Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

The three of them are situated in the Khun family household calmly studying their brains out while the desperate wish for summer to come even just a little bit faster looms over their heads. Kiseia waits quietly in the living room from her seat on the floor in front of the coffee table on the other side of Aguero and Bam while her brother takes a look at one of her English essays. It’s final exam week at her high school and this is her last assignment before she can finally go on summer break. English isn’t exactly her best subject, although she’s never scored lower than a 90. However, this time she wanted to score high enough to completely wreck the class average and her brother, being as conniving as he is, found her motive entertaining enough to agree to help her with it. Aguero is in finals week at his university too, but he invited her to join his small study session with Bam to kill two birds with one stone.

Aguero spins a red pen in his hand as he scans over her work. He frowns suddenly, midway through mouthing out one of the sentences he’s reading, and brings the pen cap to his mouth, uncapping it with his teeth before marking something on the paper. Kiseia frowns too, there’s more editing to be done. Bam looks over at Aguero when he hears the pen uncapping and without any prompting reaches toward his friend to pull away the pen cap balancing delicately from Aguero’s mouth.

“Stop chewing up all my pen caps, Khun. You have hands use them,” Bam says in exasperation as he places the pen cap onto the table next to his laptop.

“Sorry,” Aguero mumbles although it doesn’t really seem like he’s all that apologetic, eyes still roaming Kiseia’s assignment before him. He makes two more marks on her paper.

Bam gives Aguero a look knowing that this isn’t going to be the last time whatsoever. Kiseia almost feels sorry for Bam, her brother is a notorious pen cap chewer and it’s disgusting. Bam seems to have his interest piqued in something though as he suddenly squints his eyes slightly and leans into Aguero’s space to look over his blue-haired friend’s shoulder to get a better view at what was being marked.

“Why’d you mark that? There doesn’t need to be a semicolon there in the second to last sentence,” Bam points out after taking a few minutes to read over Aguero’s shoulder.

“Yeah there does,” Aguero says back, but his pen falters for a second as he considers what Bam is telling him.

“No, it’s better if Kiseia just splits that sentence into two separate ones. It’ll emphasize the point she’s making better,” Bam replies.

Aguero takes a second to reread the sentence again, “Oh, yeah, that works too.” He scratches out his semicolon and replaces it with a period and a note to separate the sentences.

"Maybe Bam should be the one editing my paper,” Kiseia says as she leans her chin onto the palm of her hand. This was the second draft where Bam corrected one of Aguero’s marks.

Aguero glowers at his little sister, “I’m just a little rusty in the English department. I get higher marks on my essays than Bam. Besides, Bam should be focusing on his organic chemistry study guide anyways.” Aguero turns his head to give his best friend a pointed look but underestimates their proximity with Bam still peering over his shoulder and accidentally smacks the back of his head against Bam’s nose.

“Ow,” the both of them yelp in unison. Aguero drops the pen to the floor with a clatter while Kiseia’s paper flutters onto the coffee table.

Bam, as if on reflex, immediately brings a hand up to cradle the back of Aguero’s head where his face made contact with it instead of his own nose that was injured, “You okay, Khun? Sorry, sat too close to you.”

Weird, Kiseia thought. Usually when you get hurt you touch your own injury first, not the person that injured you even if it was an accident.

“Yeah, what about you? I think I heard something pop,” Aguero says in concern as he reaches towards Bam’s face to inspect his nose. He places a gentle hand on Bam’s jaw and moves Bam’s head back and forth to inspect the injury before using his other hand to brush across the bridge of Bam’s nose where it was the most red.

Oh? Kiseia didn’t take her brother to be a touchy person. Even weirder.

Bam flinches slightly from the light sting of Aguero’s touch. Aguero frowns at Bam’s reaction, “Your nose is red, but there’s no bleeding.”

“I can get an ice pack from the freezer,” Kiseia announces. Her voice seemingly startles the two of them out of their intimate bubble of each other.

Oh? She didn’t mean to do that purposely. Actually, she didn’t realize they were in their own little world having forgotten she was sitting right before them watching the performance.

“I’m fine. Thanks though, Kiseia.” Bam smiles reassuringly at the younger girl and drops his hand from the back of Aguero’s head at the same time Aguero releases his face. Both boys looking a little flushed despite the nice cool breeze that rolls in through the windows occasionally.

“You sure?” Kiseia asks, “It’ll help with the swelling. My brother has a head as hard and thick as cement.”

“Hey,” Aguero protests in warning as he picks up the pen and Kiseia’s paper to resume his work. “Listen brat-”

Bam laughs in complete amusement at the siblings, “I have to agree with her on that.”

Aguero immediately turns on Bam again with a retort just itching to be freed from his lips, but when he sees the way Bam is grinning unabashedly at him any further protest he has immediately just dies on his tongue. Instead, he reaches out and lightly pinches the tip of Bam’s nose.

“Ah,” Bam flinches again and pouts at Aguero.

“Your red nose is making you look and act like a clown,” Aguero jokes but there’s a fondness in his eyes that’s unmistakable, “Kiseia, grab the ice pack and a paper towel for Bam.”

Kiseia gets up to do as she’s told. Bam does try to tell her it’s okay and he really doesn’t need it, but she ignores it as Aguero waves her off with his hand indirectly telling her to pay Bam’s words no mind. When she gets back with an ice pack wrapped around a paper towel, she stops in her tracks at the opening connecting the kitchen to the living room. Her brother and Bam haven’t noticed her presence yet, but she didn’t expect to walk in on a sight of her brother pulling at Bam’s cheeks playfully scolding him for taking her side about the comment about his hard head. Bam is laughing the entire thing off good naturedly, but she can’t really see Bam’s expression. She can, however, see her brother’s expression. It’s one that Kiseia doesn’t think she’s ever seen before. There’s a glint in Aguero’s eyes that just radiates affection, his smile is bright lacking any signs of the usual haughtiness he always carries, his nose crinkles in a way that indicates he wants to laugh with Bam too despite the scolding charade he’s playing on, and-  

And-

Oh? Ohhh. Kiseia gets it now. Her brother is in love with Bam.

