Kisara couldn’t focus the entire day during classes, she just kept wondering about Kit. Before she knew it, the day was coming to an end and she was shoving all of her unneeded books into her locker and pulling out the ones she needed for her homework. “So are you excited yet?” Renka asked her from the locker next to hers.
“We don’t know what he’s going to say yet, he could just want advice about his form or something,” Kisara tried to remind her sister, even if she no longer thought so.
“Please, it has to be something more than that, he called you out to talk in private,” Renka told her with that unconvinced tone she had.
Before they could talk about it any further, Kit showed up. “Hey Renka... can I borrow Kisara?” he asked as he walked up.
Kisara felt her cheeks flush when he said that, her sister had gone and gotten her hopes up now. “Sure,” Renka said with that voice she had that expectant voice Kit didn’t know about yet. “Don’t make it too easy on him,” she whispered with a wink as Kisara walked past her.
“It shouldn’t be too long, we’ll see you at the dojo,” Kit told Renka after a moment.
“Don’t be too fast,” Renka said with her coy voice.
“BYE NOW!” Kisara insisted after a moment, she was telling Renka to leave before she got the little hearts for eyes.
Renka didn’t pick up that she was expected to leave, and so naturally, she didn’t. So after a few minutes of awkwardness Kit took Kisara down a hallway toward the back of the school where there would be fewer students around.
“So... um... wow, this is harder to talk about than I thought it would be,” Kit stalled nervously for a few minutes as they both sat at on the paving stones that kept the area around one of the small trees from being walked on.
“What’s up?” Kisara tried to be nonchalant about it, but she was just as nervous as he was.
“I suppose the only way to go about this is the direct route, so I’m just going to say it.I like... I mean... I REALLY like...” Kit began to say. Kisara felt her hopes swelling up inside her as he started out, her heart began racing in her chest as she felt the confession coming. “I like Renka,” he finally managed get it out. Kisara was thrown into turmoil, she felt a deep crushing feeling in her chest now, it hurt so much, like she was being squeezed by a giant. She managed to keep her face from giving away too much, but on the inside she had this empty feeling growing out of her chest. She swallowed hard to try and keep this from leaking out in front of Kit.
“That... that’s great,” she managed to choke out for him.
“Yeah... the thing is I have no clue how to go about telling her. I mean I hardly even know her, I don’t know what she likes or any of that... so I was sort of hoping maybe you could help me figure it out, since you know her better than anybody else,” Kit told her. She felt like she was being torn apart now, not only did he not like her, he wanted her help getting her sister to go out with him. She began to feel like an insect that was having it’s wings torn off. It felt like when he’d said that he liked Renka he’d stuck a cold knife in her chest, and now he was twisting the blade.
“I’ll... I’ll have to think about that,” she told him as she started to feel her outward composure breaking up. “I... I have to go... I’m not feeling very well,” she said as she turned around and took off running, she’d made it maybe three steps when she felt the tears start to trace lines down her cheek.
She ran full speed the whole way home, charged through the main building, headed in back to the gym part, past Renka and the others, dashed up the stairs and slammed her door hard, and collapsed on her bed before she started to cry in honest. Unlike her sister’s room, Kisara’s was just white walls and shaggy brown carpet, the walls were plastered with posters of various bouts through the years, some of them were from before she was even born. Strewn across the floor were her clothes, training gear, and various other things all laying where she’d abandoned them.
A moment after she had her sister started knocking on her door. “Kisara? Are you okay?” she asked tentatively.
“LEAVE ME ALONE RENKA!” Kisara shouted back at her. Kisara couldn’t help but hate her sister for the time being.
“Um... ok, I’ll be downstairs if you want to talk about it,” her sister offered her delicately before she left her door.
Why did it have to be Renka? Kisara asked herself. I could have accepted it if it had been anybody else, but it’s always Renka she thought. ~
After a few minutes there was another knock at the door. “Kisara, is everything alright?” her uncle asked her.
“EVERYTHING’S FINE! I just want to be left alone,” she called back.
