"With Hisao, Suzu and I lazing about the living room while watching a movie, a pleasant sense of routine has come over the Suzuki household."

"While things have improved slightly from the heavy stuff around my arrival, it'd be a lie to say everything's back to normality. Now that the dust has settled, it seems her parents are simply ignoring my existence before I'm out of their hair for good."

"Questions such as whether I deserve that treatment or not are irrelevant now. I've never been one to ponder how the world isn't or how it should be, only how it is."

"Hisao interest in what's playing is about as low as it could be while still being polite, his attention more on patting the sleeping dog in his lap than anything else. Having no such worries, I loudly begin to snore."

suz "Be quiet."

"Her placid face holds, holding her knees to her chest as she watches the televison ahead of us with total concentration."

"I don't even see the appeal of this. Sure, she likes romantic shows and the usual sappy crap, but this is the most delightfully boring show she's inflicted on me yet. Set in Victorian England, it seems to be about some fancy estate this rich woman wants to keep."

"I think, anyway. It's gone on so long that I've started to lose track."

mik "Hisao, what's the appeal in this?"

"He just shrugs, content to relax in the recliner with his new furry friend."

his "Don't ask me."

mik "Suzu...?"

suz "It's a nice setting. The houses and outfits are pretty, too."

"Nerds are so weird."

"As much as I'd like to complain further, I did get my choice of movie before this, so I guess she has to have her turn."

"Accepting my fate and doing my best to avoid falling asleep before it ends, a familiar smell enters the room. 'Musty' would be the best word for it. Miyu's head perks up, practically trained to recognise the scent."

"Sure enough, Tsubasa strolls into the room with a cigarette perhced in her mouth. She takes a hold of her shoulder before rolling her arm about in its socket to try and free up the joint."

his "You're not old yet."

tsu "I sure feel like it."

"She grabs her neck next, tilting her head from side to side. University sure seem to take its toll on her."

suz "You shouldn't do that inside. Mom and dad'll kill you if they find out."

tsu "Snitches get stitches."

suz "I mean the smell. It sticks around."

"Tsubasa looks a little surprised at her sister's looking out for her. She really should just kick the habit already."

"She takes the cigarette from her lips and gives a haughty puff, her focus moving from her sister to the television as dramatic music suddenly plays. Perhaps the only interesting thing in the movie happens, with a bookcase falling on some guy."

tsu "Ouch."

tsu "Anyway, I'm taking the dog for a walk. You kiddoes want to come?"

"Miyu catches the key word, excitedly leaping off Hisao and tearing up to Tsubasa with its tail flicking wildly."

"With Suzu's attention remaining wholly on what's happening on the screen, she doesn't notice the pointed way her sister locks eyes with me. Wanting to escape the house and get some sun anyway, I shrug and accept."

mik "Sure."

his "It's over."

mik "Huh?"

"I turn around to see the television once more, the credits having finally begun to scroll."

mik "Thank God. How bloody long was that thing?"

suz "It was only two hours. Can you really not sit in one place that long?"

tsu "Can you two stop picking on each other? I'm about to go."

"Miyu's started running about the room in anticipation, her lead trailing behind her."

mik "Coming!"

suz "I'll come too."

"As Suzu looks at me, I find myself slightly pleased by her eagerness. She isn't the type to enjoy going outside and getting exercise for its own sake, after all."

# Timeskip

"With Hisao deciding the allure of Suzu's game collection was greater than his want to take a walk with us, she, her sister, and I end up making a mishappen trio as we walk along the sunbaked street."

"Suzu takes command of Miyu as the dog stops every so often to sniff at this or that, while her sister smokes away with her hands in her pockets. As for me, I continue my reading of a manga I scavanged from her room."

mik "Hey, Suzu... why do you like this stuff?"

suz "Do you have to insult my tastes all the time?"

mik "I mean it, I seriously don't understand."

mik "Like, take this one. A girl goes to a cafe, mopes a bit, gets a coffee refill from the waitress, then leaves after they tell each other their names."

suz "Ah, that one. I like that chapter."

"Her voice lilts a little, the mere thought of it enough to please her."

mik "And that's it? There's no more chapters?"

suz "It's a short story about hope and budding romance between passing strangers. There are no more chapters."

mik "...They told each other their names."

"Miyu stops to pee on a flower that apparently deserved a bit of watering. Tsubasa just lets her gaze wander around the houses lining the suburb street. It's almost maddeningly pedestrian."

"It probably means nothing to Tsubasa, but after so long living within the school campus and nearby town, what passes for normality takes on a new significance. Maybe that's one of the reasons I wanted to come here beyond Suzu; a chance to live the normal middle-class life I've never had, at least for a time."

"I turn out to be a lost cause for Suzu as she tugs at an obstinate Miyu, eventually managiong to get her to walk once more."

"Noticing Tsubasa walking a little slower than usual, I match her pace as we end up falling a few more yards behind the other two. Our voices are little more than a whisper."

mik "So what's up?"

tsu "It really should be dad following this up, but with things as they are..."

"Oh, so it's about that. Arrangements regarding medication and other ways of dealing with her narcolepsy have generally fallen to her father to manage. It feels really dumb to need her sister to act as an intermediary, but that's the way things stand."

"She starts telling Miyu off for struggling to reach a middle-aged man walking on the other side of the road, making it clear she's not listening in on us."

mik "Shoot."

tsu "How's she been?"

mik "There's one thing I want to tell you, and another I should tell you."

mik "It's hardly scientific, but she hasn't been great lately. She's been trying to hide it, too."

"The cigarette in her mouth takes on a distinct ownward slant."

tsu "Guess I'll report that back to the mothership, then. Her doctor wanted to try a new regime, so I guess it's not working."

tsu "What a pain..."

mik "Sorry to be the bearer of bad news."

tsu "What about you, anyway? You're chipper as always."

mik "Can't keep me down for long."

"My cheesy grin seems to lighten her mood. It's true that missing a hand causes a lot of day-to-day annoyances, but at least I don't have to take drugs to deal with it. Both of us came off better than Hisao, too."

tsu "Thoughts gone to your other comrade?"

mik "Yeah. Guy's a bit of a weird one like Suzu, I'm afraid."

tsu "Haha, he isn't so bad. Damned shame what happened to him, though."

mik "You know about it?"

tsu "He told me a while ago. Shitty thing to happen to such a sweet kid."

mik "You really need to stop talking like some fifty year-old."

suz "She was born fifty years old."

"Both of us briefly wonder how much of our conversation Suzu's caught, but she gives no indication of having heard anything untoward."

tsu "Being mature is considered a positive thing, Suzu."

suz "I am mature. Unlike some."

mik "And there's the dig at me. Every bloody time."

"Tsubasa just smiles at us as she takes Miyu's leash and skips on a couple of steps ahead, leaving Suzu and I to walk behind."

"Suzu opens her handbag, allowing me to deposit the book and take her hand in mine. That that, our trio sets forth once more."

"I really could get used to these quiet days."