It's not that Missy had a fear of flying.
It's simply that she hated it.
In fact, if Myles hadn't been sitting next to her on the long flight from Long Beach to the Hitachiin's private airport in Japan, she doubted she would have made it through the flight without storming into the cockpit and screaming at the pilot because couldn't a plane fly any faster?
The fact that they were flying back with Yuzuha in her private jet only managed to make up a tiny bit for the excruciatingly long flight without cell service. Missy closed her eyes, letting her mind flash back to the conversation she had had earlier with Josh.
"I'm proud of you."
"Why?" Missy asked in confusion.
Her half brother smiled at her as he handed her suitcase to the flight attendant. "For going back there and facing your fears."
Missy took a good look at Josh. His hair was black where her's was a deep brown with strands of chestnut. He was at least six inches taller than her and his complexion was more olive toned compared to her pale ivory. However, they both possessed the same dark blue eyes that looked almost violet in certain lights, the only trait that they both inherited from their father.
She rolled her eyes at her brother. Even though there was ten years between them and they had only known each other for the last three, he was her best friend.
"You know very well that I don't fear anything in Japan," she retorted smugly.
"No?" Josh asked with a raised eyebrow.
To anybody else, they would have seen a confident teenage girl with perfect clothes, about to embark on a life changing journey. They didn't see that her hand was wrapped so tightly on the handle of her carry-on that her knuckles were white. Nobody knew that she had under eye concealer in her purse because she had been up all night tossing and turning in her bed.
But Josh had heard her pace the floors of her bedroom in the quiet hours of one and three in the morning.
He always found it very hard to sleep when something was wrong with his sister.
When he had been deployed a year prior, he had worried constantly about Missy. In fact, he probably would have lost his mind if he hadn't known that Myles and Chloe were checking in on her every day and making sure that she went to school. Josh had never signed up to be a parent, but once he was saddled with a teenage girl, he took his role as 'big brother' very seriously.
"Nope," Missy threw back at him, daring him to challenge her remark as she crossed her arms over her chest.
"Okay, okay," Josh conceded, throwing his arms up in defense. He knew she wasn't ready to talk about it yet.
As Missy stood in front of the steps that would get her on the plane, she threw her arms around her brother. The S.E.A.L. returned her hug tightly and kissed the top of her head.
"Take care of yourself, little one. Call me and keep me updated, make sure to eat regularly and drink lot's of water -"
"Yes, sir!" Missy shouted as she let go of her brother, rolling her eyes at his motherly behavior. For a military man without children, he sure was such a mother hen.
"Ms. Preston?" Yuzuha Hitachiin called from where she was lounging on the other side of the room, a glass of brandy in hand. She swirled it around slowly, allowing the ice to clink against the glass. There was a tablet on her lap, displaying notes and designs for her collection, something she had been going over meticulously since they boarded the plane an hour earlier. "Could you come look at something for me?"
Missy stood up and crossed the area to take the seat next to the fashion designer. "What did you want to show me?"
Yuzuha smiled at the girl's use of Japanese. "Have you been working with a translator? I assumed that we would have to find one for you once we arrived."
The model shook her head in response. "No, I speak Japanese fluently." When Yuzuha looked like she wanted to ask why, Missy interjected quickly. "It's a long story. So, what did you want to show me?"
The red-headed woman swiped the screen, pulling up a picture of two identical teenage boys smiling widely at the camera, their arms around each other.
"These are my sons, Hikaru and Kaoru," Yuzuha stated, just a hint of pride in her voice. "They're your age, actually."
"They have your eyes," Missy remarked. "Do they have an interest in fashion, too?"
"They do. Though I think Kaoru has a better eye for design than his brother, Hikaru is better with other areas of the industry, but it'll be a few years before they graduate."
Missy leaned in to look at the picture. They really were identical, though there was something in their gaze that seemed slightly different upon a closer inspection. "Which one is Kaoru, and which one is Hikaru?" she asked thoughtfully.
Yuzuha turned towards the girl sadly. "Honestly, in this picture, it's hard to tell. They're distinctly different from each other, but when you just look at them, they're perfectly identical."
"I can see that being a problem for them, and for those around them," Missy conjectured. "It can't be easy to always be mistaken for someone else."
"No," Yuzuha said with a sigh. "It's not easy at all."
There was a short silence, filled with quiet classical musical that filtered through the plane's stereo system. Missy guessed it was Tchaikovsky, but she wasn't really sure.
With a click of a button, the image of the two boys disappeared and the screen went black. Yuzuha cleared her throat before speaking. "So have you given any thought to where you will be attending school?"
What with all the work that had gone into preparing for the trip in the first place, Missy was ashamed to admit that she hadn't given her education any thought at all. The thought of attending high school seemed so arbitrary because of her commitment to her other goals. "Well- I-I uh, figured I could look at schools close to where the company headquarters are, once I get there," she stated hastily, trying to cover the blush on her cheeks for having forgotten something so important.
Yuzuha looked deeply offended and gasped audibly. "Oh my dear, you cannot attend just any school. Really, the only reputable school near my home is Ouran Academy. You must attend there! I'll call Suoh as soon as we land and let him know he needs to find a place for you," the redhead stated primly, pulling her phone from her leather purse and putting another reminder in it.