>< 

It doesn’t officially feel like summer until a week into break when the heat rises high enough to feel like they’re baking, the sticky humidity clings to all parts of their skin, and there’s the complete disappearance of any and all relieving cool breezes. Even with summer finally here, Kiseia doesn’t do anything with her pre-summer revelation about Aguero. She just aces her English final with a score of 98 effectively gaining the top score among all her classmates and wrecking some of their chances at a summer without extra make up lessons. Some of them are pissed at her, she knows, but she doesn’t care. They should just get on her level if they want to do something about it. She’s a junior in high school going to be a senior in the coming fall with enough things to worry about like university applications and extra cram school sessions. Her brother’s love life was none of her business and of no interest to her.

Despite it being relatively late, the temperature isn’t dropping in the slightest degree. Sweat clings to Kiseia like glue and she’s quickly becoming desperate for something to cool her off. So, she makes the decision to head out of her room to raid the fridge for anything that’ll do the trick. When she gets downstairs, she sees Aguero and, unsurprisingly, Bam laying side by side on the wood floor in the living room with the lights off and TV playing some sort of action movie. Normally she’d be questioning their choice in seating arrangement but she gets it, it’s too hot to sit on the sofa without feeling as if the sofa is trying to swallow you after just a few minutes or worst case scenario forces you to leave a sweat stain outline where you’ve been sitting for too long.

However, in seeing the two boys so relaxed, Kiseia suddenly doesn’t feel like raiding the fridge for cold water or juice anymore, she has a better idea. She makes her way over to her brother who is clearly still awake despite him lying starfish face down with his forehead touching the floor. Bam catches sight of her first though, since he’s actually paying attention to the movie playing, and smiles a greeting at her. She returns his smile with a polite one of her own before she just seats herself, cross-legged, onto Aguero’s back without warning. Her brother grunts in displeasure as he feels her weight settle on his back. “Kiseia, what the hell. It’s hot, go away.”

Kiseia ignores her brother’s annoyed tone and tells him, “Go with me to the convenience store for ice cream. Mother will get mad if I go out late without you or sis.”

Aguero groans and presses the side of his face harder against the wood floor to chase any last bits of coolness he can get. He’s far too lazy for this. “Don’t we have ice cream in the fridge?”

“No, I think mother ate the last of it. Sis also mentioned wanting ice cream the other day too.” Kiseia answers, “They’re both asleep right now since they have work early tomorrow, so I can’t ask them to come with me.”

“It’s like 9pm,” Aguero complains and closes his eyes as if that would just settle the conversation and get Kiseia off his back, figuratively and literally.

“It’s hot,” Kiseia replies stubbornly jabbing harshly at a spot between her brother’s shoulder blades, “I’m dying, brother.”

Bam suddenly sits up, having heard enough of the Khun siblings bickering, he offers a quick and easy solution. “I’ll go with you, Kiseia, if Khun doesn’t want to, my treat.”

Kiseia’s eyes widen in surprise at the same time Aguero whips his head to the other side to look aghast at Bam for even suggesting such a thing.

“Oh my god, Bam, no,” Aguero says shaking his head vehemently, “Save your money. Kiseia get off me or I’ll throw you off.”

“I really don’t mind though,” Bam insists sincerely as he gets to his feet, “I should be heading home soon anyways. It’ll be on the way.”

Aguero pushes up on his arms forcing Kiseia to get up if she doesn’t want to topple over. The two Khun siblings glare at each other for a split second once they get to their feet. Kiseia knows she’s won though when Aguero’s glare relaxes and he just sighs at her. Aguero shifts his gaze to Bam, his eyes softening, “The three of us will go to the convenience store and we’ll drop you off at home from there, Bam.”

Bam shrugs, the walk isn’t that far, maybe twenty minutes at most. “If that’s what you want to do.”

Aguero sighs again but it’s more out of dramatics than anything else, “Like I really have a choice. Wait here, let me grab my wallet from my room.”

When her brother leaves to go upstairs. Kiseia raises a brow as she turns to Bam, “You knew my brother wasn’t going to say no didn’t you?”

“I have no idea what you mean,” Bam says innocently but he holds up his fist towards Kiseia. She eyes Bam’s fist in confusion for a second before she realizes what he was doing. She gives him a fist bump in return. A smile twitches at the corners of Kiseia’s lips but she schools her expression as her brother comes back down the stairs.

Bam totally knew, Kiseia thinks then concludes, and her brother is utterly whipped for Bam. This is good information to keep in mind if she ever really needs anything from her brother again in the future.

When they get to the convenience store down the street, Kiseia dumps two boxes of melon popsicles onto the counter for their mother and sister and a strawberry swirl cone for herself. She stares at Aguero expectantly. It wasn’t like she brought any money with her. Her brother narrows his eyes at her choices and puts one of the popsicle boxes back replacing them with two cups of different flavored sorbet ice cream for himself and Bam. Cheapskate. Whatever, she won’t complain out loud as long as she gets to keep her strawberry swirl. Bam does though as he insists on paying Aguero back for his share, but Aguero only tells him to shut up too while swiping his credit card on the machine to end all arguments on the matter.

Kiseia carries the melon popsicle box in a bag hanging from her wrist while she licks at her strawberry swirl cone, the heat no longer bothering her. Aguero and Bam are walking in front of her shoving sorbet ice cream down each other’s faces insisting the other’s flavor is better their own.

Kiseia rolls her eyes. Why didn’t they just switch? Idiots.

“Fruit punch tastes better,” Bam says as Aguero feeds him another artificially bright colored red spoonful of sorbet.

Aguero hums in reply as Bam scoops a spoonful from Bam’s own neon green ice cream and feeds it to him, “The green apple is definitely better.”

>< 

Summer is typically the best time to hang out with friends because what else is one supposed to do with all that extra free time on hand. Normally, Kiseia would be out of the house and probably be at the mall with her own small group of buddies or even out and about with her other cousins to catch up with them. But today just happened to be a day that no one seemed to have that extra free time on hand. So, when her brother knocks on her door offering her to join him and his friends for lunch downstairs, a gourmet meal of take out fast food, she didn’t think agreeing on a whim would wind up with her hanging out with them in the living room for the remainder of the day.

