Aishiteru Means I Love You

A/N: Let's learn more Japanese! "Ohayo" (Oh-hi-oh) means "good morning", the greeting given before 12 noon. "Daijobo" (die-jo-bo) means something like "That's alright". "Nihongo hanasu." (uh...don't ask.) means "I speak Japanese." (But I don't! I had to get that off the internet! :#)) "Dekiru" means "Can do", and is often used when cheering someone on. "Ganbaru wa!" means "Do your best!" The lyrics to the lullaby are the Japanese lyrics to "Washu's Lullaby" from /Tenchi Muyo/. I'm not sure how close the English lyrics are to the Japanese. (The Japanese lyrics don't mention Washu by name, for instance.) I'm almost sure "Haruka na yume mite" means something close to "Dream of someplace far away". It's a fitting song for Brooklyn and Katana to sing to Nashville


"That's the color the sky is during the day?" Nashville asked in wonder, alternating between pulling his sunglasses off to better see the sky and putting them back on to shield himself from the too bright light. "It looks even better than it does on TV!" Nashville sniffed the air and listened to the distant echo of waves. "Is there an ocean nearby?" he asked. Without waiting for an answer, he turned and ran to the sound of waves and smell of salt water.

"Nashville!" Katana followed after him. "Stay where I can see you!"

Nashville didn't stop until he came to a bluff that overlooked the seashore. "Wow, look!" he said, pointing at waves crashing on the rocks. "It's just like the beginning of those Toei movies! And the sea is so blue, and it sparkles!" Nashville laid aside his kodachi and ran towards the sea, pulling off his tee-shirt and tossing it aside as he did.

"Nashville!" Katana called. "Be careful! The waves are dangerous!"

Brooklyn removed his armor and handed the computerized gauntlet he always wore to Lex. "I'll make sure he's safe." Nashville stood ankle deep in the surf, watching the waves in awe, not even moving when a large one came his way. Brooklyn got to him just in time to grab him by the waist. The wave knocked them both down. They came up sputtering, but laughing. Nashville splashed water at his father. Brooklyn splashed back.

"Oh, there you are!" Fox's voice surprised the gargoyles. "Angela, Katana, I'm afraid I overdid it again with the retail therapy and need you girls to take some things off my hands. Be dears and help me out? Ooh, Staghart, someone with your complexion is going to need this." She tossed him a tube of sunblock.

Katana decided Nashville would be safe with his father. "What's 'retail therapy'?" she asked Angela.

Angela shrugged. "It has something to do with buying clothes." The two female gargoyles left with Fox.

Goliath and Elisa lounged together by a sand dune while Brooklyn and Nashville played in the surf together. Broadway joined in, pretending to be a sea monster. Staghart filmed the hatchling at play with his family while Lex fiddled with the device Brooklyn had given him. After a while, Staghart joined Lex in the shady spot he was sitting at.

"Enjoying your day at the beach?" asked Lex.

"Eh, as much as anyone can while wearing a fur coat." Staghart said with a shrug.

"What's that on your nose?" Staghart's usually pink nose was now white with sunblock.

"It's to keep my nose from getting burned. Elisa showed me how to put it on. I'll probably need a shower later. Care to join me?"

Lex flushed at the salacious look Staghart gave him and turned his attention to the camcorder "So...more footage for the travel log?"

"Actually, it's more of a little present for Brooklyn and Katana." said Staghart. "Years later, when Nashville is all grown up, they can look at this and remember when he was young."

Lex smiled. "Did you know they have an album of pictures of him growing up on this thing?" he held up the device. "Brooklyn calls it a gPhone, something he got from the future. I'd love to know how it works, but I don't dare take it apart."

"What does it do?" asked Staghart.

"What doesn't it do?" replied Lex. "It has a self-setting chronometer, a GPS locator, translator software programmed with 15 different languages- one I've never heard of, internet connection, something called digital television that doesn't work, a camera option and album storage, a virtual library that includes all 7 of the Harry Potter books...."

"Get out!" said Staghart. "/Philosopher's Stone/ has barely been out a year and /Chamber of Secrets/ is only available in the UK."

"Brooklyn's been to the future." said Lex. "He probably downloaded them all there. The gPhone also has some device that's called a tricorder, just like on /Star Trek/, and seems to act just like one too. There's also an electromagnet, an MP3 player, a mini-scanner and it even plays /Tetris/ and /Space Invaders/."

"Yeah, but, can you call people with it?" Staghart asked with a smile.

