A/N: Alright, so right off, I'd like to note that this is a simple 'what if' kinda story. Yea, I know Kai doesn't have siblings, I know this is kinda a long shot and I know some of you are gonna go ape shit over it. But ya know what? It's just a fanfic. If you don't like it, it's cool, just click the back button and go about your normal, every day life. I promise; it won't change a thing for you whatsoever.
Lol, so having said that, hope you guys like this. And if you do, a review would be muchly appreciated :) Thanks! ^^
Disclaimer: Sadly, I still do not own Beyblade *sigh*
Crimson eyes stared down at the flimsy object in the blunette's hands, the words on the white page becoming a grey blur as his vision suddenly became unfocused. The concept they were offering was too much to immediately comprehend and the mind behind said eyes raced in bewilderment.
What was he feeling? Regret? Remorse? Sorrow?
Certainly not.
Kai placed the paper in his hands down on the table with a deep frown. Weren't those the sort of things people usually felt in his situation? Did that mean he truly was heartless?
He snorted indignantly.
No. It meant that the person he normally should be grieving wasn't worth the effort the emotion would take.
"Hey, Kai. Who died?"
Kai turned to the neko-jin who'd just entered the kitchen and gave him a dull stare.
"My grandfather."
Ray froze in his step towards the sink with a shocked expression, not having expected his playful comment to have actually held meaning.
"Wh-what?.. Seriously?" He stammered in shock. "I- I was just... wow... I'm sorry, man... you OK?"
Kai shrugged and stepped on the pedal of the trash can, dropping the paper inside once the lid was popped.
"Fine." The blunette said bluntly. "He was a bastard."
Ray blinked at his friend for a moment before laughing awkwardly and proceeding to the sink to rinse his plate and cup. After depositing them into the dishwasher, her wiped his hands and turned back to the blunette, studying him carefully.
"So... you don't feel anything... anything at all?"
Kai crossed his arms and looked up absently.
"No." He said simply. "Nothing."
Ray blinked at him for a moment.
"Well, that's... actually, I don't know what that is. I'm not sure so sure it's a good thing but... it can't be all bad if you're not in pain either, so..."
A confused expression took over Ray's face and Kai sighed before turning to leave the room.
"I hated him, but he was still my grandfather." The blunette said solemnly. "I'll be leaving for Russia tomorrow for the funeral. I'll be back Monday."
The air was cold and bitter and the harsh wind was no consolation as Kai stepped off the Hiwatari private jet into the unforgiving winter air. Pulling up the zipper and collar of his coat, the bluenette bent to pick up his small suitcase and made his way towards the waiting limo.
"Good day, Mr. Hiwatari!" The driver yelled over the whistling wind through chattering teeth, his hands quivering on the handle of the door he was holding open for Kai. It was obvious he was having a much harder time with the weather than Kai was. "I'm terribly sorry for your loss."
Kai resisted a snort and instead gave the man a small nod before wordlessly getting into the car. He looked out the opposite window as he waited for the driver to get in and start. Once they were on their way, the blunette watched the dulled scenery go by, not at all bothered about the grim circumstance upon which he had returned to his homeland.
It took the limo longer than Kai had expected, due to the driver's careful precautions and speed. Admittedly, this annoyed Kai greatly but he said nothing as she collected his solitary suit case and exited the car, not waiting to be let out.
"Ah! Mr. Hiwatari!" Said the butler as Kai entered the Hiwatari estate. "So sorry for your loss! It's a terrible shame! Voltaire was a-"
Kai tuned the man out as he made his way past him up the grand staircase towards the back of the main entrance.
Heading down many familiar hallways, he eventually made his way to a very familiar room and dropped his suitcase onto the barely-used bed before heading over to light the fireplace in the room. That done, Kai shrugged off his coat and scarf and peeled off his gloves to deposit them beside his suitcase. Heading over to the huge glass window, he frowned at what was normally a view of a magnificent garden, now invisible through the terrible blizzard outside.
"That heartless bastard." Kai thought bitterly. "He wasn't worth the time it took to make my way back to this hell-hole. Should have just burned the sonuvabitch and sent me the ashes."
