First off, thanks for your patience! Been sick as a dog for a few days now, so, sorry for this being so overdue.

Second, have you read the first glimpse into the Royal Wedding? If not, go read it now [one word - kidney stones]!

Third, I made a mistake in the previous chap, for some reason, I was convinced Michael's dad was named Monti. In reality, he is Morty, so my bad (though the name still sounds weird to me...)

Fourth, thanks for reading! Hope you'll enjoy.

Feel free to thank me for finally updating!

I love you all,

w.

FEBRUARY

(2)

Home – Part I

It was the last day of February, early morning hours, when my feet once again touched the ground of my hometown, New York.

I breathed in the chilly air as I stepped out of the plane, descending the stairs. It was supposed to be the walk of pride; I should come back as a successful guy, the one who invented something that would go on saving many, many lives all over the world. The future I coveted was supposed to be in front of me, but now, as I was looking around, I knew how many uncertainties were still surrounding me. I was nowhere finished with what I had started. There was nothing I could do about it, though, I couldn't make time move faster. I just had to accept my somewhat of an in-between position, not letting it frustrate me too much. For someone as impatient as me, it surely was hard, but I couldn't let it get to me.

I had told Mom not to come pick me up, but of course her smiling face was the first thing I saw coming to the terminal. Dad was stranding right behind her, waving me.

"Welcome home, honey!" Mum cried. Honestly, I am not too into the whole expressing your emotions in the public thing, but it felt nice being hugged by my mother, even in such public place as airport. I don't think I had realized just how much I missed my family until I saw her.

New York might have many bad qualities, from being overcrowded to pollution, but it was still my city. McDonald's may be all over the world, but when we stopped in one on our way home, I realized the food in your hometown's tastes simply better – well, as good as fast food actually can taste.

Mom was going on and on about things she had mostly already told me over the phone. Dad was rolling her eyes at when she wasn't looking at him. Both being psychiatrists made them dysfunctional together, but somehow they couldn't function with anyone but each other. I was difficult for them to separate personal life from the work one, and it showed, not only in their marriage and break up a few years back, but also in their parental techniques. What kind of parents let their fifteen-year-old son have his own online magazine and even encourage him when he writes the anti-Gates articles? Furthermore, what kind of parents pay for their thirteen-year-old daughter's weekly TV Show where she tricks random people into having stickers on their foreheads voluntarily, not to mention the episode where she remade The Blair Witch Project New York style? I swear, when Lil and I were absent from school, it most often wasn't because we would be sick, but because they wanted to spend a day with us, analyzing the whatever made them concerned about us. As unusual and eccentric as our upbringing was, I was now realizing they had actually done me a favor. They had always let me do my own thing, supporting my ventures, never pointing out the possible bad outcomes or obvious mistakes, they let me see them by myself, decide how I'd fix them, thus shaping me into the person I was now, the analytical, determined, hard-working guy that never thought anything was too far out of reach or too difficult to achieve. Some might say I was too confided, too sure of myself, but really, I had the confidence to go after what I wanted and foolishly believe I had what it took to succeed. Everything I had in my life I got with my own hands, and there was no reason why I couldn't get even more. There was no reason why I couldn't be the one changing the cardio surgery for the better, and there was no certainly reason why I couldn't be the one dating the Princess of Genovia. With other any kind of upbringing, both would probably strike me as too much for me to handle.

"Well, anyway," she continued, "I hope you are not too upset with Lilly, Michael."

That brought me back from my thoughts.

"Upset? Why would I be upset with her?" I frowned.

"You know, about the website?" Dad said, but the expression on his face was an obvious clue he had thought I already knew about it.

And that stabbing feeling in my stomach was back. The fear of what Lilly could possibly do in some sort of retaliation to Mia overwhelmed me again. As much as I had thought she was over it in the past weeks and months, it was so much stronger now. I remembered how Lilly kept avoiding me, ever since I left for Japan. At first I thought it was because she was angry with me for still caring about Mia. Now I wondered if she wasn't afraid of my reaction to something she had apparently done to her own best friend.

The hurricane of thoughts was colliding in my mind and I struggled to keep my act together. What kind of a world savior was I planning on being, if I couldn't save the love of my life from my sister's violent fury?

"We talked to Lilly about it, of course, and your father and I both think she feels bad about it. In hindsight, I guess she knows it wasn't a proper, mature way to deal with the situation," Mom kept talking, apparently not picking up on me not knowing what she was talking about, unlike Dad. "We believe she was too overwhelmed with her own emotions after everything went down, and didn't know how to handle them all simultaneously, thus turning against Mia in such a cruel, hurtful way. I know that you know, Michael, how much your sister hates taking responsibility and facing the consequences of her own actions. She often takes it all out on people, but this time she went too far. It was a great lesson for her."

"That's great," I said, still not having any idea whatsoever what she was talking about. I refused to show it; I knew my parents wouldn't think twice before psychoanalyzing me for my still apparent feelings for Mia. It might even make them doubt whether I was in a state to continue my work in Japan, not to mention, if the confidence that had brought me this far wasn't getting into my head too much.

