Disclaimer: Not mine

The Misted Glass of an Angel

I awoke the next morning to a horrid…screeching…

I was tired, so I wasn't about to accept defeat and get out of bed. Plus, it was around…what?…eight?

I reached for my other pillow and brought it down upon my head.

No such luck.

The Screaming Banshees From Hell seemed to pierce through even the thickest, fluffiest pillows.

I accepted defeat and grumbled my way down the hall to the bathroom. Tied up my short hair, brushed my teeth and headed to the stairs.

By now, everyone was headed down the stairs but no one had it as bad as me.

I had to walk past the room in which my grandmother and her friends were singing. I was horrified. I plugged my ears and ran past the room.

Soon, I was downstairs and the breakfast was on the table. Fruit Loops.

I hate those.

I chose the Corn Flakes.

"What's going on up there?" Keitaro pointed up towards The Room.

"They're trying to sing 'Circle of Life'." Motoko replied.

"Ith shounds like a howwow movie. You know, when thay do that kiyyer noish?" Kanako added. Laughter was scattered. Neither Shinobu nor me laughed.

"She's trying to kill us!" My mom faked a horrified expression. It wasn't that hard since they tried to hit a high note at that moment.

Everyone winced with clarity.

"You guys should really stop laughing." That was me. When my mom became a kid with the other kids, I became the adult. I think I always was the adult.

"Hey everyone. That's not nice. You shouldn't act like that. She's our-…your grandmother." All the laughter ceased. Shinobu had spoken about the Evil One.

"She's you grandmother too, Shinobu." My mom came over and kissed Shinobu on top of her head.

"I wish…" She muttered.

.~.

It was around noon now and the singing continued.

The horror.

Everyone in our family was outside in the front. We'd all taken our snow gear out. But not for the snow, of which there was only a little. With the temperatures we were having that day, I expect none by the end of the day.

We had actually taken out our snow gear for the earmuffs. We needed some way to block the Sirens of Death.

In fact, the whole street had earmuffs on because the upstairs window was open. It was pretty sad. Mutsumi even walked down to our house and spoke to me about it. Her address was 345 Wilmore Street. Ours was 354. So our mail always went there and vice versa.

Everyone was trying to enjoy themselves and I'd say they were doing a pretty good job considering the circumstances.

When the trio would stop to "freshen up" (go to the loo), "exercise their voices somewhere else" (fart outside the room), or "pray for more success" (pray that no one died from their singing), everyone was in heaven because no one was singing.

However, then they would start back up.

Soon it had to stop. The soon did come but not from one of the family.

If it were one of us, she'd go on a tirade about how under appreciated she was. After that, she'd start crying to her friends about how we killed her son. Puh-leese.

The soon I was speaking of came from Mr. Ueda's house. The front door opened, and out stepped a girl in her mid-twenties, wearing a nice shirt and a pair of nice jeans. It was an expensive look.

She came out to the middle of the street and stopped one of the girls playing with a Shinobu with a question. The little girl couldn't hear her at first because she was wearing earmuffs and the singing had amplified.

The little girl pointed up towards our upper window.

The new, older, 'I'm stylish' girl came and stood on our front lawn, wincing every now and then. She put two hands up to her mouth like a speakerphone and hollered up. By now, everyone was watching.

"Hello!!???" Since the singing had taken one of the three breaks, three heads came out of the window to see who hollered.

"Yes?!" Hina was speaking.

"Hi! I'm your new neighbor!"

"Hello!"

"I live with Mr. Ueda!" The girl turned around and motioned to Mr. Ueda, who waved shyly towards Hina. She put a frown on her face in response.

"That's nice! Now, if you'd please let us be, we need to continue practicing!" There was an audible groan in the background from the street.

"No! Wait! You see, that's what I wanted to speak to you about!"

"Our singing?!"

"Yes!"

"Well! Go on!" I think they were expecting compliments.

"Could you abandon singing for the rest of your lives?!"

"What??!!!!" All three of the grannies shrieked. It was almost as bad as the singing. Almost.

"Yeah." She clasped her hands together then signaled over the little girl, Su, from earlier. "You see this little girl?! She's wearing earmuffs while she plays with her friend! That's not normal! Your singing, more like screeching, is making the kid go deaf! Please, don't kill her!" Su laughed.

Their faces were becoming red with rage. Everyone else on the street was laughing. I was not. How was this funny? She, this complete stranger, was insulting a complete stranger to her!

They stuck their heads back inside and abandoned singing. I guess being told to their face by a stranger that the singing was bad…was bad.

The girl decided to make herself friendly with everyone else on the street. She went to everyone and introduced herself.

She soon reached our family. It seemed everyone had a smile or a kind word for her. Just great. My family liked her.

"Hi. My name's Mitsune…or Kitsune if you like."

"Haruka."

"Hi, Haruka! So do you ever smile? Or is your face plastered into that mask?" Could you say insolence? My jaw dropped and I was about to reply when she moved on to my mother.

"Hello! So what's for dinner?"

