#beejinki

It took a moment for the words to sink into Ayako’s mind, still trying to work through three students running into her classroom screaming her name (okay, two students running in and screaming her name, with the third following at a slower, more murderous pace). When they finally did catch up to her, Ayako squealed loud enough that, two rooms away, someone’s glasses shattered off their face .

  “She got it?!” the teacher asked. If Oliver had said so, it had to be true, but it was the kind of news that bared repeating.

  “She got it,” Mai and Gene spoke at the same time, and then looked at each other and began to speak over themselves.

  “She had the interview yesterday with Lin-”

  “-and today we saw her walking out of the principal’s office during passing period-”

  “-and she was talking to Takigawa, who was being super loud, as usual-”

  “-and he congratulated her on making the gig-”

  “-and then-” “Oh my god, stop,” Oliver groaned. “You’re going to give me an aneurysm trying to talk over each other like that. She got the job, you useless teacher, but please wait until you get home to congratulate her. You can both still get fired for indecent exposure- especially in high school.”

  “You’re lucky I’m in such a good mood, twerp, or else I’d put you in detention,” Ayako gave the threat by routine alone. Her breathing was light and excited- Madoka had gotten it! She knew her girlfriend had been excited, hoping that she would get the job, and Ayako had been certain she would- after all, Madoka could even handle Oliver at his absolute worst with the kind of patience and ease that took years to build. Anyone who wanted to hire an art teacher with the best kind of disposition possible wouldn’t hesitate to hire Madoka.

  “If my father didn’t own the school, I might actually believe you,” Oliver sniffed. He looked at Mai and Gene, who were quietly arguing to themselves now, and narrowed his eyes. “And you two…”

  The threat in his voice made them look up. Gene went pale and jumped over the desk in such a way that would have made a hurdler proud before sprinting out the door. Mai squeaked, clearly upset at being ditched, but took a deep breath.

  “I don’t wanna hear it, Naru!” She declared, “I was excited! I know you were too, I saw you smiling, so don’t think for a minute you’re fooling anybody, and I’ll have you know that-”

  Oliver took a hold of Mai’s arm and dragged her out the door in a practiced movement. It looked harsh, but if one knew them they would notice how softly his grip actually was and how readily Mai actually moved with him. As soon as they were out of the door, Ayako pulled her phone out of her desk. Who cared that school was still in session? They wouldn’t fire her even if she played on her phone during class.

  Heard you got the job!!! So proud!!! I knew you’d get it!!! ♥♥♥♥

  The text was sent as quickly as Ayako could type it out clearly. She looked up to eye how much longer there was to passing period to the final class, grimacing when she noticed there was still an hour left. And then she had to stay half an hour later, in case her students needed her, and grade assignments… all she wanted to do was go home to her girlfriend and celebrate.

  When her phone vibrated with an incoming text, Ayako flailed in the most clumsy way possible. A couple of her students, arriving to class early, looked at her. She gave them a dirty glare, silently telling them to keep walking and keep quiet, before reading the message.

  I did! I’m so excited! I was hoping I would but I didn’t think I’d actually get it! Did you work some of your magic? ;)

What time are you heading home?

  Ayako’s fingers flew over the keyboard to type back.

  As soon as possible. I love you.

———-

  Ayako flew through the door to her small apartment. There was the smell of food permeating the air, and she stopped to take a moment to just breath in the scent of home and comfort.

  “Ayako, is that you?” the voice of her favorite person called from the miniscule kitchen.

  “It is, yeah.” For all the excitement of earlier, being home made Ayako feel calm. She slid her shoes off by the front door, pushing them next to the bright pink pair of Skechers, and then dumped her purse off on the table before locking the door. She stretched as she walked towards the kitchenette, stepping behind her girlfriend and pressing a kiss to the back of her neck.

  “You got it,” She whispered. Madoka grinned and turned around, wrapping her arms around Ayako and giving her a quick peck to the lips.

  “I got it,” Madoka said.

  “Is that food important?” Ayako asked, eyeing the stove.

  “Nothing that can’t be fixed later,” Madoka answered, already flipping it off.

  With a grin, Ayako lifted Madoka off her feet. Madoka laughed as Ayako staggered a little before walking for their bedroom.

Mai packed up her school supplies and had just stood up when she saw a head of black hair duck into the library.  She waved him over, calling.

“Gene!”

The figure straightened and scowled at her.  He was not Gene.

“Oh!” Mai corrected herself, “Not Gene.”

Her smile faded.

“Oliver, hey,” she said, brushing invisible wrinkles from her skirt.  “I’m sorry, I’m supposed to be meeting Eugene here, I thought you were him.”

