𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐋𝐒 || 𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐋𝐄 𝐂𝐔𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐍 [𝐄𝐍𝐆𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐇 𝐕𝐄𝐑.]

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟐𝟑

November was beginning and with it the end of another year and the annual meeting of the organization was approaching. Kazuma and Saiko grew up every day surrounded by the affection of their maternal grandfather, Kayuza Sakurai; their uncles, Nero Kieran Gerasimov and Sora Dashiel Akai; and their aunt, Hotaru Rêverie Karasuma.

But being surrounded by so many loved ones still failed to fill the void left by their parents' absence. The twins kept waking up crying for their parents, and sometimes the only way to stop their crying was to take them to the hospital —as after a few weeks they had to be moved there to avoid suspicion— to see their parents and place them close to them.

Hotaru Rêverie Karasuma spent time with her family, but did not neglect her duties. She continued to work at the hospital, took and completed missions for the organization, and kept herself informed about the FBI through Rei Furuya. Her grudge had not disappeared, but it had diminished, allowing her to deal with them without wanting to kill anyone.

Every step Rêverie took was meticulously studied in detail by herself, she carried out every decision with the utmost scrutiny of every possible consequence, exit and alternative. For five months, she succeeded in holding back the mission to uncover the moles in the organization and made progress in her plan to corner Moreau.

But it was still not at a satisfactory speed for Thyra, who kept urging Rêverie to move faster.

“Thyra, that's enough!” exclaimed Rêverie, tired of hearing her counterpart's demands, “I'm doing my best.”

“‘Not enough though.’”

“You just want me to give Carlisle his memories back, and if you're going to keep fucking with me, that's not going to happen even if I kill Moreau,” she threatened, staring at her image reflected in the bathroom mirror.

“‘You want me to go out and kill–?’”

“If you could get out of there, you would have done it already,” she cut her off, smirking. “Thyra, even if you do get out, you touch one strand of their hair and I'll kill Carlisle Cullen myself.”

“‘You wouldn't dare!’”

“Let me remind you that you are the one who is most attached to him, not me. If you touch a hair on their heads, I'll kill Carlisle. You know what they say: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.”

“‘You like him too! You can't kill him!’”

“But between him and them, you know the answer. You touch them and I'll touch him,” she warned. “Now stop fucking around and let me do things my way or I'll never give him his memories back.”

“Erie?”

“Is something wrong, Sora?” she answered coming out of the bathroom to find her brother with the twins in his arms.

“Can you look after them today? I know it was my turn today, but I was asked to cover for a teacher at the last minute and I couldn't refuse. I don't know where Nero's got to and–”

“Sure, I'm on leave, remember?” she replied with a smile, taking the children while looking at her bandaged right hand.

“Thank you!” he exclaimed, kissing her forehead and their nephew's and niece's one before running off.

Rêverie might seem to have everything under control, but in reality she seemed to be drowning in stress and work. Something that came to light in the middle of one of her missions, causing an injury to her hand, which she was unable to heal due to the witnesses present, and for which she ended up asking for a leave of absence.

“Should we go visit mum and dad?” she asked in a low and soft voice to the infants who laughed at the mention of their parents. “Let's go.”

✯✯✵✯✯

Sora Dashiel Akai didn't seem to have changed much in the last six months or since he had that conversation with Shuichi Akai. However, even if others couldn't see it, he had changed. His attitude was beginning to resemble his sister's when dealing with the FBI, he looked kind and innocent as always but conveyed a dangerous air like Rêverie at times.

His leave of absence from the hospital surprised some, but no one was concerned to learn that he had offered to fill the vacant position of professor of biology at Tokyo University and help out in their infirmary. It seemed like something he would do: offer his hand when someone had problems. In reality, however, he did so at the request of his sister, who had told him that there would soon be a lot of commotion at the hospital and that she would rather he not be there.

The organization apparently wanted to retrieve one of its members who was in hospital and in FBI custody and had planned something explosive to do so.

“Erie wasn't lying,” he muttered, reading the news about bombs hidden in patients' flowers.

That day's lesson was over, but some students were still in the classroom picking up and whispering about him.

His attention was not on them, though, but on the copper-haired young man sitting in the front row who picked up slowly and always said goodbye to him with a smile.

“Professor, could I ask you a question I have?”

Or he would come to his desk to ask questions at the end of the class ever since he started teaching them.

“What is the question, Mr. Cullen?” he asked, putting aside his phone and looking at the young man with a friendly smile.

“It's about what you explained today, there's something I still don't understand,” he pointed to his still open book as he grimaced.

“Oh, this? What part don't you understand?”

Sometimes he wondered why he hadn't told his sister about the Cullens' arrival in Tokyo and that they had started studying at his university. Maybe it was because he liked to see Nero going after Magnus —who worked at the university as a counselor— and being evaded; maybe it was because he thought there was no problem since they didn't remember anything, or maybe it was because he didn't want to let Edward Cullen out of his sight.

During his stay in Forks he avoided him because of his contact with Isabella and didn't think much of it, but... seeing him sitting in the front row on his first day at work, smiling politely and his eyes sparkling as he listened to his lecture, he couldn't help but lay his eyes on him.

At the same time, however, the thought of having someone who had shared fluids with Isabella in some way made him feel repulsed.

Maybe that was the part that yelled at him to tell Rêverie about the arrival of the Cullens, but the part that whispered to him not to say anything won out every time. That was also the part that prevented him from resigning his position as a professor and returning to his doctor position at the hospital.

It was something he still didn't quite understand, but chose to ignore, seeing no danger in hiding it.

What he didn't know was that Rêverie already knew that the Cullen family was in Tokyo.