The trio's business had progressed steadily by the last day of October of AF 723. The annual Harvest Ball was going to be held that Friday on November 4th. Blair was agonizing over what to wear when the twins, who had just gotten home from school, walked into her dressing room. "Mother we need... What in the world are you doing?"

"Oh, hi kids. I'm trying to figure out what to wear Friday. It's a formal occasion, but I can't look TOO formal since it's also part of the Harvest Festival. Frankly it has me stumped."

Yoko nodded her understanding. "I see. Sorta like something that ya could imagine someone in a rural town might wear when they're dressing in the best they have but don't have access ta the same materials and such that we do. Is that right?"

"Exactly dear. I'm sure that I have something that will do, and I don't want to waste money by buying something just for the one night when I already have so many clothes I hardly ever wear. Even so, I'm really not sure what to choose."

The twins didn't even need to speak to each other, they just walked to their mother, then each took one of her hands. They pulled her over to a chair and gently pushed her into it.

Blair looked at them, at first with puzzlement, then suspicion when she saw them smirking. "All right you devils-in-training, what's on your sneaky little minds?"

They decided to forego the "Who us?" ploy. Their mother really disliked that, unless she was the one doing it.

"Mother...you know, sometimes you are absolutely no fun, at all."

"I suppose you're right Biki, but just get on with it will you. I have a meeting with Manda and Akane in less than two hours."

"Oh, all right. You win...this time. The answer to your problem is simple. Jason."

"What's that supposed to mean? I...ah...I.... Oh." Blair felt her forehead as if she were checking her temperature. "No, I don't have a fever. There goes my best excuse for not seeing the obvious. Darn. I guess I'll just have to go with the truth. I simply never thought of it."

She mock-glared at the twins. "It's not that the truth is bad or anything, far from it, but in my line of work we tend to avoid it as a matter of course."

They giggled, she smiled. "Can you bring him over after school tomorrow?"

Hibiki flipped open her mental calendar. "Yes. No clients scheduled tomorrow. In fact the only thing we are down for is a study session for the history exam on Thursday."

Blair started to interrupt to protest them "working" on a study day, but Yoko jumped in. "Not ta worry. With me helping them it's not gonna to take all that much time, so we can do it as late as Wednesday. I've pretty much scoped out what the questions will be. We've just gotta focus on those, so it'll probably only take a couple hours."

Her grin turned sly. "But, as ya were about ta point out, we ARE gonna be makin' a special accomodation for ya, so we're gonna have ta charge ya 20% more than usual."

Blair jumped up and pointed an accusing finger at them. "You're not my daughters. You're fiends who've possessed their bodies!"

She shouted triumphantly, "But I know how to deal with your kind!" She grabbed a pillow and began to chase the now shrieking girls around her dressing room and bedroom, whacking them soundly on the bottom whenever one of them came within reach.

They rarely had time to play together. Consequently they had a grand time and kept running around until they had to stop due to exhaustion. Then it was off to the bath to clean up. When they had finished soaking, the twins did their mother's hair after which it was hugs all around before Blair hurried off to get dressed and head out to her meeting.

The "meeting" was, in reality, an excuse for the three of them to get together, have a late-afternoon tea, and relax before resuming their various duties. In passing Blair happened to mention that the twins had suggested Jason as the solution to her "what to wear for the Harvest Ball problem." Immediately thereafter there were two, soft thunks as both Miranda and Akane thwacked themselves in the forehead with their palms -- followed by chagrined looks.

Blair grinned at them. "Don't feel so bad. It was the twins who reminded me. I didn't think of it either. It's probably because they've not done it with anyone over age 18 thus far, but a talent like that ought to work with anyone, don't you think?"

Akane nodded. "I'd think so. I don't know for sure though. Jason isn't the kind of person to volunteer to help when he's not asked and the situation isn't an emergency. It's one of his true strong points. Unasked for advice is probably resented more than anything else in the entire world."

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Miranda took a sip of tea. "You may be exaggerating somewhat Akane." She took another sip. This particular blend was especially good, and she made a mental note to order some.

Blair chimed in, "Maybe so Manda, but not very much."

Miranda nodded her agreement. "So when can we get it done? We don't have a lot of time."

"I'll have to ask, but maybe tomorrow? I'm on their 'schedule' for after school and I'm pretty sure that they don't have anything else planned."

Miranda contrived to look thoughtful, but her voice was devilish, "Are you absolutely sure? You know how flexible children are. Since they won't be studying, they just might have adjusted their plans so that after helping you they could get in some constructive cuddling."