“My bet’s on Kiseia,” Hatz throws a ten dollar bill on the table, “She’s going to kick your ass, Khun.”

“You think I can’t take on my baby sister?” Aguero challenges as he matches Hatz’s ten dollar bill with one of his own.

Bam looks at Aguero with a mix of something that could only be described as disapproval and disappointment, “Why would you fight your baby sister?”

Endorsi almost chokes on her soda as she snorts, “The real question is why would Khun not. I’m with Hatz, ten on Kiseia.”

Kiseia shrugs, “Your funeral, brother.”

“Sassy. I like her,” Shibisu grins happily and throws a ten in the growing bet pile on the table too, “Can we replace our Khun with this little sis Khun?”

“If you want to die early, you can try it, track suit turtle,” replies Rak, but he also throws a ten into the same pile as everyone else. “Black turtle, you want in on this?”

Bam shakes his head, “I already know how this is going to end.”

“You’re all great friends, you know that?” Aguero says dryly, sarcasm heavily laden with every word. He throws a red switch controller at Kiseia, who catches it effortlessly. “I’ll go easy on you.”

Kiseia scoffs, “Oh, you’re going to eat those words, Aguero.”

The whole room erupts into a loud dragged out “Oooooooooh!” and a “Serve his ass on a platter!” as the Mario Kart theme song loads on the TV, the two sounds competing to be heard at the same ear-piercing volume. Kiseia has to laugh this time at the idiocy of her brother’s friends as she chooses princess Rosalina for her character of choice.

Aguero purses his lips in thought, then looks up at Bam who’s leaning on the sofa behind him. “Bam, pick a character, I’ll win with anything you pick.”

“Baby peach,” Bam replies with clear amusement in his tone.

Aguero laughs with that familiar glint in his eyes again and locks in his selection, “Sure.”

The moment they share is short and could easily be passed off as nothing, but Kiseia doesn’t miss the way her brother’s friends all exchange knowing looks and hidden smirks. However, her observation of it slips away once the theme music starts up again and she has to shift her full focus to the game. An entire mushroom cup and two rainbow roads later, Aguero is announced as the first place winner while Kiseia is stuck in a frustrating second place. Damn her brother, just when she was on a winning streak too.

“Brutal,” comments Shibisu, “Now, I can never see baby Peach in the same way ever again.”

“Blue turtle had to have cheated,” mutters Rak under his breath.

Endorsi shakes her head, “That was going easy on your baby sister?”

Hatz only sighs at his loss in the bet.

Aguero smirks in triumph at them as he collects the pile of money. “That’s what you all get for doubting me.”

“Told you guys,” Bam says to all of them, gaining only grumbles back in response.

With the showdown between the Khun siblings out of the way, Rak finally busts out the two extra controllers he brought along thus allowing them to all turn on one another in a battle of further betrayal and screeching. As Aguero, Rak, Endorsi and Hatz face off with each other Bam heads to the kitchen to grab another soda from the fridge followed by Shibisu.

Shibisu takes the soda Bam slides to him across the kitchen counter and pops the top as he asks, “Did you really know Khun was going to win? He kept losing to Kiseia while we were racing earlier. We all lost to Kiseia on the game.”

“Yes,” Bam answers immediately as he pulls a second soda for himself out of the fridge. He turns to look at Shibisu as he adds, “There’s only two people I know Khun is really weak against. Kiseia is one of them. But when bets are involved and there’s something to win? Game over.”

“Yeah,” Shibisu nods gravely, “Sounds like Khun, we should have thought that through better.” Shibisu breaks from his serious act with a laugh and scouts for a little more information, “Who’s the other person?”

Kiseia steps into the kitchen at that moment to grab a soda too and decides to chime in nonchalantly after overhearing their conversation, “It’s Bam.”

The reaction she gets is instantaneous as Shibisu suddenly wheezes at hearing Kiseia’s answer. Shibisu sputters into his soda can, having inhaled more soda into his lungs than what went down his throat, and has to rush to the sink to avoid spilling the drink everywhere.

Bam blushes as he frantically tries to help Shibisu from spewing soda from his nose but doesn’t protest against Kiseia’s answer. Kiseia heads back into the living room, but not before she leaves the paper towel roll a little closer to the two having an episode over the sink.

If even Aguero’s friends know her brother’s feelings, then Kiseia doesn’t understand what her brother is waiting for. If Kiseia had to make a bet, she bet Bam felt practically the same way as Aguero.

>< 

Once the thrill of summer and the relaxing feeling of freedom from responsibilities has worn off, every day begins to feel too monotonous causing boredom to settle into the crevices and cracks of what was once fun and entertaining. Kiseia starts considering finding a summer job to chase the boredom away. But in order to do that she’s going to need to write up a resume and she’s not exactly sure where to start with that. She wants to ask her older sister about it, but she knows her older sister is busy with work and she doesn’t want to get in her way with something trivial like this. Mother is also often at work for most of the day too, so she doesn’t want to bother her either. That leaves her with one option left, her brother. Aguero works at his university’s campus and since he’s out for the summer too, surely he has nothing better to do either. Well, other than hang out with Bam 24 hours a day, seven days a week. After she eats her breakfast alone in the dining room, she heads back up to grab her laptop from her room and head back down the hall to knock on her brother’s door.

“What?” Aguero’s voice comes through the door sounding muffled and slightly sleepy, he groans in exasperation a moment later likely having checked the time, “It’s 10am. Why are you up so early, child?”

“Are you busy today?” Kiseia asks, she’s slightly annoyed at being called ‘child’ since she’s only two years younger than Aguero but whatever she’ll let it go this time since she’s the one asking for a favor in this situation. Although, if her brother is going to be half asleep and irritating then there’s no point in asking him for help either. Sometimes she forgets her brother is a night owl and not a morning person like her.

The door opens and Aguero stands before his little sister with obvious bed head, his hair sticking in strange angles. He eyes the laptop under her arm as he yawns and tries to rub the sleep out of his eyes, “Summer sessions for cram school doesn’t give you homework, does it?”

