Of Kith and Kin - Chapter 5
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Hey! How are ya? Here is Chapter 5 for your reading pleasure (or displeasure, as
the case may be...hope not, though~_^). Which reminds me, e-mail me with any and
all comments!! The addy is smart_sweetlady@yahoo.com, I hope to hear from you! I
really do!! So give me some feedback! As always, all disclaimers apply, yadda
yadda yadda...need we go over this again? So, without any further ado, here is
Chapter 5! Enjoy!
-Thalia
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The next morning, when Ami woke up, Emily stood at the foot of her bed,
holding a bouquet of white roses and grinning ear to ear. "Good morning, Miss
Ami. Did you have sweet dreams?"
Ami blushed, but the dreamy, faraway look in her eyes gave her away. She
got up from bed, and dressed in a dainty white dress trimmed with green lace at
the neckline, the same color as his eyes. She blushed even deeper at her wayward
thoughts.
But soon, she was ready to go downstairs for breakfast. For once, Sard
Greenlead was not up with the sun, and Ami realized with a pang that the old man
was indeed quite past his prime. But Zoisite was already down. Suddenly feeling
shy, Ami stopped at the entrance of the room. But he sensed her presence, and he
looked up casually and impersonally, though his eyes gleamed like emeralds, and
he said, "Good day, Ami, did you have a good night's sleep?"
Ami caught on to the game, and she too put up a mask of apathy and made
small talk. This exchange lasted for about 3 minutes, before both, smiling with
bliss, embraced.
They stayed thus, just holding each other, until they heard footsteps
coming down the stairs. Hastily, then, they separated, guilty blushes reddening
their cheeks.
"Good morning, both of you, hope you had a good time last night." Sard
Greenleaf called out. "Kunzite, Rei and Lita will all be here this morning to
help out with my will. The ladies will be staying for tea, I believe. Do you
have any objections?"
"No, of course not." Zoisite replied quickly.
"Good, let us eat then." And so they sat down to eat breakfast, Ami and
Zoisite's frequent glances towards each other did not go unnoticed by the cagey
old man, who muttered to himself about inheritance and beneficiaries.
That morning, Sard Greenleaf was not feeling well. Both his appetite and
temper were bad. Ami administered his medication and attended to him until he
became annoyed and groused that, "I am fine! You are making me nervous with your
fussing, lass! Stop being a mother hen!"
"Cluck, cluck, Mr. Greenleaf, you must rest." Ami said firmly. At Sard
Greenleaf's mutinous expression, she gently but adamantly pulled the covers up
around him. "I must insist you rest." Sard Greenleaf muttered, "Little tyrant!"
under his breath, but slumbered until Kunzite's arrival.
Then, the two men shut themselves in his quarters and discussed the will
in private. Soon, Lita and Rei arrived as well, just as Sard Greenleaf emerged
from his quarters on Kunzite's arm. "Rei, my lass, you must come and witness my
will. And Lita, you and Zoi, as my relations, must sign it too. You must all be
witnesses that I, Sard Fitsgerald Islington Greenleaf do hereby sign this and
vouchsafe its contents as my last will and testament. As he signed his full name
at the bottom of the document, Ami noticed with concern that his hand shook more
than usually. Rei signed her full name at the bottom in an upright, neat hand
that was crisp and free of frills. Then Lita signed her full name in a large,
slightly slanted handwriting, Zoisite signed his full name in medium-sized,
flowing letters, and Kunzite signed his full name is a small, precise script. He
then ceremoniously sealed and stamped the document, putting it away in his neat
briefcase, before bidding a solemn but kind farewell to his client and friend.
Just moments after his departure, the door opened to reveal two much
more unwelcome presences: Rubeus and Carnelian Greenleaf. Sard's face darkened.
Zoisite stood up by his father, his verdant eyes filled with such loathing that
Ami was alarmed. Rei looked at the newcomers with a mixture of confusion and
foreboding: something did not seem quite...right...good...decent...about those
two. Lita looked at them with disapproval evident in her frown.
Rubeus put on a sickeningly ingratiating face, ignoring the glares from
his father. Carnelian strode up to the old man and boldly leaned over him to
kiss his cheek. Sard Greenleaf grimaced at the excessive amount of perfume she
wore, and as soon as she had left, he barked out to Ami, "Hand me a piece of
cotton or something soaked in alcohol or peroxide or some disinfectant! For the
love of God just let me wipe any remnants of that harpy off my face!"
Carnelian's lips tightened, but her fake smile returned again and she
cooed like a sick pigeon, "Papa, you look poorly. Are you sure that--THAT--over
there is taking proper care of you?" Indicating Ami.
