Of Love and Death.

The Present Chapter 13: Appropriate Chapter Number Pt. 2

Valt paced back and forth in his bedroom. "Okay," he muttered to himself, "How do I want to do this?" Downstairs his family was getting ready for breakfast. And he was trying to figure out the best way to tell them he had finally kissed someone. They knew that he liked Shu. He'd done a very bad job of hiding it. By telling them basically as soon as he knew.

Later, Valt would actually learn that he'd done a much better job at hiding his crush than a certain white-haired blader. Who had ended up coming out to his family because he forgot he wasn't home alone. And started singing "You Belong With Me" by Taylor Swift while looking at pictures of Valt on his phone. Something that Valt would ceaselessly tease Shu about for the rest of their lives.

It wasn't so much actually telling Valt's family he'd kissed someone that was hard. It was more dealing with the billions of questions that he was going to be asked. Because he knew that his mom was going to have a lot of questions. And he wasn't sure how he was going to be able to answer all of them.

Maybe Valt could go find Shu and get backup. Then again, that would mean submitting his - were they boyfriends now?  - to a verifiable siege of questions. That didn't really seem fair or humane. With a sigh, Valt realized that he was just going to have to suck it up and tell his family. And deal with the consequences himself.

* * *

Why was Venus here again?

Valt stared, a bit dumbfounded, at the azure eyed blader. Venus was just casually helping Chiharu bring over a few plates of pancakes. "Good morning Valt!" The aforementioned blader's mother said cheerfully. There was a slight clink as she set down a blue plate stacked with blueberry pancakes. The best response that Valt could muster was a tiny wave of his hand.

Not really knowing what else to do, Valt took the seat in between Toko and Nika. Pulling out chairs, both his mother and visitor sat down as well. "So, uh, what is Venus doing here?" the blader asked even as he served himself. "Is he secretly, like, our cousin from Dad's unknown half-sister who ran away when she was fourteen. And now he's returned to try and reconnect with his family?"

That got a laugh out of the whole table. Especially once Venus threw his hands in the air and shouted: "I give up! My name's just Venus now!" Although Valt wasn't too sure what that was supposed to mean. Venus's name was Venus. Wait. It wasn't. It was something with an "S". But it was Venus. What in the universe was up with Valt's head? "Besides, it's a much weirder connection than that."

Well that was...maybe not ominous, but certainly interesting. Maybe it had something to do with why Venus thought they went way back. That was what he said back at the US Nationals with Shu. Oh, that's right. "Uh, changing the subject here," Valt began, "I just remembered I had something I wanted to tell you all."

Opening up her mouth, it was clear that Valt's mother was about to ask what. But just then, there was a knock on the door. Everyone turned to look into the front. A shape was visible beyond the frosted glass, but that was it. "Ugh, we're not open yet!" Chiharu grumbled. Nevertheless she stood up and walked into the room with the service counter. If only to tell off whomever had decided to ignore the "closed" sign.

It wouldn't have been interesting enough to watch if Valt hadn't somewhat recognized the shape outside. If he didn't know better, he'd say it was S- "Oh, Shu!" Chiharu said, completely changing her tune from a moment earlier. The bell rang as she opened the door, putting the white-haired blader in view of the table.

A slight bit of heat came to Valt's cheeks as the memory of what had happened popped into his head. He didn't think it was enough to notice, but it would appear that Shu was thinking about something similar. And no, Valt didn't need to be a mind reader to know that. Because of the grand amount of red that came to cover the other blader's face, and the smile that he was obviously fighting to control. Failing spectacularly as well.