"Dani, honey, can you help out with the sad? your mom's a bit caught up with the sauce."

  Stepping into the kitchen, Dani snickered at seeing her mom licking her lips with some very strategically pced sauce stains on her hips. "oh, she's a bit caught up, is she?"

  Giselle just winked back at her as she took off towards her moms' room before she sauce could get too far down her shirt. Really, Dani felt like she should be annoyed at how much her moms have been acting like teenagers around each other for the st couple years, but she only had herself to bme for that. Her family's been pretty happy since she pulled one over on the two of them.

  Mom Giselle definitely had to take a lot of steps back from her own parents, and their retionship has becomes quite strained, which Dani thought was a long time coming and really, her asshole grandparents deserved it. If they didn't want to get to know their daughter properly, that was on them.

  Honestly, they would have pulled back anyway, because both her moms have become a lot more flexible with their beliefs after Alma convinced them that she could see into their deepest secrets. Mom Terry has been getting into Tarot recently, and both her moms have been exploring which holy days, traditions and rituals really connected and meant something to them. It was becoming a bit of a family dinner activity to expin a new bit of magic or a slice of some religion or another, and see if they all thought it would be nice to try out

  Dani wasn't quite sure about this test one, though. Mom Giselle seemed quite excited about Yom Kippur when she initially brought it up; The Jewish day of repentance, she'd said, you fast for 24 hours and during them you seek forgiveness from those you have wronged. And Dani couldn't very well refuse that on the ground of "Sorry moms I'm trying really hard to keep a secret from you two that would get me grounded forever, can we postpone this to next year when I'm in college?", could she now. And she'd been the one to try fasting first in the house, too. Overall, she was just kind of screwed.

  'Anyway, Alma, that's why I'm kind of freaking out', she'd messaged her old partner in crime just this morning.

  'Okay hun, why not just tell them you don't really feel up to it then? You don't actually need an excuse, I know your moms would be fine and you know it too.'

  Why? Well, Dani might have been a bit of a sneak, but she tried to be honest with herself and her emotions, especially after the grief her mom went through. '...I won't be fine, though. It's kind of eating me up.'

  'Do you want to do anything about it, then? I know you were thinking of waiting for college, but...'

  Did she? Did Dani want to put herself in grounded-for-the-entire-school-year risk territory? Especially when she was really hoping to find a nice girlfriend for her final year of high school? A girlfriend she might want to introduce to her moms, who she's been lying to for a couple years now? Her moms, who trust her, and love her, and want only the best for her?

  Or did she want to take the easy way out and wait until she's no longer forced to be in their company?

  ...She can't possibly justify running away from it any longer, can she. Damn day of repentance making her not ignore the huge elephant in the room.

  And that's where she stood now as she cut up some vegetables for the pre-fast meal, approaching sundown, the start of the day in Judaism. She'd made her peace with whatever punishment her moms were going to give her, and honestly, she'd been a bit of a coward to have waited this long. Her moms deserved better from their only daughter.

  Yom Kippur Eve came and went, and they all slept in the next morning - they didn't really want to go to a synagogue for prayer, so they just didn't. Dani had to admit that her moms' freeform take on religions was an unexpected advantage of her big lie. She wondered what effect it would have on their spirituality when she finally spilled the beans.

  Not that her pensive mood went unnoticed st night. During the meal, and during their rexed night together afterwards, both of her moms gave her pointed Mom Looks, and Mom Terry even gave her Alma's damn "But I will listen if you do" speech again. Gods, she did appreciate them becoming so much more communicative, but sometimes a near-adult just wanted to sulk in her own mess for a little while, alright? She'd compined to Alma about this, and then she compined about compining about it, and Alma just ughed at her. An ungrateful partner in crime, that's what she was.

  Regardless, her moms were not getting shit out of her that night. She was still trying to phrase her confession right, but she definitely had the broad strokes figured out already. She just had to steel herself and do it.

  'I'm not afraid of what they'll do to me, I know that. They won't actually be unreasonable. I'm just...' Dani didn't really know how to finish that sentence, but Alma definitely understood. 'You're scared to see their hurt expression. You're afraid they'll stop trusting you. You're worried it will open a rift between you and them.'

  Yeah, maybe Alma knew her a little too well by this point.

  Well. Nowhere to go but forward.

  As noon came and went, and pangs of hunger started eating away at her resolve, she decided it was now or never. Her moms were lounging around the living room reading, and the hungrier they all got, the worse they were likely to take it.

  "Hey, moms? Can we sit down on the couch, together? There's something I want to talk about."

  Writing this out on a keyboard was so, so much easier than speaking it out loud, Dani found. She suddenly wondered how Alma must have felt that day, revealing her mom's secret to her face. It must have been scary, and Alma did that kind of thing as a job. That's kinda badass.

  Now she just needed to channel that.

