My mom ran towards us.
"Oh, my baby! What happened? Are you alright? Where does it hurt?"
"I'm fine, just a little bit dizzy and a little bit nauseous." And what Laito just did didn't help.
"I told you not to eat that stuff you cook up!" I tried to return the smile ignoring the pain, but I could feel my eyes getting damp from tears. It hurt physically and emotionally. My family came to visit me! I was so happy!
"Why are you crying, silly? Does your head hurt?" My dad walked closer to me and ruffled my hair. I tried to take a deep breath, but failed, so instead - I closed my eyes to compose myself. When I opened them, I could see Reiji staring at my brother as he was glaring at our parents.
"I'm sorry, but my Darling has to rest for a bit," Smiled Laito triumphantly. He was about to win the 'Mine' argument and he knew it since no other brother could call dibs on me now.
"No I don't! I want to stay here!" I panicked. I couldn't simply go to my room now!
"Are you sure?" Reiji asked, hoping I would change my mind, saving him in the process, but fuck him, am I right?
"Yes. It's been so much since I saw my family. I can't miss this over some minor headache." I tried to push myself away from Laito, but he didn't let me go.
"Come on, Darling, I won't let you go." If glares could kill - Laito would already be dead. He walked towards the soft armchair and and sat down with me in his lap. Only for trained eye I was obviously uncomfortable, but for my parents - this was a wonderful sight - just like a dream come true.
"Oh honey! I knew you could be healed! You found yourself a boyfriend!" Mom ran to give me the most crushing and painful death squeeze I've ever experienced in my life. I almost cried out in pain, but mom didn't notice that. And thank god for that. Once she released me, I felt like blacking out again, so I had to wrap my hands around Laito's neck for support.
"What's up with this?" He asked me quietly while nuzzling my neck.
"I think.. I'm about to meet... my old friend darkness. Cover me up..." Gosh I felt so sick.
"With pleasure~" No one noticed this little conversation between me and Laito.
"So, now when you have a boyfriend, you are no longer dating that girl, right?" Dad asked me, but one faint squeeze from me and Laito took over this question.
"She is the past. I changed your daughter's mind about dating that girl, isn't it right~" Yeah, by stealing her away from me on the first night here! Real nice of you, Laito! I dug my nails into his skin as hard as I could to pay him back for what he's done. I could feel a shudder (hopefully caused by pain and not something else - you never know when it comes to him) run through his entire body.
"Bitch-chan~ don't start anything you can't finish." He whispered. I'll just turn my imagination off and not think about what he meant by that.
"Yeah, Elara is in the... past." It was hard so say this out loud. I've missed her so much, but neither she nor I tried to get in touch with each other ever again.
"Amazing! We're so happy that you're no longer a freak!" This wasn't supposed to shock me, but it did. I couldn't muster any strength to meet my mother's eyes.
"You know, it took a few beatings to get her this way," Subaru casually said out of blue. Reiji slightly staggered in horror. I looked around just to see that Sakamaki father was nowhere to be found. That probably was the reason why Subaru said what he did.
"You raised a true fighter here! Whenever we did something to her, she would try to fight us off will all her might~ Although, it only turned me on instead~ We've managed to break her." I saw my father clenching his fists to Laito's words.
"You son of a-"
"Oh yes he is," smirked Ayato. "And so I am. Just her and me, deep down in the dungeons with some toys to keep our company." What the hell were they talking about?! Ayato only tickle tortured me out there! But they made it sound somewhat diabolical. My father was obviously getting angrier by every passing minute, but mom seemed indifferent.
"That's so nice of you! We came here to check if conversion camp was needed for her, but you seem to be doing a great job," My mother smiled.
"Honey, it's okay, don't be rude to your daughter's friends. They did this to help her-"
"Help me with what?!" Despite the pain, I stood up. "I'm not sick! I'm not mentally ill or confused! All people are different, I'm not an exception! They didn't change me one bit! I'm still the same FREAK!" Mother took a few steps back as if my words were bullets going straight to her heart.
"He just hooked up with my girlfriend! That's why we broke up!"
