Chapter 5: The Age Game, Round Two
The hug lasted longer than any of them expected. Not the kind of embrace you break out of politely, but the kind you sink into, the kind that recalibrates something deep in your chest and leaves you permanently altered. Hana was at the center, her laughter bright and breathless, her arms wrapped around as much of her family as she could reach.
Mika's cheek was pressed against Sage's shoulder, her body trembling slightly. Sage could feel the dampness of tears soaking through her flannel. She tightened her arm around Mika's waist.
"Holy shit," Piper whispered from somewhere to the left, her voice cracking. "I think I need to lie down."
"No lying down," Meilin said, her voice muffled by Hana's hair. "We're staying right here until Mama says we're done."
Hana made a happy humming sound. She patted Meilin's head with a clumsy, open-palmed motion, then patted Juniper's head, then reached toward Sage.
"Mama's head," Hana said, giggling. "All heads."
Sage laughed, a wet, strangled sound that was half-sob, half-laugh. She leaned her forehead against Hana's, breathing in the familiar scent of her mother's coconut shampoo and something warmer underneath, something like home.
"You're such a goofball," Sage whispered.
"Goofball," Hana echoed, delighted. "Piper goofball."
"Hey!" Piper's head appeared over Sage's shoulder, hair mussed, grin enormous. "I am not the only goofball in this family and you know it."
"Goofball," Hana repeated, patting Piper's cheek. "Goofball, goofball."
"Outvoted," Piper said, throwing her hands up. "Your mom is a tyrant. An adorable, brain-melting tyrant."
The group unraveled slowly, each person peeling away from the center with reluctance, wiping their eyes, sniffing, adjusting their clothes. Mika landed on the couch beside Sage, their thighs pressing together, and Hana beamed at them from her wheelchair.
"Pretty," Hana said, reaching for Mika's hand. "Pretty here."
Mika let Hana take her hand. The grip was loose, uncoordinated, but the joy behind it was unmistakable.
"I'm glad I'm here, Mama," Mika said. "There's nowhere else I'd rather be."
The room settled into a contented hum. Juniper fetched fresh drinks from the kitchenette, returning with a tray of glasses, the amber liquid catching the Edison light. Meilin adjusted Hana's position in her chair, smoothing the blanket over her legs. Piper flopped onto the floor with her back against the sectional, legs sprawled out on the deep teal rug.
"Okay," Piper announced, holding up her glass. "Round of applause for Hana, who just emotionally destroyed every single one of us. Ten out of ten. Would get wrecked again."
"Hear, hear," Juniper said, raising her glass.
Sage rolled her eyes but smiled. She looked at Mika, who was watching the family with something like awe, her dark eyes wide and soft. Sage reached over and laced their fingers together.
"You doing okay?" Sage asked, quiet enough that only Mika could hear.
Mika nodded. "Yeah. I think I am. I think I might be doing better than okay."
Something warm bloomed in Sage's chest. She squeezed Mika's hand.
Hana's attention drifted around the room. Her brow furrowed again, that same look of deep concentration from earlier. She studied each face in turn, slow and deliberate, as if cataloging something important. Then she pointed at herself.
"Hana old?"
Silence rippled through the room. Piper's drink paused halfway to her lips. Juniper's expression went carefully neutral.
Sage's breath caught. She set down her glass and moved off the couch, kneeling in front of Hana's chair. She took both of her mother's hands in hers.
"You're thirty-six, Mama," she said, her voice steady, though her heart was pounding. "And you're perfect."
Hana processed this. Those large, dark brown eyes blinked slowly, taking it in. Her lips moved silently, practicing.
"Thirty-six," she said. The word came out as "dirty-shixth," but she said it with pride. She looked down at her own hands, then back up. "Hana dirty-shixth."
"Yes, baby," Sage said. "You're thirty-six."
Hana nodded thoughtfully. Then she turned her gaze to Meilin.
"Meilin old?"
Meilin choked. It was a small sound, barely audible, but she had been mid-sip of her drink and had to set it down quickly, pressing a hand to her chest. She smiled, her eyes shining, and reached out to touch Hana's face.
"Correction," Hana said, sassing her wife with her limited words.
Meilin laughed, a wet sound. "Forty-two, my love. I'm forty-two."
Hana's brow furrowed deeper. She tilted her head, carefully computing, then reached out and touched Meilin's cheek with surprising tenderness.
"Meilin forty-two," she repeated. "Pretty forty-two."
Meilin's face crumpled and she buried it in Hana's hair, shoulders shaking. Juniper reached over and placed a steadying hand on her mother's back, mouthing something Sage couldn't catch.
Hana looked around the room again. She found Sage, still kneeling before her.
"Sage old?"
Sage's throat tightened. "Twenty-eight, Mama. I'm twenty-eight."
"Twenty-eight," Hana said, nodding. She looked at Juniper.
"Juniper old?"
"Thirty-two, Mama. I'm thirty-two." Juniper's voice was calm, but her jaw was tight. She blinked hard.
Hana turned to Piper, who was already sitting up, bracing herself.
"Piper old?"
Piper took a breath. "Twenty-five, Mama. Four years younger than Sage. Remember, I'm the baby."
Hana considered this. "Piper baby. Yes." She laughed, a clap of pure joy. "Piper baby."
"Damn right, I'm the baby," Piper said, but her voice had gone thick. She looked away, rubbing at her eyes with the heel of her palm.
The room held its collective breath. There was only one person left. Hana's gaze drifted slowly, carefully, until it landed on Mika.
"Mika old?"
The question hung in the air like a struck bell. Mika blinked, clearly startled to be included. She glanced at Sage, then back at Hana, a small, nervous smile tugging at her lips.
