Shattered: Side Chapter Nine
Author’s Notes: By popular demand, I present another Masa/Kai chapter! Yay! And just so everyone knows, and doesn’t get confused by the timeline presented in the last chapter, this one comes the day after Chapter 04b ends.
Masa paid the cab driver and thanked him immensely. He hadn’t realized how out-of-the-way Yoshiki’s “vacation” house was. Kai held tight to the teddy bear in her arms beside him and alternated between watching him help the other man unload the trunk and staring up at the house. Once unpacked, Masa thanked their driver again and hefted their two suitcases into his hands. Bumping the little girl playfully with one of them, he smiled and nodded up at the house. “Come on,” he said quietly, “let’s go.”
She nodded, but said nothing as they trudged up the drive and the front walk to the door. Kai found the carving in the bordering windows rather fascinating. Meanwhile, Masa put one of the suitcases down so he could root through his pocket for the key. After finding it – in the other pocket, which earned him a moment’s panic – he unlocked the door and ushered the little girl inside before him. Following her in, he shut the door behind him and stared.
The front hall was immense and furnished with only the best. This room alone had to have cost a fortune. And if they were all the same…Yoshiki said there were at least ten rooms in the house, but since he hadn’t visited in awhile, he couldn’t remember exactly how many or how big they were.
Needless to say, Masa was impressed. Putting the suitcases down, he offered a hand to the little girl and said, “Let’s go explore.” This time, she smiled and took his hand, walking with him through the house. She would peak around corners to see if she could beat him to the surprise by a few seconds.
After having a self-guided tour of the downstairs and finding two very nice cars in the garage, they raced each other upstairs. Kai giggled as she beat him to the bedroom to their right and leapt onto the king-sized bed, bouncing up and down. Masa reached the door frame and leaned against it, finally relaxing. “We’ll have to buy new sheets,” he mused.
“Why?” Kai asked. She was currently bouncing back and forth from the corners back to the middle of the bed while turning in circles. Masa would have been concerned for her safety if he hadn’t seen her doing a similar routine back at Gackt’s house.
“Because these aren’t ours.”
“Why?”
“Because we didn’t buy them.”
“So?”
“So, we shouldn’t use them.”
Flopping down on her rear end, she bounced a few times until the bed stilled under her. She dove into the pillows and there came a muffled, “But I like these ones – they’re fuzzy!”
“Oh really?” Masa walked up and joined her on the bed. She was right, they were fuzzy. And rather comfortable, he thought. Well…shit, there goes my argument. “Alright, we’ll keep them.”
“Yay!” she squealed, jumping up and bouncing a few more times.
“But not without payment.”
She fell to her knees beside him. “What payment?”
“This payment,” he said, promptly grabbing her sides and tickling her, successfully wrenching a fit of giggles from her.
After a moment or two she collapsed, still giggling, across his stomach, her small arms wrapped around his waist. He ran his hand through her dark hair and rubbed her back, feeling her breathing return to normal against him. “Masa-kun?”
“Hmm?”
“When’s Daddy coming?” She turned her head so her other cheek rested against him and she could watch his reaction.
The content happiness he had been experiencing for the last half hour or so immediately evaporated. Continuing his soothing caresses he murmured, “Not for awhile, Chibi…”
“Does that mean we still have to play pretend?”
“Yeah,” he sighed, “yeah we do.”
She was silent for a moment. “Okay, Daddy.”