They stood at the riverbank, facing each other, twenty paces separating them.
A stray breeze blew a leaf into the air. As the leaf touched the ground, they both moved.
"Shiny Aqua Illusion!" Ami launched a blast of frigid water at her opponent.
He stopped his attack preparations, caught Ami's attack in mid-air, then tossed it back at her.
She started running. "Mercury Aqua Rhapsody!" she cried without stopping to stand and fire.
The two masses of water hit each other in mid-air, merging and flying into a mass of spray.
"Time!"
"What, already?" Rob turned to Mii. "We just started."
"You two stood there staring each other down for minutes as if you were in a samurai drama. Or maybe you were just staring at each other. I'm a bit jealous."
"Sorry!" Ami smiled, then sighed. "I was hoping to get some more practice in."
"And I was hoping to find out what else I can do with this new ability of mine," Rob added.
"Then be less dramatic next time and go straight to the combat. Ami, how long have you been able to get an attack off without stopping to launch it?"
Ami transformed out of her Sailor Mercury form and checked her watch. "About two minutes now. I knew Rob wouldn't hurt me if it didn't work."
"That was your first time?"
"It was my first time, it was with you, and I got so wet in the process." Ami smiled at Rob.
Mii grinned and passed a towel to Ami. "Yes, Ami, you're definitely a pre-med student. We shouldn't describe it that way to the others, though." She turned to Rob and saw he didn't need a towel - he had already moved the water away from his clothes and body. Then she raised her voice. "Computer, end program!"
The water in the river drained away, then the ground and the riverbed disappeared, revealing a large empty room decorated in a crab motif. The door opened to reveal Makoto and Mikoto waiting patiently. "Are you three done with whatever it is you were doing?"
"Not really, but it is your turn to use the sparring room. Try not to hurt each other, please."
Ami, Mii, and Rob waited for Makoto and Mikoto to step into the sparring room before they left. Once they were out of the building's pocket dimension, Ami made a quick detour to the laundry room to drop off her towel, then re-joined the others at the foot of the stairs up to ground level. "I'm not used to not having any homework."
"Neither am I," Mii added, "but that doesn't mean I can't read ahead in my coursework."
"I don't have any paperwork to do for Funtom Canada today, and Maika's got the housework down to a routine. How about the three of us go out for lunch after we take a shower... sorry, after we take showers and make ourselves presentable?"
Mii grinned. "All in favour of us taking one shower?" She and Ami both raised their hands.
They heard a cough from the top of the stairs. Looking up, they saw Hyoga... also smiling and raising her hand. "What are you three waiting for?"
Rob sighed. "You know that was a slip of the tongue, and I know you're all teasing me. Not until you two are 18 and you," he looked at Hyoga, "have had Washuu-chan give you a full medical scan."
"I'm a perfectly healthy human now, really." Hyoga emphasized "huamn" ever so slightly.
"I know. But whose DNA is in your genes?"
Blossom Apartments, Ottawa, ON, Canada
11:01am, December 22, 2016
Makoto saw the note that Rob had left on the kitchen counter. She read it, nodded, and scaled back her lunch recipe.
It made sense to her for the four of them to have lunch out. After all, Ami and Mii-san had to figure out what they thought of that geas on Hyoga-san and Rob-oji, and they couldn't do that with everybody else listening in and offering comments. Well, they could, but Makoto knew that she wouldn't be able to stop herself from defending Ami's interests even if Ami didn't want her to.
Ottawa, ON, Canada
11:13am, December 22, 2016
"An extra-large 'pizzaburger', please." Mii turned to the other three people at the table. "What do you want?"
Rob grinned. "Even you might have trouble finishing off an extra-large on your own. The four of us will share one pizza."
As the waitress left to tell the kitchen their order, Hyoga turned to Rob. "Is this a pizza inside a hamburger bun?"
"No, 'pizzaburger' is their name for a pizza topped with ground beef, mushrooms, and green peppers. It isn't as greasy or as spicy as the usual Ottawa combination of pepperoni, mushrooms, and green peppers, which is why I like it and introduced it to our building's espers before the Senshi showed up. As for the name, it's a pizza topped with what people expect to see inside a hamburger bun."
"Why haven't I heard of this before?"
Mii sighed. "Hyoga, this is literally the second-closest pizza place to our apartment, and the closest one that has table service. How have you not been here before?"
"As Rob pointed out to me during our very long day yesterday, I need to get out more." Hyoga sighed. "I'm out now. And we need to talk."
