InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Purity Short: Cacophony ❯ Mending Fences ( Chapter 11 )

Bellaniece Zelig Izayoi let out a deep breath as she closed the laptop computer and bit her lip, looking over the notes she’d jotted onto the notepad while she’d made reservations, booked flights, made arrangements for her family’s upcoming trip to Maine for the holidays.  She’d discussed it at length with her mate, Kichiro, and they had decided to do things a little different this year.  Normally, they only visited for a week, maybe two, around Christmas and New Year’s, but this year, Bellaniece wanted to go earlier, wanted to talk to the hunter that her father had sent to find Kelly in the hopes that she could find her friend and visit her, too.  Because she was going to fly out before Thanksgiving, she was only bringing their youngest daughter, Alexandra with her since skipping out on preschool wasn't such a big deal.  Their eldest, Isabelle was in school, and skipping that long wasn’t really an option for her.  Since Kichiro couldn’t leave his medical practice for that long, he would bring Isabelle with him when he flew in a few days before Christmas.

The only thing Kichiro wouldn’t necessarily like was that many of the flights that she’d looked into for the date she wanted were already booked solid, so she’d had no choice but to take a flight a few days earlier than she’d planned, which meant that she had less than two weeks to get things ready for the trip.

She nodded slowly to herself as she looked over the rough itinerary, idly tapping the end of her pen against the pad of paper before quickly glancing at her watch.  Almost eleven o’clock, which meant that Kichiro would be home in about an hour for lunch, and she’d fill him in then instead of interrupting him at work . . .

The trill of her cell phone cut through her musings, and she frowned as she stared at a number that she didn’t know.  For a moment, she considered, letting it go to voicemail, but then, she hesitated.  She wasn’t sure why, but she felt like she should answer it, even though she normally didn’t answer strange callers . . .

“Izayoi,” she said after connecting the call.  “Moshimoshi.”

“Uh, h-hi . . .”

Bellaniece dropped the pen with a clatter and shot to her feet, sending her chair, sliding back across the tile floor as the sound of the familiar voice greeted her.  “Oh, my God!  Kel?  Is that you?”

The girl on the other end sighed.  “Hey,” she said, sounding a little sheepish.  “How’ve you been?”

“Me?  I’m fine,” Bellaniece blurted.  “But you . . . Where in the world are you?  I miss you!  Are you all right?”

Kelly uttered a curt laugh.  “I’m in Vegas,” she said.  “I’m fine, and I . . . I miss you, too . . . I’m sorry I kind of disappeared for so long.  I just . . . I needed some time to myself . . .”

Biting her lip as she considered Kelly’s words, Bellaniece nodded to herself.  Kichiro had thought as much, too—had told her more than once over the last few months just to give Kelly some time.  She might not really know exactly what Kelly was thinking, but she could appreciate just how her friend’s emotions had been in full upheaval lately, too.  “Honey, don’t apologize,” she said, quick to reassure Kelly that there really weren’t any hard feelings on her side of things.  “I’ve only worried about you, but you sound good . . . Are you?”

Kelly sighed.  “I am,” she said, and it sounded like she might well be smiling.  “I’ve got a job as cashier manager at a casino.  Pretty boring, but it pays phenomenally.”

“Wow,” Bellaniece murmured as the familiar anxiety that she’d lived with for such a long time when it came to Kelly loosened its grip, just a little.  “And you’ve got a decent place to live, I guess . . . I . . . I was hoping to see you soon.  I was going to go home in a couple weeks for an extended vacation, and if you’re okay with it, I’d love to fly out to see you for a week or so.”

“Oh, I . . . You know, I think I’d love that,” Kelly replied.  “I mean, I doubt I can get more than a couple days extra off, but—”

“That’s okay!  I’m sure I can find things to do while you’re at work,” Bellaniece insisted.  “I don’t want to interrupt your routine or anything.  I’m bringing Alexandra with me, but Kichiro and Isabelle aren’t flying in till closer to Christmas, so it’ll just be a girl thing.”

“Sounds good,” Kelly agreed.  “Let me know when you’re coming out.”

“I will,” Bellaniece assured her.  “Is there anything you need?  I mean, I owe you a housewarming present, and—”

“I don’t really need anything,” Kelly interrupted.  “Well, I am out of the cream that Kichiro prescribed for the scarring, but . . .”

