The Eyes That Make the Storm

75) Not Again

 Stasia arrived at a restaurant most popular for business meetings and drinking outings so she was sure she looked out of place; though when she walked up to the hostess she warmly welcomed her.

"Nora?"

"Nastasia," she corrected.

"Right this way."

She's led to a back room where as soon as the door slides open, two strangers jump up to greet her.

The woman pulls her in for a hug while the man impatiently waits his turn. Stasia pulls away quickly, trying her best to hide her clear discomfort with the situation.

"Let's just sit down," she suggested.

They both follow her over to the table and take their seats, with Stasia sitting across from the two.

"I'm Antoine," the man introduced himself, eagerly.

The mother said, "I'm Mie, your mother."

Stasia tries not to cringe at that title Mie has given herself and succeeds, remaining neutral.

"You're so beautiful," Antoine compliments and Stasia raises her eyebrows in fake amusement.

"Our little girl, all grown up," Mie almost sobbed.

"Um-"

"How old are you now?" Antoine asked.

"Seventeen," she hesitantly answered.

"Oh my god," Mie said before loudly sighing, "we missed so much of your life-"

"Well-"

"I promise you that we'll never let you go again," Antoine swore, and his promise leaves Stasia feeling unsettled.

Stasia tried to speak saying, "listen-"

"What do you do now? How are your studies?" Mie interrupted.

"I'm top of my class, enrolled in a her-"

"Top of your class," Antoine gasped and turned to Mie, "our little girl is so smart."

Stasia takes a deep inhale of annoyance, and begins regretting all of the family meals she'd missed with Aizawa and Eri. She had only been with these two for ten minutes and she was already mentally drained and her patience was running thin.

The only objective of meeting the two was to figure out the mindset of each of them. Whether they were really coming for a fight or if they just truly wanted their daughter back. As soon as she found the answer, she was leaving as soon as possible as their seemingly never-ending questions were driving her insane.

"Are you making any friends what are-"

"Didn't you try to kill the number one last month?" Stasia interjected and the atmosphere shifted.

Mie's eyes almost twitched as she shoved Antoine, who then cleared his throat.

"Nora-"

"Nastasia."

"Fine, Nastasia," he adjusted, gritting his teeth, "I don't know if you understand what it's like to love someone so much that if anything happened to-"

"I do, I do understand," Stasia told him, "I don't know if you know this- probably because you didn't bother to ask, but I have a family-"

"We're your family," Mie said, clenching her jaw.

"I don't even know you."

"That's what we're trying to do sweetheart," Antoine clarified, and reached out for her hand but Stasia pulled away.

"Don't call me that."

"Nastasia, all we want is our daughter back, I know this is a lot for you but I swear all we want is to protect you," Mie said.

"Yeah, because you did such a good job of doing that the first time," she remarked and they both gasped.

"Nastasia," Antoine warned.

"Look if you love me so much that you tried to kill a hero to get to me, use that energy into staying the hell away from me and my school. Might as well just leave Japan altogether, we all know you have no problem country-hopping anyway."

Stasia got up and began to head for the door.

"If you'd just sit back down-"

"No, Antoine, I think we're done here."

Stasia then turned around and reached for the door, but as soon as she did, she felt a cold hand on her wrist.

She slowly looked down to see Mie gripping her arm tightly.

"I thought we were clear," Mie sighed, "I said we're not letting you go, not again."

Stasia laughed. A long, loud, bordering psychotic laugh that made Mie so uncomfortable she was tempted to loosen her grip. Stasia looked back at Antoine who was stricken with fear, he almost stopped breathing which only made the moment that much more comical.

When she finished, she muttered, "how cute."

***

"I- I have just gotten word of an explosion in Shizuoka," the reporter tells, with a concerned look on her face as she turned to her partner.

She put her finger over her earpiece so she could hear who was feeding her lines more clearly, and after a couple of seconds, she continued.

"A privately owned barbeque restaurant was the center of the damage- we're reporting almost all of the building has been destroyed. The smoke is still yet to fully clear- and the fire has yet to be put out- but- are you sure?" she whispered, waiting a second for a response on the other end.

She clears her throat before saying, "at the moment. one casualty has been confirmed."