The annoying, loud alarm sound slowly woke up everyone in the room except for Gabriel, who was still sleeping like a baby. In the eyes of the three girls, Misha also seemed adamant about leaving dreamland, although he was only pretending to be asleep, regulating his breathing and keeping his eyes tightly shut.

As the noise disturbed his peaceful sleep, the teenager turned over towards the kid by his side, frowning, grunting, and mumbling. The sudden closeness and the warm breath gently blowing against the skin of his neck made Misha's whole body tense up. The child pulled the blanket over his head, curling into a ball while silently cursing.

'Too close! Too freaking close!'

"Hn, five more minutes…" Gabriel muttered with a small voice while burying his face in the pillow, the wrinkle between his eyebrows deepening. In response, the girls only chuckled, quite amused by this unexpected cuteness. The teenager maintained a serious and m.a.t.u.r.e image all day long, be it at school or in private, but he was surprisingly lazy and childish in the morning. The contrast made their heart soften a little.

Contrary to them, Misha wasn't touched by the display of laziness. 'Don't laugh! Seriously, don't! Waking up that bastard is a real ordeal, you know!?' complained the boy in his heart, streams of tears almost running down his cheeks.

All those times Misha had to wake up the teenager flashed through his mind. Occasionally, even screaming directly into that Sleeping Beauty's ear didn't work out, and jumping on his stomach only resulted in the teenager gritting his teeth and slapping him off his body like if he was nothing more than a fly. Sure, he was small, but not 'that' small. Whenever his b.u.t.t landed on the floor, it hurt his pride, making him pout for a few hours.

On the bright side, it had always been an excellent excuse to pour a bucket of cold water on his face, which earned him a good scolding that went through one ear and came out the other every time. Even if the couch was old and made of leather, it wasn't a reason to drench it. Masha wanted to keep it in an acceptable condition as long as possible since money was scarce, and the water wasn't exactly its best friend. If the little devil felt like pouring water on her boyfriend's face, he should do it when the guy was sleeping on a wooden chair or the barren floor, and not on the couch.

Well, for now, it seemed like Gabriel's lousy habit wasn't too bad, and the alarm was enough to disturb his sleep. No need for a bucket of cold water. Discreetly, Misha smirked. There was now something he was looking forward to, and instead of using cold water, a bucket of icy water seemed more appropriate. This summer, the child knew Gabriel would pass a lot of time with his family, and thus, he would have quite a few occasions to snatch him from his dreams, and he planned to do so in the most horrible way possible.

While Misha filled his head with images of Gabriel waking up in fright, his mother walked up to the bed without making any sound. When her cold hand gently touched his forehead, the child flinched, his heartbeat increasing tenfold until he heard her gentle voice and realized to whom belonged the hand, "It seems like his fever went down."

Masha heaved a sigh of relief, then murmured, "Thank God! He gave me a real scare yesterday."

"With the hot temperature from the past few days, it's not surprising that his body couldn't hold up," commented Camille. "What's surprising, though, is the fact that this little diva didn't complain a single time, following us obediently without any fuss."

"Who are you calling a diva?" grumped Masha.

"Your brother, of course! Who else?" mocked Camille, a smile in her voice.

"I'm the only one who can call him a diva, hmph."

"Yes, yes, your highness." Camille took a few seconds of silence before adding, "But you must admit that your brother was a bit too calm yesterday. There was not a single hint of his usual bossy attitude; he didn't ask for anything, even when we were in Chinatown and passed in front of so many stores; didn't cling to you like a leech; didn't try to shoo me away, and so on. He wasn't naughty, nor did he act spoiled. God! I almost mistook him for an angel!"

On the bed, the not-really asleep Misha thought, 'Come on! I wasn't that bad when I was a brat. Just a bit mischievous and pampered.'

"…" Masha didn't immediately answer as if she was reflecting on her childhood friend's words. "Yeah, I should have realized sooner that something was wrong with him," admitted Masha, her voice slightly shaking from the guilt.

"Hey! I'm not blaming you. Don't make that face. No matter what, your brother is undoubtedly cute. I mean, when he acts like a young master, I want to pinch his cheeks and ruffle his hair. Anyway, I'm only a little worried. I'm not used to such a calm Misha, and I'm afraid of his next prank. Last time, I found a ton of worms in my purse, you know?"

