Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.
Searching
The car pulled to a stop and the three stared out the two passenger's side windows. They gaped at the beautiful old plantation house. The home had white pillars, tall windows covered with lavender drapes, and a wide wraparound pouch on both the bottom and top floors. Thick forest spread out behind the house, both left and right, and through the trees to the right water shimmered from a lake.
"Wow," Sora gawked, stunned. "This place is beautiful."
"I guess that two hour drive wasn't for nothing," Matt remarked as he unbuckled his seat belt. "Just outside of Baton Rouge my ass!" He climbed out of the driver's seat as Sora and Izzy exited the back. "Should we wake Tai?"
"Yeah, probably," Izzy nodded. He and Sora walked toward the house as Matt walked to the front passenger's side of the car and banged on the window.
Tai stirred awake and groggily got out of the car, stretching as he did. "We here already?" He joked between yawns. They followed Sora and Izzy up the front steps onto the cobalt painted wood planked porch. A porch swing sat at the far end of the porch.
Izzy rang the doorbell and the French double doors were thrown open by a football player sized man dressed in kaki shorts, a black 'Grateful Dead' tee shirt, and black flip flops. "May I help you?" The silver haired man asked with a deep southern drawl.
It took Izzy a moment to recover from the shock of the size of the man and to process the accent. "Uh…yeah, we're looking for someone who hopefully lives here. Cassandra Mizuhara?"
He looked taken aback by the name. "Cassandra? No, I'm sorry. She hasn't lived here in…years."
Izzy's face fell. "Oh, sorry to bother you."
"Wait, don't go," the man called. "How come you're looking for Cassandra? Did you know her?"
"Not technically," Izzy replied, awkwardly. "She's my sister."
"She's your sister? The famous twin brother," the man let out a hearty laugh. "Oh please, come in. I can't shy you away." He ushered them into the house huge house. He led them into what looked like a library. "Go ahead and have a seat. I want to get my wife, she'll want to meet you." He turned and walked out of the room.
The four sat down on a forest green couch and gazed around the room. One wall was completely lined with books with a fireplace in the middle of it. Another had two paintings on it. The wall behind the couch had family photos on it. The last was a huge window that overlooked the lake.
"This place is really beautiful," Sora commented again. "Just incredible. I don't think I've ever seen a house like this is Odiaba."
The man walked back in, his arm looped with one of a dark red haired woman with a baby in her arms. She looked up at the four. "This young man is Cassandra's brother," her husband introduced as Izzy stood up. "He and his friends came looking for Cassandra."
The woman stared at Izzy, her blue eyes searching his face. She adjusted the sleeping baby in her arms and held out her hand. "Its nice to meet you," she greeted with the same drawl as her husband. "My name is Diane Woods and this is my husband Kale."
Izzy shook her hand. "Its nice to meet you too. My name is Koushiro Izumi and these are my friends." Sora, Matt, and Tai stood up.
Matt held out his hand. "Yamato Ishida," he smiled.
"Taichi Yagami," Tai smiled.
"Sora Takenouchi," Sora greeted.
"Sit down," Kale motioned, his voice jolly. "No need to act stiff around us." Izzy looked at his friends, shrugging and sat down. Diane walked over to a basinet in the corner of the room and laid the baby down. She took a seat beside her husband on a forest green love seat, smoothing her long yellow dress as she did.
"So what brings you way out here? Cassie hasn't live here in more then…" She looked at her husband for held. "Five, maybe six years." He nodded in agreement.
"Looks like were just a little late," Tai joked.
"Well, I just found out that I have a twin. So we came out here trying to find her," Izzy explained.
"Where are you from?" Kale asked with his elbows resting his knees. "We received Cassandra from D.C. Is that where you're from?"
"No. My friends and I are from Japan. That's where Cassandra and I were originally born, in Tokyo. I'm not sure why but she and my father came over from the states and a friend of the family took me in."
"Ah, the father," Kale mumbled with abhorrence in his voice.
"How long will you be staying in Louisiana?" Diane asked.
"We're not sure," Izzy shook his head.
"Well, since Cassandra doesn't live here anymore, we were hoping to get an address where she might be," Sora added.
"An address?" Diane mused. "She's been in and out of a lot of foster homes since us. I'm not sure where she would be right now unfortunately."
"Our daughter would," Kale offered. "Makayla was eight when your sister left. They exchanged letters for a long time after that."
