I'm really, REALLY sorry that I took so long with that last chapter, I just had a shortage of ideas for a while, but now I'm feeling better. And for people who like my stories (How many is that, like, three???) I'm going to have some new ones coming out soon enough. I won't forget my "MI" series, though. I PROMISE!!!!!
Disclaimer: I wish that I owned Kurama, oh god, I do, but sadly, I don't. The only people I own are Bronwyn and Aiku. I also own the picture that makes Kurama look like a stripper^_^
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Kurama's bright green eyes flickered with shock as he watched the event that was unfolding right in front of him. Bronwyn and Shiori were struggling on the floor, both trying to sit up, though failing miserably as they remained in a tangled heap on the slick tile floor.
Aiku, on the other hand, was quietly laughing, though trying not to show it too much, instead wearing a small half-smile as he watched the two females' predicament.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!!!!" Bronwyn kept whispering apologetically over and over again, trying with all of her might to pull herself off of the middle-aged woman, but it was nearly impossible, since the cool surface of the ground was still causing her to slip over and over again.
Finally snapping out of his alarmed daze, Kurama rushed forward and grabbed both of Bronwyn's arms roughly, dragging her off of his mother. He then ran to help Shiori up, acting as a pole which she could grab to pull herself to her feet.
"Thank-you, Shuichi." She whispered, looking to be a bit frazzled as she brushed herself off.
"Shuichi? Who is that?" Bronwyn leaned over to Aiku's ear, having gotten to her feet.
"Didn't Kurama tell you? You have to call him Shuichi around his mom." He whispered back.
"Why?!?!"
The male just shrugged. "Got me."
"Are you okay, mother?" Kurama asked worriedly, looking her over carefully to make sure nothing was wrong. Shiori just waved his look away, though.
"I'm fine, dear, don't worry." She said warmly, her eyes drifting over the two unfamiliar people standing cautiously a few feet away.
"And who is your slightly clumsy friend?" She asked, wearing a slight smile as she stared at Bronwyn, whose cheeks were flushed, probably the cause of embarrassment for her clumsiness.
"Oh, mother, this is Bronwyn."
The women just stared the crimson-haired girl for a moment, her eyes twinkling with a mischievous light. Bronwyn returned the look, though wearing a confused expression.
"May I ask who she is? Your girlfriend, perhaps?" Shiori questioned her son innocently. Both red-heads glanced at one another alarmingly and then shook their heads simultaneously.
"No, no, no, no, no...." Each repeated in rhythm over and over again, obviously not liking the mental visual it provided.
"Uh, what there trying to say in their own special way is that, no, they are not together." Aiku decided to step in at that point and explain the situation a little more simply, since Shiori was now looking quite confused with the two adolescents.
"Well then, may I ask why you are here?" She asked kindly, waiting patiently for an answer, though no one looked too eager to present one.
"Well, um...Bronwyn, why don't you explain that one?" Kurama suggested, glancing back at her with a pleading expression.
Well....if she's Kurama's mother (However the hell that is possible), then she must know about demons and things like that......right??? Bronwyn was not at all sure of this thought, but decided that it was worth taking a shot at...
"Well....I'm a former assassin."
Complete and utter silence. Kurama whirred his head around so fast that he nearly got whiplash, his eyes so wide that they seemed to take up his entire face.
"Um....excuse me, dear??" Shiori whispered, looking beyond confused, thinking that she must of heard Bronwyn's words incorrectly.
"Yeah, I used to live in the Ma-"
The rest of her sentence was rudely cut off by Kurama's hand, which he had practically rocketed against her mouth, and was now holding it there permanently, preventing her from speaking.
"Uh, you must excuse Bronwyn, mother, you see...she's....a recovering alcoholic!!" He finally was able to come up with a good excuse after a few minutes of his mind being completely blank.
"I'm a WHAT?????" Bronwyn's muffled voice came out from behind his hand, though no one besides Kurama could hear it.
"Yes, see, I found her on the street a month ago. She was at almost ten beers a day at that point. So I took her to an AA meeting and she's been trying to stop her addiction ever since." He paused for a moment. "But when she does break down and drink some, her mind gets a little...rattled....so you must forgive her incompetent babbling."
