Her Inheritance

CHAPTER 10 -•- Sour Trip

  "You were that close to kissing her... and you didn't go for it?" Kairo asked Jude in an annoyed tone, stuffing cheesy crispies into his mouth as he lounged back in the food court chairs.
  "Dude, if I wouldn't have gone for it, her dad would've walked in and seen everything. SOPHIA is the one who warned us," Jude laughed, sipping his fizz brew from a paper straw. Kairo smiled over at the screens, where SOPHIA's model appeared crouched down in front of a small blonde girl, who dragged her finger across the screen, making sparkly effects follow behind it. SOPHIA watched the child intensely as she talked imaginatively to the AI.
  "That hunk of code is so full of surprises," he grinned at her, shaking his head.
  "Anyway. It would've been so stupid. I've only known her for a week. I haven't even taken her on a proper date. I just got her number last night— and I was gonna kiss her? I mean— what was I thinking?" Jude blushed with a look of guilt, running his hands through his curls, pushing his hair back before it all bounced forward to the front of his face. Kairo shrugged as he chewed.
  "Why does all that matter? A feeling's a feeling. If she was okay with it, I don't think it would've hurt," Kairo told him, chuckling as he shook his head,
  "Yeah, but... She's never had her first kiss. And she's so shy... what if she didn't want it, but she did it anyway because I made her feel like she had to? I can't just... I can't just take that from her without earning it, you know?" He explained to him in a soft sigh. Kairo knitted his brows with a genuine smile, and then he shoved more food into his face.
  "Okay, well, take her on a date then?" Kairo told him as a solution, sucking the cheese dust from his fingers.
  "Uh..." Jude began to go flushed at the thought of asking her on one, "heheh... doesn't this count as a date?" he shrugged, to which Kairo furrowed his brow, looking between him and Jude sitting alone at the table together.
  "Jude, I know you're nervous, bud... but you and I are on more of a date right now than you would be with all three of us here. You're not supposed to bring a third wheel on your date," he laughed at him, "well, unless you count Lyssie. Then it could maybe pass for a double date," he said, watching the tiny, blonde, almost-three-year-old, who had been talking to SOPHIA, run back up to him. She planted her chin on the table and opened her mouth wide at Kairo, who grinned in amusement.
  "Hey, little baby birdie! Who said you could land here?" Jude questioned her, making her let out an adorable toddler giggle, showing him her tiny teeth with gaps in between them all.
  "What kind of birdie are you? Are you a Lyssie sissy turdy birdie?" Kairo asked her, making her laugh even harder at her older brother.
  "Yeah!" She exclaimed towards him, bouncing up and down.
  "What do Lyssie birds say?" Kairo asked her, holding a cheesy crispie high above her head.
  "Teet teet!" She said in a high-pitched voice, flapping her tiny hands like little bird wings. Kairo placed a piece of food on her tongue, and she covered her whole mouth with an open hand as she chewed it up, rubbing crumbs and slobber all over her chin, and then she turned back to go play with SOPHIA again. Jude smiled, watching her run off, and then frowned when he turned back to Kairo.
  "I told her Marla's my sister," Jude sighed, making Kairo gasp aloud as he turned to him again.
  "Jude!" Kairo whisper-yelled at him.
  "I know... but I had to. She thought Marla was another girl I was secretly interested in, because she caught us talking the other day, remember?" Jude reminded him, making the realization come to him.
  "Oh yeah... I forgot about that," Kairo sucked through his teeth with worry, "what happened that made you spill the beans? Did she freak out about it?"
  "Yeah... I mean, she didn't freak out, freak out... she was just so sad. Can you imagine if I really started talking to another girl behind her back?" Jude asked him broken-heartedly, making Kairo smile slightly, rolling his eyes.
  "Oh, but Jude, it's only been a week, and you're not even dating!" Kairo repeated his words from earlier in a mocking tone, making Jude groan and rub his eyes under his glasses. Kairo laughed at him. Jude was down bad, and Kairo knew it.
