Part of me is really glad we got as far as we have before we started posting this. If we were up to the point (posting) where we are now (writing), and me having Life hit, you'd probably not be having updates for last week, this week, and who knows how long from now. (As it is, this is showing up early like last week, because Life!)
Anywho! Continued fluffiness, a few serious things, some other Things being noticed, and...stuff. Basically just set-up for future developments, and showing some character development. Enjoy!
Warnings: Parental abuse, eating disorder (starving), gaslighting
Chapter 7
I heard raised voices, I heard a door fly open, and, most heartwrenchingly, I heard a man sob.
Damnit, Tessa, what did your dragon temper do this time?
I turned Dusk over in my hand, feeling distress from Tessa more intensely than I had in the years previous. Funny how she'd always called herself a dragon and I knew for a fact Dusk was dragon-inspired in form. Knowing her temper, she'd have the teeth. Lord knew I needed the hide.
Cye had come in and brought dinner, staying until he knew I'd be able to eat— even if I couldn't quite get down more than a few spoonfuls at a time.
I'd been left alone with Sage again, both of us on her bed. He was back to being more reserved and I was thankful, if only because of how almost desperately I wanted my barriers back. While my skin was craving touch beyond belief, I only wanted people I knew to touch me, at this point. The sheer amount of different things going on made me want normalcy, and right now, the only one who could give me that was in the barn, dealing with her own demons.
My breath caught when I heard somebody come up the stairs, eyes trained on the open door to make sure her dad wouldn't come up and say something to me. I mentally tripped over the 'her', my mind not wanting anything to do with any form of blood family. In the past six months I had gone from renouncing my mother, stepfather, and forming my own group of friends-who-acted-as-family… only to discover I had more blood family. The fear from the past week made me want to have nothing to do with this man.
Even if Rowen and I had figured out he hadn't abandoned me, that it was for the best, and I was thankful he'd taken one of us— that still didn't erase the twenty odd years of hearing what a scumbag he was.
He paused at the open door, wary from what I assumed was the glare Sage was leveling on him. "Alexa?"
I swallowed and looked at his shoulder, catching sight of his mouth in my periphery. "What?"
He almost looked like he was about to step inside, but thought better of it. "I'm sorry."
"You have nothing to be sorry for."
Apparently, neither of us had the energy to continue past that. He left and I sank back into the pillows, rubbing my face.
"Do you believe that?"
I looked up at Sage, who was brushing his bangs back over his eye. Shame I'd missed seeing both. "Believe what?"
"That he has nothing to be sorry for."
I tipped my head back to look at the ceiling. "I guess."
The disbelief was well hidden in his highly controlled voice, but it was there. So was teasing. "You 'guess'?"
"He was up against my mother," I said softly. "Everybody makes regrets around her. She gets her hands in just enough that you'll always lose something if you cross her. I lost my pets, easy access to any extended family— people who weren't part of the cult and I felt normal around— and a not insignificant portion of my stuff." My chuckle was bitter, but it was more amused than anything. "Having children as leverage? It's almost a miracle she didn't get both."
Sage was quiet for awhile, me trying to get over a paper dry mouth so I could keep eating, but even the small amount of food I'd gotten seemed to have stabilized my system. It wasn't enough, but it was more than I'd had in two weeks. After a relapse this intense, there was no hope of bouncing back in any semblance of the word 'quickly'.
I almost wanted to submit to another of Cye's vitals exams, but I knew I was just going to obsess over them, over 'improvement'. Instead it was better to focus on how I felt and eating enough.
"Think you're alright, now?"
I nodded. "Yeah. Go to bed."
He shifted to sit on the edge of the mattress. "You said that too quickly."
I quirked a smile at his dry humour. "Yeah, well." The mask slipped. "I'm not going to be okay for awhile. But I'm okay for being alone right now."
He watched me closely, making sure I wasn't lying, before he finally stood. "Let me know if you need anything."
I nodded and didn't move as he left the room, keeping the door ajar behind him. Almost immediately another wash of tears came; he wasn't on my mental safe list for crying around, which was another reason I'd wanted to be alone. I might not be directly angry at our father, but that didn't mean I wasn't grief stricken over what I'd lost. Tessa's relatively normal— albeit full of moving around— childhood was one I'd envied, and here I found out it genuinely almost was mine.
