Fifteen

                                    

                                          
"I gotta say, this is an absolutely gorgeous view."
                          
        All the musicians and their significant others were chilling in the back yard since it was a relatively gorgeous Night, even by Hawaiian standards. The older adults'd decided to turn in for the Night shortly after the kids'd all been put to bed, citing jet-lag that was screwing with them. No one else was really surprised by that, 'cuz they'd all somewhat literally jumped back six hours in Time, rather than three.
                          
        Richie was content where he lay on a chaise lounge that'd been bought for the back yard, his fiancé more or less curled up behind him. Both'd agreed that trying to lay in the hammock–which'd long since been rehung–prolly wouldn't be the smartest of ideas. She wouldn't be able to get as comfortable at seven months pregnant, and she'd have a far harder Time trying to get back up without losing her balance and hurting herself. That meant said hammock was open for anyone else who decided they wanted it–which happened to be the shorter blonde and his girlfriend, who'd been introduced as Kristi.
                          
        Even though he still wouldn't mind socking the man a good one, the virtuoso readjusted his head enough to see Bret clearly. He couldn't deny that he was right about the view that his back yard afforded anyone who saw it, whether they were in the house or outside. But he was sure that he was essentially stalling on whatever he really wanted to say, considering they'd more or less come to an unspoken agreement about the Past earlier.
                          
        "That's part of why I picked this spot," Leilani finally said from behind him.
                          
        "Wait, you're the one who did?" The front man's eyes widened in surprise.
                          
        "Rob more or less turned me loose with his checkbook and told me to go crazy," she told him, shrugging. "As long as it was hard for folksta find, didn't completely drain his bank account, and anything that got built was sacral agenesis-friendly, he didn't particularly care."
                          
        "But I knew that she and Kai knew the Island better than I did when we started looking for a placeta build before Native Tongue dropped," Rob admitted. "They'd be able to pick the perfect spot better than I woulda 'cuz of that Knowledge."
                          
        "I guess that's fair enough," Bret agreed, nodding. "I mean, they were born and raised here, as far as I recall."
                          
        "Wait, really?" His girlfriend was the one who looked surprised now.
                          
        "Yeah, we were," the younger sister chuckled. "Our hometown's a couple hours South of here, but we moved to Hilo practically the Day we turned eighteen."
                          
        "Ya know, I've never actually asked just how far apartcha were born," Rikki mused.
                          
        "I turned twenty-eight back in July," her sister chuckled.
                          
        "I won't be twenty-five till March," Leilani said.
                          
        "What part of March?" the front man queried. "'Cuz I was born on the fifteenth."
                          
        "The thirtieth, so I'm as much a Pisces as I am an Aries," she answered with a laugh.
                          
        "Jesus Christ, no fuckin' Wonder you're the epitome of hot and cold!" Bret laughed.
                          
        "Hot, cold, both, or neither, she's the woman I love," the virtuoso told him. "Other than my own family and Kailani, pretty much no other woman's ever treated me like a fairly normal guy."
                          
        Kristi was the first to admit that she prolly woulda been one of those women, if only at first, 'cuz she'd never met anyone else like him or Rob. It woulda taken her a while to see past their physical differences and get to know them for the men they truly were at heart. To be quite honest, she was biting her tongue on a lotta shit that'd prolly offend them as it was so they could keep the somewhat tense Peace.