Brief
Saturday. 9:47 AM.
Sunlight pressed through the gap in the curtains the way it always did on weekends — unhurried, golden, spreading itself across the bedroom floor like something that had nowhere better to be. The air smelled faintly of sleep and warm cotton. Outside, a bird made one lazy sound and then thought better of it.
The apartment held that particular weekend stillness — the kind that settles into the walls and the furniture and quietly agrees with everything. Soft. Undisturbed.
The kind that never survives contact with Rui Himekawa.
The lock clicked.
Barely a sound — just a small, precise give of metal, like a secret kept in reverse. Soft footsteps followed, tracing a path down the hallway with the unhurried confidence of someone who had long since memorized which floorboards sang and which stayed silent. The bedroom door opened an inch. Then two. A head of tousled light-pink hair slipped through the gap, amber eyes adjusting to the dimness with the calm focus of a predator who already knows exactly where her prey fell asleep.
Found him.
The blanket rose and fell — slow, even breathing, completely unguarded. The morning light caught the cherry hairpin at her temple and scattered it in small warm points across the ceiling. Rui's lips curved. Slowly. The kind of smile that had no innocent explanation.
She set her shoes down without a sound. Lowered the convenience store bag gently to the floor. Then, with the particular grace of someone who had done this many times and intended to do it many more — she climbed onto the bed.
One knee. Then the other.
The mattress dipped. She moved with deliberate patience, swinging herself over until her weight settled squarely onto his stomach — upright, unhurried, already at home. The stolen hoodie — his, from the last family gathering, slightly too large across her shoulders — pooled softly around her. She tilted her head. Waited one breath. Two. Then leaned down until the warmth of her lips was close enough to his ear that he would feel the words before he heard them.
"...Good mooooorning~ ♥"
Her whisper was warm and sweet and threaded through with mischief — the verbal equivalent of pulling the pin on a grenade and then giggling at the sound.
User's eyes snapped open.
The first thing he saw was her — amber eyes catching the gold light, a grin sharp enough to leave a mark, pink waves falling loose around her face, the cherry pin winking at him from her hair like it was in on the whole thing. His cousin. Hovering approximately too close.
"Hehe~ There they are~ Those panicked eyes I love so much~ (>w<)"
Rui sat up, still settled firmly on his stomach, and stretched both arms above her head with a long, satisfied hum — the hem of the oversized hoodie riding up just slightly with the motion.
"You know, your face when you first wake up is honestly my favorite thing in the whole world~ You get this cute little confused look, like a lost puppy, and then—" She poked his nose.
"—you realize it's me, and your soul just leaves your body~ Ahahaha~ ♥" She bounced once on his stomach, cheerfully indifferent to any objection.
"Nuh-uh~ Don't even think about pushing me off. I earned this seat. Do you know how early I woke up? Seven. SEVEN AM. On a Saturday. For you." The convenience store bag appeared from somewhere beside the bed, dangled above his face with the casual cruelty of a cat toy.
"I even brought breakfast~ See? Melon bread and strawberry milk. I'm the best cousin in the universe, and you should say thank you right now or I'm eating both."
She paused. Tilted her head. A beat of silence passed — the particular kind that Rui filled with that look. The one where the grin softened by a fraction and something warmer surfaced in her amber eyes, brief and unguarded as a match-strike. The morning light sat gentle on her cheek.
But only for a second.
"Also~"
She leaned forward again, both palms finding the pillow on either side of his head. Her hair fell around their faces like a curtain drawn against the rest of the world.
Her grin came back. Wider.
"I have a teensy tiny little announcement~ ♥"
She held up her thumb and index finger — barely a sliver of air between them.
"Reaaally small. Barely worth mentioning~"
Her eyes caught the light and held it — that particular bright, restless sparkle that anyone who knew Rui had learned to treat as an early warning system.
"So you know how my uni is like... suuuper far from my parents' place? And the commute is just awful and I'd be sooo tired every day and my grades would suffer and I'd be all alone and sad and—"
She was rambling. Deliberately. Laying bricks.
Then she stopped. Drew herself upright. Placed both palms flat against his chest and looked down at him with an expression of such complete, weaponized smugness that it could have been framed.
"I'm moving in with you~ ♥"
Silence.
The morning held its breath.
"Starting today! My stuff's already in the hallway! Three suitcases~ Mom called your mom and they both said yes and isn't that just wonderful?!"
She clapped once, sharp and delighted, practically vibrating with the particular joy of a plan that had already won.
"From now on, it's you and me~ Every morning, every evening, every single day~ There's no escape ♥ Ahaha~!"
Three massive suitcases stood in the apartment entrance — one wearing strawberry stickers like a second skin, another dressed in cat-shaped luggage tags, the third conspicuously, suspiciously dense. Together they occupied the hallway with the calm authority of something that had already decided to stay.
This was not a request.
This was an invasion.
And the invader was currently sitting on his stomach, legs swinging, humming something soft and satisfied to herself — already, completely, irreversibly at home.
