Hedgesville, West Virginia

Caspian Residence

Thursday, August 29, 1996

11:10 AM

“So everyone stayed home today in order to try to figure out what to do with Rem?” Rachael questioned Nick who only nodded while watching his son in the backyard fumble around with Reiyl and Kasei. “He’s not doing too well though. It’s like his equilibrium is completely distorted.”

“He’s going to have to learn to compensate,” Nick replied as he shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans.

“It looks painful.”

Looking downward, Nick caught sight of Jennie who was sitting on the porch’s edge. Her eyes were watching the three boys intensely, but she broke her concentration for a moment to gaze up at her guardian.

“Rem’s not doing too good,” she said. “It’s like he lost his will to fight.”

“That,” Rachael whispered, “and Reiyl wants to seriously hurt him.”

“You can’t just let her out of your sight!” Reiyl shouted as he slammed his leg into Rem’s chest, sending the green-haired boy rearward. “If Nahele hadn’t been there to take up your carelessness, Jennie could’ve been captured or killed.”

“Oniisan,” Kasei called out, grabbing a hold of Reiyl’s arm, “you’re going too far.”

“Back off,” Reiyl yelled, throwing the younger boy from his arm, “this doesn’t concern you either. You’re too busy swooning over her to be concerned for her welfare.”

“What about you?” Rem snapped while adjusting his own body, “You’re so anxious on getting into her pants. Snuggling up to her in the same bed. Sneaking kisses.”

Hastily, Rem whipped out his fist, but Reiyl didn’t stir. The punch missed, moving swiftly past Reiyl’s face.

“What can you do to me,” Reiyl asked, “when you can’t even find me without both eyes?”

“Fuck you!” Rem screamed, throwing up his leg and catching the animal demon between the legs. “Don’t need to see to do that.”

Dropping heavily to the ground, Reiyl threw out a flurry of cursing in Japanese while Rem headed back to the porch. Kasei just stared down at his older brother for a moment then quickly launched a brisk thump to the back of his head.

“Baka!” Kasei shouted loud, “you don’t love her!”

“What do mean I don’t?” Reiyl mumbled, caressing his aching privates. “How can I not…”

“You just like her because she’s the Seraph,” Kasei said with a hiss. He clenched his hands into tight fists. “You don’t even see her as a real person. Have you even really looked at her when she reads her books or sits and draws? Do you even know what her favorite color is or what she likes to eat? No, you don’t! All you care about is that she lives to fulfill her duty. And for what?! So you can go home and make Obaasan happy.”

“Kasei…?”

“Dameru!” Kasei glared down at his brother with an intense detest. “You’re going to damage her with what you’re doing. And if you do, I’ll kill you.”

3:32 PM

“This weekend?” Jennie said into the phone as she glanced across the room to the other bed where Rem leaned back against his headboard, working on some homework. “I don’t see why we couldn’t do that. I’d have to ask Nick first and get permission.”

“For what?” Rem asked while continuing to write in his notebook.

“Megs wants to have a slumber party over here,” Jennie said. She glanced over to Rem. “That’s Rem in the background.”

“Why would you want to have a…slumber party?” Rem said with disgust. “Aren’t those girly?”

“I’m a girl, aren’t I?” Jennie said to him.

“I wonder sometimes,” Rem mumbled.

“Oh, yeah, you met him at the funeral,” Jennie replied into the phone, “Cute?”

A frown formed on her face she slowly craned her head over to Rem who was scowling at her. With his head bandaged from his injury and the ferocious look he was giving her due to the conversation she was having, she quickly turned away from his single stare.

“Hardly,” she whispered. “But I’ll talk with Nick. I don’t see why he wouldn’t let me have you and the others over. I guess I could invite my cousin over.”

Jennie’s face paled as she withdrew the phone from her face and stared at it for a moment. She grimaced then placed the handset back to her ear.

“Yeah, I’ll ask Rem to invite the guys over.”

“What?!” Rem shouted from his side of the bed. “That’s no slumber party, that’s a fucking orgy!”

“Yeah, he can get kinda loud,” Jennie mumbled, sighing.

“Give me that!”

Immediately, the phone was snatched from her hands as Jennie looked up to see Rem putting the phone to his head. She scrambled to try to get the handset back from him, but was shoved back down to the bed.

“What the hell are you trying to do?!” Rem shouted into the phone. He paused for a moment. “Really? You serious.”

Turning away from Jennie, he flung out his free hand. “Give me a fucking…”

“Don’t yell…”

Without a second hesitation, the phone was thrust back at Jennie while she could see Rem’s face to be bright red. “Take it.”

“What happened?” she asked.

“Nothing. I’ll ask the guys over on Saturday.”

“What did you do to him?” Jennie asked over the phone. “What do you mean nothing?! MEGS?!”