Chi,

You fell asleep on my shoulder at breakfast this morning - are you tired? I nap every day after work. You should join me

Louis :)

—

Ema held up the small, silver room key (For you, Chi. It's yours) that had been taped to the bottom of the lavender scented note.

Well, Louis was a sleepy sort of person, and besides - Ema had been crying for her birth parents all night, so his shoulder had looked very comfy in the soft early morning light. She had woken in his arms, with spilled oatmeal on her lap and Masaomi's cool hand pressed to her forehead.

"He's gentle to you, Chi," Juli declared from his place on her shoulder. "Louis will protect you while you're sleeping from those other bastard brothers!"

Ema pressed the lavender-scented paper to her pink lips, smiling and murmuring, "Louis is gentle."

She likes that about him, she thinks.

Ema was sitting on his bed, wearing an oatmeal sweater and a comfy cream-colored skirt.

Louis smelled of hairspray when he walked into his room, and Ema caught the faint scent of expensive, perfumed shampoo when he handed her a mug of hot milk. —

"Thanks, Louis!" Wataru always got a cup of hot cocoa when Louis was at the stove warming his milk.

"You're making more than you usually do," Ukyo notices, sipping at his cup of coffee, but has to hurry off before he can hear his brother's reply. "Ah, don't run when you're holding something hot, Wataru!"

Louis stirs the milk with a pair of chopsticks, "well, I'm not alone today."

— "I'm glad you decided to join me, Chi," Louis said dreamily, drawing his curtains and switching on his Himalayan salt lamp - the room was bathed in roses and creme.

He kicked off his slippers and crawled into his sheets, grabbing a stuffed sheep that had one button eye missing. Gently, always gently, Louis pulled Ema down so she lay beside him.

He tucked a warm fleece blanket around them both, allowing the girl to nuzzle against his soft stomach.

Her cheeks were pink.

"I cry too," he whispered, suddenly, "when I think about my parents. I think you're supposed to."

Tears on her eyelashes, Ema grasped at his blue jacket, looking up at the man when he put a hand to her cheek.

The kiss was chaste and sweet and gentle, and the first Ema has had that was for her, too.

They fell asleep at the same time.

"Did you sleep well, Louis?" Ukyo asked, not looking up from his cutting board when he heard the stairs creak.

He didn't see Ema clinging to his adopted - to his brother's arm. They both had sleep marks on their cheeks, from the other's hair.

"We did."