“Don’t worry about that.  I’ll see what he can do,” she said.  “How’s that feeling?  No trouble with the grafts, right?”

“They’re okay,” Kelly replied.  “I mean, they itch sometimes, but they’re not bad.  Just wish the scarring would go away a little faster, but I’m not complaining.”

Bellaniece frowned thoughtfully.  Kelly wasn’t really one to complain, and she knew it, which meant that what she was feeling was worse than she’d ever let on.  It wasn’t surprising that she was dealing with itchiness and discomfort like that.  Kichiro had described the process well enough to her.  The itching was accredited mostly to the nerves that were regenerating under the new skin and was, in fact, a good thing, even if it didn’t feel that way.  He’d said that it could become almost overwhelming if Kelly didn’t use her body cream regularly. Bellaniece could only really imagine how that would feel, but the cream that Kelly had mentioned was a special thing, created for youkai that would help to ease the itchiness, too, as well as accelerate the growth of the cells needed to regenerate the skin structure.  There was also a minor numbing property to it that helped to counter the heightened sensitivity of those new nerves as they adjusted themselves.  Bellaniece could only hope that Kelly hadn’t been out of it for too long.  She’d make sure that she got some of it into the mail today, no matter how much it might cost to get the cream to Kelly the fastest way possible.

“This is your phone, right?  I’ll text you information on flight plans and see what I can do about getting you that cream as soon as I can,” Bellaniece said.  “I think Daddy’s got some ties at the nearby air force base, so I might be able to get it overnighted through them.”

“Oh, you don’t have to go to any trouble,” Kelly hurried to say.  “I mean, if you want to just bring it with you when you fly out here, then that’s fine.”

“It’s not a problem,” Bellaniece insisted.  “I’ll see how many containers Kichiro can get a hold of so you won’t run out any time soon.”

Kelly sighed, probably at the idea that she was causing trouble for her friend—something she really hated.  “Really, it’s not a big deal,” she said again.

Glancing up with a smile as Kichiro stepped into the kitchen, Bellaniece leaned against him as he slipped an arm around her for a quick hug.  “It’s not,” she insisted once more.  “Kichiro’s home now for lunch, so I’ll talk to him about it and get it out to you this afternoon.”

Kelly heaved a slightly louder sigh, but then, she laughed.  “All right,” she agreed, apparently figuring she might as well give up.  “I’ll let you go, but . . . but I’m really sorry that I took off for so long.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Bellaniece said.  “Love you, and I’ll talk to you later.”

“You, too.”

The connection ended, and Bellaniece lowered her phone with a happy sigh of her own as Kichiro arched an articulated eyebrow in silent question.  She slipped her arms around him and gave him a quick squeeze as a relieved little giggle slipped out of her.  “Kelly,” she said, waving the phone that was still in her hand against his back.  “She sounds good . . . Better than she has in a long, long time, in fact.  I’m going to go see her in Las Vegas while I’m in the States.”

“Good,” Kichiro said, sparing a moment to plant a kiss on her forehead.  “So, what are you getting out to her?”

“She’s out of the medicated cream,” she told him, letting her arms drop and turning away to retrieve the beautifully lacquered bentou box off of the counter for her mate.  “Can you get me a few of them?  I’ll call Daddy and see if he has connections with the air force base still.  It’d probably be faster to send it through the APO than not since there’s no telling, how long she’s been without it.”

He grimaced.  “Not long, I hope,” he muttered, taking the box and slipping it onto the table.  “If she’s been without it for any length of time, I can’t even imagine how bad the itching would be.  Come up to the clinic, and I’ll get you a few containers.  You can take more to her when you go visit her.  Vegas, you say?”  He chuckled.  “It kind of sounds like fun.”

“Do you want me to delay going out there till you fly in?” she asked.

Kichiro shrugged as he slipped into the chair at the table.  “Nah . . . I mean, you and she have some catching up to do, don’t you?  See if she won’t let you look at her scarring, though.  Let me know how bad it is still.  If you can talk her into going for massages or something, that’d help, too.  It would help to increase the blood flow, which, in turn, will speed up the healing process, too.”

Bellaniece nodded, but she wasn't sure if she could get Kelly to agree to it.  She supposed it had more to do with just how comfortable Kelly was in her own skin these days, and that wasn't something she’d really get a good gauge on until she was there, face to face with her.

