Part VII: Of Old Grudges, Bath Towels, and Girl-Talk
When you came to, you realized that you were still on the tiled kitchen floor. Apparently, you had only been unconscious for a few minutes, as no one had taken notice to the maid sprawled on their kitchen floor. Either that, or they were just really stupid. You could hear Ren and Horo still fighting in the other room. They were so loud; your head was pounding from where it hit the floor and the two combatants weren't helping it. You scowled and brought your hand up to tuck a stray lock of hair behind your ear, but something prevented it.
You looked down into your hand and saw the offending object; a single red rose. You gasped, realizing blood was covering your hand wrist, and when you followed the long stem to a few inches above your knee, you noticed quite a bit of the red fluid had dripped down the green shaft onto the floor. Another small crimson puddle sat innocently on the while tile floor near the inside of your thigh. More blood? It wasn't that time of the month again, was it? No…
"Let me see your hand." He spoke tenderly in spite of his powerful impression. Not knowing what else to do, you held out your trembling hand. He took it, holding it in his larger gloved hands like a small child holding a frog; both hands clasping gently, yet possessively. He didn't seem the least bit interested in the fact that his gloves, now redder than before due to your blood, were being soaked by the life-sustaining fluid as it now dripped onto the floor.
You gasped as your hand and both of his were enveloped in a heatless, yet violent-looking flame. Pulling your flaming appendage away, you breathlessly looked from your hand and into his eyes, then back to your hand again as you realized that, when the flame had disappeared, you were no longer bleeding. You stood there silently, although your head was screaming, as you watched this boy's right hand burst into the same vicious-looking as before. As the flames dissipated, a blood-red, long-stemmed rose rested tranquilly in his hand. He held it out to you, and you took it, anxiously looking up into his calm brown eyes and silently asking every question that raced through your mind. He smiled loftily.
"I just wanted to see what caught otôto's attention," he said casually as he hopped back out the kitchen window and into the yard. "Ja!" With that, he burst into flames and disappeared from your view.
"What happened?" you asked yourself in a whisper. "Who--''? Otôto--? What--?" Seeing as how there was presently no one in the room, you didn't care that you were talking incoherently to yourself. You continued with your senseless questions, then a thought hit you. "Oh my God!" you shrieked, remembering the boy you'd just seen had burst into flames, then disappeared.
At the sound of your yell, both Horo and Ren had come running into the room. Horo's lip was bleeding, as was Ren's nose; apparently, their little fight had gotten out of hand.
"What's wrong, Katsumi?" Horo asked, wiping the blood from his lip. You stood up slowly, clutching the rose as if it might fly away from you, and smearing your own blood all over your legs and skirt in the process. Ren eyed the reddened lace around your thighs nervously.
"What happened?" he asked, pinching his nose to stop the blood flow. You shook your head, then leaned on the counter for support and set the rose down, silently burying your face in your hands. "Really Katsumi; what happened? You're covered in blood from the hips down--"
"If you spend some time with me, we can fix that little problem for about nine months," Horo interrupted proudly. You shot an angry glare at Horo, then spoke quietly.
"I cut myself." The word 'cutter?' shone in both boys' eyes for just a second.
"But you're not bleeding," Horo inquired. "You've just got blood all over you."
"He healed me," you said quietly, trying to keep this as simple as possible. Ren was determined to figure out what was going on.
"Who healed you?" he asked sternly. You shrugged almost sadly.
"I don't know," you said. You were beginning to worry that you were going crazy. The boy you met minutes ago had gone up in flames. There was always the possibility of spontaneous combustion, but wouldn't there be a smoking corpse in the yard? "I don't know…" you repeated on the verge of tears as you sunk down to the floor and leaned against the base of the counter.
Ren looked concerned, then tried to lift you back to your feet, but you slid back down onto the cold floor. Instead of just sitting down next to you like any normal person would, Ren picked you up and plopped you lightly on the counter. He looked into your eyes calmly.
"What happened, Katsumi?" he asked in a voice that told you that that was the last time he would have to ask. You sighed shakily.
