Sinner's Haven ch.46

We lay like that, until finally the stillness grew too much for me. I shifted around a little, before I felt Nate’s arm curl around me and pull me to his chest. My nose bumped into him, and I nuzzled against his warm skin. Maya was whispering in his ear, playing with his hair softly, and my body relaxed, my fear quieted from the gentle actions.

We managed to get ourselves dressed before Nate’s mom came home. When she asked what we’d been up to, a round of “Oh, nothing”s came about. Inside, I laughed hysterically.

Nate drove me over to Akio’s that night, and once I was inside that cozy apartment, I was bombarded with questions about the affair. I laughed, and called Akio a “nasty pedophile pervert,” which just made him grin stupidly at me and mess my hair up.

I caved though, and as we lay in bed shortly after, I told him everything. It did feel good, to let him know what I’d done, and I was relieved he didn’t think it was weird at all. In fact, he seemed intrigued. And when I was done and cuddled up against him, I could feel that certain parts of his body were intrigued, too. I chuckled and rolled us over, so I was laying below him and reached up, tugging gently on his hair.

“I think you and I need to enact what I didn’t get to earlier,” I said, raising my eyebrows and spreading my legs, offering myself to Akio. With a chuckle and a grin, he proceeded to do what he did best. Drive me wild.

In the morning, when I woke up, I noticed he had a bag on the bed. I watched as he walked back and forth from his closet to the bed, stuffing a few things in. I rubbed my heavy lidded eyes and yawned.

“What’s up?” I asked, gesturing towards the bag.

“Oh,” he said as he shoved a pair of gray jeans in, “I meant to tell you last night but…well…I got distracted.” He blushed, then shook his head. “I promised my mother I’d come visit her for a few days during the break. I was going to leave this afternoon.”

“Oh,” I said, and looked away. “I guess that means I have to go to Maya’s tonight. Or home…”

“No,” Akio said as he shut his closet and opened one of his dresser drawers, “you can come with me. Just tell your father you’re going with a friend to visit their family.”

“But how will you explain me?” I asked. Akio shrugged.

“I’ll think of something.” With that he continued to pack his bag, and I shuffled out of bed and to his phone, dialing home. When no one picked up, I just claimed I was going away with a friend for a few days. I reminded my father I’d have my cell phone if he needed to contact me. I prayed he wouldn’t call.

I showered, dressed, then packed my own bag. When I was done I called Maya to tell her, then Akio and I were packing up his car and heading off. As we drove out of the city and onto the high way, I leaned against the window and idly played with my hair.

“How far away does your family live?”

“A little over an hour and a half away,” he replied, and I groaned and reached for the radio, blasting industrial music through the car and successfully blowing my boyfriend’s eardrums right out of his pretty head.

After over an hour on the high way, we finally pulled off into a little town. We drove through streets lined with nicely kept houses, some with fences, one with the cliché white picket fence.

“Where the fuck did you grow up?” I asked, the perfection making me a little queasy.

“Don’t worry,” he said, “it’s not as normal here as it looks.”

“I hope not,” I whispered, watching the houses fly by. After endless minutes of passing perfect houses, then quiet shops, Akio pulled his car up to an old house walled with brick and killed the engine. I stared as he climbed out and pulled our bags from the back, not actually moving until he was walking up the stone path to the house. I bolted out and jogged to stay just behind him, finally realizing that I was meeting Akio’s family. And I had no idea what I was in store for. What if they didn’t like me? Granted, I was sure Akio wasn’t going to say I was his boyfriend, but still.

Akio knocked, and I heard rustling behind the door as it was unlocked, then opened. A short woman stood in the doorway, her long black and gray hair pulled back into a bun. She looked up with dark almond eyes and smiled, extending her arms out.

“Akio!” she said, and wrapped her arms around him, hugging him tight. I shuffled my feet a little as he smiled at hugged her back, and said something I didn’t quite get. It took me a moment to realize why I couldn’t understand it, and I realized he wasn’t speaking English. He was speaking Japanese.

He looked over at me as his mother stepped back, and beckoned me over. I took a step closer, and he smiled and rested a hand on my shoulder.

“Mom,” he said, now in English, “this is Vanity, a student of mine. He’s been staying with me on and off while some problems at home are being taken care of.”

Well, it wasn’t a lie.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” she said, bowing her head, her voice laced thick with an accent. I bowed my head, not really sure what to do.

“Nice to meet you too,” I said.

“Her name is Kiku Kami,” Akio told me as he carried our bags inside and she hurried ahead.