Sighing irritably, Kai turned away from the window and walked over to the bed. Relocating his suitcase to the dresser, he laid back on the bed and stared at the ceiling with his hands behind his head. Unpacking was pointless seeing as he was only going to be there for two days so that left him nothing to do until it was time for the ceremony the following day. With that thought, Kai closed his eyes and allowed himself to drift into a dreamless sleep while he pushed all thoughts from his head.
A sound knock at the door awoke Kai and turning his head, he stared at the clock beside his head in slight surprise. Reading nine am, the device told the blunette he'd slept much later then intended.
Sitting up with a yawn and stretch, Kai swung his legs over the side of the bed and stared at the door.
"Come in." He said simply.
The door opened and a maid walked in, moving to lay what looked like a suit bag over the back of his arm chair.
"Good morning, Master Hiwatari." She said with a thick Russian accent.
Kai stared at the bag.
"What the hell is that?" He asked gruffly.
"It's your suit. For your grandfathers…. For the ceremony. All the family will be wearing something similar."
Kai snorted. What family?
"I see." He said bluntly. "Thank you."
The maid smiled at him and bowed before turning to leave the room.
Kai stared at the bag for a moment before getting up and approaching it. Unzipping the plastic, the blunette lifted the suit from the covering and held it up, giving it a dull stare.
"You've gotta be kidding me." He thought, half-amused, half-weary.
After contemplating the idea for a moment, Kai finally draped the suit over his arm and moved to his suitcase.
"What the hell." He thought dismissively. "At least I don't have to bother with deciding what to wear."
Pulling a pair of socks, underwear and his toiletries from his bag, Kai turned then and made for the bathroom to get a shower.
It was disgusting. The sight and sound of people bawling and blubbering was enough to annoy the hell out of him on a normal day, but watching all the fakes and phonys at the funeral, making fools of themselves over a man they all clearly hated as much as he did, downright turned Kai's stomach. What people wouldn't do for the possibility of of a little cash.
"Oh, you poor dear! You must be absolutely devastated!" Kai tensed as an elderly woman he'd never seen before wrapped him in a tight hug. "You and Voltaire were so close weren't you? Poor thing."
It was all Kai could do not to bite her head off. What a idiotic woman.
"Thank you for coming." He muttered irritably. The woman patted his arm with a cheesy sympathetic expression.
"Of course, dear." She cooed pityingly. "Of course."
Kai's face turned up into a scowl as she turned and walked away.
"That's it." He thought with clenched teeth. "I can't stomach any more of this garbage!"
Turning abruptly around, the blunette made for the exit.
"Master Hiwatari! Where are you going? The ceremony is about to start!"
Kai paused and looked over his shoulder at the elderly butler.
"I need some air." He replied irritably.
The butler gave him a genuinely sympathetic expression and Kai had to resist rolling his eyes.
"Very well sir. Take all the time you need."
Kai said nothing else as he turned and made for the exit. He'd just placed his hand on the door however when he caught a glimpse of a strange sight.
"What was that?" He thought in confusion.
He was sure he'd just seen a flicker of familiar blue locks. But as quickly as it had appeared, it had just as quickly disappeared to be lost in the ridiculously huge throng of 'sympathizers'. Blinking once, Kai stared for a little longer before shaking his head and finally turning to push open the heavy wooden doors.
"What a complete waste of time." Kai thought sourly as he leaned against the side of the church, arms crossed, head bowed, eyes closed. "There really isn't any reason for me to stay…. Wonder how hard it would be to just slip out unnoticed..?"
As he contemplated this, the tiny voices of two children caught Kai's attention. Turning to his right he saw two small boys pointing at him and whispering.
"That's him! That's him! I remember!"
"Now way! He was wearing something else!"
"So! He just changed his coat, that's all!"
Kai raised an eyebrow as one of the children shoved the other towards him. When the child was standing before the blunette, he raised his tiny hands, palms upwards and bowed his head.
"Did you drop this?" The boy blurted awkwardly, not looking at Kai. Kai stared at the small rubber wheel in the boy's hand.
