the receipt. There were a lot of digits on the final price.
“It’s a good thing SONG pays so well…” Rui said, shoving the receipt into her pocket. “You’d better not send those pictures to the others.”
“Huh?” Hana looked up from her phone, and Rui saw that Hana had already sent the pictures to every one of the other girls.
“Wonderful. Just wonderful.” Rui sighed, knowing that the others would almost definitely never let her live this down. She looked at her watch and was actually thankful there wasn’t enough time to stop by karaoke. “Alright, we gotta head back soon, so do you want to get something to eat?”
“There isn’t anything I really want right now though.” Hana put a hand under her chin. “Actually, can you come over and cook for us? Your cooking was always the best.”
“You want a custom order, huh?” Rui chuckled. “Fine then. But at least tell me you want something to drink for now. Both of your moms would kill me if you don’t stay hydrated.”
“I can go for a drink, sure.” Hana said.
They stopped by a vending machine, and Rui paid for the two of them. Rui grabbed a soda, while Hana got a box of strawberry milk. As they walked, Rui noticed that Hana hadn't opened her drink yet.
“Something bothering you?” Rui asked, as she opened the soda can. “You haven’t opened it yet.”
“Well, I was thinking about something.” Hana said. “Can I ask you a question?”
“Shoot.”
“When are you gonna propose to Auntie Chris?” Hana asked.
Rui sputtered, coughing and holding her nose thanks to the soda that went up her throat. It was hard for her to recover after that, but she barely managed to. She still had a noticeable blush on her face though. “Th-That’s a little out of nowhere, don’t you think?!”
“It would be nice to have a cousin though.” Hana said. “And I know you and Auntie Chris “like like” each other, so-”
Rui put on her motorcycle helmet to try and hide her blush with the dark visor. It was quite an awkward walk for her back to her bike, as Hana kept on pushing with more questions she tried to tune out. The two got a lot of odd looks, but they didn’t really care.
Rui pulled the motorcycle to a stop on the road next to the Tachibana-Kohinata residence. She and Hana took off their helmets.
“Looks like Hibiki and Miku aren’t back yet.” Rui said.
“Ooh, make it a surprise then!” Hana suggested. “Make their favorite foods!”
“Hana, you know Hibiki eats anything, yeah?” Rui reminded her. “I’m pretty sure one time she ate the silverware.”
“Then you should make everything!”
“Are you trying to run me ragged?” Rui laughed.
“I just want my moms to be happy-oof!”
Hana was knocked to the ground as someone quickly ran past them. Rui almost instantly dropped to catch her.
“You okay?”
“Y-Yeah.”
“Thief!”
As Rui helped Hana stand, she looked up to see a woman shouting and running as well.
“He stole something from her.” Hana realized. “Okay, I’ll stop him-!”
Hana noticed Rui was already gone, chasing after the thief. By the time Hana took a few steps, Rui had already grabbed the man by the wrist and shoved him against a fence. His arms were locked, so he swung his head back, hitting Rui in the nose. While she started bleeding, she barely flinched, before using one hand to grab the back of his head and slamming him into the pavement.
“You really thought you could touch my niece and get away with it?” She said in a low voice, tightening her grip on his arms, causing him to scream in pain. “You should be glad I’m letting the cops take you in, bastard.”
As the woman called the police, Hana watched as her aunt kept the mugger down on the ground. She had seen her aunt get protective of her before, but why was today different?
Rui was sitting on the couch of the Tachibana-Kohinata residence, as Hana attended to the few scrapes she got from stopping the thief.
“It’s not that bad, Hana.” Rui said. “I’ve been in worse scraps when I was your age.”
“But still!” Hana gently wiped the bruises on Rui’s face. “I could’ve handled that too!”
“Yeah, I know you could’ve.” Rui said. “I remember how you are during training sessions.”
“Then why didn’t you let me do it?” Hana asked, putting away the first-aid kit. “If I did it, you wouldn’t have gotten hurt.”
Rui chuckled. “You sound like me and a couple of the others when we were younger.”
“What do you mean?” Hana asked, sitting down next to Rui.
“Some of us thought that taking on things alone meant that we’d make sure the others wouldn’t get hurt.” Rui said, gently patting Hana on the head. “But we found out the hard way that it hurts them more when we refuse their help. We all grew out of it eventually, but we were hard-headed for a while. Some more than others.”
“But you still took on the guy by yourself…”
“That’s different, Hana.” Rui said.
“How?”
“...because your smile needs to be protected.” Rui said.
“I can protect-wait, my smile?” Hana said, confused. “What does that mean?”
“You know how you smile when you’re happy?” Rui said. “That’s the difference between your smile and Hibiki’s.”
“Mom doesn’t smile when she’s happy?” Hana asked.
“She does, but for the longest time, she smiled because she was hurting inside.” Rui said. “Even now, she does it sometimes. It’s the same for Miku, me, and all your other Aunts.”
“R-Really…? Everyone…?”
“All of us, yeah. Even Aunts Kirika and Maia.” Rui said. “It’s become a lot harder for us to smile naturally, because we’ve been through so much. Happiness doesn’t come by as often anymore.”
“I… didn’t know.” Hana said.
“Of course you didn’t.” Rui said. “That’s not something the others want to share with you, but I know you’re smart enough to know now. That’s why they all love you so much too, because we all want to protect that smile.”
“But then… what do I do?” Hana asked.
“We know we can’t protect you your entire life.” Rui said. “But just know that you don’t have to do everything alone. We’re all here for you, don’t forget that.”
“...okay, I understand Aunt Rui.” Hana said, leaning into Rui and hugging her. “I promise you that I’ll protect my smile.”
“That’s a good girl.” Rui chuckled, ruffling her niece’s hair. “You’re easier to get through to than your moms, that’s for sure.”
“I love you, Aunt Rui.” Hana said, snuggling in closer as she closed her eyes.
“Love you too, Hana.” Rui said softly.
Hibiki and Miku came home that day to see their daughter, fast asleep in Rui’s lap. The older Tachibana twin had also nodded off at that point. The couple smiled, simply putting blankets on the two of them and letting them sleep.
Rui’s neck was killing her the next morning, since she fell asleep sitting up, but to her, it was worth it.
She got to spend time with her favorite niece, after all.