Chapter 6
I cling to you
~Wisteria
Weekend mornings were by far the noisiest time of the day, week and month. Ren and Rin had no classes, meaning unlimited fun with Yzak, who was the current new addiction constantly being bugged by the twins. He was now in charge of taking care of them, his uncle said so. The boys were bubbling with joy cheering about no more chores while Yzak was spewing molten lava at the twins he was in raging mode again. Who would like to take care of brats who don't even know the meaning of an Angry Yzak? His powers of snapping and bullying were not affecting the boys, talk about immunity.
While the boys were giving their full and never ending attention and affection to the silver haired new elder brother slash nanny, Shiho was still indifferent about Yzak after their late night confrontation about peppermint salves and rough hands.
Was I supposed to say sorry about that?
Yzak pondered as he chewed on a strip of bacon, looking at Shiho who was eating quietly beside her tall, dark haired father. The twins were making a mess out of their breakfast knowing that Yzak will be in charge of their chores from then on. Angrily snapping at the two boys, they just stuck out their tongues at him and carried on making their food monster as they christened it, Yzak II, making the platinum blonde annoyed as ever.
"I was asked by Old man Grieg to accompany him to a fishing outing. I couldn't say no to the old man. So, I'll be going out of town for a few days. I hope that is okay with you... and we're going to go later this afternoon." Leon asked permission from Shiho, as if she was the authority in the house and not him.
"Its fine father, I'll ask Fynn to come over while you are out. I can count on him for errands." Shiho replied lathering butter on her bread.
"Fynn? He's coming with us. Yzak, you can be errand boy. We can add that to your chores." Leon suggested, earning a glare from Yzak.
Shiho looked at Yzak looking at him as if assessing if he was reliable, breaking their eye contact, she looked back at her father, "Okay, if you say so, just take care of your health while you are there okay? No strenuous activities. The doctors said so don't push yourself too much. I won't be there to reprimand you."
"Father! Bring a big fish home then we can put in the pond!" Ren told his father as he sat up on the chair receiving a reprimanding stare from his sister.
"Papa, can we have a fish for a pet? We'll take care of it." Rin beamed a grin at his father, his chest puffed out in pride.
"Rin, believe me, you are going to regret having a fish as a pet." Yzak told the little boy, like the wolf in the story little red riding hood, swaying the mischievous twin's decision. "It doesn't do anything except swim. Though Isis will be pretty happy with a companion." He added with a sly smile.
The twins hurrahed and Shiho clutched her head shaking it in disbelief. "You two, that doesn't mean the fish will be safe from Isis. You know Isis is a cat and cats like fish. So no. You can't have a fish as a pet." Shiho stated pleading her father to not let the twins win the argument.
"I'm sorry, Shiho. The twins have been very good lately, I think the fish can be their gift for being good little boys." Leon patted Shiho's shoulder. Shiho sighed in defeat and ended up agreeing with her father.
"I'm not taking care of the fish alright?" Shiho stood up and cleaned up the sink filled with used pots and pans.
"You don't have to take care of the fish, nee-chan! We will take good care of it! We're re-re-s-pon-si-ble!" Ren said stumbling over his words. Rin clapped at his brother and Leon awed by the sight.
Shiho gave a small smile and gave her brothers lemon-flavoured candies she bought in town. The twins cheered and ran upstairs to their room. Leon left the kitchen as well. He was going to arrange his things for the trip. Yzak was left with Shiho, an eerie silence between.
The twittering of the baby birds echoed through the house as it penetrated through the open windows. Yzak stacked the plates up and placed it beside Shiho. Busy clattering and footsteps filled the kitchen along with the sloshing of the water. Shiho then noticed that the milk she got was not lessened, eyeing the busy, weirdly timid Yzak, she cleared her throat and wiped her wet hands on her apron.
"Yzak, you did not drink your milk. Did you forget about it?" She accusingly asked.
Yzak avoided her eyes. "No, I don't like the idea of drinking milk from freshly squeezed cows."
"You have too or else you are going to get sick again." Shiho got the glass of milk and delivered it to Yzak.
"Do I really have to?" Yzak made a face, staring at the milk.
"Yes, and it is not weirdly warm anymore."
"Can't you heat it up?"
"You're such a baby. Drink it up already."
"I can't I'm going to puke if I force myself. Just heat it up and I will drink it like a good boy." Yzak bribed Shiho.
