l

Kindred Spirits
"The most intriguing people you will encounter in this life are the people who had insights about you, that you didn't know about yourself."
- Shannon L. Alder

-13-

There were no more nightmares. Keiichi's idea worked wonders, and every night following Sunday was left in peace. Tuesday brought the arrival of the new queen bed for Belldandy's room, and Keiichi and Skuld worked-argued-well into the night to disassemble the twin bed, move it piece by piece into the neighboring guest bedroom, and then assemble both the new bed and the twin bed in their respective rooms while Belldandy and Urd worked on dinner.

Belldandy appeared more relaxed now; since the night on the couch, the silent, tense woman Keiichi had met had gone into hiding, and in its place was a quiet individual who on occasion would grace Keiichi with a slim, if at times awkward, smile. It wasn't much-there were still moments that Keiichi could see that tense woman from before come forth and take over, but with each day it appeared less and less. There were still moments of unprecedented panic attacks, yet those held none of the severity displayed by her first on the day she'd tossed Urd through the back door and into the woods beyond. At least, none he noticed while the SEAL was home.

"She has them all the time when you aren't here," Skuld explained to him Tuesday. Keiichi looked up from the manual he was glaring at and looked at the younger woman questioningly. Since her ultimatum on Sunday, Skuld had changed as well. She still enjoyed calling him 'Magilla', but there was a strange anger behind her words or whenever they argued. It was almost a spiteful anger, yet for the life of him Keiichi didn't know what he'd done to so invoke the wrath of the dark haired goddess. And then there'd be moments, just like now, where out of the blue the Norn's attitude would do a quick one-eighty. The anger would vanish and in its place it felt almost as though Skuld was doing some sort of change over with him; as though she was expecting him to take over all her 'duties' once she left, as was the case of service members in the middle of a PCS to a new base or PCA to a new unit.

Seeing the confusion on his face, Skuld frowned before continuing. "You know, the panic attacks." She met his eyes, then averted her gaze back to the wooden planks that made up the bed frame. "Whenever you're gone they get real bad sometimes. It's almost like that nightmare from before, only without the magic. Just the panic and the fear. Urd and me are usually able to rouse her from them, but there's always this terrible moment where you can see it on her face that she doesn't know where she is, that she's getting ready to fight or defend herself." A shadow passed over her face. "Sometimes I think she still feels whatever it is she'd trying to stop from happening." Sorting through the pile of nuts and bolts that had accompanied the bed, the woman picked out two, held the edges of the planks together with her feet, and fit a screw through a hole burrowed into the wood. "And then you come home from your job and 'poof'! No more panic." She grabbed a nut and threaded it on to the screw, spinning it in place before tightening it with a wrench. "I don't know what it is about you, but you place Belldandy at ease in a way not even we, her closest sisters, are able to do."

The screw tightened, Skuld placed the wrench down and looked him straight in the eye. "You'd do well to remember that, Keiichi." Keiichi. She'd called him Keiichi. Not Magilla, not an insult-his name. Somehow her use of his name was terrible to him, and the SEAL could feel all the hair along his arms and the back of his neck rise. It unnerved him. "Because if I come back here and find you broke Belldandy's heart..." She left the rest unsaid, but the warning was enough. Enough to leave him breaking out in a cold sweat that he couldn't shake, leaving him with memories of the demon in his watch and the demon with Aoshima. What could a goddess do in comparison?

Keiichi decided in that exact moment he never wanted to find out. Still... "Skuld, I'm not trying to hurt anyone," he said. "I don't want to hurt anyone, especially Belldandy." He paused, looked at the small instruction booklet in his lap, and then closed it and moved it to the side. "I want her to get better, just like you and Urd. And, well..." Damn it all, was he really going to say this? To Skuld of all people? Yes. Yes you are because of all the people here, she needs to understand this more than anyone. "I love Belldandy, Skuld. I can't emphasis that enough." Here he paused, taking the time to examine Skuld's expression as the words sank in.

For her own part, Skuld's face remained a carefully neutral, and while it made Keiichi hesitant to continue, he forced himself on regardless. "But at the same time, there's always a chance it won't work out." His sigh was heavy as images of his ex-wife flitted through his mind. "I married my best friend seven years ago. I'd known her since coming to the states from Japan, and we grew up together-Debra, Megumi, and myself-from elementary school all the way past high school graduation. We kept in touch when I left for the Navy and she left for college, and after she got her Bachelors we decided to try and see if we could make something more of our relationship."

The SEAL shook his head. "I still believe those were some of the best years of my life. The Navy could be ruthless at times... but I'd always be able to return to Deb, and things would be okay again." His face darkened as memories he more often than not tried to avoid resurfaced, and this time, this one time he let them. "But... sometimes you do stupid things to the ones you love the most. I ended up hurting Deb pretty bad, and it wasn't because I broke her heart or anything either. It was..." He grit his teeth and closed his eyes. The man took a deep breath, then continued. "It was bad. And it broke my heart... it broke her heart, but... because of that incident, we filed for a divorce. We recognized that what I'd done had destroyed our relationship... had destroyed the trust we'd built up for years, Skuld. Maybe we could have salvaged something from it if I hadn't been so stupid back then-" He voice rose in a deep growl, and Keiichi stopped himself.

Skuld said nothing.

He took a shuddering breath, then continued. "What I'm trying to say is...fucking hell... I don't want to hurt Belldandy anymore than I wanted to hurt Deb back then. But at the same time... at the same time, Skuld, if something does happen... then even if it hurts, even if it does break her heart, it'd be better for us to end the relationship if it isn't salvageable. I don't want to leave her feeling trapped in some horrible, desolate relationship like she had with Aoshima. I want her to have the freedom to move on if she thinks 'hey, Keiichi's an asshole, Skuld was right, fuck this guy ten times over with an iron hoe, dueces, I'm out bitches'. I know she made that wish, but I don't care about it-as far as I'm concerned, she's a free woman and if she wants to stay, she can stay, if she wants to go, she can go." Another long pause, and this time he waited, wondering if Skuld would say anything. Yet still the goddess said nothing.

"Look, I don't know what else you want me to say." Keiichi shrugged his shoulders. "I'm not going to sit here and lie to you saying 'everything will be fine'. I'm not that positive and you're not that naive. But I'm also not going to try and convince you I'm the best thing in the world for your sister. I'm not trying to gain your favor, Skuld, because quite frankly, your favor amounts to shit in my book. You're either cool with me or you're not, and from what I've seen you're the type a' person who won't be bought by 'faith and goodwill', so I'm not gonna try and persuade you one way or the other, and..."

He paused there, and Keiichi's brows furrowed together. "And... why the fuck am I preaching to you?" The SEAL stared at the woman before him first in confusion, then in suspicion. "Wait..." It wasn't normal for him to be this chatty. It wasn't normal for Skuld to be so quiet. "Wait, what the f-"

"I think I understand you a bit better now, Keiichi." Skuld rose without another word, abandoning the bed posts she'd been working on and walking around him to the front door. She pat his head as if he were a puppy as she walked by, and Keiichi recoiled from her touch as though she was a viper. Skuld just smiled. "Stay honest with us gods, Keiichi. 'To lie is to invite demons, whereas sincerity is sacred.' That's the best advice I can give."

The SEAL twisted to watch her leave. "What the hell did you do to me?!" he demanded.

Yet Skuld ignored his question. "I'm tired of arguing with you on how to build a bed. I'm going to put the twin back together so at least I have something to sleep on tonight."

