Truth and Fantasy by Shane Jayell

Disclaimer: I own none of the characters from Read or Die and ROD the TV, I'm just borrowing 'em for a bit. Also, this story has spoilers for ROD the TV and the Read or Dream manga.

Read Or Dream: The truth amid the fantasy.

Maggie Mui smiled shyly as her sisters returned to the houseboat that they had inherited from their former employer Mr. Lee, the waves gently rocking the book laden craft. "Welcome home," the tall black haired woman said, her red eyes gently welcoming.

"Hi Maggie," Michelle Cheung rushed right over to hug her impulsively as the busty blonde said, "Junior says hi, by the way." She looked Maggie up and down before asking, "Have you been getting taller?"

"Six feet is enough," Maggie said with some dignity, her pants and t-shirt a bit wrinkled from sitting on the floor to read.

"Why can't I ever grow?" Anita King complained good naturedly, the younger pink haired girl drinking from a bottle of milk.

"Give it time," Michelle chuckled. She brightened a bit as she looked at Maggie, "Oh, did Sensei call you yet?"

"Sumiregawa-sensei?" Maggie looked surprised, "No, why?"

"She said that she recieved a message for you," Michelle said.

"Really?" Maggie blinked. She walked to the door, slipping her shoes on as she said, "Would you mind if I...?"

"Eh, go on," Anita waved it off casually as she said, "I'll make dinner this time."A grin, "You'll owe me one, tho."

"Yay, curry!" Michelle smiled.

"Thank you," Maggie gave a little bow and left.

The walk over to Nenene Sumiregawa's apartment was a quiet one, the afternoon sun shining down on her pleasantly as Maggie considered her current life. She, her two sisters Michelle and Anita and their friend Yomiko Readman were running the new Paper Sisters Detective Agency, recovering books and lost pets as needed. Michelle and Nancy were working together to watch over Junior, Anita and her classmate Hisami were as close as ever, Nenene and Yomiko had moved in together and Maggie... well, Maggie regularly found herself reading in her little storage room.

Maggie sighed. It wasn't that she resented the friendships that her big and little sisters had found, it was just that she wished she could also find something like that for herself. Yes, Nenene was her friend too, but Yomiko would always be first in her eyes...

"About time you got here," Nenene said with an affectionate sort of grumpiness as Maggie arrived.

"I'm sorry," Maggie said sheepishly, wondering if Nenene had plans.

"I was kidding," Nenene led her inside.

Maggie smiled a bit as she repeated, "Sorry."

Nenene snorted softly as they went through the book strewn living room. "So, when you told me about your problems finding work in Hong Kong I got to thinking," she said as they reached the stairs.

"Yes?" Maggie dodged a pile of books. 'Yomiko is reading about as much as usual,' she thought as they went up stairs.

"I thought I should bring you all into the twenty first century," Nenene opened her office door upstairs, "and made you a web page."

"Like on the internet," Maggie said tentatively. It wasn't that she knew nothing about it, but she couldn't really claim any expertese in it, either. For a bibliophile like herself, reading words on a screen somehow lacked... something.

"Yeah," Nenene lead the way into her office.

Unlike the little piles of books that now were scattered through the house this office was messy in it's own unique way, the workroom of a focused and intense individual. Reference books sat on the desk, piled awkwardly, while papers covered with hand written notes covered many of the available surfaces.

"Anyway," Nenene sat down at the computer, pausing to shift books over so that Maggie could see better, "I had a friend set up a 'Paper Sisters Detective Agency' page with your photos and a summary of the kinds of jobs you do."

"So what happened?" Maggie asked, sensing that somehow something had.

"A few days after it went up I got this," and Nenene clicked on her browser. First Nenene's home page came up, then she went to a simple but attactively designed site with the Paper Sister's photos on it. Clicking a link on the page she accessed a mail program, typing in a name and password to unlock it.

"Hey, that's my name there," Maggie blinked as she saw her name attached to one of several files, all lined up in a row.

"Email for you," Nenene clicked on one.

Oddly on the top of the message it said who it was from, and Maggie's eyes widened as she murmured, "Fay?"

"Fay?" Nenene repeated, looking up at Maggie in surprise. Her lips quirked in surprise, "Oooh, hiding a girlfriend somewhere?"

