Julien already knew he was in for a rough day.

His nightmares were, more often than not, a morbid precursor to shit hitting the metaphorical fan.

Whether it was caused by accidental self-sabotage, creepy coincidence, or it was a manifestation of the world’s worst divination powers, he wasn’t sure.

It didn’t matter either.

He was too used to it to pay it much attention anymore.

Julien traced the scars on his palms with a thumb, staring at them intently before looking away.

Or so he told himself.

Reluctantly, he peeled the cozy duvet off and let the chilly morning air hit his sleep-weary body as he lowered himself into his slippers. Running a hand over his face, he grimaced at the feeling of moisture covering his rough palms.

He felt like he was forgetting something.

Contemplating, he walked to the bathroom, trying to remember if there was anything he needed to do today. 

Ah.

Today was the last day he needed to be stuck in catch-up hell.

“Fucking finally…” 

That improved his mood a bit but he couldn’t help but feel like he was forgetting something else…

As he looked in the mirror, he saw his lilac-grey eyes staring back at him, puffy and red from tears. His rust-colored hair was in disarray, clinging to his forehead from sweat.

Overall, he wasn’t at his best.

Then again, when was the last time he was?

What a mess.

He splashed his face with water and looked at himself again.

He’d been in a rough place ever since… ‘that’ happened, but he didn’t feel like that was what was throwing him off, at least not right now.

As he was brushing his teeth he thought to himself:

It’s probably her fault.

He could sum up most of his current stressors as having been—at least partially—her fault actually.

As for who exactly she was…

Julien would be happy to complain to anyone that would listen. 

His sister could be a bit much sometimes.

After taking a year-long break from school, as per her ‘suggestion’—if you would call submitting a temporary suspension form on his behalf a ‘suggestion’ that is—though saying it was unnecessary wouldn’t be true either…

Anyway,

He was minding his own business when one day, he woke up with his sister hovering beside his bed. In her hands were several of his old notes and textbooks, and hanging behind her was a colorful banner with the words:

“Congratulations on returning to school!”

Before he could even process what was going on, her secretary and confidant, Loretta, who was holding a hologram cube beside her, started playing one video after the other. 

It was just… math, theoreticals, so many equations…

That alone shaved hours off of his life.

Unfortunately, having been living at her house at the time, he was unable to escape. 

Thus marked the start of his week-long personal cramming hellhole.

From sunrise to sunset. Every. Single. Day.

He shivered at the thought.

What’s worse, even that wasn’t enough.

Once he was no more than a zombie-like husk muttering about confidence intervals, dimensional analysis, and other things he’d rather not think about, he was whisked away to his own apartment. 

With only the clothes on his back, several piles of work, and a class schedule that started the very next day, he never even got the chance to rest. 

His first day back went by in a daze, and when he returned to his apartment, listless and confused, needless to say, he gave his sister an earful.

It was fine at first, or so he thought. But when his first few exam grades came through, he realized he was screwed.

From then on, he was forced to maintain a fragile balance of reviewing both old and new material until he cleared away the rust that settled on the gears of his brain. 

If that wasn’t bad enough, his sister had scheduled him for a biomechanics class at 8 am, 3 times a week. That didn’t even include the lab, let alone his other classes.

He still held a grudge against her for that. 

If the class at least started at 10, then he’d have more time to sleep or eat, or do anything really, but nope, he hardly even had time to think.

Part of him thought that maybe that was the point.

The other part of him thought she just wanted to torture him.

Why am I a BME major.

He knew why, of course, but that didn’t stop him from lamenting his cursed fate.

He cursed his sister too while he was at it.

Can’t I skip just this once…?

It was wishful thinking of course. If he skipped, he knew there’d be no turning away the temptation should it call a second time, or a third.

And gods knew he wouldn’t be able to recover after that.

Turning off the faucet and putting away his toothbrush, he fussed with his hair a bit in the mirror before leaving the bathroom. 

At least I’ll be able to catch up on sleep from now on.

He threw on a tan t-shirt, brown cargo pants, and a thin mustard-yellow and brown varsity jacket before leaving his room through the side door and heading for the roof—his own personal greenhouse.

Putting on a pair of gloves, he checked the temperature, watered the plants, trimmed the dead leaves, and recorded their progress.

