I claim no ownership rights to any of the works of Rumiko Takahashi or Steve Jackson Games.

Toshiko closed her school locker and hefted her backpack. Out of the corner of her eye she caught sight of Joshua approaching down the hall and stepped away from her locker—he'd have to move toward the middle of the hall to get by, and so wouldn't be within reach of Mercedes. She also braced herself, so when he tried to knock her over he bounced instead and dropped on his ass. "Oh, I'm sorry!" she exclaimed, "I should have been watching where I was going."

She offered him a friendly smile and her hand to help him up. He wasn't as good an actor as she was—with a shouted, "Whore!" he knocked her hand away, pushed himself to his feet, snatched up his backpack, and all but ran for the school's front doors, leaving teenagers stunned silent in his wake.

Mercedes managed to keep her laughter bottled up until the pair was away from the school, and by then the urge had been suppressed to a giggle fit that still left her a little breathless. "Did you see their faces!?" she asked in Japanese.

Toshiko was giggling a little herself, now. "Yes, I'd say his popularity—and ability to get away with that kinda shit—is dropping by the day. I wonder how long till he'll do something terminally stupid?"

"We can only dream."

The pair walked along for awhile in comfortable silence, until Toshiko finally asked, "So how long till you head back to the US?"

"I'm not." Mercedes glanced over at her and smiled at the broad grin Toshiko felt stretching her cheeks at the news then glanced around, presumably to make sure no one was close enough to overhear what she said next, even though anyone that might have been was unlikely to speak Japanese. "Mom got assurances that the native mages aren't holding my presence against us now that they know the circumstances, and they're keeping an eye on the base anyway so they'll keep an extra watch for anything that might thing I'd make a nice snack. It does mean that I still have to do my part not to attract anything that thinks I'm delicious, though, so I can't really show off what I can do the way you can."

Toshiko pouted. "Ah, that sucks. I know we're different enough that there's no point in sparring, but I was hoping we'd be able to at least work out some team maneuvers—we did pretty good working together against the ice worms, but we were lucky."

"True enough," Mercedes agreed, "but even if we can't practice there's no reason we can't brainstorm ... toss some ideas back and forth," she added at Toshiko's confused look. "You want to come home with me and make a start?"

"Nope, I can't. I have to do some shopping for dinner before Win gets home. Maybe tomorrow?"

"I can't, the school swim club is meeting." Mercedes brightened. "Hey, why don't you join? It isn't fighting so you won't completely outclass everyone like you would with the martial arts club even without using your ki, and you really should get to know more of the girls than just me."

Toshiko started to reject the idea out of hand, but paused with her mouth open for a moment before closing it and humming thoughtfully. Win had been saying she needed to socialize more. "I'll think about it."

"Okay. Bring a swimsuit to school tomorrow, I'm sure Ms. Davis won't mind you coming a few times and trying us out even if you don't end up joining."

"I will," Toshiko agreed with a shrug. It was a good thing Lieutenant Vernon—Stacy—had insisted she buy a swimsuit when they'd gone clothes shopping together. "See you tomorrow."

"See you then."

/oOo\

Let's see, good price on the carrots and potatoes this time, the rice as usual ... pork chops are a little steep... Toshiko walked along the aisles of Misawa Base's commissary, checking out the prices before deciding what to load up her basket waith. She couldn't call herself a great cook but she was getting better, and trying to learn more American dishes for her husband. And one thing she was learning was how much prices at the commissary could fluctuate—the pricing was always 'at cost', but it still depended on whatever suppliers were willing to accept.

Then out of the corner of her eye she noticed her least favorite person, or at least her least favorite person on the base—from the list in his hand, Joshua was also doing some shopping. Wonderful. I wonder if I can get in some stealth training, get everything I need and get out without him noti— Her train of thought derailed as she remembered, from a discussion with Win of places on the base where she could not do anything out of the ordinary ... the commissary had cameras! And she was heartily sick of Joshua's abuse of her friend. She would have to be careful, though, she couldn't remember if those cameras were wired for sound...

She carefully ignored Joshua's presence as she maneuvered around, double-checking prices, until she 'accidentally' stepped in front of him, cutting him off.

He reacted just as she had expected. "Watch where you're going, bitch!"

"What?" Toshiko turned around. "Oh, it's just you. Really, 'whore'? 'Bitch'? You know, growing up on a military base—Marines and all—I'd think you'd actually know some decent insults. I'm a littler surprised to see you in here, shouldn't one of your fan girls be willing to do the drudge work for you?" Jaw clenching, beginning to turn red, he's almost there... "Or do you prefer fan boys? Either way, after the way you've been treating me and Mercedes they must be realizing what a loser you are—" It took an effort not to dodge as his fist whipped up. She didn't even try to ride the blow—she wanted as big a bruise as he could manage—and the hammer blow to her jaw was actually respectable for a civilian. He might not be a Martial Artist, but apparently he wasn't lazy, either.

