This time, I have a question for you.

I hinted at something in the first part of Prologue, but no one picked up on it that I heard of. As it is in this chapter that we get the full story in regards to said hint, please riddle me this: Did You Know?

As always, thank you for reading.

A Million Reasons; part V

Did You Know?

"How did your classes go this week?" Shizuru asked. "Did you manage to blow up any more of the university's laboratories?"

"Oi!" The young woman seated across from her scowled at the tease. "One time!" She set down her chopsticks and rested one arm on the table, leaning forward and raising a single finger at her. "One! That was all, thank you."

The two of them were seated at an outdoor table at a small café in downtown Fuuka, enjoying a late lunch and the warm, late May weather before they would head back to the office to finish out the work week. The noon hours had been taken up with a very aggravating meeting across town, and from the way her assistant's shoulders had slumped in relief the second they'd left, she was fairly certain that she wasn't the only one looking forward to the weekend.

"Ara, that's true," the executive admitted as she picked up a fried mushroom with her own chopsticks. "But history, as they say, is rather prone to repeating itself."

"You're never gonna let me live that down, are you?"

Shizuru popped the mushroom into her mouth and chewed. "I'm not quite sure what Natsuki is referring to."

That earned her a definite 'look' in response. "Like hell you're not. You're just yanking my chain exactly like you did back in high school."

She carefully smothered a smile by taking a sip of her beverage. "As I said, history tends to repeat itself."

"Bah." Natsuki reclaimed her utensils and clicked them at her. "I can't even tell you to shut up without proving your point."

"I apologize for putting Natsuki in a tight spot, then."

"Uh huh." An expertly cooked piece of meat was picked up and held between the slim sticks while a dark eyebrow cocked. "In keeping with the subject, it's not like you haven't done so before," her assistant reminded her, then chewed the food.

While she was certain Natsuki hadn't meant it in that way, the words still reminded her of the fiasco that had been the last few days of the Carnival. And it hurt, she quietly admitted, even as she gave the younger woman a small smile and turned her attention to the plate in front of her.

"Mrf." There was a soft sound of swallowing from across the table. "Dammit, Shizuru, stop feeling guilty, already. I told you I was over it."

Exactly when, the executive wondered as she looked up in surprise, had she grown so easy to read? "I'm..."

"Don't even think about denying it." Natsuki's face was set in a mild scowl, but the look in her eyes softened almost imperceptibly as she rested her arms on the table and leaned a little closer. "I know you better than that."

Then again, maybe it wasn't her that had become easier to read, she considered. Maybe Natsuki had simply gotten better at reading her.

"I suppose you do."

"Hrmph." A grunt, and a small nod of apparent satisfaction. "Damn right I do. So knock it off, Fujino. No guilt-tripping on my watch."

"Ara? But I do have to pay my debt to Natsuki somehow," she countered, suddenly feeling a good deal more cheerful. "How about on her lap instead?"

"Shizuru!"

The sight of the younger woman turning ten shades of red all at the same time, she noted with a small grin, was still as intriguing as she remembered it.

"I said, it's fine." Natsuki sighed as she slipped on her blazer and buttoned it. "I can take a damn cab."

"Don't be silly, Imouto." Akiko's voice was mildly chastising. "If you're going to fill in for me when Kaguya has friends over, the least I can do in return is have Morio drive you. He practically passes right by the office after picking her up as it is."

It had been a long day and a longer week of a seemingly endless row of meetings, some more annoying than others. And while Natsuki was unashamedly looking forward to escaping the confines of the building for a few days, she was a little irked that she couldn't spend some of that time – preferably the time it took to drive from the office and home – in the seat of her Ducati. The otherwise sturdy machine had started leaking brake fluid, and while she was daring at times, she wasn't outright suicidal enough to take a chance like that.

And as she'd yet to find the time to actually repair the damage, she had relied on her family for transportation to work during the past few days. This afternoon, she was supposed to have driven home with her sister, as Morio left the office earlier on Fridays. But unfortunately, that wasn't an option anymore.

"Akiko, c'mon." She used the toes of one foot to pull her shoes out from underneath the desk and slipped into them. "It's not like you chose to stay late."

