InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Purity Short: Cacophony ❯ Vacation ( Chapter 14 )

Cartham stifled a sigh and crossed his arms over his chest as he leaned back slightly, pasting a rather menacing scowl on his face as he stood guard over Kelly and Bellaniece as the two chattered happily where they were sitting at the blackjack table in the casino—not the one where Kelly worked—that the girls had dragged them into today.  Bellaniece had insisted that no visit to Vegas would be complete without the mandatory gambling, which was entirely stupid, really.  Vegas was known for lots of things, and gambling was only one of those things, and, considering they’d come home last night on the tipsy side and with a marriage certificate in their hands that proclaimed them, ‘Mrs. and Mrs. Crotchcat-Boozewanger’, he had opted not to let them run off without him, ever, ever again . . .

‘Yeah, about that . . . Shouldn’t you find out how they got any kind of identification that looked even remotely official in order to get that certificate, in the first place?’

‘You kidding?  We’re in Vegas.  Finding fake documents probably wasn’t that difficult.’

‘But it kind of makes Bellaniece a polygamist, doesn’t it?’

‘Bellaniece Izayoi only has one husband.  Bellaniece . . . Crotchcat apparently only has a wife . . .’

His youkai-voice sighed.  ‘I don’t know if it’s worse that they got married or if Bellaniece’s husband thought it was the funniest damn thing he’d ever heard.’

Cartham grunted, since he’d overheard that phone call—and the laughter on both sides of it.  ‘Cain was right.  He is kind of an assmonkey . . .’

‘Yeah, but you’re missing the biggest question of them all.’

‘And what’s that?’

‘. . . Do you think those two kissed after the wedding . . .?’

‘. . . Shut up.’

Before the wise-cracking voice could respond, the buzz of his cell phone drew his attention, and he pulled it out of his pocket and frowned.  “Cartham,” he said when he connected the call.

“Hey, I’ve got a job for you.  I’m not interrupting anything, am I?” Cain asked.

“Uh, no, but let me step outside . . .”  Lowering the phone, he strode over to the girls.  “I’m going to take a call.  Don’t get married again or anything while I’m gone.”

Kelly rolled her eyes, but wiggled her fingers over her shoulder to indicate she heard him.

He wasn’t entirely satisfied that he really could leave those two alone, but he didn’t have much of a choice, and he headed outside, instead.

“Go ahead,” he said, putting the phone back to his ear as he quickly slipped into the shadow of the building front behind a very large planter that partially obstructed him from view.

Cain sighed.  “Well, it’s a little different.  I just need you to meet up with a guy there in Las Vegas and pick up a written statement for me.”

“A written statement?  He can’t just mail it?”

“It’s pretty sensitive stuff.  I’d just feel better if you’d retrieved it—I don’t want to take the chance that someone inadvertently gets their hands on it.  Moe says that you’re set up on the network there, right?  Just scan it all and upload it to the secured server.  File the original away till the next time you fly out here.”

“Yeah, okay,” Cartham agreed.  “Not a problem.”

“I’ll send you the contact information in a little while.”

“Aiyuh.”

Cain suddenly chuckled.  “So, how’s Kelly’s visit with Belle going?”

It took Cartham a moment for his brain to process the sudden change in topics, but he supposed that the business portion of the call was done, so, he headed back toward the doors of the casino.  “Not bad,” he allowed, stepping through the automatic doors and into the lobby.  “You should probably know, though, I think your daughter’s a menace.”

“A . . .?” Cain coughed.  “A menace?”

Cartham grunted, narrowing his eyes as he scanned the casino.  The girls weren’t at the blackjack table anymore, but he spotted them a couple seconds later, over by some slot machines.  Bellaniece was playing while Kelly leaned over her shoulder, and they looked like they were having a good time, which only worried Cartham a little bit.  “That’s right, Zelig,” he replied.  “She’s a terrible influence on Kelly.”

Cain cleared his throat like he was trying not to laugh outright.  It figured.  “Is that right?”

“Considering they went out last night, got a little tipsy, then got married?  I’d say so.”

“They . . . They what?”

Cartham snorted indelicately.  “Mrs. and Mrs. Crotchcat-Boozewanger.  That’s what the license says.”