“I’m coming in,” Perrin told her as the knob turned. Kisara sat up before he could open the door, she’d already dried her eyes, but they were still red and puffy from crying. “What’s wrong?” Perrin asked her as he leaned on her desk.
“Why is it that everytime I want something, Renka gets it?” Kisara asked him after a moment.
“I’m not sure I’m following you, if there’s something you want all you have to do is say so and I’ll see that you get it, I don’t know of anything your sister has that you would covet,” Perrin told her after a moment to think it through.
“Well, I want to beat her so much, I want to win against her, and I work so hard for that, but no matter how much or how hard I work, she still wins. I do everything I can for the things I want, and she does nothing, and yet she still gets everything I want,” Kisara explained, he sensed she was only using this as an example.
“Every time you fight you do better against your sister, she’s forced to use more desperate measures to win, these last few times I feel she’s won mostly through luck, soon enough you will best her I’m sure... but that’s not really what this is about, is it?” he reassured her before pressing for the truth of the situation.
“Kit likes Renka,” Kisara said flatly after a few minutes.
“And you like Kit?” her uncle guessed after a moment. Kisara just nodded. “I had honestly hoped that you girls wouldn’t become interested in boys for another year or two, but I suppose it had to happen eventually. Kisara, I want you to listen to what I have to say on this matter, and listen closely, ok?” he told her.
“People are complex beings, capable of both reason and feelings, with the two constantly battling for control of their lives. You are viewing this situation in a slightly childish light, the way you see it, Kit is a possession and he belongs to Renka. In a sense you are correct, right now his attention is directed to your sister, however it’s not like that can’t change. One thing about us is that we can’t help how we feel no matter how much we might wish to. I don’t want you to pursue Kit simply because you see him as your sister’s. It would be exceptionally cruel to him and to your sister. I want you to find somebody who makes you happy, but also somebody who treats you well,” Perrin tried to explain to her.
“He asked me to help him with Renka,” she told him softly. Now it made a little more sense to him.
“Kisara, I doubt that Kit intended any cruelty to you. He simply wasn’t aware of how you felt, I’m sure he’d feel horrible about what he asked of you if he did. What I want you to know is that feelings change, both yours and his might. If you want to change how he thinks of you, it might be a good idea to spend more time with him, in my experience feelings change when you become closer to each other,” Perrin told her as he put one hand on her shoulder.
“So you’re saying I should maybe ask him out or something?” Kisara asked him.
“I don’t want you to feel like telling him would be a bad idea, but I’m afraid that for somebody like Kit that he might take you up on your offer just out of a sense of responsibility. Kit wouldn’t want you to harbor these feelings for naught, but ultimately if he accepted on those terms that’s exactly what would happen. Get to know Kit better, and let him get to know you, this way you can both be absolutely certain of what you want before proceeding. In my opinion the best way to is to start out friends and see how things develop from there, it could be that you like Kit well enough now, but as you get to know him that might change, and perhaps you’ll find you like him more,” Perrin advised her. “You should also remember that one of the hardest things for a person to do is let go of somebody they care for, but if you truly like Kit as much as you think, then you would rather see him happy with somebody else, than hold onto him like that,” he explained to her.
“This is all very confusing to me,” Kisara told him after a moment.
“Welcome to love child, it’s confusing, it’s messy, it’s hectic, but it’s lovely, it’s empowering and there’s no other feeling like it,” Perrin told her with a laugh.
“I’ll need a secret weapon if I’m going to get closer to Kit though,” Kisara told him as she began to think about this.
“Kisara, just out of curiosity, how do you think Renka feels about Kit?” Perrin asked her after a moment. The last thing he wanted was his nieces fighting over a boy, if Kit’s feelings were unrequited it was one thing, but otherwise it could get messy fast. “You must remember that Renka is your sister, and trying to steal her happiness will not bring you any more joy than her stealing yours,” he reminded her.
