AN: Hello. Still depressed. Writer's block. Hope this suffices. First scene based on a recent event that happened to me. A little. Yeah. Really depressed. Thanks a million to Chaosu and Cirya-Chan. It really, seriously, does mean a lot to me when I get reviews. I'm still hoping for that 100, and merely dreaming of some larger number. PS- I know very well that Ayame and Suzume are NOT twins. But they are here.
{The bottle began to spin slower, landing on the girl to her right. She opened it, taking out a crumbled piece of paper to get a look at her dare. The other girl giggled, anxious to see what it was. Misao only watched nervously. Her friend, who had gotten the paper, was bisexual, as was the girl she had just met tonight. If that girl had made all the dares, she could only imagine what would happen next…
She smirked, crumpling the paper and tossing it aside. She turned to Misao, frozen in place, but she made sure her face didn't betray her fear. Her friend, her best friend in the whole world leaned forward and kissed her.}
"Shit!" Misao lurched forward, knocking herself away from the dangers of her wandering mind. Her eyes adjusted, and she found herself in her room. It was a lazy Sunday afternoon, and she was accustomed to the silence because Kaoru was usually studying. Unfortunately, she was still in the hospital.
Misao went into the kitchen and poured herself some orange juice. She hated that memory. Not only had it been her first kiss, but her worst. There was nothing in it. And it was her best friend. Misao had been depressed for days, struggling with herself to find out if she had those sort of "feelings" for her friend, only to distance herself from her forever. And Soujiro had reawakened the moment, making her angry, making her want to scream…and yet…. he gave Misao her first REAL kiss. She had felt something in it.
But it was just for show….wasn't it?
***
The Kickin' Chicken Palace had never had so much business. Aoshi was pissed off at the prospect of working overtime.
"Aoshi! You're on the birthday squad. Get down there."
"I don't know the song!"
"Yeah right. EVERYONE knows the song." Aoshi's boss leered at him, as if he took pleasure in making people sing and dance on the 'birthday squad'. Aoshi, pissed off that his excuse didn't work, went to the back of the restaurant to prepare himself and find out who the other, unfortunate members of the birthday squad were.
As usual, it was a bunch of annoying, first time employees. Apparently he had been chosen because of his experience.
{Damn. That means I'm the only one who's going to be singing.} Aoshi mentally punched himself, dreading the moment.
"All right. You know the drill, I'm sure. It's the same in every damn restaurant. Line up and clap in UNISON like happy idiots. Try to sing along so I don't look like a retard." Aoshi snapped at the crew. They all nodded fervently, admiring their new squad leader.
"File out." He pointed towards the door, instructing them to arrive at table number 5. Aoshi silently prayed that he wouldn't have to endure the pain of singing alone.
Aoshi stalked out to the table. Silence ensued, and they waited for him to begin. Like a tin soldier out of use, Aoshi slowly moved his jaw, took a deep breath, and began to mumble.
"If it's your birthday and you know it flap your wings." He grumbled.
{If it's your birthday and you know it, leave this dump} Thought Aoshi.
"Buckaw! Buckaw!" The rest of the squad screamed like chickens and flapped their arms about. The birthday man's mouth dropped open at the sight.
"If it's your birthday and you know it flap your wings."
{If it's your birthday and you know it, leave this dump}
"BucKAW! BuKAW!"
"If it's your birthday and you know it, don't throw a fit, the Kickin' Chicken will help you celebrate.." He trailed off, and then the can-can girls kicked the kitchen door open, marching to the table.
"SHAKE YA TAIL-FEATHA'S!!!"
Aoshi grimaced, and took a look at the birthday man. He looked ready to faint, and his relatives looked like they were beginning to regret asking the manager to sing "Happy Birthday". The can-can girls came out in neon orange heels to resemble chicken feet, white mini skirts with tail feathers attached, and white tank tops. They all lined up, and began the much-famed can-can.
By the time they were finished, the birthday man was laughing hysterically. His relatives were fanning him with their napkins. Aoshi was seriously considering quitting his shitty job. Until….he accidentally met the gaze of a can-can dancer as she turned her head; her silky, dark blue hair whipping around her face.
