TWENTY SEVEN
The living room looked like a classroom with a group of students working on a school project; the furniture's been moved around as they sat in a circle on the floor littered with suitcases and piles of clothes and the dogs comfortably lying by the piano.
Ren is finishing up with his suitcase while helping Shippo, Sango and Miroku with theirs, Kurenai is organizing their travel documents and helping Rin, Inuyasha, and Sesshoumaru in their packing.
Everybody fought to hide the awe eager to show on their faces seeing the fearsome daiyoukai organize his own clothes under the guidance of the miko. It's tough not to look when he makes such a mundane human chore look so elegant and never in a million years did they expect to behold such a sight but it seems Kurenai has earned much of the Sesshoumaru's respect that he's open to most of her recommendations. In return, he earned the respect of the others for putting a little bit of his infamous pride aside to cooperate even just hesitantly, though the same can't be said for his brother...
"Inuyasha… Roll it a little neater, it will take up more space than it actually should!" red eyes glared at perplexed amber orbs.
"It's all the same anyway wench!" the hanyou growled.
"It's not, genius!" she hissed, "Look!" she pointed at Sesshoumaru's pristine stack of clothes and compared it with Inuyasha's disheveled ones, "Sesshoumaru has more clothes rolled up but his pile looks smaller than the fewer clothes you have. It's a waste of space dog boy."
Away from Kurenai's sight, the daiyoukai smirked smugly at the hanyou, pleased with the miko's compliment directed at him and the hanyou growled deep in his throat at his half-brother's arrogance.
"Here, I'll show you again." she pulled a couple of Inuyasha's clothes but the hanyou ignored her; pouting while crossing his arms over his chest. The space between her eyebrows creased, "Hey, Inuyasha?"
The rest of the group stared at the hilarious scene.
"What's up with those two? It's like a pair of brothers fighting over their mother's affection." Sango, with Kirara on her shoulder whispered as she, Ren, Miroku and Shippo leaned towards each other.
"More like fighting to win a woman's heart to me." Ren grinned.
Heads nodded in sync but stopped when they felt the hairs on their necks stand on end, finding themselves on the receiving end of the dog demons' death glares; they forgot about their sharp hearing and all they can do is smile nervously and shuffle back to packing.
Oblivious to what's actually happening, Kurenai again called for the hanyou's attention, "C'mon Inuyasha, just try one more time."
"Whatever wench." Inuyasha continued to sulk but immediately regretted it when he saw his bestfriend's lips press tightly, he knew what comes after that and he most certainly don't want to find out how much the solid concrete under him will hurt if she actually 'sits' him here and now, "Alright! Show me! Show me! I'll do it with you!" he grabbed one of the shirts and laid it on his lap.
"It doesn't have to be perfect, just smooth it out a bit more so it flattens and takes up less space. There you go." it was the hanyou's turn to smile proudly seeing his best friend satisfied with his work.
Kurenai's eyes bounced at everyone in the room with her heart hammering in her chest as she obsessed on a thought. She's not sure if she should talk about it but above all, she doesn't know where to begin.
She can feel two pairs of dog demon eyes poking at her as they felt the quick, heavy thumps in her chest and it made a lump form in her throat. Her eyes landed on her brother; he also, has been watching her and like always when she's in doubt, he's there to give her a nudge. He smiled at her and the words felt easier to speak.
"I appreciate that you guys respected my silence about my condition, especially you, Inuyasha." She started, "It's not that I don't want to talk about it, I just don't know how and where to start."
"Kurenai, if you're uncomfortable with sharing it with us, you don't have to." Sango doesn't want her friend to recall whatever terrible event caused her condition.
The red-eyed shook her head, "No, it's fine. It's a memory from long ago, I'm lucky to be at a place in my life where I can say that for certain. Though it is unfortunate that my body does not agree." Her right hand rubbed up her left arm as if warming herself up from the cold, nervous energy rushing through her and her eyes searched the room for the words to begin her story.
"Our parents died in a multiple car crash. I was nine at the time and Ren was eleven." her fingers sank on her arm above her elbow as her eyes glazed over recalling that fateful day...
