Chapter Three
-Two Brothers-
Jubilee giggled, twirling a strand of hair around her finger absentmindedly as she observed the Riders in their natural habitat. At first it was a bit scary, living with two of her most idolized people in the world, but now it wasn't so bad. Not to say that she was getting used to it or anything, but Nami and Kaze were both really funny and nice. Especially when they argued. Well, the first one, then. They were the nicest when they were both in good moods and smiled at each other a lot without noticing it.
But it was still funny when they argued. They seemed like a pair of people who once hated each other, but now couldn't live without the other. She didn't know how she knew that, really. But you could just tell when you watched them. They were close, really closed, but it looked like they were so used to arguing. And since they were very close, they didn't have much of anything serious to actually fight about, and thus found themselves arguing about nonsense more often than not.
She hadn't really seen them fight with each other yet, but Nami was prone to getting annoyed at Kaze's easygoing attitude—that may or not be a mask—and she sometimes saw Kaze glaring blankly over at wherever Nami went when he wanted to be alone, but then the blond would get a confused look on his face and shake his head, like he couldn't remember why he was frowning in the first place.
Kaze was adorable, sexy as he was. Even though he was older than her. No, he was gorgeous in looks, that was true. Totally worth drooling over, but his personality was just so sweet and cute. You couldn't not smile when he was around—and not covered with a bike helmet, really.
She seemed to have pegged Nami right. He was quiet but offered some good advice if you had to guts to seek it from him, and he really did care, he just wasn't exactly comfortable showing it much. Except with Kaze, and even then he tried to hide it with a darkened mask. She could tell Nami loved him, though.
Sometimes eating dinner with them was a bit awkward at times, because she could tell that they wanted to talk about something but were refraining from speaking because she was there with them. When that happened, Nami would get a vaguely, watered-down irritated look on his face in the middle of the meal, and he'd shoot a few glances at the uncharacteristically silent Kaze, who'd be nervously playing with his food, as if he'd just realized that it was entirely the blond's fault that Jubilee was there in the first place.
And then Jubilee would try not to laugh a little when Nami mentally reasoned with himself that Kaze was actually the one who'd wanted to take her to the X-men after bringing her here, and that he'd been the one to push for her 'house arrest.' Then his annoyed look would soften a bit and he'd look apologetically at a slightly confused Kaze before wiping the look off his face and continuing to eat his meal without a word. It was so funny.
Jubilee supposed that, normally, Nami was much better at masking his emotions; but she'd noticed that when they were directed at or directly linked to Kaze, anyone could be able to read the slender, raven-haired teen like a book.
Just about two days after she'd first started to stay with them, Kaze had sat her down and politely asked her not to call them by their two letter names that they sometimes referred to each other with, after Nami—who'd gotten extremely annoyed after reading a rather thick and important(and illegal-looking, but she decided not to mention anything)stack of documents—had snapped at her when she'd been asking where the bathroom was. Kaze had pushed Nami into another room and told her that "'Ke" and "'Ru" were shortened versions of their names, and were very personal between them. He was very patient about it, so she'd agreed when he'd asked her to call them by their media names. And form then on, when they were around her, they called each other Nami and Kaze as well.
Now, she'd been staying with them for no more than three weeks and had fallen into a sort of routine. She'd wake up in the morning and get dressed in the clothes Kaze had somehow materialized for here—they'd come into existence in a poof of smoke, literally—after she tidied up her room and made her bed. She loved those clothes. They weren't something you'd find in any of the stores in all of America, and they looked almost oriental. She usually wore a white, three-quarter sleeved turtleneck that went past her waist to just above her thighs, under which she wore snug, tight shorts made out a soft but durable black material and went to the middle of her skins, the bottom slightly covered by her new, comfortable black boots. Over the turtleneck she slipped on a dark blue, sleeveless jacket that had a hood and an orange swirly symbol on the back and on the left shoulder. On her head she wore a black skullcap more often than not.
Kaze had told her the orange swirl had been an important symbol in his and Nami's old village. She'd noticed the past tense, but didn't comment on it. Neither of the Riders spoke of their past or origins often, and when they did it was always disguised as a casual, nonchalant comment when she least expected it, and she never even noticed until she'd thought back on the conversation later.
