Chapter 25: Making a House a Home
by lightpathetic
"YOU ARE HOLDING THE LINE FOR THE SECOND LEADER!"
"Thank you."
Shizuka sighed as she switched the phone to her other ear then picked back up her book. It was to be expected. The calls. Kaname, apparently assured they were settled in and happy, was gone by their second day there, along with the Supreme Leader, no less. It only took one awkward dinner with some shell-shocked Kiriyuus. If only she could bottle that and sell it to the Alliance…
"Shizuka?"
"Kaname?"
"Who else would it be?"
Indeed, Shizuka thought to herself as she smiled. She couldn't resist mocking his questioning tone when he joined the line, as if his assistant would risk connecting some other person than the one barked into her ear a few moments prior.
She was in a curious mood. She had spent the entire afternoon in her new favourite place. She had found the library after her fourth day there and hadn't looked back.
It was enormous. Two storeys of beautifully polished mahogany shelves, staircases and balustrades, arranged in a tube around a small domed skylight of cut-glass swallows in the roof, with just about every book in creation, it looked like. The owners must be avid readers. And polyglots. There were several languages encompassed inside.
Fortunately, Shizuka read at least three of them and really could stand to work on a fourth. She stretched her bare feet out on the beige, stuffed ottoman with legs carved into the coils of snakes to match the set in the sunken, generous seating area of this masterpiece and replaced the autobiography on Stone Wyne Hillchurch, a famous wartime tactician, carefully onto the cushions beside her as she leaned back into what had to be the most comfortable sofa on earth. She had even fallen asleep in here a couple nights with no ill effects.
She was happy. Not even Kaname could upset her.
At least, she didn't think so.
"I thought I would check in. I know it has been weeks…"
"Almost two, Kaname."
"I'd left instructions for you. Didn't you see them?"
"I had…"
"I'd waited for you to call me with your requirements. Instead, it's been reported to me that you're hardly seen in public…"
"'Public?'"
"You know what I mean, Shizuka. I am counting on you to take over the operations there. The ballroom needs to be refurbished before the party, not to mention the guestrooms. I only had our apartment, the kitchen and a few other spaces done so you would be comfortable…"
"You really want me to redecorate this place?"
"Yes! You understand my handwriting better than I do. I want you to take over. Like you use to do. Run the place. I have my hands full here…"
"I can't, Kaname. This place… It's not…"
"I know it might appear a daunting task but I was sure you would have taken one look at the furniture in the East breakfast room and made a bonfire with it. There is a dire need for, I don't know…"
Shizuka was listening to Kaname prattle on with an increasing tension. He was behaving like nothing had changed. Like she would join in and make suggestions about floral arrangements in the dining room. Was he so clueless he didn't realise this was different? That they were essentially an infestation in someone else's house?
"Kaname, I… think it's fine… as it is."
The silence that followed was… telling. Shizuka winced as she flexed her feet nervously.
"I don't think I've heard you correctly, Shizuka. Did you just say you liked the décor in the screening room?"
Well, Shizuka did realise she was not her usual self. But no-one was. They'd lost weight. They had been imprisoned at a colourless military fort with extra bedrooms for months, with the threat of death as familiar as a roommate's body odour. It had been years and several wake-up calls since she'd planned a party or cared about wallpaper swatches and the main reason for that was giving her a lecture on not playing "Lady-of-the-Manor" well enough.
Her life deserved its own laugh track.
Still, her instincts did realise there had been a brief but very significant pause before Kaname had asked this last. Like she was at a fork in the road and her answer would determine the next course of her life. The line was still quiet waiting on her response. Shit. What should she say? She took a deep breath and dove in.
"Why are you so angry, Kaname? The place is running. It was running before we got here. I don't understand why I should interfere…"
"'Interfere'?"
Oh no, he was repeating her words now.
"Yes. I think everything is…."
"So, you don't think you have to do anything."
Shizuka realized she was sunk. Kaname was making sure he understood her before he did something stupid. It's happened too often to not recognize it. Shizuka decided to attack.
"Do you want me to work? Earn my keep? Is that it? Like a good elite?"
"No. I want you to give a shit about our home. But that's just it. You don't."
"'Our home'? That's rich. I suppose you found it here waiting for you with the keys under the welcome mat."
Shizuka definitely felt the silence then. She actually pulled the phone away from her ear to give herself a break, it was so dense. Did he really think they would think of this as their home?
Oh, but he did.
"Fine. Kaname, I'll have the floor redone. Okay? Are you happy now?"
"No. Leave it. I want you all to pack up your things."
"What?"