"You heat it up yourself. I'm busy." Shiho left the milk on the table and she went back to washing dishes.
I hate you milk. You are not going to win this war!
Approaching the stove, he looked at Shiho, waiting for a response.
"You don't know how to cook." Shiho stated. She was not asking a question, she was stating a very obvious fact about Yzak.
"I just don't know how your stove works, where your cooking utensils are and how long I would heat the milk but I know how to cook." Yzak said, peering at the cabinets and drawers, annoying Shiho further to get a response from the girl.
"Oh forget it, I'll do it." Shiho exasperatingly shoved Yzak to the side as she worked seamlessly on heating up the milk. Yzak just watched in amazement and tried to remember how she did it. Finally she turned off the stove after the milk bubbled up, she poured the milk in a cup and left Yzak in his wandering.
Drinking the milk in one go, he gave Shiho the cup and walked away. "Next time, I will warm my own milk. So you don't have to be so busy and cranky at me." Shiho pretended not to hear anything and focused on cleaning up. She looked at her wet, pruning hands.
Busy.
Out of the blue someone knocked at the door. "Yzak, can you please answer that? I'm busy here." Following Shiho's demand he bedgrudgingly opened the door to see it was the red haired boy who he was clearly pissed at.
"Who was it?" Shiho took off her apron and went to see their guest. "Fynn, father already left."
"Huh? What do you mean?" Fynn excused himself from Yzak, who was currently barricading the door to prevent Fynn from entering their house.
Seeing the two boys ignite with unspoken distaste for one another, Shiho gave Yzak a reprimanding gaze and pulled him to her side. "Sorry, about that. You were saying?" She light-heartedly asked Fynn what he needed.
"As I was saying, I saw your father go out of town. So I thought you might need my help with your errands." Fynn offered as he closed the door behind him.
"Oh, I thought you were supposed to come with them." Shiho remembered her father's words and looked at the glaring Yzak beside her. Tapping his clenched hand, he removed his gaze from Fynn and saw Shiho shake her head.
"So, what can I do for you today? It's been a while since you left the town, angel." Fynn cheekily uttered her most hated nickname. A tick in Shiho's jaw suddenly appeared as she stiffly smiled at Fynn approaching him in a most menacing manner and ended with Shiho painfully crushing his feet with the heel of her boot.
"Fynn, I dare you to say that again and I say, you will never step foot in this house again." Shiho angrily said as she maintained eye-contact with her ever pestering childhood friend.
"I was just saying I missed you." Fynn pouted and left the vicinity. No one wants to mess with an angry Shiho. He would visit again later when she wasn't volatile.
"Do you want a foot massage too?" She asked Yzak who was already going up the stairs a second after she offered her services. Huffing in annoyance she returned to her chores and mused over her father lying about Fynn joining them to the fishing trip.
Maybe he wanted Yzak to have another chore.
*A*
"Rin, Ren, Nee-chan is going to town. Do you want to come along?" Shiho peeked through the door of the bedroom. It was empty. The only trace that felt were the empty candy wrappers littering the floor and the disarranged bed sheets.
On the other side of the room, aka Yzak's bedroom, she heard their small voices Yzak's snapping voice and more laughter. Knocking on the door, Shiho was greeted by Ren, she then asked if they wanted to tag along. Ren ran back to Yzak and Rin, pulling them up.
"We're going to town! Bakery! Bread!" The boys cheered as Shiho went downstairs and got her shopping basket, purse and keys.
*A*
When they arrived at the town, the boys quickly pulled Yzak to bakery, telling him that they were good friends with the baker and he lets them watch how he makes bread. Shiho told them to play nice and not disturb their friend too much. Entering the bakery the twins ran to the door leading to the kitchen, a man in his early thirties welcomed Yzak and the boys, offering them front seats to his performance.
"Nii-chan, come watch!" Their voices laced with amusement.
"I'm going to walk around town." Yzak left the bakery and looked for a woman with distinct long dark brown hair. Walking around the town, he saw old-fashioned stores and small stalls. A variety of goods were being sold. All the while little boys and girls started flocking him, asking who he was and where he come from.
Ignoring the flock of little children tagging along him, he finally saw Shiho at the meat shop talking to a butcher animatedly. Running to her before she got away, the persistent children ran after him. Shiho wondered what the commotion was all about and saw Yzak being chased by the children.
"Shiho!" Yzak stopped swiftly in front of her. The little children started bumping on his legs causing them to fall on the ground like rag dolls.