My protective instinct came in handy during those moments. I could mollify my own feelings with pure unbridled gratitude she'd managed to escape. And he'd made sure she did.
It was impossible for me to be angry in the face of that.
Tessa came back inside some time in the middle of the night. She walked into the room to a half eaten bowl of pasta on the nightstand, the light still on, and me borderline catatonic on the bed as I just tried to process everything in a blank state that some would describe as meditation. I simply called it a total system collapse.
One glance at her and I saw the redness around her eyes. "Rough convo?"
"Yep." She closed the door, giving us some privacy— especially as she started getting ready for bed. "I, uh, kinda went dragon on Dad…"
My jet black sense of humour was back. "I guessed as much," was the first thing out of my mouth, tone unusually chipper. I shifted in bed to see her better. "He came up and apologized, after."
She winced and yanked a dresser drawer hard enough she had to catch it before it hit the floor. She muttered a few choice words before sighing. "Where's Rowen with his lullabies when I need them…"
I debated how much she wanted me to hear that, for how under her breath it was, and decided we needed at least a little fun. "So, the handsome Kendo Grand Champion has artistic friends with beautiful voices…?"
If she could have turned into a puddle, she would've. I could tell right from the bright red skin visible on her neck.
I just grinned. "C'mon, spit it out. Which one of those hunks has the gorgeous voice?"
She didn't answer right away, but her getting changed was full of clothes being yanked off, thrown to the ground, and pjs practically jammed on. Her murmur sounded something like 'Rowen' but I couldn't quite tell. Not like I actually needed the confirmation, considering what she'd initially said, but oh it was nice to get. A few moments later she sighed and flopped on the empty space beside me, face shoved in the pillow. "Why me?"
I chuckled and patted her shoulder, having already gotten changed some time while she was gone. "Because you are gorgeous and it's about time two genuinely nice guys fall for you at once."
She gave me a sarcastic expression of gratitude before sticking out her tongue at me, the whole show over in a moment before she was back to flopped on the pillows. "That's reassuring…" She propped herself back on her elbows, changing the topic from one piece of drama to another. "By the way. In everything that's been going on, we… haven't exactly been able to compare notes. I feel like we have a ton of catching up to do and it's not because I missed ten thousand link-dumps on Facebook." She grinned at me, poking fun at where my tumblr and facebook addictions crossed over. But like her previous moods, that didn't last long. "But if you're too wiped out to handle that right now, we can save it for morning. Tomorrow's a new day…"
I didn't really have anything else to do, but she looked more exhausted than I felt. I alternated between insomnia and sleep binges, right now being very firmly on the 'insomnia' side.
"Let's do it tomorrow," I said softly. "It's been a really long day."
She smiled at me, every ounce of emotional exhaustion plain on her face. "Night, Sis."
By the time I'd murmured a reply, she was curled up under the blankets and dead to the world. I watched her, propped up on pillows, trying to match my breathing to hers. I grabbed my iPod— thank God Rowen had taken all my chargers when he packed my stuff— and put my earphones in, curling up in such a way I hoped I wasn't taking too many blankets. While she'd been fine the first night, I'd just taken Ativan, then. Normally I was a cover— and space— hog.
One of the many times I looked at the clock was four am. I turned over to see Tessa still completely out, curled up on her side like the wild animals she loved in the forest.
I swallowed, feeling my anxiety rise back up and stick in my throat, around my stomach like a vice. She'd always been open to hugs, and I hoped—
I wrapped one arm around her, trying not to cling like she was a teddy bear, but ended up doing just that. She didn't move, almost seemed to curl up more into me, and I tentatively rubbed her arm almost without realizing I was. I slowly relaxed as I picked up on her heart and breath— like I'd done with Sage earlier that evening— and managed to feel somewhat human again.
At least after that, I was able to sleep a little deeper. I saw seven am next, but I felt like I'd actually slept that time. Tessa was still dead to the world, and I let her go in the name of not making this any weirder than it had to be.
Of course, that destroyed any and all hopes of getting back to sleep. I felt Dusk poking me, drawing my attention to the already awake individuals in the house. I normally didn't get up any semblance of this early, but it's not like anybody other than Tessa would know what my habits were. And she would understand why I'd broken them, no questions asked.