  "Well... as long as Marla and the girls don't find out... maybe it'll be fine?" Kairo said, eyeing his baby sister to make sure she was still in the place he last saw her.
  "You know, that's the thing... Am I supposed to just— never have a girlfriend because of stupid Marla? Never invite her to my house? Never introduce her to my family?" Jude questioned angrily.
  "You do have a point," Kairo nodded at him, "seems a little unrealistic to me. You know, they want to deny it, but I think she's gonna end up being a lot more involved than they wanted her to be. Especially since she really doesn't have an endowment."
  "I think you're right... And yeah, she really doesn't have one. At least,
I really don't think she does. But then... why does my power have no effect on her?" Jude laughed, questioning his friend.
  "Maybe her endowment is blocking other people's endowments," Kairo gasped, pointing at him. Jude raised his brows, and then scratched his chin in wonder.
  "I think you might be onto something... but... ugh... that doesn't seem right either. Nothing makes sense with her," He said, and then was suddenly distracted by the screen of his phone. Jude saw Aurora's contact pop up, and before he could even read her message, he felt that light, bubbly aura shiver up his spine, and he melted back into his chair like someone had just started giving him a relaxing massage.
  "What?" Kairo stared at him questioningly.
  "Nothing..." Jude smiled as that rich, sugary vanilla pistachio scent hit his nose, "she's here," he sighed. Kairo looked up and smiled when he saw her, but Jude watched his face twist into surprise as his eyes shifted, and then he immediately looked away. Jude gave him a puzzled look and turned around, and nearly jumped out of his chair when he saw Aurora's outfit.
  She had on one of her mom's white mini dresses. It was body-hugging, and accentuated her small frame. It had long sleeves— an elegant touch— and a high neckline that contrasted with the cut out detail across the chest, creating a striking hollow-out effect. The skirt was just slightly flared out, keeping her silhouette soft and feminine, with subtle side ruching at the hips. Her legs were completely bare, shiny, and so paper-white; and she had on a pair of pointy, white cross-laced sandals that also belonged to her mother. She was so pale, at first glance, you might have thought she wasn't wearing anything. The wedding-white dress matched almost perfectly with her grayish skin tone.
  "Hey, Jude," the words escaped her lips, which were the only rich source of color on her body, aside from the tints of red on her cheeks, nose, hands, and knees.
  "H-huh... hi..." he swallowed, looking up at her like he was staring at the Goddess Vaedra herself. She took a step closer to him, sending a shockwave of energy his way, like someone opened the door to a furnace, and it knocked him back slightly.
  "So... what have you guys been up to?" She asked softly, tucking her hair behind her ear and twisting her phone and money around in her hands, which were the only belongings she brought with her. Jude was at direct eye-level with her waist, and he had to stand up just to keep himself from staring at her hands as they tugged at the bottom of her skirt. His sudden standing surprised her as she looked up at his red face.
  "We've just been catching up," he finally breathed out when he had her eyes directly in front of him instead of her thighs, "Um... how has your morning been?" Jude asked her, trying to focus on anything other than her exposed legs.
  "It's been good. I just went through my moms things trying to find an outfit to wear, and I found this," she looked down, grabbing the skirt and swaying slightly, and Jude's seemingly innocent question completely backfired as her eyes permitted him to follow her gaze back down to her lower half, "do you like it?"
  "This outfit...?" Jude sighed, subconsciously reaching his hands towards her waist, and then pulling them back in before they could get far. Aurora noticed the way his eyes were glued to her body, jumping around to different parts of it. Sweat was pouring down his face. He was trying to find the right words to make her feel good without blatantly spelling out how badly he wanted her, "It's... um... it's perfect..." he finally huffed, able to look back at her face, which was melting in adoration for him.
  "Good... I was worried that... uh... as long as you like it, I feel a lot more comfortable. It's my first time wearing a dress without shorts, you know?" Aurora laughed awkwardly, not really realizing that that probably wasn't something normally said so casually to a male friend. Jude's mouth opened in shock, and his eyes quickly shifted back and forth between her face and her skirt.
