Space and Time

The Meat of Things

"Takumi, this is so good," I blurt out, halfway through shovelling the rest of our Christmas chicken into my mouth. I have no idea what my brother put in this or how he made it so crispy, but it is excellent and I need more of it.

"Thanks," he says as he finally sits down at our simply decorated table. Dad's already got a mouthful of the meat and he gives Takumi an enthusiastic thumbs up.

"Why aren't you in chef school, honestly?" I joke.

He rolls his eyes and waves his hand dismissively. "No thanks to the bureaucracy."

"It's cooking. What 'bureaucracy?'"

He groans. "Don't even get me started."

"Aika, don't encourage him. We need him here," Dad says as he grabs more rice from the center of the table. I laugh a bit; no argument there. I especially need someone attuned to my dietary needs as an athlete, and neither Lev nor Nevaeh have that kind of expertise or time to sink in to making me food. I wonder if Evren knows how to cook, though. I should ask her later. "How's your arm doing, Aika?" Dad suddenly asks.

I wiggle my fingers a bit. I grimace. Still painful but there's at least a little movement I can do. "Still a way to go," I report as I relax my arm and continue eating with my good hand.

"Hm, then it's a good thing the battle royale was pushed to the new year," Dad says. I nod solemnly. I still have to think about how the hell I'm going to tackle that.

Not a Christmas topic, though.

"Are the rules the same as the points fights for you?" Takumi asks as he starts eating his own plate of food.

"Yeah, just much less of a chance of calling a draw. I thought there'd be more to it, but both Evren and Ms. Yui said it really is a free-for-all. I guess the competitors just tend to fight each other one on one or in teams," I reply, thinking of past televised battle royales. Most of the time, people avoided the strongest person, especially when it became Evren. Before her, sometimes a brief allyship would form to take the strongest out of the running, but most competitors who made it to the battle royale round were sportsmanly and fair. There was never more than two or three against one.

"My daughter, in the battle royale, on her first NCC... I'm proud of you," Dad says wistfully.

I smile. "Thanks, Dad."

"When they announce the exact date, let us both know so we can make front row seats," Takumi says, with... is that a smirk? Ha! I give him a thumbs up and I'm feeling all warm and tingly.

"I'll make sure to bring everyone so they can see me take the championship," I say.

"That's my girl," Dad says just as Takumi gives me a genuine grin.

"Actually, I'll text Lev about it later. I'm not sure he even knows it's in January."

"What? He follows the NCC religiously," Takumi says.

"He does, but he's been in exam hell." He even called me two days ago in a whole frenzy. Now that was a long conversation.

"How is he doing?" Dad asks.

"Well, I think. Pretty sure his last exam was a couple of days ago. I'm pretty confident he'll do well, even if he was stressed."

Dad nods. "He's a smart one."

Agreed. That boy may be emotional but he's damn capable when he needs to be.

"Any news on the investigation?" Dad continues.

I blink a couple of times. This was not what I expected Christmas dinner conversation to be.

"Dad, you have no tact," Takumi sighs.

No, I agree, he doesn't, but he's always been that way. I chuckle a bit before responding. "I got an email yesterday that they've banned the kids who jumped me, but it looks like charges and all that they're going to postpone until after the NCC's over. It's probably stressful to be doing advertisement for the final battle royale while also fielding questions from investigators and journalists alike. I'm actually surprised they haven't bombarded our house yet. Or Evren's."

"Well I am very thankful for that," Dad says.

"Me too. Too much media attention is exhausting." I think back to the times random strangers have approached me while I was meeting Lev on campus. Real annoying.

"The media probably has enough about you just being a newbie who's tied with Evren for champion, to be honest," Takumi says.

"Oh, that's right. There hasn't been a tie for Division Champion in years," Dad says. "You've definitely gotten their attention."

"They're even speculating that you two have something going on, with how you've both been oblivious to all the drama lately," Takumi says, chuckling to himself a bit. He throws me a brief glance that immediately makes me think he's onto us.

Us.

That's a weird word to be saying, especially when my family doesn't even know, now that I think about it.

It just never came up. All I've been doing since we last met is cycling through the same few thoughts: I'm dating the Commander of Space a.k.a. my greatest NCC rival; she's totally chill about me being aromantic and even looked it up, making sure that whatever she proposed relationship-wise could still be compatible with how I work; we're both girls and this means I'm kind of gay.

Yeah. That's a lot. But I'm not freaking out? Maybe it helps that Lev didn't freak out, and he's definitely prone to being dramatic. So it just... seems fine. But I won't lie. The development in our relationship's made me feel... nice. There's no Frenzied Aika for once.

And I mean, I get to say "Yeah, so, I'm dating the Commander of Space."

Dad's fork drops to his plate and I'm immediately thrust out of my thoughts. "You're... what?!"

I stare at him for a second. Then I look at Takumi, who looks about to keel over laughing. Then I look back to Dad, who is staring at me with wide eyes. Well. Looks like I said that out loud, huh?

"You're dating Evren?! The Evren! Kinnunen-Mwangi, Commander of Space, undefeated Grand Champion!" This time Dad's expression changes to one I can only describe as confused joy. "What a power duo!" he says, slumping back into his chair. He looks at Takumi. "Did you know?!"

Takumi manages to quiet his laughter for a second to shake his head and mutter a "Nope, but I saw it coming." He smiles at me, not in amusement but in support, and he nods. "Are you two happy to be together, uh, 'officially?'"

I smile back at him, my ears heating up. "Yeah."

"Now the media will have a field day," he adds. I swat at him.

"Well," Dad finally sighs out after he's composed himself a bit. "This calls for an extra special dessert." Takumi groans, mainly because that's on him. I cheer, mainly because I know he'll do it despite his grievances.

"Here's to us." I raise my glass of water to toast. I mean 'us' as in Evren and I, of course, but I also mean 'us' as in this. This family. My loved ones. Our support system.

Dad and Takumi raise their glasses as well. My brother has a look on his face that means business. "And to you, NCC Champion."

We drink to the thought and enjoy a nice silence until Dad clears his throat. "So, tell me everything about your new girlfriend." I groan, Takumi laughs, and Dad keeps waving his hands in a beckoning gesture.

But I talk. And I will for a long time.