Disclaimer: I don't own the characters. Konomi Takeshi does. I'm merely playing with them for the moment.

A/N: Between the 1st and 25th of December, I kept posting one fic/update a day over at my LJ, lumelle. These updates were in series of five fics sharing a theme.

The fourth series of five started five AUs. This one is an attempt to give Atobe an actual family instead of just ever-absent parents... and to make Jackal more than a comic relief or a background character.

In the Family

Chapter 1

Surprises

Had Kuwahara Isadora not been momentarily distracted by a child running by, everything might have gone quite differently.

As it was, her attention was indeed caught by the boy who brushed past her, almost making her spill her tea. She looked after him, wondering why his parents weren't keeping an eye on him, letting him run around the café like that.

Her eyes elsewhere, she didn't notice the briefcase set on the floor next to one of the tables until she tripped over it. The "almost" became "completely" as she stumbled, the cup flying from her hands. She watched with horror as it the hot liquid fell into the lap of the owner of the briefcase. Followed by herself.

For a second, she was stunned. Then she started quickly apologizing, quickly pushing herself up. The poor man looked just about as shocked as she was, his obviously expensive suit stained with tea. Grabbing some paper napkins from the next table, she started cleaning up the spill as best as she could.

A hand closed over her wrist in a surprisingly gentle hold. "Please, do calm down," the man said in English. She blinked in surprise, then just nodded wordlessly as he took the napkins from her, starting to pat at his poor clothes himself to dry them. A waiter hurried over, looking just about as shocked as Isadora herself felt, but the man simply waved him off.

"I'm so sorry," she muttered, terrified at the thought of what cleaning such a suit would come to cost. "It's all my fault, I'll certainly –"

"Oh, no. It was my fault for leaving my briefcase there." He looked up at her, looking at her for a moment. Isadora felt as though she was being thoroughly scrutinized for some unknown purpose. As he next spoke, he did so in Japanese. "Do you speak Japanese?"

"Ah, yes," she replied, blinking. She hadn't even fully realized they were talking in English in the first place; her response to him had been just automatic. "I've lived here a while…"

"Excellent." He sighed, glancing at the laptop he had open on the table. "How good would you say you are in English? And Japanese, for that matter."

Well, wasn't that just a strange question… nevertheless, she somehow managed a tiny smile. "I make a living as a translator," she replied, a hint of pride in her voice. "Between Portuguese, English, and Japanese."

He smiled back at her, now, and for all that she was still feeling flustered and embarrassed and all things horrible, really, she could feel the knot in her stomach melting away just a little bit. He looked absolutely charming. "In that case… I have a proposition for you." He gestured for her to take a seat. She did so, sitting down opposite to him. Somehow, it seemed impossible for her to even imagine not doing as he told. "You see, I'm supposed to have a business meeting in less than an hour, and my usual interpreter just called me a moment ago and told she couldn't show up. One of my business partners only speaks Japanese, while two others only speak English, and while I have mastered both I'd hate to be stuck interpreting everything when I'm supposed to be leading the negotiations."

She nodded slowly. Was he suggesting… that she'd do that instead? It sounded like a rather serious matter, and she hadn't done much live interpreting before…

Perhaps her uncertainty showed on her face, as he smiled again. "Don't worry, it doesn't have to be perfect; merely enough that everyone can follow the general flow. As I said, I will be leading the discussion, and can clear things up if there are any questions. Of course, I will pay you whatever you consider to be a reasonable fee," he added. "I know this is an extremely short warning and you might have prior engagements, so the least I can do is give you adequate compensation for your time and effort… provided you'll agree, of course."

Isadora didn't really know what to say. One moment, she'd been worrying about having to pay for the results of her blunder… and now, she was being offered a job opportunity. It was all like some kind of a bizarre dream. The man might be some strange stalker, or at the very least he had to be mad to offer to hire a total stranger, or… or he could just be a wealthy businessman with a problem in his hands and very little time to solve it.

And, well, she had ruined his suit.

"I'll do it," she said.

"Most excellent." She wasn't sure if it was a smirk or a smile, really, but once again it drew her right in. "Shall we go, then? There isn't a lot of time remaining, but I'll arrange for my driver to bring me a replacement suit while we try and get something adequate for you to wear. Not to say your current outfit is not most flattering, of course," he added, "but I hope you'll excuse me if I dare suggest it isn't exactly standard attire for business negotiations."