She sat by the window with her hands folded under her chin atop the windowsill waiting for their parents' car like she always had. Her brother leaned on his bed's headboard with his keen eyes roaming over the book in his hand.
Anxiety coiled tightly at the pit of her stomach as time ticked away and the steam from the food at the table had long faded and each car that approached sped past their apartment. Her eyes compulsively flew to the wall clock: thirty minutes late. Forty five. One hour. One and a half hour. No sign of their parents.
She pushed the worry to the back of her head and convinced herself that they took a detour. Until their phone rang and the apologetic voice on the other line confirmed what she feared and her world shattered. Her first devastating heartbreak.
"All of a sudden, it was just the two of us. A couple of kids who don't know what to do. Back then, Ren was a really sick child who for most of the time was bedridden. Hard to believe when you look at him now right?" she chuckled when her brother puffed his chest out proudly. They smiled at the siblings' effort to approach the memory lightly.
"I assumed the role of the older sibling and although our parents taught us to be responsible children, as a nine-year-old kid, I was still overwhelmed. We have no money; we cannot access whatever money our parents saved for us until we're adults, and I had to take care not just of myself but my brother too."
"You didn't have any relatives to take you in?" Miroku asked and the siblings chuckled dryly.
"Oh, we did alright." Ren replied, rolling his leather belt around his hand a little too forcefully.
Kurenai continued, "My father had an older brother who lived in another state called Oklahoma with his wife and daughter. When our parents died, he offered to raise us and sustain my brother's medical care. For helpless kids like us, it was like an angel appeared in front of us."
"We couldn't be anymore wrong." Ren said, eyes dazed as his memories played in his head.
She nodded, "When we started living in their ranch, we were aware that we have to do something in return for their care. Since my brother is incapable of moving around, I agreed to their proposition that I should take care of the chores around the house as compensation."
"But they're your family Kurenai, isn't it too much of them to demand that from you? You were just a kid." Sango set her pile of clothes into her suitcase.
"I think it was fair, it's not cheap to have two more mouths to feed and one with big medical bills. Besides, I always did the chores even when our parents were alive so it wasn't a problem. Anyway, I thought it was the perfect setup but things got ugly very fast." she ran her fingers through her hair.
Sensing her distress, Zodiac treaded to her side and rested his head on her thigh. Her trembling fingers combed through his fur and finding comfort in the fuzzy warmth, she continued, "I was physically abused."
To say their friends from the Feudal era were shocked was an understatement, their mouths flew open and their eyes grew wide.
"Whenever they think my execution of the task is not up to their standards, my uncle would hit me, and it's worse when he's drunk which is almost every night."
"That bastard's wife didn't do anything to stop him?!" Inuyasha's voice roared in the house.
"Oh, she's in on it." Ren scoffed.
"She would also slap me, pull my hair, shove my head in a sink full of dirty water..." they winced at each cruel detail.
"And that daughter of theirs." the older brother gritted his teeth.
Kurenai raised her eyebrows, "She was wickedly smart; she would deliberately put permanent stains on her clothes so I would get punished when I can't clean it properly."
"How can they do such a horrible thing to their own family?" Sango felt the corner of her eyes heat up.
"I recall my father telling me that he and uncle have a strained relationship but I was not told of the details and as young and desperate as I was, I jumped at the first sign of help. Big mistake." she shook her head,
"Anyway, at the time, all I could think of was as long as they don't lay a finger on my brother and continue to aid in his recovery, I'll endure it. Ren didn't have it easy either, I know it was hard for him to be unable to help me."
Ren clenched his fists, "It's not exactly thrilling to see your sister covered in wounds and bruises limping as she walked but she always fought to smile for me and encouraged me to get better. The only thing I can do is focus on getting better so I can get her out of there."
"How did it end mama?" Shippo asked, his eyes sparkled with unshed tears.
She patted the kitsune's caramel head, "Unfortunately sweetie, it went on for over two years, an eternity when you're going through that kind of nightmare."
"It's not surprising that you developed such a condition after going through that much abuse." Miroku said.
"That's not what caused it Miroku." That little sentence made their blood run cold. The thought that their friend went through something worse than a senseless beating made their heart break, "I don't think the kids should hear this Ren."
"I agree." Ren grabbed a pair of earplugs and plugged his headphones to his phone, "Shippo come here."