"HEY!!!!" More incoherent words from Bronwyn.
"Well, dear, feel free to stay with us as long as you need." Shiori said in a comforting voice, smiling at Bronwyn in a fashion that suggested that the raven-haired women felt sorry for her.
"I'll make sure that she does nothing idiotic, mother." Kurama reassured her.
Okay, that's it!!!! Not being able to take it anymore, Bronwyn sunk her teeth deep into the skin of Kurama's hand. Letting a loud 'ow!!!' slip past his lips, he immediately removed his hand, much to the teenager's pleasure, and began to shake his hand, his goal to cease the pain.
"Dear, are you okay?" Shiori asked, redirecting her attention to the two, having missed the whole escapade. She had been staring at Aiku, who was fidgeting with something in his hand...
Not wanting to explain what had just happened, he only muttered a low 'I'm fine' and then sent an angry expression at Bronwyn, still grasping his hand tightly. She just smiled innocently back at him, and then looked at Shiori once again.
"Your son's just tired, that's all. He didn't get that much rest, last night, did he?" She cooed, patting his red mane gently, as one would to a small child. Kurama looked as though he would like nothing more than to give Bronwyn a piece of his mind, but not in favor of causing a scene, he decided to just look away.
"And who might you be?" Shiori was directing the exact same question at Aiku now, who was still staring at his hand, looking deep in thought...
"Aiku? Hello in there?" Bronwyn waved her hand in front of the male's face, which caused him to glance up hurriedly, finally realizing that someone had asked him a question. "Wha...?" He whispered, his gaze flitting between the three people, hoping for someone to explain to him what was going on.
"Um...she wants to know who you are, Aiku. So why don't you explain it to her??" Kurama suggested meekly.
"Oh no, Kurama, I think you could do a much better job with it..." He said, looking a bit panicked, his mind obviously not filled with too many ideas at the moment.
"Oh no, I insist..."
"Please, you."
"You."
"YOU."
"WILL SOMEBODY JUST SAY SOMETHING?!?!?!" Bronwyn practically exploded at the two boys, fed up with their passing of the torch for who would tell the story.
"Uh...well..." The only thing that Aiku could remember was a t.v special he had watched last night about traveling salesman who was selling bars of soap...
"I'm...I'm...a traveling salesman." He stated as calmly as humanly possible. Both Bronwyn and Kurama turned their heads to look at him, both wearing expressions that clearly showed their disbelief with what he had just said.
"A traveling salesman." Shiori repeated flatly, sounding a tad unconvinced.
"Uh...yeah...see, my idea was to sell stationary, but nobody really wanted them, so I went broke and Kur-Shuichi here...." Aiku had just barely corrected himself, and watched as a relieved expression drifted over Kurama's face, "Let me have a place to stay. But I've got a meeting in the next city on Friday, so I'll be gone by then." Someone who had just a minute ago nothing to say was now spewing out words left and right.
Shiori, though, looked to be thinking as she stared at Aiku, her eyes searching his own. "Dear, your voice sounds...familiar. Have we met before??"
"Of course no-" Aiku stopped abruptly in mid-sentence, the disastrous phone-call about an hour ago returning to him. "I'm sorry, mam, but no." He said nervously, praying that she wouldn't figure it out.
His plee was in vain though, as the middle-aged woman gained a look of recognition. "You sound just like the rude boy I spoke with on the phone." She turned to her son at this point. "Shuichi, I thought you said it was the neighbor's son...."
"Mam, it couldn't of been me!!" Aiku protested, though still trying to be polite. "Well you see, I don't answer phones, it's...it's against my religion."
Bronwyn glanced back at the raven-haired boy and mouthed 'against your religion???' with an angry glow in her eyes. He only shrugged, looking helpless to do anything more.
Shiori's eyes drifted between the three teenagers for a few seconds, as if she didn't know what to think, and then sighed heavily. "Well, you both are welcome to stay with us. The more the merrier!" She exclaimed, her voice bright. "I'm going to take a shower, and then we can all have dinner together. Is that alright?"