She was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen, considering she was wearing tail feathers. She still had her employee nametag on, that read "HELLO! My Name is Shizuko".
{Shizuko. Pretty girl. Pretty girl = yet.}
In their moment of eye contact, Shizuko stumbled, knocking over all the other girls like a row of dominos.
***
"What on earth happened to your hair?!" Mrs. Seta exclaimed. Her son, Soujiro looked away with a slight hint of a scowl on his face. The normally happy teenager had just been paid an unexpected visit by his mother, and Kenshin had suddenly found and excuse to lock himself in his room.
"Your roommates are disgusting! I honestly don't know what's gotten into you; what about your guitar? CLASSICAL, not this "punk" nonsense! How are your grades?"
"Fine, Mom."
"Well? May I see a report card of some sort?"
"You got one in the mail."
"Well, I didn't get one. Show me."
Soujirou rummaged through a file cabinet kept amazingly neat for high school boys (managed by the extremely orderly Aoshi) and finally was able to come up with a semi-recent report card from last quarter. His mother snatched it from him, her perfectly manicured nails scratching against the thick paper.
His parents had divorced almost as quickly as they had married. Soujiro was the product of one week of dating. They were married immediately because his mother didn't want to be "showing" at her wedding, and felt they should be a family for the yet unborn Soujiro. Well, as nature goes, Soujiro was born about nine months later, and three months after that his father couldn't take Soujiro's constant need for attention 24/7 and left. Just goes to show how men can't handle babies because they're babies themselves.
Soujiro leaned on a chair, taking in his mother's appearance. She was still young, about 35, and had changed her look for the millionth time. Last time he saw her, she had long hair and was going through a tacky jewelry phase. Now, her hair was cropped short around her face, a dark plum lipstick lined her sharp mouth, and a smoky gray eye shadow emphasized the thin arch of her menacing eyebrows. God, she looked like and evil woman.
"You made a C- in Algebra II. I made a B when I had that class, way back when. You got this from your father."
"I don't think he has much to do with anything."
"You OBVIOUSLY got those genes of unintelligence."
"Where did I get the music from, huh? You can't play shit on any instrument!"
"Don't you fucking talk to me like that!" His mother put one hand on her hip, raising the other hand to point accusingly at him.
{Great way to tell me not to curse, Mom. "Don't fucking talk to me like that!" Jeez. Your parenting really sucks. However, if I were in your position, I would be-}
"Soujiro Seta, look at me!"
"What do you want?!"
"Don't curse at me, I AM YOUR MOTHER, secondly, NEVER CORRECT ME when I am speaking of your BASTARD of a father, thirdly I am MOMENTS away from taking you back home, and FOURTHLY, you are PISSING ME OFF!"
"…You wouldn't take me back home."
"Do you want to bet?!"
"I don't need to. You have nowhere to keep me because everyone in the family is either dead or hates you, you'd shoot yourself before sending me to live with Dad, annnnnnd you really don't give a shit about me or what I do so long as you get something out of it, say, my pay as a member of the symphony?"
"You're not in the symphony."
"I could be one day. I'm getting a good reputation, colleges will find me very worthy of their instruction."
"Soujiro-"
"I'm right, you're wrong."
"SOUJIRO-"
"I'm….I'm right. And….you're wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Wrong! Ha….you're….you're wrong. And I'm right! ME! I'm RIGHT! Ha…HAHAHAHAHAHA!" Soujiro doubled over laughing. Kenshin came out of his room to see what in the hell was going on.
"Soujiro….damn it….oh, fuck this. I have to go to work, but I'll be back next weekend and we'll continue this talk!" She turned on her heel and marched out of the dorm, slamming the door behind her. Soujiro immediately stopped laughing, and calmly turned to continue his guitar practice.
"You just faked that schitzo-mode didn't you." Kenshin sighed, smiling.
"Yep."
"Fourth time this year?"
"Fourth time this year." Soujiro replied, smiling as well.
"I can't believe you get away with it every time."
***
Kenshin dialed the number again, having forgotten about it for nearly a week. It was time he got over it.
