Woohoo! Chapter nine revised and ready to go! Finally! And it's the longest one yet! Please review!
Disclaimer: Kenshin does not, will not, and can not ever belong to me. Although in my dreams, anything's possible. wink
This stands for flashback
Ariel and Liam hurried down the reservation hallway listening for any clues that would tell them where the party was at. She made the mistake of glancing back at her companion and noticed a distracted look on his face. She had no idea that he was thinking about the trio they had seen on the way here.
"Sedgwick-san?" Ariel asked him curiously, and the man shrugged his shoulders. He sped up slightly, as if he was trying to avoid any impending questions. When he got about halfway down the hallway Liam slowed down and waited for the girl. She passed him up momentarily, but after hearing some muffles in a nearby room, slowed to a complete stop. Lost in his thoughts, Liam didn't notice and accidentally bumped into her.
"Ah...sumanai," he whispered.
Ariel didn't seem to notice and shortly thereafter started heading towards a door at the end of the hallway where she heard some familiar murmurings. She noticed that Don and Asa were arguing and sighed as she tossed her hands in the air.
"Mou!" she exclaimed, "Don and Asa are at it again!" with a frustrated sigh, she stalked over to the door and put her hand on the knob. "Why don't they just admit that they love each other, and stop it with these love-hate games?" Ariel growled. She put her hand on the handle and turned towards her companion. All hints of irritation were no longer present. "Here we are Sedgwick-san."
The red haired man nodded solemnly, and she asked him if he was okay. Rather then answering however, Liam smiled weakly, his violet eyes darting back in forth between the hallway and the dining room. He paused before facing his companion.
"Sedgwick-san?" Ariel asked. The man tensed slightly.
"Call me Liam." He stated, and the girl's eyes widened slightly before she dropped her hand and lowered her eyes to the floor.
"Liam..." she stated quietly. Her friend smiled and started to push open the door. When he heard some of the voices in the room, he seemed a little hesitant. Ariel looked at him curiously, wondering what he was thinking about, but she didn't say anything in response. Instead she watched how the color in his eyes seemed to change between a calm violet and a piercing blue.
Liam was beginning to second guess his decision to go with the girl to the restaurant. He didn't know these people that he was about to meet, or if they would really be all right with the appearance of someone who had no direct or indirect knowledge of the person they were celebrating for. The man almost backed away from the doorway, but before he followed through with his idea the high voice of his friend came to forefront of his mind.
'I know! Come with me to the Akabeko!'
Remembering how enthusiastic Ariel was when she invited him to the restaurant, Liam's doubts seemed to fade, and he carefully opened up the door. The scene that greeted him upon entrance was interesting to say the least. There was a smaller girl jumping and practicing Karate punches and kicks, and an older man clapping and shouting lewd comments here and there in response, two girls were next to him, slapping each other with some boxing gloves, and two men flinging water at each other on the other side of him. A spiky haired youth was practicing kata movements with a dull blade, and a spiky haired man was sitting on a pillow with a glass of Sake clutched tightly in his hand. He was glaring at a stunning woman with a crafty grin on her face. In the middle of a room, sitting around a black, gold trimmed table, sat a brunette child and a man with graying hair, drinking tea calmly and quietly.
Their calmness seemed a little out of place in this room full of life and excitement, but Liam paid it no heed. His eyes became drawn to the various paintings on the wall. All showed exciting events and duels between samurai and other types of soldiers and he couldn't help but take one small step forward. One painting in particular caught his attention, and Liam felt a type of connection with the scene. As all the paintings it was black in gold with outlines of various forms, but this particular one included a small swordsman with long hair tied in a high ponytail, and a cross scar on his left cheek. There were flags going up in the background. If he could Liam would have liked to step closer to the painting but before he could he felt someone grab his arm. In his foggy state of mind, Liam took the movement as a threat and whirled around before tightly grasping the figure's arm. He heard something hit the floor, and the figure he caught gasped. Some figures around the room jumped at the sound and turned towards the couple.
Liam's eyes regained their normal shine and his eye sight filled with the vision of raven locks, pale skin, and wide blue frightened eyes. Liam gave a hesitant laugh and quickly let go of the girl's arm.
