Yes, I am still alive! I got a couple of weeks off school and I plan to use them to work on my unfinished fics. Sorry for such a long delay! I hope you people would still care enough to spare this humble fic of mine some of your time and tell me what you think about it [onegai?] To the people who reviewed the previous chapter, thank you very much!

CHAPTER ONE: HOURGLASS

He looked her up from head to toe, not half believing the actuality of what he was seeing. She was wearing a white peasant blouse that did little in hiding how much she had grown on that certain part. Yes, he actually had trouble prying his eyes from off that place. He just knew he had to stop staring when from the corner of one eye, he noticed her middle-aged aunt eyeing him with a dubious frown.

He did succeed in darting his gaze away from that certain area, only to end up having it stick in another certain region manifesting her femininity. He couldn't help but notice how her tight jeans failed to shroud how big she had grown down there as well.

To what thing were ladies like this compared to again? Ah, yes. An hourglass. She had a perfect hourglass figure. Who would've expected her to be this... appealing in her teens?

"So?" the forty-plus-old woman prodded, a little impatiently. "Are you taking her in or what?"

Kaede Rukawa, foxy eyes locking with those of the girl's jade-colored ones, shrugged and cursed inwardly. As if he had any other choice. "I'll take her," he all but grumbled as he held his hand out to get the girl's bulky baggage from the slightly reluctant old hag who looked as though she was seriously reconsidering her initial notion of leaving the kid to his custody. DAMN! Rukawa wanted to cry out. It was three o' clock in the afternoon of a fine weekend and he sure had other more important things to do than stand here and wait for this shit to make up her mind.

Not wanting to waste any more of his precious time, he made a rather rough grab for the pink backpack and had to actually fight off the urge to kick the scowling witch out so he could finally get on with his life.

Then again, he would have to take care of that little pest first.

His eyes darted to that kid again. This time without any circumscription as to where and where not he should be sticking his gaze on. He could stare at her all he liked for all that repulsive oldster cared, right? After all, starting from that very moment -- and by his own laws of conditional magnanimity -- he owned her. And that, in fact, was the best gain he got from this deal. The best he had ever been blessed with in his entire existence on earth. This hoary twit who seemed to be a little too unwilling to part with her charge had just unknowingly put the object of his wrath at the palm of his hand -- completely under his fuming mercy...

But, of course, being endowed as well with a face that could hide all traces of emotions normally observable to man, his expression remained impassive despite the fact that his heart was currently seething with hatred at the mere sight of that girl.

How many years had passed since they last saw each other? Nine? Ten? He was only six when he ran away from home immediately following that fateful night in his room… With his father…

Why the hell did she have to come and remind him of everything he had struggled all his life to forget -- consequently re-igniting the vengeful antipathy he had nearly succeeded in wiping off his heart? His memory? He had actually come so close to forgetting she ever existed. That she ever had anything to do with his life… So, why did fate have to freaking let their paths cross again? Did he not suffer enough? Wasn't it torture enough that he had been struggling with his own life for years starting from such an early age? How much more crueler can the world get?

Then again, how much more… benign? Favorable? Rukawa's heart began to pound in vindictive anticipation as his eyes took in the sight of that kid. Suddenly, he realized he could never ignore this feeling forever, no matter how hard he tried. It would always come back to eat him up --fill him up with an irrepressible urge to… to… make hell out of this kid's life!

Was luck on his side after all?

"You can always send her back to me if ever you get tired of her or anything," the woman said suggestively, her frown smoothly shifting into a scowl of displeasure. "You just don't know how much of a lost this is gonna be for me."

Then why the hell did you take her here in the first place? Rukawa nearly blurted that out loud, but he just kept his mouth shut as he turned an equally intense frown on her. One that quietly said, "Clear out. This kid is mine…"

And since this kid's unexpected appearance on his porch had brought back every bit of the grudge he had for her, Rukawa just went and let the bitter wrath that shot through his veins, engulf him whole. Yes, even after these years --and despite all his efforts to free himself from it-- he had not yet forgotten his vow of vengeance. The blazing, seething vengeance with which he was gonna turn the hourglass upside down…

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Kaori Rukawa watched the retreating form of her oniisan perched on a sleek looking mountain bike from the balcony of her new room. Wearing a blue tracksuit to compliment his jogging pants of the same color, her brother looked sleek and stylish as well. No, wait. Sporty seemed to be a more fitting word. Gorgeously sporty. If the atmosphere hadn't been so tensed and stuffy a while back, she would've easily cracked a joke about Masato-san acquiring a serious case of ptyalism [i.e., excessive drooling] for she sure was staring a little too long and… hard at Kaede.

Good thing Kaede-niisan only scoffed at her and obliquely told her off. Kaori never did like her, either. She despised her aunt to the deepest point of hell for reasons that were better left unsaid. Anyway, all that really mattered was that the spiteful old hag was gone. Gone for good. And she was now in the safety of her brother's custody. Away from the infernal life she had oh-so-eagerly been longing to depart.

Or so, that's how it seemed to her.

After her brother was completely engulfed by the distance, she stepped into the room and let out a loud sigh of relief. Yes, this was exactly how it felt to be free. Free at last from the grueling and degrading bondage of her aunt's custody. She walked to the nearest bed and plopped down on the fluffy cushion, instantly loving the soft feel of it against her back. She closed her eyes and breathed in the sweet, warm afternoon breeze winnowing through the room. Deeply… Thoroughly, it was soothing her nerves, pacifying her traumatized spirit. It even seemed to be blotting out the dark, unwanted memories from her mind. The bitter, afflictive life she had long been trying to escape…

Needless to say, Kaori was extremely enthused. She loved every ticking second of her newfound freedom. Utterly innocent and unaware of how much more of the bondage she thought she had just run out of lay arcane on the path ahead of her. She was much too happy to notice the slightest hint of an impending struggle…

"Arigatou, oniisan," she mumbled into space as every bit of her consciousness was gradually taken over by a calm, peaceful lethargy.

tbc