Not What You See
A/U This was his last shot. If he got returned from this foster home, he was out on the streets. They thought they could handle whatever he threw at them. But unlike their other foster sons, there was a great hurt inside Kai Hiwatari. And now they weren't sure they could help him…
A/N: All right, so I got the idea from Smile Empty Soul, by Identity Thief. It's on my favourites list (and so is she!), I command thee to go read it and review it! After you read mine, of course! ^-^ But I won't do anywhere near as good of a job as her. Even though my plot is slightly different. Well, more than slightly different. Tyson and Chief aren't coming this story as main characters, just as a 'pop-in-and-pop-out' type of character. And I'm using English first names and Japanese last names (as far as I know)
DISCLAIMER: I own only Sebastien, Larysa, Blanche, Gemma, Roarke, Camden, Lydia, Anna, Natalie, Gabriel, Clara, Jocelyn, Todd, Harper, November, Kirk, Regine, Marina and Griffith.
Chapter 1:: The New Boy
"Kirk, don't forget to—"
"Drop off the school registrations and go pick up Rei from the mall and get the groceries and pick up Marina from dance and pick up Max from soccer and pick up Griffith from Lyndon's house and mail off the bills and fill up the tank." Kirk Toshiro finished. "Don't worry, Regine. I'm a big boy."
"I know, but I still worry about you." Regine laughed.
"Hey, Kirk!" Rei Kon called as he ran for the van. "Wow, I'm the first one. I claim shotgun!" he hopped up onto the passenger seat.
"Have fun roaming the mall aimlessly?" Kirk asked as he drove out of the parking lot.
"Of course, of course." Rei laughed, pulling a Rurouni Kenshin graphic novel from his bag and burying himself in it.
Kirk rolled his eyes and pulled into the parking lot of the grocery store. "You coming?"
"Yeah, sure," Rei said absently, groping for the car door handle while reading the manga.
"Never mind, Rei," Kirk said. "Just stay in the car and read."
"All right."
Regine was finishing up the preparations for dinner when the doorbell rang.
She opened the door to find Mr. Dickinson, the family's collective social worker, standing on the step with a very sullen-looking teenager behind him. "Oh, hello, Stanley. You're earlier than I expected. Kirk's only just left to pick up the kids and run a few errands. Come in."
"Thank you, Regine." Mr. Dickinson said cheerfully.
"And you must be Kai." Regine said to the teen behind him. Looking up briefly at mention of his name, he returned to looking around at his new neighbourhood.
'Oh, this is revolting.' Kai Hiwatari thought disgustedly. 'Where's Pollyanna?'
The entire neighbourhood screamed NUCLEAR, WELL-ADJUSTED, PERFECT FAMILIES LIVE HERE! Right down to the perfectly tended lawns, gardens and houses. This one was an off-white two story with an attached garage, which at the moment was empty of vehicles but contained a young girl's bike, a young boy's bike and two youth boy's bikes, along with the various other junk that nobody wanted to put in their perfectly-clean house.
"Kai, come inside," Regine said again. Muttering under his breath to himself, Kai complied and his suspicions were confirmed. The house was squeaky clean, like something out of an interior decorators' magazine. It was also quite bright. The room that was evidently the living room was sky blue walls with light green trimmings along the floor and pastel yellow furniture and curtains, and the hallways between rooms were all beige and covered with photos in frames and various certificates and notes. It was so cheerful that Kai nearly flinched with the happiness of it all.
"Well," Mr. Dickinson said uneasily. "Since the other two haven't arrived back, I'll come again in a couple of hours and check in on you guys then."
"All right, Stanley," Regine smiled.
By the time the group had arrived home, Regine had gotten Kai to settle into his room, and was setting the table. Kai was still in his room on the second floor, listening to his Discman and brooding about how quickly he should get himself kicked out of this place. Granted, it would be great to stay a for a longer while than he ever had before, just get Dickinson's hopes up and then smash them brutally; but he didn't think he could live in this Pollyanna house for half a year.
There was a bang as the door opened downstairs, and the sounds of Regine scolding whoever had banged it open.
"'You'll chip my lovely paint!'" Kai mimicked. "Heaven forbid we get even the slightest incongruity in the house." He muttered. (In reality, Regine had told Max that he would break the door down and hurt himself one day if he kept doing that, but Kai was having a good deal of amusement imagining the most airheaded response.)
"Stanley came just after you left, Kirk," Regine said.
"Wow. He was early." Max commented. "He never comes until after dinner."
"Yeah, well, Kai's up in his bedroom, so when you two boys go up there, just drop off your stuff and ask him to come down for dinner. Max, change into some clean clothes and throw your uniform in the laundry. Rei, get your nose out of that manga, you have all night to read it."
"Hmm?" Rei answered, looking up. Regine rolled her eyes. "Close the manga, Rei. It's dinnertime. Drop your bag upstairs and tell Kai to come down for dinner."
"Kai?" Rei asked. "Oh. New Guy."
"Kai." Regine told him. "Not New Guy. Kai. He's your age."
"Right. Kai." Rei answered absently. "Gotcha."
Curiosity killed the Rei and once he had dropped off his backpack in his very green room across the hall from what had originally been a spare bedroom, he cracked the door open and got a surprise when the occupant threw something at the door. "Yi!"
He pushed the door open and discovered it had been a duffel bag, not even unpacked, that had threatened his head's well-being. "Kai?"
"What?" came the sullen reply.
"Regine says to come down for dinner," Rei said quickly and split.
'Come down for… oh.' Kai mused, setting aside his Discman. 'This is a Pollyanna family in a Pollyanna neighbourhood. They all eat together at a specific time.'
Kai came down the steps, listening as two young voices argued happily over who got which end of the bench. He took in the scene in silence.
Regine was bringing food over to the table, while a man Kai thought to be Kirk was discussing something with a blonde boy a couple of years younger than him. A boy who looked Chinese and about his age was buried in a graphic novel. 'Hmm. Rurouni Kenshin. Kid's got good taste.' The two youngest ones, a girl about eight and a boy about five were still bantering.
Regine looked up. "Oh, Kai. There you are. Rei, for heaven's sake, close the book!"
"But I was getting to the best part!" Rei whined, placing his bookmark in the manga and closing it.
"That will make it even better to read after you've reached the year 2002 for a while." Kirk told him.
Kai felt something furry settle on his foot and instinctively shook it off, causing the white cat to meow in complaint and stalk off to Rei, who lifted the cat up onto his lap.
"You didn't need to do that." Rei snapped, stroking the cat.
"Rei, put that cat down." Regine sighed. "I've told you a thousand times: no pets at the table."
"All right, all right." Rei grumbled, setting Driger back down.
"You're not allergic, are you, dear?" Regine asked Kai, who shook his head. "Are you allergic to anything?"
Kai shook his head.
By the end of the dinner, of which he hadn't touched a morsel, Kai was convinced he would get himself thrown out of this one as soon as he could. They looked exactly like Sebastien and Mother and Natalie had looked like.