“Everyon e stares at you like you’re some kind of creeper, like you’re some kind of monster . . . and then, you look in the mirror, and it’s not even you that you see.  It’s someone who kind of looks like you, but it’s not your face.  Everything just . . . just slightly off, and . . . And you hate it . . . You . . . You hate yourself . . . because you . . . You . . . You . . .”

Letting out a deep breath as he sat up in the huge bed and turned his face to stare out the windows at the trees and flora that made up his yard, Cartham rubbed his face.

Damn, he’d hated to leave her.

The couple days after her meltdown in the kitchen, she was fine—better than fine, actually—almost as though her upset had been somewhat cathartic for her.

Maybe it was.

For Cartham, though?  For him, it had been anything but cathartic.  The pain she’d showed him, the absolute vulnerability, was so real, so raw, so toxic.  He hurt for her, and as much as it hurt him, he wasn’t stupid enough to think that what he felt was even one iota as painful to him as it was to her.

‘You could always get a place closer to her.  No one says you have to stay in Maine, right?’

His thoughtful frown deepened.  He wasn’t sure when that idea had first occurred to him, but he did understand one thing: every time he got back on a plane, headed home, it was growing harder and harder to do it.  Wasn't that why he’d bought her the gun?  Because he was worried about her when he wasn’t there?

Or . . .

‘Partially, sure, but you know, there’s more to it than that.  Of course, you’re worried about her well-being, but there’s more to it than that.’

He was beginning to understand that, too.  Kelly . . . She wasn’t just some assignment to him, not anymore.  Maybe she never had been.

The pain in her eyes, the misery that he could feel . . .

And he’d felt like a complete monster when he’d said goodbye to her in the airport just before the security checkpoint that she couldn’t go past.  When he’d looked back at her, she’d smiled, and she’d waved, and . . .

And somehow, he’d felt like a complete and utter bastard, didn’t he?

Somehow, the idea that he was too far away to help her when she needed it was growing, and the more it grew, the more abhorrent it became to him.  She’d been through enough, seen enough, dealt with enough on her own, and it didn’t matter that she was still so very young, someone like her deserved to see the better side of life, one she hadn’t really gotten to experience yet, not really.  Except . . .

Except, what did a guy like him know about such things, really?  A guy who made a living, killing other living beings?  And maybe he’d grown up in a time too long ago, hadn’t paid a lot of attention to the subtle things that someone like her would know.  He wasn’t suave, wasn't debonair, knew nothing of the right things to say or the way in which to state his thoughts, his feelings.

Even so, she hadn’t seemed to care about that at all, had she?  That day on the shooting range, the way she’d stared at him . . .

Just the memory was enough to send a shiver, right up his spine.  He could remember a handful of times in the past when he’d felt something kind of like that, but it had never felt that strong, that all-encompassing, either.  Those times, he’d realized later, were nothing more than a fleeting sense of lust, and nothing had ever come of it.  Now, those faces had dulled and faded into history, not worth remembering, not worth trying to forget, but somehow, he knew.  No matter how long he lived, Kelly’s face would forever be emblazoned upon his memory—everything about her: her scent, her laugh, the unnatural sparkle in her eyes, full of tears that she fought to keep from allowing them to fall . . .

And the centuries that he’d thought that it was all right to be alone, even now, didn’t he still keep people at a healthy arm’s length?  It wasn’t something that he’d ever set out to do, and still, something about it was simpler than trying to forge a deeper connection . . .

Maybe in the time after his parents had died, he’d somehow convinced himself that those connections were too painful, that he was better off on his own.  Maybe the way his uncle had constantly lectured him, how he’d browbeaten him with the idea that he should be grateful and just accept the meager allowances he was given . . . He supposed that somewhere along the line, he’d just decided that he didn’t want the strings that always seemed to exist, and even when he’d trained with Rhen, he’d kept that sense of distance, possibly because Rhen hadn’t ever tried to breach it, never seemed interested in forging a deeper kind of relationship than that of student and teacher.

And yes, he did consider Cain to be a friend, but the reality of it was that they were more boss and employee than friends.  Sure, there had been a few more invitations to spend time with the family outside of the confines of official capacity since he’d taken Gin as his mate, but the truth of it was that Cartham rarely ever accepted them, mostly since he was normally being sent out pretty much immediately on assorted assignments when he showed up at the Zelig mansion, and even so, Cain knew him pretty well, but there was a lot about him that Zelig never knew, just as there was a lot about Cain that Cartham didn’t know, too.