  "Uhh... just a second," Jude turned around and slammed his hands on the table in front of Kairo, "help. Me." he whispered through his teeth.
  "I can't! I'm just gonna end up flirting with her by accident!" Kairo whispered back to him in a panic.
  "Kairo!" Jude whined.
  "You know I flirt compulsively when I'm nervous! And you're too nervous to ground me, so— And what on Tharos' green Earth do you want me to say to that, anyway?" He questioned him. Aurora knew they were talking about her, and for once, it just made her feel good.
  "Wow, she's pwetty!" Lyselle, the tiny toddler, was suddenly standing next to Aurora and pointing at her, making her gasp in surprise as the tiny thing popped a piece of candy out of her mouth I'm awe.
  "Oh... hi..." Aurora laughed at her.
  "What— SOPHIA, I thought you said you'd keep an eye on her?" Kairo turned to the nearby screen, where SOPHIA stood in a pink princess dress and tiara.
  "I did as you requested, Kairo. I observed the small human walk twenty-eight strides away and take a sweet-pop from Sweet Meats candy supply co. I purchased the item for her using your parents' shared account, and let the shopkeeper know it would be covered," SOPHIA explained.
  "What?" Kairo looked back at the little girl in shock, who was suddenly sucking on a blue and red piece of candy on a stick. Kairo shrugged with a sigh, "well, at least you took her to get some candy."
  "Kairo, you have to stop letting SOPHIA look after her. It's sick, dude..." Jude told her.
  "Hey, don't say that about SOPHIA... She is a better babysitter than me! If someone took her, SOPHIA would literally know their exact location the whole time, and she'd have authorities contacted and the place shut down before the kidnappers could make it out the doors!" Kairo smiled, pointing at the screen as people casually passed by it.
  "It's true. I have prevented hundreds of abduction attempts using these methods since my programming was put into place," SOPHIA told them factually, bowing slightly in her princess attire. Aurora smiled at the machine, starting to wonder how people could be so against such a useful and powerful weapon, once you really got to know her.
  "SOPHIA is the best!" Lyselle jumped, "And she can have faiwy wings!" suddenly fairy wings sprouted from SOPHIA's back, fluttering gently as sparkles flew out around them. Lyselle jumped around excitedly, clapping her hands together. Aurora giggled, amused by how her childlike wonder explored the complexity of AI.
  "So is this your sister?" Aurora asked Kairo.
  "Yeah, but... she's also like my own baby that I stole from my parents, you know? They're both home today... She just wanted to come along and I told her she could," Kairo smiled, leaning back in his chair as the tiny girl crawled where Jude was sitting and started sipping the fizzpop from his cup, still holding onto her candy. Jude didn't even react, he was used to Kairo's little sister stealing his things, and he was still entirely distracted by Aurora, "I guess I should probably get you some real food, huh? How about... giant ice cream?" he asked her, making her cheer with excitement. Kairo stood up from his seat and scooped her up out of her chair, making her whine out and squirm in his arms.
  "No! No! I want Jude bug! I want Jude bug upies!" She cried.
  "Uh... fine, here you go, Jude bug," Kairo placed the squirming toddler in his arms, and she giggled and happily kicked her feet as her brother walked off. Jude sighed down at her and rocked her slightly, deep in thought. Aurora grinned and felt a warm sensation in her stomach at the scene of him cradling the little girl.
  "I didn't know you liked kids. I'm a little surprised," Aurora laughed.
  "Surprised?" Jude finally turned to her and laughed too, "I'm great with kids. But... Lyssie is pretty special. I was around when she was born. She was a big surprise, for everyone, not just his parents— and Kairo has always been in love with her," Jude said, staring down at the baby in his arms and placing a kiss on her forehead. Aurora swooned, needing to lean on a nearby chair for support. She couldn't help imagine him looking down at one of their babies like that in the distant future. Would he even want to have babies with her, when she didn't have an endowment? She'd never want to put another kid through that, and she wouldn't blame him if he didn't want to either. And then... maybe everything would be fine, and they'd have endowments and be normal anyway, even if she wasn't...