"No." The blunette replied bluntly. How the hell had they seriously mistaken him for anyone else? He had a very distinctive profile.
The child looked up into his face with a confused expression.
"Are you sure...? It sure looked like you…"
Kai gave him a dull stare.
"It's not mine."
The boy lowered his hands and turned to look over his shoulder and glare at his friend.
"See!" He hissed. "I told you!"
When the boy turned back to Kai again, he gave him a low bow.
"We're sorry to bother you Mr. Hiwatari!"
Kai watched the boy place the wheel by his foot before turning around and bolting off somewhere with his friend. The blunette frowned.
"That bastard." He thought of his grandfather. "Shows what kind of damned monster he was and how he tarnished our name! Everyone, even the children are terrified of us."
Clenching his fists and teeth, Kai closed his eyes for a moment before taking a good, long deep breath. When he opened his eyes again he looked down at the small object by his feet and stared at it for a few moments. A minute later he heard the music begin from inside the church and sighed irritably. Bending down to pick up the object, he straightened and deposited it into his coat pocket before turning and re-entering the church.
Bullshit.
That's all it was. Bullshit.
Kai sighed in annoyance as he listened to yet another boring speech, his eyes dull and uncaring as Voltaire's casket was lowered into the ground. He could feel a tick of annoyance throbbing in his forehead as he noted with irritation that the phonys from the church were present at the cemetery also and that they were repeating their blubbering act here as well.
"Damned fools." He thought, his teeth clenched and eyes closed.
"Now, Voltaire's grandchildren will lay the first dirt."
Kai rolled his eyes. Idiots. He was Voltaire's only grandchild. Wasn't it bad enough that someone was unlucky enough to have born the old bastard one grandchild? The world didn't need more of the devil's spawn than that.
With a sigh of annoyance, Kai walked up to the grave and stooped to pick up a handful of dirt, throwing his hand forward to unceremoniously toss it into the hole. However, a small gasp escaped him when he saw a second, red gloved hand, in his field of view tossing a clod of dirt as well.
His head jerked up to look at the person in surprise but before he could catch a glimpse of a face, the person had turned around. But he did catch a glimpse of very familiar looking blue locks blowing out from a red hood as the person walked away.
Kai walked back to the spot he'd previously been occupying and turned his head to stare at the person he'd just seen. But try as he might, he could not see a face. All he could see was a black coat covering a red sweater, the hood of which was pulled up to shadow the face of its owner. Still he stared, despite what he couldn't see, and the rest of the ceremony passed by unnoticed by him as he raked his brains to try and figure out who this person was.
"I don't have any cousins do I?" He thought in confusion. "No aunts or uncles…. Who the hell is that?"
Try as he might though, the blunette simply could not think for the life of him who this person might be.
Before long, the ceremony ended and the crowd began to disburse and in the scattering, Kai found that keeping track of the person he'd been staring at proved to be an impossible task. Kai tried to go after the red hood but he quickly lost it in the crowd. Slowing his jogging to a walk, then a halt, the blunette stared after the figure with a frown.
"Damn it, who was that!" He cursed in his head, the prospect driving him absolutely mad.
"Master Hiwatari?"
Kai turned his head to see the butler standing there with an umbrella.
"Your car awaits, sir."
Kai looked up at the sky, only now noticing the steady, gentle fall of snow as it fluttered peacefully and soundlessly towards the ground. Ignoring the umbrella being offered to him, the blunette stuffed his hands into his pockets and headed out of the cemetery.
"Master, Kai. The Lawyer is waiting in the drawing room for you, Sir…. Shall I tell him you'll be right there or ask him to come back later?"
Kai resisted an irritable sigh. The way everyone was treating him as if he were glass; or more importantly as if he was actually affected by his miserable Grandfather's passing, was really starting to grate on his nerves.
"I'll see him now." He replied as calmly as he could, resisting the urge to snap at the butler. "I want to get this shit over with and go back home."
Home. Funny how he considered Japan home instead of the house, the huge Russian mansion, he'd grown up in.
The butler gave him a pitying look which irritated the bluenette even more.
"Of course, sir." He said softly.
