"Arisu?"
"Yes dimwit, Yori thinks Astrid is hard to pronounce and idiotic and I quite agree, I should have never let your father name you the halfwit that he was." The new Mrs. Daishi Mary
Astrid's eyes flashed and she stood up abruptly,
"You will not speak of my father in that manner when you are in my presence."
Her mother stood up and slapped her across the face splitting her lip, Astrid's head snapped back and she touched her face gingerly to gage the swelling.
"You will answer to Arisu while at Ouran and on this estate, are we understood?"
Astrid straightened and said quietly,
"I'll answer to what I like, remember one word to Kaitlyn and you lose your favorite daughter, are we understood?"
"Hmm" Mary said haughtily as she turned away and left the room, flicking her curly red hair over her shoulder as she left. Astrid left the room quietly and walked to her bedroom. She sat down in front of the vanity at looked at her swelling face. She sighed and rolled up her sleeves revealing scars etched into her skin. Getting up she walked over to the mini-fridge and pulled out and ice pack to help the swelling go down.
A picture of her and her father sat on the bedside table along with a hairbrush filled with long blonde hairs and a white iHome with a blue iPod plugged into it. Astrid lay down on the bed in the dark, the ice pack balanced on her face as condensation dripped down it, she pulled the covers onto her long legs and up over her shoulders.
A knock resounded from the door, the creature in the bed opened one disgruntled eye and mumbled "come in…"
The door swung open quickly and light pooled around the petit red haired figure at the door,
"Kjer?" the figure questioned quietly, a smile spread across the uninjured portion of Astrid Kjerstin Zachausson's face
"Come in Kay, what's bothering you?" Astrid said lifting up the covers so that Kaitlyn could crawl into bed with her, Kaitlyn scampered over and pulled the covers up around both their shoulders.
"It's starting to rain…" She mumbled not looking Astrid in the eye, her gaze flitted up and then widened when she saw the split lip and swollen cheek, "Kjer, what happened to you? Did you fall again?" Astrid nodded slowly.
"In the kitchen, I hit my face on the tile; but I'll be fine in a bit, once the swelling goes down."
"You're so clumsy, Mom and I were talking about how much you fall and hurt yourself, she sai-" the thunder crashed in the distance, Kaitlyn jumped and wrapped her arms around Astrid, who smiled and hugged her back. Astrid reached over Kaitlyn to turn on her iHome, filling the room with music.
"You can stay in here for the night, everything will be fine, I'll take care of you." Astrid said softly into Kaitlyn's hair.
"I know you will, you always do…" Kaitlyn trailed off, starting to fall asleep now that she felt safe. Astrid would be awake for sometime after that thinking.
Was it worth it? Getting beat and putting up with that woman just for Kaitlyn, just so she could have a happy relationship with their mother?
Kaitlyn snuggled closer and started snoring lightly into Astrid's shoulder.
Yes, it was.
…
The alarm went off sharply announcing the weather and the events for the day. Kaitlyn reached over and turned it off gently with the push of a button, then reaching over to shake Astrid's thin shoulder. Astrid rolled over and mumbled a curse or two at Kaitlyn, who then pursed her lips and starting yanking on locks of Astrid's long white blonde hair. After a period of non-response, Kaitlyn swept up all of Astrid's long straight hair and pulled.
"OW! Ok, I'm up you dirty fighter…" Astrid said sitting up and shooting Kaitlyn a look, Kaitlyn smiled and skipped over to the dresser to pull out clothes for Astrid
"We're starting school today, it's mid-semester but Yori said some things to the chairman and we're enrolling right now!" Kaitlyn shot a grin over to Astrid, who'd forgotten about school up until this point. She let out a groan and pulled the blankets back over her head.
"No, no, no Astrid you have to get up right now! We don't have our uniforms yet, so we have to dress really nice today, Mom said so! So come on, we have to pick out clothes!"
Astrid groaned and sat back up
"What now?"
"Clothes we have to pick out clothes, so get your lazy butt out of bed!" Kaitlyn said with a playful smile
"I have to call Linnea; I'll find some jeans later." Astrid said swinging her legs out of bed, Kaitlyn blanched noticeably
"Jeans? No, please don't, have you seen the uniforms there? They're these long yellow dresses…" Kaitlyn trailed off at Astrid's raised eyebrows, "I'll pick something out for you, go call Linnea."