"Do it. You have…" There was a pause again but Shizuka could hear that Kaname was consulting with someone. "…forty-two minutes before the airstrike. Get some of the attendants to help. Head to the pier. I'll send the boat for you."
"What? Are you insane?"
"No. If you don't care about it, I don't either. We'll find somewhere else that suits you. Perhaps, I should have consulted you first. I realize you can be very particular…"
"You're joking. This is one of your twisted jokes..."
"Forty-one minutes. I just gave the coordinates to my assistant. The house will soon be rubble and will no longer offend either of us."
"It doesn't offend me, Kaname! It's just not mine! You know what happened to my house, you… you clown!"
"Then why are you arguing with me rather than packing?"
"You can't blow up a whole house over…!"
"Of course, I can. We do it all the time. Its location takes up too many resources to secure it. Rather than let it fall back to the enemy, we'll get rid of it."
"No! I forbid it. Do you hear me, you b…?"
"Shizuka, I give the orders when it comes to matters of war. Now, will you raise the alarm, or should I? Never mind," Kaname decided as Shizuka sat there in stunned silence. "I'll do it myself."
Then the phone went dead. The fucking phone was dead! He'd hung up!
Shizuka replaced receiver and sat there for a couple moments wondering if it was a bluff. It most likely was. She saw the way he'd been last week. He'd been practically bouncing off the walls of "their" apartment. Shizuka picked back up her book.
Airstrike, indeed.
SHIZUKA was on the eighth line of her third page when the door to the library, an ornate mahogany and cut-glass affair to match the skylight, burst open.
"Mother! The soldiers want us to assemble on the pier! They say an airstrike is incoming!"
"It's Kaname's idea of a joke. Don't panic."
"What?"
"Kaname's annoyed I'm not earning my keep. He told us to pack…"
Shizuka stopped when Ichiru ran off and she resumed her book. She was not going to be played. There was no way Kaname would blow up the Supreme Leader's "Southern Residence".
"I mean, she's already shot the footage for her next film," Shizuka ridiculed aloud to herself as she noisily flicked over the page.
Ichiru had left the door open. There was a general commotion outside as personnel ran back and forth. This was when Shizuka found it hard to concentrate. She began to bite her lip. Words ran together… Maybe, she should get up and shut the door…
"Mother! We need to leave! Kaname is refusing our calls!" This was Zero this time. Two guards were behind him heading for her. Shizuka put up her hands in protest.
"Don't touch me! I'm not falling for this. He is not going to blow up the Supreme Leader's house…"
"She has loads of houses, Mother! What's one more fucking pile of rubble in this war? God, what did you say to him?"
"I told him I didn't need to put my stamp on a place that wasn't mine and he became furious. He's a child, Zero."
"Mother, he's a 'child' with several tonnes of bombs! Fucking hell, I warned you he was touchy about it!"
"I don't care. He demanded I remodel the place to earn my keep…"
"No, Mother. You know that's not it! Come on. Call him. Apologise."
"No."
"Mother!"
"I'm telling you he's not…"
It was then they heard a low rumble in the distance. It was too familiar to mistake. Shizuka resumed biting her lip.
"He wouldn't dare…"
"Madam, please! My orders are to secure your presence on the pier. Are there any belongings you need?"
Shizuka stayed seated, daring any of them with her eyes to make her do anything, when Ichiru came around everyone and hefted her into his arms. Shizuka screamed and hit him.
"No! Put me…!"
"Stop it, Mother! We have to go!"
They were down the steps in no time and to the car. Shizuka could see soldiers assembling on the pier and other staff running with their bags. All as the noise grew louder.
"Wait! I've forgotten something! "
"Leave it!" Ichiru yelled, pulling her arm. "The guard said three-fourteen! He made me repeat it!" Kaname's handiwork, you see.
"I have eight minutes, then. I'll be back in time."
"Mother!" Ichiru screamed as Shizuka slipped from his grasp.
"Where is she going?" Zero demanded, running up to them.
"She said she…"
"Master Zero! Get into the…"
Zero ran in after her as Ichiru was stopped by the guards.
"Mother! Zero!"
"MOTHER! MOTHER!"
Shizuka ran into her study, to her desk and began to search. It was a small office on the main floor that faced the gardens. It was meant as her "Command Centre": direct lines to every relevant room in the house, the stables, green house and pier. There was a large oak desk to plan her events and chairs for her and the staff for meetings. It had sickened her when she saw it. She had become "the help" again. It was quite a few days ago she had crumpled the long, hand-written note and tossed it into a drawer before she went off to the garden, never to return.
A note with a special telephone number at the bottom, which she knew not to divulge to anyone from past experience.
"It's in here. I remember…"
"Mother!" Zero yelled again when he'd realised some soldiers had found them. "We have to go!"