"Yeah. That's why I asked for a table in the corner."
Ami smiled at Rob. "Better to have at least some privacy, yes. My first question: Why did we tell our resident spy, Maika?"
"That's part of the geas. I had to tell mortals, and she's the only person in the building who can be described only as a mortal human - no esper Skill, no Senshi transformation, no talent for magic, and no ... whatever it is that I am now."
"What about Jacky and Kate?"
"They might not be mages, but they're magic-users. Although we called on them after we told all of you, and then visited a few other people that I know, just to be on the safe side. Garm did say 'mortals', plural."
"Second question," Mii said. "What kind of family are the two of you going to be?"
"The two of you are Rob's first loves," Hyoga replied. "I'm content with being junior to both of you."
Rob sighed, deeply. "I don't want anybody to be senior or junior in our relationship. And I don't know whether Hyoga and I can be spouses."
"Why not?"
"She was re-made into a human with a celestial form, and I was the closest human when that happened."
Ami nodded. "And you're worried that her genetic pattern was copied from yours, although you can't be an exact match because the two of you are obviously not the same sex."
"But we could be genetic siblings; just change my XY pair to an XX pair."
Hyoga gasped. "I didn't even think of that!"
"And Mako-chan told me that you used to have a sister," Ami continued.
Rob nodded.
"Used to?"
"She passed away many years ago, from a wasting disease that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy."
Mii looked Rob straight in the eye. "Does Hyoga look like your sister?"
"That's the thing. Maybe." Rob turned to Hyoga. "The women in my family tend toward having large bustlines the way you do, but you had that measurement before I met you. You're as serious as I remember her being, but she didn't wear glasses, and you aren't as tall as my blood relatives."
"Japanese people tend to be shorter than North Americans."
"Only because of diet," countered Ami. "Mii, you're taller than Mako-chan, and you're only one year older than she and I are."
"Speaking of diet," Rob interrupted, "I see our garlic bread coming."
After the waitress had been and left, they went on with their conversation.
"Let's assume that you're too close genetically to be lovers. What then?"
"Then Hyoga is for all intents and purposes my sister, and will eventually be your sister-in-law. That's a given."
Hyoga smiled, then sighed. "I agree, if that's the case. As much as I don't want it to be the case."
"Yes, there's no reason for your DNA to be Hyoga's template. Hvergelmir has all of creation to draw upon, after all."
Mii frowned. "But our plane of existence was frozen in time. Hvergelmir might not have had access to it."
"Or it might have taken the opportunity to get detailed scans of people while we were frozen," Ami replied.
"Ladies, I think we're arguing with insufficient evidence. I'll call Washuu-chan once we're back home."
"Right. Third question. If you aren't genetically too close to marry, are we going to form a group marriage?"
"Is that legal?" Hyoga asked Mii.
"That depends on whether you want a marriage contract," Rob replied. "In Canada, I can only marry one of you, but nobody can stop us from living together as a family."
"Maika wouldn't approve," Mii pointed out.
"What the 'English Puritan Church' - which I assume is what your world has instead of our Anglican Church - does or does not approve of is no concern of mine. And if Maika dares to complain, I'll ask her what the first epistle to the Corinthians has to say."
Mii frowned. "What does it have to say?"
"'But now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is love.' That's from the American Standard translation."
Rob nodded at Hyoga's quotation. "I'm impressed that you know it well enough to quote it."
"I am an angel, after all. But I don't think they pay attention to that epistle any more."
"Why not?"
"The same epistle also says, 'For when one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not men? What then is Apollos? and what is Paul? Ministers through whom ye believed; and each as the Lord gave to him. I planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.' That doesn't match up with the multiplicity of Christian churches in either my home universe or this one."
"We're getting off-topic, ladies. And I see our waitress coming our way with a pizza." After the waitress had served each of them a slice and left the rest of the pizza at the table, Rob continued, "I don't want to railroad anybody into something you don't want. Hyoga, what do you think about all this?"
"I'm thinking that another quote from that same epistle applies here. 'But if they have not continency, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn. But unto the married I give charge, yea not I, but the Lord, That the wife depart not from her husband (but should she depart, let her remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband); and that the husband leave not his wife. But to the rest say I, not the Lord: If any brother hath an unbelieving wife, and she is content to dwell with him, let him not leave her. And the woman that hath an unbelieving husband, and he is content to dwell with her, let her not leave her husband.'"
