CHAPTER 2
Avalena Leonhart had come into Dollet to meet with Seifer Almasy. He had promised her that he would help her to pick out a birthday gift for her husband Squall. They had planned on meeting at Johansson's Restaurant having lunch then spending the rest of the day shopping.
She fought back a chuckle. Who would have ever thought that Seifer would love shopping as much as she did? They made an odd combination he was several inches over 6' while she barely passed the 5' mark. He was one of her best friends in all of Gaia and she loved him almost as much as she loved her husband.
She walked into Johansson's and quickly looked around the room. She smiled when she saw that he was already seated. Walking over to the table where he was waiting and snuggled into his lap.
"Hi honey." She greeted him and gave him a quick kiss on the mouth.
"Excuse me?" He replied very rudely.
Avalena laughed, "Oh so that's the game you want to play today?" She leaned in closer and whispered huskily against his ear, "I promise I won't tell my husband."
Again the blonde's response was rude, "Look lady, I don't know who you think I am but you have made a mistake."
"Now you stop that." Avalena chuckled and ran her fingers lightly down his face, "Why did you shave off your moustache? I happened to really like it."
The blonde abruptly rose to his feet and Avalena wrapping her arms around his neck saved her from falling to the floor. "Look lady, I don't know who you think I am. But you have made a gross error." He sneered contemptuously at her unwound her arms from around his neck and set her very pregnant frame firmly to her feet. "Why don't you go and find someone else to harass?"
Avalena stepped back and looked up into the mans face, that's when she noticed it, he wasn't nearly as tall or muscular as Seifer and he didn't have those amazing turquoise eyes, his were a harsh jade green. She blushed and said warmly, "I'm so very sorry. It's just you look so much like one of my best friends. I am sorry for bothering you."
"Apology not accepted." He responded scornfully as he flicked an imaginary piece of lint off his jacket. "Do you have any idea how much this suit cost?"
Avalena continued to smile Stone had told her about people like him, he was what the upper class referred to as 'new money' those who had made their fortunes in the last generation or two and had a tendency to think they were better then anybody else. She was a DeMarco by birth and a Graysen by right of her first husband. She was what the upper crust referred to as 'old money' part of that elite group that had been unbelievably rich since the dawn of time. Who even though they were rich treated people with the same regard no matter what their social standing was. She had never really paid any attention to the who's who on the elite list, it never mattered her. Drake was the finical whiz and the snob of the family and was in the know. "I made a mistake and once again I am sorry." She offered.
"The only mistake that was made was the fact that you're parents didn't know how to use contraceptives properly." He bit out.
That was it! She had tried being polite and this man looked at her like she was beneath him. Raking her eyes quickly over his frame she opened her purse and saw that she had no cash on hand only her credit cards. Spinning gracefully around, she left the restaurant crossed the street to the bank and made a cash withdrawal. When she got back to Johansson's she saw whom she was waiting for by the door. "Thanks honey. I'll be with you in just a minute. I have business I need to take care of." She smiled up at the tall muscular turquoise-eyed blonde who held the door open for her.
Walking across the restaurant and upon reaching the table she opened her purse and pulled out the 500 gil she had just withdrawn and flung it into the man's startled face. "There, that should be more then enough to replace your Varindi knockoff as well as buy yourself some manners." She spun gracefully around and plowed into a muscled body. She looked up and started to apologize and saw that her luncheon date had followed her. She hugged him, "Sorry about that." She stroked her finger down his moustache and around the Vandyke beard. "Nice cookie duster." Stood on tiptoe and chastely kissed him on the lips.
"That's okay baby, you can run into me any time you want to. And I would love to dust your cookie." He replied and returned the kiss with more passion then he ever had before. He licked along her lips and forced his tongue into her mouth stroked hers with his. Grabbing her ass he pulled her even closer to him. It didn't matter that she was pregnant, this woman was exquisite and he'd stake his life on the fact that she would be fantastic in bed.
Avalena put her hands in the middle of his chest and pushed away from him and slapped him across the face. Seifer had never kissed her or touched her like that before. "Have you taken total leave of your senses? You should thank Hyne that Squall wasn't here to see your little display. I know we play the game well my Golden Knight, but that was stepping over the boundaries of friendship and good taste." She took one step backwards and looked up at him, he looked exactly like Seifer. The turquoise eyes were the same. Hyne they even smelled the same. The only thing that was different was this man didn't have a scar. "I am so very sorry for kissing you and slapping you, I thought you were my best friend
"Let me tell you something Cat Eyes, if all his friends look like you I wish I were him." He replied a smirk on his handsome face. He knew that whoever this Squall person was, he was her husband. Since he finally noticed the silver band on her left ring finger. He smiled, stepped around her and grabbed the money that she had just flung into the younger man's face. He turned around, "You'll have to pardon my brother he's an unbearable snob." And started to hand her back the money and was knocked halfway across the restaurant.
Avalena's luncheon date had finally shown up, and misunderstanding the situation thought that this man was trying to buy Avalena's services. He followed him and picked him up only to backhand him back to the ground. "How dare you. She is a married woman and it's so obvious that she's pregnant that you'd have to blind to miss it. And she doesn't even look like a prostitute." He snarled, and drew Hyperion.
"No!" Avalena cried out and that stopped him cold. She walked over to where the two men were and placed a hand on his biceps. "It was a mistake. I thought he was you."
"When was the last time you had your eyes checked kitten?" Seifer asked and sheathed Hyperion, he was feeling a little embarrassed, he had just knocked some guy across a restaurant. He turned and reached down his hand to pull the other man to his feet and made a 10-point landing hitting the floor hard with his ass. He was looking in a goddamned mirror. That had to be it, a mirror that somehow erased scars.