  Kairo walked back over with a paper cup filled with a vanilla ice cream that was piled up almost two strides high straight from the soft-serve machine. It was decorated in rainbow sprinkles, strawberries, blueberries, and whipped cream. Lyselle screamed when she saw it, and started kicking and claiming again until Jude set her down.
  "One giant ice cream for Princess Lyssie," Kairo declared, setting it down in front of her. She used a plastic spoon and carefully tried to scoop some off to eat. Kairo shoved a piece of fruit in her mouth as well, which she happily accepted, "you guys can get in on this too, if you want. There's no way she's gonna eat—" Kairo turned to Aurora and Jude and immediately froze up when he saw Severine standing behind directly them, as if she had just teleported there, "Sev-Severine—"
  Jude and Aurora both turned around and looked upward at the girl. In the flesh, Severine stood there towering over them. One of the other girls was with her, the small one who resembled Aurora, but she was covered in cat-themed aesthetics, including her pink bag, her light, black jacket with holes for her thumbs and pink paw prints on the front of them, and her whole head of hair pulled into two buns on her head, with little cat earrings and a choker with paw-print shaped beads. The small, cat-obsessed girl was wearing a plain, black pleated skirt, and only black socks— interestingly enough— and was sipping on a glittering, pink milk tea. Severine had on her signature leather, thigh-high sharp-heeled boots, and leather pants underneath them. He had a black corset made of the same material, with lacy frills at the top, and the same black gloves she wore every single day, without fail. The shirt under her corset was creamy-white, and her hair was tied up like always, with shiny silver necklaces tied around her neck, and glittering earrings in her lobes. She had on red lipstick, and smirked at all of them, raising a brow at Kairo and especially. Her tight clothing squeezed her figure in all the best ways, and Kairo was oozing with avidity, practically drooling at the sight of her.
  "Kairo..." her tinted-glass voice cut through them like a knife in hot butter, "you didn't tell me you had a sister..."
  "I... uhh... heh... you didn't tell me... you would..." Kairo's face mushed into a dumb, happy smile as she slowly ticked closer, her heels clicking against the hard tile, and stopping right in front of him from across the small table, "...be here," he huffed, his eyes shyly scanning her whole body over and over again with a wide smile. Severine looked down at the girl and smiled warmly at her, which made her tilt her ice-cream covered face at her in wonder.
  "I know you. Kaiwo says he wants you and him to get mawwied!" Lyselle turned to her brother in a teasing voice. Kairo just stared at her for a long moment, and Severine raised an eyebrow.
  "It's true. You caught me. I do want to marry you. So, are you gonna do it, or what?" Kairo shrugged at her, making Severine giggle and cover her mouth, and Lyselle had a similar reaction, "come on, Sev, Lyssie has been begging to be my flower girl ever since I told her she can't marry me. You can't crush her dreams like this," Kairo gestured to her, shamelessly using his little sister as lady-bait. Aurora giggled in amusement at him as well.
  "Yeah! I want to be a flowuh gowl!" Lyssie beamed.
  "You drive a hard bargain... But maybe you should count on being a flower girl for another girl's wedding," Severine told her with a sad look, "a cute baby sister-in-law is enticing, but... I just don't know if I'm ready to marry Kairo," Severine's long, black acrylic fingernails began to gently twirl one of Lyselle's blonde pigtails between her fingers. Kairo stared at her hand as Lyssie smiled up at her. He jumped when her cold, dark blue eyes finally shot back to his soft brown ones. Then he smiled again.
  "Oh... Another girl's wedding?" He furrowed his brow at her.
  "Yeah, well, I'm sure you don't want to wait around on me forever," Severine smiled with a sigh, planting her black hands on the table, and crossing one of her heeled boots over the other. Her eyes traced the giant mountain of ice cream as Lyselle began to dig into it again, and her eyes flashed back at him. Aurora, standing behind her, got a very provocative view of her backside in those tight leather pants, and she wondered how someone could look so simultaneously modest and exposed. She eyed Jude, whose smiling, questioning face was glued to Kairo's reactions.
