Brother

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I ran through the house, giggling like a mad person as I leapt and ducked around obstacles in my path. A high pitched squeal left me as I rounded a corner and ran straight into Sean, his arms instantly wrapping around me.

Squirming and flailing proved useless. My feet dangled off the ground, and Sean only laughed as I half heartedly kicked at his shins. I was totally trapped.

"What did I say about the giggling!?" Sean chided, though I could tell by his voice he was pleased to have caught me and I wasn't really in any kind of trouble at all.

"Um... not to?" I tried to say, though I couldn't stop giggling. His fingers had started tickling my sides and I just couldn't help it.

Sean's bright green eyes twinkled as he lifted me higher in his grip. Then he started peppering kisses all over my forehead and cheek. Kisses that were getting more and more slobbery by the second.

"Eeeeeeew!" I wailed. "Mama! Mama help!"

Sean let go in an instant, reeling back with a hand over his heart, looking as scared as though I'd just thrown him into a tiger's enclosure.

Well... I guess that was close enough to the truth.

I smiled smugly at my big brother, wiping off his spit with my sleeve as he sweated it out, both of us listening to our mother's quiet footsteps approaching.

"Sean," Mama started, standing with her hands planted on her hips, "what are you doing to your sister? You're both supposed to be working on your Japanese, you know we're going to the seminar next week."

"We finished!" Sean whined, "we were only playing!"

Our mother turned her smart brown eyes on me, and by the slight twinkle in them I knew she'd back me up if I wanted to tease Sean more. I loved that playful streak she had, but Sean looked like he was pretty worried about her reaction. I felt bad, he had spent ages helping me study, after all.

"Daijoubu, sinpai naiyo, haha. (It's okay, don't worry, mama)" I said cheerily. "I like to play with Sean."

She smiled at us both before reaching out to tousle our blonde locks. I pouted, watching enviously as Sean's curls bounced with her movement. My hair never did that, it was too long and straight. I was like mama that way though, so I could never stay sad for long. She had such pretty hair.

Mama straightened up and clapped her hands together. "Who's going to be my dinner helper then?"

"I will!" I chimed quickly, and to my dismay, Sean had echoed my words just as quickly and just as eagerly.

Mama and I exchanged a quick look. We were both glad that he was so good at first aid now, with all the booboos he gave himself. I wasn't sure how he used his toy scalpel with such precision when we played brain surgery together, but always managed to forget which side of the knife was pointy when cutting up vegetables.

He liked to help though, and we could never say no, no matter if it meant eating burnt rice. Again.

If there was one thing I loved about my brother, it's that he worked hard and never gave up, even if he was awful at something. He did everything with a smile, listening attentively. I suppose it helped that cooking was really the only thing he was bad at.

It also made me happy that I got to be the boss in the kitchen. After I learned how to make an apple pie, Sean swore to be my Japanese teacher if I would teach him how to make it too. Mama was super duper smart, but she could be strict too. Sean always made our lessons fun, and in return he'd successfully learnt to peel apples. We were still working on the other steps...

Sean started pulling out pots while mama used her big knife to chop up the meat, and I opened the cupboard to pull out our bag of rice. I had to use both arms to heft it up, even though it was mostly empty. Sean scooped it out of my hold the moment I turned around, plopping it onto the counter with a smug smirk in my direction.

I pouted at him until he took my hand and helped me up onto my step stool. I was way too short to see the top of the counter, unlike my bean sprout of a brother. He kept a hand on my back so I didn't wobble as I held out the measuring cup over the big pot.

"One... Two... And three!" I cheered, as Sean successfully measured and poured the rice into my cup, barely spilling a single grain on the floor.

He beamed at me, clearly proud he hadn't messed up. "Water now, pumpkin."

I stuck my tongue out at him at the nickname, but dutifully kept count of the right amount as he carefully carried each up of water from the sink to dump into our pot.

Mama had finished at about the same time as us, and quickly swept our pot away to put on the stove.

"Shoo now, go and study until dinner is done. I want you both to be able to show me how you can ask for and give directions if you need to."

Sean and I exchanged a secret smile, having already gone over that. But we rushed back upstairs to our study room anyway, excited to practice together and impress mama.

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