Tears are Thicker Than Blood

Laughing, the group traded looks. The planet they’d decided to “reconnoiter”—or vacation on—was renowned for its entertainment. There was a juggler manipulating three glowing balls of energy and trading them with another juggler. The clown with the nerf balancing on his hand was always a favorite... but right now, most of the girls had their eyes on a group of males.

“N’aboo!” Ippin squealed. “I knew they’d be here!”

Her sister, Priire, good-naturally stepped on her foot. “Give me a break. Please!”

Nom nodded her head, agreeing with Priire.

An evil look crept into Priire’s eye. “You know what? I’m going to go over there to that ugly blonde one…”

“Which one?” the man beside her whispered in her ear, making her giggle. Kousotsu grinned.

“He is not!” Ippin exclaimed at the same time.

“Where was I? Oh yeah. I’m going to go over there and tell him to come tell Nom she’s a bad cook. Just to see what happens.”

The cat on Priire’s shoulder dug his claws into her shoulder. “Baby, this is so a bad time to teach Nom about humor!”

A confused look passed over the Dathomirian witch’s face. “That was funny? Why? I would electrocute him.”

Everyone laughed. They were so tied up in their jokes that they had missed the fact that Kirin and Ippin were maneuvering them closer and closer to the group of males. Mika was not, as usual, very coordinated. She tripped over the only raised stone in the walkway, unbalanced the cat who’d just jumped on her shoulder, and skidded right into the center of the crowd around the boy band. Solai was still yelling when he landed right on top of the head of one of the members.

“Solai! Mika!”

Priire tried to push ahead, but the sheer force of attraction around the band made the wall of people impossible to penetrate. “Sith.” As calm as any trained killer, Priire unholstered her blaster. “Excuse me,” she said politely. Kirin gladly was the “hostage” as Priire moved forward, the blaster to her friend’s head.

“Sith of a way to get an autograph,” one of the people said. “Must be a groupie.”

Priire shot him.

“Aster! That was not funny!”

The blonde shrugged. “It was on stun,” she protested as her sister got ready for a tirade.

The redhead’s protest was cut off as she realized he was looking at her. Asking if she needed help. And if the girl with the gun was going to hurt anyone else. Ippin was about to respond that Priire was just playing around when she realized her twin was setting up for a shot at the man.

“Stop that,” she hissed. “You are going to get us in trouble!”

Kirin and Kousotsu were helping Mika up and giving her another bandage for her collection. Solai was grumbling under his breath from his perch on Kirin’s shoulder. Mika gave everyone a thumbs up, telling them she was fine… just before she slid in some ice cream. The dark haired man caught her before she got hurt.

“Sorry about that,” Priire said to the band with a roguish smile. She twirled the gun around a black gloved finger and holstered it in a smoothly practiced movement.

“I just got an idea for a song!” one of the band gushed. “She’s gonna shoot someone, yeah, is it gonna be me?”

Someone touched Priire’s shoulder. As the blonde turned around the woman started reading her the riot act. “You should not have exposed our children to that display of violence! It was unnecessary, even if the band wanted to sell more music! Their emotions are wrecked! That was…”

Her words were cut off as Priire took the opportunity provided by the widening ring to launch a spin kick. Her foot rested squarely on the woman’s chest. “Since when,” the blonde growled, “have you worried about the emotions of children?” Priire shoved slightly, pushing the woman backwards. The green-eyed blonde herself stood above the fallen woman. “Since when have you cared about anything!”

“Priire?” Ippin said, not used to this hurting side of her sister. “What…?” The redhead couldn’t say anything else to Priire because the blonde wasn’t listening. This was not any fault of Priire’s, but more the fault of the man who had stepped from the crowd and lunged at the girl. Priire danced out of the way and made a beckoning motion with her black gloved hand.

“Come on. I haven’t sent you to the hospital for a while.”

The burly teenager across the circle stopped in his tracks. “Priire?”

The blonde nodded and rolled her eyes. “The last time I saw you was right before your surgery. Ready for some more?”

He backed into the mass of people, only to reappear a few moments later with the woman and another man. “Young lady. We have been…”

“Don’t give me that line about looking for me. You can’t find me if I don’t want to be found.”

Ippin was standing beside Priire, giving her an odd look. Kousotsu walked up behind her and put his hands on her trembling shoulders. “Priire, what’s wrong?”

In the quiet before anyone answered, you could hear Kirin whispering. “Nom! This is not the time to develop your sense of humor!”

“I thought that the taking of bets on a fight was funny!”

No one laughed. The situation was tense; laughter had no place there. “My beloved -” Priire’s sarcasm was like a deep wound “- relations.”

“We’re your family,” the man corrected.

“Tears are thicker than blood, and you gave me too much of both,” Priire shot back. “This is my family now.” Her eyes took in the man on her left and the girl on her right. “This is the only place no one’s ever rejected me. This is the only family that. Hasn’t. Made. Me. Cry.” Priire’s last words burned like the breath of a street side fire breather. She clasped her hands together and bent her head down, vowing not to kill anyone. Not this time.

An arm snaked around her waist, and one around her shoulder made her look up, burning green eyes shooting fire across the space.

“Who are they?” the teen scoffed. “Castaways? Lovers?” He snickered. “Boy, they’re in for a surprise."

A lightsaber’s blade reached across the distance to light the boy’s face with its blue glow. “Tempt me,” Kousotsu dared him.

Priire rested her head on the black-haired man’s shoulder. “My boyfriend.” Lifting her head and looking right at Ippin, she said, “My twin sister.” Then she looked at the three in front of her. “My family.”

“I hope you got autographs for me!” Ippin yelled at Kirin. The ice-haired girl smiled and walked over to Priire and Ippin.

“Actually… I invited them over for dinner.”

“NOOOOOOO!!” Priire and Kousotsu yelled.

Kirin just winked.