Straight for the Knife

Chapter 10

Scarlet red draped over her lips like velvet and coal as black as the night sky hugged the frame of her eyes and lashes like a soft curtain. She tilted her head back and replaced her blues with silver contacts and watched unabashedly as little tears ran some of her makeup away. Corrections were made and adjustments were done as she turned into a younger version of her mother and proceeded to slip on the delicate red lace lingerie that left parts of her hugged and exposed, nothing she wasn't use to by now.

Transparent ,black, thigh-high stockings were pulled up, red stilettos were strapped on her feet, and red diamond stud earrings were put in her ears. She looked like every male's wet dream, and yet that did not come as an empowering thought for her. A sigh escaped her lips as she stood and made her way towards a very specific part of the house with the small smile her father liked to see when she was with him wearing such a thing.

::

Her mouth opened and out came out the contents of everything she was fed that day. The white porcelain of her bathroom was littered in different areas with evidence of her sex as well as the area between her thighs, the smell clogged the air around her and made her heave again, her scalp was a bloody mess as she tugged at its roots until patches were gone and the stinging from it made her gasp in pain. That night, she fell asleep on the cold linoleum floor of her bathroom and didn't wake until two days had gone by...and by then she was someone new.

Blue eyes slowly opened to the ceiling of a canopy bed and they blinked twice before the owner of them stirred more in her rest. A sweat drenched Lili sat up from the memory of her fifteenth birthday, and held tightly on to the side of her head. It pounded and the sound of blood rushing around her ears almost made her deaf. She didn't even realize she was panting until she felt the erratic and unnatural beating of her heart trying to escape from her chest. She covered one of her hand's over the source of her troubles, and whimpered quietly. 'God, what the hell is wrong with me?'

She groaned, and laid down on her back and began to weep pitifully as her ailments still continued to plague her. Her whole frame racked against itself painfully as the pain swallowed her whole, her hair curling into ringlets from all the sweat that came pouring out of her skin, and a sudden cough brought her to the side of her bed spitting up murky red liquid from the back of her throat. It pattered slowly on the floor as it dribbled from her dry lips and she looked at the little puddle with wide, horrified eyes. That couldn't have been a good sign...she heard that some symptoms of specific and deadly sicknesses involved coughing up blood. Could it mean that she was dying? She went to wipe her mouth of the blood that was still settling along it and was suddenly struck with a distant memory.

She stilled on her bed, her arm still near her lips as if paused in time and gazed around as if she could see her childhood right in front of her. A childhood, of course, that she had little to no memory of. She could see a much younger version of herself, maybe seven or eight, laying on her mother's lap and being disturbed from her calm as Lilian coughed hard into a white lace napkin she had pulled out of the breast of her jacket. The younger Lili shivered at the angry frown that appeared on her mother's face as she stared at the results inside the napkin and then noticed her only daughter staring up at her in curiosity. She smiled and discarded the bloodied napkin from her daughter's view. The older Lili watched as her mother picked up her tinier self and sat her in her lap, her fingers combing through the scalp of her already waist length blonde hair.

"You must never tell your father Emilie, he can never, ever know" she murmured to her softly, but sternly. "You must die with this secret Emilie if you wish to protect me"

The younger Lili nodded dutifully to her mother. "Are you okay?"

Her mother gave her a dazzling smile and kissed her both times on either of her cheeks. "Of course I am darling. Your mother is just a little sick and in time I'll recover and gain more strength"

But she never did. The older Lili looked down the hall of her home and could see the deteriorating strength that seemed to vanish without reason or purpose, then blank...she could see no more and she was thrown back into the present where room remained with only herself in it, her arm still poised next to her mouth. When the limb started to ache, she hurried and wiped her mouth and started to think deeply. Up until then she was comfortable with considering her childhood memories a blimp in existence, but now that she clearly saw her mother in her living state she couldn't just turn away from it all now. She only saw her one time in a memory and was already in love with her, and the thought made her wonder what got her so distraught that she willingly gave up the possession of ten years worth of memory? Her father would never tell her, he hated talking about her mother and would do anything he could to avoid a conversation about her. Sebastian knows what happened surely, but would the information that he gives her solve her wonder or just cast her into more despair?

Lili slid out of her bed and walked to her bathroom and grabbed a handful of toilet tissue and began to clean up the bloody puddle before she even knew what she was doing. She wiped furiously while on her hands and knees and was dismayed to find that it was smearing into the wooden floorboards. There was nothing more she could do now to lift up the faint blood stain in front of her and left it up as a task for the maids to do when and if they decided to clean her room. She discarded the bloody tissues in her toilet and flushed them down before climbing back into bed and not bothering with her hot, sticky clothes, impending exhaustion shutting her eyes to sleep once more.