Astrid walked out onto the small balcony that attached to her room and hit the first speed dial, it rang twice before a Swedish voice came onto the line
"Hello"
"Hey"
"How'd you sleep? Eh alright, I've got a split lip and a swollen cheek the last time I checked though."
"Oh god was it that bitch!"
"Shh, Kaitlyn's in the other room, she might hear you."
"Sorry, it's just… will you come live with us again? Maybe that'll…"
"What? Make her forget I exist? Doubtful. And then what? Wait until she goes schizo and hits Kay when I'm not here? No, and Kay won't leave she loves her."
"Because she doesn't know her the way we do."
"Undoubtedly. We start Ouran Academy today, Kaitlyn's thrilled, it's a school for the super rich, which thanks to the woman's past two marriages we are."
"You sound bitter."
"I get that way when we're separated, you know that, I miss you."
"I miss you too, but are you sure it has nothing to do with today's date?"
"The date…? What's today?"
"November 13," Linnea said softly sitting down as she heard Astrid suck in a breath. Astrid grabbed onto the railing to keep from swaying too much.
"Two years now, how has it been so long and still hurt so bad?" Astrid mumbled as tears welled in her eyes
"He was your father, and you loved him, it'll hurt for a while. But I'll be here, always."
"You're right, they can't tear us apart not really. Will you take some flowers today?"
"Of course, I love you, I'll call you at three." Linnea said wiping away her own tears
"I love you, talk to you later." Astrid flipped her phone shut with one hand and shoved it into the elastic band of her pajama pants. She let wiped the tears out of her eyes with her sleeve that she'd pulled over her hand. Astrid stood for a few moments letting the light wind press her clothes against her and her hair back.
After she was sure she had a solid grip on her emotions Astrid turned and walked back into the room,
"It's the 13th of November."
Kaitlyn turned her head to look at Astrid, and then looked down at her feet
"I know." Her eyes welled, and overflowed, "I didn't want to say anything because I hoped you wouldn't remember and you wouldn't hurt. I guess I should've known better, you always remember."
"Come here," Astrid said with a half-hearted smile, Kaitlyn walked over and threw herself into Astrid's waiting arms, crying quietly. "I'll always remember and I'll always be here, you can count on it." Kaitlyn nodded into her shoulder, they sat for a moment, Astrid struggling not to cry, to be strong, Kaitlyn grieving.
Kaitlyn finally loosened her embrace as a few stray tears slid down Astrid's face. Astrid smiled and pushed Kaitlyn's hair out of her face,
"Did you pick me out something to wear?"
Kaitlyn smiled and walked back over the dresser, she picked up a grey long sleeved button up sweater and a butter yellow sundress with dark topaz designs along the low circular neckline.
"I don't even remember getting that dress."
"That's because I bought it for you yesterday, do you like it?" Kaitlyn said nervously, Astrid smiled and walked forward to touch the fabric, it was silk
"I love it, how could I not? When did you have time?" Astrid said genuinely
"Oh well, mom and I were out yesterday and I saw it and thought it would bring out the color in your eyes and hair you know they're so pretty and I thought this would just look perfect."
"Well let's find out." Astrid pulled off her pajama and reached for the dress, but Kaitlyn had frozen,
"I always forget how bad it is… how could I have thought you'd forget about today when…" Kaitlyn's eyes welled up again as she saw the scars on the tops of Astrid's forearms, there were scores of other scars as well, but Kaitlyn's were trained on the scars on her forearms, "Sometimes I forget that…you were in the car…I'm sorry…"
"Oh Kay, it's okay now, it's fine, I don't even dream about it much anymore, it's alright" Astrid leaned over and gave her a quick hug, Kaitlyn sniffled and nodded taking the dress off of the hanger for Astrid who slipped it over her head followed by the sweater to cover her arms. Astrid left it unbuttoned and looked in the mirror
"You were right, it matches." Astrid said trying a smile on for Kaitlyn. The dress did match, the designs were a perfect match for Astrid's hazel eyes and the color of the dress matched the white blonde of her hair. "Thank you Kaitlyn."
"Oh it was no trouble, I love to see you looking nice and I know that we'll make lots of friends, can't you see? It'll all be wonderful."
"Yeah, it will."