The man who sat across from him was his twin. Identical in every way except he didn't have a scar marring his visage, "Who the fuck are you?" Seifer's voice was a ragged whisper.
"Mychal Julian Almasy." He answered, "And you are?" His breathing was short and shallow. "Please Hyne please let his name be…" His thoughts were abruptly cut off.
"Seifer…"
"Raphael Almasy." Mychal finished for him and tears started forming in his eyes.
Seifer growled, "How the hell did you know that?"
"Because once a long time ago I had a twin brother with that name. We had just turned five and had gone on holiday to celebrate Yule and our nanny had taken you on an outing, I was sick so I couldn't go. I cried and fussed that she was taking you away from me. Mother promised that you would be back. But you never came back." Mychal was now crying.
Mychal reached out his hand to stroke down Seifer's face but dropped it when Seifer yanked his head back. He continued his story, "Nanny was hit by a car and was killed and you disappeared without a trace. That is until now. Mother and Father searched for you Seifer, they searched and they couldn't find you. Five years passed and the authorities declared you legally dead. Mother was madder and more upset then any of us had ever seen her. She told the man from the state department that you weren't dead, that she would feel it if you were. You were one of her children and she would know. The rest of the family stood firmly behind her especially me, you were my twin and I knew that I would know if you were dead."
Seifer jumped angrily to his feet, "This is some kind of joke right?" He shouted at the still sitting man. He turned to Avalena, "Cristos, it's not funny at-all Avalena." He turned and started to storm out but was abruptly stopped when he heard.
"Cappy wait." Mychal called out. He had regained his feet and put a hand on Seifer's shoulder and spun him around.
Turquoise eyes met again. Memories washed over Seifer, Cappy it was what his twin brother had always called him. He was Cappy and his brother was Sage. The word caught in his throat, "Sage." He reached out his hand to touch the other man's face his hand now shaking as badly as his voice, "Are you a dream?"
"No, I am flesh. Cristos Cappy what the hell happened to you, where have you been for the past 19 years?" Mychal Almasy answered and reaching out ran his fingers down his brother's cheek.
Before Seifer could respond an irritated voice asked, "Mychal, what is going on here?"
Mychal turned to the blonde still sitting at the table and answered, "This is our brother Seifer, Thaddeus. My twin! I told them, I told them all that you weren't dead. I told them that I would feel it. Even mother eventually gave up hope on ever seeing you again. But I never gave up on you. I knew in my heart that one day you would come home."
Mychal grabbed Seifer's arm and started to pull him out of the restaurant, "Home! I have to take you home so mother and everyone else can see you." Thad don't you dare call them, I want to surprise mother." He said to the younger man sitting openmouthed at the table.
Seifer considered Squall, Avalena and Tristen his family, along with the baby that Avalena was pregnant with. But as memories assaulted him he knew he had another family, a family who also loved him and cared about him. There was father and mother. His twin Mychal and little brother Jaycob. So many memories flooded him. How he had pouted and sulked about not being able to bring his kittens on holiday. But mother had reassured him that they would be fine and he would see them when they got home.
But he had never got to go home again. He was shoved into an orphanage where he had stayed until he had been adopted.
Mychal tugging on his arm snapped him back to the present. "Wait. Just wait a minute." Seifer planted his feet firmly on the ground and even thought they were equally as muscular there was no way that his brother could move him.
"I want to go with you, but I need Avalena to come with me." He pulled away from Mychal, "You will come with me won't you kitten?" He asked haltingly.
"You didn't even have to ask." Avalena smiled at him and gave him a hug.
Seifer looked down at her after she had hugged him and saw that her lipstick was smeared. A frown creased his brow reaching over to the table he picked up a napkin and finished wiping it away. "How in hell did your lipstick get smeared? I know you Avalena Leonhart, you wouldn't walk out of the house if your lipstick was smeared."
"It all goes back to mistaken identity Seif." She answered, and hoped beyond hope that Mychal Almasy would have the presence of mind to wipe her lipstick off his mouth before Seifer saw it.
Merciful Hyne it was bad enough that her husband was possessive and over protective, but now to have a best friend that was too, oh well what more could she ask for. Squall and Seifer considered themselves her Knights. Squall her husband and the love of her life was her Dark Knight and Seifer hers and Squall's best friend was her Golden Knight.
She had just recently started a new painting in her Knight's series. She had done individual paintings of them, but this was going to be one of them together. She had actually managed to talk Seifer into wearing white leather to compliment his golden looks while Squall was in his standard black leather. She knew that when she finished that the results would be phenomenal. She had never seen them use Renzokuken and Fire Cross but had them explain it to her in minute detail several times, making several sketches until at they were satisfied.
Seifer looked over at his twin who still had Avalena's lipstick smeared across his mouth wearing it proudly like a badge of honor.
He had that oh so familiar Almasy smirk plastered across his face. Mychal quirked an eyebrow at his twin and laughed at his brother's chagrined expression. But the laugh died on his lips when Seifer stepped forward with his fist doubled up.
"Seifer, honey you can't hit him again, besides I already slapped him for it." Avalena putting her hand on his arm stopped him.
Seifer glared at his twin, "You should consider yourself lucky that her husband wasn't with her. Being slapped would have been the least of your worries."
Most people wilted under that infamous Almasy glare, but Mychal shrugged a muscular shoulder and laughed it off. "Well you can't blame me for trying. She looks like she would be a sweet little armful that could a man warm on a cold night. And that voice damn it's like drowning in honey." He leered at Avalena.
Seifer pulled away from Avalena, he didn't care that this man was his brother he had no right talking to and about his kitten that way. And he was going to enjoy knocking that sneer off his face.
"Seif please no." Avalena pleaded and looked over to where Mychal Almasy was standing, he winked
at her, "Now stop it. You are not helping."
