"Hi, Lavi," Komui said as he opened the door.
"Pizza delivery," Lavi said, holding up a large, rectangular box.
"Hope you're hungry," Komui said, "because she never has more than one slice."
"There are three of us," Lavi said.
"Two," Komui said. "I'm heading out."
"Oh," Lavi said, confused. "Wait, I thought…"
Lenalee came into the kitchen. "Hi, Lavi! Thanks! Just put it on the table."
"If it's not a good time…" Lavi began, but Komui never left Lenalee unsupervised.
"Maybe he's right," Komui said a little too loudly. "That's a lot of pizza. Don't want it to go to waste."
"Pizza does just fine in the refrigerator," Lenalee said sternly.
"But…" Komui took off his glasses and started polishing them on his shirt.
"Today's Friday," Lenalee said. "Remember what happens if you don't do it today?"
"You wouldn't!" Komui said.
"I would," Lenalee said.
Lavi watched, fascinated.
"I don't have to go right now," Komui said.
"Yes, you do," Lenalee said, nudging him with her crutch. "Out, ge ge!"
"I don't think it's going to work."
If her hands were free, Lenalee would have put them on her hips. "The only reason you're nervous is because you haven't done this in how many years? Out, Komui! Now!"
Komui put his glasses on with the air of a knight pulling down his visor. "All right. Can I come back it if doesn't work out?"
"Yes. There will be pizza, and I'll make your favorite tea, and you can drink yourself stupid and all that, but there will be no pizza for you until after you ask."
"Got it!" Komui leaned down to kiss the top of his sister's head. "Wish me luck, mei mei."
"I would if I thought you needed it. Now out!"
Lavi stared as Komui waved goodbye and closed the door behind him.
"Okay, what's happening?" he asked. "Is Komui all right?"
"He's fine," Lenalee said. "Lavi, can you help me with plates and things? I don't have useful hands."
"Of course, sit down," Lavi said. "I'll get everything. What I don't understand is why I'm here and he's not. He never lets you out of his sight."
Lenalee gave a tired, slightly hysterical laugh. "Oh gosh! That's a long story!"
"Okay, then where is he going that's so urgent he's willing to leave you alone with me? Or has he decided I'm a eunuch?"
"Trust me, nobody thinks you're a eunuch," Lenalee said. "No, Komui is going on a date."
"What?" Lavi nearly dropped the plates he was holding.
"Well, he has to ask first, and of course there are no guarantees, but I think it's going to happen."
"Wait, who? And why now? What the heck is going on?"
"Sit down," she said.
"Thanks. Now spill it!"
Lenalee took a long drink from her bottle as if fortifying herself, even thought it was only diet soda. "Do us a favor and don't blab too loudly, okay? Because if you do, we'll have to leave."
"I won't say a word," Lavi said. The last thing he wanted was the Lees gone. "What's going on?"
"Komui's going to ask Jerry out for a drink."
Lavi threw back his head and laughed. "I knew it! I knew there was something there! But why now? Why wait for so long?"
Lenalee sighed. "Because of Rouvellier, of course."
"Being gay's not that big of a deal," Lavi said, "especially in dance. People think I'm gay all the time."
"It's a big deal to our grandmother, who's paying Komui's tuition and living expenses. Her plans for Komui involve him marrying a nice Chinese girl and producing a son, not sleeping with an Indian cook." Her voice was rich with resentment. "If she finds out he's gay, he won't finish his master's."
"And Rouvellier knows this," Lavi said.
"Of course."
"So why risk it now."
Once again, she gave that slightly hysterical laugh. "Yeah, well…."
"What?" he asked.
"That's because of me and my stupid foot."
"What do you mean? You can dance next time."
She took another long drink of her soda.
"You want a beer or something?" Lavi asked, but she looked like she needed a real drink.
"No, I can do this," she said.
"Do what?"
"I'm out, Lavi." She blinked back tears. "Washed up, at least as far as Rouvellier's concerned. He's retiring me."
Lavi's heart dropped like a stone, but he knew how he'd feel if he heard that. "He can't. You're going to be fine. A lot of people dance after injuries like that." It might be a while, but it was a simple fracture. As long as she didn't push too hard too soon, she'd heal.
"I know, but I can't beat Road and he knows it. That means I'm useless to him as a dancer."
"You can pair with Howard or Chaoji," Lavi said. "You're an excellent partner. I ought to know."
"Thanks," she said, "but that's not what he has in mind for me."
"What does he have in mind?" Lavi asked.
Lenalee laughed yet again. "It's so stupid. I don't know how he could think…it's so stupid."
"What is?" She was starting to scare him.
"Rouvellier told Komui that he'd take on the cost of grad school and Komui could do what he likes with whomever he likes, on one condition."
"What?"
"That Komui agree that to a marriage."
Lavi's jaw dropped. "Marriage? What marriage? With whom?"
"Not Komui getting married, me. To Malcolm Rouvellier."
For the first time in his life, Lavi understood why the Americans called extreme rage seeing red. The entire room was washed in scarlet, and his blood pounded in his ears. "You're not serious!" he managed to choke out.
"Rouvellier is."
"He...he's old enough to be your grandfather!" Lavi thought he was going to be sick.
"I know. Doesn't seem to bother him any."
"What the hell is he thinking?" Actually, it wasn't hard to guess.
"Apparently, while I might not be good enough at dancing to suit him, I'm good enough to mix genes with, and I'm a nice Asian girl from a very traditional family." Lenalee grimaced. "There are stereotypes."
"Holy shit!" Lavi said as the room started going back to its normal colors. "You're not…"
"No!" Lenalee said. "No."
