Chapter 35: Travel Preparation Arc - Fifteen Feet

Okay, now I feel super guilty. I can't believe I wrote thirteen or so pages in one day, while the previous chapter took me a week to do and is close to the same length. But at least I'm getting off of my stress, especially as the plot begins to thicken even more...

Disclaimer: Who owns everything aside from the plot and the OCs? I certainly don't...

Kaiya's POV

For certain, there were three things that would make me scream so loud that the highest heavens would be able to hear me and wonder what the heck was going on down there in the mortal world.

First, there was the thought of my family getting hurt, either emotionally or physically. That was definitely a good reason to scream, since...well, anybody with at least half a heart would do that. I couldn't think of a single person who wouldn't.

Second, there was driving. It was kind of obvious why I didn't like it, especially since my parents had been killed in a car crash. Back then, just saying the words "car" or "drive" was enough to traumatize me even more. It almost made me want to return my driver's license, which I had somehow managed to earn.

And third...well, I only added this one recently to my list. The third case was when a certain blonde entered my room, scooped me up in his arms, and took me out to the front lawn with a giant fire-breathing phoenix, all while I was asleep. When I woke up to find myself suspended a hundred or so feet in the air, I was pretty sure that the volume of my scream was enough to make him go permanently deaf.

"What the hell, un?" he growled at me, still wincing from the volume. "Are you trying to kill me with your voice, Kaiya? If that's what you're trying to do, then will you please stop it? You're succeeding, and I don't like it!"

"Neither do I!" I roared at him. "Next time, could you just wake me up politely if you wanted to train Akane with me? And why are we so high up in the air?"

Deidara frowned at me. "I found a rainbow-streaked area with a small waterfall while I was flying around a few days ago, and I thought that you would like to see it. I was going to surprise you with it, but you woke up as soon as we took off into the air."

I could feel my expression soften slightly. "Oh...then I'm sorry for lashing out at you. I was just a little surprised, that's all."

His smile reappeared on his face. "That's okay. I shouldn't have yelled at you, either. Anyway, since we're already up in the sky, do you want to train Akane some more?"

"I'm sorry," I replied, shaking my head, "but I actually have to do something else today."

"What is it?" he inquired curiously, and Akane began to lower herself back onto the ground, knowing that whatever I was doing was definitely not taking place at a hundred feet in the air.

I twiddled with my fingers nervously. "I have to practice driving again. Well, I can drive normally, but I need to practice both parallel parking and going down windy roads in preparation for winter vacation."

"Winter vacation?" he questioned, eyes sparkling in sudden interest. "What's that supposed to be?"

"During December, we get two weeks of school off," I explained to him. "And for that time, I want to drive all of you guys to our old mountain abode."

"You have a house in the mountains as well?" he asked, his eyes shining even more, and I nodded in the affirmative.

"It used to belong to our parents," I explained sadly, causing his smile to run away. "We're going to celebrate the holidays up there, since I wanted to let Kagami-chan play in the snow, since it doesn't ever snow down here."

"Interesting," he mumbled as Akane landed on the grass and shrank back to her normal size.

"Actually," I started, getting an idea, "do you want to come help me practice? There are plenty of extra seats in the car, and you're someone who looks like they like to go fast."

At that, he smirked. "You know me quite well, un. Sure, I'd love to watch you practice driving. Maybe I could learn it, too."

I shrugged. "Be my guest. But I'm warning you, driving is much harder than it looks. Even before my parents were killed in the car crash, it wasn't really a pretty experience for me. It took me forever to get the controls right during the driving test, and I swear, even the lecturer was getting a headache from all of my mistakes."

"Well, nobody is here to lecture you," commented Deidara. "Am I allowed to try and drive the car?"

"No!" I immediately shouted, then slapped a hand over my mouth. "I mean, it really is hard to know how to drive. You have to remember what so many of the fancy buttons do, as well as what they look like."

He frowned at me. "Kaiya, I thought you had more faith in me than that, un. But I guess I'll just see how it works for now. By the way, where is your car?"

"Stay right here," I told him, running back inside of the house. "I'll be right back, but I won't be coming out through the front door."

Before I could view his reaction, I closed the front door, locking it with a swift rotation of my fingers. Once I was certain the door was locked, my fingers began to fiddle and intertwine with the hem of my kimono.

