Author's Notes: I'm still a novice at this, so any comments or critique are gratefully accepted. Kudos if you can catch ay references. ;)
Additional Note: For those of you who are not aware, there was originally a Hirano clan that existed during the Edo period. It was originally part of the Kiyohara clan, but eventually a member broke away from the clan to found the Hiranos. As to whether the clan exists today, I don't know. It seems to be a rather small domain to begin with. From what I've gathered from several sources online and in a book(I'd love if someone could confirm this for me) are that some of the clans that still survive today have retained prominence by integrating themselves into Japanese politics, being shareholders to companies or businesses, or working the media to gain publicity.
Disclaimer: I do not own Phineas and Ferb, nor am I making profit from this fan fiction. The original picture of which the story's icon is from belongs to Ms. Brigid Vaughn (burdge-bug). And any characters' names that may match real life figures are completely coincidental.
Ginger Hirano
1. If you had told Ginger at age ten that Stacy would become the President of Uruguay she would have spit water in your face.
Stacy?
You couldn't possibly mean flighty and distracted Stacy?
Indecisive Stacy?
Stacy who's room would be a complete pig-sty if Mom didn't force her to clean it?
The day Stacy is president of anything, pigs will, without a doubt, fly.
Sure, Stacy has always brought home straight A's and excellent text scores, but many of her grades border dangerous territories and in comparison to her scores, her mom simply thinks her eldest daughter is lazy.
When her older sister is eighteen, she goes to college and Ginger isn't sure what lights the spark but gradually Stacy's voice becomes firmer, her words more direct, her poise more graceful, her actions more decisive, her ears more open, and she has this…presence.
Ginger isn't sure what causes this. Maybe the freedom? Maybe a person? Maybe her school?
Stacy tells her it was just time. It really makes no sense, but one day I was eating at a restaurant in front of the school and I was idly looking at my fork when suddenly it occurs to me 'I know what I want to do.'
Perhaps her sister runs along an internal clock, Ginger thinks. Maybe all that haphazardness she emitted was a mask for the puzzle that was fitting itself together inside.
She is twenty-eight when her sister is sworn into office and she knows by then that her sister was always meant for success. She should have just taken more time to notice the small things that stuck out all along.
2. She misses her dad.
In spite of whatever theories her friends have come up with, her dad is very much alive—he's never had a terrible accident or suffered a fatal disease. The closest idea yet—that he's divorced from her mom isn't quite right either. Actually, he's very much married to her mother.
This confuses her.
She remembers distinctly that it was her mother who was the one that left her dad watching as they went through security at the Montevideo airport, but it is her mother who still wears the wedding band and engagement ring on her left hand.
Three times a year her dad sends a box in the mail. February fifteenth he sends a shiny red package addressed to Stacy. June seventh he mails a pastel green one to her. And on November twenty-second, the mailbox holds a plain cardboard shipping box that is the size of a small envelope. It is addressed to a Mrs. Agustín Hirano. And just like every other year since she moved with her mom and Stacy to the Tri-state Area, her mother purses her lips and shuts her eyes, gripping the box in her hand tight enough that her knuckles are white. Then she'll get up and walk to her room and slam the door. The girls have learned to never expect her to come out the rest of the night.
…
Every year her mother sends him a Christmas card with a picture of the three of them smiling and waving to the camera. Her mom once called it a family photo, but Ginger knows better.
In every picture, Mom stands behind Stacy and there's an open space behind her.
One where Dad is supposed to be.
3. When she is fourteen, Ginger Hirano crosses a different ocean.
It starts when Stacy leaves for college.
It's a fairly quiet affair, even though Stacy is leaving only four days after graduation, but Ginger does a good job of not letting any tears slip. She thinks she'll be just fine when her sister hugs her tightly, until Stacy leans down to whisper cryptically in her ear. Just in case you go anywhere…extendedly, you better write me once a month and remember to call mom when you can.
Her sister releases her quickly to hug their mother and soon she's a shrinking dot on their street.
She never got to ask.
She hates surprises (especially when she knows that Stacy is purposely not answering her calls or texts).
Her answer comes two days later in the mail.
It's Dad. He sends her an invitation to live with him while she completes high school and, just to make it all worth it, he even throws in the opportunity to study at the International School of Geneva which in itself is a very tempting offer. But, that doesn't convince her to say yes.
