Pix (inspiteofcages) wrote in _fracture_, @ 2014-02-11 14:50:00 |
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Entry tags: | chapter 1, kai, mai, the regent hotel |
Sisterly Gossip
Who: Mai and Kai
Where: Kai's room
When: Late morning
Mai had taken long enough to brush her teeth and hair, but then the anticipation was killing her and she was headed out of the room again back across the hall. Breakfast had been left and she grabbed her tray, noting that most of it she couldn’t eat, but Kai could. She knocked on her sister’s door loudly, then eyed the food, wishing there was more she could eat. That was unfair.
Kai was dead asleep when the knock came. When she moved, it was to snuggle over to Ronin's side of the bed – which was cold. She opened her eyes and blinked blearily at the empty bed, sitting up and looking around. Disoriented, she got to her feet and stumbled to the door, confused. When she opened it, she stared at her sister, rubbing the sleep out of one eye. “...yeah?” she asked, wondering what was going on.
“Breakfast!” Mai announced, moving her way into the room as gently as she could, but obviously not giving Kai another choice. “Here. I brought you mine,” she said as she set the tray down and went back for the other. “And yours. I figure, I can’t eat most of this and you like all this carb stuff for breakfast so someone might as well enjoy.” She found a piece of melon and popped it in her mouth before sitting on the bed like she’d been completely invited in and nothing at all was up or weird. “So...how was last night?”
Trying to catch up with current events, Kai looked back into the room, and it's lack of Ronin-shaped people. Had she dreamed it all? Or had he freaked out and taken off the second he was conscious? God. She'd told him she loved him, hadn't she. Fuck. Walking back over toward the table, she felt her stomach turn at the thought of what was or was not going on. “I'm still waking up, Mai,” she said, rubbing at her other eye to clear it.
“Right, well that makes sense considering Ronin was sneaking out of your room this morning,” Mai said, kicking her heels against the footboard of the bed like she was a little kid again. She was itching to know what Ronin had told Kai, if he’d said what she hoped he’d said. It earned him a punch in the jaw for being kind of a dick to Mai for no good reason, but hey, progress was progress.
Kai bit her lower lip a touch, and sat down on the bed, ignoring the food. Her mind was spinning. How much of last night had actually happened? What if she'd made it all up? Or, what if he woke up and realized that it was the alcohol talking last night, and he was going to pretend it hadn't happened at all? Did she pretend too, to make it easier? She meant everything on her end. Even if she was still waking up, she knew that. But what if he didn't, and if she didn't cater to things, she'd fuck everything up? She didn't notice that she didn't actually answer her sister.
Mai was watching her sister intently, waiting on an answer, but she didn’t get anything. So Mai waited a little longer and when there was still nothing she poked her sister. “Words Kai.”
Shaking herself Kai looked over at Mai. “I'm going to take a shower, okay? I'm not really up for this right now,” she admitted, getting up to duck into the bathroom. Her wheels were grinding, spinning out of control with all the what ifs, and terrible outcomes that could potentially happen. There was a massive suck factor.
Maybe her sister wasn’t ready to talk about things, but that reaction alone made Mai worry and she got up to follow after her sister. “Kai...what happened?” Her voice had turned from looking for gossip to true concern about her sibling.
What did she answer? “I don't know,” Kai said. “Nothing?” she suggested. She didn't really want to ring alarm bells for Mai, because that would just make everything worse. Crap. “I think I drank too much last night,” she added. Which at least had the ring of truth to it because it did happen to be accurate.
“Drank too much? Where?” Had they ordered the wine that Mai hadn’t thought of to go with her dinner with Ash? Maybe. “What did Ronin say? He told me he told you something last night and...what did he say?” She was going to kick his ass. Straight to next week. Already one of her hands was balling into a fist just thinking about it.
“Yeah, there's a bar downstairs,” Kai said as she started running the water to warm it up. She thought about what she remembered him saying, then came up with something good to tell Mai. “He said I meant everything to him.”
Mai smiled. “That’s good news right?” Finally. That was what the two of them needed, to figure their crap out so they could stop pining and focus on some real things. Like careers and in Kai’s case, her photographing Mai. It would all work out for the best.
Kai smiled. “Yeah,” she said. “It was...it was really something to hear,” she admitted. Which was also true. And then he left! Before I woke up! Because...because I don't know!
“He say anything else? Professions of love, more songs he’s written about you?” Mai asked, still smiling and visibly more relaxed now that that was out of the way. “Is he taking you on tour like permanent girlfriend now? Because I still need you you know.”
Kai gave her sister a Look. “Yeah, you don't get details,” she told her. “I'm thinking I'm a little hungover, and need a long, ridiculous shower, and whether or not he professed love for me isn't your business anyways.” And he didn't, though I'm not actually worried about that. I know he does. Just sorta now I wonder if it's platonic, and I was going in a whole other direction with that.
“Who else are you going to tell?” Mai asked, pouting a little. She rolled her eyes a little and sighed loudly, a touch over dramatically. “Fine. Something finally happens between you two and you don’t tell me. Fine. Just...if he mentions Ash, it was so not what it looked like.” Well, not completely. Ash had stayed over, just not for the typical reasons.
