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-34-
Aiko arrived at her brother's residence at close to eleven that day. The woman was scared and nervous and worried after her conversation with her brother, and that combined anxiety sat like something nasty in the pit of her stomach, something which began to rot and reek as she dwelt on the idea that her brother had almost been killed by a goddess. The thought scared her all over again. Oh, fuck, her brother had almost been killed by a goddess. A literal goddess. A 'worship thee and make sacrifices unto thy name to bestow thy blessings' goddess who had almost killed her brother. Fuck. Oh, fuck. What the fuck was she supposed to do? What could she do? 'Never speak to me or my brother again'? She couldn't make demands of a goddess. She didn't want to make demands of a goddess. Up until that fucking phone call, they'd been on some pretty damned good terms, but now this...oh god- no, screw that, oh Satan, what was she supposed to do? Fuck, she didn't want this. Why did Belldandy have to—fuck!
Morning traffic between North Carolina and Virginia had slowed her more than she'd planned, and in her rush to reach Keiichi the student had been pulled over for speeding by a local police cruiser. She'd wasted an hour trying to keep her cool with the man and explain to him why she'd been in such a rush. She was rewarded with a warning instead of a ticket for her trouble, which she was grateful for. It had been enough to scare the young woman into going strictly the speed limit, though, which further delayed her arrival, but saved her another pull over when she spotted two more cruisers on the highway. Now the college student drove at fifteen up the familiar curved road that led to her brother's driveway, and was greeted with the sight of a stranger on the front porch. Another god, Aiko was willing to bet. Fuuuuuck.
He was a short man, probably no taller than Aiko, who took after her mother, Takano, on the 'petite' side of the family. His dress was strange and outlandish; long, white robes with patterns along their frills that brought to mind some kind of religious affiliation. He stood talking on a cellphone while leaning across the wooden railing surrounding the front porch, his eyes following Aiko's vehicle as she pulled up into the driveway. There was something strikingly familiar about the man, though what it was Aiko couldn't say. It tugged at the recesses of her brain, though the worry presented over what had happened to Keiichi outweighed whatever familiarity the man might have possessed.
The day had developed into an outrageously bright and sunny day, one that called for tank tops and shorts as the sun approached noon and seemed vastly inappropriate weather for Aiko's current state of mind. Her mood was a wild and uncontrolled tempest, her mood should have brought rain and wind and storms. Yet instead the birds chirped and sang and the crows cawed as they insulted each other. A mosquito landed on Aiko's arm, which she swatted as she exited the vehicle and closed the door behind her. She could hear the man talking, but it wasn't in any language she understood. The robes must have been stifling for him when combined with Virginia's humidity, yet the man appeared largely unaffected by the temperature or his heavy outfit.
He switched to English at her approach. "Listen, you old dream-eater, I gotta go, okay?" He paused and listened to the voice on the other end, who sounded vaguely like an old woman. "I know... but right now we got six divinities in the same house already, we don't need a seventh one descending. We a big enough target without adding another Tic to the mess, so this seems the safest option." He yanked the phone away from his ear and held it at arm's length when the voice began yelling, then looked at Aiko with a long-suffering look. Aiko watched him with uncertainty, debating on whether to simply sneak past the odd-but-familiar man or to wait for him to finish speaking before proceeding. Having grown up in a traditional Japanese home where manners came first and foremost, the urge to politely wait won out. Not for the first time in her life Aiko cursed her upbringing.
The yelling faded, and the uncomfortably-familiar man- just who the flying fuck did he remind her of? The name was at the tip of her tongue- brought the phone back to his ear. "Good to hear. I'll pass it on." The call ended, and the man stored his phone somewhere in the infinite depths of his robes before turning his focus to Aiko.
Aiko stared at him long and hard, wracking her brain as she tried to figure out why he still seemed so god damned familiar to her. "Your wife sounded mad," she said in a fit of absent-mindedness, and then watched as the man's dark eyes bulged in their sockets before tilting his head back and howling with laughter.
"My wife? Her? She'd eat me!" he cried, releasing long, whooping peals of laughter that shook his whole body.
"I thought that's what most guys wanted, though," Aiko replied, and watched as again the odd little man paused, thought her words over for a moment, and then leaned over the wooden banister of the porch in another fit of laughter. His face was growing red, and despite herself Aiko grinned, though it was perhaps a tad bit nervous.
"Ooooh, I like you Kyz," he said after composing himself. "I ain't laughed like that in a month a' Sundays!" He sent her an amiable smile. "You okay, Kyz. You okay." He shook his head, and another trickle of laughter escaped him. "That ain't no assat, Kyz. That was U'sar-an." Another head shake. "Like I would take a Dreamweaver for a spouse... as if my Ssaratu does not bring enough nightmares as is... are you Lum- Morisato's ahatki? With that hair, I'd a' passed you for one a Lind's kud."
Aiko stared at him blankly, that same nervous smile still on her face as she slowly shook her head. "Um, sorry, a what? A 'lum'?" She asked. "I... understood about one in every three words you just said. What's a... whatever you just called me?"
The stranger stared at her for a moment as though not understanding what she was asking of him. "OH! Right! Sorry 'bout that!" he said. "I forget myself at times. 'Lum' as in you. What your race is. The race of man and mortal as so crafted by the higher planes," he explained. "An' I called you by my old tongue's word for 'sister'."
"Oh." Aiko looked at the man, still uncertain. "Well... I suppose that makes you one of the newcomers then, huh?" She looked him up and down. I almost have it. It's... something. Some old movie I saw once? Christ, who the fuck does he remind me of? "Yeah, I'm Kei's younger sister, Aiko." The college student narrowed her eyes at him for a long moment. He almost looks like... They widened in recognition, and with a yelp Aiko stumbled back. "Holy shit!" she exclaimed, and watched as the man before her- for fucks sake why didn't she see it sooner?- jumped and yelped in surprise. "You're fucking Cheech!"