"I always thought the Apostle Paul was something of a prude," Rob commented. "He wanted everybody to abstain from sex, and conceded to sex within marriage."
"I'm not a Christian," Ami added. "But I suppose that just makes me one of the unbelieving."
Rob nodded and continued. "But that's what Paul thought. I asked what you thought, Hyoga. I think I know what you mean, but do you really understand it if you can't put it into your own words?"
"I see what you're saying," Hyoga answered. "I like all of you. I think I love you all, in different ways. I'd be happy to be a part of a family with all of you, but I don't want that family to be torn apart for any reason short of death. And I definitely don't agree with Paul's ideas about human sexuality. I'm more of an Old Testament angel that way."
"All fire and brimstone?" Mii asked.
"No, the other sort. 'I am a rose of Sharon, A lily of the valleys. As a lily among thorns, So is my love among the daughters. As the apple-tree among the trees of the wood, So is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, And his fruit was sweet to my taste. He brought me to the banqueting-house, And his banner over me was love. Stay ye me with raisins, refresh me with apples; For I am sick from love. His left hand under my head, And his right hand doth embrace me.'"
Rob grinned. "I'll be sure to let Mako-chan know that you think her meals are banquets."
Hyoga grinned back. "There's that literal meaning, too."
Mii just looked confused. "I'm sorry, but was that really a Bible quote? It sounded less like something a Christian would say and more like something a romance novelist would write."
Hyoga nodded. "It was from the Song of Solomon. There are a lot of people who forget that we were created with sex drives for a reason, but Solomon wasn't one of them."
"Okay," Rob said as he served another slice of pizza to Mii, "I think we all know where Hyoga stands on the matter. What about you, Mii?"
"I like you, but I don't know whether I'm ready to commit myself to a lifelong relationship. Especially since we're all going to live for centuries."
"How do you figure that?"
"Ami, you're a Sailor Senshi. We know you're going to live for at least a millennium. Washuu-chan gave me that nanite treatment to heal me quickly back when we were first attacked by the Unseelie, and the experts in Academy City are almost positive that regeneration includes an extended lifespan as a second-order effect. Rob, didn't she give you the same nanite treatment?"
"The same or a similar treatment, yes, to repair my nervous system." He looked thoughtful at the realization. "But that was before I was transformed at Hvergelmir."
"Everything we've seen so far indicates you were improved, not re-created."
"Everything we've seen so far."
"Granted, but why would you have lost an ability? And Hyoga's an angel. I might have the shortest lifespan of all of us; just a few centuries. But I'm pretty sure that we're all going to outlive the other people we know, the Senshi and the Juraians excluded. I like you all now. Will I still like you in 2200?"
"'But should she depart, let her remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband'," Hyoga re-quoted. "I'm fine with spending time apart, even years apart, as long as we remain true to each other."
"I'd still like to think about it."
"I'm not going to ask you to commit to anything until after your 18th birthday," Rob replied. "You have plenty of time to think about it."
"And I have even more time, don't I?" Everybody nodded in reply to Ami's question. "Mii mentioned that I'm going to live for longer than she expects to live. I don't know whether I can handle that."
"It isn't easy outliving a loved one," Rob replied. "But we all end up learning how to cope."
"Does anybody else want more pizza?"
"Way to spoil the mood, Mii," Rob muttered.
"Oh! I'm sorry. But there's no point letting it go to waste."
"I'll have one more slice, please," Ami replied.
"So will I, please."
"And I'll have one more as well," Rob added. "You can have the rest."
Mii smiled as they all turned their full attention to lunch.
Blossom Apartments, Ottawa, ON, Canada / Westwoods Apartments, San Antonio, TX, USA
12:33pm / 11:33am, December 22, 2016
"I hope I'm not taking you away from lunch."
"Not at all. I was just about to call you, actually; Sasami-chan wants to know what you want for Christmas presents."
"Honestly, Washuu-chan, all I want for Christmas is a full medical checkup."
"I gave you a full medical checkup less than three months ago, Rob."
"True, but that was before Hyoga and I visited Niflheim yesterday."
"You visited ... Both of you. My lab. Now."
"Yes, Washuu-chan." Rob grinned, looked up from the phone, and turned to Makoto and Mikoto. "See you tomorrow. I hope."
Before they could reply, the door to Washuu-chan's lab appeared on the Blossom Apartments common room's wall.
To be continued ...
A stray breeze blew a leaf into the air. As the leaf touched the ground, they both moved.