"What happened? Why are the children chasing you? Did you bully them?" Shiho asked as she helped the children up one by one.
"If I bullied them, as you thought I did that because of boredom, but I'm sure they wouldn't be stuck to with invisible glue." Sneering at the pushy children, he was slapped on the shoulder by Shiho. "Stop that. Their mothers are going to get angry at you. Come along." Shiho gave her shopping bag to Yzak and pulled him by his shirt.
"Where are the twins?" She asked while she looked at the greens.
"At the bakery, making gingerbread men." Yzak yawned.
"Two bundles of these and a kilo of potatoes please." Shiho told the old lady selling vegetables. Noticing the old lady look at Yzak now and then she nudged Yzak with her elbow to behave.
"What? I was just standing." Yzak asked as he nursed his throbbing side.
"The old lady was looking at you suspiciously, so don't ask me what you did." Shiho replied looking up to the tall silver haired man. He was sticking out like a sore thumb in town. With his fair skin and silver hair, who wouldn't notice, he was like a mirror left under the sun, brightly shining accumulating unwanted attention.
"Can't blame her if she has good taste in men..." Yzak narcissistically whispered to himself. It was Shiho's turn to scoff now. The silver-haired man irritated at the unbelievably bizarre woman. They were bickering about Yzak's narcissistic tendencies when Shiho yelled when someone pulled her hair tie, freeing her long hair to be swept by the wind. Out of the blue wide yonder, the smell of irises surrounded Yzak. The wind was playing with Shiho's long hair as she tried to gather it on her hand. Seeing a red head running while facing her, Shiho recognized it was Fynn.
"Fynn! Get back here!" the woman beside Yzak fumed at the playful red headed boy. The astounded silver topped lad looked at Shiho's puffed cheeks and angry eyes. "Come on, Yzak. I don't want to indulge his playful tendencies by running after him. Seriously he needs to grow up."
Yzak nodded in agreement as they continued their shopping for dinner. "The twins wanted to have steak for dinner, how about you?"
"Okay." Yzak replied entranced with the swishing hair curtaining over Shiho's form. It resembled a chocolate waterfall.
Shiho faced Yzak and asked, "You're fine with steak or what?"
"Yeah, whatever..." Yzak looked at the other direction, trying to not lock on Shiho's billowing long hair.
"Never should have asked him." Shiho murmured as she walked faster to leave the detached Yzak behind in his own world.
Sneaking a glance at Shiho, he saw she was leaving him behind. Catching up to her, he saw her buying a simple black hair tie at an accessory stall. It was a simple hair tie, no ribbons or butterflies, not used for beautifying purposes, just used for its purpose to tie hair in place.
"This one's prettier, you know?" Yzak pointed at a white hair tie highlighted by a crystal rose. Shiho looked at Yzak as she paid for her hair tie and silently tied her hair back together.
"You didn't listen to me. The one you picked is boring." Yzak commented on the black hair tie clinging on Shiho's hair.
"It's not boring, it's useful." Shiho disagreed with his statement.
"The white hair tie is useful and pretty. Unlike your black hair tie, it's not dual purpose." Yzak argued back, as if coaxing her to buy like a door to door salesman.
"It will be useless, since I have bought this already." Shiho pointed out, winning the pointless argument.
Silence engulfed them both once again, Shiho looked at the sulking Yzak, who was in deep thought.
I wonder what he's up to.
Yzak was suddenly hit by a great idea. Pulling Shiho in a nearby street, the surprised brunette tried to get away from the silver-haired boy. Yzak pushed Shiho on the brick wall, her front was against the brown reddish barrier. "Yzak! You idiot! What are you doing?" Her face flushed with fear and anger.
"Stop yelling, for God's sakes, woman. I am not going to do anything perverted to you." He whispered as he fumbled with her hair.
Tears waiting to be spilled, Shiho tried to push Yzak from her back. "You freaking bastard! Let me go already!"
"If you just let me finish what I am trying to do, I will let you go!" Yzak snapped back at her, the stupid hair tie still stuck to her hair.
"Fine! If you try to do anything stupid to me, I swear I am going to feed you to the ants!" Shiho exclaimed as she tried to calm her racing heart. She is a woman and it is perfectly normal to feel panic when a healthy well-built young man pushes you to a brick wall for no good reason.
Panic?
Shiho was not feeling panic at all, she knew Yzak was not that kind of man. She was feeling agitated for some reason she did not know and it was making her heart race even more. The sound was ringing in her ears, loud.