Isadora glanced down at her simple skirt and top and couldn't help but agree. She didn't exactly look business-like; then, she also hadn't expected to do anything but drink a cup of tea at the café. Before she could say anything, however, she found herself being almost literally swept along as the man quickly gathered his things and strode out of the little café.

As she was ushered into an actual limo with a man whose name she didn't even know, she wasn't sure if she'd just made a horrible mistake or the best decision in her life.

*

"I'm home," Jackal called out as he stepped in, toeing his shoes off and setting them more or less neatly aside before putting on his slippers. Marui at his side was less careful, simply kicking the shoes off before taking out the pair of slippers that was practically his. You knew you stayed over a lot when you had your own pair of slippers.

Curiously, there was no response. Jackal frowned, tossing his school bag at the doorway of his room before walking to the kitchen, Marui following along. "Mother?" he called out. Again, he got no reply.

"Oh, hey, look." Marui pointed at a note on the table, promptly snatching it up and reading it aloud. "'Jackal, if you get home before me – I stepped out for some tea. There's a snack in the fridge. I should be back around four.'" Marui glanced at the wall clock and frowned. "…It's already past four, though."

"Weird." Jackal shook his head. His mother worked from home, so she was usually there when he got home. "I mean, she is sometimes later than expected, but at least she usually mails me as soon as she knows she won't be back in time…"

"Meh, she probably ran into a friend or something and forgot about the time." Marui popped a gum bubble and opened the fridge. "Oooh, this is neat. She remembered me, too!"

Jackal looked over Marui's shoulder, seeing two pieces of cake sitting neatly on a plate. There was a letter on top of each in pink frosting – Marui's favourite. 'J', said one, while the other declared, 'B'. "Of course she did. You always whine when she doesn't."

"Oi. I'm not that childish." Marui pouted very childishly as he took the plate out of the fridge. "Come on, come on~ Let's eat this cake! And you can send your mother a mail or something, right? Ask her when she comes back."

"…Right." Marui was probably right, anyway. She'd just started talking with a friend or something. It wasn't like there was anything to worry about.

She was probably having fun at the moment, anyway.

*

Isadora was feeling almost dizzy as she tried to keep up with everything that was happening. One moment she'd been at the café, the next she found herself in an extremely expensive clothing store where a very attentive salesman had speedily found her a business outfit that probably couldn't have fit her more perfectly if it'd been specifically tailored. Before she'd even had time to marvel at that, though, she'd already been sped off to the actual business negotiations.

The man who had hired her on spot, she found out, was called Atobe Akihito. He was the CEO of a medium-sized security firm, which was a part of the larger Atobe Corporation. While he admitted receiving his position due to a remote relation, he still insisted he was good at his job, and from what she'd seen at the negotiations she was inclined to agree. Atobe-san was just about everything she would expect from the perfect businessman – charming, intelligent, and good at winning people to his side. While her knowledge about business was rather limited, she was convinced that as hands were shaken and contracts signed at the end of the meeting everyone was more or less happy with the outcome. She certainly was; for all the bizarreness of the situation, it had at least been an interesting experience.

"I really must thank you for agreeing to do this, Kuwahara-san," Atobe-san told her as the other participants of the meeting left. "Your help was quite invaluable. Whatever fee you name for your services couldn't possibly be enough."

"Don't say that, I might get greedy," Isadora said with a tiny smile. "Though really –" Just then, she heard a ring from her phone. With a quick apology to Atobe-san, she dug it out of her purse and opened it. As she saw the notice for incoming mail, she almost wanted to slap herself. "Oh! I forgot to mail my son about being late," she sighed, worrying her lip. Hopefully Jackal hadn't gotten too worried about her…

"Ah, I apologize." Atobe-san frowned. "I've been keeping you from your other responsibilities… and here I was still planning to ask you for dinner to express my gratitude." Again that little smirk-smile. Very charming indeed.

Isadora looked at him, and again came to a split-second decision. Being somewhat impulsive had gotten her this far in life; why'd it stop serving her, now? "He's a big boy, he can handle himself for one evening," she said, then added with a slightly flustered tone, "assuming your invitation stands, of course."