The girl who seemed to be just getting over the shock that went through her body as he whirled on her, nodded dumbly. There was an uncomfortable tension surrounding the pair, and the two looked at the floor seemingly finding the movements of their shoes more interesting then the other. That's when both noticed a drop of blood on the ground. Ariel's eyes widened in shock and Liam felt a tingling sensation on his left cheek. He quickly reached to it and felt warm sticky blood. There were no words that could describe the surprise on their faces as the man withdrew his hand. There was a thin line there that quickly smoothed back into its original form, and Ariel would have fainted had her friend not caught her form in his arms. Strangely enough, no one else seemed to notice the odd happening.
"Konnichiwa," and older man interrupted the moment, and two little girls with him burst into a chorus of, "Oneesan!Konnichi! Konnichi! Oneesan" and ran towards Ariel. They grabbed both of her hands, and Ariel smiled weakly before glancing back towards the area where she had saw the blood. It was no longer there. Her companion seemed to have lost his pleasant facade and looked as he had in the hall way. There was a deep, determined look on his face, and his eyes were flickering between violet, and Amber, much to Ariel's surprise.
The children noticed that something was wrong with their ni- san' and tugged at her hands. "Oneesan!"The older one muttered, "What's wrong?"
The smallest one echoed her sister's words, and Ariel blanked out for a minute before a forced laugh escaped her lips.
"Nothing, Lila and Sara!" Ariel exclaimed in a barely discernable strained voice. Most of the people in the room could not tell the difference, but Kali, her grandfather, and the four around him managed to pick up the strain in her voice. After all, they had been trained in a home that demanded that its members train their senses to be more sensitive then the average being. There was a reason that had been lost over the years, but now it happened to be a long standing tradition amongst the family. The results of the training caused everyone in the family to pick up things that most people couldn't, and strain that was barely discernable was one of them. Kali looked at her friend curiously for a second but then she smiled and greeted them. She wasn't about to ruin a party.
"Konnichiwa!" The train of voices followed, and Ariel greeted everybody with her strained smile.
"Oy! What took you long!" exclaimed Donovan.
"There was an incident at the college," Ariel whispered as her thoughts jumped between the college and the disappearing blood.
Ariel pointed to her friend Liam, and smiled, doing all she could to forget about what had happened. "This is Sedgwick Liam."
The red haired man didn't seem to be much better and stiffly bowed towards the crowd without saying a word. The stunning woman he had seen earlier stood up and seemed to have a wicked look in her eyes. She looked between the red head, Ariel and the spiky hired man. Liam didn't like that look on her face, and wondered what was going on.
"Well hellooo there," the woman said in a sultry tone. She sauntered over to the smaller man and tentively rubbed her hands on his back. "Aren't you a handsome one."
"Ah!" he exclaimed and the woman laughed as she continued her ministrations. She saw the smaller man tense in discomfort, as her favorite two to torment bristled and became at least three shades of red. A wicked smile met her face and she hugged Liam from behind.
"Hello Li-san." the woman said in all too sweet tone that made Liam sweat.
Liam started to slowly wriggle his way out of the fox like woman's grasp as Ariel and the spiky haired man seemed to get even more annoyed. Liam had a feeling the fox like woman was enjoying every minute of this. The next thing she did made Liam even more uncomfortable. She placed her hand on his cheek
"Aie!" he exclaimed and the woman laughed, but did not stop her actions. The spiky haired man seemed even more upset.
"Oy Fox-woman!" the dark haired man stated as he saw his "girlfriend" making moves on the man that came in with Ariel. As much as he liked Asa, some things about her really unnerved him, like how she was draped across the red haired runt that he had seen with Ariel at school. Don knew Asa wasn't serious about the shorty, but he couldn't help but feel a bit jealous and annoyed. Although he couldn't say the same for the little missy, who was even less tolerant of her teasing then he was.
"Asa-san!" Ariel exclaimed with her face an unnatural shade of red. She picked up a conveniently displayed shinai.
"Now what's the matter Tanuki-san, don't tell me you're jealous."
" What?" Ariel growled in response to her 'frienemy's' taunt. She hardly even knew the guy, how could she be jealous, although something inside told her otherwise, "Of course not!" Ariel exclaimed in frustration and Asa smiled. "Just let him go!"
