“Oh, when you go home tonight, could you tell Michiru that I have her stone baking circle?” Makoto said. “She left it at my place; I’ll give it to her tomorrow when I see her.” “I don’t even think that Mama knows that it’s missing,” Hotaru said. Now Callie and Clio were tugging on her arms. “Should I watch them? I really don’t mind.” Serenity waved one of her slender arms. “Sure, go ahead, you are absolved. Just make sure the little ones don’t get anywhere near the pond.” Raye watched the back of Hotaru’s head retreat down to a grassy clearing, a thousand unanswered questions cluttering up her head. Minako and Makoto started giggling about some private joke, and Ami swept crumbs off of the table and onto a napkin. Serenity’s voice broke into her thoughts. “You need some help with the painting, Raye? How’s it coming along?” Raye’s head snapped up. “The painting?” “Is the girls’ room done yet? I could always keep them another night if the fumes are too much.” “Why don’t you just HIRE someone? It would be so much easier that way.” Minako, always concerned about comfort and convenience, settled into a corner of the swing and ran a hand through her spectacular hair. Raye had no answer. What could she say when she didn’t know herself? Her mind reeled for an excuse that wouldn’t sound too shoddy. Makoto was her unexpected savior. “She DID hire someone for the girls’ room, but I mean, come on? How hard is it to paint two rooms white? There’s not too much room for error. Besides…” She plucked a grape off of a bunch and crunched it. “It gets the kids out for a night, so she and Big J could have a night of uninterrupted sex. You don’t have kids yet, Minako, you don’t know what it’s like.” <> Minako giggled again. “Why, did Astraea ever burst in on you?” Makoto popped another grape into her mouth and grinned. “She’s a good kid. She didn’t even ask why we were naked.” It came as a shock to Raye that Ami, quiet, shy Ami, was grinning from ear to ear. “What did you do?” “I gave her a hug, told her it was just a dream, sent her back to bed, and then we picked up where we left off.” The swing exploded into laughter, except for Raye, who was fitting clues together like an old man with a jigsaw puzzle. <> “Evander caught us in the bathroom once,” Ami admitted, the red blush creeping up to her hairline. “You’re kidding!” Serenity squealed, a sound reminiscent of her junior high persona. “No. Unfortunately, he knows how the whole process works, so now he thinks he’s going to have a little brother or sister.” “Is he?” Mako’s green eyes were serious. Ami leaned her head back against the cushioned backrest and stared idly at the children and Hotaru throwing a beach ball back and forth. “No.” Everyone’s eyes followed Ami’s, and they stared out at the scene on the lawn. Once again, as it had done many times before, Raye’s mouth opened and words came out that she had no control of. “You want to have more, Ami? Are you crazy?” She silently cringed; it was obviously a touchy issue for her, and her stupid comment had probably made things worse. Luckily, everyone simply laughed, including Ami. “You’re just speaking from your experiences,” Serenity gasped. “Those girls run you ragged.” “Twins alone are a handful,” Minako stated, like she was an experienced mother of twelve. “But both of them are so much like him; they barely have any attention span.” <> “OK, that’s enough about our marriage and kids! That’s all we talk about anyway, and this is our day off!” Serenity settled back, a satisfied smile upon her face. Raye internally screamed. <> “So…what do you want to talk about?” Makoto asked. Serenity squealed. “Other people!” They launched into an all-out gossip-fest, Raye slouching silently and doing nothing more than listening. Some names she recognized; most she didn’t. The time with her friends seemed to fly by; the next thing she knew, Astraea was crying and Makoto proclaimed, “It’s time for someone’s nap.” They gathered their respective children, Clio and Callie throwing themselves at Raye and fastening their hands to her wrists. “Are we going home now, Mommy?” “Yes. Mommy has things to do.” << Like tear through some boxes. >> Minako waddled over. “Want me to walk you home?” Raye nodded. “See you later!” Makoto held a hiccupping Astreae against her chest and carried her away. Ami waved with her one available hand, the other holding Evander’s. “Bye, Aunty Way! Aunty Na-na!” Raye noted that a new click beetle was wriggling between his fingers. “Goodbye guys! Call me later!” Serenity gave Raye a quick hug. “Thank you for watching them,” Raye said humbly. “I hope it wasn’t too much trouble…” Serenity waved dismissively. “Never, Rei! They listen to me, for some reason!” She rounded up Chibi-Usa and Hotaru. “Have a good night!”Raye and Minako set off, Raye flanked on either side by her twins. Minako walked stiffly, her foresaid swollen ankles hindering her