To do this right, she was going to need help, and she knew just where to find it. She got out of bed and went to the intercom.
"Ian, are you up?"
"I am now. Heh, I always wanted to say that to someone. Yes Jane, I'm up. Have been for a few minutes. What's up?"
"I figured out what the hole in our defenses is. The good old subconscious must have done it while I was asleep. But it's going to be difficult to fix. Do you know where I might find a young genius who would have the time to help me with the math so I can get the frequencies right?"
"Hmmmm. I'll have to think about it for a bit. OK. Thinking done. Why don't we start after we eat. I'm famished."
<
"Sure Ian. I'm pretty hungry myself. See you in the kitchen. After all, we need someone to wash the dishes afterwards."
"Argh! A death worse than fate. OK. As long as you're the one cooking and not Aunt Karla. I don't want to die of food poisoning before I have to start washing."
Jane laughed and cut off the intercom. This was going to be very interesting, and very tricky, but being tricky made it all that much more fun.
The Observer marveled, not for the first time, at how resilient these beings were. Most who were exposed to Kali for more than a few minutes need a week or more to get their strength back.
Dinner was as usual, meaning that they talked about anything and everything except what they were worried about. They were just like everyone else when it came to that. The twins were involved in some complicated discussion that involved a great deal of giggling. One of the few benefits of being telepaths was that they could have a very private conversation in public, and nobody could eavesdrop.
Kumiko had polished her behavior by now and seemingly paid Ian no attention at all. There was nothing that the others could put their finger on, but each of them was privately quite sure that Kumiko's attention was almost entirely on Ian, even though her back was to him.
<
Yes, romance and boys are separate things to a girl. If you don't understand, you probably never will. Everyone else is already nodding their heads, so we'll move on.>>
After dinner and dish-washing, Jane and Ian headed down to his room for a consultation, some heavy math, and electronic circuit board design.
[[Of course Jane cooked. Not even Kimiko would eat Karla's cooking. The fact that Jane survived long enough to learn to cook in the first place is absolute proof that she really does have a cast-iron constitution.]]
Kumiko had decided that Karla was right about Ian and Jane's relationship being totally platonic, so all she did was sigh mentally at having to be apart from him, and went down to her room to practice typing and do vocabulary drills.
Kimiko went to the dojo to practice swinging from the rafters, and Karla sat down and pretended to read a book.
<
After half an hour of not coming to any worthwhile conclusions, Karla took herself off to the dojo to practice. She decided that this would be a good time to work with Kumiko, so she hauled her away from the computer and took her with her.
Both of them evinced praiseworthy restraint. They didn't destroy a single piece of equipment.
-----------------------------
The house was remarkably quiet, and Jane assumed, almost correctly as it turned out, that everyone had gone over to the dojo. That being the case, she decided to have a little talk with Ian.
"Ian, I'm going to leave you to work on the algorithm to handle the frequency modulation. I'm going to get started on building the circuit boards. I should have plenty of spare parts somewhere or other."
"Jane nee-chan, I don't know how you find anything in that junkyard you call a workshop, but hey, to each her own and all that."
"I'll get you for that 'junkyard' comment Ian, but later. Right now there's something else we need to talk about, while nobody else is where they can hear us.
"Ian, what the heck are you planning to do about Kumiko?"
"Huh? What are you talking about Jane." Ian had a very puzzled look. "Is there something I'm supposed to do for her?"
Jane's look would have made a glacier look warm. "Don't give me that you dufus. I saw you roll your eyes when Kumiko gave me that 'go die' look when she and Mama went to see Master Oh that last Saturday before school started."
"Ah Jane, it wasn't a 'go die' look, it was just, ah, she just frowned a little."
Next Jane fixed him with her "don't try to BS me" look.
Ian flushed and wiggled in his chair then gave up. "Well, yeah, I guess that was sort of what it implied. Aunt Karla fixed it, didn't she?"
"Don't worry Ian, at least not about that. Mama is very sensitive about such things, and, usually, fairly tactful when it involves children. Look at me. I didn't turn out all that badly, did I?"
