"You look beautiful," Zhen said, smiling.
Finn looked down at the navy blue flared mini skirt and simple, fitting white shirt that made up her outfit. She'd finish it with a white pair of old school sneakers and navy-blue purse. She'd chosen to go with a low-key prosthetic that looked exactly like her leg, also designed and printed by Zhen, her tattoo reproduced perfectly. Zhen had on a pair of blue skinny jeans, a light blue shirt and a dark blue blazer that exactly matched her belt, also with white sneakers to finish the look.
"I didn't know you were also wearing blue," said Finn, quickly adding, "I'll go change."
"Don't you dare!" said Zhen, walking over and taking her hand. "We're already late and you look amazing. Besides, either no one will care, or they'll just think we're doing a stepsister matching thing. No doubt Akemi and Sorcha will be matching their outfits."
"No one will think that. We're not ten," said Finn, whining just a little. "We absolutely look like a couple."
"Finn," Zhen said with a fake, serious look on her face. "You go back into that room and I'm leaving without you."
Finn went back into her room and changed into a pink floral sundress mini and a red sweater folded halfway up her forearms. She kept the white sneakers but changed her makeup a little. She walked to the living room abut twenty minutes later to find Zhen playing on her wrist wrap.
"You didn't leave," said Finn.
"You're the worst," Zhen said with a smile and a shake of her head. She got up from the sofa, snapped the foldable screen onto her wrist and pointed to a box on the kitchen counter. "Don't forget the gift."
The human reporters had left them alone, but there was a small flock of paparazzi and reporter drones waiting outside the apartment building to follow them. Finn ignored them. Their involvement with whatever was happening with MechSoft was still speculation and she hoped it would stay that way. One good thing that had come from all of this, apart from the fall of an unscrupulous corporate giant, was that MechSoft had dropped their charges against Zhen. They didn't want to admit or even hint at the fact that they'd been taken down by two teens. This descent had quickly become a major happening. Even bigger than the fall of the corporate giant Monsanto a few decades earlier.
"Was it this bad with the engine?" said Zhen, looking up at the hovering news drones.
"Worse," said Finn. "Especially when corporations started bidding for the asteroid mine's resources."
"Then Mechsoft won."
"Yeah. It went quiet after that. Darren helped. A lot." said Finn. Not wanting to dwell on Darren and the memories that mentioning him dredged up, she changed the subject. "You got a new job."
"The Amputee Astronauts Company caught wind of the prostheses I made you," Zhen explained. "And they know about my extensive experience at GSI as an active astronaut. They hired me to design modular amputee prostheses and ship parts for space travel."
"That's an incredible opportunity."
"It's better than being out of work, but I'm still not ever going to be allowed to another space mission," said Zhen. "What about you? I heard about the Gemini Ventures account. I'm sorry."
"They loved our presentation, even if it was Jani who presented it," said Finn. "But they hate my recently acquired infamy."
"They don't know you," Zhen replied. "They don't know you'll get stuck on getting them back for as long as it takes."
Finn laughed. Zhen was right. She'd already started planning on winning them over. They were going to play a large part in the creation of her company, an entity that would help other corporations consider using more open source resources or even becoming open source themselves. Her career progression was the one thing she had that gave her hope and a purpose right now. There was no way she was losing that too if she could help it.
The rest of the drive was silent, both lost in their thoughts. Finn wanted to be happy. Optimistic. But she wasn't. Not really. She couldn't help it. Everything was sort of working out, but nothing was at the same time. She could feel the growing distance between her and Zhen, and it was killing her to know that she had to maintain it for their sakes and the sake of their parents' happiness. She started to question if it was worth it.
Walking up to the door to her childhood home, Zhen stopped her before she knocked.
"Wait," said Zhen.
"What?"
"Finn, we can't mess this up for them, no matter what," said Zhen. She took a deep breath before saying the next words. "Until we find each other in the next lifetime."
Finn let a heavy feeling of loss settle in her heart. She nodded. "And the next."
"And the one after that."
"Ad infinitum."
The door flew open just as Finn raised her hand to the doorbell.
"Girls! Finally!" called out Finn's mum, crushing them both into a tight hug. "Come on in! The food's good and the company's better!"
The party was amazing. All of Finn's family was there. Not a difficult thing to imagine. The Darrow family loved family get togethers. Aldo seemed a little overwhelmed by the intense feminine energy around. There weren't that many men around, and more than a few of the ladies were smitten with him. Zhen split from Finn and went to save her dad while Finn walked over to her nephews and nieces. As always, they were in the middle of mischief. They'd been slowly eating the engagement cake from the inside and replacing the outside pieces. She lifted the tablecloth to find a gaggle of giggling kids with chocolate all over their faces. And panic.
"Relax," said Finn, laughing. "I'm not going to rat you out. But maybe you should go play elsewhere? Maybe print a backup cake?"
"I don't want to print cake," said one of the twins. Jax and Max were the naughtiest toddlers on the planet. They were the ring leaders of their posse. "I want to play hide and seek."
"Me too!" came the chorus from the other toddlers.
"Come with us Aunt Finn!"
"Play with us!"
"Yeah! Be fun!"
Finn grabbed her chest like she'd been shot. "Be fun? That hurts."
"Will you play with us?" asked Jax.
"Will you?" Max added for good measure.
Finn texted Zhen to set up the printer to print a new cake. "Alright. We can play hide and seek."
"Yes!" the chant went around the group of toddlers.
Jax took Finn's hand at the same time as Max.
"Hey, she's my friend." Said Jax.
"She's mine." Max shot back, pulling Finn's hand.
"Can I be both your friends?"
They turned to her and simultaneously shouted, "No!"
They jumped on each other and started to tumble on the ground, fighting. Finn sighed and pulled the two boys apart. They kept struggling to attack each other.
One of the other toddlers shrugged and said, "They don't share."
"Right," said Finn laughing.
"Boys, what if there you each had a friend?"
They stopped struggling and listened. Finn texted Zhen, who was there in a minute. Max immediately claimed her as his.
"Hide and seek?" asked Zhen, smiling.
Finn shrugged. "You in?"
"Of course!" said Zhen, prompting a chorus of 'Yes!' and hi fives all round.
Jax and Finn hid in a closet the second time round. Just as they were getting comfortable, the closet doors opened to reveal Max and Zhen.
"This is our hiding spot!" said Jax.
"They're coming," said Zhen, looking past the closet door. "We're going to need to share."
"No!" the twins protested.
"Then we all lose." Said Zhen.
This caught the twins' attention. They conferred for a second, then turned back to the girls.
"We hate losing more than sharing," said Max.
"We'll share the closet," said Jax.
The twins pushed the girls into the small space and squeezed in after them. Finn and Zhen were facing each other, cramped in the closet with the two little munchkins at their feet, trying to hold back fits of giggles. Finn and Zhen looked at each other and smiled, lit only by the slits at the top of the closet doors, their faces only inches from each other. Finn's heart was definitely going to give them away with the jackhammer pace it picked up, especially when Zhen gave her that smile that made that small space suddenly seem incredibly warm.
"Stuck in the closet," Zhen mouthed.
Finn almost laughed out loud. She mouthed back, "Shut up."
The door suddenly burst open and the four of them exploded outwards, scaring the bejesus out of their tiny pursuers. All of them fell to the ground and into a tickle war. Watching Zhen playing with her nieces and nephews, Finn knew she was going to remember this moment forever. And that it was going to break her heart every time she recalled it.