“Uh—Wow,” Cain breathed.  “Well, if they . . . got married . . . then it would have taken both of them to do that, don’t you think?” he pointed out reasonably.

“Maybe, but if your spawn hadn’t been here, then it never would have happened.”

Cain heaved a long, drawn out sigh.  Then, he did bark out a terse laugh.  “And, uh . . . Which one is my . . . spawn . . .?”

Again, Cartham snorted.  “The first one.”

Another delicate cough followed in close order by a round of throat clearing.  “I see.”

“Do you?” Cartham challenged mildly.  “Do you, really?”

“Well, they did like to pretend they were brides when they were little girls . . .”

“You’re not funny, Zelig.  I’m pretty sure that the impulse control problem comes from you.”

Cain sighed.  “That’s probably true,” he allowed.  “Tell the girls, um, congratulations, and I’ll send you the contact information.”

Cartham grunted and ended the call.  Somehow, he didn’t think that Cain was taking the whole thing seriously, and didn’t that just figure?  He made a face as he headed toward the girls in question.

“I won almost two hundred bucks,” Kelly informed him when he stopped behind them.  “Well, it was closer to two-fifty, but I don’t count the fifty since that’s how much I got in credits, to start with . . .”

“Does that mean you’re buying dinner tonight?” he teased.

She laughed, her eyes, shining brightly when she glanced over her shoulder at him.  “I can do that,” she said with a shrug.  “Belle’s got another ten bucks in credits before she calls it good.”

Bellaniece giggled, hitting the button to start the spinner on the slot machine.  “I’d be happy if I could just break even,” she said with a melodramatic sigh.

Cartham winced at the ridiculously loud sound of the slot machine’s audio.  Add to that, the rest of the fairly obnoxious noise level, and he could only hope that the ladies would take pity on him soon enough.  How they could tolerate it was entirely beyond him.  Then again, he’d heard some of the music that Kelly seemed to think was good, and he supposed that maybe he could understand it, after all . . .

“If I’d known you were coming sooner, I would have checked to see if I could get tickets to a show somewhere,” Kelly went on thoughtfully.  “Nate Crawford is doing a residency at the Piedmont-Neumar, and I hear it’s fantastic . . .”

“Nate Crawford?” Bellaniece echoed.  “I love him!  But I suppose it’s sold out, months in advance.”

Cartham nearly snorted out loud.  He’d heard Nate Crawford on the radio a few times, and he couldn’t say he was a fan, given that the squirrely little boy who looked like he’d barely emerged from puberty despite the claims that he was almost thirty-five only seemed to know how to squeak out ridiculously moody emo whine-fests.  Females seemed to think he was dreamy or some shit, though . . .

Kelly sighed.  “Well, we could catch a movie or something . . .”

That got Bellaniece’s attention quickly enough, and she turned abruptly, eyes wide as she met Kelly’s gaze.  “Oh, what about that new Bryan Hockings movie? Heaven Beach?”

“I think that might be playing at the Times,” Kelly replied, sounding entirely too excited, in Cartham’s estimation.  “Does that sound all right to you?” she went on, turning her attention to him.

He chuckled.  “Hell, no,” he said, stepping back when Bellaniece stood up.  “I’m not watching ‘heaven’ anything . . . You two go on, though.  I’ve got a quick job to take care of.”

He didn’t miss the way Kelly’s amusement seemed to instantly die, the way her brows furrowed as unmistakable concern surfaced instead.  “A job?”

He gave a shrug to downplay what he’d said, even as his cell phone buzzed to let him know that he’d just received a message.  Sparing a moment to check it, he wasn’t surprised to see the name and address of the man he was supposed to meet, but the information given was for a guy in Reno, and that, in Cartham’s estimation, wasn’t quite the quick trip that Cain had claimed it was.  A good twelve to fourteen hours, round trip?  He supposed that it couldn’t be helped.  “Yeah, but it’s no big thing.  Just picking up something for Zelig, is all.”

He could tell from the look on her face that she wasn’t sure, whether or not she believed him, but in the end, she nodded.  “You have to do that tonight?”

