Diversion #11: Heero and the IchiBan
"Heero! Why didn't you tell me you were coming?"
My grandmother came down from her chair and embraced me warmly. I waited to answer until she drew back to quirk an elegant eyebrow at me.
"It's a long story," I sighed, avoiding a direct answer.
Her smile faded and she took my hand, drawing me after her into the house I'd grown up in.
"This calls for tea, then," she said in an effort at lightness.
I waited until we were seated, with tea in front of us, to speak.
"Sobo, I have... questions."
She sighed and stirred her tea for a moment. "I needn't ask what about."
"Probably not," I agreed.
"You want to know about them."
"Yes. Please."
"I can only tell what I know. Your mother was an independent female before she met your father; she had a life outside of my protection," she warned gently.
"I understand."
She sighed again and began. We were there for almost six hours. When she had finished, I knew more than I had imagined possible about my parents. And most of it was new to me. Some things simply settled in my mind, burrowing in as new data to be assimilated subconsciously; other information demanded that I actually think about it.
My mother, Nikko, was the IchiBan's youngest child and the only daughter. I have two elder siblings. My father's name was Tori and he was from Clan Bellweaver, in Eire. That was where I had gone for three summers to get to know his people after his death.
I had stopped going the summer I turned eight, after morphing for the first time into my dragon form, and nearly scaring the crap out of the whole bloody clan. It wasn't that they had forbidden me to return; no, it was a decision reached jointly by the Matriarch of Clan Bellweaver and the IchiBan. My ability to shape-shift seemed to both of them to signal that I was more Wyvern than Banshee, and would be better off reared and educated as a Wyvern. The agreement was that when I showed interest, without being coached or nagged, in learning about my father's Clan, that I would be welcomed with open arms. Apparently, I'd taken rather longer than expected.
"Would you like me to contact Else for you?" she asked when she had concluded. "I mentioned to her several months ago, that you seemed to have been ensnared by a young Banshee. She was quite thrilled at the prospect, and seemed to think that your grandfather would feel the same."
And that, as Duo would say, just rocked my world. A grandfather. My father's father... It took some time before I could stop that silly voice in my head; the one giggling fatuously and chanting "Grandpa! Grandpa!" over and over. I have never met my mother's father, he being one of the Great Dragons.
When I could finally think again, she was watching me with indulgent bemusement. "Will I take that as a 'yes'?" she smirked.
And I could only nod, trying unsuccessfully to wipe the fatuous grin off my
face
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