The Battle Across The Universe

Chapter 19: "Normal Ass Fucking Lives"

They all made it to the Yi-Zhao residence and Erik met them soon after. Li cooked them all some lunch (he was, by far, a much better cook than Lan), and halfway through their lunch, Flower asked the question that was all on their minds.

"Aunt Fawn, are you okay?"

Everybody sitting at the dining room table looked over at Fawn. You could tell that since she was breathing unevenly she was not okay. Her eyes started to tear up a little, too.

"Yeah," Fawn answered, nodding. "Yeah, I'm okay, Flower. I'm just... I'm just a bit upset... And tired... Tired of people...and tired of lies..." Fawn smiled at her little niece. "But yes. I am fine, Flower."

Flower smiled. "Okay! Good! Aunt Fawn not allowed to be sad!"

Aside from a few giggles after Flower's statement, the rest of lunch was quiet.

~~~~

After lunch, Lan put Flower down for a nap while the adults started dessert in the big living room Lan and Li had.

Fawn took two bites of her chocolate chip cookie before she put her cookie on her plate, and slammed the plate onto the wooden coffee table in front of her seat on the blue couch.

Fawn took two shaky breaths before looking up from her plate. "I can't believe this... Just... Joseph...and Jared... Then my mother... And... I just don't know...what to do..."

"Well, here's one thing," Li started suggesting. "You don't bang your plate onto my new table? Or get chocolate crumbs all over the ground where my cat can get to them?"

"Oh, shit, sorry," Fawn said, picking up as much of the chocolate as she could. "But..." Fawn leaned back on the couch. "I need help. And...I don't know who to go to..."

"Maybe try writing out your feelings?" Erik suggested, taking a sip of his coffee. "I know that that helps An. She doesn't tend to punch holes in our walls."

"Unlike somebody who lives under our roof," Anna-Marie said with an eye roll.

"I think that's because I don't write my feelings down."

"Then maybe you should try it! Like I suggested! Four years ago!"

"Yeah, yeah. Details details."

Anna-Marie gave him a dirty look, but was trying not to smile as she did so. Erik smirked as he leaned back in his chair and took another sip of his coffee.

"Why don't you..." Lan began. "As a queen from an old cartoon movie would say... 'Let it go'?"

Fawn looked at Lan. "You want me to be like fucking Elsa and let it go?"

Lan nodded with a shy smile.

Fawn shrugged. "Alright. I'll try. It can't hurt, right? Just..."

Fawn thought about everything. Joseph's dick moves, Violeta's bitchity bitchiness, Jared's death, Joseph's plan, Marissa's lie...and lastly...the fact that Fawn might destroy the universe. She thought about it in the span of seconds. And then she did what Lan told her to do.

She let it go.

And "letting it go" meant that she cried.

"Shhh," Isabella said as she hugged her girlfriend, rubbing her back. "It's okay, mi amor. It's okay... Está bien, Fawn... Mi chica... Está bien... ¿No te preocupes..." Isabella's eyes widened.

"What?" Fawn asked softly when she finished crying, her head still on Isabella's chest. "What is it?"

"Joseph made it illegal to speak any language that wasn't English..." Isabella said as she stopped hugging Fawn.

"But Joseph's not in charge anymore," Fawn pointed out.

"No, but...I don't think that we... We technically didn't make it legal," Lan said.

"Oh." Fawn frowned. "We need to change that. But, I just... We need to just forget about this day. Everything about it. Meeting Joseph again. Jared. My mom... All of it. We need to forget it."

"Forget it?" Anna-Marie asked. "You-you're telling us to forget about the loss of our friend. Why would we forget about him when we can celebrate him? Celebrate the life that he had... You're telling us to forget about the man who helped save our lives. In case you fucking forgot."

"I don't mean...I don't mean like forget about him. I just mean...leave it in the past. Pretend that Joseph just isn't a threat right now. Because he's not. We need to just live on with our lives. Mourn over Jared. Anna-Marie and Erik can go back to being a hella cute couple. Lan and Li are married with a kid. And Lan's pregnant with another one. Isabella and I can just go back to our normal lives. Go hang out with Xavier and Laura, go to his wedding. I can be pissed at my mom for not telling me about my half-siblings, but one day I'm gonna have to face the truth. Now, who's with me on living normally?"

"Normal lives," Lan said in agreement.

"Normal lives," Li said. "That's what I would like us all to have. I miss having my wife around."

"Normal ass lives," Anna-Marie said. "I haven't spent nearly as much time with my boyfriend as I should."

"I can vouch for that," Erik said with a half-smile.

"Normal ass fucking lives," Isabella said. "We can live normally... And then...if you're going to do what you say you're going to do, Fawn... We can all speak a language that's not English..."

"I can finally speak my first languages!" Lan said. "Which, BTW, are Chinese and Vietnamese."

"And we can have conversations in Chinese!" Li said.

"And I can speak Spanish!" Isabella said excitedly. "Fucking finally! This translating business in my head is getting really annoying."

Fawn smiled. "Well then, I'll make sure I get on that." Fawn picked up her glass that had water in it. "A toast. To normal ass fucking lives."

"To normal ass fucking lives," everybody else echoed, raising their glasses.