[@Caits]

Kijani froze up slightly as Connor wrapped his arms around her. She could almost swear she felt him shaking. Then he called her "sweetheart" and suddenly she was fighting back tears all over again. No one had ever called her anything like that before. Not in a kind way, anyway - there'd been one student last year who nicknamed her "princess" but that had been more derision than affection. She had to take a few deep breaths before she trusted herself to speak.

"Well, I... initially, I really did show up just to pick your brain about waterproof paper. I didn't expect everything that happened after that." Connor had been the most unexpected person she'd ever met, and continued to be so. "I don't regret any of it, though. Especially correcting your eating habits. You're too young to have a heart attack." She did flash him a smile, then, gently chiding him about his formerly lousy diet. "And... no, it's... it's something with arrows. Um... Dance Revelation or... something." She was deliberately getting the name wrong. It was too embarrassing to admit that she'd bought a new gaming system, several games and a little floorpad. A small voice told her that it was a waste of money, but she had been instructed to learn about herself. 

"Oh!" Kijani pulled back from him, having forgotten something important. "...I worked on a secret technique, but I need your expert advice. Physics isn't quite my subject, and I think having you do some math on this would really help me." 
---

Jin scowled indignantly at Naka, slowing down but refusing to stop. "I will not. I can finish what I started." There was no sense in trying to win when her sister wasn't even going to try. Jin gradually fell into step until they were running side by side. "...why do you do that kind of stuff, huh? I may have just had my birthday, but I'm not a child. I mean, I can legally start learning to drive and everything now." She'd turned sixteen only two weeks before they'd started there. There had been no birthday party or real celebration, but a half-dozen gourmet cupcakes had mysteriously appeared in the fridge at home, and the new issue of Popular Mechanics by her bedside. 

"I like having a sister, but I... I don't like being treated like I'm so young, y'know?" She couldn't look Naka in the eye while she admitted that, keeping her gaze on her sneakers. "Don't get me wrong. I'd rather have you here than not."