Chapter 9- Homecoming

"Sir… Miss…" the young flight attendant said gently, trying to shake the boy awake. Kai opened his eyes slightly, and she continued. "The flight will be landing in about ten minutes, you need to buckle your seatbelt."

He grunted acknowledgment and snapped his belt over himself, and tried to move without waking up his wife. A small smile and blush slipped onto his features as he thought about the term that he now used to describe her. She was no longer his unwilling fiancée, she was his wife, as in already married. It seemed a load different from the way it had been when they were only engaged.

"Kai…?" she mumbled though her still-sleepy state. He snapped the belt as quietly as he could, but she still roused further. He gently pushed back a strand of hair that had fallen into her eyes, but it fell back as soon as he removed his hand. She looked like a wreck, but she was beautiful anyway. "Are we there yet?" she managed through a yawn.

"We'll be landing in a few minutes," he murmured to her as she burrowed into his shoulder, unwilling to greet the morning just yet. True, it was already nine o' clock, but the plane hadn't left until eleven the night before. He glanced up over her head and out the window, noting that they were still above the clouds. Their color, though, indicated that below them was quite wet with rain.

"Can't you just… yawn… carry me?" she asked, looking up at him through still-tired eyes and resting a hand on his chest, pushing herself up anyway. He laughed under his breath.

"I would if I could, but I can't," he said quietly, running his fingers through her slightly knotted hair. She leaned into the caress slightly, before digging her hairbrush out of her bag and running it roughly through the locks, still so deadened with sleep that she felt no pain from it ripping through the tangles. "You've probably broken hairbrushes that way, haven't you?"

"Hmmm…? Yawn Oh, yeah, but I always get another one," she said, pitching the thing haphazardly back into the bag. The flight landed a few moments later, and they walked off the plane into an incredibly jam-packed airport. From the gate to the taxi, it was about an hour. In the time it took to get there, the two teens managed to catch themselves quite a few good cat-naps, and each was mostly awake by the time they reach the old-Irish style mansion. The taxi dropped them off, and Kai paid the driver, tacking on a nice tip as extra. (A/N: He is so my kinda guy: a great tipper!)

"Mama! Daddy! I'm back! Hey, where is everybody?" Gazelle called into the enormous foyer. It's not like they had a butler to greet you at the door or anything, but they did have a cook, maid and a gardener that she had expected to be all over her. "Chloe? Ms. Taylor? Jo-Jo? Where are you?"

"Looks like you caught them at a dead time," Kai murmured to her.

"This is weird; I can understand not finding my parents or Jo-Jo and Chloe, but it's unusual that I'm not even seeing, or hearing, Ms. Taylor. She's usually singing Opera in the kitchen, or Country in the dining room as she sets the table; if you don't like those music choices, turn up your own where she can't hear it! But no one at a-?"

"Hey! Who're you? What're you doing here?!" a girl that was about their own age asked snobbishly as she entered the room. Her hair was a very light blonde, and her eyes a light, coffee-brown tint to match with her light-toned skin. She was fairly tall, to say the least, and her languid figure was more muscle than curve. Gazelle's face lit up instantaneously.

"Chloe! It's so good to see you!" she shouted, racing up and giving the blonde a huge bear-hug. The woman immediately shucked her off, giving a disgusted look.

"The next tour isn't for another hour, you two hooligans, so you'd best be getting out of here to await the next group!" the ticked teen told her fiercely, shoving them towards the door, a confused look planted on Lotus's face quite firmly.

"Chloe? Don't you remember me?" she asked innocently, turning to look at the older girl.

"Not in the least, 'cause you've never been here before. Though how you know my name, I have absolutely no clue, but shoo!!!" she shouted at them, once again pressing them towards the front door.

"It's me! Gazelle! Surely you… oh! That's why you don't remember me!" she said, as one of her light curls fell into her face. The bright white-gold was shimmering thunder-cloud gray in the shadows and sunshine from beneath the oak-trees that shaded the veranda. "Let's see… hmmm… how can I prove to you who I am? Oh, I know! You have a beauty mark high on the inside of your right thigh! I could always see it when you when swimming!"

Chloe let out a surprised 'eep!' at the revelation of the stranger knowing about the birthmark. And, of course, the only one who had ever seen it was Lotus Gazelle, because she was the only one with whom the woman had ever gone swimming. Her eyes widened, their light-toffee color filled with bewilderment. Kai's eyebrow twitched. I really did not need to know that. Really, I didn't.

"What the heck happened to you?!" she suddenly screeched. Somewhere a crash sounded, and Gazelle burst into riotous laughter. Ha! There's Jo-Jo now! I knew he had to be in his fave tree if nowhere else! she thought blithely. Just then, a certain other someone raced out onto the porch. Her mom. First reaction?

"Lotus Gazelle Johansson! What in the name of angel feathers have you done to yourself?!"

AN: It's like... OMG, she's ALIVE! Yeah, yeah, I know. Anywho, I'm back, even though I haven't written much in an age. I've been watching more and more anime in the last couple of months; so much, in fact, that I can now say I've watched, whether in whole or part, 112 different series. That's sad, folks, really. But I should start writing again soon; I'm pushing myself in that direction. XP