"But Komui's going on a date. Wasn't that the deal? Komui can do what he wants if Rouvellier gets you?"
"Tonight's date is my deal," Lenalee said, then she gave that little laugh again. "God, I'm so used to not caring about what happens to me that I almost went along with it, for Komui's sake. Then he said that if I was going to marry Malcolm Rouvellier, he'd drop out of school. That way, there'd be no question about whether or not I wanted to."
"Eichs!" Lavi said, slipping into his native tongue. It was the boiled frog problem. As the story went, if one gradually turned up the heat on a pan of water in which a frog was sitting, the frog would acclimate itself to death. The stupid thing was that if Lavi knew anything about frogs, they would jump out as soon as things got uncomfortable. Only humans were so adaptable that they'd rather die than move.
"Yeah," she said. "I so very, very much don't want to, but if I don't..." She shrugged. "I told Komui that if I'm not going to marry Rouvellier, he has to ask Jerry out. We're going down anyway, so he might as well go down happy. He likes Jerry, and I think Jerry likes him. I don't expect him home until late. Don't blab, though, okay? We're trusting you."
"You know you can," Lavi said. Especially with this.
"I do know, and so does Komui. That's why we told you; I'm just a little paranoid. I mean, eventually Rouvellier's going to figure out that Komui's no means no, but until then, we'd like to stay. I guess…." She smiled. "I guess somehow everyone here has become our family."
"One great big dysfunctional family," Lavi said, but he knew what she meant. In the time that he'd been at the Order, it had ceased to be a place to hide and had become something more. "So why is it 7:30 pm, and I'm here while Komui's out canoodling with Jerry?"
"Because it's late, and he thought I might feel better with company. I'm not used to being home alone at night."
Lavi laughed. "I'm your babysitter."
Lenalee smiled. "Something like that."
"For all he knows, I'm a serial rapist."
"You're a perv, but you're not a serial rapist."
No, he wasn't, but that didn't mean he was a good person. "Does Rouvellier seriously think you're going to marry him? He can't possibly."
Lenalee sighed. "I think he thinks we'll come around in time. I mean, it's not just Komui who hasn't finished school, there's me, and our grandmother isn't a kind, understanding person. If she was, we wouldn't be here at all."
"What would she think?"
"She'd think it was a great match. It's exactly the sort of thing she expects me to do."
"Are you serious?" Lavi spluttered.
"How else do you think Rouvellier got hold of Komui and me?" Lenalee asked. "She's just as bad as he is."
"What are you going to do?"
"I don't know. I don't know what we'll do. We're finished, both of us, but there's nothing we can do to change it."
There was something, and as outrageous as it sounded, Rouvellier was probably counting on them eventually caving in. As uncomfortable as life was in the Order, life without it would be a lot worse in some ways. "Who's your legal guardian?" Lavi asked, "Komui or your grandmother?"
"Komui, thank God!" Lenalee said. "He won't let it happen. I just hope we can finish school before Rouvellier figures it out. I don't want to be any more of a burden on Komui than I already am."
"Komui doesn't think of you as a burden," Lavi assured her.
"He's raised me since our parents died, at a time in his life when he should have been studying and having fun. I've cost him a lot. I don't want to cost him any more."
"I think he's glad to do it," Lavi said, his thoughts tumbling together as he spoke. "It won't be easy for him to have children of his own, and I think he likes being a dad, even if he's an overprotective one."
She laughed. "Part of my appeal to Rouvellier is that Komui's so overprotective. Rouvellier can be quite sure that the goods are undamaged. What he doesn't seem to realize is that it's me Komui protects, not my virtue. He'll go down for murder before he sees me married to the mummified love child of Adolph Hitler and a cockroach."
Lavi laughed. "You probably don't know this, but I like Komui."
Lenalee smiled. "I do know. You probably don't know this, but Komui likes you."
Lavi blinked. "Does he? I thought he was putting up with me as the lesser of two evils."
"No."
"He treats me like a potential rapist." Lavi tried to blow it off with exaggeration, but in truth, it stung.
"It's not personal," she said. "When Komui was in college, a friend of his was raped by the so-called friend who offered to walk her home." Lenalee grimaced. "To protect her from rapists. It came out later that the guy did that sort of thing a lot, and I think it poisoned Komui's view of straight guys a little. I mean, he had to learn to control himself right from the start, so he knows it can be done."
She had a point, but before Lavi could consider it, the doorbell rang, and he stood. "Want me to get it?"
"No," she said, taking a firm grip on one of her crutches. "No one's expected, and anyone we know will call or text if they can't get in."
Lavi's hackles rose, but he realized that babysitter wasn't the right word. Bodyguard might be closer to the truth. "I'll look," he said.
"Thanks."
He went to the front door and looked through the peephole. On the front stoop stood an older man, about medium height, with well-trimmed curly hair, wire-rimmed glasses, and a gentle smile buttressed by an air of authority. The only remarkable thing about him was his clerical collar.
Was this about school? But wasn't St. Therese run by nuns? And why would the school send someone so late in the evening except by appointment? "Are you sure no one's expected?" Lavi mouthed.
"Yes," Lenaee whispered and she came to stand beside him. "Who is it?"
He moved aside to let her look just as the doorbell rang again.
She turned to him and frowned, shaking her head.
"Go back," he whispered, feeling his nails dig into his palm as old instincts began to wake.
She backed off, but not far, balancing carefully on one foot, her crutches held tight in her hands, and Lavi watched as the man outside seemed to laugh a little before going back down the steps.