"Korū! Hikari!" Another black-haired girl rushed to meet them, wrapping the twins in an embrace.
Alina and Linda glanced at each other. A relative?
"Fuck." Alina said quietly. Pray she's sane. The car had come close to exploding, and their tolerance for each other were a hair's width from snapping, with the tension floating around.
"Yep." A mindlink came through, making Alina jump slightly. Linda's voice. Alina hasn't been on her guard. Her mental door had been left open.
But how should she react? To give Linda a smile for agreeing, or a glare for coming into her thoughts without knocking? On the spur of a moment, she chose to give her a cheeky grin, before remembering that she was supposed to be annoyed by the rest of the company. "You've been changing your mask too frequently. One second, playful, the next, serious. Settle on one," She chastised herself after turning back to observe the interactions between the twins and the other girl, making sure that none of her thoughts were sent to anyone else.
She had long forgotten what her natural reaction to certain situations should be.
"Kumori," Korū greeted her, a hint of a friendly grin on his face.
"It's been a while," she said with forced cheerfulness - a smile nearly masked the sadness in her eyes. "How are you?"
"Eh, whaddya think? This person here isn't even in her right mind any more and I swear I'm going crazy too." Korū's expression was filled with stress.
Kumori gave him a sympathetic look. "You'll get through this. You always do."
"Heh." He shook himself and turned to his friends, plus Cole and Liam. "Okay, so this is my cousin Kumori. Kumori, these are Alina, Linda, Cayne, and two bastards you don't need to talk to or acknowledge."
"Hey." The brown-eyed - red, actually, but her contacts hid that fact - girl looked them over, then decided that they probably weren't a threat. For now.
"Hi." Linda chirped, chewing her lip to stop it from curling up into a full-blown smile which would have even been a little weird, while Alina gave a little wave.
Cayne said hello, while Liam and Cole mumbled greetings, still frazzled by their introduction. You would think they would have been used to this sort of treatment by now.
"My mom's in Japan already," Kumori told her cousins. "She says Oji-san's waiting for us."
"Mh, okay."
She sighed at Korū's mood, then asked, "Hey, remember that time when you and Hikari tried soju?"
Hikari, surprisingly not going crazy at the moment, smiled normally. "Yeah, Korū somehow managed to stay alive."
Korū snorted. "You passed out in eight seconds flat, though."
Kumori said something that the others couldn't catch, and Korū actually laughed. Okay, it was more of a chuckle, but still. Only his cousin, sane Hikari, and his parents could ever bring that side of him out, even if it was for a brief moment.
Alina watched them, happy for the twins. At least they had other family members, people they loved, who were there for them. At the same time, she felt a little pang of envy. The only other person she had come close to having such a relationship with, she had pushed away. The risk was just too high.
"Hey, Kumori, do you want to ride with us?" Linda asked.
"Hm? Sure. Thank you," she responded. "I'll just tell my Alpha, then, give me a moment."
Linda nodded, glancing at Cayne who was staring at Korū, Alina repeatedly nudging him with her elbow. He only glanced at her for a moment, questioningly. She just grinned up at him, and he rolled his eyes, but turned his gaze back into Korū, like he was trying to figure something out. Both Liam and Cole had their phones out, oblivious to the world around them.
Korū was either unaware of Cayne's gaze on him or just ignoring him. He stood with his back to the others, his eyes far more alive than they had been for the past few days.
Linda looked to Kumori, who gave her a nod. "Guys, lets go." And she herded the group past security, flashing her ID, and they finally made it to the jet. Moderately peacefully. The jet was owned by Bloodlust, and Linda knew that Harry was proudly showing it off while simultaneously preventing their group from blowing up a commercial airliner.
Although, he was probably praying hard to the Moon Goddess that her group didn't wreck his property.
"Nice," Kumori said approvingly when she saw the jet.
"Is it safe though?" Korū asked. "By safe I mean from a bunch of crazy ass idiots inside who might end up blowing the entire thing to bits."
"Alpha Harry said, I quote, 'It's safer because you won't be blowing anyone up with you, but all of you will pay for the damage.'" Alina said, as Linda greeted the pilot.
"The pilot might get blown up, though."
Hikari, who was talking to Kumori, added, "Might want to warn him first so he knows what he's up against."
"Oh, he knows. He's a Bloodlust member." Alina said. "He knows what 'traumatised teenager' crazy means."
Cayne snorted.
"I'm highly certain it's not just 'traumatised teenager'," Hikari snickered. "More like, 'Self-absorbed Alpha-to-bes' and 'irritable people who may or may not be low-key depressed'."
"He knows that too. He also knows, 'armed, trained, murderous' with a highly explosive sticker." Alina notified them, grinning.
"How about assassin?"
Alina cleared her throat. "Definitely. He doubles as one himself."
"Cool." Hikari paused for a moment. "And before anyone starts thinking it I'm gonna say, no I'm not going to kill anyone in their sleep. My sanity ain't that far gone."
"I doubt that." Cole muttered, but no one heard him. Thank God.
"Great, lets go." Alina said, guiding them to where the pilot and Linda were waiting. Linda turned towards them as they approached, "Guys, this is my brother, Roland Jones."
"'Sup." He gave a little wave, grinning. "Promise not to crash my girl, and I'll let you in."
"Can't promise, but we'll try not to." Hikari told him. He shrugged. "Guess I'll have to make do with that, then."
"Ever wondered what it would be like if we had to pass through security?" Alina mused to no one in particular.
"The humans would freak out for sure." Roland chuckled, making his way into the cockpit. "We would do good in their military."