Chapter 9 already! Imagine that ^_^
Last time:
"Tracy here"
--"Excuse me?"
"Now don't you use that tone with me, Jefferson. You heard me well enough! We are returning to the island. Did you really think John or I were going to pass a chance to get the whole Tracy family together?"
"Well no, but …"
"Then it's all right, and you shouldn't be so surprised. Anyway, Lady Penelope is coming back with us and we'll arrive tomorrow. I'll see you then my dear."
Jeff sighed while hanging up. Once his mother had something in her head, only god could get her to stop. Of course he was glad he would see the two missing pieces of the family back, but who knew if this would influence Ami's decision? And with all this going on, how about John?
Jeff realized this would complicate things.
Ami's decision had already been made. It had been made the moment Jeff offered the job, but she couldn't let them know that. So she had to look as if she still had her doubts.
In the meantime, she was trying to find her way to the kitchen. Unfortunately she couldn't quite remember where it was and as a result, she was lost somewhere in the house of her hosts. When she ended up in a hallway with closed doors at both sides, she just sighed deeply and decided to open one of them.
If she was lucky, she'd find someone who could show her the way to the kitchen. What she didn't know, however, was which door to choose. Finally she just chose a door in the middle of the hallway.
When she entered the room, she was the only person inside, but the room fascinated her from the first moment she laid eyes on it. It was like entering space. On the ceiling an entire universe of stars and planets was painted. Obviously the resident painter had had his fun.
On the walls hung a lot of posters picturing the galaxies. Models of the planetary system could be found on the shelves. She couldn't help herself, she studied every model carefully, looking at the globes personating the planets, she and her friends used to live on. There was one scale model of Mercury that really put tears in her eyes.
Ever since the utopia had been created on Earth, all the princesses had regained most of their memories of the Silver Millennium. There were still some missing, but the important ones had returned.
Then she realised, this room seemed oddly familiar. Where had she seen it before? She was certain, Scott hadn't shown her this when he gave her a tour of the island.
She was turning towards the picture frames on the desk to see which room she had accidentally invaded, when a gasp sounded from the entrance. Alan was standing there, a translator in his hands, which he put on quickly, and started talking to her.
"You shouldn't be here, this is John's room, he doesn't like it when people invade his privacy!"
"I'm so sorry! I really didn't know! I got lost on my way to the kitchen, so I went searching for someone who could tell me which way to go; when I looked in this room I just got mesmerized, everything here is so interesting; it's beautiful."
"You find all this interesting? I thought you were a medical doctor, not an astronomer?"
"Yeah I know, strange isn't it? But the planets are fascinating to me, for some reason they always have been."
She got a sad hazy look in her eyes, like she was about to cry. If there was one thing Alan didn't like, then it was crying girls. So he found a way to distract her.
"Well I'm sure that when John comes back you two will have plenty to talk about, and since he's the only one of us who speaks Japanese fluently, it'll be much easier for you two."
Then the blond teenager started grinning and continued in a sly tone,
"But since John isn't here yet, how about I show you the way to the kitchen, make us both a smoothy, and you can tell me everything you know about how it is that Gordon hasn't left the shower for an hour and a half."
He got a victorious smirk on his face when he saw her guilty look and her innocent blush. He decided to make it even worse by saying that last time he passed the door he heard his brother utter something about flour sticking to the most annoying places.
This of course resulted in giving the poor girl an even bigger blush, while she muttered a silent "He deserved it."
They left the room and after a little walk, during which Ami remained red, and Alan kept laughing and grinning, they reached the kitchen.
"So Dad made you an offer, I heard. Have you made your decision yet?"
"No not yet. I, I, I guess I need some time to look at both sides of the opportunity."
"Yes I see, you would be rather far away from your family, right?"
"I, don't have a family, not really anyway."
It was true, she didn't have a family in this dimension. She considered her friends her family and whether she took the job or not, they were still far away.
"Then join ours!" Alan said jokingly.
"Excuse me?"
"You can marry Gordon, then I'll finally have a sister. And you'll have a family again."
He kept joking so she'd smile again. The youngest Tracy really liked that smile. It was so soft and serene. And when she started laughing loudly he was so glad.
