InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Purity 9: Subterfuge ❯ Ties ( Chapter 82 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

"I still can't get over the way you're dressed," Bellaniece commented as she shook her head, the barest hint of a smile quirking her lips as she stared across the table at Evan.  "You're so pretty!"

"You think?"

Kichiro rolled his eyes and leaned toward Bellaniece, slipping an arm across the back of her chair.  "Not nearly as pretty as you, princess," he assured her.

Bellaniece giggled.

Beside him, he could feel Valerie eyeing him rather dubiously, and he cleared his throat and pretended to be absorbed in the open menu in front of him.  All right, so he was being a little mean, he supposed, but it was all right.  Either Valerie was going to think that his family was even more twisted than she already did, or she'd think it was funny as hell.  No matter which way she ended up reacting, he figured that it would be well worth the price of admission . . .

"So . . . how long have the two of you been dating?" Bellaniece asked casually, sipping the glass of white wine that the waiter had left a few minutes ago.

Valerie sat up a little straighter.  "We're not—"

"Oh, it's been, what?  Six months?  Seven?"

She sighed heavily, and Evan figured that he'd ultimately pay for that one later.  "We're not dating," she stated quietly.

Bellaniece smiled rather indulgently.  "So it's just casual sex then?"

Unfortunately, Valerie had just taken a sip of her own wine, and she choked on it.  Evan leaned over, whacking her on the back, which earned him a fulminating glower from the attorney for his efforts.  "She likes my piercing," Evan quipped.

"I do not," Valerie ground out, her cheeks almost as pink as Evan's dress.

"You notice that she didn't say that she didn't know that I'd pierced my dick," Evan quipped.

Valerie sighed softly.  Evan figured that if she wasn't going to hurt him already, she most certainly was going to now.  "I hate you," she muttered under her breath quietly enough that only he should have heard her.

"Why don't you get your penis pierced, lover?" Bellaniece asked suddenly as she turned to face Kichiro.

Kichiro didn't even bat an eye as he reached for his glass of brandy.  "You like my penis just fine the way it is, Belle-chan," he told her, "and I make it my policy to keep sharp things as far away from my crotch as I possibly can."

"But the women really like them," Evan added thoughtfully.  "They like to run their tongues around it . . . and they love it when they feel it.  It's like a built in French tickler, you know.  And some women like to flick it with their fingernails . . ." He didn't have to look at Valerie to know that she was blushing crimson at the moment.  "I don't know . . . I think V looks like a flicker, don't you?"

Kichiro chuckled, looking entirely amused at the interplay.  "I think she's about to give you a ration of hell," he allowed.  "Can't say I blame her . . ."

Evan rolled his eyes and grinned.  "Nah . . . It's not like she goes around, peeking at my package when no one's looking.  In fact, I—ow!"

Bellaniece blinked. Kichiro leaned back in his chair.  Evan made a face as Valerie's fingernails sank into his bare leg just above the knee.  That she had a very carefully contrived smile on her face was even more amusing, as far as Evan was concerned.  "Higher, baby," he said, leaning toward her with a leering grin.

She narrowed her eyes on him, but what should have been a very formidable expression was somehow diminished, given that she was still a deep, dark crimson.  More than that, though, was the heightened brightness of her gaze, a slightly panicked sort of expression.  He knew damn well that she'd thought that he hadn't noticed her giving him the once-over the other night on the bus.  He most certainly had, and when her curiosity had proven to be just a little too much for him, he'd ended up having to turn over before he or she did something that the both of them might have regretted.

The waiter approached the table with a bright, if not completely businesslike smile to tell them about the evening's specials.

"Oh, I'm going to kill you," Valerie muttered, leaning toward Evan since Bellaniece and Kichiro seemed to be preoccupied by the waiter.  "You knew about . . . about . . .?"

Evan tilted his head to the side and gave her a completely innocent if not totally feigned look of innocent oblivion. "Knew about what?"

She didn't look like she believed him.  She also didn't look like she was quite ready to say any more than she already had.  He chuckled.  She sighed and shook her head.

A strange expression surfaced on her features, though, and she looked like she wanted to say something else: something entirely different, but judging from her demeanor, she wasn't entirely certain how to approach the subject.  He had a fair guess as to what she wanted to ask since she was eyeing Bellaniece and Kichiro at the moment.  Bellaniece was practically in Kichiro's lap though her full attention was on the waiter.

"He's your uncle," she murmured, inclining her head slightly in Kichiro's direction.

Evan grinned.  "Yep."

