AN: Sorry for not keeping up in the updates! I get distracted very easily and found so many nice anime that have more than seven on the growing list and practically most of them are LONG anime. Not One Piece. Caught up with that a month or two ago. So yeah. But I have been writing. Somewhat. Anyway, this chapter was not what I had in mind. Actually, it was NOTHING like what I had in mind. Read, and you'll see. Oh, and Kai is not OCC (hopefully), you may realize it in the chapter why his thoughts are... I'll leave it at that. Thanks for waiting!
WARNING: Not meant to discourage people from visiting a sick acquaintance! Please don't take it that way!
Disclaimer: I don't own Cardfight! Vanguard.
A Living Lie
Chapter 4: Visitors
The thought of seeing someone was not the most pleasant of things at the moment. Correction: The thought of seeing someone was not the most pleasant of things at all. Period. Kai was never fond of visitors. Right now, that fondness was about as sincere as the brunet's lies about not being underweight. To put it simply, Kai wanted no visitors. No, he wanted to be alone, wallowing up in despair.
How was he supposed to act? He felt lost. His parents were dead. They were gone, so why couldn't he process that?
A hand moved to his face. The tip of his fingers could feel some scratches, and he lightly traced them. Miwa had told him he had hit his head. This reminded Kai of what had happened after he learned of that, which made a frown appear, albeit small and tired. Just thinking about the past events made him feel sick. All that blood…
Kai promptly covered his mouth with his right hand, the need to vomit feeling quite strong. However, even in this state, a small feeling of annoyance entered the brunet. What food was he supposed to throw up anyway? He hadn't eaten for days. Sighing softly, the sick teen removed his hand and let it lay by his side. Accepting the anger, annoyance, and stress would do no good for the predicament he was in. He needed to remain calm.
His thoughts on his lack of nutrition reminded him of something, and he turned his head to the right. A small nightstand sat there with a vase filled with crimson roses. Next to it was the plate of food he was supposed to eat. The doctor had said to at least take a few bites. It made the brunet wonder if the real reason he was staying longer was because of his carelessness with food and not some problem in his head.
It seemed likely. The doctor had this belief that he was depressed over THEIR death. Politely as possible, and since he had slight problems thinking properly thanks to hitting his head, the patient simply told his doctor that was wrong. He was not depressed over their deaths.
Somehow, the doctor still had some idea that his lack of food has to do with THEM. It unnerved the teen how sharp his doctor was. But it was not his business. The man was no psychiatrist, and no way was Kai going to get a psychiatrist. He wasn't about to listen to a person he didn't know. He was definitely NOT going to speak his problems. Absolutely. NOT.
He kept whatever was in his head IN. Kai let an empty smile grace his tired face. It was amusing how he didn't even deny that he needed a psychiatrist. A sigh escaped his lips as the fake smile vanished. He had so many questions, and no amount of wondering was going to answer them.
Placing his left arm over his face, Kai decided to answer the call of slumber. It was not like he could answer his questions any time soon. All he could do was wonder until he recovered and left. With these thoughts in mind, the brunet was quick to fall asleep, well-aware that he would wake up feeling exhausted. Nightmares seemed very frequent these days. Far too many times they were filled with two people that should have been forgotten after their death.
Usually Kai woke up in cold sweat with a ramming heart, alone in a room after a nightmare. This time it was different. There was another person in the room, who made himself known by placing a hand on the panicked teen's shoulder.
The contact was unexpected, and it made Kai stiffen. Trying to breathe properly, he glanced from the side of his eyes to the left. It seemed his attention was all the person wanted; the hand was removed.
Now that his heart rate was at a normal pace, Kai exhaled slowly and turned to the man. More specifically, his uncle. The sight of his relative was shocking, but Kai still felt disoriented from his nightmare, so he ignored the questions running through his head.
Their relationship was rather strange. His uncle and he were not close. They didn't like each other, but their was no hate between them. The man was cold to his nephew, but the brunet saw it was better treatment than THEM. His uncle was not heartless like them. Granted, cold and rather harsh, but Kai was cold in turn. So it worked out somehow. Quite well if Kai was honest.
The man was wearing a gray suit and black tie. His caramel brown hair was combed to the right, a few locks hanging above his left eye. Kai recalled he was a businessmen. Surely he had no time to come and visit his poor, orphaned nephew. Was he going to sneer at the hospitalized teen's state? The nephew did look scrawny and sick.
But his uncle didn't say anything about his sudden gasp when he awoke from his nightmare. Frankly, he had yet to speak at all. It was slightly disturbing to sit in silence with a pair of dark brown eyes staring at you. But then, Kai was use to silence, so it didn't bother him that much. He figured, however, that it was up to him to break the silence for once. As shocking as it seemed, the businessmen was only giving him time to gather his thoughts.
Maybe he was being pitied. In any case, the brunet tried something new. He spoke first.
"What do you want?" No pleasantries. Get straight to the point. No one said to be polite. He liked to think of it as the way his uncle and he worked. An equally cold response would probably be his answer.
However, that was not the case. His uncle looked to be thinking over the right way to word something, but that was all the brown-haired boy could read from the dark eyes. Both uncle and nephew hid their emotions, but not perfectly, especially when the topic was severe.
"You have a new guardian."
Kai really hated how he was still slow on processing things. It took him a moment before he freaked out. Inside. On the outside, he didn't bother hiding the slight widening of his eyes, but that was it.