  "So you think I'm just gonna get sick of you and move on, huh?" Kairo smiled, taking a fresh spoon out of his pocket and taking off the wrapper before leaning a hand on the table as well.
  "Well, isn't that what all boys do when they realize they aren't getting what they want?" Severine asked him, raising one of her sharp, blonde eyebrows.
  "Oh yeah, you're right, boys totally do that," Kairo said, delicately scooping up a huge chunk of strawberry with the cold cream, "but that's the difference between boys and men, you know? Men actually work for what they want," he smiled suggestively at her, making her face drop in surprise, and when he noticed the small gap between her teeth, he gently shoved the spoon in her mouth from across the table, making Severine stand up and step back in surprise and bring her hand to the black plastic sticking out of her mouth. Aurora and Jude turned to each other in an eager surprise. Lyselle just licked her own spoon, looking between the two of them intensely. Severine furrowed her brows at Kairo's devilish smile, and slowly sucked off the rest of the ice cream before she popped the spoon out of her mouth.
  Kairo straightened up again in surprise when she slowly started making her way around the table towards him. She got insanely close to him, almost pressing her body up against him and smiling as she stared into his nervous eyes. He was still a few ticks taller than her, which Aurora thought was ridiculous. Kairo began to grin, hyperfixated on her cherry-red lipstick, just a breath away from his face. She was staring at his mouth too, her lips stuck open as she thought of what to say to him.
  "We'll see..." she told him in a soft, seductive voice, planting the warm, plastic spoon onto his lips. He just stared at her , completely gobsmacked, and then immediately opened his mouth bit down on the end of the spoon. She giggled as she let go, and then sighed as she walked back over to her small cat-girl friend. Kairo stared at her hips and bouncy ponytail as she walked away, her spoon hanging out of his mouth.
  "Uh, uh— wh-where are you guys going?" Kairo asked her when it seemed like the two of them were about to walk away.
  "Nyra and I just wanted to pick a few things up. We have a meeting scheduled with the girls downtown, tonight," Severine told him.
  "Oh, like a party?" Jude questioned her, making Severine pause and look him up and down in a judgemental sneer.
  "No," she told him matter-of-factually, her hands folded out in front of her and her elbows bent at her side. Jude awkwardly scratched his face as Severine turned to Aurora. She didn't have any kind of dirty look, or anything that made Aurora think she thought poorly of her. Severine just stared at her in silence for a very long time, almost as if she was waiting for her to speak. Aurora didn't know what to do, and her eyes began to scramble on the ground, feeling impolite.
  "I-I love your outfit... you're Severine, right? I'm Aurora..." Aurora couldn't even believe she was talking to her.
  "I know," she stated simply, her expression unmoving. Aurora just gawked at her, and then nervously looked at the ground, just like Jude had. Nyra walked up to Severine, incessantly sipping on her drink, and wrapped an arm around hers. Aurora looked back at Nyra for a moment as well, and noticed her piercing yellow eyes. She had never seen anyone with such a striking feature. She eyed Severine again, who was looking between her and Jude. She was surprised when she saw a soft smile tug at her red lips.
  "Are you sure you don't want to stay? Um... I really wanted to take you to MODYX," Kairo told Severine as he ran back up to her, still holding the spoon she gave back to him in his hand.
  "Oh, no, thanks. My Daddy pays for all of my clothes to be custom made," Severine turned to him, taking a step back and putting her gloved hands up, just causing Kairo to goggle at her again, "We really should be going. Marla is waiting for us... you know how she gets when people make her wait," Severine spoke towards Jude and Aurora with a suspicious glance, making Jude internally panic as he eyed Aurora, wondering if she already knew something. Aurora looked back at Jude nervously. The two beautiful girls walked off, arm in arm, after one last polite farewell.