progress. “You OK, Minako?” “Yeah,” she gave a soft laugh. “Just sick of being pregnant.” “How much longer?” Clio grabbed one of Raye’s hands and began swinging it. Minako lifted her face and closed her eyes, letting her hair spill down her back like a golden waterfall. “About a month now.” She opened them, still staring at a point far ahead. “I’m scared to death.” Normally, Raye would offer some words of support and appease her best friend’s worries, but being that she had woken up in a strange place and time, and motherhood had been thrust upon her, she really didn’t know what to say. Instead, she looked down at her little girls, who were skipping happily and singing a nonsense song together. “Minako, I don’t know what the hell I’m doing either, and these two turned out pretty well.” Minako smiled. “You’ve had them for a while, you basically know all the ropes. I’m the last one of us to have children; you would have thought I’ve had some practice at it. But I mean, after it’s all over you guys pack up the kids and go home, and this one doesn’t go with someone else. This one’s mine, it’s coming home with me, and I don’t know what I’m doing.” Unexpectedly, Raye reached over and enveloped Minako in her arms. “Just by saying all that, I know you care. And you’re going to know what to do, believe me, you’re not going to screw this kid up.” “I hope not,” Minako said into Raye’s hair. “I really want this kid out of me, though. I don’t think my ankles can take much more before they break.” “Try being pregnant with twins,” Raye laughed. << OK, I really don’t know what it’s like, either, but it has to be worse. I mean, come on, check out my stretch marks! >> “Thanks Rei,” Minako said when they got to her front door. “I’m going to call you later and lament more of my pregnancy woes, so be prepared.” “Gee, thanks,” Raye said dryly, her voice unlatching the door, which swung open. Minako waved and set off, her blond hair blowing around her, and Raye’s mind suddenly cross-referenced Minako now with Mina lying in her bed back in Goshin Hall. She dwelt on the dual image for a few minutes, checking the hair, the smile, the walk, everything, until she realized what hadn’t changed. “She didn’t gain any weight,” Raye grumbled as she followed her girls inside. * * * * * * * * * * * * Raye’s ultimate intention upon arriving back home was to rip open every cardboard box she could lay her hand on and find out just what in God’s green earth was going on, but she hadn’t added two squabbly four year old twins into the grand equation, and her plan was almost immediately put on hold. “Can we go into our room now, Mommy?” Clio asked, climbing onto one of the couches and jumping, her black hair whipping up and down every time she flew into the air. “Get down from there!” Raye said, images of Clio falling off and cracking her head against the floor running through her mind. “You know you’re not supposed to jump on the furniture.” “Mommy can I have some peanut butter?” Callie had wandered into the pantry and was opening cabinet doors. “What? No Callie, you just ate.” “But I want some!” << Pick your battles, Raye. >> “OK, fine, what do you want it on?” She joined Callie in the pantry and pulled a box down. “Crackers?” “Animal crackers!” Raye began searching for animal crackers, and a familiar springing sound emanated from the living room. “Clio! I told you not to jump on the couch!” “I’m not,” came the contrite answer. “Yes you are, I can hear you.” She arranged the animal crackers on a plate and spread a layer of tan paste across them. “Play with us, Mommy!” Callie grabbed Raye’s pant leg and began tugging it up and down. “All right, I will. Settle down.” Obviously the phrase “settle down” was thrown around quite a bit in Raye’s household, because Callie began chanting it over and over, with Clio joining her, keeping beat by jumping on the couch. “Enough!” Raye shouted over the din. As an afterthought, she reached into the fridge and produced two juice boxes. “Who wants juice?” “ME ME ME ME ME…” The girls led Raye back upstairs and into their room, which still smelled faintly of paint fumes. Her breath was almost knocked away by the sight of it; it was her little-girl fantasy bedroom. Enormous canopy beds stood on either side, both festooned with enough billowy white material to make wedding dresses for an army. A mural stretched across the walls, aqua and violet and green; a meadow at midnight, complete with pond and turreted castle in the distance, with pixie-ish fairies dancing on the grass and lily pads. Two of them wore pink tutus and silver crowns, and were seated in the middle of creamy flowers so white they looked edible. Raye noted with amusement that they bore the likenesses of Clio and Callie. Someone had criss-crossed the ceiling with white Christmas lights, and Raye was reminded of almost every dorm room in Bryce University. A moon was painted