Chapter Nine
Kae heard Erik take a deep breath, clear his throat, and take another deep breath before finally speaking up, all from upstairs.
"WAKE THE FUCK UP EVERYONE, POST OUTSIDE YOUR ROOMS, WE NEED TO CLEAN THE FUCKING DORMS RIGHT NOW." Erik screamed, loudly, and very poorly, playing a Saxophone.
"What the fuck are you doing up at five in the morning? You literally just got discharged from the hospital!" Minato groaned, Yukari following him out of the room, seemingly to Erik's surprise.
"My dad's gonna be here in two hours, and we need these dorms spotless." Erik responded. "Now do as Ken is doing and grab a broom or something."
"Please help." Ken groaned, clinging to a broom tightly.
"By the way, what's Yukari doing in your room?" Erik asked, genuinely confused.
"Erik, were you raised in a Christian community? Asking for a friend." Minato asked.
"Yeah, why?" Erik responded. Minato immediately closed the door. Suspicious, but not unusual for the borderline non-socialable man. Erik kept waking up SEES and drafting them into his last minute cleanup as he panicked over something that was honestly not needed to be worried about. But this was Erik, he would panic over the smallest things, especially the state of the dorms when his family was visiting. But it was worth it, because the dorms were spotless. Hell, he even managed to somehow shine the carpet floor.
"That was a nightmare…" Junpei groaned, collapsing while holding a rug beater.
"It's quite relieving to see the dorm in such a clean state, how'd you learn how to wake everyone up so effectively?" Mitsuru asked.
"My dad told me about how the Staff Sergeants woke everyone up on military bases, that always seemed to work so I did that." Erik explained. "Just scream as loud as possible and blast some music."
"I would like to ask you to do that every once in a while." Mitsuru stated. "I want to see the dorms in as clean a state as possible."
"Oh please no." Yukari groaned. "No more early mornings…"
"I'll make it happen." Erik grinned as he put the cleaning supplies away. After several more minutes, Erik's family arrived. First was his father, a massive, muscular man, with a large beard and long hair, military tattoos covering his upper arms, and enough muscles to make Akhiko jealous. Perhaps that was why the members of SEES were so shocked to hear him introduce himself.
"Hello, I'm Villi Reed, Erik's Father." responded with a rather high pitched, very thick finnish accent. "Thank you all so much for being his friend, he doesn't have too many back in America."
"Okay, isä, that's enough." Erik groaned. "Aaro and John still need to introduce themselves."
"Oh, yes, my apologies." Villi responded. "Aaro, John, you're good to come in." A young man with neatly combed hair slowly pulled himself into the dorms, his wheelchair making a rather loud squeak as it went up the stairs.
"Hello everyone, I'm Aaro, may I ask what your name is, Madam?" Aaro introduced, trying to flirt with Yukari. Naturally, it had no effect.
"Not interested." Yukari reacted coldly. Aaro gave a look of defeat and wheeled off to the side. Next to enter was a man in a patriotic t-shirt, a pair of cargo shorts, and a cowboy hat.
"Any of you talk to me and I will hurt you. We kicked your ass in the war and we can do it again." He said in english. Wow, he definitely wasn't the social type.
"Sorry about John, he doesn't mean it, he just likes to be an asshole." Erik sighed. "I'm pretty sure he chose his outfit just to piss off nationalists."
"He almost wasn't going to come, actually." Villi commented. "He got arrested again just last week, the only reason he's able to come is because the guy he punched refused to press charges."
"He's going to get shot one of these days." Erik groaned. "Well, I'm glad we still get to see you, let me show you around the city." Well, they had just spent two hours cleaning for nothing. Still, it felt nice to clean up the dorms. Kae smiled slightly as she sat down and picked up a magazine, flipping through the editorials. Minato sat down next to her.
"Tell him you love him." Minato stated, getting straight to the point.
"What in god's name do you mean?" Kae bluffed, pretending she didn't know what Minato was talking about.
"It's a bit obvious, maybe not to him, but Minako and I have it figured out." Minato stated. "Just tell me how you're feeling."
"I guess I feel jealous." Kae stated. "Not just with how much time he spends with your sister and Aigis, but about his family too."
"Tell me about the latter." Minato stated.
"I barely knew my parents, they died when I was six." Kae explained. "The explosion that caused all of this led to them dying in a crash. I was in the car at the time. Some metal pierced my lower abdomen and my arm was pinned under some crushed metal for at least three hours while the firefighters tried to figure out how to rescue me. I still can't handle even looking at cars to this day."
"I see." Minato responded. "I feel like it's more than that."