I crawled out of bed before my stomach decided it was too empty to not throw up, the single most irrational piece of biology I'd ever encountered; I wanted to kill whoever came up with the concept that extreme hunger equaled nausea. Preferably kill them multiple times. Acid burns from the inside, out, sounded like a fitting punishment to start with.
A few moments later, I was down in the kitchen to the delicious smell of pancakes.
Cye smiled at me from his place by the stove. "Since you liked the first batch so much."
I was already rummaging through the fridge, perking up at the orange juice jug hidden behind the milk. "Thanks."
"How're you feeling?" He jerked his thumb over his shoulder. "Glasses are over there."
I went to the cabinets in the general area he was pointing, finding what I was looking for relatively quickly. "A little like death warmed over…" A large glass made it on the counter with a soft clunk. "Considering I felt like actual death a few days ago, that's an improvement!" Yes, as if I needed more proof of my sense of humour at that exact moment.
"Sorry to hear that." Sometimes I wondered if Cye's voice was always this soft, or if he reserved it just for me. "Hopefully these will help."
I simply let out a quiet "mhm" instead of answering with any sort of word. Nervous habit I could never seem to break, even if it did give me a wonderful barometer on just how anxious I was.
He didn't continue, going back to making food, while I parked myself at the kitchen table… only to spot a large, very fuzzy, very curious tabby cat.
"Hey, Tazer."
Cye looked over his shoulder, only for his attention to be completely wrapped up by the ball of fur. "Oh hi there…"
And I thought I was cat crazy. I wordlessly stood to check on the pancakes he was now thoroughly ignoring in the name of letting Tazer sniff his hands and get his scent all over the newcomer— which quickly gave way to yowling.
I laughed, flipping the pancakes and smiling to myself when they were the same colour as the ones Cye had already cooked. "He's hungry like the rest of us."
Cye, once again, was primarily wrapped up in scratching the lion-like ruff. "Do you know where Tessa keeps his food?"
I shook my head. "Sorry, no." I looked down at the kitty now rubbing himself against my legs. "Knowing him, he's probably already fed and he's just trying to mooch off us."
Cye gave him one last, thorough stroke, standing just as I took the pancakes off. "Well, it's working."
Sage announced his presence with sarcasm. "Leave it to Cye Mouri to find a cat."
I chuckled. "He does this a lot?"
The nod I got in reply was enough to make me break down in a giggle fit, especially when combined with Cye's good-natured glare.
I never could resist puns. "Mad he let the cat out of the bag?"
Even Sage cracked up at that, Cye's laugh full and bright.
"You should see him around Ryo's tiger, White Blaze," Sage added.
My spine straightened, eyes widening. "Tiger?"
Cye shook his head, blush visible. "A white tiger appeared to Ryo when he was a kid. He acts more like a housecat than you'd expect for a creature large enough we could ride him, during the Dynasty War."
Mental note, go to Japan and meet this cat.
Cye decided a topic change was appropriate. He looked at Sage out of the corner of his eye. "I could tell her stories about you."
The expressions were now switched, Sage giving an oh so understated glare in Cye's direction. I chuckled and was about to pour more batter out, only for Cye to reach for the utensils.
"You can enjoy the ones I've already made."
Not about to argue with that, considering my stomach had relaxed with the teasing, I grabbed one of the plates he'd already pulled out and took three for myself.
To my surprise, Cye said, "I think I saw some maple syrup in the fridge."
I checked and, indeed, there was a decent amount there. I carefully poured it out, mostly because I'd heard multiple times just how rare maple syrup was in the States, before parking myself back at the table with orange juice. A moment later, Sage had a glass of water in front of me, one for himself in another hand.
No wonder Tessa said he was practically made of manners… I tried not to let that tiny little action get to me, however, because eventually constant reminders to take care of myself just reminded me how I wasn't, and right now I'd rather focus on progress. Like the fact I already didn't have a bone dry mouth after waking up.
Still, I took a few sips of water just in case.
Cye continued having a cat stromping around his feet. "Tazer, is it?" He reached down to give the kitty his fingers. "Dare I ask about the name?"