The little boy's mouth twitched. 'Shit! I dare you to pinch my cheeks! I will bite your finger very, very badly. Hmph. Wait. Why did I put worms in her purse again?' He thought hard about it, but couldn't remember. After all, for him, it was more than fifteen years ago, and a lot of his childhood memories were blurry. It probably wasn't important, so he tossed the thought in the back of his mind.

Masha burst out of laughing, which made Misha come back to the present. "Well, you've seen worse.

But, oh gosh, I would have liked to see your face when you opened your purse, you who loves insect so much."

"Sometimes, I wonder if that brother of yours didn't learn that bad habit of tricking and pranking everyone from you," sighed the teenage girl.

Even though Misha couldn't see Camille's expression, he was pretty sure she was glaring at his sister. Indeed, Masha was an expert at pulling pranks, and in the past, her best friend often suffered from her weird hobby, although Masha was much more well-behaved now. At least, her pranks were a bit more refined and didn't include dirty thing such as mud and old chewing gum. Now that he thought about it with a grown-up point of view, Camille's patience with his sister made Misha somewhat gasp in awe.

"Actually, if you really want to find a guilty party for our bad habit, I can give you one. You see, we probably inherited it from…"

Someone coughed, interrupting Masha from saying more, then Mrs. Brown said, "I'm still worried about Misha… I'm sorry, Masha, but I would like to go to the clinic today. Do you mind if we postpone the amus.e.m.e.nt park?"

"Not at all. I was going to say the same thing. We have all summer anyway; we will find the time to go another day, right?"

Gabriel was still sleeping and drooling on his pillow, so they didn't bother to ask for his opinion. In any case, the majority always wins.

Clenching his fits beneath the blanket, Misha listened to their conversation while feeling conflicted. In a way, he felt happy about their worries; except for Dereck, and later his boss and Vanessa, no one paid attention to him for a few years, leaving him alone in a dark, filthy, and lonesome world. He felt loved once again, and a warm feeling surged in the pit of his stomach.

On the other hand, he guessed that even if they were to bring him to the doctor, they wouldn't find anything wrong with his body. Heat-stroke was probably the only logical answer they could come up with to explain his sudden fainting on the bed or something along those lines. The child was already surprised they waited until morning before planning to go to a clinic and didn't rush to the hospital right away. He didn't know why they decided to stay in the room, but he was grateful for their decision.

Misha had never been the brightest person in a group, but that didn't mean he was utterly stupid. The words of Santa Claus were a bit unclear in his mind since he wasn't completely sober when they talked, and he also received a lot of information in one go. Still, he remembered some part of their discussion, mostly about the several drawbacks of going back in time at such a young age. Sure enough, the fatigue and the fever didn't take their sweet time before plaguing him.

How could the doctor understand his present state? It would never come to mind that his sudden bad health was the result of a fully-grown man's mind slipping into the brain of a kid.

Headache, tiredness, aching muscles; he could deal with it. In the end, the pain was nothing if it meant a second chance with his family. It was worth it.

Since it was useless to visit the clinic, Misha had to convince them that he was feeling fine and full of energy. Bouncing everywhere would do it. As Camille suggested, he was worse than a diva. Then, throwing a tantrum because he wanted to go to the amus.e.m.e.nt park shouldn't surprise anyone, and maybe even made them forget his 'calm' attitude that was a little out of character– apparently. Although he had forgotten how to throw a temper like a kid, it probably wasn't that much difficult to mimic.

The evening before traveling back in time, Vanessa told him a story about when her daughter had been unreasonable, talking about how she always pouted, crossed her arms in front of her c.h.e.s.t, and glared at her with reddened eyes whenever she d.e.s.i.r.ed something and her mother said no. The little girl would then refuse to listen and take a firm stand, puffing her cheeks. Every time, the waitress could only coax her daughter with sweet words and chocolates.

In his mind, he had an example that he could follow. Even if it was from a three years old child, it didn't matter. 'All kids must be the same when they throw a tantrum, anyway,' thought Misha, mentally preparing himself to step on his ego once again.

'But for now, let's concentrate on the task at hand.'

______________

Author's note

MC: Ah! I could pour boiling water on Gabriel's face instead of icy water! (ﾉ*0*)ﾉ

Author: If you do that, you're going to disfigure him, you know? His handsome face is one of his rare good points.

MC: Oh… Yeah, you're right.

ML: … Why do I feel like both my author and my future beloved despised me? It's kind of depressing... (╥﹏╥)