"But unfortunately she's at a friend's house until the day after next," Diane grimaced. "She's spending the weekend."
"Oh, well we can come back. We're in no rush," Izzy replied. "That gives us a chance to hang out in the city."
"Where are you staying?" Kale asked.
"In town," Matt answered. "A hotel called the Crown of New Orleans."
"That's a very expensive place."
Matt cracked a grin. "I have some connections with the manager. He gave us our rooms at half price."
"Still, that's almost three hundred a night. I'd hate to have to you spend so much." The four shared knowing grins. Gennai was the one dealing with the bill, not them. "Why don't the four of you stay here? It'll save you a tone of money."
"Oh, we don't want to impose," Sora spoke up politely.
"Its nothing," he stopped her with a fatherly grin on his face. "We have plenty of room and we'd love to have you."
"Kale, hun, I doubt they would want to stay way out here in the middle of no where when they have a room in the city." She looked at Izzy. "But if you do want to stay, that's fine. We used to run a bed and breakfast so we're used to guests."
"What do you think?" Izzy asked, looking at his friends.
"Let's do it," Matt smiled. "The manager wasn't exactly happy that I had called in the favor I did."
"Why don't we stay in the city tonight since our stuff is at the hotel," Tai suggested. "Then we'll come back the day after tomorrow and stay here for a night or so since you were kind enough to offer. I would really love to look around this forest. Reminds me a little of home." Izzy smiled, he meant the Digital World.
"That would be great," Diane accepted.
"Great, we'll come back the day after tomorrow," Matt smiled and stood up. "But we should probably get going if we want to beat evening traffic."
"Yeah, right," Izzy nodded in agreement. "It was nice meeting you."
Diane led them to the door. "Have a nice drive!" She called from the porch as Izzy and company walked towards the car.
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"Well, I had fun yesterday," Sora announced from her seat in the back. She had her head leaning against the car window, watching the scenery fly by. Matt and Izzy had been talking about the city they were staying in. "Despite the fact that Matt and Tai ditched us."
"We couldn't help it," Tai objected from his seat beside her.
"Yeah, Tai saw something shiny and we lost you in the crowd," Matt laughed,
"Hey!"
"That's fine," Izzy shrugged, arm resting on the open window as he drove. "We had fun without you. We found a nice restaurant and made out."
"Gross!" Tai cringed. "My virgin ears! I'm scarred for life."
"Actually we went shopping and visited a voodoo museum."
"Trust Izzy to drag you into a museum on a vacation," Matt rolled his eyes.
"Sora dragged me," Izzy protested.
"Great, you turned her into a nerd!"
"Hey!" Sora snapped.
"Are we there yet?" Tai yelled out.
Izzy's hands tighten on the wheel. "Ask me that again Tai and I'll turn this car around and go straight home!" He looked back at Tai. "Does it look like were there yet?"
"Yes."
"Huh?" Izzy looked up at the road in time to see the house whiz by. He slammed on the brakes, causing Tai and Sora to slam into the back of the front seats. Izzy backed the car up and parked in front of the house.
"Maybe from now on you should ignore Tai and just pay attention to the road," Matt suggested as he clambered out of the car.
"That might be a good idea," Tai agreed.
They unloaded their luggage and made their way up to the porch. Izzy rang the doorbell. The doors were pulled open by Kale, dressed in kaki pants and a maroon shirt. "Hello!" He greeted. "Welcome back!" He ushered them in. "Diane!" He called. "My wife will show you your rooms. I was just about to leave. Bye!" And he walked out the door.
"Uh, bye?" Tai replied after the door closed.
The sound of footsteps echoed into the room and Diane entered the foyer. "Sorry about my husbands abrupt departure. He's going to pick up our daughter. Follow me and I'll show you to your rooms." She showed them up the stairs and pointed to four doors in a row. "Here you are. Go ahead and get settled. I'll be down stairs working on dinner, once your done."
"Thanks," Izzy smiled. "Well, come on guys."
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They sat in the library, chatting and sipping in lemonade. Dian asked them about Japan and they in turned asked her about Louisiana. The sound of the door opened and footsteps drifted into the room. "Kale, hun, we're in here."
Kale entered followed by a light brown haired girl. She walked over to Diane, ignoring the four. "Hey mom," she greeted causally, hugging the older woman.
"Welcome back. Did you have fun?" The girl gave an eager nod. "Here, these are some folks I want you to meet." She gestured to the four on the couch. "This is Sora, Koushiro, Yamato, and Taichi. This is our daughter, Makayla."