"Skuld-"

"Later Magilla!"

She left him in a rush, slamming the door behind her. "That little shit," he growled.

XXX

Wednesday proved interesting as well, and in more ways than one. He woke up to a text message from Aiko, one brimming with excitement: SWIGGITY SWUNNY IM COMING FOR DAT BUNNY. Below it was a gif. Keiichi touched the play icon on his touchscreen and watched, still half asleep, as a family released a baby rabbit into their lawn 'Be free, Bunny!' Only for a hawk or a falcon to swoop down and snatch it off the ground.

It took him a good five minutes to figure out what she meant, and when he did, Keiichi groaned into his pillow. "Easter weekend." In the excitement over the past weekend, he'd forgotten all about Aiko's upcoming visit. Aiko was supposed to come down from North Carolina to spend the weekend with him, as had become standard whenever there was a holiday or vacation where Keiichi wasn't deployed. And you went and told her Easter was still a go for her to come down, remember? Yes, though he'd been high off whatever magic potion Belldandy had gotten him to drink and it had been close to three in the morning, he remembered. He remembered all too well.

That means Aiko's gonna meet the whole gang. He grimaced. Why did Skuld have to stay through the week? Where the hell was he going to put Aiko in a three bedroom house occupied by three goddesses and a mortal? "This is going to be a clusterfuck in the making." He grumbled, but couldn't stop the smile that wormed its way up his face. It'd be an entertaining clusterfuck, if nothing else, because there was no way in fucking hell he was going to cancel on Aiko. Gods or not, Aiko was family, and he was looking forward to seeing her.

A part of him was looking forward to what she'd make of Belldandy.

Snorting to himself, the man rolled onto his stomach and propped himself up with his forearms. Does this mean you want bunny for Sunday Brunch? He texted back, and then spammed a second text with rabbit emotes. Aiko's response was a very loud NO! Followed by a variety of angry and disgusted emotes, and snorting Keiichi rolled out of bed to get himself ready for the morning.

The day only grew stranger the further it progressed.

McGuinness called them all in for a meeting in the SCIF where he'd initially confronted Keiichi over the Norns. This time, the SEAL thought nothing of it; the SCIF was a location often used for meetings discussing possible ad-hoc deployments or training TDYs leading up to longer-term deployments. They were regulars amongst the Intel Bubbas, and while the meeting was sudden, there was nothing odd or interesting about it to warrant his attention.

At least not until Team 12 in all their glory walked into the conference room and found Urd sitting at its head. She smiled at them from the large desk chair normally reserved for high ranking staff like McGuinness, dressed in a surprisingly formal and conservative white blouse and a black skirt that fell down to her knees. The woman's silver hair was held back out of her face in a bun, and something about the outfit and the way the Norn presented herself reminded Keiichi almost of a government agent. It made the hair stand up along his arms. The only government agents he'd worked with in his time of service was the occasional CIA agent, and nothing good had ever come from their brief encounters. The last one had almost gotten Morrison killed, and that before the IED that had taken off most of his toes and sent him into retirement.

For a long moment no one said a word. McGuinness was silent, watching his team's reaction. Urd was quiet, still smiling that mad-dog CIA government smile. Keiichi didn't dare say a word for fear of drawing what would already amount to unwanted attention once their meeting began. It was HM1 Angel Sanchez-'Croaker' as he was better known-who broke the silence. "Sheila?!" he cried. "What are you doing here?" The man gaped at her, brown eyes bulging in their sockets. "What are you doing in a SCIF of all places?" Urd's smile grew larger, and the man turned to look at Keiichi. "Yo man, what the hell?" He demanded. "You been holding out on us? What's this all about?"

I forgot Urd was going to have a meeting with McGuiness, Keiichi thought. He wasn't even aware Sanchez was talking to him. She never said anything about speaking to all of us. Was this her idea or Tank's? He wouldn't have put it past either of them, really. McGuinness was always looking out for what he felt was best for his team, and Urd had a fondness for Team 12 ever since they'd intervened in the fight against the demon.

"Have a seat lads," McGuinness's tone left no room for argument. Team 12 looked up at him. "Ms. Hildborne here will take the time to explain that to you." He folded his arms against his massive chest, and with a small murmur of dissent the group moved to the chairs surrounding the table. Keiichi sat on Urd's right, sensing that he'd be called on to explain his own bit in this-and just what the fuck was he supposed to say?- whereas McGuinness took a seat on Urd's left. The others scattered throughout the room, taking up various chairs as they looked at the strange trio in a mixture of confusion, curiosity, suspicion, and yes, the always popular concern.

Only Braxton sat next to Keiichi, and when he did he glared at the SEAL. "What the fuck did you do, Jank?" he hissed. His eyes kept darting from Keiichi to Urd. "What the hell is she doing here?!"

Urd did a very good job of ignoring the younger man, and Keiichi sighed, contemplating the wisdom of kicking their newest recruit under the table. "Fuck if I know," he grumbled. "We're about to find out though, or were you not paying attention?" Braxton had been a growing thorn in his side since Belldandy had moved into his house. The man wouldn't let the topic of who Urd was drop, and it had devolved from an amusing avoidance to an irritation that Keiichi couldn't get rid of. Perhaps there was a bright side to this meeting after all. At least it'd get Braxton to shut up about Urd and leave him alone for a change.

When everyone found their seats, Urd rose from hers. "Good Morning everyone!" She sounded awfully chipper this morning. Annoyingly so; McGuinness, a man who's blood was black from the amount of coffee he drank, hadn't even had his first pot of the day, and he scowled at the woman's borderline-bubbly mood. "First off, despite the fact that most of you recognize me, allow me to properly reintroduce myself. I'm Special Agent Urd Hildborne of the International Humanitarian Relief Center under the United Nations."

GMC Brian 'Piper' Jackson leaned forward in interest. "No shit?" he said, then made a face. "Sorry, shouldn't be cursing to you Shei-uh, Ms...Hildborne?" He stared at her, at a loss with what to do with this new information. On one hand, it was Sheila who was talking to them-the same woman who cursed up a storm and insulted them just as they did her whenever she magically appeared to share a drink with the Team. Yet on the other hand...here was some kind of government official who looked more at home with a three letter agency over a bunch of scruffy SEALs. How the hell were they supposed to approach her?

"Bullshit," Braxton muttered under his breath. At least one of them had no reserves about cursing. "No such thing."

Urd looked him straight in the eye. "There is such a thing, though our operations are rather covert due to the sensitivity of the missions we conduct." The pleasant smile never left her face, and Bravo flushed an embarrassed red before averting his gaze to the table. "For the past ten years I've been working in conjunction with the FBI in a large joint operation targeting international sex trafficking and child prostitution." A fresh murmur rose from the table, and Urd waited for it to die down before continuing. "We recently had a long line of successful stings ranging all the way from Thailand, Pakistan, and Ukraine all the way down to Japan and the US, in particular Wyoming and Colorado."

"What was the name of the operation?" Braxton eyed her in suspicion, still unconvinced. It was strange, coming from him. Braxton had a bad habit of living up to his callsign of 'Bravo' whenever a woman was around, and his behavior was a noticeable oddity, one made more apparent given how the man had dogged Keiichi for details on Urd over the past three weeks.

