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Saki hums to herself, carefully stretching her fingers. Leo/need had spent the whole day practicing as a band. Shiho recently taught the pigtailed girl how to properly and safely stretch her fingers after long stretches of time using them.
Personally, the blonde prefers when Shiho did the work for her. Not only because Saki tends to get impatient - she ends up rushing the steps and probably is pulling on each finger too hard – but also because she likes the feeling of Shiho gently running cold fingers across Saki’s warm ones.
The blonde sighs, leaning back on her chair. Quiet, intimate moments with her girlfriends were nice, but Saki doesn’t mind looking at everyone under the purple-pink hues of the night sky in the school Sekai. The view outside the window is always super pretty to see, but Saki thinks that her girlfriends look prettier.
Icchan turns to the others after setting her guitar in her case. The dark-haired girl brings a hand nervously to her chest. “Um, this might be kind of out of the blue, but I’ll be out on a family trip this golden week, so I won’t be able to come to practice.”
Saki gasps. “A family trip? Where!”
Icchan giggles, the sound soft and happy to Saki’s ears. “It’s nowhere crazy, we’re just going to visit my grandparents on my dad’s side for the week.”
“Well, it will be kind of sad that we won’t be able to meet each other for the week,” Honachan says sadly, “but we hope you’ll have fun resting!” She finishes with a cute smile.
Shiho nods. “And if you feel guilty for missing practice, you can do vocal practices on your own if you can.”
Icchan nods, determination in her eyes. “That’s a good idea, I think there’s a place where I can sing alone.”
Saki pouts. “I’ll be so lonely without Icchan though…”
“There, there.” Honachan chuckles, patting Saki’s head gently. The blonde leans into the touch.
“Oh, there is one thing that I’m concerned about…” Icchan says, glancing to the side bashfully.
“I’ll be relying on you, Saki.” Icchan says, handing over a small box.
Saki grins, holding on to the box. “Roger that! Have an nice trip!”
Icchan’s eyebrows draw in, “Are you sure you don’t need me to carry the box in for you?”
“No, I’ve got this! It’s pretty light anyways.” The blonde grins.
“The instructions are in the box.”
“I know, Icchan.”
“Put them in places with lots of light.”
“I know, Icchan.”
“Okay, but –”
The blonde sighs, putting the box down to the side. “I’m not a child, Icchan, I’ll take super good care of your cacti while you’re gone, ‘kay?’
Icchan’s shoulders relax, a soft smile on her face. “Okay.”
The two exchange a quick kiss and a soft hug before the dark-haired girl has to leave to pack the rest of her things. Saki lifts the box up with a huff before walking into the house.
Icchan’s prized cacti needed to be taken care of while she’s gone, and Saki said that she can do it, so she’s going to be the best cacti babysitter there ever was!”
Crouching down in front of the bench that sits across from the back windows, Saki sets to work. Carefully taking out each small pot, the blonde gently places each cactus in a line, making sure each plant has even sunlight.
The cacti are all so small, and the pots each of them have are minimalistic dark colored mini-pots. So Icchan-like!
The pigtailed girl grins to herself, rushing to fill the succulent watering can with water from the kitchen sink.
In comes Onii-chan, back from work!
“Hello, Saki!” Tsukasa grins, shrugging off his jacket, “What are you doing?”
“I’m taking care of Icchan’s cacti for a week, so I’m making sure the watering can is full.” Saki smiles, eyes focusing on her task.
The blonde boy walks to the bench, inspecting the plants closely. “They look well, I imagine a hard-working girl like Icchan has taken great care of them.”
Saki nods, pigtails bouncing. “Yeah! So I’m gonna take super, super good care of them.”
The girl bounds over to Onii-chan, placing the watering can gently on the bench. Looking over at the cacti once again, rose-pink eyes widen. “That one looks like Touya!”
Onii-chan hums, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “Hm! It does seem like our dear younger brother!”
“What seems to look like me?” Touya calls. He’s unexpectedly home early.
“Welcome back!” The two blonde siblings call, as Touya pads over to the bench. He squats next to the two, kind of mimicking the way Saki laid out the cacti.
Saki points towards one of the cacti. “See this one!”
There’s a moment of silence, where Touya looks super seriously at the plant. “I don’t really say it, but if both of you say so, it might look like me.”
“Well, it rises much higher than the other cacti, but it’s pricks seem very neat and orderly.” Onii-chan says, explaining to the younger brother.
Touya’s expression stays blank.
The rest of the day is kind of uneventful, Saki goes to the school sekai to practice with Shiho and Honachan. But other than that, the blonde mostly works on classwork. Just when math homework was looking super hard – hard enough that Saki might have to call in Touya for help, Mom calls everyone down for dinner.
Saki jumps up at the chance to leave the math homework off for later, rushing out of her room. It looks like Saki was the first to leave, so the blonde skips to Kanade’s room.
Knocking happily, Saki giggles. “Kanade!” She hears shuffling, and then a muffled ‘come in’.
Opening the door, Kanade turns her chair towards the blonde girl. The older sister places her headphones on the desk gently.
