Karen's body lay motionless on the bed as Leoko sat next to her, stroking her hair softly and remembering the sweet feeling of her hair upon his fingers. She didn't move at all, save the motions of her breathing. With her chest moving up and down slightly, this reassured him that she was indeed alive, just unconscious.
"You'd better get away from her before she wakes up, man," Kin warned as he paced the floor. "She's gonna wake up and she'll be all 'Oh my gosh it's you!' and you'll be all 'No wait, Karen. It's okay. Don't be afraid.' Then she'll be all 'Don't hurt me please!'" "Kin… Shut up," Leoko interrupted with a sigh. "You're making my migraine worse." Kin zipped his mouth as he stopped jabbering and sighed, walking closer and looking at her. "So that's my sister… Karen?" Kyouso stood nearby as he looked between the siblings. "There is a family resemblance."
Leoko didn't pay attention to this as he continued to gaze upon Karen's restful expression. The memories of having to relieve that curse still burned in his memory. It was hard to believe that he had to do such a thing to his mate. He resented Kyote so much for this.
"What are you going to do?" Kin asked Leoko as he looked at him. Leoko shook his head, unsure of what he should do. He was silent for a bit, still just looking at Karen and making an inner decision. Kyouso growled lowly in irritation. "Ugh, this is so dramatic. How long are you going to just sit there and stare at her?" Leoko flashed a light glare back in Kyouso's direction, but soon fixed his stare on Karen again.
The woman's eyes slowly began to flicker and Leoko's eyes had a glint of hope in them as his stare brightened. Once her eyes opened, she sat up on the bed quite quickly, her eyes full of fear. "Oh my gosh! It's you!" Leoko held his hands out at her as if to try and ask her not to overreact. "No wait, Karen. It's okay. Don't be afraid." She just backed up a bit against the headboard as she replied, "Don't hurt me! Please!"
"Told you," Kin stated, seeing as how they said just as he knew they would. Leoko rolled his eyes at Kin and looked at Karen calmly again. "Karen… it's alright. I'm not going to hurt you. I promise." When he said 'promise', her memory flooded with the Sapphire Promise and what he had told her, all the promises he had made to her. Her eyes softened somewhat, but she still seemed leery of him. Leoko smiled softly at her, seeing how she must have remembered something. When he saw her clutching the ring, he knew then what she had remembered. "That's the Sapphire Promise. Remember that, Karen? I promised you that I would always be here for you. I love you Karen."
Those words definitely sounded familiar to her as her eyes released their fear. Memories flooded back to her as her eyes watered. "Leo…" His smile was so known to her, as was his embrace when he held her close. "There's my Kare Bear." Kin and Kyouso snickered as they mocked the nickname Leoko had given her, which earned them a light glare from the half demon. Karen looked up and noticed them there as well, seeing the addition of another new face: Kin. Kin gave a smile at her as he said, "Hey Karen." She observed him questioningly as she stared at him. "Who are you?" She looked at Leoko as if to ask him who the new person was, but before she got any response, they heard banging at the door. This caught all their attention as they looked at the door. "Open up!" a voice demanded. Kin and Leoko looked at each other fearfully, knowing who it was. "Okay," Kyouso replied to them with a shrug, walking in the living room and opening the front door. "No!" Kin and Leoko yelled in unison, but it was too late now. Kyouso had gullibly opened the door to the cops.
"You're under arrest!" the officers yelled as they ran into the room and swarmed Leoko and Kin. They had simply run past Kyouso. A couple of the officers even grabbed Karen's arms. "Hey! What's going on?" she asked in surprise as they began to seize her. "We know about you, Karen Leanne Tayka. You skipped towns thinking no one would find you. Did you even know your parents were dead?" "Yes." "Did you know your foster parents are dead?" Karen's eyes showed a bit of surprise. "No… I didn't know that, but why do I have to be arrested?" The officers fixed the handcuffs upon her hands as one of them said, "There is reason to believe that you are responsible for your foster family's death. Blood test results show that you are abnormal. You're not like other humans." Karen bit her lower lip. This was not going well.
"Wait! Don't arrest her! She didn't do anything! Wait!" Leoko yelled as he tried to resist, but they only threw him against the wall to hold him still. "You have the right to remain silent. Need I say the rest?" the officer snapped as he shoved Leoko out of the room. Two officers with each of them— Kin, Leoko, and Karen— the three of them were led out of the house and into the authority vehicles.
Kyouso hadn't been arrested. He was lucky he wasn't in on all this. Standing there in confusion for a moment, he finally dismissed it and shrugged. "Oh well. Not my problem. I'm gonna go play in that bubbly tub."
A bright light flashed into Karen's eyes as she winced, but her orbs soon adjusted to the light as she looked ahead of her and around the room. An investigator stepped up to her as he looked at her with an authoritative look. She was so sick of this look. "What is your relationship with the half demon Leoko?" Karen looked at the man and sighed on the inside. Might as well cooperate. "He's my mate." The officers in the background stared in confusion, but shrugged and wrote down the answer. She eyed them for a short time, but then led her eyes back to the investigator.
