And Poof! Another chapter was born! Sorry, I'm on a happy little high right now. ^^" My grandpa was released from the hospital and I got so many wonderful reviews for a couple of my stories that I just had to get out another one quickly as a way to thank you guys!
I wish a special big thanks to: April Marciano, YuujouKami, Preppy-Stealthy-Ninja, anna the viking XD, Alexandria Voulturi, xxtoushirou, MCRDanime, and Yuki97XD!
Also thank you for the adds and favs! Hope you guys enjoy this chapter!
Chapter 4 Target Practice
"So how long have you been playing the guitar?" Giotto asked conversationally as the two walked down the corridor.
"Let's see…it should be about six years now. It's one of the few things that's still holding me together." Lily shifted the strap so that it wouldn't continue rubbing her neck.
Giotto considered asking, but he felt like that was a delicate topic that shouldn't be tread on recklessly. Before he could ask another question though, he was cut short by a knife nearly hitting his guest, who reflexively ducked down to avoid it. The cutlery stuck through the wall as if to prove that if Lily hadn't dodged, she would have been stabbed square through her forehead.
"Oh good job!" Nina called out excitedly, clapping her hands. "I wasn't sure if you'd be able to dodge that."
Lily's eyes twitched violently. "How 'bout I fill you with holes instead you…" The rest of her sentence was lost to the others because she switched to shouting in a language they weren't familiar with.
Giotto caught the back of the girl's jacket to keep her from going over and attempting to pulverize their other more annoying guest. But the girl didn't seem to realize it right away because she kept shouting and trying to walk over before finally cooling off enough. She huffed angrily, but allowed the blond man to lead her to her seat, sitting down with her arms crossed.
"Well three of you don't know who this is, so I would like to introduce you to Lily Hong. She'll be staying with us for a while," Giotto said before seating himself.
"I don't mean to seem rude, but you don't have to introduce yourselves to me," Lily said quickly, before the blond could continue. Her gaze flickered briefly between Alaude, Lampo, and Elena. "Knowing about you is probably why I landed in this situation anyways," she said through a weary sigh.
"It's a pleasure to meet you," Elena said politely with a warm smile.
Concern flickered across Lily's face and she opened her mouth to give the blond woman a warning, but before she could make a sound, Nina had clamped a hand over her mouth.
"Sorry, sorry! I forgot to tell you Lily that all warnings about the future are to be kept to yourself." Nina said with an apologetic smile.
Lily mumbled something indignantly that sounded along the lines of "and why the heck should I do that?"
"I'm sorry, but if you try this chocker will make you mute until you stop." Nina pulled away revealing a black band now strapped around the younger girl's throat. But just as they started to take in the details of the accessory, it vanished. "It won't show itself unless you try talking about something you shouldn't, okay?"
"What the hel-met man!" There was definitely a short gap where Lily forced herself to turn the curse into another word. "That's so not fair!"
"Oya? You're an oracle?" Daemon asked. "That explains your high status despite you lack of fighting prowess."
Lily raised an eyebrow. "What else did you tell them?"
"Ah?...I don't remember what I said anymore!" Nina smiled despite the stupidity of the words that came out of her mouth.
Lily felt like she had aged a hundred years and resorted to banging her head against a wall to keep herself from attempting to kill the idiotic woman again. "I can't understand why my mind is doing this to me. What did I do exactly to deserve this torment?" Lily muttered to herself. But she sighed and sat down.
Their dinner was brought in and the group became more preoccupied by their food for a while before they struck up another conversation.
"So I noticed earlier that you said you named that lion after you're…Halmeoni?" Asari asked. "Though it sounds like it has Asian heritage, it's not a dialect I'm familiar with."
Lily nodded. "Correct. Halmeoni is Korean for grandma. I was raised to be trilingual, so I grew up knowing how to speak English, Korean, and German. Then I took other classes so that I could learn as many other languages as I could."
"So of what decent do you come from?" The Japanese man asked curiously.
