3.

His name meant extremely peaceful and his nature was as peaceful as that of many little boys his age, for like many little boys his age he knew not the meaning of fear and had no respect for gravity. As such he was at peace in almost any situation, now matter how loud, violent or strange.

A times it made living with him a frightful thing.

v Tonight, however, Jinpei was just a slightly ill little boy.

He stood at the head of his sister's bed, one of his bare feet crossed over the other, hoping in a fevered sort of way that the waves of misery rolling off of him would wake her up and bring her to his rescue.

It wasn't working.

"Oneechan," said Jinpei, his voice, transparently thin in the cold air, gentling the slangy honorific. "Oneechan," he said a fraction louder. He wiped at his nose with his sleeve, "Oneechan?"

No answer.

He tugged at the thick material near her head with tentative fingers. It got no reaction.

OK, he'd have to talk a little louder. He bent closer to her ear, "Oneechan!"

Still she slept.

The boy blew on his cold fingers as he considered his options. He could either go back to sleep or he could take care of his business himself. He wiped at his nose again and then, to his surprise, sneezed loudly- and wetly.

Jun came awake with a start.

Oh-oh.

"Jinpei?" she croaked as if from the bottom of a deep well.

"Please-" he said. "Oneechan, I want some milk."

There was a long silence. Jun was very much aware that as cold as the air on her face was making her, she'd be a lot colder if she got up to either put Jinpei back into bed or get him milk. Finally Jun spoke, "Go back to bed; you're not thirsty."

Jinpei pulled the covers away from his sister's head, "Yes, I am."

"What about-" Jun croaked. She licked her dry lips and tried again, "What about the water I put on the table next to you?"

"It's frozen," he whispered his breath clouding the air between them.

"Frozen?"

Jun closed her eyes. Maybe if she ignored him he'd go away.

Flinging her sheets and blankets aside and crawled in next to her, his slight, bony weight hardly disturbing the bed.

Her expression softening as his slight, bony weight settled against her Jun asked, "Shouldn't you be in bed?"

"I am," Jinpei whispered snuggling down next to her. "You smell nice, Oneechan."

Jun smiled ruefully, "Suck-up."

"I think I have a fever," he said in his smallest voice.

Jun and pressed her lips to his forehead, then checked with her hand. He had no such thing.

"Just go back to bed, Jinpei."

He shook his head and latched his arm around hers.

"I thought you were too old to share a bed with me?" asked Jun.

"I am. You're bed's warm..."

Jun gazed at him with mock gravity.

He was too tired to understand her expression. "Just don't tell my anikis." His eyes drifted shut.

"Because you're a big boy?" Jun asked softly.

"...yeah..."

"'kay, Jinpei," Jun said moving closer to the wall to give him more room.

Folding his hands beneath his chin Jinpei looked up at her, "Milk, please? With sugar and 'nilla?"

"I'm tired Jinpei," Jun whined, then hissed as he wedged his icy feet between the mattress and her warm skin. The sensation made her skin crawl.

Bastard.

"You know sometimes I hate you, right?" she groused, grappling with the covers and getting out of bed. The chill air pricked through her pajamas like pins. Fast as she could she pulled on her robe, then jerked Jinpei's much smaller one around her shoulders.

Watching her, Jinpei rolled into the warm place she'd left behind and drew the covers around him with a contented sigh. "Thank you, 'Neechan." His eyelashes fluttered closed, "you're the best."

Rubbing her shoulders and hopping from foot to foot she glared down at him, "Really hate you." Jinpei smiled placidly. She tucked him in, saw that the water in his glass was indeed frozen over the top, checked his bed, saw that his sheets were slightly damp (so, he had had a fever) transferred his box of tissues to her bedside, and shuffled to the kitchen.

Man, Jun thought as she made her way down the darkened hall, heater's probably broken. Her breath dragonned ahead of her. She shook her head: the things she did for love.