"He's your mate, huh? Odd. It says on these records that you didn't claim this. He did," the investigator said with a bit of a skeptical tone. Karen nodded. "Yeah and he was right. My memory had been lost and I didn't know this." The man's eyes peered at her through the light as he pondered another inquiry. "Does this half demon you now claim to be your mate have special abilities?" Karen nodded. "Yeah. Of course he does. He's a half water demon." The officers wrote this down and then she was asked, "Did he place some kind of spell upon you to make you believe this somehow?" Karen shook her head promptly. "No! No it's not like that at all! I am his mate. He loves me very much."
"And why didn't you believe this before? Was it because he had stabbed you?" he asked. Karen sighed. She hated this third degree. No, this was fourth degree. Still, she calmly answered him and didn't lose her cool. "No. It was because I had lost my memory and didn't fully remember what had happened and why he stabbed me." The investigator nodded. "And why did he stab you, Miss Tayka?" "Because he had to release me from the curse." This caught the investigator's attention. "The curse?" "Yes. The curse that Kyote placed on me." The officers nodded to each other and wrote this down.
The investigator seemed less than pleased, but he hardly showed it. "Alright then, that will be enough questioning on that matter. Let's move on, shall we?" In her mind, Karen was in sarcasm mode thinking 'Sure why not?' She gave a nod. "Alright." "Now, why did you flee your foster family?" Karen hated speaking of this matter, but she would be serene and answer these questions as well. Just great. Now she was being interrogated on two different subjects.
This one was more nerve-racking however. There was an awful truth about the past that she didn't want to reveal. Still, she seemed to have it together as she spoke calmly. "They had been drinking way too much and so I got away from them." "Did they abuse you in any way?" Karen gave a nod. "Yes. They would hit me sometimes, especially if I didn't take only one's side on the matter of arguments."
The investigator walked around her a bit as he spoke to her. "You were only a minor when you fled the house." Thank you, Sherlock. "I know I was, but now I'm eighteen. I don't see the problem—""About a week after you left, your parents were found dead. Were you or anyone you know responsible for this?" Karen looked at him in surprise that he would jump to this conclusion, but also there was a hint of fear in her eyes from the past with her biological parents that haunted her memories. "I didn't kill my foster parents." Which was true. She didn't kill her foster parents. The man gave her a harder look as he said, "Your room had been found trashed when our investigators observed the scene. Were you responsible for this?"
Karen had to tell the truth about the matter. "Yes… I had done that, but it was… an accident." She hesitated to tell them this, knowing it would be hard for them to believe that something like that was an accident. Her hesitation made the investigator more intuitive though. She figured he'd ask how it was an accident, but he didn't. Instead, he asked, "When you were a little girl and they found your true mother dead, you crying in the corner not far from her, they sent you to a foster family. The house was trashed as well, but surprisingly there was no sign of a struggle or any other presences, nor was there any sign of your father. There were no fingerprints from anyone else on her or anything within the house. Only her blood was spilled, and you were the only one there."
Karen's eyes showed a bit more fear now. They were getting closer to a verdict, and this was one from a long time ago. Her heart rate increased, but she tried to remain gathered and calm on the outside. The investigator stepped closer. This just built on to the tension, especially seeing into the man's eyes. "Were you responsible for your mother's death?" Her eyes widened. Did they know?
"Ahh, what grand memories," Kin's voice stated from a familiar puddle of water on the prison's floor. "It should be. This is your third time being a puddle. Congrats," Leoko's sarcastic reply added in. "Ha. Ha," Kin answered in the same tone. Their puddle moved along the floor of the prison almost invisibly, or at least it did at first…
"Why is my puddle yellow? Did we run through something spilled on the floor?" Leoko wondered as their puddle became more visible. Kin's innocent whistle lightly echoed and Leoko softly yelled, "Eww! Kin!" "Well sorry! Seeing this puddle and actually being this puddle made me have to go really badly." Leoko made a disgusted sound and kept moving cooperatively with Kin as their combined puddle of water.
A couple of security officers were sitting and talking when they stopped and looked down. It wasn't natural to see a yellow puddle of water gliding across the floor on its own. One of the cops pointed and yelled, "It's that half demon!" The other got out his gun and shot at the puddle. The bullets hit the puddle, but didn't stick. They phased through just as it would through actual water. Kin yelped nervously though, even if he wasn't hurt. "Concentrate and keep up! Come on!" Leoko yelled, the puddle vibrating with his yells.
Meanwhile, Karen was still being questioned. She still hadn't answered as she sat quietly, her fear building more and more. "Did you kill her, Karen?" the investigator asked again. Karen felt a lump in her throat as she almost felt sick. Memories flashed in her mind. Objects flying, her mother screaming as she was stabbed with a flying sharp piece of glass, the horror as she watched her mother's last breath. It brought a queasy feeling to her stomach.