After getting dressed she'd leave her room by pressing her hand against the square next to the door. That's one of the things she loved about the Rider's headquarters. They had so much awesome technology that she felt she was living in the future sometimes. At first she'd always been so excited to just open a door—non of the entrances or exits had a doorknob, and she'd loved that—but now she sometimes found herself becoming impatient to wait for that blue line to scan up and down her palm.
She would head down the long, wide hallway to the dining room where Kaze usually had breakfast waiting for her, always at 9:15. By the time she finished her miso soup—Kaze pretty much only cooked Asian food, but Jubilee found herself adjusting to the new types of recipes—which was the main dish, Nami had managed to drag himself out of bed to join them. The Dark Rider(she'd found herself separating them both into different aspects of each other. Nami was the Dark side of the duo, while Kaze was obviously the Light) wasn't exactly a morning person, practically the opposite of Kaze, and Jubilee had made it a habit not to bother him until he'd finished at least his second cup of morning tea. She fancied herself the neutral ground when it came to morning attitudes.
She usually started on her steamed rice last, and both Riders were usually finished eating by then(Nami was a very fast eater, and Kaze was normally conversing with her than eating until Nami woke up, which was when the dining room would descend into silence as they all ate together). Kaze would always remind her to rinse her dishes, ever the doting big brother, and Nami would drag him off to do something that involved their work. Usually she wouldn't see either of them again until lunch time, but sometimes they stuck around. When they vanished, she wasn't sure if they were even still in the complex.
In the first few days she'd never knew what to do with herself between breakfast and lunch. There just hadn't seemed much to do. She'd gathered enough courage to ask by lunch on her second day, and Nami had shot the sheepish looking Kaze a disbelieving look before taking her by the hand and giving her the official tour. It had been blunt and to the point, not taking as long as it might have taken had it been Kaze as the guide, but that was just how Nami was. Now, more often than not she found herself lounging in the recreation room, reading one of the fascinating books on the shelves. They had titles she'd never heard before and some of them were in an entirely different language, but she didn't read those. Sometimes she'd be watching TV or browsing through the Rider's Netflix account, which she was eternally grateful for and was touched that they'd filed it under her name(with a last name alias, but the Rider were paranoid and they respected that). She had finished watching all of three different anime and was now four seasons into Supernatural—that was a show both Nami and Kaze liked, so they sometimes watched it with her after dinner. Nami's commentary was hilarious, which was why she wasn't scared to watch it.
"I tried to watch it once," Jubilee admitted when Nami asked her if she'd seen the show. "I did! But I couldn't even get past the intro of the pilot episode because I got scared..."
Nami had scoffed and grabbed her arm, leading her down to the rec room and sitting her down. They'd watched three episodes and were laughing together somewhere in the fourth when Kaze had come in looking hurt and complaining that they'd started without him, and how they didn't love him any more. Jubilee had been caught up in Nami's mood for once, and had just snickered and threw a pillow in the bond's face. Kaze hadn't minded, and the three of them had dissolved into a small pillow fight while Sam and Dean Winchester exorcised a demon from a plane's co-pilot on the screen.
Her favorite time in a day was when the Riders got home and ate dinner with her, then spent some time with her afterwards. They didn't treat her like a fragile little girl and sometimes they even roughhoused with her. Kaze did that more often than Nami did, but Nami had taught her how to play chess. In the beginning she'd been glad to have found a home where she wasn't forced to go to school, but she eventually realized that Kaze ands Nami were teaching her some life skills by just talking to her in those evenings and any other time.
Of course, then they'd disappear for another few hours before showing up just before she went to bed to check on her and make sure she was safe. That was the end of her day, though she knew the Riders tended to stay up for a few more hours than she did. She'd had a late night Leverage marathon on the TV in her room and had heard them go to bed sometime near midnight once.
Kaze held up a hand to silence an irate Nami and glanced over at her. "Well, Jubilee? What do you think."
She blinked, suddenly feeling like she'd been left out. "Oh, um, sorry." She shrugged sheepishly. "I-I wasn't listening."
Nami threw his hands up and spun away from them. Jubilee had to keep herself from smiling. Sometimes he was so dramatic.
Kaze only smiled pleasantly. "Well, I was thinking you might be feeling a bit—closed up in here? Is that the word?"
