Vengeance
Chapter Four
-Family Brunch-
"Oh I'm so happy you're all here!" Natsumi smiled from her place at the head of the table. Akito was sitting beside her, and they were all out on the patio of their massive house. Kanamé was on the other side of her, with Hayate next to him. Izayoi was sitting on the other side of her father with Noriaki beside her. Sanosuke was on the opposite side of the table to his parents, an empty chair beside him.
"Of course Mom." Kanamé smiled, the eldest triple practically shining in his perfection. "We wouldn't miss Sunday brunch."
Noriaki snickered. "Yeah, we don't have a death wish."
"I come cause' I love seeing you guys every week." Hayate, the youngest, smiled. He looked like an exact replica of his father, only happier, his forest green eyes sparkling and his ebony hair spiking in all the right places. "Especially under circumstances that don't involve me stitching you or any of your...friends…up." he laughed.
"Friends isn't exactly what I would call them Hayate." Sanosuke sighed, taking a sip of his tea.
"Yeah." Noriaki scoffed. "If they were friends they wouldn't be fucking screw ups."
Kanamé looked over to his brother and nodded. "How did that go anyways?"
The middle triplet shrugged. "I sent Iza after the bastard. So I assume he's dead. Right sis?" he asked, looking to the woman beside him, who seemed lost in a daze as she played with her food. He blinked, his gaze turning to a small glare. "Iza!"
She jumped a bit and looked over at him, trying to appear innocent. "Huh?" she blinked, looking around at her family. "What?"
"Did you take care of the asshole or not?"
"Huh?" she said once more, seeming lost before she caught up. "Oh! Yeah, no…not yet. I got a bit distracted…" she smiled once more. "I met a guy…" she giggled.
Hayate gasped, smiling brightly at his sister. "That's great Iza! I'm so happy for you! How'd you meet?"
"Um…" she blinked, looking off for a second, though Kanamé's gaze narrowed. "A coffee shop…he bought mine and started a conversation." She laughed, shoving her eggs in her mouth.
Akito arched a brow. "Wait…you met someone normal?" he asked somewhat skeptically. "So if you two wind up going somewhere…would you quit your current job?"
She scoffed. "Of course not. He even knows about my job."
"What?!" Noriaki almost exploded. "You told him?!"
She glared at her brother, "He just found out okay! And I really like him so back off!"
"I do not approve." Kanamé grumbled, crossing his arms.
"…I have a date." Sanosuke announced, taking pity on his sister somewhat and deciding to allow everyone's attention to be focused on him. Normally he wouldn't be so kind to her, but ever since Talia had called him back yesterday…he'd just felt giddy, almost. Like he wanted to be nice as practice so she wouldn't know how much of an asshole he really was.
Natsumi looked the most shocked. "You what?"
"I have a date." He repeated, looking around the table at everyone's startled gazes.
"With a girl?" Akito asked, making his son roll his eyes.
"Yes father, with a girl. A woman actually, if you want to be politically correct." Sanosuke said.
Noriaki snickered. "I bet she's got a dick."
"Where did you meet her?" Kanamé asked, glaring at Noriaki before looking at his younger brother.
"I hit her car." The younger man said, eating a bite of fruit. "So we pulled into this gas station to check out the damage, and I asked her to dinner, and she said yes. And she doesn't have a dick. A woman as cute as she is would never have a dick." He said, eating a slice of watermelon.
Hayate smiled. "That sounds so romantic Sano. How funny is it that you and Iza both met someone this week?"
"It's weird is what it is." Akito commented, cutting into his pancakes.
"What does she look like Sanosuke?" Natsumi giggled, getting up and walking around the table to sit next to her boy as she poked his cheek. "You have a picture? Facebook…anything? I have to know what she looks like if she caught your attention. You should invite her to the next family lunch!"
Noriaki laughed. "Why the hell would he do that? Isn't the object to keep a girl and continue dating her?"
"Yeah…" Sanosuke said, agreeing with his brother. "We'll have to see how things go, so it will probably be a while before I invite her over to meet everyone."
"So what does she look like?" Hayate asked, since he was dying to know.
"She has long, flowing golden hair, and these bright amber eyes that just…wow." Sanosuke shook his head, a small smile coming to his face. "And she's so cute, and nice, with this amazing smile. She teaches kindergarten."
Natsumi squealed. "She sounds perfect!"
"Little too perfect." Noriaki grumbled, biting into his bacon.
"Well I have an entire evening to find her flaws Nori." Sanosuke told him.
Kanamé gave Sanosuke a hard look. "If you spend your time searching for flaws, you will miss out on the wonderful things and in the end you will lose her."
Sanosuke looked over at his eldest sibling. "I don't think you should be giving me advice on women Kanamé, given that you date just about as much as I do. And it's just a date. We're not in love or anything. I just want to get to know her better."
"I'm just saying is all." He glared.
"So am I." the younger man said, returning his elder's look.
"Well I'm going to ask Chitose to marry me!" Hayate announced happily, wanting to lift the mood. "I have it all planned out, so hopefully by next Sunday, I will have a fiancé." He smiled.