"You can just call me Matt."
"And just Tai-"
"Oh my god, your Matt Ishida! Oh my god, Matt Ishida is in my house!" The brown haired girl screamed.
"Do you know him?" Diane asked, startled by her daughter's reaction.
"Know him?! He's only THE biggest hunk in the entire world!" She had the classic 'duh' valley girl voice. Sora, Izzy and Tai smirked as Matt turned a bright red.
"Is that so?" Kale inquired. "I don't know. He doesn't look that hunky to me."
"DAD!"
Kale slapped Matt on the back. "He knows I'm just kidding." Matt gave a nervous laugh and nodded. "So you're that singer she's constantly talking about. Well, I'm a little old fashion-"
"Just a little?" the girl muttered, crossing her arms.
"But I dislike your music."
"DAD!"
'"Your no Grateful Dead or Zeppelin."
"Who sir?" Matt asked.
His mouth dropped open. "Kids these days."
"So anyway, if you're done Kale," Diane interrupted, teasingly to her husband. "This young man, Koushiro, is Cassandra brother."
She looked at Izzy with a puzzled expression on her face. "Cassandra?"
"Do you remember her? She lived here when-"
"Yeah, I remember her. How has she been? She stopped writing to me."
"Well actually," Izzy frowned. "I've never met her. I'm trying to fine her, but so far I've had no luck. We were hoping you could give us an address of where she might be living now?" His voice was hopeful, but pleading at the same time.
She nodded. "Yeah I can get you one, I'll have to go find it though. Last time she wrote to me she was living in Nashville."
"Tennessee?" Sora asked.
She nodded. "I'll go look for it." She turned and walked out of the room.
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"We leave day after tomorrow," Izzy announced, looking up from his laptop.
Sora sat down on the bed. "We don't even have an address yet. Are you in that big of a hurry?"
"We're getting close to the third week of the first month. We only have five more weeks. Besides, I'm sure we'll get it by then."
She sat up on her elbows and pulled his face to hers. "You worry too much," she said before kissing him. She pulled away. "So let's have fun."
"What did you have in mind?"
"Swimming, with Matt and Tai. They're out in the lake right now. I told them I'd come down as soon as I got you."
"I don't want to go swimming."
She placed a pair of red swimming trunks in his lap. "Aw please." She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him once more. Abruptly she pulled away, holding his crest triumphantly in her hand. "I'm kidnapping your crest. If you ever want to see it again, you'll come swimming." She jumped off the bed and walked out of the room.
He quickly dressed and walked down the stairs. Into the kitchen he passes through the back door and walked out onto the porch. To his left and right was thick green forest. Right before the porch was a garden of flowers and vegetables. Behind that was a waist high stonewall that surrounded the shimmering lake. Matt and Tai splashed around in the waist high water while Sora watched them from the sandy bank with her back to him.
He jumped the wall and tiptoed up to her. He swept her off her feet and she let out a surprised yell. "I caught you," he said cockily.
"Put me down!" She yelled.
"Alright." He took a step towards the water.
"Izzy don't!" He took another step, his foot completely submerged in the water. He gasped at how cold it was. "Izzy, don't do it! Its not even funny!" She yelled. He laughed.
Now they were at waist high. He stood beside Matt and Tai and held Sora above the water. "Bye," he smiled and let her drop with a splash.
"You are so going to die," Tai said, shaking his head.
"It was nice knowing you," Matt added.
A huge splash of water knocked him backwards. "That's what you get Koushiro Izumi!" Sora yelled, shivering.
"Water war!" Tai yelled.
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Izzy glanced up from his seat on the lakeside. Matt and Tai were still swim while Sora floated on her own in the water. His gaze shifted to the porch. Diane sat on the porch swing watching them.
He pushed himself up and brushed the sand off of his legs and shorts as he walked back to the porch. He bounded up the stairs and smiled slightly at the woman on the swing. "You looked kind of lonely. I thought I'd keep you company."
She smiled at him. "That was very considerate of you, Koushiro, thank you."
"You can call me Izzy, everyone else does," he shrugged.
"Alright." Silence spread between them. Izzy took a seat on the railing. "May I ask what you're thinking about?"
"Yeah," he shrugged again. "Just thinking about finding my sister and if this was a waste of time. What if I don't find her and I've just wasted my friends vacation?"