The woman pulled the man even closer to him as she watched the scene around her, "No, I think I like him, and I don't want to let him go...Little raccoon."
With the shinai still in hand Ariel thought of ways she could 'discipline' the nurse. However, before she could do much harm, a fleeting thought of how familiar Asa's actions had been echoed in her mind and her eyes fogged over. She didn't notice the similar loss of conscious thought in Asa's, Liam's, and Don's faces.
The girl from before, a boy who looked like Alois, and Donovan stood around on the porch of an old dojo, with a red haired man on the floor.
"Umm...Takani san was it?" Stated Kaoru, "I'm sorry I'll have a good talk with him, you can go home."
Rather then listening, the woman who looked surprisingly like Asa walked towards the man lying comatose on the floor. She picked him up and draped her arms around him.
"Oh," she stated mischieviously, "I have no intention of leaving." She put her hand on his cheek, "I think I like this man. I couldn't leave him for a moment."
"EEEP!" Kaoru covered her mouth in surprise, and the woman placed her hand on the scarred cheek.
Through his dizziness, Kenshin couldn't say much.
"I'm much better then that sweaty girl...Aren't I Ken-san?" The dark haired woman said in suspiciously sweet tone.
Liam, Asa, Ariel, and Donovan shook their heads as the fog cleared from their minds. The fox like woman put her hand on her forehead and stumbled back a little. Not quite out of their stupor from the vision, Donovan, Ariel, and Liam hadn't noticed. However, after they had been released from it and started questioning what they saw, they noticed the woman fall back. Their thoughts were momentarily forgotten. Forgetting her anger, and the vision Ariel hurried over to the woman and placed her hand on the older woman's shoulder.
"Asa!"
However, having her pride Asa quickly pulled away and straightened her mussed up appearence. "I'm perfectly fine Tanuki-san. Now just introduce your friend to the rest of the people in here."
Ariel was silent for a minute when, Asa stuck up her nose, and pushed the girl away. "Just do it tanuki!"
"Ah!" Ariel seemed to ignore the comment, and was seemingly lost at what to do before her friend Kali came to the rescue.
"How do you do? I'm Kali!" The girl exclaimed as she held out her hand to shake Ariel's companion. The crimson haired man smiled and nodded his head before shaking her hand. There was a spark as they shook, and Kenshin suddenly thought she looked very familiar.
The older man who had been speaking lewd comments earlier, stood up proudly and held out his hand.
"How do you do son?" he asked pleasantly. There was a spark here as well, and as before, Kenshin felt as if he had met this man sometime in the past.
"Yo!" the spiky haired exclaimed, "Name's Don, and the brat, I mean KID over there's my 'baby' brother," The 'kid' in question was Alois, and he puffed up his chest in pride, before throwing something at that older man and jumping on his back.
"The name's Alois!" he exclaimed, the boy jumped on his older brother, "I'm no kid! I'm 13 years old!"
"Hey get off of me!" Donovan exclaimed, as the boy bit his shoulder and head, "What are you some kind of monkey!"
He tried to knock off the 13 year old, but the boy was as clingy as a leech when he was arguing with his older brother. The two continued their antics and Liam looked back and forth with confusion in his eyes, and Ariel quirked her eyebrow.
"Don't mind them Liam," she bit out, "They're always like that."
"Aa," Liam stated, "But he looks familiar." then looking around the room Liam realized that everyone in that room seemed familiar, "Everyone in here looks so familiar, but I've been in Europe all my life, so I couldn't have possibly met any of them." Ariel and Kali heard him, and looked at each other for a long moment, seeming to come to a silent agreement. The smaller girl stepped forward and smiled.
"You never know," Kali stated, "Throughout eternity, there are those who are always entwined in the sands of time and destiny."
Donovan and Alois had since gotten over their bickering, and they as well as everyone else heard Kali's bizarre statement. They looked at her strangely, and the room became surprisingly quiet for a moment. Noticing this Kali shrugged, it seemed like her "Aoshi-sama" had rubbed off on her. He didn't speak much, but when he did, he often used wise or philosophical statements. They "That's what Aric-sama tells me anyways!"
