Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Don't you know it's love ❯ Chapter 13

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

I could have sworn I'd seen her before.
"Hello, First Sister!" Shampoo called. She and Cologne and Perfume and me were the only people that had come, since everyone realized the impracticalities of all of us going to the airport in the middle of the trip. I'm not sure why I went, come to think of it.
She was Perfume's mother all right. They looked near exactly the same with their hair, which, Mousse was right, for some reason looked a lot like mine. Not the eyes though. Perfume's eyes were brown and made me think of Father's while Yi-mei's (that was her name: First Sister, not Da-mei, Big Sister) eyes looked… well, a lot like mine. They were the same kind of blue, anyway.
I noticed she was staring at me, too. "Who's this?"
Shampoo answered. "This is my fiancé."
"Not Saotome Ranma?"
"No," Perfume cut in. "This is her other one, remember I told you, Mother?"
She got all pale and didn't say anything more.
"And mother, I need you to explain some things…"

Be calm, Yi-mei told herself. What have you got to be afraid of?
What was she afraid of? Where to start? That Perfume would figure out the whole story? That she'd get it all right except for the part that mattered, and she would be convinced that that wrong part was right? That Ginseng's child (her child, she reminded herself, hers) already knew, but only what Ginseng had told him? The part that if told alone would be enough to convict her of unjustified abandonment?
"Mother…"
Shampoo spoke, delaying the torture. "So it wasn't a coincidence after all, was it?"
Perfume laughed briefly, then looked down at her crossed legs. "I guess not. He didn't die after all. I have a twin. Whatever god is out there, I never thought I was the kind of person that would be a twin." She returned her gaze to Yi-mei. "All right. Here's what I think. You married someone in the Jakou Ouchou, and had twins. Meaning me and Shampoo's fiancé."
"His name's Mint," Shampoo cut in.
"All right, Mint then. And then, after the treaty broke down, you took me and left, apparently forgetting to bring Mint. Is that right?"
It wasn't wrong. But it wasn't quite right either. It wasn't how she had viewed it then, and it wasn't how she viewed it now. But no matter how desperately she searched through those devastatingly accurate words, she could never find an actual piece of falseness. "Yes…" she whispered.
Now Mint moved. She jerked.
He looked at her with those eyes that-yes, they were the ones she saw whenever she looked in a mirror. There was no doubt in her subconscious. This was him.
He spoke slowly, extending the torment, intentionally or not. "How come you didn't bring me?"
The door was shut and locked. Herb and Lime were out skiing, but just in case, Perfume had said. They could know later, if Mint chose to tell them, but not now.
Not now…
Yi-mei clenched one hand without knowing she was doing it. "I…"
In a way she had told Perfume the truth. Her twin brother had in a way died. For years she had sealed away the mental file marked PERFUME'S TWIN BROTHER (she hadn't stayed long enough to name him, and Ginseng was supposed to do it anyway. Tradition) as "dead." She hadn't thought about him much, until now. Until now.
Now…

We spent that night together, too. Neither of us cried. We simply sat there, talking.
"Do you think she was telling the truth, Mint?"
"I don't know. I really don't." But I did know. She was telling the truth. I'd never met anyone who could fake tears in front of me and get away with it.
"What do you think she thought about your father?"
"I don't know." But I did know, yet again, I did know. There hadn't been anything bad in her voice when she said "Ginseng." I knew. I knew.

"He wasn't a bad person," she had said. "It's just that… that… I didn't really like him or anything, that's all.
"It was only a couple of days after when the treaty was ended. I don't think I was thinking right. I don't know."
"You didn't think they would want me." The words were apparently exactly what she had had in mind.
She was silent for a while. "Yes… that was about it. I just kept on thinking about what it would be like if I stayed. I thought, everyone else has gone already, why haven't I? And then… I guess…"

"Mint?"
"Huh?"
Shampoo slung one arm around his neck. "Thanks for the katana."
He reddened. "Thank you."
And then they kissed. Mint at first felt as jolted as if she had done it in front of Herb and Lime, then like a phoenix, rising up high from the ashes, taking her with him. He felt her arms going around him. He looked at her eye-to-eye, and liked what he saw.
"I do love you," he whispered.
"Ditto."