{It shouldn't matter who you love}
Rinnnng…
{I've learned that much}
Rinnnng…
{I've missed them}
"Hello?"
"Kasaan?" Kenshin's voice cracked.
"Kenshin?"
"Hi…" He forced the word out, trying to hold down the tears.
"Oh, baby…Lisa! Lisa, it's Kenshin!"
There was a faint voice, shouting back, "Kenshin? Our Kenshin?" , then, "Hello?"
"Hey Mom." Kenshin smiled this time.
"Kenshin, we haven't heard from you in so long." Lisa sighed, "I wanted to call you or visit, but Julie said no-"
"Thanks, Kasaan." Kenshin rolled his eyes. Lisa was so…motherly.
"Anytime, Kenshin." Julie replied, sounding amused.
"How are things with you?" Lisa said, exasperated, and Kenshin almost laughed when he heard the faint sound of Lisa playfully slapping Julie, who had probably rolled her eyes as well..
"Just fine. My grades are okay. My best friends are my roommates. Umm…yeah, that's pretty much it."
"No girlfriend?" Lisa asked teasingly.
"No, Mom. No girlfriend."
"Our Kenshin, and no girlfriend? Something's wrong with this picture." Julie teased as well.
"Nah. What's up with you guys?"
"Kenshin, we're old. Nothing happens to us." Julie laughed, as did Lisa.
"You're not old. You're only….what…40 now?"
"That's right, because you were two when we adopted you from Japan." Lisa sounded thoughtful.
"We should get together sometime, it's really been awhile." Kenshin finally brought up the courage to ask them, after countless times of rehearsing what he should say.
"You could come with us to Japan over Spring Break!" Lisa shouted, excited.
"Whoa, wait, you're going to Japan? Why?"
"She hasn't told you half of it yet." Julie sighed.
"THIS is why I wanted to called you Kenshin, but SOMEONE wouldn't let me because she said you needed time. We're adopting another baby, Kenshin. You're going to have little sisters -twins- Ayame and Suzume. We got the letters a while back, but we wanted to surprise you. And then there was the whole….cutting of communication with us."
Kenshin grimaced feeling guilty.
"Sure, I'd love to go. I think it would be a good idea anyway, Ayame and Suzume meeting the whole family at once."
{The bottle began to spin slower, landing on the girl to her right. She opened it, taking out a crumbled piece of paper to get a look at her dare. The other girl giggled, anxious to see what it was. Misao only watched nervously. Her friend, who had gotten the paper, was bisexual, as was the girl she had just met tonight. If that girl had made all the dares, she could only imagine what would happen next…
She smirked, crumpling the paper and tossing it aside. She turned to Misao, frozen in place, but she made sure her face didn't betray her fear. Her friend, her best friend in the whole world leaned forward and kissed her.}
"Shit!" Misao lurched forward, knocking herself away from the dangers of her wandering mind. Her eyes adjusted, and she found herself in her room. It was a lazy Sunday afternoon, and she was accustomed to the silence because Kaoru was usually studying. Unfortunately, she was still in the hospital.
Misao went into the kitchen and poured herself some orange juice. She hated that memory. Not only had it been her first kiss, but her worst. There was nothing in it. And it was her best friend. Misao had been depressed for days, struggling with herself to find out if she had those sort of "feelings" for her friend, only to distance herself from her forever. And Soujiro had reawakened the moment, making her angry, making her want to scream…and yet…. he gave Misao her first REAL kiss. She had felt something in it.
But it was just for show….wasn't it?
***
The Kickin' Chicken Palace had never had so much business. Aoshi was pissed off at the prospect of working overtime.
"Aoshi! You're on the birthday squad. Get down there."
"I don't know the song!"
"Yeah right. EVERYONE knows the song." Aoshi's boss leered at him, as if he took pleasure in making people sing and dance on the 'birthday squad'. Aoshi, pissed off that his excuse didn't work, went to the back of the restaurant to prepare himself and find out who the other, unfortunate members of the birthday squad were.
As usual, it was a bunch of annoying, first time employees. Apparently he had been chosen because of his experience.