“Because I live in a fairytale where everything would fall into place in like, a couple hours?” Kai asked skeptically. “We're grown ups, Mai, not cartoon characters. Stuff is more complicated than that. So, right now, maybe there isn't a ton to dish. And wait – what isn't what it looked like?” She eyed Mai, then smirked. “Did someone else have a night time guest last night?”
“Why are you so against fairytales? And yes, maybe it could have at least started to fall into place or there was making out or something interesting.” Mai really hoped Kai and Ronin weren’t boring as a couple as well. She looked away from her sister pointedly and shrugged a little. “Yeah… Maybe I did. Ronin caught him leaving and did his big bad big brother I don’t need schick.”
Kai blushed faintly, because she certainly remembered making out. It had been very, very nice. Only now she didn't know if that was going to be a thing, or not, or what. God she was confused. But she happily latched on to Mai's bit. “So it wasn't what it looked like...what was it?”
Mai’s eyes widened at her sister’s blush, catching that for sure. “Something did happen didn’t it?” she asked, obviously wanting to know more despite Kai’s questions. “It was...dinner and then and extremely chaste night of enjoying each other’s company. But it wasn’t some sort of sordid hook up or whatever Ronin might say.”
“Not talking about this!” Kai insisted again. “We're talking about you now, or you can get out of my bathroom!” Her description of her night, however, had Kai smiling. “OH my god! You had a real date! That's the sweetest thing ever!” She was excited for Mai, and that shown through, helping cut through her cloud of internal confusion.
Mai rolled her eyes at her sister and shook her head. “It was not a date…” she said, then frowned. “I’ve been on real dates before mind you and it was just...a thing. And yes sweet, but not like squishy sweet.” She could tell her sister was excited, but that just made her blush and grumble a little. “I’m not some lost cause.”
“No, that was a real date. Dinner and a movie or whatever, that's tv's version of a date. A real date is hanging out, talking a ton and connecting. Which is what it sounds like you did! Go you!” Kai said, grinning. “And obviously you aren't a lost cause! Woo!”
“It wasn’t just talking,” Mai said, trying to defend the not-date. “And you know, I am capable of conversation. So stop acting so surprised.” She wrapped her arms around herself and fought a blush. “I think he’s a big deal you know. Like...outside of here.”
“I'm not acting surprised, I'm happy for you! Though come on, you've seen who you date. A lot of them aren't exactly great conversationalists...or y'know, human beings. I love you but you attract some guys I'd rather eat straight pins than spend an hour with. Which they wouldn't notice because they'd be too busy checking out their own reflections in any available shiny surface.” Kai nodded. “You'd said something about that...got more info on that?”
“Well I knew what I was getting into with them,” Mai said though Kai was right. The men she dated weren’t usually more than anything to look at. “He has an assistant and an accountant. He talks about it like he knows how to throw his money around, but he doesn’t always. Apparently he as a jet. God I hope he’s real.” It would be terribly sad if it was all a ploy to get closer to Mai. Especially when she liked him for more than just the money.
“I know, that just didn't make them any more dealable to me,” Kai said. When she said he had a jet, she blinked. “Woah. Yeah, okay, that is a huge deal.” She considered it. “I want to meet him. I don't care when, and you can do it on your terms, or whatever if you want, but I want to meet him.”
Mai eyed her sister. “Meet him why?” That sounded real serious and Mai wasn’t sure that putting Ash through that was going to win him over any. She’d made up her mind of what she wanted and the last thing she wanted was to derail something that good.
“Because you seem like you really like him and I'm your sister?” Kai suggested. “Why wouldn't I want to?”
“You’re not...going to ask a zillion questions and like...quiz him are you?” Mai asked, still a little nervous about the idea because of the reason that Kai had hit without probably meaning to. Mai did like him and she didn’t want to run him off.
“I don't know. But think about this – it can get done on your terms, or I can run into him at random in this hotel because no one's going anywhere. Your choice,” Kai posed. She smiled too sweetly.
Mai glared at her sister. She hated that face. “Fine. I’ll set something up.” It was so frustrating when Kai got what she wanted. “Just no Ronin. Not the first time. You’re plenty enough.”
“I'll be on my best behavior,” Kai promised. “And fine, no Ronin for the first time, but you might wanna include him sooner than later, for the same reason I just said. Especially if he caught Ash leaving your room.”
“He’s already got comments,” Mai said, not bringing up Ronin’s game of teasingly flirting with her just to get a rise of out of her. That might not go over well with Kai and Mai knew it was bullshit anyway. But he’d laced the whole thing with comments about Ash and his shoulders and whatever else. It was enough to be annoying. “Eventually we can add him in, but you know him, he’ll make a scene.”
“Maybe he will, maybe not. You don't know.” Though in reality Kai figured Mai was right, Ronin was Ronin, and he'd be funny and playful as usual. It was just his nature. “Anyways, I really want to get a shower in...”
“Not sure I like not knowing.” Mai sighed and nodded. “Fine. Make sure you eat something too. There’s coffee too.” She backed away from the bathroom, grabbing some of the fruit on the plate and one of the carafes of coffee before heading back to her room.