My turn. She dropped the basket she was carrying and her own fist flashed around, and she winced at the crack of his snapping jaw as he spun around, landed on the potatoes and onions, and rolled off them to the floor. She stared at his limp body for a long moment, eyes wide, before kneeling to find to her relief that yes, he was still breathing and had a pulse. The sound of running feet had her looking up to see the manager coming from the back office. Oh well, at least I'll be able to tell my side of the story first ... seeing how he isn't going to be telling anyone anything for awhile.

/oOo\

In the end the military police the manager summoned hadn't arrested her—the video clearly showed that Joshua had struck first and yes, the cameras in the commissary were wired for sound—but Win had known a lot more about her capabilities than the police had (officially at least, from the sidelong glances she had been getting Toshiko suspected there were rumors floating around). At first he'd been furious that she had picked a fight with the base commander's son. Then once she told him why she'd picked the fight, he was furious that she hadn't told him about it. Her explanation that she hadn't wanted him to do something stupid that would hurt his career hadn't helped, he insisted it was his job to deal with insults to his wife. They hadn't actually had an argument, much less a shouting match, but Toshiko was beginning to think that might be preferable to the stony silence that filled the kitchen as they ate.

Toshiko never had gotten back to the pork chops at the commissary, and had had to cobble together dinner out of leftovers.

The knock on the door was a relief, and Toshiko was out of her chair in an instant, calling "I'll get that!" over her shoulder as she practically ran to the door. She yanked it open and froze. She didn't recognize the white-haired soldier standing in front of the door, but she did recognize the general's insignia on the uniform under his open coat. And there was only one general that would have any reason to visit at this time of night, the base commander. "Uh ... General Layton?"

"That's me." The General held out a hand that Toshiko automatically shook. After a long moment of silence as Toshiko struggled to regain her equilibrium, he added, "And you must be Ms. Tatsuno."

"Oh! Yes ... yes, I am ... well, Mrs. Tatsuno, I am married, even if that's not Win's last— Oh, yes, please come in, let me get your coat."

He chuckled and walked in as she stepped out of his way. "No need, I won't be here that long." He nodded to her husband when he appeared in the doorway to the kitchen. "Win."

"Sir ... please, have a seat. Would you like a beer?"

"Thank you, no." General Layton took his offered seat with a sigh, rubbing cheeks pale from the cold night air as Toshiko and Win sat on the couch across from him. "Win, Mrs. Tatsuno—"

"Uhm ... call me Toshiko?" She glanced at her husband out of the corner of her eye and relaxed at his faint nod. Now that she thought of it, she needed to ask Mercedes' mother about proper manners for officers' wives, she'd never bothered to think about it before.

"Toshiko, then. Since the military police called to tell me that Joshua was headed to the hospital—and why—I have spent my evening talking to a number of your schoolmates. What I heard ..." He seemed to age a decade in a few seconds. "It seems that I owe you an apology on behalf of my son, he wasn't who I thought he was. I am deeply sorry for how he has treated you."

"I ... I don't ... I ... wow." Toshiko stammered, stunned by the fact that an adult was actually taking responsibility for his child's actions. "I ... thank you. But shouldn't you be talking to Mercedes?"

"Oh, I did, just before coming here." He chuckled. "Sergeant Baker can rant with the best of them. I was just lucky that I wasn't there in an official capacity or I might have had to take notice of that kind of language being used on a superior officer. Though I was fortunate that most of her rant was directed at her daughter, she was not happy to find out about Joshua's bullying from me."

"Uh, yeah, I can ... see that." Toshiko blushed, then smacked her husband's leg when she caught his smirk out of the corner of her eye.

General Layton's chuckling turned into a bark of laughter before he caught himself, and he shook his head before sobering. "I do have a question, though. I know something of your skills so I know you let Joshua hit you. Did you intend to break his jaw?"

Toshiko hunched a bit, eyes dropping to her hands now clasped on her knees. " ... No. I didn't want to kill him and he's a civilian, so I pulled my punch. But I've been so angry at how he treated Mercedes ... I didn't pull it enough. I'm sorry."

"Don't be, he got what he deserved." Toshiko's head shot up at the flat, cold tone of the General's voice, and he took a deep breath, and pushed himself to his feet, Win and Toshiko hastily rising as well. He smiled and offered his hand to Toshiko. "Along with my apology, I want to thank you for bringing Joshua's bullying out into the open. I hate to think of what would have become of him if he'd managed to hide that until he moved away from home, now I and his mother have a chance to fix it. We owe you."

"I, uh, sure ... I mean, you're welcome." Toshiko shook his hand in a daze. She missed the exchanged farewells between the general and her husband, only coming out of it when Win closed the door, then walked back over and took her hand.

"Toshiko, are you all right?"

"I ... yeah, I'm fine. I just ... I think that's the first time I've ever seen a parent take responsibility for his son."

Win sighed and shook his head, but he gave her the first real smile since he'd arrived home. "Let's finish eating and go to bed."

She glanced at the clock. "But it's only— Oh." She felt her cheeks warming, but so was her heart. Up till now he'd always left when they'd have sex up to her, this was the first time he'd ever so much as hinted at it. "Yeah, let's do that."