With a small bow, the man turned and Kai followed him to a room towards the back of the house. It was a large office with a big mahogany desk somewhere at the back. Sitting behind the desk was a thin, awkward looking elderly man with a balding head and tiny spectacles perched on the tip of his nose. The man looked up as Kai entered and a deeply sympathetic expression crossed his face as well, which nearly made Kai turn and walk right back out the door again.
"Ah, Mr. Hiwatari. Please, sit. Now that you're both here, if you're ready we'll commence with the reading of the will."
It was only then that Kai noticed someone else sitting in a chair across from the thin man. The blunette blinked as he recognised the back of the hooded figure whom had been plaguing his mind all day.
Noticing him staring at the other person, the lawyer blinked at Kai.
"Hm? Ah yes, this is the first time you two have met isn't it? I suppose it would be prudent to introduce you two before we continue. Kai, this is Kaija…."
The person in the chair reached up to lower their hood before turning in their seat to look at him and Kai's eyes immediately widened, his face the definition of complete and utter shock as he finally say their face.
"What the hell!?" He thought in shock, his mouth agape as he stared at the girl in the seat. "Is this supposed to be a joke!?"
It was like looking in a mirror, Kai realized. Somehow, the girl sitting there staring back at him looked exactly like him.
The lawyer gave them a lopsided smile.
"Kai…. As I'm sure you can tell…. Kaija is your sister…."
The girl in the chair gave him a somewhat nervous smile as she lifted her hand to offer him an awkward wave.
"Hey…" She said simply.
He almost expected a deep voice to accompany those pale lips but thankfully, her voice was smooth and fluid, nothing like his own.
"Wha- What the hell is this?!" Kai demanded, eyes still wide. "What's going on?! How-"
He stopped, unable to set his thoughts straight.
"Why don't you sit down, Kai." The lawyer said softly. "We can explain everything later. For now, let's just read your grandfather's will, shall we?"
Kaija offered her 'brother' one more smile before turning back to the lawyer.
Still stunned, Kai approached the empty chair beside the girl, eyes never leaving her and plopped unceremoniously into it. The lawyer cleared his throat and lifted the pages on the desk before him to read, but the words never reached the blunette's consciousness as the man read, because Kai was too fully immersed in his thoughts and the bizarre sight of seeing his face reflecting back at him from someone else's shoulders.
"There is no way this is happening…" The Russian thought in disbelief. "How the hell can I have a sister… a twin!? And not know about it until now… There's just now way…"
He could tell he was making the girl uncomfortable, obviously feeling his eyes on her - if the way she was squirming in her seat were any indication - but he couldn't seem to stop himself from staring.
"This is just too weird…" Kai thought, extremely put off.
He studied the other blunette carefully. Her hair was considerably longer than his, reaching well down her back and secured at the back of her head in a high ponytail. Her slate bangs weren't quite as wild as his, considering she probably bothered to run a brush through them more often than he did, but they still stuck off at awkward angles the way his did.
Kai made a face as he studied the girl.
"I don't look that feminine, do I?" He thought in dismay with a deep frown, noting the soft curve of her lips, the perfectly shaped eyebrows, the mile-long lashes.
After some time, the handsome bluentte decided that no, despite them happening to share the same face, he didn't look that 'girly'; he was manly!... Really manly!
Suddenly, a pair of eerily familiar crimson orbs turned on him as their owner shot him an extremely irritated expression.
"Ya got a good enough look yet?" She asked moodily. "Cause you're starting to creep me out!"
"Creep you out?!" Kai retorted indignantly. "I'm staring at my worst nightmare; me if I'd been born as a girl!"
Kaija snorted and rolled her eyes, turning away from him and crossing her arms.
"We done yet?" She asked the lawyer, narrowing her eyes on him.
The man reached up to awkwardly tug at his tie.
"Well…. Yes, I suppose we are…"
He reached out to collect the papers in front of him and turned them around, sliding them across the table to the two blunette's.
"Well, here's the will if you two would like to have a look….. I'll just leave you two to it then…"
Getting to his feet, the thin man made his way to the door, turning and quietly closing it behind him as he left. When he was gone, Kaija turned to her companion with a lopsided smile.