Even though Bronwyn would of liked nothing more than to utter a low cry of protest to this, she instead plastered a fake smile on her face and tried to look as eager as she could. "Of course. We would like nothing better." She gritted between her teeth.
The woman smiled, and walked past them to the stairwell, where she began to climb, disappearing out of sight. The trio strained their ears, listening to her footsteps as they grew fainter and fainter until they were nearly non-existent. When they were absolutely, positively, undeniably sure that anything they said at that point couldn't be heard, they all turned to one another, their polite smiles having vanished.
"You bit me." It was more of a statement than an exclamation. Kurama was still clutching his right hand tightly, pain still searing through it. Bronwyn teeth's were pretty tough...
The girl just stared at him dumbly. "Brilliant observation, Kurama. If you hadn't of noticed, I think I might of missed it!!!" She said sarcastically, crossing her arms furiously.
"I can't believe you bit me." Kurama's mind couldn't register the fact, for some reason.
"Well, maybe I wouldn't of if you hadn't called me a RECOVERING ALCOHOLIC!!!" She growled, not looking too happy with the false identity Kurama had made up for her.
"Well, if we had stuck with 'assassin', I fear that she probably would of called the police on you. My mother doesn't know anything about that world!!" The kitsune exclaimed, looking very flustered.
"Guys, stop it...." Aiku whispered, pulling his gaze off of his hand once again to look at the two.
"Oh, and this from 'religion-boy'!! Or should I call you 'The traveling salesman'?" Bronwyn growled.
"Hey, my lies were better than yours!!"
"Yeah right! 'I don't answer phones...It's against my religion', that's convincing!!"
"Is something wrong down there?" Shiori's worried voice floated down the stairs and into the entrance hallway where the three were arguing. They all grew silent for a moment, obviously not expecting her to be able to hear them, and then Kurama called up to her...
"We're fine, mother!!"
"Well, alright, then." The faint noise of a door swinging shut was all they needed to signal that they could speak up once again.
"Okay, it doesn't matter, it's all in the very immediate past now, so we now need to just get through dinner." Kurama said simply, which was quickly followed by a low cry of protest.
"Oh no, when I said I was going to dinner, I didn't mean I was ACTUALLY going to dinner!!!" She screamed furiously, "I can't spend another minute with that woman!"
"Why? What's the matter with my mother?" Kurama's voice had a stingy tone, which gave Bronwyn the clear picture that he didn't appreciate the 'that woman' comment in the least bit.
"Look, Kurama, it's not her, she's just gonna ask way too many questions that I don't know how to answer!!" She exclaimed, leaning back against the hall wall defiantly. Aiku coughed quietly, and Bronwyn cocked her head to glare at him.
"You got something to say, religion-boy?" She growled, deep chocolate colored eyes narrowing at the black haired male.
"Me? No." He replied innocently.
"You already said you were going, so you better get used to the idea." Kurama sighed, eyelids drifting down softly, as he shook his head. "I'll be in the kitchen."
Bronwyn opened her mouth wide to argue further, but the kitsune was already disappearing behind the kitchen wall, crimson hair flowing behind him.
"You can't tell me what to do!!!! You think you hold power over me?!?!?! WELL, YOU DON'T!!!!" She called, her voice echoing behind him.
She grew silent for a moment, and then an angry expression appeared on her face. "Oh hell, he does." Knowing that this decision was out of her control, she decided that the most appropriate thing to do at this point was stalk upstairs, which she did. Loudly.
Aiku watched her dark figure make its way up the stairs until she disappeared around the banister, and then his two bright green eyes flitted back down to his hand, where they remained for a moment, before moving back up to the stairwell....
****
That damn fox...always nagging...always there.....I need my own house.....
The red-haired female continued to grumble under her breath as she struggled with the straps of the navy blue dress. Even though she would like nothing more than to push open the glass panes of the window and jump to the ground outside and just escape, if she didn't have a choice, she was at least going to look presentable to Shiori.
She shivered as the cool material slid smoothly over her warm skin as she pulled the strap onto her shoulder. I hate him....
