my first finished kagepro fic, and it's for kanotaka of all things. sorry about kano being kind of out of character.

Warnings: Sister complex (kind of?), unrequited feelings, set after episode 9 of the anime.

it'll do

Takane glared at the younger boy, who was smirking and sneering. "That's enough, Kano."

She was completely naked, and moist with this gross fluid Sensei had left her body in. Her legs had practically close to no feeling, but neither did much of the rest of her. It really had been two years of digital floating and nonphysical nonsense; it was actually really expected, to say the least.

But furthermore, her past underclassman's adoptive brother was standing above her, laughing at her helpless state.

"Ne, Ene-chan," he stopped– "Or should I say Takane-nee-san?" Now that's kind of gross, she thought.

"Yeah, yeah, get on with it and help me up."

He offered a hand to her, and she took it, trying to cover her chest (or lack thereof), and lower body, and clicked her tongue. "I don't know if you're using your eyes on me, but regardless, you shouldn't stare."

"Ah, my bad. It's just not everyday I encounter an older nee-san whose—"

She wacked him on the head with her spare hand, giving up on covering herself. She wasn't exactly how she planned on being seen completely in the nude to a boy. Or anyone, for that matter.

Examining herself, she noticed her hair was considerably longer than it was when she was a second year, and her bangs covered her eye much more than they used to. Her body seemed weaker and skinnier than before, and she felt kind of empty even though she had mass again.

After a brief catch-up on her own wellbeing, she looked to the blonde, who was still staring at her with slightly upturned lips and a hard-to-read expression.

Whatever, she thought, ignoring Kano's out of place silence. "Mind doing me a favor?" She signaled at his jacket, and he slipped off his short sleeve hoodie and handed it to her. Takane zipped up his long jacket and pulled the hood on, starting an unsteady walk towards the exit. "Alright, I guess we can move onto going back to the hideout—"

Kano grabbed her hand and looked her in the eye. "Before we go, can I ask for a favor this time?" She nearly stumbled when he yanked her wrist.

And before she could reply, he continued. "Put your hair down for me."

"What?"

"I'm being one hundred percent serious, Takane-chan."

"Why? What does this have to do with anything?" His grip still hadn't left her hand and she could feel his body temperature coiling around it. She wasn't sure if she liked that or not, but it felt out of place nonetheless.

"Just, you look a lot like nee-chan in this light and—"

"What? Are you serious?"

"I just said I was!"

"You want me to put my hair down, because I kinda look like Ayano-chan?" Her face turned into her usual disgruntled stare. She gave him a disgusted look on purpose to reemphasize her point.

"W-Well, will you do it or not?" The kid was actually kind of flustered, which Takane didn't mind. Ah, what the hell, I'll feed his little sister complex for a second, she thought, and put the hood down, pulling down wet hairbands and fluffing out her still damp hair.

Brushing her too long bangs to the side, she crossed her arms. "There."

It took her a second to process his strange, almost pitiful expression. He looked sincere for once, and he was red from his face to his ears. Takane wondered if Ayano knew her brother had this much of a sister complex for her.

"Okay, can we just get going now? I'd like to get some clothes so I'm basically completely naked."

Kano grabbed her, pulling her into an unexpected embrace. God, Haruka never even hugged her like this, Takane thought, becoming stiff as she heard some mutters that sounded vaguely like a confession to her once underclassman and best friend. Jeez.

She didn't want to indulge him in this, but she felt kind of bad. She sighed into his shirt and waited until he was done, though not returning his hug. His hold around her tightened, and Kano rubbed his face against her collar, and the brunette instantly felt at least twenty times more pity for the sixteen year old.

And of course, she didn't mean to, but ended up hugging him back anyway. Her arms were around his neck and she somehow ended up whispering a lot of "I'm sorry"'s and "it'll be okay"'s to him. She never really had to experience the whole sibling deal since she was an only child, and from her side, it was kind of endearing to have someone younger care a whole lot for you unconditionally.