The man's eyes widened. That's what gave it away, the big fucking give-away, the huge bulging eyes when he got startled and that ridiculous perv-stache, and then he raised his hands up in front of him. "Wait! Hold up, I ain't no lum!"
Yet Aiko was already off in her own little world. "It all makes sense now," she breathed. "How a couple of stoners managed to make so many stupid-ass movies! It's because Cheech is a fucking god and I'm staring at him as I live and breathe!"
"What?!" 'Cheech' stared at her in confusion that was broadening into horror, and Aiko felt a larger smile spread across her face.
The college student started patting herself down, looking for her phone. Realizing she had left it in her car, she looked back to Cheech. "Hold up, stay right here for a second!" she cried. "Please? I need to get something real fast." Leaving the flustered god on the porch, Aiko raced off the towards her car, rooted through the debris on the passenger seat, found the object of her search, retrieved another important item from the glove box, then raced back up the front porch without even bothering to shut the door to her car. The god was now staring at Aiko with large, nervous eyes. The girl scaled the three steps leading up to the front porch in a single leap, and Cheech jumped away from her as though fearing some kind of attack.
"The lum are getting kooky," he muttered to himself.
Aiko ignored the comment. "C'mere." She waved him over with her free hand. "C'mon, please? I just want to take a picture with you."
"A picture?" The deity stared at her in confusion, and Aiko put on the most winning and innocent smile she could. "Why you want a picture with me, Kyz?" he asked, looking very much like he did not want to have anything to do with her at that moment. "This proof you gonna use for something? I don't like pictures. They always come back to bite me in the ass."
"Please?" Aiko begged. "It'll be fine, I promise. I just want to take a picture with you."
"I ain't Cheech." The man eyed her in mistrust. "And you the second lum to call me that. I'm Nebo."
"Then can I take a picture with 'Nebo'?" Aiko persisted. There was no way in hell she was going to let this opportunity slip past her. "Please?" she asked again. "Pretty please with sugar on top? I promise I won't put it online or anything." Fuck that, she was putting this picture on her Instagram page as soon as she got home.
"Ah..." The man still looked uncertain, but he didn't look quite as unwilling as before.
Aiko clasped her hands in front of her, keeping the little bag she'd grabbed in the cup of her palm and out of his sight. "Just one picture," she said. "That's all I'm asking. Please? Belldandy and Urd and Skuld let me take pictures of them! Hell, even Lind let me take a picture of her!" She'd sent that pic off to Jackson almost as soon as she'd finished taking it. The man had since sent her a care package filled with chocolate in thanks.
Nebo stared at her in disbelief. "Lind let you take a picture of her?" he asked. "As in, the same lady who got hair like you and could kick both our asses to Niflheim an' back?"
Aiko's smile didn't fade. "Yep!" Okay, so maybe Lind wasn't actually aware of it at the time and maybe she kind of subtly snuck a photo of the Valkyrie while she was preoccupied in her little mock-fight with Jackson, and maybe she didn't exactly know about it, but hey, ignorance is bliss, right?
That seemed to further calm Nebo down. She could tell she was winning, whittling him down like a block of wood with a sharp knife. "Promise I won't show anyone," she said. "Not Belldandy or her sisters, not Lind, not even Kei if you like. I just want one. Single. Picture."
"Just one picture," Nebo parroted. "For real? Just one?"
"Just one," Aiko said with absolute certainty.
"And you won't show anyone?" Nebo continued, watching her shrewdly.
"Cross my heart and hope to die," Aiko replied.
"Well..." Nebo hesitated, his brows knitting together as he considered his choice. "I suppose one photo couldn't hurt. Just… it's 'Nebo', okay? Not whoever this 'Cheech' lum is."
"Got it." Aiko bobbed her head in agreement, the smile on her face growing large and broad and toothy. She moved to stand next to him, and the two were almost eyelevel with each other. Nebo might have had a centimeter on her, but that was about it. He really was a small man. Aiko wondered if the real Cheech was that short or if Chong's height just made him look smaller than he actually was. As she pulled up her phone and brought up the camera app, she made a mental note to herself to look it up online later on.
The college student wrapped an arm around Nebo's shoulders, and after a moment's hesitation Nebo did as well. "Okay, smile for the camera in three...two...one..." Right as she pressed the photo button Aiko let the little bag of weed in her hand drop into the frame, then a camera shutter noise emerged from the phone. "That's it!" she cried, and thumbed the little baggie to her other hand as she turned off the phone and pocketed both it and the surreptitious item. "Sweet! Thank you so, so much, Nebo!"
"Ah... yeah." Nebo's smile looked odd and strained on his face. "No problem. Just remember, no one else knows about that, alright?"
"Got it." Aiko nodded in agreement. "Let me go and close the door to my car, okay? I forgot to close it in my excitement."
"Right..." She could feel the deity's eyes following her as she dashed back to her car to store the little bag, then slammed the door shut after disposing of it in the side compartments of the door.
Jogging back to the porch, the student smiled at the man. "Cool," she said. "Nice to meet you Nebo-who-is-not-Cheech. I'm Aiko-who-is-not-Lind."
Aiko watched an uncertain smile work its way across the god's lips. "You a strange one, Kyz," he said.
"So they tell me," Aiko replied. "It's part of my charm. Now, how about we go inside and let everyone else know I'm here. I need to see how my ex-girlfriend is doing now that I'm back in town."
Nebo proceeded to the door, looking over his shoulder in curiosity. "Ex-girlfriend?" He held the door open for her, and with a laugh Aiko took him up on the offer, charmed by the gesture.
"Yep!" Aiko chirped. "Let me tell you something, Urd and I spent the night together once and... well... goodness, I'm not supposed to be the type to kiss an' tell!" she joked, fanning herself for added effect.
"Oh." Nebo was quiet for a moment, staring at her in consideration. "She's not here right now," he admitted. "She's with Lind." He spoke the words softly, as though letting Aiko in on a secret, and a part of Aiko wondered if the man wasn't taking her words seriously.
