.hack//Legend Of Twilight Bracelet Fan Fiction ❯ In All My Bitterness ❯ Chapter Three: Please Don't Remind Me ( Chapter 4 )

Chapter Rating: Pg-13 -- for mild swearing.

 

Word Count of Story Text: 3435

 

Note: Sorry that it's short, but I've been on writer's block and this is the best I could come out with. Plus, I stopped at what I thought was a good spot.

 

Note 2: This chapter is merely to move along the plot. Next chapter, things will most certainly get more interesting.

 

Disclaimer: I do not own Shuyin - he is the property of my sister, and most likely my most faithful reader (she started it all, my friends), Anissa. Praise her for creating the person who probably pushed out this chapter. I also don't own .Hack//Legend or make any profit either.

 

Enjoy. kseeyabye

 

 

Chapter Four- Please Don't Remind Me

 

Last Chapter-- Despite her recognizing him, he seemed to be oblivious to who she was. But she couldn't blame him; she had grown a lot taller and her hair made her look completely different, even though it was only about seven inches shorter than the last time she saw him. Apparently he was still the same dumb ass she had dated before the issue with The World had taken place over five years ago.

 

"You still haven't learned to drive, Shuyin?"

 

 

Blinking, Shuyin looked away from the car bumper, into Anissa's eyes in utter confusion as she knelt near his feet. "Wha-?" His hand raising to scratch the back of his head, as if to help him think and remember if he knew her from somewhere, when it clicked.

 

Those same icy eyes that made him freeze in his tracks and tell her the truth, that had melted right before his very eyes countless times and befriended him when her own sister threatened to get of him if he laid one hand in any way that Anissa disapproved of.

 

And the same, dusty, sandy, and dirty but silvery blonde hair that had once reached to her shoulders that she flipped over her shoulder whenever he went to far with anything. That same cocky, short, thin and in shape body that he wanted to hold in his arms but she never let him go any further than the waist or the shoulder, that had stood over him angrily the last time she'd seen him and punched him back for nearly running over her sister for revenge. That had to be pulled away from by her sister when Kayane usually was in her place, doing the hitting.

 

That same voice that had made him just turn around and look at the world and just see what was out there and had taught him that what other people thought was another obstacle that wanted to put him down.

 

The very same Anissa who had changed his life for the better. And still forgave him for cheating on her, yet still refusing to have anything more than a friendship with him.

 

"Anissa? Kami, I haven't seen you in so long…" Shuyin breathed, taking in her form for the first time with extreme, sudden interest. Shuyin was standing up straight, over six feet tall, and looking down at her struck the reminder of when he fought with Shugo once, her kneeling over him when one of Shuyin's friends joined the fight, in his mind. He had started a fight with Shugo so many times, he lost count after five.

 

"Yeah, over five years. Five years seems to have weakened your eyesight and hand-eye coordination and everything else, rather than helped it. Though I shouldn't be surprised," Rena muttered, lips unmoving as she stared hard at Shuyin. If Shuyin hadn't whipped his head up at her scornful voice, she would have gone unknown except for the white vapors floating away. "You don't care about anyone else but you."

 

Shuyin rolled his eyes. Same old talk, same old girl, same old routine as five years ago. Nothing new. Why did the bitches stay the same and the nice ones change? "Where have you been? America or something because you have some English stuff on your pants."

 

"Damn good guess." Anissa stood up, straightening out her skirt, as well as her shirt, and set her hands on her hips, regarding Shuyin calculatingly. "So, where have you been? Any place new?"

 

"Doubt it. Bet he's in the same house he's lived in all of the twenty-three years he's been alive. With his parents."

 

"Okay, you need to shut up," Shuyin snapped, raising his hand and pointing it threateningly in Rena's face.

 

Rena only grinned, challenge in her eyes. "Ooh, big bad Shuyin still need anger management? Keep threatening me, or I'm going to call a couple people who would be down here in less than ten minutes and kick your ass? Mainly, someone who you seemed to pick fights with a lot; my brother."

 

Anissa eyed Rena surprised. She never thought Rena would openly strike out at Shuyin first for a change, meaning to hurt and attack. Had a grudge Rena unknowingly held for five years built up into hate?