Kiseia is confused at the question until she remembers that her brother never needed to take any cram school sessions. “They do, but I don’t need help with that,” responds Kiseia, “I need help writing a resume to get a summer job.”

Aguero blinks slowly as Kiseia’s words register in his head one by one. He raises a brow at her, “Why? Are you broke? I gave you twenty bucks from the Mario Kart bet a few weeks ago. Did mother forget to give you lunch money?”

Kiseia shakes her head, a little offended that her brother thinks she can’t manage her money well, and says, “I’m not broke. I just want to spend my free time more productively.” Kiseia lights up in memory at what she was told by their sister, reiterating it to her brother faithfully, “Sister always says it’s better to stay motivated and striving to improve yourself.”

Aguero rolls his eyes so hard at her that Kiseia internally hopes his eyeballs gets stuck in the back of his head. Her brother looks at her unimpressed and his tone just drips in mock pity, “You have such a sister complex.”

“And you have a Bam complex,” Kiseia throws back unbothered without hesitation.

Aguero flusters at the words, if he wasn’t wide awake earlier, he’s definitely wide awake now. He flounders for something to say back at his little sister but his brain has unhelpfully short-circuited. “Wha- Shut. Up. I do not have a-”

“You do,” Kiseia says it in a way that echoes the same amount of pity, if not more, that Aguero used on her just to get further on her brother’s nerves.

Aguero glares at her, not happy with his tactics used against him, and Kiseia matches the glare with one of her own. Kiseia opens her mouth to say something else but, without warning, Aguero takes a step back and in one fell swoop slams his bedroom door shut in front of Kiseia’s face.

Kiseia is stunned for a split second by the loud bang of the door shutting but when she finally registers what had just happened her temper soars. “You’re so petty, Aguero!” Kiseia shouts, she bangs on her brother’s door again with her fist. “Fine! I’ll ask sis or mother when they come back from work instead!”

But she doesn’t really get the chance to storm away in a fury like she intends to. Kiseia manages to get one step away from Aguero’s room before she hears her brother’s voice through the door again.

It’s muffled but there’s a clear hesitance in Aguero’s voice, like he’s nervous and doubtful as he asks, “Is it obvious?”

“What?” Kiseia hisses at the door. She’s still pissed at him.

“The…” Aguero goes silent again.

Kiseia glares at the door, tapping her foot in impatience. “Hurry up Aguero or I’m going back to my room.”

Her brother’s following response comes out so mumbled and slurred together that Kiseia almost misses it. “The Bam complex… Is it obvious?”

“Every day, I swear to god, you just get stupider,” Kiseia deadpans, emphasizing every word to make sure Aguero hears her.

“This brat- I swear I’m going to-”

Kiseia speaks over her brother with a roll of her eyes, “Bam is all you ever talk about. He’s also apparently all you think about too. You invite him to come over so often, I start questioning if I have two brothers instead of one. Your first response to any invitation out or question to Bam is whether you can bring Bam along or if Bam wants to come with you.”

Aguero goes quiet again so Kiseia takes the chance to keep talking.

“Wherever you go, it’s always either with Bam or you’re going to meet up with Bam to go there. And your friends! Oh my god, they don’t invite just one of you anywhere, it’s always Aguero and Bam or Bam and Aguero. Never just Aguero or just Bam. And have you seen the way you worry over Bam and get so easily jealous?”

“I do not!” Aguero protests through the door.

“You do! Everyone who isn’t blind has to know by now! I don’t understand how Bam hasn’t noticed.” Kiseia snaps back, “Like damn brother, can you honestly be any more obvious?”

They go silent again. The only sound she can pick up behind the door is a bit of shuffling around, like papers or books are being moved about. Kiseia waits for a few more seconds at most before she swivels on her heel to leave. But then a paper slips out from underneath the crack below Aguero’s door and slides right before Kiseia’s feet.

Aguero’s voice filters through the door again, “Copy my resume outline and just fill in whatever you can. I’ll look over what you have whenever you finish.”

Kiseia bends down to pick up the paper. She huffs out a breath, all annoyance with her brother disappearing instantly. Her brother is a moron. She hates him. But at the same time, she also reluctantly doesn’t hate him too. “Thanks, Aguero.”

>< 

Summer days begin to fall into a routine and although there’s a strange desire to make the most out of every day that passes, it’s difficult to process when you’re so used to going through the motions without much thought behind it. Kiseia gets a text from her brother as she’s leaving the cram school classroom telling her that he’s picking her up today since they’re on grocery duty this week. The text also mentions that he’ll be waiting at the front gate of the school and Bam, of course, is also on his way. As she steps outside, she scans the courtyard until she finally spots a familiar head of blue that matches her own. Her brother is leaning back on the entrance wall with his head down focusing on his phone. She walks toward Aguero and gets about two feet in front of him before her brother lifts his head up to greet her.

Aguero tells her, “Bam is on the way, he’ll be here in about five minutes.”

“I figured,” Kiseia replies. Her brother looks like he wants to retort with something, but another classmate calls out to Kiseia catching both of their attentions. A boy and a girl carrying similar book bags to Kiseia waves at her. She waves back recognizing them as part of her cram class.

“Friends of yours?” Aguero inquires as they approach.

Kiseia considers how to answer her brother. She doesn’t make friends very easily, preferring to keep to herself or a select three or four friends she keeps in close contact with, but she has talked to the two approaching a handful of times and worked on projects with them amicably. She only says to Aguero, “Just classmates.”

Aguero gives his little sister a questioning look but doesn’t ask further.

The girl who greeted Kiseia speaks up first once they’re in front of the Khun siblings, “There’s going to be a review session this weekend if you’re interested in joining.”

“Ah, okay, I’ll keep it in mind,” Kiseia answers in a friendly enough manner, “Thank you for telling me.”

“No problem! It starts at noon and we’ll be in the library with whoever from class also shows up,” the boy smiles at her. “See you there if you can make it! You can also invite your… uh…” the boy looks at Aguero for a moment before he flickers his attention back to Kiseia, “Twin? If you want, too. The more the merrier.”