It was the first time anyone had heard her laughter on the island, and it was all thanks to him. If only he could figure out what was so funny, the joke wasn't that hilarious.
" What's so funny?"
"Nothing really, it's just, well you have four brothers. And you choose Gordon to marry me?"
He realised that, indeed, Gordon wasn't exactly the perfect person to choose for marriage.
"Well I just thought that your two pranksters would get along really well! And that way, things wouldn't get dull around here. Besides, would you have preferred Scott?"
The last part made Ami shudder, but whether it was with laugher or horror, it wasn't clear. She just smiled and answered.
"Not exactly, but don't forget there's still Virgil, and I haven't met your other brother, John, yet."
Ami decided to just go along with the joke, she found it rather amusing after all, and since the evil force hadn't done anything yet, she could afford to relax a bit.
"Well, then let's see which one of these eligible bachelors could be a possible match for this beautiful young flower here next to me."Alan acted as if he was a show host, causing the bluenette to blush.
"Please Miss, tell the audience, what are your hobbies?"
The young woman acted as if the empty kitchen was filled with people and said coyly:
"Well I love reading and swimming, those are my favourite pastimes. Then of course you have my music and studying. Also if you can find me in a good mood, I might surprise you with a prank too."
"Hmm, that's troublesome, as far as I heard, you'd get along great with Gordon, Virgil and John too!"
The teen had left the host-act and sat on his chair, pondering 'seriously', this caused Ami to smile again. With his blond hair and matchmaking ideas, he reminded her so much of Mina.
She shook her head softly, "Thanks for cheering me up like this Alan," she said gratefully.
The younger boy smiled back and blushed very slightly. "Oh I'm not just doing this for you. You see I'm the youngest male around here, and I'm the only one with a girlfriend. I'm starting to worry! Those brothers of mine really need a girl, and since you're here ..."
He left that one open. Ami said to herself: "...Let the hunting season begin."
"Now let's see, swimming and pranking makes you like a female Gordon, studying and reading are two things John is very fond of, but music! That's entirely Virgil's domain in this family."
He looked at her curiously. "What instruments do you play?"
"Well I play the harp, but it's been a very long time since I've played it, and then recently two of my closest friends taught me how to play the violin and the piano."
While saying that, she thought back to the gift she had got from the couple. They said it was a good help against homesickness, didn't they? Well she could certainly use that.
Since Ami was sitting with her back to the entrance, she didn't see the middle child of the family entering the kitchen.
"You play the harp, the violin and the piano? All three of them? Wow! imagine that."
"Are there any of those instruments I could use around here? I would like to..." She looked down at the floor and continued, " practise."
"Well you would have to ask my dearest brother since none of us is allowed to touch his music without his permission, but other than that, I think we could arrange for that to happen."
Said brother choose that time to open his mouth and scare their guest, while saying:
"Which instrument would you like? Violin or piano. Unfortunately I have no harp."
After getting over the surprise, Ami pondered about her choice. No harp wasn't that bad, since she could hardly remember playing it, she was certain it would all come back to her, once she had one in her hands again.
So the choice was either the piano, or the violin. For some reason she couldn't explain, she felt more like using the musical strings of the violin to connect with the strings of her heart, relieving her ache while doing so.
After hearing her choice, Virgil went to his room to get his violin. He didn't use it very often since he preferred the piano, but he took good care of all his instruments.
When he returned, he found his younger brother and their guest in the living room.
When the Asian woman got the violin in her hands, she felt some sort of comfort. Almost as if her body was in autopilot she placed the instrument on her shoulder, picked up the bow and closed her eyes.
When the bow touched the strings she started playing her emotions away. The melody started off sad and slow, the loneliness of being in another dimension was put into it, her fruitless search for the mysterious man of her dreams, her fear of being unable to protect the people she cared about.
When all those things had been put into the tune, the blue haired musician started another melody. This one contained her feelings of love, protection and happiness. In her mind she saw the smiling faces of all her friends, her memories of that beautiful day Rei was talking about.