Ian chuckled. "If I answer that with anything other than a 'no', you'll try to hurt me."
"What do you mean 'try' shrimp? I'll turn you into a pretzel, or better yet a mobius strip. So tell me, when did you first notice?"
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Ian took a deep breath and sighed. "First of all, guys aren't nearly as rock-brained as girls make us out to be. We notice a lot of things. The problem is, who is there to talk to about it? We sure as heck couldn't talk to an adult, even if there were one who we trusted. That would be really embarrassing.
"There's no way we could talk to some other girl that we knew. Whatever we said would get back to the first girl in a day or less. And other guys are definitely out. They'd tease you till you're so humiliated that you'd want to die. Probably because they'd have no idea what to do either and wouldn't want to admit it."
Jane's glare was just about as good as Karla's when someone was trying to change the subject.
"All right. All right. I give. It was the very first day, when we watched 'Tangled'. She was holding onto my arm as if she wasn't ever going to let go. It was way beyond obvious.
"I've got to admit that she's really cute. We also seem to look at the world fairly similarly, and we have some significant overlap in what we like to do and in what we're interested in.
"As for what I'm going to do, I'm going to wait and watch and see what she does. It should be quite amusing and interesting."
"Ian KNIGHT! You are not going to play with her. She's not a toy!"
He managed to look contrite and unrepentant at the same time. "I don't mean it that way. She's only 9 years old for crying out loud! Obviously I can't respond to her feelings. I'm not a lolicon. What can I do but see how things develop over time? Maybe in a few years, say when she's 14 or 15 we could maybe think about dating or something, but before then? Not gonna happen."
While he was talking, Jane was pacing. She'd stopped at the other side of the room and was leaning with her forehead against the wall.
Ian muttered very, very softly, "Besides, she might lose interest by then, and I don't want to get my hopes up and then be dumped before we even get started."
Jane spun around with a rather fond but still exasperated expression on her face. "Ian, there's something I guess I should tell you. Have you seen those commercials where they say something is so quiet that you can hear a pin drop?"
He looked completely confused as he responded, "Yeah, but why are you asking?"
"Well, I really can hear a pin drop, about 100 feet away actually. I heard what you just said, VERY clearly. You have feelings for her too. Oh boy!"
"Indecisive" is not something that anyone ever called Jane. "Right. Yes. Here's what we're going to do Ian. And, no, you don't get a choice, you ARE going to do what I say.
"You go ahead and watch. Feel free to respond, as a friend and ONLY as a friend. Anything else and I'll catch you when you're asleep and trash you. I expect that you'd have to be asleep because I doubt I could catch you if you were awake.
"If, and I mean IF things progress as you think they might, you can start dating when she's 14. But only with a chaperone. I don't want any comments about being old-fashioned. That's the way it's going to be or it isn't going to happen. You got it?"
[[Karla could look pretty fierce at times, but Jane's look was way beyond fierce. Considering what she did in Portland, I suppose it was to be expected.]]
"Yes. Definitely yes Jane onee-san. I understand perfectly. I'm dead meat if I don't behave like a gentleman, for at least the next 5 years." Ian shuddered. Anyone on the receiving end of that look would have.
"But, I still intend to enjoy her company. Under that prim and proper child is a very mature being just waiting to grow up. I fully intend to enjoy watching her grow."
While Ian was talking, Jane had wandered back over to the desk. Ian stood up and gave her a hug, affectionate and thankful at the same time. "I love you Jane onee-san. You're going to be a great big-sister."
"I SAW THAT! I'm gonna tell Kumi nee-chan that you're cheatin' on her!"
Jane and Ian whipped around and saw Kimiko just a few feet away. She had obviously just come out of the shower. She was wrapped in a bath towel, and had another around her hair. On her they were so big that they looked like nothing so much as some sort of strange animal that had attacked and was in the process of swallowing her whole.
Jane leapt to her feet. "Kimiko, you shouldn't be running around the house like that. Go put some clothes on young lady!"