"How observant." Kae sighed. "I didn't have a very good relationship with my grandparents, they took me in after the crash. They didn't treat me well, especially because of how I dressed. I was bullied a lot when I was younger. The girls in school abused me for liking traditionally masculine things, like Shonen Jump, airsoft, sports, the military, that kinda thing. As an act of rebellion against them, to show them they can't control me, I got my parents to let me dress and style my hair in a more masculine way, while holding myself more feminine. It didn't make things much better, but I felt more comfortable in my own skin. Now, I've come to rely on the way I dress." Minato was speechless.
"I'm guessing grandma and grandpa didn't like that?" Minato stated. Kae nodded.
"They thought I should be more like a traditional housewife. They enforced those ideals on me, often physically." Kae stated. "It wasn't a good situation. Thankfully, the Kirijos took me away from those assholes. I hope they die, honestly."
"I see." Minato stated. "Kae, I think it would be good for you to try and get closer to Erik. I get that you may have reservations about being part of a family, but I think it would be good for you to spend time with his family."
"But they're from an area of the states that-" Kae began.
"I don't care, talk to them." Minato stated. "I'll make Mitsuru order you to."
"You- you really know how to manipulate people, you know that?" Kae sighed.
"I pride myself on it." Minato smirked. Kae sighed.
"Not something to be proud of." Kae groaned as she stepped out the door to rush to track down Erik's family.
Erik was honestly quite surprised to find Kae tagging along to give his family a tour. She had been avoiding him recently, so Erik was in shock when she showed up, offering to give a local's perspective on the area. It was certainly helpful in giving Erik's family a better understanding of the area. Arro and Villi were certainly interested in the area, with John not caring about anything whatsoever and intentionally doing traditional courtesies wrong out of spite. It was almost like his brother was an asshole. But in all seriousness, it was a rather fun experience to show them around the city.
"I want to address the elephant in the room, Erik." Villi stated as Erik set his Ramen down to eat. "Erik, do you really want to join the military?"
"I- I don't want to, Dad." Erik stated. "I would rather do anything but join the military."
"I understand." Villi stated. "Given your birth, I wouldn't want to either. But tell me, what is it you want to do?"
"I want to be an EMT." Erik explained. "I want to save lives, not take them. I would rather serve a community, not the world."
"I think you may have misunderstood what I meant when I explained our family tradition to you." Villi stated. "Service isn't just the military, it can be firefighting, police, medical, anything meant to do something selfless for a community, big or small. It just so happened that your grandfather and I both chose the military."
"So I never had to join the military in the first place?" Erik asked.
"Nope." Villi responded.
"Wait, when did you suspect I didn't want to go into the military?" Erik asked.
"When's the last time you heard of a kid who wants to be an airforce doctor taking two years abroad in Japan?" Villi smirked.
"I see." Erik groaned. "I'm still glad I came here, so much would not be the way it is if I stayed home."
"I mean, you have friends now." John chuckled. Erik ignored John's remarks.
"Speaking off, I think I have a perfect way to end off the day." Erik said with a smile.
Minako admired the small fire Erik quickly built up. It was a quick, dirty little thing, but it was nice to have nonetheless. Erik's father took efforts to help make it smokeless, though there still was a small pillar of it blowing towards Ikutsuki.
"Oh dear, it seems I can't get comfortable, the smoke is always billowing to me." Ikutsuki sighed.
"Savu seuraa lampaannussijaa" Junpei stated, looking at Erik and his family. They began to giggle uncontrollably, before eventually bursting out into laughter.
"What's so funny? What does it mean?" Ikutsuki asked.
"It's a Finnish saying I learned on my own after Erik forced me to learn the language." Junpei explained. "It means 'The smoke follows the one who' uhh..." there was a pause. "The one who sleeps with sheep." The rest of SEES burst out laughing as well. Ikutsuki just seemed confused at the remark.
"Is there some kind of joke there?" Ikutsuki asked. "If so, I don't get it."
"Great, the one time a joke is actually funny, and the 'comedian' doesn't get it." Minato sighed.
"Sounds like Ikutsuki." Kae laughed. She was in an usually chipper mood today. Minako guessed that Kae finally stopped pitying herself and bothered to interact with Erik, a good sign, now she just needed to grow a pair and confess. But for now, Minako didn't care about that, she just focused on enjoying her time with her brother and the rest of SEES, doing her usual and making sure to get the ball rolling on some relationships. All she did was steer things in the right direction, mostly just having people talk to each other. She did try to get Junpei and Fuukka talking, but that didn't really go anywhere, they just couldn't work it seemed. Ah well, it was a nice, enjoyable time for everyone, too bad it wouldn't last.
A/N: You thought it was going to be an unimportant chapter, but it was I, ANGST! In all seriousness, this is when shit gets real, next shadow is that one electricity one and then you know who's death. I'll just leave it there. Until next time, hope you enjoyed and have a wonderful day!