It's Mom. The one reason she first intends to politely decline. Of course she still wants to see her dad—the one who bought her books, taught her organization at a young age, and took her to work where he answered all her garbled questions about proteinsand viruses—, but for the last eight years its Mom who has always been there. Her dad's invitation reminds her so much of the cheery, loving family they used to be and she thinks of him often (Is his hair grey now? Does he work the same job? Did he keep the house?), but Mom raised her and Stacy on her own. She can't leave her here alone.
What if she goes there and finds that she doesn't even know her father anymore?
Moments after she has these thoughts, there is a knock on the door.
Come in.
Her mom walks in silently like she doesn't want to disturb what lingers in her daughter's mind. She sits next to her on the bed and Ginger turns away to face the wall. Ever since she was little she's loved when her mom would braid her hair. It's perhaps the only tradition that connects to life before Danville.
When her mom is halfway done with her braid she speaks. Do you know Isadora Duncan? Her mom pauses. Not the best role model ever, especially not one I'd recommend to any of my daughters, but she said a phrase once that always stuck with me. 'You were wild here once, don't let them tame you.'
She's finished the braid by then and she gives it a small tug and almost instantaneously Ginger turns around to wrap her arms around her mom.
They both know her decision.
4. Ever since she was little, Ginger has always wondered why her mother allowed her father to name her after a root.
And then she learned that her mother wanted to name her Hanpen because she loved a certain type of friend surumi (which was the Japanese equivalent of American fish sticks). She stopped questioning her father's choice in names since.
5. Ginger speaks Spanish fluently.
Not many people know this, or at least not many are concerned by the fact, but Ginger Hirano was born in Montevideo, Uruguay. Up until she was six years old she attended primary school there where she spoke an Italian-influenced Spanish. At home her family spoke Japanese, but when she was alone with her father they conversed only in Spanish.
Mija, Spanish is a growing language. Your abuelo spoke it and it was my first language. If you can speak it, you'll be able to go to many parts of the world.
When she moves away she stops speaking her father's language.
There is no one to call her chiquita, mi querida, or bella.
There is no one to say vamos,ven, or ayuda Mamá.
And when she goes to sleep at night, there is no one to bid Duermete mi amor.
6. The Fireside girls have always been her closest friends.
Even after she leaves for Switzerland, Ginger still talks to her troop. It's hard considering the time difference, distance, and the fact that her father prohibits the use of social networking sites during school, but she establishes a working plan. In her free moments when she's finished homework in study hall or before curfew, she pops open her laptop to respond to as many emails as she can.
It's not the most modern form of communication, but she's not complaining.
In return, the girls tell her about their days with a dash of gossip. Always asking questions about the new life she's jumped into. She tells them about the food, the fashions, her new friends, learning French, her school, her dad, and even the cute British boy with the dark blue eyes who sits two rows behind her. (It turns her replies into her diary, between the lines they tell the story of a girl trying to find a permanent home after moving around and left incomplete.)
She shouldn't be so surprised that the news of a boy instigates them to come visit her on Christmas Eve. It's altogether too easy for them considering they can catch a ride with Phineas who's helping Santa (Pére Nöel says her French instructor; Samichlaus insists her neighbor) with the Southwestern-European sector and she lives six hours ahead of them so they can still get home in time.
And later when she's sitting with them around her kitchen table drinking hot cocoa, she realizes that she can talk to them just as easily in person as she could when she left.
She thinks they might just be something special.
When she tells her father, he tells her about the legend of the red string of fate.
7. When she finishes her stay in Geneva, she doesn't immediately go back to Danville.
Instead she moves to England.
Her father is staying in the city for two more years, Stacy is traveling the world to study politics, and her mom is taking a sabbatical to help care for bāchan. With school ending almost two months after the traditional American schools do, most of her friends have already left for college.
Maybe next summer.
One month after she graduates, she packs her bags for University, exchanges contact info with her classmates, and bids adieu to papa.
She takes the 7:00 flight to London.
8. Her favorite item that she owns is her sky blue Polaroid Instant camera.
Even though centimeter thin digital cameras have been all the rage for the last few years, there's always been something that's appealed to her about holding an exposure in her hand and watching the photo develop in front of her very eyes.