Kiseia glances at Aguero, who looks a little bewildered at being called Kiseia’s twin, and looks back at her classmate, “He’s not my twin. Aguero is just my older brothe—”

“She’s adopted,” another irritating whiney voice sneers, the last word sounds dirty coming from the girl’s mouth. “They’re not real siblings. Kiseia is always lying. They’re only cousins.”

Kiseia looks to the side to see the source of the annoyance coming from another classmate exiting the building. Kiseia feels the beginnings of a headache as she notices how her classmates and brother have gone stiff upon hearing the rude interruption from the new girl passing by them.

The boy suddenly looks like he wants the ground to open up and swallow him whole, “Ah, sorry for asking Kiseia.”

The girl that came with him also sports a guilty and embarrassed expression, “Why is she like that?”

“It’s fine,” Kiseia tells them, carefully keeping her voice neutral.

“Sure it’s fine,” the horrible wretch continues, “After all her real mom died and left her behind, so her aunt had to take her in since it was such a pity.”

Kiseia sighs internally. Ah, and this is the very reason why she actively gives no mercy to her classmates and crushes the class average with an iron fist every time. This girl was always trying to pick a fight with her over the pettiest things. Kiseia guards her expression carefully to make sure her asshole of a classmate doesn’t get any satisfaction out of rattling her up.

Aguero’s face, however, turns dark as he stands up straighter to approach the despicable snob. It’s obvious he’s beyond livid. “Hey-”

“Don’t-” Kiseia warns as she reaches out to stop her brother but a sudden protective hand on her shoulder stops her. Kiseia jumps with a start at the touch, but when she turns her head to see that it’s just Bam she quickly relaxes. Although maybe she should have reconsidered relaxing because upon closer inspection Bam looks just as livid as Aguero does. Bam glares daggers at the offending girl, “What’s wrong with being adopted? Kiseia isn’t a liar. Khun is her older brother.”

Kiseia’s eyes widen at Bam’s bold confidence in coming to her defense. She’s never seen Bam angry before and to know that this time her brother’s most gentle natured friend is mad for her sake is shocking to say the least. She’s stunned into silence. Every word she had stored up ready to spit back out to crush the girl before her on her own terms gets lost among the unexpected summer breeze that blows between them. A complicated feeling builds up in her throat as if she wants to say something, anything, but nothing comes out. As much time as Bam spends at the Khun house it’s always usually only with Aguero so she never would have thought Bam would get involved with anything that concerns her. The only thing left on the tip of her tongue that she just can’t seem to push out into the open air is a grateful thank you.

But it isn’t the time for that right now, everyone seems frozen at Bam’s declaration so Bam takes the initiative. He reaches out and grabs Aguero’s hand with his other free hand and starts leading both Khun siblings out the entrance gate only looking back to tell the girl off one last time. “You may be lucky enough to have your biological parents with you, but your parents don’t seem to share the same luck. They must be so disappointed in you.”

Kiseia doesn’t see her classmates’ faces as she just follows facing forward wherever Bam is leading her and her brother. They’re walking fast and she has to be careful not to trip. She does chance a glance at Aguero though, and that’s when she sees it again. Her brother is looking at Bam again with a face that just screams with endearment and tenderness, his clear fixated blue eyes reminds Kiseia of the way the sun burns hot and blindingly bright at the peak of summer. Her brother is looking at Bam like he’s the hero they’ve been waiting for and Kiseia, just for this time, even though she feels absolutely nothing like what her brother feels for Bam, she can’t find any reason to disagree that Bam is indeed a hero.

Before the three of them realize it, they all somehow end up in a fast food restaurant. Kiseia blinks as Bam drops his hand from her shoulder and he squeezes her brother’s hand one last time before dropping it too. The three of them take a seat for themselves in one of the more secluded booths in the back.

“Are you okay, Kiseia?” Bam asks sincerely, his eyes reflect the same concern she’s seen a few numbered times from her brother in their childhood when she’s hurt herself from playing.

“Yeah,” Kiseia replies almost in a daze.

Bam sighs in relief, “Okay, good. Sorry, thought you were going to be mad at me for interfering like that.”

Kiseia’s eyes widen again in surprise, “No, I’m not- Why would I-” For once Kiseia scrambles to find the right words and she just settles with what she’s been wanting to say the entire time, “Thank you for speaking up for me, Bam.”

“Any time,” Bam replies with a gentle smile, his eyes flicker to Aguero for a second and he says, “I’ll order something for the three of us before we head to the market. Any requests?”

Kiseia shakes her head and Bam tells her that he’ll order Aguero’s usual choice for her then, before he heads off to the counter in the front. When Bam gets up to leave, Kiseia turns to her brother who has been strangely quiet. Aguero isn’t looking at her though, he’s looking at Bam’s departing figure and when Bam is finally out of sight, the first thing he utters is, “Auntie never left you behind, not purposely, and mother didn’t take you in as a favor or out of pity either.”

“I know. You don’t have to comfort me.” The corner of Kiseia’s lips twitch and it sincerely hits her that she’s grateful for her brother too. Despite how often he gets on her nerves or how often they argue over the stupidest stuff, she knows he cares even if only a little bit. She doesn’t tell him that though, no, that would be too mortifying, instead she just says, “You suck at it anyways.”

Aguero’s eyebrows pinch together for a moment before he finally turns to look at her. His sharp blue eyes assesses her face, searching for any signs of discomfort or pain and when he finds none he lets out a small chuckle, “I do. Good. Saves us both the embarrassment.”

Then her brother’s expression suddenly turns into one that can only be described as up to no good. “Now to deal with that little shit-”

“I don’t need you or Bam to fight my battles,” Kiseia responds pointedly, she sees the glint in her brother’s eyes and knows he’s plotting something.

“Oh, sweet naïve little sister,” Aguero says it so patronizingly Kiseia gets the sudden urge to punch his face in. She won’t, but she wants to.

“What satisfaction would I get out of that? I know you can handle yourself. I’m simply going to give you the best strategy to crush them without mercy.” Aguero smirks, “Now listen well to your older brother. Here’s what you’re going to do.”