"Are you done yet?" Shiho asked breathlessly, it was getting hotter.
"Stupid hair tie won't loosen up!" Filled to the brim with irritation, he yanked the hair tie. Shiho yelped painfully as she felt a few strands of her hair leave her scalp for good.
"That hurt!" She felt Yzak's hold on her loosen up and turned to face him. Her face was still hot and she was angry, very angry at the man standing in front of her that seemed to be sporting a ponytail.
"Now that I own your hair tie we have to buy you a new one, wait here." Grabbing her purse from her, he ran back to the accessory stall and bought the hair tie he wanted for Shiho. Returning back to the street where he left Shiho and the shopping bag, he saw her crouching down while slapping her cheeks and meditating.
"What are you doing now? Here you go." He placed the purse on her knees and dangled the white hair tie in front of her. She looked up to Yzak and glared at him. His shorter hair was escaping the hair tie and it framed his beautiful face. The icy blueness of his eyes became cool as he grinned at his victory in their recent argument. "Want me to help you tie your hair?" He offered but Shiho grabbed the blasted hair tie.
"No, thank you, pervert. You might do something unimaginable to me once again." Eyeing Yzak suspiciously, Shiho angrily replied as she tied her hair for the second time that afternoon.
"You have pretty hair and now a pretty hair tie to accompany it." Yzak complimented as he patted her head.
"I really don't know what you are trying to say, but people say that when someone compliments your hair or eyes, you are not pretty." Shiho said as a matter of fact, leaving Yzak with the shopping bag.
"Fishing for compliments are we?" Yzak teased as he ran after her.
"Of course not, I was just telling you a quote I once heard." Shiho coolly replied not wanting another episode of push Shiho on the brick wall and yank her hair.
"If you say so..." Yzak whistled, beckoning the wind to come and blow a cool breeze. "Say, how long did you grow it to that length?" Yzak asked keeping the conversation light as they walked to where the boys where.
"I don't remember. How about you? Your hair and eyes are pretty too." Shiho pointed out earning a suffused blush on Yzak's cheeks.
"Are you trying to say something about my physical appearance or something?" He indignantly replied trying save at least dome of his ego.
Shiho laughed calmly, "Are you doubting your narcissistic tendencies now?"
Yzak gave her a glare and replied darkly, "If you must know, I am comfortable with how I am and look like so I really don't care about how people see me or think of me."
A dark atmosphere suddenly dawned on the two. "I've noticed."
"Good to know."
"Sometimes you have to think about others too and not only yourself, because you will never know if the people you encounter everyday has the same confidence you have in themselves or not."
"That's not my problem maybe those people must stop worrying about how others think about them and try to love themselves. They should stand up for what they want and love to do to have confidence and not rely on what others expect and need from them."
The purple-eyed woman looked at Yzak and smiled. "I'll forgive you for what happened a while ago because you made my day. Let's get the boys and make dinner. The sun's setting."
The blue-eyed city boy looked appalled at the country girl walking in front of him. He did not ask for an apology because he did not do anything bad last night. Or did he?
The orange glow of the setting sun, gave a beautiful shimmer on her long lustrous hair. The crystal rose sat primly on the edge of her hair, his blue eyes drawn to it as it bumped on Shiho's back. Making their way back to the bakery, they were met by the twins who were munching on gingerbread men. Ren held on Shiho's hand while Rin on Yzak's.
"Nee-chan, why is there a rose clinging on your hair?" Ren inquisitively asked as he poked it.
"Don't poke, you little devil. It might break." Yzak irately swatted the little boy's hand.
"Meanie!" Ren yelled at Yzak as he sulkily munched on his gingerbread man.
"Nii-chan, why are you wearing a ponytail?" It was now Rin's turn to ask.
"It was hot, my hair was getting damp. I pulled it up. I look great, don't I?" Yzak playfully asked as he pointed at his ponytail, which was really out of his not so obvious volatile character.
Rin nodded.
Ren mouthed, girly.
Shiho scoffed.
Yzak, expectedly, snapped.
-to be continued-
Thyme's Notes: Hi there everyone! I hope you have been happily reading along. Thank you to everyone who has taken their time reading this chapter and following this story! I'll be doing my best to keep you entertained! I'd also like to hear about your comments! It makes me all the more inspired when I read about your comments! So do leave something for me! :3 Love you people a lot!