Kokoro no Kagami
Rana: As I have said, I am so sorry about the wait. I started writing this the same day as my last upload(technically, since I updated 6 1/2 at 3 am) and this time I'm going back to Alex's third person pov. I missed it. I really did. By the way, the reason the Alex was crying in chapter seven was actually a combination of her disappointment and slamming into the gate. Also, along the way Kikumaru accidentally stepped on her foot. Yeah, ouch. For the sake of my sanity, this is chapter nine, not eight. I don't own PoT or the Beatles. I'm not sure about my custody over the Kikumaru siblings. They were seen and mentioned in episodes of Pot but not named and were only shown by the tops of their heads... I'm pretty sure I own Tsubaki though...or maybe not? She's based off of a couple of real people...and...I dunno. My head hurts. Enjoy.
Chapter 9-For the Benefit of Mr. Kite
Alex shook her head, like a wet dog trying to rid away water, thoroughly enjoying the newfound freedom of her much smaller head of hair. Since she was little she had always kept her hair long but now...now she could see the beautiful life lived by short haired people!(1) She was glad of her decision, she thought as she bounced up and down on her bed, the tennis incident that had happened a mere hour ago nearly a fading memory.
She would always have her hair short, forever and ever! Long live the short haired people!
"Larga vida a la gente de pelo corto!" she shouted, using the Spanish she had learned from eighth grade.
"Ares-Chan?" called a wary voice from the hallway. Alex figured that the person outside was afraid that she would cry again or something. Either that or they were afraid of her random Spanish outburst.
"Yes?" she called back, before skipping back to the door and smiling at the red head and the brunette in the hall. Both Kenji and Eiji had appeared to be waiting for her.
She inwardly laughed at the little resemblance between the two. Kenji was a bit taller and with glasses and a bit thinner, not that Eiji was fat or anything. She had learned that a while ago... Kenji's hair was sort of shinier too and in a different style. Eiji had bright red hair and had a more cute-cat look about him than the slightly serious Kenji. They, in fact, looked like two random people who happened to share the same eye color.
"Yo," greeted Kenji after a period of quiet. "we didn't...um...we thought that you-uh...never mind."
"It's okay! I'm no longer sad any longer!" she smiled at the two. Eiji perked up and Kenji looked at her in pleasant surprise.
"You're saying 'I' now! And..." he looked at her with a raised eyebrow for a moment. Eiji looked at his older brother in confusion. "Did you..." he glanced into her room as though whatever he would see in there would confirm his suspicion or whatever it was. "You cut you're hair by yourself, didn't you?"
He didn't seem too happy. Alex laughed nervously and glanced at Eiji multiple times for help. He didn't seem to notice her silent pleas, though. Instead, he seemed to be slightly bored? Either that or relaxed.
His arms were supporting the back of his head and he was whistling while staring at them. What was he whistling?
"Maybe...a little," said Alex, pouting. It wasn't a big deal, was it? Kenji rolled his eyes and Eiji smiled, no longer doing whatever he was doing moments ago in order to poke Kenji's pouting cheek.
"Aw! Ken-ken papa's mad!" Alex pondered on the strange nickname and then the cause of Kenji's apparent anger. Finding herself too confused she put away the topic into the dark crevices of her mind and looked to the two brothers who were having some sort of calm one sided argument, lead by Kenji.
"Is family's dinner still open?" asked Alex, breaking up the heated glances between Kenji and Eiji.
"Yeah. But it's around time for desert now." Kenji rubbed the back of his head and stared off somewhere to his left, away from Eiji.
"But I'm sure you can still get a meal, nya! Mama always saves food for people who can't come to dinner for later!(2)" He gave Alex a thumbs up and she copied his movements with a cheeky grin. Kenji rolled his eyes.
"Good grief, now there's two of them." Rather than anger, his grumble held a sort of warmness. His smile also betrayed his words.
"Geez! Ken-ken papa's so mean!" Eiji pouted, his fists balled up in front of his chest in a really adorable way. Alex shook her head and walked past the two quietly arguing brothers to the stairs. Why did she think that Eiji doing the same thing that she always did when frustrated was cute?
