The most annoying thing about having great parents is how goddamn loving and supportive they can be sometimes. I am trying to mope about my boyfriend of over a year dumping me for some other non-binary person at the college he went out of state for, when my dad has to interrupt me listening to music at top volume to ask me questions about it.

"Okay, I hear you with the SZA on loop in here, so do you want to tell me what's wrong?"

I scowl into my pillow and refuse to roll over or turn down the song about killing my ex. "He broke up with me, Dad. For this person with blue hair and even more pronouns than me, I guess."

"Whoa, even more pronouns, huh? That's rough." He walks up to the side of my bed and picks up my phone to turn the music down. Not a bad idea. I was starting to feel downright homicidal, and that can make my powers go haywire.

I take a deep breath and try to release the tension as it comes out. That helps.

Learning how to meditate and clear my mind was one of the first things my dad helped me do when I confessed to him that I could for real for real read minds. He made me repeat 'for real' about fifteen times before he cracked up and told me he believed me.

My dad settles next to me and puts his hand on my back. I'm grateful for the way his thoughts always sound muted and unclear to me. For one thing, I don't want to hear his words of wisdom or his puns about more fish in the sea or whatever right now. The warm sensation of his love and sympathy is enough.

"I even told him we could try opening the relationship, but he said that wasn't fair to me! Me! I'm the one who suggested it!" I groan.

"I'll sic Fujiko on him next time he's in town, get her to poison him with one of those fertilizers they had to cancel," Dad says as he pats between my shoulder blades.

"Not the one that caused almost instant death in the lab rats?" I can't help it, I laugh.

"Oh, that one for sure. Somebody's got to get some use out of it."

"Dad. Mom wouldn't approve of you misusing science like that," I say reproachfully. He responds by ruffling my hair like he's done since I was a kid, which totally ruins my ponytail. "Ugh, now I'm going to have to restyle it before the party."

"You still up for coming? Your uncle would understand if you needed to stay home, under the circumstances."

"No, I can make it. I have to get up for class anyway," I say, sighing. Monday waits for no heartbreak.

"All right, make sure to give your mom a hug when you get home. I can pass the message on about the breakup if you want? Give her some warning?"

I roll my eyes but nod. "Yeah. You don't have to tell her too much, I can do the rest. Men," I say. There's time for one final sigh of disgust.

"That's what Jett always says too! See, this is why I married your mother and had a kid who's neither. You need to learn from me."

"Get out before I kill you." Laughing, I kick him off the bed with my feet.

* * *

My dad always says, if I'm not going to be either a superhero or a supervillain, but I'm stuck with my powers, I need to at least use them productively. That's why I correct people if they get my pronouns wrong or they think about me in a weird way. It's invasive, sure, but they deserve it a little bit? It's better than other stuff I could do.

Professor Blanc is a good teacher, but she was seriously bad with he/himming me at the start of the semester. The good news is, by this point in March, I've made her see the error of her ways.

She walks in, sees me in the front, and smiles at me, thinking They look nice today, which cheers me up a degree. It's nice to hear that I'm not a mess.

She's pretty, all right, only about 8 years older than the youngest of us. I'm not the only one who thinks it! Her long brown hair may always be tied up, but whom amongst us has not imagined her untying it and letting it fall over her freckled shoulders. In this fantasy her shoulders are bare. Maybe the rest of her?

At least five or six other people have imagined that! I am not alone here!

Not that I'd do anything about it. She must get tired of people drooling over her when she's nearly done with her doctorate and most passionate about literature and definitely not her students. I will go back to taking her seriously now that the dumb crush-on-my-teacher thoughts are over. I swear.

Her class actually turns out to be a decent distraction, and I think I contribute a few useful things to the discussion by the end of it.

* * *

オラン：ただいま。
ママ：おかえり！
オラン：お疲れ様ー！
ママ：もお疲れ。 別れ聞いたんだわ。話したくない？
オラン: ううん、結構だよ。良くなってる。準備しなきゃんだ。
ママ: 後で話せるわね。助けると思う。I love you.
オラン: Love you too, Mom.

* * *

I spend a while on my hair and figuring out exactly what to wear to meet my uncle's fiancé, so my parents head off without me. I can drive myself.

I'm not going to be the only teenager there, since the guy--Eric--has a daughter who's eighteen and some sort of fashion influencer. I don't want to embarrass myself by looking scrungy just because my boyfriend broke up with me on the worst possible day. I'm fashionable! I'm cool! Not sure what to call my style, but I like dark colors and androgynous stuff. I tug on a dark green cardigan with printed-on daisies and yellow buttons over my button-down to indicate I am not just a goth boy wearing all black.