"You didn't choose to have your bike not work, either," her sister reasonably pointed out. "When are the two of you planning on fixing it, by the way?"

"Tonight." Natsuki listened to the chimes of her computer shutting down, and felt a gentle tickle of anticipation as her mind turned a few hours into the future. Playing grease monkey with her brother in law always ended with a good time had by all involved. "After the brat's gone to bed."

There was a brief pause. "Are you sure you'll have the energy?"

She snorted softly. "We're talking about spending a few hours with a handful of six-year-olds. How bad could it be?"

"Famous last words, sister dear."

Natsuki pushed her chair into place and perched on the edge of her desk as she regarded the phone wryly. "Wiseass."

She didn't have to see her sister's face to know that the older woman was grinning. "With age comes wisdom, as they say."

"You are five years older than me."

"And yet a lifetime smarter," came the playful reply. "Morio and Kaguya should be there in fifteen minutes or so. Give them both a kiss for me, hm?"

"Yeah, yeah." She shook her head in amusement and pushed herself to her feet. "See you when you get home, Nee-chan."

"See you then."

The call clicked off, and she spent a few idle moments straightening the surface of her desk before she pushed the door open and peered into the outer office, where she spotted Kina in the process of packing up her things. "Trying to sneak out early, are we?"

"Certainly not," the older woman informed her with a small scoff, giving her only a brief glance before going back to the task of shutting down her own computer. "You offend my work ethic, Kuga-san."

Natsuki grinned. "My sincerest apologies."

Kina smirked and shook her head. "How did the meeting with DTR go?"

"I think it went pretty well." She closed the door behind her and crossed over to the other woman's work station. "And I gotta admit... seeing Shizuru at work blows me away."

Today had been especially educational, she privately admitted. She'd taken part in many a meeting during her stint at the company, but they'd all been internal meetings with other departments, and thus pretty amicable this far.

The people at DTR, however, had not been happy campers.

DTR was a nation-wide corporation that worked mainly as a middle-man between the companies that fabricated medical supplies and the hospitals that bought them. At the start of the year, they'd signed a contract with Fujino Inc. for a substantial amount of various medicines and vaccines, set to start production in Fukokua during the summer. That same production had since been shifted to the Fuuka division shortly after it opened.

The basis for that decision had been that while there was certainly nothing wrong with the facilities in Fukokua, the ones in Fuuka were still newer. State of the art, in fact, which meant that that the supplies would be manufactured faster and would even be of a slightly higher quality. That ultimately meant a longer shelf life, and the ability for their customer to sell them on at a larger profit.

Along with that, however, was an increase in production cost that DTR would have to foot the bill for. And while they had signed the new papers, they'd also raised a stink to high heaven about how they were getting screwed over since they had no time to find another vendor.

"So we shall have to go make nice. But I doubt," Shizuru had warned her as they'd walked across the parking lot in the late morning sunshine. "That we will get a friendly reception."

The loud arguing they'd been able to hear from the other end of the hall had made that pretty obvious. Once Shizuru had opened the door and the two of them had entered the conference room, the noise had stopped for all of two seconds before the assembled DTR representatives had started shouting at them instead.

But Shizuru hadn't said a word. Instead, she had simply led the way to the end of the room, taken a seat and calmly folded her hands atop the table as if she couldn't even hear the angry voices. And Natsuki had done the same, much as said voices had grated on her nerves.

She'd had half a mind to just yell at them to shut the hell up... had been about to do so, in fact, when she'd felt a touch on her knee under the surface of the table. That, along with a brief cut of the crimson eyes to her own, had kept her quiet, and she'd watched as the executive let her gaze go around the table. Those steady, unflinching red eyes had settled on the first yelling manager until he had trailed off into uncomfortable silence, then moved on to the next one and the one after... until the room had been so quiet she could have heard the proverbial pin drop.

Then Shizuru had smiled in that infallibly polite way of hers and proceeded to explain exactly why it was a good thing that the production had been moved to Fuuka, and had done so with a mixture of pure personality and an intricate knowledge of the business that had simply rolled down the table at them.

By the time the meeting was over, the people from DTR had been happy, albeit very apologetic, campers. Natsuki, meanwhile, had been nothing short of awestruck.