She shrugged it off with a small smile to herself and thought that Eiji's actions reminded her of a little kid and that little kids were cute.
Eventually, Alex stood at the door frame of the dining room and gazed upon the sitting members Kikumaru family around their large oval table, her heart thumping so hard in her chest that she was sure that they could hear it. The first thing that she noticed, though, was that all of the chairs were mismatched.
"Hello! Was good to see you all!" Alex bowed and hoped that she hadn't said anything embarrassing. She hadn't yet come to fully understand Japanese and knew that she messed up a lot, but this was pretty much the one time that it mattered. Really, really mattered.
And then, her heart nearly shattered when she heard someone laugh. Had she said something wrong or embarrassing? Did she get really lost in translation like earlier with the cat and the whipped cream? She could almost die...or cry. Whichever came first.
"I'm-I'm sorry," said a male voice. For some reason, it reminded Alex of Big Bear, strong and sort of masculine. "Please, Tatsuya-Chan, be seated." Looking up, the slightly nerve recked girl saw that it was the man at the far end of the table talking. Quickly, she took a seat at the opposite end.
Kenji and Eiji did also. Thankfully, their seats were the ones on either side of her so she didn't feel like she was among strangers. As it was, the entire table was staring at her with intrigue.
"Um...hi?" Her weak attempt at initiative seemed to spark the others intrigue a bit more. That or it surprised them.
"Hi, Arex-Chaaaaaan!" She'd recognize that happy, mature voice anywhere. It was Mrs. Karo from behind her, holding a plate with nearly clear plastic rapping over it. "Here's what we had at dinner. Desert should be ready later!" It was strange to hear Mrs. Karo speaking in perfect Japanese. Broken English had somehow fitted her.
"Hi, Mrs. Karo-saaaan!" said Alex happily, her entire lower arm swing to and fro like a metronome that had had lots of sugar. Even though metronomes couldn't eat...
The man at the head of the table laughed again. This time it was louder.
"Um...Yui? Why is she calling you Mrs. Karo?" he asked in between laughs. Despite his laughter, Alex felt her face heat up to the maximum, for some reason, and she looked towards Karo for the answer. She felt that she had been swindled for some reason.
Karo, in the meantime, was smiling shyly, her pouting cheeks a rosy hue, and her arms holding up the back of her head in a very Eiji-ish style.
"Eheheheh...well, you see...Arex-Chan is new and nobody calls me by a nickname anymore..." she trailed off, her eyes staring at some random point on the floor.
"But why 'Karo'? What's that got to do with anything?" asked a girl on the side with black hair, like most of the Kikumarus and brown eyes like the man at the head of the table. Except hers were really cold and bored.
"Karube was my maidens name and so Karo was my nickname in my high school...so...Tada! It's not like I did anything wrong...I JUST WANTED TO HAVE A COOL NICKNAME AND BE YOUNG-ISH AGAIN! IS THAT SO WRONG?" she screamed childishly, waving her arms about wildly, before storming out of the doorway behind Alex, leaving everyone blinking.
"Don't worry, that happens a lot," said the dark blue eyed boy next to the bored girl. He was taller than her by a lot but they looked about the same age. After saying that his face turned a pinkish-red color and his mouth turned into a frown that looked a little like a squiggly line. His hands cupped his mouth in an instant. "I'm sorry!" said his muffled, apologetic voice.
There was lots of laughter afterward, after the awkward staring at the boy who had said whatever he said.
"Ah!" The man at the end of the table clapped his hands together. "I'm sorry deary, you don't know our names." Alex assumed that the man was talking to her and nodded, feeling slightly strange about being called 'deary' by a man she just met five minutes earlier. "I am Kikumaru Kaito, the father of the household," he said with pride edging on his words. Alex randomly remembered that Kaito meant Kite.
"I'm Kikumaru Yuki," said the boy who sat next to his father, who had said that whatever had just happened happened 'a lot.' It felt as though he had stopped short and had more to say, but he instead slunk back in his chair.