She played along just for effect. "I knew it!" she hissed. "I knew Urd had a thing for that blue-haired scamp! She's still trying to bounce back from after I dumped her!" She sighed, massaging her temples with one hand. "I knew it... Lind looks too much like me for her own good... Urd is rushing into her arms for all the wrong reasons... that poor woman is going to be heartbroken once Urd recovers and dumps her."
Nebo nodded his head, looking for all the world like a sympathetic ear. He paused to close the door behind them, following Aiko inside. The young woman just caught the man whisper, "Maybe I should warn her..."
Aiko, her initial bad mood forgotten in the wake of meeting this strange and silly man, had to bite the inside of her cheek to stop herself from laughing. Bless him, he's too innocent for this world. She thought with a smile, and that smile only grew larger as someone stepped into the hallway from the dining room. "Kei!" she cried, and barreled into the other man, who caught her with a grunt. "You're here! Oh thank goodness. Are you all right?" She asked, looking up at him. "You weren't hurt or anything, were you?"
"Yeah, I'm fine, Aiko." Keiichi's voice was quiet, absent of the usual cheer that came when seeing his youngest sister. "Sorry if I scared you. Things have been hectic over here."
"I know," Aiko professed. "That's why I came. You and Bell scared the shit out of me, Kei." They separated, and the younger woman stared at him in fresh concern. "Are you okay though? Really? You and Carrie both?"
The man hesitated for a moment. "I think for right now we are," he finally said. "It's not ideal, but... I think, at least for this moment we're both okay."
"So Carrie's here too?" Aiko asked, and Keiichi nodded.
"She's upstairs right now," he explained. "With..." He trailed off, looking back past Aiko and to the god standing near the staircase.
"She with her angel, Kyz," Nebo said.
"Yeah." Keiichi nodded. "It-shit's weird, Aiko. I can't explain it any other way."
"So I heard over the phone," Aiko replied. "Angels though... really? Is this an actual thing?"
"They're real alright," Keiichi grumbled. "And big, and small, and..." He ran his hands through his hair. "Fucking hell."
Nebo watched the two siblings carefully. "How much you know 'bout us, Morisato-kud?" He looked between the two of them, addressing them both.
"What's 'cud'?" Aiko asked. "You aren't talking about the stuff cows chew, is it?"
Nebo stared at her blankly. "Now why in the nine worlds would I-no. Kud. Your tribe. How much does your tribe know about us? Myself and Lind and Belldandy and the others?"
The two siblings stared at the man, both quiet as they contemplated the deity's question. In truth, their knowledge was limited. Aiko's even more so than Keiichi's. They'd been told of Yggdrasil and knew the Norns kept the universe running on some level that neither of them could understand. They'd seen the power a goddess could wield and the sheer strength behind it. And now they knew that angels existed and, to some extent, were connected to a specific god, though the hows and the whys were still largely ambiguous. Sure, there was probably scripture out the wazoo detailing their lives, but there was something very, very different about knowing a god in person versus knowing a god on paper, as both brother and sister had been quick to learn.
A brunette woman Aiko didn't recognize came down the staircase, pausing when she caught sight of Aiko. "Lind?" she asked, catching Nebo's attention as he looked up and over his shoulder at her. "You have returned? What have you done to your hair? And Urd is not with you?"
"Hate to disappoint you, but I'm Earth-Lind, better known as Aiko," the college student replied. "God-Lind is unavailable, though if you want, through my incredible psychotic-I mean, psychic connection with my almighty half, I can summon her back here for you."
The stranger stared at her blankly, and Nebo turned back to Aiko. "I am starting to have trouble differentiating between your sarcasm and when you are serious," he said.
"Sarcasm?" Aiko asked in mock shock. "Me? Surely you must be joking," she said sarcastically. "I'm always serious!" she cried. "In fact, just to prove it, I'm going to use my amazing telepathic abilities to call Lind back here right now!" She pointed to the front door.
Nothing happened.
Aiko dropped her hand. "Eh, it was worth a shot," she said. "Sometimes there's a delay on our link, you know. Could be anywhere from instantaneous to-"
The front door opened, and Lind and Urd entered, the latter of whom looked utterly exhausted.
"Bitch, I'm magic!" Aiko proclaimed as she pumped her fist in the air.
"So it would seem..." Nebo eyed the woman in disbelief. He looked back to the latest arrivals. "Welcome back. All is well, I hope?"
Lind nodded, and Urd stumbled past her through the hallway and into the living room. Without a word she collapsed face down onto the Ugly Beast. Within seconds she was out cold.
The two siblings stared at the back of the couch in concern, the Ugly Beast's back blocking all but the woman's feet from view. "Is... she okay?" Aiko asked.
"As okay as she can be," Lind grumbled. Nebo raised an eyebrow. "She expelled all her energy out in the woods," the Valkyrie explained. "I think she saw it as a necessity. World of Elegance was close to losing it for a while there." She looked disgruntled. "She… they're better now. Both of them."
"Who's World of Elegance?" Aiko asked.
"Urd's angel," Lind replied, then paused, as though seeing Aiko for the first time. "It's you."
"It's me," Aiko agreed. "How ya' doing God-Twin? You taking care of my ex-girlfriend?"
Lind squinted at her, and beside Aiko, Keiichi hid his face in his hands.
Nebo looked at the gathered assortment of mortals and gods and sighed. "How about we move this conversation into the dining room and give Urd a break. She been going at it without rest for a while now."
"Yeah..." Aiko was the only one who noticed Keiichi's lingering gaze on Urd. He almost looked guilty. More questions for when they finally had a chance to speak in private.
Together, the group of three gods and two mortals proceeded into the dining room. Keiichi chose to stand as Aiko introduced herself to Peorth. "Okay," the college student announced. "So I now know that everyone is alive, for the most part." She eyed Keiichi, who nodded in agreement. "That's a relief. Now, could somebody please explain these angels I keep hearing about?" she requested. "Maybe... I don't know, show them to me, if possible?"
"Sorry, Kyz, no can do. Angels ain't for show." Nebo shook his head.
