The Meat of Things

"Takumi, this is so good," I blurt out, halfway through shovelling the remnants 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 am sad we won't have any more of it after this.

"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 shovels more rice into his bowl. I laugh a bit; no argument there. I especially need someone attuned to my dietary needs as an athlete, and neither Lev nor Nevaeh has 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. Then I bend my wrist a litt- ow. Well, 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 on earth I'm going to tackle that.

Not a Christmas food topic, though.

"Are the rules the same as the points fights for you?" Takumi asks as he starts eating his own plate of food. Guess it's a Christmas food topic now.

"Yeah, just much less of a chance of calling a draw. I thought there'd be more to it, but both Evren and Ms. Emad said it really is a free-for-all. All the weight and age divisions together. No particularly special rules. 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 other 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? I give him a thumbs up to hide my pleasantly surprised fidgeting.

"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."

"He follows the NCC religiously," Takumi says.

"Yeah, but he's been in exams." He even called me two days ago in a sobbing rage. Now that was a long conversation.

"How is he doing?" Dad asks.

"Well, probably. Pretty sure his last exam was due yesterday. He'll do fine, great even, even if he's stressed."

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

Agreed. That boy may be emotional but he also has some control when he needs to.

"Any news on the investigation?" Dad continues.

I blink a couple of times. This was not what I expected this 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 sigh in agreement before responding. "I got an email yesterday saying that they've banned the kids who jumped me, but it looks like charges and all that they're going to until after the NCC's over." I've only just noticed that I can't hear anyone's cutlery, but I don't look up from the table to investigate. "I'm not really sure I want to ruin their lives in court," I continue. "It's probably stressful for the NCC to be doing advertisement for the final Battle Royale while dealing with questions from investigators and journalists. They've followed us around but no one's approached us, so there's obviously something blocking them. I'm still surprised they haven't bombarded our house yet with photographers, though. Or Evren's."

"Well I am very thankful for that," Dad says. "I'd rather they stay away from here and from campus."

"Me, too. Too much media attention is exhausting." I think back to the times random strangers have approached me while I was meeting Lev at coffee shops and libraries, and the back-and-forth hassle I had to deal with to get the photo of our house off the internet. The worst recently has definitely been the official statements Evren and I keep having to write for her sponsors and every tiny little journalism website to convince them not to drop Evren or run a smear campaign.

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

"Oh, that's right. There hasn't been a tie for Division Champion in years," Dad says. "You've definitely gotten their attention." I really am hoping that they can keep focusing on that, honestly.

"They're even speculating that you two have something going on behind the scenes, with how you've both been oblivious to all the drama lately," Takumi says, chuckling to himself a bit. Has... he noticed? "I bet Nevaeh's helped all that, though." 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 made sure that whatever she proposed relationship-wise could still be compatible with how I work even though I haven't figured out what I want; and 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 Anxious Aika for once.

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

Dad drops his plate on the table 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. Oh, so the gay doesn't bother him? Though, I guess he's seen enough of Lev to be used to it. He looks at Takumi. "Did you know?!"

Takumi manages to quiet his laughter for a second to shake his head and mutter a "Saw it coming." He smiles at me after a solid minute of rolling in his chair. He nods, both in amusement and in support. "Are you two happy to be, hah, together, uh, 'officially?'"

I smile back at him. "Yeah."

"Now the media will have a field day," he adds. I swat at him. "Ok ok! We're not gonna tell!"

"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 me and Evren, of course, but I also mean 'us' as in this. This family. My loved ones. Our support system. The people who fight for me behind the scenes while I fight for sport in the spotlights.

Dad and Takumi raise their glasses. My brother has a look on his face that means business. He puts on his best Professional Announcer voice. "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, beckoning me eagerly.

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