Tekken Fan Fiction ❯ Canto ❯ Chapter 3

Chapter Three

"Christ, Kaz, what happened to your hand?" Lee gasped as his older brother came in late that night. The older Mishima boy shrugged and sat down at the breakfast table in the almost too spacious kitchen, next to where the grey-haired boy was sitting and smoking. The boy was clad in nothing but a pair of green plaid flannel pajama bottoms, and was rather alert, considering what time it was. Kazuya then glanced down at his bloodied fist and smiled.

"Man..." he started softly, "I ran into that Phoenix guy..."

Lee rolled his eyes and took a drag from the rather stubby cigarette dangling between his fingers, "You might want to boil that hand, then." Kazuya let out a chuckle at his brother's comment.

"Heh, I really would miss you if you ran off," he snickered. "Your snide comments are too precious." He then stood up and went over to the fridge and opened it; he grabbed a can of beer then gestured at Lee to offer the younger Mishima a drink. Lee shook his head, and in response, Kazuya shrugged then strode back to the table and sat back down. "I tell you, though, he had this girl with him..."

"Oh?" Lee lifted a brow and smirked. Kazuya popped the lid on his beer and continued to grin. "I take it she was something else."

The older boy smiled, "Yeah, gorgeous, independent..."

"Get her name?"

"Nope!" Lee snickered at his brother as he took a drink of his beer. "That whole Paul trying to kick my ass thing got in the way of me getting her number."

"Doesn't it always?" Lee sang as he smashed his smoke into the ashtray sitting in front of him; a half full pack of cigarettes and a silver zippo sat next to it.

Kazuya nodded, "Of course!" He grinned again, "So, how was your evening, my dear brother?"

"Hm....shitty as always," Lee shrugged. He leaned back in his chair and smiled wearily at his older brother. The dull look in his dark eyes told more than enough, but he continued, "The same crap over and over again. Dad got mad at me and spent most of the evening working on books in the den though, thank god." The look in his eyes became far off and distant, "I don't even know what I did this time." Kazuya looked down at Lee's arm and noticed the huge purple bruise on the younger boy's otherwise perfectly smooth porcelain arm. The older boy frowned and looked up at his brother's face again, and was startled by the serene smile that was on Lee's face, and the glazed over look his eyes had as the silver haired boy seemed to look past Kazuya. "Oh, then Anna called," he added absentmindedly.

"I...thought you broke up with her," the darker boy replied softly. He glanced down at his beer and grimaced, suddenly not wanting it anymore.

"I did," Lee smiled, "She just wanted to talk for a bit. We had a nice long chat."

"See, I told you!" Kazuya grinned, "She's the best thing that's ever happened to you! And another reason for you to stay here, if you feel that entertaining me isn't reason enough--"

--"She's thinking of leaving." Kazuya blinked, taken back by those words. "Her sister isn't helping much with their mother these days, and there's nothing left here for her." Lee smiled again, "I hope she goes through with it."

"I see."

"Sorry to let you down, Kaz," the younger brother replied in a pleasant, lilting voice.

"No, I'm sorry. I know things have been really bad for you lately."

Lee shook his head, "It hasn't been any different than from when we were kids. I'm used to it."

"Yeah, but..." Kazuya looked down at his beer, "I don't understand why Dad would adopt you then treat you like shit. It doesn't make sense."

"Heh, does anything he does make sense?" Lee grinned again and leaned forward, "Hey, don't worry about me." He placed a hand on his older brother's shoulder.

"I'm supposed to. You're my only brother," Kazuya looked up and frowned. "Regardless of the circumstances, you're all I've got now." Lee glanced down at his brother's injured fist then at the older boy's chest. He could see down his shirt, and in the dim light could make out the massive dark scar crossing his brother's olive torso. His hand slid down from the older boy's shoulder then pressed lightly against Kazuya's chest. Lee lifted eyes up at his brother's confused face, both fascinated and saddened. "Chaolan?"

