A Secret To Be Told
Chapter 6: An interlude of sorts
After Alexandra, with the help of Hilary, Max, Tyson, Kenny and Daichi (Ray was still too embarrassed to say anything) had filled Mariah in on the situation – during which time the teens had hungrily devoured the snacks laid out for them – the pinkette studied all of them in fascination.
"Wow! It's like going back in time when I look at all of you!" she exclaimed softly. Her eyes fixed on Ray and she smiled coyly, making him blush even more.
"Mariah?" Hilary piped up. "Um – is that little girl"-
"Yep! This is my baby, Rin!" she said proudly. The baby girl had Mariah's pink hair and golden, feline eyes. The tips of her tiny, pointed canines were visible – typical of the White Tiger clan. She looked like a little clone of her mother.
"Wow, she's such a cutie!" exclaimed Hilary as Rin smiled brightly at her.
"She is, isn't she?" said Mariah fondly, ruffling Rin's hair and causing the baby to giggle. "She'll be nine months old next week!"
Ray stared at the little girl in amazement. She was his daughter….he got married to Mariah….If this day gets any weirder, my head's gonna explode, thought the Chinese youth to himself.
"But first things first – I came here to see little Gou!" said Mariah. Alexandra carefully handed Gou over to her after Mariah set Rin down on the sofa between them.
"Oh my god! He's absolutely adorable!" exclaimed Mariah as she cuddled the tiny child in delight. "Hello, sweetie!" She made baby noises to Gou as Alexandra told the teenagers that this was the first time Mariah was seeing Gou.
"It was too bad – poor Rin came down with a bad case of colic just when we got the news from Kai about the baby's birth!" said Mariah, looking up from Gou. "We couldn't travel then – and I was only able to come down from China now! Ray's lucky – he got to see Gou last month when he came here for a short business trip."
Daichi decided to ask about something that had just occurred to him. "Hey, Alexandra!" The blonde woman turned to him, a little startled by his sudden address. "How come you recognised everyone else when you saw them, but not me?"
She tilted her head, a slight smile playing across her lips. "Well, first off, you all don't need to keep calling me "Alexandra" all the time; just Alex is fine – that's what everyone calls me."
Mariah chimed in, her eyes glittering with amusement. "Oh, I know all about this one! "Alexandra" is reserved just for Kai, okay? So she doesn't like anyone else calling her that."
Alex blushed furiously and glared at the pinkette. "Shut up, Mariah! It's nothing like that!"
"Yes, it is!"
"No, it isn't!"
"Yes!"
"NO!"
The teens couldn't help but be amused, particularly since it was the stoic and usually grumpy Kai who was the subject of this argument.
Finally, after glaring down Mariah, Alex turned back to them with a huff.
"As to your question, Daichi," she said, stressing on her words while shooting Mariah an evil look. "Well…you actually look really different now, so that's why I didn't even think about it….." She looked at him with a puzzled look on her face, tapping a finger to her chin. "Hmm, honestly I think I forgot you used to be so tiny!"
Tyson and Max suppressed a snort of laughter while Daichi prickled. "I'm not tiny!"
Alex raised her hands in apology. "Okay, okay! It's just that you seem to have had a big growth spurt."
Daichi's eyes lit up at the information. "Really? Am I taller than Tyson?"
"About the same height, I think," Mariah answered the question, smiling in amusement as Daichi whooped and began rubbing it in Tyson's face. She then turned to Alex, a serious look now on her face. "Hey, Alex – I think Ray would like to know about this."
Alex's expression turned grave as well. "Yeah. I was going to call Tyson, Hilary, Max, Kenny, you and Ray myself before I heard that you were coming over. We need to figure out how these guys got here, and how to get them back to their own timeline."
She turned back to the teenagers. "So - just to be sure – you are positive that nothing else unusual happened before you found that stone, right?"
They all nodded in confirmation.
"We're sure," said Tyson.
"Alright," She took Gou, who had fallen asleep, from Mariah and stood up. "Mariah, you call Ray - I'll just put Gou down for his nap in the nursery and then contact the others. Kai may not be able to make it too soon since a meeting suddenly came up."
"Right. Oh, Ray? Could you hold Rin for me for a bit while I make the call?" asked Mariah, turning to Ray and holding out the baby.
