Runaway
By: Raven Moonshadow
Chapter 4
Five o'clock the next morning Tamora was sitting at the table going over the packet that Lady Une had given to the entire group of new trainee's. Her mother and father still had yet to emerge from the bedroom. She could only guess what they had been doing all night. It couldn't have been all talk. She sighed and held her head in her hands. No, that was not something that she wanted to think about.
She heard the shuffle of feet and looked up. Her mother and father walked into the doorway. Her mother looked tired and her father...well she really could tell. Her father apparently had a problem showing whatever the hell he was feeling or what he had been doing…which wasn't helping her imagination much. Again her head went down into her hands. Why did she have to think this way so early in the morning?
Damned teenage hormones.
"Good morning mother, father." Tamora mumbled through her hands, eyes peeking through her fingers. Kamori kind of mumbled back a deformed response that Tamora thought was good morning and her father just nodded his head in her direction with a kind of half smile. It was obvious that there would be no verbal contact to be made with her mother until she got her morning cup of java and the auburn haired teen had no inkling as to what she had to do to get any verbal talk from her father. This was probably what happens when you're fourteen, used to living only with your mother, and then suddenly you find out who your dad is and he's come to live with you.
Especially when you've never met your father in the entirety of your life.
Tamora sighed again, after a while, finally able to look up from the packet where she had been unconsciously staring. Her parents were just standing there, leaning against each other, while both of them drank their coffee and stared off into space, lost in thought.
"Can we please get some convo going here? I leave in about a half-hour." Tamora said annoyed. Both snapped out of their comatose-like state of thought.
"Eh?" Kamori said peering at her daughter from over the coffee cup.
"Finally there is life." Tamora said sarcastically.
"Oh hunnie, it's not that there was no life, it's just that we were ignoring you." Her redheaded mother said with a smile. The teen rolled her eyes at her mother.
"Thanks mom. I love you too." The auburn haired girl looked towards the clock. "You know we only have about 10 minutes before we should leave so we can get there on time. Don't you think you should well…get dressed and stuff?" Tamora asked. Her mothers eyes widened. She looked at the clock, let out a surprised squeak, and ran for her bedroom, jumbling her coffee the whole way there. Trowa blinked at Kamori and then looked down at his daughter. This was going to take some getting used to on his part. Then he turned and walked into the bed room as well.
Tamora was then surprised to see her father come out of the room in a towel and walk into the bathroom while her mother was showering. Tamora blinked.
She did not just see that.
Her head went back into her hands. Traumatized. Maybe it wouldn't be such a good idea to leave them alone together. I might come home to find out I have a little brother or sister.
That was definitely something she didn't want to think about.
*Shiver*…children. Yuck.
* * * * * *
Her mother and father brought her to the base after the mornings events. Exactly at six, after dropping off the suitcases at the main desk, they walked into the room full of half-awake teenagers and the teen's direct family. Everyone was there and Lady Une was having a cup of tea or coffee, Tamora couldn't tell at the moment. She was now regretting her decision to go. She wouldn't get to see her parents or Nightstalker or any of the other animals frequently after she left for space.
Fortunately, her mother had said that Nightstalker, Oni the wolf pup, and Byakko and Ieisha the twin tiger cubs of gold (or orangey-yellow) and silver (or white) could come along to watch her depart. Nightstalker looked up at her, sensing her discomfort, and purred. It was a soothing loud rumble that filled half the room and then he rubbed up against her with his over sized body, nearly causing her to drop Ieisha and her messenger bag full of stuff for the shuttle ride.
"Hey the last person is here." Duo said happily sitting with his family. He had a large smile plastered across but Tamora could sense the sadness at losing his son hidden behind the facade. "Trowa! Nice to see you with your family. You can definitely tell she's your daughter." The braided man was way too happy for the morning. Everyone else didn't hide the fact that they were slightly depressed. All were definitely not morning people. Most still had some semblance of breakfast with them. Coffee, a donut, tea, or a bagel. Victor again had a blue berry muffin shoved in his mouth almost happily.