I had been so tired the night before that I had forgotten to change into my t-shirt. Sure, kimonos were slightly harder to sleep in, but I was still slightly comfortable with it. All I needed to do was undo the ribbons in order to eliminate any hindrances.

Almost two weeks had passed since the crowd had appeared at our front door. To others, Thanksgiving was just around the corner, but we didn't really celebrate it anymore. Eating so much food was rather pointless, especially if my parents weren't even going to be there.

The only real reason why I was tired was because I had stayed up late, doing homework. As much as I had wanted to speak to my roommates about it, both of them had been already asleep. Besides, Konan and Pein barely spoke anymore, almost as if they had gone mute. The only time Konan really spoke was if she was asked something or if she was under the alias Osaka during school hours.

In my bed, I had just sat there, waiting for a dream to come to me. However, it was hours before I had finally fallen asleep, and I only realized that I had still been wearing my kimono just as soon as my eyes fluttered shut.

Part of me had hoped to speak to Yahiko again, but no matter how hard I tried at night, I failed to reach the Pure Land. I didn't exactly know why, but healing starry fish and watching the orange-haired boy fold paper cranes was an amenity. Just doing those things helped me regain a more calm and relaxed composure, almost like meditating.

But perhaps it was for the best that my meetings with Yahiko were rare. Yahiko had his own things to do up there in the realm of pink and white clouds, and I definitely wanted him to finish his thousand cranes. If only there was a way to get him and Konan to meet again…

I definitely was not the fangirl type. Although I was shy around the people that I liked romantically, I didn't obsess over them or tape pictures of them to my wall. In addition, in my life, I didn't really care about who got together with whom, just as long as both of them were happy or satisfied. But for some reason, this time around, I was feeling rather determined to help Yahiko and Konan to get back together.

Unfortunately, that was not as important at the moment. I still needed to figure out how to drive the car safely in order to take the family up to the mountains for winter break.

Snatching the keys and entering the garage, I pushed the door open, trembling slightly. The yellow Lexus was still there, looking the same as ever, minus the layer of dust that it used to be covered in. The dust was beginning to collect again, since it had been quite a while since Deidara had gotten sick.

The Lexus wasn't originally yellow. When my parents had first bought it for me, it was a glossy black, like the sky at midnight. But in order to calm my fears about driving slightly, Yukio and Naoki had painted the car yellow, my favorite color.

It still didn't help.

Still, I didn't feel like wasting the money on the paint, so I just kept it that way, although I hardly ever drove the car anywhere. But sighing begrudgingly, I clicked the buttons on the key once, unlocking the doors of the car. Sighing, I stepped inside, letting my feet hover above the pedals while my fingers instinctively grabbed the wheel.

I've got this, I thought as I pushed the button to open the garage.

I listened to the door creak as it slowly opened, letting more daylight flood inside the dusty garage. Deciding to distract myself slightly by looking around, my eyes scanned the garage in curiosity. In the corner sat Yukio's old bicycle, which he hadn't used for ages after he had begun elementary school. Now, it was way too big for him, but if she wanted to, Kagami could easily ride it.

Not that we had even told her about it. In fact, I had totally forgotten that we even had that bike for years.

In another corner was a translucent box full of walkie-talkies, which was stationed on a high shelf. It appeared to be the only container in the garage, with the rest of the space being just...empty space.

Suddenly, I heard a knock on my window, snapping me out of my daze. I turned, glaring right back into Deidara's blue eyes before rolling down the window.

"Well?" he asked me, "are you going to let me inside?"

I grumbled. "The door's on the other side, Deidei-chan. And all of the car doors are already open."

Sighing, Deidara walked over to the other side, and I grinned to myself as he tried to open the door. Akane, who was perched on his shoulder, cooed innocently.

"Liar!" he growled. "This door is locked!"

Smirking triumphantly, I pushed the button and unlocked the door for him, then pretended to rub the back of my head nervously. "Oops, my bad!"

"I know that you did that on purpose," he seethed, getting inside and sitting on the passenger's seat. "But anyway, let's get going. How does this thing work?"

"First and foremost," I told him, lifting a single finger in the air to show emphasis, "put your seatbelt on."

"A sea kelp?" he asked, looking confuzzled. "Why would that be in the car, especially if we're nowhere near the seaside?"

That squeezed a burst of giggles out of me, driving away my fear of driving just for a moment. "Very funny, Deidei-chan. I said seatbelt, not sea kelp. It's that movable leather strap on your upper right, just above your shoulder. Pull it once you see it, then click it in, like this."