“Mom called for dinner! Do you want to eat with us?” Saki smiles. Based on Saki’s Kanade expertise, the blonde guesses that Kanade recently finished composing a song based on her expression.
Kanade nods. “Tonight I can eat.”
“Yay!” Saki cheers, hugging the older sister’s side. She bounds for the door happily.
“Wait, Saki, don’t pull….”
The two sisters make their way downstairs, where the rest of the family were waiting. The dinner – which was hot pot for the night – was super exciting and yummy! At first, Saki was worried that none of the pork belly would get into her bowl, but then Onii-chan began spooning the meat into her portion. So much so that Saki had to tell Onii-chan to knock it off.
“Golden week starts for everyone soon, hm?” Dad says, a grin on his face.
Saki cheers. “We should have a movie night to kick it off!”
“That sounds fun~” Mom chuckles, a hand on her cheek.
Kanade seems to hesitate, before nodding. “I’m alright with it.”
“Then it’s settled!” Tsukasa laughs, leaning back.
“I believe it is Kanade’s turn to choose a movie.” Touya states, taking a bite of pork.
Kanade pauses, until her eyes briefly light up. “Ami– a friend of mine recommended some anime movie a while back. I’ll ask her what it was.”
With the movie set up, the family quickly eats and cleans up. Kanade prepares the movie while everyone else is stuck with cleaning duty. As soon as the last plate is placed on the drying rack, Saki dashes to the couch. Flopping onto the corner, Saki grasps the pegasus plush while giggling.
Her brothers take a seat, leaving a Kanade-sized gap between the end of the sofa and Onii-chan. Kanade takes her seat, and Touya throws a blanket across everyone’s laps.
“You won’t leave space for your dear-old dad?” Dad says, wiping a fake tear from his eye.
Saki giggles. “We might kick Touya out if Mom wants to sit.” Kanade nods.
“Is there any reason it has to be me?” Touya asks thoughtfully.
“You’re the youngest.” Kanade says, reaching for the remote.
Touya’s eyebrows furrow. “I’m always surprised how much weight that position has.”
Onii-chan chuckles. “Do not worry, Touya. Your older brother, Tsukasa, will take a seat on the floor if Mom wants to sit.”
“Ah, don’t worry about me,” Mom chuckles, pulling a dining chair out for herself. “Mom is strong enough to sit here.” She places multiple bowls of popcorn on the table, and everyone quickly grabs one.
The movie that Kanade’s friend recommended seems like a mystery anime. The movie starts super mysteriously, setting the plot up to be in an isolated japanese hotel.
A door opens mysteriously behind a shopkeeper, where a mysterious shadow of a person appears behind him. But before anything else happens, Saki’s vision is blocked by a hand. She hears Touya gasp in surprise. There’s a moment of only Saki and Touya protesting before a soft slap is heard in the air.
“Why me too?” Kanade groans.
“You’re still younger than me, that’s why.” Onii-chan huffs.
Now three siblings complain loudly, until Onii-chan finally takes his hands away.
The rest of the movie goes somewhat peacefully, Saki and Touya arguing for a moment about who’s the killer – which, the grumpy lawyer man was super suspicious! – until it’s revealed that Kanade was right. Onii-chan’s prediction was way off as usual.
When the credits finally roll, Saki yawns. “I think I’m gonna go to bed first.”
Everyone else wishes her goodnight as she goes up the stairs. With the movie over, Kanade goes to help put the dishes away. Tsukasa, however, pads over to the plant bench. Curious, Touya follows.
“What are you doing, Tsukasa?” The younger asks as the blonde softly touches the soil of one of the pots.
Tsukasa sighs. “It seems that Saki has forgotten to water Icchan’s plants.”
“That seems to be a problem.” Touya hums. “Perhaps we should remind her?”
Tsukasa shakes his head. “No, I can do it! As her older brother, I wouldn’t want to wake her up.”
Touya nods. It seemed that Saki was quite tired after all. After watering the first cactus, Tsukasa holds the watering can out to the other. Touya gratefully takes it, and quickly waters the cacti that Saki said looked like him. The two switch back and forth until the line of cacti seem perfectly watered.
“Good job Touya! Let’s make sure to keep up the great work!” Tsukasa says, standing up.
Touya nods, standing up after the blonde. His knees protest slightly to the movement, but Touya simply kicks each leg slightly to shake them out.
The next few days continue similarly, Tsukasa and Touya almost ritualistically making the plant bench to water the cacti. Saki would oddly not water any of the plants, so the duo took great care to take care of the job.
Each night, the two would congratulate one another before going up to bed.
Saki hums to herself, walking down the stairs. The past few days on break has been super fun, the blonde going through a cycle of band practice, soft tennis drills, cafe shifts and homework. Even though it sounds like a lot, Saki found the busy week to be super fun.
Touya lies on the couch, reading some novel. Saki grins at the boy and he waves back.
The blonde bounds for the plant bench. Time to water the cacti like Icchan trusted her to!
Delicate fingers grasp the succulent watering can. But once she lifts the can, the girl frowns. It feels lighter than Saki remembers. Hesitantly touching the soft soil with two fingers, the ground feels cool and wet.
