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Four Seasons
Ch 14
Hello again everyone! Yes, indeed this is another chapter of FS! Sorry it took so long, I know how it feels to wait forever.
Quick Note: as it says in the summary, I'm currently rewriting some, most if not all, of FS so please be patient. It won't be a complete rewrite, just changing some things to make the story make more sense.
Oh! The italicized words are to show that they're speaking in English. Non italicized words are in Japanese.
So, without further ado, the new chapter of FS!
Please enjoy!
"Beth's brother, from America. Mind your tongue," he scolded, frowning. Kyo's scowl became deeper at Hatori's rebuke, but he had no time to protest before Hatori asked, "Have Shigure and Aya arrived yet?"
"Yeah, they're inside. The rat's hiding in his room," he announced, smirking. Hari nodded and motioned for Andy to follow him, and Kyo flopped back down onto the warm roof tiles.
Once they had their shoes off and were standing in the hall, Hatori turned to Andrew. "That was Kyo. Most likely your brother and sister are inside." The sound of distant thumping could be heard, and Hatori sighed. "Not long now."
The thumping got louder, and it turned out to be Aya running down the hall and flinging himself on Hatori. "Hari!"
"Ayame, get off me," he scolded, and tried to untangle himself. Shigure came along at a more leisurely pace, immediately noticed Beth slumped over Andy's back, and began demanding information about her health. After a short back-and-forth barrage of information, the two of them went upstairs to lay Beth down in her room.
Sara and Petey were currently talking with Tohru, and seemed to be getting along fairly well. The three of them looked up when Hari and Aya entered, and Sara said something that Tohru slowly translated.
"Sara wants to know where someone named Andrew and Lizzie went," she announced.
Hatori nodded, and then turned to Ayame. "Go find your brother and annoy him for a while, or Kyo."
"Don't you want my company?"
"Not at the moment." Aya left to find one of the teenaged boys to annoy.
"Hatori-san?" Tohru inquired politely.
"Beth- Lizzie's upstairs, sleeping. Shigure and Andrew are with her."
When the girl looked at him confused, he explain, "Beth fainted on the way here, and, as you've probably learned, Sara, Peter and Andrew are Beth's, they call her Lizzie, siblings."
Tohru mouthed 'oh' then turned back to Sara and slowly began telling them what Hatori had told her. When she was done, Petey reached up to grab Tohru's arm and began saying something repeatedly in a worried tone. The patient girl responded with something that calmed him down, and Sara gently pulled the boy back to her.
"What did he say, Tohru?" Hatori questioned, watching as Sara and Petey conversed together in English. Tohru turned to look at him and her eyes clearly displayed her worry.
"He said, 'please tell me Lizzie will be okay!' and I told him she was probably just very tired." The girl sighed, "they really care for her," she told him smiling, and Hari nodded.
Neither of them noticed the siblings watching curiously.
After awhile Andrew turned to Shigure curiously. "Do you have any idea why she fainted like that? Has she been feeling well?"
The dog shook his head also worried, and ran a hand through his hair. "That's the thing, she hasn't complained about anything, never does, and Ellie won't tell us if something was wrong. I don't really know anything."
Andy nodded agreeably, "I remember that Lizzie was secretive sometimes, she never talked much." He sighed, "Especially after,"
When he didn't continue after a pause, Shigure questioned, "after what?"
But Andrew shook his head and smiled, "never mind. Come on, lets go downstairs and let Lizzie rest."
During that time Aya had returned to the main house, and Hatori went along with him, but only to pick up Momiji from his own house and bring him to Shigure's.
With Tohru and Andrew translating, they were able to talk with each other and soon bonded quickly. Especially the two rabbits who immediately became friends, despite the language barrier. Tohru was wonderful enough to cook a meal for everyone, and find a place for the newcomers, and visiting Sohma's, to sleep for the night.
Gray eyes slowly revealed themselves from behind pale eyelids and then continued to stay open a few blinks later. 'Where am I?' The woman questioned sleepily, then sat up slowly when she realized that she couldn't answer that question.
The woman slowly turned and slid off the bed, pulling off the warm covers and standing cautiously on her feet. She slid them into slippers she found by the side of the bed, then slowly began wandering around the room.
In the closet was a bathrobe that she put on and wrapped around herself. Then she trudged across the soft, white carpet to the door and slowly-hesitantly-turned the knob and opened it.
Outside the room she had woken in, nothing looked familiar. There was a smooth, wooden floor running along the entire hallway, and on both sides were multiple doors leading to unknown rooms. There was a place in the middle, however, that had been cut out from the floor where an also wooden set of stairs led down to the first floor, surrounded on two sides by a wooden railing.