After she said that everyone murmured and nodded, and Ariel stepped up and smiled. There was someone hiding behind her, and the woman pulled a very pretty young girl to her side. The small girl looked at Ariel hesitantly, and the woman gave her an encouraging shove after she whispered something to the child.
The girl walked towards Liam with her hand curled in Ariel's, "Hi," she whispered, "I'm...Cathryn."
Liam smiled as he lowered his body just a little and patted the girl's head. She blushed in embarrassment before putting her face in Ariel's arm. "How do you do?" he asked pleasantly, and the girl removed her face from Ariel's arm before nodding quietly, "Are you Ariel's sister?" he asked, and the girl shook her head before letting go of the woman's ," the girl stuttered, "She helps me to be stronger."
"Well," Liam said with a sweet smile on his face, "I'm pleased to meet you Cathyrn-chan. I'm Sedgwick, Liam. But I would prefer you to call me Liam."
The shy girl smiled brightly before nodding her head.
The introductions continued, and by the end of the party, Liam knew everyone's name, and at least one thing about them. There were some he felt particularly close to. These were ones such as Ariel, Alois, Donovan, and Asa. He noticed their different mannerisms, and how they were so familiar, while others weren't. This made him think back to his day, particularly the vision he had earlier. The mannerisms of Ariel and Asa were similar to the ones displayed by the girl's in the vision. For some reason, Kali's earlier words lodged themselves in his mind, and he wondered about the 'silent moment' between her an Ariel. He felt that both girls' would be a very important link into discovering something.
Little did Liam know, that a few others in the room, were thinking about the exact same thing.
(to be continued
17 k! I guess that's what happens when the inspiration hits but still, before I worked on this yesterday, it was 9k!
Anyhow, I hope the chapter wasn't too confusing, and was decent sounding. There were a lot of different things in it, and I'm not sure how they flowed together. Please review and make suggestions and/or tell me what you thought of it?
Oh yeah, and a reviewer recommended a beta, while another wanted more KK moments. For the first question...Any volunteers? And for the second, don't worry, these Akabeko chapters were just away for everyone to meet, now that it's settled there will be more KK moments.
Disclaimer: Kenshin does not, will not, and can not ever belong to me. Although in my dreams, anything's possible. wink
This stands for flashback
Ariel and Liam hurried down the reservation hallway listening for any clues that would tell them where the party was at. She made the mistake of glancing back at her companion and noticed a distracted look on his face. She had no idea that he was thinking about the trio they had seen on the way here.
"Sedgwick-san?" Ariel asked him curiously, and the man shrugged his shoulders. He sped up slightly, as if he was trying to avoid any impending questions. When he got about halfway down the hallway Liam slowed down and waited for the girl. She passed him up momentarily, but after hearing some muffles in a nearby room, slowed to a complete stop. Lost in his thoughts, Liam didn't notice and accidentally bumped into her.
"Ah...sumanai," he whispered.
Ariel didn't seem to notice and shortly thereafter started heading towards a door at the end of the hallway where she heard some familiar murmurings. She noticed that Don and Asa were arguing and sighed as she tossed her hands in the air.
"Mou!" she exclaimed, "Don and Asa are at it again!" with a frustrated sigh, she stalked over to the door and put her hand on the knob. "Why don't they just admit that they love each other, and stop it with these love-hate games?" Ariel growled. She put her hand on the handle and turned towards her companion. All hints of irritation were no longer present. "Here we are Sedgwick-san."
The red haired man nodded solemnly, and she asked him if he was okay. Rather then answering however, Liam smiled weakly, his violet eyes darting back in forth between the hallway and the dining room. He paused before facing his companion.
"Sedgwick-san?" Ariel asked. The man tensed slightly.
"Call me Liam." He stated, and the girl's eyes widened slightly before she dropped her hand and lowered her eyes to the floor.
"Liam..." she stated quietly. Her friend smiled and started to push open the door. When he heard some of the voices in the room, he seemed a little hesitant. Ariel looked at him curiously, wondering what he was thinking about, but she didn't say anything in response. Instead she watched how the color in his eyes seemed to change between a calm violet and a piercing blue.