Oliver grunted, nodding to dismiss her apology as he passed her by.

She shouted at his retreating figure, “Sorry, again!”

Mai was promptly shushed by the school librarian.

“Right.” She frowned, sitting back down.  “Sorry, sorry.”

As she was seated, she saw Eugene push through the glass library doors.  He caught her eye and beamed at her.  If he and Oliver weren’t twins, Mai would wonder if they were even the same species.

“You okay?” he asked as he came to stand next to the table where Mai was now slumping, half hiding behind her backpack.

Mai peeked out from behind her bag.

“Ask your brother.”

Eugene laughed, taking a seat across from her.

“What did the idiot do this time?” he asked, gently.

“I thought he was you, for, like, half a second,” Mai lamented.

“Oh, that’s annoying.”

“I know!” Mai cried, “It was a mistake!  I had just gotten through talking to you and he came in the door.  His head was down, how was I supposed to know it was him?!”

Eugene nodded, standing up again.  

“Where is he?”

Mai pointed dramatically to the poetry section where Oliver was lurking.

Eugene walked in the direction she indicated until he met his brother.

“Noll!” Mai heard him exclaim.  “Good thing you’re here, I was just about to call you!”

Oliver’s reply was either nonexistent or too quiet for Mai to hear.

“You ready to go?” Eugene asked.

A moment later Eugene was back at the table, dragging Oliver behind him.

“Mai is coming with us,” Eugene explained.  “We have to finish a project for our Aquatic Science class.”

Noll gave a vague nod as he pulled his arm from his brother’s grasp.

“Didn’t you take that class last year, Noll?” Eugene asked, throwing Mai a sideways glance.

“Yes,” Oliver answered gruffly, “Why?”

Eugene pushed the library door open and led them into the school commons.

“No reason.”

“You want my help don’t you?”  Oliver directed his question at his brother but quickly turned to include Mai in his accusation.

Eugene laughed, his laugh sounding more high pitched than usual.

“Depends,” he said through a sly grin.  “Are you willing to help us?”

Oliver did not even begin to entertain the idea.

“Absolutely not.”

The group was now leaving the school, walking outside towards the twins’ shared car.

Oliver snatched the keys out of Eugene’s hand.

“I’m driving.”

Eugene laughed, “Are you now?”

“I do not want Mai to be scarred for life,” Oliver reasoned, “And I’d rather not die.”

“Fair enough,”  Eugene smiled at Mai’s scared face.

“Eugene is a terrible driver,” Oliver said, by way of explaining.  “I’m doing you a favor.”

Mai chuckled, “Thank you, I suppose.”

Oliver unlocked the car and climbed into the driver’s seat.

“Welcome.”

There were a few moments of awkward silence in the car before Eugene broke it by attempting, once again, to recruit his brother’s help with his and Mai’s project.

“So about the Aquatics project…” Eugene piped, leaning up between Oliver and Mai from the front seat.

“Gene, I told you I’m not going to help you.” Oliver scowled, not turning away from the road.

“But,” Eugene argued, “It’s due this Monday!”

“Well you should have thought of that earlier!” Oliver sounded almost exactly like a nagging Luella.

“Um,” Mai squeaked, interrupting the twins’ banter.  “We do really need your help, and Gene asking nicely for that help is not unreasonable.”  Her voice sounded more and more confident as she went on.  “Must you really be so stuck up about it?”

Oliver sighed, sparing a quick glance in Mai’s direction, but did not say anything.

Eugene took Oliver’s silence as a sign of resignation.

“Will you please help us?” he pleaded, grinning at Oliver’s reflection in the rearview mirror.

Oliver sighed again, “Fine.”

He quickly interrupted Mai and Eugene’s celebration, however, by quickly adding some conditions to his surrender.

“I expect you to both actually help and I always work more efficiently with tea.”

Mai laughed, “So as long as we keep you in tea, you’ll help us.”

Oliver was not laughing as he pulled the car into the front drive of the Davis’ house.

“Precisely.”

Eugene addressed Mai in a loud stage whisper, “Noll never jokes about tea.”

Mai unbuckled her seatbelt and made to get out of the car, giggling.

“Right,”  She opened her door, realizing that she was now feeling more at ease around Eugene’s aloof twin.  Maybe this weekend will be more bearable than she originally imagined.

Oliver opened the front door and let Mai and his twin through.

“My supplies are up in my room, make yourself at home, Mai!” Gene began trotting up the stairs.  “Enjoy yourselves!”

Oliver started towards the kitchen and Mai rocked back and forth on her heels, wondering if she should follow him.