"Twenty-nine," she said. "I'm twenty-nine, Mama."
Hana studied Mika for a long moment. Her eyes moved over Mika's face—the septum ring, the dark lashes, the slight flush on her cheeks. She tilted her head, a gesture that looked almost like a tilt of approval.
"Mika twenty-nine," Hana repeated.
"Twenty-nine," Mika confirmed.
Hana nodded, slow and solemn. Then her face broke into a grin so wide her big front teeth caught the light, and she clapped her hands together.
"All pretty," she declared. "All family."
The sound that came out of Piper was not a sob but something adjacent to it—a strangled laugh that turned into a hiccup. Juniper pressed the heels of her palms into her eyes. Meilin made a sound like a wounded animal, reaching out to pull Hana into her arms again, whispering something in Japanese too soft for anyone else to hear.
Sage was on her feet, pulling Mika up with her, and then they were moving, all of them flowing toward Hana like water finding its level.
The group hug formed naturally. Juniper behind, arms wrapped around her sisters. Piper tucked in sideways, head against Hana's shoulder. Meilin holding both of them, her face buried in Hana's hair. Sage squeezing in from the front, Mika tucked against her side, half-inside the circle, half-outside, but pulled in by the gravitational force of the moment.
Hana laughed, that bright, bubbling sound, and patted whoever she could reach.
"Love," she said. "Love love love."
"Love you, Mama," Piper said into her sleeve. "Love you so goddamn much."
"You're supposed to say 'love you,' not just 'love,'" Juniper managed, but it came out all wrong, choked at the edges.
"Love," Hana repeated, glowing. "All love."
The chat had gone absolutely silent, per Piper's guesstimation. She peeked at her phone over Sage's shoulder.
"Oh shit," she said. "Chat's crying. Like actual crying emojis. A hundred of them."
"Piper," Meilin said, her voice warning.
"What? I'm just saying. The entire chat is in shambles." Piper sniffled, wiping her nose. "Forty thousand people are having a collective meltdown over our mother being adorable."
"Let them melt," Juniper said. "It's good for them."
Mika laughed, a watery sound. She was still tucked against Sage's side, and Sage could feel her trembling, but it wasn't from cold. She looked up at Sage, eyes red-rimmed but bright.
"Your family is ridiculous," Mika said. "I love them."
Sage's heart clenched. "I love you."
Mika opened her mouth, but no sound came out. She closed it, then opened it again, then settled for squeezing Sage's hand so hard it ached.
"Okay," Meilin finally said, pulling back and wiping her face with the back of her hand. "Okay, that's enough emotional destruction for one evening. Hana, baby, you hungry?"
Hana considered this, her brow furrowing again. Then she nodded, decisive. "Hungry. Eat."
"Starshipping," Piper said, scrambling up off the floor. "Dibs on the last spring roll."
"You always call dibs on the last spring roll," Juniper said, following her. "And you always lose it to Mama."
"Only because Mama has the fastest grab in the West."
"Her fine motor skills are literally impaired."
"Doesn't matter, she still beats me every time." Piper's voice carried from the kitchenette. "She's a spring roll wizard. A dumpling queen. I can't compete with that."
Meilin followed them, leaving Sage and Mika alone with Hana in the living room. The fairy lights flickered on a circuit, resettling into their warm amber glow.
Hana looked at Mika, then at Sage, then back at Mika. She pointed at Mika, then at herself, then at the spot on the couch where Sage sat.
"Pretty sit," Hana said. "Sit pretty."
Sage laughed. "Yeah, Mama. We're sitting pretty." She tucked a strand of hair behind Hana's ear, careful, gentle. "You want to watch TV? Or do you want more music?"
Hana's face brightened. "Music. K-pop. Pretty noises."
"Pretty noises," Sage repeated. She looked at Mika. "You're in for a treat. Her two favorite groups are—"
"BTS and Blackpink," Mika said, grinning. "She's mentioned it in the stream, remember? Her 'little brothers' and her 'baby girls.'"
Sage blinked. "You've actually watched her streams. Like, not just the clips I showed you."
Mika shrugged, a flush creeping up her cheeks. "I wanted to know her. All of her. The parts you didn't show me too."
Sage wasn't sure how it was possible to fall in love with someone again, fully and completely, in the span of a single evening. But she felt it. That soft, devastating crash of recognition.
"Okay," she said, her voice rough. "Okay, that's—you're something else, Mika."
"I've been told." Mika grinned.
The K-pop playlist started from the kitchen, Piper's doing, and a bright electronic beat filled the room. Hana immediately began bobbing her head, her whole body swaying in her chair, hands patting her thighs.
"Pretty noises," Hana sang along, mangling the Korean lyrics with joyful abandon. "Pretty pretty noises."
Mika laughed, and Sage watched the sound light up her whole face. This beautiful, strange, impossibly kind woman who had somehow walked into their lives and decided to stay.
Hana caught Mika's gaze across the room. She pointed at her, then pointed at Sage, then pointed at herself.
"All pretty," she said again. "All family."
The words settled into the room like a prayer.
And somewhere in the kitchen, Piper's voice rang out: "I'm calling it now, Mika's moving in within six months."
"Mika is still your guest," Meilin said.
"Watch me," Piper said. "Six months. Tops. This family's got a gravitational pull."
Juniper said something Sage couldn't hear, and then Piper yelped, probably getting flicked on the head.
Sage looked at Mika. Mika looked back.
Neither of them said anything.
But Mika's hand found Sage's knee, and stayed there, warm and steady, as the music swelled around them.