"Operation CROSSFIT," Urd replied, and smiled as a chorus of muffled snorts and laughter escaped the team. Even Keiichi snickered, though somehow the operation's name didn't surprise him. He'd never heard it before, he was certain, yet it still felt as though the SEAL had glanced upon it or heard it somewhere before. "One of our biggest stings recently happened in Japan; we rescued thirty-two individuals ranging from various locations, many of which were young girls from China or Vietnam, with an occasional woman or boy from Yugoslavia, Iceland, and even a couple from here in the States."

"Oh Lord," Sanchez murmured. "How many people were arrested?" He paused, a deep frown on his face. "Did you beat the shit out of any of 'em?"

"We ended up arresting fifteen people, to include both the traffickers and the pimps." Urd replied. She ignored Sanchez's second question. "However with the greater success of these missions, we've suddenly found ourselves with a good many displaced individuals, and one of the difficulties we've been having is returning the people to their proper countries with the documentation stating that they are from the country they'd been extracted from. This is a process easier said than done, as we've discovered. Countries don't want displaced human traffic victims that can't prove their nationality without a passport, and some of these people have been in the system so long they don't even remember where they came from. We've been having difficulty making ends meet in this regard; however, the United States government has been quite generous in lending its support for those people who'd been rescued."

"Okay..." Jackson drawled. "That's sweet and all, no, really, I ain't joking, but...what does that have to do with us?" he asked, looking around at his teammates, and then focusing on Keiichi. "What does this have to do with GM1 Morisato? You took him...what, two, three weeks ago? And then we don't hear from him for an entire weekend? And now here you are introducing yourself as some undercover covert operative that reminds me a' those OSI guys, and you expect us to believe that Morisato isn't involved in this operation you been talking about somehow?"

"I was just about to get to that, Chief Jackson." Urd nodded, and Keiichi took a deep breath.

Here we go... He thought, watching Urd with a pensive face.

"So..." There was a subtle change in Urd's demeanor, so slight it was all but unnoticed by all but the most perceptive of people. "Despite the United States government and the United Nations combined good intentions, there are a great many people working within. Many tiny pieces that work the machine, and if one is to fail than the results can be catastrophic, yes? Well, for us that tiny cog came in the form of a bureaucrat." She sighed, and the Norn's expression darkened with an anger so deep it could have passed for real. Keiichi wondered just what memory she was reliving to transcribe that anger on her face.

"A specific group of the women we saved-some of which had been in the system for close to ten years, give or take a month, ended up with a faulty batch of paperwork that created an error in the processing line to get them basic necessities to live here in the States. Food, water, shelter, the funds to provide for that and clothes, a job, an identity... gone. No funds to go into a temporary place to stay and no paperwork that would take the necessary steps to providing them an identity for a job." The woman crossed her arms beneath her breasts with a scowl. "It's one of the worst case scenarios that could happen to us; these women are the ones with no passport, who've been in so long they have no place to return to and who need an identity and a new life more than anyone else we've rescued."

"So...Jank here..." Sanchez pressed, dark eyes darting to Keiichi and then to Urd, his gaze imploring.

"I'm getting to that." Despite the apparent anger on her face, Urd's tone was calm and collected, and perhaps because of that eerie calm Sanchez leaned back, eyeing her as if she'd just threatened him with la chancla. "But I feel I need to emphasize the position I was put into; there were little other options left to us. Because of the lack of funding to provide housing and supplies to the victims, the IHRC was forced to rely on the charity of others to help support the individuals in question." She looked at them, no longer smiling but stoic, observing each member of Team 12 carefully before continuing on.

"I approached Petty Officer Morisato at that bar three weeks ago with a very large request," she explained. "We'd been fortunate enough to find alternate living locations for almost everyone who'd been victimized by the faulty paperwork, however we weren't able to locate an alternate unit for one of the individuals most needing a home. Fortunately, I've come to know not only Team 12, but Morisato himself rather well, and as such, I took a gamble and called in a favor." She looked at him, and Keiichi felt the hair along the length of his neck rise as he became the center of attention.

"I guess you want me to take over for you now?" Keiichi looked at Urd with a raised eyebrow. She dipped her head in a nod, and Keiichi sighed. What the hell am I supposed to say? He wondered, and the answer came to him with surprising clarity. The truth. "Her name's Belldandy Tyrdotter. I agreed to play host for her after Urd came and explained the situation to me. I met her Saturday night, after sleeping off Sunday's drinking at a hotel. Skuld came to get us that morning-she, uh, works with Urd. We had to travel quite a distance to meet her, but she seemed willing enough. She knows Urd and Skuld pretty well, but..." He frowned, and rubbed his hands together in slow, thoughtful circles. In that moment Keiichi forgot who was right beside him, forgot Urd's relation to Belldandy, and instead he looked to his team, staring at them gravely. "She's... fuck, guys... she's just like Aiko was. You know. From that time."

The reactions that came across Team 12's faces were as varied as they were when they'd glanced upon Urd, and ignored by all the men present in that moment, the woman in question took the time to observe them all carefully. It appeared that everyone at the table, everyone but their newest member, Braxton, was aware of Aiko's story, and why not? Were they not a team? One that had shed blood and tears side by side from one deployment to the next? Were they not kinsmen? McGuinness's eyes narrowed, but otherwise he showed no other response. Jackson grimaced. Sanchez closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Even Braxton, new though he was, sensed the gravity of the situation and held his silence, staring at Keiichi in the calm contemplation of one who chose to wait for a bad story in its own time rather than force it into the open right then and there.

"I had to take her in, guys... how could I not." Keiichi's face darkened, and in his expression all the anger and rage that had manifested over the course of his enlistment dwelt, glittering with violent anticipation like a cluster of stars in his eyes. It was a terrible sight, yet there was something equally pitiful about it, as though unresolved guilt and shame rested just beneath the surface of that anger. As if those sorrowful emotions sought redemption, to repent for what the young sailor of yesteryear had been unable to do for a girl of nine years old.

"She has panic attacks," Keiichi continued. "They're bad-you can almost see what's going through her mind when they grab her, and Urd and Skuld have been staying over to try and make sure that she's looked after. The nightmares were pretty bad too, but we might have found a solution for that, but still..." He buried his fingers in his hair, and then growled out, "If I could have killed the bastard who'd done it to her..."

"Breathe Morisato." McGuinness's voice was a gentle rumble. Keiichi sucked in a deep breath on his commander's order, and when he released it there was an audible shudder that came with it. "Again," McGuinness instructed, and as the younger man followed through, the larger man continued. "You'll do neither Ms. Tyrdotter or yourself any good focusing on the beast that bit her. Focus on what you can do instead." He paused and shared a brief look with Urd. "We're all familiar with Aiko and the trials she went through when she was younger. What she experienced. What you were unable to do for her because of your own position at the time."

Keiichi looked up at him, and from Urd's perspective she was taken aback by just how tired the man looked in that moment. The exhaustion on his face was close to pallable, with worry lines creasing the roof of his forehead and stress lines making evident the shadows beneath his eyes. It was a look the goddess could never before remember seeing on his face, and it left her wondering at just how much of his own pain he'd been hiding for Belldandy's sake. How much of a toll had Belldandy's arrival in his life taken on Keiichi? Was he not a mortal attempting a task more suited for a god? How much relief did he feel now, knowing that he could at last speak on the topic with his peers and seek advice?