Both Blair and Akane jerked upright, but, barely, avoided spit-takes. It was a struggle, but neither of them started laughing before they swallowed.

Akane forbore mentioning that Jason had confided in her about their plans to forego sex until they were "of a proper age." What she did say was, "I'm sure that they'll survive if that is indeed what they planned. For kids being hit with their first hormone overload, they've the most control I've ever seen."

She took a sip of tea. "And I've seen a lot of hormonal teens over the years. I may teach at Ingvold, but hormones hit everyone, even the studious types. I have no worries about these three losing control."

Blair nodded. "Indeed. In this particular case, I think you're right."

She nodded at Manda with a sense of relief. "I don't think we're going to have the, ah, urgency that we did with Sara and Paolo."

Miranda rubbed her hands together. "Good. It's so much more fun watching them squirm before they get married. It was only a few weeks with those two, and I'm feeling deprived. With yours I can be entertained by the whole process.

"Speaking of which, I haven't heard a hint of Kaho being interested in someone. Is anything going on there?"

Akane leaned forward and whispered, "I want your promise of absolute secrecy about this. It's important, and I may eventually need your support."

Both of them gestured agreement. It seemed that the time for teasing was over.

"All right. It's like this. You know that Kaho rarely wears anything at home. I gave up on trying to change that by the time she was nine.

"You also know how Jason is. He comes to me with almost everything he has a question about . He still doesn't understand some of the social constraints concerning what is and isn't 'proper' to discuss.

"Anyway, this past August one of Kaho's friends, who was two years behind her, came over to study almost every day. She was having problems with two of her classes, or so Kaho said. I checked after Jason talked to me, and that part was true.

"Well, what he told me was that at first this friend, whom I won't name right now, seemed rather put off by Kaho stripping as soon as she got into her room."

Akane paused for some tea as her throat was drying some. "You'll remember that August was particularly hot this year?"

Blair and Manda nodded, so Akane went on, "Jason said that after a few days Kaho's friend gave in to the heat and over the following week gradually took off more and more of her clothes too.

"He wasn't peeking. Kaho always leaves the door open part way to get some air circulating and you can get glimpses of what's going on when you walk by.

"Cutting to the chase, he says that one day he heard Kaho say something like: 'That should do it. You're caught up. If you keep at it you should be fine from here on.' That was when it happened.

"Kaho's friend leaned over the table and kissed her. Jason said that Kaho looked startled and surprised, but then she put her arms around the other girl's neck and kissed her back. That was when Kaho noticed Jason and waved him to close the door. He did, and that was that, mostly.

"Kaho's 'friend' came over at least twice a week for the next two months. Kaho says that she was still helping her study, and Jason confirmed that they did study, at least for a while. After that he doesn't know as Kaho always closed the door at some point.

"I'm sure you can guess what he asked me, but I'll tell you anyway. What he said was, 'Mother, I understand what kissing is. Yoko, Hibiki and I do that, but I didn't know that two girls would do that to each other. Why do they do it?'"

Blair nodded understanding, and Miranda asked, "What did you tell him?"

"I told him that they do it for the same reason that he and the twins do, because they care for each other. I also told him that sometime two boys are the same way. After that I told him that he was never, ever to talk to anyone else about what he'd just told me. Of course I had to explain why, but I think he understood."

Akane smiled fondly. "He's a good boy, and he has a big heart. Because of the way he is, he can look at relationships much more objectively that most people."

Manda nodded. "There's a certain beauty in that. Of course it's a good thing you told him not to say anything. If the wrong people heard of it there could be problems. You'd think that in this modern age people would have outgrown their stupid prejudices about who should and should not love someone.

"It's not like you choose who you fall in love with."

Akane interjected, "How true." Then she stood. "It's about time for us to get back to our other worlds. See you all tomorrow afternoon?

Blair nodded and Miranda added, "I'll be there. And if you don't mind, I'd like to bring Mimi with me. I've never known her to make a wrong choice when it comes to clothes and such. It'll be interesting to see if she and Jason disagree on anything."

"Sure, bring her too. It may be a little crowded, but we can open the connecting door to the bedroom and use both rooms if we need to. After we're done with me we can all troop over to your homes and get you taken care of."

With that they stood and left. No long goodbyes. That was one thing they had in common. When they were finished with something, they were finished and started on whatever was next. It's surprising how much extra time they gained from doing so, and, given how much they needed to do, they could use every minute they could get.