It comes to Papá's attention when he notices her toying with his antique 1953 Polaroid and on her first Christmas he gives her a model of her own with a box of a hundred rolls. It is one of those new versions that are much smaller and more versatile than their ancestors, and it comes in her favorite colour of sky blue.
It's possibly the best gift she's ever gotten.
She takes photos of her friends, her father, and her house and pins them on one of two giant corkboards that she buys the day after Christmas. When she goes with her dad to Rome for the holidays the year after, she takes pictures of the Spanish steps and sneaks behind a column inside the Church at the top so that she can snap pictures of the singing monks and sisters. When she meets the Hirano clan for the first time in ten years, she shoots off to capture pictures of the cherry blossoms, the family Shinto shrine, and the cousins she had once forgotten. When she goes to Oxford she takes pictures of the sheep in the villages. When her best friend Nan from Ecolint (it's much easier to say this than International School of Geneva) gets married in a château in the French countryside, she makes sure to snap as many pictures as she can from her train car's window all the way to the bridal party's room where she has to place her camera down so she can put her own bridesmaid dress on.
Anyone who's someone to her eventually ends up on the wall. Her parents. Stacy and Coltrane. Adyson and Django. Katie and her Japanese celebrity husband (definitely a surprise wedding). Phineas and Isabella. Holly and Irving (she doesn't even want to know how that happened). Ferb and his wife. Nanette and her husband Filipe. Olivier and Rasc from co-op. Plus, about three-hundred more.
…
If she didn't love him already, it's going to be undeniable now when he snatches her camera to take pictures. She lets him loose because when he's fascinated with something it's best to leave him be. She spends the afternoon allowing him to drag her around town to take pictures, but after he leaves her apartment that evening she finds a picture of herself centered on the board. Then she knows the words he's struggling to tell her.
She matters, too.
9. When she's twenty-six, Stacy announces her campaign to run for President.
At first Stacy's political run hasn't done much to affect her, but now that she's in the race for the presidency, everything about her sister catches the media's attention. She's young, recently engaged, looks more Japanese the Hispanic, she was raised in a foreign country, she's fashionable, her fiancés in a world-famous band, she was a CEO to one of the world's top technology business, she loaded with self-made money, the list goes on. The subject of money becomes popular when her sister is listed in Forbes that year. Her parents move back to Montevideo at Stacy's insistence and from what she's heard the two are doing well. Ginger actually laughed at the news articles her sister sends her summarizing her parent's "scandalous" love story over the years—they range from her father having a secret affair with the nanny (which they never had) to her mother stealing his research for an illegal firm (her parents aren't even in the same fields). Each story is more far-fetched then the previous that she supposes she'll never understand the full story behind them. It doesn't matter anyway. These days Mom is more relaxed now and Papa smiles every chance he gets.
When the press finds nothing interesting about her parents and they can't dig out any dirt on her sister, they turn to her. She's been busy attending Stanford to complete her PhD in aeronautics when she quickly notices people who are obviously not students, taking her picture as she heads toward her bike. She calls the police and Stacy. The next evening the Mestengos move into the flat next to hers. With the new move by the press and the publications of her net worth, Stacy doesn't want her younger sister living, miles away from any family or friends that she trusts. She sends Leroy Mestengo from her security team in with Isabel, his wife, is who is working on her Master's in Physics. Isabel has transferred schools so that she's in the hall next to Ginger, but she happens to be an accomplished sniper so both she and her husband function as Ginger's bodyguards. As a cover story for why the three are always together they say that the two young women are best friends.
Ginger hates it.
Every day she has to report any plans and her location to the couple. They run background checks on all the people in her social circle. They stay in a proximity that is no more than eighty meters away from her whenever she is outside her home. She does consider them friends, but ultimately any information they learn while on the job goes to her sister. She understands Stacy's worry, but this invasion of privacy becomes a nuisance when she has material she'd like to keep discreet.
Like who she's dating.
10. If you had told Ginger Hirano at age thirteen that she would eventually marry Baljeet Rai she would have rolled her eyes.