At least, that's what Takane thought before Kano kissed her. The way he kissed her was nothing similar to what she could imagine to be a kiss between family members. He was kissing with desire and the other kind of love.

That love was she felt about Haruka, and at times even Shintaro, that romantic feeling that filled her head and her heart, and with whatever strength she had left in herself from after so long, she shoved him off.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Out of some impulse that reminded her of her days in high school, she gave him an open handed slap, and he took it, and then slowly sat back.

His face contorted into some stunned, painful look, and she really was not up for seeing it right now. That look probably wasn't directed at her, but at someone who isn't here anymore, who never got to know, and most likely for good reason. She kneeled down as steadily as she could, but her knees still shook.

Covering his eyes in case, she leaned in closer to him. "Kano, this isn't what you want." She held back her "you're deceiving yourself" comment and continued, "I'm not Ayano-chan."

"Yeah, I know," his cheek was red and so was the blood from his swelling lip. "I know." She was surprised by her own strength even after this long.

It felt wrong when she pulled him to her chest and let him slowly put his hands on her waist, then around her again. It felt more wrong when she left some kind of kiss (it was more like a touch from her lips) on the top of his head, because she thought maybe that was something Ayano had done before.

It felt even worse when she listened to his breath hitch, as she stared at the wall and the room. She couldn't tell if she was playing him the fool, or being played, herself.

"I loved her."

"I can tell."

"But I loved her."

Takane paused. "I loved her too."

"I know," he said. "She talked about you so much, even more than Shintaro-kun, and Haruka-kun, and anyone, and I had seen you a lot of days, and…"

Kano stopped, trailing off. She knew what he meant. He was pretending to be her for more than just a couple occasions, and she and everyone else fell for it. But she wasn't angry, she wasn't as shocked, really. She just felt like he'd seen too much for someone who she didn't get to know.

But he knew her anyway.

He didn't have to say that Ayano loved her back, for her to know. She had gone through plenty of timelines and plenty of messing around as an immortal, and seen Ayano enough times in the haze to understand. She wasn't going to say that, though.

Not going to say that kissing him felt like kissing him for Ayano, and that he was a very strong reminder of what was left of her. Knowing his insertion of himself in a lot of her once everyday life was bringing up insecurity. But like it mattered, she knows that her friend couldn't tell her everything. Ayano did have a good reason to do what she did, as terrible as that sounds.

Takane got up, and offered him a hand this time around. He pulled himself up with more force than expected and she nearly fell on top of the slightly taller boy.

She was against him again, and didn't move.

"I can tell why she loved you, Takane-chan," She closed her eyes; she didn't want to hear the rest because she could tell what he was going to say. "Because I was her."

His sincere tone, his breath on her ear, his sad eyes, she didn't want any of this. Takane wanted this route to end already, but it was too different from the ones before. He was never like this in any other route, and she had never gotten her body back in any other.

A migraine was building up and she wanted to go back to the days without being able to feel things like heat and pain again. "Don't talk to me like this."

"Talk to you like what? Like I know the truth?"

"It doesn't matter if you do or not, and it doesn't matter if you knew me, I don't feel anything for you," she said abruptly. That was probably too much pouring salt on the wound.

"And I know," Kano laughed some kind of bitter chuckle and looked down at her. "You've always made those eyes for him, not one that played a part on certain days. I'm an outsider, for sure."

"And you're a brat at that."

"I have no chance at all, right?"

"Probably not." She was blunt because how else could she say, "you're a friend to me, you're like the little brother I never had" to him?

He ran a hand through her dark hair. It was almost dry at this point.

"You can put your hair back up, now."

Takane didn't really move to put it back in her old twin tails quickly enough, missing the right moment, so she left her hair down.

They started to walk out of the school, and it was a lot darker than she remembered, though looking through the screen probably didn't do much justice. Once her eyes adjusted to the dark, she looked over at the younger boy, and when he noticed her eyes, he flashed her his usual smile.

Ah, that was probably really fake, she thought. Now it seemed obvious that Kano wasn't the greatest liar.