Volume 17 - Like Family, Chapter 128 - The Ones You Love

"Ugh, there's so much left to do before we open tomorrow," Yuisu said aloud, leaning on a fence post. She was tired and sweaty and not feeling all that great. She'd been working day and night to get the new day spa up and running, but she wasn't done yet.

She had just finished putting up signs in the gravel lot to indicate where visitors should park and placed another sign by the walkway to direct them to the front desk to pay. Nothing physically prevented people from just walking to the hot spring without paying, but that wasn't worth worrying about yet.

Alright, my next task is to print out the day visitor prices and pin them up by the front desk, Yuisu thought as she stepped onto the porch and went through the front door. She kicked off her shoes and slumped into the chair behind the desk. But there was no time to relax. She opened the laptop there and browsed to the documents she'd prepared the day before. She opened the first one and hit 'print'.

The little printer under the desk immediately beeped three times. A related message appeared on the laptop's screen: 'Printer out of paper'.

Yuisu sighed. I really didn't need this right now. But at least we should have some printer paper somewhere. I asked Haru to pick some up yesterday, so I just need to figure out where she put it.

She searched all around the front desk, and then checked the little desk in her bedroom for good measure, but she didn't find a new ream of printer paper. After double checking the front desk area, Yuisu called out, "Haru! Are you home?" With Haru's amazing hearing, yelling was a surprisingly effective way to reach her.

"What's up, honey?" came Haru's low, sweet voice from the living room.

"Where'd you put that printer paper?" Yuisu called back.

"What printer paper?"

Rather than continue the conversation at long distance, Yuisu stood up and started toward the living room. As she rounded the corner she saw that Haru was lounging on the couch and watching TV. Yuisu was a bit envious of Haru's free time, but it wasn't like a handless harpy could have helped much with typing up prices or putting up the signs outside.

"The printer paper I asked you to pick up yesterday," Yuisu answered, standing in the hallway.

"Oh, that. I didn't get any. I came straight home from work because I had all that fresh meat with me."

Yuisu blinked in disbelief. "Then why didn't you tell me that you didn't get the paper?"

Haru winced. "I guess I forgot. Sorry, Yuisu."

"You forgot?!" Yuisu suddenly blurted. "I asked for one simple favor and you agreed to do it, then you consciously changed your mind, and then you forgot to tell me?"

Haru raised her wings defensively. She was still reclined on the couch, making it a rather feeble gesture. "I said I'm sorry. I should have told you, but I forgot."

Yuisu leaned against the wall and her shoulders slouched. "This is just like you, Haru. You don't take my requests seriously."

Haru's brow furrowed and her eyes narrowed. "Wait, what? What are you talking about?"

"Remember when I asked you, no, begged you to stop your prank war with Hakuto? And remember how you went and dyed her pink anyway?" Yuisu was yelling now. The stress of everything had built up and she was too worn out to hold it back. "That is what I'm talking about!"

Haru finally sat up and put her talons on the shag carpet floor, but she didn't know what to do next. She floundered for the words, then just said, "That was different. I mean, I had already ordered the hair dye."

That was the wrong thing to say. Yuisu's eyes went wide and her attitude changed. "Oh, so that's how it is. My heartfelt plea is worth less than a bottle of hair dye. Alright, Haru. Well, talking to you is worth less than… " She glanced around, not sure where to go with her rant. "Less than a ream of paper. I'm going to town."

With that, Yuisu turned around in a huff and stomped to the front door. She pulled on her shoes but didn't bother to tie them. She just wanted out of the house as soon as possible, before she said something she couldn't take back. LIke with her mother.

She ran outside. She got as far as the front seat of her truck before emotion overwhelmed her. She slumped over the familiar steering wheel, and she cried.

Haru had wanted to go after her, to try to make it right somehow, but Tsuen stopped her. It was Tsuen's day off and she'd heard the whole thing from her room next door, and she came out when Yuisu stomped off.

"I think she needs to be alone right now," Tsuen said. She had one hand firmly on Haru's shoulder. "If you really insist on doing something, I recommend gathering your thoughts. And preparing an apology."

"I already said I was sorry…" Haru said, feeling lost and powerless. She knew she'd screwed up, but she didn't know how to fix it.

"There's a difference between 'sorry' and a proper apology. Think about why things went wrong. Think about what you can do better in the future. When you understand all of that, then you can apologize properly."

Haru nodded slowly. Then she glanced up at Tsuen and asked, "How do you know all this?"

Tsuen couldn't help but chuckle. "Mara and I have had a rockier relationship than you and Yuisu. We've been through this a few times, including a couple times the rest of the house never found out about. So we've gotten good at talking things out, and at apologizing."

That afternoon, while Yuisu was taking her time with errands in town, Rem and Sya were busy with the rest of the inn's operations. Guest rooms needed cleaning, the phone needed answering, and linens always needed to be washed. Fortunately for the maids, Hakuto handled her shrine's maintenance herself, along with basic cleanup of the picnic area, since it was often used by her visitors.

"Hey, Sya," Rem said as she folded a hand towel, fresh and warm from the dryer. She was so small that if the towel were any larger, she would have had to walk around the towel to grab the opposite side.

"Hmm?" Sya was folding the larger towels and sheets. Grabbing the corners could be tricky with her bulky paws, but she was still far better at the big ones that Rem was.