"Wh-what?" My mother, just like me, was confused.

"Well…yeah. What's for dinner? Obviously, me being your charismatic and lovely new neighbor, you have to have something wonderful planned! I know you're hiding it form me!" She spotted Shinobu, who was laughing at her.

"You see! This young girl wants me over! What's your name again?" My mom laughed once again.

"We'll see, darling. We'll see." Mitsune seemed pleased. She waved goodbye as she retreated back to her house and as we retreated to ours.

"She sheems nishe." Kanako supplied. The others muttered their agreement.

"I like her, Mom!" Shinobu sounded real enthusiastic. That was a first.

"Mom? Can I speak to you privately?" She nodded and we stepped into the kitchen. There are no doors in the kitchen, just doorways. Therefore, no privacy.

"I don't like her." There. I said it. Simple and clean.

"I like her. And so does everyone else."

"She's so insolent and demanding! Grandma will have a fit if she shows up!"

"Oh." She considered it for a few moments. "All the more reason to invite her then."

I smacked my forehead.

All the others laughed. I wheeled on them and shook an angry finger. Like that helped.

"Ooh!! I'm scared now! Haruka has brandished the Ever Powerful Angry Finger! Ooh!!" Keitaro was such a crap head.

"Well if was Naru pointing this finger, who would be cringing then, huh?" He froze and was silenced. I knew that I had gotten him.

"Well, I have to be off. The café underneath Mutsumi's charge isn't too comforting."

I was off.

.~.

"Mutsumi, stop!"

"Stop what?"

"Ogling at the customers! Leave the poor guys alone!"

"Oh. Am I doing that? How rude of me! I must go over there to apologize!" She made to go forward. I stopped her.

"They are our only customers of the day. Please leave them alone! If you don't you'll scare them!"

"Why? Am I wearing a mask? I didn't know it was Halloween! I thought it was in October!"

"Halloween is in October, Mutsumi."

"Oh. I haven't bought any candy! Oops!" I was defeated. How I put up with her, I'll never know.

While still grasping her arm, I lowered my head in defeat. Big mistake.

My head immediately sprung up. I whispered harshly to her.

"Mutsumi! XYZ!"

"What? You want me to say the alphabet?"

"No! Don't you remember? From third grade? XYZ?" She wasn't listening to me.

"Okay. Here I go." She cleared her throat.

"A-B-C-D-"

"No! XYZ!"

"Nuh-uh! The alphabet starts with 'ABC'!"

By now the customers had left. They'd paid, leaving the money on the table. I think they were afraid of us.

I twirled her around.

"XYZ means 'examine your zipper'!" She looked down and giggled.

"Oops! Must have forgotten after I went to the bathroom!" Not funny.

.~.

After closing up the café, I headed home.

Outside it smelled real good. I headed inside and found a very unhappy grandmother sitting on the couch.

"What's going on?" I was trying to be nice.

"That…that pumice stone is here!" Of all the insults she could have thrown, pumice stone?

At that moment, I didn't care. She was here?

I walked into the kitchen and there she was, directing the cooking with my mother and Shinobu. Even Kanako and Motoko were helping.

Keitaro was hovering around the rest of the females, trying to find an opening for food. No such luck as Mitsune kicked him out. I was going to try to be kind.

"Hello Mitsune."

"Kitsune, if you please. Hello Haruka! Smile, you'll look prettier."

"What are you cooking?"

"Real Japanese food. You see, I don't consider that instant stuff real."

"What are we having?"

"Gomaae, Korokke, Gohan, Onigiri, Kyuri To Wakame No Sunomono and for dessert we're having dora-yaki. Sound good? Just don't tell the prickly pear out there. Keitaro, away from the Gohan."

He shrunk back. I, however, wasn't done.

"Where'd you learn to cook? You don't seem like one who would."

"Do you always wear such drab clothes? I think your figure calls for more. And those colors do nothing for your cheekbones or skin tones." She turned back to the tea she was preparing to drink with the dora-yaki, completely ignoring my question.

I was aghast. This Kitsune had some nerve!

.~.

Yay! Three chapters up in one day! The last two of 'Drown' and the second to this one. However, I've been very disappointed with the last two of Drown. I hated them. Horrible!!!! Maybe I'll do them over. Well thanks need to go out:

velocet- Yup you were first! Never knew it was so important…Hope you enjoy one where it's mostly about Haruka and her life being impacted.

mr-winkie- Oh wow! Thanks for the compliment! You think 'Drown' was good? I thought it was pretty good until the end. That sucked major chicken butt.

Mantis Man- I didn't abandon 'Drown'!! See!! I finished it first! I agree with you and velocet too. Haruka is under appreciated.

Mozzarella- Thanks! Don't worry! There's no Kentaro!

Gotenks01013- Wow! Thanks for that awesome compliment! I'm glad I kept everyone involved. I tried. I hope it worked better in this chapter. The pairings are something I don't want to mess with but don't want to leave unscathed. I mean, it's fun to move them around and stuff. Thank you!