"I'm Kikumaru Pikamu," said the frowning girl with brown eyes and black hair next to him. She was staring at the roof, and didn't look happy. "I'm his older twin." She pointed her pointer finger at Yuki. For some reason, it was surprising and yet made sense.
Next was a teenage girl, maybe Alex's age, more or less, with short red hair and dark blue eyes. She was in the spitting image of Eiji. As a girl.
"I'm Kikumaru Kinna"-Wasn't that the name of the oldest Kikumaru?-"and no matter how old I look, I'm only twenty-four." Alex's jaw dropped.
"T-twenty-four? I thought you were my age!" To her surprise and non-surprise(if that was a word) Kinna started chuckling behind her hand. The rest of the siblings looked a little scared for some reason.
Kinna used her free hand to apparently wave away Alex's comment.
"Oh, you flatter me, Tatsuya-san! But," she suddenly stopped and looked at Alex, completely serious. "don't think that flattery will win over my respect. It will take a lot more than that."
'Kinna: Bipolar,' she mentally noted, her eyes now bouncing to the girl across from Kinna, a blond with bored hazel green eyes. She looked nothing like the other Kikumarus, her hair and eyes coloring being one thing but her face being a slight pinkish color while the other had light skin, and her cheek bones being low while the others were high. She laughed a little as she stared at her cellphone.
"I'm Tsubaki. Feel free to call me Kikumaru," she said offhandedly, giving Alex a quick side-glance before going back to doing something with her cellphone.
"But, don't you mean feel free to-"
"I said what I said," she shrugged.
'Tsubaki: Doesn't seem to like me...'
"Anyway," said Mr. Kaito, seeming to break the awkward silence without knowing it. "with you being stuck in that room of yours for two weeks we felt that we hadn't gotten to know you much, so that's why we brought everyone together. I suppose you could say it's for everyone's benefit-"
"Wait a moment," said Kenji, his eyes serious, interrupting his father without hesitation. Alex suddenly had a newfound respect for him. "You said that you wanted her to get to know everyone but you completely forgot about two very important people. Three, if you count your busy son-in-law."
That was when he scooted out of his chair and disappeared out of the doorway. He was gone for a while. Just before it seemed that he had officially stormed off, he came back into the room with two children in tow. Both were holding onto his hands and staring around innocently and confused. Both had the same dark blue eyes but one, who was a slightly shorter girl, has bright red hair and the other, a slightly taller boy, had black hair. They both looked to be about five.
"More siblings for Kikumaru family?" she asked, staring at Kenji for an answer. All of a sudden, she felt strangely at peace and much less tense in the presence of children.
"No, this is Suzu-" he raised the hand of the red haired girl who smiled at him curiously. He seemed oddly indifferent to this-"She's Kinna's daughter, and this is my son, Masato." The raven haired boy sent Alex a toothy grin.
'Oh my gosh, KENJI DOESN'T LOOK OLD ENOUGH TO HAVE A FIVE YEAR OLD!' Alex contained her surprise with difficulty. She was sure that it had shown on her face, though.
"Hi!" Alex waved to the small children, happy to see them. There was a reason to it, not that she didn't like them, which was definitely not the case. Since she was little, Alex had for some reason felt at peace kids her age, which was five or people who acted childish. Even when she got older the fondness did not fade. "I'm Arisa!"
Alex had finally come to realize that most people preferred her Japanese name.
"Hello, Arisa!" both children bowed, still holding onto Kenji's hands. They wasted no time in walking back to wherever they were before. Kenji returned to his place at the table next Alex, who pretended not to notice and started eating the food that had been served to her. She had no idea what it was(it seemed to contain noodles)but it was pretty good.
"DESERT IS READY, NYA!" called Mrs. Karo(or Yui)erupting out of another door with a large tray of cake in her hands. It was pink, unfortunately, but had white, thick, creamy frosting on top with three strawberries! It wasn't until Mrs. Karo had haphazardly thrown the cake onto the table(and it luckily survived)that the inscription in some sort of flavoring or frosting could be read. It was in Japanese so it was impossible for Alex to read, though.
