Author's Note: I don't own any of the characters but Kimi: they all belong to Tamora Pierce.

Kimiko of Queenscove sat in the waiting room outside her parents' chamber. Her head was bent and her arms clasped in front of her as if in submission. Her dark hair fell into her unusually expressive Yamani eyes and shadowed part of her naturally pale face. She took after her Yamani mother only in hair color, eyes and slight darkened skin but remained the rest like her father; tall and lanky with a prominent widow's peak that appeared when she tilted her head to watch her father's pacing movements.

Nealan of Queenscove, Kimi's father, was beside himself and flustered. He had been cornered by his daughter and wife that evening and informed that his ten-year-old daughter wanted to become a page. He observed his daughter while making occasional squawks of disbelief and saw her show of submission. He wasn't fooled. Kimi was as feisty as her mother and as dramatic as her father.

"Kimi, may you please excuse us?" Yukimi noh Daiomoru of Queenscove asked her daughter. Kimi stood and bowed to her mother and father and hurried out, presumably to find a glass so she could listen at the door better. "I don't understand why you are so upset by this, Neal, it isn't as if you didn't encourage her," Yuki's slightly accented voice held no more emotion than her still face, but she still felt frustration and a little amusement at her husband's reaction.

"Encouraged her! Encouraged her? When have I ever told her that I think she should become a knight?" Neal threw himself down on a chair only to jump up again and resume pacing.

"You are best friends with the first known female page in over a century and you were squire to the first female knight in over a century," Yuki reminded him.

Neal ran his fingers through his hair and sighed. "I know, but this is our Kimi we're talking about."

"And you don't think Kimi could succeed like Kel?" Yuki stood up and pulled out her fan to show her agitation, waving it at her herself furiously.

"Kel had me!"

"Kimi can make friends easily and knows more about the palace than you do. Kimi can survive without you, or find someone similar to what you were to Kel. Unless, of course, you wish to relive your page years," Yuki teased with a glint of humor in her eyes. Neal shuddered. "I am sure Lord HaMinch would be glad to have you so you can look after Kimi. I've heard he's even better than Lord Wyldon."

"All right, all right, enough." Neal put up his hands in a gesture of surrender. "It is just… it is a difficult life, even more so for a girl. I saw what Kel had to go through and continues to go through. I am not certain that Kimi is ready for that kind of commitment to deal with the pressure the rest of her life. I want to shield her from that as much as I can." He cast his eyes around the room without seeing anything then looked up at his wife. "Yuki, we can't protect her if she becomes a page. Her reputation will be in shreds and I don't know if she is ready for that. And," he hesitated then decided to risk offending his wife, "it might be even more difficult because she is half-Yamani."

Yuki nodded, for she knew he spoke the truth. "But Neal, I think you underestimate Kimi. If it is a great concern of yours though, both you and Kel can talk with her and help her understand. This is her dream, and we shouldn't stand in her way."

"I suppose." He paused and his voice became cynical. "Forgive me for not wanting my daughter to go through hardships. What a horrible father I am trying to be."

"Yes," Yuki replied seriously and closed her fan with a snap. Neal looked startled and a little hurt that she agreed with his sarcasm. She shook her head. "No," she admitted. "You are a wonderful father, and Kimi is lucky to call you hers. But you will have to learn to let her go and let her lead her own life." She placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. She understood how difficult it was for Neal to let his daughter go since they were always rather close. "If that is your only concern then it is decided. You are going to tell our daughter that she can go if she truly wants to, and that she goes with our blessing."

"Can't I have a few days to think about it first?" he cried, exasperated.

"Yes, of course." Yuki said and put her fan in her sash. The glint of humor was returning to her eyes. "In the meantime, I will ask Lady Alanna and Kel to come for a visit. I think their reactions to your hesitation will be… enlightening." Her Yamani mask of calm slipped with a grin when she saw the expression on her husband's face. "Kimi!" she called as she glided toward the door and out into the hallway. "I've decided your Aunt Kel and Aunt Alanna should come for a visit."

Kimi jumped up guiltily with a glass in her left hand and tried to bow with one hand. "Yes, mum, that sounds wonderful!" she cried with a grin and scurried away to contact them.

"Wait, Kimi!" Neal ducked his head out of the room and Kimi skidded to a halt at the end of the hallway. He looked like he was struggling with himself to say something but was losing the fight. When Kimi began to turn away again, her father blurted out, "All right, I've decided. You may become a page if that's what you really want." Yuki watched him carefully with a calculated and an un-Yamani look of triumph on her face. "You have our blessing." He mumbled, but Kimi was already leaping and yelling with joy.

As Kimi ran off to contact her Aunt Kel and Aunt Alanna anyway, Yuki approached her husband and kissed him thoroughly. "Bossy little thing," he murmured softly as he stroked her hair.

"She'll be fine, Neal," Yuki replied. "She'll make us proud, I know it."

Neal sighed. "I never expected any different from our girl."