She had enough of it by then. The annoying whispers and pity stares. Honestly. Why does everyone keep acting like she doesn't have a life? She's no Elaine of Astolat, Juliet Capulet, and definitely no Belle Goose. She wasn't her ever so loyal troop leader either. Maybe her classmates thought it would cool if there was some madhouse triangle, square or one-directional line of affection that consisted of her, Baljeet, Isabella, and Phineas.
Drama-mongers.
This was one train she'd rather stay off of. Not that this this stopped anyone from assuming. Poor girl they said. You don't have to keep it to yourself they said. It had been more than a year since she'd last put an 'I Just Saw a Cute Boy' on for him and somehow old reputation managed to precede her.
At least he remained oblivious to all the talk.
…
Weddings.
That's probably the starting point she supposes, not to mention it's kind of ironic.
Two weddings later and she and Baljeet Rai are alone at the table. Effectively third-wheeled. Or is it fourteenth-wheeled? Wait, isn't it an odd number? Oh forget it. Point is that by the time Ferb's wedding to the Mayor's niece has rolled around, all her friends have paired off, leaving her and Baljeet alone to revel in their blatant singleness at the reception.
The singleness doesn't bother her too much since she's been busy enough balancing grad school and helping Stacy plan her campaign. No it's not the thought of singleness that bothers her, it's the just guy sitting three seats down.
She's seen him from time to time when the Flynns host get-togethers, but usually she stays close to the girls. The only problem is that said girls have currently abandoned the table to dance with their significant others and now it's just them.
She twirls her champagne flute idly in her fingers and regards the man on her right curiously. He's never played a significant part in her life which is quite odd considering everyone else has. The girls are her close confidantes, Buford, Irving, Phineas, and Django are romantically involved with her friends, and Ferb was one of her close college mates. But Baljeet? She can't say much beyond the kid I liked when I was ten. She's talked shop with him once or twice since Ecolint, but it's not the same when there's no one else to stand in during the conversation. She's not sure where to start.
She doesn't have to. Surprisingly he makes the first move.
So Ginger, how is…err…
He asks her which school she's going to again.
It's not a surprise to say the first conversation is stilted and awkward.
...
When Adyson and Django's wedding rolls around, they give the whole talking thing another go and this time they establish a connection at least on being the only single members of the wedding party. By Milly and Buford's, they've started talking at all the get-togethers and after-parties which makes for pretty interesting talk the third time. And when Katie marries Seto Takaheshi, a Japanese celebrity she met while working on a dance show in Japan, it's a giant bash of a wedding with huge mass of celebrities flying in from Asia and reporters coming to photograph the star and the American girl who's caught his heart. She purposely takes the seat next to Baljeet this time. Her friends' eyes start turning toward her and their eyes say So...you and Baljeet, hmm?, but she gives them a bemused smile like she doesn't know what they're implying. Then as she's talking to Baljeet, one of the groom's friends interrupts and borrows her for a dance, and another. She's wondering how to deal with this discrepancy, but before she can say anything, there a tap on her partner's shoulder. Do you mind?
There's a change in the current and by the time it is Holly and Irving saying their vows, the idea of personal space has either grown considerably smaller or he purposely is in hers. She doesn't mind. Idly she muses that Papa would really like him 'til she realizes where her mind is heading and she quashes the thought. There are a million reasons why this wouldn't and shouldn't work.
It's too bad that four months later it seems that she's forgotten all those reasons at Gretchen's reception. With the elections in three months and security more tense, she's a little frisky knowing that her guards are hovering right outside the doors just like they have been for the last year. Baljeet's there nursing a drink along with her and in her hazy mind it occurs to her that even though her life is almost completely categorized to school and Stacey, this is one of the few things in her limit.
It's a swift, unceremonious bottoms up, before her glass thumps the table and she yanks on his wrist, pulling him out of his chair amidst his protests. She leads him to the hallway alongside the kitchen and pushes him against the wall, kissing him fiercely—not caring about the waiters that groan complaints under their breaths as they walk past.
He doesn't want this.
She realizes it all too soon by the way his body stays rigid and tense under her.
She lets him go and pushes away, feeling absolutely foolish and coming to the terms with the fact that deep down, she's wanted him to reciprocate the feelings she hasn't wanted to admit. As she walks away she feels a sharp tug on her purse strap that holds her back, she sighs, turning around to meet his eyes. This time her back meets the wall.