"Oh, it's got that option too." said Lex. "After all, can't call it a gPhone unless it's also a phone. Looks like he has the numbers for the Xanatoses, Elisa, her parents and 911 programmed in. I asked Brooklyn how it worked, and he just smiled, shrugged and said 'I don't know. I didn't invent it.' I kinda wonder who did." He handed the gPhone to Staghart.

Staghart looked at the display screen. "I think I'd like to finish /Chamber of Secrets/ before I go to the next one, but, I'd still like to know what it will be called." Staghart used the touch activated mouse to select the virtual library function. "/Prisoner of Azkaban/, huh? It has a hippogriff on the cover. Old Pog will love that. You say it's got /Tetris/?" He noticed that Lexington was looking at him strangely. "What is it? Is the sunblock that weird looking?"

Lex blushed. "Uh, no, it's just...." He trailed off in a mumble.

"Sorry, Lex, I don't speak Mumble. Maybe it's one of the languages in the translation device." Staghart playfully brought up the translation software.

"I, um, said that I was just looking at your eyes." Lex blushed and looked at the sandy ground he was sitting on. "They're the same color as the sky is now and..." Lex looked away. "And, they shimmer like the sea."

Amp smiled and put an arm around Lex. "Don't we make an odd pair, then?" he asked. "Your eyes are like the sky at night. They're so deep and dark and sometimes they look like they have stars in them." He pulled Lex close and nuzzled his head. Lex put his arms around him and cuddled close.

"We're back!" Angela announced as she and Katana landed on the beach. "Fox gave us some bathing suits as presents! What do you think?" Angela was wearing a bright magenta halter bikini with ties on the hips. Katana was wearing a black french cut one piece that was decorated with the Playboy Bunny in gold piping. For a moment, Broadway and Brooklyn were incapable of saying anything. "Fox said she didn't like how she looked in pink, but thought it would look good on me. Broadway, what do you think?"

"I think I think I think I think I think I think...." Broadway was incapable of rational thought. Brooklyn tapped him on the side of the head. "I think you look great!"

"Aw, geeze, Mom!" said Nashville. "You can't wear something like...." Nashville got a good look at Angela. "Whoa!"

/And hello, early onset puberty./ Brooklyn told himself.

"What's wrong with what I'm wearing?" asked Katana.

"Muh-om!" said Nashville with an eye roll. "Don't you even know what the Playboy Bunny is?"

"It's a bunny rabbit." Katana said with a shrug. "It's cute!"

"It certainly is!" Brooklyn said with approval."

Goliath looked over at the females and removed the sunglasses he was wearing to get a better look. "What in the name of the Dragon is Angela wearing?"

Elisa looked. "It's called a bikini." she said with a shrug. She herself was wearing a t-shirt with a cartoon of a female sharpshooter that said "Girls can't what?" and cut-off shorts.

"It's indecent!" said Goliath. "Do you know what Hudson would say if he saw her dressed like that?"

"Take it off?" Elisa guessed with a smirk.

"She still shouldn't wear something like that."

"Goliath, she's a big girl. Let it go." Goliath growled, taking Elisa's suggestion, but not liking it. "I got a surprise for you!" She took off her t-shirt.

"Elisa! What are you doing?"

"Relax, Big Guy! Just thought I'd show you my bathing suit." Elisa stripped down to reveal a bold red tankini. Goliath's jaw dropped. "Do you like it?" Elisa asked, straightening her hair.

"I...I...I...."

"Well, apparently, you just turned into Ricky Ricardo!" she laughed. "C'mon, let's go for a swim!" she took his hand.

"Elisa! Goliath! Ohayo!" Their old friend Hiroshi called from the bluff. He was in trunks and a tee rather than the uniform they were accustomed to and was flanked by his two children, who looked dressed for the beach.

"Hey, Hiroshi!" Elisa waved at him. "Good to see you..." She was cut off when Goliath used his wing to shield her from Hiroshi's view.

Hiroshi and his children climbed down the bluff. "So, Goliath," Hiroshi said, helping his daughter down. "How are you enjoying daylight?"

"He'd enjoy it more if he wasn't such a prude." Elisa commented, gently moving the wing aside.

The girl tugged on Hiroshi's shirt and said something in Japanese while pointing at Nashville, who was playing with his parents in the waves. Angela and Broadway were frolicking nearby. The boy said something in Japanese. "My children," said Hiroshi. "notice you have a hatchling among your number and would like to play with him. Hideki speaks English fairly well, and Yoshimi could use some practice."

