I was sitting on a booth that was beside a wall that was facing the stairwell. I was at Auntie Runo's first café, the one she inherited from her parents. Now Auntie Runo has several cafés all over the world but she also owns hotels and I believe several inn-cafés that were dedicated to brawlers, who wanted to stay in the area, due to the interspace available in those particular area.
The cafes became a well known place where brawlers lodge about outside interspace, some wanting to see the children of Uncle Dan's famous teammates back in the old days, but the real treat was meeting his teammates themselves. Of course Auntie Runo wasn't the only owner of all those cafes, hotels, and inns. My mom handles the one in Russia and a few in Europe. Aunt Julie has America, Auntie Runo a few in Asia. And the list may be a little too long to explain, and I didn't have the time for that.
Anyways, interspace was situated in major cities, and a few more places that are expected to be major cities, and those places are where Aunt Runo and the Ladies, as we, the children of the previous generation call them, place their businesses. I leaned my head on the wall, and slid a little further down on my seat. Despite being somewhat wealthy, father and mother raised us as humble children. But that wasn't the point, I had to live a double life. One that is traditional and another that is modern to fit the generation, however I do not play Bakugan.
"And yet, I have my own Bakugan" I mutter just falling on my side, since there was no point sliding to the floor. After a few minutes I sat back up again, people were staring, and whispering. They know who I am. Who wouldn't know Shun Kazami's daughter? He was ranked—I believe you understand. I closed my eyes and sigh, this was a pain, but I kept composure.
This place has been upgraded, to a three-story building. However the café retained its original design with a little boost of BAM! As Auntie Runo says. Ah, Auntie Runo. She made me call her that, Auntie, I was absolutely certain she was aware of her sons crush on me, thus making me call her Auntie, to have a slight cheery feel to it or uniqueness compared to how I blandly and boredly call everyone else Aunt. I sunk down on my seat again, arms crossed.
Why was I here again? This was stupid, I hate being in this café, it gave people more time to gossip about me. This place wasn't pack, probably because there are other branches in the city now. I stared at the stairwell, I could just go to the third floor, which was exclusive to Uncle Dan's teammates and their children. Uncle Ren and Aunt Fabia—who are aliens are taking care of the interspace in their planet. Thank God there is only one in their planet. Did I mention they got married?
I sighed aloud, I'm thinking of a lot of things but getting the thing I'm here for done—I don't even. What if it's the whole gang? That would require me to go to the third floor. I pursed my lips, I didn't want to be involved in this Bakugan nonsense. I sighed again and closed my eyes.
The whole Bakugan business put a strain on my parents relationship, mine and my mother, and then mine and my twin brother. Maybe I shouldn't have accepted mom's Bakugan, and maybe Akio shouldn't have accepted father's Bakugan. But who am I kidding—Bakugans was in our blood. I heard a muffled argument, the voices familiar. I opened my eyes and stared at the stairwell. They came down, my twin trying his damn hardest to put his right arm on his lab coat's sleeve, whose having an argument with Keith's son, Quinn.
Now this was a sight, I speculate that perhaps they are gay, but then again it might just be my rebellious streak shipping them, wanting something that isn't boring. I sigh again, I sit up properly and lean on the table and rub my temples. What if I told them of what's happening to Ryuu? I think I can trust my brother, but I couldn't risk it. By now they might know…of the incidents in interspace. I swore underneath my breath. I looked up, the two paused from walking towards me, they were whispering, I caught Quinn's hazel eyes, mischief dancing in them. He looks at me with great admiration that cancels out the whole gay thing—I swear the pair could act like quite the old married couple, it was just-sigh.
I gulped, and looked away, no. I am dating Ryuu, not that anyone knows, not with what's currently happening, I steal a glance at them. The atmosphere around them was tense. I felt tense. And maybe scared, I wanted to cry too, involuntarily my hands balled. They cut their argument and walk towards me.
"So, are you two finally ganna announce that you're actually dating?" I ask casually trying to calm my nerves with the speculation that they were an item, it wasn't just me by the way, who thought so. They would make the cutest couple ever! I stared at them and frowned. If only they didn't look like they were twins.
Maybe that's what got me so frustrated with their relationship. And then that got me thinking. What if telling them they should be a thing, became my way of dealing that—well they look alike. They look like their the twins!