Slowly, I fastened my seatbelt with ease, while he watched me in awe. Smirking, he turned towards his own seatbelt, but I just have forgotten to warn him about pulling too hard, because that was exactly what he did.

"Ow!" he exclaimed. "Now my wrists hurt!"

"Then don't pull so hard," I informed him, smirking as I watched him growl in frustration as he tried to fasten his seatbelt again. Once I heard the click, I began to place my hands on the lever in the middle of the car. "Next," I explained, "you need to pull the joystick back."

"Joystick?" he questioned, raising an eyebrow. "Isn't that supposed to be part of an arcade machine and not a car?"

I shrugged. "We're supposed to call it a lever, but I feel more comfortable calling it a joystick. It makes me feel as if I'm trapped in the middle of a video game."

Gripping the lever, I placed the car in reverse, then set my right foot down on the gas pedal. Slowly, the Lexus backed out of the garage in a smooth fashion, but I could feel my body shaking. Suddenly, I subconsciously slammed my foot on the pedal, causing the car to zoom backward, and when I lifted my foot up, it jolted back forward. Deidara and I were nearly thrown out of our seats, but the seatbelts restrained us. Akane wasn't so lucky, landing on the windshield while squawking wildly.

"You call that thing a joystick?" Deidara inquired, cocking a brow at the lever. "I'd say it's more like a danger-stick, un."

I didn't respond. My mouth was already wide open, almost hyperventilating again for trying to stifle the scream. It took a while before my brain even registered his question, and by the time it did, Deidara began making the situation worse by violently shaking me.

"Hello?" he grumbled into my ear. "Are you awake, Kaiya? Who's supposed to be driving this thing?"

"Okay!" I shouted, throwing him off. "I'm out of my daze! Let me just get this car out of reverse, and then we can start practicing around the cul-de-sac and the streets!"

Regaining my concentration, I shifted the car into 4-D mode, then pushed the button to close the garage door. Once I was certain that it was shut, I turned the steering wheel and placed my foot on the gas pedal, accelerating us forward. Deidara placed his arms around his seat, while Akane flew to the very bag and threw a small jacket that was back there over her head, the poor clay phoenix.

"Hold on!" I commanded, carefully driving down our street. "It's going to be quite a bumpy ride!"

Deidara nodded, then smirked. "Those are my favorite out of all of them. Although smooth rides are good for completing missions, I always appreciate challenges more."

Immediately, I frowned. "You are aware that we both can be potentially risking our lives by doing this, right?"

This only made him smirk wider. "So? That makes it even better, un."

If letting go of my steering wheel to put my hands on my hips in disdain didn't scare me out of my wits, then I would have definitely done that at the moment. "Deidara...you...you remind me so much of Yukio-chan, that cheeky little daredevil! I swear, it's almost as if you two are distantly related."

"Well then," he responded, his smirk fading slightly, "that would definitely be awkward, if that was the case."

"What do you mean?" I asked him. For some strange reason, the remnant of his smirk ran away right after that, replaced by a light pink blush.

"Er...well," he said nervously, rubbing the back of his head, "it's just that...I don't know if I'll feel comfortable with...Kagami as my sister. Like I said before, one idiot in my life is quite enough."

"And like I said before," I countered, defending my little sister, "my imouto is not an idiot."

He huffed, and I returned my eyes to the road. Instantly,

I began shivering again, gripping the steering wheel as if were my only lifeline. But I knew that my body was totally exaggerating, since it was a straight street with no other cars.

Suddenly, an idea popped into my head. "You know, Deidara...how about we make a deal?"

His eyes sparkled with interest. "And what is this deal, exactly?"

"If you can go the entire car ride without annoying me," I explained, with a slight smirk, "then I will buy you anything you want, just as long as it's under ten dollars. Is that understood?"

This isn't going to work, dummy, my inner reprimanded me. It's obvious that he's going to want something way more than just ten dollars…

But instead, to my surprise, his eyes gained a mischievous gleam. "Anything?"

I nodded, not tearing my gaze away from the road as I made a right turn. "Yes, as long as it's under my current budget. I'm more accustomed to not worrying about the money I have on me when I drive, so I'm pretty sure that I don't have much on me right now."

He shrugged. "Okay then, you have a deal. But I honestly don't know if we can really consider that as annoying you—"

"Just keep quiet," I mumbled, silencing him. "I need to concentrate on where I'm going."