directly overhead, and a light globe was stuck in the middle. “WOW! MOMMY LOOK!” Clio had spotted the fairy that looked like her, and she pressed her hand against it, fascinated. “This one’s me!” “There’s you, Mommy!” Callie announced from the other side of the room. Raye made her way over, and sure enough, away in the background was a cluster of adult fairies. Raye picked herself out immediately. “I told the lady to put you in, Mommy!” Clio said triumphantly. “And Aunty Na-na and Aunty Mi and Aunty Ree and Aunty Ko!” Raye laughed; she could just imagine the twins describing their idea to a hapless artist. “You didn’t have to do that.” Callie looked confused. “But if you weren’t there, Mommy, who would take us home?” Whoever had painted and arranged the room had left several boxes tightly packed up, and while the girls were running around, examining every inch of their new room, Raye took the opportunity to rip open the packing tape and dig in. The first box was filled with outgrown clothes, and she ignored it after a minute. She skipped over the second box altogether, since it was labeled, “Baby toys,” and moved onto the third. It was contained mostly baby-ish wall decorations: framed pictures of Winnie-the-Pooh, poetry written in calligraphy so overdone it was practically illegible, pastel paintings that had no place among the new mural. Raye found only two pictures that contained any significance. The first picture sent little shock waves down her spine. Raye was standing in the middle, in a flowing white dress that hugged her body in the desired places. She clasped a thick bouquet of Casablancas, tied together with a red ribbon that looked like it could have come off of Minako’s head. Her friends flanked her on either side, dressed identically in dark purple gowns and clutching deep red roses. Serenity’s hair was down and her stomach bulged under her dress. <> Raye herself was flashing a mega-watt smile, her expression completely radiant, and her dark midnight hair swirling in loose curls around her head. <> She stared, transfixed by her own ethereal appearance before she turned her attention to the other picture. And lost her breath. Her grandfather was sitting in a white rocking chair, his ancient face crossed with a million lines of glee. His eyes sparkled lovingly in the way they always had whenever he looked at Raye. Tucked in each of his arms were two infants, probably only a day or two old, their tiny faces pink under a dusting of dark black fuzz. “Oh,” she breathed. <> Clio ran over to Raye and peeked over her mother’s shoulder. “Look, that’s me.” She pressed one tiny finger on the glass, leaving behind a steamy fingerprint on the infant in Grandpa’s left arm. “And that’s Callie.” Callie joined the gathering. “Grandpa!” she shrieked when she saw the picture. “Can we put Grandpa back up, Mommy? I need him to watch me when I go to bed.” Raye swallowed thickly. “Where is Grandpa now, girls?” Callie leapt on her bed with the picture clasped in her hands and started bouncing. << What is it with these girls and jumping on furniture? >> “In his room.” “Let’s go see him!” Clio jumped up and took off, Raye and Callie on her heels. Raye followed her tiny daughter through the halls of her home. Clio stopped at a set of double wooden doors, taller than a normal household doorway, and tried futilely to push them open. Raye helped her, her stomach churning with guilt. << Did I leave him home alone? How could I have been so thoughtless? >> Only a small fire in the back illuminated the room; its flickering flame surrounded by straw mats. The smell of incense hung in the air along with a thousand whispered prayers, the words and smells melding together into an entirely separate being. <> Raye’s question was soon answered when Clio darted over to a shrine in a far corner. “Hi Grandpa!” she said, trying to disguise her jubilant shout as a solemn whisper, and failing. “You have to come and see our room!” Callie sidled up to her twin, and took her hand. “It’s the same room, it’s just painted different, so we didn’t move. I don’t want you to get lost tonight.” Raye hung back for a second, and then slowly, so slowly she advanced on the shrine. << Please no. No.