 

"Oh please. You honestly think I'm going to lose to your brother. If I recall correctly, your brother and I never got a fair fight. One of our friends, either one of his or mine, always intervened before we could actually see who was superior. If you want to test us out now, go right ahead, I'm not objecting."

 

Anissa sighed, then waited for one of Rena's famous killer and quick comebacks.

 

"Your friends always joined in whenever you got dealt the first blow, the second and the third of the entire fight and Shugo's friends only pitched in when your friends did. Why do you think you always walked away alive? You're just lucky you were smart enough to fight before any of us, mainly me, Anissa, and Kayane, especially her, joined in and got away or got lucky when we got there."

 

"Okay. 'Nough said. Lets go. Mall. Us. Now. Move it," Anissa yelled, standing in front of Rena and flapping her arms back and forth into Rena's face. "Come, little doggy, lets go, move it, move it!"

 

"Anissa, wait."

 

Pausing, she turned and looked at Shuyin for a moment. Waiting for Miranda and Rena to get into the car, she turned so he could talk.

 

"It was nice seeing you again…" he faltered lamely, shoving his hands into his pockets. “However awkward and hostile it was.”

 

Letting out a chuckle, Anissa smiled and wrapped her arms around him. Normally, especially years ago, she would have just smiled, agreed, then left. But it wasn't years ago, it wasn't the same Shuyin she'd been afraid of. Hells, it was still Shuyin but this time she wasn't looking at what he'd done and thinking that he would hurt her. "Yeah, it was nice seeing you again, too, Shuyin. I'm glad you hit my car."

 

This wasn't the boy, the dumb ass, who'd bashed Shugo's face in for making her cry for a short moment in high school six years ago. This was the one she'd gone out with for nearly a year and the one that had even agreed to go out with a girl one time so a false rumor wasn't spread about Anissa.

 

This was the Shuyin she'd had fallen in love with and dumped because of a silly little lie.

 

And then went to Shugo soon after breaking up with.

 

Oh Kami, what was she going to do now? She loved Shugo, she knew that much. He'd tried to keep in contact with her but college had worn her down and kept moving because of her apartment buildings being torn down. And Shuyin…

 

Shuyin was her first love.

 

Unwrapping her arms from around her, she grinned one of her trademark smiles that she hadn't grinned in awhile and turned to the car. Feeling as if she was leaving behind her past, Anissa quickly glanced at the necklace and piece of paper he'd slipped into her hand. The necklace was the same one she'd thrown at him years before when she'd thought he'd betrayed her. Maybe people really didn't change.

 

Maybe they just learned.

 

With a final glance over her shoulder, Anissa briefly gave Shuyin a nod and sat in the driver seat of her car. Their meeting was only by chance. And as much as Anissa felt angry at Shuyin for picking all the fights he had in the past, she still knew him well enough that he didn't mean any true harm. He just fought for those he cared about, those he loved, and showed his feelings differently than most. How can you blame someone for who they are, when its because of how they were raised?

 

It was their last meeting…

 

Until she met him at the fountain later that night…

 

(-)

 

Checking her watch and the high clock on the church nearby, Anissa paced around the stone fountain that had been the most common hang-out when she was a teenager. It was dead center between her mother's house and her father's old house.

 

Perfect place to get away and meet her sister.

 

She felt a little happy by the fact that Shuyin even remembered where the place was and that they always used to hang out there. When he'd slipped her the piece of paper before they'd parted earlier, she'd almost been afraid to look at what it wrote. Shuyin was never truly one to flirt with love notes or to even ask someone out. Hell, Anissa, when they had first gone out for a few months, had been the one to ask Shuyin. It wasn't in his nature to ask others and admit his feelings outright at first.

 

Well, back then, it hadn't been in his nature...

 

"Glad to know you came…"

 

She only smiled…

 

(-)

 

A soft hum filled the air as a car glided down a local street, empty except for newspaper tumble-weeds bouncing around with the breeze.

 

The peaceful quiet was marred by the sound of a woman's voice.

 

"What are we going to do? We can't keep up the secret for long, and you know it. Your mom will eventually rat on us. It's inevitable."

 

The first action she received was a green eyed glare and then a voiced response a moment later.

 

"Yeah. But not if we keep a close eye on her. She won't spill with us in the room."

 

Scoffing, Taryn shook her head diminished. "But we can't stop her from telling them when we aren't in the room, Kayane."

