We Are NOT Friends

Scent

I smiled at my younger brother and offered him a cup of tea. "How many lumps of sugar?" 

"Th-three," he stuttered.

I smiled and dumped the sugar into his tea and swirled it. Once, twice, three times. I passed him his tea.

"Th-thank you," he stuttered shyly hanging his head before sniffing his tea. He then took a little sip while I stared on like a stalker. His eyes immediately brightened and I could see his tail wagging happily. Yes, tail. For some reason I keep on imagining him as a neko girl- I mean guy. Of course. There's absolutely no way that I imagine my little brother as the sister that I've alway wanted. Nope. Cuz that'd be wrong... well, it's not that I haven't imagined him in a dress before, but I can not get too attached to this ball of cuteness. If I die in the future I will not even be able to regret! 

I have made up my mind. I will be a kind sister to help him adjust at first, and I will help him with my parents. But once he's settled, I will distance myself from him so that he only has distant, fond memories of his older sister when he meets the heroine. That way, He will hopefully not kill me if I don't get in the heroine's way. And my family doesn't get banished and die. 

By the way, I have investigated the whole illegal smuggling and slavery acts that caused my family's death and I came up with nothing. Either my family is secretly waaay more terrifying then I think, and I actually come from a family of evil geniuses or my family was framed. I find the former absolutely impossible so it only leaves the latter. Someone is scheming against my household. THOSE BASTARDS ARE SEEKING DEATH!

Pulling myself out of my ominous thoughts, I find my brother staring at me intently. "Nee-chan, what are you thinking about?" he asked with his head tilted slightly to the side.

S-so cute!

Oh my gosh... why is HE not the heroine instead? Dress him up like a girl and I'm sure he'd easily get a harem.

I smiled warmly at him. "I was just thinking of whether or not I should make the scent of this tea my signature smell."

A question mark seemed to hover above his head. "Signature smell?"

"Yes. It is the smell that I will wear most of the time. Do you like it?"

He nodded. "How do you create a signature smell?" he asked.

"Well, one's signature smell come from the kind of perfume they wear. I am a unique type of alchemist, so I specialize in extracting the essences of plants and making mists with them that have the same properties as elixirs. I can only make low level mists though. I also know how to create elixirs, but I like the mist better. I can extract the properties that make the tea leaves smell good and give myself that smell."

"So...you can preserve the scent of a particular plant, but for how long?" For some reason I felt as though when Callan asked this question he was desperate. For  a second he felt different than his puppy cuteness from before, but I must be imagining things. He is only 5 years old after all. I am the same but I have a grown up's mentality. I WAS ONCE A SEMI-GROWN UP!

"Um... until the scent fades I guess. I would need to constantly feed it my mana to keep it smelling the same forever... even then it would probably slowly fade."

Callan seemed to deflate. "Oh." His ears drooped.

"Well, I guess I could try to integrate the plant essence with my mana," I mused out loud. "Then the essence of the plant would be a part of my mana and the scent would never fade. It's a good theory. Untested and never heard of but good."

"Seriously!" Callum jumped up with his eyes sparkling. I could just imagine his tail going "thump thump thump" behind him and his ears perking up.

"Um... yeah. But I am not sure it would work. The plant and I would have to be compatible, and the extraction of the life essence would make the actual plant die."

"Oh," he then deflated again. 

And an awkward silence descended upon us for the rest of the meal.