"Why not?" Aiko asked. "Keiichi saw Urd's. He told me over the phone."
"That was accidental," Keiichi clarified, ignoring the look Nebo sent him. "I... kind of walked out when Urd's angel popped out. She let me know right away it wasn't okay for me to see her."
"She attacked you, didn't she?" Peorth crossed her arms over her chest. "Typical," she grunted. "As expected from an angel with black plumage."
Both Aiko and Keiichi stared at the woman queerly. "Wait, what do you mean?" Aiko asked. "Urd's angel has black feathers? Is something wrong with that?"
Nebo groaned loudly. "Thought Belldandy spoke with you 'bout this," he grumbled, casting a glare to Peorth. "There's nothing wrong with black feathers! It's just a mutagen that occurs on occasion."
"Wait, now I'm confused." Lind peered between Peorth in Nebo, her expression blank. "What's wrong with World of Elegance having a black wing?"
"Nothing!" Nebo exclaimed, his frustration growing evident to the members present.
Peorth deliberately ignored him. "You mean to tell me that you, a Valkyrie, have never heard the rumors surrounding those with black plumage?"
"No," Lind admitted. "Valkyries tend not to speak much on the appearance of their angels. Too many people from too many different places, and our experiences in the borderlands can... alter the appearances of our angels greatly." There was a warning note in her voice. One that left Aiko watching the woman keenly, wondering if she was about to watch a fight break out between the two deities.
Peorth huffed, but seemed to heed the warning. "Then I suppose I am the only one who's heard the stories-"
"Rumors," Nebo proclaimed.
"-of an angel with a black wing?" The goddess continued without pause. "Of how they were seen as tarnished? 'Black Souled'?" She stared at Lind in disbelief.
"Peorth..." There was a note of warning in Nebo's voice now as well. Aiko thought it was the first time since meeting the two new deities that she'd heard the man address the goddess by her actual name and not 'kyz', as he seemed to prefer.
The woman looked at him, her lips pressed in a tight, thin frown. "Nebo, I know you claim those are rumors, but there's some truth to them," she said. "Rumors or not, there is fact in the matter that deities were hunted if they had black in their angels. It was said that those were the ones who would in the end descend into madness, and so they could not be trusted. That they would lose their grasp on those who were friend and those who were not and attack those around them with such wild abandon that they would-"
"That's enough, Peorth." Belldandy's voice emerged from the hallway, and the anger in it was enough to make Aiko's skin crawl. "I will not have you insult my sister or spread rumors of her to the people in this household based off false conjecture." The college student looked to the hallway and felt the hair on the nape of her neck rise in alarm. Belldandy looked pissed.
"What?" Peorth cried, looking both confused and hurt by Belldandy's words. "I am only stating what I have heard and what I have read- there are accounts of how-"
"I said. That's. Enough," Belldandy snapped. The woman's glare was strong enough to peel paint, and apparently enough to silence Peorth as well. Though the woman looked like she wanted to argue further, instead she fell silent, leaving Aiko to wonder what else she'd wanted to say.
Given how upset Belldandy looked at the accusations thrown, perhaps it was better that Aiko didn't ask.
And so she didn't ask. Didn't say anything, for that matter, as all at once Aiko was overwhelmed once more with the same sense of dread and foreboding that had been the monkey on her back since receiving a phone call from her brother early in the morning that same day. She sucked in a deep breath but heard it tremble, then rose abruptly from her seat as her hand reached out and grabbed Keiichi's. She looked at her brother. "We need to talk." A small piece of her was proud when her voice did not quiver. "In private. Now."
For a moment it appeared as though Kei would protest, his mouth parting as if to say no, only for him to pause. His eyes studied her face, and part of her wondered what it was he saw in her. He closed his mouth, and his lips pressed into a hard, thin line. He nodded, and still holding his hand, the two excused themselves from the table. They passed Belldandy on their way toward the hallway and upstairs, and Aiko felt a strange cocktail of shame, guilt, anger, and pity as the goddess moved- hell, almost jumped- away from them. She caught a brief glance at the Norn in passing and was left uncomfortable by the look on Belldandy's face. The anguish in the woman's eyes was strong enough to almost be made physical. Aiko averted her eyes.
As they were coming upstairs, Aiko thought she heard the soft click of a door closing, then passed it off as Skuld. She was the only person who wasn't present downstairs, and given what Keiichi had told her over the phone, the college student was aware of the younger Norn's presence in the house. They moved into Keiichi's room. It appeared to be in order, his bed made and everything in its place. The only thing that was off was that there was a strange tang to the air that Aiko caught as she entered, like Febreeze mixed with smoke.
As she closed the door, it was then that, ever so politely, Aiko lost her shit.
"Keiichi, what the fuck?" she demanded. It was one of the few times the younger woman had ever broken down and used her brother's full name. "You're still- she's still here. Why are you still in the same house with the person who just tried to kill you?"
Keiichi sighed. "It's my house Aiko," he said. "And I've already had to make that clear to half the people here. I'm not going to be chased from my home."
"Then you could have sent Belldandy away!" Aiko exclaimed. "Keiichi, she almost- she killed you. You guys shouldn't even be in the same room together! Kei, if she was human, you know what this would be? Attempted murder. Not a fucking domestic dispute. Not even domestic violence, all though given what happened last time you might as well rope that charge in there too. But no, she pretty much murdered you, and you're still in the same fucking building as her? What the hell is wrong with you?"
"Aiko..." Keiichi sounded tired. Worse, he sounded condescending, as though Aiko was in the wrong for losing her temper and freaking out. Not the woman who'd murdered his ass and had required a straight-up act of God in order to save him. Not even Keiichi himself, because let's face it, it takes two to tango and they were both willing parties at the time. No. She was in the wrong.
