This story was started after my experience with the half a million and one stories that are based around the prompt: Ryoma's sister has appeared and OMG!!1!11 Love blossoms!1!!

I pretty much got tired of it and decided I'd fix it up the best I could, sans the 'Love blossomsOMGomgLOLXD' part. Plus, it makes a great continuation to 'So I Heard'.

A warning to you: my chapter story skills suck because I have a short attention span. Therefore, I get tired of writing and rereading and proofreading and all that stuff that is exaggerated by about a million times when you write long chapter stories as compared to short little nice drabbles.

Anyway, there's no way to introduce a character like an Echizen sibling without a few plotholes and a little universe bending. So this story is slightly AU, what with the thirteen going on fourteen year old Ryoma who still lives in Japan and all that jazz.

I have no intentions of this being a love story and anything romance related will be between Rinko and her husband and ex-husband.

Yep. Because old people love is the sexiest love alive.

Chapter 1: And So I Translate For My Enemies

Ryoma was not happy.

Yes it was the start of summer break, yes he was going to be participating in impromptu tennis practices over the break with his former tennis team, and yes his mother was coming to Japan to visit him, but that didn't mean he had to be happy.

He was excited, no doubt, about his mother flying all the way from her home in America to visit him during summer vacation. She hadn't been much more than a letter in the mail every month and a phone call twice a week in almost four years and he hadn't seen her face to face in practically twice that amount of time.

But did she HAVE to bring those people with her?

He understood why they were with her. He had understood ever since he was seven and his father finally told him the whole truth about why his mommy wasn't coming back home to them just quite yet.

Because mommy had replaced him with some daughter of a half-American rich guy and because mommy had a new house three states away from her old one that she liked to live in more.

And now here that daughter was, standing in front of him with a cheerful, fake grin. That type of smile you gave to people you knew you were supposed to be nice to but didn't really like enough to be the real kind of nice to.

And she looked so fake.

Her hair was a too light brown-blonde color, so it was impossible for her to be mistaken as a Japanese native. Her eyes were shaped like almonds and colored a dark hazel color.

They were darker than his own, he confirmed, looking her up and down and absorbing every detail about her. He wanted to know exactly what he hated about this girl that replaced him and it was obvious: she was weird looking and stupid and she didn't know how to speak Japanese.

The good part about the language barrier was that he could talk badly about her in her face and have conversations with others that she wouldn't understand. The bad side was that he was expected to translate for her and—what's this—he was to be her escort?

Yeah, this summer was looking worse and worse.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Was it a good idea, really, to bring them along? Maybe she was pushing it by asking if they could stay at the house during the whole trip. All she really wanted out of this whole situation was for her old family to accept her new family and vice versa.

No, she shouldn't refer to them like that. Family was family, even if you divorced yourself out of one and remarried into another. That was the way it should be, she personally thought. So it wasn't old family or new family. It was just family. Besides, when the living arrangements were given the OK by her ex-spouse, it gave her a little hope. Maybe this could work out after all.

But when Rinko felt both Nanjiro and Ryoma's glare on her as she formally introduced her husband and daughter, she began to wonder if this was the best plan she could have come up with.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

"—and where are we going again? Where exactly did you say you were going to take me? Because, you know, I'd love to see—"

"Shut up." Ryoma ordered. He was told to take this girl around town and to help her familiarize herself with her surroundings. He was not told whether or not he had to be charitable or nice or even friendly, so he was going to act however he wanted.

And he really wanted to push her down in the middle of the road for someone on a bike to run her over and leave her sprawled out on the ground. She talked way too much.

"Um…Okay." She hesitantly obeyed, dismissing his rude rough tone and settling for looking around admiringly at the buildings and scenery. Ryoma felt his muscles relax slightly as silence enveloped them. If the girl was going to be this willing to obey him, maybe this whole translating thing wouldn't be so bad.

"Wow! The weather here is really nice, though it's kind of humid. Is it like this all the time? All the trees growing are so tall and pretty, and the shops look so busy and fun. Will we get to go shopping anytime soon? It's not everyday you get to go to another country, you know? After this, if you want, I could get Dad to invite you and Nanjiro (Should I add honorifics at the end of everyone's name? The guide book said that it's easy to offend others if you don't…) to our house in the US. I'm sure you'd like it there. Have you ever been outside of Japan before?" She rambled again, still looking around in a touristy fashion.

His rolled his eyes. People were so much easier to hate in silence when they didn't annoy you to death.

"First of all," Ryoma started in a low growl, "This area isn't even that interesting, it's just a bunch of houses and stores and bowling alleys and stuff, so stop looking all amazed by it. It's embarrassing. And don't talk so much."

She stared at him with an odd look on her face, as though she was contemplating about saying something rude or just dealing with it. He glared back, showing that there were no kind feelings between him and her.

If there was on thing he could do, it was staring people down. Fuji-sempai was probably the only one who was better at it than him and maybe Buchou as well, so this girl didn't stand a cha—

"Hey Echizen! Hey!"

…That was not Momo-sempai calling him. That was, in no way, Momo-sempai running down the street waving his arm like an idiot. Momo-sempai was not going to come up to him and start jabbering like a moron while he was standing next to with this girl that he didn't want to be associated with.

Closing his eyes and counting to ten, Ryoma wondered why the school counselor even told to do this technique when he felt upset anymore. It never seemed to work.

Ah, and the method proved itself useless once again as Ryoma opened his eyes only to find Momo-sempai standing right in front of him instead of momentarily disappearing off the face of the Earth, like he was supposed to.

Curses.

Next chapter:

Ryoma - ends up talking to a sempai that only half listens while halfheartedly attempting to translate for his new stepsister and somehow gets conned into a field trip of sorts.

Rinko – Gets to do lovely bonding activities with her two lovely husbands.

Eiji – Gets into Ryoma's business. Sort of.

Oh, and Ryoma finally allows us to know his stepsister's name.