“You can follow me,” he called back at her over his shoulder, as if reading her mind.

Mai scurried towards the kitchen after Oliver, trying to think of something to say to make the situation less awkward.

“Thank you,” she smiled at him, trying to catch his eye.  “For helping us with the project.  It really means a lot.”

Oliver turned away, feeling heat rushing to his cheeks.

“Eugene would get me to sooner or later, I really don’t have much of a choice.”  He cleared his throat.  “Tea?”

Mai shrugged, giggling.

“Sure, thanks!”

This was followed by another awkward silence and Mai couldn’t help but feel like this was becoming a pattern.

“I’m sorry,” she sighed after a moment.

Oliver chuckled, “What for?”

“Earlier!  I thought you were Gene!” Mai huffed.  “I know that annoys you so I’m sorry.”

Instead of accepting her apology, Oliver just laughed, “Maybe you should learn to be more observant.”

Really! What was wrong with this guy?!

Mai was just coming up with something to fire back at Oliver when Eugene came bursting into the kitchen, carrying a large poster board and nearly a whole ream of colored paper.

“Here you are!” Eugene exclaimed from behind the large stack of supplies he was balancing.  “Thought I’d lost you!”

Oliver rolled his eyes.

“Do you want tea?” he asked, addressing Eugene.

Eugene set the supplies on the kitchen table and shrugged.

“If you’ve put enough water in the kettle, I’ll have some.”

Oliver’s eyes narrowed.

“Would it kill you to give a straight answer?”

“Nope, but it annoys you not to,” Eugene laughed, “That’s why I do it.”

Oliver turned wordlessly back to pouring the hot water into three cups.

“You’ve certainly gotten the supplies together,” Mai sat down at the table and began looking through the different colors of paper in the stack.  “At least there’s that.”

Oliver set the three cups of tea on the table.

“And you have a brother to do all the work for you!” Oliver added sarcastically.

“Yep!” Gene laughed, “That’s the idea!”

Oliver took a seat at the table across from Mai.

“So, which project is this again?”

“We have to make a poster board with information about our assigned ocean creatures and the zone they inhabit.” Gene explained, showing Oliver an instructional paper.

Oliver nodded.

“Mai and I were assigned sea anemones and sponges, which live in the Benthic Zone.”

“So you’ve done at least that much research,” Oliver took the page from his twin.  “So we have to draw the creatures and then post the information?”

“Yes, and then Gene and I will present it.” Mai leaned across the table and pointed at the bottom of the instruction page.

“Can you draw, Mai?” Oliver looked up at Mai, who was still leaning across the table.

She shrugged, sitting back down.

“I suppose I can give it a go.”

“Okay, so I will draw the anemone and you can draw the sponge,” he directed, “And Eugene, who I am certain cannot draw, can be in charge of writing the information down for the poster.  Sound good?”

Mai and Oliver set to work, drawing and cutting out pictures.  Eugene wrote information on alternatingly colored cards so that the end product would end up looking like a rainbow.

The three chatted quietly about school occasionally, but for the most part, the conversation was kept to things like ‘pass the scissors’ and ‘do you think that I should color this more orange or pink?’.

They were hard at work when the front door opened to reveal Luella carrying three boxes of carry-out pizza.

“Hello!”  Luella beamed at Mai.  “I’m Luella.”

Mai stood, nodding her head in a slight bow.

“I’m Mai Taniyama, it’s nice to meet you!”

“I brought pizza,” Luella said, setting the boxes on the counter.  “Spinach, cheese, and hawaiian.”

Oliver and Eugene both called, “Thanks, Mum!” in unison, with only slightly varying pitches.

Mai’s thank you followed closely after the twins’ as the three stood up from the table to get the pizza.

Luella handed each of them a plate from the cabinet and then leaned on the counter with a hand on her hip.

“I’m going with your father to dinner tonight, so I trust you three will be okay on your own?” she asked, looking at her boys and then at Mai.

Eugene nodded, taking a slice of hawaiian pizza.

“We’ll be fine,” he assured her, “We’re just working on our project.”

“Alright,” Luella picked up her purse and jacket from where she had placed it by the door.  “It was nice meeting you, Mai!”

As quickly as she had arrived, Luella was gone, so Mai struggled with not being able to call back a polite reply.

She shrugged, taking a slice of spinach and ricotta pizza.

“Spinach is my favorite!”

Oliver nodded.

“I told Mum to get some for you,” he told her matter-of-factly.

Mai’s face reddened.

“And how did you know it was my favorite?”

Oliver shrugged, taking his plate back to the table.