"Shiny Aqua Illusion!" Ami launched a blast of frigid water at her opponent.
He stopped his attack preparations, caught Ami's attack in mid-air, then tossed it back at her.
She started running. "Mercury Aqua Rhapsody!" she cried without stopping to stand and fire.
The two masses of water hit each other in mid-air, merging and flying into a mass of spray.
"Time!"
"What, already?" Rob turned to Mii. "We just started."
"You two stood there staring each other down for minutes as if you were in a samurai drama. Or maybe you were just staring at each other. I'm a bit jealous."
"Sorry!" Ami smiled, then sighed. "I was hoping to get some more practice in."
"And I was hoping to find out what else I can do with this new ability of mine," Rob added.
"Then be less dramatic next time and go straight to the combat. Ami, how long have you been able to get an attack off without stopping to launch it?"
Ami transformed out of her Sailor Mercury form and checked her watch. "About two minutes now. I knew Rob wouldn't hurt me if it didn't work."
"That was your first time?"
"It was my first time, it was with you, and I got so wet in the process." Ami smiled at Rob.
Mii grinned and passed a towel to Ami. "Yes, Ami, you're definitely a pre-med student. We shouldn't describe it that way to the others, though." She turned to Rob and saw he didn't need a towel - he had already moved the water away from his clothes and body. Then she raised her voice. "Computer, end program!"
The water in the river drained away, then the ground and the riverbed disappeared, revealing a large empty room decorated in a crab motif. The door opened to reveal Makoto and Mikoto waiting patiently. "Are you three done with whatever it is you were doing?"
"Not really, but it is your turn to use the sparring room. Try not to hurt each other, please."
Ami, Mii, and Rob waited for Makoto and Mikoto to step into the sparring room before they left. Once they were out of the building's pocket dimension, Ami made a quick detour to the laundry room to drop off her towel, then re-joined the others at the foot of the stairs up to ground level. "I'm not used to not having any homework."
"Neither am I," Mii added, "but that doesn't mean I can't read ahead in my coursework."
"I don't have any paperwork to do for Funtom Canada today, and Maika's got the housework down to a routine. How about the three of us go out for lunch after we take a shower... sorry, after we take showers and make ourselves presentable?"
Mii grinned. "All in favour of us taking one shower?" She and Ami both raised their hands.
They heard a cough from the top of the stairs. Looking up, they saw Hyoga... also smiling and raising her hand. "What are you three waiting for?"
Rob sighed. "You know that was a slip of the tongue, and I know you're all teasing me. Not until you two are 18 and you," he looked at Hyoga, "have had Washuu-chan give you a full medical scan."
"I'm a perfectly healthy human now, really." Hyoga emphasized "huamn" ever so slightly.
"I know. But whose DNA is in your genes?"
Blossom Apartments, Ottawa, ON, Canada
11:01am, December 22, 2016
Makoto saw the note that Rob had left on the kitchen counter. She read it, nodded, and scaled back her lunch recipe.
It made sense to her for the four of them to have lunch out. After all, Ami and Mii-san had to figure out what they thought of that geas on Hyoga-san and Rob-oji, and they couldn't do that with everybody else listening in and offering comments. Well, they could, but Makoto knew that she wouldn't be able to stop herself from defending Ami's interests even if Ami didn't want her to.
Ottawa, ON, Canada
11:13am, December 22, 2016
"An extra-large 'pizzaburger', please." Mii turned to the other three people at the table. "What do you want?"
Rob grinned. "Even you might have trouble finishing off an extra-large on your own. The four of us will share one pizza."
As the waitress left to tell the kitchen their order, Hyoga turned to Rob. "Is this a pizza inside a hamburger bun?"
"No, 'pizzaburger' is their name for a pizza topped with ground beef, mushrooms, and green peppers. It isn't as greasy or as spicy as the usual Ottawa combination of pepperoni, mushrooms, and green peppers, which is why I like it and introduced it to our building's espers before the Senshi showed up. As for the name, it's a pizza topped with what people expect to see inside a hamburger bun."
"Why haven't I heard of this before?"
Mii sighed. "Hyoga, this is literally the second-closest pizza place to our apartment, and the closest one that has table service. How have you not been here before?"
"As Rob pointed out to me during our very long day yesterday, I need to get out more." Hyoga sighed. "I'm out now. And we need to talk."
"Yeah. That's why I asked for a table in the corner."