Exactly what am I supposed to be helping her with again? she found herself wondering now. Damn... she could probably run the entire company by sheer force of will, if nothing else.

"I mean... I know I've watched her do her thing probably a dozen times, but God..." Her hands came to rest on her hips as she slowly shook her head in amazement. "She just walks in and takes over."

"That's what I hear." The secretary nodded in agreement as she picked up her purse and set it on the desk between them. "She goes in and..." She snapped her fingers. "Next thing you know, everyone suddenly sees things her way."

"That's gotta be handy."

"Undoubtedly." The older woman settled her purse over her shoulder and walked off towards the hallway outside. "Enjoy your weekend, Kuga-san. See you next week."

"Same splat time, same splat channel." She waited for the chuckle to die off as the door shut behind Kina, then ambled over to the double doors leading to Shizuru's office. A quick moment of listening did allow her to pick up the faintest sound of conversation on the other side, but judging from the tone of the executive's voice, it was pretty obvious that she wasn't talking to a customer.

She pushed down the handle and poked her head in.

"I got the most curious message delivered to me this afternoon," a male voice was saying through the speaker attached to the phone on the CEO's desk.

"Really?" Shizuru responded from her comfortably reclined position in her desk chair. When she presumably heard the door open, she looked up from the pen in her hands and waved her in. "From whom?"

"Apparently someone at DTR felt that they owed us a formal apology."

"Ara." Shizuru watched her quietly settle into one of the available chairs, and gave her a small grin. "Imagine that."

"Indeed." Now there was a definite note of pride in the man's voice. "Excellent work, Shi-chin. Well done."

That voice, Natsuki realized, would have to belong to Fujino Hiraku, the head of the company. And, of course, Shizuru's father... which probably explained how he was able to make the usually unflappable woman across from her blush.

"Ookini." The older woman cast a glance at the phone before looking back at her and giving her a quick wink. "But I could not have done the job alone."

"Ah, yes, your assistant. How are you, Kuga-han?"

Natsuki blinked in surprise. How the hell did he know I was here?

"I'm fine, Sir." She paused briefly. "And Shizuru's being way too modest." The quirk of a tawny eyebrow across the desk caught her eye, and she smirked in response. "All the credit for solving the DTR mess should go to her."

"Kuga-han?"

"Sir?"

"Are you calling my daughter a liar?"

"Uh..." She stared at the phone and felt her brain struggle to find a response. "Well, I... um..."

"Honestly, Papa." Shizuru's voice was as dry as she'd ever heard it. "I would appreciate it if you would refrain from playing mind games with my assistant. Natsuki isn't familiar enough with our interactions that she can tell when you're simply jesting."

A deep, devious chuckle, and a reply in a teasing tone she knew all too well. "Ah, true. My apologies, Kuga-han."

My God, it's genetic. She was fairly certain that her thoughts were showing on her face. Either that, or Shizuru had recently developed a habit of chewing very dedicatedly on her lower lip. "N-not at all, Sir."

"Then I'll leave the both of you to enjoy the weekend," Hiraku told them, over the faint sound of fingers against a keyboard. "Hopefully you will be spared the joy of a dinner meeting spent trading lies and exaggerations over distinctively rubbery food."

She watched the crimson gaze shift to meet her own, and recognized the wryly amused glint in them as Shizuru's lips twitched faintly.

"Of course, Papa," the executive told the man. "Have a nice weekend."

Father and daughter exchanged a few more pleasantries before the call ended, and the two of them were left regarding each other in silence.

"And that," Shizuru told her after a few seconds. "Was our distinguished Board Chairman."

She nodded. "I gathered. He's... a character."

"Mm."

"Anyway." Natsuki leaned back in her seat and folded her arms loosely. "Are you about done for the day?" She tilted her head at the older woman. "'Cause it's 4 o'clock and I'm heading out in a few minutes."

"Ah." Shizuru gave the monitor in front of her a quick glance as she straightened in her seat. "Yes, I think that I've about finished all there is to finish for this week." A brief period of silence as she rested her arms on the desk. "But Natsuki really doesn't need to wait around. You're quite free to leave ahead of me if you wish."