Chuckling as he led the girls through the casino, he shrugged again.  “If it gets me out of your chick flick?  The sooner, the better, I always say.”

Kelly snorted and rolled her eyes.  Cartham intercepted the look and winked at her.

Kelly squeezed the water out of her hair with a fluffy pink towel as she padded out of the bathroom, comfortably wrapped in the thick, white terrycloth robe.  Bellaniece was in her room—she’d said she was going to call Kichiro—and, though it wasn’t that late, she might have gone to bed already, as she had last night, too.  She’d apologized this morning for turning in before nine instead of staying up to catch up, but Kelly hadn’t minded.  After all, Bellaniece was still likely on Japan time.

The place was so quiet, though, and to Kelly, it was more than a little unsettling.  Then again . . . Frowning thoughtfully at the sense of emptiness that she couldn’t help but feel, she let out a deep breath and tried to distract herself by grabbing the jar of Kagome’s salve off her dresser.  She’d already applied the regular cream in the bathroom since it absorbed better if she worked it in while her skin was still damp.

Cartham had said earlier that he had to go to Reno to meet the guy—his job.  After reminding her to make sure she locked everything up tight, he’d told her that he’d be back sometime tomorrow morning.  She and Bellaniece had gone to the movie and then out to eat, so it wasn’t until they’d gotten home about an hour ago that she’d felt that strange sense of emptiness in the apartment.

‘Don’t be silly.  He said he’s just meeting some guy to pick up something for Cain.  It’s not even a real hunt,’ she reminded herself as she sat on the edge of the bed and opened the jar of Kagome’s skin cream.  ‘He’ll be fine, and even then, he’s a hunter for a reason—one of Cain’s top hunters, he said.  That means that he’s good at what he does.’

True enough.  She made a face.  Too bad that the irrational part of her brain didn’t seem to want to listen.

She sighed as she turned to prop her foot up on the bed, letting the robe fall open to expose her left leg.  She couldn’t help the little moan that slipped out of her as she worked the salve into her skin.  The gentle tingle soothed away the slight itchiness, just as it had done to her arms yesterday when she’d first tried it out.  The scarring didn’t look any paler, but then, she couldn’t really judge that just yet.  At least on her legs, there weren’t as many traversing scars.

The tap on the door sounded mere moments before it opened, and Bellaniece peered around the door with an impish smile.  “Kichiro says to tell you that he’s glad we’re having fun,” she said.  “You ready for bed?”

Kelly shook her head and paused long enough to smile, albeit wanly, over her shoulder.  “No, I’m not really tired yet . . . Just putting this on,” she said, holding up the jar with one hand as she pulled her other leg up to repeat the massage.  “How’s Isabelle?”

“At school,” Bellaniece replied, wandering around the room as though she were investigating her surroundings.  “Kichiro promised to give her kisses for me . . .”

“School,” Kelly echoed.  She laughed, shook her head slowly.  “Sometimes, it seems so weird.  Sometimes, it seems like just yesterday that we were still in school . . .”

Opening the closet, Bellaniece idly shifted through Kelly’s modest collection of clothes.  “I know, right?  But other times, those days seem so long ago . . .”

“Yeah, but you’re happy now, and I . . .” Kelly bit her lip and smiled to herself.  “I’m getting there . . . Maybe . . .”

“Mm . . . because of a certain hunter?” Bellaniece asked in what she thought was an innocent enough tone.

Kelly wrinkled her nose.  “No . . . maybe a little . . . I don’t know.”

Bellaniece snorted.  It echoed in the confines of the closet, and Kelly giggled.  “He’s hot, but you know that.  I mean, you have to.  And he seems to like you quite a bit.”

Kelly sighed.  “You’re reading more into it than you ought to,” she insisted.  “We’re . . . We’re friends.  The only reason we even met was because your dad sent him out here to find me.”

“Kel, you’re living with him.   He moved here for you, and—”

“He didn’t move here for me,” Kelly cut in quickly, even as a hot flush flooded her cheeks.  “He just . . . moved here.  That’s all.”