Liam was beginning to second guess his decision to go with the girl to the restaurant. He didn't know these people that he was about to meet, or if they would really be all right with the appearance of someone who had no direct or indirect knowledge of the person they were celebrating for. The man almost backed away from the doorway, but before he followed through with his idea the high voice of his friend came to forefront of his mind.
'I know! Come with me to the Akabeko!'
Remembering how enthusiastic Ariel was when she invited him to the restaurant, Liam's doubts seemed to fade, and he carefully opened up the door. The scene that greeted him upon entrance was interesting to say the least. There was a smaller girl jumping and practicing Karate punches and kicks, and an older man clapping and shouting lewd comments here and there in response, two girls were next to him, slapping each other with some boxing gloves, and two men flinging water at each other on the other side of him. A spiky haired youth was practicing kata movements with a dull blade, and a spiky haired man was sitting on a pillow with a glass of Sake clutched tightly in his hand. He was glaring at a stunning woman with a crafty grin on her face. In the middle of a room, sitting around a black, gold trimmed table, sat a brunette child and a man with graying hair, drinking tea calmly and quietly.
Their calmness seemed a little out of place in this room full of life and excitement, but Liam paid it no heed. His eyes became drawn to the various paintings on the wall. All showed exciting events and duels between samurai and other types of soldiers and he couldn't help but take one small step forward. One painting in particular caught his attention, and Liam felt a type of connection with the scene. As all the paintings it was black in gold with outlines of various forms, but this particular one included a small swordsman with long hair tied in a high ponytail, and a cross scar on his left cheek. There were flags going up in the background. If he could Liam would have liked to step closer to the painting but before he could he felt someone grab his arm. In his foggy state of mind, Liam took the movement as a threat and whirled around before tightly grasping the figure's arm. He heard something hit the floor, and the figure he caught gasped. Some figures around the room jumped at the sound and turned towards the couple.
Liam's eyes regained their normal shine and his eye sight filled with the vision of raven locks, pale skin, and wide blue frightened eyes. Liam gave a hesitant laugh and quickly let go of the girl's arm.
The girl who seemed to be just getting over the shock that went through her body as he whirled on her, nodded dumbly. There was an uncomfortable tension surrounding the pair, and the two looked at the floor seemingly finding the movements of their shoes more interesting then the other. That's when both noticed a drop of blood on the ground. Ariel's eyes widened in shock and Liam felt a tingling sensation on his left cheek. He quickly reached to it and felt warm sticky blood. There were no words that could describe the surprise on their faces as the man withdrew his hand. There was a thin line there that quickly smoothed back into its original form, and Ariel would have fainted had her friend not caught her form in his arms. Strangely enough, no one else seemed to notice the odd happening.
"Konnichiwa," and older man interrupted the moment, and two little girls with him burst into a chorus of, "Oneesan!Konnichi! Konnichi! Oneesan" and ran towards Ariel. They grabbed both of her hands, and Ariel smiled weakly before glancing back towards the area where she had saw the blood. It was no longer there. Her companion seemed to have lost his pleasant facade and looked as he had in the hall way. There was a deep, determined look on his face, and his eyes were flickering between violet, and Amber, much to Ariel's surprise.
The children noticed that something was wrong with their ni- san' and tugged at her hands. "Oneesan!"The older one muttered, "What's wrong?"
The smallest one echoed her sister's words, and Ariel blanked out for a minute before a forced laugh escaped her lips.
"Nothing, Lila and Sara!" Ariel exclaimed in a barely discernable strained voice. Most of the people in the room could not tell the difference, but Kali, her grandfather, and the four around him managed to pick up the strain in her voice. After all, they had been trained in a home that demanded that its members train their senses to be more sensitive then the average being. There was a reason that had been lost over the years, but now it happened to be a long standing tradition amongst the family. The results of the training caused everyone in the family to pick up things that most people couldn't, and strain that was barely discernable was one of them. Kali looked at her friend curiously for a second but then she smiled and greeted them. She wasn't about to ruin a party.
"Konnichiwa!" The train of voices followed, and Ariel greeted everybody with her strained smile.
"Oy! What took you long!" exclaimed Donovan.
"There was an incident at the college," Ariel whispered as her thoughts jumped between the college and the disappearing blood.