Just as she had opened her mouth to answer, she saw a yellow puddle slip under the door. Baffled by this just as the investigator and the officers were, she just stared. They all did. Leoko and Kin formed their bodies from the puddle and the yellow fell from them. "Phew! Glad that didn't stick to me," Kin said in relief. Leoko nodded briefly. "So am I. Thank you powers." Karen's eyes opened wide in surprise. "Leoko." It wasn't much of a reunion as three other officers broke into the room behind them. "Hold it right there!" Leoko and Kin gave each other flat looks as if to say 'Oh great. More fun.'
Leoko smashed the officers up against the wall with his waterpowers, and then rushed over to Karen as he threw her over his shoulder. Karen shrieked a bit from the sudden motion, but she didn't object as Leoko ran out with her. Kin followed soon after, slamming the door behind him with his telekinesis. The officers were temporarily trapped in there, giving the three enough time to escape hopefully. It was the plan, anyway. "Everything's so complicated with you, isn't it?" Karen asked as Leoko ran with her. He smirked back at her as he answered, "Damn straight."
Karen gave a smile to him, but Leoko's smile faded as he saw the cops bust out of the room. "Damn it! Run!" "I am!" Kin answered from behind. Leoko looked ahead of him and halted when he saw that they were surrounded. The three stood together and Leoko sighed. "This is getting so old, but let's go on a fourth time of your puddle adventures Kin. Just… hold your bladder this time." Kin gave him a flat glare and Leoko turned himself, Karen, and Kin all three into one big puddle. The officers shot at the puddle to no avail and the puddle trio escaped into a sewage drain line.
They ended up coming out at the outside of the building and Leoko materialized them again. Karen looked at her body and blinked. "Wow that was odd." Kin stood up and dusted himself off. "I'm used to it," he said with a proud smile. Leoko just shook his head in disbelief of Kin's natural manner. "I don't see why you are bragging about this." Kin grinned. "I can show you something to brag about." He placed one hand on Leoko's shoulder and another on Karen's shoulder as they vanished and popped up randomly at Karen and Leoko's house.
Leoko looked at Kin in surprise. "You can trace to other places?" Kin nodded with a proud smile as he stood tall. "Yep. I told you I am awesome." Leoko punched Kin in the arm as a response. "Why didn't you do that before?" he yelled. Kin held his arm and made a fake pouting face. "I don't knowwwww… Did you have to hit me?" Leoko sighed heavily. "You have no common sense, do you?"
Not long after he had said that, Kyouso tackled Leoko to the ground and pinned him, glaring down at him. "Remove that damned barrier and give me that pendant!" Strangely, Kyouso then began to float in the air. "What the…?" He looked back at Karen, who was the one doing this. She had her finger pointed at him and was using her telekinesis to lift him off of Leoko. "Be nice," she said sternly.
Kin smiled at that. "Yep. You're definitely my sister." When Karen heard this, she looked aside at Kin in surprise, accidentally letting go of her control and dropping Kyouso on Leoko. The earth demon landed with an 'Oof!' and Leoko responded the same. Karen's eyes were wide in surprise as she looked at Kin. "You're my… brother?" Kin nodded. "Yeppers. Kin Tayka. That's me." Karen ran to Kin and embraced him. "I never knew I had a brother!" she exclaimed. Kin laughed and held her in return.
Kyouso and Leoko stood up as they watched the family reunion. They looked aside at each other, then back at the siblings. "I think I missed something," Kyouso stated as he blinked. Leoko simply nodded. "Where have you been?" Karen asked all excitedly as she released her hold on her brother. "I've been here and there, being placed in jail for being naughty." Karen looked at him in a surprise, but then laughed. "You're a convict? Oh my goodness. You sure do fit in with us now, that's for sure. What did you do?" Kin shrugged. "Eh, I was just using my telekinesis to steal me a few goods. Nothing big." Karen just chuckled at that and Leoko blinked. "You can laugh about that?" He then smiled and embraced Karen from behind. "That's my silly Kare Bear." Karen smiled and placed her hands on Leoko's that were around her stomach.
"Karen," Kin intervened with a serious face. "I have info that can top anything of yours." Karen gave him her attention as she listened to him. "Your dad's not dead." Karen's lips curled into a surprised open-mouthed smile. "He isn't?" she exclaimed. "He's alive?" "Yeah he is. Who do you think I've been chillin' with all these years? He is my dad after all… yours too." Karen's smile dissipated a little as she asked, "Why didn't he come for me? Didn't he try to find me?" Kin smiled. "Yeah of course he did. We've both been searching for you. Once he told me we had more family and that I had a little sis, I set out to find you once I had that vision of you."
"You're psychic too?" she asked, her eyes bright. Kin nodded and she seemed extremely surprised to know she wasn't the only freak human anymore. Leoko sighed lightly, feeling somewhat left out of the conversation, but he understood. Brother and sister had to get to know each other. They were family after all.
"I have news that can top yours," Karen said as she grinned. Kin gave her his attention. "Go for it." Karen stroked the back of Leoko's hand with her thumb. "Alright. I'm pregnant."
Thump…
Karen paused and looked back, seeing that Leoko had passed out from the news. Kin blinked at that. "Huh. I thought he'd take it better than that."