"It's cool to finally meet you, I guess."
Kai blinked once and stared at her for a long time before finally shaking his head.
"I can't believe this…." He muttered. "I'm still waiting to wake up and realize this was all some seriously weird dream my unstable mind concocted after one really bad night out drinking…"
Sighing, he gave the girl a weary look and crossed his arms.
"OK, I'll bite." He said simply. "What's the deal?"
Kaija got up and turned her chair around so she was facing him before sitting again and leaning back lazily, studying the other bluenette as he had studied her.
"Well, at least you got my good looks." She teased playfully, temporarily ignoring his question. When Kai gave her a look, she laughed and crossed her arms as well. "OK, here's the deal. Me and you?"
She lifted a hand to gesture between the two of them.
"We're twins." She replied bluntly. Kai gave her another look.
"And I see you got my sense of humor…" He said sarcastically, his expression a straight face.
"Geeze, you're such a grouch." Kaija complained. "This what you're always like or are you actually kinda bummed about the old man croaking?"
Kai snorted.
"Hardly." He replied bluntly. "I couldn't care less about him when he was alive, I sure as hell don't care he's gone now."
Kaija smirked.
"Oooo. Harsh." She replied in amusement.
"Not really." Kai said coldly. "He was a bastard."
"So I heard." Kaija replied.
"So?" Kai spoke again, lifting an eyebrow. "Are you gonna tell me what's going on here or not?"
Kaija shrugged.
"I duno much more than you do, bro." She replied simply. Kai was slightly taken aback by that.
"Bro…." He echoed in his head. It sounded so strange.
Yet hearing it from her mouth, he couldn't hold back an ever-so-slight smile that tugged at the corner of his lips.
"Well, what can you-"
Kai was cut off as a soft knock sounded at the door. Both blunette's turned to see it open slowly. Kai stared at the stranger who'd just entered but Kaija's face lit up.
"Baba!" The girl greeted cheerfully. Kai turned a look on the girl in front of him before turning to look back at the woman standing in the doorway again.
"Baba?" He echoed, stunned. "You mean… are you…. My grandmother?"
Kai looked the woman over. She was an attractive, tallish and thin woman, no doubt having been quite beautiful in her prime. Her slate hair was pulled back into a stylish French twist and her bright crimson eyes shone with a sharp wit and intelligence, though they looked like the sort capable of great compassion and love as well. Her face, though that of an elderly lady, was smooth and nearly wrinklesss with flawlessly fair skin just as that of her grandchildren. She was dressed in a stylish navy pencil skirt and matching three quarter-sleeved jacket with a white blouse underneath. A pair of simple yet stylish black pumps adorned her feet. One had to admit, she looked good for her age.
When her gaze took in her grandson, the sharp crimson eyes softened and glossed over slightly.
"Vnuk…" She said softly, moving forward. "Moy vnuk…."
Kai watched, speechless as she approached him. Unable to move, he allowed her to take his face tenderly in her hands when she stopped before him, and stared up at her unblinkingly as she seemed to study him with a heavy gaze.
"Miloserdnyy Gospod…" She whispered, her voice heavy with emotion. "Look at you… My you've grow into such a handsome young man…"
Kai was completely at a loss for words.
Noting his dazed expression, the woman offered him a watery smile before releasing him and moving to give her jacket a sharp tug. She sniffed once and lifted her chin, an obvious attempt to regain her composure.
"Look at me, blubbering like a fish. Now then…." She reached out then and offered the young man her hand.
Caught off guard and a little stunned, Kai reached up and wrapped his considerably larger hand around hers. She wrapped her fingers around his firmly and shook his hand.
"I'm so happy to finally meet you, my darling." She said kindly. "My name is Annika…. And yes, I am your grandmother."
Kai stared at her in stunned silence for a long while and when she finally released his hand she gave him a lopsided smile.
"Oh, I know you're a grown young man and you only just met me, but I've waited so long for that old bastard to croak so I could finally meet you…. Is it alright if I give you a hug?"
Kai blinked at her for a minute.