"Don't try ta change the subject Jane nee-chan. It doesn't work when I do it, so don't you try either. You two shouldn't do that ta nee-chan. She's in love with Ian nii-san and she's waited all this time ta be with him!"
Jane sighed. "Kimi-chan. You're jumping to conclusions. Make that leaping in great bounds. We have absolutely no interest in each other in that way. We're friends and siblings. That's all. That's pretty cool too now that I think of it.
"Besides, we both know how Kumi-chan feels. And, NO, you absolutely may NOT tell her. Even though we all know, she'd die of mortification on the spot if anyone let on that we know about her feelings."
Kimiko sighed and relaxed her shoulders. "Well, why didn't ya say so earlier? I wouldn't a been so upset if ya'd said something beforehand."
Ian picked up that ball and ran with it. "Oh really? And when were we supposed to tell you? You just now came in the door and started making accusations."
You've got to give Kimiko her due. She's adaptable. She went into the bashful child pose. You know, head down, hands behind her back and tapping the toe of one foot on the floor. I think she stole it from one of the kid's movie serials from the 1930's or 40's.
"Oops. Well, anyway, what's 'mortification' mean?"
Jane took that one. "Extremely embarrassed is pretty close."
"Right. 'Mortification'. Another new word for today. Yes! And you're right, Kumi nee-chan would be exactly that. She's so, what's the phrase, 'Miss Priss'?"
Ian picked up the ball again before he could burst out laughing at Kimiko's rather apt description of her older sister. "Right. Exactly that. I know that you love her very much. You really don't want to do anything to hurt her, do you?"
Then his inner-self manifested in the form of a sly grin. "Besides, it will be much more fun if we don't tell her. We can watch and see how she tries to manipulate me."
Jane caught him by surprise, as he was totally focused on seeing how Kimiko would react. The blow knocked him across the room and onto his bed.
"IAN KNIGHT! You are totally and absolutely INSUFFERABLE! And you Kimiko, STOP LAUGHING!"
Jane did the "Why Me?," hands in the air gesture, and then stalked rapidly out of the room. Or at least she tried to.
As she passed Kimiko she tripped on the trailing part of the bath towel that Kimiko had wrapped around her and was thrown off balance. She must have been, I guess, seeing as how she was flailing her arms and hopping on one foot.
The net result was a totally naked Kimiko in the middle of Ian's room.
Kimiko wasn't fooled in the slightest and was livid. "Jane nee-chan, you are a wicked, wicked woman!"
Then she turned to Ian. "And you! If ya say even a single word, I'm gonna tell Kumi nee-chan that it was you who pulled off the towel. You MIGHT even survive ta explain what really happened to me."
Ian, who had been in the process of getting up off his bed, obviously had at least some sense of self-preservation to go along with his intellect. He turned pale, swallowed heavily, fell back against the wall, and shook his head violently, over and over, to let her know that he wasn't going to ever say a word about the incident to anyone.
Then Kimiko picked up her towel, tossed it over her shoulder, and walked slowly, with what she obviously thought was great dignity, down the hall to her room and carefully closed the door.
For the next several minutes Jane and Ian felt multiple dull impacts shaking the house, which were accompanied by nearly deafening banging sounds coming from the twins' room.
After that the house was completely silent, except for the sound of Jane's rapid footsteps. She ran down the hall to her room as fast as she could. Once she arrived, she buried her face and the gigantic grin on it in a pillow on her bed and bellowed into it until her laughter was under control.
[[Dear God, I'm soooo pleased that we decided to put this particular group together. I haven't had so much fun in centuries. I'll bet that the other watchers aren't having nearly as much fun with their families.
Uh-oh. You're not supposed to know about the others, not yet. Back to sleep with you now. You're getting very sleepy. This never happened. It was less than a figment of your imagination. Oh heck, you know the drill. Sleep, NOW!]]
Once Jane had herself back under control, she went into her workshop. She and Ian had a great deal of work yet to do, and there wasn't all that much time left.