The Sleepiest of Sisters

Aito opened his eyes for maybe the fiftieth time that night, maybe more than that, maybe less. The exact count mattered little more than to illustrate his relative state of wakedness compared to his present surroundings. In short: Two girls sleeping on a bed placed very symmetrically to the one Aito himself laid in on the opposite side of the room, some miscellaneous pieces of furniture between the two beds, the bed Aito himself occupied, the wall behind his back, and one girl in front of Aito on the same bed as him - his own sister.

Backtracking ever so slightly, it all started when Yuki proposed that Aito and his sister both sleep over due to the late time and the fact that they already were there anyway.

And so, limited by the amount of and size of the beds present, any reasonable split that would result in no one sleeping on the floor necessitated an even split of two human beings per silky soft bed. Something that would have posed no issues to anyone involved if not for the fact that the ratio of genders in the building remained three girls to one guy, meaning the only reasonable course of action would be for Aito to sleep in the same bed as one of the girls, and so everyone unanimously concluded that Aito sleeping with his sister would be the most logical.

Thus Aito’s current inability to sleep could mostly be blamed on the rather cute little sister sleeping right in front of him, her chest rising and lowering a little every breath she drew. Because she was. Cute, that is. But cute enough to date? Cute enough for it to be okay for her own brother to date her? Or maybe it wasn’t really a matter of what would be considered “okay”, but rather what Aito himself wanted?

Trying to push aside the kind of philosophical thoughts that didn’t suit him but crept their way to the surface on nights he couldn’t sleep, Aito turned around so he wouldn’t need to spend the night unable to sleep staring at his sister. The wall on the other side turned out not to make for better company, leading Aito to turn back over and once again face Sana.

A pair of eyes just as open as Aito’s own stared back at him — it may have been night, but it was also summer and the room was not good enough at blocking out outside light for a certain unpleasant trace of it not to remain, just enough for Aito to make out the fact the the eyes of the girl in front of him were open but no more.

“Can’t sleep?”

A whisper just audible enough for Aito’s ears to pick it up.

“Frankly speaking? No. Having you so close is pretty distracting.”

“In a good or bad way?”

“In a… distracting way. If that’s good or bad is up to you.”

“Good. Definitely good.”

“Really?”

It seemed doubtful if Sana could see Aito’s raised eyebrow in the relative darkness, but he chose to believe the gesture itself still held a certain intrinsic value.

“We’re going to have to date, right? Then finding me distracting might be a good sign for things to come.”

“I could find some other girl instead so you don’t have to?”

“We both know that’s not happening. Not in a week. Probably not in more than that either. Maybe eventually if you really tried, but by then it would be too late, wouldn’t it?”

“I mean, I’m sure there has to be someone somewhere. Surely there has to be at least one more girl in the world that could fall for me if I played my cards right.”

“And how are you going to find that girl if she’s on the other side of the world or something and you’re stuck here in this tiny town?”

“True, I hadn’t considered that.”

“And there’s no guarantee you’d actually be into that hypothetical girl. Or that she’ll look as good as me.”

“Or that.”

“See? You have to date me. I’m good at filling in what you’re missing. And right now you’re missing another girlfriend.”

But did he, really? His only real reason for dating his little sister still consisted solely of his desire to prove to Riku that Aito in fact was popular enough to get five people to date him. Aito agreed for that one reason alone. Not out of love, not out of physical desires (not that Sana wasn't cute), and whatever this could be, a genuine attempt at finding any sort of love beyond the platonic and familiar was the one thing it could never be.

Or?

Maybe Sana had a point?

“That’s not all. You already suck at everything love and romance. I’m basically easy mode, so you may as well go with me instead of having to find some random other girl you’ll probably fail at seducing anyway. Besides, this situation we’re in right now? I’d already call this pretty romantic. Maybe I’m actually very easy and not just easy.”

Being in bed with a girl could maybe be considered kind of romantic? Which in that case raised its own share of issues. Most importantly, Aito being in the middle of the arguably most romantic activity of any of the dates so far, and with his little sister being the one lying there opposite him. Truly a reflection of the levels of depravity Aito had already reached in order to achieve his goals.