"Well, now circumstances have placed you in a position where you can do something for the one affected," McGuinness continued. "And you are not alone in this endeavor. You have Ms. Hildborne and her partner to assist you in ensuring Ms. Tyrdotter has the support and help she needs to recover from what has happened to her. And you have us to come to for support and advice as well."

Taking the hint Sanchez voiced up. "Yeah man, you know we'll help however we can. You ain't a one-man army! You got to rely on your Bros!"

Jackson nodded. "We got your back, Jank. Best thing to do is focus on the future." He looked to Urd. "This lady-"

"Belldandy," Urd said at once.

"Belldandy, right," Jackson nodded. "Belldandy's got a therapist, right?"

A shadow fell over her face. "Not yet, admittedly," she growled, sounding less like 'Ms. Hildborne' and more like 'Urd'. "Broken system won't cover for her without a proper identity or the paperwork filing a sponsor. I'm working to correct that issue as we speak."

Sanchez nodded, humming in thought. "Jank, we can probably help with that," he said. "You know, pull some strings or whatever to have someone from Mental Health speak with her?" His gaze darted between Keiichi and Urd, thoughtful but hesitant all at once. "Jank could sponsor her as a dependent-technically that's what she is, right? Just without the official paperwork? He can still sign off on her and everything, right?"

"But won't she need a dependent's card?" Braxton piped up, and Sanchez scowled and pursed his lips, rubbing his bearded chin thoughtfully.

"I am well acquainted with one of the commanders who works in Mental Health," McGuinness said. "I might be able to have him come down and speak with Ms. Tyrdotter." He looked to Urd. "If that is something you believe would be in her best interest."

Urd looked at him, surprised, and then leaned back into her chair, lips pursed in a thin line. "It might..." It almost sounded like an honest consideration from the Norn. Perhaps, in the sudden support displayed by Team 12 to Keiichi and Belldandy, it was. "I'd have to speak with her on it... Belldandy's reluctant to speak on any of the events she went through with A-" The goddess stopped herself and looked around. McGuinness gestured for her to continue. "She doesn't talk about what happened to her. It might be difficult to convince her otherwise." She looked at Keiichi. "She might feel a bit more willing if someone accompanied her. Not me or Skuld-I don't think she wants to talk about that with either of us present-but maybe you?" She looked back at McGuinness. "I'll bring it up to Belldandy and see how she feels about it." It was probably the one honest statement she'd said during the entire meeting. "Thank you for the consideration, Tank."

And perhaps in that moment some unknown wall was scaled between Urd and McGuinness. Urd's words were sincere, despite the large web of lies she'd weaved to help cover for the Norns, and in their sincerity the goddess forgot her formality by referring to Team 12's commander by his call sign. At once there was no longer a 'Sheila' or a 'Ms. Hildborne' but a woman known simply as 'Urd', working to aid a woman who may or may not have been a relative and finding relief in the people around her. She smiled a large, toothy smile, and the formality of the atmosphere seemed to break, as though the room had at once taken a deep breath of relief.

It was something felt by everyone, and even Keiichi found his spirits lifted as McGuinness returned Urd's smile with one of equal sincerity. And with his attention so focused on the two of them, Keiichi almost didn't hear Braxton mutter under his breath. "Maybe I was wrong?"

Sanchez overheard him as well. "Wrong about what?"

Braxton started, then shook his head. "Nothing, sorry." He smiled, then looked over at Urd. "So you're saying if we go over to Morisato's house, we'll run into Belldandy?"

"And Skuld too," Urd nodded. "Though, admittedly, you won't be seeing much of Skuld soon. She's been called back to the central office to try and make ends meet with the messed up forms, but you might see her every now and then. We've both been staying at Keiichi's house as well to try and help Belldandy adjust, and she's due to leave by the end of this week."

"Man, what a shitty way to go-on Easter Sunday? That's some bullshit right there." Sanchez grumbled, then straightened. "Wait, Jank, are you saying that Sheila here's been shacking up with you?" He sent a disbelieving look to Keiichi, who moaned and buried his face in his hands.

"Angel, it's not like that, I swe-"

Jackson interrupted him. "Whoa, no, Sanchez's got a point!" he exclaimed. "Last time we went to your place you had us sitting on those fucking folding chairs!" He sent a glance to Urd. "Sorry Ms. Hildborne."

Urd waved him off, now entirely too amused with the direction the conversation was going. "It took me two weeks to convince him to get furniture," she added, and Jackson's eyes grew wide.

"No shit!" He cried, winced, looked at Urd, who waved him off again, then looked at McGuinness, who sent him a warning glare. The man grinned. "No, this is great!" he said. "And it's Easter weekend too? Man, you know what this calls for? A barbeque." Jackson leaned back in his chair. "I was gonna host at my place here on base, but Morisato's got a bigger place." He looked over at Keiichi with a large smile. "What do you say, Jank? I got brats, burgers, ribs, the whole shebang marinating in my fridge. Want to invite us over so Team 12 can introduce ourselves like the gents we ain't?" He paused, then looked at Urd. "Is it okay for us to meet her? I mean, you know since she was..." He waved his hands about, uncertain how to communicate his intent.

Keiichi and Urd shared a look, for once both uncertain on how to respond. Then Sanchez spoke up, "We understand if you think it's a bad idea, but it'd be a good way for us all to meet-including your partner, Sheila. This way we can have an idea on how to act around her without all at once-forgive my language-scaring the shit out of her."

"Well..." Keiichi looked back to Urd. "Aiko's coming up to visit as well..." He trailed off at Urd's look of surprise. "Right, I forgot to tell you about that... my little sister's coming down to visit since it's a three day weekend for her school." He frowned, and then after a moment's consideration added, "I'm not cancelling on her, Urd."

Urd frowned. "I never said you had to," she replied. "I'm just surprised, is all." Sighing, she leaned back in her chair, drumming her pinky and thumb on the leather armrest. "I don't see a problem with it." She announced after a few moments. "Belldandy will have to meet you all sooner or later, and it'd be better to do it at Keiichi's place since the surroundings are more familiar to her. She might get overwhelmed by an unfamiliar household with additional people dropping by." She looked back at Keiichi. "Do you see any problems with it?"

"No, I think it's a good idea," Keiichi replied. "We can do it while Skuld's still here as well-kind of see her off with a bang-plus Braxton hasn't been up to my place or met Aiko yet." The SEAL looked to the man in question. "I introduce everyone in Team 12 to Aiko," he explained. "She's like a burr that I can't shake when it comes to holidays, and she's my main emergency contact in case something happens to me."

"Sweet!" Sanchez exclaimed. "So then we all in agreement? Head over to Jank's place on Friday for a barbeque?" He smiled broadly at Urd. "We'll be on our best behavior, Scouts Honor."

Urd snickered while Keiichi nodded, a grin of his own beginning to form. "Sounds good." He replied. For the first time since revealing the fact that he'd been harboring three women in his house, the SEAL felt a bit of excitement as the prospect of Team 12 meeting the Norns. "Say around three or so people start arriving?"

The conversation dwindled after that. Discussions on harboring human traffic victims were exchanged for who would bring what to the barbeque, and the tense atmosphere was exchanged for a more easy and open one as the members of Team 12 heckled and teased one another. Urd, for the first time since seeing McGuinness lumbering towards Keiichi's truck on a Sunday afternoon, felt at ease amongst the team members once more. She glanced at McGuinness, who smiled on occasion and laughed when a joke was cracked, but otherwise did not contribute much to the conversation.