"I don't think so, Madam. The last time I did that, you didn't leave the office until well into the evening," she reminded her friend. "So pack it up, Boss." She slapped a hand against the desk and rose to her feet. "Let's blow this popsicle stand."

Amused didn't even begin to describe the look that earned her.

"Popsicle stand?" Twinkling red eyes studied her for a long moment. "Ara, ara... I think perhaps Natsuki's video games are beginning to have an adverse effect on her brain."

"Oh, shut up." She felt her cheeks tint lightly and scowled. "You're just stalling. We've given this place our due for the week, and I for one say we get the hell outta here."

"It has been an eventful day," Shizuru admitted diplomatically as she pushed her chair back and stood.

"You have a real gift for understatement, did I ever tell you that?"

The executive chuckled softly as the two of them trekked across the room. "Does Natsuki have anything planned for the weekend?"

"Oh, this and that." She shrugged as she tugged the heavy door open. "First and foremost, it looks like I'll get to spend tonight in the company of fingerpaints and grease."

"Pardon?"

The door closed behind them, leaving the office in silence.

Shizuru closed the door to the recent-model Toyota behind her and slung her briefcase over one shoulder with a sigh. It was, she privately acknowledged, nice to be home.

'Home' was in the heart of Fuuka's Eastern Hills district, and consisted of a comfortably-sized, traditional Japanese mansion that had belonged to her family for longer than she'd been alive. As it had stood empty for the past years, there was no staff assigned apart from the gardening service that stopped by a couple of times a week to maintain the surrounding grounds, and Shizuru had no plans to change that. She wasn't so opposed to housework that she was willing to trade it in for her privacy if she didn't have to.

So it was in silence that she flipped the switch that would close the garage, and as she entered the house through the nondescript door to the back hallway, there was a similar lack of greetings.

She wasn't quite certain if she liked that or not.

There was another soft sigh as she paused on the tile floor to trade her shoes for a pair of slippers, followed by a small humming noise when she crossed onto the wooden floor of the spacious living room, and then onwards yet again into the room that served as an office.

The room wasn't a large one, but it was just a touch above what was really needed for its purpose, as the only items in here were a desk, a couch, a low table and a few bookcases that were all filled to the brim. All in dark tones that gave the room a decidedly masculine feel.

Which, she reminded herself, she really had to do something about one of these days. The office wasn't her father's anymore, after all. Not after he'd legally signed the property over to her, at any rate.

Shizuru let her briefcase settle on the desk with a gentle plop, and peered at the wooden furniture as she considered what to do with herself for the remainder of the day.

Dinner? The chestnut head tilted in thought, then shook. That was too early, and besides, she wasn't feeling hungry at the moment due to the late lunch she'd shared with her assistant earlier in the day.

"Well, then." Slender fingers drummed against the leather of the briefcase, and she dropped her gaze to regard the movement for a few seconds.

She straightened, then, and made her way into the front hall and up the stairs to the second floor. She could always trade in her suit for something a touch more casual, she decided as she continued into the bedroom and pulled open the closet doors.

Skirt, jacket and shirt were deposited on the surface of the large bed for the time being, and she traded them in for a pair of comfortable, dark slacks and a pale blouse. Then she reclaimed her work clothes and slinked back downstairs to the ground floor, making a brief detour into the small laundry room to rid herself of her burden.

Two of the items made their way into the woven hamper without fanfare, but she paused as she held up the jacket and remembered the tug Natsuki had given it as the two of them had parted ways outside the office building not that long ago.

"Natsuki isn't riding her bike today?" she had asked with some surprise as her assistant had walked right past the small shed that gave those with that mode of transportation somewhere to park their vehicles and change out of any riding gear they might be wearing.

"Nah." The young woman had shrugged. "There's some minor damage to it right now... I'm hoping to have it fixed by tonight."

"That would explain the grease you mentioned earlier," she had agreed, mildly bemused. "How about the fingerpaints?"

"Ah." A quick grin. "Well, Kaguya's having some friends over for dinner, and since I have to be part of that little party, my family's picking me up."

She hadn't gotten a chance to ask before Natsuki had spoken up again.

"There they are."

