Chapter 29
Standing in front of the mirror, Annie waits for the okay. Her legs are doing the standing thing okay now, but she's a little tired. "K, so, I'm just gonna go ahead and shank myself."
Kino nods, "yeah, whatever memory you think about will be shown to us like last time."
Annie nods slowly. He didn't seem to know she'd used the mirror before without him. Kino then inhales her scent slightly, and gets a smile, which looks a little perverted no matter how much he tried to cover it up. She catches his expression and frowns.
"The fuck is that look for?" She mutters, frowning deeper as he smirks.
"Oh nothing~ you just smell pretty good. Wanted to keep my scent drenched all over you, huh? A nice choice," he leers.
Annie pulls a face. "Don't be gross," she mutters, blushing. She quickly pushes her finger against the mirror so that her blood trickles into all of the rivets. "I just didn't wanna wait any longer than I had to."
Kino rolls his eyes. "Whatever excuse works for you, babe," he grins sharply, knowing she hated that one. He then puts his own finger against the glass, their blood mixing. She didn't know if it's because of Kino's teasing, or because she just had a stupidly good orgasm, but they're quickly brought to the time she had tried to stab Shuu, only to end up getting pinned and cut. Annie cringes, feeling a flash of guilt at the sight of him.
"How do I control this?" She asks panickingly as Shuu's tongue slides over the other Annie's neck. Kino blinks, going completely still. He watches as Shuu murmurs in her ear, while the other Annie stifles a moan in the bedsheets.
"Huh. That's...something," he says, face unreadable. He doesn't do anything more than stare.
"Stop watching!" She groans, turning away as her cheeks flame. "How the fuck do I turn it off? Kino...!"
Kino keeps watching as she gets aroused, Shuu continuing to sweetly torture her, until he bites her. The other Annie let's out a moan.
"...You're...only supposed to make that sound for me..." he mutters thinly, hands starting to shake. Annie groans with the memory of it all, and seconds later, the scene changes. It's the morning after she had gotten drunk, and her double and Shuu are fooling around in the bathtub. His hand is tangled in her hair as he's sat up on the side, and she's sucking his cock.
"Kino, how the FUCK do we go back?" Annie hisses weakly, feeling like she needs to avert her eyes. "This is painful for both of us."
Kino's lips pull back, revealing his fangs as his expression darkens. Palpable rage clings to him, fists shaking as he swipes forward, lashing his arm out in a move that would have decapitated Shuu's head from his shoulders-just like father- had he been able to make contact. The images just blur, before coming back. Shuu's breathless groans ring out.
Annie whimpers and turns away, squeezing her eyes shut. Shame and fear pool in her chest, which influences the memories.
The scene changes to a much younger Annie, probably five years old. She's huddled under a kitchen table in a dark room. Appearance wise, not much has changed- she still has a thick red braid down to her waist, just chubbier cheeks. Her face, however, is covered in bright red lipstick. The yelling of a preteen girl rings through the room. "ANNABETH. DID YOU SERIOUSLY STEAL MY MAKEUP?"
Kino blinks, breathing raggedly, until he begins to calm down, drawing back into himself and looking down at the younger Annie. His gaze shifts to the present Annie mutely. She glances at him, clearly ashamed. "I'm sorry," she whispers, looking away quickly at tiny her. Small Annie frowns as a girl stalks into the dining room and ducks under the table.
"Ugh, you did, too!" she whines. Tiny Annie crawls out and stands up, putting her hands on her hips and jutting out her chin defiantly. Victoria grits her teeth. "Annabeth, why?"
"So I can be pretty too!" she huffs, and Victoria rolls her eyes. Reagan pads into the room as well, about eight years old. "Viccy, don't be mean to Annie. Annie, don't take Viccy's lipstuff," she mumbles tiredly, as if the oldest and not the middle child.
Kino sighs, before crouching down next to the younger Annie. "She has your eyes," he jokes lightly. His gaze remains sober though, as he murmurs: "I've... never seen this before...your memories. We never had this memory mirror. I always just heard stuff from you," he mutters quietly.
"I... see. Well. Victoria is six years older, Reagan is three," she murmurs as the eleven year old Victoria starts to throw a fit when Tiny Annie tosses the empty lipstick container at her carelessly. Reagan groans, pulling Vic from the room to possibly comfort her. Tiny Annie sighs and flops on the floor, crawling to grab a ridiculously large stuffed duck toy.
"That was Bearie," Annie mutters, just as he smiles slightly and let's out another sigh. His anger disappears, but was not forgotten.
He instead reaches out and strokes the younger Annie's head, though neither could feel it. He'd gotten a little too used to interacting with things that weren't really there. "Cute little tyke, weren't you?" He asks. "I wonder if our..." he suddenly clamps his mouth shut, amending it. "If our younger selves would have liked each other. Heh," he forces a grin.
Annie presses her lips together, as the scene changes. "Doubt it," she says softly. Seven year old Annie stands in front of a boy with her arms crossed. He's the same age, and holding out a bunch of daisies he had obviously picked himself on the schoolyard.