"I-…. Uh…" He replied awkwardly, still in a daze. He got to his feet, now taller than her by several inches, but he still felt like a small child. "Yes-yea…. Sure…"
Annika's eyes welled up again as she reached out and wrapped her arms around him, hugging him tightly.
Kai simply stood there for a moment, still trying to process everything. Eventually however, something seemed to snap inside him and he suddenly felt a well of emotion himself.
Lifting his arms, he wrapped them around the woman before him.
Grandmother…. Family.
It was a fantastically awesome concept. Believing Voltaire to have been his only remaining relative, Kai had long ago given up on the fantasy of ever having a family of his own. Having everything else he'd ever wanted and needed growing up, it was and hand always been the only thing he'd ever envied and begrudged his fellow human beings for.
Now, standing here in the wake of his grandfather's passing, he suddenly found himself not only with one new family member, but two.
Needless to say, it was a powerful notion and one that easily overwhelmed the blunette immensely.
Closing his eyes against the onslaught of emotion, Kai felt his throat and chest constrict tightly. His breath hitching, he hugged the woman in his arms tight to him as he leaned to rest his face beside hers.
"Babushka…." He whispered, his voice constricted and barely audible.
The two stayed in each other's embrace for some time until eventually the woman pulled back from the blunette and once more reached up to affectionately cup his face between her hands. Her eyes were bright and shinning as she gazed up at him, staring at him as if she was looking at someone she'd known and loved all her life.
"At last…." She said softly, a warm, watery smile on her face again.
She gently pulled his face down to her level and pressed a tender, lingering kiss to his forehead. Kai closed his eyes, savoring the gentle touch, and opened them again when she pulled away and released him.
Clearing her throat, Annika sniffed once again and blinked back her tears.
"Now then!" She said firmly. "I suppose you'll be wanting to hear the full story then, hm?"
"Yes… please…" Kai replied softly, unable to take his eyes off of the woman.
He watched as she moved around the desk and sat down in the huge padded chair. She made a face of distaste at a picture frame a top it and reached out to turn it face-down before elegantly crossing her legs and leaning forward. Folding her hands neatly, she rested her arms on the desk before focusing on her grandchildren.
"Please, sit my love." She said warmly. Kai obeyed, eyes never leaving her. She cleared her throat again before continuing. "I met your grandfather many years ago. It was an arranged marriage, an attempt to merge two powerful families and their companies into one fantasic all-powerful global force…. Unfortunately, I was in love with another man…"
Her smile was acidic as she stared ahead of her as if remembering.
"Well, needless to say; I resented him terribly. But, that old codger was persistent and he'd quickly taken a liking to me, smitten. I knew he didn't love me and he knew I didn't love him, but back in those days the will of the parents was the will of the child, and we had no say in the matter. So, I married him."
Annika turned the chair towards the window to gaze out it as she spoke.
"He did try however, I'll give him credit for that. In the early days, he did try…" She closed her eyes as a fond smile crossed her face. "Back then that man was sinfully handsome. Over the years I slowly warmed up to him and when we had our first child, we were blissfully happy for the quite some time…"
Her smile disappeared to be replaced with a frown but her eyes didn't open.
"But as the years went by, as he prepared to take over his fathers – and mine's – company… he began to change. He grew cold and distant. Then one day, the unthinkable happened…"
Kai watched the woman's reflection in the window, her lip quivering ever-so-slightly. She quickly regained her composure however when she opened her eyes and lifted her chin, staring as if seeing something her grandchildren couldn't, and her eyes grew dark and jaded.
"Our son – your father – was on his way back from picking up your mother from a trip…. It was a beautiful day, sun shining brilliantly, not a cloud in the sky…" Annika's face contorted in a fit of pain.
"That semi came out of nowhere…" She whispered, her voice constricted. "It topped the hill at breakneck speed, far faster then it should have been going…. There was group of children crossing the road… he swerved to miss them…"
Her eyes squeezed shut and her teeth clenched in a pained grimace.
Kai's own throat constricted tightly. It was the first time he'd ever heard the story of his parent's deaths. Every time he'd ever asked Voltaire, the man had lost his mind and Kai had always retreated in fear.