As the young blonde rested again, the sun just rose over the horizon and shined into the crack of her deep maroon curtains, the beam of light laying gently on her face where pale blue veins showed through her ivory skin.

"I own you..."

The area around him was completely dark, and the only source of light came from the corner of the room over a lone, wooden desk with a single chair. It must have been a large space considering the fact he could only see the area behind him, the desk and all, but not in front of his face. The only things visible in front of his face were shadows and if he wasn't doubting himself he could see those shadows moving. A creepy-crawly feeling went up and down his spine as he looked wildly about himself. Where exactly was he? He tried to massage his temples to think but his wrists were tied behind him to the uncomfortable chair he realized he couldn't get away from. Something else in the shadows moved and he paused all his movements, just what the hell was going on? It didn't even out his nerves any more than the ropes on his wrists did. His eyes suddenly widened once he could make out a hand reaching for him just beyond the darkness and touch his face with a gentleness he never knew. The hand caressed him, cradled him, and lightly glided over his lips like he was a sculpture or a piece of art.

He wasn't in the correct state of mind to be calmed by the gentle soothing of the hand, but he found his heartbeat coming to an almost natural pace. But all of that was soon put to a stop once whoever's hand was roughly retreated from his face and someone began to straddle his lap. He began to attempt to buck the person off of him but all was in vain as soon as his jaw was snatched up into the clutches of what was now no doubt a woman. Her liquid silver eyes were luminescent as she stared at him, not once ever blinking which struck a fear in him so strong that he couldn't look away in fear of what she would do if he did. They blinked slowly, as if she were drifting off to sleep, and then they rushed further towards him where he could feel cold lips on his own. So soft...so soft...and gentle her lips were on his, but those eyes stuck with him. Those soul devouring eyes that told him to feed her and give her everything.

He had kissed her back. Just as passionately as a lover would and those gentle hands came back to caress him again which he just figured to be her hands and wish he could return the favor with his own appendages. His mind fell into bliss as those clod lips became his undoing and he could feel himself begin to fall asleep until he was yanked into the blinding white light and the coldness of her touch went away.

::

Onyx eyes flashed open and Kazuya shot up from his bed like a bolt. He put a hand to his head and waited for his heartbeat to go back to normal knowing that if it didn't he would have a real problem on his hands. The more he tried to remember the vivid dream he had that forced him out of his sleep, the more it danced away from his memory. All that plagued his mind was the vision of silver eyes, cold and beautiful, and just as equally cold lips colliding with his own and making his head swim. It was almost like he could still feel soft hands on him...

He swung his legs over the side of his bed and put a hand to his forehead, trying to will the migraine away before he realized that the pain in his head was the least of his problems and he should be thanking his lucky stars he was even alive right now. Kazuya looked at his dialog clock sitting on his nightstand and grimaced at the midnight to morning time. Even if he went back to sleep now, he would never be able to get into a deep one with the time he was allotted with. It was too early for him to start grooming for work and too late to go back to sleep, so his naked footsteps led to the downstairs part of his home where he would would stay up for the rest of the night.

Not many got to see the interior of the Mishima home unless they happened to be a bombshell female who wouldn't see past his sheets. Still, not many knew of the vastness and every nook and cranny he put his own time and consideration on. There had been many things he changed in concerns to his inheritance. This was not limited to just Mishima Co. but the Mishima estate as well. Past generations of heirs all stayed in the same home, raising their families within which eventually gave birth to the next heir who would do the same. Kazuya broke that tradition when he not only started raising his family elsewhere, but also gave his son his mother's last name and not his own. This ensured that Jin would not be the next heir of the Mishima line, and it also meant that he wouldn't ever be able to own the Mishima home as well. This would've been ideal for the egotistical male had it not been for the fact that Jin was his only son, at least...as far as he knew Jin was his only son. Despite the fact that Kazuya ensured that Jin wouldn't reap the revenue of being a Mishima heir for obvious egotistical reasons, there was also more reasons he want ed to keep the name and the business separate from his own family. Possessing his last name was a double-edged sword and came with as many consequences as it did victories.