{Damn. That means I'm the only one who's going to be singing.} Aoshi mentally punched himself, dreading the moment.
"All right. You know the drill, I'm sure. It's the same in every damn restaurant. Line up and clap in UNISON like happy idiots. Try to sing along so I don't look like a retard." Aoshi snapped at the crew. They all nodded fervently, admiring their new squad leader.
"File out." He pointed towards the door, instructing them to arrive at table number 5. Aoshi silently prayed that he wouldn't have to endure the pain of singing alone.
Aoshi stalked out to the table. Silence ensued, and they waited for him to begin. Like a tin soldier out of use, Aoshi slowly moved his jaw, took a deep breath, and began to mumble.
"If it's your birthday and you know it flap your wings." He grumbled.
{If it's your birthday and you know it, leave this dump} Thought Aoshi.
"Buckaw! Buckaw!" The rest of the squad screamed like chickens and flapped their arms about. The birthday man's mouth dropped open at the sight.
"If it's your birthday and you know it flap your wings."
{If it's your birthday and you know it, leave this dump}
"BucKAW! BuKAW!"
"If it's your birthday and you know it, don't throw a fit, the Kickin' Chicken will help you celebrate.." He trailed off, and then the can-can girls kicked the kitchen door open, marching to the table.
"SHAKE YA TAIL-FEATHA'S!!!"
Aoshi grimaced, and took a look at the birthday man. He looked ready to faint, and his relatives looked like they were beginning to regret asking the manager to sing "Happy Birthday". The can-can girls came out in neon orange heels to resemble chicken feet, white mini skirts with tail feathers attached, and white tank tops. They all lined up, and began the much-famed can-can.
By the time they were finished, the birthday man was laughing hysterically. His relatives were fanning him with their napkins. Aoshi was seriously considering quitting his shitty job. Until….he accidentally met the gaze of a can-can dancer as she turned her head; her silky, dark blue hair whipping around her face.
She was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen, considering she was wearing tail feathers. She still had her employee nametag on, that read "HELLO! My Name is Shizuko".
{Shizuko. Pretty girl. Pretty girl = yet.}
In their moment of eye contact, Shizuko stumbled, knocking over all the other girls like a row of dominos.
***
"What on earth happened to your hair?!" Mrs. Seta exclaimed. Her son, Soujiro looked away with a slight hint of a scowl on his face. The normally happy teenager had just been paid an unexpected visit by his mother, and Kenshin had suddenly found and excuse to lock himself in his room.
"Your roommates are disgusting! I honestly don't know what's gotten into you; what about your guitar? CLASSICAL, not this "punk" nonsense! How are your grades?"
"Fine, Mom."
"Well? May I see a report card of some sort?"
"You got one in the mail."
"Well, I didn't get one. Show me."
Soujirou rummaged through a file cabinet kept amazingly neat for high school boys (managed by the extremely orderly Aoshi) and finally was able to come up with a semi-recent report card from last quarter. His mother snatched it from him, her perfectly manicured nails scratching against the thick paper.
His parents had divorced almost as quickly as they had married. Soujiro was the product of one week of dating. They were married immediately because his mother didn't want to be "showing" at her wedding, and felt they should be a family for the yet unborn Soujiro. Well, as nature goes, Soujiro was born about nine months later, and three months after that his father couldn't take Soujiro's constant need for attention 24/7 and left. Just goes to show how men can't handle babies because they're babies themselves.
Soujiro leaned on a chair, taking in his mother's appearance. She was still young, about 35, and had changed her look for the millionth time. Last time he saw her, she had long hair and was going through a tacky jewelry phase. Now, her hair was cropped short around her face, a dark plum lipstick lined her sharp mouth, and a smoky gray eye shadow emphasized the thin arch of her menacing eyebrows. God, she looked like and evil woman.
"You made a C- in Algebra II. I made a B when I had that class, way back when. You got this from your father."
"I don't think he has much to do with anything."
"You OBVIOUSLY got those genes of unintelligence."
"Where did I get the music from, huh? You can't play shit on any instrument!"
"Don't you fucking talk to me like that!" His mother put one hand on her hip, raising the other hand to point accusingly at him.
