Vamps and Ronins
Chapter Fifteen: The Gift of Giving with No
Reason to Hide
Written by: Tiasha
~
What are
you going to do with your gift dear child?
Give
life, give love, give soul?
Divided
is the one who dances
For the
soul is so exposed
So
exposed
Let’s
leave…oh let’s get away
Get lost
in time
Where
there’s no reason to hide
Let’s
leave…oh let’s get away
Run in
fields of time
Where there’s no reason to hide
Creed, “Hide”
~
The
weekend before exams found several young people studying non-stop, while a
young redhead annoyed several others.
One older woman was to be found in the kitchen making a snack for the
studious teenagers while another older woman sat at the kitchen counter,
glancing over at the table of teenagers every now and then before looking back
at her pen and pad of paper.
“Come
on! Ask me another one!” the young redhead pleaded, holding a worksheet out in
front of her friend’s face.
“Why?
You’ve got most of them right already,” her friend stated, ignoring the paper
dandling in front of him.
“Please
Cye?” the young redhead again pleaded.
“Robyn,
why don’t you study for our Trig exam now?” Rowen interjected. The young redhead pouted for a moment before
opening her trigonometry notebook and pulled out a worksheet and pencil.
Silence
reigned, aside from the sound of pencil on paper and turning pages, for nearly
fifteen minutes before another older woman entered the kitchen. The two twins greeted her politely as they
were not taking exams next week and studying for them, unlike the six teenagers
gathered around the kitchen table.
Mrs.
Mouri had arrived home a day after Robyn had gone to Matt’s concert with Mariko
and was quite surprised to find two new people stopping by the house
frequently; but she had merely smiled and welcomed them, saying that it was
nice to see Robyn with some female companions of her own, aside from Kami (who had taken her exams early in order to go on
vacation).
The
twins had found an immediate companion in Mrs. Mouri, Mariko particularly since
the elder twin was more the mother of her group; all three enjoyed pottery and
Cye had more often than not found either Mariko or Cody sitting in the pottery
room chatting with his mother in the last few days. It bothered him but at the same time relieved
him that his mother was not greatly disturbed by the sudden appearance the
twin’s had made in Robyn’s life.
Presently,
Mrs. Mouri poured herself a drink before accepting a piece of food that Cody
had offered her. The older woman
complimented the younger twin on her cooking before looking over Mariko’s
shoulder at the pad of paper the elder twin was sketching on.
“Oh
my, that’s exceptional work,” Mrs. Mouri murmured, commending the elder twin on
her drawing skills.
“Thank
you, but it’s just a sketch, ma’am,” Mariko said, signing her name and date at
the bottom of the paper before placing the cap on her pen.
“Even
so, it’s very good. You have an eye for detail.”
“Thank
you, but—”
“Stop
being so modest, onesan,” Cody said, not even
skipping a beat as she finished preparing the snacks for all of them.
“You
hush imoto.”
Mrs.
Mouri chuckled and left the two sisters to their bickering, making her way over
to the table of teenagers.
“Go
ahead and take a break. I think you all are ready for a snack anyway,” she
said, smiling as many of the teenagers gratefully closed their books and
notebooks. Feeling that her job as
mother was done for now, she went ahead and left them alone, taking her drink
with her as she headed upstairs.
Robyn
was curious to see what exactly it was that Mrs. Mouri had complimented Mariko
on and so she moved to look at the sketchpad that was lying on the counter in
front of the bearer of
“I
still haven’t mastered the technique for ink drawings yet, but I think I’m
getting the hang of it,” she heard Mariko explain. Robyn looked at the other woman with a slight
look of disbelief on her face. “I know,
I know…stop being modest,” the elder twin sighed, reading Robyn’s expression
clearly. She then said as an
afterthought, “You can keep it, if you want it that is.”
Robyn
thanked her as Mariko tore the piece of paper off the pad and handed it to
her. The young redhead then grabbed
herself something to eat and joined the guys at the table while the twins
stayed at the counter, due to lack of room at the table.