Kazuya's bare feet touched the dark mahogany floors and he shivered a little at how cold they seemed to be. His stride was silent as he ventured, the boards perfectly aligned so much so that no amount of time or wear and tear would make them creak or squeak. The tight, black spiral staircase that he descended earlier to get to where he was was the same effect. Soon, he approached his completely open kitchen that stood as the centerpiece of his whole living room, the dining room off to the left, and the sitting room off to the right next to the ceiling to floor windows that showcased the city lights.

During the day, it was beautiful, but during the night it seemed to gather a living vibe that wasn't always good. Creaks here and there that shouldn't even be happening, little pitter patters of water droplets that, when investigated, never existed outside nor inside the house, and not to mention the small, indecipherable whispers he would catch when the house fell completely silent. But all of this honestly didn't phase Kazuya as he stood still in the middle of his kitchen, what bothered him immensely was the feeling of cold hands going up his back and down his chest, stopping, and resting on the area that now throbbed. The touch was familiar, a woman's touch, or at least a young woman, he could tell by the caress, but it only lasted for five minutes before he was let go and the throbbing went away.

He was surprised yes, but not an ounce of fear plagued him (although he would admit he was a little wary). It wasn't new to him that the house he had as of now was never originally his, but was also home to an unknown number of inhabitants that still roamed the corridors of the home. Kazuya blamed his great-grandfather and his father for them, committing vile acts of blasphemy and the like underneath the house and leaving the carcasses there to rot. When Kazuya finally had the home in his possession to do whatever he wanted, he had to have bodies upon bodies, and skeletons removed no questions asked to cleanse his home of some of the more violent ones that still resided there. Now that he was older, it wasn't nearly as bad as it was when he was a child growing up in the house. It was the worst childhood home to grow up in and he could remember having well rested nights only at a relatives house ,but never his own.

The heaviness dissipated even more once most of those had realized that the current heir was nothing of the despicable past heirs and they chose to leave. However, the older ones that held the Mishima name in their vice grips were still there and too cowardly to terrorize his now strong mind, he no longer had the time to worry about what they would do while he slept or what shenanigans they would pull when someone else came into his home. He would just ignore them and that was no fun Kazuya knew. But what he felt earlier was something completely different and new. They never touched him in any way or made a point to interact with him directly, and for the most part he knew that none of them were female. What made him wary in this circumstance was the fact that the caress was still comforting to him.

He stood solemnly in front of his metallic fridge and stared at his reflection, the blurry-ness of it giving him a sort of clarity. His hand ventured to his chest and he felt the indentations there, like teeth marks, deep and painful to the touch. It made him wince yet he couldn't stop fiddling with it and because of it he could remember his short dream in full. The product of his dream had appeared on his chest right above his heart. He looked down just to be sure and there it was, purple near its center and a beat red around the area that hurt to touch.

"We're here Mr. Kazama"

Jin looked up expectantly from his phone and saw through his window that they were passing through large iron gates and soon winding through the driveway that took them at least ten minutes to reach the end of. He was unimpressed with the European tendencies to display their wealth in such an obvious fashion, but he knew it was no fault of his fiance's but her father's.

The vehicle he sat in finally stopped and this time Jin put his phone in his pocket and glanced at Miguel, his obscenely tall bodyguard, and had to remind himself of how he was able to get the unknown man to do anything for him when it was partially his fault that his younger sister wasn't alive anymore. Everyone had some kind of grudge against him these days. He put the thought out of his head as his door was opened for him by Miguel and Jin watched as he was left alone to walk up the steep stairs to the giant doors that he knew belonged to Lili. He took them one at a time, each step making him re-question his motives for being there and if it was really because he thought everything would go smoother between the two if he got to know her better. If her trust went deeper for him than it did his father then that left less of a chance for Kazuya to take advantage of her. 'Yeah, that's why I'm here...' he thought to himself with a snort.

His arm raised and his fingers found the cold, iron ring set firmly in between the silver lion's jaws. Tightening his fist around it, he tapped it sternly against the tall and wide door in front of him and took a step back from the door to be polite. While he waited, he took the chance to glance around the place and tried to see what was hidden underneath all the glamour and grandeur. What he found was that most of the place was colored completely white with red attributes, and Roman mixed with Greek tastes adorned the mansion of the Rochefort family. From the stories he would hear about her mother from Kazuya, he couldn't see her mother ever taking interest in a place like this, but yet again Edward came to the forefront of his mind on that one. The long driveway was sandwiched between acres upon acres of land that was bursting with colors of all kinds and happened to be in full bloom at the time, it was enough to almost take his breath away at the beauty of it. He could see something far away, so far that he had to lift his shades slightly to get a better view of it. What looked like a small house sat amongst the flowers by its lonesome and that alone made the little boy inside of him want to investigate, but he reigned himself in and returned his attention back to the task at hand which in turn, made a queasy feeling return to his stomach.