Then her mind returned to her dreams, the sight of the tired man, smiling softly at her while she sang him a song, his soft breath when he went back to sleep, and of course his voice. Sometimes before he fell asleep again he uttered a quiet thank you in a husky voice, that made her heart flutter in her chest.
Eventually those feelings had been emptied too, so it only left her anger and disappointment.
The last melody went faster and faster, at the rhythm of her heartbeat. Her thoughts went to her arrival at the island; her fight with Scott; waking up and being seen naked by Gordon, something she didn't want to happen to anyone but her boyfriend or husband; the discussion with Scott in front of the whole family.
All these things had been put away deep inside her heart, and were now set free in her music.
She finished the song and opened her tearing eyes, only to see Virgil and Alan looking at her. Together with– "Gordon? Scott? Fermat? Tintin? What are you all doing here?"
"We heard you play, I hope you don't mind, but since we thought it was Virgil and he doesn't play the violin very often, we came to listen."
"I don't mind, Tintin, but I'm not sure if you should compare me with Virgil, I'm sure I'm not that good!"
"Actually I'm sure that's not true. We're definitely at the same level, if you're not better than me, that is."
Ami could hardly believe what he was saying. From what she had heard from his brothers, Virgil was a great musician, while she seldom even touched an instrument.
"I would be honoured if you'd consider a duet sometime."
"I – I believe it is I who should be honoured.," she said with a bow, causing Virgil to blush heavily.
During this exchange Fermat and Tintin had been whispering things to Alan and this caused the youngest Tracy to grin happily and say: "Hey Ami, guess what! John is coming home so you'll finally get to meet the maker of those models!"
And for some reason, unknown to Ami herself, her heart wavered slightly upon hearing those words.
John couldn't wait to depart. He'd gone to bed early, and for the second night in a row, he hadn't had any nightmares. Unfortunately that also meant he didn't get to see the mysterious girl, and that made him sad.
At the moment he was sitting in Tracy One, Parker sitting next to him, while Lady Penelope and his Grandmother sat in the back, drinking coffee and tea and talking about how glad they were to be going back to the island.
Clouds parted for them and he started thinking about his family. It had been a while since he'd seen Alan in the flesh. He couldn't wait. Since they were the family's only blonds, they had to stick together. Besides, the sprout had shown some interest in being an astronaut lately. Then of course there was Gordon. He could use his brother's sense of humour about now.
Suddenly Parker started humming something, John recognised it immediately. It was one of Virgil's songs. Oh it had been a while since he'd heard his little brother play the piano. When he'd left, everyone had been concerned about either him or his bird. Virgil tried to escape the mood by painting, instead of playing his favourite instrument. Every time he tried, he couldn't play anything but slow, sad songs. Not the soft happy melodies John liked so much.
Scott remained their rock. Someone they could trust. The embodiment of over-protectiveness, but that was just his personality. Even Scott wasn't his old self though, he was much quieter.
From what he heard however, the arrival of this surprise guest had cheered them all up, which caused him to wonder about the girl-woman in question. Virgil had called him recently and described her to him, and now he got this strange feeling in his chest every time he tried to picture her.
He stopped pondering about this strange fact and focused on the journey again. They were about to arrive at the island.
Ami decided to take a swim. She'd been on the island for a while now, and still hadn't gone into the pool yet. The only time she'd felt any water in this dimension was when she took a shower and when she'd arrived in the sea.
She borrowed a swimsuit from Tintin and dived into the pool. Oh how she enjoyed the feeling of the water against her skin. Doing her laps she didn't hear the arrival of a certain Tracy aircraft, neither did she notice a certain young man looking at her from the balcony.
After taking a shower she decided now was a good time as any to go and tell Mr Tracy she accepted the job.
When she reached the office, the door was closed. Not wanting to disturb her host, she knocked lightly.
"Come in"
"Mr. Tracy I hope I..."
He wasn't alone. She finally saw the painting of the last son, with the original standing next to it, looking curiously at her.
Seeing the subject of your dreams in real life can make you do a lot of strange things. In Ami's case it caused her to do something she hadn't done in a very long time (if she had ever done it at all).
She started blushing a deep red and fainted right there in the entrance of the room.
They finally met! Imagine that ^_^ and such a great first impression she made.