Ryo knew not to press about the specifics of Mi-chan's nightmares. With the exception of one, she had always told him in time. But he was still a dad, and although he already knew the answer, he had to ask. "How did you confirm it?"
Mi-chan blushed, a rare occurrence for her. "He- he kissed me. And it was the same. And it was perfect. And I love him, Dad." And although she didn't really need permission from her otou-san, she still wanted him to approve. "Is that ok?"
"Michiru, I just want for you and your sister to be happy. And if Jian-kun can do that for you, then I'm happy for you. Just be careful. And don't take it too fast, Pumpkin."
She rolled her eyes. "Okay." He hadn't seemed to have many issues with Neko and Tenshi falling in love overnight. At least she had sort of known Jian-wa, both in spirit and in real life. Plus, she'd only really kissed him once. Neko and Tenshi had kissed at least twice, and those were just the passionate ones that she really knew about.
As if he had read her mind and realized that she had switched to thinking about them, which he actually might have done, he changed the subject. "Ne, you tried to beat up Tenshi-chan?"
She looked away in embarrassment. "Hai."
"Defending your sister's honor, ne?" He chuckled, knowing full well that everything had turned out okay. But it was such a Mi-chan thing to do.
She nodded. "Demo when I saw Tenshi-kun coming out of the women's locker room-" She cut herself off and looked at him in horror, not quite certain that he knew that Tenshi was female. "Dad, you know that Tenshi-kun's a girl, right?"
"Yes, Michiru. I've known since before she was born."
"Oh, good." She sighed in relief. "That makes sense." But she was still a little hurt that Neko hadn't told her. "I didn't know until today. And so when I saw her coming out of that locker room, I just assumed that she, or rather that 'he' was being etchi . And so I was going to make sure that 'he' knew that 'he' wasn't allowed to act that way while dating Neko-chan."
"Well, it all turned out okay, didn't it?"
"Yeah, but I think Neko-chan's mad at me." She looked miserable. The twins rarely ever fought.
Ryo sighed. "Neko was really shook up when you slit your wrist to save them at the night of the dance. I think she feels responsible for a lot of what happened with Tanzanite because she was the one who introduced Jian-kun to the family. And to make matters worse, it seems Tanzanite blamed her as well and was intent on punishing her for what happened to Jian-kun. She was taking on all this responsibility and didn't really feel in control. And she didn't feel like she could talk to anyone about it, especially not you."
"But she was trying to protect me too, by not talking to me," Mi-chan protested.
"Yes, but in Neko's mind, that's a lot different than you physically protecting her. She doesn't want anyone she knows to get hurt for her sake. But Neko didn't take into account the psychological strain it took on her to keep things from you. And now that she's over it, she doesn't want to have to go through anything like that again. So she's even more adverse to the idea of you protecting her. Do you understand?"
Mi-chan nodded slowly. She understood, but she knew that she wasn't about to cease protecting her sister, or any of her siblings, either.