>> Her throat constricted, and she tried to concentrate on her daughters instead of the shrine. << Please. Don’t let it be true. Please. >> She stopped about five feet away, reading the names inside of the shrine. Her mother’s was still there; it had been there as long as she could remember. Several other names existed there; relatives that Raye had never met. << No. Oh God. >> And there it was: her grandfather’s name, painted in black ink on the wooden tablet. “Grandpa,” she said simply, falling heavily to her knees and causing her daughters to turn around. “No.” She broke down then, sobbing into her hands, her hair falling around her face like a curtain. Her twins were on her immediately, grabbing onto her and squeezing their comforting baby hugs. She wrapped an arm around each of them and pulled them to her, still sobbing onto their heads. * * * * * * * * * * * Raye rustled through another box in the living room, occasionally wiping away a stray tear that managed to slip out, and almost aborted the entire plan after she found it filled with still-life paintings. Her entire being was numb after her half-hour long cry, her mind still not accepting the fact that the person who had raised her since childhood was gone. A million “whys” plagued at her: <> The twins were jumping on the couch again as they watched some television program starring a multitude of furry puppets, one who lived in a garbage can and another with a penchant for baked goods. Raye let them trampoline to their heart’s content; she was too tired to tell them for the five hundredth time to stop jumping. <> She reached for another box and tore it open. “AHHH! THE COUNT!” The twins screamed, scurrying off the couch and throwing themselves behind it. On the flat, digital screen, a puppet that strongly resembled a vampire was singing a numerical song about bats in his Transylvanian accent. The box she opened did contain pictures; however, all but one was of the twins. She and her Grandfather were standing on the steps of the Hikawa Shrine, both smiling in the direct sunlight. Phobos and Deimos were standing on different stairs, Phobos with her wings outstretched. The large, framed picture was a blow-up; the original snapshot was tucked into the frame. The photographer was obviously inept; his finger was covering the lower left corner of the lens. It had been erased when the picture had been blown up. Raye stared at the happy scene in front of her, and flipped the small picture over. “Rei and her grandfather at the temple,” it was labeled, along with a date. Raye did some quick math. She was twenty years old when the picture was taken. << I’m only eighteen when I fell asleep in my dorm. This is taken two years into the future. >> Raye went over to the couch and sat down, the pictures still in her hands. “Mommy is the Count gone yet?” Clio whispered from behind her. Raye quickly checked the TV. “Yes.” The twins emerged, plopping on the couch on either side of their mother. Callie balanced her chin on Raye’s arm. “Why did you cry Mommy?” Raye smiled and stroked her daughter’s soft hair. “I just miss Grandpa, sweetheart.” Clio leaned her entire body weight against Raye’s side. “Why? He still lives here.” “He stays in our room when we go to bed,” Callie explained. “So nothing can hurt us.” Raye’s eyes teared up again. She could just picture her grandfather importantly patrolling around their room, like a soldier, guarding his great-granddaughters from nightmares and monsters. “He used to do that when I was a little girl. He would sit in my room until I fell asleep, so I wouldn’t be scared.” She had been so scared then, a young girl all alone with a grandfather she barely remembered, her mother gone forever, and her father too, as far as she cared. She was terrified of the unfamiliar darkness of her new room in the temple. In her mind, she thought that when people came to pray to their deceased relatives, the ghosts would stay around the temple, in particular, her room, waiting for her to let her guard down. Grandpa had come when he heard her sobbing. << “Don’t be scared, Rei. I’ll stay here and make sure nothing hurts you.” >> << “What about the ghosts? They’re waiting for me.” >> << “Bah! Those ghosts? They’re scared of me; I’ve got them shaking in their boots. They’ll never hurt you as long as I’m here.” >> “Who’s going to keep them away now?” Raye asked out loud, wondering if her grandfather could hear her. She swung her legs up and lay down on the couch, and her twins adjusted themselves so that they lay on top of her. She closed her eyes. << “You will, Rei. >> She heard her grandfather’s gentle voice in her head. << “Now it’s your turn to keep the ghosts away.” >> She opened her eyes and smiled through her tears. She had a family now, one she had to protect the way her grandfather had protected her. She looked at the faces of her twins, tiny versions of her own, and loved them so much that it almost hurt. <> Something primal stirred within her at the feel of her daughter’s small bodies pressed against her own, something that made the rest of the world seem unimportant as she cradled them against her. << It’s my turn to keep the ghosts away. I love you both so much. You’re my babies. >> The three of them drifted off to sleep basking in the simplest, purest form of love that existed, the love between a mother and her children. * * * * * * * * * * * Raye heard the bang in the background, a door slam somewhere, and suddenly the comforting warmth of her twins disappeared as they leapt off of her. “DADDY!” they shrieked, their voices seeming to come