That’s weird?
Touya walks up to the girl, smiling. “We watered the cacti for you because you forgot!” He says proudly.
“What?” Saki asks, the baffled tone kind of comes out on instinct. But she honestly finds it kind of fitting for the situation.
Touya rubs his arm bashfully. “Tsukasa and I would water the cacti every night.”
Saki sighs, putting a hand to her face. She really doesn’t know how to react to this kind of situation. “When’s Onii-chan coming back?”
“He left to go and retrieve boba for all of us to drink.” Touya says, leaning down to the girl. “Are you okay, Saki?”
“No!” Saki whines, “Did you know that –”
The front door slams open, Onii-chan strutting in with a plastic bag. “I am home!”
“Onii-chan!” Saki gasps, trying hard not to scream in frustration.
“I brought boba!” He smiles.
“You watered my plants!”
His smile widens. “I did!”
“You weren’t supposed to do that!”
Onii-chan drops the keys onto the floor. Saki is kind of grateful he didn’t drop the boba too.
“We weren’t?” Touya asks.
Onii-chan sighs. “I understand that we meddled with your responsibilities, but –”
“No! Onii-chan, Touya.” Saki whines, putting her hands to her cheeks. “You aren’t supposed to water cacti daily!”
Onii-chan gapes. Touya nods, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “Now that I think of it, cacti do live with little water….”
Saki sighs. “Icchan trusted me with this too, I followed her manual and everything….” The girl crouches to show a small journal that laid in the box the cacti came in.
Onii-chan frowns, walking up to the girl. Crouching down with Saki, he hugs the girl. “I’m sorry, Saki. I didn’t realize that you were doing things properly.”
“It seems we underestimated you and meddled.” Touya sighs, hugging the other side of the girl. “I apologize.”
Saki huffs. Yes she was worried about Icchan’s cacti, but her brothers were sometimes too dramatic.
“It’s fine, I’ll ask Icchan how to fix things. She said that cacti are like super tough so it should be fine.” She sighs.
“But…” Onii-chan says dejectedly.
“I said it’s fine!” Saki huffs, lightly digging her chin into the older’s shoulder. “But if you want to do something for me…”
Touya lights up, peeking into Saki’s sight. “Anything!”
“Theeeen!” Saki cheers, standing up, “You can help me with my math homework while we drink boba.”
Onii-chan still looks upset. “Are you sure?”
Saki hums. “And! You have to hang out with me today! We can go to the arcade and go shopping!”
Touya nods. “I’ll be sure to win something for Hoshino.”
The day ends with the three finishing Saki’s math homework and a fun excursion at the arcade, where Touya wins a stuffed cat that Saki said looked like Icchan. Icchan even texts super detailed instructions on how to keep the cacti healthy, so that when Saki begins to gently pack the cacti back into the box it came from, they look nice and perky.
The doorbell rings, so Saki hurriedly puts the journal neatly in the box and rushes to bring the box to the front door.
There Icchan stands, smiling gently. Saki quickly sets the box down and hugs the girl tightly.
“Welcome back! How was your grandparents’?”
“It was good.” Icchan chuckles, “Ate lots of food.”
“Here!” Saki grins, thrusting the cat plush to the dark-haired girl.
The girl looks at the plush, confused. “What’s this?”
“Touya won this for you as an apology gift! They’re both out right now, but my brothers were super sorry!’ Saki grins, “See, it looks like you!”
Icchan stares down at the plush. “....Thank you but….”
“But..?” Saki parrots, looking at the girl curiously. Did Icchan not like the plush?”
“Well….” She fidgets, “I think I would have rather had a plush that looked like you….I guess.”
Saki gasps. Icchan was so cute! “Wait, I have something then! Wait right here.”
Running up to her room, Saki bursts into her room. The blonde practically dives for the round Kirby plush Touya won for her a while back.
She guesses that the running alerted Kanade, as she peeks into the blonde’s room.
“Are you okay?” The white haired girl asks.
Saki runs out of the room, almost sliding down the hallway. “Talk later!”
The girl bounds down the stairs, running up the door and thrusting the kirby out to the girl waiting.
“We can trade! So I’ll have you and you’ll have…. Have…..” Saki glances at the kirby. It doesn’t really look like her, does it?
Icchan chuckles prettily. “It’s just like you.”
Without another word, the girl grasps the box from the floor. She gives a quick peck on the blonde’s cheek before smiling.
“Bye.”
“B- Bye Icchan!” Saki stammers. After waving goodbye, she slams the door closed. And begins squealing in delight because – well her girlfriends are all just so amazing!
Kanade walks downstairs, looking at the blonde in curiosity. “Are you okay?”
Saki ends up recounting the events with a giddy smile on her face to Kanade as they share a bowl of fruit.
And she tells the story to Touya when he gets back, cuddling the cat while kicking her legs back and forth.
And she tells the story to Onii-chan when he finishes work, as she shows him the quick selfie Icchan sent her of her, the cacti, and the Kirby plush.
And she says everything over again to her whole family during dinnertime, but it seems like no one was tired of hearing it. Even chiming in when Saki was giggling too much in delight.