Ami smiled at Rob. "Better to have at least some privacy, yes. My first question: Why did we tell our resident spy, Maika?"
"That's part of the geas. I had to tell mortals, and she's the only person in the building who can be described only as a mortal human - no esper Skill, no Senshi transformation, no talent for magic, and no ... whatever it is that I am now."
"What about Jacky and Kate?"
"They might not be mages, but they're magic-users. Although we called on them after we told all of you, and then visited a few other people that I know, just to be on the safe side. Garm did say 'mortals', plural."
"Second question," Mii said. "What kind of family are the two of you going to be?"
"The two of you are Rob's first loves," Hyoga replied. "I'm content with being junior to both of you."
Rob sighed, deeply. "I don't want anybody to be senior or junior in our relationship. And I don't know whether Hyoga and I can be spouses."
"Why not?"
"She was re-made into a human with a celestial form, and I was the closest human when that happened."
Ami nodded. "And you're worried that her genetic pattern was copied from yours, although you can't be an exact match because the two of you are obviously not the same sex."
"But we could be genetic siblings; just change my XY pair to an XX pair."
Hyoga gasped. "I didn't even think of that!"
"And Mako-chan told me that you used to have a sister," Ami continued.
Rob nodded.
"Used to?"
"She passed away many years ago, from a wasting disease that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy."
Mii looked Rob straight in the eye. "Does Hyoga look like your sister?"
"That's the thing. Maybe." Rob turned to Hyoga. "The women in my family tend toward having large bustlines the way you do, but you had that measurement before I met you. You're as serious as I remember her being, but she didn't wear glasses, and you aren't as tall as my blood relatives."
"Japanese people tend to be shorter than North Americans."
"Only because of diet," countered Ami. "Mii, you're taller than Mako-chan, and you're only one year older than she and I are."
"Speaking of diet," Rob interrupted, "I see our garlic bread coming."
After the waitress had been and left, they went on with their conversation.
"Let's assume that you're too close genetically to be lovers. What then?"
"Then Hyoga is for all intents and purposes my sister, and will eventually be your sister-in-law. That's a given."
Hyoga smiled, then sighed. "I agree, if that's the case. As much as I don't want it to be the case."
"Yes, there's no reason for your DNA to be Hyoga's template. Hvergelmir has all of creation to draw upon, after all."
Mii frowned. "But our plane of existence was frozen in time. Hvergelmir might not have had access to it."
"Or it might have taken the opportunity to get detailed scans of people while we were frozen," Ami replied.
"Ladies, I think we're arguing with insufficient evidence. I'll call Washuu-chan once we're back home."
"Right. Third question. If you aren't genetically too close to marry, are we going to form a group marriage?"
"Is that legal?" Hyoga asked Mii.
"That depends on whether you want a marriage contract," Rob replied. "In Canada, I can only marry one of you, but nobody can stop us from living together as a family."
"Maika wouldn't approve," Mii pointed out.
"What the 'English Puritan Church' - which I assume is what your world has instead of our Anglican Church - does or does not approve of is no concern of mine. And if Maika dares to complain, I'll ask her what the first epistle to the Corinthians has to say."
Mii frowned. "What does it have to say?"
"'But now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is love.' That's from the American Standard translation."
Rob nodded at Hyoga's quotation. "I'm impressed that you know it well enough to quote it."
"I am an angel, after all. But I don't think they pay attention to that epistle any more."
"Why not?"
"The same epistle also says, 'For when one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not men? What then is Apollos? and what is Paul? Ministers through whom ye believed; and each as the Lord gave to him. I planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.' That doesn't match up with the multiplicity of Christian churches in either my home universe or this one."
"We're getting off-topic, ladies. And I see our waitress coming our way with a pizza." After the waitress had served each of them a slice and left the rest of the pizza at the table, Rob continued, "I don't want to railroad anybody into something you don't want. Hyoga, what do you think about all this?"
"I'm thinking that another quote from that same epistle applies here. 'But if they have not continency, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn. But unto the married I give charge, yea not I, but the Lord, That the wife depart not from her husband (but should she depart, let her remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband); and that the husband leave not his wife. But to the rest say I, not the Lord: If any brother hath an unbelieving wife, and she is content to dwell with him, let him not leave her. And the woman that hath an unbelieving husband, and he is content to dwell with her, let her not leave her husband.'"
"I always thought the Apostle Paul was something of a prude," Rob commented. "He wanted everybody to abstain from sex, and conceded to sex within marriage."