“Don’t be dumb,” Bellaniece scoffed.  “Dumb doesn’t look good on you.  Of course, he did.  How old is he?  Almost as old as Daddy, right?  A guy that old doesn’t just, up and move, for no reason when he’s been living in Maine for . . .” She trailed off, closing the closet door.  “Well, for a long time.  You’re here, living with him, and you can’t tell me that all the furnishings and stuff were his choices because I know you, and he doesn’t seem like the ‘make sure you have a nice blanket on the back of the sofa’ kind of guy.”

Bellaniece’s words might well be what Kelly wanted to hear, but even so, she shook her head.  “At most, he’s just worried about me, living out here, all alone,” she insisted.

Bellaniece sighed, crossing her arms over her chest as she paced the floor, clearly agitated at Kelly’s pessimistic attitude.

She couldn’t help it.  Somewhere along the line, she’d learned, hadn’t she, not to expect too much, maybe not even to hope for too much.  It sounded so much worse if she put it into those terms.  She was pragmatic, that was all.  And she knew . . .

“I hate to tell you, sweetie, but I can’t remember the last time you were this . . . content,” Bellaniece went on.  “Even back before . . . before the fire . . . You were always so restless, like you were looking for something, and maybe that’s why . . .” She stopped by the window, peered out at the lights of the surrounding city.  “But you’re not like that now.  You’re . . . You’re peaceful—I don’t know if that’s the right word . . . And I’m so happy for you.”

Kelly hesitated for a moment before shrugging off the top of the robe so that she could continue, applying the cream.  Bellaniece glanced at her, only to stop and stare with a thoughtful frown.  “The scarring looks much better,” she finally concluded.

Kelly wrinkled her nose.  “Wish it would speed up,” she muttered.

Bellaniece stepped away from the window and continued her trek across the floor.  “I know you do,” she said, her tone, taking on a placating sort of lilt.  “I wish it would, too, but . . .”

After a moment of silence, Kelly glanced over her shoulder at Bellaniece, only to do a double take when she saw the deeper concern on her face.  “Wha-a-a-at?” she asked slowly.

Bellaniece let out her breath in a slow whoosh.  “Your back,” she said quietly, letting her arms drop as she stepped over to the bed and reached around to scoop some of the cream out of the jar.  “I guess it makes sense.  You can’t reach back here, can you?”

Kelly made a face.  She’d seen in the mirror for herself, what Bellaniece was talking about.  Because she couldn’t reach her own back, the scarring was still pretty raw, angry-looking.  Despite that, she still let her eyes close for a moment as Bellaniece worked the cream into her skin.

“I’ll talk to Kichiro, see if he has any ideas,” Bellaniece went on.

“Thanks,” Kelly replied, more for the help than for the offer to talk to her mate about it.

“Do these hurt worse than the others?”

“No, just itchy,” Kelly said.  “I’m used to it, but sometimes . . . It can be so maddening.  I know, they said that scratching can do more damage, and I try not to, but there are times when I think I might go crazy . . .”

“Yeah, don’t scratch,” Bellaniece agreed.  “Kichiro says that the itchiness is a positive, even though it sucks.  Your back doesn’t even look that bad, either.  It’s just that the others—the ones that you’ve been treating—are a lot more even—a lot smoother.  Just goes to show how far you’ve come . . .” She scooped out more cream and sighed again.  “I’m not trying to diminish your feelings or anything.  That sounded really condescending, didn’t it?”

“No, I know,” Kelly said.  “You didn’t . . . Sometimes, I think that they do look better, but then, I wonder if it’s all in my head.  Like, do they really look better or do I just think they do because that’s what I want?”

“No, they definitely do,” Bellaniece insisted.  “I’m not just saying that.  Lying to you . . . Well, it wouldn’t really be helping you, either.”

Shrugging the robe back up over herself when Bellaniece sat back, Kelly sighed and leaned back against her, resting her head on Bellaniece’s shoulder.  “I’m sorry I pushed you away,” she said.  “I know I said that before, but . . . I should have tried to explain to you, how I felt.  Maybe—”

“And how would you have done that when you didn’t really understand it, anyway?” Bellaniece challenged quietly, almost philosophically, slipping her arms around Kelly, giving her a little squeeze.  “Don’t ever apologize to me for doing something you need to do for yourself.  I missed you, sure, but all I wanted was for you to be all right with yourself.”