"I was peeling vegetables, then I saw someone who looked a lot like Yoh standing at the window." Ren looked a bit nervous at this, but nodded his head. "I was so surprised that the knife slipped and I cut myself. He floated in through the window and took my hand, then he healed it with fire." Horo "irk"-ed when the word "fire" was mentioned.
"Then what happened?" Ren asked in an I'm-trying-to-be-sweet voice.
"He gave me that rose--" You pointed to the rose on the counter. "Then said something about 'otôto's attention' and jumped out the window. He stood in the middle of the lawn, then burst into flames and disappeared." Horo looked terrified, and Ren was starting to get an angry look in his eyes.
"What did this guy look like?" Horo asked apprehensively.
"Just like Yoh," you said. "Only he had longer hair. And he was wearing an off-white shawl."
The mentioning of the shawl seemed to do it, and Ren scowled as hard as he could.
"Hao; Kisama," he hissed, glaring out the window at a scorched area on the lawn.
"Who's Hao?" you asked, suddenly feeling as if they had been hiding something from you. As soon as the word "Hao" was said loud enough to actually hear, Lyserg poked his head into the room, scowling.
"Who said Hao?" he asked angrily. Then his expression softened when he saw you covered in blood. "Katsumi, what happened!" he almost yelled as he ran into the middle of the room, skidding slightly in the blood on the floor. Horo looked annoyed and afraid at the same time.
"Hao was here," the Ainu said sternly to Lyserg, who gasped.
"Did he do this to you, Katsumi!" the green-haired boy asked loudly. As soon as he had said this, his two guests entered the kitchen. "Jeanne-sama! Marco-san! Look what Hao did!" he yelled as he pointed at you. The blonde man started to shake with anger, but the girl looked at you with pitying eyes.
"Poor dear," she said. This bothered you a little to have a girl about your age call you a "dear" as if she was older and wiser than you. "Are you alright now?" she asked as you hopped off the counter. You nodded, and she smiled sadly.
"Jeanne-sama! Hao was here! Aren't you going to do something!" Lyserg shouted to the girl. She shook her head.
"There's nothing we can do, Lyserg," she said, still wielding that sad smile.
"What! Why!" he asked in exasperation. Somehow, he sounded like a little kid when he was like this.
"He's probably miles away from here by now," the girl said. The blonde man nodded. You were beginning to become slightly uncomfortable as the blood on your legs began to dry.
"Excuse me, but I'd like to get this blood off me now." And with that, you began to walk away from the discussion, and towards the bathroom. When you reached the bathroom, you filled the sink with cold water and peeled off the dress. Letting it soak in the sink, you then showered quickly and dried off. Wrapping a towel firmly around you, you pulled your dress out of the sink. The water was now tinted slightly brownish-red from the blood, and you wrung it out over the draining sink.
But quickly, you found yourself in a dilemma. With all your clothes in a box next to your bed, you had nothing to wear for the time being. Sitting down on the edge of the tub, you began to contemplate your decision; you could either wait an embarrassingly long time in the bathroom for your dress to dry, or you could run through the house to your room wearing nothing but a towel. After thinking things through over and over, you made up your mind to go with the towel.
You opened the door little by little and peaked out. No one was in sight. You silently slid out of the bathroom and down the hall, clutching the white towel firmly to your body. You managed to slip past the living room (which was where Lyserg was entertaining his guests) and up the stairs. When you turned the corner as you reached the second floor, you ran into the last person (other than Horohoro) you wanted to encounter: Anna.
"Why are you running around my house almost naked, Katsumi?" she asked, crossing her arms.
"Anou… I spilled something on myself, Anna-san," you lied. You didn't want another 'Oh my God; Hao was here' incident. "I took a shower and washed the dress; it's drying in the bathroom downstairs." Anna glared. You could see her fingernails gripping her arms a little too tightly, as if she were worried about something.
"I don't want you traipsing around my house exposed like that. It's immoral," she said. Exposed? You weren't exposed! In fact, the towel you had wrapped around you exposed less than that stupid dress she made you wear! You started to become annoyed.