She caught his eye when he glanced her way, and with a small jerk of her head the two of them, Lieutenant Commander Christian McGuinness and Special Agent Urd Hildborne, rose to leave. McGuinness waved Keiichi down when the SEAL moved to rise as well, and leaving the remainder of Team 12 to work out Friday's gathering the duo left the conference room.

"Thank you for allowing me to speak with your team, McGuinness," Urd murmured, allowing the larger man to escort her through the SCIF and to the door, dropping a badge declaring her access level off in a bin as McGuinness signed her out. "You've produced a fine group of men out of Team 12." The sincerity in her own voice startled her, and a part of her was surprised to find that she meant what she said. "You should be proud of them. They may act rough around the edges, but they've got good hearts."

McGuinness watched her with a sidelong glance. "What's this?" he said. "Don't tell me you're getting sappy on me, Sheila." It was the first time he'd called her by the Team's designated nickname for her since first seeing Belldandy in the Chevy.

Urd chuckled. "I wouldn't know sappy if my life depended on it," she retorted. "I just comment on what I see. They say you can judge a leader by his followers, and from what I've seen you've been leading them down the right path."

McGuinness hummed in reply. "I'll be honest with you Sheila... no, Urd," he said, and the Norn looked up at him with renewed interest. "I still feel that not all of what you had to say in there was the truth. It still feels like something is missing…though what that is or why, I am still uncertain." He eyed her critically. "However, I am willing to give you and your own partner a chance. The woman I saw in Morisato's truck that day...Ms. Tyrdotter... I feel there is more to her story than just the fear I saw on her face."

Urd held her silence, and McGuinness nodded. "I do not expect you to tell me anything." He admitted. "I understand that we all have our secrets, and despite everything else, Urd, you are a woman who guards them closely. I have learned that in the five years I've known you, if for no other reason than by the fact it took you five years to trust us enough to speak of your career." He nodded solemnly. "I shall not pry, so long as Morisato is not entwined in those secrets to the point where it affects him negatively. That man has a tendency to commit himself to whatever is thrown his way, and I will not allow it to ruin his career...or his life."

"I understand." Urd nodded, startled by the man's perception and surprisingly wounded by McGuinness'ss own mistrust of her. It wasn't that the distrust wasn't well founded, but hearing the words coming from the man she'd known for so long still stung. She scowled. "I'm doing everything in my power to protect him-to protect them both," she admitted. "But even I can only do so much…and for those times where something slips through…" She shook her head.

"I expect you to come to me." Urd started, then looked up at McGuinness. The man stared back at her, his gaze unwavering. "You've known all of us for five years, Urd. At this point, you may as well be family, secrets or not. I won't pry into your story, but know that if Morisato gets in over his head…if you get in over your head, I'm telling you to come to me. Is that understood?"

For a long moment Urd stared at the hulking man before her in bemusement, the words circling through her mind but not quite sinking in to comprehension. Then she smiled, and in it was a relief so profound it hurt to look at with how it splayed across her face. "It is," she replied. "…I think I'm starting to understand why your team is always hailed as the best on base," she said. "And thank you, Christian. I'll take your words to heart."

XXX

Thursday afternoon an old, used, 2005 Honda Civic rolled up the road and into Keiichi's driveway. It was a ramshackle old thing, dark blue and covered with the silver scrapes that spoke of many hand-me-downs and use and abuse. The bumper was covered with various band stickers ranging from the well-known to the obscure, and about a quarter of them had peeled off with age, leaving in their wake a white film that showed the imprint of what once was. The car was affectionately known as the 'Blue Bell', a name so dubbed by Keigo in his youth after Keima had first bought it, then gifted it to Megumi after she left for college. After Megumi had graduated with a degree in law she'd given it to Aiko as her own college gift, and Aiko supposed that after she graduated she'd pass it down to Keigo once he had his learner's permit. The Morisato family was not known for waste, and they'd wear their possessions to threads and strips of metal before they ever gave up what was theirs, and the ol' Blue Bell was one of the finer examples of this trait.

Now, seeing no sign of her brother's silver Chevy anywhere, Aiko Morisato drummed her fingers on the refurbished leather steering wheel of the Civic, humming in thought. She'd gotten to Virginia earlier than expected. There'd only been morning classes at NCSU, and she'd packed her bags all night Wednesday in order to hit the road as soon as the lunch bell hailed the end of her final class. She'd expected a lot more traffic in the two-almost three-hour drive up to Suffock, Virginia from Raliegh, North Carolina, but the freeway had been nothing close to what she'd expected. She'd estimated her arrival to be around six or seven in the evening, yet here she was at her older brother's place at four-thirty in the afternoon.

"Well..." she reasoned. "He could have his truck in the shop... I know he's usually able to sneak off work early when it comes to the holidays, so..." Shrugging to herself, the young woman stepped out of the car. For a moment she considered calling her brother to see if he was indeed home, then thought better of it and proceeded up the porch. Surprising Keiichi was a past time of hers, and Aiko didn't want to ruin the moment with a text asking if he was home. "If he's not I'll just head back down to that little diner I saw a while back." Her stomach growled in consideration. "Have a late lunch and some coffee, then surprise the hell out of him when he does get back."

A game plan in mind, Aiko climbed the porch steps and rang the doorbell next to the heavy wooden front door. The woman waited for a moment, ears straining as she rocked on her feet, and was rewarded for her efforts when she heard footsteps on just the other side. A large smile spread across her face, and the college student ceased her rocking in preparation for the door opening. She watched the door knob turn, saw the door open, and with an exclamation of "Kei!" barreled into the person on the other side.

It wasn't until her arms slipped around a much thinner waist, felt her head collide with something soft, and felt them both go down with two rather feminine shouts that Aiko Morisato came to the startling conclusion that the woman she'd tackled was not, in fact, her brother. They hit the ground with a pair of grunts, and for a moment Aiko laid where she'd fallen, her brain trying to wrap its mind over the fact that she'd not collided with her large beast of a brother but instead some slim broad with titties the size of melons. Titties that even now, her face was buried in. It made it rather difficult to breathe.

"Not that I'm not enjoying this or anything, but could you getting off me?" A voice murmured in her ear, and with a startled yelp Aiko scrambled off the woman, staring at the dark skinned woman with wide eyes.

"OhmygodI'msosorry!" The words came out in a rush as Aiko rushed to her feet, watching as the woman picked herself up and brushed off the dust that clung to her outfit. Holy shit she's got huge breasts. They look like they're about to pop out of her shirt. "Are you-she looked back over her shoulder, yet nothing about the surrounding area had changed. The place still looked like Keiichi's place, and her brother hadn't told her anything about him moving. She looked back to the stranger. "Are you... are you Keiichi's lady friend?"

The woman froze. "Am I his what?" She stared at Aiko with large violet-were they really purple?!-eyes, and behind the tan woman with the strange platinum-blonde hair Aiko spied another woman, this one a brunette with lighter skin. She was also staring at Aiko with large eyes-these ones blue instead of-wow, Dark Lady really did have purple eyes, and had frozen mid-step in the hallway.

"Wait..." Aiko paused, staring between the two of them, then said, "Keiichi didn't say anything about two lady friends."

"Two what?" It was the brunette's turn to stare at her in confusion. "Urd, what does she-"

"Hey!" Another voice rose from inside the house, and now a third woman appeared, this one with long black hair. "Guys, who's at the door?" She glanced from the brunette towards the platinum blonde, leaning to the side a bit so she could get a better look at Aiko. "Hey, is that Lind?" She asked. "Nice haircut! It suits you!"