She nodded slowly.  "And she's your sister?"

The grin widened.  "Yep."

The confusion on Valerie's face deepened.  "But . . ."

He chuckled.  "Something wrong?"

"Uh . . . N-No," she stammered.  "Not at all . . ."

Okay, so it was a little mean, and he'd be the first to admit it.  But it was a lot to explain, and most often, Evan tried to avoid having to do so, and, while he would do so eventually, the look of absolute consternation on Valerie's face at the moment was just too adorable for him to do it at the moment.

"I'm going to go get another drink," Kichiro remarked after Evan ordered for himself and Valerie—definitely worth a laugh since the waiter had seemed a little flustered when Evan had decided that a bit of eye batting was in order.  "Come with me, pup."

Evan was a little reluctant since he was never too fond of the idea of leaving Valerie, even for a moment.  Still, he nodded and stood up.  "Want anything, V?"

The attorney shook her head and pasted on a very bright smile that was probably entirely convincing to everyone else, but he could sense the tenseness lingering around the edges.  "No, thanks," she replied.  "I'm fine."

He nodded and followed Kichiro toward the bar.  "You couldn't order another drink from the waiter?"

Kichiro shrugged and shot Evan a sidelong glance.  "Wanted to talk to you," he replied.  "So what the hell's your damn dad done to upset Gin?"

Evan should have known.  His uncles were entirely too protective of his mother, and it wasn't surprising that they'd figured out that Gin was upset with Cain.  "You know, to be honest, I'm not quite sure myself.  She won't talk about it.  It's not a big deal, though.  Ol' Cain's always sticking his foot in it in one way or another, isn't he?"

Kichiro snorted.  "She was staying with your brother," he pointed out as he raised a finger and caught the bartender's attention.  "Big enough deal, if you ask me."

"Eh, last time I talked to her, she said that it's all good," Evan replied.  "Cain probably made some weird comment, and Mama finally figured out that he's been teasing her for years or something."

"Hmm," Kichiro grunted.  He didn't look entirely convinced.  "So you're saying that you have no idea what the commotion was about?"

Evan glanced down at his chest and took his time adjusting his breasts.  "Mama didn't want me to know.  She was afraid I'd have cancelled my tour if I did.  Didn't you talk to Bubby?"

Kichiro shot Evan his version of the 'don't be stupid' look.  "Stop feeling yourself up, will you?  People are staring, and of course I did.  Bas doesn't know, either.  Said that Cain wouldn't talk about it, and Gin just got upset whenever anyone tried to ask.  Anyway, I called her, too, but you know her.  She wouldn't tell me anything, either, and I guess she went back home shortly after that.  She was probably afraid that we were going to tell Mama, and then she and the old man would demand to know what was going on . . ."

"That's because all the men want to get them some of this," Evan quipped with a saucy grin as he gave his breasts another healthy squeeze.  "Besides, I'm more inclined to let Cain muddle his way through it.  If it were more serious, I'd be worried, but I figure every man possesses the innate ability to screw up royally with his mate every now and then, even if he had no intention of doing any such thing.  It's par for course, and I'm pretty sure that it's entirely genetic.  So I got that from Cain—remind me to thank him for it later—Cain got it from his father and so on and so on. It's a vicious cycle."

Kichiro stared at him for several long moments, his golden gaze unblinking.  "Mama says it's the baka gene, and you're right, but . . . but I think you need to get the hell out of that dress before it causes long-term and irreversible damage."

Evan, however, was busy staring at the bartender.  "He's got a really nice ass, doesn't he?"

Kichiro grunted and smacked Evan with the back of his hand.  "He's also married, hussy.  See the ring on his finger?"

Evan heaved an exaggerated sigh and slowly shook his head.  "All the good ones are, aren't they?"

"Or gay," Kichiro added, almost as an afterthought.  "Oh, hey, how long are you going to be here before you take off again?"

"After the show tomorrow night," Evan ventured.  "We're due in Portland, Maine for a show the night after that."

Kichiro chuckled and nodded.  "Want some sake?  I was given twelve bottles of it . . ."

"Sake?" Evan echoed, grinning despite himself.  "You serious?"

Kichiro nodded again.  "We're not really on a vacation," he admitted with a shrug.  "I mean, we are, but we had to fly in to check on a patient."

Snapping his fingers, Evan shook his finger.  "Oh, right . . . that child?  The one who was injured in that train accident . . ."

"Yeah, that one.  I needed to make sure that the last surgery went well, and since it's been a few months, the swelling's gone down enough to get a good look at him."