 

"I trust my mother, Taryn," Kayane snapped, eyes focused on the road before her and her knuckles turning white as she gripped the steering wheel. She ignored her hair whipping back and forth on her face, paying no mind to the fact that she was going above seventy miles an hour. "I know that unless I give her a signal to tell them or that she can tell them if she wants to, she won't say a word." Kayane turned her head to look at Taryn. "Got it? It was and still is our fight. Not theirs. It isn't any of their concern. Don't worry about it."

 

Taryn eyed Kayane warily. Truth was, she would rather not keep the secret. How bad could the secret be? It wouldn't make everyone's eyes bug out…

 

Would it?

 

All she could say in response was, “Keep your god damned eyes on the road.”

 

Alyssa laughed then turned the corner to the street that was the purpose of their drive. Wordlessly, she killed the engine then opened the car door and got out after parking on the side of the road.

 

Taryn followed and walked around the car to her friend's side, placing her hands on her hips. Both of them craned their heads at the same time and they both smiled.

 

“Well, what do you know?” Taryn grinned, raising her right arm and using Alyssa's shoulder to lean her arm on. “I guess that now, I am officially confused on whether to believe things do change or that some things never change.”

 

(-)

 

Anissa laughed as Shuyin told her of another amusing tale that had happened when she had left, and wistfully took a look at the clock atop the clock tower. Realizing the time, she straightened up her back immediately from slouching in a crossed legged sitting position on the edge of the dormant fountain and nearly tipped off the flat top.

 

“Holy shit, it's three am!”

 

Shuyin sent her a confused look, then turned his gaze to the watch on his wrist. Instantly he became wide-eyed. “That's four hours,” he said.

 

Anissa snorted, then swung her legs around to set them on the ground. “I've got to go. I've got wedding rehearsal in the morning and I swear, my mother will have a fucking cow that has anger management if I have purple elephant bags underneath my eyes.”

 

She expected Shuyin to sigh as if highly disappointed and then indirectly try to persuade her to stay for 'just a little longer'. It was almost shocking to hear him do, or say, different.

 

“All right, I understand. I'll talk to you later, I hope.” He smiled, stood from sitting at the base of the sculpture in the center of the empty fountain, then walked out of the fountain to her. Throwing his arm around her shoulder casually, in a friendly way more than romantically, he walked her to her red car then opened the door for her. “Have a nice night, Anissa. It was really great to see you again.”

 

Anissa turned to him with a smile and raised her hand to grasp the top of the car door.

 

Shugo acted if nothing ever changed -- that they were still together, and in love, and never apart. Like nothing went on that the other didn't know about and there was but a bare secret between the two.

 

Shuyin, he acted as they should have. Struck up conversations that were easy and light, and avoiding any contact that wasn't necessary or too far beyond the 'just met' lines. Told him about everything that had happened while she was gone, and she had done the same for the most part.

 

Deliberately, she'd left out the information about her short period of serious poor health, where she'd been highly depressed and bed-ridden in the hospital for nearly a month at one time, and then gone home to the habit of having to take three pills three times a day, and exercise routines she'd been forced to follow.

 

All in all, it was something she'd rather take to her grave as a secret only known to her and a few choice people such as her prescriber.

 

But, god, she was confused more than ever about what to think. Never change or do change? Which one, damn it?

 

Smiling, she rose up on the tips of her toes and gave him a quick peck on the lips, then quickly spun around and sat in the seat, shutting the door behind her. Waving at his frozen body, eyebrows raised to peak velocity, she pressed the accelerator and left him to watch her leave.

 

Who knows what is going to happen all because of this wedding? she thought. Maybe things are going to actually end up for the better.

 

Suddenly she frowned. “Well, for me, anyways.”

 

Her mind was focused on her sister and Balmung.

 

“How are things going to work out for them? She loved him. And he left her. That's another on the list, for her…”

 

Anissa sat in silence as she drove the dark streets to her mother's mansion, the music she had grown more than just fond of from America's culture still only five slots away from maximum intensity, and she tapped her finger to the beat that it only took her milliseconds to place.

 

Pulling into the driveway, the short area before the gate, she reached out and pressed a button and the butler, whom she was beginning to find extremely creepy, let her in.

 

Walking inside, she saw all of her friends and her sister in the main room, watching a movie on the flat screen TV in front of them. She was about to call to them and alert them of her presence when she recognized the face on the television. Or faces, rather.