I sputtered around a mouthful of pancakes, managing to swallow without choking. "He likes anything that makes a red dot… and her parents kinda let him know that tazers have a red dot he can play with. Her stepmom kept playing with him using the sight to get him off her back for work, and he started yowling at her when she got ready because he wanted to play. Trained her that well. He only cut it out a few years ago."
Cye's face lit in realization. "Ah! Well. He's very friendly."
I brought my hand down and made a few sounds to get him over, not realizing how much I'd missed my cats from my parents' place. Tazer ran up with a chirp in the hopes of getting food, but seemed satisfied with my petting. I murmured to him about how pretty he was, not caring that my baby voice and embarrassingly cute nicknames that only pets received came out. Especially with the increasingly loud purring all the attention garnered.
Sage chuckled. "Loud cat."
Cye, of course, chimed in. "He's beautiful."
I looked up to the twinkle in Sage's eye, expecting him to make some sort of retort but he remained stone silent. It was tempting to try and draw it out of him by making a comment, but I didn't know how he'd react. When my stomach demanded I go back to breakfast, I reluctantly pulled myself away from the cat who still wanted attention.
Sage had turned his sight from a cat-obsessed Cye to me. "How'd you sleep?" he asked casually.
I shoved food into my mouth before answering, figuring with how if they were encouraging me to eat, I would do exactly that. "Alright."
He kept looking at me, and I knew he was expecting more.
I sighed, finishing up another bite and polishing off the first pancake. "Insomnia. Hence the dark circles. Well, one of the reasons."
His voice lacked softness in how I'd traditionally thought of the word, but he wasn't unkind or harsh, either. The only word that came to mind was gentle. "So what does 'alright' mean, then?"
I shrugged one shoulder. "Do you want me to explain it how I would to a normal person, or what it means to me?"
"Both."
Of course he picked the third option. "I can function, and I feel stable. Of course, I only got maybe six hours and if I didn't get out of bed when I did, I probably would've thrown up."
Cye turned to look at me, concern plainly visible in his eyes.
I quirked a smile. "I'm okay. No tooth damage and I don't force it. Just… anxiety." I let out a single dry chuckle. "I got prescribed Ativan when I couldn't hold down water, thanks to a breakdown."
Both of them winced.
I was halfway through my second pancake and wanting off this topic before my PTSD kicked back up again. I glanced at Cye. "You mentioned you're an EMT?"
He nodded. "Since I left high school. I was a lifeguard before that." He smiled at me over his shoulder. "I'm in medical school, now."
"I nearly got into lifeguard…" I laughed. "Ironically, I hated doing the safety part. Loved the swimming. Still swim like a fish when I get the chance. One of the selling features for my place was that it had a pool."
Sage jerked his thumb at a bright-eyed Cye. "You just said the right thing for Torrent."
I perked up, looking at them expectantly.
Cye finished off the pancake batter, a veritable mountain on the plate. "My powers deal with water. It even lets me breathe underwater, and dive to depths no human can reach."
"He had to dive nearly sixty feet to get it," Sage added on. "Don't let him think he's not a fish without the armour."
I laughed, wanting to pay Cye the compliment that had been bubbling in my mind since I'd met him. "You'll be a good doctor, I think. I know I didn't show it, but I really… appreciated what you did, during that exam."
His smile was soft and grateful. "I hoped I wouldn't make you more stressed, after that…" He sat down at the table, plate going to the middle. "Rowen told us you were autistic, so I knew you wouldn't like anything unexpected."
I paused, every part of my mind caught between screaming and eerily, deeply calm. "Rowen did?" Had Tessa warned them I was maybe autistic, that would've been one thing. But Rowen wouldn't have known. Unless.
Both of them frowned at my suddenly sharp tone. They glanced between each other, Sage answering. "He dug up as much as he could on the both of you, trying to find the connection you obviously had. This included your medical records."
"My… medical records." A million thoughts swirled through my head, ranging from 'how' to 'they've been digitized' to 'what else does he know'. I gaped at the table, chest and throat frozen.
"Alexa?" For the first time, Cye's voice had some touch of alarm.
I said the first thing I felt physically able to. "I'm… officially autistic?"