Kiseia supposes if that’s how it is then there’s no harm in hearing her brother out.

Aguero’s revenge plans are always fool proof. His one decent perk of being a genius.

>< 

Summer becomes insufferable when every second of every day is hotter than the expanse of hell itself and yet Kiseia is still going out and about having to deal with part time job interviews. She hates this part of the job searching process so much she almost wants to give up on it. The droning questions, the disinterested stares she receives from not being taken seriously, and worse of all the stuffy clothes she has to keep wearing to appear professional. But, as if the universe had heard her last agonized sigh over this whole ordeal, she finally gets an email one afternoon from the café that she applied and interviewed at two weeks prior asking for her schedule so they can hire her.

Kiseia perks up immediately and wants to tell her sister about it, but she quickly deflates when she realizes her sister isn’t coming home until late tonight along with their mother. She supposes she could tell her brother about it then since he’s just lazing about in his room, and maybe if he doesn’t annoy her too much even thank him for helping her set up her resume and practice interview questions with her. With that in mind, she steps out of her room and heads down the hallway to her brother’s room.

Strangely enough, Aguero’s bedroom door isn’t closed all the way so Kiseia thinks nothing of it when she simply pushes it open. If he didn’t want her to come in, then he would have locked it like usual. “Bro-”

Kiseia freezes. Her brain doesn’t process everything at once, only in painful bits and agonizing pieces. The first thought that slips through to her consciousness is for some unfathomable reason one about how she didn’t even hear Bam come over. Her brain also unhelpfully concludes that Aguero and Bam are finally dating. What else could it be called when there was her brother pinning Bam’s wrists to the bed’s headboard, both boys’ lips locked in an enthusiastic heated kiss. Eventually Kiseia’s malfunctioning brain finally snaps itself together at the same time the two boys register that she’s entered the room. All of this happening in under two seconds no less. Thank goodness for the Khun family being blessed with brains that have a processing power stronger than a computer.

The boys break away from each other immediately, both of their faces so red she idly wonders if they’re going to get a heat stroke or if they're even breathing for that matter. Her eyes lock on to her brother’s first which are blown wide in bewildered panic.

“Ki-”

“Nope,” Kiseia raises her hand to stop her brother from saying another word, “I don’t want to know or hear either of your excuses. Congrats though.” With that said, she rushes to close the door to her brother’s room with a resounding click.

She hears a muffled and quite flustered “Kiseia!” from her brother and an embarrassed “Khun!” from Bam through the closed door as she walks away. She rolls her eyes. Took them long enough.

Now summer really is going to be beyond insufferable.

>< 

With summer there are things that are expected to come with it. Barbeques, festivals, fireworks, swimming, friends, and a ton of other things. But there’s one thing that’s an essential staple. What would summer be without at least one trip to the beach?

So once again, Kiseia finds herself with her brother, his newly appointed boyfriend, and their group of crazy friends but this time with sand under her feet and the sound of roaring waves crashing against her ears. She sits on her beach towel applying sunscreen while Bam attempts to set up the umbrella overhead to keep all their stuff in the shade.

“What do you even see in my brother?” Kiseia asks out of the blue as she catches sight of Aguero giving orders to the others about unpacking the food and portable grill from the car. Sometimes she wonders how Aguero even has friends with his bossy personality. Kiseia can, however, understand why Aguero would fall for Bam, but the other way around? Not a chance.

Bam laughs at the unexpected question. He’s still fiddling with extending the umbrella pole. “Do you really want me to answer that?”

Kiseia gives herself a moment to think it over and she realizes Bam is right. She makes a face, “No. Please don’t. My brother has a reputation.”

Bam laughs again at Kiseia’s disgusted expression. The umbrella finally poofs open as he cranks the side handle and buries the bottom of the pole into the sand to keep it standing. “Don’t worry I won’t ruin it. There’s a lot of things I see in your brother, but to keep it simple we just make each other happy and I think that’s more than enough.”

Kiseia hums in acknowledgement to Bam’s answer, glad that he kept it brief. “I hope he takes care of you, Bam.”

Bam takes a seat beside Kiseia on his own beach towel and takes the sunscreen bottle she offers. He raises a questioning brow at her, “You’re not going to tell me to take care of Khun too?”

Kiseia laughs carefree for the first time in quite a while. Aguero looks over at them from down the shore, having finally noticed the two of them were missing from the group, his hands are on his hips and he looks annoyed at them for sitting here while everyone else is running around to set up the barbeque. They’re totally going to get an earful soon. Kiseia grins at him just to piss her brother off more, “Nah, I already know you’re going to do so even if I don’t say it.”

>< 

Summer isn’t over just yet, but Kiseia knows the countdown is beginning as she keeps track of the calendar filling up with marked off days. One by one. Day by day. It just keeps going.

“You know when I told you I got the job, that wasn’t an invitation to visit me at work,” Kiseia drawls as she stares down both her brother and his boyfriend in hopes of intimidating them to leave. No such luck though.

“Is that really how you’re going to handle your customers?” Aguero quips back as he leisurely scans over the café menu in his hand.

Bam sighs and at least has the decency to look apologetic. “I tried to tell him it wasn’t a good idea but Khun insisted on checking up on you.”

“Don’t tell her that!” Aguero hisses, purposely jabbing Bam in the abdomen with his elbow at the same time he puts the menu back on the counter, “We’ll have an iced black coffee and a berry smoothie.”

Kiseia begrudgingly inputs the order and tells them the total, “Eight dollars. Pay up.”

Bam and Aguero both pull out their credit cards at the same time in an attempt to pay, but she ignores Bam’s card in favor of grabbing her brother’s card to swipe on the machine. Aguero grins in triumph at Bam knowing Kiseia was going to be petty with him and then turns to glare at Kiseia when he sees that she inputted a twenty-dollar tip for herself.

“That’s robbery,” Aguero says as he switches it back to zero on the confirm pay screen before him.

Kiseia shrugs indifferently, it was worth a shot. “Go take a seat, cheapskate. I’ll bring your drinks out in a few minutes.”