Ariel pointed to her friend Liam, and smiled, doing all she could to forget about what had happened. "This is Sedgwick Liam."
The red haired man didn't seem to be much better and stiffly bowed towards the crowd without saying a word. The stunning woman he had seen earlier stood up and seemed to have a wicked look in her eyes. She looked between the red head, Ariel and the spiky hired man. Liam didn't like that look on her face, and wondered what was going on.
"Well hellooo there," the woman said in a sultry tone. She sauntered over to the smaller man and tentively rubbed her hands on his back. "Aren't you a handsome one."
"Ah!" he exclaimed and the woman laughed as she continued her ministrations. She saw the smaller man tense in discomfort, as her favorite two to torment bristled and became at least three shades of red. A wicked smile met her face and she hugged Liam from behind.
"Hello Li-san." the woman said in all too sweet tone that made Liam sweat.
Liam started to slowly wriggle his way out of the fox like woman's grasp as Ariel and the spiky haired man seemed to get even more annoyed. Liam had a feeling the fox like woman was enjoying every minute of this. The next thing she did made Liam even more uncomfortable. She placed her hand on his cheek
"Aie!" he exclaimed and the woman laughed, but did not stop her actions. The spiky haired man seemed even more upset.
"Oy Fox-woman!" the dark haired man stated as he saw his "girlfriend" making moves on the man that came in with Ariel. As much as he liked Asa, some things about her really unnerved him, like how she was draped across the red haired runt that he had seen with Ariel at school. Don knew Asa wasn't serious about the shorty, but he couldn't help but feel a bit jealous and annoyed. Although he couldn't say the same for the little missy, who was even less tolerant of her teasing then he was.
"Asa-san!" Ariel exclaimed with her face an unnatural shade of red. She picked up a conveniently displayed shinai.
"Now what's the matter Tanuki-san, don't tell me you're jealous."
" What?" Ariel growled in response to her 'frienemy's' taunt. She hardly even knew the guy, how could she be jealous, although something inside told her otherwise, "Of course not!" Ariel exclaimed in frustration and Asa smiled. "Just let him go!"
The woman pulled the man even closer to him as she watched the scene around her, "No, I think I like him, and I don't want to let him go...Little raccoon."
With the shinai still in hand Ariel thought of ways she could 'discipline' the nurse. However, before she could do much harm, a fleeting thought of how familiar Asa's actions had been echoed in her mind and her eyes fogged over. She didn't notice the similar loss of conscious thought in Asa's, Liam's, and Don's faces.
The girl from before, a boy who looked like Alois, and Donovan stood around on the porch of an old dojo, with a red haired man on the floor.
"Umm...Takani san was it?" Stated Kaoru, "I'm sorry I'll have a good talk with him, you can go home."
Rather then listening, the woman who looked surprisingly like Asa walked towards the man lying comatose on the floor. She picked him up and draped her arms around him.
"Oh," she stated mischieviously, "I have no intention of leaving." She put her hand on his cheek, "I think I like this man. I couldn't leave him for a moment."
"EEEP!" Kaoru covered her mouth in surprise, and the woman placed her hand on the scarred cheek.
Through his dizziness, Kenshin couldn't say much.
"I'm much better then that sweaty girl...Aren't I Ken-san?" The dark haired woman said in suspiciously sweet tone.
Liam, Asa, Ariel, and Donovan shook their heads as the fog cleared from their minds. The fox like woman put her hand on her forehead and stumbled back a little. Not quite out of their stupor from the vision, Donovan, Ariel, and Liam hadn't noticed. However, after they had been released from it and started questioning what they saw, they noticed the woman fall back. Their thoughts were momentarily forgotten. Forgetting her anger, and the vision Ariel hurried over to the woman and placed her hand on the older woman's shoulder.
"Asa!"
However, having her pride Asa quickly pulled away and straightened her mussed up appearence. "I'm perfectly fine Tanuki-san. Now just introduce your friend to the rest of the people in here."
Ariel was silent for a minute when, Asa stuck up her nose, and pushed the girl away. "Just do it tanuki!"
"Ah!" Ariel seemed to ignore the comment, and was seemingly lost at what to do before her friend Kali came to the rescue.