Her gaze had followed the direction of Natsuki's own, and she'd spotted a silver sedan parked not too far away, with a handsome, casually dressed blond man leaning against the side of it. His hands were clasped loosely on the shoulders of a young girl with azure hair, and both of them had waved as they'd spotted her assistant.

"That's my cue to head off," Natsuki had then told her, giving her sleeve a light tug. "See you next week, Boss."

"Of course. Have a good weekend, Natsuki."

A smile. "You too."

She had turned and walked off towards where her own car was parked, but had been unable to miss the sight of her assistant accepting a tight hug and a kiss on the cheek from the man. Nor had she missed the way the little girl had practically wound herself around Natsuki's legs.

Even at that distance, she could see that the child looked like the blond man. And like Natsuki.

"I wonder..." she muttered to herself as she tossed the blazer in with the rest of the laundry. "Why she didn't tell me that she'd become a mother?"

Somewhere, that stung. But she wasn't certain if it stung because Natsuki hadn't deemed her important enough to tell her such a thing... or if it was because the part of her that would always think of Natsuki as her first love felt disappointed.

In either case, dwelling on it would do her no good.

Shaking her head, she left the laundry room behind and returned to the office. Since she had nothing else to do, she could just as well see if anything had exploded after she'd gone home for the week.

Well... She settled into the chair and keyed a series of numbers into the phone that sat patiently beside the monitor. Perhaps I should see how the fingerpainting is coming along. The familiar sounds of a cell phone's waiting signal echoed softly in the room, and she logged in to her home terminal with a quick clattering of keystrokes while she waited.

The phone was picked up, and the office was immediately filled with a noise mostly reminiscent of a large jet taking off.

"Gah! Dammit, put that thing down!" A number of raised voices, squeals and laughter could be heard in the background, followed immediately by a loud thump. "Sonofa... I said 'put it' down, not 'throw it'!"

Her hands stilling over the keyboard, Shizuru turned her head and stared at the phone for a few seconds, then felt the laugh bubble up within her and quickly hit the phone's mute button before it got out.

Another loud bump came through the speakers. "Oof! Kaguya, let go! You're gonna knock me over! What? No! Absolutely no more soda for any of you!" Chattering. "How would I know? Go find a DVD to watch or something, okay?"

Ara, ara... she thought to herself as she unsuccessfully tried to clamp down on her chortling by holding her hands over her mouth. Poor Natsuki.

The background noise from the other end of the line lessened considerably, and she heard the younger woman sigh heavily. "God, it's like herding chickens...Sorry about that, whoever you are. Hello?"

Clearing her throat and trying her very best to keep her voice even, Shizuru gave the mute button another poke. "It seems that Natsuki's home life has gotten considerably more interesting in my absence."

"Very funny, Shizuru."

She didn't manage to hit the button fast enough this time around.

"Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up, Fujino." The phone rustled slightly. "Dammit, Morio! You coulda told me that giving them sugar was a bad idea."

A distinctly male voice started laughing in the background, and she heard the man say something, followed by a scoff from her younger friend.

"No comments from the peanut gallery," Natsuki growled in response, which only made the man laugh all the harder.

"Natsuki," Shizuru spoke up. "Give my best to your husband and daughter."

Dead, absolute silence from the phone. And then... "'Scuse me? My what?"

"Is there a bad connection?" the young CEO wondered aloud, resting her chin on her fist and gazing at her screen.

"The connection is fine." Natsuki's rolling eyes were evident in the tone of her voice. "I'm not married, Shizuru. And I certainly don't have kids." Her voice lowered to a barely audible mutter. "Matter of fact, after today I'm not sure I want any. Ever."

More laughing in the background.

Shizuru blinked. "If Natsuki isn't married, whom did I see picking her up today?"

Now Natsuki was the one who chuckled. "My brother in law and my niece."

"Ah." The executive rubbed a hand over her face, mentally scolding herself for making assumptions. "I was unaware that Yukimura-han had a family of her own."

Again, there was a brief silence. "Hang on, Morio." Footsteps, and the sound of a door closing, leaving the other end of the line completely silent. "How do you know my sister?"

Ara.

Shizuru closed her eyes and quietly cursed her own carelessness. Natsuki, she knew, would have to be fully aware that she and Yukimura Akiko had never met before. While the fact that the woman was an employee of the company might explain why she knew her name, that was all it could explain.