“I’m totally writing a complaint to your boss about this treatment,” Aguero replies to his little sister as Bam takes his hand and drags him away from the counter with an embarrassed shake of his head. Kiseia sympathizes with Bam’s pain, her brother really was embarrassing company sometimes. Once she sees where her brother and Bam have decided to sit, she heads to the side kitchen to make the drinks. She manages to get her brother’s coffee ready and only needs to wait for Bam’s smoothie to finish blending when another customer walks in.

Kiseia leaves the side kitchen to greet the customer and asks for their order. But there’s something a bit off about the man that just walked in, his expression looks disgusted and annoyed. Kiseia initially brushes it off though, maybe this customer had a bad day. Whatever, she has a job to do-

“Get me an iced coffee with whole milk and make it quick,” the man says and glances at the table where her brother and Bam were sitting holding hands and talking quietly with each other, “Didn’t realize this establishment allowed things like that to walk in. Disgusting.”

Kiseia stiffens. It was one thing to be rude, but it’s another to be outright hateful. The man says it loud enough that Aguero and Bam hear and look over to see what was going on. Aguero’s eyes light up with pure anger ready to unleash his fury, but Bam quickly grabs Aguero’s arm to calm him and shoots him a warning look, his eyes glance to Kiseia and then back to Aguero’s to remind him that his little sister works here. Kiseia sees the way her brother fumes, conflicted between wanting to rip this piece of shit to shreds and to not cause trouble for her. Bam looks uncomfortable too as he scoots his chair a little further away from Aguero so that there’s an obvious space between them now. Kiseia absolutely hates it. She’ll take matters into her own hands.

“Well the door did let you in here didn’t it?” Kiseia says loudly and clearly in her fakest customer service voice that she could muster so that there was no mistake about what she said, “Your total is five dollars.”

“What? Come again?” The man turns his beady eyes on her, a new anger evident in his expression.

“Five dollars,” Kiseia says with a strained customer service smile.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought you said,” replies the man before handing a bill to Kiseia to pay for his drink, “Your manager in? I want to talk to them.”

Kiseia’s strained grin widens, “Sure, should I also tell my manager you’re being a total-”

The manager’s office door suddenly opens as he steps out with a concerned look on his face. He heard the noise escalating and glances between Kiseia and the customer. “What seems to be the problem here?”

Upon seeing the manager, the customer does a complete attitude change. “Your employee here is being utterly disrespectful even after I purchased a drink. I demand something to be done for this outrageous service!” The man doesn’t stop there though as he looks at Aguero and Bam’s table again before turning back to the manager, “Not only that but your establishment seems to have some filth that should be removed.”

The manager looks shocked but attempts to calm the customer in fear of losing business, “Ah, I will handle this sir. She’s quite new so she doesn’t quite have the ropes down just yet-”

Kiseia knows where this is going and, honestly, she couldn’t care less. The fact that the manager is already groveling at the feet of this asshat before even getting her side of the story is enough for her to decide she’s too good to be working here. She steps away to grab the blender with the smoothie still sitting in it with one hand and the pops the lid of the full coffee cup sitting nearby with her other hand before grabbing that too. With steady steps, she walks out from behind the counter to stand before the walking trash piece and unceremoniously dumps both drinks on him. The pink of the smoothie mixes and splashes unevenly with the dark coffee creating a color that resembles vomit, staining the asshole’s clothes where it lands.

She hears the manager gasp and she smirks wickedly at the asshole’s wail of revulsion. Kiseia also hears two chairs scraping across the floor as Aguero and Bam jolt up from what she’s done.

“Kiseia!” Bam calls out in shock.

She ignores Bam and her brother for the time being, she has more pressing matters. She drops the empty coffee cup on the asshole’s head and slams the empty blender onto the counter. “Manager,” Kiseia turns to her boss with a venomous gaze and practically snarls, “I quit.”

The young girl then removes her apron and throws it over the customer’s head before walking over to Aguero and Bam’s table. Kiseia grabs Aguero’s hand in her left and Bam’s hand in her right dragging them both outside with her and out of the café’s sight. The boys are too astonished about everything that happened that they just allow her to take them wherever she wants to go.

They get as far as a block and a half before Kiseia drops their hands and wipes both of her palms on her pants. She looks blankly at Bam then at Aguero. Silence. Then she says solemnly, “You two have really sweaty palms and clammy fingers. It’s gross. I don’t understand how you two hold hands for that long.”

A single beat of silence passes between the three of them.

Then, slowly, Aguero's shoulders start to shake, a puff of air escapes from his mouth before he breaks the tension by bursting out into full blown laughter. Bam looks at Aguero’s reaction in abject horror and continues to fret over Kiseia and Khun and his own sweaty palms. And Kiseia just has to crack a smile in pure amusement of it all.

Along the trek back to the Khun residence, Aguero and Bam’s hands naturally find each other’s again. Sweaty palms and clammy fingers intertwined tightly and swinging slightly between them as the burnt orange sun begins to set in the background.

Kiseia walks behind them feeling satisfied with the day.

Much better. This is how it should be.

>< 

Summer is quite uneventful after that fiasco, but the summer days keep running past their notice nowadays. Kiseia no longer bothers to look for a part time job, instead she just decides to enjoy her numbered days as a high schooler. The days of summer are filled with bi-weekly cram school sessions, her handful of close friends, her psychotic cousins, her family, her brother’s boyfriend, and her brother’s friends. And now she has a new addition to add to these ending summer days, her brother’s boyfriend’s family.

She sits beside Aguero in Bam’s living room this time while they wait for Bam to make dinner for them to share. The air conditioner is on so it’s nice and cool as they banter back and forth about who’s going to help Bam in the kitchen.

“Go help, he’s your boyfriend,” Kiseia uses a couch cushion to smack her brother with although there’s barely any strength behind it. She knows her brother hates cooking but to leave Bam to do it by himself? Aguero should know better.

“Bam said he’s fine. Last time I tried to help, he threw me out of the kitchen,” Aguero replies as he flips the channel on the TV again. “You go help him if you’re so eager, you’re a first-time guest here.”