"How do you do? I'm Kali!" The girl exclaimed as she held out her hand to shake Ariel's companion. The crimson haired man smiled and nodded his head before shaking her hand. There was a spark as they shook, and Kenshin suddenly thought she looked very familiar.
The older man who had been speaking lewd comments earlier, stood up proudly and held out his hand.
"How do you do son?" he asked pleasantly. There was a spark here as well, and as before, Kenshin felt as if he had met this man sometime in the past.
"Yo!" the spiky haired exclaimed, "Name's Don, and the brat, I mean KID over there's my 'baby' brother," The 'kid' in question was Alois, and he puffed up his chest in pride, before throwing something at that older man and jumping on his back.
"The name's Alois!" he exclaimed, the boy jumped on his older brother, "I'm no kid! I'm 13 years old!"
"Hey get off of me!" Donovan exclaimed, as the boy bit his shoulder and head, "What are you some kind of monkey!"
He tried to knock off the 13 year old, but the boy was as clingy as a leech when he was arguing with his older brother. The two continued their antics and Liam looked back and forth with confusion in his eyes, and Ariel quirked her eyebrow.
"Don't mind them Liam," she bit out, "They're always like that."
"Aa," Liam stated, "But he looks familiar." then looking around the room Liam realized that everyone in that room seemed familiar, "Everyone in here looks so familiar, but I've been in Europe all my life, so I couldn't have possibly met any of them." Ariel and Kali heard him, and looked at each other for a long moment, seeming to come to a silent agreement. The smaller girl stepped forward and smiled.
"You never know," Kali stated, "Throughout eternity, there are those who are always entwined in the sands of time and destiny."
Donovan and Alois had since gotten over their bickering, and they as well as everyone else heard Kali's bizarre statement. They looked at her strangely, and the room became surprisingly quiet for a moment. Noticing this Kali shrugged, it seemed like her "Aoshi-sama" had rubbed off on her. He didn't speak much, but when he did, he often used wise or philosophical statements. They "That's what Aric-sama tells me anyways!"
After she said that everyone murmured and nodded, and Ariel stepped up and smiled. There was someone hiding behind her, and the woman pulled a very pretty young girl to her side. The small girl looked at Ariel hesitantly, and the woman gave her an encouraging shove after she whispered something to the child.
The girl walked towards Liam with her hand curled in Ariel's, "Hi," she whispered, "I'm...Cathryn."
Liam smiled as he lowered his body just a little and patted the girl's head. She blushed in embarrassment before putting her face in Ariel's arm. "How do you do?" he asked pleasantly, and the girl removed her face from Ariel's arm before nodding quietly, "Are you Ariel's sister?" he asked, and the girl shook her head before letting go of the woman's ," the girl stuttered, "She helps me to be stronger."
"Well," Liam said with a sweet smile on his face, "I'm pleased to meet you Cathyrn-chan. I'm Sedgwick, Liam. But I would prefer you to call me Liam."
The shy girl smiled brightly before nodding her head.
The introductions continued, and by the end of the party, Liam knew everyone's name, and at least one thing about them. There were some he felt particularly close to. These were ones such as Ariel, Alois, Donovan, and Asa. He noticed their different mannerisms, and how they were so familiar, while others weren't. This made him think back to his day, particularly the vision he had earlier. The mannerisms of Ariel and Asa were similar to the ones displayed by the girl's in the vision. For some reason, Kali's earlier words lodged themselves in his mind, and he wondered about the 'silent moment' between her an Ariel. He felt that both girls' would be a very important link into discovering something.
Little did Liam know, that a few others in the room, were thinking about the exact same thing.
(to be continued
17 k! I guess that's what happens when the inspiration hits but still, before I worked on this yesterday, it was 9k!
Anyhow, I hope the chapter wasn't too confusing, and was decent sounding. There were a lot of different things in it, and I'm not sure how they flowed together. Please review and make suggestions and/or tell me what you thought of it?
Oh yeah, and a reviewer recommended a beta, while another wanted more KK moments. For the first question...Any volunteers? And for the second, don't worry, these Akabeko chapters were just away for everyone to meet, now that it's settled there will be more KK moments.