l o y · a l · t y

Hisoka didn’t want that.

He couldn’t find a reason logically. First, this kid was nothing but trouble. He also ate enough for a person twice his size. The medical bill was heavy during the drier seasons and…The Nase household could do without Tadashi. Hisoka himself, however, might not function as well if the brat left. Looking for him has become a part of his daily routine. It had gone from being irritating to almost entertaining. 

"At least he is well. That must set your heart at ease." Hisoka walked over to Tadashi, lifting one of his arms. "See? Nice and healthy. Clearly well fed. He’s not being treated as a slave, but a child. I was made a father at the age of eleven." The head of the Nase household turned away from Inari and focused instead on the child he had raised. "Tadashi, decide if you want to leave with her. You have three days."

Important question, serious moment. Perfect time for comedy relief. A furry creature had somehow wormed its way into the top secret torture chamber. For a moment Hisoka just stared at it, speechless. It totally ruined the atmosphere. “I am sure you two have a lot more to talk about. I will go take a walk…And send this little intruder back to where it came from.” With a single hand, Hisoka scooped up the ‘cat’ and carried it out of the room. 

Cautiously, she crept up to break the ice. And as she was ready to lunge and chomp at the nicest smelling one’s ankles…

*Mrrooewwwwwwwwwwwwwhsssssssssssss!!!*

Shock. Someone had spotted her. As she was being very unwillingly scooped up, her hunter-pride was a bit crushed. It was the cold-smelling one. He said something about food. For a moment that made her reconsider. But her pride was crushed and needed compensating.

To make things even worse, this sister had lived a much harder life than she needed to. Trying so hard to get back someone that wasn't actually in a bad situation, nor remembered her. All that hardship she must have suffered through alone, all while he had been here getting for the most part, pampered. 

Lips parted to speak but Hisoka did so first, and he corrected his posture. Very well indeed. Tadashi didn't bluntly react to Hisoka's next words about departure, and his time limit of three days. Widened eyes were quickly blinked away, and apathetically he replied "Alright." Perhaps he owed it to Inari to try to be a brother? Or maybe he'd been burdening the Nase family for too long now...

Rolling his shoulders and following Hisoka's line of sight he glanced over a small creature in the corner, how it managed to get in? Tadashi didn't know but it wasn't his biggest concern, and he nodded silently when Hisoka chose to take it out for a walk. "Be safe." He said flatly waiting for Hisoka to exit the room. 

Eyes glanced back towards Inari and Tadashi stared at her for a moment in silence with empty thought before taking slow steps towards her, crouching down next to her. "You'll have to forgive me, I don't exactly know what to say." He spoke calmly, forcing his attention to stay focused "But attempting to talk to someone in a manner such as yours is a bit awkward, so please don't try anything." Tadashi removed his ring for a moment and forced his fingers between the rope, cutting his finger with his own nail and letting his blood eat through the rope. There was no way in hell he'd ever figure out how to untie one of Hisoka's knots.

He smelled an awful lot like puddings and cakes and his head reminded her of a piece of nigiri topped with a bright pink slice of salmon.

*What a peculiar boy. Maybe he would taste good too.*

She left the shadows of the street and studied her subject closely. He was adorably nice smelling and very very much human (that is non-nigiri). *No salmon this time,* she thought regretfully, *but…*

He could make fine entertainment. She had a knack for making boykittens (well actually just one so far) worship and enraptured with her. In proper predator fashion, she camouflaged her attack by acting adorable…

*Meeowwww?*

      "Hello little one." Tadashi cooed resting his chin on the palm of his hand, his left one being held out in the direction of the cat. Slowly it got closer as the kitten chose to seemingly study him further.

      It was cute, then again the only animals he's ever come into contact with was his turtle, and youmu. The turtle was cute, Youmu aren't, but this feline was a different kind of cute so he couldn't put it on the same level as his beloved pet. 

      At the cat's meow towards him, Tadashi released a slight huff as he leaned forwards in his position, lightly placing his hand on the kitten's head.