“You’re only saying that because you know Bam won’t kick me out of the kitchen,” Kiseia says back.

Aguero scoffs at the mere speculation, “You may be my little sister but I’m still Bam’s favorite. If he kicked me out, he’s going to kick you out.”

Kiseia raises a brow in challenge to her brother. “Want to bet that Bam will take my side over yours?”

Aguero’s eyebrow twitches, but she knows he’s taken the bait when he agrees. “You’re on, brat.”

Kiseia shrugs and clears her throat. She begins to force out a few sniffles so her voice sounds a little more watery than usual. Then she says loudly, ensuring her voice can be heard all the way from the kitchen, “Aguero, why would you do that! You’re a total jerk!”

Aguero startles at his little sister’s squeal but he quickly realizes what she’s trying to do. “You’re such a-”

Bam’s voice comes out from the kitchen, clear as day and exasperated as hell. “Khun! Stop antagonizing Kiseia!”

Aguero’s expression is beyond comical as his jaw drops at the clear betrayal. “I’m not! She’s lying!”

Bam pokes his head out from the kitchen doorway to look at the two of them in the living room with a doubtful look plastered to his face as he takes in Aguero’s indignant expression compared to Kiseia’s semi-teary one. “Why does Kiseia look upset then?”

“She always looks upset. It’s her face.” Okay, that wasn’t going to win Aguero any points in his favor, but he couldn’t resist. Kiseia started it.

Bam frowns at his boyfriend unimpressed before he ducks back into the kitchen.

Kiseia narrows her eyes at her brother, “Sleep with both eyes open tonight, Aguero.”

“I’m not scared of you,” Aguero taunts back.

“Yes, he is!” Bam counters from the kitchen.

“Bam! Not helping!” Aguero gets up to join his boyfriend in the kitchen after all, choosing to ignore his little sister’s knowing smirk at him.

“Ugh, you kids are so loud,” Jinsung, Bam’s guardian, complains as he comes into the hallway to see what was all the noise about, “What’s with all the screeching? Thank goodness Yuri went off to college in the dorms otherwise she’d be screaming her head off too.”

“Ah, sorry,” Bam steps out from the kitchen to greet his guardian, “I was making dinner and there was a bit of sibling squabbling.”

Seeing Bam, Jinsung’s mood immediately turns playful as he brings his adoptive son in for a hug, “Aw I could never be mad at you. What’s for dinner?”

“Fried rice,” Bam replies as he tries to extricate himself from Jinsung’s hold.

Kiseia tilts her head in confusion as she looks at the pair in front of her, “Who’s Yuri?”

“Bam’s older sister,” Aguero answers as he brings out the food and places it on the living room coffee table.

Kiseia only says a small, “Oh,” before she gets up to help bring out the plates and utensils. A little bit of curiosity gets to her though as she turns to Bam, “Do you have any other siblings, Bam?”

“No, just Yuri,” Bam answers as he finally gets Jinsung to release him.

Jinsung chuckles as he pats Bam’s head affectionately, “He’s always wanted a younger sibling though.”

“A horrible desire really,” Aguero mutters under his breath but they all heard him anyways.

“Rude,” Kiseia protests, glaring at her brother spitefully, “I’d switch Bam with you as my older brother any day.”

Aguero opens his mouth to respond but Jinsung quickly tells them to settle down, “The food is going to get cold if we’re left hearing you all bicker all night.”

The four of them finally take a seat around the table after that announcement and the pleasant conversations pick back up again with little effort. “Yuri was supposed to come home to visit for the summer, but she said something about traveling with Evan for a month or two,” Bam explains to Kiseia and Aguero.

“She better not bring back anything weird again. I swear that girl and her strange taste in souvenirs is going to be the death of us,” Jinsung grumbles as he begins piling the fried rice into the empty bowls and passing it to the kids around him first.

Bam and Aguero chuckle at the idea of Yuri not bringing anything weird back from her travels. It’s as unlikely as the sky falling. Kiseia on the other hand is a little intrigued again and wonders if she’ll get the chance to meet Yuri before the last day of summer comes to claim her.

When they finish eating and cleaning up, Jinsung ends up passed out on the couch leaving Bam to walk Aguero and Kiseia outside to say their goodbyes for the night. Bam lifts his arm towards Kiseia and waits, letting her choose if she wants the hug or not.

Kiseia moves to accept the side hug from Bam and sighs, “Why can’t I have you as my brother? You’d be so much better than the one I have right now. I guarantee you’ll be my favorite brother.”

“Rude,” Aguero states in offense as Bam pats Kiseia’s head fondly. He rounds on his boyfriend when Bam doesn’t say anything about it, “Why do you love her more than me?”

“I don’t,” Bam answers sweetly as he smiles brightly at Aguero, “I love you the most, Khun.”

“Ew,” Kiseia makes fake gagging noises upon hearing that and walks ahead, “I’m waiting for you at the front gate, brother.” She’s not interested in watching her brother make kissy faces at his boyfriend a second time.

Aguero’s expression softens at Bam as he hugs him, “Aw, I love y-”

However, Bam doesn’t let Aguero enjoy it for long though, “But if I had to pick a favorite Khun sibling among the three of you, Kiseia is definitely the favorite.”

Although Kiseia has already reached the front of the gate, she’s still able to hear Bam’s response to her brother loud and clear. Not missing a single beat, Kiseia’s obnoxious cackling rings out into the night air, echoing all around them as she leans against the front gate with her back to them.

“Oh my god,” Aguero groans and rolls his eyes, “I hate it here. Kiseia, shut up, your cackling makes you sound like a hag!”

“I love it here!” Kiseia says back loud enough for Aguero and Bam to hear her between her laughing.

“Whatever Khun,” Bam laughs as he kisses his boyfriend on the cheek, “She’s your favorite little sister too.”

Aguero grimaces begrudgingly, “Correction. She’s my only little sister. By default, she has automatic claim to the title of favorite.”

Bam smiles knowingly at Aguero’s dramatics, “Whatever you say, Khun.”

Kiseia still gets the last word, “Bam’s going to be my favorite brother when you finally get the guts to propose to him, Aguero!”