"How's he doing?"

"That kid's amazing," Kichiro said with an easy smile.  "He wants to get back to playing baseball as soon as possible.  Best, though, is that the surgery went extremely well.  There are just a couple things left to do, and those would be better to wait a few years before I fix them.  They're purely cosmetic and not really visible unless he's running around without a shirt on, and since he's still in the midst of his growing stage, the surgery would have to be redone later on, anyway."

Evan clapped Kichiro on the back, inordinately proud of his uncle.  It was his experience that lots of people talked about making a difference, but Kichiro Izayoi really did.  Dedicating much of his time to performing charity surgeries, most often for children who were injured or born with defects that could be corrected but were extraordinarily expensive otherwise, he'd touched countless people the world over, making it possible for those who thought that having a normal life was out of their reach to have exactly that.

"Nice," Evan remarked with a wide grin.  "But what does that have to do with sake?"

"Well, see, the boy's grandfather was so grateful that he gave me a dozen really old bottles of sake—good stuff, I hear—but kind of a pain to screw around with customs . . ."

"Is that right?" Evan asked.  "Well, you've never been too big on sake, anyway . . ."

Kichiro smiled.  "That, too."  Leaning against the counter, he ordered another glass of brandy and a beer for Evan.  "Come to think of it, you were the little shit that drank my last bottle, weren't you . . .?" he asked as the bartender hurried away to fill the order.

Chuckling softly, Evan shrugged.  "Guess I did," he remarked.  He was twelve, he thought, and snuck the bottle out of Kichiro's house one day while he was ditching training with InuYasha.  He'd paid for it later, though, when he had puked his guts up after drinking the entire bottle . . . and Kichiro, of course, had crossed his arms over his chest as he stood in the bathroom doorway with a grin on his face . . .

"So tell me about her . . .?" Kichiro prompted, his gaze shifting over the restaurant back to the table where Bellaniece sat with Valerie.

"Ah, V . . .? What do you want to know?"

"She's not really your girlfriend."

Evan sighed.  That wasn't a question.  "Not yet," he replied.  "She will be.  Just a matter of time."

"Are you sure about that?"

"Remember that night I told you about?  When I thought I'd found my mate?" Evan asked.

Kichiro looked thoughtful for a moment, as though he had to consider Evan's question.  Finally, he nodded.  "That party, right?  That was, what?  Ten years ago?  More?"

The grin that surfaced on Evan's face was downright goofy.  "She's the one.  Valerie was that girl."

"You're kidding."

Shaking his head, Evan sighed happily, nodding at the bartender as he set a frosty cold beer on the counter in front of him.  "I wouldn't kid about something like that," Evan insisted mildly, waiting until the keeper had moved away before answering.

Kichiro pondered that, but he didn't look entirely convinced, and given Valerie's adamant insistence that the two of them were not dating, Evan figured that he could understand his uncle's reluctance to take Evan's boastful claims at face value.  "Correct me if I'm wrong, pup, but doesn't that woman already have a ring on her finger?"

Heaving another sigh—that statement was enough to take some of the starch out of Evan's proverbial sails, he shrugged as though it was of no real consequence.  "She doesn't love him," he replied.  "Well, she does love him, I think, but she doesn't love him like she ought to."

"But you've been told, haven't you?  Don't mess with another man's woman," Kichiro reminded him.  His words were stern, but his expression wasn't entirely foreboding.

"Doesn't count," Evan insisted.

"Oh?"

Nodding slowly despite his uncle's disapproving shake of the head, Evan glanced back at the table before meeting Kichiro's steady gaze.  "She was mine first," he stated flatly.  "She was never meant to be his woman.  As far as I'm concerned, I'm just taking back what I lost years ago."

Kichiro narrowed his eyes as he stared at Evan for a long minute.  Evan figured that he was probably trying to decide whether or not he could understand Evan's rationale.  "Be careful, Evan," Kichiro finally said.  "You don't have to be brilliant to realize that a situation like this one can only mean that someone is going to end up getting hurt in the end.  Just make sure that the one who does isn't her, will you?"

Evan nodded slowly, his eyes taking on a serious sort of light.  "I'd die before I hurt her," he said quietly.

Kichiro grunted and downed half of the snifter of brandy he'd just gotten.  He didn't look entirely pleased with Evan's oath.  "That's what I'm afraid of," he ventured.  "Sometimes, you're entirely too much like your damn mother . . ."


"So?"