Kelly laughed, but it was a sad kind of laugh.  “Life got complicated, didn’t it?”

“Sure.  I’m just so glad to have you back in my life again.”

Kelly sighed.  “I wish you could stay longer,” she mused.

“Next time,” Bellaniece promised.  “Or you could come visit me in Japan.  The shopping there is pretty fantastic.”

“With my luck, I’d get lost somewhere, and they’d just look at me since I don’t know any Japanese.”

“Nah, they’re really polite, and many of them do know some English—the basics, at least.”

“Hmm.”

Bellaniece kissed Kelly’s temple just before Kelly sat up and scooted off the bed to get out her pajamas.  Bellaniece was already in hers, which didn’t mean much, given that she knew well enough that Bellaniece liked to get into her comfier clothing early enough in the evening as long as she wasn’t planning on going out.

“I called Gin, too, just to make sure that Lexi’s not being any trouble.  She’s not, of course—or maybe she is, but Gin would never say.  Then again, she did mention that Bastian doesn’t seem too interested in playing with Lexi very much, but he’s been humoring her, especially since he’s looking forward to the other boys’ arrivals soon enough.”  Suddenly, Bellaniece giggled.  “I’ll bet Daddy told Bastian that if he wasn’t nice to Lexi that he’d call and cancel the invitations to have the boys there, too . . .”

Kelly rolled her eyes.  “Well, I guess that’s possible,” she allowed slowly, considering Bellaniece’s words.  “I remember that one summer when he promised to take us to Fun Town, and we kept pestering him about how much longer it’d be until he told us that if we kept asking, he wasn’t going to take us . . .”

Bellaniece snorted and flicked her hand dismissively.  “You know he wouldn’t have made good on that threat.”

Kelly laughed.  “I know . . . But it did shut us up, didn’t it?”

Bellaniece laughed, too.  That was the year that they had discovered boys, too, if memory served.  Looking back now, Kelly almost felt sorry for the rather shy man.  When they finally had gone to Fun Town, they had spent nearly the whole time, trying to flirt with boys while trying not to get caught by Cain.  At that time, she’d thought that they had done a pretty good job.  Now, though, she knew better.  Cain knew.  Of course, he did.  After all, a couple of pre-teen girls had nothing on the wisdom that he possessed . . .

“So, tell me about this gala of yours,” Bellaniece prompted, breaking the companionable silence that had fallen while Kelly donned her pajamas.

Kelly blinked and shot Bellaniece a quizzical glance.  “Gala?”

“Yes, the gala.  The invitation’s there on your dresser.”

Making a face, Kelly pulled a pale purple, long-sleeved tee-shirt over her head.  “It’s just the casino’s version of a Christmas party, sort of,” she replied.

“Sounds like fun!” Bellaniece said.  “Too bad I didn’t wait a couple more weeks, huh?”

“Oh, I’m not going,” Kelly said.

“Why not?  Gambling?  Dancing?  Charity?  Cartham in a tux?  What’s not to enjoy?”

Kelly scooped up the robe and the towel she’d used on her head and hurried off to the bathroom to put them away.  “You’re assuming he’d go, which I doubt.  Anyway, finding something to wear to it?  I’ll pass,” she said, slapping the wall panel beside the door to turn off the bathroom light.

“Kel—”

“It’s not a big deal,” she insisted.  Really, she’d forgotten all about it, hadn’t actually considered attending, anyway.  Even then, she hadn’t mentioned it to Cartham, mostly because she had no intention of going, and she wasn’t lying when she’d said that Cartham just didn’t seem to be the type who would even enjoy such a thing, so if he did go, it would only be out of some misplaced sense that he had to humor her, anyway.  “Besides, I spend enough time at work.”

Bellaniece didn’t look like she wanted to let it go, but she gave a little shrug.  “All right; all right,” she relented.  “Should we see what’s on TV?”

Satisfied that Bellaniece was going to let the subject drop, Kelly nodded.  “Okay,” she said, leading the way to the door.  Bellaniece stood up and followed her out of the room.