{Great way to tell me not to curse, Mom. "Don't fucking talk to me like that!" Jeez. Your parenting really sucks. However, if I were in your position, I would be-}
"Soujiro Seta, look at me!"
"What do you want?!"
"Don't curse at me, I AM YOUR MOTHER, secondly, NEVER CORRECT ME when I am speaking of your BASTARD of a father, thirdly I am MOMENTS away from taking you back home, and FOURTHLY, you are PISSING ME OFF!"
"…You wouldn't take me back home."
"Do you want to bet?!"
"I don't need to. You have nowhere to keep me because everyone in the family is either dead or hates you, you'd shoot yourself before sending me to live with Dad, annnnnnd you really don't give a shit about me or what I do so long as you get something out of it, say, my pay as a member of the symphony?"
"You're not in the symphony."
"I could be one day. I'm getting a good reputation, colleges will find me very worthy of their instruction."
"Soujiro-"
"I'm right, you're wrong."
"SOUJIRO-"
"I'm….I'm right. And….you're wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Wrong! Ha….you're….you're wrong. And I'm right! ME! I'm RIGHT! Ha…HAHAHAHAHAHA!" Soujiro doubled over laughing. Kenshin came out of his room to see what in the hell was going on.
"Soujiro….damn it….oh, fuck this. I have to go to work, but I'll be back next weekend and we'll continue this talk!" She turned on her heel and marched out of the dorm, slamming the door behind her. Soujiro immediately stopped laughing, and calmly turned to continue his guitar practice.
"You just faked that schitzo-mode didn't you." Kenshin sighed, smiling.
"Yep."
"Fourth time this year?"
"Fourth time this year." Soujiro replied, smiling as well.
"I can't believe you get away with it every time."
***
Kenshin dialed the number again, having forgotten about it for nearly a week. It was time he got over it.
{It shouldn't matter who you love}
Rinnnng…
{I've learned that much}
Rinnnng…
{I've missed them}
"Hello?"
"Kasaan?" Kenshin's voice cracked.
"Kenshin?"
"Hi…" He forced the word out, trying to hold down the tears.
"Oh, baby…Lisa! Lisa, it's Kenshin!"
There was a faint voice, shouting back, "Kenshin? Our Kenshin?" , then, "Hello?"
"Hey Mom." Kenshin smiled this time.
"Kenshin, we haven't heard from you in so long." Lisa sighed, "I wanted to call you or visit, but Julie said no-"
"Thanks, Kasaan." Kenshin rolled his eyes. Lisa was so…motherly.
"Anytime, Kenshin." Julie replied, sounding amused.
"How are things with you?" Lisa said, exasperated, and Kenshin almost laughed when he heard the faint sound of Lisa playfully slapping Julie, who had probably rolled her eyes as well..
"Just fine. My grades are okay. My best friends are my roommates. Umm…yeah, that's pretty much it."
"No girlfriend?" Lisa asked teasingly.
"No, Mom. No girlfriend."
"Our Kenshin, and no girlfriend? Something's wrong with this picture." Julie teased as well.
"Nah. What's up with you guys?"
"Kenshin, we're old. Nothing happens to us." Julie laughed, as did Lisa.
"You're not old. You're only….what…40 now?"
"That's right, because you were two when we adopted you from Japan." Lisa sounded thoughtful.
"We should get together sometime, it's really been awhile." Kenshin finally brought up the courage to ask them, after countless times of rehearsing what he should say.
"You could come with us to Japan over Spring Break!" Lisa shouted, excited.
"Whoa, wait, you're going to Japan? Why?"
"She hasn't told you half of it yet." Julie sighed.
"THIS is why I wanted to called you Kenshin, but SOMEONE wouldn't let me because she said you needed time. We're adopting another baby, Kenshin. You're going to have little sisters -twins- Ayame and Suzume. We got the letters a while back, but we wanted to surprise you. And then there was the whole….cutting of communication with us."
Kenshin grimaced feeling guilty.
"Sure, I'd love to go. I think it would be a good idea anyway, Ayame and Suzume meeting the whole family at once."