"By the way you and your friends are together, I don't think your wasting anything," she replied, looking at his friends. "Besides you can't think like that. You won't find her if you do. You have to have faith."
"Yeah, I guess," Izzy shrugged. "What was Cassandra like?"
"She was a very sweet little girl. She was eleven when she came here and this was her first foster home. Her dad had just given her up and she wasn't very keen on living with another family. She was very strong, especially emotionally, and she was very stubborn. For the first week and a half she refused to come out of her room. We had to leave dinner and lunch outside her door." She laughed at the memory. "She hated us and she hated leaving here with a passion. It wasn't until she forgot to lock the door did anyone have any contact with her. Kayla had wandered into her room. My husband and I were frantic looking for her for two hours. Kayla wasn't a baby, but five year olds can do a lot of damage. So later we found her in Cassandra's room with half of her toys spread out over the floor. And they were both playing."
"Did you know why her dad gave her up?" Izzy asked.
"No," she replied with a shake of her head. "She never talked about it and the information wasn't available in her file." She looked at him with a small smile on her face. "She talked about you."
"About me?"
"Uh-huh. She used to say when she grew up she was going to go back home and find you. We never knew "home" was Japan and for the longest time we didn't realize what she was talking about."
"So she knew about me," Izzy commented to himself. Kayla walked out of the house, dressed in a swim suit and walked down to the lake. "How old is Kayla?"
"Fourteen."
"Is she a foster kid too?"
"No, she adopted. We adopted her when she was three," Diane looked thoughtfully at her daughter and rested her head in her hand. "We came very close to adopting your sister too."
"Oh yeah," Izzy replied. "What stopped you?"
"Her father." She adjusted herself on the swing as she muttered the name. "Despite the fact that your father had shed all ties to Cassandra, he didn't want her adopted, so he had the state move her." She shook her head sadly before standing up and setting a hand on his shoulder. "Have faith, Koushiro. You'll find her, don't worry." She turned and walked inside the house.
I will make no comments because I am incredibly pissed off at a review some ass hole (sorry) gave me. Listen people, if an author writes about a couple you don't like that doesn't give you any god damned (sorry) right to cuss them out. So either unstuck your head from your ass (sorry) or let it go!
Please review.
Searching
The car pulled to a stop and the three stared out the two passenger's side windows. They gaped at the beautiful old plantation house. The home had white pillars, tall windows covered with lavender drapes, and a wide wraparound pouch on both the bottom and top floors. Thick forest spread out behind the house, both left and right, and through the trees to the right water shimmered from a lake.
"Wow," Sora gawked, stunned. "This place is beautiful."
"I guess that two hour drive wasn't for nothing," Matt remarked as he unbuckled his seat belt. "Just outside of Baton Rouge my ass!" He climbed out of the driver's seat as Sora and Izzy exited the back. "Should we wake Tai?"
"Yeah, probably," Izzy nodded. He and Sora walked toward the house as Matt walked to the front passenger's side of the car and banged on the window.
Tai stirred awake and groggily got out of the car, stretching as he did. "We here already?" He joked between yawns. They followed Sora and Izzy up the front steps onto the cobalt painted wood planked porch. A porch swing sat at the far end of the porch.
Izzy rang the doorbell and the French double doors were thrown open by a football player sized man dressed in kaki shorts, a black 'Grateful Dead' tee shirt, and black flip flops. "May I help you?" The silver haired man asked with a deep southern drawl.
It took Izzy a moment to recover from the shock of the size of the man and to process the accent. "Uh…yeah, we're looking for someone who hopefully lives here. Cassandra Mizuhara?"
He looked taken aback by the name. "Cassandra? No, I'm sorry. She hasn't lived here in…years."
Izzy's face fell. "Oh, sorry to bother you."
"Wait, don't go," the man called. "How come you're looking for Cassandra? Did you know her?"
"Not technically," Izzy replied, awkwardly. "She's my sister."
"She's your sister? The famous twin brother," the man let out a hearty laugh. "Oh please, come in. I can't shy you away." He ushered them into the house huge house. He led them into what looked like a library. "Go ahead and have a seat. I want to get my wife, she'll want to meet you." He turned and walked out of the room.
The four sat down on a forest green couch and gazed around the room. One wall was completely lined with books with a fireplace in the middle of it. Another had two paintings on it. The wall behind the couch had family photos on it. The last was a huge window that overlooked the lake.