“Why do you have your mom’s last name?” I suddenly asked, realizing for the first time that it was odd. Usually kids had their father’s last name.

“My parents divorced when I was little,” Akio said as he set the bags down next to the stairs. “I was only three. My mother kept us kids, and had all our names formally changed.” He shrugged. “I’m glad she did, I love having a last name meaning “God”, it’s very…powerful.” I smiled and leaned closer.

“It’s very fitting,” I whispered, my eyes narrowing slyly, “after all, only a god could fuck me like you do.” Akio’s cheeks grew red and hot, and I smiled to myself, before stepping back and stuffing my hands into my pockets, hearing his mother’s footsteps coming towards us. We walked into the living room, and Akio and I sat down on the couch, his mother sitting in a chair. I was quiet as they talked, caught up on life. I learned that Akio hadn’t been home since over the summer, a few months after he moved into his apartment. I learned that his mother claimed to have been over-whelmed without him, dealing with his little sister.

“Sister?” I whispered, and before Akio could say a word, the front door opened rather harshly. It slammed shut, and a girl came walking in, hips swaying and large headphones around her neck blaring music.

“Mom, I’m home!” She stopped when she saw three sets of eyes staring at her. Her eyes, almond shaped and deep brown like her mother, stared at the couch, before her lips curled up into a huge grin. She dropped the messenger bag she’d been holding over her shoulder and ran to the couch, her black heels clicking on the wooden floor. “Akio!” she yelled, and threw herself on top of her brother. I heard Akio gasp as his face was shoved into her chest, and she wrapped her arms around his head. “It’s so good to see you!”

Akio muffled something, and she stopped trying to pop his head off his neck and leaned back, straddling his waist in a rather sexual way. “What was that?”

“I said, would you mind not smothering me to death?” He asked, and she grinned. He sighed and pushed his hair back out of his face, before the girl’s eyes left him, and stopped on me. She raised a dark, delicate eyebrow, and Akio spoke up. “This is Vanity,” he said, “he’s a student of mine who has been staying with me. Vanity, this is my little sister, Kohana.”

She smiled at me, and I smiled back. Then she finally slipped off Akio’s lap, and Kiku began yelling at her to take her shoes off, that her heels were going to scuff and scratch the floor. And she was yelling back, and Akio was shaking his head and sighing.

“This is why I don’t come home,” he said, scooting closer to me. “My family is crazy.”

“How old is she?” I asked, looking at Kohana.

“Nineteen.”

Even she was older than me. His little sister was even older than me. For some reason, this really hit home the fact that Akio was really five years older than me, that he was an adult, and I was still a kid. And it made some weird things inside my stomach pull tight.

After a while, Kiku and Kohana finally stopped fighting, and Kiku walked off to go start dinner. Kohana headed up to her room, leaving Akio and I alone in the living room. Seeing him settle back into the couch and realizing we weren’t moving for a while, I folded my legs up and turned my body towards him.

“How come you never told me you had a sister?”

“You never asked,” he said with a shrug. “And I didn’t think it was that important. I figured you’d meet her someday. I have a brother, too.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, an older brother. He’s twenty seven, and lives in Tokyo.”

“For real?” I asked, getting a little excited. Akio laughed.

“Yes, for real. His name is Masa. He moved over there to take a job, and ended up getting married and starting a family. He and his wife have a boy and twin girls, and they’re expecting again.”

“Shit,” I said, reaching up and playing with my hair. “That’s a lot of kids.” Akio shrugged.

“Not so much. My mother wanted seven, originally.”

“Seven!”

“Yeah.” Akio grinned. “But my father and she divorced when she was pregnant with Kohana, and she never remarried, so she stopped with three.” I nodded. “I’m not sure I could’ve handled growing up with that many brothers and sisters, anyway.”

“I’m glad I don’t have any,” I said, leaning back into the couch and smiling. Besides having to deal with the annoyance they bring, it would mean I’d have had one more person to protect at home. One more person to take hits for, to hide. I had enough trouble handling myself.

I watched as Akio stood up, and I slipped off the couch and stretched, watching him walk over to the stairs and pick up our bags. I walked over, twirling my bangs.

“What’re we doing now?” I asked. Akio smiled.

“I’m going to show you where we’re staying,” he said. As we headed up the stairs, for some reason he didn’t need to tell me. I had the feeling I knew right where we were going, I seemed to know the door he’d open. I knew it’d open up to a world he left behind when he moved out, when he accepted adult hood and started a life away from this house, this world, this life. I knew I’d be stepping into his childhood room, and I was anxious to see what bits had been left behind from that time.