"That looks nice."
Startled by the voice, she glanced towards the open doorway hurriedly, only to see Aiku leaning against the door frame casually, his hands shoved into his pockets. His face looked to be emotionless, however.
"Aiku...lower-life beings are not allowed in my room. OUT!" She screamed, pointing a single finger behind him, to the dimly lit hallway sternly.
"Sheesh, I just wanted to ask you a question. Is that alright with you, your Imperial Highness?" He sniffed with a sarcastic flair, ignoring Bronwyn's warning and strolling into the area.
Bronwyn's dark brown eyes followed Aiku's movements carefully, wondering what the heck he could want from her, but then she sighed heavily and nodded. "Okay, what do you want to ask me?"
As the male dropped down onto the soft bed, he seemed to have not heard one word that had left Bronwyn's mouth. "This is a really nice room..." He commented airily, glancing around curiously. The girl just stared blankly at him for a minute and then stormed over to the bed and wrapped her hand around his wrist tightly, yanking him to his feet and pulling him to the door.
"Out, out, out, OUT!!" She growled, yanking open the wooden door and practically throwing him out into the hallway. At that time, she made an attempt to shut the door in his face, but Aiku managed to push his hand against the door before it clicked shut.
"What...the...hell...do....you....want?!?!?!" She whispered, putting all her weight into pushing the door closed, but failing miserably as Aiku was having no problem with keeping it open.
"Do you....still have it?" His voice was so quiet, Bronwyn could barely hear it. With a loud groan, she let him push the door back open, and glared at him impatiently.
"I have no idea what you're talking abou-" She was about to make another attempt at forcing the male out the door, but her sentence trailed off endlessly, leaving her completely silent. Aiku was holding out his hand in front of her, the one he had been staring at for so long...at first glance, nothing seemed strange about it, but with further inspection, you could slightly make out....a deep cut embedded in his skin....it was located straight in the middle, and he seemed to have received it quite some time ago, since it was considerably faded.
He repeated the question once again. "Do you still have it?"
Bronwyn still seemed to be at a loss for words at the sight of the scar, but slowly uncurled her clenched hand and stared at it intently. She at first felt relieved when she noticed nothing strange, but then...
It was still there. Barely, though.
Her narrowed eyes traveled over and over the exact same spot again and again, and still it did nothing to convince her that the slash had remained after all those years that had passed.
Shit...this can't be...
"That's funny, huh?" Aiku's nervous voice broke shattered her confusion, and she glanced back up at him only to see his face scrunched up with nervous laughter. "I could of sworn they would of been gone by now....I just noticed today....."
Silence.
"Out. Just....get out." Her voice was low and solemn as she shoved the male out the door and closed it shut before he could ever register what was going on.
She pushed her ear up against the door, and listened for Aiku's light footsteps to travel down the stairs, staying completely still and silent until she could no longer here them. Knowing that she was alone again, she practically collapsed against the cool wood of the white door, slumping down to the carpet.
It was still there.
She rose the palm of her pale hand up to her face, and using her other hand, she lightly traced the scar over and over again delicately, since it still had a slight stinging sensation whenever too much force was put upon it.
It was still there.
Unexplainably, a sudden rush of anger overtook her emotions and she began to rub her palm over the scar repeatedly, even though it was causing pain to sear through her hand and the rest of her arm. It didn't matter if her whole body was writhing in agony, she just wanted to erase it, get rid of it...
It was still there.
Knowing that this wasn't doing any good unless she was wishing to inflict pain on herself, she ceased her efforts and allowed her hand to drop back to her side.
It's still there.
***
"Dear, this is wonderful. You always did have a knack for cooking." Shiori said graciously, bringing the fork, filled with fresh turkey, to her mouth once again.
Sitting to the side of her, Kurama smiled and nodded. "Thank-you, mother."
Despite this pleasant conversation, the dining room table seemed to hold an eery silence, except for the clangs of the metal against the plates. Kurama had noticed straight away that something was bothering Bronwyn terribly. She always had a good-sized appetite, but tonight, the only thing her fork seemed to be doing was dance around the plate, sweeping the small sphere-shaped peas around in a circle. She wore a solemn, if not sad, expression as she slumped against the wooden back of the chair.
