Aya: Yay I finally got a new story. n.n This story is about Hiroxoc.
Salya: She got bored and wanted to do a story about Hiro-san.
Aya: -.-'
-_-_-
Warning: Lemon...somewhat later on, Violence, Horror, Cursing, Some Gore, etc.
Rate:M/R
Disclaimer: Do. Not. Own. Beyblade. Nor it's characters. However I do own Kallie and the plot. So, no touchie!
Chapter One,
She stared out the window, watching a single cloud float across the blue,unforgiving sky. Her blue eyes were sad, wishing it were any other day than the day it was. "No fair, why does this day have to exist?!?!" she called to that lone cloud,tears in her voice. She slammed the window shut,and tuned away .She pushed her strawberry-blond hair out of her aquamarine eyes, with a little sigh.
Strong arms encircled her blue jean clad waist. "Honey, what did the cloud do to you? Don't tell me it rained on your parade?" came her husband's voice. He spun her around and hugged her,causing her to giggle a little. Hitoshi 'Hiro' Granger was drop dead gorgeous in a pair of tight fitting jeans, a light blue button up shirt, and dress shoes.
She looked up at him, a small smile on her face. "Only if it created Father's Day." she said softly. She laid her head on his big,strong shoulder and closed her eyes. "I think about them some times..." Her thoughts were on her birth parents, wondering just who they were.
Hiro kissed her forehead. "Then go visit Annji and Yume." he replied, speaking of her adoptive mother and grandmother. "I'm sure they would be more than glad to see you." he smiled reassuringly down at her. "Besides it's not like they live halfway around the world." he said,jokingly.
She looked up at him,then stuck out her tongue. "Oh yeah, only if two blocks over is halfway around the world." she replied sardonically. "But I was referring to my birth parents. You know who your parents are. Salya halfway grew up with hers. Aya and Kai know the names of their's at least. Max sees both of his on a regular basis." She stared a hole in her tennis shoes as she spoke of their friends. "But I don't even have names. St. Christopher's forbade any of us from knowing their names."
"Is that why your surname is St. Christopher?" he asked softly. She rarely spoke of the orphanage where she'd spent the first ten years of her life. All he knew was that it was a catholic orphanage nestled in the mountains of Switzerland, and had been run by a nun and parish priest. "Because it was against the rules?"
She nodded, stepping out of his arms and grabbing one big, masculine hand in one of her tiny, pale feminine ones. "Yes, every boy was given the name of a saint or prophet. And every girl was given the name of a righteous woman from the bible." she sat back on the couch, dragging him to sit beside her. "There was even a Christopher St. Christopher. He was one of my friends at St. Christopher's."
He wrapped his arms around her,hugging her close. "Then what happened to you? Kallie doesn't sound like a bible name." he prodded gently. "Or are you the exception to the rule?" He slowly lifted her onto his lap,realizing for the first time just how light she really was. He rested his head on hers,staring at their wedding picture on the wall opposite them.
She gave a little laugh,hardly above a low chuckle. "Because I was ten months old when I became a resident of St. Christopher's. I had already been called after the Hindu goddess of destruction, Kalika. They tried to change my name to Mary, but the damage was already done. I'd not answer to anything but Kalika, so they cut their losses and shortened it to Kallie."
He chuckled, a low rumble that coursed through his chest. "I can see where a girl named for a goddess of destruction residing at a catholic orphanage would raise a few eyebrows in any country." Behind her, a thoughtful look crossed unseen on his face. "Is St. Christopher's still in operation?" he asked, an idea forming inside his head.
"No,why? Are you getting an idea in that head of yours?"
He smiled a little, knowing nothing escaped the attention of his wife. "I was just thinking that if it were,we could go visit it. Look up some of your childhood friends...and maybe see if the orphanage's offices had anything on your parents. But if it's no longer in operation, then we would be hard pressed to gain entry inside."
She turned to regard him. "It's not hard pressed if you have a key to the front door." her voice carried a hint of smugness.
"What are you doing with a key? Am I missing something?"
"Sister Mary Margret and Father Thomas gave each of us an old fashioned key to the front door. 'If after you leave us,you ever have a need to return home.' Sister Mary used to tell us girls every time she made sure we still had them." replied Kallie.
Hiro nodded. "I think I get the idea. It's that intricate silver key that hangs on the silver filigree chain with the St. Christopher medal. The one you keep upstairs in your jewelry box, right?" He made a thoughtful sound. "And all this time, I thought it went to that music box Annji insisted you take out of your old room last time we visited her."
She shook her head, her strawberry-blond hair sliding across the back of her red tank top in a weird sort of wave motion. "There hasn't been a key to that old music box since Mem found it on the front steps the day she brought me Home." she started to say something when the door burst open, admitting Hiro's brother Takao and his girlfriend, Aya Hiwatari.