Natsuki, after all, had yet to mention to Shizuru that she even had a sister, and as such, she shouldn't have been able to make that particular connection.

Of course, what the younger woman didn't know was that Shizuru had played a significant part in the two of them reuniting in the first place.

Consider it instead a small form of penance for a disservice once done by me to the person in question.

Oh, she very clearly remembered writing that letter; wrought as she'd been with indecision in the days leading up to it. During those days, she'd often wished that her father had flat out neglected to forward to her the curious e-mail that had landed in his inbox at work. One sent to every individual within the company's walls, in which one of their employees in Fukokua had pleaded an exhaustion of all other options and asked for the assistance of anyone with ties to the town of Fuuka.

Where she was hoping to find a young woman – an orphan - carrying the family name of Kuga.

"Haven't you once mentioned someone by that name?" had been her father's single addition to the message. And indeed she had, though she'd been mildly surprised that he remembered.

She'd struggled with the choice of whether to act or not. Keeping up with her old friend through files that were publicly available if you knew where to look – such as graduation and enrollment records – was one thing. Interfering in Natsuki's personal life in such a blatant manner was quite another, especially since she'd decided not to do so when she left Fuuka in the first place.

Still, she had slowly started phrasing the letter in the her head as the time passed by... had even called Natsuki's cellular number to make sure she still had the right one, although she had hung up without saying anything once she'd recognized the voice that answered.

And eventually, she had sat down at her desk in the dorms of Kyoto University one night and put pen to paper. The next day, she had sent the letter to her father, along with instructions for him to please ensure that it reached its destination.

It obviously had, though now she wasn't sure exactly how to go about explaining it all to Natsuki.

Ara, she repeated in her head as she tried to find the words. Ara.

"Shi--" Natsuki's voice cut off briefly as she was interrupted by another voice in the background; this one with a distinctively childish quality to it. "Hm? Yeah, sure thing, kiddo. Gimme a few minutes, alright?"

"Your niece?" she asked softly once the other end of the line had gone quiet again.

"Yeah." The added warmth in the younger woman's voice was unmistakable. "She and her friends are having a Guitar Hero contest, and I promised I'd play with them."

Shizuru cocked her head and felt her brow furrow slightly. "Guitar Hero?"

"Oh, right... you probably wouldn't keep up with that kinda thing." There was a short pause while Natsuki apparently considered how to explain. "Well, you play the game with a controller shaped like a small electric guitar... it has five buttons on the fret board that you have to combine for the chords, and a strum bar that you have to move up or down to actually play them. You select a song from the setlist and basically try your damnedest to keep up when all the chords and single notes are coming at you in time with the music."

She tried to picture that, but wasn't having an especially easy time of it. "I'm afraid I cannot quite see what Natsuki means," she admitted, somewhat apologetically. "But I will take your word that you enjoy it."

A chuckle. "I do." The younger woman was silent for a few more seconds. "Hey, listen..." Natsuki cleared her throat softly. "I'm coming back over here for the day tomorrow... you, uh... wanna tag along? Meet the clan?"

There was a hesitant sort of hope in her voice, and it made the executive smile. "I'd love to."

The glaringly bright overhead lights in the two-car garage did an admirable job of warding off the oncoming dusk, Natsuki decided as she hefted a half-full container of motor oil and carried it over to the single car parked nearby. The grimy plastic brushed against her leg as she walked, but as she'd had the foresight to change into a set of ratty jeans and a well-worn t-shirt before she'd even gone out here, that wasn't much cause for concern.

"Oi." Two thirds of a body with a pair of slightly sturdier-looking, denim-clad legs were sticking out from under the vehicle's front, and she toed one of the legs with her shoe. "You about done down there yet?"

"Patience is a virtue." Morio grunted slightly as he shifted. "I don't have a lot of room to work with here."

Green eyes rolled. "I told you to either raise the damn thing up or let me do the shimmying, you idiot. You know you don't fit under there."

"Hey." One knee jerked slightly, and her foot was nudged out of the way. "I can't help it if I'm naturally thick around the chest and shoulders."

