Shatter Me: Repair Me [COMPLETED]

(20)

KENJI:

I was eating an apple and about to leave when a groggy Kassandra walked down the stairs. She rubbed her eyes, pressed the coffee machine, and sat on a bar stool waiting. It was then she noticed me. Her eyes widened.

"Where do you think you're going, Kenji?" She asked.

"I'm having lunch with Warner," I answered quickly.

"What?"

"Lunch with Warner," I answered again.

"You're leaving me all alone with the children?"

"Yep," I said, popping the 'p'.

"You can't just leave me! We have a 3-day old newborn! He needs his daddy!"

"Well, the last time we had a newborn was about 2 years ago... I need a refresher. Aaron's going to teach me."

"So, let me get this straight. By leaving your wife all alone with the children, and going out to breakfast with another father, you're going to learn how to raise another child?" I stared at her. She stared back.

"Oh yeah! I forgot!" I ran up to her, grabbed her face in my hands and kissed her on the mouth. "Now I'm good. Bye!" I grabbed my coat and ran out to the cafe. Hopefully Kassandra wasn't mad at me.

I walked jogged down a couple of blocks until I reached the cafe. I saw him sporting some sick aviator sunglasses, a long, brown business coat, and some brown shoes. We yelled our greetings, and were seated outside.

I stared out at the scenery. The sector was almost fixed completely, and the fog covered most of the damage. The city actually looked good for the first time.

"Kishimoto," he started. "How are you? How's Kassandra? The babies?"

"We're all good."

"Is Sebastian- Juliette told me- alright? Is he a Mix?" Aaron had a chance to visit New Asia as a young child. He knew about the Mixes and such. He even admitted that I was the first he ever saw to survive up to this age. I was the only one he'd ever seen that hadn't been shot down by the government.

"Yes, he's a mix," I admitted. I wasn't as disappointed, I actually was pretty happy. And this baby would grow up to having two parents. Two Kishimoto's.

"He must be very cute then. Your eyes?"

"Yeah." I stretched my arms up and laid them behind my head. "How's Juliette? Rose? And Jace?"

"They're fine. You know, just the other day Jace said 'Daddy, where do babies come from?' And Juliette and I-" he laughed "- we said 'a momma's belly'. It's funny to answer those questions, I never grew up with James, so I never had the chance."

"Jace is three now, right?"

"Correct. God, I love them."

"What about Rose?"

"She loves dresses. She can't get enough. She just tries them all on. And then she takes Julie's makeup and slaps it on her face. It's hysterical." Aaron rubbed one eye. "How's Tiffany? Crawling?"

"Ugh," I rolled my eyes. "She's crawling all right. Cannot stop putting her arms up and waiting for me to pick her up. And she only wants me to do it. Not Kass, just me."

Aaron chuckled. "Jace and Rose did that too. Oh, what did Julie call it?"

"A 'Mommies Touch'?" I used finger quotes around the name. Kassandra and Juliette still hung out all the time. They shared vocabulary that Aaron and I actually bonded over. We became good friends because of the names and concepts they came up with. Oh women.

"Yes! Exactly! Alright, we need to discuss business. How's your sectors corn production," Aaron switched the subject.

"It's striving. How's your dam? Providing enough water?"

"Yes, although the people are complaining about pay. I'm going there tomorrow to check out what's going on, and maybe I'll give a pay raise. I imagine they need it. A lot of the water goes to us and your sector, as well as sector 1 through 47."

"You finally convinced 6 to come over?"

"That's the only one between the 47 that wont come over. He claims we don't have enough to offer. I might have to get Kassandra's help on him-"

"Aaron. Can I ask you a somewhat personal question?" I really just wanted to know. He nodded his head, clearly confused. "Did you ever, um, like Kassandra?"

"Well, she and I've always been friends-"

"No. I mean, in like, uh, crush way," I tested him.

"I don't see how that's appropriate to discuss behind our spouses-"

"No, I'm just wondering-"

"Yes. I did. Alright, are we done?"

"Did you guys do anything?"

"I kissed her. When we were 13-- it really doesn't matter. Are we done now?"

"Yes, we are." I just had to get that out there. I needed to know, and in Kassandra's relief from pregnancy, I didn't want to ask her.

"Anyways--" Aaron started.

"KENJI!" I turned around. Kassandra was running towards me, Sebastian in a stroller and Tiffany sleeping on her hip. "Somethings wrong." She had just reached the cafe.

"What? What's wrong?" I quickly grabbed Tiffany and checked her for injuries.

"No! It's not her you sweet imbecile!" I paused at her choice of words and then just ignored it.

Aaron leaned over the stroller, checked on Seb, and asked, "What's going on? And calm down for God's sake. Kassandra, please, sit."

Tiffany had woken up by now and she was wailing in my arms. I was trying to calm her down by bouncing her on my lap, but she wouldn't crack a smile.

"Shhh," I whispered into her ear, shooting a pained look at Kassandra.

"My soldiers. 10 of them have been taken. Aaron, 20 of yours have been taken. And Juliette was taken. Rose and Jace are being driven to our house by some soldiers from your sector. You can stay with us, if you'd like." The color drained from Aaron's face, only to be replaced by red anger. His fury caused him to throw back his chair and take his coat. He stood up and fast-walked to the direction of our house.

I placed a 20 dollar bill for our coffee on the table before taking a now quiet Tiffany into my arms. I kissed Kassandra on the head and she nodded weakly.

"Come on," I whispered to them. "Let's go see who the hell took Juliette."
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