Chapter 16: Rumia (II)
The months following the birth of Kana's twins passed by with little incident. Neither Rumia or Kana, nor their daughters, had made any appearances in Gensokyo since that day at the Hakurei Shrine. In fact, with the exception of Eirin and Reisen, no one outside of Makai knew anything about the fate of Kana or her unborn children; the thought that she'd had twins had never occurred to anyone at all.
After sending Eirin and Reisen away, Rumia and Kana returned to their home, away from prying eyes. Not even Shinki or Rumi bothered to pursue them, and Rumia was just fine with this. They'd done a fine job of concealing their home from even those two, but it was better not to have them poking around in the first place.
Kana herself had not left Makai since the birth of the twins. Rumia, on the other hand, had only left on a few excursions into the outside world, to gather up some food. On more than one occasion, this included a few stray humans. After the first incidence of this, she'd made sure to kill them before taking them home. Lydia had not reacted very pleasantly toward watching her mother kill the poor thing in person, and Rumia had agreed not to do it again.
Lydia and Adele both were also growing up quite quickly, even by youkai standards. They were each only a few months old, but they already resembled a human child of at least three or four. Rumia was thankful for that at least. Taking care of infant twins, for however short of a time it might have been, was an agonizingly annoying situation; one that she'd left Kana almost entirely in charge of, she would not deny. Kana seemed happy to do it, anyway, and that suited Rumia just fine. But they had grown out of that stage quickly, and it was apparent just how very different the two girls were.
Adele, the older of the two by several minutes, undeniably took after Kana. She was energetic (though not nearly to the degree that Hana was), and definitely on the weird end of the personality spectrum. "Yay, mom's home~!" Adele shouted, and then flew over toward Rumia, who had returned to their home after one of her visits to the outside world. "Did you bring us back anything, huh? Didja~?" Adele darted energetically around Rumia, and seemed dejected when it was readily apparent that she hadn't returned with anything.
"No, I didn't," she said, and casually brushed Adele aside as she stepped inside. Adele pouted, and drifted through the air behind Rumia, following along with her. "You aren't human, you don't need to eat that much. And I just fed you brats yesterday."
"Wow rude." Adele stuck her tongue out at Rumia.
Rumia chose to ignore this; Adele would've just done it again anyway, even if Rumia had tried to discipline her about it. Lydia sat on the floor of the center room, watching her mother and her sister's interaction with some quiet fascination. Various moving 'toys', brought to life by the results of Adele's ability to liven inanimate objects, danced around on the floor nearby, as part of one of Adele's nonsensical games. Adele had tried to explain the rules of one of these so-called game to Rumia and Kana once, but even Kana could only grasp the basic concept of it. Only Lydia, who it seemed shared a silent psychic connection with her sister, could follow along with it.
When Rumia finally took notice of Lydia, the young girl smiled, and ran over to her mother. She immediately latched onto Rumia's leg, and stared bright-eyed up at her. "What'd you go outside for mommy?" Lydia asked.
"I got bored," she answered simply. Rumia reached down and grabbed Lydia, and hoisted her up in her arms effortlessly. "As much as I'm sure you enjoy my company, for whatever reason, sitting here doing nothing isn't really my style."
Lydia giggled, and threw her arms around Rumia's neck. Kana, who had been sitting in the other room watching Lydia and Adele prior to Rumia's return, drifted over toward the three. "Honestly.~" Kana said, sighing wistfully. "I don't think I've ever heard Lydia say a single word when you weren't around, Rumia dear.~ She's so quiet all the time."
"Well, me and Lyly talk plenty!" Adele floated over on Rumia's other side, closest to Lydia. She smirked at her twin, and Lydia gave Adele a sort of knowing look that Rumia couldn't even begin to try and interpret. "We just don't do it out loud is all. Lyly says she's only comfortable talkin' out loud to Rumia."
Kana placed a hand to her chest, and gave the younger twin an overly dramatic expression, as though she were utterly appalled. "Why, I'm hurt! To think, my own daughter wouldn't want to talk to me...! Well, that's okay.~" Kana dropped the act rather quickly, and then tugged Adele over, and hugged the young girl tightly. "I adore both of my daughters, but I suppose it's only natural they might develop an attachment toward one parent over the other. And my darling Adele still loves me best.~"
"Mom, stooooop," Adele whined. Kana shushed her, and patted Adele's head.
"You know, Rumia," Kana said finally, once she'd finished with her needless doting on Adele, who had eventually resigned toward it, and was floating contentedly in Kana's arms, "If you're so bored just staying here in Makai, you could always take the girls and go out to Gensokyo. I'm sure they'd love it.~"
"Oh, finally!" Adele cried out, and her face beamed with delight. "Come on, we're old enough to go out, aren't we?"
"You two aren't even half a year old," Rumia responded. Adele stuck her tongue out at Rumia for a second time.
"Well, that shouldn't make a difference anyway! We're plenty old enough, aren't we Lyly?"
Lydia stared at Adele for a moment, no doubt holding their own private conversation, before she faced Rumia again. "Can we go, mommy? If you wanna go somewhere else, then I wanna go with you."
Rumia was not ignorant of the opinions of certain people in Gensokyo, like Yomi or even Miasma, who might seek to inflict harm on Lydia or Adele at the slightest provocation. Rumia was struck with a foreign feeling of protectiveness, and concern about what might befall them if someone were to try and pick a fight. But, Lydia continued to give Rumia a pleading look, and she finally relented. "Okay, fine," Rumia said, causing Adele to cheer loudly once again. "I've got nothing better to do. So I guess there's no problem in taking you two to see Gensokyo."
"There, now was that so hard~?" Kana released Adele, who bolted over to Rumia's side once she'd been let go. "But I'll let you three have your fun this time.~ Maybe next time I'll tag along."
"Yeah, fine." Rumia grabbed Adele's arm as she passed by, and held her still. The darkness of Rumia's own shadow rose from the ground, and engulfed all three. If they were going to visit Gensokyo, Rumia already had just the location in mind to visit first. Surely Reimu wouldn't mind a visit from her old pal Rumia, now would she?