"No!" Aiko snapped. "Don't you even start. You remember what happened between you and Deb? How the immediate action McGuinness took was to keep you away from Deb until an investigation sorted everything out?" She looked at him earnestly, searching his face, yet her brother's expression was guarded. "How is this any different, huh?" she demanded. "You almost killed Deb that night, and it scared her so bad she left the house. Now you've got a new girl, the roles are switched, and all of a sudden you're in Deb's shoes, yet rather than recognize the fact you're in a bad situation, you fucking ignore that shit?"
For a moment Aiko thought she caught a flash of anger from the man; a spark that made his whole face ripple with contained emotion, and in that instant Aiko saw the SEAL beneath the man, saw the warrior caged within, and understood just why it was SEALs held the reputation they did. For a brief moment she thought she might have even seen a little of what Deb saw that night, and maybe even felt a little of what Deb felt that night, yet it lasted not even a full second. The thing she'd seen slide across his flesh vanished in place of her brother once more.
"What would you have me do?" Keiichi asked her instead, and that heavy exhaustion in his voice almost seemed to weigh on him like a physical presence. "I can't go to McGuinness with this shit. I can't kick a goddess out of my house. I can't-" He squeezed his eyes shut, looking hurt, and Aiko felt a knot of guilt well up inside her. It wasn't as if her brother didn't recognize the situation he was in- he wasn't ignoring it as she'd initially suspected upon arrival. Hell, he'd considered his options, laid all his cards on the table and realized there was no winning this hand. McGuinness didn't have a full understanding of the situation and would demand an explanation if he went to his OIC or anyone else on his team. Belldandy was a goddess, in a house filled with gods. In this case, Keiichi was the odd man out, even with Aiko's arrival. Sure, he could go and rent a hotel room, but that wasn't going to address the matter at hand. If anything, it would make matters worse, given the fact that he'd have been chased from his home by the woman downstairs at this very moment.
But something needs to give, Aiko thought. I get that we can't just call the police and let the justice system work its magic, because we're dealing with literal gods who could probably brain wipe them or just straight up blow them to pieces if they try and get involved. We can't force someone with so much power out of the house either- not when we're the minority surrounded by those same forces that could squash us like bugs. It's like the only option we have is to negotiate, yet how do you work up the nerve to negotiate with the person who tried to kill you?
She frowned and tried to imagine herself in Keiichi's shoes, yet the one person that came to her was not her lover back home, but Stuart in Belldandy's place, leering down at her from the darkness of her mind's eye. Her skin broke into goosebumps at the man's once familiar face, the smile he used to wear having evolved over the years since his trials into a grimace of such hate and malice it made her ill to imagine it. Yet imagine it she did: she made him a god, filled with powers unending, and placed him downstairs right next to Belldandy. She shuddered at the vision. "I just don't- how can you stand it, Kei? Knowing she killed you, and then standing in the same room as her?"
"Because I think I'm still in love with her." The man froze at the words, as though surprised by his own announcement. Aiko sure as shit was.
"How can you say you still love her after that?" the woman demanded. "I don't-" She shook her head, baffled, upset, and confused. "It really is like Deb," she lamented. "God... Kei, I never told you this, but... after what happened between the two of you... she was the same way. Even when she was afraid of you, all she would do was ask about you. 'How's Keiichi?', 'Is he okay?' 'Should I go and see him?' 'I want to see him but I'm afraid'… shit, Megumi told me she had to convince her three times that calling you was a bad idea, and this all in the same week that followed what happened between you two!" The student shook her head, frustrated. "She said it drove her mad- that she finally had an understanding why all the people she met with would always go back to the men or women who beat them. Fuck, she begged us to convince her to back down! To find a reason, any reason, to stop her from picking up the phone and calling you!" She beheld him with a grimace. "Do you have any idea what that's like? To have to vilify your own brother to your sister-in-law for her sake?"
"And now the tables are turned and you're refusing to see what's right in front of your face just like Deb!" Aiko cried. "Please, Keiichi, open your fucking eyes! She tried to kill you!"
"It was an accident," Keiichi said, his voice quiet and unconvincing, as though he was uncertain who the words were for. "She thought I was someone else."
"Which means she was trying to murder someone else," Aiko emphasized. "Kei, you're a Navy SEAL. I get that. I understand that killing is part of the job and that it's not something you take joy in, but you need to get this through your head- what she did wasn't part of a job. She wasn't ordered by some higher power because she is that higher power, and she wanted to kill somebody. That's not healthy, Kei!"
The man paused and stared at her, silent for a moment before responding. "Wouldn't you want to kill Stuart?" he asked. "After what he did to you?"
The question shocked her to the core, repulsed her in ways she couldn't explain. She stared at him in a stunned silence, and then shook her head. "No," she said, and the steel in her voice was undeniable. "No, I wouldn't. I don't. I want justice, not revenge, and I got my justice. I got my justice a long time ago, and while I was recovering from what he put me through, he got a cell and a number in California's prison system, which places a higher value on the number of people behind bars than it does the number of people graduating high school. I got my justice, and I want nothing more to do with the man, and don't you dare use him as an example in this case."
"Right..." Keiichi sounded distracted now. As if the man was trying to work out some puzzle in his mind. "Right, sorry Aiko. I wasn't trying to…" He trailed off, and his gaze grew long and distant. "I don't know if... no, I don't think she did." He fell into a thoughtful silence, his brows pursed together amidst the contemplative frown on his face. "She... never got her justice, did she? Not with Aoshima... maybe not even with that demon..."
"What do you mean?" Aiko asked.
Keiichi shook his head. "I don't know," he said. "Not yet, at least."
The woman eyed him keenly. "Kei..." she warned.
Yet the SEAL ignored it. "I think I've reached a decision," he said, in that same quiet and commanding voice that Aiko only heard her brother use on topics that particularly bothered him. "One more chance," he said.
Aiko stared at him in stunned silence, and the man continued. "I will give her one more chance," he said. "Just one," he said, cutting Aiko out before she could protest. "You made your points. And they're good points, I'm not going to deny that. But you also brought up other points that I can't ignore. Deb. What we went through. Why she... why she left."