This one might need a little bit more sunlight…

Rearing plants by hand may’ve been a fool's errand, but Julien found it fulfilling. 

He moved the pot of gardenias to the second floor of the greenhouse, placed the pot by a window, and spritzed the leaves with a mixture of water and calcium citrate before covering the gaps in the window with a cloth. It was colder up there but was less crowded than the first floor and had more access to the sun.

I’ll just have to remember to move it back down later.

Once he was sure everything was fine, he went back to his room, put his laptop away, and picked up his phone. It was still only 6:20. 

Throwing a cursory glance over his missed messages but not seeing anything particularly important, he tucked his phone away and went downstairs. 

He wasn’t expecting much anyway. 

Passing the kitchen, he went right for the study, intent on picking through the last of his notes and ending this nightmare once and for all.

Of course, as distracted as he was by thoughts of sweet sweet freedom, he hadn’t noticed the bountiful array of bags and other items stacked on his kitchen counter. 

That is until he re-emerged from his study to grab a drink around 7:30, mindlessly scrolling through TacTiks. 

He got a glass of water and took a sip.

Then promptly spat it right back out when he finally looked up.

Wiping his face, he grabbed a bundle of napkins from the dispenser and started cleaning up his mess. He noticed a midnight blue letter with gold lettering leaning on its surface.

A cold sense of foreboding slid over him and he checked the date for the first time that morning.

November 21st.

Shit.

It was his birthday.

Cool, yea, of course I knew that.

Of course he didn’t. 

He was so busy he hardly even registered that it was November, and even that was only because the break was approaching.

Despite his initial surprise however, there wasn’t anything new about this kind of thing. He was an unfortunate repeat victim of this sort of reverse burglary, and the culprit? Well of course.

It was his sister.

What did she do now?

Throwing away the wad of wet napkins, he observed the letter suspiciously and considered his options.

In spite of her killer poker face to put it nicely, and resting bitch face to put it plainly, his sister was… willful.

If that wasn’t the understatement of the year.

Each of her ‘victims’ was flooded with…whatever it was, with the same simple reasoning: 

Gift-giving was her ‘love language.’

According to her at least.

And while it was mostly harmless, downright helpful at times, and mildly inconvenient at others, it was almost always outrageous.

That was what was most troubling.

He could choose to ignore it, but her ‘gifts’ ranged anywhere from a strange souvenir she got from some back alley pawnship in who knows where, to a person suddenly waking up on vacation, 

Only to find that all of their responsibilities were already taken care of and their stuff was already packed.

Granted, that last example was reserved for extreme workaholics only.

Not like she ever took a page out of her own book though. 

‘She’s a workaholic herself.’ He muttered.

He glared at the things on the counter for a while, took one last tentative sip from his glass, and then put it in the sink.

Knowing her, there could very well be an entourage of people en route to his apartment right now, ready to whisk him away to the circus.

Again.

So ignoring it wasn’t much of an option.

Deciding that ignorance may not, in fact, be bliss when she was involved, he reluctantly approached the letter leaning on the napkin holder and took it in his hands.

Taking a deep breath, he took a moment to admire the beautiful golden calligraphy on the back—courtesy of Loretta—then gingerly opened the envelope.

The letter wasn’t very long, but its content was certainly ominous. 

It read:

“Mornin’ spacecadet.” 

That again.

“Happy 24th! I hope the past few months have been kind to you. I know you’ve missed me terribly since we last saw one another, but big sis has been busy. Please find it in your heart to forgive me with this small gift.”

Forgiveness denied.

He wasn’t exactly sure what this ‘gift’ was, he threw a suspicious glance at the stuff on the counter. But memories of cramming hell flooded his mind and his grudge was still standing strong. 

Notwithstanding the unsubstantiated claim that he may, or may not, have missed her.

He rolled his eyes.

What a load of shit.

“While it’s a bit of a shame I can’t be there as often as I’d like, I have just the thing to stave off your loneliness. Surely you can’t deny my graciousness and generosity?”

For the love of all that is holy, please, get to the point!

“You, my dear brother, are now the proud and companionable owner of a… well, it wouldn’t do for me to spoil it now would it? All of his things have been left with you since I know you wouldn't know what to get yourself. To top it off, he even comes with a bonus! Well, maybe it’d be better to say that they’re a package deal? Forget the details. Aren't I thoughtful?” 

