Chapter One:
"Lady Kagura?"
Under the covers, there was a small sleepy movement. The maid smiled softly, satisfied that she had woken her up on the first attempt; today would be a good day. Crossing the room, she opened the curtains, only to frown at the closed blinds behind them. She pulled them open, and the desired sunlight flooded the bedroom. Smiling at the bright sky, she turned around the survey the room. With a quiet sigh, she thought to herself that the Chase family certainly was keeping her in business. Resting a laundry basket on her hip, the maid traveled around the room, picking up various articles of dirty clothing that had been carelessly discarded.
Placing the basket of worn clothes at the door, she returned to her original task of waking the occupant of the room, who had inevitably fallen back asleep. Sitting on the edge of the bed, the maid gently shook the figure beneath the sheets. "Lady Kagura, it's time to get up," she called to the girl lost in the distant world of her dreams. The dreamer's only response was to snore softly. Exasperation creased the maid's brow as she gave the girl a bit more forceful shake. "Please, Miss Chase," she strained to keep the impatience from her voice, "people are starting to arrive for breakfast. Miss Robyn is already in the dining hall."
The figure shifted beneath the blanket. Slender figures gripped the top of the sheets from underneath, pulling them back just enough to show the young woman's sleepy eyes and blond head. "If I get up," she asked in a tired, irritated voice, "will you go away?"
The maid gave an amused chuckle, and with a small smirk, replied, "Yes, Lady Kagura; after you get into your shower I will leave." She had spoken these same words every day since she started working for the Chase family. She was not one to break routine.
Neither was Lady Kagura, it appeared. For with a slightly annoyed groan, she sat up, grasping the duvet to her chest. The maid returned from across the room, holding out the robe she had retrieved from the closet. Looking slightly disheveled, Lady Kagura slid out of her bed and into the robe outstretched for her.
"You pill me off, waking me up so early, you know that?" she groggily muttered to the maid as she slowly shuffled towards the bathroom door.
The maid smiled warmly. "I love you too," she offered. Picking up the laundry basket, she made her way towards the hall.
"Thanks, Alice."
She turned to look at Lady Kagura Chase, who had paused at the bathroom door with a small smile. Mirroring the gesture, Alice smiled back with a small bow. "Thank you," Miss Chase," she replied, just the same as every morning.
After all, they were not ones to break routine.
"Carry! Ref, that was a carry!"
Quietly, Lady Kagura laughed at her cousin's voice. Descending the staircase, the dining table came into view. Just like every morning that Aphrodite Robyn came over for breakfast, she and Trent Chase could be found playing volleyball with a crumpled up piece of that morning's newspaper, and a net constructed of cereal boxes.
Janis Simon lowered what remained of the newspaper, eyeing the two pilots. In silence, she lifted her hand and pointed at Trent, indicating that it was his point. Slamming her hands down on the table, Robyn stood in a furry. "What!" she exclaimed. "How can you say that when you weren't even looking?"
Snickering, Trent reminded his cousin, "The referee's word is law."
With a vicious snarl, Robyn dove across the table, knocking down the wall of boxes to grab a fistful of his black and bright purple hair. He winced as she yanked hard on the only tuft of hair on his shaved head, which happened to be jetting out over his forehead within her reach. In retaliation, he grabbed hold of her own hair, full of green kinks that stopped at her blond roots. Words flew like bullets between them: "Why, you—" "Son of a—" "Never in all my life—" "You're such a jackass!"
Cocking an eyebrow, all the team's manager did was pick up her paper and mutter, "bunch of animals" under her breath. As if knowing his kind had been spoken of, the large head of a white Great Dane with brown spots nudged its way into Janis's lap. She let out a small squeal of surprise, and tried to push it back under the table. "Sampson!" Taking a piece of bacon off her plate, she tossed it onto the floor near the foot of the stairs. With an appreciative bark, the large dog ducked back under the table and galloped over to the meat, swallowing it whole. Lifting his head, Sampson smiled up at Lady Kagura for the first time that morning as she reached the floor. His bark of greeting when she scratched him behind the ear caught Janis's attention. "Oh, good morning Lady Kagura," she said as she looked over her shoulder.
Walking over, she hugged Janis from behind. "Mornin'," she mumbled, kissing her manager on the cheek. Janis returned the favor with a warm smile. Seeing as Robyn and Trent had stopped ripping each other's hair out (literally) upon her arrival, Lady Kagura was able to hug her cousin. "Mornin'," she mumbled, again. It was obvious enough that even after a shower, she was still half asleep. Slumping into the chair on the other side of Robyn, she picked up the newspaper volleyball.
"Good morning, inferior sister," Trent said, his voice bitter with mock cheer.
His sarcasm was ignored as she tried to make out the words on the badly wrinkled sports page, formerly a sports ball. Leaning over, Robyn gave Kagura a good-morning kiss on the cheek. "Satomi's ahead two wins over us," she supplied, seeing as that was the only reason of Kagura to read the sports page, besides soccer. But that couldn't have been the reason, seeing as England was already out of the running for the World Cup.
"So," Lady Kagura contemplated, "we'd have to beat Black Egg to face them."
Again, Janis lowered her paper. "Yes," she commented, "and that's only if they win against Skylark."
There was an odd gurgle, and chewed bits of bagel flew across the table. All three girls looked up to see Trent pounding on his chest, having swallowed more than he was comfortable with. He swallowed hard, making a loud gulping sound, followed by a gasp for air. He too a sip of orange juice to make sure his throat was clear, before saying, "I said, 'But of course, Takeshi's not going to beat up his girlfriend Fauntine on international television.'"