After
a few moments, Cody began elbowing her older sister in the ribs, which caused
Mariko to elbow her sister back, which only encouraged Cody to elbow Mariko
again. Finally growing annoyed with her
sister’s antics, Mariko practically shoved her sister off the stool she was
seated on. A squeal emitted from the
younger twin as she ungracefully fell, grabbing onto her sister’s arm at the
same time. Mariko cursed as she held
onto the counter and attempted to keep herself from being dragged to the floor
with her sister. She was somewhat
successful. What ended up happening was
Cody’s rear softly hit the floor (instead of falling on it hard)
as she clung to her sister’s arm, who in turn clung to the countertop with her
free arm.
“Jeez!
What’d ya push me off for?” Cody asked, releasing the death grip on her
sister’s arm. “All I was trying to do was give you a hint!”
Mariko
frowned and bit her lip, “You can’t whisper?”
“Of
course I can!”
“Well,
then why didn’t you?”
“Hint
about what?” the two heard Kento question and they looked to see the six
teenagers watching them curiously, perhaps even a little strangely.
“Nothing,”
Mariko said and promptly got a smack on the back of the head from Cody. As Mariko rubbed her now sore head, Cody
moved to stand near the table.
“Since
she isn’t going to tell you, I will. We think we’ve figured out who the marble
belongs to,” Cody explained. “Remember that Italian kid who moved next door to
you Ryo? We think that it’s him.”
“Okay,
cool. I’ll give it to Ryo and he can give it to the kid,” Robyn said happily,
glad to finally be rid of that thing.
“It’s…not
that simple…” Mariko began, “You have to give it to the boy yourself, Robyn.”
“What?
Why?”
“The
newer armors are…oh, how to explain it…they don’t like being abandoned. To a
new armor, you placing your duties as guardian onto another is the same as
abandonment to it. And it will take on a monstrous form and go on a rampage.”
“Eek! That’s not good!”
“No
it’s not, which is why Josh is going to take you to see the boy and Yasalia as
soon as possible.”
“Just Robyn? Can’t we go with her?” Cye asked, not liking
the sound of this.
“I
would highly advise against it. The boy, according to Josh, was separated from
his mother recently and feels vulnerable. If we were to have your armors near
the boy while Apollo is there, the boy will be uncomfortable and the new armor
will see your armors as a threat.”
“Jeez!
Who made these things anyway?” Kento commented.
Mariko
calmly replied, “The Ancient One.”
“What?”
came from five young men promptly afterwards.
Mariko rolled her eyes and sighed.
“To make a long story short. The atarashii armors were a
back up plan, should your armors have failed to destroy Talpa and failed to
protect the Mortal Realm.”
Robyn
blinked as most of what was going on went over her head. What little she knew
of the Ancient One was from what the guys had told her but all of this new
stuff about the new armors being connected to this Ancient guy went right over
her head. So she turned to look out the
open and window, only to find a small gold fog bank hovering near the window
that was behind her and the others. She
immediately recognized the fog bank as Joshua and smiled, watching as he
slipped through the metal screen and flowed across the floor inconspicuously
towards the living room. Robyn had come
to find that he was strange like that, not really wanting anyone to see him
shift forms, but she never really understood why and he always refused to
explain.
“Okay,
but is Robyn going to be safe with this kid once he gets that armor?” Cye
asked, not at all realizing that there was now a new occupant in the house. It was not until Joshua’s voice drifted into
the kitchen that the majority of them were startled by the sudden appearance of
the soul gaki.
“I
don’t think you need to worry about Arain harming princhipesa here,” announced
the soul gaki as he entered the kitchen and came to stand near Mariko.
“Prin—what?” Ryo questioned but was distracted by Robyn
correcting him.
“Princhipesa
Ryo, didn’t any of you ever watch Life is Beautiful? Oh never mind,”
Robyn said, shaking her head at their confused looks. “It’s princess in
Italian.” Robyn then looked at Joshua.
“Wait, why am I suddenly ‘princess’ here?”
“Because, both Yasalia and I refused to tell him your name and
such. So instead of saying ‘that girl’ or ‘that friend of yours,’ he
refers to you as princhipesa.”
“But why princhipesa?”