He could almost sense the smug look on her face.

He? What… A person? No she’s not that crazy… A pet?

He eyed the pile of ‘supplies,’ as she called it, and examined them.

He was stumped. 

On the one hand, there were pet bowls, canned food, toys and whatever else, as he suspected there would be. But on the other hand, the majority of the stuff was just basic living supplies he didn’t currently need.

Unless she suddenly decided to go grocery shopping for him, something wasn’t adding up. 

And that bonus didn’t seem simple either.

If she sends some high maintenance exotic animal my way, I’m burning her house down.

That lack of specification was the problem.

As if to cement the uneasy feeling he had, three long knocks came from the front door.

*knock, knock, knock*

His heart leapt out of his chest. 

Eyeing the door suspiciously, he looked back down to read the rest of the letter.

“I was originally planning on getting a few more…well you’ll know soon, but Loretta stopped me, which isn’t nearly as fun.”

He wasn’t sure if he should be grateful to Loretta or terrified of what his sister would’ve done without her.

Maybe both.

Both was good.

“Regardless, knowing you, you would never willingly come here to pick him up, so, I arranged for him to arrive right about the time I expect you to be reading this instead.”

What?

Julien froze and quickly turned in the direction of the door again, as if whoever was behind it somehow had the keys to his apartment.

Creepy!

He felt goosebumps take root throughout his body.

Am I that easy to read?

Was this a sign he needed to take up new hobbies?

Shaking his head, he looked at the last few lines of the letter.

“There’s just one tiny thing I need from you: When you meet, there’s something I sent along with him that I need you to sign, okay? :)”

“—sincerely yours, your number one elder sister.”

“p.s. Don’t even think about sending him back or there will be consequences.”

What’s with the mildly threatening line-ender!?

Frightened, he threw the letter away as if it were on fire. Forget whatever that was, he needed to leave soon.

Why can I never bring myself to just stay home!

Grumbling about how unfair life was, he checked the time and glanced at the door again. 

He may have only been a 5 minute walk from campus, but he sure as hell didn’t like cutting it that close. 

There were only 20 minutes left until class.

Might as well get this over with.

Who knows, if he was lucky, whoever was at the door would have nothing to do with his sister.

A neighbor asking to borrow some sugar perhaps? Or the building manager swinging by to warn him that the water would be off for an hour? A spontaneous visit from anyone else even?

But those scenarios weren’t just unlikely.

They were almost impossible.

I don’t even have neighbors…

As he defeatedly walked away from the counter, something caught his eye amidst the clutter.

It was a collar. 

Which wasn’t a big deal on its own,

But it was huge.

“What the fuck did she get me!?”

Taken aback, he exclaimed loudly and stumbled over his feet, almost falling to the floor. Just as he barely managed to catch himself on the nearby kitchen stool, another knock came from the door, followed by more silence.

Ow.

Rubbing the side of his arm, he picked up the collar and inspected it for a moment before letting out a soulless chuckle.

Taking context clues into consideration, he was about to become the loud and proud owner of a cute little puppy! Except that puppy may very well have been big enough to eat him alive! 

How pleasant!

Readjusting himself, he walked towards the door with an empty smile on his face, collar still in hand. Whatever behemoth his sister got him, he wasn’t going to be surprised. 

Nope. Not him. 

Well, maybe he would be a little surprised, just a little, if she had some kind of caged lion out there instead.

But she wouldn’t dare.

Right…?

He put his hand on the doorknob, twisted, and took a peek through the crack, not letting the door chain slide out just yet.

“ARF!”

What he saw was a wall of black, and what he heard was the most adorable—but definitely not sizable—bark.

It doesn’t sound like a large dog at least. 

Or maybe it did, it’s not like he’d ever actually seen one before.

It may have sounded cute, but it could very well be one of those large dogs that start off small and grow to the size of a bear within a month.

What else was he supposed to do with the collar, otherwise?

Looking down, he saw a little snout trying to press its way through the crack, then, gently moving the little face out of the way, he unlatched the chain and opened the door all the way.

He was promptly face to face with someone else’s chest.