Sorcerer Hunters Fan Fiction ❯ Reincarnation ❯ Boy or Girl? ( Chapter 2 )

No monster or denizen of hell reared its ugly, pestilential head to devour her. Kauri felt a fleeting disappointment. If she had been eaten, then she wouldn't have to face her new family. She didn't want a new family. She was perfectly happy, sort of, with her current family. It was just like adults to make decisions without the consent of the one's who would be most affected: the children. Besides, no matter how much she complained, she was very much a child; okay, a seventeen year old child, but still a child nonetheless. If she had had the nerve, she would've stamped her foot and thrown a fit on the floor.

"Kauri?" She flinched at the decidedly angry tone creeping into her mother's otherwise restrained voice. She had really toed the line this time. Well, nothing to do but face the dragon, and hopefully live to tell the tale. With that reassuring thought she took the first step.

"One small step for girl-kind," she muttered. Thirteen more steps found her at the bottom. Still no monster, damn. Instead she found her mother anxiously wringing the hem of her knit sweater and tapping her foot impatiently.

"Come here," the woman hissed beckoning to the hesitant girl.

"I'm coming." Her diminutive mother grabbed her arm when she didn't move fast enough. With a none-too gentle shove her mother propelled her into the living room. She stumbled to a stop before a well-groomed man in a dark blue suit. He looked startled for a moment then smiled pleasantly.

"Konnichiwa, Kauri-san." She blinked at him stupidly. Frantically her mind rushed through the catalogue of foreign languages in her memory. She knew she was dealing with a greeting. Now she just had to remember which language…

"Hola…"-a sharp elbow jabbed her back. Right, Japanese-"Con Chihuahua?" Her mother's gusty sigh informed her that she had effectively mangled the Japanese language. In fact, she was still speaking garbled Spanish. This meeting wasn't going well for the distraught girl.

"'With Chihuahua'?" Omi demanded with a snicker. If looks could kill, he would have died a thousand times over after that comment. As it was, he only stuck his tongue out in response to her pointed glare. He mouthed 'loser' and settled himself back down in the easy chair.

Her mother decided to rescue the situation before it exploded and killed them all with awkward embarrassment, or at least Kuari.

"Kenta-san, this is my daughter, Kauri. Kauri, this is my good friend Matsuyama-san." The girl stared at her mother with veiled consternation. Why was she on a first name basis with the man? Sure he was an old friend, but using his first named seemed disquietingly intimate. She winced. She didn't want to think about her mom getting intimate with anybody.

"Sorry, hello." She performed a jerky bow and silently petitioned God to open a hole straight to hell beneath her feet. God did not oblige her. The man laughed good-naturedly and bowed in return.

"And this is his son, Marron Matsuyama." Her mother grabbed her by the shoulders and spun her to the left. When equilibrium reasserted itself she once again found her mind blanking on her.

She had heard her mother say son. She remembered the letter mentioning said son. She didn't see any son. Who she did see was an unnervingly beautiful girl watching her calmly. She turned to look at her mother uncertainly. Her mother made an impatient shooing gesture. She turned back to the 'son'. There was no way in hell someone that beautiful could be a boy. And if 'he' was, well that didn't make her feel any better about her own looks. She would not stand for a guy looking hotter than her. She wouldn't.

"Good afternoon," the object of her contention said in a soft baritone. Deep brown eyes flecked with garnet and amethyst, drowned her intelligence. Her mind decided that it was having too much difficulty-it hadn't even signed up for this in the first place, thank you very much-and departed for lands unknown. What was left scrambled frantically for something resembling coherence. Failing that, it decided to produce some sort of sound.

She grunted.

"I must apologize for my daughter's rude behavior. She seems to be having problems with her speaking ability," her mother exclaimed with forced humor. "I am certain she will feel better after she gets some fresh air." Smiling apologetically at her guests, the woman escorted her daughter to the front door.

"Can't I just go to my room, or something?" Kauri demanded in a low whisper.

"You may not. You embarrass me in front of important friend. You go outside."

"But it's cold and wet."

"You no care earlier. Out." The door opened scant inches from the girl's nose. Her deceptively small mother propelled her outside. "Stay until you feel less rude."

"I-"

The door slammed close with an air finality.

"Crap!" She stomped to the rickety white porch swing and sat down. She pouted for a few minutes. If I catch cold and die of pneumonia or something, she'll be sorry, she thought huffily. She spent several more minutes imagining her funeral.

She would be spread out in that gorgeous green dress she had seen in a magazine. The coffin would be of some fine material like mahogany or maybe marble-no, that would be too heavy. But she would have a crypt of entirely white marble with little cherub statues and lots of white roses. Off course everyone would be crying and mourning. Over a thousand people would attend, and every single hot guy would realize what he had missed in not asking her out. Indeed, they would finally realize exactly what they had been missing.