"Kenji," Alex whispered while Kaito inquired about Mrs. Karo's whereabouts for the past twenty minutes. Kenji sent a curious glance at Alex. "What's it cake the say?" Kenji glanced at the cake.
"'We, the Kikumaru family, wish you a warm welcome.' There's an exclamation point at the end, but I don't want to yell," he whispered back informatively. It was really lucky that Alex had him around, who could speak English and translate stuff for her.
"Dig in!" announced Mrs. Karo after her discussion with Kaito. Guiltily, Alex glanced back and forth from her meal and the cake. Would it be right to leave the food and go to the cake? Would the meal feel betrayed? But, wouldn't the cake also feel left out? She could always go back and forth but that would ruin the spicy flavoring of the meal and the most likely sweet flavoring of the cake.
"What're you doing, Ares-Chan?" asked Eiji, surveying Alex with a cheery smile. There was a bit of frosting on his cheek. It sort of enhanced the cute cat look that he had.
Alex wondered what she was doing herself, for a moment, and then she remembered her inner argument.
"Uh..." Should she have told Eiji of her slightly weird predicament? She decided that she trusted him enough for it. "I can't decide whether to eat the cake or keep on eating my meal." There, she admitted it.
"Why? Just go for the cake, it'll feel lonely if you don't eat it, Ares-Chan! The meal's had it's time with you!" he said, his smile turning brighter. He...was awesome! Alex hadn't ever met someone who shared the same ideals as food as her, plus he solved her problem. If they weren't sitting and eating, she might have hugged him.
"Thank you, Eiji-kun!" she said, grinning widely at him. He grinned back.
"Aw~! The lovebirds had a little moment," said Pikamu in a mock baby voice. The whole table giggled, except for Yuki and Kinna who had the decency to chuckle behind their hands. Though Mrs. Karo seemed confused and Tsubaki seemed angry.
Alex thought a fire had ignited within her head and Eiji had a small fire of his own in his cheeks. Without hesitation, Alex started on her cake and attempted to use her bangs as a shroud for her most likely red cheeks.
"Jeez! That's so mean, Pika-tan!" Eiji pouted.
What felt like an hour later(but may have been an hour and a half)dinner was over and everyone picked up their now frosting filled plates and loaded them into the dish washer. Alex observed them first, though, never having seen a dishwasher before. Apparently, during the dish-washing you're supposed to fill the dishwasher with some sort of tiny soap thingy and watch it as it happens-on your knees-while chanting 'Oohta, dahta washa!'(3) Mrs. Karo did it, as weird as it looked, and had a smile on her face the entire time.
As she walked back to her room with Yuki and Shikoku and Tsubaki who had their rooms near her own, she smiled the whole way and sung her own version of 'Oohta, dahta washa!' There, of course, was a reason. She had felt really happy after being introduced to the Kikumaru family. It felt like she was no longer, if a little, an outcast living in someone else's home. Eventually, she knew that she would indefinitely feel like a part of the Kikumaru family. Even if it took a whole year she would try her best. Except...she only had four months in Japan...she would have to feel like a part of the house by then...
The End for now!
1- Yeah...this is exactly how I felt when I got my hair cut a few years back...It was amazing. I cut off like fifteen inches.
2- Isn't it just so cute imaging Eiji saying Mama?
3- I don't know what 'Oohta, dahta washa' means. I mused to myself that it might means 'Ooh that washer!' Maybe, but I don't really know. If anyone knows, please say something! XD
(A/N) Yay! I got to write (A/N) again! Any who, I'll probably be working on this all week while I'm zip lining in an island that's far away from my home! CATALINA! It's off the coast of where I live! I don't want to go snorkeling though. I promised myself to never go snorkeling after I did when I went snorkeling on a class I trip and I almost drowned like so many times and it took forever to put on a scuba suit! I know, not a lot to complain about...
Chapter Preview!
Finally! It's Alex's first day of school! Who's her extremely quiet seat mate? Can she possibly make her speak! Next time on MiraHeru(I changed it to the real version) Fool on a hill! See you then!