"I was fine until you came, you worthless, despicable bitch!" The old
man growled, "And do NOT insult the lass."
Carnelian's temper flared, "What? 'Lass' indeed! Ah, but no wonder. She
is a slut just like all of her type."
Rubeus glanced at his hated half-brother, noticing Zoisite's malevolent
eyes narrowed to slits, his near apoplectic fury, and said, "Father always DID
have a penchant for these low-class whores."
For a moment, the room was totally silent. Then, Sard Greenleaf, his
eyes blazing, his veins bulging and pulsating at his temples, pointed a shaking
finger at Rubeus and Amber, and gasped out, "Damn you both to Hell, you demonic
monsters! A whore indeed! There is not a single whore in the room except for
that bitch of yours, Rubeus!"
"Cordelia was nothing but a presumptious whore, NOTHING but a WHORE!"
Rubeus sneered.
"And that 'lass' of yours is just like her." Carnelian sniggered.
Zoisite could not take it any longer. BAM!!! His fist connected with
Rubeus' face, and a splintering of cartilage could be heard as blood flowed from
Rubeus' now broken nose. Rubeus staggered, but his eyes still held that maniacal
light, and he still chanted, "Nothing but a whore!" like a lunatic. Zoisite,
with a roar of rage, punched, kicked and hit him, maddened like a bull. At that
moment, Sard Greenleaf, under Carnelian's jarring laughter, flinched all of the
sudden, put a hand up to his heart, and collapsed. Ami jumped from her chair and
with Lita's help, caught him as he fell and laid him on the ground. Ami checked
frantically for a pulse, and, finding none, started CPR as Lita rushed to call
the doctor.
Rei took one look at Sard Greenleaf and agilely vaulted over the figures
on the ground to where Zoisite was, and put him in a restraining headlock. Then,
as Rubeus moved in to hit his rival, she spun around, swinging Zoisite behind
her and away from the fray, and with a terrific fly kick, prostrated Rubeus. She
yelled to Zoisite that his father was unconscious, and at that moment, Zoisite
finally seemed to go back to reality and dashed over to his father's prone body.
Rei turned back to Rubeus Greenleaf, who was being helped up by his wife.
"You two ruffians have five seconds to get the hell out. If you don't, I
swear on my honor as a 7th degree black belt that you will live to rue the day,
but only barely." Saying so, she cracked her knuckles. "OUT!!!!"
Rubeus and Carnelian, seeing the blazing fire in the raven-haired girl's
violet eyes, took her advice and bolted.
But it was too late. When the paramedics had arrived, Darien with them,
they were just in time to pronounce Sard Greenleaf dead from cardiac arrest.
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Ami, walking stiffly, her face ashen and expressionless as a zombie's,
stumbled up the stairs and into her room. She had perfunctorily finished all the
paperwork involved with Sard Greenleaf's death, and had taken a cab to return to
Aquamyste. She had enjoined Waters to bring the distraught, distracted Zoisite
home, and to make him sleep. Waters had obeyed her directions, and Zoisite was
sleeping like an exhausted child in his room. Emily, sniffling slightly, her new
engagement ring glittering in the fading sunlight, looked at her expectantly.
Ami looked at Emily with a weary smile. "Congratulations, Emily, I wish
you two the best of luck."
Emily nodded, smiling slightly. "Thank you, Miss Ami. Do you want to nap
a while just like Master Zoisite?"
Ami shook her head with finality. She had struggled with herself, cried
with an uncharacteristic emotional abandon the entire way home, but there was
nothing else to be done about it. "Emily, please get my valise."
"Y-your valise?" Emily stammered, "Wh-what do you want that for?"
Ami looked at the younger girl's owlish wide eyes gently and sadly. "I
must go. If I stay, I will ruin him. He cannot afford for someone like me to be
about, the controversy...anyway, Emily, just get my valise, open it, and put my
things into it."
Emily, confused, did as she was told. "Miss Ami, why are you leaving? We
would all of us miss you something dreadful, especially young Master Zoisite."
The lamplight in front of her eyes became a misty golden cloud as Ami's
eyes blurred with tears. "I am leaving FOR him, Emily, I am leaving because I
love him!" Her slim form trembled as she let the tears flow freely. Emily didn't
know why Miss Ami's leaving would benefit Master Zoisite in any way, but was
nevertheless touched by the poignant love in Miss Ami's pretty face and in the
heartbroken tears dripping down her cheeks. Silently, she blinked away her own
tears and packed Miss Ami's belongings neatly into her valise as Miss Ami sat
down at her desk and wrote out a missive to Master Zoisite.