The trill of the cell phone cut through his idyll, and with a grunt, he leaned over, snatched it up from his nightstand.

“Kel?” he blurted once the call was connected.  “Everything okay?”

She laughed.  “Fine, fine,” she replied, but her amusement hadn’t waned.  “Why is it that you automatically assume that the sky’s fallen whenever I call you?”

He grunted.  “Just my nature, I guess,” he grumbled.

Her amusement finally died down.  “That’s really pessimistic,” she pointed out, but she sounded like she might be teasing.  “I just thought I’d tell you that I called Belle last evening.  She’s going to come out for a visit soon.”

“Oh, yeah?  You ready for that?”

“Yeah,” she said, and she sounded casual enough.  “I am . . . I mean, I do miss her.”

“Good, then,” he rumbled.

“Oh, and I wanted to tell you,” she went on, apparently deciding that a change in topic was in order.  “That motorcycle of yours?  Now, that’s hot.”

“Hot?” he echoed, shaking his head slowly as he considered what she said.  He’d sent her a couple pictures of the 1962 Harley Sportster yesterday after he’d spent the morning, giving her a good cleaning.  “You think so?”

“Uh huh . . . I’d love to see it in person one day . . . Then you can take me out for a ride, can’t you?”

“I . . . I could do that,” he allowed slowly, scratching the center of his chest in a preoccupied kind of way.  He’d never actually taken anyone for a ride on his bike, ever—had never let anyone else on it, period, come to think of it.  Kelly, though?  Somehow, the idea of Kelly, riding with him was highly compelling . . . “Maybe I’ll ride her out sometime.”

She laughed.  “Her?  And does she have a name?”

“All bikes are girls,” he told her.  “Some of them are moody and temperamental, some of them purr like a kitten if you baby ‘em . . . Sounds like girls to me.”

She snorted.  “Is that right?  I never thought I’d hear something that sexist out of you.”

He chuckled.  “It’s not sexist if it’s true.  And no, I never gave her a name.”

“Well, you should.  Girls like having names, too,” she pointed out.

He uttered a terse grunt, but didn’t argue with her.

“I hate to cut this short, but I need to get going.  I’m meeting a guy to look at an apartment that’s a little closer to work in half an hour,” she went on.

He blinked since she hadn’t mentioned anything about that before.  “You want to move?  You never mentioned that.”

“I wasn’t planning on it, but one of the guys at the casino was saying that he was thinking about subletting his apartment since he bought a bigger place, and by bigger, I mean more akin to a mansion, really.  Anyway, his apartment is a two bedroom, and it’d be nice to have a guest room so someone can stop complaining about sleeping on my sofa when he’s in town.  If I decide to take it, though, don’t suppose you’d be out here any time soon?”

“You want me to check the place’s security?”

“Nope,” she quipped.  “I just need someone big and burly to move all my stuff.”

“Really.”

She laughed for a moment.  “Anyway, Miles—”

“Miles?” he interrupted, unable to keep the slight growl out of his voice.

“Mhmm—Miles Brennan.  He’s the head of security at the casino.”

“Is that right?”

She didn’t seem to notice the menace in his tone, either.  “I don’t know if I’ll take it or not,” she said.  “The rent’s quite a bit more than this place, but it’s located in a really nice area—maybe not the most expensive one, but a nice one, all the same.  On the one hand, it’d be nice to have a bigger place, but on the other, I really like saving money up, too.  I could still save if I got the other place, but not nearly as much.”

“Don’t move on my account,” he told her.  “Your sofa’s fine.”

“Sure, it is,” she teased.  “I’ll take some pictures and send them to you.”

“Aight,” he replied.  “Be careful.”

“I will,” she promised.  “Call you later if you’re not busy.”

The connection ended, and Cartham frowned at the device.  It didn’t bother him that she was going to go look at a place, and he kind of hoped that she’d take it, but he also understood her desire to save up money, too.  Especially her, he figured.  Having been on the very bottom, she likely remembered a little too vividly, what that was really like.

The only part of it that he wasn’t entirely comfortable with was that he didn’t know whether or not the building was as secure as he’d like, so if she decided she wanted the place, he was going to have to insist that she allow him to check it over before she set foot inside it to stay.

And he wanted to check out this Miles Brennan, too.