"Nashville could use some friends close to his age." said Elisa.

Hiroshi said something to them and the kids ran across the beach. "Mate!" Hiroshi called, running after them.

An eleven-year-old boy with glasses approached Nashville. "Hello, my name is Hideki." he said. "This is my sister, Yoshimi."

The seven-year-old girl took Nashville's hand and shook it vigorously. "Hewwo! How are you?" she said stiltedly. "Fine, sankyu!"

"She does not speak English well." Hideki said apologetically.

"Daijobo." said Nashville. "Nihongo hanasu."

"/Would you like to come play with us?/" Hideki asked in Japanese. "/I know where to find this tide pool with really cool sea cucumbers and slugs and stuff./"

"/And sometimes sea horses!/" added Yoshimi.

"Can I go?" Nashville asked his parents.

Katana seemed hesitant. "Sure, go ahead." said Brooklyn. Nashville ran off with the other two children.

"It might be dangerous." said Katana.

"My children know not to touch the urchins or jelly fish." said Hiroshi. "They'll tell your son the same."

"We have to let go sometime." Brooklyn told her, putting an arm around her. As Katana rested her head on Brooklyn's shoulder, Brooklyn remembered the first time he saw his son....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Where...when are we?" asked Katana.

"Looks like we're in the back lot of some truck stop." said Broadway. They were behind a brick building with a Dumpster. Semis loomed in the nearby lot. The neon glow of a few signs and street lamps were their only light. Brooklyn shuddered at the sound of a country song about a lost pick-up truck and a broken heart. "OK, definitely 20th century." Brooklyn flipped open the gPhone he always wore strapped to his wrist and tapped the GPS button. "According to this, we're in Nashville, Tennessee, USA. Unfortunately, time travel has made the chronometer on this thing a little wonky." Fu-Dog sniffed at the Dumpster. "Alright, I guess I'd better find us some grub." Katana nodded, sat on the ground and took her egg out of her backpack.

Brooklyn leaped into the Dumpster and sifted through the refuse. The song being played inside the truck stop changed to Kenny Roger's "The Gambler." Brooklyn normally loathed country music, but found this one rather catchy. He flicked his tail to the beat as he searched. Here were some bags of chips, maybe a day or so past the sell-by date. Hard to say since he didn't know what that was. Fall, he guessed, from the nip in the air. The sell-by dates on the chip bags said "Nov. 18". Brooklyn's eyes caught a rumpled first page of /The Tennessean/. "Over 900 Dead In Mass Suicide." read the headline. The front page story covered the Jonestown Massacre. The dateline was November 19, 1978. It was probably either yesterday's paper or today's. Brooklyn picked up a block of cheddar. It only had a little mold on it. He could tear that bit off and give the rest to Katana. Her dairy cravings were back. That meant she was lactating. That meant little Yolko Ono would hatch any day now.

Brooklyn hummed along to "The Gambler" as he sifted through the refuse. "Ev'ry gambler knows that the secret to survivin'," sang Kenny Rogers. "Is knowin' what to throw away and knowing what to keep." /So true, Kenny./ Brooklyn thought, contemplating some bruised tomatoes. /So true./

"Brook-chan! Brook-chan!" Katana called out. "It's Yolko Ono!" Brooklyn nimbly leaped out of the Dumpster, arms full of what he had gathered, and glided next to Katana. Their egg, jokingly called "Yolko Ono" by Brooklyn, was on the pavement in front of her, trembling. She hugged him and smiled at him. "It's hatching, Brook-Chan!" she said excitedly. "We're going to be parents!"

Brooklyn smiled back. Finally, after ten years, little Yolko Ono's face would be shown to the world. The purple spotted egg quivered violently. "Um...shouldn't we do something?" Brooklyn asked.

"In my rookery," she said. "We only helped hatchlings out of the egg if they were clearly distressed. It is believed that a hatchling must have the strength to break its own shell in order to deal with the even harder obstacles in life. How was it done in your rookery?"

"Um...I don't know." said Brooklyn. "I don't remember my own hatching, of course. And watching eggs hatch was considered kind of a girl thing." /Lex didn't care./ Brooklyn remembered. /He ran to the rookery to watch when we were told the eggs were hatching. Broadway and I just continued whatever stupid game we were playing. Lex, Broadway, I wish you guys could be here for this. You're about to become uncles!/ After several uneventful minutes, the song changed to "Mamas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys".