"Don't be so sure about that."
The whole of Team Mecha turned to watch Erich MacLaughlin walk into the room. "Fauntine sure as hell isn't going to go easy on anyone on the track, even if it were her own mother," Erich pointed out. "She isn't one to allow someone to let her win, either." Sitting beside Trent, he shrugged out of his team jacket. "Takeshi won't like that idea, so a fight between them, while inevitable, might make or break their relationship."
"How very astute of you," murmured Kagura aimlessly, not quite paying complete attention. Her distraction put a look of displeasure on Erich's face, who was suddenly disappointed that she hadn't been listening.
Alice walked into the room and smiled politely in greeting towards Erich. "Why, good morning Mr. MacLaughlin," she greeted cheerfully. "May I get you something to eat? Some coffee or tea?"
"Oh, no, thank you," he replied with an equally polite smile, "I've already eaten."
Nodding, she turned to Lady Kagura. "And what can I get for you this morning, Miss Chase?" she asked. The formality, which was disregarded on every other occasion, was only attached because of the presence of Kagura's bosses.
Kagura crumpled the page back into a ball. "Just a lemon pastry and a Coke, thank you," she answered the maid. With a curt nod, Alice turned and left for the kitchen.
Trent chewed thoroughly this time before he swallowed. "So," he asked, leaning his chair onto its back legs, "where are Theo and Davis? Shouldn't they be here by now?"
"They stayed over in the garage to finish working on the mechs," Erich explained. "Theo wanted to run some programs that he hopes will be compatible with the systems."
Janis, who had lifted her coffee cup to her lips, froze at hearing that last bit. "I thought we bought specific software that Davis was positive was compatible with the mechs," Janis said in annoyance.
Erich nodded, understanding her frustration. "Theo wanted to format it to the specifics of each pilot," he sighed. No matter how simple a task you gave Theo, he would always find a way to make it twice as complicated.
Alice reappeared with Lady Kagura's breakfast as Janis let out a groan and began to rub her temples. "Here you are, Miss Chase," the maid offered her the pastry and soda bottle. Kagura nodded her thanks as she twisted off the cap and began to chug the cola.
As Alice began to clear the cereal boxes, Trent leaned forward and rested his chair back on the ground. Stretching, he yawned loudly, "Well, we should get going."
Robyn snorted as she pushed away from the table and stood. "Why the rush, Trent?" she snickered as she walked around the dining table. "Can't wait to see your girlfriend?"
"Oh, my goddess," he groaned, following Robyn towards the hallway. "Davis is not my girlfriend!"
"That's not what it looked like when I caught you guys making out in the janitor's closet after Monday's race," Robyn laughed, stopping in front of the family photos that covered a section of the wall.
Rolling her eyes in unison with Erich, Janis and he walked up behind the two pilots, smiling at the photographs. Her fingers touched the glass of one frame in particular. A woman in her early twenties, her hair black with red tips, dressed in one of Team Mecha's black pilot suits stood there; helmet under one arm, and a trophy in the other. "See you later, Toni," Janis sighed. Pulling away, she walked down the hall and out the front door.
"Mr. Chase," Erich nodded at a photo of a man in his late twenties, with wavy blond hair and a Team Mecha jacket on. Turning, he gave Lady Kagura a look that he hoped wasn't too wistful, and quickly followed Janis out of the house.
Trent waved to a picture of the black/red haired pilot in a wedding gown, holding onto the blond man, who was now in a tuxedo. "Mom, Dad, see you," he said with a genuine smile as he began to walk away.
Robyn kissed the same picture Trent had chosen to that day. "Wotcher, Toni, Uncle Chase," she laughed, "catch you later!" Turning around, she stepped forward to leave but found herself looking down at a very happy Sampson. "Hey there," she cooed, kneeling down in front of the dog. Reaching forward, she scratched him behind the ears with a warm grin. "I'm sure gonna miss you today, Sampson," she spoke to him in a babying voice. "Will you miss me too? Aw, you're such a big boy, yes you are, yes you—"
"Let's get a move on, Aphrodite," Trent teased, quite foolishly.
Her face went cherry red with anger, and she bolted right to her feet. Running as fast as her high-top boots and parachute pants would allow her, Robyn charged at Trent, who had smartly begun to run as well. "NO ONE'S ALLOWED TO CALL ME APHRODITE, YOU BLOODY WANKER," she roared, "MY NAME'S BLOODY ROBYN!"
It was all Lady Kagura could do not to laugh at her brother's misfortune as she finished off the last of her pastry. Turning to face the photographs, she washed down the treat with the last swallow of her Coke. As her cousin, and her brother before her, had, she said to the wedding picture, "Good bye, Mum. Good bye, Da."
But her attention soon turned to another photo, two below and to the left of the latter. Three blond, very little, very muddy children stood in a murky stream. A girl of four years with long kinked hair was on the left; a girl of three with straight, cropped hair held a large frog in the middle; a boy of five with a spiky mohawk on the right. All three had the same brilliant, sparkling blue eyes.
Raising her hand, she rested a finger over the smiling, toad-bearing girl. She held it there for sometime with a blank look on her face, as if she were thinking. But, finally, with a deep breath, she dropped her head. Quietly, sighed, "Good bye, Lady Kagura."
Stuffing the empty soda bottle in an umbrella stand, Kagura closed the front door behind her. Turning to face the day, her feet dragged her onward, licking the last traces of lemon from her fingers.