"Skuld, that's not Lind." The Brunette said. Aiko almost didn't hear her.

"Th-three lady friends?!" Aiko exclaimed. She brought her hands to her head, burying the fingers within the short blue locks. "Oh my god my brother's a Morman." She paused as the strange women in her brother's house continued to stare at her blankly. "...This is Keiichi Morisato's house, right?!"

"Last we checked." The black-haired woman said. "What the hell is a Morman? Who are you?"

"Aiko Morisato." She replied. "Keiichi's sister. Who the hell are all of you?!"

"Keiichi's lady friends?" The brunette quipped, and Aiko watched as the other two recoiled in horror.

"Belldandy, no!" The dark skinned one cried, and in Aiko's mind she imagined the brunette looking Ladytits square in the eye and saying, "Belldandy yes."

That wasn't what happened, of course. Instead the brunette just stared at her dark friend next to Aiko in confusion. "What?" She asked.

As if you don't know. Aiko thought in disbelief, and it was in that moment that a truck, Keiichi's truck, thank the lord and Hallelujah, can I get an amen, rounded the bend and pulled up beside Aiko's Civic. The woman in question turned to follow it's path, and as it came to a stop and Keiichi hopped out, his younger sister's eyes narrowed. "Oh... I'm going to wreck his shit." She hissed, and without another word to the strange women who'd come to inhabit Keiichi's house-what were they, his goddamned harem?!-Aiko stormed off the porch and towards her older brother.

Behind her she could hear the trailing voices of the women in the house. "Oh, this is gonna be good." That was the black haired girl.

"Skuld, stop. What's she doing?" That was the brunette. "Should we stop her? She looks like she's going to hurt Keiichi."

"Nope." And of course Tits McGee. "We're going to sit this one out, Bell. Siblings spats belong to siblings, not strangers." Well ain't that the fucking truth.

Keiichi, dressed in pt gear so filthy the uniform looked more dirt then cloth, paused to watch Aiko's approach. His eyes widened in surprise. "Hey, Spike Leesa, you died your hair!"

"Keeeeiiiii!" Aiko cried, and then dropped into a sprint towards Keiichi. "You son of a bitch!" The man blinked at her, looked to the porch where the three women had come to stand, and then bolted as well.

"Holy shit, what'd I do!?" The man cried, "Look, I'm sorry about the burn on your hair, okay?! You look good! I swear! Short spikey blue hair suits you!" He raced around his truck and the Civic, and Aiko followed him, the two starting laps around their respective vehicles. "I'm sorrrrry!" he cried. "Please, don't be angry!"

"I'm going to dislocate all your fingers!" Aiko threatened. "And then I'll cuff you to the back of your pickup-without bobbypins!"

"Urrrrd!" Keiichi cried as they circled their fifth lap. "What did you tell her?!" It was hard to tell if he was scared, angry, or laughing at the whole situation.

"Why does he always think I..." The dark skinned woman trailed off, the shouted back, "I didn't tell her anything!"

"Then why's she trying to hurt me?!"

"I'm not trying, I'm going to! That's not a threat Kei! You can't run forever! I've run more marathons than you've gone on deployments!"

"How the hell would I know?!" Urd shouted above Aiko.

Skuld stepped up to join her. "Better run faster Magilla! She's gaining on you!" The woman looked close to doubling over in laughter.

"Oh goodness," Belldandy murmured, burying her face in her hands and shaking her head in embarrassment for herself, for her sisters, for Keiichi, and perhaps even for Aiko.

XXX

"So let me get this straight." Aiko's brown eyes darted from one person to the next. "You two," she pointed at Urd and Skuld, "are part of some UN organization running stings on human trafficking?" At Urd and Skuld's nod she turned to Belldandy. "And you were one of people they rescued?" Belldandy said nothing, and after a long, lingering gaze Aiko turned to Keiichi. "...And you're the moron who got looped in to housing all three of them? What the hell, Kei? A month goes by and all of a sudden you're roleplaying Maison Ikkoku?" She punched Keiichi in the arm, causing the man to groan in anguish.

They'd decided to keep the story the same as what had been told to Team 12. No one wanted a hiccup in the stories, and the possibility of someone sniffing out the truth of what was really going on was too great to risk. Unfortunately, while the story had done wonders for Keiichi's team, the same could not be said for the lone woman sitting on an ugly pink couch next to her brother.

"Please don't compare my life to an anime," he muttered. "It's not like that, I'm telling you. Urd called in a favor and Belldandy needed help. That's all there is to it."

"That's a mighty fine pile of bullshit if you ask me." The woman placed heavy emphasis on 'shit', missing the way Belldandy flinched at the drawn-out curse. "You really expect me to believe that? You think I'm going to fall for some lame-ass excuse like that when I've known you all my life?" she demanded. "Kei, you couldn't lie your way out of a bucket if I was standing right next to it." The problem wasn't the story. The story was good, the story was fine, and for anyone who wanted a simple, believable explanation, the story was the truth, which was one of the reasons it had worked so well on Team 12. Team 12 knew Keiichi and trusted him. They knew Urd, and to an extent trusted her as well.

Yet Aiko was proving to be a bit of a skeptic when it came to 'Tales from the Book of Norn'. The problem here was that whereas Team 12 knew Keiichi, Aiko knew Keiichi. And she didn't know Urd. Or Belldandy and Skuld for that matter. But she knew all of Keiichi's ticks; those little signs that happen unconsciously and give people away to the ones who knew them best. Keiichi would have been the first to say that of everyone he knew, Aiko was closest to him. The Navy SEAL leaned into the Ugly Beast with a moan. What was he supposed to tell her then? He didn't want to lie to her anymore than he wanted Urd to work another one of her creepy-ass voodoo memory spells on Aiko. "Alright, fine. I'll tell you the truth then."

He heard Belldandy suck in a deep, surprised gasp, and without thinking reached over and grabbed her hand, squeezing it gently. Urd watched him with a raised eyebrow, while Skuld had grown very still, waiting to hear what he'd say before reacting. He took a deep breath before starting. "The truth is, Aiko... these three are a trio of Norse goddesses that run a gigantic super world-tree computer thingie that keeps the universe running. Belldandy here," he raised the Norn's hand, "grants wishes but got conned into serving this one freak over in Japan, and Urd enlisted my help for a weekend to save her. I had a hair dryer for a weapon and got my ass kicked by a demon, then Belldandy and me tag-teamed her with a mixture of badassery and Monty Python. Now they're chilling with me because I gave the wish meant for me to Belldandy, and she wished to stay with me forever." He scowled at Aiko. "There. Happy?"

Aiko stared at him for approximately five seconds, then narrowed her eyes and punched him in the arm once more, this time with all her might. "Asshole," she stated, missing the looks of relief that flashed upon the Norns' faces. "You're getting better at lying. Fine, so they're part of the UN and you're hoarding a human traffic victim in your house." She sighed, then muttered absently, "This is probably the most pussy you've seen since volunteering at that animal shelter after Deb moved out."

Keiichi gaped at her. Belldandy gaped at her. Urd stifled a snicker. Skuld broke into flat-out laughter. "Oh, I like you!" she cackled. "I can tell already we're going to get along great!"

Keiichi glared at her, then looked at Aiko. "She likes anyone who wins one over on me," he grumbled.

