Read or Dream: Truth or Fantasy
Maggie Mui smiled shyly as her sisters returned to the houseboat that
they had inherited from their former employer Mr. Lee, the waves gently
rocking the book laden craft. "Welcome home," the tall black haired
woman said, her red eyes gently welcoming.
"Hi Maggie," Michelle Cheung rushed right over to hug her impulsively as
the busty blonde said, "Junior says hi, by the way." She looked Maggie
up and down before asking, "Have you been getting taller?"
"Six feet is enough," Maggie said with some dignity, her pants and
t-shirt a bit wrinkled from sitting on the floor to read.
"Why can't I ever grow?" Anita King complained good naturedly, the
younger pink haired girl drinking from a bottle of milk.
"Give it time," Michelle chuckled. She brightened a bit as she looked at
Maggie, "Oh, did Sensei call you yet?"
"Sumiregawa-sensei?" Maggie looked surprised, "No, why?"
"She said that she recieved a message for you," Michelle said.
"Really?" Maggie blinked. She walked to the door, slipping her shoes on
as she said, "Would you mind if I...?"
"Eh, go on," Anita waved it off casually as she said, "I'll make dinner
this time."A grin, "You'll owe me one, tho."
"Yay, curry!" Michelle smiled.
"Thank you," Maggie gave a little bow and left.
The walk over to Nenene Sumiregawa's apartment was a quiet one, the
afternoon sun shining down on her pleasantly as Maggie considered her
current life. She, her two sisters Michelle and Anita and their friend
Yomiko Readman were running the new Paper Sisters Detective Agency,
recovering books and lost pets as needed. Michelle and Nancy were
working together to watch over Junior, Anita and her classmate Hisami
were as close as ever, Nenene and Yomiko had moved in together and
Maggie... well, Maggie regularly found herself reading in her little
storage room.
Maggie sighed. It wasn't that she resented the friendships that her big
and little sisters had found, it was just that she wished she could also
find something like that for herself. Yes, Nenene was her friend too,
but Yomiko would always be first in her eyes...
"About time you got here," Nenene said with an affectionate sort of
grumpiness as Maggie arrived.
"I'm sorry," Maggie said sheepishly, wondering if Nenene had plans.
"I was kidding," Nenene led her inside.
Maggie smiled a bit as she repeated, "Sorry."
Nenene snorted softly as they went through the book strewn living room.
"So, when you told me about your problems finding work in Hong Kong I
got to thinking," she said as they reached the stairs.
"Yes?" Maggie dodged a pile of books. 'Yomiko is reading about as much
as usual,' she thought as they went up stairs.
"I thought I should bring you all into the twenty first century," Nenene
opened her office door upstairs, "and made you a web page."
"Like on the internet," Maggie said tentatively. It wasn't that she knew
nothing about it, but she couldn't really claim any expertese in it,
either. For a bibliophile like herself, reading words on a screen
somehow lacked... something.
"Yeah," Nenene lead the way into her office.
Unlike the little piles of books that now were scattered through the
house this office was messy in it's own unique way, the workroom of a
focused and intense individual. Reference books sat on the desk, piled
awkwardly, while papers covered with hand written notes covered many of
the available surfaces.
"Anyway," Nenene sat down at the computer, pausing to shift books over
so that Maggie could see better, "I had a friend set up a 'Paper Sisters
Detective Agency' page with your photos and a summary of the kinds of
jobs you do."
"So what happened?" Maggie asked, sensing that somehow something had.
"A few days after it went up I got this," and Nenene clicked on her
browser. First Nenene's home page came up, then she went to a simple but
attactively designed site with the Paper Sister's photos on it. Clicking
a link on the page she accessed a mail program, typing in a name and
password to unlock it.
"Hey, that's my name there," Maggie blinked as she saw her name attached
to one of several files, all lined up in a row.
"Email for you," Nenene clicked on one.
Oddly on the top of the message it said who it was from, and Maggie's
eyes widened as she murmured, "Fay?"
"Fay?" Nenene repeated, looking up at Maggie in surprise. Her lips
quirked in surprise, "Oooh, hiding a girlfriend somewhere?"
"It's not like that," Maggie stumbled, blushing.
Nenene just grinned, clearly enjoying seeing Maggie be so flustered.