A small hiccough escaped Annika and she lifted her hand to press the back of it to her lips. There was a sickening silence for a while as the woman struggled to regain her composure again. After some time, she took a few good, deep breaths, seemingly having regained control and opened her eyes again. They were cold and hard as diamonds now.
"They both died that day. The only survivors of the crash…. Were their newborn twins…."
Unconsciously, Kai reached up and fingered a risen scar hidden just inside his hairline. Catching a glimpse of movement in the corner of his eye, he turned to see Kaija pressing fingers to her shoulder. The two exchanged a look before removing their hands with deep frowns and looking back to their grandmother as she spoke again.
"That day was his breaking point…. He completely lost his mind. For days he locked himself in his office, refusing to come out, refusing to eat. Until finally he emerged, looking like an old, withered man."
Annika sighed heavily and closed her eyes again.
"We fought constantly, at each others throats all the time, until finally we decided enough was enough. In the end….. we decided to split up, to each take one of you and go our separate ways. I took you, Kaija, and Voltaire took you, Kai…. I wanted to keep in contact, to keep you two together…. But Voltaire wouldn't have it."
Finally she turned back around to face the two and the expression on her face was one of utmost agony.
"I'm so sorry…" She whispered, her voice strained. "So sorry… What you must have gone through, Kai… my poor, sweet child…. What it must have been like to grow up with that wretched man…."
"Baba…." Kaija cooed, her own eyes glossy as well. She reached out and took her grandmother's hand and the woman squeezed tightly but her eyes never left her grandson.
"Can you ever forgive me…?" She asked, expression pleading.
Kai's throat was raw and tight.
"I-…." He was once more at a loss for words.
Taking the silence the wrong way, Annika sat back in her seat and set her expression in an emotionless one, but the pain in her eyes was still evident.
"Of course… it'll take time…."
Kaija shot her twin a vicious glare but Kai was helpless to do anything about it.
Annika cleared her throat again and straightened in her seat.
"Well, in any case, that's the story… Now, I know this must have all come as a shock to you darling, but…. Well, I'm hoping that, in time, you can come to accept us and think of us as the family we are…. In time, of course…"
The woman got up from the chair now and moved around the desk. She leaned down to place a kiss to the top of her granddaughter's head, and the girl have her a tender smile in return. Annika then turned to Kai, looking like she was considering doing the same but eventually thought better of it. Reaching out, she instead placed a hand on his shoulder and Kai felt a twinge of disappointment.
"I'll leave you two to talk…" She said softly.
Without another word, Annika moved forward and left the room, closing the door softly behind her.
Kai wanted to call her back, or to run after her, hug her and tell her he forgave her, he did want them to be a family, that he was happy to have finally met them too…
But it was against his better nature, it was against his very character, and he suddenly found himself loathing himself for that one simple fact. And then, eventually, he began to loathe his grandfather that much more for being the root of that emotional block.
"So. Baba want's us to hang out for a bit, get to know each other."
Kai looked back at the other blunette to see her sitting there looking at him with her hands behind her head.
"I'm cool with it, I'd like to get to know my bro, I've been waiting long enough to meet you!" She grinned wide then. "All we gotta decide is your place or ours!"
Kai frowned deeply.
"I don't care what you do." He said tonelessly. "But I'm going home."
Kaija gave him a confused look. "But you are home…?"
Kai's expression darkened.
"No. I'm not. This hell hole has never been my home and it never will. This time tomorrow morning, I'll be on my way back to where home really is." He paused a moment, as if an after thought. "But you're welcome to come back with me… See where I live, meet my friends…"
Kaija beamed.
"Great! When do we leave!"
Kai looked at her, stunned. He hadn't really expected her to just agree so willingly.
"Uh… Well, preferably tonight."
"Kay, cool! I'll go get my shit together!"
Kai's gaze followed his sister as she left the room, completely bewildered by her. Then a thought came to him and he couldn't help but smile.
Sister.
He had family. Real family.
Kai sat back in his seat, a small smile on his face as he stared out the window across from him. Suddenly, Karma didn't seem like such a bitch any more.