Last Name
Chapter 9: Welcoming
"Shhhh." Kairi put a small finger to her lips. Riku nodded in acknowledgement. The closer they got to his apartment, the quieter their foot steps needed to be.
"You live near The Dragon?" Sora rasped in disbelief. His brown eyebrows furrowed on his forehead.
"She's right next door." Riku mumbled and jabbed his thumb towards the opening of The Dragon's den. You could hear a low thumping, and muted argument from beyond her un-welcoming mat. The stench of cigarette smoke still lingering in the hallway. Riku gave his friends a weary look before turning to knock on his own door.
"I've only ever seen her yelling at people in the lobby." Sora's eyebrows unfolded themselves and raised high, vanishing behind the veil of his hair.
"Me, too." Kairi whispered from Riku's side. She only lives a hallway or two down, but she has never, ever, been this close.
"Just a minute." Ansem announced from behind the apartment door. Riku realized his knuckles were still pressed against the polished wood. Locks shuffled about before it swung open. Ansem give him a small smile before his gaze shifted to examine his company. Kairi waved beaming her usual hello. "Hi!"
"Hello there." Ansem waved back. "Friends of yours, Riku?" He asked moving to survey Sora (who hadn't said hello yet).
"Yeah." Riku noded his head. "We came to tell you Sora's door, and floor numbers."
"Is that so. Sora, correct?" Ansem extended his long arm for a hand shake.
"Yes. I'm on floor 2. Door 213." Sora took the man's firm hand. The shake was heavy and intimidating. "I live with my parents." Sora explained subtly observing Ansem's unusual features.
"Thank you for letting me know. " Ansem released Sora from his grip and directed Riku a wink." Dinner is in two hours, Riku. Make sure you do your homework."
"I will." Riku nodded suppressing a groan. They could hear the door close and locks clink behind them as they turned to leave.
"Kind of scary." Sora mused he bent down to tie his loose shoe laces. Kairi and Riku, where only a few paces in front of him, but stopped to wait in the direction of the stairs.
"Who, Ansem?" Riku asked gripping the straps of his backpack to relieve some of the weight from his text books.
"Yeah. He's kind of scary." Sora stated again.
"I think he looks nice." Kairi giggled. "You're just being a scardy cat."
"Am not!"
Riku merely shrugged his shoulders.
Even though each of The Destiny Islands apartment lofts were made on a standard, Sora's apartment looked and felt nothing like Riku's. Kairi seemed to already know the norm. She sat her backpack in a designated area, slipped off her shoes, and sat comfortably in the living room. Unsure of himself, Riku did the same. When he sat his backpack down, he took his text books with him.
"Mom! I'm home! Kairi and another friend is here!" Sora exclaimed. He chucked his bag to a corner in the kitchen.
"Alright, Sora." A high-pitched voice answered him from what Riku understood to be the back. He took a moment to look around as he opened his book to the proper homework page. There were messy stacks of magazines and remotes. Family pictures and awards littered the walls (along with a few old stains). Every other fiber of carpet had cat hair tightly knitted within it. The air, Riku also noticed, permanently smelled of cooking oil, and laundry detergent. It felt homey, like a large bustling family had lived here in this apartment for years. Riku shifted more into the side of the couch thumbing through his daily planner for any other books he might need. He jumped when his movement was met with an loud, angry hiss.
"Oh, don't mind that." Kairi reached behind his back an pulled out an scraggy mess of coal-black fur. "This is just Lucifer. He's always unhappy. I've been trying to change his outlook on life." Kairi held him up and nuzzled his squished in nose. Lucifer continued his complaining, acidic yellow eyes concealing his deep agitation, and stubby limbs swatting the air.
"Sora, you named your cat Lucifer?" Riku raises an eyebrow in disbelief.
"No, Axel named the cat Lucifer! We all kinda agreed with him on the name. Lucifer hates everybody."
"Isn't Lucifer is the name of the devil?!" Riku squinted.
"That's the point." Kairi and Sora say in unison.
"The Devil crafted an evil being out of the fires of Hell, and that being, is that ugly cat." Sora's mother appeared from behind a hallway closet. She was a stout, chipper lady with short brown hair that framed her chubby face. Riku assumed she was the snappy type.
"He's not ugly, he's beautiful!" Kairi stuck her tongue out. Lucifer scratched at her arm with his dull, freshly cut, claws. He continued his loud deranged hissing.