“You mentioned it in your introduction speech for our speech class.”

Mai knitted her eyebrows.

“But…” she faltered, “That speech was at the very first of last semester.”

Oliver shrugged again.

“The great Oliver Davis does not forget!” Eugene said in an exaggerated voice, waving his hands about to emphasize his sarcasm.

“Well, thank you.” Mai sat down across from Oliver, still blushing madly.

Eugene made a point of moving the Aquatic Science project aside, accusing Oliver and Mai of trying to ruin all of their hard work with grease and tomato sauce.

The group ate their pizza in relative silence, making only occasional conversation.  For some reason, Mai realized, this instance was much less uncomfortable that the other silences.  She was beginning to realize that Oliver and Eugene were comfortable in silence, that it didn’t have to be awkward.  Before, she had felt like the twins’ silence was excluding her, now it felt like she was a part of their solitude.  It was a good feeling.

When they had finished eating, Eugene took their plates to the sink and rinsed them before stretching.

“I think it’s time we take a break!”  He yawned.

Oliver glared at his twin.

“What do you reckon that was?” he argued, inclining his head towards the pizza boxes.

“Dinner!”

Oliver rolled his eyes.

“I’d much rather get finished with the project before I rest.”

Mai pouted at Oliver.

“I kind of want to take a break too…” she spoke quietly.

“Come on, Noll!”  Eugene clapped his brother on the back.  “Let’s take a break.”

Oliver sighed, “You two can rest for a while, but I’m going to continue working.”

“But it’s not even your project!” Mai complained.

Oliver smirked at her.

“Would you rather I not help?” he asked.

Eugene laughed, “Okay, okay! Have fun doing work, Mai and I are going to watch something.”  He waved for Mai to follow him into the living room.  “Be back in a few.”

Mai followed Eugene out of the kitchen and to the couch.  She could practically feel Oliver’s glare on her back, but she chose to ignore this as she took a seat next to Eugene.

Eugene put on some situational comedy show that Mai had never seen and sat back.

Nearly an hour and a half later, Mai and Eugene were on their fourth episode, and Oliver had yet to say anything about it or try to get them to come back to finish the project.

Mai felt the seat on the couch next to her depress and she glanced over to see Oliver sitting down slowly.

“Noll?” Mai’s voice was cautious.

“I’m done.” he replied, staring forward at the TV.

“You finished the project?”  Eugene sounded incredulous.

Oliver nodded.

“You’re welcome.”

Mai lept up from the couch almost shouting, “You totally saved our grades!”  She beamed.  “I could kiss you!”

For once, Oliver was the one who looked shocked.  However, he quickly recovered.

“This is nothing against you, but please don’t.”

Mai laughed, her face burning red.

“How about a group hug?” Eugene said, pulling both of them into a tight embrace.

Oliver mumbled, “Myu drdn eveh do tha wormf.” into Eugene’s chest.

“What?” Eugene loosened the hug but did not let them go just yet.

Oliver pouted, leaning out of the hug.

“You didn’t even do the work!”

Eugene pulled Oliver and Mai back into his arms.

“We love you, Noll!” he said, chuckling, “So, so much!  Oliver Davis is the greatest brother on the planet!”

Oliver struggled out from his brother’s tight hold.

“Well yes, but they’re not made to be worn together, you know.”

“Boys,” interrupted Luella, “it is of no importance, really. If Oliver likes his outfit…”

Gene stared at his mother in horror.

“We can’t let him go out like this!”

Luella laughed out loud this time. “We can, and we will, if it’s his choice.”

Martin nodded in approval, though still a bit at a loss.

“Noll, please tell me you didn’t really choose these on purpose.”

“I just picked the first available on the pile,” was the annoyed reply. “Weren’t you impatient to go just a minute ago? What was the point in hurrying me if you’re the one delaying our departure now?”

“There is a more pressing matter at the moment!” declared Gene dramatically. “We have to go back to your room and get you changed. Oh, and I’ll have to teach you one thing or two about matching colours.”

Oliver groaned in annoyance but complied nonetheless, and soon the twins disappeared behind the bedroom’s door.

Martin turned to his wife expectantly. “So… what was the problem exactly?”

“And this is the reason why I’m the one picking up your clothes,” giggled Luella. “Dear, red pants, blue socks, a yellow shirt and a green blazer certainly don’t belong together. Not all at the same time, at least. Unless you want to look like a clown.”

“Oh… I see.”

“I’m certain you don’t,” sighed his wife in mock exasperation. “But it doesn’t matter,” she added tenderly, “you have me to avoid such a disaster.”