The man took a deep breath. "And you confirmed to me what I already knew. That what Belldandy did was an accident... that she hasn't reached the same peace you have with the person- the people who wronged her and that she's still fighting to reach that goal." His words, though long, were slow and meticulous. Considerate. Careful. "And... I want to give her one more chance... because I do still love her, and that's probably the worst part of it. I want to give her another chance like Deb wanted with me and had to be convinced otherwise because I wasn't right in the head. I want to..." He sighed. "I want to be there for her... when Deb wasn't there for me."
"But..." Aiko drawled. "This can't be without stipulations, Kei. You can't let her get away with literal murder."
"And I won't," Keiichi agreed. "I won't... this will be the last chance, because I do love her, but I also realize that there needs to be a line. Boundaries need to be set. I can't keep getting pieced together like a Lego man every time Bell loses control of herself, but I also can't just expect her to turn around and be 'better' at the drop of a hat." He sighed. "I'll speak with her. Figure something out. Figure out what she wants and what I want and if it's close enough to the same thing to still salvage something out of this. But that's for me to speak with her about in private." He smiled at her. "It'll work out, Aiko. I'll make it work."
Aiko stared up at him and bit her lip. "Damn it Kei..." She stepped toward him and wrapped her arms around the man in a tight embrace. "You're such an asshole, you know that?" She pressed her face into his chest, and felt the man wrap his arms around her in an embrace just as tight. "A big, loveable asshole." The woman blinked her eyes rapidly, feeling them growing hot and fighting against the tears that threatened to slide down her face. "You know what my biggest fear is? It's you. Of you going away on a deployment and never coming back. Of you returning home in a casket, or Keima or Takano opening up the door to some sailor in his service dress, or me receiving a fucking phone call because you-" She bit her lip, grimaced, and continued. "You're supposed to be safe when you're home, asshole! Safe at home practicing whatever you do with McGuinness and Jackson and Sanchez, getting drunk in bars and having stupid one night stands and whatever! But now you got yourself mixed up in all this-this shit! And it scares me! You're supposed to be safe back home, but now I'm more scared than ever, because now, now you've literally come closer to death than any other time in any deployment overseas, and I'm scared shitless that something will happen- some stupid little thing will happen, and I'll lose you when I'm practically right fucking next door to you!"
"I'm sorry," Keiichi murmured. "I don't mean to make you worry like this."
"This is the last time, right?" Aiko demanded. "Promise me this will be the last time. I can't lose you, Kei. Please. Not like this."
The man sighed. "One last time," he mumbled. "It's a promise. One final chance to get it right, and I'll make sure Bell understands that too, okay?"
Aiko nodded against him, but refused to let him go, clutching him like the terrified little girl she'd been when he'd been allowed to finally take leave and visit her in California after completing his Naval training. And as he'd done then, so too did he do now, holding onto her just as tight, as if by his grip alone he could shield her from all her terrors and all her nightmares, refusing to loosen his embrace until Aiko's lightened first.
The college student pulled away from him, looking up at the man with puffy red eyes. "Stop being an asshole, dick."
"Well that'd only leave me as a pussy then, wouldn't it?" Keiichi asked. "And we both know I'm not that."
It earned a broken laugh from the woman, who sniffed noisily and ran her elbow against her nose, looked at the mucus smeared across it, and them rubbed it on Keiichi's shirt. The man groaned loudly. "And I'm supposed to be the asshole?" he demanded, still joking, which earned him another laugh from the woman.
"Yes," Aiko announced. "Because you make too many women cry."
He gave her a small half-smile. "Guess I'll have to find a way to make up for that too," he said. "You gonna be good to head back downstairs soon?"
Aiko nodded and sniffed loudly. "Gonna go to the bathroom and clean myself up," she said. "Then see if maybe I can't speak to Bell."
Keiichi looked to her in concern, "Aiko, you're not going to-"
"No." The woman shook her head. "It's... nothing like that. But I need to make sure that she understands. I need to speak with her and hear with my own two ears that she understands, that she won't..." She shook her head. "I need to clear the air between the two of us. Even if she doesn't realize it. And then you can have your little chat with her and then we can all be one big happy family again, with some new dude who looks like Cheech and my evil twin who isn't my twin and, well, I'm probably the more evil of the two of us, but still! I'm going to go talk with her and I'm going to be courteous and mature, because damn it all, I like Belldandy. Even if she did... accidently try and kill you. If you take that incident out of the picture, she's a good person." She bit her lip. "We're friends. I don't want to lose that friendship. I don't want to lose you more, but if I can still have you and I can still be friends with Belldandy... well, there are worse things that could happen, right?"
Keiichi's smile was thin. "Right."
XXX
Skuld had returned as Aiko was making her way down stairs. The woman, like her eldest sister, looked worn and exhausted in almost every way imaginable. She grunted when she saw Aiko but made no further comment, as though Aiko was just the latest in a long line of issues to work through and couldn't be bothered speaking with. Aiko had the unique experience of watching the woman proceed into the living room, stare at Urd passed out on the couch, and then collapse on top of her elder sister without a care in the world. Urd didn't so much as twitch through the entire act, and Aiko was left wondering what the two siblings had experienced that had left them so exhausted and drained before noon that day.
It left her with the also unique and perhaps uncomfortable experience of sharing lunch with a host of strangers in addition to her brother, few of whom Keiichi himself looked very comfortable with. Belldandy had taken to switching rooms with Keiichi whenever he appeared, giving the man enough space to fill a football stadium. Lind was perhaps the only other person she knew aside from her brother, yet even that was pushing the limit; her experience with the Valkyrie consisted of a day of watching Jackson try and fail to flirt with her, and without any of the Norns present, the woman revealed herself to be quiet and somewhat antisocial, monitoring the house's occupants like a warden in a cell block.
Peorth might not have been so bad, though admittedly that was a bit tarnished given how standoffish her brother seemed to be around her. Aiko didn't know the story behind that, but anyone who left her brother visibly uncomfortable was someone to be leery of, in her book.