Tamora waved in, put Ieisha down with Oni and Byakko, and went over to sit with Victor, who gave the four animals strange looks. It was apparent that not everyone happened to own pet tigers or wolves.
"Those your pets?" The blond teen asked blinking. Tamora nodded.
"Yes this is Ieisha, Byakko, and Oni." She gestured once to the two tiger cubs, one of which who jumped into Tamora's lap, and then the wolf pup that stopped at Victor's chair and stared up at him. The Winner boy blinked whilst looking down at the wolf.
A staring contest ensued.
"What?" He was talking to the wolf who cocked his head to the side with its tongue now lolling out of its mouth happily. There was silence for a period of time as Victor stared at the wolf puppy. Then it barked, causing Victor to jump back in surprise. Tamora giggled.
How funny…
"He wants you to pick him up. He likes you." Tamora said, trying to stifle her giggles behind a hand at the sight of Victor's bewildered face. He looked at her, then at the pup, then back at her before smiling and picking up the happy puppy. A tongue bath followed before the wolf settled itself into Victors lap. He held his wide eyed look as he wiped the drool away.
"Fun." He mumbled, and then smiled at her once more. The puppy looked between the two teens.
.:I like him, Tamora. You and him should be mates:. The puppy said happily wagging his tail. Tamora blinked. Then the immediate thought raced through her head and many, many images that came with the implication of the word 'mate' flashed through her mind.
Then her face went beat red at one of the most perverted images.
"Oni!" Tamora half-shouted at the wolf, embarrassed at the mere suggestion and the thoughts she had. Especially at the thought of what mates sometimes do in order to procreate. Then some other odd thoughts of life with Victor flashed. For example: "Morning hunnie, I'm off to work." "Oh that's nice dear, here's your breakfast." "Thanks." And so on and so forth.
Across the table her mother laughed.
Irene smirked.
Both of which were implications of doom in her natural teenage life.
"What did he say?" The blue haired woman asked almost innocently, but it was deceptive and Tamora knew it. And at this Kamori grinned widely.
"He said that he liked the young Winner boy and that Tamora and Victor should be mates or in human terms: Married, together, dating, etc." Melody choked on her tea with laughter. Victor looked at Tamora, their eyes met and then he looked away with the brightest blush that could have ever been seen. Lucius and Derek both suddenly choked, Lucius on his coffee and Derek, always the brilliant one, choked on his own saliva. Quatre actually gave Trowa a smile as if to say, "Isn't that sweet? My son and your daughter, together." Trowa, though, sent back a glance that said, "My daughter. No boys will touch her."
"Mom!" This was all really embarrassing and her mother and her friends weren't helping much. She didn't think that her face would ever return to its normal color. Though she held her face in her hands to hide the unnatural shade of red that graced her face. Kamori just smirked.
"I have no problem with him. He's Quatre and Melody's son. He must be no less than perfect." Kamori said nonchalantly. The teen glared her mother down with icy green eyes. There was no stopping her mothers entourage of comments about the Winner family. Then her mother mumbled something about a "golden-winner-males." Tamora muttered in Irish, a last ditch effort, "Mom…I hate you." Her mom giggled happily.
"Miss. Tamora McHawkings, are you done?" Lady Une said calmly. Tamora sunk down in her chair and nodded. "Good. Now before we start, I must ask if you will be bringing those animals. I am quite well aware that you may be alike you mother and be an animal linguist." She leveled Tamora with an observant stare.
With a nod Tamora looked down at the table. "Yes I am." She felt the rest of the trainees stare at her. She looked farther down to the tigress cub in her lap. It looked back up at her and purred with questioning eyes.
.:What is it?:. The tiger asked.
"Nothing, Ieisha." Tamora said quietly. Lady Une nodded with a sip of her brew.
"Much like your mother. So… I take it that you will have animals accompanying you?"