Jubilee nodded. Sometimes the Riders stumbled in their words, but she thought they were doing spectacular for only learning English a year before. "Yeah, that's right." Then, she shifted and placed a hand to support her chin. "Well, I guess you could say that. But, there are a lot of things to do here that are really fun, even if both of you are gone for so long all the time," she winced internally when they both looked at her guiltily, even if Nami covered it up with another eye-roll. "But I find stuff to keep myself busy. Why?"
Kaze blinked at her, bracing his hands behind his head in a relaxed pose. "Well, we—I mean, I was thinking you could use a day outside and such. Nami could care less, or so he says."
Jubilee giggled when the raven-haired teen swatted the other on the back of the head, and they both descended into another short and petty argument that held no bite in their words. Then the meaning of Kaze's words finally hit her, and she stared at him with wide eyes. "You mean, I can go outside?"
Kaze shoved a scowling Nami away and looked at her, bringing up a gloved hand to rub the back of his head sheepishly. They were all dressed in their cycling gear, having just gotten back for lunch. "Well, it would just be for this afternoon, since we have nothing planned."
"And it won't be a common occurrence, either," Nami spoke up, straightening his jacket and shooting Kaze a look. "Since we won't be able to take you out to often, and you can't go out on your own. Think of it as a reward for being a good girl, or something. As long as you behave, you can have these short field trips out into the real world."
Jubilee clasped her hands and gazed up at the two teens who had rather quickly become her big brother-like friends, consequently taking the place of her only familial figures she knew. They stared back at her, impassive expressions warring with the emotions flashing through their eyes. Nami was the usually calm, very cool, sensible older brother, and Kaze could be seen as the easy-going, light hearted one that liked to laugh with you. They were both geniuses, and even if she sometimes felt stupid around them and their intellect, they always went out of their way to make her feel comfortable. Even Nami, who pretended not to care, but it was easy to tell her really did once you got to know him. And And Kaze, who was always wonderful and didn't mind showing how much he cared but liked to wear masks to hide the deeper feelings below the surface. She loved both of them.
She smiled. "I'd love to get some fresh air, and just to help Nami's paranoia, you don't even have to take me anywhere. I'd love for one of you to give me a ride on one of the bikes somewhere."
Nami smirked, the annoyed expression he'd adopted when she called him paranoid melting off his face in favor of amusement. "So, a evening race through the great city of New York to feel the wind attempt to tear your hair from your scalp and dig the eyeballs from your sockets?"
Kaze laughed at his partner's morbid sense of humor as Jubilee gave them both a grin. "Absolutely."
-switch-
Jubilee cheered as Nami sped through the ongoing traffic of one of the most heavily populated cities in America. If she focused hard enough, she could see a few people in the cars and on the sidewalks or in the widows and doorways of buildings point them out or stare in astonishment or awe when they zipped by before the figures became blurs, but it hurt her head a little so she just settled for gripping Nami's torso tightly and feeling the minute embrace of the wind as it flowed around them at high speeds.
She was almost certain they'd be featured in one of the news articles. All of the papers that followed the Riders' movements, and perhaps a few front pages. She was half excited to know that she'd be mentioned almost definitely, and half annoyed by the attention. What if someone came along and tried to take her away?
She grinned at the thrilling feeling of going far past the speeding limits of New York's roads and mentally shook her head. As if Nami or Kaze would let them.
She felt more than heard Nami chuckle, and looked at him in askance. She knew he didn't need to see her, he wasn't hindered by the visors of their helmets or the fact that she was currently seated behind him. Somehow, Kaze and Nami just knew things, without having to look and see. She knew he could sense her stare. And sure enough, Nami gestured behind them with his helmeted head.
She fought against the speeding winds to get a glimpse behind them, and then turned back and buried her face into Nami's jacket, trying to hide her grin. A news van was attempting to follow them. She could see another one far back in the street that had been pulled over by a police car, most likely for speeding, trying to catch up with Nami's bike. The Rider's never got caught for such trivialities. Half of that was due to their reputation and half the police force didn't want to arrest them, and the other half was that they were just too fast to be caught.
Eventually, they arrived at Times Square, and Jubilee rolled her eyes when Nami swerved to a stop among the crowding pedestrians. He was always one for dramatics and big entrances. He turned to look back at her and she could almost sense him raising an eyebrow. "Are you sure you don't want to go somewhere? A store or something?"