Natsumi squealed, turning and hugging her youngest. "Oh sweetie! That's wonderful news!"
"What the fu-" Noriaki demanded, only to be hit in the back of the head by Izayoi.
"Don't ruin this for him." she hissed.
"You guys have only been dating for eight months." Sanosuke said, giving his brother an odd look. "Don't you think you're rushing things?"
Hayate shook his head. "Nah, Chitose's been my head nurse for two years, and even before then I was totally in love with her. And I just now got her family all comfortable with me dating her and being with her and stuff, since I'm an Uchiha, and we have a certain…reputation." He nodded. "So yeah, I think it's time. Besides, we can always have a long engagement. Like…six months tops."
"Oh no, no." Natsumi huffed. "We will not make this long! I need one of my babies to be in a committed relationship."
The young man laughed. "Don't worry mommy. I'm pretty confident she won't want to wait long either." He said.
"It's about time one of you started to have a normal life." Akito said, looking to Kanamé. "Why can't you do that?" he asked, gesturing to his youngest child. "Next to Hayate, you're the farthest away from this mob stuff. Settle down already, get some girl pregnant. You're almost thirty for goodness sake. You know I knocked your mom up and married her before I was twenty-five." He nodded, taking a bite of his brunch.
The eldest huffed, looking at his plate with a small blush. "I just haven't found the right one yet father. When I do I will do the proper thing and date her before marrying her."
"You know at this rate, Nori has a higher chance of finding someone." The Uchiha patriarch sighed. "I mean even Sano has a date. Sano! No offense son." He said, gesturing to said man.
"None taken father." Sanosuke waved off, continuing to eat and ignore his giggling mother and younger brother.
"Now, now." Natsumi stood, going back to her seat. "Let's just all relax and enjoy brunch." She smiled, looking around the table at her children, who all nodded. She was just so happy, finally her babies were getting loves of their own.
Sanosuke smiled slightly, taking in Talia's form from his seat across the table. He'd decided to take her out to one of the nicer restaurants in town, not to show off his money, but to make a good impression on her. And he wanted to see her in a dress, which she had decided to wear. It was a nice short black halter dress that hugged her tight around the torso and then fell around her loosely. She had on a small diamond necklace to accent her neck, and her golden locks were down, with a few strands pulled back to keep them out of her face.
He'd had to come straight from work to pick her up, since her car was in the shop, so he was still in his blue dress shirt and tie, with black slacks. But she'd still said he looked nice, so he played it off well, or so he thought anyways. "I can't get over how stunning you look." He said before he could stop himself. "There's no way you're a simple kindergarten teacher."
Talia laughed. "Well, I am." She smiled, taking her wine glass and sipping from the chardonnay.
"I'm actually surprised you called me back about our date." He admitted, taking a sip himself. "When we parted, you didn't seem like you wanted to anymore."
"Well." She shrugged, placing her glass back down. "At first I was a bit cross, but then I decided I shouldn't knock you until I at least tried dating you, right?" Talia only seemed to glow as her smile grew. "Besides, you're rich. So I could snag me a nice one." She joked, giving him a playful wink.
He chuckled. "My mother would just love that." he said as their food arrived. "She's been on this kick for a few months now on wanting us to all get married, or at least start dating. She's afraid my siblings and I will all end up alone. Well, except for my younger brother. Supposedly he's getting engaged this weekend to his longtime girlfriend."
Talia smiled. "That's really nice. It must be wonderful to be in a relationship like that. I read about your brother while I was doing a bit of stalking on you before our date." She snickered. "He seems like a really nice guy. Your sister is pretty hard to look up, but I assume that's because your dad, the big superstar, is very protective of her."
"He's so protective of her it's not even funny." Sanosuke shook his head. "But Hayate is a big softie. He loves helping, and people, so that's why he decided to become a doctor. And he wanted to be like my mom. He's actually marrying his head nurse." He told her.
The blonde blinked, a look of awe coming to her face. "That is so cute…it's like a fairytale. How sweet." She laughed, cutting into her steak. "So, Sanosuke…why don't you tell me about yourself and what you like?"
He frowned, beginning to work on his own steak. "Well, I hate talking about myself." He admitted. "For the most part, I work all the time so that my grandfather doesn't have to. He has a weak heart, though he'll never admit it, so I try to make sure that he suffers as little stress as possible. Other than that, I enjoy going to the shooting range, occasionally with my older brother. It's pointless to sell guns if I don't know how to use them, and it helps me blow off steam. And every Sunday I go to my parent's house for a family brunch, though that's more because I have to, not because I want to." He smiled slightly, taking a bite of his meat.
"Ah." She nodded, looking down at her own food.
"Yeah…I'm kind of boring." He shrugged, trying to play it off.
Talia shook her head. "That's not what I meant…" she tried to smile then. "You're lucky…if my family was still alive I would love seeing them every weekend."
"Oh…I'm sorry." Sanosuke said, feeling almost like a jerk. "What happened to them? If I may ask. And you don't have to tell me." he said. "I understand sometimes those things are personal."