After that, he finally shut his mouth, allowing me to try and drive smoothly. Currently, we were nearing the cul-de-sac, where we were to turn and make a right out into the street. My fingers never left the steering wheel, like how my eyes never left the asphalt. Gripping the metal, I turned the wheel, directing the wheels of the car to the right. Unfortunately, this sharp turn made me shriek, breaking my concentration for just a moment. This moment was enough to make my accidentally slam my foot on the gas pedal, making us jerk forward and go over the curb of some random person's driveway.

Luckily, I was able to correct my mistake, and quickly turned onto the next street. Beside me, I heard Deidara sigh in relief, while Akane just breathed out what I assumed to be a muffled sigh as well.

"Oh great," I muttered to myself. "Of course I had to mess up a simple turn. Now how in the world am I supposed to get everybody to the mountains at this rate? If anything, I might drive over a cliff!"

Deidara gave me a funny look, tilting his head to the side. "Uh...who are you talking to again?"

"Myself," I sighed, driving down the street. "I do it sometimes when I lose faith in myself, like this."

"Just keep your eyes on the road," he instructed me. "You'll be fine. And if worst comes to worst, we can all just take Akane or some other clay animal of mine."

I shook my head at that one. "It's up in the mountains, so we'll freeze to death while riding on her. Plus, I don't know how much she can carry at a time before a part of her will break under all that weight. And didn't you blow all of your other sculptures up already?"

He scratched his head nervously. "Oh yeah, right. But still, isn't there another way?"

I thought for a moment as we drove around some twisting roads, then got an idea. "I guess we can all just drive to the airport, and then we can fly to the mountains on a short airplane trip. The mountain home is just by an airport, so it'll be perfect."

"Sounds good to me," remarked Deidara. "Anyway, is there somewhere we're going right now? There's got to be some sort destination at the end, since you seem to know this route."

"Actually," I admitted, "I never had a place in mind. But since we're already on this route, I guess I'll just head to the ice cream parlor down the road. I still owe Kagami-chan some ice cream from the time when we bought you guys kitten food and toys, and that's her favorite place to get some. Plus, there are some more twisty roads and a railroad track that we will pass over, so it will help me practice better."

Deidara just shrugged at my decision. "Whatever you say. You're the one driving the car, un."

We continued driving in what I wished was silence. Well, Deidara's mouth was shut, but that didn't stop me from letting out a few indecipherable sounds every now and then after I turned or accelerated the Lexus.

I assumed that Deidara was covering his ears at the moment, but I refused to turn and look at him. If I took my eyes off of the road, I was sure that the car would go spiraling out of control. Occasionally, other cars honked at me, in which I let Deidara reach out with his arm and honk right back at them.

That seemed to be the one useful thing he was doing at that time, since I highly disliked impatient drivers.

Soon, after we had cleared all of all the windy roads, we reached the railroad track that I had mentioned to Deidara before. When I saw that there were no nearby cars or trains in sight, I smiled.

"What's that?" he asked, pointing at the railroad. "It looks like somebody was attempting to build a mineshaft, but forgot that it was supposed to be next to a cave and not in the middle of a road, un."

I wanted to giggle, but even at that moment, I was still very focused on the road. "It's a railroad crossing," I told him. "That's where very long vehicles — called trains — travel on. Sometimes, they cut through streets like this one, so the pole with the flashing lights will alert us if a train is coming."

"How do they manage to balance a giant vehicle on that?" he questioned, pointing to the skinny rails in contempt. "I don't think you can even balance the car on that!"

"I don't really look into that stuff," I answered truthfully. "I'm not very interested in becoming an engineer. I just want to stay home with my family and maybe work part-time as a maid or waitress."

Deidara scoffed, then rubbed his forehead. "Your way of technology really confuses me, un. I'm starting to get a headache from all of this technologically advanced stuff."

"Tell me about it."

Suddenly, the red lights by the railroad track came flashing on, but I wasn't able to see them until five seconds later. The thing that blocked the road — I didn't know what it was called — had not gone down, so it took me a while to notice. Quickly, I pushed on the brakes as hard as I could.

But the brakes would barely budge.

"Look out!" I screamed, desperately slamming my foot on the brakes once more. "Fasten yourself in tightly, Deidara!"

He quickly tightened his seatbelt in order to brace himself. "Understood!"

But the harder I pressed my foot down on the brakes, the faster the car seemed to be going in my line of vision.