Nothing about what he was doing made him nervous, it was the fact that he was 1) taking Nina's advice and 2) at a risk of embarrassing himself in front of the young Lili Rochefort. He would never be able to get from out of her line of fire if he did anything that sparked her humor, she wouldn't shut up about it. She already annoyed the hell out of him, he didn't need to be at the ass end of her silly little quirks either. Nina, on the other hand, liked to play little tricks on him too with her "words of wisdom". He would listen to her and end up making a fool out of himself for her own amusement. Which was by all means, just cruel. He had half the mind to ignore her advice again, but she seemed honest this time in wanting to help his non-existent relationship with his future fiancé.

And here he stood wearing his signature dark blue true religion jeans, pressed white long sleeved shirt, and white Tim's he had recently fell in love with, silver chains jingling down the side of his right leg as he walked, and of course his dark shades that he wore religiously when he went out and he was five seconds away from turning around and yelling at Miguel to step on it before the large doors to his fiancé's home opened to reveal her father Edward, who didn't hide the grimace on his face. 'Yeah the feeling's mutual buddy' he thought back with a scowl.

"My daughter is just getting ready, she'll be down in a moment" Edward told him smoothly. "You'll have to excuse her in advance for taking up time in your busy schedule"

Jin waved the matter away. "Hardly. The office hasn't been in too much of a frenzy lately and besides, I came to see her anyway. It's tradition in my family to spend time with our future brides before we actually marry them"

Jin couldn't help but smirk at the tightness of Edward's jaw as his words sunk in. The man already hated his whole family with a passion, and now because of his greed they already shook on the business deal they made in regards to his daughter whom he was now forced to share with the people he hated most. Edward had forged his sword and fell on it with one simple move that got him a piece of something he's always wanted but at a heavy price.

The tension between the two was something more or less unbearable as the awkward fifteen second long conversation grew to be non-existent and it was just the two trying not to make eye contact. After a few more painful minutes, the female of the hour made her appearance and stood next to her father as he opened the door wider for her to leave. He tried not to stare at her for too long, but she was quite the eye-catcher in her cream colored strapless dress. Her sweetheart neckline accentuated her small, but amble chest and the hem of the dress stopped right above her feet (that were occupied with black flats) and billowed a little at the casual wind. A long black rope settled along the curve of her waist and the ends of it were tied into a soft knot and left hanging along the back of the dress. Her long blonde hair fell in soft waves down her back and her signature bangs was nonetheless perfect as she stared at him openly. The two seemed to have a long staring contest while her father was muttering something to the both of them about having Lili back at an adequate hour, which was just another excuse to keep his daughter pressed under his thumb even though she wasn't in his line of sight.

"Isn't that right Emilie?"

Jin noticed the way Lili's mouth twitched at the sound of her name rolling off Edward's tongue and she curtly nodded her head without another word to him and began to walk to his side. Being the gentleman that he was, Jin held out his hand to the blonde as she began to descend the staircase and leaned more into him as she lost her footing slightly.

Out of common courtesy, Jin held fast to her elbow and hand, causing them both to be closer than necessary. He could practically feel the possessive glare burn through his back as he let the young girl under him lean on him longer before releasing her. However, the thing that filled his vision was her long blonde hair that swished softly as she lead the way to the flower fields, and Jin dutifully followed behind.

::

"And here I was certain that you would never leave the confines of your office..." Lili said aloud, feeling comfortable now that she wasn't in the presence of her father any longer. "It led me to believe that you had no life of your own"

The dark-haired male could only frown at her. "The same could be said for you in terms of your tyrannical father, it was near impossible to even get him to consent to letting me see you"

Her eyes filled with mirth. "And how exactly did you manage to do that anyway? He can be quite stubborn when he wants to be"

Jin shrugged in answer. "It was a flat no the first time I mentioned it, but I guess he changed his mind"

Lili blinked as they continued to walk at an even pace side by side and she snorted uncharacteristically. "Edward doesn't 'change his mind', even when he says yes and then says no later he really means no. He means what he says when he says it"

Her male counterpart didn't say anything in response to her and glanced at the fields around them, being captured by the sight once more. When her attention of him wavered into nothing, he took the chance to see what he could learn just by looking at her. Jin was well versed in the art of reading people and could tell when people were lying to him. He hadn't mastered reading Kazuya, or Edward for that matter, but he found that the angrier a man got the more his emotions showed. Women were a different story unless they happened to be distressed. He watched the way she moved, the way her eyes seemed to get lost in the flowers around her, and though limited, the way her body moved freely and unapologetically. At the very least, Jin could tell she was comfortable with him and she almost seemed to glow in the evening sun that made the sky bleed red and orange.