"Avery-" Akio says, I look at him, his blonde hair that was at least two shades darker than Quinn's and his hair was platinum blonde , his amber eyes, and then the same slightly tan skin that the two shared. The both of them were roughly the same height standing at least 8 inches taller than me. They both shared the same-ish built. Lean, thank heavens, but it was obvious they didn't really do physical activities. But thank the heavens they have good meaty ish bodies.
"Before you say it, you both have lab coats on" I point at them boredly as I lean on the wall "So, I guess Superman has a job to do" I close my eyes unaffected by this revelation "And because you two were arguing like it was the apocalypse, and you" I open an eye to look at my twin "would react like that If it revolved around Bakugans, and you two became BFF's because of them so yep…"
"We-" Quinn's phone beeped he look at it and sighed, showing the screen to my brother who nods. They both slide on the seat across me. "It's resolved"
"Oh yaaaay~" I feign feigning interest, if you know what I mean, and then my order; a strawberry shake finally came, yes.
"Have you heard?" Quinn asks he looks at me with interest beaming from his eyes to mine. I instantly felt small, he made me feel like some child, like 65% of the time! Another reason why his on my probable second-hit-list-if-I-had-a-first-in-the-first-place.
"Heard?" I squeaked, my gut gave me a hint on what was next. Though I'm certain I looked bug-eyed, I saw my reflection on Quinn's glasses hanging on his V-neck gray to red shirt. He looked at my brother and they both frowned.
"Remember those doom cards?" I nod numbly. I wanted to ask why but I couldn't, I was frozen
"There is a guy who's sending Bakugans into the doom dimension" I lost my breath.
"Does—" I looked at Akio, eyes wide, he understood what I failed to finish, does mother know? He nods, and I slump back on my chair, I look at my shake, I lost the strength to drink from it.
"There-" I felt my eyes well up with tears, I felt my temperature rise, I could hear my heartbeat ringing in my ears, the lively chatter from the people in the café seemed like I was underwater. I couldn't finish my sentence yet again, but Akio understood with a nod.
"There is always a logical explanation to everything" Quinn says, as if he could read my mind. Maybe he can since, he and Akio were like twins, so does that make us triplets? The thought irked me, enough to make me gain my composure with a sigh, I was back to normal. Cool and calm, and the composed me.
"The others can't possibly think it was us, right?" I glanced from my brother to Quinn. Maybe I detested him a little because he basically replaced me, right? I shook the thought; this wasn't the time to find myself. "Just because we are mom's child, right? Given her history with the cards" I point at my brother and I. I look at Quinn, remembering that his father at some point had taken a mask and was a villain just like our mother, and a genius, I voice this out and then our booth was shrouded with gloom.
"Who knows" Akio shrugged losing his cool demeanor and slumped back in his seat, running his hands through his hair. I cleared my thoughts, and calmed my now-racing-heart again. I was careful with my words.
"I heard of that…" I started "I honestly thought it was a prank, to give hype to brawlers, I don't know, a new trend for interspace" I look at them both they looked troubled by the incident. "His someone whose wearing a mask right? That's why maybe, maybe they think it may be associated with us, right?" I leaned in to whisper to them. Quinn smiled out of the blue, and then turned to Akio, his eyes twinkling and then chuckled a little.
"You're right, your little sister isn't a fool" I crossed my arms
"I am not a fool, I'm not stupid!" I wanted to say more but I think I got the point across the table, Quinn looked at me, his eyes still twinkling and his smile still there on his face, I was taken aback
"The stories your brother told me about you are true," He nods, I probably look baffled. "And you two are similar, if you continue you will worry about every little thing" He smiled kindly, but I crossed my arms, huffed and glared at the wall for a while.
How was I supposed to know if my brother and I shared anything in common now? I wasn't willing to just drop everything to see if we still had a bond like before. I had things to worry about. And anyways, didn't he replace me with you Quinn? Oh, yes, Quinn, his total B.F.F., you two are probably more connected and alike them him and I.
I looked at Quinn and smiled, of course I couldn't tell him that. I was just frustrated with everything. If only they knew. But I couldn't tell them—anyone, not yet, I think.
"But the weirdest thing is that, this masked person only fights brawlers who seem off as of the late" Akio says brushing off the comment a while ago, I nod.