"Enough about the demon cat. Who do we have here?" Sora's mother sat her small hands on her wide hips.
"New kid~!" Kairi chimed.
"Ohhhh, New Kid." Sora's mother wiped closet dust from her hands and on to her pants. "What's your name, deary?"
"Riku." He answerd with the tip of his chin.
"Nice to meet you, Riku! Make yourself at home."
He had already begun to.
"So about you and your dad. What were you going to tell us, Riku?" Kairi mulls over a particular math problem before giving up and moving on to another question. They are all huddled quietly around a living room table. Books and papers take up most of the space, while snacks and sodas fill in the free pockets.
"Oh, yeah!" Sora remembers, taking a swig of his cherry cola. He's half way done with English. They will all review and trade off work when everything is done.
"I was saying that Ansem is my dad legally." Riku nibbled on barbeque chips.
"Legally?" Kairi tilted her head back and forth in thought. "Not, biologically." Kairi muttered poking Riku's shoulder to let him know she was paying attention.
"Bio-what?" Sora slurred in confusion.
"He's not his dad by birth, silly." Kairi giggled.
"So, is he your step-dad, or...?" Sora trailed off.
"He adopted me a month or so ago."
"Adopted?" They both whispered mystified by the abstract idea.
"Yeah. It's a long story of what happened before that. A lot of waiting I guess." Riku scribbled easy answers into his science work book.
"If it makes you feel any better, I live with my aunt." Kairi sympathized. "My parents are somewhere in Europe."
"Thanks, but I'm fine." For another time today Riku shrugged his shoulders. He tried not to let things phase him.
"Bye, Riku! See you tomorrow!" Riku split ways with Kairi after finally arriving back on his floor.
213
He etched the number into his memory so he wouldn't forget. He was already looking forward to seeing Kairi's apartment, or even inviting his new friends back to his own. He'd never really had friends before. Acquaintances at the state orphanage yes, but never real friends. Whenever he meet someone new at his orphanage, they always seemed to eventually leave him behind. He had never felt so welcome. He was so muddled in his own happy thoughts, that he hadn't noticed the door swung open before him until it was too late.
The argument he had heard before was intensified now that the door was open. The Dragon stomped out from her den. Lime green puffs of smoke filled the hallway and rose from her pale skin. She snarled angrily trying to contain a squealing little pot-bellied pig in her skinny arms.
"Come, Pete!" Riku stood stiff as she summoned. A big, black, round stomached bull-dog swayed lazily out of the room and plopped down beside her high-heeled feet. She spat and cursed at the door in some language he didn't understand. Russian maybe?
"Don't get your panties in a knot, Zmaj. We're leaving." A group of women emerged from the door. One of them had mixed matched hair; white and black and wore a heavy red-lined fur coat with poker chips stuffed in her bra. The rest of the women were just as bizarre and odd looking. Another loud, fat, boisterous woman followed with a lopsided plastic crown on her head, a heart tipped red staff in her hand, and instead of poker chips, cards stuffed in her front.
"Game iz over!" She pointed her finger down the hallway, smothering the still squealing pig under her arm.
"Ta-ta, darling. Ursala said hello and sorry she couldn't make it." And like that, all the witches were gone.
Zmaj grumbled kicking her bull dog in its side. It ruffed unhappily and crawled back into the dark apartment from which it came. Suddenly, as if noticing him for the first time, Zmaj turned her attention to Riku.
"Oh, hello Lehttle Cookie. Shouldn't you be wee-wee-wee all the way home?" She sneered at him flipping her short cut hair. The hair that stood up at the back of her head was replaced with actual horns. Her neck and arms were decorated with beaded necklaces and bracelets. Some kind of party, Riku thought.
"I was actually." Riku eyed the shrieking black pig. He shuffled awkwardly around her long legs to reach his door. She twisted her head around slowly, watching him like he was prey.
"Bye." He mumbled.
"Bye, Bye, Cookie." She swept coldly by him and shut the entrance to her lair.
Riku shivered and his stomach growled despite having earlier had a snack. He knocked, but found the door to already be open. When he stepped inside the sent of dinner pleasantly filled his nostrils.
"Hey." He closed and locked the door, and then slipped off his high-tops.
"Welcome back, Riku." Ansem was already setting the kitchen table. "How was it?"
"I think it went pretty well."
CHAPTER REVISED 7/14/2013