"Sweetie, you must be tired and-"
"Delirious?! Irrational?! Bring it all on! I can handle some bullshit coming from a crazy wench who's unfortunately my mother!" She stared at me in furry.
"How dare you say things like that to your own mother?!" Her hand shot up and the sound of her palm hitting my cheek echoed through the room. It didn't hurt at all. Actually, the lack of pain drew a smile to my face.
"Nice try, but it felt like nothing." This made my mother totally livid.
"Pack your stuff - I'm sending you to the camp." She grabbed me by my arm, but I pulled it out of her grasp.
"I will not go with you! If you can't accept me by who I am - you can forget about my very existence, mother! I'm staying with them!" I was breathing heavily, my heart was racing. It felt like I was going to pass out so I gathered all of my strength to climb the stairs towards my room. The last thing I heard was Sakamaki father walking into the room to find a group of stunned people.
"What did I miss?"
When I reached my room, I heard the sound of front doors being slammed shut echo through the mansion. Soon after, I heard a familiar sound of my parent's car speeding out of the Sakamaki territory.
A sinking feeling, that it was the last time I saw my parents, slowly made its way towards my heart and mind. I clutched my stomach, trying to relieve the soaring pain that was spreading through my entire body, but in vain. That pain was probably caused by Reiji.
"I swear to god, if he left his footprint on my stomach, I will destroy his lab." I unbuttoned my school uniform shirt to see my belly and sure enough - there were two marks of his shoe on my skin. If you made closer inspection - you could actually be able to see a reverse number '10'. Reiji must've been wearing American shoes.
"Great, now I have to grab some ice." I knew it was going to bruise, but I wanted to get rid of that persistent pain. My head was still dizzy, but I made my way down without any major accidents.
The first thing I saw in the kitchen was Reiji's back as he was trying to dig something out of the freezer. He seemed to be concentrated, lost deep in thought and the freezer, so I had to take this chance for some sweet revenge. I tiptoed closer to him, hugged my stomach, preparing for the upcoming pain and softly greeted mister four-eye by jumping on his back.
"BOO!"
"I already heard you declaring your need of ice. Your pathetic attempt to scare me was more pitiful than your relationship with parents."
"That's stingy... As if you're the one to talk." I tried to ignore the enormous pang in my heart.
"My relationship with parents is decent enough." Reiji fixed his foggy glasses with a smirk.
"Oh really? Where is your mom?"
"I hired a vampire hunter to kill her."
"See? Oh, never mind. What's for dinner?"
"You're a young woman, shouldn't you be at least trying to take care of yourself? You will make dinner for yourself."
"So I'm having food poisoning again... How convenient." I sighed. Reiji rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"No, you are not. Everything you touch breaks down and we just recently got some new kitchen equipment. It would be a shame to destroy it." Reiji pushed me down to the chair.
"Just stay here and don't move."
"But I also want to do something."
"If you want to help - thaw this piece of meat." He gave me a frozen pork steak the same size as his foot. Coincidence?
"How am I supposed to do that..? Oh, you want me to press this where you kicked me? Will be done. Thanks, Reiji." Even though he's sometimes the one to injure me, he was the one to treat the damage done.
"Don't be ridiculous, I'm just using your body heat, that's all."
"Yeah yeah, mister Tsundere the Second tries to hide his true feelings. How adorable." He shot me an angry look in response.
While I was just sitting there and chilling (no pun intended), Reiji was almost professionally moving around the kitchen. His calmness and grace as he was cutting vegetables and stirring the soup lured me into relaxation.
"Reiji, if Gordon Ramsay was to see you cooking - he would praise you. It's like you're a master chef."
"That's only expected from a servant."
"Ugh, not with this nonsense again! You are not a servant! Servants get wages while you get nothing. And servants can't boss me around, right, Randy?" Just as expected, Randy appeared out of nowhere to give me a nod of confirmation.
"Did you hit your head again?"
"Nah, but it was a close one when I was going upstairs... Speaking of which - how did everything go when I left?" Reiji ignored my question and continued to peel potatoes. I didn't want to irritate him even more, so I didn't ask again.
