Author's Note: Uhh...sorry? Please don't kill me. I might, emphasis on might, have found a job now. I suppose I'll find out after my second interview tomorrow. Plus, school is slowly killing me. And yet I've found the time to bring you all a new chapter. And no, the story is not going on hiatus, so don't speculate. I'm just going to be a bit slow about updating. God, I hate speculation.

Blame this chapter on Yami Hime Hikari, for reviewing and thusly spurring me on to write. Miki all alone. HeeheehahahaBWAHAHAHA! He should be so lucky. Anyway, chapter time!

Kagayaku Means to Shine
Anime: Shoujo Kakumei Utena
Primary Pairing: Utena x Anshii
Rating: PG-13
Written: 25 Sept – 05 Oct 2006
Chapter Seventeen

"We're six, we're six, happy birthday to us!"

The twins were more or less dancing around the entire first floor of the mansion, singing and bouncing and yelling at the tops of their lungs. They looked ecstatic. Now, if only their parents would share in their joy, everything would be great. Instead, though, Anshii stood at the opening of the kitchen, one hand on her hip, and tried to calm them down.

"Yes, you are indeed six," she said, "And now if the esteemed six-year-olds could please sit down, we can have breakfast."

They were not to be deterred.

"Breakfast is for little kids! We don't need breakfast!"

"But I'm kinda hungry..."

That is to say, Nishiki was not to be deterred. Nishiko, being 'such a girl', in the words of her big sister, was really a much tamer child when she wasn't being carried along by the strength of her twin's personality.

Utena sighed as she put dishes down on the table, wondering how sending them to the third floor to wake up their various 'aunts and uncles' didn't even put a dent in their energy. Though, she had to admit, it was pretty funny to see the former duelists, so classy and refined back at Ohtori, come stumbling down the stairs like zombies, mussed and dressed in pajamas. Touga and Saionji in particular had looked horrific, paying their appearances no mind as they argued about whose job it was to lock the door before bed.

The twins had sported proud grins after that one and Utena, presuming that they'd gotten into the pair's room, hoped that they hadn't seen anything traumatic. Not that they would have even noticed. With the food set down, she went to corral the children, and got them in their seats just as an annoyed female voice rang down the stairway.

"I can't believe you forgot to lock the door! What if we hadn't had the blankets pulled up?"

"Well, we weren't-" Miki's words cut off as he and Nanami stepped into the dining room area and were promptly attacked by a pair of six-year-olds who'd fled their seats once again to cause mayhem.

"Good, Uncle Miki is here," chirped Nishiki to the blue-haired young man, "We were gonna come up again and get you soon!"

"Aunt Nanami, Aunt Nanami, come sit down! Mama won't let us eat 'till everybody's sitting down, an' I'm hungry!"

"I've told you not to call me 'aunt'," Nanami muttered as Nishiko took her hand and pulled her towards the table, "It makes me sound old.1"

"But you're Aunt Nanami!"

"I'm not old enough to be an aunt!"

"Nanami," Miki said with a laugh, "You know she doesn't mean anything by it. They just call us all Aunt and Uncle."

Rolling her eyes, Nanami obediently sank into her seat at the table, and at long last breakfast was begun.

After breakfast, which by itself was quite an adventure, the day truly began.

"Mama, Mama," came a shout as a cheerful six-year-old hugged her mother's leg, "That was fun! You should've come on the ride with us!"

Anshii just smiled and ruffled Nishiki's hair gently, as Utena walked up with Nishiko in her arms.

"Mama doesn't like the fast rides, Ki-chan, remember? Besides, Mama's holding on to Mika-chan and Kero-chan for you," said the pink-haired girl, referring to the two stuffed frogs her mate was holding, along with the backpack containing the essentials.

"She was hardly sitting down here alone," came a smooth voice, and they all turned to see Juri and Kozue sitting nearby, looking rather out of place in the middle of an amusement park, as dressed down as they ever got. Juri was wearing a pair of dark pressed slacks and a white blouse, with a coat in deference to the mid-January weather. Kozue more or less matched her partner, except for the fact that she wore a skirt and seemed a bit tousled, though not a hair was out of place.

The group slowly came back together as the day wore on, a few looking worse for wear. Nanami, in particular, looked rather ruffled and refused to comment on exactly why that was, blushing with embarrassment and anger.

As night began to fall over the still-bustling park, the group made their way to the last few kids' rides, the whole strange little 'family' hanging around and watching the twins enjoy themselves. Much to the delight of said twins, who seemed to have boundless energy, racing back and forth between rides and family members, spreading cheerfulness in their wake.

Eventually, though, it was time to go home, and only the promise of ice cream at home was enough to pull the twins away from their new favourite pastime.

"Papa, Papa," called Nishiko suddenly, tugging at Utena's pant leg as they were headed towards the park entrance to go home, "Papa, I have a question!"

"What's the matter, Ko-chan," Utena asked, worried for a brief second at the intensity with which the child was calling her.

"Why does koen mean park in English, but yuuenchi also means park? They're not even close to the same thing!"

"Well, um," the pink-haired girl thought for a moment, "I don't know, actually. It uses one of the same characters, doesn't it? For park? I think Americans just call any big open place a 'park'. I even heard that they call chuushajou something like 'car park'."

"That's silly, Papa. Chuushajou isn't like a park either, it's just a big place with lotsa cars in it."

"Well," said Utena with a smile, scooping up the little girl and kissing her forehead, "I guess Americans are just silly."

The child giggled and clung to her Papa's neck, "You're silly too, Papa."

"You think so?"

"Yeah."

"Well, then maybe I am silly. Cause silly people like to do things like...this!" And with that, Utena began to tickle the girl in her arms, causing a brief fit of squealing and laughter that the other park patrons looked upon with amusement.

It was an exhausted group that straggled into the mansion an hour later, and two soundly sleeping children who'd finally run out of gas the minute the train rumbled out of the station. Unconscious as they were, it took a minimum of fuss to get them changed and into bed, thus allowing the assorted adults and mostly-adults to pass out in their own beds. Within minutes, the only sound to be heard was the gentle chirping of crickets outside.

And the occasional snore.

END CH.17

References:

1: The word for 'aunt' is obasan. It is also a polite way to refer to or address an older (middle aged, etc) woman or for an older man to address a young woman not of his acquaintance (a waitress, etc). It's more or less the equivalent of 'miss' or 'ma'am'. Similarly, one addresses one's aunt as X-obasan. Nanami is complaining that calling her 'Nanami-obasan' makes her sound like she's middle aged.

2: koen: 'park', yuuenchi: 'amusement park', chuushajou: 'parking lot'; 'car park'. The en in koen and yuuenchi is the same character, meaning garden or park.