What Is Love

Out of all three Kuchiki children, Maea was, by far, the most curious. Everyone in her family often struggled to deflect certain questions. Her parents, Rin and Byakuya, her 'uncle', Daisuke, and 'aunt', Aika, were all interrogated almost daily. Even as the girl grew up, she didn't grow out of her thirst for knowledge.

She wanted to know how the world worked, and would often take apart and put back together small devices and electronics. She would conduct her own little experiments to test things. As the years passed, people became her subjects just as often. Fortunately, the line between which answers to her questions were appropriate or not dissolved, as well.

That didn't make some of her questions any less hard to answer, however. Maea was barely in her teens when she approached her mother. With her older siblings staying at the Shino Academy while they attended classes, the young girl often found herself bored on the days they weren't visiting. This usually resulted in her sticking to the person that was home at the time. Today, that was Rin.

Her mother was leaning against a large tree overhanging the koi pond, working on one of her carvings. This one was a bird, an owl, in flight. She was touching up the feathers on the wings when she was finally alerted to her daughter's presence. She didn't know what to expect this time around. It definitely wasn't the next words that came out of her mouth.

"Oka-chan, is it possible to love more than one person in your life?" she asked. "Not like family love, but, like, being in love, you know? Like the way you love Oto-chan. Could you love someone else like that?"

"Yes," came the short answer.

Rin promptly returned to her carving. Though her words were meant to dismiss, Maea remained. She felt that her question hadn't truly been answered. To her, this wasn't a simple yes or no question that her mother seemed to think it was.

"How do you know?" she said accusingly. "Did you love someone before Oto-chan?"

Her words were not meant to be as harsh as they sounded. Maea immediately wished that she could pluck the words that hung in the air out of it and tuck them away never to be heard again. She felt even more terrible when Rin looked up at her with a stricken look on her face. Her daughter opened her mouth to apologize. The older woman spoke first.

"Yes. I did," she said quietly, looking down to study her carving with false scrutiny. "His name was Terrace."

Maea stared at her mother in shock. She tried to imagine this man. But she couldn't even do that, much less imagine her mother with him. Neither could she imagine her mother loving someone other than Oto-chan. She didn't really know what she felt about that. A sense of betrayal, perhaps? Or maybe intrigue? She was most definitely curious about this man.

"I met him in Rukon," Rin continued. "I was having troubles with some guy, and he just sidled up and got rid of him just like that. I didn't even thank him, especially when he started following me. He came from the kinda place that, back then, depicted women as weak. I hated him because he thought he needed to protect me."

Though she scoffed, she spoke about the man with a smirk and a sense of fondness in her voice. Maea giggled when she heard about how Terrace thought her mother was weak. She had learned long ago that her mother wasn't the damsel in distress that she so often read about in the books Daisuke lent her. Her thoughts were that Rin was strong and didn't need anyone at all to 'protect' her.

"But damn, he always knew what to say. It didn't help that the bastard had good looks he didn't deserve. No one should be allowed to be that charming and hot. He was a good man, though. He never used his silver tongue for anything bad, though I use the word 'bad' lightly," she laughed.

"He was ambitious, though. Living a simple life just wasn't his style. He always strived for something better. He told us, a ragtag bunch of thieves, that we'd make our own family one day and become one of the great noble families. We laughed at him, of course. Some part of me thought that he could do it, though. If only he'd had the time.

"Terrace was also the biggest, stupidest, dumbest, jackass of a jerk in the entire fucking world. Fuck, he was so frustrating. Got on my fucking nerves then laughed every time I'd tell him to fuck off," she growled. "But he was my big, stupid, dumb, jackass of a jerk. He didn't deserve a lot of the things he had, but he did deserve a longer life."

"Did you love him more than Oto-chan?" Maea whispered. Afraid of the answer.

"Love is immeasurable," Rin said with a shrug. "So I couldn't tell you. But I'm glad I've got another big, stupid jerk here, now. Terrace isn't a man that can be replaced, but neither is Byakuya. I'm glad that I've been with them both. Even if I didn't deserve either of them.

"Now scram, kid." Rin made shooing motions with her hands. "Days off should be so I can do stuff I want to do, not fill your empty head with stories of dead people."

"Suke-ji said that you can learn from stories!" Maea protested.

"That's because his empty head got filled with stories of dead people!" Rin snapped. "Do you want to end up like Daisuke?!"

"Yes! Suke-ji's the best!"

"What?! Bullshit! I gave birth to you, so I'm the best! Ugh, you'd think that you people would be more grateful! I can't wait till you're in Shino Academy. I won't have to listen to your ungratefulness if you're all the way over there," the older woman muttered. Maea grinned widely.

"But then you would miss me, Oka-chan!"

"Get lost! Stop wasting my time!"

Maea laughed and ran back to the mansion to find something else to do.