March 8, 4:00 PM



Her weekend had been wonderful—she saw Gale’s new house, was able to make breakfast for him, and spent some good, social, quality time with him. Kohaku had wanted some distance this weekend, and she had been happy to give it to him.

It was yet another happy, busy Monday and despite her good weekend, Maiko was glad to be back to work. She had no appointments at this time, and she felt like she was due for a break from all the paperwork, as well as a break from reading the latest psychology and counseling articles and theories. Maiko walked into staff room, carrying a cup of jasmine tea . She closed the door behind her, and was delighted to see that someone else decided to take a break in the staff room.

It was none other than her favorite neighbor! Literally, they were neighbors. These two ladies lived right across the street from each other. It was completely unplanned, and a total coincidence.

“Aileen~!” Maiko exclaimed, settling down in a seat next to the runes professor, “How is this Monday treating you?”

Aileen glanced up at Maiko’s bubbly entrance, immediately zeroing in on the teacup she held in her hands. She tilted her head, half-expecting it to hoot at her, but Maiko made enough noise for the both of them, and the teacup remained mercifully silent.

She shifted her papers over on the table, and set her own tea to the right side, farthest away from Maiko, as if the owl design were contagious.

To Maiko’s credit, Aileen set down her quill and shifted her posture toward her. She could have stayed in her office if she hadn’t wanted company, and there was certainly worse company than her peppy neighbor. Dare she say it, peppy friend.

“I'm seeing Monday in a new light, considering I spent the weekend with family," she informed her dryly. "My parents, my sister-in-law and her two children. Abby had to come along too.”

Aileen smiled, pausing with her teacup halfway to her mouth. “I survived.”

As Mai got herself settled, the owl made a content noise that settled somewhere between a hoot and a purr. As it opened it’s beak, some steam from the tea came out. She raised the cup to her lips and took a sip, and the owl closed its eyes and began snoring quietly.Quiet enough, that one could not hear it unless the room was completely silent.

“Ugh, obligatory family visits.” She nodded sympathetically. Aileen’s family, Mai assumed, was a piece of work. After all, Aileen was a pureblood, and weren’t most pureblooded families walking around as if they had a stick up their…. Nose? Stuck in their brain, perhaps. That’d explain so much. Mai’s own family was messed up in it’s own way—awful uncle, cousins like siblings—Grandparents who acted like parents. Didn’t know the entire half of her father’s side, except for Kohaku. And even then, that was because he was her brother.

“At least you weren’t alone. You had Abby. The two Reid survivors!” Maiko set her cup on the table, hands wrapped around it partially for the warmth.   

“What is your family like? Your sister and law and whatnot?” she asked curiously, “Besides Abby. I know Abby well enough.” And her brother seemed to spend an awful lot of time with her. He had begun to regret ever giving her his mobile number, as he was barraged with texts that ranged from ‘lol eggs for breakfast’ and ‘omg I found my other shoe.’

After taking a sip, Aileen hesitated, trying to find the right words. She even hesitated to malign her mother’s name. As far as she knew, Cullodena hadn’t sent any other Howlers to Tapendra after Aileen’s last visit, and she found that she was not as angry or resentful of her dear mother as she usually was.

“They are rather traditional,” she began. Her favorite word that really meant a bunch of words ending in ‘-ist’.

“Set in their ways. They don’t know Abby has a mobile, for instance." Aileen glanced at Maiko, curious about how much she understood of traditional pureblood families. She'd always assumed the counselor was muggleborn.

Setting down her tea, she tilted her head and donned a soft smirk. "When Abby and I visit, we arrive in these long, overwrought gowns, and wait for the house elf to answer the door. Whether it’s raining or snowing, the front steps are always spotless." She neglected to say that her own porch was spotless, too - Maiko knew that.

"My mother greets us in the sitting room, ready to pepper us with questions and her many concerns." She waved her hand in the air. "My father - if you can get him out of the study long enough to say two words - is a bit more mellow. Put the two of them together and you might get a somewhat normal parent. If anyone has one of those.” She raised her eyebrows, her tone light.

Aileen rarely tried to describe her family in detail, and she hadn't even told her about her sister-in-law yet. Maiko asked so many questions in general, Aileen was beginning to think she actually wanted to hear the answer.

Honesty, she was surprised that Aileen went into so much detail! This was a good sign—to Mai, it meant that Aileen was actually starting to trust her, and see her more than just some peppy thing that talked a lot for the sake of talking. Maiko was someone who asked a lot of questions because she was a naturally curious person, she wanted to know as much about other people as possible—when they were willing to share such information.

Her parents seemed like typical pureblooded high society folks. Mai knew how to pretend to be in high society with her mother’s side of the family being rather wealthy. A mixture of them having inherited money from previous generations, and careers that paid well. Needless to say, they hadn’t approved of her father—a supposedly lower-middle-class man who had fallen onto hard times by the time her parents got married.

She remembered tea parties and social gatherings that she had to attend with her grandmother.

Oh, those had been boring and awful. At least hre grandparents were accepting of her being herself, as long as company wasn’t around.

But having to pretend to be someone else in front of your parents? That must have been tough on Aileen, and especially Abby.

“I doubt anyone thinks their parents are normal.” Maiko replied, “It seems like they care—but they don’t show it in the most… Affectionate way.” They peppered her and Abby with questions, let them know about their concerns. That could either be taken as them caring for their children, or caring about their family's image (or of course, both).