“Because to him, you sound like a princhipesa.”
Robyn
flushed at that, demanding in an annoyed tone to know what exactly Joshua had
said to the ‘poor child.’ Joshua,
however, laughed and answered ‘nothing but the truth.’
“Still…I
don’t see why he has to call me princhipesa,” Robyn said, pouting. It was not
that she didn’t appreciate being called a princess, it
was just that stereotypically a princess was a brat who always got her way, and
she was far from that in her opinion.
“It’s
not meant to be an insult, Robyn. To him, you sound like a kind person and in
his mind, that is a princess. I mean, he’s only
eleven.”
Robyn
shrugged her shoulders and went back to finishing her snack, which Kento had
been eyeballing for past two minutes.
The next comment Joshua made nearly caused Robyn to choke on her snack.
“Besides
you don’t seem to mind Jayzen treating you like a ‘princhipesa,’ at least not
from what I’ve seen.”
Robyn
could feel the tension in the room growing at the mention of the name and she
threw a glare at the soul gaki. Only she
noticed that from the expression on his face, Joshua had said that out of
concern.
“I
hope you’re not letting his words cloud your judgment,” the soul gaki said calmly.
“First
off, I don’t need you getting on to my case about him. God knows these guys are
bad enough,” she said, motioning off-handily towards those sitting next to her.
“And second, why do you say that?”
“I
don’t trust him and I know Yasalia is going out of her mind trying to figure
out what the meaning of his aura is. She senses a hint of dark magick in his
aura, but she can’t figure out if it’s because it’s in his blood or from an
outside source. If it’s in his blood, then there’s nothing to worry about
really. He’s probably got some relation to a dark elf or shadow mage if it’s
his blood.”
“You
mean elves really do exist?” Robyn asked excitedly but her question was quickly
forgotten when Sage posed his own.
“Just
who is this Yasalia you keep mentioning? Can she be trusted?”
Joshua
nodded, explaining that Yasalia was a soul-gaki and that it was impossible for
a soul-gaki to deceive another. “I would
stake my existence that she can be trusted. She hated Talpa when he first
entered this realm and has no desire to see his bastard son try to follow in
his footsteps.”
“Okay,
so there’s two more to chalk up under the allies
category,” Cody said from where she was leaning against the wall. “’Cause I
think that little Italian boy is going to love the chance to be the valiant
knight who protects his ‘princhipesa.’ Don’t you, Robyn?”
Robyn
groaned and placed her head in her hands.
Now the whole ‘princhipesa’ was starting to get out of hand and a little
humiliating. Her? A damsel in distress? While she was the first to admit that she
practically would never take a swing at a person, she just didn’t see herself
as the damsel sort!
“In
any case, when did you want to see if Arain is the one we’ve been looking for?”
Joshua asked, noting Robyn’s discomfort about the ‘princhipesa’ subject.
Robyn
shrugged, “I don’t know, how soon does it have to be?”
“There’s
no real deadline…but the sooner the better,” Mariko answered. “Why not this evening? I know you all have been studying so
hard, but too much studying can be as bad as too little. So we’ll go out to eat
and it’ll be on me. What do you think?”
---
Robyn
huffed as she dug through her stuff to find the stupid marble before they all
left to go out. She was so preoccupied
before hand that she hadn’t paid attention to where she had put it and now, of
all the times she needed to find it, she couldn’t. She growled and shoved a
drawer closed, standing and crossing her arms as she surveyed the disaster area
that was her room. Where had she put it?
“Mew.”
Robyn
paused and frowned; mew? Where had that
come from?
“Mew.”
More
importantly, what had that come from?
Robyn slowly turned towards her bed only to find a strange animal
looking at her curiously. She froze as
she stared at the animal, unsure of where it had come from and unsure of what
it was going to do. But it was so cute looking!
“Mew.”
Robyn
smiled, “Well, you’re too cute for words.”
The animal was a cross between a cat, a fox and a red panda. It was too cute!!! She was half tempted to take it downstairs
and ask Cye if she could keep it. The
look on his face would be priceless!
“Mew.”