"This place is really beautiful," Sora commented again. "Just incredible. I don't think I've ever seen a house like this is Odiaba."
The man walked back in, his arm looped with one of a dark red haired woman with a baby in her arms. She looked up at the four. "This young man is Cassandra's brother," her husband introduced as Izzy stood up. "He and his friends came looking for Cassandra."
The woman stared at Izzy, her blue eyes searching his face. She adjusted the sleeping baby in her arms and held out her hand. "Its nice to meet you," she greeted with the same drawl as her husband. "My name is Diane Woods and this is my husband Kale."
Izzy shook her hand. "Its nice to meet you too. My name is Koushiro Izumi and these are my friends." Sora, Matt, and Tai stood up.
Matt held out his hand. "Yamato Ishida," he smiled.
"Taichi Yagami," Tai smiled.
"Sora Takenouchi," Sora greeted.
"Sit down," Kale motioned, his voice jolly. "No need to act stiff around us." Izzy looked at his friends, shrugging and sat down. Diane walked over to a basinet in the corner of the room and laid the baby down. She took a seat beside her husband on a forest green love seat, smoothing her long yellow dress as she did.
"So what brings you way out here? Cassie hasn't live here in more then…" She looked at her husband for held. "Five, maybe six years." He nodded in agreement.
"Looks like were just a little late," Tai joked.
"Well, I just found out that I have a twin. So we came out here trying to find her," Izzy explained.
"Where are you from?" Kale asked with his elbows resting his knees. "We received Cassandra from D.C. Is that where you're from?"
"No. My friends and I are from Japan. That's where Cassandra and I were originally born, in Tokyo. I'm not sure why but she and my father came over from the states and a friend of the family took me in."
"Ah, the father," Kale mumbled with abhorrence in his voice.
"How long will you be staying in Louisiana?" Diane asked.
"We're not sure," Izzy shook his head.
"Well, since Cassandra doesn't live here anymore, we were hoping to get an address where she might be," Sora added.
"An address?" Diane mused. "She's been in and out of a lot of foster homes since us. I'm not sure where she would be right now unfortunately."
"Our daughter would," Kale offered. "Makayla was eight when your sister left. They exchanged letters for a long time after that."
"But unfortunately she's at a friend's house until the day after next," Diane grimaced. "She's spending the weekend."
"Oh, well we can come back. We're in no rush," Izzy replied. "That gives us a chance to hang out in the city."
"Where are you staying?" Kale asked.
"In town," Matt answered. "A hotel called the Crown of New Orleans."
"That's a very expensive place."
Matt cracked a grin. "I have some connections with the manager. He gave us our rooms at half price."
"Still, that's almost three hundred a night. I'd hate to have to you spend so much." The four shared knowing grins. Gennai was the one dealing with the bill, not them. "Why don't the four of you stay here? It'll save you a tone of money."
"Oh, we don't want to impose," Sora spoke up politely.
"Its nothing," he stopped her with a fatherly grin on his face. "We have plenty of room and we'd love to have you."
"Kale, hun, I doubt they would want to stay way out here in the middle of no where when they have a room in the city." She looked at Izzy. "But if you do want to stay, that's fine. We used to run a bed and breakfast so we're used to guests."
"What do you think?" Izzy asked, looking at his friends.
"Let's do it," Matt smiled. "The manager wasn't exactly happy that I had called in the favor I did."
"Why don't we stay in the city tonight since our stuff is at the hotel," Tai suggested. "Then we'll come back the day after tomorrow and stay here for a night or so since you were kind enough to offer. I would really love to look around this forest. Reminds me a little of home." Izzy smiled, he meant the Digital World.
"That would be great," Diane accepted.
"Great, we'll come back the day after tomorrow," Matt smiled and stood up. "But we should probably get going if we want to beat evening traffic."
"Yeah, right," Izzy nodded in agreement. "It was nice meeting you."
Diane led them to the door. "Have a nice drive!" She called from the porch as Izzy and company walked towards the car.
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"Well, I had fun yesterday," Sora announced from her seat in the back. She had her head leaning against the car window, watching the scenery fly by. Matt and Izzy had been talking about the city they were staying in. "Despite the fact that Matt and Tai ditched us."
"We couldn't help it," Tai objected from his seat beside her.
"Yeah, Tai saw something shiny and we lost you in the crowd," Matt laughed,
"Hey!"
"That's fine," Izzy shrugged, arm resting on the open window as he drove. "We had fun without you. We found a nice restaurant and made out."