 

The same curly blonde hair, red cheeks, chocolate smeared lips, red and white striped dress…

 

And the same wire straight black hair, green eyes, chocolate splattered face, emerald green velvet dress…

 

“Our baby films!” Anissa shrieked. She stared at the screen in shock as her younger self, caught on film, picked up a handful of chocolate pie, and chucked it at her sister, flying past Alyssa as she ducked and hitting her father's face as he knelt down.

 

And thus initiated the infamous food and water fight between her entire family on her third Thanksgiving that she never remembered.

 

She ran up the back of the couch, jumped, and planted herself between her sister and her mother.

 

Film Alyssa was flinging a mass of mash potatoes into her mother's face when Anissa heard her sister mutter under her breath.

 

“You got gum in my hair that day.”

 

Smiling automatically at the words gum and hair, she turned back to the screen and saw herself spit out a wad of gum into her sister's hair as her mother picked Anissa up and her father picked up Alyssa.

 

“Good times,” she laughed. Anissa continued laughing at the sourly raised eyebrow directed at her from her sister, then stopped when a grin erupted on her sister's face and she saw a pot of gravy mixed in with sliced green beans dumped onto her in the movie. “You-- You dumped gravy on me! And with green beans in them!”

 

“Back then, two wrongs made a right in our world. Well, mine anyways.”

 

“Yeah, but that was evil!”

 

“You spit on me, and got gum on the top of my head while doing so. I took pride in my hair back then and you really pissed me off by causing me to get it chopped off. Mom even shaved my head because the most expensive barber didn't even want to attempt such a big fucking piece of gum.”

 

Anissa was about to retaliate when she heard muffled laughs to her left and turned to her mother in open-mouthed shock.

 

“This next part is really adorable,” she heard her mother say to her as she followed her mother's finger to the screen.

 

The scene switched to when they were at the beach when Anissa was twelve and Alyssa was fourteen; they were at the family reunion on their father's side and wearing two-piece swimming suits.

 

Both were volleying a ball back and forth out of sheer boredom when two boys, both thirteen, and began to try and sweet talk them into dates.

 

Anissa and Alyssa laughed, Anissa more hard than Alyssa, and then shifting their weight at the same time and the elder sibling decided to speak.

 

“I'm sorry, buddies, but we're sort of against hooking up with blood relatives.”

 

Upon those words, both boys turned red, looked up and down the sisters' bodies, then laughed nervously. “Yeah, right, you two are way to hot to be in our family.”

 

That was when Anissa started laughing and Alyssa turned on the defensive. “You shouldn't talk like that about your family. You never know what could happen to them, so keep the criticism in the back of your mind and pay attention. We're your cousins. We don't date within the family. If you can, find someone that doesn't belong to your family, and try to fool them into dating you. And besides, even if you weren't related, we're not looking.”

 

It ended with Alyssa grabbing Anissa's arm to lead the stumbling blonde in hysterics to their spot in the sand and their towels.

 

Anissa then turned to her mother. “That was four years after we left,” she said almost incredulously. “I thought that you hated Alyssa then.”

 

Her mother put on an regretting face and her eyes flashed with what Anissa thought was guilt. “I did. Well, I was angry at her for being the one subjected to all the pain that she was instead of me. I hated myself more than her and it switched to you --” she reached her hand over Anissa's lap and took hold of Alyssa's, “--because I thought it was because of you. But now I don't understand why I didn't become more of an adult and do the right thing.”

 

A ghost of a smile appeared on Alyssa's face and her eyes focused on the table in front of her, on which her feet were resting. “Yeah, I understand. But you made up for it. Trust me.”

 

Anissa let out a 'huh?' before she could think and she looked around the room when more than one person followed suit.

 

“What the hell?” she said, once more before she could stop it. “Is there something you guys aren't telling me? Telling us?”

 

Alyssa looked over at her sister as everyone was turned to her mother and nearly everyone missed the quick glance that passed between Taryn and Alyssa that held a meaning only they could decipher themselves.

 

'Not a word.'

 

Chapter Three. Next will be longer and more packed to get closer to the climax I have planned.

Hope you liked it -- despite the shortness compared to average chapter lengths of this story.

Reviews Rock - won't update unless I get two.

-AS