"What is a 'Cowboy'?" asked Katana. "And why shouldn't I let our hatchling be one?"

"Cowboys are dudes who ride the open range, sling guns and punch cattle." Brooklyn said, using his beak to rip open a chip bag.

"Well, I certainly wouldn't want our child to be cruel to animals." Katana said, stroking Fu-Dog's mane.

"They also wear big hats and boots, they're reckless and they're always alone." Brooklyn ate a few chips and offered the bag to Katana, who took a handful.

Suddenly, there was a crack. Katana and Brooklyn leaned in for a closer look as Fu-Dog flicked his tail. With baited breath, they watched as a large crack split the egg. Then, the egg was still and quiet. Brooklyn reached out to touch the egg, wondering if his hatchling needed help. He jumped when a tiny, pale blue fist punched out of the egg. "Come on, Yolko!" he said encouragingly. "You can do it!" /I'm just sorry the first thing you're gonna hear is lame-ass country music./ The talons on the fist started to claw at the shell and was soon joined by another tiny pale blue hand.

"Dekiru! Dekiru!" Katana cheered the hatchling on. "Ganbaru wa!"

Tiny hands clawed at the shell, scattering fragments. A tiny, pale blue foot kicked a hole in the shell. Another kick and the cracks spread. The egg turned and something wrapped in a pair of leathery blue wings started to slip out of the crackling shell. Brooklyn's heart skipped when it opened a beak and gave out a whimpering cry. Brooklyn immediately bundled the tiny gargoyle in his arms. A small, blue tail coiled around his wrist. The hatchling cloaked itself with its wings. "C'mon, let's have a good look at you." Brooklyn urged, peeling back one of the wings.

The hatchling's eyes opened. Brooklyn noticed they were deep brown and almond shaped, just like Katana's. The hatchling's eyes quickly shut as tiny blue hands covered them and the crying began again. "Am I that scary looking?" Brooklyn asked.

"It's the light." said Katana. "All these lights must bother his eyes. Let's go somewhere else. They carried the hatchling off and huddled in the shadows of two massive semis. Fu-Dog followed. Brooklyn cradled the hatchling and tried to get as good a look as he could in dim light.

"Four fingers, three toes." Brooklyn had counted. "Just like me." The hatchling kicked and revealed an extra appendage. "Oh. And one of those. Just like me."

"Yolko Ono is a bad name for a boy." Katana caressed their son's cheek. "We should use something better."

"How about Nashville?" suggested Brooklyn. "It's where we are right now."

"Nashville." Katana nodded. "Good name."

"You hear that?" Brooklyn said to his son, stroking wisps of still damp black hair. "Your name is Nashville." Brooklyn ran a finger over his son's horns, marveling how they curved back just like his own. "Your name is Nashville, and we love you very much." /He's a little miracle!/ Brooklyn could feel tears sting his eyes. Nashville started to cry.

"He's probably hungry." Katana said, opening her kimono.

"Uh, yeah, yeah, he probably is." Brooklyn passed the hatchling to his mate. Katana smiled at her son and pressed a nipple against his beak. Nashville eagerly latched on and began to suck. Brooklyn stood behind Katana and put his arms around the both of them. "He's had a long journey." he said. "He should rest awhile."

Katana smiled and pressed back against her mate as she nursed their son. Soon she began to sing the song she often sang to their egg. "Mebaeta bakari no ki no me demo, Umareta bakari no sui sei mo, Shitteiru no yo haruka na mukashi wo, Uchuu ga umareta toki no koto wo."

Brooklyn sang along, only half understanding the lyrics.

Nanoku toori no guuzen to
Nanoku sedai ni no aijou wo
Subete atsumete umarete kita koto sou ne
anata wa shitteiru no ne
Nemure yo nemure yo
Haruka na yume mite
Itsumade mo
Wasurenai de ne
Tooi ano hi no kioku wo


A/N: Of course Staghart is going to refer to the first book in the Harry Potter series as "Philosopher's Stone"! He's British!
Elisa's T-shirt and others are available here: http://girlscantwhat.com/gifts-for-girls/careers/sharpshooter/
I don't know if they were available in 1998, but it just looks like something Elisa would wear. The dark skin variant even looks a bit like her.
Here's a YouTube link that plays the Japanese version followed by the English version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvvlGkCiazo
If someone knows what the literal translation of the song is, I'd love to see it! If you're wondering how I got this chapter up so fast, it's because I wrote the flashback scene a long time ago and thought this would be a good time to use it.