"17 August, Aquamyste
Dear Zoisite,
Do not grieve when you read this. At least, no more than
you already are. I know how empty and anguished and bereft you
must already feel. Your father is now in a better place, he has
been reunited with your mother, and he is happy. The son of his
heart has grown to be a wonderful man whom he is extremely proud
of. His spirit will remain with you always, and I daresay you
shan't disappoint him. He loved you at least as much as you love
him.
As for me, to be honest, nothing gives me greater pain,
nothing ever has or ever will again, to part from the man I love
and shall love until I die. I cannot say how much it hurts to
leave you, and had I had a choice, I would stay by your side for
ever and ever. But that cannot be. You are Zanth Winters, rich
and famous musician, you are Zoisite Greenleaf, the son of Sard
Greenleaf, wealthy, of the top social circles. I am but a middle
class born nurse who was hired by your father. I would ruin you,
destroy your reputation, make you a pariah. It makes my heart
bleed in pain to part from you, but I cannot stay. I hope you
will understand, and I wish you happiness always. Do not try
to look for me. You might find someone else someday. Perhaps, in
a different lifetime, we shall meet again. Just remember always,
no matter where you go, that I will love you forever.
God Bless you,
Ami Mizuno"
Ami signed her name, and a tear fell like a drop of liquid crystal onto
the paper, blurring the word "ruin" into a hazy pool of blue ink. She resolutely
wiped her tears away, recollected herself and strode, shoulders back, head held
high, to Zoisite's room. He was lying on his bed, fast asleep. Ami studied his
face carefully: she never noticed how long his eyelashes were before, until now.
Then she slapped herself mentally for losing control of her heart again, and her
carefully blank face held no expression as she laid her letter silently down on
his desk. Softly, she bent down and gave him a last kiss before she went back to
her room, picked up her valise, strode downstairs, outside, and hailed a cab to
go away. From the departing taxi's window, she looked back at the splended old
mansion, bidding it farewell as she closed that chapter of her life.
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Okay! How do you like? Chapter 6 is actually done, I just have to finish typing
it! It's short, so it should be out in a week...anyways, once again, e-mail me
with your comments to smart_sweetlady@yahoo.com, hope to hear from you:)!! See
ya in a week!!
-Thalia
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hey! How are ya? Here is Chapter 5 for your reading pleasure (or displeasure, as
the case may be...hope not, though~_^). Which reminds me, e-mail me with any and
all comments!! The addy is smart_sweetlady@yahoo.com, I hope to hear from you! I
really do!! So give me some feedback! As always, all disclaimers apply, yadda
yadda yadda...need we go over this again? So, without any further ado, here is
Chapter 5! Enjoy!
-Thalia
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The next morning, when Ami woke up, Emily stood at the foot of her bed,
holding a bouquet of white roses and grinning ear to ear. "Good morning, Miss
Ami. Did you have sweet dreams?"
Ami blushed, but the dreamy, faraway look in her eyes gave her away. She
got up from bed, and dressed in a dainty white dress trimmed with green lace at
the neckline, the same color as his eyes. She blushed even deeper at her wayward
thoughts.
But soon, she was ready to go downstairs for breakfast. For once, Sard
Greenlead was not up with the sun, and Ami realized with a pang that the old man
was indeed quite past his prime. But Zoisite was already down. Suddenly feeling
shy, Ami stopped at the entrance of the room. But he sensed her presence, and he
looked up casually and impersonally, though his eyes gleamed like emeralds, and
he said, "Good day, Ami, did you have a good night's sleep?"
Ami caught on to the game, and she too put up a mask of apathy and made
small talk. This exchange lasted for about 3 minutes, before both, smiling with
bliss, embraced.
They stayed thus, just holding each other, until they heard footsteps
coming down the stairs. Hastily, then, they separated, guilty blushes reddening
their cheeks.
"Good morning, both of you, hope you had a good time last night." Sard
Greenleaf called out. "Kunzite, Rei and Lita will all be here this morning to
help out with my will. The ladies will be staying for tea, I believe. Do you
have any objections?"
"No, of course not." Zoisite replied quickly.
"Good, let us eat then." And so they sat down to eat breakfast, Ami and
Zoisite's frequent glances towards each other did not go unnoticed by the cagey
old man, who muttered to himself about inheritance and beneficiaries.
That morning, Sard Greenleaf was not feeling well. Both his appetite and
temper were bad. Ami administered his medication and attended to him until he
became annoyed and groused that, "I am fine! You are making me nervous with your
fussing, lass! Stop being a mother hen!"