"Well, that's what we were told, like the brawlers started acting a little different, but no one noticed this until after the masked man won the brawl and sent said person's Bakugan to the doom dimension, with the card" Quinn offered, by this point I was chewing my bottom lip
"So…what?" I choked a little but coughed to make it seem like I didn't. I just wanted to get out of here and go to Ryuu's place, Quinn's intent gaze was not helping, it was like he expected me to be a genius, but I wasn't. If I was I would have figured out the problem about me, my complexity.
"Don't you have anything to offer?" Quinn asks again
"Honestly, I don't know what to expect, in fact I don't even know what Akio told you about me, for all you know he could be lying" I looked at Akio for a second. "But I know you'll say otherwise, Quinn. And anyways, I haven't seen him in a while, our keep-in-contact was severed a long time ago. We talk for a bit, not even enough to really keep our relationship from burning. So, I don't know, I. don't. know!" I rant, standing up from my seat, the shake long forgotten; I pushed towards the intellectual pair. "Split it" I shrug, as I side step off from where I stood to exit the café. I have been itching to leave, and now it was my chance. I glance at my wrist watch and coolly walked away.
I felt Akio follow me. I stepped out of the café and leaned beside the door waiting for him, just because he was my brother.
"What do you want?" I say as the door finally opened for him to step out of the building.
"I'm sorry" He looked at me with sad eyes, I shrug
"Look I don't care, I understand why you did what you did" I start to slowly walk away towards Ryuu's place
"That's what you say, and I understand that you do. I just want you to understand, that I'm here now, mom is too, let's start being a family again." I stop to turn around and to stare at him
"Look you've been here a few days?" I raise a brow "You walked out of my life; heck you and mom did because of duty or whatever. Well, I have things going on too, so you can't expect me to find time, especially when you two came out of the blue!" I was calm, I didn't raise my voice, and this was my training put on the field, collected, calm and cool. That's what being Shun's daughter is like, it's what I was expected to be. Junior, Dan's son, was kind you know, up till the point I realized he actually expected me to be this cool, calm, composed bad-ass of some sort. And that hit me hard, I felt like at some level, I was just not exactly normal.
"Look. I wish I can help with the whole Bakugan fiasco as of the late. But who am I kidding, who are you kidding? We're both not interested to play this stupid game, much more me! I don't associate myself with the technologies that revolve around that game. But you do, so I understand when you're worried about a masked man running around putting Bakugans into the doom dimension, but take it from me; it sounds like this person is doing something good, especially after I hear the bralwers are acting weird!"
"I get it, you don't want anything to do with it, I'm sorry"
"I shouldn't have said that, I mean it's basically expected for me to care. It was predestined" I wave my hands about, and give him a faint smile "I'm sorry." I genuinely say to my brother, approach him and hugged him sincerely. "I will see what I can about this" I pull away and smile up at him, damn does it suck to be short, I should start wearing heels, yep, I decided I will.
"You don't have to, I understand where your coming from" I stood on my tippy toes to kiss him on the cheek gently, I just hopped it reassured him which I think he did after getting over the initial shock. I took a step back and genuinely smiled at him.
"Hey, don't worry about it" I winked, as if our relationship wasn't challenged by the decisions that was made in the past, like this was how we would have turned out otherwise, if perhaps we kept in touch, and our personal lives didn't demand so much time from us. "I really am glad you and mom are back" I smiled again and twirled, "I'll see you back home!" I wave as I jogged away.
And that's when I realized, I was happy they were back, I was just so consumed by everything else that I shoved some certain matters away to think about Ryuu more. And Irile. I bit my bottom lip and started running towards Ryuu's house with my ninja skills.
Yes, I was worried about Ryuu, I probably shouldn't be worrying like this. I have my mom and brother back, they should come first. But all those years mom was gone and much more when Akio left too, I found comfort in knowing Ryuu. Father was a great father, but there was only so much you could share to your father.
And when Ryuu asked if he and I could date, that made my day—hell all those years I felt alone and small and fragile and unimportant—he was there to be the proof contrary to what I felt. He knew my fears, and he liked me for me. I didn't have to put a smile for him to know I was contented, unlike some people who assume I was sad because I didn't smile, or unpleased.
Maybe I'm too young to put a person in such a pedestal, but he was important. And this sickness didn't help the matter at all. This might not be love, or maybe it is, but I couldn't stand by idly doing nothing. He had been a strong pillar by my side, and I will be like that to him, now of all times.
I know I should, but why do I feel like I won't stay long?