"Gross!" Tai cringed. "My virgin ears! I'm scarred for life."
"Actually we went shopping and visited a voodoo museum."
"Trust Izzy to drag you into a museum on a vacation," Matt rolled his eyes.
"Sora dragged me," Izzy protested.
"Great, you turned her into a nerd!"
"Hey!" Sora snapped.
"Are we there yet?" Tai yelled out.
Izzy's hands tighten on the wheel. "Ask me that again Tai and I'll turn this car around and go straight home!" He looked back at Tai. "Does it look like were there yet?"
"Yes."
"Huh?" Izzy looked up at the road in time to see the house whiz by. He slammed on the brakes, causing Tai and Sora to slam into the back of the front seats. Izzy backed the car up and parked in front of the house.
"Maybe from now on you should ignore Tai and just pay attention to the road," Matt suggested as he clambered out of the car.
"That might be a good idea," Tai agreed.
They unloaded their luggage and made their way up to the porch. Izzy rang the doorbell. The doors were pulled open by Kale, dressed in kaki pants and a maroon shirt. "Hello!" He greeted. "Welcome back!" He ushered them in. "Diane!" He called. "My wife will show you your rooms. I was just about to leave. Bye!" And he walked out the door.
"Uh, bye?" Tai replied after the door closed.
The sound of footsteps echoed into the room and Diane entered the foyer. "Sorry about my husbands abrupt departure. He's going to pick up our daughter. Follow me and I'll show you to your rooms." She showed them up the stairs and pointed to four doors in a row. "Here you are. Go ahead and get settled. I'll be down stairs working on dinner, once your done."
"Thanks," Izzy smiled. "Well, come on guys."
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They sat in the library, chatting and sipping in lemonade. Dian asked them about Japan and they in turned asked her about Louisiana. The sound of the door opened and footsteps drifted into the room. "Kale, hun, we're in here."
Kale entered followed by a light brown haired girl. She walked over to Diane, ignoring the four. "Hey mom," she greeted causally, hugging the older woman.
"Welcome back. Did you have fun?" The girl gave an eager nod. "Here, these are some folks I want you to meet." She gestured to the four on the couch. "This is Sora, Koushiro, Yamato, and Taichi. This is our daughter, Makayla."
"You can just call me Matt."
"And just Tai-"
"Oh my god, your Matt Ishida! Oh my god, Matt Ishida is in my house!" The brown haired girl screamed.
"Do you know him?" Diane asked, startled by her daughter's reaction.
"Know him?! He's only THE biggest hunk in the entire world!" She had the classic 'duh' valley girl voice. Sora, Izzy and Tai smirked as Matt turned a bright red.
"Is that so?" Kale inquired. "I don't know. He doesn't look that hunky to me."
"DAD!"
Kale slapped Matt on the back. "He knows I'm just kidding." Matt gave a nervous laugh and nodded. "So you're that singer she's constantly talking about. Well, I'm a little old fashion-"
"Just a little?" the girl muttered, crossing her arms.
"But I dislike your music."
"DAD!"
'"Your no Grateful Dead or Zeppelin."
"Who sir?" Matt asked.
His mouth dropped open. "Kids these days."
"So anyway, if you're done Kale," Diane interrupted, teasingly to her husband. "This young man, Koushiro, is Cassandra brother."
She looked at Izzy with a puzzled expression on her face. "Cassandra?"
"Do you remember her? She lived here when-"
"Yeah, I remember her. How has she been? She stopped writing to me."
"Well actually," Izzy frowned. "I've never met her. I'm trying to fine her, but so far I've had no luck. We were hoping you could give us an address of where she might be living now?" His voice was hopeful, but pleading at the same time.
She nodded. "Yeah I can get you one, I'll have to go find it though. Last time she wrote to me she was living in Nashville."
"Tennessee?" Sora asked.
She nodded. "I'll go look for it." She turned and walked out of the room.
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"We leave day after tomorrow," Izzy announced, looking up from his laptop.
Sora sat down on the bed. "We don't even have an address yet. Are you in that big of a hurry?"
"We're getting close to the third week of the first month. We only have five more weeks. Besides, I'm sure we'll get it by then."
She sat up on her elbows and pulled his face to hers. "You worry too much," she said before kissing him. She pulled away. "So let's have fun."
"What did you have in mind?"