“I suppose you’re right, so the first step is to figure out where Renka stands, then I’ll plan from there,” Kisara said with a nod. He tried hard not to laugh in front of her, she was treating this whole thing in terms that were entirely too simple, but her eyes had cleared up, and she looked decidedly. “Thanks uncle Perrin, I’m really glad we talked about this,” she told him after a moment.
“Any time you want to talk, I’m here,” Perrin answered her as he headed for the door. ~
A few minutes after her uncle left Kisara decided she had to talk with Renka to straighten things out a bit. Renka was in the middle of training, and Kisara was on doctor’s orders to relax for the day so she couldn’t do the training with her sister, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t watch. Renka was hitting one of the striking posts, but then she stood away to take a short break. She was winded and sweating a bit in her tracksuit.
“Hey Renka, can I ask you something?” Kisara asked as she approached.
“Sure thing, what’s up?” Renka asked as she wiped her face with a towel.
“What do you think about Kit?” Kisara asked her. Renka was in training mode so she was bound to be brutally honest, plus she wouldn’t get hearts for eyes and begin plying Kisara with questions.
“Well, he’s a nice enough guy, and a good friend,” Renka answered before she took a drink.
“So... he’s just a friend to you? Nothing more?” Kisara asked her.
“Of course, you don’t have to worry about any competition from me,” she said as her usual personality started to regain control.
“Ok, that’s all I needed to know,” Kisara said as she headed out the gym. She needed some reason
On her way out the front door she ran into Kit and Ayano, his little sister had brought something home with her from class.
“Kisara, take a look at this, I painted it during art!” Ayano said as she unfolded a watercolor it showed a bunch of people gathered out in front of a house. Ayano explained that the people were everybody from the gym and she proceeded to point out who was who. Kisara hugged Ayano close, in this case because it felt like the right thing to do to her.
“Alright squirt you have homework so off you go,” Kit directed his sister.
“Kit, about that thing we talked about earlier... I’ll do it, but I have my own terms for it,” she told him suddenly as an idea hit her.
“Here, I’ve got to go out back and drop my bag off, but then we can take off for a little bit to talk about it,” Kit told her as he took off toward the gym building. A moment later he was back with a fist full of money. “Perrin gave us some money to do stuff with,” he told her. “Any place in specific you want to go?” he asked her.
“I know of this beach that I go to to think things over,” she told him as she lead him toward a place she’d found back before the dojo had left Basin City. It was a sandstone peninsula that hung about eight inches over the ocean, she liked to take off her shoes and dip her feet in the water. Kit sat about a foot away from her with his knees up under his chin as he waited for her. “I said I’d do it, but I had some terms. First, I’m not just going to tell you everything she likes so you can be like that, instead we’re going to try and work on both molding you to her tastes a bit, but also I’d like to try making her more aware of what makes you good as you are,” she explained to him.
“I think I understand what you mean, you want her to like me for me,” Kit nodded in agreement.
“Second, we’ll work together on this in private, away from the dojo, granting of course for exceptions when they are needed, I don’t want her to find us talking about this sort of thing, it could have bad consequences for you, after all if she thinks you’re just hanging around with me for her she’ll get upset,” she continued, she felt a bit guilty about this one because she had another reason. She hoped that if they spent time together away from Renka that it might make some sort of impression on Kit. “Of course I’ll let you have your own time alone with her too, but I want to keep that aside for the purposes of gathering information and building up a rapport.”
“Ok so far,” Kit nodded.
“Finally, I want you to be my friend, in every sense of the word, I mean that I’m willing to admit that I’m friends with you, but also I want it so this isn’t the only thing you discuss with me,” she told him. This was actually the point that she had worried over most, because she suspected that Kit was the sort that would get too into things and would go overboard and plow ahead evenly.
“That’s it? It’s not like you’re some sort of bridge to Renka, of course we’re friends,” Kit laughed. It had been about an hour since they had left the gym and would be another half an hour at least before they got home now. “Let’s go eat, I’m starving, I know a place in this area that’s great,” Kit suggested as he stood up. He let Kisara dry her feet before she put on her shoes and then lead the way.