"Gomen nasai, Anna-san," you said dutifully as you tried to slip away. Anna grabbed your arm as you passed her. She obviously wasn't finished with you yet.
"Imagine if someone had seen you like that; Yoh, for instance," she said coldly. Now you understood! She was worried that Yoh might become attracted to you if you showed him enough skin. …Nah! He wouldn't! But…
"I just wanted to see what caught otôto's attention," he said casually as he hopped back out the kitchen window and into the yard. "Ja!" With that, he burst into flames and disappeared from your view.
You "irk"-ed. Yoh liked you? And Anna knew! What! It was dead-obvious that Horo and Ren liked you, and a little less so about Lyserg, but Yoh! No, no, no! This was getting a little too complicated. You nodded, then ran off down the hall to your room before you met up with anyone else.
Upon reaching your room, you closed the door quietly, put your back to it, and slid down to the floor, sighing greatly. This was getting to be too much for you. If you were one of the insanely-popular girls at school, it wouldn't have been too bad, since you would know how to deal with it. But you weren't and you didn't. You knew a hell of a lot about things like flirting signs and how to keep a guy "occupied," but when it came to complicated things like this, you had no clue what was going on. On top of that, you weren't really a diary person, so you needed someone to talk to about these awful female-teen issues…
"Now, don't get me wrong, Pirika; your brother's a really nice guy, but he needs to slow down a little bit. He's trying to rush into a relationship I never agreed to." Presently, you were doing laundry and spilling your guts out to a blue-haired Ainu girl as she sat on top of the dryer. You couldn't believe you were talking to Pirika, of all people, about her brother. You were constantly worrying that you were going to say something to offend their family, so you had to think about each and every little thing you said.
"You're absolutely right, Katsumi," the Ainu said, crossing her arms. "Onii-chan has always been like that; ready to rush into a relationship that doesn't exist."
"That's really too bad," you said as you folded a poofy pair of black pants. "He'd be really sweet if he didn't do that -- not that he's not sweet already -- but maybe if he were to calm down a bit--"
"And be more like Ren," Pirika interrupted as she hopped down off the dryer. It was the third time she had mentioned his name in the last ten minutes, and you were beginning to suspect something.
"Do you like Ren?" you asked, trying to make it seem random. Pirika almost dropped the shirt she was holding (which looked mighty similar to the one Ren had been wearing today). She laughed nervously as she attempted to fold it.
"Now what makes you think that?" she asked. A pink stain that matched her jacket was forming across her cheeks as she said this. You looked off to the side, a small, friendly smile was playing at your lips as you took the shirt from her after her fifth attempt to fold it.
"It's just that whenever you mention him, which you've done three times in the last ten minutes, by the way, you blush and get all clumsy." Pirika blushed more deeply as the two of you shared a giggle. Then her face got serious and she sighed.
"If I tell you this, you have to promise you won't tell anyone, okay?" she said just above a whisper.
"Sure," you said. You could keep a secret. "But wait a minute, this doesn't have anything to do with Ren, does it?" you asked teasingly. A blush told you it did. You sighed. "Let me guess, Pirika," you said in a more serious tone. "You like him, don't you?"
"But you can't tell anyone!" she hissed. "Even though I didn't actually tell you, a promise is a promise!" She held out her pinky, which you took reluctantly with your own and shook.
After that, you didn't have the heart to tell her that you thought Ren liked you. It would just ruin her. But you had learned the general which-girl-likes-which-guy of the inn, which could come in handy later:
Anna seemed to be interested in her fiancé, which was good news, since they would eventually end up married one day. Tamao's tastes seemed to change pretty rapidly, as instead of stalking Yoh, like she had as a child, she was now thoroughly preoccupied with Horohoro. Lyserg's silver-haired visitor, Jeanne, had apparently fallen head-over-heels for her host when visiting. And Pirika, you got a horrid headache to even think about it, was infatuated with Ren. Funbari Onsen was turning into a passion pit!
End Part VII.