“I-I’m really sorry Yukio!” I bowed deep, apologizing for such an inconvenience.
        “It’s not a big deal, Y/n,” Yukio replied rather quickly, seemingly uncomfortable with the apologizing and bowing.
        “We’ll just have to uhh… go to my place, I guess. You’ll just have to let me warn my brother beforehand, so he’s not walking around half .” Now standing straight, my face flushed, but I smiled. It was small, but Yukio understood.
        “A-alright! So uhm… should we skip today’s study session… or..?” I asked, struggling to keep eye contact with the popular boy. Sure, we were friends, but he’s so confident, so popular. Sometimes it’s hard to look him in the eye. Sometimes it’s hard to look anyone in the eye.
        “No, I don’t think we’ll need to. I’ll just go find Rin during lunch. However, we should probably discuss this later. The bell is about to ring, and I fear we’ll already be late… we’ve only got a few minutes to get to the other side of the school.” I gaped at this new piece of information, my eyes growing wide. Yukio just chuckled. “Let’s head out. I’m sure being a few minutes late once won’t be too big a deal.” Nodding, I followed to taller boy to class. Today was going to be… different.
 

 
        “Thank you f-for having me!” I bowed, silently cursing myself for stuttering once again. Yukio just laughed and walked down the hall, indicating for me to follow. Doing as told, I follow the boy down the hall, stopping when we passed the dining area.
        “What’s that smell?”
        “Rin’s probably cooking something.”
        “Wow… it smells amazing…” I trailed off, trying to catch a glimpse of Yukio’s elder brother through the small window-like hole in the wall separating the dining area from the kitchen. Instead, I saw a black cat. It jumped up onto the ledge, spotted me, and then trotted over.
        “Y/n? Ah, do you want to try some of Rin’s cooking? I’m sure he wouldn’t mind cooking for one more. In fact, he’d probably love it.” Startled at the sudden voice behind me, I turned around quickly, stuttering once again, though no words actually came out.
“Hey, Yukio!” a voice shouted, causing me to whip my head around. A boy – about Yukio’s height – was now walking towards us. His blueish black hair was messy, his bangs pinned back with a hair clip, and he wore a yellow apron. Somehow, the look seemed to suit him.
        “Hello, Rin. What are you cooking?”
        “I figured I’d make chicken curry don today! Ah, is this Y/n? Hi, I’m Rin!” Rin held out a hand towards me, a large, goofy grin plastered on his face. Startled, I jumped, my face heating up. Rin took notice, his smile only faltering for a mere second.
        “O-oh! You’ve been cut!” I stared wide eyed at the hand he held out towards me, instantly taking it into my own and examining it, a focused look soon making its way onto my face. I turned his hand over in my own. The cut went across his thumb. It’s bleeding a bit, but it’s not very deep.
        “Y/n, would you mind taking care of Rin’s cut? I have to go sort a few things out before we start studying.” Yukio chimed in. I tensed, looking over my shoulder, staring at my study partner in shock. “There’s a First Aid kit in the kitchen, thanks.” Yukio flashed me a smile before walking off. Shifting my weight, I looked back at Rin, waiting for him to lead the way.
        “Ah, you really don’t have to. I’m fine, really, I hadn’t even noticed it.” I frowned, my eyebrows furrowing.
        “A cut needs to be properly cleaned and bandaged. Doesn’t matter if it’s small and doesn’t bother you.” I said sternly, quickly becoming frustrated. Why do people always think like this? I swear.
        Rin smiled, though I could see the surprise in his eyes. “Alright… well, right this way!” I followed Rin, noticing he wasn’t quite as tall as his younger brother. While Yukio is nearly six feet tall, Rin seems to actually be a few inches short than him. Still, though, he’s quite a bit taller than me. That’s not exactly a hard thing to do though. Being a measly 5’1”, most people are taller than me. Though, I have met a couple boys around me height, and a few girls shorter than me. It’s rather rare.
        “You’re older than Yukio, right?” I asked out of the blue as Rin handed me the First Aid kit.
        “Yeah! Yuki’s my little bro,” Rin smiled, seemingly proud that he’s older.
        “But, he’s still taller?” I mumbled the rhetorical question, searching through the kit for alcohol, cotton pads, and Band-Aids.
        “Ah… yeah…” Rin trailed off awkwardly, staring down at me. Finding what I needed, I placed on cotton pad on the tip of the open bottle of alcohol, dumping it over quickly before turning it right side up again, placing the lid back on and setting it to the side.
“This might sting a bit.” I informed Rin as I grabbed his hand quickly, wiping the bloodied cut with the alcohol soaked cotton pad. I could practically feel Rin flinch as I wiped the blood away. As I pulled the now blood covered cotton pad away, I inspected the cut, grunting softly with satisfaction before pulling out a pink, dinosaur Band-Aid and carefully wrapping it around his thumb, making sure the cut was complete covered by the non-sticky part of it.
        “Wow, thanks! You’re good at this,” Rin laughed, checking out the pink Band-Aid.
        “Yeah… I kind of have to be.” I mumbled, carefully putting everything away now that we were done using it.
        “Really? Why?”
        “My sisters used to get hurt a lot. I had to take care of them, since they were basically useless when it came to that sort of stuff.”
        “You’re mom or dad didn’t do it?”
        “They died a long time ago.”
        “Oh.”
        “His parents died in a mysterious blue fire.” I flinched as Yukio ‘let the cat out of the bag’.
        “Oh…” Rin whispered, casting his eyes to the side, “Sorry.”
        “Don’t apologize. It’s not like it was your fault. You weren’t even there. Blue flames are rather interesting though.” I smiled, trying to indicate that I wasn’t worried about my parent’s death. I never really knew them, after all. “You ready to study?”
        “Yeah, let’s go.”