The morning smelled crisp and chirpy as Mooshie sprawled herself over Over-cuddly-wuddly-boykitten’s always curiously fur-less but nonetheless lovable arms. With the sun pelting her fur, Mooshie just felt so splendid in the gentle warm lulling of Mushu’s armpit.

So she stayed there for a good five minutes, basking in the warmth of the sun and her boykitten, with her eyes sweetly closed as if still asleep in a still dream.

But finally the sun and the breeze drew too enticingly. She weaseled her way out of Mushu’s arms and plopped out her little white paws, ready for breakfast.

*Mewwww…?*

Nope, Mushu was passed out cold. So she pawed him, then scratched him (gently), then bit him (not so gently). Not a reaction. *What trouble had he got himself into this time?* she wondered.

She was mighty hungry, and her Cuddly-Wuddly was obviously not going to wake up anytime soon.

*Perhaps a bird would do. After-all, they sound so mighty fresh this morning ho ho ho. Nom nom nom nom.*

All that she conveyed in a single self-satisfied *Meeeeoww*.

There wasn't much of a crowd today at the park, not that Tadashi minded. He didn't particularly fear people, but whenever he did come across another human being who didn't already know them...

well after a few minutes of a conversation, Tadashi regretted ever replying considering they were ready to smack him one. All because he said something insensitive. 

Tadashi never found it insensitive, they simply needed to rework their view on things.

In the middle of his walk he noticed something small from the corner of his eyes, and quickly recognized it to be a small cat. Well, he had nothing better to do...

Getting closer to the small creature, Tadashi kept his distance and knelt to his knees. Animals generally didn't like him too much, but this cat seemed domesticated, so maybe it was friendly. 

Then a boy came in. Not much younger than either Hisoka or herself. Even if she hadn’t seen him in almost twelve years, she knew instantly it was Tadashi. The same shade of hair, the eyes that looked like their mothers, the face shape she saw every time she caught a glimpse in the mirror. This just had to be him. Her gaze shot back to her captor when he spoke and she forced herself not to roll her eyes. Instead she began to think of how she could tear him limb from limb when she was let go.

Her rinng. Why did the bastard have her ring? And how did he know her name? She hadn’t given it when she attacked him. Honey colored hues drifted back towards her brother.

"I don’t have a sister. I never did."

"…I did some research after your mother dropped you off. Don’t blame me, I could hardly accept someone I know nothing about." He gave Tadashi a look. Likely the kid wasn’t going to be mad, but Hisoka didn’t want him to leave with the impression he was distrusted. "The information I had claimed you had a sister by the name of Inari Kuriyama. Her whereabouts are unknown. I didn’t talk to you about her all this time because I assumed you knew…And I figured she was dead." Clearly though, he was wrong about the dead part. His captive was quite healthy in body and spirit. Capable fighter, too.

If Hisoka tried a little harder, then maybe he could have found Inari. For a few reasons he chose against that. Number one and most selfish was that he didn’t want to take in another Kuriyama in his house. Tadashi was already an exception that other clans wouldn’t have made. Why bring more trouble for his household when he didn’t need to? In addition, if he found out the location of the girl and that information leaked out, then her situation could become very dangerous. He didn’t want to indirectly kill her. 

Hisoka pulled the wad of cloth from where it was inelegantly stuffed in Inari’s mouth. Likely she’d want to speak at this point. Since it was clear by her eyes that she recognized Tadashi, Hisoka felt safe letting her loose. After all, she would hardly want to hurt her brother. "When Tadashi was brought to me, he was injured and bleeding from the head. Someone might have hurt him and made him forget you." These words were for Inari Kuriyama.  

Hazel hues drifted towards Hisoka at his mentioning of research, of course Tadashi didn't blame him for that. Back then he wouldn't have thought about it in the least bit, but now it's something he'd expect of him to do. Though the information that his guardian just spoke of caught his attention. It bothered him ever so slightly that Hisoka didn't bring it up, but then he really couldn't blame he older male for that either, Tadashi could remember how he reacted when he finally realized his mother wasn't going to come and pick him up. 