…
She tries to keep it a secret since he's a bit of a subject of interest with the media and his job has him traveling all the time, while she's still dealing with the same issues at home. It works for the first two and a half months. He visits her on the weekends and when the Flynns have their monthly barbeque they sneak off for an hour on the pretenses of buying beer, wood, or whatever it is they need. Come Saturday morning, two weeks before Stacy's election, there's a scuffle outside her door and she sticks her head out to find Baljeet pinned to the floor by Leroy.
It just goes to hell from there.
Stacy quickly puts two and two together and tells Candace who spreads the news to all her friends. By the end of the day all the girls have called and it turns out that someone else has caught them too because there's a picture of her with him in the newspapers on Monday. She forgot he was this popular. Now her mailbox is full with letters, both good and bad, from people she's never met , and there's a few reporters appearing on the school grounds…again.
But when he calls her every night to see how she's doing, she finds that she doesn't mind half so much. The attention will probably die down in a week, and when it does, he'll still be there.
…
When her great-grandfather turns one hundred four years old, her family holds a celebration.
Ginger replies that she'll attend, but when she meets her Aunt Asami at the airport she asks about the whereabouts of the date she was bringing.
He's hosting a conference, Auntie.
Her Aunt gives her a sympathetic look and a patronizing pat on the back.
Great, now her family thinks she's a liar.
The Hirano's have always been a nice bunch of people, especially considered to some of the other clans in Japan, and they seem to have her best interests at heart, but they seem to think that she in incapable of tying the knot. Regardless of the fair (or invasive) amount of coverage she and Baljeet received, they won't believe anything until he's there in person to announce his intentions to marry her…
But he hasn't even spoken of anything related to that yet. And she's starting to worry that he may want out of the relationship. Lately he's been spacey every time they go out, and he's suddenly spending more time at the office. When Isabella and Milly say not to worry because it's probably a new project at work, her doubt gets stronger. Baljeet's always been open about his job before, but he's been less willing to talk and she's caught him staring at her numerous times like he's trying to figure something out. Most likely the best way to let her down. If he really wants to break up, she wishes he would get it over and done with because she honestly is at her wit's end.
Though truthfully, she doesn't want to let him go when he means so much.
However…
That dolt.
She asked him to call her when he landed in New Zealand, but he still hasn't bothered. Because of him, or lack of, she has to deals with the family elders. They've been bringing up the subject of marriage since she arrived and she knows that they have a list of potential suitors lined up for her. There's been young, thirty-something men who have "just happened" to be calling upon the family when she's there and all her aunties push her to serve the tea every time. Then at dinner on the third night, her cousin Suki gives her an empathetic look that says Just grin and bear it, when she nearly snaps her chopsticks at bāchan's entreaties that Potential Number Five show her around town. So when, on the fourth day her great-auntie Misaki points out to Ginger that the man sitting next to her (Potential Six) attended Cambridge which is "right next" to her school (not very), she offers a small smile and quietly drinks her tea.
It's all bearable enough until the night of hi ojii-san's birthday.
Two days prior, her family requests that she be so kind as to allow Itsuki Amago to be her escort for the evening and she graciously follows theirwish, shopping around until she finds an ensemble they approve. (But the reality of the situation is that she spends most of her afternoon out with her cousins, Suki, Rin, and Megumi, ranting about stubborn conservatives and daft boyfriends who won't return her calls or texts, but apparently think it is okay to talk to their guy friends. It's not fair that Stacy has work and her parents are taking a vacation in France.)
It isn't too surprising with her family's longstanding presence in the country's politics that they've invited quite a few politicians and members of others important clans to the fray. She forgets an important detail though: this means that they'll be bringing their families. Namely their single sons and daughters of marrying age. In her case, especially the sons.
Itsuki himself is a rather agreeable person. To her fortune, it turns out that he and a few other people are aware of her dating status, and find it more interesting to talk about the PhD she's recently obtained, and the places she's been to, than whether she'd consider filling the role of the filial wife. She even gets a laugh when the President of the House of Councillors's daughter, Shigeko Iga, admits that she's chosen to study for her Master's abroad just to keep her family out of her hair for a few more years.