"I'm half Korean and half white," Lily said proudly. "I'm not completely sure of everything on my white side, but I know that a quarter of it is German. I'm a little iffy on the rest."
"You must have had a tough life growing up," Asari said apologetically.
Lily scrunched up her face in confusion. "Huh? Why on earth would I?"
"'Cause you're a halfy, or in some people eyes a mutt," G answered.
Lily thought a bit, making funny faces as she went through her memories. But before she could answer she was interrupted by Primo.
"So…" Giotto said awkwardly, thinking that it would be better to redirect the conversation. "I'm guessing that you'd be more comfortable with someone close to your age. What do you think about accompanying Lampo for a while?"
The young boy let out an annoyed huff.
"Depends, how old is he?" Lily asked with an uninterested tone.
"14," G answered.
Lily nearly choked on her water. "Exactly how old do you guys think I am?" She asked suspiciously, her voice a little rough from the small intake of water through the wrong pipe.
"Maybe 12," Giotto answered.
"I'll be 19 pretty soon here." Lily said with poorly concealed irritation and an eye twitching. She sighed and sank a little into a blue cloud of depression, mumbling a little to herself. "Am I really that short?"
"19! Shouldn't you be married and settled down by now?" Knuckles asked.
Lily broke out into a fit of laughter. "Married? Ha! Maybe in a few more years. Jeez! What era do you come from?"
G and Giotto cocked an eyebrow at the girl.
"Ah. Right, stupid question," Lily amended.
"Still, you look quite young for your age," Asari said, meaning it to be a compliment.
But to Lily it meant otherwise. She placed a hand over her eyes and leaned heavily into the arm of her chair so that she was hunched over slightly, looking exhausted. "Please don't remind me. Respect is tough to come by when you look so much younger than others."
Asari just laughed.
"So I guess where you come from, it's normal for people your age to be single?" G asked, curious of what was to come.
"Well, where I live, medicine and technology is a whole lot better. So it's normal for us to live till our 90's, or even to a hundred," Lily explained. "And because of that we tend to marry around our mid-twenties."
The red head whistled. "You guys have pretty lengthy lives then."
Asari frowned a little. "But that also means a longer length of persecution. That must be tough for you."
Lily tilted her head in confusion. "Hah?"
"Well, you're of half Asian descent. Not only that, but you're a woman," Asari clarified.
"Pfft, nah," Lily waved her hand with a slightly smug look. "Where I live, race isn't that big of a deal. Men have also recognized that women are just as good, sometimes better, than them. Sure we can't ever be physically stronger than them, but our brains develop faster and we're more logical in many areas. It's a little sad that it took them so long though. It was actually a lot more recent than I like that everyone started to recognize that we're all equals despite our skin color or our genders. Then again, I can't necessarily say it's the same around the world. Just because I've been to friendly areas doesn't mean I don't see what's in the news."
"Well, why don't you tell us a little about yourself," Knuckles asked kindly.
'Hmm. If this was in my head, then shouldn't they know everything they needed to? Or maybe there's a moral or something my brain is trying to get me to realize, and I won't able to wake up until I learn my lesson or whatever. And if that's the case, then maybe it would be better if I just played along…' Lily smiled apologetically. "I really wouldn't know where to start. So perhaps there is something a little more specific you would like to know?"
"What is your combat ability?" Alaude had finally spoken up for the first time since Lily had entered the room.
Lily folded her hands together. "I have a little experience with hand-to-hand combat, and an even smaller amount of knowledge about a few sword styles, but I'm more of a tactician. Frankly speaking, I don't consider myself much of a fighter."
"Don't be modest Lily!" Nina called out. "Or should I call you L-T Hawk-eye."
The raven haired girl choked and red splashed across her face. "H-H-How did you find out about that?"
"I read everything in your file hun!" Nina said cheerfully, like she hadn't just invaded someone's privacy. "You're quite the expert marksman! I think you would make an excellent sniper!"
"So you have experience with rifles?" G asked, a little impressed.
Lily shoot her head. "The closet I've come to holding an actual weapon would be a paintball gun."