His uncle was his new guardian. Understandable because he was young and hospitalized.
That sounded nice.
He just left—kicked out, Kai's mind corrected humorlessly—his own house, he sees a bloody scene of two dead, familiar people, he was stuck at a stupid hospital, his mind has become rather slow and will stay like that for another day or two. Now, his uncle has become his guardian.
Why the heck is this—
Slowly—too many events happened one after the other, and he was about to lose his mind if he didn't go about it calmly—he raised a hand to massage his temples and exhaled.
"You agreed to this." Kai knew the answer, but he needed to speak. The calmness in his voice only seemed to further make him go mad. It was as if his sanity was drifting away from him. Why did more questions show up with no answers whatsoever?
"He was my brother," his uncle said in turn, but his voice was calm. He looked at Kai with knowing eyes that the brunet detested at the moment. His uncle could tell he was getting extremely lost. "My job makes me work for many hours. You'll most likely be by yourself. That should suit you."
"Yeah." Kai didn't bother trying to figure out if the man was sneering, being kind, or simply being blunt because the man was right. That could suit him just fine.
"If you come over."
Some of his anger forgotten, Kai looked his uncle in the eyes, allowing some questioning to show in his eyes.
"You can continue living in your apartment," the man stated bluntly.
"...I see." Kai gave a small nod as his hair shadowed his eyes. So his uncle knew. At least some answers were given. His uncle came to relay this news to him. He practically still lived on his own, but he had money support now. Maybe this was not so bad. Now all that was left was the ample feeling of emptiness that would not leave. Oh, and trying to convince himself there was nothing wrong with his life. Hard to forget about that. And maybe working out the feeling of madness that seemed to be around the corner.
"Toshiki."
Kai's head shot up when someone actually called him by his name. There was no time to hide the shock on his face. He didn't want to hide it either if it would give him an answer as to why his uncle addressed him by his name. The nephew and uncle had always managed to avoid calling each other by name or title. So why now?
The adult's eyes still looked cold, yet it looked lessened. He took a moment to speak, having trouble finding the right words. Should he really tell the boy when his state was not the best? The businessman could see it clearly; his nephew was going mad. Honestly, he was impressed by how well his nephew dealt with his brother and sister-in-law. The man knew of the cruelty that they had always put him through. But it seemed the brunet had had enough. Telling him the shocking news could end not so wonderfully. However, the boy did have a right to know. Sighing the man pulled out a pen and small notepad. He ripped off a page and scribbled something on it.
All the teen could do was silently take the piece of paper, but his eyes never left his uncle. Was that pity in the man's eyes? Him? Kai admitted that his uncle was not heartless, but pity was not something he felt. Was the man affected by his brother's death? Kai questioned all this while watching the man stand up and walk towards the door.
The brunet was still at lost for words, but he wanted to say something. He wanted to know what his uncle was hiding. Privacy was something he respected, but the green-eyed teen knew this had to do with him. And he was just about done with not having enough answers and adding more questions to his list. The brunet could do nothing but blame his uncle for what he blurted next.
"Wait! Uncle!"
The man stopped at mirrored the surprise on Kai's face. For once, Kai didn't like the silence that lingered. It was like he could hear himself repeating what he had just said over and over. The brown-haired boy felt slightly embarrassed and looked away from his uncle. He wished he had just kept quiet.
What a bright idea. Maybe I should do that more often, Kai thought dryly. Idiot.
"...Call me when you recover and have a cool head." With that, his uncle left without a glance and shut the door behind him. His words made Kai confused.
Call him? How? He didn't have—oh. The piece of paper. Looking at it, Kai discovered he was correct. It was the businessman's phone number. Hesitantly, he placed the paper on the stand beside him next to his cell phone. Then he laid on his back.
To say this was strange would be an understatement. Why would he need to call his uncle after he recovered? So the man could celebrate his recovery? Or maybe he and his uncle could have some sentimental talk about the two recent deaths? How sweet.
Green eyes widened. When did he get so pessimistically sarcastic? He knew he could be sarcastic with a certain blonde, but he had to say, it was...disturbing how he thought these days.
"Hey, Kai." Speak of the blonde, he just entered the room along with Aichi, Tokura, and...Katsuragi. Nice. Real nice. And here Kai thought one visitor was more than enough for him to handle in a day. Now he was presented with four extra with all of them looking at him with concern and pity in their eyes to boot.
And yet, Kai had wanted no visitors. Not today, not tomorrow. And definitely not with a half angry, half worried Miwa. Kai knew he had to snap out of his sudden angry attitude. Despite being extremely angry he had to deal with more thoughtful visitors, he didn't want Miwa to worry. So he would just put up the usual facade.
Just breathe. It was not something new to suppress his emotions. Right. It was like breathing to him. Nothing could go wrong. Except Kai just kept getting so many surprises from everyone that he had to surprise himself now.
But if Katsuragi makes one smart remark, to heck with that facade!
AN: So Kai is having problems mentally and going mad. I honestly hadn't planned for it this early, but I felt compelled to make him like this. It actually took a lot of restraint to not make the chapter longer, so everyone could see how mad he was. Don't worry. Its get better. Maybe not in the way you're hoping. I have been thinking about changing the genre to Horror and Angst. It seems to be heading that way in my head. What was the rating now? K+? Maybe I should make it T.
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