Which of course should have made her wary of Nebo as well, but given the fact that Keiichi would just kind of scowl and pout and grind his teeth whenever the man spoke, Aiko considered their relationship to be something closer to a dick measuring competition rather than anything that actually made her brother uncomfortable. That Aiko could deal with. But watching Keiichi actively try and keep himself as far away from Peorth as possible and still shoot her suspicious looks whenever she wasn't looking made Aiko's hackles raise.
Christ. No wonder Lind was playing Warden. At this rate either a fight was going to break out between Keiichi and Nebo over something stupid like Nebo's declaration that he was vegetarian and Keiichi biting back some kind of snide comment, or Keiichi was going to run up a fucking wall like something out of The Exorcist if Peorth came within spitting distance of him. Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am, stuck in the middle with you. Fucking hell, either that or they'd all be dancin' to the Jailhouse Rock.
The immediate image of everyone around her dressed in black suits and shades vis-à-vis the Blues Brothers came to mind, and Aiko snorted with laughter.
Keiichi shot her a look, yet Aiko didn't bother explaining herself. Instead she rose from the dining room table. "I'm gonna go and talk to Belldandy now," she announced.
"She'll be in her bedroom," Peorth said. Her tone made it sound like a warning.
"Got it, thanks." Aiko brushed off the tone, then headed towards the hallway.
"Kyz, whenya go up there, think you could knock on her door first?" Nebo called out behind her. "We got some angels in that room and we trying to give 'em privacy."
Great. Of course. More angels. Could he hear the choir singing Hallelujah? 'Cause Aiko sure as shit couldn't, praise Jesus, could she get an Amen?
"Sure," Aiko said cheerfully, deciding that during her chat with Belldandy she was also going to heckle the shit out of the goddess about these angels. She gave the audience a thumbs up, then headed toward the staircase, taking only a moment to peek in on the two sisters passed out on the couch.
At some point, Urd had adjusted in her sleep to better accommodate Skuld. She now had an arm wrapped around her younger sister, and as Aiko proceeded up the stairs, she was left with the parting thought that the two were no strangers to sharing sleeping space, and how much more at ease they looked curled up together.
I wonder if it's the same with Belldandy. She thought, knocking loudly on the door to the woman in question's room before deciding it probably wasn't. Ten years apart tends to distance the heart. The thought brought with it an inexplicable sense of sorrow, one that came out of nowhere and left her reeling. She was at once reminded of her childhood; of long nights where she was afraid to sleep alone and had to share a bed with Megumi, of longer days having to be escorted to school and back because every corner contained a shadow, every shadow held a monster, and every bus was filled with predators, all ready to gobble her up. Of the long stress lines that became permanent additions in her father's face as he looked through bills made out to therapists and clinics, of the white streak that grew into her mother's hair as she juggled a new baby, a wounded daughter, and two jobs to help bring in additional cash as Megumi grew closer to graduation.
Those had been hard times.
Knowing she'd been at the heart of those hard times, growing up in a place like San Francisco, where the money drained like water in a sink, had made it worse.
Different person, same stressors, Aiko found herself thinking, and swallowed the lump that had gathered in her throat. Don't forget, this is Carrie we're talking about. She's gone through some shit too.
She also tried to kill Kei, some small, nasty part of her whispered in turn, and Aiko winced, trying to banish the voice from further comments.
The door opened by a crack, and Belldandy peered out from behind it with one eye. "Yes?" Her voice was soft, quiet almost, as though she was trying not to disturb whoever was in the room with her. For a brief moment, Aiko's curiosity got the better of her, and she tried to peer past the goddess and into the room. There was a strange glow emanating from within, but that was all she could see. Everything else was so dark it might as well have been midnight in Belldandy's room.
"Can we talk?" Aiko asked, her voice equally soft, though she couldn't say why.
The goddess chewed on her lip for a moment, then nodded. "Please wait one moment," she said before closing the door. Aiko could here Belldandy talking to someone for a moment, but could not quite catch what was being said through the door. After a moment, the door opened again, and the goddess stepped out, maneuvering herself so that Aiko could not see inside, which of course only piqued her curiosity even more.
Belldandy let out a long sigh, and the blue haired Morisato could not help but liken it to the resignation one might feel while being marched in front of a firing squad. "Can we do this in Keiichi's room?" she asked with more than a little trepidation. Aiko nodded and followed Belldandy through the door, closing it behind her. The goddess paused, staring at the floor for a moment. Aiko followed her gaze and saw the burn marks on the floor, which she had missed in her earlier conversation with her brother. Immediately, she recognized that this was basically ground zero. Where Belldandy had lost it.
Where her brother had died and then was brought back to life.
For a moment, it felt like the room temperature dipped slightly, causing her to shudder involuntarily. It was the same feeling that she had sometimes when she came near Stuart's big blue house. In the past, some people had explained it using a metaphor like 'someone was walking on your grave.' In this case, it was almost literal, in spite of the fact that it was her brother who had almost died and not herself. Belldandy went and sat on the edge of the bed. Aiko noted that the goddess's posture was ramrod straight, reminding her again of the firing squad. All she needs is a blindfold and a cigarette, she thought to herself as she sat next to the almond haired woman.
The college student sighed. Might as well jump in and get this over with. "Look, I'm not going to lie to you," Aiko said. "I'm pissed off right now."
Belldandy nodded, her posture still stiff and tense, as though the goddess found herself facing a wolf that might attack her at any moment. It was almost strange, coming from a woman with such infinite powers. A goddess, fearing a mortal? One who barely reached her shoulders? "I understand." The Norn said, and her voice was soft, just above a whisper and so quiet that Aiko almost had to lean forward to hear her. "And given the circumstances, I would probably feel the same way."
The college student released a breath, somewhat unnerved by Belldandy's behavior but relieved as well. Most of the folks she knew back in college would have come up with excuses or grown vocal in denying they were responsible. I was refreshing hearing a person own up to the fact that they fucked up. Even if that person was a literal god. The Almighty Unfuckupable. "Good. Now that we have that out of the way, I want to hear your side of the story. What the hell happened?"