"Wait! Give me a minute. We don't…"
This last was drowned out by a loud boom and the place shook. Zero screamed and covered his mother as the soldiers that had found them turned to run back outside.
"That fucking bastard. He's early!"
"Mother…"
"Found it. Get me the phone."
"Mother! He won't ans…!"
"Give it to me!"
Zero slid the phone over to his raging parent and dropped to his knees to crawl under her desk. He begged for forgiveness for his sins while he was there, for loving Kaname, for not completing the last module on his entrance exams. For getting killed in this stupid manner. He covered his head and cried into the carpet as the plane came overhead and lost control of his bladder as it swooped and disappeared into the distance. It was a little while, though before he realized his mother was chatting on the phone.
"Is… Is that Kaname?" Zero asked.
"ARE YOU STILL IN THE HOUSE!?"
"Kaname," Shizuka stated firmly as if her hands weren't shaking, his gobsmacked bellow not helping in the least, "this is absolutely vulgar. I won't forgive you…"
"I gave strict instructions! I gave strict instructions to evacuate you and…" Kaname was quite floored by his disbelief.
"Listen to me! This may be the last time you hear my voice. And Zero's…"
Shizuka stopped as she heard Kaname speaking urgently in the background. She heard chairs scraping. She'd gathered he was in a meeting when he took the call. His assistant had checked thrice that it was an emergency.
He was soon back…
"Shizuka, put Zero on the phone..."
"How dare you? I'm his mother."
"Alright. What do you want?"
"Call off the airstrike."
"No. The planes will circle until you lea…"
"Kaname. The door will be barricaded. I am not leaving."
"Why not! You hate it. I hate it. I've wasted so much time on it when I should have…"
"I'm sorry, Kaname. Is that what you want to hear? I'm sorry. I love it. I do. Call it off. Please."
Kaname was silent for a while. There was just the sound of the distant engines and Shizuka's breathing.
"I don't believe you. You just don't want to be responsible for blowing it up."
"I won't be, you twit. You would. And if you destroy my house, I will never make another mystery pot pie for you again. I will stare in unerring fascination at your choice of ties and make you pick the ugliest one. All the parties I am forced to plan will be costume parties. I will use broccoli in all my meal plans. I'll restart my refugee program. I'll ignore your being home until…"
"…Alright! I get it! You'll make my life a living hell."
The line went silent again but it was a good silence. He was thinking.
"I hate the house, Shizuka," Kaname admitted finally, quietly. "I know I've made a mistake. It's too big and cold. I can't hear you all moving about… It doesn't feel like home. Then… I saw your faces when you came back… If you hate it too, it… doesn't deserve to exist."
Shizuka resisted rolling her eyes at this dubious piece of reasoning.
"I don't hate it, Kaname…"
"Don't lie to me…!"
"I'm not! When you called, I was…"
"Hiding out in the library. I know..."
"Why do you do that?! Why do you have to be so creepy? Have we no privacy at all?!"
"You've been in there for weeks! Nobody could miss that! One of the sheep herders asked if you were alright 'upstairs'…!"
"Wha..? Never mind. The point is… the place is growing on me…"
"You are trying to convince me not to destroy it, right?"
Shizuka laughed at this. She felt the tension between them dispel at just her laugh. There was more good silence. He was listening to her. It was only when she'd stopped did he continue.
"I know you, Shizuka. You don't give up on the things you love. You did on this house. You didn't make one suggestion. Not one."
"I'm sorry… It's been a rough… year. But I know what you want now."
Not quite what Kaname wanted to hear but it was a start.
"What do you want, Shizuka?" he asked again, but his tone was different. He was hers to command.
"Call off the airstrike and give me a chance to fix it."
"Okay," Kaname said at length. "You have one more chance. How much time do you need?"
"I don't know yet, Kaname. My last renovation took eight months…"
"You have one."
"Are you joking? The ballroom alone will take…"
"One month, Shizuka. You have four weeks to make it a home by the time I return. Or else. And remember, I'm not too afraid to throw you over my shoulder and carry you onto a boat. I want requirements by the morning. Enjoy the rest of your afternoon."
Shizuka hung up and sat back into her chair, staring ahead in a daze. Soon, tears began to fall down her cheeks, perhaps when her subconscious had registered the knowledge that the hitherto persistent airplanes' engine noise was getting farther and farther away.
"Mother…?" Zero was just watching her in awe by this point.
"I'm fine. It's nerves. We… almost died, you know."
Zero came up to his knees and held her to him and Shizuka buried her face in his shoulder and wept.
to be continued
lightpathetic wrote this but these are not my characters. They belong to Vampire Knight.