"Paint…ball?" Surprisingly it was Lampo who asked.
"Yeah, it's like playing war. You break up into two teams and you try to take each other out as you fight for the other team's base," Lily explained. "We all have nicknames while we're playing and Lieutenant Hawkeye was a character from a story that I admired so I chose to use her name. I was also the team's strategist and sniper. I would take out the other team members from my hiding spot up high and then relay the formations and ways to get past the other team to my team's captain."
"Is this your countries way of training kids for battle?" Daemon asked.
Lily shook her head again. "Nope. It's just a game."
"What a strange place," Lampo muttered.
But Lily chuckled. "It's actually a lot of fun, and usually it's just me and the guys trying to vent some of our frustration. Most people at school would probably categorize us as nerds, but we think it's because they're too afraid to break a nail to have that much fun. It was one of the many reasons I quite cheer in the middle of freshman year."
"Where does your knowledge fall?" Alaude asked bluntly, trying to continue his information gathering of the girl.
"Well I was going to major in medicine so I have a fair range of science and medical information, but I moved on to studying business and I wanted to work with a company with international dealings to I have a number of other languages under my belt. However, I'm still aiming to minor in psychology." Lily smiled crookedly. "I find that the human mind is absolutely fascinating."
"What are all the languages that you are able to speak?" G questioned next.
"Well, like I said, English, Korean, and German. Then there's also French and Japanese," Lily listed off.
"You also have Italian, Chinese, and Russian too!" Nina reminded the girl.
"I'm still not buying any of this," Lily grumbled under her breath, but thankfully no one heard her.
Asari whistled a little. "That's quite a number of different dialects and grammatical styles to learn."
Lily hummed a bit. "Not really. A lot of them are actually really similar. The difficult part was learning how to keep the different words and pronunciations from getting mixed up while I'm talking."
"What about your family?" Knuckled inquired. "Do you mind telling us a bit about them?"
Lily shrugged. "There's not much to tell. I had an older brother named Joey. Then there's my older sister, Christina and my younger brother Konner. And then you have my parents, Amy and Dougless."
"Earlier you referred to your parents by their names," Giotto mused. "Is this common where you live?"
"No," Lily looked around with an almost bored expression. "I call them by their names because they aren't my mom and dad."
"But you said…?" Elena trailed off.
"Amy and Dougless are my parental guardians, but they aren't my birth parents. They were merely the last ones who adopted me out of the foster care system," Lily clarified.
Though they were curious about the fate of her biological parents, no one dared to speak for fear of offending the girl if they asked the wrong way.
"So how long will you staying with us?" Elena asked kindly.
"Us?" Daemon asked in surprise. "You're not leaving tomorrow?"
"I think I'd like to spend more time with your newest guest, so I'll be sticking around a little longer. You can just think of me as your new big sister," Elena directed the last sentence toward the raven haired girl.
"I don't think you want that position," Lily told the woman. "I spent every last moment since I was adopted trying to drive my sister and brother crazy."
"But from what I can tell, you probably just did that to test how far their patience would go before they sent you away, am I correct?" The blond woman asked kindly.
Lily studied the woman. "…Perhaps…I don't really trust others easily. It's easy for someone to promise one thing one day, then turn their backs another."
"Then we'll all have to do our best to earn your trust and prove that we aren't like the ones who betrayed you in the past," Giotto was the one who spoke this time.
Lily shrugged. "Do what you like."
"Well I'm glad that's all settled." Nina smiled warmly.
The raven haired girl ducked again as another knife came flying her way. "What is this, treat Lily like a freakin' target dummy today!" She flipped over and pulled her chair in front of her to block another round of knives.
"Hm~, so it wasn't a fluke," Daemon said calmly.
"Alaude, Daemon, that's enough," Primo said firmly.
"Daemon, what if she hadn't dodged?" Elena said in a scolding tone.
"Then she would be too weak to risk having around. But I apologize. I wanted to make sure you wouldn't weigh us down with your presence here." Daemon leaned back into his chair with a small smirk.