The woman slowly stepped out into the hallway and pulled the door nearly closed behind her. Just as slowly, she walked down the wood floor to pause at the railing and peer down at the bottom of the stairs, and whatever else she could see of the first floor. But that wasn't very much, only another hallway identical to the one she was standing on now, and an open wooden doorway of a bright, light-filled room with voices spilling out.
She walked around the railing and paused once again at the top of the stairs- they seemed to look foreboding to her for some reason. But, with a brave gasp of breath, the woman began to make her way down the stairs step-by-step, her hand gliding against the railing as she walked.
From inside the light-filled room a brown-haired head peeked out through the doorway, and then let out a shout of delight when he saw her, "Lizzie!" He called as he lept to his feet and ran towards his sister to wrap his arms tightly around her.
She looked down at him then gently ruffled his hair while smiling softly, "Hi Petey." The woman greeted, wrapping her free arm around his thin frame.
He smiled back at her, then turned slightly in her grip as someone came to stop in the doorway and stare at them. His sister looked up and over in the same direction to see a strange man standing nearby. She straightened and pulled Petey tightly against her body, wrapping her arms securely around him.
"Who are you?" Lizzie asked, distrust lacing her voice.
The man tilted his head to stare at her, and her brother pulled away to gaze confusedly up at her, "Lizzie?" He questioned softly.
But she hushed him and held the younger boy protectively against her, letting tense silence envelop the group of them as Lizzie and the stranger continued to stare at each other. The man seemed worried and confused, while Lizzie stared at him guardedly and Petey looked worried as well.
None of them noticed that the loud conversation had stalled in the other room, at least not until another person came to stand in the doorway, blocking the bright light of the room.
Lizzie, to her horror, realized that she didn't recognize this stranger either. But the first man turned slightly, not breaking eye contact with the woman, to speak in a low voice and strange tongue with the newcomer.
Petey and his sister waited as the two men spoke back and forth, until finally the newcomer, obviously younger, stopped and took a step forward into the hallway and out of the artificial light, to allow it to illuminate his features.
With a gasp, Lizzie questioned disbelievingly, "Andy?"
He looked up at her surprised then studiously for a few minutes before the other man walked up next to him and whispered something.
Then her brother looked up at Lizzie again and actually spoke to her, but in that odd language.
Annoyed, she shook her head and instructed sharply, "speak in English, I can't understand you."
Andy's eyes widened in surprise, but he repeated himself-in English. "I wanted to know if you understood me." He sighed, "Obviously you couldn't."
"Well of course not. You were speaking in gibberish again-how could I?" Lizzie scolded him.
Still in her protective arms, Petey questioned softly, "Sis, can you let go of me please?" He asked, tugging lightly on her sleeve. She did as he asked, but continued to hold his hands tightly.
Andrew sighed, turned to the other man, and spoke to him shortly but importantly. Whoever it was nodded, waved to Lizzie, and went back inside the room, leaving the siblings alone in the hall.
"Lizzie," her brother asked hesitantly, "where do you think we are right now?"
She blinked at him as if he had grown another head, then the woman opened her mouth to reply-but then closed it. "I-I thought we were home, but," she turned to survey her surroundings, obviously starting to get scared by the surreality of the situation, "this looks nothing like home."
Petey slowly pulled his hands away from her and then stepped backwards until he was standing in front of his older brother, acting more like a scared child then a teen. "Andy?" He whispered quietly, clutching at the older boys sleeve.
"Shush Petey, it'll be alright." Andy warningly, then nodded his head at the door to the living room. "Go in there and relax, I'll sort this out. Everything will be okay Pete."
The younger boy scowled up at him. "I'm not little anymore Andy, you can't possibly think that I'll believe you."
He smiled, "Right now I am." The clutching hand was removed before he continued, "Now hop on it, go back inside."
Pete continued to scowl at him but after a loud sigh did as he was told and returned to the room.
After the teen was gone, Andrew turned again to study Lizzie who had continued to stare at him. "Liz? Are you okay?"
"Do I look okay?" She snapped, "I'm standing in a house I've never been in, with people I don't know, and you ask if I'm alright!"
"Liz, I-" Suddenly the girl swooned, but regained her balance quickly. "Careful!" He warned as it happened again, but this time she wasn't able to catch herself and fell to the floor, unconscious.
Andy rushed forward to kneel at her side, "Lizzy?" He placed a hand on her shoulder and turned the woman over on her back. "Liz?"
He heard someone walk up behind him and turned to look over his shoulder to see Hatori standing nearby.