"If it were alright with my mom, I'd like to bring Ieisha, Byakko, and Oni. Nightstalker is getting too old for an adventure like this." She looked towards her mother and saw the nod she received.
"Alright then." Lady Une seemed completely fine with it and at knowing that fact Tamora let out a long sigh of relief. Yes! I get to bring Ieisha, Byakko, and Oni. She wouldn't be so alone.
"Alright now onto the training. We will begin with a brief explanation…"
* * *
Nearly an hour flew by before the kids were ushered to the boarding area where the shuttle was waiting for them. This was when some parents began to break down. She hadn't really expected it but the braided man suddenly grabbed his somber wife and began crying. Tamora blinked. Even her mother had begun to get teary eyed.
"Dad calm down." Derek said looked around to see if they we're watching his father make a fool of himself. "Think of it this way; I'm gone, you and mom have more time to yourselves and establish a better love life." The braided teen said pulling something randomly off the top of his head. His mother looked at him levelly and then at her husband.
"Oh goodie." She said dryly rolling her eyes. Derek gave his mom a look.
"Mom…try not to kill dad while I'm gone, alright?" The woman pouted and then with an angry look nodded her head with a grumpy "Fine."
Brooke Moonblade-Yuy was saying goodbye to her quiet parents that didn't seem to express much emotion, much like Tamora's father. They seemed just to expect her leaving to go off, train, and maybe even save the world. Irene Chang was teary eyed as well, a tissue in hand, while her other hand squeezed her husband, Wufei Chang's, hand. Victor was hugging his mother and father, the blond white Arabian Quatre Raberba Winner and the orange haired Australian Melody Winner.
Kamori grabbed Tamora in a huge hug, her father hesitantly joined the hugging of the daughter he had just met, and Nightstalker wrapped himself around them with the other animals prancing around the large tigers legs.
"I'm going to miss you Tamora." Her mother squeezed her. "Right, Trowa? We're both going to miss you." Kamori said looking at Trowa expectantly. He nodded slowly. Her mom smiled.
.:I will miss you as well, Kitten:. Nightstalker purred, looking up at her sadly. Wow. It felt so good to be loved, at least in her opinion. She stored these moments in her memory before they were to part ways. Sure she'd miss them as much as they would miss her. But she was going off to save the world.
"We'll be boarding now. Can I trust, Tamora that your animals can ride with us and not cause trouble?" That was their cue to break away from their families. Tamora nodded.
"They shouldn't be much trouble." She smiled and sent a chilling look down to the three prancing animals. It threatened no treats if they did anything bad. They all whimpered and gave their best big-sad-teary eyes. She smirked.
"That's not going to work." She told them. She felt the mental pouts.
They began onto the shuttle waving their last goodbyes. The doors closed, cutting them off from the from their parents. She was going to miss them. Tamora just hoped that her parents meeting after all this time would result in frisky actions that would undoubtedly lead to little siblings.
"Take your seats." Une instructed from her seat at the front. Everyone found seats together. Tamora made sure that she got the window seat next to Victor. Behind her Derek took a seat while at the same time glaring at Lucius who had taken a seat in front of Tamora. Brooke and Lann sat together and chatted a little bit. Victor smiled at her as Oni, Byakko, and Ieisha all sat Tamora and Victor's laps. She smiled back.
The trip was going to take some time to get to the moon. With a pet to Byakko's white furry head, Tamora brought out of her bag a cd player. She knew exactly what cd she had in. Play was all that she needed to push for everything to get started. Loud rock blasted into her ears.
Now she was in business.
Raven: Yay! I have brought to you another chapter. Hehehe. I'll try to get another up soon. I'm gonna have some relationship problems occurring between some the children. Gotta make it interesting….hehehe. ^____^ I want to be evil with them. I also might have in the next chapter an introduction to the children's powers. You know…if you read New Pilots or In The End. Like parents like children.
Stay tuned for the next chapter to Runaway.