Robyn
raised an eyebrow at it as it leaped off her bed and bounded towards her
dresser. The creature was about as large
as a housecat and seemed to act like one too.
It made little noises as it batted its paw underneath her dresser.
Curious,
Robyn moved towards the dresser, getting on her hands and knees to look under
it as the creature continued to bat at something. She peered under the piece of furniture
before sticking her hand in the area that the creature was so interested
in. The creature, she noticed,
immediately ceased its attempts to get whatever it was when Robyn searched for
it herself. Running her hand across the
carpet, she came across something smooth and cold, like glass. And it was spherical in shape, she realized
after she grabbed the object.
Pulling
out the object, she found herself holding the item she had been searching
for. She looked the creature straight in
the eyes as it flicked its slender, striped tail back and forth. It was obviously pleased with itself for it
purred contentedly and looked at her with such a proud gaze.
“Well,
thank you,” Robyn said, standing. The
creature immediately wove in and out of Robyn legs, purring as it rubbed itself
against her. Giggling, Robyn reached
down to scratch it behind the ears. “Now how did you get in here is what I want
to know.”
“Mew.”
Sighing,
Robyn disentangled herself from the creature’s meandering path and moved to the
door, preparing to go down and join the others.
“Mew.”
Robyn
looked back over shoulder to smile and say good-bye to the creature…only to
find her bedroom empty. Looking around
the hallway and her room, she surmised that it was indeed gone. Had it vanished? Odd, was all she could come up with as she
went downstairs.
“Hey
Cye,” she began, slipping on her canvas tennis shoes. “If you see something
that’s a cross between a cat, fox and red panda running around the house
finding things for ya…let me know. I wanna keep it.”
She
smiled at the look on his face, perplexed confusion and distaste. Priceless…
---
Robyn
stared at the little New Age store Joshua had brought her to and shivered
involuntarily as she looked at some of the merchandise that was displayed in
the window. The store reminded her of
the place where she had first met Jason and had learned of Nago
and his dark powers. Joshua wasn’t
actually serious about this place was he?
If so, she was not sure if she could keep from shivering the whole time,
despite the warm, muggy weather that blanketed the city this time of year.
She
frowned and looked at her watch. She and
Joshua had separated from the rest of the group no longer than twenty minutes
ago, the rest of them going to a little diner that Cody knew of. But it was not that late and there was hardly
anybody out on the street. Was this
Joshua’s doing? Was Joshua going to
betray her like Scott had?
Robyn
shook her head to clear it of such thoughts.
No, Mariko had told her that Scott had sold his soul to Dragon/Tregarde without their knowledge because at one point, they
had all thought that Cody had been buried alive under a ton of rubble. Obviously the ronin
of Gaea had survived…but Scott had already sold his soul by the time that they
had found out…
“Anyone
looking?” she heard Joshua ask her and she immediately snapped to
attention. Looking around her, she
frowned at the lack of people.
“Anyone
looking?” she echoed his question, heaving an exasperated sigh. “Josh, there’s
no one here!”
When
she turned back to look at him, she found herself staring at dense bank of gold
fog with glowing gold eyes. She squeaked
in surprise before watching apprehensively as the fog bank slid underneath the
door. Seeing that there was a curtain
closed behind the door, she snapped her fingers. She had been hoping to see Joshua turn solid!
After
a moment, Joshua appeared from behind the curtain and unlocked the door for
her, holding it open and locking it again after she slipped inside. He then made sure that no one could peek in,
pulling the curtain in all the right places to block everything from the view
outside.
Robyn
turned her attention to the inside of the store, feeling some of her previous
nervousness ease away as the smell of cherry blossoms drifted to her nose. She glanced around for the source and found
some incense burning here and there. A
little pagoda had been set up in the middle of the store and in it a rock
waterfall pond, which was also the only evident noise in the store. She ran a hand across a pale blue sarong that
had been draped around the edge of a counter before turning to Joshua when he
spoke.
“Pretty
nice in here, huh?” he commented, inhaling the scent of cherry blossoms
deeply. She smiled as he then hopped up
to sit on top of a counter that had some Egyptian artifacts and merchandise.
