New Beginnings (Chapter 3)
Hello everyone! Anyone? I'm sorry it took so long to update! Holidays and classes starting again kinda made the days whoosh by. I've had this chapter half done for nearly two weeks, and after a few good sit downs with it I've decided to just post the thing. I wanted to include more in this chapter--but as it is, it's still twice as long as the last one!
I really hope everyone enjoys it, and reviews will make the next chapter come sooner!! :)
"Where did you take her again?" Kai asked, handing Saya a mug of soup. Haji didn't answer immediately, and Kai used the opportunity to rather nervously glance back at the two girls sitting near the door. They remained the very picture of politeness: sitting straight backed, ankles crossed princess-style, neither one saying a word to interrupt.
To be honest, it was freaking him the hell out.
After being greeted by a somewhat out-of-sorts Kai, Saya and Haji had been lead into the main room of the familiar restaurant, and were now sitting on bar stools as Kai busied himself with cooking. Saya's nieces had not come to greet them right away--in fact it took a flustered Kai several attempts to bring them as far as they were now. They had both bowed politely and then taken their seats without a word. Kai had apologized for their behavior multiple times now, intermixed between their telling of the journey here.
"Fukushima."
Kai looked up from his washing, having almost forgotten the question yet still expecting more of a response. He sighed with good humor, trying to shake his nerves. "Well you haven't changed, at least." He smiled a little too widely now. "But you answered my question, technically. And I guess Fukushima's a good place--nice and open. Not terribly far from anywhere either." Haji nodded at this, but otherwise did nothing to promote the conversation further.
Saya had been the first to talk, to greet Kai and to explain their journey here. But since her nieces had entered the room she had became silent, observing them observe her. If a photograph had ever been taken of herself and Diva years ago, before experience had hardened her expression and exaggerated Diva's, she was sure it would look just as these two did now. Both of them had left their hair long and in tangles, butterfly pins cursorily holding it away from their faces. Their eyes shown, not with bloodlust but with unmasked curiosity and wonder. The way a child openly gazes at a waterfall without understanding its danger.
She jumped at the sound of her name being called.
"Y-Yes? Sorry." She said this hurriedly to Kai, though she wasn't entirely sure that it was he who had called her from her trance.
"I was just saying that if there was anything you wanted to know from me, now, you know. I mean, I'm here, and there's probably a hundred things, but..." He shrugged it off, not wanting to push information on her. But she had been looking off in the direction of the girls, so if there was something she wanted to know...? It would be good for the girls, too, to understand this process and to see what Saya did and didn't know. They needed to bond somehow, and a start was a start.
Saya wanted to know about her nieces more than anything, and so she decided it should be the last thing she asked about. In truth, she hoped they would come to tell her about themselves before she had to ask. Her stomach clenched. What if they hated her? When she first awoke five days ago she wanted nothing more than to meet them and learn of their lives. As time went by and she had more time to think, however, she came to realize the situation they would have been born into. A situation that was almost entirely of Saya's making. No mother, not even other's of their own kind besides herself and Haji. She had killed every other chiropteran that she had come into contact with. What if they resented her for that? She would understand if they did...she had resented herself for similar reasons for decades.
Saya mentally shook herself to attention. First things first. "Julia? David?" Something clicked in her memory. "Their...child? Though I guess he or she isn't a child anymore." She forced a laugh to lighten the mood. It didn't take, but Kai smiled kindly, if for no other reason than to acknowledge the attempt.
"We still see Julia now and again" Kai began, gesturing to himself and the girls, his gaze lingering on their motionless forms, "For refills and check ups and the like. She has a son who's also named David."
Saya reacted to this. "But surely there's no longer a need to continue the name...? The Red Shield was phasing itself out the last I remember." Her eyebrows pulled together as she tried to understand why Julia and David would give their child a name with such unnecessary weight attached to it.
"It was more out of...respect? Or honor? Not for the name so much--more for the father." Kai spoke the last few words carefully, as if he was dancing a fine line. This did not go unnoticed by Saya, who immediately realized what this might mean.
"Honor for the father?" Saya asked this leadingly, hoping she was wrong.
Kai shook his head before confirming for her what he had known for years.
"David--the one we all worked with, the one we fought with-- well you know him. When the Red Shield's purpose was complete, or near enough, he started looked for another cause. He didn't freak out like he did way back when--or I guess you might not remember that part too clearly," Kai paused, remembering when Saya and her chevalier had gone off on their own after the temporary dissolution of the Red Shield. "He was going to be a father, and that kept him grounded. But he still worked in a dangerous business, and unfortunately that caught up with him."
"How?" Saya asked breathily.
