Love Will Find A Way (Sequel To Sands of Time) ~Complete~

Chapter 13: Caught by Amaya

The next day Atsuko woke up very early, much too early for a Sunday morning. To fill in the unusable time to do something productive she went for a run around the area. This is the first time that she found Banning and Asher to be useful. Since they were in such good shape they were able to keep up with she, causing her to try a little harder to run faster. She managed to go for an hour and a half, much longer than what she was expecting. She jumped into the shower and stood in the hottest water she could stand, she didn't know it but it was -4C that morning, which also happened to be the first day of December. At first her body didn't register how hot the water was but when she did it caused her to jump forward and try to change the heat without scalding herself. Even when she was done getting ready, she was still the only one in her family awake, causing her to have to walk around the house as quiet as she could. When she was sitting at the table waiting for her oatmeal to finish cooking she noticed that Banning and Asher were standing off in the corner, looking beyond bored. Honestly, she felt a little guilty about what she did the night before and wanted to apologize.

"Have you two eaten yet?"

"We can once one of your family members wake up Miss."

"Are you joking? Here, you can take some of what I made. I've made too much." Atsuko took out two more bowls from the cupboard as they started to protest that they couldn't accept it. "Don't be silly. Take it as an apology for what I did last night. Sit down." She said, pointing to two seats at the table. She prepared the porridge and brought over the three bowls in one trip, placing them in front of the men and then took her own seat. She took a bite and was satisfied with the taste, causing her to look up towards the men that were protesting seconds ago and were now stuffing their faces. "So tell me about yourselves. You two seem to know a lot about me but I know nothing about you."

"What would you like to know?"

"Anything you're willing to share. Family? How you got stationed here in Japan? Stuff like that."

Asher was the first to start. He was a husband and a father, with his wife and son still living in America. He was stationed here because of a contract he has with the Amerian embassy and it was extended due to the increasing requests for visas. His wife and son are coming here within a few months due to the new assignment the military put him to. Which was Atsuko. That's where he finished his story. Banning also had a wife but no children. His wife lived in Japan as well. How he got here though wasn't as peaceful as Asher's journey here. He used to be a part of the secret service for the President of Japan. They were on their way to a Christmas party a few years ago, during one of the worst snow storms Japan has ever seen. As they were crossing a bridge the car containing the President at the time and his wife lost control and was teetering tottering over the ledge. It didn't end very well. They got the President out but his wife didn't make it and it was hard for the President to even look at Banning so he quit.

"I'm sorry." Atsuko said. "You didn't have to tell me if it's too hard to talk about."

"No, it happened years ago and I made the choice to leave."

Just then, Shou walked into the room, still half asleep. "Good morning, sunshine." Atsuko said, knowing her brother was probably the worst morning person on the planet. All she received was a grunt as he lazily made his way to the fridge. Atsuko turned back to the see the men she was talking to getting up from the table.

"Thank you for the breakfast." They both said, picking up the bowls from the table.

"Oh, leave those there. I can take care of it."

"You are very kind." Banning said, as they bowed and left the room.

Atsuko sighed as she stood from her seat, picking up the bowls and taking them to the sink so she could wash them out a bit them put them in the dish washer. She felt someone lean against her back, causing her to look behind her to see Shou with his head on her back, basically sleeping. "Shou, I'm not a leaning pole!"