Rem looked expectantly up at Sya, looking a bit like a kitten meowing at a tiger.

"Have you ever been in love?

Sya stopped mid fold. "Uh, I guess I…" She took a deep breath. "I guess not. But I'm still young. I feel like I shouldn't rush into that kind of thing."

"Ah." Rem's ears twitched like she wanted to say more.

The taller maid put her towel aside and gave Rem her attention. "Why do you ask?"

"I guess I was just hoping you had some experience with this feeling."

Sya smiled and shook her head. "I do not. You're almost five years older than me, so I expected you to be the one with experience."

Rem sat down and leaned back against the folded hand towel. It made a very comfortable chair. Then she said, "It may come as a surprise, but there aren't a lot of romance opportunities for someone my size. I mean, there were back in my homeland, but I never really felt anything like this before."

Sya was curious about love as well and she found herself asking, "Like what?"

"Like a tightness in my chest, like a painful longing when we're apart, and a wonderful warmth whenever we're together. I just want more of that warmth, but I don't know how to get it." As she spoke, she nuzzled into the warm towel, but it wasn't the same kind of warmth.

Sya watched the little gremlin and her dreamy expression. Rem's description of her feeling didn't sound entirely positive, but the smile on her face said that she was quite happy all the same. Then Sya said, "If you don't mind my prying, who is it you're in love with?"

Rem pulled her knees to her chest and avoided eye contact. "I'd rather not say, at least not yet. I have to talk to them first."

Sya smiled and said, "Of course," though she was a little puzzled at why Rem was hiding the gender of the person she liked by saying 'them' instead of 'him' or 'her'. Sya knew that regardless of sexual orientation, the people of this house would be welcoming.

Sya grabbed another pile of clean linens and dropped it on the counter to fold, but Rem was lost in thought. Sya said, "Let me get the rest of these. Can you go check on the new changing rooms? Yuisu wants them all ready to go for tomorrow's day spa opening."

Rem hopped to her feet, gave Sya a little salute, and said, "I'm on it." She dropped to the floor and scampered off, thinking about Mara and Tsuen the whole way. At first, she had been worried about being in love with two people, but they'd done so much for her. She couldn't help but love them for it. Despite her small size, Rem had a big and loving heart.

It seemed safe to say that Mara and Tsuen loved her, too. What wasn't clear was if they loved her in the same way she loved them, and in the same way they loved each other.

When Yuisu finally returned with her printer paper and some other supplies, it was time for dinner. Yuisu was in no state to cook for eight women and planned to work through dinner, so Tsuen offered to do it.

The meat eaters in the house weren't happy with that until Mara volunteered to help. "Tsuen will make some vegetarian stuff, and I'll add lotsa meat to our portions," she told Haru.

Haru thanked Mara, then made her way to the back door to go for a flight, leaving just Mara and Tsuen in the kitchen. She still had some heavy things to think about and flying was a good time to do it.

Then Mara scratched her chin with one leg. "Who actually eats meat here? Me, Yuisu, Haru, and Chione. Does Aluru? And what about Hakuto? And Rem?"

Tsuen sighed and answered, "The only strict vegetarians are me and Hakuto, but Chione and Aluru aren't that into meat." Then Tsuen paused in thought. She didn't actually know whether Rem liked meat, at least not whether she liked it enough to add meat to an otherwise complete salad or pasta dish. But Tsuen could totally picture Rem adding candy to them. She giggled aloud at the mental image.

Mara hopped up on a stool that she had dragged to the stove. "What's so funny, Tsuey?" she asked as she turned on a burner to start cooking some beef for a meat sauce.

"Just picturing Rem putting gummy bears on her salad," Tsuen answered. Then she smiled and said, "She really is adorable, isn't she?"

Mara nodded. "The cutest, and that's saying something, coming from me."

Tsuen's smile changed to a thoughtful frown. "Did you notice what she said the other day? About us being enough for her?"

"Yep," Mara answered straightforwardly. "It's pretty obvious to me that she likes us, in a romantic way. I didn't say anything because I didn't want things to get weird, especially with how you can get."

"How I can get?" Tsuen asked.

"Jealous."

"Ah, that's fair…" Tsuen had learned a lot about herself through her relationship with Mara, and her jealous tendency was high on that list. But, she didn't feel any of that when it came to Rem.

"So, we should talk to her about it?" Mara asked.

Tsuen nodded. "Yeah. Tonight after dinner?"

"Sounds good."

They didn't know it, but Rem was in her house in the boiler room next door, and she had inadvertently heard most of the conversation.

Rem fretted and paced around her little bedroom, then flopped onto her doll-size bed. She couldn't tell Mara and Tsuen's stance on the topic from what she'd overheard, and now she was beyond worried that her actions would hurt her relationship with her two best friends.

She was a nervous wreck all through dinner, so by the time she finished her meat-less and candy-less meal, she really wanted to unwind in the hot spring. There was one problem: she was too small to use the hot spring safely by herself.

"Two birds with one stone…" Rem muttered to herself as she stood up on the kitchen table.

"What was that, Rem?" Tsuen asked.

"Um, I wanted to visit the hot spring tonight, but I can't go alone. Would you and Mara like to join me?"

Mara and Tsuen shared a glance that was filled with private meaning, and Rem felt guilty for knowing that. Then Tsuen said, "That sounds wonderful. Just let us finish cleaning up."