The dragon bent over to peer closely at Lizzie. "Shigure said Beth was acting oddly. What's wrong?"
Lizzie's brother sighed, "she didn't recognize him, her fiancé. And she also didn't understand when we spoke to her in Japanese, only in English."
"You don't seem upset." Hatori commented curiously, looking at him.
Andy shook his head and gently pulled Lizzie up so she was sitting, then wrapped her arms around his neck. "I'm not-at all."
The older man frowned, then relaxed, "you expected this."
His companion didn't answer as he slowly stood up, Lizzie resting on his back. "I did." He agreed, then shifted his sister so that he could carry her easier.
"How-?" Hatori began to question, but Andrew shook his head warningly. "Wait until we put her in bed, I want to make sure she's okay."
Both of them slowly walked up the stairs, down the hallway and into the room where Lizzie had slept.
"Now will you tell me why you weren't surprised?" The dragon questioned, sitting opposite his companion.
The younger man sighed, "It was to be expected…just not so soon. I'm glad Sara, Petey and I found her as quickly as we did."
When Hatori didn't comment, Andrew continued with his explanation, "It has to do with our family's curse." He paused thoughtfully, "which you know about, right?"
"Yes," was the older Sohma's one-word reply. Andy waited for him to say more.
But after a few minutes of silence, he shook his head, "right, well nearly everything bad that happens to our family has to do with that horrible curse." He made a face. "Poor Lizzie, nothing goes right for her. One after another." Andy sighed, "of course Liz never complains about anything, or cries, or gets angry."
Hatori made an odd noise in the back of his throat, "of course not."
"Well, the worst part is that Liz is the oldest of us cursed, and being the oldest creates even more problems." Andrew commented, distastefully imparting the information.
When the dragon didn't speak again, the American slowly continued with his explanation. "See, because she's the eldest, that means Liz has more things to deal with. Mainly what's happening now."
The Sohma raised his eyebrows, "You still haven't explained exactly what's happening now yet."
"Oh, right." Andy replied quickly, glancing vaguely off to the side. "Well, as far as I understand, it's some kind of psychological thing." He sighed, shifting his position. "The rule goes that near, or on, the eldest's thirtieth birthday, he or she will begin mentally reliving their childhood, through memories from each sibling."
Hatori managed to look surprised, "Interesting. That does explain about Beth's actions earlier." He paused thoughtfully, "she believed she was a child again, and back in America. She didn't remember coming here at all."
Andy nodded sadly, "exactly. But it will get worse everyday." He murmured under his breath, "I just worry for when she get to 'then.'"
"What do you mean 'then'?" Hari questioned, having heard the comment clearly.
Liz's brother looked down at his sister again, avoided his companions gaze. Finally, he replied, "just one of the hardest times Liz had to go through back then. Its why she came here, to Japan." The man quietly sighed, "I just hope she'll be able to live through it all again."
From now on Lizzie, Beth, Ellie will be having... living flashbacks of her childhood. In other words, you'll learn more about her history and childhood. It will be dark I warn you, but informative. You'll understand why her personality is the way it is.
In this chapter Beth, Lizzie, Ellie acts the way she did as a teenager, or child, because she doesn't remember growing up, or going to Japan. As Hari said, she thought she was in America. Yes, she noticed that Petey and Andy were older, but she was so scared that she didn't question it.
Also, about Andy. Yes, I know I'm making it seem like he knows a lot of Japanese. He only took two years of it in college, before they went to Japan to find Liz, Ellie, Beth, so he is able to pick up on a lot of it. Plus some of the Sohma's know English, so they're basically catching pieces of what the other is saying.
And Petey. I know in this chapter I made him act younger then he's supposed to be. He's actually nineteen, but here he acts like a twelve-year-old or something. The reason is, is that he is the rabbit, and therefore is very energetic and childish. Basically, he's the same as Momiji... personality wise. Although a few things are different between them, but I won't get into that now.
On a personal note: I started college back in august, and am now beginning my second month. I am very busy and rarely have time to write during the week. In two weeks will be my fall break, but I'm not sure if I'll have time even then. Basically, expect a long time period between updates (I'm not sure how long). I'm sorry about this, but college is more important then fanfiction writing, so please bear with me for awhile. Also, some updates might only be rewrites of previous chapters. You're more then welcome to read these, and in fact it might be neccessary, but please don't be angry with me.
Phew, okay. I'm done with all the notes now!
Thanks to whitelilly, yanikei, Tuki and hiddenstars for reviewing!
Thanks to Ashchan for betaing for me, even though I know she's a very busy girl.
Thanks again for reading and please leave a review for me!
ja ne,
mijichan