"Aniki!" called Takao as he raced over and plopped on the couch next to them. Aya still stood in the doorway,giggling. "Did you forget?"
Hiro blinked,his face showing evident confusion. "Did I forget what, Little Brother?" then it hit him what Takao had called him. "And don't call me Aniki!" he growled in slight irritation.
"But you are my brother." said Takao blinking slightly.
Hiro sighed as he motioned for Aya to have a seat. "I know, Little Brother. But it always sounds as if you're having sex with me when you do it. And I am not incest, I have a wife after all. Now what is it you think I forgot?"
Takao bounced a little more,taking a hand full of chocolate kisses out of the crystal candy dish on the coffee table. "It's Sunday. Aya and I are supposed to spend a week with you and Kallie, remember? We waited on the steps of Grandpa's dojo all morning. When you didn't come, Grandpa dropped us off on his way to his weekly card game with Voltaire."
Hiro cursed under his breath. "You can still stay,but Aya and I aren't going to be here. That means you'd either have to invite Kai and Salya or Max and Mila to stay with you."
The bouncy bluenette blinked again. "Where are you going, Big Brother?"
Hiro gave a smile and regarded Takao. "To St. Christopher's orphanage in Switzerland." he felt his wife jump a little in his lap, obviously surprised.
"Oooh!" said Aya,finally drawing attention to herself. "Are you going to adopt?" there was joy in her sparkling reddish-brown eyes. "That would be so sweet,what with Kallie being adopted herself."
Kallie smiled at the hyperactive young Russian. "No Aya. But if we discover we can't conceive when we decide to have children, then we will definitely look into that." They had decided to wait to have children until they had been married about two years. They had made that all too difficult decision after Kallie had conceived their wedding night,then miscarried two months in. Neither had known she was pregnant.
"I don't get it," said Takao scratching his head through his almost expected ball cap. "If you're not going to adopt, then why are you going to an orphanage that far away?"
Hiro moved Takao's ball cap, and ruffled his hair affectionately. "Because Little Brother, We're going to see the place where Kallie grew up the first ten years of her life. That's why. Any other questions?"
Takao nodded adamantly."Just one...Can we go?" he begged, indicating himself and Aya.
Hiro shrugged. "It's not up to me, but up to Kallie. She's the reason We're going in the first place. So you gotta ask her if you might go." he replied.
Takao turned his eyes to her doing the puppy dog look. "Please Kallie! I promise we won't get in the way. And I promise we'll listen to you and Hiro. It won't be like the time you let me go to Rome with you. I promise."
Kallie thought about it, her blue eyes dancing. It hadn't been Hiro's brightest idea to bring Takao on their honeymoon. Grandpa Granger had been away, and they hadn't been able to find anywhere for Takao to stay. "Well, alright Taka-chan. Just don't go broadcasting it to everyone. I don't know about Hiro, but I don't want Tala breaking in and throwing another party."
Takao abruptly hugged her. "Thanks, Kallie-chan." he stood and held out his hand to Aya. "Come on,Ay. We better go pack." with those words, the pair were gone as fast as thy had come,leaving the front door open.
Hiro stood and went to close the door. "You know, Kallie." he said with a chuckle as he straightened a picture that hung next to the door. "This is probably going to be like the Rome..." at that moment he turned back to face her, and discovered she was gone. "Kallie?" he called loudly.
-_-_-
Kallie stood in the bedroom closet, searching for something. As soon as Takao and Aya left, she'd bounded up the stairs to look. She knew she still had it somewhere. She vaguely heard Hiro calling her from the living room. "Bedroom closet, Hon." she called to him. Then she saw it, there under a bunch of Hiro's and her collective albums.
The black leather bound volume that Christopher had given her looked more like a catholic church's choir book then a book of photos. She ran her fingers over the gilded letters that were etched on the cover. "St. Christopher's Home For Children." she read softly. 'St. Christopher's Home for the Unwanted was more like it.' she thought. It had been a great place to grow up, but few were ever actually adopted. And those few that were, they were usually back at St. Christopher's within six months.
Hiro stood , leaning against the doorway. "So this is where you ran off to?" he said with some amusement in his voice. Then his eyes spied the black lather book in her hands. "And just what is that, Little Wife?" he asked. It was something he'd never seen before, this slender black book she held.
Kallie sat on the bed and padded the space next to her. "This? This is my St. Christopher photo album." she smiled up at him. "There are only about five in existence. One belongs to me, one to Christopher, one to Mary, One to Peter, and one to Ruth." she paused and took a breath. "The sixth would have been Joseph's, but he took a spill down the steps of Prayer House and died."
Hiro went and crawled behind his wife, putting his head on Kallie's shoulder. "What's Prayer House?" he asked as she opened the book to the first cream colored page which bore 'Kallie St. Christopher – Wish House Six.' on it in a ten-year-old's childish handwriting.
