Rewritten Past

God I wish I had headphones.

Still, I guess that was a good thing.

Mama Yue would be good for Miss Serena.

April's Mom had been on her own her entire life, making ends meet through any means necessary. She'd never really had anyone she could genuinely trust until Mama Yue.

And Miss Serena... Ah, I mean Serena.

Still defaulted to calling her Miss Serena sometimes...

But anyway.

Serena was good for Mama Yue too.

I was definitely serving as Mama Yue's emotional anchor, but Serena could help by being a form of soft and gentle support.

I was definitely NOT that. My love was absolute, total, and domineering.

...That was part of the reason why I was being careful to not go too far with April in any way. I had a very strong personality, and I didn't want her to melt into my shadow, you know?

Anyway.

Serena could help Mama Yue mellow out a bit in ways that I couldn't. Like bouncing off ideas or expressing her worries.

I was still a kid, after all. At least, in the eyes of the adults.

While Mama Yue unconditionally loved and trusted me, there were things that she wouldn't tell me because she saw me as her kid.

She'd be able to tell Serena that though.

Hm.

...Wait.

In context, wasn't this pretty insane?

I think at this time, same-sex marriage wasn't even properly recognized anywhere in the world, right?

Isn't this like, completely audacious?

...Sasuga, Mama Yue. There's a reason we get along so well.

But huh. I'd need to flag that for the future.

Knowing Mama Yue, she'd be careful about it. And it wasn't like Serena would say anything about it.

But people would definitely talk.

Hm... I wonder if it was possible to speed up that process? I knew the legal arguments from Obergefell since it was a landmark case.

The problem was that there was a series of events that needed to unfold before it could reach the Supreme Court level...

Ah, well.

If it became a problem, I'd just solve it then.

It wasn't like Mama Yue and Serena NEEDED to marry each other.

...In fact, I kind of doubted Mama Yue really believed in the concept of marriage in general. And I was pretty sure Serena was happy with just being loved.

The only problem would be potential scandals...

But Mama Yue was smart, and I knew every single social manipulation tactic that had been refined during the era of vicious social media.

It'd be fine.

...Now, if only they would STOP BEING SO LOUD in their expression of love...

Geez, is their room like right above Dad's basement office? There's like, NO sound dampening whatsover-

Wait.

Did that mean that Mama Yue heard all of my maniacal ramblings earlier?

...

...Well, fuck.

FINE.

I'll pretend I'm not hearing anything.

Fair is fair.

...But GOD is this weird...

...Let's turn on some music, open up my email to check things out-

Oh. Huh.

===

> From: TyroneReynolds@yahoo.com

> Subject: Training progress

Yo, Little Sifu! I've been training like you said and holy crap it works!

I'm 30-0 in matches! Been raking in tons of big bucks from it too!

Tell your aunt and Miss Serena that I'll invest a chunk into that corporation of yours!

Merry Christmas, Little Sifu!

P.S. I'm heading to Japan for the New Year to learn Kyokushin Karate! Let me know if you want any souvenirs!

P.P.S. Attached a photo of me knocking a guy out! I'm using it for autographs at fights, haha.

===

...I'd completely forgotten about Mister Reynolds until now, actually.

The attached photo was... pretty ridiculous.

Mister Reynolds was completely shredded now. Seems like he'd dropped to Middleweight instead of staying in Heavyweight and pretty much looked like a shredded young Kratos from God of War, albeit without the ash-white skin.

But that wasn't the ridiculous bit.

No, the ridiculous bit was the fact that he was standing over his opponent who was completely knocked out and taking Akuma's Raging Demon pose. Not only that, but he even had that character tattooed on his back in red.

Like he said, the photo was clearly a promo print for autographs. And at the bottom, written in bold letters, there was "Tyrone Reynold, the Raging God of War."

"...Definitely a giga weeb."

I chuckled and smiled at the photo before writing a reply to Mister Reynolds, thanking him for the picture and Christmas wish.

And as for what to bring back from Japan...

"Hm." I rubbed my chin. "I think Kanon released this year, right?"

Considering that was my competition, I asked him to bring a copy back.

...I definitely wasn't just doing it out of hubris to see if I was better than the masters of the past. Definitely not.

"Y-Yuyu... That feels-"

"Shh... Not so loud, Rina."

...Okay. Yeah, done here.

I sent the email off to Mister Reynolds, wrapped up writing the first few chapters of the Game Mechanic Bible, shipped it out, and then booked it out of the office.

I was NOT about to eavesdrop on sexytime between two of the women I viewed as motherfigures in my life.

There might be some degenerate pervs who would abuse their kid privilege to get off on that, but DEFINITELY not me.

Like, ew.

I was NOT Rudeus- I mean, a certain jobless reincarnator.

...Anyway.

Back upstairs.

Let's pretend nothing happened, hang out with April, and then get through Christmas Eve dinner-

Oh god.

Note to self.

Go to sleep ASAP with April tonight since the adults were DEFINITELY going to have loveydovey time due to it being Christmas Eve...

===

A couple of hours later in the evening, it was time for dinner.

I'd gone ahead to help Mom and Dad set up the table, with April joining us.

Similar to Thanksgiving, we had a turkey, glazed ham, pastries, and some Chinese food that Mama Yue had prepped ahead of time.

But unlike Thanksgiving, it was just us.

Which meant that when me, Mom, Dad, and April sat at the table, Mama Yue and Serena's absence was VERY conspicuous.

April frowned and looked around the room. "Where's Mommy? Did she leave?"

Mom giggled and looked over at Dad.

Dad coughed, his ears a bit red. "Well, April. Your mother is a bit..."

Before he even had a chance to say an excuse, Serena and Mama Yue both walked into the kitchen, both freshly showered and wearing long-sleeved shirts along with scarves.

It was a TERRIBLE disguise. And it wasn't fooling my parents or me.

But April, bless her innocent heart, just looked confused. "Huh? Mommy? Are you cold? Why are you dressed like that?"

Serena let out a nervous laugh. "J-Just a bit under the weather, dear..."

Mama Yue deliberately refused to meet my gaze.

Probably because she realized in hindsight just how much I heard due to the vents. She also refused to meet the eyes of both Mom and Dad too.

Considering Mom looked like she'd seen a Christmas miracle and Dad looked like he'd just solved the mystery of the century though, I didn't blame her.

So instead of letting the awkward atmosphere linger, I said, "Great! Now that you're here, let's eat."

"R-Right." Mama Yue gave me a grateful smile and then sat down, subconsciously holding Serena's hand as she did.