They were silent for awhile, me not watching their expressions from being too wrapped up in my own feelings. Cye, the closest, put a hand on my shoulder. "We thought you knew…"
I shook my head. "I guessed." When they remained silent, I continued. "I'd… been diagnosed with something, but all I knew was 'atypical'. One of my friends said the only thing that came up under 'atypical' was deafness and autism, and I'm not deaf. I… I found out other stuff, that confirmed it, but…" I swallowed, hard, fighting the shut down I knew was coming. "I'd never known."
I could feel the awkwardness in the room, them not knowing what to do now that they'd touched this nerve. I raked my fingers through my hair and tried not to scream, my voice pushing itself out anyway. "She lied to me! Said, to my face, I wasn't…!"
And flashbacks consumed my consciousness. Deep, almost five sensory flashbacks where I was standing in the hallway watching my mother's chipper denial that I could possibly be anything but just 'raised right' and how everybody should be this way, her upset at the report which she denied but I'd heard, the constant forcing to be different, backhand comments about how I needed to be careful because I didn't behave capital-n-normally and if I didn't behave that way I'd lose opportunities—
The goddamned cure attempt that nearly cost me my life.
All of it flooded me, and there was not a thing I could do to stop it.
I didn't know what passed between them, but the next sensation I felt was Sage resting a hand on my hair. "It's alright to be upset." He seemed to know what my mind was doing, which made sense because he'd likely experienced these before. "You're not there. You're here. You know you're safe, right?"
I shook my head, my voice pitifully quiet. "She could still find me."
His hand slid to my neck, thumb rubbing soft circles on tense muscles. "We're here with you. She'll have to get through us, first. You can sense her when she gets close, can't you?"
This time, I nodded.
He went back to stroking my hair. "So you can get close to us when you do. Dusk will tell us if you can't. Even without our armours, all of us can fight physically. We can track you."
The memories were receding like the outgoing tide, my breathing stabilizing so I was simply crying, my shaking body returning to my control.
Sage still hadn't left my side. "Do hugs help?"
Standing up and burrowing into him seemed like a better reaction than answering. He barely hesitated before wrapping his arms around me, rubbing my back in long, slow strokes. "It'll be okay, Alexa. Just focus on us."
With him the closest, I ended up focusing there. Back to his breathing, back to his heartbeat. I was going to become dependent on him and Tessa, at this rate. Their touch calmed me down more effectively than anything.
"You get these," I murmured without thinking into his chest. "Don't you?"
His breath deepened momentarily. "Yes. I do."
"I don't very much." My tears were slowing to a trickle. "It's only… recently. Since I've been remembering." I tipped my head down, not wanting to hold it up even with help. "I repressed so much…"
"Don't forget," he said, his voice having the first traces of softness, but even those notes were deep as bone. "Dusk is there to protect you, even when you feel like you can't."
That hit a nerve in the best way possible, the final layers of tension draining away with another wash of tears. I squeezed him to say that, despite my reaction, I didn't want to let go. I may have also needed to hold on to something so I didn't collapse to the floor.
He put his hand on the back of my head, not loosening his grip. "Better?" I nodded, still unmoving. "Thank you."
"Iie, tondemonai desu. No, I don't deserve it."
I managed a small smile at both hearing him speak the language that came so naturally to him, and the kindness that he provided a translation immediately. "I'm not going to escape learning Japanese, am I?"
He laughed, and with my ear still against his chest, I felt the sound about as much as I heard it. "Between Tessa and us… I don't think so."
I tentatively put my weight back on my legs, feeling more like rubber than any semblance of bone and muscle. He'd supported my weight effortlessly, and he kept his arms around me in case I didn't regain my footing in an instant. Of course, I didn't. I tipped uneasily, my legs apparently having forgotten how to exist. But with his grip, it was impossible for me to fall.
When I looked up to thank him to his face, I realized I could see his other eye peeking through his bangs. I softened just from the compassion within. Part of me couldn't help thinking that he didn't mean for me to see it. "I'm okay, now."
He smiled back and it reached both of those eyes. "Good. Think you can finish eating, now?"
I nodded, pulling back slowly as my body got used to holding my own weight without a ton of adrenalin coursing through my system. His grip loosened at the same pace I went, ensuring that I wouldn't collapse. Which I nearly did multiple times.
When I finally reacquainted myself with my surroundings, Sage and I were alone. I sat back down with a deep exhale, exhausted but, at the very least, calmer than I'd been in months.