A cocky smirk curved her lips as she imagined pews (her funeral would take place in some grand cathedral, after all) of hot guys weeping their eyes red and puffy over her cold corpse. That would show Kyle. That would show her mother. That would show her annoying little brother. They'd all feel guilty for not being nicer to her, but it would be too late.

Besides, she would finally get to see her father again.

A curious prickling sensation irritated her eyes. She blinked rapidly. Something warm slid down the curve of her cheek. Dammit, she wasn't going to start crying. She hadn't cried since the day her father was buried. Nothing had ever seemed worthy of tears, until now.

She missed her father terribly, even though he had died when she was quite small. She could still remember the feeling of warm arms rocking her to sleep, and strong hands tossing her into the sky and safely catching her. She hugged herself and sighed. She didn't want a new father. She didn't want a new sibling.

She just wanted her real father back. She wanted memories where he would be sitting in the front row of her eighth grade play of Romeo and Juliet. She even wanted memories of him scolding her for breaking a lamp while playing with her younger brother. She would never have them though.

The cessation of the rain dragged her from the pit of self-delusional pity she had cast herself into. She blinked blearily at the leaden sky and then turned to stare through the kitchen window, which allowed an observer to see a small sliver of the living room. She could feel the warmth of inside radiating outward. Eagerly she pressed herself against the wood and peered inside. All she could see was the boy-girl siting serenely. She growled lowly. He/she was sitting in her chair. How dare he/she!

She started making faces. She knew she was acting like a little kid, but she didn't care anymore. She was cold and miserable and her entire life had just taken a one-eighty on a freeway of doom.

Unfortunately she became so engrossed in her petty game that she failed to notice that she was being watched. A pair of dark eyes met hers through the fogged glass. She issued a muffled shriek and flung herself away from the window.

"Crap. Crap. Crap," she hissed hunkering down in the swing. The boy-girl had seen her. She groaned in embarrassment and slapped her flaming cheeks. What he/she must think of her new stepsister!

Kauri smacked her forehead repeatedly before lying down on the porch swing. Listlessly she set the chair rocking with one sock-clad foot. Back and forth, back and forth she swung. Today was just one huge embarrassment after another. Life sucked, a lot.

"Excuse me." She froze, looking remarkably like a rabbit facing imminent and inescapable annihilation. Eye wide, mouth open to reveal two rows of teeth, she gaped. A strange noise escaped her constricted throat. She could hear her horrified heartbeat pounding away in her ears.

"Are you okay?" the boy-girl asked with worry. She jerked upright like a marionette whose string had been pulled.

"Fine."

"I wish to apologize to you."

"Apologize? Me?"

"Yes. You must have found today overwhelming. I didn't think you were being rude at all."

She cocked her head to one side and regarded him critically.

"Okay."

He smiled shyly. If she didn't know better, she would say he was acting a bit flustered. Interesting. Well, at least she wasn't the only feeling a bit put out by the whole situation.

"I'm Kauri, bane of my mother's existence and constant social embarrassment." She thrust her hand out.

"My name is Marron. I guess you know that already, though."

She shrugged. "Nice to meet you, Marron. Welcome to America. You're really a guy?"

"Thank you, and, yes, I am." He grasped her hand.

"Niisan!"

Kauri jerked her hand away as though Marron had been hiding a red-hot poker in his own hand. She shook it violently, but the disconcerting tingling sensation remained. She looked at him, really looked at him. The most frightening, in the sense of a stampeding herd of elephants, feeling of recognition burned through the pathways of her mind. For a second another scene superimposed itself across her vision. Then it faded and she was left with a vague feeling of unease, and a tingling hand.

"What the hell?" Marron stared at his own hand as though he had never seen it before and wondered what it was going to do. Experimentally he clenched and unclenched it.

"That was odd," he observed. "'Niisan'? 'Brother'?" He brushed back long strands of black hair and regarded her bemusedly.

"That's what that word means? Not the car?"

"The 'i' sound was elongated."

"Who's calling who a brother?" she demanded angrily. Like most humans, her automatic response to the shocking or surprising was to cloak herself in misguided anger.

"I do not know. That was…peculiar."

"Yeah, well, you might be handling disembodied voices just fine, but I'm not."

"There are many things in this world." She rolled her eyes at he quiet words. He searched her face with a bemused smile on his pale face.

"So, voices aside, you're really a guy?"

He sighed. "Yes, I assure you that I'm quite male."

"You don't-"

"Many people have voiced similar opinions."

"Because you really…"

"Yes?"

"Look like a girl."

*~*~*

From Sarryn:

This is a fairly random update for a fairly dead story. I wrote this under a spurt of inspiration. Please review if you feel so inclined.