"Tell me about it," she gently invited.
"Uhm," Maggie blushed charmingly, then began to explain.
Passing by a house Maggie had been hit in the head by a paper airplane,
one created from a page from a book. Realizing they were coming from a
second story window, Maggie had talked, then surprisingly been invited
inside. There she had met Fay, a blind young woman whom Maggie had found
a almost instant rapport with.
"Only you could meet someone that way," Nenene shook her head.
"I read books for her for awhile, even helped encourage her to have a
operation to help her vision," Maggie mused, "but..."
"Yeah?" Nenene asked.
"When my sisters and I found out our pasts were fiction created by
Dokusensha, I thought that included my meeting Fay, too," Maggie said.
"Obviously not all of it," Nenene gestured to the email.
"I should see her," Maggie got up then stiffened as she softly groaned,
"but they're back in Hong Kong!"
"Not quite," Nenene shook her head.
"Huh?" Maggie looked at her in surprise.
"Apparently Fay's mother moved them to Japan after the operation,"
Nenene revealed, "or so it says here."
"Right," Maggie sat back down to read, discovering that Fay missed her,
talking about the girl's moving and even...
"What?" Nenene noticed Maggie's blush and glanced at the screen. "Oooh,
a kiss!"
"We didn't," Maggie blushed, "but Fay wanted me to, I think."
"So," Nenene said, "what are you going to do now?"
"I'd like to see her," Maggie scratched at her cheek nervously as she
asked, "do you think she'd want to?"
"Reading that email, yes," Nenene nodded firmly. Looking at Maggie
sympathetically she said, "Do you want help writing a email back?"
"Please," Maggie smiled.
With a spring in her step Maggie returned home, a smile tugging at her
lips. She had told Fay her address and phone number, and felt reasonably
certain that she'd contact her. Crossing the bridge and opening the door
to their houseboat she called, "I'm home!"
"Welcome back," Michelle called, "Junior is here, visiting with Anita."
"Hi," Junior looked up, the blue haired boy smiling shyly.
"I have some good news," Maggie said as she took off her shoes, "Fay
contacted me, she's in Tokyo and wants to meet."
"I'm so happy," Maggie clapped her hands.
"I'd like to meet her," Anita noted, "we need to be sure she's right for
you."
"Anita's right," Michelle nodded vigorously, "bring Fay over as soon as
possible."
"Let's see how it goes," Maggie blushed.
"Yeah, I remember bringing Hisami over," Anita smiled slightly.
"Bad?" Junior asked.
"You have no idea," Anita sighed.
"It does make me wonder," Michelle said as she took Maggie's dinner out,
"how many of our other adventures were real, and which were made up by
Dokusensha."
"At least we can be sure that the whole writing on the Moon thing was
false," Anita said to them firmly.
"Writing on the moon? You mean when it said," Junior frowned as he
remembered, "See you later, Anita?"
"Dwah?" all three paper sisters gazed at him in shock.
"I always wondered if that had something to do with you," Junior
admitted.
"We never told him..." Anita began.
"There's no reason Dokusensha would let him know," Michelle continued.
"Which means it was real," Maggie whispered.
"Hey!" Anita squealed as she was bodily picked up by Maggie and Michelle
and marched over to her school desk, "What's the big idea?!"
"Start writing," Michelle handed her a pen.
"Why?" Anita blinked.
"Ms Alien said she wanted to read your novel," Maggie reminded her, "and
we only have ninety nine years till she's coming back!"
Junior shook his head, "I never know what's going on."
End
Notes: I LOVED the Fay/Maggie bit in Read or Dream the manga, and was
very disapointed when I found out in ROD the TV that the series was a
dream. So, I decided to write my way out of that...lol. Pairings are
Anita/Hisami, Yomiko/Nenene, Michelle/Nancy and Maggie/Fay. :) Oh, the
alien bit... In Chapter 4 of Read or Dream the paper sisters save a girl
whom it turns out is a alien who's job is to destroy the Earth for not
progressing enough. Maggie and Michelle try to talk her out of it with
great books, while Anita uses force. Intrigued by Anita the alien girl
challenges Anita to write a book, saying she'll be back in 100 years.
She also leaves a message on the moon saying "See you later, Anita."
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