Natsuki shook her head and stepped around the side of the car. "Yeah, well..." She set the canister down on top of the car's battery and peered down through the small open spaces under the hood. "That ain't the only place you're naturally thick, if you ask me."

"Oh, har har." Her brother in law managed to move enough that she could see a single blue eye regarding her dryly. "You're a real comedian, aren't you, funny girl?"

She stuck the tip of her tongue out through her grin, and watched the eye roll in response. "Get that thing closed back up, wouldya? I'm not getting any younger up here."

Another grunt. "There." She heard a dull thump as Morio gave the bottom of the oil pan a pat. "Pour 'em, barkeep. Shaken, not stirred."

"Right away, Mr. Bond."

Car engines, she reflected as she unscrewed the canister and held the lip of it over the funnel, wasn't a subject she'd been terribly familiar with for a long time. In all honesty, she still wasn't, but she'd picked up what Morio knew soon enough. She didn't see herself opening a garage anytime soon, but it was nice to know that she could at least do the most routine maintenance jobs by herself.

Not that she had any plans of trading in the Ducati, but it wasn't as if that was her vehicle of choice whenever she was out and about with her niece, either. A car was a lot safer than a bike in the event of an accident, and she had no desire to gamble with Kaguya's life.

"Alright." She handed the container over to her brother in law as he got to his feet, and checked the level. "That should do it."

"Yup." Morio gave the clock on the wall a glance, then clapped a strong hand over her shoulder. "Akiko should be home before long. What do you say the two of us fix up something cold and we all sit down outside when she does get back?"

"Sure." Natsuki regarded the now formerly white fabric that covered her shoulder. "You picking up my dry-cleaning bill again, big guy?"

He snorted. "Please, Imouto. The gods themselves couldn't get that shirt clean again."

She gave the shirt in question a glance and had to agree with his assessment, liberally covered as it was with stains both old and new. "Well, I'm not asking the gods, am I?"

Morio, she noted, was no better off. His pale blue polo-shirt had several streaks of grease and dirt on both the chest and the back from his wiggling around under the car. "No," he admitted as he tugged the door to the house open. "But they would have a much better chance than Uroshi Cleaners."

"Are you sure you don't need a hand?" Akiko asked, peering back over her shoulder as she crossed the front lawn in the fading light.

"I'm fine." Natsuki gave the older woman a look as she followed a few steps behind her. "You're the one who had to stay at work until nigh-on 9 PM on a Friday, so siddown, already." She set her burden down on the wooden table once she reached it. "'Sides, it's a carafe and three glasses. I'm sure I'll survive."

"I should hope so." Akiko distributed the glasses and set about filling them with iced tea. "Where is my husband, by the way?"

"Finding something to nibble on." Green eyes glittered mischievously as Natsuki sat down on the opposite bench and rested her chin on her interlaced fingers. "Aside from you, I mean."

"Smartass."

Natsuki felt her lips shape a grin in response, and shrugged one shoulder to go along with it. "Sometimes."

They fell silent for a while, each sipping from their respective glasses as the sounds and scents of impending summer surrounded them.

"Hey, Nee-chan?" She waited for the older woman to look up. "Do you know Fujino Shizuru?"

Akiko seemed to consider the question, her brow furrowing lightly as she lowered her gaze to the table. "Well, the last name is familiar to anyone who works where we do," she pointed out. "And since Fujino-san happens to be your boss... yes, I've heard of her."

Natsuki shook her head. "Aside from that."

Another thoughtful pause. Then the chocolate-colored eyes blinked once. "Why do you ask?"

She raised an eyebrow. "Because she, apparently, knows that we're related."

Her sister took a long sip of the cool beverage, and she waited while familiar brown eyes studied her closely.

"Do you remember the letter I told you about?"

"Hm?" She cocked her head at the question. "Which letter?"

A soft chuckle. "The one in which I was given your phone number, 'Kuga-san'."

"Oh, that one. Sure." Dark eyebrows lowered in mild confusion. "Why?"

"That's who I got it from."

"You..." She stared at the older woman as the words sunk in. "You got ... my number..."

"... from Fujino Shizuru." Judging from the minute twitches at the corners of her mouth, Akiko was trying to squelch a grin at her loss of composure. "Would you like to see the letter?"