Sage took his previous place across from me and pulled out Halo. "If you want…" He tapped the crystal in front of him. "I could teach you how I work with Halo, to keep my PTSD manageable."
I smiled. "I'd like that." The smell of pancakes finally got to me, and I returned to the now cool dish. "Only if I can do the same for you. To be fair." I gave a small laugh. "Who knows, I might've figured something out you haven't. Although I doubt it, with how much you work with your armour."
He took Halo back, seeming to be purposely avoiding looking at me for a few moments. "I'd like that."
And I didn't want to admit just how much I liked the softness in his voice.
—/—
Waking up in my own bed, in my own room, not recalling how many other members of the opposite sex were in the house, made me realize just how badly I needed a shower. Travel gunk, again, and the remnants of barn detritus.
So I reluctantly emerged from the Cave of Blankets, dragged a towel out of the linen closet, and plopped myself under the showerhead for a solid fifteen minutes. Normally I disliked dealing with showers at the beginning of the day, but I consoled myself with the thought that I could always go for a briskly cold rinse before bed, after an estimated twelve hours of sweatiness. The fan running helped to keep the steam and condensation down, so I could actually see myself when I went to brush my teeth and hair.
Of course, the contraption hid any sounds of the rest of the house's activity. So I had no clue how many people were up (and I'd not checked my phone for the time, yet) when I opened the door to the bathroom.
It was my own house. I'd been at military school for two years, now. How bad could stepping out wrapped only in a towel be? It wasn't much different than wearing a bathrobe in a school ninety-nine percent populated by males.
I froze faster than molasses on a cold day in January.
Why did I always have to run into Rowen at the worst possible moments?
He stood with a hand poised to knock on the door, but it quickly fell back to his side. Confident military girl or no, I became acutely aware of his eyes on me and exactly how I'd tucked the fabric pretty closely around my frame. In my sleepiness, I hadn't exactly grabbed a beach towel, either. My voice stuck in my throat—permanently, I feared. Lucky for me (or not), it seemed his did the same.
Ryo's shouting up the stairwell sounded like angels sent to rescue me. "Rowen! Bring your laptop down, will you?"
I saw him visibly, forcibly swallow before turning wordlessly for my half-brother's room (where we'd stuffed the five of them, since he was out at a summer camp for two weeks). My eyes followed him of their own accord, my brain still on overload from the awkward stares we'd engaged in.
If I hadn't already been in a towel, I think I'd have said he was fighting very hard not to undress me with his eyes.
It became incredibly difficult not to admit to myself that maybe I liked that thought.
My door didn't quite slam once I'd reached the safety of my room.
Poor Liv. There was no way she was going to sleep off her fourteen-hour shift with these boys around.
I took extra-long putting on my barn clothes of loose T-shirt and cargo shorts, making my braid extra messy partly because I didn't care...and partly because I cared too much. This is way too confusing. Why can't things be as easy as in the movies? I lamented, frowning at my face in the body-length mirror on the back of my door. With a sigh and final cursory glance at my appearance, I dragged my feet down the stairs.
Alexa sat curled up on one end of the couch, looking very small and very haunted by something. My eyes flicked to the wall beside her to see who leaned against it—only to quickly turn elsewhere when they found Rowen. Again.
I strangled my forever-going-to-be-perplexed sigh when my eyes landed on Sage, on the opposite side of Alexa.
Can't a girl catch a break, like, ever?
Practically scrubbing at my face with one hand, I plunked myself down heavily on the couch beside my sister. (Just thinking of it that way threw yet another wrench in my thoughts, as welcome as this one was.) "Whatcha got, sis?"
"It's… here." She swallowed tightly. "In black and white."
The tone with which she said those very simple, otherwise ambiguous words immediately derailed all the other trains on the tracks (thank God). I peered over her shoulder at Rowen's laptop balanced on the sofa arm. Once I'd found the cursor highlighting the document she'd pulled up, I realized why she'd practically collapsed into the cushions.
Her diagnosis. The one she'd always suspected but never had a way of finding, herself.
The thought that Rowen had found this crossed my mind just long enough for me to shove it away again. "Are—are you okay?" My hand found her petite shoulder, easily covering thin skin over bony joints.