"Oh! Uh - sure!" Ray stammered, awkwardly taking the little girl from her.
"I'll be back in a minute," said Alex as she and Mariah left the room. "Please, make yourselves at home till then."
Once the door closed behind the two women, Tyson turned to his friends. "This is totally unreal."
Kenny nodded. "I know! I keep feeling like this is all a weird dream!"
Hilary got up and walked to one of the large windows. "I can't believe we got to see Ray and Kai's children!" She looked out over the garden, starry-eyed. "I wonder if I'm married yet..." she wondered out loud in a dreamy tone.
Tyson shuddered "Tone it down with the girliness, Hil...you're starting to freak me out..."
Ray looked down at Rin, who was currently sitting comfortably in his lap and playing with the hem of his shirt. She suddenly looked up at him and smiled. "Dada!"
"Hey, look at that, Ray!" laughed Max. "She already figured out that you're her daddy!"
Ray blushed a little, while smiling down at the child, feeling a surge of affection as she continued to giggle cutely while looking at him.
Daichi, in the meantime, was sulking, poking his toe moodily at the carpet. "It's not fair. Why did Alex have to be married to that grouch -"
"Kai!" Hilary cried out suddenly.
Daichi frowned. "That was who I was talking about..."
"No, you dummy" It's Kai! Our Kai! He's here!" she exclaimed, leaning out of the window.
The others ran over to the window to look. Sure enough, Kai was heading towards the house, his scarf billowing behind him in the wind. He seemed to have scaled the compound wall to get in.
"KAI! Over here!" Tyson called out to him, pushing the window open and jumping out to land on the grass just two feet below the sill, and jogging over to him. The others followed - including Ray, who was still carrying Rin. Kai turned, surprise clearly showing on his features.
"Tyson?" He narrowed his eyes at the younger boy as he came up to him. "What are you doing in my house?"
Tyson smirked. He was going to pay Kai back for his snarky comments at the dojo. "How do you know this is still your house?" he questioned, crossing his arms over his chest smugly.
To his surprise, Kai returned his smirk and pointed in the direction of the front gates. "Easy. It still says 'Hiwatari Manor' on the plaque."
Tyson scowled at being one-upped like this. "Why did you climb the wall to get in, then?!"
Kai made an impatient sound. "Use your common sense, Tyson. Don't you think the guards would have been a little surprised if a 17 year old version of the house's resident just waltzed up to the gates?"
"Kai! We've been waiting for you to show up, you jerk!" yelled Daichi, still clearly angry at Kai for various reasons, as the rest of the G-Revolutions caught up with them.
"Well, sorry to keep you all waiting," said Kai sarcastically, not even bothering to look at the redhead as he raised his eyes to scan the exteriors of the mansion. He lowered his gaze once again to level a glare at them.
"You still haven't told me how you broke into my house," he said.
"Well excuse me!" said Hilary indignantly, putting her hands on her hips. "We didn't break in! For your information, we were invited here!"
"By whom, may I ask?"
"Hey! Where did everyone go!?" A voice drifted out of the open sitting room window, followed by Mariah poking her head out of it. "There you are!" she exclaimed when she spotted them.
"Mariah!?" Kai stared at her in astonishment, immediately recognising her by her hot pink hair and feline features.
She beamed at him. "Oh, hey, Kai! we were wondering when you were going to get here!"
"What's going on?" Kai watched as a young woman with long golden hair leaned out of the window as well.
"Your teenage prince charming has arrived, Alex," said Mariah with a short laugh.
What? thought Kai as the girl gave Mariah a quick disapproving frown before turning her attention to him. She smiled sweetly at him, causing his face to flush slightly at the unexpectedly affectionate look.
"We've been expecting you, Kai." she said. "Come on in, all of you - the others will be here soon."
She then disappeared inside, followed by Mariah, who motioned with her hand for them to come in before withdrawing.
Kai turned back to his friends. "Explain."
There you have it! I actually accidentally deleted this chapter and had to re-type it - that's why it took extra long.
Thank you all for the reviews and follows! AquilaTempestas - thank you for your feedback! I'll try to do the details more justice.
-AthenaSeiki
P.S Don't forget to rate and review, kind readers!