"Huh?" She shook her head slightly in an effort to clear the surprised fog from her mind. "Uh... yeah. Please." A pause. "Why do you still have it?"

The older woman had gotten up and walked over to the screen door where she now paused, one hand against the wall, and glanced back at her. "That's where it all started."

Holy shit. She flopped back against the bench after Akiko had entered the house, her hands falling limply to her lap. She's right. If Shizuru hadn't sent that letter... we probably never would've met.

How different would her life be now, she wondered as she stared at the garden, if it hadn't been for a piece of paper and an old friend? She wouldn't have known that she even had a sister.

There would've been no moments like these in Akiko's garden with just the two of them, a warm evening and a supply of drinks... no Grease Monkey Saturdays with Morio and a couple of engines... no afternoons and evenings with her young niece and – God help it – Kaguya's friends. No family.

"Son of a bitch." She let out a short bark of laughter, mostly to keep the sudden sting of tears at bay. And she thinks that she's in MY debt?

"Natsuki." Her sister's voice intruded on her musings as a neatly folded sheet of paper was held out to her over her shoulder. "Here."

"Thanks." She took the paper and carefully unfolded it, reading the short message it contained with a strange feeling of wonder. Yeah, that was Shizuru's handwriting and signature, alright.

Her head shook in disbelief. "F--"

"Ahem."

She glanced up and met a set of gently twinkling brown eyes. "... fiddlesticks." She coughed lightly. "Sorry."

Akiko gave her shoulders a squeeze. "Don't worry about it." Gentle fingers began probing her shoulders, and she felt the oddly tense muscles loosen under the manipulation. "But why..." A sigh. "Natsuki, first you were almost in tears when you learned that Fujino-san would be coming here. Now you learn that she's the one responsible for us meeting, and it's the same thing all over again."

"History..." She felt her face crease into a smile as she remembered hearing the same words earlier that day. "Tends to repeat itself. She sure keeps surprising me."

A small tray of snacks was set down on the table, and she raised her eyes to see Morio peering back at her. "You sound as if you know her." He tilted his fair head. "And the two of you certainly looked chummy this afternoon."

Even teeth captured a lip and chewed it thoughtfully. How much, she wondered, could she explain... without explaining everything?

"This..." She briefly lowered her gaze to the paper in her hands before glancing back up at her sister and brother in law. "This goes no further than us." She waited until both heads nodded. "Shizuru and I... were friends at Fuuka Academy, and we... well, we went through some tough things together." She paused and cleared her throat. "Before she left, she... she told me that she was in love with me."

"Well, that would surprise me a little, yes." Akiko tilted her head. "And?"

Natsuki blinked. "And what?"

"And what did you say?"

"Um..." The calm, interested question was the last thing she'd expected. "Well, I said that I couldn't feel about her the way she did about m-- Why are you guys being so calm about this?"

"Eh?" Morio settled into the seat across from her and folded his hands as his wife sat down next to him. "Are we supposed to be upset?"

"Uh..."

Akiko leaned closer to her husband and pretended to whisper in his ear. "I think she's forgotten exactly what it is you and I do for a living."

"I think you're right," Morio replied, taking his cue from his wife and keeping his voice easily audible.

"O-oi!" Natsuki scowled at them both. "Sitting right here, thank you very much."

"Imouto." Akiko leaned forward and folded her hands on the surface of the table. "Spending as little as five minutes in a lab with a sample of someone's genes makes it clear to anyone that when it comes to humans, there is a vast number of things that we have very, very little control over." She reached one hand out and flicked the letter with a finger. "Who we fall in love with is very high on, if not at the top of, said list."

"Besides, from what I know of Fujino-san, she's good people," Morio interjected. "She's from a good family, she's beautiful, intelligent, wealthy and..." He laid an arm around his wife's shoulders and nodded to the letter. "She obviously still cares about you." A pause, and an impish wink. "You could do far, far worse than her."

"And the two of you would certainly make some beautiful babies," Akiko went on with a grin. "Or at least have fun trying."

Natsuki groaned and let her forehead meet the table as she felt the heat in her face increase tenfold. "God save me from the minds of you people," she muttered, and tried to ignore the laughter coming from the other side of the table.