Why do I know that name? Missy thought to herself. "Ouran Academy?" she asked hesitantly. The model was almost afraid of what the designer was going to tell her.
Yuzuha leaned in closely in excitement. "Yes! Though the school mostly has wealthy blue-bloods, like myself, I think I could call in a favor with Suoh and get you a spot. After all, the semester only just started a week ago." The older woman looked the girl up and down appraisingly for at least the twelfth time that day. "Besides, you're cute enough that they'll probably let it slide. I'm sure once I explain the situation to Suoh, he'll find a place for you. You're seventeen, correct?"
Missy was absolutely blown away with how rapidly the woman could speak. It was almost hard to follow at times because it had been so long since she had practiced her Japanese, but with each sentence she felt the language returning back to her. She spared a glance over to where Myles was sleeping peacefully, worried about what the poor Russian man would do once he got to Japan and he didn't have Missy by his side to translate all the time. She looked about at Yuzuha and grinned. "Seventeen, last month, actually."
The model wasn't afraid to admit that she was proud of her age. She was incredibly young to be modeling for major designers, though she owed a lot of that to her relationship with Myles. Sometimes the brands she worked with treated her like a child, but most were respectful of her age and were happy to have a face for their lines that ran between adolescence and adulthood. With the right makeup, she looked like she was in her twenties, and her body was well developed for her age.
"Good, then you'll be a second year student."
Missy quickly did the calculations in her head. Second year high schooler was equivalent to junior in the American education system, and grade 11 in the United Kingdom, which was what she would be if she hadn't uprooted her entire life abruptly.
Frankly, the girl had a talent for sudden upheaval.
"Oh, that means you'll be in the same class as my boys!" Yuzuha said giddily as she pulled some lipstick and a mirror from her purse. Unscrewing the cap quickly, she continued. "I'll see if Suoh can put you in the same class as them, this way you can spend lot's of time with them and see how well you work together."
The model stiffened immediately. "The same class as Kaoru and Hikaru?"
"Hikaru and Kaoru, yes," Yuzuha replied absently as she stared intently at her reflection in the mirror while applying the dark red lipstick that would have looked ridiculous on anyone else. "Oh, and darling Fujioka Haruhi. I absolutely adore him. He's the best friend the boys have ever had."
Missy gripped the hem of her skirt, running her thumb over the end of red pleated fabric, apprehension settling in. She wasn't sure what it was, exactly, but something told her to be very wary of Yuzuha's sons. Sure, they looked sweet enough in the picture, but there was a hint of mischief in their amber eyes, a look that the brunette didn't like. "Fujioka? How long have your sons been friends with him?" She asked, trying to brush off her concern by asking innocent questions.
Yuzuha shut the compact with a snap and stuffed it into her black fendi bag, turning her attention back to the seventeen year old. "The same way they met all of their friends. Through the Host Club."
Before Missy could ask what a 'Host Club' was, one of the flight attendants approached the two women.
"Good morning, ladies. Can I interest you in anything to eat? Lunch will be in two hours, and we will be serving lobster thermidor. Is there anything I can get you before then to make your flight more enjoyable?" she asked sweetly, eyeing the empty glass of what was brandy, carefully. Her name tag read "Yukino" and she had black hair cropped short, just below her ear, and a wide smile.
"A vodka tonic for me," Yuzuha said dismissively as she turned her attention back to her tablet. "No ice and just a splash of cranberry."
"Yes, Hitachiin-san. And for you?" Yukino asked, turning her attention to Missy.
"Just water for me, thank you, Yukino," she said politely, looking the attendant directly in the eye. While she didn't think Yuzuha's behavior was rude, per se, it certainly wasn't as friendly as it could have been.
"You don't want anything else?" Yuzuha asked, turning her attention to the model as the flight attendant scurried off into the adjacent kitchen.
Missy laughed lightly. "Honestly, I'd love a something with some alcohol to take the edge off, but I'm underage and I know Myles will tell my brother if he see's me drink anything stronger than coffee. Josh would have a fit," she joked, imagining what her half brother would do.
She didn't drink often, just a glass at official functions and things like that when it was polite to do so and people forgot that she was still a minor, because of how bad alcohol was for you, especially for your skin. Plus, it was ridiculously high in calories, and she had to watch what she ate constantly. Even coffee was a treat during couture season.
One time, at a benefit gala, an editor had handed Missy a glass of champagne and Josh had dumped the contents into the nearest potted plant and lectured his sister on the dangers of alcohol and inebriation for a solid twenty minutes. Needless to say, he wasn't a fan of his little sister drinking.
As the flight attendant returned with their respective drinks, Missy felt an urge to shut her eyes, a welcome feeling considering the length of their flight. She asked Yukino for a blanket and the girl returned with a fuzzy white one almost immediately.
Curling up in the seat next to Yuzuha, (who was glancing through sketches her sons had sent her earlier that morning) Missy felt herself drift off into blissful sleep.
A/N: I'm so sorry about this wait! It's been a crazy few weeks in my life, what with family and work and all this paperwork that I have to do for school and stuff. I hope to have another chapter up this week, but I might need some encouraging reviews to get there! Next chapter, Missy will meet the twins. Believe me, it's a moment I've been waiting for for quite some time! And isn't Josh just the sweetest? I modeled him just a bit after my own brother in hopes of making him more realistic.
Drop a line, leave a review!
-Wri