She shrugged. "No it's okay. My dad was a police officer." She smiled, thinking of him. "He was such a good man, so kind and loving. Very good at his job…he was just…at the wrong place at the wrong time and was killed…by some lowlife…mobster." She tried not to hiss out, as her grip on her utensil tightened. She blinked, seeming to realize she'd almost lost it and met Sanosuke's gaze once more. "My mother remarried…but then she died too."
"I see." He said, acting like any normal person whose family was not involved in the mob would. And it would have been convincing, if Talia didn't already know almost everything about his private life. "So what about your stepfather? Did the two of you ever get along?"
"I really don't want to talk about him." she said, picking up her glass and downing the rest of the wine. "Can I get another glass of this?" she asked, looking around for the waiter.
Sanosuke set his in front of her. "Here, have mine until he comes back." He said, realizing that he'd ruined the atmosphere of their date. And it had been in the first half hour too. That was actually a new record for him, sadly enough.
She took his and drank the most of it, shaking her head as she took a deep breath. "Anyways." She smiled, reaching over and placing her hand over his on the table. "How about enough talk on that and we enjoy the rest of our night." She smiled. "Because I'm having a wonderful time, despite how awkward you are."
"I'm an extremely awkward person." He said, though he relaxed at her touch, relieved that he hadn't damaged any ground with her too badly with his questioning.
"Trust me, I can see that." She laughed. "But it's okay, cause' you can kinda pull it off in an adorable way."
The Uchiha blinked. "…I don't think anyone has ever told me I was adorable before. Or anything even close to that." He laughed slightly.
"Your mom's never called you adorable before?" she wondered, arching a curious brow.
"Not really." He said. "Hayate's the adorable one. She usually called me cute, or sweet, and only when I was little. I'm pretty sure I eventually told her that boys were handsome, not cute. If she ever called me adorable I don't remember it, and even so, she doesn't count. Mothers always say things like that to their children."
Talia let out a soft sigh as she leaned back in her chair. "I was just saying is all…you didn't have to give me this lengthy explanation about how I'm wrong. I was trying to compliment you."
"Actually, I was answering your question. If I thought you were wrong, I would have just said so." He replied, resuming in cutting up his steak so that he could finish it before it got cold. "Look, I'm going to just say this up front. I don't deal with people and social situations very well. I'm not someone who catches on to compliments, jokes, or even sarcasm very quickly unless I know the person very well. The only times I usually talk to people is at work when I'm telling them how to do their jobs, or when I'm with my family. And I'm not saying that I want you to completely write off the things I say that may bother you…I'm asking you to be patient with me."
"Sorry…" she looked down. "I'm just used to being around…happier people, I guess is the best way I can describe it."
He sighed, setting down his utensils. "Don't apologize, it's not your fault. I'm sorry for kind of…putting another damper on our date. I really do like you. You have this quality that is just…fascinating. And I can't put my finger on it."
Talia shrugged, though her smile returned to her face. "Maybe you just like my blonde hair, people always tell me it's like sunshine."
He laughed. "It just might be. I always did have a secret weakness for blondes." He said, finally seeing their waiter and gesturing for him to come and refill their wine glasses, which he did quickly. "Or it could be your eyes. They're very hypnotizing."
"Really?" she blinked, a soft pink coming to her cheeks. "How so?"
"They're a very unusual color, but in a good way." the ebony haired man shrugged, taking a sip of his wine. "So bright and expressive…like liquid gold."
Talia smiled, her blush turning a dark red. "Thank you."
"You're welcome." Sanosuke said, returning her smile.
They continued to eat the rest of their dinner then, asking one another more questions to try and get to know each other better. After finishing their meal and splitting a dessert, Sanosuke paid the bill and they left, heading back to Talia's place. He parked the car, getting out and walking her up to her door. "Thank you for allowing me the pleasure of your company this evening Talia." He said, reluctant to leave her just yet.
"Thank you for taking me." She said, turning to face him, since she already had her keys out. "It was very delicious and I had a…interesting time I guess you could say." She laughed.
He smiled, before appearing slightly nervous. "I would like to take you out again sometime. We could go do something fun…or something." He blushed slightly, scratching his cheek.
"Yeah." She smirked, stepping closer to him. "You know like…maybe do paperwork…or attend a business meeting or something." Talia snickered. "Something real exciting like that, a huge deal on the line." She said, trying not to laugh too much. She leaned up then and kissed him, softly but quickly, before she pulled away and unlocked her door. "See you around Sanosuke." She waved, before disappearing inside.
He stood there for a few seconds, stunned, before a slow smile came to his face. "See you later." He said softly, shoving his hands into his pockets and going back to his car. He didn't know how he felt about being teased constantly, and he'd certainly have to get used to it, he supposed, if they were going to keep dating. One thing was for sure, he wanted to keep Talia for as long as possible. Because she made him feel happy, almost. And his mother had always said that when you find someone who can make you happy without even trying, you should hold onto them.