For a brief moment Belldandy hesitated, and Aiko feared she might back down. Yet the goddess had a will like steel when she needed it, and the student watched as the woman pursed her lips, frowned, took a deep breath, and then listened carefully as Belldandy launched into her half of the story. The goddess left nothing out, providing every detail from the start of the flashback, where Aoshima had raised his ugly head, and straight down to the ugly pleasure she'd felt in knowing she was ending what she thought was her ex-husband's life. She provided every bit of the explanation she'd given to Keiichi and then some, and Aiko listened with bright, wide eyes as her gut twisted into a knot that was equal parts revulsion, anger, horror, and yes, the ever-so-popular pity.
The goddess looked close to tears by the time she was finished explaining herself to the girl, and Aiko's eyes found themselves drawn to the floor, where a large, black spot of burnt wood marked the spell that had been used to separate the goddess from her brother. A chunk of charred floor. She hadn't noticed it when speaking to Keiichi with how upset she'd been, but now her gaze was locked upon it. A chunk of black and destroyed floor in exchange for the life of her brother.
"So you remember all of it?" Aiko murmured. At Belldandy's nod, the college student ran her hands through her hair. "Holy shit," she said. "Ho-lee shit. When I spoke to Kei about his flashbacks, he always said he could never remember anything during them. I mean, even me-" God... how many times had she found herself in the arms of her Keima? Takano? Megumi, without any memory of how she'd gotten there? She swallowed. It was one thing to come around from a flashback with no memory of what had occurred, but to then recall everything she'd done when her mind had been lost in memory? Her arms broke into goosebumps at the thought alone, and a shudder traversed her spine. She felt cold all of a sudden. Real cold.
The younger woman swallowed before trying again. "I can't imagine what it must have been like. For him. I mean, I know I went through a bad experience or two, but for him it just seemed to get progressively worse over time, you know? I was lucky because I went to therapy almost as soon as it was discovered what Stuart had done to me. But Kei... he let it sit. He... he let it rot." She shook her head. "I mean, I'm thankful sometimes that he couldn't remember, you know?" She fell silent, lost in her thoughts and in her memories as she stared at the charred mark on the floor.
She looked back at Bellandy. "Did he ever tell you that he almost killed Debra during one of his flashbacks?"
The goddess seemed to somehow grow even tenser. Her complexion grew ashen. "No," she admitted. "He did not."
"Yeah..." Aiko pursed her lips. "I won't go into the gory details- it's not my story- but I will say that it was bad. I think if he could have remembered what happened back then, it would destroy him. So, in a way, I'm thankful for that. But that brings us to the matter at hand. I… didn't want to say anything about this at first, but I think it's appropriate to let you know that he is leaning towards allowing you to stay."
The Norn stared at her in shock. "What?" She exclaimed, "But I thought for sure..." She trailed off, looking as confused and uncertain as Aiko had not thirty minutes beforehand.
The woman sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "Yeah, well, I'm sorry to say that if it were up to me, I would be hauling his ass out of here right now. But it's not. And you know why he is considering this?"
Belldandy shook her head. "I am almost afraid to know."
Aiko scowled, though she was uncertain if it was in regards to the woman before her or her elder brother. "Well, even though this is a matter between you and him, I am going to tell you anyway," she said. "It's because of Debra. She left Kei because he basically did the same thing that you did to him, except for the actual killing part. It scared her shitless, just like Kei is now. So now he is seeing this from the other side of the fence, so to speak, from the side of the victim, yeah. And now that he has seen it from both sides, the stupid dummy does not want to do to you what Debra did to him. He wants to give you one more chance, Belldandy."
"He wants to-" All at once Belldandy fell silent. She stared at Aiko with first disbelief, then alarm, then anger, and into rising shame as the words sank in. "That man..." she breathed. "Oooh, that foolish, foolish man." A hand went to her heart, and she stood there, looking lost, confused, and relieved all in the same instant. "I can't-no," she said. "No." More firmly this time. "I refuse, I, I cannot allow him to be so foolish, so, so unwise with such a decision." Aiko stared at her, startled. "He doesn't-I almost killed him! And I may do so again! Doesn't he realize I'll-can he not see that I might..." Her lower lip began to tremble. "I can't... This man, he... he just..."
Tears began falling down the Norn's cheeks. Tears born of relief, and Aiko came to the shocking conclusion that the goddess had been preparing herself for much harsher news. Regardless of the conversation between the two siblings, the woman before Aiko had also recognized the atrocity of her actions, and had been fully prepared to deal with the consequences they could entail. "I cannot say no to him..." Belldandy murmured, and the corners of her lips pulled down in a deep and sad frown. "He must know this! Surely! I cannot say no to him, and I would support him whatever his decision, but this?" She buried her face in her hands with a long moan. "That-that-"
"Asshole," Aiko supplied.
"Asshole!" Belldandy shouted. "That asshole! Damn him for his forgiving heart, bless him for his forgiving heart, and damn my heart for loving him so!" Her fingers curled into fists, and she rapped them against her temples in frustration, a low growl rising from her throat and out into the open of such angry ferocity it would have sounded more at home coming from a bobcat. "Why must he be so... so..."
"Thick-headed?" Aiko asked.
"Yes!" The Norn snapped "He is a fool! A thick-headed asshole who cannot see the shit between his asscrack and tell it for what it is! And I love him for it! By the Great Tree's Three Roots, I love every bit of his moronic, self-sacrificing nature, and the fact that he is too stupid or too blind to see what poison he has fallen into drives me mad!" She groaned, then collapsed on top of the man's bed, cradling her head in her hands once more. "What am I supposed to do with this fool?"
I'm starting to wonder that as well. Aiko thought.
A/N: Pretty Aiko focused chapter here. Not that it's a bad thing. haha.
Comments of a Madwoman: It's difficult playing the role of mediator when one half is family you hold dear and the other is a person you can so easily relate to.