"When you showed your lack of good manners and left everyone, my father walked in to find your parents boiling in furry." So he was answering after all. "While your parents stormed out without saying a word, your brother asked us to take care of you."
"He did?" He never did anything like that before.
"Triplets assured him that you'll be treated as a family member." Oh please dear god, please don't let them treat me as if I was their mother. I heard some stories here from Shuu.
"There was also a question I wanted to ask. Why didn't you tell them the truth about your injuries?" This time Reiji turned around to face me, a half peeled potato still in his hand.
"Why? I wonder why myself..."
"Is it because of my delicious food?" Reiji smirked, slightly puffing out his chest. "Or maybe you enjoy being treated like my dog too much."
"Woof, this puppy is ready to die for your food!" I stuck my tongue out like a happy dog.
"... How hard did you hit your head in PE?" Reiji returned to peeling potatoes.
"Hard enough." Reiji might never find out the real reason why I tried to save their butts out there.
The real reason appeared when I was still locked down in the limo.
"Oh shit... They really left me here... Which means... Which means..! I can finally sleep! Ouch... It hurts to be happy..." Pain slowly got weaker and I was able to climb up to lay on the seat.
"Jee, well that was a real workout..."
"Nfu~ I can show you what a real workout is while lying in bed~"
"JESUS!" I almost fell off from my so so hardly earned arduous seat.
"Guess again~" Without even asking for my permission (oh who am I kidding?) Laito picked me up from my lovely seat.
"Hey! I earned it with hard work!"
"Too bad."
Laito got us outside. He didn't teleport us anywhere, instead, he was walking towards the front door with me in his arms as if he was trying to spend as much time outside as possible.
"Bitch-chan, now you have to listen closely."
"My ear is already... too close to your mouth, so bring it on."
"Good Bitch-chan. Would you like to see some cute little pandas and adorable little animals you could pat?" My eyes lit up in excitement.
"I like this look in your eyes~ I'm kinda getting turned-"
"Off! Ouch..." I flinched from screaming. "You want to bring me to the zoo? Why? What do I have to do?"
"Something relatively easy~ Don't tell your family or that old man of mine those injuries were caused by us."
"My family's here?!"
"Stop wriggling around! Yes - they came to visit you." I was so happy I forgot all about being rejected by my family once again.
"Your abuse is safe." I promised, already thinking about the fluffy little animals in my lap.
We were about to enter the living room. I could already hear mom's voice, asking where I was.
"Laito, hurry up." But he did the exact opposite - he stopped in front of the door.
"Oh~, now when you didn't mention it..." My eyes shot wide open as I felt something soft being pressed against my lips. I stared at him in shock, unable to stomach what was happening. Once he ended the kiss, Laito smiled mischievously.
"Congratulations! You have won a wonderful boyfriend for the night!"
"What..?" I had no time to ask what was that all about. This time Laito didn't waste any time - he kicked the door wide open.
"Here is your sweetie~"
I shuddered at the memory. I have totally forgotten to brush my teeth.
"Reiji, do you mind if I leave for a while?"
"I would be more than happy if you left for an eternity, but where are you going?"
"I forgot to brush my teeth."
"Are you going to do this before dinner? Humans are weird."
"Hey! Don't judge all humans just because you came across this one crazy little me!"
"The longer I live, the crazier humanst get, seriously. Okay, you may go."
After a while (it took a lot to reach the bathroom), I came back, to find some wonderful meals on the table. With no one in sight, I could finally drown my sorrows of being disowned in food. Thankfully, Shuu decided to not sleep in my room, so I peacefully let out my turmoil into the pillow.
But life goes on and I had to go on too. My bruised ribs were healing pretty fast and the promised trip to the petting zoo was coming closer and closer. Then, one day, Laito made an announcement.
"Bitch-chan~ We're not getting any sleep today!"
Heya! I never do stuff like this, but it's really important for me. My friend aya_takona (it's their Instagram) is an amazing artist and it would make me really happy if you checked out their Instagram and Ko-fi page! They'll draw you one beautiful sketch for one coffee. Trust me - it's worth it! You can find a link to their Ko-fi page on their Instagram since here links don't work.