"Like I said," the young boy began softly, "Nothing he does makes sense." Kazuya's lips parted slightly and he placed a hand over his brother's. "He loves you though."

The older Mishima brother shook his head violently, pushed Lee away, and stood up.

"That man," he hissed coldly, "he's incapable of any emotion." He growled and turned away. Lee gingerly picked out one smoke from the package on the table and also grabbed his lighter. He then leaned back in his chair while he popped the cigarette in his mouth and lit up. He closed his eyes and took a long drag, then reopened then, gazing intently at his angry brother who stood in the middle of the kitchen, hands on his hips and refusing to look at his brother.

"He's doing this on purpose," Kazuya finally replied to the silence, lifting his head up to glance at the ceiling then hanging it, one hand still rested on his hip while the other lay limp at his side.

"Doing what?" Lee smiled as he pulled the cigarette from his mouth; smoke escaped through his nostrils as he waited for his brother to elaborate, which he didn't. Instead Kazuya let out a heavy sigh and headed out of the kitchen. "Going to bed, then?"

"Yeah..." the older boy murmured, "Right after I take care of this hand."

"Then goodnight."

"Night." After he said that, Kazuya marched upstairs, leaving his brother to his smoking.

He slowly finished up his cigarette, then Lee sighed and grabbed his ashtray and his brother's beer as he stood up. He walked toward the same direction to the doorway that Kazuya had left through, stopping for a moment to dump the ashtray's contents into a wastebasket, along with the beer can, on the way there then again to turn off the kitchen light. He knew he'd probably get in trouble in the morning for smoking in the house again, but he was too worn out now to care. He turned back and looked at the kitchen, now lit by moonlight from the single window in there. A shallow sigh sounded from him and he leaned against the doorframe.

Somehow, this had all become some type of sick ritual in their household. Lee let out a low chuckle, finally getting at what Kazuya meant. And he watched the room grow slightly brighter as his eyes adjusted to the dark. He then turned and made his way into the family room and through it to the staircase that lead up to where his bedroom was.

As he climbed the stairs quietly, he could see that Kazuya's light was on, and he smiled bitterly to himself and made his way up the stairs, then headed towards his room. When he passed his brother's room, Lee heard a whispering of his brother's stereo playing Mozart, meaning that he was probably trying to do his books for the evening, despite it being a Friday night. Lee frowned slightly.

He knew the only reason that Kazuya hadn't moved out yet was because of him, and Lee hated that. It only made things harder between his father and himself. But, he knew that his older brother meant well. That much he would admit to himself.

"What a waste," he mumbled at the door then walked over to his own. He then glanced over at Kazuya's door again and sighed. This was how it was going to be for the rest of his life.

Anna Williams sat alone in the living room of the small home she shared with her sister and mother, carefully folding clothes in from a laundry basket into different stacks. Towels in one, linens in another, then her mother's bed clothes. She glanced up at the clock hanging on the wall. It was twelve past two in the morning, and Nina still hadn't made it home. The girl sighed and pushed a lock of her auburn hair out of the way before she went back to neatly folding clothes by the light of the kitchen's single fluorescent bulb.

She was wearing a grey t-shirt that had belonged to Lee with a dark blue Trans-Am firebird logo on the front and a pair of navy plaid boxer shorts, and she had her hair pulled back in a black banana clip. However, she was still sweating from the night's heat. As much as she wanted to, she couldn't turn on the air conditioning because of her mother's illness, and opening the windows was useless, since it was a dry heat and no breeze outside. She began humming "My Favorite Things" softly to herself to keep from falling asleep.

There was a flash of headlights outside the window, and the girl lifted her head. The lights paused and hovered and she heard the slam of a car door then footsteps, and then the lights receded and faded away. Her sister was home.

Anna stopped humming and mumbled to herself, "Took bloody long enough," then went back to into singing softly to herself, this time a Brahms lullaby. The door opened yet she never looked up from her separating and folding.