“Are
you sure you weren’t just trying to get me alone,”
she teased, laughing when he blinked at her rapidly, mouth
open as if to protest. “I’m kidding,” she soothed but he didn’t seem too
convinced as he kept giving her an unsure look.
“So, where is this Yasay—er—Yasal—uh—”
“It’s
Yasalia,” he corrected, smiling gently. “And don’t freak out when you see her.
Her eyes are—unique.”
“Like
yours?” she questioned and grinned when she saw that faraway look, even if it
was for a split second. When he nodded,
her grin grew even larger. “You like her,” she said, waggling her eyebrows at
him, smiling. At the slight stain across
his cheekbones, she roared in triumph, “Aha! You like her! I knew it! You had
this look on your face that totally gave it away! Even if it was for a split
second but still—it was there! I saw it!”
“Shh! Don’t say anything to her
about it!” he hissed, a dark look suddenly on his face. Robyn immediately quieted at this, thoroughly
confused at his behavior. Did this Yasalia
not feel the same way? Or was it another
one of those gaki things she kept being told of?
She
didn’t have time to ask before Josh cupped his hands around his mouth and
hollered. “Oi! Kitsune-onna!”
“BAKA!”
came an enraged female voice from somewhere. Robyn quickly turned her attention to a
midnight blue curtain near the counter as it was thrown aside and a stapler
went flying through the air at Joshua.
The soul-gaki merely laughed and caught the
appliance in mid-air.
“You
ungrateful, egotistical, tori-atama!” the voice
continued. “Never have I yet met a male who is as ungrateful and inconsiderate
and disrespectful as you! Why did the Ancient Ones curse me with such a fate as
to meet someone like you I will never know—”
“Oi! Kitsune,
are you done?” Joshua asked a smirk on his face as a frustrated scream heralded
the entrance of a young woman with long blonde hair. Robyn blinked and looked at the woman in
surprise as the blonde stalked menacingly toward the smirking soul gaki. She had the
perfect figure from what she could see with the long ritual robe that was
wrapped around her.
The
woman then took a deep breath as if to calm herself
and turned to look at Robyn. Robyn could
not stop the slight gasp that escaped her lips as she found herself staring
into a pair of blood red eyes. This had
to be that soul gaki that Cye had seen that one night, it just had to be…
“Ah,
I see you are doing well. I had been worried about you since I found out you
had a run in with Tregarde already. Unfortunate that
it happened and unfortunate that you nearly cracked too but you seem to be well
now. I take it Halo’s aura has helped along with Torrent’s,” the woman said to
her and Robyn swallowed nervously. This
place was really starting to disturb her.
“Is
this Princhipesa?” a boy’s voice asked and Robyn
looked past the woman to the young boy by the curtain. He had blonde hair as well, but his eyes were
the strangest blue—so light that they seemed almost grey, like a silver.
“Arain
meet Robyn. Robyn this is Arain,” Joshua said from his seat on the
counter. Robyn smiled politely at the
boy who had a large grin on his face, who then turned to the woman, Yasalia,
and spoke to her in what Robyn assumed was Italian. The two conversed for a moment before the boy
gave a startled gasp when the woman grabbed his arms, shaking him gently as she
continued to speak.
Robyn
blinked as the boy suddenly yanked out of the woman’s grasp and ran towards
her, Robyn, wrapping his arms around her in what seemed like desperation. She gave a questioning gaze to the woman who
shook her head apologetically.
“Please
forgive him,” Yasalia said, speaking softly. “He claims that you remind him of
his mother, though younger.”
Looking
down at the boy who held her fiercely, Robyn slowly encircled her arms around
the small frame as she heard him begin to cry.
So the kid really missed his mother and she, Robyn, was a reminder of
what he had left behind.
“Arain
has been sent to live with his Aunt while the Italian government grants his
mother sole custody and annulment from his father,” Yasalia continued.
“Apparently his mother had been forced into the marriage without her consent
and the courts are still debating on whether she is truly married or not.”
‘He loves her very much,’ Robyn thought
as she looked down at the boy and began to comfort him. She could sense his desire to protect his
mother, his desire to protect someone,
like his mother had for him.