"But..." Shippo protested.
"It's not something you should hear young one." he insisted and the kit had no choice but to obey.
Kurenai grabbed some earplugs as well, "You too Rin." though pouting, Rin can't do anything but let her adoptive mother block her ears.
Confident that the children can't hear, the story continued, "One night, uncle's wife and daughter went to visit his in-laws and because he doesn't have a great relationship with them, he stayed back. Little did we know, he had other plans."
"In the middle of the night, I was jolted awake by a massive force on my throat and mouth and I found myself face-to-face with the horrifying image of uncle on top of me with his hands over my mouth and throat. His eyes were manic, staring at me like a wild beast and fear rose steady in me. It grew even more when he..."
She took a shaky breath as her throat began to tighten. No matter how much time has passed, no matter how strong she's become, the memories still make her sick, "grinded his lower half into me and whispered 'If you make a sound, I'll kill you and your brother.'" her uncle's voice echoed in her head, she could still smell his alcohol breath that fanned her face and stomach tumbled.
Kurenai's friends felt every fiber of their being quiver nauseatingly as every word she said painted the gruesome scenario in their heads.
Sesshoumaru's jaw tightened and his eyebrows knitted together, struggling to contain the intense repulsion twisting in his stomach and his beast's raging fury which he also feels himself. He now understood why she said she's gone through something worse than facing demons, her uncle is not human and worse than a monster to commit such vile acts towards a pure and loving soul as this woman.
"Kurenai..." Inuyasha attempted to hold Kurenai's trembling hand, but he knew that the contact will not soothe her as he intended and will only add to her distress, "Did he?" he can't say the next word, he's not even sure if he wants to hear the answer.
It broke Kurenai's heart to see fear in those golden eyes, "No, he didn't. His words sparked my survival instincts and I fought back." she saw his form relax and puff out the breath he's been holding, so did everybody else in the room.
"All I thought about was I can't let him violate me, I can't let him hurt my brother, and miraculously, I was able to summon strength I never knew I had to strike his crotch with my knee."
Sesshoumaru smirked, Well done. He silently praised the miko's courage, even his beast purred with pride.
Ren continued with his memory of the story, "Uncle's howl woke me up and I found him curled on the floor in pain, Peaches is on her bed terrified and shaking. She looked up at me and all of a sudden, she grabbed the candlestick on the bedside table and he hit uncle on the back of the head."
"I think we can remove this now." he slipped the headphones off Shippo's head, Kurenai did the same with Rin.
"We won't understand the story anymore." the young kit kept his pout.
"Sweetie, there are things that are not appropriate for kids to have knowledge of." Kurenai explained.
"Yes mama." Shippo nodded.
Running a hand on Rin's hair slightly muzzled by the headphones, she told the final part of the tale, "I grabbed Ren—by this time, Ren has been in the best health he's ever been—and the pouch we hid in a drawer that has a small amount of money I saved from secretly selling jewelry I made from strings and beads to a peddler and bolted out of the house thankfully before uncle regained consciousness because we heard his angry voice echo over the fields calling out for us. We kept running until we got to town and continued to run further into it, into a dark alley under a cardboard and between black garbage bins where we thought he wouldn't find us."
"That was the longest three hours of our lives, Peaches." Ren chuckled at the memory.
"Yeah. We stayed awake the whole time, anxious that uncle will suddenly appear." she shook her head, "When the sun finally came up, we rode a bus to the city of Oklahoma."
"We were awash with relief to be finally free from that nightmare, Peaches most of all, that she fainted while we're walking down the street. People started to gather around us while I called for help. That's when the owner of the café/bar across the street approached us and carried sis inside his café and tended to her."
"The man is our first adoptive father, Dave." Kurenai noted though she let her brother take over the storytelling. This part is better told from his perspective.
"He's better known as 'pops'." Ren continued, "Learning about the night we went through, he brought Peaches to the hospital and I tagged along. That was when her trauma manifested for the first time."
It was Ren's turn to be vulnerable this time, they watched as his eyelids hooded his olive green orbs, "She panicked when she woke up in an unfamiliar place and it got worse when the nurses arrived, she hysterically kicked and screamed when they tried to touch her. They had to hold her down and sedate her so she can get the treatment she needs." his eyes pinched close, remembering is as painful as the time it unfolded right before his eyes and it wasn't even the worst of it.