"You're still up?" her sister's raspy Irish voice inquired lightly. The older sister hung up her black, thigh long leather jacket on the coat rack by the door. She looked lovely in the simple black t-shirt dress she was wearing, and the thigh high black boots. Unlike her sister, Nina was blonde, and her hair was pulled back into a French roll, which was slightly mussed now.

"Um hm," Anna replied to Nina, still folding clothing into tidy stacks. She never once looked up.

"Oh, good god, you're still upset that I went out, are you?" Nina let out a soft chuckle and sat down on the floor next to her sister.

"Not at all," the redhead replied with surprisingly no malice at all in her voice. "With all the work I had to do, this was the only time I had to separate the linens today."

"Oh, I'm sorry, love," Nina replied pleasantly. "Can I tell you about my night?"

Do I have a choice? Anna thought bitterly to herself.

"Please, do," the younger girl mumbled as she reached into the basket on the other side of her and pulled out several more pieces of laundry to fold.

Nina's smile grew a bit, "You wouldn't believe it." She straightened up a bit, "Emil asked me to marry him."

Anna's paced slowed to nearly a halt at that news. Her hands started trembling, and to hide her displease, she began folding and separating again. She never looked up, "You said yes, didn't you?"

"I haven't given him an answer yet," Nina grinned. "Anna, I love him so much... You have no idea how long I've waited for this."

"If it was as long and as excruciating as me waiting for Lee to ask me to run off with him, I'm sure I do know." The redhead continued to fold angrily. "What about Mama? Or what do you think Papa would have thought about you running off with some man twice your age? I'm sure he's turning in his grave right now..."

"Since when did you start caring about what Daddy would think?" Nina lifted a brow and frowned at her younger sister. "You didn't listened to a damned thing he said when he was alive, and I know that he wouldn't had approved of that Lee Chaolan when you were seeing him--"

"--At least Lee was my age," she replied coolly.

"Oh, yes he was, and he was rather wealthy as I recall," Nina mused as a sadistic smile crept across her face. "You can't ever be happy for me, can you?" She stood up and place a hand on her hip and pointed down at the redhead, "You're just jealous that I'm finally happy."

"Hardly, love," Anna replied, finally looking up. Her face was stern, but again not showing her anger. "I'm upset that when you do go off into your little realm of happiness each day, you seem to forget that you have responsibilities in the real world." Nina rolled her eyes at that response and crossed her arms. "In fact, you still haven't found a job, as far as I know."

"I have, thank you very much," Nina snorted.

"Really? Doing what?" Anna went back to folding her clothes, "Whoring yourself off to older men for a dollar?"

The blonde's eyes narrowed, "I'll have you know that it's nothing like that. I'm doing quite well with my new job."

"Then what is it?" Anna stopped folding her clothes and looked up, her face placid, despite the feeling of anticipation that was arousing in her. Nina let out a soft yet haughty laugh down at her sister, who placed her hands in her lap, waiting patiently for an answer.

Nina glanced away then back at her sister, "Let's just leave it at I'm finishing what Daddy started." The blonde shifted her weight to her other hip then walked out of the room.

Anna's eyes widened as she watched her sister disappear into the dark, and then back at her hands in her lap, which had started trembling uncontrollably after the blonde's answer.

"No, she wouldn't..." the redhead tried to reassure herself with a shaky laugh. "She wouldn't." This, she repeated to herself several times before nervously attempting to begin folding clothes. However her hands were just shaking too much, and a terrible gnawing came over her stomach.

"Fuck!" she growled at herself and jumped up. She ran over to the light switch and turned on the living room light, then went over the closed door, solid oak gun rack that took up half the back wall in that room. She grabbed hold the little metal knobs, one in each hand. Her heart began pounding as she started to slowly pull both doors, still trying to convince herself that Nina had been lying.

Just open it! a voice in her head screamed. She obliged gladly and threw open the doors. And her worst fear was realized.

The cabinet was empty.