uptowngirl | [IC] Inbox @ tanagura

[ Asami's eyes widened, even though Mary couldn't see.

Did she feel a little sheepish? Yes. She'd had no idea just who she'd been running around with...and while status in and of itself didn't color her decisions or attractions to people, it certainly did make her wonder if she'd done anything uncouth. ]

...A colonel and a princess? That's quite the resume.

[And likewise Asami wouldn't see the flash of dark anger in her eyes at that. At least that anger wasn't directed at Asami.]

My sister's the princess; I have no claim to that title. [There was a tinge of bitterness in her voice.]

[ Oh geez--she probably shouldn't have jumped to that conclusion, should she have? Mary hadn't mentioned it and likely for a good reason. ]

I'm sorry, I shouldn't have assumed...

No, it's okay, Asami. It's just... I'm illegitimate. Esther and I only share a father, and we only recently learned we were related.

[She sighed and lit up another cigarette.]

I am and I'm not princess. Because of the nature of my birth, I have no birthright other than that of Viscountess passed to me through my mother after her death. So I can't claim it, and I've spent my entire military career to get recognition from the Queen as being her blood. And all I've ever been to her is a soldier and a reminder that my mother had relations with the Crown Prince before he chose to marry.

I told you that my career stalled for a couple years. That would be why. [There was such a stigma upon her because she was a bastard child.] I'm very used to the kind of treatment I face here on Amoi. I don't want you treating me any different.

[ Illegitimate...it's a concept that isn't foreign to her and usually more important to those who hold some class or status, which Mary obviously did. So Asami listened quietly, respectfully. ]

Treating you any different? The way "mongrels" are treated here isn't fair at all, regardless of what they started out as back home. I'd rather treat you like a person.

You do treat me like a person. But you now know my lineage. [Which was her own damn fault.] I don't want to be treated like a princess. Enough is changing back in Albion with the succession in question. [And Mary would either be Queen... or dead. She was pretty sure nothing could stop her.]

I just don't want it to change anything with you.

I'll admit I'm curious, but I won't ask if you don't want me to.

[ Asami shook her head before she realized it was pointless to do so, given that Mary couldn't see her. ]

I can't pretend I don't know now, but it won't change our relationship. I promise.

I'm not asking you to forget, luv. And I'm really, really happy that our tremendously scandalous relationship isn't changing. [It was far more scandalous to Mary than it was to Asami, but that's just the difference in their cultures.]

There's nothing wrong with your curiosity. You can ask me questions... Some I will answer, some I won't. The succession is a giant mess right now with the Queen's rapidly failing health. And here there's little I can do about it. I do have a request... please don't bring any of this up with my sister. It's complicated and she doesn't know the storms in Albion. I'd rather not worry her needlessly.

[ Asami gave an amused huff at that. ]

I really enjoy spending time with you. I wouldn't want to lose that.

[ And she meant it, too. There was a not too small fear that Mary might up and disappear like a few of the other friends she'd made since arriving, but she realized that it was probably best to try and spend time with her while she could. ]

I won't say a word. Engineer's honor.

[ There was a light-heartedness at the end of that statement, an attempt to put Mary at easy about all of this. ]

How did you find out? Have you always known you were related to the Queen?

[It did put her a bit at ease. Mary had no reason to believe Asami would go running to Esther about things. And there was a lot regarding the succession that Mary simply didn't want her sister to ask about. There were many things Esther didn't know about, couldn't know about and Mary wouldn't let her know about if she had her say. She didn't like lying to her sister.]

Thank you. And I've always known. My mother was a lover of Crown Prince Gilbert before he married; I never really spent time with him only getting to see him from a distance just like everyone else. By the time I was old enough to grasp the things I heard whispered around my mother and myself, he had wed Victoria.

He was assassinated when I was seven in the White Rebellion... my mother killed herself when I was eight.

I see...

[ Or rather, she was beginning to understand a little more about Mary. They hadn't really shared much about their families, perhaps in part because it's never come up before. Other than knowing that she had a younger sister named Esther, Asami had no idea. ]

I'm sorry to hear that. That must have been difficult for both you and your sister.