Aiko stared at him and shrugged. "I don't see a problem with that. You're a goddamned Navy SEAL, Keiichi. You need to be brought down a notch or two on a regular basis. It keeps you humble."

"Goddamn it," Keiichi buried his face in one hand. "Aiko, you're supposed to be on my side." Keiichi's protest was muffled by his palm.

"Yeah?" Aiko appeared unimpressed. "Was this before or after you told me about the three ladies living in your house?"

Keiichi's response was unintelligible, but the embarrassment that pinkened his ears was all too obvious.

"Please don't be upset at Keiichi. He was only doing what he thought was best." Belldandy came to Keiichi's aide, and it was only then that Aiko noticed the two of them were still holding hands. "I..." The woman bit her lip, then narrowed her eyes, squared her jaw and forced herself onwards. "The last ten years of my life have not been... pleasant." She confessed. "I was forced into many... many bad situations, and by the time I was-" She glanced at Keiichi. "When I was... rescued, I had begun to despair for myself." The hand that rested on Belldandy's knee clenched into a tight fist, and baring her teeth the woman continued on. "Please understand... for ten years I was surrounded by many. Terrible. People." She bit off each word individually, as though the sentence alone took effort and an exorbitant amount of will. "And I-I am only now beginning to recover from those long years. Keiichi is helping me with that, but... while he will not admit it, I will in his place. I cannot be around a great many other people, Aiko."

The goddess sent the woman an earnest look, and perhaps in her face Aiko saw a spark of something familiar. Some of her skepticism faded, and in a manner remarkably similar to Keiichi the young woman leaned back into the couch with a low groan. "Alright, alright!" she griped. "Fine, I'll stop picking on my brother-for now-okay?"

Belldandy watched her from the other side of Keiichi with furrowed brows, then inclined her head in understanding. If anything, Keiichi only grew redder.

"So you're here for the holiday weekend, right?" Skuld asked, taking over when it became apparent that Keiichi was too embarrassed by the two women on either side of him to converse. "That...what was it, Eostara's Sunday, right?"

"You mean Easter?" Aiko stared at the woman with a raised black brow.

Skuld nodded. "Yeah, that," she said. "Are you staying here throughout Eostara's Sunday?"

"Easter," Urd corrected, and this time Skuld glared at her. "Sorry, she's not really familiar with American holidays."

"Urd..." Skuld growled a warning, and Aiko watched them both with a look of mixed confusion and disbelief.

"Right..." Aiko trailed off, then said, "Well, I thought I'd stay here with Keiichi, since that's what I normally do whenever I come down. However given the current circumstances..."

"You're staying." Keiichi raised his head abruptly, sending a pointed stare to his sister. "We'll make room for you, there's still plenty of space. You aren't sleeping in a hotel."

"Kei-"

"You're staying here, Aiko." Keiichi's voice was firm, leaving little room for argument. "You're my sister. I'm not going to send you off to some hotel an hour's drive from me just because other people are staying here as well. We have three beds and a couch. There's more than enough room for you."

Aiko grimaced. "I'm not spending an entire weekend on a couch, Kei," she said. "Especially a pink one like this." She patted the Ugly Beast. "You may be used to roughing it in the wilderness, but I've got some standards."

Keiichi raised his own eyebrow, sending his sister a side glance. "You live in a college dorm though," he said. "The only way that gets rougher is if your dorm mates decide to blow the roof with some engineering project or science experiment."

"Exactly." Aiko crossed her arms over her chest. "And that is why I'm sleeping in a bed. Either here or at Motel Six. Doesn't matter either way to me."

"That won't be necessary." Belldandy shook her head. "If need be you can sleep with me." She got several startled glances from the people around her, yet the goddess appeared ignorant to the strange looks. "Keiichi recently bought a queen-sized bed for the guest bedroom I'm using, and it's more than large enough for two people to share."

Unnoticed by Belldandy, both Urd and Skuld's jaws went slack, dropping in shock. Even Keiichi and Aiko stared at her in surprise, before Keiichi said, "That...that won't be necessary. If it comes to that, Aiko can just sleep with me, but I can always just use the cou-"

His words were drowned out by a sudden a vocal protest from not just Belldandy, but all three Norns. "No!" they exclaimed in one voice, and together the Morisato siblings jumped, staring at the trio with large eyes. First Skuld, then Urd, and finally even Belldandy planted a scowl on their faces, and for the life of both siblings, the Morisatos could not figure out what had so set the three women off.

"No, no, you are not sleeping with Keiichi, no, that's just-" Urd began,

"-ridiculous, you can't have a guy and a girl sleeping in the same bed, especially when they're related because-" Skuld spoke over her.

"-you never know what could happen when it's one man and one woman in the same bed together, so-" Belldandy finished, and together the trio said all at once, "You're not sleeping with Aiko!"

For their part, Aiko and Keiichi looked at each other, too stunned to move. They looked at the Norns who watched them with matching heated eyes as though daring either sibling to speak against them, then back to each other. As the Norns before them, so too did the Morisato siblings wear matching expressions on their faces, and those expressions were, in the simplest of terms, an all too obvious, What the fuck?!

Check another one off for the 'Big Book of Weird Norn Shit'.

And then Aiko had the bad sense to challenge the trio's judgment. "But...we slept together all the time when I was a kid..."

The look of shock that spread across the Norns' faces was palatable, where it devolved first into horror, and then further still into accusation at the two siblings.

Keiichi raised his hands in front of his chest, as though warding off a blow. "Wow, wow!" he exclaimed. "How about we calm down a minute. What the hell did we do?!" he demanded.

"Jesus Fuck!" Aiko cried beside him. "What the shit? Is it because we're Asian?" She glared. "It's because we're Asian, isn't it."

Keiichi glared at her. "Aiko!"

She ignored him. "Look, I don't know about you three, but this shit is normal in our house, okay? You know what's not normal though? Sleeping with some random grown-ass woman in the same bed. Are you at least going to make me dinner first? Or are you just gonna-"

"That's enough!" Keiichi thundered, falling into the persona he used out in the middle of a combat zone out of habit. It was a tone no one in the household, be they sibling or Norn, had ever heard before, and it silenced everyone. Four pairs of wide, shocked eyes turned to stare at him, yet not one person dared to speak, the four women staring at him with an expression that reminded him of a herd of deer in headlights. It felt like a small eternity before anyone summed up the courage to speak, and even then, that person was Keiichi, and only after he'd once more managed to get himself back under control.

The man looked from one person to another, observing his audience of doe-eyed women before taking a deep breath and focusing on one of the Norns. "Skuld," he chose. "Will you please explain to us-like an adult," he emphasized, "Why you, your partner, and Belldandy are so upset about the proposition fielded by Aiko?" He glared at her, This is for Tuesday, and waited for her response.

Skuld stared at him as if he'd just grown another head, then shared a wild-eyed look with Urd. "It's um-that is, you can't just..." The woman's face flushed a bright scarlet at being placed on the spot, and finally Skuld blurted out, "You just can't, okay? It's-it's against UN regulation!"

Aiko and Keiichi stared at her. "But...we aren't part of the UN," Aiko said. Even Keiichi was looking at Skuld queerly, as though wondering what the UN had to do with a pair of siblings sharing a bed.

"Culture," Urd muttered, and Skuld latched onto it like a lifesaver.

"Culture!" Skuld shouted. "It's against our culture! We don't-um-we don't allow unwedded men to share a bed with women, even if they're related!"