Light rimmed the shut door, warm and beckoning. She pushed through and found Joe sitting at the counter, wrapped in a quilt and pouring over a thick cook-book. There was a mug of something near his hand.

He squinted at her through his shaggy bangs, "Hey,"

"Hi," Jun mumbled and shuffled over to a likely looking set of cupboards, "I'm heating milk. You want some?"

"Uh, no," his quilt slipped off one of his shoulders.

"That's ok- Thanks."

Jun bent to get out a double-boiler. "You're up late," she observed. She walked over to where he was sitting.

"What is that? A cook-book?"

"Yeah. Found it," he turned and pointed, "there."

"Hmm," she hummed thoughtfully and went to the refrigerator.

"What?" Joe asked.

"I didn't think you were the cooking type. What are you making?"

"Just reading about it- making stuff."

"Like?" she walked past Joe on the way to the spice-rack. He watched her fingers as plucked the vanilla extract and what looked like nutmeg from the little metal shelves.

His eyebrow flicked upwards for a fraction of a second. He unleashed a small sigh. "Cannolis."

"Oh." Jun slipped the extract and nutmeg into a pocket of her robe. "An Italian cookbook?"

He nodded.

She turned to look behind her at the sink. She frowned. She should have taken the boiler when she went to get the spices so she could fill it with tap water. That would have been more efficient.

Joe watched as she turned her sleepy head from the cooking range, to the sink, to the cooking range, and to the sink again. "You need any help?" he asked.

She blinked at him, as if seeing him for the first time that night "...no...thank you. Don't mind me," and turned her back to him and turned on the range.

Joe shrugged and bent back to the cookbook, reading the list of ingredients for what had to be the tenth time that evening. Try as he might he could not remember his mother shopping for cannoli stuff. Those ingredients, he imagined, had always been readily on hand: ricotta, candied fruit, hazelnuts, fruit sugar, vanilla extract... Where was he going to find ricotta?

Jun, who was in the process of pouring enough milk for herself and Jinpei, heard him sigh and poured enough for three. She set the range on low flame, sat down beside Joe and shoved her legs under the table cloth.

"You miss Sicily," she said sliding close to him and propping her elbows on the table.

"Yeah," he said in a quiet voice, "Sometimes."

The children sat shoulder to shoulder, the opened cook-book before them. Two kitchen clocks, one on the range, and another above the sink, ticked against one another in slow, steady rhythm. Joe watched the gas flames of the range lick against the bottom of the copper bottomed double-boiler.

"I'm sorry," Jun said.

There really was no point in going back to Sicily if his parents weren't there. "It's okay," Joe replied.

She stretched out her arms and rested her head against them while yawning mightily. She shuddered once, than again.

"You want some of this blanket?" Joe asked.

"Thanks," Jun said and ducked under the offered edge. She linked her arm with his. He squeezed tightly on hers with his own then untensed his muscles. They hunched over the table, making themselves very small, creating warmth. Eventually, Jun's shivers stopped and the thin ache that had set in Joe's hands runnelled away. He hadn't even known he'd been that uncomfortable.

They watched the blue gas flames lick the bottom of the pan. The timer on the kitchen light expired immersing them in bright dark. With the fluorescents off they could see how moonlight splashed through the skylight and onto the kitchen tiles.

Curls of steam rose from the milk pan.

Jun wasn't watching. She had her head pillowed on her arm and her eyes were closed.

"Milk's ready," Joe offered and nudged her.

Jun disentangled herself from him and limped over to the range, "I think my foot's asleep," she said yawning.

"I think we're both asleep."

She gave a slight shrug and flavored the milk.

He checked the time- midnight.

"You sure you don't want any?" she asked as she pulled out three mugs. "There's enough for three people."

"No thanks."

She exchanged the three mugs for two extra-tall ones, leaned against the counter and poured milk, yawning all the while.