Robyn
suddenly yelped as a piercing heat pressed against her and she roughly pulled
away from the boy, digging into her front pocket to pull out the armor orb. Both she and Arain stared at the orb in
surprise when it began to float out of Robyn’s hand and levitate in mid-air
between them. She watched as Arain
hesitantly reached out to touch the orb.
The
moment his hand touched it, the orb flared so brightly that Robyn cried out in
surprise and covered her eyes. She heard
the boy gasp in surprise and pain and Robyn wondered what was going on. Had the orb done something to hurt the
boy? Was the boy not the bearer after all?
When
the light had faded, Robyn looked at Arain to see if the boy was all right but
gasped at the sight in front of her. He
was in full battle armor, which resembled Sage’s a great deal, only instead of
the large sword that the Halo armor sported, Arain’s had a bow and quiver that
greatly resembled Rowen’s. The coloring
was different as well; where the guys had white, there was black and Arain’s
colors were gold, yellow and little bit of white here and there.
“Wow,”
was all Robyn could manage to whisper as the boy inspected himself, a look of
complete awe on his face.
He
finally came to his sense though, for he then smiled up at her as happy as
could be before turning to Yasalia with a questioning look. “Now what do I do?” he asked her.
The
blonde woman shrugged, “Imagine how you were before in your clothes and
concentrate. You’ll know when to stop.”
The
boy gave her an odd look but did as he was instructed, closing his eyes and
concentrating. Robyn watched as the armor flickered and reverted to subarmor
instead of the boy’s t-shirt, pants and sneakers. Eyes still closed, Arain frowned, concentrating harder and Robyn found herself holding her
breath as she waited. The subarmor began
to flicker and finally fade back to the boy’s clothes.
When
he opened his eyes, a grin once again spread across his face, but his body
drooped a little. “That was harder than
I thought it would be,” he complained slightly and Robyn giggled at the kid.
“Mou, you just get your armor and you already expect it to
be easy to be an atarashii ronin?”
Joshua quipped, ignoring the sharp look Yasalia gave him. A small smile appeared on the gaki’s face though as he then said, “Don’t push yourself too hard, kid. You’ll get there eventually. It did
with the ronins before you so don’t sweat it.”
Robyn
smiled, looking at the boy and then at Josh.
So now that she had given the armor to its rightful owner, things were
supposed to ease up a bit, right?
---
Apparently
not, she realized as she found herself blinking rapidly up at the face of
Jayzen as he smiled down at her in surprise.
Right, like she really needed
this before exams. Sighing almost inaudibly,
she smiled back at the handsome young man in front of her.
“Jayzen! Wow! What are you doing here?” she asked in what
she hoped was a surprised, yet happy tone.
God knew she just wanted to eat, go home and sleep right now. All that studying had wiped her out and she
wanted to be rested for exams on Monday.
“Ah,
I had a craving for a good ol’ American cheeseburger
and this is the best place to get one,” he answered truthfully, still smiling.
“What about you?”
“Oh,
I was kind of doing the same thing, except my friend suggested this place.”
He
nodded and then glanced over at the table that her friends were waiting at,
many of them trying not to be caught watching the two of them. Robyn again sighed, this time aloud, before
rolling her eyes and turning back to Jayzen.
“I
getcha,” he said chuckling. “They aren’t too keen on
me, huh?”
“You
have no idea.”
He
again chuckled before turning slightly serious. “Listen, I tried calling you
the other day but your friend’s mom said that you were busy all this weekend.
What’s up?”
Robyn
gave him a lop-sided grin, “Let’s see, it’s nearing the end of the school
year…I’m also a senior this year…so I have both exams and Graduation practice
to deal with.”
He
grinned ruefully back at her, “I hope yours turns out better than mine. Mine
was almost a complete disaster. And trust me, you don’t want to know how; it
could take hours to explain.”
Robyn
laughed at that, “Okay, I guess I’ll take your word for it, but you are going to tell me it sometime,
right?”
“Sure.”
She
smiled at that and listened with interest as Jayzen went onto a different
subject while they waited for their food.