"I'm not a Christian," Ami added. "But I suppose that just makes me one of the unbelieving."
Rob nodded and continued. "But that's what Paul thought. I asked what you thought, Hyoga. I think I know what you mean, but do you really understand it if you can't put it into your own words?"
"I see what you're saying," Hyoga answered. "I like all of you. I think I love you all, in different ways. I'd be happy to be a part of a family with all of you, but I don't want that family to be torn apart for any reason short of death. And I definitely don't agree with Paul's ideas about human sexuality. I'm more of an Old Testament angel that way."
"All fire and brimstone?" Mii asked.
"No, the other sort. 'I am a rose of Sharon, A lily of the valleys. As a lily among thorns, So is my love among the daughters. As the apple-tree among the trees of the wood, So is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, And his fruit was sweet to my taste. He brought me to the banqueting-house, And his banner over me was love. Stay ye me with raisins, refresh me with apples; For I am sick from love. His left hand under my head, And his right hand doth embrace me.'"
Rob grinned. "I'll be sure to let Mako-chan know that you think her meals are banquets."
Hyoga grinned back. "There's that literal meaning, too."
Mii just looked confused. "I'm sorry, but was that really a Bible quote? It sounded less like something a Christian would say and more like something a romance novelist would write."
Hyoga nodded. "It was from the Song of Solomon. There are a lot of people who forget that we were created with sex drives for a reason, but Solomon wasn't one of them."
"Okay," Rob said as he served another slice of pizza to Mii, "I think we all know where Hyoga stands on the matter. What about you, Mii?"
"I like you, but I don't know whether I'm ready to commit myself to a lifelong relationship. Especially since we're all going to live for centuries."
"How do you figure that?"
"Ami, you're a Sailor Senshi. We know you're going to live for at least a millennium. Washuu-chan gave me that nanite treatment to heal me quickly back when we were first attacked by the Unseelie, and the experts in Academy City are almost positive that regeneration includes an extended lifespan as a second-order effect. Rob, didn't she give you the same nanite treatment?"
"The same or a similar treatment, yes, to repair my nervous system." He looked thoughtful at the realization. "But that was before I was transformed at Hvergelmir."
"Everything we've seen so far indicates you were improved, not re-created."
"Everything we've seen so far."
"Granted, but why would you have lost an ability? And Hyoga's an angel. I might have the shortest lifespan of all of us; just a few centuries. But I'm pretty sure that we're all going to outlive the other people we know, the Senshi and the Juraians excluded. I like you all now. Will I still like you in 2200?"
"'But should she depart, let her remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband'," Hyoga re-quoted. "I'm fine with spending time apart, even years apart, as long as we remain true to each other."
"I'd still like to think about it."
"I'm not going to ask you to commit to anything until after your 18th birthday," Rob replied. "You have plenty of time to think about it."
"And I have even more time, don't I?" Everybody nodded in reply to Ami's question. "Mii mentioned that I'm going to live for longer than she expects to live. I don't know whether I can handle that."
"It isn't easy outliving a loved one," Rob replied. "But we all end up learning how to cope."
"Does anybody else want more pizza?"
"Way to spoil the mood, Mii," Rob muttered.
"Oh! I'm sorry. But there's no point letting it go to waste."
"I'll have one more slice, please," Ami replied.
"So will I, please."
"And I'll have one more as well," Rob added. "You can have the rest."
Mii smiled as they all turned their full attention to lunch.
Blossom Apartments, Ottawa, ON, Canada / Westwoods Apartments, San Antonio, TX, USA
12:33pm / 11:33am, December 22, 2016
"I hope I'm not taking you away from lunch."
"Not at all. I was just about to call you, actually; Sasami-chan wants to know what you want for Christmas presents."
"Honestly, Washuu-chan, all I want for Christmas is a full medical checkup."
"I gave you a full medical checkup less than three months ago, Rob."
"True, but that was before Hyoga and I visited Niflheim yesterday."
"You visited ... Both of you. My lab. Now."
"Yes, Washuu-chan." Rob grinned, looked up from the phone, and turned to Makoto and Mikoto. "See you tomorrow. I hope."
Before they could reply, the door to Washuu-chan's lab appeared on the Blossom Apartments common room's wall.
To be continued ...
--
Rob Kelk
Sticks and stones can break your bones,
But words can break your heart.
- unknown
Rob Kelk
Sticks and stones can break your bones,
But words can break your heart.
- unknown