Still, a few newspaper articles, television reports, and magazine's "tell-all" story about Baljeet doesn't make who he dates common knowledge. Around nine o'clock, when she wanders off from her companions, she realizes some of the guests have become quite tipsy when they start making vulgar comments. Some of them don't understand a rejection until she threatens to have them evicted from the grounds. She reaches her breaking point not soon after when the nephew of Supreme Court member Hiroshi Honda starts to make lewd threats and unwelcome advances as she returns from the ladies powder room.
She punches him. Hard.
She would have aimed a kick for the groin, but her dress prohibits it and there are far too many important people around. Instead she'll have to console herself with the knowledge that he is at least kicked off the premises.
She's still annoyed with the opposite sex though with the last incident and she slips away from the party, making her way to the Shinto shrine that sits on the East end of the gardens at least a twenty-minute walk away. It's been her sanctuary these last several days because her relatives rarely go there.
When she reaches the shrine's entrance, she finally stops her brisk walk and leans wearily against one of the columns of the torii.
You know, this is the first time I have ever seen you in a kimono. The blue really suits you. You should wear it more often.
What?!
She jumps and emits something embarrassingly close to a squeak. A figure materializes from the dark depths of the of the shrine's hall.
Calm down there. It's just me.
Immediately she is struck with the feeling that something is off with him.
What are you doing here, Baljeet? I thought you were in New Zealand.
He shakes his head.
I had some important investments to take care of here first.
She gives him a glare.
And you couldn't bother to tell me this because…?
He grins and she notices that besides his normal attire of slacks, tie, and a dress shirt, his computer bag hangs off his should haphazardly. He looks like he just came off work.
Once it's secured, you'll be the first to find out.
There's definitely something off about him, she notes, but she can't tell what. Not that it matters. She has a bone to pick with this man.
Oh, so now you're going to talk to me.
His smile breaks.
What do you mean?
Exactly what I'm implying! She stomps right up to him. You don't tell me about work! You're mind isn't even there when we go out. You've been acting so confusing that I'm not sure what how you've been thinking this last month! You didn't even call me!
Well, I didn't need to.
And how do you that I wasn't worried sick?! That I hadn't heard from Isabella and Milly that you've been calling their husbands when you won't even call me!? You jerk!
She's one step close to slapping him, and she can feel the water pooling in her eyes, when he grabs both her hands with his own.
Huh?
Be quiet, Ginger. I'm trying to fulfill a promise right now so—
Her face drops into an "O" and her eyes open owlishly, all previous anger gone.
You…you…you're using contractions.
He grimaces.
Well, I guess that answers my question about how freaked out I am.
Why?
Have you seen your hand?
She snatches her right hand from him. It doesn't look any different than before.
Wrong one.
…
Oh God.
…what is this?
Exactly what it looks like.
This doesn't make any sense. You've been distant and terrible at being a boyfriend lately. Plus you didn't even call—
Because you did not ask.
She blinks.
Pardon?
I believe your exact wording was: "Don't forget to give me a ring when you get there." Here's a ring, I'm there.
I meant on the phone.
Well I hope you weren't expecting me to ship it to you.
You do realize that giving me something like this has certain subtexts, right?
I know.
You've been so distant lately.
You mentioned that, but I'll admit it's weird to be writing blue prints one day then realizing you're creating something for kids you've never thought about before.
Oh. Oh. Oooooohhhh.
So Phineas and Buford?
Phineas owes me a favor for helping him with Isabella years ago. He was getting information and blueprints from Ferb so we could make the ring. Buford…
He wrinkles his nose in a slip of discomfort.
Buford, well he was the one who explained what the entire thinking-about-children-I-have-never-thought-about-before thing was.
New Zealand?
I was flying to see Stacy and your parents before they left on their trip. I missed them though, so I had to go to France.
And how'd you get here?
Teleported.
And finding me?
Stacy called your cousin Rin before I left your parents.
Oh.
This turned out a lot better in my head.
I can imagine.
So…is that a yes?
She leans up and kisses him on the corner of his mouth.
Does that answer your question?
He shrugs nonchalantly.
I think I need a little more convincing.
She gives him a coquettish smirk.
Later. She tugs his tie. Come on. I want to show you off to my family.
He complies, but whispers something in their ear as they head down the path.
One...
When Baljeet Rai tells a thirty year old Ginger Hirano that he is going to marry her, she laughs and rolls her eyes because she realizes that she should have known all this time.