Wiggling her toes in the sand, Valerie didn't look at Evan as she stared at the full moon.  A crisp yet slightly tangy breeze blew off the water—a breeze that still carried a hint of warmth left over from the day yet just enough chill to made her pull the light blanket that Evan had dropped over her shoulders a few minutes before a little closer.  "Hmm?"

Evan snorted then chuckled.  He was back in his own clothes, thank God, though he had joked around that he should borrow one of her nightgowns when they got back to the little house.  "So . . . What did you think of Kich and Bella?"

Wincing inwardly since she'd figured that she was going to have to answer that particular question eventually, she bit her lip and shrugged in what she hoped was an offhanded sort of way.  They were nice enough, of course—well, to a point.  Bellaniece . . . Valerie wasn't entirely sure what to make of her.  For the most part, she seemed to have rather enjoyed making Valerie feel uncomfortable with the questions that she'd asked while the men were over at the bar, but she wasn't sure if Bellaniece was just being overly protective of Evan or if she really didn't like her . . .

But even more puzzling than that was the odd relationship that Evan's relatives seemed to share.  Uncle and sister . . .? They didn't act like that.  In fact, if Valerie were to have guessed, she would have thought that they were dating or something instead.  But . . . "They were . . . nice," she answered, carefully measuring her words since the last thing she wanted to do was to inadvertently offend Evan—again.

He chuckled again, grasping a handful of sand and holding up his fist to let the grains fall through his fingers.  "Nice?  That bad, huh?"

"N-No!" she insisted quickly.  "That's not what I meant!"

"What did you and Bella talk about while we were getting drinks?"

Biting her lip, Valerie resisted the urge to grimace.  Truth be told, she wasn't sure she wanted to tell him what they'd talked about since most of the discussion had centered around the question of whether Valerie was leading Evan on or something, given that she was wearing her engagement ring.

"When's the wedding?"

Valerie blinked and shook her head quickly, as though to disabuse Bellaniece of that silly notion.  "We're not.  Evan's just joking."

Bellaniece's smile was polite at best as she flicked a hand at Valerie's finger.  "No, dear, I mean him."

"Oh," Valerie blurted, face reddening in embarrassment that she'd assumed that Bellaniece had meant Evan.  "Uh, next fall."

"Mm," Bellaniece intoned, reaching for her wine.  Not for the first time, Valerie noticed the very large diamond gracing the woman's finger.  The size alone was enough to draw attention, but the absolute clarity of the stone that Valerie could see even from across the table was just stunning.  "So you're just having one last fling with my brother then."

"Wh—? Ah—No!" Valerie insisted.  "It's not like that!  I'm his attorney!"

"Of course, of course," Bellaniece said, smiling in what Valerie could only describe as a completely condescending kind of way.  "If you say so . . ."

And the rest of their conversation hadn't gotten any better.  The thing was, Valerie wasn't about to tell Evan all of that, either.  "Oh, you know," she finally said, hoping that if she gave him a vague answer that he'd let it drop.  "Nothing much, really.  Just this and that . . ."

Evan sighed.  "Kichiro told me that Bella was looking forward to playing the big sister at dinner," he admitted.  "She didn't bust your nuts too bad, did she?"

"Pardon?"

He grinned.  "She's not like that normally.  She's a sweetheart.  She just wanted to pretend that she's overprotective and all that."

Valerie blinked and stared at Evan for a full minute before slowly shaking her head.  "Is that what it was?"

"Probably," he laughed.  "It's kind of a novelty for her to be able to do that, but she's harmless, I swear.  Was it that bad?"

Uttering a weak little laugh, Valerie shook her head.  "It was fine," she allowed, figuring that it was best to just take Evan's claim at face value.  Besides, there was something else that had been bothering her since they'd left the restaurant, something that Bellaniece had said that had struck Valerie as really strange, and while it might be easy to say that the woman was joking . . . well . . . "Your family seems very . . . close," she said, carefully measuring her words once more, lest she should offend Evan.

"Mine?  Sure, I guess . . ."

Clearing her throat, Valerie shrugged, wrapping her hands around her ankles as she dug her toes deeper into the cool sand.  "I can't say that I've ever seen relatives . . . kiss like that before . . ."

For some reason, Evan really laughed at that.  In fact, he laughed so hard that he fell back, and it took him a few seconds to get himself under control once more.  "That's my fault," he admitted when he'd finally wound down.  "I really should've told you sooner, but I swear, V, your face . . ."

"Told me what?" she demanded, scowling at him since he wasn't making much sense.