"It's not like that," Maggie stumbled, blushing.

Nenene just grinned, clearly enjoying seeing Maggie be so flustered. "Tell me about it," she gently invited.

"Uhm," Maggie blushed charmingly, then began to explain.

Passing by a house Maggie had been hit in the head by a paper airplane, one created from a page from a book. Realizing they were coming from a second story window, Maggie had talked, then surprisingly been invited inside. There she had met Fay, a blind young woman whom Maggie had found a almost instant rapport with.

"Only you could meet someone that way," Nenene shook her head.

"I read books for her for awhile, even helped encourage her to have a operation to help her vision," Maggie mused, "but..."

"Yeah?" Nenene asked.

"When my sisters and I found out our pasts were fiction created by Dokusensha, I thought that included my meeting Fay, too," Maggie said.

"Obviously not all of it," Nenene gestured to the email.

"I should see her," Maggie got up then stiffened as she softly groaned, "but they're back in Hong Kong!"

"Not quite," Nenene shook her head.

"Huh?" Maggie looked at her in surprise.

"Apparently Fay's mother moved them to Japan after the operation," Nenene revealed, "or so it says here."

"Right," Maggie sat back down to read, discovering that Fay missed her, talking about the girl's moving and even...

"What?" Nenene noticed Maggie's blush and glanced at the screen. "Oooh, a kiss!"

"We didn't," Maggie blushed, "but Fay wanted me to, I think."

"So," Nenene said, "what are you going to do now?"

"I'd like to see her," Maggie scratched at her cheek nervously as she asked, "do you think she'd want to?"

"Reading that email, yes," Nenene nodded firmly. Looking at Maggie sympathetically she said, "Do you want help writing a email back?"

"Please," Maggie smiled.

With a spring in her step Maggie returned home, a smile tugging at her lips. She had told Fay her address and phone number, and felt reasonably certain that she'd contact her. Crossing the bridge and opening the door to their houseboat she called, "I'm home!"

"Welcome back," Michelle called, "Junior is here, visiting with Anita."

"Hi," Junior looked up, the blue haired boy smiling shyly.

"I have some good news," Maggie said as she took off her shoes, "Fay contacted me, she's in Tokyo and wants to meet."

"I'm so happy," Maggie clapped her hands.

"I'd like to meet her," Anita noted, "we need to be sure she's right for you."

"Anita's right," Michelle nodded vigorously, "bring Fay over as soon as possible."

"Let's see how it goes," Maggie blushed.

"Yeah, I remember bringing Hisami over," Anita smiled slightly.

"Bad?" Junior asked.

"You have no idea," Anita sighed.

"It does make me wonder," Michelle said as she took Maggie's dinner out, "how many of our other adventures were real, and which were made up by Dokusensha."

"At least we can be sure that the whole writing on the Moon thing was false," Anita said to them firmly.

"Writing on the moon? You mean when it said," Junior frowned as he remembered, "See you later, Anita?"

"Dwah?" all three paper sisters gazed at him in shock.

"I always wondered if that had something to do with you," Junior admitted.

"We never told him..." Anita began.

"There's no reason Dokusensha would let him know," Michelle continued.

"Which means it was real," Maggie whispered.

"Hey!" Anita squealed as she was bodily picked up by Maggie and Michelle and marched over to her school desk, "What's the big idea?!"

"Start writing," Michelle handed her a pen.

"Why?" Anita blinked.

"Ms Alien said she wanted to read your novel," Maggie reminded her, "and we only have ninety nine years till she's coming back!"

Junior shook his head, "I never know what's going on."

End

Notes: I LOVED the Fay/Maggie bit in Read or Dream the manga, and was very disapointed when I found out in ROD the TV that the series was a dream. So, I decided to write my way out of that...lol. Pairings are Anita/Hisami, Yomiko/Nenene, Michelle/Nancy and Maggie/Fay. :) Oh, the alien bit... In Chapter 4 of Read or Dream the paper sisters save a girl whom it turns out is a alien who's job is to destroy the Earth for not progressing enough. Maggie and Michelle try to talk her out of it with great books, while Anita uses force. Intrigued by Anita the alien girl challenges Anita to write a book, saying she'll be back in 100 years. She also leaves a message on the moon saying "See you later, Anita."