"It was right after you went to sleep--he was doing some random strategy advising in the mainland wars when a surprise attack came. I didn't even know until almost a year later. Julia told me of course, but it was never in the papers. Military secrets or something. She brought David--the son--over here a lot while he was growing up. The girls and him would always play together, and it allowed Julia to keep an eye on their growth. They both still come by, but everyone has there own lives, you know?"
Saya noticed the girls respond to this behind Kai. For the first time they avoided her gaze, looking sullen. What set them off? They never knew David. But how well did I?
Saya thought a moment over the news. She felt saddened over David's death, but it wasn't the first time she had woken up to hear such news, and it was definitely not the first time that someone close to her had died.
When did I grow so cold?
She looked over to Haji and found that he had been watching her carefully, his own face expressing concern rather than sadness. Of course Haji would have known about this for years, I can't expect him to be sad now. Everyone's known for years...poor Julia.
Forcing herself to look away from Haji, she cleared her throat quietly.
"I know it's been so long, but I still feel terrible for Julia. I'm-I'm sorry that I couldn't be there for her." She closed her eyes as the truth of her words swept over her. She could never be there for anyone--not really. She would always fade out of their lives before long, and there wasn't anything she could do to stop that from happening.
You're supposed to be there for the ones you love. And you learn to love those who are always there for you, right? She knew this was true.
So how could anyone really learn to love me?
She felt surrounded by the weight of this knowledge. Not a moment later she felt surrounded by something else--something familiar yet not. She heard Kai speak in the background, followed by several pairs of feet scuffling out of the main room. Looking up, she met her chevalier's comforting gaze, her body surrounded by his arms. He did not hold her in a way that suggested sympathy or understanding. He held her in a way that suggested only the simplest, deepest kind of love.
Had he always held her like this? Was she only now able to see that?
But how could he love someone who's never there? How could he love me?
"How could I not, Saya?"
"What? H-How'd you...?"
He pulled away just enough so that they were now facing each other.
"I will walk beside you when ever you are able, Saya. I will lay beside you when you are not. I will fight beside you when you must. I will stand in front of you when you must not." He lifted her face towards his own, but otherwise remained still.
Blushing fiercely, she wondered how her mood could have changed to totally in such a small amount of time. She had felt lost in eternity, and now she looked forward to it?
"This is love, Saya."
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Kai and Saya talked together over the soft sound of running water: Kai washing their dinner dishes and passing them to Saya for drying. Kai had nearly finished catching her up to speed on all matters unrelated to her nieces.
"So," Saya began, her voice upbeat, wanting to review, "Cinq Fleches went down with Van Argiano thirty years ago. I remember the start of his trial, but those things always take so long, I didn't get to see the end of it." She held out a single finger in front of her now, counting off what she had been told.
"And Akihiro and Mao, huh? And here I thought they hated each other. Not that I knew Akihiro very well at all, but Mao never seemed the type... I thought she liked you?" She turned her hand in an accusing manner towards Kai, giving him a mock questioning look.
He just sighed with good humor and handed over another dish.
"Don't think you're escaping this conversation, Kai. I'll let you go now, but I expect answers later! I won't be forgetting!" She eyed him meaningfully before taking the wet plate and drying it quickly with a dark blue towel.
"Lewis is retired and golf's. Gotcha. He gives hilarious gifts during Seibo. Check. Joel is involved in government and multiple--charity organizations? Was that it? What am I missing?"
"Me!" A voice from the far wall cut through Saya's last few words. A small, purple haired girl with long pigtails and sunken eyes dropped through the open window and ran straight towards Saya with amazing speed.
"Lulu!" Saya exclaimed, surprise coloring her voice for more than one reason. She struggled to remain standing and looked towards Kai for both an explanation and balance.
He just laughed and set down the chopsticks he had been holding. "You remember Julia was experimenting with the enzyme in your blood to suppress the Delta Series? Well she got it to work on suppressing the Thorn too. Lulu here is a regular visitor--once the sun goes down. Isn't that right, Lulu?"
"It sure is--I've been waiting forever for you to get up Saya. Have you seen the channels on TV these days?" She started pulling Saya in the direction of the main house--the location of the nearest television set. Saya didn't even have a chance to protest before she was yanked from the room, leaving Kai with a half sink full of unwashed dishes.
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Mwahaha. I know I promised plot, and this chapter was kinda fluffy. Why do my chapters always turn out that way? I'm not even that big of a fluff fan. I've got the dang T-shirt from the Anti-Girly-Fluff-Stuff convention. And what do my chapters turn out like? Psh. But I promise that this chapter(and the last) had important plot-ness info in them. 'Twas just left naked and shivering among fluff. Poor plot. *hands cookie* More drama to come! And free AGFS Convention T-shirts to reviewers. :)