Evan grinned at her, tucking his hands together under the back of his neck.  "They're married."

Barking out a terse laugh, Valerie rolled her eyes and snorted.  "Ri-i-ight, Roka," she shot back.  "Do you think I just fell off the stupid wagon or something?"

"Nope, but they are."

"But you said that he's your uncle."

"He is," Evan agreed amiably.  "My mama's brother—can't you tell?"

She waved a hand at him impatiently.  "Obviously," she said since there really wasn't any arguing that.  For God's sake, she'd seen the family resemblance herself.   "And you said that Bellaniece is your sister."

"She is," he allowed.  "Well, my half-sister.  Ol' Cain was married once before he met Mama."

She considered that, and while she still thought that it sounded really weird, she was starting to understand what he was saying.  "So . . . Bellaniece isn't your mother's daughter . . ."

"That's right," he quipped.  "See, she met Kichiro about the same time that Mama met Cain.  She put him through his paces, then she snapped the old ball and chain around his ankle."

"That's . . ." Valerie trailed off for a moment, shaking her head as she tried to find the most appropriate word to describe what he was telling her.  "That's weird," she finally said.

"Weird, maybe.  Normal for us, though.  Anyway, she and Kich have three daughters, and—"

Something still wasn't adding up in Valerie's head, though, and she shook her head to cut him off.  "Wait a minute; wait a minute.  She met your uncle about the same time that your mother met your father?  How the hell old is she, anyway?"

"Who?  Bella?"

Making a face, Valerie heaved an exasperated sigh since she was pretty sure that he was just trying to mess with her.  "Yes."

That breathy chuckle again, the one that made Valerie pause every time . . . "Hmm, well . . . she's about sixty-two, I think . . ."

Valerie blinked and stared at him as she slowly narrowed her eyes in disbelief.  "Nuh-uh!" she growled, thumping him in the center of his chest.

"Really, really!" he insisted, leaning up on one elbow and rubbing his chest with the other.  "She's got three grown daughters, too, and one grandchild . . ."

"Shut up!" she shot back, rolling her eyes despite the slight smile on her face.  His amusement was a little contagious, even if she still didn't know what to think.

"Well, Kichiro is a very skilled plastic surgeon," he replied thoughtfully.

That gave her a moment's pause.  Sure, plastic surgery could work wonders.  Still, she wasn't ready to say that she was actually buying Evan's story.  If she hadn't known better, she'd have sworn that Bellaniece couldn't have been more than twenty years old, tops, and while she might be able to believe that she was older than Evan and his brother, Bas, she wasn't at all ready to accept the idea that the woman she'd just met could possibly be in her sixties.  "There's no way that she's that old!"

He burst out laughing and sat up.  "You're right," he agreed easily enough.  "But I had you going there for a minute."

Valerie snorted and shook her head.  "You're such a jackass," she muttered.

"Yeah, but the look on your face was pretty damn priceless."

She was about to tell him exactly what she thought of his teasing, but her eyes widened as the thought died away.  Staring at the sky high overhead, she gasped quietly and pointed.  "Look, Evan—a shooting star . . ."

Evan looked up, too, and smiled.  "Make a wish, V," he said.

Valerie giggled.  A wish?  How silly . . . In fact, she couldn't rightfully recall having done any such thing before, not really.  Even when she blew out the candles on her birthday cakes when she was younger, it seemed to her that she never could blow them all out at once, and didn't that mean that your wish wouldn't come true?  Staring in silence as the star trailed across the heavens, she smiled to herself.  Why did it also strike her as somewhat sad . . .? Science classes had taught her that it was probably just a meteor entering the earth's atmosphere when air friction it encountered caused it to melt or burn up, and that's why it glowed . . . a dying mass . . . so why was it so pretty to watch . . .?

"Did you make your wish?" Evan asked quietly.

Valerie blinked but couldn't help the smile that surfaced, either.  "A wish . . ." she murmured, glancing at him for a moment.  "Okay . . . I wish—"

She jumped slightly when he suddenly pressed the tip of his index finger against her lips.  "Shh," he said despite the grin on his face.  "You can't say it out loud or it won't come true."

She stared at him, his eyes as dark as the nighttime sky, his skin glowing a pale blue in the moonlight as the breeze tangled in his hair—it was silver, just for today—and she nodded slowly.

'I wish . . .' she thought as his finger fell away, as he scooted in closer, carefully tugging the blanket a little higher around her.  'I wish . . . If I see another shooting star, I wish for it to be with Evan . . .'