He got up and took the mugs from her, "How 'bout you sit here and finish your milk, and I take this to Jinpei?"

Jun smiled, "That would be nice. Thank you."

She sat listening to the clocks tick some more and considered which pots she'd wash first. Joe returned. From the way he held the mug she could tell it was still full.

"He was asleep, wasn't he?" she asked.

"Yep."

She absorbed the news without comment. Joe sniffed at the mug. It smelled good.

"What's in this?" he asked.

"Sugar, vanilla extract- nothing fancy."

He took a small sip, encountered the skin, slurped that up and took a proper swallow. It tasted sweet and smooth with a small hint of vanilla.

His voice was hoarse when he spoke. Probably from the milk Jun decided.

"This is uh- pretty good. Thank you."

"You welcome."

They drank in silence.

"Jinpei's in your bed, you know."

"I know."

Joe tried again, "Where are you going to sleep?"

"On his bed, probably."

"But isn't it all germy?"

"I'll make it up before I sleep on it."

Joe chuckled, "That little shit is really putting you out, hunh?"

"Thanks to you, yes," her voice tinkled icily.

"Sorry."

Jun cocked her head at him. "I don't think I've ever heard you say sorry, please and thank you as much as I have today."

Joe hid behind a long drink of warm milk. Jun finished hers and when he was done, took his mug and set it with all the other dirty things in the washer.

"C'mon, you can help me make the little shit's bed," she said and took his hand, clicking off the kitchen light as they crossed over into the dark hall. Joe gathered his quilt with one arm. Only their hands remained warm as they made their hurried way back to Jun and Jinpei's room.

The little boy slept like an angelic being, beneath a higher mound of blankets than Jun remembered. She looked over at his bed, and saw that aside from the sheets and a pillow, it was bare.

"Opportunist," Jun said sotto voce, echoing a phrase Dr. Nambu often used.

"I did that," Joe replied at similar volume. "I-uh thought he looked cold."

"I'll go find some blankets. Sheets," she pointed, "are in that drawer," and before Joe could say another word she was gone.

Joe changed the bed, and with a grimace dumped them in the hamper.

Still no Jun. He sat on top of partially made bed, until the chill drove him between the sheets. He draped his comforter over the top sheet and shivered into relative warmth.

He fell asleep to the sound of Jinpei's breathing.

On the third try he came awake with a start. Jun stood over him, dressed only in her pajamas and biting her lip.

Oh, man... don't tell me I have to get up... I'm so warm.

"Joe..."

"I'm sorry, Jun," Joe rolled into a sitting position. "I guess I fell asleep. My room's all the way on the other side of the house-"

She rolled her eyes. "Forget about it, just move over."

He blinked.

Jigging in place, she hissed, "Move over before I freeze!"

He moved over, but not before noticing that she'd piled three quilts on top of him. They fit together like spoons, which was not, in their case, very comfortable.

Especially for Joe.

"Maybe," he said spitting hair out of his mouth, "maybe if I. . ." he turned and faced the wall.

"No, that's not right," Jun said and turned around, but if felt strange to have her face pressed into his back. Almost as funny as it felt funny to have her butt pressed against his.

They tried again. The bed sighing as their limbs moved and their weight shifted. Several whispered instructions and one muffled yell later they found their fit. They were both slightly sweaty and lay shoulder to shoulder, Jun's leg flung over Joe's and their hands intercurled.

There, thought Joe.

Much better, thought Jun.

And off they went to sleep.

That's how it started, with what the people he lived with called breakfast, and his attempt to make it into brunch.

-0-

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Author's Note: The story takes place before the kagaku ninja tai/Science Ninja Team Gatchaman are put on active duty against Galactor. Joe and Ken are 14, Ryu's 13, and Jun's 12 and Jinpei, Jun's adopted brother, is around seven. Dr. Nambu is the team mentor and guardian of Jinpei, Joe, Jun and Ken.