A Songbird's love

Chapter 32: What now?

What now? That's a good question.

I'll give you my most honest answer.

I don't know.

What? You expect me to know what to do after this whole fiasco? Both my parents are dead, so Mikuo and I are officially orphans. The twins have lost their mother, and by the looks of it, they wouldn't be willing to go with their father anytime soon.

Oh wait. I just remembered.

Shit.

I glanced at the twins, who were about to doze off in the backseat of our car. Would it be a great time to tell them about their mother?
Most importantly, would the news be best received from me?

No. I highly doubt so.
I nudged Mikuo's arm to grab his attention, then whispered, "I think we should pay Fudo a visit in the hospital. Besides, he deserves to know his kids are okay."
He may not be the best father, but at least he cares about his children.

We changed course and headed for the hospital. Len noticed the change of course, and asked, "Where are we going?"

"The hospital. I'm sure you want answers from your father?" 

Rin sat up straighter, sleepiness shaken off, "Dad's in the hospital?"

"Yeah, they got him pretty bad."

"What about Mom?"

The silence was loud enough as an answer. Rin's face paled, "What about Mom?"

"Rin, I-" 

"Where's Mom?" Her voice was raised, her panic was settling in again. 

I felt my face harden, "Your father will tell you."

Len seemed to pick up on the mood, and worked on calming his sister down. Thank god the hospital was in sight. 

Fudo was staring out the window that was next to his hospital bed when we opened the door and interrupted him. The twins immediately hurried towards their father, with worry and concern written all over their faces. 

Fudo gave us a look of gratitude, "Thank you so much for bringing them back."

I looked away, and in a cold voice I said, "There are things that you should tell them yourself. They had to learn more about you in the worst way possible, I hope you're prepared."

After hearing my words, the twins simultaneously moved away from their father to look at his expression, and to put some distance between them and him. Len started the questioning, "The person who kidnapped us, he told us some things... and we want to know all the answers. You've been hiding things from us, haven't you?"

Fudo sighed, "I have. And I guess I can't hide it from you any longer. Go ahead, ask away."

"What do you really work as, Dad?"

"I mostly ship weapons over illegally, for whoever who wants them. The office job is a side job. And sometimes... I can't help myself. Those weapons are illegal, but my, are they beautiful."

"You took some, didn't you?" I blurted out, unable to stop myself. It had clicked in my head the minute he said that. The guns that were available in the house, but out of reach from his family were the ones he had stolen. 

"I did. It was the only way for me to even get one of those. I had done it a few times already, and none of my clients had noticed the missing one. I thought it wouldn't be any different this time."

"Well, looks like you were wrong." I couldn't see Len's face from where I was standing, but his voice was ice cold. I could see Rin's face harden though, and man, it was scary. I never thought I'd see the day Rin get mad, but I guess I was wrong. Looks like Fudo and I share one thing in common. 

Rin asked then, "Why did you want to do this job in the first place? Did you not bother about our lives? About Mom's? Yeah, we know what happened to her. The silence in the car told us enough." The last part was directed at me. I felt slightly guilty, but they got the message. 

Fudo closed his eyes, "The money was good. No one thought the prices were too high for a weapon, they only want the best, after all. They were willing to pay whatever price for their weapons." 

"Money. That's what you were after." Len deadpanned. 

Of course, it was for money. I was just wondering the last time where they got their money from. That was an overlook on my part. 

"I wanted the best for our family. I wanted you two to live a comfortable life, and not need to worry about anything. Even after I stop working, you two would still have enough money to lead a luxurious life."

"I'd rather we don't live a life full of riches than having Mom dead!" Rin screamed at her father, the tears finally streaming down her face, "All we wanted was for the two of you to spend more time with us, we didn't care about the riches. Did you spend so much time outside with your guns that you forgot you had us? You reach home after we sleep and leave before we wake up in the morning, we never get to see you for a whole day. Even this group of assassins-" she said while pointing at us, "-feel more like our family then you do!" 

Fudo's eyes widened then, "Assassins?" 

Teto nodded solemnly when he looked in our direction. Ah, I forgot to tell him. Woops. Well, surprise surprise, I guess. 

"It doesn't matter what they are. They were there when we needed them. You weren't even around before all this happened." 

Fudo leaned forward, possibly wanting to reason with the twins, but Len raised a hand to stop him, "We've heard enough. You can tell the rest to the police, they would hear everything you want to say." 

The twins simultaneously turned away from their father. Len grabbed my hand, and pulled me towards the hospital room door, telling me non-verbally that he wished to leave. The rest of them got the que, and Teto rushed to open the door. 

"I'm sorry. I really thought I was doing what was best for you."

Rin and Len stopped right at the door when they heard that. Rin looked back and said, "You can rethink that again in jail." 

And we left the hospital on that note. 

We drove back to HQ in silence. It stayed that way until we all gathered in Mikuo's office. "Well, it's definitely gotten more crowded since the last time we were all here. Now, let's face the problem head on: What are the two of you going to do now? They'd never let two children stay in a house on their own. Plus it's such a big house, I doubt the two of you can pay the staff enough to keep them around. I don't think the two of you would want to clean that house on your own, no?" 

The twins looked at each other, and seemed to make a decision through telepathy. How else would they settle on the same decision? Len said, "There's nowhere else for us to go." "Except here." Rin continued, "We have friends here. We would prefer to move here to stay instead of staying in that big empty house. We'll sell the house, and move our things here."

"And what about your father? He will get out of jail one day."

Rin waved a hand dismissively, "He can go buy a smaller house. It's not like jail would get rid of all the money he saved up." 

Mikuo stood up then, and offered a hand, "Then it's settled. Now I have an offer for you, how would you like to join our humble league?" 

Hmm, life took a turn indeed.