Aiko's stare remained blank and confused. "And...what culture is this from...?"

"Iceland!" Skuld threw the name out as if it was the first thing that came to her mind. Perhaps it was. "Big families, tiny houses, boys don't sleep with girls, okay?!"

"Iceland?" Both Keiichi and Aiko spoke up in bafflement. "Wait, you three are from Iceland?" Aiko continued. "But you..." She looked at Urd. "You have an Australian accent! Why do you have an Australian accent if your from Iceland?!" She looked to Belldandy and Skuld. "And why don't you guys have an accent? Well, okay, maybe she," the woman looked at Belldandy, "has a bit of a Japanese accent, but still!"

"But Urd doesn't have an-" Belldandy began.

"Mother's an Aussie," Urd announced. "Pop's from Iceland. Grew up with Mum until my teens or so then got carted off to Pop after they split. Weird times. Ever hear a Nordic woman speak with an Australian accent? It doesn't translate well." She smiled at Aiko, but it came off more like a grimace of teeth than an actual smile.

"But-" Aiko looked at the trio with wide eyes, and this time Skuld interrupted her.

"I grew up on the US base in Iceland," she said. "Born on Iceland soil but Mamma was part of the US military whereas my own pabbi was also from Iceland. Grew up surrounded by American military. My accent doesn't come out unless I'm speaking to my pabbi in his home language." She smiled, sharing a nervous look with Urd. "Iceland isn't part of the UN, but Australia and America both are. We got paired together because we're both familiar with Nordic languages." She gestured to Urd, who nodded in rambunctious agreement.

"Say something in Icelandic." Aiko challenged.

"Urd's mother is an ári, fjári, kölski, sá í neðra," Skuld said at once, and the Morisato siblings jumped when Belldandy's head whipped to face Skuld.

"Apologize!" She demanded. "That's rude!"

Urd roared with laughter, and Skuld looked at Belldandy helplessly. "What?" she asked. "It's true! Bell, have you ever met Urd's mom?!"

"What'd she say?" Keiichi asked in curiosity, but judging by the large amount of protests between Belldandy and Skuld and the heavy laughter coming from Urd, his words weren't heard. "Urd, what'd she say!?"

"No-no th-that's wrong, that's not it!" Urd stuttered between laughter, too distracted to respond to Keiichi's question. "S-she's sá gamli, myrkrahöfðingi!" And then once more she fell into laughter, this time sliding down the back of the couch and to the hardwood floor. Aiko and Keiichi turned to watch her slide, staring at the woman in bewilderment as Urd sat on the ground, beside herself with laughter. They looked back to Skuld and Belldandy.

"Belldandy, what are they saying?!" Keiichi asked, and this time it was the middle Norn's turn to flush in embarrassment.

Skuld smiled widely. "Yeah, what did I say, Bell?" She asked, and there was humor in her voice. "What did Urd say?"

"Oh goodness." Belldandy brought her hands to her face. "Skuld-" She groaned, then looked at Keiichi and Aiko, "She-how to translate this...Skuld called her 'the one down below', and Urd-"

"It's so true though!" Urd cried from behind the couch, and Belldandy directed a glare over the edge of the couch and to the collapsed woman on the other side.

"And Urd called her mother," Belldandy emphasized, "the Old One, Chief of Darkness."

Urd laughed harder behind the couch, and Skuld stared at Belldandy with a wide, shit-eater's grin on her face.

"So..." Aiko surmized. "She's our now-ex Mother-in-law?"

Keiichi brought a fist to his mouth to bite back the laughter, but Skuld had no qualms with laughing. She joined Urd in the resulting uproar, and Aiko smiled innocently at Belldandy as the embarrassed pink spread up to the Norn's ears and down all the way to her neck. "Oh dear," she muttered. "You all are incorrigible."

XXX

"I can't believe I'm agreeing to this," Aiko muttered. She was sitting on a bed. Belldandy's bed, waiting for the woman in question to return from wherever the hell she'd gone off to. "I'm sleeping with a strange woman who I'm pretty sure my brother has the hots for." She groaned and let her head thunk into the wall she was pressed up against. Don't make it weird, she thought, and then, don't make it gay, Aiko. It's not like she's into ladies...right? She was fairly certain at least that Belldandy wasn't into woman-Urd maybe, based off the afternoon's initial meeting, but Belldandy certainly not. She'd seen the brunette make too many moon eyes at her brother when she thought no one was looking, and it was almost cute in a puppy-love kind of manner. Except I'm the one sharing a bed with her. Not Keiichi. Me. She snorted. "Don't make it gay, Mikasa!" she told herself, then chuckled at her own joke.

"Who is Mikasa?" Belldandy entered the room with a pillow under her arm, staring at Aiko quizzically.

"No one!" Aiko cried. "No one, ah-how long were you listening?" Her eyes darted to the pillow. "Spare pillow?"

Belldandy stared at her. "It... keeps the nightmares at bay."

"Ah," Aiko said, and then the words sank in. "Aaah. Got it." Keiichi hadn't said anything about nightmares. She looked at the woman in concern. "Just so you know...if you kick me, I'm going to kick you back."

The Norn sent her a confused look. "Why would I kick you?"

The two shared a long and awkward silence together, Belldandy with a pillow under one arm and Aiko dressed in pink pajamas with panda faces on them. Urd passed them in the hallway, then did a quick one eighty and stuck her head into the bedroom. "Don't make it gay, Belldandy." And as the woman in question yelped Urd laughed and headed further down the hallway.

Aiko bit back a laugh, watching Belldandy's shocked expression before the woman dipped out of the room, shouting something that sounded like Icelandic back at the UN rep and hearing the darker woman respond in turn. If I didn't know any better, I'd say they were doing everything they could to sell their story, the college student thought in amusement. But with how they act, I wonder if they aren't sisters. Her own experience with a woman from a special victim's unit after her rape had never been so close, though she had formed a friendship with her caseworker that even now remained strong. No... whatever the relationship between these two it had the same close, sibling-bond that Aiko associated with Megumi and Keiichi, and it made her wonder hard at just what her older brother had gotten himself into.

Yet he wouldn't tell her and Belldandy and her friends from the UN didn't have the loosest of lips either, so for now Aiko would play by their rules and let them keep their secrets. So long as they didn't get Kei into trouble, what they did and why was none of Aiko's business.

Belldandy returned to the room, scowling down the hallway at whom Aiko assumed was Urd, then made a strange gesture with one hand that seemed to translate into I'm watching you. Aiko grinned at the action. They're sisters. No doubt about it. Sisters from another mother maybe, but sisters none the less. I'll bet my scholarship on it. Belldandy continued to stare down the hallway with a frown, her expression challenging, and then, content with what she'd seen the woman turned back to Aiko.

She blew at her long bangs, causing the almond-colored strands to dance in the air. "Ready for bed?"

Aiko sent her a wane smile, biting back the sudden, mad desire to say, Don't make it gay, Belldandy, in the same tone Urd had used. Best not to tease the poor woman too much. She seemed like one of those sweet-natured girls who didn't know how to respond to teasing. "Sure," she said instead. "Let's go to bed."


A/N: Sorry a touch late, busy weekend.


Comments of a Madwoman: Operation CROSSFIT is based off an actual FBI operation that came to light while I was writing Urd's scene with Team 12. For those interested in that sort of stuff, look up Operation CROSS COUNTRY.