  With her moms' gentle and curious gazes on her, Dani began. "You remember a couple years back, when I was struggling at school, right?" two gentle nods. "Um. Fuck, this is hard."

  Mom Terry's eyebrows raised and she could almost hear the "nguage..." unspoken in Mom Giselle's mouth opening slightly, so she just let it out. "I lied to you both. I wasn't actually struggling, then. I mean, I was bullied, I had a huge crush on my straight bestie, all that was true. But the grades...." Deep breath, Dani. "The grades I did on purpose, because I wanted to get your attention without asking for it."

  Mom Giselle was the first to talk. "For the bullying? Because Annie was really quite kind to you after rejecting you, I remember. She'd even tried to set you up with her friend that one time. Honestly, I feel like you didn't need much from us then, and I know you were fine with your sexuality and how people at school would take it for a long time before then."

  Dani shook her head, though. "I mean, it wasn't exactly pleasant. But no, it wasn't the bullying. I kind of had it handled, though I appreciated knowing I'd have your full support if I broke some noses." she gave a sheepish smile, and tried to keep talking, but the words just.... wouldn't come out.

  Mom Terry reached out to her cheek. "Hey. If you're not ready to tell us the whole story, it's alright. But-" Dani and both her moms shared an amused look. "I will listen if you do!" they chorused, the phrase long since passing from a tender caress to a family joke, but a joke that held so much meaning. They all knew they meant it. I just helped ease the tension, sometimes.

  But Dani saw something else in their eyes, not just the love and comfort they usually channeled, not just amusement and lightness. Because they all knew when mom came out of the closet, and they all knew why, and Dani could see the slightly confused looks as her moms started wondering what she could possibly want to tell them. More than anything, that fear released the paralysis Dani felt. She couldn't let them figure it out before she apologized properly.

  "I'm afraid you'll be hurt, moms. I'm scared. But... I'm more afraid of not telling you, because then I'll just keep putting it off. And this is supposed to be the day you apologize and repent, and ever since we talked about it, it's been roiling up in me. So.... Here goes...." Dani closed her eyes. Took a long breath, and eased it out slowly. Took another. "I wanted you to think I needed help. Because I wanted you to take me to a bunch of psychiatrists, and doctors, and to give up on the usual avenues when you saw none of it helped - because there wasn't any help to give to me - , and then you'd go to someone more occulty." Okay. It's almost all out. "Someone who, maybe, possibly, I've been messaging regurly for a couple years, now."

  Dani unlocked her phone, and got on video call with Alma. Her moms were starting to trade some worried looks as she opened the call, but when it actually connected, they went white. Alma immediately started talking once she confirmed they could hear her. "Good to see you, Terry, Giselle. Maybe it's time for a real introduction? Alma Paliy, Rasputin was just a stage name." Dani's heart was beating so hard, and so loud. She didn't dare sneak a peak at her moms now. Staring at the floor was all she could do. "Dani asked me to tell you what my actual job is. I'm a theatre prop designer, but I moonlight as a fortune teller for queer kids who need my help breaking news to their families."

  Terry was a bit slow on the uptake, still looking somewhat confused. "Giselle knew Dani's a lesbian already, though. I don't see why she'd need all this just to tell me." Alma was shaking her head, but Giselle wheezed an interruption, understanding fshing in her eyes. "So... No spirits? Then how-" and looked from the phone screen directly back into Dani's eyes. Alma spoke again. "Yeah. She talked to me before you set up the meeting, we made sure the website looked like what you were searching for. I mostly just told you what she asked me to say. Dani, you wanted to do the rest of this?"

  Dani nodded, then said aloud, holding back tears, "Yeah. Thanks so much Alma. I'll, uh. Take it from here."

  Her moms were staring at her as she disconnected the call. She tried to keep talking from there, but if anything, she found it even harder to talk, now. She could see Mom Giselle putting it all together in her mind, and she knew Mom Terry wouldn't be far behind, now. And then? And then they'd hate her, surely. How could they not? Her chest felt tight, she couldn't find the words-

  "How long did you know?"

  Giselle's voice came out weak, but so gentle. Terry's hand was on her arm, rubbing softly - when did she get to her other side? But she didn't look angry. Neither of them did, actually. She couldn't see much hurt there, either. Her moms mostly looked curious.

  "I, uh. I. I first figured it out about a year before you went to see Alma. I came home early one day because st period got cancelled, and I saw you in mom's clothes? I don't think you knew I was there. I went out immediately and came back at the usual time instead."

  Her mom nodded slowly. "Yeah, I did do that, sometimes. I think maybe... I was hoping one of you would see me. Then I wouldn't be holding this in anymore." A little ironic to have Dani feeling something so simir, now, she thought. "I'm just saying, Dani, it's not a breach of trust for you to see me trying to let a bit of myself out. I'm sorry, it must have been a sorry sight-" Terry's hand nded on Giselle's forhead with a soft bonk, at that. "Hush, honey, no self deprecation from my beautiful wife." Then, turning to Dani, "Isn't a year before we went to Madam Ras- I mean, Alma, also when you came out to your mom?"