"Cluck, cluck, Mr. Greenleaf, you must rest." Ami said firmly. At Sard
Greenleaf's mutinous expression, she gently but adamantly pulled the covers up
around him. "I must insist you rest." Sard Greenleaf muttered, "Little tyrant!"
under his breath, but slumbered until Kunzite's arrival.
Then, the two men shut themselves in his quarters and discussed the will
in private. Soon, Lita and Rei arrived as well, just as Sard Greenleaf emerged
from his quarters on Kunzite's arm. "Rei, my lass, you must come and witness my
will. And Lita, you and Zoi, as my relations, must sign it too. You must all be
witnesses that I, Sard Fitsgerald Islington Greenleaf do hereby sign this and
vouchsafe its contents as my last will and testament. As he signed his full name
at the bottom of the document, Ami noticed with concern that his hand shook more
than usually. Rei signed her full name at the bottom in an upright, neat hand
that was crisp and free of frills. Then Lita signed her full name in a large,
slightly slanted handwriting, Zoisite signed his full name in medium-sized,
flowing letters, and Kunzite signed his full name is a small, precise script. He
then ceremoniously sealed and stamped the document, putting it away in his neat
briefcase, before bidding a solemn but kind farewell to his client and friend.
Just moments after his departure, the door opened to reveal two much
more unwelcome presences: Rubeus and Carnelian Greenleaf. Sard's face darkened.
Zoisite stood up by his father, his verdant eyes filled with such loathing that
Ami was alarmed. Rei looked at the newcomers with a mixture of confusion and
foreboding: something did not seem quite...right...good...decent...about those
two. Lita looked at them with disapproval evident in her frown.
Rubeus put on a sickeningly ingratiating face, ignoring the glares from
his father. Carnelian strode up to the old man and boldly leaned over him to
kiss his cheek. Sard Greenleaf grimaced at the excessive amount of perfume she
wore, and as soon as she had left, he barked out to Ami, "Hand me a piece of
cotton or something soaked in alcohol or peroxide or some disinfectant! For the
love of God just let me wipe any remnants of that harpy off my face!"
Carnelian's lips tightened, but her fake smile returned again and she
cooed like a sick pigeon, "Papa, you look poorly. Are you sure that--THAT--over
there is taking proper care of you?" Indicating Ami.
"I was fine until you came, you worthless, despicable bitch!" The old
man growled, "And do NOT insult the lass."
Carnelian's temper flared, "What? 'Lass' indeed! Ah, but no wonder. She
is a slut just like all of her type."
Rubeus glanced at his hated half-brother, noticing Zoisite's malevolent
eyes narrowed to slits, his near apoplectic fury, and said, "Father always DID
have a penchant for these low-class whores."
For a moment, the room was totally silent. Then, Sard Greenleaf, his
eyes blazing, his veins bulging and pulsating at his temples, pointed a shaking
finger at Rubeus and Amber, and gasped out, "Damn you both to Hell, you demonic
monsters! A whore indeed! There is not a single whore in the room except for
that bitch of yours, Rubeus!"
"Cordelia was nothing but a presumptious whore, NOTHING but a WHORE!"
Rubeus sneered.
"And that 'lass' of yours is just like her." Carnelian sniggered.
Zoisite could not take it any longer. BAM!!! His fist connected with
Rubeus' face, and a splintering of cartilage could be heard as blood flowed from
Rubeus' now broken nose. Rubeus staggered, but his eyes still held that maniacal
light, and he still chanted, "Nothing but a whore!" like a lunatic. Zoisite,
with a roar of rage, punched, kicked and hit him, maddened like a bull. At that
moment, Sard Greenleaf, under Carnelian's jarring laughter, flinched all of the
sudden, put a hand up to his heart, and collapsed. Ami jumped from her chair and
with Lita's help, caught him as he fell and laid him on the ground. Ami checked
frantically for a pulse, and, finding none, started CPR as Lita rushed to call
the doctor.
Rei took one look at Sard Greenleaf and agilely vaulted over the figures
on the ground to where Zoisite was, and put him in a restraining headlock. Then,
as Rubeus moved in to hit his rival, she spun around, swinging Zoisite behind
her and away from the fray, and with a terrific fly kick, prostrated Rubeus. She
yelled to Zoisite that his father was unconscious, and at that moment, Zoisite
finally seemed to go back to reality and dashed over to his father's prone body.
Rei turned back to Rubeus Greenleaf, who was being helped up by his wife.