"But of course." He slipped more towards a smile, again.

She quickly wrote a mail to her son, telling that she would be another while still and that he could take some of the emergency cash in the kitchen cabinet to get some take-out for Marui and himself. She didn't need to ask if Marui was there.

Good or bad, at least this day would be interesting.

*

"Mou, I've got to go soon," Gakuto complained, glancing at his watch. "My mum will flip if I'm not home in an hour…"

"But you can't leave yet," Jirou whined. "We just about got started!" He was awake for once, excited by the situation. The regulars were all cooped up in a karaoke box Atobe had reserved for the entire afternoon after a lot of whining from the more excitable part of the team. Now the captain himself mainly ignored them, just sitting there whenever someone wasn't bugging for him to sing. When they did, he always chose some fiendishly difficult song just to show off. Shishido kept rooting for him to fail, but this far Atobe had sung each one beautifully. The stupid diva.

"Must be troublesome," Atobe remarked, raising his eyebrows. Apparently he had been following their conversation after all. "Having to report in to your parents all the time, that is."

"Just because you don't have to doesn't mean we're all quite that free," Oshitari pointed out smoothly. "We can't exactly just call home and tell the servants to postpone the dinner by an hour."

"That must be rather lonely," Ootori commented softly, goodhearted as ever. "I mean, I can't even imagine my parents not keeping track of what I do… It would probably feel as though they don't even care."

"Michael keeps track of me well enough," Atobe replied, rolling his eyes. "Besides, care or not, it's not like my father is ever around, what with his constant business trips."

"And your mother?" Hiyoshi asked. "Why isn't she more worried about you?"

Instantly, everyone but Hiyoshi and Ootori seemed to freeze. Ootori merely seemed puzzled at the shocked looks on everyone's faces. Atobe, though, merely looked at Hiyoshi coolly. "She's back in London. Hard to look after me from there."

"London?" Hiyoshi frowned. "Isn't that… in England? You mean she lives that far away? That must suck."

"It's not like she's entirely alone or anything," Atobe said, flipping open his phone and browsing through it as he spoke as though they had been discussing something entirely trivial. "She has plenty of people around her, and I visit her twice a year… I know Father visits her every time he's in London, too."

"But why doesn't she ever visit here, then?" Hiyoshi asked, oblivious to the almost horrified gazes of the third-year regulars. "I mean, even if they're separated, if your father still visits her, it can't be that she can't stand to be in the same country with him or something…"

"Oh, I'm sure she'd love to visit," Atobe replied smoothly. "However, the cemetery wardens might be a bit alarmed if she suddenly decided to take a stroll."

Now even Hiyoshi was smart enough to be taken aback. "Cemetery?" he echoed. "You mean she's…"

"My mother is currently residing at the St. Pancras and Islington Cemetery," Atobe said, his voice smooth as velvet – and terribly cold. "Has been for the last ten years or so." Now, he shut his phone with an audible snap, followed by another snap, this time from his fingers. "Kabaji, we're leaving." Standing up, he glanced around. "Feel free to stay however long you like. I've already paid for the use of the place for the rest of the evening. However, I expect you all to show up at practice bright and early tomorrow." Not waiting for any responses, he then promptly walked out, Kabaji following closely behind.

For a moment, everyone looked after them. Then they turned to look at Hiyoshi, who for once had the decency to look absolutely horrified. "I didn't know," he murmured, lowering his eyes.

"Obviously," Gakuto sighed, shaking his head. "Ootori, too… Don't know how the two of you haven't learned it yet, but you don't discuss parents around Atobe. Just… it's just not done."

"That's so sad, though," Ootori murmured. "For his mother to be dead, and his father away…"

"It's sad all right," Shishido said, looking rather uncomfortable with the subject. "Now Atobe'll be strict tomorrow, too… Just pretend nothing happened, though, and he'll probably be willing to ignore it, too."

There was silence for a moment, broken as Jirou bounced up, even his usual cheer somewhat forced, now. "Next song!" he announced, obviously anxious to get away from the subject. "I'll sing next, me, me!"

The discussion ended at that, though any mentions of parents were kept to minimum for the rest of the night.