Paternal Problems

Chapter 1

Real World

When BT –Machiko Kitaoka- became a model, it was the worst day of her military father's life. It was the loudest of hers. Apparently, modelling was just about the worst way to waste a good body. Apparently. After her father's initial fury there had been months and months of mounting tension between them before she had finally moved out, only to end her career a few years later. It didn't matter, though- her father never looked at her the same way again and she couldn't bring herself to go back home anyway. At the time, she'd only been nineteen-years-old.

Since that day nine years ago, her mother had held family reunions at the old country house where she'd grown up. These reunions were awkward and never seemed to go quite as planned, but, unlike her class ones, she always went- for her mother's sanity, if not for her own.

BT had three brothers, all older and –in their own minds- more mature. Their names were Toshio, Kiyu and Joshua, the latter two being identical twins of the most annoying kind and the first brother being the eldest. She also had two sisters, Djane and Imogen. The former was older than BT and the CEO of a large corporation, while the second, who was younger, was a Private First Class in the military, and obviously the favourite of their father.

BT's mother was a dark-haired beauty, who had also been in the military for the majority of her life, but who had resigned upon settling down with Brigadier General (at that time, Lieutenant Colonel) Kitaoka and having Toshio, the first-born of their total six children. Now retired, she fired all of her energy into running her household, but while being strict as hell, she had been softened by her many years as a civilian and lived to organise social gatherings and such.

Last year's reunion had been particularly painful. It had been only a month or so after the birth of Djane's second child, a girl named Meryl, and as soon as BT's mother, Elaine, had finished fussing over the baby, she had turned to BT and started bombarding her with questions as to whether or not she was dating, and when was she going to 'set her priorities straight', settle down and have children of her own- no matter how many times she tried to tell her mother that having children was definitely not something she would ever ever consider as being a main priority.

With Joshua's wife being pregnant and in attendance this year, and a good number of children running around, BT's position was looking dire, and as she miserably opened the familiar-looking invitation she couldn't help but sigh as she thought of the verbal lashing her mother would be dealing out this year.

After a few moments of reflection, she made a decision, picked up the phone and dialled the number at the bottom of the invite. She just couldn't take another year of it.

-

Ten minutes found her putting the phone back down and groaning softly to herself. She had called her parents with the specific intention of telling them that she'd be busy for this year's reunion and couldn't make it, but upon hearing her mother's excited voice as she picked up the phone, she couldn't do it. Instead, she reluctantly asked permission to bring a guest- Bear being the first that came to mind. Immediately taking the word 'guest' to mean 'date', her mother had let out a frenzied squeal and insisted that BT bring such a guest to the reunion, and she, being undeniably weak when it came to her mother, couldn't refuse.

Still, as she sat down at her terminal and reached for the virtual reality headset and controller that would take her into 'The World', she couldn't help but sigh again and wonder if she could still ask Bear to accompany her… as her date.

-

'The World'

"A family reunion?"

BT nodded, staring down at the forest floor in an obvious attempt to avoid Bear's eyes. "It's okay if you don't want to come, but I do need a date and I don't know all that many men I could stand spending a week at my parents' house with, and my family definitely wouldn't be impressed if I brought a girl, so-?"

"Of course I'll come," said Bear, cutting her off easily. "I know what it's like- my mother is the same way."

BT, who had met Bear's mother, grimaced. "Yes, I suppose. Thank you for agreeing to come."

"No problem," said Bear. "I need a holiday anyway."

BT offered him a wry smile, "you're always saying that."

"Well now I have an excuse to take one, don't I?" said Bear, sounding much happier about the reunion than she ever did. "A nice week in the countryside with no work, no obligations and no son pestering me for a new car."

"You're so simple, Bear."

"Heh… Maybe," he said, not seeming at all offended. "But I'm happy being simple."

"Good for you."

-

"You're going away?" asked Mimiru, pouting as she sat across from Bear at a café in The World. "But you promised you'd do that new dungeon with me!"

"It'll still be there when I get back," said Bear, "but for all next week I'll be out of town doing a favour for a friend."

"What kind of favour?" asked Mimiru. "And who? Do I know 'em?"

Bear just shrugged, "let's not talk about the real world right now. I'll be stuck there for the next week or so anyway-"

"You don't have to come, Bear," said BT, a little sourly, overhearing the last bit as she came over to join them.

"No, I want to," said Bear quickly.

"You're helping out BT?" Mimiru guessed, sort of confused.

"Yeah," said Bear. "I 'm going with her to visit her family- they're having a reunion in the country."

BT kept her face free of emotion.

"BT's takin' you to meet her family?!"

A flicker of disapproval passed over BT's face and Bear began wildly denying her implications. "You're making too much of it! I'm just helping out a friend!" he insisted.

He definitely didn't need another reason for Mimiru to tease him about supposedly –supposedly, remember- liking BT. Last Christmas she had spent the entire evening –spent in 'The World', of course- attempting to shove them together under the mistletoe. She had succeeded in the end but BT had soon remedied the situation by destroying the mistletoe with her staff and then bonking Mimiru over the head with it.

"Right, Bear," she said now, grinning widely. "Right."

"Keep acting like that and I won't do the dungeon with you when I get back," he said and Mimiru shut up immediately so that there was relative silence –except for Bear and BT talking among themselves- until Tsukasa and Subaru arrived together.

"Have you two finished your homework yet? Tsukasa said that you both had heaps," said Bear suspiciously and the two girls exchanged sheepish glances.

"What'd you tell him that for?" Subaru whispered out of the corner of his mouth.

"An excuse to get away from the phone and get upstairs to my terminal," Tsukasa whispered back.

"And you didn't think that he'd be here too?"

"He could have been working on his novel!"

"Yeah right!"

"It's fine," said Bear, cutting in. "Just make sure the homework does get done, all right? Actually, it's pretty good that you're here- I've been meaning to tell you that I'm going away for a week staring tomorrow so I won't be seeing you around for a bit."

"The phone reception isn't fantastic either," said BT, "but I'll give you the number anyway."

"You guys are going somewhere together?" asked Tsukasa, raising an eyebrow.

"Shut up, will you? We've already had all that crap from Mimiru- I'm just doing her a favour, got it?"

BT stood suddenly, obviously deciding that she'd told them where they were going and that was all that they needed to know. "I'd better leave- I haven't packed yet. You should too, Bear."

She left hastily and a few seconds –and several wolf whistles- later, he followed her out.