"Will you please be my wife?" he asks hopefully, and she shakes her head.
"Boys are icky," she declares.
Kino chuckles, straightening. "Well it wasn't like I was interested in girls at that age. I'm not the casanova you know today," he says, rubbing his hair. "I was into world domination. I MAY have allowed her in my castle. If she proved herself useful," he sniffs.
"Nothing hotter than a dictator," Annie mumbles as small Annie turns away and leaves the boy in tears. She skips off to the swing set. "Bitches LOVE swingsets," Annie smirks to herself.
"Priorities!" Kino laughs, grinning after her smaller self as though he were proud. "I think you just crushed that boys hopes and dreams. How marvellous," he says, completely seriously.
"Yeah. That happened a lot," present Annie says sheepishly. She tugs a curl. "I think it was the hair. I didn't have the ass at that point."
Tiny Annie swings with her friends, but the scene soon shifts to her a fair bit later. Fourteen and hanging out with a boy. He's tall, dark haired, very attractive. And she has him in a headlock. I grin and lean against the wall, watching the two tussle in the basement. "That's Holden. He's basically my brother, and before you give the line that he's being friend zoned, he isn't. He's got a girlfriend."
Kino raises a brow. "Mnhm," he watches the two of them, before looking at her. "You were definitely a tomboy."
Holden pulls smaller Annie off and suplexes her onto the couch. "Yep," Annie says dryly as her double squirms to regain control. "Anything else you wanna see?"
Kino folds his arms, thinking. "...Show me the Summer Festival," he says, looking at her. "You were down in the dumps when I saw you because of Shuu. I want to see why."
Annie lets out a small sigh. "If you really want," she says quietly.
The scene shifts to the well known date. Shuu lazes against the wall as Annie stands beside him, trying to coax him into activity. Present Annie's mouth shifts into a thin line and she glances away. Kino watches with a kind of fixation as Shuu remains lethargic.
"...You're excited for the Festival," Kino mutters to himself. "This supposed to be a date or something?"
"Yeah. It had been. In my mind, anyway. He... might not have realised that," she mumbles, subconsciously making excuses for him. Kino sneers, picking up on something in the back of his mind, but he shakes it away, too annoyed to pay attention to it. "He could've made an effort," he spits darkly. "He has you- and he's squandering it!" He growls, stalking up to the memory Shuu just as the other Annie leaves, fighting tears.
"Dude, chill," Annie mumbles, getting uncomfortable. She sighs and looks down, "wanna just go back?"
Kino snarls, rounding on her. "No I don't! Show me more of this asshole! It'll be the same I bet! He's an idiot!" He yells, raising a fist. "I'd beat the shit outta him if he were here!"
He let's his fist fly, aiming for Shuu's head with a manic gleam in his eye- only a pale hand grabs his fist. Kino starts in surprise as an extra, more solid looking arm appeared from out of memory Shuu's body. A second Shuu moves out of the sleeping version of himself then, still holding Kino's fist as he stands. "Yeah?" Shuu asks lethargically. "Why don't you try it?" Blue eyes stare at him with depthless apathy.
Annie's eyes widen. "What the hell is going on?" She whispers, looking between the two of them, as well as sleeping Shuu. "Shuu... you're... What?"
Shuu glances at her, before he looks at Kino's stunned expression, tossing him back a few paces. Shuu then appears next to Annie and grabs her around the waist- very much flesh and blood as he slams his fist into the wall behind them. The memory shatters to pieces around them.
Everything goes white as the three are left standing in the room full of Annie's things, the mirror falling to pieces on the wall and landing in a broken heap on the floor. "NO!" Kino chokes, his eyes full of horror as he watches it.
"Shuu!" Annie gasps, her eyes widening as she watches the shattered shards fall. "That... that was completely unnecessary!" She shifts her gaze to stare up at him, too shocked to struggle in his hold.
Shuu shifts his gaze to look down at her. "I see...you've become closer, have you?" He asks quietly.
Kino sinks down to the floor on his knees, face pale. He stares at the shards sightlessly, mute. Annie blinks, suddenly at a loss for words. We have become closer.
She pries his arm off and takes a step back, swallowing. "I-I... you don't even love me, Shuu," she whispers, her mind blanking on everything else. Shuu's expression changes slightly. His lips thin, "I've been looking for you for weeks." He mutters, before glancing at Kino. "Let me guess...he's in love with you?" He asks point blank.
Annie's expression falters. She nods once, feeling stuck, trapped. I don't know how to answer. I can't answer either of them, not right now. "You... have?" She asks instead.
Half lidded blue slide to her again. "Yeah, he chose a good place. Rotigenbelk masks all scent. It's also a pain in the ass to navigate." He mutters. "But...if you want him or something, just because he's said he's in love with you...And not because you actually want the guy. Then I guess I've wasted my time," he says softly.
Shuu then finds himself looking at her and waiting, hoping despite himself for his words to be opposed.