Maybe that was fine, though? Maybe it didn’t really matter as long as he got what he wanted?

Part of Aito's brain raised a silent protest at the situation, but the rest of it remained unable to comprehend what the problem possibly could be, numbed through the fog of mild mental exhaustion and a thorough lack of sleep.

“Maybe I should stop being so roundabout and just say what I mean. Aito, don’t take me out of the picture just because I’m your sister. I have feelings for you, the kind I probably shouldn’t, and that is why I want to be one of your girlfriends.”

Aito’s reaction: One part shock, one part terror, five parts water, minus the water.

“I was thinking I’d never stand a chance, but maybe this is it, you know? My time in the spotlight, for you to actually look at me the way I want you to. And if I can get that, who cares if I have to share with some other people? As long as I get you, that is all that matters.”

Part of Aito wanted to play things safe, stay away from whatever this was, avoid committing to anything he’d maybe later come to regret. Part of him just didn’t want to see someone he knew so well have to suffer or feel sad because of something Aito himself could make better.

“My sister or not, it’s not like dating you or not would necessarily make you worse than the others. If I choose not to date you, then perhaps that’s because you’re my sister, but that doesn’t mean I don’t think you’re cute and that I don’t love you in a different way, you know? Isn’t that kind of love good too, in its own way? I don’t think it, or you, would really be worse than any other girl or kind of love.”

"No. Face it. I am inferior. I am worse. And I'll always be. Because I'm your sister. Statistically that makes my chances of getting into a long-term relationship with you basically zero. Or at least it would, if I didn’t have an opportunity like this one. That makes it objectively worse.”

Retreating seemed the wisest move, before things went too far. But seeing someone he cared for sad right in front of him? That kind of thing could lead some people down even paths they didn’t truly believe in, Aito himself being one of those people.

“Sana. Take a moment to listen to me. Alright?”

“Okay?”

"This isn't about statistics, or what's likely or normal. If I cared about being normal, I'd never have tried to date five girls… no, four girls and one guy, at the same time. This is about you, me, our feelings, and what we're going to do about them. Nothing else."

“That’s not an actual answer.”

“Fine. I’ll give you as concrete an answer as you ever could hope for. I will go on a date with you.”

“Thank you. But somehow I feel like that’s not the full picture, is it?”

“It is. I promise. Nothing more to it.”

“Well, if you say so…”

Aito considered lying and just going along with things for the exact amount of time it took him to realise that he’d probably hurt his sister even more later if she found out he lied.

“No, scratch that. I… to be honest I can’t say I’m nearly as confident as I said. I can go on a date with you, but I can’t say anything about after that or if it will lead to anything.”

“I suspected something like that was the case.”

“What would you have done if I hadn’t been willing to admit that?”

“Then I’d have gotten really mad at you, probably.”

“Suddenly I feel this incredible sense of relief. Is that strange?”

“Nope, that’s a perfectly proportionate reaction, I’d say.”

“So, Sana. When do you want your date?”

“Let’s save it for after you’re done with your stupid bet. I don’t want you distracted by a bunch of other stuff while out with me.”

“I’m glad you guys managed to sort that out!”

“Yuki? You were awake? Mind telling me how long you’ve been listening, exactly?”

"Don't worry, I only heard... whatever that last part was all about... actually, no. Sorry, but I lied. There's no way things would work out that conveniently, is there? I heard all of it, or at least close enough for the difference to not matter. But you know what? I don't particularly care and I'm not going to tell anyone, so you can rest easy. Good night."

And so the situation calmed down momentarily.

Even if some confusion about Yuki’s and Sana’s actions still remained - such as if Yuki actually wanted people close to her or not and why the heck Sana would be into Aito in the first place, at this point Aito at last felt like things had settled down a bit and he’d gotten a fair bit of progress on winning the bet he made. Thinking back to why things had worked out, he found two things he’d perhaps once wouldn’t have considered: his respect for Yuki’s wishes, and his attempt at being truthful with Sana.

Perhaps some issues still remained with Aito, and understood the root cause of why he had these issues he may have not, but that didn’t stop the slight changes in his attitude from being a small step to one day maybe making him a slightly better person.