"Swimming, with Matt and Tai. They're out in the lake right now. I told them I'd come down as soon as I got you."
"I don't want to go swimming."
She placed a pair of red swimming trunks in his lap. "Aw please." She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him once more. Abruptly she pulled away, holding his crest triumphantly in her hand. "I'm kidnapping your crest. If you ever want to see it again, you'll come swimming." She jumped off the bed and walked out of the room.
He quickly dressed and walked down the stairs. Into the kitchen he passes through the back door and walked out onto the porch. To his left and right was thick green forest. Right before the porch was a garden of flowers and vegetables. Behind that was a waist high stonewall that surrounded the shimmering lake. Matt and Tai splashed around in the waist high water while Sora watched them from the sandy bank with her back to him.
He jumped the wall and tiptoed up to her. He swept her off her feet and she let out a surprised yell. "I caught you," he said cockily.
"Put me down!" She yelled.
"Alright." He took a step towards the water.
"Izzy don't!" He took another step, his foot completely submerged in the water. He gasped at how cold it was. "Izzy, don't do it! Its not even funny!" She yelled. He laughed.
Now they were at waist high. He stood beside Matt and Tai and held Sora above the water. "Bye," he smiled and let her drop with a splash.
"You are so going to die," Tai said, shaking his head.
"It was nice knowing you," Matt added.
A huge splash of water knocked him backwards. "That's what you get Koushiro Izumi!" Sora yelled, shivering.
"Water war!" Tai yelled.
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Izzy glanced up from his seat on the lakeside. Matt and Tai were still swim while Sora floated on her own in the water. His gaze shifted to the porch. Diane sat on the porch swing watching them.
He pushed himself up and brushed the sand off of his legs and shorts as he walked back to the porch. He bounded up the stairs and smiled slightly at the woman on the swing. "You looked kind of lonely. I thought I'd keep you company."
She smiled at him. "That was very considerate of you, Koushiro, thank you."
"You can call me Izzy, everyone else does," he shrugged.
"Alright." Silence spread between them. Izzy took a seat on the railing. "May I ask what you're thinking about?"
"Yeah," he shrugged again. "Just thinking about finding my sister and if this was a waste of time. What if I don't find her and I've just wasted my friends vacation?"
"By the way you and your friends are together, I don't think your wasting anything," she replied, looking at his friends. "Besides you can't think like that. You won't find her if you do. You have to have faith."
"Yeah, I guess," Izzy shrugged. "What was Cassandra like?"
"She was a very sweet little girl. She was eleven when she came here and this was her first foster home. Her dad had just given her up and she wasn't very keen on living with another family. She was very strong, especially emotionally, and she was very stubborn. For the first week and a half she refused to come out of her room. We had to leave dinner and lunch outside her door." She laughed at the memory. "She hated us and she hated leaving here with a passion. It wasn't until she forgot to lock the door did anyone have any contact with her. Kayla had wandered into her room. My husband and I were frantic looking for her for two hours. Kayla wasn't a baby, but five year olds can do a lot of damage. So later we found her in Cassandra's room with half of her toys spread out over the floor. And they were both playing."
"Did you know why her dad gave her up?" Izzy asked.
"No," she replied with a shake of her head. "She never talked about it and the information wasn't available in her file." She looked at him with a small smile on her face. "She talked about you."
"About me?"
"Uh-huh. She used to say when she grew up she was going to go back home and find you. We never knew "home" was Japan and for the longest time we didn't realize what she was talking about."
"So she knew about me," Izzy commented to himself. Kayla walked out of the house, dressed in a swim suit and walked down to the lake. "How old is Kayla?"
"Fourteen."
"Is she a foster kid too?"
"No, she adopted. We adopted her when she was three," Diane looked thoughtfully at her daughter and rested her head in her hand. "We came very close to adopting your sister too."
"Oh yeah," Izzy replied. "What stopped you?"
"Her father." She adjusted herself on the swing as she muttered the name. "Despite the fact that your father had shed all ties to Cassandra, he didn't want her adopted, so he had the state move her." She shook her head sadly before standing up and setting a hand on his shoulder. "Have faith, Koushiro. You'll find her, don't worry." She turned and walked inside the house.
I will make no comments because I am incredibly pissed off at a review some ass hole (sorry) gave me. Listen people, if an author writes about a couple you don't like that doesn't give you any god damned (sorry) right to cuss them out. So either unstuck your head from your ass (sorry) or let it go!
Please review.