She would join the others when hers got there but why not enjoy the
wait?
Robyn
suddenly went still, her back slowly going rigid as she sat up straighter. Something was wrong…she didn’t know how she
knew it but she could just—feel—sense—that something was off. It was like a dark mood one could sense
hanging around a person…only she couldn’t figure out who it was coming from. The feeling made her skin crawl and she
glanced at the others to see if they felt the same way.
Closing
her eyes, she took a deep breath in an attempt to rid herself of the creepy
feeling. The others didn’t seem bothered
by it…though Cye had given her a questioning look, in which she shook her head
in answer to. Something was just…off.
A
sharp pain at her temple made her wince and she quickly reached up to massage
it. Great, she now had a headache on top
of everything else. Wait, she thought to herself as she massaged her left temple, this feels kind of like when my legs got all
heavy at the hospital…right before I passed out…
Robyn
looked up at the others to see if they were near being finished. Whatever it was that was off, she didn’t like
it. Not one bit. “Are we almost done?” she asked, almost
apprehensively. Some of them gave her an
odd look and she couldn’t blame them for the look; she’d only eaten maybe half
of her meal.
Mariko
gave her a concerned look, “Something wrong?”
Robyn
bit her lower lip before shaking her head, “No, I’m just tired.”
That
answer satisfied most of them and Robyn turned to look around the little diner,
trying to figure out where the creepy feeling was coming from. She had no such luck and was interrupted when
Jayzen came to stand in front of her (she was on the end of the booth).
“Hey,
I just wanted say good-bye and I guess I’ll call you later,” he said and Robyn
smiled up at him, trying to hide the creepy feeling that was still plaguing
her.
“Sure,
but preferably after graduation,” she reminded him and he nodded, chuckling.
“Yeah,
good luck with that,” he said before politely saying good-bye to the others at
the table.
Robyn
watched him leave through the glass doors and disappear out of sight before
closing her eyes and massaging her temple that was now throbbing with a dull
ache. Terrible time to get a headache,
she mused to herself.
“Something
about that guy is starting to give me the creeps,” Cody commented in between
munching on her French fries and sipping her soda. Robyn heaved a frustrated sigh and gave the
younger twin a pointed look. “What? I’m just saying that he seemed like he was
in a bad mood or something.”
Robyn’s
look turned to a thoughtful one. Bad mood?
Could it have been Jayzen that that feeling had been coming from? Well, anything was possible, she figured. But why was she suddenly sensing things like
bad moods with more clarity than she had before?
Sage
narrowed his eyes as Robyn once again massaged her left temple. He hadn’t liked the way Jayzen’s aura had
been radiating with dark magic. It most
certainly did not feel right, not natural at least; in fact, the young man had
felt almost like he had been tainted by something else, but Sage wasn’t sure.
And
why had Robyn seemed so uneasy just a few moments ago? Her whole body had gone rigid and she had
glanced at all of them as if she was looking for something. But she had told Mariko that nothing was
wrong…had she lied? No, she hadn’t lied,
only given a different, yet truthful, answer.
What was she hiding? Didn’t she
realize that she didn’t have to hide anything from them? Though he couldn’t talk really…he was still
having trouble sleeping…though the nightmares were lessening in the number of
times they occurred.
“Are
we all done?” Mariko asked them and Sage nodded as they all got up to leave,
Mariko staying behind to pay the bill as she had promised to do. As they stood outside waiting on the elder
twin, Sage noticed that Robyn had allowed the tension in her to ease away. What had had her so tense?
“Now
what?” she asked somewhat eagerly.
“We
go home and study some more,” answered Cye, who grinned as she looked
disappointed at the answer. Obviously
she had been hoping to get out of studying for just a bit longer. She playfully pouted, crossing her arms but
followed without complaint as they headed back to the Mouri residence.
Sage
sighed almost inaudibly as he walked with the others, glancing down the street
and alleyways every so often. Things had
appeared to slow down a little for them; there hadn’t been any threats in the
past week and he was grateful. Perhaps
they could even get through Graduation without any trouble occurring. Yes, that would
be nice, he thought to himself.