from very far away. She barely stirred, her mind and body too exhausted to lift herself up from the subterranean caverns of sleep. “Clio-patra!” a male voice said. There was a shriek of glee as Clio was lifted up into the air. “Pick me up too, Daddy!” Callie’s request sounded a bit like an order; she had inadvertently picked up the practice from her mother. “Sure thing, Cal Ripken, Jr. Step right up.” Raye’s mind swam as she made the inferences. << Clio. Cleopatra. Patra. Calliope. Callie. Cal. Cal Ripken, Jr. Ripken. >> “How are my girls?” Raye’s eyes remained slammed shut; she couldn’t place the voice. << Get up, Raye. You have to see him. Get up now. >> The twins launched into chatter about their picnic, their new room, their night spent with Serenity, punctuated with hysterical giggles as their father tickled them. “Where’s your Mom?” “Mommy’s sad,” Clio whispered. Raye heard the “thunk” as she slipped out of her father’s arms and landed on the floor. “Oh? Why is she sad?” “She misses Grandpa,” Callie announced. The patter of tiny footsteps drew nearer to the couch. “Mommy! Wake up Daddy’s home.” As much as she willed it, Raye could not bring herself to open her eyes. Her body felt like a ton of lead, and even her brain seemed to slow down with exhaustion. << Wake up, Raye, wake up. >> She felt the tremors of someone approaching, then kneeling down besides her. “Rei?” he said, stroking her face with one of his rough hands. “Mmm,” she mumbled, slipping in and out of the physical world, her mind screaming for her to wake up, her body retiring right where she lay. His hand traced down her cheek and to her neck, the light pressure and heat oddly familiar. “Mommy’s tired,” Clio said, grabbing a handful of Raye’s hair and flipping it upwards. “Ooh! Daddy! Wake her up like Sleeping Beauty!” “OK, Cal,” he agreed. Raye felt his face grow closer, and then his lips on hers, gentle, warm, loving. Raye didn’t want it to end. Finally, her eyelids obeyed, and as her husband, the father of her children, pulled his face back, her eyes opened. Their faces were inches apart, her eyes locked on twinkling pools of blue. She was transfixed with his eyes, filled with so much love, for her. Out of her peripheral vision she could make out blond hair, but she focused on his eyes, his eyes so blue and friendly, containing a fire so much like her own, like their children’s. So blue, blue like water and sky… * * * * * * * * * * blue like a Crayola crayon, framed with darker blond lashes, smiling and dancing, the smell of tangerine body spray, and freshly washed hair. <> “Mina?” Raye croaked at the face hovering above hers. << Where-where did he go? >> Mina’s face creased into a smile as she flipped her blond hair backwards. “There you are! I thought you were going to sleep away the entire day!” Raye sat up, her mind still disoriented. “What-happened?” Mina flopped back on her bed, littered with textbooks and paper, and picked up the remote control. “What happened? You’ve slept half the day away, that’s what happened. It’s already one o’ clock, and I’m trying to figure out all of this stupid chemistry before the exam, and I’m getting absolutely nowhere.” Raye’s eyes searched the room frantically, looking for something she couldn’t quite place. The sound of laughter stuck in her mind, little girls laughing at some shared secret. The feel of someone’s lips on hers. “What were you dreaming about?” Mina asked innocently while she idly flipped through the channels. Raye’s head shot up. “The hot TKE?” “I-“ Raye started. Whatever her dream had been about, it was leaking rapidly out of her mind like water out of a broken pipe. “I don’t remember.” Something tugged at her again, not an image so much as a sensation. Mina shrugged. “Want to go get something to eat? I could use something hot.” She held out a box. “Pop-Tart? I’ve been munching on them all morning.” Raye reached out and took the box. She tore the foil off of the double package, and turned the sugary pastry over in her hand, watching the colorful sprinkles float off and land on her bedspread. She broke it in half, and brought a piece up to her face and inhaled, the sticky scent of fake strawberry. “Thanks Mina.” I wake up scared, I wake up strange, and everything around me stays the same. -Barenaked Ladies *************************************************************** Hey so that's it!! Um, if you're reading this at Generals Love: hey. what's up? if you're reading this at fanfiction.net: sorry if the formatting is crappy, i usually wrap it to send into GL if you're reading this at ASMR: i would send AWW in, but i don't know how and the tutorial was...confusing, at best...so maybe one day when I'm more computer-savvy (aka never) i will submit it, until then, try read at http://members.nbci.com/_XMCM/GeneralsLove/index.html if you don't understand this story, tell me and i'll try to clarify (hopefully)