Kallie smiled a little at Christopher's notation on the first page. "Prayer House was where all thirty of us Orphans, including the babies, attended morning and evening catholic mass. Joseph was an altar boy at the time the Wish House Six became the Wish House Five."
She flipped the page to a picture of six smiling children standing in front of a low, squat, building. "Here we are." she said. Five of the children in the old photo bore raven colored hair, the sixth a sort of orangeish-red color. "This is us on the steps of Wish House after Easter Mass." she pointed them out in turn, naming each as her finger glided over them. "....Christopher, and that last one is me obviously."
Hiro eyed the picture, smiling but feeling a little weird seeing Kallie with anyone other than Annji or Yume. "So Dear? What's Wish House then?" he said as she flipped the page again to reveal another picture of the same smiling children, this time at play in front of a much larger building that vaguely reminded him of an old church.
She smiled,turning her head to look at him. "Wish House was the building where the six of us who had never once been adopted were housed. We didn't even have to show up at the Adoption Day Party, unless we wanted to. Sister Mary Margaret always told us it was so our hearts wouldn't get broke again. Joseph took his spill two days after he learned he was to be adopted by an English couple."
He smiled. "That was nice of the old nun. So why was it called Wish House anyways?" he prodded gently, sidestepping the death of Joseph.
She grew thoughtful. "You know...No one really knows. The town used to say behind our backs that The Orphanage was actually a cult for the Occult. And that we children were sacrifices to their gods. But I never put too much stock in that." she froze as she flipped to the pictures taken exactly a year before she left.
Hiro blinked as he felt her tense up. "Kallie? Just who is the second priest? If that is Father Thomas," he said indicating a spry old man standing at the back of the thirty orphans in the picture. "Then who is that?"
"Father Dominic..." Kallie said softly, her eyes widening. "He was brought in to investigate a rash of disappearances at St. Christopher's. But when he left, Father Thomas told us he was a figment of our imaginations." her blue eyes were on the young scowling priest standing off to the side of the group. "I believed Father Thomas...Until now."
Hiro moved his head from her shoulder and shook it. "What kind of place was it that you grew up in, Kallie?" he asked softly. Even though he was slightly worried now, he wasn't going to tell hr they weren't going.
She smiled as she closed the photo album, and laid it on her bedside table. She shifted around to face him. "It wasn't so bad." she said with a little chuckle. "I have some great memories. But I'm glad Annji adopted me. If she hadn't, I never would have met you. Or fell in love."
Hiro pinned her to the satin sheets of their bed, and french kissed her. "I knew I loved you before I met you." He said huskily . He licked her weak spot , and got rewarded with a moan. "I think I dreamed you into...Damn it!!!" he suddenly growled as their bedroom door burst open with a bang.
"Kallie, how many people would you and..." Takao's words trailed off as he saw the compromised position his brother and sister-in-law were in. "Uh oh... he said softly. "I just pulled another Rome, didn't I?" his brown eyes were worried as he noticed the glare Hiro was sending his way.
Kallie tapped Hiro's arms, and he released her. She slid out from under him and stood,smiling. "It's alright Takao. We didn't exactly lock the door, did we Hiro?" she said,playing the peace maker as usual. "So what was your question again?"
Takao smiled and accepted the unspoken truce Kallie was declaring between himself and his brother. "I wanted to know how many people you and Hiro would be willing to take on this trip of yours?" he repeated.
Hiro deepened the glare he was sending at Takao. "Takao Granger! Just what have you done now?" he demanded,crossing his arms. His little brother could be quite foolish sometimes.
Takao looked away. "Ikindoftoldeveryoneaboutthetripand notheyallwannago." he said in a rush, forgetting to enunciate. This made it kind of difficult for Kallie or Hiro to understand just what he was saying.
Kallie regarded Takao like he was speaking an alien language. "Ok Takao. Slowly this time. And enunciate your words. When you gibber-jabber like that, it make it hard to for us to understand and we think you did worse than you actually did."
Takao took a breath and covered his head. "I kind of told everyone about the trip and now they all wanna go." He ducked his head. "Kallie, please don't let him kill me!!" he hid behind her.
Kallie stepped aside,moving out of Hiro's way. "I can only shield you from your brother's fury for only so long." she smiled. "but I will give you a head start. So, I'd advise you to run."
Takao took her at her words and rushed out of the room.
Hiro glared after him. "I'm gonna kill him." He rushed out the door after his brother.
Kallie shook her head and watched them go. "Hello irritation, you seem familiar. Perhaps we've met before? Perhaps it was Rome." she smiled, thinking it was going to be an interesting trip to Switzerland.
TBC
Aya: Yay! Chapter One's done. Oh and I won't be going into any great detail until the middle of Chapter 2.