Page 6 of Damian & Jun: Episodes 5-8
“His family is all in France. His grandmother was Middle Eastern and the rest of his family is of African origins, but they’ve all been in France for generations. Believe me, he has opinions on food.”
Jun giggled. “So does Yohei. He says it’s because he’s Japanese, but the rest of his family isn’t as picky except his grandmother.”
“Émeric has a Japanese beau, but she’s not overly picky with food either as long as it’s healthy.”
“He has more partners than Richard and Collin?”
Damian nodded. He got up and found plates. “Her name is Ami. She leads a jinja in Japan.”
“Oh, she’s kannushi.”
“I should have known you’d know the term.”
Jun grinned. Speaking four languages could be fun.
Damian pulled cold cuts, cheese, and a tray of berries and grapes from the fridge. He brought it over with two small plates. “Want to close more holes?”
Jun blushed. “If you like.” He glanced at the clock on the wall. It was midnight, but Damian didn’t seem to care.
The cat certainly didn’t. She twined herself under the table, mewing. Damian broke off a bit of meat and held it under the table.
“Family. That’s short for me, so it's easy.” Jun held up the pouch. “I’ve met my dad, and I knew my mom, but that’s all. I guess family isn’t in your life anymore?”
“The Residency is my family. My extended family are Matthew and Hypatia and Linda, Ellisandre, and now I guess Alice, Ash, and Dana.”
“I don’t know these people.”
“Alice is Collin’s sister, younger.” Americans so often forgot to designate age order, but Damian was cued in. He rarely hesitated to signal who was older or younger, which was helpful. “She lives with Linda, Richard’s younger sister. Dana is Richard and Linda’s…er…technically their aunt, but she’s nine years old, so we act like she’s his niece. She was posthumously implanted and born long after her biological father died.”
Guh? “That sounds complicated.”
“Very.” Damian grimaced. “Bit of a legal nightmare. Linda and Richard are her guardians now, with Linda being her primary guardian. Alice is her caretaker at the moment.”
“Then who are Allisander and Ush?”
“Ellisandre and Ash.” Damian re-pronounced the names with care, eyes twinkling fondly. “Ellisandre is Ellisandre. They/them pronouns. They showed up like fifteen years ago? I’m not sure, but they’ve been with Linda ever since. They just are. I don’t know what they are together, exactly. Friends? They just are.” Damian chuckled and shrugged.
Well, that’s clear, not. Jun shrugged internally. “And Ash?”
“Ash is a cyber expert. Still a kid. He’ll be eighteen next year. He works for Richard. You could say he’s a little like me. It was Richard or jail.”
“Jail?”
“He broke into Reevesworth Industries’ computer systems, among other places. But he was only caught because he warned us that someone else was in our systems. He wasn’t doing anything nefarious, but the other actor was. Still, Ash was doing something technically illegal. They arrested him. Richard negotiated a deal that kept him out of jail. I scared him into taking it.”
“Scared him?”
“We got past it. Collin helped us. Ash is a good kid. Weird, but good.”
Jun held up his fingers. “So your family is Richard, Émeric, Collin, Linda, Ellis?—?”
“Ellisandre.”
“Ellisandre, Alice, Da?—?”
“Dana.”
“Dana and Ash.”