"You two ruffians have five seconds to get the hell out. If you don't, I
swear on my honor as a 7th degree black belt that you will live to rue the day,
but only barely." Saying so, she cracked her knuckles. "OUT!!!!"
Rubeus and Carnelian, seeing the blazing fire in the raven-haired girl's
violet eyes, took her advice and bolted.
But it was too late. When the paramedics had arrived, Darien with them,
they were just in time to pronounce Sard Greenleaf dead from cardiac arrest.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ami, walking stiffly, her face ashen and expressionless as a zombie's,
stumbled up the stairs and into her room. She had perfunctorily finished all the
paperwork involved with Sard Greenleaf's death, and had taken a cab to return to
Aquamyste. She had enjoined Waters to bring the distraught, distracted Zoisite
home, and to make him sleep. Waters had obeyed her directions, and Zoisite was
sleeping like an exhausted child in his room. Emily, sniffling slightly, her new
engagement ring glittering in the fading sunlight, looked at her expectantly.
Ami looked at Emily with a weary smile. "Congratulations, Emily, I wish
you two the best of luck."
Emily nodded, smiling slightly. "Thank you, Miss Ami. Do you want to nap
a while just like Master Zoisite?"
Ami shook her head with finality. She had struggled with herself, cried
with an uncharacteristic emotional abandon the entire way home, but there was
nothing else to be done about it. "Emily, please get my valise."
"Y-your valise?" Emily stammered, "Wh-what do you want that for?"
Ami looked at the younger girl's owlish wide eyes gently and sadly. "I
must go. If I stay, I will ruin him. He cannot afford for someone like me to be
about, the controversy...anyway, Emily, just get my valise, open it, and put my
things into it."
Emily, confused, did as she was told. "Miss Ami, why are you leaving? We
would all of us miss you something dreadful, especially young Master Zoisite."
The lamplight in front of her eyes became a misty golden cloud as Ami's
eyes blurred with tears. "I am leaving FOR him, Emily, I am leaving because I
love him!" Her slim form trembled as she let the tears flow freely. Emily didn't
know why Miss Ami's leaving would benefit Master Zoisite in any way, but was
nevertheless touched by the poignant love in Miss Ami's pretty face and in the
heartbroken tears dripping down her cheeks. Silently, she blinked away her own
tears and packed Miss Ami's belongings neatly into her valise as Miss Ami sat
down at her desk and wrote out a missive to Master Zoisite.
"17 August, Aquamyste
Dear Zoisite,
Do not grieve when you read this. At least, no more than
you already are. I know how empty and anguished and bereft you
must already feel. Your father is now in a better place, he has
been reunited with your mother, and he is happy. The son of his
heart has grown to be a wonderful man whom he is extremely proud
of. His spirit will remain with you always, and I daresay you
shan't disappoint him. He loved you at least as much as you love
him.
As for me, to be honest, nothing gives me greater pain,
nothing ever has or ever will again, to part from the man I love
and shall love until I die. I cannot say how much it hurts to
leave you, and had I had a choice, I would stay by your side for
ever and ever. But that cannot be. You are Zanth Winters, rich
and famous musician, you are Zoisite Greenleaf, the son of Sard
Greenleaf, wealthy, of the top social circles. I am but a middle
class born nurse who was hired by your father. I would ruin you,
destroy your reputation, make you a pariah. It makes my heart
bleed in pain to part from you, but I cannot stay. I hope you
will understand, and I wish you happiness always. Do not try
to look for me. You might find someone else someday. Perhaps, in
a different lifetime, we shall meet again. Just remember always,
no matter where you go, that I will love you forever.
God Bless you,
Ami Mizuno"
Ami signed her name, and a tear fell like a drop of liquid crystal onto
the paper, blurring the word "ruin" into a hazy pool of blue ink. She resolutely
wiped her tears away, recollected herself and strode, shoulders back, head held
high, to Zoisite's room. He was lying on his bed, fast asleep. Ami studied his
face carefully: she never noticed how long his eyelashes were before, until now.
Then she slapped herself mentally for losing control of her heart again, and her
carefully blank face held no expression as she laid her letter silently down on
his desk. Softly, she bent down and gave him a last kiss before she went back to
her room, picked up her valise, strode downstairs, outside, and hailed a cab to
go away. From the departing taxi's window, she looked back at the splended old
mansion, bidding it farewell as she closed that chapter of her life.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Okay! How do you like? Chapter 6 is actually done, I just have to finish typing
it! It's short, so it should be out in a week...anyways, once again, e-mail me
with your comments to smart_sweetlady@yahoo.com, hope to hear from you:)!! See
ya in a week!!
-Thalia