"Why I oughta…" Lily grumbled darkly, thinking of a range of pranks she could pull in revenge.
"How are you planning to train your flames?" The beige haired man spoke up once more, not bothering to apologize for his actions.
The others sweat dropped as they watched the raven haired girl slowly piece together the man's question in her head. They could almost see the dots trailing above her head.
"Oh! You mean that dream within a dream I had earlier?" Lily exclaimed.
A few of the occupants almost fell over from the strength of the girl's denial.
"Liiiiilllyyyyy~" Nina whined. "It's not a dream! And you have to train your flames!"
But the younger girl just waved her away. "It is physically impossible to create flames from life energy. I'll go along with the rest of this for now, till I find the root of the problem that my mind is trying to tell me anyways, but dying will flames and whatnot are way beyond my limit."
Nina huffed and pressed a hand to her forehead. "Okay! Let's say this is all just a dream, then why is it impossible for people to be able to produce flames?"
"Because even my level of imagination won't stray that far," Lily said obstinately. "My consciousness revolves around the facts of life and I've never had a dream as outrageous as this."
"What would it take for you to believe that this is all real?" The silver haired woman demanded.
Lily grimaced. "Nothing. There is nothing you can do or say that will make me believe any of this."
"What about that gunshot wound you took earlier?" Asari pointed out.
"That pain should be more than enough to prove to you that you aren't imagining all of this," G agreed.
Lily hesitated. It was true that, that level of pain was difficult for the brain to reproduce for someone who's never felt it before, not to mention the soreness she felt afterwards, including now. She shook her head vigorously. "It just can't be real."
"Why not?" Knuckles asked gently.
"Where do all my belief's go if it's true!" The raven haired girl exclaimed. "All my years of studying and the knowledge I have built my life around. If a single person can just come in and throw my life into this sort of chaos, then what about everything I've lived by, huh?"
"Nearly everything is the same," Nina pointed out. "It's just that there's a few extra things now and some activities are a little bit easier for you."
Lily sighed heavily. "Alright. For now I'll believe everything. It's not like I could change anything anyways."
"Good!" Nina took up her barbie again. "Then I propose that she trains with you guys individually whenever you have time!"
Giotto nodded. "I think that should be fine. What do the rest of you think?" Each of them called out their own form of agreement or approval. "Okay, then why don't we turn in for the night? Miss Lily, I'll lead you to your room."
"Just Lily, that miss this is just too formal," Lily said as she stood up to follow the man. "Hey, do you guys eat those sort of things every day?" The girl asked once they had exited into the corridor.
"What things exactly?" The blond asked.
"You know, that meat and potatoes sort of diet." Lily shrugged, unsure of how to describe it.
Primo smiled a little. "Well, I suppose we do. Why?"
"That level of carbohydrates and protein isn't very healthy," the girl explained. "You guys should really regulate more fruits and vegetables into your diet. You'll extend your lives a good deal if you have the proper amount of nutrients."
"Is this something your scientists have discovered where you live?" Giotto asked curiously. "Because here, what we eat would be considered not only fine dining, but extremely healthy."
Lily nodded. "I am aware, but over time your doctors will also realize what I already know."
The blond hummed in thought. "Well, change is a little difficult. I'm sure a few of the others won't be very accepting of your information, like Lampo and Daemon."
Lily scowled. It would be troublesome if she continued with their diet, but she would have to work her way through that slowly. "Do you mind if I cooked my own meals? I prefer making sure I know exactly what it is that I'm putting into my system. I mean no offense to your chefs, nor your hospitality. I just have a little…"
"Trust issues?" Giotto finished with a knowing smile.
"Yeah," Lily offered the man a crooked and apologetic smile.
The man chuckled softly. "It's no trouble. I trust the famiglia Miss Nina comes from, so I know I can trust you. Feel free to treat this place as your home."
The green eyed girl smiled her first genuine one that was actually caused and directed at another person. "Thank you," she said softly.
And so we have come to the end of another chapter...So whadya think?
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