"Surely I'd still have remembered her, right?" Tadashi spoke calmly, though his voice became void of emotion as he glanced back to Inari. It didn't make any sense. Perhaps it was something only Hisoka could realize, but he still didn't trust her despite what was being said. 

Watching silently as Hisoka removed the cloth from the pinkette's mouth, he could feel a slight pain in his head coming on. The entire situation was confusing, and their current location was rather distasteful. He couldn't tell what was bringing on the head pain. It definitely wasn't because he hasn't eaten enough, maybe it was a lack of sleep topped on top of this situation. 

Then Hisoka mentioned the night of his arrival. That night was still blurry to him, it was mainly a series of treatment, eating very little, and sleep. The day before that was even more blurry, and the thought of it pulled his attention away from the two of them to the wall. Even after he came to call this place home, what he did remember of that night, he didn't want to talk about.

A normal family reunion wouldn’t look quite like this, but it was better than nothing. The parties both arrived. In the red corner, Miss Inari Kuriyama was present. If she was excited to see her brother for the first time in years, she wasn’t showing it. Though perhaps that could be considered Hisoka’s fault, as he had tied her head to toe until she literately couldn’t move a finger. A blood manipulator was dangerous, especially an angry one.  To prevent her from biting her tongue or something, he actually had to gag her too. 

Not the most gracious host she ever met, Hisoka was sure. Never the less, she will soon learn to appreciate his ways. 

In the blue corner, young Tadashi Kuriyama had been pulled right from the Nase kitchen where he had been feeding his gluttonous mouth hole for hours. He looked a little shell shocked to be here but that was to be expected. This was, after all, one of the secret rooms that no one but the head of household could get access to. It was nothing special, just a really sound proof torture chamber. 

"Excuse me for restraining you like this but you did just try to kill me, so." That was for Miss Inari, who likely was thinking about all the ways she could slit his throat by now. Hisoka didn’t want to slip her ring on for her for other purposes. The gold hoop sat in the Nase’s palm, glistening under the dull light. "Look, Tadashi." He presented it to the blond male. This ring was identical to the one Tadashi wore. A gift from his mother, also a way for him to find his way to his only sibling. 

     And yet he was brought here.

     When hazel eyes fell on another body, a bit of worry struck him. Tadashi didn't dwell on it for long though, naturally he trusted whatever decisions his elder made but even so, bringing him here was pushing it a bit. He wasn't allowed to be in this room on his own, and from the way it looked on the inside, he didn't want to be in here accompanied either.

     "Is this going to become a thing? Are you just going to introduce me to your attackers? If it is, I'd prefer if it didn't." The strawberry blond male spoke lazily, but his interest was attained with the showing of the ring. Taking it from Hisoka, Tadashi looked it over, and after feeling the special material his eyes immediately looked to his left hand where his own ring usually rested. It was indeed there, then why would she have one too? Sister?

At times like this, Hisoka felt Tadashi wasn’t as difficult of a child to satisfy as the others. As long as the blond was well fed, paid attention to and given a space to move about in, he didn’t throw tantrums. "I’ll also have someone plant some flowers out side of your window." Hisoka’s mother did that for him on his seventh birthday. It wasn’t much, but at least his mother stepped outside of the chamber she usually confined herself to to complete the task. A small, hesitant, yet precious step in the direction of recovery.

"Flowers? What kind? What colors will they be? Will they smell nice?" Tadashi spoke quickly and with excitement. He had a few images of flowers floating through the back of his mind, though he had no idea what they were. Looking down at Hisoka at his question, Tadashi removed his hands from the cloth and looked at them for a moment, quickly his attention snapped back and instead of trying to roll Hisoka over once again he flopped on top of him "Sorry." 

Turning around, eyes first went to the body on the ground. Disgusting. But it was then he realized whom his savior was, though it would have been slow witted of him to assume it was anyone else. Turning to face Hisoka, Tadashi could feel the other's discontent from his tone of voice, but the look he was delivering only made him worry for himself even more. 

William Twining