They walked silently, no longer hand in hand, but in a comfortable silence. Their thoughts grazed against an idea of the other and neither of them knew they were even thinking about each other. These thoughts did not range on anything romantic, but they verged on something akin to polite curiosity. It was a mutual thing for them to want to know about the other, wanting to know what they were really getting themselves into and not just the idea of what they might be in for. Just the idea of tying the knot to both of them literally disgusted them, nor was it the vision they had of themselves doing so soon.

::

Apparently, her family grounds had specific spots of land for certain types of flowers (an attribute her mother arranged when she was still alive, he learned from the petite blonde). Some patches were larger than others and others were intricately shaped while the others were arranged in a rectangular or square shape. The more Jin thought about it, the more he found himself gazing into the distance of the flowers and wondering about them. From what he heard from his father and what he's read about her, Lilian Celeste never did anything for nothing and she happened to favor the only daughter she had. He wanted to inquire about them, but he noticed how she didn't divulge any more information about them than what was required as general knowledge.

'Ah, fuck it' He thought. "Why are the fields like this?" He asked, his curiosity getting the best of him.

She abruptly stopped walking and Jin had to catch himself from falling over her. He cringed inwardly and wondered if he did exactly what he didn't intend to happen in the first place, but was surprised when she turned to face him with a passive expression.

"I didn't think you would particularly notice something as trivial as flower beds not being the same shape"

Her tone came out almost monotonous and without emotion, but Jin could clearly see the rawness crawling over her skin in goosebumps and trying to burst free through her eyes.

"It's not trivial to you" he told her simply.

She stared at him before averting her attention down to the wildly growing weeds in the vastness of the daisy field. "This was my mother's last gift to me" Lili gestured to the astonishing collection of naturally growing flowers. "Sebastian told me when I was a child that my mother had left something for me to see amongst the flower beds. She had it done right before she died"

Had she not seen it? Of course whatever the message was had to be seen from aerial view and her father was in an abundance of money so it should be nothing for her to see what was clearly intended for her eyes alone. He didn't voice his question aloud, no not this one, but he this counted in knowing things about her. The more he knew the more he felt would be easier to connect with her on, but she didn't seem to be opening up to him any time soon, and the same could be said for him.

"Shit..."

His head whipped to hers in surprise at her apparent sailor mouth, but her face is what made him look what was ahead of them too. It was a medium-sized mausoleum that was at least the height of his male bodyguard Miguel (who wasn't too far from them, but far enough to give them privacy). Popular Japanese flowers surrounded it and framed it like it was an alter rather than a burial setting. The pillars were made from marble, and the stairs leading to it had no hint of dust or unsightly growth from nature anywhere. It was years old, but the upkeep on it was recent. There was only one person that could've been buried here.

Dark eyes slid over to look at Lili to watch the features of her face turn into something almost ugly. An anger like no other seemed to flare up her face and leave behind a shade of red that resembled a tomato. She closed her eyes and put a hand to her head and sighed, letting whatever she felt rush out of her like water. He was impressed to say the least, a woman's capability to turn her emotions on and off even in the face of impending wrath. She was amazing.

"I haven't seen this in a long time...it's—I'm sorry" she explained, "I hadn't realized it was still here"

Jin's eyebrows rose. "You thought it would disappear?"

"My father has the power to make many things disappear.." Was all she said to that account.

She left him standing there with one foot shifting to the other as she turned on her heel and walked away from the mausoleum.

A/N: hello everyone! I'm sorry for the wait if it was at all too long and hope you'll forgive me once again u_u comments are appreciated and what you guys say literally have me laughing real hard sometimes. Thanks for the continued support.

Wanna see the dress Lili wore while walking with Jin? I'll put the link up somewhere on my profile under: When Push Comes to Shove: Deny, Deny, Deny visuals. Any and all ideas for wardrobe will show up there. I will also put up any visuals from past chapters too so look out for those as well. Happy Reading Guys (^.^)/ ~Sasusakui