"We thought her first episode was caused by her confusion at being in an unfamiliar environment but she continued to freak out at any attempt to touch her… including mine." he saw his sister look down at the husky resting on her, running her hand through his fur compulsively. This will always be the part that's the hardest for them to remember, "Pops brought us back to his home above the café and for over two weeks, Peaches isolated herself in her room. She just sat on the bed staring into space, didn't speak, didn't eat much, and didn't sleep because when she does, the nightmares plague her."
"It was hard on Ren too. Watching me go through that, I know he wanted to console me and the fact that he can't because I detest being touched was painful for him. It wasn't his fault and yet, I'm repulsed by my own brother's touch." Kurenai kept her eyes on Zodiac as she spoke, the dog raised his muzzle and licked her cheek as if to relieve the guilt in her eyes; she forced a smile and rubbed his neck.
"One day, we were surprised to find her up and about, she even asked to work at the café. Pops agreed, but he's also worried because aside from still flinching when someone gets close, Peaches acted as if she didn't go through a terrible ordeal." Ren resumed packing and squeezed a pair of shoes into his suitcase, "I didn't understand it at the time, because that's how she's always been. She braved through our parents' death and didn't cry, she didn't cry through the physical abuse she went through from uncle's family, and she didn't cry despite freaking out when someone touches her or through her nightmares. Nothing."
This shocked them because when they think about it, they don't have any memory of Kurenai ever shedding a tear. She's very expressive with her compassion and sympathy but they never saw her break down.
"But it's not because she lacked emotion, I believe you guys know that." the brother added, "Having a heavy responsibility fall on her shoulders at a very young age, she has always felt the need to be as strong as she can so we can survive. We later learned that it was unhealthy for her not to deal with her emotions properly but that's all she's ever known."
"But I'm thankful to pops for teaching me that there are people capable of genuine kindness that doesn't hide malice behind it." Kurenai smiled, her first genuine smile since the story started.
"Yeah. But you didn't make it easy for him." Ren's lips tugged into a smirk.
She chuckled, "Not like you can blame me, I experienced brutal abuse in the hands of my own family who promised to…" she wiggled her fingers for air quotes, "Take care of us. Of course I'm cynical!"
They agreed, it's only natural to be doubtful of somebody lending out a hand especially after your own family's betrayal.
"Pops was extremely understanding, he never forced the connection with my sister but he also never stopped making her feel that his intentions were pure. Eventually, she warmed up to him little by little and she agreed to his proposed adoption."
"We owe so much to him." Kurenai touched her injured ankle where her tiny anchor tattoo rests. Pops served in the U.S. Navy before opening a café, she got the tattoo in his memory under the small overlapping wings tattoo dedicated to her real parents that curved around the knob of bone on her ankle. It makes her feel like she has their guidance in every step she takes just like they did when they were alive.
"Yeah, I wish we were given more time with him." Ren's eyes also rested on his forearm tattoo, each one of the three sparrows represent his late parents; their Pops is one of them, "He died from a heart attack four years after he took us in." their second devastating heartbreak.
Kurenai nodded, "He was our biggest fan, so proud every time he sees us perform on stage. I just wish he was able to see us on the biggest stage of our career, mom and dad too." the siblings' longing for their departed loved ones was heavy in the room and the listeners felt their heart clench.
Kurenai looked out into the sparkling Los Angeles skyline, "Well, I know they'll be watching from the Heavens." she smiled.
"Yeah, they always have." Ren agreed.
"Besides, we have some special audiences here who might be present during the anniversary concert." the red-eyed winked at them, "And of course dad and Mavick."
"Those who are here with us deserve our best performance." her brother declared.
"We can't wait to see your performance." Miroku smiled.
"You'll only have to wait 'til the day after tomorrow." Ren grinned while zipping his suitcase closed but stopped all of a sudden, "Well, we can also do it now." he wiggled his eyebrows at his sister who smiled at the idea.
They stared at him, "Huh?"
"We can give you a special private performance right now." Kurenai smiled at them.