The crowd quieted a little, at his voice, but their murmurings drowned out any attempt to hear what Nami said. She smiled up at him. "Nah. I said I just wanted to go for a ride, didn't I?"
He gave a one-shouldered shrug. "It's your choice."
She shifted in her seat, trying to ignore the people. They were started to get pushy. "Can we stop by the waterfront? I know I see it out of the windows everyday, but it's so pretty at this time of night, especially in person."
He nodded. Then, she caught the smirk he flashed at their audience. "Wanna ride up the side of some skyscrapers first, hmm?"
She couldn't stop the giggle that bubbled up her throat, nor the grin that split her face. He didn't need an answer after that.
He revved up the engines, ad the crowds literally parted like the Red Sea for them, people bumping into one another and falling over each other in their hast to make way. Jubilee laughed long and hard, before Nami sped over to the nearest tall building. He straightened in his seat. "Alright. Hold tight. You know what to do."
She nodded, and felt the pulling sensation on her arms and torso as he practically glued her to his back with one of the Rider's powers—they called them Chakra Strings. They were minuscule, blue-glowing strings that were stronger than titanium, and barely visible. Kaze told her that they were also how they were able to ride the bikes up vertical walls—and along ceilings if they wanted to.
Once he'd finished securing her to him with Chakra Strings, the faced forward again, making sure her hands were clasped together against his chest before the wheels of the bike glowed blue and he began to back up in preparation of going up against the wall. She could barely hear the excited mumbled of the people watching them over the beginning of adrenaline that started to surge through her veins as the bike tilted up, and the first tire made contact with the skyscraper. In one smooth, quick motion, the back tire veered up to meet as well, and their bodies were horizontal to the ground. Nami sent a smirk back at her, and she only had a moment to prepare herself before they were zooming to the top of the tower, faster than they'd ever gone on the roads. She let out a cheer, laughing as the wind stole her breath from her lungs. The roars of the crowds that were now below them met her ears and began to fade away as Nami jumped them from skyscraper to skyscraper, sometimes pulling a soul-jarring fancy trick here or there between buildings, until eventually they made it to the water front. No one had dared to follow them on their dangerous route, though she knew that a news helicopter had most likely just launched in a search to find them. And she could have sworn she'd spotted the Iron Man at one point, but Nami had very quickly lost him.
Nami didn't sow down as they approached the docks, and she squealed as he slid the bike to an abrupt stop just before they would have gone plunging into the icy cold waters.
Jubilee felt the Chakra Strings release her, and she slumped against Nami's back in exhaustion, limbs feeling like jelly as the adrenaline suddenly vanished from her veins.
"That was so awesome."
"I'm glad you liked it."
She gave a breathless laugh and weakly pulled her helmet off. Nami turned in his seat so he could hold her up and she buried her face in his jacket, before turnign it to the side so she could see the beautiful sunset.
"So is this going to be what you ask for every time we let you out?" Nami poked her jokingly.
She attempted to swat his hand away, but her own just fell limply against his chest halfway. "Oh, yeah. Totally."
He grinned.
-switch-
Back at the Riders' Headquarters, Kaze clutched his strangely engraved dog-tags to his chest, brows furrowed.
"She's getting to close to us."
"And you have no one but yourself to blame."
The teen shook his head, fists clenching the smooth metal. They loosened and he ran a thumb almost lovingly over the carefully carved seals. "But what am I suppose to do, Kurama?"
"And you're asking the demon personification of hatred? Go look somewhere else for answers to your life problems, Kit."
Naruto frowned, blue eyes almost pained. "But... We don't have anywhere else to go."
-switch-
Haha, sorry it took so long for an update. I really am sorry. The Science Fair has been going one *shudder* And so far all my work has been late. Combine that with all the missing work I had for being sick for an entire week, and I've been totally stressed to my limits. Along with an annoying little brother who just won't mind his own business and is completely hypocritical... Plus, whenever I catch up on my work I catch another bug and fall behind again T-T I hate life. Life, why are you so unfair, and time consuming? Please leave me alone...
Anyway, I hope you guys liked this chapter, so please review and tell me!
Love ya~
~Scylar X