Her voice came out so flat it almost squished me, though it wasn't at all personally directed. "I don't know."
The supportive hand morphed into two arms around her upper torso, her body shifting slightly to allow me one arm between her and the furniture. "That's fine, too. With everything that's going on, you don't have to know, just yet." My muscles flexed in a subtle comforting squeeze. "I'm here for you, Neechan."
I knew she'd always appreciated quiet spoken or unspoken gestures like that. Her "Thanks" echoed with distant tears.
"Arigato."
He'd been so silent, I was caught off-guard when Sage teased—corrected—her. I craned my neck to look over my shoulder at him, noticing emotions I'd never seen on his face before. The shine in his one eye had never been directed at me, and now it was trained on my twin like the gaze of a hawk.
Whatever inside joke he'd pulled, it totally went over my head; Alexa laughed, though. "I said I wasn't going to escape learning Japanese, between the lot of you."
Aha. Smirking at the mental hop I made between thought and language, I simply said, "Aah. Soo da."
She rolled her eyes, but her tone was just as teasing as Sage had been. "Hey, c'mon, I don't know the language yet. It'd be like Rowen and I speaking in French."
"Nous pourrions faire ca."
I could have levelled the Empire State Building with the look I shot at Rowen. Alexa just giggled, the brightest sound I'd yet heard from her in everything that was going on. "He just said 'we can do that'."
He almost seemed disappointed at being ratted out. "You didn't get a translation!"
"Even though we should be translating for you," Sage said lightly—a tone which belied the reminder it was meant to be.
Twice thankful for the fact the Japanese language reflected a culture that found it improper to directly call out someone's faux paus, I hide my embarrassed blush behind continuing our little banter. Directing my comment at Rowen, I explained—in a mix of bright laughter and impish mischievousness—"That's because I vehemently refuse to learn French."
He merely raised an eyebrow at me. "Oh? I bet I could get you to learn."
Oh how Gwen popped into my head with a vengeance at that very suggestive tone.
That boast amused Alexa, at least. "You can try. I've been trying since we met."
The Three Stooges decided to make their entrance at that point, Ryo at the head of their mini-triangle. (I almost giggle-snorted thinking of Wildfire, Torrent, and Hardrock as the three starter Pokemon.) "Alright, gang's all rested up and present, now. Sorry, but we have to break up the little language lesson and try to get some business done."
"As de facto leader, of course, Sir Ryo of Wildfire will now call this session of Parliament to order," Rowen quipped dryly.
He couldn't hide the little smirk at his own cleverness, though. I was onto him, by Jove.
"Ryo, Kento, and I were talking, and we think now that there's some distance between us and the...threat, we should start helping you two learn about your armors," Cye explained helpfully, directing it to myself and Alexa.
Alexa concurred. "Sage offered to teach me, already."
I'd known her long enough to catch the specific ambiguity of that statement. No way I'd call her out on it, though—at least not in front of the guys. Something told me that had something to do with the way Blondie was keeping an eye on her, all of a sudden...
Those problems quickly fled into the burrows of my mind when Kento spoke next. "Well, Ro? You going to offer to teach Tessa, or are you going to let Sage show you up again?"
The little smirk I noticed morphed into a narrow-eyed half-glare. "What are you implying, Ken?"
Something unsaid was shooting around between the guys, now, but Hell if I had a clue what it meant. Kento's demeanor was a little too laid back—arms crossed, a secretive smile on his face—when he said, "Well the way I see it, we've already got the morning guy teaching the dusk girl, so it only makes sense that the night owl teach the sunrise girl."
Again with the feeling of being left out, standing behind a closed door while people whispered on the other side. Rowen's expression suddenly lost the hints of hostility I'd been tracking. He didn't grin, but I had the feeling that was his internal mood. "Alright. No sense wasting time, then—let's head outside and get started."
Everyone seemed highly in favor of following Rowen's notion—except my stomach. I almost blushed, cringing sheepishly when it announced its demands to the room at large. Cue the anime sweatdrop."Uh, maybe I should eat breakfast, first."
Translations:
Iie, tondemo arimasen: Basically "you're welcome", but more with the cultural connotation of "no need to thank me" (aka Sage being humble, because Sage). Literally, "No, I don't deserve it [your thanks]."