I tried to pretend I didn't care about the website or Lilly's redemption. I avoided looking at Dad, hoping he wouldn't think too much into everything, and made sure to divert conversation to recent holidays, making Mom forget all about her rebellious daughter in the spirit of reliving her baking the cinnamon cookies for Christmas adventure. After she remembered her and Dad were late for some sort of conference, I strongly encouraged them to go, citing my wish to spend the afternoon with Lilly as their excuse for leaving me so soon after seeing me for the first time in months.

Maya wasn't at home when I got there, but my dog was. At first, Pavlov couldn't believe I was actually walking in. he just sat for a minute, looking at me, as if trying to remember where he had seen me before. I knelt down, calling his name, and my voice seemed to be the final clue. He ran towards me, knocking me down. As I petted him, I remembered my idea to name my company after him. This warm welcome only made me surer of the idea.

I glanced at my wrist watch, remembering the papers I had printed off the government's website and filled in during the flight. I still had time to go and turn them in, the first step to founding my own company. I decided against it, though. I doubted Pavlov would let me out of his sight any time soon, and moreover, I had to find out what website Mom had been talking about.

I went to my room and turned on my laptop, letting Pavlov guard me by my legs. I thought of what to such for. Typing just Mia's name into Google would give me thousands, millions of hits. It would take me forever to find the website I was presumably looking for.

I closed my eyes, trying to get into my sister's head. We had always been quite close, so it shouldn't be too hard to figure out the way she had been thinking when she apparently created The Website. What kind of a website would she create? Surely she would know how, she had seen me do it many, many times. Besides, with the intelligence she surely possessed and proper guide book she could easily find, she could do it from scratch.

Website. Why would her revenge even revolve around a website? Lilly could do nasty things when she put her mind to it, but website? Website was so … public, even for Lil. Everyone, whether they're from Italy or Brazil, could read what she had written about Mia without a problem. I feared to think of the intimate things Lilly knew about Mia and could possibly share with the world. Mia didn't like attention as it was, even when reporters were writing false reports – how would she feel is some of her deepest secrets were to grace the world headlines?

But the thing was, I haven't heard anything about any website, and I followed news closely every day. So this website couldn't have been something that made newspaper covers. The realization didn't feel me with as much relief as I would wish, even though it probably meant any dirt Lilly possibly knew about Mia wasn't included – or, if it wasn't, nobody believed it. So it couldn't have been anything very-credible looking. Maybe Lilly's revenge wasn't as mean as she could it be. At least she had some decency left. My sister knew just the right way and the right people to make headlines. Just like she should know better than to publicly embarrass and hurt Mia by creating a hateful website about her. It had happened to her. That crazy stalker she had gotten herself, Norman, created a I Hate web about Lilly. Half of the people that had visited the site left evil comments about Lilly and her show, despite most of them never even saw an episode of Lilly Tells It Like It Is. My sister's skin is as thick as the elephant's, so surely she hadn't been nearly as hurt as I imagined Mia was with whatever Lilly had –

Wait.

What if Norman had been the source of inspiration for Lilly's revenge?

I suddenly felt very, very cold. I felt the anger rising in me as I focused on my fingers and slowly typed ihatemiathermopolis into the search bar, pressing search.

And there it was. The very first hit.

I clicked on it.

Surely Lilly could have done a better job, but she didn't even need to. Just the idea of the website was cruel enough.

The website wasn't extensive; it only featured a few pictures of Mia, surely embarrassing, but in a high-school way embarrassing. And there was a list, ten things the admin, my lovely sister, hated about Mia.

10) She's a princess.

9) The fact that she is constantly writing in that stupid journal.

8) She had the best boyfriend in the whole world, and she blew it.

7) Always whining about wanting to be self-actualized. Please. Self-actualization implies the attainment of the basic needs of physiological, safety/security, love/belongingness, and self-esteem. Who expects to have all that at sixteen?

6) She obsesses. About EVERYTHING.

5) What is up with the no-meat thing?

4) She can't do even the simplest math problems.

3) Did I mention she's a princess?

2) She's a boy-friend-stealing byotch.

1) Her hair looks stupid.

I only read it once, but I knew it wasn't something I could never forget. How could she be so cruel and do this to Mia? Yeah, Mia had done so many things wrong, hurting me in the process, but I hadn't been completely innocent in the mess either. And what was up with the boyfriend-stealing thing? My sister, the epitome of intelligence, didn't know it takes two people to form a relationship? You cannot steal one's boyfriend, if that boyfriend doesn't want to be stolen. And obviously there was something very, very shady about JP. My sister was better off without him.

I deleted the website. First I hacked it, then deleted it. There was no need for it to be in the online world any longer. It overstayed its stay anyway. But there was nothing I could do about the damage it had already caused. If only people's lives were as easy to fix as computers.

I just sat there, behind the computer, with Pavlov breathing loudly, trying to gather what had just happened. Yeah, sure, I understood that my sister had been upset over everything that happened in September, but this, this was way more than a frustration.

This was downright mean.

And the fact that the site hadn't been updated since September didn't make any difference.

You just don't do something like this and get away with it.

No fucking way.

And then I heard the front door closing. And looking at the time, I just knew it was Lilly.

To Be Continued.

Broughttoyouby:::winter.