Even if his attitude was a bit brighter, Aiku seemed to be going about his dinner in the same fashion, letting the little pieces of meat lift off the china plate and then drop back down abruptly.
The red-haired male raised a curious eyebrow, but didn't make a move to ask them what was going on, since it was probably something personal.
"Dear....Bronwyn, was it???" Shiori's bright voice seemed to contradict the strange emotion hanging in the air, but she didn't notice in the least bit.
"Uh...yeah, Bronwyn, that's my name." The female said quietly, sitting up slightly.
"I was wondering if....well, you have such gorgeous hair....it looks just like Shuichi's...." She said with a warm smile, casting a kind look at her teenage son, who glanced down at his place, a little embarrassed by the comment.
"Maybe I could braid it...it would look just beautiful...." She suggested sweetly, staring at Bronwyn expectantly, waiting for her opinion on the matter.
This comment seemed to snap Bronwyn out of her depressed stature, and she pulled her body upright on the chair.
"What's the matter with my hair?" She struggled to say this politely, though it was a little difficult. Kurama shot her a warning look, but it really did nothing to help.
"Oh, nothing, but I just think it would look lovely if you would let me put it up in some braids for you." Shiori didn't seem to detect the agitated tone in Bronwyn's voice. "You know, even though I love Shuichi very much, I've always wanted a daughter, and if you were to stay with us, if would be just like I did have one."
Silence.
.........daughter????
Bronwyn felt a little shocked at this. It was really the first time since she had started living in Kurama's home that someone had mentioned that she was becoming part of the family. It felt very...good....
"Mam, I would like that. Very much." She said, smiling at Shiori, who returned it happily. She would really like to make Kurama's mother happy. It just felt like some way that she could repay her and Kurama....
"Well, okay, then!" Shiori said brightly, "How about tomorrow, then? Do you attend school?"
"Oh, no!" She said a little too quickly, which caused Shiori to grow a little confused. "I mean...I graduated about a year ago..." She said cautiously, as both Kurama and Aiku stared her strangely, knowing she had told another lie that they could add to the growing list.
"Well, then, we'll do it tomorrow!" The raven-haired woman rose from her seat and began to gather plates from the table. "I'll clean everything up, don't worry about it." She reassured the trio, who also rose up slowly from their chairs.
"It's getting late. Why don't you three go up and ready yourselves for bed?" She suggested calmly, turning on the faucet and beginning to rinse the food remnants off the plates.
"Okay, mother." Kurama whispered, gesturing for the other two to start making their way up the stairwell. They both got the message clearly, and started to climb the stairs, with the red-head close behind.
"Bronwyn, I have some homework to do that I'm a little puzzled with. And since you're a college graduate and all, do you think you could help me?" Kurama whispered in the girl's ear as he walked behind her, with a playful tone.
"Oh, shut up." Bronwyn growled, though quietly laughing as she turned her body sideways and slapped him on the shoulder lightly.
But her laughter ceased immediately when she glanced nonchalantly further up and laid eyes on Aiku, who was still maintaining a good pace, though his head was cocked to the side. He was watching Bronwyn, and his bright green were echoing the solemn feeling that had been filling her mind only a short time ago.
"What is it, Bronwyn?" Kurama broke her out of her trance, looking slightly curious as he watched the strange expression drift over her face.
"Wha....? Oh, nothing." She glanced over at him and smiled. But when he looked away, she lost the happy look and dropped her gaze down to her open hand, where the scar ran deep.
It was still there.
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Okay, is it possible to have a fever and a cold at the exact same time, because I think that's what I have!!! I've stayed home from school for two days and I'm gonna have so much homework when I go back....That's probably the only reason why I finished up this chapter so fast, since time...is...nonexistent....WHEN YOU STAY HOME FROM SCHOOL!!!
Okay, I'm done ranting.
Well, well, well, tension is building....Where is the scar from???? It also looks like Bronwyn and Shiori are already forming a relationship....this is getting interesting....
REVIEW!!! I love my reviews...