September 2nd in The Year 722 After the Founding

Akane brushed a tiny speck of lint off of Jason's shoulder. "There we are. Now you look perfect."

"Mother, please, you know I'm not perfect.... Oh, I'm doing it again, aren't I?"

"Yes dear, a bit, but you're getting better." She tilted her head at him quizzically. "Do you remember what I told you last year when you were 11? I said that I love you the way you are. I meant it then, and I mean it now. I know how hard it is for you sometimes. I also know how hard you try to do better. So don't worry about it. Go out there and be you. The people who really matter will love you as you are, not as they want you to be."

Jason smiled at her and offered, "You mean Yoko and Hibiki, don't you? They've always treated me the same as they do everyone else. Do you think it's because they're special too and they understand what it's like, maybe?

"I mean, Yoko's nearly as smart as I am. She's about the only person besides Mr. Sanders, the math and science teacher, I can talk to about technical things and not feel like she's looking at me like I'm some sort of talking bug."

He sighed contentedly. "And Hibiki. I've been trying to analyze it since we first talked about it last year, and I still have no idea how she does what she does. When I get so, I guess the word is 'excited', that I can't keep from doing something that I know I shouldn't, having her near me helps a lot. When things get really, really bad, she'll put her hand on mine and it's like a key fitting into a lock. Somehow it helps me calm down right away."

He shook his head. "Without them I don't know what I'd do."

Then he smiled at his mother. "Now that I think of it, they're a lot like you, but sorta, I don't know, split into two people? I mean you're smart enough to understand at least the general idea of what I want to say, and you can calm me down too. But you can't do that for the rest of my life, or yours. You think maybe that's why I met them, to take over for you someday?"

Akane patted his cheek. "I don't know about that dear, we'll have to wait and see what happens, which is the same thing I told you last year when you were deciding which secondary school you wanted to attend."

She grinned at him. "Sometimes I'm a bit like you when it comes to figuring out things like this. Yoko is indeed, hmm...'energetic' in a way that seems to compliment you. Then there's Hibiki. Last year it would have embarrassed me to say it, but she helps me calm down too. She sort of has an aura of peace that surrounds her."

Jason nodded his agreement, and Akane added, "I was more than surprised when you first told me that she did tea ceremony. It's so rare here in Italy that someone is interested in it at all. The first time I saw her perform it, I was astonished at her elegance, and she's improved rapidly since.

"I think, my son, that you've fallen in with some interesting people." She looked at the clock on the mantle. "And I think that you're going to be late for school if you don't get going."

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She took hold of his shoulders, turned him around, and patted him in the middle of his back. "Off you go. Have a good day."

Jason looked back over his shoulder. "I'm off. I'll see you after school Mother."

As he left, he carefully closed the door -- another new thing that Yoko had apparently taught him somehow. Before last month, he'd always managed to slam it shut, no matter how hard he tried not to.

Immediately after he left, Akane sat down and brooded. Fortunately it was a day off for Ingvold so she had plenty of time. After finding out last year that the lineage behind the twins' mother ran directly back to Duke Alphonse, the first leader of The City, her attitude toward them had done a 180. Before that, they'd been "those common girls Jason goes to school with." She'd seen them with him now and then when he was in primary school, but she hadn't known, or cared, about what their names were.

What she was struggling with now was that they hadn't changed when Akane had found out their family history and that they were descended from royalty. It was she who had changed after determining that they were the 'right people' after all. She'd avoided thinking about it very much since then, but today her guilt finally got the better of her.

As Jason had taught her, looking at something objectively was the best way to sort out what was real and what was supposition. Right now she supposed that there was at least a small chance that back then she'd been a stuck-up snob. She wasn't, quite, ready to admit it mind you, but she was willing to think about thinking about it.

However there were some things that she was ready to fully address and those were Jason's needs. He was right in that she wouldn't always be there to help him. It was also true that, no matter how hard he tried, he was probably always going to have impulsive behaviors that he couldn't control completely...which brought her back to the twins.

She'd grown up in The City, so there was nothing surprising about seeing someone with twins as spouses. Even so, it had always seemed a bit odd somehow. However, now that she'd come to know Blair Macklin's daughters, she was beginning to understand that sometimes that's how it needed to be.

She'd had Yoko and Hibiki over to visit within two weeks of receiving the genealogy scroll. She'd been impressed with their decorum and insight. It was rare that children their age were able to correctly converse with an adult. As was proper, they mostly listened, but when they did offer a few words, they were always germane to the subject. Since that first meeting, she'd invited them a number of times. She'd discovered that Jason was right about Yoko. Her thirst to discover the truth about history was as intense as Akane's.

And Hibiki.... Akane had never, even in her wildest imaginings, thought that she'd meet a true Yamato Nadeshiko outside of Japan, yet here she was. Were she to be entirely honest with herself, Akane would have had to admit that she was in awe of her.

After watching them this past year, she'd noticed that they rarely were more than a few feet away from each other. It often seemed as if they were indeed, as Jason had said, like one person who'd been split into two bodies. Regardless of the philosophical implications of such an idea, there was one thing that had become absolutely certain. Neither one of the girls, by herself, was capable of dealing with Jason and all his moods for an extended period of time. Together though, the three of them acted like a single, smoothly functioning unit.

She wondered idly what they'd grow into after another 20 or 30 years together. Fortunately the odds were good that she'd live at least that long if she took care of herself, so she'd probably be able to see it with her own eyes. That's when it hit her. She was assuming that Jason would marry both of them. What truly surprised her about her realization was that she was looking forward to it.

She nibbled at a stray lock of hair that had fallen down onto her cheek. It looked like it was time to get better acquainted with Blair Macklin. If things progressed as she had deduced, it would be a "good thing" to have an amicable relationship with her son's future mother-in-law.

Sitting down at her desk, she pulled out a piece of her best quality notepaper and began to write.