The car isn't stopping! I inwardly panicked. I could see the red lights flashing in front of us, the wailing sound of a familiar whistle that grew louder and louder, and a huge train barreling towards us...

Suddenly, Deidara seemed to have an idea. "Kaiya! Try removing the keys from the slot!"

Nodding in understanding, I removed my hands from the steering wheel and placed both of them around the keys. Clenching my teeth together, I tugged the keys as hard as I could, but the thing refused to budge. Realizing that I needed to turn the keys first, I quickly did so, then immediately yanked out the keys like taking a knife out of a slab of butter.

Instantly, the engine quit whirring, and the car came to a complete stop after lurching forward, hard. Akane was thrown out of her seat, slamming into the windshield with a pained squawk once more. Deidara and I jolted forward, but once again, the seatbelts kept both of us safely restrained.

After I realized that we had stopped, I began hyperventilating again. And that was when I saw the huge train in front of us. It was charging down the railroad like a bullet, and my heart pounded painfully when I realized that had Deidara not have thought about removing the keys, both of us would have been killed instantly. Instead, the train was barreling away, literally fifteen feet in front of us.

I couldn't bring myself to speak anymore. It had all been like a blur: almost as if a cheetah had been racing after a gazelle right in front of me. Only the cheetah's target really wasn't a gazelle at all.

It was me. And Deidara.

Akane was still conscious, rubbing her forehead with her feathers as she stumbled and wobbled away from the windshield. Deidara had recovered quickly, being used to so many of these death-defying experiences. I didn't understand exactly how he did it, really. Literally, my entire life — the memories, laughter, and sadness — had just flashed right before my eyes.

Deciding that I needed to get some fresh air, I stepped out of the car. Immediately, I inhaled a ton of the air around me, breathing in and out rather quickly. My heart was still in my throat, and I could still hear the faint voices of my memories and wishes in my ears. That was definitely not a pleasant noise, especially if they couldn't be blocked out by covering my ears.

"Oh my God," I finally choked out. "Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God."

"Hey," Deidara said, walking out of the car with a worried look on his face, while Akane perched on his shoulder as if nothing had just happened. "Are you alright?"

I shook my head, already on the verge of tears. "No. No...I seriously...I really thought—"

He placed a gentle hand on my shoulder, causing me to trail off. "Don't finish it, Kaiya. You don't have to finish that sentence if you don't want to." But of course, being the childish fool that I was, I did.

"I...I thought that we were going to...to die."

Deidara frowned. "But we're still alive, at least. Think of the bright side—"

"There is no bright side!" I roared, making him wince and change his expression to a scowl. "We almost freaking died, you idiot! What optimism is there to that? What if the train had hit us? What if my soul had to live with the guilt of being the one who killed yet another friend?"

I stopped, realizing exactly what I had just said. More water came to my eyes, almost enough to make them drown.

"You see—" I began, but before I could continue, tears began streaming down my face in rapid waterfalls. Deidara's expression softened greatly, and he instinctively hugged me close. For once, I didn't complain about him touching me — even though I had never hugged a boy before, aside from my younger brothers — and just cried into his shoulder.

It had been so long since I had last cried over the incident that had happened about a year ago, so the tears had a foreign taste to them. It was salty: raw with emotion, and I could easily replay the horrid moment when it happened whenever one of the teardrops landed on my tongue.

Deidara continued wrapping his arms around me, and I allowed him. "Don't say anything if you don't want to, Kaiya. I'm here...go ahead and cry. Nobody else will see but you and me…"

Reluctantly, I returned the hug, a river of saltwater flowing down my face. We stood there in silence for a few moments, trying to stop my flow of tears so that I could speak again. Finally, the stream stopped for a moment — just a moment — that granted me enough time to vent out all of my guilt.

"I...I...I was the one...driving...the car...when the car crash happened..."

A/N: Poor Kaiya...I've been saving her backstory for this part of the fanfic. Perhaps the reason why I wrote this so quickly was that I've been wanting to write this for a while now...but I had to write all of the previous chapters first.

But on a brighter note, Kaiya hugged Deidara and finally let him touch her! Yay!

Question: If Deidara offered to make you a clay sculpture of anything you want, what would you tell him to make? (It doesn't have to be an animal)

Peace out, my lovely readers! And thank you all soooo much for your support! 7,000 views on this site and 350 pages on Google Docs...never would have dreamed of it!

— Tenshi —