  Dani shrank in her chair, emotions still swirling, the rush of blood not quite leaving her ears. "Uh. Yeah. I'm sorry, I didn't think then of how rude it would be to not tell my out and proud bi mom about being a lesbian. I should've told you way earlier, it wasn't fair. But..." Giselle squeezed her arm and interrupted softly, "You wanted me to know you were queer too, and accepting, and that I could talk to you even if I couldn't talk to your mom, yet."

  Were those tears in her mom's eyes? Was she making her cry? This was all going wrong, her moms were just holding in anger and pain because Dani looked so frightened, but she had to finish, she couldn't keep holding everything in now.

  "Yeah. That. But I uh, I also knew you couldn't talk to mom about it, because I maybe possibly kind of...." Dani's voice was growing smaller and smaller as she got further along in her breaches of her mom's privacy, "Snuck into your room and read your diary when you were both out."

  That got a reaction out of Mom Giselle. not anger, not even shock, just... wide eyes, small smile, and a soft "oh". Dani looked down at her interced fingers. She couldn't bear to look at her moms any longer. But that was it, that was finally it. She'd told them everything. Well. Everything she did, not everything she pnned. She needed them to know that too, they couldn't properly get angry without knowing how long she was going to keep it from them, they deserved it, "Also, also--"

  She didn't manage to finish that sentence, though. Mom Terry shared a look with her wife, got up out of the couch and put her hand on Dani's interced hands. "Come here, love. It's okay, it's okay. breathe. Let us hold you..."

  Dani let her mom take her, just colpsed into her moms. They both held her as she finally, finally cried. She didn't even realize how much she needed this out. She didn't understand the pain and fear and guilt she'd been carrying for years. And between sobs, and hiccups, she tried to add "And I was only going to tell you, after I left for college, because I was-- I was so scared, I knew I did something good, but-- but I didn't do it right, I was sure you'd be so angry if you knew, I thought you'd never trust me, I wanted to be able to run first---"

  Mom Giselle's gentle hands rubbed her back. "Love. Listen to me. You were a kid, trying to help your mother, who was very, very deep in the closet, and crying for help in the tiniest whisper, but you heard me anyway. You didn't know what to do, but you did what you could, okay? You loved me enough to see I was hurting, but also enough to respect my wishes and fears and try to get me out of my shell without just telling me or mom, didn't you?"

  Dani buried her face in her Mom Giselle's shoulder. "But, but, you and mom almost didn't make it through that, right?? When you got home you looked so terrified, I was so worried I'd ruined it all, and I *sniff* still broke your trust so many times, please, mom, you can be angry, I can't---" she could feel her mom shaking, her breathing shallow, could see her tears too when she could blink through her own.

  Mom Terry's hand came up over her head and started rubbing too. "Thank you so much for telling us, Dani. Now stop talking and cry it out already. You've done the hard part, you're being so brave, so very brave, our baby girl..."

  The next little while passed by just like that. Dani was a blubbering mess. Her moms alternately sobbed with her, and whispered affectionately when they could mostly get their breathing together. Her moms hugged each other, too. There was a lot that Dani would have seen go unspoken between them, in those moments, if she had the presence of mind to pay attention to anything but her own mix of guilt and relief. But she didn't see it, then. She was too busy allowing herself to breathe properly for what she was starting to realize was the first time in a long time. She didn't understand the weight she'd pced on herself until it almost crushed her.

  When her breathing started to get back in control, when her tears and sniffles mostly dried up, her Mom Giselle spoke, hoarse but still gentle. "Dani, I can't be angry with my brave daughter for doing what's best for me, okay? I'm upset, I'm surprised, I think my worldview was kind of shaken for the second time since I first met Alma," Dani couldn't help but chuckle at that, and felt her mom rub her back with affection, "Hey, don't ugh! I thought nobody could possibly have known, and supernatural spirits seemed like a good enough expnation after she knew all that about you."

  She felt her Mom Giselle take a deep breathe, and despite it all, she felt herself bracing for her words. "We're fasting now to find our honest pce in the world during a day of forgiveness. We can talk appropriate punishment ter, okay? Right now, I want you to know that as your mother, as the woman who you had a much rger role of helping out of her deep closet than I knew, I forgive you."

  Dani lifted her face, finally, looking at both her moms. Giselle's eyes were still wet, but she was smiling with pride, and happiness, and a hint of wistfulness - perhaps for who she was afraid she'd never stop being.

  Terry's eyes were the warmest kind of exasperated. Truly, the women in her life were all absurd.