...Esther doesn't remember her parents at all. To protect her, they smuggled her out of Albion, having switched her with a stillborn. Everyone thought the child died. So Esther spent her whole life practically on the other side of the inhabitable world.

...she didn't even know we were related until I accidentally let it slip. I'd only found out, myself, just ending up here. So having a sister is a very new thing for us both.

[Mary sighed.] But it was hard. My mother, at least. My father was just someone that had always been out of reach. I suppose you can see why I just don't talk about them. As far as I'm concerned, Esther is my only family.

[ Ah...so it was even more complicated than she thought. Asami sighed as well, taking a quiet moment to think. ]

So having her here--...that's both a good and bad thing, huh?

[Complicated doesn't even begin to describe it. But Mary's voice perked up.]

Actually, circumstances aside, I'm very glad that she's here. [For so many reasons.] Back in Albion, with everything going on, she and I wouldn't be getting to spend any time together. Here we get to be sisters. Just sisters. It's nice.

[There was no mistaking the affection in Mary's voice.] I just wish I could protect her better here. She, ah, gets a little irritated about it.

[Like anyone when they have an overprotective older sibling.]

[ That made sense. It was time that they might not have had back home. She hadn't considered it that way. ]

So it's given you time to get to know each other better? That's good.

[ But that last part...Asami exhales quietly through her nose, but it's audible. ]

It's...definitely an interesting set of circumstances for family, I'd imagine.

It is... but I'm not sure I'd trade it for anything. [Her men would hold Londinium. Mary had faith in that.]

So, does this mean I get the Sato Family story someday? [It was said lightly but then she got more serious.] Whenever you want to, luv. It's not anything I need to know.

That's very sweet...and very telling.

[ There was fondness in her voice at that. ]

You really do care about her. It shows.

[ But, ah...Asami's family was a decidedly complicated subject as well. Mary had been very open with her own family history, so even if Asami generally avoids talking about her father, she felt she owed Mary something. ]

Well...right now it's just me. [ At least it felt that way. ] My mother died when I was young and my father...isn't in the picture anymore.

[Mary had meant it when she said it wasn't anything she needed to know, even if she wanted to. She wanted Asami to feel comfortable opening up to her, and a smile tugged on her lips when the other woman started to talk. But it went away given the gravity of the matter. Families were tremendously complicated things.]

I remember you said Future Industries was your father's business. What happened to him?

[ The better question might be "what did he do?" For being such a forgiving person, Asami was finding it very difficult to look past the atrocities her father had taken part in. Back home she had begun to receive a few letters here and there, but she never read them. That was a chapter in her life she was resolved to close.

And yet, she clung so closely to the legacy he had left her--in a way, Future Industries was her family, the better parts of it. ]

...He's incarcerated. [ Saying it out loud to someone who didn't know him...it was a strange feeling, as if she was admitting something to herself. ] The reputation of the company was understandably hurt by that, but we've been able to put Future Industries back on the map.

[ The "we" decidedly did not include her father, and it was easier to talk about the company than the man behind it. ]

But I have great employees and great friends. I like to think of them as my family.

[Incarcerated. There were a lot of reasons for a man to be in prison. Mary decided then that she was never going to ask Asami what her father had done. She didn't care if he embezzled or committed mass murder. To ask that kind of question would open the possibilities of others... and they all had their skeletons. Mary knew the things she'd done in her pursuit of the Throne of Roses. No one would ever be told about the Ghetto if Mary had any say in the matter.]

Friends are the family we get to choose. [There was a pause as Mary finished her cigarette, and caring filtered through Mary's voice.] Are you okay?

[ There was a definite sense of relief when Mary left it at that. Asami appreciated it, but it wasn't surprising--Mary never seemed like the kind of person who would pry. She was too respectful.

There was a sigh on Asami's end, but her voice carried a smile in it. ]

Yes, I'm okay. In a lot of ways, I'm really the lucky one.

Oh? I can think of many ways you're the lucky one.

Would you happen to be one of them?

Where should I start? [She hummed in mock thought.]

You're brilliant, beautiful, happen to have a colonel wrapped around your finger, and a place that doesn't leak when it rains...

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