As I finish my eyeliner in the mirror, for a reason I can't put my finger on, I find myself thinking:

Finally.

* * *

The worst feeling of déjà vu hits me as I go to ring the doorbell of Jett's fiancé's house. I've definitely never been to this neighborhood before, but there's something cozy about the building that I can't help but like. In the not-so-far distance, I hear the indistinct chatter of people on the back porch. I think that's my folks, my uncle, and his partner.

As soon as I push the doorbell, the faint sound of pounding feet running toward me rises from inside the house. Then, the door flies open, spilling warmth and light into the cool March air, illuminating the little golden figure who's standing there.

My heart pops like someone has shoved a pin in it when I take in the sight of her. Like, in a good way. It's a good pop.

"You made it," she says, her eyes as blue as they ever were, but her skin's a shade closer to her dad's, and her blonde hair darkens at the root in the way that natural color does. She's beautiful.

Wait, why do I know this? What did that just mean?

Listen up, nerd--I'll mostly stay quiet, but if you screw this up for us, I am going to start driving this bus, you hear me? Tell Violette you remember her.

"Hey! Uh, Violette? I remember you?" I say, because I do remember her, and also because my own internal dialogue is bullying me.

I'll do worse than bully you if you don't make her happy!

Okay, okay, I get it! Jeez!

"Yeah, I'm Violette," she says. Her slim smile, just like I remember it but also changed by her own design, makes my knees weak.

"Did you... rewrite the whole universe, like, way back?" I ask in a daze.

"Just a little. I got all of her power when she died, like, fwoom." She makes a small explosive gesture with one hand, then giggles at herself for doing it.

"My parents..." This is making my head spin.

"I met them, they're so nice, like you said."

I take a deep breath. "Violette, I'm literally a different person now. That was not a small change."

Oi, watch it.

She needs to know the truth!

I can clearly visualize the throat cutting gesture the old me is making, but I set it aside. They screwed everything up by lying to her, so it's not like they have room to criticize me. Not yet!

"Yeah, but..." She stands up straighter and turns serious. "I want to know you again. Better this time."

My heart pounds just thinking about it. Knowing her again and all the things that will entail. She's even more powerful than she used to be, a perfectly realized version of herself, and, if I am honest, some sort of succubus queen. Can I handle her?

"I'm really boring now," I say, before rubbing the back of my neck self-consciously. "Way less experienced too. I've had one boyfriend, and he just broke up with me."

Her eyes crinkle up as she smiles. "That's okay. I can reteach you. As long as you want to remember."

She holds her hand out, palm up, like she did for me so many times, beginning with that dream of a sandy beach.

"Are you still...?" I glance down the hallway, through to the back porch, where I can see the backs of Eric and Jett as they chat with my parents.

"Duh," she says. She holds her hand an inch higher. "We're going to be cousins, you know."

"Violette." I groan before shaking my head and placing my hand in hers.

There was never any fear of me saying no, and not just because the old me was shouting bloody murder in the back of my mind. There's only one real Violette in the whole world, and I would never let go of her.

"But my parents are off-limits, you got it, princess?" I say with some borrowed confidence from the former Oran. It feels almost natural. I think we could merge pretty well if we put our minds to it.

"Of course. But Jett's not." There's a look on her face that should scare me, but only makes me want to kiss her until we can't help but fall into a heap together.

"I can work with that."

"Oh! There's one more thing! I practiced really hard while I waited for you."

I tilt my head curiously, wondering what she's going to show me when she hasn't moved, but then the innate darkness around her mind (so familiar that I hardly noticed it) parts. This is more than existing alongside her thoughts, this is actually getting inside. To my delight, the candyfluff softness that I always envisioned washes over me.

It's so embarrassing to think they can hear me. I hope they don't think I'm weird. They look just as handsome as I remember. Don't think anything weird, don't think about their dick--is that weird though? No, that's normal for me, but it's too soon, don't think about--我说中文吧我爱你我爱你我爱你我爱你。

"Say it."

Say it.

Say it.

"I love you!" Her eyes widen as the words comes out, then she lets go of my hand to hold her burning cheeks while the opening to her mind snaps shuts like a bear trap.

"That was mean," she whines. Nevertheless, she steps back into the house to let me in.

"Guess I do still got it," I say with a laugh, and then I pull her into my arms and kiss her like the only air in the world comes from inside of her.